Moe Lane

Something for everybody…

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Tbogg and Wonkette are, between the two of them*, collecting campaign slogans: tbogg’s covering the mean-to-Bush ones and Wonkette’s got the mean-to-Kerrys. Here’s your chance to realize your dreams… …well, maybe not, but some of the ones so far are funny. Moe *Yet independently.

I am Spartacus.

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A note to Kalle Lasn, editor of Adbusters Magazine.

I noted with some interest your recent editorial discussing American / Israeli relations and the reasons for same. I was remarkably impressed by how easily you were able to shrug off both Bush’s call for a Palestinian state and recent criticisms of Israel in your drive to indicate that the neocon movement was both running the the WoT and dominated by Jews, especially your dedication in determining and indicating those Jewish members of the ’50 most influential neocons in the US” (whether they would identify themselves as neocons or not). How – lucky – for you that half of them turned out to be Jewish! Why, it couldn’t have come out better if you had assembled the list deliberately!

Now, I am not myself a neoconservative, although I agree with a fair number of their policy positions. As for Judiasm… well, to echo Professor Tolkien when he was faced with a not completely dissimilar situation, “…I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people.” Nevertheless, please note this symbol (regrettably made nortorious by certain other individuals dedicated to searching out hidden Jewish influence and power) –

Jude.jpg

– anyway. I find the thought of confusing people like you about just who is and who isn’t Jewish around here to be a strangely compelling one. Not to mention probably a mitzvah.

Moe

PS: Shorter Moe Lane: Kalle Lasn, Geh kak afen yam.

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Meanwhile, back at the primaries…

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…Kerry won Idaho and Utah; Hawaii’s… shoot, are the polls still open for those guys? Could be. Anyway, no surprises and no insights, except that Kerry’s current glidepath doesn’t seem to have wobbled any. One week to go before the fireworks… And now, to sleep. It’s been a day.

Just to establish.

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1). I do not support a constitutional amendment defining marriage. 2). I do support the right of two consenting adults to enter into what arrangements suit them, explicitly including the ones traditionally associated with marriage (including the name). 3). I do not believe that everyone who disagrees with my stance on #2 is either a … Read more

Fixing some environmental damage.

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Interesting NYT article about some of the issues involved in fixing the appalling ecological damage done by the Hussein regime as part of his attacks on the Marsh Arabs. Apparently, the marshes will never fully recover, but there are things that can be done and people are finally getting a chance to do them; the … Read more

Let Him Twist.

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Secretary of Education Rod Paige, that is. I don’t care how much you may not like the National Education Association (I don’t, much): explicitly calling it a terrorist organization – even if it was supposed to be a joke – is not appropriate behavior. This looks like the best quote about it: Gov. Jennifer Granholm … Read more

The Primaries That Everybody Forgot

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Or, Why Progressives are going to have to vote for Kerry
A Speaking Truth To… Well, Not Impotence

Tomorrow are three more primaries – Hawaii, Idaho and Utah… and, apparently, nobody really cares, including the candidates. Granted, Utah’s Democrats are running their campaign out of the public library system because the (Republican-controlled) legislature decided not to fund primaries this year, Idaho’s Democrats are just downright rare and Hawaii… sorry, if I was running for President I’d visit Hawaii at least once to ‘canvass’. Just like Dennis Kuchinich, who’s apparently the only one who bothered – I’m telling you, this entire primary is apparently just one long Spring Break for this guy. If I was single, I’d be deeply envious.

Anyway, there are three primaries tomorrow, and everyone’s assuming that Kerry will win them, but nobody really cares too much by how much. So be it: I’ll say Kerry by double digits in all three and no three-way splits, just to keep up with my usual obsessive look at the primaries. We’ll discuss the alternate title of this post under the fold. Warning: you may not like it, much. I’m in Giving Advice That I Know Probably Won’t Be Followed Mode again.

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Somewhat more relevant election news than Nader’s…

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…not that it was hard to find such a thing. Elections in Iran proceeded about as expected: in short, the regime threw out just about every reformist candidate that wouldn’t [elaborate obscenity deleted] like good little toadies and the voters responded mostly by reducing electoral turnout to its lowest point since 1979 (general consensus somewhere … Read more

Some people can’t take a hint.

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Unlike many of my compatriots, I am not really amused at the fact that Nader has decided to run for President again. There’s something vaguely depressing about watching a 70 year old man spend valuable lifespan campaigning for a single-digit percentage of the popular vote, not to mention the fact that he’s probably going to … Read more

Preemptive “I’m Fine”…

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…I’m just not going to be around much this weekend: I’ve going to a SCA event that’s being run by my NJ friends, and to be blunt I intend to be too busy drinking lots and lots of extremely good homebrewed beer to get anywhere near a computer. Fortunately, my cobloggers will be more than adequate to fill all your blogging needs.

Don’t burn down the place and I’ll see all y’all Sunday.

Moe

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Stay Alert. Trust No one. Keep Your Laser Handy.

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It’s coming back. Praise all the gods of roleplaying gamers everywhere, it’s coming back, lasers blazing, updated for the modern era, it’s got Greg Costikyan, Aaron Allston and Ken Rolston involved and…

THERE REALLY WAS NO FIFTH EDITION.

Some of you know what I’m talking about: for the rest…

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Polls: Putting the Junk in “Political Junkie”

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Mad props to Pejmanesque, but using 627 words to indicate that …at this stage in the game, at least, no one has the first clue what is going to happen with the presidential race. Certainly not the pollsters is about six hundred words too many. Check it out: he’s got some good ones this time, … Read more

Our Hero, Bradley Smith?

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Well, the Wall Street Journal thinks so: he’s the FEC chairman who has to determine policy on 527s and their shaking soft-money makers. Smith happens to be against restricting 527s, apostate Republican that he is, which makes the entire thing so blissfully ironic: we’ve got one of those 180 degree turnarounds going on here all … Read more

Serious People, Serious Posts…

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… so Rumsfeldian Fighting Styles are probably a hideous mismatch. Still, dammit, I had this idea first… which I can’t prove, because I can’t find the picture on the blog that sparked an impromteau caption contest. Arrggggh… (Via Surprised Conservative InstaNinja and Unapologetic Death Beast Ninja Blair)

Sudden fatigue…

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…so, real quick: Asparagirl’s back (and blogrolled) in her and her husband’s blog Protocols of the Yuppies of Zion. I’m with Pejman: it’s about time, although the pseudosexual tension that is apparently symbolized by Trackbacks was not actually present in my case. Amygdala’s got a link to a very good WaPo article about USO troupers … Read more

So, What Does It Mean?

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The WI primary, that is. Several thoughts:

1). We’re going to start seeing articles about how Edwards is on a comeback, not to mention ones intimating that Kerry may be faltering. It is my pious hope that nobody reading this will be surprised by that revelation. What is more up in the air is whether this does represent the comeback of Edwards and/or faltering of Kerry; just because it’ll sell papers doesn’t mean that it’s false. Complicating matters are the next three primaries: Hawaii, Utah and Idaho. The latter two are not likely to be Kerry bastions, to put it mildly; heck, Utah Democrats are running its primary out of public libraries because the Republican-controlled legislature didn’t feel like allocating the cash for primaries this year*. Don’t expect any useful data until 3/2.

2). If Kerry falters and Edwards gains, the front-loading of the primaries is going to work against picking one candidate. Kerry needs less plurarities and more outright wins, and he seriously needs a two-man race. Edwards needs Howard Dean. Dean… as far as I can tell, Dean doesn’t need a damned thing, which is why I don’t think that he’s going to drop out of the race.

3). Zogby got this one seriously wrong. Worse-than-TN wrong. Either Zogby hasn’t calibrated open primaries properly, or he has difficulty assessing Edwards, or both. Either way, don’t automatically expect him to get GA correct.

And finally:

4). The percentage of people who will resist the temptation using this primary to grind whatever ax they feel like grinding will be rather small. Depressingly so, in fact.

Moe

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Polls are closed in Wisconsin…

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…and Kerry, well, it’s only 10% 18% 23% 30% of the total. In a conservative state. With an open primary. I’m sure that he’ll snap right back. Anybody got a link to how Chandler’s doing in KY? I’m not sure why I’m interested in that race, but I am. UPDATE: Well, Kerry’s winning. At the … Read more

Another Depressing Uzbekistan Report

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This time it’s about a 62 year old mother sentenced for six years in prison for having the cheek to get justice for her son being boiled to death being a revolutionary. Now, I happen to agree with Nathan Hamm that the problem is both complex and difficult to resolve, and that we’d be in … Read more

Apotheosis Now.

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After consultation with Katherine (translation: I went with what she said), another guest blogger has been added: longtime Reader Edward (of both Tacitus and here). The Circle is now complete – for now – and I am now seriously outnumbered. But that’s OK: keeps me on my toes. I look forward to Edward’s posts, and … Read more

For the record…

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…I’m with the Mudville Gazette in shaking my head at a candidate whose criticism of a particular activity of Bush’s is so predictable that the satire of said criticism gets published first. I don’t suppose that you guys could find Kerry some better writers? Please?

Crunch time for Dean?

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AP calls him defiant, but says that the polls look bleak for him. Reuters notes the impending loss of Steve Grossman to Kerry. AFP – who, to be honest, I don’t trust to tell me if the sky is blue – has the good old anonymous sources saying that Dean’s about to drop out. And … Read more

If this ends up being Dean’s legacy…

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… well, there are worse things in life than to be the guy who showed his party how to get money off of the Internet. If Chandler wins, Dean can take some credit for it, not to mention some comfort from it. ‘Course, Chandler will still have to run around at a notable fraction of … Read more

BTW, there’s fighting going on in Haiti.

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Forces opposed to the current Aristide government have been fighting for nine days now; about fifty people have been killed, but that number will only be going up. Those of us – most of us, probably – who need boning up on this subject can read here, here, here, here, here and here for an … Read more

It’s Nonsensical Sunday!

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Got this idea from the reactions to what I thought was a perfectly natural comment: “You’ll find that vampires are usually the reason behind why the Catholic Church does things.” – so I thought that I’d open up the floor to others. Statements must be: 1) Something said by you, or heard in your presence; … Read more

A Religion that never was.

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While we’re in geekmode… I came across this while reading up on the background of the new Thomas Harlan series*. Not quite as good as it thinks it is, and shows a faint taint of the gameworld that spawned it, but still pretty interesting. it is one of the major goals of my life to have weird stuff like this constantly folding and unfolding in my head.

Just thought that I’d mention that.

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This is Romantic. Really.

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Well, only because the phrase “Stick of Pain, Lamont! Stick of Pain!” came up once or twice in the process of negotiating our way through the unmarked minefields that surrounded the wedding we went to today. My girlfriend introduced me to this website because she knew of my weakness for all things ninja; the Editorials/Rants … Read more

I don’t know if this is true…

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… about a F/A-18A really being offered for sale on eBay, that is. If it was, it’s sold now. Dammit, I need to get an account. And several million bucks in spending money. Hmm, why not ask for a reliable FTL drive, too? Moe PS: Going to a wedding tomorrow, so don’t expect any quick … Read more

It’s somebody’s birthday…

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Von’s thirty today – by the by, yesterday was the three month anniversary of this blog – so what better way to celebrate than to sing a couple of verses of Happy Birthday?

Well, sort of: I belong to a medieval recreationist group called the SCA, you see… and we have a somewhat unique song that we use to celebrate this sort of thing.

(To the tune of “Volga Boatmen” – actually, I’m told that it’s not, but eh)

Death and gloom and black despair
People dying everywhere

Chorus:
Happy Birthday! (UHH!) Happy Birthday! (UHH!)

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That’s right, there are primaries tomorrow…

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… which, apparently, nobody seems to care too much about. What the heck: I predict that Kerry will win DC and lose NV to Edwards; both will be 2-person races. I also predict that the recent alleged Kerry scandal will not have sufficent legs to affect WS WI*, but that there’ll be a three-way split … Read more

Centrism’s Hue and Cry.

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The blogger’s life gets rather stark when black and white take root; You see all things as Light or Dark And make all nuance moot. But black and white, while colors, yes Do not a spectrum make; And there are days when, I confess, Binary’s hard to take. Instead of red, I’ll go with pink … Read more

This is why I don’t miss television.

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Stuff like this. (pause) Freaking server must be down. Anyway, it was the Quiznos ad. You know the one, I’m sure: the one with those weird hamster things that fascinated people in the same way that a cobra fascinates a bird. Sure, you laughed – but you laughed nervously. Well, at least I did, fuddy-duddy … Read more