In today’s Washington Post, writer Rick Weiss, in an article entitled Synthetic DNA on the Brink of Yielding New Life Form may have documented the solution to all our problems. Scientists believe that in creating and growing synthetic DNA, they are on the brink of creating new life forms.
Tag: snark
Dec 15 2007
Obama Sold Me Nitrous in 1976
Around the neighborhood, Obama was known as Whippet King.
WK for short, pronounced “Dub-K”….or The Gas Man. Or just plain Foggy.
Obama sold me 3 little green cylinders of nitrous oxide gas in 1976. $2 a pop. A six dollar ticket to the Fun House for 90 seconds.
Vote Obama 2008.
Dec 03 2007
As Al Gore Always Says, Who Needs Trees and Spotted Owls?
A warmer planet is what we need most. Then we won’t need heat in winter.
Al Gore didn’t say that? Maybe it was somebody else.
I am not a fan of the Conservative Alternative (Al Gore’s own description of himself). So far I have managed to avoid lynching by idolaters of a great movie maker but lousy scientist. Just not taken with wingers but to each his own.
Nov 28 2007
Top Ten Reasons I Shouldn’t Run A Blog
1) I whine about running a blog too much.
2) I try to see both sides of an issue
3) I am entirely too unwilling to write people off
4) I suck at refereeing blog disputes
5) I get depressed when people I like disagree unamicably
6) I want to fix everything
7) I lose my temper too easily
8) I feel horrible when I lose my temper
9) I try to do too much and get mad at myself when I don’t and end up doing even less
10) I can’t think of a tenth reason why I shouldn’t run a blog.
Nov 26 2007
Kiss my Liberal Bias(s)
I have been thinking about interrogation, and “Too Much Information” in blog-land of late.
It gave me a stand-up routine.
You will admit your Liberal Bias, and You will admit it now.
Nov 18 2007
Preparing to Enter the Candidate Wars
I was a Gore Guy. (siiiiiiiigh)
I have had to admit my powerlessness over Al Gore not running for President. It hurt, but I have kicked the Opiate of Hope and am now willing to settle for some other candidate.
Which means to some extent or another entering The Candidate Wars at Daily Kos. I have mainly stayed out of the candidate diaries and certainly have not dared to participate directly, mainly just dipping a toe in to read a candidate diary here and there. The Candidate Wars make the Impeach Wars look like a game of flag football, and the convention isn’t until, gulp, August?
So it seems like some preparation, since this is obviously not something to be taken lightly, is in order. But since I have not studied up or paid attention to the players and the memes the players are playing, I need your help and advice on preparing myself to enter the fray. Below I will outline where I am in my process so far and ask for your kind and gentle help in completing my preparations.
Nov 17 2007
The Craven: An Ode to Larry Craig
Cross-posted in Orange.
Once inside a bathroom dreary, while I pondered weak and weary
Over many a quilted rolls of tp on the bathroom stall door
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping
Again some one gently tapping, tapping ‘neath my chamber door.
‘Tis some visitor,’ I muttered, ‘tapping ‘neath my chamber door –
Only this, and nothing more.’
Nov 17 2007
The Good Word From the Great Orange Satan
So I read this in Newsweek:
As much as Republicans and the media like to talk about the 60-vote threshold for any anti-war legislation, the fact is that if no legislation gets passed, there’s no money for war. A tough and principled Democratic caucus could force compromise on this legislation and, if none were forthcoming from the GOP, then see the war defunded by default. Either way, the public would cheer.
Looking for a angle to hate on the Great Orange Satan, I have come up with . . . plagiarism.
Nov 05 2007
Il Congresstrati
From the 16th century to the dawn of the 20th, a special choir sang at the pontiff’s pleasure, grown men with the voices of angels and the range of female sopranos. There was a simple reason for their abilities: each had had his gonads surgically removed prior to achieving puberty.
I don’t know why, but the other day, while pondering the castrati (It., “castrated ones”), I started thinking about the 110th Congress. Could it be, I wondered, that we are witnessing the political equivalent of a choir of the ball-less pandering to the whims of a theological autocrat?
Naw, I thought, not our Dems – our guys are descended from the tradition of FDR and “The Buck Stops Here” Harry! We have a heritage of Massive Brass – New Deals and Great Societies that had to be shoved down the throats of backward-looking Republicans. There’s no way that folks of such stock could ever be compared to emasculated servants performing at the whim of a king, nor to the haunting voice of the very last castrati, the only one whose voice was ever recorded.
Or could they?
Oct 27 2007
Sky News EuroReport: Secret Gore-Sarkozy Negotiations
crossposted at Daily Kos and Truth & Progress
A few minutes ago, I received a phone call from Paris from an old grad school friend of mine who said that Sky News just broadcast a report about secret negotiations between Al Gore and Nicholas Sarkozy over Gore’s political future.
Given its stellar record, Sky is indeed the gold standard in news reporting — particularly in Europe. Its ability to understand American politics and popular culture is unparalleled. I am fully aware that many of you are diehard fans of Sky News and are convinced that it represents the best there is in television journalism. I am in awe of your political acumen and I salute you for knowing what’s important and what’s fluff on the airwaves. 
As for me, though I’m always skeptical of any Murdoch-owned news outfit, news of these negotiations intrigued me.
Oct 13 2007
Fox News: “Al Gore Has Debased the Nobel Peace Prize”
crossposted at Daily Kos and Truth & Progress
Earlier this evening, I watched Fox News’ “All Star Panel” of talking heads. It included Fred Barnes, Mort Kondracke, and Nina Easton. The moderator, Brett Baier, highlighted some Fox poll which showed non-candidate Al Gore with about 10% support among Democratic voters, third behind Hillary and Obama. What’s noteworthy is that the poll was taken on October 10, 2007 BNPP (Before the Nobel Peace Prize). But what really caught my attention was this insightful statement from Fred Barnes, who some of you may remember was once a liberal reporter for the Washington Star newspaper which went out of business in the early 1980’s
“Al Gore has really debased the Nobel Peace Prize.”
Which got me thinking. Are there other such examples of people really debasing their chosen professions and dishonoring respected institutions in recent history?
The answer below the fold.
Oct 13 2007
Jay Elias, Troll
So you gotta love Jay’s comment in Digby’s first DKos diary:
Digby, you’re pretty smart… (0+ / 0-)
…so I’ll ask you this:I’ve been making it my business to let those four Democrats know that at least one Democrat supports their vote. I’ve been doing so not because I oppose health care for children, but because no one had come up with a meaningful explanation of why this plan should be funded entirely on the back of tobacco smokers except for political expediency.
If you can explain why else that should be in a satisfying way, I’ll stop trying to hurt your cause. I hope you see that as a decent deal.
The urge to save humanity is almost always a false face for the urge to rule it. ~ H.L. Mencken
Jay’s question is a good one. He asked me last night. As you can see, I did not have a good answer. Anybody else have a good one?
P.S. For the record, Digby and I go back in our blogging and I admire her greatly. HEr diasry is admirable. But Jay raises a good question.