I don’t generally like to talk about politics here, since that’s usually when assholes show up and threaten to disrupt my naturally cool demeanor. But Penn Jillette wrote this piece for CNN, and I felt like I had to answer it. I felt this way for two reasons: the first is that I really like Penn & Teller, and the second is that I think he’s cheating.
Archive for the Politics Category
Things You Need to be a Glenn Beck Fan
Posted in Braak, Politics with tags beck, Braak, psychoalchemy on March 15, 2011 by braak1. Be afraid of something. This could be something fairly practical, like “losing your job”, but it could also be something hallucinatory, like “Mexicans are going to take over American and impose Shariah Law.”
2. Be so uncomfortable with the fact that you live in a world of uncertainty that you’ll believe anything, no matter how mind-bogglingly stupid, as long as it gives you some sort of comfort.
3. Buy gold.
Glenn Beck isn’t saying that the earthquake in Japan was because of radical Islam. But he isn’t NOT saying it, either.
Glenn Beck is a psychoalchemist. He makes money by converting fear into anger. This makes sense, if you think about it; anger must be a higher energy state than fear, so he can glean stuff off the top after the change.
Dystopia, and What Comes Next
Posted in crotchety ranting, Jeff Holland, Politics, Threat Quality with tags dystopia, Jeff Holland, professor farnsworth, the situation, Threat Quality on September 3, 2010 by braakIt does feel like nothing works right these days, doesn’t it? The Way Things Should Be isn’t even an option on the table anymore.
Our government doesn’t work right, that one’s pretty obvious.
Special interest groups – which is a casual, non-judgmental way of saying “Large corporations with money and influence that wish to keep doing what they’re doing without interference” – pour funding into a political party in hopes of stymieing regulation that might cost them an extra million or two when things go catastrophically wrong (or, y’know, if it threatens their current business model, even if that model is harmful in the long run).
Not even the start of it, here’s more: Read more »
Social Justice and Economics: Thought Experiments
Posted in Braak, Politics with tags Braak, social justice on July 2, 2010 by braak
Inspired by Rand Paul’s recent theorizing about the Civil Rights Act, I am now going to engage in some thought experiments regarding Sneetches and their beaches.
Health Insurance
Posted in Braak, Politics with tags Braak, healthcare reform, Politics on March 10, 2010 by braakI know that I’ve said before that I don’t like it when we get really involved in politics here at TQP, because I’m displeased with the number of crazies that appear from the woodwork. This is true; I have trepidation even as I’m writing this. However, I’ve been puzzling over something for a while, and I want to try and address it using the secret weapon of the Writer: Language (the thing that means stuff).
Is health insurance a fundamental right?
My Apologia for Political Correctness
Posted in Braak, Politics with tags Braak, PC, Politics on March 3, 2010 by braakThis is going to come out of nowhere, it will seem to you (as it seems to me), but I need to write something, and so today this is what I’ll write. Over on Gawker, they’ve got a little bit about UCSD’s racism problem (hint: it begins and ends with douchebags). In the comments section, someone posted – as someone always does on articles like this – the lyrics from “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist” from the musical Avenue Q.
I hate that fucking song.
Today, in Idiots: The People at the Comic Book Store
Posted in Braak, Politics, religion, shitheads with tags Braak, gay marriage, idiots on February 24, 2010 by braakI was at the comics store in King of Prussia, looking at comic books while I waited for Verizon to fix my superphone. While I was there, I overheard a conversation between the clerk and, I presume, another customer, about why they were less than enthusiastic about the idea of gay marriage.
This was a revelation for me, I suppose because I tend to assume that people who like the things I like are basically the same as I am. This was false, and I found myself compelled to get involved.
These People Are Real
Posted in Jeff Holland, Politics, Threat Quality with tags 9/12, Jeff Holland, Threat Quality on September 17, 2009 by braakBrace yourselves, everyone: Some student group was able to make a hilariously disturbing youtube video out of the virulent ignorance of the 9-12 teabagging (seriously, has nobody explained the connotation of that word to them yet?) protester-dolts.
Now, the whole thing isn’t exactly surprising – we’ve all been living with the Daily Show for long enough. But subjecting yourself to a full 10 minutes of it is certainly fatiguing. Thinking people simply aren’t built to listen to such a heady mix of rage and stupidity for sustained periods.
So, having sat through the whole thing – for YOU, dear readers – I’ve noted ten clear moments where you’ll have to stop the video, take a deeeeep, cleansing breath, and massage your temples before heading once more into the breach: Read more »
A Perfect Metaphor for America in 2009
Posted in Jeff Holland, Politics, Threat Quality with tags gun control, health care rallies, Jeff Holland, Threat Quality on August 18, 2009 by braakI had recently gotten into a debate with a friend of mine who’s serving in Iraq and yet still finds time to heckle me over G-Chat about things he knows are gonna piss me off.
The debate was on state-to-state carry permits for concealed weapons, and I won’t bore you with the intricacies of the discussion, because ultimately, as it does with most gun-control vs. gun-enthusiast arguments, it boils down to: “You don’t need to be walking around with a gun!” vs. “But I want to walk around with a gun!”
And boy, did I think that was the most I was gonna have to worry about that subject for a while. Thanks, CNN, who reported, “A man toting an assault rifle was among a dozen protesters carrying weapons while demonstrating outside President Obama’s speech to veterans on Monday, but no laws were broken.” Oh, also he had a handgun and a clip in his back pocket.
(YESTERDAY, this was. And ain’t it just that fucked up of a country that “Unidentified man brings gun to presidential speech” isn’t an immediate top headline.)
Religion and Rationality
Posted in Politics, Threat Quality with tags moff, religion, rhetoric on August 4, 2009 by braak[Threat Quality Press's first submission under our new open submissions policy, ladies and gentlemen, please give it up for the inordinately handsome and inestimably clever MOFF! --ed]
Andrew Sullivan is arguably the king of the blogosphere at present (which puts him somewhere below Braak, who is like exiled king of the moon or some shit, but above Rod Kush, who was like Nebraska’s furniture king when I was in college there). Anyway, I confess to visiting his blog, the Daily Dish, numerous times daily, sometimes almost compulsively, even when he annoys the fuck out of me. And sometimes I email him! Sullivan posts a lot of reader email (this makes up for his not having comments, and is probably better than comments, because I suspect many of his readers are even more obnoxious than I am, and it’s nice that he neatly sidesteps the issue of all of us screaming at each other), and has even posted a couple of mine. But as I’m pretty sure he’s not going to post this one, not because it isn’t A FANTASTIC PIECE OF WRITING (it is), but because it’s been like a week since I sent it and no dice.
Anyway, as it’s A FANTASTIC PIECE OF WRITING (although not philosophically rigorous, so argue with it, of course, but take it with a grain of salt; or better yet, just agree with it and send me pictures of boobs), I have deigned to share it with you, Threat Quality readers. Send me pictures of boobs. —Moff
