Friday links! Striking contrasts edition

By Dan Brooks in Friday Links 3 Comments
Wednesday's weather map for Iowa

Wednesday’s weather map for Iowa

In conclusion, China is a land of contrasts. It’s been a long week here at the Combat! blog offices, and today will be the longest week of all. Strangely, though, I’m not scared. It’s probable that my brain is shutting down in response to cat video deprivation, but whatever—today is Friday, and even the worst Friday offers that glimmer of hope which so contrasts with the earlier days of the week. Probably I’ll be dead by Monday, so today could be my last day of work ever. It’s basically the weekend now, except for the crushing tedium that lies ahead. But that’s life: you have to take the good with the bad, the hot with the cold, the glimpse of sunlight with the inevitable hail. Won’t you enjoy/despise what you read/watch with me/yourself?

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44% of Republicans surveyed say armed revolution may be necessary

By Dan Brooks in Just Sayin' Stuff 4 Comments
247 years of just sayin' stuff

247 years of just sayin’ stuff

The internet dropped its fudge yesterday at the news that 44% of Republicans responding to a Fairleigh Dickinson survey said they believe armed revolution to protect civil liberties may be necessary in the next few years. By civil liberties, they mean guns. That’s why this whole violent uprising against the US government thing is a catch-22: they fight the revolution to have the guns, but they need the guns to fight the revolution. The only way it would be a problem is if Republicans were statistically likely to have a bunch of guns already, of if the stuff they said to telephone surveyors reflected anything they would remotely consider acting upon. Fortunately, one of those situations is not happening.

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Combat! blog is weak, stupid

By Dan Brooks in Uncategorized 0 Comment

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lon0AnPdMOQ

Look how much cooler that man is than I am. When a mugger points a shotgun at him, he takes it away and then chases after him, refusing to use his new shotgun as a weapon, whereas when I have a bunch of work to do I skip the blog. Do you see the difference? Some people are just unshakable badasses while others are self-pitying milksops, and the only difference is in how they behave and think. Also in whether they’re allowed to manage their own workflow—the point is, I wish I had just thwarted a robbery, but instead I have to type in a series of boxes other than this one. We’ll be back tomorrow with the same amount of self-pity in more words.

 

Chris Broussard becomes 1,452nd sports journalist to come out against being gay

By Dan Brooks in Christianism 7 Comments

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOEC6jKjGG8

Yesterday, Boston Celtics center Jason Collins came out as gay, making him the first active player in a major sport to do so. Sorry, field hockey. Collins was the center of sports media attention for approximately six hours, at which point he was displaced by Chris Broussard’s announcement that he personally believes homosexuality is a sin. That quickly became the more popular story, possibly because there was a video. Scolds emerged from both ends of the internet to defend or condemn Broussard’s remarks—mostly to condemn, prompting Michelle Malkin to declare herself and Broussard victims of a “tolerance mob.” You know those mobs of angry people who use the threat of persecution to force you to conform to a normative standard of behavior. They’re most commonly associated with tolerance.

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MT rejects federally-funded Medicaid expansion, possibly by accident

By Dan Brooks in Montana Politics 0 Comment
The Montana State House

The Montana State House

The 2013 session of the Montana state legislature ended last week, and now the state House and Senate will slumber until 2015. Legislators in Montana meet for 87 days every two years, which means that A) there’s a lot of pressure to get everything done and B) not everybody has had a ton of practice. The second phenomenon became evident earlier this month, when Rep. Tom Jacobson (D–Great Falls) accidentally voted the wrong way on a parliamentary objection, causing a tie in the House that allowed Speaker Mark Blasdel to reject federal funding for Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act.

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