The boiled frog problem

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9nVpO1Dvfk

For those of you whose work environment/Amish fundamentalism prevents you from watching a YouTube video all the way through, that’s Glenn Beck boiling a frog alive on national television. He’s attempting to illustrate “the old saying,” that if you throw a frog into boiling water he’ll jump right out, whereas if you start the frog in lukewarm water and gradually heat it to boiling, “the frog won’t realize what’s happening and die.” Nietzschean aphorist Glenn Beck is not. Huck Finn-ean frog catcher he ain’t, either, and the several seconds he spends trying to get hold of one of the frogs—which turn out to be alarmingly small and cute—give the viewer a chance to realize that this is something he actually intends to do. “Barack Obama has galvanized this country,” Beck says, citing the number, size and urgency of the bills the President has ostensibly proposed. “He’s forced us to wake up and think.” I wouldn’t go that far, but okay. Unlike John McCain, who’s been slowly heated, the American people have been thrown into our present political situation all at once. “And what happens when you throw ’em in?” Beck demands. Then he throws his frog into his kettle of boiling water, from which it completely fails to jump out, possibly because its skin and outer layers of musculature have been flash-cooked and its eyeballs have burst. Beat. “Okay, forget the frog,” Beck says. Then he tells us to forget about both Democrats and Republicans, too, because they are fake. And…scene.

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Arm yourself: Full text of H.R. 3200

Members of the PennsylMembers of the Pennsylvania Republican Party are asked not to wear their strings of pearls when they protest the expansion of social services.

Members of the Pennsylvania Republican Committee are once again reminded not to wear strings of pearls when protesting the expansion of social services.

The Democrats’ proposed health care reform package lost ground again yesterday to the competing Stupid Assholes Package, and the New York Times is starting to get a little snippy. In a story that blurs—and by “blurs” I mean “carefully erases”—the line between commentary and news, David Stout observes that Town Hall meetings across the eastern seaboard reflected “deep-seated fears, a general suspicion of government and, in some cases, a lack of knowledge on the part of the questioners.” The article is full of such gems of understatement, further solidifying the Times’s role as the disapproving butler of American democracy.

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Kenneth Gladney: Some kind of harbinger

Yes, that says, "Represent MO 3rd NOT The Elites!!" I'm sure the local board of commerce appreciates it.

Yes, that says, "Represent MO 3rd NOT The Elites!!" I'm sure the local board of commerce appreciates it.

The photo at right comes from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, whose coverage of the Russ Carnahan town hall meeting where Kenneth Gladney fell down/was brutally beaten by union thugs reflects the innocence our country new on August 6th.* I have been trying to figure out what the fudge happened to Kenneth Gladney all morning. As near as I can tell, the unvarnished story goes like this: He came to the town hall meeting hosted by Representative Carnahan, where people from both sides of the health care debate had gathered outside to yell and hold up signs. Gladney was either selling or giving away yellow “Don’t Tread On Me” flags when an altercation erupted between Some Dude and Some Other Dudes, a few of whom were from the SEIU. Some Dude fell down, and in the rush to protect him/gather around him and freak out, Gladney was pulled briefly to the ground. You can see the video of it here:

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Know your sociopaths: Jerome Corsi

What are you talking about? You never loaned me your car.

"What are you talking about? You never loaned me your car."

Great men don’t volunteer themselves—they are chosen by history. Jerome Corsi is one such man. A simple writer from East Cleveland, Ohio, Corsi was swept into the flow of national events by sheer coincidence. The author of Unfit For Command—in which former swift boat crewmen question the validity of John Kerry’s war medals—and a leading voice in the Birther movement, in which elderly white people and former Watergate conspirators question the validity of Barack Obama’s birth certificate, Corsi suffered the awful burden of being the only man in America with access to information disqualifying a popular Democrat from holding the office of President. Twice.

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