Pet Peeve

I havn't gotten ranty in my own LJ for a while, so it's time.

Is there a term for the type of logical falicy where someone falsly defines a group they are part of to exclude themself? Then define themself as being in opposition to that group?

I heard Rush Limbaugh's show once where he went on at length about he was the most listened to radio commentator, and then a few minutes later was railing against "the media" in a way that tried to make it look like it was something that didn't include him. What sort of doublethink do his listeners have to go through to swallow that one?

This is the same sort of lie as is often heard from folks in elected office who tell voters "I'm not a politician". I'm amazed anyone falls for it at all.

Boobs: 2 medium, one big

As I seldom look at people gossip "news" I sometimes miss stuff.

Well, thank you to Big Media Personified Rush Limbaugh for informing me about an important issue the Lie'bral Conspiracy previously consealed from me: It turns out that Democratic Presidential Candiate John Kerry's 30 year old daughter has breasts.



Apparently she's a film maker or something, and was over in France, and wore a dress that was semi-transparent, at least with flash photography.

If you wanna know more, some non-Rush articles via google news (hm, seems to have gotten lots of press):
NYDailyNews Japan Today
Seattle Post China Daily

Anyway, Here's Limbaugh's article. Rush's comments are a hoot:

"I don't think you can show disrespect to a liberal by showing your breasts."

Okay, in what culture or political system is showing someone your breasts a sign of disrespect then?

"I think that's how you excite them."

Haw haw! Liberals like breasts! Not like us conservatives!

"I mean, you know, it used to be that only at the Kennedy compound did they bare breasts"

This is my favorite quote.

Bare breasts were invented by Massachussetts big government liberals!

" but now, you know, it's happening everywhere"

[Froggy looks out the window. Returns to computer disappointed.]

The best part of Limbaugh's article, of course, is the photo:



So you like boobs with kechup on them, Rush?
Whatever.
Thanks for sharing.

US occupation in Iraq ,news comments & links

Jeremy Sivits was the first scapegoat sentenced by the courts martial: not one of the worst torturers, but the fellow who took the photos that let the world see what was going on. Gotta make an example.

Does anyone really think that commanding officers at Abu Ghraib have no responsibitlity for what was going on? If they didn't order it, they seem to have been negligent as hell. Anyway, I find Seymore Hersh a much more creditable source than Donald Rumsfield.

And some links:
Guardian article: US military prisons treating women as badly as the men

Abuse of reporters I'm linking to a LiveJournal Infojunkies post, as it contains a paragraph apparently since deleted from the Reuters site. Preach to people that "the media" are a monolithic conspiracy enemy, and when undereducated US soldiers get to boss some reporters around with guns, the reporters are "forced to insert a finger into their anuses and then lick it".

Marine Staff Sgt. Jimmy Massey Atrocities in Iraq: 'I killed innocent people for our government'

And two articulate rants:

Ted Rall:

"A year and a half late and 30,000 lives short, supporters of the war in Iraq finally admit that they were wrong [...]

They should have known better--lots of us did. Or they did know better and lied about it. Whether their integrity or their intelligence was compromised, they should never again be taken seriously.

The pro-war pundits got the biggest story of their careers dead wrong. Now a lot of people are wrongly dead. The fact that this sorry lot still draw paychecks is a tribute to America's infinite capacity for forgiveness."

Lew Rockwell:

"Peoples of the world - outraged and horrified at the US occupation of Iraq, which has decisively discredited the Bush administration and inflicted deep damage to the image of America in all lands, which has been characterized by martial law, looting, human-rights violations, and more than 10,000 dead civilians - were stunned to find all this mayhem and madness has at last received a characterization by the Commander-in-Chief: "training wheels".

Yes, that's what he called it, in the context of explaining to Republicans how it is that the US is going to transfer sovereignty. "Time to take the training wheels off," he said. The metaphor is revealing in some respect, though it is not clear precisely how. It could reveal the infantile mind of the president. It certainly reveals how the Bush administration regards Arab civilization, as essentially in need of the US Midas touch. Or it might just reveal the way the government looks at all things it is in charge of, which includes you and me. "