After The Laughter Comes Tears

"'It’s been 89 days since Manuel Zelaya was booted from power. He’s sleeping on chairs, and he claims his throat is sore from toxic gases and "Israeli mercenaries" are torturing him with high-frequency radiation.' Also, evil gnomes keep mismatching his socks. So the United States decided to back a nut who was removed by his own Supreme Court? I can only imagine the press if Bush had done something like this . . . ."

-- Glenn Reynolds, clocking in with what, for me, is just another day at the office - the chronicling of crazy Obama-crazy Leftists - on his blog called Instapundit.

"A Tennessee rep formerly affiliated with AIG Financial Advisors Inc. spent time making voodoo dolls of his victims to ward off their damaging testimony, prosecutors said.

Barry R. Stokes last year pleaded guilty to multiple counts of embezzlement, as well as mail and wire fraud, and money laundering for stealing $19 million from some 35,000 victims nationwide, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Nashville, Tenn., from their 401(k), health savings, and dependent care accounts.

On Friday, Mr. Stokes, 52, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Nashville to 12 years in prison after a hearing that presented evidence of his bizarre practices, according to reports in The Tennessean newspaper.

At a pre-sentencing hearing last week, prosecutors also said that Mr. Stokes paid a psychic with a credit card to give him readings while in jail, according to The Tennessean.

He also wrote a letter to the psychic saying that he was lighting candles and throwing salt over his shoulder to keep critics and creditors at bay, according to the report."

-- Bruce Kelly, making sure we see the symptoms and not the problem itself - that we allow these ideas and behaviors to flourish without serious challenge - forcing me to drag my sorry ass all over the web, like I need Investment News.

Benjamin, Please, There's No Shame In NewAge

"Everyone can believe what they want to believe". Isn't that the NewAge mantra? And doesn't "everyone" include people making WMDs, specifically, to "wipe Israel off the map"?

Or Al Qaeda demanding we be bombed back to the 13th century? Do we just let it go?

Or how about Oprah's full-throated endorsement of The Secret? It's a belief, right? Should we hold her to it? Or Oprah's full-throated endorsement of Obama as "the One" during the election? Lotta "hope" in there. How's listening to Oprah paying off for us now? Yea, I know:

You got a new car!

Dipping from the same well. "Medicines" containing nothing but water. "Healing" by waving the hands over a body. Thinking everyone else is going to stand still because you're "meditating" for "peace". There's no shame in believing in any of these things either - no matter how untrue they are, the damage they've caused, or the damage they continue to perpetuate - it's all about strength in numbers, the ruthless pursuit of power, keeping your thumb on the scale, and the willingness of sheeple to allow it.

Ain't no shame in their game. It has to be stopped. That's all NewAgers respond to. That's all NewAgers "listen" to.

That's the only way.

(Ooh, I know: deep.)

Answer This Ad (If You're Quick On The Draw)

UPDATE:

The National Endowment for the Arts said Thursday that its communications director, Yosi Sergant, has resigned.

"This afternoon Yosi Sergant submitted his resignation from the National Endowment for the Arts. His resignation has been accepted and is effective immediately," said a spokeswoman, Sally Gifford, in a statement.

Sergant, who helped make artist Shepard Fairey's "Hope" image ubiquitous as an organizer of Obama campaign support from artists, had seemed to mix the NEA's work -- essentially non-partisan politics -- with the administration's legislative agenda on a conference call reported on by Andrew Breitbart's new conservative site, Big Government.

Oh well, it would've been a shitty government job anyway.

Don't Look At The Photo (It Can Cause Blockage)

"Five years ago, a Swedish research team led by Dagmar Andersson studied hundreds of heart attack patients. They discovered that 62 percent of them were completely free from the usual risk factors leading to coronary problems. So what nearly killed them?

In a word: morons.

In 2005, Andersson told the Toronto Star that nearly every single one of the low risk victims reported working 'with people so stupid they can barely find their way from the parking lot to the office.'

Furthermore, 'in a number of cases, the heart attack came within 12 hours of dealing with an imbecile.'"

-- Robert Kirby, pinpointing why I fear for my life - I'm clutching my chest all-the-fucking-time - since there don't seem to be many escapes for a guy like me, except in the sometimes-hilarious pages of The Salt Lake City Tribune.

They Won't Stop 'Til The Air's Kicked Out Of 'Em

"Scott Harshbarger, the former Massachusetts attorney general and head of Common Cause, has been appointed by ACORN to investigate lapses in the organization that lead to its recent scandals. Harshbarger was responsible for one of the most outrageous ‘Satanic ritual abuse’ prosecutions when he was AG, sending three innocent members of the Amirault family to jail. He has never repudiated the prosecution. It’s sickening that someone who so abused his power would be appointed to investigate or reform anything. (I also see that Harshbarger was a big John Edwards’ supporter, so his ability as a judge of character remains atrocious.)"

-- Emily Yoffe, giving us the latest ACORN/Obama/Democratic Party-inspired nonsense with both barrels - because she knows we can take it - while hitting Scott Harshbarger's crazy ass with the Double X.

Inglorious Basturd

"Unbeknownst to most, I myself was felled by the ruthless SF Chronicle layoff ax not a handful of months back, yet another casualty of the newspaper industry collapse, laid off from this very company rather suddenly, only to be immediately re-hired as a freelancer (read: less pay, no benefits, set adrift after 12 years)."

-- Mark Morford, our old pal, the gay Buddhist journalism idiot, delivering the best news of the morning - not that he was re-hired but that he was let go to begin with - though I don't know exactly what to think now, since I read the yoga weasel's announcement in The San Francisco Chronicle.

Oh - I know:

FIRE HIM AGAIN SO IT REALLY HURTS!!!

Man, the scalps are piling up pretty fast these days,...

Conservatives: Don't Stand Off - Stand Out

"People who want to talk about the 'New Majority' or 'The Next Right' or 'Republican renewal' need to get used to the idea that the conservative coalition of the future will be a loud, rowdy and unruly bunch, composed of diverse people with disparate beliefs.

'One of the basic principles of military strategy is to reinforce success. If you see a man who fights and wins, give him reinforcements, and bid others to emulate his success.'

We need fighters, and I suspect Beck will fight 'til ev'ry foe is vanquished. Bob Belvedere gets it. Phyllis Chesler gets it. We defend truth and liberty against lies and tyranny. Every eye is upon us and we are surrounded by enemies as numerous as the grains of sand on the shore. Let us determine to die here, and we will conquer."

-- Robert Stacy McCain, doing himself (and his Southern Heritage) proud, by saying what too many on the Right don't want to deal with - if they can't accept The Macho Response they won't win - which is just common sense, and probably why Stace is beloved around here, as The Other McCain.

The Democrats Are Crumbling Like We The Bitch Who Cut They Hair

"Folks in the White House and folks in the NEA,..."

-- Michael Skolnick, "political director for Obama-mad hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons", explaining who was responsible for bringing a select group of creative types together on a phone call - for the purpose of creating Obama's government propaganda - before Skolnick, Barack, the gathered "artists", Russell Simmons, and the "folks" at the National Endowment for the Arts, all gulped down the biggest fucking batch of Kool-Aid you have ever seen, in The City Journal.

Why does Russell Simmons have a political director? Isn't he a Buddhism-spouting, yoga-doing, divorced Self-Help writer (telling black kids to "Be you") these days? That shit won't seem so damn "nice" and NeweAge-y after this stunt. And this was a blindingly stupid thing for Skolnick to say:

"All of us who are on this phone call were selected for a reason, and you are the ones that lead by example in your communities. You are the thought leaders. You are the ones that, if you create a piece of art, or promote a piece of art or create a campaign for a company, you tell our country and our young people sort of what do and what to be into, and what’s cool and what’s not cool."

Whoa, fuck. All I can see is "All of us on this phone call tell our country what to be into". I'm serious. That's all I can see.

But that's enough.

(Oooooh!) I Love When Zo Gets It Right

Y'all Come Back Now, Y'hear?

"How many innocent men are in jail because of false accusations? We’re told that such situations are rare, but nobody really knows. And you’re still making excuses for [them]. I’ll note that many of those innocent men in jail are probably black, and they’re there in part because white feminists have made even the notion of skepticism unacceptable,..."

-- Glenn Reynolds, who I chopped to shreds (and altered) to make a point I've learned to live with - if you don't buy into their shit, NewAge feminists are allowed (and even encouraged) to behave as ruthless, racist, and despicably unfair, as they imagine Southerners to be - though I think you also should check out the original point Reynold's was making, as the Instapundit.

French Socialists: Giving It That Ol' Obama Try

"Ségolène Royal, the Socialist runner-up in the last Presidential election, gets flakier by the day. Followers still see her semi-mystical persona as the best hope for the self-destructing French opposition. Others see her as a fading diva. She did little to help herself this week with a revamped internet site.

Hoots of laughter greeted the launch on Tuesday of the new-look home of Désirs d'Avenir, her personal brand (screen grab above). Cheesy and old-fashioned, it looked like something invented by a cult."

-- Charles Bremner, using all the right words ("spaced-out", "flakier", "mystical", "self-destructing", and, of course, "cult"***) to earn a spot on this blog - it ain't that hard - because those words clearly reflect The Times Online.

***Hey - you never know: They worked on the Democrats!

Just Another Day At The Loony Bin Office

"Know this. Sound and mind are very very powerful frequencies as far as I am aware they do not have boundraries [sic] like distance that affect them.

If you would like to have a chat I invite you to email me back or call me. I am still developing my powers and must advance with caution because of what effect they may have and how bad I would feel if I accidentally killed someone. Once again please keep this between you and me. Should I feel you are trust worthy [sic] by my own methods I will let you in on a little secret. Here is a freebie for now and you can think about it, it comes from a song, Love can move mountains. Thanks for you [sic] time. I do not mean to seem hard spoken however I must protect what I know, for if the wrong people were to discover then the world as we know it would end."

-- An anonymous e-mailer, in a message sent to The Amazing Randi (Hey, Randi, no matter what I say, those anonymous NewAgers write me a lot, too!) and posted - so we can all become aware of NewAge delusions - like the ones that regularly appear at the James Randi Educational Foundation.

Oh, Don't Listen To THAT Guy: He's CRAZY!

"These are the times in which we live. The gloves are off on both sides. For the moment the Right is winning and there is no greater reason for this than Glenn Beck. To be honest, Beck makes me feel uneasy. He embarrasses me. He often seems like a man on the verge of an ataque de nervios, as Pedro Almodovar once had it. I don’t know if he is going to fly off the handle, blow up or what.

But he also very often seems to be right (small r). Beck has been the first and, for quite a while, the only one to be assiduously connecting the dots between Obama, Ayers, the two Joneses and the rest of the post-sixties crew that seems to have never gotten over the Port Huron Statement, with the Chicago School of neo-Boss Tweed politics. These are dots that should have been connected by the mainstream media long ago, but, as we all know, they didn’t want to look at them. New Media hasn’t done a great job of connecting these dots either because, frankly, we don’t yet have the skills or manpower. But Beck is doing it. More power to him. Let’s help.."

-- Roger L. Simon, reluctantly admitting The Macho Response to NewAge deception - "I don’t know if he is going to fly off the handle, blow up or what" while "connecting the dots" - is beating the socks off all the other approaches (scholarly, humorous, snarky, etc.) used by journalism's more sophisticated Pedro Almodovar-quoting crowd - further revealing the media bias that exists within New Media - like that displayed by the founders of Pajamas Media.