Salt City Sinner

Humans tell stories constantly: to ourselves, about ourselves, and about the world. Collectively, the stories we tell and are told make up culture. It is thus worth noting which stories we choose to tell and, vitally, how closely those stories map the real, material world.

posted 10/5/2012 by the Salt City Sinner Greetings, sheeple, from my stronghold high atop the Wells Fargo Building in downtown Salt City, where I type this before a massive, glowing bank of monitors that display the ongoing progress of my 23-point plan for complete social control. Whether you want to demonize me as a "liberal," or prefer the Glenn Beck update "progressive," we all know the truth, and it's time to pull the curtain aside: like all left-leaning persons, I am actually a member of the Illuminati. How else to explain how much power my side of the aisle wields in U.S. American politics? According to conservatives, liberals/the Illuminati control the media * , science * , academia in general * , public schools * , public radio * , pretty much anything "public," the courts * , and Hollywood * . Hell, we pretty much control everything except for scrappy, underdog operations like WND and Fox News, or quiet, marginalized voices like...

There is nothing to add to this, except a very brief introduction. The exchange at the September 12th "Tea Party" Republican primary debate in question, in case there is any question of “exaggeration” or “misrepresentation,” is here: Susan from 29 's post ***is here*** , and I recommend you read it in its entirety there. What follows is an almost full excerpt intended to encourage anyone who finds it moving, thought-provoking, or worthwhile to read the whole thing. Feel free to leave comments for Susan as well, to let you know your thoughts are with her. I cannot remember the last time that a post made me feel as intensely emotional as Susan from 29's. That Was My Brother's Death You Were Cheering, You Assholes   To all of those tea-jadist assholes at last night’s GOP debate: I don’t generally like to use profanity, but I fear that English is above your comprehension level, so in terms you might better understand, may God damn your worthl...

Matt Taibbi is feeling kind of queasy : ... for the new GOP, compromise of any kind defeats their central purpose, which is political totale krieg. This party's entire reason for being is conflict and aggression. There is no underlying patriotic instinct to find middle ground with the rest of us, because the party doesn't have a vision for society that includes anyone outside the tent. This is a more advanced and appropriate way to look at the GOP right now than my old " Easter egg " metaphor - it's not so much that there are no Republican policy solutions in sight as that they only exist, as Taibbi writes, to create "conflict and aggression." I've always been queasy about piling on against the Republicans because it's intellectually too easy; I also worry a lot that the habit pundits have of choosing sides and simply beating on the other party contributes to the extremist tone of the culture war. But the time is coming when we a...

Well, this ought to be interesting. FreedomWorks (AKA " Team Astrotuf ") has endorsed one of Bob Bennett's challengers in the Republican primary, one Mike Lee . Via Marc Armbinder : The effort to oust Republican Sen. Bob Bennett (UT) in 2010 is gelling, a bit: the Dick Armey-led activist group FreedomWorks endorsed conservative candidate Mike Lee today at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, DC. This comes after the Club for Growth announced Jan.8 that it would oppose Bennett, while declining to endorse any of his potential challengers specifically... The semblance of unity here between FreedomWorks and the Club for Growth is significant: the Club for Growth injects millions into campaigns every cycle to back pro-business conservative candidates, while FreedomWorks tries to rouse grassroots activist support. They're ideologically similar: fiscal conservative, pro-business, small-government, and Ayn Randish. FreedomWorks has cultivated a close re...

Andrew Sullivan , reflecting on conservativism in the 1990s: A society able to devote itself to the core question of perjury in a civil suit and to enjoy Seinfeld and the Simpsons: isn't that kind of era what conservatives really want? Not all of them, I found out. For those conservatives deeply troubled by modernity and its pleasures, for those who see war and conflict as key motivators for civic virtue, a society pretty happy with itself, and a government actually running a surplus with no wars, is a problem. It saps "national greatness"... There are conservatives who are always girded for war or suspect all peace as some kind of hidden war; and those who are happy at peace, grateful for its blessings and hopeful that it will last. This split in the character of conservativism sounds strangely familiar ... Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this sun of York; And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house In the deep bosom of the ocean buried....