Yet more on the Randian Menace

alicublog

If these Atlases are shrugging, it's not the rest of us "looters" they're trying to shake off, but the responsibility of meaningful opposition. It seems a great relief to many of them, as it has been to us. Having lost the onerous burden of defending the Bush Administration, they have reverted to an entertainment program based on Ayn Rand, science fiction, Guns & Ammo, and wishful thinking. They portray this party mix as the formula that will bring them back to power, but I grow suspicious that they don't mean it, and are content to recreate their native dances for whatever money tourists may throw them.

I too read Ayn Rand when I was a teenager. And then I read Rousseau and Thoreau (even if I spell their names wrong half the time). These twerps seem to have read Atlas Shrugged, finished masturbating, then decided to never read another book as long as they lived because they would never again find such a perfect way to excuse their "I have mine, now go fuck yourself" way of thinking.

The bizarre fetish of pseudointellectual mumbo jumbo that infects the GOP just astonishes me

Arrogance at AIG

A.I.G. to Pay $100 Million in Bonuses After Huge Bailout - NYTimes.com

“On the one hand, all of us at A.I.G. recognize the environment in which we operate and the remonstrations of our President for a more restrained system of compensation for executives. On the other hand, we cannot attract and retain the best and brightest talent to lead and staff the AIG businesses — which are now being operated principally on behalf of the American taxpayers — if employees believe that their compensation is subject to continued and arbitrary adjustment by the U.S. Treasury."

The more I read this story The more pissed off I get.

If these fuckers had managed to get the best and that fucking brightest maybe they wouldn't have had to come cap in hand to the government for $170 BILLION FUCKING DOLLARS. Perhaps these fucking tools should have thought that just MAYBE if they kept fucking up then Treasury would be JUST a little pissed and not want them to get their fucking bonuses.

I am just amazed at the hubris of these assholes.

Just Fucking Awesome: $100Million in bonuses at AIG

From the NYT comes this bit of news

A.I.G. to Pay $100 Million in Bonuses After Huge Bailout

Despite being bailed out with more than $170 billion from the
Treasury and Federal Reserve, the American International
Group is preparing to pay about $100 million in bonuses to
executives in the same business unit that brought the company
to the brink of collapse last year.

I used to think that I was cynical. I am now seeing that I was fucking Pollyanna.
On what fucking planet should these morons get a bonus after shitting the bed, rolling around in it, tossing the blankets on the lawn and then screaming that We had to pay to have it cleaned.

Yeah, I am really pissed about this one.

The Limits of Acceptable Political Debate

Firedoglake » Who’s the More Foolish, The Fools, Or the Fools Who Fluff Them?; Or, Fred Hiatt, You Ignorant Cretin

It's not like Hiatt is intellectually incapable of perceiving empirical reality, like the scientific consensus on global warming. The evidence suggests that he just doesn't care. What he cares about is maintaining the balance of respectable opinion between batshit insane and mumblingly moderate that has prevailed in the political and media spheres for so long. And why shouldn't he? Hasn't he done quite well for himself out of it?

As we're seeing, even disastrous election results are not enough to persuade the GOP and conservatives to accept reality, and the "MSM" certainly isn't about to make them do it. It's an incredibly dangerous situation. Does it matter what the truth may be? Does it matter what the public wants?

Don't be absurd. What matters is where the limits of "legitimate" speech have been imposed -- and these have been imposed by those who have no incentive to be right, and face no penalty for being wrong, no matter what the damage may be to the nation, or the world.

Thers makes the seemingly obvious point that this is not a "center-right" country. It is a country where the people that control the limits of speech have decided that center-right is as far left as they want to allow the country to move despite all evidence that shows the country would be better off with a wider political debating range. The country would be better of, the puppermasters wouldn't.