Morning Whip, Feb. 8, 2010

SECTION ONE: The Word:
How ’bout them Super Bowl commercials, huh?

SECTION TWO: Things That Amuse Me:
Simians and other aminals*:
Animal advocates sue over USD monkey tests [*1]
*Yes, I know it’s “animals,” it’s just that I always found the childhood mispronunciation really, really cute . . .

Travel:
Stay at home. Work. Consume. Big Brother is Your Friend. Palin is evil. Obama is good. Work. Consume.

Sports:
Weekend review[*2]

Science Fiction and Writing:
Zoomorphism in Science Fiction—In or Out?[*3]
Writing cultures: insider vs. outsider [*4]
Writers on Writing–Emotion [*5]
The Write Way and the Wrong Way [*6]
Ways to Trash Your Writing Career: Surrender, Dorothy! [*7]
Hey, remember when I used to post long, half-thought-out posts on big topics? [*8]
Least Favorite Authors of SF [*9]
You Can’t Make This Stuff Up [*10]

Science, technology, and space:
Nook Review [*11]
Looking At Light [*12]
Opinion: MacBook, or iMac + iPad? [*13]

Miscellany (amusing things not fitting above, or below):
NBC throws Conan down the memory hole, deletes his online content [*14]

SECTION THREE: Politics: The neverending battle against blithering idiocy:
People doing potentially good things (including sightings of politicians doing something less than totally idiotic):
Glenn Reynolds: Nashville Shows Tea Party Is America’s Third Great Awakening[*15] — We’ll put Professor Reynolds down as a “fan.”
Tea Party Post Mortem [*16]
Any interest in a Purple Team? [*17]
Sarah Palin Power [*18] — Is it a coincidence that the “Tea Party Convention” was held in the Volunteer State?
Sarah Palin is splitting the liberals [*19]
The reason Sarah Palin will be President in 2012, distilled in one picture [*20]
Sarah Palin and the Tea Party Zeitgeist [*21] — Obama will have to start directly attacking Palin soon. When he does, that will be the sign that he recognizes his Presidency is doomed. He will not be able to win a PR fight with Palin. She’s better at it than he is. He connects with what people think they want to be. She connects with what people are.
Did You Feel the Earth Move? [*22]
Fallout From Sarah Palin’s Kentucky Senate Endorsement of Rand Paul [*23]
Sarah Palin is too polarizing! [*24] — Yes, but she polarizes exactly the people the rest of us need to be worried about so it’s all good!
What about a POLAR TEAM to help Palin? [*25]
Obama v Palin … Palin? [*26]
Palin Mocks Liberals [*27] — Who, of course, richly deserve mocking on a regular basis . . .
Every Time Sarah Takes the Stage, Her Impact Is as Big as D.C.’s Blizzard [*28]

The cure for blithering idiocy: freedom and individual liberty (yeah, I know–ooh, ick, philosophy!):
The Race Against Government [*29]
Change Your Mind [*30]

The reality of President Obama as a blithering idiot (and he’s the President, so he gets credit, if that’s the word, for the entire Executive Branch):
The Difference Between Using a Teleprompter and Notes [*31]
Sarah Palin Calls for Eric Holder & Rahm Emanuel to Resign (Video) [*32] — In a sane world, the whole lot of them would look in the mirror tomorrow morning and realize “Oh, my God, we ARE blithering idiots!” and rush to the microphones to resign.
Obama’s Antidisestablishmentarianism and the Tea Partiers [*33]

The reality of Washington Democrats (and Independents, and Socialists) as blithering idiots:
Who’ll Call the Blue Dogs Out? [*34]

The reality of Washington Republicans as blithering idiots:
Yeah, they’re there. They’re just laying low, I guess.

Other blithering idiots at large making life difficult for regular folks:
They’re flying below the radar today, too . . .

Opposition Research: because blithering idiocy can be dangerous, especially when organized into idiotic groups with idiotic ideologies:
Does Palin Derangement Syndrome Know No Bounds? [*35] — THE HAND! THE HAND! AIEEEE!!!!
Obama’s Smart Move in Health Care Debate, but it’s fraught with risks for Democrats, huge risks [*36] — The Republicans have to get up in this meeting, one after the other, and say, firmly, “Why wasn’t this meeting held a year ago?” Obama needs to be called on his reckless, arrogant governing style.
Palin Exposes Misogyny In The Democratic Base, Again [*37]
Deficit Spending – Pimping The Great Lie [*38]
Frances Fox Piven: Glenn Beck Seeks ‘Foreign, Dark-Skinned, Intellectual’ Scapegoats[*39] — The worst thing about pimping the “Cloward-Piven Strategy” is that the name “Cloward-Piven” sounds so incredibly stupid . . .

The Keith Olbermann Memorial “Special Comment” on blithering idiots in the Media:
Palin’s 6 Words vs. Media’s Ignorance to the Real News [*40]
The Associated Press Sees What Isn’t There [*41]
As counter-media fuels tea party movement, main stream media catches on [*42]

SECTION FOUR: Case Studies in Blithering Idiocy
“Global warming” aka “Climate change” — or should that be “Climate Reform?”:
The Superbowl “Green Police” commercial [*43] — Whenever I see “Green Police,” the song “The Dream Police” by Cheap Trick starts playing in my mind . . .
“The Green Police?” [*44] — “The Green Police, they live inside of my head . . .”

Health care “reform” aka health insurance “reform” — or should that be health care “change?” Perhaps “Global healthing?:
Media Ignore Health Gains [*45]

The Economy (Can the blithering idiots bring down the most productive economy the world has ever seen? Yes, They Can! Will they?):
Squeezing the Job Creators [*46] — Why is the Democrat solution to job creation to take money away from the job creators?
Europe Risks Another Global Depression [*47]

Foreign affairs and National Security (Will blithering idiots get us all killed, or make us all speak Spanish–or Chinese–or Arabic–or all three?):
China shuts down largest hacker training website [*48]
Generation Kill [*49]

The Morning Whip is a (mostly) daily review of what’s out there that caught my attention, sometimes but not always posted before 11 am Central time in the U. S. of A., unless I just don’t feel like it that day, am out doing something more important or more fun, or I’ve been abducted, detained, arrested, or otherwise flummoxed by the agents of blithering idiotry.

I surf the Web, so you don’t have to! (which would be a trademark, but come on, who am I kidding?)