Monty Python turns 40 this week

Shamelessly stole that blog post title from Andrew Sullivan. I’m ok with it. Because this video rocks:

It’s not “Friday Monty”… but it is pseudo-Monty.

Friday Monty

Hmm… bad news. I’ve missed the last two. But I’m bringing it back to life, because Friday Monty’s not dead yet… its feeling much better. (It’s just late).

Friday Monty

Classic:

ReTweet: “Memories”

Ezra Klein:

I imagine that when Sonia Sotomayor is putting together her scrapbook of memories from the time she was nominated for the United States Supreme Court, this will be a page she’ll particularly treasure:

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.), seeking to discredit Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s judicial philosophy, cited her 2001 “wise Latina” speech, and contrasted the view that ethnicity and sex influence judging with that of Judge Miriam Cedarbaum, who “believes that judges must transcend their personal sympathies and prejudices.”

“So I would just say to you, I believe in Judge Cedarbaum’s formulation,” Sessions told Sotomayor.

“My friend Judge Cedarbaum is here,” Sotomayor riposted, to Sessions’s apparent surprise. “We are good friends, and I believe that we both approach judging in the same way, which is looking at the facts of each individual case and applying the law to those facts.”

Cedarbaum agreed.

“I don’t believe for a minute that there are any differences in our approach to judging, and her personal predilections have no affect on her approach to judging,” she told Washington Wire. “We’d both like to see more women on the courts,” she added.

Friday Monty

“You try to tell the young people of today, that… and they won’t believe you”:

Happy Friday!

Guilty pleasures

A twofer: Matt Damon and making fun of Matthew McConaughey:

Stop. Read. Think.

Meister Eckhart:

MEISTER ECKHART met a beautiful naked boy.
He asked him where he came from.
He said: “I come from God.”
Where did you leave him?
“In virtuous hearts.”
Where are you going?
“To God.”
Where do you find him?
“Where I part with all creatures.”
Who are you?
“A king.”
Where is your kingdom?
“In my heart.”
Take care that no one divide it with you!
“I shall.”
Then he led him to his cell.
Take whichever coat you will.
“Then I should be no king!”
And he disappeared.
For it was God himself–
Who was having a bit of fun.

(Legends. #1)

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ReTweet: “Appliance Protest”

This is clever. Via Sully:

Iranian twitterers are claiming victory in a coordinated series of blackouts during Ahmadinejad’s televised speech yesterday:

The protesters had earlier pre-arranged a call for Iranians to plug in heavy power load household devices such as dryers, irons and toasters at 9:45pm local time, as Ahmadinejad’s speech began. Online Twitter feeds claimed blackouts were achieved in East Tehran, Sari, Tabriz, Isfehan, Rodehen, Saghez, Lavasan, Ahvaz, Khoramshahr, Dezfol, Jahrom, Khomini Shahr, Shahin Shar, Folad Shahr, Kashan and some of Rasht.

Some sample tweets:

Iron Tactic tonight: Call for Black Out During Ahmadinejad Live at TV, Tehran Time 21.30…

Yes It Worked!

Ghazvin went in Black Out, People Chanting” Death to Dictator” on the roofs in many cities…

ReTweet: “The Resignation”

By Ta-Nehisi Coates:

I wrote a long post on Sarah Palin, and then deleted it. I was overthinking. Here is what must be said– Sarah Palin is deeply ignorant. She actually sounded worse, unedited and uninterrupted, than when she was under the withering fire of Katie Couric. One need only go to the text:

Let me go back to a comfortable analogy for me – sports… basketball. I use it because you’re naïve if you don’t see the national full-court press picking away right now: A good point guard drives through a full court press, protecting the ball, keeping her eye on the basket… and she knows exactly when to pass the ball so that the team can WIN. And I’m doing that – keeping our eye on the ball that represents sound priorities – smaller government, energy independence, national security, freedom! And I know when it’s time to pass the ball – for victory.

This is not off-the-cuff. It was prepared in advance, and, on video, it actually managed to make it sound worse. I just don’t think there’s much going on here except a deep-seated pride in a deep-seated ignorance. I don’t know what else to say.

That’s about as good a synopsis I’ve seen of this resignation thing… and I agree completely, having watched the video of the speak he quotes here. I don’t think I’ll comment until the shoe drops on the real reason for this dumbfounding exit.

Friday Monty

Sorry… belated. Don’t worry… it’s ok… I’m drunk.

Happy 4th!

ReTweet: “The End of Campaign Finance Regulation”

Some incredibly important stories are going mostly uncovered. Matthew Yglesias:

Two related stories that are kind of flying under the radar right now. First, over at TPM, Zack Roth and Pete Martin explain what’s going on at the Federal Election Commission. Or, rather, what’s not going on. Namely, enforcement of election law. Instead, the Republican faction on the committee, made up entirely of people opposed in principle to the idea of regulating campaign finance, has just decided to paralyze the agency.

Meanwhile, several days ago the Supreme Court gave a strong indication that it intends to overturn the precedent set in Au
stin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce which, as Ian Millhiser explains, will really gut existing campaign finance law:

Nineteen years ago, in Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce, the Court upheld a ban on independent political expenditures–so-called “soft money” contributions–by corporate donors. As the Court explained in Austin, “the unique state-conferred corporate structure that facilitates the amassing of large treasuries warrants the limit on independent expenditures.” Corporations are designed to amass massive amounts of money, and they can use their enormous wealth to drown out individual voices, all while spending only a fraction of their treasuries.

Should the Court toss out Austin, it could be the end of any meaningful restrictions on campaign finance. In most states, all that is necessary to form a new corporation is to file the right paperwork in the appropriate government office. Moreover, nothing prevents one corporation from owning another corporation. Without Austin, even a cap on overall contributions becomes meaningless, because corporate donors can simply create a series of shell-corporations for the purpose of evading such caps.

These are pretty radical shifts in how our political system operates, and they’re taking place with no public debate or public scrutiny. One seriously doubts that many members of congress would want to stand before the voters and openly make the case that unlimited corporate campaign expenditures will advance the public interest or make the world a better place. Instead, conservative elected officials are managing to undermine the existing legal framework through their appointees while avoiding taking responsibility for what’s happening.

Friday Monty

The epitome of silly humor:

ReTweet: “Broken America”

An exercise in cynicism by Sullivan and one of his readers:

A reader writes:

Sorry, but I don’t understand why anyone would be excited about the Waxman bill. I imagine it’s well-intentioned. But this is a country that can’t even raise the gas tax from 18.4 cents to 30 cents. This is a country with a Nobel laureate who heads the Energy Department, who announces that global warming could be reduced by simply painting more roofs (and other surfaces) white, and of course we all know that we’ll never actually do this. This is a country with terribly unbalanced finances, and we all know that of course no one will raise the retirement age for social security, not even by 6 months, to take effect next year. This is a country that, fully-aware that there is a glut of cars in the world, subsidizes… GM and Chrysler. So why on earth would anyone think that this country can do anything to affect global warming?

Apologies for the cynicism, but when there are so many “softball solutions” that seem to have no prospect of actually happening, it’s hard to care about an ambitious bill about climate change.

I have to say I agree. I know the system mitigates against swift change – and that’s its beauty – but it also seems to be resistant to any change that might benefit the public interest if it can be prevented by massively powerful private interests or ideological campaigns based in cynicism and the pursuit of power.

Watching how this government can do nothing to reform health care, nothing to end the wars and occupations that drain the coffers, nothing to tackle entitlements even as the country teeters toward complete insolvency, nothing to reform a broken immigration system … even after a president is elected with a clear mandate and a Congressional majority in both Houses: well, we know why America is fucked, don’t we?

I gotta say that I’m too young to be this cynical… but theirs is an informed cynicism based on a history of failures. But what it doesn’t take into account is America’s history of successes in certain areas as well.

There’s a certain amount of cynicism that is healthy. And I think on the whole, Andrew is pretty positive and hopeful (“Know Hope” is a common meme in his writing). So taking this post out of context from his daily barrage of posts is a little unfair.

But, if you haven’t, take a look at this short TED talk about perspectives on time. I think it lays out a healthy time perspective that we should try to hold even in the context of a government that often fails more than it succeeds.

Sully, this one goes out to you:

ReTweet: “This Is What Fascism Looks Like, Ctd”

By Sullivan:

Khamenei’s storm-troopers vandalize cars and property – either to intimidate or fabricate evidence of rioters and terrorists: