Displaying comments 1 to 50 of 7120
All those verbal gaffes were just strategery.
The primary evidence cited to support this assertion is that, according to Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post, 'unlike Obama's tenure, there was no successful attack on the homeland after 9/11.'
Rebutted by the man himself:As all Americans know, recent weeks have brought a second wave of terrorist attacks upon our country.I'm sure that's thoroughly covered in the library.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 10:04 PM on April 25, 2013
Listing three countries as an Axis kind of, you know, has a historical precedent.
It's OK, Bush was a History major at Yale.
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 1:20 PM on April 26, 2013
"Ring it Out"
Chris Hadfield is currently working on the first original music album to be recorded in orbit.
So it turns out that astronauts have special hockey-puck washcloths which are really difficult to unwrap.
Only the Canadian astronauts.
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 8:25 PM on April 18, 2013
Before Jojo and sweet Loretta Martin...
I saw Let It Be in the theater in the mid- to late-80s. I remember it being mostly boring rather than controversial. I was mainly in it for the rooftop concert, which was cool, but not as cool as I had hoped.
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 12:46 PM on April 14, 2013
An Emotional Child
The move that always amuses me is when you see a little kid have a small oopsie of some kind and then look around to see if there's a suitable audience for a good cry or not.
One of the experiences that most prepared me for fatherhood was one time watching my friends' toddler running down the sidewalk, tripping and falling flat on his face, and not crying or even looking especially distressed until he looked around and saw me.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 3:31 PM on April 8, 2013
Freedom And Unity
The federal government can talk all it wants about how indivisible the union is, but that's just, like, its opinion, man.
The specific opinion is Texas v. White:The Union of the States never was a purely artificial and arbitrary relation. It began among the Colonies, and grew out of common origin, mutual sympathies, kindred principles, similar interests, and geographical relations. It was confirmed and strengthened by the necessities of war, and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 1:09 PM on April 5, 2013
The Psychology of Apology
[Otto dangles Archie out a window]
Archie: All right, all right, I apologise.
Otto: You're really sorry.
Archie: I'm really really sorry, I apologise unreservedly.
Otto: You take it back.
Archie: I do, I offer a complete and utter retraction. The imputation was totally without basis in fact, and was in no way fair comment, and was motivated purely by malice, and I deeply regret any distress that my comments... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 1:29 PM on April 2, 2013
You Win Fights By Being More Willing to Permanently F-Up The Other Guy*
Butch immediately kicks Harvey in the groin
Aw, dude, you left out the best part!
Butch Cassidy: Well, if there ain't going to be any rules, let's get the fight started. Someone count 1,2,3 go.
Sundance Kid: [quickly] 123go!
[Butch immediately kicks Harvey in the groin]
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 7:16 PM on April 1, 2013
Bugs Bunny, "Hillbilly Hare" (transcript)Grab a fence post, hold it tight
Womp your partner with all your might
Hit him in the shin, hit him in the head
Hit him again, the critter ain't dead
Wop him low and wop him high
Stick your finger in his eye
Pretty little rhythm, pretty little sound
Bang your heads against the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 6:47 AM on April 2, 2013
Just Switch the Pronouns
I seriously doubt that the shuttle scene where they take great efforts to strip Sigourney Weaver down to a nipply tank top and panties, have her gratuitously stretch to flick random buttons, and then show her ass crack would have been filmed quite the same way if, say, Burt Reynolds played the lead.
Don't be so sure.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 12:15 PM on March 28, 2013
Howard Zinn's Influential Mutilations of American History
If the Civil War wasn't about slavery, why was the Confederacy where the slaves were? If you make list of the dates that states seceded and a list of the states with the highest proportion of enslaved people, how come the lists are almost exactly the same?
if slavery meant anything other than propaganda value, why wasn't the Emancipation Proclamation issued in 1861, and why did it exclude the five non-rebelling slave states?... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 5:10 PM on March 23, 2013
The prevailing ideas entertained by [Thomas Jefferson] and most of the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old Constitution were, that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature; that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally and politically...Those ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of the equality of races.
...
Our new Government is founded upon exactly the opposite ideas; its... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 8:02 PM on March 23, 2013
What percentage of the American population were slaves in 1860? What percent of the population were slaves south of the Mason-Dixon line in that year?
"In 1860, 89 percent of the nation's African Americans were slaves; blacks formed 13 percent of the country's population and 33 percent of the South's population." [cite]
Total number of slaves in the Lower South : 2,312,352 (47% of total population).
Total... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 1:58 PM on March 24, 2013
The CSA also had a sizable problem with unionists in their own midst who weren't thrilled with the secession, many of whom fought *only* because when soldiers wearing different colors are marching on your community, you take up arms against them first and then argue with your neighbors later.
Is that why they invaded Maryland in 1862, Pennsylvania in 1863, and Maryland again in 1864?... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 2:08 PM on March 24, 2013
In 1860 there were 435,080 slaves in Alabama; 45% of the state's population.
There were 111,115 slaves in Arkansas (26% of the population.
There were 61,745 slaves in Florida (44% of the population).
There were 462,198 slaves in Georgia (44% of the population).
There were 331,726 slaves in Louisiana (47% of the population).
There were 436,631 slaves in Mississippi (55% of the population).
There were 331,059 slaves in... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 7:15 AM on March 25, 2013
Khaaaaaaaan!!!
The new Hawaii Five-0 did a Wrath of Khan-style update of an episode of the original show, with Ed Asner playing the same role he played in the original 36 years earlier.
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 9:19 AM on March 21, 2013
Skydog
You're not a real Southern Rock band unless somebody dies, preferably the most talented people. See: Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Little Feat, et al.
Also, after Duane died they should've been required to go by Allman Brother's Band.
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 2:31 PM on March 20, 2013
"God hates fags." - Michelle Shocked, 3/17/13
A 'Christian' like Shocked is probably right to dread the prospect of Jesus coming back and seeing what they're doing in his name.
"If Jesus came back and saw what's going on in his name, he'd never stop throwing up."
-- Max von Sydow in Hannah and Her Sisters
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 8:05 PM on March 19, 2013
Hotkey ',' to Corner the Global Energy Market.
One time in the college cafeteria I made a peanut butter sandwich with an inch of peanut butter. It was odd for it to take a discernible period of time to bite through the sandwich. And I needed a lot of milk.
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 11:43 AM on March 7, 2013
The gun of the fearful
"It shoots through schools."
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 6:47 AM on March 4, 2013
A history of the Second Amendment in two paintings
The Lost Amendment:...no amendment received less attention in the courts in the two centuries following the adoption of the Bill of Rights than the Second, except the Third (which dealt with billeting soldiers in private homes). It used to be known as the “lost amendment,” because hardly anyone ever wrote about it. The assertion that the Second Amendment protects a person’s right to own and carry a gun for self-defense,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 7:31 PM on March 5, 2013
Obama officially against Prop. 8
Whenever His Catholic Majesty Ferdinand of Aragon, most powerful and wise prince, was about to embark on some new enterprise, or make a decision of great importance, he went about it in such a way that, before his intentions were known, the whole court and the people were already insisting and exclaiming that the king must do such and so. Then he would announce his decision, just when all hoped and clamored for it, and it is incredible what justification and favor it found among his subjects and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 9:42 PM on February 28, 2013
12:18pm
He and KSM had drawn up plans to crash planes into the CIA headquarters and the US discovered these plans after a raid in 1995.
"I don't think anybody could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center, take another one and slam it into the Pentagon; that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile." --Condoleezza... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha
at 5:16 PM on February 26, 2013
