Desertscope

Musings from Southern New Mexico

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Lara Logan’s Big Story

November 24, 2013 /

I haven’t really read much on Lara Logan’s bogus Benghazi story. I took one important thing away from the post-report reporting on 60 Minutes. Apparently, Lara Logan is extremely dedicated. Despite the fact that she was obviously suffering breathing issues throughout the recording period, she soldiered on in her dramatically half-assed “mistakes were made” statement. In it, she related how her team had spent a year “researching” the bullshit story. She failed, however, to explain how during that year of “research” her crack team of “journalists” had failed to due undergraduate level fact checking.

Should the fact that mercenaries are generally no more trustworthy than the criminals that typically employ them be considered adequate cause to do some digging? Probably. But that is just my opinion, I suppose. I’m no journalist.

You can see her breathless non-apology at The Raw Story.

By the way, am I the only person that thinks she sounds oddly breathless? I haven’t heard anyone comment on it, so I suppose so.

Back in the New World

November 18, 2013 /

So I was in Arabia for a while.

Sunrise over Arabian desert

Sunrise over Arabian desert

Having traded in my dirham for dollars, I have returned to my familiar haunt, the Chihuahuan Desert of southern New Mexico. It’s probably a good thing, too, as my exercise regime suffered greatly. I did spend an hour or so swimming the Persian Gulf just a few hours prior to flying out of Abu Dhabi. The name is apparently a point of contention ‘twixt the Arabs and the Persians. In the media on the south side of the gulf, it is called the Arabian Gulf.

The jet lag was surprisingly mild.

A Tantrum Costing Americans Many Millions

October 13, 2013 /

I was away for a while.

So in the 52 days since I last posted, a few things have happened. First, Tbogg returned from retirement. Second, the raging crackpot wing of the House Republican caucus followed the lead of the raging crackpot wing of the Senate Republican caucus (pretty much just Ted Cruz) in threatening to take the ball an go home.

In the context of a game (it really is, in a political sense), we can view all the proceedings thus:

  1. Wishful-thinking-based-polling tells the Republicans they will defeat the Affordable Care Act
  2. “Negotiations” are held
  3. Democrats spinelessly capitulate on all fronts, allowing Republicans to weaken ACA to something extremely friendly to “the healthcare industry”
  4. Votes are held, with the greatly watered-down legislation passing both houses
  5. The President signs ACA into law
  6. People who don’t appear to understand the Constitution challenge its Constitutionality, taking the case to the Supreme Court
  7. Oddly enough, the extremely Corporation-friendly Supreme Court declares the extremely Corporation-friendly law “Constitutional”
  8. Looking around for other ex post facto means to pretend all of the above never happened, someone thinks to dust off the two decades old Newt Gingrich gambit
  9. The Republicans say that they will now refuse to do the one required task of their job description: pay the bills
  10. Blame the black guy

Now, in the context of sport, we could look at it thus:

  1. Before the game, one side continually reduces the value of the prize
  2. The game is held
  3. The expected side wins
  4. The losing side cries foul and demands a review by the refs, knowing the refs are “their guys”
  5. The refs allow the decision to stand
  6. The losing side puts the trophy in a closet, while sitting in front of the closet door holding the ball and rocking back and forth
  7. Nobody’s getting the prize until the losing side can further “negotiate” down its value
  8. No games of any type will be played until these demands are met
  9. Losing side is puzzled at booing from the stands

As always, a sizable fraction of the American populace is still of the shit-your-pants-at-the-approach-of-a-brown-person bent. For this reason, two things occurred. First, military were exempted, helping to hide how financially precarious is the situation of many. Second, most DoD civilians are recalled, as their absence makes the military mission difficult in many places and nearly impossible in others.

These people must be the most embarrassing companions imaginable in Las Vegas. I doubt, though, that the bouncers in Las Vegas will be as accommodating as the American Press Corpse.

As I Smolder to Ashes

August 22, 2013 /

I’m going to have to step away for a while. I currently have nothing more to add to the national dialogue. If a person’s default position on Obama or Trayvon Martin is “nigger, nigger, nigger,” then response is pointless. If a person uses the trappings of science (i.e. the internet, computers, analog broadcast media) to spread claims that actual science is wrong, as with global warming, then response is pointless.

I am burned out.

As a person who has actually had to use the data revealing the noticeable effects of CO2 on the propagation of radiation from the ultraviolet through visible and infrared wavelengths, I can say that the Ghomerts and DeMints of the world leave me empty. If I claimed to speak Hebrew and babbled some vaguely Semitic-sounding gibberish, it would be the linguistic equivalent. The fact is that 100.00% of actual scientists who espouse global warming denial know they are lying to support one of two things: ideology (they are right wing loons willing to sacrifice any shred of scientific integrity for what they perceive as “the ends justify the means”) or profit (since the science is so far beyond question to even the most basically trained of scientists, the wages available to those who would whore out what they know to be false “scientific” opinions are quite extravagant).

I cannot compete. When the “reality based community” plays by gentlemen’s rules and the opposition plays by WWE heel rules, is there really a competition? Even a staged one?

As they say in France, “Un plein de merde trou du cul peut dire ce qu’il veut sans conséquence,” which means “We have earned our current situation.” Because I know French like DeMint knows science.

Adieu.

[Update]: I should mention that I do know a number of the artisans of science that actually believe the ridiculous bullshit they see on Fox News and should be excused. They are mainly consumers of data, and may be hoodwinked by their sources, because they are nor responsible for actually doing science. That is why even basically honest meteorologists, engineers, and doctors may say jaw-droppingly stupid things about topics such as vaccination and global warming.

Lost Friends I Never Knew

August 13, 2013 /

For the second time since I moved to New Mexico, my favorite writer has died. I have nothing to add, really, to what has been said about the man known to many as Doghouse Riley by such luminaries as Charles Pierce and Tbogg.

Steve Gilliard had been the first notable writer with whom I had actually had exchanges in the comments and/or email. It took me a while to find a new favorite. The next writer to take up the mantle (Larry Wallberg, also known as The Exterminator), eventually withdrew from blogging. I don’t think Doghouse Riley ever personally replied to any of the sparse comments I made on his blog. I nevertheless feel a sense of loss much like that of several years ago.

Today, Tbogg announced that he, too, will be retreating from the peculiar world of blogging.

I am very sad.

Please keep up the good work, Mr. Pierce.

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