Quote of the Day

"Is liberal Hollywood using class warfare to brainwash our kids?"—Fox News host Eric Bolling, discussing the "Communistic" new Muppet movie, the villain of which is a shady oil tycoon.

Please enjoy the resultant Twitter hashtag #GOPMuppetHearings here.

Perfect

Trump to Moderate Republican Debate.

It's funny, because I've just been thinking the past few never that what the Republican primary needed was MORE DEBATES and also MORE DEBATES MODERATED BY WORLD-CLASS ABSURDITY MERCHANTS.

Good News!

Herman Cain, who was said to be reassessing his campaign after the news broke of his 13-year extramarital affair, has concluded that his campaign is DEFINITELY AWESOME and thus has put out a hot new campaign advert.

You know, I wasn't going to vote for him before, what with all the sexual harassment, cavernous void of personal ethics, comprehensive lack of competency, and general garbage ideology, but now that I see he's got the moxie to indirectly throw down a straw-gauntlet against imaginary presidents who hate America, I'm going to reassess my own campaign of resounding contempt.

Ha ha just kidding I'm for sure never voting for him or anyone in his stupid party of bootstrap-hollering dirtbags.

Anyway! To the video!

Herman Cain in voiceover, over patriotic music and images of a busy factory where the forklifts sport US flags: The engine of economic growth is the business sector. Now this is good. [images turn to a still factory, as the music segues to an ominously howling wind] This is bad. [cut to Cain onscreen, with "I Am America" music from previous ads] Our fifteen trillion dollar national debt is killing our children's future, and it's not going to get any better until we put an executive into the executive office. [more scenes of busy factory] I've spent a lifetime creating jobs, and, if you make me America's CEO, we the people will take this country back. We can do this. I'm Herman Cain. I'm running for president. I approve this message, and I will never apologize for the greatness of the United States of America.

I would just like to note that Herman Cain is one of the best candidates the Republican Party can find in a nation of 308 million people.

Photo of the Day

This undated image provided by the Scottsdale Gun Club shows a woman posing with Santa Claus and several guns at the Scottsdale, Ariz. club. Ron Kennedy, general manager of the gun club, says the business got the idea for the photo op last year when a club member happened to come in dressed as Santa and other members wanted their picture taken while they were holding their guns. He says people have used the photos for Christmas cards and Facebook posts. [AP Photo]

All right then.

I am not reflexively anti-gun; I have friends and family members who do target shooting, and I have family members who hunt for food, and, although it's not my scene, I'm pretty wev about it. I also respect that there are people who have ethical objections to gun ownership and hunting of any sort. This thread ain't about that debate.

It's about the fact that OMFG PEOPLE ARE POSING WITH SANTA WITH GIANT-ASS GUNS. Or, to be more clear, about an aspect of gun culture that has nothing to do with principled debates and everything to do with fetishizing deadly weaponry. Yikes.

Quote of the Day

"What is this 'mac and cheese'—is that a black thing?"—Pat Robertson, Professor of Huh at LOL University.

Kristi Watts, a black woman, on video, interviewing former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, also a black woman: What's that one thing at Thanksgiving you just have to have?

Rice, grinning: It's mac and cheese.

Watts: [claps] Sister, that is my dish!

Rice, nodding and grinning: Yes. Yes.

Watts: That's the one thing that I can rock!

Rice: But only once—once a year.

[edit back to studio at The 700 Club, where ancient white man Pat Robertson, a professional Christian Supremacist asshole, sits with Watts]

Robertson: Good interview, Kristi. Congratulations.

Watts: Thank you, Pat. [claps]

Robertson: What is this 'mac and cheese'—is that a black thing?

Watts: It is a black thing, Pat! It is! Listen, and you guys, other people, the world needs to get on board with macaroni and cheese. Seriously! I just—okay, Christmas and Thanksgiving, we have to have macaroni and cheese, and it just, it trips me out that you don't!

Robertson: I really don't! I don't and I have never!

[They both laugh.]

Personally, I enjoy my mac and cheese with some emeffing iced tea.

In my experience, mac and cheese isn't "a black thing," so much as it is a class thing, i.e. poorer folks tend to eat more mac and cheese (and other variations on pasta + dairy/protein, like tuna casserole). What a splendid example of ignorance and privilege that Pat Robertson, introduced to an unfamiliar tradition, just assumes it must be "a black thing," because obviously there can be no tradition shared among many people on which he, Super-Privileged White Dude, isn't an expert. Must be "a black thing" if he doesn't know about it. Yiiiiiiikes.

[Via.]