"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler
Strange news from Saudi Arabia:
A campaign has been launched on Facebook calling for men to beat Saudi women who drive their cars in a planned protest next month against the ultra-conservative kingdom’s ban on women taking the wheel.
The call comes as activists are demanding the release of Manal al-Sharif, a Saudi woman who was jailed for defying the ban.
This is crazy. If you ban women from driving, how is your wife supposed to go buy you more beer during the football game?
A Slate columnist has declared war on one of my favorite punctuation marks. If I have to become the em dash’s Chris Crocker, I will.
“The more time they spend accusing Republicans of wanting to kill old people, the less time they’ll spend accusing Republicans of hating black people.”
When you think of the term “victim” nowadays, you think of somebody sitting around whining about their grievances, seeking pity. And then there is Elizabeth Smart:
Victimized just about as badly as anyone could ever be victimized, and yet she doesn’t seem to have the slightest interest in anyone’s pity.
Think about that, next time you’re tempt to feel sorry for yourself.
“All politics all the time gets boring after a while. . . . Even a stone political junkie cannot subsist on a 24/7 diet of politics. The occasional joke, the occasional hot babe, the occasional joke about a hot babe — it’s a safety valve to make sure we don’t become humorless right-wing clones of those Democratic Underground moonbats.”
— Rule 5(b), “How to Get a Million Hits on Your Blog in Less Than a Year,” Feb. 15, 2009
Soros-funded Media Matters for America has 90 employees and an annual budget of $15 million, and gets about 650,000 “unique visitors” per month. The annual budget at Ace of Spades HQ is unknown, and its “employees” are just a bunch of part-time goofs, but they get about 3 million hits per month.
Tuesday afternoon, I got a sample of the awesome power of Ace’s traffic when he linked my post about Christina Hendricks, temporarily overloading the servers and producing about 5,000 visits in the span of three hours. What would traffic have been like, if the servers hadn’t overloaded? Dunno. But that surge was as impressive as Christina Hendricks’s cleavage an Instalanche.
Why is Ace’s traffic so awesome? He explains:
Very often I get criticized for running funny or trivial stories, or going off-message. There is a contingent of folks who want their political sites doing nothing but relentlessly messaging. . . .
They seem to make the error of not realizing that for a message to be effective, first, it must be read in the first place.
And being a little idiosyncratic and random and funny and goofy helps with that. Whether the Seriousness Brigade realizes that or not. . . .
You should read the whole thing, if you want to understand why all-politics-all-the-time unnecessarily limits readership.
It’s interesting to note that Rush Limbaugh gets the same kind of complaints that Ace gets. Every time Rush talks about golf or the NFL, some listeners call in and demand that he “stick to the issues.”
Absolutely. “Stick to the issues”! Because I know you’d rather read about Tim Pawlenty’s ethanol policy than to see a buxom young blonde in lingerie, right? Continue reading Sex, Jokes and Politics: Why $15 Million Won’t Buy Traffic Like Ace of Spades →
TOP NEWS
Senate Democrats Shoot Down House Budget. Now What?
You can’t beat something with nothing, but the Dems are sure going to try.
Smart Uses Sentencing To Call Attention To Missing Children
B.D. Mitchell sentenced to life in prison
Loughner Ruled Incompetent To Stand Trial In Giffords Shooting
Will be sent to prison facility for treatment
POLITICS
John Edwards “Did Not Break The Law”, Attorney Claims
Well, that’s what Greg Craig’s being paid to say, no?
Sheriff Arpaio Says Three Maricopa County Officers Arrested For Drug Smuggling, Human Trafficking
Gingrich Talks Healthcare Without Mentioning Medicare
Suspended Schultz Apologizes On-Air To Laura Ingraham
Rand Paul Spearheads Resistance To Patriot Act Renewal
Pawlenty Calls For Social Security Cuts, Preserving Defense Budget
Liu Asks To Withdraw After GOP Filibuster Threat
THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Banks Team Up For Online Payment System
Lagarde Formally Announces Bid For Top IMF Spot
AIG Shares Drop In Wake Of Offering; Still $100 Billion To Go For TARP
California Pizza Kitchen Goes Private In $470 Million Buyout
Nikkei Index Rises Most In Three Weeks On Commodities, Weak Yen
Windows Phone Mango: Can It Challenge Androids, IPhone?
Microsoft Walks Back Ballmer’s Claim Of Windows 8 In 2012
Zuckerberg: Kids, Smartphones Need Not Apply
SPORTS
Lightning Stay Alive With 5-4 Win Over Boston
Bruins blow early lead, continue inability to score on power plays
NCAA Rejects USC Appeal; Trojans Ineligible For Pac-12 Title
Brown’s Arrival Signals An End To the Triangle
Towles Breaks Slump, Strokes Walk-Off RBI Single To Give Astros The Win
Talbot Overwhelmed By BoSox; Indians Crushed 14-2
Soccer Association Can’t Ignore Insider’s Corruption Charges
Mariano Rivera Notches 1000th Game
Mets Selloff Coming, So Who’s Going?
FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Nicole Scherzinger In For Cheryl Cole On “X-Factor”
TMZ says network wanted Coles gone over accent
“Arnie Complained About His Sexless Marriage”
“American Idol” Crowns Scott McCreery
Brad Pitt On Parenting: “I Don’t Bring My Crap Home”
Beyonce Reveals Inspiration Behind BMA Performance
VH1 Rebooting “Pop-Up Videos”
Is there no end to their depravity?
FOREIGNERS
Obama Pushes Euros Not To Support Palestinian Statehood Bid
Senior Libyan Official Opens Possibility Of Gadhafi Departure For First Time
US To Reduce Military Presence In Pakistan
No Easy Options To Solve India Power Crisis
Denmark’s Marmite Snub Sparks Fury Across Britain
What’s Going On At Japan’s Crippled Nuke Plant?
BLOGS & STUFF
Lonely Conservative: Paul Ryan Gets Words Of Encouragement From – Bill Clinton? (Video)
AmSpecBlog: Paul, Toomey Budgets Do Better Than Obama’s In Senate
Chris Chocola: NY-26 A Referendum, But Not On Medicare
Moe Lane: The Ed Schultz Suspension Story Reminds Me…(NSFW)
Don Surber: MSNBC Suspends Sexist
Contentions: Key Jewish Donor Breaks With Obama
Allahpundit: Clyburn Claims Obama’s Problems Are Due Largely To Racism
Tina Korbe: EPA Chief Confirms No Fracking Water Contamination
— compiled by Wombat-socho
But mainly for calling Laura Ingraham a “slut”:
STATEMENT FROM MSNBC REGARDING ED SCHULTZ:
MSNBC management met with Ed Schultz this afternoon and accepted his offer to take one week of unpaid leave for the remarks he made yesterday on his radio program. Ed will address these remarks on his show tonight, and immediately following begin his leave. Remarks of this nature are unacceptable and will not be tolerated.
(Via Memeorandum.) Apparently, Ed’s remark today exceeded even the dubious standards at MSNBC that permitted Schultz to say this:
“Republicans are attacking the Commander-in-Chief during a time of war! . . . There should be no debate: we ought to be kicking [Moammar Qaddafi’s] ass . . . Whose side are you on? Are you with the terrorists, Sarah [Palin], or are you with the President of the United States? . . . And I have to ask the question tonight: Where is the patriotism from all of these war-hawks? Where’s the patriotism of the Republican Party?”
And also this:
“The Republicans lie! They want to see you dead! They’d rather make money off your dead corpse! They kind of like it when that woman has cancer and they don’t have anything for her.”
To repeat what I said before: “Ed Schultz reminds me of every mean drunk I ever knew.”
He is an unattractive personality who is unlikely to endure on TV even in the fetid swamp of deranged partisan hatred that is MSNBC.
More from The Lonely Conservative, NewsBusters, Weasel Zippers, My Pet Jawa, Ace of Spades HQ and Hot Air.
UPDATE: Here is the on-air apology Ed made tonight:
“I want to apologize to Laura Ingraham. I want to apologize to my family, my wife. I have embarrassed my family. I have embarrassed this company. And I have been in this business since 1978, and I have made a lot of mistakes. This is the lowest of low for me. . . .”
The lowest of the low so far, you mean. When your contract runs out and MSNBC dumps you like a sack of stale garbage, then you might get to the lowest of the low: Standing by an expressway off-ramp, holding up a sign: “WILL HATE FOR FOOD.”
You guys remember how fired up conservatives were in January 2010, right? I’ve been scratching my head lately:
Senate Democrats forced a vote Wednesday on the controversial fiscal plan drafted by House Budget chief Paul Ryan, splitting the Republican caucus . . .
Moderate Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine were joined by Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts and Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska in breaking with Republican leaders to oppose the Ryan plan.
Snowe and Brown are up for re-election in 2012.
Tea Party-backed Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky also voted against the budget, saying its proposed spending cuts are not deep enough.
All Senate Democrats voted no.
The final tally was 40-57. Fifty-one yeas would have been necessary to move the plan forward.
Da Tech Guy wonders if Brown thinks he can win re-election by appeasing liberals.
UPDATE: More news from Michael O’Brian at The Hill. Now a thread at Memeorandum.