Look on the bright side: all of this Russia/Georgia saber rattling has allowed me to post my favorite political ad of all time, the timeless "Bear in the Woods" ad from the 1984 US presidential campaign. Mr. Putin has resurrected the need for the total containment of Russia and a new Cold War. Brrrrrr!
This ad summed up the whole debate on how best to handle the US/Soviet conflict in 30 seconds of pure political magic. As poignant today as it was 25 years ago. Suck it Liberals! Enjoy!

Posted by: Open Blog at 12:25 PM | Comments (12)
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Devastating quote from the Soviets, I mean Russians. The Soviets, I mean the Russians taught the Western media how to cover Russia in a "nuanced" way, and now the Western media has taught Russia how to more skillfully propagandize.

“In the old days under Soviet rule we didn't believe a word of our own propaganda but we thought that information was free in the West and we longed for it,” said Katya, a middle-aged Muscovite. “But we have learnt since that the West has its own propaganda and in some ways it is more powerful because people believe it.”

Moscow is using novel methods to spread a very unsubtle, Cold War version of the Caucasian conflict to the world. Chief among them is Russia Today, a state 24-hour news channel that is fronted much of the time by cheery British and other English-speaking television professionals.

The smiles and studio banter could come from BBC World or CNN but the story is unrelentingly the Kremlin version. Banners flash along at the bottom of the screen saying such things as “genocide” and “aggression” or “city turns into human hell, many people still trapped under rubble”. Recapping the conflict yesterday RT's presenter said that Georgia's “brutal assault” had killed 1,600 civilians in its breakaway province in a campaign that destroyed 70 per cent of the buildings in Tskhinvali, its capital. Russian forces had moved in only to bring peace as Georgian forces killed women and children who were trying to flee, it said. Throughout its rolling cover of alleged Georgian atrocities, there was no mention of the heavy Russian military offensive.

The coverage goes down well in developing countries that want an alternative to CNN and BBC World Service, a Russian official said. “We have learnt from Western TV how to simplify the narrative.”

As a great man once said, "The student has become the master."

Thanks to LauraW. Big thanks.

Posted by: Ace at 12:00 PM | Comments (20)
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I spotted this when I was poking around for missile shield quotes and thought it was too much. Matt Yglesias complains:

First we learned that real men donÂ’t inflate the tires on their car properly, and now the RNC is mocking Barack Obama for taking his shirt off at the beach.

Fool doesn't realize that "the RNC" (actually it was the John McCain campaign, as the very page he links to makes clear) was making fun of the reporting of Obama's vacation, not the mere fact that Obama takes his shirt off at the beach. The McCain campaign continued to push its latest attack theme: "You know you may just be a global celebrity when you get this headline in Reuters, 'Obama Takes Shirt Off Again, Goes Body Surfing In Hawaii.'"

And why shouldn't the campaign mock the coverage Obama is getting? Just two hours earlier Matt wrote a post entitled "Abs We Can Believe In" that consisted of nothing except a shirtless picture of Obama and this suggestion:

What if Barack Obama challenges John McCain to a series of topless debates?

Major warning on that last link, BTW. Obama is clearly not getting the benefit of all those gym memberships.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 11:51 AM | Comments (34)
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We had it in Headlines yesterday that the U.S. and Poland wrapped up their years-long negotiation on an anti-ballistic missile shield surprisingly fast. This has made Russia pretty uncomfortable (uncomfortable enough to threaten a nuclear strike on Poland), and when the completely reformed, 100% former Reds get their panties in a twist you can be sure that American Leftists won't be far behind.

My favorite by far was the response of Armando Llorens, coblogger at Talkleft, who wrote:

We are ruled by lunatics. I can think of no good reason for the United States to have a missile defense system in Poland, EXCEPT to provoke Russia. To ANNOUNCE such a deal NOW, given the situation in the Caucasus, is simply madness.

At least he was able to puzzle out the significance of the deal. The folks over at DailyKos are still trying to figure out what we did wrong and how we can placate the bear:

I wonder how this is going to look to Russia that the US completes a deal now. Given the tension on both sides because of the Georgia conflict, surely they would have been better to wait on a deal to try and pacify the obvious Russian resistance. It looks like Russia might have just found a new reason to be angry. Is it me, or are the administration intentionally stoking the fires now?

Meanwhile, the genocide of thousands of South Ossetians that Russia reported? 45 dead. Thanks to DrewM for the link.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 11:27 AM | Comments (35)
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He may have started out slowly but Maverick is raising a lot of money now.

John McCain raised $27 million in July, his largest one-month fundraising haul since clinching the Republican presidential nomination, while the Republican National Committee brought in nearly $26 million.

The GOP nominee-in-waiting had $21 million available to spend as August began, while the national party began the month with $75 million to compete with the Democrats.

Since he's decided to accept public financing, McCain has to spend the $21 million in his campaign fund before he formally accepts the nomination in early September. Once he accepts the nomination, the McCain campaign will receive $84 million from the federal government for use in the general election campaign.The GOP however can continue to raise and spend money in support of McCain's campaign but there are some restrictions on how that money can be spent.

Here's the latest ad from McCain. I wish he would stick to these ads and not the 'I'm Maverick Hear Me Roar' ones they seem to alternate between.

Related [Gabe]: Remember all the hubbub about McCain withdrawing from public matching funds in the primary? FEC staff attorneys say it was okay. The commission votes next week.

Posted by: DrewM at 09:23 AM | Comments (18)
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Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 07:36 AM | Comments (41)
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Cornhole -- It's buttloads of fun!

ABC's Hit Television Show "Wife Swap" Seeking Cornhole Fanatics!

The hit reality show, "Wife Swap," is doing a national casting call for the ULTIMATE Cornhole Family...!

That title would look just lovely on a Christmas card.

We are looking for fun, outgoing and entertaining families with big personalities that love to play Cornhole – and who would be excited to share their lifestyle with another deserving family!

Does ABC guarantee immunity from prosecution?

"Wife Swap" takes two families from across the USA and swaps one parent from each household for a week to experience how another family lives. It is an incredible family-friendly experience and provides a unique opportunity to both learn and teach different values....

I should say so.

Due to security restrictions, military families are not eligible at this time.

Stiffs.

Outgoing, dynamic and adventurous families who are interested in applying can contact Meghan McGinley at Meghan.McGinley@castingrdf.com or call (646) 747 7936. Hurry! This Casting Call will end August 18th!

That only gives me three days to build up my pelvic wall.

Thanks to JasonF.

Coincidentally, I actually saw my first Cornhole-ing this weekend. I can confirm it's not merely an elaborate internet hoax:
more...

Posted by: Ace at 01:15 AM | Comments (72)
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He's from a foreign country, writing in a foreign language, and he lived in a Communist regime to boot.

All good so far. But, alas, he expresses "non-diverse" sorts of ideas.

How to make sure students don't get the wrong ideas?

Like so:

In fact, under “classroom strategies” in the Norton instructor’s manual, teachers are told that they are likely to encounter the problem of students accepting the “truth” of what Solzhenitsyn has to say: “Because the story answers to most of the myths and preconceptions Westerners already have about Soviet life, the problem will be to make sure that students read it with the same degree of resistance with which they would normally confront any other piece of fiction.” Here we have the apologists for communism directing teachers: All that you’ve heard about the brutality of communism is merely part of our “myths and preconceptions.” Students must be reeducated to “resist” the testimony of Solzhenitsyn as dramatized in his fictional account.

No such “resistance,” however, is asked for the selections from Marxist authors, native American tribes, or the “colonized” writers like Wole Soyinka who extol the African tribal custom of having the king’s horseman commit suicide after the king’s death (a practice to which Christian “colonizers” insensitively object). Instructors are told to “Discuss the meaning of ritual suicide among the Yoruba as it is explained in Soyinka’s play,” and then ask students, “Under what circumstances may suicide be the right choice?”

It is this kind of sophistry that Solzhenitsyn had in mind when he said in his commencement speech at Harvard in 1978, “Without any censorship, in the West fashionable trends of thought and ideas are carefully separated from those which are not fashionable; nothing is forbidden, but what is not fashionable will hardly ever find its way into periodicals or books or be heard in colleges.”

"I never let my schooling interfere with my education." -- Mark Twain

"The Impulse to Tyranny is endemic in Mankind; be vigilant against petty Tyrants in all their various Guises; and always see if you can skip out Intro to Literature in favor of a higher-level course where they teach actual books, if you wish to avoid Tyrants of the Mind, and all Assortment of Ass-Clowns, Rectum-Jesters, Sphincter-Dolts, and other sundry Buffoons of the Anus." -- Thomas Jefferson, from Stuff Jefferson Said, 6th Edition, with special introduction and annotations by Bill Parcells; Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Thanks to CJ.

Posted by: Ace at 03:30 PM | Comments (73)
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Disinvited from the convention.

Why?

Guess.

It rhymes with "Kiss Fraction."

Posted by: Ace at 01:43 PM | Comments (59)
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Scientists had planned to use sheep's brains for the robotic-organic hybrid, but decided "That's just not creepy enough."

It's pretty much quotable in full, but I can't do that, so here's a little.

Meet Gordon, probably the world's first robot controlled exclusively by living brain tissue.

Stitched together from cultured rat neurons, Gordon's primitive grey matter was designed at the University of Reading by scientists who unveiled the neuron-powered machine on Wednesday.

Their groundbreaking experiments explore the vanishing boundary between natural and artificial intelligence, and could shed light on the fundamental building blocks of memory and learning, one of the lead researchers told AFP.

...

"Now we are looking at how best to teach it to behave in certain ways," explained Warwick.

To some extent, Gordon learns by itself. When it hits a wall, for example, it gets an electrical stimulation from the robot's sensors. As it confronts similar situations, it learns by habit.

...

Gordon, in fact, has multiple personalities -- several MEA "brains" that the scientists can dock into the robot.

"It's quite funny -- you get differences between the brains," said Warwick. "This one is a bit boisterous and active, while we know another is not going to do what we want it to."

Mainly for ethical reasons, it is unlikely that researchers at Reading or the handful of laboratories around the world exploring the same terrain will be using human neurons any time soon in the same kind of experiments.

Uh-huh.

"I've been waiting my whole life to see the first rat-brained Frankenbot!" exclaimed no one at all.

In related news, scientists said "Flyin' car? Oh yeah, we have one right here, parked in the Go Fuck Yourself hangar."

They then added, "Oh, and here are the Invisible Keys for your Invisible Flyin' Car. You know how to use the special Invisible Keys, right? You just hold them, ball your hand into a fist, and stick them straight up your ass. Vroom vroom."

Thanks to Arthur.

Posted by: Ace at 01:19 PM | Comments (49)
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