Further to Bridgit Gread’s excellent post demolishing the wingnuts’ desperate and infantile claim that the current financial crisis in the US is the Democrats’ fault, we have the Tardosphere’s most courageous defender of free speech, KG, indulging in some more shameless obfuscation:

The left — those wholly responsible for the subprime crisis — are complaining on every outlet that they “had a deal” that would have passed into law to allow the rescue of the financial industry but for the intercession of John McCain.
[...]

KG, who appears never to have hatched an original idea, is quoting here from fellow right-wing initialism GW of Wolf Howling, who helpfully illustrates his own execrable post with the following diagram:

Cute. But like so many wingtards, GW neglects to tell the whole story.

Here’s the second diagram from the educational Economix 4 Cockhedz series, which illustrates how free-market capitalists can socialise their losses when their avarice catches up with them (and the people they’ve exploited) and everything goes to shit:

See? Let no one say we’re not all about balance here at GrodsCorp.

UPDATE: The $US700 billion ($840 billion) “bailout” package has been approved. I hope you swallowed, free-market capitalism.

Step 1: Work yourself up into a mighty lather of ideological righteousness.

Step 2: Masturbate furiously.

Step 3: Write a post excoriating the Left (Dark Side) for its eeeeeeeevil tendencies, carefully casting the Right (Sugar, Spice and Condoleezza Rice) as the besieged movement representing truth, virtue and justice, and yourself as a fearless crusader beating off an enemy that threatens civilisation’s very survival:

Step 4: Notice a comment pointing out that you’ve been guilty of peddling exactly the same kind of brazen dishonesty you criticised in your post — and worse, that you were told what you posted had been completely debunked but did nothing to rectify it:

Step 5: Delete the comment.

Step 6: Ban the person who posted it:

Step 7: Wait until a sycophant comes along and agrees with your overall position:

Step 8: Reply as though nothing has happened and your integrity is intact:

Step 9: Celebrate yet another victory for the ethical Right by masturbating again.

Step 10: Don’t forget that getting around an IP ban is as simple as unplugging my modem, waiting 10 seconds, plugging it back in, then telling the blogosphere’s most despicable scumbag exactly what I think of him — and linking the comment back to all the evidence here at GrodsCorp:

UPDATE: The hilarity continues, after more childish editing and deletion of comments:

Last week, the Editor whimpered something about damned responsibility preventing him from getting one of those infamous leftard drinks known as a latte.

I was reminded of his 10.23am latte withdrawals when the book I’m currently reading, Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism by Michelle Goldberg, mentioned them. Goldberg’s book is, clearly enough, about the rise of Christian nationalism, that is, right-wing evangelical and fundamentalist so-called Christianity. A snippet from the book’s website describes it as thus:

In Kingdom Coming, Goldberg demonstrates how an increasingly bellicose fundamentalism is gaining traction throughout our national life, taking us on a tour of the parallel right-wing evangelical culture that is buoyed by Republican political patronage. Deep within the red zones of a divided America, we meet military veterans pledging to seize the nation in Christ’s name, perfidious congressmen courting the confidence of neo-confederates and proponents of theocracy, and leaders of federally funded programs offering Jesus as the solution to the country’s social problems.

I was amused by a paragraph she wrote and I wanted to share. Writes Ms Goldberg:

[D]uring the Democratic primary season [in 2004], the right-wing Club for Growth ran an anti-Howard Dean ad featuring an elderly Middle American couple ranting against a type that populates much of the Northeast and Northwest. The man began, “I think Howard Dean should take his tax-hiking, government-expanding, latte-drinking, sushi-eating, Volvo-driving, New York Times-reading…” His wife continued: “…body piercing, Hollywood-loving, left-wing freak show back to Vermont where it belongs.” Imagine for a moment, if MoveOn had run an anti-Bush ad that called his following a gun-toting, Bible-thumping, McDonald’s-eating, gay-bashing, gas-guzzling right-wing freak show. There would have been no end of hand-wringing about the supercilious secular elite and their contempt for so-called ordinary Americans. Having defined Americanism as an amalgam of anti-intellectualism, provincialism, self-righteousness, and bellicosity, conservatives then attack everyone who finds these things repellent as unpatriotic, and few mainstream voices challenge them. (Incidentally, conservative evangelicals are the only religious faction I’ve encountered who sell lattes in church.)

It seems that even one of the bastions of right-wing rabble-rousing — the pseudo-political evangelical, fundamentalist “Christian” church — cannot resist the lure of a leftie latte.

It’s a well-researched, well-presented book, very alarming and a good record of the damage the right-wing “Christian” nationalists are doing to the good ol’ US of A. I finished reading it tonight while drinking a flat white with one sugar. Go get this book. Highly recommended.

Bit (a lot) tired today and finding it hard to kick my brain into gear at work. Decided that since I couldn’t leave to go buy a latte (damn you, responsibility!) I’d browse latte porn on the intertubes instead. Tell me that photos like this — which is hilariously captioned by the photographer: “its like being in orbit over planet latte” — don’t get you salivating in anticipation of that sweet, sweet latte hit.

Typing one-handed now

As usual, Piers nails it. I, for one, won’t rest until my community — the standards of which are altogether too high — is totally fucked.