“The Hunting of the Snark” made me think of Darwin’s Beagle voyage. Here the landing crew is equipped with instruments for research (microscope, telescope, tuning fork):
http://www.snrk.de/DarwinHunting.jpg

Also in Carroll’s nonsense ballad are hints:
(1) Lacemaking: Darwin was involved in the discussion on vivisection. Earlier he described the useage of lacing needles for disection under the microscope. Perhaps Carroll took issue at something he considered to be a cruelty. Why should the Beaver be blamed for lacemaking?
(2) Forks: Darwin used tuning forks to make spiders eat food which they usually would not eat.

Perhaps Alfred Parsons (when drawing Darwin’s study in 1882) also saw a connection between the “Snark” and Darwin:
http://www.snrk.de/DarwinStudySnark.jpg

Best regards from Munich
Goetz

Also in Carroll’s nonsense ballad are hints:
(1) Lacemaking: Darwin was involved in the discussion on vivisection. Earlier he described the useage of lacing needles for disection under the microscope. Perhaps Carroll took issue at something he considered to be a cruelty. Why should the Beaver be blamed for lacemaking?
(2) Forks: As described in his notes on how to use a microscope on board of a ship, Darwin used tuning forks to make spiders eat food which they usually would not eat.

Perhaps Alfred Parsons (when drawing Darwin’s study in 1882) also saw a connection between the “Snark” and Darwin:
http://www.snrk.de/DarwinStudySnark.jpg

Best regards from Munich
Goetz

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jQADr_64zecpi69YYXXczm-0KeAQ

Most notoriously Ann Coulter on John Paul Stevens.

“We need somebody to put rat poisoning in Justice Stevens’ creme brulee,” Coulter said. “That’s just a joke, for you in the media.”

Then again, something tells me that Stevens was never the subject of a billboard like this.

http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/colorado_car_dealers_sign_tries_to_tie_obama_with_terrorism_and_ft_hood_tra/

I think this must be the one Obama says at night…

I’ll also point out that some anti-abortionists have long prayed for the deaths of (white) supreme court justices. They don’t seem to have a problem with C. Thomas; in fact, they’ll say they like him so much they can’t possibly be racists. Obama has also served this function (serving as cover for racists).

Western PA, right?

I live in Pennsylvania’s little brother and cultural twin New Jersey, and we just had an election for governer where right wing populism played a much more important role then a lot of people think.

A Tom Tancredo cloan named Steve Lonegan didn’t even come close to beating Christie but he polled several time higher then he was expected to in the primary. Then that right wing populism carried over and drove one of the best funded Democrats in the country out of office in a state that leans Democratic.

There’s been so much bullshit written about the New Jersery governer’s election from people outside the state. But it was absolutely a victory for right wing populism. Half the people I know, even some liberals, were utterly convinced that the state’s pre-kindergarten program was the big issue in bankrupting the state government. And all the local media were relentlessly pushing the line that “those blacks in Newark and Camden are making your property taxes go up. Those blacks and those Mexicans.”

And this was in a liberal state with a fat uncharismatic shithead like Chris Christie on the Republican ticket.

To be honest, I doubt I’m going to vote for Obama again, especially after he covered up the Bush/Cheney war crimes. I doubt I’ll vote for any more Democrats. But I do think that we should take right wing populism seriously.

I’m shocked at how ineffective the left has been in speaking to the kind of discontent that 10% unemployment brings. True, the left doesn’t own Fox News and the talk radio stations, but still, there’s been almost nothing but lame excuses that it’s somehow Obama’s fault they can’t organize.

I deal with these rightwing populists regularly, up close and personal. Half of them are case-hardened racists; the other half utterly confused workers and lower middle class types, fearful and into a ‘circle the wagons’ tribalism. The task is to drive a wedge between them based on class interest and anti-racism.

They may be a minority, but take them very seriously. Right now they’re into the ‘ballot’ mode, but they’re preparing the ‘bullet’ mode at the same time.

“According to sources, Koirala asked Prachanda to back a solution without humiliating the President, to which Prachanda had given a positive nod.”

The 86 year old head of the Congress Party apparently wants to protect the President, Congress member Ram Baram Yadav, who countermanded Prachanda’s order firing the Army head in May, from public humiliation. This may mean Prachanda resuming the prime ministership with Yadav still as president, with the understanding he will need to observe the constitution and respect civilian supremacy as a new administration forces the integration of the PLA and Army as required by the Comprehensive Agreement of 2006—something the UNMIN (UN Mission in Nepal) and Sec-Gen Ban Ki-moon are in fact urging.