That's true for things above the level where quantum physics makes hash of such laws but for things which are not things, but lies, it has no bearing. Promoters of things for which there is no evidence whatever and promoters of lies, hoaxes and propaganda rely on the fact that no external force will impede, delay or arrest the appointed rounds of lies while truth often demands too much of us. Every day a new crop of gullible witlings and angry little twits is born to be deluded. Call it Barnum's Law.
I saw this once again the other day, it's been defaming anyone with any intention and a great number of people without the intention of modifying the national policies on private ownership of firearms.
Fact
is never the test of belief, if it were, this thing wouldn't keep
appearing all over the place. I've been seeing it for years and so far
it seems more ridiculous every day, but as long as the need for Obama to
be scandalous exceeds the supply of scandals, it might as well be a
perpetual motion machine.There's as little evidence that it will cease to orbit and burn up in the atmosphere as there is for any actual scandal to have occurred, but it doesn't matter in a nation where half of us are so greedy for scandal, desperate for outrage and hungry for something, anything to anchor our prejudice and feed our greedy need to feel superior by knowing things we don't care enough about to research.
So sure, Hitler will always have said what he didn't say and the Obama scandal will always be quickly approaching and your God and your Guns and your freedom to ignore decency, the law and the tenets of both Capitalism and Christianity will continue to make a stink that no fact will diminish and no test of logic impair.
Capt. Fogg, The Swash Zone
23 comments:
I'm reposting a comment here, which I left at The Swash Zone:
"Famous quotes need famous mouths," so said author Ralph Keyes. One example of a runaway misappropriation of a quote was from a Presbyterian minister and public speaker, William Boetcker, who, in 1916, produced a pamphlet of maxims next to which was also produced sayings by Abraham Lincoln. Over the years, the maxims became misattributed to Lincoln, and no one bothered to research whether or not they were truly his. These "Lincoln" maxims have been around for years, and even Ronald Reagan used them in a speech, without having their veracity of ownership checked--they served the purpose of enforcing Republican dogma, and to hell with whether the author was a minister or a US president. Now these fake Lincoln maxims belong to the ages:
"We cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong" and "We cannot help the poor by kicking the rich." Boetcker's collection of maxims eventually crystallized as the list of ten now familiar entries (variously known as the "Industrial Decalogue," the "Ten Don'ts," the "Ten Cannots," "Ten Things You Cannot Do, "or the "American Charter"):
* You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
* You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
* You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.
* You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
* You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
* You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
* You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
* You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
* You cannot build character and courage by destroying men's initiative and independence.
* You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.
SOURCE: Snopes
I've given up using Snopes to refute right wing liars. They inevitably tell me that Snopes is "Liberal" and often that it's owned by George Soros. You can't argue with such people on any factual basis and you can't win on any basis. But that's a great quote from Mr. Keyes. History is filled with misattributed quotes, from Moses quoting Hammurabi and Egyptian popular novels and Jesus quoting people who hadn't been born yet.
Dark humor and bleak despair -- These things I cling to.
I guess the phenomenon is understandable, considering that
climate change, evolution and background checks are considered
lies and evil plots, rather than established science and common sense.
Not only do they claim Snopes is liberal and run by Soros, but any fact checking by Factcheck.org or Politifact.org is all left-wing propaganda. So there you have it. Any attempt at reality breaking into their bubble is unlikely, since, as Stephen Colbert says, "Facts have a well-known liberal bias."
Plus many of the rightwing blogs I check out think demagogues like Mark Levin and the people at World Nut Daily and Breitbart are deep thinkers.
Do we need anymore proof of their magical thinking processes other than this fact: A majority--think about it A MAJORITY--of these conservatives believed Sarah Palin was qualified to be the vice president of the United States.
nice post. I am very tired of having people use Hitler and what he didn't say as an excuse for what they want to say about what Obama didn't say.
I would offer a quote of my own, but I did not believe it when I said it so it would not bare up to scrutiny and I will not take my pants off no matter what I was convicted for!
for real drivel, though, always look to John McCain. A couple of days ago he said, "We are all Ukrainians." course, a few years ago he said "We are all Georgians"
boy, talk about a guy with identity problems! Well, he can Crimea River for all I care!
But I do like quotes when properly attributed...my fav is still...
“I am at the moment writing a lengthy indictment against our century. When my brain begins to reel from my literary labors, I make an occasional cheese dip.” ~ Ignatius J Reilly
...I gotta go make some dip now.
Enjoy your cheese dip, okjimm, and then raise a glass to John Kennedy O'Toole!
"...and I will not take my pants off no matter what I was convicted for."
Well.
Maybe YOU won't take off your pants, but THIS GUY SAID HE'S GONNA!
One correction Shaw and Cap'n Fogg... Snopes, Factcheck and Politifact are only left wing liberal liars when they disagree with the political extreme right [wrong] wing.
When they agree with that side, they become examples of truth.
Conversely, when FOX News calls out the GOP, us more liberal folks take it with a grain of salt, knowing in the next breath, they'll be presenting false facts again...
Well Shaw, whomever the list of maxims originated from they make a bunch of sense.
Unless of course one is a fanatical ideologue.
Aside from that facts are facts and regardless of which "side" one is on facts can and should be checked.
Of course spin masters make their living spinning the facts that certain powerful individuals and groups don't like.
And so it goes...
A couple of days ago he said, "We are all Ukrainians."
-----
Ukrainian or Russian speaking? Or Tartar?
Thing about having morons like McCain step into situations that they simply do not understand is their capacity for doing damage.
Is Knuckles aware that the Ukrainian parliament recently lifted the ban on neo-Nazi parties?
Believe me, you do not want to catch any of their act.
A bill is being considered to drop Russian as the second official language in Ukraine which should reassure everyone in Crimea.
I actually trust Obama not do do something stupid this time. He seems to have out maneuvered the clinically insane on Iran so cross your fingers.
Crimea has a huge (70%) pro Russian majority and are Russian speaking. As for the rest of the Ukraine, they don't like Russia so much. Apparently they have long memories of the old USSR.
Putin, the strong arm KGB operative he once was has desires to reassemble the Russian (Soviet) Empire. He needs the Ukraine to accomplish this.
It is going to be interesting at the very least. Should Putin (and Russia) succeed it could become tense (New Cold War) and frightening.
Waiting and watching.
What you read is not necessarily what is written. This is designed to deceive by playing on your emotions. It misrepresents free-market Capitalism as a kind of feudalism.
* You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
Capitalism isn't well served by a high savings rate. It's only an argument for no taxes on the wealthy.
* You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
It depends on whether you think The Koch Brothers or Rupert Murdoch or Dick Cheney are strong men and Bill Gates or Warren Buffett are 'weak.' Is this designed to attract approval from "I got mine and fuck you" advocates? Is this an argument for tyranny?
* You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.
Vide Supra - big and little are undefined. You're supposed to think of the very rich as very deserving and those struggling rest of us as less so. Interesting that this is the most essentially unchristian argument ever made.
* You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
pulling down is not defined and is used to let anti-labor people fill in their own sentiments. The wage payer gets the money to pay wages from the people he pays. The value of labor is related to productivity and isn't a favor done by the rich to the poor. It's called Capitalism.
* You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
vide supra. Is a progressive tax structure or a 5 day work week destroying the rich? -- a 4% increase on the top million bucks they earn?
* You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
Capitalism requires -- is all about borrowed money - sorry tea party and the Religious right. The most prosperous have debt, borrow money to make more money than the money costs to borrow. It's called Capitalism.
* You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
Which classes are we talking about? "the takers?"
* You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
Depends on who "you" means. Is this a deliberate confusion between business and government?
* You cannot build character and courage by destroying men's initiative and independence.
Does paying a fair wage destroy those things? A disguised argument for destroying people and families in the name of "independence."
* You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.
all hinges on the definition of can and should, doesn't it?
This all smells like some feel good self justification for right wing philosophy disguised as truisms, but without much truth.
"I actually trust Obama not do do something stupid this time"
I feel the same way Duck. His lack of action hopefully will keep the US out of this conflict for which we have no business. Like Syria, if a few hundred thousand are murdered in the Ukraine, it is none of our concern. One issue I do see is Putin cannot pull Obama out of this one.
I just hope he doesn't draw a line in the sand again because even the media would have a hard time ignoring.
skud, did you utter this sarcastic remark during the Tutsi and Hutu conflict which began during Reagan's term in office and continued through Clinton's, where approximately 1 million were slaughtered?
Did you think the US should have intervened there?
If not, why not. If so, where was your sarcasm about not caring if 100,000 lives were lost? Over a million died in that genocide.
I guess you could say it depends on ones perceptions Captain. After all perception is ones reality. Or put another way perception is everything.
I just happen not to see nefarious underpinings in everything that is written about individualism, self sufficiency, personal responsibility, and capitalism.
Nor no I like the Koch Brothers, Rupert Murdoch, or many special interests.
I suppose my understanding and advocacy for acting in ones rational long term self interests is at odds with many. A subject perhaps for another day?
Ms Shaw
So glad you asked. I don't remember saying much on blogs when Reagan was President. I don't see the US as the World peacekeepers and think we should leave countries to solve their own problems. I also think when a president says he is going to offer support, Syria, do it or lose respect.
Froggy, you realize there has always been a huge difference in wealth. In the past we have always had the middle class to level things out but that is a disappearing segment of the US. We are proving we can tax and regulate any one out of existence.
You also realize that eight of the top tep political contributes are unions, not a conservative group.https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/list.php
The evil Koch Brothers are 59th on the list. This is because they contribute their wealth to cancer research and other philanthropic charities but are only remembered a for their small political donations.
"You cannot get a beer for a buck...unless it's Happy Hour"....and it is a really really terrible beer.
ponder that one!
Skud Runner...always seemed like something on your underwear that meant you needed to do laundry.
....it is indicative of comments as well.
The world we live in these days is not only an interesting world we live in today, but the world we live in today can also be a very dangerous world, you know, the one that we live in today?
And some people, especially the paste eaters, just love negativity and spend their lives wallowing in it. Wallow, wallow, wallow!
I guess to them it creates great pressure or pleasure or crayons. Who can say? So we've got to fight the negative with an overwhelming amount of cotton candy. And fight for our right to par-TAY!
PS, I love your blog especially your italics.
And I can't wait to hear more wisdom about brussel sprouts!
Dave said: "Conversely, when FOX News calls out the GOP, us more liberal folks take it with a grain of salt, knowing in the next breath, they'll be presenting false facts again..."
Exactly like when MSNBC calls out the Democrats.
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RN said: "I just happen not to see nefarious underpinings in everything that is written about individualism...."
Well stated. Considering that almost all of the Capt's interpetations were rewritings, really, changing the meaning and intent.
The Captain's post is brilliant. All you gotta do is read the posts on the Bagger blogs to see how intellectually stunted most of them are. Right now they've decided that Obama failed in the Ukraine and they're having their weekly wet dream over Poo-Tin-Tin. Their favorite commie.
Sarah Palin got in touch with her inner Romaine lettuce side the other day as she astounded even herself by being the stopped clock and the room full of chimpanzees typing foreign policy memos.
By the way, there are moments when I think S.P. is Groucho Marx in drag. .... She sounds like something straight from “Duck Soup," only without the gravitas.
She gained all those foreign policy smarts from standing on top of her credit card debt and looking at Russia!
yes the TeaPublicans are crowing that the "DICTATOR! TYRANT!" Obama in the White House is "weak!"
How do they manage to sit up every day and baff their keyboards?
Dmarks/KarlMarx/DogBarks never met a Godwin’s Fallacy he didn’t like:
“Wow...after all this time, Octo is still so upset about this conversation in which I dared to oppose fascism [my bold]” (posted by dmarks to THE SWASH ZONE at 9:20 PM, March 01, 2014).
"The question is, will America (now being the land of emasculated men) be conquered by real men —Russian men, perhaps, who have no fondness for homosexuals or community organizers? Stay tuned."
forgot to write in the above comment that the quote came from a rightwing blog today.
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