But it's hard for me to narrow it down to any one quality.

It's more of a free-floating, non-specific, polymorphously perverse self-hatred.

And I daresay that the inescapable consciousness of such an ambiguous and idiosyncratic self-hatred is itself sufficient to trigger and sustain a Self-Hatred spiral.

It's counter-intuitive, but I'm experimenting with steering into it.

BTW, your link didn't work for me-- I found a different link [@sig] that should be OK.

There are no lack of Hearts of Darkness in this imperialist adventure!

I'm afraid you're merely being "disingenous", though-- this account also fails the Fladad Test.

That's like-- what?-- ten people.

Big deal.

I could find ten people that say exactly the opposite in, like, five minutes if I wanted to.

But I don't want to is all. Anyway, why should I do your homework for you?

PS: a tour de force-- nice work!

Still, we must strive to avoid Guilt by Association.

It's quite a shock, and a disappointment, that Wali is not the All-Afghan Kid he pretends to be.

Still, that doesn't justify casting aspersions on the Beaver.

• bystander-- As noted in a previous comment [link@sig]

Martin Scheinin, who reports on the protection of human rights in the war on terror, said the U.S. Navy-run prison in Cuba should not be closed by trying to prosecute detainees through military commissions, which he said do not meet international human rights standards despite "small fixes."

I'm not sure if the specific "fixes" signed into law by Obama are included in Scheinin's comment-- but if it's applicable, IMO that voids Obama's right to be Duly Praised. Just stating the generally obvious, I hope.

Tangentially, I believe that this is the same omnibus legislation that included the New & Improved Hate Crimes Law. In "War Is a Hate Crime", [http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20091026_war_is_a_hate_crime/], Chris Hedges properly laments the willingness of the hate-crimes legislation proponents to agree to have such legislation inserted as a rider on a warmongery appropriations bill.

Of course, he's one of those purists who will make the perfect the enemy of the good. Hedges doesn't grasp the first thing about pragmatism, and besides, he occasionally commits hyperbole.

So I agree with his point completely; but, not surprisingly, he seems to go way over commenters' heads.
__________________________________________

• twilloughby-- She says, "I was a medical marijuana patient when I earned my Ph.D. in theoretical physics."

Actually, I don't pay much attention to the Killfiled apart from their twisted reflections appearing in responses to them.

However, I do want to point out for your edification that one must translate remarks of the Killfiled from WinSmith Creole into accurate English, to wit:

"I was smoking a doobie in the car, waiting for my mom to come out from her opthalmologist's appointment, and I thought, 'Hey, I notice that my vision gets blurry every once in a while-- I wonder if I'd qualify for a medical marijuana program?'

And theoretically, I could earn a Ph.D. in physics if I wanted to... and by God, maybe some day I will!"

There's a "healthcare bill"?

Then why is all this coverage being wasted on our Elected Misrepresentatives' depraved and tedious efforts to craft "No Insurer Left Behind" corporate bailout legislation?

I admit that there's some question about the efficacy of predicting the future by reading criss-crossed oozings and slime trails left by putrescent pols, but I've been doing my level best for months and didn't pick up the slightest premonition that "healthcare" was anywhere on the pragmatic horizon!

Malalai Joya was also on "Democracy Now" today [link@sig].

Of course, it wasn't a "balanced" program, since it didn't feature a "pro-imperialist intervention" Afghan woman to reduce the question to an Afghan stalemate.

They could've asked Medea Benjamin from CodePink to fill the bill, I guess. Although I support CodePink, and loathe the simps who fuss about their "impoliteness", Medea really stepped on her prick after her visit to Afghanistan by waffling over CodePink's anti-war, anti-imperialism mission because, yes, "We must think of the women!"

They were probably offended by Mrs. Clinton's pantsuit.
_____________________________

You may already be familiar with the report linked @ sig, which mentions the pantsuit.

Please check it out!

Re: David Rohde

So you say!

But according to bernbart, you're totally micateriz... mistarachter... full of shit.

"Obama is average"

In an interview, a leading voice of America's conservative intellectuals discusses Barack Obama's failures

________________________________

The blurb caught my eye, and I wondered who in the world they were referring to.

"Aren't they all dead?" I wondered. Had someone unearthed a "lost interview" with Bill Buckley or Irving Kristol?

Krauthammer! It turns out that I was right after all.

Well, at least he didn't promise never to say it again.

And my understanding is that Grayson only apologized after several urgent phone calls from Joan Walsh, frantic because Gabriel Winant wouldn't stop crying.

OK, maybe I went too far there. I ap... ap... applaud Grayson's candor and frankness, and pray that Joan doesn't have my phone number.

Chamber of Commerce AND "intellectual property"?

That does not compute.

But this No More Mister Nice Guy response nicely undermines the business wingnuts' self-serving boo-hooing about "frivolous lawsuits".

"Frivolous" is in the eye of the beholder, and it's no surprise that the fattest oxen are the ones who squeal loudest when they perceive that they've been "gored"-- even if it's only a paper cut.

And, just for lagniappe:

♬The ghost of Belle Starr, she hands down her wits
To Jezebel the nun, she violently knits
A bald wig for Jack the Ripper who sits
At the head of the Chamber of Commerce

Mama's in the fact'ry
She ain't got no shoes
Daddy's in the alley
He's lookin' for food
I'm in the kitchen
With the tombstone blues ♬

-- Bob Dylan, "Tombstone Blues"