perfidy

Maybe it WON'T be the robots that do us in...

I found this list of the Best Evil Robots we've ever created. Remember that when they come to destroy and enslave us. We made them.

Recent media reports indicate a confluence of such folk, participating in an eBay auction, and their leader, Mongo the Retard, apparently had $1,350 at which he was pissed:

Flakey sale nets Virginia sisters $1,350

Sat Mar 22, 8:25 AM ET

CHICAGO - Two sisters from Virginia sold their Illinois-shaped corn flake on eBay Friday night for $1,350.

"We were biting our nails all the way up to the finish, seeing what would happen," said Melissa McIntire, 23. "There's a lot of relief involved."
...

In the oft-simmering battle of relative state IQs, Virginia beats the state of the supposed buyer, I'd guess. Which is a bummer, personally, because he's from Texas.

Apparently, there wasn't room in the cornflake auction for all the retards, however:

Thousands stuck with fake art prints

Fri Mar 21, 5:20 PM ET

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Take a second look at that signed Picasso print you bought on eBay.
...

"Hey, Cletus! Let's get on that there eBay and buy us some signed Picassos!"

While listening to sports-talk radio this afternoon on the Houston ESPN affiliate, I heard a popular locally originated broadcast of the Calvin Murphy show.

Mr. Murphy, a former star performer for the NBA's Houston Rockets, is a bit of a bomb thrower, and spends quite a lot of time talking about racial issues. He's interesting enough that this no longer bothers me nearly as much as it used to. Quite an entertaining gentleman.

For the past several days, they've been doing live remotes at one of the local Dave & Buster's restaurant/entertainment joints, and have had live audience participation in addition to their regular phone callers.

During one of the live audience segments, a guest took the mike and explained that, as a young black man (27 years old), he'd experienced the sting of racial prejudice for most of his life. He claimed (and sounded) to be well-educated, was planning a career in the ministry, and spoke clearly and eloquently about the times in Oklahoma where, while at white friends' houses, he was asked to sit on the floor rather than on the furniture, and of other times, while working in child-care environments (at his church?), where he was reassigned at the request of white parents whose kids were intimidated by his presence.

Calvin Murphy was, metaphorically at least, playing along and pointing out that "See? Even young, well-educated black men are still subjected to unfair discrimination based solely on their race", or sentiments to that effect.

Calvin's #2 (the actual radio guy who works full time at the station), Dave Tepper, to his eternal credit, stepped in and said, (paraphrased from memory):

"Pardon me, but I'd like to ask a question, as the designated white guy here. You're a pretty large man - about how much do you weigh?"

To which the young man allowed as how he tipped the scales at somewhere between 470 and 500 lbs.

After which, they went a commercial break and, I presume, discussed amongst themselves their certitude that, sure, yeah - he was considered intimidating to small children and was asked to stay off the furniture because he was black.

By those nasty Oklahomans.

[wik] Not directly related, but in the same galaxy

Enjoy watching the high and mighty taking a tumble?

Generally, my response to that question would be "No, not particularly, but thanks for asking". I do, however, make exceptions, and NY Governor Eliot Spitzer would be one of those. From a WSJ email alert of a bit ago:

March 10, 2008

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer apologized to his family and the public but didn't elaborate on press reports linking him to a prostitution ring. "I violated my obligation to my family and my own sense of right and wrong," he said in a brief statement with his wife by his side. Last week, federal prosecutors in Manhattan filed conspiracy charges against four people, accusing them of running a prostitution ring that charged wealthy clients in Europe and the U.S. thousands of dollars for prostitutes.

The one time attorney general for New York built his political legacy on rooting out corruption, including several headline-making battles with Wall Street while serving as attorney general.

Why does he rate my interest in (and hope for) his potential comeuppance? He's a haughty bully, a guy who made his name by being a 14K prick to every company from which he could mulct blackmail payments. As NY AG, he was like a pallid and uptight version of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.

He virtually never took a case to court, and in those he did, he virtually always lost. His successes, if you can call them that, were largely obtained by bullying people into plea deals. Sometimes, people plead because they're guilty. Spitzer, a publicity hound of the worst sort, prosecuted his cases in the press, and bludgeoned people into plea deals, so I (perhaps incorrectly) give the victims the benefit of significant doubt in this case.

Spitzer has also been accused, quite credibly, of destoying companies, and thus harming the shareholders in those companies, for no legitimate cause. Other than the fact that he's a nasty, pasty, little holier-than-thou prick, that is.

As governor, he's continued this "I know what's best" motif, siccing his insurance commissioner, Eric Dinallo, on the bond insurers with instructions that time was short, and if they didn't hurry up and do Spitzer's bidding, he'd..., well, he'd do something. Spitzer and DiNallo have a history of Spitzerian overreach, as seen in the WTC reconstruction funding marathon recently forced to an end. Blackmail's almost too nice a word for the games these bastards have played.

Who knows what's really behind the WSJ story? Surely not I. But it doesn't sound good at all for El-i-ot, and I'm OK with that.

[wik] Also see, from Long or Short Capital: "Spitzer in a Ring of Pictures"

[alsø wik] It would seem that this fucking guy is toast. So much for the happy ending.

A fascinating article about a fictional character's take on the 2008 presidential election can be read here.

Discuss, fellow Ministers, since we seem to outnumber our readership by a margin of approximately 4:1.

Gary Gygax, one of the creators of Dungeons and Dragons, failed his last saving throw Tuesday morning. We've consulted the appropriate table, and learned that geeks everywhere are in mourning, displaying their +2 Armbands of Dismay (purchased for only 7 Gold Pieces from a mysterious beggar outside the Tavern where they always seem to meet).