Author: Michael Koppelman

Obama and Iraq

Michael Koppelman, , 8 Comments

Iraq is a mess. If things improve and Iraqis get their country under control and implement peaceful, representative, secular government no one will be happier than me. I have never had the goal of watching Bush and his administration fail. Even if Iraq does improve and stabilize, it will not in any way excuse Bush of the major mistakes and the major unnecessary loss of life in Iraq.

What’s funny, though, is that Bush sent the bull in the China shop and now people are hard as hell on Obama, as if he should alone have all the answers and make all the right predictions about Iraq. It’s obvious to everyone, McCain included, I think, that it is time to get out of Iraq. Obama has suggested a policy of a reasoned withdrawal. This is a view that many, many people share. I believe the Iraqis themselves are suggesting it. Said the Obama camp:

“It is hard to understand how Sen. McCain can at once proclaim his support for the sovereign government of Iraq, and then stubbornly defy their expressed support for a timeline to remove our combat brigades from their country,” said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.

If Obama is elected President he will be inheriting Bush’s mess and it may not go 100% smoothly. Given how unsmoothly it has gone so far, and how tolerant the Right has been with it, I’m sure they will be very supportive and tolerant of Obama’s efforts.

Yeah right.

Obama and Iraq

Coleman's hatchet job on Franken

Michael KoppelmanLeave a comment

Coleman is running the same ad over and over with some angry old lady Democrat saying that Franken is a bad, bad man because he said off color things in his career as a comedian.

I have no respect for Coleman. But, c’mon, man, is that the best you’ve got? There is not a single mention of an issue nor a single mention of a quality or position of Coleman in the ad. It’s just a half-ass hatchet job of Franken based on something we all know — he was a comedy writer and satirist. Then Coleman says “I approve this message” at the end. What a hack.

The Franken ad I see playing over and over talks about things Franken has done and never mentions Coleman. In fact, he has a Republican from Texas endorsing him.

Franken will be 100 times the Senator that Coleman has been. I think we actually have an opportunity to have a Wellstone-like Senator in Franken and I support him completely.

Coleman's hatchet job on Franken

The real lesson of the Westboro Baptist Church

Michael Koppelman2 Comments

Here’s the deal — almost every thinking person thinks the Westboro Baptist Church is completely full of shit. They are evil, intolerant little fucks who put words into God’s mouth and act as if they have the complete and utter backing of the most supreme being in the universe, even as they spread hate and intolerance throughout the nation.

The problem is — they are no different from any other religious sect. ALL OF THEM make assumptions about what God wants and what God likes and doesn’t like. I don’t believe that any of you know what God wants. I don’t believe that any of you have some direct line of communication to God and I don’t believe that an ancient, tortured text like the Bible includes the true word of God in any way, shape or form.

So religion is arbitrary. It’s made up.

Now if you take as your initial premise that there is a God and that he did create and does interact with us pitiful humans, things get complicated. If you pull this initial premise out of your ass, it changes how you think about this stuff. You are assuming there is truth and you need to find those things which support it. You pick and choose from the Bible and make your own cafeteria-style faith based on your intuitions. It’s still just as arbitrary as the Westboro Baptist Church.

People accuse atheists of being moral relativists, but really it is religious people who invent a confused and contradictory morality out of thin air. This is why we have extremist Islam, fag-hating Christians and cults like the Mormons who have sex with minors and systematically abuse women.

Yes, many religious people are good people and many religious organization do good things in the world. But it’s all based on a house of cards and a fictional God and we are right to reject it.

The real lesson of the Westboro Baptist Church

Stillwater's embarrassing representative

Michael Koppelman, , 12 Comments

Rep. Michele Bachmann is just not very smart. She’s also an evil See You Next Tuesday but this post is about the former, her utter lack of intelligence.

The Minnesota Independent is reporting that Bachmann slams Democrats for not passing a bill for a tax credit for solar and wind energy. The funny part — she voted against it! The other funny part, such a bill did pass!

Please, Stillwater, MN, get rid of this embarrassing, retarded and evil woman and elect someone sensible to represent you.

Stillwater's embarrassing representative

On getting elected

Michael Koppelman, 1 Comment

It occurs to me that getting elected and being a great leader are two different things. Both these candidates right now, McCain and Obama, are in the process of trying to get elected. They can’t lead if they don’t get elected. The electorate is fickle and hard to predict. Many are uninformed on issues and do more of a “gut check” to make their decision. Others are party ideologues and others still are people with complex values that span the candidates and parties.

Bush, in my opinion, did the classic bait-and-switch, pretending to be a compassionate conservative while he was really very much a divider and not a uniter. I think a lot of people that voted for Bush regret it. At the same time, Gore and Kerry were so over-handled and wishy-washy that they did not give us a good alternatives.

With this race, it seems to me that Obama is tacking to the center and McCain is tacking to the right, both doing so in order to get the most broad base of support as possible. With Obama, he has the left locked up but needs the center to be successful. McCain does pretty well with the center but has alienated the far right.

On the one hand, I really believe the best way to get elected is to be utterly honest and true to your convictions and damn the consequences. I suspect that every political advisor on both sides disagrees with me. Thus we have this complicated and depressing “moving target” of positions, where the candidates try to reconcile their convictions with the reactions of the voters.

I personally wish someone would shake Obama and say “be utterly honest and true to your convictions and damn the consequences” but there is a very good chance he would not get elected if he did. Thus everything is more nuanced. I also wish McCain would hold true to those areas where he disagrees with the far right wing of the Republican party. We need a rational approach to immigration, not a black and white approach. Torture should be so off the table it never comes up at all. Campaign finance is a cluster fuck that hurts America badly. McCain was right on these issues and I suspect he will be a party-line Right Winger on them by the end.

So people will accuse them both of flip-flopping and pandering. I’ll just say it is your fault. We could punish people for trying to get elected but these tactics work and that’s why they do them and the electorate is to blame.

On getting elected

Rep. Louis Gohmert [R-TX] thinks he's funny

Michael Koppelman, 1 Comment

H.R. 6615: To provide for the transport of the enemy combatants detained in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to Washington, D.C., where the United States Supreme Court will be able to more effectively micromanage the detainees by holding them on the Supreme Court grounds, and for other purposes.

I love how these guys adore the Supreme Court when they agree with them and demonize them when they don’t. Doesn’t it suck when the Supreme Court micromanages your torture and indefinite incarceration without due process agenda?

It reminds me of the hatred that some people have for the ACLU. Raise your hand if you are anti-civil liberties! Who the fuck is anti-civil liberties? Just the people who want to decide who gets civil liberties and who doesn’t. They go by the name “Republicans“.

Rep. Louis Gohmert [R-TX] thinks he's funny

Apple Sucks Too

Michael Koppelman, 1 Comment

Apple is the latest company to release a product without having enough supply to meet demand. If this is a marketing tactic it is the dumbest goddamn marketing tactic I have ever heard of. You still can’t buy a Wii, for example, from amazon.com. WTF, guys, do you know anything at all about business? Now Apple can’t keep the new iPhone 3G in the stores. Did you not know the launch date was coming up? Whose job was it to make sure you could actually sell the goddamn phones? Fire that person.

In the past when Apple had popular product launches you could walk in the store on Day 1 and buy it. Now Apple has joined the ranks of companies so stupid they let supply limit their sales rather than demand. There is a phrase for this: bad planning.

Apple Sucks Too

The Truth about Obama and McCain

Michael Koppelman22 Comments

Here’s the problem: people on the right have a caricature view of Obama and people on the left have a caricature view of McCain. If your only info on Obama comes from Powerline and your info on McCain comes from the Huffington Post, you are not getting good information.

Neither of these men are perfect. They are politicians and they are trying to get elected. Both of them, unfortunately, will say or do whatever it takes to get elected. This is nothing new. You’ll recall that George W. Bush presented himself as a compassionate conservative in the first election. He was nothing of the sort. He lied his way into office. Now it looks like either Obama or McCain will try to lie their way into office as well.

It doesn’t make me happy, the utter balls-less-ness of our presidential campaigns. Both candidates are wooing the center and it makes them look like “empty suited pander machines”.

But this is the bed we must lie in. Earlier I asked for a nice clean election. Clearly that is not going to happen. Still, I’d like us all to abandon these caricature views of the candidates. I get pissed off when people dismiss Obama and I get pissed off when people try to paint McCain with a broad brush. Neither of these men are as bad as the other side says they are or as good as their side says they are.

The truth is these are both accomplished men and they will both make great presidents. If you find yourself dismissing either of them you are not getting very good information.

There is no way I’m going to vote for McCain. I’ve watched him too long and I understand his positions too well to support him. I think comparing him to Bush is completely fair and voters who vote for him should be clear on their similarities. But I’m not going to resort to lame, shallow name-calling tactics and neither should you.

The Truth about Obama and McCain

PZ Myers is a great man

Michael Koppelman10 Comments

This is awesome:

The Great Desecration

Nothing must be held sacred. Question everything. God is not great, Jesus is not your lord, you are not disciples of any charismatic prophet. You are all human beings who must make your way through your life by thinking and learning, and you have the job of advancing humanities’ knowledge by winnowing out the errors of past generations and finding deeper understanding of reality. You will not find wisdom in rituals and sacraments and dogma

PZ Myers is a great man

I love me a good Internet controversy

Michael Koppelman, Leave a comment

Here is the synopsis:

1. Two writers from Jezebel go on a comedy show hosted by Lizz Winstead, a co-creator (or something) of the Daily Show.
2. The show turns out pretty lame and uncomfortable and not that funny.
3. Lizz Winstead proceeds to lambast the Jezebel writers (and cross posts it on the Huffington Post), accusing them of being drunks, idiots and bad role models. The commenters hog pile on.
4. One of the writers, “Slut Machine” aka Tracie Egan, links to a video of Lizz Winstead acting like a complete bitch.

It’s all fascinating and hilarious, IMHO.

Here is my quick analysis:

1. It’s unfair to invite people on a comedy show and then grill them and expect them to be role models for 15-year old girls. I say all sorts of stupid things when I’m trying to be funny.

2. They said some things that sound pretty stupid unless you think they are funny, which I kinda do. Like she said “I don’t get raped because I live in Williamsburg, and all the guys there are pussies.” and “And I know it’s an irresponsible thing to say, but it’s (pulling out) The Most Fun Way Not To Get Pregnant”. That’s hilarious. Unless you think rape can never be funny and jokes about unsafe sex are deeply harmful to young people in light of the current AIDS epidemic.

3. With that said, I’m sure Lizz Winstead is a smart and well-meaning person but instead of writing this off as bad humor she interpreted it as some major failure in these young women and I think it was unfair.

I love me a good Internet controversy