2020: Brian Stelter's "proof" of Biden's Fitness for the Highest Office

Too funny.

CNN’s Brian Stelter suggests that Joe Biden’s ability to ride a bike proves that he is mentally fit for office.

pic.twitter.com/D3fdQUH94T

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) August 9, 2020

Well, Brian, bike-riding proficiency is a low bar, but he's failed at that now also.

Inspiration?

Has this blog been the inspiration for great artwork? or even mediocre artwork? I have no idea. However there is a painting by some artist named James Shipton with the title Est Quod Est. Funny. Here's a safe-for-work detail; go to the link to check out the "full monty".

Personally I would have named this painting KMWA. But that's just me.

Other possibilities for titles would include Back View of Some Chick Dropping Trou or, seeing that she has her hair in a bun, Bun and Buns. The title Est Quod Est gives absolutely no description of what this picture is about. And that could be said of the blog Est Quod Est as well.

I have finally arrived

I love some of the stuff that lands in my inbox. It makes me feel so special, like this latest invitation:

Registry of Distinguished Women - Confirm your Free Membership
NAPW [info@happypene.com]
Sent:    Thursday, August 13, 2015 11:08 AM
To:       pauli@mugglematters.com

Pauli Congratulations, You've qualified To Join the National Association of Professional Women!

Very Few are selected each year to be included into NAPW.

Please Confirm your Invitation.
http://west21.happypene.com/O0bEW67Iq7iaVnmabrnVKwmr8MIZxcoQ0ir5Pch5HYu62qPPheC58vsKsMkl6wBkqYrZEVS4zDInmidVLbbSLWBaqZz65crB/3OgcE3zjtTOqIUvdxregcTggPPoosPSKF9pSCXC3wAlsP0fMKYrKe/g==

Hilarious.

It's Pauli, not Paula. "Learn your genders, man!"

Great Year So Far For Green Monster

No; not this guy. From Patterico:

New York Times:

Americans are broadly concerned about inequality of wealth and income despite an economy that has improved by most measures, a sentiment that is already driving the 2016 presidential contest, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll.

The poll found that a strong majority say that wealth should be more evenly divided and that it is a problem that should be addressed urgently. Nearly six in 10 Americans said government should do more to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor, but they split sharply along partisan lines. Only one-third of Republicans supported a more active government role, versus eight in 10 of Democrats.

Polls and studies have also shown marked increases among Americans in wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, and gluttony.

Yup. But the greatest of these is envy. Because it works best to get Dems to the voting booth.

Start reading How Dante Can Save Your Life for free!

Google Play makes the first 45 pages of How Dante Can Save Your Life available for free. This is probably the only way I'll read any of it. Here's a teaser from page 27:

Suddenly Daddy and Ruthie were standing over me. “What’s wrong?” Daddy asked. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine,” I said, looking up with a face swollen from crying. “I shot those baby squirrels. They were just babies.”

I looked up from the ground at my father and my sister. Ruthie burst into laughter. Daddy screwed his face up in disgust and growled, “You sissy .”

A thick iron gate slammed shut within me, and from behind it I regarded my father with cold contempt. He had struck me where he could do the most damage: my sense of manhood. I followed him and my sister out of the field, my face on fire, this time not with shame but with wrath. And from that moment on, I saw him not as my champion. I saw him as my adversary.

That's the funniest thing I've read today, including this hilarious review of Nocturna: Granddaughter of Dracula.

The tragic squirrel hunt story may have inspired this review.

Bookworm reviews a review from George P. Wood of Springfield, MO

Reviews of reviews are all the rage these days, and all the cool kidz are doing it. So it is satisfying to read a review of a review of Rod Dreher's new book which is itself a massive review of Dante's famous work, The Divine Comedy which, I should say, I highly recommend reading for those with immortal souls.

Reviews, reviews, out the wazoos....

(OK, here's the review, without further ado.)

George P. Wood of Springfield, MO reviewed Rod's book on Amazon and explains to everybody what the problem was. George is a pretty impressive guy with some impressive degrees and obviously knows a lot about a lot of things.

[Link to review from George P. Wood of Springfield, MO]

"The problem was that Dreher had left Starhill for a reason: The inability of his family—especially his father, but even Ruthie herself—to understand any way that wasn’t their way."

See, that's the problem with folks around here, and George P. Wood of Springfield, MO knows it. Just close minded people. It wasn't Rod. George P. Wood of Springfield, MO just explained to the world why it wasn't.

And so when Rod came back, believe it or not folks were still that way. Unable to understand any way that wasn't their way, especially Rod's way. And that flaw in them made Rod physically sick.

Folks just can't get any lower or meaner than that, making other people physically sick by being unable to understand any way that isn’t their way.

“Well,” his rheumatologist told him,“you have a choice. Leave Louisiana, or resign yourself to destroying your health."

"Dreher felt that wasn’t a choice. There must be a way to stay put and find inner peace."

And sure enough there was. Write another book about how folks around here make other people physically sick by being unable to understand any way that isn’t their way. You heard it from George P. Wood of Springfield, MO himself, and so did the rest of the world.

I admit that on many occasions in the past I've been enraged by Rod Dreher. But this fellow Bookworm provides a great example of why I'm no longer angered by him. Everyone save a few weirdos is onto him at this point. He has sunk so low that he has had to invent academic sock puppets to encourage him and to beg him to write books and so forth. His publisher is basically an opportunistic soft-core peddler who made sure there was T&A on his book cover. He has blamed his poor health on people not liking him. He has clung bitterly to this Bunker Option thing even though it has proven to be nothing more than raving. He deplores our plastic disposable hedonistic society and then commits selfie-abuse amid piles of restaurant food.

No one I care about is giving this guy any respect anymore, and that's the way it should be. I just loaded that ridiculous pic into How Old -- here's the result:

When robots think you look like a 49-year-old woman it's time to pull a makeover or put the camera away. Or both, dude.

Robots with sense of humor

Look what advertisement the robots of the internets decided to plop down on Rod Dreher's latest advertisement post for his book How Dante Can Save Your Life.

8 Shocking Ways Coconut Oil Will Change Your Life. Not "can", mind you. WILL.

Coconuts are awesome.

Bill Clinton's Dumber Brother

Mr. Vice President, you don't do this stuff while the camera's rolling. Unless you're Dom DeLuise in this scene.



I mean who could resist Madeline Kahn? Really.

RIP, most of the cast in this hilarious movie. "Remember... to dust you shall return." (How's that for an Ash Wednesday post?)

Since we're on the topic...

Since we are on the topic of Dreher's twitter account, I thought I'd post this which has got to be one of the funniest postings of all times.

SOS to @dwightgarner from a Sonic drive-in: Please save this Southern writer while he still has a life of the mind: pic.twitter.com/5P7q5vB8MC
— Rod Dreher (@roddreher) July 21, 2014

More hilarity in the comments, I promise you.

"Get me rewrite!"

An Est Quod Est reader writes:

LOL:

This week and next, I am in a time of extremely intense writing, revising my Dante manuscript. I’m writing it in part for readers like these kids, and for teachers like Callen Taylor. If posting is light here in the next few days, know that I’m not wasting time.

Translation: what was previously submitted to the publisher was unacceptable.

 

"I'm part of the solution"

Heard that one before. This is hilarious.

A Ghost in the Family

The ISSUU site has a new embed feature which I am using here so everyone can read the classic short story A Ghost in the Family by Rod Dreher.

I think this story can serve as a qualification which explains this comment from the other day. In it, Dreher claims to "revel in news about religion" to explain away his relentless Catholic-bashing noticed by commenter Chip. I would suggest that this statement needs to be qualified. It may not be true that Dreher only revels in bad news about the Catholic Church, but it is certainly true that he only revels in some news about religion. Other religious news which might be interesting to most religious people is entirely boring to Dreher and thus ignored. For example, I would have figured he'd have been all over this Eastern Clergy Can Marry Now story like white on rice, but he hasn't posted on it that I can see.

Here's the entire comment:

Chip says:
November 14, 2014 at 3:09 pm

Rod, am I wrong, or do you revel in bad news about the Catholic Church? I would say about 1 post a day is on that topic. Are you having a hard time letting go?

[NFR: You are wrong, and thin-skinned to boot. I revel in news about religion. The fast-changing religion demographics in Latin America is a huge story with global implications. Neither one is my church, so I don't have a dog in that fight. But the fact that you don't want to hear the news doesn't mean the news isn't there. Blaming the messenger is not a good strategy for dealing with reality. -- RD]

Chip's observation is the one we have made over and over again. The revelry is reserved for tales of paranormal activity or narratives which reinforce his own prejudices. In other words, the religious news stories which he likes best are ones which aim to stimulate the curiosity and not edify the soul.

A question for all you math whizzes out there

My question is this: what race or racial mix will the next first black President of the United States be? I mean, OK, the first first black President was 100% white. (Yes, you are reading these sentences correctly.) Then the second first black President, Barack Obama, is actually not black but bi-racial, we are reminded.

So is the next first black President going to be 100% black or three quarters black? Or maybe some other mix entirely? Or maybe Indian? I'm of the mind that he or she will be 3/4 black, then we'll go 7/8, then 15/16, etc. and we will never get a 100% pure black man or woman as the President. What is this opinion based on? That's a good question, and I'll see if I can maybe come up with something, or maybe I'll ask some guy wearing a white sheet over his head.

Some people might be depressed when they realize that we might never get a prezzie with a perfect soul brother pedigree. But it's not really a big deal because no one is 100% white either. All us white folk have been mixed in with the descendants of Adam and Eve who were black. And that's a good thing, since the alternative is to be the evil creation of a crazy black Frankenstein named Yakub by using selective breeding and magnets.

Thanks for reading my blog. For current commentary and what-not, visit the Est Quod Est homepage

Hilarious Meltdowns on Democratic Underground

Speaking of reactions, the Daily Caller provides us with a great Top 16 Meltdown List from Democratic Underground posts reacting to the wipe-out of all they hold dear and the repudiation of the war-on-women façade with all the other left scare tactics. Here's a shorter list of my faves, along with my own comments.

1. We need to yell louder and cuss harder, dammit!
   
   Unknown Beatle: “What the fuck is the matter with this nation? Things aren’t getting better, they’re getting worse, and as hard as we try and yell and cuss, no one is doing shit about all the criminality going on with the banks, politicians, and anyone that breaks the law as long as they’re filthy rich. I’m so fucking pissed off right now I can’t see straight. My blood pressure is sky high. I need to take it easy.”
   
   Yes, please take it easy, UB. Have a drink or four.
   
   
2. "Charlatans, Demagogues and Scalawags"
   
   KingCharlemagne: “I am deeply disappointed in my fellow Americans tonight. The suffering that will ensue was and is mostly entirely preventable. So I am disappointed that we shall have to endure this suffering for at least 2 years now because Americans could not see through the lies sold to them by this pack of charlatans, demagogues and scalawags. Yes, the Democrats largely ran away from President Obama after allowing the Republicans to frame the race as “Obama, Obama, Obama” and that bespeaks a party in trouble. But in the final analysis, voters chose to vote against their self-interest and against the interest of their compatriots for what? To ‘send a message’ to Dems? The reality is that things will not get better in the next two years. They will get worse and possibly much, much worse. And so I am disappointed that my fellow Americans chose a path that will cause suffering for their countrymen when I have to believe most of them did not seek to cause such suffering.”
   
   This is how this trudging rant reads to me: "disappointed... suffering... disappointed... suffering... disappointed... suffering... suffering...."
   
   I wonder if KingCharlamagne realizes the racist history of the term scalawag.
   
   
3. Ampersand Unicode contemplates suicide: "Should I just do myself in?"
   
   Ampersand Unicode: ”I’m actually scared — as in can’t-sleep-tonight-Halloween-came-five-days-late scared — of the GOP fascists taking over the Kennedy state. I voted for Coakley but am not optimistic because of all the endorsements Baker has gotten and the past history of electing GOP governors (Romney, Weld). I’m also looking to leave because MA just voted to keep the filthy casinos. Also, there is a gun store that just popped up out of nowhere down the street from my house on a main street. I no longer feel safe in my neighborhood or my state. Should I find a way to move to Vermont where Bernie and the sane people live? Or if I can’t afford to leave, should I just do myself in? I honestly am terrified that we’re living in the decline of the Weimar Republic and the rise of the Reich.”
   
   This is the kind of thing that makes me wonder if I live in the same country as some people. I could say the same thing about some conservatives I know personally who routinely compare Obama to Hitler. But it is probably more accurate to say they don't know the facts of history very well. The Beer Hall Putsch happened in early November but the comparisons with the 2014 Midterms end there; people actually got killed! Honestly.
   
   
4. We don't deserve Obama; he should just quit and show everybody
   
   CK_John: “I think the President has to put resignation on the table and not give them the satisfaction of being impeached.”
   
   This is hilarious. The fantasy looks like this: Obama comes in to the room with Republican lawmakers and threatens to resign. He calmly says "I'm just gonna take my Biden and go home." The Republicans are aghast, and realize that the US will be hit with tidal waves and hurricanes if they let Obama step down and unleash the wrath of the global warming gods. They plead with him to stay, but he and Joe Biden raise their hands and ascend into Heaven. It's the leftist version of Left Behind.
   
   
5. Put the lime in the coconut, baby
   
   upaloopa: “So now that we have nothing more to lose how about taking our party on a hard turn to the left. Let’s come up with every progressive idea we can and put together a liberal platform for 2016. Never compromise with the devil”
   
   Please, please, PLEASE do this. There is nothing we love more than seeing your true colors, upaloopa, and watching normal people utterly reject your ideological points one by one. How about the 2016 democrat platform featuring mandatory bathrooms for transvestites, 100% gun confiscation and open borders as the top items? That should be enough to start with.
   

The rest are funny, too. I just wish we could have laughed this hard in 2012.

No need for facial tattoos...

...when a prospective employer can just type your full name into El Goog along with the name of your former employer and have a post featuring these "thoughts and rantings" returned. Short excerpt:

So, I will just write the truth and tell you all what happened.

Basically, I was screwed out of a chance to work for a rather nice trucking company.

Why, you say?

Because of a baseless and vicious accusation by a black lesbian woman.

I wouldn't think the blog author would mind my labeling this bit of over-sharing "thoughts and rantings" seeing that this is the title he has chosen for his blog address.

I wouldn't spend any time on CPA, but he did call my friend Keith a "clueless blowhole" yesterday which I wanted to counter by noting that Keith is not any type of hole, nor is he clueless.

CPA doesn't appear to be clueless either, but perhaps he should read this advice.

OK, I admit it

I have a taste for completely insane writing. Every once in awhile I come across something on the internet that I have to read until the end. It's like a roller coaster—you can't get off until it stops. So here's the latest, and I'll excerpt my favorite parts below with all misspellings and grammatical errors left intact.

Lets go back a few thousands of Years when the Hebrews were taken from the hands of the Great Pharoah of Egypt. This was planned even before Moses came into being. It was Lord Enlil's Wonderful Idea to distablize the Reigns of Control from the EN KI TITES. From the Rebel Reptilian Queen and her nasty Grey Co-horts.

Lord Enlil's henchmen helped the Hebrews to leave Bondage only to become Pawns for Lord Enlil. The So Called Promised Land was Canaan , the Lands of the Giants, the Sons of Olympus. The Hebrews Wondered for 40years in the Wilderness and then after this Terrible Ordeal in the Wilderness the Hebrews were Conditioned and Trained to become Bloodthirsty Warriors, they had 40 Years of Training by Lord Enlil's Canus Warriors via Extraterrestrial Intervention.

The Hebrews had to follow Orders Period if they didn't the Canus UFO's would drop nasty Snakes to Bite the Hebrews and Poison them untill they served the Will of Lord Enlil ( Yahweh ). Many Hebrews Died by these Snakes and the Hebrews out of Great Fear from the Kods above surrendered their Free Will to the Will of Lord Enlil. The Hebrews became a tuned Army like no other and basically Marched to the Land of Caanan and with the Help of Enlils Space Ships they attacked Canaan.

The Canaanites were Powerful Titans with Awsome Size & Strength and they saw the Attack coming but they did not see the Cloaked Spaceships of Lord Enlil. The Armies marched towards the Cananite Army, the Hebrews engaged the Titans and were basically squashed like mash Potatoes but the Spaceships above launched a really good Assault which caused Panic among the Giants , this Panic was the Adavantage the Hebrews Needed to Kill every Man , Woman & Child in Canaan, Including the Large Beasts which fed the Colony.

So to this Day the Hebrews are not Free, they are Pawns and Slaves. How about Abraham he was played with Emotionally to kill his beloved Son on the Altar. Many Humans Fight and Kill each other so that those who are Above Laugh , Riddicule and Entertain themselves for their own Amusements ( Those Being Extraterrestrials ).

So just who is really the Bad Guy here?, the Pharoah did make the Hebrews work their Asses off, but he did provide Work, Homes, Food & Shelter for his so called Slaves. Lord Enlil provided a Promised Land?, a Land flowing with Milk & Honey?, more Like a Land of Blood & Carnage.

Now lets look into the Future , we come across a Messiah , Jesus Christ the Lamb of Enlil. Preaching Peace , did anyone know that Barabas was the Son of Jesus? , many still do not know this, Jesus was a Pawn also to play with the Hearts of Men. He did a fabulous Job and he served Lord Enlil very well. We look into the Future after his Crucifixtion and what do we see?, we see the Church being formed from the Roman Empire, we see an Emporer by the name of Constantine who created the Bible to make himself a GOD/DOG (Canus King).

No, I did not "know" that Barabbas was the son of Jesus. I do know that every neo-gnostic like this dude likes to say Jesus had kids; I have no idea why. I also know that the name Barabbas means "Son of the Father" in Hebrew, which to me makes a much more interesting story since he was a robber, murderer and all around rabble-rouser who was released when Christ was condemned.

I also did not know that the Emperor Constantine created the Bible, evidently going back in time to do so. Neither did I have any idea that Jews are pawns and slaves even "to this day". I'm not sure that's completely true; at least some of the Jews out there are well off and have good jobs.

You'll have to RTWT if you want to get to the big Catholic-bashing paragraph and the small Islam-bashing sentence or two that he throws in for equal time. My only remaining question: why go out and pay money for Dan Brown pulp when you can get much richer stuff like this for free? And the grammatical mistakes just make it all more fun. Plus this guy throws a lot more capital letters into the mix than are required. Again, 100% free of charge.

Compare and Contrast. (Plus a caption contest)

I was looking over the classic viral blog Is Barack Obama the Messiah? from the 2008 Election season. It would be funnier if he hadn't been elected President. But it is good to contrast the latest picture posted there...

...with the latest photo proudly featured on the main page of the White House web-site today:

In the first picture, a painting by artist Alex Gray, we see the sphere of our planet Earth being perfected and re-imagined by the power of President Obama's solar-powered brain. In the second picture we see the Prezzie of the United Stezzie puckering as he holds in a choom hit and attempting to "stick it" to an insignificant, white sphere. Maybe I'll throw that photo into a demotivator; feel free to send suggestions for the caption.

Here's what I'm eating. Please send money!

I don't know if anyone noticed, but I had kind of stopped posting on Rod Dreher's incessant nuttiness. I outsourced that job to Keith who is just as insightful, and more entertaining. But Oengus linked to a new post which seems to be an attempt to entice readers to contribute to his magazine by showing them some food which he is eating. Whiskey, tango, fruitcake.



Anymore I skim these things, make an observation and let the rest of you help pick the plate clean. So here's the first comment which made me laugh.

Nick says:
December 19, 2013 at 3:57 pm

Rod, I love your blog. Read it every day. I’d be happy to contribute to your success. But the last time I gave money to TAC in response to one of these donation campaigns, it turned around and published that asinine Jon Huntsman piece on gay “marriage,” one of the worst paean’s to secular humanism and free market idolatry I’ve ever had the misfortune to read.

Since then, I have come to question whether there is really any intellectual coherence at TAC.

I’d like to give to support you, but I’m just not sure what else I’d be giving to. Maybe I should just send you a check personally.

[NFR: No, don't -- send it to the magazine. I didn't like the Jon Huntsman piece either, but I'm glad I work for a magazine that publishes stuff like that. Surely you get more than your fair share of the opposite viewpoint from this blog, yes? Anyway, thanks so much for your support. -- RD]

Observations.

Dreher proclaims that TAC is broadly libertarian, but when regular readers use phrases like free market idolatry you have to wonder what kind of libertarianism they're talking about.

Nick's offer to pay Dreher directly comports with the fact that he pulls at least half the load of web-hits at TAC as we reported earlier.

Nick complains about intellectual incoherence, and Rod gives him more incoherence with his "I didn't like the Jon Huntsman piece either, but I'm glad I work for a magazine that publishes stuff like that." Huh? What if there was a piece extolling the virtues of Wal-mart like George Will did many moons ago? Or something supporting the Iraq War effort? Would any writer at TAC be glad to work for a magazine that publishes "stuff like that"? Of course not. It looks from here like the main support for TAC's existence is taking positions contrary to mainstream conservatives. So they have basically cobbled together a coalition of groups who are at complete odds on some big issues. Thus the resounding dissonance to just about everyone except other hardline contrarians. And they are often short of disposable cash.

TAC probably had to pay their writers this month since it's the Christmas season, so they are groping for sugar daddies. But, man, what a pose. "No, I'm not ideological. I did compose a 10-point manifesto for my first book. But I'm not ideological. I have a sausage wrap, but no ideology. And who really needs coherence anyway?"

I know why Rod had to write this post. It's his alternative to pulling some kind of cheesy stunt like holding up a cardboard sign which says "Will blog for food."

A "giant leap" for women's hair styles

More synchronicity. Hat tip goes to my wife for sending me a link to this site, along with the note "Thought you would appreciate the absurdity of this." Perhaps since my own "hairdo" makes my head look like a full moon. But apparently you ladies can harness the power of the moon to achieve beautiful hair.

There's nothing like tidal-wavy hair.

Donald McClarey pwns Chipotle

Over at The American Catholic, Donald McClarey serves up several videos concerning Chipotle with this commentary.

Over the top and entertaining which is how I like commercials if I have to endure one. I like Mexican food but I have never liked Chipotle as the menu is too limited and their massive burritos leave me cold. Just as well, as those things weigh in at a 1000 calories, which makes their wholesomener than thou commercial hilarious. Yeah, we treat the animals we slaughter for your plate in a kinder and gentler fashion as we serve you their remains to make you obese!

Loved the second video. Much more likely to get me into Chipotle than the first and, no, I didn't download the Scarecrow app.



Not bad for a couple of (gay) white guys.

OK, color me slow. I just caught the "magic marker" reference. They always write on the foil with a Sharpie. Hilarious. I always get the burrito bowl when I go there. And, uh, a Modelo of Color, naturally.