Remembering an American Suicide Bomber

Here's a little-known fact:  the worst school-based mass murder in the US took place in 1927, perpetrated in Michgan by Andrew Phillip Kehoe.  A school board member, he was apparently upset about a tax levy for the school that he blew up.  He also killed his wife, burned down his farm, and ultimately blew himself up in a shrapnel-filled car as rescuers gathered at the site of the school explosion, killing several additional people.

The next time one of your right wing friends or family members starts talking about taxes or some similar BS, point out to them the direct connection between American anti-tax zealots and the modern-day suicide bombers that most of them consider to be evil terrorists.

Nauseating

Here is a disgusting positive profile on Mitt Romney by Walter Shapiro, a writer from "eventheliberalTNR."  In classic Villager form, he discusses how "disciplined" and "sober" and "prudent" Mittens is...JUST LIKE GEORGE HW BUSH!

However bad it is, it probably cannot outdo his earlier piece, titled "Why Rick Santorum is more impressive in person than Rick Perry."

Ready a Tumbrel for Mr. Rattner, Please

This is great.  We have a disgraced Wall Streeter complaining about $9/hour wage slaves not having sacrificed enough.  The fact that he can say this and not immediately find himself swinging from a lamp post tells me that the killer asteroid cannot arrive soon enough.

DougJ at Balloon Juice had a post last night about regretting not confronting Fareed Zakaria in a New York restaurant.  Unsurprisingly, and apparently by design, this drew a host of pearl-clutching comments from the tote bag crowd, along the lines of "we're better than that," and "we shouldn't be trying to intimidate the nice journalists like Zakaria."  These people remain willfully unaware that politics is a contact sport, and that elite opinion-makers are part of the political ecosystem, not floating majestically above it.  The few liberal elements of our society that remain did not get enacted through reasoned discussion, but through a combination of pressure, intimidation, and horse-swapping.  Refusal to engage in forceful behavior cedes the field to the other participants who understand how the game is played.