By a mile, it's Glenn Beck, with 42 percent of the near 8,000 votes in this category. His award-winning statement:
“We call them progressives now, but back in Samuel Adams’ day, they used to call them tyrants. A little later, I think they were also called slave owners."
A seasonal kiss-in in Paris:
The Green Movement has strongly resisted all sanctions against Iran, and even more passionately opposes any military strikes. If Israel strikes, it will effectively kill the Iranian opposition movement, and set off a global wave of Jihadism which will kill many American soldiers and civilians. So how to respond to the Revolutionary Guards' continuing and mounting brutality?
The obvious answer, aired by Spencer Ackerman here, is very targeted sanctions designed to hurt the pocket-books of the regime's leadership, not its people. How one does this without appearing to hurt the very people we want to support is above my paygrade. But I'd be eager to air any specifics. What I do oppose is the "crippling" sanctions favored by Howard Berman and Hillary Clinton.
Cartman lost! And this ravishing stop-motion creation won in the final stretch: Still, Cartman’s version of “Poker Face” – the best cover yet of that song, aided by Lady GaGa and Christopher Walken – was a very close second and deserves a second airing:
A lawyer explains:
Basically, Bristol wants custody, filed with a pseudonym and moved to have the case closed to the public or filed under seal (don’t know the exact rule in Alaska), the Court denied several motions, and forced the parties to litigate under their real names.
Bristol’s lawyers apparently thought Levi had broken some rules, so they filed a motion for an order to show cause (give reasons to the Court) why Levi should not be punished for something (which is unclear just from the list of the documents that have been filed.)
Other than that, doesn’t look like THAT out of the ordinary.
"There is a story in the Bible about a man who pretended to be Jesus' friend and then when the chips were down, decided to turn Jesus in for 30 shekels of silver. Barack Obama may be becoming that man. I am sure Judas didn't see it as a betrayal at the time, he didn't think he was becoming unfaithful, he felt it was his right to earn some money. And besides, Jesus would somehow muddle through, and everything would eventually all wash over, and things would get back to normal," – Robb E. Lovell, a computer scientist, dancer/choreographer, and installation artist. And he obviously has no clue what's in the Gospels.
Our reader writes:
In the nine months since I emailed you about my booming, recession-proof dating coach business, I've all but stopped any and all in-person coaching and consultations for helping guys with their love lives.
But not because of the economy or any adverse market forces. On the contrary, men are just as desperate and lonely as ever. Around May, I recognized that my time/effort would be much better applied in the long-run in growing the internet aspect of my business — if I could build it up to a certain level and leverage the ability to automate sales and deliver advice to thousands of men the world over, then I could basically print money and move on to other ventures.
I took advantage of the plummeting rent prices around the country (did you know you could live decently in Vegas for $600/month?), and rock-bottom prices of specialists in the Philippines and India.
I also spent a few months in Europe cashing in on all of the prospects over there that I hadn't had a chance to meet or work with before. In the meantime, I slaved away at the online aspect of my business, and it's finally cresting the threshold of being sustainable and very profitable. The coming year will see me living in Argentina, then Spain, and maybe Japan or Thailand later in the year… all while working 5-10 hours a week and outsourcing the rest. I'll probably avoid the US for the foreseeable future — one, because I'm young, mobile and single, and two, because I'm kind of sickened by the political realities from the last eight years.
But in all of this time, my industry and market have only continued to expand — men opening up and seeking help in their love lives is a growing trend and here to stay, regardless of any economic forces. On top of that, recessions can be kind to entrepreneurs in that you can get started for relatively cheap, and then catch the market demand back on the uptick.
I suppose I lucked out in both cases. I'm extremely grateful for my position as I know I'm in a very, very small minority of people who benefited/persevered through this period. One thing I've learned is that these recessions aren't blips or irregularities, but a reality of our market economics. So in the future, I'll continue to position myself to weather these storms to the best of my abilities rather than get caught with my pants down.
The genre of the right-wing pro-torture thriller is on a roll, propelled by Beck and Limbaugh. Jason Zengerle has a terrific piece in the new TNR on the phenomenon:
With Chapter 50 of Pursuit of Honor, Flynn appears to be angling for a new level of conservative street cred. The chapter finds Rapp sitting in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has asked him to explain his torture of a Saudi terrorism suspect. After being scolded for his “immoral techniques” by Carol Ogden–a California Democrat (and thinly veiled send-up of Barbara Boxer) who “moved in the elite circles of her party, listening to the trial lawyers, academics, and the nuttiest of the crazy special-interest groups”–it’s Rapp’s turn to address the committee. “[W]hat do you think is more morally reprehensible,” he asks, “dislocating the arm of a terrorist … or sticking a steel spike into the brain of an eight-and-a-half-month-old fetus and then sucking his brains out[?]” Reminded by one of Ogden’s colleagues (a “jowly Senator from Vermont” who bears a striking resemblance to Patrick Leahy) that he is speaking in the august chambers of the U.S. Senate, Rapp shoots back: “I’m well aware of where I am, sir. This is where we not only say it’s perfectly okay for a doctor to kill a full-term baby, but we think taxpayers should help pay for it. … And you call me a barbarian.”
This coveted award goes to Jonah Goldberg, greatest intellectual of his generation, for the immortal words:
"I'm not a fan of Heidegger's."
Second place goes to Diane Sawyer for this profundity about Oprah Winfrey.
Obama’s Job Approval in the second half of 2009 (Rasmussen excluded):
The Dish 