The Intermittent Kevin | As rarely and randomly updated as most blogs

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The Intermittent Kevin

As rarely and randomly updated as most blogs

I moved!

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Please visit happywaffle.com/blog for all future blogposts.

Written by Kevin Miller

September 2, 2011 at 1:28 pm

Posted in Uncategorized

Rush Limbaugh, Day5

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Even the snowmen will soon be unemployed.

Im a bit sad I missed yesterdays show from El Rushbo, which surely included the juiciest nuggets in response to Obamas State of the Union address. Instead he kicks off todays show by ingratiating himself to me, describing using his iPad to watch the movie The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest. Two points for Rush!

In the news: last weeks unemployment numbers rose sharply, continuing our slower-than-desired economic recovery. According to the AP, the crazy Snowpocalypse weather in the east contributed to the figure; according to Rush, theres no evidence that this was the case, and the AP—liberal as ever, if you ask Rush—inserted that possible explanation to ingratiate itself to the Obama administration. I guess wed need to check with the government analyst whom the story quotes, but Rush is simply wrong in saying that the story just made up the Snowpocalypse connection. Theres no mention of snow anywhere in the report citing this weeks figures, says Rush. Hes right, there isnt; notice theres no mention of anything. Its just a bunch of numbers without analysis. Thats how these reports are.

Rush doesnt let up, though. Was there ever snow during the Bush years? Did we ever hear unemployment numbers blamed on snow during the Bush years? Well, yeah, probably, but its much more compelling to blame it all on Obama. And its a clever rhetorical question thats impossible to respond to without some serious news-scouring.

Then its poll-review time. Read the rest of this entry

Written by Kevin Miller

January 27, 2011 at 1:05 pm

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged with politics

Rush Limbaugh, Day4

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I think taking a day off between Rush sessions is good for my health. Need time to recuperate, so that tone of voice isnt echoing in my brain all night as I try to sleep.

I joined a few minutes late, and I have to admit that the first thing I heard Rush say made me chuckle and nod my head: Politics is just showbiz for the ugly.

Not to worry, though, he got annoying quick. Rush mentions a so-called poll— here he effects an annoying mock laugh— from the USA Today saying that Americans want Democrats and Republicans to work together.

Wow, two days in a row. Is this a consistent pattern with Rush? He seems to have a genuine hypocrisy about which poll numbers he believes are credible. We know at the end of the day [the Democrats] are going to govern against the will of the American people.

The Friedman is Dumb

This hours target: New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. Rush plays, twice, a quote from Friedman concerning the Chinese presidents visit to Washington: Theres only one thing worse than one-party autocracy—the Chinese system—and thats one-party democracy. Friedmans larger point is that a majority-rule party finds things hard to accomplish if the minority party is constantly sticking a spoke in its wheels, whereas the rulers of an autocracy have the potential to execute their vision.

Disapproving Rabbit disapproves.

Ill go on and give Rush a point here. Thomas Friedman doesnt come across too smartly. And its a juicy morsel for Rush to savor: To the ruling-class types and here Rush leans into the microphone, that is the essence of unique brilliance. Well, maybe not, but its easy to tie a wacky quote like that to the notion that liberals would like nothing better than to enact socialist tyranny.

I know a Commie mustache when I see it.Meanwhile at the Death Panels

Obamacare just got a shellacking, folks. (The House voted was 245-199 in favor of repeal, a larger margin than they got in passing it.) Of course its a pretty safe bet, if youre a swing-district Democrat, to be able to vote in favor of repeal when you know the entire repealing initiative is a dead end. But a vote is a vote.

And then he pulls his patented Rush move (you might be noticing a pattern here): citing polls which show Americans are strongly in favor of repealing health-care reform. I dont want to beat Rush at his own game or anything, but those polls are pretty specious:

The pollsters first asked people whether they support the law, and found that 45 percent back it, while 50 percent oppose it and 5 percent have no opinion. That latter 55 percent were then offered a range of options as to what they would prefer be done. The breakdown:

Repeal all of it: 18

Repeal parts of it: 19

Wait and see: 17

Less than one in five support full repeal.

I know what youre going to say, and the answer is, I provided data.

But anyway.

Closing Facepalm

Sadly my designated hour of Rush-listening ends just as Rush begins mocking, yet again, the notion that checking your tire pressure is a good way to reduce pollution and our dependence on oil. The absolutely correct, true, factual, well-documented notion.

I could go on

But it ties beautifully into my Rush quote of the day. Yall might want to get your palms ready, though.

Lord, my friends. We are surrounded by genuine, institutional ignorance!

Written by Kevin Miller

January 20, 2011 at 1:25 pm

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged with politics

Rush Limbaugh, Day3

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Suggested by Mary Beth, even.

Oh boy. The House is planning to fruitlessly repeal the health-care reform law today, so you know Rush is going to dive into that big debate. Ya know, things like whether it kills jobs (it might, but it probably wont). Given that I spent quite a bit of time investigating health-care reform, Im sure Ill find plenty to grit my teeth about this week.

But first! Rush returns to the call for civility theme from last week, and with more force than ever: this time he calls it censorship. Yes, censorship.

I do not think it means what he thinks it means.

Ive heard this before; when Glenn Becks ratings and sponsors started dropping after one too many wacky comment, he compared his situation with censorship. And heck, just today Sarah Palin described negative reaction to her now-infamous blood libel Facebook video as an attempt to destroy the message and the messenger.

Speaking of that video, Rush does seem to enjoy cherry-picking his poll numbers, doesnt he? All last week I heard him cite multiple polls about Americans rejecting the notion that rhetoric contributed to the Tucson shootings. I didnt comment on it, since I didnt have time to check the numbers myself. But now, Rush cites another pair of polls: first, that 78% of Americans approve of how Obama handled Tucson; second, that only 30% of Americans approve of Sarah Palin on the same question. I dont, believe, either, number, he announces, in his trademark slowed-for-emphasis tone.

After a commercial break, Rush keeps hammering at it, declaring that polls tend to be weighted shifted massaged influenced. He finally figures that this polling house must have undersampled Republicans in conducting the poll, which explains the surprising numbers. He offers no evidence that this happened.

Moments later, Rush asks: Isnt it amazing how everything that the left wants turns up as a majority opinion in a poll? I start to wonder if hes deliberately messing with me at this point. Rush, are you reading my blog?

Rush Loves Sarah

I havent really mentioned it yet, but Rush has been the #1 Palin Supporter over the last week vis-a-vis her connection (or lack thereof) to Tucson. Hes seemingly exasperated by those who irrationally hate her, even those on the right, since she and her Tea Party followers represent a threat to the powers-that-be. Rush goes on an impressive, extended rant suggesting that it could just as easily have been liberalism that influenced a twisted young mind to commit murder. What follows is as much of a transcript as I could get down while he rambled. It was actually over five minutes long.

The left established this culture of pessimism, self-hate, and desperation. If youre Hispanic, you have no chance. If youre African-American, you have no chance. Your only chance is the military, and if you do that youre stupid. They turn citizen against citizen. They want people to hate each other based on income, based on race, based on sexual orientation. This is the message of the Democratic party EVERY DAY, and it is ratcheted up every election. Its THEM! It isnt us! Were based on love: love of this country, love of its potential. They tell you that the deck is stacked against you, that the rich hates youBig Oil, Big Pharma, Big Insurancewhat are you gonna do after a lifetime of hearing this? If youre told every day that your future doesnt exist, that its been robbed and stolen from you, what are you gonna do? Youre told the rich are ripping you off! If not for them YOUD have the boat, and YOUD have the house on the beach, and YOUD have the three cars. This is what you hear EVERY DAY! Its their PLATFORM!

So, were making progress on that whole civility thing, then.

---

Conspiracy Theory of the Day: The plan for Democrats and Republicans to intermingle during the State of the Union address later this month is actually a ploy to mask the Republican majority in the House.

Wacky Radio Commercial of the Day: http://godsaidmansaid.com/ Go on, check it out.

Written by Kevin Miller

January 18, 2011 at 1:04 pm

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged with politics

Rush Limbaugh, Days1-2

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Rushs overall theme this week, not surprisingly, is defending himself against the notion that inflammatory rhetoric such as his was somehow tied to Loughners actions. Indeed there isnt any direct evidence that Loughner watched a lot of Glenn Beck and then loaded his Glock; to turn the tables, theres more evidence that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were directly influenced by violent video games before shooting up Columbine High School. In each case, those more inclined to defend the media under assault (Rush Limbaugh, Wolfenstein 3D) were quick to direct the responsibility toward, ya know, the persons who committed the crime.

I blame the chintzy graphics, myself.

Rush comments on President Obamas remarks during the Arizona memorial on Wednesday night. He accuses Obama of double-speak in saying that poor rhetoric didnt cause this tragedy, but then encouraging all listeners to improve their rhetoric. Hes got plenty of incendiary rhetoric on his side, opines Rush. One deranged gunman—not American society, not American culture—was responsible for this. Rush doesnt seem to think that Obamas words were directed to both left and right, nor does he grasp that Obamas point isnt the least bit hypocritical.

We must improve our dialog, when at the same time, it had nothing to do with this, by his own admission! Weve all got to improvenot him! No way. He plays a sound bite of Obamas speech, then responds: You mean like calling people bitter clingers? He cites a couple of other examples of poor speech from Obama—unchecked, uncommented upon. He even says at one point that Obamas side started this.

At this point Im struck by how completely un-self-aware Rush Limbaugh seems. Does he believe theres an equivalency between Obamas tone over the last two years, and his own? Does the fact that his first example happened at a private event almost three years ago not strike him? Hes not even justifying or defending his tone at this point, just accusing the other side.

This is from 1995, Rush. Obama was teaching law school.Rush Makes A Good Point

(I felt I should give this a headline.)

Rush compares the Arizona memorial to a political or pep rally, pointing out that Obamas speech was interrupted no fewer than 50 times, even to the apparent embarrassment of the President himself. He accuses Obama of delaying the memorial until the poll numbers came in, the T-shirts got printed, and the logo got designed. It was indeed rather jarring to expect a solemn ceremony on TV, and instead get a raucous and joyous environment not dissimilar to a 2008 campaign rally.

Rush Returns to Making Bad Points

He then executes an impressive turn, comparing the language of Obamas speech to language from an Organizing For America webpage which equates negative language with a capitalist society. Thats one of Rushs keen talents: he can take any politically-tinged story and connect it with his larger conservative worldview.

Or maybe its more an anti-liberal worldview, since his points are almost always contrary: liberalism hates capitalism. Liberalism despises personal responsibility. Liberalism goes against the Constitution. It goes back to that perpetually-negative tone thats so hard for me to stomach.

If Only Theyd Used Canvas Shopping Bags

A new topic! Climate change! Rush cites a study from the journal Science that suggests climate change might have contributed to the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. (Interesting—heres a link.)

I thought it was culture and liberalism, the rise of tyranny—but no, Rush announces sarcastically, it was climate change! And I thought they were the smart ones.

I start to get a headache at this point. First, Id never heard liberalism tied to the fall of the Roman Empire before. Id like to hear a non-Rush-Limbaugh scholar comment on it. But the main portion of my headache is the rank anti-intellectualism on display here. Rush literally doesnt dive into the details of the study one bit; rather, he subtly implies that the liberal scientists found a convenient scapegoat for the fall of the Roman Empire besides the liberal policies that were supposedly the real culprits. He dismisses the work of professional scientists without examining the substance of their findings. (You might do Rush one better and actually read the article.)

Or just watch the DVDs again.

I heard a word once applied to Sarah Palin that I thought was particularly appropriate—and that applies to Rush, as well. The word is incurious. Rushs worldview is set upon a mighty rock, and nothing can shake it; if a random scientific study is conducted on Roman tree rings, you can bet Rush will dismiss it if it can be spun in another direction. Oddly, Rush has previously pointed to scientific studies indicating historical climate change as evidence that our current changes are nothing special. See? Headache.

Go on, take two.

In the time it took me to consolidate the points above, Rush ventured off into health-care reform, rising gas prices, and was defending Sarah Palin yet again by the time I turned off the radio. Its a whirlwind of conservative thinking. I need to handle this a bit at a time.

Thats all for this week! Rush doesnt run on Saturdays does he?

Written by Kevin Miller

January 14, 2011 at 12:58 pm

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged with politics

Kevin listens to RushLimbaugh

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But he looks so nice!

Had a political discussion with Mary Beth the other night, in the context of the Arizona shooting, and the extent to which vitriolic talk from the right wing helped to enable it. Though Im not one to blame the Sarah Palin set for pushing Jared Loughner over the edge—the shooter seems to be certifiably crazy enough on his own, thank you—I do think the whole incident is a great excuse to review the level of discourse in the media and figure out if it helps to enable those on the fringe. Barring that, we can take the chance to evaluate whether the tone of such rhetoric helps or hurts society as a whole.

Of course the conversation landed on Rush Limbaugh, who dwells just far enough on this side of crazy that Mary Beth doesnt mind listening to him in the car. (Point of reference: she agrees with me that Glenn Beck is a bloomin idiot.) I, meanwhile, cant listen to him for more than 20 seconds without executing a perfect facepalm, which is unsafe while operating a moving vehicle.

Picard cant handle him, either.

Naturally Mary Beth said I cant really judge Rush Limbaugh unless Ive really listened to him with an open mind. At this point I got really drunk or something, blacked out, and when I regained consciousness I found myself having committed to listening to Rush Limbaugh for at least a weeks worth of shows, for at least an hour per day. Read the rest of this entry

Written by Kevin Miller

January 13, 2011 at 12:52 pm

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged with politics

Guest post: Mary Beth on the finerthings

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(Note from Kevin: I almost wrote finger things.)

Greetings from Ireland everyone! I am having a lovely vacation while Kevin slaves away at work all day. I am a little ashamed of how lazy I have been, but then I think… I deserve it, right? My days have been pretty much like this:

1. Wake up at 9:15 for free breakfast at the hotel
2. Enjoy breakfast and tea until around 10
3. Head back up to the room and read until I fall back asleep
4. Wake up around 12:30
5. Head into the city for misc excursions
6. Have lunch between 2 and 3
7. Head back to the hotel around 4:30
8. Order a beer at the bar before I head up to the room to wait for Kevin
9. Dinner around 7
10. Sleep around 1 (unless Sarah wakes me up at 4:30 am to tell me shes engaged)

There are a few things I have fallen in love with here that I thought I would share with all of you. Please be forewarned… I am not a writer of Kevins caliber, so please no judging.

Our first pleasant surprise was our hotel, Hayfield Manor. You know how sometimes you view photos of a hotel on a website only to arrive and discover that the hotel was not as advertised? Well, this is certainly not the case here.

The garden courtyard at Hayfield Manor where you can find me sipping tea and reading a British novel just like a true fancy.

The room is perfect. The service is grand. And until an obnoxious guido-esque American tourist checked in yesterday morning, I had absolutely nothing to complain about. Ive always wondered why it is said that Europeans cant stand American tourists. This man is why!

I have spent a good bit of time at the Leisure Center where there is a beautiful indoor pool, hot tub and steam room. The spa at the hotel is very similar to Halinas on Burnet Road, and I think Im going to give it a try tomorrow.

Then there are all the flowers. I am a little obsessed actually. The hydrangeas grow like weeds here! They are literally on almost every street corner, driveway, park, you name it. And its not just those pale, pastel colored blue or pink ones you see in the grocery store. I have seen them in the richest colors. Dark blues, bright pinks and even rich purples.

Put that in your pot and grow it! No… seriously, find a way to grow it. I want some for my flowerbed.

The scenery is altogeter gorgeous. You should flip through some of the pics Kevin posted of our drive. There are grand statues along the highways. Rolling hills of the greenest grass. Winding roads with historic-looking rock walls. Even the occasional pond, water lillies and all.

And finally, the finest of all things on a truly great vacation… the food. So, I wasnt sure what to expect of the cuisine in Ireland. Its definitely not one of those places you visit solely for the cuisine, but I did my reasearch, and we have a long list of the best food I can find in our area. But it all started with that first breakfast Sunday morning. We stayed up all day on Saturday, not going to sleep until 9 or so to try to beat any jet lag. Kevin even said, I am gonna try to make it until 10 because I can never sleep more than 8 hours. We planned on waking up around 8 or 9 Sunday morning to head off on our drive. Then the unthinkable happened. Kevin had a Mary Beth sleep! At around 11:45 am we woke up to realize we had missed breakfast at the hotel, and we had slept much of our planned day away!

We immediately headed out driving towards the Beara Peninsula to visit a few places and decided to stop at a pub for some much needed sustenance. We learned on this first excursion that the farther into the country you drive, the harder it is to understand what anyone is saying, and I DONT CARE that they are speaking English. It still sounds like a foreign language half the time. A young man at the pub very quickly offered us our breakfast options, only two of which we could understand: full-Irish and mini-Irish. We went with mini. This is mini in Ireland.

Count that people, clockwise from the tomato: ½ grilled tomato, 3 slices thick Canadian style bacon, 1 fried egg, 1 thick slice black pudding (pudding is like blood sausage), 2 links pork sausage and 1 slice of white pudding. 8 slices of toast, 2 thick slices of Irish soda bread and 2 thick slices of country white bread, butter and jam are out of frame, mind you. Mini… Jesus, Mary and Joseph!!! Full Irish could throw my mother instantly into cardiac arrest!

But I must admit, it was all very tasty. Except the pudding. Im still a little to scared to try that stuff.

That evening we had room service for dinner. A fancy salad with goats cheese and a burger with portabello mushrooms. We even had dessert first since it had ice cream on it. Since then weve enjoyed the following:
Monday fresh bread with homemade dips and steaks with creamy mash at Cornstore
Tuesday mushroom and thyme risotto, a crab crumble and the most divine passion fruit panna cotta at Fishy Fishy Cafe in Kinsale on the harbor

This crumble was seriously nothing but huge lumps of the freshest crab with a light sauce and breadcrumbs on top. Yummy!

Wednesday crispy chicken with wild mushroom crema and a sadly overcooked filet at Isaacs
Thursday Our best meal yet at Cafe Paradiso, a lovely vegetarian place right off the RIver Lee… the food smelled so yummy, we dug right in and forgot about photos. We shared a grilled haloumi starter with gingered gooseberry chutney and a broad bean, purple potato marjoram salad. I loved tempura fried cheese and caper stuffed squash blossoms with sauteed squash, tomatoes and onions, grilled polenta all served with a light tomato broth. Kevins was the best, a phyllo and spinach stacked pastry served on a coriander crusher potato galette with harissa sauce and sugar snap peas. Needless to say, Ill be heading back here for lunch.

I think I will devote a whole post to tea later on. Maybe by then I will figure out how to turn off italics. Now I am off to bed. I need rest for my lazy days.

MB

Written by Kevin Miller

July 29, 2010 at 6:11 pm

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged with ireland

A few notes on driving inIreland

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The Irish people, in all their wily self-sufficiency, are able to do without that which we spoiled and obese Americans might consider essential. For example, you might consider it a necessity in a motorized country for there to be roads wide enough for the cars to actually drive on. Not so, say our Irish brethren. Except theyve been drinking, so it comes out like Nae suh! and then they buy you a Guinness.

Apparently a legal thoroughfare.

In fairness, the roads are usually at least one lane wide, though not always. When possible, theyre stretched to one-and-a-half or one-and-three-quarters lanes, thus allowing I and my fellow driver to gently brush mirrors as our cars scooch by each other—I at two miles per hour, he at 35.

Then theres street signs. Dont need em. Doesnt matter, since the name of the street is liable to change three times in half a kilometer anyway. Hell, for all I know, theyve changed the name of the street outside since this morning. As a result, navigating around the twisted roads of Cork involves a lot of landmark sighting—and, more often, blind dumb luck.

And constant, constant self-reminders that Im supposed to drive on the left side of the road. The actual driving you get used to; for some reason its realizing which ways to look as you cross the road. My brain just shuts down and I simply swing my head back and forth like an idiot as my car creeps into harms way.

But theres an upside to all this anarchy. Irish people are seemingly never in a hurry to get anywhere. If another driver makes a crazy looping turn through an intersection, they just stand by. If someone pulls over and mounts the curb, they just swing around. Though I did see one fender bender, I would imagine that major wrecks are much less common when everyone is constantly on their guard.

And theyre so friendly about the situation that we Texans are put to shame. On one occasion there was genuine gridlock on a tiny road in front of us, with cars stopped head-to-head; I witnessed the three cars in front of me all cheerily place themselves in reverse, back themselves out of the block, and wave as the opposing traffic passed through. Amazing.

Which is not to say the Irish are lacking in driving nuttery:

Written by Kevin Miller

July 29, 2010 at 4:47 pm

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged with ireland

Ireland: Pics from Days1-2

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Yes this WILL be your new desktop picture.

For those of you not following on Twitter or Facebook (hint hint), heres our best pictures from the first couple days:

(For some reason some pics are showing as question marks right now. Refresh the page if you see that.)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/happywaffle/sets/72157624461530277/

Written by Kevin Miller

July 26, 2010 at 10:17 am

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged with ireland

Ireland, Part 2: Kevin PassesOut

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But not in the way you think.

Our flights between Dallas and Cork, by way of Chicago and London, were pleasantly uneventful. Biggest downer for the first half was a sleeveless-T-wearing douche-canoe, behind Mary Beth on the leg to OHare, who reacted somewhat violently to the notion of her seat reclining.

To have a fighting chance against jet lag, we knew wed need to sleep as much as possible on the seven-hour flight between Chicago and London. So upon reaching cruising altitude, we ordered alcoholic drinks, and then MB offered me a tablet of Buspar, which she promised would knock me pleasantly out for the duration.

(I would also like to mention that the meds were taken along with a full meal, and that MB took *two* of the happy pills with no ill effects. Dont tell me what I cant do!)

Anyhoo, after eating my sleeping pill, my American Airlines Reheated Beefy Goodness™ and drinking a small bottle of water, I donned my eyemask and started drifting off to sleep.

Less than half an hour later, I opened my eyes. I was feeling rather queasy. It wasnt a definite danger-will-robinson moment, but I also couldnt find a barf bag in my seat pocket, and I have a brief history with trans-oceanic airplane sickness (cf: Melbourne-to-LAX, September 2007). So out of an abundance of caution, I walked back and stood in line for the bathroom.

*WHUMP*

Sir? Sir, are you okay? Are you okay, sir?

I became aware that someone was talking. Then I realized someone was tapping my hand. Then I realized, confusedly, that I was sitting on the floor with my eyes closed. Looking up, I saw the entire rear section of the flight staring at me with great interest.

Id passed out.

I still felt rather groggy, but of course was equal parts embarrassed. I apologized to the flight attendant, might have attempted to make a self-deprecating joke, and said something about just needing to make it to the bathroom. So I stood up, took one and a half steps, and

*WHUMP*
Read the rest of this entry

Written by Kevin Miller

July 24, 2010 at 2:29 pm

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged with ireland

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