I’ve read a little bit about Joseph Kony and his use of child soldiers in his Lord’s Resistance Army. It sounds terrible and I’m glad this Kony 2012 movie is bringing attention to it. Everywhere I go, I see these posters for the movie where a donkey and an elephant hug each other to show their opposition to Kony, with a caption “both sides agree” or something like that.
Here’s my question: if the far left and far right are criticizing Jospeh Kony, doesn’t that show that he’s doing something right?
PeakVT
Don’t say that too loud. If Friedman hears that his brain will permanently freeze.
Mojotron
I think we’ve found our Americans Elect candidate.
David Koch
Big mistake by Arianna Huffington to invite Joseph Kony to last weekend’s White House correspondence dinner.
DougJ, Head of Infidelity
@Mojotron:
Ha ha.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Mojotron: lolz
Q
Ah, drunk-blogging.
gaz
Shorter DougJ: MOAR murder. MOAR rape.
Yeah I know you are being snarky.
But it’s Joseph Fucking Kony.
beltane
@Mojotron: Damn, you beat me to it. Good work.
gaz
@Mojotron:
DougJ?
Valdivia
@Mojotron:
you win the internets my friend.
lamh35
Since we are on the subject of little African children (sorry)…
My nephew’s school had a contest where the students had to draw a picture of the school mascot, the winner’s drawing would be made into a t-shirt. Well my nephew’s drawing won the contest and his drawing was made into shirts for the whole school and the t-shirts included his signatures as well. I photoshopped the signature (to protect the innocent…lol), but here is the finished product. My sister is SOOOO proud.
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a330/nellybell28/Artwork.jpg
My nephew…un artiste!
Xecky Gilchrist
@Mojotron: I think we’ve found our Americans Elect candidate.
Damn! Beat me to that.
ETA: and a couple of people beat me to saying Mojotron had beat them to it! Double Damn.
David Koch
Who says the republicans are anti-gay?
http://www2.timesdispatch.com/mgmedia/image/full/230547/mcdonnell-romney/
Valdivia
@lamh35:
congrats! how exciting for him and your sister (and you) :)
Jewish Steel
@lamh35: Go Zephyr Cats!
Jewish Steel
@lamh35: Go Zephyr Cats!
Go Duplicate Comment!
The Moar You Know
If having an army of child slaves that will kill on command is wrong, I don’t want to be right.
GG
Funniest thing I’ve read all week.
lamh35
Anyone going to see The Avengers at midnight? I’m planning to see it tomorrow at the matinee.
General Stuck
Mnemosyne
Didn’t Rush Limbaugh come out in support of Kony because all he knew about him was that Obama was against him and then have to backpedal?
In other news, I had my very first bike crash today. I was tootling along on my little old lady bike and some damn teenager zoomed out of a driveway on his BMX at me. We both swerved and went down. No serious injuries, though the kid had a quarter-sized road rash on his arm and I’m going to have quite the lurid bruise on my stomach from hitting the grip. I have to take poor Cocoa in for a checkup because the handlebars got knocked out of place a bit.
At least the kid was apologetic.
DougJ, Head of Infidelity
@Mnemosyne:
Wouldn’t surprise me.
different-church-lady
Stop that.
MikeJ
Romney can’t even win correctly:
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2012/05/03/paul_supporters_shake_up_the_delegate_math.html
Jay in Oregon
@Mnemosyne:
Per Limbaugh, Obama was encouraging the Egyptian government to kill Christians.
http://mediamatters.org/blog/201203070006
honus
@Mnemosyne: You are correct sir. The bloated one cited Obama’s actions against Kony’s “Lord’s Army” as evidence that Obama the muslim was persecuting Christians in Africa. Not making this up.
beltane
@MikeJ: I don’t think the Ron Paul people are going to behave themselves in Tampa. Maybe last time they cam unarmed but who knows about this time.
Punchy
@Mnemosyne: Oh noez! Rasberries on your sticks and stems, eh? Ive been in about a dozen bike-car wrecks, but never with some punk on a BMX. Hope yer otay
General Stuck
I know this is front paged at memerandum, but I think it is brilliant, and judging from hate spasms of the wingnuts over it, he must be doing something right. They are splittle flecking the soshulist ramifications of Obama’s package. But something like this distilled into a narrative of what’s been accomplished the past four years, I think has at least a chance of sizable connection with most voters, even some wingnuts out there.
try linky again http://www.barackobama.com/life-of-julia/
Jewish Steel
@Mnemosyne: The Cocoa is described as “Fun, Flirty, and Carefree.” Accurate?
jurassicpork
Or something very, very wrong.
Mnemosyne
@Punchy:
I’m pretty sure I’m okay — long sleeves, long pants and the helmet protected me from real harm. My bruise is already turning an interesting shade of purple.
@Jewish Steel:
Accurate? Yes! Seriously, the first time I test-rode it, I sounded like this guy. Commenter WaterGirl tried one out after I raved about it and ended up buying one for herself.
I was talking to the owner of the shop when I bought it and he said that Trek advised all of their dealers to keep one near the front of the shop and, every time a couple came in so the man could try a bike, they should put the woman on the Cocoa because it would really sell itself once she got on. I highly recommend it as a casual tooling-around-town kind of bike. It’s not a speed demon, but it’s comfortable as hell.
muddy
I can’t wait for the posters with Rush and Kony hugging.
Old Dan and Little Ann
@General Stuck: I saw that on fb earlier today. I think it’s great, too. Sadly, it requires too much reading, clicking, and thinking for the wingnuts.
Jewish Steel
@Mnemosyne: This is one boy who is a big fan of the step-through frame.
General Stuck
This is interesting. Maybe economist opinions are like polls, meaningful if you ask enough of them, or something like that.
And from the I didn’t know that files
So big numbers of new jobs may not be as important as the trend. At least for the purpose of keeping the wingnuts out of the WH. Now isn’t that some cheery news?
Wag
@General Stuck:
I think David Brooks is up to the challenge.
General Stuck
@Wag:
I think Brooks is losing his mind from finding too many needles in the hammer sack. But he could probly pull it off.
gaz
@Mnemosyne: I used to get hit on my bike all the time in seattle. With cars. Mostly when people were pulling out of drive-thrus and such – luckily no high speed crashes =).
My solution involved trading my rather wimpy bike with diamondback pro ramp bike – very durable and low to the ground, those things. Since then, I damaged at least two cars, and myself and the bike were unscathed.
I gave it to my ex – she’s 4’11 and tiny, so I figured she could use the extra armor. =)
burnspbesq
@Jewish Steel:
The Reese Witherspoon of bikes?
Mnemosyne
@Jewish Steel:
They are definitely more convenient, especially if you want to wear normal clothes and not have to put on “bike clothes” all the damn time.
The Cocoa also has a chain guard and skirt guard, so I can jump on wearing whatever I want and start riding. That was one of the big selling points, to be honest. If you’re secure in your masculinity, it’s otherwise quite unisex, and the skirt guard is removable.
When I was first looking for a new bike, somebody here recommended Linus Bikes — they offer both a step-through and a mixte.
butler
@General Stuck: Ya, that’s pretty well established in the election study field. Hopefully the trend continues through Nov and beyond. The biggest threat to his reelection isn’t Mitt, its a 6 month plateau or increase in unemployment. Fingers crossed.
burnspbesq
I loves me some Sara Watkins, but her new record (which comes out next Tuesday, and can currently be heard at NPR First Listen) is a mess.
gaz
@muddy:
Rush Limbaugh would never hug a Ni-CLANG. Just sayin’
Mnemosyne
@gaz:
I’ve had pretty good luck with cars so far, which is surprising in my city since our drivers are … notorious, to say the least. My Cocoa has an aluminum frame but is pretty sturdy, which was another selling point for me.
ETA: I also really like the upright posture for city riding — I feel like I get a much better view of the road and upcoming traffic.
gaz
@Mnemosyne: Do you do damage? If so I may consider getting one myself ;). That was the fun part for me. An apologetic driver with a $800 body shop bill in their immediate future. A handgrip sized hole in the grill of that 525i will do that. Not to mention the peg and fork ripping up the front skirt. That kind of thing really made my day. =)
satanicpanic
I’ve taken to trolling people who comment Ron Paul 2012 by replying KONY 2012. It’s not particularly clever, but I’ll do pretty much anything to annoy the Paulbots.
Cacti
@Mnemosyne:
Kind of like the time Rush was rooting for the Somali pirates.
BethanyAnne
@Mnemosyne: I’m glad you’re ok. I want this bike.
BethanyAnne
@Cacti: And Rush liked that he had Lord’s in the name of his army. No joke. IIRC, it was when Obama sent some advisors over to help Uganda, and Rush tried to say O was attacking Christians by attacking a “Lord’s” army.
gaz
@satanicpanic: I think there’s a video of some paulbots chatting up JT Ready at an occupy event. Do what you will that information. ;)
Mnemosyne
@gaz:
Well, it was bike to bike, so it’s hard to judge how much damage I could do to a car. He was riding one of those mountain bike/BMX-y things, but we both rode away.
My handlebars ended up twisted up, but I straightened them out roughly on the scene and I’m going to have the bike shop take a look at them tomorrow. Other than that, she seems to have survived the collision pretty well.
Marcellus Shale, Public Dick
even if everyone who isn’t rush limbaugh agrees that kony is an evil bastard, capturing him isn’t going to be aided by “awareness”.
awareness is a great tool for attacking fools like limbaugh, not so much for kony.
personally i think kony raises funds for lra by pimping some of the prettier child soldiers to carry limbaugh’s bags around the d.r. . some one connects those dots and maybe grass roots kony awareness will be worth something.
satanicpanic
@gaz: Oh that’s good, I can use that. JT Ready and Ron Paul BFF.
Cacti
@BethanyAnne:
Sometimes I wish Obama would make a public statement against bashing yourself in the head with a hammer.
Mnemosyne
@BethanyAnne:
Nice! I was tempted by a folding bike, but I don’t spend enough time on public transportation to make it worth my while. Plus I knew I was going to want to do a fair amount of hauling on my bike (grocery shopping, etc.) and I was worried that it would be too hard on a folding bike.
gaz
Verde Luxe = my dream bike for mexico transportation.
@ like 21 lbs or so it’s my dream bike for the 3rd world. I’ll have to krylon it and remove the logos and pegs though so I can hide it’s worth.
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=66952
I work with some bike wholesalers so I can get it for much less than the list price.
satanicpanic
I swear I heard an NRP segment about Kony a year or two ago and it was either Inhofe or Demint talking about how they were working with Obama to get military advisors over there. I remember being shocked because it was someone I never would expect. The bill did end up passing and we sent 100-200 “advisors” to Uganda. So there is some bipartisan agreement there, it just took a child-abducting, rapist encouraging cult leader to make it happen.
eemom
@lamh35:
I just posted some linkies for you on the bottom of the last thread re Chen Guangcheng.
gaz
@Mnemosyne: I’m glad you did as well. =)
I have a friend that crashed into a woman while he was riding. She was on foot, he was coasting down the side of a busy street on his bike, and she stepped off of a bus. He ran right into her and he broke his nose, but he freaked her out, because he was all apologetic, and she was unhurt, but he was asking her if she was okay while he had blood pouring down the front of him. LOL.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: Good thing it was a BMX not a BMW. Glad to hear you weren’t seriously injured.
Mnemosyne
@gaz:
It’s one of the advantages to having grown up with 4 older brothers — even at 40something, I still retain the instinct to tuck and roll instead of trying to catch myself.
danielx
Is this a trick question? Yes, of course it is.
The answer is…drumroll…fuck no. Whether the far left and far right are both criticizing Joseph Kony has nothing to do with whether he’s doing something right. He’s a monster, and since he isn’t (as far as I know) sitting on any serious resources like oil or diamonds and he is in Africa, it’s good press to agree that he’s a bad guy with no redeeming virtues and that there are moral absolutes involved. The correct answer from the corporate viewpoint is: who gives a rusty goddamn?
Now I know I’m too cynical. But just sayin’, if he did happen to control two billion barrels of light sweet crude, there would be no Kony 2012 movie. There would be counterclaims from various sources that his child soldiers weren’t really children and that Kony is actually protecting us from the ever encroaching forces of the ever more fearsome doodah, and/or that we should just keep walking because we can’t fix everything in the world, and besides market forces like the Xe Corporation are much better suited to sort out the situation. And anyway those children clearly needed discipline, so there you go. A greater moral purpose is being served by Kony.
Now, again just sayin’…far left or far right. For a hundred points and a chance at bonus, would these counterarguments be advanced by Rush Limbaugh, or Rachel Maddow? And yes, I know, Rachel Maddow is not all that far left, but people on the far left don’t get oodles of airtime that I’ve noticed, whereas every talk radio station has got at least one home grown wingnut and at least one nationally syndicated wingnut on for several hours a day. But I digress.
You have ten seconds…..
Chris
@honus:
Ironic, given that the LRA’s biggest government backer is the islamist regime in Khartoum.
gaz
@danielx: FTW!. Answer Rush. He already did.
Mnemosyne
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Like I said, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by Glendale drivers. People give me plenty of room on the road and will often wave me through stop signs ahead of them or roll down their window to check to see if I’m planning to turn or go straight.
They were WAY more rude in Pasadena when I was doing my test rides. Really, Pasadenaites, if it’s just you and me on 6-lane Del Mar, it’s not gonna kill you to give me 3 feet of passing room instead of 6 inches.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: I got a bike back when I lived up in the hill country(Montrose). I got so freaked out by the drivers that I pretty much stopped riding. I was planning on doing some mountain biking but never did. I haven’t ridden the bike since we moved down to the lowlands. The bike is out back and one of these days I’d like to take the river ride, though I’ve lived in fear of actually getting to the river(not far) and a place to cross the river(a bit farther).
danielx
@gaz:
The Winnah! We’re changing things up this time, the winner gets the two free trips to Dallas. Sorry, dude.
Mnemosyne
@BillinGlendaleCA:
My main biking is around downtown Glendale and west Glendale and it really has been okay. I did take a bike commuting class at the REI in Arcadia that made me a little more comfortable in traffic, so that helped. I think CICLE offers some as well. Glenoaks west of Pacific has bike lanes going all the way to Burbank, and people are good about respecting those.
You do have to pick and choose your streets, though. I wouldn’t ride more than a block or two on San Fernando if you paid me. Before I started riding to work, I used Google Maps to get bike routes and then drove them to check them out.
The river path is really gorgeous, though you do sometimes go past some scary-looking homeless people. Lots of wildlife (especially birds). Being a middle-aged female, I wouldn’t go by myself, but the River Ride is coming up.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: Yup, the bike lanes help alot. I’ve noticed the ones on Glenoaks, might be useful to get to Smart & Final. I guess the side streets might be a bit better than say Pacific or San Fernando to get up there. I really do need to get the bike working before my doctor tells me again that I’m fat. I do wonder sometimes why I pay him to tell me stuff I already know.
Mnemosyne
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Just watch out for those damn teenagers on their BMX bikes — my collision today happened on one of the little side streets off Glenoaks where there’s almost no traffic (which is why the kid came zooming into the street the way he did).
Rev. Jeff
Oh my head of infidelity, I’m glad I hung in there til the end.
Maybe cony can chair some sort of deficit reduction committee?
Sly
Someone get him a weekly column in the Washington Post and contract with CNN for an hour… no… a two hour show in the 7PM time slot. “Praise the Lord and Pass the Rape, with Joseph Kony” would be the perfect lead-in for Piers Morgan.
Master Mahan
So far, Democrats and Republicans can only agree that mass rape and murder are bad on a theoretical level. I’m pretty sure if Obama says something about Joseph Kony, the right-wing will reflexively defend him.
Darkrose
@lamh35: That’s awesome! Kid’s good!
Darkrose
@Mnemosyne: Ack! You’re okay, though?
Frankensteinbeck
@Mnemosyne:
While my experience with bikes there is nonexistent, my experience with drivers in LA was that they were skilled and polite. They let you in to merge, they generally used turn signals and turned from the correct lanes, and so forth. Impatient as Hell – the space between a light turning green and the guy behind you honking was negative two seconds, but they understood that everyone survived because the road is shared.
Let’s say things are not that way in Kentucky.
Billy Rae Valentine
there is not complete consensus on Joseph Kony.
The belief amongst certain Pan-African friends of mine (well really one Nation of Islam associate)is that all the KONY 2012 stuff is really an excuse to push for more American imperialism. Just like the overthrow of Ghadafi, it is part of an effort to slice up Africa for Western interests. America’s alleged reason is that other nations like China are partnering with African nations in various ways and we are seeking to stop that, or compete with it. It’s a new Cold War in the region.
Then there’s also the school of thought amongst some that the KONY 2012 thing is a scam in the sense that the entity making the videos is just scamming people for money or something. i don’t know as much about this theory.
Calouste
@Frankensteinbeck:
Angelinos would have a bit of a problem adjusting to Seattle. The average time here between the light turning green and the first car moving is about twenty seconds.
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
Del Mar is not 6 lanes, or anything close. It’s four lanes, and they had to cheat a lot to get those four, which is why drivers are going to be unwilling to share the road with you. If you want to bicycle along that route, try California, which was narrowed to two lanes to provide more space for parking and bicycles, or, if you’re only riding east of Caltech, try San Pasqual.
jonas
@Mojotron: You win the internets today.
Jebediah
@lamh35:
Cool shirt – congratulations!
Mnemosyne
@Roger Moore:
At the time I was on it, there were four lanes, one car, and one bicycle (me). They can fucking share the fucking road.
Mnemosyne
@Darkrose:
I’m okay. My sore ribs developed overnight, but I think they’re just strained. I took one Tylenol and one Advil before bed and slept fine, so I don’t think there’s any permanent damage.
I’ve been trying to convince some of my friends at work to start biking in — hopefully this won’t put them off too much!
KSE
@Billy Rae Valentine: The imperialism stuff is definitely worth talking about. Leaving Kony himself aside, the KONY 2012 thing is basically a bunch of white kids with no in-depth understanding of the region trying to fix shit with a facebook campaign… Which – call me cynical! – does not sound to me like a recipe for success.
The deeper, darker conspiracy theory is that this isn’t just any old misguided feel-good scheme or money-making scam, this is a 21st century missionary offensive backed by the radical theocratic Dominionists, who you might recall already have a history in Uganda. Specifically, these are the same people who were backing Ugandan politicians who proposed legislation to not only outlaw homosexuality, but make it a capital offense. The idea is that by picking out one horrible individual (out of dozens of nutcases in the region – General Butt Naked will always be a personal favorite) who has operated in Uganda (albeit not for the past 5 years), they can rehabilitate the image of the Ugandan government and get otherwise left-leaning people to donate money to the current regime so it can solidify its hold on power.