One reason I read Dave Weigel is so that I won’t have to pick through Orson Scott Card‘s “fascinating political paranoia” on my own:
… His last column on politics is a sort of masterpiece of that genre, starting with the grouping of “George W. Bush lied about WMDs in Iraq” among “politically useful lies,” and continuing with a fantasy of how Barack Obama will stay in power forever.
Obama is, by character and preference, a dictator. He hates the very idea of compromise; he demonizes his critics and despises even his own toadies in the liberal press…In other words, Obama already acts as if the Constitution were just for show. Like Augustus, he pretends to govern within its framework, but in fact he treats it with contempt.
Here on Earth, Obama has actually signed off on a series of compromises that fell short of what he demanded—the health care law, the debt limit increases—and he’s only the latest president to appoint a series of advisers who are termed “czars.” Back on Planet Card, it’s clear that Hillary Clinton will not be the Democrats’ 2016 nominee.
Michelle Obama is going to be Barack’s Lurleen Wallace. Remember how George Wallace got around Alabama’s ban on governors serving two terms in a row? He ran his wife for the office. Everyone knew Wallace would actually be pulling the strings, even though they denied it. Michelle Obama will be Obama’s designated “successor,” and any Democrat who seriously opposes her will be destroyed in the media the way everyone who contested Obama’s run for the Democratic nomination in 2008 was destroyed.
That’s a fun theory that forgets the role that 50 states have in electing a president, and the lack of operational control the White House has over the voting systems of those states. How does he get around that? Card sees how. “Like Hitler and the Iranian dictators,” Obama has announced his plan for a “powerful domestic army to terrify any opposition that might arise.” According to Card, “Obama called for a ‘national police force’ in 2008, though he never gave a clue about why such a thing would be necessary.”…
Yeah, quite a few people here would be really really happy to campaign for Michelle 2016, but for the sad reality that she doesn’t want the job. But if you’re into militaristic fanfic, click the link for more details.
Back here on Planet RBC, what’s on the agenda for the evening? Anybody on the Facebook know if Cole’s been posting there?
Belafon
Before finding out that Card was a homophobe/bigot, I had read Ender’s Game to all three of my sons over the years, generally when they were about 4 or so (mine are 18, 13, and 8). “The enemy’s gate is down” has always been kind of fun to say. And now they come out with a movie.
PeakVT
Card’s not very good at realistic fiction, is he?
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
John is busy right now in meatspace accomplishing work-related stuff that needs to happen at this particular time.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
Why are people with three names always bucknutty?
Baud
I would kill for a First Lady named Lurleen.
raven
Got my new redfish today, looks great on the wall!
Jerzy Russian
Mr. Card is nuttier than squirrel shit.
Belafon
I thought this comment on Slate was good:
SiubhanDuinne
A couple of hours ago he put up someone else’s picture of something, so at least we know he’s able to click on “Share.” Maybe in real life he’s busy hauling the cat tree over to the window in the hopes that Steve will finally use it.
Suffern ACE
Wow. Al gore crushed all of his democratic challengers in 2000. John Kerry crushed his in 2004. I see a trend in Democrats appointing dictators as their standard bearers.
Gin & Tonic
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader: Hmm.
1- Just
2- Some
3- Fuckhead
I dunno, your call.
raven
@efgoldman: It have done been ate.
gnomedad
If we rub this guy against a firebagger, we’ll have all the energy we’ll ever need.
Howard Beale IV
Wow. Microsoft is planning a Blake’s 7 remake for XBox Live.
Gin & Tonic
@raven: Looks like it’s coated in plastic.
Gex
Cole hasn’t FBed for a while now. Doing some things in the real world as part of the RBC, apparently.
I wonder why so many people can openly advocate for the overthrow of our government without anyone dusting off sedition laws. It would be nice if advocating for the end of our nation carried some sort of social cost.
I’m having a pretty tough night tonight. This is the month where anniversaries of Kate’s cancer start coming up, and it’s been tough.
Also, some pics from my new neighborhood. Pup pictures included.
Anne Laurie
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader: Thanks!
(And for the record, “Anne Laurie” is my first name, so you can’t include me in your tally on that basis.)
Keith P
For..the..loss!
EDIT: And *brilliant* plan to piss off half the public right before your big movie starts getting press.
SFAW
Gonna re-read Ender’s Game, and look for the secret messages Card has incorporated into the story. You know, the ones about the Trilateral Commission, the Rothschilds, the reconquista of Nuevo Aztlan, the seven Santini Brothers, Malcolm Little being Obama’s real father, the Great Jewish Conspiracy What Controls All The Money in the World, the mystical writings of Emmanuel Goldstein and Aleister Crowley (author of “Hexercise”), clues as to who REALLY killed the Radio Star, whether the statues of Ezra and Clara have ever traded places, and a baby’s arm holding an apple.
For starters.
lamh36
@SiubhanDuinne: didn’t know Cole was on facebook actually….hmm.
So apparently I’m sitting here watching Patrick Swayze’s very last dance film…and it called “One Last Dance”, written, directed and co-starring his wife Lisa. Aww…RIP Patrick Swayze.
http://youtu.be/JTB3itIus64
Jeremy
Well back in reality. The Administration is proposing expanding broadband to 99 % of schools in the country. They want to get it done in 5 years and they don’t need congressional approval. This could be a big deal and a big part of Obama’s legacy.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…
Narcissus
If I write a slash fanfic where Ender fucks his way through an army of Battle School twinks, will somebody post it on the front page please
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@Gin & Tonic: Good one!
The Other Chuck
Man, are these wingnuts ever not pissing their pants in fear of something or other?
raven
@Gin & Tonic: Sheesh, it’s a REPLICA! The old method was to skin them, treat the skin with awful chemicals, and stuff it with plaster of paris. Now you take a picture and they make the replica out of fiberglass. They last forever, are easy to hang on the wall and, to most people except the people here apparently , look really nice. I’ve gotten mine from KIng Sailfish and they are way into catch and release.
Barentw
It disgust me that Card’s work has such influence on me growing up. I worshipped Ender’s Game growing up. Now I want to find my old copy of it and wipe my ass with it and mail it to this Nazimormon douchebag, along with some gay porn.
SFAW
@raven:
Forgive me for even thinking of correcting my better(s), but I believe the proper spelling/conjugation is “It done been et.”
Suffern ACE
I assume by Iranian Dictators he means the shahs.
raven
@efgoldman: If they are cops on duty they wear protection. Sometimes outside of the shirt sometimes out.
SFAW
@efgoldman:
If they truly loved you, they’d share it with you.
Anne Laurie
@raven: To quote my late dad: That oughta keep the tigers at bay!
raven
@SFAW: I was thinkin about how to spell that!
CaseyL
OSC is following the pattern of many hateful lunatics: once he started saying what he really thought, what he really thought quickly became more hateful, as well as increasingly disordered, irrational, and paranoid.
Could RW nutballism really be a cognitive disorder?
Liberty60
@SFAW: Cool Tubes reference! Now excuse me, I have some Youtubing to do.
lamh36
@lamh36: So the final dance between Swayze and his wife had me misty-eyed ya’ll. It soo sweet, it ended with her saying “I Love You” like it was the last time she was gonna see him and him looking at her all lovingly…
I’m telling ya’ll…bawling…awww!
raven
@Anne Laurie: I’m feeling pretty fortunate that my bride went for a second one. The 6 ft tuna was one thing, this dude is only 32″ so it’s not quite as prominent. Along with the skull and bones in the shadow box I guess it’s a really good thing she has her own living room!
SFAW
@raven:
Glad to be of service.
I done larned that way o’ talkin’ in the swamps and bayous of Lawn Guyland and Central MA.
Liberty60
@Barentw:
Smart money is betting he already has some.
Mike in NC
Batshit Card is just upset that he wasn’t appointed Czar of the Gay Bashers.
SFAW
@Liberty60:
Thanks. It just seemed to fit.
Suffern ACE
Next you’ll be telling me that Beverly Cleary’s novels were ghost written by Phillys Shafly.
raven
@SFAW: I still regret not getting out of Narraganset this spring.
BruceFromOhio
Michelle Obama will be Obama’s designated “successor,” and any Democrat who seriously opposes her will be destroyed in the media the way everyone who contested Obama’s run for the Democratic nomination in 2008 was destroyed.
Yeah, SecState Clinton looked so destroyed the last four years. Really enjoyed the whole Ender series, but I’m thinking I’ll catch the movie on TNT for free in about 2 years.
@SFAW: …and a baby’s arm holding an apple.
Winnebagos! I got a whole herd of ’em!
ruemara
I finally got something worth sharing out of Blender. Mind you, it’s banal, but considering the rage Blender used to induce in me, noteworthy. Plus I’m having coffee and coffee is for closers. And, a phone interview next week, so, things to cross my fingers for. The online traffic school is boring though. And I think I just spent all my end of month food money on a drive repair software that didn’t work. Up 2, down 1. Not bad.
Hal
I cannot think of anyone less interested in being President than Michelle Obama.
Gin & Tonic
@raven: Shows what I know. My preferred method is to have the fish caught by a professional and prepared by another before I consume it, but I guess that’s not for everyone.
SFAW
@efgoldman:
I like the cut of your jib.
It really is amazing how they all seem to hate on “Not (like) us)” all the time. If only there were some all-encompassing meme for all of them to hate, someone might be able to get them to do the lemming thing. Can’t see the downside to that, actually.
raven
@Gin & Tonic: Here’s what they look like in real time.
Jeremy
Why is it that we have wingnuts on the right and left are always psycho analyzing the president. The paranoia and ODS is serious.
SFAW
@BruceFromOhio:
I heard you’re giving them away
Gin & Tonic
@raven: The Andrew Zimmern TV program had him in Rhode Island, back in what looked like last winter or early spring, but it was just broadcast last week. He went on a commercial fishing boat out of Pt. Judith, and he dug for clams and oysters with a local grower/farmer (never really know what you call the people who plant and harvest shellfish.) If you like food, this was actually quite a well-done episode (I know almost all the places he went.)
SFAW
@raven:
Kinda small for a tuna, ain’t it?
BruceFromOhio
@efgoldman: See the previous fp post. Something about a wheelchair ramp hurting the value of the neighbors home. While the plural of anecdote is not data (thank you, John Rogers) it does reinforce a general hypothesis of “Fuck you, I got mine”
raven
@SFAW: That’s a redfish,
raven
@Gin & Tonic: I think that’s where I tried to get out. Just up the road from Narraganset, right?
raven
@SFAW: THAT was the tuna!
Southern Beale
What the fuck, I’m so sick of this delusional revisionist projection from conservative lunatics. It’s not even worth commenting on. How can someone like Weigel even take a comment like that seriously, knowing how Obama has bent over backwards to compromise to the point where he’s alienated the progressive wing of the party. Goddamn, our discourse is so fucking stupid I can’t even be a part of it anymore. Get the fuck out of my space, call me when you want to have a fingertip in reality, asshole.
SFAW
@efgoldman:
Not fast enough. Ever read any Cyril Konbluth?
SFAW
@raven:
No shit, Hemlock.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@SFAW: That’s the formal version of “it done been et” – clearly a sign of respect on raven’s part. You know, like Sunday manners.
SenyorDave
So now we have the tell:
Where will he get his “national police”? The NaPo will be recruited from “young out-of-work urban men” and it will be hailed as a cure for the economic malaise of the inner cities.
In other words, Obama will put a thin veneer of training and military structure on urban gangs, and send them out to channel their violence against Obama’s enemies.
Instead of doing drive-by shootings in their own neighborhoods, these young thugs will do beatings and murders of people “trying to escape” — people who all seem to be leaders and members of groups that oppose Obama.
“Urban gangs” “thugs” What’s next? Blackity, blackity, n**ger, etc.
OSC may have started out with some homophobia, but now he’s added some blatant racism to the mix. What a pathetic excuse for a human being.
Tehanu
One of the Chad Mitchell Trio’s better efforts:
“We think it’s great that you’re governor, Lurleen
We’re glad that you’re running the scene.
You’re small and you’re shy, but you’ll keep the peace,
With Mrs. Bull Connor as Chief of Police!
So put on your best Sunday gown
When the National Guard comes to town,
And since the election (which you won, of course)
Just be graceful and charming and never use force,
But make your acceptance and sue for divorce,
And that should keep politics clean! What we mean,
Is when one succeeds him — by George, who needs him?
It’s great that you’re governor, Lurleen!”
Southern Beale
Also who the fuck is Orson Scott Card and why the fuck should I give a shit about what his obviously over- or under-medicated brain thinks?
Anne Laurie
@Hal: Especially since I’m hoping she gets appointed to the Supreme Court –– by President Hillary, if her husband doesn’t get the chance!
.
.
.
.
.
(Yeah, I know it’s not gonna happen, but if we’re sharing phun phantasies… )
Jay C
@raven:
JFTR, raven: I think your fish looks just fine.
PS: is that a natural spot on its tail, or a bullet hole where you shot it?
Gin & Tonic
@raven: Down the road, but yeah. Probably half commercial fishermen and half party boats.
mai naem
Well, Card’s not only LDS but he’s a great great grandson of Brigham Young and there’s some other big shot Mormon on his dad’s side. His wikipedia bio also says he’s a Dem who supports alternate energy but is not convinced on climate change and that he supported Newt in 2012. Don’t mean to sound anti-LDS but I think there’s still a lot of racism against blacks in older LDS folksleft over from church teachings.
OT, does anybody else think Richard Engel has some kind of death wish?I fully expect at some point that he’s going to have died from some violence related to his reporting. Also too, why wasn’t he wearing a bullet proof vest today in Egypt? And, BTW, I really like the guy. He comes across as a smart decent human being who doesn’t have any of that Brian Williams arrogance..
Xantar
And once again, Balloon Juice’s resident PUMA front pager is showing her true colors. How typical that she would write about…
Wait what? Oh, you mean…so she isn’t…and…ah. Well. Umm. Carry on, then.
Hal
@Anne Laurie: the number of cerebral aneurysms that would cause would be worth it, but I’m under the impression Michelle wants to go back to her 9 to 5 job and live her life.
Anne Laurie
@Southern Beale:
No, Weigel agrees with you, per quote at top: “Here on Earth, Obama has actually signed off on a series of compromises that fell short of what he demanded”
It’s OSCard who’s got a hair acrost his arse about Skeery Muslin Dictators-for-Life.
Jeremy
@Southern Beale: I disagree slightly. He didn’t really alienate himself from the Progressive wing of the party, he pissed off the Naderites. Some of the compromises were necessary in order to get something done or nothing would have been done due to congress. (the half a loaf vs nothing approach)
manyakitty
@efgoldman: Dude. Yours too?
Anne Laurie
@Southern Beale: He’s a sf writer whose very popular novel Ender’s Game is being turned into a big Hollywood blockbuster.
Not my cup of chai, even in my sf-fan days, but there are plenty of BJ readers who liked the book!
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Southern Beale:
Can we call an asshole an asshole without mocking neuropsychiatric disorders, please? It’s rather demeaning to people who live with them, or love someone who does. Thanks.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@SFAW: how about an autographed photo of Randy Mantooth?
SFAW
@Jeremy:
If by “Naderites,” you mean everyone to the Left of Preznit Ben Nighthorse Nelson. Otherwise, not so much.
Darkrose
@Narcissus: I would read the ever-loving shit out of that.
moonbat
@mai naem: Amen. He’s a treasure. The man’s beat is the entire Middle East and he never fails to bring a clear-eyed, nuanced view to what is going on on the ground in any situation, usually resulting in the flabbergasting of whatever talking head he converses with at the end of his piece.
Suffern ACE
In reality, Obama’s national police is going to be filled with urbane thugs, who quote 50 cent but set him to Gershwin while swilling champagne. Wake up sheeple.
J.D. Rhoades
That’s it. Orson Scott Card is officially batshit, drooling, bull-goose-loony insane.
TooManyJens
@Narcissus:
There’s no way that hasn’t already been written.
fuckwit
FWIW I would support a Constitutional Amendment stipulating that the spouses, ex-spouses, parents, children, nephews/nieces, or grandchildren of Presidents may not serve as President.
We don’t want or need ruling dynasties here in the USA. It’s anathama to everything we stand for. I hated the Bush dynasty and I’m not looking forward to a Clinton dynasty either.
Maybe after HIllary is elected, there will be a consensus– and particularly buy-in from the right wing– to prevent such an oligarchic thing ever happening again, much as happened after FDR’s 4th term, prompting an Amendment to limit presidents to 2 terms.
kindness
The Right is scaring me. I won’t say beginning because they’ve been crazy since Reagan in my life. But they’ve gotten so much worse and now there is purposeful ignorance as a closely held principle.
The talk of revolt becomes more real and that scares me. I mean, they’d lose. But a lotta folks would take a hit.
NickT
What exactly is fascinating about a pathetic old relic of the less enlightened bits of the 1970s showing standard-issue Obama Derangement symptoms? He’s just babbling out the usual right wing crazy talk.
billB
To explain Card and all the Rethuglicans, see The new great Kevin Drum Piece on Lead in our Gas.
MoeLarryAndJesus
I remember reading a few of Card’s short stories in Omni back in the late 70s and thinking he had a great future.
Boy did I fuck up on that call. The dude is a full-blown wackaloon, as crazy as crazy can get.
The Moar You Know
@CaseyL: I have seen a lot of evidence that would support this theory, and not a whole lot against it.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@moonbat: Interestingly, he and Rachel Maddow were at Stanford at the same time. I think they also overlapped with Cory Booker.
Citizen_X
The proper illustration for Card’s batshittery is this crazy thing served up by Wonkette today.
What’s scary is not the giant lazer eyes ghost Obamster, but the fact that he apparently has thirty foot-tall soldiers working for him. STOP OBAMA AND HIS GIANT SOLDIERS!
Chris
I love this little clip from Card’s article;
He accuses Obama of palling around with islamists, and then accuses him of failing to get tough on a dictator who’s been massacring islamists for several years now. (And accuses him of funding a government in Egypt that doesn’t actually exist anymore).
Ah, what the hell. They all look the same, they must all be the same, eh?
And this;
Obama will use islamist terrorist attacks to justify emergency measures? And in the process, he’ll create an entire new nationwide security agency? Now where could he possibly have gotten an idea like that?
Oh, and this;
… My. God. … you mean that’s all it takes? You mean everything the NRA’s been telling me about my trusty shotgun being the first and last line of defense against Socialist Socialism is actually not true, and that my trusty shotgun has successfully been made obsolete by… whatchamacallem? “Armored cars?” And that the Socialist Authorities are in possession of a bunch of these things already?
WE’RE DOOMED!!!
Mark B.
Card’s a talented writer, but kind of a crank. A lot of the things that Heinlein was reputed to be, he actually is. A lot of the qualities that allow creative writers to imagine fantastic worlds apparently also help them imagine some pretty fantastical things about the world in which they actually live. I can still admire his work, even though its easy to see how nutty he is in real life. I think that nuttiness informs his writing.
Citizen_X
@Citizen_X: Aiee! He’s got one for Bush that’s exactly the same! OBAMA IS JUST LIKE BUSH!
Mark B.
Card is ok, but he doesn’t hold a candle to some of the golden age writers: AE Van Vogt, Spinrad, Bester … Just to mention a few.
Another Holocene Human
@Narcissus: Given OSC’s movie review history, odds are good he would furiously fap to it before denouncing it with thesauruses set on “heavy stun”.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Mark B.:
That’s an understatement.
Phoenician in a time of Romans
@efgoldman: He should run fer Congerss in Al’bama or one o’ them places.
Maybe for presnit.
Christ, no – it’s all projection with these guys. If he got any power, he’d do just what he claims Obama would do – purely as a defensive move, of course….
Another Holocene Human
@Chris: We’re through the looking glass, people.
Comrade Dread
A pity. I had really wanted to go see the Ender’s Game movie. The more this guy opens his mouth, the less inclined I am to do so.
Chris
@kindness:
Ditto. I’d say my ultimate education in terms of how far gone they are was watching them all absolutely lose their shit the nanosecond Obama was in office. Ever since then they’ve reminded me of the conservative legislators in 1930s France that were screaming “Better Hitler than Blum!” in reference to their Jewish prime minister.
@Phoenician in a time of Romans:
Given that the man once said that legalization of gay marriage would be grounds for violent revolution, I have no trouble at all predicting that those “Brown Shirts — thugs who will do [the president’s] bidding without any reference to law” he talks about in that article would be anything but “an experiment in fictional thinking” if he ever made it near the White House.
Chris
@Comrade Dread:
I’m still on the fence. I actually did like Ender’s Game, and the fact that Harrison Ford’s playing one of the main characters is a recommendation in itself, but the idea of sending any money to Orson Scott Card just turns my stomach even more every time I see him pop up on the Internets.
Ah, well. What else is going to be in theaters then? Maybe I can be that asshole who pays for another movie, watches that one, and then sneaks in to see Ender’s Game.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
” He hates the very idea of compromise;”
I though compromise is a dirty work to conservatives.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
OMG, you mean one of the Libertarian-14 forever -sci-fi military -writers-who-never- severed -a -day -wankers has concocted this rubbish about a Liberal dictatorship? ‘Cause you know how hippies love forcing peace and love on other people at gun point. Color me surprised.
What next; Is David Weber, or the aptly named SM Sterling are going to warn about excesses of socialism?
NickT
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
I hate to spoil a good rant, but SMStirling doesn’t have an “e” in his last name.
mdblanche
@TooManyJens: My guess is that was the original version of Ender’s Game and the published version was what was left over after cutting those parts out.
GregB
This douche at least knows how to live in his own fantasy world that he’s created in his own mind.
What can you say about a guy who’s name is an anagram for Contracts Odors, A Scrod Contorts and Cards Coons Trot.
Anagram list link.
The Lodger
@efgoldman: Maybe he was protecting himself against some really vicious fouls…
xenos
‘Ender’s Game’ was only accidentally a good book, if that makes sense. A controversy blew up a few years ago about the book being an apologia for Hitler (the accusation caused a characteristic freak out on the part of Card, of course), a criticism which really missed the point of the book. The book is structured around creating a genocidal protagonist who is morally innocent of his crimes, and where the expiation of his sins is realized by the cultural appropriation of his victims.
So,of course, it is about the USA, and Mormons in particular. But not in a good way. And not in a way Card realized when he wrote it. I am not sure what to compare it to.
Yatsuno
@Comrade Dread: If it makes you feel any better, unless Card has a direct royalty tie to movie profits (which is possible but unusual) he’s made all the money he’ll ever make off the movie by selling the rights to the book. The economics of Hollywood can get strange like that.
xenos
@Yatsuno: And if the producers, actors, and director actually make a decent movie out of that book then they certainly have earned their pay.
I am going to catch it just to see if they can pull it off.
Arclite
I seriously wonder which parallel universe these kinds of people live in. Certainly not our reality.
fuckwit
Rethug projection.
Rethugs have an almost irresistible urge to accuse Democrats of WANTING to or TRYING to do what Rethugs
have already been doing successfully for a long time.
That is all. The Card freaking is yet another, perhaps more extreme, example of it.
WereBear
All the paranoia you’d ever want to see is in Ender’s Game, the book.
Not that he or anyone else realized it at the time…
Patricia Kayden
@SenyorDave: Thank you for putting it so plainly. I’d never heard of OSC before reading about him on JoeMyGod. Sounds like a douchebag. This is another reason I hope his movie fails big.
Every day I wake up, I’m glad that Barack Obama is the President. Can’t imagine having anyone as hateful as OSC, Noonan, Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter, etc., in the White House. All they have is bigotry and hatred. Nothing positive at all. I dread what they’d do to people of color, gays, women’s rights, etc., if they ever get back the presidency.
TriassicSands
I think Obama has a very mixed record, but I can’t imagine how any sane person who hasn’t been in a coma for the last 4-1/2 years could write such a preposterous statement or be so utterly out of touch with who Obama is. It’s equally hard to believe that anyone could be this stupid. Yet, every day, millions of Americans like Card remind me that insanity and stupidity are everywhere in this ‘country. We are in real trouble.
Note: anyone who’d been in a coma would be wise not to offer any opinion on the nature of a president. Card hasn’t been in a coma; he’s been in the GOP.
TriassicSands
Michelle Obama would have to be totally insane to run for president after experiencing, close up, what her husband has had to deal with as president.
Riley's enabler
@raven: Cheers, he’s a beauty! Today would have been the 70-mumble birthday of my beloved Uncle Eddy, who taught me to fish for reds in the Bolivar surf. He passed after a 2 year battle with pancreatic cancer.
Cheers to the reds when they run!
ET
That much delusion and mental illness needs more than just therapy. He needs some serious meds.
brantl
Card should now be introduced as, once a very good writer, now just batshit crazy.
SFAW
@TriassicSands:
Well, apparently the Kenyan Muslim Fascist Socialist has fooled you, too. It’s OBVIOUS to any right-thinking person that B. HUSSEIN Obama has been hiding his true self, in a (hopefully) vain attempt to get re-elected. Right-thinking persons are praying that the Republicans will nominate a WHITE knight to ride in and save the country. Because, if by some fluke, B. HUSSEIN Obama does win re-election, the FEMA internment camps will look like a walk in the park.
Wombats!Wolverines!Frankensteinbeck
‘Old man yells at imaginary Obama.’ Story of our times.
I Heart Breitbartbees
@efgoldman: No thanks. We have enough nutters, like our Teahadi Congresshole from the Huntsville area or both of our Senators. Can’t forget about Roy FUCKING MOORE! Grrrrr!!!!
I Heart Breitbartbees
@Gin & Tonic: You know almost all of the places he went because Rhode Island is the size of a postage stamp. lol
I Heart Breitbartbees
@xenos: I have to agree. Ender’s Game was followed by some not very good work. I wouldn’t call him L. Ron Hubbard without the drugs, cult of personality, or extreme sociopathy, but it’s close.
He actually cited Lurleen Wallace? That ignorant Utah fuck cited Lurleen Wallace? She died in office. I’d have to look it up, but I believe it was cancer. Considering the state at the time, even a George Wallace surrogate wasn’t the worst option that had a realistic chance of being elected. She was succeeded by Albert P. Brewer, whose only notable accomplishment as governor was putting his name on a bunch of shit. That said, President Obama is no George Wallace or Wallace surrogate. If he were, white people, myself included, would be barred from eating at the Woolworth’s lunch counters and subjected to fire hoses while peaceably protesting. Also, he would be standing astride the doors to the University of Alabama to deny white people the right to attend university there. President Obama is no George Wallace, and for that, I’m thankful. What an ignorant piece of shit…
TriassicSands
@SFAW:
No self-respecting tyrant should need more than five years to take absolute control of a country. I guess we can just be grateful to the GOP for fighting the good fight and slowing BHO’s march toward Emperor of the Universe.
I Heart Breitbartbees
@TriassicSands: Besides, Flash Gordon would have stopped him by now anyway.
SFAW
@TriassicSands:
Well, Hussein may be a tyrant hereabouts, but I think the Dorsai, Minbari, Betans, Cylons, and A’Tuin (or Rincewind) all might have something to say if he tries that shit in their neck of the woods.
SFAW
@I Heart Breitbartbees:
With the help of Dr. Noah Zark, of course.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
So beyond not opposing teh gay, being black and Romney looked like their Profit Nerfi what has the Mormon’s so rilled up against Obama? The level of hatred they are showing makes me think Obama messed with some tax exemption for the Mormon Church.
Marmot
@brantl: Naw, man. Ender’s Game is dumb. Super-smart kid gets picked on, then goes through battle training. Repeat cycle X 8. Battle training turns out to have been REAL warfare by remote, zomg. Denouement includes modicum of regret, roll credits.
As a kid in the 80s, it didn’t make me feel super smart to realize this Hugo winner was middling.
feebog
Card’s rant is pretty much run of the mill RWN thinking these days. Sounds like Card and Alex Jones could share a bunk bed in one of those FEMA camps Dictator Obama is erecting out in Nevada somewhere.
TAPX486
I can understand people hating Obama for any number of reasons, some valid and others not so much. It’s part of the political game and has been going on for 200+ in the US and a lot longer in the rest of the world. But this level of paranoia , complete fantasy is beyond belief. I’m waiting for the wingers to blame the sinking of Titanic on Obama, after all surely he could have, before being born, still moved the iceberg into the proper place. After all look at all of those rich people on the ship. Good way to eliminate the 1%
Besides it a well known fact that Big Dog Clinton has been pulling the strings so that he can get Hillary elected in 2016. It’s all part of the Clinton plan for a family dictatorship. They wanted to be sure that Chelsea was old enough to meet the age requirement. =-) =-). (SIGH)
Matt McIrvin
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: I think the thing that makes it weird is that, on the basis of how he sounded back in the early 1980s, nobody expected Card to go this way. If it were, say, Jerry Pournelle, or Stirling, nobody would be particularly surprised. But OSC sounded sort of like a semi-progressive back then, and had a better reputation as a sensitive writer of literary SF… and people read around the more-obvious-in-hindsight tells in his writing of something very strange going on in the man’s mind.
When the overt homophobia started showing up, a lot of people sort of said “well, he’s a devout Mormon, you’re gonna get some of that.” But it didn’t stop there; he was sliding down the long slope to right-wing crazytown.
Matt McIrvin
…The other thing is, I get the impression that the not-very-well-hidden gay/bisexual themes present in a lot of his writing got him a substantial LGBT following early on, and the homophobic rants were a big shock to them.
Chris
@Matt McIrvin:
Yeah. I’ve only ever read Ender’s Game and his last book “Empire” (about a left wing revolution in America – it’s what first tipped me off that he was crazy), but Ender’s Game really didn’t strike me as especially right wing… at least once you get to the ending, where it turns out that the entire war was a mistake, the Buggers weren’t monsters, just a radically different species who didn’t understand what they were doing, and the entire war, as Graf theorized, just happened “because we couldn’t talk to each other.” It’s just… far more nuanced an outlook on war than anything I’ve ever heard OSC do in real life.
(The “OSC Has Always Been An Asshat” guy theorized that OSC hadn’t even written the books. Make of that what you will…)
I Heart Breitbartbees
@SFAW: Sadly, Freddie Mercury is dead, so we can’t get him to sing a sequel to the worst movie theme song in history.
I Heart Breitbartbees
WARNING! VERY NSFW LINK!
Translation of Orson Scott Card’s rant
Matt McIrvin
@fuckwit:
For something that’s so anathema, we’ve certainly had a lot of them: the Adamses, the Harrisons, the Roosevelts (not closely related, but from a powerful blueblood family complete with aristocratic inbreeding), the Kennedys and Bushes. They haven’t yet gone beyond about two Presidents apiece (the Kennedys might have gone to three in some alternate universe).
SFAW
@I Heart Breitbartbees:
Maybe Freddie actually killed himself, when he realized what he had done? (Well, actually, Brian May should have committed seppuku, since he wrote it.)
Matt McIrvin
By the way, this particular column was actually from back in May; it got some attention among SF fans at the time. I suppose the Ender’s Game movie is getting Card’s ramblings some wider attention.
I Heart Breitbartbees
@SFAW: Flash! AAAAAH!!! Ugh! Totally agree on Brian May, preferably in Times Square where he could be safely ignored.
Sondra
I used to enjoy reading his stuff way back in the day. I liked his sci/fi stuff but never understand it to mean what he actually says it means. I guess I just took it on face value as pretty good sci/fi stuff that didn’t require a lot of thought: just good old fashioned escape fantasy.
Apparently I wasn’t his targeted market group – I totally missed his weird side. OOps.