Get your 2nd On

If there was ever a more fitting end to 2013, we could only find it in Modesto.  Once a thriving agricultural town, it now competes with Fresno for most car thefts per capita in the state of CA. Lots of leftover Walter Whites, too, missing teeth and all.  So as we spend every Christmas there, I came upon 2 symbols of all this past year has seemed to represent:
1st is the billboard with the above post title. Complete with targeting scope. I couldn't tell if the ad was meant for a gun/ammo store or a shooting range. Doesn't really matter.
2nd is the sticker on the back window of a white pickup truck (brand omitted) as we pull off Hwy 99 at Kansas Ave. - Statute of Liberty but with an assault rifle where her torch should be. Because I'm sure when the French gifted the US that giant beacon of freedom, they were thinking as far back as 1886 about developing advanced weaponry like AK-47s and AR-15s. And what does that sticker even mean? What does the 2nd Amendment have to do with immigration? We know the gun nuts are out there, but the pretzel logic still defies belief.
So, as we close the books on a year that had more than its share of red, with a government as dysfunctional as ever, with a Pope being called Marxist (the Pope!) simply because he cares about social inequality, let us revisit the actual statue:

What does the torch represent? The torch is a symbol of enlightenment. The Statue's official name represents its most important symbol, "Liberty Enlightening the World."

Nothing says you're enlightened more than replacing the torch with a gun.  Now that is HIGHpocrisy 2013! Happy frikkin New Year!

No play-time

We're not sure why this isn't getting more attention, but we'll just refer you to some of the basics and let you decide for yourself.  Gotta say, though, if the wives catch wind of this (and they may already know?), then no Christmas miracle will save the poor shlubs in the not-so-Great-Lakes-anymore state from the nightmare to be unleashed.
Back soon with our annual year-ender.

What is the "it"

that the doctor-senator from OK refers to in the following phrase:

"It has damaged the ability of us to move forward."

If you guessed the recent Senate rules change that allows for nominations to proceed based on simple majority vote, you win!  But if you think that Coburn and his fellow Rs were capable of moving forward or even wanting to move forward, then you haven't even been playing. 

Scraps

Just in case we already posted an entry titled, "Leftovers" from a Thanksgiving gone by, we still had to throw some of the carcass out with the Cyber Monday trash.

No middle ground

Because Thanksgiving is either this,

Or this,

Hope it's the latter.

trifecta

Linked already to my twitter feed, then to Facebook, so might as well complete the cycle as our movie Tuesday.  [And because 'video clip Tuesday' doesn't sound the same.]

In lieu of

movie Tuesday, just go here and watch a bunch of these. Then, honor our veterans any which way you can... thanks Paul, I know you know.

Hope-y, no change-y

sadly, it may be time to recognize the obvious.  Once we admit we have this problem, only then can we begin the long road... who are we kidding?  Inmates still have too much power in this here ol' asylum.  George Carlin, still preaching from the grave, to the tune of, 'there's a club, and you ain't in it. They own you.'  [clip intentionally omitted, it's Friday, not Tuesday! TGIF, not TGIT!]

Movie Tuesday, sort of

Scouring the google-tubes takes longer than I thought.  So this week, we're trying a 2-fer:
regular HIGHpocrisy from the Clown Reince, and a video clip.  See if you can guess the theme.  Enjoy.

for my young padawans

yes it was supposed to be movie Tuesday, but it's Halloween, so we're doing this. 
Alt version in Excalibur could've worked too; but kids love Star Wars.

movie Tuesday

we're moving up movie quote Thursday to make Movie Tuesday a new thing. May not last, so enjoy while we you can.

Legitimacy

"to burn down the village" - what's our real-life bat signal, again?

movie quote Thursday

From the original and best Die Hard:

"welcome to the party, pal!"

today's winner

In fact, this doofwad could be the month's winner, too.  It's that easy, folks. Really, aren't we all winners now?

Name That Tune

EJD: I can explain this 'crisis' in a nice blog post.
GS: I can explain it in 2 sentences.
us:

generally not a fan

and so we don't read Politico.  Except when a blog that we do follow links to an article we like.  Such as.  The fable, by the way, could well be the oldest example of HIGHpocrisy there is, since we're already dating back to Greek times when our slogan itself was invented.  Ahh, the classics.
2nd btw of the day, we tweeted @TheDailyShow to ask when the clown prience reibus[tm] gets his muppet look-alike.  Has there been one?  Did we miss it? 

Laundry

It's close enough to the start of Fall, so enjoy this little bit of irony in lieu of future HIGHpocrisy, coming soon to a ghost town near you.
No, the title has nothing to do with it.  With issues like the debt ceiling, funding the gov't and/or the ACA, immigration reform, and avoiding war in the Middle East, it's about the laundry list on the horizon of the hell-scape.  Like I said, enjoy.

new fab five (-teen)

To mark the occasion of our 5-year anniversary, we're changing the blog roll.  Slightly.  Gone is FDL.  In flux is Nate Silver's 538, until he launches at ESPN (no new content via the temporary link anyway).  Adding Salon and Mother Jones, because, it's not quite the 7-year itch, so why not? 
Read up.

Some kinda record

1st of all, great post by the Nobel prize-winner. 
2nd, I guess he has to say that last line, 'reasonable' may not exist?  Truth is, it does not exist. But hey, point taken, and better now than later. 
Which has me wondering, how do we keep from repeating headers with each new entry, without having to resort to scrolling the entire list of archives?  Also, is J even aware we're coming up on the 5-year anniversary of this little venture?  5 years, and no growth in traffic, no discovery, no star-bursts.  That has to be some kinda record.

Swing and a miss 2

Lest we be judged (and by 'we', we really mean 'they'): Nobel prize-winner says it's beyond hypocrisy !  That's not the name of our new website or anything, we just wanted to give it a quick mention.  We could have used a poster of Ryan Braun instead, who knows?

Which one?

What sounds better to describe this week's SCOTUS brand of Highpocrisy?  Two of the most far-reaching and meaningful decisions in our history, certainly in our lifetime: the DOMA and VRA cases, each cutting in opposite directions.  Have we been Scalia'd?  Scotusized?  Can we add a new term to the glossay below, and if so, should we go with either of those or do you have another suggestion?  It's still early, so let us know.

Swing and a miss

Hey since we're in the middle of the amateur baseball draft, how's about a nice wholesome slice of HIGHpocrisy, going down as easy as apple pie and our national past-time.

Man-crush

Not sure what else to call it.  Yes, the writing and style are phenomenal, but look at the core of that post: the greatest, most obvious example of HIGHpocrisy this country has ever known, maybe ever.  If we can't get KO to join us in what we still refer to as a 'silly little venture', then maybe the estimable Mr. Pierce can do so?  "You think big, you be big, my friend".

For F**k's Sake

Sometimes, far more frequently these days than we care to remember, a four-letter word is the only word that comes to mind when trying to process days like yesterday. 
Four months have passed since our 'year-ending' last entry on the god-awful tragedy in Newtown.  Time does not heal all wounds.  Now we have fresh, new ones.  So just as we inched closer to getting back into standard HIGHpocrisy fare, like dealing with the President's latest middle finger to the people and party that re-elected him, some insane A-hole (or plural, a-holes) decides to ruin a perfectly boring marathon and plunge us back into the 'pit of despair'. 
In the process, s/he or they -- let's go with 'they' for now, it writes better -- also messed with the wrong icon, like they care.  It was not just Patriots Day in Boston, but the anniversary of when Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier.  All major leaguers wear his number '42' on Jackie Robinson day.  Jackie is one of my personal idols, though he played before my time.  His initials 'JR' are 1 of the reasons I post as J Rollah; a picture of him adorns my faux Facebook page as my profile.  He represents to me all that is good about human nature, and yesterday's perps represent all that is bad.
Maybe someday, if the grief and anger subside, we can get back to our silly little venture here, infinitesimally small compared to the stuff we should be writing about.  We can honor Jackie properly then.  We can strive to live up to the ideals for which we think he stood.  But not this day.  In public, back in his time, Jackie may have taken the high road in the face of such vitriol, but to whoever did this in Boston, all I can say at this moment is, "F**k you!"  For tearing up lives & families, for forcing average citizens to become something they didn't want or ask to become, even for not letting us enjoy a single day, "F**k you!" 
No, I don't feel better yet, it doesn't go away.  Here's to praying that the four-letter word doesn't rear its ugly head so much in the future.  Here's to hoping for that better tomorrow.  Yes, to answer Craig Ferguson's question from last night, I am sick of this sh**!