Disappointed Romney Fan's Hilarious Epic Drunken Rant is an Instant Classic

I can well understand how people who voted for Mitt Romney are angry and upset that he didn't win. It's a perfectly human reaction and Republicans are completely entitled to those emotions.

I also don't want to pick on anybody, OK, I don't want to pick on most people, who have some negative emotions about this election.


But I want to share a video of sorts that's been rocketing around the Web today of a Romney backer, Shelly Dankert, a blogger and conservative from Nebraska, who recorded herself on an amazingly HUGE rant while drinking her sorrows away election night.
Most of it is just a blank screen, but you hear her truly amazing, epic rant. It's the wildest reaction to anything since the infamous "Leave Britney Alone!!" video from 2007.

The most accurate quote in Dankrt's rant is this You want to call me unhinged! I'm totally F****** unhinged right now!!!! Yes, you are, Shelly.

Besides the histrionics, another facet of the video that makes it perfect is the sound of ice cubes clinking in her glass of booze.

If you're an Obama person, you'll find this video hysterically funny. Romney fans might feel the same way, or they'll regard it as a great way to get their frustrations out of their systems.

It's 24 minutes long (amazing she survived that long) so you can listen to it in bits and pieces. Be forewarned, this is totally NSFW. I don't think I've heard more F bombs in one rant ever.

I'm sure there will be a lot of parodies of this video, but for now, enjoy the original. It is beyond priceless, and you'll laugh out loud. I sure did. It's amazing how unfiltered rage can become high comedy. 

Small Town Vt. Election Shows What's Right, Wrong About Politics

Like almost every journalist in the nation, I spent election day covering the outcome of the balloting.

The back bumper of a truck parked at a polling place,
Milton, Vermont election day 11/6/12

I stopped in the relatively small town of Milton, Vermont to check in on things there. I got a lesson on everything that's both wrong and right with the nation's political climate.

Most of it scene in Milton was standard issue election fare. Candidates stood next to the parking lot, holding campaign signs and greeting voters. Town residents said hi to each other as they came in and out of the municipal building, where the election was being held. A bake sale benefitted the town's upcoming 250th birthday celebration.

But in the middle of the parking lot was a jarring scene. A guy had parked his truck there, it's back bumper festooned with virulently anti-Obama stickers. Signs with grammatical and spelling errors also pointed out the man's hatred of Obama.

"Obama: Why Stupid People Shouldn't Vote," read one bumper sticker. A hand made sign read: "Warning: Obama may win the election but Americans will loose (sic) it all. Our country is being stolen."

The man put flyers under the windshield wipers of the voters' cars as they were inside casting ballot. The paper listed a lot of reasons why he thought we shouldn't have voted for Obama: "Deminished (sic) America's strengths. To make America more Acceptable to his Muslum (sic) brothers.

This man represents what's wrong with American politics. No, there was nothing wrong with people supporting Romney or Obama.  Many perfectly reasonable people thought Romney would make the best president, and many perfectly reasonable people thought Obama would be best.

The election turned out to be Obama's.

The problem came when all too often, the political discussion was hijacked by people like the angry man in the Milton, Vermont parking lot. There's people like him lurking on both the political right and left.

Rather than have a somewhat intelligent debate on whether Obama or Romney's approach was best, some people resort to these wild attacks not based on reality.

For the record: No, Obama is not some communist dictator set to completely control our lives. No, Romney was not some capitalist  gone amok intent on impoverishing us all so he could rake in billions. Both are smart guys with flaws like we all have, both sometimes self-serving, who had two starkly different visions of how America should move forward.

The Loopy Lous I guess have the right to spout their idiocy. But really, they're not helping. That's what's wrong with American politics. It just makes everybody angry. And until this election, I thought it maybe would turn people away from engaging in voting, in politics, in the country's future

But here's what's right with the way the election system: Almost everybody who came to vote in Milton either ignored the guy with the whacked out signs, or engaged in brief conversations with him, just to be polite.

Those voters calmly walked into the municipal building, calmly cast ballots and calmly walked out to go on with their days.

A Republican candidate for representative in the Vermont House campaigning at the Milton municipal building who wanted Romney to win made it clear to whoever would listen that he had no affiliation with the guy and all those weird signs.

John Cushing, the Milton Town Clerk, shrugged his shoulders and said the scene in the parking lot was just American free speech at work.

Maybe some of the wackos thought they would demoralize those they hated, and they wouldnt turn out to vote, and that would help them win.

Instead, there might have been a backlash. A small part of the reason many people voted, weighed in, was because they wanted their rational voices heard above the din of political insanity.

I took comfort that, despite all the attention paid to the loopy reactionaries, it turns out the vast majority of Americans, Democrats, Republicans and Independents, quietly made up their own minds, stayed away from the fireworks, soberly voted and hoped for the best.

Was Diane Sawyer Drunk?

Post-election speculation has swirled all over the place, and has landed, among other places on ABC's Diane Sawyer.

Was she nipping at the booze during the election coverage? She sure seemed like she was having fun, talking about magic milkshakes, lamenting the lack of music to introduce a new segment, and slurring words.

I don't want to be unfair. She might have been very tired. God knows she probably worked more than 24 hours straight. Or people just caught a couple iffy moments and cobbled together clips into funny YouTube videos.

Of course, 24-hour election coverage would certainly drive me to drink, so if she did imbibe, I'm not surprised.

I'm also sure plenty of Republicans are drinking heavily today. This election was not their moment.

Perhaps all this means that the election will prompt the nation's alcohol industry to lead the nation into a long, sustained and booming economic recovery.

Below is the clips of Sawyer on election night. You decide what was up with her. 

Do We Need Roadside Memorials for Dead Fish?

We've all seen those sad makeshift memorials on the side of the road, where a fatal car crash has claimed a life and somebody wants the victim remembered.

Our friends over at the animal rights group PETA takes this one step forward: In California, they want a roadside memorial erected at the site of a truck crash that spilled 1,600 pounds of saltwater bass, according to the Redding, (Calif.) Searchlight.   The fish, which had been bound for a market to be, um, killed for human consumption, died in the crash.

Does this victim deserve a roadside memorial?

So PETA wants a roadside memorial for the unfortunate fish who died so tragically in the truck crash

The city of Irvine, where the crash happened, has cruelly turned down PETA volunteer Dina Kourda's request for the roadside memorial.   PETA says they'll try again.

PETA's point is fish value their lives and feel pain, so if they die, it's a worth a roadside memorial. Somehow, it's worse than being killed at the fish market.

"They are on their way to slaughter, which is, of course, pretty hellish. To suffer an accident on the way and be left in the middle of the street is unthinkable," the Searchlight article quoted  PETA spokeswoman Asheley Byrne.

But this idea could get out of control, no? I mean, how many other trucks actually make it to the market without incident? How many memorials would we need at the fish market? And wouldn't that get in the way of shoppers trying to obtain fish? Or is that PETA's point?

What about all the road kill on the road to the fish market, or any road? I have seen so many squirrels, skunks and raccoons who met a premature end on some roadway. You'd need a memorial every three feet on the road's shoulder. Who would put them there? Who would maintain them? How would you find room for road signs that tell motorists to slow down so they don't run over other poor animals trying to cross the street?

I can see how the city of Irvine would turn down the idea of a memorial for the dead fish in the truck crash.  Lots of politicians and city leaders like to avoid setting precedents.   According to the Redding Searchlight article, PETA has tried to put up memorials for  pigs killed in Virginia and cows killed in crashes in Illinois, Kansas, and Manitoba, Canada.. None won approval.

Irvine, I guess, went the way of the other cities.  Which makes sense. I don't think you can even buy fish memorials anywhere.  Though I suppose that could become a brand new, job-creating industry. As long as the trucks shipping the roadside fish memorials don't run over any animals on the way to the places that ordered the memorials.

IRVINE (AP) — Animal activists want a California roadside memorial sign to honor fish killed during a container truck crash.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals volunteer Dina Kourda told Irvine's street maintenance chief the sign would remind drivers that fish value their lives and feel pain.
About 1,600 pounds of saltwater bass died on Oct. 11 when the truck hauling them to market got into a three-way crash.
Kourda's letter acknowledges roadside memorials traditionally honor humans, but she hopes an exception will be made.
Irvine spokesman Craig Reem says there won't be a fish memorial.
But PETA spokeswoman Asheley Byrne said they will go back and ask again.
It's not the first time PETA has asked to post a memorial for animals killed on their way to slaughter.

It's their first fish effort. They will continue trying for memorials when trucks carrying animals to slaughter are involved in crashes and there is a heavy death toll.
"They are on their way to slaughter, which is, of course, pretty hellish. To suffer an accident on the way and be left in the middle of the street is unthinkable," Byrne said.

An Abba Museum!

The latest reason to go on living is the news that came out recently that there will be an Abba museum in Stockholm, Sweden.

I'm not quite sure what will be in there, aside from some gold records, some photographs, maybe some stage props from their concerts.

A museum to memorialize Abba:
A reason to go on living!

Maybe there could be some artifacts of things that come up in  Abba songs. Kind of like a Madame Tussad's wax musuem

There would have to be a Dancing Queen, of course, some dippy woman in a tiara doing the Hustle with her hot 1970s partner. Or they could hold dancing queen contests, in which melodramatic gay men can vamp to Abba songs, in or out of drag.

Maybe the museum can steal a bust of Napolean from another museum, since Abba has a song that goes "My, my! Waterloo! Napolean did surrender! 

My, my, all right.

Some of their songs are hard to turn into a visual cue for a museum. What do you do with "Take a Chance on Me?"  Just hang a fuzzy dice and display a poker game or something in a room and leave it at that?  Maybe sell Abba lottery tickets? Win the scratch off Abba ticket and win their hit "The Winner It All" for your iPhone?

There's quite a Spanish element to Abba's oueve. "Fernando," "Chiquitita"  Maybe pics of Abba in Spanish garb?

Who would be the Abba museum curator and employees and what would they  look like? The men wear Saturday Night Fever style polyester suits and the women have sort of '70s Dorothy Hamel haircuts?

Anyway, on your next trip to Stockholm, be sure to check out the Abba museum and let me know if it's worth going to.

Cannibal Cop Creates Crazy Headlines

The news last month was disturbing. A New York City Police officer is accused of plotting to kill, cook and eat as many as 100 women, including his girlfriend.  

It was an elaborate plot involving getting information on his victims from a police data base, slow cooking the victims and elaborate fantasies of the meals.

Really, really bad. His parents must be so proud.

Luckily, nobody died before this moron got too hungry. When the news broke, the ever helpful New Yorker magazine listed a series of headlines that would have worked in the New York Post.

Some of my favorites:  "NYPD Chew," "Stop and Fricassee", "Cook 'em, Danno" and "Don't Braise Me, Bro."

I'm not sure what the post ended up running.  But I bet our arrested cop has plenty of time these days and in the future reading the papers and coming up with his own headlines.

Yes, I know this blog post is, um, tasteless

Best Anti-War PSA Ever!

I stumbled onto this video over at Copyranter a week or so back.  

It's a PSA from a group called War Child Canada, who say their mission is to highlight how war affects communities and to help children reclaim their childhood through access to education, opportunity and justice.

The ad has been a source of a lot of buzz in the advertising agency, with many critics talking about how brilliant it is. People have noted part of it is brutal to watch.

The first half of the one minute ad really does have some images that might be disturbing for some viewers. But stick with it the whole ad until the end.

It makes its point brilliantly, and packs quite an emotional whallop. Do watch!