Hey Let's Watch A Short Video

Michael Moore cut this scene from Sicko because no one would believe it

Poor Michael Moore would have been ravaged by the liberal media in the US had this scene made it to Sicko. Norway is positively Un-American.

Now this is America!
Firefighters asked to report people who express discontent with the government

Obligatory Friday Sex Post

"One of my clients already paid. It seemed like a good deed to him."

Indeed.

Prostitute auctions 27 hours of sex for charity

A Chilean prostitute has become an instant celebrity in the Roman Catholic country after auctioning 27 hours of sex to raise money for a disabled children's charity.

Maria Carolina has made headlines and appeared on talk shows since she announced her donation to the televised Teleton, Chile's largest fundraising event that will run for 27 hours this weekend. read more

We've always been paranoid racists

It starts out "DULLNESS is a racial characteristic of the only people who do not cook their food, viz the Esquimaux."

Grape-Nuts claimed to make you smarter than the Esquimaux because it is "pre-digested" or as we know it, "cooked."

clicking on image will open larger version

Tired of spending big bucks for Christmas gifts that your friends only use till the middle of January? Here's a practical gift that says you care...and it's free! Well, except for a piece of heavy card stock and learning to use scissors, I mean.

While I'm sure some of our friends in the northeast and midwest may scoff at this, remember FEMA!




















Click on the picture to enlarge then save it to a folder, print, cut and assemble and you're protected.


Oh, and it's kinda cool in the bedroom, also.

Waterboard Ashcroft- He's willing

Ashcroft defended waterboarding in an address to the U of Colorado and said “The things that I can survive, if it were necessary to do them to me, I would do." That means if it doesn't kill you, then it's okay. Think Progress

Those who say that they would be willing to undergo waterboarding to show that it's okay, fail to understand that they know they are not going to die- that's a pretty big difference.

Doomed

These stories in today's news all seem to go together, don't they?

World faces "cyber cold war" threat
About 120 countries are developing ways to use the Internet as a weapon to target financial markets, government computer systems and utilities, Internet security company McAfee said in an annual report.

U.S. Defense Sec'y Robert Gates: Whomever Invented Internet, Bin Laden Rules It
Even if the Internet was invented in the U.S., Gates sees Al-Qaeda's geeks as having a 21st Century mindset as they demonstrate its power to reach people around the globe.

Intel centers losing anti-terror focus
Local intelligence-sharing centers set up after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks have had their anti-terrorism mission diluted by a focus on run-of-the-mill street crime and hazards such as hurricanes, a government report concludes.

Gee I wonder why the US has lost its focus?

GOP Debates Prove They Are Simply Not With the Program

This article in the Boston Globe regarding the GOP debate last night left me feeling like the GOP candidates have little to offer any large group of American voters. It started off with Rudy accusing Romney of having a "sanctuary mansion" in Mass because he employed illegal aliens to cut his lawn. Oh for gawd's sake, can you imagine having to card your landscaper's helpers? I can't. I don't. Plus they couldn't understand me anyway. Rudy should talk. And it's not like white American born citizens are knocking my door down to cut the grass, rake the leaves, prune the trees, fix the sidewalk, etc. The GOPers are all over the immigration issue but none of them have a solution to it... there probably isn't one. It's more about what to do with the immigrants who are already here vs what to do about the borders. Their charges against each other were all ridiculous. Perhaps if the laws already on the books were enforced, it would be a start. Some of these guys would have to rewrite the State of Liberty's mission.

Then you have the candidates arguing about which one is most conservative. That's a real turn off except to a minority of actual voters and most of them don't even understand what it is to be conservative. It's no wonder that Huckabee is pulling out ahead of the others. He might be a religious nut, but he is not terribly conservative when it comes to social issues except that he is probably the only honest anti-abortion candidate. The rest of them are paying lip service.

They are all still anti-gay for the military. McCain mentioned that this shouldn't be argued in a time of war which is ridiculous considering the military has resorted to recruiting stupid people and criminals to fill the ranks lately. (oh how I wish I could moderate debates)

Then they went on to support gun rights except for Rudy who feels that gun ownership ought to be regulated (the one thing I agree with him on.) No, I wouldn't feel more secure if everyone was packing heat. There would be a blood bath here in NY. I prefer that someone who is angry at me just tell me to fuck off.

Then they discussed the bible. Anyone with half a brain ought to avoid that subject because even among your 'religious' Americans, there are so many religious sects because no one can agree on how to interpret the bible.

As a former Republican, I would have to say that once again, the GOP offers nothing to the lives and issues of American voters at large. They will certainly not win over any non Republican voters.

I never voted for a Republican president in my life, come to think of it.

Favorite News Site Hacked

Down below in the comments to the tobacco post I wrote:
"Anybody else UNable to bring up http://www.signs-of-the-times.org/?"
Well, here is a post from the site's proprietor Laura Knight-Jadczyk on her blogsite Postcards from the Edge of Reality:
SOTT.NET Hacked Again!

"Yes, SOTT has been hacked again - second time this month. And this time, after we paid extra fees to ensure security.

"Just so our readers know, we have had to move our site about 6 times in the past 5 years. On a couple of occasions it was due to hacking; a couple of times it was due to the fact that "someone" started pressuring our service provider to dump us. A couple of times, they didn't dump us, but service that had formerly been good became non-existent.

"Seems like somebody - or a LOT of somebodies - really don't want us on the internet. I think we must be the most attacked and harassed website on the net. I guess that means we must be doing something right!

"We are presently working on solving the problem and will be back online as soon as possible."

Understanding Creation. Not.

Writer and blogger John Scalzi visited the Creation Museum and presents Your Creation Museum Report, a must read.

Here’s how to understand the Creation Museum:

Imagine, if you will, a load of horseshit. And we’re not talking just your average load of horseshit; no, we’re talking colossal load of horsehit. An epic load of horseshit. The kind of load of horseshit that has accreted over decades and has developed its own sort of ecosystem, from the flyblown chunks at the perimeter, down into the heated and decomposing center, generating explosive levels of methane as bacteria feast merrily on vintage, liquified crap. This is a Herculean load of horseshit, friends, the likes of which has not been seen since the days of Augeas.

And you look at it and you say, “Wow, what a load of horseshit.”... continued

Scalzi also has 101 photographs up at flicker with hilarious captions which keep you from completely losing your mind when you consider the content of this "museum."

A particular photo intrigued me and when I read what I could (after cropping it and boosting the contrast) from the placard, I was bowled over by the irony. Remember this museum refutes science and evolution yet speaks of mutations!?!?

In part 3, mutations are called "mistakes" that have accumulated in the human race since Adam's sin.
In part 4, It says that the farther back in history one goes, the less of a problem mutations in the human population would be. Then it goes on to say something about incest. I guess it was ok right after teh fall of Adam. click on the pic to see a larger version.

Hat tip to tali for finding the "creation of kitteh"

Middle East Peace?

This story in the boston globe reports that the goal in 2008 is a Palestinian state. 

What do you think?

Americans, Are we a bunch of weenies or what?

Let's get brave and stand up for the right things (at least on paper.)

I have this sneaking suspicion that when water-boarding becomes officially classified as 'torture' and is outlawed by the US, if there ever is a situation where the fate of the free world rests upon loosening the lips of a suspect, no one is going to say, "Well, I guess that's the end of that city, because we can't do anything scary to get the information out of this guy because it's illegal." It hasn't been proven that torturing someone gets any good intelligence, but I suppose that in a dire situation, someone would try it and wouldn't be court martialed for saving the world, although it is highly unlikely that water boarding someone would save the world.

So tTo the people who say that we shouldn't ban waterboarding or call it torture because it may save lives one day, I say, "Phooey." Making it illegal isn't going to prevent from it happening in certain circumstances. How naive do you have to be to think that everything done in our name is legal in the first place? Waterboarding is torture and if the US as a nation doesn't tell the government to stop the madness, it is going to come back and bite us in our collective asses one day. You would think that a bunch of spooked conservative "christians" would have figured that out by now if they had been reading their bibles.

This is very much an issue for our time. The whole world is watching. Are we a great nation or a bunch of pussy scaredy cats acting like world class bullies and proud of it?

This morning I read Americans and waterboarding and The Shameful Response of Christians to Waterboarding, particularly the shameful comments below the latter.

Life During Wartime

These are nifty cigarette ads from the Great War. You needed nerves of steel and yet a satisfying smoke to operate heavy artillery. (A larger image will open when you click on it.)

Whew. Bush won't interfere in Middle East Peace Conference

No doubt you've heard of the Middle East peace conference which will take place in Annapolis, Md today. You've read that Bush will be there and like me, you probably thought, "Oy vay. This man's idea of peace is a disaster waiting to happen." It has also been suggested that the Bush administration is trying to drum up support from Arabs for an attack on Iran.

According to McClatchy, Bush will just give an opening speech and haul his ass out of there and back to the WH.

A great nothingness or another universe?

A great nothingness that measures nearly a billion light-years across has been found by astronomers.


It has been speculated to be the imprint of another universe beyond our own.

Congress the Month Before Christmas

"Twas the month before Christmas and those sly little elves,
Our congressmen, labored to better themselves.
They cared not a whit what the public might think
"Let them eat cake," some said with a wink.

And putting their thumbs to the tip of their nose,
they waved as they shouted "Anything goes!"

They scoffed at the thought that we might object,
to a tax cut for the wealthy of a posh percent.
They've got prerequisites-franking, per diem, and more --
bargain-priced haircuts and gyms (three or four!)

Paid speaking engagements and meals on the cuff,
celebrity status -- (they've sure got it tough!),

Yet they claim they're in touch with the man on the street,
as John Q. Public struggles to make both ends meet.
If all us workers got what we are due,
we'd be getting those fat paychecks and benefits, too!

But while we take cutbacks or raises quite small,
and one out of 20 has no job at all,
our millionaire Congress decides on the budget
and cuts Medicare; while our prayers just won’t budge it.

In this season for giving, our Congress is taking.
We've had it with them and our backs are just breaking.
With hard times, disasters, and layoffs on our dockets,
we bit the bullet and they still fill their pockets!

Oh jobless, oh homeless, oh desperate and needy -
dare anyone say that our Congress is greedy?

If in this feeling I am not alone,
take up your pen or pick up your phone.
As dry leaves before the wild hurricane fly,
let the rage of your anger mount to the sky.

Indignant, outraged, appalled and beset
let your congressman know that you won't forget!
When election times comes -- and certain it will --
you're voting him out for passing that bill.

More rapid than eagles, their elections assured
they toasted each other and laughed at the herd.
And I heard them exclaim with adjournment at hand,
"Merry Christmas to us, and the public be damned!

Question of the day

Seriously. Why do you think Trent Lott is bolting from Congress?

He says he's fed up. But why?

What Would Baby Jesus Buy For Christmas?

When I was a devout Christian, one thing that really bothered me was the year end devotion to shopping that superseded the devotion to Jesus who explicitly preached that we take care of each other, especially those on the fringes of society. His wise exhortation to his followers was to unload their baggage (vast material possessions) plays well today because radical consumerism makes people mad and sad and hurts so many others. If people stopped and thought about their purchases, particularly who made their fleeting object of desire, perhaps part of the true meaning of Christmas might be realized.

When I was a devout Christian, I spent Advent in the church and that is where I found my peace. I didn't expect the local mall to provide me with the spirit because malls are secular and serve their own purpose. At church, we prayed together and worked together for the community at large, particularly the disadvantaged folks. Our Christmas joy was in making people on the fringes feel loved, respected and a significant part of the community- not outcasts. We gathered food and basic necessities for people who didn't know the meaning of credit card bills or having to buy bigger houses in order to stash all the stuff they had amassed. We helped people find work. We got so wrapped up in helping others who needed food and shelter that our attitude continued throughout the year. Of course one doesn't need church in order to have this attitude, but that is where I learned it.

"Christmas" as we know it today was invented by merchants, manufacturers and greeting card companies. Their motives are the antithesis to the message of the enlightened Jesus. I feel nothing for big stores needing to make all their profits at year's end. I only feel sadness when I see television coverage of crazed shoppers wagging their credit cards at the Mall at 3am on Black Friday. I know that the thrill of the kill will only lead to letdown when the bills come in a month later for presents that are already tossed in a closet or broken. You wanna talk about conspiracy theories? I'll give you one- Christmas.

2504 Steps to closing your Facebook account

This is hilarious, and I can SO relate......

From Steven Mansour - 2504 Steps to closing your Facebook account

Yes, it's true! I finally managed to close my Facebook account. It was a long, arduous road - the hardest part was slaying the Gorgon on level 16 - and I'm glad it's finally over.


If you, cherished reader, are wondering why I would do such a thing, then wipe those potato skins off the top of your Bananarama tour t-shirt and keep reading:

I already left Flickr, Myspace, Youtube, and most of the other similar web services because they want to eat our babies. The process was fairly straightforward for each of those (Though Flickr ends it with a pretentious fuck-off: "Thanks for using Flickr. See ya!" Whatever. Goddamn wankers).

Facebook, however, was a much more interesting endeavour. You see, you can't really close your Facebook account once you open it; you can only deactivate it, which I somehow missed when reading their 913 page privacy policy

(Continue reading at link above)

h/t to Indigo@God in NOT an Asshole

conspiracy theories?

Even if you've only read mainstream news since 9/11/01, it is easy to know that the federal government did not heed the warnings leading up to that fateful day. You don't have to be of a particular political persuasion to know and understand it. It's not a conspiracy theory. It's a fact, Jack. 9/11 did not have to happen. Whether or not you believe that they deliberately ignored the warnings is debatable.

ThinkProgress reports that an article in the NY Post, a Murdoch owned tabloid read by the dumbest New Yorkers, ‘Blame U.S. For 9/11' Idiots In Majority” states that nearly 2/3 of Americans believe the "conspiracy theory" that the federal government had warnings about 9/11 but decided to ignore them according to a Scripps poll. Personally, I believe that you'd have to be an idiot if you think the government's version of what happened is true.

The alarming part of the poll as per Think Progress is that the other 40% haven't figured it out yet. It's not all that alarming actually. I talk to people all the time, and most of them don't even want to think about it. So there ya go.

On the other hand, with so many questions unanswered to date, more than 1/3 of Americans believe that 9/11 was an inside job. I perish the thought, but sometimes you really have to wonder after looking back. This article at Scrippsnews.com/911poll has all the details of the 9/11 poll.

Most Americans do believe in a lot of real conspiracy theories, one of them being the angry sky god of the bible, whom no one can agree on how to worship.

KID, HAVE YOU REHABILITATED YOURSELF?

I went over to the sergeant, said, "Sergeant, you got a lot a damn gall to ask me if I've rehabilitated myself, I mean, I mean, I mean that just, I'm sittin' here on the bench, I mean I'm sittin' here on the Group W bench 'cause you want to know if I'm moral enough join the army, burn women, kids, houses and villages after bein' a litterbug." He looked at me and said, "Kid, we don't like your kind, and we're gonna send you fingerprints off to Washington." ~from Alice's Restaurant by Arlo Guthrie

Heard that song about a zillion times on Sirius over the weekend while driving to and from Maine and across NH and then back to Maine and then back to NY. I love New England at Thanksgiving time. But I digress.

We were called "dirty filthy hippies" when we used our first amendment rights to call for peace and questioned the morality of war. Today,kids in Cocoa Beach Florida who wear Peace shirts as part of a loosely formed “Peace Shirt Coalition”are facing similar music. Fellow students are beginning to call them names and some kids started wearing Confederate Flag shirts to oppose them. It started out as more of a fashion statement than a political statement, but peace is a dirty word to many people. Some prefer to fight it with swastikas, confederate flags and even more dirty words.

Gawd bless Murka.

The story is here.

It's SUNDAY! How about a little CHURCH CHAT,......... I mean CHANT!!

Pope to purge the Vatican of modern music


The Pope is considering a dramatic overhaul of the Vatican in order to force a return to traditional sacred music.


After reintroducing the Latin Tridentine Mass, the Pope wants to widen the use of Gregorian chant and baroque sacred music.

The Pope has recently replaced the director of pontifical liturgical celebrations, Archbishop Piero Marini, with a man closer to his heart, Mgr Guido Marini. It is now thought he may replace the head of the Sistine Chapel choir, Giuseppe Liberto.

OK GuidoGiuseppePiero - here's a tune for you - "A Beautiful, Latin Gregorian Chant
...from the rich tradition of the Catholic Church by St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary.Featured song is from the Chant Compendium- 1 "Salve Festa Dies"
This is one of the oldest hymns used by the Church, written by Venantius Fortunatus before 609 AD! Sublime, poetic, and beautiful, this hymn is considered extremely precious by the Church. She only makes use of it once a year, during the greatest feast of her liturgical year - Easter....."

and here's that ditty "Salve Regina(or Hail, Holy Queen, which is a common Catholic prayer) performed by the monks of the Abbey of Notre Dame. (she looks familiar - oh yeah - I have several pics of her in my jewelry box!)

Those chants are sure mesmerizing - eh? Some call chanting a primitive way of altering the consciousness and raising psychic power or energy. Others claim it connects them with the Divine. I wonder if it would have a different effect without the music (choir) and just voices chanting. I think the music makes you think you're connected to "the Divine" when you're sitting there in church, just listening to the choir "chanting". I would imagine that actively participating in in a chant might raise my psychic power or energy - oh, but we can't have that happening to our parishioners, can we!

......The new watchdog for church music-- Mgr Valentin Miserachs Grau, the director of the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music, which trains church musicians, said that there had been serious "deviations" in the performance of sacred music.

"How far we are from the true spirit of sacred music. How can we stand it that such a wave of inconsistent, arrogant and ridiculous profanities have so easily gained a stamp of approval in our celebrations?" he said.

He added that a pontifical office could correct the abuses, and would be "opportune". He said: "Due to general ignorance, especially in sectors of the clergy, there exists music which is devoid of sanctity, true art and universality."


Oh I can't help but think of Tom Lehrer's The Vatican Rag (Bow your head with great respect
And genuflect, genuflect, genuflect!!!)


crossposted atBigBrassBlog

And Another One Bites The Dust ...

Way back in 2002, as the war drums for the invasion of Iraq rose to a crescendo, the Bush Administration suddenly decided that they needed allies. They didn't necessarily have to fight; they just had to show up and put their names on the list as part of the "Coalition of the Willing" (the fin-de-siecle equivalent of the elder Bush's winning coalition in 1991).

Countries such as Palau and Costa Rica signed up, although Turkey rather rudely rebuffed its NATO ally (especially after Bush offered generous economic incentives, or "bribes"). But the biggest contributors to the debacle in Iraq were (after the United States) the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland.

Now fast forward. Bush lost Spain after the 2004 elections there toppled the sympathetic Prime Minister; PM Blair of the UK was revealed as nothing more than a lapdog and was eventually forced from office.

Poland elected a new Prime Minister, Donald Tusk (who looks a bit tight, but we have to recall that in Alabama the Tusk-aloosa) who has announced that he's pulling the Polish contingent out of the coalition. That leaves ...

Australia, where last night the people went to the polls and turned out the National/Liberal alliance of PM John Howard. The defeat was so comprehensive that, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, Howard may actually lose the Parliamentary seat he's held for the past 33 years.

The orchestra is starting to look like a one-man band.

Obligatory Friday Sex Post

One Condom Fits All. Really.
Is your penis too large or too small for a condom? Can't seem to get one to fit just right?

A brilliant German inventor and condom expert has developed a spray on condom apparatus that squirts (heh) out liquid latex on to your throbbing member in just a matter of seconds.

"With our technology we could spray a condom on an erect elephant," he declared, not without a hint of pride.

The system works a bit like a car wash. The man put his penis in a chamber and presses a button to start the jets of liquid latex, sucked from a detachable cartridge. The rubber dries in seconds and is later rolled off and discarded like a conventional condom.

The aim is for the process to take just 10 seconds but at present the latex drying time is around 20 to 25 seconds. "We're working to shorten that time," said Krause.

-------------
What makes people in northeastern China come out and protest in the streets to surround government offices? Not what you'd think.

Citizens demand that their government help them recover money they lost in a get rich scheme which had them raising ants for an aphrodisiac tonic.

Captured by White House paparazzi last night:

Happy Thanksgiving

I give thanks for all of you

It's a gas, gas , gas...

For those of you planning on enjoying the holidays...

Happy Thanksgiving from our pals in the middle east!




Click on it to enlarge the image, then go piss in a gas can and send it to Deadeye.

And in other holiday news

The Survey says, Americans are bi-polar this holiday season.

• •Gloomy According to this story Americans enter holidays in dark mood: Reuters poll, for the third straight month the Reuters/Zogby Index (which measures the mood of the country) fell.
• •Happy yet sad But The Associated Press-Yahoo! News survey on the mood of voters showed that Americans are happy yet 77% of us have political and personal discontent bubbling beneath the surface.

I'm surprised we are not all dead yet.
One woman's not-so-safe Thanksgiving and the hilarity ensues.


What will you be doing on Black Friday if you don't have food poisoning?
"Listening to the business news, one would conclude that the future not only of the U.S. economy but of humanity itself depends on mass, frenzied shopping for the holidays," says Amy Goodman in What Would Jesus Buy?

Be Martha Stewart Junior
If you are entertaining during the holidays, I highly recommend this activity to impress your hard to impress in laws: Toilet Paper Origami.

A Short Lived Career is All The Rage In China

Ya know when you fly on Chinese Airlines how the flight attendants look alike? It was meant to be that way. In fact the screening process for the job is a beauty pageant more than anything else. A woman must be younger than 24, have great legs and be taller than average.

A Chinese airline's quality is judged on the beauty of the flight attendants. So much so that the recruitment is done on a tv show:

The show, funded in part by the airline, follows a six-month audition -- complete with swimsuit competition and a race involving luggage, makeup brushes and drink trays -- through several major Chinese cities. Thousands of young women lined up for the chance to compete for 180 openings.

You won't see any frumpy old experienced flight attendants when you fly to China.
/snark

Swift Boating Is Ba-aack

Everyone knows that bush is and never was fit for command. He has proven it over and over. Look where we are! It boggles the mind.

While John Kerry wasn't my favorite Democratic candidate in '04, I still believe that he would have made a much better president than what we have. We'd be out of Iraq by now. We wouldn't be talking about nuking Iran. I was sorely irritated during the campaign of '04 when Kerry didn't stand up to the Swift Boaters. It left me confused. Al Gore's silence when the election was stolen from under his feet in Florida, as well as Kerry's silence when proof that he may have won Ohio give me reason to believe that there are greater powers at work than anyone could imagine. These powers give meaning to the phrase, "money talks," more than I can fit in a blog post.

In the Boston Globe today, an article claims that swift boater, T. Boone Pickens (now there's a name that Yankees can laugh at) has issued a challenge for anyone to disprove his allegations. He'll pay $1 million dollars. Kerry accepted the challenge last week. Jerome Corsi stated that he is willing to defend his book, "Unfit for Command." Read more here. Really.

When I think of how much press these jerks got before the elections and that our country was once again stuck with the anti-christ himself, the human embodiment of evil, who couldn't command an ant farm, I can only hope that they will be totally discredited and charged with treason for conspiring to steer our country towards more tyranny.

I happened to like that John Kerry spoke out after the Vietnam war, thank you very much. This doesn't sit well with war profiteers does it? Too bad. War sucks. It makes young men do horrible things in the name of the State. Screw the State when it's acting on behalf of evil enterprise. It's not like some other country invaded ours and we had to defend ourselves. If another country invaded the US, you could bet your bottom dollar that this menopausal blonde would be an armed insurgent and would assist our military in any way possible. Baby, I would run an IED factory in my garage. That's the big difference. For me, anyway.

That this issue comes up again, makes me ill because Bush was AWOL and the media won't make an issue of the facts which prove it. They choose to vilify those who make the charges rather than seek the truth which is something that the media is supposed to do in a democracy. But it's water under the bridge, I suppose. John Kerry went to Vietnam and served his country. War mongers who make an issue of the medals he received, is a slap in the face to the other veterans who received medals. I was taken by surprise that other veterans didn't rise up against the swift boating because it tarnished their service as well. Doesn't anyone get this? Or am I dreaming?

Chocolate City No More

The ethnic cleansing of New Orleans is complete.

Early Holiday Depression Episode

A lot of people get depressed over the holidays, and I am no exception. I just try to get it over with early, so I can enjoy my heavily spiked egg nog in relative peace.

Luckily, a series of news items have helped jump-start my depression.

***

The school board of Polk County, Florida is staking out a new claim as the Stupidest Bunch of People in the Whole Fucking State. A majority of the board are supporters of the creationist "intelligent design" explanation of everything, and they seem to live in a world where the 2005 Kitzmiller decision never happened. Two speakers from a science advocacy group spoke to the board, as did an 8th grade teacher who supports ID. The board ignored the two advocates, prompting one to ask rhetorically, "Do these people want a million-dollar lawsuit?"

Apparently so.

***

The United States military lured a lot of young people into volunteering for service by offering them signing bonuses of up to $30,000. Now some of those soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines are being asked to give that money back because they didn't serve out the full term of their contract.

It's not their fault they couldn't complete their commitments; they were sent back home minus legs, arms, eyes and other parts. But the military wants the money back (I guess so they can offer it to the next crop of kids who want money in exchange for the possibility of getting their parts shot off).

***

Former Bush Press Secretary Scott McClellan has admitted that he knowingly lied to the press and the American people by feeding them deliberately false information at the behest of his masters in the White House and the Office of the Vice President.

And this is news - how!?

Ever since Ron Ziegler, the American people have always known that the Press Secretary to the President is a lying mouthpiece, a sock puppet, a ventriloquist's dummy who only repeats what the guys in the front office tell him to say. Everyone knew that Tony Snow was a lying fuck; why is it a big surprise that Scotty-Dog's revealed to be one as well?

***

On the up side, I have my cooking schedule set down (I only have to bring a side dish and a dessert to the dinner tomorrow), and I'm off on Friday so I can work off some of Thanksgiving dinner by doing honest proletarian labor in my garden (it's a trifle overgrown).

We knew it all along

I swiped it from Salon .com

Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2007 11:09 EST
McClellan implicates Bush, Cheney in Plame lie
On Oct. 10, 2003, White House press secretary Scott McClellan stood before the cameras and proclaimed Karl Rove and Scooter Libby innocent of any involvement in the outing of Valerie Plame. "Those individuals -- I talked -- I spoke with those individuals, as I pointed out, and those individuals assured me they were not involved in this. And that's where it stands."

And that's where it stood, until -- well after George W. Bush was reelected --- it became clear that both Libby and Rove were very much involved in outing Plame. McClellan has since acknowledged, albeit implicitly, that Libby and Rove had lied to him. Now he seems ready to go much further. In "What Happened," a chronicle of his years in the White House to be published this spring, McClellan will apparently implicate George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and former White House Chief of Staff Andy Card in the false exoneration of Libby and Rove.

From an excerpt posted on McClellan's publisher's Web site and discovered by Editor and Publisher:

"The most powerful leader in the world had called upon me to speak on his behalf and help restore credibility he lost amid the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. So I stood at the White house briefing room podium in front of the glare of the klieg lights for the better part of two weeks and publicly exonerated two of the senior-most aides in the White House: Karl Rove and Scooter Libby.

"There was one problem. It was not true.

"I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice president, the president's chief of staff, and the president himself."

Update: We'd like to tell you how Dana Perino responded to questions about McClellan's charge at today's White House press briefing. And we would, if only anyone in the White House press corps had asked her any.

― Tim Grieve

I'm the anti-Rudy

I highly recommend watching 9/11:Press For Truth. While you may or not agree with the conclusions, no one in the media bothered to connect the dots. There are many dots there and they are not conspiracy theories. I watched this a year ago and then recently in light of all the stories coming out of Pakistan and wondering why they are our ally.

While we may never know the motives of the CIA, it is quite certain that many people knew about 9/11 before it happened. In the years after 2001, whenever someone spoke out with the truth, they were quickly vilified by the administration, pundits and the news media. In a true democracy, the media would have jumped on these stories to test their veracity but they didn't. The media covered Clintons's BJ more than investigating 9/11. The US spent more money and more time investigating the BJ than they did investigating what happened on 9/11 and why. You can watch it on google video, if you'd like. Netflix also has it. Perhaps you'd like to host a screening.

I would also recommend No End In Sight if you would like to know who is to blame for the clusterfuck in Iraq. It was hard for me to watch this flick without getting furious and I'm a pretty mellow person generally (really.) But when I even think about what I learned from No End in Sight, I can feel my heart beating.

Controversial documentaries I've watched:

I found Zeigeist the Movie interesting. It asks, "What does Christianity, 911 and The Federal Reserve have in common?" I haven't made up mind on it but it does contain a lot of information worth investigating. It's online here.

9/11 Loose Change. May not answer your questions. May be too far out there for some, but it raises a lot of questions that you too may have been thinking about. It's online here.

Modern Dilemma: Warmth or Food?

This morning I called the fuel company to order a fill up because we haven't had one since February and it's getting quite chilly at night. HFS! $3.02/gal and would be rising by 5 cents next week. I asked how much I paid in Feb and she said $2.17/gal. Yowsers. We are so wearing sweaters and heavy socks around the house this winter. I'll update you on how much the bill is when the guy comes with the oil.

This article Burn, Money Burn has some predicting that oil prices will go up although some say that as the winter progresses, prices will fall as they did last winter. But last winter, there was less demand as we had a pretty mild winter. This winter may not be so mild. One reason given for these ridiculously high prices is that refiners fell behind while trying to keep pace with the demand for gasoline. I don't know if I believe that. Mostly everyone I know is trying to drive less or is forced to drive less because the gasoline is so expensive.

Food Banks are Struggling With Shortages

CINCINNATI - Operators of free food banks say they are seeing more working people needing assistance. The increased demand is outstripping supplies and forcing many pantries and food banks to cut portions.

Demand is being driven up by rising costs of food, housing, utilities, health care and gasoline, while food manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers are finding they have less surplus food to donate and government help has decreased, according to Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director of the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks.
...
Officials with the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York, which serves nearly 1,000 agencies in 23 counties, also are worried.

Through the end of August, the food bank was down almost 700,000 pounds of USDA commodities that include basic essentials such as canned fruit and vegetables and some meat — food that is very difficult to make up in donations, Executive Director Mark Quandt said.

"We're bracing ourselves for a very tough winter, especially with home heating fuel prices at record highs in the Northeast," Quandt said. "People living in poverty or near poverty just can't sustain those types of increases."

I don't get why wholesalers and retailers have less to give. I must look into that.

The fact that we have so many working poor people in this country should raise alarms within the halls of DC, but they are not concerned with 'we the people who pay taxes' and are still poor.

Time to spread the love.
If we who can afford an extra item or two or more at the grocery store and would do so in order to drop it off at a food bank or church outreach, we can make a difference for struggling families and individuals. You never know, it could be you one day.

Rudy To Get What He Paid For

I'm kind of sick of politics, but here goes:

NY firefighters are going to fight the fire of Giuliani's popularity with television ads damaging to his 9/11 leadership. I say good. Where do I chip in?

I'd be most happy to see the rest of the country get a clue about this man who couldn't win the state of NY.

Speaking of 9/11 and Rudy, the chairman of the 9/11 commission, Tom Kean, is endorsing McCain, not Rudy.

Picture of the Day

I dunno. Something about this photo struck my funny bone. I don't know what.

If you're planning on visiting India:

Dollar no longer welcome at Taj Mahal

WTFWJD?

Oregon Jesuits will pay $50 million to Alaskan abuse victims in remote areas. The settlement covers 110 people but there were hundreds of children who were sexually abused by "religious" predators. One of the victims attorneys said "that in some villages, it is difficult to find an adult not violated by men who used religion and power to rape, shame and then silence hundreds of Alaska Native children." What's astonishing is that the Jesuits don't have to admit to wrongdoing. The leader of the Oregon Jesuits was disappointed that lawyers disclosed so much of the details because it maybe detrimental to healing. feh.

The Jesuits are a Catholic religious order. This is the largest payout by a religious order ever.

My biggest problem with Catholics is that they try to cover everything up. If predator priests are charged with sexual abuse, it ought to be made public and the case brought to a grand jury. Why do they think that perverts are drawn to the priesthood?

This WTF Moment Is Brought To You By The Letter "R"

For "Rape."

CNN has unveiled this amusing little story of the legal and judicio-religious shenanigans going on inside our great and friendly ally, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Allow me to sum up:

In October 2006, a 19-year-old woman and an unidentified man were allegedly assaulted and the woman gang-raped. The court at trial sentenced the woman to 90 lashes as punishment, and gave her jail time. When she protested and went public to the media about it, the judge increased her sentence to 200 lashes and 6 months in jail. When her lawyer protested and took it to the media, he had his attorney's license revoked.

Allow me to repeat:

A woman who was raped was punished by the court, first for being in the same area with an unrelated male (a violation of the Islamic law, or sharia, that is the basis of Saudi jurisprudence), and second for speaking out about the injustice of it.

And these are our allies, ladies and gentlemen.

The mouthpiece du jour for the Bushite Junta made watery statements that they found the decisions "astonishing," but apart from a certain level of viewing with alarm they will do nothing. It's hard to do anything, even criticize, a "friend" who has your balls firmly in their pockets. One can only hope that the woman and her lawyer can get through this (he has an upcoming hearing that may result in his disbarment and suspension for 3 years).

And I really think we need to start finding some new friends.

Surviving the Holidays

Good God Almighty. The Holidays are upon us. Six weeks of I don't know what.

My shrink always asks me on my first visit every New Year, "How were your holidays?" I always reply with something like, "I survived," or "I'd rather not talk about it."

It's a great time of year for those who like to shop, decorate, dress up and party. For others, it's a time of sadness and despair. For other others, it's something we wish would hurry up and be over with because the universe somehow stuck us with party poopers who suck the joy out of any occasion and leave us feeling worse.

We're supposed to reflect. If I reflect on holiday seasons past and the fact that most of the people included in those memories are dead and buried, I'm not feeling a whole lot of joy, if you know what I mean. Well in some cases I feel some relief.

I suppose the season has it's purpose going back to ancient times. It's something to take your mind off the darkest days. Then we're supposed to be surprised and joyous when the earth tilts and the days grow longer again.

Maybe I'm just grumpy because I'm on a low carb diet and Thanksgiving draws nigh.

What are your plans and what's your advice for surviving the coming weekend and subsequent weeks?

I Will Survive?

The Biggest Block Party in Orlando

I'm talking about the Classic, specifically The Florida Classic, fought between Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University (FAMU) and Bethune-Cookman University (BCU). The game's held in the Citrus Bowl stadium in Orlando the weekend before Thanksgiving, and there's a great deal of pride and bragging rights as the prize to be contested over by these two historically black colleges.

Back in 2001, a coworker challenged me to go to the Classic, joking that I'd be the only white person there. Not being one to resist a challenge like that, I immediately went online and bought the last available ticket. To give you an idea of where I sat that night, I was in Row GG, and there is no Row HH (if you want to sit higher, rent a blimp).

But the place was packed to capacity (70,000+), and I thoroughly enjoyed the party; the tailgating all around the stadium, the great food, the game (fought with a great deal of passion), and the rivalry between the two schools' bands, FAMU's Marching 100 and BCU's Marching Wildcats.

I've tried my hardest to be at every game since then.

This year marked the third year in a row for me, and this time I decided to do the thing right. Rather than drive there (two hours in traffic) and drive back afterward (three hours in traffic), I rented a hotel room within walking distance of the stadium, and enjoyed my weekend.

On game day I started off, shrugging away advice that the neighborhood wasn't safe. Not safe? The place was crawling with police, and the general sense of good-fellowship and bonhomie is such that I had nothing to fear. I smiled and waved at FAMU fans (their team's the Rattlers, and I have a thing for snakes), and waved at the Wildcats fans.

It isn't every day you see people showing up in evening gowns and suits for a football game, but a lot of people want to give the event a sense of occasion.

My seat was in the southeast corner, in a direct line with the south goal line and high enough that I could see the whole field without getting a nosebleed. Having forgotten a hat, I bought a FAMU ball cap along with the obligatory T-shirt (I have a good collection of Classic T-shirts now).

And now, the bad news ...

FAMU couldn't seem to do much right; after one particularly good runback after a kickoff, the ball carrier decided to reach for that last little bit of yardage, and fumbled the ball away. Four turnovers on the night, and BCU went on to win the game, 34-7. One guy outside the stadium afterward asked me how the game was (a lot of people can't get in, so they're there to party outside).

I told him it was like chewing my own foot off.

But I'll go again next year. FAMU's Marching 100 will be performing at the Super Bowl next year, and Orlando was estimating that this one weekend pumped about $30 million into the city economy.

Better luck next year, FAMU! Go Rattlers!

And how was YOUR weekend?

Republicans Support the Troops As Long As They Fight

Democrats unable to bring troops home

WASHINGTON - Nearly a year after anti-war voters put them in power, congressional Democrats remain unable to pass legislation ordering troops home from Iraq. Frustrated by Republican roadblocks, Democrats now plan to sit on President Bush's $196 billion request for war spending until next year — pushing the Pentagon toward an accounting nightmare and deepening their conflict with the White House on the war.

"We're going to continue to do the right thing for the American people by having limited accountability for the president and not a blank check," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Senate Republicans on Friday blocked a $50 billion bill by Democrats that would have paid for several months of combat but also would have ordered troop withdrawals from Iraq to begin within 30 days. The measure, narrowly passed this week by the House, also would have set a goal of ending combat in December 2008.

The 53-45 vote was seven votes short of the 60 needed to advance. It came minutes after the Senate rejected a Republican proposal to pay for the Iraq war with no strings attached.

Now, Democratic leaders say they won't send President Bush a war spending bill this year. They calculate the military has enough money to run through mid-February. (continued)

So nyah. Read the rest to see all the backlash and how the Republicans will make sure that the troops suffer the most and blame it on the Democrats.

Speaking of our loved ones being sent off to kill or be killed in needless wars, Congress did a good thing this week (surprise) and approved the establishment of a memorial center to be built near the Vietnam Memorial Wall in DC. It will be comprised of mementos from

The National Resource Center, a 53,000-square-foot (4,900- square meter) building in Landover, Maryland, preserves almost every non-perishable memento left at the memorial's black granite walls since it was dedicated 25 years ago today. More than 100,000 pieces of memorabilia range from a picture of a woman's sonogram to a custom-built Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

Now we ought to start building a memorial for the casualties of the Bush Wars.

Oh....... don't ask why

Historic Whiskey Could Go Down Drain


NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Here's a sobering thought: Hundreds of bottles of Jack Daniel's whiskey, some of it almost 100 years old, may be unceremoniously poured down a drain because authorities suspect it was being sold by someone without a license.

Officials seized 2,400 bottles late last month during warehouse raids in Nashville and Lynchburg, the southern Tennessee town where the whiskey is distilled.

"Punish the person, not the whiskey," said an outraged Kyle MacDonald, 28, a Jack Daniel's drinker from British Columbia who promotes the whiskey on his blog. "Jack never did anything wrong, and the whiskey itself is innocent."




Show me the way to the next whiskey bar.....

Obligatory Friday Sex Post

Christian Archie Comics. Never heard of them. In fact 19 titles were released by Spire comics between 1973 and 1984. I started college in 1973 which would account for my not knowing about these little gems.

I grew up with the sexy Archie Comics in the early 60's and then became a feminist.

Below are some excerpts from Archie's Date Book(1981) (PDF). Date Book's quite a change from the earlier comics in that women are not viewed only as large breasted, vapid, bimbos, yet the message is delivered in a creepy way (if you click on the pics, they should open larger so you can read them.)

Betty prefers using the Bible as a date book in this episode.
The Bible? The Bible where Lot offers up his daughter to the townsfolk who want to rape his visitors?
The Bible where Lot's daughters eventually get him drunk and rape HIM?
The Bible? My favorite dirty book when I was a kid?

See Archie and pals walking through the sleazy sex district of their town sneering at the titillating marquis that mess kids up? Hmmm. What are they doing walking around that part of town? And what are the kids doing watching adult fare on television? Just to sneer at it? Kind of reminds me of those holy people who pore through porn in order to censor it. yeppers.


On this page, one of the kids is perusing an adult bookstore in order to look disapprovingly at it. Then you see what happens if you don't sneer at evil things. You end up in the morning after a night of passion with some guy you cannot even bear to look at due to your overwhelming guilt. This is in the bible? I don't think so. Did Lot's daughters look him in the eye the next morning? The strip (I said, "strip," heh) goes on to teach what God really wants. He wants our dates to lead to joy, unselfishness and respect. No shit, Sherlock. But I didn't read that in the Bible. No normal person wants to date in order to feel worse the next day. But as someone who grew up Catholic, playing the God card is often used as a motivator or de-motivator. Fear of hell and all that...


Note that staying pure is the answer. But living the bible? Yikes. Sounds like a lot of battles and anguish.

Below, we see the results of purity in dating.
God's love gets rid of guilt. Wow, he must hate Catholics and Jews.
Going steady with Jesus. Now THAT is blasphemy. I'm sorry. It's like the nuns telling us that they were married to God.
Note that Jughead still prefers food to humans.

Love And Death

A passionate soliloquy delivered by Diane Keaton in the movie Love and Death written and directed by Woody Allen c.1975



I got it down.

Sonja: Natasha, to love is to suffer.
To avoid suffering, one must not love.
But then one suffers from not loving.
Therefore, to love is to suffer.
Not to love is to suffer.
To suffer is to suffer.
To be happy is to love.
To be happy, then, is to suffer,
but suffering makes one unhappy.
Therefore, to be unhappy one must love,
or love to suffer,
or suffer from too much happiness...
I hope you're getting this down.

It's the end of the world as we know it!!!


Well, not really. Check out the latest on the comet when you get a nice clear night. It's worth it.





Comet Info






Click the image to enlarge.

For those of you who insist on the right to use illegal drugs:

From KMBC:

KC Man Accused Of Toad Licking
Toad Venom Used As Hallucinogenic

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A 21-year-old man has been accused of using a toad to get high.
Clay County sheriff's deputies said David Theiss, of Kansas City, possessed a Colorado River toad with the intention of using it as a hallucinogenic.
Experts said it's possible to lick the toad's venom glands to achieve psychedelic effects.
Most pet stores don't sell the Colorado River toad because the venom can sicken humans and kill household animals.
"People used to do it all the time, but it got faded out awhile, but came back as a fad. Not a smart one," animal expert Danny Snyder told KMBC's Dion Lim. "The toxins in it can kill a lot of stuff."
Authorities said this is the first time Clay County has dealt with this sort of hallucinogen.
Theiss was released on bond.
The toad is in custody at a police crime lab.

Reminiscing about tv 40-50 years ago...

Blackdog at Big Brass Blog wrote a nice rant and talked about the Wizard of Oz. Like who Is the man behind the curtain? Well we know it's not bushie.

But I wanted to talk about the Wizard of Oz as a movie we watched as kids. I won't get all philosophical about it. The film was televised once a year around the same time when I was growing up. We didn't have any way of seeing it outside of that yearly experience... and isn't it interesting how we learned the story so well including the dialogue and the songs? There were quite a few movies like that including The Birds which I finally saw in color on the wide screen television a week or so ago. Come to think of it, I saw the Wizard in color for the first time not that long ago.

I was telling my son about The Wizard of Oz being on once a year a few days ago when we were watching HBO on demand... about how we survived during the black and white television era with only a couple of channels which didn't cater to kids except on Saturday morning... and when literally NOTHING was on, especially if you woke up really early because your parents put you to bed before dark. Good Lord, do you know what was on at the crack o' dawn in the 1950's here? Victory at Sea and the silent as well as boring Farmer Gray cartoons. What a way to get kids to turn off the tv and go outside.

What else do you remember?
I am trying to think of simpler happier times despite the fallout shelter drills. (wow, that just led me to another topic)

So now the majority of Americans are radical and irresponsible according to the WH

Think Progress reports that Last night, the House of Representatives voted 218-203 to pass a $50 billion funding bill for Iraq that would require withdrawal of most U.S. troops from Iraq to begin within 30 days of the bill’s enactment, with a completion goal of Dec. 15, 2008.

The AP reports that the bill was on shaky ground between conservative and anti-war Democrats. I heard on the radio this morning that the Senate won't go for this and bush will veto it. 203 representatives obviously think that our troops should risk their lives for war profiteers. Screw them. I am taking names.

Now for the stinking pile of manure from the WH:
Here's a link to a press briefing by Dana Perino yesterday before the bill passed. It's the typical gobbledy gook we've all grown accustomed to since birth from the WH spin machine plus the usual nonsense which "explains" that by not giving the president his money for his war takes money from our troops shpiel. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And how pray-tell will we pay Blackwater to kill people without answering to anyone?

I don't care what she says about Democratic leadership, because I don't have kind things to say about them either, but she accuses Dems of appeasing "radical groups." I take issue with this lie. From her opening statement:

Once again, the Democratic leadership is starting this debate with a flawed strategy, including a withdrawal date for Iraq, despite the gains our military has made over the past year, despite having dozens of similar votes in the past that have failed, and despite their pledge to support the troops. And once again, they plan to send the President a bill that they know he will veto. This is for political posturing and to appease radical groups.

Fuck flawed strategy. It's not a game anymore. Ms Perino, who is a disgrace to her gender would never send her kids to war. The WH is playing with people's lives and it is immoral.

I'll give them RADICAL. Radical implies fringe group. The majority of the American people can't be radical. It is the tiny percentage of war mongers who are radical. It is the job of our representatives to appease the majority.

Later on during the Q&A, Ms Perino said that the radicals belong to groups like Code Pink and Move On. What a crock. Do the majority of Americans belong to those groups? Have they heard of them?

Perino also said of the bill's supporters (the majority of the American people) that "Pulling the rug out from under our troops now is the height of irresponsibility."

That last statement was the height of irresponsibility and an outright lie.

Have we ever lived through a presidency that was ever this divisive and played such nasty politics with the media? I don't think so. I don't remember in the past 50 years all this Democrats vs Republicans crappola and even when the Dems were in the majority, there was no such thing as towing the party line.

They are downright rude in the WH and I refuse to be insulted by such a bunch of ideologues. I will therefore embrace my 'radical' label as I did the dreaded "liberal" label, even though I do not belong to any radical group, nor is Kos my guru. I figured out just how crooked this administration was all by myself and that was before I found out that there were so many like minded people out there.

Americans don't have to join a group to be against imperialistic wars for fun and profit. They don't even have to know what imperialistic means. They just have to read the papers or watch the news- any news. After a while people just get sick of being constantly terrified or threatened. So while the media spins the news to support the neo-con agenda, it has gotten easier to see, even for casual observers, that when certain people say something, you can assume that the opposite is true. duh.

Thanks to John at Americablog for finding this ditty from SchoolHouse Rock.
He said he almost got goosebumps watching it.
Talk about premonitions!

The war on christmas has already begun.

Prepare your young'ns for battle with Blondesense's War On Christmas Playset chock full of action figures and commie soldiers.

Support the Troops?

It's just a bumper sticker on gas guzzlers across America.

The suicide epidemic among veterans breaks my heart. That's not even considering pain of knowing about the thousands of homeless veterans or mentally ill veterans. From what I've read, emotionally afflicted veterans of wars like Vietnam took longer to break down and fall apart. The war on Iraq is taking a devastating toll on many veterans soon after they come home. I'd hate to see the numbers in a few years from now. If I had the money, I'd buy ads on television urging parents and family members to do anything to keep their loved ones from enlisting during this time of war. Shoot pictures, not families.


From CBS News Report on Veteran's Suicide

CBS News did an investigation - asking all 50 states for their suicide data, based on death records, for veterans and non-veterans, dating back to 1995. Forty-five states sent what turned out to be a mountain of information.

And what it revealed was stunning.

In 2005, for example, in just those 45 states, there were at least 6,256 suicides among those who served in the armed forces. That’s 120 each and every week, in just one year.

Dr. Steve Rathbun is the acting head of the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Department at the University of Georgia. CBS News asked him to run a detailed analysis of the raw numbers that we obtained from state authorities for 2004 and 2005.

It found that veterans were more than twice as likely to commit suicide in 2005 than non-vets. (Veterans committed suicide at the rate of between 18.7 to 20.8 per 100,000, compared to other Americans, who did so at the rate of 8.9 per 100,000.)

One age group stood out. Veterans aged 20 through 24, those who have served during the war on terror. They had the highest suicide rate among all veterans, estimated between two and four times higher than civilians the same age. (The suicide rate for non-veterans is 8.3 per 100,000, while the rate for veterans was found to be between 22.9 and 31.9 per 100,000.)

They can biteth me.

US Bishops want the US out of Iraq
yadda yadda yadda

Sure... now they open their mouths. Iraq situation unacceptable: U.S. Catholic bishops A little late I would say. The same bishops urged the flock to vote against abortion (pro-Republican) in the last few elections, disregarding the greater threat to life as we know it- never-ending imperialistic wars. (just another reason why I am anti-Catholic and proud of it.) The Republicans only pay lip service to the anti-abortion crowd to get their votes.

Speaking of paying lip service to the base...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday that Democrats won't approve more money for the Iraq war this year unless President Bush agrees to begin bringing troops home.
yeah yeah yeah. Nice sound bite. Prove it, weenie.

"The bill would require Bush to initiate troop withdrawals immediately with the goal of ending combat by December 2008."

Let's see you stand up to Bush when he vetoes your bill and then we'll talk.

Of Mice and Men

I know that a lot of middle aged men read this blog (and we love you!), so check this out.

Excerpt:
Low-Carb Diet May Slow Prostate Tumor Growth
TUESDAY, Nov. 13 (HealthDay News) -- In mice, a low-carbohydrate diet slowed prostate tumor growth, possibly because fewer carbohydrates leads to a drop in insulin production, U.S. researchers say.

"This study showed that cutting carbohydrates may slow tumor growth, at least in mice. If this is ultimately confirmed in human clinical trials, it has huge implications for prostate cancer therapy through something that all of us can controls, our diets," lead researcher Dr. Stephen Freedland, a urologist at Duke University Medical Center, said in a prepared statement.

Comment: I switched to a diet of very low carbs recently (20 grams/day) and in a very short time (a couple of days) I felt enormously better and lost weight too. (And no I didn't load up on steak- there are lean proteins out there.)

Judith Regan Sues Murdoch Empire

From the Smoking Gun

Publisher claims firing done to protect Giuliani presidential bid

NOVEMBER 13--Judith Regan, the volcanic publishing industry figure who sought to publish O.J. Simpson's "I Did It" (and trysted with Bernard Kerik in an apartment overlooking Ground Zero) today sued Rupert Murdoch's media conglomerate for defamation, claiming that she was unjustly tarred as an anti-Semite when fired last year.

In a blistering $100 million lawsuit filed today in New York State Supreme Court, Regan, 54, accuses several defendants, including Murdoch's News Corporation and HarperCollins Publishers, of orchestrating a smear campaign that was intended to advance the Murdoch political agenda and protect "Rudy Giuliani's presidential ambitions."

According to Regan, Murdoch employees were aware of her personal relationship with Kerik and, fearing she had damaging information on Giuliani's former police commissioner and business partner, "knew they would be protecting Giuliani if they could preemptively discredit her."

The Murdoch firms did this, Regan charges, by claiming she made anti-Semitic statements during a phone conversation with a HarperCollins lawyer. However, the ousted editor alleges, the offensive statements were never made- an assertion she says is backed up by a temporary secretary who listened in on the call in question. An excerpt from Regan's sprawling 72-page complaint (which even quotes from the tawdry sex suit once filed against Fox News Channel star Bill O'Reilly) can be found below. The entire lawsuit, in a PDF form, can be downloaded here. (4 pages)

Comments: She got what she paid for.
After years of Regan's whining in the 1990's about how disgraceful and utterly immoral it was for Bill Clinton to get a BJ from Monica and then my finding out that she was f*cking Bernie Kerick in an apartment overlooking Ground Zero- an apartment that was supposed to be used by the FD and rescue workers who needed down time, would it surprise anyone that she would someday be a victim in her own game? That she would be paid back by the universe for her own disgraceful behavior? If you want to be a player in political games, then you have to expect these setbacks.

So a great big boo fucking hoo goes out to Regan.

Another I.D.iot

When I attended high school in Florida back in the 70s, the word 'evolution' didn't appear in biology textbooks. Everyone knew what "biological changes over time' meant; they just didn't come out and say it. Now the Florida Department of Education is seeking to change the standards, including actually admitting that such a word as 'evolution' exists. This move has some support.

Unfortunately, Polk County School Board member Kay Fields objects because the schools will not be teaching 'intelligent design' alongside evolution.

I direct Ms. Fields' attention to the court decision in Kitzmiller v Dover, in which the judge in the case (by the way, a conservative Republican and Bush appointee - effectively squelching all talk of "activist judges") pointed out that even the 'intelligent design' experts and apologists admitted, under oath, that the putative 'designer' was the God of Christianity. Therefore, the judge concluded, 'intelligent design' was just as blatant an attempt to establish religion in the public schools as 'creation science' was twenty years ago.

You see, 'intelligent design' turns the scientific method on its head by stating a conclusion, then finding evidence to support that conclusion without changing the conclusion in any way. Evolution, on the other hand, started out with a theory, then evidence was gathered to support the theory (altering the theory as needed) and ending with a conclusion, Any new evidence can alter the conclusion, or discard it entirely.

There is no "teaching the controversy" or "both sides" to this; one is religion, the other science.

I want to applaud Ms. Fields' efforts to further degrade the education system in our county. Only through continued obscurantism to muzzle science and mindless rote memorization to pass standardized tests can we achieve -

That's the question, isn't it? What is Ms. Fields trying to achieve here?

Something to be grateful for. Really!

I look for things to be thankful for so that I won't go crazy. One thing I am thankful for is that I don't live in or near New Delhi.

NEW DELHI (AFP) - Just weeks after the Indian capital's deputy mayor toppled to his death fighting off a pack of monkeys, the animals are back on the attack, sparking fresh concerns about the simian menace.

One woman was seriously hurt and two dozen other people were given first aid after monkeys rampaged through a neighbourhood in east Delhi over the weekend.

"There were about three or four monkeys involved," deputy police commissioner Jaspal Singh told AFP.

"Wildlife officials are trying to find them. As police we're not experts in dealing with monkeys. We can deal with mad bulls but monkeys are more difficult," he said.

Along with an estimated 35,000 sacred cows and buffaloes that roam free in the capital, marauding monkeys have been longstanding pests.

They routinely scamper through government offices, courts and even police stations and hospitals as well as terrorise neighbourhoods.

Trouble boiled over in late October when the city's deputy mayor, Sawinder Singh Bajwa, 52, fell to his death driving away monkeys from his home.

He was on his balcony reading a newspaper when four monkeys appeared, his family said. As he waved a stick to scare them away, he tumbled over the edge and died in hospital from head injuries.

In the latest incident in Delhi's low-income Shastri Park area, residents reported the monkeys appeared late Saturday and rampaged for hours.

"I was talking to someone at my door at around 11 pm when a monkey appeared," Naseema, who goes by one name, told the Times of India. "As I moved inside, the monkey followed and sank its teeth in my baby's leg."

Read on, if you dare.

Honky Rain Dance

Georgia on My Mind.

Gov. Sonny Perdue of Georgia will join lawmakers and ministers on the steps of the state Capitol to pray for rain today (amid controversy, naturally.)

But it's a rainy night in Georgia,
baby, it's a rainy night in Georgia
I feel it's rainin' all over the world, kinda lonely now
And it's rainin' all over the world

UPDATE Wednesday:
There is some rain in the southeastern part of Georgia today, but as Hinessight.com reported yesterday, there was already rain in the forecast as the governor participated in the Christian rain dance.

From the comments, I learned from Jersey Cynic that a group known as Rabbis for Rain had performed a prayer ceremony on November 7th. At the time it was believed that it just might work because the last time they did, it in 1986 four days of rain followed. Perhaps the rain currently in Georgia is a result of the rabbi's prayers from last week?

Rather than resorting to human sacrifice, I suggest that we all hum songs about Georgia today and keep Georgia in our hearts and minds:

Georgia on my Mind
Rainy Night in Georgia
The Night the Lights went out in Georgia
Sweet Georgia Brown
The Devil Went Down To Georgia
Midnight Train to Georgia
Georgia Camp Meeting
Hey there Georgie Girl
And more

Just who ARE the terrorists?

Surveillance State! New Jersey School Cameras Fed Live To Cops

US Intel Official: Say Goodbye to Privacy

FBI Calls on Universities to Guard Against Students and Faculty

They know who you are: Thousands undergo background checks after 9-11

Diabetic man in seizure was tasered, accused of DUI

LAPD Plan To Map Muslim Communities Angers Some Groups

Countdown: AT&T Whistleblower Speaks Out Against Immunity For Telcoms

hat tip to sott.net

Teach your children?

Are children as young as fourth grade old enough to understand "opposition to war"
or are they only capable of understanding the American "ideal" that war is good and all veterans are thrilled to have fought in war?

Should kids actually learn that in this supposed democracy, people exist who prefer diplomacy to bombs? Some say no, it's not age appropriate.

Such a debate is going on over a Sarasota elementary school. Lush Bimbo even got in on it.

Thought for the day....

I came across this one in the paper this morning:




"Private opinion creates public opinion....That is why private opinion, and private behavior, and private conversation are so terrifyingly important"

~~Jan Struther, English poet (1901-1953)

Potty Talk......

(Let 'em rip in the comments below!!)


I finally got over to The Guys From Area 51. FANTASTIC!! Comandante Agí, your video is superb - how do I find it at youtube?

I just finished reading that NYTimes Piece-O-S report about the automatic flush toilets and their harmful effects on children that you posted. Great Post! AND...comments at their best!!

Did you know that next week the WTO (World Toilet Organization) is having it's annual meeting??

Maybe Mr. Sim Jae-duck (Chairman of the WTO) can open his house up to use as a therapy tool in treating these kids who are frightened of the automatic flush. The home is nearing completion, and set to be finished Sunday to commemorate their upcoming meeting. CHECK IT OUT

George Bush in Hell

George Bush has a heart attack, dies, and goes to hell where he’s confronted by the devil. “I don’t know what to do,” says the devil. “You’re on my list… but I don’t have any room for you. You definitely have to stay here, so I’ll tell you what I’m gonna to do. I’ve got three folks here who weren’t quite as bad as you, I’ll let one of them go but you have to take their place. I’ll even let YOU decide (since you are, afterall, the DECIDER) who leaves.

George thought the deal sounded pretty good, so he agreed.

The devil opened a door to the first room, in it was Richard Nixon in a large pool of water. He kept diving in and surfacing empty-handed over and over and over. Such was his fate in hell.

“No!” George said. “I don’t think so. I’m not a good swimmer and don’t think I could do that all day long.”

The devil led him to the next room, in it was Tony Blair with a sledgehammer and a room full of rocks. All he did was swing that hammer, time after time after time.

“No, I’ve got this problem with my shoulder. I would be in constant agony if all could do was break rocks all day!” commented George.

The devil opened a third door. In that room George saw Bill Clinton, lying on the floor with his arms over his head, and his legs spread in an eagle pose. Bent over him was Monica Lewinsky, doing what she does best.

George Bush looked at this in disbelief for a while and, finally, said “Yeah, I can handle this.”

The devil smiled and said, “OK, Monica, you’re free to go!”