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Our family supports local farmers as much as we can. We're members of a local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm, and we buy all our meat and milk from local farmers who graze them on grass and don't use routine antibiotics and hormones. It's healthy, and the food is really just plain better. My charming wife bought the reserve champion lamb at the 4-H auction at the county fair last year, and we were astonished at the comparison between the meat from that lamb and the meat we'd been getting from a local sheep farmer who pastures on grass.
But here's another reason to avoid "factory farmed" meat: they're serious polluters.
According to a 1998 report from the Department of Agriculture and U.S. EPA, CAFO [Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation - basically, feedlots] muck has fouled roughly 35,000 miles of rivers in 22 states and groundwater in 17 states. More recent data show that 29 states have reported water contamination from these feedlots. [Emphasis mine]
...or 2.0
. Crucifix NG is a printed electronic circuit board in the shape of a crucifix. This handheld, wall-mountable device houses a battery-operated transmitter that broadcasts an ASCII, non-denominational version of the Lord's Prayer at 916 megahertz.
So if you want your body to be imbued with an anointed electromagnetism
, this is for you.
George Steinbrenner is 76 today. The Cleveland Indians celebrated by beating the Yankees 19-1.
Say, where do you keep the books on dominoes?
It's been a quiet day here. Staked our tomatoes, which we should have done a couple of weeks ago. Did some weeding. Stayed home so the dogs wouldn't freak out at the fireworks. Appreciated living in a free country. Reflected on Ben Franklin, responding to the question of what kind of government we would have, saying "A republic, if you can keep it."
Happy Independence Day. Hope you are all safe and sound, and that our citizens in uniform are as safe as they can be, and that they all return home safely.
If you have ever lived in the Northeast, you certainly remember "Crazy Eddie", the NYC retailer with the tagline "His prices are INNSAAAAANE! (if you don't, a number of his ads are available online at crazyeddie.com). Well, he's been trying to sell the domain name and trademark on eBay. Unfortunately, he didn't get very close to the "Buy it now" price of $800K or to the (unknown) reserve price, only garnering a top bid of about $30K.
But hey, keep an eye out. Maybe he'll relist!
So the Supreme Court ruled against the administration in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. Looks like those of us who said that they couldn't just toss out the Geneva Conventions when they found them inconvenient were right. Just like we were about the WMD. And the yellowcake. And the "mobile biological labs". And Saddam not being involved in 9/11.
But man, it seems like the entire right wing has just gone completely, utterly, totally around the bend today. To wit:
The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler (no link, he doesn't deserve the traffic) seems to have been the first to call for the assassination of the USSC.
Five activist tyrants in black robes have just decided that terrorists are entitled to protections under the Geneva Conventions in spite of said Conventions specifically saying that they aren't.
In other words: It doesn't matter what laws and conventions actually say, all that matters is what unelected fascists in black robes want them to say.
The Supreme Whores are in dire need of Intervention by Lynch Mob™.
UPDATE: Meanwhile, the American Caliphate Litigating Unit call the Supreme Whores' surrender to al-Qaedaa victory for the Rule of Law.Shariahlaw, maybe. The ACLU, proudly embracing everything that might aid terrorists in bringing about another 9/11. Hang them.
How nice. What is it with these fuckwits and their incessant harping on "unelected" judges? Don't they realize that (a) they have to be confirmed by elected representatives, and (b) they are a key part of the system set forth by the framers of the Constitution? To hear them talk, you'd think that an independent judiciary was invented by FDR or something.
I've been hearing people say that applying the Geneva Conventions to the detainees will result in the military adopting a "take no prisoners" approach on the battlefield. Well, that's not only barbaric beyond anything we've seen so far, but it's also a violation of the Geneva Conventions (and, coincidentally, a violation of the War Crimes Act).
Trent Lott joined the idiot brigades on Neil Cavuto's show, announcing that the decision was ridiculous and outrageous
before admitting that, well, he hadn't actually read the whole thing yet. At least he didn't suggest killing anybody.
Also on Cavuto: Ann Coulter (and really, isn't just having her on your show at this point evidence that you've gone completely batshit crazy?) said that[Y]ou just expect Democrats to side with al Qaeda
before admitting that, like Trent Lott, she hasn't read the decision yet. I mean, why bother? It's not like their comments are actually based on the content of the decision, anyway, so it's good that they're dropping the pretense.
Putting in a strong effort on the "just plain fascist" front is the whole Fox "News" crew:
On the June 29 broadcast of Fox News Radio's Brian & The Judge, co-host Brian Kilmeade, who also co-hosts Fox News' Fox & Friends, suggested that the U.S. government should "put up the Office of Censorship," in the wake of reports in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal detailing a Treasury Department program designed to monitor international financial transactions for terrorist activity. Similarly, during the June 29 edition of Fox & Friends, co-host E.D. Hill wondered if it would be appropriate for the U.S. government to create an "Office of Censorship."
But I think that today's winner on American Idiot has to be Justice Clarence Thomas, who wrote in his dissent of Justice Stevens' unfamiliarity with the realities of warfare
. John Paul Stevens served in the US Navy from 1942 to 1945, and was awarded a Bronze Star. Clarence Thomas has no military record.
I couldn't put it any better than Duncan Black did:In a just world, Thomas would resign in shame and spend the rest of his life tending to the needs of disabled Vets.
We don't live in a just world.
Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh was detained at Palm Beach International Airport for the possible possession of illegal prescription drugs Monday evening.
Limbaugh was returning on a flight from the Dominican Republic when customs officials found a Viagra prescription that did not bear his name. Instead, the bottle of pills had the names of two doctors on it according to the Palm Beach Sheriff's Office.
So says CBS4 News from West Palm Beach.
I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for this, and we'll hear it as soon as he's thought it up.
So Washington state has now passed a law banning doctors from writing prescriptions in cursive. Guys, it's 2006. Why are they writing the blooming things by hand at all? I want my prescription emailed (securely) from the doctor's office to the pharmacy and waiting there for me to pick up.
I'm sure the Benevolent Bush Administration knew exactly what it was doing when they insisted that the government not be able to negotiate prices with drug manufacturers as part of the Medicare Part D boondoggle. Right? I mean, we do have "The CEO President", right? Harvard MBA? Must know what he's doing, eh?
Prices of the most widely used prescription drugs rose sharply in this year's first quarter, just as the new Medicare drug coverage program was going into effect, according to separate studies issued yesterday by two large consumer advocacy groups.
AARP, which represents older Americans, said prices charged by drug makers for brand-name pharmaceuticals jumped 3.9 percent, four times the general inflation rate during the first three months of this year and the largest quarterly price increase in six years.
Price increases for some of the most popular brand-name drugs were much steeper; the sleeping pill Ambien was up 13.3 percent, and the best-selling cholesterol drug, Lipitor, was up 4.7 to 6.5 percent, depending on dosage.
Over all, AARP said, higher prices mean that the cost of providing brand-name drugs to the typical older American, who takes four prescription medicines daily, rose by nearly $240 on average over the 12-month period that ended on March 31.
Bush delenda est.
Just the thing for drying your hair before putting on your tin foil hat! Korean manufacturer UNIX Electronics (and I'd love to know the story behind that name) now has a line of "low-EMF" hair dryers. I love the warning at the bottom of the page:
Effect of Electromagnetic Wave on the Human Body?
It causes Leukemia, Lymph Cancer, Brain Cancer, Central Nerve Cancer, Breat Cancer, Dementia, Abortion, Delivery a deformed baby. All the countries define the Electromagnetic Wave as environmental pollutionand report the damage occasions.
And yes, that's exactly as it appears in the original. And remember, You can be a professional with Unix!
Insane, incompetent, and arrogant. That's our Rumsfeld.
When two investigators from the DoD's office of the Inspector General asked him to take an oath before testifying to them, he said "I find it strange". Why were they talking to him? Oh, just a little matter of nearly wasting $30 billion leasing new tanker aircraft from Boeing that the Pentagon's own experts said weren't needed.
And what did dear Rummy testify? Largely about how little attention he pays to procurement.
The issue is relevant because a series of reports, including others by the inspector general and by the Government Accountability Office, indicate that five years into the Bush administration, the department's system of buying new weapons is broken and dysfunctional.
DOD is simply not positioned to deliver high-quality products in a timely and cost-effective fashion,the comptroller general of the United States, David M. Walker, said in a little-noticed April 5 critique. The Pentagon, he said, hasa long-standing track record of over-promising and un-delivering with virtual impunity....
Rumsfeld is a former business executive and White House official who published a set of
Rumsfeld's Rulesthat include the injunction:Be precise – a lack of precision is dangerous.But when investigators asked him whether he had approved the Boeing tanker lease in May 2003 -- despite widespread violations of Pentagon and government-wide procurement rules along the way -- Rumsfeld said:I don't remember approving it. But I certainly don't remember not approving it, if you will.
The only rational conclusion is that a significant part of his job just isn't important to the Secretary.
Save the country. Impeach them all. Do it now.
This is pretty cool. You position the watch using the handy built-in compass and then use the micro-Stonehenge to tell the time. And, just like the Druids, you can use it to tell the summer and winter solstices. $39.99 from ThinkGeek
NEVER use a weed whacker in the nude. You know, I'd never before thought that would be a necessary bit of advice. This is really funny, though, in a good Dave Barry sort of way.
It's the Web 2.0 way to say "I have photos of you with various farm animals.
Entertainment Weekly lists the top 10 movie car chases. I think they get it pretty right, but I'd swap #1 and #2 (though both are amazing). And I don't know how they left out Gumball Rally or The Italian Job (the original one). I'd certainly take those over Terminator or (gak) Charlie's Angels.
But hey, you can't complain too much about any list that includes Death Race 2000
Now, off to Netflix. Yeah, you. Go. You know you want to.
Ever wonder how to tell whether that jar in the back of the fridge has become a science fair project without actually (shudder) opening it?
Timestrips to the rescue! These gadgets use capillary action to draw a liquid across the scale at a known rate to provide a handy visual use-by indicator. There are professional versions of these used for tracking in commercial kitches, and Nestle is going to bring them out on one of their consumer products later this year.
Today's entry: Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA). Rep. Westmoreland went on the Colbert Report. He's co-sponsoring a bill to have the Ten Commandments posted in the House and Senate. Colbert asked him to name the Ten Commandments. He got three. That didn't keep him from putting a photo of himself and Colbert on his web site.
The Pentagon takes care of this Friday's Document Dump, releasing a report on "incidents" involving Iraqi prisoners and US special forces in 2003-2004. The "incidents" included feeding detainees only bread and water for 17 days, using "unapproved interrogation techniques" such as sleep deprivation and loud music, and stripping at least one prisoner. Nothing to worry about, though. These things were "wrong but not illegal" and "reflected inadequate resources and lack of oversight and proper guidance rather than deliberate abuse."
Maybe it's just me, but I thought that part of the whole idea behind how the military is organized is that there were people who are responsible for oversight.
Representative Curt Weldon (R-PA) somehow is able to find food, despite being a strong contender for Stupidest Man Alive. In a debate with his Democratic opponent Joe Sestak, he said this about Iraq: I think the jury is still out on WMD.
And he's the vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee!
And Republicans want us to trust them on national security? I'd sooner trust Wakko, Yakko, and Dot.
I'm a diehard Red Sox fan, but I have to give props to some individual Yankees from time to time. Bernie Williams, for instance. I watched him play in AA when the Yanks' farm team was in Albany, and I've always thought he was a class act. And Jorge Posada.
Posada's son has Craniosynostosis, which is a condition where the seams between the bones that make up the skull fuse prematurely. He's had several operations for the condition. Posada has established a foundation to help other families with children suffering from that condition, and he's written a children's book (available in English and Spanish) with all proceeds going to the foundation.
Hat tip to Crooks and Liars for spotting this.
Again, thanks to old buddy Steve for finding these classic Mike Jittlov stop-motion animation shorts on YouTube: The Wizard of Speed and Time, Time Tripper, and Swing Shift. They may not look like much in this age of CGI, but around 1980 they were the shiznit.
This is cool. The fan has two "sticks" of LEDs that you can program to display messages as the fan spins. I like it.
How about making it blend in with the surroundings?
No, really. Lots of cool street art here.
So, you still don't believe me?
Especially when it's about Bill Clinton. This time it's Rush Limbaugh claiming that Clinton's approval ratings were "down in the 20s" at one point and that he had "parallel poll results" to Bush in his second term.
The reality? Clinton's low was 36%, and was above 58% the entire year of 1998, which corresponds to this year in Bush's Presidency
Why do they lie? Might as well ask why a fish swims, or a frog hops. They just do, even when there's no reason to. And when they do have a reason to, like this, they get some real whoppers in.
Hat tip to MediaMatters, always a worthwhile read.
I love science geek cartoons.
I've put down a couple of floating laminate wood floors in our house, and they're pretty nice. But boring. This, on the other hand, is really cool. They make up and send you a floor that goes together like a jigsaw puzzle. If your room is moderately large, they'll even laser engrave an image of your choosing onto the pieces for free.
At $15/square foot, though, cool doesn't come cheaply.
The Congressional Black Caucus is standing behind Rep William Jefferson (D-LA). Look, they have him on videotape taking bribes. He's crooked as a dog's hind leg. Get him out of there. Guys, you're not helping him by doing this, you're only hurting your own credibility.
The Congressional Black Caucus is standing behind Rep William Jefferson (D-LA). Look, they have him on videotape taking bribes. He's crooked as a dog's hind leg. Get him out of there. Guys, you're not helping him by doing this, you're only hurting your own credibility.
And make no mistake. Getting him out of the way is a good thing. He was a really nasty character, and while I'd rather see him on trial than on a slab, either is preferable to continuing to run his terror operation.
That said, I think it's very likely that his importance to al Qaeda has been consistently exaggerated by the Bush administration and that his removal will have a much lower-than-expected effect on the insurgency as a whole. Remember, Zarqawi was not an Iraqi. At best, he was like a mob capo brought in from another city to run part of an operation.
That's a terrific song by John Wesley Harding, and it also seems to be one of the primary stocks in trade of right wing pundits. This time, it's Tony Blankley, editorial page editor for the Washington Times talking about Haditha:
The point it that this is going to be used, and is already being used by the opponents of the president, domestically and abroad, as a blood libel not just against these young -- these young men but against the military service and against the country. I've always been on one show -- I've already been on one show this week where they were tarring the entire honor of the American men in uniform -- of women in uniform. It's going to be -- Pat's correct -- it's going to be a propaganda catastrophe for the Unites States. And the over-reporting of it by a gleeful media is more damaging to the country than any other single fact.
No, Tony, the commission of the crime is more damaging to the country than any other single fact. And it would be nice if all these people who claim to be worried about America's image in the world would work on getting the policymakers to stop doing things that hurt America's image instead of trying to keep the reporting of it under wraps and/or pretending that the reporters are the ones doing the damage.
And, of course, these things never appear in just one place. Noted drug fiend Rush Limbaugh chimes in:
This Haditha story, this Haditha incident, whatever, this is it folks, this is the final big push on behalf of the Democratic Party, the American left, and the Drive-By Media to destroy our effort to win the war in Iraq. That's what Haditha represents -- and they are going about it gleefully. They are ecstatic about it... Folks, let me just put it in graphic terms. It is going to be a gang rape. There is going to be a gang rape by the Democratic Party, the American left and the Drive-By Media, to finally take us out in the war against Iraq. Make no bones about it.
No outrage about the killing of innocent people, no. Just about the reporting of the killing. Disgusting.
Here's a bit of good news. A federal judge ruled yesterday that Charles Colson's Prison Fellowship Ministries and the state of Iowa violated the Constitution by setting up a government-funded program to rehabilitate prison inmates by immersing them in Christianity.
Expect the usual howling about how they're being repressed from the evangelicals, but the facts are that the program was not only heavily Christian, but heavily slanted to Colson's flavor of evangelical Protestantism. The program was full of denigration of Catholicism, including asking Catholic participants not to read from their version of the Bible, to be wary of pronouncements of church officials such as bishops, cardinals, popes,
and even included a Spiritual checklist
of groups to be wary of. Islam, Hinduism, Mormonism, Unitarianism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian Science, New Age, Buddhism, Bahaism and Native American faiths all made the roster.
This may not be what Bush really means when he talks about faith-based initiatives
, but it's what the people who support him on the religious right mean. And there's no place in America for the government to be supporting this kind of program.
Tip o'the chapeau to No More Mister Nice Blog.
Really, don't they deserve it? Not all of them, I guess, but certainly the idiots at the Texas GOP convention.
Lt. Col. Brian Birdwell offered a greeting to delegates to the Republican convention. "It's great to be back in the holy land," the Fort Worth native said to the cheers of the party faithful....
The party platform, adopted Saturday, declares "America is a Christian nation" and affirms that "God is undeniable in our history and is vital to our freedom."
"We pledge to exert our influence toward a return to the original intent of the First Amendment and dispel the myth of the separation of church and state," it says.
And this isn't some random college professor that nobody had ever heard of. It's the platform of the Republican Party in one of our largest states.
If somebody had told you in 1998 that within ten years the US would be seriously considering dropping a significant section of the Geneva Conventions from the Army field manual, you'd probably have said they were crazy. One of the things I hate about this Administration is how often you end up sounding like a tinfoil-hat crazy just talking about what they're doing.
The particular section is Common Article 3, which applies to all detainees – not just POWs – and forbids "humiliating and degrading treatment".
I can't believe these people. Even if you take the most positive view and say "we wouldn't treat people like that", there are now a lot of people in the world who have seen the Abu Ghraib photos and certainly do believe we would treat people like that, and omitting this section from the field manual is going to convince them that Abu Ghraib is a model for future operations, not an aberration.
From the 80s to now. The SxSW festival, like last year, is making lots of music from bands performing at the festival available online. No matter what your taste, there's probably some stuff there you'll like. I'm just starting to wade through it myself.
There seems to be a sudden surge in interest in cultural artifacts (how's that for putting it diplomatically) from the 80s. I find this both extremely entertaining and horrifying.
Starting with the downright weird: a good friend of mine from college found this, and gave it to a mutual friend who posted it. Found at YouTube. The Dog Police were contestants in one of the MTV Basement Tapes competitions. I don't think they won, but they should have.
Now that you're warmed up....links to a couple of hundred 80s videos.
And that just got through the D's. Lots of good and goo here. Don't miss this one - Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, White Lines. Directed by Spike Lee and starring a very young Lawrence Fishburne.
I also stumbled across this oddity recently, with more 80s videos and somewhat snarky commentary.
It's clearly something in the collective unconscious. Why else would there be so many pulp magazine covers featuring octopuses (or octopoid aliens)?
I'd just like to say, for the record, that I really don't care what George Bush, Hillary Clinton, or anybody else has on their iPod. Unless it's some cool music I haven't heard yet.
Yes, another Sandberg reference. I have no doubt that he'd be classified a dangerous radical if he were alive and writing now, especially after seeing what seems to be passing for "maintstream" opinion, courtesy of the Wall Street Journal editorial page.
Did this week mark the first return steps to bipartisan sanity in the war on terror? The Senate Intelligence Committee approved Gen. Michael Hayden to run the CIA by a 12-3 vote. And by helpful coincidence, the Supreme Court decided 9-0 in Brigham City v. Stuart that the police can make a warrantless entry into a home in which people are in imminent danger of physical harm. As we all are now.[emphasis mine]
Got that? Anyone out there who still thinks the right hasn't been completely overtaken by its authoritarian elements, here's the WSJ - not some fringe publication - staking out the position that it's a good thing if the police can make a warrantless entry into, well, any home they want.
Remember, the fascists don't advertise themselves as fascists. That would be too easy. No, they prefer the "super-patriot" role.
George Bush, on Wednesday, came out with the following remarkable statement:
The enemy cannot defeat us on the battlefield, but what they can do is put horrible images on our TV screens.
Now, think for a moment. Does al Qaeda put the images on our TV screens? Does the Taliban? Saddam Hussein? Not the last time I checked. No, it's very clear. The free press is the enemy, according to George W. Bush. And I must say, it's very Bushian (Bush-esqe? Bushy? Bush league?) to put the blame on the people who are reporting on the disaster, not the people who created it.
The only thing I really don't understand is why the press keeps playing along. At this point, they're like the spouse in an abusive relationship who keeps going back despite regular abuse and beatings.
I have never served in the military, but I am not unfamiliar with it. My father and several uncles all served, including one of my uncles who was a career Army NCO and served tours in Korea and Vietnam and two others who were Army in Nam as well. Fortunately, they all came home. Many others didn't. Let us honor their sacrifice not by pursuing policies that will create more graves to decorate, but by pursuing policies that recognize that their sacrifice was incredibly precious to themselves, their families, and our nation.
Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.
Shovel them under and let me work–
I am the grass; I cover all.
And pile them high at Gettysburg
And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.
Shovel them under and let me work.
Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:
What place is this?
Where are we now?
I am the grass.
Let me work.
I grew up in the South — North Carolina, to be precise — where we used to talk about "yellow dog Democrats" which, if you've never heard the term, was someone so loyal that he'd vote for a yellow dog if it was on the Democratic line. Well, here are two guys who are beyond even that. One big raspberry for the Alabama Democratic party for letting these guys slip in.
Alabama's Democratic Party is distancing itself from two Democratic candidates for state office who think all illegal immigrants must leave or be killed.
Party officials described the platforms of candidates Larry Darby and Harry Lyon as ridiculous, unconstitutional and offensive. Darby is running for attorney general, and Lyon is a gubernatorial candidate.
Both agree the influx of illegal immigration into Alabama must be stopped, either through public hangings or martial law.
...
Lyon said if elected, he would sponsor a law to get all illegal immigrants out of the state within 90 days, or be hanged in public.
"It would only take five or 10 getting killed and broadcast on CNN for it to send a clear message to not set foot in Alabama," said Lyon, a Pelham lawyer. "Anybody that breaks into my home is a threat to my life. I remember the Alamo."
...
Darby said if elected he would ask the governor to institute martial law to stop the influx of illegal immigrants into Alabama. If illegal immigrants attempt to evade law enforcement, they "should be shot on sight," he said.
He said the number of Jews killed in World War II has been grossly exaggerated, and Jews must leave if the United States is to save itself.
"It would be good for Iran to blow Israel off the map," he said.
All righty, then. The sad thing is that these guys really aren't farther detached from the mainstream (or from reality) than, say, Ann Coulter or Michael Savage. The difference is that the left thinks those guys are nutcases. The right wing invites Coulter to speak at conferences.
No, not Bush.
A study from the University of Leicester indicates that
[P]eople who have suffered life's hard knocks while growing up tend to be more gullible than those who have been more sheltered, startling new findings from the University of Leicester reveal.
A six-month study in the University's School of Psychology found that rather than
toughening upindividuals, adverse experiences in childhood and adolescence meant that these people were vulnerable to being mislead.The research analysing results from 60 participants suggest that such people could, for example, be more open to suggestion in police interrogations or to be influenced by the media or advertising campaigns.
The study found that while some people may indeed become more
hard-nosedthrough adversity, the majority become less trusting of their own judgement.
Suppose this could explain how so many right-wingers can simultaneously make a fetish of making it on your own
and the school of hard knocks
yet seem endlessly gullible about the likes of Rush, Hannity, Bush, et al?
(With apologies to Martin Niemoller)
First they came for the due process rights of people accused of being terorrists, and Congress said nothing.
Then they came for the privacy rights of Americans to not have their telephone calls analyzed, and Congress said nothing.
Then they came for the right of Congress to make the laws (with "signing statements"), and Congress said nothing.
Then they came for the right to not be tortured, and Congress said nothing.
And when they came for the papers of a Congressman – with a warrant – and suddenly, they discover the preciousness of the Constitution.
Most of what's on my laptop right now is from the SxSW 2005 showcase, which was 3.5GB of tunes from the 2005 SxSW festival released as a promotion...
I admit it. I drink so much Diet Coke I should probably qualify as a lab rat. I tried New Coke. I tried Coke Zero. I tried C2. I even tried Coke Blak. And I'd try Coke Hot Tamale. Heck, it sounds better than Coke Blak. Fresca Pomegranate, though, is just too weird.
Check out this classic 80s tune from one of the more durable 80s bands, Depeche Mode. Not amazing as videos go, but you'll be trying to get the song out of your head for a week.
For those ideas that just can't be expressed any other way, it's Custom printed toilet paper.
I was a bit disappointed that their samples didn't include this one, though.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Michael Novak of National Review, displaying a view of the world completely undamaged by any contact with reality:
...What I do want to argue is that, after Washington and Lincoln, Bush is the bravest of our presidents. He has faced the most intense fire, hatred, contempt, heavily moneyed and bitterly acidic partisan opposition, underhandedness, betrayal, of any president in the last hundred years. He has faced hostility over a longer time, in possibly the most dangerous period of international warfare in our national history. He has remained constant, firm, decided, and generous (to a fault) with his opponents.
He has faced almost unbroken contempt from the academy, from the mainstream press, from Democratic elites, from Moveon and all the other holders of the Democratic-party purse strings, from the Democratic Congress, from his treacherous (if not treasonous) Central Intelligence Agency, and from many levels of the permanent State Department. Almost every day, he has been pummeled and undermined by powerful forces of American power. Still, he has stayed firm, with clear arguments, and an even clearer vision....
One hardly knows where to begin when faced with such a tidal wave of, well, nonsense.
"Bravest"? Yeah, his Vietnam record pretty much speaks for itself, as does his willingness to appear in front of any crowd at any time and take questions.
"Heavily moneyed and bitterly acidic"? Yeah, Richard Mellon Scaife, the Arkansas Project, and Limbaugh/Hannity/O'Reilly can't hold a candle to Moveon.org and Jon Stewart (ok, the last half of that is true).
"Remained constant"? Yeah, in the "if Bush decides something is true on Monday, it's still true on Wednesday (no matter what happens on Tuesday" sense.
"Most dangerous period"? Um, there was this little matter of World War I. And World War II. And the Cold War. And, for that matter, the War of 1812.
"contempt...from the mainstream press"? Gee, I always wondered why they never printed any of the crap the Swift Boat Vets were spreading about John Kerry, and why they never believed any of the administration's claims about Iraq. Now I know.
"clear arguments"? OK, this one is just beyond me.
I've been trying hard to think what could cause someone to write such a...remarkable bit of prose. Theory A involves a parallel earth with a heavily oxygen-depleted atmosphere. Theory B involves soma. Take your pick.
Secretary of state Condi Rice appeared on Meet the Press this morning, and made a truly remarkable statement: that there's no one who would like to close the camp at Guantanamo Bay than the Bush Administration. Which leads to the abundantly obvious question: What's stopping them?
Seriously, do they have to ask someone's permission? Whose? Can't "Decider" Bush just "decide" to do it and order that it be done?
The fine folks at CorrenteWire contribute this:
Here are a few facts about the 500 to 700 prisoners left at Guantanamo, as assembled by a group of law students at Seton Hall, using government records only: 55% of those prisoners are not accused of any hostile act towards this country, only of being members of suspicious groups; only 5% were even captured by US Forces, on or off a battlefield; only 8% are listed as
fighters.Some of them were detained because they were wearing Casio watches; I kid you not.
This, of course, didn't stop Condi from putting a cherry on top of her Sunda(y,e) lie by labeling the prisoners at Gitmo as dangerous terrorists
. I'm certain at this point that I have never in my life felt that I was so held in contempt by by Government. They don't even bother with the good lies anymore.
Finally. Barry Bonds ties the Babe.
A lot of people are incensed about this, and about Bonds in general, and I have to confess that I don't quite understand why. Yes, he almost certainly used steroids. But he's never tested positive for them. And we know for certain that Jason Giambi used them, and he's hearing nothing but cheers in the Bronx. Bit of a double standard? Sure seems that way to me.
Do I think steroids are bad for baseball? Absolutely. That's why I'm glad they're testing for them now. But look at it this way for a moment: Bonds was certainly not the only player using steroids, and none of the others have done what he's done. You also don't know how many pitchers were using, or how much it may have helped them. From where I sit, there's no even vaguely rational way to look at it and say what Bonds would "probably" have done without steroids, because he's such an outlier in performance. And without contemporary proof, I think baseball -- and the fans -- should just let it drop. I know he's not the most likeable guy in the game, and I'm not suggesting that he somehow deserves
Cal Ripken-like treatment, but the facts are the facts. He is nearing the end of an amazing career, and people should deal with that.
There's a debate going on in the Department of Defense. It's about whether suspected terrorists or other insurgents can be treated more severely than captured members of an enemy army.
Got that? If you're picked up as a POW actively fighting against the US military, you get all the benefits of the Geneva Conventions. If, however, you're turned in as an alleged "terrorist" or "insurgent" by somebody looking to pick up a bounty (or who just doesn't like you), you don't get benefit of counsel. You don't get due process. You probably don't even get informed of the exact charges against you. Oh, and you can be tortured.
This isn't un-American. It's inhuman. And yes, a good working definition of evil.
The Senate Judiciary Committee reported out the Federal Marriage Amendment to be voted on by the full Senate today. And there were a couple of odd things about it. First, they moved the hearings on it from the normal committee room to a small private room. Second, Senator Specter illustrated once again that he is in a non-custodial relationship with his testicles by saying that he was "totally against the Amendment" but voting for it anyway. Third, Senator Feingold stormed out of the meeting after a shouting match with Specter, who said "good riddance to bad rubbish" as he left.
This is an amendment to the US Constitution we're talking about here, not some motion to name a post office after some local notable. Why wouldn't they hold the hearings in public? Don't they want people to know what they're doing?
I like Jack Cafferty's take on it for CNN:
This is all being done by the republican majority in an effort to appeal to Right-wing nuts in the Republican Party ahead of the upcoming mid-term elections. Ignore all of the pressing issues facing the country, and instead go grovel at the feet of the lunatic fringe. Senator Frist should be very proud of himself. That's leadership. Here's the question: Is now the time for the Senate to consider a constitutional Amendment on gay marriage?
Indeed. One might quibble it will never be time for the Senate to consider a constitutional amendment on gay marriage, but if there is one, it certainly isn't now.
Rick Santorum is back in the news, this time accusing people of prowling around his house in Penn Hills. Of course, the only reason he thinks somebody has been prowling around there is that the local Democratic group is pointing out that there are no curtains in the house, and there doesn't appear to be any furniture. Seems kind of strange for a guy who claims to represent Pennsylvania, now, doesn't it? Makes you wonder what all the "Hillary is a carpetbagger!" crew would be saying about him if he wasn't one of theirs.
I recently ran across a big list of links to music videos from the 80s, mostly on YouTube. You know, the 80s. When MTV actually played music videos.
The Look of Love was ABC's big hit. ABC was Martin Fry, some random people, and Trevor Horn's production. The video is a wonderful sort of "glam-rock-meets-surrealism" style with a lot of odd things going on around the edges. I really went for this when it came out.
He's lost it. Gone round the bend. Cracked up. Bats in his belfry. Yes, I'm talking about the man who's trying to retire the "Worst Person in the World" award, the pugnacious Bill. O. Reilly. (as they say on his radio intro).
Pointing out that O'Reilly said something particularly insane may have the unfortunate side effect of leading people to believe that he periodically says things that are sane, but sometimes you just have to take the chance. On the May 16 edition of The O'Reilly Factor, he had this gem (emphasis mine):
O'REILLY: Now in 1986, President Reagan thought he could solve the [immigration] problem by granting about 3 million illegal aliens amnesty. The New York Times was in heaven, editorializing back then, quote, "The new law won't work miracles but it will induce most employers to pay attention, to turn off the magnets, to slow the tide." Of course, just the opposite happened. But the Times hasn't learned a thing. That's because the newspaper and many far-left thinkers believe the white power structure that controls America is bad, so a drastic change is needed.
According to the lefty zealots, the white Christians who hold power must be swept out by a new multicultural tide, a rainbow coalition, if you will. This can only happen if demographics change in America.
I particularly like the "white Christians" bit. Has a sort of "KKK" ring to it. But I wonder if O'Reilly has considered for a moment that Mexico's population is 89% Roman Catholic and 6% Protestant? Looks like he doesn't even think that "brown Christians" are OK.
In the words of a true great American, "what a maroon."
There was a firefight in the town of Haditha last November. As often happens in war, there were multiple stories of what went on. According to the Marines, one Marine and several civilians were killed by an IED, then several insurgents were killed in the ensuing firefight. According to the Iraqis, "U.S. Marines deliberately killed 15 unarmed Iraqi civilians, including seven women and three children." The Marines have since officially withdrawn their version of events.
Military officials say Marine Corp photos taken immediately after the incident show many of the victims were shot at close range, in the head and chest, execution-style. One photo shows a mother and young child bent over on the floor as if in prayer, shot dead, said the officials, who spoke to NBC News on condition of anonymity because the investigation hasn't been completed.
This is a tragedy and legitimately a war crime. It is a good thing that the internal investigation seems to be avoiding any temptation to whitewash events. We should let it finish, but keep a careful eye on the situation.
I recently ran across this extremely cool site of an Alaskan artist named Ray Troll. It's sort of "eco-surrealism", if I had to call it something.
He's also got some cool Alaska-themed stuff.
And my personal favorite, titled One Small Step for a Fish, One Giant Leap for Fishkind.
He's got lots of cool t-shirts for sale as well, though my favorite images from the gallery are not available on them.
I can't top Josh Marshall's description of this morning's press conference about Bush's new "immigration policy": Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and a clutch of top officials gave a press briefing today on President Bush's new National Guard-infused border security program. Hilarity ensues:
You should go read the whole thing, but this is too good to pass up. Question from a reporter:
Mr. Secretary, if I've understood everything I've heard, you don't yet know what missions the 6,000 National Guardsmen will do, you don't know who is going to pay for them, you don't know what the rules of engagement will be for them, you don't know what size units there will be or how long -- whether they'll be two-week or six-month deployments, and you don't really know exactly which equipment they're going to have. So my question is, how long have you been working on this?
Chertoff's response (in part):
[I]t is true that, sitting here right now, I do not have in my head every single mission set. . .
[At this point, Assistant SecDef for Homeland Defense Paul McHale tosses Chertoff an anvil.]
We don't know how many helicopters we're going to put up, but we know to a near certainty that we'll have helicopters. . . We don't know where we will place censors [sic] to detect illegal movement, but it's almost a certainty that we will have censors [sic]. . . We don't know how many barriers or roads we're going to build, but clearly, we will be putting new barriers in place, and clearly, we will be building new roads . . . So your question, sir, is a fair one.
But then the summary is priceless....
QUESTION: What I'm really trying to understand, is this a well-thought-out plan, or is it something that's just been --
ASSISTANT SECRETARY McHALE: Yes, sir, it is.
SECRETARY CHERTOFF: in quite exquisite detail...
As they say, you can't make this stuff up.
If, you know, it's really a "war on terror", you'd think that this item would have gotten more coverage.
Four of the 'most dangerous terrorists' in Iraq escaped from Susa prison in the northern Kurdish province of Sulaymanyah, a senior US army officer said Wednesday.
Colonel David Kerry said that it was not clear how the suspected terrorists fled the facility Tuesday night. He said a committee was investigating the incident.
Kerry didn't give information on the background of the escapees and which network they belonged to, merely saying that they are 'dangerous and involved in terrorism and criminal acts.'
I can think of any number of ways in which one might find Bush comparable with Nixon, but I have to admit that I had never thought that both of them are liberals. No, it takes Jonah Goldberg to come up with stuff like this. Either that or lots of drugs.
These are cool. My seven year old really wants one for his room. I really like the way the switch sticks through in just the right spot to be his beak.
Under normal circumstances, I'd put this firmly in tinfoil hat territory. The current circumstances, however, are anything but normal.
A senior federal law enforcement official tells ABC News the government is tracking the phone numbers we call in an effort to root out confidential sources.
"It's time for you to get some new cell phones, quick," the source told us in an in-person conversation.
How good a year is Albert Pujols having? Well, if you take his numbers so far and extrapolate them to a full season....
| AB | 546 | |
|---|---|---|
| R | 167 | Tied for 4th with Lou Gehrig 1936 and Tip O'Neill 1887 |
| H | 181 | |
| 2B | 28 | |
| HR | 83 | Current record: 71, Barry Bonds |
| RBI | 204 | Current record: 190, Hack Wilson |
| BB | 148 | Tie for 14th |
| K | 46 | |
| AVG | .344 | |
| OBP | .481 | 44th all time |
| SLG | .861 | 2nd all time, record: .863, Barry Bonds |
| OPS | 1.342 | 2nd all time, record: 1.422, Barry Bonds |
Just....wow. And he's only 26.
...is the sound of wingnut heads exploding after reading the latest CNN poll comparing President Bush with former President Clinton.
Bush did come out ahead in one category, though: when asked who has done more to divide the country, 59% named Bush to only 27% for Clinton.
And this poll was taken May 5-7, before the NSA surveillance scandal hit or "Dusty" Foggo's home and office were raided.
Personally, I just miss having somebody in the White House who realized that the Constitution applied to him.
I'm so angry about the NSA data mining news that I can't see straight. Even now, even after all the lies we've seen in the past 5 years, I couldn't imagine that Bush could stand up in public and lie through his teeth about it with a straight face. Not that I think for an instant that he understands anything about "data mining", or that he could tell it from copper mining. No, I think it's another round of their own special sort of lying: they don't set out to tell an untruth, they just say whatever they want to be true at the moment with absolutely no regard as to what the truth actually is.
Ever played "six degrees of Kevin Bacon"? Now imagine that instead of Kevin Bacon, it's anyone the government thinks might be a terrorist. And they haven't exactly established a sterling record on accuracy with that, either. How many degrees do you suppose you are from anybody who might be on a "terrorist watch list"? Pretty soon, everybody will be under suspicion. Voila, police state. Brought to you by Diebold, the Patriot Act, and the letters G-O-P.
I'm joining the chorus of people who think there's exactly one critical issue in this fall's elections, one question that anyone running for office ought to answer: What are you going to do to restore Constitutional government in the United States?
...would be a great name for a band.
Until they appear, though, go be terrified (or fascinated, if you prefer) by the 65 different versions of Stairway to Heaven the folks at WFMU dredged up.
Great bit from the comments, originally from Terry Pratchett:
"and then go down to the docks and hire a troll and tell him to stand in the corner and if anyone else comes in and tries to play 'Pathway to Paradise', I think they said it's called......he's to pull their head off."
"What about a warning?"
"That will be the warning."
I think there's only one possible thing to say at this point.
Freeeebird!
Yes, Katherine Harris is backstill in the news.
Former senior members of U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris' congressional staff say they initially rejected a defense contractor's $10 million appropriation request last year but reversed course after being instructed by Harris to approve it.
Harris insisted that Mitchell Wade's request for funding be given to a defense appropriations subcommittee, despite the request's being late and difficult to understand, according to two former staff members and Harris' former chief political strategist.
"She said, 'It's important to me, so submit it,' " said an ex-staffer who was involved in the process. "She wanted it in."
This was after Wade had spent nearly $3000 wining and dining Harris at one of Washington's spiffiest and most expensive restaurants. I'm sure it's just a coincidence, right? Right? Hey, why are you laughing?
Jane Siberry is a fascinating, wonderful, Canadian musician. Now she's done something interesting with her online store: pay what you think it's worth. You can even choose to take the music and think of it as a gift from Jane. Interestingly, she seems to be getting more per track than the $.99 iTunes charges.
BTW, I highly recommend Everything Reminds Me of My Dog ("Would you like a cookie? Would you like me to dial the number for you?")
That's the only way I could describe this. HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson was speaking to the Real Estate Executive Council, a national minority real estate consortium.
After discussing the huge strides the agency has made in doing business with minority-owned companies, Jackson closed with a cautionary tale, relaying a conversation he had with a prospective advertising contractor. 'He had made every effort to get a contract with HUD for 10 years,' Jackson said of the prospective contractor. 'He made a heck of a proposal and was on the (General Services Administration) list, so we selected him. He came to see me and thank me for selecting him. Then he said something ... he said, 'I have a problem with your president.' 'I said, 'What do you mean?' He said, 'I don't like President Bush.' I thought to myself, 'Brother, you have a disconnect -- the president is elected, I was selected. You wouldn't be getting the contract unless I was sitting here. If you have a problem with the president, don't tell the secretary. He didn't get the contract,' Jackson continued. 'Why should I reward someone who doesn't like the president?'"
Once again, the most staggering thing about this is that he doesn't appear to think there's anything wrong about what he did.
Hat tip to Sirotablog.
I have nothing against fishing. I don't fish as an adult, but I used to go with several of my uncles when I was growing up. Sometimes we fished the rivers or TVA lakes, and sometimes we'd go to a commercial stocked lake. But we never pretended the two were the same. You went to a stocked lake when you wanted a guaranteed score, or for a contest. It wasn't real fishing.
So now we have the story of Bush telling a German newspaper that his favorite moment of his Presidency so far was catching a 7.5 pound bass (originally reported as a perch) in his lake. On his "ranch". (A real ranch has cattle. His doesn't.) The lake he had dug. And stocked with bass. The whole thing is stupid, a rich man playing at being a commoner, like the quail "hunts" Cheney goes on with birds that have a hard time getting off the ground.
You know, when Jim Lehrer asked Bill Clinton if the Kosovo intervention was the best moment of his Presidency, he listed some other things that might qualify, like passing his economic program, passing the Brady Bill, the role he played in the peace process in Northern Ireland and in the Middle East. Bush could have picked something along those lines; the day on the rubble of WTC with the bullhorn, for instance. The day the statue of Saddam came down. "Mission ImpossibleAccomplished". The day they found Saddam. Pushing through his tax cut package. Or he could have picked something about his family, like the day the twins graduated from college. But this President? No, he chose catching a medium-sized fish in a stocked pond on his own ranch. Something completely, totally, obscenely self-centered.
I never liked Bush. I never understood the people who said they'd like to sit down and have a beer with him. But now? I loathe him. There is not a true bone in his body.
The cause-and-effect isn't quite that direct, but this sounds like one of the more entertaining police episodes not involving Jackie Gleason that I can recall.
...if it hadn't been for those meddling prosecutors!
Prosecutors have e-mails showing Rep. Tom DeLay's office knew lobbyist Jack Abramoff had arranged the financing for the GOP leader's controversial European golfing trip in 2000 and was concerned "if someone starts asking questions."
House ethics rules bar lawmakers from accepting free trips from lobbyists. DeLay, R-Texas, reported to Congress that a Republican advocacy group had paid for the spring 2000 trip that DeLay, his wife and top aides took to Scotland and England.
The e-mails obtained by The Associated Press show DeLay's staff asked Abramoff — not the advocacy group — to account for the costs that had to be legally disclosed on congressional travel forms. DeLay's office was worried the group being cited as paying the costs might not even know about them, the e-mails state.
The principle used to be "you can have your own opinion, but you don't get to have your own facts". No longer, at least not if you're a Republican. For instance...
The course in question was at the University of Georgia. I confess to being completely dumbfounded at the notion that only Democrats "should have to listen" to information about the Civil Rights era.After 34 years of college teaching, I thought I had heard just about every imaginable student complaint. Last week, however, a freshman in my 300-seat US History Since 1865 course came in to discuss her exam with one of the graders and proceeded to work herself into a semi-hissy over the fact that we had spent four class periods(one of them consisting of a visit from Taylor Branch) discussing the civil rights movement.
"I don't know where he's getting all of this," she complained,"we never discussed any of this in high school." One might have let the matter rest here as simply an example of a high school history teacher's sins of omission being visited on the hapless old history prof. had the student not informed the TA in an indignant postcript, "I'm not a Democrat! I don't think I should have to listen to this stuff!"
I guess this goes under "even a blind pig finds an acorn occasionally." President Bush actually strengthened an Executive Order that was in place when he took office, so that it requires all agencies and "any other entity within the executive branch" to provide an annual accounting of their classification of documents. Sounds like a good idea, right?
Well, guess who says it doesn't apply to him, of course? Yep, Deadeye Dick. I mean, it doesn't explicitly exempt the Office of the Vice President, but surely they didn't mean that he would actually have to be responsible to anyone for anything.
Lord, these people disgust me.
Support the troops, eh? While the Administration talks a good game, but the reality is not so good. A program to help military spouses develop employment skills is being cut by the Labor Department. But remember, we can't roll back any of the tax cuts for rich people!
Support the troops, eh? While the Administration talks a good game, but the reality is not so good. A program to help military spouses develop employment skills is being cut by the Labor Department. But remember, we can't roll back any of the tax cuts for rich people!
I really can't make up my mind whether this is serious or a parody. In fact, I can't even make up my mind whether I think the person is more of a nutcase if she's serious or if she's putting that much effort into a parody. I have to say, though, that if it is a parody, it's the best and most detailed one I've seen in an awfully long time.
I used to wear contact lenses, and it didn't take very long to get over the weird feeling of poking things into your eyes, but this is Just Too Much:
Yep, that's jewelry hanging from the model's contact lens. It's apparently a concept developed by designer Eric Klarenbeek.
Hat tip to Gizmodo
If you didn't go read Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog the last time I said to, go now. I'll wait. The latest is Chaucer's top pickup lines. My favorite is "Woldstow haue me shyfte thyne voweles?", followed closely by "Makstow a pilgrymage heere often?" And don't miss the shirts, either.
Hat tip to the wonderful folks at firedoglake for analyzing the latest filings in the Libby case, and spotting this fascinating item:
Mr. Libby can rebut this theory [that Administration officials engaged in a vigorous effort to discredit Wilson by outing his wife] by showing that his conversations with reporters about Mr. Wilson and his trip were necessitated by, and focused upon, the false information being spread by Mr. Wilson, and were not focused upon Mr. Wilson's wife. In that regard, he may seek to elicit testimony from other Administration officials — including, for example, his subordinates in the Office of the Vice President (OVP) — to testify that they too were intent on rebutting Mr. Wilson's criticism on the merits; that they saw his wife's CIA affiliation as a peripheral issue [emphasis mine] (at most); and that they were never instructed by Mr. Libby to disseminate information regarding Ms. Wilson's CIA affiliation to the press.
So Libby's "subordinates" knew about Plame's CIA status. Which should have been "need to know" material. What did they do, post this at the White House water coolers?
Yeah, I was one of the "Boo him!" crowd when Johnny Damon returned to Fenway Park in a Yankees uniform. It wouldn't have been so bad if he'd gone anywhere else. It wouldn't have been so bad if he hadn't said that he couldn't imagine himself playing for the Yankees. And I would like to have one of the "Looks like Jesus – Acts like Judas – Throws like Mary" t-shirts. But at least I didn't have to go through as much as this lady:
I've spent most of my blogging time for the last couple of days cleaning up the markup for this page. It now validates as proper XHTML! I hope this will make it look better in various browsers; personally, I prefer Opera, but YMMV.
I don't often talk about it, but I spent the first ten years of my career doing software development, mostly in languages so low-level that programmers today turn pale at the mere mention of their names. But I just ran across a terrific article by Damien Katz about handling errors in software. He makes the (very astute, IMO) observation that quite a lot of errors programs are "expected" to handle are things that, well, can't be handled. It's sort of the computer equivalent of running out of gas and expecting your engine to somehow "handle" the problem instead of stopping and waiting for the AAA guy to show up.
Damn. Now I want to learn Erlang.
A memorial gift of $1,000 will be made to your church if your covered auto is involved in an accident that results in your death or death of household family member.I have no idea of their prices, but it's an interesting approach.
The facts, on the surface at least, are suspicious: dozens of phone calls to the White House by a man later convicted in the case; the national Republican Party agreeing to pay more than $2.5 million in legal bills; phones jammed on Election Day, not only of Democrats but of a firefighters' group, in the first U.S. congressional elections since the Sept. 11 attacks. Democrats say that disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff may even be involved."The calls to the White House and the relationship with White House staff are a real eye-opener and should be a cause for concern on all fronts," said Sheila Krumholz, acting executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington- based research group. "It calls into question who the person was on the end of that telephone line."
Survey USA has put out another of their periodic 50-state polls. I decided to take a look at how much Bush's approval rating is below the vote totals he got in each state.
Latest CNN poll. When will they stop calling it "approval"?
Yep, that's our Attorney General. I can't figure out what is more stupid about this: the notion that it would have any significant effect on the Internet (which, someone should remind Abu Gonzalez, is worldwide), or the notion that it's even remotely compatible with the First Amendment.
The folks at gasbuddy.com have a cool map indicating gas prices by county in color kind of like a USA Today-style weather map.
The war in Iraq is now costing more than Vietnam per month in constant dollars.
The invasion's "shock and awe" of high-tech laser-guided bombs, cruise missiles and stealth aircraft has long faded, but the costs of even those early months are just coming into view as the military confronts equipment repair and rebuilding costs it has avoided and procurement costs it never expected.
Huh? They "never expected" to have to repair or replace all those gadgets that were designed for use in war zones? Who are these idiots?
You know, I really hate to point to the folks at the NRO Corner, but this one (hat tip to Angry Bear is too good to pass up. KLo should really see someone about that MPD. First, she tags Ted Kennedy as a socialist for this:
The president, the president should have called the head of the oil companies into the White House and started jawboning. He should have done that a week ago. Why he doesn't do that, I do not understand. He ought to be pointing out that hard-working Americans, middle-class people, who have their sons and daughters in Iraq and in Afghanistan, that this is not a time for greed. And he ought to activate and call the Federal Trade Commission-which is basically a sleepy organization that has given an interim report in terms of price-fixing and gouging-he ought to get them off and have them working seven days a week, 24/7, to make sure that we know exactly who is price-gouging. And third, we ought to have a bipartisan effort to recapture, recapture these excessive profits that are going to the oil industry and return them to working families and middle-income families.
Wait two hours, and find her posting (with apparent approval) this from Speaker Hastert:
We respectfully request that you direct the Attorney General and the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission to investigate any potential collusion, price-fixing or gouging in the sale or distribution of gasoline, petroleum distillates or ethanol in wholesale and retail markets. We further request that scrutiny be directed to refining, the transportation of fuel by pipelines, marine vessels and trucks, storage and marketing activities and retail practices to determine if there is any unlawful manipulation of the price of gasoline. Sweeps of retail distribution centers should be undertaken to ensure that retail price movements are in response to a change in market conditions and not price gouging. Finally, we recommend that the Federal Trade Commission examine whether spot shortages of gasoline are the result of illegal efforts to manipulate prices.
Those clever Republicans. They want to make it a felony to sell a vibrator in South Carolina. The law would ban sale of devices used primarily for sexual stimulation and allow police to sieze sex toys from raided businesses.
One can only wonder what sort of interesting new interrogation techniques the police are likely to come up with with that sort of raw materials.
A wise man once said, "in any argument, there will be people on your side whom you will wish were on the other side." This is probably more true for God than for most of us. Here's the latest example.
Laura Mallory of Loganville filed an appeal last week to get the best-selling book series [Harry Potter] out of the [Gwinnett County, GA)] schools' media centers. She is an evangelical Christian who has three children at J.C. Magill Elementary School."I think the anti-Christian bias — it's just got to stop," Mallory said. "And if we don't say something, we'll just keep getting pushed out of the schools. And I pay taxes, too, and I think that gives me a voice to speak out about this."
...
Mallory said she has been contacted by other Christian parents who were concerned about the content of the books. On her complaint form, she suggested they be replaced by C.S. Lewis's "Chronicles of Narnia" series or Tim LaHaye's "Left Behind: the Kids" series.She admitted that she has not read the book series partially because "they're really very long and I have four kids."
"I've put a lot of work into what I've studied and read. I think it would be hypocritical for me to read all the books, honestly. I don't agree with what's in them. I don't have to read an entire pornographic magazine to know it's obscene," Mallory said.
Sure. Christians are getting "pushed out" of schools. Just to establish that you're working from a firm base in some other reality. Once you've established that, why bother actually reading the books when you can make up your mind based on what other people are telling you about them. And replacing them with "Left Behind"? Good grief. Why not just go straight to toilet paper? At least that would have some use.
About a year ago, a mentally disturbed Oregon man took some meth and decided to kill himself. He picked up a nailgun, pointed it at his head, and fired. Then fired som more. Stopped to reload. Kept firing until twelve 1-1/2" and 2" finishing nails were in his skull.
The next day, he went to a small hospital complaining of a headache.
Fortunately, doctors were able to remove all the nails, and the man has gotten treatment for his addiction and underlying mental illness.
Here's my homies. We be everywhere.
Now it's time to start on the vinyl! :-)
"Rabbit experts say the animal could be an escaped giant domestic rabbit. Some pet breeds can grow to more than three feet (one meter) in length." That's one honking big bunny!
Look, if you're a pharmacist, it's your job to dispense legally prescribed drugs. You're not a doctor, you're not an inquisitor. It's not your job to judge people's treatment or their lives. If you don't like that, there are plenty of other jobs out there.
At this point, I'm just waiting for the first case of a Scientologist becoming a pharmacist and refusing to fill prescriptions for antidepressants.
Last week, in America, a radio producer for a large syndicated program in the United States called me requesting that I go on the show, a show that has hosted me many times and where I’ve been referred to as, “Our man in Iraq.” But when I said Iraq is in a civil war, that same producer slammed down the phone and, in so doing, demonstrated how much he reveres truth....When the receiver slammed into the phone, the producer revealed himself naked; he was not supporting the troops, nor the Iraqis, but the President.
The right wing in the US appears to have come to believe its own press releases to the point that it believes they actually create reality. As I've said before, it's a particularly pernicious sort of lying. They don't intentionally distort the truth, they just ignore it and say whatever they want to believe.
