More From Our "Who Knew?" Department

Jeez, is this a terrific day for oddball news or what?

Little Bristol Palin throws her mother -- and abstinence-only sex education -- under the bus.

After two campaigns -- one for governor of Alaska and one for the Rethug VP job -- during which she flogged so-called abstinence only sex education as the only way to approach the problem of teenage sexuality and teenage pregnancy, Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol appeared on Faux News to say that abstinence is "not realistic at all":

Bristol scheduled an interview with mom's pandering BFF Greta Van Susteren of Fox News. But she didn't tell mom until 24 hours before, probably because she was planning to personally insult Jesus, and the former Republican vice presidential nominee would not like it.
After describing the difficulty of being a teen mom, Britsol told Van Susteren abstinence is the best policy, but is not realistic because it's not the 19th Century any more, not even in Alaska.
She said she didn't "want to get into detail about" other reasons abstinence is unrealistic, though we're guessing it might be because Bristol failed to control her teenaged hormones and, being without ready access to condoms, got pregnant at 17 to an ill-tempered failed hockey player who has yet to finish high school or, judging from what Bristol told Fox, secure employment of any sort, other than doing odd jobs for his father.

Like I always say, you can't make this shit up. But I'm of two minds about this little display: One, I'm glad that one of the more prominent victims of abstinence-only sex-ed is speaking out and maybe this will carry a little weight in Rethug circles (yeah, okay, I'm a dreamer--give me a break), but Two, I'm a little apprehensive that this might keep Lady Wolf Killer from running for president next time, and those of us over here in snarky Left Blogistan need a ready-made comic relief candidate.

I Was Surprised, Too, Dick

Also in the news today is a report that Darth Cheney was furious when Baby Doc refused to fully pardon his boy, Scooter Libby.

Apparently the Veep launched an all-out two-week assault on his boss to try to get him to pardon Libby. I guess it wasn't enough that he didn't have to do any fucking jail time at all for his crimes, eh Dickster? So when Baby Doc got so stingy with the pardons there at the end, it apparently caused a rift between him and his puppet master.

The unsuccessful full-court press left Cheney bitter. "He's furious with Bush," a Cheney source told The News. "He's really angry about it and decided he's going to say what he believes."
He did just that the day after becoming a private citizen. In an interview with The Weekly Standard, Cheney heaped praise on Libby and denounced his conviction. "He was the victim of a serious miscarriage of justice, and I strongly believe that he deserved a presidential pardon," Cheney said. "Obviously, I disagree with President Bush's decision."
The vehemence of Cheney's last-minute onslaught has struck some Bush loyalists as excessive. "At some point you have to accept the decision of the guy who appointed you," one of them said after learning the details. "I think Cheney was over the top."

Wow, it surprised me as well. I figured all this time that Shooter would pardon Scooter, with the sock-puppet pResident in between, who always did what he was told. Who knew?

Of course, we are dealing with a malignant narcissist here, who never met a death penalty that he didn't want to carry out when he was governator of Texas, so I guess that the whole "quality of mercy" thing in back of the law is just a quaint and outmoded reminder of how things used to be. You know, like the US Constitution.

Maybe It's Just Me...

... but I really don't think this is the best way to get your point across.

From the news today, it appears that one Muzzammil Hassan, 44, of upstate New York, a man who founded his own television station to counter the "negative stereotypes" of his fellow Muslims in the media, beheaded his own wife after she filed for divorce!

Like I say, if you're trying to change peoples' minds about Muslims, going with the whole "off with her head" thing is not the way to do that.

Brainwashed: The Movie

Here's an absolutely horrifying (and not in a good way) clip from a documentary movie that is apparently making the rounds on its own "road show":

This woman was interviewed about the apparently then-upcoming 2004 election, and just listen to her justification as to why she is voting for Bush. As one YouTube reviewer of this clip said, "I threw up in my mouth a bit".

I don't know what the current status of this film is or where it can be seen -- a Google search doesn't come back with much. But from what I see from this small clip, this is definitely a film worth watching.

Will Petraeus Betray Us (Again)?

Way back a year and a half ago I used the headline "Will Petraeus Betray Us?" Less than three months later Moveon.com used almost the same phraseology: General Petraeus or General Betray Us?.

Back then it was a fun and games, of course, but now comes the alarming news that Petraeus is something more than a silly political rhyme.

Gareth Porter over at IPS News has the story US-IRAQ: Generals Seek to Reverse Obama Withdrawal Decision.

If you don't want to read the whole story, Consortium News has a capsule summary, The Petraeus Plot Against Obama:

President Barack Obama already appears to be the target of a well-organized strategy directed by senior military officials -- and aided by their allies in the Washington press corps -- to force Obama to renege on his campaign pledge to bring U.S. combat troops home from Iraq in 16 months.

I don't want to go all Seven Days in May here. At least not yet, but it is troubling when a general is apparently trying to subvert the will -- the orders -- of his Commander-in-Chief.

I Think I'll Live...

...but those "toxic grandchildren" who gave me this goddam cold are out of the will!

At least the worst is over now, thanks to regular cocktails of Airborne fizzies, Full Sail Ales, hot buttered rums, nostril blasts of 4-Way, periodic boosters of acetominophen w/codeine and a nightly dose of Lorazepam. While I can't recommend this particular regimen to everyone, it worked for me -- at least what I can remember of it...

Anyway, I'm back now and ready to go, more or less.

And the first order of business is to refer everyone over to Len Hart at The Existentialist Cowboy, for his spot-on summary of what we're up against with the church-state crowd, Religion Under a 'False Flag':

During the Bush regime, a GOP constituency of religious fanatics, fundamentalists, and deniers of science mounted a full-court press against the principles of Democracy and the enlightenment. They put forward a dark age agenda: 'Intelligent Design', a stealth religious ideology cooked up by right wing focus groups --not scientists. It is religion under a false flag.

There's a lot more. This should be required reading for high school students, teachers, school board members, taxpayers -- everyone.

And be sure to watch the videos. I don't know how he finds the time.

Tomorrow is "Darwin Day"...

...but today I seem to be coming down with a killer cold that I picked up from my "toxic grandchildren" on Sunday, so I may not be in any shape to post anything on what should be a national holiday.

So, given that, here's a YouTube video from PBS's Nova entitled "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial", about the now-famous landmark Dover School Board trial:

It's an hour long and normally, with my short attention span, I'm not capable of watching anything on the computer longer than the average 1930s/40s-vintage Warner Bros cartoon, but this is well worth the time spent.

Hypocrisy? That's Too Mild a Term

Who knew that the Rethugs would be THIS hypocritical? It wasn't that long ago when they were in the majority in congress and demonized the Dems for being "obstructionist" and threatening the use of the filibuster in order to prevent the Rethugs from getting their own way.

Remember when the shrill call by the majority party in the senate was for a "straight up and down vote" for every fucking piece of fascist legislation or Supreme Court "justice" that Bushco Inc. tried to ram through?

Remember that????

Okay, I know that you do and I do, but apparently the CPM* has such a short attention span that they can't recall a single thing about it. Now it's all of those nasty Dems who are trying to push their radical liberal agenda off on the American people, and it's only the time-honored and sacred power of the filibuster that is saving this nation from a descent into the maelstrom.

Like I say, you can never go broke underestimating the ability of the GOOPers to raise hypocrisy to new heights. They will always exceed even the most lavish expectations. I think we need a new word, since the old meaning of hypocrisy is way too mild, too neutral, too wussy to describe what these assholes are showing us.

And you Dems: Stop with the goddam enabling already, and let's all join together in relegating the Rethug Party to its well deserved final destination, that well-known and well-deserved "dustbin of history".

[* CPM = Capitalist Pig Media]

Heretical Quotes, Part One

Just to kind of counterbalance the previous post, here are some heretical quotations that I've managed to pick up along the way:

1. The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread. - Anatole France
2. The more you can increase fear of drugs and crime, welfare mothers, immigrants and aliens, the more you control all the people. - Noam Chomsky
3. Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful. - Seneca the Younger
4. Heresy is only another word for freedom of thought. - Graham Greene

I'll be posting some more of them as time goes by.

Wonderful World

We might lose sight of its meaning at times, especially with all that's happened over the last eight years, but the old Louis Armstrong song Wonderful World still speaks to us. And here's a little video, set to the song, that will surely warm the cockles of your heart (whatever "cockles" are...):

Warning: The "Awwwwwwwwwww Factor" is way off the scale... And if your cockles get too warm, try rubbing them with a little dry ice.

Bipartisanship -- Still a No Starter

On the one hand President Obama deserves at least some credit, I guess, for his attempt to reach out to the Rethugs and at least try to be bipartisan, on the theory, I guess, that it's better to have them inside the tent pissing out than outside pissing in.

The only problem with that is that those Rethugs in Congress are not housebroken. You can let them inside, but they end up shitting on your floor, pissing in your beer and trying to monopolize your remote control.

You know, kind of like your IBIL* did last Xmas at the family get-together.

Okay, now that he's made the effort, it's time to let the American people know that the hand of friendship that was extended to the Rethugs came back with some bite marks on it, and the next time that hand is extended, it might draw back a bloody stump or two where there used to be fingers.

Give it up and shove those fuckers to the curb. And what the fuck is up with appointing a Rethug to the cabinet? Okay, I know that I argued for Rethug cabinet appointments a while back, but that was with the idea that Obama would take Rethug senators from states with Democratic governors, who would in turn appoint Democrats to the empty slots, thereby guaranteeing that all-important 60-vote filibuster-proof majority.

Memo to Barack Obama: So WTF were you thinking when you cut that deal with New Hampshire to get their Rethug senator -- who BTW doesn't even like you and doesn't believe in the kinds of things you believe in -- by forcing the Democratic governor to appoint another Rethug in his place? What would the Rethugs do if the shoe were on the other foot and their president were to appoint a Democrat to the cabinet (okay, I know I'm stretching a bit here), but only if the Rethug governor of that state were to appoint another Dem?

Okay, trick question: That scenario would never happen.

It's beyond me why the Dems want to play that bipartisan game anyway. Didn't they get enough over the last how-many-years that the Rethugs were on top, and crushed the Dems under the hobnailed heels of their jackboots? What is this, some kind of weird political Stockholm Syndrome?

President Obama, in the words of the late and not lamented Baby Doc, you've got political capital and you need to spend it.

And memo to Harry Reid and the Dems in the senate: If the Rethugs threaten a filibuster, call their bluff, make them actually filibuster, and show the American people who is being obstructionist and who isn't. The average member of the Moron-American Voting Bloc needs to see -- really see -- who wants to get this country moving again and who is stopping that progress.

[* IBIL = Idiot Brother-in-Law]

I'm Back ... Again

When you get to "a certain age" it seems that your inner clock seems to slow down, and consequently external time -- "reality time" -- speeds up accordingly.

I had fully intended to finish up the projects I had been working on so I could get back to the important stuff full time, so to speak. But of course that didn't happen.

But I'm back anyway. Thanks for reading, and thanks also for missing me.

I'll Be Back...

...on Monday. It's taken me a little longer to do what I had to do on my other projects, including cleaning up the yard after the winter storms. I was surprised at how much damage there was after our lengthy blizzard and freezing temperatures.

Plus I still haven't finished with the photo slideshows and stories about my Vietnam trip, and that was so long ago that I'm having trouble remembering that I went there.

Not really, but I am getting to that age where every little memory lapse starts to present itself as incipient Alzheimers...

Anyway, She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed and I are going to spend the weekend in Portland (Oregon -- Maine is too far to drive) and I'll be back in Left Blogistan come Monday.

In the meantime, thanks again to all of you in the "teeming millions", and everyone have a safe but happy weekend.

I'm Okay -- I'm Just Taking a Break

For all of the teeming millions of you out there who dote on their daily dose of One Pissed Off Veteran, don't worry. I'm just taking a short break while I finish up some other projects that have been hanging fire.

I'll be back soon.

--The F Man

Some Saturday Fun Stuff

I am sumultaneously a devotee of classical music and a fan of street performers. So it's with great satisfaction that I present this video, which combines the two of them:

Glasses Concerto

Enjoy.

Non-Theists Are Also Americans

All but lost in President Obama's (jeez, I love saying that!) inaugural address was this line:

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus and non-believers. [emphasis added]

Maybe it's just me, but I really can't recall another incident in which a high-power politician even bothered to acknowledge that we are out here.

As skeptical as I am about most things, I can't help but think that -- given that President Obama's speech was carefully constructed, deliberately worded and expertly delivered -- this signals some kind of major shift in the wind, a sea change (or whatever hackneyed cliché you want to apply) in the way that we non-theists (atheists, agnostics, skeptics, humanists, etc) will be viewed in the future.

Yeah, okay. I'm a dreamer. Give me a break... But I'm hoping that this really is a change we can believe in, and that those of us out here in Skeptic Land won't have to feel like second-class citizens any longer.

Because I Just Can't Help Myself

Jesus, the dumb fuck isn't even on the ground in Texas yet and I already miss him.

So do a lot of people in the world:

The Sydney Morning Herald complained about Bush's "singular lack of curiosity in international matters" in an editorial titled "Farewell to a flawed and unpopular commander-in-chief."
...
Le Monde: "It's hard to find a historian who won't say that Bush was the most catastrophic leader the U.S. has ever known," the French daily wrote. "One success: since September 11, 2001, there was no attack on U.S. soil. But this sits alongside an interminable list of failures, starting with the war in Iraq."
...
"Bush leaves a country and an economy in tatters," wrote the Sunday Times in London. It said America's national debt and unemployment nearly doubled on his watch.

Buh-bye Mister pResident. So long it's been good to know ya -- NOT!

Well, That Didn't Take Long

I'm talking about how John Roberts fucked up the presidential oath and stumbled around in it. I knew at the time that the wingnuttery would pounce on that like flies on shit. They couldn't get any traction with the phony birth certificate non-story, so sure enough, now Chris Wallace over at Faux News just busted his butt to be the first on the air with, "Well, again, we're wondering here whether or not Barack Obama in fact is the president of the United States."

Well, wonder away, Chrissy-Boy. You fuckers just can't let it rest, can you?

Memo to Faux News and the rest of the wingnuts out there who just can't stand that Barack Hussein Obama is now your president, too: There's a quaint little document called the Constitution of the United States, and if you ever bothered to actually read it, you'd find something called the 20th Amendment, ratified way back in 1933:

1. The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin [emphasis added] ...

So there you go. Even though the constitution specifies the wording of the presidential oath ("I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States" -- BTW, note that there is no "so help me god" in there anywhere), the simple fact that the clock on the East Coast ticked past noon meant that Obama was automatically president. Period. End of story.

Except it won't be the end of the story. Fatboy Drug Addict Rush Limbaugh and Slanthead Hannity are sure to be pumping this non-event for all it's worth (which is less than nothing, but that won't stop them).

Oh, and little Chrissy-Boy also rhetorically speculated that, "It's just conceivable that this will end up going to the courts."

Just conceivable? Yeah, on the planetoid Pluto, maybe. And what would John Roberts do if that case every happened to come before the Supremes? Agree with the so-called plaintiffs (whoever they might be) that he fucked up and Obama isn't president?

Uh-huh.

The New Coinage

Just in time, before the last gasp of the BFEE in office, here's your chance to collect some pocket-change pieces of history:

[Edit 1-20-09: I just couldn't make this embed work without it playing automatically, which got to be a major annoyance every time I reloaded the page. So here's the link where you can see it in its own window.]

I'm glad I stumbled on this over at The Candid Blogger, before it was too late.

Thanks, CB!

The 40 "Know Bush" Facts from 2004

Over at OpEdNews, Barbara Bellows-TerraNova has a lengthy and detailed series dating from 2004 about the then-future legacy of Der Monkey Fuehrer, A Legacy Review: My Original 40 'Know Bush' Facts from 2004, (Part One, Part Two -- Part Three is inexplicably missing -- and Part Four) that is well worth the time it will take to read the whole thing.

Excerpts:

Former FBI Deputy Director John O'Neill was in charge of the investigations into:
• the bin Laden-connected bombings of the World Trade Center in 1993
• the destruction of an American troop barracks in Saudi Arabia in 1996
• the African Embassy bombings in 1998, and
• the attack upon the USS Cole in 2000 . . .
told French researchers in the summer of 2001, "The main obstacles to investigate Islamic terrorism were U.S. oil corporate interests, and the role played by Saudi Arabia in it...All the answers, everything needed to dismantle Osama bin Laden's organization, can be found in Saudi Arabia."
In a tragic irony, O'Neill quit the FBI two weeks before 9/11 in disgust over the Bush Administration's refusal to investigate Saudi ties to Al Qaeda and went to work as head of security at the World Trade Center, where he was killed in the attack.
. . .
Three weeks after the 2000 election, while the results were still up in the air, Greg Palast, an American reporter for the BBC and the Guardian of London, reported that in the months leading up to the November 2000 balloting, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris (who was also George Bush's Florida campaign manager), in coordination with Governor Jeb Bush (George's brother), ordered local elections supervisors to purge 57,700 names from voter registries.
These names were removed because they were supposedly felons who, according to Florida law, may not vote. However, in review, 90.2% of the voters purged from this list were innocent. Their names were listed in error, and never verified. It should be noted that 54% were Black and Hispanic voters, and 90% were Democrat.
Remember, Bush supposedly won Florida, and thus the country, by only 537 votes.

If the continual paging forward on the OpEdNews site annoys you, you can always go to Barbara's blog, Know More, and read the whole thing on one page. Plus there you can read the mysteriously missing Part Three (Facts #27 through #34, which includes Fact #30, an exposé of the "Republican Riot" at the Florida's Dade County elections office in late 2000).

All of these facts are verified and validated truths. But that doesn't mean that the CPM* was going to report on them, neither at the time nor now. No, they're too busy being lapdogs to the BFEE in its pathetic attempt to rewrite history and burnish the tarnished "Bush Legend". Assholes.

[* CPM = Capitalist Pig Media]

Whitewashing History

I'm the first to admit that I did not watch Baby Doc's "Farewell to the Nation" address the other night, but I've seen enough clips and read enough about it to know that he is anarrogant and self-delusional reality-denier to the end.

Yeah, big surprise there.

Over the last several weeks we've seen a media blitz on the part of Bush apologists trying like hell to shore up his crumbling reputation and engage in outright denial, in the face of facts, about the record of the BFEE. Last night's address was the crowning touch, the capstone, the little groom on the wedding cake, if you will, of that attempt.

Unfortunately it won't be the last attempt. For the next umpteen years you're going to see more of the same, the insane repetition of The Big Lie by everyone in sight, by everyone who ever held an appointive office in the BFEE, in hopes of allowing history to give the little fucker a pass on the destructive policies of the last eight years.

It's now up to the incoming Obama administration to not only try to undo all of the damage, but to demand accountability from the prime architects of the Baby Doc Maladministration who have caused this country to go in a spiraling freefall, circling the drain (to mix metaphors) of economic, political and international polity.

So far I haven't had a good feeling about what exactly Obama is going to do about it. While I'd like to see Baby Doc, Darth Cheney, Karl Rove, et al., frog-marched before the International Court of Justice at the Hague, I don't really think that's going to happen. But we should still, at the very least, hold open hearings on the crimes of the BFEE and make goddam sure that the judgment of history will be that we, as a society, were willing and able to actually do something to make the bastards accountable.

That's not too much to ask.

Friday by the Numbers

Total American dead in the Iraq Illegal Occupation: 2500 2513 2532 2540 2546 2558 2571 2585 2597 2605 2619 2641 2710 2737 2758 2788 2809 2826 2865 2888 2906 2959 3006 3018 3025 3067 3087 3118 3132 3151 3166 3189 3210 3233 3245 3266 3299 3316 3337 3358 3387 3409 3444 3504 3519 3546 3577 3592 3611 3631 3683 3705 3725 3738 3760 3780 3795 3823 3830 3838 3845 3866 3875 3881 3886 3891 3896 3908 3921 3932 3943 3952 3960 3974 3987 3992 4004 4032 4036 4177 4180 4185 4186 4189 4197 4204 4209 4217 4221 4223 4226

Total coalition forces dead: 317
Total Iraqi Dead: 900,000+

Number of days since Baby Doc said he'd get Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive": 2684
Number of days since the illegal occupation of Iraq began: 2112
Number of days since "Mission Accomplished": 2087
Number of days between Pearl Harbor and the end of WWII: Only 1347

Number of days that the the Vice President has NOT shot a man in the face: 1070
Number of days that the Bush Twins are still not pregnant with baste-'em-or-waste-'em Snowflake babies: 911

It is still 3 days until the end of the BFEE Maladministration.

---

Note: This will be the last "Friday by the Numbers", at least for a while. I'm willing to cut Obama some slack and let him have some time to turn the rushing current of the BFEE around and head our nation in the right direction. But if doesn't rise to the occasion, look for this regular feature to return.

Not Pro-Sodomy, Scout's Honor

From our "I swear you can't make this shit up" department comes the news that former Arkansas governor, erstwhile presidential candidate, Baptist minister and evolution denier/Intelligent Design flack Mike Huckabee swears that he is not "pro-sodomy".

Here's an interchange between him and mAnn Coulter:

HUCKABEE: I am not, as you characterized me in one article, pro-gay, pro-sodomy. That is so not me.
COULTER: Yes, there was a Supreme Court decision. You said you agreed or disagreed with. Yes, I got you on that Mike Huckabee.
HUCKABEE: Nope. You didn't. I am definitely not pro-sodomy. I promise, scout’s honor.

"Scout's honor"? Maybe he could have chosen a less ... felicitous ... phrase.

Sarah Palin: Kitten With a Whip

Thanks once more to the enormously-talented "anonymous blogger" Blue Gal, who just treated us to this new video:

Those of us out here in the sad-state-of-affairs Anonymous Bloggerland just can't seem to get enough of this stuff. Palin was just the perfect VP candidate for those of us with a sense of humor. She was -- and remains -- a freakin' gold mine of material. We can only hope that she's stupid enough to try to make a run for the presidency in four years. And it looks like she might just do that. If I weren't so cheap, I'd send her campaign a few bucks just to keep her in the public view.

Call me selfish, but I like having an easy target once in a while.

An Unanticipated Refund from the IRS? Lucky Me.

In this morning's email I received the following "official" notification from the IRS:

After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity we have determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund under section 501(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Tax refund value is $120.50. Please submit the tax refund request and allow us 6-9 days in order to IWP [???] the data received. If u [sic] don't receive your refund within 9 business days from the original IRS mailing date shown, you can start a refund trace online.
If you distribute funds to other organization, your records must show wether [sic] they are exempt under section 497 (c) (15). In cases where the recipient org. is not exempt under section 497 (c) (15), you must have evidence the funds will be used for section 497 (c) (15) purposes.
If you distribute fund to individuals, you should keep case histories showing the recipient's name and address; the purpose of the award; the maner [sic] of section [sic]; and the realtionship [sic] of the recipient to any of your officers, directors, trustees, members, or major contributors.
To access the form for your tax refund, please *click here* [Note: This generously-provided link goes not, as you might expect, to a "masked" URL, but directly to <mydisco-dating.de/orca/log/refund/> -- these guys have absolutely no imagination or computer-geek skills]
This notification has been sent by the Internal Revenue Service, a bureau [sic] of the Department of the Treasury.

The link, as you can see, goes to some "disco dating" website in, of all places, Germany. Given the misspelled words and the tone (it was obviously written by someone whose native language is not English), it's hard to believe that anyone would actually fall for this. But the Nigerians seem to still be making a killing -- sometimes literally -- on their particular area of scam expertise.

BTW, when I was in Saigon last September I met a couple of guys from Nigeria. Their very first question to me? "What's your email address?"... Really. I had to laugh while they, of course, had to pretend that they didn't get the joke.

But at least with the Nigerians, some people, like Scam-O-Rama: The Lads from Lagos and 419 Eater, are fighting fire with fire. Read some of the case histories on both of those sites about the ridiculous lengths some of those poor Nigerian saps will go to in trying to keep their "phish" on the line. I especially like the stories wherein the putative victim actually turns the tables and gets money from the scammers.

Friday by the Numbers

Total American dead in the Iraq Illegal Occupation: 2500 2513 2532 2540 2546 2558 2571 2585 2597 2605 2619 2641 2710 2737 2758 2788 2809 2826 2865 2888 2906 2959 3006 3018 3025 3067 3087 3118 3132 3151 3166 3189 3210 3233 3245 3266 3299 3316 3337 3358 3387 3409 3444 3504 3519 3546 3577 3592 3611 3631 3683 3705 3725 3738 3760 3780 3795 3823 3830 3838 3845 3866 3875 3881 3886 3891 3896 3908 3921 3932 3943 3952 3960 3974 3987 3992 4004 4032 4036 4177 4180 4185 4186 4189 4197 4204 4209 4217 4221 4223>

Total coalition forces dead: 317
Total Iraqi Dead: 900,000+

Number of days since Baby Doc said he'd get Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive": 2677
Number of days since the illegal occupation of Iraq began: 2105
Number of days since "Mission Accomplished": 2080
Number of days between Pearl Harbor and the end of WWII: Only 1347

Number of days that the the Vice President has NOT shot a man in the face: 1063
Number of days that the Bush Twins are still not pregnant with baste-'em-or-waste-'em Snowflake babies: 904

It is still 9 days until the end of the BFEE Maladministration.

Blakely Lauren -- RIP

Longtime readers will recall that last summer we went to Alaska to meet my son's girlfriend, who was carrying our next grandchild.

Little Blakely Lauren was born on Christmas Eve, and died of apparent crib death on Saturday, January 3rd. Her parents, Bob and Almarie, are grieving their loss, as are Susan and I.

Here's to you, Little One. I'm sorry we never got to meet in person.

I'll be back to blogging ... in a while.

The Biggest Drawing in the World

Now for some fun stuff. Check this out. A Stockholm artist sets out with a GPS receiver and apparently an almost unlimited amount of money, to use global shipping company DHL to create, using the entire world as his canvas, the world's largest self-portrait:

Biggest drawing in the world
Uploaded by erikbjgn

It's a really clever bit of melding of technology to art and it's fascinating to watch it all come together.

Bristol & Levi's Advice to New Parents

After that fateful school "camping trip" wherein Bristol Palin and her main squeeze Levi Johnston found out firsthand about the evils of condoms, they've written a guest column on the snarky political satire site 23/6.

Some gems of their advice:

· BABY WON'T SLEEP: A common problem, not just for babies but for everyone in Alaska, considering there's always, like, 36 consecutive hours of daylight or darkness. If baby is fussing, try licking your hand and running it through the child's hair...
· BABY IS HORNY: There's no better time than the first days of infancy to start teaching your child about abstinence. Remember, the sooner you can start informing your kid about the evils of pre-marital sex, the less likely they'll be to get themselves in some kind of embarrassing, unexpected situation. This may also be a good time to start teaching your baby about irony.

Who knew that these two could turn out to be the dispensers of such sage advice? I certainly was caught in shock and awe...

Friday by the Numbers

Total American dead in the Iraq Illegal Occupation: 2500 2513 2532 2540 2546 2558 2571 2585 2597 2605 2619 2641 2710 2737 2758 2788 2809 2826 2865 2888 2906 2959 3006 3018 3025 3067 3087 3118 3132 3151 3166 3189 3210 3233 3245 3266 3299 3316 3337 3358 3387 3409 3444 3504 3519 3546 3577 3592 3611 3631 3683 3705 3725 3738 3760 3780 3795 3823 3830 3838 3845 3866 3875 3881 3886 3891 3896 3908 3921 3932 3943 3952 3960 3974 3987 3992 4004 4032 4036 4177 4180 4185 4186 4189 4197 4204 4209 4217 4221

Total coalition forces dead: 317
Total Iraqi Dead: 900,000+

Number of days since Baby Doc said he'd get Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive": 2670
Number of days since the illegal occupation of Iraq began: 2096
Number of days since "Mission Accomplished": 2073
Number of days between Pearl Harbor and the end of WWII: Only 1347

Number of days that the the Vice President has NOT shot a man in the face: 1056
Number of days that the Bush Twins are still not pregnant with baste-'em-or-waste-'em Snowflake babies: 897

It is still 16 days until the end of the BFEE Maladministration.

It's an Ill Wind etc.

You know the old saying, "It's an ill wind that blows nobody good"? How about "Every cloud has a silver lining"?

One of the few bright spots coming out of the tanking economy is this: Fewer death penalty cases in the courts and way fewer executions. In 1999 there were 98 people put to death in this country; in 2008 that number plummeted to 37, which comes out to a 62% drop.

Moreover, prosecutors are increasingly loath to ask for the death penalty. In many instances, it comes down to a choice for local and state governments: Cut the number of cops on the beat, or save roughly one million dollars per case by not pursing a death penalty.

It seems that what simple humanity couldn't do, simple economics took care of.

And BTW, here's an interesting statistic for all you knuckledraggers out there who think that the potential imposition of the death penalty results in fewer murders: The national "murder rate" has stayed very nearly constant between 2000 (which saw a rate 5.5 per 100,000 people) and 2007 (which saw a rate of 5.6 per 100,000 people).

That's what's called in the math biz a statistical dead heat.

The Alternative Invocation

Here's a terrific video put together by my friend Blue Gal;, which appears in its "official location" over at Alternative Invocation:

Watch it. It's totally awesome. Way to go, Fran!

[And while we're at it, congratulations to Blue Gal for making into the finals for the 2008 Best Liberal Blog award. BTW, it was from Blue Gal's blog that I learned that bloggers could drive up their readership by embedding key search phrases in their blog posts, phrases such as lesbian vampires, felafel sex and panties. Hmmmm, we'll see...]

More on Billo

I really have to quit stumbling around in YouTube. It's taking up way too much of my time...

That said, here's another one, this time with Richard Dawkins on the Bill Orally show.

Watch for this exchange about halfway through:

Billo: It [belief in god] is true, for me.
Dawkins: What do you mean, "true for you"? ... Something's got to either be true or it's not.
Billo: No, no.

And there you have it, folks. Billo agrees that he's full of shit and that he is not part of the Reality-Based Community.

Why Rush Limbaugh Left Television

Aside from the fact that he has a face and a body built for radio, that is...

Speaking of YouTube, watch this -- it's an oldie but a goodie from Rush's television show in 1990, wherein the notorious bully gets it handed right back to him:

It's kind of long, but worth watching.

I just love it how the fucker starts squirming when the audience starts calling him out, and then he finally has to kick the entire studio audience out before he closes.

Bill Orally Gets "Owned" -- by a HS Kid, No Less

One of the rewards of poking around in YouTube is that I tend to come across stuff like this:

Watch a high school student refuse to back down while calling Billo out on his bullshit.

Priceless.

A New "Follower"

One of the more interesting features about Blogspot is the "following" -- other bloggers and regular citizens can sign up to follow your blog. And I just noticed that I have a new follower, Controversy.

It's not a regular blog -- instead Ghostwriter, the blog owner, conducts a number of ongoing polls, wherein you can vote your opinion on a number of controversial issues (e.g., "What is the responsibility of the US in the Israel-Palestine conflict" is the Poll of the Day).

Go ahead and check it out. The poll results are not, of course, scientific in any way, but still illuminating as to what the blogger community in particular collectively feels about certain issues.

Happy New Year Everyone

As we bid a fond farewell (after all, in spite of everything that was wrong with it, it was the year we elected Barack Obama) to 2008, and we are perched on the cusp of a Brave New Year, I sincerely wish that everyone who reads this blog -- my constant readers -- will have a happy and safe and prosperous and peaceful new year.

Catch you on the other side.

--The F Man

The Top Ten "Separation" Stories of 2008

At the end of each year, it's customary to publish the "Top Ten" news stories that affect one's particular axe-to-grind, and Americans United for Separation of Church and State is no exception to that custom.

So here is AU's Top Ten stories:

1. The Role of Religion in the Presidential Campaign
   
2. The Resurgence of the Religious Right
   
3. The Battle Over Gay Marriage
   
4. The Ascendancy of Rick Warren
   
5. Religious Right Influence at Justice Department
   
6. Battles Over Creationism in Public Schools
   
7. Church Politicking Plot
   
8. Defeat of Jeb Bush Referenda
   
9. Blocking of 'Christian' License Plate
   
10. The Christmas Wars

Go ahead and read the details of these stories.

If nothing else, it will show you that we have our work cut out for us in 2009, to push back against the Xian Fundos who are engaging in a stealth campaign to take over our society, our culture, and our science.

A Useful Skill

If you ever need to McGyver yourself out of an arrest situation, here's the answer:

All I ask is that you NOT send this on to Darth Cheney or Baby Doc Bush. We wouldn't want those fuckers to figure this one out...

Turn Your Back on Rick Warren

If you plan to be among the some four million+ people expected to attend the Barack Obama inauguration in Washington DC next month, you need to be aware of this.

When fatboy homophobe fundo Xian preacherman Rick Warren gets up to give that totally unnecessary invocation, send him and the rest of the world a strong and silent message by turning your back.

Yep, that's it. Just turn your back on the fucker. If enough of us do this, it will show the rest of the nation -- and the world -- that we, The American People, do not countenance, do not support and do not approve of Rick Warren's message of hate.

Friday by the Numbers

Total American dead in the Iraq Illegal Occupation: 2500 2513 2532 2540 2546 2558 2571 2585 2597 2605 2619 2641 2710 2737 2758 2788 2809 2826 2865 2888 2906 2959 3006 3018 3025 3067 3087 3118 3132 3151 3166 3189 3210 3233 3245 3266 3299 3316 3337 3358 3387 3409 3444 3504 3519 3546 3577 3592 3611 3631 3683 3705 3725 3738 3760 3780 3795 3823 3830 3838 3845 3866 3875 3881 3886 3891 3896 3908 3921 3932 3943 3952 3960 3974 3987 3992 4004 4032 4036 4177 4180 4185 4186 4189 4197 4204 4209 4217

Total coalition forces dead: 316
Total Iraqi Dead: 900,000+

Number of days since Baby Doc said he'd get Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive": 2662
Number of days since the illegal occupation of Iraq began: 2089
Number of days since "Mission Accomplished": 2066
Number of days between Pearl Harbor and the end of WWII: Only 1347

Number of days that the the Vice President has NOT shot a man in the face: 1049
Number of days that the Bush Twins are still not pregnant with baste-'em-or-waste-'em Snowflake babies: 890

It is still 23 days until the end of the BFEE Maladministration.

The Christmas Truce

World War I was a very long time ago, and a lot has happened since the "war to end all wars", but on this Christmas Day I'd like to recall a singular event that took place on the Western Front on Christmas 1914.

The story has all the trappings of an Urban Legend -- and in fact it was on the Snopes website where I was once again reminded of it -- but it's true, and the following comes from a book by Stanley Weintraub called Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce:

[T]he Germans set trees on trench parapets and lit the candles. Then, they began singing carols, and though their language was unfamiliar to their enemies, the tunes were not. After a few trees were shot at, the British became more curious than belligerent and crawled forward to watch and listen. And after a while, they began to sing.
By Christmas morning, the "no man's land" between the trenches was filled with fraternizing soldiers, sharing rations and gifts, singing and (more solemnly) burying their dead between the lines. Soon they were even playing soccer, mostly with improvised balls.
According to the official war diary of the 133rd Saxon Regiment, "Tommy and Fritz" kicked about a real football supplied by a Scot. "This developed into a regulation football match with caps casually laid out as goals. The frozen ground was no great matter ... The game ended 3-2 for Fritz."

The First World War website also carries a lengthy account of the Christmas Truce.

This story should give us all hope that we can somehow muddle our way through the crap we're going through, and emerge on the other side in a better world.

Happy Holidays

It's now officially Xmas Eve day, and it's snowing again! This will be only the second "white Xmas" in my memory, and we still have to drive some 100k to visit the children and grandchildren today.

So everyone, have a happy and safe holiday, and I'll catch you on the flip side.

-- The F Man

True Christians Should Only Read English

Thanks to a blog entry on All-Girl Army (which I found through the use of the incomparable Stumble Upon), I found another website called Freethoughtpedia which contains an excellent source of quotations from "the godly" about all of us poor benighted non-theists out in the world.

Here are some examples, apparently culled from a lot of places, including message boards and social networking sites like My Space as well as various newsgroups such as alt.atheism:

· The only thing I don't like about them [a bible-publishing company] is they sell foreign language versions of the KJB. I don't think that's right. We know the only true translation is the 1600's version in English. It's too risky for anybody to translate that into other languages. Mistakes can creep in... and that can lead to heresy. True Christians should only read English.
· I honestly don't care about your rights. If it were up to me, all Atheists would be burnt at the stake and or cast into a river with weights tied to their ankles and or placed before the firing squad, etc etc etc.
· Just like what Nazi Germany did to the Jews, so liberal America is now doing to the evangelical Christians. It's no different. It is the same thing. It is happening all over again. It is the Democratic Congress, the liberal-based media and the homosexuals who want to destroy the Christians. Wholesale abuse and discrimination and the worst bigotry directed toward any group in America today. More terrible than anything suffered by any minority in history. -- Pat Robertson
· The only solution we have to stop gays from recruiting other people is to cut off the source. They need to be taken to specialized containment centers where they will be forced to become straight and accept Jesus as thier [sic] savior and to repent from their disgusting, wicket, hatful [sic], devilish ways. Those that refuse to go can either be forced, or banished from society in other specialized communities where they have no connetion [sic] to the outside world at all. Most would die of AIDS anyway. Anyone who refused any of the answers to make them better would have to be killed or banished.
· Everyone knows scientists insist on using complex terminology to make it harder for True Christians to refute their claims. Deoxyribonucleic Acid, for example... sounds impressive, right? But have you ever seen what happens if you put something in acid? It dissolves! If we had all this acid in our cells, we'd all dissolve! So much for the Theory of Evolution, Check MATE!

There's a lot more, many of them more outrageous than these. Check it out and be prepared to run the gamut of emotions, from laughter to tears to fears, over this display of "thought" that is pernicious in the Religious Right.

We dismiss these people at our peril. These are the same ones who want to take over our school boards, our city councils, our state legislators, and ram their narrow definitions of science, history and theology down the throats of the rest of society.

Our job? Stop them.

Hats Off to Tim DeChristopher

Tim DeChristopher, in case you didn't see the news, is the Utah State student who showed up at the surprise hush-hush ultra-secret last-minute oil-lease auction on some of Utah's most beautiful redrock desert and canyonlands and threw a monkey wrench into the works by overbidding a lot of Big Oil assholes for drilling rights on some of the last pristine wilderness left in the lower 48.

Way to go, Tim!

While it isn't clear whether he will face charges, he did outbid a lot of the big names in oil exploration, without the slightest intent -- or financial wherewithal -- to actually pay for the leases.

The good news is that this is such a serious blow to the BFEE's last-ditch attempt to give away our natural resources that the BLM will have to redo the whole auction.

Which will take at least 30 days.

Which will put us into an Obama administration.

Which hopefully will mean that the whole thing will be dead on arrival.

The Obamas and Blair House

It's traditional for the incoming First Family to be put up prior to the inauguration in the government-owned and government-run Blair House, the official guesthouse for the President of the United States.

Except of course when it comes to incoming president Barack Obama. Nope, it seems that there's no more room at the inn when it comes to those uppity Chicago Negroes coming to town. "So sorry," they were told. "We're all booked up."

As if the White House staff didn't know in advance that the new president would be coming to town prior to the inauguration: "Nope, came as a complete surprise to us. Never saw that comin'. Nope nope nope. Oh, look! Is that Haley's Comet???"

My good friend Debby, a strong Democratic Party activist and an Obama delegate to the national convention in Denver, built up a strong head of outrage-steam when she heard of this on the always-valuable Crooks and Liars website, so she called the White House switchboard.

I'll let Debby take over now. Here's her report, which she also posted on the story:

I read through many of the comments and found one by Pericles on 12/13 that lists the dates that other president elects have moved into Blair House. I then posted a comment after calling the White House comment line.
Here is my comment: After reading Pericles' post (12/13) on dates other presidents have occupied the White House, I called the White House comment line 202-456-1111 and waited (forever) to talk to an operator. I told her that as a teacher and a mother that I was outraged that Bush wouldn't allow the Obama family to use the Blair House so the girls could start school Jan. 5th. The operator told me that NO PRESIDENT ELECT had EVER used the Blair House prior to the inauguration. I informed her of the Jan. 1st occupancy date of Reagan, Carter and Clinton and she told me that wasn't true. I said I thought she was incorrect but regardless, it would be the decent thing for a president, who is supposed to be so concerned with education, to not 'leave a kid behind' on the first day of school. The operator then had the audacity to tell me that 'there are plenty of Senators who live in the DC area who could let the Obama family stay with them.' She's suggesting that the Obama family camp out in the guest room of a US Senator for 15 days. I then told her that I had looked at a history of the White House and learned that it has 11 bedrooms, and suggested that the 'guests' who are currently booked into Blair House for Jan. 5 - 20 instead stay with Bush instead.
She said that wasn't an option. I asked her who the guests were: Saudi princes? bin Laden cousins? She started saying 'No', 'No' and talking over me but when I got to 'members of the Bush crime family', she hung up on me.
I guess the truth hurts.

Debby Girl, that's just CRAZY TALK! And don't forget that Baby Doc and the Bush Crime Family still have a little less than a month to ship you off to the tropics for a clandestine filming of Debby Does Gitmo.

Neverthess, kudos to Debby for standing up to the BFEE. You go, girlfriend!

Robin Williams in London

I don't know why John Cleese is in that wheelchair for the intro, but nevertheless, here's Robin Williams on Obama, Bush and the world in general. Funny stuff:

Update: According to this story, John Cleese had knee surgery.

The Warren Invocation -- Who Needs It?

By now much has been made of Barack Obama's unfortunate choice of gay-bashing fundo fatboy Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration. I've heard the other side -- such as it is -- of this argument: Obama is "reaching out" and being a "uniter not a divider", blah blah blah.

Bullshit. This is the first misstep of the Obama Administration. Granted there will likely be a lot more, but this one bodes ill for the concept of true equality for all in this country under an Obama rule.

And yeah, I know that the benediction is being given by a Grand Old Man of the Civil Rights movement, Joseph Lowery, as if that will provide some sort of bookend for the whole thing.

But lost in all of this hoopla is the fundamental question: Why do we even need an invocation and a benediction at a presidential inauguration? It's not like it's an American tradition. George Washington had a religious invocation at his inauguration, and then it fell by the wayside until 1933, when Franklin D. Roosevelt revived it. Probably because he wanted, like Obama, to be "inclusive" -- and while he was at it, to put to rest the ugly rumors that he was a socialist, a communist, or even -- gasp -- Jewish!

So I say the hell with all of the religious trappings. Let the president be inaugurated to the highest secular office in the land with a secular ceremony.

Oh, and that whole swearing on the Xian bible and the phrase "so help me god" thing? Neither of them appear in the constitution, but I think you can make some good money betting that IBIL* of yours on whether they are.

[* IBIL = Idiot Brother-In-Law]

Milgram: It Can't Happen Again. Or Can It?

I've always been fascinated with the so-called Milgram Experiments, in which ordinary people were coerced into giving ostensibly lethal jolts of electricity to other "participants", at the urging of an authority figure.

The Milgram Experiments happened some 45 years ago, and over the intervening years some of us have gotten fairly smug about the opinion that "that was then, this is now" and it can't happen again.

Guess what? Wrong!

One Jerry Burger, a University of Santa Clara (CA) professor, just two years ago, did what was more or less a repeat of the Milgram protocol, with -- shockingly -- pretty much the same results.

So what does it say about us as a society, us a people, us as the beacon of freedom in the world, that so many of our populace is quite happy to deliver jolts of high-voltage electricity to our peers, simply because "we were just following orders"?

Sadly, to me this does not come as a surprise. The only good sign -- and a surprising one at that -- is that the percentage of people willing to "go the limit" dropped from 84% to 70%. Still way too high, but it does show progress, I guess...

If the President Does It, It's Not Illegal

Or, Resurrecting the Ghost of Richard Nixon.

Leave to Darth Cheney to come up with that quote, live on camera in his soon-to-be-infamous interview with Chris Wallace on Faux News:

It starts about 2:23 into the interview. Watch it.

Santa, the only thing I want for Xmas is to see Darth Cheney and Baby Doc Bush doing the a perp walk as they are dragged before the World Court at The Hague.

Please, Santa, I've been good.

Really I have...

"...Prohibiting the Free Exercise Thereof"

Many of us who are active in the Separation of Church and State community tend to focus on the first part of the Wall of Separation clause in the First Amendment ("Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion") and tend to give short shrift to the second part of that phrase ("or prohibiting the free exercise thereof").

Until something like this happens. It seems that a judge down in Georgia (where else, except maybe Alabama) has jailed a Muslim woman for contempt of court because she refused to take off her hijab, the traditional -- and religiously required -- Muslim headscarf.

And it's not the first time this particular judicial asshole has acted this way. As Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (website), said, "What if you're a Jewish man wearing a skull cap? What if you're a Catholic nun wearing a habit? . . . All would be denied access to this judge's courtroom."

Indeed.

Imagine the outrage from the Religious Right if a judge in an area where there is a large Muslim population -- Detroit, say -- banned any individual from his courtroom who insisted on wearing a crucifix.

This is why we have a First Amendment: To keep totally separate the realms of church and state.

This is Freaking Nuts!

It's the most unusual weather for the western part of Washington State that many can recall. Ordinarily we have two or three times a year some snow for a day or so and then it warms up and it's all gone. Right now it is snowing again, and I just measured a 10" depth in my front yard.

And that's after it warmed up -- slightly -- yesterday and we had some freezing rain, which tended to tamp down the surface. Then it froze overnight, which left an interesting thin crust on the top of the snow.

But the bright side of that is that the peanuts that I throw out for the native scrub jays, Steller's jays and my two crows (Cheryl and Russell) tended to skid across the surface instead of dropping out of sight into a drift, so it was much easier for them to scoop them up. That said, it was still kind of funny seeing the scrub jays -- who are the bravest and will come the closest to me, even to the point of taking the peanuts out of my hand -- with crusts of ice on their beaks from digging out the sunken peanuts.

Luckily I have a Jeep Wrangler with four-wheel drive and good snow tires, so getting around hasn't been much of a problem, except for avoiding the idiots who don't have the first clue about driving in snow and ice conditions. And we seem to have a lot of them here.

We're just not used to this kind of thing here in the Wet Corner, and the weather report says it might continue for several more days.

Snowed In

We've had a surprise snowstorm here and I'm all but isolated, snowed in with nothing but hot chocolate and satellite television. (Yeah, I know, oh-boo-hoo)

I'll get back into the blogging mode in a day or two. Right now I'm enjoying the novelty of four days of snow. Usually we get snow for a morning that turns to rain and vanishes down the storm drains overnight.

It's also kind of fun watching my fellow townspeople trying to drive in the stuff. Bunch of idiots.

Remember what Farnsworth always says: It's funny until someone gets hurt; then it's fucking hilarious!

Unfair to Dogs

Okay, everyone has by now seen the amazing video of Der Monkey Feuhrer being pelted with shoes at an Iraq press conference:

You can't hear the audio (and even if you could, you likely don't get it), but the "alleged perpetrator" called Baby Doc a "dog".

Aside from the shoe (which, if you'll remember, was one of the things that the CPM* flogged at the "fall" of the statue of Saddam as being "one of the worst insults" an Iraqi can hurl), the designation of "dog" is of paramount insult in Iraqi society. And, as the title of this points hints at, calling Baby Doc a dog is a paramount insult to dogs.

So what does that poor fucker who actually threw the shoes get for his "treachery"?

It turns out, not so much. Now there are demonstrations all over Iraq for his release, and poor Baby Doc is left with egg on his face and the knowledge that not only do the Iraqis not LIKE him, but his spokesmouth has been injured in the eye from a runaway microphone.

Jeez, that's just too fucking bad, Dina, but...

(I just can't help myself)

...it's not like you didn't see it coming!

[* = Capitalist Pig Media]

R U Fucking Kidding Me????

Widows and orphans. It's the one demographic that has always been victimized in this nation, to the point where it's now a cliché among my friends who are attorneys.

But it's not so goddamn funny when the VA, despite a law to the contrary, has been dunning the widows of dead servicemembers for the nickles and dimes that they were paid for the last month the veteran was alive.

Way back in 1996 the congress passed the benignly named Veterans’ Benefits Improvements Act, under which the payments made to widows and orphans for the last month of the life of the veteran are NOT recoverable.

My question, obviously, is WHY IN THE FUCK were they even "recoverable" in the first place.

But that aside, it appears that somehow the VA never got the memo, and they've been dunning those widows and orphans relentlessly for repayment of that all-important last month.

Finally someone is doing something about it. And it's about fucking time.

VA Secretary James Peake is quoted as saying, "I agree that this problem must be fixed."

Duh. Here's a toast of microbrew beer to incoming secretary Shinseki, who has a tremendous burden on his shoulders to reform the VA. It's a daunting task, and I give him all props and all my support in his task.

Friday by the Numbers

Total American dead in the Iraq Illegal Occupation: 2500 2513 2532 2540 2546 2558 2571 2585 2597 2605 2619 2641 2710 2737 2758 2788 2809 2826 2865 2888 2906 2959 3006 3018 3025 3067 3087 3118 3132 3151 3166 3189 3210 3233 3245 3266 3299 3316 3337 3358 3387 3409 3444 3504 3519 3546 3577 3592 3611 3631 3683 3705 3725 3738 3760 3780 3795 3823 3830 3838 3845 3866 3875 3881 3886 3891 3896 3908 3921 3932 3943 3952 3960 3974 3987 3992 4004 4032 4036 4177 4180 4185 4186 4189 4197 4204 4209 -- Finally, a week in which the numbers did not go up!

Total coalition forces dead: 315
Total Iraqi Dead: 900,000+

Number of days since Baby Doc said he'd get Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive": 2648
Number of days since the illegal occupation of Iraq began: 2075
Number of days since "Mission Accomplished": 2052
Number of days between Pearl Harbor and the end of WWII: Only 1347

Number of days that the the Vice President has NOT shot a man in the face: 1035
Number of days that the Bush Twins are still not pregnant with baste-'em-or-waste-'em Snowflake babies: 876

It is still 37 days until the end of the BFEE Maladministration.

The War on Xmas

Wow, I almost missed the opening salvos in this year's War on Xmas. Thanks much to Yikes! and Dr. Zaius for reminding me.

Here's an example of one of our propaganda posters:

Check out the War on Xmas page at Yikes! for more graphic examples that you can use in your own campaigns. Remember, if we Secular Progressives won't fight this war, we can't reasonably expect someone else to fight it for us.

That, as you know, is one of the principle differences between liberal progressives and chuckleheaded asshat dickwad neocon chickenhawks.

But there I go, being redundant again...

A Real Defense of Marriage Act

A number of years back our Congress, in its infinite wisdom, passed something called The Defense of Marriage Act. I won't bore you with the details (you can check them out for yourselves), but suffice it to say that in my humble opinion it didn't go far enough.

Periodically the Christianists -- who apparently agree with me up to a point -- trot out the latest and greatest version of a constitutional amendment to the same effect, that marriage should be based on biblical provisions, religious prescriptions and Christian Nation precepts.

I couldn't agree more. And to that end, I am indebted to John Aravosis over at AmericaBlog, who has posted a list (which he in turn got from The Daily Kos) which, if they weren't so fucking hypocritical about the whole thing, the Religious Right ought to fully embrace.

These are the bibilical requirements, it would seem from a casual reading of the Xian bible, for a "Christian Marriage" constitutional amendment:

A. Marriage in the United States shall consist of a union between one man and one or more women. (Gen 29:17-28; II Sam 3:2-5)
B. Marriage shall not impede a man's right to take concubines in addition to his wife or wives. (II Sam 5:13; I Kings 11:3; II Chron 11:21)
C. A marriage shall be considered valid only if the wife is a virgin. If the wife is not a virgin, she shall be executed. (Deut 22:13-21)
D. Marriage of a believer and a non-believer shall be forbidden. (Gen 24:3; Num 25:1-9; Ezra 9:12; Neh 10:30)
E. Since marriage is for life, neither this Constitution nor the constitution of any State, nor any state or federal law, shall be construed to permit divorce. (Deut 22:19; Mark 10:9)
F. If a married man dies without children, his brother shall marry the widow. If he refuses to marry his brother's widow or deliberately does not give her children, he shall pay a fine of one shoe and be otherwise punished in a manner to be determined by law. (Gen 38:6-10; Deut 25:5-10)
G. In lieu of marriage, if there are no acceptable men in your town, it is required that you get your dad drunk and have sex with him (even if he had previously offered you up as a sex toy to men young and old), tag-teaming with any sisters you may have. Of course, this rule applies only if you are female. (Gen 19:31-36)

Bottom line, I'm all for that good ole Defense of Marriage Amendment based on bibilical principles.

So the next time that IBIL* of yours starts spouting off again about this bullshit, all you have to do is whip out the old KJV (which you have already bookmarked with Post-Its at the appropriate pages) and show him that you, too, are in favor of traditional biblical marriage.

That ought to shut the fucker up.

[* = Idiot Brother-In-Law]

How Five Comic Book Characters Changed the World

Okay, it's time for some fun stuff. How did these five comic book characters -- Superman, Popeye, Captain Marvel Jr, Donald Duck and Spider-Man's nemesis, Kingpin --change the world?

To find out the scientific, sociological and lasting pop-culture effects on the rest of the world of these particular characters, drop by Mental Floss and read 5 Comic Superheroes Who Made a Real-World Difference.

Religion = War

A lot of us with a historical bent have always "got it" -- religious differences cause wars. Fortunately up until recently that's been an almost quaint historical phenomenon, at least from an America-centric point of view.

No more.

Not when the putative leader of the strongest military in the history of the world invades -- embarks on a crusade against -- two foreign countries -- both of whom coincidentally (not!) exercise their faith in a religious doctrine that is fundamentally different from ours -- and says that "god told him to do it"...

Yeah, I'm talking about Baby Doc Bush, Der Monkey Fuehrer himself, and his glassy-eyed reliance on superstition and the supernatural for "guidance". But that's not the half of it.

Larry Beinhart over at Alternet has just started several serial essays on this very topic. The first installment, We're Witnessing the Return of Religion as a Principle Cause of Warfare was just posted today, and we are promised a continuing series. It's worth the read, not only the first article, but I'm also eager to read the rest of them:

• Looking at God: Belief, Agnosticism, Atheism
  
• Belief & False Beliefs
  
• Why We Believe in God
  
• Why We Believe Enough to Kill & Die
  
• What is Spirituality?
  
• Morality: What Is It? Where Does It Come From? What Is Its Relation to Religion
  
• The Competition Between Monotheisms, Polytheism and Nontheistic Societies

Kudos to Larry Beinhart for taking this on. The rest of us? Forewarned is forearmed.

Prop 8 The Musical

Okay, I'm a little behind the curve on this one. I just now watched Prop 8 The Musical, and it is terrific!

For those who, like me, haven't seen it yet, just take a look:

"Prop 8 - The Musical" starring Jack Black, John C. Reilly, and many more... by Jack Black

And yes, Jesus is Black... Jack Black.

Finally, Some Sense Out of SCOTUS

I've railed before on this blog about the whole frivolous lawsuit against Obama because he wasn't a "natural born citizen" of the United States. So I'm glad to learn today that the Supreme Court has refused to even consider the lawsuit.

Hooray for the Supremes. I was more than a little concerned that the Scalitos and their camerati on the bench would actually accept the case and issue one of their famously fascist "rulings" on it. But we can all breathe easier now that they have, surprisingly, acted in the public interest. All of them apparently except for Clarence Thomas... Big surprise there.

And all you mouthbreathing knuckledragging koolaid-drinking dipshit morons on the right who are SO fucking outraged at this?

Fuck you.

OJ Redux

Unlike most people -- and much like his murder-trial jury -- I have never been completely convinced of the guilt of OJ Simpson in the tragic deaths of his ex-wife and her "acquaintance" Ron Goldman. At the best, I could have bought into the whole "the LA cops framed a guilty man" theory and the jury sent a message to the world that they were hip to their shtick, but I wasn't entirely sold on it. Mainly because as a rule, rich people don't do their own killing; they hire underlings to do it for them.

So unlike most people, I didn't take any particular pleasure in OJ's sentencing last week to a substantial prison term for his involvement in that ill-fated misadventure in a Las Vegas hotel a couple of years back.

In other words, no, I do not believe that it was "karma" or anything else that was involved in that sentencing.

But that said, it has always escaped me as to the real reasons why Nicole and Ron met their demise.

Until now.

Tony Elliott over at OpEd News has an alternative theory that makes sense, finally, of those murders. It's called The Goldman Conspiracy, and it is well worth a read, if only to put some perspective on the whole sorry mess.

Obama's Birth Certificate -- Again?

Why is it that this moronic exercise in character assassination refuses to die? Now a couple of wingnut knuckledragging mouthbreathing morons have actually filed a lawsuit over it -- and the fucking Supreme Court may actually entertain hearing it...

And god knows what the people who gave us that sterling-silver gold-plated diamond-encrusted Rolls-Royce-Cadillac of SCOTUS decisions, Bush v. Gore, will do with this one.

The constitutional questions are not evident; they're not even existant: The US Constitution states clearly that only a "natural born" citizen can become president. While the true meaning of that phrase may seem to be up for debate, it really isn't, since that same Constitution really only divides US citizens into two -- and only two -- groups: "Natural-born" and "Naturalized".

Period.

And since Obama's mother was clearly and uncontestedly a citizen of the United States at the time he was born, and since from time immemorial the United States has considered a child born to a US citizen to be a citizen, regardless of where in the world he or she was born, you'd think this would be a dead issue, a moot point, a stillborn controversy, so to speak.

But not to the wingnuttery. What they are trying to do is muddy the water, throw shit against the wall, etc etc, in order to turn the Attention Deficit Disorder Moron American Voting Bloc focus away from actually trying to do something to help this country in its time of need.

Besides, as anyone with half a brain and the ability to put one foot ahead of the other on a walk knows, the birth certificate in question IS FUCKING REAL AND VALID!!!

Barack Obama was born in Hawaii. He is a United States citizen.

Period. End of story.

Anyone who does not accept that incontrovertible fact at this point in time needs to check immediately into the nearest mental hospital for some serious treatment -- and I believe, even though it's become sort of passé in the psych world, that a few thousand volts of electroshock therapy might be of some help during the course of that treatment.

Friday by the Numbers

Total American dead in the Iraq Illegal Occupation: 2500 2513 2532 2540 2546 2558 2571 2585 2597 2605 2619 2641 2710 2737 2758 2788 2809 2826 2865 2888 2906 2959 3006 3018 3025 3067 3087 3118 3132 3151 3166 3189 3210 3233 3245 3266 3299 3316 3337 3358 3387 3409 3444 3504 3519 3546 3577 3592 3611 3631 3683 3705 3725 3738 3760 3780 3795 3823 3830 3838 3845 3866 3875 3881 3886 3891 3896 3908 3921 3932 3943 3952 3960 3974 3987 3992 4004 4032 4036 4177 4180 4185 4186 4189 4197 4204
4209

Total coalition forces dead: 315
Total Iraqi Dead: 900,000+

Number of days since Baby Doc said he'd get Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive": 2641
Number of days since the illegal occupation of Iraq began: 2088
Number of days since "Mission Accomplished": 2045
Number of days between Pearl Harbor and the end of WWII: Only 1347

Number of days that the the Vice President has NOT shot a man in the face: 1028
Number of days that the Bush Twins are still not pregnant with baste-'em-or-waste-'em Snowflake babies: 869

It is still 45 days until the end of the BFEE Maladministration.

Listening to God

Headline: "Man says God ordered him to ram vehicle at 100 mph"

The story: Down in good ole San Antonio Texas a man driving a pickup truck (what else, it's Texas...) rammed a woman driver from behind while he was going an estimated 100 miles an hour because god told him that she needed to be taken off the road.

Okay, so when this guy comes up for trial (if he does -- he's been referred, and rightly so, to psychiatric counseling), what are the chances that the Radical Christianists are going to come to his defense, and accuse the state of Texas of declaring war on those who hear directly from god?

Actually, now that I think about it, it would be an interesting hearing. But I've got a sneaking suspicion that those who "really" hear directly from god's lips are going to stay completely away from this babbling lunatic.

After all, if everyone could hear the law directly from god, it would be bad for business. Where would all those tax-exempt contributions to the fundo churches come from if people could actually get the real deal from god him/herself?

A Progressive Primer

Over the holiday weekend I got a chance to catch up on my reading, and one of the books that I read was the well-researched and well-written The Price of Right: How the Conservative Agenda has Failed America (and Always Will) by Alicia Morgan:

This book is a must-read study of how the neocon movement has driven America into the ground by creating, nurturing and perpetuating a number of destructive myths about this country: Trickle-down economics, America is a Christian nation, people are poor by choice because they are lazy, etc etc.

Alicia Morgan dissects each of these myths -- plus a lot more -- and shows in historical detail how each one has been made up out of whole cloth by the so-called Conservative Movement. Which in its current radical form is anything but conservative -- Barry Goldwater himself would not only not recognize today's conservatives, he would also be unwelcome in their midst.

Particular to my own interests, she devotes an entire chapter, cleverly entitled "Let Us Prey", to the Radical Christianist Fundos and especially to their ginned-up defensive position in the totally nonexistent "War on Christmas" waged by "secular progressives", showing how they have skillfully woven a web of lies to "prove" that they are a constantly-under-attack endangered minority.

Even though this book is, in a way, preaching to the choir (she even names her last chapter that), it nevertheless is a succinct and highly readable history-cum-exposé of the Radical Right and their plans to turn America into a nation that we progressives would not only not recognize but also not want to live in.

Highly recommended, not only for you but also as an ideal Xmas gift for that IBIL* of yours who always seems to ruin any family get-together with his wingnut bullshit.

Finally, in the interests of full disclosure, Alicia Morgan is a fellow Blogger Against Theocracy (see Last Left Turn Before Hooterville) whom I know through our mutual connection to Americans United for Separation of Church and State and I am proud to claim her as a friend. That said, in no way does this have an effect on my opinion of her book or my recommendation of it as required reading.

[* Idiot Brother-in-Law]

The McCarthy Gene

It was an interesting title, so I went ahead and read the editorial in the LA Times. As you know, I am of an age that normally, when I think of the name "McCarthy", I don't immediately land on "Tailgunner Joe", but instead I envision Eugene McCarthy, of anti-Vietnam-War fame in the late 60s.

However, I am also a student of history and I know a lot more about Tailgunner Joe than the average person, so it was with a lot of interest that I read the LA Times editorial entitled "The GOP's McCarthy Gene".

Go ahead and check it out. It's an interesting and unique take on the recent (i.e. last 50 years) history of the Rethug Party, and it rings pretty true:

...a less heroic story, and one that may go a much longer way toward really explaining the Republican Party's past electoral fortunes and its future. In this tale, the real father of modern Republicanism is Sen. Joe McCarthy, and the line doesn't run from Goldwater to Reagan to George W. Bush; it runs from McCarthy to Nixon to Bush and possibly now to Sarah Palin. It centralizes what one might call the McCarthy gene, something deep in the DNA of the Republican Party that determines how Republicans run for office, and because it is genetic, it isn't likely to be expunged any time soon.

And it also explains why mAnn Coulter is so wet for the memory of old Tailgunner Joe...