Dear Jeb...

cross posted from Penigma:

Dear Jeb

You've been complaining that Obama blames your brother 'Dubya' for what happened during his presidency.

Let me be clear.

It is not ONLY Obama who blames your brother.  We ALL DO.

That is because your brother and his policies were an unmitigated disaster. Your brother was one of the worst presidents in our entire history, and the single WORST president in the past century.

It's not ONLY your brother however, that bears the responsibility of those EPIC FAILURES. It was the neocons and other right wing nuts, groups to which you belong, who have failed policies, failed ideas, and not to mince words here -- failed priorities and values.

Your Republican economic policies frankly suck, especially your tax policies.

Your other Republican domestic policies frankly suck, and the bad ones are too numerous to list here.

Your Republican foreign policies suck worst of all.

So quit your damned whining about your brother; he deserves every bit of blame he gets.

And btw - we don't think much of you, either, after your hanging chad fiasco and voter disenfranchisement and election tampering in Florida. We also still don't believe the lying promises from your party either, and the obstructionist tactics you have employed have justifiably merited the highest disapproval ratings in the history of ratings for Congress.

It is highly unlikely YOU will ever be president; and if you want to know why, look in the mirror - and blame the failures of your brother.  It is because neither of you know how to lead or govern.

Just so we're clear.

If I wanted to be nice to people I don't like, I'd get a job being a greeter at fucking Walmart

I was going to publish this comment over at Penigma but their commenting section is not allowing me to do so. It's not working properly and won't allow me to type the character strings to validate the comment.

dog gone has written a post about the lying fuckbag Romney's actions in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, "It's about the INTEGRITY stupid." and I was replying to her OP with this comment.
_________________________________________________________
This is Mittmoroni:
"ROMNEY: We cannot — we cannot afford to do those things without jeopardizing the future for our kids. It is simply immoral, in my view, for us to continue to rack up larger and larger debts and pass them on to our kids, knowing full well that we’ll all be dead and gone before it’s paid off. It makes no sense at all. (emphasis added) {source: http://scienceblogs.com/evolutionblog/2012/10/30/romney-on-fema/}
AND THIS:
"the Republican presidential candidate’s campaign now insists that Romney would keep FEMA in place:

“Gov. Romney believes that states should be in charge of emergency management in responding to storms and other natural disasters in their jurisdictions,” Romney spokesman Ryan Williams said in a statement. “As the first responders, states are in the best position to aid affected individuals and communities, and to direct resources and assistance to where they are needed most. This includes help from the federal government and FEMA.”

A campaign official added that Romney would not abolish FEMA." {source: http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/10/30/1110921/romney-flips-fema/?mobile=nc}
is Mittmoroni's campaign manager.
Just like SoupkitchenPaulie, Mittmoroni is doing some "carin'&sharin'moments" for the cameras.
Lying sacks of crap.
____________________________________________________

dog gone does a great job at Penigma (and when she posts here) but there are some issues re: commenting that make me comment less there than I might. There is also the issue about my calling fucking liars, "fucking liars" and my profanity in general. In that regard, we (and I mean that, "we", in the sense of me and the lint in my pockets)  are always happier when unfettered by strict--or, to be honest, pretty permissive--rules re: our fucking language.

It is interesting to me that although I see almost no comments here that I'm getting page views that are in a range that is far too high for them to all be misdirects. Some of that might be because the reiKKKwingassholes who are free to say incredibly stupid shit--and to lie with impunity--on a few other blogs I go to are unhappy that their fuckbaggery is not allowed here. Too bad, so sad. And then, of course, some people are just turned off by my nastiness. Being nice to assholemoronz who carry water for the SKKKrotalMurKKKinPatriotiKKK Front is a non-starter for me.

Where was I? Oh, yeah, The Mittmoroni/Pauliewingnutz axiz of teh Burnin' Stoopit is, once again proving that they are both insincere and tonedeaf. Why they feel the need to keep calling attention to it is simply beyond the understanding of those of us who have rational thought processes. For the majority of USians their transparent humbuggery is obvious and painful to endure. For their committed followers, it just doesn't fucking matter. Their decent, GODfearin', gunztotin', Whollybabble clutchin' base would vote for them and continue to fund them if they were serving dead baby canapes at their fundraisers.  I mean, they are voting for two people, one of whom belongs to a polygamist cult and the other who is a slave to the Whore of Babylon--and calling them both, "christians".  Mass delusion, the name is Teabagnation.

Please feel free to share your thoughts and outrage. If it's not contentless drivel it will get past the moderating function. If it IS contentless drivel (for examples of "contentless drivel", just cruise "FreeRepublic" or any other reiKKKwing blog or the comments section of more tolerant blogs than this one) it will be just another example of stupid people wasting their time to write stupid comments that are only fit to be shoveled onto the same manure pile as their predecessors.

Have a nice fucking day.

Schadenfreude is a dish best served with some nice fava beans and an unpretentious but impudent Chianti

Hat tip to Southern Beale whose original post, today, drew this comment from me.

""The 2006 consent agreement was signed under Gov. Romney. Of course it was! But to learn a lesson from this case one needn’t finger-point, play the “blame game,” “politicize a tragedy” and do all of that other stuff Republicans say is wrong when it makes their side look bad but which they’re only too happy to indulge in when it serves them. Nope, we don’t even have to go that far, not here."
Well, you're right, of course. But, if we wanted to go that far:
Gregory Conigliaro, 46, is described by former employees and two former neighbors as a charismatic entrepreneur. They said that he like s to give parties, and in September he raised $37,000 for Sen. Scott P. Brown (Lying, hypocritic, reptilican fuckbag*) in a fundraiser at his Southboro home, according to The Boston Globe. Brown has since said he would donate the Conigliaros' contribution to charity." (http://www.telegram.com/article/20121025/NEWS/121029699/1052)
then, well, you can see where I might be going with this.
There's also this:
'Oliver’s investigation of NECC, the supplier of the contaminated drugs in question, led her to carefully examine the history of NECC’s disciplinary actions and enforcement under then Governor Romney’s Health and Human Services Department. Oliver found that NECC had a history of violating accepted pharmaceutical industry standards and that, during Governor Mitt Romney’s tenure, the Massachusetts state government consistently conceded to requests by NECC’s counsel for more lenient treatment rather than the initial requested penalties according to correspondence between NECC and the State of Massachusetts." (http://freedemocracy.blogspot.com/)
and this:
http://fundrace.huffingtonpost.com/neighbors.php?type=name_address&lat=42.3109030000&oldest=1&lng=-71.5422440000&lname=CONIGLIARO&fname=GREGORY
Ya gotta love this quote from the FreeDemocracy webpage:
"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen." Samuel Adams, (1722-1803)



*  Additional material provided at no charge by Teamdemocommie."

Fifty Years Ago, Black Saturday and the Cuban Missile Crisis

cross posted from Penigma:

Fifty years ago today

CIA reference photograph of Soviet intermediate-range
nuclear ballistic missile (NATO designation SS-4)
in Red Square, Moscow

The Cuban Military Crisis resulted in what is known as black Saturday. Historians consider it the closest conflict to breaking out in nuclear war of the 20th century Cold War era.

PBS did an excellent documentary, Three Men Go to War, about the political figures of President John F. Kennedy, Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro, and Premier Nikita Khrushchev of the Soviet Union.

Alfred Hitchcock did an excellent fictional version of the French role in his movie Topaz, in alerting the U.S. to the leaking of NATO secrets and the infiltration of the French government of Charles De Gaulle by Soviet intelligence agents, just part of the backdrop to American U-2 pilots discovering the missile sites while overflying Cuba.

On October 27, 1962, another U-2 flying over Cuba was shot down, and later that evening, the U.S. Navy dropped depth charges on a Soviet submarine challenging the U.S. blockade of Cuba, not realizing the sub carried at least one nuclear torpedo. And later that evening, another U-2, that was supposed to be sampling nuclear fallout from Soviet bomb testing, took a wrong turn due to the Aurora Borealis, and invaded Soviet airspace for 90 minutes. The Soviets scrambled their MiGs, chasing the U-2, flying on fumes, back over the Bering Strait, and the U.S. in turn launched F-102s, also armed with nuclear air-to-air missiles.

The upshot was that was that - obviously - nuclear war was avoided, Kennedy pulled some old, obsolete missiles out of Turkey in a secret deal and Krushchev pulled the missiles out of Cuba in exchange for a promise not to invade.

Earlier this week, Fidel Castro, the last of the three still alive, although supposedly having relinquished power, at least day-to-day operational power to his brother Raul, made an appearance at the Havana National Hotel to prove he's not dead yet.

I would encourage readers to check out the PBS web site on an important historic event, something we should all know about our own history, and world history, with parallels to our modern era politics. The entire 13 day Cuban Missile Crisis is far too complex to address here in the detail it deserves; but it is a classic example of what a difference the individual in the oval office makes.

Black Saturday 1962, it's an important date - then and now.

Fishing.......

From MikeB by way of Under the lobsterscope:


Masturbation is a terrible sin if you're roman catholic. Where or where is the outrage about that?

The reality is that masturbation and all of the other ways of achieving orgasm are good for men's health (and presumably, if they are responsible about it, happiness) relating directly to prostate health, especially as they get older. Depending on the source, recommendations range from twelve to  twenty-one or more orgasms a month are recommended for prostate health.

The British National Health System actually included advocating a healthy and active sex life as part of material provided to school kids - more progressive than anything you'd ever see in this country.  But then, they DID give the world Monty Python....

 

It's Saturday; have a little fun.

 

Another Gun Culture Fail

We keep having these incidents; we have too many of them.  Even a few of them are bad.

In this case we have a veteran, apparently with a gun, creating a hostage situation.

The expense of the 2nd Amendment just in law enforcement having to come clean up the mess of people, often with mental illness issues, with their guns which would be far less costly if the risk of fatality were not present, is one that the gun nuts don't like to acknowledge --- that their 'right' infringes on all of us in ways to which we do not wish to support.

Have a gun if it is necessary for your sense of manhood, just don't make it OUR problem -- but so very often they do, including adding it to the public expense in ways which do not benefit the public the way the other things we agree to pay for do, like roads and bridges and schools or a judicial system.

Guns have no public upside, in the way they were intended to function under the 2nd Amendment as part of a militia in place of a standing army.  Guns are sometimes recreational, but too often a public menace - like this guy.  Being a public menace was clearly NOT what the founding fathers contemplated when they wrote the 2nd Amendment.

So we need to find a way to keep guys like this from getting guns and from abusing others with indulging the need to empower themselves with firearms for bad purposes.

We have too many guns, we have too many people with guns who should not have them because they do things like this.  It is time for sensible gun laws, beginning with sensible gun owner screening that keeps individual guns and entire arsenals out of the hands of bad people.

This is one more gun culture failure that needs fixing NOW.

From CBS news:

September 21, 2012 10:02 AM

Pittsburgh cops: Hostage situation in office tower

 

Police block off the area around Three Gateway Center where they are negotiating with an armed man in the downtown Pittsburgh office building Sept. 21, 2012. (AP Photo)

Updated at 10:38 a.m. ET

(CBS/AP) Pittsburgh's police chief said a military veteran was holding an office worker hostage inside a downtown office building and was talking with police negotiators.

Police Chief Nate Harper told reporters Friday morning that they have identified the man who entered the 16th floor of Three Gateway Center, one of six office buildings that dominate the city skyline, and started asking questions before waiving around an object that may possibly be a gun.

"His demeanor is, from what I understand, relatively calm, and he's sitting there talking to the negotiator at this time," Harper told reporters.

Five hostage negotiators and canine response teams have been called in, CBS Pittsburgh station KDKA reports.

The man entered the building sometime after 8 a.m. and went up to an office suite on an upper floor, police said.

A woman who works on the 20th floor said she and others were told only that a man with a gun was on the 16th floor. The woman, who gave her name only as Gina, said she saw other workers being escorted out by officers after getting off a freight elevator.

Several hundred people milled around about a half-block from the 24-story building after police evacuated it. A light rail stop nearby was closed and at least 20 emergency vehicles surrounded the building.

A phone message left for the building's Santa Monica, Calif.-based ownership group was not immediately returned.

Joel Kirchartz, a 28-year-old web developer who works on the 17th floor, said he and his co-workers looked out the windows Friday morning and "a bunch of cops pulled up with all sorts of sirens going; there must have been 20 of them." He said he went downstairs to find out what was happening and by the time he got outside, police had sealed the building.

Another worker, Sarah Vereb, said she was at her desk when she was ordered to leave the building shortly after a friend called to report that she wasn't being allowed up from the lobby.

Hundreds of workers walked down the stairwell. Vereb said the exodus was orderly and "very, very quiet."

Things you don't know that you know until you need to know them

Hey, you know how they say that you learn something new every day?

Well, last evening I and my team were playing for the undisputed Trivia Championship of G.S. Steamers debatery and drinkhole and everything turned on the final question of the Summer Classic.

That question, "Who was Abraham Lincoln's FIRST vice-president?" had every other person in the room goin', like, WTF? I told our team's recording secretary that the answer was "Hannibal Hamlin". He gave me one of those WTF looks hisself and said, "How do you know that.". I said, "I read it on a blogpost, yesterday!"*.

So, thanks to intertoobz skollarship, we won the tournament and I got my free single malt victory drink--and we get SNACKS, next week. Is life good, or what?


*  If memory serves that blogpost was one by dog gone over at Penigma.

The "Opportunity Society" conjob

I heard (for as long as it took me to find something else to listen to) some reptilidrone nattering on about changing this country from one of "entitlement" to one of "opportunity. What a load of bullshit.
I haven't had a real job since 2006. Part of that is because I've been doing things that conflict with a regular schedule, part of it is due to some medical/body issues (all good, at the moment), part of is due to my ageistic decrepitude. The bulk of it is due to hiring/labor practices and the LACK of jobs.

The GOPlutocratwannabes pontificate about not wanting a country filled with "entitled" people (I think that must be the new, 300#, chain smoking--crack--booze' guzzlin', oxy poppin', 80" LED screen addicted, Cadillac CTS drivin' welfare queen*) .  I'm all for shitcanning entitlements.  I think a great place to start would be with the home mortgage tax deduction. Moving on, we could make sure that none of the leeches currently borrowing money at lower than market rates or paying for their education with Pell Grants and the like are allowed to continue bleeding the state (that's us) white.

After that we can discontinue all of the tax incentives and actual handouts to big business and, well, I think you can see where I'm goin with this.

Bottom line is that:

A.)  There are millions of credulous boobs who conflate the GOP's (or, more to the point, their deep pocketed underwriters') desire to erase most taxes NOT paid by the little people with actual, y'know, tax relief.

B.)  One man's "incentive" is another's "welfare handout". 

There, are, beyond any doubt, many thousands of people who scam the social safety network. There are, also beyond any doubt, thousands of capitalists and corporate entities (only "REAL PEOPLE" where political campaign donations are concerned, otherwise they're faceless and cannot be held to any genuine accountability for their actions) who scam the the gummint handout network.

It was revealed, a few days back, that Mittmoroni may have been in a "passive" mode at Bain--for campaign purposes--while being in an "active mode, for tax purposes. Considering the arcane and confusing nature of the U.S. tax code and corporate legal rules it may be impossible to determine if Romney is guilty of having broken any laws or violating any of the provisions of the tax code. It is not so difficult to look at what he says v what he does and conclude that he's a typical reptilicanlyin'fuckbag.



*  Sorry, I forgot; she's BLACK, BLACK, BLACKITY, BLACKING BLACK, TOO, ALSO!!

The NYC shootings

CBS has this:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57500574/all-9-empire-state-building-shooting-injuries-by-police/?tag=stack

which says that police officials in NYC conclude that all injured parties in the recent shootings outside the Empire State Building were wounded by police gunfire.

Predictably the comments section's first page has several comments by gunzloonz who decry the police' lack of firearms training and posit that they could do a better job of perpblastin' with less damage to the innocent bystanders. They question the professionalism of armed, uniformed officers doing a job that requires both split second decision making AND adhering to the rules governing the use of deadly force. The video that has been aired shows, fairly clearly, that there was very little time between the shooting of the original victim and the police/shooter confrontation. It would have been nice if the police had been able to clear out all of the pedestrian and vehicular traffic in the area and maybe get a range officer to tell them when it was safe to discharge their firearms. In the event the officers who did not know what they were up against or what the gunman might do when confronted made a decision to use deadly force and, fortunately, only killed one person--the shooter.

 

The gunzloonz will, of course, say that the NYC shootings only underscore the TRUTH; that it's impossible to keep gunz outta NYC or anyplace else, because GUNZLAWZ don't work, one,11ty! Well, firearms laws that are not uniform from state to state and are anything but uniformly applied will NOT be effective--there is no doubt about that. There is also no doubt that the constant drumbeat of lies and distortions from the upper echelon of the NRA and their confederates with organizations such as ALEC do much to fan the fears of the average american.

After every mass shooting there is a spike in calls for more and better policing and a spike in gunz and ammunition sales. The average american is fed a steady diet of horrific tales about rape, murder, robbery and other crimes; crimes which are perpetrated--as far as they are aware--by a mysterious cabal of criminal, armed to the teeth and bent on the wholesale destruction of society. They are not offered reason, they are offered titillation and they seize on it, like a junkie seizes on a fix. The drug is fear and the only antidote, it seems, is hatred.

So, instead of having a calm, rational and civil discussion about some reasonable steps that might be taken to address the problem of there being millions of firearms in the hands of those who are unqualified emotionally, mentally or physically to use them--we have the NRA and its fringe members screeching about having their RIGHT, an unqualified and unlimited RIGHT, to own whatever firearms and ammunition they are able to amass.

If the gunzloonz were stamp hoarders, we could afford to laugh at them.

Dog Gone, welcome to Polrant

Update: One of the things I love about my own blog is that I can  correct mistakes with a few keystrokes, to wit:

As of now, Dog Gone has author status on this blog. This action was taken by me, for two reasons.

The primary reason is that Dog Gone is a smart, sassy and sardonic writer. The secondary reason is that it's a nuisance to have to moderate ALL comments, instead of just the ones from idiots. Any of my regular commenters--as few of you as there are--can let me know if you want permissions. It don't mean you gotta write posts; it does mean that your comments will not be moderated--unless of you bring up that embarassing incident involving a bullhorn, several rubber duckies and 100 pounds of Gravlax.

Welcome, Dog Gone!

Commie Western Music and the posthocturborenaissance

It's all about the music.

Someone on another blog suggested, after reading one of my comments re: Hank Waste-O-Semenwilliams, in which I said I might have to start a new musical genre, "Commie Western Music" that I should do so.

It occurs to me that Woody Guthrie has sorta beat me to the punch--by about 80 years--but I can stand on the shoulders of giants. Now, all I need's some talent at song wranglin' and I can git 'er done!

I did help pen a tune (most of the lyrics), "Nikita the K" back in the early--mid 70's.

                                                     Nikita the K
(Instrumental Intro)

(Verse the first)

Oh, they're playin' rock'n'roll in Moscow, now.

Don't understand the beat but dig it anyhow.

When they're not armin' the arabs, or cancellin' some czechs,

they're groovin' to the music of Bowie and Beck.

(First instrumental bridge)

(Chorus)

Oh, Nikita the K must be rollin' in his vault, Lenin would've put this shit to a halt

and Mao says that it's all THEIR fault!

(2nd Instrumental Break)

(Verse the second)

All the Volga boatman and the Cossacks on the Dan,

They're listenin' to hard rock, just as much as they can.

There may be purges in the Kremlin and tanks on your block,

just inform on your neighbors and listen to us rock!

(Chorus)

Oh, Nikita the K must be rollin' in his vault, Lenin would've put this shit to a halt

and Mao says that it's all THEIR fault!

(Third instrumental break)

Verse the first and chorus reprise:

Fade and out.

I actually have a recording of this that was done back in the 70's, the sound quality absolutely sucks.

I know a fuckton of musicians, I may have to see if I can get some of them to cover this.


Then, of course there's the tune I wrote by my ownself (lyrics and chords, with some help from Ed "Slowhand" Connare--okay he figured out the music, based on my chords), ca 1974.

                                                                           V.F.W.

(Instrumental Intro)

(Verse the first)

Well, I'll only be gone till the fightin' is over,

I'll only be gone till the killin' is done.

I'll only be gone till destruction's complete.

and our side, the RIGHT side, has won

(Chorus the first)

They're not coming home this year

to swap war stories for free beer.

They died in battle gear.

Vanguished in Foreign Wars. Vanguished in Foreign Wars.

(Bridge)

(Verse the second)

Old soldiers fade while young men die in the rain,

Wall St. gets rich from the death and the pain.

Politicians keep voting to send more bullets and guns,

but you know they won't send their own sons.

(Chorus the second)

They're not getting G.I.  Bill,

They're not working at the mill.

They served and died on unnamed hills.

Vanguished in Foreign Wars. Vanguished in Foreign Wars.

(Bridge)

(Instrumental Break--a little country, at that)

(Bridge)

(Verse the third)

This country's so quick to make soldiers of boys;

Take their girls and cars and give them deadly new toys.

Genrals, admirals and pols call all the plays,

When they're wrong it's the young men who pay.

(Chorus the third)

They won't march in the parades,

Wear their medals, hear our praise.

They lie dead so far away,

Victim of Foolish Wars, Victims of Foolish Wars.

(Instrumental out)

Both of these tunes are, btw, copyright protected by other myself and other parties and may not be used without permission.

It appears to me that despite the nearly forty years that have elapsed since I wrote V.F.W. that not a lot has changed re: U.S. foreign policy. That is a fucking shame.

Sometimes I wish I was Joe Strummer--when he was still alive, I mean.

All hail "The Clash"!

Hank Williams, Jr.; his own father would disown him

This:

"At the Iowa State Fair, Williams bashed Obama to a crowd saying, "We've got a Muslim president who hates farming, hates the military, hates the U.S. and we hate him!""

from here (http://news.yahoo.com/hank-williams-jr-tells-crowd-obama-muslim-hates-160236032.html)

lets us know that in the braindamaged mind of Hank Williams, Jr., the PotUS is unMerKKKin and NOT a christian.

So, the Obamas have been married to each other (and only each other) for almost 20 years. The Hankster's got Mr. Obama beat for total years married at well over 20 years. Otoh, it took AT LEAST 3 wives* and they've all left him. You gotta wonder what it takes to drive a woman away from a rootin', tootin', mouthshootin' patriotiKKKal cash machine like Hank, Jr.--well, maybe not (http://www.hecklerspray.com/hank-williams-jr-charged-with-waitress-assault/20062621.php).

And Mr. KKKountry Moosic is all hatin' on Obama hatin' on the farmers. I'm not sure, zackly, where he gets that, but I think it's safe to say that Hank's politics are a lot more likely to fuck the family farmers than those of the president.

So, to sum up. The PotUS is a "muslim" who acts a lot like a mainstream, non-fundamentally ill christian and Hank Sr.'s waste of genetic material is a "christian" who whores, drinks, drugs, curses a bit and acts, in every way, like the foul mouthed, clueless assholes that are his staunchest supporters--KKKristians, by an overwhelming %age.



Color me unsooprized.

She said, "hell" and now she doesn't get her HS Diploma, WTF?

This link:

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/20/13377164-oklahoma-high-school-valedictorian-denied-diploma-for-using-hell-in-speech

is to a story about a HS valedictorian with a 4.0 GPA who graduated from a Prague, OK HS in June and has been denied her diploma because of her use of the word, "hell", in her commencement speech.

I'm going to guess that Prague will now see a tremendous surge in the level of attention given to them and their town. The level of attention given to the moron who came up with the idea of withholding Kaitlin Nootbar's diploma until she furnishes a written apology to, well, I'm not sure who she's supposed to apologize to. There's little information available, at this point, as to who decided on the HS's course of action. I'm sure that we will be getting that information in the next hours or day at the latest. Superintendent of schools in Prague, Rick Martin (not the "Livin' La Vida Loca", Martin, I'm sure) says it's a confidential matter--not no more, Ricky--and that he can't talk about it. Well, that's okay, I'm sure that the void of his silence will be filled with other comments.

It appears that Ms. Nootbar's already been given a full scholarship to Southern Oklahoma State University so the issue of whether her diploma's being withheld has any practical effect seems to be moot. It is more than a bit troubling that this is just now becoming public, at least a month or two after her HS graduation.


Prague, OK, for those unfamiliar with the town (which would be most everyone except people in Prague and surrounding communities and Kolache aficionados who go there for the annual Kolcache festival http://www.czechevents.net/events/details/3163-prague-kolache-festival-prague-oklahoma) can look it up on teh google. It's a town of about 2,500 people, a bit to the east of OK City. Up until recently it was pretty much known for the Kolache Festival. Henceforth, it may be known for it's officious KKKristianist asshole HS administrators.

WTF is wrong with these people?

I C&P'd this from mikeb302000's blog:

"As discussed here, in trying to find reasons or causes for the alarming upward trend in military suicides, TIME Magazine reporters Mark Thompson and Nancy Gibbs suggest that combat trauma alone can’t account for the trend and offer the following data:
Nearly a third of the suicides from 2005 to 2010 were among troops who had never deployed; 43% had deployed only once. Only 8.5% had deployed three or four times. Enlisted service members are more likely to kill themselves than officers, and 18-to-24-year-olds more likely than older troops. Two-thirds do it by gunshot; 1 in 5 hangs himself. And it’s almost always him: nearly 95% of cases are male. A majority are married.
“Two-thirds do it by gunshot.” Of course, you say. Our military are trained to use guns, they are “the tool of their trade,” troops have access to guns and many personally own firearms in their homes.
Naturally, Defense and military leaders are doing everything within their power to prevent or at least reduce this horrible, unnecessary loss life among the troops.

As part of what these leaders are doing to combat the suicide “epidemic,” they would like to talk to our servicemen and women who own a personal firearm and live off post.

There is one small catch, however. A relatively new law backed by the National Rifle Association (NRA) seems to prevent them from talking to these servicemembers
followed by this comment:

"Greg CampAugust 19, 2012 11:05 AM
What, you mean that in an all-volunteer military, the commanding officers can't take away the personally owned weapons of soldiers and Marines? You mean the government has limits in how it can restrict choice?

Mikeb, you've served in the military. Remember how psychiatric care was seen? Imagine how hard it would be to get someone to seek help if that person knew his weapons would be taken away from him. You rant and rave about requiring psychological testing for civilians, but what you ignore is that the same thing would happen.

You live in this fantasy world in which everyone trusts your good intentions. You think that everyone trusts the good intentions of the government and of mental health professionals. If you learn nothing else from my side, understand that a large portion of the American people do not trust any of those. "

for two reasons.

The first reason for doing so is that the original article was, at least earlier today, unavailable at the linked website (http://themoderatevoice.com/156434/the-military-suicide-%E2%80%98epidemic%E2%80%99-and-an-nra-backed-law/).

The second reason is that I don't comment at his blog anymore, since he insists that lying sacks-of-shit's--both those who sign with a screen name and those who sign as anonymous trolls-whose comments consist of nonsensical assertions and outright fabrications have their lies and distortions published as if they were genuine arguments instead of the handwaving horseshittery that they are. That policy is his right, and I support that right; I just refuse to consider the exercise of dealing with gishgalloping gunzslingerz as equivalent to debate and will not do so.

The above comment is coming from a moron (Mr. Greg Camp) who has stated unequivocally (in a number of comments going back to earlier this year at mikeb302000's blog) that he does not trust and would not consider seeking help from a mental health professional. A guy who likes to play dress up and pretend he's a badass olden dayz gunzslinger. And Mr. Camp accuses mikeb302000 of living in a fantasy world? That's rich.

The sad fact is that it is likely that relaxed standards of recruitment (re: mental health and general intellect); the harsh realities of finance, maintaining interpersonal relationships with loved ones and living/working in a highly regulated environment where refusal/inability to adhere to standards and rules may result in something much more serious than simply being sacked are probably all contributory factors to the high incidence of military suicides among those troops on active duty.

I would like to see some data re: which service branches see the highest rates of suicide and what steps each branch takes to deal with mental health issues amongst its recruits and the professional soldiers.

I would also like to see some data about how many of those troops who suicide are "first termers" and how many have re-enlisted.

Those two data sets might help me and others to gain a clearer understanding of the situations and conditions that lead to the despair that drives young men (and the study published indicates that they are, overwhelmingly, young men) in uniform to commit suicide.

The issue of whether properly trained young men may or may not have private weapons while serving in the military is one that is neither new nor previously unaddressed. I don't know what the policy is on U.S. military bases, or those in foreign countries today. I DO know that while I served (1969-1972) in Germany with the USAF that NO non-issue weapons were held by ANY service personnel while they were assigned to my station. I know this because I worked in the building that housed the base armory, it was part of my duty section. If you wanted to go the range, or go hunting, you came to the armory and signed out your weapon. I cannot speak to what regulations covered those who lived in private quarters, off-base, but I'm guessing, considering the laws of Germany at that time that they were under similar restraints (German civilians had their own set of firearms laws to live and deal with).

The only Air Force personnel that I ever saw armed were those who were performing duties as Security Police. The only Army personnel, including the Airborne and AADCOM troops stationed on my base, I ever saw armed while on duty were MP's or, in two specific instances, troops who were in deployment mode for possible deployment to the mid-east during a period of international tension there.

No troops in any barracks I ever lived in had permission to hold personal firearms while in a barracks or duty station with the exception of those mentioned above. Somehow we all managed to survive the experience of living in close proximity to other highly testosterstoned young men--for FOUR FREAKIN' YEARS! without killing anyone or killing ourselves. Were there any suicides/homicides of or by servicemen? Certainly. Were there any suicides/homicides committed with firearms? Without a doubt. Did I hear about suicides and homicides on either AFN (Armed Forces Network) or read about it in the "Stars and Stripes" (DoD's "official" newspaper), the Wiesbaden AB newsletters or "The Overseas Weekly" ( a cross between "The National Enquirer" and a serious newspaper with predictable content) ? Occasionally. What I did not hear, or read about, at the height of the Vietnam War when over a half million U.S. troops were "in country" some for several consecutive tours of duty was anything approaching the barrage of news items about violent, self-inflicted death or homicide by service members on active duty. Nor, afaia, were there stories in U.S. papers or on broadcast outlets for years after the War ended about U.S. combat veterans going on shooting sprees or killing themselves. Did those things happen?
They most certainly did. Did they happen with the frequency with which we now see them happening? My admittedly limited research on the intertoobz suggests that, no, they did not.

Looking back on those years and the number of drunken parties along with the inherent differences and rivalries between service branches I am unaware of a better set of policies regulating the retention and use of private firearms by military personnel while on or off duty and whether on or off a military reservation.

I am fairly certain that Mr. Camp, considering his adamantine indignorance of mental health counseling protocols, has zero interest in looking beyond his childish infatuation with firearms and that his interests in the matter will be confined to his repeating the nonsensical assertions that he had made in his comment, above.

That the man is a college level instructor is, to me, somewhat troubling. I guess it's better than his being a cop or GOD forbid, a security guard or neighborhood watcher. He is a soulmate of George Zimmerman, iow, a gun-toting moron with very serious self-esteem issues who might, at any moment, decide that the world needs his 2nd Amendment correctives. He considers himself a patriot and citizen; I consider him a silly boy with dangerous toys.

As ye sow, so shall ye reap

I could do one of my routine routines of silliness, laced with suspect sagacity re: The FRC Massakree.

But I won’t be doing that.

Instead, I will be cut’n'n’pastin’ this:

“LGBT ORGANIZATIONS RELEASE JOINT STATEMENT REGARDING THE SHOOTING AT FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL (FRC)

Wednesday, August 15, 2012 – 3:30pm by GLAAD
Joint statement regarding shooting at Family Research Council (FRC) from lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) organizations
We were saddened to hear news of the shooting this morning at the offices of the Family Research Council. Our hearts go out to the shooting victim, his family, and his co-workers.
The motivation and circumstances behind today’s tragedy are still unknown, but regardless of what emerges as the reason for this shooting, we utterly reject and condemn such violence. We wish for a swift and complete recovery for the victim of this terrible incident.
list of signatories:
Michael Adams
Executive Director, Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE)
Tico Almeida
President, Freedom to Work
Katie Belanger
Executive Director, Fair Wisconsin
Wayne Besen
Founding Executive Director, Truth Wins Out
A.J. Bockelman
Executive Director, PROMO
Sharon Brackett
Board Chair, Gender Rights Maryland
Carly Burton
Deputy Director, MassEquality
Dr. Eliza Byard
Executive Director, Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN)
Jennifer Chrisler
Executive Director, Family Equality Council
Brad Clark
Executive Director, One Colorado
R. Clarke Cooper
Executive Director, Log Cabin Republicans
Dwayne Crenshaw
Executive Director, San Diego LGBT Pride
Heather Cronk
Managing Director, GetEQUAL
Jerame Davis
Executive Director, National Stonewall Democrats
Emily Dievendorf
Director of Policy, Equality Michigan
James Esseks
Director, ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Project
Lynn A. Faria
Interim Executive Director, Empire State Pride Agenda
Jenna Frazzini
Executive Director, Basic Rights Oregon
Joshua A. Friedes
Spokesperson, Equal Rights Washington
Herndon Graddick
President, Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD)
Chad Griffin
President, Human Rights Campaign (HRC)
Jody M. Huckaby
Executive Director, PFLAG National (Parents, Families, Friends of Lesbians and Gays)
Mara Keisling
Executive Director, National Center of Transgender Equality
Kate Kendell
Executive Director, National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR)
Abbe Land
Executive Director & CEO, The Trevor Project
Gregory Lewis
Executive Director, True Colors Fund
Eileen Ma
Executive Director, API Equality-LA
David Mariner
Executive Director, The DC Center for the LGBT Community
Ineke Mushovic
Executive Director, Movement Advancement Project
National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs
Darlene Nipper
Deputy Executive Director, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
Donna Red Wing
Executive Director, One Iowa
Marisa Richmond, Ph.D.
President, Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition (TTPC)
Aubrey Sarvis
Executive Director, Servicemembers Legal Defense Network
Josh Seefried
Co-Director, OutServe
Peggy Shorey
Executive Director, Pride at Work
Brian Silva
Executive Director, Marriage Equality USA
Lee Swislow
Executive Director, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders
Rachel B. Tiven, Esq.
Executive Director, Immigration Equality
Shane Windmeyer
Executive Director, Campus Pride
Chuck Wolfe
President & CEO, Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund and Institute
Evan Wolfson
President, Freedom to Marry”

from here (http://themoderatevoice.com/156246/security-guard-shot-at-conservative-family-research-council-in-washington-d-c/)

I note that it took these 40+ individuals something like 6 hours to agree on the need to make a statement, draft said statement and deliver it to the FRC.
I’m going way out on the twiggy, twiggy end of the same tree that “Woodstock” of the “Peanut’s” comic strip* had his nest in, to say that if one searches for a long, long time they will be hard put to find such a letter from the SBC, the RCC or any other large religious umbrella organization to the family of Dr. George Tiller within SIX hours of his being shot to death.
There were plenty of letters sent, per this:

http://rcrc.org/news/Dr%20Tiller_Statements.cfm

none of them seem to have come from churches/groups of churches who identify with the FRC’s homophobia and anti-woman rhetoric.

Groups like the FRC (and there are a fair number of them, large and small) are filled smug, self-satisfied scolds, KKKristian dominionists, homophobes, gynophobes, Wholly Babble inerrantists--except when it suits them to NOT be--and hypocrites--in combination or in toto.

UPDATE:

Damn, I forgot to add that the 40+ signatories to the letter I inserted into my last comment will now be receiving some “KKKristian love letters” from the small %age (and pretty fucking huge actual number) of mouthbreathing social KKKonservatives who spend nearly as much time in church as I do (never/ever) but who self-identify as christians.

One of the major differences between the FRC and the orgs represented by those persons who signed the above letter is that they DON'T have some number of their group actively lying about those who hold opposing views OR sending them hatemail and death threats.

* So, okay, ONE instance of inadvertent snark; sue me

Gunligion--Cannon Law

A poll ,conducted in the wake of the two mass shootings--one in Aurora, CO; the other in WI--was used in a post, here (http://mikeb302000.blogspot.com/2012/08/survey-questions-general-and-specific.html?), to illustrate a point that mikeb302000 has made many times. That point is that the gunzloonz assertion that murKKKa is SAFER place wit teh gunz and that MOST people agree with them is just that, an assertion. It is NOT backed up by the numbers.

Of course the first comment in the thread (and the only one, so far) is this:

"Cherry pick much?

"Regardless of changes in the law, voters in the three states don’t think future mass shootings can be stopped by laws. Two-thirds of likely voters in Colorado, 60 percent in the Old Dominion and 57 percent in Wisconsin don’t think stricter laws can stop future attacks.""

by commenter FatWhiteMan.

And y'know what? his comment is TRUE, on its face. The devil, of course is in the details.

What FatWhiteMan and other red-blooded murKKKan marKKKsman fail to consider is that the reason that people, in general, don't think gunzlawz will prevent gunzviolence is that they have been misinformed or, in many cases, simply lied to by the shills for the gunzindustry and their PAID misinformation officers.

The primary reason that gunzlaws DON'T work is because there are few that are national in scope and those few are generally unenforced in many jurisdictions due to budgetary restraints or a lack of political will to enforce them. States like NY, where I now live, have serious penalties for violating their relatively strict firearms laws*.  What they don't have is any way cost effective way/neans of policing their borders to insure that illegally obtained firearms stay out of the hands of criminals**.

For so long as the states which have "restrictive" firearms laws are surrounded by states with less strict laws, illegal or illegally obtained firearms will flow in to that state with the stricter laws. It's economics, stupid. And, for so long as that situation obtains, the NRA, the gunzmakerz and their useful idiots will conspire to ratchet up the fears of a burgeoning police state and simultaneous breakdown of law'n'order which situation requires that all merKKKins be armed, all of the time.

*       I say "relatively strict" because compared to a number of states they are draconian, to hear teh gunzloonz wail about them.
**     And, yes, you ARE a criminal if you traffic in illegal weapons or traffic illegally in any weapons.

Does the BSA have a merit badge for paedophilia?

This:

http://bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2012/08/05/boy-scout-files-reveal-repeat-child-abuse/KCRNc7iZvKPw5V0mfjVvAN/story.html

is a link to an article about the Boy Scouts of America and their cover-up, connivance/indifference to paedophiliac acts committed by scoutmasters against innocent youths.

I'm sure that subsequent statements by the BSA will contain information that all of the guilty parties were teh GAY. Yep, that's always what's involved. Young boys being preyed on by older men, it's ALL about ONLY teh GAY doin' it.

I was in the scouts (until they recruited some neo-nazi drill instructor fuckwad) from about age 8 to 12. My scoutmaster, Mr. G., was not a predator, nor was the assistant scoutmaster (afaia). There was plenty of adolescent sadism going on (I outed a couple of the Hitlerjugend within our troop and was somewhat less popular with a number of people for that--fuck 'em).

I'm sure that most scoutmasters, just like most priests, ministers and teachers who have young persons in their charge are NOT paedophiles. I'm also sure that the overwhelming number of those who ARE paedophiles are good, GOD fearin' KKKristians. It's just the way these things go.

I will be watching this unroll.

The writing on the wall at the end of your nose

Exhibits 1 through R.

http://www.theindychannel.com/news/31256669/detail.html

http://www.indianasnewscenter.com/news/local/44912987.html?m=y

http://pediatrics.about.com/od/safety/a/gun-accidents.htm

http://www.theindychannel.com/news/28645486/detail.html

http://tristatehomepage.com/fulltext-news?nxd_id=507842

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/01/15/2-year-old-shot-in-the-head-in-gary/

http://www.wane.com/dpp/news/crime/fwpd-officer-accidently-shot

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-09-12/news/30170570_1_reckless-homicide-brother-chief-deputy-prosecutor-bob

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/07/24/sheriff-4-year-old-shot-in-heillad-while-fishing-with-dad/

The above are the tip of a rather large iceberg and, like most icebergs it goes largely unnoticed or unremarked upon by the public at large.

What those links above show is that in Indiana it is apparently less of a problem for parents "accidentally" shooting their children* than it is for parents who leave their children in a child/infant car seat with the windows rolled up and the A/C turned off.  I would not be surprised to read an account of a child being shot by an adult who was then arrested for DUI when they got pulled over for attempting to drunkenly drive their--not on purpose, unforseebly, accidentally shot--child or someone else's child to a facility for medical treatment and subsequently charged with the DUI and not the shooting itself. Of course when the gunzloonz can either scare the lege into doing their bidding or simply elect enough of their ilk to tip the balance they also will have the unassailable argument that nothing illegal happened. That slavery used to be legal, along with sweatshops, unsafe workspaces, child labor and the like is lost on them.

WTF, no, really WHAT THE FUCK? Some gunzloonz  will, I'm sure, be able to explain why it is NOT a case of criminal neglect to leave a gun where it can be picked up and fired by a child/minor--where that firing results in the death or injury of someone else--while leaving a baby in a car or having a shitsmeared home or one patrolled by starving pitbulls wherein a child dies or is maimed IS a felony.

Now, I'll grant that part of the problem with the whole kid-left-in-the-saunaonwheels thing is the nosy bastards that just feel like they GOTTA call the PIGS, man! Well, GODbless the home, one that is his heavily and heavenly fortified KKKastle, of the idiots whose loved ones get whacked or blasted by their own fucking guns--they don't gotta let nobody come in and find out whether their house is SAFE for teh babeez.

Of course there is another problem that the gunzloonz share with the AGW deniers, biblical inerranists, KKKristian KKKonstitutionalists and other whackjob GOPers--they cannot read the truth. They view facts with the same horror as the old fashioned vampires viewed garlic, wolfbane and crucifixes**. I can say, with a fair degree of certainty that no true Son-O-Teh-Gunz will trouble his beautifully empty mind to read and reflect on any, never mind all, of the links I provided. Prove me wrong, bulletboyz, prove me wrong. I mean, I can believe that you will accept the challenge just as I can believe that the cast of "True Blood" ARE vampires.

*       And, in some cases, other people's children.

**     Today's vampires seem to be somewhat immune to those things. They now fear fashion ineptitude, lack of sardonic cool and being "out" with the "in the ground" crowd. Otoh; sunlight, the universal disinfectant, seems to be as scary now as it was then.

It's the food, stupid!

It IS the food; well, that and the lack of exercise, totally sedentary workplaces, etc.,.

I just heard a commercial, for the umpteenth time, for a "natural" weight loss product. The product (names are unnecessary--they're all snakeoil) is touted as a "hormonal balancer".  This product is only one of the dozens for which I've heard ads on the radio. All of them promise two things: rapid weight loss and a "no-risk trial".

Anytime someone tells me that I can get a "no-risk trial" I know that the money is easy to spend and VERY hard to retrieve. If they really believed in the crap they sell, they'd offer it for no cash upfront and let you pay for the first batch, if it works, when you order the second.

I've been on various "diets" in my life. The one that DOES work is Sugar Busters. Not because it's magic but because when I eat less sugar, I eat less of everything. I also cut out beer, wine, liquor and virtually every food/beverage that makes life worth living! I love roasted sweet potatoes AND sweet potato pie--so no diet that restricts my food choices to those I don't usually choose is gonna be a bigass FAIL.

What got me thinking about this is a post by Southern Beale. It was nothing to do with food. It was about the very hot, early summer weather in Nashville.

AGW deniers are much like the credulous boobs who see teh Blessed Virgin Mary's face in their Dunkin' Donuts cruller (or whatever atrocious crapola "pastry" you may obtain at one of the thousands of those or like blights on the landscape). I see no specific harm in the credulity of the idiots who imagine that their pizza contains a divine message, spelled out in pepperoni slices. But, when those same idiots (and the Venn diagram for the two groups probably only takes one circle) also believe that cutting taxes will increase "jobs creation"; JESUS is coming, as soon as Israel nukes the Ayrabs or that AGW is not real--well, yeah, that's fucking harmful.

Idiots are easily led by hucksters, grifters and demagogues. The GOP, if nothing else, has made a "science" of dupin'tehstupes. They have reduced the world around them to TWO tribes, "US" and "teh OTHER, 9-1-11ity!". The two sacraments of their tribe are "Patriotism" and "JESUS!, shut-up, that's why!".

Science is not a guessing game. Science is not a lottery. Science is not subject to change, based on someone's desire to show that a carbon chain is, in reality, unicorn pooh. When someone's fabulous beliefs, beliefs which CANNOT be falsified; are not subject to critical examination and rational inquiry AND have no evidentiary support are deemed equivalent or superior to a vast, exhaustively researched and verified body of knowledge--a body of knowledge which is accepted by many thousands of scientists who have the training and experience to actually understand wtf they're reading and debating--well, I'm gonna have to say those who are going with JESUScience are fucking idiots.

My atheism aside, I never found the whole notion of Noah's Ark or many othere biblical "facts" being things that actually, y'know, HAPPENED, to be rational.

Years ago, I was in Al-anon--for a long time. Being a "member" of that group did me a lot of good. I learned that I WAS powerless to change the world--or even one person in the world--so that it comported with my ideal. I also learned that there are a lot of folks who "enjoy" being victims of alcoholics 'cuz they can vent, forever, and never take responsibility for any of the craziness that THEY contribute to the fucked-up relationships in which they are stuck. People who have been around the program for a  while usually, in my experience, become less "GODOdidit and I can't undo it", and more, "I can't fix the world, but I can determine where I want to live.".

Maybe there should be an "AGWanon", a place where those who have been brainwashed (and it's the only word that actually applies) into thinking that shit that will eventually exterminate humanity--without, per George Carlin, harming the planet--is just HIS way of testing us. Someplace where they might depend on the experience, strength and hope (and maybe a soupcon of science) to see where they strayed from sanity.

I will be as one voice crying in the wilderness.

WAKE THE FUCK UP!

Why I write the way I do--oh, look something shiny!

I have been aware of my ADD for about 18 years now. No, scratch that, I've been diagnosed as having ADD/ADHD for about 18 years now. I knew something was keeping me from doing a lot of shit for a much longer period of time.

Fighting ADD is not possible. Giving into its manisfest symptoms and letting my brain run riot 24/7 is not desirable. I struggle with the disorder. One of its more prominent symptoms for me is what I refer to as the "Magpie reflex". I can be cruising along doing some work that needs to be done--or having a conversation about anything and without warning something, anything, occurs that deflects my interest from the task at hand to a more "interesting" path of inquiry. This sort of thing is not viewed as a "charming" quirk or harmless eccentricity by many folks. Living alone and not working makes it less likely that I will be fired or told to pack up my shit and hit the road; it does make it exceedingly difficult to start and finish projects or even conversations.

I'm trying a new prescription (I'm into my third month of medication) and, at least so far, it seems not to be making all that much difference to the way I flounder about when not hyperfocused (which is about 3% of my day). Another two months to go at a new dosage level and we will see what we will see. The VA does not like writing the prescription for Adderall (which I KNOW works) and I can't afford the $1-2K/annum for meds and seeing a private mental health provider once every couple of months. I will do this trial for as long as I can and if it's still not working, or having adverse side affects I will either get the Adderall prescribed or simply stop taking any meds for the condition.

So, okay, I got that out of the way, as a preamble to telling my faithful readers that I've started a new editorial policy. Instead of trying to write separate posts I am simply going to start cutting and pasting my own comments from other blogs--and adding contextual content where I feel it's necessary. By doing this I will be able to post more stuff. To wit, three comments from another blog are going to be posted below. They will be labelled as 1 through 3. They may not make a lot of sense to you, but they do to me--that is part of my struggle with the ADD.


Cheers.

1.)  "I think Fumento pointing out that the shrillness of the likes of Limbaugh, Coulter, and Malkin is being driven by money is an important statement coming from someone on the right."

The enemy of my enemy is not automatically my friend. Fumento is an asshole. That he dislikes other assholes is not surprising; nor is it surprising that he says that THEIR shrillness is being driven by money. He was a benefactor of plenty of the poisoned lucre that was being spread around by the ReiKKKwingers over the years. He just ain't gettin' so much these days.

David Brock is a former KKKonservative hatchetman who made his bones with the ReiKKKwing by attacking Anita Hill for telling the truth about Clarabelle Thomas during his SCotUS nomination hearings. Brock has since apologized to Anita Hill and written a book detailing his "mistakes".

This:

"July 2, 2001 -- Journalist David Brock, whose 1993 book attacked the credibility of law professor Anita Hill, now says he printed lies about Hill following her testimony against then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. In an exclusive interview, NPR Legal Affairs Correspondent Nina Totenberg talks to Brock about the confession, detailed in a forthcoming book."

from here (http://www.npr.org/programs/atc/features/2001/jul/010702.brock.html)

is almost 11 years old. The "apology" was made, oddly enough, when Brock had another book coming out--about his perfidy. In the intervening 11 years Brock's original crapola, piece of shit hatchet job on Anita Hill has remained in print--afaia, without a retraction of its contents inserted between its covers. He was a piece of shit, then; he's a piece of shit, now.

Being critical of lying, unprincipled assholes like Brooks and Fumento without calling them lying, unprincipled assholes is not only less fun, it's exactly what the ReiKKKwing likes for the rest of the world to do.

People like Brock, Brooks and Fumento can rehabilitate their images by writing complete retractions of their KNOWN lies (plus any that they haven't yet been caught in but do know about). A bonus would be if they reveal the sources of both the lies and the funding that they received to do their unprincipled lying.

Calling the three of them (and the rest of the ReiKKKwing dysilluminati) lying, unprincipled assholes has, btw, jack shit to do with "ideological purity".

2.)  This comment was made in reply to other comments made about the RCC’s recent announcement that they were putting out “guidelines” so that the faithful might be more easily able to identify “genuine” apparitions—as opposed to News of the World nonsense.

"So you mean it’s not a vision, but it is really the caretaker of the shut down amusement park, old man Cranston, wearing a rubber Virgin Mary mask?"

That's a disturbing image; not as disturbing as Pope Panzerfaust in a full gimp suit, but close.

"wasting a great deal of verbiage with little actual meaning."

That could be their sub-header.

"with special regard to the fecundity of spiritual fruit generated from this new devotion."

I think that one of the monk/scribes was doing some "one handed illuminating" when he wrote that.

"habitual docility towards Ecclesiastical Authority."

It ain't just for altar boys anymore.

"What? No mention of the importance of the type of cheese in the grilled sandwich –"

I was at a McDonalds recently and had a McDouble. When I was putting an extra pint of Ketchcornsyrup on it I noticed that it had the likeness of the Immaculate Conceptionist in Velveetaish gooey goodness. I was gonna document it and put it on e-bay; then I realized that JESUS' mom--fine upstanding jewish girl of her times that she was--wouldn't be caught dead with or IN a cheeseburger.

3.) This comment was made in reference to a discussion about christians and their lack of logic and critical thinking when they talk about being GAY as an abomination in the eyes of GOD.

3.) This comment was made in reference to idiot christians that want to have their bible and STILL burn those that they disagree with at the stake.

 1. “If you actually look at what is in that kludgy mess of the bible and the history of xianity, it all looks like something made up by humans.” 

Something made up by humans before fact checking AND before modern psychiatry with its DSM and GargantuPharma with its nostrums and potions made it easier to identify and treat mental illness.

heddle:

The real problem lies not in OUR lack of understanding of an ancient, cobbled, revised and, often enough, flat out wrong text*; it lies in the duplicity, hypocrisy and indignorance manifested by those who claim to have a comprehensive understanding of that text–which does include the majority of christian ministers and priests (rabbis, too) and a shitton of their sheeple.

This:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Lutheran_denominations

is from Wiki. It purports to be a list of Lutheran denominations. IIRC, you’re a Lutheran, yes? Also, I think that you have said in the past that you are a Calvinist and believe in the notion of pre-destination and the “Elect” being the true “Chosen” people of GOD? Are all of the other self-professed christians therefore “wrong”? Are they apostates, heretics, merely misinformed (but doomed nonetheless)?

I have no doubt that you could win a debate with a number of commenters here, and I also have no doubt that a number of really bright and educated folks would simply refuse to engage due to your past history in this regard. Then, of course, there are folks like me, bright like Sirius and woefully undereducated who have no desire to debate anyone over a matter that we hold to be the result of serially fictive authorship.

To paraphrase Warren Zevon, I’ll BELIEVE when I’m dead–or I’ll simply be disassembled by the same rules of physics and chemistry that allow my existence.

OT: Is there something about NASCAR and wrecks that needs investigating? I mean, WOW, they be goin’ through some rides!

* This is not to say that there are NOT portions of the Bible, both OT and NT, that are morally correct.