28 Years

My sorrow will always be fresh. 28 years ago today.

Newgrass Revival Reunion?

Despite this,

Sam Bush and former members of New Grass Revival and The Bluegrass Alliance will meet in Louisville on December 13, 2008 to announce a major concert event at Louisville's Galt House to benefit American Cancer Society, to be held March 6, 2009.

I am not optimistic. Nowhere in the article do I see the names Pat Flynn or Bela Fleck.

Not to put too fine a point on it, unless it's the Newgrasss lineup from New Years' Eve 1989, it ain't the Newgrass Revival.

A War on Christmas, 2008

Washington State's nativity display has an addition this year, a placard placed by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a group of atheists and agnostics. The sign is brief, “There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.”

As you might expect, the charitable, love-thy-neighbor Christians became righteously offended at the state's permission for a contradictory point of view.

It's funny that atheists typically try to put forth their idea mostly by putting down religion. Much like an insecure bully that puts down someone else to make themselves look better.

The best is yet to come. When the state facility hosting the nativity and atheist display opened Friday morning, the atheist sign was gone, stolen. Later Friday morning, the sign was dropped off at a country music radio station, whose DJ recipient observed the hypocrisy of Christian theft as a form of protest.

Of the sign turning up at the station, [DJ Ichabod] Caine said: "First you think: No way this happened. ... That's sort of funny on one level."

But what happened was stealing, Caine said, and "certainly, because we know 'thou shalt not .steal,' don't steal a sign."

What's next? Why, a circus, of course.

There are requests for other displays as well. Someone applied to put up a "Festivus" pole in honor of the invented holiday featured in the 1990s sitcom "Seinfeld." Another person wants to create a religious-themed "balloon display.

A demonstration will be held this weekend, presumably to further defend the vast Christian majority from the awful harm and threat posed by the less-than-10% of Americans who admit to being atheist or agnostic.

The entertainment potential looks to be reliable. Too bad we only have a couple of weeks of these antics ahead. I can't wait for the Flying Spaghetti Monster's contribution.

Pownce R.I.P.

Got this email today, after I already heard the news from Techmeme, Techcrunch, inter alia:

We are sad to announce that Pownce is shutting down on December 15,
2008. As of today, Pownce will no longer be accepting new users or new
pro accounts.

It took me a few minutes to recall I had a Pownce account. The site never seemed to have a functional focus, was eclipsed by FriendFeed, and never had the same community potential as Twitter. I guess Kevin Rose isn't the good tech luck talisman Digg made him seem to be.

An Important Anniversary

HAPPY 'BLOODY' BIRTHDAY, MARY - New York Post

Bradley's grandfather, Fernand Petiot, concocted the cocktail in Paris in the 1920s. But it wasn't perfected until he came to New York's St. Regis Hotel in the 1930s. "That'ss when he added Tabasco," she said.

These spicy little pleasures are my favorite Sunday brunch accompaniment. My favorites, though, are made only at Mother's in New Orleans.

Focus & Fred - It's Getting Lonely in Wackaland

eHarmony.com to match 'gays'

Warren began to disassociate himself with Dobson that year to shed the company's association with Focus on the Family. He said he would no longer appear on Dobson's radio show, and he bought the rights to books he had published through Focus on the Family and removed the name from their covers.

"Dr. Warren and I have been friends for many years," Dr. Dobson said in a statement. "He has been on Focus on the Family radio nine times, and we published six of his books. We helped publicize eHarmony.com, and yet, Dr. Warren recently said in an L.A. Times article that his association with us is 'the kiss of death.' I'm sorry he feels that way. He's a good man."

The two agreed to go their separate ways.

Now eHarmony has been compelled to changed its nationwide policy toward homosexuals as part of a New Jersey lawsuit settlement.

On March 14, 2005, Eric McKinley filed a lawsuit against eHarmony, claiming the company discriminated against him when it refused to accept his advertisement for a "gay" partner.

McKinley's complaint triggered a state investigation into the dating service.

Omaha.com Metro/Region Section

Westboro protest draws student counter protest
BY ANDREW J. NELSON AND KATIE FRETLAND
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITERS

• Westboro church member fights Sarpy charges
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Members of a Kansas church that protests at the funerals of slain service members fled the right-of-way near Omaha Central High School on Friday because police said they could not protect them from hundreds of student counterprotesters.

Students threw hamburgers and bottles of lemonade and milk at several members of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., students said after the protest. A video of the protest — recorded by 16-year-old student Mason Hartwell — showed one counterprotester on the ground, seated with his hands behind his back and flanked by two law enforcement officers.

Students chanted "Diversity," "Obama" and "Gay is OK." At one point, they broke into a chant of the Pledge of Allegiance, yelling, "Liberty and justice for all," according to the footage. After students dispersed, a flier remained on the ground reading "Zona libre de odio" — Spanish for "Hate-free zone."

This Is Completely Tasteless

Fetal Bites: America's #1 Fetus Cookie Cutter - Boing Boing

But pretty funny, in the wrong hands, i.e., mine. All I need do now is find the right person to send this to. Wonder if there are any baby showers coming up . . .

Saxby Chambliss

Saxby Chambliss 2008 -- see if Saxby is helping you!

While the control of the Congress by one party is suddenly a frightening thought (to Republicans, at least) there are some who argue that it will take one party control for at least a couple of years to repair the damage done by eight years of Bush and six of one party control.

Saxby Chambliss is one of those Republicans who promoted the current Administration and the status Republican quo.

Time for a change.

The Future of Colorado Republicans?

ColoradoPols.com:: A "Howard Dean" For Colorado's GOP: Marc Holtzman?

There is one man who has shown his dedication to leadership, was victimized by the powermad ideologcal nuts who gave us Bob Beauprez and Bob Schaffer, and who remains committed to seeing the party restored to its rightful majority position.

I'm talking about Marc Holtzman.

The left has Howard Dean, who lost his presidential primary at the hands of insiders but emerged triumphant as the Chairman of the DNC. Not only did he invest in races way outside "safe" Democrat strongholds, winning many of them-he built the infrastructure that allowed Barack Hussein Obama to outspend his opponent by giant sums and carry key "red" states like Colorado. Doesn't this story closely parallel Holtzman's? At least the first half?

I guess having your ass handed to you two elections in a row is oikely to make you see how the dreaded liberals managed it. All the giggling at Howard Dean'sscream aside, the man had the winning strategy. It'll be interesting to see how well and how long it will take the GOP to reclaim Colorado.

Further Proof of Alternative Realities

Power Line - The Importance of Being Careful

Obama thinks he is a good talker, but he is often undisciplined when he speaks. He needs to understand that as President, his words will be scrutinized and will have impact whether he intends it or not. In this regard, President Bush is an excellent model; Obama should take a lesson from his example. Bush never gets sloppy when he is speaking publicly. He chooses his words with care and precision, which is why his style sometimes seems halting. In the eight years he has been President, it is remarkable how few gaffes or verbal blunders he has committed. If Obama doesn't raise his standards, he will exceed Bush's total before he is inaugurated.

This Could Be Big

Mini nuclear plants to power 20,000 homes | Environment | The Observer

Nuclear power plants smaller than a garden shed and able to power 20,000 homes will be on sale within five years, say scientists at Los Alamos, the US government laboratory which developed the first atomic bomb. The miniature reactors will be factory-sealed, contain no weapons-grade material, have no moving parts and will be nearly impossible to steal because they will be encased in concrete and buried underground.

Congratulations, President Obama

It's 7:24 pm MST and MSNBC just called Ohio for Obama. With Pennsylvania already in his pocket, Obama will be sworn in next January. McCain goes back to being a member of the minority party. And Palin goes back to obscurity.

It's over.

My Favorite Voting Video

Dirty Politics

SquareState.net:: Hilarious: McCain is a Raider fan banner

Say 'Goodnight', Ted

Reid Says Stevens Cannot Serve - Roll Call

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) was forced into the middle of Sen. Ted Stevens’ (R-Alaska) re-election bid late Saturday night after a senior Senate Democrat endorsed Stevens and called on voters to disregard his seven-count felony conviction.

In a bluntly worded release from his office, Reid warned that Stevens would not only face an ethics investigation but also expulsion proceedings regardless of his efforts to appeal the convictions.

UPDATE: Here's a petition asking Senate leaders to remove Stevens.

Take a Bite Out of Crime?

Tampa Police: Missing Teeth Gum Up Relationship

TAMPA - No one saw Louise Deeringer's false teeth behind the TV stand until it was too late.

By then, Deeringer and her boyfriend of 11 years, Guy Dugas, had been in such an argument over where the teeth were that Tampa police had arrested both of them.

It all started about 11:15 p.m. Thursday in a mobile home at 6012 Broadway Ave., where Deeringer confronted Dugas about where he had put her teeth, police said.

Dugas, 49, said he didn't know where her teeth were, but Deeringer, 56, didn't believe him, police said.

Dugas got angry and gave Deeringer what she told police were "flying lessons" – he tossed her up in the air and on the kitchen floor, police said.

Deeringer grabbed a kitchen knife and chased him outside, police said. She saw him re-enter through the back door and chased him down a hall, at one point saying, "You're going to tell me where my teeth are, or I'm going to kill you," police said.

Dugas ran into a bathroom, and Deeringer stabbed the bathroom door, police said.

After officers arrived, Deeringer found her teeth behind the TV stand, police said.

It Still Works

Really Mean . . . But Funny

» Why doesn’t John McCain smile? Coz he’ … ’skine.art - Moleskine Art

Coz he's got gum cleavage.

Bristol Palin Is Pretty Typical

Annals of Sociology: Red Sex, Blue Sex: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker

The vast majority of white evangelical adolescents—seventy-four per cent—say that they believe in abstaining from sex before marriage. (Only half of mainline Protestants, and a quarter of Jews, say that they believe in abstinence.) Moreover, among the major religious groups, evangelical virgins are the least likely to anticipate that sex will be pleasurable, and the most likely to believe that having sex will cause their partners to lose respect for them. (Jews most often cite pleasure as a reason to have sex, and say that an unplanned pregnancy would be an embarrassment.) But, according to Add Health data, evangelical teen-agers are more sexually active than Mormons, mainline Protestants, and Jews. On average, white evangelical Protestants make their “sexual début”—to use the festive term of social-science researchers—shortly after turning sixteen. Among major religious groups, only black Protestants begin having sex earlier.

There's only so much faith available in the face of hard reality. It's difficult to understand how evangelicals, sincere though they may be, can continue to push an agenda totally transparent to their children's hormones.

Dude, I'm Waiting for My Dell

FT.com / Companies / IT - Netbooks lead computer growth

Despite the downturn in the economy, an unexpected surge in global consumer demand for the machines, known as “netbooks” or mini-notebooks, has turned them into one of the hottest new consumer-tech products in years.

“We expect there will be shortages before Christmas,” said Richard Doherty, an analyst at Envisioneering, a consumer technology research firm.

I can attest to that. I ordered a Dell Mini in September. Originally scheduled to ship October 10, now that date's been pushed to mid November.

Emma Crawford Days

There's an annual event in Manitou Springs, CO that commemorates a 19th century citizen, Emma Crawford. The story goes that after her death, heavy rains eroded her mountainside grave and her coffin tobogganed downslope.

The festivities begin with a hearse parade. Here's my favorite. Yes, the flamethrower is functional.

Thy Will Be Done

Top Stories: Palin tells Dobson election outcome is 'in God's hands' - Gazette.com

Dobson asked whether Palin was discouraged by polls showing the GOP ticket behind.

"To me, it motivates us, makes us work that much harder," Palin said. "And it also strengthens my faith, because I'm going to know, at the end of the day, putting this in God's hands, that the right thing for America will be done at the end of the day on Nov. 4. So I'm not discouraged at all."

So when Obama is elected President it will be because God wants it that way. Great news. That should also mean the end of Sarah Palin's national office aspirations - she wouldn't want to go against God's clear will, would she?

This Is Really Surprising

Top Stories: | obama, campaign, area : Gazette.com

Even in an area dominated by Republicans, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama has raised tens of thousands of dollars more than Sen. John McCain, a Gazette analysis of campaign finance records found.
Obama's money advantage in the Colorado Springs area is insignificant in the context of a record-breaking season for campaign spending, but any edge for a Democratic Party presidential candidate is a dramatic shift from historical trends.
Four years ago, President Bush's contributions from the Colorado Springs area were three times that of his rival, Sen. John Kerry. An edge for Obama is also the last thing many observers would expect from an area where registered Republicans outnumber Democrats 2 to 1.
As of the end of August, Obama brought in $265,920 in donations from the city and surrounding areas, compared to McCain's $202,626.

In a county that hosts more evangelical organizations than any other in America, including Focus on the Family, a Democrat beating a Republican in campaign donations must herald the millennium.

If It's a Tie, . .

http://view.break.com/592648 - Watch more free videos

Why do so many media conservatives, like Mona Charen, sound so depressed these days? Mona's lament on NRO is well nigh pathetic.

All of a sudden, this election is shaping up as a verdict on capitalism. The Obama campaign wanted it to be about George W. Bush. The McCain campaign wanted it to be about character. But instead, because the markets are shooting off in all directions like bullets from a dropped pistol, the stakes have suddenly been raised dramatically.

We are in the midst of the worst panic in history, it’s true (because it is global). . . historian John Steele Gordon . . .  believes more sensible banking policy would prevent future panics. But if we elect a crypto-socialist like Barack Obama and give him a bigger Democrat majority in the House and a filibuster-proof Senate, banking regulation may be the least of our troubles.

No matter how much real wealth is evaporating before our very eyes, a Democratic Administration could be worse? It's symptomatic of the disarray of the once-formidable GOP - there's a missing subtext now, and in a campaign frenzy Dems and Republicans alike will inevitably say some batshit-crazy stuff. Used to be, though, that the Rs always kicked ass on Ds. It's always hard to say, but it sure feels like a change in the wind.

Three weeks to go. Then poor Mona can take a few days off and recover.

An Oddity Regarding Culture Change in LTC

Perhaps a minor rumination, but how is it that one of the most important requirements of culture change is rarely, if ever, mentioned in the scant literature available on the subject.

The leadership behaviors that most immediately effect staff evolution are, by nature, the least amenable to documentation or analysis. There is an experiential component that cannot be easily measured, but it is an essential driver of many of the emerging culture's aspects. At some point, culture change has to find a way to describe, if not quantify, optimal management strategies for nurturing the evolving culture.

Gotta Love Sarah Palin

Palin Contradicts McCain On Pakistan, Seems To Back Obama’s Position - From The Road

She's doing so much to help the Obama campaign.

(PHILADELPHIA) Sarah Palin told a customer at a Philadelphia restaurant on Saturday that the United States should “absolutely” launch cross-border attacks from Afghanistan into Pakistan in the event that it becomes necessary to “stop the terrorists from coming any further in,” a comment similar to the one John McCain condemned Barack Obama for making during last night’s presidential debate.

During Friday’s debate, Obama criticized the Bush administration for sending billions of dollars in aid to Pakistan without ridding the border region of terrorists.

“If the United States has al Qaeda, bin Laden, top-level lieutenants in our sights, and Pakistan is unable or unwilling to act, then we should take them out,” Obama added.

McCain fired back hard, arguing that newly elected Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari has had his “hands full” and suggesting that Obama’s tough talk was naïve.

“You don’t say that out loud,” McCain said. “If you have to do things, you have to do things, and you work with the Pakistani government.”

This Is No Surprise

Sarah Palin's Christianity

Palin the Christian - The Brody File: David Brody Blog - CBN News

Here's the interesting part. Sarah Palin is showing that just because you're a born-again Christian doesn't mean you can't talk intelligbly about other issues. In a way, Sarah palin's high profile is putting Evangelicals in the spotlight. Palin believes in teaching creationism and believes that the Bible is the innerant (sic) Word of God. Does that make you crazy or not fit to be vice-president? I would suggest that millions of Americans out there think that world view is extremely lacking in Washington

David Brody, an otherwise rational journalist, falls over himself to defend Sarah Palin from the secular criticism she's bound to receive once her fundamentalist beliefs get significant airplay.

Brody commits the classic Christian sin, however, in misrepresenting the basis for such criticism. It's not anti-religion so much as anti-superstition. "Palin believes in teaching creationism and believes that the Bible is the innerant (sic) Word of God." This makes her superstitious, much in the same way Mitt Romney's magic underwear makes me doubt his grip on the reality lever. "Teaching creationism" is merely another dishonest attempt to foist a private religious view onto a public school system that already has enough problems producing educated graduates, whereas the "Bible is the inerant (sic) word of God" is just insincere manipulation aimed at securing continuing influence and revenue. I'll take that claim seriously when one of our modern day godmen stones a disobedient child to death.

I agree Palin's religion should not be an issue, however, it has been the Republican campaign and enablers such as Brody himself who fuel this particular fire. Whining a priori about the reaction of the secular majority to Palin's off-center religious views only serves to solidify support from the same reality-impaired core group that the Republicans have so successfully exploited over the past 15 years.

Palin Continues to Not Answer Questions

Political Punch

September 07, 2008 9:41 AM

Rick Davis, campaign manager for Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., just told Fox News Channel's Chris Wallace that McCain running mate Gov. Sarah Palin won't subject herself to any tough questions from reporters "until the point in time when she'll be treated with respect and deference."

Davis assailed the way the media had discussed Palin and her family in the last week and said the campaign would wait until a less hostile media environment.

So when will she subject herself to questions?

"When we think it's time and when she feels comfortable doing it," Davis said, praising a Fox News Channel profile of Palin that ran last night.

This strategy seems riskier as each day passes. Without Palin available to the press the McCain campaign is forfeiting a valuable means of controlling the election narrative. Only a visible, accessible VP candidate can guide the press coverage.

The longer she stays underground, the more afield the press reports will become. Is this a gamble McCain should accept?

A Heartbeat Away

Having played the inexperience card against Obama for months now, the McCain camp now shields its new attack chick in a Cheney-like undisclosed location for intense briefings on her campaign partner.

The rampant hypocrisy aside, will this two week tutoring actually prepare this journeyman pol to assume the office should a certain 72 year old heart stop ticking?

No Prosecution in US Attorney Firings

Mukasey Won’t Pursue Charges in Hiring Inquiry - NYTimes.com

Attorney General Mukasey has decided violators of public trust and Civil Service law deserve no further attention:

As last month’s report from the inspector general acknowledged, the hiring abuses by former Justice Department officials represented a violation of federal Civil Service law, but not of criminal law, he said.

“That does not mean, as some people have suggested, that those officials who were found by the joint reports to have committed misconduct have suffered no consequences,” Mr. Mukasey said. “Far from it. The officials most directly implicated in the misconduct left the department to the accompaniment of substantial negative publicity.”

“Their misconduct has now been laid bare by the Justice Department for all to see,” he said, adding that “I doubt that anyone in this room would want to trade places with any of those people.”

I might have taken that a little more seriously if "the officials" had actually been named. But apart from Monica Goodling who else does Mukasey mean? Alberto Gonzales?

Barack-Rolled?

It was inevitable, I suppose.

Now if someone could do this for John McCain. . .

The Continuing Decline of the Radical Right

Hutchinson News Online

Tony Perkins and his Family Research Council PAC lost another couple in Kansas, of all places:

The Kansas Traditional Republican Majority questioned the links former U.S. Rep. Jim Ryun and Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline had to a socially conservative group, the Family Research Council Action.

The moderate group claimed the FRCA's executive director, Tony Perkins, had once collaborated with a member of the Ku Klux Klan while running a Louisiana political campaign in 1996. Perkins and the council have denied the charges.

Still, the FRCA had endorsed Ryun and hosted Kline at a conference, said Ryan Wright, the moderate group's executive director. The pair, who both lost Tuesday, should have explained themselves, he argued.

That pesky link between Perkins and David Duke just won't go away.

in 2002, Perkins embarked on a campaign to avenge his mentor's defeat by running for the US Senate himself. But Perkins was dogged with questions about his involvement with David Duke. Perkins issued a flat denial that he had ever had anything to do with Duke, and he denounced him for good measure. Unfortunately, Perkins's signature was on the document authorizing the purchase of Duke's list. Perkins's dalliance with the racist Council of Conservative Citizens in the run-up to his campaign also illuminates the seamy underside of his political associations. Despite endorsements from James Dobson and a host of prominent CNP members, Perkins was not even the leading Republican in the senatorial race.

60 Years Ago Today, Fletcher's Taught the Band to Play

Django's Daughters

Gas Prices Affect Health Care Access

Rising Gas Prices Affecting Home Health Care Workers

Gasoline prices have increased by more than 80% in the past 18 months, and experts say it is "a particularly knotty problem for nurses, aides and other employees of home health care agencies -- many of whom are responsible for their own travel expenses and depend on government reimbursements that haven't yet caught up with the rising prices at the pump," the AP/Tribune reports. A survey by the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging found that 50% of home care employees said they have already cut back on home visits because of fuel costs and 90% expect to make cuts in 2009.

Scribefire Beta

ScribeFire - QuickAds Beta

My favorite blog tool, Scribefire, has rolled out a beta version to incorporate ads into posts.

Stay tuned. I'll be posting my impressions over the next few weeks.

HD 62 Candidate Randy Jackson OK with Gay Bathroom Sex

The Pueblo Chieftain

Colorado recently enacted SB 200, a bill that adds sexual orientation to the state's anti-discrimination statute. No longer can the LGBT community be legally ousted from the same public opportunities enjoyed by everyone else.
Naturally, this resulted in a cosmic wedgie to that christofascist in Colorado Springs, James Dobson, who spent a chunk of his not-for-prophet dough on publicity criticizing the bill, claiming it legalizes men in the ladies room, and predicting little girls will be savaged by grown men of icky persuasion, who now have the legal right to enter the "public accommodation" mentioned in the law's text.
I don't worry overmuch about James Dobson. His day has passed, and the brand of vicious bigotry he espouses will die with him. But now comes Republican candidate Randy Jackson, an apparently well-meaning oaf that has seized on the lies in the evangelical Dobson's ads to attack his Democratic opponents.

SB200 basically implies labeling restrooms as gender specific is discriminatory; hence, any man can now enter the little girl’s room if he feels like a woman, or for any other perverse reason.

There's a problem, of course. Despite Jackson's apparently sincere objections, SB 200 has nothing to do with legalizing men in the ladies room. It seems this has always been legal in Colorado.

It’s not Senate Bill 200 that makes it legal for a woman to walk into a men’s bathroom or for a man to walk into a women’s bathroom. That’s always been legal in Colorado, according to Mesa County District Attorney Pete Hautzinger.

It’s what a person does once they’re in the bathroom that could lead to an arrest.

There are a couple of layers of irony to this issue. First, nobody has demonstrated any episode of little girls assaulted by icky perverts in public restrooms (I am discounting a dubious claim made by an un-named Focus on the Family staff). Dobson and Jackson seem up in arms over an event nobody can show happened.
The second layer, one that should tickle the funny bone of any rational person, is that even though Dobson, and by extension Jackson, worry that "even a homosexual. . . might walk in and relieve himself" in the presence of little girls, SB 200 does nothing to outlaw behavior of the gay kind.
Maybe these fundamentally manipulative guys should worry less about a transgendered person using the appropriate facility and more about who's in the next stall. You never know - it could be Larry Craig.

MSNBC Makes Us Wait for Rachel

News Corpse » Rachel Maddow At Top Of List For Show On MSNBC

The boss man at MSNBC says

“At some point, I don’t know when, she should have a show. She’s on the short list. It’s a very short list. She’s at the top.”

So what's the hold up? Having dumped the whiny Tucker Carlson and retained part-time sock puppet Chris Matthews, MSNBC needs a bright, witty woman with an incisive mind and beautiful smile.

Planned Parenthood Ad - Birth Control or Viagra, Senator?

This ad is about to hit the Colorado media:

The Dobsonites will likely have foaming conniptions, but I'm doubtful this will change many minds here. "Health care" means considerably more than "birth control."

Techcrunch Writer Disses NPR

NPR Launches API That Serves Up 13 Years Of Content

National Public Radio has set a high bar for major media concerns by releasing an API they say will allow developers to utilize NPR-controlled media.

But Jason Kincaid seems upset that access to NPR content back to 1995 isn't as broad as he'd like:

Video content is excluded entirely from the API, along with a number of programs . . . the lack of video is frustrating.

Uh, Jason, it's National Public Radio.

I'm Terrified, Aren't You?

Gitmo Interrogation Video Released For First Time

Ironically, this release date coincides with uber-weasel Doug Feith testifying before Congress.

War crimes, anyone?

Animated Theology

Well, I liked it, anyway: http://dailymotion.alice.it/video/x1x36c_lanimateur_fun

Animated Theology

Well, I liked it, anyway: http://dailymotion.alice.it/video/x1x36c_lanimateur_fun

Sad Day

FOXNews.com - Tony Snow, Former White House Press Secretary and FOX News Anchor, Dies at 53

While I often thought he was an infuriating sock puppet for a corrupt administration, Tony Snow was also a smooth master of public discourse. He was the sort of person you'd love to debate, and that debate would always take unexpected turns along the way.

Best wishes to his family. I know I'll miss Tony on the tube.

The New iPhone

A terrific product.

AT&T: Complete bullshit network.

The bad: AT&t

The good: 3rd party software might let other 3G nets log in.

You Say It Like It's a Bad Thing

Catholic University of San Diego Honors Radical Non-Christian Feminist With Theology Chair

This year the University of San Diego has awarded an honorary chair in its Catholic theology department to a radical eco-feminist theologian, who calls God "Gaia," supports abortion and contraception, and a host of other views that put her in conflict with essential Catholic and Christian beliefs

But has she blown an altar boy?

Pixelated Homophobia

'Gay' McDonald's prompts boycott
The happy paranoids at the American Family Association, Dandy Don Wildmon's principal source of outrage and revenue, is now aghast at McDonald's is not running away in horror from gays. My earlier post covers that bit of silly, but a new wrinkle on an old controversy arrived in this afternoon's email.

Conservative News Alerts is pushing the AFA v Ronald McDonald issue, but with even prissier circumlocutions. Where the AFA, quoted by that paragon of accuracy, World Net Daily, says,

"This boycott is not about hiring homosexuals, or homosexuals eating at McDonald's or how homosexual employees are treated. It is about McDonald's, as a corporation, choosing to put the full weight of their organization behind promoting the homosexual agenda, including homosexual marriage," said AFA chairman Donald E. Wildmon.

the right-thinkers at Conservative News Alerts can't seem to quite spit out the topic under revulsion:

"This boycott is not about hiring h_________, or h_________ eating at McDonald's or how h_________ employees are treated. It is about McDonald's, as a corporation, choosing to put the full weight of their organization behind promoting the h_________ agenda, including h_________ marriage," said AFA chairman Donald E. Wildmon.

What If Jesus Wants a Big Mac?

Gay-Marriage Opponents To Boycott McDonald's - washingtonpost.com

A group that opposes same-sex marriage has called for a boycott of McDonald's, saying the fast-food giant has refused "to stay neutral in the cultural war over homosexuality."

The American Family Association (AFA) launched the boycott yesterday because McDonald's joined the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce several months ago and placed an executive on the group's board of directors, in addition to donating to the chamber.

The association asked McDonald's to remove itself from the chamber but the burger-maker declined, leading to the boycott. "We're saying that there are people who support AFA who don't appreciate their dollars from the hamburgers they bought being put into an organization that's going to fight against the values they believe in," Tim Wildmon, the association's president, said yesterday.

"Hatred has no place in our culture," McDonald's USA spokesman Bill Whitman said. "That includes McDonald's, and we stand by and support our people to live and work in a society free of discrimination and harassment."

The radical right continues to lose steam. Dobson's Obama tantrum passed with hardly a ripple and now Wildmon's latest hissy fit seems destined to make no difference at all.

Phew! Glad we're through THAT little spell of Puritanism.

Political News

AVN :: Ex-Porn Actor Sonny Landham Seeks Senate Seat

If it's OK for Ralph Nader and Bob Barr to run for office on the nutbag ticket, then a former porn star shouldn't have too much trouble, huh?

Ex-Porn Actor Sonny Landham Seeks Senate Seat
Former Hollywood heavy regrets doing porn flicks

By: David Sullivan

Posted: 06/25/2008

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Actor Sonny Landham, who started out in porn movies before landing tough-guy roles in Hollywood movies including 48 Hours and Predator, is now running for the Senate on the Libertarian ticket.

At least he'd know how to handle himself in public.

Pharisees and Sadducees

7 Reasons Why George Carlin Did Not Go To Hell | KGOV Radio

* The Foul-mouthed Comedian: George Carlin did not go to hell because:

Reason 1: he did more evil than good
Reason 2: because he didn't tithe
Reason 3: because he promoted abortion
Reason 4: because he had a filthy mouth
Reason 5: because he didn't keep the commandments
Reason 6: because he wasn't a Republican
Reason 7: because he didn't go to church

George Carlin went to hell because he despised the sacrifice of Jesus Christ who bled and died to pay for Carlin's sin and was resurrected to overcome death and give eternal life to those who humble themselves and trust in Him.

Self-righteous Christian pricks deserve all the bad shit that happens to them. Particularly the judgmental variety, like this demented fuckwit in Denver.

Portable Power

Cellphones: Wind, Solar Recharge Tent Keeps Phones Juiced at Glastonbury Festival

Somebody had a good idea.

The freestanding tentpods draw their electricity from a wind generator and solar panels. With a peak power of 1Kw, the pod can charge up to 100 mobile phones per hour and stores unused energy in a battery bank.

It's the Little Things

Cheney Apologizes For Quip on W. Virginia - washingtonpost.com

Vice President Cheney apologized for saying yesterday that he has "Cheneys on both sides" of his family tree dating back to the 1600s, "And we don't even live in West Virginia."

. . . The remark drew swift denunciations from West Virginians of both parties, with Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R) calling it "disrespectful" and "certainly not funny," and Gov. Joe Manchin (D) saying, "I truly cannot believe that any vice president of the United States . . . would make such a derogatory statement about my state, or any state for that matter."

VP Cheney insults an entire state and gets called on it. Normal adults might have apologized, refused to apologize or told West Virginia to get a sense of humor. But not the man a heartbeat away from the Presidency.

Cheney quickly moved to defuse the matter, with spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride telling the Associated Press: "On reflection, he concluded that it was an inappropriate attempt at humor that he should not have made. The vice president apologizes to the people of West Virginia for the inappropriate remark."

Except the VP didn't apologize - he outsourced it. Doesn't do much to jack up the Sincerity Meter, does it?

The Usual Lunatics Weigh In

Overturning California's Gay 'Marriage' Ban::By Chuck Colson
Chuck Colson, Nixonite felon and christofascist, weighs in on the California Supreme Court's decision allowing gay marriage in the nation's largest state. He's rolled out the "judges overturning the will of the people argument."

The 4-3 decision announced Thursday not only legalizes gay “marriage” in the largest state in America, but it also overturns both the referendum of the people and the representatives of the people.

And yet, with a straight face, he goes on to suggest a remedy to this intolerable situation:

Now, the problem is that the people of California cannot overturn this decision. Even an amendment to the California constitution will not help now. It all boils down to this: the need for a federal constitutional amendment—and soon, before other states start doing the same thing.

So, we need a federal solution to "overturn" the will of the people if that will isn't approved by Chuck Colson?

The signs are that the Christianists have had their day. Falwell's dead, Robertson is demented, and Dobson seems content to merely brood over the fall of civilization. Colson's stale iteration of self-serving arguments is another sign of a moribund power bloc.

Vigilance & Vigilantes

Two men, each dealing with a foreign country. One is arrested but manages to send a text message, "arrested," the other, trying to enter the foreign country legally, is perhaps the victim of a problem in translation, resulting in detention.

The man sending the text message was out in 24 hours. The man lacking an interpreter is still held 10 days later.

The guy using his cell phone as a Get Out of Jail Free card is an American student arrested in Egypt. Using his cell phone enabled James Karl Buck to send text messages to his Twitter account. Twitter accepts text messages of up to 140 characters and can forward the messages to other cell phones while simultaneously making the message visible on the Twitter website. Buck's "arrested" was enough to alert his friends and start a series of interventions that seem to have produced his release 24 hours later.

On his way to the police station, Buck took out his cell phone and sent a message to his friends and contacts using the micro-blogging site Twitter.

The message only had one word. "Arrested."

Within seconds, colleagues in the United States and his blogger-friends in Egypt -- the same ones who had taught him the tool only a week earlier -- were alerted that he was being held.

The other poor sod is an Italian with "fractured English" trying to visit his American girlfriend. The ICE guys at Dulles International Airport thought Domenico Salerno had expressed fear of being killed if he returned to Italy and wanted political asylum. (Asylum? From Italy?) Despite being within shouting distance of his girlfriend at the airport and the efforts of Senator John Warner. Mr. Salerno remains in Federal custody, and is obviously handling this poorly, “He’s just really scared,” Ms. Cooper said in an interview last Thursday. “He asked me if Virginia has the death penalty.”

Neither of these detentions seem to be reasonable, in light of known facts. I do, though, find it embarrassing that Egypt, fercryin'outloud, is quicker to release people than the "land of the free and home of the brave."

Mixed Priorities

The Associated Press: Official: UN plane lands in Myanmar with aid after cyclone

Gordon Johndroe, President Bush's national security spokesman, said the U.S. was still working to gain permission to enter Myanmar. Another option being considered was air-dropping aid without permission, said Ky Luu, the director of the U.S. office of foreign disaster assistance.

But Defense Secretary Robert Gates later said he couldn't imagine dropping relief aid into Myanmar without the military junta's permission.

How did we get it this wrong? We'll wait for permission to drop food and medicine into a country devastated by natural disaster but bombs get an automatic greenlight.

Justice Is Blonde

Tom Teepen: High price, little payoff in D.C. prostitution case As Tom's thoughtful essay observes, DC Madam Deborah Palfrey was never equal to the attention paid her by the Bush Justice Department. Bushies often assigned resources for minor sops to the religious right. Sure, a few high profilers got snagged but c'mon: did this prosecution end prostitution in DC? What a waste, of lives and treasure.

ChristoFascists in the News

Minnesota Monitor:: In Minnesota, once-ecumenical Day of Prayer festivities are now by evangelicals, for evangelicals

I'm not a big believer, and usually have cynical reactions to the doings of publically-religious folks, like the fundamentalists of every denomination. It's stuff like this that reinforces my disbelief.

The "National Day of Prayer" is now the property of right-wing fuckwit James Dobson and his equally goofy wife, Shirley. Instead of an event that included all faiths, it's now a Southern Baptist mutual stroke-athon. To be part of the organizing or speaking for this "National" event, you gotta sign a loyalty oath to Jeebus:

I believe that the Holy Bible is the inerrant Word of The Living God. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the only One by which I can obtain salvation and have an ongoing relationship with God. I believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, his virgin birth, his sinless life, his miracles, the atoning work of his shed blood, his resurrection and ascension, his intercession and his coming return to power and glory. I believe that those who follow Jesus are family and there should be unity among all who claim his name. I agree that these statements are true in my life.

Despicable but predictable. Who says the Pharisees are extinct?

They Have an Off Switch, You Know

The White House BlackBerries incident - Field Notes - msnbc.com

The leaders of Mexico and Canada were in New Orleans earlier this week with President Bush for the North American Leaders' Summit. After a high-level meeting between the Mexican and U.S. delegations, White House staffers noticed their BlackBerries were missing. Per protocol, they had left the devices on a table outside the meeting room.

A source familiar with the incident tells NBC News the Secret Service approached the members of the Mexican delegation as they were preparing to leave New Orleans. They helped identify the person the agents suspected of taking the BlackBerries as Rafael Quintero. When authorities approached Quintero, he denied having them. But when he was shown hotel surveillance tape of himself caught in the act, he acknowledged it and returned the devices.

Presumably, the Blackberries are hooked into the White House email system, and presumably these wonks don't delete email or observe elementary security measures. If the point of leaving the devices outside is to prevent interruptions, powering down might be a better choice than leaving devices containing official government info lying around in a digital candy dish.

Only If They Include the FSM

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The state Senate has approved a bill that would allow prayers before public meetings.

The legislation says public bodies can adopt policies to let members take turns giving an invocation, elect a chaplain or create a pool of speakers from faith groups to offer the prayer.

The bill also calls for the state attorney general to defend public bodies if they face constitutional challenges.

Do ordainees of the Universal Life Church get a turn? Muslims? Hindus? The Flying Spaghetti Monster?

Yet Another Sign of the Apocalypse

The.Best.Steampunk.OB1.Ever

You MUST visit this site.

Tectonic Events and Vegetable Variation

The Associated Press: 5.2 earthquake rocks large area of Midwest; no major damage

5.2 earthquake rocks large area of Midwest; no major damage

By JIM SUHR

WEST SALEM, Ill. (AP) — Residents across the Midwest were awakened Friday by a 5.2 magnitude earthquake that rattled skyscrapers in Chicago, homes in Cincinnati and nerves across the region but appeared to cause no major injuries or damage.

Dozens of aftershocks followed, one with a magnitude of 4.6.

I wonder if the popcorn farmers should expect a bumper crop?

There's a Cheaper Alternative

WAVY TV 10 - News, Weather, Traffic, Sports for Hampton Roads, Virginia - North Eastern North Carolina - Liberty U considers roller coaster, other campus activities

LYNCHBURG, Va. (AP) - The university that the Rev. Jerry Falwell founded is considering adding a roller coaster on campus as part of a plan to increase recreational options for their students.

A new climbing wall is already under construction at Liberty University, part of a plan to spend more than $10 million over the next few years to expand recreational activities on the Lynchburg campus.

With a Student Affairs Code (love the irony of the name) prohibiting such things as

• Attendance at a dance
• Attendance at, possession or viewing of, an "R," "NC-17" or "X"-rated movie
• Improper personal contact (anything beyond hand-holding)
• Association with those consuming alcohol
• Sexual misconduct and/or any state of undress
• Horseplay

I guess I see why amusement park rides might seem like a desirable alternative. On the other hand, I once got an incredible blow job on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.

Don't Update the Rolodex Yet, Rush

HeraldTribune.com

Good news for substance-abusing Floridians:

The Florida Board of Medicine questioned two Sarasota doctors about their recent criminal convictions but ultimately allowed both men to keep their medical licenses.

Good to know citizens are being protected from criminal practitioners. And I bet that "severe letter of reprimand instead of the scheduled letter of concern" will make all the difference in the quality of care these scumbags deliver to their next victims patients.

Today's Best April Fools Spoof

New Humanist Blog: Local council in shock challenge to Catholic dogma

The Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead have issued the new regulations as a concession to secularists concerned by allegations that Creationism has been taught to students at Emmanuel City Technology College, a Gateshead academy school run by Peter Vardy’s Emmanuel Schools Foundation.

In passing byelaw 08/04 (section 01), the borough council has made it mandatory for Catholic priests to forewarn their congregations that transubstantiation – the idea that at communion the bread and wine become the literal body and blood of Christ – remains unsupported by solid empirical evidence.

Beginning with tonight’s evening masses, priests will be legally obliged to read out the disclaimer – the exact wording of which has been provided by the council – which reads as follows:

“Congregants should be aware of the gaps and/or problems in the Catholic theory of transubstantiation, including, but not limited to, the Protestant notion that the bread and wine are merely symbolic, the opinions of other religions on the life of Christ, and the lack of conclusive scientific evidence available to support this theory.”

Explaining the borough’s decision, Councilor Burt Blaydon (Con., Windynook), said: “The council feel it is important that borough residents realise that the Catholic version of Christianity is only a theory and not written in stone. This is not an attempt to cause offence, but equally we shouldn’t offend those members of the congregation who hold alternative views on the nature of bread and wine.”

Finally, a Google Product for Me!

Gmail: Google's approach to email

GREAT new product from Gmail!. No more missed replies, late responses, bypassed opportunities. With this new feature, you can send email into the past! That missed birthday message to your grandfather that led to the re-writre of his will? Not a problem. Your secretary's note with the real address for the meeting with the Swiss investors? Got it, and in time. Forgot that sweet note on your sweety's birthday? Hey, you'll get laid now.

Gmail Custom Time. Get it now (or later, depending on when you sign up)

Florida! Why Is It Always Florida?

Sociological Images: Seeing Is Believing: The Male Gaze Does Not Allow For Boy Nipples

The men in this Wrestlemania billboard, if you look closely, have no nipples. They were photoshopped out because of a law in Florida that prohibits the display of nipples.

Suppose that sort of silly mindset has anything to do with this:

Florida's population is increasing at the slowest pace in 30 years, which will put a damper on economic growth, University of Florida researchers said Thursday.

At Least It's Not a Picture of Mohamed

BlawgIT - Internet Patent, Trademark and Copyright Issues with Attorney Brett J. Trout, P.C.

Sometimes the jokes write themselves.

Patent Number 5456625
The doll is provided with electrically conductive nails which when inserted through apertures in the hands of the doll, mount the doll to a provided cross and close an electrical circuit which illuminates the cross.

An Easter Entry

Church youth director spots image of Jesus in a Cheeto 3/20/08

I don't get the folks who claim to see Jesus in foodstuffs, any more than I understand the Muslim reaction to cartoons of "Mohamed", who apparently died before the invention of photography, making me wonder how anyone knows what the Prophet looked like.

Anyhow, this Caloric Jesus sighting is more a cheesy fetus to my eye, but I guess I'm lacking some essential faith.

Killing Time

Internet Anagram Server

Great site for generating anagrams. I tried three Colorado governors.

• 
  Roy Romer "Err Roomy"

• Bill Owens "Lib Lens Ow", "Blew Loins"

• Bill Ritter "Lib Err Tilt", "Rib Littler"

When Your Only Tool Is a Hammer

Is Atheism Getting a Free Pass? - U.S. - CBN News

Pretty soon everything looks like a nail.

The Christian Broadcast Network just provided a free example. In a report on media coverage of religion versus atheism, CBN's web site contains this remarkably incorrect observation:

"By airing unchallenged interviews and reporting predominantly positive-toned features, the news organizations in this study effectively promoted atheism and held it in higher regard than other religions," the report said.

"Other" religions? Huh?

Question of the Day

THE NEW REPUBLIC | Blogs

. . . you just have to wonder, how is it possible that a ten-thousand-dollar Spitzer transfer to a prostitution ring tripped up authorities while the NRCC's treasurer stole one million dollars and nobody noticed anything?

The Perils of Friends with Imaginary Friends

Now that lots of buzz has been generated by Rev. Jeremiah Wright's positions ("Hillary is not a black man!") maybe it's a good time to recall my favorite debate, the Values Voter confab held last fall in Florida. A series of high profile Republicans stood up in public and claimed to have an invisible friend, one that qualified each candidate to run the most powerful country in the world.



From my point of view, once a person admits to imaginary friends, we shouldn't be surprised at any nonsense that follows. Fortunately, most people are middling faithful to their theology, if any, and therefore what happens in church stays in church. Religion is, I think, largely irrelevant, especially in public life.

A Matter of Perspective

Dan Phiffer

There's something of an assumption among the climate-change-scoffists that mankind is far too insignificant to effect climate change. I've long thought this position both underestimates our innate troublesomeness and overestimates the climate's robustness. See, our carbon contributions don't have to effect the entire planet, just the air and water. Considering how tiny a percentage each contributes to the mass of the entire globe might make the vulnerability of the climate system a little easier to visualize.



Left: All the water in the world (1.4087 billion cubic kilometres of it) including sea water, ice, lakes, rivers, ground water, clouds, etc. Right: All the air in the atmosphere (5140 trillion tonnes of it) gathered into a ball at sea-level density. Shown on the same scale as the Earth.

Tax Returns & Resumes

The Page - by Mark Halperin - TIME

As reported by Time, Sen. Clinton is being called to produce by the Obama campaign. She hasn't yet released her tax returns, and now a "put-up-or-shut-up" challenge on her claims of experience adds another arrow in the Obama quiver. From the Obama memo:

She did not sit in on National Security Council meetings. She did not have a security clearance. She did not attend meetings in the Situation Room. She did not manage any part of the national security bureaucracy, nor did she have her own national security staff. She did not do any heavy-lifting with foreign governments, whether they were friendly or not. She never managed a foreign policy crisis, and there is no evidence to suggest that she participated in the decision-making that occurred in connection with any such crisis. As far as the record shows, Senator Clinton never answered the phone either to make a decision on any pressing national security issue – not at 3 AM or at any other time of day.

It's probably time to retire the experience argument anyway. Assuming it helps Sen. Clinton win the nomination, it places her at a disadvantage during a general election contest with Sen. McCain, who is surely taking notes on the Dem tactics.

Evidence of Things Unseen

50 people looking for solar image of Mary lose sight

At least 50 people in Kottayam district have reportedly lost their vision after gazing at the sun looking for an image of Virgin Mary.

If St. Paul's definition of faith applies, these people sure have a whole lot more faith now.

A Completely Engrossing Waste of Time

How long does an Etch a Sketch last, anyway?

The Increasing Irrelevance of the Radical Right, Part 4

Townhall.com::Ann Coulter's Conservative Sell-Out::By Mike S. Adams

When the rad right begins to eat its own:

I never thought I would say this but I’m afraid my Ann Coulter Action Figure is going out with today’s garbage. She’s said a lot of stupid things in the last few years. But her recent statements about Hillary Clinton have shown that she isn’t a true conservative. In my opinion, she’s sold out.

Pueblo School of Arts And Sciences?

ABC News: Women Who Can't Stop Feeling Sexual

PSAS, identified and named just six years ago, remains a mysterious condition that thousands of women wish they didn't have. They are constantly on the edge of orgasm regardless of time, place or circumstance.

That's some curriculum, huh?

Blessed Are the Poor?

wcco.com - Financial Woes Force Church To Sell Private Jet

Financial Woes Force Church To Sell Private Jet
BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. (AP) ― Dwindling donations to the Living Word Christian Center in Brooklyn Park have prompted its high-profile pastor, Mac Hammond, to put his private business jet on the market.

Church spokesman the Rev. Brian Sullivan says Living Word has also cut its hourlong Sunday morning television broadcast to 30 minutes to save money.

He says the church has fallen $40,000 to $70,000 short of its weekly budget in recent weeks. Sullivan says the church is adjusting its budget accordingly.

The Prophet Speaks

You can always count on George for sanity checks.

30 Day Sex Challenge

Church says: Take the 30 day sex challenge! - Tampa Bays Local News

Ybor City – Pastor Paul Wirth says at Relevant Church located at 1731 E. 7th Avenue they're not only talking about sex they're doling out homework. He's gearing up to issue a challenge to his congregation this Sunday. Married couples must have sex for 30 days. Single members have to abstain from sex for 30 days.

Viagra sales skyrocket!

Ann Coulter Must be Smiling

Romney Endorses Former Rival McCain | The Trail | washingtonpost.com

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney gave a big, wet kiss on Valentine's Day to his former rival, Sen. John McCain, endorsing him in Boston and calling him "a true American hero."

With McCain standing next to him, Romney said he was urging his 280 delegates to support the Arizona senator at the Republican convention in September.

At CPAC, or at least in the same hotel, Ann Coulter made a speech critical of McCain, pursuing her "my girl, Hillary" theme. Along the way she canonized Mitt Romney as the "true conservative", echoing Laura Ingraham's effulgent introduction for Romney's CPAC address the day before.

I wonder how the girls are feeling on Valentine's night, knowing the "true conservative" heartthrob has betrayed them with his endorsement of McCain, the Republican so loathsome even Hilary would be a better choice.

I felt so bad for Ann, knowing she'd invested so much in "my girl, Hillary", that I nearly overlooked one of her best lines, supporting a McCain:Romney ticket, "I led one impeachment, I can lead another."

Yeah. I bet Ann Coulter's smiling tonight.

It's the Delegates, Stupid

The horse race is at the far turn. . .

From the Incredibly Obvious Deaprtment

Catholics Who Attend Mass Are Divorced Less and Have More Children: USCCB Poll

WASHINGTON, D.C., February 12, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Last April the USCCB Subcommittee on Marriage and the Family Life commissioned a poll on marriage and family issues, to be conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. The final product, a poll of 1,008 self-identified Catholics, shows, as put by Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, the Chairman of the subcommittee, a "mixed picture." Amongst many other findings, the poll indicated that Catholics who attend Mass frequently are the least likely to get divorced and are more likely to have more children.

Sort of the whole point of the exercise, isn't it?

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Who Could Have Seen This Coming?

Livingston Parish Council refuses to repeal soothsaying ban

Livingston Parish Council refuses to repeal soothsaying ban

Associated Press Reporting
A proposal to repeal the Livingston Parish ordinance outlawing soothsaying died in silence last night before the Parish Council.

The council ignored the recommendation of its attorney, Blayne Honeycutt, who had advised council members to repeal the ordinance in the face of a Wiccan minister's federal lawsuit, which Honeycutt said the parish probably will lose.

A Wiccan woman asked the council to repeal the ordinance, which she said makes unlawful a practice of a recognized religion.

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I've Been Wondering Where to Find This

And now, thanks to the christoconservatives at the Alliance Defense Fund, we can lay hands on a copy of the often-cited-never-before-seen Homosexual Agenda.



I just wonder where these jesusboys got their copy? Ted Haggard? Larry Craig?

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WiFi @ Starbucks - It's Free, Only a Dollar

Starbucks: Forget T-Mobile, get (free) WiFi with AT&T

Free my ass. Discounted? Maybe, but somebody's paying for this loband access, overpriced calories and lame tunage:

AT&T says that, beginning this spring, anyone who uses a Starbucks Card (a prepaid gift card, like one you would give to a friend) will be able to get up to two hours of free WiFi service per day at any Starbucks location with WiFi service. Better yet, if you're an AT&T broadband or U-verse subscriber, you'll be able to use unlimited WiFi at Starbucks for free.

So if someone else buys it (Starbucks Card) or if you've already bought it (AT&T broadband) it's "free."

Yeah. I had a "free" lay once, but after the penicillin shots. . .not so much.

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The Increasing Irrelevancy of the Recording Industry

Grammys a Ho-Hum Affair for TV Viewers
I'll do the full disclosure here - studio music as delivered by radio reached its qualitative peak in 1978. The industry had declined since then, a spectacular dissolution into self-referential chaos. And now, at last, when uber-geek and musical illiterate Steve Jobs effectively owns the recording industry, even its award show has fallen to a depth merely indicative of its essentially meaningless place in culture.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Amy Winehouse, Herbie Hancock and Kanye West didn't provide quite enough drama to enthrall television viewers. Preliminary estimates indicate the Grammy Awards telecast was watched by 17.5 million people.

Nielsen Media Research said Monday that would make it the third least- watched Grammy Awards ever if later estimates confirm those numbers.

And this during the 14th week of the writer's strike, when the only new content broadcast was this pallid corpse.

Fueled by dwindling but still significant profits, corporate tunage will continue a few years yet, but it's Cheyne-Stokes respirations at best. Available cultural channels, reimagined along digital domains, have multiplied and as yet cannot be controlled by central agencies. And as long as that remains the case, the music will be free.

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Quote of the Day

On This Week with George Stephanopoulos, disgraced former House Speaker Tom Delay gave an example of why electing exterminators from Texas raises the quality of political discourse, in a sort of Lil Abner way:

It is attitude and, and understanding that in order to put together a winning coalition, you’ve got to have a winning coalition. You can’t just have certain groups. What’s happening in the Republican party right now is they’re trying to find ourselves.

The Increasing Irrelevancy of the Radical Right, Part 3

The Republican Reformation - New York Times

The failure of conservative voters to fall in line behind Mr. Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity, among others, reflects a deeper problem for the movement’s leadership. With their inflexibility, grudge-holding and eagerness to evict heretics rather than seek converts, too many of conservatism’s leaders sound like the custodians of a dwindling religious denomination or a politically correct English department at a fading liberal-arts college.

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Never Can Say Goodbye

Romney Wins Conservatives’ Straw Poll, After Dropping Out of Race

Ballots for the straw poll conducted at the Conservative Political Action Conference were collected Thursday morning through Friday afternoon. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, quit the race in a midday speech to the conference on Thursday.

In the straw poll vote, Romney got 35 percent and McCain 34 percent. Mike Huckabee and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas tied with 12 percent.

Romney won the straw poll at the conference last year.

It's not surprising that the straw poll went to Romney - it is, after all, a great chance to make an anti_McCain gesture. But here's some news that should worry Gov. Huckabee:

On another question, two-thirds said they would vote for McCain if he’s the eventual nominee, two in 10 said they would vote for someone else and about one in 10 said they would not vote.

At the starting gate, 2/3's of Huckabee's natural constituency has defected while another tenth will sit this one out. Doesn't leave much for the man who's trying for the "true conservative" mantle.

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McCain Uses Naughty Language, Says Romney

The Associated Press: Romney Offers Democrats McCain Playbook

"Choosing to ignore substance and relevant issues, the McCain way has always been to attack opponents in a personal manner," read a Jan. 5 e-mail from Romney press secretary Kevin Madden. "Defending his amnesty bill, Senator McCain lost his temper and screamed, 'Fk You!' at Texas Sen. John Cornyn."

Dick Cheney nods in sympathy.

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This Can't Be Good

New details emerge in NRCC scandal

. . . at a recent meeting, the now former [National Republican Congressional Committee] treasurer, Christopher J. Ward, relented, giving [Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas)] what was supposed to be an official internal audit from 2006. That document was a fake, the GOP members said. Even the letterhead on which it was sent was a forgery.

Revelations about the falsified document touched off an unfolding scandal that has rocked the NRCC and spurred a criminal investigation by the FBI into the committee’s accounting procedures.

During an election year it's not considered good strategy to do the other side's oppo research for them.

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Pretty Good Privacy, Indeed

Encrypted Laptop Poses Legal Dilemma

Maybe some of the civil liberty erosion we've endured under the Bush administration is slowing down. Here's a case that will pit personal privacy against government intrusion in a way fundamental to digital life:

When Sebastien Boucher stopped at the U.S.-Canadian border, agents who inspected his laptop said they found files containing child pornography.

But when they tried to examine the images after his arrest, authorities were stymied by a password-protected encryption program.

Now Boucher is caught in a cyber-age quandary: The government wants him to give up the password, but doing so could violate his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination by revealing the contents of the files

Mr. Boucher uses a program called Pretty Good Privacy, encryption software that has a history of pissing off governments. Creator Philip Zimmerman ran afoul of panicky feds in the early '90's. They realized his encryption scheme was virtually unbeatable, and in a legal stretch that still astounds, defined PGP as a weapon, making it illegal to export, or, in this case, release to the Internet.

Philip R. Zimmermann is the creator of Pretty Good Privacy, an email encryption software package. Originally designed as a human rights tool, PGP was published for free on the Internet in 1991. This made Zimmermann the target of a three-year criminal investigation, because the government held that US export restrictions for cryptographic software were violated when PGP spread worldwide. Despite the lack of funding, the lack of any paid staff, the lack of a company to stand behind it, and despite government persecution, PGP nonetheless became the most widely used email encryption software in the world.

The idea that surrendering a password involves 5th amendment privilege is fascinating and a court decision regarding the issue is well overdue. This case bears watching.

PS: For a very solid on-the-fly and free encryption tool, I recommend True Crypt. It takes privacy to a new level. Without the password, files on a True Crypt drive can't even be seen, let alone examined. It's called "plausible deniability", and it's not just for Presidents anymore.

UPDATE (2/10/08): From the TSA Blog:

TSA does not and will not confiscate laptops or other electronic devices at our checkpoints. Our officers’ are solely focused on the safety of the traveling public and are looking for explosives and other prohibited items. Should one of our officers find something suspicious, we will immediately contact local law enforcement and potentially the local bomb squad. We will not ask for any password, access to any files or take the laptop from you for longer than it takes to determine if it contains a threat.

Should anyone at a TSA checkpoint attempt to confiscate your laptop or gain your passwords or other information, please ask to see a supervisor or screening manager immediately.

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The Increasing Irrelevance of the Radical Right, Part 2

Dobson Endorses Huckabee - Politics - CBN News

Focus on the Family founder James Dobson officially endorsed the Southern Baptist minister Mike Huckabee in his GOP presidential bid Thursday night.

The endorsement doesn't appear to be too late, either, especially with Mitt Romney dropping out of the picture earlier Thursday.

"Doesn't appear to be too late?" Is there anyone at CBN with a calculator? As the AP reported it after Super Tuesday:

Overall, McCain led with 707 delegates, to 294 for Romney and 195 for Huckabee. It takes 1,191 to win the nomination at this summer's convention in St. Paul, Minn.

I've thought for some time Dr. Dobson's influence had crested. By now backing a certain loser, he may have just squandered the last bit of political capital he had left.

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Ann Coulter's Career Trajectory

OK, now that Ann has to make good on her Clinton-over-McCain claim, I can't help but fear for her mental state.

Dang, but doesn't she look good in white?

McCain Mutiny Succeeds

Say goodnight, Mitt.

And We Think Britney's the Crazy One

The Corner on National Review Online

Dig this:

It Needs to Be Said [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

This McCain speech would not have been given today, if it weren't for folks like Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, Andy McCarthy, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham. Can I thank them on behalf of America?

Umm, no, Kathryn, you can't. This minor revision makes it all ok, though:

It Needs to Be Said [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

This Romney speech would not have been given today, if it weren't for folks like Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, Andy McCarthy, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham. Can I thank them on behalf of America?

(h/t Sully)

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The Increasing Irrelevance of the Radical Right

From the Right, Both Acceptance and Distrust of McCain
Sen. John McCain makes an appearance at CPAC today. Last year, he faced a hostile crowd that booed his talk. This year he's Sen. John McCain, Republican candidate for President. And there's a bloc within the Republican party uncomfortable with that.

Rush Limbaugh declared that a McCain triumph would "destroy the party." James Dobson, leader of Focus on the Family, said that he will not vote for McCain under any circumstances. Ann Coulter allowed as to how she would rather vote for Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton than for McCain.

Former and current Republican congressional colleagues joined in the attacks. Former House speaker J. Dennis Hastert cited what he termed McCain's lack of party loyalty by labeling him an "undependable vote," and Sen. Thad Cochran (Miss.) raised questions about his temperament for the Oval Office.

It's looking more and more like the radical right is feeling its influence fade away. The presidential picks favored by Rush Limbaugh were panned by actual voters. No one has kissed James Dobson's ring, and even now, Mitt Romney has dropped out of the race.

I think Phil Gramm has it right:

The incoming conservative fire against McCain has become a distraction, Gramm acknowledges. "Some people, in their own minds, think they have exerted a strong influence over the party, and now they are seeing that influence passing," he said. "There's some bitterness on their part. They're people who put their dogma in front of the interests of the country. . . . They don't like it that McCain is McCain."

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mixx truly suxx

Login - Mixx
OK, here's the thing. This lameass site boasts openID access, yet my Verisign credential is never recognized, even after I let mixx query verisign for me.

Even if I was logged in, all I can find are front page links so poorly maintained that "news" is always 18 hours behind the MSM links they point to.

mixx tries to hybrid digg and cnn - it sucks at both. -5 stars from me for a site that seems to have a detailed vision with no concept of reality - much like teenage masturbation.

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Pat Robertson Sucks Hypocrite Dick

I loathe the self-serving hypocrisy of millionaire evangelists, Pat Robertson in particular.

On CNN Tuesday, Robertson recalled McCain's 2000 comments:

"I had spent years and lots of money getting him and his buddies and his chairman on various Senate committees. And then to have him come down to my city and make a statement like that, it was outrageous."

Yeah, sure, Pat. Not precisely biblical, though, is it?

Revelation 21:22-23
22 I saw no Temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its Temple.
23 And the City has no need of the Sun or of the Moon to shine on it, for the Glory of God has illumined it, and its Lamp is the Lamb.

Doesn't leave much room for CBN or 1,000 pound leg presses, huh?

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Another Martyr for Dollars

B.C. Teacher Kempling May Lose Teaching License for Defending Christian Beliefs
I don't much care what folk believe and practice in the privacy of their own consciences or churches. As an atheist, all religions look pretty silly to me, Christianity no more than any of the thousands of other irrational belief systems humans seem to enjoy.

This teacher, Chris Kempling, is an example of the sort of public exposition of superstition that deserves reflexive ridicule, just to keep the biblical virtue of humility healthy and influential. When this private belief evolves into a mission to dehumanize and publically identify others as sinners deserving of eternal pain and suffering, a threshold of taste has been crossed.

But more serious, for me at least, is this tidbit:

for offering orientation change therapy as part of my private counselling practice and mentioning this in a radio interview,

So this sanctimonious asshat is complaining that his academic career is threatened for offering completely bogus and potentially dangerous "therapy" and then advertising it on mass media. So he's a rude malpractitioner - the last dregs of sympathy I may have harbored for this mildly pathetic little guy just evaporated. He is not, in my view, fit to hold any teaching position. Why expose students to his brand of applied superstition?

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Another Sign of the Impending Apocalypse

From the Lawrence Welk Show: