CONDI RICE CRAPS OUT

Meanwhile, as Her Maj cleans ups with her winning soap raffle, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice gets the thumbs down from Il Papa. Seems our woman in DC asked for an audience with Pope Benedict (Latin Mass) XVI about Middle East foreign policy. However, His Holiness was taking a vacation at the Residenza Papale at Castel Gandolfo. The Vatican has been at odds with the Bush Administration over America's foreign policy by condemning the violence in the Middle East.

The official word from the Holy See was that the Pope never sees diplomatic officials during his vacation. Condi won the booby prize of speaking to the Vatican's number two official, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

Now, it should have been obvious to Ms. Rice that the Pope was en vacances, and did not want to be disturbed. But just like her boss, George Bush, Condi had to be a pushy American about the situation. The rebuff from the Vatican should be taken as a very strong hint, not only about m-a-n-n-e-r-s but also p-o-l-i-c-y. You have to spell it out for the Bushites.

Of course, Condi did not take the heave-ho from the His Holiness as a message (from God? from the Acme Sign Company?). She got a cold shoulder from the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, with both refusing to speak directly to each other at a United Nations shindig about a small incident involving private American military contractors killing eight Iraqi citizens. One would think, by now, Ms. Rice would have a clue that she is not representative of America's best interests. A graceful bow to the world stage would be the best career move for the current Secretary of State.


Technorati Tags:condoleeza rice,pope benedict XVI

HER MAJESTY HITS THE JACKPOT

Let it be known that Her Royal Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
has won two bars of soap and bath oil,worth $20,
in the

Fox Hill Primary School raffle.

She also, according to news reports, has a rubber ducky with a crown that she floats in the bath.

Stay sweet, your Maj.

Technorati Tags:Queen Elizabeth II

LOCK UP YOUR (YOUNG) SONS AND DAUGHTERS

Lordy, those Republican perverts keep my fingers busy...on the keyboard. The latest scandal is that John David R. Atchison, an associate attorney from the United States Justice Department, has been caught travelling to Detroit to solicit from a police officer posing as the mom who offered her five-year-old daughter for sex.

Yeepers... these are the guys who are supposed to keep children safe. With a nod toward traditional values, Atchison called himself "a family man" in the e-mails sent to the detective. The perp attorney was also the head of a sports organization in Florida. One worries about the children he coached. Especially when he arrives at the rendezvous with a doll and hoop earrings for the purported girl, and sexual materials such as petroleum jelly. Is this the type of person Alberto R. Gonzales hired after the prosecutor firings? Gack ...the sooner the whole sorry lot of the Bush administration is keel hauled out of the White House the better.

Technorati Tags: John David R. Atchison

SALUTE TO THE BRAVE / PRAY

Many of the rescue workers for Crandall County Mine are still in recovery. Please pause a moment to acknowledge their sacrifice.

Technorati Tags: Crandall County Mine

Please?

While RadioCanada does not advocate violence toward anyone, we cannot help but note the recent threats of Muslim terrorists against Madonna and Britney Spears. Muslim terrorists have threatened to execute the aforementioned faded pop stars because they tempt men to wickedness.

Hokay... obviously they have not seen the photos of a bald Britney Spears. Or seen stories about her failed comeback on MTV? I saw a Madonna video about a year ago and my first thought was that cellulite happens to the best of us. You could see the pock marks on the Material Girl's thighs. This is why the term "washed up" exists. If Muslim terrorists are serious about offing randy pop stars, can't they keep a little more current with their celebrities? Please. The tabloid stories about the two don't even,um,tittilate anymore.

Muslims who decry those like Spears and Madonna or Paris Hilton need only wait until the starlets trip over their own egos. Spears and Madonna are not indicative of sexual immorality but of intellectual sloth on the part of Western culture. Tabloids exist because people would rather not think about issues that are of importance. Like world poverty or a failed war in Iraq that creates destitution for thousands.
Technorati Tags: Britney Spears,Madonna

PRAY: THE END

The search is over for the Crandall Canyon miners. The owner of the mine plans to seal the mine to further mining.

The resident in chief, George W. Bush and Laura Bush have offered their condolences to the miners' families. Crocodile tears. What is needed, and it won't happen under a Republican government, is a complete ban on retreat mining. Retreat mining consists of pulling down coal pillars behind the miners to dig out the last shard of coal off the supports. Without this reform, coal mining will continue to be a dangerous --- and deadly --- occupation.

UPDATE: According to news reports, Utah American Energy, Inc. was operating the mining at the Crandell County Mine illegally, since they did not inform the Bureau of Land Management about the mine activities. Furthermore, UAE did not inform the Mine Safety and Health Administration about previous mountain collapses at the mine.

Technorati Tags: Crandall County Mine

PRAY UPDATE

There will be no more holes drilled in the Crandall Canyon Mine. With the sixth hole showing no sign of life, or the oxygen levels to sustain life, this is the last attempt and papers have been filed to permanently seal the mine.

Meanwhile, seven people died in a coal mine gas explosion in Northern China. This too, like the Crandall mine, was in a marginal dig that should not have been excavated.

181 people are still waiting for rescue,after a week, in a flooded mine in eastern China.


My religious preferences tend toward the agnostic, but I think it is appropriate to send out, in some shape or form to whatever god/desses exist , an angry wish for vengeance on the greedy bastards who run these mines and kill off workers like old rust parts. And send sorrow and hope for the families in their grief.

Technorati Tags: Crandall County Mine

CHEERS FOR THE GRIM REAPER

John Couey, the killer who raped and buried alive 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford in 2005, has received the death penalty. He will die by lethal injection.

I suppose, if you have read my posts on this blog before, you might think I am a bleeding heart liberal. Ordinarily, I would have my doubts about the effectiveness of the death penalty and not advise that it continue. In this case, where the perp raped the girl and then buried her alive until she suffocated in the grave, I think there has to be justice. Sometimes, evil cannot be rid of without final measures like the death penalty. I see in such a case as the Lunsford murder, the perp is no longer human when he killed an innocent child in such a horrible manner. He does not deserve any sympathy as a human since he did not act in a human(e) manner to a child.

Technorati Tags: Jessica Lunsford,death penalty

PRAY

In the event of something happening to me,
there is something I would like you all to see.
It's just a photograph of someone that I knew...

New York Mining Disaster 1941
The BeeGees


Three mine rescue workers, at the Crandall Canyon Mine in Utah, died in a cave-in. Six rescue workers were injured. There is no word about the six men who have been trapped in the mine for nine days.

The mine company, Murray Energy Corporation, according to news reports, was running a
marginal operation where, to eck out the last scab of coal, they used a dangerous mining practice known as "retreat mining". This type of mining is dangerous because the workers use coal as shaft props and remove these supports through mining of the coal pillars as they retreat out of the mine. Despite these concerns, the Mine Safety and Health Administration signed off on the Crandall Canyon mine's safety.

In another mining story, three construction workers were killed at an Indiana coal mine on August 10

Technorati Tags: Crandall County Mine

In the event of something happening to me,
there is something I would like you all to see.
It's just a photograph of someone that I knew...

New York Mining Disaster 1941
The BeeGees


Three mine rescue workers, at the Crandall Canyon Mine in Utah, died in a cave-in. There is no word about the six men who have been trapped in the mine for nine days.

Technorati Tags: mining

WHOOPS, I SPOKE TOO SOON

Well, I said I wouldn't do it,but this is too delicious. Deborah Jeane Palfrey's 'phone records are on-line. Have fun.

Technorati Tags: deborah jeane palfrey

Hokay...so sometimes blogs bring out the most, um, interesting characters. And fascinating references. Stuff I would never know otherwise. But it is nice,I guess, to know that your readers respond. Just a little background on the Noel Pemberton-Billing case.

LOCK UP YOUR DAUGHTERS AND SONS UPDATE

More charges have been set against Kevin Alfred Strom. The white supremacist is now indicted for trying to sexually coerce one or more young girls. Mr. Strom has a June 20 jury trial in federal court.

Technorati Tags: kevin alfred strom ,ku klux klan,white supremacist movement

THE NRA CAN'T HEAR YOU WHEN YOU SCREAM PART II

A woman and three children were found shot to death in a van outside of Chicago. A man is in custody.

Meanwhile, in an update to the Delavan Wisconsin story, the police have ruled the shootings as a murder suicide. Ambrosio Analco killed himself and five other people including his twin sons. He wounded his one-year-old daughter who is still in critical condition.

Technorati Tags: guns

THE NRA CAN'T HEAR YOU WHEN YOU SCREAM

Six people were shot to death in a Delavan,Wisconsin home. Four adults, and twin baby boys. The survivor is a one-year-old girl who was shot in the chest and is in critical condition.
Technorati Tags: guns

GIGGLE, GIGGLE...NO DICE UPDATE JUNE 11,2007

"God does not play dice with the universe."

-- Albert Einstein

As I reported earlier, there is a creation science museum in Petersburg, Kentucky. Their Adam is in trouble. The creationist museum had a video with the Biblical portrayal of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Unfortunately the actor, Eric Linden, who portrayed Adam was the owner of a pornographic website called Bedroom Acrobat and is current a model for a website that sells t-shirts with explicit messages. The creation museum, very red-faced, pulled the video. God should do better background checks.

Technorati Tags:creationism,evolution,religious right

GODDESS BLESS CONGRATULATIONS HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Hurrah for the British Columbian Anglicans! They recently approved same-sex church blessings. I've always had a soft spot
in my Humanist /Pagan/Whatever heart for Anglicans ever since they ordained a gay bishop, the Right Reverend V. Gene Robinson (who is celebrating his own marriage in the middle of 2008),and ordained a female bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori. God does not discriminate. Congratulations to Rev.Gene Robinson and his partner, Mark Andrews.

Congratulations also to Mary Cheney and her partner Heather Poe for little Samuel David Cheney born on May 23, 2007. The bundle of lesbian joy was 8 pounds, 6 ounces. The Religious Right is having a hissy fit about the birth with the accusation that the parents are sinful but Mary Cheney is no Karla Homolka, the serial killer, who had a baby boy too. Leave the Cheney-Poes alone with their kid. Let them muddle, like all new parents muddle, through the sleepless nights, disappointments and joys without the religious guilt trip.

Technorati Tags:gene robinson,mary cheney,religious right

GONE TO GLORY UPDATE

Mark D. Uhl appeared in federal court with the charges of having illegal explosives. The Liberty University student planned to use the bombs against the Westboro Baptist Church when they protested at the funeral of televangelist Jerry Falwell.

Technorati Tags:jerry falwell,religious right,westboro baptist church

LOCK UP YOUR DAUGHTERS AND SONS UPDATE 05/30/07

Kevin Alfred Strom, 50, is set to go on trial in U.S District Court in Charlottesville, North Carolina next month for charges that he possessed child pornography, enticed a 9-year-old girl for sex, and then repeatedly stalked and harassed the child.

As I previously reported, Strom is also charged with using the Internet for the purpose of obtaining sex from a ten-year-old girl. and witness tampering due to physical and mental intimidation of a witness.

This just in, 05/30/07: More evidence against Kevin Strom has been found on a computer hard drive. Prosecutors are asking for more time to prepare for the trial.

Technorati Tags: kevin alfred strom ,ku klux klan,white supremacist movement

WHERE IT HURTS

Another Fort Lewis soldier was killed in Iraq this month, bringing the total of sixteen soldiers from the Tacoma fort killed this month. Spc. Matthew P. LaForest of Austin, Texas died during small arms enemy fire in Taji, Iraq. He was a soldier in C Company, 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry, 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division --- a Stryker combat team.

So far this month, there have been 104 American casualties, 3 United Kingdom, and 3 of other countries.

But it never hurts as much as when it is this close to home.

Technorati Tags: iraq,washington state

IN MEMORIAM

Norm Maleng on May 24, 2007 at age 68.

King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng was one of the last of fading species. He was a Republican but he was fair and even-handed in his application of the law. As a Washingtonian who was raised on a Whatcom county dairy farm, Norm Maleng served his state with honesty and integrity. He headed the first state task force to create a sex offender law, created a special unit in the prosecutor's office to address the needs of those affected by domestic violence and child abuse, worked towards sentence reform, anti-drug legislation, and laws dealing with runaway youths.

Major cases under his astute overview were the Wah Mee murders where 13 victims were massacred for gambling money, the Green River Killer Gary Ridgeway (NOTE: Do not read this if you a sensitive person or subject to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder --- these articles are very graphic), and the Goldmark slayings where right-wing and Christian Identity extremist David Rice murdered a civil-rights attorney and his family.

Norm Maleng will be sorely missed in Washington.


Technorati Tags: norm maleng,washington state

SEND IN THE PERPS

Ted Klaudt, a former GOP legislator in South Dakota, has been charged with eight counts of second-degree rape, one count of sexual contact with a child younger than sixteen,two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, two counts of witness tampering for saying to one of his victims that he would send her to juvenile detention if she did not recant the rape accusations, and one count of stalking.

Klaudt molested his victims by saying that the girls could make $20,000 as egg donors and that he was ascertaining their eligibility by sexually abusing them with fondling and using speculums to invade their bodies.

Ted Klaudt was an anti-abortion, anti- gay Republican who promoted legislation to toughen laws against sex offenders. Several of Klaudt's victims were his foster children.

Now, is it me or are there more sexual perverts on the political right than on the political left? Let's take a walk down (recent) memory lane: Mark Foley, the Republican senator from Florida, who harassed underage aides with sexual explicit e-mails,Craig Schelske a former candidate for Congress whose marriage ended among allegations of adultery and exposing his children to pornography,Cary Lee Cramer who molested a little girl that he used in an anti-John Kerry ad,Phil Giordano former Mayor of Waterbury Connecticut sentenced to 37 years for child sexual abuse...if I missed anyone it is not through lack of material.

Technorati Tags: child abuse,republicans

HANG 'EM HIGH

The Louisiana Supreme Court has upheld the death penalty for child rape. The case in question is that of Patrick Kennedy, 42, who raped an 8-year-old relative as the girl sorted Girl Scout cookies in the basement of her New Orleans home. Kennedy later bragged about the rape to an acquaintance, saying that the innocent girl had "become a lady today".
The case now goes to the national Supreme Court.

I think it is appropriate for this perpetrator to get the death penalty. Rape is a lifelong devastation to the child victim. The death penalty for rape is the only acceptable closure for this malicious deed. None of this weeny New Age schlock about "forgiving the evildoer in one's heart so I can get on with my life" or, horrors of horrors, reconciliation with the perp and forgiveness. The death penalty is a very straightforward action and consequences discipline for the wrongdoing. Like many people, I've become tired of the pop psych nonsense promoted by far-left liberals. I am a rational moderate who abhors the touchy-feely fluff and emotionalistic idiocy that characterizes edge of the spectrum lefties. Sexual offenders usually aren't salvageable as human beings and one less rapist to worry about will make the world a better place.

Technorati Tags: child abuse,death penalty

YOU DID IT YOURSELF

A Galveston man was arrested for burning his baby in a motel microwave. Joshua Mauldin is charged with felony child injury for harming his two-month-old daughter by punching her in the groin, placing her in a refrigerator, then a safe, and then setting her in the microwave. His wife, Eva Marie Mauldin, has blamed Satan, citing the Devil's desire to thwart her husband's ambitions to be a Christian minister for the man's abuse of the baby.

Eva Marie Mauldin

Mrs. Mauldin has set up a web site on MySpace (ew...) to defend her husband.* Texas child protection officials plan to sever the parents' custody.

I think that "the Devil made me do it". is a lousy excuse. Satan doesn't exist. If the two-month-old were my child and someone had injured her, I'd be first in line to deball the perp. It is obvious that Christianity has given licence for the most horrible of crimes against children and yet the religion still continues to flourish. There is something pathologically wrong with a society that allows this injurious mythology to continue at the expense of innocent lives. It is a religion that does not promote personal responsibility and accountability.The Texas child protection services should cut parents' rights without any other consideration.

*NOTE: I went to MySpace (reporters do the dirty work so you don't have to, eecchh...) and searched for the Joshua Maudlin site but only found the wife's personal site, not the site to defend her husband.


Technorati Tags:child abuse,religious right,satan

GONE TO GLORY

"Kill them all. God will know his own"

Arnaud Amaury,Abbot of Cîteaux

The Reverend Jerry Falwell was buried today in Lynchburg,Virgina. It was a to-do that the White House ignored and that sparked more controversy after his death.

Despite the large turnout of 10,000 people at the Thomas Road Baptist Church, the White House sent only a mid-level aide to the funeral. I guess that is the Bush administration's opinion of its evangelical supporters.

The funeral goers faced the heckles of only a half-dozen Westboro Baptist Church members who considered Falwell soft on gay issues. Obvious in the poor turnout for the protest, the Westborians couldn't gather enough evidence that a fundie minister was going to hell. Virginia police roped off an area for the protesters and Christian bikers blocked the Westborians from funeral view.

In an exciting note, a Liberty University student planned to napalm the Westborians during their protest of the Falwell funeral. Mark D. Uhl, a 19-year-old student at LU had multiple gas and detergent bombs in his car that he planned to use on those who would disrupt the services for Falwell. Law enforcement officers are seeking three other suspects.

Technorati Tags:jerry falwell,religious right,westboro baptist church

GONER

Paul Wolfowitz will leave his post from the World Bank following charges that he engaged in nepotism to favour his companion, Shaha Riza.


Technorati Tags: paul wolfowitz, shaha riza, world bank

NO DICE

"God does not play dice with the universe."

-- Albert Einstein

In Petersburg, Kentucky evangelical Christians are prepared to open a creation science history centre, the Answers in Genesis Creation Museum. No self-respecting Muse would find herself in such a place, especially Clio. The girlfriend, Muse of history and poetry, liked to hang with Herodotus the father of history and Anna Comnena the first woman historian. The Greeks, with their inquiry into knowledge, would be appalled that this sham could be called a museum. Certainly, this gnat of a religious centre, could never make the revered claims of being of intellectual descent from the first museum, the Library at Alexandria established by Ptolemy I Soter (Savior). There is not the spirit of scientific quest or honesty that characterizes a good museum in the Answers in Genesis theme park. It is a waste of 27 million dollars to create a theme park that has no basis in facts and that supports an outdated and dangerous belief system.

Creationists, being the muddleheads that they are, believe that the world is 6,000 years old. In geographic dating of rocks, the nearest estimate is 4.54 billion years old. They think that the Grand Canyon was created with a flood such as that in the Bible, or in the Christian's borrowed theology from the stories of Ziusudra,Xisuthros,Atrahasis and Utnapishtim. In reality, slow erosion from wind, rain, and the Colorado River (what is left of this waterway with pollution, drought, and overuse) form the Grand Canyon.

In the biological sciences, the evangelicals do not fare much better. The Answers in Creation Science centre displays dinosaurs coexisting with humans but the dinosaurs, with the exception of their evolved descendants the birds, died out 65 million years ago. The centre also portrays Tyrannosaurus rex as a vegetarian although he was one of the nastiest meat-eaters around at the time. Anthropological evidence of humans show our species to be only 3 million years young (Note: George W. Bush no doubt considers Queen Elizabeth II of the same era...).

This evangelical ignorance of the sciences not only lacks factual basis but endangers human life. By promoting creationism the evangelicals disregard that, for example, bats and humans have a common ancestor. It is very critical to public health to have only evolution taught in schools because with a common ancestor, as mammals, bats are vectors for human diseases through rabies, Ebola, Marburg, Nipah and Hendra and SARS viruses. Creationists imperil human lives with their superstition and stubborn idiocy.

Hopefully, the Answer in Genesis Creation Museum will close its doors soon after its opening. Human life depends on science like evolution being taught to the public, not the charlatan trickery of creationism.

Technorati Tags:creationism ,evolution,religious right

GONE UPDATED 5/19/2007

The Reverend Jerry Falwell at age 73 died of heart complications in his office at Liberty University.

Now, let's me see, some of the Religious Right's leaders are becoming awfully old. Pat Robertson is 77, James Dobson is 71, and Phyllis Schlafly is 83. Beverly LaHaye is 78 and her husband Tim is 81.

Not that they will be missed, mind you. These deaths will not be a tragedy because they have set back the course of American progress in science, literature, medicine, and technology with their ignorant, uneducated, and superstitious view of the world. Instead of promoting research and development in the fight against AIDS and cervical cancer as well as in the general realms of medicine, they have promulgated scientifically incompetent abstinence programs for teen age sex education, discouraged fact based solutions against the transmission of AIDS on the basis of their hatred for gay people, and thwarted future careers of children who would be doctors with introduction of the false science of intelligent design in schools. These are people who don't understand that even cats get a form of AIDS . Preventing the virus should not be a matter of biblical morality, but of the most effective way of stopping transmission.Evangelicals also do not understand sex is not the only way the human papillomavirus infection (HPV) that causes cervical canver can be transmitted.

Furthermore, the religious right grudge against the teaching of evolution imperils scientific research in the fight against fatal diseases. It is relevant, for example, that bats are related to humans through a distant and common ancestor. Bats, as mammals, can not only transmit diseases like rabies to humans but very lethal diseases like Ebola, Marburg virus and SARS. There is nothing wrong with evolution in schools because teaching this science is a matter of human life and death.

The leaders of the religious right will not be regretted when they pass on. The world will be a better place without their outdated and harmful beliefs.

UPDATED 5/19/2007 Okay, this is cute. The Westboro Baptist Church, home of those ultra-fundies the Phelps, has decided to picket the funeral of the late Jerry Falwell because the Phelps think that he was too tolerant. This is the guy who blamed 9/11 on gay people, feminists, Pagans, et alius.

If that isn't enough fun check out the amateur video that the Westborians have created. The production values of "God Hates the World" suck wind but what can one expect from hard-core Xians? Not MTV quality fer sure.Near the end of the video, they wave a Canadian flag upside down. Does that have the same symbolism as an upside down pentacle with a goat's head? Or was someone not watching where they put the flag this morning? For a moment, I thought that the video was a joke but the Westborians are serious in their copyright infringement of "We Are the World."

Technorati Tags:abstinence , aids,hpv,jerry falwell,religious right,westboro baptist church

A BURDEN NO CHILD SHOULD CARRY

A four-year-old child killed his father in Vallejo, California. Brian Sparks was on disability leave when his son shot him. The child, due to his minority, is not identified.

No child should have to bear this burden for the rest of his life. This is why guns and children should never be in the same house.

Technorati Tags:guns

HISTORICAL PRECEDENT

It seems that most ambitious rulers of the male persuasion are felled with the same flaw. To be precise,if you have a penis then you are screwed.



Recently, presidential hopeful Tommy Thompson pleaded his little man in an embarrassing response to a question about gay rights.

The question was if an employer had the right to fire a gay person because the employer considered homosexuality to be immoral. Mr. Thompson answered, "I think that is left up to the individual business. I really sincerely believe that that is an issue that business people have got to make their own determination as to whether or not they should be." That is a clear and cogent answer but Thompson backtracked on his response after protests by saying that he was lost hearing in one ear and his hearing aid went dead in the other. So, how did he hear the question initially? When this answer did not suffice, Thompson explained that he had the flu and bronchitis and not only was he deaf but he had an urgent need to go to the bathroom.

While we have all had moments when nature's call has caused hasty exits at the most awkward of times, having reliance on one's plenipotentiary instrument can get you in trouble.

A case in point is that of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus also known as Caracalla for the hooded cloak that he wore. Caracalla was born Lucius Septimius Bassianus. His parents, Emperor Septimius Severus and Julia Domma renamed their son when he was seven to gain support from the powerful Emperor and philosopher Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus. The Severus' had two sons, the youngest Publius Septimius Geta who was at heart an administrator and Caracalla who was a soldier. The elder Severus progeny was ruthless to the point of attempting the assassination of his own father. When Septimius Severus died (of gout), the two brothers were co-regent until Caracalla murdered Geta and his followers. Caracalla ruled with a bloodthirsty administration. He killed his father-in-law Lucius Fulvius Plautianus, his wife Publia Fulvia Plautilla and their daughter, and thousands of others that stood in the way of total power.

However, after only five years of rule, Caracalla made a fateful error in judgment. On April 8, 217, he requested privacy from his bodyguards to urinate and was promptly assassinated by Julius Martialis, an officer in the imperial bodyguard. Martilalis, who was hunted down and killed, either was angry about not getting a post as a centurion or was upset about Caracalla executing Martilalis' brother. With either reason, the disgruntled bodyguard proved once again that men in power or those who seek power should take care how their privates affect their public life.

Technorati Tags:roman history,tommy thompson

NO TAKE YOUR GUN TO WORK DAY

The NRA is trying to push legislation that allows employees the right to keep guns in their cars during the work day. This is not a good idea. Recently a construction worker,James Forrest Mobley, responded to taunts from fellow workers by taking a 40 caliber Glock that he had in his lunch box and murdering Grady Boseman and Rolando Matta before he committed suicide.
(UPDATED 10:20 PM 05/12/07)
Technorati Tags:guns

WHY BUSH SUPPORTS HATE SPEECH

George Bush has threatened to veto hate speech legislation that would make it illegal to incite violence against people based on their gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability. One clue to this reluctance to protect disabled people is that Michigan Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land, a former co-chair of the state's 2004 has ties to the Michigan State University Young Americans for Freedom. NOTE: Yeah, their website production values suck, but what can you expect from a conservative organization?

The MSU-YAF is responsible for such puerile shenanigans as the racist "Catch An Immigrant" game where they offer $100 to MSU students for turning in illegal immigrants. Pshaw, that paltry sum won't buy textbooks. And of course these are white frat brats, Caucasians whose ancestors were not native to America's shores, who are offering the reward. If the MSU-YAF doesn't like immigrants, they can go back to where their ancestors originated.

Technorati Tags:disability rights,hate speech,religious right

GOING, GOING....

Tony Blair will resign on the twenty-eighth of June 2007. He will remain a member of Parliament until the next election. His colleague, Gordon Brown, is expected to win the Prime Minister role. Meanwhile the cash for honours investigation , where donors to the Blair's Labour Party sought access to the Prime Minister and tried to buy peerages,is still ongoing. Blair was not implicated in the scandal.
Technorati Tags: tony blair, cash for honours great britain

FAVOURITE THINGS

DJ Paul Edge has a great site with powerful videos about war, peace and justice. Take a look.

Technorati Tags:dj paul edge

LAUGHTER

Okay, so some days are better than others. I was looking at my SiteMeter account and I want to thank the person in Australia who googled "christian idiot". It cheered me after a week of blogging gun deaths and the all the tragic lives gone without sense.

It was my old blog on a fundie who had tried to ban the boy wizard (we all know who he is and there needs no mention of his name) and it made it to number 4 of 1,550,000 on Google. It gave me much needed guffaws of laughter after watching a PBS show on the horrors of the Inquisition.

Technorati Tags:christian idiot,inquisition

SHE DOESN'T LOOK A DAY OVER 82

Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II (Head of the Commonwealth, Lord High Admiral, Supreme Governor of the Church of England aka Defender of the Faith, Lord of Mann,Paramount Chief of Fiji,Duke of Lancaster and Duke of Normandy, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed forces of many of her Realms) recently visited the White House, and its Bimbo in Chief (aka George W. Bush). Grand Poobah George greeted her Maj with the suggestion that the queen had visited America in 1776, making her a sprightly 231 years old. Rumor has it that George Bush was drunk as a skunk when he greeted her Majesty. What the White House resident and frat boy extraordinaire had meant to say, after the Queen corrected him by saying sotto voce, "Wrong year", that her Highness had visited in 1976 for the bicentennial festivities. Later, Mrs. Bush made her own gaff, saying that she had attended a formal dinner given by President Bush senior in 1993. Bill Clinton was President from 1993 to 2001.

The dinner was meant to reciprocate for Her Majesty's hospitality that hosted the President in November 2003. During that visit, Bush's helicopters used the Royal Gardens as a helipad and destroyed many rare plants.The Bush communications staff also ruined many expensive furnishings with the high tech links that the Bush entourage fitted around the palace. The Bush administration did not reimburse the Royal family for the damage and the British government was forced to take up the tab.

Please feel free to stop by my Commonwealth British Columbia home any time, Your Majesty. I'll remember your correct age and serve tea. And we won't hurt the flowers.

Technorati Tags:Queen Elizabeth II

UPDATE:KANSAS CITY SHOOTINGS

David W. Logsdon had already killed a man in 1981 before he went on his murderous Kansas City rampage.

Logsdon killed Steven J. Foster in 1981, leaving two children without a father. Initially, Logsdon lied about the killing by saying that Foster had committed suicide with a gun but later Logsdon changed his story to say that he had a fistfight with Foster and that Logsdon acted in self-defence. There were no charges brought.

Technorati Tags:guns,kansas city,steven j. foster

AND SOME SMARTS

The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, H.R. 1592, has passed in the House. You can read my opinion of the legislation.

The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act is necessary because still in the American government there are hicks like Representative Ted Poe of Texas (but of course!) who quotes KKK founder Nathan Bedford Forrest to chastise Democrats about the war in Iraq. Nathan Bedford Forrest was a Confederate general who founded the KKK and who was guilty of war crimes during the Civil War.
Technorati Tags:disability rights,hate speech,nathan bedford forrest ,religious right ,ted poe

MORE STUPIDITY

This is becoming more stupid by the day. Police arrested a Fresno college student,Jonquel Brooks, a 19-year-old freshman and criminology major at California State University,for killing one man, Brant Daniels, 19 and wounding two others over a Sony Playstation game console. Jonquel Brooks was accused of stealing the Playstation when his roommates confronted him over the theft.

The Playstation is just a damn toy. I don't understand the frenzy that accompanies the latest release of a gaming device. This is the same silliness that used to attach itself to Nike shoes. One might as well go flush the money down the loo, considering the nonesense that proceeds a game machine announcement. A Playstation or Gameboy or whatever is certainly not worth killing or dying.

Technorati Tags:guns,playstation

AND THE BEAT GOES ON: UPDATED STORY

Two people were murdered in a shooting and the killer committed suicide in College Park, Orlando Florida. Timothy James Frechou, age 23, shot Alicia A. Arseneault, age 22, and her boyfriend Christopher Paul Levitt, age 29 before the killer returned home and shot himself.Mr. Levitt was a former resident of Leeds, Great Britain.

Alicia A. Arseneault was studying to be a nurse and was one of several woman in Florida who died through domestic violence.

New Hampshire: A student gunman wounded his roommate before killing himself. Keene State junior Michael Dyke wounded his roommate Jason Lillibridge before committing suicide with a rifle. Mr. Lillibridge is expected to make a full recovery.

NOTE: This is just a sample of what I have read today. There have been numerous shootings around America today: drivebys, and people who get in fights and take to guns.

Technorati Tags:guns,domestic violence

YOUR (LAST) DAILY DEBBIE

The interview with Ms. Debbie turned out to be a bust for ABC News. There were no big names for Brian Ross to out and there was also tragedy in the show. One of those named in the court filings had hanged herself because she was about to go on trial for prostitution, irrespective of what was in Palfrey's telephone records. Furthermore, Mr. Ross exercised humane judgment by not naming a naval academy instructor who worked for Palfrey and who, under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, would have faced court martial.

However, the commentary that I have made about the religious right and their ignoring the indiscretions of their own sect still are valid. If someone like Randall Tobias is on a call-girl telephone list (and one would have to be naive to think that some of those women did not go beyond just massage), and he is promoting chastity and fidelity with the approval of evangelicals, then there is something hypocritical about the Religious Right.

Technorati Tags: brian ross ,deborah jeane palfrey,religious right

PROGRAMME NOTE

Hi, you may have noticed the funky spelling on my blogs. No, I'm not illiterate. I am using Canadian English for my blogs. When in Rome, or in this case the Great White North, don't be a hoser and write as the Canucks do, eh? It's a beauty way to go...
Technorati Tags:bob and doug mckenzie,canada,great white north

THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT HATES THE DISABLED

The Religious Right wants George W. Bush to veto the anti-hate speech law that has just been passed by the House. The evangelicals believe that the law will criminalize free speech about their aversion to homosexuality. In fact, the law will halt speech that directly leads to violence against people based on sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, and disability. The law budgets ten billion dollars over the next two years to help local law enforcement, and authorizes federal authorities to participate in resolution of hate crimes. There is nothing wrong with this legislation because keeping society civil is the role of the government. Advocating violence toward anyone that causes unlawful acts based on race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability disturbs the peace of society.

Just look at what happened during the Third Reich where the rhetoric against disabled people led to thousands of disabled people being imprisoned and killed in places such as Hartheim Castle in Austria and the Hadamar Hospital in Wiesbaden Germany. What does the Religious Right want in promoting a veto of hate speech laws? Eugenics? Gas chambers? To play the devil's advocate (and I would never advocate any such violence), if the Religious Right doesn't like hate speech laws, they might as well send the hard-core Christians in wheelchairs to be euthanised first.

Morally, George W. Bush and his evangelical cohorts should not be proud of their veto of hate speech laws because negating such legislation affects those, the disabled, who deserve the same rights, the same legal protections against invective speech, and the same freedoms as the able-bodied.

Technorati Tags:disability rights,hate speech,religious right

WHAT DID YOU EXPECT?

Now I have read almost enough about the Religious Right to convince me that if Jesus or God came down to Earth, the evangelicals would have a whole lot of 'splaining to do.

Remember Jeff Gannon? Master of the softball questions for George W. Bush and and gay sex escort on HotMilitaryStud.com? Mr. Gannon, aka James Dale Guckert, is now a spokesman for the International Bible Reading Association. He recently managed a not very successful Bible Reading Marathon for the evangelical National Day of Prayer that was on Thursday. (Amusingly, this NDP site has a Flash image of George Washington praying by his horse. What the evangelicals don't know is that George Washington did not like to attend church). God obviously is not a crowd magnet, at least not for wayward conservatives like Jeff Gannon who had only thirty-seven people,mostly tired tourists, out of six hundred seats.

NOTE: I am not linking to any images of Mr. Gannon. I have seen the nude photos and I prefer to keep my lunch.

IN OTHER RELIGIOUS NEWS:

The Westboro Baptist Church, infamous for Fred Phelps' "God Hates Fags" website (No, I'm not linking to the site, their production values are not to my standards), is protesting at the funerals of murdered Virginia Tech students with the theme of "God Hates Virginia Tech and America". The church's basic premise is that God has punished Virginia Tech with murder because America tolerates gay people. Hookay...The Westboro church has also protested at the funeral of the saintly Mister Rogers of television fame. I wonder how the Phelps feel about former gay male escort Jeff Gannon being a spokesman for a Bible association?

Technorati Tags:jeff gannon,mister rogers,religious right ,westboro baptist church

YOUR DAILY DEBBIE

While we wait for Deborah Jeane Palfrey to divulge her clients,let's list more hypocritical Religious Right organizations that don't have the issue on their website:The Christian Coalition,The Family Research Council, and nada on The Eagle Forum site. Nothing from the Traditional Values Coalition. There's not a peep from the bastion of male purity, The Promise Keepers. It seems that the Religious Right is not upset about Randall Tobias' moral failings, even though he was their man in the White House for abstinence based sex ed.


The World Magazine doesn't mention it.

There is a loud silence about Republican and Religious Right wrongdoing that needs to be addressed. If they can't police their own, there is no moral authority in their beliefs and politics when they misinform and endanger people with an abstinence and fidelity policy that the promoters, such as Tobias, will not follow.

Technorati Tags: deborah jeane palfrey,religious right

YOUR DAILY DEBBIE

I've been surfing the Religious Right websites and have come back to report that there is a great silence about Randall Tobias' fall from grace. Not a peep on the Concerned Woman for America site about the scandal, although they do have outdated info about Mr. Tobias when he was an AIDS czar. This from an organization that touts abstinence before marriage and fidelity in marriage. Nada for Focus on the Family.

The 700 Club has a story but not the American Family Association.

Nothing on the Christianity Today site.

It seems that when the religious right has one of their own fall from favour, there is a conspiracy of silence regarding an issue (sex) that can lead to things that they politically and morally abhor: fornication, adultery, and abortion. The Religious Right needs to clean their own house before telling everyone else what to do.

Technorati Tags: deborah jeane palfrey,religious right

UPDATE:KANSAS CITY SHOOTINGS

David W. Logsdon lived with the body of his first murder victim, Patricia Reed, before going on a killing spree at the Ward Parkway shopping center in Kansas City.Logsdon beat Ms. Reed to death, then stole her late husband's rifle and her car. He used the victim's credit cards for purchases.

With respect and sorrow for the dead woman, sometimes having a gun in the house is not a defence. Guns can be, and are often, stolen and used for criminal purposes.

Technorati Tags:guns,kansas city