National Security, Mickey Spillane Style

Our inner nihilist (really inner, innit?) hoped that the stationing of Russian bombers in Cuba & Venezuela was about to bring us to the brink, but as we scanned the story we could see it was merely another high-ranking Russki attempting to rattle some swords ("We will bury you in the six separate states you are about to become.") & it didn't seem worth a mention.

Then the name of the NSC spokesman caught our eye, & we decided to share.

Mike Hammer, spokesman for President Barack Obama's National Security Council, said, "We do not comment on hypotheticals."

Ralph Meeker as Mike Hammer in Kiss Me Deadly

Yikes. No pansies at the NSC. My Gun Is Quick, baby.

First They Came For The Mosquitoes, Then They Came For The Methodists, Then They Came For The ...

Certainly nothing could go wrong w/ this, could it? By go wrong, we of course mean "be used by humans to kill other humans." As well as the usual fear of robots gone mad.Don't think for an instant that mosquito genocide is all the Strategic Defense Initiative ("Star Wars") has come to.

Or, laser-equipped drone aircraft could track bugs by radar, sweeping the sky with death-dealing photons.

Because it will be escalated to a human-sized laser, & mounted on a Hellfire-firing Warrior-Alpha. (Have they just completely run out of names for stuff?) 

Warrior-Alpha is an extended range, multi-purpose hybrid UAV designed by General Atomics. The UAV platform, a derivative of the MQ-1 Predator and designed for reconnaissance, contains electro-optical/infrared or synthetic aperture radar payloads as well as both a laser rangefinder designator and a laser target marker.

Note the word "laser" twice in the payload description above, & extrapolate just a teensy bit. And no, we don't believe tin-foil (or even lead-foil, our preferred head-protector) will keep the lasers from making your head explode.

Karl Marx Cotton Gin

By The Associated Press Saturday, March 14, 2009; 12:01 AM Today is Saturday, March 14, the 73rd day of 2009. There are 292 days left in the year. The AP Alt Page. AP A/V. UPI Almanac. Today's Highlight in History: On March 14, 1794, Eli Whitney received a patent for his cotton gin, an invention that revolutionized America's cotton industry. On this date: In 1743, a memorial service was held at Faneuil Hall in Boston honoring Peter Faneuil, who had donated the building bearing his name. In 1883, German political philosopher Karl Marx died in London at age 64. In 1900, Congress ratified the Gold Standard Act. In 1923, President Warren G. Harding became the first chief executive to file an income tax return. In 1939, the republic of Czechoslovakia was dissolved, opening the way for Nazi occupation of Czech areas and the separation of Slovakia. In 1951, during the Korean War, United Nations forces recaptured Seoul. In 1964, a jury in Dallas found Jack Ruby guilty of murdering Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy, and sentenced him to death. (Both the conviction and death sentence were later overturned, but Ruby died before he could be retried). In 1967, the body of President John F. Kennedy was moved from a temporary grave to a permanent memorial site at Arlington National Cemetery. In 1980, a Polish airliner crashed while making an emergency landing near Warsaw, killing all 87 people aboard, including 22 members of a U.S. amateur boxing team. In 1991, a British court overturned the convictions of the Birmingham Six, who had spent 16 years in prison for an Irish Republican Army bombing, and ordered them released. Ten years ago: The Clinton administration said the government had responded decisively to allegations that China had benefited from technology stolen from the Los Alamos nuclear weapons laboratory in New Mexico; Republicans disagreed and pressed for a comprehensive review of U.S. policy toward China. Five years ago: Opposition Socialists scored a dramatic upset win in Spain's general election, unseating conservatives stung by charges they'd provoked the Madrid terror bombings by supporting the U.S.-led war in Iraq. Russian President Vladimir Putin won a second term. Two Palestinian suicide bombers killed eleven Israelis in the port of Ashdod. One year ago: Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama denounced inflammatory remarks from his pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Protests led by Buddhist monks in Tibet turned violent, leading to an extensive crackdown by China's military. A tornado ripped into the Georgia Dome during the Southeastern Conference tournament, sending debris tumbling from the ceiling and prompting fans to flee. Lindsey Vonn won the overall World Cup skiing to complete the first American sweep of the men's and women's titles in 25 years. Today's Birthdays: Former astronaut Frank Borman is 81. Singer Phil Phillips is 78. Actor Michael Caine is 76. Composer-conductor Quincy Jones is 76. Former astronaut Eugene Cernan is 75. Actor Raymond J. Barry is 70. Movie director Wolfgang Petersen is 68. Country singer Michael Martin Murphey is 64. Rock musician Walt Parazaider (Chicago) is 64. Actor Steve Kanaly is 63. Comedian Billy Crystal is 61. Country singer Jann Browne is 55. Actor Adrian Zmed is 55. Prince Albert II, the ruler of Monaco, is 51. Actress Tamara Tunie is 50.Actress Penny Johnson Jerald is 48.Producer-director-writer Kevin Williamson is 44. Actor Gary Anthony Williams is 43. Actress Megan Follows is 41. Rock musician Michael Bland is 40.  On March 14th, 1943, Aaron Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man" premiered in New York. In 1972, Carole King won the album of the year Grammy for "Tapestry," record of the year for "It's Too Late" and song of the year for "You've Got A Friend." She also won a fourth Grammy that year, for female pop vocal performance for "Tapestry." In 1980, producer Quincy Jones got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It was his 47th birthday. In 1981, Eric Clapton was hospitalized in St. Paul, Minnesota, for an attack of bleeding ulcers. He had to cancel a 60-date US. tour. Thought for Today: "The man who does his work, any work, conscientiously, must always be in one sense a great man." — Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, English novelist (1826-1887). [More crap about work? Screw this! — Ed.]

© 2009 The Associated Press

Pi: Pizza Or Dessert?

Advance warning. 14 March is Pi Day, which will be celebrated at 1:59. (3.14159. Remember?) Coincidence or conspiracy? Albert Einstein: Born 14 March.

Annals Of Body Slamming

No charges for Alzheimer's patient & former rasslin' champ Verne Gagne, who apparently killed some guy even more wretched/aged than he at the facility.

That About Which We Could Not Possibly Care Any Fucking Less

Well, virtually everything, but to be specific, at this time, we are busily not possibly caring any less about the South By SouthWest media shitpile. 

"In its 22 years, SXSW has grown from a tiny music festival in the Texas capital into a massive, unavoidable media beast that reflects, discusses and showcases trends in culture and media but also often creates them." National Post, 3/13/08

Fuck you, pretentious assholes. Or, as we used to say, art fags.

Friday The 13th, Again? We Had One Just Last Month!

Today is Friday, March 13, the 72nd day of 2009. There are 293 days left in the year.  The AP's AltHist. A/V. Today's Highlight in History: On March 13, 1933, banks began to re-open after a "holiday" declared by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. On this date: In 1781, the planet Uranus was discovered by Sir William Herschel. In 1884, Congress officially adopted Eastern Standard Time for the District of Columbia. In 1901, the 23rd president of the United States, Benjamin Harrison, died in Indianapolis at age 67. In 1925, the Tennessee General Assembly approved a bill prohibiting the teaching of the theory of evolution. (Gov. Austin Peay signed the measure on March 21st.) In 1928, hundreds of people died when the San Francisquito Valley in California was inundated with water after the St. Francis Dam burst just before midnight the evening of March 12th. In 1964, bar manager Catherine "Kitty" Genovese, 28, was stabbed to death near her Queens, N.Y. home; the case generated controversy over the supposed failure of Genovese's neighbors to respond to her cries for help. In 1969, the Apollo 9 astronauts splashed down, ending a mission that included the successful testing of the Lunar Module. In 1980, Ford Motor Chairman Henry Ford II announced he was stepping down, the same day a jury in Winamac, Ind., found Ford Motor Co. innocent of reckless homicide in the fiery deaths of three young women in a Ford Pinto. In 1988, yielding to student protests, the board of trustees of Gallaudet University in Washington D.C., a liberal arts college for the hearing-impaired, chose I. King Jordan to become the school's first deaf president. In 1996, a gunman burst into an elementary school in Dunblane, Scotland, and opened fire, killing 16 children and one teacher before killing himself. Ten years ago: Serb government forces destroyed more than two dozen ethnic Albanian homes in Kosovo, apparently in retaliation for the killing of Serb civilians in the area. Evander Holyfield, the WBA and IBF champion, and Lennox Lewis, the WBC champion, kept their respective titles after fighting to a controversial draw in New York. Playwright Garson Kanin died in New York at age 86. Five years ago: Iran froze inspections of its nuclear facilities after the U.N. atomic agency censured Tehran for hiding suspect activities. (Tehran relented two days later.) One year ago: The body of Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho was found in a shallow grave in northern Iraq, two weeks after he was kidnapped by gunmen in one of the most dramatic attacks against the country's small Christian community. Gold hit a record, rising to $1,000 an ounce for the first time (however, it fell sharply later in the year). Bode Miller clinched the men's overall World Cup ski title, in Bormio, Italy.  Today's Birthdays: Jazz musician Roy Haynes is 84. Country singer Jan Howard is 79. Songwriter Mike Stoller is 76. Singer-songwriter Neil Sedaka is 70. Actor William H. Macy is 59. Actress Deborah Raffin is 56. Comedian Robin Duke is 55. Actress Glenne Headly is 54. Actress Dana Delany is 53. Rock musician Adam Clayton (U2) is 49. Jazz musician Terence Blanchard is 47. Actor Christopher Collet is 41. Rock musician Matt McDonough is 40. Actress Annabeth Gish is 38. Actress Tracy Wells is 38. Singer Glenn Lewis is 34. Actor Danny Masterson is 33. On March 13th, 1947, "The Best Years Of Our Lives" was named best picture at the Oscars. Frederic March won the best actor award for his role in that movie. In 1969, George Harrison and his wife, Patti, were arrested in London after police found 120 joints in their apartment. They claimed they were framed but later pleaded guilty and were fined. In 1971, the Allman Brothers recorded their "Live at the Fillmore East" album in New York. In 1975, singers George Jones and Tammy Wynette were divorced. In 1980, Pink Floyd's album "The Wall" reached platinum status. In 1987, "Heat of the Night" by Bryan Adams became the first commercially released cassette single in the US. In 1996, Mississippi lawmakers rescinded a commendation to Glen Ballard, who produced Alanis Morissette's "Jagged Little Pill" album. Some of the legislators were offended by the lyrics of the song "You Oughta Know." Angry fans started a riot in Buenos Aires, Argentina, after waiting all night for Ramones tickets and finding out they were gone. Several people were hurt. In 2006, Blondie refused to allow former guitarist Frank Infante and bassist Nigel Harrison to perform with them during their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They had unsuccessfully sued Blondie in 1999 when the band reformed without them. Isaac Hayes quit the cast of "South Park," saying he could not tolerate the show's take on religion. [God killed him soon after that anyway. Stupid jerk. — Ed.] Thought for Today: "Work is something you can count on, a trusted, lifelong friend who never deserts you." — Margaret Bourke-White, American photojournalist (1904-1971). [What kind of lying Nazi bullshit is that? Work is what kills you, & enriches your boss from your labor. Take a look at this picture Ms. B-W took. Is work the "lifelong friend" of the Americans lined up for bread? — Ed.]

New Package, Same Cretinous Shit

Here's a big chunk of crap from the lame-assed fool (Catholic) whom The New York Times has hired to replace William Kristol as the voice of conservatism on the op-ed page.

Note this interesting turn-of-phrase: 

post-Clinton return of wage stagnation

"Post-Clinton?" How about "Under-Bush?" 

Why would The NYT hire one liar to replace another? Because there are nothing but lying sacks of shit left on the right, it seems.

Douche-hat does note that, somehow, the country has shifted to the left  in the last ten yrs. (And why the fuck would that be?) 

[T]he political landscape has shifted dramatically since the days when Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich were struggling over the American center, and that in the absence of a conservatism that's responsive to the changing situation, yesterday's radicalism can start to look a lot like today's common sense.

"A conservatism that's responsive to the changing situation." We'll be holding our breath until conservatism even realizes that there is a situation, let alone that it may be changing, & we're no longer in the early 18th century. By the way, just who is responsible for that "changing situation?" Couldn't have been George W. Idiot, could it?

This Date In Human Idiocy & Birth

         By The Associated Press – 33 mins ago

Today is Thursday, March 12, the 71st day of 2009. There are 294 days left in the year. AP's alternate history. AP A/V. The UPI Almanac. Today's Highlight in History: On March 12, 1912, Juliette Gordon Low of Savannah, Ga., founded the Girl Guides, which later became the Girl Scouts of America. On this date: In 1664, England's King Charles II granted an area of land in present-day North America known as New Netherland to his brother James, the Duke of York. In 1864, Ulysses S. Grant was promoted to the rank of general-in-chief of the Union armies in the Civil War by President Abraham Lincoln. In 1930, Indian political and spiritual leader Mohandas K. Gandhi began a 200-mile march to protest a British tax on salt. In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered the first of his 30 radio "fireside chats," telling Americans what was being done to deal with the nation's economic crisis. In 1938, the Anschluss merging Austria with Nazi Germany took place as German forces crossed the border between the two countries. In 1939, Pope Pius XII was formally crowned in ceremonies at the Vatican. In 1947, President Harry S. Truman established what became known as the Truman Doctrine to help Greece and Turkey resist Communism. In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson won the New Hampshire Democratic primary, but anti-war Sen. Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota placed a strong second. In 1989, some 2,500 veterans and supporters marched at the Art Institute of Chicago to demand that officials remove an American flag placed on the floor as part of a student's exhibit. Ten years ago: Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic joined NATO. Violinist Yehudi Menuhin died in Berlin at age 82. Five years ago: Marcus Wesson, the domineering patriarch of a cultlike clan he'd bred through incest, surrendered to police who found the bodies of nine of his offspring, all but one minors, at their home in Fresno, Calif. (Wesson was later convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death.) One year ago: New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned two days after reports had surfaced that he was a client of a prostitution ring. Former Sen. Howard Metzenbaum, a liberal Ohio Democrat who challenged big business, died near Fort Lauderdale, Fla., at age 90. Space shuttle Endeavour docked with the international space station, kicking off almost two weeks of demanding construction work. Lance Mackey won his second consecutive Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, completing the 1,100-mile journey in just under 9 1/2 days. Today's Birthdays: Playwright Edward Albee is 81. Former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young is 77. Actress Barbara Feldon is 76. Broadcast journalist Lloyd Dobyns is 73. Singer Al Jarreau is 69. Actress-singer Liza Minnelli is 63. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is 62. Singer-songwriter James Taylor is 61. Rock singer-musician Bill Payne (Little Feat) is 60. Actor Jon Provost ("Lassie") is 59. Author Carl Hiaasen is 56. Rock musician Steve Harris (Iron Maiden) is 53. Actor Jerry Levine is 52. Singer Marlon Jackson (The Jackson Five) is 52. Actor Courtney B. Vance is 49. Actor Titus Welliver is 48. Former baseball player Darryl Strawberry is 47. Actress Julia Campbell is 46. Actor Aaron Eckhart is 41. ABC News reporter Jake Tapper is 40. Rock musician Graham Coxon is 40. Country musician Tommy Bales (Flynnville Train) is 36.  On March 12th, 1955, saxophone player Charlie "Bird" Parker died in New York of heart failure. He was 34. He's known as the inventor of bebop. In 1958, singer Billie Holiday was given a year's probation on a narcotics possession charge. She died the next year of alcohol and drug abuse. In 1969, Paul McCartney and Linda Eastman were married in a civil ceremony in London. "Mrs. Robinson" by Simon and Garfunkel was named Song and Record of the Year at the Grammy Awards, beating out "Hey Jude" by The Beatles. In 1974, John Lennon got into a fight with a photographer outside a club in Los Angeles. Lennon and Harry Nilsson had been heckling comedian Tommy Smothers and had been thrown out of the club. In 1998, Cathay Pacific airline banned Liam Gallagher of Oasis from its flights after he threatened to stab a pilot.  Thought for Today: "'Home' is any four walls that enclose the right person." — Helen Rowland, American writer, journalist and humorist (1876-1950). [Works for "hell" too. — Ed.] Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reversed. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Copyright © 2009 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reversed.

Making A List, Checking It Twice, & Being Sure Your Last Hour On Earth Is Meaningful

In the wake of the 'Bama murder spree, when will the United Snakes finally outlaw guns & automobiles?

The gunman [...] had struggled to keep a job and left behind a list of employers and co-workers he believed had wronged him, authorities said Wednesday. [...]

In the span of about an hour, McLendon, 28, set the home he shared with his mother on fire, killed five relatives and five bystanders and committed suicide in a standoff at the metals plant.

Sounds a lot like someone we know. Very well. He has a list too. Are you on it?

Icelandic Elves

One of our favorites in one of the bogrolls [sic] on the right is SEX WITH HUMANS IS BORING. (No shit. By ourself, or w/ another involved: dull, dull, dull.) Hallgerdur ("I am an expert on how to have sex with elves") Hallgrímsdóttir hasn't put out anything since February 2007, but it's still amusing if you haven't read it yet.

We bring this all up because of an item from Slate's Explainer, which indicates that many Icelanders actually believe in the existence of elves. This may explain both Bjork & the Icelandic meltdown that came in advance of most of the other recent financial meltdowns.

The Desire To Commit Murder Against A National Figure

Cretin Tom Friedman (Are his zillionaire wife's bank stocks tanking? Is that why he's suddenly so worried?) in The NYT:

I understand that he doesn’t want his presidency to be held hostage to the ups and downs of bank stocks, but a hostage he is. We all are.

Wrong again, driveler. We're not hostage to anything but our desire to pop you in your snoot 15-20 times. Unlike Tom, we aren't a parasite who married a wealthy woman (Naturally, she's an heiress. You wouldn't expect Tom to know anyone who does anything useful or productive, would you? Except for the imaginary taxi-drivers he seems to find wherever he's padding his expense account.) so we have no concern whatever w/ bank stocks (Though we are thinking we'd better get what we can of our vested pension from Wells Fargo Bank, N. A., before it goes belly up as well.) or any other stocks. Or anything that concerns the rest of you middle-class sheep. 

And what is this crap he's typing anyway? 

You need to let failed companies, or homeowners, go bankrupt, unlock their dead capital and reapply it to thriving entities.

Wait a minute. These banks & homeowners are keeping their "dead capital" locked away somewhere? And they won't let it out unless we let them go bankrupt? What in the name of hell is this clown trying to type? 

Who knows. But look at this fantasy:

Which is why I wake up every morning hoping to read this story: “President Obama announced today that he had invited the country’s 20 leading bankers, 20 leading industrialists, 20 top market economists and the Democratic and Republican leaders in the House and Senate to join him and his team at Camp David. ‘We will not come down from the mountain until we have forged a common, transparent strategy for getting us out of this banking crisis,’ the president said, as he boarded his helicopter.”

Oh, yeah. As if bankers, "industrialists," & "market" economists are going to be interested in anything but more free money w/o working for it. And the concept of a bunch of guys w/ their shirt-sleeves rolled up, sitting around a table & ready to save the world from its own greed & stupidity (as long as it doesn't interfere w/ their personal greed & fetishized economic theories) is about as stupid as Friedman could get. How stupid he can get is a concept w/o an upper limit, by the way.

And, from The NYT of 10 March, we find an interesting tale of why the bankers are not to be trusted. Nor should anyone else ever be trusted. Again, where's the outrage, sheep?

Annals of Unhousing

Bored, lazy & disaffected as we are, we nonetheless figured we should link to this NYT article on ... the unhoused (Sounds so much better than "homeless," doesn't it?) who live in motels. A county south of us, but the situation much the same. Except for the rate.

They are among a lucky few: a charity pays part of the $800-a-month charge while Mr. Hayworth tries to recreate a career.

St. Nick on a stick, we wish! Though we haven't seen anything as awful as this:

“I owe it to my kids to get out of here,” Mr. Hayworth said, recalling the night they saw a motel neighbor drag a half-naked woman out the door while he beat her.

The walls are thin here at the Neon Motel (we've heard things we'd just as soon not have heard) & the police have been here more than once to deal w/ disturbed/disturbing guests. Things are more lively at the beginning of the mo., as the unhoused get what little stipends the gov't. is willing to provide, & the ability to buy a night or two out of the cold supersedes the desire to eat later in the mo. We all must make choices, right?

Still, a source of turmoil for motel families is a California rule that after 28 days, residents are considered tenants, gaining legal rights of occupancy. Some motels force families to move every month, while others make families stay in a different room for a day or two.

At this dump, we're forced to move out every three wks., for a day at least. The Travelodge® may have a refrigerator & microwave, but any savings on food would be eaten up by the added room cost. We're still tired of dragging our bags full of crap like clothes & toothpaste around every three wks. 

Mr. Hayworth’s teenage daughter has had the roughest time because of the lack of privacy. She is too embarrassed to take friends home, and is uncomfortable dressing in front of her brothers, who are 10 and 11. Not long ago, she was attacked at school by classmates who mocked her for living in a motel.

We expect that soon enough her classmates will be unhoused as well. And they'll certainly deserve to be attacked.

“I’d promised my daughter that we’d be out of here by her birthday,” Mr. Hayworth said. “But that came last week, and we’re still here.” “It really hurt me the other day,” he added. “My son came home and asked, ‘Are we homeless’? I didn’t know what to say.”

We do, Hayworth. You are homeless. Face it, you're a fucking loser. You & the Mrs. should be sterilized, & your children should be taken from you & put in workhouses where they'll learn the value of a dollar, & how to work hard for it. Something that people like you never learn, & never teach your children. 

Solo Drive-By Shootings

AP story & "raw" (officers standing around their flashing prowl cars) video. 

End Of Dodgertown

(6:24) of video. 

We hear the new Dodgers/White Sox facility is nice. Road trip, anyone?

3/11 Throughout History

                     By The Associated Press Wed Mar 11, 12:01 am ET

Today is Tuesday, March 11, the 70th day of 2009. There are 295 days left in the year.

Catch the rest of history at the AP page. The AP A/V. The Rev.'s UPI Almanac. Today's Highlight in History: On March 11, 1942, as Japanese forces continued to advance in the Pacific during World War II, Gen. Douglas MacArthur left the Philippines for Australia. (MacArthur, who subsequently vowed, "I shall return," kept that promise more than 2 1/2 years later.) On this date: In 1810, French Emperor Napoleon I was married by proxy to Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria.In 1861, the Constitution of the Confederate States of America was adopted during a convention in Montgomery, Ala. In 1888, the famous "Blizzard of '88" began inundating the northeastern United States, resulting in some 400 deaths. In 1930, former President and Chief Justice William Howard Taft was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Lend-Lease Bill, providing war supplies to countries fighting the Axis. In 1957, Charles Van Doren's 14-week run on the rigged NBC game show "Twenty One" ended as he lost to attorney Vivienne Nearing; Van Doren's take was $129,000. American explorer Richard E. Byrd died in Boston at age 68. In 1959, the Lorraine Hansberry drama "A Raisin in the Sun" opened at New York's Ethel Barrymore Theater. In 1965, the Rev. James J. Reeb, a white minister from Boston, died after being beaten by whites during civil rights disturbances in Selma, Ala. In 1977, more than 130 hostages held in Washington, D.C., by Hanafi Muslims were freed after ambassadors from three Islamic nations joined the negotiations. In 1985, Mikhail S. Gorbachev was chosen to succeed the late Soviet President Konstantin U. Chernenko. Ten years ago: The House voted 219-191 to conditionally support President Bill Clinton's plan to send U.S. troops to Kosovo if a peace agreement were reached. Five years ago: Ten bombs exploded in quick succession across the commuter rail network in Madrid, Spain, killing 191 people and wounding more than 2,000 in an attack linked to al-Qaida-inspired militants. One year ago: The top U.S. military commander for the Middle East resigned amid speculation about a rift over U.S. policy in Iran; Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that Adm. William J. Fallon had asked for permission to retire and that Gates agreed. Democrat Barack Obama beat Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Mississippi primary. Today's Birthdays: Actor Terence Alexander is 86. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is 78. ABC News correspondent Sam Donaldson is 75. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is 73. Musician Flaco Jimenez is 70. Actress Tricia O'Neil is 64. Actor Mark Metcalf is 63. Rock singer-musician Mark Stein (Vanilla Fudge) is 62. Singer Bobby McFerrin is 59. Movie director Jerry Zucker is 59. Actress Susan Richardson is 57. Recording executive Jimmy Iovine is 56. Singer Nina Hagen is 54. Country singer Jimmy Fortune (The Statler Brothers) is 54.Singer Cheryl Lynn is 52. Actor Jeffrey Nordling is 47. Actress Alex Kingston is 46. Country musician David Talbot is 46. Actor Wallace Langham is 44. Actor John Barrowman is 42. Singer Lisa Loeb is 41. Singer Pete Droge is 40. Actor Terrence Howard is 40. Rock musician Rami Jaffee is 40. Actor Johnny Knoxville is 38. Rock singer-musicians Joel and Benji Madden (Good Charlotte) are 30. Actor David Anders is 28. Singer LeToya is 28. Actress Thora Birch is 27. On March eleventh, 1959, the Lorraine Hansberry drama "A Raisin in the Sun," starring Ruby Dee and Sidney Poitier, opened on Broadway. In 1968, Otis Redding was awarded a gold record for the single "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" three months after his death. A year later, the song won two Grammy Awards. In 1970, "Aquarius/Let The Sun Shine In" by the Fifth Dimension was named Record of the Year at the Grammys. The self-titled album by Blood, Sweat and Tears was named Album of the Year. Crosby, Stills and Nash won the Best New Artist Grammy. In 1993, actress Elizabeth Taylor received a lifetime achievement award from the American Film Institute. In 1997, Queen Elizabeth knighted Paul McCartney.  Thought for Today: "Death destroys a man; the idea of Death saves him." — E.M. Forster, English author (1879-1970). Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Copyright © 2009 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.

"Axis Sally" Convicted in 1949! Dixie Chicks Speak Out In 2003! Morally Equivalent?

By The Associated Press Tue Mar 10, 12:01 am ET

AP History. AP A/V. UPI Almanac. Today is Tuesday, March 10, the 69th day of 2009. There are 296 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On March 10, 1876, the first successful voice transmission over Alexander Graham Bell's telephone took place in Boston as his assistant heard Bell say, "Mr. Watson — come here — I want to see you." On this date: In 1496, Christopher Columbus concluded his second visit to the Western Hemisphere as he left Hispaniola for Spain.In 1785, Thomas Jefferson was appointed America's minister to France, succeeding Benjamin Franklin. In 1848, the Senate ratified the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican-American War. In 1880, the Salvation Army arrived in the United States from England. In 1948, the body of the anti-Communist foreign minister of Czechoslovakia, Jan Masaryk, was found in the garden of Czernin Palace in Prague. In 1949, Nazi wartime broadcaster Mildred E. Gillars, also known as "Axis Sally," was convicted in Washington D.C. of treason. (She served 12 years in prison.) In 1959, the Tennessee Williams play "Sweet Bird of Youth," starring Paul Newman and Geraldine Page, opened at Broadway's Martin Beck Theatre. In 1969, James Earl Ray pleaded guilty in Memphis, Tenn., to assassinating civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. (Ray later repudiated that plea, maintaining his innocence until his death.) In 1980, "Scarsdale Diet" author Dr. Herman Tarnower was shot to death at his home in Purchase, N.Y. (Tarnower's former lover, Jean Harris, was convicted of his murder; she served nearly 12 years in prison before being released in January 1993.) In 1985, Konstantin U. Chernenko, who was the Soviet Union's leader for just 13 months, died at age 73. Ten years ago: President Bill Clinton, during his tour of Central America, addressed lawmakers in El Salvador, then traveled to Guatemala, where he acknowledged the U.S. role in Central America's "dark and painful period" of civil wars and repression. Five years ago: Teenage sniper Lee Boyd Malvo was sentenced in Chesapeake, Va., to life in prison for an October 2002 killing spree in the Washington D.C. area that left 10 people dead. One year ago: A suicide bomber killed five U.S. soldiers as they chatted with shop owners while on a foot patrol in central Baghdad. New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer apologized after allegations surfaced that he had paid thousands of dollars for a high-end call girl, scandal which eventually led to his resignation. Democrat Barack Obama ridiculed the idea of being Hillary Rodham Clinton's running mate, saying in Columbus, Miss., that voters had to choose between the two for the top spot on the fall ticket. Today's Birthdays: Talk show host Ralph Emery is 76. Bluegrass/country singer-musician Norman Blake is 71. Actor Chuck Norris is 69. Playwright David Rabe is 69. Singer Dean Torrence (Jan and Dean) is 69. Actress Katharine Houghton is 64. Rock musician Tom Scholz (Boston) is 62. Producer-director-writer Paul Haggis is 56. Alt-country/rock musician Gary Louris is 54. Actress Shannon Tweed is 52. Pop/jazz singer Jeanie Bryson is 51. Actress Sharon Stone is 51.Rock musician Gail Greenwood is 49. Magician Lance Burton is 49. Actress Jasmine Guy is 47. Rock musician Jeff Ament (Pearl Jam) is 46. Music producer Rick Rubin is 46. Britain's Prince Edward is 45. Actor Stephen Mailer is 43. Actress Paget Brewster is 40. Actor Jon Hamm ("Mad Men") is 38. Country singer Daryle Singletary is 38. Rapper-producer Timbaland is 37. Actor Cristian de la Fuente is 35. Rock musician Jerry Horton (Papa Roach) is 34. Singer Robin Thicke is 32. Actress Bree Turner is 32. Olympic gold-medal gymnast Shannon Miller is 32. Thought for Today: "There is no tyranny so despotic as that of public opinion among a free people." — Donn Piatt, American journalist (1819-1891). On March tenth, 1965, Neil Simon's play "The Odd Couple" opened on Broadway. In 1977, A&M Records in Britain signed the Sex Pistols in a ceremony outside Buckingham Palace, two months after EMI nulled its contract with the band. A&M ended its association with the band nine days later. In 1988, pop singer Andy Gibb died of a heart condition in Oxford, England. Gibb was 30. In 1991, Alabama, K.T. Oslin, Ricky Skaggs and Tammy Wynette were among those performing at Ford's Theatre in Washington to help celebrate the end of the Gulf War. The concert, attended by President George Bush, also raised money for the theatre. In 1992, Prince received a lifetime achievement award at the Soul Train Awards. Winners of other awards included Natalie Cole and Color Me Badd. In 1993, songwriters Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Ventriloquist Shari Lewis and the puppet "Lamb Chop" testified before a House subcommittee, saying that there weren't enough good TV shows for kids. In 1997, singer LaVern Baker died at the age of 67 in New York. She had been suffering from diabetes. In 1998, actor Lloyd Bridges died of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles. He was 85. Lewis Peter Morgan pleaded guilty to impersonating former Eagles bassist Randy Meisner in San Francisco. In 2003, Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines told an audience in London, "Just so you know, we're ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas." They endured a firestorm of criticism that included radio stations banning their music and protests outside their concerts. The Police reunited for their first show together in 18 years, at their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2004, David Crosby was arrested in a New York hotel for possession of marijuana and a handgun. He later pleaded guilty and was fined five-thousand dollars. Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.Copyright © 2009 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.

Does Sex Make You Nervous?

Two turns of phrase from commenters at the post under discussion in our item below.

teenage sexual anarchy

free-for-all sexual nihilism

Issues, anyone? And, Jon Swift weighs in from the reasonable conservative's perspective.

Crunchy Con Digs Hole, Buries Self

The amazingly offensive (yet easily offended) Rod Dreher blathers his way into people questioning his very sanity, morality & sense of decency. He's fully acclimated to/expects small town murder, but Holy Crap!! There's a "decadent teenage culture" in a small Texas town, where "real" AmeriKKKans live. Shock! Horror!!

UPDATE.2: Reading the comments, what on earth is wrong with some of you? I'm not saying bisexuals killed that family. Good grief. It's obvious that the murderers include the daughter and her boyfriend. The bisexuality thing was a mere aside that I found more startling than the murders, given the small-town culture where this crime took place. I freely admit that I am out of touch with teenage culture today. If you're bound and determined to conclude that I think bisexuality is worse than murder, you're completely wrong, and you're willfully misreading my post for whatever reason. At least understand what you're doing, and the bad faith in which you're doing it. A pastor was shot dead in his pulpit today in Illinois. That appalls me. It doesn't shock me. This kind of thing happens these days. Sad but true. You don't hear every day about a tiny Texas town whose teenagers are engaged in a culture of bisexuality. At least I don't.

Turns out Randy Andy Sullivan linked to Randy Rod, & stirred up a hornet's nest in the comments. Don't those two know better than to discuss sex, murder & religion in public?

Good News For Modern Man (From USAT, Yet)

Progress on the march:

[T]he new American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), to be released today [...] finds that, despite growth and immigration that has added nearly 50 million adults to the U.S. population, almost all religious denominations have lost ground since the first ARIS survey in 1990.

The addition of 50 million alleged adults to the population isn't such good news, but the Great Awakening seems to have begun. Not too long after the editorial staff here is dead, the Enlightenment will finally come to AmeriKKKa.

• So many Americans claim no religion at all (15%, up from 8% in 1990), that this category now outranks every other major U.S. religious group except Catholics and Baptists. In a nation that has long been mostly Christian, "the challenge to Christianity … does not come from other religions but from a rejection of all forms of organized religion," the report concludes.

It doesn't get much better than this, does it? How long have we been telling the world it's all bullshit? Huh? How fucking long? 

Kosmin concluded from the 1990 data that many saw God as a "personal hobby," and that the USA is "a greenhouse for spiritual sprouts." Today, he says, "religion has become more like a fashion statement, not a deep personal commitment for many."

Bogus & superficial. Like the rest of their lives. Others have real lives, w/o the needless baggage of ritual, child molestation, & losing sleep on Sundays.

Ex-Catholic Dylan Rossi, 21, a philosophy student in Boston and a Massachusetts native, is part of the sharp fall in the state's percentage of Catholics — from 54% to 39% in his lifetime. Rossi says he's typical among his friends: "If religion comes up, everyone at the table will start mocking it. I don't know anyone religious and hardly anyone 'spiritual.'"

Whatever the fuck "spiritual" means. The last compromise before absolute freedom, we think.

The reactionary excuse for failure & wide-spread rejection of their ideas (political & religious) is, as always, not that their ideas are hopelessly out-of-date, but that society, culture & the media are not doing the proper job of indoctrination they used to. 

Rev. Kendall Harmon, theologian for the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina, blames social mobility. "Mobility means your ideas are more challenged and your family and childhood traditions have less influence, particularly if you are not strongly rooted in them. I see kids today who have no vocabulary of faith, and neither do many of their parents." Harmon recalls, "A couple came into my office once with a yellow pad of their teenage son's questions. One of them was: 'What is that guy doing hanging up there on the plus sign?' "

(That's very funny. Probably not true, but we're going to laugh heartily anyway. "Plus sign." Haw haw haw!) The eternal verities, that must be constantly shoved down our throats, preferably w/ gov't. help, or "faith" just seems to go away. As we like to say, every thing's political. And w/ the Republican/conservatard movement, religion is all politics, all the time.

[T]here are large, common threads – freedom, personal responsibility, limited government and an appropriate deference to the Almighty are just a few of those principles the VAST majority of conservatives and Republicans I know embrace.

"An appropriate deference to the Almighty." "Appropriate" no doubt meaning that Red Staters & their ilk go along w/ all the hateful, genocidal parts of their (un)holy book, & ignore anything about the downtrodden & powerless that Jeezis dude may have said. Leviticus yes, feeding the poor no. Hypocrisy at its most naked.

This is not good for the political right either. Something we didn't pull from Frum's Newsweek story:

But especially on gay-rights issues, the under-30 generation has arrived at a new consensus. Our party seems to be running to govern a country that no longer exists.

Like Wile E. Coyote chasing the Road Runner along the tracks, about to enter the tunnel that's just black paint on rock. KER-BLOOIE!!

Tip of the Bouffant chapeau to MzNicky for leading us to the USAT feature.

Terror In 1977

By The Associated Press 12:02 am ET See also: The AP itself. Their A/V. And Rev. Moon's UPI Almanac. Today is Monday, March 9, the 68th day of 2009. There are 297 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On March 9, 1862, during the Civil War, the ironclads USS Monitor and CSS Virginia (formerly USS Merrimac) clashed for five hours to a draw at Hampton Roads, Va. On this date: In 1796, the future emperor of the French, Napoleon Bonaparte, married Josephine de Beauharnais. (The couple divorced in 1809.) In 1907, Indiana's General Assembly passed America's first involuntary sterilization law, one aimed at "confirmed criminals, idiots, imbeciles, and rapists" in state custody. (This law was struck down in 1921 by the Indiana Supreme Court, but a new law was passed in 1927 that was repealed in 1974.) In 1916, Mexican raiders led by Pancho Villa attacked Columbus, N.M., killing 18 Americans. In 1932, Eamon de Valera was appointed head of government of the Irish Free State. In 1945, during World War II, U.S. B-29 bombers launched incendiary bomb attacks against Japan, resulting in an estimated 100,000 deaths. In 1954, CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow critically reviewed Wisconsin Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy's anti-Communism campaign on "See It Now."["Critically reviewed?" Was Tail-Gunner Joe putting on a one man show? Well, yes, but, you know ... — Ed.] In 1959, Mattel's Barbie doll, created by Ruth Handler, made its public debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York. In 1964, the Supreme Court, in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, ruled that public officials who charged they'd been libeled by news reports could not recover damages unless they proved actual malice on the part of the news organization. In 1977, about a dozen armed Hanafi Muslims invaded three buildings in Washington D.C., killing one person and taking more than 130 hostages. (The siege ended two days later.) AP correspondent Jim Limbach In 1989, the Senate rejected President George H.W. Bush's nomination of John Tower to be defense secretary by a vote of 53-47. (The next day, Bush tapped Wyoming Rep. Dick Cheney, who went on to win unanimous Senate approval.) Ten years ago: RJR Nabisco Holdings Corp. announced it was getting out of the cigarette business. Five years ago: Convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad was sentenced to death in Virginia. Former United Nations official Gerard Latortue was named Haiti's new prime minister. One year ago: Spain's governing Socialists won a second term, but without a majority in parliament. Today's Birthdays: Singer-actress Keely Smith is 77. Singer Lloyd Price is 76. Actress Joyce Van Patten is 75. Actor-comedian Marty Ingels is 73. Country singer Mickey Gilley is 73. Actress Trish Van Devere is 68. Singer Mark Lindsay (Paul Revere and the Raiders) is 67. ABC anchorman Charles Gibson is 66. Rock musician Robin Trower is 64. Singer Jeffrey Osborne is 61. Country musician Jimmie Fadden (The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band) is 61. Actress Jaime Lyn Bauer is 60. Writer-editor Michael Kinsley is 58. TV newscaster Faith Daniels is 52. Actor-director Lonny Price is 50. Actress Linda Fiorentino is 49. Actress Juliette Binoche is 45. Rock musician Robert Sledge (Ben Folds Five) is 41. Rapper C-Murder is 38. Actor Emmanuel Lewis is 38. Actress Jean Louisa Kelly is 37. Actor Kerr Smith is 37. Rapper Chingy is 29. Actor Matthew Gray Gubler is 29. Actress Brittany Snow is 23. Rapper Bow Wow is 22.  Thought for Today: "Conscience is the perfect interpreter of life." — Karl Barth, Swiss theologian (1886-1966).On March ninth, 1969, the Smothers Brothers' TV show was cancelled by CBS following a controversy over remarks made by Joan Baez. The brothers had refused to censor comments about her husband, who was going to jail for objecting to the draft. In 1974, Bad Company performed its first concert in England. The band was made up of former members of Free, King Crimson and Mott the Hoople. The Grand Ole Opry put on its last Saturday night show at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. In 1976, Who drummer Keith Moon collapsed on stage during a concert in Boston. The incident briefly halted the band's tour. In 1987, U2 released their album "The Joshua Tree." In 1993, winners of People's Choice awards included actors Tim Allen, Candice Bergen, Kevin Costner and Whoopi Goldberg. Garth Brooks and Whitney Houston were named favorite male and female musical performers. Alabama won in the favorite musical group category. In 1995, Scott Amedure, a talk-show guest on "The Jenny Jones Show," was shot to death by Jonathan Schmitz, a friend who also appeared on the show. Schmitz had been surprised three days earlier during the taping of the show about secret admirers when Amedure admitted he had a crush on Schmitz. The show never aired. In 1996, comedian George Burns died at the age of 100. In 1997, rapper the Notorious B.I.G. was shot to death while sitting in his car after a music industry party. He was 24.  Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Copyright © 2009 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.

Fault Line II

And now, let's hear from the other side of the impending divide, specifically David ("Axis of Evil") Frum, who had a bit of a disagreement on the radio because of the Red State rant mentioned in our item just beneath. Also, Frum's Newsweek cover story, which should be stirring the pot very soon, & starts w/ Frum vs. Levin. Non-aficionados of rabid weasels on the radio should know that the Mark Levin referred to by Canuck Frum is, among nationally syndicated talkers, a close second to Michael "Savage" (neé Weiner) for the highly coveted honor of Most Likely to Snap. Links to Levin pod casts at New Majority [Snicker. "Majority." As if.]

The ferocious hatred and anger – the shouting at people not present to reply, the self-pitying complaints against a world that does not pay enough respect: it’s an ugly performance. [...] Print can only inadequately convey Levin’s sneering and resentful tone as he warmed to this theme, building up to a ringing conclusion:

“And by the way, I will compare my education, my writings, my intellect to any of these buffoons. Any of them! Any of them!”

We can just hear Levin's screeching, whiny voice saying that. Frum adds:

If you want recognition for your intellect, you don’t use your airtime to shout into the microphone like an unhoused madman yelling at the passing cars.

Two things there: Levin has a microphone, that makes him legit. (Sorry, but that's the way it is.) And, we'll assume, a house. As an actual unhoused madman (And thanks for the colorful description!) give us a fucking break. We're trying to help you split your party here. 

He may not need much more help, after the Newsweek piece. 

[I]n 2007, the typical American worker was earning barely more after inflation than the typical American worker had earned in 2000. Out of those flat earnings, that worker was paying more for food, energy and out-of-pocket costs of health care. Political parties that do not deliver economic improvement for the typical person do not get reelected. We Republicans and conservatives were not delivering. The reasons for our failure are complex and controversial, but the consequences are not.

Of course, information like that should be dividing the country into Workers & Parasites, rather than merely breaking up the right wing, but that's just one of the many reasons we hate AmeriKKKa. We'd like to hear more about how & why the reasons for their failure are "controversial," but at least wage stagnation & inflation can't be blamed on the media, suckas!

Fascinating Factoids in the Decline of the G. O. P.:

In 2008 Obama beat John McCain among college graduates by 8 points, the first Democratic win among B.A. holders since exit polling began.

Republicans won California in every presidential election from 1952 through 1988 (except the Goldwater disaster of 1964). Democrats have won California in the five consecutive presidential elections since 1988.

Voters who turned 20 between 2000 and 2005 are the most lopsidedly Democratic age cohort in the electorate. If they eat right, exercise and wear seat belts, they will be voting against George W. Bush well into the 2060s.  

Voting against G. W. into the 2060s. Ha ha.

Between 2004 and 2008, Democrats more than doubled their party-identification advantage in Pennsylvania. A survey of party switchers in the state found that a majority of the reaffiliating voters had belonged to the GOP for 20 years or more. They were educated and affluent. More than half of those who left stated that the GOP had become too extreme.

By this point, we're starting to pity Mr. Frum, stuck in Republican World yet still able to perceive a reality not dissimilar to what most of us know as real. Even starting to worry a bit; this Republican/conservative flame, crash & burn is too good to be true, or too true to be good, perhaps, & Frum's (&, we suppose, the other pundits, for lack of a better term, mentioned) connection to recognizable fact can only be an advantage in a re-grouping/re-building. This, however, reassured us.

We need to put free-market health-care reform, not tax cuts, at the core of our economic message. It's health-care costs that are crushing middle-class incomes.

It can only be a matter of time until This Great Nation of Ours™ removes its head from wherever it's been & realizes that the threat of (Gasp!) Gummint Bureaucrats is less than the threat of For-Profit Bureaucrats. Another nail in the free-market coffin, & health care for all that's less expensive & can't be any worse than it is now. We're not saying next month, or next yr. even, but it can't take forever. Good deal all around. Laying off the tax-cuts & pimping market-based health care may be the only way for the RINOs to hang on through 2010, but it won't hold off the inevitable march of history forever. 

The Not-RINOs are set to fade into history even sooner. 

Most of these e-mails say some version of the same thing: if you don't agree with Rush, quit calling yourself a conservative and get out of the Republican Party. There's the perfect culmination of the outlook Rush Limbaugh has taught his fans and followers: we want to transform the party of Lincoln, Eisenhower and Reagan into a party of unanimous dittoheads—and we don't care how much the party has to shrink to do it. That's not the language of politics. It's the language of a cult.

Harsh. And we can't top it.

Fault Line I

The Big Tent Party exhibits its ever-inclusive approach, via the highly diverse Red State. 1. Geographic inclusion:

It’s like Yankees who come South because it’s generally such a nice place to live and then tell us we’re all a bunch of idiots and that we need to “do it like they used to do it back in Detroit.” Spare me – move back to Detroit and leave me alone.

We are all Yankees now.

2. And the ladies are on our side.

I love being a conservative and am proud to call myself one – so please do us a favor… quit calling yourself conservative, moving the goalposts on us, and then complaining we are on a different field. If you want to have a discussion of ideas, gentlemen, put them out there and we may find common ground. But STOP the condescending babbling about how “bad” we are and recognize that life is too short to go around being pompous and angry in your self-promotion.

Sorry, gentlemen only, w/ snifters of brandy & cigars. The ladies are in the kitchen, doing the dinner dishes & giggling. 

We also note that there's a double-whammy on the "real" conservatives. No sooner were the goalposts moved on them then the Rockefeller Republicans moved the whole damn field! It just isn't fair.

What a  pompous, angry man is "hogan" in his self-promotion.

Elephants On Parade

Republicans being Republicans, in sound & vision, as well as text. Our favorite. Poor Michael Steele.

Intellectual Dishonesty

Self-appointed, self-righteous moralist Andrew Sullivan:

08 Mar 2009 02:36 pm

Agnostics And The Good Book

David Plotz on what he learned by reading the bible:

I began the Bible as a hopeful, but indifferent, agnostic. I wished for a God, but I didn't really care. I leave the Bible as a hopeless and angry agnostic. I'm brokenhearted about God.

After reading about the genocides, the plagues, the murders, the mass enslavements, the ruthless vengeance for minor sins (or none at all), and all that smiting—every bit of it directly performed, authorized, or approved by God—I can only conclude that the God of the Hebrew Bible, if He existed, was awful, cruel, and capricious. He gives us moments of beauty—such sublime beauty and grace!—but taken as a whole, He is no God I want to obey and no God I can love.

And Jesus? I guess you have to buy it.

If, by that last sentence, Andy means that Plotz ignores the alleged redemption of all sinners by Jesus, then Andy could have lifted the very next paragraphs from Plotz' piece as well:

When I complain to religious friends about how much He dismays me, I usually get one of two responses. Christians say: Well, yes, but this is all setup for the New Testament. Reading only the Old Testament is like leaving halfway through the movie. I'm missing all the redemption. If I want to find the grace and forgiveness and wonder, I have to read and believe in the story of Jesus Christ, which explains and redeems all. But that doesn't work for me. I'm a Jew. I don't, and can't, believe that Christ died for my sins. And even if he did, I still don't think that would wash away God's crimes in the Old Testament. The second response tends to come from Jews, who razz me for missing the chief lesson of the Hebrew Bible, which is that we can't hope to understand the ways of God. If He seems cruel or petty, that's because we can't fathom His plan for us. But I'm not buying that, either. If God made me, He made me rational and quizzical. He has given me the tools to think about Him. So I must submit Him to rational and moral inquiry. And He fails that examination. Why would anyone want to be ruled by a God who's so unmerciful, unjust, unforgiving, and unloving?

Don't have an answer for that one, do you, Sullivan? Quite the fucking Christian, aren't you, w/ your dedication to truthful presentation?

Historical Parallels

Vienna, winter, 1913. An empire entangled in a pointless war & a housing crisis. 

At the same time, Vienna was incubating in its own streets some of the century’s prime virtuosos of violence. One of them was active close to the imperial palace, Schloss Schönbrunn, where the emperor had received his heir. An elegant building on Schönbrunner Schlossstrasse housed young Josef Stalin, dispatched by Lenin to explore the empire’s explosive nationalities situation. It was during Stalin’s weeks in Vienna that he initiated his lethal feud with young Leon Trotsky, who, a few streetcar stops away, was publishing the original Pravda. All this while on the other side of town young Adolf Hitler was seething obscurely, painting postcards for a living.

And how did all this mess work out? If you don't know w/o looking it up, you are too young & too ignorant to be reading this.

“Austria,” said Karl Kraus, who was Habsburg Austria’s H. L. Mencken, “is the laboratory for the apocalypse.” What would he say about America today?

Who knows, but we certainly have a few choice things to say concerniing America today.

If You Seek Amy

A PTC press release.

The Parents Television Council cautioned parents and radio stations across the country about a new Britney Spears song that spells out the “f-word.” The PTC believes that the song, entitled “If You Seek Amy,” would violate the broadcast indecency law if aired between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. The song makes repeated use of the following line: “All of the boys and all of the girls are begging to if you seek Amy.” “This may sound Yogi Berra-ish, but Britney’s song is a double-entendre with only one meaning. There is no misinterpreting the lyrics to this song; and it’s certainly not about a girl named Amy,” said PTC President Tim Winter.

Gee, somehow we missed hearing anything about this. Maybe Brit is last yr.'s news. Or was 2007 her yr.?

International Women's Day of Hate

Yes, that would be today. A Canadian Ph.D. gives us the international perspective.

They used the same tactic with Jews, Blacks and Workers and harnessed these groups to their agenda. The ultimate goal is to concentrate all wealth and power in the sponsors of Communism: the Illuminati (Masonic) central banking cartel which is colonizing the whole world. The real meaning of "change" is the establishment of a totalitarian New World Order.  International Women's Day is hate against women and society committed by the traitorous colonial establishment.   People who participate are dupes and "useful idiots."

[...]

Thousands of events are planned around the world. For example, at the Unitarian Church in London Ont. an organization for Afghanistan women and girls "will honour and celebrate our local women with music, singing, dancing, and refreshments. All women and girls are welcome. Free event!" Sounds lesbian to me. In San Francisco, there will be a cocktail party and movie to highlight the plight of the women of Gaza. What about the men and boys of Afghanistan and Gaza? Don't they count? In the name of equality, these Communist dupes are practicing inequality. By breaking up families,they will leave Muslim women and girls more vulnerable than ever. CONCLUSION The fact that Communist-inspired agitprop is part of our mainstream culture is an example of how society has been subverted. Most people are not socialist, let alone Communist, As long as we allow a secret Illuminati clique (Communists, Zionists, Freemasons) to control our credit and plot world government, we are complicit in the destruction of our way of life. We will have no one to blame but ourselves.

We think it's always important to let all & sundry know that we have, indeed, reached our "CONCLUSION". Especially when it's not very well connected to the premises set forth in the earlier part of Dr. Makow's item. And that's as far as we'll go in agreement w/ the bad Dr.

Those w/ a taste for the paranoid style in North American politics (Well, North American blog bloviation & blather, if not real politics.) may wish to consult this dose of paranoia, in which the rather evil Dr. announces the intent of Planned Parenthood (along w/ the Illuminati, & you name it) to "destabilize society." And in case you don't get the message, let's see the cartoon:

This stealth war on heterosexuals (disguised as woman's and gay rights) is designed to destabilize society in advance of the New World Order. The destruction of the nuclear family has long been the Illuminati Communist goal. They wish to make arrested development (homosexuality) the new norm. Lesbianism is the hidden agenda of feminism. Marriage and family are essential to our natural development. But, despite the deceitful propaganda, most male homosexuals don't want marriage or children. They want sex. See this 1969 document from Rockefeller-funded "Planned Parenthood" which plots to promote homosexuality and feminism so as to decrease US fertility. (Berelson-Jaffe Chart)

How do people get their knickers so bunched up? Can a case like this ever get un-bunched?

Sir Paul Gets Popped

Today is Sunday, March 8, the 67th day of 2009. There are 298 days left in the year. 

The full history from the AP. AP's A/V. UPI Almanac. Today's Highlight in History: March 8, 1862, during the Civil War, the ironclad CSS Virginia (formerly USS Merrimack) rammed and sank the USS Cumberland and heavily damaged the USS Congress, both frigates, off Newport News, Va. On this date: In 1702, England's Queen Anne acceded to the throne upon the death of King William III. In 1782, the Gnadenhutten massacre took place as more than 90 Indians were slain by militiamen in Ohio in retaliation for raids carried out by other Indians. In 1854, US Commodore Matthew C. Perry made his second landing in Japan; within a month, he concluded a treaty with the Japanese. In 1859, British writer Kenneth Grahame, author of "The Wind in the Willows," was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. In 1874, the 13th president of the United States, Millard Fillmore, died in Buffalo, N.Y., at age 74.

In 1917, Russia's "February Revolution" (so called because of the Old Style calendar being used by Russians at the time) began with rioting and strikes in Petrograd. The US Senate voted to limit filibusters by adopting the cloture rule.

In 1930, the 27th president of the United States, William Howard Taft, died in Washington at age 72. In 1948, the Supreme Court, in McCollum v. Board of Education, struck down voluntary religious education classes in Champaign, Ill., public schools, saying the program violated separation of church and state. In 1965, the United States landed its first combat troops in South Vietnam as 3,500 Marines were brought in to defend the US air base at Da Nang. In 1988, 17 soldiers were killed when two Army helicopters from Fort Campbell, Ky., collided in mid-flight. Ten years ago: New York Yankees baseball star Joe DiMaggio died in Hollywood, Fla., at age 84. President Bill Clinton began a tour of Central America with a visit to hurricane-battered Nicaragua. The Energy Department fired scientist Wen Ho Lee from his job at the Los Alamos National Laboratory because of alleged security violations. (Despite being under a cloud of suspicion, Lee was never charged with espionage. He eventually pleaded guilty to mishandling computer files; a judge apologized for Lee's treatment.) Five years ago: Iraq's Governing Council signed a landmark interim constitution. Todd Bertuzzi of the Vancouver Canucks slugged Colorado Avalanche forward Steve Moore during a game, leaving Moore with a broken neck, concussion and facial cuts. (Bertuzzi, who was suspended indefinitely from the NHL, later pleaded guilty to criminal assault; he received a conditional discharge and was sentenced to probation and community service.) Abul Abbas, the Palestinian guerrilla leader who'd planned the hijacking of the Achille Lauro passenger ship, died while in U.S. custody in Baghdad, Iraq; he was 56. Actor Robert Pastorelli was found dead in his Hollywood Hills, Calif., home; he was 49. One year ago: President George W. Bush vetoed a bill that would have banned the CIA from using simulated drowning and other coercive interrogation methods to gain information from suspected terrorists. Barack Obama captured the Wyoming Democratic caucuses.  Today's Birthdays: Actress Sue Ane Langdon is 73. Baseball player-turned-author Jim Bouton is 70. Actress Lynn Redgrave is 66. Actor-director Micky Dolenz is 64. Singer-musician Randy Meisner is 63. Pop singer Peggy March is 61. Baseball Hall-of-Fame electee Jim Rice is 56. Singer Gary Numan is 51. NBC News anchor Lester Holt is 50. Actor Aidan Quinn is 50. [People under 50 are stupid & do not matter. — Ed.] On March eighth, 1962, The Beatles made their TV debut on the BBC program "Teenager's Turn." They performed a cover of Roy Orbison's "Dream Baby." In 1970, Diana Ross performed her first solo concert after leaving The Supremes, in Framingham, Massachusetts. In 1973, keyboardist Ron "Pigpen" McKernan of the Grateful Dead died at his apartment in Madera, California. He was 27. McKernan had been under a doctor's care for cirrhosis. Paul McCartney was fined $240 for growing marijuana outside his farm in Scotland. McCartney claimed fans gave him the seeds and he didn't know what would grow from them. In 1989, gospel-country singer Stuart Hamblen died after having a malignant brain tumor removed at a California hospital. In 1992, actress Annette Funicello revealed she had multiple sclerosis.

In 1993, "Beavis and Butt-Head" premiered on MTV as a series. Previously, the characters were shown on MTV's "Liquid Television" program.  Thought for Today: "Noble deeds and hot baths are the best cures for depression." — Dodie Smith, English playwright (1896-1990). [We call bullshit!! — Ed.] Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reversed.