No Fun

My babe.

No fun.

Wound up tight and no where to go down in the Lone Star State.

No poofters, either, damn it.

Tis Thee

Not me!

It's his money, so it's ok.

Sigh

Stupid is. Texas Tribune (02.17.10), via DailyKos:

"Nearly a third of Texans believe humans and dinosaurs roamed the earth at the same time, and more than half disagree with the theory that humans developed from earlier species of animals, according to the University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll."

The Texas Tribune

Good old Don. How do you spell superstitious? NYTimes (02.11.10):

"(T)he (Texas State Board of Education) meeting was dominated by another member. Don McLeroy, a small, vigorous man with a shiny pate and bristling mustache, proposed amendment after amendment on social issues to the document that teams of professional educators had drawn up over 12 months, in what would have to be described as a single-handed display of archconservative political strong-arming."

How Christian Were the Founders?

Oh and did you know Elvis is dating Marilyn on Atlantis?

We didn't either.

Wound Up Tight

And nowhere to go. AP (01.26.08), via AmericaBlog:

"The Federal Communications Commission has proposed a $1.4 million fine against 52 ABC Television Network stations over a 2003 broadcast of cop drama NYPD Blue.

The fine is for a scene where a boy surprises a woman as she prepares to take a shower. The scene depicted 'multiple, close-up views' of the woman's 'nude buttocks' according to an agency order issued late Friday."

Nude Buttocks May Cost ABC $1.4 Million

All this for showing a bare ass on TV?

Is this country great, or what?

You Want A Mandate?

This here's a mandate. AP (12.24.07):

"Uzbekistan's authoritarian President Islam Karimov won a new term in office with 88.1 percent of the votes in an election dismissed by critics as a sham, according to figures released by the Central Elections Commission on Monday.

Karimov faced three other candidates in the Sunday vote, but all of them publicly supported Karimov."

Uzbek Leader Wins New Term With 88%

Must be losing his touch. In 2000, he got almost 92% of the votes. Think that's something? Ha! In 1995, he got 99.6%.

If old J. Edgar had been around, maybe George could have pulled numbers like these. AP (12.24.07):

"A newly declassified document shows that J. Edgar Hoover, the longtime director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, had a plan to suspend habeas corpus and imprison some 12,000 Americans he suspected of disloyalty.

Hoover sent his plan to the White House on July 7, 1950, 12 days after the Korean War began. It envisioned putting suspect Americans in military prisons."

Hoover Planned Mass Jailing in 1950

"Hoover wanted President Harry S. Truman to proclaim the mass arrests necessary to 'protect the country against treason, espionage and sabotage.' The F.B.I would 'apprehend all individuals potentially dangerous' to national security, Hoover’s proposal said."

"The arrests would be carried out under 'a master warrant attached to a list of names' provided by the bureau."

J. Edgar

Keep It Zipped, Boys

All your rubbers are belong to us. As Cole sez, this appointment "will surprise approximately no one". Wall Street Journal (10.16.07), via Carpetbagger:

"The Department of Health and Human Services appointed Susan Orr — who has spoken out against contraception — to a post responsible for U.S. contraception programs."

Contraception Foe Named to Contraception Post

"Orr, who will be acting deputy assistant secretary for population affairs, has been directing child welfare programs in another branch of HHS. Prior to joining the Bush administration, Orr was senior director for marriage and family at the Family Research Council, a conservative group that favors abstinence-only education and opposes federal money for contraception."

Fuggin' Morons

Our way or the highway, you commies. LATimes (10.09.07), via Huffington:

"The Mountain View, Calif., company bathes its logo in stars and stripes every Independence Day, but last week's decision to honor the 50th anniversary of the Sputnik launch -- the second 'g' in Google was replaced with a drawing of the Soviet satellite -- is being blasted by some conservatives.

Not only did Google honor an achievement by a totalitarian regime that was our Cold War enemy, they griped, but it did so without having ever altered its logo to commemorate U.S. military personnel on Memorial Day or Veterans Day.

Los Angeles Times: Tweaks send Google critics into orbit

Guess ya gotta piss red, white and blue to satisfy these guys. "'It's a kick to your belly,' said conservative blogger Giovanni Gallucci, 39, a social media consultant from Dallas."

"Conservatives see the Sputnik logo as particularly galling because the search giant's in-house artist has tweaked the Google logo for a variety of obscure events, including World Water Day, Persian New Year, painter Edvard Munch's birthday and China's Dragon Boat Festival."

"Google regularly gives other U.S. holidays the logo treatment, including Halloween, Thanksgiving and St. Patrick's Day (but not for Columbus Day, which was Monday).

"'When they ignore Veterans Day and Memorial Day, I think they're telling us something about the way they view America,' said Joseph Farah, editor of WorldNetDaily.com, a conservative website that has criticized Google's logo decisions." Joe didn't say exactly what it was he thought Google was trying to tell us, but it's pretty damned clear if he was running the show, things would be a helluva lot different.

And that's something you could count on.

Ha!

With great fanfare, the Australian government has launched a very expensive program "to clean up Internet porn, in an effort to woo Christian voters." The results to date have been mixed, to say the least. Herald-Sun (08.25.07):

"A Melbourne schoolboy has cracked the Federal Government's new $84 million internet porn filter in minutes.

Tom Wood, 16, said it took him just over 30 minutes to bypass the Government's filter, released on Tuesday."

Student cracks $84m porn filter

"His technique ensures the software's toolbar icon is not deleted, leaving parents under the impression the filter is still working."

After this article hit the stands, the Australian Government "added an Australian designed filter, Integard, to the website yesterday, which Tom cracked within 40 minutes."

Sigh

Who put all these things in his head? American Family News Network (08.08.07), via Kos:

"Last month, the U.S. Senate was opened for the first time ever with a Hindu prayer. Although the event generated little outrage on Capitol Hill, Representative Bill Sali (R - ID1) is one member of Congress who believes the prayer should have never been allowed.

'We have not only a Hindu prayer being offered in the Senate, we have a Muslim member of the House of Representatives now, Keith Ellison from Minnesota. Those are changes -- and they are not what was envisioned by the Founding Fathers,' asserts Sali."

Idaho congressman disturbed by Hindu prayer in Senate, election of Muslim to House

"Sali says America was built on Christian principles that were derived from scripture. He also says the only way the United States has been allowed to exist in a world that is so hostile to Christian principles is through 'the protective hand of God.'"

"According to Congressman Sali, the only way the U.S. can continue to survive is under that protective hand of God. He states when a Hindu prayer is offered, 'that's a different god' and that it 'creates problems for the longevity of this country.'"

Not that it matters much to Bill, but by some estimates, Christianity has more believers worldwide than any other religion.

Smut Watch

67,000 complaints and zero prosecutions. And we're paying for it. NYTimes (08.09.07):

"Tom Rogers, a retired Indianapolis detective, toils away most days in his suburban home office reviewing sexual Web sites and other Internet traffic to see whether they qualify as obscene material whose purveyors should be prosecuted by the Justice Department.

His work is financed by a Justice Department grant initially provided through a Congressional earmark inserted into a spending bill by Representative Frank R. Wolf, Republican of Virginia."

Federal Effort on Web Obscenity Shows Few Results

"The grant, about $150,000 a year, has helped pay for Mr. Rogers and another retired law enforcement officer in Reno, Nev., to harvest and review complaints about obscene matter on the Internet that citizens register on the Justice Department Web site."

"In the last few years, 67,000 citizens’ complaints have been deemed legitimate under the program and passed on to the Justice Department and federal prosecutors."

"The number of prosecutions resulting from those referrals is zero."

Here's the good part. Their website cautions "against citizens searching the Internet for obscene websites to report. Men are particularly vulnerable to pornographic addiction with its highly destructive consequences."

"It is the job of law enforcement agents to police the Internet."

So guys, be careful out there.

Moron Alert

What a puss. Boston Herald (07.06.07), via Majikthise:

"A Boston man who failed the Massachusetts bar exam has filed a federal lawsuit claiming his refusal to answer a test question - related to gay marriage - caused him to flunk the test.

Stephen Dunne, 30, is suing the Massachusetts Board of Bar Examiners and the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, claiming the 'inappropriate' test question violated his religious convictions and his First Amendment rights."

Bar-exam flunker sues: Wannabe rejects gay-wed question, law

" Answering the question, Dunne claims, would imply he endorsed gay marriage and parenting."

Though on the bar exam, no one would know because the answers aren't public.

"The suit also challenges the constitutionality of the 2003 [Supreme Judicial Court] ruling that made Massachusetts the nation’s first state to legalize same-sex marriage.

"Dunne, who describes himself as a Christian and a Democrat, is seeking $9.75 million in damages and wants a jury to prohibit the Board of Bar Examiners from considering the question in his passage of the exam and to order it removed from all future exams."

We're thinking it wasn't just the one question that sunk him. We're betting he flunked because he pooched the rest of the exam too.

God Is Great Business

Family values indeed. The Nation (06.18.07) (big h/t to Schpatz):

"Over the past six years George W. Bush's faith-based Administration and a conservative Republican Congress transformed the small-time abstinence-only business into a billion-dollar industry.

These dangerously ineffective sexual health enterprises flourish not because they spread 'family values' but because of generous helpings of the same pork-heavy gumbo Bush & Co. brought to war-blighted Iraq and Katrina-hammered New Orleans--a mix of back-scratching cronyism, hefty partisan campaign donations, high-dollar lobbyists, a revolving door for political appointees and a lack of concern for results."

The Abstinence Gluttons

"One of the chief cooks is a media-shy 63-year-old Catholic multimillionaire, welfare privatizer and Republican donor named Raymond Ruddy. With close ties to the White House, federal health officials and Republican power brokers that date back to W.'s days as Texas governor, Ruddy has leveraged his generous wallet and insider muscle to push an ultraconservative social agenda, enrich a preferred network of abstinence-only and antiabortion groups, boost profits for his company and line the pockets of his cronies--all with taxpayer dollars."

No Shows

Pandering only gets you so far. AP (05.18.07):

"U.S. Sen. John McCain isn't planning to attend the Rev. Jerry Falwell's funeral Tuesday. Rival Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani can't make it, either."

Some GOP Notables to Miss Falwell Rites

"President Bush does not plan to attend, but the White House is sending Tim Goeglein, a mid-level aide." Tim who?

Speaking of pandering, here's Jerry on Rudy last April. Here's Jerry on Rudy two weeks later.

One guy who did go to the service was Newt. He dazzled the crowd with the whining piss-pot pitch. AP (05.19.07):

"Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told Liberty University's graduating class Saturday to honor the spirit of school founder Jerry Falwell by confronting 'the growing culture of radical secularism' with Christian ideals.

Gingrich, who is considering a 2008 presidential run, quoted Bible passages to a mournful crowd of about 17,000 packed into the university's football stadium four days after Falwell's death."

Gingrich: Challenge 'Radical Secularism'

"'A growing culture of radical secularism declares that the nation cannot profess the truths on which it was founded,' Gingrich said. 'We are told that our public schools can no longer invoke the creator, nor proclaim the natural law nor profess the God-given quality of human rights."

Would this include "truths" such as the sun revolves around the earth (h/t LGM)?

So where, exactly was Newt going with this? In a nutshell, "'(a)nybody on the left who hopes that when people like Reverend Falwell disappear that the opportunity to convert all of America has gone with them fundamentally misunderstands why institutions like this were created,' Gingrich said."

Meaning the "opportunity" to convert you, my friend.

Resistance is futile; you will be assimilated.

Chocolate Jesus

Has a weesus. AP (03.31.07):

"A planned Holy Week exhibition of a nude, anatomically correct chocolate sculpture of Jesus Christ was canceled Friday after Cardinal Edward Egan and other outraged Catholics complained.

The 'My Sweet Lord' display was shut down by the hotel that houses the Lab Gallery in midtown Manhattan. Roger Smith Hotel president James Knowles cited the public outcry for his decision."

Outcry Cancels Chocolate Jesus Show

The good Cardinal described it as s "'a sickening display.'" Right on cue, Busybody to the Pope, Bill Donohue "said it was 'one of the worst assaults on Christian sensibilities ever.'"

Here's a picture of the thing. BFD, eh?