A Violently Executed Blog |
||||||||
|
There is a god. His name is Thor. Jack Kirby is his prophet. A Violently Executed Feed BUY SOME STUFF, MAKE ME HAPPY Contact me. Links and stuff Handshake Bloggers Damn Good Music
|
Friday, April 29, 2005
Georgia At my parents' in Georgia right now, after 2 long days of driving. Some things I learned: (1) Northern Louisiana and Mississippi suck. (2) DVD players in the car are a Gift From God. (3) I'm sick of fast food. Tomorrow is the funeral, so far my folks seem to be keeping it together OK. I really can't say enough how much your kind words and thoughts have helped. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 7:57:00 PM   | Thursday, April 28, 2005
Urgh Heading out on the road today, after a night of scant sleep. It's going to be a long weekend, and not in the good way. Thanks again for the kind words and thoughts. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 7:02:00 AM | Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Many Thanks ... to everyone for their kind words and thoughts. They meant a lot and helped even more. I'll be heading out of town tomorrow for the funeral and will be back on Monday, I don't know for sure what my internet hookup situation will be. I'll try to post something while I'm gone, but there will be a day or two wihtout posts. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 12:36:00 PM | If Florida Did Not Exist, It Would Be Necessary To Invent One Jeb Bush is terribly concerned with justice. Honest - look at how hard he fought for Terri Schiavo's brain-dead body, going so far as to send state troopers to try to confiscate her still-breathing corpse so he could keep it around and wheel it to future campaign appearances in 2008. Unfortunately for him, demonic liberal Southern Baptist, Republican-appointed judges insisted upon obeying that Satanic document known as "the law" and proceeded to disembowel the state troopers and feast upon the steaming marrow in their bones. Jeb's obsession with justice extends from brain-dead corpses to somewhere a little short of innocent men on death row (Florida still lags behind Texas in number of executions, but not for lack of trying). He's even concerned with protecting police and teachers from juvenile criminals! Last November, a 6-year-old brazenly brandished a piece of glass at police, threatening to cut himself. The police bravely took the only step possible to save themselves, drawing their tasers and letting that little punk get a taste of 50,000 volt JUSTICE. Hell, even the LAPD isn't that protective of its officers' safety. Just last month, a desperate 5-year-old broke a candy dish, threw some books and hit the assistant principal in the stomach. Officers were able to handcuff her before she called them "poopy-heads" and spit in their milk. There is a videotape of the cuffing incident - it's really comforting to see such care and concern on the part of the police for the safety of books and candy dishes. Those three officers certainly deserve some kind of commendation for saving that school from the terroristic threats of a wee tot. Sure, Jeb can't take the credit for everything the police do, but seeing as how he got so worked up over saving a persistently vegetative woman, his silence on the issue of cops ganging up on elementary school students is fascinating, to say the least. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 10:23:00 AM | Tuesday, April 26, 2005
Shit My father just called. My grandfather died this morning. Daddy Rush had been getting older and more frail for some time, and his passing is not unexpected, but it still hurts like hell. I remember he always had Dentyne gum to pass out to his grandchildren, I remember riding on a rail car belonging to Southern Railways when I was a small child, I remember Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners, the little sayings he had like, "Eat your vegetables, they'll make your hair curly and your teeth pearly!" I don't know any details, I don't know what the funeral arrangements are. I'm in an emotional holding pattern, so to speak. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 10:57:00 AM | More Queer-Bashing In The Texas Lege We found out last week that faggots, dykes and bisexuals (and I'd like to respectfully request we get our own slur) aren't fit to be foster parents, because we might infect the children of Texas with gay cooties or tolerance or something. Apparently, this wasn't enough. Texas House passes its very own Hate Amendment. Voting for the second time in two weeks to restrict the rights of homosexuals, the Texas House on Monday approved a measure to lock into the state constitution a ban on same-sex marriages and civil unions.Let's hear what members of the nutjob brigade have to say in their defense, shall we? "I think it (marriage) deserves the highest level of protection," said Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, sponsor of the measure, House Joint Resolution 6.Well so do I, but I have the common sense to understand that two people making a long-term commitment based on mutual love and respect isn't the real threat to marriage. Poverty is a threat to marriage. Alcohol and drug abuse is a threat to marriage. Racial injustice is a threat to marriage. The goddamn bankruptcy law just signed by President Bush is a threat to marriage. You, sir, are a threat to marriage. "We as Texans believe marriage is between one man and one woman," added Rep. Carter Casteel, R-New Braunfels.I, as a Texan, do not believe that. I do, on the other hand, believe that you are an ignorant, bigoted shitbag. There were some good folks speaking out against the bill, though. "This amendment is blowing smoke to fuel the hell-fire flames of bigotry," said Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston.We need more legislators like Ms. Thompson, dammit. Spokesman Mark Miner said Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who presides over the Senate, hadn't seen the final language of the House amendment.As if, somehow, being for equal marriage means that one is somehow against marriage. Don't try and figure that one out, it'll just make you dizzy. The amendment defines marriage as a union involving one man and one woman and prohibits the state or any local government from creating or recognizing "any legal status identical or similar to marriage," such as civil unions.Well, that's certainly helpful. Helpful in much the same way that napalming your neighbor's garden helps yours looks better. After almost three hours of heated debate, Chisum attempted to cool tempers."...except you faggots and dykes. You can all rot." posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 9:49:00 AM | Monday, April 25, 2005
Supply Our Troops! The war in Iraq has crossed the $300,000,000,000 mark. $8,000,000,000 in Iraqi redevelopment funds went missing under Paul Bremer's proconsulship (said theft of 8 billion dollars, apparently, the event that earned Bremer his Presidential Medal of Freedom). $10,000,000,000 in contracts have been awarded to Dick Cheney's former employer, Halliburton, and so far, over $212,000,000 in overcharges have been found in Halliburton invoices. In the meantime, American soldiers die because the vehicles issued to them don't have armor and the Bush administration just doesn't care. On May 29, 2004, a station wagon that Iraqi insurgents had packed with C-4 explosives blew up on a highway in Ramadi, killing four American marines who died for lack of a few inches of steel. Of the 185 men in Company E, over 1/3 were wounded or killed during their 6-month tour in Ramadi, Iraq. No other Marine company in the war to date has experienced such a high attrition rate. "As marines, we are always taught that we do more with less," said Sgt. James S. King, a platoon sergeant who lost his left leg when he was blown out of the Humvee that Saturday afternoon last May. "And get the job done no matter what it takes." Capt. Kelly D. Royer was vocal in his complaints to his superiors about the poor logistics, supply and support given to his unit, taking photographs of destroyed hummvees in an effort to highlight the lack of armor and the innefectiveness of his command's efforts to improvise armor with scrap metal. Lt. Sean J. Schickel remembers Captain Royer asking a high-ranking Marine Corps visitor whether the company would be getting more factory-armored Humvees. The official said they had not been requested and that there were production constraints, Lieutenant Schickel said. There's the true spirit behind those Yellow Ribbon stickers! Easy support for our military with no rise in taxes, no scrimping, no saving - unless you're the family of an enlisted man, in which case you're more likely to need to go on government assistance. I'm so proud of my country I could puke. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 11:03:00 AM | Sunday, April 24, 2005
Got Some Good News About A Friend Most of you don't know Effie Johnson from Adam.  Well, you do know her from this Adam, but I was using a figure of speech. Anyhoo, in college I was always a little in awe of her - she's ferociously talented, and she's also one of those genuinely warm people that you don't often get to meet. I haven't seen her near enough since she moved to New York, so it was good to get some word. Her sister Mercedes contacted me recently on Tribe.net - I knew Mercedes through Effie at college, but we moved in different circles, so it was more of a passing acquaintance thing. Mercedes, who seems to be doing well in Nashville, passed along the word that Effie is in the ensemble of the revival of Julius Caesar starring Denzel Washington right now. Not only that, but Effie's been understudying a larger role. A case of food poisoning later, Effie got to perform in a couple of performances. Good on Effie, I sez. She's been criminally undercast by my standards, and this is a good break for her. I'll be adding Mercedes to my music links on the lower left, and crossing my fingers for Effie as well. Them's a talented family, lemme tell ya. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 12:32:00 PM | Saturday, April 23, 2005
Oh, This Is Great! Genesis 6 GIANTS!!!!! Stretch your mind back to childhood. What giants do you remember? Jack and the Beanstalk? Hercules? Paul Bunyan? Goliath? What were you told and what did you read? With the exception of Goliath and an occasional ornery cyclops, legends emphasized their innate goodness, eye-popping feats accomplished with unparalleled strength, victories over the bad guys and all performed by "gentle giants". What if it were all a lie? What if the truth were something much MUCH more sinister? Pretty heady stuff! I seem to recall hearing and reading of every variety of giant from the gentle and timid to the savage and horrific, but I also don't have that selective a memory. Still - GIANTS!!! Lots of links to other Kooky stuff, from Atlantis to the Turin Shroud, sort of alphabetized for your convenience! There's even a photo gallery of posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 2:29:00 PM | Friday, April 22, 2005
Friday Five - In Another's Shoes Gord, never one to ask a simple question, wants to know: I was rereading a short story by Orson Scott Card, called "Angles" (in the Silverberg/Haber Best of SF 2002 collection), when I ran into a machine that's familiar to all of us, I'm sure. The trope is all too common in SF: the machine that can capture others' experiences and let you experience them for yourself. Imagine if such a machine were built to capture the experiences of others, as they were happening, and store them for later re-experiencing by others (or, of course, the original "owner" of the experience). Imagine the memories were storable, saleable, reusable. Let's leave aside questions of copyright and propriety and transparency and all of that, and concentrate on the experiences. Let's say that you were going to test this machine out, for whatever reason. What would be the five experiences of other people which you would choose to experience, and why those experiences in particular? Or, alternately, if you think you would actually purchase such a machine, (as I suspect perhaps I might do, if it were affordable): Which five experiences of other people would you keep ready at hand,— and in each experience, what is the specific sensory detail most enchanting, bewitching, beguiling, or whatever it is that would draw you back to the experience repeatedly?
posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 7:56:00 AM | Thursday, April 21, 2005
A Few Bad Apples If by "A Few" you mean "people in the entire chain of command from PFC Lyndie England up to George W. Bush" and by "Bad Apples" you mean "sick fucks that think torture is a good idea", then, yeah, Bush's assessment of the root cause of the widespread torure that we're discovering more about every day is pretty accurate. The latest: Army Intelligence officials in Iraq made wish lists of torture techniques. Army intelligence officials in Iraq developed and circulated "wish lists" of harsh interrogation techniques they hoped to use on detainees in August 2003, including tactics such as low-voltage electrocution, blows with phone books and using dogs and snakes -- suggestions that some soldiers believed spawned abuse and illegal interrogations.And I wonder what the catalyst was for the e-mail from HQ. Perhaps a few choice statements by Perjurer Ricardo Sanchez? Or his boss, Donald Rumsfeld? Dick Cheney? Alberto Gonzales? The Simp Chimp himself? Bad Apples, indeed. We were just paying attention to the wrong end of the barrel. At the 4th Infantry Division's detention facility in Tikrit, the e-mail caused top intelligence officials to develop a list including open-hand strikes, closed-fist strikes, using claustrophobic techniques and a number of "coercive" techniques such as striking with phone books, low-voltage electrocution and inducing muscle fatigue. The list was sent back to Baghdad on Aug. 17.You know, the Ottoman Turks used to beat people on the soles of their feet. So did some guy I remember reading about... wossname, Saddam Hussein? Yeah, that's it. Let Freedom Reign! Mission Accomplished! Democracy Is On The March! At least one person in the chain of command was bothered by this: A military intelligence staff sergeant who supervised the interrogators said a "fear up" approach had been approved for the interrogation. The unnamed sergeant wrote in a rebuttal to a reprimand that senior leaders were blurring the lines between official enemy prisoners of war and terrorists not afforded international protection.I don't know who that sergeant is, but he deserves a medal, a raise and a promotion. Here's hoping he managed to keep his integrity and soul intact. According to court records and testimony in cases against three 3rd ACR soldiers and a military intelligence warrant officer in the death of Iraqi Gen. Abid Mowhoush, interrogators there regularly stuffed detainees into a sleeping bag and wound them with an electrical cord as part of a "claustrophobic technique" that high-ranking officials believed was approved. Mowhoush, who had been beaten, died while being interrogated in a sleeping bag in November 2003.We've spent the last 200 years working towards living up to our ideals as a nation - it's not been a consistent upward climb by any stretch of the imagination, and we're nowhere near the top, but dammit, we've been getting better. We need to keep getting better, and torture, no matter how well-intentioned, doesn't fit the bill. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 9:35:00 AM | I'm A Pope! Saw this on one of my discussion forums (fora?), then noticed today that Marvin had linked to it.
Forget kissing my ring - Pope Facetious Ralph I sez "Pull my finger!" posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 8:49:00 AM | Wednesday, April 20, 2005
According To The Texas Lege, I'm An Unfit Parent I don't abuse my children. I provide them with a house, food, clothing, books, toys and more activities than they can probably stand. I am in a loving, monogamous relationship with a wonderful woman who is a good mother. The above don't matter, though. According to legislation just passed by the Texas House, I'm unqualified to be a foster parent because I'm a bisexual. "It is our responsibility to make sure that we protect our most vulnerable children, and I don't think we are doing that if we allow a foster parent that is homosexual or bisexual," said Republican Rep. Robert Talton, who introduced the amendment.Fuck you, Talton. You hear me? Go fuck yourself with a broken bottle. If I can't be a foster parent, you must not think I'm fit to be a parent, period. Please, illuminate me - how am I unfit? Is the love I give my children the problem? The way I've taught them to say "please" and "thank you"? The regular meals? The clothing? Encouraging them to express themselves? What is it about me that makes me unfit? Under the Texas bill, anyone who applies to be a foster parent or a foster parent whose performance is being evaluated must say whether he or she is homosexual or bisexual. Anyone who answers yes would be barred from serving as a foster parent. If the person is already a foster parent, the child would be removed from the home.I realize this bill directly addresses foster parents, but what's to stop these Stalinist thugs from expanding it to include all queers? After all, if faggots and dykes can't be trusted with foster children, we shouldn't trust them with children at all. The bill follows recent child slayings that occurred after caseworkers investigated suspicions of neglect or abuse and decided the children were safe to remain with their parents.And how many of those children were slain by homosexuals? Huh? How many? How many of those children were slain by Christians, I wonder? Should we prevent Christians from being foster parents? I certainly don't think so, but it makes as much, if not more, sense than your asinine, vile, sickening and bigoted proposal. It would give all of Child Protective Services' foster care and case management duties to private companies, which already manage 75 percent of foster homes in Texas.This is just the icing on the goddamn cake, but sums up the filthy hypocrisy of the GOP. They make a big stink about protecting the integrity of their Precious Bodily Fluids, about the dire threat posed to their "faith" by liberal faggot atheist communists, while they're sneaking in a nice little bonus for the corporations they're whoring themselves out to. Foster children tend to get a raw deal, and legislation is quite possibly needed to prevent tragedies like the deaths that supposedly prompted this bill, but banning qualified, loving foster parents on the basis of their sexuality and giving uncaring corporations a bigger serving at the trough isn't the way to do it. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 1:31:00 PM | Fuckers Yesterday, I put the leftover portion of my lunch in the refrigerator in my work area, planning to eat it for lunch today. I left the house this morning without a lunch based upon the knowledge that I had food at work. When I arrived this morning, I looked in the refrigerator to discover that some ratfuck bastard had either eaten my food or thrown it out - the bag I'd put in the fridge with MY NAME CLEARLY WRITTEN ON IT was missing, as were the contents of the bag. Looks like I'll be going hungry today - it won't kill me, but I'm going to be pretty goddamn cranky all day. My cow-orkers are just lucky I'm a nice guy and not prone to flipping out and going postal. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 8:07:00 AM | Tuesday, April 19, 2005
They Say You Get The Pope You Deserve... Powerful Cardinal in Vatican Accused of Sexual Abuse Cover-Up Dunno how long this'll be around before it's dropped into the memory hole, so I'll post it all. All emphasis mine. April 26, 2002: A trusted ally of Pope John Paul II has been accused of sexually abusing boys a half-century ago at an elite seminary for the Catholic Church. Yep, looks like you guys got you a real winner, there. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 10:25:00 PM | New Pope! My friend Maggie prefers Pope Classic. Cardinal Ratzinger, the head of the It's no longer a question of whether the RCC is going to get more or less progressive. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 12:06:00 PM | Good News for Bibliophiles Decoded at last: the 'classical holy grail' that may rewrite the history of the world For more than a century, it has caused excitement and frustration in equal measure - a collection of Greek and Roman writings so vast it could redraw the map of classical civilisation. If only it was legible.From Sophocles' Epigonoi: Speaker A: . . . gobbling the whole, sharpening the flashing iron.That play, the story of Eteocles' and Polynices' tragic battle for control of Thebes, has been lost for over 2000 years - no one even knew the play existed. Tom Stoppard was right. In his brilliant play Arcadia, one of the characters says: "Seven plays from Aeschylus, seven from Sophocles, nineteen from Euripedes, my lady! You should no more grieve for the rest than for a buckle lost from your first shoe, or for your lesson book which will be lost when you are old. We shed as we pick up, like travellers who must carry everything in their arms, and what we let fall will be picked up by those behind. The procession is very long and life is very short. We die on the march. But there is nothing outside the march so nothing can be lost to it. The missing plays of Sophocles will turn up piece by piece, or be written again in another language."It may be years, decades even, but sooner or later, we'll be able to walk into the bookstore and buy new translations of works that haven't been read for centuries. And people say technology is bad. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 8:40:00 AM | The GOP on Rising Gas Prices Terry Everett, R-AL The Bush Administration has failed in its duty to develop a policy to deal with our national energy supply and is therefore directly accountable for the higher prices Americans are now paying at the gas pumps," Congressman Terry Everett, R-Enterprise, said Friday.James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisconsin: Representatives Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Menomonee Falls), Tom Petri (R-Fond du Lac), Paul Ryan (R-Janesville), and Mark Green (R-Green Bay) today blasted Energy Secretary Bodman and the Bush Administration for their failure to implement a comprehensive energy policy to deal with staggering gas prices Wisconsin consumers continue to face at the pumps. Wally Herger, R-CA: Congressman Wally Herger recently denounced the Bush Administration's complacency during the current gas price crisis. Larry Kudlow in the National Review: The Bush administration’s hapless and incoherent management of foreign policy is nowhere as evident as in their bungling on OPEC’s oil-price hike. Energy secretary Samuel Bodman's tin-cup diplomacy — an apt phrase for his pleading to our so-called Persian Gulf allies to increase production and reduce prices — is unseemly and inappropriate for the world’s only superpower. Now, go back through the above and replace "Bush" with "Clinton" and "Samuel Bodman" with "Bill Richardson". The quotes above are from 2000. Remember in 2000, when George W. Bush said: What I think the president ought to do is he ought to get on the phone with the OPEC cartel and say we expect you to open your spigots. One reason why the price is so high is because the price of crude oil has been driven up. OPEC has gotten its supply act together, and it's driving the price, like it did in the past. And the president of the United States must jawbone OPEC members to lower the price. Gas prices were creeping over $2/gallon back then, and it was all Bill Clinton's fault. Wonder why the GOP stooges are all silent now? I don't. They don't give a shit - they're insulated from the pain of being a citizen. What they don't get with their annual, automatic pay raises, they get from whoring themselves out to corporations. The average Americans, the middle class and the poor, are getting shafted - again. The backbone of this nation is being slowly eroded by the anti-growth, anti-American policies of this administration. We need more from our energy policy than "Rape Alaska and Fuck the Consumers". Thanks, Red Staters. Fuckin' morons. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 8:19:00 AM | Monday, April 18, 2005
TV Shows I'd Like To See Touched By A Biker - Get a bunch of annoying media figures (I'm thinking the Religious Nutjob Brigade for the first episode) and shove 'em into a dimly-lit warehouse full of precariously-stacked crates, hydraulic machinery that works in fits and starts and rabid rats the size of cats. Give 'em a couple of hours to hide, then let a meth-crazed biker with a baseball bat and night vision goggles in the side door. Last one standing (or twitching) wins. Survivor: Yukon - Enough with the namby-pamby "survive on a lush tropical island" bullshit! Each contestant gets an igloo, a parka and some sealskin mukluks, plus enough whale blubber to last a week. Oh, did I mention it's December? Yeah. Now we see who's really the toughest. Star Trek: The Continuity Wars - Finally, Paramount settles the interminable debates about the "history" of the Star Trek universe! Fanboys take turns writing scripts that other fanboys direct, and Scott Bakula gets to watch his career deteriorate further. And Rick Berman gets sodomized by a Gorn in every episode! Desperate Housewives - Real desperate housewives. Women that spend their days wrangling fussy kids and scrambling to get everyone where they need to be. Women that get asinine slurs hurled at them by complete strangers desperate to involve themselves in the parenting choices of others. Let's give them a show. They could take folks that criticize them and give 'em a taste of their own medicine. The Hooligans - A cheeky, lighthearted (albeit bloody) show that the late, great Bill Hicks would have loved. Take The Hooligans, a lighthearted street gang prone to breaking into song and synchronized dance numbers and drop 'em in East Compton. It's a toss-up who gets 'em first - the Crips, the Bloods or the LAPD. Crossfire: STEEL CAGE DEATHMATCH! - In one fell swoop, CNN will out-Fox Fox and deliver the ABSOLUTE MAYHEM its viewers demand! Two men enter, ONE MAN LEAVES! See Bob Novak face off against John Kerry, Paul Begala against Tucker Carlson! Ann Coulter faces the dreaded marabunta and genetically-altered air-breathing pirhana/anaconda hybrids! The body of John Paul II versus the dismembered corpse of Madeline Murray O'Hair! FEEL THE PAIN! SEE THE BLOOD! PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WATCH CNN! WE'RE EDGY! HONEST! please Zap That Liar! - Tom DeLay, "Old Sparky", a lie-detector and one big, red, shiny button. Tom gets to talk about his ethics problems and random passers-by get to zap him if they think he's lying. If they're right, they win a prize! If they're wrong, they have to try again. Loads of fun for the entire family! Once Ol' Tom's used up, we can put Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales and Rush Limbaugh in the Hot Seat. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 3:41:00 PM | Sunday, April 17, 2005
Filibuster Is Coming! Lock up your sons and daughters! Filibuster lusts for the fair white flesh of your children. Filibuster will ravish your wife, soiling the purity of your marriage bed! Filibuster will eat the living flesh of your pets! Filibuster will sodomize you with your own Bible! Only Good White Christian Men can stop Filibuster! Senator Bill Frist, A Good White Christian Man, wants to stop Filibuster before it DESTROYS AMERICA!!!! Will you help STOP FILIBUSTER??!!! Filibuster licks his rubbery lips and rubs his dusky hands together in anticipation of what he will do to your family if he is not stopped! Filibuster wants nothing less than the destruction of our DEMOCRACY! Filibuster is a communist, atheist, pagan socialist bent upon making everyone gay animal fuckers! Will YOU stand up against FILIBUSTER??!!! If you want to stop FILIBUSTER, click here to posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 5:24:00 PM | Well, At Least They're Honest About It - Not Bush administration eliminating 19-year-old international terrorism report Jonathan S. Landay writes for Knight-Ridder: The State Department decided to stop publishing an annual report on international terrorism after the government's top terrorism center concluded that there were more terrorist attacks in 2004 than in any year since 1985, the first year the publication covered. "Surely there's a good reason for this," you say. "Surely our government really and truly does care about stopping terrorism!" Pish-tosh, I say. And quit calling me Shirley. The reason given for stopping this report? Several U.S. officials defended the abrupt decision, saying the methodology the National Counterterrorism Center used to generate statistics for the report may have been faulty, such as the inclusion of incidents that may not have been terrorism. Plausible, except for this, which fits the established misAdministration pattern to a "T": But other current and former officials charged that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's office ordered "Patterns of Global Terrorism" eliminated several weeks ago because the 2004 statistics raised disturbing questions about the Bush's administration's frequent claims of progress in the war against terrorism. If the facts don't support the contention that Preznit Boosh and his gang of thugs are making the world better, shut down the reports and make up some lies, pronto! Our world is more dangerous as a direct result of the disastrous policy decisions of President Boosh and the incompetents he's put in charge of our military and foreign policy. Way to go, Red State morons. Please add yet another ass-kicking to the ones I already owe you. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 7:48:00 AM | Saturday, April 16, 2005
Got this from Julie and from Abby. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 9:34:00 PM | Shocked, Simply Shocked You could take out the name of the rep and the state this story is happening in and it'd fit just about anywhere. Marriage Act sponsor facing divorce. Senate Republican Caucus Chairman Jeff Miller, the sponsor of Tennessee’s Marriage Protection act, is facing divorce because of his alleged relationship with a Senate aide, his wife said.Add Sen. Miller to the long, long list of pontificating, pustulent, adulterous hypocrites in the GOP. Henry Hyde. Newt Gingrich. Dan Burton. Bob Barr. Bob Dole. Strom Thurmond. And that's just off the top of my head. The Marriage Protection Amendment, which passed the Senate floor Feb. 23, would place a ban on gay marriage in the state constitution. The amendment, which says marriage should be defined as between “one man and one woman,” will go before the voters in a November referendum next year."Defending" marriage Miller-style is much like burning a village in order to save it, or Bush's plan to gut Social Security that would result in the collapse of the most successful government program since the GI Bill. More GOP bullshit. More lies. More sauce for the goose that they won't let near the gander. Mrs. Miller said she has suspected the senator to have had extramarital affairs in the past.Of course he's played the field for a while. When someone on the Right makes a big deal about protecting marriage, dollars to donuts says they're gettin' a little on the side. When they talk about a "Culture of Life", they're gonna be gung-ho to bomb civilians and execute juveniles and retarded people. When they speak up about saving fetuses, they're letting children starve. Listen to what a Rethuglican has to say, turn it around so it applies to them, and then you've got the truth. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 8:15:00 PM | Friday, April 15, 2005
The Five Spirits Of Friday's Revered Ancestors This week, Gord presses the "whimsy" button and asks: Long dead, you are awakened from your eternal slumber some of your descendants using a Ouija board. It's a little bit annoying, understandably, since you were having a nice sleep in the dark. But your descendants want to ask you something.Nu,I'm dead, eternal rest, all that dreck, but still with the questions ale montik un donershtik, I should give you such a haunting! Oy, gevald! Genug shoyn, I'll answer your questions! - * You're wanting the advice, like your ancestors lived such smart lives, I should tell you about my children, with the hi-fi systems in their pupiks, with their meshuggene ideas and such... OK, OK, you want advice, like you wake a dead man up from a nice rest and then you're too impatient to let him talk for a bit. You, the schmuck with the schmootz on your shmekel, you shouldn't be in such a hurry. It's not like you'll live long enough to use this advice, I shouldn't say anything, but you should maybe have avoided the potato salad at lunch. So with the advice already I'm making! And not even a nice egg cream for the revered ancestor they provide.
What? No, I gave you five. Five, I said! Number three does count, it's advice, and it's not my fault the Mormon Jihad said billiards was too fun! Five you asked for, five you get, you should maybe think about asking for "useful advice" next time, and maybe asking someone else! The other Friday Fivers give burnt offering to their Respected Ancient Spirits here. * - In accordance with the Afterlife Comedy Act of 2045, all Departed Spirits converted to Judaism. This was initially resisted by the Southern Baptists, but following the disastrous seance in which the spirit of Melvin Kaminsky beat the spirits of Jerry Falwell and Jeff Foxworthy in a standup marathon, it was recognized that hack writers and lazy bloggers desperate for a gimmick should have an option to allow a workaround for writer's block. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 8:49:00 AM | Thursday, April 14, 2005
Tom DeLay Apologizes - Sort Of From the LA Times: Under Fire, DeLay Apologizes for Criticizing Judges. The headline is considerably more generous than I'm inclined to be, considering that DeLay's climbed in bed with a bunch of America-hating Theo-Stalinist scumbags. "Sometimes I get a little more passionate, and particularly during the moment, and the day that Terri Schiavo was starved to death, emotions were flowing," DeLay said. "I probably said — I did, I didn't probably — I said something in an inartful way, and I shouldn't have said it that way, and I apologize for saying it that way." Translation: "I'm very, very sorry that my statements were noted by individuals other than the psychotic nutjobs to whom I was pandering. I in no way meant to say to anyone other than Phyllis Shitfly and her nutjob friends anything advocating violence against judges. Phyllis, if you're listening: 'Ose-thay udges-jay eserve-day oo-tay ie-day.'" "The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior, but not today," Delay said. "Today we grieve, we pray, and we hope to God this fate never befalls another." The leopard can't change his spots, Tom, and an immoral, greedy sack of shit can't get rid of his stink. Don't waste your time or ours by pretending, mmm-K? This from the article annoyed me, also: DeLay is facing criticism on two fronts — first, for being too partisan and inappropriately fomenting anger at federal judges, and second, for alleged ethical improprieties, including accepting foreign travel from lobbyists and putting family members on his campaign payroll. Too partisan? No, urging terrorists to murder judges while also working to destroy the Constitutional safeguards our Founding Fathers fought to create and our ancestors fought and died to preserve - that's not being "too partisan". That's being a Clear And Present Danger to the United States of America. That's being a traitor. "Alleged" ethical improprieties? No, they're unethical - DeLay's admitted to all of them, his only defense is to weasel around claiming, "I didn't know I was being bribed by agents of foreign governments! I didn't know I was taking a bribe to help the child-enslaving sex trade!" It's folks like the Bugfucker that need to be shoved into cages at Gitmo. They're the threat - not some illiterate peasant that had the misfortune to get drafted by the Taliban. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 10:27:00 AM | For The Micro-Dick In The H2 Festooned With Flag Stickers Thanks for driving so goddamn slow this morning. Try to stick with the flow of traffic next time, willya? Even better, get a vehicle that doesn't let everyone know how insecure you are about your penis' size and performance. Anyhoo, heard this song on the radio, and thought you might learn something from it: Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 8:48:00 AM | Wednesday, April 13, 2005
More About The AmeriTaliban Theo-Stalinists From The Nation, Max Blumenthal was in the audience at the JCCCR conference last week, and heard some stuff that manages to scare me even more than what I've already heard about these terrorists. I'll post and comment on the highlights. In Contempt of Courts Michael Schwartz must have thought I was just another attendee of the "Confronting the Judicial War on Faith" conference. I approached the chief of staff of Oklahoma's GOP Senator Tom Coburn outside the conference in downtown Washington last Thursday afternoon after he spoke there. Before I could introduce myself, he turned to me and another observer with a crooked smile and exclaimed, "I'm a radical! I'm a real extremist. I don't want to impeach judges. I want to impale them!"Note: Schwartz is the chief of staff of Tom Coburn (he of the "lesbians control our high schools!" fame). He's not a random nutjob - he's a connected, influential nutjob. Coburn was originally slated to appear, but backed out at the last minute. He sent Schwartz in his place. The threatening tenor of the conference speakers was a calculated tactic. As Gary Cass, the director of Rev. D. James Kennedy's lobbying front, the Center for Reclaiming America, explained, they are arousing the anger of their base in order to harness it politically. The rising tide of threats against judges "is understandable," Cass told me, "but we have to take the opportunity to channel that into a constitutional solution."This is more than just the bait-and-switch "votes for God get legislation for the Corporations" the GOP is famous for - this is a calculated effort to impose a psychotic, bigoted and twisted control over the Judiciary branch of our government. Sure, once the judges are dead, cowed or replaced with compliant theo-Stalinist goons the GOP and their fatcat buddies will have an easier time getting the agenda of the corporations through, but the corporate fascists have come to the mistaken decision that they can control these right-wing freaks. That's a mistake that's been made many times before - Robespierre, the Prussian Junkers and many others thought that they could get in bed with the extremists and tell them where to go. They learned to their shame that it doesn't work like that - fanatics are rabid dogs, and they'll turn on anyone that seeks to rein them in. The only way to deal with them is to isolate them - socially and, if necessary for the safety of the State, physically (in prison, not ghettos, for the record). As Michael Schwartz remarked during a panel discussion, "The Supreme Court says we have the right to kill babies and the right to commit buggery. They say the people have no right to express themselves, that the people have no right to make laws. Until we have a court that reflects a majority," Schwartz continued, his voice rising steadily, "it is a sick and sad joke that we have a Constitution here."Well, actually, you guys are the sick and sad joke. The Supreme Court, by and large, works within the framework of the Constitution (except, oddly enough, when "strict constructionists" like Fat Tony Scalia get to write the decisions [Bush v. Gore, anyone?]). You guys, on the other hand, would b emuch happier if you could replace the Constitution with a series of ad-hoc laws that reflect your "enemy of the week" mindset. The recent right-wing fixation on impeaching judges was conceptualized by David Barton, Republican consultant and vice chairman of the Texas GOP. In 1996 Barton published a handbook called Impeachment: Restraining an Overactive Judiciary, which was timed to coincide with Tom DeLay's bid for legislation authorizing Congress to impeach judges. "The judges need to be intimidated," DeLay told reporters that year.You read that right - the guy that's giving Tom DeLay advice on separation of powers is a Christian Reconstructionist with neo-Nazi ties. If that doesn't make your guts knot up and your sphincter loosen a little, you're either dead or on some really good medication. As the conference attendees filed out of the banquet hall and into the rain-flecked night ... they seemed prepared to do anything--absolutely anything--against judges. "I want to impale them!" as Michael Schwartz told me.Boy, howdy. Just makes you feel all fuckin' cheerful and shit, don't it? I'm keeping my powder dry, if you know what I mean. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 9:38:00 AM | Call For Action On Monday, I mentioned the detention of two 16-year-old girls by the Feds. At this time, no charges have been filed, and not one solitary shred of evidence has been mentioned by the FBI. I got the following email last night: Subject: URGENT! Petition For Detain This! Additionally, at the blog Loaded Mouth there is a form to send a letter to the judge presiding over the case. Click the link, send him a politely-worded and articulate email. Articulate. That means no "d00d, u r teh suxx0r!!!11!!!!" and the like, mmm-K? posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 7:45:00 AM | Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Workers Shafted, Fatcats Prosper This falls in the "Yeah, just as I suspected" category. From the LA Times: Wages Lagging Behind Prices This is the first time that salaries have increased more slowly than prices since the 1990-91 recession. Though salary growth has been relatively sluggish since the 2001 downturn, inflation also had stayed relatively subdued until last year, when the consumer price index rose 2.7%. But wages rose only 2.5%. I've been talking about the obscene compensation rates for executurds for a while - these parasites get millions of dollars as a reward for throwing workers out on the streets, for defrauding investors and running companies into the ground. Parasite is the kindest term I can think of - I've seen alcoholic chimps that have a better grasp of how to run a company than most of the corrupt, self-serving assholes that sit in their offices and rack up eight and nine figure salaries for doing nothing. Hell, for doing worse than nothing - most companies would be better off if these Captains of Industry (**snort**) did nothing but sit at their desks and jack off, rather than put their ethically-challenged, microcranial heads to "work". Workers are getting hammered - their paychecks buy less and less every day, their employers are keeping pay frozen (if not asking for workers to take pay cuts), and they're getting more work dumped on their shoulders every day. If they're lucky, their employer won't come up with the brilliant idea of laying them all off and outsourcing to Bangalore, India. Yeah, things are lookin' good. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 1:07:00 PM | James Dobson Hates America Having decided that beating weiner dogs and fantasizing about the sex lives of cartoon characters isn't enough, "Doctor" James Dobson has joined the anti-American terrorists in declaring war on an independent judiciary. On April 11th, James Dobson interviewed Mark Levin, author of Men In Black: How the Supreme Court Is Destroying America. During the interview, Dobson spewed the following bullshit: I heard a minister the other day talking about the great injustice and evil of the men in white robes, the Ku Klux Klan, that roamed the country in the South, and they did great wrong to civil rights and to morality. And now we have black-robed men, and that's what you're talking about.Funny, but I don't recall any judges running around lately lynching black men, or blowing up churches and synagogues. Now, there's been one or two right-wing nutjob terrorists that associate with the fringy wing of fundie Christianity, but I'm pretty sure that if judges were roaming the countryside burning crosses or blowing up people, I'd've heard about it. Seems to me that Dr. Dog-beater is the real terrorist. Oh, sure, he doesn't go out and plant bombs or shoot doctors, but he's a terrorist. His organization provides tacit and explicit support for individuals and groups that share its goal of destroying our system of government and replacing it with a theocracy. Tell me again how homosexuals are out to destroy America. **snorts** posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 8:28:00 AM | New Domestic Disturbance - April Edition Melissa's latest column is up: Living Out Loud Read it. Read it now. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 7:54:00 AM | Monday, April 11, 2005
Honor Student Terror! Another sign of your tax dollars at work: Teachers and Classmates Express Outrage at Arrest of Girl, 16, as a Terrorist Threat At Heritage High School in East Harlem, where the student idiom is hip-hop and salsa, the 16-year-old Guinean girl stood out, but not just because she wore Islamic dress. She was so well liked that when she ran for student body president, she came in second to one of her best friends - the Christian daughter of the president of the parent-teacher association, Deleen P. Carr. Well, duh! They're Muslims! It's a good thing they weren't liberals too, or they'd already be getting sodomized by flashlights at Gitmo. "They have painted this picture of her as this person that is trying to destroy our way of life, and I know in my heart of hearts that this is bogus," said Ms. Carr, who welcomed the Guinean girl to her house daily and knows her family well. "I feel like, how dare they? She's a minor, and even if she's not a citizen, she has rights as a human being." Not in the New America, she doesn't. She's different, and she doesn't have a powerful, well-funded lobbying arm like the Bin Laden family and the Saudi royal family do. According to a government document provided to The New York Times by a federal official earlier this week, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has asserted that both girls are "an imminent threat to the security of the United States based on evidence that they plan to be suicide bombers." No evidence was cited, and federal officials will not comment on the case. Of course there's no evidence at all - this is part of our government's pattern of late. No evidence is needed, not when it's A-OK to lock people up for years without letting them see a lawyer or know the evidence against them. Its mysteries deepened as teachers and neighbors gave details of the Guinean girl's life, like the jeans she wore under her Muslim garb, her lively classroom curiosity about topics like Judaism and art and her after-school care for four younger siblings while her parents, illegal immigrants who have lived in the United States since 1990, eked out a living. Hell yes, the government will go after a 16-year-old girl. Alberto Gonzales' DoJ doesn't give a rat's ass about real threats to America, or the FBI would've locked up every goddamn speaker at the JCCCR meeting last week. This is about sending a message to muslims in America - Keep your head down and your mouth shut, or your children are going to get it. Are you proud of your government? I certainly am. I'm so proud I could just fuckin' puke. ******* Update: In the comments, Saurav Sarkar comments: I agree that it's best to start out distrusting Federal law enforcement (particularly immigration) given their recent history. However, in this case, they make it even easier, because they told reporters that this jailing these teenage girls has little to contribute to national security: posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 10:17:00 AM | The Unitarian Jihad From Gord My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Machine Gun of Courteous Debate. This is from Jon Carroll's column in the San Francisco Gate. Greetings to the Imprisoned Citizens of the United States. We are Unitarian Jihad. There is only God, unless there is more than one God. The vote of our God subcommittee is 10-8 in favor of one God, with two abstentions. Brother Flaming Sword of Moderation noted the possibility of there being no God at all, and his objection was noted with love by the secretary. I'm definitely down with this, yo? People of the United States! We are Unitarian Jihad! We can strike without warning. Pockets of reasonableness and harmony will appear as if from nowhere! Nice people will run the government again! There will be coffee and cookies in the Gandhi Room after the revolution. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 6:40:00 AM | Sunday, April 10, 2005
Who Are You? I'm wondering who out there reads this. If you're a regular or semi-regular reader, please satisfy my curiosity. I'd like to know where you are and how you found the blog. If you're not inclined to comment, you're welcome to email me. You are, of course, under no obligation to do either. Thanks! [EDIT] I've dated this entry for next Sunday in order to keep it at the top of the page for those of you that don't read every day. New entries posted between now and the 10th will appear under this one. Many, many thanks to everyone that's commented and to the shy folks that sent me an email. A special shout out to Cousin Chris, who really needs to get his butt out to Texas one of these days. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 6:07:00 AM | Saturday, April 09, 2005
The Real Enemy It ain't Osama, or Saudi Arabia or North Korea or even the PRC. It's these people. They're Constitution-hating theo-stalinist goons, and they're out to destroy America from the bottom up. Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy is a fairly accomplished jurist, but he might want to get himself a good lawyer -- and perhaps a few more bodyguards. The full quote, for those playing along at home, is, "Death solves all problems: no man, no problem." The writer of the article quoted above is more generous than I - she doesn't think Vieira really meant it the way it sounds. I don't think so. The latest round of this anti-American filth started during the Terri Schiavo debacle. In hopes of diverting attention from the mounting proof of his utter corruption, Tom DeLay jumped in bed with the shell that used to be Terri Schiavo's body and tried to ride it for all he was worth, but no one except his fellow theo-stalinists bought it. That's when he said this: Mrs. Schiavo’s death is a moral poverty and a legal tragedy. This loss happened because our legal system did not protect the people who need protection most, and that will change. The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior, but not today. Today we grieve, we pray, and we hope to God this fate never befalls another. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Schindlers and with Terri Schiavo’s friends in this time of deep sorrow. This, after a judge in Atlanta had been shot and killed by a rapist, and a bitter nutjob brutally murdered the husband and the elderly mother of a Federal judge in Chicago. Class has never been the Bugfucker's strong suit. Not to be outdone, Senator John Cornyn put aside his reams of box-turtle porn on Monday to open his festering gob and say: And finally, I – I don't know if there is a cause-and-effect connection but we have seen some recent episodes of courthouse violence in this country. Certainly nothing new, but we seem to have run through a spate of courthouse violence recently that's been on the news. And I wonder whether there may be some connection between the perception in some quarters on some occasions where judges are making political decisions yet are unaccountable to the public, that it builds up and builds up and builds up to the point where some people engage in -- engage in violence. Certainly without any justification but a concern that I have that I wanted to share. When the Judeo-Christian Council for Constitutional Restoration had a little get-together in Washington, DC, the movers and shakers of the theo-stalinist brigades came together. We heard above what they had to say, and I've taken the liberty of preparing some photos of them so you can put names with faces. Get a good look at those photos, because they're the folks that want to wipe their asses with the Constitution and piss all over our nation's ideals. They are the enemy. They are evil, hypocritical totalitarians - an American Taliban, as it were. They are the enemy. They must be stopped. Al Quaeda can at worst hurt America - any further attacks by him would serve only to unite us as we were after 9/11, before the theo-stalinists and neo-clowns started the ol' Armageddon Rag. The danger to our homeland comes from the twisted, petty bigots that comprise the JCCCR and dozens of other extremist splinter groups. They aren't out to hurt us - they want to destroy the legacy of our Founding Fathers. They have no love in their hearts any more - it's all hate and fear. Hate of those different - muslims, atheists, homosexuals, buddhists, intellectuals and progressives. Fear of freedom, of justice, of how empty the universe is. Fear of others realizing how puny and insignificant they really are in the grand scheme of things. They don't want to pay taxes, their children don't fight our wars, they firmly believe that if they don't like something, they've got an obligation to destroy it so no one can use it. They are the enemy, and we're the only ones that can stop them. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 10:42:00 PM | Fucking Quisling G.O.P. Consultant's Marriage Is a Gay One NYT, hit bugmenot.com for a login WASHINGTON, April 8 - Arthur J. Finkelstein, a prominent Republican consultant who has directed a series of hard-edged political campaigns to elect conservatives in the United States and Israel over the last 25 years, said Friday that he had married his male partner in a civil ceremony at his home in Massachusetts. Considering how you've spent your entire fucking career getting scumbags like Jesse Helms and Ariel Sharon elected over the bodies of progressive candidates, you've got a lotta goddamn gall. Your hard work ensured that we got a congress that's actively worked to turn the clock back, not just on gay rights but also on the reproductive rights of women, on race relations, on justice for the poor and working class - you've managed to help fuck over just about every cause that goddamn matters in this country. How nice that, after progressives have fought like hell, after they've endured every fucking slur the fascist goons you've elected could fling, after decades of fighting for equality against shitbag quislings like you, after all of that, you've got the audacity to pretend that all of that didn't happen, and that your rank hypocrisy doesn't stink like a pile of skunk shit in the noonday sun. You're fuckin' welcome, asshole. Fuck you very much for all the help and support. Now piss off, willya? posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 1:09:00 AM | Friday, April 08, 2005
There's Sleazy And Then There's Sleazy Lord knows I don't expect much out of Tom DeLay - the man's a pustulent, corrupt, lying greedy sack of shit, and I wouldn't shed a single tear if he were sentenced to 20 years in Pound-You-In-The-Ass Federal Prison for his corrupt practices. Still, is it too much to ask that he maybe not sell his votes to the sex trade and sweatshop industries on Saipan? A Washington lobbyist under federal investigation for his lobbying activities arranged a lavish overseas trip to the island of Saipan for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, over the New Year's holiday in 1997. The man has no conscience - for a trip to a beach resort (to an island well-known for its sex-trade offerings, but I ain't sayin' nothin), he sold every child enslaved in the sweatshops and brothels of Saipan down the river. The fact that DeLay is the leader of Rethuglicans in the House, and is regarded as a power-broker second only to Karl Rove in DC, speaks volumes about the ethics of the GOP's leadership. I gotta tell you, though - I hope those scumbag Rethugs in Congress keep rallying to DeLay, so the American public can get a good, clear look at the "moral" leaders they've elected to run their kulturkampf. DeLay's power and influence in American politics is why I don't trust the GOP as far as I can throw an elephant. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 10:29:00 AM | Psycho Friday Five - Qu'est-ce que c'est? I can't seem to face up to the facts I'm tense and nervous and I can't relax I can't sleep 'cause my bed's on fire Don't touch me I'm a real live wire Psycho Killer Qu'est-ce que c'est? Fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa far far better Run run run run run run run away Psycho Killer Qu'est-ce que c'est? Fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa far far better Run run run run run run run away This week, Marvin wants us to gaze into the abyss and tell us what gazes out at us: What are the five signs that you, yes you, might be a serial-killing psychopath?Having been through quite a bit of therapy and having received official documentation of the fact that I am, despite appearances, about as sane as they come, I don't think that I exhibit any of the real traits possessed by serial killers. I will instead look at things that I've been told by Folks That Don't Have A Fucking Clue are signs that I'm "dangerous".
posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 8:22:00 AM | Thursday, April 07, 2005
The Facts Speak For Themselves Kansas voters have overwhelmingly approved an amendment to their state constitution that enshrines homophobic bigotry. At the same time, the legislature of Connecticut approved a bill to allow civil unions for gays and lesbians. The Attorney General of Kansas, Rethuglican Phill Kline, said the amendment was "an unfortunate, necessary reaction to activist courts." Dear God, will the perfidy of those nonexistent "Activist Judges" never end? In Connecticut, meanwhile, a rider to the bill that would have "defined" marriage as being between one man and one woman was shot down. The f'right dingers often claim that they are "protecting marriage" by engaging in legislative gay-bashing. Dunno about you, but my marriage doesn't need their "protection" (which seems to be more of a Tony Soprano-style "protection" than anything resembling altruism). Despite my status as an atheist intellectual liberal bisexual secular humanist, which supposedly predisposes me towards mopery, dopery and bathhouse buggery, I remain happily and monogamously married. If marriage is, as the dingers often claim, the State's way of ensuring children are born, then I'm 3 times as patriotic as Tom DeLay, who only has one child. I'm half again as patriotic as George Bush. Let's look at some facts'n'figures, shall we? In 1994, Connecticut had the second-lowest divorce rate in the US (2.8 divorces per 1000 people - Massachusetts had a divorce rate of 2.4). Kansas, meanwhile, was down at #26 with 4.7 divorces per 1000 people - nearly twice the rate of Connecticut. Liberal, gay-lovin' Connecticut, where marriages are at the mercy of roving gangs of homosexual seducers, has a lower divorce rate than god-fearin' Kansas, home of Rev. Fred Phelps and his family of queer-bashing bigots. In 2003, the per capita income in Connecticut was $43,173 per year. Kansans slogged along at $29,935 per year. According to Morgan Quitno Press' 2004-2005 "Smart States" rankings of educational quality by states, the top 3 states in the US are, in order, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Vermont - one that allows gay marriage and 2 that currently or will soon permit gays to enter into civil unions. Kansas is down at #15. Seems to me that the biggest threat to families isn't Adam and Steve getting married, it's the crappy economy and educational systems of Red America. Red Staters, I suggest you get the beam out of your eye before you fuss about the mote in the Blue States'. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 9:37:00 AM | Wednesday, April 06, 2005
Fanatic Walmartian Pharmacists You've no doubt heard by now that some nutjob pharmacists are refusing to fill prescriptions for emergency birth control, or any birth control at all. They claim that their "faith" doesn't allow them to do that. One online acquaintance had an interesting interaction with Wal-Mart about their policies, which I post verbatim below: From my correspondence file (apologies for the length): From Wal-Mart: My reply: That, my friends, is a delicious rant. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 9:46:00 AM | Why I Love San Francisco It's not because it gave us Emperor Norton. It's not because it's the Queer Mecca to Greenwich Village's Medina. Not even for the large number of Invisible Internet Friends I've met over the last couple of years. All of those are good reasons, and add to my love for San Francisco (despite the fact that I've never been further west than Fredericksburg, TX [though I'm working on that]). No, I love San Francisco for its progressive, aggressive politics. Gavin Newsom's decision that California's ban on equality in marriage was wrong, and that his city should do the right thing. The gay/lesbian groups that were among the first to recognize and support Cesar Chavez and the UFW. Barbara Frickin' Boxer, the ballsiest Democrat in the Senate this year. Most recently, it's this: This is one thing I love about California, and San Francisco in particular, they don't play around. Bob Brigham is on-the-ground right now, phoning in updates from a large scale protest against California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The event: Arnold's $1,000 to $100,000 a plate fundraiser. Bob referenced it in a post earlier today, here are the updates. It looks like Govenator's re-election will not be as smooth as many anticipate:A promising start, to be sure, but it gets better: UPDATE: Bob just called back and put his phone in the air to let me hear the chant, "RECALL ARNOLD."A little later: The police just tried just arrest somebody, and the crowd started chanting "shame on you," -- the cops let him go. And now that same guy is leading the march to re-take the street, and Bob is right next to him wearing his BlogPAC hat.Still later: Arnold is going to enter the building on the opposite side of the building that the protesters shut down the street. The police are now marching down the street in lock-step.... "Arnold's San Francisco priveleges have been revoked; he can never come back again." - Bob Brigham... "It is amazing how many nurses are here in their scrubs. They just gave me a bottle of water to quench my thirst after the smoke from the smoke bombs." -- Bob Brigham... "The sun has set. The streetlights are on. The crowd has laid siege to the building, controlling all entrances, and all streets. The streets belong to the people." -- Bob Brigham... People were pounding on the Governor's car, while it was speeding out of the garage. Bob said the car peeled out, and you can literally smell the burnt rubber from where he is standing. He fled with his tail between his legs. I love you, San Francisco. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 8:09:00 AM | Tuesday, April 05, 2005
More Fun From The Lege Chapter 125,944 in Why I Love The Texas Lege. Law may punish Texas cheerleaders for racy routines The bill filed by state Rep. Al Edwards, D-Houston, would ban "sexually suggestive" performances by school dance teams, drill teams and cheerleaders at athletic events or competitions. A squad that performs an inappropriate routine could be banned from performing for the rest of the school year, and the district or campus could be fined. Suuuuure it isn't. I bet you had to do hours of research on this while writing the bill, didn't you? Long hours in front of the VCR with your tape of "Cheerleader Upskirts", with only a box of Kleenex and a bottle of hand lotion to keep you company. Oh, the chafing and soreness you endured - all for our sakes. Truly, you are a humanitarian, Rep. Edwards! Rep. Edwards, BTW, has previously introduced legislation advocating the amputation of drug dealers' fingers (1989) and flogging for inmates in state prisons (1991). It's nice to see that some Texas Dems are fighting like hell to hold to the low ethical and intellectual standards set by the Rethugs. As Molly Ivins has said numerous times, the Lege is the best free show in town. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 10:39:00 AM | Monday, April 04, 2005
Don't Look At Me - I Didn't Vote For The Sumbitch Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) today on the Senate floor: …it causes a lot of people, including me, great distress to see judges use the authority that they have been given to make raw political or ideological decisions. And no one, including those judges, including the judges on the United States Supreme Court, should be surprised if one of us stands up and objects.You do understand, fuckmunch, that most of those judges were appointed by... Republicans, right? Of the 12 Federal Appeals Court judges that heard the final appeals of Terri Schiavo's lunatic parents, 9 of the 10 that refused to issue an injunction were appointed by Republican presidents. One of them was William Pryor, the Rethuglican appointed in a recess by Dumbya after Democratic filibusters derailed his nomination. Of course you don't mention that - you were probably fantasizing about box turtles. And, Mr. President, I'm going to make clear that I object to some of the decision-making process that is occurring at the United States Supreme Court today and now. I believe that insofar as the Supreme Court has taken on this role as a policy-maker rather than an enforcer of political decisions made by elected representatives of the people, it has led to the increasing divisiveness and bitterness of our confirmation fights. That is a very current problem that this body faces today. It has generated a lack of respect for judges generally. I mean, why should people respect a judge for making a policy decision borne out of an ideological conviction any more than they would respect or deny themselves the opportunity to disagree if that decision were made by an elected representative?Yet you're all gung-ho for judges to overthrow decades of precedent regarding the separation of Church and State simply because your Faith is so weak that it can't tolerate someone else believing differently. Jeezy-Creezy, you're a stupid bastard. Of course the difference is that they can throw the rascal -- the rascal out -- and we are sometimes perceived as the rascal -- if they don't like the decisions that we make. But they can't vote against a judge because judges aren't elected. They serve for a lifetime on the federal bench. And, indeed, I believe this increasing politicalization of the judicial decision-making process at the highest levels of our judiciary have bred a lack of respect for some of the people that wear the robe. And that is a national tragedy. So why did the GOP, that bastion of And finally, I – I don't know if there is a cause-and-effect connection but we have seen some recent episodes of courthouse violence in this country. Certainly nothing new, but we seem to have run through a spate of courthouse violence recently that's been on the news. And I wonder whether there may be some connection between the perception in some quarters on some occasions where judges are making political decisions yet are unaccountable to the public, that it builds up and builds up and builds up to the point where some people engage in -- engage in violence. Certainly without any justification but a concern that I have that I wanted to share.Oh, that's beautiful. You and Tom DeLay, encouraging more murders of judges. That's just great. I bet rape victims were askin' for it, weren't they? John Cornyn, like so many other of the fucking morons that pass for "statesmen" on the right, makes me want to puke. Here's hoping you develop cancer of the rectum, turtle-raper. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 9:08:00 PM | Isn't That Amazing? Remember in 2000, when Dumbya asked Dick Cheney to head up the committee to find a running mate, and Dick Cheney took a couple of weeks to conclude that the best running mate for The Simp Chimp was a l'il ol' Halliburton Whore named... Dick Cheney? This week, we find that the Commission hand-picked by Georgie and Uncle Dick to review intelligence failures leading up to the invasion of Iraq has determined that... it's not Georgie's fault! Honest! The invasion was based, the commission says, on the testimony of someone code-named "Curve Ball" (and I dunno about you, but that code name alone would make me think twice about trusting him). Despite having clear evidence that Curve Ball was a serial liar, and the fact that CIA analysts couldn't find evidence of active WMD programs, senior CIA officials decided to swallow his testimony hook, line and sinker. A senior CIA official smacked down an analyst that dared question the Almighty Curve Ball in an email that included: Keep in mind the fact that this war's going to happen regardless of what Curve Ball said or didn't say and that the Powers That Be probably aren't terribly interested in whether Curve Ball knows what he's talking about. Curve Ball's bogus testimony was cited by Bush in his State Of The Union speech, was trumpeted nonstop by Judith Miller (paid by the NYT, whoring for Achmed Chalabi) and detailed by Colin Powell in front of the UN, a decision that effectively destroyed the trust any naive folks had about Powell being a moderating influence on the gang of Neo-Clown idiots in the White House. According to the commission hand-picked by Georgie-Porgie, it's not George's fault! And it's not Colin Powell's fault, or Donald Rumsfeld's or Paul Wolfowitz', or Richard Perle's, or Condoleeze Rice's or Dick Cheney's. It's never stated, but clearly implied, that it's George Tenent's fault. Yes, the same George Tenent that got a Medal from the Preznit last year. No, I don't know why he got a medal for fucking up, but Paul Bremer got one for losing $8,000,000,000 in Iraqi money during his tenure as proconsul of Iraq, while at the same time ensuring that Halliburton and other corrupt cronies got preferential no-bid contracts to further gouge the American taxpayers. I sweartagawd, Red America, if you morons keep rewarding fuckups like these assclowns, I'm going to have to hurt someone. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 8:22:00 AM | Sunday, April 03, 2005
Interesting... USCountVotes is, according to its website, a nonpartisan group dedicated to objectively analyzing the accuracy of US elections. According to some research and analysis by statisticians affiliated with USCountVotes, serious questions remain as to the accuracy of vote counts in the 2004 election. Unprecedented discrepancies between exit poll results and final tallies in several key states occurred that still have never been explained. It has only recently been officially confirmed (by the exit pollsters themselves) that on election night the final set of exit polls showed John Kerry defeating George Bush by 3% of the popular vote and a clear majority of 316 electoral votes. Our statisticians analyzed Edison/Mitofsky's own explanation of their exit poll discrepancies, and found serious flaws in their argument. Exit polls have been used for years to detect corruption of official vote tallies - most recently in Ukraine. USCountVotes intends to creat a precinct by precint database of election results in the US in order to allow complete analysis of voting results nationwide, with the intent of providing a means of readily identifying vote fraud anywhere in the US. Consider that in the recent Ukraine election, the poll results and the election results differed just like ours, and there also were numerous anecdotal reports of election irregularities in both countries. Reasonable hypotheses to explain why the poll results were incorrect in Ukraine included (a) opposition voters were “more likely to respond” - the same behavior ascribed to Kerry voters here; or (b) the poll results were weighted toward the more urban and western districts, where opposition support was stronger or (c) the poll results understated higher turnout in eastern and rural areas. Each of these is a simple hypothesis that "explains" the exit poll discrepancy, but the hypothesis actually adopted by the U.S. government was fraud. I'm still on the fence about this, but the behavior of some of the players both before and after the election (I'm looking at you, Mr. Blackwell) certainly makes me think some kind of skullduggery was going on. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 9:02:00 AM | Saturday, April 02, 2005
Who's Surprised By This? Leader of Christian Heritage Party in New Zealand admits to molesting child. He was a one-man megaphone for Christian indignation for more than a decade. Now Graham Capill stands disgraced, a convicted child molester. Capill called himself the "moral conscience" of New Zealand, leading crusades against gay artists, naked statues and condoms. Funny - the folks that get the most up in arms about Gays "molesting children" seem to get caught up in trouble like this an awful lot, don't they? Bill O'Reilly says man/goat marriages are coming. Senators Rick Santorum and John Cornyn think it's going to be "man on dog" or box turtles respecitvely. I ain't sayin' nothin', but you know what I'm sayin'. I wouldn't let any of them pet-sit for me, that's for sure. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 7:21:00 AM | Friday, April 01, 2005
Friday Five - Snackitty Goodness Rob asks us this week: written on an empty stomach. name five snacks that your mind immediately turns to when the need or opportunity arises.
posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 4:49:00 PM | Keeping Score Number of brain-dead women allowed to finally die by so-called "activist" judges: 1 Number of Iraqi civilians killed by US forces or munitions in Iraq since 2003: 17,300 to 100,000 Number of Coalition troops killed in Iraq since 2003: 1,711 Number of prisoners executed during Bush's term as governor of Texas: 152 So the score stands at Judges: 1 Bush: 19163 (possibly as high as 101863) Judges, you better get to work - you've got some catchin' up to do! posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 3:44:00 PM | News of the Day First off, the news that Paul Wolfowitz, who is one of the architects of the flawed, failed and futile Iraq war - one of the men that predicted that 100,000 US troops could occupy the country, that the Iraqis would welcome us with open arms and that the war and occupation could be paid for with revenues from the Iraqi oil fields - has been confirmed as the new leader of the World Bank. "I have a new appreciation for the urgent need for debt relief," [Wolfowitz] said. "My new colleagues have recommended I review that right balance between loans and grants." Next up is news that our government has created a website that spreads biased and inaccurate information in support of abstinence. And last, of course, is the delightful update on the health of pustulent windbag Jerry Falwell. He claims he's getting better. The only April Fool's today is on the American public, especially those dumb enough to get taken in by the bullshit spewed by the Bushistas last November. Thanks again, guys. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 6:40:00 AM | |
|||||||
