Another McCainite supports Obama

12:11 PM Posted In , , Edit This 0 Comments »
Fred Bramante, Member of McCain's New Hampshire Leadership Committee and 2008 Alternate RNC Delegate, Endorses Barack Obama for President: "His endorsement marks the first time nationally that a delegate or alternate delegate to the 2008 Republican National Convention has publicly announced their decision to support Sen. Obama."

Feminism and hair colour

12:04 PM Posted In , , Edit This 0 Comments »
Today was watching some black and white 1950's sitcom and the gag factor was horrendous.

The whole daily drama was over whether the father figure's girlfriend looked better as a blonde, which he thought was a terrible look for her. So girlfriend was all worked up over it. And the teenage daughter wanted to dye her hair blonde because she thought some boy at school preferred blondes.

Long story short, these two women worked themselves up over nothing.

My response?

Who gives a crap? You want to dye your hair for yourself, go right ahead. Don't do it because some guy thinks you aren't good enough as it is. And if he doesn't like the results, that's nice.

Witches, Pirates, and Cannibals Oh My!

12:03 PM Edit This 0 Comments »
Number of pagan prisoners has doubled over four years. (Times Online)

Somalia's pirates. (NY)

Tasmanian Cannibals attract Tourists.

Blessed Samhain, everyone!

11:59 AM Posted In , , Edit This 0 Comments »

And Happy Halloween to those who celebrate!

Snubbed by Joe the Plumber

11:57 AM Posted In , , Edit This 0 Comments »


"McCain: You know, we've learned more, we've learned more about Senator Obama's real goals for our country over the last two weeks than we learned over the last two years—and that's only because Joe the Plumber asked him the right question right here in Ohio! [cheers] That's when Senator Obama revealed he wants to, quote, [airquotes] spread the wealth around, [airquotes] spread your income around. Joe's with us today; Joe, where are ya? [looks around] Where is Joe? Is Joe here with us today? [looks around] Joe, I thought you were here today. [pause; audience murmurs] All right, well…you're all Joe the Plumbers! So all of ya stand up and say—[thumbs up]! I thank you."

Homophobic quotes

11:55 AM Posted In , Edit This 0 Comments »
via Shakespeare's Sister
  • "AIDS is not just God's punishment for homosexuals; it is God's punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals." -- Jerry Falwell

  • "We will see a breakdown of the family and family values if we decide to approve same-sex marriage, and if we decide to establish homosexuality as an acceptable alternative lifestyle with all the benefits that go with equating it with the heterosexual lifestyle. -- Jerry Falwell

  • "This vote on whether we stop the gay-marriage juggernaut in California is Armageddon." -- Chuck Colson.

  • "[they are] watching the destruction of Western civilization." -- Rev. Jim Garlow

  • "I am appealing to you who have stood by The Call these years to drop everything to come to Qualcomm Stadium and join this mighty prayer battle that is going on....There are certain spiritual powers of darkness that will not be restrained unless we are willing to gather. God promises if we will do that. He will fight for us." -- Rev. Jim Engle.

  • “One cannot ignore the negative consequences that can stem from the ordination of people with deeply-rooted homosexual tendencies.” -- The Vatican.

Christianity is Pagan

11:53 AM Posted In Edit This 0 Comments »

Vote for McCain or he'll car bomb you!

3:10 PM Posted In , , Edit This 0 Comments »

"Reporter: Senator McCain's day began with a round of interviews on some of
Miami's popular Spanish-language radio stations. One of the hosts, Enrique
Santos, told McCain he was planning to cast his ballot the next day and remained
undecided.

McCain: We have surveillance cameras, and we'll know how you vote, okay?
[laughter] So, you, uh, I would suggest, if you vote the wrong way, you hire
someone to start your car tomorrow morning. [laughter]

Reporter: That was a joke."

Because car bombs are funny!

Isn't it ironic?

2:51 PM Posted In , , Edit This 0 Comments »
Or should I say hypocritical?

Nevada Republican Dean Heller used the song "Big Spender" in an ad mocking his opponent. This was done illegally, that is, without permission. Now he's being sued.

"U.S. Rep. Dean Heller has been sued in federal court for using Cy Coleman's
Broadway musical hit song "Big Spender" in an ad mocking his opponent Jill
Derby. Coleman's estate, through his company Notable Music Co., filed suit
Monday after sending a letter asking Heller to stop using the song in his
advertisements.

Heller has run multiple ads on radio and television using both the lyrics and
melody of "Big Spender" to paint Derby as a liberal spender. Notable Music
Co. sued Heller and his media firm Texas-based Weeks & Co. The suit
alleges that Heller's campaign contacted the estate for permission to use the
song. The estate denied the request, saying they didn't want it used for
political purposes."

Funny, considering he himself is unable to pay off his campaign debts.

"Rep. Dean Heller faces a federal election complaint by a rural Nevada
resident with ties to his Democratic challenger, accusing the congressman of
illegally holding over $273,000 in debt owed to his political consultant from
the 2006 campaign.
The complaint, filed by Howard Herz of Minden. claims that
holding over the debt to November Inc., owned by Mike and Lyndsey Slanker, “is a
clear attempt to circumvent the FEC’s prohibition on corporate contributions to
federal campaigns and is, in my opinion, entirely unethical.”
The Slankers
now work for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which is headed by
Sen. John Ensign of Nevada."

Oh, poor baby

2:42 PM Posted In , , Edit This 0 Comments »
"Because life isn't fair."John McCain, responding to a question about why Barack Obama's popularity has increased as the Wall Street crisis has dominated the news.

Gee, it can't be because your party got us into this mess, or because Obama worked to get where he is whereas you had everything handed to you on a silver platter. Or his economic policies make better sense.

Reality just had to go squash your sense of entitlement.

National debt clock

2:40 PM Posted In Edit This 0 Comments »
The debt has grown so high that the clock has run out of room.

Video here because I can't figure out how to embed a video.

How low have we sunk?

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Gay teen jumps to his death with shouts of "Jump" by onlookers. (Pink)

National debt when Jimmy Carter...

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...arrived at the White House:

$660 billion.

Added during Carter's four years: $337 billion.
Added during Ronald Reagan's eight years: $1.6 trillion.
Added during George H. W. Bush's four years: $1.6 trillion.
Added during Bill Clinton's eight years: $1.5 trillion.
Added during George W. Bush's seven years, nine months: $4.5 trillion.
Portion of the $9.5 trillion added to the national debt during the past 31 years and seven months that came during Republican presidencies: $7.7 trillion.
Percentage of that $7.7 trillion added during George W. Bush's two terms: 58%.

Could somebody explain again what "fiscal conservative" means?

Daily KOS

Obama sex perv scandal

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The National Enquirer's got another election bombshell for us: Obama Sex Perv Scandal blares the breathless headline in big, red, block letters. What could it be? Did he have an affair? Pay off a mistress?

No, he was actually mentored as a child by a Frank Marshall Davis who later admitted to writing in 1968 under a pseudonym "a hard-core pornographic autobiography…laced with perverted sexual activity, bisexuality, rape—and the seduction of children. …In his shocking tell-all, [Frank Marshall Davis] admits to seducing a thirteen year-old girl, voyeurism, exhibitionism, bisexuality, rape and sadomasochism." The Obama campaign response [pdf] goes into Obama's interaction with Davis.

Now, we all know how I feel that bisexuality and BDSM are nothing that needs "admitting" to as long as it's all consensual. That aside, the questions are as follows:

1. Why is this a scandal for Obama who was a child when he was mentored by Davis?

2. Shouldn't we be more concerned over whether or not Obama was victimized by Davis?

Hypocrisy at its finest

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August 2005 complaint e-mail from Sarah to then-Alaska State Trooper Colonel Julia Grimes, making the following allegation (PDF) against her ex-brother-in-law, Trooper Mike Wooten:
"Another example that Wooten likes to share with others regarding his
unethical and illegal hunting techniques involves a wolf hunt where he illegally
chased down the animal with his snowmachine to kill it unfairly."

What hypocrisy of the woman who would write a complaint letter condemning someone for such unfairness, and then permit hunting practices even more unethical and unfair than Wooten's. Such as shooting them from airplanes.

What I will teach my future spawn

2:32 PM Posted In , , Edit This 0 Comments »
With Columbus Day recently, I got to thinking about how I was raised, generally by the school in this regard, to blindly follow modern "holidays" without questioning their history.
For example, do we associate St. Patrick's Day with the killing and persecution of Irish Pagans? No, it's an excuse to wear green and drink.'

Do we remember Columbus was an idiot who couldn't navigate his way out of a paper bag and raped and pillaged the "Indians?" No, it's a day for stores to commercialize and us to be annoyed by banks and post offices closing.

Do we remember the Pilgrims coming here to America to escape religious persecution, yet turned out to be hypocrites via forced conversions/banishment and harassment of anyone who didn't hold their same beliefs. No, it's a day to simply be thankful, eat too much, and watch football like good, dumb, patriotic Americans.

This got me to thinking about what I would teach my own children. Do I want to celebrate our holidays, their less-than-pretty histories, and their rampant commercialism? No. And come to think of it, considering we're in the middle of most Thanksgivings religiously and secularly (Sukkot, Mabon, Canadian, etc.) why would I need to celebrate Thanksgiving? We have our own versions of it in three different Pagan holidays, more or less, which focus on family, responsibility, thanksgiving, and all sorts of good qualities that I would want to instill in my children more than simply eating a ton of food and watching football. Granted, I would probably still celebrate it with my parents because it's already factored into most workplaces as well as providing quality grandkid time. But I would say that it's a secular holiday and we celebrate that because my folks are not Pagan, and it wouldn't be fair to ask them to celebrate a holiday they don't believe in. As they got older, I would tell them the actual history of Columbus and the Pilgrims.

Naturally, Christmas would be right out, but would probably celebrate that as a secular holiday with my parents.

New Year's would be right out, as it only promotes tons of drinking and is only marked then because that's supposedly when Jesus was circumcised. As a Pagan family, why would we care? We already have our own New Year's on Samhain (Halloween), which teaches honouring our ancestors and preparing for the coming year.

No Easter, why when we have Imbolc which Easter blatantly plagiarized?

Martin Luther King Jr. Day, would definitely celebrate that and black history. Probably not Valentine's Day because, quite frankly, it's absolutely useless if not offensive.

In other words, I will teach my future children what is important, history, and good values.

Fortune telling ban repealed

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Woohoo! Fortunetelling ban repealed.

If you like teh pussy, yer gay

2:31 PM Posted In Edit This 0 Comments »
Funny, I thought it was loving people of your own gender that made you gay.

Cats = gay

Palin = candy overdose

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"To me it is like Halloween: You get energized by eating all that candy at night but then you feel sick the next day."—Bush campaign strategist and hardcore Republican Matthew Dowd at the Time Warner Summit panel, after Huffington-Post Washington Editor-at-Large Hilary Rosen said that John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin for his vice presidential nominee "had been successful in energizing the Republican base."

Democrats vs. Republican and the stock market

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Since 1929, Republicans and Democrats have each controlled the presidency for
nearly 40 years. ... As of Friday, a $10,000 investment in the S.& P. stock
market index would have grown to $11,733 if invested under Republican presidents
only ... Invested under Democratic presidents only, $10,000 would have grown to
$300,671 at a compound rate of 8.9 percent over nearly 40 years.
$1,700
under Republicans, $290,000 under Democrats. Not including Hoover (R)
and the Depression, Democrats' results are still six times the Republicans.
New York Times article

Baby named Sarah McCain Palin

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A jerk who evidently doesn't respect his wife and the decision that they had made TOGETHER, snuck behind her back and named the newborn Sarah McCain Palin.

First off, shouldn't it be Sarah Palin McCain? Aside from the fact he obviously doesn't give a crap what his wife, the one who just carried for nine months and pushed a baby out of a rather small opening, thinks.

If any partner of mine went and named the kid something else entirely other than what we had agreed upon, the third member of our family would also end up in the hospital. Let alone something as unwieldy and awkward as that.

Idiocy here.

Manners and "Gendered" Behaviour in Children

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I will certainly not teach any boys of mine to open the door for females, and I will not teach any girls of mine to expect the door to be opened for them by males.

What I will teach them is to open the door for the elderly, the infirm, people you respect, those with their arms full, and, in general, anyone behind you.

This will be taught to ALL of my children.

"Gendered" colours and children

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Colours. Blue must automatically mean boy and girl obviously means pink! This worked out so well since I've hated pink since a very young age. /Sarcasm.

Any children that I raise will be dressed in vibrant colours and none of that pastel crap that's so hard to keep clean, anyway. If a son of mine wants to wear a pink tutu, no problem. If a girl of mine wants to wear a blue shirt with a truck on it and camouflage pants, go right ahead.

Disclaimer: this is assuming that I would not be going out of my way. In other words, no spoiling.

"Gendered" toys and children

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Sexism is alive and well. Don't believe me? Peruse the toy section of any store.

My children will not be given make-up kits. Why? Because they are beautiful as is. Soon enough society will be telling them they aren't pretty enough. That day will be staved off as long as possible.

Dress-up kits, particularly ones that encourage them to pretend to be doctors, teachers, astronauts, and other career-oriented fantasies are definitely ok. No high heels, however.
Pretty much any toy that is not educational, inspiring, positive, and/or encouraging to their overall well-being is completely out. Non-career oriented Barbies are out, Bratz are a oh hell no, BB guns are a most likely no at least until they're older, and nothing that primarily encourages violence towards others.

And no loud, obnoxious toys that require lots of batteries.

Yes, I will be one of those parents.

Public funds should never even have been considered for this.

1:28 PM Posted In , Edit This 0 Comments »

"Edmond Mayor Dan O'Neil said Wednesday he plans to secure private funding to
buy out the city's $3,900 commitment to help pay for a 26-inch-tall statue
titled "Come Unto Me" planned for a sidewalk outside a downtown Catholic gift
shop."


http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=20081015_12_EDMO002744

First of all, the city government should not be involved in this in any way, let alone the ones proposing and planning it. But first they wanted to use public funding for it. Sure, they want some piece of art commissioned by the city, go right ahead. But keep it secular AND tasteful. Not that hard, people.

http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=20708

Attack the "liberal" media, get conservative votes.

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"Here is a foolproof way for politicians to score points with evangelical voters: Attack the media, an institution widely seen as lacking conservative Christian voices."

And the "liberal" media is supposed to be one big conspiracy?

More fun in messing with voters

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Are the Republicans going to get up in arms about "rigging the election" the same way they did over ACORN?

"SACRAMENTO -- The owner of a firm that the California Republican Party
hired to register tens of thousands of voters this year was arrested in Ontario
late last night on suspicion of voter registration fraud.

State and local investigators allege that Mark Jacoby fraudulently registered himself to vote at a childhood California address where he no longer lives so he would appear to meet the legal requirement that signature gatherers be eligible to vote in California.

Jacoby's arrest by state investigators and the Ontario Police Department comes after dozens of voters said they were duped into registering as Republicans by his firm, Young Political Majors, or YPM. The voters said YPM tricked them by saying they were signing a petition to toughen penalties against child molesters. The firm was paid $7 to $12 for every Californian it registered as a member of the GOP."

Los Angeles Times

"This arrest comes on the heels of recent media coverage of YPM's fraudulent tactics sometimes known as "slamming" - where voters are duped into changing their party registrations, or where their registration is simply changed by YPM without the voter's knowledge."

Evidently they're known for these tactics.

"SACRAMENTO -- Dozens of newly minted Republican voters say they were duped into joining the party by a GOP contractor with a trail of fraud complaints stretching across the country.
Voters contacted by The Times said they were tricked into switching parties while signing what they believed were petitions for tougher penalties against child molesters. Some said they were told that they had to become Republicans to sign the petition, contrary to California initiative law. Others had no idea their registration was being changed.
"I am not a Republican," insisted Karen Ashcraft, 47, a pet-clinic manager and former Democrat from Ventura who said she was duped by a signature gatherer into joining the GOP. "I certainly . . . won't sign anything in front of a grocery store ever again."
It is a bait-and-switch scheme familiar to election experts. The firm hired by the California Republican Party -- a small company called Young Political Majors, or YPM, which operates in several states -- has been accused of using the tactic across the country."
How they did it.

This is a bad thing how?

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McCain accuses Obama of helping poor

Otherwise known as Best Headline Ever.

How sick can people get?

1:23 PM Posted In , , Edit This 0 Comments »
Bear killed and draped with signs
"A dead bear was found dumped this morning on the Western Carolina University
campus, draped with a pair of Obama campaign signs, university police said.
Maintenance workers reported about 7:45 a.m. finding a 75-pound bear cub dumped
at the roundabout near the Catamount statute at the entrance to campus, said Tom
Johnson, chief of university police. 'It looked like it had been shot in the
head as best we can tell. A couple of Obama campaign signs had been stapled
together and stuck over its head,' Johnson said."

Tire slashings
"Someone slashed the tires of at least 30 vehicles parked outside the Crown
Coliseum on Sunday during a rally for Democratic presidential candidate Barack
Obama, authorities said. …Lynne Steenstra said she thought that the slashings
were scare tactics designed to keep her and others from supporting Obama. Even
though it cost her roughly $120 to get her Dodge Caravan towed and fixed,
Steenstra said the act would not intimidate her from voting. 'It hasn't deterred
us one bit,' Steenstra said. 'It has only encouraged us more'."

What I love is how liberals/Democrats are teh Devil (tm) and ruining America/marriage/God/life. Do you see us using our rights to bust into churches and open fire because they're a bunch of evil liberals? (As a UU myself, that one really hits home).
Are we marrying multiple people simultaneously because it's our religion? Or marrying and then divorcing willy nilly?
We support life by ensuring that EVERY life brought into this world is wanted, because not all of them are. And we want to end the war in Iraq in the safest, quickest manner possible to keep our servicemen alive and get them back home.
We value the same things, we simply have very different views on how to go about it.

Drunken idiots

1:22 PM Posted In , , Edit This 0 Comments »
You know, I've always been tempted to carry around a paintball gun. Think of the uses: the neighbour's annoying yappy dog, jerks who cut me off, those One Man/One Woman bumper stickers (my love life is none of your business), and other annoyances. But I have never, EVER stooped so low as to actually vandalize someone's property... Unless you count toilet papering public property as a kid.

"I am considering driving it around Austin town just like this until election day as a political statement."Burnt Orange Report's Wagwa, whose car was trashed Sunday night.

"My "Obama 08" bumper sticker was torn off the right rear bumper, a 20-lb rock
was dropped through the back window, 2 stolen Obama yard signs were shoved
through the gaping hole in the window, and a cryptic almost "OBAHA" (or
something...) was scrawled in orange spray-paint on the drivers side front and
back doors and windows."
Evidently drunken Republican idiots can't spell. Why am I not surprised?

They're in charge, but of course it's not their fault!

1:21 PM Posted In , , Edit This 0 Comments »
"WINFIELD, W.Va. -- Three Putnam County voters say electronic voting machines
changed their votes from Democrats to Republicans when they cast early ballots
last week.This is the second West Virginia county where voters have reported
this problem. Last week, three voters in Jackson County told The Charleston
Gazette their electronic vote for "Barack Obama" kept flipping to "John
McCain." In both counties, Republicans are responsible for overseeing
elections. Both county clerks said the problem is isolated."


http://wvgazette.com/News/200810180251

"Drill, baby, drill" is Japanese for "sell-out"

1:20 PM Posted In , , Edit This 0 Comments »
The Republicans have been gung-ho about the need to drill everywhere possible in an oil panick, as opposed to finding other methods before we literally have such a shortage that we're up chocolate creek without a popsicle stick.

" September 2, 2008
The
Honorable Samuel W. Bodman U.S. Department of Energy 1000 Independence Avenue,
SW Washington, DC 20585
Dear Secretary Bodman,
On June 3,
2008 and July 30, 2008 respectively, your Department issued and affirmed an
order pursuant to Section 3 of the Natural Gas Act that will allow two major
integrated oil companies – ConocoPhillips and Marathon Oil – to export 98.1
billion cubic feet of Alaskan natural gas to Japan and other Pacific Rim countries. This order, which will allow the export of as much natural gas as is used by 1.4 million American families in a year, comes at a time when the President had demanded that the moratoria on oil and gas drilling along our environmentally-sensitive coastal areas be lifted and Americans are being warned that their winter heating bills are going to be dramatically higher. The Administration is trying to have it both ways – arguing that we need to drill everywhere because we don't have adequate energy supplies, while finding that we have so much energy that big oil companies can export it overseas and keep prices here at home higher than they would otherwise be."

Courtesy of Oregon's own Ron Wyden.

Witches like this give the rest of us a bad name.

1:18 PM Posted In , , , Edit This 0 Comments »
"Some folks on the library's board of trustees were just a little spooked.
What's that? A real live witch was going to practice his craft at the library on Halloween? In front of children?
Yes, said Linda Puetz, president of the Friends of Sprague Public Library. And the witch, the Rev. Rapid Cabot Freeman, was going to charge admission and donate the proceeds to the library."


1. Separation of church and state people. That doesn't just mean Christians, that means us, too. The library receives public funding, therefore should be off-limits.

2. Samhain, the remembrance of our ancestors and coming to terms with death, is hardly an appropriate holiday for something such as this. Choose something a little more public-relations friendly, such as Yule, Imbolc, or practically any of the others. You've got 7 (I wouldn't recommend Beltaine, either) others to choose from, 20 if you count the esbats!

3. Charging admission? Come on, what are you? A megachurch?

How to make cheap,

1:05 PM Posted In , , Edit This 0 Comments »
There are all sorts of cheap, easy, quick, and eco-friendly ways to remove toxins from your home and still keep it clean. And they work.
Liquid Detergent
1 quart water (boiling)2 cups bar soap (grated)2 cups borax2 cups washing soda
1. Add finely grated bar soap to the boiling water and stir until soap is melted. You can keep on low heat until soap is melted.
2. Pour the soap water into a large, clean pail and add the borax and washing soda. Stir well until all is dissolved.
3. Add 2 gallons of water, stir until well mixed.
4. Cover pail and use 1/4 cup for each load of laundry. Once it's cool, add 5 - 7 drops of your favorite essential oil per gallon. Stir the soap each time you use it (it will gel).

Powdered Detergent
2 cups finely grated soap1 cup washing soda1 cup borax
1. Mix well and store in an airtight plastic container.
2. Use 2 tablespoons per full load.
From Green Planet

The laundry additive to remove stains that I picked up, inspected the ingredients and was surprised to find that it was little more than baking soda and an anti-caking agent. In fact, our grandparents added 1/4 of baking soda to the laundry to remove stains.

Western medicine and feminism

1:03 PM Posted In , , Edit This 0 Comments »

"The U.S. government has decided to stop issuing passports to Latinos from the
Southwest with only a birth certificate issued by a midwife as proof of citizenship.

The State Department argues that some midwives have falsified records of children born in Mexico and therefore all midwife issued birth certificates are suspect. Between 60-75 midwives since 1960 have been convicted of forging birth certificates for infants they did not deliver or who may have been born outside of the US.

Unfortunately, many of the cases occurred almost 50 years ago and amount to a small percentage of the overall midwife delivered births in the Southwest region. Some 250 midwives operated in Southwest Texas this year alone."


Link

I am on the fence as to whether or not it's a feminist issue, but I am certainly concerned that people of ANY colour are being questioned over their freaking birth certificates.

My (very white) best friend was told that she was really German and basically crazy for thinking she was American because she was born on a military base in Germany. Bwuh? She actually had to argue with the lady at the DMV that our military bases, no matter where they are, are really considered American soil. The lady didn't like that and threatened to call the cops on her. And required her original marriage certificate, divorce papers, AND the certificate from her second/current marriage. Guys, however, have no problems whatsoever with this. Gah! Ok, that rant is over.

The attempt to discredit medical practices that are non-Westernized does trouble me greatly. "Oh, they're midwives who deliver babies the good old fashioned way and don't perform surgery? Well, then they aren't as good as us doctors who try to treat you with cookie-cutter methods and like to panic and do everything necessary to run up your medical bills." Women who like to take their own medical care entirely into their own hands? They must be trying to pull a fast one on Uncle Sam.

Teenage girl murdered in broad daylight for the colour of her shoelaces

1:03 PM Edit This 0 Comments »
"Olga Rukosyla was sixteen years old. She enjoyed dressing like a punk, and wore
red shoelaces which, to some, signify the famous "Antifa" (anti-facism)
movement.
Indymedia reports that on the 8th of October, Olga was surrounded by three young men dressed, as witnesses say, in typical skinhead fashion. One of them grabbed her hand. She said something angrily to him. This was when the men surrounding her threw her on the ground and literally kicked her to death."
This is why I hate people.

Canadian torture, eh?

1:01 PM Posted In Edit This 0 Comments »
CBC News via Mattbastard:

"The actions of Canadian officials contributed indirectly to the torture of three Arab-Canadian men in Syria, a federal inquiry has concluded.

"I found no evidence that any of these officials were seeking to do anything other than carry out conscientiously the duties and responsibilities of the institutions of
which they were a part," former Supreme Court of Canada justice Frank Iacobucci
concluded in his report, made public Tuesday, 22 months after the inquiry began.

The probe focused on whether the detentions of Abdullah Almalki, Muayyed Nureddin and Ahmad El Maati resulted from the actions of CSIS, the RCMP
and the department of Foreign Affairs and whether Canadian consular officials
acted appropriately in the cases.

"It is neither necessary nor appropriate that I make findings concerning the actions of any individual Canadian official, and I have not done so," Iacobucci wrote.

More from The Toronto Star:

"The Iacobucci report concludes that all three men were detained and suffered mistreatment that amounted to torture as defined in the United Nations convention banning torture.

El Maati, Almalki and Nureddin were, separately, detained and imprisoned in 2001, 2002, and 2003 respectively while travelling in Syria.

All were interrogated and, Iacobucci concluded, tortured at the same Syrian military prison as Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian who was deported by U.S. authorities to Syria.

El Maati was also sent to Egypt where Iacobucci accepts he underwent further torture.
The men claimed their interrogators relied on information that could only have been gleaned from Canadian authorities, and that Canadian security and police agencies were complicit in their mistreatment.

But Iacobucci stops well short of indicting the Canadian officials for complicity."

Northern Virginia isn't REALLY Virginia

12:55 PM Posted In , , Edit This 0 Comments »
Think Progress:

"On MSNBC this morning, McCain adviser Nancy Pfotenhauer asserted that "real
Virginia" does not include Northern Virginia:

I certainly agree that Northern Virginia has gone more Democratic. … But the rest of the state — real Virginia if you will — I think will be very responsive to Senator McCain's message.

MSNBC host Kevin Corke gave Pfotenhauer a chance to revise her answer, telling her: "Nancy, I'm going to give you a chance to climb back off that ledge — Did you say 'real Virginia'?"

But Pfotenhauer didn't budge, and instead dug a deeper hole. "Real Virginia, I take to be, this part of the state that's more Southern in nature, if you will."

Thorpe ended the segment noting that Pfotenhauer was appearing via satellite from Northern Virginia.

"Nancy Pfotenhauer, senior policy adviser for the McCain campaign, joining us from Arlington, not really Virginia."

"Alright, I'm just gonna let ya– you'll wear that one," Corke responded. "

Ok, so if you live in Virginia and you support Obama what does that make you? Massachussetan? (I apologize for the botching of that word).

12:54 PM Posted In Edit This 0 Comments »
Spicy Autumn Apple Bread

2.5 cups grated (peeled & cored) apple
2 cups raisins
1.5 cups boiling water
3 tablespoons oil
1 cup + 2 tablespoons honey
1.5 tsp. cinnamon
1.5 tsp. allspice
1.5 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
3 cups whole-wheat flour
1.5 tsp. baking soda
3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Place apples and raisins in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Pour oil on top and allow to soak for 10 minutes. Add honey, cinnamon, allspice, salt, and cloves and allow to cool. In another bowl, sift together flour and baking soda. Combine with fruit mixture and stir in walnuts. Pour into two greased loaf pans. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for approximately one hour.

From Celebrating the Great Mother: A Handbook of Earth-Honoring Activities for Parents and Children via Shakespeare's Sister

That book sounds really cool. I wants.

12:53 PM Posted In , Edit This 0 Comments »
"Rusty Lee Freeman, aka the Rev. Rapid Cabot Freeman, has been arrested for
stalking a Norwich teacher.
Freeman appeared in a story in The Day Tuesday,
claiming he was a victim of religious discrimination in Sprague.
The first
selectman, he said, had thwarted his plans to perform a demonstration of
witchcraft for kids and their parents in that town's public library on
Halloween.
But no sooner had the story appeared in The Day than Norwich
police, who'd been seeking him on a warrant since July, arrested and charged him
with second-degree harassment of Kelly Hajduk."


In short, this guy is a nutjob. And I feel that the victim of his harrassment had every right to protest his display without being religiously discriminating. However, if other faiths had done similar "demonstrations," then I could agree with his charge. But that is not the case.
If you actually read through the article via the link above, you'll see that this is only one part of a soap opera.

Women's rights advocate arrested in Tehran

12:52 PM Posted In Edit This 0 Comments »
"Esha Momeni, women's rights advocate and a member of the Campaign from
California was arrested on Wednesday October 15, 2008, while on a visit to
Tehran. Momeni who is a photographer and graduate student was arrested in an
unusual and illegal manner after being pulled over on Moddaress highway, by
individuals who identified themselves as under cover traffic police on the
pretense that she had unlawfully passed another vehicle while driving. Esha was
arrested and taken to Section 209 of Evin Prison, managed by the Intelligence
and Security Ministry."

Free Esha Momeni

Kielbasa and Cabbage Soup

12:51 PM Posted In Edit This 0 Comments »
I got this crockpot recipe from one of my online groups and it was delicious, particularly with my modifications. This is sized for my little crockpot, so you might have to adjust for a regular sized one. Just use your best judgement. It's a soup, it's not science like making bread.

1 can low fat, low sodium chicken broth (does NOT affect taste at all negatively)
1 cups cabbage, chopped
1-2 potatoes, cubed

The original called for carrots. I didn't have any, so I chopped up some purple onion because it was what I had. Well, technically I had Bronn do it because I can't do it: tears make it hard to handle sharp knives. He joked that it made it even more Polish. He should know considering "Bronn" is Polish for "John."

Kielbasa- I used low fat turkey. Again, no real effect on taste since turkey kielbasa is as good as pork or beef, just different.

The original called for thyme and basil, which to my utter astonishment, I had none. Seriously, I dabble in herbology and kitchen witchery. Maybe that's not shocking, then. My solution? Sage and savory. Surprisingly, I did not add pepper nor garlic. (Garlic's a great anti-infection, and I add it to everything possible. But would not have done well in the soup, I felt). Bronn hates pepper. Traumatic childhood experience.

As I was whipping up this concoction, I was drinking a Hornsby's Hard Apple Cider (the Apple kind not the Draft version). Look at the bottle, look at the soup. Bottle, soup, bottle, soup. Bottle goes into the soup. Not the whole thing, but a good splash. Don't worry, alcohol cooks out, especially in a slowcooker on low heat for several hours.

Served up with a slice of buttered, homemade wheat bread and another cold cider. Perfect for a chill autumn day.
Yeah, ok so I cheated and used a bread machine. It's the only way I can make non-unleavened bread.

Evangelization via robocall

12:50 PM Posted In Edit This 0 Comments »
Someone tried to save Mustang Bobby's soul over at Shakespeare's Sister through eleharassment.*

*Teleharassment is not exclusive to evangelical efforts. Teleharassment refers to any method of cold calling, including polling and sales calls.

Attack on McCain supporter was a lie.

12:48 PM Posted In , , Edit This 0 Comments »
"At a news conference this afternoon, officials said they believe that
Todd's injuries were self-inflicted. Police investigating the report said Todd's
story began to unravel early on and they administered a polygraph test.
Investigators asked Todd to return to the police station today for more
questioning and to help them release a composite sketch of the suspect. When she
did, police say she admitted that she made the whole thing up and that it
snowballed out of control."

She is evidently a very ill, unstable person.

Misogyny aimed at Sarah Palin

12:47 PM Posted In , , Edit This 0 Comments »
"Why there isn't a bigger uproar about one of the world's highest-profile female
politicians being subjected to appallingly ugly smears based on her sex."
The Guardian

Just because I disagree with her politics and beliefs, does not mean that objectifying her with porn and sex dolls is ok.

Radical homosexual agenda

12:46 PM Posted In , , Edit This 0 Comments »
A GOP mailer in NC asserts that Democratic candidate Kay Hagan, who's challenging Sen. Elizabeth Dole, will advance a "radical homosexual agenda" including "same-sex marriage, removing 'Under God' from the Pledge of Allegiance, and forcing the Boy Scouts to accept gay and atheist troop leaders." PageOneQ

Is it just me, or aren't these good things that aren't necessarily tied to a "radical homosexual agenda."

1. Gays/bisexuals just want to marry those whom they love. It's as simple as that. Same as you, same as Joe Schmoe, same as anyone with human feelings such as love, compassion, and care. It's not to "destroy the sanctity of marriage."
Some people, such as allegedly Marie Osmond, have claimed that gay marriage is ruining their marriages. My response? Obviously it's not such a great marriage if it's so easily influenced by people you don't even know. Because, you know, rushing into multiple marriages is certainly upholding the sanctity of marriage.

2. Not everyone in America has a belief in a Divine Entity. Yes, the majority of us believe in a Higher Power, but that's not necessarily God. And with the phrase "one nation under God" gives the impression that: "if you do not believe in a personification of a monotheistic deity then you do not belong to this country. You are not a real citizen." Not to mention the whole, separation of church and state thing.

3. I disagree with the Boy Scouts being based in religion, and as such, will not enroll any male children of mine into them without excessive begging. And I believe that as long as they are good role models and not child molesters, I'm perfectly ok with anyone leading a troop.

Senator Ted Stevens guilty of corruption

12:45 PM Posted In Edit This 0 Comments »
"U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska was found guilty on Monday on corruption
charges, a verdict that could endanger the powerful Republican's political
future and help Democrats expand their control of the Senate in the Nov. 4
election."
Major fail.

The Hill:
"Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Senate Republican in history and patriarch of
Alaska politics, was found guilty of felony charges for making false statements.
The verdict could spell the end of a 40-year Senate career for a man who rose to be one of the most dominant figures in the upper chamber and who helped transform Alaska in its 50 years of statehood. The verdict was reached after the jury deliberated since Wednesday and found the 84-year-old senator guilty of failing to report more than $250,000 in gifts from Bill Allen, the former head of Veco Corp., and other friends.
The jury did not seem to buy the explanation from Stevens that Allen showered him with gifts he didn't want and was unaware of, and that he believed the $160,000 he gave to another contractor covered all costs for the home renovations."

Fun with vote stealing

12:43 PM Posted In , , Edit This 0 Comments »

"Three Hialeah voters say they had an unusual visitor at their homes last week: a man who called himself Juan, offering to help them fill out their absentee ballots and deliver them to the elections office.

The voters, all supporters of Democratic congressional candidate Raul Martinez, said they gave their ballots to the man after he told them he worked for Martinez. But the Martinez campaign said he doesn't work for them. Juan ''told me not to worry, that they normally collected all the ballots and waited until they had a stack big enough to hand-deliver to the elections department,'' said voter Jesus Hernandez, 73. 'He said, ..Don't worry. This is not going to pass through the mail to get lost.'''

Hernandez said he worries his ballot was stolen or destroyed. He and two other voters told The Miami Herald that the man was dispatched by a woman caller who also said she worked for Martinez. But the phone number cited by the voters traces back to a consultant working for Martinez's rival, Republican congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart.

Martinez's campaign manager, Jeff Garcia, has asked the Miami-Dade state attorney's office to investigate."


Disgust here.

Larry the Cable Guy and Politics

12:42 PM Posted In Edit This 0 Comments »

"Larry the Cable Guy isn't, you know, an actual cable guy. The reality is that he's not a blue collar redneck either. The hooplehead accent is fake, and his name isn't Larry. He's just a normal stand-up comic named Dan Whitney who, before the ascension of George W. Bush and redneck chic in America, spoke in a non-specific American accent and wore non-redneck clothing.

But a lot of people believe Larry is genuine. Why wouldn't they? When he appears in a movie, he's credited as "Larry the Cable Guy," and, in some sort of freaky Mark
Wahlberg playing Eddie Adams playing Dirk Diggler playing Brock Landers meta-performance, Dan Whitney actually plays Larry the Cable Guy playing various movie character roles. For example, in Witless Protection (get it?), Dan Whitney plays Larry the Cable Guy playing Deputy Larry Stalder. Now sure, he's made a nice career for himself and I don't mean to begrudge him for his success, but it's all pretty creepy, no?

Fortunately for America, Larry or Dan or whoever isn't running for president. At least, not this time. Be it Larry the Cable Guy or his Ohio cousin, Joe the Plumber, or their political and spiritual leader, Bushie the Commander Guy, or their newly discovered co-star Sarah the Hockey Mom, it should be obvious to anyone watching that the Republicans have been engaging in a seemingly endless game of dress up, and pretending to be something they're clearly not."


Who would you have a beer with politics.

Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

12:41 PM Posted In , , , Edit This 0 Comments »
I was watching "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" the other night with Bronn. Why? It's sad how so many people are not. He and I both prefer Cash Cab because it's actually challenging for us, at least further on in the game.

Well, the mayor of Muskogee, OK was asked "Who was the first woman in space?" (Note: that may not be the exact wording, but is the essence of the question in question). His musings as he attempted to wrangle the answer from the depths of his brain?

"What colour was her hair?"

Major fail. Yes, because obviously the only thing that stuck out in your hormone-soaked brain was her hair colour. Dear Gods.

(I also fail because I had to look up the answer. It was Sally Ride.)

At the end of the show there was a teaser for the next episode. During said teaser, a bunch of scantily clad female dancers came out and did a routine. My response?

Yes, let's show these brilliant girls on the show and any others at home watching that they can be as smart as anyone, but grow up to be nothing other than eye candy.

Fail.

Truth, homophobia, and slavery

12:40 PM Posted In , , , , , , , Edit This 0 Comments »
The CNN "Truth Squad" investigates the facts of Obama's and McCain's "closing arguments" yesterday.

2007 Hate Crimes statistics show homophobic attacks on the rise. (Pink News)

The Arctic is still melting. (BBC)

Free at last: female slave who dared to take Niger to court.

Neo-Nazi's assassination plot

12:39 PM Posted In , , , Edit This 0 Comments »
"Law enforcement agents have broken up a plot by two neo-Nazi skinheads to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and shoot or decapitate 88 black people, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives said Monday.Jim Cavanaugh, special agent in charge of ATF's Nashville field office, said the two men planned to kill 88 black people, including 14 by beheading. The numbers 88 and 14 are symbolic in the white supremacist community."

Who are you voting for?

12:38 PM Posted In , , , Edit This 0 Comments »
"Obama—of course!"—An anonymous, paid-by-the-hour John McCain "team leader," when asked for whom she's going to vote in the upcoming election.

Palin hung in effigy

12:37 PM Posted In , , , , , Edit This 0 Comments »
Palin hung in effigy by a moron who doesn't understand the rich history we have here in America of hanging uppity women nor art.
"Chad Michael Morisette, who lives in the house, told CBS 2 News that drivers
and bus passengers have been stopping to snap pictures of the macabre scene.
Morisette says the effigy would be out of bounds at any other time of year, but
it's within the spirit of Halloween. He says "it should be seen as art, and as
within the month of October. It's Halloween, it's time to be scary, it's time to
be spooky." "

Mess with the Democratic voters!

12:37 PM Posted In , , Edit This 0 Comments »
Misleading materials in Virginia:
"A phony State Board of Elections flier advising Republicans to vote on Nov. 4
and Democrats on Nov. 5 is being circulated in several Hampton Roads localities,
according to state election officials. [...] The somewhat official-looking flier
– it features the State Board logo and the state seal – is dated Oct. 24 and
indicates that "an emergency session of the General Assembly adopted the . . .
emergency (voting) regulations to ease the load on local electorial (sic)
precincts and ensure a fair electorial (sic) process." "

Hippy hierarchy

12:34 PM Posted In , Edit This 0 Comments »
I live in Eugene, OR, sometimes dubbed "Hippyville." Now what people don't understand is that there are levels of hippydom, often layering with each other.

For example, you have your dreadlocked hippies that tend to fit the stereotype of wearing patchouli and not bathing/shaving. Usually with tribal piercings/tattoos and have been known to hit a rave or two. Possibly firedances and would most likely smoke anything you put in front of them. Most likely to be vegetarian. Shops only at second-hand stores for clothes.

Then you have the organics "all chemicals are evil," but they often smoke. The smoker organics are typically dreadlocked. Non-smoker organics wear only non-bright colours, all natural fibers, and can talk extensively on the benefits of herbs other than weed. Often makes their own clothes, most likely to be vegan. Might or might not shave. This type is known to bathe, preferably in Dr. Bronner's soap.

And there's the yippies. Yuppy + hippy = yippy. They won't shop at the local natural foods stores, but instead prefer the upscale Whole Paycheck type of markets. Drives hybrids, attends winetastings, and bathes in expensive organic shower gels. Wears expensive, organic, hand-woven, hand-dyed cotton and other natural fibers. Would not be caught dead smoking anything, legal or otherwise. Does not shave, but instead most likely sugars or uses organic waxing methods. Will eat anything as long as it contains one or more of the following terms: organic, free trade, local, recommended by. Definitely falls into the "elitist liberal" class.

My answer to any situation requiring prolonged interaction with snobby hippies is to out-hippy them.

  1. Wear all natural clothing in neutral colours, bonus points if you make it yourself.
  2. Bathe. No makeup, very little work put into your hair. If anyone comments, rant and rave about the commercialization of women and our appearance for the sake of being eye candy.
    If you have a significant other, do not refer to them by name, title, and certainly not in a gendered manner. Simply call them "significant other" or "partner."
  3. Bring your own granola, again bonus if you make it yourself. When challenged on bringing your own food, pontificate on how it's the only way you can ensure it's organic, local, not going into the pockets of big businesses, and how our society has denigrated/disassociated itself with the creation of food.
  4. Bring your own water/tea/coffee in a reusable container, bonus points if it's loose leaf tea or coffee you ground yourself, double if it's in sturdy glass. Again, when questioned, lecture on the benefits of free trade, organics. Doesn't matter if the beverage in question is not actually free trade, organic, they couldn't tell unless you hand them the packaging. If container is not plastic, rant about the evils of plastic food containers.

Samhain = MEAT harvest

12:33 PM Posted In , , Edit This 0 Comments »
You know what I love, is how practically all Pagan recipes are grain-based. Yes, we are a nature based religion. Yes, grains are the closest to the earth in energy. Yes, many of us are vegetarian/vegan.

Samhain, however, is the MEAT HARVEST. SLAUGHTER. So why the heck are 95% of the recipes out there for breads, cookies, and the like? That should have been Lammas.

*Throws hands in the air and stalks out.*

Effing liberals arrested for legally placing signs

12:32 PM Posted In , Edit This 0 Comments »
"New Jersey police officers arrested five people who were posting political
signs, calling them "a bunch of fucking liberals," say the five in Hudson County
Court. The cops added, "It's not your day. We like Bush." "
(CNS)

Things are getting really ugly

12:31 PM Posted In , Edit This 0 Comments »
"Two weeks before an election that could install the first black U.S. president,
scattered ugly incidents have reflected a deep residue of racism among some
segments of white America.
A cardboard likeness of Barack
Obama
was found strung from fishing wire at a university, the Democratic
presidential nominee's face was depicted on mock food stamps, the body of a
black bear was left at another university with Obama posters attached to it."
I've posted some about this before.

"Two people were arrested and charged Monday afternoon with assaulting
several GOP campaign workers at the campaign headquarters in Galax, Va."

Knock it off, people!

Economy and Astronomy

12:30 PM Posted In , Edit This 0 Comments »
Chrysler stopping hybrid production. (ClusterStock)

Electricity found on the Saturn moon Titan. (NG)

Greenspan: "You know, that's precisely the reason I was shocked, because I have been going for 40 years or more with very considerable evidence that it was working exceptionally well." (Economy Watch at WPost)

Good Samaritan saves a woman's foreclosed home.

12:28 PM Posted In Edit This 0 Comments »
Good Samaritan' saves crying woman's foreclosed home


"Tracy Orr sat in the back of the room and prepared to watch her foreclosed home
go up for auction this past Saturday. That's when a pesky stranger sat down
beside her and struck up a conversation."Are you here to buy a house?" Marilyn
Mock said.

Orr couldn't hold it in. The tears flowed. She pointed to the auction
brochure at a home that didn't have a picture. "That's my house," she said.…Mock
says she bought the home for about $30,000. That's when Mock did what most
bidders at a foreclosure auction never do. "She said, 'I did this for you. I'm
doing this for you,' " Orr says.

"When it was all done, I was just in shock.""I thought maybe her and her husband do these types of things to buy them and turn them. She said, 'No, you just look like you needed a friend.' ""All this happened within like 5 minutes. She never even asked me my name. She didn't ask me my financial situation. She had no idea what [the house] looked like. She just did it out of the graciousness of her heart, just a 'Good Samaritan,' " Orr says. "It's amazing." …As for Orr's payments, Mock says, "We'll just figure out however much she can pay on it. That way, she can have her house back."

Why be so generous? "She was just so sad. You put yourself in their situation and you realize you just got to do something," says Mock… "If it was you, you'd want
somebody to stop and help you."

When she told her husband of 30 years that she'd just bought a home for a stranger, she says his reaction was: "Whatever." "He's used to it," she says with a booming laugh."

Poor voting machine distribution

12:27 PM Posted In , Edit This 0 Comments »
The NAACP has filed a lawsuit claiming that the government has failed to adequately prepare for the anticipated record turnout:
"The lawsuit claims that the state is violating the U.S. and Virginia
constitutions by not allocating enough voting machines, poll workers and polling
places -- particularly in precincts with high minority populations -- which
could result in long lines and lost votes.
The Advancement Project, a
national voter protection group, filed the lawsuit late Monday in U.S. District
Court in Richmond on the NAACP's behalf. It asks the state to move voting
machines to precincts most likely to have long waiting lines; keep polls open
for an extra two hours; and use paper ballots in some cases."


Makes me glad I live in Oregon with a mail-in ballot.

And Obama's supposed to be the Socialist?

12:24 PM Posted In Edit This 0 Comments »
Hendrik Hertzberg in this week's New Yorker:
"For her part, Sarah Palin, who has lately taken to calling Obama "Barack the
Wealth Spreader," seems to be something of a suspect character herself. She is,
at the very least, a fellow-traveller of what might be called socialism with an
Alaskan face. The state that she governs has no income or sales tax. Instead, it
imposes huge levies on the oil companies that lease its oil fields. The proceeds
finance the government's activities and enable it to issue a four-figure annual
check to every man, woman, and child in the state. One of the reasons Palin has
been a popular governor is that she added an extra twelve hundred dollars to
this year's check, bringing the per-person total to $3,269. A few weeks before
she was nominated for Vice-President, she told a visiting journalist—Philip
Gourevitch, of this magazine—that "we're set up, unlike other states in the
union, where it's collectively Alaskans own the resources. So we share in the
wealth when the development of these resources occurs." Perhaps there is some
meaningful distinction between spreading the wealth and sharing it
("collectively," no less), but finding it would require the analytic skills of
Karl the Marxist."

Does your God(s) tell you for whom to vote?

12:22 PM Edit This 0 Comments »
The latest McCain ad asks,
"Would you get on a plane with a pilot who has never flown? Would you trust your
child with someone who has never cared for children? Would you go under with a
surgeon who has never operated?"

By that logic, the only person qualified to be president is a former president.
And the crashing planes analogy was a poor one, considering his history with jets.

Vote for Obama and go to Hell.

"To all those who name the name of Christ who plan to willfully disobey Him by
voting for Obama, take warning. Not only is our nation in grave danger,
according to the Word of God, so are you.[...]To those who call themselves by
the name of Christ who ignore what God says about life and marriage, who and are
clinging to a fantasy of economic gain, think again.Obama will use your tax
dollars to kill innocent children, and then he'll take your paycheck and use it
to "spread the wealth around."[...]Be forewarned: If you willfully disobey God
on life and marriage because of race or false hope for the economy, you will
usher in the kind of change that brought the Soviet Union to collapse.[...]If
the word of God matters more to you than your perception of personal gain, Joel
2:12 issues a call to repentance I pray you will heed:
"Now, therefore,"
says the LORD, 'Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and
with mourning'" (Joel 2:12).
Then obey Him in the voting booth and out of it.
If not, do us all a favor and quit calling yourself a Christian."

Equality is un-'Muricun

12:20 PM Posted In , Edit This 0 Comments »
"Equality, which is the primary value of the left, is a European value, not an American value."— Rightwing radio nutjob Dennis Prager.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all [humans] are created equal."— Dirty, evil, liberal scumbags John Adams, Samuel Adams, Josiah Bartlett, Carter Braxton, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Samuel Chase, Abraham Clark, George Clymer, William Ellery, William Floyd, Benjamin Franklin, Elbridge Gerry, Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, John Hancock, Benjamin Harrison, John Hart, Joseph Hewes, Thomas Heyward, Jr., William Hooper, Stephen Hopkins, Francis Hopkinson, Samuel Huntington, Thomas Jefferson, Francis Lightfoot Lee, Richard Henry Lee, Francis Lewis, Philip Livingston, Thomas Lynch, Jr., Thomas McKean, Arthur Middleton, Lewis Morris, Robert Morris, John Morton, Thomas Nelson, Jr., William Paca, Robert Treat Paine, John Penn, George Read, Caesar Rodney, George Ross, Benjamin Rush, Edward Rutledge, Roger Sherman, James Smith, Richard Stockton, Thomas Stone, George Taylor, Matthew Thornton, George Walton, William Whipple, William Williams, James Wilson, John Witherspoon, Oliver Wolcott, and George Wythe.

Definitions of terrorism

12:19 PM Posted In , , , Edit This 0 Comments »
"[Palin] effectively redefined "terrorist" as "Bill Ayers", and then asserted to
judge whether anyone else is a terrorist exclusively by how closely they hew to
what defines Ayers as a terrorist. Thus, only if one campaigns to destroy public
buildings and innocent Americans (we'll come back to that one) are they in the
same "category of Bill Ayers". That's a wonderfully convenient way of defining
terrorism for Palin, who wants desperately to smear her opponent as a terrorist
sympathiser – not so great a method for the rest of us, who don't have any
investment in defining terrorists singularly by their resemblance to
Ayers.Second, she makes a careful note about the destruction of "innocent
Americans" – a caveat that seems drawn specifically to provide an exception for
people ("real Americans", perhaps) who blow up buildings full of not-so-innocent
Americans. Like, say, women getting abortions."

Read the whole thing.
Yes, blowing up buildings which contain perfectly legal practices with which you do not agree is perfectly ok, it's just freedom of speech. After all, it's to preserve the sanctity of life.

JC Penny's refused to do African-American hair

12:17 PM Edit This 1 Comment »
"Brenda McElmore went to JC Penny's to get her hair dyed black and was
denied service.
According to KTLA, McElmore was told, "We don't do
African-American hair." She was then directed to elsewhere for hairstyling
needs. For McELmore it triggered a time of growing up under Jim Crow laws,
wherein blacks were routinely denied services based on the colour of our
skin. She has since filed suit against JC Penny. The company
responded by sending the
following letter.
"Let me apologize again for the customer service experience you had in our store. As we discussed, our salon receptionist felt that we did not have the technical proficiency... to perform the service you required. She may
not however have expressed this to you in a way that was not offensive. For this I again apologize. Because customer service is ... so important to our company, we would rather not attempt the service if we cannot perform it as required."

Isn't that beautiful lawyer speak for your hair is too nappy and untamable to deal with. The woman wasn't asking for a hair treatment, or a hair style that was specifically Afrocentric, she was asking for a damn dye job. If the salon does not have someone there that can colour hair, then they are not a hair salon."

Honestly, knowing my inside experiences with Penny's, I'm not at all surprised.

Hey Judges, keep the Constitution out of it!

12:15 PM Posted In , Edit This 0 Comments »
"I'm tired of these judges who want to follow what the Founding Fathers said and the Constitution. I want judges who have a heart, have an empathy for the teenage mom, the minority, the gay, the disabled. We want them to show empathy. We want them to show compassion." - Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO) on Barack Obama's judicial appointment philosophy.

Uh, first of all, it's a judge's job to apply the Constitution. And empathy is not antithetical to logic. Considering Obama is not opposed to same sex marriage, he would be most likely to appoint judges who feel the same way, therefore showing the utmost empathy for gays by extending equal rights.

Heartbreaking and inspiring

12:11 PM Posted In , , Edit This 0 Comments »
North Charleston Woman Uses Last Moments In Life to Vote:
"Very little was missing in Dora Fitzgerald's 93 years of life, she had a marriage of 65 years and family that spreads generations, but politics was never a passion until the final year of her life."She was very moved for Barack Obama's passion for fixing things, and his articulate way of delivering his message and she just decided she was going to vote for him," said her daughter, M. Fitzgerald.
…"She said I don't know if I'm going to live that long, but I plan on sticking around to vote for him."Fearful that November was too long to wait, her daughter sent for an absentee ballot. It arrived last week."She made her mark, and we put it in the envelope, my brother and I walked to the mailbox, it was 11 o'clock Wednesday morning and I said 'Mom it's in the mail, you've done your thing, Barack's going to win,' and she kind of smiled and it was kind of a deep sigh, a sigh of relief, and in less than an hour later, she died," said M. Fitzgerald.…Mrs. Fitzgerald was born in 1915 and according to her family, she voted in 19 presidential elections."

Extinction and climate change.

12:10 PM Posted In , , , , Edit This 0 Comments »
Over 25% of once thriving species are disappearing, and 1/3 are nearly extinct.
Climate Change:
"From Walden Pond in Massachusetts to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, climate change has begun to dramatically affect the flora and fauna of these American treasures, according to two studies in Monday's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The studies show that the warming of the Earth's atmosphere over the past few decades has caused a loss of many of the flowers that Henry David Thoreau recorded in his book Walden and also has contributed to a decline in several species of native animals once common in Yellowstone."

Somalian woman stoned to death.

12:08 PM Posted In , Edit This 0 Comments »
"Somali Islamists have stoned to death a woman accused of adultery in the first such public killing by the militants for about two years, witnesses said.
The 23-year-old woman was placed in a hole up to her neck for the execution late on Monday in front of hundreds of people in a square of the southern port of Kismayu, which the Islamist insurgents captured in August.
Stones were hurled at her head, and she was brought out of the hole three times to see if she had died.
When a relative and others surged forward, guards opened fire, killing a child, the witnesses said."
Misogyny in the name of religion.