(Click thumbnail to view )<= MAYBE HE JUST NEEDS A SLURPEE ...
___________________________
QUOTE / UNQUOTE
"Only the guy who isn't rowing has time to rock the boat."
[Jean-Paul Sartre]
[Jean-Paul Sartre]
" ... The universe is presided over by a being that is 100 percent malevolent but only 80 percent effective (which explains pretty much everything." [Jim Holt]
"I'm not a lesbian, I just want to touch you." [A note left by a woman who reportedly broke into Pamela Anderson's Malibu home and rooted around in the actress' underwear drawer] Softpedia
__________________________
I'M A BUCKEYE - AND I FEEL GOOD!
Chuck Todd in National Journal lists the Senate races for 2006 and handicaps them in order of most likely to be upset.
The scandal plaguing Ohio has nothing to do with (Republican Senator Mike) DeWine, yet we can see a scenario where elected officials running in 2006 with an "(R)" next to their names are in big trouble. Democrats are still searching for someone to challenge DeWine, which is why this seat is still low on our rankings. But if either former Attorney General Lee Fisher or former Rep. Dennis Eckart runs, expect this race to move up.
This is the dilemma for a guy like Da Rev, who, though he has marked differences with Senator DeWine, has taken a little satisfaction in the fact that he has voted for him and has defended him against liberal AND conservative broadsides. DeWine has managed to piss off a lot of right wingers in the state for several reasons, such as his environmental record, and his recent association with the "Gang of 14" moderates of both parties who worked out a compromise on the filibustering of judicial nominees. His kid Pat just came in 4th in a Repug primary to pick a candidate to succeed Rob Portman. If the Rethuglicans put up a primary opponent, DeWine could lose the nomination - or be softened up for the general election.
Yup, the scandal could bring along a few Dems into statewide office in this mostly Republican state. Congressman Strickland should have a good shot for Governor against Petro or Blackwell. Betty Montgomery would do better, but she's tarred by the same taint of the Workmen's Comp Fund irregularities. AND the state is in abysmal shape by just about ANY measure you might devise!
__________________________
THE CONTINUING SAGA OF KIDNAPPED KATIE!(Click)
(Click)
KUTE KATIE KIDNAPPED
BY A tiny SCIENTOLOGIST!
BY A tiny SCIENTOLOGIST!
________________
It's time to feel sorry for Katie Holmes' parents. Sources have told the New York Daily News that Holmes' folks told their fellow parishioners in their Toledo Roman Catholic Church that their daughter had no intention of converting to Scientology like her famous fiancé, Tom Cruise - only to hear press reports in which she announced that she had. Said one family friend, "She's not consulting her family on any of her decisions."
Mightn't she have warned them?
__________________________
WILL KARL ROVE APOLOGIZE? Ri-i-i-ight!
The New York Times quotes Karl Rove as saying,
Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 in the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers.
MEMO TO HERR KARL: No liberal need hang his or her head in the face of your nasty assertions about 9-11 and how the left reacted, as opposed to BUSHCO's rush to perpetual warfare. Liberals saw the savagery of 9/11 in the attacks and prepared for war against the REAL ENEMY (Al Qaeda). On the other hand, Herr Karl, the neo-conservatives such as you who were asleep at the wheel and let 9/11 happen - then jumped on the opportunity for an invasion of Iraq.
I think its been too many years since this little smart-assed elitist got de-pantsed daily on the school playground.
___________________________
DOGMATIC ATHEISTS?!?(Click to enlarge)
The notion that religious people, as such, are enemies of humankind seems to me at least as silly as the analogous notion about atheists.
Mark, I must respond: While there may be dogmatic atheists, the term is a contradiction. An atheist is one who is "not-theist",
for reasons that he must decide for himself. All religious arguments derive from schemes for societal control, incorporating superstition, cultural legends and fables. Fear of the unknown is the impetus for belief in the improbable.
"I don't believe in anything unless I can eat it, drink it, drive it, fuck it or perceive evidence of it." [Rev. Art]
In this dangerous age when true believers call for the deaths of infidels - when ignorant fundamentalists stand in the schoolhouse doors refusing entrance to critical thinking, the scientific method, and personal autonomy - when America's global competitive edge in science and technolgy is disappearing in the face of better- prepared citizens in other countries - my response is that the enemy of free inquiry and expression IS an enemy to humankind.
I don't label the religionists in order to place any limits on their inherent rights to think and speak. However, I would propose a truely free market of ideas, in which the arguments of freethinkers and skeptics are as freely and respectfully disseminated as the pronouncements of evangelists and anti-intellectualists.
I don't label the religionists in order to place any limits on their inherent rights to think and speak. However, I would propose a truely free market of ideas, in which the arguments of freethinkers and skeptics are as freely and respectfully disseminated as the pronouncements of evangelists and anti-intellectualists.
(Click on thumbnail to view)
___________________________
WE'RE SPENDIN' $6 BILLION A MONTH IN IRAQ!!
With what we spend in Iraq in ONE YEAR we could fund Public Television and Radio - including NPR AND Sesame Street for 140 YEARS !
Hmmm ... So, if you choose UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE over EMPIRE - you're giving aid and comfort to the TERRORISTS!!
_________________________
HOUSE PASSES FLAG PROTECTION AMENDMENT
One of the spokesmen for the jingoist faction in the Senate, Repug Oral Hatch raised the alarm, warning that people would be "crapping" on the symbol of our nation.
Could the high cost of medical care in America be due to "FLAG CRAPPING"!!
(Click thumbnail to view proper
display of our national symbol)
display of our national symbol)
_____________________________
Republicans don't do that, do they?
SALON.COM / War Room
OK, so we know that only Democrats like Dick Durbin and Howard Dean say outrageous things, and thus - the Congressional Record notwithstanding - we're pretty sure that it's impossible that this actually happened. But just in case it actually happened, we'd be remiss not to note the remarks that may have been made earlier this week by
SALON.COM / War Room
OK, so we know that only Democrats like Dick Durbin and Howard Dean say outrageous things, and thus - the Congressional Record notwithstanding - we're pretty sure that it's impossible that this actually happened. But just in case it actually happened, we'd be remiss not to note the remarks that may have been made earlier this week by
During a debate on the House floor over a measure that would have put the House on record as opposed to "coercive and abusive religious proselytizing" at the U.S. Air Force Academy, Hostettler said - only he couldn't have said it, right? - that "Democrats can't help themselves when it comes to denigrating and demonizing Christians."
(Guys like the nut-fundie dick-head congressman don't make it any easier to maintain our civil demeanor . . .)
Democrats in the House rose up to protest the smear, and - after a half an hour of back-and-forth - Hostettler retracted his remarks. But we're betting that it won't be the last time we'll hear from Rep. Hostettler. It certainly hasn't been the first. A Christianist conservative who likes to talk about the "war on Christianity in America" and threaten to withhold funding needed to enforce court decisions he doesn’t like, Hostettler tried last year to get through airport security in Louisville, Ky., -- and on a plane bound for Washington, D.C., -- with a loaded Glock 9mm semi-automatic handgun in his carry-on bag.
(Click to view Da Rev's contribution to the WAR ON CHRISTIANITY !)
__________________________
WILL GM GO BELLY-UP?
(Click)
Dayton's a GM town. I sense that some of the posters on the Dayton Daily News Speak-Up Forum seem almost gleeful over the increasingly precarious state of affairs for a large contingent of wage-earners in our community. It's one thing to point out that perhaps they have had it very good for a long time or that they should accept responsibility for a portion of their healthcare costs just like many of the rest of us - but singling out autoworkers for abuse and kneejerk union-bashing at such a time as this is not only callous, it doesn't move the discussion anywhere beyond the dismal status quo.
I worked in an auto plant years ago. It wasn't something I thought I wanted to do the rest of my work life. So I give credit to the folks who have made our cars & trucks all these years while I was doing other work. Some day soon there may be few people working in auto plants in the US. I think most of the autoworkers I have known won't be sorry that their children won't follow them onto those lines.
(Click) ___________________________________
FUN WITH TERRI'S AUTOPSY RESULTS (Click)
According to the medical examiner,
"Terri's brain was absolutely normal and her eyesight was 20/10. We believe Ms. Schiavo orchestrated this elaborate hoax to gain attention from loved ones." Additional detail provided by the examiner's report suggests that Ms. Schiavo was studying Latin and was not far from earning her doctorate degree in foreign languages. According to her father, "This all stems from her childhood when we forgot her birthday one year. After that, she'd do anything to get attention. What a prankster!"
More fun - "DO THE SCHIAVO! YEAH!"
_________________________
KINKY FOR GOVERNOR
KINKY FOR GOVERNOR(Click)
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R - TX), who sleeps with a gun, is running for a 3rd term rather than challenge incumbent Governor Rick Parry. Kinky Friedman, singer-songwriter-author, who sleeps with a cat, is running for Governor of Texass.
___________________________
CRAZY ABOUT MERCURY . . .
As late as Monday, as I followed the alarming news about the mercury scare (it's a crusade on "Imus in the Morning"), I was almost caught up in the hysteria. I've stepped back and listened to cooler heads. This is from a website of an academic surgeon and scientist (Orac knows) that specializes in debunking pseudomedicine & pseudoscience:
Deadly Immunity Robert F. Kennedy's article in Salon & Rolling Stone is a one-sided account of the supposed link between thimerosal in vaccines and autism that is being promoted by antivaccine activists as an indictment of the government and pharmaceutical companies.
For example, the Schaefer Autism Report e-mail list reports that ABC News has cancelled appearances by RFK Jr. on 20/20 and Good Morning America this week. The e-mail invokes the usual conspiracy-mongering, saying, "Our opinion is that they are more concerned about protecting their huge advertising revenues from the pharmaceutical industry than reporting news that could protect pregnant women, infants and children from mercury tainted vaccines."
Personally, I suspect it was because ABC News probably figured out that the article was a biased and shoddily researched piece of crap, but then that's just my opinion and hope.... I've been forced to change my opinion. Before, I just thought that RFK Jr. had simply let his bias and his close contact with Lujene Clark and other mercury-autism activists during the preparation of his article lead him astray. After reading (other skeptics') take on the matter, now I reluctantly have to conclude that it is more likely that he was being downright dishonest in his treatment of the entire issue of the Simpsonwood Conference.
Lindsay Beyerstein @ Majik Thise adds:
According to the World Health Organization's STATEMENT ON THIMEROSOL, concern over the safety of thimerosal was initially sparked by a confusion. After 70 seemingly uneventful years of widespread use, thimerosal came under scrutiny from the FDA in 1999. During a review of vaccination recommendations, some experts became concerned that the cumulative mercury exposure in the standard vaccine schedule exceeded U.S. exposure limits for mercury. As it turned out, the exposure limits were for set methyl mercury, whereas thimerosal is a derivative of ethyl mercury. The FDA had been treating ethyl and methyl mercury as equivalent, but we now know that two compounds have significantly different toxicological properties ...
Perhaps the best evidence against the thimerosal/autism hypothesis is the fact that banning thimerosal doesn't reduce autism rates. If thimerosal caused autism, you would expect autism rates to fall after the offending vaccines were stricken from the immunization schedule. Several nations including Denmark and Canada have already banned thimerosal-containing vaccines, but no declines in autism have been observed so far. In the United States, the FDA has worked with vaccine manufacturers to decrease thimerosal exposure in the standard infant immunization schedule by 95%. So far, decreased exposure hasn't translated into decreased autism incidence."
___________________________FUN WITH TERRI'S AUTOPSY RESULTS
Good fortune. Please spread the meme.
COMMENT!! Don't smoke in bed . . .
