The Vatican has lashed out at criticism over its handling of its paedophilia crisis by saying the Catholic church was "busy cleaning its own house" and that the problems with clerical sex abuse in other churches were as big, if not bigger.
In a defiant and provocative statement, issued following a meeting of the UN human rights council in Geneva, the Holy See said the majority of Catholic clergy who committed such acts were not paedophiles but homosexuals attracted to sex with adolescent males.
Wow. The only reason these pedophiles didn't rape young girls is because girls weren't allowed to be alter boys.
The Vatican's says, the freakin VATICAN, AKA the POPE, and since god speaks directly thru his most (nazi youth) holiness, says 'GOD says it's not my fault, they're queers.'
There's a term for adults who want to f**k children, it's called pedophilia. It has little to do with gender, it has to do with access.
Does this jerkoff (I'm just assuming he's a jerkoff, but I think that's a sin too) really want to claim 'but they did it too' as a defense!?
Jeebus h freakin christ on a cross, that's their excuse!?
Al-Qaida has adopted a technique from drug smugglers that allows suicide bombers to breach even the tightest security. One of the terrorists who tried to assassinate a Saudi prince hid explosives and detonator in his rectum.
I just knew it wouldn't bode well for what we all have to go through at the security gate in the airport. I mean, if the shoe bomber made it so we have to take off our shoes and the liquid bomber made it so we had to dump all of our liquids, what the hell is the ass bomber going to for us?
posted by The Vidiot @ 4:16 PM Permalink
But I'll post it anyway. If it's real, I'll be able to say "you saw it here first" and if it's not, well, it'll just be another weird youtube video I've posted for no real reason.
Enjoy.
The most impressive image of the video, which is engraved the most stylish 'Rec' or 'Blair Witch' is not only, obviously, the supposed UFO that crashes into the sea, but also the emergence of 'fighters' and wonder of surprising fishermen for persecution.
All our 'leaders,' supposedly intelligent, skilled military planners running the Pentagon still just don't get it…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 10:14 AM Permalink
…when it comes to Afghanistan. It is amazing, and would be funny if the results weren't so disastrous and leading to so many unneeded, and therefor abhorrent, unnecessary deaths.
See this NYT article titled: From McChrystal’s Mouth to Obama’s Ear
When President Obama looks at the screen in the Situation Room on Wednesday, he will find a face he has not seen lately except in newspapers. There, via secure video from Kabul, will be Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, his commander in Afghanistan, explaining directly to the president for the first time why more troops are needed.
General McChrystal has not spoken with Mr. Obama since submitting his grim assessment of the war a month ago and has spoken with him only once in the 100 days since he took command of all American and NATO forces in Afghanistan. The lack of direct communication has generated criticism and fueled suspicions of strains between the White House and Kabul.[…]
General McChrystal has denied any rift with the White House, though his request for up to 40,000 more troops has created a political problem for a president whose liberal base is increasingly speaking out against the war. In an interview last week, General McChrystal emphasized that he had been given complete freedom to conduct his strategic review and troop request.[…]
Questions about Mr. Obama’s relationship with General McChrystal have percolated for weeks, following reports that the administration delayed his troop request and kept him from testifying before Congress. “Someone has to explain what the strategy is,” said Frederick W. Kagan, a military expert at the American Enterprise Institute. “I think it’s important for the American people to hear from the commander.”
Administration officials said they wanted to rethink the Afghanistan strategy before addressing troop levels and maintained it would be premature for the general to testify. Nonetheless, Mr. Gates, worried about the criticism, told General McChrystal last week to send him the troop request to take the heat off the commander.
First, as to the AEI, here's Bill Kristol, necon at AEI:
William Kristol (whose magazine is housed in the AEI offices) has it. I’m curious to see how this line plays in the hall: "I am certain that no one wishes the current administration more success in defending the country than we do…"
which immediately identifies him and that for which he stands. As one of the founders of the neocon movement kristol is all for the use of the American military to forward their objectives of American hegemony, control of world resources through military means, and using the military against anyone who would seek to end such injustices, peacefully or otherwise. I think this adequately shows where the AEI stands: shoulder-to-shoulder with w and his known torturer, the big dick.
Second: We are engaged in a war in some of the most desolate and harsh environments on earth, almost equally difficult to operate in as Antarctica, fighting against people forever engaged in warfare that have built tunnels, rat-holes, rabbit-runs or whatever you may wish to call them, and who live by a 'code of honor' that calls for an entire clan or village to fight to the death in protecting a guest. No one knows the terrain better than they, where ambushes can be set up, the routes to flee, the rabbit holes down which to disappear while American field commanders stand around, dumbfounded, wondering where did they go, while the trillions of dollars America has spent for satellites are useless at locating entire clans underground.
And those guests, in many, many, cases are some of the richest men in the world, controlling 90% or more of the world's heroin and thus provide the means for Afghani farmers to support and feed their families while selling their opium crops to honored guests whom they will defend to the death. There is no such thing a a deficit of funds for these warlords, dealers, and buyers of crops. America cannot possibly match these people when it comes to money!
Simultaneously, we chase our tails, expending billions more that we add to our deficit instead of caring for Americans, and no one stops to think that the warlords and opium dealers whom have billions and billions and billions of dollars in surpluses, are the first ones on the scene every time America bombs an opium field and falsely claims that, once again, we have taken out the number two man of al-Qaede. While we falsely brag representatives of the warlords are out there taking care of their farmers, reimbursing them for lost crops and, most importantly, mourning with them the loss of sons, daughters, wives, husbands and fathers, paying funeral expenses during bad times, and paying for extravagant weddings when times are good.
Isn't it more than a bit ironic, and shameful for America, that our supposed 'enemies,' the vast majority of Afghanis who had nothing to do with the Taliban, al-Qeada or the attack against America that republicans, led by a republican president, allegedly the defenders of the universe to hear them talk, allowed by plain old inactivity, malfeasance, and failure to heed all the warnings and obvious signs, ALLOWED the worst terrorist attack in our nations history to occur on THEIR WATCH, and then relentlessly pursued people who had done nothing whatever in the way of hostilities towards America? The Afghanis are not our enemy, so why do we have them embroiled in a war not of their choosing, based upon an attacked caused by what, 19 or so Saudi Arabians?
I see another Vietnam on the horizon American, driven out in shame once again, and all our supporters being left behind to be shot, or tortured, or forced to watch as their children are killed, butchered, and dismembered before their very eyes.
As I look at this situation with the jaundiced eye of personal experience it occurs to me that it is no wonder that I suffer flashbacks, see the faces, hear the screams. The only real surprise is that I can sometimes sublimate them at all and not see them or hear the screams of the dying all the time.
And I'm one of the lucky ones. Yeah, right. Really, I am.
People sometimes ask me what the differences are twixt…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 1:57 AM Permalink
Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan and it provokes flashbacks almost too painful to bear.
One thing in common is that they were all started by the fat, old, bigoted, and prejudiced white men seeking hegemony and the spoils of war. And, as all wars are, the similarities were always there: Good men driven relentlessly until they, too, recognized the insanity of war while trying to kill, maim, and destroy as many people as possible, even women and children.
It is the difference that haunts me, follows me, and breaks through my dreams to the sheer horror that was hell on earth at Tan Son Nhut Air Base, RPV, during my last trip there to help evacuate as many people as we could within a very short timeframe in April, 1975.
I had never before, and have not since, ever see crowds of well over 1.5-2 million people, so many of themselves wounded, so many with the blank stare of a mother or father whose children had either been killed or injured or were being forced to stay behind with little to no hope of survival. The cacophony of voices, the sea of tear-stained faces, the wailing cries of the sick and dying, the looks and pleas being made with the expectations that, despite it all, America wouldn't abandon them as promised even as they were watching us doing that very thing, in disbelief and with the knowledge certain we would not return.
A large group of us learned that some of the evacuees were paying $10,000.00 per head for the 'right' to go, Blackmarket bribery! that, with pride we set up an area for the poor, and with every busload of people, as we left the main processing grounds, we would stop and load on as many women and children as we could before continuing on to whatever aircraft we had on the ground.
Aircraft, combat loaded by marching evacuees up the plane's ramp and having them sit on the bare metal floor, no seats, seatbelts, no amenities of any kind 260 people on a C-141 Starlifter, 210 people on a Hercules C130. An aircraft leaving the ground every twenty minutes,non-stop.
I and many Security Police Law Enforcement Specialists were flown to Tan Son Nhut AB to act as Customs Agents and worked for eight days straight, day and night continuously, before relief could be flown in for us. Then we were taken to an Agent Orange Storage warehouse where we simply dropped to the floor and crashed. To this day I can still remember sleeping in and breathing remnants of those notoriously leaky A.O. barrels. I had no idea that this would someday almost kill me with two cancers, chemo, radiation therapy, and a radical neck dissection that permanently severed several nerves, leaving me in never-ending pain.
Still we worked twelve hour days tending to and processing that never ending sea of people, Hearing their cries, begging for us to take their babies and young children with us even when they knew they could not follow and would likely never see them again.
And that is the difference between these three wars. In Afghanistan they beg us to leave, to stop the senseless killing of hundreds or thousands or tens of thousands of innocent women and children, bombing wedding parties and any other large groups gathered, even those seeking to bury their dead, in the belief, fostered by w and co., that we MIGHT kill a high value target; too bad about the others.
Iraq, a war of aggression ordered by war criminals seeking revenge for w's daddy and control of that nations resources. Again the people there beg us to just go and leave them to make their own choices.
But in Vietnam, another war we should never have started, the people who suffered the most begged us the hardest to stay or take them with us, and, for a very large segment of the population actually loved us Americans who abandoned them after declaring we had 'won' and could all go home.
I still hear those cries for help, still see the faces of people whom, though they had no reasons to like or trust us…except we promised them we were their saviors. We promised them freedom. We promised them justice. We lied and many, many good Americans will never again trust 'those in power' when they rattle the chains of war.
The Vietnamese believed and trusted in us and begged us to stay, Afghanistan is now and always will be under the thumb of the criminals and warlords supplying well over 90% of the world's heroin, and we never had the evidence claimed that was used to justify that war in Iraq.
But despite the ravaging of my body and mind by my own government, using dioxin ( a chemical so toxic they now wish it could be 'disinvented') it will always be those final images of Vietnam that will haunt me forever. In the ultimate unfairness of the Universe I paid so dear a price to mind and body, particularly my mind, which seems to have had large chunks of memory ripped out of it to never return, I dearly wish that some of those memory chunks had been these: the nightmarish visions and never-ending sounds of people abandoning hope and knowing with certainty they were more likely die than to ever live in common, human decency with hopes and dreams of a better future.
That, my friends, is the difference. And that, my friends, will forever haunt me with questions to which there can be no answers, only nightmares, sadness, and the recognition that we are, or should be, a better people.
Addendum by The Sailor: I cross posted this post to SteveAudio without Bill's permission. I think that Bill will understand if everyone who reads this will post it everywhere they can.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered the use of the euro instead of the dollar as the basic foreign currency in the Forex Reserve Fund calculations.
In November 2000, Iraq became the first OPEC nation to begin selling its oil for Euros. Since then, the value of the Euro has increased 17%, and the dollar has begun to decline. One important reason for the invasion and installation of a U.S. dominated government in Iraq was to force the country back to the dollar. Another reason for the invasion is to dissuade further OPEC momentum toward the Euro, especially from Iran- the second largest OPEC producer, who was actively discussing a switch to Euros for its oil exports.
posted by The Sailor @ 7:11 PM Permalink
The true message of Beck, Limbaugh, Hannity, the republicans, teabaggers, birthers, deathers, 10th'ers et al:
(Click image to see full size)
Please see both Part One & Part Two to get the whole story. WARNING! Totally NSFW! Or children, or pets, people who are easily offended, or frankly, pretty much anyone.
R. Crumb has always been one of my favorite artists. Alert, bad analogy: Tom Tomorrow is to Bill Moyers as Robert Crumb is to Larry Flynt. I appreciate all of the aforementioned, but if free speech offends you? You're not doing it right.
p.s. Free speech does not give you the right to yell fire in a crowd of wingnuts with guns.
"Terror Suspect Is Charged With Plot to Use Bombs…"
posted by Bill Arnett @ 3:16 PM Permalink
…the newspaper says and from just a quick reading of the article I noticed some important points we, as Americans, should always remember and never again allow these things to slide from our memories just 'cause our government says we must not only forget, but we must sacrifice the rights that made America great.
Excerpt:
A Denver airport shuttle bus driver who was arrested there last weekend was charged in Brooklyn on Thursday morning with conspiring with others to make and use bombs.
The driver, Najibullah Zazi, 24, had been arrested with his father in Denver and accused of making false statements. But his indictment in Brooklyn on Thursday was far more serious. Mr. Zazi was charged with one count of conspiring with others, who are not named, to use one or more weapons of mass destruction, including bombs or other explosives.
The authorities said Mr. Zazi bought chemicals that could be used to make bombs from Denver-area beauty supply stores and had bomb-making instructions on his laptop computer. They said he had mixed chemicals in a suburban Denver hotel room in the weeks before his arrest. Attorney General Eric Holder released a statement saying that the government believed that “any imminent threat” from the case had “been disrupted.”
“We are investigating a wide range of leads related to this alleged conspiracy,” Mr. Holder said. “We believe any imminent threat arising from this case has been disrupted, but as always, we remind the American public to be vigilant.”
Notice that this announcement comes from the Department of Justice, makes no reference to special agents that arrested, held the subjects incommunicado, tortured them for information, or committed any other illegalities of the Great Liars bush and cheney who falsely asserted that America could not be kept safe unless we sacrificed our rights, our freedoms, and illegally tortured suspects as if we were medieval butchers recruited and trained to be such cruel and capable torturers as to be able to elicit a confession from anyone, innocent or not.
This single bust supports what I have said for years, and confirms the statements of several true statesmen, to include President Obama, that terrorism is, always will be, and alway should be a job for the law enforcement professionals of this country, as in other countries, without any need to foment hate, attack countries without cause, swat flies with 2,000-lb. bombs that kill and injure hundreds of innocents, and commit all the other war crimes that were committed in America's name and to America's eternal shame.
As a lifelong believer and active participant in law enforcement it has always been plain to me that the chickensh*t responses of bush and cheney were based on the guilty knowledge that they knew 911, or something similar, had been reported to them by intelligence agents and the skilled agents of the FBI that filed reports of middle eastern men learning to fly, but not land, large aircraft.
They knew, they did nothing, and they will have to forever live with the shameful knowledge that 9-11 happened on their, the Republican's watch, while w planned to get revenge against Saddam Hussein and stupidly, neglegently, and willingly refused to listen to the very experts to whom he should have been listening and taking heed of all the obvious warning signs reported by intelligence and the FBI.
Damn w and the big dick to that special place in the universe where the suffering of guilty knowledge is exclusive, omniscient, and never ending.
And to all our excellent law enforcement agent involved in this bust the only thing that hurts me is that I am no longer able to be out there side-by-side with you as you protect America.
Great job, guys, and when the names of the agents involved are ultimately released each of you should be personally awarded the Medal of Freedom, so as to restore the honor of the highest civilian award that was itself degraded by w awarding it to all the a$$holes that kept their mouths shut about w's perfidy and personal disgrace.
Did anyone else watch President Obama on Letterman…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 1:12 PM Permalink
…and come away with the belief that this President is one of the most well-spoken, erudite, sophisticated, intelligent, and just all 'round gentleman (within all the true connotations of that word)?
I just don't believe a person can fake that kind of personality, confidence without arrogance, refusal to engage in the futility of insulting republicans by name, love of family, and a kind and generous heart geared toward making this country all it can be.
No other president ever made such an appearance and, I believe, could never have exhibited such grace and humor for the lady with the heart-shaped potato.
Any republican watching that show must have been immediately ashamed to be so outclassed, and in a manner they are genetically unable to duplicate.
I am still aware of what seems to be Obama's minor mistakes (like thinking republicans are honorable men trying to do what's best for America), but his excellent and good heart will carry the day, despite those miscreants in the GOP.
As an American I was ashamed to watch America reduced to a third-world, fourth-rate 'democracy,' heading for a complete abdication of all honor and principles, and it lifted my heart and spirits out of the gutter into which I was forced along with all Americans by the shyster, gangland, kill 'em all and let god sort 'em out mentality ordered by the war criminals and torturers of the rich, old, southern white 'morality' of 'good god-fearing, religious men' who think nothing of forbidding a woman possibly life-saving care of some abortions while sending thousands of soldiers to their death for oil, revenge, and American hegemony, and that fervently believe in the death penalty to boot.
I will always respect President Obama's 'outing' of these jerks, whether that was his intent or not, and I wish him the best.
Princeton's Paul Ohm writes about Netflix's insane new plan to release millions of customers' personal information -- ZIP code, gender, year of birth -- as a sequel to its Netflix Challenge. Latanya Sweeney's famous study on de-anonymizing data has shown that date (not just year) of birth, gender and ZIP are sufficient to personally identify 87% of Americans. In other words, Netflix is about to put the behavioral data about viewing choices for millions of Americans into the public domain, despite its legal duty to keep this information private.
posted by The Sailor @ 4:51 PM Permalink People bring guns to Obama speeches. Liberals couldn't even bring t-shirts or bumper stickers to a Bush speech. And if we actually said anything, we were taken to jail. If we might say anything we were put in "free speech zones" AKA chain linked fences.
While it's tempting to escalate our discussion this is my Weapon of Choice.
A man beat an Army reservist in front of a Morrow Cracker Barrel, yelling racial slurs at her as he kicked her in the head, Morrow police said. The assault happened in front of the woman’s 7-year old daughter, who stood there, crying, witnesses told police.
West threw her to the ground and hit her in the head with his fists and feet, police said. During the exchange, witnesses said West could be heard screaming racial slurs towards the victim.
According to Hill's report, and confirmed by many witnesses, West screamed out racial slurs before punching her in the face. "He said, 'You're an fucking black nigger bitch,' is what he said," said Hill
Gosh, can't we all just get along? Nope. I can't. As long as racists exist in our our country I can't get along with them.
While it's progress that the police showed up and arrested him, I'm wondering why no one in the Cracker Barrel tried to intervene? Oops, my bad, Cracker Barrel pretty much describes why no one stepped up.
Update: As a commenter (from the other site) pointed out the Cracker Barrel manager said he did intervene. After witnesses saw her being punched, thrown down, and kicked in the head. Southern chivalry indeed.
It has long been obvious that this crap of challenging the President's citizenship is naught but GOP bullsh*t, and IMO Oily Tits isn't fit to represent a frog claiming it is not amphibious (although maybe oily has failed to follow, or did not know of, my father's sage advice, "Never trust a man with a cane toad in his pocket." She obviously appears to have licked the toad's a$$ WAY too many times.)
She has been warned of being sanctioned only by this court, but I'm certain other, future courts, will follow suit. If she continues trying to baffle the courts with BS she will most likely, someday, be disbarred, and in my opinion it would be well-deserved.
NOTE: The link provided is to a pdf file, but it is very small and downloads quickly.
posted by Bill Arnett @ 10:00 AM Permalink
…Go feast (or it it foist upon?) your eyes on the latest, greatest so-called "fashions" designed to make eleven feet tall, toothpick thin models, look ugly as hell.
It's a conspiracy I tells ya to make women look ridiculously insane for spending thousands and thousands of dollars for dresses and other garb that do nothing but make them look like aliens from Galaxy IOK-1 (which happens to be my home galaxy. I'd visit home again but I could barely survive the aging process, even in suspended animation), but that aside we do have some ugly female lifeforms there. Ya gotta go to Galaxy SDF J132522.3+273520 or SDF J132418.3+271455 to find the REALLY hot babes.
But surely the clothes designers of Earth have devoted eons to make Earth women look cheesy and downright 'fashion-challenged' (which I use as a euphemism for 'lookin' like sh*t'), but I do greatly admire the mass hypnotic trances designers induce to make rich women buy garb a burbeldanth wouldn't wear on a bet. Eat for lunch, oh yeah, but then they would use one of those toothpick women to clean their seven rows of 300 teeth each.
It's a conspiracy I tells ya. As David Bowie sang on his Scary Monsters album:
There's a brand new dance but I don't know its name That people from bad homes do again and again It's big and it's bland full of tension and fear They do it over there but we don't do it here
Fashion! turn to the left Fashion! turn to the right Oooh, fashion! We are the goon squad and we're coming to town Beep-beep Beep-beep
Listen to me - don't listen to me Talk to me - don't talk to me Dance with me - don't dance with me, no Beep-beep
Fake, fake, fake that photograph…make, make, make all the people laugh…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 3:29 PM Permalink
… I refer to this picture of the purported mass of protesters being circulated and commented upon by weak-minded, lying Republicans showing a HUGH crowd of alleged protesters.
From the text at the above link:
"It was an impressive crowd," he [Pete Piringer, public affairs officer for the D.C. Fire and Emergency Department] said. But after marching down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol the crowd "only filled the Capitol grounds, maybe up to Third Street," he said.
Yet the photo showed the crowd sprawling far beyond that to the Washington Monument, which is bordered by 15th and and 17th Streets.
There's another big problem with the photograph: it doesn't include the National Museum of the American Indian, a building located at the corner of Fourth St. and Independence Ave. that opened on Sept. 14, 2004. (Looking at the photograph, the building should be in the upper right hand corner of the National Mall, next to the Air and Space Museum.) That means the picture was taken before the museum opened exactly five years ago. So clearly the photo doesn't show the "tea party" crowd from the Sept. 12 protest.
"I've seen bigger crowds at Montreal Expos games, but I still wouldn't fake a photo just to justify your predictions of millions descending on Washington," said one gleeful Democratic media strategist. "This is grade-A stupid and just plays into the argument that these were astroturf protests to begin with. They've always brought the noise, but the question that was supposed to be answered this weekend was, could they bring the numbers? In that respect this was an unmitigated disaster."
A number of conservative blogs have since taken the photo down. Some have corrected their posts. Others say the circulation of the picture was a left-wing conspiracy to discredit the event. However, many of them are still claiming that at least a million people attended the march. Nate Silver estimates about 70,000 protesters showed up.
It isn't the first failed attempt by the GOP and friends in biased media to inflate the size of the event. On Saturday, organizer Matt Kibbe announced on stage that ABC News had estimated a crowd of 1 to 1.5 million. ABC News had reported no such thing.
O-o-o-o-o whee! Or as Gomer Pyle would have said, "G-o-o-l-ly!" here is proof positive once again that Republicans will lie, scheme, deceive, practice obvious mendacities, prevarications, tell untruths, spread easily perceived propaganda, fib, dissemble, dissimulate, misinform, mislead, lie through their teeth, and do so in a manner that fools no one but their own weak-willed, bigoted, prejudiced, right-wing religious base. (Maybe I shouldn't suger-coat it like that.)
Public trust in the US media is eroding and increasing numbers of Americans believe news coverage is inaccurate and biased, according to a study released on Monday.
They did it to themselves. They carried water for the power elite and now the proles are pissed at them.
A Saints fan looks toward heaven ... without spilling his beer.
Today is the New Orleans Saints' first game against the Detroit Lions. Now, if you're not already aware, Mr. Vidiot is from New Orleans so that makes today one of his High Holy days. And every Sunday, for years and years, the Saints' fans mutter their own prayers, cast away their own gris gris and rally around their rosaries in the hope that this year, THIS year, will be the year the Saints go to the Superbowl. Now, they have a prayer they can all say in unison:
The Prayer of the Who Dats
Lord God of All Victories,
With joy in our hearts and victory on our minds, we come to you, asking that you shower your blessings upon our beloved New Orleans Saints as we begin this new season of football.
Through your love, Lord, continue blessing Mr. and Mrs. Tom Benson and Ms. Rita Benson LeBlanc. Please reward them abundantly for working so hard to keep our Saints here at home in the Louisiana Superdome.
With your permission, we call on the prayers of the saints in heaven to bless and protect our Saints on Earth.
Through the intercession of St. Simon Peter, the first pope, may coach Sean Payton and all our coaches create game plans that lead and guide our players to victory.
Through the intercession of St. Michael the Archangel, guardian of heaven, may Jammal Brown, Jahri Evans and the entire offensive line continue to protect Drew Brees and our quarterbacks.
Through the intercession of St. Anthony of Padua, patron of lost articles, may Reggie Bush, Lance Moore, Pierre Thomas, Marques Colston and their friends continue to find the end zone.
Through the intercession of St. Joseph the Worker, patron of hard laborers, may Jonathan Vilma, Will Smith and all of our defensive players work diligently to defend our goal line and prevent our opponents from venturing too deep into Saintly territories.
Through the intercession of St. Joseph of Cupertino, patron of flight, may the kicks from John Carney fly through the uprights and the punts by Thomas Morestead fly high in the sky. Also, may our return men fly past our opponents and straight into the end zones!
Lord, through the intercession of St. Luke, the doctor, may all of our players remain healthy so that they can continue to use their God-given gifts to entertain our minds and uplift our spirits.
Thank you, Lord, that we no longer have to call on the intercession of St. Jude. At last, our team is no longer considered a hopeless case!
Through the intercession of the true Saints of New Orleans, St. Francis Cabrini, St. Katherine Drexel, Blessed Francis Seelos and Servants of God -- Mother Henriette Delille and John Paul II, may the New Orleans Saints bring to the football field the same vigor and energy that these saints brought to the streets of New Orleans.
May all of the Saints, both in heaven and here on Earth, continue to bring joy to our hearts until we are united with all the saints of God in the kingdom of heaven where the final victory has already been won.
What I find interesting about the Beck-inspired protests
posted by The Vidiot @ 10:00 AM Permalink
Is that when I read anything that says how many people were there, it totally reminds me of all the anti-war protests I went to where the people there, as well as the anti-war leaning blogs, were saying "1 million!" and the media (if they covered it at all) would say "50,000" and the pro-war folks would say "20,000" and there was always confusion as to how many were there.
The exact same thing is happening with these protests: the folks on the ground, as well as the pro-Beck leaning blogs, are saying "1 million" and the media (if they cover it at all) are saying "50,000" and the left-leaning folks and blogs are saying "10,000" and we'll probably never know how many were actually there.
But the fact of the matter is, whatever the protest or rally, it's all meaningless. It is merely political theater that supports the power of the State. By allowing the gathering, the State is able to say "See? See! there's free speech here!" and "See? We allow them to have their say! Look how benevolent and understanding we are." Yet, the State never changes its policies. The State concedes nothing the State hasn't already planned on conceding ahead of time.
I would like to believe that protesting and rallying makes a difference. But I'd also like to believe that I can clap three times, have fringgin' Tinkerbell show up and grant me three wishes.
posted by The Vidiot @ 2:43 PM Permalink
Bill posted this in response to my post. It was too good to leave as a comment (I hope he doesn't mind.):
I, too, refuse to participate in watching all the BS reruns of the event and listen to the positively stupid, insipid, and inane nonsense. 'Specially since all the networks will gloss over the facts, not discuss Ws cowardice and obvious panic of not having the faintest idea of what to do. Sitting there in that school, perfectly aware, and shamefully so, of the many warnings and outright threats made by bin Laden and with the knowledge that this could have been prevented.
Malfeasance in office doesn't even begin to express the contempt in which I hold these a$$holes that KNEW we were going to be attacked and did nothing. Nothing but allow it to happen so boy george could have an excuse to play tyrant and plot his illegal wars, all the while bearing the shame of having allowed so many to die at the hands of one of the sons of his daddy's long time business partners in the Carlyle Group, the father and head of the bin Laden family.
So I'm taking the day off completely from the half-truths, lies, and fantasy excuses of the media that bought Ws version and cover-up of the truth and permitted bin Laden's threat to come to pass and watch only DVDs and/or go out to dinner and a movie with my beloved wife, Mila.
I wholeheartedly extend my condolences to the families who lost so many dear and loved ones and I mean them no disrespect by refusing to participate in watching again the tragedy, the horror, and the spin of most cowardly world leader and accomplices in news agencies ever.
The truth will out someday, as it always does, and that will be the final chapter of Ws sought after illusions of greatness and his legacy.
Bless all the families and victims that died because of boy george's mendacities.
posted by The Vidiot @ 9:11 AM Permalink
Plenty of erudite bloggers will comment on the day I'm sure, so I probably don't need to corral any more pixels on the subject. But I will. Mostly because, as the only New Yorker posting regularly on this blog, I feel I kind of have to.
We all know it was quite a day. We all know how scared we all were. We all know how shell shocked we all became. That day was a perfect, crisp, Fall day. The sky was blue and the air was fresh. Today, not so much; it's rainy and gray and sort of dismal. As New Yorkers, we'll go around like we usually do; grousing about the subway, paying too much for milk, and flipping some deserving soul the bird.
And the folks in the media will pose the usual trite questions, ones like "Where are we after 9/11? What does 9/11 mean to you?" and they'll be showing us all the old images of the buildings collapsing, the montage of photos of the survivors' faces, tears streaming down their cheeks, and they'll also show that picture of the 19 hijackers over and over again. They'll continue to uphold and reinforce the official narrative. The one that says 19 hapless angry guys used a bunch of box cutters in an attempt to destroy America.
Some might mention Charlie Sheen's youtube video to Obama, but only in the most derogatory way. They'll marginalize his 'truther' views, labeling anyone who questions the official narrative as a 'conspiracy theorist' or worse, mentally unbalanced.
My views? Am I a 9/11 truther? Not really. Global Patriot Worker is and I'm sure his posting had been light because he's always busy this time of year trying to rattle cages. No, I guess I'm more of a "they let it happen" person, mostly because I'm convinced the US government and it's operatives are just too damned inept to have orchestrated such a thing on their own. Just look at the history of the CIA and all their foul-ups for proof of that. But I'm not one of those truthers who is out there pounding the pavement, gathering signatures and demanding another investigation.
For one thing, another official investigation, because it will have government control and input, will just be another whitewash that will waste time and placate idiots. And really, what's the point? We know we were lied to. We know that the US Government has been responsible for millions of deaths worldwide. We know that the US Government is not beyond killing their own citizens to push forward an agenda. We know that the US Government hasn't really represented the people of the United States since at least the time corporate personhood was established. We know all this and yet a lot of people STILL believe that 19 idiots managed to terrorize an entire nation, and not just any nation, but the world's hegemon.
So, an investigation is pointless. You are either already aware of these facts or you are safely sequestered in your little bubble of lies.
The only thing left for us to do is turn off the TV today. Don't watch the memorials, the images, the video clips and the commentary. Don't look at a printed newspaper or listen to corporate radio. Don't talk to your brother-in-law, you know, the one who thinks that George Bush was God or that Dick Cheney is just misunderstood. He's a loss. What you can do is check out alternate stories about 9/11 that aren't part of the narrative. Think for yourself, decide for yourself which of it is crazy and which of it makes you go "hmmmm." Talk to reasonable people around you. Don't let the TV tell you that people who question 9/11 are few and far between and that they are recognizable by the foaming at their mouths. We aren't foaming at the mouth and we are legion. We're your next door neighbor, we're your grocery clerk, we're your crossing guard. Talk to your neighbors and friends and I guarantee that you'll discover a lot more of them think 9/11 wasn't what they want us to believe it is and you know what that means? There are more of us then there are of them.
posted by Bill Arnett @ 9:45 AM Permalink
…I don't care how many times I have to say Joe Wilson's conduct was a despicable display Only he alone Acted as if stoned So, baby, I wrote Madam Speaker a letter. [With apologies to the Boxtops. Bill]
Dear Madam Speaker,
Thank you for your service to our country, but I believe one more service must be done, and that is the sanctioning and/or referral to the Ethics Committee of Representative Joe Wilson of South Carolina for his positively, shamelessly disgusting, and despicable conduct of calling President Obama a liar and interrupting the President rudely and in a totally uncalled for manner publicly.
The simple and, I believe totally insincere, private phone call to apologize to the President is not sufficient to negate the shame, embarrassment, and outright disrespect of his conduct.
To allow such conduct to go unpunished by at least official admonition on the floor of congress shows disrespect not only to the President, but brings shame and disrepute upon congress itself as a whole.
This is America, not South Korea, but if this man is not severely sanctioned it will not be too long before we see such conduct become the norm here in America.
Wilson's conduct brings shame and disrepute to every member of congress and is conduct which cannot and must not be tolerated.
Respectfully yours,
Bill Arnett
And what prompted wilson's asinine, rude, inappropriate, and disgusting, outburst of bile and unadulterated bullsh*t? He took this opportunity to prove what a jackass he is by yelling out, "You lie!" when the President simply stated that no illegal aliens would be eligible to join into whatever final health care bill is passed.
Clearly joe wilson no longer deserves or warrants the respectful title of, "The Honorable Representative of South Carolina…" and I sincerely hope his constituents in South Carolina realize what a rude, impertinent, and revoltingly specious life form that is joe wilson, and the impression he imputes to his fellow South Carolinians.
Even when the Great Ultimate Liar bush regime was in power no one on the democratic side of the aisle exhibited such disrespect on the hallowed floor of congress while in a special joint session.
As to the speech President Obama gave I say wow, he hit that one out of the ballpark. I believe the morning and late night polling regarding the speech show that, once again, Americans support Obama, despite the now routine resistance of the republicans and their ever smaller block of supporters (wack jobs, religious freaks, mouth-breathing, rightwing idiots) whom the GOP has conned to get them to vote against their own interests and those of this country.
The citizens of this country desperately need help obtaining and paying for health care insurance. The cost of health insurance has gone up 300% while wages and employment have been dropping like a stone on joe wilson's tiny little head.
posted by The Vidiot @ 1:21 PM Permalink
So, there we were with Teen Vidiot, trying to enroll him in a school, knowing we were going to have to battle it out with some pretty aggressive soccer moms if we were going to get him placed in a school that didn't suck.
We line up early at the Brooklyn registration headquarters, Brooklyn Tech High School, and we stand outside for 30 minutes before they let us in. Then, they finally let us in and multiple, inept people lead us to a huge auditorium, and as we file into the auditorium, they handed us little pieces of paper with numbers on them and told us to sit in order in the rows. We were #16. We were instructed to sit in the seats and watch the movie until our number was called. Keep in mind that this process is supposed to be relatively simple: wait until your number is called. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way. The guy who was calling out the numbers started out OK. He called 1 through 5 and 1 through 5 stood up and walked out. Then, he came right back and said "5 through 25" and all hell broke loose. It was hysterical. It was like half the room and they practically bum rushed the door. Then HE got hysterical, and very panicky, said, "Line up in order please." And of course, nobody knew how to do that. (Mr. Vidiot ended up having to organize it.)
Anyway, such is the methodology of the NYC Department of Education. It's a bureaucracy on steroids. Which means that anybody functioning within it has turned off their brains a long, long time ago.
My reason for even mentioning this story is that the movie they chose to play was "Star Trek The Next Generation: First Contact" That was the movie where the Borg were trying to take over and the entire opening of the movie, you heard the Borg chanting "You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile."
Once the irony of it hit me, I couldn't stop laughing. Once I pointed it out to Mr. Vidiot, he couldn't stop smiling.
Teen Vidiot just thought we were a couple of dorks.
Nobody else got it.
Oh, P.S. We got him into a great school. He'll be going on field trips to the Planetarium! Damned lucky kid if you ask me.
It's a situation that one would have thought would be sobering enough to snap Congress into real action for once. Instead, they did the exact opposite, doubling down on the same-old, same-old and laboring day and night in the halls of the Capitol to deliver us a tour de force of old thinking and legislative trickery, as if that's what we really wanted. Almost every single one of the main players — from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Blue Dog turncoat Max Baucus — found some unforeseeable, unique-to-them way to fuck this thing up. Even Ted Kennedy, for whom successful health care reform was to be the great vindicating achievement of his career, and Barack Obama, whose entire presidency will likely be judged by this bill, managed to come up small when the lights came on.
We might look back on this summer someday and think of it as the moment when our government lost us for good. It was that bad.
posted by The Vidiot @ 1:14 PM Permalink
What a society spends its resources on should reflect the priorities of that society. The U.S. would rather spend money on bailing out rich people and bombing poor people than going to the moon.
A White House panel of independent space experts says NASA's return-to-the-moon plan just won't fly.
The problem is money. The expert panel estimates it would cost about $3 billion a year beyond NASA's current $18 billion annual budget.
posted by The Vidiot @ 1:10 PM Permalink
Is the fact that the celebration of the Dutch landing in "New Amsterdam" (a.k.a. New York City) took place literally at the doorstep of the Smithsonian's Native American Museum: A) deeply offensive B) mildly offensive C) merely thoughtless D) Oh Vidiot, just get over it.
I've got a great idea how all Americans can get health care…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 10:52 AM Permalink
…and that is to simply cancel all congressional and senatorial health plans immediately. Then make it clear that they will have to live with exactly the same health care as the least among us with no "special" coverage at a higher price than the least among us will have to pay for whatever plan is devised. No preferential treatment whatever except for those with life-threatening injury or illness.
How fast do ya reckon we would get health care for all then?
posted by Bill Arnett @ 10:32 AM Permalink
…"Obama needs to try and regain control of the debate over health care."
WHAT DEBATE? Obama and the Democrats desire health care for all Americans while the ONLY THING the GOP wants to do is fight and advocate to make the president fail at ANY endeavor he undertakes.
Talkin' 'bout my generation…and Americans like me that grew up during the heyday…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 9:00 AM Permalink
of rock and roll, listening to what I still believe to be the most socially relevant music of any era. Music that carried a message for the youth of America and sparked a generational social revolution among teens, young adults, and even those older guys who thought they were cool listening to rock and roll and suddenly discovered that they actually liked it, not just for the music and beats but for the lyrics that came to mean so much to so many.
Then the GOP came into power and the very group of society against which we rebelled acted swiftly to negate an individuals worth to society, whether they be rich or poor or somewhere in between, something which at my age, looking back, mystifies me as to how we lost our way and how or why we lost sight of what is truly important: the welfare of the whole takes precedent over the gathering of Midas-like wealth by the old monied million- and billionaires who would not stop to p*ss on you were you laying by the side of the road on fire, that would deny you medical care, food, and, if they could, the very oxygen you breath would be seized for their exclusive use.
And in large part the coming moral poverty and perversion by those wealthy enough to sway society in such ways as to not only encourage, but actually persuade, the poor, the elderly, the ill and infirm to vote against their own interests and for the pernicious agenda of a political party that would just as soon take them out to deep water and then scuttle the carrier ships to rid America of those whom the republicans despise simply for the fact of their existence is both cruel and inhuman.
All my life I have listened, grown, matured, and educated myself and everyone else around me that would listen to the lyrics and deeper meaning of those lyrics contained in so much rock and roll. Unfortunately I could influence only small circles of friends and family, but educate them I did and I'm proud to say that I did.
It's said that the tree of liberty needs refreshing from time to time with the blood of patriots. I disagree and fervently advocate teaching our children the values that made America great instead of asserting a need for regular and routine violence, whatever the GOP espouses and/or the fake reasons they create to commit war crimes of mass destruction and genocide by bombs instead of growing a better society here.
So, having expressed my penchant for the lessons we children of the 60s learned all by ourselves despite the hatred spewed by so many of our elders, I thought I would repeat here the words of a song called, appropriately, "Word Games" by Stephen Stills, one of the greatest artists of my lifetime and a song more socially relevant today than when first written. It's a little long, but I encourage all our readers to pour over every word, compare the meaning of those words to the political dribble and bigoted diatribes leveled against President Obama and realize that it is still possible, and not too late, to continue the change in America that started over forty years ago. For your enjoyment and edification:
Would you knock a man down if you don't like the cut of his clothes Could you put a man away if you don't want to hear what he knows Well it's happening right here people dying of fear by the droves And I know most of you Either don't believe it's true, Or else you don't know what to do Or maybe I'm singing about you, Who knows. It's incredibly sick, you can feel it, as across the land it flows Prejudice is slick when it's a word game, it festers and grows, Move along quick, it furthers one to have somewhere to go You can feel it as it's rumblin' Let emotions keep a tumblin' Then as cities start to crumblin' Mostly empty bellies grumblin' Here we go People see somebody different fear is the first reaction shown Then they think they've got him licked the barbaric hunt begins and they move in slow A human spirit is devoured the remains left to carrion crow I was told that life is change And yet history remains, Does it always stay the same Do we shrug it off and say Only God knows By and by, somebody usually goes down to the ghetto Try and help but they don't know why folks treat them cold And the rich keep getting richer and the rest of us just keep getting old. You see one must have a mission In order to be a good Christian If you don't you will be missing High Mass or the evening show And the well fed masters reap the harvests of the polluted seeds they've sown, Smug and self-righteous they bitch about people they owe, And you can't prove them wrong, they're so God damn sure they know I have seen these things with my very own eyes and defended my battered soul, It must be too tough to die, American propaganda, South African lies Will not force me to take up arms, that's my enemies' pride, Ands I won't fight by his rules that's foolishness besides, His ignorance is gonna do him in and nobody's gonna cry, Because his children they are growing up And plainly tired of putting up With bigots and their silver cups They're fed up, they might throw up On you
Peace, loving and helping one another, bettering our country by bettering ourselves, giving instead of taking, expressing kindness not hatred, building a lasting society rather than just another Roman Empire that will fade from history as yet another failure of man, sunk by the weight of hatred, bigotry, and the eternal war the GOP would prefer to be the norm.
Think about it, please. Our future and the future of our children hang in the balance.
Sailor: If you can find a good copy of this song to post with this I will be eternally grateful to you and will name a planet in another galaxy after you in your honor. I will further provide you with all the free tickets you need for passage to your planet. Bill
Is it irresponsible to speculate that Glenn Beck raped and murdered a young girl in 1990? According to Peggy Noonan of the Wall Street Journal, "Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to."
The bigots come out at night, and now during the day…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 4:32 PM Permalink
…and I think any school district that uses bigotry to accuse the President of "indoctrinating" their children should have their funding from federal sources immediately cancelled and they should be forced to get by on only what the state can afford.
I know this seems harsh, but otherwise the Great American Experiment is over due to the actions of a paltry few thousand bigots as versus the millions and millions of our citizens who both voted for and support our President.
Better yet, expel them from the Union and see how long they last as states without federal funding.
Bigots, liars, a$$holes teaching their children hatred for someone based on the color of their skin, and don't EVEN try to tell me they are truly afraid Obama is going to "Indoctrinate" their kids to a different way of life controlled by them Negroes because that is 100% pure bull sh*it of a kind that caused the Civil War.
Expel them from the Union, sever all financial ties with them, issue them special colored passports for interstate travel, shut them out of the great promise of democracy, force them to make their own currency backed by the gold standard.
Yeah, I know these ideas are harsh, but our country as a whole fails if we allow the cancer of hatred and bigotry to again take hold and destroy our principals upon the whim of hate-filled idiots.
So to all you phucking idiots out there I say: SECEDE FROM THE UNION and spare us your lies, bigotry, hatred, and the indoctrination of children to hate persons of color, 'cause no one will EVER convince me that these hated and despised worms have anything but evil in their black-hearts and tiny, closed minds.
And remember: your children are watching your hatred and, just as I did as a child, THEY KNOW that you are basing your objections on hatred and not commonsense or any other valid philosophy.
A set of proposed international sex education guidelines aimed at reducing H.I.V. infections among young people has provoked criticism from conservative groups that say the program would be too explicit for young children and promote access to legal abortion as a right. [...] “In the absence of a vaccine for AIDS, education is the only vaccine we have,” said Mark Richmond, Unesco’s global coordinator for H.I.V. and AIDS and the director of the division that coordinates educational priorities. “Only 40 percent of young people aged 15 to 24 have accurate knowledge” of how the disease is transmitted, he said, even though that age group “accounts for 45 percent of all new cases.” [...] A draft issued in June has been attacked by conservative and religious groups, mainly in the United States, for recommending discussions of homosexuality, describing sexual abstinence as “only one of a range of choices available to young people” to prevent disease and unwanted pregnancy, and suggesting a discussion of masturbation with children as young as 5.
“If you ever have a situation where kids need to be taught earlier than their adolescence, this is not the way to do it,” said Colin Mason of the Population Research Institute, an anti-abortion organization based in Virginia. “It’s very graphic and encourages practices like masturbation, which conservative Christians and others feel are wrong.”
Where to begin!? I'll start here: IF they believed in abstinence, which they profess to believe in but don't practice, (e.g. Palin's daughter and ex-future son-in-law), then masturbation is a perfect outlet. Heck, even some infants figure it out on their own. It's not just natural, it's part of our coding, as is sex.
I'll make up my own stats here, (like Megan McArdle does), and say that 80% of men & women masturbate. The other 20% lie about it.
So what these christains believe, contrary to human behavior and all facts, is that no one should have sex, be told about sex, or even think about sex. Until they're married in a christain church, and even then they're not supposed to enjoy it.
No pun intended, but f**k that! Sex is good, sex is healthy, and if it isn't you're not doing it right. (Insert (no pun intended) mandatory safe sex practices here.)
The church of If It Feels Good It Must Be Bad doesn't care that these repressive beliefs will result in the suffering and deaths of multiple thousands of people. They only want to impress their views on the world while trying to keep their own repression 'of god's will' a secret.
Scientists at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease (GICD) have traced the evolution of the four-chambered human heart to a common genetic factor linked to the development of hearts in turtles and other reptiles.
posted by The Sailor @ 6:30 PM Permalink
What's the latest wrongwing crazy? President Obama is giving a speech to the nation's school children. They are going nuts over it, and not just the crazies, but their leading politicians. Some schools are refusing to air it, parents are taking their kids out of school during it, and all because
the President will speak directly to the nation’s children and youth about persisting and succeeding in school. The president will challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning. [...] The Department of Education offers educators a menu of classroom activities—created by its teachers-in-residence, the Teaching Ambassador Fellows—to help engage students in the address and stimulate classroom discussions about the importance of education.
Now I understand this is a different approach than the previous WH resident, who's contribution to education consisted of "is our children learning" and continuing reading "My Pet Goat" after being informed hijacked airliners were being flown into the twin towers.
posted by The Vidiot @ 4:07 PM Permalink
First, read this story about the twitter site this guy started. Then, go to the twitter site and get ready to LYAO at his weird and slightly scary dad.
Second, this post on Gothamist must be posted in its entirety:
Who Wears Short Shorts?
In an unfortunate pairing with the alleged potbelly trend happening in Williamsburg, the NY Post's Justin Rocket says that showing a little man-thigh with some short shorts is now all the rage. This is all based off of the final Pool Party crowd this weekend, where men were showing more skin than the ladies. One 27-year-old told them, "I can feel the breeze now. I do feel a little girly, but this is great!" Meanwhile, 31-year-old Nicolas Carr, who teamed up his short shorts with suspenders, said, "My wife was giving me a hard time when I left the house this morning. Said I looked like grandpa. If you are revealing testicles, then it's too short. But otherwise, why shouldn't guys be able to wear shorts as short as girls?" Women applauded, saying they aren't the only ones with nice legs. Perhaps, but they are the only ones with shaved legs. Are you there, winter? It's us, Williamsburg ... please arrive soon.
posted by The Vidiot @ 3:58 PM Permalink
Should we torture? Should we not torture? How much torture is too much torture? How do you feel about torture? Does torture work? Is torture legal? Is torture illegal? Does torture violate international law? Who does the torture? What kind of torture is there? What's the history of torture? Who invented torture?
Notice, what's never said is that the subject of torture SHOULDN'T EVEN F-CKIN' COME UP IN A CIVILIZED SOCIETY.
1.(sometimes capital letters 'V' and 'S' with no space) a style of writing or saying something using emotion and/or logic and snark, esp. in order to elucidate the obvious while pretending to be objective.
2. anything written by The Vidiot, The Sailor, Mr. Vidiot and anyone else they allow to post on the blog “vidiotspeak”
[Origin: loosely based on new + speak, coined by George Orwell in his novel, 1984 (1949)]
And for godsakes, stay away from FOX, MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC.
It's ALL CRAP!!!
Watch the BBC news or ITN news instead.
"POSSE COMITATUS ACT" (18 USC 1385)
A Reconstruction Era criminal law proscribing use of Army (later, Air Force) to "execute the laws" except where expressly authorized by Constitution or Congress. Limit on use of military for civilian law enforcement also applies to Navy by regulation. Dec '81 additional laws were enacted (codified 10 USC 371-78) clarifying permissible military assistance to civilian law enforcement agencies--including the Coast Guard--especially in combating drug smuggling into the United States. Posse Comitatus clarifications emphasize supportive and technical assistance (e.g., use of facilities, vessels, aircraft, intelligence, tech aid, surveillance, etc.) while generally prohibiting direct participation of DoD personnel in law enforcement (e.g., search, seizure, and arrests). For example, Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachments (LEDETS) serve aboard Navy vessels and perform the actual boardings of interdicted suspect drug smuggling vessels and, if needed, arrest their crews). Positive results have been realized especially from Navy ship/aircraft involvement.
