Aussie Catholic Freaks

Are just as crazy as the rest of the Catholics in the world;

Melbourne's Catholic Church has embraced a Vatican suggestion to test potential priests for sexual orientation. Those who "appear" gay will be banned.

The head of the Vatican committee that made the recommendations has made it clear celibate gays should also be banned because homosexuality is ''a type of deviation''.

Of course, the truth is that the vast majority of child molesters are heterosexual. I suppose that goes without saying just due to shear population numbers..

Still.. you have to wonder.. how are they going to "test" priests for Teh Gay? Ohhhh.. wait.. I know.. the same exact way they've been testing and testing and testing for hundreds of years now...

Show Tunes! They'll show scenes from Oklahoma, and if the priest starts tapping his foot.. bam.. GAY!!

...

Slightly more seriously.. there are FAR more gays in the priesthood than heteros. It's been an escape mechanism for eons. Not into chicks? Don't want your family to become suspicious? Join the Catholic priesthood.. and be surrounded 24/7 by other men!

Catholicism is gayer than the Village People, so it's a bit ironic to see them start testing each other for Teh Gay.

....

Ohhh.. I see the Pope is in his red Prada "there's no place like home" ruby slippers.

Too bad there wasn't a herd of drop bears waiting for the precise moment to land on their heads and pull their tiny brains out through their noses.

Drop bears do that, you know.

American Justice

"Let's start with a premise that I don't think a lot of Americans are aware of. We have five percent of the world's population; we have 25 percent of the world's known prison population. There are only two possibilities here: either we have the most evil people on earth living in the United States; or we are doing something dramatically wrong in terms of how we approach the issue of criminal justice," - Jim Webb

This is all about "getting tough on crime".. the right wing meme..

If you want to pin the blame for this mess, it rests squarely on the pants pissing conservatives who are afraid of anything and everything.. especially young black guys.

I honestly don't see this changing, even if we are in a dramatic recession and imprisoning people costs a lot of money, and doesn't do a damn thing about crime rates.

The DEA is a scam.. and the prison industry is a scam... and a very large part of general "law enforcement" is a scam.

There's simply no sane reason not to decriminalize pot and let every single non-violent drug offender out of prison... right now.

....

Speaking of American Justice.. last week we had a local cop in the news. He pulled over a Houston Texans football player for running a red light. He stopped him in the parking lot of a hospital. His mother in law was in the process of dying, and the officer refused to allow him to go and instead wrote a ticket while she died. He later apologized, but that was only because he was forced to.

There are some really good cops out there, risking their lives and doing the right thing.. but there's a hell of a lot more than you'd expect who are corrupt.. liars.. and dangerous assholes. There's a whole lot of them.

....



There's a new young pretty white missing girl on my teevee. Only young... very pretty.. girls.. ever get to be on the teevee when they are missing. This is because people only really care about pretty young white girls..

I know this is uncomfortable as hell.. it's all about sex... deep down, nobody gives a shit about a missing 30 year old black guy.. or even an unattractive boy.. it's only the young pretty white girls that anybody looks for.. and then when they inevitably turn up dead.. they mourn and mourn.. and the trial is on the teevee, and the parents cry and cry..

meanwhile.. there are countless people who simply vanish that nobody but the closest family members care about.

In case anyone hasn't noticed by now, I have a really low opinion of most people.

....



That's the banner at "Missing Kids.com".

Very attractive young girl...

Built in Failure

I've often wondered why Paul Krugman has never been part of government. Newsweek has done a cover story on him that answers that question.

Regardless of political ideology, whether Republican or Democrat, there has to be built in failure to some degree. That is why people like Krugman are always on the outside, criticizing the in.. while being right pretty much 100% of the time.

You'd think it would be obvious that Krugman would have been a much better pick than Geithner.... but why has Krugman never even met Obama, when even some of Obama's most harsh critics on the right get invited to cocktail parties?

Pop quiz; can you tell me why the built in failure is necessary?

The Biggest Douche in the Universe

The post where Doug was approving comments is here.

Everything was going fine, I was making him look like a complete idiot, as usual, until he wrote;

Pick and choose, pick and choose, that is how you work - funny how you totally disregarded the meat of my comment response to you saying that if he wanted the percentages to be the same, he should have raised the lower one to match the higher one so as to encourage giving, rather than dropping one down to the other to discourage giving. . . but see, that is how you work, you pick and choose the things I say you think you can attack the most, and ignore the rest. Classic liberal tactic.
Douglas V. Gibbs | Homepage | 03.26.09 - 5:00 pm | #

So I wrote a detailed response to that.. adressing that exact same issue.. I don't dodge questions.. ever.

Know what he did with my comment? That's right.. deleted it.. making it look like I did dodge the issue.

This is because Doug is a scumb bag and a coward. But, it's what we've come to expect, isn't it?

Music Video of the Day

For the young hippies..

It's a Start

ALBANY, N.Y. – New York Gov. David Paterson and legislative leaders have agreed to ease drug laws that were once among the harshest in the nation and led a movement more than 30 years ago toward mandatory prison terms.

The agreement rolls back some of the sentencing provisions pushed through the Legislature in 1973 by then-Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, a Republican who said they were needed to fight a drug-related "reign of terror." The strictest provisions were removed in 2004.

Critics have long claimed the laws were draconian and crowded prisons with people who would be better served with treatment. The planned changes would eliminate mandatory minimum terms for some low-level nonviolent drug felonies, cutting the prison population by thousands.

Not only cutting prison populations by thousands, but saving many thousands of tax payer dollars.

This needs to be expanded and done nationwide.. every single non-violent drug using related prisoner needs to be released... and felony convictions wiped off their records so they can get jobs.

Our justice system is just fucked up.. royally.. and it's far better than most other nations in the world. Every single day, many people are swept up in bullshit accusations and have their lives ruined forever. You don't get another life.. and the odds of winding up getting randomly screwed by a perversion of justice is probably better than you think.

Thank Gorak we at least have the ACLU... If you're looking for a place to donate some money, that's a good place. They need more attorneys badly.

Fuck the Catholics, Part MCCLIV

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Jimmy Carter came to Notre Dame in 1977. So did Ronald Reagan in 1981 and George W. Bush in 2001.

The University of Notre Dame has a tradition of inviting new presidents to speak at graduation. But this year's selection of President Barack Obama has been met by a barrage of criticism that has left some students fearing their commencement ceremony will turn into a circus.

Many Catholics are angered by Obama's planned appearance at the May 17 ceremony because of his decisions to provide federal funding for embryonic stem cell research and international family planning groups that provide abortions or educate about the procedure.

Why would Obama even consider going to a university that doesn't want him there? Fuck them.. assholes.. they don't deserve to have a President of the United States speak at their cult of dumber learning.

Evil, crazy, mother fuckers.

Quote of the Day

One leading contender in the future monetary policy literature is the “credit” found in Galactic Empire’s as varied as George Lucas’ and Isaac Asimov’s. There’s also the “cubit” from Battlestar which actually manages to stay in use despite the near-total destruction of humanity. - Matt Yglesias

Yglesias is pondering why the Republicans think that the "black helicopter" of a "one world government" conspiracy theory of the Loon Brigade wants a single world-wide currency.

Yes.. the rest of the world points and laughs at them.

....

Bonus quote;

"There's one more picture of a windmill than there are charts of numbers. And there's exactly one picture of a windmill," - Robert Gibbs

Obama's press secretary analyzing the Republican budget "proposal".

And we're still pointing and laughing at them.

Asshat Quote of the Day

Tom, I am praying for you. Hopefully the Lord softens your heart and helps you to recognize the truth before the lies of the left completely envelope you. I suggest you begin by using something you don't seem to have plenty of: Common Sense. - Doug

He's on a comment approving binge.. which is funny.

Remember that comment of his I used to have on the top of my blog? You know the one.. about destroying Iraqi cities.. and "turning sand to glass"...

Isn't it weird he wants some magical mystery man to "soften" my heart, when I'm a bleeding heart Liberal to begin with?

Apparently a soft heart is mass death in the Land of the Loon.

Scary Crazy People

Sarah Palin is bitching at the McCain campaign.. because.. they weren't "praying" with her before campaign events.

And the rest of us are pointing and laughing at them.. because it's just the most absurd joke.

I really really hope that Palin is the '12 nominee. Hell, I just hope she's in the primary, because it'll tear the Republicans apart... and we can all just laugh and laugh and laugh..

And that's what the Loon Brigade just doesn't understand. We don't really take you seriously. We used you as examples to persuade the undecided.. and we just laugh at you.

OHhhhh.. Michale Steele is talking about running in '12.. and it's AWESOME!!

American Justice

Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) will launch an effort to reform the nation's prison system today at noon, his staff says, introducing a bill--the National Criminal Justice Act of 2009--that would create a bipartisan commission no reform. The commission would undertake an 18-month review of the U.S. prison system, offering recommendations at the end.

Prison reform is a difficult thing to achieve, politically. Nearly every politician wants to be perceived as "tough on crime," and suggesting that too many Americans are being incarcerated can seem to run against that. (Webb has, in fact, pointed out that the U.S. has attained the highest incarceration rate in the world.) Add tough discussions of prison conditions, inmate crime, and abuse, and it's not an easy task for a politician to undertake.

Webb has succeeded in pushing major legislation through Congress before, as his 21st Century GI Bill passed last year. And it's hard for anyone to accuse the former Navy secretary of not being "tough" enough. Reported support from Democratic leaders, President Obama, and interest from Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Arlen Specter could help him in this latest endeavor.

Sometimes being a politician takes balls.. to stand up for what is right, despite the majority of people being really stupid about the issue.

Unfortunately, that's not how it works in the American system of politics. I don't have much hope that Webb is going to get anything sane pushed through Congress. It's just ripe for a campaign commercial.. the whole "Willy Horton" thing, redux.

The easiest way to fix the problem is to decriminalize drugs, and let every single non-violent drug offender out of jail/prison.

It's a dangerous world. Bad people do bad things to good people. You can't simply lock up millions of people to eliminate that possibility. It doesn't work. Everyone takes their chances regardless.

Sex Rules Our World

Lifting this pic from Eschaton..

I've long said that everything that happens in the world.. every war, every theft, every religion, every political philosophy, every piece of art.. is ultimately about sex.

The only way we can progress as a species is to get over it. Not get over the sex of course, it's fun, but get over the tension and perceived "morals" of it.

/update

Sullivan should not title any of his posts as "Good Bottom Hunting".

Choosing to be Homeless

I still haven't decided whether to post Doug's emails to me.. or maybe I've just been lazy the last few days, because it would take a bit of prep work.

But this bit from Doug and one of his Loon Brigade is enlightening. Doug paraphrased and attacked Obama's recent prime-time press Q&A. Obama mentioned that the increasing problem of homelessness is something the government should assist with. The explosion of "tent communities" in the wealthiest nation on the planet is a true tragedy.

The vile and extreme hatred for people who need help by members of the Loon Brigade, so-called Christians no less, has to be seen to be believed.

In this case.. the argument goes, some people choose to be homeless, and that they have children is not our problem. Fuck 'em.

Dig it;

I believe Mr. Obama does have "strong moral, ethical guidelines", the fact that he hasn't shared what they actually are is what I find disturbing , especially in light of his vote on the born alive legislation.

He is also, clearly under the impression that all or most homeleass children are homeless because mom and dad simply don't have jobs. I have known some folks who chose to be homeless, some of them children. Mom and/or dad's lack of employment was never the reason they gave me for being homeless. (Unscientific and probably not representative of the entire homeless community, I'll grant you.)Although I am sure Mr. Obama's budget, should it pass will have several families out on the streets in no time, so perhaps my objection is a bit premature.
Call Me Mom | Homepage | 03.25.09 - 1:17 pm | #

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I agree, Call Me Mom, Obama probably has a great sense of moral ethical guidelines, or at least what he thinks to be so. I am sure he is a likeable person, easy to get along with, pleasant to be around. I don't hate him like The Left hated Bush - but. . . Mr. Obama does not realize that morality and ethics is something to be practiced by individuals, voluntarily. Rather than allow that, he would rather make it harder to give to charity (by decreasing charitable tax write off) and force everyone into "moral" actions by doing everything through the government. He is all about government. And government takeover like this is explained in one word: Socialism. Something else that was interesing: in the homeless question, did you notice that the reporter said 1 in 50 children are homeless? Isn't that a little ridiculous of a number? Think about it. But it is typical. Throw out an outrageous number so that people are outrageously affected by it. That is how the Left works - say lies often enough and people begin to believe them.
Douglas V. Gibbs | Homepage | 03.26.09 - 2:18 am | #

Doug is still deleting off comments, but I do enjoy needling him about this stuff..

Wait a second..

Because some adults "choose" to be homeless, that means the government should do nothing for the overwhelming vast majority who do not "choose" it? Really?

By the way.. maybe Doug, you should be specific about the charitable tax deduction. Instead of making broad generalities, maybe point out that if a very wealthy person contributes money, they can write off up to 35% of the contribution, but a much more modest person may only be able to write off 15%. Obama wants to close that gap, and I agree with him.

Besides.. if somebody is giving to charity for the tax deduction, they're doing it for the wrong reason.

In any case.. glad to know that the government should do nothing for homeless people. What other programs and assistance should be done away with?

They truly are vile.

/update

Just left this bit.. what are the odds that he'll delete it? LOL

By the way, I'm sure you're upset at your Republican Governator for this;

“Together with the local government and volunteers, we are taking a first step to ensure the people living in tent city have a safe place to stay, with fresh water, healthy conditions and access to the services they need,” Schwarzenegger said in a statement. “And I am committed to working with Mayor Johnson to find a permanent solution for those living in tent city.”


Doesn't he know that some of those people "choose" to be there? They don't "deserve" fresh water and such, because there will be no incentive for them to work. Doesn't he know that?

And another thing occurred to me. Why does "tent city" exist? Are the religious institutions in California not doing their Christian duty to assist these people? I thought religious charity was supposed to fix these things in a "voluntary" way?

I suppose those churches are just choosing not to help those homeless people. Very Christ-like I must say.. because Christ never did or said anything about the poor you know... besides "get a job, you dirty heathens".

American Justice

Felony;

The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania has filed a lawsuit against the Wyoming County district attorney for threatening three high school girls with child pornography charges over digital photos in which they appear topless or in their underwear. The district attorney has demanded that in order to avoid the charges, the girls be placed on probation, participate in a five-week re-education program and be subject to random drug testing. The photos were among several discovered by Tunkhannock School District officials on students' cell phones.

At issue in this case are two photos depicting three teenage girls. One shows Marissa Miller and Grace Kelly from the waist up wearing white bras. The other depicts Nancy Doe (a pseudonym used to protect the girl's real identity) standing outside a shower with a bath towel wrapped around her body beneath her breasts. Neither of the two photos depicts sexual activity or reveals anything below the waist.

The district attorney has asserted that the girls were accomplices to the production of child pornography because they allowed themselves to be photographed. The district attorney has not, however, threatened to charge the individuals who distributed the photos.

Pretty amazing.. destroying reputations.. lives.. because of pictures of a human body. It's just silly.. stupid.. and simply evidence of a perverse sexual repression going on in this country.

I'm not sure how that's ever going to change. Parents are paranoid about their kids.. and do not want the kids doing anything they did growing up. So.. legislate it all. Get law enforcement involved.. attorneys.. judges.. spend all that tax money.

It's really unbelievable how stupid most people are.

For Fucks Sake

I really do hate Sullivan.

A post titled, "The Gospel Of Paul", itallics is Sullivan, quote is another writer;

Justin Fox argues that Krugman isn't God:

Krugman's critique of the Geithner plan got huge amounts of uncritical play in the media today. He's getting to be one of those people whose every statement is treated as oracular. Which I tend to take as a dangerous sign.

Krugman is a great economist and a great writer (the latter is in evidence more in his blog and his pre-NYT writings than in his column). He's also a guy with tons of opinions, some of which are backed up by economic theory and many of which aren't. He has some "emotional biases," as do we all. And every so often, he's going to be dead wrong.

It's a "dangerous sign".. Krugman may somebody be "dead wrong".

Not a single critique of what Krugman is actually saying.. no evidence that he is actually wrong.. because they are both economic laymen who are just fucking guessing all the time.

Jesus Fucking Christ these people are so annoying. They're just arguing against anything "left", and anything "Right" and proclaiming themselves the "sensible middle" where all truths must exist.

.. without proving a fucking thing.. This is because Krugman advocates all that Sullivan hates.. so it's all about point of view rather than economic insight. It's Sully the propagandist.

Douche bags..

Code Pink

I'm watching Geithner and Bernake testify to Congress. There is a group called "Code Pink" in attendance, which I guess is some lefty group that was originally organized in opposition to the war, and who have decided they would be a bunch of jackasses in opposition to any mechanism of government.

Code Pink is all female, and I'm not sure why. They all look like Martina Navratilova. They all are annoying as fuck, and I'm bewildered how they get seats in these high profile sessions just a mere two rows back from important government officials.

They are there simply to disrupt the proceedings.. and hold up silly signs with silly slogans.. and act like a bunch of idiots. Barry Frank just insulted them and it was pretty funny. He has a sharp way of dressing somebody down.

I'm sure they think they're making some profound point. I'm sure they think they are advancing a Liberal agenda.. but in reality, they're an embarrassment and I wish they would simply just dissolve their organization.

It's like an entire room full of Cindy Sheehan's, and they have absolutely no idea how annoying they are.. and just how silly the whole organization is.

/update

Maxine Watters is a jackass as well.. and compensating for being completely unqualified.

....

You know what.. the AIG bonus thing was stupid and silly.. but having the government spend all this time and energy on what is ultimately trivial amounts of money is just fucking stupid.

/update 2




Michelle Bachman is just fucking insane.. and Geithner/Bernake are looking at her as if she's fucking insane. It's funny.

She's got one of those scary crazy looks.. kind of a Glenn Close just before she stabs you in the eyeball look.

Twitter Twits

There is dumb.. and then there is twitter dumb.

There is a reason why I keep my identity mostly hidden. All I need to do is apply for a job and have some Christian lunatic manager google my name and come here. Bye bye job.

I don't have an emospace profile, nor do I facebook. I'm not going to twitter anything. I even avoid text messaging on the phone when I can help it. It seems silly to me. The phone was made for talking, not for texting.

Just out of curiosity, I googled my name and the third hit was for a pastor in the Dallas area. That's awesome. I don't think that most people know that google caches it's searches.. meaning.. you can delete your emospace, but it never really goes away.

Well Done

Curt Schilling retired today. He was born 3 months after I was, and I watched his career for a long time.

Best of all, I watched him pitch game 7 of the 2001 World Series, when the Diamondbacks beat the Yankees in the bottom of the 9th inning. He went on to pitch for Boston, winning 2 more world championships.

Schilling was always one of the hardest working pitchers in baseball. He prepared meticulously for every batter, compiling his own computerized statistical database of nearly every hitter he ever faced.

He's certainly never been shy to have an opinion. I hope he goes into baseball broadcasting.

Soaring

That's the word that many are using to describe the Dow Jones averages today.. home sales were up last month, and the Fed is going to buy up all the bank's bad decisions.

NYSE Last Net Change
DJIA 7,535.40 257.02


It wasn't that long ago that people were wondering if 8000 would be the "bottom".


.....

Krugman

It’s immediately obvious, if you think about it, that these funds will have skewed incentives. In effect, Treasury will be creating — deliberately! — the functional equivalent of Texas S&Ls in the 1980s: financial operations with very little capital but lots of government-guaranteed liabilities. For the private investors, this is an open invitation to play heads I win, tails the taxpayers lose. So sure, these investors will be ready to pay high prices for toxic waste. After all, the stuff might be worth something; and if it isn’t, that’s someone else’s problem. ...

This plan will produce big gains for banks that didn’t actually need any help; it will, however, do little to reassure the public about banks that are seriously undercapitalized. And I fear that when the plan fails, as it almost surely will, the administration will have shot its bolt: it won’t be able to come back to Congress for a plan that might actually work.

What an awful mess.

Thing is.. this isn't a guessing game of who is "right" and who is "wrong". Krugman wants the government to fix what caused this problem in the first place. Geithner wants to just fix the effects of the problem.

Sullivan calls Krugman "pissy". This is because Andrew Sullivan sees everything through an emotional lens.. which is why he's a religious kook as well.

In the Land of the Loon (and Sully is a charter member), right and wrong doesn't matter. It's how you make your argument.

The Cult of the Damned

Dr. Myers has an excellent piece up about the evangelical attempts to ruin kids lives;

I'm going to post most of it, because it's important. We've been personally touched by this evil.

John's brother will have nothing to do with anyone in his family. It's been that way for a while now.. something like 2 years. It started with his wife divorcing him, drinking far too much, and then falling into the trap of Christianity as a means of escape.

They, quite literally, preyed on him in exactly the way that Myers describes. Unfortunately, John's brother was looking for the easy way out.. to have people tell him nothing was wrong with him.. that everything could be fixed, not by hard work, stopping drinking, and getting healthy, but rather by the invisible man on the cloud who would magically make everything better.

It's just one giant mind fuck.. and the Loon Brigade got him. If he was younger, he might be prime for some professional deprogramming, but he's in his 30's. He's made his choice.. and he chose the whack-a-loons over his own family.. because the whack-a-loons told him that he had to.

None of these stories get to the next stage, though — what happens once introductions are made and they've brought you into the vestibule of the church: the love bomb. They make you feel intensely welcome, shower you with praise and affection, and strain themselves silly to make you feel part of the group, to build those social bonds that make you a committed and appreciative member.

I've been there. It was also a spring break, 33 years ago. I was going to school at DePauw University in Indiana, and too poor to go anywhere exciting or to fly back home to Seattle, so I was resigned to spending a week in the quaint small town of Greencastle, when a group of evangelical Christians asked if I'd like to go on a trip with them. They were going to paint and clean up a church camp in the woods of southern Indiana, and it would mean a week of camping and hiking for the cost of a little manual labor. I jumped at the opportunity.

I was deeply loved (in a chaste and non-physical way, of course) for a whole week.

It was great! I enthusiastically slapped paint on that old remodeled barn, and I cheerfully helped make smores, and I happily joined in the cleanup afterwards. I was there for a week in the woods. And when they told me how much Jesus loved me, I shrugged and said I don't believe in a Jesus. When they told me they loved me too and there was a great place in the church for such a helpful young man, I said thank you and explained that I wasn't a church-goer at all. And when they sang hymns in the car, I just quietly read my book. I enjoyed myself, but the other members of the group seemed completely baffled by me — their evangelizing tactics just seemed to bounce off. If their goal was to win a soul for Jesus, they were robbed; if they wanted willing help to get their camp refurbished, they got it. But I can now say that a confident atheism can also make one resistant to even those tried-and-true brainwashing tactics of the evangelical church.

This is what religion is: they angle for fresh prey, and once they snag you, they swallow you up. You are embraced in the rugae and crypts of the gut of the church, all warm and pink and soft and wet and intimate, and each of the members is like a little villus — a multitude of villi brush adoringly against you, each telling you how wonderful and delicious you are, and each leeching away a little of yourself, your individuality, your independence. It feels good as you are slowly absorbed. Then at last, when your will is gone and your dependence is complete, you are digested by the body of Christ, and there you will be for all of your productive years. Eventually, when you are old and no longer active, you'll take residence in the colon of the church, serviced by occasional visits from a priest or a volunteer, in hopes of one final ka-ching from your will…and then your empty husk will be shat out into the church graveyard, with the leavings of other past meals. The churches of your community all ought to be viewed as predatory animals, some lazy and sated, others restless and hungry, but all eyeing you as potential fodder to keep the beast alive.

Don't fall for it. A robust atheism can make you immune to their lures, though, and it can even make you indigestible. It's no wonder that the religious hate and fear us — we diminish their success at hunting, and of late, we've even begun to target them. The tables will be turned, and we will be pawing at the dismembered, empty carcasses of their churches soon enough.

We are, quite literally, surrounded by these animals.. they knock on our doors and ask us if we know Jesus, when they should just come right out and ask us for money. At least I would appreciate the honesty.

It's amazing that anyone can resist these mind fuckers when they literally consume the local geography. It certainly is a testament to ones own integrity and independence when we tell them to go fuck themselves.

Maybe one day, John's brother will figure out how these fuckers are using him.. but right now, they've got him so brainwashed that he can't hardly think for himself.

Christianity.. religion.. is quite simply the most evil force on this planet.

Deep Thoughts

In the Land of the Loon, everything is a religion.. even evolution.


....

I just noticed the Jesus on Teh Pope's staff.. Is it me, or is that some kind of funky Dancing Jesus on the Cross action going on? It's pretty weird..

I'm sure he's got an aid (a young boy most likely) whose job it is, is to make sure that Jesus is always facing away from the Pope. Could you imagine a sideways Jesus being symbolically tortured on the cross? That would not do at all.


Oh.. and I bet the Pope could feed a village in Guatemala for a year for the price that stupid staff would fetch. The Catholics are some really rich fuckers.. hording vast amounts of wealth.. which makes sense, you know, because the Catholic church is like every other church.. selling that salvation for cold hard cash.

The Pope of Death

LUANDA, Angola – Tens of thousands of Angola's Catholics lined the streets of the capital Saturday for a blessing from Pope Benedict XVI, who urged the country's faithful to reach out and convert people who believe in witchcraft.

But a stampede at a stadium before one of the pope's speeches left two people dead and others injured.

"The pope is very upset," a Vatican spokesman.

I suppose that people who believe that witchcraft has some sort of power are prime candidates to convert to Catholicism. They have a built in crazy, so it doesn't take much of a leap to join the Catholics.

Everywhere the Catholics go.. everything they do.. results in people dying. It's no wonder the Pope is doing a tour of the third world. Everywhere else, where people aren't superstitious and ignorant, people are wising up to the evil of the religion and abandoning it.

To top it off, it's all about money and power. The Catholic religion has nothing to do with Christ or religion. It's all about a bunch of assholes ripping people off, and advocating policy that kills other human beings.

I giggle when people get trampled during a haji (or whatever the fuck the crazy muslims call their stupid pilgrimage to Mecca), and it's funny when stupid people go nuts and trample other crazy people when the pope makes an appearance.

I'm probably going to hell for finding that amusing.

Life Skillz

A curricular.

I totally wish that program was taught in my high school. I still have no clue when it comes to many of those things.

In fact, I was 30 years old before I did my own laundry the first time... however, I am something of a master when it comes to the computer related parts of the course.

Seriously.. that course should required for every high school senior.

Class Warfare, II

Krugman;

Preliminary thoughts on the tax bill:

1. It’s not the way you should make policy — it’s clumsy, and it will punish some innocent parties while letting the most guilty off scot-free

2. But — there wasn’t much alternative at this point. And for that I blame the Obama people.

I’ll leave to others the question of who knew or should have known that the bonus firestorm was coming; but it’s part of a pattern. At every stage, Geithner et al have made it clear that they still have faith in the people who created the financial crisis — that they believe that all we have is a liquidity crisis that can be undone with a bit of financial engineering, that “governments do a bad job of running banks” (as opposed, presumably, to the wonderful job the private bankers have done), that financial bailouts and guarantees should come with no strings attached.

This was bad analysis, bad policy, and terrible politics. This administration, elected on the promise of change, has already managed, in an astonishingly short time, to create the impression that it’s owned by the wheeler-dealers. And that leaves it with no ability to counter crude populism.

That is why I constantly say that this will never end.

We all thought Obama was a great agent for "change" that would right the wrongs of the past. On certain issues, he really is. For example, the United States is now going to sign the UN charter on gay rights. The chimpanzee refused to sign it because he was concerned that people couldn't hate Teh Gay anymore.

However, on issues related to money.. Obama is very much in the hip pocket of the very wealthy class. That's Tim Geithner's mission...

The economic problems we have now are not a "liquidity" issue. It's a human issue. It's bad management, but beyond being "bad", it's corrupt. It's a willful and purposeful screwing of average Americans.. because they can.

It's obvious to anyone.. and Obama's economic policies are obvious evidence of it. The goal isn't to fix the true economic problems. The goal is to shovel as much money as possible at the same fuckers who caused this in the first place.

This will not change unless we have a revolution. It's a drastic step, but sometimes revolutions produce great results.. see (revolutions, French, American).

It's just not going to happen... and so what we end up with is a cycle where the economy is growing and wealthy people make a lot of money.. and then economic recession where the government makes wealthy people a lot of money.

That's "winning" in America.

Face Palm

Obama made a "gaff" on the tonight show yesterday. He compared his bowling to the Special Olympics.

The media will froth over his slight of (I'm not sure what the correct word to use is now) people. This will be the topic of discussion for the next few days. The Loon Brigade will froth and froth about how Obama has belittled an entire class of Americans.

I'm sure Obama's staff groaned.. and loudly.

It was a dumb thing to say, and it must suck to have your every word dissected, but that comes with the job. We laughed at Bush when he said "nukular". I suppose it's fair for Obama to take his lumps for a poor choice of words.

I'm also sure I'm going to be very annoyed that it will be played ad nauseum all day Friday.

....

However, this is going over board. Yes, it's Doug being a complete asshole again. He whines about Obama's proposal for the VA, and of course, because Doug is stupid as fuck, he gets it wrong.. but the best part is.. Doug claims that Obama does not respect our military veterans.

This is because Doug is not only very stupid, he's also a scumbag.

Obama's actions of trying to demand payment for Veteran care, even after the payment in blood paid by our fine military men and women show me how little respect he has for our heroes. How could any sitting president make such a demand unless he had little or no respect for the service provided by these military heroes?

Many of us had our issues with George Bush, but we didn't accuse him of such a vile thing as being "anti-military", "hating the troops", or "not respecting the vets".

That special sort of thing is reserved for the most vile pieces of shit. Garbage like Doug flog themselves over some perceived notion of "morals" and virtue in Jesus Christ, but they are nothing of the sort. They are seriously crazy and evil mother fuckers.. spewing the most paranoid accusations.. because they are utterly impotent in affecting anything real.. as we watch their entire ideology.. everything they believe in, turn to dust before their eyes.

I'm going to post Doug's emails to me next week, because they are just funny.. sad.. paranoid.. laughable.. crazy.. topped off with a heaping helping of stupid as fuck. At the least, it's good for a laugh. There's a bonus there in that he told me how he got kicked out of college. Oh.. My.. God.. it's so awesome.. LOL

Anyway.. this is the comment I left for him regarding his post on the VA and Obama.

Well, not surprisingly, you've got this wrong.

Currently, the determining factor for whether or not private insurance is billed is if the treatment is service connected or not. In other words, if the treatment is for something that is a result of service, such as an injury, or PTSD which occurred during service, then private insurance is not billed. If the treatment is for something not service connected, such as cancer, then private insurance is billed.

In either case (and this is important) the service member owes no monies for the treatment... ever.

The insurance company cannot simply deny payment on a whim. Policy specifics determine the benefits.

The reason Obama proposed this policy change was to save tax payers money. When a private insurance company makes a payment for the care, that's less cost to the VA, and hence, the tax payers. He withdrew the proposal due to the rhetoric from people who misunderstand how this works.. like you for example.

You assume he has "no respect" for the vets? Really? You can say this with a straight face?

This is a perfect example of the "trashing" comment you made to me via email. How DARE you accuse the president of having less than the utmost care and concern for our vets? This change in policy costs Vets nothing.. nothing at all. In fact, the VA would bill the insurance company just as they do now for non-service connected services.

The VA as a model of "universal health care" really is more about the process, and not about how it was earned by the vets. It provides a single point of contact for the health care finances, in a non-profit format. It would be far more cost effective and efficient for all Americans to be on such a system.

Truly, the VA is "Socialized" medicine, in that the health care providers are also Federal employees. Nobody is currently proposing such a model, but rather just the administrative model as a single payer system.

I don't know a single American who does not have the highest regard for our veterans. Apparently you do know such an American. The President of the United States; their Commander in Chief.

It's one thing to disagree with Obama's policy positions, but to actually accuse him of not respecting our vets is vile and disgusting... and exactly like you to say it.

Conan the Socialist

Wow.. the Republican Governator of California is singing the praises of Obama's efforts to date, and is very grateful for the stimulus money earmarked for California.

Doesn't he know that Obama is trying to destroy America?

Class Warfare

It really does exist;

Some Wall Street firms are looking for ways to sidestep tough new federal caps on compensation.

In response to expected bonus restrictions, officials at Citigroup Inc., Morgan Stanley and other financial institutions that got government aid are discussing increasing base salaries for some executives and other top-producing employees, people familiar with the situation said.

The crackdown, part of the economic-stimulus package passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama last month, limits bonus pay for the top five executives of any recipient of taxpayer capital through the Troubled Asset Relief Program, plus the 20 next-highest-compensated employees.

There really is no two ways to look at it. Wealthy people in the United State, the top few percent, own the vast majority of the wealth in this nation. That is beyond question. With that wealth comes the ability to set the rules for everyone else.

The board of directors sets salaries for top executives. Top executives set salaries for the people under them in the food chain. It's not unusual for board members to serve on boards of multiple companies, and they use is as a method to redirect wealth to their associates.

What takes real balls is to do it in companies that have received vast amounts of tax payer money, and then turn around and look for ways to circumvent the government rules on compensation.

This will never change. The wealth gap in the US will steadily increase. Always.

As Morpheus would say.. You are a slave Neo.

Alan Greenspan famously admitted;

Asked by committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, whether his free-market convictions pushed him to make wrong decisions, especially his failure to rein in unsafe mortgage lending practices, Greenspan replied that indeed he had found a flaw in his ideology, one that left him very distressed. "In other words, you found that your view of the world, your ideology was not right?" Waxman asked.

"Absolutely, precisely," replied Greenspan, who stepped down as Fed chief in 2006 after more than 18 years as chairman. "That's precisely the reason I was shocked, because I have been going for 40 years or more with very considerable evidence it was working exceptionally well."

Greenspan thought that the "free market" would regulate itself because of the profit motive. He thought the executives had an intrinsic motive to protect share holder worth. He was wrong, of course. The motive of business is personal enrichment. Share holder worth is a distant secondary consideration.

I think Greenspan was being disingenuous though. He had to know how business ethics have changed, encouraged by right wing ideology.

History shows there's only one way this will ever change. Ask a Frenchman about it.

It would never happen here. They don't suggest we eat cake. They suggest we eat iPods.. keeping us at just the standard of living required to keep the peasants from going all Marie Antoinette on them.

Eye Roll

Doug sent me an email about a comment I left on his blog yesterday.. instead of, you know, approving the comment and making his point there..

but whatever

I'm just not sure if I want to go through the mental exercise again. I've done it a few times already, to say the least.

Maybe if I get bored.

AIG?

No.. HP.

Employees of a division of HP are being forced to forfeit 10% of their pay for the month of April. This is on top of the permanent reduction of 5% that happened last month.

Mark Hurd is the CEO of HP. He made $48 million dollars last year.

Americans are just beginning to discover what has been going on for a while. Very wealthy people control even publicly traded companies, and their mission is to siphon off as much money as possible for themselves.

This is what is known as "winning" in the United States. The natural consequence of that winning is everyone else having less money to cloth, shelter, feed, and educate their families.

I had a conversation with my boss. She was remarkably frank, because she's not a "winner" and is also getting screwed. I asked her to notify upper management that I would be willing to be CEO of HP for only $1 million dollars, giving the company substantial savings.

She agreed that I could run the company into the ground just as well as anybody else, and cost a lot less.

...

Some politician today said that he wanted AIG executives to emulate their Japanese counter-parts and publicly apologize, and then resign or commit hari kari.

This is not Japan. This is not Japanese economics. This is the AMERICAN DREAM.. of ripping off as many people as possible while enriching one's self.

Of course.. it's not going to change. Politicians will make a public display of shaming rich AIG staff.. and they'll laugh and hit a beach in Maui. The public might be somewhat satisfied, and things will go back to normal. This will be cyclical, and there is nothing that we can do about it because we're given just enough to prevent us from a real class war.

And if there is a class war.. remember whose side I'm on. I'll grab my pitchfork and help out.

...

And yes.. I know that every single employee of every single corporation is free to find a better job. The problem is that the next job you find will likely be the same as the last one.

Unmitigated Evil

YAOUNDE, Cameroon – Condoms are not the answer to Africa's fight against HIV, Pope Benedict XVI said Tuesday as he began a weeklong trip to the continent. It was the pope's first explicit statement on an issue that has divided even clergy working with AIDS patients.

Benedict arrived in Yaounde, Cameroon's capital, on Tuesday afternoon, greeted by a crowd of flag-waving faithful and snapping cameras. The visit is his first pilgrimage as pontiff to Africa.

In his four years as pope, Benedict had never directly addressed condom use, although his position is not new. His predecessor, Pope John Paul II, often said that sexual abstinence — not condoms — was the best way to prevent the spread of the disease.

Benedict also said the Roman Catholic Church was at the forefront of the battle against AIDS.

"You can't resolve it with the distribution of condoms," the pope told reporters aboard the Alitalia plane heading to Yaounde. "On the contrary, it increases the problem."

The Catholics are on the "forefront"? Are you fucking kidding me?

The Catholics have a long history of murdering human beings, and these ridiculous policies continue killing people.

Headline Disappointments

Rapping flight attendant is a hit

At first glance, I thought it said..

Rapping flight attendant is hit

And I was all excited because I was going to post a picture, along with a "pimp hand" picture.. but alas... I watched about 2 minutes of the clip and the bitch didn't get hit..

Losing Their Minds

It's only 2 months into the Obama administration, and the Loon Brigade is starting to sound.. well.. much crazier than they normally do.

Doug;

I am not one to believe that black helicopters are hovering in the skies above choice locations around the United States, or anywhere else in the civilized world. But, the desire for a One World Government by certain powerful groups, I believe, is fast becoming a reality. Christian scholars recognize that the rise of such global governance is a probable symptom of a rapidly arriving end times scenario that will be followed by a great and terrible period of tribulation.

He says he doesn't "believe in black helicopters", then goes on for many paragraphs to hallucinate about black helicopters. You really have to read it to believe it, and a worsening economic climate is only going to make it more bizarre.

I'm a tad confused though.. I thought they were all excited by the "end times", and now they want to avoid it? Shouldn't they be cheering it on?

Doug has always teetered on the brink of out-right crazy. I've known that he truly is crazy, but he does have a filter to realize this and phrase things in a way that the crazy isn't as patently obvious. That filter is starting to break down. I think it is for most of the Loon Brigade, and it's only going to get more fun from here.

Of course, Doug deleted the comment I left for him, but here's one he did approve;

Very intense reading. I talk to people around me and most say all great world powers fall. Why are their views like this? Why US>A.
I want a chance to go after my dreams,
How can I do this when constantly worrying about where were headed.
Should I just give up? I can't my heart won't let me. What about freedom of religion? All I see is freedom from religion. If I don't have faith or hope I might as well get a bottle, some pills and blow my brains out. Really,I mean what would be the point of life.
Alexander R. Timm | 03.16.09 - 6:36 am | #

Uh.. woah.. scarrrrry.. craaaazy people.

Milk

We watched Milk over the weekend. I thought it was well made, and Sean Penn deserved to win the Oscar. I still have a hard time reconciling the Harvey Milk, Sean Penn with Jeff Spicoli, Sean Penn. I suppose that's a testament to his skills as an actor.

Fundamentally, Milk is a civil rights film, and I'd imagine that like any civil rights film, it works a lot better for the people who are the ones whose civil rights are at issue. I liked Roots, but I'm sure that black Americans liked Roots a lot more than I did. The same is probably true for Schindler's List.

I just assume that the topic of Teh Gay makes people more uncomfortable than something like race. I totally understand that. I cringe when I see drag queens, or half naked guys in gay pride parades. I don't have anything against drag queens or half naked guys, but I do have a sense of propriety.. an awareness of behavioral norms in public that exist irrespective of sexual orientation.

Every new generation owes a debt of gratitude to those that came before us, who laid the ground work for the freedoms that we enjoy today. We take it for granted that we can "come out" and just be who we are without risk of reprisal in most situations. If there is a risk of reprisal, you can just move somewhere else.

There is still the holy grail for most people though.. marriage rights. Once that is won, there will be no more gay rights movement because a movement has to have a goal.. and if you've achieved your goals, what is the movement? The effort is much different now than the emergence of the gay rights movement in the past. Now it's fought by lawyers, and not by crowds of people who refuse to be castigated. I'm fine with that, though I suppose it would have been exciting to be part of a mob that stands up to the cops and fights back.

It was interesting watching the fundamentalists in Milk using many of the same arguments that the Loon Brigade uses today. They are still trying to demonize us, but at this point we mostly just point and laugh at them.

Anita Bryant is prominently featured in the film, and it's rather ironic (and enjoyable) that Bryant ended up getting divorced in 1980.. Jesus never said anything about Teh Gay, but he had a lot to say (or rather the men who made up the fictional character, Jesus, had a lot to say in Jesus' name) about divorce. The Loon Brigade ended up shunning her and she had to file for bankruptcy. I do enjoy seeing misfortune visit vile people like Bryant, but then, I'm a dick.

The Loon Brigade uses many of the same methods today to demonize gay people. Doug does it all the time. Their entire view of the world is based on made-up bullshit, rather than sound evidence, so in a sense we can just call them crazy and ignore them, but I'm not that kind of fag. I hate them back. They are evil motherfuckers who need to be called evil motherfuckers rather than the gentle language the modern gay activists use.

Ultimately, Milk is a reminder of where we've been, and where we are now. The victories are endless, and the movement cannot be stopped. There's absolutely no way we can lose. It's just a matter of how long it will take, because there will be setbacks along the way.

Milk is also about the evils of the Loon Brigade, people that will lose their fucking minds over what is ultimately trivial shit, and put a bullet in you to make their point. Dan White was not an aberration. He is a hero of the Loon Brigade. They just don't want say it publicly and be that obvious about it.

Harvey Milk didn't live to see it, but people today can be completely open about who we are, hold any job we want, live anywhere we want, do whatever we want.. and there's not a god damn thing the Loon Brigade can do about it.

They are completely impotent.

It's sad that Harvey didn't live to see it.. and see all the other Western Democracies grant full marriage rights to all their citizens. It's sad that every single civil rights movement is built on the bodies of the dead. The only reason why there are not more dead in this movement is that we could, when we needed to, blend in and not be noticeable. The black Americans who battled for their rights could not do that. The gay Americans who chose not to blend in are the true heros.

Life Imitates Art

NEW YORK – Three people were arrested and six others hurt Saturday after bedlam broke out while they waited to audition for "America's Next Top Model," police said.

Police didn't know what prompted the chaos involving hundreds of people outside the Park Central New York hotel in Manhattan. The panic left the street outside the hotel littered with shoes and clothing, according to news reports.

"It was pretty scary," Jessica Paravati told WNYW-TV. She said she was caught up in a stampede after waiting on line overnight, hoping for a shot at stardom on the reality show.

That's just funny as fuck.. I hope they got some video..

Another Lost War

Greenwald has some info on a paper he's written, detailing the success of Portugal's decriminalization of drugs. It's not just pot. It's every and all drugs.

In 2001, Portugal became the only EU-member state to decriminalize drugs, a distinction which continues through to the present. Last year, working with the Cato Institute, I went to that country in order to research the effects of the decriminalization law (which applies to all substances, including cocaine and heroin) and to interview both Portuguese and EU drug policy officials and analysts (the central EU drug policy monitoring agency is, by coincidence, based in Lisbon). Evaluating the policy strictly from an empirical perspective, decriminalization has been an unquestionable success, leading to improvements in virtually every relevant category and enabling Portugal to manage drug-related problems (and drug usage rates) far better than most Western nations that continue to treat adult drug consumption as a criminal offense.

I hope a side benefit of the economic collapse in the US is that perhaps we'll finally figure out that putting people in prison costs a lot of money.

I've always thought that legalizing all drugs would be a good idea, but I'm okay with just starting with pot. Of course, the Loon Brigade would have a fit, because they think it's their responsibility to dictate to you what you should and shouldn't be doing.. but ultimately, every single time that morality is legislated, it fails. They're just very stupid people.

It is nice that we can look to what other nations are doing to see if it works or not. We can look at same-sex marriage in Canada.. which is a resounding success. We can look at all the nations that do not allow their military to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. We can see what the effects are of changing drug laws.

The problem we have here, though, is that drug enforcement is a big business.. and they're not going to give it up without a fight.

Redistribute This

Remember how I've been going on and on about how virtually every wealthy person in the United States cheats on their taxes? This is a great example;

MIAMI – It would be "terrible" for Penske Racing and the sport if Helio Castroneves, the popular Indy racer and "Dancing with the Stars" champion, was convicted of tax evasion, a top Penske official testified Friday.

Lawrence Bluth, Penske's general counsel, was asked Friday by prosecutor Matt Axelrod what impact a guilty verdict against the two-time Indianapolis 500 winner might have. Bluth, a prosecution witness, provided earlier testimony that could be damaging to Castroneves, who signed with Penske in late 1999.

"It would be a terrible thing to lose one of the great drivers in the world, and probably our most popular driver," Bluth said.

"Would it be bad for business if Mr. Castroneves were to be convicted?" Axelrod asked.

I chose to highlight that portion of the story instead of what Castroneves actually did.. because it's just so absurd.

Penske racing and the racing league would be inconvenienced if he were to be convicted of tax fraud.. really? And that's supposed to matter how?

What Castroneves did was move to the United States in order to pursue his racing career. That made the monies he earned here taxable by the US government, just like everyone else. Castroneves earned a 5 million dollar bonus from Penske, but he told them not to pay him the money. Instead, they put it in an investment and just let it sit there.

So... why would Castroneves do that, and why would it be fraud?

Because after he finishes his career in racing, which is a relatively short period of time for a lot of drivers, he can simply move to a country with very favorable income tax laws, say Monaco, and then get the money from Penske, and not pay a nickle to the US government.

Doesn't he owe taxes on the money he earned by benefiting from the US economy? Doesn't he have to pay taxes when he earns the money, instead of pretending it's not his?

Of course.. send his ass to prison for a while so he can think about it.

The moral of the story, again, is that people have to stop feeling sorry for the wealthy. To think that raising the marginal tax rate is going to affect them one iota is fucking retarded. The vast majority are cheating like mad, and rarely get caught, and when caught, the penalty is usually just to pay what they should have paid in the first place.

It has to be pretty severe, and rare, for somebody to get sent to a Federal prison for tax evasion.

Style Points

I've noticed that very often, when I'm writing.. I'll use two (or more) periods between clauses instead of using a comma. I'm not sure where I picked that up, or why I do it. I sort of write as if I were speaking, and I type it as I'm mentally speaking it.

I suppose I should stop doing that because it's bad form, but for some reason it feels right to me.. and I've always said that if it feels right, do it.

I still use the word "really" too much as well.

.....

The market is up a bit this week. Is it a trend, or is the big implosion still coming? I still plan to buy more mutual shares, but I don't want to pay my broker a commission fee to do that. He was the jackass (<-- apparently my new favorite word) that took a commission helping me lose thousands in the value of my retirement. Shouldn't he work for me for free until his fees offset my losses?

.....

John has an employee that goes to new foreclosure listings that he receives to check on the condition of the property and see if anyone is still living there. The employee was out sick today, so John had to run the errands himself. He knocked on a door today, which was answered by a guy with a shotgun. John told him what was going on with the property. The guy threatened John that if he ever came back, he'd settle the issue with his gun.

We don't have any firearms at all.. have never even considered a need for them, but John has had a few scrapes where one might have been useful. He's even been cornered by a pitbull.. but eventually escaped with no damage to himself or the dog, but if the thing had attacked, a gun would have been useful.

We might need to get him a 9mm and a concealed carry permit. There are a lot of loons in Texas.. and one never knows what might happen.

I guess that for the vast majority of people, a gun is not something they'll ever need, but if a person is frequently in situations that can become dangerous, it does make sense.

This is why I have no problem with the responsible ownership of firearms.. hand guns for self protection when warranted, and rifles for hunting. What is NOT cool is just allowing any and all weapons to any and all people.

Heck.. maybe we should get 2 and do some range shooting on occasion. I used to target shoot with a rifle when I was younger. It's fun as a sport of skill..

American Capitalism

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Jim Cramer Interview Outtake Pt. 1

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Jim Cramer Interview Outtake Pt. 2

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Jim Cramer Interview Outtake Pt. 3

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer

It seems to me the issue here isn't the illusion of American wealth.. It's the absurdity that it takes a commedian to tell the nation that it's an illusion.

I honestly think that the vast majority of people in this nation have bought into the idea that you work hard.. you make something that somebody else values.. and you trade it for money to buy things you need from other people. We get that. It's the "free market". That idea is not what a lot of people value anymore.. and again, I'm going back to Doug, because he's the ideological jackass poster child that drives the root cause of all of this.

Somehow the concept of work and free trade has morphed into an epic battle of individual against individual. It's "winners" and "losers" that is valued now. It only makes sense that when you value that as the entire defining characteristic of self worth that people end up cheating. And then when you end up with a lot of people cheating.. it becomes valued as a pragmatic solution to the problem of how to become a "winner" in a the brutal economic climate that we've created for ourselves.

Then, to top it off, the entire institution of "journalism" that is supposed to be the watchdog of society becomes dominated by the same cheating fuckers that have wrecked our economic system.

You can see it in the way Jim Cramer reacts to Jon Stewart's very obvious observations. He seems like he's going to start crying at any moment, because he probably never thought of himself as the worst sort of thief. You can tell that at some point in his life, he actually had some integrity and belief in "doing the right thing". He just got caught up in "winners" and "losers", and thought he could just go with the flow and nobody would actually get hurt..

But a lot of people got hurt.. a whole hell of a lot of them.. and there will be no consequence for what has happened except to the honest people who were trying to do the right thing all along. The fuckers that did this.. and the fuckers like Jim Cramer that cheered it on.. they got rich.. and will never have to face the consequences for what they've done, not even to themselves. They might have a fleeting moment of self doubt, where they consider that fucking a lot of people in order to get rich might have not been the right way to go about it.. but then, they'll just remember.. there are winners in this world.. and the natural consequence of winning, is other people losing. That's how they'll be able to sleep at night.

Now that some people are becoming aware of how this works, you might think that maybe it'll stop. It won't.

Shoe Bomber

Got 3 years in the slam.. an Iraqi slam.. which is probably not a nice place to be..

I appreciate the sentiment, but pointing and yelling is more effective then hurling footwear... and substantially less dangerous.

....

Speaking of slams.. Bernie Madoff is off to spend the rest of his life in one. How dumb do you have to be to be rich.. but risk spending the rest of your life making nice with Bubba just to be a richer?

Asshat Quote of the Day

This entire post from Sullivan;

He's disillusioned with religion.. disillusioned with war.. disillusioned with Conservative ideology..

Really? No.. Really?

But the crying.. there's no crying in blogging!

Where to go? What to do? You read me flounder every day; and you can find many less conflicted bloggers to read. Maybe I should take a break and live a less examined life for a while.

Here's the thing. Sullivan is not one to deny to the bitter end. Only the Loon Brigade does that. Jesus could come down and tell them all they're a bunch of assholes, and they'd just think it was Satan pulling a stunt.

No.. Sullivan is one of those people who have been wrong.. in just about every way.. over and over.. and for years. He claims he can never embrace Liberalism, and so has exiled himself to some 40 years in the desert. He's so tortured! He's so.. principled.. not of the Loon Brigade who he thinks wrecked the movement, and not of the Dirty Fucking Hippies.

And that is why Sullivan was religious in the first place. You have to be able to purge yourself of disbelief. He just cannot accept that what he's seen is really what it is.

Meanwhile, he sniffs.. sad.. such a tortured soul that he advocated a war that killed over a hundred thousand human beings.. with tears that the movement abandoned him, and now he no longer has a home. He'll quit blogging just long enough to nail himself to his precious cross.. while still spending the afternoons walking his dogs on the beaches of Rhode Island.. instead of, you know.. buried in a mass grave like so many of the victims of his ideology.

Fear not.. I'm sure Sullivan will muster up the courage to plop himself down in front of the keyboard and pound out more tortured self-realization.

Life is always a temporary and losing battle, an engagement with the deadliness of doing. It just feels deadlier than usual in these past few years of brutally unsentimental education.

He will never get it.. ever.

Music Video of the Day

Another creation from moi.. I'm not going to paste in the embed version from youtube here, but rather link to it. If you choose to watch it, click the link, click the (HD) button, then click the button just to the right of it to watch in full screen.

Youtube has done a decent job with the quality of the videos, but they reduce the frame rate quite a bit, so horizontal pans seem to skip a lot. It's the price paid for streaming near-DVD quality video. Sometimes the video doesn't load faster than it plays, so it might be good not to hit play right away and let it pre-load some of it. I can provide a link to the original video if somebody wants it. Come to think of it, I don't think it starts loading until you hit play, so you might want to hit play and then pause and let it load for a while.

The video has a tremendous amount of alteration from the original source video.. velocity changes, different types of transitions, and I noticed the director used a lot of fixed camera views, where the camera doesn't move at all.. which makes an interesting effect where you can carve out a small piece and join the two ends in a blended transition. I used that in quite a few places.. some where it worked really cool, and one place where I kind of messed it up and don't feel like fixing it. I also did it in a couple places with a moving camera, and it's a cool effect when it matches the music beat. There's also a piece in there where the clip moves forward and then moves backwards back to where it started. It's part of keeping the theme of the video.

I like to have a theme in a video, and try to capture a bit of the tone of the original film. In this case, it's the disconnected despair of middle age, and the way it can affect families. I loved the original film, and it's message of redemption at the end. I thought about including the closing narration, but it just was too much of a shock with the movie's soundtrack contrasting with the Steve Wilson song.

I think creating these videos is kind of like editing an original movie, just on a much smaller scale. You have to wade through the entire film with the music in mind and pick out clips that not only fit the theme, but also fit the pace and mood of the music. Then, piece it all together so it has a flow. It's pain-staking. For a music video, one of the dangers is cutting each scene on the downbeat of the song. There is definitely a lot of that, but it starts to get weird if it's done too much. Invariably, I scramble for something to fill in a couple seconds between more significant events, and it's the same in this video. There's a part where the main character stands in an open door talking to one of the kids. It's filler, but I liked the balance and colors of the clip. It also conveys that theme of disconnect between the "adult" and the "kid". It's also weird if the actors are speaking during a scene, because you can't hear what they're saying.. obviously. It's very difficult to use just imagery instead of silent dialog. I couldn't avoid it in a couple places in this video, but I don't think it's too out of place.

Anyway.. the Steve Wilson album is quite good. It's very moody and soundtrack-ish. I think I'm going to do another video with it using Dark City.

I'm also going to start hosting my videos on Vimeo. Youtube is having problems with Warner Music Group, and WMG has banned all their content, so my Opeth Watershed videos were banned. I don't think I'll have that issue of Vimeo. Youtube has also blocked all music videos to the UK. Apparently they were unable to negotiate a new royalty agreement with the music publishers in the UK. I think videos like the ones I create are "fair use", and Youtube shouldn't need an agreement anyway.. but it's stupid that the publishers are being such jackasses about the whole thing. Like I've said before, they need to just go away and let the musicians deal directly with their audience.

....

I've watched the completed video quite a few times now. It really is beautiful. I really enjoy making them.

American Capitalism

Smell it;

WASHINGTON - The federal agency that insures bank deposits, which is asking for emergency powers to borrow up to $500 billion to take over failed banks, is facing a potential major shortfall in part because it collected no insurance premiums from most banks from 1996 to 2006. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which insures deposits up to $250,000, tried for years to get congressional authority to collect the premiums in case of a looming crisis. But Congress believed that the fund was so well-capitalized - and that bank failures were so infrequent - that there was no need to collect the premiums for a decade, according to banking officials and analysts.

...

A tent city is burgeoning in Sacramento, Calif., prompting local officials to consider whether such an encampment should be made permanent, with plumbing and all.

The primitive settlement sits in the shadow of the state capitol and is home to about 300 people who have no toilets or running water, creating unsanitary conditions that advocacy groups worry could promote diseases like cholera. With the downturn in the economy and more working-class people losing their jobs and their homes, the tent city is expanding.

No worries.. other people "won", and the natural consequence of "winning" is those losers..

Done

I just finished a new music video.. It turned out awesome (IMO). There's much more arranging and different editing techniques in this one than I've used in past. I'll post it tomorrow..

and no.. it's not another Opeth video.. but I'll likely do another next.

Draft Sarah

An organization dedicated to Sarah Palin in 2012 met last night.. at a Denny's.. which is entirely appropriate.

Please let her get nominated.. please please please

Palin is a vapid ignoramus.. I guarantee you that anyone who reads my blog has at least 30 points of IQ on her, and would make a better Prez..

The reason the Republicans like her is because she's just fucking dumb, which has become a virtue in a party that disdains intellect and education. They aught to get Joe Teh Plumber to be her running mate.

Oh btw.. Bristol Palin broke up with her boyfriend and the wedding is off. Who couldn't predicted that?

Just fucking move her into the trailer already.. christ...

...

And LA R Senator David "Change My Pampers Mommy" Vitter got in a bitch match at an airport because they wouldn't let him on a plane after they closed the doors. He pulled the "do you know who I am?" card. The airport employee went to call security and Vitter took off.. hit the road.. bailed out.. ran like the fucking little pussy he is.

Conservatives are a bunch of comic book characters now.. Barry Goldwater would be horrified.

...

Oh.. and the funniest shit ever.. is a meeting with all the Washington muckity mucks to listen to Obama's proposals and ask questions.. and Obama calls on John McCain.. by saying "John, you have a question or comment"? And McCain answers "Mr. President..."

And I laughed.. and laughed.. and laughed..

And I was rolling around on my floor.. not literally mind you because I don't vacuum the floor as often as I should.. but I thought it was awesome to see John McMaverick.. Navy fighter pilot.. Vietnam veteran.. centuries in the Senate... married to a really rich drug addict.. clench his jaw the way he does when he's really pissed off and just wants to beat somebody like a black pajama'd gook while saying.. "Mr. President".

I can't believe I didn't snap a screen shot.. but I was occupied pointing and laughing..

The Republicans are just a party of buffoons.

2 Months

Conservatives are desperately trying to pin the recent economic conditions on President Obama. Idiots like Doug Gibbs are pushing it nearly every day.. between the posts where they warn of the irresistible lure of Teh Gay..

It's hard to put into words just how stupid they are.

Wow.. did you actually posit that a 20% drop in the market since January 20th is related to Obama's policies rather than a continuation of the economic implosion presided over by the Bush administration? Really?

You know.. it's corporate America that is pushing for the Obama plans. The shareholders directly benefit from the government spending as relief to the free fall caused by bad earnings we've seen for the last couple of years.

This is simply an attempt to pin the bad economic conditions on a President who has been in office for just under 2 months. That's 2 months.

If you check the polling data (and I know you don't do that), you'd see that Americans aren't buying that.. just like they aren't buying the corruption and failure of corporate America. Just like your continual insistence that Americans are somehow "waking up" to Obama, despite the real polling data.. over.. and over.. and over.

By the way Doug.. you keep insisting that Obama is going to create a "tax burden" on small business, when it flatly will not. Prove it. Just prove it. We both know you can't because you don't even understand how the vast majority of small businesses work. I'd love to debate you on your "show" about that one, and just shred your argument like I did your claims about health care issues.. which was obvious that you didn't know anything about either.

Your ignorance and flat out misunderstanding of the facts and positions of Democrats and Liberals is stunning. Fortunately, Americans have "woken up".. and they threw Republicans out of Congress, and elected a President who is doing exactly what he said he was going to do.. They've rejected your brand of economic policy.

Oh.. and speaking of China.. have you seen their economy is imploding as well, and they're doing their own "stimulus" programs in a desperate attempt to revive their economy? Have you even heard anything about that? I'm guessing not.

The bottom line is that "Conservatives" destroyed our economy. The Liberals have had 2 months to try and fix it, and you have ZERO evidence to the contrary.

I do find it amusing that you reference Katrina... and the Conservative's pathetic reaction to it. But hey.. Bobby Jindal is asking for fed money for infrastructure projects to help defend against a repeat of the disaster. I guess that makes Jindal a "Socialist" now too? No.. that just makes him a hypocrite.

Sad.

Delete.

Deep Thoughts

If the Conservatives had succeeded in turning Social Security into "private accounts", your retirement would be worth.. a box of Ramen Noodles.

Video of the Day

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Basic Cable Personality Clash Skirmish '09

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Economic Crisis

You'd think that people (by now) would know better than to fuck with John Stewart.