monday morning mayhem - on Wednesday...

i couldn't wait for a weekender with this one and i didn't really post a real monday morning mayhem..., so i thought this would really break up the week.



don't honk at old people...






you knew Maxx loved this one...

REAL monday morning mayhem...

well, this one has no jokes. it really has turned out to be a mayhem day right from the start.

i had to get up early to get the car to Infiniti because there was recall on the fuel pump. turned out to be a false alarm. it was okay. they did do a couple of things for free for my coming in.

then i had to run to a friend's house to bring her some papers in PDF that she couldn't open on her computer. i tried everything i could to open them on her machine. it worked fine on mine. seems her email server thought it was spam/virus because it came from a Xerox scanning device. it erased all contents.

over the weekend i had a problem start up in my mouth and when i called the doctor, they said, "come in NOW." about three weeks ago i was having a problem breathing because of one of the medications from the surgery i had. they increased my Advair; actually, they more than doubled the dose from 100mcg twice/day to 250mcg twice/day!

seems that oral corticosteroids like Advair are known to produce yeast fungal infections in the mouth [Thrush]. though i have been on the 100mcg dose for years, the higher dose, even though i was rinsing out my mouth per instructions, it was too high and caused the fungal infection.

not a happy camper.

my biggest worry was that the Advair has been so effective that it has really been years since i've had a full-blown asthma attack. now i have to stop using it at least for the next couple of weeks. this during one of the worst times of the allergy season. the doc gave me a script for a rescue inhaler in case i need it. i do not like those things, but if i have to the alternative is not pleasant, if any of you with asthma well know.

so, i went from my house that is at 8700 south to 15900 south to 12000 west back to 5500 south, east to 1100 west and then to 2200 north. if you are familiar with Chicago at all, it was a giant circle of about 90 miles.

well, it will all work out. it always does, but it does remind me of what retirement may really be all about:

Wisdom Of A Retiree!

I've often been asked, 'What do you old folks do now that you're retired?'

Well..., I'm fortunate to have a chemical engineering background, and one of the things I enjoy most is turning beer, wine, gin, Scotch, and margaritas into urine.

if only you all knew how true that is in what all i've been going through. though it hasn't been through the gin...


shut up, Maxx...


sometimes he drives me bonkers!

weekender...

i almost forgot i've been so busy the last couple of days, but this is just in time for cocktail hour on a friday...


To my friends who enjoy a glass of wine... and those who don't.

As Ben Franklin said:

'In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is freedom, in water there is bacteria.'

In a number of carefully controlled trials, scientists have demonstrated that if we drink one liter of water each day, at the end of the year we would have absorbed more than 1 kilo of Escherichia coli, (E. coli) - bacteria found in feces.

In other words, we are consuming 1 kilo of poop.

However, we do NOT run that risk when drinking wine & beer (or tequila, rum, whiskey or other liquor) because alcohol has to go through a purification process of boiling, filtering and/or fermenting.

Remember
Water = Poop
Wine = Health

Therefore, it's better to drink wine and talk stupid, than to drink water and be full of shit.


There is no need to thank me for this valuable information:

I'm doing it as a public service.



Maxx & i will stick to gin...

come on baby...

shake your tail feather...




watch it until the end. he gets better and better...

i love Ray Charles, too.

Earth Day...

some believe the earth is a fragile thing, but it has lasted through some of the most disastrous things. we, on the other hand, are fragile. our actions, or inactions, show just how much as we create machines that can destroy the balance we need to maintain with the place in which we live.

obfuscating obfuscations: turn the other cheek - your ass or mine...?

christians consider themselves under attack today. they believe that they are the ones against whom persecution is aimed. they think that the secularism in the world is crushing them out of existence.

well, they forget how they used persecution throughout their history right from the beginning to foist their beliefs on everyone else.

from a book by James J. O'Donnell, The Ruin of the Roman Empire -

"Christians resisted persecution well--both the ordinary spasmodic kind and the infrequent broader campaign--because their communities were many-headed, did not have substantial real property, and lived so fully intermingled with Roman society that they could not simply be carved out and attacked. A century after Galerius, when Christian emperors set out to--we might as well use the word--persecute 'pagan' communities and practices, they were far more devastatingly effective. They halted the supply of state funds for traditional practices, crippling much of what had been long familiar. Then they seized buildings and banned ritual in them, sweeping the landscape nearly clean of the old ways. What survived--and much did--was personal, small-scale, or highly localized. Over a relatively short time, the new bludgeoned the old into submission and eventually supplanted it. That's what real persecution could do, unafraid to use violence but not needing to use very much of it. But Christianity never faced anything like what it would later visit on the traditional cults."

they were the real experts at persecution. we see this all the way down to the present day. there is no hesitancy on the part of christianists in trying to bat the world into submission to their way.

sadly, they set the example. we see in the world of Islam the same type of fringe groups, eg. Al Quaeda, who adopted this christian view to their own imagined advantages.

like i said, turn the other cheek...

plain words...

i found this on one of the French blogsites i haunt - L'homme est un concept - Man is a concept.


Comme ca c'est clair*



this makes me very sad. there is absolutely no excuse for this. it is tragic that people who say that their very core beliefs are based on love but deny love as they pigeon-hole it based on a narrow minded interpretation of a three word sentence they hold sacred - god is love.

Nietschze said that God is dead. i think what he really meant is that mankind killed god by its hypocrisy and self-righteousness.

if there was an original sin that would be it...



*literal translation is "Like that, it's clear"; idiomatically, i'd translate it as "How stupid"

brush up your Shakespeare...

Mayor Richard J. Daley has announced that this Thursday, April 23, 2009, is 'Talk Like Shakespeare Day' in Chicago.

April 20, 2009 (CHICAGO) -- In honor of William Shakespeare's upcoming birthday, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley has proclaimed "Talk Like Shakespeare Day" in the city.

Although Shakespeare's actual birth date is not known, many scholars believe it to have been on April 23, 1564, since the poet and playwright is known to have been baptized three days later.

This year, April 23 is Thursday.

In his recent proclamation, Daley urged Chicagoans to celebrate the occasion by bringing the spoken words of Shakespeare into their daily lives.

ABC7 Chicago News via the AP

so what's the big deal?

i tried to find a video of how Da Mayor normally speaks, but couldn't. he speaks soutside. that's not a typo. there is no /sh/ sound in soutside English. i should know; i speak it fluently.

well, not on a regular basis. with education you learn to speak differently, but i can slip right into it when i'm with friends or family. as a matter of fact, i just got of the phone with my cousin. "i's speakin' soutside wid'im" the entire time.

so, for Mayor Daley to proclaim this Thursday "Talk Like Shakespeare Day" is wonnerfull.

actually, it's also in conjunction with the Chicago Shakespeare Theater that is one of the greatest in the country. it won a national Tony Award a number of years ago for top regional theater. i've seen many incredible performances there over the years.

so, thou may speaketh on Thursday yon as if thy were with the Bard


but you may need to "Brush Up Your Shakespeare" first...






this may help also...





crossposted at macarthur park

this is America? - pure obfuscation...

land of the free? home of the brave? a christian nation?

Waterboarding Used 266 Times on 2 Suspects

Mr. Hayden [CIA Director for the last two years of the Bush Administration] said he had opposed the release of the memos, even though President Obama has said the techniques will never be used again, because they would tell Al Qaeda “the outer limits that any American would ever go in terms of interrogating an Al Qaeda terrorist.”

NYT, April 20, 2009

i don't remember what show i was watching this weekend but one of the guests speculated on what the reaction would be not if but when a former detainee perpetrated an act of terrorism against the U.S.

both sides will say, "See! I told you so."

and it will fly into the face of the men who fought for the freedom...

“Should any American soldier be so base and infamous as to injure any [prisoner]... I do most earnestly enjoin you to bring him to such severe and exemplary punishment as the enormity of the crime may require. Should it extend to death itself, it will not be disproportional to its guilt at such a time and in such a cause… for by such conduct they bring shame, disgrace and ruin to themselves and their country.”

- George Washington charge to the
Northern Expeditionary Force,
Sept. 14, 1775

i am sad...

monday morning mayhem...

school days

Early one morning, a mother went in to wake up her son. "Wake up, son. It's time to go to school!"

"But why, Mom? I don't want to go."

"Give me two reasons why you don't want to go."

"Well, the kids hate me for one, and the teachers hate me, too!"

"Oh, that's no reason not to go to school. Come on now and get ready."

"Give me two reasons why I should go to school."

"Well, for one, you're 52 years old. And for another, you're the Principal!"


there were some days that i felt that way. not because of the kids. the adults drove me nuts. kids are much, much smarter and a lot more fun...



teed off...





Below is an actual sign posted at a golf club in California :


1. BACK STRAIGHT, KNEES BENT, FEET SHOULDER WIDTH APART.
2. FORM A LOOSE GRIP.
3. KEEP YOUR HEAD DOWN.
4. AVOID A QUICK BACKSWING.
5. STAY OUT OF THE WATER.
6. TRY NOT TO HIT ANYONE.
7. IF YOU ARE TAKING TOO LONG, LET OTHERS GO AHEAD OF YOU.
8. DON'T STAND DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF OTHERS.
9. QUIET PLEASE WHILE OTHERS ARE PREPARING.
10. DON'T TAKE EXTRA STROKES.


WELL DONE.

NOW, FLUSH THE URINAL,
GO OUTSIDE & TEE OFF!


i golfed through college. one morning i was standing with my friends at 6:30 in the morning after drinking with them late the night before, standing in wet grass, and shivering. i said, "what the f*** am i doing? this is the stupidest game in the world, hitting a little ball hundreds of yards to get it into a little hole in the grass."

never played again and i don't think i'm missing much...


it is better to be pissed off...


than pissed on.







of course Chester is Maxx's hero...
what else would you expect?
and Maxx wishes he could hold his gin that well.
so do i...
my gin that is.
[Maxx has his own stash.]



now, Chester should have been the First dog, not that water dog that Sasha said can't swim!

de-obfuscating an obfuscation: Frank Rich in NYT on NOM"s "Gathering Storm" video ad...

The Bigots’ Last Hurrah

Yet easy to mock as “Gathering Storm” may be, it nonetheless bookmarks a historic turning point in the demise of America’s anti-gay movement.

What gives the ad its symbolic significance is not just that it’s idiotic but that its release was the only loud protest anywhere in America to the news that same-sex marriage had been legalized in Iowa and Vermont. If it advances any message, it’s mainly that homophobic activism is ever more depopulated and isolated as well as brain-dead.

NYT, Sunday, April 19, 2009

there is a lot more to his argument and i recommend everyone read Rich's entire OpEd. i only hope that it as easy as he seems to portray it. my reliance on hope says, "YES", but my cynicism says, "I have to wait and see...

at any rate, this is one of the more logical and calming statements and stands i've seen over the years. it says that people might be beginning to think that maybe, just maybe, there really is very little difference.

i am reminded of Mr. Spock's IDIC - infinite diversity in infinite combinations...

obfuscations in the news: the pope needs a psychiatrist - desperately...

from the Panzerpapa

Vatican accuses AIDS groups of intimidation

(Vatican City) The Vatican on Friday denounced the criticisms of the pope’s comments about condoms and AIDS during his trip to Africa, saying they marked an unprecedented attempt to intimidate him into silence.

Pope Benedict XVI said last month that condoms weren’t the answer to Africa’s AIDS epidemic and could make the problem worse.

France, Germany, the U.N. AIDS-fighting agency as well as the British medical journal The Lancet criticized the comments as irresponsible and dangerous. The Belgian parliament passed a resolution calling them “unacceptable” and demanding that the government officially protest.

365Gay.com & The Associated Press

intimidation?

INTIMIDATION?


how about The Inquisition? the Knights Templar? Galileo? The Holocaust? the...

why mention more? the catholic church has killed more people than all wars put together over the centuries. all in the name of their god.

these bear repeating again and again and again...

as i've quoted Henry II before, "Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?"

and

If Jesus were alive today, the last thing he would be is a christian.

i have never said anything like this in my life before... but the best thing that could happen for the world would be the death of benedict xvi. the only problem is that whoever the hierarchy of the church [the oldest, most inflexible, and basest men in the world] might be worse! he along with them continue advocating the deaths of people around the world. not just through statements on AIDS but in forcing women to have children they don't want - among other things.

he is a deceiver out of touch with the world around him; and he makes me see red.

more and more, he is looking like the anti-christ the believers preach of...

the score seems to be adding up...

the more i've been reading about Obama's release of the torture memos and his decision not to pursue any legal maneuvers the more it seems that most people do not like his stand.

i don't either.

with all the talk during the campaign with emphasis on the Rule of Law, as a lawyer he is shirking his legal and ethical standards as an officer of the courts.

the best argument i've heard was Keith Olbermann's Special Comment last night. Olbermann lays out the argument succinctly bringing in historical reference that is quire indisputable, going all the way back to the Civil War.

you can watch and read Olbermann's Special Comment over at Crooks and Liars. it's really to the point.

Countdown Special Comment: Future of US Depends on Torture Accountability

one of the better round-ups of the flurry of pundits, newspeople and other media is over at Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish.

he has links to Greenwald, Coles, and others in a lot of posts he's done. one of the more telling post's title is We Are Now Indonesia.

IMO, Obama has surpassed all of the obfuscations over the last eight years in one fell swoop...

weekender...

the importance of walking for your well-being...




1. Walking 20 minutes can add to your life. This enables you at 85 years old to spend an additional 5 months in a nursing home at $7000 per month.

2. My grandpa started walking five miles a day when he was 60.... Now he's 97 years old..., and we haven't a clue where the hell he is.

3. I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.

4. The only reason I would take up walking is so that I could hear heavy breathing again.

5. I have to walk early in the morning, before my brain figures out what I'm doing.

6. I joined a health club last year, spent about 400 bucks. Haven't lost a pound.
..., apparently you have to actually go there and use the treadmill.

7. Every time I hear the dirty word 'exercise', I wash my mouth out with chocolate.

8. I do have flabby thighs, but fortunately my stomach covers them.

9. The advantage of walking every day is so when you die, they'll say, 'Well, he looks good doesn't he.'

10. If you are going to try cross-country skiing, start with a small country.

11. I know I got a lot of exercise the last few years..., just getting over the hill was enough.

12. We all get heavier as we get older, because there's a lot more information in our skulls. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

AND

13. Every time I start thinking too much about how I look, I just find a Happy Hour and by the time I leave, I look just fine.


keep these in mind if you go walking for exercise this weekend...

i'll keep thinking about the gin.



Maxx has a thing about walking too.
he does it only when he has to go.
if you know what i mean...

used car sales...

well, it was bound to happen. i've posted about the Bugatti Veyron a number of times in the past. it makes me moist.

as a refresher, it is a model limited to 300 with various incarnations. the original price was $1.1 Million on the base model. the special models like the Sang Noir went for up to $1.6 million.

one of the more coveted models is the Pur Sang (Pure Blood) that has no paint on it but is polished metal. there were only 5 made.

well, the economic downturn has forced one of the lucky five to sell his prized Veyron. below is a picture of it in the used car salesroom in Dubai!



now, remember, when you drove your new car directly off the dealer's lot it decreased in value around $5,000-$10,000 dollars, depending on model.

this little gem is being sold - used - for $5,801,687.50!

without sales tax. if you lived in Illinois there is only one Bugatti dealer in Chicago, and the sales tax is 11.25%! yeah, we have the highest in the nation.

so the sales tax would be $290,084.375. don't forget that you would also have to then pay for transfers and other documents, and we have a mandatory law for auto insurance.

hmmmmm? i wonder if a person who can afford a car worth that much money is required to have insurance? i mean, if they can afford the car, they can afford to have it fixed and also the person's car if they hit someone. dontcha think?


interesting....




Maxx really loved that one...

tea parties...

when i first heard about these winger/Republican/christianist/nut tea parties i immediately thought about the ones that the Mad Hatter had in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonder Land and Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There.

i mean think about it. they are protesting tax increases... FOR THE RICH!

well, here's some news for them. Obama has not had any tax plan passed as yet. what they are protesting is the tax plan that Mr. Bush put into effect, where he lowered the tax rate for the wealthiest people in the world and stuck it to the middle class! i don't think that these people are smart enough to understand this.

the tea parties were touted by the Republican leadership that doesn't know what its left hand is doing with its ass.

what are these people thinking? are they just so out of their minds that they will just let the Fox mumble-mouths and Tsar Rush* talk them into anything because of their hate and bigotry. that's exactly what's happening. they are lemmings. they don't think; they follow the party line - no matter what it is that is shoved down their throats.

and i'm serious about bigotry being one of the elements behind what's happening. i strongly believe at the core and heart of it all is white racism because of Obama's background and this is the way they can avoid the word racism!

they want to work on everyone's fear but it's their own unfounded fears that fuel their low-stoked fires and the leadership of the minority party and its spook-miesters know that full well.

they repeatedly talk about Obama putting socialism into place when, if you look at the majority of the protesters you might notice they are probably over 65. they are part of the largest socialistic program not only in the U.S. but in the world - Medicare

i would love to see a Republican lawmaker in the House or Senate bring a bill to the floor to do away with Medicare because it is a socialist program. something tells me that there would no longer be a Republican Party in existence.

talk about obfuscation...



Maxx thought i said pee party!
might as well have...


*i first wrote King Rush for Limbaugh but it dawned on me when i typed it that what he is after is replacing Tsar George. if there hadn't been a term limit on the presidency, ole Rush could have been in the planning stage of a Kremlinesque coup. think about it...

monday morning mayhem...

will I Live to see 80?

Here's something to think about -

I recently picked a new primary care doctor. After two visits and exhaustive Lab tests, he said I was doing 'fairly well' for my age. (I'm going to be 54 next February.)

A little concerned about that comment, I couldn't resist asking him, 'Do you think I'll live to be 80?'

He asked, 'Do you smoke tobacco, or drink beer or wine?'

'Oh no,' I replied.. 'I'm not doing drugs, either!'

Then he asked, 'Do you eat rib-eye steaks and barbecued ribs?

'I said, 'Not much... my former doctor said that all red meat is very unhealthy!'

'Do you spend a lot of time in the sun, like playing golf, sailing, hiking, or bicycling?'

'No, I don't,' I said.

He asked, 'Do you gamble, drive fast cars, or have a lot of sex?'

'No,' I said.

He looked at me and said..., 'Then, why do you even give a shit?


helllllllooooooooooo!

[i was just telling a friend about the semester in college where i decided to see what i could really do academically. i pulled all A's. after the semester was over i thought about what i had done. i realized that i had NO fun the entire time. i decided a B average was okay by me...]


a philosophy for living...

"When life gives you lemons... make lemonade.
Then find someone who's life gave them vodka..., and have a party!!""

-----Ron White

i think gin would work also...

HOW BAD IS THE ECONOMY?

It is definitely getting very bad .

saw this sight on the street the other day...




(Cats are SOOOOOO dramatic.)




even Maxx things so...


so some of you may have taken today off; some of you may have even taken the entire week off; and some of you have to sadly go to work. oh well, just think about that silly cat in the picture. it could be worse...

drink lemonade!

a question...

why do we need to have an ambassador to a fake country that does not pull its weight, does not give us any support, does not believe in democracy, and does not punish its own malicious predators?

Vatican blocks Caroline Kennedy appointment as US ambassador

Vatican sources told Il Giornale that their support for abortion disqualified Ms Kennedy and other Roman Catholics President Barack Obama had been seeking to appoint.

Mr Obama was reportedly seeking to reward John F Kennedy's daughter, who publicly gave her support to his election bid. She had been poised to replace Hillary Clinton as New York senator, but dropped out amid criticism that she lacked enough experience for the job.

Telegraph.uk

on this day that is considered the most important religious holiday of the church, it shows its true christian nature.

as i've quoted Henry II before, "Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?"

pernicious, hurtful, destructive, inimical, noxious, malignant...

i become extraordinarily hateful on beautiful days when confronted by obnoxious obfuscations by men who live in the 19th century and call on their god to condemn and foment against others while boisterously advocating free choice and will. they malign the basis for what they believe.

as i've also said before, "If Jesus were alive today, the last thing he would be is a christian."

in spite, no because, of this i'm going to have a great day with the kids, the easter egg hunt and the fried turkey. the religious meaning of this day has been bastardized, as has Christmas. i prefer to acknowledge that both days are really about the children - Celebrations of the Child.

obfuscating obfuscations: the storm is false... part 2

the video by NOM has really made the rounds in the last couple of days. not only on many blog sites but also on all the mainstream media as well. it hasn't really had a great reception though. even the media has been pointing out its falsehoods and latched onto the fact that the people in it are all actors.

the video does say they are actors in small print in the video, but someone inside the organization has leaked the audition tapes and that has taken a lot of the wind out of the sails. the auditions have been removed from YouTube because NOM says it's a copyright infringement. if that were the case, why didn't they take the video ad down too? hmmmm?

one of my favorite posts is over at the Bilerico Project by Bill Browning entitled Stupid Alert: NOM ad actors "controversy". the opening snippet from the post:

Have you ever been arguing with someone and been frustrated that they choose one small minute part of what you said and constantly keep picking at that instead of seeing the bigger picture? It's stupid and doesn't get you anywhere.

this is the usual tactic used in almost all propaganda. after all, narrow minds can only deal with narrow ideas.

the part of the Bilerico post that caught my eye initially is also may favorite. it is the easiest way to fight propaganda, but it is also not the way we do things in this country. nevertheless, you have to see it...





i feel soooo sorry for the bunny...

and thanks, Bill, for sharing all this.

weekender

keep this in mind for the weekend... it could come in handy.


GUTS or BALLS

There is a medical distinction. We've all heard about people having guts or balls, but do you really know the difference between them? In an effort to keep you informed, the definitions are listed below:

GUTS - Is arriving home late after a night out with the guys, being met by your partner with a broom, and having the guts to ask:

'Are you still cleaning or are you flying somewhere?'


BALLS - Is coming home late after a night out with the guys, smelling of strange cologne and beer, weird marks on your collar, slapping your partner on the butt and having the balls to say:

'You're next, Chubby.'


I hope this clears up any confusion on the definitions. Medically speaking there is no difference in the outcome.

Both result in death.


as a lot of you well know, in my mind gin is always a solution worth considering.

especially, the one below...




love the glass and would like to have it for my collection [of course i have a collection of martini glasses. one never knows when the moment arises...]

check out the online museum of the Sapphire glassware here to see the 2008 designer glass finalists. they're incredible.

ummmm...

i just can't be serious all of the time. it doesn't make me evil... just normal.





i was amazed i'd last that long.
how long did you last?

of course, the doctor does keep telling me i'm getting older. i saw him Wednesday and he didn't say it. probably because i've told him i'd slap him the next time he did.

calm down, he's married and has kids...

{minds in the gutter...}

ummmmmm... i suppose after the previous three serious posts, if NOM or any of the other wingers comes here, they are probably saying,

"See, see. We told you so!"

i guess i'd have to respond to them with,

"Lighten up! It's only a banana in my pocket."

i told you i can't be good all the time - it's boring!

obfuscating obfuscations: the storm is false...

this is so sad. the end of the video says that the organization flaunting the lies in the video are responsible for its content. that's the one thing that they got right - they are responsible in their irresponsibility. there are too many proofs that every statement that is made in the video is false, and i'm not about to list them all here. it's a simple Google.com search. there are a couple of references after the video.





an example of the falsehoods: the mention of the church in New Jersey who is being punished for not allowing a lesbian couple to commit on their property. the group has been receiving government support for allowing the general public to use the land. by denying them, the church group broke the basic contract it had with the New Jersey government. NOM doesn't mention that. Nor does the video or group report that the California doctor was not only cited for breaking the law but the Hippocratic Oath by denying health consultation because of religious beliefs. yes, the case was concerning reproductive rights, but what if the couple had then gone to a less qualified professional and it resulted in harm or even death? the culpability would still be there.

no one is forcing anyone to change their beliefs or restructure their lives as they want to do to others. the even sadder thing is that these people throw out the number one thing that their god commands of them - love their neighbor as themselves.

i suppose the real comment behind this is that they really don't love themselves...



i would also direct you to a piece on Huffington Post yesterday by Mike Alvear - At Least Have the Decency to Lie About Your Sexuality - where a woman sitting next to him on a flight admonishes him for being gay when he did everything in his power not to bring it up. her solution was exactly what the title said - lie about who you are.

it would have been better if the woman had lied instead...

obfuscating obfuscations: it's still ALL about sex... Part 2

Andrew Sullivan has a post up right now on the Daily Dish that points out just what my previous post brought up:

We Are All Sodomists Now

Andrew, in turn, cites from a piece by Tyler Cowen

If you take the heterosexual couples who engage in the practice which is sometimes "associated" with male gay marriage, I predict those couples will favor legal gay marriage to an astonishingly high degree. Their marriage is already "affiliated" with that practice, and so the notion of legally married gay men (and the practices which go along with that) does not constitute an extra and unwanted affiliation for their marriage ideal.

thanks, Andrew and Tyler. make, well at least try to make, people like that organization i mentioned earlier think...

of course, they in turn will make it to their advantage. i can see it now -

They will take away our right to missionary sex and force us to...

i believe you get the picture.

thanks again, Andrew.

obfuscating obfuscations: it's still ALL about sex...

Both as a social institution and as a public policy, marriage exists to foster connections between heterosexual sex and the rearing of children within stable households. It is a non-coercive way to channel (heterosexual) desire into civilized patterns of living. State recognition of the marital relationship does not imply devaluation of any other type of relationship, whether friendship or brotherhood. State recognition of those other types of relationships is unnecessary. So too is the governmental recognition of same-sex sexual relationships, committed or otherwise, in a deep sense pointless.

The Future of Marriage, The National Review
by The Editors

there is no fight to protect traditional marriage. it's all about the sex, no if's, and's or but's about it.

the editorial in yesterday's National Review is explicit in this core belief, and that of the organizations like National Organization for Marriage.

since they can't save their favorite bastion of tradition from their own sort by stopping a divorce rate of over 50%, keeping their teenagers out of each other's pants, stopping the onslaught of couples merely living together, or decreasing the number of single parents, they latch onto the evil that dare not speak its name - non-missionary position sex.

oooooo...

maybe part of the problem is what they consider normal sex boring but don't want to admit that they enjoy, you know, the kinky stuff, but their beliefs, or at least their pastors, tell them they can't...?

any way, why are they so fixated on sex? it's really highly overrated, isn't it?

just asking...

Blogswarm: Blog Against Theocracy 2009...

below is a reposting of the one i did last year. it is still relevant and probably always will be as long as the country has fringe groups that believe that they own the only right to foist their beliefs on everyone else. they forget that we were instituted as a nation of immigrants who were searching for a place to live as they believed was right for themselves.

on Hardball tonight Christopher Hitchens was on with a religious who smiled for the entire time as Hitch made logical point after logical point based on fact not innuendo and not unquestioning faith that is highly overrated. when Hitch said that Benjamin Franklin was an atheist [well documented] i thought the man was going into apoplexy. when the point was made that the Puritans came to the Americas do be free to worship and believe as they wanted not enter another land that said they could only do it one way, the man twisted it to say that it was proof that we have a christian nation.

b***s***!

Blogswarm Against Theocracy 2009: April 10-12, 2009

One of the cornerstones of the U.S. Constitution insisted by the Founding Fathers was Freedom of Religion. They were aware that the New World was made up of many peoples from many lands who had a myriad of beliefs. Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, et al lived in an empire that had little tolerance for other beliefs and religions with a state sanctioned religion - The Church of England. The Church of England was founded purely for political expediency - Henry VIII's hunger for an heir.

Over the course of history, there have been many examples of theocratic governments and it is obvious that they all had one thing in common - repression of anyone or any belief that did not fit into their world view. Most often this repression was violent.

Today, we see perfect examples of theocracy's rule in the Muslim world by extremists who have highjacked the religion of Mohammed to meet their own thirst for power and control. Countless citizens are maimed, murdered, exiled and tortured simply because they do not believe as others think they should.

The guarantee of the Constitution by Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

was written into the document to prevent the abuses so often foisted by theocratic governments.

Sadly, in the U.S. today we have been bombarded by rhetoric and innuendo by certain political forces that believe we should be subjected to a form of christianist sharia. They believe, wrongly, that the country was founded on christianist principles when the Founding Fathers overwhelming in personal writings warned of christianist inequities. In fact, most all of them viewed themselves simply as deists - "the belief that the existence and nature of God comes from reason and personal experience."

Inherent in "freedom of religion" is the idea "freedom from religion. There are people who, through the use of reason and personal experience, have come to the conclusion that there is no god. This is as unique a conviction as choosing a denomination or sect with which to identify for others. During this current presidential campaign it has been invoked time after time that the one type of person who could never be elected president would be an atheist or agnostic, and nearly 100% of people believe it.

The logo at the beginning of this post was created for a blogswarm addressing the support of Freedom of Religion. The purpose of this tactic is to make as many people aware of a certain issue as possible, to bring focus on a problem or possible injustice, and to foster understanding and acceptance.

I find it interesting that the group initiating Blog Against Theocracy 2008 chose Easter weekend for this action, a time of rebirth and reaffirmation. It is appropriate to remind people that their right and freedom to believe as they choose is written into law, that it is under attack at all times, and that there is always a demagogue right around the corner believing they have the answer to everything - no questions allowed.

You can find out more about the blogswarm by clicking Here

originally posted March 21, 2008

monday morning mayhem...

religious truths...

During these serious times, people of all faiths should remember these four great religious truths:

1. Muslims do not recognize Jews as God's chosen people.
2. Jews do not recognize Jesus as the Messiah.
3. Protestants do not recognize the Pope as the leader of the Christian world.
4. Southern Baptists do not recognize each other at Hooters.


you can put a lot of faith in these...


today's inspirational message...

might as well keep up with the religious aspect today -

Never piss off a guy
who owns a backhoe!

another fine mess you've gotten me into...
- Oliver Hardy

truths spoken in 1955...

not religious this time, but definitely more true -

'I'll tell you one thing, if things keep going the way they are, it's going to be impossible to buy a week's groceries for $20.00.

'When I first started driving, who would have thought gas would someday cost 29 cents a gallon. Guess we'd be better off leaving the car in the garage.

'Did you see where some baseball player just signed a contract for $75,000 a year just to play ball? It wouldn't surprise me if someday they'll be making more than the President

'There is no sense going to Lincoln or Omaha anymore for a weekend, it costs nearly $15.00 a night to stay in a hotel.

'No one can afford to be sick anymore, at $35.00 a day in the hospital it's too rich for my blood.'

'Have you seen the new cars coming out next year? It won't be long before $2,000.00 will only buy a used one.

'If cigarettes keep going up in price, I'm going to quit. A quarter a pack is ridiculous.


and just where is all of this going to get you?



A doctor on his morning walk, noticed an older lady sitting on her front step smoking a cigar, so he walked up to her and said, "I couldn't help but notice how happy you look! What is your secret?"

"I smoke ten cigars a day," she said. "Before I go to bed, I smoke a nice big joint. Apart from that, I drink a whole bottle of Jack Daniels every week, and eat only junk food. On weekends, I pop pills, get laid, and don't exercise at all."

"That is absolutely amazing! How old are you?"

"Thirty-four," she replied.




i'll drink gin instead...

hope some of you only have a four-day week.

obfuscations in the news: and they say guns don't kill people...?

though this may not really count as an obfuscation, the news that the gunman who killed three policemen in Pittburgh said it's because of his fear that the Obama government was going to take away his right of owning guns. huh?

Poplawski's [the shooter] friends at the scene described him as a young man who thought the Obama administration would ban guns.

One friend, Edward Perkovic, said Poplawski feared "the Obama gun ban that's on the way" and "didn't like our rights being infringed upon."

Another longtime friend, Aaron Vire, said he feared that President Obama was going to take away his rights, though he said he "wasn't violently against Obama."

KDKA (CBS Affiliate), Pittsburg

and Crooks and Liars connects his thinking to the vitriol of the likes of Glenn Beck. well, it's not really much of a leap.

He feared an Obama gun grab? Gee, I wonder where he could have heard that.

Indeed, a story replete with NRA-style fearmongering about the looming "grab" -- which has been fueling a run on guns at local shops -- ran just three days ago in the Pittsburgh Tribune.

We've been reporting for awhile on the surge in gun sales, and how the paranoia around guns is making the more unstable elements of the right particularly edgy. Inevitably, that edginess is going to break out into actual violence -- as it appears to have done today.

Richard Poplawski: Was Pittsburgh shooter driven by right-wing gun paranoia about Obama?,
Crooks and Liars

i have no problem with people having guns for recreational purposes, though i would never have one. but no one in the NRA or any other organization has successfully convinced me how an automatic, rapid fire gun is in any way recreational. it is purely for one thing - taking human life!

weekender...

gratuitous blond joke...

is there any other kind?


A business man got on an elevator. When he entered, there was a blonde already inside who greeted him with a bright, 'T-G-I-F.'

He smiled at her and replied, 'S-H-I-T.'

She looked puzzled and repeated, 'T-G-I-F,' more slowly.

He again answered, 'S-H-I-T.'

The blonde was trying to keep it friendly, so she smiled her biggest smile and said as sweetly as possible, 'T-G-I-F.'

The man smiled back to her and once again, 'S-H-I-T.'

The exasperated blonde finally decided to explain.... 'T-G-I-F' means 'Thank Goodness It's Friday.' Get it, Duuhhh?'

The man answered, ''S-H-I-T' means......
'Sorry, Honey, It's Thursday -- Duuhhh!'



no... it really is "T.G.I.F." today...

everybody have a glass of gin!