Welcome to ...
Windmills Tilted, Scared Cows Butchered, Lies Skewered on the Lance of Reality ... or something to that effect.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Notable Nudists Update
It is a growing list ...
John Quincy Adams
Christina Aguilera
Jennifer Aniston
Fiona Apple
Kevin Bacon
Oksana Baiul
Josephine Baker
Eric Balfour
Kylie Bax
Drew Barrymore
David Beckham
Victoria Adams Beckham
Amanda Beard
Jack Black
Lara Flynn Boyle
Kevin Brauche
Melanie Brown
Jimmy Buffett
Robert Burns
Gene Burton
Winston Churchill
Kelly Clarkson
Nadia Comaneci
Billy Connolly
Cindy Crawford
Johnny Depp
Athena Demos
Alan Dershowitz
Cameron Diaz
Dido
Isadora Duncan
Erica Durance
Marianne Faithful
Ralph Fiennes
Colin Farrel
Ralph Fiennes
Colin Fletcher
Flea
Bridget Fonda
Peter Fonda
Matthew Fox
Jamie Foxx
Benjamin Franklin
Eva Gabor
Zsa Zsa Gabor
Gerald Gardner
Ian Gillian
Jeff Goldblum
Cuba Gooding Jr
Amy Grant
Macy Gray
Spalding Gray
Ginger Haliwell
Linda Hamilton
Tom Hanks
Daryl Hannah
Woody Harrelson
Melissa Joan Hart
Nina Hartley
PJ Harvey
Goldie Hawn
Carole Henderson
Robert A. Heinlein
Ernest Hemingway
Margaux Hemingway
Mariel Hemingway
Alfred Hitchcock
Paris Hilton
Fiona Horne
Kate Hudson
Kate Humble
Elizabeth Hurley
Angelica Huston
Enrique Igelsias
Julio Iglesias
Natalie Imbruliga
Hugh Jackman
Janet Jackson
Jade Jagger
Famke Janssen
Lyndon Johnson
Raul Julia
Nicole Kidman
Kiera Knightly
Olga Korbut
Heidi Klum
Avril Lavigne
Lucy Lawless
Heath Ledger
Hyapatia Lee
Lindsay Lohan
Jennifer Lopez
Mario Lopez
Peter Lupus
Andie MacDowell
Matthew McConaughey
Ewan McGregor
Sir Ian McKellen
Sarah McLachlan
Patrick McNee
Elle McPherson
Madonna
Barry Manilow
James Mason
Eva Mendes
Christopher Meloni
Helen Mirren
Demi Moore
Alanis Morrisette
Kate Moss
Jack Nicholson
Patrick "Tip" O'Neal
George Orwell
Paloma Picasso
Pink
Brad Pitt
Sidney Pollock
Sheryl Lee Ralph
Daniel Ratcliffe
Keanu Reeves
Lynn Regrave
Vanessa Redgrave
Tara Reid
Christina Ricci
Fred Rogers
Sara Rue
Claudia Schiffer
Seal
Jerry Seinfeld
Shakira
George Bernard Shaw
Sherri Shepherd
Alicia Silverstone
Jessica Simpson
Rod Sirling
PJ Soles
Britney Spears
Princess Stephanie of Monaco
Patrick Stewart
Joss Stone
Emma Thompson
Henry David Thoreau
Justin Timberlake
Leeann Tweedon
Vince Vaughn
Liv Ullman
Tracey Ullman
Robbie Williams
Bruce Willis
Walt Whitman
Katrina Witt
Xuxu
Adrian Young
Chatter
I guess stupidity is the new Politically Correct thing because any who have called those trolling and spewing such refuse on their nonsense have been censored on all forums I have checked in on. Even one dedicated to the topic(s) of Global Warming and the Environment, where the haters, deniers, and the ilk have invaded and have been trolling unabated for a week now.
So in lieu of discussing solutions the forums have been debased into ranting platforms for the haters, deniers and the ilk and all who opposed the haters, deniers, and the ilk are censored when they have the temerity to present facts and reality in place of lies and fantasy and to name the haters, deniers, and the ilk for what they are - haters, deniers, and the ilk.
Turkish court upholds college head scarf ban
Turkey's top court ruled Thursday that Islamic head scarves violate secularism and cannot be allowed at universities, deepening a divide between the country's Islamic-oriented government and secular institutions.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government had tried to allow the scarves at universities as a matter of personal and religious freedom.
But the Constitutional Court verdict said constitutional amendments that were passed by Parliament in February went against secularism.
The head scarf issue is an explosive one Turkey, where the government is locked in a power struggle with secular groups that have support from the military and other state institutions.
The verdict is likely to bode ill for the government. Turkey's chief prosecutor is seeking to disband the ruling party on grounds that it is "the focal point of anti-secular activities" in a separate case at the Constitutional Court. The prosecutor - who has also asked that Erdogan and other party officials be banned from politics for five years - has cited attempts to allow head scarves at universities as a case in point.
Many see the head scarf as an emblem of political Islam, and consider any attempt to allow it in schools as an attack against modern Turkey's secular laws.
There was no immediate comment from the government. Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek said the government would like to see the court's reasoning behind the decision before commenting.
But Bekir Bozdag, a senior lawmaker of the ruling party, said "the Constitutional Court has overstepped its power and interfered in democracy."
"However, this verdict is binding and will be obeyed," he added.
Devlet Bahceli, the leader of a nationalist party which backed the amendments, predicted the decision would accelerate "the divide over religion."
The court's 11 judges voted 9-2 to annul the amendments, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported. At least seven votes would be required to disband the party.
A brief statement from the court said the amendments were annulled because they were in violation of some articles of the Constitution, including one that states that "The Turkish Republic is a secular state" and another that says that altering the secular nature of the state "cannot even be proposed."
Onur Oymen, a senior lawmaker of the opposition Republican People Party, said the verdict spelled the end to such amendments.
"From now on, no one will be able to attempt to change the Constitution," Oymen told NTV television.
"This decision reminds the ruling party what it can or cannot do despite winning 47 percent of the votes," Husamettin Cindoruk, former parliament speaker, told NTV television. "This decision has set the boundaries and reshaped the state."
In February, Parliament passed constitutional amendments to allow head scarves to be worn at universities - but not in schools or state offices. The secular opposition immediately appealed the ruling to the top court.
Turkey's 70 million people are predominantly Muslim. But secularists feared that lifting the ban at universities would erode Turkey's secular nature and create pressure on all female students to cover themselves.
Pious female students have been forced to remove their head scarves at the entrance to campuses. Some have attended classes wearing wigs.
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who founded modern Turkey after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, banned religious attire in daily life. The ban has been vigorously enforced in public office and schools after a 1980 military coup.
It just goes to show that the very in the minority fundies are trying to dictate to all everywhere.
Everyone remembers that fallacy we had here called the "moral majority" which was neither moral or a majority - not even close to either one.
These idiots are the same no matter what grandiose self labels they claim for themselves, they are petty, small-minded, haters and no amount of protestation on their part will alter reality.
The court in Turkey ruled as the law is and should be, something the fundies are finding more and more as their whiny tirades have worn out a long time ago for everyone with a functioning brain in the world - which has caused those tirades to become even more and more shrill as the desperation sinks in deeper and deeper into their fragile ideology.
Lesbian kiss at Seattle ballpark stirs up gay-friendly town
Most of the time, a kiss is just a kiss in the stands at Seattle Mariners games. The crowd hardly even pays attention when fans smooch.
But then last week, a lesbian complained that an usher at Safeco Field asked her to stop kissing her date because it was making another fan uncomfortable.
The incident has exploded on local TV, on talk radio and in the blogosphere and has touched off a debate over public displays of affection in generally gay-friendly Seattle.
"Certain individuals have not yet caught up. Those people see a gay or lesbian couple and they stare or say something," said Josh Friedes of Equal Rights Washington. "This is one of the challenges of being gay. Everyday things can become sources of trauma."
As the Mariners played the Boston Red Sox on May 26, Sirbrina Guerrero and her date were approached in the third inning by an usher who told them their kissing was inappropriate, Guerrero said.
The usher, Guerrero said, told them he had received a complaint from a woman nearby who said that there were kids in the crowd of nearly 36,000 and that parents would have to explain why two women were kissing.
"I was really just shocked," Guerrero said. "Seattle is so gay-friendly. There was a couple like seven rows ahead making out. We were just showing affection."
On Monday, Mariners spokeswoman Rebecca Hale said that the club is investigating but that the usher was responding to a complaint of two women "making out" and "groping" in the stands.
"We have a strict non-discrimination policy at the Seattle Mariners and at Safeco Field, and when we do enforce the code of conduct it is based on behavior, not on the identity of those involved," Hale said.
The code of conduct - announced before each game - specifically mentions public displays of affection that are "not appropriate in a public, family setting." Hale said those standards are based on what a "reasonable person" would find inappropriate.
Guerrero denied she and her date were groping each other, saying that along with eating garlic fries, they were giving each other brief kisses.
On Tuesday, Guerrero said a Mariners director of guest services had apologized to her. The team spokeswoman could not immediately confirm that.
After the story broke, the Mariners were blasted by the sex-advice columnist Dan Savage, who wrote about the incident on the blog of the Stranger, an alternative weekly paper.
"I constantly see people making out," Savage said. "My son has noticed and asked, `Do they show the ballgame on women's foreheads?'"
Savage called for a "kiss-in" to protest against the Mariners.
Web sites have been swamped with blog postings for and against Guerrero and her date. And the story has people talking in Seattle.
"I would be uncomfortable" seeing public displays of affection between lesbians or gay men, said Jim Ridneour, a 54-year-old taxi driver. "I don't think it's right seeing women kissing in public. If I had my family there, I'd have to explain what's going on."
"It all depends on the degree," Mark Ackerman said as he waited for a hot dog outside Safeco Field before Wednesday's game. "Even for heterosexual couples."
Since the incident, Guerrero's job and her past have come under scrutiny. She works at a bar known for scantily clad women and was a contestant on the MTV reality show "A Shot at Love With Tila Tequila," in which women and men compete for the affection of a bisexual Internet celebrity.
"People are saying it's 15 more minutes for my career," Guerrero said of the ballpark furor, "but this is not making me look very good."
In 2007, an Oregon transit agency chief apologized after a lesbian teenager was kicked off a bus when a passenger complained about her kissing another girl.
Also in 2007, a gay rights group protested a Kansas City, Mo., restaurant they said ejected four women because two of them kissed, and a Texas state trooper was placed on probation in 2004 for telling two gay men who were kissing at the state Capitol that homosexual conduct was illegal in Texas.
"There's a double standard. That's the bottom line," said Pat Griffin, director of the It Takes a Team! Education Campaign, an initiative from the Women's Sports Foundation to eliminate homophobia in sports.
*****
I agree with Mr. Ackerman's assessment it all depends on the degree of 'affection' being shown in public by anyone.
Holding hands or a kiss - even one of those deep sweep'em off their feet ones ... depending on the situation - are fine by me. Hell, the Mrs., is forever wont to grab my ass in the grocery store and I've seen others doing that as well.
Grabbing the genitals off your significant other in public is pushing the line out of the way and is not appropriate public behavior. Also, the horizontal mambo is best kept out of public view.
So, unless the ladies were involved in mutual public masturbation or copulation there is no problem.
All right there is a problem ... and it is in the mind of the 'woman' who complained, who is just another example of ignorant busy-bodies trying to dictate what others can do.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Woman who cut national forest trees fined $100,000
Judge Brian Sandoval accepted a plea deal Wednesday that also called for 57-year-old Patricia Vincent to do 80 hours of community service.
Sandoval could have sentenced Vincent to up to six months in prison. He says he decided against it because he felt she had been embarrassed and humiliated by the publicity of the case and seems to have learned her lesson.
Vincent has already paid the restitution and completed her community service.
She had the 80- to 100-year-old Ponderosa pines removed in April 2007.
*****
She should have been given the maximum prison time and fined and community service!
The height of the gall to cut trees on the public's land to improve your private view of a lake is unforgivable.
Homeowners near NC wildfire told to evacuate
Authorities in eastern North Carolina are telling 39 homeowners to evacuate after a wildfire jumped containment lines.
The blaze in the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge has burned up to 10,000 acres, or nearly 16 square miles. Fire officials say it's likely to continue growing because of hot and dry conditions.
Firefighters have started to establish new containment lines to the north and east of the blaze, hoping that access roads will help corner it. The fire jumped previous lines Tuesday night and has been threatening the area south of Lake Phelps.
Emergency workers said Wednesday they evacuated a community around the lake, telling 39 homeowners to leave.
Officials said lightning started the blaze Sunday.
The World rejoices in Obama's victory.
The excitement was less about Obama's foreign policies - which remain vague on many fronts - than a sense that the candidacy of a black American with relatives in Africa and childhood friends in Asia marks a historic moment.
Michael Cox, a professor of international relations at the London School of Economics, said Obama's win "has sent out a lot of positive signals around the world."
"He has a very appealing persona - elegant, fluent, strings lots of sentences together into paragraphs," Cox said. "But in terms of (his) actual policies towards the Middle East, Iraq, Iran, China, Europe - actually, we don't know."
In Kenya, home to Obama's family on his father's side, the Kenya Times newspaper devoted its front page to Obama's victory, under the headline "Obama makes history."
"I've just watched him on television, and as a family we are very happy. Really, it is something that is a trendsetter," the politician's uncle, Said Obama, told The Associated Press from the port city of Kisumu in western Kenya.
Indonesians were rooting for the man they consider to be a hometown hero. Obama lived in the predominantly Muslim nation from age 6 to 10 with his mother and Indonesian stepfather and was fondly remembered by former teachers and classmates.
"He was an average student, but very active," said Widianto Hendro Cahyono, 48, who was in the same third-grade class as Obama at SDN Menteng elementary school in Jakarta. "He would play ball during recess until he was dripping with sweat.
"I never imagined he would become a great man."
In Mexico City, hairdresser Susan Mendoza's eyes lit up when she learned Obama had clinched the nomination.
"Bush was for the elite. Obama is of the people," she said.
The German government's coordinator on U.S. relations, Karsten Voigt, said many Germans "find (Obama's) mixture of Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy very attractive."
In an editorial, the Times newspaper of London said Obama's campaign "has rekindled America's faith in its prodigious powers of reinvention - and the world's admiration for America."
Obama opposed the invasion of Iraq and has called for an early troop withdrawal. He also has shown willingness to engage in dialogue with Iran, North Korea and Cuba - nations long isolated by the policies of Bush.
"He seems to be a peace lover," said Ngo Van Hung, a Vietnamese real-estate salesman. "He would have a better understanding of how to treat people of different nationalities and different countries."
A Chinese scholar said that while he did not expect major changes in U.S. foreign policy, an Obama White House would have a very different tone to a Bush one.
"He will bring new energy into America's domestic politics and foreign policies," said Zhu Feng, deputy director at the Center of International and Strategic Studies at Peking University in Beijing. "It's a good choice for the Democrats."
*****
And to think the myopic nincompoops still think they have a shot with Mc Pain.
Yes We Can
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Wow, I am a Nerd King!
Donate a net!
Who said the internet was only for looking at porn - yes I know, they are usually looking for porn when they come across the site to donate the nets (it's linked everywhere) - but still!
It is not a bad idea, having lived in a few or more of 'those regions' myself (and lucky enough to escape unscathed by malaria), I know first hand the irritant those mosquitoes are and to contract a disease - which is quite fatal by the way in those regions - because of those irritating pests would be the height of misery. The young and the old are the most susceptible ... aren't they always ... so I encourage any who would to donate a net, who knows the life it may save could be the next Einstein or Picasso.
I do not have the link here yet. I guess I don't spend as much time as some do surfing for porn to have found it and for the life of me I can't remember the address from the newspaper article I read this morning before the Mrs., used the paper for cleaning the windows.
Thanks to the world.
Banality Saps Vitality On Many Forums
It appears that on-line forums are the last gasp of the wing-nuts.
They having fucked up the entire world and being surprised that we noticed, have lost all other outlets to their spew of bile and venom so they congregate on forums that have cravenly caved into their shrill whining while censoring any who would stand up to say no to these miscreants.
Once vital forums are languishing in the doldrums of banality and pablum - and it did not take long for any forum that cow-towed to fall from grace - many will not make it and deservedly so for their cowardice in the face of the wing-nuts.
Forums where they are not allowing such drivel as the wing-nuts regurgitate ad nauseum are going strong and even growing.
Even this blog, which does not kiss wing-nut arse, is growing in readers - and from some pretty far flung places as well. But before any new readers get the impression this blog is of the persuasion of "not of the right" ... ok, you are correct there, it is not 'of the right' ... it is of the "I have a mind that works and can make my own decisions about things in life". Which makes it very dangerous to the 'right' because I can think for myself, not so much so, the 'left' as they tend to be more inclined to use of their brains as well.
Draconian to Anarchical, depending on the issue at hand, is what this blog is about and that is why its readership is growing.
Monday, June 2, 2008
And The First FUCK YOU Award Winner Is
Remember Kieffe & Sons, the California Ford dealership that ran a radio ad saying that they were Christians, and non-believers could therefore "sit down and shut up" and stop demanding separation of church and state?
Remember how they apologized for saying this really dumb thing?
They take it back. They really did mean it.
SO ...
For this they have been awarded the first ever FUCK YOU.
This coveted award will be bestowed on any and all who so richly deserve it.
Judge orders return of polygamist group's children
The order signed by Texas District Judge Barbara Walther allowed parents to begin picking up their children from foster care at 10 a.m. CDT.
In exchange for regaining custody, the parents are not being allowed to leave Texas without court permission and must participate in parenting classes. They were also ordered not to interfere with any child abuse investigation and to allow the children to undergo psychiatric or medical exams if required.
"We're really grateful to get the order signed," said Willie Jessop, an elder of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the sect that runs the ranch in West Texas.
The judge's order requires that parents allow children's welfare workers to make unannounced visits and that the families notify CPS if they plan to travel more than 100 miles from their homes.
Jessop said without elaborating that he had hoped for a less restrictive order.
The order comes just days after the Texas Supreme Court said Texas Child Protective Services overreached its authority in seizing custody of the children nearly two months ago.
The group denies any abuse of the children. Church officials say they are being persecuted for their religious beliefs. The FLDS, whose members believe polygamy earns glorification in heaven, is a breakaway sect of the Mormon church, which renounced polygamy more than a century ago.
The Supreme Court on Thursday affirmed an appeals court ruling ordering Walther to reverse her decision in April putting all children from the ranch into foster case. The Supreme Court and the appeals court rejected the state's argument that all the children were in immediate danger from what it said was a cycle of sexual abuse of teenage girls at the ranch.
Half the children sent to foster care were no older than 5.
The Third Court of Appeals last week ruled that the state failed to show that any more than five of the teenage girls were being sexually abused, and that it had offered no evidence of sexual or physical abuse against the other children.
Roughly 430 children from the ranch are in foster care after two births, numerous reclassifications of adult women initially held as minors and a handful of agreements allowing parents to keep custody while the Supreme Court considered the case.
It's not clear how many might return to the ranch right away. Many of the parents have purchased or rented homes in Amarillo, San Antonio and other places around the state where the children were placed in foster facilities.
(From the AP)
*****
The latest installment in the ongoing Soap Opera ...
At least the judge had some sense pounded into her brain by something and complied with the higher court's ruling that she change her ruling.
Now we wait for the next chapter ...
Question of the Day
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Fellow Marine Lost
Despite his caution, Lance Cpl. Robert Crutchfield, 21, was shot point-blank in the neck during a robbery at a bus stop. Feeding and breathing tubes kept him alive 4 1/2 months, until he died of an infection on May 18.
Two men have been charged in the attack, and Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason said Friday the case was under review to decide whether to seek the death penalty.
"It is an awful story," said Alberta Holt, the young Marine's aunt and his legal guardian when he was a teenager determined to flee a troubled Cleveland school for safer surroundings in the suburbs.
Crutchfield was attacked on Jan. 5 while he and his girlfriend were waiting for a bus. He had heeded the warnings of commanders that a Marine on leave might be seen as a prime robbery target with a pocketful of money, so he only carried $8, his military ID card and a bank card.
"They took it, turned his pockets inside out, took what he had and told him since he was a Marine and didn't have any money he didn't deserve to live. They put the gun to his neck and shot him," Holt told The Associated Press.
The two men charged in the attack were identified as Ean Farrow, 19, and Thomas Ray III, 20, both of Cleveland. Their attorneys did not respond to The Associated Press' requests for comment.
Crutchfield knew he was returning to Iraq for another tour of duty, but had hesitated to tell his family until he was nearing the end of his 30-day leave.
He apparently had a troubled family. Holt wouldn't discuss it except to say "his mom and dad didn't raise him, just his grandmother and me." He didn't smoke or drink, she said.
He had attended Cleveland's inner-city East High School, but asked that he be allowed to live with his aunt and grandmother and attend suburban Bedford High School for his final two years.
"He saw his school was in turmoil and asked to get out," Holt said.
Bedford High teachers recalled Crutchfield's smile, his pride in his appearance, his determination to join the Marine Corps after graduation in 2005 and his aspiration to become an architect.
"He was friendly and kind and willing to help out in any way that he could," counselor Yvonne Sims said in an e-mail.
Connie LaNasa, who works in the school office, said Crutchfield was a well-behaved student and went about his school work with little notice.
"He lived out what he wanted to do and that is to be a Marine," LaNasa said.
Faculty members remembered Crutchfield as a top student in the computer design program, an office assistant and participant in the prom fashion show.
After his long hospitalization, an infection broke out a week before he died. "He said it felt like he was getting hit by lightning," Holt said.
When Crutchfield's body was laid out Tuesday in the Sacrificial Missionary Baptist Church, his white military dress hat was tugged down close to his eyes to conceal the skull flap that had been kept open to relieve swelling in his brain.
Marines provided an honor guard at his funeral service and carried the casket to his grave at the Western Reserve National Cemetery near Akron.
He was buried there on the same day as a Vietnam veteran, two veterans from World War II and three from Korea.
*****
What they hell do they mean "under review to decide whether to seek the death penalty"! Having survived his attempted murder by proxy that the shrub and cabal set up for him in Iraq to be gunned down by a couple of petty two-bit pieces of shit ... under review my ass! The line for volunteers for the firing squad forms behind me - and I don't think there will be any lacking in numbers of those standing in line.Lance Corporal Crutchfield



