Apologies for dirtying up a brand new thread... but I notice that Townhall runs yet another Michelle Obama article at their top of page:

2 Faces of the 1st Lady: Is Big Government Behind Her Obesity Campaign?

You can just imagine the comments.

Or, you can check out the comments.

Anyway, Salem Communication's websites continually run Michelle Obama slur items. This from an organization that prides itself as explicitly Christian.

re: #1 freetoken

Only thing worse than outright misogyny is outright racist misogyny.

I hate Salem Communications because they overpower all the local college stations in my area. If they aren't playing some kind of Davey and Goliath melodrama they're crapping up the airwaves with soft rock and deranged pastors.

re: #1 freetoken

Apologies for dirtying up a brand new thread... but I notice that Townhall runs yet another Michelle Obama article at their top of page:

2 Faces of the 1st Lady: Is Big Government Behind Her Obesity Campaign?

You can just imagine the comments.

Or, you can check out the comments.

Anyway, Salem Communication's websites continually run Michelle Obama slur items. This from an organization that prides itself as explicitly Christian.

One thing I can't understand about the hatred for Mrs. Obama's campaign against childhood obesity: do her critics dispute we have a problem? That the costs of having 25% of the country as diabetics will make the effects of smoking seem like an outbreak of pink eye by comparison?

re: #3 Be Zorch, Daddio

Salem Communications is one of the more influential of the private organizations in wingnuttia. They are part of the universe in which Mitt Romney has chosen to play, which is why Romney embraces the likes of birthers.

Salem Communications, like Clear Channel (which lives as part of the Bain heritage now), exist by feeding the hatred and emotionalism of bored Americans.

RIP, Doc Watson.

re: #6 Varek Raith

RIP, Doc Watson.

Just saw that...

re: #5 freetoken

Another reason why the Communications Act of 1996 was one of the worst things Clinton ever signed.

re: #4 bratwurst

One thing I can't understand about the hatred for Mrs. Obama's campaign against childhood obesity: do her critics dispute we have a problem? That the costs of having 25% of the country as diabetics will make the effects of smoking seem like an outbreak of pink eye by comparison?

Hate fails at logic. Time immortal.

re: #8 Be Zorch, Daddio

Another reason why the Communications Act of 1996 was one of the worst things Clinton ever signed.

As I posted a few days ago, it opened the door to unintended LIFE THREATENING results such as this:

[Link: www.nytimes.com...]

re: #1 freetoken

She said nothing untoward or even remotely political.

Nothing.

Michael Medved on the ED Show, claiming birtherism was started by 'Hillary's people.'

re: #12 jaunte

Michael Medved on the ED Show, claiming birtherism was started by 'Hilary's people.'

You'd think if the wingnuts believed that, it would be cause for them to reject it, not embrace it.

re: #12 jaunte

Michael Medved on the ED Show, claiming birtherism was started by 'Hilary's people.'

He has no other way to deal with this right wing craziness. It's the classic wingnut desperation move.

Ron Paul only needs to nab 1% more in Texas to keep Romey under 70% and short of 1144 for another state Primary.

It's funny how the right made a big deal about Obama getting less than 70% in Arkansas and West Virginia, but Romney can barely do so after wrapping the nomination up.

re: #16 Be Zorch, Daddio

It's funny how the right made a big deal about Obama getting less than 70% in Arkansas and West Virginia, but Romney can barely do so after wrapping the nomination up.

And he hasn't locked it up yet. Here's hoping the Santorum and Paul fans show up in force to log their protest votes.

Later, lizards.

Image: funny-cat-pictures-an-ai-has-a-happi.jpg

re: #18 wrenchwench

Later, lizards.

Image: funny-cat-pictures-an-ai-has-a-happi.jpg

Two-headed cat needs a double-scoop.

Congrats, GOP, Mitt Romney is your official nominee for 2012.
Have fun!

Scott Walker's Recall Hypocrisy

Two years ago, Scott Walker hailed recalls as ”an extraordinary thing” and said they were “about hope.” Now, he condemns citizens for using the power to hold him to account.

I've reached the point I'm citing the Nation. Well, for some things, anyway.

It's tough to be right of center nowadays.

Image: romney-trump-plane.jpg

Pic I took yesterday of the flyover at AT&T park.

re: #22 Varek Raith

Image: romney-trump-plane.jpg

Trumped again.

Good evening Lizards!

Survived my drive from western NY (roughly the location of Ralph Wilson Stadium) back to Philadelphia. Played tag with a bunch of thunderstorms triggered by a cold front coming in the whole way. Was in the 80s when I got in front of the storms - down into the 60s when I got behind them (along with a much lower humidity.) My route was zig-zagging east and south, and thus the continuous contact with the storm system as it came from the west.

The Feline Overlord survived me being gone and behaved for the cat sitters (taking his meds, eating, and being a bit social.) At this point I am expected to provide pets and be cat pillow for the rest of the evening.

re: #23 darthstar

Pic I took yesterday of the flyover at AT&T park.

i96.photobucket.com...] rel="shadowbox05eb8715">

The big glove is facing the wrong way in order to make a proper catch there!
;)

re: #17 darthstar

And he hasn't locked it up yet. Here's hoping the Santorum and Paul fans show up in force to log their protest votes.

I'm hoping for the ultimate GOP shit show @ the convention. Ron Paul peeps loudly in one corner, Sister Sarah's delusional sweep in from the other, and Mitt, saying IT'S MY TIME!

Rat + sinking ship ?

Artur Davis switches from Democratic to Republican party

It’s official: Former Democratic Alabama House member and gubernatorial candidate Artur Davis is becoming a Republican and laying the groundwork for a potential political future in Virginia.

“If I were to run, it would be as a Republican,” he wrote on his Web site. “And I am in the process of changing my voter registration from Alabama to Virginia, a development which likely does represent a closing of one chapter and perhaps the opening of another.”

Davis added that he has been approached about running for a House seat in Northern Virginia in 2014 or 2016 or the Virginia state legislature in 2015. As The Fix reported earlier this month, he could run against Rep. Gerry Connolly (D).

[...]

Since losing the 2010 gubernatorial primary in Alabama by a wide margin, the moderate Davis has become a critic of his own party and broken with Democrats on a number of high-profile issues, including voter ID laws.

The Republican Party, Davis said in his statement, “is fighting the drift in this country in a way that comes closest to my way of thinking: wearing a Democratic label no longer matches what I know about my country and its possibilities.” The Alabama Democratic Party in particular, he says, “has weakened and lost faith with more and more Alabamians every year.”

Oy yes, the GOP is fighting that pernicious drift in this country ...

@MittRomney It only took you five months to beat a freak in a sweater vest, a crazy lady, and an addled old man. #fail #lolgop #obama2012

— Sean McCabe (@darthstar99) May 30, 2012

re: #28 freetoken

Please, keep him on your side of the aisle...please.
/

W00T!
Just signed up for Adobe Creative cloud. My photography and film making just got a bit easier. And Muse looks very interesting to me for a non code intense way to make good looking web pages.

re: #31 Daniel Ballard

I see another obsession in the making...
//

The continual devolution of supposedly educational cable TV channels:

TV Skeptic: 'Mermaids: The Body Found' clouds the waters

re: #21 researchok

Walker not only hailed recalls, he had a campaign ad celebrating it. Something along the lines of 'average citizens stood up .. grassroots took the power back'. I'll see if I can find it. I know it was on youtube at one time.

Had round 3 of my job interview-a-gogo today. Really, it was rounds 3 & 4 since I did two interviews with two team leads back to back.

According to the recruiter, the final decision should be made by Friday. I hope so.

This is going to be fun...

The iPhone app is here - download it & tweet your photos using #WithMitt. Will RT some favorites tomorrow mi.tt/WithMitt

— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) May 30, 2012

re: #27 Residence: Hopeandchangeistan 2012

I'm hoping for the ultimate GOP shit show @ the convention.

I just want to see the national platform. If they go full birther or sign on to the same batshit that states like Iowa have, I will laugh. The GOP will have given up all pretense at being a serious political party if that happens.

re: #33 freetoken

The continual devolution of supposedly educational cable TV channels:

TV Skeptic: 'Mermaids: The Body Found' clouds the waters

Educational TV collapsing?

Aliens.

re: #38 Kragar

Educational TV collapsing?

Aliens.

Ancient ones.

Under the sea.

With pyramids.

re: #33 freetoken

I'll bet you don't believe in the FOX broadcast of alien autopsies either.

//

re: #39 freetoken

Ancient ones.

Under the sea.

With pyramids.

With Hitler, Elvis, and Tupac.

Later, all.

re: #39 freetoken

Secrets of Himmler's Ancient Undersea Pyramid Storage Warriors

re: #39 freetoken

Ancient ones.

Under the sea.

With pyramids.

You forgot the singing lobster.

re: #39 freetoken

Ancient ones.

Under the sea.

With pyramids.

Great Old Ones.

re: #29 darthstar

As I've said, you are MADE for the twitter. Yeah!!!

Great Oldies all the time here on Chthulu Radio!

re: #32 researchok

I see another obsession in the making...
//

That ship already sailed. This is my 4th big upgrade of the Premiere family, my second big "suite" of Adobe products. Lightroom is new to me, not a fan of the UI. I'm curious as to how clean the code from Indesign documents saved as dreamweaver HTML files is. And same for Muse.

re: #47 Feline Emperor of the Conservative Waste

Great Oldies all the time here on Chthulu Radio!

BLASPHEMER!!!

We're calling CD-6 for incumbent Joe Barton, who leads with 64 percent. His nearest challenger has 19 percent. #txprimary

— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) May 30, 2012

re: #33 freetoken

The crazy thing is that Newton "TV is a Vast Wasteland" Minow is still alive.

re: #50 jaunte

[Embedded content]

Well, the oil companies money was well spent.

Why do this? Romney released a copy of his birth certificate to Reuters:
[Link: www.reuters.com...]

Particularly on the day you're fundraising with a Birther who's running around national media spreading conspiracy theories about the opponent's birth certficate you're raising that money to defeat. Am I reading too much into the timing of this (particularly when there's no standard of candidates publicly releasing their birth certificate, so doing so at all is unusual)?

re: #53 simoom

He's trying to vacuum up as much birther cash as possible.

re: #54 jaunte

That's how it feels to me. A none-too-subtle nod to the Birthers.

I have been getting junk calls on my cell phone all day long. ALL FREAKING DAY LONG. In spite of being on the Do Not Call list.

GAAAAAHHHH!

Any suggestions on what to do about these junk calls? T-Mobile offers a number-blocking feature, only $4.99/month for up to 10 numbers!

re: #56 Learned Mother of Zion

I have been getting junk calls on my cell phone all day long. ALL FREAKING DAY LONG. In spite of being on the Do Not Call list.

GAAAHHH!

Start filing complaints with the FCC. The call-spammers can be fined for bothering you like this.

re: #57 Learned Mother of Zion

Any suggestions on what to do about these junk calls? T-Mobile offers a number-blocking feature, only $4.99/month for up to 10 numbers!

Add it to the "Do not call" registry?

re: #57 Learned Mother of Zion

Any suggestions on what to do about these junk calls? T-Mobile offers a number-blocking feature, only $4.99/month for up to 10 numbers!

I use the blocking feature that's in the phone. It helps and it's free.

re: #47 Feline Emperor of the Conservative Waste

Great Oldies all the time here on Chthulu Radio!

An actual Cthulhu radio station would probably just be Lustmord and Coil, and maybe some retching

re: #54 jaunte

He's trying to vacuum up as much birther cash as possible.

Klansmen got bank accounts too

re: #58 Dark_Falcon

Start filing complaints with the FCC. The call-spammers can be fined for bothering you like this.

The worst offenders around here are politicians and they seem to think they deserve an exemption. I'd like to give them an exemption all right...

No I do not think that a cold call interfering with my life & costing me money should be protected speech especially when it's from people I would not give the time of day to.

re: #61 WINDUPBIRD DISEASE [S.K.U.M.M.]

An actual Cthulhu radio station would probably just be Lustmord and Coil, and maybe some retching

All Bloop, all day!

re: #53 simoom

Why do this? Romney released a copy of his birth certificate to Reuters:
[Link: www.reuters.com...]

Particularly on the day you're fundraising with a Birther who's running around national media spreading conspiracy theories about the opponent's birth certficate you're raising that money to defeat. Am I reading too much into the timing of this (particularly when there's no standard of candidates publicly releasing their birth certificate, so doing so at all is unusual)?

IT'S A FAKE!

I have a State of Michigan Certificate of Birth from the same place and time period and it looks NOTHING LIKE THAT!1!ty

PROVE IT'S NOT A FAKE!1!1ty
//

re: #60 Daniel Ballard

I use the blocking feature that's in the phone. It helps and it's free.

I don't have a blocking feature on my phone. :(

re: #63 William Barnett-Lewis

The worst offenders around here are politicians and they seem to think they deserve an exemption. I'd like to give them an exemption all right...

No I do not think that a cold call interfering with my life & costing me money should be protected speech especially when it's from people I would not give the time of day to.

I hear you, but the FCC is somewhat reluctant to blow the whistle on politicos. This isn't a surprise, since it is the politicians in Congress who control the FCC budget. If the FCC watchdog seriously bit an important member of Congress, Congress would reply by cutting off the watchdog's budgetary kibble. The FCC knows this, and so normally does not take action in terms of political robo-calls.

re: #59 Kragar

Add it to the "Do not call" registry?

IT'S ALREADY ON THE DO NOT CALL LIST!

I posted this once before - but I like it enough to post it again and it is an appropriate thread:

Jamaaladeen Tacuma & Uwe Kropinski (live in Maribor 2010)

A telemarketer calls Cthulu

Huge Ancient Civilization’s Collapse Explained

Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia may be the best known of the first great urban cultures, but the largest was the Indus or Harappan civilization. This culture once extended over more than 386,000 square miles (1 million square kilometers) across the plains of the Indus River from the Arabian Sea to the Ganges, and at its peak may have accounted for 10 percent of the world population. The civilization developed about 5,200 years ago, and slowly disintegrated between 3,900 and 3,000 years ago — populations largely abandoned cities, migrating toward the east.
...
"Our research provides one of the clearest examples of climate change leading to the collapse of an entire civilization," Giosan said. [How Weather Changed History]

The researchers first analyzed satellite data of the landscape influenced by the Indus and neighboring rivers. From 2003 to 2008, the researchers then collected samples of sediment from the coast of the Arabian Sea into the fertile irrigated valleys of Punjab and the northern Thar Desert to determine the origins and ages of those sediments and develop a timeline of landscape changes.

"It was challenging working in the desert — temperatures were over 110 degrees Fahrenheit all day long (43 degrees C)," Giosan recalled.

After collecting data on geological history, "we could reexamine what we know about settlements, what crops people were planting and when, and how both agriculture and settlement patterns changed," said researcher Dorian Fuller, an archaeologist with University College London. "This brought new insights into the process of eastward population shift, the change towards many more small farming communities, and the decline of cities during late Harappan times."

re: #71 Kragar

Huge Ancient Civilization’s Collapse Explained

Wish I could read the journal article; that sounds like good work on the Harrapans.

re: #53 simoom

Why do this? Romney released a copy of his birth certificate to Reuters:
[Link: www.reuters.com...]

Particularly on the day you're fundraising with a Birther who's running around national media spreading conspiracy theories about the opponent's birth certficate you're raising that money to defeat. Am I reading too much into the timing of this (particularly when there's no standard of candidates publicly releasing their birth certificate, so doing so at all is unusual)?

Romney is a BIRTHER. Nothing more.

re: #53 simoom

Why do this? Romney released a copy of his birth certificate to Reuters:
[Link: www.reuters.com...]

Particularly on the day you're fundraising with a Birther who's running around national media spreading conspiracy theories about the opponent's birth certficate you're raising that money to defeat. Am I reading too much into the timing of this (particularly when there's no standard of candidates publicly releasing their birth certificate, so doing so at all is unusual)?

I don't see the official "Natural Born Citizen" wax seal. I don't accept it.

re: #73 Residence: Hopeandchangeistan 2012

Romney is a BIRTHER. Nothing more.

No he's not, he's just pretending to be until he gets into the White House.
(in his mind anyway)

re: #53 simoom

Why do this? Romney released a copy of his birth certificate to Reuters:
[Link: www.reuters.com...]

Because Mitt Romney is an unprincipled, craven asshole who needs the birther freaks that make up the GOP base if he's going to have any hope of winning. That's why.

Being a birther is the default in the GOP now, not the fringe. The real fringe in the GOP are the non-birther, non-creationist, non-wingnut people who are either in denial about the level of batshit crazy in the Republican party, or they foolishly think they can change it from within.

Charles, can you make a Doc Watson post please? The music world lost a giant today.

Ooh...I got PWNED on the twitter!

@Dark_Falcon7 in six months @mittromney will be kissing up to @dloesch more than you do now.

— Sean McCabe (@darthstar99) May 30, 2012

re: #77 nutz4Tuna

Charles, can you make a Doc Watson post please? The music world lost a giant today.

Seconded.

I bet there is some furious shaking of the Etch-a-Sketch in Camp Romney right about now.

— Wil Wheaton (@wilw) May 30, 2012

re: #78 darthstar

Ooh...I got PWNED on the twitter!

[Embedded content]

The unreality of your inane attack merits no answer save a contemptuous "Fuck Off!" and a downding.

Get Over Yourself

re: #81 Dark_Falcon

The unreality of your inane attack merits no answer save a contemptuous "Fuck Off!" and a downding.

Oh, Dark...don't be that way...Don't tell me you can dish it out but can't take it...you're not THAT kind of Republican, are you?

You folks on the left coast need to watch Frontline tonight.

Have mercy, it's an eye opener.

Fox Nation goes wild for birtherism: "Trump knocks Wolf Blizter [sic] into next week" bit.ly/KE1d7V #p2

— Media Matters (@mmfa) May 29, 2012

re: #84 austin_blue

You folks on the left coast need to watch Frontline tonight.

Have mercy, it's an eye opener.

What's it about?

Ron Paul is getting his ass handed to him in his home district

re: #87 SpaceJesus

Ron Paul is getting his ass handed to him in his home district

Even they see him as a side-show freak act.

re: #87 SpaceJesus

Ron Paul is getting his ass handed to him in his home district

Proving once and for all that there's no honor among dweebs.

Romney aide: We can't be responsible for the fact Mitt Romney campaigns with unabashed racists.

— LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) May 30, 2012

re: #87 SpaceJesus

Ron Paul is getting his ass handed to him in his home district

No surprise there. He's retiring anyway, so why vote for him?

Fox's "The Five" discussing Trump today (via Mediaite):

[Link: www.mediaite.com...]

For the full Five experience, after reading each one of these, imagine Bob Beckel either scoffing, laughing out loud, or looking more and more like his head is going to explode.

BRIAN KILMEADE: “He brings power, pizazz with a great delivery … He’s an American icon!”

ERIC BOLLING: “You know what Donald Trump represents? He represents a new Republican, a new GOP, a new conservative, where it’s not the old, established, George Will, boring out of their mind, bored out of your mind listening to him in Washington. He wakes people up.”

ANDREA TANTAROS: “Donald Trump may be a multi-millionaire but he doesn’t come off as snobby. He connects with the modern man.”

ERIC BOLLING: “How about a guy who is successful? How about a guy who unites? Listen, I’m not here to pump up Trump’s ego. I’m simply saying the guy goes out there, he worked hard, he succeeded, he was bankrupt at one point. Came back, pulled himself up.”

BRIAN KILMEADE: “I’ll say this about Donald Trump. I judge people by how they treat people they need nothing from. He treats his audio guy, his secretary, the cab driver the same way. It’s not an act. He’s a blue collar guy who became a billionaire … He has a blue collar approach to life.”

Just when I thought I couldn't imagine a dumber idea for a movie, I read this:

Rubber: a car tire named Robert rolls through the desert Southwest, using its strange psychic powers to blow everything up. But when Robert spies a gorgeous woman, he decides to take a chance on love.

re: #92 simoom

Fox's "The Five" discussing Trump today (via Mediaite):

[Link: www.mediaite.com...]

Yeah, because all kinds of blue collar guys inherited millions from their parents.

re: #94 Kragar

Yeah, because all kinds of blue collar guys inherited millions from their parents.

Trump and Romney couldn't be more different in their approaches to money: Trump is the classic high-flyer, with huge losses that have put him a bad way and huge showy gains. Mitt Romney is far more low key, gaining his wealth much more consistently and steadily, and with huge showy spectacles.

re: #95 Dark_Falcon

Trump and Romney couldn't be more different in their approaches to money: Trump is the classic high-flyer, with huge losses that have put him a bad way and huge showy gains. Mitt Romney is far more low key, gaining his wealth much more consistently and steadily, and with huge showy spectacles.

Romney had partners who kept him in check. Trump was unbridled. The only difference between the two is the company they kept.

re: #96 darthstar

Romney had partners who kept him in check. Trump was unbridled. The only difference between the two is the company they kept.

Nope. Mitt is genuinely a sane and level headed fellow.

Watched the video..are you freakin kidding me? Geebus... Junior can play.

re: #95 Dark_Falcon

Trump and Romney couldn't be more different in their approaches to money: Trump is the classic high-flyer, with huge losses that have put him a bad way and huge showy gains. Mitt Romney is far more low key, gaining his wealth much more consistently and steadily, and with huge showy spectacles.

I think they are two sides of the same coin.

For the Gordon Ramsay fans
Soccer Aid 2012 - Gordon Ramsay Gets taken of on stretcher, HD Injured Slow Mo - 27/05/2012

re: #99 Killgore Trout

There is something about him I don't like.

re: #93 Kragar

I saw a trailer for that. I laughed.

I guess that's the right response. It's supposed to be a comedy anyway. Also, it's French, so there's that. Heh.

re: #97 Dark_Falcon

Nope. Mitt is genuinely a sane and level headed fellow.

Anyone who willingly courts birthers isn't sane or level-headed.

re: #101 Lidane

I saw a trailer for that. I laughed.

I guess that's the right response. It's supposed to be a comedy anyway. Also, it's French, so there's that. Heh.

Well, there was always this:

re: #102 Lidane

Anyone who willingly courts birthers isn't sane or level-headed.

Mitt is still the rich kid weenie from high school just trying to get along with the cool kids.

Romney and Trump should run together! Heir/Hair 2012!

— Stephen Colbert (@StephenAtHome) May 30, 2012

Our America tonight comes from Alabama:

Evolution not a fact

There is a wealth of information to show that evolution is not a fact, or even a good hypothesis. But newspapers usually ignore this information and print articles like “Scientist: Evolution debate soon will be history.” This probably is true, but not because evolution has been proven to be true. It will happen because: 1. Scientists who believe creation are not given a voice; and 2. The public in general wants to be rid of God, and evolution is the best way to be rid of Him.

[...]

Evolution is not a true science. Science is “the observation, identification, description, experimental investigation and theoretical explanation of natural phenomena” (Webster’s). There is no way to observe, identify, describe or experiment with something that occurred millions of years ago. Archeology and related sciences can tell us much about the past 6,000 years.

If America was not so interested in getting rid of God, people like Leakey would be laughed out of town. [...] Mock science will never produce the truth, and fondling bones will never help humanity. Leakey would bless humanity if he stuck to flying his airplane.

Darwin’s desire to destroy Christianity will never entirely succeed. [...] In America, God’s people will be severely persecuted, but the Church will be pure then. No more tares in the field.

Joseph Kennedy

Southside

So there, evil evolutionists.

Now, one of the commenters at that newspaper pointed out that Mr. Kennedy had been fired from teaching, so I looked it up, and sure enough the name rang a bell:

Alabama legislation proposes off-campus religion classes for public school students

Joseph Kennedy, 84, got fired in 1980 for reading the Bible and teaching creationism at Spring Garden Elementary School when parents of the public school sixth-grade students objected and he refused to stop.

But he said he still has a dream of teaching public school students about creationism, so he asked his legislator to help him encourage the Etowah County School Board to offer "release-time" classes, in which public high school students could go off campus to study creationism and get an elective credit for it.

[...]

Kennedy, a member of Southside Baptist Church near Gadsden, said he and his supporters have formed a board of directors for the Institute for Biblical Studies, which would offer a creationism class if a released-time class law were passed.

[...]

Kennedy, who was a principal at Hardin Elementary School in Centre in Cherokee County during the 1970s, said he has a doctorate in Christian education from Freedom Seminary in Jacksonville, Fla., and is qualified to teach the classes. He also has a master's degree in school administration from the University of Alabama and has written 15 books, seven on creationism, he said.

"We'll have to raise all the money," Kennedy said. "All the school board needs to do is set it up. They can give the students credit. We're going to major on creation science. Since creation involved science, then certainly we can study it. We want to give students good sound scientific reasons to support their faith in the seven-day creation and the young Earth. For example, there is no delta to the Colorado River, which is evidence that it was washed out after the flood."

[...]

Evolution must be part of that evil "drift" former AL Democrat and now VA Republican warned us.

re: #97 Dark_Falcon

Nope. Mitt is genuinely a sane and level headed fellow.

Maybe, but in November of last year you said he stood for nothing.

It seemed like it was 'his turn' and he seemed electable. My problem with him has become that he stands for nothing but a desire to be president. In that regard, he's worse than Gingrich, and worse than Obama as well. Both Barack and Newt want to be president because they have things they want to do and they need the presidency to enact them. Romney seems to just want to be president.

It's sad really, when you thought you had options within your own party you spoke the truth. I'm sorry, but conditional honesty isn't integrity. I'd be one thing if you actually confronted this behavior, admitted to it and gave even an inkling of an indication that you might reflect on this and attempt growth. But you never do, you just run and hide.

This is why Romney's courting of the birthers is so offputting, it's callow and entirely within character. It's exactly the kind of behavior you described.

re: #107 goddamnedfrank

Sketch... then etch.

re: #108 freetoken

Sketch... then etch.

Then shake.

Texas loves its creationists:

Ken Mercer wins GOP nod for Board of Ed seat

Incumbent Ken Mercer has won the Republican nomination for the District 5 spot on the State Board of Education.

Mercer, a software engineer from San Antonio, defeated physician assistant Steve Salyer to face Democrat Rebecca Bell-Metereau of San Marcos in the general election on Nov. 6.

[...]

Mercer, a former state legislator, was first elected to the board in 2006.

As a board member, Mercer, a social conservative, had tried to retain the requirement in schools that the "strengths and weaknesses" of all scientific theories, including evolution, be taught. [...]

And another one:

Cargill wins GOP nod for Board of Education spot

Incumbent Barbara Cargill has won the Republican nomination for the District 8 spot on the State Board of Education.

Cargill, who currently chairs the board, defeated educator Linda Ellis to face the Democratic nominee in the general election on Nov. 6.

Cargill, of The Woodlands, was first elected to the board in 2004. The former school teacher is founder and director of Wonders of the Woodlands Science Camp.

The social conservative says on her website she supports history curriculum emphasizing patriotism, pro-life heath textbooks and science textbooks that present evolution as a theory. [...]

Small earthquake here, quick mild jolt with a fast fade. Current rating is 4.0.

re: #110 freetoken

strengths of evolution: it's true

weaknesses of evolution: it's hard to use it to manipulate stupid people for political and religious gain

Mitt Romney’s New App Misspells America, Twitter Goes Wild

Ha ha

Stupid motherfucker can't spell America right and he wants to be president?

The best image so far lampooning the Romney campaign's missing spelling of America on their new iPhone app. twitpic.com/9qu4a5

— Andrew Kaczynski (@BuzzFeedAndrew) May 30, 2012

re: #114 Purple Throbbing Standby

Mitt Romney’s New App Misspells America, Twitter Goes Wild

Ha ha

Do we have any proof that Mitt isn't a Mercian? He could be a secret Saxon!

re: #116 Kragar

Do we have any proof that Mitt isn't a Mercian? He could be a secret Saxon!

Out of filial loyalty to his father, he was trying to write Mexico.

re: #113 WINDUPBIRD DISEASE [S.K.U.M.M.]

weaknesses of evolution: it's hard to use it to manipulate stupid people for political and religious gain

It is worth noting, though, that social darwinists and "scientific" racists have found ways to misuse the theory of evolution.

Uh oh... more bowing by politicians...

UK politicians "bowed" before Murdoch - Clegg

Britain's political class competed to "bow and scrape" before media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said on Tuesday, in comments aimed at setting his Liberal Democrats apart from the country's two other main parties.

[...]

BOWgate!!

re: #113 WINDUPBIRD DISEASE [S.K.U.M.M.]

strengths of evolution: it's true

weaknesses of evolution: it's hard to use it to manipulate stupid people for political and religious gain

Lots of folks who reject Evolution have no problem with Social Darwinism.

re: #114 Purple Throbbing Standby

Mitt Romney’s New App Misspells America, Twitter Goes Wild

Ha ha

Maybe he was trying to google up this song by Peter Gabriel

No one told the snake its bite wasn't supposed to harm:

Snake-handling pastor dies from bite

A West Virginia minister has died from a timber rattlesnake bite he sustained during a snake-handling service, a hospital says.

Mark "Mack" Wolford, 44, pastor of Full Gospel Apostolic House of the Lord Jesus in Matoaka, died Monday at Bluefield Regional Medical Center, The Register-Herald of Beckley reported. He was brought to the hospital late Sunday night.

Wolford's father died from a snake-handling bite, The Charleston Daily mail said.

Wolford was bitten Sunday afternoon during a service at Panther State Forest. A nursing supervisor said he arrived at the hospital hours later.

"He was a snake handler," the supervisor told the newspaper. "It looked like it happened maybe during church, but by the time he got here, it was a bad situation."

Snake-handling is not banned in West Virginia, and the supervisor said the medical center gets "quite a few bites" resulting from the practice. It comes from a passage in the Gospel of St. Mark in which Jesus says the baptized and saved "shall take up serpents."

[...]

Literalists...

I'll also note that Obama lost WV, a supposedly Democratic party controlled state. Probably because Obama is both black and has a name that sounds "Muslim".

Yes, parts of America are very backwards.

re: #122 freetoken

I guess the Kevin Kostner miniseries "The Hatfields and the McCoys" is running, all about the great deeds that American families can arise to when allowed to execute their God-given Right to Bear Arms...

re: #122 freetoken

No one told the snake its bite wasn't supposed to harm:

Snake-handling pastor dies from bite

Literalists...

I'll also note that Obama lost WV, a supposedly Democratic party controlled state. Probably because Obama is both black and has a name that sounds "Muslim".

Yes, parts of America are very backwards.

What a dumbass.

re: #106 freetoken

Joseph Kennedy, 84

Good.

re: #124 Kragar

What a dumbass.

In defense of the snake, I doubt anyone told him not to bite.

re: #126 freetoken

In defense of the snake, I doubt anyone told him not to bite.

I got no problems with the snake. Is it OK?

re: #122 freetoken

No one told the snake its bite wasn't supposed to harm:

Snake-handling pastor dies from bite

Literalists...

I'll also note that Obama lost WV, a supposedly Democratic party controlled state. Probably because Obama is both black and has a name that sounds "Muslim".

Yes, parts of America are very backwards.

Stupid ones at that. Even fundies have no excuse for not knowing that this verse is a later addition. Probably a KJV-only freak. As such, I consider it a Darwin awards incident.

[Link: en.wikipedia.org...]

George Went Hensley (c. 1880 – July 25, 1955) was an American Pentecostal minister best known for popularizing the practice of snake handling.

[...]

In 1955, while conducting a service in Florida, he was bitten by a snake and became violently ill. He refused to seek medical attention and died the following day.

Frankly? LOL.

re: #113 WINDUPBIRD DISEASE [S.K.U.M.M.]

weaknesses of evolution: it's hard to use it to manipulate stupid people for political and religious gain

You've probably never heard of Lysenko...

re: #130 I'm back in the USSR (sigh)

You've probably never heard of Lysenko...

I want to see him on more school curricula! Teach the controversy!

re: #131 Expand Your Ground

I want to see him on more school curricula! Teach the controversy!

It is sometimes claimed that the space race forced the return of the evolution in American schools. Maybe - but it surely wasn't the reason for the Soviet successes in space, given how Lysenko was triumphant through most of Khrushchev's reign too. By this logic it was Lysenko's variant of evolutionary mechanisms that should have been taught...

The Cold War taught us that modern science is a collective enterprise. We were terribly hung up on the practical science side of things that dominated America and Europe at the turn of the last centuries.

But modern physics and science can no longer be compared to an inventor working in his shed in Menlo Park, they need large research institutes, universities and (gasp) government projects to keep them moving forward.

re: #132 I'm back in the USSR (sigh)

You might be interested in Stephanie Fisher's takedown of Carrier here:

AN EXHIBITION OF INCOMPETENCE: TRICKERY DICKERY BAYES

re: #134 freetoken

Thanks. Have you read Thom Stark's pieces? Quite appealing.

re: #135 I'm back in the USSR (sigh)

linky?

re: #136 freetoken

[Link: religionatthemargins.com...]

[Link: religionatthemargins.com...]

re: #137 I'm back in the USSR (sigh)

Chrome tells me I've loaded the second page before, though it didn't come to mind immediately.

This is a multi-sided argument in which the smoke is greater the cooking.

The amount of bile reveals the religious nature of the undertaking.

I still consider the fundamental problem to be a scientific one: the data, or lack thereof. The reason so many people are arguing in the circle is because they're using the same old data over and over.

Until some first century papyri or artifact can be uncovered relating to this issue I consider it a near hopeless task.

Indeed, the DSS were the last major dump of data relating to the historical Jesus issue, and the details of those have now been available for a couple of decades.

About the time that the Jesus Freak movement was all the rage in high school, I also had a very good history teacher who explained to us the modern historical method and how to work with original sources.

When that combined with my interest in figuring out who Jesus was in history, it produced an athiest...

Iran Confirms Attack by Virus That Collects Information

In a message posted on its Web site, Iran’s Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center warned that the virus was dangerous. An expert at the organization said in a telephone interview that it was potentially more harmful than the 2010 Stuxnet virus, which destroyed several centrifuges used for Iran’s nuclear enrichment program. In contrast to Stuxnet, the newly identified virus is designed not to do damage but to collect information secretly from a wide variety of sources.

Flame, which experts say could be as much as five years old, was discovered by Iranian computer experts. In a statement about Flame on its Web site, Kaspersky Lab, a Russian producer of antivirus software, said that “the complexity and functionality of the newly discovered malicious program exceed those of all other cyber menaces known to date.”

The virus bears special encryption hallmarks that an Iranian cyberdefense official said have strong similarities to previous Israeli malware. “Its encryption has a special pattern which you only see coming from Israel,” said Kamran Napelian, an official with Iran’s Computer Emergency Response Team. “Unfortunately, they are very powerful in the field of I.T.”

And the troglodytes in the GOP talking about shipping in weapons for clandestine operations, waste billions on weapons that don't work and aren't wanted, and undermine real cybersecurity in favor of report procedures.

re: #118 freetoken

It is worth noting, though, that social darwinists and "scientific" racists have found ways to misuse the theory of evolution.

Oh of course, bad people and bad science go together like pie and ice cream

re: #140 Expand Your Ground

About the time that the Jesus Freak movement was all the rage in high school, I also had a very good history teacher who explained to us the modern historical method and how to work with original sources.

When that combined with my interest in figuring out who Jesus was in history, it produced an athiest...

I have a good relationship with Jesus.

He plays with my kids and lives in the apartment next door. Nice kid.

From the Trump, Romney, Gingrich fundraiser:

[Link: www.buzzfeed.com...]

As Romney stood to Trump's left, his face obscured by Trump's shadow in the harsh lighting, Trump tore into China, and into Obama's handling of relations with China.

"They look at us. They laugh at us. They think we're stupid. When he's president they will no longer think we're stupid," Trump said of Romney.

Trump also made a few interesting comments about U.S. war policy: "We have wars. We get nothing from them … We leave Iraq. What do we get out of it? They're having a field day with the second largest oil reserves in the world. We get nothing."

...

But while the program stayed on message in the ballroom, Gingrich had few reservations about weighing in on the story of the day while standing in the lobby outside. Speaking to a crush of reporters, Gingrich took questions about Trump's assertion that the president has orchestrated a massive coverup to hide the fact that he was born outside the U.S.

“The Republican Party’s not distracted. We believe that this is an American-born job-killing president. Other people may believe that he was born somewhere else and still kills jobs, but that’s an argument over background,” he told reporters at Trump International Hotel shortly before the event.

Asked whether he thought the birther allegations were racist, Gingrich pushed back.

“Nobody runs around and asks whether Col. [Allen] West was born in the United States. He’s an African-American, you know. He’s a congressman. Nobody runs around and says was Tim Scott born in the United States. He’s a congressman. He’s an African-American," he said. "So the idea of asserting that any charge against Obama somehow manages magically in the media to get back to racism, I think it is just one more device to protect Obama.”

Birtherism has nothing to do with race because they aren't as obsessed with black republicans as they are with the President. Interesting logic from Newt there. /

re: #144 simoom

So it basically sounds like Trump was doing his old sort-of stump speech from back when he was pretending to run for president, and grafting it onto Romney as he stood beside him.

re: #144 simoom

From the Trump, Romney, Gingrich fundraiser:

[Link: www.buzzfeed.com...]

Birtherism has nothing to do with race because they aren't as obsessed with black republicans. Interesting logic.

Birtherism is based on one firm logical principle: nothing in the world is 100% certain.

In order to make progress in human interaction, society and politics, we have to accept certain assertions, such as the existence of a birth certificate as ultimate legal proof of place of birth.

Once you toss those assertions out, you can make up anything you like and toss it about all day.

[Link: abcnews.go.com...]

President Obama Causes Outrage with Reference to ‘Polish Death Camp’

Poles and Polish-Americans expressed outrage today at President Obama’s reference earlier to “a Polish death camp” — as opposed to a Nazi death camp in German-occupied Poland.
“The White House will apologize for this outrageous error,” Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski tweeted. Sikorski said that Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk “will make a statement in the morning. It’s a pity that this important ceremony was upstaged by ignorance and incompetence.”
The president had been trying to honor a famous Pole, awarding a Presidential Medal of Freedom to Jan Karski, a resistance fighter who sneaked behind enemy lines to bear witness to the atrocities being committed against Jews. President Obama referred to him being smuggled “into the Warsaw ghetto and a Polish death camp to see for himself.”

There is a much bigger problem here nobody noticed. Karski wasn't actually smuggled into any death camp. While he did present himself as visiting Belzec in his book, his biographers Wood and Jankowski in the book approved by Karski himself(!) concluded that he was actually never in the Belzec camp, but rather reached the transit camp Izbica:

The village Jan reached was not Belzec, nor did Jan think it was while he was there. When he first spoke of this mission after reaching London three months later, he described the site as a "sorting point" located about fifty kilometers from the city of Belzec although in the same statement he referred to the camp's location as "the outskirts of Belzec." (The actual Belzec death camp was in the town of Belzec, within a few hundred feet of the train station.) In an August 1943 report, Karski at first placed the camp ten miles, then twelve kilometers outside of Belzec. By the time he began retelling his story publicly in 1944, the town he had reached had become Belzec itself.

Indeed, there is no indication that Karski was in the Belzec camp since his description of Nazis killing Jews right in the train cars by quicklime does not, of course, match any known killing method in Belzec.

(And we still want to get things right about what happened 2-4000 years ago...)

re: #147 I'm back in the USSR (sigh)

History is fungible.

re: #114 Purple Throbbing Standby

Mitt Romney’s New App Misspells America, Twitter Goes Wild

Ha ha

Awesome :) A meme is born!

Morning, all

re: #147 I'm back in the USSR (sigh)

Sounds like there will be some sort of formal apology. Glancing around it looks like Polish groups have been trying to get newspapers and news media to make that change in recent years.

From the UK, in 2010:
[Link: www.economist.com...]

The latest salvo comes from British parliamentarians representing the Labour Friends of Poland (LFP). which has complained to the British statutory media watchdog, the Press Complaints Commission (PCC), citing ten occasions when British newspapers and magazines have committed the blunder.

The issue has prompted two previous complaints to the PCC, both against local newspapers.

Some random Fox titled article from a AP wire story, also 2010:
Fire at barrack of Polish death camp destroys as many as 10,000 shoes of Nazi victims

re: #148 freetoken

History is fungible.

However, this also shows how history can be partially restored even from distorted accounts.

In his 1944 book Karski presented what he describes as quicklime thing as a method of killing. However e.g. in this interview with Lanzmann Karski at first stresses the hygienic purpose of this "whitish powder" (which makes sense since many Jews were dying along the way in trains). And it so happens there are accounts of other witnesses who saw similar things - Nazis putting some whitish powder in trains for apparently hygienic purposes. IIRC (I could check) this pertained to some transit camps. Moreover, both from the earlier and later accounts Karski himself thought that at this time this was a transit camp (he repeats this in the Lanzmann interview). So Wood and Jankowski were quite justified in their conclusion about Izbica. What Karski saw and what he "interpreted" (and, in some cases, embellished) are two different things, but we can probably get from his interpretation to the underlying events.

re: #147 I'm back in the USSR (sigh)

[Link: abcnews.go.com...]

“The White House will apologize for this outrageous error,” Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski tweeted.

Here's the Foreign Ministry again earlier this year, successfully getting a jewish Canadian paper to publish an apology:

[Link: www.thenews.pl...]

After a protest by Poland's Foreign Ministry, the Jewish Tribune in Canada has apologised for the use of the term “Polish death camp” in one of its articles.

re: #152 I'm back in the USSR (sigh)

For years, Jan Karski’s students at Georgetown University knew he was a great professor; what they didn't realize was he was also a hero. Fluent in four languages, possessed of a photographic memory, Jan served as a courier for the Polish resistance during the darkest days of World War II. Before one trip across enemy lines, resistance fighters told him that Jews were being murdered on a massive scale, and smuggled him into the Warsaw Ghetto and a Polish death camp to see for himself. Jan took that information to President Franklin Roosevelt, giving one of the first accounts of the Holocaust and imploring to the world to take action. It was decades before Jan was ready to tell his story. By then, he said, “I don’t need courage anymore. So I teach compassion.”

I'm also puzzled by the bolded passage in this excerpt from Obama's speech. Decades? Really?

The AP wire service changed their style guidlines on the term only a couple months ago (mid-Feb), so that explains the 2010 FNC article:

[Link: www.poynter.org...]

This was been a good week for Alex Storozynski, the president and executive director of the Kosciuszko Foundation, and a former journalist with the New York Daily News and the New York Sun, among other publications. (He shared a 1999 Pulitzer as part of the News’ editorial board.)

The Kosciuszko Foundation is dedicated to fostering “educational and cultural exchanges between the United States and Poland,” and in October 2010 it launched a petition to convince news organizations to stop referring to World War II Nazi concentration camps as “Polish death camps” and other variations.

The petition today has over 300,000 signatures. On Monday, one of its goals was realized when the Associated Press announced an update to its Stylebook that specified why the term “polish death camp” is not to be used by reporters and editors.

Similar updates have been made to other style guides, including those of The New York Times and Wall Street Journal, according to Storozynski. The website iMediaEthics has been tracking this issue for some time, and noted the updates made by the Times and Journal, in addition to this week’s news.

I previously noted the frequent publication of “polish death camp” corrections in a 2006 post that shared results of a news database search. I turned up roughly 30 corrections, dating back to 1991. (Note that you need to click through an unfortunate but temporary malware warning to read the previous link.) I conducted another Nexis search today and found at least 11 corrections have been issued since my July 2006 post.

The corrections keep coming thanks to efforts by no less than the Polish Foreign Ministry and British Parliamentarians, along with other organizations and private citizens. Storozynski says a letter writing campaign predates his petition by several years. There is also a small Facebook group, a Wikipedia page, and many threads on the issue on PolishForums.com.

Interestingly, the earlier WH press-release gets it exactly right:

[Link: www.whitehouse.gov...]

Karski served as an officer in the Polish Underground during World War II and carried among the first eye-witness accounts of the Holocaust to the world. He worked as a courier, entering the Warsaw ghetto and the Nazi Izbica transit camp, where he saw first-hand the atrocities occurring under Nazi occupation.

re: #155 simoom

The petition:

[Link: webfactory.fcny.org...]

WHEREAS the media uses the historically erroneous terms "Polish concentration camp" and "Polish death camp" to describe Auschwitz and other Nazi extermination camps built by the Germans during World War II, which confuses impressionable and undereducated readers, leading them to believe that the Holocaust was executed by Poland, rather than Nazi Germany,

WHEREAS these phrases are Holocaust revisionism that desecrate the memories of six million Jews from 27 countries who were murdered by Nazi Germany,

WHEREAS Poland was the first country invaded by Germany, and the only country whose citizens suffered the death penalty for rescuing Jews, yet never surrendered during six years of German occupation, even though one-sixth of its population was killed in the war, approximately half of which was Christian,

WHEREAS educated journalists must know these facts and not cross the libel threshold of malice by using phrases such as "Polish concentration camps,"

WHEREAS The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, Yahoo! Inc., and The Associated Press have changed their style guides prohibiting the use of the phrase "Polish concentration camps,"

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the undersigned request that The Washington Post, The New York Post, FOX News, TIME magazine and other news outlets include entries in their stylebooks requiring news stories to be historically accurate, using the official name of all "German concentration camps in Nazi-occupied Poland," as UNESCO did in 2007 when it named the camp in Auschwitz, "The Auschwitz-Birkenau German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp (1940-1945)."

So the last paragraph includes the news orgs they're still lobbying to change their style guidelines?

I need to get a couple hours of sleep. Have good day everyone.

They were bloody death camps. They were in Poland. Why are they so damn touchy about it?

Jedwabne, anyone?

Because they were deliberately placed in Poland- so the Germans might have 'clean hands'.

re: #159 Expand Your Ground

They were bloody death camps. They were in Poland. Why are they so damn touchy about it?

Jedwabne, anyone?

Because they weren't Polish death camps?

re: #160 researchok

Because they were deliberately placed in Poland- so the Germans might have 'clean hands'.

I think it was more out of convenience than deliberation, the "clean hands" is a red herring if it is occupied territory.

re: #162 Expand Your Ground

Convenience? There was no room in Germany?

re: #163 researchok

Convenience? There was no room in Germany?

Actually, Auschwitz was "in Germany" - in the territory that the Nazis counted as Germany proper.

The Germans exploited slave labor for the war effort.

Camps closer to home would have been more convenient.

re: #163 researchok

Convenience? There was no room in Germany?

It would have made sense to have a central location near where most of the Jews lived. And it was cheaper to operate a camp in Poland than in Germany.

It seems we have hit on a raw nerve here: Poland has been quick to play down its own unsavory history in dealing with Jews, anything that even briefly brushes up on the subject evokes a fully or righteous indignation.

re: #159 Expand Your Ground

They were bloody death camps. They were in Poland. Why are they so damn touchy about it?

Jedwabne, anyone?

'Cause they don't want the implication that it was their idea.

(although honestly... they didn't much object. They hated everything else about the Nazis, but they weren't really bothered by the Jew-killing. And after the war, when Polish Jewish internees tried to go home, they were run off by former neighbors who didn't want them back. That's why there was so many refugees.)

re: #166 Expand Your Ground

Why should they add the Nazi sins to their own?

In any event, this is Sergey's field of expertise.

re: #165 researchok

The Germans exploited slave labor for the war effort.

Camps closer to home would have been more convenient.

They weren't so much labor camps as "work-them-to-dath" camps. Slave laborers also worked in Germany at factories and other locations.

re: #168 I'm back in the USSR (sigh)

Why should they add the Nazi sins to their own?

I remember the blowup over the massacre at Jedwabne: one that happened under Nazi occupation but was most entirely perpetrated by the local Poles while the Germans simply looked on.

This tarnished two things the Poles are meticulous about: hiding their own Anti-Semitism and diminshing their status as victims.

re: #171 Expand Your Ground

This tarnished two things the Poles are meticulous about: hiding their own Anti-Semitism and diminshing their status as victims.

Why do you use the bullshit collectivist language?

re: #172 I'm back in the USSR (sigh)

Why do you use the bullshit collectivist language?

Lemme fix that. "...two things that certain very vocal groups in Poland are meticulous about"

re: #166 Expand Your Ground

Your remarks re Poland are true- but it is still apples and oranges.

It also bears remembering that Jews also enjoyed enormous success in Poland- Jews participated in the political class, were doctors, lawyers, judges and business people. They were more represented in Poland than in any other eastern European nation.

There were networks of Jewish schools in Poland (not just religious ones in small towns) as well as organizations and groups of sll stripes.

Ask a Ukrainian Jew who the 'biggest' antisemites were, they'l tell you the Ukrainians were. The same applies to the Poles, Hungarians, Russians and everyone else.

European antisemitism is a complicated thing. It cannot be reduced to simple slogans.

Again, ask Sergey.

re: #173 Expand Your Ground

Lemme fix that. "...two things that certain very vocal groups in Poland are meticulous about"

That's better. Also, nothing can diminish the simple historical fact of millions of Poles being victims of the Nazis (victims in many senses, not only killing; the much bandied about "three million killed Poles" number was a Communist estimate that wasn't confirmed by later research, though it still lives a zombie live).

re: #171 Expand Your Ground

Pogroms were not unique to Poland and Poles.

re: #175 I'm back in the USSR (sigh)

That's better. Also, nothing can diminish the simple historical fact of millions of Poles being victims of the Nazis (victims in many senses, not only killing; the much bandied about "three million killed Poles" number was a Communist estimate that wasn't confirmed by later research, though it still lives a zombie live).

It is just this odd need on some people's parts to have a simple black and white template: The Nazis were evil and the Poles were just victims.

Who needs shades of grey? They just muddy up the ideological purity of my thought!

re: #177 Expand Your Ground

Who here has a black and white view?

re: #178 researchok

Who here has a black and white view?

Not many here, plenty of examples out there.

re: #179 Expand Your Ground

That's true. There are all kinds of crackpots out there.

Stupid is a commodity given out by God in great abundance.

It's just that in any reference to WWII or the Holocaust "Polish death camps" clearly refers to camps located in Poland but not run by the Poles.

I understand their interest in requesting clarity on the issue, but not any sense of outrage.

Unless it is directed at Obama, in which case anything he says/does (or does not say or do) is fair game.

/

UK court backs Assange extradition to Sweden

The Flowers of Frösö, Orchestral Suite No.1 "Summer song" by Peterson-Berger:

re: #183 freetoken

Beautiful

re: #177 Expand Your Ground

It is just this odd need on some people's parts to have a simple black and white template: The Nazis were evil and the Poles were just victims.

When we're talking about Polish victims, they're indeed "just victims". Period.

Somebody who would bring what some other Poles did into the discussion of victims would be an asshole. E.g. this is a favorite tactic of Russian Katyn minimizers or deniers - supposedly "the Poles" committed atrocities in their POW camps for Soviet soldiers in 1920s, so whatever Stalin did to those officers and others was justified. But nobody should care about what some Poles did when discussing this particular Soviet atrocity. Moreover, Stalin's victims shouldn't have been saints - I'm pretty sure there were plenty of racists (antisemites), homophobes and misogynists among them (as among most other victim groups in history). Does it bear on what Stalin did to them? Not in the slightest.

Discussing the worse side of Polish (or any other history) in other contexts should obviously be done, but there is time for that, and time for commemoration.

re: #185 I'm back in the USSR (sigh)

Any discussion on Poland in WWII is sort of like a story about two crackheads who break into a house and murder the entire family, and then argue after the fact about which one of them strangled grandma and which one of them pocketed the family silver....

And the fact that grandma was addicted to Percocet is also entirely irrelevant...

But as long as you find people who find the actions of the Soviets or the Nazis as justified to any degree, we will encounter these arguments.

re: #186 Expand Your Ground

And the fact that grandma was addicted to Percocet is also entirely irrelevant...

That's my point. The old lady might not have been the best grandma in the world, but murder is murder.

bbl

I'm not above playing a warhorse now and then...

Hannity Attacks Obama For Promising Not To Wage More Wars Unless "Absolutely Necessary"

Corgi causes explosion while attacking cleaning products
Oh man...
lol.

"Hannity praises Obama for willingness to commit US troops to unnecessary wars!"

re: #189 Varek Raith

re: #191 Expand Your Ground

Gotta run but for those following the Kimberlin V. Worthing saga:

Eyewitness Account of Hearing:

IBD At Kimberlin Hearing: Walker Handcuffed, 1st Amendment Muzzled
[Link: blogs.investors.com...]

My fav. Lawblog Analysis:

Brett Kimberlin and Aaron Worthing: Censorship And Retaliation Through Lawfare
[Link: www.popehat.com...]

I work with words for a living. But I have no words, yet, for how outrageous and despicable this is.

For now, I offer only a series of preliminary observations:

1. This is about everybody's rights, not just the rights and interests of "conservatives" or any other political group. We need to transcend partisanship over this — conservatives need to transcend it because making this partisan will marginalize the situation, and liberals and others need to transcend it because this could happen to them.

2. In that vein: don't like the figures involved? Get the fuck over it, or don't pretend to be serious about free expression any more. This could happen to you. It could happen in a context utterly unrelated to politics as you understand them.

Read the rest, it's good. Finally, Volokh coverage:

Aaron Walker, Brett Kimberlin, and the Fog of Litigation [see UPDATE at the end]
[Link: volokh.com...]

re: #171 Expand Your Ground

I remember the blowup over the massacre at Jedwabne: one that happened under Nazi occupation but was most entirely perpetrated by the local Poles while the Germans simply looked on.

This tarnished two things the Poles are meticulous about: hiding their own Anti-Semitism and diminshing their status as victims.

Kielce: no nazis involved.

re: #194 Learned Mother of Zion

Kielce: no nazis involved.

Your granny is whacked on Percocets!

re: #195 Expand Your Ground

Your granny is whacked on Percocets!

Sarah Silverman stole grandma's Percocets and Vicodin!

Now wiki tells us that Kielce was at least instigated or condoned by Soviet occupation forces.

Victims, victims, victims...

re: #197 Expand Your Ground

Now wiki tells us that Kielce was at least instigated or condoned by Soviet occupation forces.

Victims, victims, victims...

HILLARY CLINTON started the Birther controversy!//

re: #197 Expand Your Ground

Find me an ethnic group numbering over 500000, members of which haven't committed atrocities.

Be quiet, I'm concentrating...

re: #199 I'm back in the USSR (sigh)

Well, one guess would be Roma. But that's because of their lifestyle.

Good Meh Morning. I've already fainted 12 times since reading my Twirp timeline this morning. Oh the humanity!

re: #202 Gus

Good Meh Morning. I've already fainted 12 times since reading my Twirp timeline this morning. Oh the humanity!

Today World Fainting Day?

re: #203 I'm back in the USSR (sigh)

Today World Fainting Day?

Maybe. I'll have to check with all 7 billion people on Earth first. Including the 1 day olds. Don't wanna offend anyone or say the wrong thing.

//

re: #204 Gus

Maybe. I'll have to check with all 7 billion people on Earth first. Including the 1 day olds. Don't wanna offend anyone or say the wrong thing.

//

Such PC attitude insults me!

*faints*

re: #206 I'm back in the USSR (sigh)

Such PC attitude insults me!

*faints*

Yep. Thinkin' about goin' drinkin' and drivin' this morning. Maybe wear a helmet. Just in case.

//

re: #207 Gus

Yep. Thinkin' about goin' drinkin' and drivin' this morning. Maybe wear a helmet. Just in case.

//

On a second thought, forget the blackjack drivin'...//

re: #208 I'm back in the USSR (sigh)

Oops, wrong formatting :P

re: #209 I'm back in the USSR (sigh)

Oops, wrong formatting :P

Damn you! How could you!!11ty

//

re: #210 Gus

Damn you! How could you!!11ty

//

*faints*

re: #209 I'm back in the USSR (sigh)

Oops, wrong formatting :P

Expect 100s of letters from the International Association Against Defaming Formatting!

re: #212 Gus

Expect 100s of letters from the International Association Against Defaming Formatting!

Will I be added to the targeted killing list too?

This just in!

Dear Microsoft: Every time you "improve" Office, you weaken the world. Fuck You.

Another day in Twitter Twirp. Is it sarcasm or is it Memorex? Who cares or maybe we should get the skinny from Comic Book Guy instead.

I should have been a cowboy.

re: #214 Gus

I should have been a cowboy.

Not too late.

re: #213 I'm back in the USSR (sigh)

Will I be added to the targeted killing list too?

Only if you don't BEHAVE YOURSELF!!

//Why are you shouting!!!???

AOL

re: #215 I'm back in the USSR (sigh)

Not too late.

Go for it. Move ahead.

re: #214 Gus

It is very remotely possible that the lifestyle of the cowboy may have been slightly romanticized in some fashion or another.

Redneck summer olympics:
[Link: www.nypost.com...]

re: #217 Gus

Go for it. Move ahead.

Esteemed members of the Council, I move for Gus to become a cowboy. Yea or nay?

re: #218 Obdicut

It is very remotely possible that the lifestyle of the cowboy may have been slightly romanticized in some fashion or another.

Yep. Cowboy drama. It's real man. Sometimes worse than a drag night contest.

//

Imitation Carhartts.

Bastards.

what
who

re: #223 I'm back in the USSR (sigh)

what
who

Carhartts. The MJD of cowboy clothing.

//

re: #224 Gus

Carhartts. The MJD of cowboy clothing.

//

Are you a hipster cowboy or something? /

Now worn by neck beards with advanced degrees when they want to look like they're part of the working class.

//

re: #225 I'm back in the USSR (sigh)

Are you a hipster cowboy or something? /

Half and half now. It's still used by real workers. Otherwise it's become a trend in certain circles. You know. People whose clothing always looks like it just cam back from the dry cleaners.

I remember back in my hiking and backpacking days. My brother and I would always wonder why so many people looked like they were hiking in brand new clothing. Neatly pressed and super clean shit.

re: #228 Gus

I hike as god intended: Bare-assed, chewing a piece of raw liver, and stoned out of my mind.

re: #229 Obdicut

I hike as god intended: Bare-assed, chewing a piece of raw liver, and stoned out of my mind.

I was almost there once on a Utah River trip. Too bad we brought along some asshole. Anyway. I was still in my early 30s.

re: #229 Obdicut

chewing a piece of raw liver

Others prefer face. ///

re: #230 Gus

I took a trip through Louisiana swampland that got pretty Aguirre once.

re: #231 I'm back in the USSR (sigh)

Others prefer face. ///

Chainsaw on one hand. Shotgun on the other. With a pair of belt mounted speakers playing Ted Nugent or 38 Special.

Beer hat mandatory.

//

Trump: You may say I'm a birther, but I'm not the only one. I hope some day you'll join us because who knew adults could be so dumb.

— LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) May 30, 2012

I grew up on a dairy farm [offensive b-word]!

//

re: #235 Gus

[offensive b-word]!

//

Birther?

re: #236 I'm back in the USSR (sigh)

Birther?

Bitch.

re: #237 Gus

Bitch.

*faints*

re: #238 I'm back in the USSR (sigh)

*faints*

Oops. That should have been "raised" not "grew up."

RT @RupertMurdoch Everyone, speak more clearly when you leave voicemails. Having the damnedest time understanding you.

— Andy Borowitz (@BorowitzReport) May 30, 2012

Just prior to fundraiser with birther Donald Trump, Romney releases HIS birth certificate #icymi thkpr.gs/Jzdw7J #classy

— ThinkProgress (@thinkprogress) May 30, 2012

What a douche.

re: #242 Gus

What a douche.

Mitt's COLB looks just as "fake" as the Nirthers claim Obama's looks.

re: #243 Learned Mother of Zion

Mitt's COLB looks just as "fake" as the Nirthers claim Obama's looks.

Pretty much. With a date of 1947 and looking like something printed out yesterday. Helvetica or Arial fonts. Someone call the Photoshop ex-spurts and Whirled Nut Daily!!11ty

God bless Amercia!

D'oh!

re: #245 Gus

God bless Amercia!

D'oh!

Image: 6b889b5ea9f811e188131231381b5c25_6.jpg

re: #244 Gus

Pretty much. With a date of 1947 and looking like something printed out yesterday. Helvetica or Arial fonts. Someone call the Photoshop ex-spurts and Whirled Nut Daily!!11ty

I was born in Michigan just a few years later than Mitt. My COB looks nothing like Mitt's*! It has to be a fake!1! Layerz!1!ty

*The certified copies of my kids' COLB's which were obtained in the last five years do look somewhat similar, but not quite.

But Mittster didn't show it to us. I want to squeeze it and hold it up to the light, and smell its pungent Michigan inks.

re: #247 Learned Mother of Zion

I was born in Michigan just a few years later than Mitt. My COB looks nothing like Mitt's*! It has to be a fake!1! Layerz!1!ty

*The certified copies of my kids' COLB's which were obtained in the last five years do look somewhat similar, but not quite.

My original is this old looking BC. The front is like a negative and the back has some stamps that look like postage stamps. Lots of flamboyant signatures. The translation was just something my dad got done in Brooklyn. It was done on a standard typewriter of the day. I'm of course naturalized.

Greg Robinson · Works at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
WEIRD. This so-called "Certificate of Live Birth" doesn't list ANY of the stuff that a birth certificate is supposed to have, according to something I read on World Net Daily. Where's the doctor's signature, or the name of the hospital he was born at? Where's the baby's footprint? Why was it filed five days after he was born? Where are the races of the respective parents? How come it says "Willard" when he calls himself "Mitt" now? Is that some sort of alias? And if his father was from Mexico, doesn't that mean Mitt wasn't "Natural-born" anyway? WHERE'S THE REAL LONG-FORM BIRTH CERTIFICATE?
Reply · 12 ·
· 12 hours ago

re: #248 Decatur Deb

But Mittster didn't show it to us. I want to squeeze it and hold it up to the light, and smell its pungent Michigan inks.

Anyone could have printed out that birth certificate! Looks like something from 2012. I demand to see the original BC from 1947! Not this obvious fake.

//

How sweet is this? A mom for Mitt!
Image: tumblr_m4tiidR5Ya1rxqttfo1_400.jpg

Mornin' everyone...check out the 'amerciaformitt' tumblr.

[Link: amerciaiswithmitt.tumblr.com...]

re: #251 Gus

Anyone could have printed out that birth certificate! Looks like something from 2012.

The issue date is 18.01.2012.