Meanwhile, the Republican Party continues pushing insanely stupid regressive social issues, but let’s all look over there at the NSA: Texas Congressman: Masturbating Fetuses Prove Need for Abortion Ban.

As the House of Representatives gears up for Tuesday’s debate on HR 1797, a bill that would outlaw virtually all abortions 20 weeks post fertilization, Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX) argued in favor of banning abortions even earlier in pregnancy because, he said, male fetuses that age were already, shall we say, spanking the monkey.

“Watch a sonogram of a 15-week baby, and they have movements that are purposeful,” said Burgess, a former OB/GYN. “They stroke their face. If they’re a male baby, they may have their hand between their legs. If they feel pleasure, why is it so hard to believe that they could feel pain?”

That observation led Burgess to say he had argued for the abortion ban to start at a much earlier stage of gestation, 15 or 16 weeks. (This is less than halfway through a pregnancy.) He appeared to liken Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion, to the 1893 Plessy v. Ferguson decision that formally legalized racial segregation, and was not fully reversed until Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

I don’t think these wingnuts have considered the possible consequences of arming up a bunch of women with free shotguns and then coming at them with transvaginal ultrasound wands: Houston Gun Group Fights ‘War on Women’ by Handing Out Free Shotguns.

The Armed Citizen Project recently began handing out free shotguns to 50 residents of a Houston, Texas neighborhood. Like the name suggests, the group wants a maximum number of armed residents in cities with higher crime rates, once applicants complete a firearms course and background check. Founder Kyle Coplen’s goal is to spread to 15 cities, although a gun giveaway is already underway in Tucson, Arizona — the site of a mass shooting two years ago.

Beyond encouraging residents with minimal training to fight crime themselves, Coplen wants to provide guns specifically for “vulnerable women.” The Armed Citizen Project website says this is, “Fighting the war on women, one free shotgun at a time.”

YouTube

It’s Gohmert time!

That Republican Texas Congressmoron is trying hard for the executive spot in the loony Tea Party caucus (now that Michele Bachmann has, uh, retired), and here’s another zany episode of Life With Gohmert, as Louie unleashes his strange smarmy wrath on New Jersey Governor Chris Christie!

“Think about it, if he had just up and appointed a Republican replacement as he’s authorized to do, do you think the bromance will continue? Do you think the President will come let him win little toys for him and stuffed animals for him down at the fair?” Gohmert joked, “Do you think he would ever get another hug out on the beach from the President?”

Via Right Wing Watch.

Bristling Gohmert

The dumbest man in Congress, Texas Representative Louie “Terror Babies from the Future” Gohmert, got all lathered up yesterday because Eric Holder said, in so many words, that Gohmert didn’t know WTF he was talking about when he asked a weird, pointless question about some tortuous Muslim-Christian persecution fantasy he apparently got from World Net Daily. So the hearing wasn’t a complete waste.

“Because of political correctness, there was not a thorough enough investigation of Tamerlan to determine this kid had been radicalized,” Gohmert said of one of the Boston bombing suspects. “On the one hand, we go after Christian groups like Billy Graham’s group - we go after Franklin Graham’s group - but then we’re hands-off when it comes to possibly offending someone who has been radicalized as a terrorist.”

Holder responded by saying that Gohmert didn’t have access to all of the facts.

“Unless somebody has done something inappropriate, you don’t have access to the FBI files,” he said. “I know what the FBI did. You cannot know what I know.”

Gohmert bristled at the suggestion that he was making false statements, repeatedly telling Holder that he “challenged my character.”

Related:
Louie ‘Terror Babies’ Gohmert: Aurora Shootings Caused by Not Enough God

Guess who fell for that ridiculous “MILITARY IS COURT MARTIALING CHRISTIANS” persecution fantasy, helped along by Fox News “culture warrior” Todd Starnes?

Yes, it’s the dumbest man in Congress, our beloved Louie Gohmert from Texas: Congressmen Scalise and Gohmert Fall for Debunked Fox News Story on Supposed Plan to Court Martial Christians.

From an inadvertent humor standpoint, you gotta love Louie.

As Warren Throckmorton points out, the Defense Department guidelines on proselytizing and religious bias that has so enraged Starnes and others was actually put in place in 2008 during the Bush administration and the language clearly “draws a distinction between simply speaking about one’s faith and coercion.” Throckmorton also notes that Starnes twisted a statement from a Pentagon spokesman “to make it seem as though the outcome of religious proselytizing cases would be court martial.”

The Tennessean and Stars and Stripes have also debunked the story, but don’t tell Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), who in an interview with Starnes said that Obama is trying to make Christian service members leave their faith:

“Under President Obama’s military you are no longer allowed to share your faith,” he said - noting that the policy is putting Christians in a tough position. “Do you follow President Obama or do you follow God and the teachings of Jesus?”

“That’s pretty tough when your commander in chief puts you on the horn for that dilemma,” he added.

“On the horn for that dilemma!” Louie is incomparable.

Texas Representative Louie Gohmert, in an interview with the crackpot conspiracy site World Net Daily:

“This administration has so many Muslim brotherhood members that have influence that they just are making wrong decisions for America.”

— Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), in an interview with WND Radio, explaining what he sees as President Obama’s downplaying of the threat of radical Islam.

Rep. Gohmert continued in this vein today in Congress:

Gohmert takes the House floor to say that Obama is pandering “to peple who want to destroy our way of life.”

— igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) April 26, 2013

Gohmert on the floor is arguing that the FBI didn’t stop Tsarnaev Boston bombing plot b/c of Obama’s political correctness on Islam

— igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) April 26, 2013

Explosions rocked a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, Wednesday evening as firefighters were battling a fire, causing multiple injuries, authorities said.

Dani Moore, dispatcher with the Texas Department of Pubic Safety, said she did not know how many were injured or the extent of their injuries.

“The fertilizer plant was on fire. Firefighters were on the scene. There was an explosion … followed by a second explosion,” she said.

She said there were multiple damages to structures and vehicles. She said she had no information on the cause of the blasts or fire.

WFAA.com reported at least 10 structures were on fire, including a school which is next door to the plant. An emergency triage center was set up at a high school football field.

The TV station said on its website that a shock wave was felt in parts of North Texas.

The Waco Tribune reported injuries to several people including firefighters.

The fertilizer plant is about 20 miles north of Waco and just off Interstate 35.

KWTX.com reported one of the nearby buildings damaged was a nursing home, and state troopers transported some of the injured to hospitals in patrol cars.

It also said the explosion knocked out electrical power to part of the community.

Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center in Waco, was receiving some of the injured. Answering the phone at the hospital, Karen Jackson said she could provide no information on the number of injured or the extent.

Texas congressman Steve Stockman, who is a Republican, and who is also apparently a real wise guy, troll-tweeted this earlier today:

Our campaign bumper sticker: If babies had guns, they wouldn’t be aborted. stockman2014.com #gosnell #tcot twitter.com/ReElectStockma…

— Rep. Steve Stockman (@ReElectStockman) April 12, 2013

He’s kidding, of course! How could you actually arm those little fetus guys in there? Imagine how tiny the gun would have to be! (But it would be awfully cute, you have to admit.) And how could they get the necessary training, target-shooting, etc.? Not to mention the problem of finding little tiny ammunition to go with that cute little pink or blue pistol.

Come on, he isn’t serious, it’s a joke! Who says wingnuts don’t have a sense of humor?

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This 100% hand-made, action-packed short film tries to keep up as a Texas Sheriff hilariously massacres a race of clumsy aliens.

Awards:
Best Animated Film - Tacama Film Festival
Best Nod to the Republic of Texas - Couch Fest Films 2012
Platinum Remi Award - WorldFest, Houston
Best Animated Horror Short Film - Tabloid Witch Awards
Best Animated Film, Audience Choice - Oceansdie Int’l Film Fest
Best Animated Film, Jury Award - Oceanside Int’l Film Fest
Nom for Best Animated Short - Sacramento Horror Film Festival
Best Animated Film - Catalina Int’l Film Festival
Best Student Animated Film! - First Glance

Screenings:
Slamdance 2012
Seattle International Film Festival
Los Angeles Film Festival
Austin In’l Film Festival
Eugene Int’l Film Festival
Atlantic Film Festvial
Northwest Animation Festival
Burlington Animation Festival
Spooky Movie Int’l Horror Film Festival
New Orleans Int’l Film Festival
New Orleans Horror Film Festival
Sacramento Horror Film Festival
Terror Film Festival
HollyShorts Film Festival
Sydney Underground Film Festival
Shock and Gore Film Festival
Syracuse Horror, SciFi and Fantasy Festival
Columbia Gorge Int’l Film Festival
A NIGHT OF HORROR FILM FESTIVAL
Arizona Int’l Film Festival
USA Film Festival
Los Angeles Fear and Fantasy Film Festival

Andrew Kaczynski posted video today of Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) issuing the latest ridiculous right wing anti-science public statement, citing the Bible story of the Great Flood as evidence that climate change isn’t man-made.

“I would point out that if you’re a believer in the Bible, one would have to say the Great Flood is an example of climate change and that certainly wasn’t because mankind had overdeveloped hydrocarbon energy.”

This is what’s behind a lot of the Republican aversion to science; the atavistic fear that science will destroy their religious beliefs. It’s bizarre to see Barton in America’s halls of power, talking about setting vital national policy based on his superstitious belief that an allegorical fantasy passed down by word of mouth from the Bronze Age actually happened in reality.