The strange world in which we live - Part II

Today a Russian court convicted eight people for participating in an anti-Putin protest in 2012 on the eve of his inauguration for a 3rd term as president.  So far as I know their sentences have not yet been decided.  Following that event in 2012, Mr. Putin set up stiffer laws regarding protests in the new, "democratic" Russia.

It looks as though that kindly Russian bear we see at Sochi has a big bite!


What I learned from reading a golf instruction book:   Adam Scott, the wonder golfer from Australia, wrote that one must keep the head level during the swing.  Then he noted "Hovering the clubhead prevents jerks."  Oh, if only it were that easy.  I've tried keeping my head level, almost missed the ball, and some jerks standing nearby starting laughing.


On to Miley Cyrus.  What to do about Ms. Raunchy?  She's currently on her Bangerz tour and she does some fairly raunchy things in her act.  Pay your money and you can watch her "straddle a flying hot dog, stuff a thong in her mouth and simulate oral sex on a Bill Clinton impersonator while accompanied by mom and dad."

Some parents find this vulgar and upsetting and unsettling and want the Bangerz tour to go away - permanently.  Said parents and other protestors have caused some U.S. arenas to consider dropping Bangerz and Ms. Miley on her pert, little backside.

But, hey, if you don't like her show, don't go.  Lock your kids up at home.  Ms. Cyrus does nothing for me.  I think she's a sad little person who's probably in over her head and perhaps not too sure of her singing talent which is why she includes the raunchy stuff, but I don't have the need to shut her down.  If enough people don't attend her shows, she'll have to shut down on her own.  But I don't think that's going to happen no matter how many pious parents piss on her.


John McCain.  You may remember him.  He's the guy who flew a plane over North Vietnam although ordered not to do so, got shot down and spent five years or so in a North Vietnamese prison camp where, although he was treated pretty well, somehow came back a "hero" and parlayed that old "wounded hero" bit into one hell of a long political career.

There are two other notable things about Sen. McCain.  One is his involvement in the old Savings & Loan scandal.  Although deeply involved he came out of that smelling like a rose, too.  Well, a damp, wilted rose, but a rose nonetheless.  The other is his failed candidacy for the presidency known mainly for his monumentally stupid decision to cast Sarah Palin in the role of his running mate.

McCain down through the years has been on the wrong side of history over and over again which isn't surprising since he is a Republican.  He championed our disastrous adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan.  He thought we should have sent boots into Syria.  He's agitating for U.S. military action in Syria.

This week he also called Mr. Obama "the most naive president in history."  McCain was unhappy with the way Mr. Obama treated Mr. Putin and because Mr. Obama has used restraint in reacting to the crisis in the Ukraine.

McCain really has no itch to scratch.  Obama shut down the war in Iraq and brought (most of) the troops home.  It's complicated, thanks to the bunch of morons who ran the country from 2000 to 2008.  Obama is also in process of extracting our troops from Afghanistan.  Mr. Obama, contrary to Mr. Bush and Mr. McCain, does not find it necessary to engage our military wherever in the world a violent conflagration pops up.

Mr. McCain sits on his hands and complains.  And if ain't one thing, it's another.  It doesn't matter what our President does, McCain will not like it.  But what can we expect?  You can't make a statesman out of someone who lacks the character and intelligence of a statesman.  Remember he's the guy who signed on Sarah Palin.  Ha!


I read yesterday that according to a Gallup Poll, North Dakota is our happiest state?  What?  North Dakota?  The state with the climate that makes Alaska look positively balmy?  Gallup based its assessment on "work environments, health and access to food and water."

At first I thought this was a crock.  I thought Florida has to be the happiest state.  But then I remembered that Florida is inundated with grumpy old retired folks who hate cold weather and complain about the heat, go out to eat every night jamming up the restaurants, drive like ignorant maniacs and leave a dollar tip for a $50 meal.

But it is sunny here.  That's why they call Florida the Sunshine State.  I'd like to see the sun shining on the rear ends of a lot of these folks heading back north - to North Dakota, maybe.


My grandmother lived on a farm in northern Minnesota.  The house had no indoor plumbing.  When we went to visit her we had to do our business in a stinky, old wooden outhouse across a driveway from the main building.  And yes, the only toilet paper available was most often pages torn from a Sears Roebuck catalog.  It was a crappy situation.

But we've come a long way since those primitive days.  There's a new company starting up in New York city which will offer members luxury toilet facilities.  These facilities are very fancy schmancy with private privys, showers and even a special room for mothers with young children.  Members will pay $6.00 and up per day for the privilege of doing their business like the One Percenters.


Boeing, you may recall, is a big airline company.  It's been manufacturing airplanes in the Pacific Northwest (Washington State) for many years.  But Boeing thinks it does not need to pay its way because, I suppose, it provides a number of jobs for people in that area.

Boeing, however, is a taker not a giver.  It gets a huge number of federal contracts every year.  In fact, 4.4% of ALL federal contracts go to Boeing.  Last year the company made $5.9 billion in pretax profits, which is pretty good considering Boeing paid NO federal income tax.  It had a federal tax rate of -1.4%.

Not only so, but Washington State, which believes Boeing to be a great asset to the community, has given the company $8.7 billion in tax breaks through 2040 to get the company to build a new manufacturing plant in Washington.  That was after Boeing threatened to build elsewhere and then went on to break the back of the union.


Pakistan has a lot of trained monkeys who entertain people in public or private places by doing tricks while held on a leash.  When I first read that story I thought immediately of the U.S. House of Representatives and how much fun it would be to find out whose leash was holding whom!


If you see an ad that promises to show you a special trick which in a few easy lessons will add 20 yards to your golf shots, don't believe it!


If you see an ad that promises to save your soul, especially if it comes from a religious institution, don't believe that, either.


Meanwhile, keep smiling and watch out for the jerks.

The strange world in which we live

So many things have changed in the past 40-50 years. Some changes have been good, others not so much. In certain instances, we seem to be moving backward to a more uncertain, dangerous and unscientific time.

Who would have thought after Roe v. Wade that we'd still be fighting abortion?  Who could have foreseen that contraception would again become an issue and that some medieval minds would argue that a fetus is a person? The teaching of evolution, which was widely accepted, is now being attacked by religious zealots who care nothing for science and truth but only for the writings of ancient desert munchkins who adapted wild tales about a deity creating everything in six days and then becoming so tired he had to rest; or a deity who regretted creating humans at all, so arranged for a genocidal flood saving only certain animals and a degenerate old fool named Noah, who immediately following the flood proceeded to fire up the wrath of his god friend.  There are ignorant folks today still looking for the mythical ark on a mythical mountain.


I've always thought it a bit strange that we legalize alcohol but put people in jail for most of their lives for the mere possession of a few grams of a weed called marijuana. Alcohol causes more death and depravity in one year that marijuana has caused since the beginning of time.

But the light has dawned in certain of our states who have legalized or intend to legalize the sale and consumption of marijuana. Colorado is one such state and it turns out that the tax monies received from marijuana sales have exceeded all expectations to the delight of those who worry about budget deficits.

But certain politicians just cannot leave people alone and continue to attempt to regulate all kinds of personal behavior. I'm no fan of tobacco because of the fact it can cause so many medical problems, but we need to allow people to live their lives and make their own decisions about such things. The abolition of alcohol did not work, nor will the abolition of tobacco.

A step toward the abolition of tobacco has been taken by the States of Colorado and Utah. They are getting ready to raise the smoking age to 21. One not too bright Utah person by name of Marla Breenum said, "By raising the age limit, it puts them [young people] in a situation where they're not going to pick it up until a much later age." Can anyone really be this stupid?

As mentioned, I've got nothing good to say about smoking. But I've nothing good to say about a lot of things, like religion, the Republican Party, Utah in general, rutabaga, George W. Bush, or brandy.

I do find it interesting, though, that certain pathetic patrons of pious nonsense feel they have the right to limit the freedom of other people - especially those powerless to resist, such as teenagers.  Why the hell can't our so-called legislators leave our personal behavior alone and get busy passing laws that ban discrimination rather than allow it; that protect the 99% from the predatory 1%, that instigate job creation rather than boosting the wealth of the already rich?

Along those lines: Several states have attempted to pass laws protecting business owners who wish to use religion as a shield behind which to discriminate against people they don't like or with whom they disagree: Gays, for instance. Idaho, Kansas, South Dakota and Tennessee have tried to do this without success. Arizona, however, has actually passed such a law. And it's very likely Arizona's dim-witted governor will sign it.

It seems to me a better idea, if we have to pass such laws, to enact a statute to allow the rest of us to discriminate against asshat legislators who write and vote for anti-gay laws or anyone else we dislike on "religious" grounds.  If I owned a business, I might be emboldened to discriminate by not allowing anyone into my establishment who was a politician, or carried a gun, or wore a cross around his/her neck, or sported a crew-cut, or had a visible tattoo on his/her body, or drove a Ford, or had a connection with the so-called Tea Party.


Is it just me, or do other people find the winter Olympics mostly boring? I mean, really, if you've seen one skier, you've seen them all. If you've seen one bobsled run, you've seen them all. The same goes for figure skating, cross-country skiing, luge contests, snow-boarding, Russian presidents and NBC hosts.

And who would conduct a winter Olympics where the temperature in February is warmer than it is in Central Florida? And who would put together a winter Olympics that cost his country $50 billion? Fifty billion dollars!!!


Texas is always fun to write about because so many crazies live there and so many crazy things go on there. Guess who's down in Texas these days trying to help certain Republican politicians win their political races? Ted Nugent! Who is Ted Nugent? If you don't know, that's probably for the best. Think of the south end of a horse traveling north that has diarrhea.

Ted Nugent is the lowest of the low. He's a musician and his latest stunt to gain more notoriety was to call President Obama a "subhuman mongrel." Why couldn't the press ignore him? We have enough fools we have to suffer. Nugent isn't one of them. Being a heavy-duty supporter of the NRA, Nugent probably carries a gun in his guitar. Maybe one of these days he'll play the wrong string and put himself out of our misery!


Alaska is a lot like Texas in that the people there, probably due to brain-freeze, elect really weird politicians. For example, once upon a time the people elected a governor who made a lot of noise, blew a lot of the peoples' money like she had done when merely a mayor of a piddly little town in the hinterland, and who failed to finish out her term.

It seems she desired a TV career and money more than serving the public. But it turned out nobody who mattered cared much about her. An empty head, even if blessed with bouffant hair, only goes so far. But Ms. Palin is not going quietly into the night. She can't go anywhere quietly. Nope. She's got a new Teevee reality show called "Palin's a Pumkinhead." Nah, I'm just kidding. Almost as strange, though, is the real title: "Amazing America with Sarah Palin."

This is really true! It's perfect, though, 'cause no one, absolutely no one, knows as much about 'Murica" as does Ms. Palin. So "Prepare to be amazed," warns Ms. Palin, the invincible preppy pinhead who used to live in a northern state where she shot unsuspecting and innocent wolves from helicopters.


More stuff from the strange world in which we live tomorrow. Stay tuned.

On rights, freedom and military heroes

[According to Snopes, the story told below is essentially true.  The email by which it is being disseminated in recent days was taken from a 2007 speech by Mike Huckabee at a conference of right-wing conservatives.  Some students who were present in the classroom back in 2005 state that there were not as many veterans as indicated in the story and they were not in uniform.  It seems the teacher has a mission to honor our veterans for their service, which is not an unworthy goal.  But...]


Here's the story sent to me by a friend.

It's about a high school teacher in Arkansas who, in 2005, with permission from the powers-that-be, removed all the desks from her classroom on the first day of school.  Her students were understandably confused and concerned and questioned the disappearance of their work sites.

The teacher explained they couldn't have their desks back until they could tell her how they "earned" the "right" to sit in them.  They responded with a number of possible answers, such as good grades, good behavior, etc., but the teacher rejected each and everyone.

Finally, as the day drew to a close, and when the last period kids had taken places on the floor, the teacher said she would tell them what they had done to earn the right to sit at a desk in her classroom.

She went to the door, opened it and 27 military vets, in uniform, walked in, each one carrying a desk.  These vets set down the desks, then went and stood against a wall.

The teacher told the students "You didn't earn the right to sit at these desks.  These heroes did it for you. ... They went halfway around the world, giving up their education and interrupting their careers and families so that you could have the freedom you have."

She went on to blather about their responsibilities to be "good citizens" and "good students" because these vets "paid the price so that you could have the freedom to get an education."


Well, not so.  Rather than be applauded the teacher should have been rapped on the knuckes and sent back to college to study American history and the Constitution!

First of all, let's dispense with all this hero nonsense.  For some time now, I've noticed that every one in a uniform is considered a "hero."  That is not true.  A hero is someone who goes out of his/her way at great risk to himself or herself to help others in need.  Enlisting in the military doth not a hero make.  Wearing a uniform is not the mark of a hero.

In fact, these days many of our military personnel are on the bottom of the goodness scale.  That's probably always been true, and we've heard of terrible atrocities committed by our troops during WWII; we know what happened at My Lai in Vietnam; and the horrible things our military (and the CIA) did to those confined to the Abu Gbraih prison in Iraq (sexual assault, sodomy, murder) are still fresh in our mind.

Other of our so-called heroes have been behaving despicably by attacking other so-called heroes within the military itself.  The Department of Defense reports that in 2013, there were 19,000 cases of sexual assault.  In 2014 sexual assault remains a huge problem and it seems the military establishment is having a difficult time stopping it.

The suicide rate among our military and our veterans is also a problem.  Some statistics report that 22 veterans take their lives every day.  This is very sad, but if nothing else, it indicates severe problems among our so-called "heroes."

To call everyone in uniform a hero diminishes those who have served and continue to serve heroically!


Secondly, the military does not provide for our freedoms.  Military service or military might or military action does not guarantee that high school kids can have a desk in a classroom or get an education.  Our misadventures in Iraq and Afghanistan have nothing to do with our freedoms.  In fact, because of the hornet's nest these military actions have created among the more radical groups in the Middle East, the U.S. is at a higher risk for terrorist attacks.

Neither Iraq nor Afghanistan represented or represent a threat to our freedoms.

World War II was the last time that we sent our military to war where freedom in any sense was involved.  Our military fought to defeat totalitarian dictators and states which had as their goal the conquest of our country which would have doubtless resulted in the loss of our freedoms.  That was not true in Korea, Grenada (the Gipper's little war), Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan.


Our freedoms are given to us by the Constitution of the United States.  That is the foundation of our country, the bedrock upon which our freedoms rest.  So, unless there is a threat to undo our Constitution which might require a military response, these "heroes" carrying desks into the classroom had nothing to do with our freedom!

And this is where the teacher really goes off the rails.  The laws of our land and our states provide for a free public education through the 12th grade.  Nobody has to "earn" that; nobody can "earn" that.  It is a right given to every child and it is free.  Nobody has "paid the price" so that our children can get an education.

It's as much of a "right" as the right of free speech!


Perhaps the teacher's heart was in the right place.  But the road to hell is paved, I've heard, with good intentions.  As a veteran and as a retired teacher, I get tired of reading this kind of sentimental nonsense which indicates not just a lack of common sense, but a serious lack of learning.  It would be interesting to know what other misguided lessons she has imposed on her students.

No loaded guns at gun show

h/t to Crooks & Liars.

Sarah Silverman talks to Jesus

MLK: Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence (Full)

The Republican Party Rape Advisory Chart

 Thanks to Daily Kos. This is by brainwrap. View the original here.

President Obama's Proclamation on Religious Freedom Day - January 16, 2014

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM DAY, 2014
 
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF
AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

In 1786, the Virginia General Assembly affirmed an ideal that has long been central to the American journey. The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, penned by Thomas Jefferson, declared religious liberty a natural right and any attempt to subvert it "a departure from the plan of the Holy Author of our religion, who being Lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either."

The Statute inspired religious liberty protections in the First Amendment, which has stood for almost two and a quarter centuries.

Today, America embraces people of all faiths and of no faith. We are Christians and Jews, Muslims and Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs, atheists and agnostics. Our religious diversity enriches our cultural fabric and reminds us that what binds us as one is not the tenets of our faiths, the colors of our skin, or the origins of our names. What makes us American is our adherence to shared ideals -- freedom, equality, justice, and our right as a people to set our own course.

America proudly stands with people of every nation who seek to think, believe, and practice their faiths as they choose. In the years to come, my Administration will remain committed to promoting religious freedom, both at home and across the globe.

We urge every country to recognize religious freedom as both a universal right and a key to a stable, prosperous, and peaceful future.

As we observe this day, let us celebrate America' s legacy of religious liberty, embrace diversity in our own communities, and resolve once more to advance religious freedom in our time.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 16, 2014, as Religious Freedom Day. I call on all Americans to commemorate this day with events and activities that teach us about this critical foundation of our Nation's liberty, and show us how we can protect it for future generations at home and around the world.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have here unto set my hand this fifteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand fourteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty - eighth.

BARACK OBAMA

Rachel Maddow and Christie (Not Julie)

The Fakirs of Duck Dynasty

The language is pretty raw but the message is important.

House Republicans "12 Days of Congress"

This video courtesy of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee

Ethnic cleansing in the Middle East

Every once in awhile you might hear an ignorant person complain that Israel is guilty of "ethnic cleansing" in the Middle East.

Not so.  Over 1.5 million Arabs live in Israel.  Compare that with the number of Jews living in other countries shown on the map above.

Note:  Click on the map to enlarge it.


h/t to my friend, Bob Poris

Musings during the holiday season

     1.  Have you ever seen a real estate ad that said a house for sale was in a bad or
          deteriorating neighborhood?

2. I've seen lots of articles lately about how stress can really mess you up. All those articles have created a lot of stress in my life!
   

3. Why is it that Republicans in Congress are suddenly deeply concerned about the deficit when we heard nary a word from them when George W. Bush was waging wars with China's money?
   

4. Did you ever notice that “gourmet” restaurants serve smaller portions of food that doesn't taste very good?
   

5. Why is Ted Yoho (R-Fla) sponsoring a gun safety event instead of helping to create jobs in our county? And on the anniversary of the Newtown tragedy yet.
   

6. Who are the Kardashians and why should we care?
   

7. Could we please send Sarah Palin off into the woods where nobody would have to listen to her inane blather?
   

8. Isn't it interesting that the “bipartisan” budget deal is built on the backs of the poor?
   

9. Just read about a Ted Cruz coloring book. Some stupid people are buying it. I would buy it just for fun but I don't know which colors represent reprehensible, mean, greedy, unChristian, nasty, hateful, spiteful, and snobbish behavior.
   

10. This morning an old man driving a hybrid car dashed into a parking space at the supermarket going the wrong way just as I was entering the space going the right way. He wouldn't move back to his proper space. Just because you're old doesn't mean you get a pass so you can be stupid and onery! [By the way, he spent most of his time in the store buying lottery tickets.]
    

11. Some folks in my town want to build a baseball stadium to entice a minor-minor (NY Yankees) league team to relocate from another town in this state. The county commission thinks the county/city should pay for the stadium, i.e., the taxpayers. It will involve a half-cent tax. The New York Yankees have more money than god. Why should taxpayers build that flourishing enterprise a stadium? If day follows night, the team will leave in a year or two to another, more promising city and we'll be stuck with a monstrosity that sits vacant most of the time.
    

12. Re the previous item: It's possible that the taxpayers will approve this half-cent tax for a baseball stadium. What would be the reaction if the politicos proposed a half-cent tax for new schools or to help pay teacher's salaries? As Santa would say, “Ho, ho, ho! No, no, no!”
    

13. Please NEVER call my social security or Medicare an “entitlement.” That implies I did not earn it nor deserve it! Mitt Romney's paycheck can be called an entitlement for most of what he has comes from his family and the avoidance of taxes.

14. We have another “battle of the cross.” In San Diego. On a hill at a veteran's memorial. Why do some people insist on flaunting their religious beliefs in the face of the rest of us? There's nothing wrong with a veteran's memorial but a cross remains a Christian symbol and disparages all non-Christian veterans. We have enough pagan religious icons in this country. A judge said “take it down.” Sort of. His decision will be appealed and Justice Scalia implied that if it hits the Supremes all will be well and the Christian symbol can stay on the hill. This is a Christian country, right?
    

15. The Hawaii state health official who released President Obama's birth certificate was killed in a plane crash on Wednesday. She was the only one killed in the crash. Her name was Loretta Fuddy. A tragedy. Donald Trump, however, showing how much he cares about real people and those who loved Ms. Fuddy, implied that Obama's birth certificate was a fake and that Ms. Fuddy was implicated in forging the certificate and was killed to ensure her silence about the matter. Would it be too much to ask that the media not publish anything that comes from the sick mind of Mr. Trump?
    

16. The city of Detroit has received judicial permission to move forward and cut the pensions of city retirees. The city of Detroit, while cutting pensions, plans to spend $444 million dollars to build a new hockey arena.  Is there a way to lock up the brainless turds that despoil our country?
    

17. Some of our media people are really stupid. Many of those folks work for FAUX News. Not all, though. Just watch NBC and CNN, especially. One of the stupidest is Megyn Kelley of FAUX News. A woman wrote her that Santa did not have to have white skin. Well, Ms. Kelley knows damn well that Santa was white. And, for that matter, so was the other mythical guy, Jesus. Perhaps Ms. Kelley has been so indoctrinated at FAUX News that she thinks people can't have faith in a person of color. I mean, FAUX News constantly points out that President Obama, a man of color, is not worthy of praise or worship or even respect.  And it's too bad he should get a decent night's sleep!
    

18. In Bullock County, Georgia, teachers were told they could not promote their Christian beliefs in the classroom or in their lessons or on their computers. A right-wing legal group complained that this violated the first-amendment rights of the teachers. Why do Christians insist on promoting their religion in the public sphere? A ban on such behavior does not deny anyone their first-amendment rights! Teachers who try to make little Christians out of their students are violating the United States Constitution. What's so hard to understand about that?
    

19. Why do people driving cars with little Jesus fish attached drive 20 miles over the speed limit on the highways? Doing so makes them criminals.
    

20. Finally, some tidbits from the latest issue of Harper's Magazine.
    

• 942,000 U.S. fast-food workers receive federal and state aid.
  
• The cost of this aid is more than $7,000,000,000.
  
• 71 percent of Tea Party crackpots think Obama is destroying the country.
  
• Cancer prevention gets a mere 11% of the NFL's pink breast-cancer awareness merchandise sales.
  

Merry Holidays!

The Republicans and Nelson Mandella - Once again on the wrong side of history

This, from the Huffington Post.

1986.  Congress put together a Comprehensive Anti-apartheid Act which was designed to show U.S. disapproval of apartheid in South Africa.  It had teeth which involved sanctions, among other things.

The bill passed Congress with bipartisan support.  The Republican Party, however, opposed the act, and it was vetoed by President Ronnie Reagan, the B-grade movie actor who somehow stumbled his way into the presidency.

Congress overrode the veto.

One of those who voted against the act was none other than Dick Cheney, then a Wyoming congressman.  Today, he maintains he did the right thing, that the African National Congress was a terrorist organization and Nelson Mandella was a terrorist.

In 2004, John Nichols, a Cheney historian, spoke to Mandella about Cheney's "record and worldview."  Nichols summed up Mandella's response this way:

He’s very blunt about it he says one of the many reasons why he fears Dick Cheney’s power in the United States, and Mandela does say, he understands that Cheney is effectively the President of the United States, he says, one of the many reasons that he fears Dick Cheney’s power is that in the late 1980’s when even prominent Republicans like Jack Kemp and Newt Gingrich were acknowledging the crime of Apartheid, Dick Cheney maintained the lie that the ANC was a terrorist organization and a fantasy that Nelson Mandela was a terrorist leader who deserved to be in jail. Frankly it begs very powerful question. If Dick Cheney’s judgment was that bad in the late 1980’s, why would we believe that it’s gotten any better in the early 21st century?


As we have discovered over the past several decades, Cheney's bad judgment and bad attitude and downright nastiness never has changed.  He's still the sniveling, creepy war criminal who should by all rights, be behind bars!


And the Republican Party continues it's long trek through time on the wrong side of history!

[Read the entire article at the Huffington Post, here.]

Those Were The Nights (of Chanukah) - The Yeshiva Boys Choir

A rousing, rollicking celebration of Chanukah!

Do the right "Christ" thing this Christmas!

Bill Maher zings Repugs who talk about "their" Kennedy

Bill Maher had a few words for the Republicans who still "get a lump in their throat" for "their Kennedy" Ronald Reagan during his New Rules segment this Friday night.

MAHER: Now, I don't know if all politics is local, but I do think all politics is tribal and just as some people are dog people and others are cat people, some have a chip in their brain to be Democrats and others to be Republicans. We have Kennedy, you have Reagan. We have marijuana, you have Metamucil.

We want gays in the military. You want them in the airport restroom. [...]

The one reason we looked uglier in the '80's, is because we were uglier. It was when the baby boomers, the generation that was supposed to be different, just gave up and sold out completely. Kennedy's time was the time of "Ask not what your country can do for you." Reagan's was the time of "Greed is good."

JFK was far from perfect, but he was a true wit and a sex machine and he knew how to wear a pair of shades. Reagan was an amiable square in a cowboy hat who had sex with a woman he called mommie.

Kennedy was James Bond. Reagan was Matlock.

Love him or hate him, we win. Republicans can call Reagan their Kennedy all they want, but it's like calling Miller High Life 'the champagne of beer. It's why calling someone your Kennedy will never really cut it, because our Kennedy, is Kennedy.

Thanks to Heather at Crooks & Liars.

A Letter to William Hague, British Foreign Secretary

I don't know whether or not William Hague, the British Foreign Secretary, is an anti-Semite.  Anti-Semitism, however, is alive and just as sick as ever, all over the world.  Unfortunately, it is growing in many European countries, particularly in Sweden and Norway where Jews are feeling both official and unofficial oppression.

If Mr. Hague is not an anti-Semite, he plays right into their hands by choosing Hamas over Israel.  Mr. Hague recently warned "Israel that if it sent troops into Gaza to confront Hamas" [even though Hamas has been sending death-by-rockets to Israel for years], Israel would risk "losing the sympathy of the international community."

I can't help but wonder what "international community" he's talking about.  Does he include Saudi Arabia, or Iran, or Iraq, or Yemen, or Syria, or Lebanon, or the United States?  It is interesting to note that although Mr. Hague has visited many countries around the world - from Japan to South Africa to Somolia to Syria - I can find no record of him visiting Israel.  Maybe he has stopped in Tel Aviv, but such a visit has not been publicized in the past several months.

Mr. Hague's statement about Israel losing the international community's "sympathy" did, however, raise the ire of a Jewish woman living in Britain.  On November 19, Mindy Wiesenberger, sent the following letter in response.  The letter has been published in many newspapers, including the "Times of Israel."

I'm proud to reprint it here for Ms. Wiesenberger speaks the truth which needs to be disseminated to as large an audience as possible.


Dear Mr. Hague,

You have stated that if Israel tries to defend its population through a ground offensive in Gaza, "it risks losing the sympathy of the international community."

Let me tell you something about the sympathy of the international community Mr. Hague.  My father was liberated from [the] Buchenwald concentration camp  in 1945, having lost his entire family but gaining the sympathy of the international community at the time.  After 6 million Jews had been annihilated at the hands of the Nazi regime, the international community had plenty of sympathy for the Jewish people.  There is always plenty of sympathy for victims.

Israel doesn't need the sympathy of the international community.  What it needs is to defend its citizens.

When, as a tiny country it gained its independence in 1948, it had to absorb 800,000 Jews who were thrown out of Arab lands in the Middle East, and it did so without fuss and with dignity giving them shelter and a place of security in which their children could grow up to become productive citizens.  When Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria tried to destroy Israel in 1948 and again in 1967 they took in hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs, but did they give them dignity or shelter?  No, they left them to rot in refugee camps in order to maintain a symbol of grievance against Israel and use them as a political tool against the Jewish state.  What has arisen in those camps is a complicated situation, but it is what has led to Gaza today.

So don't lecture Israel on international sympathy Mr. Hague.  Not when Israel has just sent 120 truck loads of food into Gaza to feed the Palestinian people there, because their own leadership is more interested in using its population as human shields, launching rockets against Israel from within major civilian centers.

Don't lecture Israel on international sympathy Mr. Hague.  Not when the Palestinian media deliberately uses images of victims of the Syrian civil war and presents them as casualties in Gaza to gain international sympathy.

Go read your history books Mr. Hague, go see that since the beginning of the twentieth century all the Arabs wanted to do was destroy Israel.  Go look at the country of Israel now since the Jews have established a state there.  Go read what advances in science, medicine, biotechnology, agriculture and high-tech Israel has developed, and dedicated that knowledge to making the world a better place for humanity.  Can you imagine any other country that after 60 years of continuously being under attack could have achieved so much?

So Mr. Hague don't lecture Israel on international sympathy.  Israel will do whatever it takes to defend itself from outright attacks on its citizens, where it be from Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran or any other country or terrorist group that attacks it.

And if it loses the sympathy of the international community so be it.  We don't need the international community's sympathy.  We don't need another 6 million victims.

Rick Perry - An Empty Head

Thought you might want to see what an empty head looks like.  With hair.  Lots of hair. 

Thanksgiving Socialists

h/t Crooks & Liars