Tom Sneddon Just Got PUNK'D

I don't know what kind of testimony the prosecution thought Debbie Rowe was going to make but they are looking BIG stupid about now.

"In a blow to prosecutors in Michael Jackson's child sex trial, his ex-wife praised the singer as 'generous to a fault' and condemned his alleged co-conspirators as 'vultures.'

Offered as a star witness by the prosecution, Debbie Rowe ended up sounding more like a character witness for the defence, despite her legal battle with Jackson for the right to visit their two children.

'There's different Michaels. There's like my Michael,' Rowe said, her voice breaking with emotion. 'And there's the Michael that everyone else sees.'"

I've been trying not to pay too much attention but I've yet to hear where they've had a single, solitary, credible witness. Of course, who knows what the jury will do and there is still testimony to come but the prosecution's case is looking kind of raggedy and it's getting rather embarrassing.

Like Icarus? Puleese!

I'm hardly one to begrudge anybody a successful life but why does it seem that some of the scummiest people catch all the breaks?

"Jayson Blair, the disgraced New York Times reporter implicated in a plagiarism scandal the paper called a “low point' in its 152-year history, has turned up with a first-person column in the spring issue of bp, a magazine chronicling bipolar disorder. In it, Blair gives his account of being diagnosed as bipolar—a recovery that includes medication and speaking engagements—as well as his take on the May 11, 2003 “7,000-word above-the-fold, front page story (accompanied by a 6,400-word litany of corrections).” Blair writes: “As a team of Times reporters and researchers dug into my background pulling together loose threads for (the article), I was sitting in Silver Hill Hospital in New Canaan, Connecticut following a suicide attempt only years earlier I would have thought unimaginable.” Blair says the disorder, combined with “trying to accomplish my job while I was sick without letting anyone know (what) was wrong with me,” led to “the dangerous territory of mania—high risk behavior in the form of fabricating and plagiarizing stories.”

The quarterly magazine, distributed mainly through mental health professionals and community organizations, has a ratebase of 50,000.

“Like Icarus, I soared like an eagle,” Blair writes, “but fell with a shattered wing.”

I thought I was trying to live my life like it's golden but I must be doing something waaaay wrong!

My Birthday Means ...

Your Birthdate: November 16

Your birth on the 16th day of the month gives a sense of loneliness and generally the desire to work alone. You are relatively inflexible, and insist on your being independent. You need a good deal of time to rest and to meditate. You are introspective and a little stubborn. Because of this, it may not be easy for you to maintain permanent relationships, but you probably will as you are very much into home and family. This birth day inclines to interests in the technical, the scientific, and to the religious or the unknown realm of spiritual explorations. The date gives you a tendency to seek unusual approaches and makes your style seem a little different and unique to those around you. Your intuition is aided by the day of your birth, but most of your actions are bedded in logic, responsibility, and the rational approach. You may be emotional, but have a hard time expressing these emotions. Because of this, there may be some difficulty in giving or receiving affection.

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Cardboard Dummies On Duty

Let me just be blunt. This is a goddamn shame!

"US marines who suffered the highest casualty rate of any unit in Iraq have revealed that they were so short of soldiers that they used cardboard dummies to fool insurgents into believing that they faced more men.

Company E of the First Marine Division dressed the cutouts in camouflage shirts and placed them in observation posts to trick Iraqi rebels into thinking that they were manned.

More than one third of the unit's 185 troops were killed or wounded during its six-month tour last year in Ramadi, an insurgent stronghold west of Fallujah, during which it was targeted by 26 firefights, 90 mortar attacks and nearly 100 home-made bombs.

The deception was revealed yesterday when the marines broke the corp's code of silence to detail the shortages of equipment and manpower that they blame for many of their comrades' deaths."

So what's Rumsfeld's response going to be about this? "You go to war with the cardboard you have" ... ?

Bragging Wrongs

This fool! So busy bragging about his new toy that he gets caught in a big lie!

"A court has heard how a bigamist was caught after boasting about his new wife on the Friends Reunited website.

Cheating Carl Wallace, 45, could not help tell the world of the new love of his life, Selena McDonnell - 21 years his junior.

Father-of-four Wallace, known by old school pals as 'Wally' had left his wife for the younger woman and the couple enjoyed a romantic 'honeymoon' in Italy.

Unfortunately his wife of 20 years, Anne, 45, heard of the happy news via Friends Reunited - and the police were called in.

Wallace, from Oldham, pleaded guilty to bigamy and making a false declaration for the purpose of procuring a marriage certificate.

Adrian Farrow, prosecuting, told Bolton Crown Court a mutual acquaintance saw the entry on the school contact website and knew Wallace was still married to his wife, Anne, the mother of his four children.

He said the prosecution did not know to what extent, Miss McDonnell, 24, know of Wallace's true marital status.

Wallace was sentenced to a 16 week suspended sentence and ordered to pay $250 prosecution costs."

Moron!

Whose Nation Under God?

Indeed!

[...]
"For now, this coalition of the faithful (who literally believe that many of their allies of convenience are destined for eternal damnation) is willing to put aside differences that will be settled in the next life and join forces on behalf of the faith-based public trough and the ecumenical crusade against an independent judiciary.

I never thought I'd live to see a time when the Enlightenment -- the Enlightenment! -- was politically controversial. Democracy, like science, depends on debate, tolerance, and evidence. And in a democracy, nothing is scarier than a political force convinced it is getting irrefutable truth directly from God.

Mercifully, religious extremists do not represent anything like a majority. We still have a proudly independent judiciary--in the Schiavo case, Governor Jeb Bush could not find a single Florida judge willing to overturn the testimony of countless doctors. And mainstream denominations like the Presbyterians have begun speaking out vigorously on behalf of religious tolerance and pluralism.

But let's be clear: Our very democracy is under assault. History is filled with cases where a small minority was able to overturn democratic institutions.

Zeal on behalf of tolerance seems almost a contradiction. But the large American majority that believes in freedom of conscience and inquiry had better get organized with the same enlightened passion that drove America's Founders."
[...]

He Walked Right Into This One

It's not like you need Michael Moore to point out all of Bush's blunders. I realize that customs in the Middle East are different but this photo op is just too good for the average Bush heckler to pass up.

Check out this funny.

... and this one

Update: Looks like the hand holding is a regular thing. Check out this book cover. This book has been out for some time!

Do you think Prince Abdullah is squeezing Bushie's hand too hard? He seemed to be going "ow-wee."

Too Concerned With Justice?

I don't even know where to begin given a comment like that.

"Bishop Harry Jackson, from Hope Christian Church in College Park, Maryland, was Justice Sunday's only black speaker. Jackson had recently unveiled his 'Black Contract With America,' a document that highlights wedge issues like gay marriage that would presumably pry black churchgoers away from the Democratic Party. But so far he has been disappointed. 'Black churches are too concerned with justice,' Jackson lamented in his speech. Nonetheless, his association with the right wing has done wonders for his personal profile. Just after Bush's second inauguration, he was among a contingent of black clergy members invited to the White House for a private meeting."

Have these jack legged, black mega-church ministers lost their minds? This man has a platform that would ask me to lose sleep and prayer over the prospect of two men sleeping together before I worry about issues of justice? Does he have any idea how absolutely insane that sounds? What bible is he reading and preaching from where one nebulous verse out ranks The 10 Commandments and the thousands of verses that address poverty, fairness, compassion and even divorce (way more straight folks getting divorced than there are possible gay folks who want to get married)? He could preach for several lifetimes just using passages that address poverty alone. But he's making a "Black Contract" that obsessess over who somebody else chooses to spend their life with?

I don't know that bible. I don't know that Jesus. I don't know that God ... and don't want to!

(story link via steveguilliard.blogspot.com)

Still Stoning

With the wing nuts running around like screaming banchees over this handful of extremist judges, I imagine that if they get their way, America's right will be promoting this mentality very soon.

The Afghan government has the responsibility of protecting women from violence, committed not only by the state but also by private individuals and groups,'' Amnesty said in a statement issued after sifting reports of Amina's stoning to death.

Amnesty, citing eyewitnesses, said Amina's husband and local officials dragged her out of her parents' house before stoning her to death in public. The man accused of committing adultery with her reportedly was whipped one hundred times and freed.

Police officials and Afghan human rights commission workers, however, have told news agencies that local accounts also suggest the possibility that Amina's husband and his family may have killed her by some other means, not by stoning, and that they could have trumped up the adultery accusations against her to deflect her request for a separation.

Journalists also have reported that Amina's husband recently returned from Iran after five years away and that she asked him for a separation on the grounds that her husband could not support her. The husband, however, accused Amina of having a relationship with another man. It was not clear whether the couple had any children.

During the Taliban's rule, adultery provided a frequent basis or pretext for women to be stoned to death. At least one other woman reportedly was stoned to death in the same area as Amina in the three-plus years since the Taliban's removal. Amina's apparently was the first sanctioned execution of a woman for adultery, Amnesty said.

Lack of Democracy in the U.S.

Ralph Nader worked my nerves during the last 2 presidential campaign seasons. It's not that I didn't agree with most of his stances, but a democratic win was just too crucial for him to have his hat in the race. Anyhow, I think he is on target with this.

"But let's look at what Bush-Cheney is doing to democracy in the USA. First, these two authoritarians have centralized more power in the White House-Executive Branch at the expense of Congress, the courts and the states than previous Republican leaders would ever have done. From the Patriot Act to pursuing tort deform, from federalizing many class actions in federal courts (usurping the role of state courts) to the pre-emptive banking laws and regulations to the 'Leave No Child Behind' takeover, these two pro-Vietnam war draft dodgers have generated a cascade of powers into the Oval Office.

Second, the two-party Electoral College duopoly with its 'wealth elections', exclusive control of debates, and ballot access barriers, have effectively stifled competition by third party or independent candidates. Our country is dominated by a two-party elected dictatorship that carves up most districts into one-party monopolies - re-districted either by Republicans or Democrats who control the state governments. About 95 percent of House of Representatives' Districts are monopolized by one party and where elections are really coronations. Bush-Cheney and Representative Tom DeLay have worsened this downward trend.

No other country in the western world is down to a two-party duopoly. Many countries have four, six, eight, ten viable parties, instant runoff voting and often proportional representation so that more votes matter.

Bush-Cheney have set records for secret arrests and jailings without charges and without allowing defendants to have attorneys. Dragnet roundups have proved to be wasteful and harmful to thousands of innocent prisoners who were never tried, including people suspected just of being material witnesses. Bush and John Ashcroft have yet to catch and convict a terrorist, though they have arrested over 5,000 people suspected of terrorism. The two convictions they secured were overturned by courts in Michigan.

The violation of due process, probable cause and the rule of law has damaged America's standing in the world where billions of people believe, given the illegal invasion of Iraq under false pretenses, that the Bush's government stands for 'might is right.' Former General Wesley Clark has called the Bush Administration 'a threat to domestic liberty.' While the respected columnist and editor, Michael Kinsley, writing in the Washington Post, said 'in terms of the power he now claims, George W. Bush is now the closest thing in a long time to dictator of the world.'

In Cicero's words, 'freedom is participation in power.' Bush-Cheney have made sure fewer people are participating, while poverty, hunger, consumer debt, non-living wages, the uninsured, environmental damage, electoral shenanigans, tax cuts for large corporations and the wealthy, militarization of both foreign policy and federal budgets keep worsening."
[...]

I Know You Are, But What Am I?

If Sponge Bob Square Pants and Patrick The Starfish are gay because they were holding hands, what does that make Bush and Prince Abdullah?

Spreading Compassion For HIV/AIDS

While the Pope is threatening to remain a hard ass when it comes to church doctrine on the ban on condoms (even to prevent the spread of AIDS), Buddhist monks have embraced HIV/AIDS education and are teaching compassion for those already impacted. It would seem to me that this would be a top priority for the Catholic Church - particularly since AIDS is so rampant in the places where the church is growing the most.

"Hoeurn Som Nieng is one of the hundreds of Buddhist monks trained to educate people about HIV/AIDS to reduce the stigma and to promote care and compassion for the victims.

“I want to be able to restore confidence in the victims. I am happy when they are happy,” said Hoeurn. .

Buddhist monks are highly revered and respected by Cambodians, and are able to spread AIDS prevention messages effectively through home visits. People are more willing to share their problems and request for help as monks are highly regarded.

“The monks’ position of respect in Cambodian society has contributed to our success in reaching out. People open their doors for us because they trust us,” said Hoeurn.

Last year, monks working with the Salvation Centre visited over 7,000 households with AIDS prevention messages.

Monks also try to address the psychological distress caused by HIV/ AIDS by providing training in meditation techniques and by teaching the Dharma, the body of teachings expounded by the Buddha.

However, meditation is optional because not all those infected are Buddhists. "

And another thing ... notice that they are not forcing their religious views on those impacted in exchange for "compassion."

News Flash: God Is Not Christian

So says Bishop Desmond Tutu who was not exactly pleased at the new choice for the papacy.

"Tutu urged Pope Benedict to continue the work of his predecessor Pope John Paul II in promoting interfaith dialogue.

'God is not a Christian,' Tutu declared.

'We sometimes make out that God is in the preserve of one particular faith. We need to have church leaders who are open to interfaith dialogue who are aware that truth is not encapsulated only in the Christian faith,' he said, adding that one of the 'holiest people' he had ever met was the Dalai Lama, Tibet's Buddhist spiritual leader.

Pope Benedict once called Buddhism a religion for the self-indulgent. Speaking to cardinals as they went into the conclave that made him pope, he listed relativism - the ideology that there are no absolute truths - as among tendencies he considered dangers to the faith."

The new Pope also said that Buddhism was auto-erotic and somehow, from all that I've read about the practice, I don't understand his view. The Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) seem to be fixated on sex and purity. Buddhism isn't. Perhaps that is why Buddhist monks aren't under fire for sexual abuse.

Nice And Jesus-like

It's bad enough that this kind of thing still happens at all but this hate crime happened at a Christian college.

"Yet three letters arrived in the last two weeks with racially charged statements aimed at African-American and Latino students, school spokesman Gary Cantwell said. The latest letter, which arrived Thursday, included a threat of violence.

Police and school officials would not detail the threats but said two of the letters were sent on notebook paper through the campus' internal mail system, and professors were being asked to try to identify the handwriting.

Officials who examined the letters believe this was the act of one person and, because the letters were delivered on campus, someone at the college may have been responsible.
[...]
More than 1,000 undergraduates attend Trinity, 2065 Half Day Rd., and roughly 800 live on campus in residential halls. About 3,300 students total are enrolled at the university, a liberal arts Christian college affiliated with the Evangelical Free Church of America."

I wonder if the perpetrator invests this much energy in reading the bible?

Obsessed!

This administration is positively obsessed with uteruses - both domestic ones and global ones. It is one thing for Bush to try to impose his views on the nation, it is quite another for him to think he can impose them on the world.

"The US government is trying to block the World Health Organisation from endorsing two abortion pills which could save the lives of some of the 68,000 women who die from unsafe practices in poor countries every year.

The WHO wants to put the pills on its essential medicines list, which constitutes official advice to all governments on the basic drugs their doctors should have available.

Last month, an expert committee met to consider a number of new drugs for inclusion on the list. They approved for the first time two pills, to be used in combination for the termination of early pregnancy, called mifepristone and misoprostol. In poor countries where abortion is legal, doctors currently have no alternative to surgery.

The Guardian understands that the US department of health and human services has been lobbying the director general's office at the WHO to block approval of the pills, in line with President George Bush's neoconservative stance on abortion.

While the availability of pills might make abortion easier and could increase the number choosing it, the experts want them listed to reduce the deaths and damage caused by surgery. Every year, 19 million women have unsafe abortions - 18.5 million of those take place in developing countries. An estimated 68,000 women die as a result of botched or unhygienic surgery, while many others suffer long-term damage, including sterility.

The WHO's own department of reproductive health proposed the addition of the abortion pills to the list.

In a review of the drugs for the committee, a Brazilian professor of pharmacology, Lenita Wannmacher, wrote: 'There is great concern about the effectiveness and safety of surgical methods that may be less effective and may increase the risk of infection, uterine perforation, cervical laceration, incomplete evacuation, haemorrhage, miscarriage, future sterility and even death.'

The risk of death from abortion in developing countries is 100 times higher than in countries such as the UK, where mifepristone has been licensed since 1991. The pills were licensed in the US in 2000.

The WHO committee, which included two British and two US experts, recommended unanimously that the pills go on the essential medicines list. But although the director general's approval is usually a formality and the changes are published within days, more than a month has now passed.

On March 23, the director general's office wrote to committee members asking if they had considered a warning that mifepristone can, in rare cases, carry a risk of serious bacterial infections, sepsis and bleeding. The committee members replied that all side-effects had been considered, adding that the risks of infection and bleeding from surgery in poor countries were far greater.

One committee member told the Guardian that all the evidence on the risks and benefits of the pills had been on the WHO website for months.

A spokeswoman for the WHO director general's office said there had been delays because 'we had some questions and sought clarification.'

Asked whether there had been any contact between the US department of health and human services and the director general's office, she said: 'I can't answer that. I just don't know.' She said a decision would be made within days."

We hear so much about 'culture of life' yet don't seem to have any concern for a woman's life or well being. The question of abortion isn't even the issue. Impoverished women are going to have them - whether they are safe and sanitary or not - so impeding access to something that will aid in reducing death and injury is just wrong. The pro-birth people are so fixated on the lives in the womb yet don't seem to have a bit of concern for the lives of poverty, malnutrition and misery that too many of them (along with their mothers) will endure because they've also tried to hijack aid to countries where family planning and reproductive/sexual health is taught. Why is it such a priority for us to breed more and more poverty stricken human beings into hellish lives?

I'm No Cinderella

The fairy tales I remember most are the ones that scared me (like Hanzel and Gretel and The Three Billy Goats Gruff)- not Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. So, though while some women may grow up and fall prey to the Prince of Darkness rather than Prince Charming I grew up being afraid to walk across bridges for fear that some troll might be lurking underneath. Though I did like the black and white movie version of Cinderella starring Leslie Ann Warren and Stuart Damon (the man who would become General Hospital's Alan Quartermaine), for some reason I just didn't internalize the idea that some man with a shoe was going to look high and low to find me. So this definitely doesn't apply to me.

"Young girls who enjoy classic romantic fairy tales like 'Cinderella' and 'Beauty and the Beast' are at greater risk of becoming victims of violent relationships in later life, a British researcher says.

A study of both parents of primary school children and women who have been involved in domestic abuse claims than those who grew up reading fairy tales are likely to be more submissive as adults.

Susan Darker-Smith, a graduate student who wrote the academic paper, said she found many abuse victims identified with characters in famous children's literature and claimed the stories provide 'templates' of dominated women.

A more senior academic at the University of Derby said the topic was sure to spark debate but merited further research.

'They believe if their love is strong enough they can change their partner's behaviour,' Darker-Smith said. 'Girls who have listened to such stories as children tend to become more submissive in their future relationships.'"

Rosa Too Little was actually my favorite childhood story. It was the story off a little girl who was constantly told she was too little to do certain things (I was a teeny thing so I definitely identified with this story). Ultimately, the highlight of the story was that when she learned to write her name, she got a library card and was able to check out books (that, too, was me). Gees, somehow I missed out on the Prince fantasies. I was buried in books as a child and I'm buried in books now! LOL!

The Reign In Spain

I don't know if electing the German Pope was the church's way of giving Europeans their last hurrah in the faith or what but with dwindling parishoners in most European countries, low brith rates in "Catholic" countries like Italy and Spain, and secular laws which permit things that are in clear violation of doctrine, I think the Vatican knows that it's reign is all but over. I'm actually a little surprised that Spain has gone this far.

"Pope Benedict XVI has responded firmly to the first challenge of his papacy by condemning a Spanish government bill allowing marriage between homosexuals.

The bill, passed by parliament's Socialist-dominated lower house, also allows gay couples to adopt.

A senior Vatican official described the bill - which is likely to become law within a few months - as iniquitous.

He said Roman Catholic officials should be prepared to lose their jobs rather than co-operate with the law.

The bill would make Spain the first European country to allow homosexual people to marry and adopt children.

Belgium and the Netherlands only allow same-sex marriages. It is also a dramatic step in the rapid secularisation of what was once one of the most devoutly Roman Catholic countries in Europe.

The head of the Vatican's Pontifical Council on the Family, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, denounced the legislation as profoundly iniquitous.

Secular state

Interviewed in the Italian newspaper, Corriere de la Serra, Cardinal Lopez Trujillo said the Church was making an urgent call for freedom of conscience for Roman Catholics and appealing to them to resist the law.

He said every profession linked with implementing homosexual marriages should oppose it, even if it meant losing their jobs.

The cardinal insisted that just because something was made law it did not make it right.

Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero took office a year ago making it clear he intended to remove what he called the church's undeniable advantages and make Spain a secular state.

There are likely to be further tensions with Pope Benedict XVI. Mr Zapatero has made it clear that he intends to streamline divorce law and even to relax the conditions placed on abortion. "

Who Gives A Pope?

With all of the media coverage (and I mean I was just stunned to wake up every morning seeing live coverage from Rome on CNN, Fox News AND MSNBC) you would have thought that the Pope was the king of the world. But, now that things are dying down and peoples sentiments are either for or against the new Pope, who really gives a care? I follow the teachings of the Dali Lama and Thich Naht Hahn more than I do the Pope. I'm not even sure why I allowed myself to be sucked into the media driven drama of the papacy. The Holy Roman Empire ended long ago. For all intents and purposes, the Pope's power is nill.

"Anyone with a modicum of liberal inclination in the media is now all worked up over the selection of Joseph Ratzinger as the new Pope Benedict XVI. Oddly, many of the same people who were rightly offended by the orgiastic news coverage that followed John Paul II's death are the ones now devoting their energies to slamming his successor -- a choice that unfortunately only reaffirms the already inflated assumptions of the importance of the papacy.

The source of much of this indignation is, of course, Ratzinger's long and well-documented support of conservative positions on homosexuality, contraception, abortion, and gender equality. That the criticism of his track record is well-earned does not, however, make it any less misguided. And here's why: it's based on a vastly exaggerated assessment of the papacy's power. John Paul II -- or the newly dubbed 'rock star' pope -- was neither able to stop the war in Iraq nor the plummeting birth rates in his own backyard. Italy has the lowest birth rate in the EU, and not because its women practice the rhythm method.

In the past, liberals have been fond of attacking both the Church and its more visible emissaries -- be it the Pope himself or Mother Teresa -- of discouraging the use of birth control in countries that need it most, such as Mexico or India. Yet high population rates are more an effect of poverty and gender inequality than religious dogma. Change the socioeconomic equation, and cultural attitudes will inevitably follow -- with or without the Pope's blessing.

While the appointment of a liberal pope may well have been a cause for celebration, the victory would have been mostly symbolic. It is unlikely that the happy event would have led to a spectacular change in attitudes among less affluent Catholic nations in Africa, Asia, or Latin America. On the flip side, the winds of change are already blowing in some of these countries despite the ideological rigidity of the Catholic Church. As Kelly Hearn reports on AlterNet, in countries such as Brazil and Argentina, papal conservatism will likely do little to stem the popular tide in favor of more liberal policies on abortion and contraception. In the end it will be Lula and his supporters, not Pope Benedict XVI, who determines whether Brazilian women can choose to have a safe and legal abortion."

Given some of the points in this article, Catholicism - and organized religion in general - thrives on poverty, chauvinism and misogyny. Clearly, in countries that have evolved beyond traditional gender roles and unadulterated breeding of children, "faith" in the emergence of a better life (or afterlife) is not as prevalent. No doubt, the religious crusades here in America are focused on women, their bodies and whether they are permitted to breed at will. There is no focus on the life of Christ. The focus is on protecting the male specicies' ability to spread its seed (and this is key with the issues of abortion, contraception and same sex marriage). I really wish that people would look deep enough into themselves to find the difference between religion and faith ... doctrine and spirituality. With that in place, no Pope, law or doctrine can take it away.

Ike Turner In The House

After the release of What's Love Got To Do With It, I saw Ike Turner on a late night talk show (I believe it was Arsenio Hall). He was asked about the domestic violence that was so graphically portrayed in the movie. Somehow he got around to saying something to the effect that since Tina stayed so long, she "must have wanted to get beat." Now, that was some sheer "ig'nuncy" but, we are talking Ike Turner! This moron is in the State House of Representatives in South Carolina.

The State House took up two pieces of legislation this week aimed at protecting two different groups. Up for debate was cracking down on gamecock fighting and protecting victims of domestic violence.
[...]
A bill advocates say would protect victims against batterers was tabled, killing it for the year. Rep. Altman is on the committee that looked at the domestic violence bill, "I think this bill is probably drafted out of an abundance of ignorance."
[...]
Both cockfighting and domestic violence are currently misdemeanor crimes, punishable by 30 days in jail. If the bill passes, cockfighting will become a felony, punishable by five years in jail. Domestic violence crimes will remain a misdemeanor.

Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter (D-Dist. 66-Orangeburg) says of the two bills, "What we have said by the actions of the Judiciary Committee is we aren't going to create a felony if you beat your wife, partner. But now, if you've got some cockfighting going on, whoa! Wait a minute."

News 10 reporter Kara Gormley asked Altman, "That's fine if you feel you will never be able to explain it to me, but my question to you is: does that show that we are valuing a gamecock's life over a woman's life?"

Altman again, "You're really not very bright and I realize you are not accustomed to this, but I'm accustomed to reporters having a better sense of depth of things and you're asking this question to me would indicate you can't understand the answer. To ask the question is to demonstrate an enormous amount of ignorance. I'm not trying to be rude or hostile, I'm telling you."

Gormley, "It's rude when you tell someone they are not very bright."

Altman, "You're not very bright and you'll just have to live with that."

In the follow-up interview, Rep. Altman commented, "I wanted to offend that snippy reporter who come in here on a mission. She already had the story and she came in with some dumb questions and I don't mind telling people when they ask dumb questions."

Rep. Cobb-Hunter says, "The reality is the law says domestic violence regardless, first, second or third offense is a misdemeanor, and what they passed yesterday says cockfighting is a felony."

Rep. Altman spoke about domestic violence, "There ought not to be a second offense. The woman ought to not be around the man. I mean you women want it one way and not another. Women want to punish the men, and I do not understand why women continue to go back around men who abuse them. And I've asked women that and they all tell me the same answer, John Graham you don't understand. And I say you're right, I don't understand."

Gormley, "So it's their fault for going back?"

Start digging folks! Who wants to bet that this man has smacked around a few women in his day or is close to someone who does?

Unbelievable!

Skankosity Pays

Many bloggers are aspiring writers and for many, blogs are proving to be an avenue to getting published. However, with thousands of bloggers writing about a multitude of topics, the same old rule that sex sells turns is true for bloggers turned novelists. Via nykola.com we see a link to an article that proves, once again, that skankosity has its benefits. Yes, the little hooklet who blogged about her sexcapades with elected officials on Capitol Hill and got fired once it was discovered, has a book deal.

"Anything that helps someone who is writing come to the attention of the public is going to help them on their road to being published," says Robert Miller, president of Hyperion, which in June will release The Washingtonienne, a novel by Jessica Cutler. She's the woman who a year ago, on her short-lived blog, gained notoriety in Washington, D.C., for dishing about her sexual escapades on Capitol Hill.

To be fair, the article does mention that the young woman who blogs from Baghdad (Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq) about her experiences since the American occupation has a book deal as well. But, pardon me for thinking that some American women (and men) can learn a few things from someone who has more important things to blog about than their latest screw with married men.

Chinese Checkers

Filed under way, way too much information, I guess I never really plotted out a block of time and thought about the sizes of dicks across the globe. Moreover, I want to know who is going around the world measuring them? Do they have special rulers or tape measures?

"Chinese men have no reason to feel inferior about the size of their penises, according to a Hong Kong study which showed local men measured up to others elsewhere in the world below the belt.

'Our conclusion is that Hong Kong people are no smaller than Western men, where their penises are concerned,' said Chan Lung-wai, director of the Urology Center at the Union Hospital, who headed the study.

'There has always been the myth that westerners have bigger penises and their (sexual) ability is better.'

A group of scientists in Hong Kong spent five months from October last year measuring 148 ethnic Chinese volunteers aged between 23 and 93.

The average length of their flaccid penises was 3.33 inches, which compared favorably with similar studies on other men overseas.

Germans have average lengths of about 3.4 inches, Israelis 3.27 inches, Turks 3.07 inches and Filippinos 2.89 inches. Italians were the longest at 3.54 inches, and Americans averaged 3.46 inches.

The study did not measure the penises when they were erect.

It found that a man's height bore no relation to the length of his member, but those with higher body mass indexes, or fat content, appeared to have shorter penises.

'It seems that as someone gets older and fatter, his blood vessels change, so the penile size is not static. It may be a reflection of the condition of the person's blood vessels,' Chan said, adding that this could spur yet another study."

Sadly, I guess Chinese men (or Asian men in general), save Bruce Lee, don't seem to be ranked very high as far as sex appeal/sexuality so maybe this little factoid on where they rate on the dickometer will boost their market value. Now, if they really wanted to bust some myths (or not) then they would have done a racial breakdown in America (yes, I went there) instead of using an average. But, I find the results in Italy a little interesting. Who knew? I may have to make some quick glances at 'packages' when I go there next year.

Stop Faith Card Abuse

These faith frauds are so out of control, I can barely stand it. However, their attempts to hijack the government and dissolve the lines between church and state are becoming an outright and very real threat to the very nature of both democracy and faith. No one person, group or denomination owns the legacy of Jesus Christ. There are millions of people of faith who don't need to shout how religious they are from every rooftop. Nor do they feel the need to impose their particular beliefs on anyone else. Now, however, voices of faith, reason and justice need to make themselves heard before the extremists in the Senate try to rewrite laws and history in order to gain judicial advantage.

"Now the Religious Right is saying that supporting the president's judicial nominations is a test of orthodoxy. This is a dramatic new and serious breach in the relationship between faith and politics.

James Dobson of Focus on the Family, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, Prison Fellowship's Chuck Colson, and Southern Baptist leader Albert Mohler are hosting 'Justice Sunday,' a telecast this weekend from a mega-church in Louisville, Kentucky. Their message is that those who don't support President Bush's judicial nominees are hostile to 'people of faith.'

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist plans to join them by video to get political support for his effort to end the Senate practice known as the filibuster, which is designed to delay a vote on controversial issues in order to protect strong minorities from being overrun by majorities. The Republican leader's appearance at this event endorses the Religious Right's claim that the Democratic filibuster of a small number of very conservative judges is 'a filibuster against people of faith.'

Despite the fact that Democrats oppose these judges for their views on a variety of subjects, conservative leaders have singled out abortion and gay marriage as their chief concerns and only want judges who support their agenda. Despite the fact that many Democrats who oppose some of President Bush's nominees are themselves people of faith, Republicans and their religious supporters are questioning the faith and religious integrity of their opponents.

That is an escalation of the religious/political war. And the two together sound like assertions of a Republican theocracy. Behind these activities lies a fundamental assumption by Republican operatives and their conservative religious allies that they own religion in America. They demand that religious people vote only their way. They claim that 'values voters' in America belong to them, and they disrespect the faith of those who disagree with their agenda. There are better words for this than just 'politically divisive' or 'morally irresponsible.' For these are not merely political offenses, they are religious ones. And for offenses such as these, theological terms are better - terms such as idolatry and blasphemy."

These are scare times folks. As Americans, you'd think we'd be in the streets fighting for fairness and open democracy like the people of the Ukraine and the people of Lebanon. But, sadly, many people aren't even aware that their freedom is slowing being whittled away. But, it's not too late yet. One small thing you can do is make your voice heard. Take action and tell Bill Frist to stop playing the faith card!

Mama Oprah Save Me!

I like Oprah but, dang, now she's the center of the book universe? She's being summonsed to be saviour to the literary industry?

"Oprah, save us, we can't get by without you.

That's the message from a group of published and award-winning novelists in an open letter to influential television talk-show host Oprah Winfrey, begging her to resume picking new novels for members of her popular book club.

'There's a widely-held belief that the landscape of literary fiction is now a gloomy place,' Word of Mouth, a loose alliance of women's authors, wrote. It said fiction sales began to plummet when the The Oprah Winfrey Book Club went off the air in 2002 and stopped featuring contemporary authors.

'Book Club members stopped buying new fiction, and this changed the face of American publishing,' said the letter, which was signed by 158 authors.

Among those signing the letter were Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri and Amy Tan, author of 'The Joy Luck Club.' Several male authors also signed.

The letter expressed thanks for Winfrey's contribution to book sales and asked her to 'consider focusing, once again, on contemporary writers in your book club.'

'The readers need you. And we, the writers, need you,' it said. 'Oprah "

Gaaawwwd (rolling my eyes)!

Berlusconi Blinked

Yesterday he was all but defiant, today he cuts his losses and resigns.

"Silvio Berlusconi will today resign as Italian prime minister in a gesture intended to win the support of two rebel coalition partners for a new government to replace his struggling administration.

The move is a formality - Mr Berlusconi must resign as the head of the present government before he can form a new one - but he is now likely to see out the worst crisis in his four years in government without calling an early election.

Opinions polls suggest that a centre left coalition led by Romano Prodi, the former president of the European commission, would be the main beneficiaries of an election if Mr Berlusconi failed to resolve the crisis.

He had been expected to resign on Monday but made a U-turn in what appeared a last-ditch attempt to fulfil his ambition to become the first Italian prime minister since the second world war to lead a single government for the full five-year term.

'This time, no surprises. Today I resign and I go to the head of state,' Mr Berlusconi told the Italian Ansa news agency.

He told the Italian senate he would form a new government to strengthen the weakened coalition around his Forza Italia party."

My, my! It seems that friends of Bush aren't faring too well. Suckers!

That's A Whole Lot Of Falafel

Though the amount of the settlement was not disclosed, it should have made Bill realize that there can be price to pay for being a hypocrite and a pervert.

"Andrea Mackris, the former associate producer for Fox News Channel who made headlines by suing talking head Bill O’Reilly for sexual harassment, recently purchased an Upper West Side condo for $809,500, according to deed-transfer records.

Ms. Mackris, an alumna of Columbia University’s journalism school, had worked as a producer on The O’Reilly Factor before leaving for CNN in January 2004. However, in July of that year, she returned to Fox, reportedly at a $93,000-a-year salary.

Hours before Ms. Mackris filed her $60 million suit, Mr. O’Reilly sued for extortion. In the week that followed, the lurid details of the case—complete with explicit phone-sex allegations—served as endless fodder for late-night monologues (and fake news shows). On Oct. 28, Mr. O’Reilly agreed to settle the suit for an unspecified amount."

Keeping The Witch Out Of The Brew

Well this certainly isn't very nice! Why can't the Wiccan say a prayer? I'm certain that most people have no idea who Wiccans are nor how they worship.

"A federal appeals court Thursday ruled against a Wiccan priestess who argued she should be eligible to offer the opening prayer at a county meeting.

Cynthia Simpson sued Chesterfield County after she was excluded from a list of religious leaders allowed to pray at the Board of Supervisors' meetings. In a letter to Simpson, the county explained the invocations 'are traditionally made to a divinity that is consistent with the Judeo-Christian tradition.'

Wiccans consider themselves witches, pagans or neo-pagans, and say their religion is based on respect for the earth, nature and the cycle of the seasons.

A lower court judge in 2003 ruled the county's policy violated the Constitution by stating a preference for a set of religious beliefs. A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed.

The appeals court wrote that Chesterfield County has done a good job of including leaders from a variety of religions to offer prayers and therefore abided by the Constitution by not advancing any one faith.

'This isn't right,' said Simpson, 49, a member of a local group known as the Broom Riders Association. 'I've been a separation of church and stater all my life, long before I was a witch. ... That's what was driving me all along.'

She said she'll appeal."

I find it incredibly ironic that people get all bent out of shape over Wiccans and other pagan religions yet fail to realize that many Christian holidays and traditions are steeped in the pagan rituals that were being practiced by people when Christianity was forced upon them. It made the transition easier. Further, some pagans have beliefs very close to the two wedge issues that Bush used to secure his base. So, I really don't see what the big deal would be in letting a Wiccan offer prayer. Maybe they're afraid she'll be casting spells on them.

Fire Me Dammit!

Bush's buddy is playing cowboy bad ass by choosing to face a vote of confidence rather than resigning and creating a new government with a new platform.

If he loses the government must resign and a general election may be called a year ahead of schedule.

Mr Berlusconi took allies and foes by surprise. He had been expected to resign on Monday, enabling him to make a major government reshuffle and announce major policy changes.

But instead he told the president he would put his authority to the test in a parliamentary vote."

I'm not sure how bold of a move this is if he feels he has support in his back pocket. He may be just grandstanding like the arrogant SOB he appears to be. But if this is a "bring 'em on" move, he may live to regret it.

Okay To Get Your Viagra On During Passover!

Men are a dang trip! They can't do without enhancement drugs for a weekduring a religious holiday?

"A leading Israeli rabbi has reversed a previous ban and says it's OK for Jewish men to take Viagra on Passover.

Viagra had been deemed not kosher since 1998 under strict dietary laws over the week-long Jewish spring holiday. But, Rabbi Mordechai Eliahu says the pill can be swallowed if it is encased in a special soluble kosher capsule first.

Viagra's Israeli manufacturers said they sought an answer after receiving queries from worried religious men, the BBC reported.

The drug was previously prohibited because its coating was considered inedible over Passover, when contact with everyday ingredients, known as hametz, is forbidden under Jewish law.

According to the Jerusalem Post newspaper, Rabbi Eliahu, a former chief rabbi, said men can take Viagra if they purchase special capsules made from kosher gelatin in which to put the pill before the holiday starts.

Passover begins at sundown Saturday, April 23."

Well, I think that's just plain nasty! Perverts! LOL!

They Picked The German

Okay, so I guess I knew they weren't going to pick the African Bishop. Too many folks running around quoting Nostradamus saying that a black pope would signal the end of the world. But, I was hoping they'd get out of Europe and, perhaps, elect one of the Latin American Bishops. Alas, they took the safe route - though I guess the safest would have been an Italian - and picked the German.

"Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany has been selected by the Roman Catholic church as the new pope.

Cardinal Jorge Arturo Medina Estevez of Chile made the announcement to a cheering crowd in St. Peter's Square.

Ratzinger, who took the name Benedict XVI, appeared on the balcony of the Vatican Basilica to greet the people and deliver his first papal blessing."