But Buchanan is EXACTLY What I Would Expect From An Irish Guy From The South Side Of Chicago

I don't know where Pat Buchanan grew up but I find him to be exactly like the ignorant, racist, ill-bred "South Side Irish" types I was subjected while growing up in Chicago and while attending a really nice Catholic university (so much for their version of the faith we shared). Why can't people of his ilk just shut the hell up?

Pat Buchanan, noted expert on the black man: "Buchanan: Obama is "not what you would expect from a black guy from the South Side of Chicago""

I've been agreeing with Pat on his views on the war and the ridiculous band of criminals who have hijacked the Republican Party but he always slinks back to his backwards, uninformed, blinded by stereotypes rhetoric! Ugh!

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Don't Tell Me This

Now that I've read the article, my pressure has gone down a little. I thought this was going to be some crazy story about someone going in for the hot wings and forgetting the child in the car. Instead, it is yet another working parent who "forgets" to drop the child off and goes to work BAU.

A 17-month-old boy left unattended inside a hot, stuffy car for at least seven hours was found dead Tuesday afternoon.

The mother is employed as a waitress at a Hooters restaurant near Bell Road and Interstate 17, Phoenix police said.

She arrived at the restaurant at 10 am and worked until nearly 5 p.m. police said.

The baby was in a car seat in the backseat of a Honda Civic. The car has dark tinted windows.

Officials think that that made the boy invisible to people going in and out of the restaurant and a carwash next door. The car was parked in the front of the lot on Bell Road and about 20 feet from the Hooters patio seating area.

The mother walked to her parked car, unlocked the driver's door, sat in the vehicle and immediately realized that she had forgotten that her 17 month old child was in the back seat of her car, police said.

The mother immediately summoned help, but efforts by witnesses, police officers and fire fighters were unsuccessful and the child was pronounced dead, Phoenix police said.

"Temperatures hit nearly 90 degrees Tuesday, but the temperature inside the car reached more than 100 degrees," said Sgt. Joel Tranter, a Phoenix police spokesman.

Preliminary information released by Phoenix police says the mother was to drop the child off at child care on her way to work Tuesday morning, but for unknown reasons failed to do so.

Just yesterday, I had to get serious and clear with my team when the manager proposed a new project and knowing good and well I am the only unmarried/childless person on the team goes "who doesn't have children?" I tried not to go ballistic but Linda Blair was calling my name.

Now, I've been very cooperative with my schedule and trading pager duties with people who use their children as reason why they need to work from home or why they cannot go to a company event. I like to work from home and don't want to go to every event so I just say that. I don't have children as an excuse to do what I want to do or don't want to do. It's not like I'm some young bar hopping person who has no life. I keep forgetting that I am a middle aged chick who just happens to look young and who has a youthful spirit. I know enough single parents to ask why married people (women in particular but know men, who know they don't do jack, want to play into that too) don't appear to have any backup when it comes to childcare.

All I know is that I've dealt with sexism, classism and a menage of isms in the workplace. I am not about to deal with wombism - particularly when the other women on my team aren't even American and two out of three of them had arranged marriages. The other woman is French and, as far as I am concerned, needs to stop treating her teenaged+ daughers like they are toddlers (they don't have chores and do nothing at home). I don't respect their opinions because, as usual, they keep bringing up my status yet they are the ones with all the excuses. This is America. We can choose our lives/lifestyles.

So, seriously, I can see how you could be on auto-pilot, miss a step and leave the baby in a car. Parents need help. BUT, at the same time, that doesn't mean that my work life should be impacted by the people who chose to have children. Single or married, I think I'd die on the spot if I'd lost a child in that manner. But, I think it could happen to any busy person who was doing waaay too much.

People, I love children and can barely leave the house without some random child giving me some spitty, toothless grin. BUT, this is the new world and everyone can decide and plan. I think children need two parents (both crazy or not to start) and I have not/probably will not get married. Have enough cooperation with one another so that no one is so stressed out that they forget the baby in the car. Don't think that every person who is childless, hates kids and doesn't understand. But don't use your babies for excuses or advantage. Everyone woman who has a child isn't a mother and every woman who doesn't have a child isn't necessarily an anti-mom. Children know who the mommies and daddies are. If you don't know, they will tell you. We cannot have people so busy that they forget about their babies. That means that men, women and families need to help each other.

I cannot read another story like this - not only because a baby died but because people need to get their network together before they start breeding. No baby should die like this.

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Yes, I Felt It

I had just finished my transaction at Trader Joe's in San Jose (brand new one near the airport) and was reading messages on my Blackberry when I felt a big jolt that nearly knocked me over. I heard bottles rattling and saw things moving. It was too quick to run but not so quick that I didn't have to hold onto the counter to keep from falling. I didn't hear anything breaking in the store and one of the employees yelled "not a bottle broken!" so that was good. I'd forgotten all about earthquakes. I must have forgotten where I live.

A magnitude-5.6 earthquake shook the San Francisco Bay area Tuesday night, rattling homes and nerves, but there were no immediate reports of serious damage or injuries.

The moderate temblor struck shortly after 8 p.m., about 9 miles northeast of San Jose, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Residents reported feeling the quake as far east as Sacramento and as far north as Sonoma.

The California Highway Patrol has received no reports of damage or injuries, spokesman Tom Marshall said.

[...]

"It was a pretty strong ride here, a lot of shaking but nothing broken," Reed told The Associated Press in a phone interview from his home. "I've talked to a few people and we have no reports of injuries or damage. There was a lot of shaking, but it wasn't the big one."

Oh, I found a few things had fallen around my apartment when I got home. I think I am glad I was in Trader Joe's.

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If It Isn't Him, It's Us

I may be wacky but I am not crazy. Bush has lost his mind and I'm glad someone is calling him on it.

Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich questioned President Bush's mental health in light of comments he made about a nuclear Iran precipitating World War III.

"I seriously believe we have to start asking questions about his mental health," Kucinich, an Ohio congressman, said in an interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer's editorial board on Tuesday. "There's something wrong. He does not seem to understand his words have real impact."

Kucinich, known for his liberal views, trails far behind the leading candidates in most Democratic polls. He was in Philadelphia for a debate at Drexel University.

Bush made the remarks at a news conference earlier this month.

He said: "I've told people that if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them (Iran) from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon."

Kucinich said he doesn't believe his comments about the president's mental health are irresponsible, according to a story posted on the newspaper's Web site.

"You cannot be a president of the United States who's wanton in his expression of violence," Kucinich said. "There's a lot of people who need care. He might be one of them. If there isn't something wrong with him, then there's something wrong with us. This, to me, is a very serious question."

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It's A Joke Son!

When I first posted this story to one of my listservs, I immediately got a reply that it was a joke. The problem is that he was believable because there are so many people who aren't kidding.

Clearly doing little to raise America’s profile abroad, Miami Dolphins linebacker Channing Crowder said that, until his team was booked to play against the New York Giants at London’s Wembley Stadium, he didn’t know that people in England spoke English.

[...]

“I swear to God. I don’t know what nothing is. I know Italy looks like a boot. I learned that.”

Crowder added: “I know (Washington Redskins linebacker) London Fletcher. We did a football camp together. So I know him.

“That’s the closest thing I know to London. He’s black, so I’m sure he’s not from London. I’m sure that’s a coincidental name.”

The Miami Dolphins play the New York Giants at Wembley this Sunday in the first NFL regular-season game to be played outside the United States.

I had a colleague in England and during her college years she spent a semester in the states (some southern school but I forget where). She could not get over how many people asked her what language they spoke in England. She came with another student from England who happened to be black and, no surprise, people were surprised that they had black people in England too! I also recall an instructor from England getting nasty evaluations from students with people telling him to "learn English!" So, Channing Crowder may well have been playing the fool but there are more people than you ever want to imagine who don't a thing about England and definitely don't know that Italy looks like a boot.

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More "Phony Soliders" Tell The Truth

You know the right wing blowhards are going to have a bashfest with this latest admission by some of our fine soldiers but I'm glad some of them are finally speaking up and telling the truth.

When we first got here, all the shops were open. There were women and children walking out on the street,” Alarcon said this week. “The women were in Western clothing. It was our favorite street to go down because of all the hot chicks.”

That was 14 long months ago, when the soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, arrived in southwestern Baghdad. It was before their partners in the Iraqi National Police became their enemies and before Shiite militiamen, aligned with the police, attempted to exterminate a neighborhood of middle-class Sunni families.

Next month, the U.S. soldiers will complete their tour in Iraq. Their experience in Sadiyah has left many of them deeply discouraged, by both the unabated hatred between rival sectarian fighters and the questionable will of the Iraqi government to work toward peaceful solutions.

Asked if the American endeavor here was worth their sacrifice — 20 soldiers from the battalion have been killed in Baghdad — Alarcon said no: “I don’t think this place is worth another soldier’s life.”

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We Should All Be Ashamed

I saw a number of interviews with this young man this weekend. He's certainly putting on a positive and brave face after what he's been through. I still find it unfathomable that the State of Georgia would so brazenly try to ruin the rest of this young man's life - though I'm sure this stain will follow him indefinitely. I just think that if we aren't ashamed that our country is still doing this to young, black men, we should be.

With the real specter of WWIII if the neocons throw one last parting wrench into the works of sane global governing by bombing Iran, the small victory today of Genarlow Wilson is welcome news.

Genarlow Wilson, I hope you remember, was the seventeen-year-old Georgia high school homecoming king and 3.2 G.P.A. student, sentenced to ten years for receiving consensual oral sex from a fifteen-year-old back in 2005. Finally this June the Soviet-styled sentencing was overturned after the state of Georgia had already wasted two years of this young man's life. It seemed that the Kafkaesque nightmare was over and this young black Georgian could finally get on with his life.

Yet moments later Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker, the highest ranking black elected official in the state, faxed the celebrating family of young Mr. Wilson that he was appealing the verdict.

As Monroe County Superior Court Judge Thomas Wilson stated in his decision to free Genarlow Wilson, "If this court or any court cannot recognize the injustice of what has occurred here, then our court system has lost sight of the goal our judicial system has always strived to accomplish....If any case fits into the definitive limits of a miscarriage of justice, surely this case does."

Today the Georgia Supreme Court agreed with Judge Wilson.

"Although society has a significant interest in protecting children from premature sexual activity, we must acknowledge that Wilson's crime does not rise to the level of culpability of adults who prey on children ..." Supreme Court Justice Leah Ward Sears is quoted as saying in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

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Executing Crazy People

There is no way on earth you can tell me that a sane person would do something like this. There has to be an element missing from her brain. I think she is severely mentally ill.

A federal jury decided Friday that a woman convicted of killing an expectant mother and cutting her baby from her womb should receive the death penalty.

Jurors deliberated more than five hours before recommending the sentence for Lisa Montgomery. Judge Gary Fenner will sentence Montgomery, but he had told jurors he was obligated to abide by their recommendation. A sentencing date has not been set.

Montgomery, 39, was convicted Monday of kidnapping and killing Bobbie Jo Stinnett on Dec. 16, 2004, in the victim's home in the northwest Missouri town of Skidmore. She was arrested the next day in Melvern, Kan., where she was showing off the newborn as her own.

Montgomery wiped her eyes with a tissue as the jury announced its sentencing decision. Her attorney, Fred Duchardt, had his hand on her shoulder.

When the jurors were asked if they agreed with the decision, each responded: "Yes, your honor." Afterward, the jury asked to speak to prosecutors and defense attorneys but did not say why.

Lisa Montgomery's husband, Kevin, and his parents were not in the courtroom when the verdict was read but came in as the jurors left. The family then went into another room without speaking to reporters.

Prosecutors argued that Stinnett's killing and mutilation is the kind of crime for which capital punishment is intended.

Showing jurors photos of the bloody crime scene, the prosecution told jurors Thursday that Montgomery deserves to die because of the heinousness of her crime, and because computer evidence - including Internet searches on performing Caesareans - shows the crime was premeditated.

Federal prosecutor Roseann Ketchmark said Montgomery had violated Stinnett in the "most wicked way possible," then failed to seek medical attention for the infant, who was four weeks shy of her due date.

Defense attorney Fred Duchardt, who claims sexual abuse during Montgomery's childhood led to mental illness, asked the jury to spare his client's life. He said emotional abuse from her mother and sexual abuse from her stepfather "killed Lisa's soul."

I'm not a proponent of the death penalty but in this case I think it is euthanasia. She needs an escape from the kind of twisted misery that would compel her to do something so heinous. I hope she rests in peace.

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Suing For Some

Suing because he she wouldn't let him hit it? Riiiiiiight ...

Aging German playboy Rolf Eden has rarely taken no for an answer. And he's not about to start. He has filed charges against a 19-year-old for refusing to sleep with him. The complaint? Ageism.

Can someone pick me up off of the floor? I can't stop laughing!

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Killer Condi

Can't say I don't agree with the sentiment but the action is a little extreme ... and gross too!

An anti-war protester waved blood-colored hands in U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s face at a congressional hearing on Wednesday and shouted “war criminal!”, but was pushed away and detained by police.1024 07“The blood of millions of Iraqis is on your hands!” yelled the protester, Desiree Anita Ali-Fairooz of the Code Pink organization which often disrupts hearings on Capitol Hill with protests against the Iraq war.

Rice, an architect of President George W. Bush’s Iraq policy, appeared unfazed by the incident, which occurred when she entered a House of Representatives meeting room to testify at a hearing on U.S. Middle East policy.

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Absolutely Unbelievable!!!

I'm not gone, just ridiculously busy at work (which seems to be almost 24/7 these days). I had to jump in on this because I just cannot believe it!

Faced with unrelenting winds whipping wildfires into a frenzy across Southern California, firefighters all but conceded defeat Tuesday to an unstoppable force that has already chased nearly a million people away.

Unless the shrieking Santa Ana winds subside, and that's not expected for at least another day, fire crews say they can do little more than try to wait it out and react - tamping out spot fires and chasing ribbons of airborne embers to keep new fires from flaring.

"If it's this big and blowing with as much wind as it's got, it'll go all the way to the ocean before it stops," said San Diego Fire Capt. Kirk Humphries. "We can save some stuff but we can't stop it."

Tentacles of unpredictable, shifting flame have burned across nearly 600 square miles, killing two people, destroying more than 1,300 homes and prompting one of the biggest evacuations in California history, from north of Los Angeles, through San Diego to the Mexican border.

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Prayer Is Not The Answer

How about guaranteeing no war with Iran by not attacking them!?

Republican presidential candidate John McCain said Tuesday he prays every night the United States doesn't go to war with Iran, and he blamed Russia and China for standing in the way of a diplomatic solution.

"I don't think it's inevitable that we're in a conflict with Iran," McCain said in an interview with The Associated Press. "But I certainly see it as one scenario that could, and I emphasize could, take place if we are not effective" in persuading Iran to drop its nuclear ambitions or in enlisting reluctant nations to back punitive sanctions, McCain said.

"There's a whole lot of things we can do before we seriously consider the military option," he emphasized. But he added: "I still say there's only one thing worse than military action against Iran and that is a nuclear-armed Iran."

The Arizona senator talked at length — and in detail — about everything from climate change to Social Security to Democrats serving in his White House if he's elected. But much of his hour long interview with AP reporters and editors was devoted to foreign policy.

"I keep praying every night that we will avoid a conflict with Iran," he said.

He's praying every night ... Puleese!

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No Grass Growing Under Ivana's Feet!

I don't really understand serial marriages but more power to her!

Ivana Trump is ready for her third trip down the aisle.

The 58-year-old grandmother and her 35-year-old boy toy, Rossano Rubicondi, announced Monday night at a Park Ave. soiree that they're officially engaged to be married.

"I feel great," the former wife of Donald Trump told the Daily News. "We've been together five years."

Ivana and Rubicondi said they plan to wed April 12 at Mar-A-Lago, The Donald's Palm Beach, Fla., estate.

Mar-A-Lago is where Donald Trump and his third wife, the former Melania Knauss, held their wedding reception in January 2005.

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The Zealot Twins

Yet another blonde conservative wacko is spewing anti-semitic drivel and just plain making stuff up!

In an October 11 post on her website titled "Nice Try, Media Matters Nazis, But Ann Coulter is No Anti-Semite," right-wing pundit Debbie Schlussel claimed that Media Matters for America is "anti-American, anti-Israel, and funded by [philanthropist] George Soros, a Jew who proudly worked for the Nazis rounding up Jews and sending them to their deaths." She also described Soros as "the billionaire atheist Jew who's lived his entire life like a Nazi."

To support her claim, Schlussel linked to an April 18 post in which she smeared Soros (a Hungarian-born Jew who survived the Holocaust) as "a fake Holocaust survivor, who -- instead of 'surviving' the Holocaust -- helped the Nazis perpetrate it." In the same post, Schlussel falsely claimed that Soros has funded Media Matters. In a May 1 blog post, she referred to Media Matters as "Nazi-funded," linking to the same April 18 post.

Then, in defense of her bony buddy Ann Coulter's religious slurs, she attacks Donny Deutsch's faith and Jewishness:

Schlussel also wrote in her post, "I believe Donny Deutch [sic] was lying about his own religious status" in the interview, and that she "doubt[s] that" he is a "practicing Jew," because "his show is on live during the Jewish Sabbath, and keeping the Jewish Sabbath is the most important commandment for a religious Jew to keep." During the interview, Coulter said to Deutsch: "Well, you could be a practicing Jew, but you're not." Deutsch responded: "I actually am. That's not true. I really am."

Additionally, Schlussel claimed, "True religious Jews are not offended by Ann's comments," and added, "It's only the Jewish libs, like Deutch [sic], who are feigning this shock and outrage. That's because she's a threat to their real religion: liberalism."

Is anybody sick of this yet? Most people are probably weary but there are enough people who think like this that pundits like this will continue to prosper by vomiting this type of rhetoric. I know people like this. I went to college with them and they still pop up in the workplace far too often for comfort. I just wish the level of comfort with people like Debbie Schlussel and Ann Coulter would dissipate. They make most of us feel bad and make all of us look bad.

One more thing ... I don't get Ann Coulter's emphasis on Christianity. Is she a "practicing" Christian? You wouldn't know it by her "love." Where does she worship? What denomination? Who is her pastor? Where are the scriptures people of her ilk normally rattle off? Aside from bashing other religions in the name of a Christianity I'd never bear witness to, when has she demonstrated her faith or her understanding of the mission of Christ?

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Appalled But Not Shocked

... And I'd like to be shocked for a change.

Former detainees of Immigration and Customs Enforcement accuse the agency in a lawsuit of forcibly injecting them with psychotropic drugs while trying to shuttle them out of the country during their deportation.
art.immigrant.jpg

Raymond Soeoth, pictured here with his wife, says he was injected with drugs by ICE agents against his will.

One of the drugs in question is the potent anti-psychotic drug Haldol, which is often used to treat schizophrenia or other mental illnesses. Doctors say they are required to see patients in person before such drugs are administered.

Two immigrants, Raymond Soeoth of Indonesia and Amadou Diouf of Senegal in West Africa, told CNN they were injected with the drugs against their will. Both are plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union against the government. They are seeking an end to the alleged practice and unspecified damages.

Dr. Paul Appelbaum, a professor of psychiatry, law and ethics at Columbia University, reviewed both men's medical records for this report and was stunned by what he discovered.

"I'm really shocked to find out that the government has been using physicians and using potent medications in this way," said Appelbaum, who also serves as a member of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law.

"That is the sort of thing that would be subject to a malpractice claim in the civilian world."

The allegations of ICE forcibly drugging deportees were raised last month by Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Connecticut, during the re-nomination hearing of ICE chief Julie Myers.

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Coulter Wants Jews To Be Whiter Than Snow

Ann Coulter strikes again with her ridiculous variety of venomous statements. Donny Deutsch should have known better but I think this time she surpassed his wildest expectations when she said that Christians were "perfected Jews and that they only want Jews to be perfected. He's Jewish.

During the October 8 edition of CNBC's The Big Idea, host Donny Deutsch asked right-wing pundit Ann Coulter: "If you had your way ... and your dreams, which are genuine, came true ... what would this country look like?" Coulter responded, "It would look like New York City during the [2004] Republican National Convention. In fact, that's what I think heaven is going to look like." She described the convention as follows: "People were happy. They're Christian. They're tolerant. They defend America." Deutsch then asked, "It would be better if we were all Christian?" to which Coulter responded, "Yes." Later in the discussion, Deutsch said to her: "[Y]ou said we should throw Judaism away and we should all be Christians," and Coulter again replied, "Yes." When pressed by Deutsch regarding whether she wanted to be like "the head of Iran" and "wipe Israel off the Earth," Coulter stated: "No, we just want Jews to be perfected, as they say. ... That's what Christianity is. We believe the Old Testament, but ours is more like Federal Express. You have to obey laws."

After a commercial break, Deutsch said that "Ann said she wanted to explain her last comment," and asked her, "So you don't think that was offensive?" Coulter responded: "No. I'm sorry. It is not intended to be. I don't think you should take it that way, but that is what Christians consider themselves: perfected Jews. We believe the Old Testament. As you know from the Old Testament, God was constantly getting fed up with humans for not being able to live up to all the laws. What Christians believe -- this is just a statement of what the New Testament is -- is that that's why Christ came and died for our sins. Christians believe the Old Testament. You don't believe our testament." Coulter later said: "We consider ourselves perfected Christians. For me to say that for you to become a Christian is to become a perfected Christian is not offensive at all."

At what point does she get the Don Imus treatment? Now that she has openly insulted Jews (and she was rude, condescending and insulting), will she finally be shutdown?

(note on the post title: it's a gospel song that makes me cringe a little when black people sing it)

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And Crown Thy Good With Brotherhood

Do I really need to say anything about this recent rise in displays of hatred?

Within hours of launching the first national Noose Watch yesterday, DiversityInc was inundated with more than 20 reader responses alerting us to other noose incidents that have occurred across the country within the past year. We will continue to update our Noose Watch based on your responses and as more incidents occur.

From Pittsburgh, Pa., to Jacksonville, Fla., to Cincinnati, Ohio, to New London, Conn., DiversityInc readers alerted us to events that have not garnered the national media coverage of the Jena 6 or the ongoing investigation at Columbia University, where black professor Dr. Madonna Constantine discovered a noose hanging outside her door.

In the wake of Jena 6, copycat noose incidents have been occurring in growing numbers across the country, reports MSNBC.com. Among other incidents, the article reports nooses discovered at the University of Maryland in a tree near a building that houses several black campus groups in early September; the discovery of a noose on Sept. 29 in the locker room of the Hempstead, N.Y., police department, which touted its efforts to recruit blacks and Latinos; and a noose discovered on Oct. 2 seen hanging on a utility pole at the Anniston Army Depot in Alabama. There have since been others.

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Those Wing Nuts Certainly Are Some Freaky Little Things

Good Lord! If these are the freaks who think they are guaranteed a spot in heaven, I think I'll give the devil a call.

Throw another religious conservative sexual hypocrite log onto the fire. This one comes to us from Montgomery, Alabama. Let’s start out with the straight take on matters.

Reverend Gary Aldridge was found dead in his home in east Montgomery. He was the senior pastor at Thorington Road Baptist Church for the last 15 years.

Gary Aldridge graduated from Liberty University and later worked for the late Jerry Falwell. A former colleague at the school remembered him as well.

“He went on to become one of the deans and the students loved him. He had a tremendous impact on them,” said Dr. Bob Miller of Liberty University.

I guess his friends are going to have a hard time explaining what was going on in Aldridge’s mind at the time he went to meet his maker. The Smoking Gun:

An Alabama minister who died in June of “accidental mechanical asphyxia” was found hogtied and wearing two complete wet suits, including a face mask, diving gloves and slippers, rubberized underwear, and a head mask, according to an autopsy report.

Investigators determined that Rev. Gary Aldridge’s death was not caused by foul play and that the 51-year-old pastor of Montgomery’s Thorington Road Baptist Church was alone in his home at the time he died (while apparently in the midst of some autoerotic undertaking). While the Montgomery Advertiser, which first obtained the autopsy records, reported on Aldridge’s two wet suits, the family newspaper chose not to mention what police discovered inside the minister’s rubber briefs.

Oh my. It gets better. Blogenfreude notes that Aldridge also had a condom-covered dildo up his bum:

There are a lot of questions that pop into my mind about this scenario but they just aren't something I can ponder for very long without getting totally icked out. Who does this kind of stuff to get off? Please don't answer me if you do it or know someone who does ... or if you know me. I'm so glad I'm a heathen.

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What Is Wrong With People?

I cannot imagine why this woman would do such a thing!

The city reported today that it has placed on leave a police sergeant who sued a family with a baby who suffered severe brain damage from a near drowning because the officer slipped and fell in a puddle of water at the house.

Sgt. Andrea Eichhorn is a 12-year department veteran.

The police department would not explain why she was removed from duty. In a prepared statement, the department said it did so after a controversy over the suit caused it to review the incident.

Eichhorn sued the mother and grandparents of Joey Cosmillo, 22 months, on Oct. 1, alleging negligence. The suit says she slipped and fell in water that was left on the floor because the boy had been brought inside.

Eichhorn broke her kneecap and missed two months of work because of the Jan. 9 incident. Her medical bills and pay during that time were covered by the city or its insurance carrier.

I don't get it ...

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Two More Hearts, Two More Minds

We just keep on killing.

Iraqi officials demanded answers of an Australian-owned security company blamed in the killing of two Iraqi Christian women laid to rest Wednesday amid rising calls for a crackdown on private bodyguards used by the U.S. government.

The scrutiny of Unity Resources Group began a day after its guards allegedly gunned down the two women in their car, and less than a month after 17 Iraqis died in a hail of bullets fired by Blackwater USA contractors at a busy Baghdad intersection.

At a funeral in Baghdad's Armenian Orthodox Virgin Mary church, the Rev. Kivork Arshlian urged the government to punish those responsible. The immunity enjoyed by foreign security contractors in Iraq should be lifted, he said.

"This is a crime against humanity in general and against Iraqis in particular. Many other people were killed in a similar way," he said. "We call upon the government to put an end to these killings."

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Turnabout Is Fairplay

I cannot imagine why this guy's 15 minutes is not up. How on earth is this scrawny creature still milking the notoriety he received from lying that his grandmother was dead to win a challenge on Survivor (and something clicked in my head immediately when he did that. I knew he was lying)? He may think he is slick but he's obviously not too bright. Who on earth doesn't know that Danny Bonaduce is frickin' crazy and that jumping and humping your stuff in his face is probably not a good idea. James Brown said it best: "don't start none, won't be none!"

Reality star Jonny Fairplay is suing another reality star – Danny Bonaduce – for battery and infliction of emotional distress for tossing him during an awards show last week.

The suit stems from the pair's confrontation onstage during the FOX Reality Really Channel awards. Fairplay, 33, was being jeered by the audience when Bonaduce, 48, came out and said into the microphone, "They're booing because they hate you."

A moment later, Fairplay (real name: Jon Dalton) jumped into the arms of Bonaduce, who tossed the former Survivor star over his head.

Fairplay landed on his face, and lost several teeth.

Police investigated the incident and declined to press charges, calling Bonaduce's actions "self-defense."

But on Tuesday, Fairplay filed the lawsuit against the former Partridge Family star, as well as FOX reality channel, the show's producers and the club venue where the event took place.

Fairplay claims that the incident has caused him "great mental, physical and nervous pain and suffering." He is suing for an undisclosed amount of "general damages."

Pain and suffering ... The pain and suffering came from being booed the minute he stepped in front of the mike. Danny walking up on stage saved him, granted breaking his face and teeth in the process, and gave him an exit. Suck it up Jonny Fairplay and exit stage right for good.

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Somebody Tell Ann Coulter Not To Worry

They'll see that Adam's apple and walk on by ...

On the October 8 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, right-wing pundit Ann Coulter told co-host Sean Hannity, "I do not want to be fitted for a burqa, so I will join you in fighting President Hillary Clinton." Coulter's comment came after Hannity, referring to the leading Republican 2008 presidential candidates, asserted: "You know what? On the defining issue of our time, all of them have taken a strong position on terrorism," adding, "If we don't have a country because the country's been blown up by people who want to kill us, that's an important campaign issue." Later during the segment, co-host Alan Colmes told Coulter that "if Hillary's elected, we're not going to be wearing burqas, OK? I don't think that's going to happen."

Will the people on that side of the debate EVER raise their level of discourse? Seriously, I absolutely cannot go through another election season reading, listening and watching to this brand of foolishness. I wish she crawl back into the hole she's been hiding in for the past year or so.

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Banning Jonathan, Not The Book

This boy doesn't even need to go there. He knows good and well that a bookstore where Terri was a fixture for years before she even met him is not going to sell his book. He sat up in that store at book readings with Terri and knows that she and the owner of the store have a long standing friendship. I've been to many readings there and used to see Terri there supporting the store, the owner and new authors. There is no way the owner should stock this book. It would be a slap in the face and a betrayal of a friendship.

A bookstore in Oakland that caters to the African American community is refusing to sell the new book by gay author Jonathan Plummer.

Plummer is the ex-husband of author Terry McMillan. McMillan's bestselling novel How Stella Got Her Groove Back was based on her relationship with Plummer, whom she met in Jamaica, and was turned into a blockbuster movie. After a very bitter divorce in 2005, McMillan publicly accused Plummer of concealing his homosexuality from her in order to get her money and a green card. Plummer denied the charges.

Plummer's novel, called Balancing Act (Simon and Schuster), is the story of a young man who meets and forms a romantic relationship with an older rich woman, but eventually realizes he is gay. Still, Plummer insists the novel is not autobiographical. "It's fiction," he said. "The best way possible to tell the [coming out] story was to do fiction, where we can elaborate on characters and embellish on their lives."

Marcus Books in Oakland has refused to stock the novel. When contacted by the Bay Area Reporter store employees declined to comment on the issue. However, a Marcus Books employee has been quoted as saying that the decision not to stock the book was merely "a personal preference."

He needs to take that violin and play that sad song some place else!

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It's Not Like He Was Going To Contribute Much Melanin To The Gene Pool Anyway!

So Harold was dating this woman when he was supposedly chasing blonde hotties at the playboy party last election cycle? Why didn't he parade her around then?

Harold Ford Jr., one of the country's most eligible bachelors in politics, became engaged Friday to Emily Threlkeld, 26, who works for clothing designer Carolina Herrara in New York.

"We dated a little over two and a half years," said Ford, 37, a former congressman and current Democratic Party leader who ran for U.S. Senate last year. "We dated throughout my campaign.


"I didn't appreciate the demands on her just because I was so focused on the race. She was so incredibly supportive and generous with her patience and, more than that, showed a love toward me that I didn't really fully appreciate until after the race.

"It wasn't long after I met her that I knew it was something special," Ford said. "It's the longest relationship I've ever been in. It wasn't until after the race that I realized I was more than ready to go to the next level with her and I was ready to share the rest of my life with her."

I wonder how this type of marriage will play into his interest in running for Governor of Tennessee in 2010.

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Cut Off His Hand And Keep It Moving!

You have GOT to be kidding me! Is this what we are doing with my tax dollars? Sending people to jail for YEARS over 52 cent donuts? This is stupid!

Shoplifters at Country Mart tend to favor cold medicines and packaged meats. They used to steal cigarettes, too, until tobacco was moved behind the counter. But the doughnuts were never a target for thieves.

Country Mart's doughnuts — fried fresh daily in the store — sell for just 52 cents each. That is why the "shoplifters will be prosecuted" signs are displayed in aisle 4 with the pricey pain and allergy pills, and not in aisle 5 beside the glass doughnut case with its tiger tails, jelly-filleds and eclairs.

Then one man's sweet tooth got the better of him. He stole a doughnut. A single doughnut.

Authorities called it strong-arm robbery. The "doughnut man," as the suspect is now known, faces five to 15 years in prison for his crime. And Farmington, a town of 14,000 people about 70 miles south of St. Louis, has been buzzing about it ever since.

"That someone would take just a single doughnut, not something very expensive or extravagant, that's unique," supermarket assistant manager Gary Komar said, smiling.

Scott A. Masters, 41, is accused of shoplifting the pastry and pushing a store worker who tried to stop him. The worker was unhurt. But with that shove, his shoplifting turned into a strong-arm robbery. Masters, who appeared in court Friday, is stunned. The prosecutor shows no signs of backing down. In fact, because Masters has a prior record, he could get a sentence of 30 years to life

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She Shot Him A Lot

I mean daaaamn!

A Chicago woman who became enraged after discovering her longtime boyfriend's stash of pornography shot and killed him in their South Side home over the weekend, prosecutors said.

Jeanette Strowder, 58, is facing a first-degree murder charge in the Sunday shooting of Jesse Martin, 54, her boyfriend of about 15 years, police said.

Strowder and Martin lived together in the 5300 block of South Shields Avenue for the last two years, prosecutors said during a Tuesday hearing where Strowder was ordered held on $600,000 bail. On Sunday night, she found CDs inside the home containing images of nude women and lost control, authorities said.

"The defendant confronted the victim, got a gun and shot him multiple times, including two to the head," said Andy Conklin, a spokesman for the Cook County state's attorney's office.

Strowder also went to the garage and smashed the headlights of her boyfriend's motorcycle, smashed out the windows of his car, and scratched the nickname of one of the porn models in the photographs into the side of his car, prosecutors said.

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These Hicks Need To Get Out More

Okay, this kind of behavior doesn't just happen among hicks but the killer was a nice looking kid. He was only 20 years old. There are millions of women out there and just because the one in a small, rural town doesn't want you doesn't mean that it's the end of the world. This is sheer madness!

A young sheriff's deputy who opened fire on a pizza party and killed six people reportedly flew into a rage when he was rebuffed by his old girlfriend, and others at the gathering called him a "worthless pig."

A longtime friend told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Monday that 20-year-old Tyler Peterson came to his door in the hours after the rampage and calmly explained what he had done.

"He wasn't running around crazy or anything. He was very, very sorry for what he did," Mike Kegley told the newspaper, adding that he gave Peterson coffee and food and later called 911.

Peterson told Kegley that he had gone to his ex-girlfriend's house early Sunday morning in hopes of patching up the relationship after a recent breakup. But, he said, Peterson lost control when the meeting ended in an argument and other people started ridiculing him as a "worthless pig."

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Love Potion #6

This is why I won't stop using the "N" word.

Sean Combs is stepping up to the plate and taking legal responsibility for his sixth child. Over the past year, Combs’ reps repeatedly denied to us that he’d fathered the child with Atlanta beauty Sarah Chapman. Combs now tells us he’d been holding off on acknowledging Chance as his blood until DNA tests had been completed.

“At first, I wasn’t sure if this was my child,” he said. “Now that it has become clear she is, I will take care of her for the rest of her life.”

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A Fetish For Blondes With Tattoos?

Okay, I'll bite. How do they know he has sexual interest in these women?

Sibu the Orangutan has miffed his Dutch keepers by refusing to mate with females and showing sexual interest only in tattooed human blondes.

Apenheul Primate Park hoped Sibu would become its breeding male when he arrived two years ago, but orangutans aren't his type.

"He chases them, or ignores them, but he doesn't do what he should do," said a spokeswoman for the park.

Instead, Sibu fancies his female keepers, especially blondes. That, the spokeswoman said, was common for orangutans but Sibu has a fetish for tattoos, harking back to a heavily tattooed keeper who reared him.

"orangutans have special interests in special subjects. Sibu happens to like tattoos," she said.

The park hasn't given up on Sibu, 31. He showed an amorous interest in a female Orangutan while living in England and keepers hope he will find love when reunited with her in a new enclosure in Chester, England.

But the creationism crowd refuses to believe they may have evolved from primates?

Bwaaaah! Ha! Ha!

Foiled again! That money grubbing Fred Goldman spotted O.J.'s watch and had it confiscated in an effort to get some of the settlement he won a decade ago. Too bad it's a fake!

Getting some measure of justice is proving difficult -- yet again -- for Fred Goldman. The Goldman's lawyers seized a watch from O.J. (after seeing it on TMZ) to pay off the $33.5 million wrongful death judgment against him. But it isn't a Rolex like they hoped -- it's a knock-off from China, worth about $100. If the watch were a genuine Rolex, it would have been worth as much as $22,000. But now they have to return the watch to Simpson, since it falls under an exemption in the judgment -- for jewelry worth less than $6,075. Goldman recently won the rights to O.J.'s hypothetical confession book, "If I Did it," which has gone on to become a New York Times bestseller.

I sure hope O.J. doesn't have any precious metals in his teeth. Fred Goldman will be sending the law to pull them out with pliers.

Fool Ass Fool!

One would think that Isiah Thomas would have taken a break from all the sexual foolywang YEARS AGO when his best bud at the time, Magic Johnson, came down with a case of "the HIV." But, no, he's a married man who is still acting a fool!

The coach of the New York Knicks, basketball legend Isiah Thomas, was found guilty Tuesday of sexually harassing a top team executive.

A New York jury convicted Thomas of making unwanted advances and verbally insulting Anucha Browne Sanders. The jury also said Madison Square Garden, which employed Sanders, is liable for the harassment.

However, the jury did not support Sanders' claim for $10 million in damages.

In a statement, MSG supported Thomas and said the jury reached the wrong conclusion. It does not appear the decision will affect Thomas' job with the NBA team.

After the verdict, Thomas said he was innocent and planned to appeal the ruling.

Oh yeah, I believe his punk ass is guilty. Some ballers never grow up!

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No Missing Person Should Get Less Than This

Though this didn't turn out the way we'd hoped, Nailah's family and friends made sure her case wasn't swept under a rug.

The relatives of Nailah Franklin are living a family's worst nightmare. Last Friday, an unclothed body that was discovered in the Calumet Woods was identified as the 28-year-old Franklin. With her fashion model looks, Franklin has been described as the "star" of her close-knit family.

Franklin was reported missing Sept. 19.

Like most parents, I worry about my adult daughters because, unfortunately, there is too much mayhem in the world. I don't think my family is much different from a lot of others.

And while every missing person is neither pretty or even lovable, if someone we love goes missing, we want police to turn over every stone. We want our friends and our neighbors to fan out across the city and join in the search. We want that person's face plastered on national news programs as well as in the local papers.

She was not seen in the same light

Yet, too often when young black women disappear, none of those things happen without the family waging a crusade.

These relatives have to scuffle to get alerts posted, and when the police department distributes the alert, it is still a fight to get the notice in a newspaper.

Franklin's disappearance didn't follow that pattern for several reasons.

First, she was a very attractive black woman who came from a middle-class background.

As such, her disappearance didn't get typecast as a throwaway. Franklin wasn't seen in the same light as the troubled black women who walked the streets in neighborhoods like Roseland and Englewood and ended up being found dead in abandoned buildings without anyone knowing they were missing.

Neither was Franklin's disappearance viewed in the same way as law enforcement views the average teenage runaway. Although many of the parents and guardians of these young people do their best to get media attention, their pleas are routinely ignored. And while police will pick up runaways if they happen to bump into them, they don't make it a priority to locate teens who bolt from their homes.

Franklin's relatives and friends made sure her plight was not ignored. Her sister, Lehia Franklin Acox, used her media contacts to ensure that photographs of her missing sister were widely circulated. For consecutive days, Nailah's beautiful smile graced the front pages, while updates of the search aired regularly on national news programs.

This is a significant change from just four years ago.

When Nancie Walker, a Chicago businesswoman, disappeared in 2003, her family and friends had to pressure the Chicago Police Department to investigate the disappearance as a possible abduction even though Walker was not known to take off without letting anyone know of her whereabouts.

Three months after vanishing, Walker's dismembered body was found in plastic bags. No one has been charged with that crime.

The way Nailah Franklin's disappearance was handled -- not just by the police but by the media -- shows that black families now are more aggressive about getting the media's help.

Because of the Franklin family's efforts, I saw the face of Nailah Franklin so often, I began to feel as if I knew her. And just as the faces of two other missing persons -- Laci Peterson and Natalee Holloway -- were etched into our consciousness through media exposure, by the time Franklin's body was found 10 days after she disappeared, many of us were genuinely moved by the tragedy.

It is a tragedy, but also a blessing that Franklin has been humanized in a way that so many missing black women have not been.

Case can't be dismissed

From her sisters, we learned that Franklin was someone who brought incredible joy to their lives. From her employers, we learned that the young professional was so well-respected in the workplace that her unscheduled absence was cause for alarm.

During days of waiting, we learned that Franklin had a spiritual family, that she had career goals and that she was a real role model for her younger relatives.

Nailah Franklin's family made sure there would be no presumptions. People who loved Franklin made sure that her disappearance wouldn't be dismissed as just another act of random violence.

No missing person should get less than that.

Services are being held tomorrow.

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Britney Loses Her Babies

K-Fed has been such a joke since he left his pregnant girlfriend, Shar Jackson, for Britney Spears. He's such a joke that the judge decided that he would be the better parent.

Britney Spears was told today to hand over the two kids to her ex.

It has to be a sad day for her, but let's face it, she has been headed this way for a long time.

The same judge who told Britney last month she needed to undergo random drug and alcohol testing today ordered her to hand over the kids to ex-husband Kevin Federline, the AP reports.

Superior Court Judge Scott M. Gordon ruled that Federline will take custody of Sean Preston, 2, and Jayden James, 1, beginning Wednesday.

Federline has been seeking a greater share of custody since the two divorced in July.

It's sad. I think Britney is suffering from some sort of post-partum disorder and that she needs psychiatric assistance. It's too easy to make this into a drug/alcohol problem. Rehab isn't enough. The substance abuse is just a symptom of a larger problem. I hope she gets some help and some rest. Maybe all she needs is some time away from the limelight and from her stair-step children. I don't believe Kevin will become Mr. Mom. He'll get a sizable allowance for child support and will have lots of outside assistance - which may be all that Britney needed.

There's Something Wrong With Bush's Brain

That's what Lee Iacocca says ...

Lee Iacocca is no fan of President Bush. "I campaigned for him because I knew his mother and dad for 30 years, and I figured he was from pretty good stock," the auto-industry legend tells Details magazine. "But Jeb was being groomed, too. They got the wrong kid. There's something wrong philosophically with how Bush's brain works. I feel sorry for him. I used to think [Al] Gore was nuts in his worrying about global warming, but he was ahead of his time."