Americans say Save Money, Get Out of Iraq

68%

of Americans said a pullout would help fix the country’s economic problems “a great deal,” or that "it would help at least somewhat". -- via ThinkProgress.

Americans, not quite as dumb as John McCain thinks they are.

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“I'm Al Franken”

“I'm Running”


“Mrs. Molin”

Al Franken is running for the United States Senate in Minnesota.

I recommend you contribute, either once, or monthly.

Al's a good guy. He'll be a smarter, better Democratic Senator.

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All Britney All the Time

Britney Spears outside her LA home Thursday night. photo AP.

Britney Melts Down, Hospitalized, Loses Full Custody

How many pop stars does it take to change a light-bulb?

One.

They just hold on to the bulb, while the rest of the world revolves around them.

Reality caught up to Britney Spears Thursday.

The New York Times

To recap, Ms. Spears apparently spent several hours last night refusing to hand over her two children, of whom she does not have custody, to her ex-husband, Kevin Federline, who does, or to the police who were called to the scene. She was then carried out of her home on a gurney and put in an ambulance, all in easy viewfinder range of paparazzi, to be taken to a hospital, where nothing was said of her condition, though a police officer who was at the house said she was observed to be under the influence of … well, something or other. Tests for illicit drug use are said by one gossip magazine to have come back negative today.

Moreover, Mr. Federline’s lawyers requested an emergency custody hearing, and persuaded the court to suspend her visitation rights in an order handed down this afternoon. Ms. Spears’s lawyers, meanwhile, no longer want to represent her, after she blew off one scheduled deposition and showed up more than an hour late for another, only to skip out again after 15 minutes. She has also ditched court dates, defied court orders, and gotten herself in one vehicular-related legal scrape after another over the past year.

The latest antics are quite a kickoff to the new year for the Spears family, which wound up the old one in signature style with Ms. Spears’s 16-year-old sister Jamie Lynn announcing she was pregnant by selling the story to a gossip magazine, evidently before she had told her big sister. The fallout from that little bit of business continued today with reports that Nickelodeon may give in to the storm of demands from parents that it cancel Jamie Lynn’s kidvid TV series, “Zoey 101,” even though the third-season finale has yet to air and the whole fourth season is already completed and ready.

That’s a notable data point: Not only have many average folks had it up to here with the Spearses, their media-conglomerate patrons may be running out of patience, too.

You can detect the glee draining out of the saturation coverage, even if the cameras have yet to turn their gaze away. A Seattle Post-Intelligencer blog post asks whether Ms. Spears is insane. People magazine rounds up experts to tut-tut about the hole she has dug herself and the possibility that she will lose access to her toddler sons for good. Clarence Page built his column on Wednesday on the fish-in-a-barrel angle: the Spearses, he wrote, make it altogether too easy to condemn them.

Taking note of court papers saying Ms. Spears burns through every penny of her $737,000 monthly income, a U.S. News & World Report blog post today even advises her to manage her money better.

This passage drew a smile and a nod:

Think about retirement. No, it’s not too early

Oh, we don't know about that...

What with the opportunity for the GNB Gossip Desk to run stories such as:

Britney Spears Loses Kids To Federline Due To Drugs & Alcohol

and

Good Girl Syndrome: Why Jamie Lynn Spears is Knocked Up

You Spears girls are reliable. We can count on you for a story.

At least Vanessa Hudgens -- Vanessa Hudgens Naked -- has the sense not to make a repeat appearance. (Damn.)

Britney. Your life is fucked up. People make fun of you. And even though here at the GNB Gossip Desk we try and be thoughtful and caring (unlike the catty folks at the other gossip rags) well, we're kind of sick of your shit.

Grow up Britney.

Check yourself in for serious treatment and don't come out till you're better.

'Cause seriously, soon it won't be an ambulance taking you to the hospital.

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Oil

$100

A Barrel

Oil (crude oil futures for February deliver) hit $100 a barrel just after noon today, before closing at $99.62, up $3.64 today.

Three years ago when I was still totally not myself, I went through about a four-week phase when I first heard about peak-oil, of really freaking out about, well, basically that The End Of The World is coming. I remember specifically predicting -- and again, this wasn't really me; I wasn't home in any real sense of the word -- that we'd be at $100 oil by the end of 2006.

Eh... One year and two days off. Not bad, not bad.

And the world didn't end. So we've got that going for us.

The New York Times

Oil prices, which had fallen to a low of $50 a barrel at the beginning of 2007, have quadrupled since 2003.

Gasoline has lagged the rise in the price of oil. It stands at a nationwide average of $3.05 a gallon for regular grade, according to AAA, the automobile club. That is below the all-time peak in May of $3.23 a gallon, but it is 73 cents higher than at this time a year ago. Some analysts worry that gasoline could hit $4 a gallon by next spring if oil prices remain at high levels.

Oil is now within reach of its historic inflation-adjusted high reached in April 1980 in the aftermath of the Iranian revolution when oil prices jumped to the equivalent of $102.81 a barrel in today’s money.

Unlike the oil shocks of the 1970s and 1980s, which were caused by sudden interruptions in oil supplies from the Middle East, the latest surge is fundamentally different. Prices have risen steadily over several years because of a rise in demand for oil and gasoline in both developed and developing countries.

Two-thirds of the world's proven oil reserves live in the middle east.

The war(s) goes on.

No real commitment to alternative fuels exists on a national scale, regardless of what may be happening at individual and regional power companies (some of whom are fiercely committed.) As a nation and a world, our need for oil continues to rise, while the pool of oil continues to shrink. People continue to die and starve and wars are fought over oil (e.g.: Iraq, Africa (throw a dart damn near anywhere)).

And if you're asking yourself why, just remember this...

The Vice President of the United States is still Richard Cheney.

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Sing it Jennifer!

Academy Award winner Jennifer Hudson
(Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role for Dreamgirls [2006])
Sings Somewhere from West Side Story at the Movies Rock event.

Gang... you want to listen to this one.

Jennifer blows the house down. Damn, this woman can sing!

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My Favorite (Living) Science Fiction Writer

Daniel Keys Moran is God

And he blogs.

If you're not lucky enough to have read the writings of Daniel Keys Moran, wow... lucky you.

As a serious science fiction reader since age seven or eight when I first figured out that the rocket ship on the end of the library book meant good reading, usually, and who grew up on Robert Heinlein and other greats, I'm here to tell you...

I believe Daniel Keys Moran is the greatest science fiction writer alive today.

Yes, I know some people will say it is John Varley, just on the strength of The Persistence of Vision with the novelette by the same name, which I at least feel is the greatest novelette I've read in my life, just as I think Of Mice and Men is the greatest novel, and The Sandman as a whole, is maybe the best literary work as a whole I've ever read. And I include all those great Russian novels and the boring English ones. And even Steinbeck whom I love so much, such as The Winter of our Discontent, and the brilliance of Shakespeare. (I'm talking here strictly about the written versions -- movies are a different deal.)

Daniel Keys Moran is something else.

Yes, I know you have your opinions. You should post them in comments.

I recommend you start with The Long Run, followed by The Last Dancer. Then go back and pick up The Armageddon Blues and the minor works, which I hesitate to call minor -- really I should say shorter -- as some of them haunt me to this day.

(Yes, I do mean Realtime.)

Who do you think is the best living science fiction writer? And why? What one or two books should people new to this author read to best learn to love her or him? What is a great short story by them on line we might read?

And yes, okay fine... you can include fantasy as well. Just so we don't get into that old argument. *grins*

Be polite to each other please. Even if they are obliviously (also obviously) dumber than dirt and know nothing about real science fiction, and you are showing them the greatest writer in history, if the dumb fools would only listen!

If they won't get it... move on.

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Whatever You Can Do, Or Dream You Can, Begin It.

Boldness Has Genius, Power And Magic In It.
- Goethe

Apollo 13 (The Ron Howard movie) Launch Sequence


One of my ten favorite movies.

Both of these appropriate during the holidays.

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Good Girl Syndrome: Why Jamie Lynn Spears is Knocked Up

Jamie Lynn Spears photo jamie-lynn-spears.net Click either photo for LARGE version.

Jamie Lynn Spears Pregnant at Sixteen

Jamie Lynn Spears, sixteen, star of the Nickelodeon show Zoey 101, has announced she is twelve weeks pregnant with the child of her boyfriend, student Casey Aldridge, nineteen.

Jamie's pregnancy should not impact production of Zoey 101 which already completed production of its fourth season.

Sister Britney tonight denied Wednesday night her baby sister is pregnant. TMZ has the video.

I can't count as a paramedic how many teenage moms I've had in the back of my rig. Or how often I've referred someone to Planned Parenthood for birth control. In fact, I referred a teenager there last week.

What isn't surprising to me is this child getting pregnant. Her home life is well known to not be of especially high quality. Born in McComb, Mississippi, just on the borderline of Louisiana, she was raised Baptist. Her sister is an addict. Her family life has been white trash with money. None of this is the recipe for being taught to use birth control religiously.

If she weren't the sister of a train-wreck of a major star (once renowned for her claimed virginity) or staring in her own television show, this would mean precisely nothing. It isn't as if teens don't get knocked up daily.

Don't think however it will force any Wing Nuts to deal honestly with pregnancy or birth control. As Sara has pointed out repeatedly at Orcinus -- read her Cracks in the Wall and Tunnels and Bridges series, and search for her articles on Mark Foley -- the fundies are quick to forgive their leaders human failings, knowing as they do that we are all born sinners.

The Wing Nut mothers will sigh a sigh over poor Jamie, make their daughters promise not to have sex. The daughters will all, "Of course Mommie. I'd never." And then on Friday nights with their boyfriends it'll be "Oh, Lance. That feels so... good."

The red states have a vastly higher teen pregnancy rate than the blue. It isn't an accident. Thanks to their fundy parents, the red states are filled with good girls.

The problem with being a good girl is, you can't use birth control. To have birth control is to admit you were prepared for sex, and to admit you were prepared for sex is to say what a little slut you are. That's worlds apart from being swept off your feet and onto your back, carried away in the moment by how good it feels, than to cold-bloodedly, like, you know, do it.

'Cause only sluts do it.

Good girls sometimes get carried away and make love. That can happen to anyone; who can help being overcome by loooove and passion. But just doing it?

Slut.

Jamie Lynn was raised a Baptist. She's a good girl.

Knocked up. But a good girl.

Thank God.

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Oh Santa, I'm So Naughty

Jake Gyllenhaal photo François Duhamel/Jarhead

Woman Charged With Groping Mall Santa:
'I Did Not Do Anything Wrong.'

Arrested several hours after she either did or did not sit on Santa's lap, and did or did not grab him in a very so-called naughty place, depending on whom you believe, a 33 year-old woman was charged with fourth-degree sexual assault.

NewsTimes

The woman accused of groping Santa at the Danbury Fair mall denies she even sat on the man's lap.

"I don't know what's going on. I don't know if he was confused, it was a false report," Sandrama Lamy, 33, said this morning.

Lamy said she was window shopping at the mall Saturday with a friend when she decided to get a picture with a man playing Santa Claus.

A woman -- apparently working with the mall Santa -- made a comment after the picture was snapped, Lamy said.

"I did not sit on his lap. A woman there said 'Be careful, that's my husband.' I said 'What does that have to do with the picture?'" Lamy said. "That's all I said, and I left."

"A couple of hours later," security officers stopped Lamy, who was still in the mall.

"Why would I do this? There were so many people there. If he (Santa) needed a few extra bucks I would have given it to him," Lamy said. "I've never been involved in a crime or anything. This is shocking to me."

Santa and the police tell a different story... when you can get them to say anything.

NewsTimes

Sandrama Lamy, 33, of Danbury, is charged with fourth-degree sexual assault, according to Danbury Detective Lt. Thomas Michael.

Two messages seeking comment were left on Lamy's answering machine.

Details leading up to the alleged fondling are sketchy.

"I don't know what the deal was. It was just bizarre," the mall Santa told a reporter, referring all other questions about the incident to Cherry Hill Photo, the company that runs the Danbury Fair mall Santa photo setup.

Cherry Hill Photo did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

According to information provided by the Danbury Police Department, officers were dispatched to the mall Saturday at 8:45 p.m.

The mall Santa told police that Lamy touched him inappropriately while sitting on his lap.

"The security officer at the mall said Santa Claus has been sexually assaulted," Michael said.

Lamy was also charged with breach of peace.

"She must have caused a commotion over there," Michael said.

Either they've got this on video or they don't.

Eyewitness testimony is the worst kind of testimony there is.

Juries in today's media-driven CSI and Law & Order world, expect a case laid out for them as if it's television. The mall ownership are fools if they don't have five or six cameras trained on Santa, up high, down low, in tight, so no matter what happens, they've got coverage.

If Santa's joint was grabbed -- given I read in comments at the NewsTimes he's a 65 year old man -- he absolutely should press charges if he wants to. That's a personal call and I'd never tell anyone what they should or shouldn't do. Me personally - probably not. But I'm not shy about telling people "No" and making it stick.

If this is a jealous wife forcing Santa to file charges about a misunderstanding of what she saw, then I hope Ms. Lamy ends up owning both half the mall and Mrs. Santa's retirement fund. Every time someone files charges or makes unfounded accusations they poison the environment for every legitimate claim for every woman and man struggling to decide if they dare trust the system to be fair with what happened to them.

I hate people who file false charges with a passion reserved for almost no one.

In the meantime, enjoy Jake as Santa from Jarhead.

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Science Rocks

I love Science Videos

Here, science teacher Robert Krampf walks us through that great question -- if you were stranded on a desert island and your glasses were broken, what would you do?

I've actually thought about this, as in, if there was an extinction event such as avian influenza, and my glasses were broken, what would I do? (Yes, I know... 1 out of 4 or 1 out of 3 people in the world dead, and I'm worried about my glasses. What can I say. Just trying to keep my kids alive here, alright?)

But now, thanks to this great kid-perfect science site, I know what to do! Whew... I was really worried there for a moment.

Oh wait, no, I wasn't. But still... Great site!

Plus, he encourages your kids to play with fire, always a plus! Seriously. Check it out. Recommended.

h/t Boing Boing.

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Jodie Foster Comes Out

photo hitusa.com

Jodie Foster, Cydney Bernard, and Children

Ending years of silence, Jodie Foster came out last week at the Hollywood Reporter's Women in Entertainment when she thanked her partner, "my beautiful Cydney."

Not that this was a large shock to anyone in show business. Cydney Bernard and Jodie Foster have been together for over fourteen years and have two children. What is news, is this is the first time Jodie Foster has said anything publicly.

Way to go Jodie.

At #9 on the current list of most highly payed actresses, we will see if this impacts her career, but I'm guessing not so much, especially as she's also doing much more directing and producing. But as an actor, Jodie's shown over and over again she can open a movie, not to mention her two Academy Awards. Plus people like her. She's Jodie Foster. We've watched her grow up from Tom Sawyer to Taxi Driver to Freaky Friday, The Accused and The Silence of the Lambs, to Contact and Panic Room.

She's Jody Foster and everyone adores her.

And now she's out. Go Jodie go!

h/t Feministing.

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“My Eyes, My Ears!”

Twelve Days of Christmas
National Republican Senatorial Committee

Yes Virgina, the Republican's really do live in a fantasy world.

Not only do they genuinely believe history will vindicate them, they also believe they can sing. They are untethered from reality. And um, can't sing.

Posted (h/t Wonkette) to show how bonkers these people truly are.

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“Christmas In Fallujah”

Cass Dillon premiers Billy Joel's new song live in the Sears Centre (near Chicago.)

“Christmas In Fallujah”
Words & Music By Billy Joel, Performed By Cass Dillon

It's evening in the desert
I'm tired and I'm cold
But I am just a soldier
I do what I am told

We came with the crusaders
To save the holy land
It's Christmas in Fallujah
And no one gives a damn

And I just got your letter
And this is what I read you said
I'm fading from your memory
So I'm just as good as dead

We are the armies of the empire
We are the legionnaires of Rome

It's Christmas in Fallujah
And we ain't never coming home
We came to bring these people freedom
We came to fight the infidel
There is no justice in the desert
Because there is no God in hell

They say Osama's in the mountains
Deep in a cave near Pakistan
But there's a sea of blood in Baghdad
A sea of oil in the sand
Between the Tigris and Euphrates
Another day comes to an end
It's Christmas in Fallujah
Piece on Earth goodwill to men

It's Christmas in Fallujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah
It's Christmas in Fallujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah
It's Christmas in Fallujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah
It's Christmas in Fallujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah

Marry Christmas from Fallujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah
Marry Christmas from Fallujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah [5x]

Oo-ra!

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Ride 'Em

Enjoy the ride at the Texas State Fair.

Expletives included.

h/t Ken Levine.

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A Disney Princess For Today

photo Barry Wetcher/Walt Disney Pictures

Movie Review
Enchanted (2007)

I love Disney films. Is that wrong?

It's rooted deep in my biology from childhood -- Mary Poppins and Bambi -- and I just don't want to root it out. I gave up a pie-eating contest at age seven to go watch Mary Poppins for the fifth time.

(I'm hungry for some pie right now.)

I love going to Disneyland with my kids. I truly do. Riding the rides, eating churros, watching the singing and dancing, sitting down and watching people. I can watch the people for hours.

This isn't the greatest time to go watch a Disney film either. If you haven't heard, the Writers Guild of America is on strike, including against Disney. But it isn't against strike rules to go watch a movie.

I watched Enchanted (trailers) last night.

An animated princess is pushed out of her life by an evil witch, and into New York City as a real girl -- but she's still a princess: birds and animals coming when she sings to them, innately kind, true love is forever, and so on.

Amy Adams knocks it out of the park. Especially when as Giselle she sings her way through Grand Central Park in a show-stopping production number, spinning her way across the meadow quoting the opening shot of Sound of Music.

Part of what makes Enchanted so darn much fun is all the call outs to the classic Disney clichés -- the poisoned apple, the glass slipper, the birds which help dress the princesses. These will all seem perfectly normal for children, but both fit into a background conversation which makes possible the world we live in, and at the same time are infinitely familiar.

Over at Feministe in the archives, Jill asks, What's wrong with princesses? off the New York Times article. More recently, Vanessa addresses the Disney Princess Industrial Complex, Disney's $3 billion a year business targeted at three to six year olds, now expanding into older age groups, all the way up to actual brides.

Does all this leave me conflicted? Sure. I feel as if I should feel guilty for loving Disney movies so much. No... that's not it. I feel guilty because I know I should feel guilty for loving Disney movies, and I don't. (And yeah -- while watching them, I do notice problems with the world view. But they keep getting better. Even if I have yet to see one which has a mother. What is it with the Disney formula where mom is always gone?)

Enough wondering. I like Disney and that's enough covering my ass for one review.

The movie is terrific. The songs are classic. And Amy can sing. My only complaint is, perhaps there could have been more singing please. Amy's last big number comes two-thirds of the way through the movie. But I quibble.

Amy Adams is a star.

The perfection of the dance moves, to the perfection of love's true kiss, this is a Disney fairy tale come to life before your eyes... and they don't miss anything.

Written by Bill Kelly, directed by Kevin Lima, Original Music by Oscar winners Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz. (I haven't even mentioned the rest of the award-winning/nominated production team, but let's just be clear... Disney sent in the best; Oscar winners and nominees everywhere.)

Dreams really do come true.

Enchanted. *sighs*

Highly recommended.

Note (12/2): This article has been edited to remove a reference to Sound of Music having been a Disney film. Sound of Music was released by Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation.

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Free Speech Van

photo Dominick Fiorille/Times Herald-Record

"Many people believe in free speech until you say something they don't like."

Disabled Vet Frederick "Fritz" Kaestner, used to be known as "Uncle Sam" in Monroe, a small town in the Hudson River Valley of New York.

After 9/11 Fritz dressed up as Uncle Sam, painted his car as an American flag, and drove around town all patriotic, to the accolades of his town-mates.

Fritz by the way, has gone in and out of depression for many years, is a Vietnam-era vet (Military Police), and has been both homeless and unemployed at various times. He is, um, unusual, but till now anyway, accepted in his community.

Times have changed.

Recently, Fritz took his 1998 Dodge Ram van and turned it into a flag-covered coffin. He has slogans over the motorized coffin: "Fuck Bush", "Fuck the Republican Party," "Iraq Had Nothing to do with 9/11," and a current count currently reading: "Dead: 3,859," "Wounded: 28,451."

Many parents don't want their children reading his van. Many business owners are afraid him parking near their store will hurt business. And many people just think it's an asshole thing to do.

The cops are backing up Fritz, saying if he parks on public property, he's fine.

Free speech. It isn't about people being comfortable.

Good man Fritz. People are dying. Bring it on.

I have absolutely no use for people who are "okay" with the status quo, with not working their ass off to make a goddamn difference, who sleep well at night with things the way they are.

Fuck that and fuck them. Wake the fuck up and get to goddamn work. These people in the Hudson valley or anywhere in the world, sitting on their ass make me sick.

Gilly died. We have an obligation to speak out with everything we have at our command and I'm not fucking around.

The nice thing about being the Publisher of GNB is, I don't have to fucking settle. Ever. I can speak out. I don't have to wait for anyone.

Go Fritz. Show them what's what.

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Fourteen Laterals!

The Miracle in Mississippi

From the Group News Blog Sports Desk, this is Jesse Wendel with a sideways slanted story

Saturday, October 2, 2007 -- Jackson, Mississippi. Last play of the Southern College Athletic Conference title game between Millsaps College and Trinity University.

Play begins with two seconds remaining in the game, ball on Trinity's own 39 yard line. On a 16 pass play, 14 of them laterals, the "Miracle in Mississipi", Trinity passes, laterals, laterals, laterals, laterals, laterals, laterals, laterals, fakes a lateral, laterals, passes, laterals, laterals, laterals, passes, laterals, laterals, and laterals taking the football 61 yards for the game winning touchdown although certainly the total yards the football actually covered was closer to a a quarter-mile. At least, I think that's what happens.

You are cheerfully invited to put up your own call in comments. I do not promise to post a correction. I don't promise we'll ever get this right. Ever. Journalistic excellence? Ha! We're throwing it up in the air and slightly behind us on this story.

Division III College Ball in Texas produces some great games, but I've NEVER seen anything like this. Trinity wins 28-24 and wins the Championship -- how else -- on the lateral.

And the moral of this improbable 16 pass - 14 lateral Championship Win is: If the Ref ain't whistled the ball dead, throw it to someone; you just might win if you don't panic and nobody drops the ball.

From Jackson, Mississippi, this has been a GNB Sports Desk report. Good day.

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“Stop! In the Name of Law”

The Supreme Stoppage

It's not 1965 anymore, Baby Love.

But you're still asking, "Where Did Our Love Go" as you tool around town in your hot new 2009 General Motors car, hoping she'll soon be Back in My Arms Again.

Ain't gonna happen.

In fact, the MAN is going to own your ass. He'll be saying, Come See About Me as he presses the magic button and your car goes stop.

All 1.7 million of them.

Live Science

General Motors plans to equip 1.7 million of its 2009 models with a system that allows OnStar operators to cut engine power in the car if the police request it. The system was demonstrated in Washington, D.C. today.

GM's OnStar system already contains built-in GPS tracking that would allow police to find any OnStar-equipped vehicle. With the new technology, if the police request it, an OnStar operator will inform the occupants of the vehicle and then cut power. The engine will be slowed to idle speed, to allow the driver to move to the side of the road. Brakes and other electrical functions of the vehicle will still work.

The intent of the system is to cut down on the number of police chases, which can be dangerous for both bystanders and police. A recent study showed that from 1994 through 2002, there were 2,654 crashes involving 3,965 vehicles and 3,146 fatalities during police pursuits.

GM also stated that the owner of the vehicle may opt out of the service upon request. GM's research has indicated that 95% of current OnStar subscribers would like to participate. Take a look at other initiatives to make the roads safer, like the prototype car seat and Nissan Pivo 2 in-dash robot, which try to detect drivers sleeping behind the wheel. Read an interview with Greg Bear about Quantico.

Oh yeah, just another way we're making your life safer.

The four horsemen of the internet:

• Terrorism
• Drugs
• Child Porn
• Racism & Hatred

In the name of these, we will reduce the greatest tool of communication ever invented, to that which is safe for a very stupid and protected five year-old with an unmedicated paranoid, religiously fanatical mother who was herself orphaned and repeatedly molested as a child, then abandoned on the street as a teenager where she was made pregnant by an unknown father while drunk, now looking over the five year-olds' shoulder, while Child Protective Services and the Drug Enforcement Agency quietly monitor everything and Homeland Security checks out using a root kit and the built-in camera and microphone, the obvious infiltration of our Homeland by the child (who has a brown skin.)

THIS is the world the nutcases would give us.

This is the world apparently, 95% of new GM drivers are fine to give the police -- the right to turn off your car remotely.

Raise your hand if you think the car:

• will never be hacked,
• never ever could be sold to someone trying to carjack your car or kidnap your kid (if you're rich), or
• you trust the white cops following black and brown men to turn it off in a way which doesn't cause their car to take a dive under a semi-trailer.
• Or no cop will ever turn off the car of a cute girl with the bigga ga-boombas. Late at night in a private, quiet place.
  

GM is turning out 1.7 million of these suckers.

Be a sucker. Buy from GM.

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Oral Roberts: The Male Organ Pentrating the Vagina

Sex Ed With Brother Oral Roberts

It's got nasty at Oral Roberts University.

Like Daddy, like son, his wife and their daughter. Ohhh.

But we're not going to go there. We're going back all the way to the Big O himself and get us some sex educated.

Put down your drinks. Move them away from your computers (don't want to ruin your keyboards, trust me now y'all.) Swallow that last sip of... soda (don't want to spit it out all over your monitors.) Make certain you are safe (at work) for playing an instructional tape in what to do and not do, and how to not do it, specifically.

Very, very, VERY specifically. Some might call it an over-share. I call it an attempt at communicating what's there for him in his heart, what's on his mind, what he's been attempting to wrap his...hands around. It's a subject Brother Roberts has a, grasp of. Slippery little devil.

Clearly, Brother Roberts has clearly put enormous thought into the details of what SINNERS might do, very specifically, with their organs. He's going to share with us, you and I, in graphic detail, precisely what these SINNERS IN THE EYES OF GOD might do with their organs.

Sit back, relax, crack open a cold one if you've got it, press play and listen with an open heart as:

Brother Oral Roberts brings you The Wawrd of the LAWRD.

Brother Roberts (near the end of the tape):

Look at the orifices of the body, the openings in the body.

Certainly you can't put it, put the male organ or the woman's tongue in the eye.

Maybe you can touch the ear. Certainly not in the orifices of the nose or the naval. But there are a couple or three other places.

There's the mouth. There's the anus, where the poisons of the body are excreted.

You can put it there.

They didn't know how to handle IT.

There was a FIRE that rose up in them. They didn't know how to contain, everybody knows when the sexual arousal reaches a certain point, the person goes INSANE!

By the sacred ovaries of Penélopê...

Sing it Brother! Bring it on DOWN!

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Political Duality Series

Jane at FDL recommended this series via: “Can Anyone Here Play This Game?”

She's right. We all should read Paul Rosenberg's terrific Political Duality Series.

Here are the links:

The Political Duality Of Rep and Dem

Why Conservatives Can't Govern (The Political Duality Of Rep and Dem, Pt 2)

The Big Lie And The Rightwing's Neo-Feudal Vision (A Supplement To The Political Duality Series)

Lib/Dem Political Ineptitude--A Prelude (The Political Duality Of Rep and Dem, Pt 3a)

Liberals And Conservatives Switch Places--Sort Of (The Political Duality Of Rep and Dem, Pt 3b)

Reid Betrays Dodd On Telco Immunity Hold--The Political Duality of Rep and Dem, Part 4

Cleanup Hitters Needed! ("Can't Anyone Here Play This Game?" Edition)

Are there more editions coming?

Keep reading and find out.

I agree deeply with Paul Rosenberg in what I've read so far (and I've not finished the series.)

For example, when I said (loudly) that Hillary was electable in No, No, NO! it was precisely a case of what Paul is speaking of; I was attacked over and over and over again. And this isn't the only case of our bloggers being attacked on stuff.

(I'm not upset at all about people attacking us for stuff. I'm making an example. Don't defend yourself please. Stick with the example. Anyone whom is sitting there going, "But... grrrrr!" ...just know you're coming from the personal place Paul's talking about, not from the abstract place he says it is possible to get to. Which is precisely my point.)

Consistently, we have four or five regular commenter's who get angry and yell at we bloggers about how we're not doing enough to satisfy you, what we're doing is wrong, we've pissed you off, you're upset, we're making mistakes, or what-ever-the-hell-it-is, whenever we publish something you don't like.

What Rosenberg is pointing out, is this is dealing with the abstractions of politics as if they are personally based, rather than policy based. We get personally offended, instead of dealing with the politics with the same level of abstraction with which we do such a damn fine job of dealing with the actual policy issues.

The people of the United States LOVE our policies over those of the Republicans. Yet the Republicans keep whupping our asses at the political level. One reason is, we keep reacting as if these issues our personal, instead of abstractions. When some of you were yelling at me aout Hillary, you simply hadn't heard what I was saying; you misconstrued your opinion for what I said. Even when I repeated what I was saying over and over and over again in comments, some of you kept hearing something I didn't say, and attacking me for words you put in my mouth.

Rosenberg is saying, at a general level, we Democrats are being done to by the Republicans JUST LIKE THAT, overall at a political level.

That BLOWS.

Because of this I am certain...

It don't matter if you've got the best policies evah. If you lose the political fights, you don't get to implement your policies, and you end up at best, looking the sore loser.

Americans love a winner.

Please go read the above links, and start to figure out for yourself, and any organizations you represent, how to deal from a level of abstraction, instead of from a level of personality.

Throw your comments and thoughts down below.

Laters.

There's more...