[T]he increasingly blatant nature of the nonsense uttered with impunity in public discourse is chilling. Our democratic society is imperiled as much by this as any other single threat, regardless of whether the origins of the nonsense are religious fanaticism, simple ignorance or personal gain.
When it comes to religion, people are entitled to believe whatever the hell they want, no argument. What they are not entitled to is their own facts. They are not entitled to cloak their religious beliefs with the the law. They are not entitled to ram their religious ideology down the throats of others.
When they use their ideology as the basis for policy decisions, then they endanger us all. I have very little doubt that George Bush's famed indifference to the fate of the planet had much to do with his apparent religious belief that the end of days is very near. We wasted almost a decade of effort to mitigate climate change because that ignorant bag of spooge was putrefying in the Oval Office. Thanks to the delays foisted upon us by Bush's ignorance (and Cheney's greed), the effort will be harder and more costly.
Palin seems to be cut of the same cloth, a despoiler of the world because she thinks it will end soon.
University of Manitoba researcher David Barber said experts around the world believed the ice was recovering because satellite images showed it expanding, but the thick, multiyear frozen sheets have been replaced by thin ice that cannot support the weight of a polar bear.
"Polar bears are being restricted to a small fringe of where this multiyear sea ice is. As we went further and further north, we saw less and less polar bears because this ice wasn't even strong enough for the polar bears to stand on," said Barber, who returned from an expedition to the Beaufort Sea in September.
Put simply, the healthcare reform bill would make the United States more like western Europe. That may mean more security about healthcare, but it also means that future generations of Americans will likely spend more time enjoying leisure.
... The idea that in a country of 300 million people the only ones who are qualified to run these big failed and nearly failed banks and insurance companies are the same people who screwed them up is a sad comment on the state of American capitalism ...
Following a pipe bomb explosion Monday night, police and federal law enforcement officials are trying to figure why a Center Avenue man turned his apartment into a bomb factory.
Police said no charges have been filed against Mark Campano, 56. Police found 30 completed pipe bombs in his apartment along with components to make more, plus 17 guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.
Campano is in an Akron hospital with injuries received when one of the bombs exploded.
As police and federal authorities puzzle over Campano's past and what he planned to do with the bombs, a former neighbor said Campano often railed against the government.
Barbara Vachon lived next door to Campano at the Center Park Place Apartments for several years and said he was a big reason she moved.
"He was always trying to get me and another neighbor to listen to anti-government tapes and watch anti-government videos," said Vachon. "I would never watch them. He was some kind of radical, and he didn't believe in the government."
A former neighbor said Campano had a stream of creepy visitors to his apartment and often railed against the government.
Middlesboro and Clinton are two tiny, impoverished towns in southern Kentucky with a combined population of 12,000. In 2008, Middlesboro's per capita income was $13,189 a year, only a few hundred dollars more than the average worker earned in third-world Mexico. That is if they were lucky to even get a job. Real unemployment hovers somewhere around 30%, and the state is so broke that half the people eligible for unemployment benefits can't receive them. Life may be tough and most people live in poverty, but that doesn't mean they can't be made a little poorer. That's the lesson locals learned after bailed-out insurance villain AIG took over their water utility and instantly raised rates to squeeze an extra $1 million in profits out of its new customers, forcing some to consider choosing between running water and food.
LONDON — The Roman Catholic Church and the police in Ireland systematically colluded in covering up decades of child sex abuse by priests in Dublin, according to a scathing report released Thursday.
The cover-ups spanned the tenures of four Dublin archbishops and continued through to the mid-1990s and beyond, even after the church was beginning to admit to its failings and had professed that it was confronting abuse by its priests.
But rather than helping the victims, the church was concerned only with "the maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the church, and the preservation of its assets," said the 700-page report, prepared by a group appointed by the Irish government and called the Commission of Investigation Into the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin.
In a statement, the current archbishop, Diarmuid Martin, acknowledged the "revolting story" of abuses that the report detailed, saying, "No words of apology will ever be sufficient." He added, "The report highlights devastating failings of the past."
And yet, these same frock-wearing child-rapers and their high-ranking protectors think that they have the moral authority to pass judgment on people, to deny the validity of their existences and to devalue their relationships?
Bullshit.
Some months back when the bad-haired GOP sex-lizard and notorious Appalachian trail hiking, amateur castanet playing Lothario, South Carolina Governor Mark "Kiss Me South of the Border" Sanford was caught coming back from a tryst in Argentina with his Firecracker lady and soulmate, one of the notable props of the GOP was missing: the stand-by-your-man Wife.
Not Jenny Sanford. She was not going to be anyone's victim.
And so today the NYTimes published what is in essence her new brand: she has trademarked her name, she has a website, her book is due out in 2010, she has a press tour planned; she is rumored to be running for office, and of course, she has endorsed a GOP candidate to replace her skeeze of a husband, who is now battling ethics charges and a possible impeachment.
Mrs. Sanford, we salute you and wish you well on the next leg of your journey, and I hope that other women who have been wronged look to your example of how to bounce back. You are indeed a class act.
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Everything about the woman is fake
Also, on Wednesday, Sarah Palin excitedly announced on Twitter that she was going to be running a 5K Turkey Trot charity race in Washington state on Thanksgiving day. Large crowds of people turned out to catch Palin at the race, hoping to get the chance to meet the former Alaska governor. Palin, however, quit the race early to avoid many of her fans:
Palin had announced on Twitter that she would be running the 5k race organized by the Benton-Franklin Chapter of the Red Cross.
She didn't finish the race, opting to leave the course early to avoid more crowds at the end. About 40 minutes into the run, word started trickling out to people gathered at the finish line that she was gone.
Wonkette also points out that Palin said she wasn't going to be making a turkey dinner for Thanksgiving because it was "too much work."
Todd Palin says he's quit having sex with his wife. "I was always in it for the long run, but she started quitting way before we reached the finish line."
In recent days, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin has indicated that she may be open to a conservative presidential dream ticket in 2012: Palin-Beck (or Beck-Palin). "I can envision a couple of different combinations, if ever I were to be in a position to really even seriously consider running for anything in the future, and I'm not there yet," Palin told Newsmax. "But Glenn Beck I have great respect for. He's a hoot." Fox and Friends plugged the idea yesterday morning and asked Palin whether she would run with Beck. She kept the door open, saying, "I don't know. We'll see, we'll see."
But just a few hours later on his radio show, Beck shot down the idea, saying he was "absolutely" ruling out a Palin-Beck ticket. He explained that if he had the number two job, Palin would always be "yapping" like they were in "the kitchen":
BECK: I don't think things are hoots. I don't. I don't think it's a hoot. I would never use the word hoot, and I respectfully ask that every time my name is brought up she would stop using the word "hoot." [...]
No, no I'm just saying — Beck-Palin, I'll consider. But Palin-Beck — can you imagine, can you imagine what an administration with the two of us would be like? What? Come on! She'd be yapping or something, and I'd say, "I'm sorry, why am I hearing your voice? I'm not in the kitchen."
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Dubai is about to default on 60-odd billion dollars in debt, whoops. Asian and European markets are collapsing, and the U.S. markets might be doing the same thing today. So much for "Do Buy." Bloomberg
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