Thank you Fox News for keeping us infromed--or teabonics.

GeeBee discovered this delightful collection of teabagger signs. And I learned many valuable rules about English spelling. Especially the many variants for the word "Socialism." Enjoy.

As a side note, I attended every anti-war rally I could find in the run-up to the Iraq war. The signs were witty, and spelled properly. I leave the lesson to the dear reader.

Where were all these doofusses when Bush was spending money like a drunken president? All at home flush with pride, but not with dictionaries, is my guess.

This Act Brings Down the House

How the "pole dancer" at this wedding will live this down I cannot begin to fathom. The bride already looked irritated with her for her unseemly revelry, but can you imagine how upset she must have been in the aftermath. (The poor thing....)



Lots of people are saying this is fake. What do you think?

UPDATE: It's fake! This frame passes by so quickly that it is hard to see the big yellow cushion that she takes her fall on, but there it is.....

Don't Get Me This For Christmas

This is for people who want to run outside, but are frustrated that their treadmills are indoors and stationary! Hmmmmm, how could a person manage to run outside?

Ta-dah!



I could be wrong, but it seems like the whole thing is filmed on a piece of road that is running very slightly downhill. Can you imagine the embarrassment of being stranded halfway through the workout, unable to muster the force necessary to get this heavy machine back up the hill?

In one important respect though, the actual product performs better than in the advertisement------the runner would not be subjected to the incredibly insipid music. (Have they done studies? Does this kind of upbeat music really make people want to buy crud? The answer must be yes; after all, they use it in virtually all infomercials.

National Organization for Marriage Scores big with Carrie Prejean.

Looks like the National Organization for (only some)Marriage(s) spokeshater Carrie Prejean (that's her at the top of the post, looking supiciously happy) suddenly dropped her million dollar suit against the California Miss USA pageant after an explicit sex tape of her emerged.

You'd think these Busy-bodies who wish to get all over our rights would think up at least some novel way to screw up. But, no. Just someone who can't even keep to her own loudly proclaimed rules who wishes to legislate a set for you. Lovely.

Your Money or Your Life------Robbery Notes

There are more where this came from.

They reminds me of a story from my sophomore year roommate. Her family owned a couple of McDonalds in tough neighborhoods of Detroit where the crime rate was pretty bad. One robber was not counting on the toughness of the staff who worked there. The robber waited in line, but when he was up to the counter, he pulled out a gun and demanded that the cashier give him all the money. Rather than cowering, the cashier leaned forward over the register, and said slowly,"I can't open the register unless I ring up an order!"

The robber was surprised by this deviation from his expected script, so he paused for several stunned moments. "....Uh.....uh.......OK, I'll have a cheeseburger!"

"Would you like something to go with that? Fries or a beverage?"

Another pause. "No"

"OK sir, that will be $1.35."

The man started to reach for his wallet before he caught himself, whereupon he waved his gun about menacingly, and demanded that she make with the cash.

I'd like to report that he was caught, but he got away, at least that time. I expect he was caught during a similar robbery later. These small time crooks always keep at it until they are caught....

Leiberman is derailing public option and looking longingly at Canadian Health Care.

Yes, you read that right. TPM reports "Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) told reporters today that he would in fact filibuster any health care bill he doesn't agree with--and right now, he doesn't agree with the public option proposal making its way through the Senate." ... "Therefore I will try to stop the passage of the bill."

At the same time Mr. Lieberman doesn't seem to be able to figure out why Canada is having a much easier time getting sufficient H1N1 vaccine.

A U.S. senator looked longingly at Canada's H1N1 vaccine supply Wednesday, as Americans rushed to get vaccinated against the swine flu virus and some places ran short of doses.

Senator Joe Lieberman, a Democrat from Connecticut, attributed the U.S. shortage in part to countries such as Canada, where H1N1 vaccine manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline faced pressure from Ottawa to "fill Canadian needs" for the vaccine before supplying the United States.

Reported by CBC News.

Now why do you think Canada could strong-arm GlaxoSmithKline and (insert random doctor from the US) couldn't? Hmmm? Any takers?

ps. Sorry, Barney.

This Fashion Was Not Intended For Halloween!

Reid Peppard is the designer to blame for these atrocities. Truly, fashion has jumped the shark when people start festooning their hair with preserved rodents.


..... or using a rat for a coin purse.


.....or mice for cufflinks.




I know there was a time when people bought brightly dyed rabbit foot keychains, but they were featureless. Fox stoles often used to have the faces and extremities intact, but it's hard to believe that anyone wants that look to come back.

My Favorite Deli

I just saw a poll being taken at the Huffington Post about the best delis in New York City, and was pleased to see Russ and Daughters near the top. ( #2 )

Russ and Daughters is an old fashioned (in a good way!) deli on the lower east side that specializes in smoked fish, pickled herring, lox, caviar and other delicacies.

We chanced upon it many years back. It was crowded with customers (a good sign), and everyone listened carefully as they called out which number was "next". While we were waiting for our pastrami lox-----beautiful salmon coated with crushed peppercorns------we saw an angry looking woman thrust a large tin of caviar onto the counter and demand a refund.

Naturally, they asked what the problem had been, and she declared, "It does not say anywhere on the package, 'refrigerate after opening', and my husband left it out. This was expensive, and the container should have included that information."

The clerk looked at her in disbelief and responded, "We cannot give a refund for that. The caviar was good, and you left it out, so that's your fault."

She reminded him that she thought the packaging was inadequate without the appropriate warning about refrigeration. The exchanges went back and forth a few rounds and when finally all the customers in the store were rolling their eyes and shaking their heads, the clerk said, "The can does not have to say that. Caviar is fish. Any idiot knows that you have to refrigerate fish!"

"But we're not talking about 'any idiot'! We're talking about my husband!"

There was a lengthy pause. "Number 87!"

"But I'm not finished!"

"Yes ma'am, you are!.....Next!!"

Customers surged between her and the counter, and she backed up, mouth gaping and gasping like a sturgeon out of water. The whole store erupted in laughter when the door finally closed behind her.

We've been back whenever we get the chance. If you ever want to check them out, be advised, they are closed every Saturday (naturally).

Furbags?

Since I live in an upstate town with limited shopping, I lead a very sheltered existence with respect to fashion. I was really not prepared for the wild and bizarre offerings in the purse department of the TJ Maxx in Boston.



New to me was the idea of a bag made from fur, a furbag if you will. The name alone should have tipped designers off that it was a bad idea. Fur hats, coats, and so on at least have the purpose of keeping someone warm. What do people want to keep warm in their purses? (The one below was also poorly constructed, and all bunched up.)


Even though they were at TJ Maxx, the furbags were expensive, like five or six hundred bucks-----down from initial prices like $900. Given that the purses were even at TJ Maxx, I suppose that people have cast their dollar votes, and the furbags lost.

Bizarre Fashions

I suppose I should not be surprised. After all, ridiculous haute couture clothing has been around for a long time. But this collection is staggeringly awful, and leaves me wondering, "someone got paid for this?""
I will make one exception and note that with the right lighting and background, this outfit achieves a fun "woman-sawed-in-half" effect, so it might work for a Halloween party.



And I suppose there is some enjoyment to be had from the orange gown that appears to have suffered extensive damage from tunneling rodents------a good laugh, that is.






But really, what the Hell are these designers thinking? Do they actually think some woman wants to venture forth looking like a flounced pillow sham?




















I don't even know where to start enumerating the deficiencies of the lavender outfit, except that I have heard that last year's Elizabethan collars are Way Out now------of course I thought they went out of style over four hundred years ago, but I suppose fashion is cyclical.

Mostly it just seems like they cannot even conceive of a woman coming across as attractive.



















In fairness, it must be said that the designers don't know how to make themselves look good either. The cuffed, too-short, plaid pants, the ill fitting jacket (on the guy on the left) the patterned lapels that clash with his tie, a too formal black jacket with jeans (sport jackets can go with jeans, but this looks more like a suit jacket), and a possible dress-shoes-without-socks violation again on the left all suggest that they are fashion poseurs without originality or vision who feel the need to be merely outrageous (in the currently accepted ways, of course) to establish their cred. But at least they look better than the woman on the right in her pink shoulder tutu!

An "Updated" Conservative Bible ?

Conservatives are eyeing the bible with suspicion as it does not really fit in all that well with their belief system. (Too much sharing, caring & forgiving and not nearly enough judging, stone throwing and smiting!) Some of them are now proposing to update it, to make the conservative values more apparent, and to eliminate the "liberal bias" that permeates many translations.

I'm not making this up!

Included in the list of ways to improve the bible is the following suggestion.

Express Free Market Parables; explaining the numerous economic parables with their full free-market meaning

Gee, so much for teaching about the love of money being the root of all evil. They also reccommend:

Prefer Conciseness over Liberal Wordiness: preferring conciseness to the liberal style of high word-to-substance ratio; avoid compound negatives and unnecessary ambiguities; prefer concise, consistent use of the word "Lord" rather than "Jehovah" or "Yahweh" or "Lord God.

"
"Liberal wordiness"! This is funny especially because just a few lines before they object to the "dumbing down" in many other modern bibles. Another linguistic peeve of theirs is the inclusion of so many "liberal" terms in the Bible:

Utilize Powerful Conservative Terms: using powerful new conservative terms as they develop;[4] defective translations use the word "comrade" three times as often as "volunteer"; similarly, updating words which have a change in meaning, such as "word", "peace", and "miracle"........(Socialistic terminology permeates English translations of the Bible, without justification. This improperly encourages the "social justice" movement among Christians. For example, the conservative word "volunteer" is mentioned only once in the ESV, yet the socialistic word "comrade" is used three times, "laborer(s)" is used 13 times, "labored" 15 times, and "fellow" (as in "fellow worker") is used 55 times.)

It does not seem to bother them that 'volunteer' means something very different from 'laborer', that is that laborers are supposed to get paid------perhaps that's against their conservative principles. (And don't even get me started about their need to use pomp-speak------they used the bombastic "utilize' where 'use' would have been sufficient.)

And then there's this:

Combat Harmful Addiction: combating addiction by using modern terms for it, such as "gamble" rather than "cast lots";[5] using modern political terms, such as "register" rather than "enroll" for the census

Sure, it makes sense to use modern words like 'gamble' or whatever. But they just might want to run this one by Conservative word smith and spin guru, Frank Luntz, who earned a pretty penny from the casino lobbies by spearheading the campaign to have 'gambling' referred to as the more innocent sounding 'gaming'. And how on earth is using the modern term 'register' rather than 'enroll' supposed to "combat harmful addictions"? Their logic on this point escapes me.......

The writing throughout their proposal suffers from poor grammar, inferior structure, faulty logic and questionable style. Given their evident inability to write well, this new Bible should be a doozie! Given their audience it will probably be a bestseller.

Maine anti-gay effort influenced by Mormons.

Why are my people doing this?  I just read "The Lucifer Effect" by Philip Zimbardo.   He ran the original Stanford Prison Experiment where students assigned to be guards quickly increased the abuse that they heaped on students assigned to be prisoners such that after a single week (and after the guards had discovered sexual humiliation) the experiment was stopped.   He chillingly details how almost all of us will be evil given the right circumstances.  We all are good, but in the right circumstances, we all are bad.

Dr.  Reed Quinn is both a cardiologist and a Stake President for the Mormon Church.  This means he is the ecclesiastical leader for, in this case, 12 Mormon congregations.  As a cardiologist he has undoubtedly saved the lives of many people.  His wife, Eileen Quinn (or at least someone of that name who lives at the same address) is the CEO of the PAC Maine4Marriage.org, which has a spiffy website here.  It's slogan?  "Marriage.  One Man.  One Woman."   It's pretty amusing--even funnier since the authors don't get the joke.  You can point and snicker all you want.  

The website highlights a general authority of the Mormon church, Elder Russell Nelson, speaking about the importance of families.  

"Dear friends, future happiness and even the future of nations is linked to children.  Families with children need to be re-enthroned as the fundamental unit of society. We simply must value children more than we do! Without a new generation to replace the old, there is no wealth; without families, there is no future.

How does Eileen Quinn plan on valuing families with children?  By refusing to allow a subset of them to have the protections of  marriage.   Of course.  I protect my right to (X) by refusing you to have any (X) at all.   Because of course, there's not enough X to go around.  Or something.  I guess the Quinns are afraid we'll run out of marriage if the Gays get some share.  
 
I'm sure that the Quinns are really decent kind loving people, but then they behave like this.  Why? I think they know.  Because their environment--the Mormon church--screams "Hate the Gay"  (But, Shh, say it nice, and don't use the word "hate."  It's so, uh, hateful.)    In the Stanford Prison Experiment, a significant portion of the guards, after confronting what they had done, spent a good portion of their lives keeping others from similar harm.  

Elder Nelson's speech highlighted on the maine4marriage.org site continues: "Those who seek to undermine traditional marriage would effectively limit the rights of those who do uphold the sanctions of these institutions." Let me rephrase. Your right to equal protection is outweighed by my right to discriminate against you. My right to keep you from doing something (that doesn't affect me at all) outweighs your right to do the same thing. How amazingly self-centered. And illogical, and dumb.    

Being kind, being decent, treating people as you wish to be treated isn't "undermin[ing] traditional institutions" any more than freeing the black slaves back in 1863 was undermining the freedom of white southerners.  Zimbardo, in "The Lucifer Effect" describes how we all follow, blindly, those we deem a "virtuous authority," even when we should know better. He also describes how we can rise above our situation. "I made a mistake," "I am responsible," "I want group acceptance, but value my independence," "I respect authority, but rebel against unjust authority." Rebel.

The face of health care opposition.

And the signs.



Things you can learn from the health care protestors

Obama wants to have a 2 million army of volunteers ... armed as well as the army is.
Facism is a form of socialism
What are Czars, they're a Russian king. Here, Jesus is our king.
Are they (Czars) going to be given land?
Look see what's happening. Wake up.

Question of the Day (Another Wedge Issue)

I came upon this urgent query in a comment thread.

# 10
September 6th, 2009 at 7:18 pm

Is there an emoticon for giving someone a wedgie?

Any suggestions for this burning issue? How about >3 ? It might not improve the tone of civil discourse but it would accurately reflect the innermost thought processes of so many commenters.

O'Reilly Should Be Fired

O'Reilly does not understand the most basic concepts regarding percentages and statistics. How can he be trusted to offer any kind of news analysis if he does not understand the relevant math any normal 12 year old would?

Watch this: O'Reilly "explains" that the U.S. naturally has a shorter life expectancy than Canada because we have ten times more people. That means ten times as many accidents, crimes, and so on.....



That was July 27th. Apparently no one at FOX has been able to explain the most rudimentary ideas in statistics to him since then. Watch him make the same mistake here, August 3rd. After it is pointed out that (approx.) 40% of Americans have tried pot, and only 22% of people in the Netherlands have, he seems to think this explains it:

"The way they do statistics in the Netherlands is different. Plus, it's a much smaller country, a much smaller base to do the stats on."

It seems like he is saying the population over there is smaller, so naturally a smaller percentage of people have tried pot-----so he is missing the whole point of what percentages mean. What an incredible idiot!



FOX News should have their licensing pulled for their irresponsible standards regarding news reporting in the US. There needs to be some sort of standard.

Real Ignorance-------Prepare To Be Really Ashamed

The ignorance on parade in this clip is so profound that PZ Meyers thought it was likely a spoof. I checked. It's not; these arrogant American bimbos are for real.

Watch them display a complete ignorance of geography and foreign culture, and then try to convert a Hindu to Christianity. Chances are you won't be able to stomach this whole clip. It's really hard to listen to so many cringe-worthy statements and such vacuous blather all delivered in such substandard English. Gird your loins before attempting to view!

"You're not Hindu; you just think you are." (t=5:25) Wow!

The NIH Fails To Kill Someone

A rather distressingly large portion of the US electorate, including the editorial staff of Investor's Business Daily seems convinced that the British nationalized health care system kills people that it judges to be less than worthy. Not so.

On edit: the offending portion of the editorial has now been removed. It said that Stephen Hawking (famous British citizen with ALS) "wouldn't have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless".


Andrew Davis, here, discusses the astonishing range of benefits provided for his profoundly disabled step-son.

My fiancee has a son from a previous relationship. He has lissencephaly: one of the proteins in his brain didn't fold right during his gestation, so the surface of his brain is mostly smooth. As I understand it, not being a neurologist, it's in the wrinkly bits (see my mastery of the technical terms!) of the surface of the brain that all the clever stuff happens. He's also epileptic, since apparently brain defects are like chocolate coated coffee beans, you can't have just one (I know this sounds tasteless, but faced with bad luck on this scale you've got to laugh or cry and there's only one sane choice there).

So, this little lad has no language ability, virtually no motor control, no social bladder and bowel control. Life expectancy at birth, based on worldwide statistics: two years. He's just had his sixth birthday, and is very pleased with his new drum. There is no way at all he's going to make any economic contribution to anything, if all we're going to do is count the beans. He's certainly not going to make breakthroughs in theoretical physics, he's not even terribly reliable on the concepts of 'up' and 'down' (although he's bang alongside the concept of icecream and mashed banana).

So, right, according to the opponents of sane healthcare in the US, our Horrid Meanie Socialist NHS is just going to let him die, right?

Except, oops, no, he's not dead. He's currently at three times his life expectancy at birth.

His mum, my fiancee, gets:

1. Free prescriptions for him for life.

2. Quarterly appointments with a neuro specialist for his epilepsy (who seem to have finally dialled in on the right combination of meds for him, he's been fit free for a couple of months now, and a lot less sedated than he was on the last combination.

3. Free wheelchair. A pretty spiffy, brand new paediatric wheelchair. Downside here is because it's NHS property I'm not allowed to mod it for the little lad, otherwise his mum'd be pushing him around in the kind of wheelchair Bond would get off Q.

4. Free epilepsy helmet (my suggested addition of viking horns for it has been vetoed by my fiancee.)

5. Free splint to correct the tendon problem in one of his fingers that resulted from his lack of motor control, one of his fingers is twisted out of shape and he wears a splint at night.

6. Monthly deliveries of free nappies for him (which started after some defined age before which a parent is expected to pay for their child's own nappies).

7. Free spectacles (I'd love to know how the optician figured out the prescription)

Ok, so that's the healthcare.

Now, the personal care and living assistance. This doesn't come out of the NHS budget, it comes out of the local government social care budget.

Under this head (and forgive me if I don't include everything here, this is just the main points):

1. Her home adapted for disabled care. Hoists installed in littlun's bedroom and in the living room, a wheelchair lift between the diningroom and his bedroom, a ramp up to the back door, the backyard paved with a wheelchair friendly surface, the bathroom completely fitted out with disabled modifications. The bathroom includes a shower chair for him.

3. A motorised bed, a kiddie sized hospital bed basically, which raises and lowers for sleeping and dressing purposes for him. It also includes a set of blocks and bumpers that keep him in a good sleeping position, because he never walks unaided he tends to get twisted up in his sleep so there was a risk of spine damage.

4. All the doors widened in the house for wheelchair access.

5. A special school for kids with special needs (the local one is very good, their annual prizegiving day is a hoot, everyone gets a prize and you'd have to have a heart of stone not to get the warm fuzzies off watching the Downs kids punching the air and whooping it up off getting their prizes. My stepson-to-be got a prize for 'purposeful grasping', if we ever get an institution of secular sainthood I'll be bribing the personnel department at that school for a nominations list).

6. A wheelchair adapted car for which she has to pay the petrol and a nominal contribution to the insurance. (I think this one is under a separate scheme than the local authority).

7. She gets paid income support, unemployment benefit, housing benefit and carers' allowance. She also gets let off some local taxes. She has to budget a little, but she, her son and the dog are all healthy and well fed and she has a little extra to contribute to the band she's in. She sings and plays bass and sax.

8. She'll soon be getting funding for a couple of nights a week respite care, essentially state funded babysitting so she can have a bit more of a life than she does at the moment. Littlun goes to stay with his granny and grandpa at the weekends but they're getting on a bit.

Basically, Hawking doesn't need the charitable foundation care, it's there for what I suspect will be little extras. My fiancee gets things like that from various charities for the little extras: the little lad has a trike he can ride around on (it's steered by the bar at the back you use to push it, he can't pedal but his legs get exercised as they go round and it gets him out in the fresh air where little old ladies can coo and make a fuss over him), a vibrating massage mat to help his muscle tone and a small selection of toys.

Things that come out of our own pockets: the rest of his toys, the adaptation so he can play flash games written for disabled kids (it's a big red button he can whack on), the disabled adaptation of his other toys (I do these, a few cheap parts and some solder installs a socket to plug in a big button for him.) and the IR camera and timelapse recorder I set up so she could monitor his night time seizures (most of that system got built out of odds and ends from mine and my techie friends spares boxes).

Yeah, socialised medicine lets useless mouths* die. Really. You have to be rich and famous to get proper care. Right.

*The fact that these rightard vermin think there's any such bloody thing as a useless mouth tells me all I damned well need to know about them. Upon my oath I am not a violent man, but anyone willing to tell me to my face that that little lad is useless had better have a good dentist on speed dial.

Can you imagine such a level of care in the US? Neither can I. You can get Social Security if you're totally disabled. Totally. Disabled. The definition is unable to earn $980.00/month doing anything. It's pretty much impossible to reach.

Kissing, security guards, and videotape in the shadow of the temple.

The picture to the left was taken at the Salt Lake Temple on June 30th, by Read Feather Photography, more of whose stunning work can be found here.

I realize this post has gotten quite lengthy, so I thought I would provide a summary. Gays kiss on former state now church property, Mormons bash, caught on tape.

The loooonger version.

If you haven't been keeping up, on July 9th at about 10:30 pm two guys were walking home from a public concert in downtown Salt Lake City. The city is laid out such that the Mormon Church owns a portion of what used to be called "Main Street." To walk north-south often requires cutting across church property or taking a several-block-long detour. The path looks like a public pathway; the sign marking the path is here:

When walking through, they kissed and hugged. (According to the couple involved there was a hug and a kiss on the face.) Then, well, just watch the movie. The police were called (on request of the gay couple involved), they were originally charged with trespassing, but the city dropped the charges.


What did the Mormon Church say about the incident?

As we said earlier on this matter, these men were asked to stop engaging in behavior deemed inappropriate for any couple on the Plaza. There was much more involved than a simple kiss on the cheek. They engaged in passionate kissing, groping, profane and lewd language, and had obviously been using alcohol. They were politely told that the Plaza was not the place for such behavior and asked to stop. When they became belligerent, the two individuals were asked to leave Church property. Church security detained them and Salt Lake City police were called.

The entire statement can be found here.

The Police report says: "Nickel(one of the security guards) said that he observed Matt and Derek kissing and hugging on their property." (Full report here.) [Aside--Kissing and Hugging, Huh? Do you suppose the beautiful wedding photo, at the top,taken in broad daylight was produced by some sort of guerilla operation involving, uh, gorilla suits to disguise the nature of the couple's presence until the last possible moment?]

The story from the point of view of the two gay men involved can be found here, and matches up pretty closely with what can be seen on the video tape.


I mean, really. Many marriages in the Mormon church take place in the temple. Photos for these weddings (pretty much) always take place on the beautiful temple grounds. Aren't passionate kisses not only expected but required?

It defies reality to think that PDA's are not allowed on the plaza as anyone with even a passing familiarity with Temple grounds can tell you, and I personally passed it hundreds, perhaps thousands of times.

What do I think? It seems to me that the Mormon Church wants the street formerly known as Main Street to exist in some sort of twilight zone, where they get to determine the behavior they deem appropriate. However, they also want this definition to be fuzzy to not scare people off, as would undoubtedly happen if they posted a huge, terrifying list of rules.

Perhaps a simple stating "Warning, black-suited, quick tempered security guards. Enter at your own risk" would do the trick. Welcome to the church plaza, y'all.
Thank you, Salt Lake Tribune.

As a final aside, I really don't think Mormons either in general or in specific think two guys holding hands should be treated as badly as they were. I just think this situation got out of control, but considering the number of security officials I saw milling about (9?, 10?) used to subdue two completely non-threatening individuals, I hope changes are made.

The secret of Republicanism or maybe the secret of success.

Francois duc de La Rochefoucauld figured it all out in the middle of the 19th century.

The world rewards the appearance of virtue more often than it rewards the virtue itself.

This pithy bit of wisdom resonates with the latest in a long line of family-values (in the I vote that my values don't allow your family kind of way) Republicans to be taken down by a sex scandal. This particular juicy tidbit involves:

--a Republican state senator from Tennessee that worked for indicted ($7 Billion) fraudster Alan Stanford,
--an 22 year old intern (bonus points, she's married)
--a bill sponsored by said Repub to disallow gay adoptions,
--the catchphrase "when you're married, there's commitment there." (Commitment to interns, perhaps; shush girl.)

According to the Nashville Scene,

He relentlessly pushed legislation to ban gay couples from adopting, though it would have meant hundreds of unwanted children remaining as orphans in state custody.

"The best home environment is one where mom and dad are there," Stanley said. "When you're married, there's a commitment there."

--a shared name with the KISS guitarist, (poor girl, she was just confused. I imagine her waiting for Gene Simmons as Paul baby snaps various photos. I blame the schools. There should be a class in KISS member identification to avoid such sad, sad mixups in the future. )

Bear with me, dear reader, but the story thickens, and develops lumps. Here we go:
--a blackmail attempt by the intern's boyfriend,
--incriminating pics taken in Rep. Stanley's apartment,
--a confession (A CONFESSION!) by the good, godfearing Rep.,
--a hatred of family planning, because "unmarried people shouldn't have sex."
--an abstinence education supporter, of course.
--a history of such behavior. The current Mrs. Stanley was, yes, an intern when he met her,
--a history of abuse; "His ex-wife filed a restraining order against Stanley in 1994, claiming he physically assaulted her at least three times and 'verbally abused' the couple's children."
--and, for the win, who's the victim? Yes, yes. It's Rep. Stanley. Let's let him speak for himself: "Unfortunately, I am the victim and a witness to crime in an ongoing investigation." (Found here.) All you soft hearts out there, don't worry about his eternal soul either" "Whatever I stood for and advocated, I still believe to be true...."

Bonus evil fact:

What is remarkable, given the strain Stanley was under during this last session, is that, instead of hunkering down, he kept on taking prominent roles in controversial legislation — e.g., in sponsoring a bill, which ultimately and narrowly failed, that would have prohibited local political jurisdictions from passing “living wage” ordinances.

Translation into English: "I get some sweet, sweet (censored.) You get (Censored.) Got it?"

As to the pic, above, to post Paul Stanley, R-totally busted, was too gruesome for my tender heart. To post Paul Stanley (R (probably)-filthy rich) was also too gruesome, so some awesome French dude is doing the honors, as they are wont to do.

A fondish farewell to Sarah.

Palin, that is. From her final speech to the relieved citizens of Alaska: “In the winter time it’s the frozen road that is competing with the view of ice fogged frigid beauty, the cold though, doesn’t it split the Cheechakos from the Sourdoughs?”

And so she says, uh I'm not sure what, but. Also.

(A couple of days later...) I just discovered that none other than the not yet late but quite great William Shatner himself has done a dramatic reading of the speech, complete with bongo drum accompaniment. Here. It's a must click, as we are all "heading north into the future. "