1UP! You now have one extra life!

E3 news:

Obligatory Infinity Ward Vid:

What the hell is that secondary function on the gun he's using?

and from gameriot:

Joining the ranks of Rockstar North and Gamecock, Electronic Arts' clever marketing department has found an inventive new way to promote their latest action-adventure game, Dante's Inferno, through the use of faux protestors outside Los Angeles Convention Center where the E3 is currently being held.

The few 'protestors' can be seen carrying signs which read "EA = Electronic Anti-Christ", an ironic sentiment, given the source, that most gamers would not disagree with. Armed with pamphlets that read "Our high score is heaven!" and "There is no reset button in Hell", the PR materials are a laugh riot and obviously take great inspiration from the drivel pushed out by Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church and other similar religious organizations.

Pax Americana, 21st Century

Kennedy at American University, June 1963.

I have, therefore, chosen this time and place to discuss a topic on which ignorance too often abounds and the truth too rarely perceived. And that is the most important topic on earth: peace. What kind of peace do I mean and what kind of a peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, and the kind that enables men and nations to grow, and to hope, and build a better life for their children -- not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women, not merely peace in our time but peace in all time.

So let us not be blind to our differences, but let us also direct attention to our common interests and the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's futures. And we are all mortal.

Obama, today, in Cairo:

So let there be no doubt: Islam is a part of America. And I believe that America holds within her the truth that regardless of race, religion, or station in life, all of us share common aspirations – to live in peace and security; to get an education and to work with dignity; to love our families, our communities, and our God. These things we share. This is the hope of all humanity.

Of course, recognizing our common humanity is only the beginning of our task. Words alone cannot meet the needs of our people. These needs will be met only if we act boldly in the years ahead; and if we understand that the challenges we face are shared, and our failure to meet them will hurt us all.

I'm currently reading his memoir, "Dreams From My Father". He wrote it before he embarked on a career as a politician, and it is honest and open in a way that most politics are not. The treatment of religion is something that in the book, Obama sees as innate in helping shape people into who they are, and a gravitational force around which many people build their lives. From his recollections of reading Malcom X's Autobiography, spending his youth in the multi-cultural tropics of Hawaii and Indonesia, his grandparent's Christian-Kansas upbringing, and his mother's atheism, it seems fair to say that his beliefs fall anywhere from a secular Jeffersonian Christianity to closeted disbelief.

It could be projection to see the President as sharing my particular cosmological worldview, but I am not the only one who thinks this. In his young adulthood, the fulcrum of his segue from local community leader in Chicago to a life in state politics was a newfound conversion to Christianity.

Sullivan reads Obama's Cairo speech, and he sees Reagan, Reagan, Reagan.

"My reader is right: no other figure in global politics could have done this. At its heart, the speech sprang, it seemed to me, a spiritual conviction that human differences, if openly acknowledged, need not remain crippling. It was a deeply Christian - and not Christianist - address; seeking to lead by example and patience rather than seeking to impose from certainty

"Be conscious of God and speak always the truth." The man has, for a politician, done this more powerfully than any president I have known since Reagan. And his vision is Reagan's: a world without nuclear weapons, in which our differences are occasions for healthy and human interaction, not terror, torture and mass destruction."

"In which our differences are occasions for healthy and human interaction." Wow, it takes balls to describe what Reagan engaged in vis a vis

-Iran-Contra

-Grenada

-Supporting and funding Genocide in Central and South America in defense of Capitalism.

as 'healthy and human interaction'. Reagan introduced Christianist language and codewords that we see today from the Right into the national public dialogue. He supported and sold weapons to Saddam Hussein in the Iraq-Iran war. He appealed to Americans' sense of patriotism, travelled the world as public ambassador for American peace and fellowship, but then covertly engaged in activities commonly attributed to lesser conscienceless Empires. These are indisputable facts.
Sullivan greatly admires Reagan, so he see's the Gipper in Obama. Atheists see his grasp of the lessons from all world faiths, not just a myopic theism, so we see a fellow non-believer in him. African-Americans see his own struggle with race.



The leaders we choose and admire are mirrors for our own values.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Allahu Ackbar (Surrendering to Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali)

In all seriousness, this is an appeal to all those who believe otherwise. Please, make every effort, give me your best-case-scenario or reasoned argument that, indeed, the statements that "Faith is a not a virtue" or that "Religion poisons everything" are strawmen, and as such, are effortlessly struck down.



A question to anyone on either side of the abortion issue: Can you watch what is being presented here, and still maintain your argument academically, or in the abstract? Is there a moral vacuum surrounding your worldview that suppresses the most negative, most dangerous aspects or possible repercussions of your position?


Defend this man, and his actions, I dare you.


Personally, I see little difference from the above, and the religiously-inspired nutcase Jihadis who cut Westerners' heads off for the perceived sin of their countries.



Amen.

Humpday AWE, pt II (Courage, Humor, Admiration, and the Theatre of the Absurd)

After the first time I saw the movie BIG (NOTE: HOLY SHIT, this activity has become a Tourist/NYC Cliche at FAO Schwarz. I didn't know that.) as a little kid, I made it a mission to learn the piano. It’s been years, and I know the ability is still there, but like a foreign language, if you don’t use it, the vocabulary goes to shit. Thus I am not a professional musician. However, I can still play “Heart and Soul” upon request.


After the right-wing base erupted with disdain after the 2004 VP candidate debates when John Edwards offensively acknowledged that Cheney had a lesbian daughter, I never quite expected this push from him, but here you go.

He's stil a war criminal. Prosecute him.



When The Catholic League gets into some serious shit, public relations-wise, they are the first to proclaim that "The Catholic League" has nothing to do with, nor any affiliation with the Catholic Church; yet I've never seen or heard anything from the Vatican or the equivalent hierarchical American clergy remotely denouncing William Donahue. So fuck them, until they say otherwise.




Substitute the Swiftian sarcasm with sanctimonious condescension and magically, Betty Bowers transforms into Rep. Michelle Bachmann.

And as Sweet Dee tends to say: "BOOM!"
This is Courage and Admiration personified, (Closed Captioning provided for the hearing impaired and non-Irish)

"'She, uhh...she kinda funny.' I said 'I know...everybody funny. Now you funny too'."

Former Senator Rick "Please don't Google my name" Santorum, once said these very words in an Associated Press interview:

AP: OK, without being too gory or graphic, so if somebody is homosexual, you would argue that they should not have sex?

SANTORUM: We have laws in states, like the one at the Supreme Court right now, that has sodomy laws and they were there for a purpose. Because, again, I would argue, they undermine the basic tenets of our society and the family. And if the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything. Does that undermine the fabric of our society? I would argue yes, it does. It all comes from, I would argue, this right to privacy that doesn't exist in my opinion in the United States Constitution, this right that was created, it was created in Griswold — Griswold was the contraceptive case — and abortion. And now we're just extending it out. And the further you extend it out, the more you — this freedom actually intervenes and affects the family. You say, well, it's my individual freedom. Yes, but it destroys the basic unit of our society because it condones behavior that's antithetical to strong healthy families. Whether it's polygamy, whether it's adultery, where it's sodomy, all of those things, are antithetical to a healthy, stable, traditional family.

Every society in the history of man has upheld the institution of marriage as a bond between a man and a woman. Why? Because society is based on one thing: that society is based on the future of the society. And that's what? Children. Monogamous relationships. In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality. That's not to pick on homosexuality. It's not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be. It is one thing. And when you destroy that you have a dramatic impact on the quality —

AP: I'm sorry, I didn't think I was going to talk about "man on dog" with a United States senator, it's sort of freaking me out.

So what advice does he have for the First Couple, who I'm assuming he knows is both married and monogamous?


"And you have an African-American community, particularly in the poor inner city areas, we’re looking at out of wedlock birthrates in three quarters to 75 percent (sic) of children being born out of wedlock. Marriage is an institution that’s a bridge too far for too many African-American woman and is not desirable among African-American males.
[...]
I think he has to realize that flying to New York is…self-indulgent. Go down to the corner bar and have a drink, a shot and a beer."

Boy does this guy have his thumb on the pulse of Black America.


Family Values FAIL.

You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means...

Kudlow prefers huge portions, a business decision to no longer provide a BIGGIE size would be a Fascist thing for Wendy's to do...


While watching the video, keep this picture on your screen:



News without facts or data is Noise. Here's some actual news (via the Atlantic):

You put the left-wing in, you put the left-wing out

And when liberals are full of it, they get mocked too.

Newsweek:

Oprah takes these things very seriously. They are, after all, the answers she hopes to find for herself. If Oprah has an exquisite ear for the cravings and anxieties of her audience, it is because she shares them. Her own lifelong quest for love, meaning and fulfillment plays out on her stage each day. In an age of information overload, she offers herself as a guide through the confusion.

This is where things get tricky. Because the truth is, some of what Oprah promotes isn't good, and a lot of the advice her guests dispense on the show is just bad. The Suzanne Somers episode wasn't an oddball occurrence. This kind of thing happens again and again on Oprah. Some of the many experts who cross her stage offer interesting and useful information (props to you, Dr. Oz). Others gush nonsense. Oprah, who holds up her guests as prophets, can't seem to tell the difference. She has the power to summon the most learned authorities on any subject; who would refuse her? Instead, all too often Oprah winds up putting herself and her trusting audience in the hands of celebrity authors and pop-science artists pitching wonder cures and miracle treatments that are questionable or flat-out wrong, and sometimes dangerous.

But back on the Oprah show, McCarthy's charges went virtually unchallenged. Oprah praised McCarthy's bravery and plugged her book, but did not invite a physician or scientist to explain to her audience the many studies that contradict the vaccines-autism link. Instead, Oprah read a brief statement from the Centers for Disease Control saying there was no science to prove a connection and that the government was continuing to study the problem. But McCarthy got the last word. "My science is named Evan, and he's at home. That's my science." Oprah might say that McCarthy was just sharing her first-person story and that Oprah wasn't endorsing her point of view. But by the end of the show, the take-away message for any mother with young kids was pretty clear: be afraid.

I CAN HAZ BEE-ESS?!
Hokey-Pokey.

Paranoia about "Big Pharma"? Here ya go.




That's what it's all about.

What day is today? It's Nibbler's Birthday, what a day for a birthday! Let's all have some cake! (And you smell like one too)*

via (Think Progress)

The kooks have heard Pat Buchanan sounding the crusty Racist, "She's a racist" horn, and they are intent on not being left behind:

[In the Night Club after Drexel has beaten Clarence]
Drexl Spivey: He must have thought it was white boy day. It ain't white boy day, is it?
Marty: No man, It ain't white boy day.

Ancient Hateful Clowns. Is there anyone under 60 who buys this blatant appeal to bigotry?

UPDATE: Again...STILL not white boy day.

*What. The. Hell. is he talking about?

Pick me up, and play him off

Coat-tailing Jackasses

It's not like PETA wasn't shameless before this, but damn...

"National animal rights group plans to erect billboards in Wichita urging people on both sides of the abortion debate to go vegetarian.

One version of the billboard says, "Pro-Life? Go Vegetarian." The other says, "Pro-Choice? Choose Vegetarian." Both feature a photo of three baby chicks.

Lindsay Rajt, campaign manager for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said the billboards were prompted by the recent shooting death of abortion doctor George Tiller, who was killed Sunday at his church.

"The discussion of the value of life is front and center right now in the public conversation," Rajt said.

"We think we would be irresponsible if we don't talk about how we're all guilty of extreme cruelty to animals every time we sit down to a meal that includes meat."

Wall-Street Journal hatches a trap built on 'empathy'

Via Digg (my emphasis):

Why Obama Voted Against Roberts
'He has used his formidable skills on behalf of the strong in opposition to the weak.'
The following is from then-Sen. Barack Obama's floor statement explaining why he would vote against confirming Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts (September 2005):

"[...]what matters on the Supreme Court is those 5% of cases that are truly difficult.

In those cases, adherence to precedent and rules of construction and interpretation will only get you through the 25th mile of the marathon. That last mile can only be determined on the basis of one's deepest values, one's core concerns, one's broader perspectives on how the world works, and the depth and breadth of one's empathy.

In those 5% of hard cases, the constitutional text will not be directly on point. The language of the statute will not be perfectly clear. Legal process alone will not lead you to a rule of decision. In those circumstances, your decisions about whether affirmative action is an appropriate response to the history of discrimination in this country, or whether a general right of privacy encompasses a more specific right of women to control their reproductive decisions, or whether the Commerce Clause empowers Congress to speak on those issues of broad national concern that may be only tangentially related to what is easily defined as interstate commerce, whether a person who is disabled has the right to be accommodated so they can work alongside those who are nondisabled -- in those difficult cases, the critical ingredient is supplied by what is in the judge's heart.

I talked to Judge Roberts about this. Judge Roberts confessed that, unlike maybe professional politicians, it is not easy for him to talk about his values and his deeper feelings. That is not how he is trained. He did say he doesn't like bullies and has always viewed the law as a way of evening out the playing field between the strong and the weak.

I was impressed with that statement because I view the law in much the same way. The problem I had is that when I examined Judge Roberts' record and history of public service, it is my personal estimation that he has far more often used his formidable skills on behalf of the strong in opposition to the weak. In his work in the White House and the Solicitor General's Office, he seemed to have consistently sided with those who were dismissive of efforts to eradicate the remnants of racial discrimination in our political process. In these same positions, he seemed dismissive of the concerns that it is harder to make it in this world and in this economy when you are a woman rather than a man."

I assure you, this op-ed, and the message it sends in Wingnut codewords at this time and in this climate, is that "Obama favors emo-driven liberal wimps who will vote against all that is righteous and good, as opposed to a crisp, brilliant white man who bases jurisprudence upon the law."

Good luck publicly railing against Compassion, WSJ. I'm sure it'll work wonders...


Clowns.

You can take the boy out of Catholic School, but you can't...

Previously, on The Dish:

They reminded me of the human beings behind these tragedies, and forced me to reassess my own certainties and beliefs. I still cannot in good conscience support these abortions; but I can offer my profound gratitude for the readers who have forced this blogger to see things I had not fully grasped so keenly before; and to return to them respect and empathy in the particulars, even while we may disagree in the abstract.

Former Republican John Cole responds:

Most of you know how much I like Andrew Sullivan, and I’m not a fanatic about abortion either way. I’ll never have one, but I think it is none of my damned business what other people do with their medical decisions. I’m comfortable with our current law, which allows for people who dislike abortion to never have to have one. With that in mind, reading this from Sullivan just really irritated me.
[...]
What this country really needs right now is a serious case of mind your own damned business. We’ve turned into a nation of busybodies and scolds, and people just need to back off. And that goes for the people opposed to and trying to make illegal Andrew’s marriage, for people like Andrew who sound like they want the weight of the law to come down on people making tragic medical decisions that lead to late-term abortions, for the nutjobs who thought they knew better than Michael Schiavo how to handle his horrible situation with his wife, to the lunatics screaming “murder” when we do stem cell research, and so on.

I’m really sick of the crap, and I don’t mean to harsh completely on Andrew, because I sense he does struggle with these matters. But if Andrew’s conscience can’t support a late-term abortion, then right now he is sitting pretty, because under our current system, anyone who doesn’t want an abortion doesn’t have to have one.

And that really should be the end of that.

It was a righteous rant, but commenters de-lurked and came out of the woodwork just to dogpile on Sullivan. My own remarks were somewhat seconded by Cole, but largely went unheeded.

Me:

A lot of hatred and unfounded accusations about Sullivan have popped up randomly a la Sully is gay, rich, and HIV positive, ergo he hates women. I don’t presume to speak for the man, but I know that if I were vilified and my background were used to argue against my political beliefs, I’d feel pretty dismissive.

Another commenter: "Sullivan’s lack of real compassion in that comment was stunning – after all those heart-felt stories, he still sees abortion as an abstract principle, not the life-and-death issue that it is for so many."

I honestly believe this is the case of ‘you can take the boy out of Catholic school, but you can’t take the Catholic school out of the boy’, simply because as a straight white male who was indoctrinated into the Catholic culture for 19 years before bucking it, I share the same ignorance of a pro-choice worldview. No matter how much I agree with the pro-choice position, there’s still a small twinge of pro-life guilt because it was engraved into my head by every adult I knew and trusted growing up that it is taking the life of a child. Ask any developmental biologist or child psychiatrist, what you’re taught as a trusting child is nigh impossible to excise.
I thought his appearance on Countdown last night was admirable, simply because it was good to see a civil opposition on such a partisan show. While I now think a patient’s (Womens’) personal freedom is the fundamental underlying issue, I can understand the ‘abstract’ he’s referring to without making an effort to dehumanize women who seek abortions.

Cole:

You know, if all some of you have to offer is just crapping all over Sullivan, I have to wonder what you think you are accomplishing. It isn’t changing my opinion of his blog, which I think is a great read.

And it certainly isn’t changing Sullivan’s opinion to come in here, read the comments, and see nothing but people being assholes to him. I’m honestly not sure what you think you are doing other than making yourself look bad.

And it continues from there. This is what I find somewhat distasteful, in part about blogging and the national conversation. 'A' will point out the flaw in something that an individual who they respect, 'B' said. Many readers of 'A' will grasp the point of the reasoning, but the rest will be all "B's a witch! Burn B!". The opposite tends to happen when someone 'A' hates, 'C', makes a remark that 'A' happens to agree with. C is showered by A's readers as seeing the light, of being more than worth what he was valued at yesterday.

Sullivan may label his position as a conflict between principle and reality, but I wouldn't count him out just yet. In the battle between his a priori "principled" pro-life stance, and the facts on the ground concerning the realities of pregnancy and the near-infinitely sprawling landscape of frightening possibilities and complications, Andrew Sullivan, so far today, is letting his readers have the last word, or at least more "column inches" than his principle (Post completely reproduced here, my emphasis added):

"My third pregnancy resulted in the birth of twin girls - one with horribly deformed internal organs and the other normal. I had chosen not to have testing done, because although I believed in the right to choose, I did not think I would ever choose abortion for myself. The doctors wanted to do surgery on our daughter that held a 10% chance of survival and promised another decade of surgeries for a child whose disability would leave her blind, mute and severely mentally retarded. We had to make the excruciating decision of whether to allow that course of events. We chose to baptise and let her return to God. We held her as she died three hours later. Her sister, blessedly, survived after a 2 month stay in neo-natal intensive care.

The struggle and torment of burying and grieving for a child, and explaining to the three older siblings why we only brought home one baby, was an ongoing horror that lasted years. It took a huge toll on our marriage for a long time. The next time I got pregnant, I was terrified. Your odds of having a child with birth defects goes up with age and previously affected children. I did not want to be blindsided by another child dying in my arms. I did not think my family would survive another experience like that intact.

I decided to have every test they offer this time.

I found out that I would get the amniocentisis results with only six days to decide and procure termination should I have another child with a life ending abnormality. Six days. If I struggled with indecision too long I would have to travel to Kansas. Being unwilling to put my family through that situation again, I had the number of the clinic ready to make the appointment immediately if my amnio revealed another child doomed to suffer or die. This time, thankfully, I had one healthy baby girl.

What happened to Tiller is a crime. What is also a criminal is that we already have a nation where women are forced into scenarios where all the choices are bad and made worse by the lack of freedom handed unequally to our gender in being able to access a doctor and determine what is right for our children and our families. This is Terry Schaivo territory. If the Christianists ever succeed in completely outlawing abortion, women in my situation will be forced to watch our newborns gasp their last breath and grow cold in our arms."

UPDATE: The Royal 'We'.

"We also published more abortion testimonials here, here, and here."

The man might have moral qualms arguing against what he's been taught his whole life, but given his pedestal, and his influence, at the end of the day, this is how he wraps it up. This is how he lets his audience mull.

UPDATE II: More letters and his response:

I have to say I am beginning to believe that these abortions, given their excruciating moral and personal choices, may be the most defensible in context of all abortions. And yet they seem to be taking life in a more viscerally distressing way. I need time to think and rethink these things. I would not have without reading these extraordinary accounts.

and he concurs with this reader:

The posts from real women who have had to ponder and in some cases have late-term abortions has really changed my thinking. It may be the early term abortions that are most morally problematic, not the late term ones that arise under the most excruciating of circumstances. My own feeling is that our moral duty is to agonize and struggle over the serious choices we make, not always to make the usually unknowable "right" choice. By this standard, the women you have posted have more than done their duty. I would not want to second guess them.

Thank you for posting these messages, and especially thanks to the people who wrote them and were willing to have them posted. Just as gays coming out and being known destigmatizes you and them, getting these abortion stories out takes away the cartoon quality of the whole abortion debate. There just is very little black and white in the world and loads of gray.

The same effect happens with Atheism, but that's a post for another day, until then:

Case Closed.

Two inches up from Carnival Barking

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

When he's humble and sobering; when Olbermann has the facts on his side, he's worth all the bullshit.
Also,

"...is a policy or ideology of violence intended to intimidate or cause terror..."

Wikipedia cot'd:

"...for the purpose of "exerting pressure on decision making by state bodies."[1] The term "terror" is largely used to indicate clandestine, low-intensity violence that targets civilians and generates public fear. Thus "terror" is distinct from asymmetric warfare, and violates the concept of a common law of war in which civilian life is regarded. The term "-ism" is used to indicate an ideology —typically one that claims its attacks are in the domain of a "just war" concept, though most condemn such as crimes against humanity.

Terrorism is more commonly understood as an act which is intended to create fear (terror), is perpetrated for an ideological goal (as opposed to a materialistic goal or a lone attack), and deliberately targets (or disregards the safety of) non-combatants. Some definitions also include acts of unlawful violence or unconventional warfare..."

Ezra Klein in today's Wapo:

"As The American Prospect's Ann Friedman writes, this has to be understood in context. It is the final, decisive act in "an ongoing campaign of intimidation and harassment against someone who was providing completely legal health-care services." That campaign stretched over decades of protests, lawsuits, violence, and, finally, murder. The different elements were not always orchestrated. But the intent remained constant: To counter the absence of a statute that would make Tiller's work illegal with enough intimidation to render it impossible.

This was, in other words, a political act. Tiller was murdered so that those in his line of work would be intimidated. In conversations with folks yesterday, I heard well-meaning variants on the idea that it would be unseemly to push legislation in the emotional aftermath of Tiller's execution. I disagree. Roeder was acting in direct competition with the United States Congress. And it's quite likely that he changed the status quo. Legislative language and judicial rulings had made abortive procedures legal and thus accessible. Yesterday's killing was meant to render abortive procedures unsafe for doctors to conduct and thus inaccessible.

If a woman cannot get an abortion because no nearby providers are willing to assume the risk of performing it, the actual outcome is precisely the same as if the procedure were illegal."

In completely unrelated news, three weeks ago Afghan "Pro-Daughter" Activists released poison gas near a local girls' school to protect their precious minds from the corruption of education.

"A Study in Moppishness"

"...Truly, a sight to behold. A man, beaten. The once great champ, now a study in moppishness. No longer the victory hungry stallion we've raced so many times before, but a pathetic, washed-up, aged ex-champion..."

The pervasive lessons of Arguing 101 as defined in our culture:

I think it's finally over. Our reactionary emotional response seems to have stopped it dead in its tracks. If I'm right, all we have to do now is smugly reiterate our half-formed thesis and—oh, no! For the love of God, no! It's thoughtfully mulling things over!
Run! Run! It's making reasonable, fact-based arguments!
Quickly! Hide behind self-righteousness! The ad hominem rejoinders—ready the ad hominem rejoinders! Watch out! Dodge the issue at hand! Question its character and keep moving haphazardly from one flawed point to the next!
All together now! Put every bit of secondhand conjecture into it you've got!
Goddamn it, nothing's working! It's trapped us in our own unsubstantiated claims! We need to switch fundamentally unsound tactics. Hurry, throw up the straw man! Look, I think it's going for it. C'mon…c'mon…yes, it's going for it! Now hit it with the thing that one guy told us once while it's distracted by our ludicrous rationalizations!
[...]
Arrgh! Our pride! Oh, Lord, our pride! It burns!
All is lost. We don't stand a chance against its relentless onslaught of exhaustive research and immaculate rhetoric. We may as well lie down and—Christ, how it pains me to say it—admit that it's right. My friends, I would like to take these last few moments of stubborn close-mindedness to say that it's been an honor to dig myself into this hole with you.
Unless…wait, of course! Why didn't we think of it before? Volume! Sheer volume! It's so simple. Quickly now, we don't have much time! Don't let it get a word in edgewise! Derisively cut it off mid-sentence! Now, launch the sophomoric personal attacks! Louder, yes, that's it, louder! Be repetitive, juvenile, and obstinate! It's working! It's working!
We've done it! It's walking away and shaking its head in disgust! Huzzah! Finally—defeated with a single three-minute volley of irrelevant, off-topic shouting!

and How Conservatives Argue:

Liberal: The USA has fifty states.

Conservative: No, it doesn’t.

Liberal: Yes, it does. The USA has fifty states.

Conservative: What about Guam? What about that Guam, huh? Or the
Virgin Islands?

Liberal: Those are territories, not states. The USA has fifty states.

Conservative: Oh, so you’re saying those don’t count?

Liberal: Yes.

Conservative: Oh, so the people there don’t count? They’re not good enough, huh? I thought you liberals wanted everybody to be counted.

Liberal: No, I said the territories don’t count as states. The USA has fifty states.

Conservative: You’re really something, you know that? You liberals are always going on about how all of us conservatives are racists, how we don’t care about anybody but people who look like us. But you don’t even want to count the blacks who live in Guam as Americans.

Liberal: First of all, I never said all conservatives are racists.

Conservative: Yes, you did.

Liberal: No, I didn’t.

Conservative: Michael Moore says it.

Liberal: I’ve never heard him say that.

Conservative: Yes, he does! He most definitely does!

Liberal: Look, I don’t know what he says. That’s beside the point. And the people in Guam “count,” whatever that means. I don’t even know who lives in Guam; I don’t know the first thing about Guam. I’m just saying Guam isn’t a state ­ it’s a territory. The USA has fifty states.

Conservative: What about Puerto Rico?

Liberal: What?

Conservative: What about Puerto Rico, huh? You love all those Mexicans coming across the border stealing our jobs ­ you must LOVE Puerto Rico, right?

Liberal: I’ve never been to Puerto Rico.

Conservative: Well, I have, and those kind of people would be pretty offended to hear liberals like you saying they aren’t real Americans!

Liberal: I didn’t say that!

Conservative: You said they didn’t count!
[...]
Liberal: Look, I’m just trying to say the USA has fifty states!

Conservative: According to YOUR sources!

Liberal: MY sources?! What are you talking about? Look it up!

Conservative: I told you, I don’t have time to spend all day cruising the internet, looking up geography questions! Maybe if you were busier at your job, trying to live the American Dream, you wouldn’t have time for all this hate!

Liberal: I work hard at my job!

Conservative: Then why are you spending all day downloading Michael Moore?

Liberal: I don’t spend all day downloading Michael Moore! I don’t even know what you mean by that! All I’m saying is that the USA has fifty states!

Conservative: Again, according to YOU!
[...]
Conservative: And I’m not even counting Pennsylvania!

Liberal: Pennsylvania?

Conservative: That’s a commonwealth, too!

Liberal: It’s a commonwealth, but…

Conservative: And Washington!

Liberal: All right, look, I lived in Seattle ­ Washington is NOT a commonwealth!

Conservative: Seattle’s not even a state ­ it’s a city!

Liberal: Yes, it’s a city, in Washington State! Washington’s a state!

Conservative: I’m talking about Washington D.C.

Liberal: What?

Conservative: Washington D.C. It’s a city.

Liberal: I know what it is!

Conservative: Well, you liberals are always going on about “Statehood for Washington!” Which, you admit, is already a state!

Liberal: Washington D.C. is not a state!

Conservative: Washington State is!

Liberal: You just said Washington D.C.!

Conservative: And you said it should be a state!

Liberal: I never said that! I mean, it should be… but I never…look…

Conservative: Should Washington be a state?

Liberal: Well…

Conservative: Simple question.

Liberal: Washington State?

Conservative: Yes or No?

Liberal: Washington State or Washington D.C.?

Conservative: Right.

(Long pause)

Conservative: He snorts cocaine.

(Long, painful pause)

Liberal: (slowly) This is Washington D.C. you’re talking about.

Conservative: Yeah. The mayor snorts cocaine.

Liberal: Actually, he’s no longer the mayor…
[...]
Conservative: Rush is so right about you people.

Liberal: Huh?

Conservative: Rush. He gets it. You people are the worst.

Liberal: I don’t…

Conservative: Here I am, trying to have an honest political discussion, and all you can do is bring up this liberal claptrap! You call people like Rush racists, but you don’t want to count Mexicans as Americans. You insult the Governor of California every chance you get. You get all your information from encyclopedias and Michael
Moore. You want free cocaine in Washington, and you want Seattle to become a commonwealth, and you won’t pay me my fifty dollars even after I proved that blacks run Guam! And then, worst of all, you insult our flag and our troops!!! You disgust me!"

At what point does a political party become indistinguiable from a cult? From Mark Gisleson:

Yes, I talked politics with my mother last weekend, and yes, her head is so full of nonsense she’s not even sure what she believes. She still thinks Obama is foreign born. She’s convinced of that. The liars have been emailing the Snopes-ridiculed claim that Obama got a Fulbright for-furriners-only scholarship while at Occidental and that proves his foreign birth. Except O never got a Fulbright, never applied for one, had no reason to. I emailed Mom the proof and never heard back. I doubt I swayed her.

No Mr. Kristoff, I hear just fine. I investigate when I don’t know. The problem is with the Fox/talk indoctrinated and their cult. CULT. It is a fucking cult. It is a cult based on lies born of momentary convenience driven by the monied bastards who are either insane or insanely greedy. You can no more argue with a member of their base than you can with a Moonie. These people need to be deprogrammed, and so far President Obama’s doing a fair job of that. Sadly, the politics of the market crash/real estate crash/Bush crash have muddied things to where it’s hard to bring someone to the light when no one’s sure wtf is going on with our money, but that hardly matters when you’re talking to someone who cannot be dissuaded from thinking that Barack Obama is a dirty furriner, or that Sonia Sotomayor is a bad American for stressing the last syllable of her last name.

Just. One. More. Thing. Really.

Who is he?

The Associated Press says the man detained in the Kansas City area is 51-year-old Scott Roeder of Merriam, Kansas, according to Law Enforcement authorities in the area.

Anti-Defamation League, a hate-group watchdog like the SPLC, pegs him as a former bomb maker and militiaman:

July 7, Kansas: Scott Roeder is sentenced to sixteen months in state prison for parole violations following a 1996 conviction for having bomb components in his car trunk. Roeder, a sovereign citizen and tax protester, violated his parole by not filing tax returns or providing his social security number to his employer.

Via the GOS, (and unconfirmed due to traffic outages) a "Scott Roeder" posted this on Operation Rescue's boards in 2007:

[May 19th, 2007 at 4:34 pm] Bleass everyone for attending and praying in May to bring justice to Tiller and the closing of his death camp. Sometime soon, would it be feasible to organize as many people as possible to attend Tillers church (inside, not just outside) to have much more of a presence and possibly ask questions of the Pastor, Deacons, Elders and members while there? Doesn’t seem like it would hurt anything but bring more attention to Tiller.

And I only post that as of yet unsubstantiated bit of trivia, because here's what the leader of Operation Rescue had to say today:

Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue states, "George Tiller was a mass-murderer. We grieve for him that he did not have time to properly prepare his soul to face God. I am more concerned that the Obama Administration will use Tiller's killing to intimidate pro-lifers into surrendering our most effective rhetoric and actions. Abortion is still murder. And we still must call abortion by its proper name; murder.
"Those men and women who slaughter the unborn are murderers according to the Law of God. We must continue to expose them in our communities and peacefully protest them at their offices and homes, and yes, even their churches."[Emphasis mine.]

That's compassion. That's grace. That's dogma, and it's disgusting.

UPDATE:Why are you here when you could be reading Andrew Sullivan?:

He (Roeder) also wrote a post on the website ChargeTiller.com (Google Cached,they seem to have wiped the site. I can't imagine why), an Operation Rescue outfit:

Scott Roeder
Mon September 03, 2007, 09:49:40

It seems as though what is happening in Kansas could be compared to the “lawlessness” which is spoken of in the Bible. Tiller is the concentration camp “Mengele” of our day and needs to be stopped before he and those who protect him bring judgement upon our nation.

Below, Operation Rescue's agitprop vid "Tiller the Killer", warning, extremely graphic.


Their words:

"corrupt, alcoholic, drug addict, blasphemer, liar, defiler, butcher, perverse, foul, evil, unethical, murderer, malicious." and "You may be the difference between life and death for a child."

and today, again, they said:

"George Tiller was a mass-murderer. We grieve for him that he did not have time to properly prepare his soul to face God."

Is there anything more villainous than when monsters suppose themselves to be righteous?

But it's not terrorism when Americans kill people for religious reasons

via The Witchita Eagle:

WICHITA - George Tiller, the Wichita doctor who became a national lightning rod in the debate over abortion, was shot to death this morning inside the lobby of his Wichita church.

Tiller, 67, was shot just after 10 a.m. at Reformation Lutheran Church at 7601 E. 13th, where he was a member of the congregation. Witnesses and a police source confirmed Tiller was the victim.

Police said they are looking for white male who was driving a 1990s powder blue Ford Taurus with Kansas license plate 225 BAB. The vehicle is registered to an owner in Merriam, which is in the Kansas City area.

Wikipedia:

On Friday, November 3, 2006, Bill O'Reilly featured an exclusive segment on his show, The O'Reilly Factor, saying that he has an "inside source" with official clinic documentation indicating that George Tiller performs late-term abortions to alleviate "temporary depression" in the pregnant woman. According to reporting data provided to the Kansas Board of Healing Arts for the year 1998, all of the post-viable partial-birth (dilation and extraction) abortion procedures performed in Kansas during that year were performed because "the attending physician believe[d] that continuing the pregnancy [would] constitute a substantial and irreversible impairment of the patient's mental function." Tiller responded to O'Reilly's statements by demanding an investigation into the "inside source" through which the information was leaked, suggesting that Phill Kline, then the Kansas Attorney General, was responsible. Kline denied the charge.

What do I think? I don't care, keep it legal. There are plenty of horrid things happening in the world that are less abstract and that present themselves to us with a larger moral imperative to address.


Tiller was murdered in church.

I don't mean to go all Giuliani, but do you remember, late afternoon on 9/11, when the news posted video recorded in the Gaza Strip? There were gatherings of Palestinian Arabs dancing in the streets with raucous fervor:

Like everyone who saw that footage, I wanted to jump through my TV screen, pummel those people, drag them to ground zero, and rub their faces in the smoldering wreckage.

I bring this up, because of the reaction amongst the majority of commenters at FreeRepublic, a popular right-wing website. (pdf here and here, in case they wipe the thread.)

To: upchuck

Tiller has committed outrage after outrage and not only gotten away with it, he has made a fortune! Sooner or later this had to happen.

2 posted on Sunday, May 31, 2009 12:11:32 PM by Anti-Bubba182
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]
---
To: upchuck

What goes around comes around...
---
To: Gay State Conservative

One less nazi as far as I am concerned.

8 posted on Sunday, May 31, 2009 12:15:21 PM by imahawk (Life is tough.It's even tougher when you're stupid.)
---
To: Anti-Bubba182

Hope the guy gets away.

10 posted on Sunday, May 31, 2009 12:15:31 PM by Turret Gunner A20
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To: SnakeDoctor
Thou Shalt Not Murder.

But, wasn't this just another late term abortion(?)
32 posted on Sunday, May 31, 2009 12:23:58 PM by The Duke (I have met the enemy, and he is named 'Apathy'!)
---
To: ansel12

You, also, are entitled to your opinion. Equivocators and appeasers have something to say, too....Pardon me if it falls on deaf ears.
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To: Gay State Conservative

To: PapaBear3625
Take a look at how Daily Kos is covering reactions of FR.

I would worry about what those boneheads are saying as I would worry about what a monkey was thinking watching a chess match.
(Hi, Kostards!)

162 posted on Sunday, May 31, 2009 2:06:17 PM by Carl LaFong (Experts say experts should be ignored.)
---
To: calico_thompson
Well, at least the perp didn’t rip his arms and legs off and then suck his brains out.

The best pot so far in this thread!!!
101 posted on Sunday, May 31, 2009 12:59:27 PM by Turret Gunner A20

Some of the commenters were advocating that murder is murder, and taking the general position that nothing justifies it, to their credit. The despicable thing to me is the smugness with which some people celebrate human suffering. It is not okay when it is an Arab jumping up and down on 9/12, and it is just as wrong when it is a Christian expressing glee over the murder of a doctor.

UPDATE:

"Sometimes, when the stubborn wickedness of a people offends God, the Almighty witholds His divine protection, permitting those sinners to have their own way, following the road to destruction so that they are subjected to evil rulers and unjust laws. Never, however, does the wise and faithful Christian resort to the kind of lawlessness practiced with such cruelty today in Kansas."
- Conservative Pundit, American Taliban Spokesman Robert Stacy McCain.

Kathryn Jean Lopez at the World's Shittiest Website:

The National Right to Life Committee does the right thing:

NATIONAL RIGHT TO LIFE CONDEMNS THE KILLING

OF DR. GEORGE TILLER

Mike Hendricks: Columnist for the Kansas City Star (Read the whole thing):

However, the motive for the crime we can all surmise in light of the vitriolic campaign that has been waged against Tiller for more than two decades by anti-abortion groups.

And if we're right about that, then we already know the identities of his accomplices.

They include every one who has ever called Tiller's late term abortion clinic a murder mill.

Who ever called Tiller "Tiller the Killer."

The groups who spent decades fomenting hate toward a man who simply believed that he was serving a purpose by being one of the few doctors in the country performing late-term abortions.

Hate. Not heated opposition. Not strong disagreement.

But blind hatred.

The kind of hate that would prompt some maniac to take a gun into a church and shoot a man to death in front of friends and family.

His accomplices know they have blood on their hands, which might explain why they were quick to issue statements today expressing disapproval of Tiller's murder.

Moderates need to police their fringe elements, not the other way around.

YES! The Gregory Brothers FTW!

Presented without comment, A-TtN #4, shorty:

...First as tragedy, then as farce." *

ZOMGz! She's a Replicant!
I'm thinking it's the Nexus-FAIL model:

Pris's hair and make-up:


Rachel's wardrobe:


And Roy Batty's rhyme-skills:

"Roy: Come on, Deckard, I'm right here, but you've got to shoot straight.
[Deckard fires again.]
Roy: Straight doesn't seem to be good enough. Now it's my turn. I'm gonna give you a few seconds before I come. One, Two. Three, Four. -- Pris...
Deckard: Arrghhh.
[Chase starts... Roy begins howling.]
Roy: (singing) I'm coming. -- Four, five. How to stay alive. -- I can see you! -- (grasping hand) Not yet. Not...
[Roy puts spike through hand and screams.]
Roy: Deckard-- Yes...
[Roy puts head through wall.]
Roy: You better get it up, or I'm gonna have to kill ya! Unless you're alive, you can't play, and if you don't play... Six, seven. Go to hell, go to heaven."

via Rifftrax:

"Is Poe's Law applicable to hair?"

RETIRE HER IMMEDIATELY.

*OMG, I quoted a communist!

Please, all you patriots out there, feel free to rescind my eligibility for the Supreme Court of these United States.

Eh, I need a pick-me-up