Abominations

Proverbs 6:16-19

116These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:

17A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,

18An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,

19A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.

All this talk of "teh gayz" being an abomination lead me to look up other "abominations" that god (speaking through desert scribes) may have admonished against. In addition to the other well-known and puzzling OT ones, like mixed fibers and shellfish, I came across the abominations above.

Neo-cons have a lot of thinking and repenting to do. Methinks more than "teh gayz."

US Navy disses "millenials"

Wired

The MySpace generation is a "somewhat alien life force," a Navy recruiting presentation contends -- with a language and lifestyle that's almost unrecognizable to adults. And because the kids are such "coddled," "narcissistic praise junkies," they'll be beyond tough to bring into the military. Propensity to join the armed forces among these so-called "millennials" has dropped to as little as 3%; that's down from 26% in 2001.

The Navy presentation complains that millenials use a lot of acronyms in their communications, an interesting observation from the land of secdef and defmilcon, don't you think?

Imagine that today's teens have those dreaded "helicopter parents" and are therefore loved and valued by their families. Damn, it's just so much freakin' easier to recruit them when they feel like no one loves or cares about them, isn't it?

Perhaps this generation of teens is better informed than prior generations, thanks to the internet and social networking. The Navy presentation seems to whine that a millenials best friend might be "in China." GASP. How can we keep teaching the kids to hate if they all get to know each other?

Most likely this generation of teens will still stand up for America and what she stands for. But they will hopefully stand up for the America of the Constitution, not America of the elite corporatists who are only looking out for themselves and their bottom lines. It's interesting how the "older generation" complains of the millenials being "coddled" and their selfishness, when it is precisely the older generation's selfishness that is turning the youngers off.

Spending $600K to hide a symbol from the air

ABC

The U.S. Navy will spend as much as $600,000 to modify the appearance of a barracks complex that resembles a swastika from the air, officials said...

Dave von Kleist, host of "The Power Hour," a Missouri-based radio-talk show, said he wrote to military officials calling for action.

"I'm concerned about symbolism," he said. "This is not the type of message America needs to be sending to the world."

The Navy decided to alter the buildings' shape following requests this year by Anti-Defamation League regional director Morris Casuto and U.S. Rep. Susan Davis.

So it's not been an issue for 40 years and suddenly we have to spend over a half-million dollars to "fix" it because it's suddenly visible from Google Earth?

The swastika is an ancient symbol and by no means "owned" by the Nazis; nor should it be ceded to them.

Bush's TANG burped up again

Common Dreams

Upon graduation from Yale in 1968, George W. Bush was accepted into the Texas Air National Guard, known as the “Champagne Unit” for serving as a haven for the privileged sons of the Texas elite seeking to escape duty in Vietnam. Through carefully placed calls made by Bush family friends, Bush was edged ahead of a 500-man waiting list. Then, after failing to complete his required hours of flight, he requested transfer to a unit in Montgomery, Ala. But there is no proof that he ever performed any of his service there; he refused to take a physical and was grounded. Ordered to return to his Houston base, he simply disappeared. Yet he was honorably discharged in 1973, though there is no proof that he had fulfilled his obligation.

This version of the story will surely be gone over in minute detail if Dan Rather's suit against CBS and Viacom for wrongful termination of contract gets to see the inside of a courtroom (which is by no means certain). Still, Rather's stance is strong in not caring about being labeled a "crybaby" or "ego-tripper".

As far as I can tell, no one has ever disputed the facts as presented by Rather on 60 Minutes. Rather, they dispute that the documents used to substantiate the facts were authentic. But no one has ever provided documents proving that Bush completed his hours of service - only his Honorable Discharge. Given how Bush got into the TANG, it wouldn't surprise me that someone might be interested in providing an Honorable Discharge in much the same way as someone provided the 500-person cut in line in the first place.

Rush Limbaugh maligns the troops

Media Matters

During the September 26 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh called service members who advocate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq "phony soldiers."

Where's the outrage from the Congress? Who will step up to censure Mr. Limbaugh as MoveOn.org was censured just a few days ago? Didn't we decide last week that you don't impugn active duty service members? Oh, that's right. IOKIYAR (It's OK if you're a republican).

Contact the reps below. Ask them to censure Limbaugh and his comments on the brave men and women who continue to serve, even though they disagree with our policies on Iraq:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Did not vote)
Phone: (202) 225-0100
Email: http://www.speaker.gov/contact/

House Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (Voted to condemn MoveOn ad)
Phone: (202) 225-3130
Email: http://democraticleader.house.gov/

House Whip James Clyburn (Voted to condemn MoveOn ad)
Phone: (202) 226-3210
Email: http://hoyer.house.gov/contact/email.asp

House Democratic Caucus Chair Rahm Emanuel (Voted to condemn MoveOn ad)
Phone: (202) 225-1400
Email: http://www.house.gov/emanuel/IMA/issue.htm

Apparently Jesus was Involved in the Jena 6 Protests

and according to the DA in the case, Reed Walters, Jesus intervened to keep the protest peaceful.Video Here

Reed: The only way and let me stress that, the only way that I believe that me, or this community has been able to endure the trauma that has been thrust upon us is through the prayers of the Christian people who have sent them up in this community. (loud applause) I firmly believe and am confident of the fact that had it not been for the direct intervention of the Lord Jesus Christ last Thursday, a disaster would have happened. You can quote me on that!

Hallelujah. It always amazes me the way Jesus gets involved in things like keeping the poor whites safe from the scary African-Americans, or interceding in a football game if the players are sufficiently subserviant to him, but apparently Jesus has no time for the 10 million children who die each year due to preventable diseases.

That Jesus, what a puzzler.

Oh Frab-jous Day

WaPo:

A federal judge in Oregon ruled yesterday that two provisions of the USA Patriot Act are unconstitutional, marking the second time in as many weeks that the anti-terrorism law has come under attack in the courts.

In a case brought by a Portland man who was wrongly detained as a terrorism suspect in 2004, U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken ruled that the Patriot Act violates the Constitution because it "permits the executive branch of government to conduct surveillance and searches of American citizens without satisfying the probable cause requirements of the Fourth Amendment."

Ya think?

"For over 200 years, this Nation has adhered to the rule of law -- with unparalleled success," Aiken wrote in a strongly worded 44-page opinion. "A shift to a Nation based on extra-constitutional authority is prohibited, as well as ill-advised."

I have no doubt that this administration will continue to push the envelope and continue to try to push executive privilege, but it's nice to see the Bill of Rights reasserted.

War or Children's Health?

Dem Caucus details

Notice a theme? Money, money everywhere, but only for Halliburton and Blackwater.

War or Galaxies?

From PZ Myers:

Estimates of the cost of the war in Iraq range from $4.4 to 7.1 billion per month. If I assume about $5 billion, it looks like we're throwing away about $7 million per hour in that effort; so it looks like a little bit more than a half-hours worth of bloody war costs us $4 million. So let's just stop for about 40 minutes, OK?

What was the point of that calculation? The government is threatening to shut down the Arecibo Observatory unless they can cough up $4 million dollars for its operating budget for the next three years. Wow.

The National Science Foundation, which has long funded the dish, has told the Cornell University-operated facility that it will have to close if it cannot find outside sources for half of its already reduced $8 million budget in the next three years — an ultimatum that has sent ripples of despair through the scientific community.

Shall we trade three years of science for less than an hour's worth of war? That sounds like a no-brainer to me. The observatory doesn't even kill anybody in normal operation. Or is that considered a strike against it?

What do you think? 40 minutes of war or three years worth of space observation? We can never find money for the beauty in the universe, only for drudgery and pain and death. Thank you Bushco and Neo-Cons. You continue to believe that humans are inherently evil and will do your damndest to make your mistaken premise a reality.

Hooray for Cellphone Cameras

From Consumerist:

Cellphone cameras may well be the downfall of fast food: A McDonald's customer in Orlando witnessed employees refilling the milkshake machine from a bucket market "Soiled Towels Only" and snapped a picture with her cellphone. She sent the photo to Orlando's WFTV.

WFTV sent the photo to McDonald's. Here's their response: "Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We have taken swift and immediate action to resolve this matter. Nothing is more important to us than the safety and quality of our food."

McDonald's sent a different email to the picture-taking customer: "The machine was cleaned that morning. They sanitized the bucket to capture milk and after the repair work was done they put the milk back in the machine. This was an isolated incident."

EWWWWWWW

Soulless beasts

From ShakespearesSister:

Christine Lakinski, a 50-year-old physically and mentally disabled woman, was returning home with some parcels when she fell ill and stumbled into her doorway, losing consciousness. One of her neighbors, 27-year-old Anthony Anderson, and two of his mates, noticed her lying there; [via BBC]Anderson first kicked her feet to try to rouse her, then dumped a bucket of water on her. When she still failed to respond, he urinated on her and covered her in shaving foam—all of which was captured on a mobile phone. On the video, Anderson is heard to shout "This is YouTube material!" as he degrades Lakinski while she slowly dies of pancreatic failure. This bit of vile revelry attracts a crowd, all of whom "were said to have laughed at his actions."

Anderson, who has pleaded guilty to "outraging public decency," will be sentenced next month. Prosecutor Lynne Dalton, who recommended an enhanced sentence at yesterday's hearing, explained: "Although his actions did not contribute to her death it was appalling behaviour that robbed her of any dignity in the last hours of her life."...

And what of Anderson's parents, who maybe didn't care enough for him or didn't teach him to care about others or knocked him around and made him hard? Or peers who bulled him? Teachers who ignored him, bosses who humiliated him, girlfriends who hurt him, friends who betrayed him? What of the people who contributed in big and small ways to making Anderson who he was on that day, a soulless beast with no regard for decency, devoid of the faintest hint of humanity? What of them? What do they deserve?

And what of the people who conveyed to Anderson his privilege, those same parents, peers, teachers, lovers, friends, who honored and rewarded his maleness, his abledness? What of the people who write the stories and create the images and shoot the films and sing the songs and make the laws and design the world in every conceivable way to privilege male over female and able-bodied over disabled, who endowed Anderson with the profoundly tragic sense of entitlement that gave him claim over another person in so many ways that he felt no compunction to use her as a toy and a toilet? What of them? What do they deserve?

What DO they deserve? What do we all deserve who treat each other worse and worse with each passing year? Who entertain ourselves on others' discomfort ala Fear Factor? Who don't teach children to empathize? Who want nothing more than to feel like the SECOND last man on the totem pole rather than the LAST - even if it means pissing on the LAST? What does our society deserve for worshipping selfishness ala Alan Greenspan and Ayn Rand? For living our lives under the assumption that nothing good gets done unless there is a profit-motive attached? For NOT pushing the idea, day after day, that we can do well by doing FOR each other rather than TO each other?

I fear we will all get what we deserve in the next few decades as more and more soulless, heartless, brainless, greedy selfish Americans (and some Europeans) continue to come of age - pissing on each other - literally and figuratively.

Melissa concludes:

I make a difference in this world, for good or ill. There is no neutral. There is no Switzerland. There is only saying no to the indignities one human visits upon another—prejudice, hatred, humiliation and pain—or saying yes. And silence, the craven averting of one's gaze so the offense may take place out of view, is not a no. It is not ambiguous. It is a yes. Yes, go ahead, just don't do it to me. It is a permission, and a plea. I'll sacrifice her if you'll let me on my merry way. We routinely cede our expectations of goodness for guarantees of safety, but only our own, and we can no longer fool ourselves that men like Anthony Anderson are aberrations; they are, in the void of unyielding solidarity our self-interest has left, inevitabilities.

There is no neutral. You're in or you're fucking out.

Republicans continue to obstruct in the Senate

They have prevented Jim Webb's amendment from passing. It would have mandated as much time in the US as a soldier spends overseas.

They have prevented the resurrection of habeas corpus.

More Republicans need to go down in 2008 elections. Many many more. Do what you can to fund their rivals, work for their rivals, vote for their rivals. This country is going to continue to go downhill until there are at least 60 Democratic Senators in that body.

Still not a lot of Atchison news

An assistant US Attorney is arrested for child rape and no mention on the morning shows. OJ continues to act like an ass, all over the morning shows. Here's a little more from The Portly Dyke

First, the smashing coverage of the John Kerry tasering incident.

452 articles! Way to chase a story, MSM!

And then the coverage on the Republican Attorney from the Pensacola US Justice office who arrived in Detroit with a Dora the Explorer doll, hoop earrings, and a jar of vaseline, planning to rape a 5 year old girl.

21 articles. Hmmm.

Note that the headlines do not ever use the word "rape", opting for the kinder, gentler term "child sex".
Note to MSM: It is impossible to "have sex" with a five year old. It is always rape. Always.

This story doesn't appear in "top stories" -- I had to dig for it within Google News. Before the arguments begin about how this does not represent slanted coverage by the MSM, let me just pre-refute them:

Anticipated Argument #1: "But Kerry is a main player. Atchison is a nobody attorney from Florida. Of course the story isn't going to get the same coverage!"

Refutation: Bullshit. "Nobodys" who are involved with child molestation make the Top Stories page all the time. Even more so if they are people of color, or poor, or uneducated, or mentally ill.

And as far as what the MSM considers "important news" -- today, a story about a city manager who got lost while hiking was more of a "top story" than the fact that a fucking representative of our justice department was arrested for coldly calculating to rape a child.

Robin Hood Tax Plan - Awe*frickin*some!

CNN

(CNN) – Barack Obama unveiled his tax cut plan Tuesday in Washington. Some would call it a Robin Hood approach, taking from the rich and giving to the poor. (Related: Obama tax plan: $80 billion in cuts, five-minute filings)

"At a time when Americans are working harder than ever, we are taxing income from work at nearly twice the level that we're taxing gains for investors," said the Democratic presidential candidate.

Obama said the current tax system is working against most Americans and he wants to fix it, arguing, "I'll restore simplicity to the tax code and fairness for the American middle class. It's time to stand up to special interest carve outs.”

Obama said his plan calls for “cutting taxes for working people, homeowners, and seniors."

Among the specifics: a tax cut of up to one thousand dollars for 150 million working Americans, a tax credit for homeowners that don't itemize their deductions, eliminating the income tax for seniors making less than 50 thousand dollars annually, and a simplified tax filing process

The Illinois senator said that he’ll pay for all this by “shutting down corporate loopholes and tax havens. We'll also turn the page on an approach that gives repeated tax cuts to the wealthiest one percent of Americans even though they don't need them and didn't ask for them."

What part of this doesn't work exactly? Seems pretty good to me.

Disgusting beyond words

AP

An assistant U.S. attorney from Florida was arrested in an Internet sting operation after flying to Michigan to have sex with a 5-year-old girl, authorities said Monday.

John D.R. Atchison, 53, was arrested Sunday at Detroit Metropolitan Airport after several weeks of Internet conversations between the prosecutor and a detective posing as the mother of a 5-year-old girl, authorities say.

Blackwater License Pulled

AP

The Iraqi government said Monday that it was pulling the license of an American security firm allegedly involved in the fatal shooting of civilians during an attack on a U.S. State Department motorcade in Baghdad.

The Interior Ministry said it would prosecute any foreign contractors found to have used excessive force in the Sunday shooting. It was latest accusation against the U.S.-contracted firms that operate with little or no supervision and are widely disliked by Iraqis who resent their speeding motorcades and forceful behavior.

Blackwater has an estimated 1,000 employees in Iraq, and at least $800 million in government contracts. It is one of the most high-profile security firms in Iraq, with its fleet of “Little Bird” helicopters and armed door gunners swarming Baghdad and beyond.

The secretive company, run by a former Navy SEAL, is based at a massive, swampland complex. Until the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, it had few security contracts.

Since then, Blackwater profits have soared. And it has become the focus of numerous controversies in Iraq, including the May 30 shooting death of an Iraqi deemed to be driving too close to a Blackwater security detail.

Imagine that, they're widely disliked by Iraqis. How can that be? I mean just because they're armed to the teeth, have little respect for the Iraqis, shoot anyone who's deemed to be "too close" to one of their operatives, bash people's doors in in the middle of the night screaming (in English) orders to frightened dazed mothers and fathers. Really, what's not to like? They're run by Erik Prince:

Prince is the brother of Betsy DeVos, a former chairman of the Republican Party of Michigan and wife of former Alticor (Amway) president and Gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos.
Prince's first wife, Joan Nicole Prince, died of cancer in 2003, and he has since remarried and has six children. He now runs Prince Group, Blackwater's parent company, from an office in McLean, Virginia and also serves as a board member of Christian Freedom International, a nonprofit group with a mission of helping "Christians who are persecuted for their faith in Jesus Christ".

No, I'm sure that running a group set on helping Christians who are persecuted couldn't possibly be seen by the Iraqis as Us vs. Them. I'm sure that the good Christians at Blackwater view their Iraqi brethren as valuable human beings, not as satan-spawn.

More on Blackwater:

In the first Gulf War 15 years ago, the ratio of private contractors to troops was 1 to 60; in the current war, it's 1 to 3.

In fact, the private sector has put more boots on the ground in Iraq than all of the United States' coalition partners combined. One scholar, Peter Singer of the Brookings Institution, suggests that Bush's "coalition of the willing" would be more aptly described as the "coalition of the billing."

Those bills are in the billions and rising.

[as of July 2006] Blackwater alone has won $505 million in publicly identifiable federal contracts since 2000, according to an online government database. About two-thirds of that amount was in no-bid contracts.

The bulk of those are with the State Department, which has used the company to guard its ambassadors in Iraq since Bremer's provisional government was disbanded in mid-2004.

Federal regulations allow agencies to bypass competitive bidding in cases of "unusual and compelling urgency" - which just happens to be Blackwater's stock in trade.

Amnesty International issued a report in May asserting that the United States' "war outsourcing" has created a "virtual rules-free zone" for contractors. The organization cited a survey of 60 publicly available Iraq military and reconstruction contracts. Not one explicitly required that contractors obey international human rights law.

I hope al-Maliki knows who he's tangling with. I have a feeling Prince and Blackwater won't take this lying down. [Blessed are the Peacemakers].

Ohmigosh, I forgot to have a baby

News.Com.AU

Women need to develop reproductive life plans - similar to career and financial planning - to avoid being left childless, Australia's leading fertility expert says.

Professor Robert Norman has called on the Federal Government to provide Medicare rebates to encourage people as young as 18 to establish a plan with their doctor on when they want to have children and how they will achieve it.

"People do things like financial planning and career planning and all of these have consequences for their future, but they don't do any reproductive life planning," Professor Norman, director of the Research Centre for Reproductive Health at the University of Adelaide, said.

Yes, the leading Australian fertility expert reminds us that women are just too stoopid to remember to have a kid. Nowhere does he say "if" they want to have children, just "on when" they want to have children.

Seriously dude, do you think we're gonna forget? Do you think we're so stupid as to not keep it in mind and have some sort of plan as we go along. And to realize that plans change and life happens? I'm glad you're in Australia and not America - though I notice a divergence in our two countries especially in the patriarchal attitudes of our "leaders".

Who wants 18 year olds making those decisions anyway? Do they really think that ANY plan you have at 18 seriously gets implemented? As the saying goes, the best laid plans of women and uterii sometimes go awry. The only reproductive plans 18 years olds should be making is --- DON'T GET PREGNANT. The rest of the "reproductive plan" should be up to the woman and her circumstances as life unfolds.

Eejit!

I Heart Susan Faludi

The Terror Dream by Susan Faludi

Throughout the fall of 2001, the media attempted to position the assault on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon as a reprise of pearl harbor, a new “day of infamy” that would reinvigorate our world War II ethic of national unity and sacrifice, a long-awaited crucible in which self-absorbed Americans would at long last, be forged into the twenty-first century’s stoic army of the latest Greatest Generation. But the summons to actual sacrifice never came. No draft ensued, no Rosie the Riveters were called to duty, no ration cards issued, no victory gardens planted. Most of all, no official moral leadership emerged to challenge Americans to think constructively about our place in the world, to redefine civic commitment and public responsibility. There was no man in a wheelchair in the White House urging on us a reassessment of American strength and weakness. What we had was a chest beater in a borrowed flight suit, instructing us to max out our credit cards for the cause.

Now that his "decider"ness has given us our marching orders yet again (ie., Get behind me goddammit. I don't care if most Americans don't want this war. I don't care that I misrepresented the facts to get us in. We're in and we're staying in until I AND ONLY I decide that we have achieved "success" and I'm holding the troops hostage until you all see it my way!!!!") it's good to read someone as sane as Faludi and imagine what America might have become had someone with a modicum of values been in office on 9/11. Oh, I guess I should say values other than maximizing shareholder growth and minimizing government.

It's not terrorism - it's business

WaPo

The Justice Department [i.e., Bush and the elite masters of the universe] notified Chiquita Brands International yesterday that it will not seek to criminally charge its former top executive and other former high-ranking officers over the company's payment of bribes to a Colombian organization on the State Department's list of terrorist groups.

The multibillion-dollar banana company pleaded guilty earlier this year to making $1.7 million in illegal payments to a right-wing Colombian paramilitary group from 1997 to 2004. Until now, three of its officers were under investigation for authorizing and approving the payments to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, known as AUC, after federal prosecutors warned them in April 2003 that such bribes violated the nation's anti-terrorism laws...

Roscoe C. Howard Jr., then U.S. attorney for Washington, had pushed his office to prosecute the case and said he equated financing the AUC with financing murder. The AUC has been on the State Department's list of terrorist organizations since September 2001, and Colombian authorities have blamed it for thousands of killings.

Cincinnati-based Chiquita, with $4.5 billion in annual revenue, agreed under its guilty plea in March to pay a $25 million fine and adopt a large-scale corporate integrity program.

Oh, well, they've got an INTEGRITY program. I guess that's enough consequences for them, huh? I have a feeling if I was audacious enough to funnel money to a terrorist group, no one in the "federal prosecutors" office would warn me to stop and then not prosecute me when I didn't stop. Again, money talks. The rest of us peons can go back to watching the Britney MTV youtube video. Justice has been served. [and she's still hungry]

Greening the Planet through Fewer Children

Slate

Instead of burning down our numbers with oil and gas, we might follow the advice of the founder of the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement, who tells Weisman that everyone in the world should stop having kids all at once. Weisman isn't up for quite so drastic a measure, but he makes his own pitch, moderate in comparison: Let's cut the birth rate to one child per couple, for a few generations at least. The population would dwindle by about 5 billion people over the next century, he says, ensuring the habitability of the Earth for the 1.6 billion who remained. At that point, they could all reap the rewards of a more spacious planet, sharing in "the growing joy of watching the world daily become more wonderful." It seems like a notion from the fringe, but Weisman's book has become a mainstream best seller. Could population control be the next big thing in green culture?...

Nine years ago, Bill McKibben was raked over the coals for making a similar proposal in his vasectomy memoir, Maybe One. ("It's the last remaining taboo thing to talk about," he said after it was published.) Maybe times have changed. As social policy, population control seems like an infringement on fundamental human rights. That's been the case in China, where mandatory birth planning has been a ghastly failure in both moral and practical terms. But these days, we tend to think of saving the environment in terms of personal choice, rather than government programs. We're obsessed with our green lifestyles—eating local, driving hybrids, paying off our excess carbon-dioxide emissions. From that perspective, voluntary familial extinction (or at least reduction) might not be such a bad idea. If you want to reduce your carbon footprint, cutting back on kids is the best choice you can possibly make.

I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'.

Pumping less fat

Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Higher U.S. gasoline prices may slim more than just wallets, according to a new study from Washington University in St. Louis.

Entitled "A Silver Lining? The Connection between Gas Prices and Obesity," the study found that an additional $1 per gallon in real gasoline prices would reduce U.S. obesity by 15 percent after five years.

The report, written by Charles Courtemanche for his doctoral dissertation in health economics, found that the 13 percent rise in obesity between 1979 and 2004 can be attributed to falling pump prices.

Interesting theory. I think many problems could be solved if we would drive less and only as necessary. Sure, cars are great - convenient, safe, reasonably cheap. But they cause us to eschew public transit, to not have to deal with each other, to cocoon ourselves in our own private enclaves. If everyone had to take public transit, public transit would be much better and better funded than it is today. And maybe we'd lose a few pounds in the balance.

Teaching Daughters Wifely Duties

The Age

A fundamentalist church pastor had sex with two of his teenage daughters to educate them on how to be good wives, a South Australian court has heard.

The 54-year-old man, who cannot be named, was yesterday sentenced in the SA District Court to eight and a half years jail after pleading guilty to seven counts each of incest and unlawful sexual intercourse.

In sentencing, Judge David Lovell said the misrepresentation of scripture used to justify the abuse of the girls "defied belief", and that he had "hypocritically betrayed" his religion and principles.

"You said the acts were about learning about sex rather than engaging in the acts of sex," Judge Lovell said.
"I do not accept that.

"You treated your daughters as your property. . . using them to satisfy and gratify your sexual urges."

The problem with god is he/she doesn't lend himself to verification. The pastor can't prove that God made him do it and I can't prove that God didn't. But the scary thing is, when we let god into the conversation, there's no way to prove anything. If "god told me to do it" as allowed to stand as evidence, we're all in big trouble. "I'm sorry your honor, I had to kill my neighbor, god told me to do it." "Your honor, I cannot be guily of maiming my friend, it's my interpretation of scripture to do so."

And treating daughters as property is big with the "Purity Ball" folk. Or perhaps I should say that the daughters' virginity is treated as property. It is the property of the father who "protects" it until he hands it over to the husband. It never belongs to the woman. It is an idol to be worshipped, but never enjoyed. It reduces women to a bunch of body parts above and below an all-important hymen-cloaked vagina.

I suppose that raping your daughters to teach them their wifely duties is its own sad indictment of the principles of this type of fundamentalism.

Here's the saddest part:

Judge Lovell gave full credit for the man's guilty pleas, saying he was genuinely remorseful and had a good chance of rehabilitation as his wife and the church remained supportive.

The man will be eligible for parole in four years.

Nowhere in the article do we hear from or about the daughters. One man (the judge) determines another man (the rapist) is properly remorseful. WHAT ABOUT THE DAUGHTERS? Would they concur? Is four years really sufficient for ten years of raping your children?

Just because you make someone your role model...

doesn't mean you get to tell them what to do (or not to do). Case in Point:

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Vanessa Hudgens, the star of the wholesome, made-for-kids TV movie hit “High School Musical,” apologized on Friday for a nude photo of her on the Web and Walt Disney Co. said it was sticking by the performer.

Some parents of her young fans voiced dismay over the photo, which shows Hudgens, 18, smiling and standing naked directly in front of the camera.

“I want to apologize to my fans, whose support and trust means the world to me,” Hudgens said in a statement issued about a day after the photo surfaced. “I am embarrassed over this situation and regret having ever taken these photos. I am thankful for the support of my family and friends.”

In a statement, Disney said it hoped Hudgens had learned a valuable lesson. “Vanessa has apologized for what was obviously a lapse in judgment.”

It may have been a lapse in judgement, but she's 18 and can legally do whatever she wishes. The fact that thousands of tweens look up to her does not mean she has to do what they want her to do. Of course, the tweens (and their parents) may withdraw their support of Ms. Hudgens, and that is their right. But seriously people, these are actors and actresses. Stop projecting your dreams and desires onto them and just live your life in the way that you see fit - without constantly looking for "role models" in the media-scape to prop up your ideals.

AP

Brains and Politics

LA Times

Exploring the neurobiology of politics, scientists have found that liberals tolerate ambiguity and conflict better than conservatives because of how their brains work.

In a simple experiment being reported today in the journal Nature Neuroscience, scientists at New York University and UCLA show that political orientation is related to differences in how the brain processes information.

Previous psychological studies have found that conservatives tend to be more structured and persistent in their judgments whereas liberals are more open to new experiences. The latest study found those traits are not confined to political situations but also influence everyday decisions.

D'uh.

Anyone who's ever tried to REASON with a right-winger KNOWS there's no argument you can put forward to change their thinking. They are closed off to new information. They have all the answers and nothing will ever change that.

I guess if their brains are wired that way, it's no more their fault than if homosexuals prefer a mate of their same gender.

Ironic, isn't it? Hard-wiring causing the wingers to be sure that their enemies' hard-wiring isn't.

Faith in a "Family" Company

Atlanta Journal Constitution

HomeBanc Mortgage Corp. positioned itself as the Christian exemplar of "integrity" and "faith," seeking to "enrich and fulfill lives by serving each other, our customers and communities," according to its mission statement.

Meetings often opened with prayer. Chaplains were on call. A prominent Cobb County preacher served as "chief people officer" with a mandate to tend to employees' spiritual, as well as professional, well-being. Many of the company's overwhelmingly Christian employees appreciated the faith-based atmosphere, while saying nonbelievers were treated with respect. [The receptionist in Jones' office sent daily devotionals via e-mail. Luncheon Bible studies were common.]

But the good vibes and good times crashed last month when the company filed for bankruptcy and laid off nearly all of its 1,000 employees with little more than a goodbye, a "good luck" and a $20 Publix gift card.

"Me, as a Christian, I couldn't treat people that way," said Kevin Jones, 34, a former loan officer with a wife and two children. "On a spiritual level this is a tough one. It seems hypocritical."...

In 2000, CEO Patrick Flood and a private equity firm engineered a $60 million buyout of HomeBanc from First Tennessee Bank. Their timing proved perfect as Americans, seduced by a robust economy and easy credit, undertook a home-buying binge.

Flood was fired on Jan. 16. He received $4.98 million in severance and other payments and has since started another mortgage company.

Flood gets $4.98 million. Roughly one thousand employees get a $20 kick in the shorts. Some "faith-based" organization, huh? Would Jesus approve, do you think? I think not. I think that Flood and all the other over-paid CEOs worship one god alone: Mammon.

Brains and Televisions

MSNBC

Watching television more than two hours a day early in life can lead to attention problems later in adolescence, according to a study released on Tuesday.

The roughly 40 percent increase in attention problems among heavy TV viewers was observed in both boys and girls, and was independent of whether a diagnosis of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder was made prior to adolescence.

The link was established by a long-term study of the habits and behaviors of more than 1,000 children born in Dunedin, New Zealand, between April 1972 and March 1973.

One was that the rapid scene changes common to many TV programs may overstimulate the developing brain of a young child, and could make reality seem boring by comparison.

“Hence, children who watch a lot of television may become less tolerant of slower-paced and more mundane tasks, such as school work,” he wrote.

Imagine how much worse the effect of TV is today. In 1972 and 1973 when these kids were born and in their young ages, TV was tame compared to the insane carnival of special effects that it has become. The amount of rapid-fire cuts bothers me at my age, so imagine what it's doing to a child whose brain is still developing and trying so hard to even place the images let alone understand them with some sort of coherence. I believe that over the air corporate TV today is harmful for young kids. And the harm that's being done isn't even known yet and won't be until the guinea pigs born in 1995 or later start to reach adulthood.

Bush briefed "No WMD" in 2002 - Chose to Hide It

From Salon

On Sept. 18, 2002, CIA director George Tenet briefed President Bush in the Oval Office on top-secret intelligence that Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction, according to two former senior CIA officers. Bush dismissed as worthless this information from the Iraqi foreign minister, a member of Saddam's inner circle, although it turned out to be accurate in every detail. Tenet never brought it up again....

In the congressional debate over the Authorization for the Use of Military Force, even those voting against it gave credence to the notion that Saddam possessed WMD. Even a leading opponent such as Sen. Bob Graham, then the Democratic chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who had instigated the production of the NIE, declared in his floor speech on Oct. 12, 2002, "Saddam Hussein's regime has chemical and biological weapons and is trying to get nuclear capacity." Not a single senator contested otherwise. None of them had an inkling of the Sabri intelligence...

While one Iraqi source told the CIA that there were no WMD, information that was true but distorted to prove the opposite, another Iraqi source was a fabricator whose lies were eagerly embraced. "The real tragedy is that they had a good source that they misused," said one of the former CIA officers. "The fact is there was nothing there, no threat. But Bush wanted to hear what he wanted to hear.

So all this time, one of the main Repub contentions on WMD is "well Democrats thought Saddam had WMD too." Nanny-nanny-boo-boo. Except, it turns out that the Bush administration had more intelligence than it gave the Congress. So, if the Congress had seen the CIA info on No WMD, would they still have believed the old information that he did? We'll never know. What we do know is that this administration cherry-picks information like nobody's business. Information falls in line with ideology - it gets included in NIEs, State of The Union messages, speeches and the like; Information goes against ideology "What? Who? What information, now? Hmmm? I don't recall...."

Since when does gov't bow before business??

Since Bush has been in office. Sure, it probably always happened but not on the wholesale level it does now. FDA is led around by Pharma. Dept of Ag on a leash held by Con-Agra. The Airline Transit Association owns the FAA. It's a disgusting slide into fascism that doesn't seem to be bothering most Americans. Why do things have to get really really bad before Americans decide that they're important? Triangle Shirtwaist Fire anyone?

In today's installment of how corporations run the government, we have exhibit ZZZEJFI90991>(Baltimore Sun):

In 2005, the Environmental Protection Agency completed a two-year study of fumes produced when microwave popcorn is prepared at home. Diacetyl was one of the compounds measured during popping and opening of the popcorn container.

Dr. George Gray, assistant administrator for the EPA's Office of Research and Development, said the study explored the amount and type of chemicals released and not the health effects of microwaving popcorn.

The study was made available to popcorn manufacturers after it was completed, but it has yet to be released to the public, according to EPA spokeswoman Suzanne Ackerman.

She said the delay was due to the time needed for scientific peer review and submission to a scientific journal. The research also required industry cooperation, she said, and part of the agreement was that companies got to see the report before it was published to ensure that no trade secrets were violated.

Why, why, why would the study be released to the popcorn manufacturers, but not to the public? Why are they more important than us? Oh, right, money.

And I call bullshit on the "peer review" stuff. The popcorn industry is not "peer" to scientists in academia. They are plunderers out for profit. "No trade secrets violated", my ass. If your trade secrets are violated as a result of a report looking into the safety of your franken-ingredients, so be it. And who needs TWO YEARS to ensure there are no "trade secrets" in the report. Is it being read by hamsters?

Personally I hate the smell of microwave popcorn. I've always found that it burned my throat. I'm not surprised that they take god only knows what compounds, subject them to micro-wave radiation and then end up with something that can scar the lungs. D'oh!!!!

Craig's Inadvertent Voice Mail Message

RollCall

Sen. Larry Craig (R) opened the possibility of reversing his stated intention to resign from the Senate on Sept. 30 in a voice mail message obtained by Roll Call that the Idaho conservative inadvertently left at a wrong number.
Craig left the digitally recorded message on the recipient's mobile phone voice mail Saturday morning, about a half-hour before he announced his intention to resign his Senate seat at month's end. The message was provided to Roll Call by the phone's owner, who is a Washington, D.C., resident not involved in politics and is not the person the Senator was trying to reach. Craig discussed his forthcoming announcement more as a strategy to rehabilitate his political fortunes than a statement about his looming departure.

"Yes, Billy, this is Larry Craig calling. You can reach me on my cell. [Sen.] Arlen Specter [R-Pa.] is now willing to come out in my defense, arguing that it appears, by all that he knows, that I've been railroaded and all of that," Craig said on the voice mail. "Having all of that, we've reshaped my statement a little bit to say it is my 'intent' to resign on Sept. 30.

"I think it is very important for you to make as bold a statement as you are comfortable with this afternoon and I would hope you could make it in front of the cameras," Craig continued. "I think it would help drive the story that I am willing to fight, that I've got quality people out there fighting in my defense, and that this thing could take a new turn or a new shape; it has that potential."

Although it could not be determined who the Senator was trying to reach when he incorrectly dialed the phone number, Craig recently hired Washington, D.C., lawyer Billy Martin, who put out a statement Saturday in support of his new client.

It just shows to go you how sleazy these politicians are - notice how we are now "reshaped" into "intent" to resign. How wily. How spin-y. How wonderfully political of you Larry. Notice how Specter is already on board even though Specter's announcement supporting Craig (days later) seemed like something spontaneous. Notice how we're trying to "drive" the story - i.e., spin it in a certain way.

I still have mixed feelings about the whole Craig incident. On the one hand, if cops got to arrest every "solicitation" women received, they'd never have time to do another thing. On the other hand, Craig is a hypocrite who's been getting away with a double life for a long time - if reports at blogactive.com are to be believed (and so far they're batting 1000).

But I detest the continued way we the people are "spun" and the way there is one set of rules for the elite and one set for everyone else. If it's against the law to solicit in a men's bathroom (but not apparently anywhere else), then that's the law. We can talk about changing it. But pleading guilty to breaking the law doesn't get a do-over. And Larry's still a holier-than-thou who wagged his finger at "naughty" Clinton while being much naughtier himself.

Larry, do the GOP a favor, let this all die so we can move on to the next closeted Republican.

How many men are called "working fathers"

It's an interesting question. Why only "working mothers?" Here are some interesting thoughts on montherhood in 2007.

We've been at this whole women and work thing for several decades now. Impressive degrees, upward-trajectory jobs and cracks in the glass ceiling say that on a lot of levels, the promise of female economic emancipation is coming along quite nicely.

We have been to the mountaintop. So why are so many troubled by the view?

Working mother discontent is clear in the recent Pew study that found 60 percent of mothers would rather have part time jobs. You hear it in the furious debate that has raged since New York Times' Lisa Belkin first wrote about the "opt-out revolution" in 2003. "Why," she asked, "don't women run the world? Maybe they don't want to"

Almost five years later, we're still trying to figure ourselves out. Four major books have just hit the stands, attempting to deconstruct why mothers leave work, why they stay, and how they can come back - if, in fact, they want to come back at all.

The position on the right: women are leaving work to do what God and nature intended. This whole career thing was a feminist fabrication all along.

On the left: women executives are being pushed out by heartless, clueless, corporations that value productivity over parenting. A bit farther to the left is the argument that the longings of motherhood are simply programmed in like code during upbringing - mothers aren't born; they're socialized. The real barrier is not the glass ceiling of a corporation. It's the front door of the home.

My position would be closest to those on the "Far Left". Mothers are socialized. We start 'em young and teach them all about holding their babies and being good moms. I know, because I'm a mom on the "Far Left" who does the same thing. It's hard to break thousands of years of conditioning. But, when Catharine gets a little older, we're going to have the talk about how she doesn't have to be a mommy and how being a mommy entails a lot of decisions and pros and cons and that it's her decision alone to make.

We're going to talk about the companies for whom she might work who do value hours on the job over much else (and about how using hours to measure productivity is just stupid); About companies who still don't get that structuring full- and part-time work, for ANYONE who desires either, is a good idea; About how mommies still end up doing more work than daddies - though in her experience she will see a mom and a dad who really do try to share as equitably as they can.

Motherhood can be wonderful. But it's true that mommies ARE made and not born. If she chooses to make herself one, I'd just like her to have the facts. Not the Ozzy and Harriet bullshit that a lot of us were and are fed to this day in 2007.

Skinny genes for your skinny jeans

MSNBC

Scientists now say they have discovered the “skinny” gene. And they’ve found this lucky batch of DNA in a variety of animals, according to a report published Tuesday in the journal Cell Metabolism.

"This gene is in every organism from worms to humans," says the study’s senior author, Dr. Jonathan Graff, an associate professor of developmental biology and internal medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. "We all have it. It's very striking."

Graff and his colleagues had been hunting for a gene that might naturally keep people thin. Eventually, they turned up a promising candidate in a gene that controls fat formation....

The Texas scientists next wanted to know whether the gene worked the same way in more complicated animals. After proving that they could make worms fat by deleting the adipose gene, the researchers turned their attention to mammals.

First they experimented with single cells in a test tube. When the gene was deleted from ordinary cells, they transformed themselves into fat cells. The cells actually became plump as they accumulated fat droplets, Graff says.

Mice engineered to have efficient versions of the adipose gene were much sleeker than normal counterparts. In fact, they had one-third the body fat of wild mice, says Graff.

I KNEW IT!!!!!

If you can't stand the heat, deny you have a kitchen

So a group of people calling themselves the Righteous Response Squad has decided to solicit contradictions in the Bible and then explain them away. A blogger takes them up on the challenge.

So I took their challenge, and used the argument of the different genealogies of Jesus. Because if you look at the Bible carefully, you will see that the list of Jesus' ancestors given in Luke is quite different to the list given in Matthew.

We had some exchanges, and they tried various arguments, but in the end there wasn't a lot they could say. So they deleted the whole thing.

When the RRS can't adequately explain the contradiction noted by the blogger, they just shut down the debate, writing

Quote
Saint Paul wrote: "avoid foolish controversies and genealogies" (Titus 3:9)

And then subsequently deleting the entire exchange. And even more recently, their web site says they're in "transition".

Well, I guess that showed him.

Beauty is truth, truth beauty...

Just skip this post, unless your curiosity has been aroused. In which case, follow the link to the truth. A web experiment. I like experiments. You know, verifiable, repeatable tests? Good stuff.

GOP Priorities: Tax labor, Don't tax "investments"

From WorkingFamilies:

Get this: The top 25 hedge fund partners earned more than $14 billion in 2006. That’s as much as all of New York City’s 80,000 public school teachers earned over nearly three years.

But these hedge fund partners pay a mere fraction of the federal taxes that the teachers pay on their income. And they avoid the 15.3 percent Social Security and Medicare taxes that teachers, firefighters, police officers and other working Americans pay on their wages.

The Levin-Rangel bill (H.R. 2834) would close this loophole and appropriately tax the “carried interest” from partnerships as compensation.

Tell your congressional representative to support H.R. 2834 and prevent these multi-millionaires from gaming the system:

Click here to take action.

Some of the wealthiest Americans are taking advantage of a tax loophole to avoid paying their fair share of federal taxes. Unless the law is fixed, partners of hedge funds, leveraged buyout firms (also known as private equity) and other partnerships may continue to pay less than half the rate of taxes that working-class Americans must pay--robbing our country of badly needed revenue.

Reps. Sander Levin (D-Mich.) and Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, introduced H.R. 2834 in June. The bill will tax as ordinary income the fees--or “carried interest”--that partners of hedge funds, leveraged buyout firms and other partnerships earn.

Please use the form to tell your member of Congress to support H.R. 2834.

It's very like the GOP to tax middle-income Americans and NOT tax billionaires. That way, when they want to lower the tax "burden" (even though the "burden" falls mostly on the middle-class), the middle-class is eager to sign up. It's ingenious. Tax the middles at 30%, the wealthiest at 15%. Then go to the people and say "We want to lower your tax burden." Voila. Now the middles pay 28% and the wealthy pay 10%. Such a deal.

We need more brackets and higher rates on the top brackets. And labor should be taxed less than "investment". The sweat of your brow is what makes America great, not moving money from one Cayman account to another. Sheesh.

Happy Labor Day

From Wiki:

The LaFollette Civil Liberties Committee, or more formally, Committee on Education and Labor, Subcommittee Investigating Violations of Free Speech and the Rights of Labor (1936-1941), began as an inquiry into a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) investigation of methods used by employers in certain industries to avoid collective bargaining with unions. Between 1936 and 1941, the subcommittee published exhaustive hearings and reports on the use of industrial espionage, private police systems, strikebreaking services, munitions in industrial warfare, and employers' associations to break strikes and to disrupt legal union activities in other ways. Robert M. La Follette, Jr., a Republican and Progressive Party Senator from Wisconsin, chaired the Committee.

The Committee reported that as late as 1937, its census of working labor spies from 1933 to 1937 totaled 3,871 for the period. Private security firms like Pinkerton National Detective Agency and Burns were employed to infiltrate labor unions. The Committee concluded that espionage was "the most efficient method known to management to prevent unions from forming, to weaken them if they secure a foothold, and to wreck them when they try their strength."[1]
The Committee also reported:

"Such a spy system . . . places the employer in the very heart of the union council from the outset of any organizing effort. News of organizers coming into a town, contacts the organizers make among his employees, the names of employees who join the union, all organization plans, all activities of the union—these are as readily available to the employer as though he himself were running the union".

The inquiry by the Committee failed to achieve any effective regulatory legislation that might have curtailed the worst practices of strike-breaking agencies, but the revelations enraged the public.[1]

If only the public were paying enough attention to be "enraged" today.

Thank a union member for the two-day weekend, the 8-hour workday, and a host of other benefits. Sadly, capital has decided to flee to cheaper shores. But if those places where capital has put down its foot would pass similar legislation, we'd all be in a better situation. Anyway, thanks to the unions. For all their flaws, they rose up a solid middle class. Let's hope we can hang on to it.