ouch

The big breaking news story today was that Michael Jackson died intestate.



Wow. I guess he had more surgery than I realized.

true dat

"Is America dying? It’s hard to be sure. But we’re clearly a land of brainless ciphers—and over the course of the past eight years, we have paid a very high price for that powerful dumbness. A modern society can’t run on dumb—and we are now dumb to the core."


Somerby puts it over the fence. Read more at: http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh062909.shtml

nature sublime

The other day, I was presenting a live seasonal star show in the dome. It was a summer afternoon, and a young boy was attending the show with family. He was clutching a jar with some holes poked in the lid, and upon a closer look I saw that he had apparently caught some fireflies the previous night and had them captive in the jar. I began the presentation, letting the Sun set in the west, and fast-forwarded to the midnight hours in order to be able to get the classic Sagittarius/Scorpio/Milky Way southern sky of summer, with the Summer Triangle of Vega, Altair, and Deneb high overhead, and brilliant Jupiter rising in the eastern sky. After just a couple of minutes discussing the prominent points of the summer sky I noticed some faint light but really didn't think anything of it, but within another couple of minutes it had become very obvious that the eight or so fireflies contained in the jar had decided that it was nighttime and they started to blink as furiously as they would be doing if it actually was midnight. I thought I had seen everything possible in a planetarium, and suddenly I was presented with one of the most delightful of surprises. What an extraordinary universe we live in.

the other glove drops

childhood's end

ow!

isn't it obvious?

The puzzling "hiking trip" that South Carolina governor Mark Sanford has putatively taken over the last several days has the media all aflutter with theories, or at least wild guesses as to where he has been and what he has actually been doing.

I think I can tell you.

Well, I can't tell you for sure what he has actually been up to during his mysterious absence, but I can tell you what the only story he can get away with is.


Governor Sanford is going to step before the cameras and announce that he had big decisions to make and needed to search his soul and that getting some private time to chat with god out in the great wilderness of America would be the right way to do it, and he will announce this with such overt, pious fervor that nobody will dare be rude enough to question it any further. The theocratic base of the republican party will swoon, the media will quietly accept it in order to not be accused of being hostile to religion, and Sanford will ooze piety like Jim Bakker reborn.

It's the only possible play.

backstabbing the dead

Joan Rivers, who now resembles Julie Newmar's character in the film "Millenium," today called Johnny Carson a "nasty man" and a "bastard." That's the same Joan Rivers who wouldn't have had a career in show business were it not for Johnny Carson.

I think I'm going to start calling her "Essa" too.

Nicotine goes to China

President Obama will be signing a bill today which finally permits the government to regulate and obligate the tobacco industry pretty much like drug companies, giving broad latitude to reduce nicotine content, advertising content, and marketing to youth in order to capture the next generation of addicts to be killed for profit.

Bravo.

Of course, it probably required a president who is a cigarette smoker to push that bill into law since he has some plausible deniability to claims that he's singling out tobacco companies as part of some kind of liberal anti-smoker agenda.



Perhaps we should elect a Democratic gun nut next...

huh

Cool.

and that's the way it was

Sad news is breaking, Walter Cronkite, age 92, is gravely ill. I suspect he is about to make his final exit from life. He may very well go down in history as the last of the real television news people. It's frightening to think of the integrity of his reporting and then look at the callow and insipid teleprompter readers we have today, emblems of the demise of the free press and democracy in this country. Before you go, Walter, let me say thank you for proving that it actually was possible at one time to pursue the truth with courage and conviction.


UPDATE:
Cronkite's spokesperson states that the legendary journalist is home recovering from a bout with illness, but is not in critical condition and is recovering as satisfactorily as possible for a man approaching the century mark. Live long and prosper, Mr. Cronkite.

thanks, you've done enough already

From the Wichita Eagle:


Abortion opponents plan to return to Wichita this weekend to conduct a prayer vigil at the now-closed clinic where slain doctor George Tiller performed late-term abortions.

The prayer vigil and what is being called a memorial service at the former Women’s Health Care Services, 5107 E. Kellogg, will be held at noon on Saturday during a “prayer walk” extending the length of Kellogg through Wichita, organizers said in a prepared statement.

“As members of the pro-life and faith community, we are coming together for a time of prayer and remembrance,” said the Rev. Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition, which is based in Washington, D.C. “We will be praying for the Tiller family as well as asking God to bring healing to the city of Wichita.

“We will be asking God to end the violence both inside and outside of abortion clinics. Specifically, we will be praying that Wichita respects human rights and social justice and that no abortions would ever be performed in the city again.”

Tiller was shot to death on the morning of May 31 as he served as an usher in the foyer of Reformation Lutheran Church. Scott Roeder, 51, has been charged with first-degree murder and aggravated assault, and his preliminary hearing is now set for June 30.

The event opens with a prayer vigil Friday night at Living Word Outreach, 3033 S. Hillside.



They will cap off the event by going to the cemetery where Dr. Tiller has been interred and taking a group dump on his grave.

No Morals Part III: The gift that keeps on giving...

Wow. Full story at this link:

"Fire David Letterman" Protest Becomes Hatefest, Draws More Media Than Protesters"

How charming Sarah's supporters are, with cordial comments like:
"How dare he?" asked yet a third, the most offensive of all. "When he has a bastard son, and a slut for a wife" (Letterman's wife Lasko has kept a notoriously low profile).

Still no moral standards

Sherri Goforth, an executive assistant for Tennessee State Rep. Diane Black (R-Gallatin), sent this picture out to other legislative staffers:


Goforth admitted to sending the email, but she apologized only for sending it to the wrong people.

"I went on the wrong email and I inadvertently hit the wrong button," Goforth said. "I'm very sick about it, and it's one of those things I can't change or take back."

No moral standards

From Huffington Post (Filed by Marcus Baram)

Rusty DePass, South Carolina GOP Activist, Says Escaped Gorilla Was Ancestor Of Michelle Obama

South Carolina GOP activist and former chairman of the state elections commission Rusty DePass has apologized for saying a gorilla that escaped from a zoo was an "ancestor" of Michelle Obama.

The controversy started when FITSNews, a local politics Website, obtained a screengrab of DePass's comment on Facebook.

After an aide to state Attorney General Henry McMaster detailed the escape of the gorilla from Columbia's Riverbanks Zoo, DePass responded with a comment: "I'm sure it's just one of Michelle's ancestors - probably harmless."

DePass later admitted to WIS News that he was referring to Michelle Obama and said, "I am as sorry as I can be if I offended anyone. The comment was clearly in jest."

DePass, who was a county co-chair for Rudy Giuliani's 2008 campaign, supported the push to impeach President Bill Clinton in the late 90s, writing in an op-ed for The State, "Do Republicans have higher moral standards than Democrats?"

PS to DePass: When was the last time Queen Elizabeth II of England invited YOU to Buckingham Palace for a private tour of her personal residence?

Michelle Obama, Queen Elizabeth's Friendship Revealed After She And Daughters Get Rare Private Tour Of Palace

wankers

again

When does the right of ordinary, peaceful citizens to not get shot by a random right-wing nutjob finally begin to take precedence over the right of right-wing nutjobs to bear arms?

Dewdrops on Mars

I've been meaning to post this and kept forgetting about it, but it's better late than never.

Last year, it was announced that the Phoenix lander on Mars had discovered what gave every indication of being a subsurface layer of ice just an inch or two below the top layer of Martian dirt. That was a very important discovery because the widely accepted theory is that abundant liquid water is the primary and essential component of conditions hospitable to life, and that if there is a lot of buried ice on Mars then there is a stronger likelihood that life has existed or still may exist in some form on our neighbor world.

Well, the ante has been raised. Last month, photographs were released of a phenomenon that appeared to be liquid water droplets condensed as dew on the legs of the Phoenix lander. With dew being an unremarkable occurrence on our native planet it is easy to dismiss these possible drops of moisture as being insignificant, but if the conclusion that water exists both as ice and as liquid dew on Mars is correct it is a monumental discovery of enormous significance.

If there is life on Mars, a planet that is right next door to the Earth, it is almost a certainty that life exists everywhere in the universe and is a normal and expected development in the existence of planetary bodies.

We are not alone.

my turn

Mr. President, if you want to find a look-alike of yourself in Egypt, you can do much better than a tiny hieroglyph...

Rush Limbaugh just happied in his pants

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705308606/Utahn-charged-with-threats.html

Those Islamic terrorists are all alike...

Merciful storekeeper changes robber's mind, religion.

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A potential victim became a compassionate counselor during a recent robbery attempt, changing the would-be criminal's mind -- and apparently his religion.

Surveillance video shows storekeeper Mohammad Sohail holding a robber at bay with a shotgun....

....Sohail said he reached under the counter, grabbed his gun and told the robber to drop the bat and get down on his knees.

"He's crying like a baby," Sohail said. "He says, 'Don't call police, don't shoot me, I have no money, I have no food in my house.' "

Amidst the man's apologies and pleas, Sohail said he felt a surge of compassion.

He made the man promise never to rob anyone again and when he agreed, Sohail gave him $40 and a loaf of bread.

"When he gets $40, he's very impressed, he says, 'I want to be a Muslim just like you,' "...

Entire Story at CNN

Spokesmodel in training...

Come on, 'Essa. The POTUS's name is Obama--the terrorist's name is Bin Laden.

Slow down, take a breath and get it right. You'll never grow up to be a journalist if you can't keep your heads of state and your terrorists straight....

squirt update

IT'S A BOY!

go fuck yourselves

Today, the anti-choice amd anti-American scum who have coddled murderous reprobates like Scott Roeder are all beating the "we don't approve of this" drum as fast and furiously as they can.

Sorry, but you people prepared the way for the murders of physicians like Dr. Tiller and his blood is on your hands. You have stained the honor of the city in which I live. Where were you when you had the opportunity to denounce these people instead of letting your mouthpieces like Bill O'Reilly foment violence? Where were you when people like Pat Robertson blamed things like the devastation of hurricane Katrina on the existence of safe, legal abortion in the United States?

You have the nerve to claim that this most political of abominable acts is being "politicized" by the left, yet the act itself was political terrorism of the most naked sort. If you are serious about being against this sort of violence, why do you not renounce the people on your side who are trying so hard to portray this as justifiable even though Dr. Tiller was providing a valuable and legal medical service for people in the worst of circumstances?

I am more disgusted by the right-wing of this country than I ever have been, and if the argument is that violence is justified by political disagreement, then prepare to reap the whirlwind, because we Americans who believe in freedom and rule of law have had it with you. As far as I am concerned, you have lost your privileges of participation in our governance, so until you prove you are serious and clean your own house you would be well advised to walk carefully.

You people cleared the land, plowed the field, added compost, planted seed, weeded, watered and fertilized the sprouts that ensued, kept the rabbits and birds away, and now that there are full-grown plants bearing the fruit you prepared for you express puzzlement at how it all happened and claim that you are not responsible for them. Sorry, that won't work any more.


If you really want civil war, bring it. Just remember that we beat your asses the last time you tried to take over this country and we will do it again if we have to.