Rabid Google leftists block paranoid wingnut websites!

HAHAHAHAHA! You may have heard about the renegade warning message from Google that was appearing on a lot of websites earlier today. I first read about it on a couple of progressive blogs, where there was some mild curiousity about what might be up, but no panic.  What for?

In Wingnut World, it was a different story. When the warning messages started appearing, the spittle flecked and the cheetos flew as paranoid conservatives spun their bearings and panic buttons were pushed all around:  the Obama-controlled Google (Goobama) was blocking conservative websites for their own nefarious purposes, and…

OHMYGODWHATTHEFUCK!!! Free speech lockdown in Obamerica!!!

From American Stinker:

These incidents come on the heels of the news that Google moved quickly to spike a “Google Bomb” aimed at Obama while taking 3 years to stop similar bombs against Bush

Ahhh.  The wingnutters were pissed that Google intercepted and destroyed their Google bomb in record time, compared to the 3 years that “miserable failure” was directed to Bush’s bio.  So when they started seeing all the warning messages, they just assumed that they were being summarily censored as punishment by the hateful marxists at Google.  It all makes sense now.

Back on the Planet Earth, what really happened:

Computer users doing Google searches during a nearly one-hour period Saturday morning were greeted with disturbing but erroneous messages that every site turned up in the results might be harmful.

The company blamed the mistake on human error and apologized for any inconvenience caused to users and site owners whose pages were incorrectly labeled.

Nothing to see here, of course.  The only weirdness about this little routine is that the wingnuts apparently only googled their own wingnut sites and didn’t try googling some lefty sites as well,  just to, you know, see?  And make sure they weren’t jumping to conclusions and looking, oh, I don’t know… stupid??   But what’s the fun in that, when their way they get to indulge in self-righteousness, indignance and persecution all rolled up in one paranoid package?  If only for a moment!

And speaking of the bottomless barrel

The “torture/abortion” meme, illustrated by the moronic cartoon I posted about the other day, seems to be the new anti-choice talking point making the rounds. The latest batshit-crazy whackadoo to buy that ticket and take her readers on the ride is fetusfan Naomi Lakritz, who commences foaming her way through a column in yesterday’s Calgary Herald thusly:

Barely 10 days before his inauguration, President Barack Obama appeared on ABC’s This Week program to remind Americans that “I have said that under my administration we will not torture.”Well, Mr. President, if you are a man of your word, and you find torture abhorrent, you cannot also go ahead with passing the Freedom of Choice Act. If waterboarding at Guantanamo is torture, then so is the piercing of a full-term infant’s skull with a scissors and the suctioning out of its brain in a partial-birth abortion. If it is inhumane to subject a suspected terrorist to a simulation of his own drowning death, how much more so is it to torture and kill a helpless baby at the moment of birth?

Obviously there’s No Time To Waste, as babies are being Tortured even as we speak. FIRST paragraph in and the bullshit is already “thick in the air like locusts”.

Bullshit the first: The procedure Naomi so spittle-fleckingly describes is never done, as “full-term infants” are never aborted. I don’t think it’s going out on a limb to suggest that most doctors, confronted with a 9-months-pregnant woman who’s suddenly snapped and no longer wants the baby, would advise waiting a few more minutes and adopting it out.

Bullshit the second: The Freedom Of Choice Act would only prohibit government restrictions on abortion up to the point of fetal viability (with the usual exceptions for medical emergencies). It maintains the status quo with regard to late-term abortion, including the infamous “partial-birth” abortion ban.

These and other anti-choice lies and propaganda about FOCA are debunked by Snopes, here.

But that doesn’t stop the demented Naomi from continuing her psychotic rant:

If the mother is such a ditz she can’t decide after 40 weeks of pregnancy what to do about it, there is no reason why she should reserve the right to abort up to the last minute.

Never mind the “up to the last minute”, which any sane person knows is utter tripe. “Such a ditz” – yes, that’s definitely how I’d characterize a woman (and her family) faced with the heartbreaking decision of terminating a pregnancy that was wanted and joyfully anticipated but by some cruel whim of nature, was not to be.

If I believed in Hell, I’d be sure that there’s a special corner table reserved for hideous self-loathing misogynists Naomi Lakritz and Barbara Kay.

(h/t – Calgal in the comments)

From the bottomless barrel

The cataclysmic stupidity of anti-choice hyperbole really knows no bounds, does it? Snagged at BigBlueWhoop:

Yet another reason (as if we needed any more) why they are not to be engaged in any serious way, they are just to be mocked and ridiculed.

UPDATE: E-fucking-gads.  In case you didn’t notice, as I didn’t (being just out of bed when I posted this), Alison points out in the comments that “children” is even spelled wrong, fer fucksake.   Sometimes this is just way too easy.  MORANS!

We have teh Googles and we will use them…

… and WordPress will help:

Hahahahaha! indeed.

What a difference an election makes

From Feministe, an interesting pictorial juxtaposition:

(1) Bush signs the “Partial-Birth” Abortion Ban Act, November 5, 2003.

(2) Obama signs the Lilly Ledbetter Pay Equity Bill, January 29, 2009.

Wow. And wow. Could there be two pictures about the same subject matter — the signing of bills affecting women’s rights — that look so different?

Full house

Don’t look now, Jim Bob and Michelle, but you’ve got competition!

The California baby factory woman who recently gave birth to octuplets (that’s eight, count ‘em, 8 babies) already has 6 little anklebiters running around at home. That means this family now has fourteen (14) kids:

CBS News has learned the mother who gave birth to the octuplets has six other children.

An acquaintance who didn’t want to be identified told Early Show national correspondent Hattie Kauffman the mom has four older boys and two girls.

“She is young,” the acquaintance says, “fairly young. She has six children already. And in those six children, she has a set of twins.”

While the hospital where the octuplets were born, Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center in Bellflower, Calif., some 17 miles southeast of L.A., hasn’t confirmed that the mom used fertility drugs, there are no documented cases of naturally conceived octuplets, Kauffman points out.

Okay: it’s definitely not my cup of tea (more like my vision of HELL), but as long as they’ve got the ways and means to support these kids, it’s their business, right? Right:

CBS News has learned that the family of the octuplets born this week outside Los Angeles filed for bankruptcy and abandoned a home a little over a year-and-a-half ago.

Early Show national correspondent Hattie Kauffman says the mother is in her mid-thirties and lives with her parents.

There’s been no mention of the octuplets’ father, Kauffman observes.

Would it be hideously cynical of me to wonder if there might be some ulterior moneymaking motive behind this? And what the fuck was her doctor thinking, giving fertility drugs to someone who already has 6 kids they can’t afford to feed?

Lifting the barrel

This cartoon is wrong and stupid in too many ways to list, but it’s typical of how anti-choice pinheads really think:

Just one more reason why they’re not to be engaged, they are just to be mocked:  because they really are so cataclysmically feeble-minded that they can’t even begin to understand the concept of the word “choice”.

(via pandagon)

Crunch time in tech sector

WARNING: To those not already depressed, anxiety-ridden and freaked out about the hideous state of the economy — this might harsh your buzz a little.

Behold the TechCrunch Layoff Tracker:

This handy little angstometer keeps track of layoffs in the tech sector in  “real time” (as opposed to “unreal time”, that  in which we’ve all been living for the last 10 years), and lists the companies dropping the axe (or in some cases, closing their doors).   The tech sector, you might recall, was where all the jobs we were losing in other areas were supposed to be going.

I have no idea what this all means, but none of it gives me a good feeling.  However, for anyone still dumb enough to invest in the stock market, it might at least be an indication of what to avoid.  (Bitter?  Nahh.)

Online lexicon just got a little bit better

First there was “santorum“, named for the former Republican Senator.

Now there’s a new word making the rounds that originates with Pastor Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church — “saddlebacking“.

I was wondering how long it would be before someone came up with something like that… I mean, “saddleback”?   That’s just too tempting in so many ways.

(from pharyngula)

Morning kitteh

Walking the walk

The White House is walking the pro-choice talk, and that means walking the fetus fetishizing squawk right out the door:

 

The White House has sacked the pro-life administrator for the USAID foreign assistance program so the agency can begin implementing President Barack Obama’s pro-abortion policies. The move follows Obama rescinding the Mexico City Policy to allow taxpayer funding of groups that promote abortions overseas.

Today, the White House announced that it has it has replaced Kent Hill, the acting Administrator of USAID under President Bush.

This is no surprise, since it only makes sense to get rid of anyone who might stand in the way of progress (and that means firing them, not firing something at them).

What I find endlessly amusing is that this isn’t even being reported by anyone but the screamers at “Lifenews” — no serious individual or news source even gives a shit about these anti-abortion freaks and fatheads anymore.

And it’s about time!!!

R v Morgentaler, 21 and counting

It’s been 21 years since women’s freedom in Canada took a giant leap forward with the Supreme Court of Canada decision R. v. Morgentaler, which took reproductive issues out of the hands of the state and put them back where they belong, with women, their families, and their doctors.

Since then, Canada has blazed a trail of reproductive freedom and led the world in being the only country where the government is not allowed to intrude into the wombs of its citizens:

Abortion laws vary widely by country, ranging from Chile, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Malta, and Vatican City, which ban the procedure entirely, to Canada, which places no restrictions on the provision of abortion whatsoever.

“No restrictions on the provision of abortion whatsoever” – should be followed with “by the government”. Rather, restrictions are self-imposed by women and doctors; there’s been no need for the state’s “helpful” intervention, and our 21-year experiment in “lawless” abortion has proven that beyond any shadow of doubt.

They said abortion rates would go up: the abortion rate has been continuously declining… and without regressive legislation.

They said women would go batshit crazy and abort viable late-term fetuses with wreckless abandon right up to the moment before birth: 99.6% of abortions are performed early-term, and the late-term only for medical or health reasons. Not only are women NOT batshit crazy (but thanks for the vote of confidence, fetus fetishists — misogyny much?), but doctors, guided by ethics, won’t perform such procedures… and without regressive legislation.

They said, and continue to say, a lot of rotten gibberish that ultimately has little impact in the real world. Because the evidence is in that the status quo works — 21 years of it.

Here’s to another 21! And thanks again, Dr. M!

Litter box liner, coffee table style

Believe it or not, the Washington Times (Moonies, yes) has something called “The Bush Store” where you can buy Bush stuff, like this “commemorative book”:
Oh my god. A coffee table book no less, resplendent with the goofy visage of the former fratboy-president looking constipated.

Here’s your chance to be one of the very first to own this compelling coffee table styled book about an extraordinary president in turbulent times. “W” is packed with gripping pictures and stories all beautifully presented in this historical keepsake presentation of all eight years of the Presidency of George W. Bush. Be the first to own this memorable book and be proud to share it with your friends and family.

Proud to share it? I wouldn’t use it to line the litter box — I doubt if my cats would dignify it by pissing on it. $24.99 +$6.00 shipping! Who? Who?? Maybe I don’t really want to know.

Conservapedia hit list revealed!

The Morals’n Values Wiki “Conservapedia” published an odd article recently — a list of all Senate Democrats from states with Republican Governors. The significance of these particular Senators is that in the event they are “unable to complete their terms” (so to speak), the Republican Governors are legally responsible for appointing (presumably Republican) replacements.

You see where this is going, right? The original page is no longer happening, but thanks to the miracle of screenshot technology (and Wonkette), here it is:

“Nice Senate term you got there, Mark Begich of Alaska. Be a shame if something happened to it…”

Sadly, after the nefarious list was discovered and publicized by some shit-disturbing liberal heathen bloggers, the page suddenly went MIA:

Until a few minutes ago, when it became:

Maybe they’re making a new list without all the incriminating verbiage this time, or maybe they’re hoping the power of suggestion in the title will inspire Conservapediacs to make their own lists. On the other hand, Conservapedia has a page on Evolution that repeatedly references something called “Creation Science”, so it wouldn’t be surprising if they thought a bell could be un-rung.

(via pharyngula)

8 is enough

The parents were only expecting seven:

Doctors methodically delivered a mother’s seven babies, five boys and two girls, just as they had repeatedly rehearsed.

Then came the eighth.

The surprising sixth boy and eighth child made Monday’s mass birth not just remarkable but historic. [...]

Hospital officials would not release the mother’s name nor say whether she had used fertility drugs.

Well no shit Sherlock. But:

They did say she planned to breast feed all the children.

Yikes!  Unacceptable trauma!  Say goodbye to firm and perky.

Buh-bye

When wingnut welfare runs out:

William Kristol’s last column? The world should be so lucky.

LOL

(from failblog)

Grand Old Drama Queens

Some of the remnants of the retrograde GOP are accusing US President Obama of “picking a fight with Rush Limbaugh”, bringing the “bipartisan spirit “of the house crashing down, and — HAHAHAHAHA! — risking a new “culture war”. Boo hoo hoo!:

Mr Obama has told Republicans in Washington to stop listening to the right-wing talk show host Rush Limbaugh, risking a new culture war with conservative voters.

His exhortation came as he enraged other Republicans by reversing George W Bush’s ban on funding international aid to charities that perform or provide information about abortions. [...]

The president responded with a clear signal that he is prepared to ram the bill through without the bipartisan consensus he promised to construct, telling Republican leaders from the House of Representatives: “I won. I’m the president.”

That’s right: Obama won, and conservative drama queens like Limbaugh need to get over it and move on. As for a new “culture war”, when did these clowns stop jabbering about the old one? And who the fuck is Rush Limbaugh anyway? He’s a talk show host who’s freaking right out as he sees his already marginal relevance fading fast. Here’s his bipartisan post-election comment:

“We are being told we have to hope he succeeds, that we have to bend over and grab our ankles… because his father was black, because he’s the first black president, we’ve got to accept this.”

It’s a wrong and scummy statement in about 18 different ways, but one thing it ain’t is “bipartisan”.

American right wingers have been spoiled rotten by about 12 years of getting whatever they wanted. Now the other shoe has dropped, and it’s heavy. Too goddamn bad. Obama should treat them exactly the way they’ve treated Democrats for the last 8 years — my way or the highway.

Get used to it, dittoheads. You’ve had your time; now it’s time for you to get out of the way.

UPDATE: They’ve only been doing it non-stop for years on end, so we shouldn’t be surprised to find out that this time is no exception: they’re lying.  Again.    In the comments, Chet tells us what Obama really said:

And of course it’s a lie anyway; what he said was, “You can’t just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done”; in other words, that having only one narrow point of view is not productive. At no point did he say that they must stop listening forever or completely.

CYA Time at New Life Church

That New Life Church of Pastor Ted’s sounds like it was a regular wild sex beast orgy on wheels back  when he was running things. NEW allegations of “improper behaviour” are emerging, Pastor Ted is at the hot center of them, and the New Life Church is running for cover:

New Life Church tried to head off the fallout that has embroiled the congregation in its second sex scandal involving Ted Haggard, the Rev. Brady Boyd said Saturday.  [..]

The latest Haggard scandal began Thursday when Boyd was notified by a Colorado Springs TV station that a church volunteer was going public with allegations against Haggard. On Friday, Boyd sent out an e-mail to inform thousands of New Life members that the church knew about the allegations and gave cash to the man, whom the church won’t name because of confidentiality rules observed by preachers.

Boyd also said in the e-mail that over the past two years several others at the church have come forward to report “inappropriate behavior” by Haggard prior to his firing for sex with a gay Denver prostitute.

Naturally, Pastor Ted’s friends at his former place of employment have been quick to rise to his defense:

“Let’s separate New Life’s reputation from Ted Haggard’s reputation,” Boyd said. “Ted is not affiliated with New Life. These recent allegations are on his plate. Not ours.”

That’s what I like about these people, when the shit hits the fan, they’re so stand-up… if by “stand up” you mean “stand up and run away as fast as possible in the other direction”.

Och!!

Never mind the re-opening of Parliament today, some of our MPs are more interested in celebrating Robbie Burns Day, and why not?:

Tonight, Kingston and the Islands MP Peter Milliken will host his annual Robbie Burns Day party, an event that usually falls close to his anniversary of first being elected Speaker of the House of Commons.

This year, the event falls the day after the official Robbie Burns Day, which, for those who missed it, was yesterday – the 250th anniversary of the legendary Scottish poet’s birth.

The Parliament Hill event will have a distinct Kingston flavour, which doesn’t include the haggis.

Three pipers, a drummer and eight dancers from the Rob Roy Pipe Band and Highland Dancers group will be on Parliament Hill tonight to perform, which has become a tradition for the traditional meal honouring Burns.

I forgot to break out the haggis yesterday, but so what?  If our elected officials can celebrate a day late, so can I.  It is the 250th anniversary, after all — if that isn’t a good reason to bash it up, I don’t know what is.

So here’s how it goes:  I usually have a wee haggis, nuked in the old traditional way, which is 10-15 minutes on medium-high.  While the haggis is cooking, it’s time for a pre-dinner libation, preferably a rare blend of 15 single malts.  Then the main event:  the Haggis is served and the Robbie Burns Day food poem is invoked:

Some hae meat and canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it;
But we hae meat, and we can eat,
And sae the Lord be thankit.

accompanied by a dinner-time drink.  Then after a short break for a pre-dessert drink, dessert is served, accompanied by a dessert drink.  When it’s all over, it wraps up with a post-dinner drink (last step repeated as necessary).

Lastly, here’s a video that shows how haggis is made:

Kind of explains all the alcohol, doesn’t it?

Useful Idiot of the Week

Exhibit “A”:

Gordie doesn’t seem to remember that we already had “this debate”, 20 years of it, and it ended 21 years ago, almost to the day.

I find it hard to believe that someone could blithely comment at SUZANNE’s place hoping to find some “common ground” with anti-choicers, get slapped upside the head for advocating a “late-term” law when “LIFE starts at conception“:

and STILL not understand why pro-choicers oppose any kind of legal foot in the door for these people.

FUCK!

Just for PSA

(belated h/t – SQ)

Calling all Mactards

The computer we so adore is 25 years old this week:

It may seem hard to believe – especially to Apple’s dedicated fanclub – but it was 25 years ago this week that Apple first unveiled the Macintosh computer.

The shiny new product was showcased during an opulent (reported costs vary from $900,000 to $1.5 million) TV commercial directed by now- legendary director/producer Ridley Scott, which aired on 22 January that year during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII – although you couldn’t actually buy one until a few days later on 24 January 1984.

Running Mac OS 1.0, the first-ever Mac featured a nine inch black and white screen with a 512×342 resolution. It had128k of RAM, 8Mhz of power and took 400k 3.5-inch floppy disks. The first Mac cost a mere $2,495 back then, and Apple sold about 72,000 in the first few months.

A 9″ screen? 128k of RAM?? WTF’s a “k”? Actually I think 128K is about 1/8 of a MB, isn’t it? Teehee. But $2495! Holy MACkeral! Today, I can get one of these little beauties,

with a 20″ screen and 2 GBs of RAM (at least) for about $1400. (Mine is the older but similar-looking white version of the one in the pictures, sadly with only a 17″ screen, but a new one is on the 2009 agenda, especially since my auntie just got one.  I’m too jealous.)

Happy birthday, Mac, you’re all growed up and gorgeous now.

Almost missed

but Badtux reminded me — Friday kitteh-blogging:

“What you want now?”

“Yes?  You?  Again?”

Transition

You want creepy? I got creepy:

That center picture especially! {{{shudder}}} It’s like Bush with a face lift.

At least it ends well.

(From buzzfeed via andrew sullivan)