Blame Kitteh

I’ve heard of blaming the dog when you fart, but this is a new one on me:

Florida law enforcement agents have charged 48-year-old Keith R. Griffin (shown at left) with 10 counts of possession of child pornography after a detective found over a thousand such images on his computer.

In his defense, Mr. Griffin told detectives “he would leave his computer on and his cat would jump on the keyboard. And when he returned there will be strange material downloaded.”

Sure, dude.  I’d say “nice try”, but it doesn’t even really qualify as a “try”, let alone a “nice” one.

Anybody else getting this

when you go to a Blogger site?

Huh?  My computer sending out automated queries?  Whaddafuck??

I read somewhere that Blogger is going through a DOS attack of some kind, maybe that’s it?  I hope?

Maxims for Morons

Rule #1:

Never attribute to fiscal pragmatism what can be credited to the Power of Prayer.

WTF?

Bill Maher on Teh Stoopid

A few days ago, Bill Maher was on CNN talking about the downward spiral of dumb that’s produced such things as Vice-Presidential candidates like Sarah Palin, birthers, baggers and an assorted bundle of born-again boneheads and spittle-flecked fascists:

Predictably, before the segment was over, CNN’s email boxes were bursting at the seams with a flood of angry, single-spaced, single-paragraphed, ALL-CAPSed Dispatches from the Dumb.  And why not?  Their rabid kneejerk responses are part of what makes them the Great Dumb — Maher is lucky nobody threatened his life (that we know of).

One of the points made during the interview was that the nation can’t be all that dumb — they elected a pretty smart guy as president last time around.   Maher countered “Look what he was running against”, but there’s something else.  Obama won, but only with about 53% of the vote — in almost any other country in the free world, he would have won by a lot more (something like 82% of Canadians surveyed said they would have voted for Obama).   Which kind of makes Maher’s point: while there are millions of very intelligent people in the USA, there’s no shortage of the Dumb.

Today at HuffPo, Maher elaborates on his theory with a New Rule:  Smart President doesn’t = Smart Country.

Arrrgghhh

Here’s 10 minutes of video that I challenge anyone with a functioning brainstem to get through without tearing at their hair and screaming “Holy fuck! The burning fucking stupid!!!“:  Richard Dawkins discusses evolution with creationist nutcase Wendy Wright of “Concerned Women of America” (“concerned” about the usual religious right obsessions, I don’t have to tell you what those are).

I love the expression on Wright’s face:  the same sly, stupid look that always steals over the faces of people like her when they’re confronted with scientific facts that don’t square with their ideological worldview.   Teh Stooopid… it burrrrrrrrns.

The Two-Minute Hate

Excerpts from Hate-Wing Radio, yesterday (August 5th):

There have already been nine right wing extremist murders in five separate events in the last year (four of them in the last 5 months), and it hasn’t slowed these vile fascist creeps down a bit.  If anything, they’re escalating.  To what end?

Nobody hates

…like the angry, angry left:

Rep. Brad Miller (D-NC) will not be hosting any town hall events this August — instead, he’s making himself available to constituents for one-on-one meetings about health care reform — and at least part of the reason is this: His offices have received threatening phone calls, including at least one direct threat against his life.

Oh well, sticks and stones will break my bones but threatening phone calls will never hurt me.  I mean, a death threat over the phone isn’t, you know, actually hurting someone.  And — uh, what’s that?:

As lobbyist-run groups encourage conservative activists to “rattle” members of Congress at local town hall events, Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), the president of the freshman Democratic class has revealed that “at least one freshman Democrat” has already been “physically assaulted at a local event.” Connolly warned that conservative groups had taken things to a “dangerous level“:

“When you look at the fervor of some of these people who are all being whipped up by the right-wing talking heads on Fox, to me, you’re crossing a line,’ Connolly said. ‘They’re inciting people to riot with just total distortions of facts. They think we’re going to euthanize Grandma and the government is going to take over.”

And who’s behind all the insanity?  The “lobbyist-run groups” provoking these brainless teabagging pitbulls and encouraging them to spiral into violence include “FreedomWorks” (that would include freedom from health care), and “Patients United Now” — infamous for their disinformation propaganda targeting Canada’s health care system.

Death threats and physical assaults:  this is the side you’re on, Shona Holmes!  You must be so proud!

(h/t JAB)

A Brave man

Dr. LeRoy Carhart seems to be intent on making good his promise to carry on Dr.Tiller’s legacy by opening a clinic in Wichita:

A Nebraska abortion provider says he still plans to open his own late-term abortion practice in Kansas in the wake of Dr. George Tiller’s shooting death.

Dr. LeRoy Carhart said Monday his “main choice” would be to locate the clinic in Wichita. Carhart said his attorney has talked to the Tiller family’s attorney, but it is too early to make an announcement.

And as predictably as a morning dump:

The anti-abortion group Operation Rescue on Monday announced a “Keep It Closed” campaign targeting Carhart. The group said it would protest at his Nebraska clinic Aug. 28-29.

“Keep It Closed” my ass:  nobody would be happier than Operation Scumbag to see another clinic open in Wichita.  As long as there’s a crusade targeting some doctor, the rubes will keep their wallets open, Operation Ratshit will maintain a positive cashflow, and doctors, clinic staff and patients will be harassed, threatened, demonized, intimidated and terrorized by these evil  brainless scum.    As long as it’s in Wichita, Operation Douchebag doesn’t have to spend any money relocating.

Their campaign against Dr. Carhart follows a formula almost identical to the one they used against Dr. Tiller — but hopefully, now that the FBI is taking a closer look at these domestic terrorism enablers and their relationship to Tiller assassin Scott Roeder, it won’t end the same way.

Pittsburgh murders

Another one of those weird, sick slaughters with no apparent motive:

A shooting at an LA Fitness gym outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, killed at least five people and wounded several others, a local official told CNN.  [...]

Witnesses told WTAE that a man unrecognized by the gym’s staff shot people in a Latin dance class.

A witness identified as Nicole told WTAE that about 30 women were in the class when “a middle-aged white male walked into the class. He had a big gym bag.”

“He looked out of place in a class full of women,” according to the witness, who told WTAE the man put down the bag, turned off the lights and opened fire.

Something rotten is happening to that country.

UPDATE: The killer, now identified as George Sodini, kept “a hate-filled online diary” that chronicled his madness.  He had apparently been planning this event for some time.  From last year:

November 5, 2008:
Planned to do this in the summer but figure to stick around to see the election outcome. This particular one got so much attention and I was just curious. Not like I give a flying fcuk who won, since this exit plan was already planned. Good luck to Obama! He will be successful. The liberal media LOVES him. Amerika has chosen The Black Man. Good! In light of this I got ideas outside of Obama’s plans for the economy and such. Here it is: Every black man should get a young white girl hoe to hone up on. Kinda a reverse indentured servitude thing. Long ago, many a older white male landowner had a young Negro wench girl for his desires. Bout’ time tables are turned on that shit. Besides, dem young white hoez dig da bruthrs! LOL. More so than they dig the white dudes! Every daddy know when he sends his little girl to college, she be bangin a bruthr real good. I saw it. “Not my little girl”, daddy says! (Yeah right!!) Black dudes have thier choice of best white hoez. You do the math, there are enough young white so all the brothers can each have one for 3 or 6 months or so.

The angry angry left strikes again.

Foetishist vs. Foestishist vs. Foestishist

It’s no secret that since he took over Operation Rescue, domestic terrorist sympathizer Troy Newman has been in a panic to distance the organization from its founder, the Sultan of Psychosis, Randall Terry.  It’s unclear why someone who has a convicted would-be clinic bomber working as his “policy advisor” would be worried about his organization’s image, but there you go.  Being anti-choice means living with such contradictions.

So, as the Battle of the Fetus Fetishists shifts up into high gear, Terry’s deranged followers have escalated with a new website that purports to tell The Truth about those who oppose them.  It’s Operation Rescue vs. Randall Terry vs. Troy Newman vs. Jill Stanek vs. Operation Rescue (the “New & Improved, Now With 38% Less Randall Terry” version) vs. “Pro Life Defender”.

PLD doesn’t toy with Troy:

…This has become clear to me: this fight is not a about the so called “mark,” Operation Rescue, but rather a deliberate attempt of character assassination of another pro-life leader’s character.  I can only guess that Satan is working thru Troy to bring down who many of us believe is the most powerful and effective leader that the pro-life movement has at this moment. What else can I surmise?

And it’s had its fill of Jill:

Jill, as I promised, I will now go public with this letter and my action plan has been implemented. Jill you are the main reason I started this web site, as I am sick of supposed pro lifers bashing other pro lifers with the zeal they should be using on the enemy. Jill, you and others show more respect to People like George Tiller than pro lifers who are actually working on ending Roe. For that, shame on you.

And no doubt there’ll be more to come, so pass the popcorn!  I love it when they go full-metal cannibal on each other — it leaves them less time to stalk doctors and plan bombings and shootings.

The next right-wing meme

The Dirty Little Secret the GayAgenda doesn’t want you to know about: gay honour killings.

Must be:  after all, domestic violence against women is a myth, but honour killings (not to be confused with the mythological “domestic violence”) are so rampant and so much more odious than (the imaginary) domestic violence murders that we need a harsher penalty than “Life Without” for them.

Gay honour killings:  you heard it here first!

Memo to WingNut Daily

You keep using that word “responsibility”.  I do not think it means what you think it means:

WorldNetDaily has put out a news release on its, uh, “scoop” about the forged “Kenyan birth certificate” that Orly Taitz has filed in court as proof of the president’s foreign ties. WND, says editor-in-chief Joseph Farah, is “working with document experts in the U.S. and with sources in Kenya” to verify the document. Which experts? Which sources? Don’t ask. Listen to Farah:

“Our goal, as always, is to seek the truth. This is not our document. It is evidence that has (sic) presented in a high-profile court case. And, thus, I believe we had a journalistic responsibility to publish it — just as I think every other news organization does.”

The “evidence” would be the fake “Kenyan Birth Certificate” that’s been circulating around the internet, prompting snickers and outright gales of laughter from almost everyone who sees it:

But maybe he’s right: Wingnut Daily does have a journalistic responsibility — to ensure that their content is never mistaken for anything even remotely resembling  “reality”.  And WND’s continuing commitment to crackpot conspiracy theories, fetus fetishizing proselytization and fine films like  “The Movie Obama Doesn’t Want You To See” (for the lowlow price of just $17.99) more than live up to that responsibility.

UPDATE: The thunder from down under!

(via dkos)

Yes

We know… we know.

This could get ugly

Here’s something that the US needs to prioritize along with health care reform because life could take a sharp turn for the worse if nothing is done to prevent it.

A million and a half angry, chronically-unemployed, flat-broke people with guns.  What could possibly go wrong?

A Question of Honour

Yesterday, Dr. Dawg commented with a link to an article about a country that outlawed honour killings.  The story, from almost 20 years ago, wasn’t about a Muslim country, but the very Catholic Brazil.  From March 29, 1991:

Brazil’s Supreme Court has ruled that a man can no longer kill his wife and win acquittal on the ground of “legitimate defense of honor.”

The ruling ends a 10-year legal battle. “It’s a historic decision,” said Jacqueline Pitanguy, a Brazilian women’s rights leader.

Although never part of the legal code of Brazil, the “defense of honor” strategy has been used by lawyers to win acquittals in thousands of cases of men on trial for murdering their wives. According to a study in Sao Paulo State for the period 1980-81, 722 men claimed defense of their honor as justification for killing women accused of adultery.

As in most countries where this hideous practice exists, those dwelling in isolated areas were most vulnerable:

In Brazil’s large coastal cities, juries have increasingly rejected the “defense of honor” as old-fashioned, but the strategy has continued to sway juries in Brazil’s interior.

“In the interior of the country, it is easier and cheaper for a man to hire a gunslinger to kill his wife than to get a divorce and to separate the property,” said Rose Marie Muraro, a feminist writer who lobbied against the honor defense.

The article makes a point that’s been lost in the paranoid post-9/11 world: honour killing is a phenomenon that seems to cross many cultural and religious lines, the common thread being subjugation of women.  The first such killing I ever heard of in Canada involved Punjabi Sikhs,  yet Canadians don’t consider honour killing a “Sikh Problem” any more than Brazil considered it a “Catholic Problem”.

Interestingly, I remember a flurry of anti-Sikh/Hindu sentiment out here following the Air India bombing and some politically-motivated murders.  The media had just dipped its toes into the “honour killing” issue in that community when 9/11 rocked our world.  So, when Dr.Dawg asks in his comment, “How did the phrase “honour killing” become Muslimized?”, I can only speculate that it’s because that’s where the media spotlight has been focused for the last 8 years.

Your thoughts?

UPDATE: Robert got there first, with another example of the cultural diversity of honour killing.

Ring toss!

The lengths some people will go to just to keep their faces plastered all over the news!  SaWah and The First Dude hangin’ it up?  From the Mudflats:

According to the Immoral Minority’s bombshell post this morning, the Palin’s are calling it quits, she tossed her wedding ring in the lake, she has purchased land in Montana, Todd pulled a gun on Levi Johnston back in the summer of 2008, Levi has given an “explosive” interview to Vanity Fair Magazine, and Sherry Johnston’s court date was pushed up to allow negotiations which were not possible with Palin as governor pressuring for the maximum penalties in her drug case.

Flying wedding rings, guns being pulled, and still using her office to get people In Trouble right to the Bitter End, eh?  But never mind — her PR person is disputing the story (on facebook, no less):

Yet again, some so-called journalists have decided to make up a story. There is no truth to the recent “story” (and story is the correct term for this type of fiction) that the Palins are divorcing. The Palins remain married, committed to each other and their family, and have not purchased land in Montana (last week it was reported to be Long Island).

Less than one week ago, Governor Palin asked the media to “quit making things up.” We appreciate that the more professional journalists decided to question this story before repeating it.

But but but when it comes to SaWah, (all together now): “You can’t make this shit up!”

(h/t Dammit Janet)

Kill Granny

The GOP’s demented fearmongering about health care reform goes on and on.   “Birthers” became “Deathers” as Obama’s Evil Plan to Kill Old People was exposed! by a GOP congressman on the prestigious Alex Jones show (between discussions about Obama’s birth certificate, the New World Order and what really happened on 9/11).   Where does it all end?  With Obama’s foul plan to Kill Granny?:

A campaign on conservative talk radio, fueled by President Obama’s calls to control exorbitant medical bills, has sparked fear among senior citizens that the health-care bill moving through Congress will lead to end-of-life “rationing” and even “euthanasia.”

The controversy stems from a proposal to pay physicians who counsel elderly or terminally ill patients about what medical interventions they would prefer near the end of life and how to prepare instructions such as living wills.  [...]

But on right-leaning radio programs, religious e-mail lists and Internet blogs, the proposal has been described as “guiding you in how to die,” “an ORDER from the Government to end your life,” promoting “death care” and, in the words of antiabortion leader Randall Terry, an attempt to “kill Granny.“

Aw geez, you just had to know that deranged spittle-flecked jackoff and Maestro of Malapropism Terry would be somehow involved.   To a batshit insane theocratic nutcase who detests the idea of people (okay, women) exercising self-determination at any time during their lives, the concept of choosing and preparing for one’s own permanent checkout must be intolerable.  Who could forget the Terry Schiavo travesty?  He was at the bottom of that one, too.  Now he’s needlessly scaring the shit out of little old ladies to keep them from getting access to universal healthcare… way to keep it classy, Randall!

And sadly, the Kill Granny campaign isn’t where it ends — this will get a lot worse before it gets better.  Fasten your seatbelts and have the barf bags handy!