Well...criminitleys...

Yesterday I shared some video on Sarah Palin, the new vice presidential nominee for the Republicans...

I didn't do any research on her meself...except the cursory look to find that she'd given birth to a baby with Down's Syndrome, and was anti-abortion...

Today, horror of horrors...I found out that she is *for* teaching creationism in schools.

As for the Down's Syndrome thing...she knew the baby would have that before she gave birth, and gave birth to it anyway...

I'm not prepared to say whether she should have had an abortion or not - Down's Syndrome kids can function alright in society, although it's a cruel society ...

And at least it wasn't an autistic kid that sits in his feces all day, hitting himself with his hands and generally acting like a vegetable...

For myself, I'm for abortion. If a woman doesn't want to carry a baby full term, she shouldn't have to. The thing to do of course is to teach young girls that having a baby is not a cachet, and teaching them how to use condoms, which of course the fundamentalists don't like and which just doesn't make any sense to me.

Want to get rid of poverty in the world? Allow people to stop having babies they can't afford to have and can't take care of...whether it be via abortion or by the more common sense solution of using a condom or some other form of birth control!

Anyway...all of a sudden I'm much less happy about the choice of Sarah Palin than I was. Back when I knew only the surface details - she was an outdoorswoman, she was a hunter, she'd put a stop to Ted Stephens' ridiculous Bridge to Nowhere, I was all for her... but as soon as you learn a little bit more... it all goes pear-shaped, as the Brits say.

Well, we're hosed regardless of who gets into power now.

Sarah Palin - Republican VP Nominee

Here's some YouTube clips of Sarah Palin.

Why do people like crooked politicians?

Ted Stephens, a total jerk who at age 84 is *still* senator from Alaska, won his primary in a landslide, despite the fact that he's under indictment for criminal acts.

Even though he's facing federal charges, Ted Stevens remains feisty as ever. The 84-year-old Republican handily won his primary race for Senate and immediately proclaimed the November election a "piece of cake."

I know he's a total jerk because my dad, who used to fly him around, said so, and so did the pilots and stewardesses that my dad worked with.

And let us not forget that Stevens is responsible for the Bridge to Nowhere - a bridge that helps only his family!

And yet the people of Alaska continue to vote for this man!!!

I assume it's because of all the "pork" he brings to the state - if he wants to skim off several layers of that pork for himself, I guess Alaskans don't mind.

But there's also crooked politicians in every state. (Well, in my own view all politicians, whether Democrat or Republican, are crooked, who devote most of their time once they get into power, of keeping that power, rather than looking out for their constituents.)

But here's one thing. If the 84 year old Ted Stephens is still in the Senate, no reason why the 71-year old McCain can't be. (Of course whether he'll be a good president is a whole nother thing... I think he's too close to a Democrat to be good... but he's better than Obama....)

The US no longer has a culture of excellence... if it ever did. That's what we need to get back. Instead, we get inundated by commercials for kids going back to school - and they're buying clothes. And the commercials have nothing to say about getting a good education and making somethign of yourself. It's all about "don't look like a dork in school." "Look good so you can ask that girl out for a date," ya da ya da ya da ad nauseum.

And the kind of clothes being sold? I walked through a display of teen-guy T-shirts at my local Walmart a couple of days ago... 90% of them had skull motifs. Not the skull motif of pirates, but the skull motif of death and destruction. And the ones that didn't have skulls had really funny says such as this one: Stick figure with its lower limbs spread wide and a green cloud emanating from its bottom. At the top the text, "Got gas?"

Yeah, that's nice stuff for a kid to wear on his t-shirt when he goes to school...or at any time, frankly. But hey, guys find that stuff funny. And far be it for anyone to try to civilize 'em...

Rush Limbaugh Morning Update, 8/22/08

Last week, Obama used the phrase, "the best and brightest".

Here's Limbaugh's reaction to it, on Friday August 22.



"They turned Iran from a friend to an enemy that still troubles us today." How'd they do that.

And I'm so sick of the term "Renaldus Magnus" -Limbaugh is always dissing the Europeans and yet he and Hannity keep calling Reagan this... it sounds so stupid and pretentious.

The Choice of Running Mate

On Friday, both Rush Limbaugh and Tom Hannity were letting Obama have it pretty good, because he was delaying announcing his choice of running mate. They were mocking him, because he was making it "such a big production" and thinking everyone would be waiting with bated breath to hear who it was.

Well, weren't they?

And I didn't hear them rippng McCain on the subject. Yet McCain has been the Republican nominee for a lot longer than Obama has been the Democrat nominee, so why hasn't he already made his decision? Yet we're supposed to wait until his birthday (August 29), then he'll tell us who it will be.

On the other hand, I really think McCain's campaign is doomed, because the media simply doesn't want him to be president, and they're not covering him at all. 80% of the news coverage on network TV and in the print papers is on Obama, with McCain relegated to the back page.

I don't listen to Michael Savage as a rule, but I did tune in to him one night several months ago, back when Hilary and Obama were still competing, and he pointed out that all that debacle was actually helping Obama, by keeping his name in the papers, so much so that everybody already thought he was President. McCain was simply overshadowed.

And there's a lot of truth to that.

Frankly, the entire political election system of the US is messed up, and has been for a long time. (Yes, it's still better than anyone else's, doesn't change the fact that it's messed up because it's supposed to be so much more.)

Obama thinks China is a great country

I was listening to Rush Limbaugh today. It's an interesting thing about Limbaugh. He's always dissing Europe, other countries...saying they'd be nothing without the US (always referring to WWII and us saving the world's bacon.) When he talks about the US, he's always praising it to the skies. America is the land of opportunity, we're the best country in the world, ya da ya da.

That's the kind of stuff you'd expect to hear from a Presidential candidate, wouldn't you?

Then we get Obama.

I don't know where he was when he made this speech, and it won't show up on YouTube because although apparently his speech was being recorded, it wasn't being filmed.

Here's what he said:

"Everybody's watching what's going on in Beijing right now in the Olympics. Think about the amount of money that China has spent on infrastructure. Their ports, their train systems, their airports are all vastly superior to us now, which means if you're a corporation deciding where to do business, you're starting to think Beijing looks like a pretty good option."

In the first place, it's interesting to listen to Obama's tone of voice. (I've never listened to him, or McCain for that matter, give a complete speech, but I hear all the soundbytes that Limbaugh and Hannity play on their shows.) And whenever he's in these soundbytes, he always sounds so sarcastic, so contemptuous of his country, or of whatever topic he's criticizing.

Okay, now let's talk about China.

Yes, we buy our clothes from China, our tools from China...practically any material goods we buy come from China...and similarly a lot of factories and such in the US that used to produce those things have gone out of business, because US employees expect to earn a little thing called a minimum wage, while Third World countries can pay their employees a dollar a day for doing the same work.

Anyone hear that the Government of China ordered that no cars should be driven in Beijing for a month (or was it two?) to try to get rid of some of the pollutin in the city? Did Obama not read that one news bit about American athletes who showed up at the airport wearing face masks because they were afraid of the pollution?

What countries - other than communist or socialist ones - can order its people to not drive their cars in a huge city for an entire month?

But if the Democrats have their way in the US.... that's probably ecxactly what's going to happen. If they don't just take the easy way out and ensure that the cost of gas continues to go through the roof....

What else did Obama say in this little quote...

"Think about the amount of money that China has spent on infrastructure. Their ports, their train systems, their airports are all vastly superior to us now"

Could this be because we have to pay welfare payments to people who refuse to work? Or give welfare payments to illegal aliens who haven't contributed anythign to our country but still for some reason deserve benefits that citizens get? Because we give humanitarian aid to any and every country that has an earthquake or needs peace keeping -- something China doesn't do... they're busy squeezing the life out of ...what's it called...oh, yeah.... Tibet!!!

Yeah...the war in Iraq is costing us money and its about damn time that the Iraqi's paid us for helping them out... but there are a helluva lot of other factors contributing to the reason why China is outspending us and getting their ports and their infrastructure...

It's called not giving a damn about the environment. It's called not having to deal with protesters who won't let them drill for oil....not having to deal with protesters who want to save a fish or a town and so won't let a hydroelectric damn or a nuclear plant be built....

Now...it's not just Obama who thinks that China is a great country. China has "most favored nation" status with us and has had it for a while.... after Tienemen Square I don't think there was even a hope in hell that they'd lose that status...I'm thinking we didn't even speak harshly to them... we can't afford to upset the Chinese because they have the whole world for whom they can sell their goods, and if they decide to cut us off...there ain't a damn thing we can do about it.

So I guess Obama was just doing what any presidential candidate these days would do... suck up to a country that has power over us.

Since when are bears blue?

I thought I'd do a little bit of research into the report from a few weeks ago of a 14-year old boy who shot and killed a woman because he thought she was a bear.

Turns out the woman was wearing a blue poncho, and she was shot in a wide-open area - no trees to obscure vision.

Seems to me like this 14 year old wanted to scare some woman hiker and just missed his shot. Hope he goes to jail for a few years.

http://www.ktvb.com/news/regional/stories/ktvbn-aug0408-hunting_fatal_accident.13e8ad3a.html

The Hypocrisy of the West

Reports are flooding out of China today that the cute little 5 year old girl who sang the Chinese anthem during the Opening Ceremonies was only lip-synching. The actual singer was a 7 year old girl, but because she had chubby cheeks and uneven teeth, she was not considered pretty enough to be on TV.

And the West is just outraged by this. Outraged!

And I'm like... you hypocritial pieces of sh*t!

Try to become a cheerleader in any school in the USA, from Podunk High to the swankiest of the swank. If you're not beautiful, thin and sleek, you'd be laughed off the tryout stage. And if someone did give you a chance to become a cheerleader, you'd be laughed off the field by the beer-soaked audience that only want to see pretty girls jumping around.

Anyone watch the women's beach volleyball at these Olympics. Tall, beautiful women (plain women learn very early not to push themselves forward, no one wants to see them), wearing the skimpiest of bikini bottoms to make sure the guys in the audience and TV can get a good look. If there was any competitive advantage to wearing such skimpy outfits, you know the guy's be wearing the same stuff, but do they? Of course not. Long shorts and t-shirts. But at least they are "muscle" shirts so the women in the audience can get a look at their arms...

What kind of reality shows do we get here in the USA? Women subjecting themselves to plastic surgery in order to look beautiful, over and over again because all it needs is for one guy to say they don't look perfect and back under the knife they go..."How TO Look GOod Naked" in which lots of overweight women are given validation for their lives and appearances by a gay guy, well, at least that's better than having to get validation for your existence from a straight guy...

This little Chinese incident has only brought home what should be clear to everyone in the world - women are under fire. THey are viewed everywhere as little more than sex objects. Oh, they have more freedom in the West, but that's just a bandaid over the constant brainwashing they get to be everything a man wants them to be...

And I would really, really, really like to know what is being done to find Afghan athlete Mehbooba Andyar. Afghanistan's only female athlete who was to have gone to the Olympic games. Despite the fact that she wears clothing from head to toe and that stupid burhka on her head, fundamentalist muslims in Afghanistan still called her a whore and a disgrace to Islam.

She disappeared in July from her training facility, and what I want to know is, why isn't the entire Olympics organization trying to find this woman? Is anyone trying to find her?

And doesn't this just point out the evil of fundamental Islam, that women who simply want to run and jump and feel like human beings can be kidnapped, probably raped, and murdered, and no one cares because, after all, they're just women?

John Edwards admits he had an affair

A couple of weeks ago, I blogged here about the stupidity of John Edwards, or any politician, having an affair in this day and age. With all the scrutiny by reporters, people with cellphones, etc. etc, how in the world do these politicians think they can get away with it?

Well, Bill Clinton got away with it, but I dont' doubt that he torpedoed his wife's chances of getting elected president. (Well...not him... but her acceptance of his actions rather than divorcing him after it happened the 3rd or 4th time.)

Now we've got Edwards, who admits lying repeatedly when he said he wasn't having an affair, but he denies that his mistress' child is his.

"The timing of the birth isn't right for it to be mine," he says.

My question is this, "What do you mean, the timing isn't right? Shouldn't it be, 'that baby isn't mine because I wore a condom because I did not want to father a child out of wedlock.'" Wouldn't that make more sense? Show a bit more intelligence? Or even better --- that child isn't mine because I had a vasectomy, so that I could cheat on my wife with lots of women, but never have to risk getting her pregnant.

But politicians are stupid. That's all there is to it.

His wife is dying of cancer. I'm sure she just feels great to know that he was cheating on her while she was enduring chemo. Or perhaps she thinks it's okay... "Well, I couldn't give him any so he got his sex elsewhere." Frankly - most men have affairs and that's why they have it.

So Edwards might not be a scumbag because he had an affair - but he's a scumbag for lying about it.

Will his political career end on this note? Probably not.... there's lots of crooked politicians still voted into office by idiot voters.... which is why this country is in the mess it is in.

On the other hand, there's no reason at all for Sean Hannity to be playing clips of Edwards and his ill wife and be all smug about it. No need to rub the wife's face in it even more than Edwards did.

This and That

What are the duties of a doorman? To open the door for the guests of a hotel, or the residents of an apartment house. To summon cabs. To help with luggage (for which they probably get tipped.) I would have thought that a doorman would make minimum wage, but it turns out that that's not so. At least one doorman makes $40,000 a year.

Doorman who won $5M, said he'd stay at job gets ax

Who knew doormen had a Union? That's probably why they make $40,000 a year for doing very little work. And the guy referenced in the story above wins $5 million, and can't think of anything better to do with his life than to continue to open doors for people?

Then there's the case of a teen hunter who killed a woman hiker because he thought she was a bear. Now, I don't have a problem with hunters, but it seems to me that hunters are not supposed to be hunting anywhere near where people, such as hikers or bikers,are gathered! And this murder - yes, murder - took place on the Sauk County Trail.

So this kid, because he's a teen, probably won't go to jail at all. And his name won't be released. Presumably the woman's family will file a wrongful death suit againt the boy involved, and hopefully he'll learn that you don't go shooting animals until you absolutely know what you're firing at.

And finally, if you're going to have an affair, don't get drunk! Jesus this woman was stupid.
Judge censured for having sex with lawyer
Mark you - the judge was a woman. This judge got drunk at a party, and revealed she'd had sex with a lawyer. How are her peers supposed to have any respect for her after that? Even if the case had been reversed and it would have been a male judge, he still would have been an idiot... although much more likely to have been fondly called a "swordsman" by his fellow judges for his sexual prowess...