Kids with Nazi-themed middle names in state custody

The Inquirer, Philly

The three New Jersey children with Nazi-themed middle names have been placed in the custody of the state, police said.

The children and their parents, Heath and Deborah Campbell, received attention last month when a northwestern supermarket bakery refused to put Adolf Hitler Campbell’s name on a birthday cake.

Note to NJDYFS: change their names and cut their dad's nuts off so he can't breed again.

In my town there used to be a Frenchman who had a microbrewery that made excellent beer. He always made sure that our VFW Post's activities were well supplied with his products free of charge.

When we asked him why he felt such good will toward Veterans, his simple reply was, "You killed Nazis".

It's about all you can do with them.

Inauguration Day Protest

Raw Story

A group calling itself "Arrest Bush 2009" has announced its intention to hold a "Yes We Can Arrest Bush" event in front of the FBI Building in Washington, DC during the Inaugural Parade.

Arrest Bush 2009, which is sponsored by the Washington Peace Center, After Downing Street, and Shoes For Bush, is demanding that Bush be arrested for war crimes and for lying to the American people.

According to the press release from Arrest Bush 2009, "We call for the arrest of George W. Bush for instigating war against a sovereign nation that posed no threat, wanton attacks on civilian populations, use of torture, and violations of the U.N. Charter. We call for the arrest of George W. Bush for lying to Congress and the American people about the reasons for invading Iraq, for the deaths of US service members and Iraqi civilians, and for the abuse of the United States Constitution."

Let's hope this turns into something even the media can't ignore.

Note to the new Prez: If you want to show the world that the U.S. means business about restoring rule of law and condemning war crimes, nothing will do it better than Bush et al standing very public trial.

Bush Hands Keys To Obama

Thanks, Dan.

Obama's marijuana prohibition acid test

The Free Press

The parallels between the 1933 coming of Franklin Roosevelt and the upcoming inauguration of Barack Obama must include the issue of Prohibition: alcohol in 1933, and marijuana today. As FDR did back then, Obama must now help end an utterly failed, socially destructive, reactionary crusade.

Like the Prohibition on alcohol that plagued the nation from 1920 to 1933, marijuana prohibition (which essentially began in 1937) feeds organized crime and a socially useless prison-industrial complex that includes judges, lawyers, police, guards, prison contractors, and more.

Hemp growing was mandatory in some circumstances in early America, and again during World War II, when virtually the entire state of Kansas was planted in it. The current ban on industrial hemp costs the U.S. billiions of dollars in lost production and revenue from a plant that can produce superior paper, clothing, fuel and other critical materials at a fraction the financial cost and environmental damage imposed by less worthy sources.

As a whole, the violent, repressive War on Drugs has been forty years of legal, cultural and economic catastrophe. Like FDR, Obama must end our modern-day Prohibition, and with it the health-killing crusade against this ancient, powerful medicinal herb.

Much more.

As much as I would like Obama to do what these authors demand, I doubt that going up against the very powerful prison industry complex, not to mention the puritan anti-fun people, has much chance of finding a place in his schedule. He has an awful lot of Bush/Repug/neocon shit to un-fuck up.

I think he should start with legalization and encouragement of hemp cultivation as part of the 'green revolution' for all the common sense reasons in the article above that we've known for years. I think the female plants have to be separated anyway, and they should be destroyed by burning in very small quantities a little at a time so as not to foul the atmosphere. The psychoactive elements of the parts of the plant generally considered unburnable in this manner because they tear the paper can be dissolved in butter and used in snacks. It is our patriotic duty to assist in this, something we can do for our country.

On the other hand, I think it would be great fun to burn mass quantities of the herb upwind of, say, Congress. We'd see who's smoked it before and also who can't hold their mud. It would be a YouTube and cable news moment of the first order!

If this was my kid's teacher ...

Our parent-teacher conference would be quite ... interesting:

A set of handouts used by John Freshwater in his 8th grade science class have featured in the testimony of several witnesses over the course of his termination hearing. As I reported a day ago, Dr. Patricia Princehouse critiqued those handouts on Friday, January 9. I thought it would be helpful for readers to have a clearer idea of just what kind of trash science Freshwater was purveying in them. I’ll reproduce excerpts from his "Giraffe" handout below and add some commentary of my own. Dr. Princehouse had more extensive commentary.

The Giraffe below the fold.

The "Giraffe" handout was used as a "bell ringer," according to testimony. That is, it is a fill-in-the-blanks exercise for use in a few spare minutes just before the bell rang ending class. According to people I’ve talked with, they’re handed out just before the end of class, and the teacher reads through them giving the ‘correct’ answers to be filled in the blanks. At the end of class they’re returned to the teacher. We have copies because over the years several students hung on to them and took them home to show their parents.

...

Now, you wanna teach Intelligent Design in your private school? Have a nut. It's still America and if people want to pay to send their ankle-biters there for a thorough brainwashing, god bless 'em. When this Jesus-drivel makes it into a public school, and is peddled by a science teacher, I got a problem.

It's why I've been yelling for years for a nationally standardized public education syllabus. A set of standards where the kids in public school learn the same things, from state to state and across the country. It is a crime to allow local school boards to decide for our children (the future of our country) whether fairy tales and myths be taught or not.

Nobody can give me a good reason why children in different parts of the country are taught differently. What are they saying? Kids in certain areas are morons? Listen to me. They all have to attend the same colleges and if they ain't prepared, they ain't gonna get in. The world is a lot smaller nowadays, especially since the interwebs became a big part of our lives. There are necessary things the children must learn and to allow local power mongers to decide whether or not they do is unconscionable in this day and age. I'm not saying we should abolish local school boards but when it comes to the curriculum, they should not be allowed to inject them with their personal beliefs.

If we plan to work ourselves out of this financial crisis, we must produce intelligent children to compete with others who place education as a far higher priority than we do. Spend some time in Korea and you'll be amazed at what the kids learn at what ages and their hunger to do so. Education is stressed, almost from birth. Same with most of the nations in the EU. The 'Stupid is Chic' mentality of the last 8 years must be reversed in order for us to become competitive again.

President (it's less than a week, fuck that "-elect" shit) Obama's views on education are welcome and say he understands that educated, worldly children are America's key to a financially secure future. I'll be more enthusiastic when he comes forth with an actual plan but his words give me cause for optimism. In general, it's a refreshing change to have a President who can speak intelligently and thoughtfully, an educated President. Next Tuesday can't come fast enough.

Great thanks to Oliver Willis for the link.

How it's done ...

Okay, so it seems the big problem with closing Gitmo (from what I understand) is what to do with the hardcore assholes whom we know are dangerous yet the evidence we have against them is tainted by 'improper interrogation techniques'.

No problem.

Let them go.

Indeed, let them go about a hundred yards and have a Marine Corps sniper put a bullet in the backs of their heads*. Got that? It's called pragmatism. I didn't say it's right, or moral, or something we should be proud of, but that's the reality of life ... and death.

And let that be a lesson to us the next time we decide to build a concentration camp.

*Addendum: This should not be done on American soil, nor within 5000 miles of our borders.

Oy!

Gleefully gleeped from YubaNet.

Huckabee Goes Off On Coulter. Heh.

Raw Story

Former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee gave conservative pundit Ann Coulter a warm welcome when she appeared on his Fox News show on Saturday, but it didn't take long for the knives to come out.

After confronting Coulter with a series of her insults and lies about him during last winter's primaries, Huckabee proclaimed, "This is my 'get even' moment with you, Ann. I've been waiting for this for a long, stinking time."

Go read the rest. Unfortunately, the phrase 'lying, delusional, AFAB* wingnut slut' did not appear.

A Democrat could never have gotten away with calling out the darling little bitch of the far right. I'm glad the Huckster did.

Now that he's not in danger of being President, if he ever was, I'll admit to kinda liking him, especially after this.

*AFAB - Anything For A Buck

Quote of the Day Zwei

A comment from Fixer's post below:

Well, ain't this a bitch? I burn myself out from Bush-bashing, and now it's all the rage.

Damn.
Jim Yeager

Jim's been a friend of ours for years and we watched him burn out. It wasn't pretty. As much as you'd like to throw your arm around his shoulder and soothe him, the blogosphere doesn't really allow for that. Everybody's on their own, and do what they have to do as is their sacred right. We're damn glad he still comes to visit.

A casualty of the various wars being waged against this nation by the right wing, and not the only one by a long shot.

I must admit to no small amount of satisfaction that the gasbags of print and the small screen (larger than the one I'm looking at and much more widely viewed) are starting to grow some little ones and are catching up to us, 'us' being Left Blogtopia (y!sctp) in general. They're not calling for his head yet as they should, so they still have a ways to go.

Note to the Press Corpse: you were Bush's Monica, and now you're crawling out from under his desk is about what it amounts to. You swallowed everything that came out of him, balls and all, so just wipe yer chin. And don't get all uppity and righteous just because you're not smokin' his pole any more. The truth was out there the whole time for all to see and you bungled it, pretty much on purpose. Shit, he had you thinkin' that little cocktail weenie of his was a summer sausage and you made a meal out of it and asked for more, please sir. We'll remember.

I have a little badge I wear on my hat sometimes that has the following phrase on it that I think exemplifies the majority of the media:

"I must hurry and catch up with the others, for I am their leader!"

Money shot: WE HAVE BEEN RIGHT ALL ALONG AND KNOW IT. And now, like a vacation spot known only to a few that suddenly gets discovered by the masses, Bush-bashing is indeed all the rage.

Looking at it a different way, we have been holding the fort praying reinforcements would come, and now that it's safe, they have. They will of course take all the credit for their foresight and bravery about Bush. It's all bullshit, but at least they're here, puny as they are.

Damn.

Question of the Day

Asked by BuzzFlash:

Do you believe that Barack Obama's efforts to play nice and 'bipartisan' with the Republicans will yield any positive results?

To which I replied:

Submitted by Gordon on Tue, 01/13/2009 - 1:06pm.

It's laudable for Obama to want to play nice with the Republicans, but I think he's going to learn that it's like playing nice with a schoolyard bully. You have to kick his ass first. Besides, kumbaya-singin' liberal attitude aside, I think we deserve some payback on those sonsabitches. Stomp 'em flat for all the harm they've done. Then we'll talk.

Proudly lowering the tone of political discourse on a large news link! And they let me! It doesn't get any better than this!

Quote of the Day

Maru on the idea of Bush writing (heh ... Bush writing) a memoir:

Shit. Maybe he should have Barney write the damn thing. It would have more truth in it.

Woke up way late. See yas later ...

You know ...

Every fucking cable and broadcast channel is gonna have "a look into the Bush Presidency" special program over the next 8 days. I just got one question.

Where the fuck were all you people while this guy was fucking up?

Seems like the only people yelling about all Bush has fucked up over his term were me, Gord, and the couple thousand other bloggers who've been at this every day for years. Now there's a cottage industry for slamming Bush? Aside from Olbermann, Air America, and us, who in Hell had the balls to ask the questions that needed to be asked?

Not Tweety. Not Dead Ass Timmeh. Not Little George's Hair. Not Uncle Charlie. Not Tom, The Greatest Generation. Fuck all these spineless bastids who lined up, on their knees, with their mouths open, every time the White House issued a set of talking points. I don't want to hear it. On Thursday, the Chimp is gonna say goodbye and that'll be the end of it. Trust me, you ain't 'cutting edge' beating on Bush now. You ain't even 'fashionably late'.

Here’s One Way for Obama to ‘Move On’ From Bush’s Illegal Policies

SPR

"Exactly 24 minutes after I'm sworn in, I'm gonna have Jack Bauer swoop in, arrest Bush and Cheney right on the podium, and have them renditioned for some enhanced interrogation techniques. Now, unnerstan', I normally don't believe in shipping jobs overseas, but we simply have to put some things behind us and move on."

Don's being satirical because that's what he does, but it's a damn fine idea.

I wouldn't use the fictional Bauer though. He's gotten this country in enough trouble already, since that show is where Bush and Cheney got a lot of their ideas on torture in the first place. Life imitating bad pop art.

I would use really large nasty-ass combat Vet Marine Gunnery Sergeants. Give 'em armbands and sidearms and arrest warrants and carte blanche to use whatever tactics they choose and tell them to treat B & C like they were the guys who had sent so many of their comrades to unnecessary deaths in Iraq. A thorough background in how White House politics caused there to have to be two battles in Fallujah when the Marines were mere yards from winning the first one oughta do for motivation.

Another phalanx of MPs would bring in a whole lot of neocons in their usual gentle, caring, sensitive manner.

Then I'd have 'em all 'renditioned' to Base Building 3 at Camp Lejeune. The brig. Put 'em in with a buncha Iraq Marines whose conduct upon return due to PTSD or TBI put 'em there. I think it'd be really fun to see what Yoo and Addington think of torture after a coupla weeks of that! Probably not too much since they'd likely be dead. Why waste money on lengthy, costly trials for war criminals?

At some point, I'd offer the Decider and Bush their choice of ways of doing the right thing and see if they have balls to do it. Pill or Pistol. See if they're the men Hitler was. My bet is they aren't.

Be glad I'm not in charge of this country. There'd be some Change all right.

Speculation In The Pursuit Of Profit Screwed Us All. So What's New?

Excellent bit on 60 Minutes last night. Worth a look if you missed it.

Q: Which is the largest oil company in America?

A: Morgan Stanley.

Awwwwww...

I stole this charming picture from TBogg because I'm a coward. Go read the short post that goes with it. I think I like those folks.



I have many photos of Mrs, G in similar circumstances with our pups, Princess Perfectpants and The Goofiest Springer On The Planet, but she has told me that I will only post them on my last day on the right side of the dirt, for indeed the day that I post them will be my last.

I shudder to think of what would have happened if I had chosen 'large' instead of 'small' for the picture size! It would have spilled over onto people's sets down at Starbucks!

Why Bush Loves Violence

The News Shrink

George Bush’s presidency is the culmination of a lifelong history of sadistic practices that he must deny in order to maintain his fragile psychological equilibrium. Since childhood, Bush was labeled a bad child, a troublemaker, and a delinquent. He stuck firecrackers into frogs and exploded them; he shot and wounded his little brothers with a b-b gun; he branded fraternity pledges at Yale with red-hot coat hangers; he mocked others and was a verbal bully, irreverent about anything serious.

Now, as this bad-boy president prepares to leave office, many of his critics are pinning his failures on bumbling incompetence. The conventional wisdom holds that Bush is either a good hearted guy who got in way over his head—or the puppet of Dick Cheney. But if he were simply good-hearted he wouldn’t have mocked his own reasons for committing our young men and women to war; if he were a puppet, he was a puppet who chose his puppeteers. In my psychoanalytic exploration, the trail of destruction wrought by Bush over the last eight years is the direct consequence of handing a man with a destructive personality profile tremendous power.

By January 20, George W. Bush will have inflicted enough damage worldwide so he can retire to a quiet life of watching others scramble to clean up his mess. The missions he accomplished as president all bear the personal brand of his destructive streak: astronomic debt to China, horribly wounded veterans, a crippled health care system, and America’s damaged international reputation. And they will continue to be felt for years to come. What once started as cruelty to animals, siblings, and fraternity brothers has blossomed exponentially.

Eight years of him pulling the wings off the biggest fly he could have ever imagined - the world and all the people in it. His mother and father must be very proud.

Fan mail ...

As an author, I love getting feedback on my books, especially good feedback. Heh ... I got an email this morning about my novel Special Operations (you'll have to buy it, sorry) from a fellow Air Force vet and aside from the kind words, he has a problem that maybe one (or more) of our readers might be able to help him with:

Mr. [Fixer],
I do hope this actually reaches you. It was the only address I could find. I just finished reading your novel "Special Operations". It was recommended by an old active duty officer friend, who knows of an interest and background of mine. I must say I not only enjoyed it, but have to ask if you perhaps received any "ideas" when on active duty.

My name is all over the Net trying to find data on and offering rewards for information about the 601st DASS (Direct Air Support Squadron), the guys who "First" wore the Black Berets, and "other" events and places. Yes, we wore them even before even CCT did, though theirs was also Black, and in I wore that one too. You see, the Air Force claims that several units I served in as a ROMAD, especially the 601st (for 4 years) never existed, and as a CCT member too! (1268th Aerial Port Sq, another non existent unit that died about the time you were in middle school) Nor, did we do the types of things you described. I doubt anyone did just as you described, but the 602nd DASS, which WAS stationed in Korea, had several very highly classified missions that could have been altered very little, and fit right into the first few chapters of your book. By the time I was on the tenth page or so, my mouth was hanging open. I helped plan many of them for the entire ROMAD field, worldwide. You were jsut [sic] a decade or so off!

You see, the AF, and the US Military in general will never admit that AF units, especially, ever did such things. Well, guess what? They lie a lot!

I started as a Ground Radio Technician, which is the career field that all ROMADs came from, mostly non voluntary. I was one of the wierd ones who loved it. I would be packed in ten minutes if they called me, and 8 of that would be to pack my pain meds and braces. I first served as a ROMAD in 1967, starting in Peshewar Pakistan, at the base Gary Powers took off from. According to the AF, we were never there. Makes you wonder how he got that plane off all by himself!

I served up until 1974, when we were told that ROMADs would be "phased out", and joined CCT (my flash says "Combat Control Team", not AF Combat Control like the nice shiny target ones do) as a Ground Radio technician member also (there were 2 to a team then, the rest being Air Controllers). I was medicaled out of the field due to injuries before the ROMAD career field (then 275X0, now 1C4X0) was created. Sometime in the mid to late 70's all of those units "disappeared". FOIA requests get you the answer they never existed. In fact, if you ask for MY records you will find the National Archives say I went to Peshewar on a TS assignment in 1967, and evidently never made it back, because that is the last entry in my entire personnel record. My reenlistment DD214s all show overseas duty, (2 reenlistment's were AT those non existent units!) but my discharge DD214 at retirement, with 20 years, 21 days (medically ordered, not allowed to re-up because of medical disabilities (probably received carrying radios) shows I ONLY server 2 years and 4 months at Vandenberg AFB, CA, where I retired. NO other entries at all, and strangely enough, showing NO overseas duty at all. I have never been able to get that corrected as if I was overseas, where was I? No place I list existed. I must have been in limbo.

Not getting into it too far, but your book was NOT as totally "fictional" as stated. I wonder what your career field and rank were? I could find little on the Net, and have no time to "poke" too far. But, could have some of those story lines come from experience, rather than imagination? Regardless, a very good read. I am glad it was recommended to me, and now see why. Thanks for a little "go back memory", even if it didn't really exist.

[Name and personal information withheld]

Now, I know certain shit doesn't make it into personnel records (like our time operating around the 'Iron Curtain') due to the sensitivity of the times (the height of the Cold War). The time frame this gentleman is interested in happened before I went in and I hope one of our readers can help him. Email me if you have any info and I'll pass it on. Thanks for your help.

Weekend whorage

Oy, I've barely had time to post here, let alone anywhere else. Dad-in-law Fixer has been in the hospital since New Year's Eve and that's been taking up most of our time.

New chapters of Birthright will be up in the coming week. Sorry about the delay. If you like sci-fi and haven't started it, now's a good time to catch up.

I've also been crazy in the house, trying to get a lot done before we leave for the Caribbean in a few weeks.

And to top it off, I had a job in the shop that broke my balls. Gimmie a Jaguar any day.

And on that note, a little theme music:

Rod Stewart - Gasoline Alley

Sunday Crazy Northern Arizona Martian Hillbilly Music Blogging

Got this from FullMoonGrassGurl. I put it up for ya for a coupla reasons:

Northern Arizona, i.e. north of the Maricopa County line, i.e. a long way from Phoenix, is one of my favorite places in the world. One of the few places I could live other than here in the Sierra Nevada.

We all like Townes Van Zandt songs.

These guys are good.

The Mars Hillbillies at the Wine Loft in Flagstaff, AZ, May 2008. This fine band performs the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of every month. Snowin' on Raton is a Townes Van Zandt song and one of my all time favorites :-) Great job fellers!!

This gal obviously likes Bluegrass, and one of the things she likes to do is videotape drives and set them to music. She's got some good ones. Check 'em out.

Note to FullMoonGrassGurl: I don't care what color Grass yer smokin' under that FullMoon, Gurl. Good job. Keep on truckin'.

"Cars" Our Town

Silly sentimental me. Here's a scene from one of my favorite movies. Grazie to treunonove.

Bellissima scena del film col sottofondo cantato dal grande James Taylor.
© Pixar

If ya look close, you can see Fixer and the joint where he works. Heh. I'll probly catch it for that one...