New Rule for Todd Akin and the Republican Party

From a 'must read' by Bill Maher on the "magical thinking" of the religious whackjobs who want to impose American Sharia on us:

Evangelicals might like to pretend that the magical thinking that they indulge in at home doesn't affect what they do at the office, but it absolutely does. The brain that believes in angels and miracles and Jesus riding a dinosaur is trained to see the world not as it is, but as you want it to be.

Republicans would like to pretend like Congressman Akin's substitution of superstition for science is a lone problem but it's not: they're all magical thinkers, on nearly every issue. They don't get their answers on climate change from climatologists, they get them from the Book of Genesis. Hence Sharia Law in America is a dire threat, and global warming a hoax.
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How do they get away with it? They know that, because we're already such a religious country, our minds are primed for magical, fantasy thinking. The gullibility comes factory-installed. They've learned that you appeal not to an American's head, but to his gut -- it's a much bigger target. But here's the problem: life is complicated. I mean, I know we know some things for sure, like why Jesus put us here on Earth: to watch Here Comes Honey Boo Boo on a 50-inch TV screen. But what about the Chinese slaves who made the TV? What about carbon from the coal that generated the electricity? What about the Walmart where we bought it, where the workers don't have health insurance? What about racism, or the oceans turning into nail polish remover? The grown-up answer is: identify problems scientifically, prioritize and solve. The Republican answer is: there isn't a problem. And anyone who tells you different is a liar who hates America. We don't have to make hard choices. We just have to ignore the science and the math -- that's why God gave us values.

The last ¶ sums the Repugs up nicely:

Next week in Tampa the Republicans must admit that the difference between a GOP convention and Comic-Con is that the people at Comic-Con have a much firmer grasp of reality.

The difference being that comic books, pardon me, "graphic novels", heh, do us no harm.

I think the majority of "magical thinking" aka "fantasy" amongst Repugs and christowhackos actually occurs while they're watching porn, but that's just me.

Springfield Mountain Coal Miner

I dedicate this to all the miners who have unselfishly laid down their lives in the service of Big Coal and its never ending fight for less government regulation and cheap labor. By the late and much missed Kate Wolf (Wiki).

Thanks to migroskartyok.

Saturday Fais-do-do

Fais do-do is a name for a Cajun dance party, originating before World War II. According to Mark Humphrey the parties were named for "the gentle command ('go to sleep') young mothers offered bawling infants."[1] He quotes early Cajun musician Edwin Duhon of the Hackberry Ramblers, "She'd go to the cry room, give the baby a nipple and say, 'Fais do-do.' She'd want the baby to go to sleep fast, 'cause she's worried about her husband dancing with somebody else out there."

'Do-do' itself is a shortening of the French verb dormir (to sleep), used primarily in speaking to small children. Comparable to the American English "beddy-bye", it is still commonly used by French-speaking people.
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Fais do-do can also refer to a cajun reach around.

Heh. You decide...

Nice bit of laid back cajun

Michael Doucet & Beausoleil ~ Marie

Thanks to 1000Magicians, UK.

Headline of the Day

Limbaugh: Obama Is "Hopeful" Hurricane Will Hit Tampa During GOP Convention

So am I. They're ignoring The Old Gunny's advice: "Don't bunch up. One round will get you all." Isaac could revamp politics and clean up the gene pool with one round. :-)

Hey, a fellow can dream, can't he?

Video of that fat doper gasbag asshole if you can stand it.

The Crackpot Caucus

NYTimes Opinionator Blog

On matters of basic science and peer-reviewed knowledge, from evolution to climate change to elementary fiscal math, many Republicans in power cling to a level of ignorance that would get their ears boxed even in a medieval classroom. Congress incubates and insulates these knuckle-draggers.

Let’s take a quick tour of the crazies in the House. Their war on critical thinking explains a lot about why the United States is laughed at on the global stage, and why no real solutions to our problems emerge from that broken legislative body.

Go read this. The one thing the Repug house has done well is the invention of the invisible tinfoil hat.

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

emmylou harris at woofstock/fontanel 8-18-12

Thanks to MrJimirick.

Ex-GIs Battle for the Ballot

That might be the headline in several places on November 7. It's not. Yet.

I can't c&p this so go read. Click on the upper right hand of the image that appears or "yes" if you get that. There'll be a scroller to make it so you can read it.

Just for fun, go forward a few pages to see if you are eligible to join the VFW. Of interest primarily to us older Vets. Heh. Lotsa other good articles if you look.

"Hey Government Guys!"

I'm lazy today. I'm resting up for the Repug convention and I advise the Tampa strippers and sidewalk hostesses to do the same. I'm really looking forward to it! I think there'll be a lot more action out in town than in the Hall and I hope the cable news people have put on extra crews to cover the strip clubs. I think the best "platform" in town will have a stripper pole on it!

Old Fart says he's been alive under 12 Presidents. I've got him beat: under "personhood", i.e. "a zygote has full human rights ... until it's born, then fuck it", I claim 13 Presidents because I was in the womb under FDR. He ain't the only Old Fart around here!

Our ol' buddy goes on about the craziest Repugs and has a few words about the batcrap judge in Texas who thinks he and Barney Fife the Lubbock County cops are going to save the nation from alien probes Obama's UN troops. Heh.

Notable quote:

You do know that Red Dawn wasn't a documentary, don't you?

Thanks to oldfartrants.

Illegally held Marine released

Following up on yesterday's post:

Business Insider, links at site.

Judge Orders Release Of Detained Marine From Psychiatric Hospital

A circuit court judge has dismissed the government’s case against Brandon Raub and ordered that the Marine veteran, detained over anti-government Facebook posts, be released from a state psychiatric hospital because authorities had no grounds to detain him, Catie Beck of CBS 6 News reports.

Go read the rest of this:

Whitehead said that every year in Virginia more than 20,000 people are committed under similar circumstances and "that means a lot of people are disappearing" under the pretext of mental illness.

"I'm friends with the local police; I could call them right now and probably get you committed if you were in Virginia," Whitehead said. "They can arrive at your door based on somebody's testimony or your Facebook page and take you away to a mental hospital… There's a system here that is corrupt. And this guy is caught in it."

Oh, there's more...

Update:

I think this cockamamie Virginia law is the reason the Repugs aren't having their convention in Richmond. One phone call could upset the whole shebang. Heh.

A special prayer

Via email from my friend Beverly:

Dear Lord,

I know that I don't talk to you that much, but this year you have taken away:

my favorite screenwriter Nora Ephron
my favorite visionary Steve Jobs,
my favorite author Ray Bradbury
my favorite childrens' author Maurice Sendak,
my favorite American Bandstand guy Dick Clark
my favorite hairdresser Vidal Sassoon,
my favorite musician Earl Scruggs,
my favorite Monkee Davy Jones,
my favorite 60 Minutes guy Mike Wallace,
and my favorite singer Whitney Houston.

I just wanted to let you know that my favorite radio announcer is Rush Limbaugh

The Room Temperature I.Q. Party

I am starting to think that anyone with an IQ lower that 65 automatically becomes a member of the Republican Party.

Gee, ya think?

Thanks to oldfartrants.

It's about time

Drug war’s racial disparity moves NAACP to embrace marijuana legalization

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), one of the nation’s oldest civil rights groups, said at its Colorado-Montana-Wyoming state conference on Thursday that its members support Colorado’s marijuana legalization ballot initiative.

I am sure that will be good for the dozen or so Afro-Americans in Colorado, Montana, and Wyoming, but this needs to go on the road, like, say, to the South Bronx, Detroit, South Central L.A., etc.

But seriously folks, good on ya NAACP. Best o' luck with this.

What would Jesus have tweeted?

Raw Story, with video.

The world may never know because there was no Wi-Fi on the donkeys he rode 2,000 years ago. But a biblical tourist park in Israel is now changing all that.

Visitors to Northern Israel’s Kfar Kedem can now post Instagram photos of themselves in biblical robes and headdresses because the donkeys there have Wi-Fi routers fastened around their necks, according to The Associated Press.
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“I don’t miss any news,” Scherr added. “I send pictures back to my family while I’m having fun on the donkeys.”

Can the Grand Canyon mule rides be far behind? Now I've seen everything and you may shoot me. Please.

Update:

From their 'comments':

And just look at that picture, folks! Doesn't that look like an amazing vacation? Who needs Disneyland when you can stumble around a miserable, wretched desert, exploring sites where "magical" things of dubious plausability are claimed to of happened, all while pulling around a donkey with what appears to be a circa 1987 Apple IIe strapped to it's back. I'm sure that after 10 minutes of that, I would certainly scream out, "Jesus Fuckin' Christ!" Where do I sign up?!?!

Heh. Many times 'heh'.

American Taliban Resurgent

MoDo via Kos.

“I talk about one word, one sentence, one day out of place, and, all of a sudden, the entire establishment turns on you,” Representative Akin complained to the conservative radio talk-show host Dana Loesch on Tuesday as he spurned pleas from Mitt Romney and other G.O.P. big shots to abort his bid. He continued: “They just ran for cover at the first sign of any gunfire, and I think we need to rush to the gunfire.”

Yoo-hoo, over here! Pick me! Pick me! Rush this way!

Breathe...Relax...Aim...Slack...Squeeze...

He’s right again. Other Republicans are trying to cover up their true identity to get elected. Even as party leaders attempted to lock the crazy uncle in the attic in Missouri, they were doing their own crazy thing down in Tampa, Fla., by reiterating language in their platform calling for a no-exceptions Constitutional amendment outlawing abortion, even in cases of rape, incest and threat to the life of the mother.

Speaking as Mrs. G's family's crazy uncle, try luring him into the attic with his favorite thing. Mine is Mexican food, but rape porn might work on him.

“Next we’ll be trying to take away the vote from women,” lamented Alex Castellanos, a Republican strategist who advised Romney in the 2008 race. “How can we be the party of cool and make the generational leap forward when we have these recidivist ideas at the very core of our base?”

PARTY OF COOL?!!!! Bwahahahaha! In a party that worships imbecility, Castellanos, who pronounces the l's instead of the y-sounding of Español thus denying his heritage, is fucking royalty! I've seen him go up against Rachel Maddow on Press The Meat and all he has to counter her smarts and facts are talking points and attempted put-downs. A true dildo.

From Kos:

The harshest truth-telling is saved for Palin 2.0.

Paul Ryan, who teamed up with Akin in the House to sponsor harsh anti-abortion bills, may look young and hip and new generation, with his iPod full of heavy metal jams and his cute kids. But he’s just a fresh face on a Taliban creed (my ems) — the evermore antediluvian, anti-women, anti-immigrant, anti-gay conservative core. Amiable in khakis and polo shirts, Ryan is the perfect modern leader to rally medieval Republicans who believe that Adam and Eve cavorted with dinosaurs.

Dowd smartly references Mitt Romney’s embrace of anti-choice godfather ‘Dr.’ John Willke. I guess Alex Castellanos (“How can we be the party of cool and make the generational leap forward when we have these recidivist ideas at the very core of our base?”) took a sick day when the Romney campaign touted Dr. Strangelove as a supporter and surrogate in 2007.

Dowd ends by accurately calling Republicans dangerous liars.

You may or may not like MFBTIR but she's spot on this time.

Flammable tap water for everybody! Whee!

Mitt Romney To Donors: I Would Explain My Energy Plan, But Reporters Are Here

He's come out and said if he revealed his plans, nobody would vote for him. So he just lies about them.

Update:

In Brief: No, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan Won't Tell You a Goddamn Thing

Except:

..."Drill, frack, Keystone, clean coal, nuclear, and go fuck yourself with a windmill on top of a solar panel."

Just like Cheney except they'll do it here instead of in Iraq which didn't work either.

Headline of the Day

Texas Judge Warns Of ‘Civil War, Maybe’ If Obama Wins

This guy's drinkin' Glenn Beck's bathwater.

Word ...

My friend the Duchess:

I’m asked fairly often about my approach to all of this political stuff. People say, “wouldn’t it be better to try and get them to listen to us instead of just slinging insults at them?” Fuck no, and here’s why; the Tea Party “Patriots” are out of their goddamn, Jesus-loving minds.

...

Quote of the Day

Tengrain:

A salute to Mandatory Ultrasounds - oh, I hope that's a musical number with lots of dancing dildos. I envision something like Springtime for Hitler.

For those who don't know the number:

Oops, I done picked the wrong house...

This is just great! Heh. TMZ.

LL Cool J came face-to-face with a burglary suspect in his home, and took the guy down with his own hands early this morning ... TMZ has learned.
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Sources say the intruder had tripped LL's alarm system, but the "NCIS Los Angeles" star -- who is a physical beast -- decided to go hand-to-hand combat on the dude ... and managed to detain him until LAPD arrived a few minutes later to make the arrest.
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LL beat the living CRAP out of the intruder ... who's being described as a transient ... reportedly breaking the man's nose and jaw.

Law enforcement sources tell us ... the suspect is currently hospitalized and being treated for his injuries. Officials believe the man may suffer from mental issues.

There was some point in time during this episode where the burglar just HAD to realize he done fucked up BAD! Heh.

I'm a big fan of LL's for his character on NCIS: LA. He plays the baddest dude you ever saw. Looks like it's typecasting. :-)

Has One CNN Commentator Lost His Fucking Mind Over Akin?

Shorter: Yep. The Rude Pundit on Akin apologist and He Who Should Not Have A Job Where People Can Hear Him, Erick Erickson.

While other Republicans were throwing Senate candidate Todd Akin under the bus for revealing a bit too clearly what the GOP actually believes about abortion rights for rape victims, some on the right were there to offer a comforting nipple for Akin to suckle at. CNN contributor and Redstate blogger Erick "Erick" Erickson practically ripped off his shirt and yelled to Akin, "Nurse at these man-boobs, misunderstood sir."

"Revealing a bit too clearly" = "Said it out loud on camera".

There's a couple of camps of Akin apologists: the "let's move on, nothing to see here" camp and the moral equivalency camp. Erickson is firmly in the latter, and his blog post yesterday was the kind of straw-grasping you see an especially desperate defense attorney take in the trial of his serial disemboweler client. "Well, he may have ripped out his victims' intestines and swung them around like lassos, but, really, is that so bad compared to the Holocaust?" he might say. Or perhaps "Yes, but the prosecutor once jaywalked."

"Moral equivalency" is the so-called liberal media's greatest sin. They do it so they won't catch shit from the wingnuts when catching shit from the wingnuts should be a badge of honor like a Purple Heart. Cowards.

See, Erickson and others on the right are shit-scared right now, which is pretty much what he said today in asking Akin to heroically put his country ahead of himself and step down. (Dude, he's a Republican. Did you really think he'd act honorably?)

They're scared because Akin opened the door for a discussion of abortion rights and the GOP's attitude towards women, especially as it affects a certain running mate. Oh, how they wanted to concentrate on the economy and ignore shit like the Republican campaign platform that takes Akin and Paul Ryan's pre-VP selection stance, calling for a ban on all abortions with no rape exception.
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So, yes, God bless Todd Akin. He did speak the truth. Now let's see where that argument gets the GOP.

Out of office would be good for starters. A parade down Pennsylvania Avenue featuring rails and tar and feathers would be a classy way of celebrating their blessed departure.