A hotdog makes her lose control.
Question of the Day
What was your favorite cartoon when you were a kid?
Most of my lasting favorites weren't ones I watched as a kid (Ren & Stimpy, Beavis & Butt-Head, The Simpsons, etc.), but the one that really stands out from my childhood is Jabber Jaws. That shark cracked my shit up.
Actual Headline
Romney's record on gay rights questioned. Of course, since this is America, where equality is relative and not particularly desirable to social conservatives, his record is being questioned for not being assholish enough, and the Great Unanswered Question remains unasked, i.e. What the fuck is wrong with you and your gay-hating, homobigot, retrofuck party?
The light of the Green Lantern
A hero orphanedRecently we said goodbye to Dave Cockrum, one half of the Cockrum-Claremont duo responsible for the revival of X-Men. Now it's the creator of the original (or "Golden Age") Green Lantern. I never knew his name until today - Martin Nodell.
Martin Nodell, the creator of Green Lantern, the comic book superhero who uses his magical ring to help him fight crime, has died. He was 91. [...]Nodell was looking for a new idea for a comic book in 1940 when he was waiting for a New York subway and saw a train operator waving a lantern displaying a green light, said Maggie Thompson, senior editor of Comics Buyer's Guide.
Nodell imagined a young engineer, Alan Scott, a train crash survivor who discovers in the debris an ancient lantern forged from a green meteor. Scott constructs a ring from the lamp that gives him super powers, and becomes a crime fighter.
He brought his drawings and story lines to All-American Publications, which later became a part of National Periodical Publications, the company that was to become DC Comics, Thompson said.
See, this is why I poke around train wrecks all the time. You never know what you might find.
(No mention is made in the CNN piece of writer Bill Finger, whose by-line also appears in the old Lantern stories. In similar little-known fashion, Finger co-created Batman with the considerably more famous Bob Kane.)
The original Lantern was just one of many 1940s heroes who got shunted off onto the convenient ghetto of "Earth-2" when comics company DC chose to recreate its characters for a younger generation. That's one way of getting around the difficult fact that serial characters never age - or else age impossibly slowly. I guess one alternative is to ignore your characters' pasts altogether and just start over, ala Smallville or Casino Royale.
Sometime over this holiday season, impress fellow partygoers (since you will almost certainly end up at a party) with a bit of comics lore. Everybody and his mother knows the oath of the modern-day Green Lantern Corps, but do you know the oath of the original officeholder? No, you don't. Turns out that he used several, but Dial B For Blog identifies for us the canonically accepted oath of Alan Scott's Lantern, uttered in the last panel of his origin story:
" . . . And I shall shed my light over dark evil . . . for dark things cannot stand the light! The light of the Green Lantern!"
Makes you want go out and conquer evil or something.
(Cross-posted. And apologies to Paul for have rubbed another man's rhubarb; this is really his bailiwick.)Clever
I expect this genius to be nominated to Bush's cabinet any day now, having so expertly demonstrated his proficiency in the three main requirements of Bush Leaguers: abject stupidity, "ignorance" of the law, and utter shamelessness about both.
A Wichita man called 911 to report he was the victim of an armed robbery. The theft? A pound of marijuana worth about $1,100 that he had been trying to sell at his home.Huh.
…Police brought in a drug-sniffing dog to the house and located more marijuana and drug paraphernalia.
The victim was booked into Sedgwick County jail on several charges, including possession with the intent to sell drug.
The thief has not been found.
You're On Notice
Tread carefully TomDeLay.com, Peggy Noonan, Gay Penguins, Christopher Hitchens, Nativity Nabbers, Green Onions, Lance Mannion, and Tofu.
You’re on notice.
Back in August, I promised the original On Noticees that they were not beyond redemption and could, "with a little patriotic effort (or failing that, just going away)," find their way off the board. (Except for Mannion, who is permanently On Notice.) Most of them gave it a little patriotic effort, except for Bolton's Moustache, which opted for the "just going away" option. In any case, it's a big victory. Wouldn't you say so, Dolph Lundgren?
Totally.
recycled dumbassery
Who can resist the ridiculousness of a headline like this:
A devil food is turning our kids into homosexuals
After that headline, the article delivers on its promise of bullshit:
Unfortunately, when you eat or drink a lot of soy stuff, you're also getting substantial quantities of estrogens.
Estrogens are female hormones. If you're a woman, you're flooding your system with a substance it can't handle in surplus. If you're a man, you're suppressing your masculinity and stimulating your "female side," physically and mentally.
Soy is feminizing, and commonly leads to a decrease in the size of the penis, sexual confusion and homosexuality. That's why most of the medical (not socio-spiritual) blame for today's rise in homosexuality must fall upon the rise in soy formula and other soy products.[...]
He adds in all sorts of "scary" information that begins with "studies show" or "research says" in the article but offers no citations on any of it. The person who penned this tripe, Jim Rutz, is not any sort of medical professional of course. He is chairman of Megashift Ministries and founder-chairman of Open Church Ministries and an author of a couple religious books. He should really consider joining the circus as a contortionist, what with that amazing ability to pull stuff out of his ass.
This is also not "news". This is, at best, recycled wingnut controversy. I clearly remember this very topic being discussed/debated on the parenting bulletin board I was a part of when our first son was a baby in 2000. As far as I know, there are no conclusive medical research studies showing a link between soy isoflavones and homosexuality.
However, there is this bit in an article from 2001 in a newsletter at UC Davis (which describes itself a "A research-based newsletter prepared by the University of California for professionals interested in maternal and infant nutrition"):
A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association reports data from one of the largest controlled studies to examine long-term effects of soy formula during infancy. This retrospective study relied on a group of adults, ages 20-34 years, who participated as infants in randomized feeding trials conducted by the University of Iowa. All individuals in the study had been exclusively formula-fed, with either a cow-based or soy-based formula for the first 4 months of life. Of the original 952 in the infant studies, the researchers were able to locate and interview 811 (396 females, 415 males). [...] With a subsample of 81 subjects, the researchers were able to determine that self-reported outcomes matched with actual medical records at least 70% of the time. For most of the 30 outcomes examined, no statistically significant differences were found. [...] The authors calculated that the sample size should be large enough to test for the primary outcomes-i.e., effects of soy during infancy on variables related to body size, pubertal development, and menstruation. Other possible outcomes, such as homosexual orientation, testicular cancer, and hormone disorders, were also examined, and no effects were found. [...]
JAMA is by subscription (which I don't have), so I couldn't get o the original study. This isn't just an Amercian thing either, as the Great Gay Soy Devil has caused concern worldwide. From a 2003 article on GayNZ.com:
Now there's a powder keg. Soy - miracle health food or gay-making cocktail? Well, if there's some "fascinating" scientific research about, surely Sanitarium, one of Australasia's leading health food companies, would know something about it.
Problem is, they don't. There is no evidence to suggest that soy milk can make men gay, Sanitarium New Zealand's nutrition manager Kim Stirling told GayNZ.com.
She also expressed bewilderment as to where Wishart had sourced this material, as inquiries she sent out to several leading independent researchers overseas in the field of soy failed to turn up any evidence or research on the subject - not even crap research done by a high school student in the back of a van - nothing.
A search by GayNZ.com for information on the internet, usually a teeming repository for bizarre claims, yielded few hits. Although there are various organisations concerned about the alleged side-effects of soy consumption, gayness doesn't appear to be amongst them. The few obscure sources returned in our search that did seemed to put connections between soy products and homosexuality in the area of urban legend.
Infact, it seems Jim Rutz got all his info from this site: http://www.senselessplanet.com/soyhomo.htm which begins with a guy who claims the soy industry is out to poison us all and also makes the jump from a study on soy and prostate cancer to 'Male children fed soy formulas and soy products may not ever get to like girls' and ends with some fantasy play called "SOSOGAY". Pathetic but unsurprsing.
(one non-fat, soy cross-post, please)
It's not what it looks like—he's a pollster!
Sweden doesn't have many gay sex scandals, because (gasp!) gay people are regarded as normal—and Swedes aren't absurdly puritanical about sex generally like people in some other countries I could name—but when they do have one, they have a good one.
Savage introduces the players and the scene: "[M]eet an unnamed official of Sweden’s Christian Democrats, 'a party is known for its strong adherence to family values.' Unnamed Official was spotted at a public pool giving a handjob to another man. …Unnamed Official probably could have gotten away with the handjobs, but Unnamed Official wanted something more…"
The two men are then alleged to have moved on to another part of the building, where the politician was spotted giving oral sex to his companion.I don't know how many times that's happened to me. I just lean over to look at someone's newspaper and then—bam!—I'm sucking his dick.
…When questioned about the allegations, the politician denied taking part in any sexual activities on the swimming pool premises.
"I understand that it could have looked like that," [he said] to police. Instead he explained that the whole thing was a misunderstanding. He had been leaning over to read his companion’s newspaper when the pool employees arrived on the scene.
Shorties
If you missed The Daily Show's touching farewell to the outgoing 109th do-nothing-Congress, head on over to C&L now for your dose of snarky goodness. (And also check out this shit about the Christian Embassy if you haven't seen it yet.)
Tofu is a tool of the Homosexual Agenda. Like that's news.
Also not news: A void of logic is a tool of the Anti-Homosexual Agenda. So...what if you're a super-butch gay attracted to big nelly bottoms, huh?
Nothing says Christmas…like stealing Christmas trees.
Better luck next year.
Amazed broker realizes women spend money. Oh mah gawd!
Wingnut Roundup!
I'm not kidding when I say if Jeb Bush becomes president, I am leaving the country. I'm no Baldwin, bitchez. I mean it, and I'll do it.
Neiwert's Eliminationism Series Continues
Are You an "A," an "RSO," a "MU," or "Other?"
And the Registered Sex Offender Circus continues...
(Please see earlier posts for disclaimer.)
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
...and another life is ruined. (Salon.com link; you'll have to watch a brief ad. The original article is here.)
Wednesday the Utah Supreme Court found itself in legal pickle, as it looked at a case in which a 13-year-old girl who'd gotten pregnant with her 12-year-old boyfriend as simultaneously a victim and a sex offender. Comparing the state's ill-conceived statutory rape laws with those concerning 19th century honor killings, Associate Chief Justice Michael Wilkins told the Salt Lake Tribune: "The only thing that comes close to this is dueling."(More below the fold)
As a mother of two girls, I want age-of-consent laws to scare off creepy guys. And since some pedophile groups have made it their cause célèbre to fight for sexual rights, some part of me would like to set the planetary AoC around 28 and call it a day. On the other hand, I shudder to think of my girl getting "protected" by any law like Utah's. When it means treating a kid unfortunate enough to get pregnant at the tender age of 13 as a sex offender, there's something seriously twisted in Mayberry. No doubt after a notorious history as a breeding ground for polygamous megalomaniacal assholes who prey on young girls in hopes of siring the next messiah, Utah's eager not to look too flaccid when it comes to age of consent. (In fairness, megalomaniacal assholes reside in other states, too.)
But let's face it, these laws are a colander of legal worms. Yes, when grown men or women have sex with children, it's a serious crime, but drawing those lines isn't always easy. Given the variance among state laws, what's legal as a consensual act of love between two people in one location can become statutory rape a mile away. Many states try to make mitigate these laws by creating "close-in-age exceptions." For instance, Utah doesn't criminalize 16- and 17-year-old teens having sex with others in their own age group; even 14- or 15-year-olds who have sex with peers fewer than four years older are committing no more than a misdemeanor. Unfortunately, the 13-year-old falls into neither of these categories -- so in the eyes of the law, she's considered a full-fledged sex offender. (Utah's high court hasn't ruled on whether she can be prosecuted yet, but lower courts have held that she can, according to the SLTrib.)
This just goes to show (yet again) how bizarre these Age of Consent and "Registered Sex Offender" laws can be. Simultaneously cast as a victim and an offender, this girl is now branded with the RSO label for life, unless the judge in this case suddenly has an attack of common sense.
The Utah Court of Appeals last December upheld the judge's refusal to dismiss the allegation. At Tuesday's arguments, Matthew Bates, an assistant Utah attorney general, argued the prosecution of the girl was not unreasonable. He said the statute in question is designed to prevent sex with children who are 13 and younger, even if the other person is in the same age group. By passing that law, legislators were sending a message, Bates said: Sex with or among children is unacceptable. Randall Richards, the girl's attorney, argued that prosecuting children under a law meant to protect them is illogical.Meanwhile, no one seems to be arguing that said sex was consensual. Look, I don't like the idea of 12 and 13-year-olds having sex either, but who is being "protected" in this case by registering this girl as a sex offender? (I'm assuming her boyfriend may also be prosecuted as such; as she is considered his "victim" in this case.) She's a few months away from an age when this act would be considered a misdemeanor (if not completely ignored), but now she'll be dogged for the rest of her life by the RSO Scarlet Letter. She's thirteen. How will this affect her getting into college? Into a good job later in life? Hell, what if her high school decides they don't want a "registered sex offender" in their halls? What if, some day, she wants to rent an apartment?
In an effort to protect children from sexual predators, legislation is being passed that not only won't protect them, but is also categorizing children who have sex as predators. The current laws simply aren't working; they do absolutely nothing to solve the problem. If anything, they are making it worse by making truly dangerous sex offenders more mobile, and more difficult to track. Fortunately, some people seem to be waking up, but it's too little, too late, for many people who carry the mark of the registered sex offender who may not necessarily be a horrific danger to the general public.
But hey, if it's broke, why not break it some more? (bolds mine)
Internet registries of rapists or pedophiles are available in every state, but a new breed of criminal now is experiencing the notoriety of being outed online — people convicted of making or selling methamphetamine.Absolutely brilliant. Take an ineffective concept that amounts to nothing more than a forum for public humiliation of criminals, and apply it to another current "hot button topic." Don't pass any legislation to provide funds and assistance towards prevention, education or treatment; just create an online pillory.
"It lets the community know that there’s someone like this in their community, because the likelihood of them going back and doing it again is high," said Georgia state Rep. Mike Coan, who is spearheading meth registry legislation. "It’s no different, really, from the sex offender (registry). If there’s one living near me, I want to know it."
The idea of posting the names of meth offenders online is gaining momentum. Four states have put in place laws to create Internet meth offender registries, two are putting final touches on similar laws, and several other proposed bills are in limbo until the state legislatures start the new session.
But critics say the registries raise legal questions, do little to protect the public and may have unintended consequences.
"The problem with these registries is that we’re creating a class of untouchables within our society who cannot rent apartments or secure employment," said Jonathan Turley, a criminal defense attorney and law professor at George Washington University. “When you diminish the likelihood that ex-felons can live and work in society, you increase the chances that they will return to criminal behavior.”
“Unlike other drugs where it is really harmful to you and your family, meth is hazardous to all around you,” said Jennifer Johnson, public affairs officer at the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, which maintains the state's database. “… That’s why we don’t foresee a heroin or cocaine registry.”Yet.
And how exactly are heroin and cocaine not hazardous to all around you? So, I should worry about the possibility of a meth lab exploding in my neighborhood, but I shouldn't worry about people selling coke on my street because it's not hazardous to me? I guess if there's a drug-related drive by shooting and bullets go stray, I needn't worry my pretty little head over it, as they have nothing to do with my family.
Yes, meth is very dangerous and is causing terrible problems all over the country, particularly in rural communities. But that doesn't diminish the impact of other drugs on the same communities. There's a very simple reason why we're seeing this new registry:
Property owners were the most forceful backers of legislation to create the meth registry, viewing it as a tool to screen prospective tenants.Bingo.
But since the list does not include photographs, lists offenders by the location of their offense rather than their current addresses, and doesn't require them to notify authorities when they move, critics say it is little use to the general public.
"It's symbolic," said Bill Piper, director of national affairs at the nonprofit Drug Policy Alliance, which advocates reform of harsh drug laws. "It makes politicians who are really not doing anything look like they are."
I'm ashamed to see that my state is considering one of these registries. Apparently, they're still "working on the content;" considering if the offenders' addresses should be included on the website. Bad idea.
The American Civil Liberties Union questions the registries on the grounds that they amount to unconstitutional "double jeopardy" by imposing additional punishment on offenders after they have served their time.But to many people, this kind of vigilante justice is A-OK.
A court challenge to sex offender registries on those grounds failed when the Supreme Court ruled in 2003 that they were a legitimate way of protecting the public. But it is not clear that the threat posed by drug offenders will be deemed as serious, said Turley, the George Washington University professor.
He also warned that publicizing the whereabouts of former drug offenders after they are released from prison could put them at risk, including former gang members or others simply trying avoid getting sucked back into the drug lifestyle.
"The registry (with their addresses) would present a clear and present danger to them," he said.
That's not a frivolous concern.
In April this year, Ralph Marshall, a 20-year-old Canadian, found two sex offenders through Internet registries and gunned them down in their homes in Maine before killing himself.
The year before, in August, a Washington man posed as an FBI agent to enter the apartment of three registered sex offenders near Seattle and later killed two of them, authorities said.
Perhaps we'll start hearing some talk about re-working these draconian online criminal registries when they put together the online "White Collar Criminal Regsitration Database." Or the "Do-Nothing Politician Registration Database." Hey, a criminal's a criminal, right?
(Cross-posted, check it and see...)
"O Come All Ye Black Folk"
Geez, can't you take a joke?
An editor at a Tufts University conservative journal has apologized for publishing a satirical Christmas carol that ridiculed black students and campus affirmative action policies.Primary Source's news editor, Douglas Kingman, said "the satire was intended to call attention to affirmative action policies that he and other magazine staffers feel are unfair" and they're real sorry "that the purpose of the carol was not clearly communicated." I mean, come on! Don't you understand that "O Come All Ye Black Folk" was so obviously "intended as an anti-racist statement"? Doesn't anyone have a sense of humor anymore?! Yeesh!
The controversial carol, entitled, "O Come All Ye Black Folk," was published in the most recent edition of the Primary Source, which bills itself as "the journal of conservative thought at Tufts University."
The parody of "O Come All Ye Faithful" calls black people "boisterous" and proclaims, "Born into the ghetto. O Jesus! We need you now to fill our racial quotas."
Steve M.'s got more, including a link to the full three lovely verses and more apologizing from the folks who are now irritated that "anyone interpreted this the way it was intended to be interpreted."
(PEEK-ed.)
And So the "I'm Ignoring the ISG Report" Begins
Who needs Poppy's experts? I've got my own!
President Bush heard a blunt and dismal assessment of his handling of Iraq from a group of military experts yesterday, but the advisers shared the White House's skeptical view of the recommendations made last week by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, sources said.Wow. It's totally amazing how the military experts had precisely the same objections to the ISG report as the White House, isn't it?
The three retired generals and two academics disagreed in particular with the study group's plans to reduce the number of U.S. combat troops in Iraq and to reach out for help to Iran and Syria, according to sources familiar with the meeting, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the session was private.
The military experts also suggested "that the president should review his national security team," which—in another shocker—appears to be in perfect alignment with rumors that Bush and his new Sec. Def. Gates plan to replace Marine Gen. Peter Pace as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Serendipity!
Oy. Worst. President. Ever.
Update: In comments, Chris Howard points to this post by Rob at Emphasis Added. Go read. Excellent stuff.
Gore Still Refuses to Crush My Hopes Outright
Although he never issued a definitive Sherman Statement, Steve Benen notices he's sounding a bit less Shermanesque than he has previously:
Al Gore is waging a fierce campaign for recognition and an Oscar statuette for his global warming documentary, while reviving talk that he’s pursuing a bigger prize: the presidency.Also worth noting, as noticed by Draft Gore 2008, is that AlGore.com has gone live again, the site Gore used for his 2000 presidential bid. MB at Draft Gore says:
..."I am not planning to run for president again," Gore said last week, arguing that his focus is raising public awareness about global warming and its dire effects. Then, he added: "I haven’t completely ruled it out."
Those words make Gore the 800-pound non-candidate of the Democratic field.
The Gore website has two major action items at the moment: Sending 1,000,000 postcards to Congress, and holding thousands of house parties. MoveOn.Org is partnering with AlGore.Com, and a number of other organizations, such as the Sierra Club, are sponsoring the house party event as well.The house parties may also address a concern raised by Benen—that Gore's favorable ratings among politically engaged Americans is much higher than among Americans who are not politically engaged, of whom there are significantly more. It wouldn't be the worst thing in the world (nor the least bit surprising) if supporters holding house parties did a little evangelizing on Gore's behalf alongside their environmental consciousness-raising.
While both of these actions are important in and of themselves, they also are very smart pre-campaign organizing tools; the postcards provide a million email addresses and the house parties, thousands of committed, willing activists ready to work hard, raise money, and promote the campaign. Very smart indeed.
(PEEK-ed.)
Tom DeLay Starts a Blog
And quickly learns that unmoderated comments are not a good idea… Oof. Blue Meme provides the background:
You may have heard that former important person Tom DeLay has started a blog. You may have also heard that said blog allowed unmoderated comments—briefly.One hundred and eleven unmoderated comments were posted and quickly archived saved by quick-thinking blogger James Risser.
The comments were purged, of course. Folks like DeLay are not exactly down with the reality of democracy in such unadulterated form. But a savvy blogger managed to snag and copy the comments before they followed DeLay's career into the ozone.
What a magnificently, terrifically boring and irrelevant blog. Honestly, who on earth cares what you have to say?Heh. There's more, oh so much more, at the link. (Warning: There are a lot of homophobic jokes, usually involving Jack Abramoff.) The best laughs of all, however, may be found at DeLay's actual blog, where in his first 8 posts, he has fawningly eulogized Jeane Kirkpatrick (while repeatedly spelling her name wrong), praised Michelle Malkin, and moaned, "It is a regrettable fact of the current American political age that too many Republicans have failed to continue an aggressive fight for the principles which bring us together as Republicans and as conservatives." Wow.
December 10, 2006 Unregistered Commenter Miles Coverdale
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You left Congress disgracefully and you want people to take you seriously? You should be in prison you assclown, piss off Tom.
December 10, 2006 Unregistered Commenter Tom you suck
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WoW! America's poster-child for white entitlement, greed, authoritarianism and the exploitation religion for corporate interests finally has a blog! The intertubz are finally complete...
December 10, 2006 Unregistered Commenter raoul duke
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I like to smother myself in tapioca pudding and play the bongos in front of the fireplace. Looking for S/W/M who shares same interests.
December 10, 2006 Unregistered Commenter Tom Delay
(PEEK-ed.)
Question of the Day
Tomorrow, Dennis Kucinich will supposedly announce that he is running for president again. The question is: What should his campaign slogan be?
Caption This Photo
President Bush walks back to the Oval Office at the White House with Vice
President Cheney in Washington December 11, 2006. (Jim Young/Reuters)
Colorado: Hotbed of Gay Evangelical Pastor Sex
What the hell is going on in Colorado?
In a tearful videotaped message Sunday to his congregation, the senior pastor of a thriving evangelical megachurch in south metro Denver confessed to sexual relations with other men and announced he had voluntarily resigned his pulpit.But that didn't stop him from not admitting he's gay until someone called the church claiming to have "overheard a conversation in which someone mentioned 'blowing the whistle' on evangelical preachers engaged in homosexuality, including Barnes." Barnes was confronted and then confessed to "sexual infidelity" before resigning.
A month ago, the Rev. Paul Barnes of Grace Chapel in Doug las County preached to his 2,100-member congregation about integrity and grace in the aftermath of the Ted Haggard drugs-and-gay-sex scandal.
I love this response from the associate pastor at Barnes' former church when asked if this situation would "expose the evangelical community to further charges of hypocrisy":
"The criticism is valid if you look at perfection being the mark, because the next person who stands at our pulpit is going to be guilty of not being perfect as well," he said. "Does that mean we have to change what we say about the word of God? We can't do that."Well, actually, you can. There was a time when the word of God supposedly justified slavery, for instance—and I bet you're not preaching that these days. But aside from that, it's not what you say that's the problem—it's more the fact that you're pursuing/supporting discriminatory legislation based on your beliefs, which is predicated on judgment, condemnation, and punishment, all of which are meant to be left up to the Almighty according to the same book you cite as justification for hating on the gays. Just keep your damn noses out of other people's business, and I think you'll find that a lot fewer people give a crap what you say about the word of God from your own pulpit.
(Thanks to Constant Comment for the heads-up.)
