If the Tea Party folks are so goddamned concerned about honoring the Constitution, and protecting the Constitution, and rocking the Constitution to sleep at night while planting gentle kisses on its forehead, why aren't they arranging noisy counter-protests against the shrieking hordes of right wingers protesting the proposed Park51 community center* in Manhattan??
It couldn't be that they only give a shit about the Constitution when it's protecting their interests, and are perfectly happy to ignore it when they're attacking what they don't like, could it?
It couldn't be that they're so completely or willfully uninformed that they don't realize there's already a mosque near this "hallowed ground," could it?
It couldn't be that they recognize a convenient political football when they see one, could it?
It couldn't be that they really are simply lying, racist bigots, could it?
It couldn't be that the tea party and the mosque protesters are one and the same, could it?
Naaaaaaaaaah.
*(Earlier, in my haste to post, I mistakenly referred to Park51 as a mosque. It is not a mosque, it is a community center. There are future plans for a mosque in the building, but this just adds to show how this "mosque protest" is bullshit. Thanks to Misty for the link.)
I've got some more family/personal stuff to attend to this morning, but I expect to be back this afternoon. See you later.
(Requisite reminder we're down a mod when I'm not here, so play nice!)
Shit:
A federal appeals court has extended a stay on same-sex marriages in California until it decides whether a ban on such unions is constitutional.The Ninth Circuit panel, comprised of Judges Edward Leavy, Michael Hawkins, and Sidney Thomas, has requested briefs to filed next month, with the appeal to be heard in December. It will likely be a different panel who judges the appeal than these three.
It is just the latest turn in a protracted legal battle over Proposition 8, the voter-approved ban.
The ruling, issued by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, came less than a week after a federal district judge, Vaughn R. Walker, lifted a stay he had imposed to allow proponents of the ban to argue why same-sex marriages should not proceed. On Aug. 4, Judge Walker ruled that Proposition 8 was unconstitutional.
Even when lifting his stay on Thursday, Judge Walker allowed six days for the Ninth Circuit to review his ruling. That left many gay and lesbian couples and their supporters hopeful that same-sex marriages would resume Wednesday at 5 p.m., when Judge Walker’s stay would have expired.
That will not happen. Now, such weddings will not resume until, at least, the appeals court decides the case. And perhaps not until it is decided by the United States Supreme Court, where it seems to be headed.
Police: Mel Gibson was 'a gentleman' after Malibu crash.
Don't worry: He's fine!
But you know you're a world-class a-hole when your being a decent person to emergency responders after you crash your Maserati is headline news.
"Police were shocked to discover Gibson in a vaguely reasonable mood, not screaming racist and misogynist epithets at everyone within earshot."
"Kids love the pole,” studio owner Tammy Morris told the Ottawa Citizen. “If anything, it's hard to get them off it because they're such naturals." Morris says the focus of their pole dance instruction is fitness and technique, not stripping. Though the studio’s Exotic Dance and Lap Dance classes have strict age requirements, kids can sign up for the rest of Tantra’s classes as long as they have signed permission from a parent.
Waste hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on gas, take a month out of your life, and write a message that can only be "read" on google earth urging people towards a mediocre writer. Puzzle people questioning this action by stating that reading Ayn Rand’s writing would give the world a "more optimistic" view of the future. Because Rand is totes known for her optimism.
Add this note at the bottom of your half-finished page:
"If you click on the above link(s) and buy a product(s) at Amazon.com, the owner of this site will earn a commission."
Huh. Teabaggers have way too much time on their hands.
Under the truly absurd headline "Keeping up with the girls," LA Times columnist Meghan Daum laments "the notion that girls are entering puberty at earlier ages than in the past," only to use it as a launching pad for one of the most hilarious "what about the menz?!" of all time.
Let's consider for a moment the effect on boys. It can't possibly be good. As if boys in elementary and middle school didn't already have enough ways to compare themselves unfavorably to girls — scholastic achievement, verbal skills and social prowess, not to mention handwriting and knowledge about horses — this trend toward precocious sexual development just may be the final nail in the coffin of male domination.Yes, I absolutely agree. While addressing girls' precocious sexual development—and the inextricably linked sexualization and objectification that comes with the developing female body in this culture, not to mention the potential medical issues that are associated with early onset puberty and the psychological trauma of bullying to which many girls who develop early are subjected by siblings and peers—let us take a moment to centralize boys' self-esteem.
Or so it may seem to an ordinary 8-year-old boy, who may view these girls not only in the way boys traditionally have — as bossy, slightly alien carriers of cooties — but as something even more terrifying: women.
...[A]s we go about the essential business of dealing with this situation for girls, and how to stop it, perhaps it's worth extending some sympathy toward boys. In a world in which it's already so easy to feel diminished by the achievements of girls, this widening gulf in physical maturity just might have the effect of kicking them while they're down.
Back in January NPR earned the FAIL Award for All Around Bullshittery in Reporting (retroactive...since I just made it up) with their failtastic piece about relationships in which the woman in the breadwinner and the man is not that they called "Modern Marriages: The Rise Of The Sugar Mama".
Just a bit ago I caught a tweeted headline that made me go all "ORLY?":
About 7 percent of men and 3 percent of women cheated in the study's six-year period.It's speculated in the article and study that perhaps men cheat more because it makes them feel more "manly" because they feel emasculated by being the lesser-earning partner.
[...]
In her research, Munsch [Christin, a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at Cornell University and author of study] looked at data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth taken from 2002 to 2007. She focused on married and cohabitating 18- to 28-year-olds who were together for longer than a year.
Freeloading men aren't the only troublemakers. [...]That's right: "freeloading". Men (and presumably women) who earn less (per headline)--which would mean they are, in fact, employed--or are not earning money at all (hello, stay-at-home parent) are freeloaders. FAIL x10000 there, NPR.
1. Ross Douthat has crumpled-up newspapers, beard trimmings, and coffee grounds where his thinking parts should be.
2. The New York Times continues to publish the nonsensical scribblings of a man who has detritus occupying his brainpan.
This blogaround brought to you by Shaxco, proud distributors of Potter's Black and White Formal Wear for Gentleman Kittehs.
Recommended Reading:
Fannie: Prop 8: We Won, Now What?
[TW for misogyny] Jaded16: This Is Why I Gave Up On Newspapers — A Rant To Ad Nauseum
Mike: 'Scott Pilgrim' Versus Itself
Adrienne: Random Appropriation of the Day: Totem Cups
[TW for gender-normative fuckery] Cover Awards: Drink, Play, Fuck
Andy: World's Only Documented Albino Humpback Whale Reappears
Leave your links in comments...
Deeky: Oy. Why am I in a meeting?
Liss: Because meetings are funtimes.
Deeky: No. They are not. Playing with my b-hole is funtimes. Meetings, not so much.
Liss: LOL!
Deeky: This just sucks. I need an escape chute.
Liss: Can you use your own butthole as a wormhole to another dimension?
Deeky: I have no idea. But I sure as fuck would be willing to try it. Do I need a crystal buttplug or something?
Liss: Try to wriggle into your own b-hole and zip yourself over to my place, Dr. Who-style.
Deeky: LOL! p.s. How hilarious is it that everyone is having an in-depth and serious conversation about SFA, and I'm talking with you about my butthole?
Liss: I don't even know what SFA is, and I can guarantee with absolute certainty I'd rather talk about your butthole than whatever it is.
While Deeky was busily spotting this beauty near him, I snapped the below shot of new welcoming banners hung in a neighboring town.
"An aging population will eventually (over the course of the next 20 years) cause the cost of paying Social Security benefits to rise from its current 4.8 percent of G.D.P. to about 6 percent of G.D.P. To give you some perspective, that's a significantly smaller increase than the rise in defense spending since 2001, which Washington certainly didn't consider a crisis, or even a reason to rethink some of the Bush tax cuts."—Paul Krugman, with some much-needed, and sure to be ignored, perspective on the OH NOES! SOCIAL SECURITY CRISIS!!!!eleventy!!!1!!, a horrible little bit of alarmism that will almost certainly result in terrible policy, because even lots of Democrats are too craven to stand in defense of the US' most successful social program these days.
