Leave The Kids Alone

Yup, let's make them obey at all costs. This young man apparently did everything that was asked of him for thirteen years. Then the "adults" decided he wasn't worth it. Stupid, stupid adults. If there is a hell, I hope there is a very special place for people like this.

Random Headlines #77651

No links, just a random Thursday night's surfing. You be the judge.


When Lawyers Steal the Escrow

Gay Rights Battlefields Spread to Public Schools

In Surprise, Chief Editor at Random Quits Post

Fantasy Camp for the Pixilated

White House Calls Editing Climate Files Part of Usual Review

Award Limit in Tobacco Case Sets Off a Strenuous Protest

Surveyed scientists admit misconduct

Landslides block popular route to Yellowstone Park

Rate to rocket on popular school loans

13 Deputies Disciplined for Barrage

Babies Show High Levels of Chemical

Lactivists, Chill Out!

GOP Leaders Weigh Raising Soc. Sec. Age

Bush Deflates Blair's Africa Plan

Apparent volcano ice flows may explain Saturn moon's atmosphere

Study: World got more millionaires in 2004

Candle blamed for fire

Relationship with food can be very complicated

Catholic dioceses have spent over $1 billion in dealing with sex abuse

PrideFest attracts straights, too

Landscaper drowns in pond with mower

Judge failed to note snoozing juror, records show

Insurer seeks 36 percent rate hike

No Support Here

I thought the military just took a day free of recruiting in order to straighten things out? Looks like they need more than a day. This story is something Bush should read. I know, I won't hold my breath.

For mom Marcia Cobb and her teenage son Axel, the white letters USMC on their caller ID soon spelled, "Don't answer the phone!"

And that's when she learned her first hard lesson. You can't block calls from the government, her server said.

Support The Troops

If the family is the source of all that is good, how do the right-wing theocrats explain these unhappy statistics? Where is the concern for these families? Probably in the dumpster behind some mega-church, carefully folded in half. I suppose this is Howard Dean's fault.

The trend is severest among officers. Last year, 3,325 Army officers' marriages ended in divorce - up 78% from 2003, the year of the Iraq invasion, and more than 31/2 times the number in 2000, before the Afghan operation, Army figures show. For enlisted personnel, the 7,152 divorces last year were 28% more than in 2003 and up 53% from 2000. During that time, the number of soldiers has changed little.

It's That Time Again

Attention: Drinking Liberally - Tomorrow Night -
6-9 p.m. - The Black Cat - Ashland, WI

One More Example

It is obvious that all the supporters of the war in Iraq need to enlist in order to fill the ranks. Chickenhawks indeed.

Forward

I'm happy for this woman. But the ReThugs in Alabama, & America, will soon begin a program to ban this procedure, it's got to be against their god's law & will lead to man-on-dog sex or the takeover of public schools by the homosexual lobby.

Tell Me Again

how tax cuts for the overly-rich are going to help the country? This is how it works: fool the people on the national level, get elected, then watch as the next level of government down & the next & the next needs, & I mean needs, to restore the taxes in order to provide the services the people have come to expect. Then blame these lower levels of government, the ones closest to the people, for being undisciplined tax & spenders. Pissants.

Ain't No Global Warming

The S.O.B.s keep lying to themselves & us. Now after reading the "revisions" by an oil company lackey, read this statement (warning, pdf. format) by several national science directors. Why do they hate America? If you know what I mean.

Thank Goodness for Small Favors

It looks like sanity has finally broken out in part of the federal government.

That Didn't Take Long

The wonderful state of TX brings us this heartwarming story about the life affirming citizens of many states. Here's my favorite line:

But nobody mentioned Texas' position as the state with the most executions.

How many ways do I hate these people? OK, the blood's up. Onward.

Missing

Somehow yesterday slipped by me. I have no idea what happened. Slow news day? Tired? Who knows? & this a.m. produced little for me to get excited about. Granted, it's been raining for two days now, & I've been to a few graduation parties, an event I've come to worry about, since we are celebrating the sending out of a person into a country that is not friendly to its own citizens. I'm going to town, maybe something will gin up the juices while I'm there. Again, who knows?

A Couple of Good Billman Hits

First, we have The Friday Flush. Here's one wipe from the piece:

I doubt few "mainstream" journalists are prepared to consider – much less cope with – the possibility that the U.S. government is waging information warfare against them (and, by extension, against the American people), even though Rummy and company long ago all but declared their intention of doing just that.

(emphasis added)

Read the rest of his post, it's, as usual, worth it.

& secondly, we have this from The Whiskey Bar, Sore Throat, indeed. It has been amazing how Pat Buchanan continues to lose his mind on TV. I mean, it's like watching that old, old movie called Rage, in which the frothing at the mouth guy had rabies. Maybe that is Buchanan's problem, undiagnosed rabies. Pat, I urge you to have a doctor check it out. Please.

Read it all, but here's some good medicine from the piece:

And yet, as this week's nostalgic caterwauling over Deep Throat indicates, justice has not been done, and isn't likely to be done in our lifetimes.

I can think of some specific, institutional reasons for that failure:

* Bush's crimes are more deeply embedded in his presidential war powers than Nixon's were (although heaven knows Nixon also tried to hide behind those same powers.)

* One party rule has choked off investigations armed with the subpoena power to go where journalists and the ACLU cannot tread.

* The administration's cunning use of extra-territoriality and military secrecy has made it vastly harder for any would-be Judge Siricas to pierce the veil of executive privilege.

* Last but hardly least, the weapons of information warfare in the Bush White House propaganda armory are infinitely more subtle, powerful and effective than the Nixon stonewall. Or, as Salon puts it:

The Bush administration has developed so many ways of manipulating information that anonymous sourcing would now be of little use. Secret "military" tribunals, indefinite detention without charge, torture, kidnapping, dressing up official press releases as news stories for complicit publishers –these all make the Watergate coverup seem quaint.

We Have No Gulag Today

This story is especially irritating given the timing of the release of the information - Friday night, see the last line of the piece. This is why I was so angry about how quickly Newsweek rolled over, remember, like my setter? Yes, I said setter. I will now add that she (the setter) is the first bird dog I've had that learned to roll over & apparently likes to roll over. Again, Bushco says it's the result of a few bad apples. When will the main stream media wake the eff up & see that this is not a matter of a few rogue soldiers, but something that has been ordered from way higher up.

Graduations

Mrs. coldH2O, saint that she is, got the garden planted this week. I did help minimally. We don't see eye-to-eye on where to place pulled weeds. I believe in adding to the garden soil, she to some pile far away from the garden. & today, a gentle rain began falling & it looks like it might last for awhile. This is good news for the garden & for me, I now have an excellent excuse for not having to go outside & do anything. Ah, sweet, sweet, rain. But of course, the participants of the two high school graduation parties we'll be going to might not be so happy. It will depend on whether or not the parties will be outside, under a canopy, or inside. I don't care; I just need to eat & drink soda at the first party & eat & drink beer at the second. Ought to be a fun evening.