Be There -- Defend Yourself

Tomorrow, Tuesday, Aug 2 , is the bimonthy meet-up of the SGF bloggers at the Patton Alley Pub. (Patton runs into the downtown bus turnaround on the square --- 1/2 block south)

If you don't come .. we will talk about you .. and Andy at Rhetorica will podcast it ... so you had better show up.

It's great fun, with all sorts of different thoughts and people.

Bring lots of money to buy me a beer.

Minutia-guy ... I am still waiting for my check....

Waaaa ... I Wanna' Play With the Big Kids

Everybody is doing it. The Marmot is running interviews with everyone. The CHATTER-guy has plans for something ... embarrassing, I'm sure... so it's time for me to get into the act.

Think of your favorite story about Channel 27 ... or Po' Kenny Meyer story ... but I redundanticise .... and either publish in the comments or send them to me and I will stick them up.

Lousy pay? ... bimbos in front of the camera? ... screwups in the control room ... ? owners screwing employees out of vacation time/pay ...? Let's get the really good stories out there and do some serious dirt/poo flinging. I few months ago there was a thread on this subject on Missouri Radio Forums that was just hilarious.

Religion Judged Insane in Texas

1) Andrea Yates testified to killing her children for religious reasons.

2) A Texas jury concluded that Ms. Yates killed her children.

3) The same Texas jury absolved her of guilt by reason of insanity.

Ergo

4) Texans implicitly concede that religion is insanity.

Forty nine states to go, Bart.
Carl K Self-Appointed Bartcop Akron Bureau Chief

A letter to bartcop.com

When the Rapture Comes - Can I Have Your Car?

Arkansas Woman Killed in Mistaken Rapture
by Elroy Willis

ARKANSAS CITY (EAP) -- A Little Rock woman was killed yesterday after leaping through her moving car's sunroof during an incident best described as a "mistaken rapture" by dozens of eye-witnesses. Thirteen other people were injured after a twenty-car pile-up resulted from people trying to avoid hitting the woman, who was apparently convinced that the rapture was occurring when she saw twelve people floating up into the air, and then passed a man on the side of the road who she believed was Jesus.

"She started screaming `He's back! He's back!' and climbed out through the sunroof and jumped off the roof of the car," said Everet Williams, husband of 28-year-old Georgann Williams who was pronounced dead at the scene. "I was slowing down but she wouldn't wait till I stopped," Williams said.

She thought the rapture was happening and was convinced that Jesus was gonna lift her up into the sky," he went on to say.

"This is the strangest thing I've seen since I've been on the force," said Paul Madison, first officer on the scene. Madison questioned the man who looked like Jesus and discovered that he was on his way to a toga costume party, when the tarp covering the bed of his pickup truck came loose and released twelve blow-up sex dolls filled with helium, which then floated up into the sky.

Ernie Jenkins, 32, of Fort Smith, who's been told by several of his friends that he looks like Jesus, pulled over and lifted his arms into the air in frustration and said "Come back," just as the Williams'car passed him, and Mrs. Williams was sure that it was Jesus lifting people up into heaven as they drove by him.

"I think my wife loved Jesus more than she loved me," the widower said when asked why his wife would do such a thing.

When asked for comments about the twelve sex dolls, Jenkins replied "This is all just too weird for me. I never expected anything like this to happen."

Quote of the Day

Q. Do you like monkeys?

A. I spank my monkey.
He is, after all, naughty

From Jason Rhorbloggers very, very, very funny blog.

Thanks Larry L this one's a keeper.

A Review of VD(J)'s Radio Show

Three hour self-promotion

Witless

Clueless

An utter waste of public property, and a stout scaffold and a strong rope, some tar, and a few feathers.

Radio Talk Show Science

A really great blog today from Aetiology.

It is written by an microbiologist/epidemiologist, which gives her a lot of stock in my company -- but it doesn't hurt at all that she is also beautiful. In a field, where most of the girls look like my fifth grade teacher. (Hang on ladies -- put away those autoclaves - I'm just kiddin').

Here is a quote from a typical scientist like Ko-Ko-Bop-Shimmy-Shimmy-Shake-a-Lot-Itsy-Bitsy-Teensie-Weeeeeeennnnie-Yellow-Polka-Dot-Bikini VD(J). Emphasis on the Weenie part....

"You can do what you want with your special laboratory mice, but whan it comes to it nobody has ever proven that germs cause disease and a century of war on microbes has had no results and, to cite a professor of the Villejuif hospital "up to today medicine doesn't know the cause of any disease".

Vote Repuglie

My old pal Jim Bohannon just sent me the link to this wonderfully (but sadly) true internet video.

See it HERE .....

On the Subject of Pretty Girls

A tip of the hat to Granny Geek who set me on to THIS SITE.

It is a discussion of the fashions of very pretty movie stars who make fools of themsleves by wearing stupid clothes. Until now my fashion vocabulary had consisted of four words: bikini, topless, french cut, and nekkid.

This is Kira Knightly. The location is London.

Stop the madness.

If this is a sign of what's to come with global warming, let's all send this photo to Rush and George the Lessor. We will show up in Kyoto quicker than you can learn to pronounce the CHATTERismist-guy's Japanese name.

I have a friend who actually picks up pennies that he finds lying on the ground. Yeah, he's insane, but on the other hand he once drove one of the hottest airplanes in the sky. HE needs to wear this little number. Either that or give up his teetotaling ways so he can meet a girl like Kira.

I used to think that Paula Abdul was a cutie, even for a girl named after the Muslim Supreme Diety. But after seeing her in her latest fashion from the closets of Fat Jack, I have changed my mind. Wonder if either of them could enter the Battlefield Mall?

Say It Ain't So Sam ....

Some guys are stupider than others. (I leave out VD(J), because that is a special case, deserving of his own sound clips this morning, which I bet, will follow).

Naw I am thinking of the hubby of Christy as in David Brinkley fame, Peter Cook. Who was ratted out by the father of his next true love, a 19 year old "assistant".

Ahem ....

Of all the people in this scenario, find the bimbo. Here's a hint: It's not female.

Read it HERE ...

I'm Sorry I Mugged Tony

For the simple reason he linked my mugging in his blog this morning. And I got, as of now, over thirty hits from Springfield and surroundings. Usually most of my blog hits are scattered from around the world.

Like I told Tony, my point, poorly made, was that Bush believes that a soul is created when egg meets sperm.

That's fine if you want to buy it .. but it makes for cruel public policy.

Let's take a closer look at the logic that many use. The Baptists, for instance, who I hear repeating the same thing, say that a child must reach the "age of accountability" (about 8 or 9) before they can "accept Jesus" and be Baptised into the religion. Before that, their soul is apparently undergoing development, but will go to heaven anyway. Using the same logic, why wouldn't a blastocyst's soul go to heaven also? And isn't that the goal of the Baptists?

The Catholics just baptise babies ... for the same reason. Why don't they baptise blastocysts? Is it because they actually think that blastocysts are going to heaven, baptised or not? Or is it just inconvienient for the mother?

The illogic of religious dogma infuriates me. Particularly when it comes to 15 - or 50 year old diabetics, or 80 year old Parkinson's patients.

My Fifth Grade Teacher

This fish has an absolutely perfect name: the Rosy Lipped Batfish.

It isn't much better in Latin, either. Ogcocephalus porrectus. No wonder it's scowling.

100% stolen from PZ Myers at Pharyngula

I'm Going to Mug Tony

If you don't read Tony Messenger's blog, you should. Tony has done more than I can ever remember a local newpaper editor doing, by getting to know his new community, it's various interests/conflicts/local issues. My hat's off.

OK, so much for Mr. Nice Guy, it's time to go back to my "in your face non-citizen/journalist" (just kidding Andy), stuff.

Tony's blog today discusses Bush's veto of the stem cell research bill. Maybe Bush does really believe what he says, but that's no great compliment to him or what he did that may effect every single one of us to the worse.

I am not an embryologist or a cell biologist (I'm a microbiologist), but I do know a little about those fields, and can understand much of the terminology and the concepts used to think about the development of stem cell therapy. It is not what Bush, or the Republicans, or the fundamentalist crazies say it is. So, just by that criteria alone, then if he honestly believes what he said yesterday then he is an uneducated and uninformed fool, or he knows what he is doing and is doing it for a far less respectable reason than conviction.

If he, and they, are doing it from conviction, then let them be honest about it. Say so. If it sounds dumb and stupid, so be it. That I can forgive and try to educate. If they are doing it to keep hold of Bush's small, and shrinking base, then it is cynical, cruel, and despicable.

I say they should first learn the difference between a blastocyst, zygote, fetus and baby.

Then if I were a smart WH reporter, I would ask about twins, since most identical twins come from a division of the blastocyst, which according to Bush already has a soul, do the twins share a single soul, or does god create another soul from the genetic accident, or is one of them soulless, and if so how do I tell which one it is?

And how about the case where two eggs are fertilized by two separate sperm, and then, coalesce into a single zygote. Does that zygote have two souls? Can I have one of them? Does god take one of the souls back? Would it be possible for one soul to go to heaven and the other soul go to hell? Shouldn't we be pissed at the unequal treatment of chimeras?

Naw, Tony. This was not done out of a conviction that should be forced down our throats, anymore than passing laws to pray at graduations should be forced down our throats. If they have true convictions, then when the technology is finally developed, as it most certainly will be, maybe in Europe or Japan; Jenna and Barbara should deny Bush the treatment for his future ahltzheimer's disease because he has conviction.

37 Years Ago Today

It happened about 11 PM our time. Armstrong and Aldrin, stepped out of the lunar lander and went into the history books.

How fast time passes.

See some really incredible high-res panoramas HERE ....

For My Fundie Friends, and Repugies

And the sign said "Long-haired freaky people need not apply"
So I tucked my hair up under my hat and I went in to ask him why
He said "You look like a fine upstanding young man, I think you'll do"
So I took off my hat, I said "Imagine that.
Huh! Me workin' for you!"

Whoa-oh-oh Sign, sign, everywhere a sign
Blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind
Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign?

And the sign said anybody caught trespassin' would be shot on sight
So I jumped on the fence and-a yelled at the house,
"Hey! What gives you the right?"
"To put up a fence to keep me out or to keep mother nature in"
"If God was here he'd tell you to your face,
Man, you're some kinda sinner

"Sign, sign, everywhere a sign
Blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind
Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign?

Now, hey you, mister, can't you read?
You've got to have a shirt and tie to get a seat
You can't even watch, no you can't eat
You ain't supposed to be here
The sign said you got to have a membership card to get inside

And the sign said, "Everybody welcome. Come in, kneel down and pray
"But when they passed around the plate at the end of it all,
I didn't have a penny to pay
So I got me a pen and a paper and I made up my own little sign I said,
"Thank you, Lord, for thinkin' 'bout me.
I'm alive and doin' fine.

"Wooo!Sign, sign, everywhere a sign
Blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind
Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign?
Sign, sign, everywhere a signSignSign, sign

FIVE MAN ELECTRICAL BAND - "Signs" lyrics

A Chickenhawk

Bush the Groper

See it HERE ....

Cheney must have told him, "When you see the German Chancellor, be sure to stroke her."

SGF Bloggers Meet-up

Another boogers meeting and another fun night. Fat Jack was there, wearing his mall uniform. (OK - look on my flickr page sometime today to get that one.) Larry, 417pundit's favorite blogger was there. The Marmont was snarling away at her very best. Half the newsroom of the Leader and Press showed up and we finally got mugged by Tony, since we managed to embarrass him about hosing us the last time he came.

And of course the Lib-guy made it with the specific purpose of reminding me that I know Tom Knapp. How annoying.

Amy, (that's the blond one), Mike Brothers, Entertainment Editor for the paper, Tony Messenger, editorial page editor, and I didn't catch the name of the lady next to Amy but she seemed nice enough, if a little old and scrawny for my tastes.

More photos up on flickr later.

Great fun -- come one and all on August 1st to the Patton Alley Pub.

VD(J) and the Banker Community

VD(J) , according to his ads that he, hisself, repeats on KSGF, thinks that home mortgage people suck.

Amazingly, I agree with him. All banks and lenders suck.

But why is he so vociferous about it?

Could it be because when Vince (Shimmy-shimmy Koko bop) Shattenkirk, his alter ego, lived in Colombia, Missouri, that all the banks told him that he was a lousy financial risk? ... that he would last only a couple of years in any community, before they ran his scuzzy ass out of town, and the mortgage company wasn't going to see a pennys worth of profit from this loser?


Naw, VD has a friend now. Advertises for him every day.

Smart people stay away from him, if VD is a sign of his judgement.

Some mortgage people are stupider than others.

Trolling for readers

Assama, bomb, Hamas, Iran, KimJung, Kim Chi, ammonium nitrate, Sears Tower, Golden Gate Bridge, Empire State Building, TNT, plastique, JDAM, Suitcase nuke, anthrax, smallpox, bioengineered, mole, FBI, NSA, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, cheap, body, armor, IED, nude, girls, death, destruction, terror, VD(J), and Shia.

Just want to make sure the FBI and NSA reads my blog.

Fat Jack and the Good Father

Fat Jack lived alone in the Ozark hills with only a pet dog for company. One day the dog died, and Jack went to the parish priest and asked, "Father, me dog is dead. Could ya' be saying' a mass for the poor creature?"

Father Patrick replied, "I'm afraid not; we cannot have services for an animal in the church. But there are some Baptists down the lane, and there's no tellin' what they believe. Maybe they'll do something for the creature."

Jack said, "I'll go right away Father. Do ya' think $5,000 is enough to donate to them for the service?"

Father Patrick exclaimed, "Sweet Mary, Mother of Jesus! Why didn't ya tell me the dog was Catholic?"

Just a Reminder

Tomorrow, Tuesday, is the usual meeting of the SGF Bloggers at the Patton Alley Pub at 7.

Be there or be square. Bring your best/funniest/most outrageous stories. VD jokes are always welcome. Maybe 417 will show up and we can have some real fun.

And I think I can let the cat out of the bag. There has been thought of going to twice a month meet-ups. For those who have never come, come once and you will discover why.

So I think we are going to give a try for Tuesday, Aug 1st. AND ... there may be a very special out-of-town guest there. He won't give me an iron clad promise, but if he doesn't I am going to turn him over to VD(J) to be assulted and battered .... after Granny Geek gets thru with him.

Stay tuned.

See ya' on the blog.

On Living, and Dying

As I sit here this hot Sunday morning, listening to William Colby, the lawyer who represented Nancy Cruzan I think of my own mortality.

I live with heart disease, serious heart disease. Disease that could claim me at any second with no warning. And I do have some of the best medical care that anyone could hope for having.

Nevertheless, given my genetic history, I should have died many years ago. When I turned 50 I became the oldest living male member of my mother's family in four generations. So I am under no illusion about my luck, or my good fortune at being alive at a time when heart disease can be treated.

And I have both a living will and an advanced directive as to my wishes should I not be able to make decisions for myself. The last thing in the world I want, or anyone else wants, is to get lawyers, courts, the state -- anyone outside of those I trust to get involved in the decision of whether I live or die. Gawd forbid -- the very last people I want involved are the religious whacks -- whether they want me to get saved before I go, so I can be with Jeeeeeezzzzzusss, or more likely, for my lib'rul soul to roast in hell.

But there are some great questions I would like to know, that I probably never will. Is there other life in this great void, and what is that life like? How does it differ from our life on this planet? What is the universe/space/time/strings/black holes and all that stuff that is so deeply part of our short existence?

But what I don't want is equally felt. A slobbering old man, in bed, attended to by loving, but unhelpful friends from Hospice, and family, if they care at all. Not being able to take a photo of a beautiful flower, or visiting hOOters, to oggle the pretty girls, or going to a boogers meeting to laugh my head off at the witty and talented people I know.

Life is short, so very short, and so unfullfilling when there is so much to be learned and so much left unlearned.

Nancy Cruzan knew. Joe Cruzan knew better.

The Way-Kewlest Video I Have Ever Seen

Go to the NASA page HERE ...

Then click on "Right forward SRB camera"

If anyone has trouble figuring out what they are seeing leave a note in the "comments"

VD(J), Chocolate People, and the GOV

First, listen to this.....

VD would say this is not racist. After all, Ray Nagin in New Orleans said it first. VD has the brain of a raisin. You can also hear blacks on the street calling each other by the "N" word. Does VD think he can call blacks by the "N" word too? I got news for him. What a racial groups may say to each other is one thing. It is another thing for massa' whitey -- whiter than fish-belly white -- to come along and say it also. Since VD is always eager to assult someone, I suggest that he go to New Orleans and ask someone from the ninth ward if the "chocolate people" feel they got a fair deal.

But his show gets better.

He is unhappy that science is not controlled by the preachers and therefore is immoral, wicked, and drenched in blood. Spends a lot of time doing it. And then to show just how smart he is in science mispronounces the word "chimera". Not once, not twice, but repeatedly. And just for fun I would ask him for the definition of a chimera. HERE is a simplified one from Wikipedia. Now VD, be so kind to translate that for your vanilla people who are listening.

And lastly, his conversation with the GOV. He is bound and determined to start a fight with someone. Rather than let the BoyRunt have his say about why he is supporting stem cell research (he grits his teeth every time he has to say it, but it's going to cost Talent his job, and the BoyRunt is in deep enough shit with the voters as it is.) Listen particularly to the end of it, after VD finishes lecturing the GOV. You can go either way. The GOV told him to shove it, or VD hung up on the GOV after a four minute interview where he did most of the talking.

Listen to it HERE ...

His lily-ass is grass.

Someone Should Give Auntie Norma a Clue

Aunt Norma our know-nothing, speak-nothing Senator from Greene County responded with undue haste and certainty last year getting a bill passed which bans the use of children's vaccines containing the preservative thimerisol. So now Missouri children can just go to that godless state of Arkansas if they want to be vaccinated against -- say -- a killer flu epidemic.

What sort of slime are the anti-vax advocates that she has jumped nekkid into the shower with. (That's an illusion that will give you shivers).

A federal court judge has struck a major blow against spurious legal actions which claim that mercury exposure is a cause of autism. With a brilliant analysis, the judge dismissed a lawsuit by a couple who claimed that RhoGAM shots the mother received during pregnancy and shortly after delivery had caused their child to become autistic. (RhoGAM is used to prevent destruction of the newborn's red blood cells due to an Rh-factor incompatibility between mother and child.)

The couple charged that the mercury preservative (thimerosal) in the shots was responsible. There is no scientific evidence that mercury is a causative factor, but the parents hoped to establish a connection through testimony by Mark R. Geier, M.D., Ph.D., who has testified in about 100 cases of alleged vaccine injury that that thimerosal in vaccines caused autism. However, the judge concluded:

**When subjected to extensive cross-examination, Geier could not point to a single study that conclusively determined that any amount of mercury could cause the specific neurological disorder of autism.

**Geier's conclusion that the peer-reviewed literature he has relied upon supports his theory that autism can be caused by thimerosal is flatly contradicted by all of the epidemiological studies available at this time.

**Geier's testimony was excluded or accorded little or no weight in more than ten of the vaccine cases. In one case, the special master who presided over the case referred to him as "intellectually dishonest." In another case, the special master referred to him as "a professional witness in areas for which he has no training, expertise, and experience."

**Because the parents could not establish causation, the RhoGAM case could not proceed.

Read it HERE

###
Hawaii governor vetoes anti-thimerosal bill.

A bill to ban the use of thimerosal in pediatric vaccines has been vetoed by Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle. Flu vaccine is the only is vaccine that currently contains thimerosal. Lingle's statement of objections says:

"This bill is objectionable because it restricts the use of FDA-approved vaccines for no scientifically sound reason. This restriction will put the health and well-being of Hawaii residents at risk, particularly in the event of an influenza pandemic. . . .

"This bill ignores the body of current scientific evidence on thimerosal-containing vaccines. It also ignores the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Hawaii Academy of Family Practice, the Hawaii Medical Association, the Hawaii Chapter of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and numerous physicians who are on record opposing this legislation. Its enactment could cause some parents to doubt the general safety of vaccines and to decline vaccinations for their children, a step backward in our efforts to encourage families to participate in vaccination and to reduce or eliminate preventable illness and deaths from communicable diseases."

It Could Be an Interesting Day

The Curbstone Critic's inside spy at radio KSGF, code named Manuela, reports that VD(J) was interviewing the GOV BoyRunt yesterday. Even the Runt figured out that VD was an idiot and hung up on him.

The interview is supposed to play this morning. Let's see. Anyone want to make book?

As I am listening at about 6:25 I learn that VD has been talking to some of those "chocolate people".

He also is ashamed of his great grandfather Jericho. Good thing for the world that he only carries one eighth of grandpoppops genes.

Clips of these two will most certainly follow.

Jon Stewart on Ted Stevens (R-Bridgetonowhere)

See it HERE ...

VD(J) Commits Another Stupid

Listen to it HERE ....

I am awestruck ... speechless ... I don't even know where to begin ...

I guess VD would intrepret that as a win..... eh?

VD Loves Israel, Jews are Going to Hell

This morning VD(J) is off on that poor, befuddled, powerless country Israel. She just can't get along with her neighbors. He brings up the history of Israel. Hell, I am older than the history of Israel. Them damn Musilmites are bombing them with US F-16s. Apparently he has never heard of the Irgun. Where a guy named Begin bombed the King David Hotel and killed a bunch of Brits.

Israel is a tar baby. Anyone who touches it is stuck to it forever. And we are stuck worst of all. Talk about your uncontrolled nukes? Guess who gave them to them.

But best of all, my friend Dave, a gay librul high school teacher here in SGF tried to call VD(J) this morning to point out that kicking the shit out of your neighbors is not a good way to have peace, but ran into a bimbo named Courtney, who screens the calls. When she asked what he wanted to talk about he said he would like to ask, since VD(J) loves Israel so much if he thought the Jews were going to heaven?

Courtney said that that didn't fit the program content for this morning.

Yeah.

What it boils down to is the krazyxtains like VD(J) love the country Israel, because they are willing to kick the shit out of their weaker neighbors, with our help.

The Jews can go to hell....

Typical xtian thinking ... the Wannasee Conference was one of his favorite meetings.

Rhummy on Acid

Listen to it HERE ...

Mike Malloy, Air America Radio

Breaking News

Kenny-boy Lay is STILL dead.

Although some preachers don't think so ....

Blowing Gertrude

A news article from a Florida Newspaper:

"When Nathan Radlich's house was burgled, thieves left his TV, his VCR, and even left his watch."

What they did take was "generic white cardboard box filled with greyish-white powder."

(That at least is the way the police described it.)

A spokesman for the Fort Lauderdale police said, "...that it looked similar to cocaine and they'd probably thought they'd hit the big time."

Then Nathan stood in front of the TV cameras and pleaded with the burglars: "Please return the cremated remains of my sister, Gertrude. She died three years ago."

Well, the next morning, the bullet-riddled corpse of a drug dealer known as Hoochie Pevens was found on Nathan's doorstep. The cardboard box was there too; about half of Gertrude's ashes remained and there was this note.

It said:

"Hoochie sold us the bogus blow, so we wasted Hoochie. Sorry we snorted your sister. No hard feelings. Have a nice day."

Only the CHATTERismist-guy could come up with a better story.

VD(J) and the neo-psychopaths

I have been wondering why VD(J) does things the way he does. For an example I offer his radio show, or his blog, where there is nary a word of his own thoughts, just cut and pastes from others. Laziness I first thought. It does take some effort to write anything, even something as silly as this blog. Or perhaps, he is just chickenshit. This remains a possibility, since he wants everybody else to do something and he will just talk about what a great idea it is on the radio, and of course, take credit for the usual nothing that is accomplished.

But I think John Dean - of Watergate fame - nailed it exactly right in his new book. Here is an exerpt from an interview with Keith Olbermann:

He has them nailed to a "T".

DEAN: Goldwater Republicanism is really R.I.P. It's been put to rest by most of the people who are now active in moving the movement further to the right than it's ever been. I think that Senator [Goldwater], before he departed, was very distressed with Conservatism. In fact, it was our conversations back in 1994 that started this book. That's really where I began. We wanted to find answers to the question, "Why were Republicans acting as they were?" -- Why Conservatives had taken over the party and were being followed as easily as they were in taking the party where [Goldwater] didn't want it to go.

OLBERMANN: What did you find? -- In less than the 200 pages that the book goes into.

DEAN: I ran into a massive study that has really been going on 50 years now by academics. They've never really shared this with the general public. It's a remarkable analysis of the authoritarian personality. Both those who are inclined to follow leaders and those who jump in front and want to be the leaders. It was not the opinion of social scientists. It was information they drew by questioning large numbers of people -- hundreds of thousands of people -- in anonymous testing where [the subjects] conceded their innermost feelings and reactions to things. And it came out that most of these people were pre-qualified to be conservatives and this, did indeed, fit with the authoritarian personality.

OLBERMANN: Did the studies indicate that this really has anything to do with the political point of view? Would it be easier to impose authoritarianism over the right than it would the left? Is it theoretically possible that it could have gone in either direction and it's just a question of people who like to follow other people?

DEAN: They have found, really, maybe a small, 1%, of the left who will follow authoritarianism. Probably the far left. As far as widespread testing, it's just overwhelmingly conservative orientation.

OLBERMANN: There is an extraordinary amount of academic work that you quote in the book. A lot of it is very unsettling. It deals with psychological principles that are frightening and may have faced other nations at other times. In German and Italy in the 30's, come into mind in particular. But, how does it apply now? To what degree should it scare us and to what degree is it something that might be forestalled?

DEAN: To me, it was something of an epiphany to run into this information. First, I'd never read about it before. I sort of worked my way into it until I found it. It's not generally known out there, what's going on. I think, from the best we can tell, these people -- the followers -- a few of them will change their ways when the realize that they are doing -- not even aware of what they are doing. The leaders, those inclined to dominate, they're not going to change for a second. They're going to be what they are. So, by and large, the reason I write about this is, I think we need to understand it. We need to realize that when you take a certain step of vote a certain way, heading in a certain direction, where this can end up. So, it's sort of a cautionary note. It's a warning as to where this can go. Other countries have gone there.

OLBERMANN: And the idea of leaders and followers going down this path or perhaps taking a country down this path requires -- this whole edifice requires and enemy. Communism, al Qaeda, Democrats, me... whoever for the two-minutes hate. I overuse the Orwellian analogies to nauseating proportions. But it really was, in reading what you wrote about, especially what the academics talked about. There was that two-minutes hate. There has to be an opponent, an enemy, to coalesce around or the whole thing falls apart. Is that the gist of it?

DEAN: It is one of the things, believe it or not, that still holds conservatism together. There is many factions in conservatism and their dislike or hatred of those they betray as liberal, who will basically be anybody who disagrees with them, is one of the cohesive factors. There are a few others but that's certainly one of the basics. There's no question that, particularly the followers, they're very aggressive in their effort to pursue and help their authority figure out or authority beliefs out. They will do what ever needs to be done in many regards. They will blindly follow. They stay loyal too long and this is the frightening part of it.

OLBERMANN: Let me read something from the book. Let me read this one quote then I have a question about it. "Many people believe that neoconservatives and many Republicans appreciate that they are more likely to maintain influence and control of the presidency if the nation remains under ever-increasing threats of terrorism, so they have no hesitation in pursuing policies that can provoke the potential terrorists throughout the world." That's ominous, not just in the sense that authoritarians involved in conservatism and now Republicanism would politicize counter-terror here which we've already argued that point on many occasions. Are you actually saying that they would set up -- encourage terrorism from other countries to set them up as a boogey man to have, again, that group to hate here -- more importantly, afraid of?

DEAN: What I'm saying is that there has been fear mongering, the likes of which we have not seen in a long time in this country. It happened early in the cold war. We got accustomed to it. We learned to live with it. We learned to understand what it was about and get it in proportion. We haven't done that yet with terrorism. And this administration is really capitalizing on it and using it for its' political advantage. No question, the academic testing show -- the empirical evidence shows -- when people are frightened, they tend to go to these authority figures. They tend to become more conservative. So, it's paid off for them politically to do this.

OLBERMANN: This all seems to require, not merely, venality or immorality but a kind of amorality where morals don't enter into it at all. "We're right. So anything we do to preserve our process, our power -- even if it by itself is wrong -- it's right in the greater sense." It's that wonderful rationalization that everybody uses in small doses throughout their lives. But, is this idea, this sort of psychological sort of review of the whole thing, does it apply to Dick Cheney? Does it apply to George Bush? Does it apply to Bill Frist? Who are the names on these authoritarian figures?

DEAN: You just named three that I discuss at some length in the book. I focused in the book, not on the Bush Administration and Cheney and The President because they had really been there done that, but what I wanted to understand is what they have done is made it legitimate to have authoritarianism. It was already operating on Capitol Hill after the '94 control by the Republicans in Congress. It recreated the mood. It restructured Congress itself in a very authoritarian style, in the House in particular. The Senate hasn't gone there yet but it's going there because more House members are moving over. This atmosphere is what Bush and Cheney walked into. They are authoritarian personalities. Cheney much more so than Bush. They have made it legitimate and they have taken way past where anybody's ever taken it in the United States.

OLBERMANN: Our society's best defense against that is what? Do we have to hope, as you suggested, the people that follow, wise up and break away from this sort of lockstep salute to, "of course, they're right, of course there are WMDs, of course there are terrorists, of course there is al Qaeda, of course everything is the way the president says it." Or do we rely on the hope that these are fanatics and fanatics always screw up because they would rather believe in their own cause than double-check their own math.

DEAN: The lead researcher in this field told me, he said, "I look at the numbers of the United States and I see about 23% of the population who are pure right-wing authoritarian followers." They're not going to change. They're going to march over the cliff. The best thing to deal with them -- and they're growing, and they have a tremendous influence on Republican politics -- The best defense is understanding them, to realize what they are doing, how they're doing it and how they operate. Then it can be kept in perspective and they can be seen for what they are.

A New Blogger in the Hood

417 pundit, has brought some punditry to the brave new world of punditry.

He promises: "... We've been examining 417 area bloggers for some time and have finally decided to take them to task for errors, illogical thinking, and contradictions."

Unfortunately, his first arrow missed the target entirely. But, newbies are new and so I will give him time.

I agree with Fat Jack that this is not a bad idea, we all can use a swift kick every once inawhile if for no other reason than it keeps boogers meetings at the Pub lively. But picking on typos is probably not the best way to do it.

Andy once suggested to me that this blog should have a theme .. since I am a biologist, biology would be a logical. Unfortunately, it would also bore me to tears. Last summer, when Mike Brothers was writing his story on local bloggers I stated, and I will restate for 417Pundit's benefit. I write this for one person in the world. It's nice that it gets read -- does great things for my ego-- but actually, I could care less. People are used to the typos, outright misspellings, occasional syntax that makes George Bush look like Lionel Barrymore, and just some of the goofiest stuff to be found on the planet.

That's the way I like it.

Bring on the toons, poo-flinging stories and the picking on VD(J) and Billy'sBoyToyRoy.

Besides, since I write about Repuglies illogic is an indispensible part of the story. It could be worse. I could pick on the Libbyloonies.

Captions Wanted

NK Missles Aimed at SGF

From the Original Curbstone Critic

Old Baldy and the She-Bears

by Tom A. Ellis

I recently received a letter, from a person who is obviously one of that great Moral Majority, in which I am told that I am a menace to Christian Morality. What's unusual is that it carries an unveiled threat. The letter reads:

"What a tragic thing to have you come out of retirement. For years I never read you, and that is why you made me so very angry for your every word was against us reverent, loving Christians.

"Your picture shows that you are as hairless as you are evil, and this is dangerous for me. I fear you because you are bald, and that may put my children in mortal danger. My children are mischievous and make fun of their grandfather, who combs his hair with a washcloth. They call him, "Old Baldie."

"My father doesn't care. Loving them, he is understanding. But what I fear is they may see you, or your picture, and might call you "Old Baldie" too. And knowing your evil disposition, I dread what you might do.

"I wonder if you would be like Elisha in II Kings? When the children of the city came out to meet Elisha on the road, they laughed at him, and called him "Old Baldie". Now Elisha was sensitive about his hairless head, and it made him angry. So he asked God to send a she-bear out of the woods.

"And since God is bald too, He granted Elisha's request. And that old she-bear gobbled up 42 of those pesky children. And that's what heroes are made of -- God bless this Christian America, and Elisha too, though I don't care much for she-bears, or you.

"So, you had better be warned. If a she-bear eats my children, I will know who was responsible, and I will testify against you in the only court that means anything -- the County Court."

Of course, I know what many of you readers are thinking -- that I am being spoofed, even derided by this writer. So did I think -- at first. Later, I reconsidered.

After all, if sincere, this is on an intellectual level with that of many of my critics. If, on the other hand, he was exhibiting a sense of humor, that automatically removes the writer from their class -- most of my critics have no sense of humor.

Too, as I reflect, I must consider this as clearly a form of bald harassment, bearing as it does on a head whose baldness I can barely bear-- he even bears double hard with a she-bear.

Only again, another doubt (I wonder if in Biblical ignorance he is a Unitarian?). As I recall the story, God sent not one she-bear, but two. And that makes sense. One she-bear in gulping down 42 children would surely suffer a bellyache almost unbearable even for a hungry bear.

Guarding the Presidental Turds

No information of whether turd-blossom was in charge of the operation.

July 4, 2006 --

Even Bush's crap is classified top secret. According to our Austrian sources, Austrian newspapers are currently abuzz with special security details of George W. Bush's recent trip to Vienna. Although the heavy-handed Gestapo-like security measures meted out toViennese home owners, business proprietors, and pedestrians by US Secret Service agents and local police before and during Bush's visit received widespread Austrian media attention, it was White House"toilet security" ("TOILSEC"), which has Austrians talking the most.

The White House flew in a special portable toilet to Vienna for Bush's personal use during his visit. The Bush White House is so concerned about Bush's security, the veil of secrecy extends over the president's bodily excretions. The special port-a-john captured Bush's feces and urine and flew the waste material back to the United States in the event some enterprising foreign intelligence agency conducted a sewage pipe operation designed to trap and examine Bush's waste material. One can only wonder why the White House is taking such extraordinary security measures for the presidential poop.


In the past, similar operations were conducted against foreign leaders to determine their medical condition. However, these intelligence operations were directed against dictators in countries where even the medical conditions of the top political leaders were considered "state secrets." The Israeli Mossad conducted one such operation against Syrian President Hafez Assad when he visited Amman, Jordan in Feb. 1999 for the funeral of King Hussein. The Mossad and its Jordanian counterpart installed a special toilet in Assad's hotel room that led not to a pipe but to a specimen canister. Assad suffered from diabetes and cancer and the operation was designed to discover the actual medical condition of the ailing leader. During Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's visit to Washington in 1987, the CIA reportedly placed a special trap under a sewage tank to collect the Soviet leader's bodily waste for analysis. More recently, the CIA was reported to have collected waste samples from Ugandan President-dictator Yoweri Museveni's toilet when he visited Washington.


Even Bush's toilet paper was flown in from the U.S. Air Base at Ramstein, Germany. In addition, Bush's food was flown in from theUnited States and tested with special chemicals before he ate it. Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, who was shot by a firing squad in 1989, was the last major European leader to constantly use a food tester. The last frequent state visitor to Vienna, who always relied on a food tester, was Adolf Hitler.

Read it HERE ...

It's a shitty job, but somebody's gotta' do it.

VD(J) Does Some Sleuthing

In his ever-viligant seach for his own name on the internet. VD(J) star of the ... ...well, nothing at all, had some clever and pithy comments about the Critic on this mornings show.

Listen to it HERE ... NOTE: When I post one of these clips on Yahoo briefcase the link will send you to the folder directory. Then click on VDstupid8 to listen. This is so Yahoo can be sure to impress you with an ad or two.

I do like a man who can issue a put-down with a feather light touch. One that is so deftly said that the recipient does not even know that he has been slammed over the head with a hammer, but instead confuses it as a compliment. I am still waiting.

But it is nice to know that he is filling out the rolls of my audience nicely, thank you. I can now join the far better known list of bloggers such as the CHATTERismist-guy, DocLarry, those brain-dead morans at Missouri Radio Forums, and I am sure, many others who he never reads again, almost every day.

Try US Soldiers/Criminals in Iraqui Courts

BAGHDAD, July 5 -- Following a recent string of alleged atrocities by U.S. troops against Iraqi civilians, leaders from across Iraq's political spectrum called Wednesday for a review of the U.S.-drafted law that prevents prosecution of coalition forces in Iraqi courts.


Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told reporters during a visit to Kuwait that "the immunity given to members of coalition forces encouraged them to commit such crimes in cold blood," adding, "That makes it necessary to review it."

Read the full story HERE ....

Breaking News

1. Kenny-boy Lay still dead.

2. Delay (R-Bugman) is either the Repug candidate or nobody is in that district.

We Had to Destroy that Village to Save It

American commanders have a new plan for Ramadi,
the "epicenter of the Iraqi insurgency and the focus
of a grinding struggle between American forces and t
he guerrillas," according to an article slated for the front
page of Wednesday's New York Times: "Get rid of it."

"In three years, the Marines and the army have tried
nearly everything to bring this provincial capital of
400,000 under control," writes Dexter Filkins.
"Nothing has worked."

"Now, American commanders are trying something
totally new," the article continues. "They are going
to get rid of it, planning to bulldoze about
three blocks in the middle of the city and convert
them into a "Green Zone," a version of the fortified
and largely stable area that houses the Iraqi and
American leadership in Baghdad."

Millions of people in the world are starving
Candy Crowley is responsible for it.
Rush and Candy – a date made in heaven, or McD’s….

Kenny-boy Lay dead

Good riddance to a bad actor.

Who is the next businessman/repugly we can send to jail?

VD(J) Threatens Two in First Ten Minutes

And is on a I-will-punch-you-out roll this morning.

And all within ten minutes of going on the air after getting a week's worth of punishment in the penalty box for almost causing a lawsuit with the postal clerk.

He wants to punch-out a flag burner (lotsa' luck finding one - Canadian flags don't count).

And he wants to punch-out that Mesican kid he saw at WalMart who wasn't appropriately defferential to him ... VD(J), while he was trying to be the best American.

VD(J) -- back on the hillbilly heroine. His hearing will go next.

And why, I might ask was his computer locked up during his vacation? Generally companies don't lock your computer unless they want you to have nothing to do in the companies name ... vacation or suspension. Enquiring minds want to know....

A Day of Horror

Ninety years ago today, July 1, 1916, a combination of the French, British, Canadian, and Russian armies launched an attack against the Germans at the Somme.

By the time the battle was over, 5 months later, over 1,000,000 members of all armies were dead.

On this day alone England lost 20,000 people.

Only humans, and human institutions could act so cruel, in such as bloodthirsty manner as did the Generals in World War I. It's a lesson to remember today about Generals and politicians.

HERE ...

and

HERE ....