Sterling behavior.

Ok, it has been in the news…

NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced Tuesday that an NBA investigation concluded that the racist remarks made on a recording obtained by TMZ were made by Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling.

Silver banned Sterling for life from any association from the Clippers organization or the NBA. He is not allowed to attend any games or practice, or be involved in any business relating to the running of the team. Sterling is also fined $2.5 million dollars, the maximum amount allowed by the NBA.

If you know me, you know guys like Sterling churn my stomach.  His ilk are ignorant sons of bitches and if he was hit by a bus I would shed no tears.

But.. 

As ignorant and distasteful of a human being as he is, what did he do that was illegal?

He is entitled to his thoughts regardless of how crappy they are.  If the only response to his stupidity can only ever be punitive action then why are we not making laws against speech and thoughts?

Said Commisioner Silver:

Silver spoke to the press at an 11 a.m. news conference from New York, stating he will “do everything in my power” to force the sale of the Clippers.

“The hateful opinions voiced by that man are those of Mr. Sterling. The views expressed by Mr. Sterling are deeply offensive and harmful. That they came from an NBA owner only heightens the damage and my personal outrage,” Silver said. “I am banning Mr. Sterling for life from any association with the Clippers association or the NBA. Mr. Sterling may not attend any NBA games or practices, he may not be present at any Clippers facility, and he may not participate in any business or decisions involving the team.”

Oh hell yes, the remarks were offensive.  Hateful?  Maybe.

Harmful?  Who was harmed?

harm (härm)
n.
1. Physical or psychological injury or damage.
2. Wrong; evil.
tr.v. harmed, harm·ing, harms
To do harm to.
[Middle English, from Old English hearm.]

 Again…

Definition of harm (n)
Bing Dictionary
harm[ haarm ]
damage or injury: physical, mental, or moral impairment or deterioration
injure somebody or something: to cause physical, mental, or moral impairment or deterioration

 Who was harmed?

The team also released the following statement and have planned a 5:45 p.m. news conference prior to Tuesday’s sold-out game: “We wholeheartedly support and embrace the decision by the NBA and Commissioner Adam Silver today. Now the healing process begins.”

More than a dozen sponsors have dropped their support of the Clippers, including RedBull, CarMax and State Farm, as a result of the scandal.

“I can understand how upset they are, and I hope I can do everything under my power to bring them back into the NBA family,” Silver said.

Harm would be if people boycotted the Clippers as some hotheads have suggested.  It wouldn’t harm Sterling in the least.  It would harm the many people whose livelihoods depended upon the team, the stadium, and products…hot dog vendors, janitors, ticket-takers, etc.

“Whether or not these remarks were initially shared in private, they are now public and they represent his views,” Silver added.

His views.  His views are not illegal.  What IS illegal is the taping made of him by his mistress, the very taping everyone is using to crucify the turd.  But being a turd is not illegal.

“The healing process begins.”  Really?  People were so damaged by this ass that they have lifelong scars?  Really?

Let us look at what was said, to get a full view.

Silver said a forensic expert confirmed an audio recording taken by Sterling’s mistress, V. Stiviano, was not altered. In the clip, which was released by TMZ on Saturday, Sterling tells Stiviano, who is of African-American and Mexican descent, not to broadcast her association with “black people” at Clipper’s games. The audio clip was released shortly after she posted a picture of herself with Lakers Hall of Famer Magic Johnson on Instagram, which has since been removed.

Moving on.

Don’t get me wrong.  If the guy disappears tomorrow, I don’t care.

I am troubled, however, that so many people screamed for blood over something said, and that an illegal recording was completely ignored.  It is the chilling willingness of people to not defend speech, regardless of its stupidity and distasteful nature.  That troubles me.

****

This brings a happy smile to my face.  Recognition where it is due.

****

Obama, in his simultaneous grasp and inability to recognize the obvious.

“When ignorant folks want to advertise their ignorance, you don’t really have to do anything, you just let them talk,” Obama said.

Here is a good example of non-Obama ignorance.  I was going to snip out the non-dumb parts but there were none.

PORTLAND Ore. (Reuters) – A sample of albacore tuna caught off the shores of Oregon and Washington state have small levels of radioactivity from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, researchers said on Tuesday.

But authors of the Oregon State University study say the levels are so small you would have to consume more than 700,000 pounds of the fish with the highest radioactive level to match the amount of radiation the average person is annually exposed to in everyday life through cosmic rays, the air, the ground, X-rays and other sources.

Still, the findings shed some light about the impact of the meltdown on the Pacific Ocean following the March 2011 tsunami and subsequent power plant disaster, said Delvan Neville, a graduate research assistant at OSU and lead author of the study.

“I think people would rather have an answer on what is there and what isn’t there than have a big question mark,” Neville said.

At the most extreme, radiation levels tripled from fish tested before Fuskushima and fish tested after. That level was 0.1 percent of the level set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for concern.

“The levels were way too small to really be a food safety issue, but we still want to tell people about it so they know what’s there.” Neville said.

 I recall predicting this in an older post.

Edited with BlogPad Pro

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Scattershot Day.

You know my love of knives.  For some reason this one just appeals to me.  Go buy one.

*****

Just a statement of fact, no links – I’m seeing this new Pope and I think I like the guy.  I’m not Catholic but I still have a lot of respect for the Pope.  When he can stand up at the Vatican and say “May God forgive you for what you have done” after being chosen, there is a guy who knows nuance, has a sense of humor, and oh-so-subtly set the tone of what he will and will not call “bullshit” on during his time here as Pope.  I also think he’s going to give the commander of the Swiss Guard ulcers from worry.

An old joke – no idea where it came from:

“I wouldn’t mind being a cardinal.  I definitely wouldn’t want to be the Pope though.  I’m not a papal person.”

Somehow listening to “The Smoking Popes” do their number “The Pope Smokes Dope” when we have a Pope with only one lung won’t be the same. (go look it up on Youtube – I need to go to bed – they’re punkers)

****

The Urean Terrorists have struck an elevator in the Long Island Rail Road station.  Looks like the damage was pretty bad.  Apparently if you have enough home-grown terrorists who drank shitty wine drop trou in the elevator and whiz until their bladder is empty enough times you can destroy the floor and the works of the elevator down below.  As in “may be totalled”.

Is it really so hard to put a liquid sensor in there that locks the elevator (or electrocutes the sonofabitch) just as soon as the floor gets moist?  Then have it autodial the cops and the meat wagon to come get the trash out of the elevator.

Come on… someone  had to have noticed that it smelled like the cleaning closet at a sorority house during Greek Week.  Get enough people involved it is actually worse than cat piss.

****

We need a pic from Cruel Wife to liven this post up in a nice way – like putting up curtains or something.  A Glasswing Butterfly.  She won’t let me put up pictures of Milla, Hendricks, or Theron, so we’ll be stuck with dragonlizardthings, chameleons, butterflies, and snowflakes. All of them are perfectly geared to the male psyche.

****

Like a bad rash that won’t go away, Obama was melancholy that the Evil Sequestration Perpetrated by the Republicans have forced him and the missus to move mee-maw out of the White House.  Yep, they packed up a U-Haul truck and drove her off to a slum somewhere, may a pox rot the Republican’s eyes.

****

I notice the enraged rioters complaining about a teen carrying a gun who was fatally shot.  One article says two shots were in the back and three shots in the front.  You could automatically call it that the dirty cops shot him in the back and he turned to them in a plea for his life and they shot him again as he tried to show his weapon.  You could also say that he was facing them, told them he had a gun, and made a dumb move that got him shot three times, spun around and shot twice more.  Shot in the back sounds emotional as hell but did those shots come first or last?

As veeshir noted, the kid supposedly was going to turn in the gun in between church service and volunteering at a soup kitchen.  Go see just how bad veeshir’s case of Oyster Herpes is.  I heard from him that it hurts like hell and makes your junk all scaly and dry.  Actually, he is to be commended for an awesome McGoo-Style headline that was actually supported by the linkage in the post.

Fact is, the kid was packing on the street.  Smartest move would have been to stand really still and follow the police’s directions to the letter.

What I’m not getting is why rioters are destroying local businesses.  This seems like a pretty silly way to treat your friends when it was someone else who pissed you off.  What it smacks of is thugs living in their own little “we good, everyone else bad, cops should all die” club.  It has the feel of Detroiters and Chicagoans drowning and choking in their own shit.

Witness accounts seem to be evolving from cop interviews “couldn’t see much” to reporter interviews “he didn’t have a gun in his hand”.

But City Councilman Jumaane Williams, a frequent NYPD critic, blasted outsiders who he said escalated tensions. “Please stay the HELL out of our community will only agitate our kids,” Williams fumed on Twitter. “It’s dangerous and counterproductive.”

Sorry, but police kind of have this job description that says swaths of the city cannot become lawless islands filled with gun-totin’ juveniles.  Your kids need to agitate a bit less and quit going through life thinking that it’s all about them.

****

Ok, more Cruel Wife decorations.  Think doilies on the arms of chairs and lace coffee coaster things.

This is just like that except it is fagile, crystalline water at reasonably high pressure (for an SEM) and probably pretty damn cold.

****

Apparently the last of the little tinglies have run back down Chris Matthew’s leg (that’s called urine, Chris… Jesus, get a grip, man, you’re pissing yourself).  For a guy who lived through the budget issues in the 90’s he is sure doing a good job of painting the coming of the Four Horsemen.

Matthews: “How does Barack Obama escape this frightening axe coming down sharply and brutally on his presidency? How does he avoid personal harm when the country rises up in anger? When the army and naval bases stop writing checks? When people stop shopping because they don’t have salaries? When the airports seize up because the air traffic controllers are cut? When the bitching and yelping reach up to the White House gates themselves? What will we do when the government itself shuts down because Congress won’t authorize another nickel in spending?

****

Have another gratuitous evil demon-kitty pic.  She still does this and leaps, delivering silent death from above.

****

The sequester is not the end of the world – I repeat NOT the end of the world.  But you have concerned commenters who feel that it is, and not only that they can’t get a lot right.

Terrylee

March 14th, 2013
2:31 pm

Okay…….what hold does Obama have on you jerks,,,we know Rogers was blackmailed for something he did not want made public…look you are suppose to defend the constitution and Nothing else…we donot want your personal opinions, period. Donot belittle your position anymore than you already have…we must cut the budget and we must do more to cut the budget that will effect everyone. The country is about to undergo the worst possible change ever, we are about to lose the us reserve currency in the world, the IMF and many other countries are about to drop the USA dollar as the reserve currency..which means our dollare will be worth Nothing. The feds keep printing money to give to banks to stop them from raising interest rates…the government(Obama) is trying to Nationalize all retirement plans..401ks..IRAs etc… so they can steal all 15 trillion dollars of Americans retirement plans…we are about to lose our place in the world and all money in banks will be lost and your worried about :What”……….A new unified currency is planned in world meetings right now to replace the dollar……we have serious problems facing this nation. You are now owned by Obama……we no longer have faith in our system of justice.

Count the errors.  It’s fun.

Common Sense below, is bereft of it.

Common Sense

March 14th, 2013
2:27 pm

Good. Trim everything but military and fire 98% of govt workers including the Supreme Court. If they can’t survive with the money they get, trim all the friviolous cases they embrace that gives them an excuse to ask for more tax dollars. Cut the purse strings and sever the head of the snake.

That’s great – get rid of one of the three pillars of government and throw a pile of checks and balances into the incinerator.  Good thinking – and end up with an even less fiscally responsible God-King and Parliament for Life.

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The Nature of God

Update:  Since the original post was about the nature of God, let’s have another bit of humor.  Yes, it’s on yoootoob (associated with g00glle) but just this once…  it’s an important public safety announcement.

****

An Observant Reader, ooGcM taobmaetS, recently passed on to me via dead drops, mute couriers, and randomized routes a picture that is so momentous, so blockbuster, so all-consuming, that it is a wonder that space-time hasn’t grown thinner in spots and perhaps even started to crumble like old cheese in others.

It was regarding the nature of God.

I must do some fearless sock-searching, perhaps take an inventory of my drawers, and get right with my wardrobe.

I have asked taobmaetS ooGcM if he has considered being a High Priest of the Ordered Drawer of the Holey Sock.

He chuckled and shook his head modestly and said:

Lemur, I know you worship the very ground I walk on (shame on you).  But you also know I’m too humble to think of elevating myself to a position of such awesome responsibility.  I am just a simple man, with simple needs, and a cat named Brrrt, who needs me to feed him smoked gouda and free him from trees from time to time.  No, that is my calling in life.  And baiting goths and trolling Trolls.  And ****ing with people that need ****ing with.  Yes, that’s the life for me, my friend.  That’s the life for me and that’s my calling.  Leave the rest of that to better men than I. –  taobmaetS ooGcM, explaining why he could not take up the mantle of the Holey Sock priesthood. 

Note:  I am a God-fearing Protestant and not some rabid atheist.  I just believe that God also has a sense of humor.  Look at the world around you and you have many examples of this.

****

If ever you needed more reason to pack your own kid’s lunches, may I suggest that this is it?  This is what your government will do to feed your little snowflakes.  This is stuff that they won’t even put in hotdogs because it is last-choice animal product.  The only thing that comes lower than this stuff is actual excrement, earwax, the solids from bile, and pulmonary tumors.

USDA Buys 7 Million Pounds of Slime for School Lunches

Here’s what should really disturb you:

Pink slime is a mixture of leftover trimmings, sinew, and other beef parts culled from a cow once the expensive and more recognizable cuts of meat have been harvested and sent to a butcher. The collection of leftovers is spun in a centrifuge to remove excess fat, washed in a disinfecting solution and then minced for use in various applications.

Pink slime is allowed to make up as much as 15% of the ground beef you might be purchasing at from your local grocery store. And according to some industry experts, the concoction may be in as much as 70% of the ground beef found in America.  – Mike Opelka, The Blaze

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To Leak Priveleged Information.

San Fran Nan is telling us that she’s going to leak.  Where are her DC-strength Depends™ undergarments for pissy women with control issues?  She’d better run down and find some quickly.

Nancy Pelosi:

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is holding back some information on Republican Newt Gingrich that could detract from his presidential campaign, according to a report published Monday.

“One of these days we’ll have a conversation about Newt Gingrich,” Pelosi told Talking Points Memo. “When the time is right. … I know a lot about him. I served on the investigative committee that investigated him, four of us locked in a room in an undisclosed location for a year. A thousand pages of his stuff.”  – source:  The Hill

The real question is why would she say this?  What could she hope to achieve?  Implied very strongly is that Newt Gingrich should suspend his campaign in the light of potentially damaging information.

blackmail [ˈblækˌmeɪl]  n.

1. (Law) the act of attempting to obtain money by intimidation, as by threats to disclose discreditable information

2. the exertion of pressure or threats, esp unfairly, in an attempt to influence someone’s actions

vb (tr)

1. (Law) to exact or attempt to exact (money or anything of value) from (a person) by threats or intimidation; extort

2. to attempt to influence the actions of (a person), esp by unfair pressure or threats

blackmailer  n

Not sure if “implied” would hold up in court, but this has all the feel of a store owner being shaken down to pay “fire insurance” because it would be a real tragedy if something were to happen to the owner’s building if the boys weren’t there to keep an eye on the place.

Her statement is not a lie, but wait until she turns on “spin control”.  Then we’ll see lies.  Already the implications are enough to insult the listener because we all recognize her speech for what it is – threats.  And when she does deny it or try to excuse it…

Why then we may need to resort to one of Curtal Friar’s words that came in comments resulting from this post, the second half which is on presenting lies that not once are called into question despite being Grade A bullsh*t:

1. Stelamendacium: an arrogantly stupid lie that makes the recipient want to beat the teller to a bloody pulp.

2. Stelamenpunirist: someone who tells an arrogantly stupid lie that casts doubt on the listener’s intelligence and who rightfully deserves to be beaten to a bloody pulp.

But until that point, all we can do is arrest her for blackmail.  Newt Gingrich handled it well:

Gingrich reacted to Pelosi’s comments by thanking her for an “early Christmas gift.”

He also said Pelosi would be violating House rules and abusing the ethics process if she disclosed anything from the ethics investigation.

“That is a fundamental violation of the rules of the House,” Gingrich said in New York following a meeting with Donald Trump. “She’s now prepared to totally abuse the ethics process.”

But facts are facts – Pelosi engaged in blackmail, by threatening the disclosure of information with the intent to influence someone’s behavior.  Democrats would do well to treat her as if she were political nerve gas and abandon her, but I prefer that they embrace her and her poisonous nature.

I know Newt Gingrich isn’t a favorite among many conservatives and I can only respond with this:  Every single one of the Republican candidates is better than what we have in the White House right now.  Without exception, every single one of them.  So before going nuclear on him and threatening to not vote or making a statement by voting for some other candidate who cannot possibly win, you’d be better served to remember that.

****

Any idea why, when our own finances are draining down the drain – why we are giving money to the IMF to bail Eurozone members out of their own self-made economic hell?  Especially since the Eurozone was absolutely formed with the clear intent to take the US down a peg or three?  They made no secret about that.

****

I can honestly admit to wondering if the school administrators have lost their freakin’ minds.  Kicking a bully in the nuts is sexual harassment?

****

I have had more than enough of Christians that get up on their soapboxes and engage in behavior modification speech.  Telling Christians that they are the reason for the commercialization of Christmas, that to be good Christians we should have two manger displays (one inside and one outside our homes), how we should speak in wishing someone a fantastic Christmas, and how to pick out Christmas cards (the expectations of which I find offensive)… I have only one thing to say, with as much love as I possibly can… stop worrying about how other people live their lives, go have a Merry Christmas, and stuff it.

Stop crapping on other people’s enjoyment of the holiday.

****

What friendship doesn’t have it’s ups and downs?  Woman kills friend stuffs her body under pile of Christmas presents.  Who among us hasn’t been there, huh?

****

Be sure to come back later since I have more to add.

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There are monsters and then there are MONSTERS.

I hear some Penn St. people are upset about what the Sandusky coverup has done to “a good man”, Paterno.

Demonstrators overturned a TV news van, toppled street lights, shook stop signs and threw toilet paper. From rooftops and in the streets, they yelled “F— Sandusky!” and “We Want JoePa!”

The campus chaos began shortly after 10 p.m. with the announcement by the board of trustees that Paterno, 84, who had said earlier in the day that he would retire at the end of the season, was instead fired over the phone and denied a chance to end his career on the playing field.

Seriously, you guys are up in arms and rioting about the firing of a guy who did not immediately go to the police after hearing of a rape of a young boy from an eyewitness?

Happy Valley was in bedlam early today as angry, chanting students ran amok in a bizarre climax to an unforgettable day that ended with the unthinkable: the firing of football legend Joe Paterno.

Chanting “Joe Pa-ter-no!” and “One More Game!” students raced to the stately Old Main administration building to express their anger that the winningest coach in major-college football history was out – fallout from the child-sex scandal involving his former top assistant, Jerry Sandusky.

A man covered up the abuse of a child and you can only think about “one more game” rather than “this sick fuck accomplice needs to be on trial with the sexual perversion monster”?

Seriously, if you are so confused that you feel a need to support someone who did not act and in fact helped cover it up in the face of compelling evidence of sexual abuse of a child, then you need some help yourself because your priorities are all wrong.  That “one more game” doesn’t even show up on the radar.  He doesn’t deserve that last game.  And those of you who are let down?  Get pissed at Paterno and certainly Sandusky, but don’t you dare riot and piss and moan about a football game and imply that the tragedy of it’s loss somehow has parity with the kid’s lifetime well-being.

A sexually (or physically) abused kid may indeed be counseled and able to come to grips with what happened later… maybe… but it will forever shape his or her life.  There is NO excuse for a molester or an enabler.  None.

– LK

Of course, I could understand Penn State folks being kind of pissed at being associated with these guys…

Graphic obtained from over at SOYLENT GREEN - http://cbullitt.wordpress.com

Go over to SOYLENT GREEN and read the latest most awful-est part of the whole affair.

Here’s the link to an op-ed column by Michael Reagan – on the off chance that you’d not read it because it meant clicking on a link to do so (thus tiring out your mouse-finger), then I’m pasting it here.  I’m sure he’ll understand but I’m looking into how to get proper permission – in the meantime I think it can understandably be labelled as a PSA.

Don’t Be an Enabler — When a Child Is Abused, Here’s What to Do

By Michael Reagan

Published November 10, 2011 | FoxNews.com

Allegations of child sexual abuse by a former assistant football coach at Penn State University have dominated the news this week. On Wednesday legendary football coach Joe Paterno released a statement in which he said, “With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more.” How lame is that, coach?

Would you have accepted that excuse from one of your players? “With the benefit of hindsight, coach, I wish I had run the route we rehearsed a thousand times in practice.” See how stupid that sounds? It doesn’t take “hindsight” to know that when some monster is raping children in your locker room, you call the police.

Coach, you knew back in 2002 that Jerry Sandusky had anally raped a ten-year-old boy in the Lasch Football Building. You handled the matter quietly with your athletic director, Tim Curley. You took away the rapist’s keys and barred him from the facility—but you didn’t call the police. You didn’t lift a finger to help the victim. No hindsight needed, coach. You screwed up.

Yes, we all know about your 61-year career at Penn State. But when you allow children to be victimized right under your nose, you wipe out 61 years of achievement. The Jerry Sandusky scandal is your legacy now.

This scandal has also indelibly stained the reputation of The Second Mile, the charity Jerry Sandusky founded in 1977 as a foster-care program for at-risk kids. Turns out the kids were most at-risk from Sandusky himself.

The Second Mile was one of George Bush Sr.’s Thousand Points of Light and probably did some good work. But the grand jury says Sandusky met his victims through The Second Mile. So even if the program survives this scandal, it will always be remembered as Jerry Sandusky’s private sandbox for recruiting rape victims.

As for the alleged child-rapist himself, you have to stand amazed at his gall. He actually had the brass to title his autobiography “Touched: The Jerry Sandusky Story.” What is that, the punch line of a sick joke?

I don’t want to hear any more “benefit of hindsight” excuses. So let’s be clear about what you should do if you learn that a child is being sexually abused. Print this out, post it on your bulletin board, and make sure everyone in your family, company, or organization knows how to respond to child sexual abuse.

1. If you see an act of child abuse in progress, step in and STOP IT. I have to wonder why the grad assistant who witnessed the rape felt he only had to report it to someone. Why didn’t he jump in, knock Sandusky on his butt, and protect the child? If you see a child being raped by an adult, please have the guts and good sense to intervene.

2. If a child tells you he or she is being abused, don’t panic, don’t act shocked. Make sure the child feels supported and protected. Say, “You did the right thing in telling me.”

3. Believe the child. Even if the offender is “good old Uncle Charlie,” tell the child, “I believe you.” It takes a courage for kids to speak up because they fear they won’t be believed. Kids need to know you’re on their side, and they almost never imagine sex acts unless they’ve experienced them.

4. Tell the child that he or she is not bad. Say, “He knew better; you didn’t know. We’ll make sure he can’t touch you again.”

5. Focus on the child’s needs. Don’t think about the reputation of any individual or organization. The moment you shift your focus off of what’s best for the child, you’re on the wrong side of the issue.

6. Don’t confront the offender in front of the child. Keep adult discussions away from the child. Kids need to feel protected. They don’t need to be upset, disturbed, and frightened.

7. Report the crime to the police. Law enforcement agencies in your area have trained investigators who will talk with you and the child, and who know exactly how best to handle the situation.

And don’t you dare tell me that you don’t have the heart to have “good old Uncle Charlie” arrested. If Uncle Charlie is molesting a child, protect that child!

I’ve heard too many horror stories of people who protected “good old Uncle Charlie” or “good old Coach Sandusky” instead of protecting children. You must have absolute moral clarity: Child molesters belong in jail where they can’t hurt children. If you don’t call the police, then you are an accomplice and no better than a molester yourself.

8. If the molester is a member of the clergy, DO NOT report the abuse to church officials. If the molester is a coach or teacher, DO NOT report the abuse to the school authorities. Some churches and organizations worry more about lawsuits and bad publicity than about kids. Just call the police.

9. Don’t call Child Protective Services—investigating crimes is not the function of CPS. If the police determine that CPS should be involved, they will make that decision.
Don’t let the predator talk you out calling the police. Most predators are amazingly persuasive—that’s how they entice their victims, and that’s how they get people to cover for them instead of reporting them. Don’t be taken in by a charming predator.

10. After you call the police, call the ChildHelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4ACHILD (1-800-422-4453). The ChildHelp counselor will listen to your concerns, answer your questions, and direct you to local support services for the child.

Finally, don’t you ever use the “benefit of hindsight” excuse! I’ve armed you with the foresight to do the right thing to protect a child—and that child is counting on you.

The reason I tell you all this? Because, I was once that boy.

Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan. He is a political consultant, the founder and chairman of The Reagan Group, and president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Visit his website at http://www.reagan.com, and visit the Michael Reagan Center at Arrow Child & Family ministries. Portions of this column are adapted from his book “Twice Adopted.”

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/11/10/dont-be-enabler-when-child-is-abused-heres-what-to-do/print#ixzz1dKUoLlH9

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Tuberculosis found at Occupy Atlanta.  No word yet on whether victims will avail themselves of antibiotics developed by Big Pharma at the expense of the 99%.

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That Burning Sensation.

Russian supply rocket blows up after launch.

NASA is counting on Russia as well as Japan and Europe to keep the orbiting outpost stocked, now that the space shuttles are no longer flying. The shuttle program ended in July with the Atlantis mission; a year’s worth of food and other provisions were delivered.

That burning sensation?  Shame.  Pure unalloyed shame.

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Utter Disgust – No Saving Throw.

Congress.  Vote the entire lot out.  Tar and feather them.  Start with Boehner.

House Speaker John Boehner says the pact he’s reached with President Barack Obama and other leaders of Congress on lifting the debt limit and taming the budget “isn’t the greatest deal” but lives up to the GOP’s principles on taxes and spending.

They’re cutting 1 trillion dollars over ten years.  That’s 100 billion per year in a yearly budget of over 3 trillion dollars.

The ****wad has just made the biggest argument for why so many Tea Party folks should show up in record numbers to make sure that anyone who now aligns themselves with the GOP is gone and why people of any party should be voted out after one term.   I’m a conservative and hearing Boehner say that only cutting one trillion over ten years is living up to the GOP’s principles tells me that the GOP is dead and he’s given it just one more in a long string of kisses of death.

I’m supposed to feel better than this about it, though:

Congressional sources familiar with the outlines of the deal say it would cut the deficit by about $2.8 trillion and raise the debt limit by a similar amount. The deal includes $1.2 trillion in spending cuts up front and creates a select bicameral committee to find another $1.6 trillion in savings later in the 112th Congress.

I’m sure there’s a committee that is going to be as dedicated to finding the $1.6T as Obama was in listening to the committee recommendations about the budget last winter.  Yep, expect some quick action on that one.

I want to hear a certain list of numbers and if I don’t hear them I want to know why.  Yearly.

1. How much do we spend on things we need this year?
2. How much do we take in?
3. How much has the debt been paid down this year?
4. When will the debt be paid off?

#2 minus #3 minus #1 goddamned well better be greater than zero and never a negative number.  If it is more than zero, I want my taxes reduced by that much divided by 350M next year.  When you set out #1, I want to know exactly where it is going, and I don’t want budget tricks played – no estimates or assumptions.  If you can’t do that, the budget needs to be simplified to the point where that doesn’t happen.

And I want the extra alphabet departments removed.  And a 10% flat tax.  And no more pork damnit.  And for f***’s sake get rid of the congressional pensions and benefits.  @$$holes.  Stop it with the games, you chickensh*t bastards, and for once play straight and grow up – the rest of us are seriously tired of your sh*t.

Expect Boehner to break out in tears any day now, talking about his love of his country and how stressful this has been.

San Fran Nan:

We all may not be able to support it or none of us may be able to support it.  – Nancy Pelosi

Me personally, I’m never gonna give up my daily pork rinds, caviar, champagne, and military jets y’all are paying for because I can’t support giving it up.  That’s what she’s saying.

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I am a law-abiding citizen.

I am.  I’m a law-abiding Michigander.  But I’ll tell you this:

If the Michigan police think that if I am stopped that they can download data off my cellphone they are going to have to arrest me.  AFTER I take my SIM card and destroy it.  There is no F*CKING WAY they get to intrude on my privacy like this.  No way.

The Michigan State Police have a high-tech mobile forensics device that can be used to extract information from cell phones belonging to motorists stopped for minor traffic violations. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan last Wednesday demanded that state officials stop stonewalling freedom of information requests for information on the program.

ACLU learned that the police had acquired the cell phone scanning devices and in August 2008 filed an official request for records on the program, including logs of how the devices were used. The state police responded by saying they would provide the information only in return for a payment of $544,680. The ACLU found the charge outrageous.

I will endure arrest on principle.  I will be respectful to the officer, as much as I can and still refuse to comply with his “orders”, but I will NOT hand over my personal information to anyone under duress.

A US Department of Justice test of the CelleBrite UFED used by Michigan police found the device could grab all of the photos and video off of an iPhone within one-and-a-half minutes. The device works with 3000 different phone models and can even defeat password protections.

“Complete extraction of existing, hidden, and deleted phone data, including call history, text messages, contacts, images, and geotags,” a CelleBrite brochure explains regarding the device’s capabilities. “The Physical Analyzer allows visualization of both existing and deleted locations on Google Earth. In addition, location information from GPS devices and image geotags can be mapped on Google Maps.”

The ACLU is concerned that these powerful capabilities are being quietly used to bypass Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches.

“With certain exceptions that do not apply here, a search cannot occur without a warrant in which a judicial officer determines that there is probable cause to believe that the search will yield evidence of criminal activity,” Fancher wrote. “A device that allows immediate, surreptitious intrusion into private data creates enormous risks that troopers will ignore these requirements to the detriment of the constitutional rights of persons whose cell phones are searched.”

Many thanks to The Butcher of Lansing for this link.

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Now, do NOT think that this next graphic (not mine) and the previous section above are related in any way.  They aren’t.  But Llamas with Hats make me laugh and damnit, I could use a laugh.  Family health issues with my sister have made this kind of a dark week.

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Could We Get Some Perspective Please?

By the way, meant to post this right around Christmas.  Doesn’t this look awesome?

It needs no caption.

Ok, no.  It was gross.  It was worse than gross.  Drinking every last drop took a lot of willpower.  I refuse to waste Red Bull ™ .

*****

My well-wishes go out to Congresswoman Gifford and her family and all the other shooting victims.

Her father was asked if she had any enemies.

Ms Giffords’s father Spencer, 75, wept when asked if his daughter had any enemies. ‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘The whole Tea Party’ – the Right wing of the Republican Party.

I’d really appreciate it, however, if people would stop demonizing the Tea Party.  If some perspective would be looked for, it could clearly be seen that a Tea Party member is by and large very concerned for his or her country and doesn’t condone shooting of politicians.

Second misconception is that a Tea Party member by definition identifies themselves as Republican.  Not even close, bud.  I’m a Federalist/Libertarian.  Frankly the Republican Party makes jellyfish and sea-cucumbers look as if they were bedrock and full of resolve.  Until they prove different, I’m going to continue to consider the Republican Party a bunch of Melvins.  Reading the Constitution was an awesome first step but the journey of a thousand miles starts with but a single step.  Keep going and maybe down the road I’ll be impressed but I’ll always be a constitutional constructionist, regardless.

Yes, this guy is upset, and I understand that as a father, but you don’t really say things in times of stress or drunk that you don’t feel normally – sorry but it doesn’t happen.

It’s still more evidence that the liberal side of the equation doesn’t understand the Tea Party any more than the average Republican.

As for the gunman, Jared Loughner, well, he’ll either get help he needs or be locked up, preferably both.  If he had a problem with her he should have addressed his problem with her.

Here’s how I look at it – if someone wants to shoot me, ok, it should start and end there.  But if he shoots me and then goes after innocent people around me, well, put him down like a rabid dog.  This guy killed a 9 year old girl.  Inexcusable.

Good luck, Mrs. Giffords and the others that were shot.  True Tea Party members care and would never rejoice in what has happened.

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Quick Feeling of Dumbstruckedness.

Update:   May not post anything tonight.  As gently as I can put this, metaphorically, my toenails and my molars were two ships passing in the night.

I think I got some bad food.  Really bad food.

Gilbert Gottfried bad.

****

Just this morning, the Diane Rhem Show on NPR.  (driving to work after a dr appt)

This is not verbatim, but the content is there.

Female Guest #1:  I think it is a good thing having Supreme Court Justices on the bench like Sotomayor and Kagan – it’s beneficial to have a wide range of experience.

Diane Rhem:  I think there ought to be a few seats filled with people with no legal experience – no lawers or legal training.

Male Guest #2:  I think you’re absolutely right.  It should be someone like Al Franken who represents the populist vote.

I literally swerved on the highway as my jaw dropped.

Go read yesterday’s post for something to help you recover from that kind of mind-job.  I’m still shuddering.

I do wish they’d stop blathering on about how many cases Kagan has recused herself from. It’s not uncommon the first year.   It’s a non-issue issue.

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Oblivion

Update:  Aggie Sith said “Wow, a sweet post with a bit of gross thrown in for good measure“.  I thought she had a good point so it’s now reverse-ordered, sweet and then gross.

I am utterly horrified by statements like this.  It makes me cringe.  I’d rather chew on tinfoil.

Unemployment benefits are creating jobs faster than practically any other program. –  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

****

Cruel Wife and kids are home as of last night.  Yay!  No, seriously.  It was too damn quiet and I was working from when I got home to when I got in bed (after midnite) either for work or on the house or both, just to keep myself from going stark raving bonkers.  For some reason video games just didn’t seem like an option, and I didn’t play one for even one minute while they were gone.

****

No one noticed the smell first?  Truly cattle-class aircraft conditions.  Moooo.

US Airways says maggots falling from an overhead bin from a container of spoiled meat forced a plane to return to the gate in Atlanta.

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Made for a man – so he can feel like a woman.

Update:  Easily one of the single most disgusting things I’ve seen in a long while.  I can’t believe they found a doctor who would perform the procedure.   They need to reinstate the Hippocratic Oath.

To get that taste out of your mouth – a humongous ginormous frickin’ rabbit.

**** Now on to the regularly scheduled programming****

This breaking news in from the DailyMailOnline…  thank God it made Cruel Wife cringe.

Forget Viagra, scientists develop what women REALLY want, a spray to make their men cuddle more

… it seems the chemical can make a man ‘feel’ like a woman.

God help us all.  They go on in gory detail.

Afterwards the men were shown heart-wrenching photographs including a little girl in tears, a child embracing a cat and a man in mourning, and asked them to describe the level of empathy they felt with those in the pictures.

‘The oxytocin group showed significantly higher emotional empathy levels than those men who had taken the placebo,’ said Dr Rene Hurlemann, of the Friedrich-Wilhelms University of Bonn.

In fact, he added, they reached the ‘levels of sensitivity usually found in females’.

The finding raises the tantalising possibility that women could use oxytocin sprays to help macho boyfriends and husbands get in touch with their feminine side.

Chauvinists could be turned into sensitive souls happy to watch weepy films and critique outfits on shopping trips.

Almost as scary as the idea itself is the crap the Daily Mail is churning out here.  They are peddling mass hysteria and naturally progressing to where we men are going to run away screaming like little girls to avoid losing our masculinity.

THIS is the best Cruel Wife could hope for…

Scott Adams has been way ahead of anybody’s time on these things though.  I tried his site’s autogenerated embed code to hotlink his graphics but I had to truncate the html to get wordpress to show them.  (So, Scott – if I’m doing this wrong, let me know and I’ll fix it, K?)

****

Inscrutable Half-Breed, a co-worker, sent this on… I quote him here verbatim:

Apparently, Pacific Interpreters felt it necessary to go to the trouble of writing this letter to inform this guy that they would have fired him if he hadn’t already been in the process of being fired.  A beautiful illustration of why I don’t like HR people.  His response is perfect.

http://imgur.com/a/R85WU/doublefired

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Thanks?

Thought for the day:

Just think… if Benjamin Franklin had had his way and the Turkey was our national bird, we’d be stuffing and eating Bald Eagles right now. – Lemur King

No eagles were harmed in the making of this image - note the pheasant tail feathers that are still in place.

Andy by the way, fellow Moron Bloggers and others – eat, drink, and be merry for you know you have today but tomorrow is never certain.  Squeeze your ‘other.  Give your kids a hug.  Hug your dog.  Hug your cat… your hamster,  your rat, and most certainly do not forget to hug your lemurs.  Give two hugs to the lemurs, they are quiet long-suffering types and could use the validation.

****

I could go on how I’m thankful for my family, a job, a dog, a dinner  – but you can read that sort of thing anywhere.  Everyone is thankful for something and no one set of thanks are more special than another.

But let’s look at some thanks that aren’t so special.

Helen Thomas is thankful:

Helen Thomas: This Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for a black president...

This is very far away from a racism-free society even now.  It is far from color-blind.

When I value my president based on the color of his skin, I’m a racist.  I don’t care how “progressive” this proclamation of Thomas’  may seem on the outset.  It may seem that all is well, for why shouldn’t we be glad that things are reaching closer to equality and that the nearly unthinkable happened?

But what we should celebrate is that a man’s skin color did not impede his run for the highest office in the land – NOT that we are thankful our president is black.

There is a huge difference there and I’m shocked that it is so widely seen as a subtly nuanced distinction.  It must be nuanced or why else would so few people call her on it?  Surely she cannot be anything but right..?

The racist nature of this issue is highlighted in a recent poll (Gallup).  Across the board, in every subset but one, President Obama’s ratings have slipped by double-digits – but one.  That category is the black population.

If race and skin color were not an issue, then you would expect any slips in popularity to be completely uniform throughout all subsets.

I say we should be thankful that skin color did not stop a black man from running for president.  That it did not stop him from winning is an amazing event.

But to say “I’m thankful for a black president” is another thing entirely.  The true litmus test of any statement like this is to remove the subject in question and replace the subject with it’s exact opposite.  If I were to say:

This Thanksgiving, I’m thankful for a white president.

Sounds pretty awful, doesn’t it?

****

From the “Yeah, it’s ridiculous but not worth getting irate about” department…

A little lighter fare – how Disney is totally whack-job racist.  Most of it was BS, but I did have to agree with the question of why Aladdin was a whitebread cracker.

And the Uncle Remus issue.  Why the hell was this guy not allowed to be present for the screening of a movie he starred in?

Or, back up a step or two… my mother had this book when she was a little girl and I think it’s upstairs in the folk’s attic.  I read it when I was a little kid and had no idea that it was anything other than a story to anyone who read it, but I look at it today and shudder.

Peppered throughout the book was something like “His big ol’ fat mammy and a slice of chocolate cake.”  Pretty damned offensive but it goes to show you that we have come a long ways in 60 years.

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