ravings of a semi-sane madwoman: 09/05/2010

Friday, September 10, 2010

back and forth back and forth back and forth

it IS illegal. it's morally WRONG. if you have issues with 'the' gays serving openly, GET THE HELL OVER IT. 'the' gays ARE serving in the military. they're your neighbors. they're your relatives. they're your FRIENDS (or they COULD be if you'd stop being so damn ignorant)

Judge in California rules on military's ban on openly gay service members

By Robert Barnes

Washington Post Staff Writer

A federal judge in California said Thursday that the U.S. military's ban on openly gay service members violates the Constitution, the most recent in a string of court rulings overturning restrictions on the rights of the country's gay men and lesbians.

U.S. District Judge Virginia A. Phillips said the government's "don't ask, don't tell" policy is a violation of due process and First Amendment rights. Instead of being necessary for military readiness, she said, the policy has a "direct and deleterious effect" on the armed services.

Citing testimony at a two-week trial in July by experts and former service members, Phillips wrote: "All of these examples demonstrate that the act's restrictions on speech not only are broader than reasonably necessary to protect the government's substantial interests, but also actually serve to impede military readiness and unit cohesion rather than further these goals.".....................

Thursday, September 09, 2010

i don't shock easily

really i don't. i do get to feeling nauseated (at people's actions) quite a bit. this, this makes almost everything else pale in comparison

from bob cesca's awesome blog

bob gives us some WORST people of the week

And these tea party guys:

Dennis Scranton: "I think fruits are decorative. Hang up where they can be seen and appreciated. Call Wyoming for display instructions."

Tim Ravndal: "@Kieth, OOPS I forgot this aint(sic) America no more! @ Dennis, Where can I get that Wyoming printed instruction manual?"

Ravndal is the president of the Big Sky Tea Party Association. Yep. They're all about lower taxes and smaller government. And making awful jokes about the horrible death of Matthew Shepard. Classy. Ravndal has been removed from his post.

'true' americans

well true if you consider money is more important than everything else

Beck, Palin to restore honor to 9/11 by cashing in with $225 "meet and greet"
by Will Bunch

September 11 is a very important day for Glenn Beck. For one thing, the king of all right-wing media talks about it all the time -- more on that in a second. What's more, the horrors of Sept. 11, 2001, are pretty much what made the Fox News Channel host into the national lightning rod that he is today. It was the vehicle that caused him to complete his journey from a Morning Zoo "rodeo clown" to a political guy who suddenly was replacing the so-9/10 Laura Schlessinger on radio outlets coast to coast and then leading a series of transparently self-serving honoring-the-troops rallies for Clear Channel.

But Beck has talked a lot about 9/11 over nine years -- and with the highly notable exception of his bizarre September 2005 attack on the family members of victims of the terrorist attack, the emphasis has been on extreme reverence for that day in American history. When he was getting off the ground on FNC, he used the images of 9/11 to launch project he claimed would bring Americans back together..............

people are so effing odd

and by odd i mean repressed, fucked up, misinformed, fucked up, naive, afraid of the UNKNOWN, fucked up, brain washed, guilty, fucked up (i think you get my drift, right?)

Tea Party candidate: Masturbation is the same as adultery
By David Edwards and Muriel Kane

In a year when Tea Party candidates with radical positions have been staging upset victories in Republican primaries, Christine O'Donnell is one of those who, as MSNBC's Rachel Maddow put it on Tuesday, "simply freak out other Republicans."

O'Donnell, who is backed by the Tea Party Express, is running in next week's Delaware Senate primary against Rep. Mike Castle. Castle, a former governor, has been winning elections in Delaware by large margins since 1966, and in any normal year his victory would be assured. But this year, nothing can be taken for granted................

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

if true,

this is extraordinary (and nothing short of a miracle)

Vitamin B is revolutionary new weapon against Alzheimer's Disease

By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent

The research showed that the larges doses of the supplement could halve the rate of brain shrinkage – a physical symptom associated memory loss and dementia in the elderly.

The effects were so dramatic that the scientists behind the work believe it could revolutionise the treatment of the disease.
Brain shrinkage or atrophy is a natural part of ageing but it is known to be accelerated in people with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) – a kind of memory loss and forgetfulness – and Alzheimer's.
Scientists at the University of Oxford conducted a trial on 168 people and found that taking high doses of three vitamin B supplements every day reduced brain shrinkage associated with dementia by up to 53 per cent.............

pic: chm.bris.ac.uk/motm/vitaminb12/structure.html

Wednesday, September 08, 2010

allora

viaa

malvina reynolds

via

i was going to be rude (or literally MYSELF) and say, LOOK HER UP. i changed my mind. here's a link:

malvina on wiki

it's a shame most americans know lady gaga's name and not malvina's

wednesday awesomeness

via

from blue milk

Beware of anyone talking about your ‘hard wiring’

Now, if you read nothing else this week, then read this: “Will Working Mothers’ Brains Explode? The Popular New Genre of Neurosexism” by Cordelia Fine. It is quite, quite perfect, as I am sure you will see from these two excerpts..................................

an important story for all of us to read (part i)

they can leave the war (in a foreign country) but the battlefields are still all around them, even at home.

we treat our veterans like crap. oh sure we SAY we honor them. oh sure we give them a parade on veterans day and memorial day. THAT'S NOT WHAT THEY NEED. they need help WHILE serving and AFTER serving. especially in wars like vietnam, iraq, afghanistan. wars we HAVE NO FUCKING BUSINESS BEING IN AND IN A FEW CASES STARTING

Exclusive: One Iraq veteran’s harrowing journey from the battlefield to suicide (Part I)
By James Foley

“He said three times that he should have just died in Iraq and I would have loved him forever, because he didn't think we were going to get back together,” Krissy Caudill, Sgt. First Class Spencer Kohlheim’s fiancée said after his grandmother found him hanging in her garage less than a month after he returned from Iraq.
--> (At right: SFC Kohlheim minutes after his vehicle was hit by an IED in Kirkuk.)

What happened in Afghanistan

Soldiers speak of the firefights, of the thrill of getting shot at. In the mountains of Afghanistan a firefight can happen any day, and it can be a powerful, almost drug-like fix................

as i was saying, every time i pick up a paper............

they (as in the entire world, not just those in the congo)

use women as their weapons of war. americans do it to. they do it to their OWN women not only in civilian life but soldier on soldier.

rape.

the world MUST teach their sons and daughters the value of women. the world must teach it's sons and daughters to treat women with respect and dignity and as equals. we can't remain silent and expect this to go away. if it's 5000 miles away or in your next door neighbor's house

U.N. Says About 500 Were Raped in Congo

By NEIL MacFARQUHAR

UNITED NATIONS — Approximately 500 women were raped in eastern Congo in July and August, demonstrating that both rebel militias and government troops used sexual violence as a weapon, two senior United Nations officials said Tuesday.

Since United Nations officials first disclosed late last month that large numbers of women had been gang-raped, the number reported has grown, to 242 victims from at least 150 concentrated in 13 villages in North Kivu Province, including 28 minors.

But Atul Khare, the deputy head of peacekeeping and the senior official sent from United Nations headquarters to investigate, told the Security Council on Tuesday that at least 257 more women had been raped elsewhere in North Kivu and South Kivu Provinces, for a total of at least 499 victims.

The latest victims include 21 girls between 7 and 21 years old, and six men, he said...............

every time i pick up a newspaper

or a periodical or look on a news sight on the internet, a wave of nausea comes over me (literally). i have no love for religions. i love books. even books i think are evil. well not so much do i love them as i wish them to exist simply because it's the RIGHT thing to do. when an american...when a 'religious' american burns a book, especially a holy book to others, i want to scream.

1) this is america. land of the free, home of the brave

2) this is america, we have freedom of religion here

3) in this particular incident, the evil doers are 'christians'. didn't your christ teach you to be accepting? (guess not)

4) i want the people who are offended by the actions of these 'christians' to know these 'christians' are the types of people who not only will burn holy books of other religions, they'd burn almost any book (other than their bible) they could get their hands on

5) seems like the actions of these 'christians' may (heavy on the may) further endanger AMERICANs stationed in the middle east

amen

Tuesday, September 07, 2010

lion cub cam, lion cub cam, lion cub cam

(yes, i AM torn. yes i DO believe they belong in the jungle. however, i still wanna see....)

LION CUB CAM (live i might add)

via

important info for ALL of us

i love my kindle but it will NEVER replace my love of books

how to open a new book
Mark Frauenfelder

please think about it before you pull that voting booth lever

(or now in many cases, before you fill in that little circle). do you really WANT these people representing YOU and yours? i sure as shite don't

Details On C-Street's Midnight Intervention For Ensign

Rachel Slajda

When Sen. John Ensign's housemates on C Street found out about his affair with the wife of an aide, they burst into his room and woke him up to stage an intervention.
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), a fellow C-streeter, had found out about the affair weeks earlier and confronted Ensign, according to the New Yorker, which is out with a long story about Ensign (R-NV), the C-Street House, and the Fellowship.
After the confrontation, which was "filled with recrimination and tears," Coburn had Ensign write the now-infamous letter to his mistress, Cindy Hampton (also an aide). Three ministers then drove Ensign to a FedEx box to deliver it. That, however, didn't end the affair.........

and in case you missed the new yorker link above HERE'S another:

Frat House for Jesus

The entity behind C Street.

by Peter J. Boyer

the common man/woman kim jon il is bowling for OUR dollars!

and in truth i wouldn't mind so much IF faux' money was indeed going to the starving (in every sense of the word) people of north korea. but we all know that ain't happenin'. so here's what real ~~patriotic~~ idiotic news corp is doing/has done

Kim Jong Il Bowls for Murdoch Dollars With Korea Video Games
By Matthew Campbell and Bomi Lim

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has found an unlikely ally to help raise cash for his impoverished regime: The Dude, the pot-smoking underachiever played by Jeff Bridges in the movie “The Big Lebowski.”

Programmers from North Korea’s General Federation of Science and Technology developed a 2007 mobile-phone bowling game based on the 1998 film, as well as “Men in Black: Alien Assault,” according to two executives at Nosotek Joint Venture Company, which markets software from North Korea for foreign clients. Both games were published by a unit of News Corp., the New York-based media company, a spokeswoman for the unit said.........

(clip nsfw)

you can make up your OWN mind

as to what sort of person (and/or political party) would set up three homeless people like this. may says it's not a joke. i don't believe him. i think he's laughing like crazy on this inside (and places where he isn't on camera)

Republican Runs Street People on Green Ticket

By MARC LACEY

TEMPE, Ariz. — Benjamin Pearcy, a candidate for statewide office in Arizona, lists his campaign office as a Starbucks. The small business he refers to in his campaign statement is him strumming his guitar on the street. The internal debate he is having in advance of his coming televised debate is whether he ought to gel his hair into his trademark faux Mohawk.

Mr. Pearcy, 20, is running for a seat on the Arizona Corporation Commission, which oversees public utilities, railroad safety and securities regulation. Although Mr. Pearcy says he is taking his first run for public office seriously, the political establishment here views him as nothing more than a political dirty trick.

Mr. Pearcy and other drifters and homeless people were recruited onto the Green Party ballot by a Republican political operative who freely admits that their candidacies may siphon some support from the Democrats. Arizona’s Democratic Party has filed a formal complaint with local, state and federal prosecutors in an effort to have the candidates removed from the ballot, and the Green Party has urged its supporters to steer clear of the rogue candidates...............

pic:

Joshua Lott for The New York Times

Steve May, right, a Republican, recruited three street people, from left, Thomas Meadows, Anthony Goshorn and Benjamin Pearcy, to run as Green Party candidates in Arizona.