Westboro Watch

Nothing quite defines nonsense like the Westboro Babtist Church. Lets take a look at the latest press release in which the WBC are announcing a scheduled picketing of a soldier's funeral. From godhatesfags.com...

God Hates America, and God is killing our troops in His wrath. Thank God for IEDs.[does he have the patent?]

Just to get the non-believers up to speed: God, according to the WBC, hates America in general and homosexuals in particular. They usually take an obscure bit of bible scripture and shoehorn it into whatever point they are trying to make. They also enjoy picketing the funerals of fallen soldiers and claim that each soldiers death is proof of Gods wrath.

I haven't completely figured out the whole America-Fags-Troop connection, nor do I understand why the Supreme Being is throwing together rudimentary explosives and leaving them in garbage cans in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Lord works in mysterious ways!

Back to the press release....

These soldiers are dying for the homosexual [which one?] and other sins of America. Gos is now America's enemy [huh?], and God Himself is fighting against America.

We are SKA-RUDE! Let's refer to the good book and find where exactly the WBC is finding their inspiration....

"Except the Lord build the house, They labor in vain that build it;
Except the Lord keep the city, The watchmen waketh but in vain."
Psa. 127:1

That makes sense.

Tomorrow, Part 2. Stay Tuned.

Healthcare Part Deux

I really don't want this blog to be solely political, but I can't get enough of these town-hall meetings. Check out Barney Frank in Dartmouth, MA yesterday (I apologize for the Crypt Keeper Larry opening.)



What could possibly drive a seemingly intelligent young woman to compare Obama to Hitler? How can one compare a possibly misguided attempt to provide healthcare to one population with the subjugation and slaughter of another population? Oh the power of Bill O'Reilly.

Sticks and Stones; The New Censorship

This from the New York Daily News...

"The boycott of Fox News host Glenn Beck gathered more steam Monday when retailing giant Wal-Mart and seven other companies pulled their ads from his show, organizers said."

And why would they do that?

"On July 28, Beck called President Obama a racist who has a 'deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture.'"

Smooth. And of course...

"That prompted a call for a boycott by Color of Change an African-American online political organization that claims 600,000 members. About 145,000 members signed a petition asking Beck's advertisers to stop supporting him. 'It's rare for a campaign directed at a TV show's advertisers to be this successful,' said Color of Change founder James Rucker. 'But we won't stop here. We're going to continue reaching out to Beck's remaining advertisers.'"

Oh no you didn't! Way to stick it to the man, Jimmy. However...

"Judging from Monday night's broadcast, there were plenty of companies eager to fill the ad slots, including The Wall Street Journal, DirecTV, Honda and Oprah Winfrey's Oxygen Channel."

Oh snap. Go Oprah. The story goes on to say how Fox News has not lost these advertisers, they have simply moved the ads to different programs blah blahblah blahblah.

Okay, let me first say that I am no fan of Glenn Beck. He is the typical fear-mongering loudmouth indigenous to Fox News and their idea of "fair and balanced," and what he said was probably not all that accurate. Fine, but does that in turn mean that he doesn't have the right to say it? Over the past few years, certain groups have developed this notion that they have the right not to be offended. They actively protect this right by trolling the mass media in search of the unacceptable. When they come across it, they audibly gasp "No! I do not like this, I wish to see it removed from public view!" In what has become the usual and quite effective tactic, these groups take this righteous indignation straight to the advertisers cuz that's where the money is.

The end result of this morality blackmail is threefold. First, we now have the "new censorship." Any group at any given time can control some knucklehead pundit's 1st amendment rights. Second, because of these tactics, the media has become a watered-down, boring, god-forbid-anyone-gets-offended culture. Dull. Lastly the average, ordinary American who understands that what some knucklehead pundit says really has no bearing on my life is subjected to the lifeless media.

Color of Change. The majority of African-American children in this country grow up in a home without a father. 25% of all African-American males will spend some time in prison in their lifetime. But Color of Change wants to go after Glenn Beck. Good luck with that.

Healthcare: Annoying Joe Weighs In

Check out this video of protesters disrupting a town hall meeting with Rep. Kathy Castor on Healthcare reform.



Now, I won't confess to an opinion on the pros and cons of a single payer healthcare system. Obviously, in a perfect world, every citizen of a civilized nation should be entitled to healthcare. But, As anyone with eyesight and/or hearing will tell you, this is not a perfect world.

No, its not the view that concerns me , it's the method. Bear with me...

In 1930's Germany, a large number of political ideologies found root in a society searching for a political, post-war identity. Communists, Socialists, Democratic Liberals, etc. would gather together in a club-like setting to discuss their idea of what Germany should be. One such political group, the National Socialists, weren't content with simply getting together and chatting. They decided to take it one step further. They decided that the best way to get their point across was to go around disrupting the meetings of other political groups. I don't mean disrupt like "excuse me, but we are here to join in a debate," I mean disrupt like yelling and shouting and screaming. Eventually this yelling and carrying on evolved into something a bit more violent, and we all know how that ended up.

Now, I am not implying that these protesters are either Nazis or violent. What I am saying is that as I watch these protests, I am reminded of the above-mentioned history. Is it unfair to say that attempting to suppress an opposing opinion by attempting to disrupt an organized gathering by chanting and screaming is a little bit fascist? Will this debate be decided by who yells the loudest? Scary.

Killer Asteroids!

This from the AP...

"NASA is charged with spotting most of the asteroids that pose a threat to Earth but doesn't have the money to complete the job, a federal report says. That's because even though Congress assigned the space agency that mission four years ago, it never gave NASA the money to build the necessary telescopes..."

Huh?

"It may never get the money, said John Logsdon, a space policy professor at George Washington University."

Why Not?

'"The program is a little bit of a lame duck," Logsdon said. There is not a big enough group pushing for the money...'

Well, why would there be?

"NASA estimates that there are about 20,000 asteroids and comets in our solar system that are potential threats. They are larger than 460 feet in diameter...Rocks between 460 feet and 3,280 feet in diameter can devastate an entire region"

Oh. Anything else?

"Objects bigger than that are even more threatening"[this is actual AP text.]


You don't Say. So, let me get this straight, encapsulate, if you will. There are thousands of threats to civilization as we know it hurtling through space. We have, for the first time in the history of history the means to detect these threats and potentially avert them, but we don't have the money.

Big ass prize closet

Of course Stacy (AKA Daisy) waltzes in to the big ass prize closet upon laying her first ichibon upon Ronnie B. She's a regular. Anyway, this only reinforces my belief that Richie and D's firstborn excels at everything she tackles.

Annoying Joe Launches

Annoying Joe is a place to disseminate the nonsense of the day, both internal and external. Enjoy! or don't.