Dancing with Myself

Gothic Country Western?

Adam Lambert, the quasi Goth, quasi Gay, totally interesting and talented contestant on American Idol, is challenged by Country Western.  I think he kicked ass.  Here's a YouTube clip from Tuesday night when Adam sang Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

In honor of this auspicious day, Michelle O'Bama ordered the fountain in front of the White House to be dyed green.  I couldn't find a photograph, so I took an old picture of the White House fountain and photoshopped it.  Aren't I clever?  Right.

    Jake Tapper of ABC blogged the story and a few commenters at his site called it "tacky."  Those same commenters went on to say that President Bush saved the taxpayers a lot of money by not having parties at the White House, and that seems to be all that the O'Bamas are doing, partying that is.  Yeah, that right.  Bush was so responsible in his handling of our resources.  What do you call a half a trillion dollar war waged entirely on credit?  "Responsible" is not the first word that comes to my mind.

In other news, the Pope, ex-Nazi Joseph Ratzinger, warns that condoms only exacerbate the situation of AIDS in the world.  His solution?  Abstinence and marital fidelity are the only Catholic sanctioned way of halting the spread of AIDS.  Isn't that equivalent to sending starving people a picture of food and wishing them "bon apettit"?  You know what my people say?  If you don't play the game, you don't make the rules.  I'm just saying, that's all.

I see where Norm Coleman, the Repuglican in Minnesota who was defeated by Al Franken, and his Republican enablers are now invoking Bush v. Gore in an attempt to save his sorry ass.  Never mind that the Supreme Court said that Bush v. Gore was to have no precedential value.  If the Republicans on the Supreme Court want to go there, maybe the Democrats will show some cojones and impeach one or two of them.  That ought to keep us entertained for awhile. 

Not that Republicans don't ever come up with good ideas, Sen. Grassly, Republican from Iowa, had this to say about the executives at AIG:  “The first thing that would make me feel a little bit better towards them if they’d follow the Japanese model and come before the American people and take that deep bow and say I’m sorry, and then either do one of two things — resign, or go commit suicide.” 
We're told to lighten up because he didn't really mean it, From Politico.com

An Idea Whose Time Has Come

How about the House and Senate remove the earmarks of all members who ultimately vote against a spending bill knowing that it will pass regadless?  As it stands presently, they get to brag about voting against bloated spending bills while adding to and benefiting from the bloat.  According to a New Orleans website, Vitter and Landrieu, working in tandem, have 142 projects totalling $249 million. 

Don't hold your breath.  So far, the Republicans get to do and say anything they can to defeat President Obama and the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate without having to pay any political cost.  At all.  Come 'on, Harry and Nancy.  Let's play hardball.  Our country is in serious trouble and one side is doing everything it can to cause your failure. 

Now the country's not going to come apart just because President Obama and the Democrats fail to resurrect the economy, but if they do fail, there's going to be a lot of people hurting for a long time.  Let the pain begin with those who are standing in the way.

Asshole of the Day, Week and Month

Rod Dreher. Why?  In East Texas, a family is horrifically murdered by the boyfriend of the daughter in the family murdered.  The Mother's throat is cut with a sword that almost decapitates her.  The father is shot multiple times.  The 13-year-old son is murdered.  What point of the story does Dreher focus on?  In recounting the story of his family's drama, the father mentions that when his children first began school in this little town, another girl had a crush on his daughter and the father was somewhat shocked.

"I guess you'd call it culture shock," Caffey said. "Emory has a lot of bisexual kids; it's like it was almost cool to be bisexual. One of the first things that happened was some girl wanted to be Erin's little girlfriend. And I was like, 'That ain't happenin'.' "

That's it.  No lurid details.  No story that the girl persisted.  In fact, daughter went on to develop an inappropriate relationship with a heterosexual young man who ultimately murders two members of the family and seriously injures the father.

So, what shocks Dreher about this horrible crime?  That bi-sexuality exists in small towns in East Texas.  Bi-sexuality is more shocking to him that the murders.  Talk about low-life creeps obsessed by homosexuality?  Jeez!  Dreher is a sick, sick, person.  (Courtesy of Andrew Sullivan.)

 

The Catholic Church Sucks

A nine-year-old girl is raped by her step-father.  Her mother takes her to a hospital where doctors, worried that this slim child cannot handle the pregnancy and birth, abort twin fetuses she is carrying.  Upon hearing about it, Archbishop Jose Cardoso Sobrinho excommunicated the mother and the doctors who performed the abortion.  This action was defended by the Vatican.  "It is a sad case, but the real problem is that the twins conceived were two innocent persons, who had the right to live and could not be eliminated,'' Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re told the Italian daily La Stampa.  "Life must always be protected. The attack on the Brazilian church is unjustified," Re was quoted as saying. He also heads the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.  [Emphasis mine.]

Oh really?  This must make all Catholics everywhere incredibly proud of their church.

Pot, Meet Kettle

Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina dissed the public school system of Washington, D.C. yesterday with the comment that D.C. public school students are more likely to end up in a gang than graduating.  DeMint did not take note of the fact that 70% of D.C. students graduate while only 56% of South Carolina students graduate.   I think that puts South Carolina at 47 among 50.  This is only a guess, but I bet Louisiana and Mississippi are 48 and 49, or maybe even 49 and 50.  Is it any surprise that those states have Republican governors?  ( Think Progress )

UPDATE:  I was surfing the Internet and came across a blog that said the staff of Sen. DeMint wanted to clarify that Sen. DeMint was merely quoting the mother of a child (or children) in the D.C. school system, and that the quote was taken out of context.  [Please also note:  no one in Sen. DeMint's office has contacted me personally (nor are they expected to).  If they had contacted me personally, I would have asked him why he thought his state was #47.  Why is your state so indifferent to its failure to educate its children, Sen. DeMint?]  One of the commenters at the site linked above said it was because of all of those Black women having children without fathers.  I kid you not.  That was what one commenter had as an explanation as to why the state rated so low.  Said comentator went on to say that if you took the Blacks out of the equation, South Carolina would go from #47 to about #5 or #6.]

Good Lord Jesus.

Now, I know I'm a bit dramatic.  It's just my nature.  I think that humanity, that includes you and me, is on the brink.  There is no guarantee that everything will work out just fine.  Global warming could conceivably cause life as we know it to dramatically change in less than a generation.  We need all hands on deck.  Our interest in survival should motivate us to seek out all bright minds and to encourage those same minds to be the best and most that they can be because we will never know which of these bright spirits is the author of our salvation.

As a society, we cannot afford any drop-outs.  I'm not  sure what the solution is, but I'm pretty sure ignoring the problem in your own neighborhood while dissing someone else's neighborhood, is not going to solve anything.  Despite your parochialism, Senator DeMint, we are all in this together. 

The Scene in front of my office this morning

I'll come back later with something to say.  The rest of the pictures are here.