THE GREATER CONSPIRACIST COMMUNITY CAN'T WAIT FOR WHAT THEY SEE AS "THE PROPER SIGNS" to start unleashing their latest sensationalised conspiracies about yesterday's Unfortunate Events @ Northern Illinois University in DeKalb (Exits 92-94, inclusive, on the Reagan Tollway, a/k/a I-88, in case you need some reference) as saw eight dead (including the gunman, who chose Death Before Dishonour--or so the "happiness is a WARM gun!!" crowd would love to see his case packaged for the sake of martyrdom) and 65 injured and wounded.

Now it's emerged that the gunman was off his medication for some reason or another for some days previous, thereby aggravating the impact of the tragedy.

In any case, The Exaggerator sends its condolences to the greater NIU community, especially the families and close friends of those afflicted by these tragic events. And would like to ask especially the so-called "Westboro Baptist Church" to please, for the sake of the afflicted, avoid exploiting this fresh specimen of collegiate tragedy for your own warped purposes of "Christian Patriot Love."

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SO MUCH FOR WELFARE CASES BEING SEEN AS "RECKLESS SOCIAL PARASITES," AND THEN SOME: Australian police authorities are reporting an upsurge of gas drive-off thefts in recent weeks among working poor families caught up in the ever-increasing squeeze between high gas prices and a need to put bread on the table.

Have you considered using public transportation for once?

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CHINESE AUTHORITIES, IN THEIR DESIRE TO PRESENT A GLOWING IMAGE OF THEMSELVES for the Beijing Summer Olympic Games, have announced that 144 gas stations in the Beijing metropolitan connurbation are to be closed forthwith, with the remaining such having their bowsers refitted with new fuel nozzles to reduce the release of emissions caused while fuelling.

Several fuel depots will likewise be closed, as are a number of industries deemed to be heavy air polluters.

Who are they kidding, the International Olympic Committee?

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GOP PRESIDENTIAL WANNABE MIKE HUCKABEE SEEMS TO BE USING "WALLY WORLD REPUBLICANS" AS NOTHING BUT A CHEAP PATSY when it's emerged that he's had to suspend campaign appearences for this weekend ahead of forthcoming primaries in Ohio, Texas and Wisconsin because of "prior commitments."

Said "prior commitments" being a speaking engagement in the Cayman Islands, a rather notorious offshore banking, insurance and financial centre popular among what Huckabee called "Wall Street Republicans" for the sake of his religio-populist message--and certain elements weird and unwholesome calling themselves "patriots."

Which is enough to start sounding alarms in Certain Influential Circles as to where Mike Huckabee's allegiances really lie--with the "Wall Street Republicans" he openly loathes or the "Wally World Republicans" he covets (and desperately--especially considering their being poor, undereducated or homeschooled and easily-influenced, a plum target for the Pseudoreligiopolitical Right as is pulling the Huckabee campaign's strings by and large).

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THINGS WHICH SHOULDN'T HAPPEN WITHIN THE SACRED CONFINES OF A CHURCH, according to the following press release from the Anti-Defamation League:

ADL Calls On Polish Catholic Church To Denounce Anti-Semitic Meeting In Krakow

New York, NY, February 13, 2008 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today called on the Polish Catholic Church to denounce "in the strongest terms" an anti-Semitic meeting reportedly held in a Krakow church and to take steps to ensure that churches will be made "off-limits to hate."

About 1,000 people reportedly attended the February 9 meeting at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which was convened by Radio Maryja and the Committee Against Defamation of the Church and For Polishness.  The meeting, widely reported by the Polish press, allegedly was publicized with posters that declared, "The Kikes will not continue to spit on us!" and featured virulently anti-Semitic speeches.

"We were deeply disturbed by reports that an anti-Semitic meeting was held in a Krakow church," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, a Holocaust survivor who was born in Poland.  "Such sentiments are a troubling reminder that anti-Semitism is alive and well in Poland, and that the memory and lessons of the Holocaust, while still fresh for survivors of the war, is fading for ordinary Poles."

At the Krakow meeting, virulent anti-Semitism reportedly was the order of the day.  A man identified in news reports as Professor Bogoslav Wolniewicz reportedly told the gathering: "The Jews are attacking us! We need to defend ourselves!"  Radio Maryja, one of the meeting's organizers, is a right-wing Polish Catholic station that has a history of anti-Semitic broadcasts.

In a letter to Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, Archbishop of Krakow, ADL called on the local archdiocese and the Polish Bishops conference to speak out.  "One of the great lessons the world learned from Pope John Paul II is that ignorance and bias are never remedied unless all of us are willing to challenge them at every turn," wrote Mr. Foxman.  "We ask Your Eminence and the Polish Bishops Conference to publicly denounce these words and this group in the strongest terms, and to take steps to ensure such gatherings never again take place in the holy space of a church."

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The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.

And speaking of Radio Maryja: What exactly are the Polish broadcasting regulators doing (if anything) about same, especially considering their repute for broadcasting anti-Semitic language and programmes?

As well, such may want to be a warning to such among the Pseudoreligiopolitical Right as are perennially harping about "Christian Persecution!" (in the key of "Ring around the collar!") and "conspiracies ... to prevent the Church from playing its rightful role and place in politics," patsy of patsies right there....