WHEN "REAL MEN" STOPS AND "MALE CHAUVINIST" BEGINS: To hear some of the more pathetic specimens of religiopolitical homophobia put it, one of the more obvious causes of one developing "homosexual tendencies" is a lack of "healthy respect for [one's] masculinity" in relation to Cultural Heritage and National Honour and Identity.

Preferably to be expressed in the form of "healthy conditioning" by the parental units in childhood, in particular the likes of wrestiling and other exercises designed to promote "healthy" masculine feelings; anything less risked the boy's "serious descent" into homosexuality, still to be regarded by Those Who Should Know Better as a Serious Aberration and Mental Disorder.

Your Correspondent, come to think of it, has to wonder if the real intention of promoting "healthy masculinity" by such means is to perpetuate male chauvinism and domination--and to excuse the same as "cultural heritage" in case one needs a proper defence. (As if "cultural heritage" really mattered as a serious issue when it came to the defence of masculinity.)

And it's enough to wonder if the so-called "real men" are really closer to male chauvinists expected to flaunt their chauvinism as a show of National and Cultural Honour and Identity--never mind that some of the more likely displays of male-chauvinist bonding under such warped circumstances (especially among the easily-influenced) include the likes of:

• Spending most of their time drinking beer and swapping obscene stories;
• Eating high-fat junk food;
• Spending too much time among the Dregs of Society, and in such haunts as they are known to frequent (including beer parlours, taverns, hunting parties, liquor stores and suchlike haunts of poor male role models generally);
• Wasting too much of their pay on liquor, lottery tickets (and unlikely to win anything of substance except refund prizes) and crude pornographic matter;
• Watching films and TV programmes featuring extreme ultraviolence (especially the gratuitous sort), unnecessary sexualisation of women and/or children, and dubious sport like NASCAR and so-called "professional wrestling;"
• Beating their wives without provocation or warning, usually as a precursor to the old actu coitus (reinforced with approriate threats as necessary);
• Frequently absenting himself from the house, without regard for wife or children, and with the wife getting rather worried to the point of paranoia about his spending too much time "with the boys" as if they were rather dangerous themselves; and
• Suggesting that the children get out of the house after breakfast on weekends and during school vacation periods, not to return home until just before the supper hour (and cooking up plenty of cheap excuses to explain in case the police start asking questions, with a likely referral to the Child Welfare).

And for this the Pseudoreligiopolitical Right wants men to remain all the more conscious of their masculinity to the point of overt chauvinism in the name of G-d and Country, if need be?

*************

WHY "SPAM" IS NEVER A GOOD WAY TO PROMOTE WEBSITES: For some reason or another, there are those who see search engines, site swaps, banner exchanges and other forms of website promotion as ineffective and, hence, poor value for money in attracting "quality" site traffic.

No doubt explaining why they would prefer that intending webmasters use "bulk e-mail marketing" (read: spamming) as the marketing tool of choice. The contention, no doubt, being that:

• everybody seems to have an e-mail address these days;
• everybody reads their e-mail @ least once a day; and
• ergo, it makes sense for webmasters to use "targeted bulk e-mail marketing" as a more cost-efficent way to attract the kind of website visitors they would like to see visiting, and to be sure of a fresher, timelier response besides.

The Reality, however, is that, apart from the weird and unwholesome sort of online business (e.g., "online pharmacies," "multi-level marketing" schemes, "work-from-home" offers and adult websites), "spam" is not all that those involved want you and me to believe, let alone their making it sound attractive in pathetically glowing terms, for more mainstream businesses. As a matter of fact, virtually every company in the Fortune 500 and the Inc. 250 choose not to use unsolicited bulk e-mail as part of their marketing mix, for fear of ailenating especially long-established customers and attracting complaints in certain quarters.

As if that weren't enough, the same unscrupulous elements--and others of that ilk--are starting to push the concept of "blog spam" as a way to market websites; here, the thinking is that, with so many blogging or otherwise reading weblogs every day, such could actually be an equally-effective way to attract website traffic as translates into value for money. (Such thinking is fatally flawed, IIBC: Virtually all the major blog hosts have adopted procedures which allow bloggers to restrict blogging access only to themselves, or to such as have a special invitation, the better to control "blog spam.")

There are better ways--more orthodox ways, even--of attracting attention to your website.

One such I have started using is Web CEO - ultimate software suite for Web site promotion; all it takes is a short download onto your PC to start analysing your website and submit such to the leading search engines and directories.

As well as analyse any keywords and meta tags you're using to more efficently prep your site for optimum results in attracting search engine traffic. 

And it's free, to boot. Just click the link above to see what Web CEO can do for you, or to download the free version onto your PC.

Another way I prefer: The old reliable letterposts--you just have to do it right to get the right results. Not to mention providing work to letter carriers, clerks and sorters, the whole lot within the Postal Service as is involved with handling mails as needs the work more than ever.

I also include a link in the signature line of my e-mails as a marketing tool.

So there are more efficent (and more orthodox) ways of attracting traffic to your weblog or site than "spam"--methinks "bulk e-mail marketing" amounts to nothing short of cheap lily-gilding concealing sinister intent.

AFTER A TWO DAY PERIOD WHICH SAW YOUR CORRESPONDENT CONFINED TO APARTMENT here in Winona thanks to sharply cold weather and wind chills, he returned back to a sort of normal routine this morning.

As in keeping the que vive around the office of a certain motel here in Winona (name on request), not to mention maintaining the coffee service therefor in same.

Back to the weather for a moment: Things should improve(?!) slightly as the day wears on, with maxima expected in the mid-teens Fahrenheit (and remaining stable through the night) along with some snow in the bargain. Which, by Sunday, could segue into near 40 degrees Fahrenheit along with rain showers, returning to a more seasonable pattern as January segues into February.

*************

THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE OF THE ALMANACAL PERSUASION OUT THERE IN THE GREATER BLOGOSPHERE may not know it, but when it comes to noting Sundays therein, a device known as a Dominical Letter is used.

Same being the letters A-G, inclusive, depending on when the first Sunday in the year fell; e.g., if January 1st was the first Sunday of the year, A would be used in almanacks to designate Sundays. However, in the case of leap years such as this, two sets of Dominical Letters are used, one covering the months of January and February, the other for the rest of the year.

In the case of 2008, the two Dominical Letters are F (inasmuch as the first Sunday of the year was January 6th) and, from March, B (inasmuch as the first Sunday after the February 29th leap day is March 2nd).

For 2009, your Dominical Letter will be D (inasmuch as the first Sunday of that year is Sunday, January 4th).

Interesting what you can learn, no?

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ANOTHER WAY BY WHICH YOU CAN SUPPORT THIS BLOG, AND THEN SOME: After Your Correspondent's previous weblog, the daily phosdex, was nominated for Worst Weblog of All Time in the Blogger's Choice Awards, such attracted some attention and notice--as well as a few votes, but not enough for serious contention.

In that spirit, and in the interest of attracting some attention to (not to mention respect, or reasonable facsimilies thereof, for) this new blog, he has entered The Exaggerator into the Blogger's Choice Awards for 2008, the actual awards therefor based all the on your votes (which requires registration into same, just so you know).

Not just as Worst Weblog of All Time, but also as:

• Best Weblog of All Time
• Freakiest Blogger
• Most Obnoxious Blogger

(The voting links can be found on the left-hand side of the page, in case you'd like to show your support in any of these categories. I'd appreciate all the votes you can get in any or all of these categories.)

=============

YOU'LL NOTE WHERE THIS BLOG HAS BEEN ENTERED EQUALLY into both the Best Weblog of All Time and Worst Weblog of All Time categories of said Blogger's Choice Awards.

In case you ask, I decided to take this step for the sake of (to paraphrase the rather hackneyed ad slogan of Fox Noise) "fairness and balance;" i.e., if it's unlikely to attract votes (or support) for Best Weblog, then it's probable you can expect support for Worst Weblog. And vice versa, so to speak.

It's up to you, dear readers, to make the difference. But make sure you register first.

*************

WHAT RACIST AND WHITE-SUPREMACIST ZEALOTS AND TRUE BELIEVERS ARE LIKELY TO SEE as Divine Judgement upon South Africa for forsaking and repudiating the Divinely Ordained institution of apartheid: Videlicet, nearly three weeks of erratic power supplies across the South African national grid as have led to blackouts and suspension of interconnexions with several neighbouring countries in the region.

The which have become critical enough to prompt the major gold and platinum mining companies in South Africa to suspend production until reliable power supplies can be maintained by Eskom, South Africa's national power utility, to operate mine elevator shafts, lighting and water-pumping systems and even ventilation systems.

Not to mention providing further ammunition for the weird and unwholesome seeking the evacuation of the remaining Afrikaner population "facing fear of persecution from a Communistic-leaning regime" for being white and Christian (in the latter instance, more than likely following the Dutch Reformed model, or that which could be considered Fundamentalist or Primitive)--said "fear of persecution," however, needing to be seen as suspect or otherwise raising questions of their sincerity.

Especially if the "sponsoring" organisations in the United States (themselves with connexions to racists, white supremacists and neo-Nazis) are scripting the whole for such contacts they may have among the Afrikaner community in South Africa, in particular such elements unlikely to come to terms with the abolition of apartheid and their loss of (howbeit misguided) "privilege" under the ancien regime of enforced racism and, hence, must resort to fear and loathing to try and maintain their hubris-fuelled arrogance.

So what are Immigration and Customs Enforcement expected to do in the circumstances?

*************

FIRST, THERE WAS DON IMUS.

Then, Michael Savage.

Now, you can add Fox Noise's John Gibson to the list of pseudocommentators pandering to Those Who Should Know Better when it comes to exploiting latent racist, homophobic, xenophobic and jingoistic feelings and paranoia.

In Gibson's case, his rather tasteless remarks directed @ Heath Ledger in the wake of his shock death (as played upon his gay-cowboy role in Brokeback Mountain) were the last straw in a pattern which Media Matters for America has documented for your review (q.v.) and condemnation.

Methinks perhaps the dumbest of all was when Mr. Gibson echoed apartheid South Africa's "Maak Bokkies vir Botha" campaign of the mid-1980's to increase white birth rates in the name of National and Racial Honour.

In any event, John Gibson, insincere apology for the Heath Ledger crack notwithstanding, should be told in no uncertain terms (howbeit politely) that he no longer has the confidence or trust of the Right-Thinking American Peoples heretofore expected to accept such as gospel. That on top of what could be called Fox Noise's "verwerp almal bewyse van oë en ore" mentality expecting its audience of, for the most part, the Great Unwashed to play "goodthinker" (as in one who practices orthodoxy like second nature, accepting the prevailing Fox Noise agenda unswervingly and without question or reservation).

*************

BLAME IT ALL ON MIKE HUCKABEE: If you want evidence of "insects that spoil the vegetable live inside the vegetable" in action vis-a-vis the Pseudoreligiopolitical Right's power and influence on die Amerikanischer Realpolitik heading into Indecision 2008, consider these articles from People For the American Way's Right Wing Watch blog as evidence therefor.

Not to mention what The Wall Street Journal has to say about His Fraudulency perhaps helping to destroy any shred of credibility (as well as confidence and trust) the GOP may still have.

In other words, the GOP may have destroyed itself from within, if not already starting to. And may be forced to resort to "dirty tricks" to save any chance of credibility, requiring the involvement of weird and unwholesome elements all the more.

All good things must end--including this series, submitted for the Education and Enlightenment of All (especially so certain scions of the Pseudoreligiopolitical Right) with regards to provisions of the several State Constitutions as call for:

• establishment of free public education systems; and
• proscription of public funds being used for religiosectarian instruction.

(You can see the previous parts here.)

Here are the last specimens in this respect:

VIRGINIA:

• That free government rests, as does all progress, upon the broadest possible diffusion of knowledge, and that the Commonwealth should avail itself of those talents which nature has sown so liberally among its people by assuring the opportunity for their fullest development by an effective system of education throughout the Commonwealth. (Article I, section 15, Virginia Constitution)
• The General Assembly shall provide for a system of free public elementary and secondary schools for all children of school age throughout the Commonwealth, and shall seek to ensure that an educational program of high quality is established and continually maintained. (Article VIII, section 1, op. cit.)
• No appropriation of public funds shall be made to any school or institution of learning not owned or exclusively controlled by the State or some political subdivision thereof; provided, first, that the General Assembly may, and the governing bodies of the several counties, cities and towns may, subject to such limitations as may be imposed by the General Assembly, appropriate funds for educational purposes which may be expended in furtherance of elementary, secondary, collegiate or graduate education of Virginia students in public and nonsectarian private schools and institutions of learning, in addition to those owned or exclusively controlled by the State or any such county, city or town; second, that the General Assembly may appropriate funds to an agency, or to a school or institution of learning owned or controlled by an agency, created and established by two or more States under a joint agreement to which this State is a party for the purpose of providing educational facilities for the citizens of the several States joining in such agreement; third, that counties, cities, towns, and districts may make appropriations to nonsectarian schools of manual, industrial, or technical training, and also to any school or institution of learning owned or exclusively controlled by such county, city, town, or school district (Article VIII, section 10, op. cit.)

WASHINGTON:

• The legislature shall provide for a general and uniform system of public schools. The public school system shall include common schools, and such high schools, normal schools, and technical schools as may hereafter be established. But the entire revenue derived from the common school fund and the state tax for common schools shall be exclusively applied to the support of the common schools. (Article IX, section 2, Washington State Constitution)
• All schools maintained or supported wholly or in part by the public funds shall be forever free from sectarian control or influence. (Article IX, section 4, op. cit.)

WEST VIRGINIA:

• The Legislature shall provide, by general law, for a thorough and efficient system of free schools. (Article 12-1, West Virginia Constitution)

WYOMING:

• The legislature shall provide for the establishment and maintenance of a complete and uniform system of public instruction, embracing free elementary schools of every needed kind and grade, a university with such technical and professional departments as the public good may require and the means of the state allow, and such other institutions as may be necessary. (Section 97-7-001, Wyoming Constitution)
• No sectarian instruction, qualifications or tests shall be imparted, exacted, applied or in any manner tolerated in the schools of any grade or character controlled by the state, nor shall attendance be required at any religious service therein, nor shall any sectarian tenets or doctrines be taught or favored in any public school or institution that may be established under this constitution. (Section 97-7-012, op. cit.)

In closing, I trust that I have done you, reader, a viable service for the sake of Knowledge and Enlightenment in this an election year that could see America facing a serious crossroads--whether we remain on the path of liberty and democracy, or whether we wind up following the path of treachery, corruption and demagoguery under the dominion of elements weird and unwholesome, calling themselves "patriots" and "saviours" to, more than likely, disguise their unsavoury and dangerous sides.

Remember the immortal words of James Boswell: "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."

And those of Lord Acton: "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

FOR PERHAPS THE THIRD TIME THIS WEEK ALREADY, YOUR CORRESPONDENT IS FOUND in the snug of his apartment here in Winona, Minnesota because of seriously cold weather conditions outside.

As I write this, it's -18 degrees Fahrenheit (-28 Celsius), and a wind chill close to -30 in the bargain. Hence, out of safety concerns, Your Correspondent feels it best to stay home and post these comments a little earlier than usually expected among you regulars.

Meanwhile, last night, I decided to go to the Hy-Vee supermarket here in Winona to pick up on a few groceries--and in deference to the cold weather, he felt it necessary to take taxicabs to and from. One cabbie, in fact, acknowledged that, with Wednesday night being Hot Wings Night @ many bars here, such is sure to attract collegians especially seeking some refuge from the cold.

*************

AMERICAN "SUB-PRIME" MORTGAGES MAY PROBABLY BE THE LEAST OF SOCIÉTÉ GENERALE'S PROBLEMS @ the moment: France's second-largest banking house is reporting a major fraud to the tune of US$7.1 billion (€4.84 billion), carried out by a rogue trader @ its Paris futures desk over the course of the last year or so.

On top of that, Société Generale is acknowledging further losses to the tune of US$3 billion (€2.04 billion) from investments in the American "sub-prime" mortgage market.

Expect the anti-Semitic conspiracists to be harping all over this one, especially in such channels targeting Those Who Should Know Better.

*************

DID I HEAR THAT CORRECTLY--SEAN HANNITY ACTUALLY WANTS "RIGHT-THINKING" WHITES TO "speak out" in racist terms for the sake of "fairness and balance" when it comes to race relations?

NewsHounds notes where Rev. Jesse Lee Patterson, as was on Faux's Hannity and Colmes Tuesday night, was suggesting where whites ought to do their fair share of racist thought for once. See for yourself:

White supremacist sympathizer Sean Hannity has also embraced Duane "Dog" Chapman. In fact, I can't think of a single white person who has gotten in trouble for racist language in the past several years whom Hannity has not defended.

Hannity spent not one moment considering any harm that may have been done by [Rev. Calvin] Butts' allegedly racist comment in favor of complaining about the fact that whites don't have the same "advantage." Hannity barked in his bullyboy voice, "What happened to Trent Lott? Reverend Sharpton has made multiple statements over the course of his career that have been over the top and out of line. Jesse Jackson has, Louis Farrakhan is an outright racist and anti-Semite, based on the things he's said over the years, as far as I'm concerned. Democrats can have Robert Byrd as their leader in the Senate. Why does the double standard exist? How do you change that?"

Peterson's answer was not to overcome racism. He wanted white people to have the same "privileges" as blacks. "The reason that the double standards exists is because white Americans are afraid. They are afraid of being called a racist. And anytime you are afraid, your enemy will overtake you… And I'm giving white folks permission to start speaking up. I'm a black American. I love my country. I love what's right and I know that it's only the truth that's gonna bring 'em to change and until that happens, it's gonna continue."

Hannity didn't mind that Peterson was advocating more racist speech as an antidote to the kind of talk Hannity purported to deplore. No, Hannity was concerned that he might get in trouble for doing what Peterson had just advocated. "But, you see, if you're a radio host or a television host and you say something that is deemed inappropriate. For example, where did any of these people that went after Don Imus, why didn't they go after Calvin Butts for saying 'Go to hell, white man?'"

"Because he's black," Peterson said consolingly. "I'm telling you, because he's black. There's a double standard and white Americans are afraid."

Next thing you know, expect white supremacist Zealots and True Believers to be pushing the card that whites need to "serve their race" by speaking out in racist terms all the more.

*************

THINK OF THE UR-RAHOWA AGAINST TERRORISM AS A WAR FOUNDED ON LIES, and then some:

A new study has found no less than 935 lies and misstatements of fact being used by His Fraudulency's Great Within to justify the ur-RAHOWA on the Iraqi front in particular, the same first being fabricated following the Unfortunate Events of 9/11 (for which the Great Within has yet to acknowledge complicity, let alone justify same as grounds for whipping up enforced patriotism and justifying supression of civil liberties under flimsy patsies).

As if that weren't enough, one essayist to BuzzFlash is suggesting where His Fraudulency is using Usama bin-Laden the same way the Oceanic police state in Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four used Emmanuel Goldstein: i.e., as The Enemy of the People to whom all hate needs to be directed, and must further be channeled into Healthy Patriot Love.

Let's not forget where the Nazis used lies and distortions of fact to provoke the opening salvos of World War II on 1 September 1939.

*************

IF WE ARE TO BELIEVE CONSERVATIVE EDITORIALIST AND TALKBACK RADIO HOST MICHAEL MEDVED, it appears as if conservative talkback radio may have become its own worst joke, and @ the expense of Angry White Men Eating Krispy Kreme Donuts Like Outright Gluttons as were expected to accept their lies, half-truths and distortions as Holy Writ.

And, come to think of it, may be digging its own grave within measurable distance, if not already. Case in point: Thanks to a campaign led by Brave New Films, several major companies have pulled their advertising from Michael Savage's programme, itself one of the more notorious sewers on the airwaves of "healthy" homophobic, Islamophobic and generally xenophobic thought.

So expect The Savage Nation to become the first casualty among the high-profile conservative radio shows before too long, largely for want of advertisers willing to support "patriotic" hate.

Next thing you know, expect other conservative talkback loudmouths to acknowledge on air that their shows were really nothing more than fraud and farce upon you, the Great Silent Majority who fell for such "analysis" as should have really been considered "entertainment" (cf. Edward R. Murrow's "wires and lights in a box" speech before the Radio and Television News Directors' Association's 1958 convention in Chicago that, in the minds of some, may have further ruined his career @ CBS, of which the following is an excerpt):

This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box. There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference. This weapon of television could be useful.

Stonewall Jackson, who knew something about the use of weapons, is reported to have said, 'When war comes, you must draw the sword and throw away the scabbard.' The trouble with television is that it is rusting in the scabbard during a battle for survival.

In any case, boys and girls, expect plenty of "conservative" talkback radio shows to start letting slip their Inconvenient Truth in the stylee of the preceding remarks--and its audience starting to slip away just as the hosts resort to desperation tactics, unlikely to realise the damage already having been done (cf. the scene towards the end of Surf's Up where Reggie Belafonte gets upset that his entire stable of surfing penguins is abandoning him in favour of the "born-again surfah" Big Z, followed by his onetime talent scout Mort Abramowitz pulling off Reggie B.'s hairpiece, as if to show what kind of a fraud he was all along).

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REMINDER TO MEMBERS OF THE ACADEMY eligible to vote via the postal ballot, as will be mailed out next week and are due by 17h PST (UTC-8) on 19 February:

For Best Animated Feature: Surf's Up.

ANOTHER COLD MORNING HERE IN THE MINNWISSIPPI REGION WHERE YOUR CORRESPONDENT resideth compels him to remain in his apartment out of safety concerns caused not just by cold weather per se, but also wind chill as makes things all the worse just being outside.

Not to mention the likelihood (though not much) of snow.

*************

YESTERDAY'S SHOCK DEATH OF ACTOR HEATH LEDGER FROM CAUSES YET UNKNOWN (though prescription sleeping pills were found by the corpse) is certain to be cause for rejoicing and prayers of thanksgiving (or a perversion thereof) among the Cultural Studies Department of the Elmer Gantry Institute of Religiopolitical Theology.

I say this in view of where the Pseudoreligiopolitical Right, in line with their droogs in Fundamentalist/Primitive Christian theology, took issue with Mr. Ledger's breakthrough film role in Brokeback Mountain a few years back because of its "positive depiction of an unnatural, immortal and perverted lifestyle" (otherwise known as homosexuality), and are hoping that Mr. Ledger's soul will be committed to such sections beyond that gate which proclaims (per Dante Aligheri) "ABANDON ALL HOPE, YE WHO ENTER HERE" as are seen to be reserved for "deviants" and "perverts."

Not to mention calling upon Hollywood to ask that homosexuals be depicted only as Objects of Ridicule and Contempt in the name of G-d, Country and Family. 

But then again, official opposition to "perversion" is nothing new.

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AS IF GOP PRESIDENTIAL MIKE HUCKABEE'S EQUATING HOMOSEXUALITY WITH BESTIALITY THE OTHER DAY wasn't awful enough, perhaps he should consider where there might be outposts across the Ozark and Ouachita mountain ranges of his native Arkansas of deliberate isolation, poverty and ignorance where sexual promiscuity holds high carnival--especially among adolescents seeing the old actus coitu as one with "coming of age."

Not to mention bestiality (as in sexual acts with those of another species) being thus predominant.

*************

AND DID YOU HEAR WHAT DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL JOHN EDWARDS said to David Letterman the other night about Bill O'Reilly's reportage?

See it for yourself (and thanks to AMERICAblog for the tip, as it were):

Now into the homestretch is this informational series of actual clauses from the several State Constitutions as mandate:

• establishing systems of free public education; and
• proscriptions on the use of public monies for religiosectarian education,

the better to challenge certain arguments on the part of the Pseudoreligiopolitical Right challenging the legality as much as the constitutionality of the foregoing points, and who would love to use "taxpayer lawsuits" towards such ends.

I hope that, with the several parts thus far published, such will have served its purpose in laying bare the actual clauses of the several State Constitutions mandating as above--and will have opened the eyes of the forces of Zealotry and True Belief questioning same.

Now to continue with:

RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS:

• The diffusion of knowledge, as well as of virtue among the people, being essential to the preservation of their rights and liberties, it shall be the duty of the general assembly to promote public schools and public libraries, and to adopt all means which it may deem necessary and proper to secure to the people the advantages and opportunities of education and public library services. (Article XII, section 1, Rhode Island Constitution)
• The general assembly shall make all necessary provisions by law for carrying this article into effect. It shall not divert said money or fund from the aforesaid uses, nor borrow, appropriate, or use the same, or any part thereof, for any other purpose, under any pretence whatsoever. (Article XII, section 4, op. cit.)

SOUTH CAROLINA:

• The General Assembly shall provide for the maintenance and support of a system of free public schools open to all children in the State and shall establish, organize and support such other public institutions of learning, as may be desirable. (Article XI, section 3, South Carolina State Constitution)
• No money shall be paid from public funds nor shall the credit of the State or any of its political subdivisions be used for the direct benefit of any religious or other private educational institution. (Article XI, section 4, op. cit.) 

SOUTH DAKOTA:

• The stability of a republican form of government depending on the morality and intelligence of the people, it shall be the duty of the Legislature to establish and maintain a general and uniform system of public schools wherein tuition shall be without charge, and equally open to all; and to adopt all suitable means to secure to the people the advantages and opportunities of education. (Article VIII, section 1, South Dakota Constitution)
• No appropriation of lands, money or other property or credits to aid any sectarian school shall ever be made by the state, or any county or municipality within the state, nor shall the state or any county or municipality within the state accept any grant, conveyance, gift or bequest of lands, money or other property to be used for sectarian purposes, and no sectarian instruction shall be allowed in any school or institution aided or supported by the state. (Article VIII, section 16, op. cit.)

TENNESSEE:

• The State of Tennessee recognises the inherent value of education and encourages its support. The General Assembly shall provide for the maintenance, support and eligibility standards of a system of free public schools. The General Assembly may establish and support such postsecondary educational institutions, including public institutions of higher learning, as it determines. (Article XI, section 12, Tennessee State Constitution)

TEXAS:

• A general diffusion of knowledge being essential to the preservation of the liberties and rights of the people, it shall be the duty of the Legislature of the State to establish and make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools. (Article 7, Section 1, Texas Constitution)
• The available school fund shall be applied annually to the support of the public free schools. Except as provided by this section, the legislature may not enact a law appropriating any part of the permanent school fund or available school fund to any other purpose. The permanent school fund and the available school fund may not be appropriated to or used for the support of any sectarian school. The available school fund shall be distributed to the several counties according to their scholastic population and applied in the manner provided by law. (Article 7, Section 5(c), op. cit.)  

UTAH:

• The Legislature shall provide for the establishment and maintenance of the state's education systems including: (a) a public education system, which shall be open to all children of the state; and (b) a higher education system. Both systems shall be free from sectarian control. (Article X, section 1, Utah Constitution)
• No religious or partisan test or qualification shall be required as a condition of employment, admission, or attendance in the state's education systems. (Article X, section 8, op. cit.)
• Neither the state of Utah nor its political subdivisions may make any appropriation for the direct support of any school or educational institution controlled by any religious organization. (Article X, section 9, op. cit.)

VERMONT:

• Laws for the encouragement of virtue and prevention of vice and immorality ought to be constantly kept in force, and duly executed; and a competent number of schools ought to be maintained in each town unless the general assembly permits other provisions for the convenient instruction of youth. (Relevant provision of Article 68, Vermont Constitution)

***TO BE CONCLUDED***

(AS IN THE MARTIN LUTHER KING, JNR. DAY SNOWSTORM here in southeastern Minnesota, making a general mess of things as disrupted travel alongside cold weather in general.)

*************

PERHAPS IT WAS TIME THAT THOSE WHITE SUPREMACISTS AS WERE MARCHING THROUGH JENA, LOUISANA yesterday in protest of the Martin Luther King holiday, all the while bellyaching that "poor white trash" had been losing their "traditional rights, privileges and powers" for some time now to the point of their risking "marginalisation" as "second-class citizens" they had always wanted blacks and other National Minorities considered, started to get a life for once.

Notwithstanding their inevitable invocation of Holy Scripture and all manner of bromides and platitudes about "unwritten law" entitling whites to a "privileged" status above all other peoples such specimens of hard-wired Zealotry and True Belief enjoy using, perhaps it was time they realised that "it's a small world, after all," and that they should realise that the only race which matters is the human race.

Even considering their arrogance-laden hubris made all the more so by their poverty, ignorance and unwillingness to recognise change being inevitable. Not to mention their dependency upon Al Cohol perhaps making things worse (has anybody considered just such a possibility among racist and white-supremacist elements from the ranks of the poor, undereducated and easily-led?).

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IF EVER THERE WERE ARGUMENTS FOR APPLYING THE "MORAL HAZARD" LABEL to such making unwise decisions all the more, perhaps His Fraudulency's Great Within deserves it all the more.

For it's their misguided delusion of offering advanced tax rebates from $800 in the name of socioeconomic stimulation and, in turn, National Unity and Identity (or so the Great Within must be thinking) as is sending the equities markets into heartburn mode, and then some. Especially so yesterday, where bourses in Australasia and Europe took advantage of the Martin Luther King, Jnr. holiday in the United States to the point where local market indices fell in some of their steepest one-day dives since the Unfortunate Events of 9/11.

Wall Street's reopening after the Holiday Long Weekend even saw them reacting to such misguided thought following further market declines overseas on the overnight, not to mention the Federal Reserve Board being forced to cut a key interest rate by 0.75%: In just the first few minutes of trading, the DowJones Industrials index slipped some 420 points, barely enough to trigger a halt to trading. (The Dow has since recovered most of the losses, but still, the same is off and then some.)

How do we know that His Fraudulency's "inside of the inside," perhaps, isn't secretly profiting on the fringes of propriety by way of short-selling as only profits from the whole morass?

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HOW WOULD YOU FEEL IF YOU WERE SEEN ON SECURITY-CAMERA FOOTAGE FROM A SUBWAY NETWORK in a major city as was subsequently uploaded onto YouTube or similar websites, along with condescending comments on the side--and said footage managed to generate 15,000 hits within 48 hours of posting?

Embarrassed, come to think of it.

Which is exactly the case with a couple who are suing the operators of the Shanghai Metro network for Invasion of Privacy and Unwarranted Embarrassment after security-camera footage showing the couple in a romantic embrace on the platform of a Metro station was uploaded onto YouTube and a local knockoff in that vein, Ku6.com--along with snide remarks on the side.

The man in the controversial video was subsequently forced to resign his position after receiving embarrassing comments about the video ... and officials with the Shanghai Metro are reviewing the situation to see where official policies went wrong.

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SUCH A PRECEDENT NO DOUBT BRINGS TO MIND the following (howbeit, for the most part, anecdotal) warning about potentially improper use of security-camera footage by way of the "WaiWai" feature in Japan's Mainichi Daily News, highlighting as it does the more interesting specimens of what pass for articles in the Japanese gutter press:

Watch out! In the surveillance society of Noughties Japan, during your most intimate moments, someone is probably watching you, according to Spa! (11/20).

Surveillance cameras are common throughout Japan and in fact because they have become so pervasive, they occasionally border on perversive.

"We have security cameras set up in our changing rooms, but only the men's," a man working at a public bathhouse tells Spa! "Sometimes we only set up dummy cameras, but usually they are installed in such a way that nobody even realizes they're there."

From bathhouses to [brothels] is not such a big step, and it's one that many Japanese sex joints have taken.

"We have security cameras in our reception area and waiting rooms," a spokesman for a handjob bar chain says. "All the footage is monitored at company headquarters and people working where the images are taken can't see them. Still, I'd say just about every sex joint is doing this nowadays."

Private booth peep shows are popular attractions for horny young men, but many don't realize that by visiting them could unwittingly be putting themselves before the cameras.

"Footage lifted from peep show booths are a staple for homosexual videos," the operator of a bar in Tokyo's gay quarter of Shinjuku Ni-Chome tells Spa! "It's really easy to find movies of guys in these booths as they [masturbate]."

Wataru Kobayashi, who takes sub-contracting jobs for cleaning Japan's ubiquitous love hotels, says cameras are no secret in these types of establishments, either.

"The owner of a love hotel in Shinjuku once took me out to a staff room in the back of his hotel and showed me the security area. There were all these monitors showing security camera footage, but it wasn't just the entrance area and elevators - they had footage taken from every room. And there were VCRs there recording all of it," Kobayashi tells Spa! "Apparently, they were taking the footage because lots of people who use them take drugs or smoke marijuana in there and the owners want to be able to present the footage as evidence in case they're raided by the police. At least, that's what the owner said. And other love hotels are apparently collecting footage from their rooms, too. But I think only the owners of these hotels are able to look at the images they've captured."

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MEMO TO THOSE IN HOLLYWOOD ELIGIBLE TO VOTE IN THE POSTAL BALLOT FOR THE ACADEMY AWARDS from the shortlist announced this morning:

In the category of Best Animated Feature, may I suggest giving the vote to Surf's Up over Ratatouille, if only as a way of showing that feature-length cinema animation should not necessarily be the sole monopoly of Disney/Pixar, which can easily get to be hackneyed after awhile.

Not to mention Shrek the Third being slighted in this category, thereby opening the door for Surf's Up getting serious attention in this the Hollywood awards silly season--especially considering its "mockumentary" stylee, as in The Endless Summer meets This is Spinal Tap meets Happy Feet (that last one inspiring a well-placed jab very early on, where Cody Maverick, the subject of the whole, is asked whether he had other interests besides surfing, whereupon Cody replies "You mean, like singing and dancing?")

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INTERESTING BIT OF TRIVIA ABOUT CODY MAVERICK: He happens to be a rockhopper penguin, as witness the characteristically curving yellow eyebrows in especially facial shots.

Equally noteworthy is where Pen Gu Island's resident lifeguard, Lani, is a gentoo penguin--as well as a close relative of Zeke "Big Z" Topanga, a/k/a Geek, a onetime penguin surfah hero fallen into disgrace, only to be "born again" by a chance encounter after sea-urchin spines get caught in Cody's feet during a rough wipeout.

In contrast, Reggie Belafonte, the bombastic surf promoter who, by his own admission, "made" Big Z (and has similar designs on Cody, were it not for his former protege), is a sea otter and his talent scout, Mort "I can't imagine a better day" Abramowitz, is a sandpiper.