AFTER WHAT TURNED OUT BEING A RATHER MILD AND PLEASANT SATURDAY HERE IN THE MINNWISSIPPI, things turned downhill in the weather department starting yesterday.

Even with occasional episodes of hazy sunshine, rain was pretty much the rule yesterday and into this morning (howbeit mixed with snow as melted before it could accumulate onto grassy surfaces more than likely, yet nonetheless making the roads and walks wet.)

And as I write this, things are rather cloudy and dreary looking, with maybe some showery rain possible towards the evening. That, and a rain/light snow mix suggested in the forecasts for tonight into tomorrow morning.

But still, though, Your Correspondent had his bicycle tuned up and ready for another season the other day, so will be starting to use that a little more unless obviously rainy conditions dictate otherwise.

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THE CONSPIRACISTS ARE PROBABLY CRYING IN THEIR PINTS OF MILD ALE over the news that the tragic 1997 accident as killed Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi Fayed was caused by grossly negligent driving on the part of both chauffeur Henri Paul and the flocks of paparazzi in hot pursuit.

In other words, putting paid to already-discredited conspiracy theories involving The Duke of Edinburgh and MI6 (and perhaps even some involvement from the Lyndon LaRouchenik element) cooking up the whole for the sake of G-d and Crown.

Meanwhile, The Duke of Edinburgh checked himself into hospital @ the weekend complaining of a chest infection, staying a couple of nights for observation. (One should consider the fact of His Royal Highness being 84 years of age, making him all the more vulnerable to illness.)

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"A role model? No! But I do consider myself someone that kids should look up to."

THUS OBSERVED TANK "THE SHREDDER" EVANS IN SURF'S UP IN EXPLAINING THE PRICE OF HIS CELEBRITY (as in nine-times-running winner of the Big Z Memorial Surf-Off Classic on Pen Gu Island, never mind his resort to the devious and dishonest to achieve such attention).

I bring this up in view of the hero and role-model status being accorded Oklahoma State Representative Sally Kern in the wake of her remarks about homosexuals being "a greater threat [to American soverignty and soverign identity] than terrorism" being exposed to air and sunshine, in turn revealing something about the warped religiopolitical priorities of the GOP in Indecision 2008 (as in homosexuality being a Higher Priority than socioeconomic dislocation and its effects on the poor, undereducated and easily-influenced).

Howbeit in the wrong sort of circles, as People For the American Way's Right Wing Watch notes:

After Oklahoma state Rep. Sally Kern’s anti-gay speech—in which she warned that the “homosexual agenda” is “the biggest threat our nation has, even more so than terrorism or Islam”—was made public and Kern became the center of attention, some right-wing activists rushed to her defense, including Matt Barber of Concerned Women for America and Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth, the sources she cited for proof that gays are out of destroy America. CWA’s Barber complained that Kern had been subjected to “tremendous assault” by “homosexual anti-Christian hate groups.”

But the Oklahoma chapter of CWA has its own take:

An Oklahoma State Representative is being "jammed" by homosexual activists and a sympathetic media for taking a stand on homosexuality, and she is not backing down.  The term "jamming" refers to the public smearing of Christians, traditionalists or anyone else who opposes the "gay" agenda.

According to CWA Oklahoma director Linda Caswell, “Rep. Kern represents the vast majority of Oklahomans.”

Yeah, right--"the vast majority of Oklahomans" as are poor, undereducated or homeschooled and easily-influenced. Not to mention dependent upon Fox Prolefeed for "news and information" tending to the discredited and disreputable.

Returning to Right Wing Watch, it's now emerging that Rep. Kern is playing the "victim of persecution" card to whip up sympathy and win points in the "hero and role-model" department among as much the Religiopolitical Right as their droogs among the weird and unwholesome:

At least a thousand people attended a rally in the Oklahoma capitol for state Rep. Sally Kern, who recently became a right-wing celebrity after ranting about how gays are a bigger threat than terrorism. In her speech, Kern called homosexuality “the death knell for this country,” warned of a sinister “gay agenda” of indoctrinating “two year olds” and “infiltrating city councils,” and associated gays with “deadly” diseases. Unsurprisingly, the legislator has been catching some flack for her over-the-top anti-gay broadside, but according to Kern and her supporters, criticism of Kern (including angry e-mails, “many of them filled with profanity and vulgarity”) is proof of the persecution of the Religious Right.

From the Oklahoman:

"I told the people when I was running for this office that I was a Christian candidate and that I believed we were in a cultural war for the very existence of our Judeo-Christian values,” said Kern, who was elected to the House in 2004. "This situation proves that I was right. We are in a cultural war; this is for real.”

Concerned Women for America’s Matt Barber, who has helped promote Kern as a right-wing hero and who recently cited blood donations as proof of the “gay agenda” Kern warned against, said Kern had been the victim of “tremendous assault” by “homosexual anti-Christian hate groups.” After the rally, he portrayed this “persecution” as biblical:

People with traditional values who value God's design for human sexuality will not be intimidated and bullied into silence.  Political correctness can never trump truth. Sally Kern stood for truth, and she was hated for it. She was persecuted for Christ, but the Body of Christ was there to lift her up.

Likewise, Kern herself claimed the mantle of St. Paul in his imprisonment by the Romans:

"This is not about me," Kern said at the rally, which spilled over from the first floor rotunda to the building's second and third floors. She is the wife of Olivet Baptist Church pastor Steven Kern in Oklahoma City. "It's about the church having the right to speak out for the redeeming love of Jesus Christ Who died to set us all free from sin. The Lord gave me a verse I've been claiming. Philippians 1:12, 'I want you to know that what has happened to me has really served to advance the Gospel.'"

The Religious Right has long sought to claim that Christianity is under attack by nefarious forces in the form of whatever policies and politics it disagrees with, as a way to convince people to go along with its far-right platform. Presenting Kern as the victim of a “gay hate campaign” neatly deflects the obvious criticism that Kern, Barber, and the others have been waging their anti-gay “hate campaign” the whole time.

That, and the likelihood of Rep. Kern's perhaps developing a martyr complex which can be deployed "when the proper time comes" to whip up "healthy" homophobic as can be neatly excused as "Christian Patriot Love."

But then again, there's also the risk that Rep. Kern could be used for potentially dangerous purposes and ends. As in being controlled to the point of manipulation by her handlers on the Religiopolitical Right, who can easily be expected to bring in busloads of "sponatenous popular support" to rallies where she's expected to deliver the same notorious message night after night, unaware that she may be risking emotional collapse.

The whole thing, it turns out, being a scripted farce serving not so much homophobic purposes as the Elmer Gantry Institute of Religiopolitical Theology.

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A HIGH-RANKING HEALTH OFFICIAL IN NEW ZEALAND, WHERE BUTTER CONSUMPTION IS PERHAPS THE HIGHEST ON EARTH, is calling for a "health tax" on butter, describing it as, in his words, "pure, natural poison" that poses as much a public health risk as smoking or drinking liquor.

Try suggesting such an idea in Wisconsin, where sentiment for dairy products has traditionally been rather strong--strong enough, in fact, to justify a long-since-abolished ban on sales of coloured margerine--and expect to be dunked in a Wisconsin Dells wavepool pretty quickly.

"I AM A WAR CRIMINAL; I BOMBED INNOCENT WOMEN AND CHILDREN."

Those were the exact words from the very lips of John McCain in an interview with the CBS News weekly magazine 60 Minutes in 1997.

The same John McCain who is the GOP Presidential candidate presumptive for Indecision 2008, subject to the formal confirmation @ the GOP National Convention in the Twin Cities this fall--unless it emerges that McCain is a real serious basket case rivalling The Terrible-Tempered Mr. Bang in the old Toonerville Folks comic, raising serious questions as to McCain's mental capacity, or want thereof.

As if that weren't enough, consider the following video (hat tip to Brave New Films) as evidence of John McCain's irrationality--evidence which any and all would-be McCain supporters ought to watch with an eye towards reconsidering their positions:

And, having just seen this video, you still see John McCain worthy enough (and then some) to continue His Fraudulency's deluded notion of the Presidential role being, in effect, that of a superdivine "Prophet, Seer and Revelator" who, for all we know, is probably on drugs or alcohol?

Now do you see the reasons why John McCain needs to be "swiftboated" all the more?

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• My "real" mother was a "village floozie" who "kept the afterbirth and threw away the baby" after I was born, only to be saved "out of the goodness of Christian charity."
• My "real" father was an alcoholic "ne'er-do-well" who frequented said "village floozie" on regular trips into town.
• My "unfortunate condition" was the result of a none-too-successful abortion attempt on my "real" mother (back when I was born, in 1961, abortion was still Verboten under the law; hence, it would have been a back-alley coathanger such, with Jack Daniel's the only anesthetic).

(There were also some other such in the same vein as above, howbeit resorting to crude and tasteless language as is unfit for this sort of blog.)

In any case, such stories were picked up from less-than-credible sources having no clear knowledge about my own parents, as had just moved into town after selling the farm between Caledonia and Hokah in late 1978 or thereabouts. And probably made them up just to cast discredit upon myself and my character.

For the record, my late father (he died 20 May 1993, aged 78 years, from emphysema and heart failure) was sober since back in 1949, thanks to Alcoholics Anonymous ... and my mother (who, G-d willing, turns 87 in June) was no floozie or suchlike; she had nine kids (a tenth having died in infancy) and, in spite of direst distress, managed to do the best she could to bring them up. (In my own case, I was referred to institutional and foster care settings starting from the summer of 1968 because of a prenatal brain injury caused by my mother's being injured in an accident during pregnancy triggering dyslexic conditions.)

Does this set the record straight?

A FAVOURITE SECRET-POLICE TACTIC DURING THE SALAD DAYS OF THE "EVIL EMPIRE" OTHERWISE KNOWN AS THE SOVIET UNION AND ITS "FRATERNAL SISTER REPUBLICS" in the Warsaw Pact and COMECON against real or imagined "dissidents," "anti-Soviet elements" or others seen as "undermining social order" was to charge them with "homosexuality"--even though there was no evidence of actual or intended homosexual behaviour save that of the hearsay kind.

The Pseudoreligiopolitical Right, in its hard-wired and (perhaps) unhealthy emphasis upon homophobia above More Pressing Matters, could just imagine adopting similar tactics as above ... only in their way of thinking, having real or suspected homosexuals charged with the likes of "contributing to the delinquency or moral harm of children," "child molestation," "sexual exploitation of minors" and/or "anti-social behaviour" generally (howbeit, again, without any credible evidence save hearsay such to substantiate).

Not to mention finding ways to avoid those charged as above filing countersuits charging Defamation of Character, False Light, Malicious Prosecution and Related Conspiracies ... and, in effect, excusing the likes of witness tampering, coercion and hearsay evidence to substantiate the charges in question.

And all this to enforce a warped and perverted brand of homophobia as is to be officially excused as "defending the Sanctity and Purity of Marriage," "protecting children from serious moral harm"--and the usual patsies of "Christian Patriot Love" such as the Pseudoreligiopolitical Right would like to use as legal defences.

Same homophobia ... new platitudes. And with hysterical intent by deliberate design, come to think of it. 

EVEN WITH HIGH GAS PRICES BROUGHT ABOUT IN NO SMALL MEASURE BY HIS FRAUDULENCY'S MISADVENTURES IN UR-RAHOWA FORM against International Terrorism (or so the official line expects us to believe) the so-called "Wise Use Movement" would love to stop @ nothing to discourage attempts to promote conservation in the face of high fuel prices.

Same being seen as necessary to maintain socioeconomic stability and prosperity.

And which may best be symbolised by this English inscription on trash cans @ a theme park outside Osaka, Japan:

"Please waste."

Which seems to be the Wise Use Movement's most apropos slogan, no?

THE ACRONYM "KISS"--AS IN "KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID"--IS OFTEN APPLIED BY SUCH who prefer a minimalist approach to whatever we go through in life.

Or whatever we buy, come to think of it; Motherdear happens to be a firm believer in this respect, a credit to her Great Depression-era upbringing for the most part.

With that in mind, consider some of the options available for cell phones as are available for online purchase:

In any case, have I been helpful enough?

(And just remember that it's your purchases--and only your purchases--off this weblog are but one way of showing your support for, and faith in, this weblog and Your Correspondent. Oh, and Some Good Causes as well, in case you cybermallrats need a reason to make this weblog some class of a regular habit.)

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JUST LAST WEEK ALONE, THREE AIRLINES SUDDENLY WOUND UP THEIR OPERATIONS with little or no prior notice to intending travellers--as well as confirming the old journalistic adage that disasters always come in threes:

• Last Monday, longtime Hawaiian inter-island carrier Aloha Airlines, citing "unfair competition" from upstart go! airlines--and, as seems to be prevailing practice, high jet fuel prices--ended service after 60 years.
• On Wednesday, ATA announced that it was filing bankruptcy and suspending operations immediately, forcing ticketholders to find other options.
• And on Friday, Skybus, legendary for offering fares as cheap as $10 from time to time, suddenly closed its doors.

All having in common (Ripley's, take note) their flying older, fuel-inefficent jet aircraft (in Aloha's case, first-generation 737's with now-discredited fan jet engines) which could easily deplete the fuel tanks--and given the high jet fuel prices of late, such could get to be rather expensive under the circumstances.

No wonder we, as a "morally superior" society (or so we're expected to think of ourselves as for patriotic reasons more than anything else), have become too hard-wired, and then some, in our complacent air-mindedness. Which the Zealots and True Believers in free-market capitalism with American characteristics will conveniently excuse as one with "natural selection" and "survival of the fittest," notwithstanding their opposition to Darwin's Theory of Evolution as "contrary to Biblical teachings" about Creation occuring over six days. 

Hence, what stands in the way of rethinking our transportation priorities as a nation and society?

And Another Thing:

Is it actually feasable to produce a cheap, yet odourless, jet fuel-ersatz from "abundant American coal" in a cost-efficent manner?

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AS IF THIS TRIO OF SHOCK AIRLINE SHUTDOWNS WASN'T AWFUL ENOUGH FOR THESE SAME FORCES OF FREE-MARKET ZEALOTRY AND TRUE BELIEF, there's also the likelihood of the major airlines (as in American, Continental, Delta, Northwest, Southwest and United) perhaps being secretly subsidised by His Fraudulency's Great Within as "essential businesses***operating in the national interest" based on the illogical notion that, if one such were to fail, such could "seriously undermine the economy" to the point of "serious socioeconomic harm" ensuing in an otherwise fragile socioeconomic state of affairs.

Said fragility being, for the most part, the fault of His Fraudulency's Great Within and their warped complacency in free-market capitalism as Great White Father.

And how would the several Presidential wannabes react to the news?