more cat pictures

WHICH SHOULD BE THE VIEW OF ALL RIGHT-THINKING AMERICANS BEING TRICKED, DUPED OR OTHERWISE MANIPULATED INTO SUPPORTING THE TERRIBLE-TEMPERED MR. BANG, otherwise known as John McCain, for Indecision 2008.

Especially so considering where the Mainstream Media is little more than outright lackeys to McCain's propaganda machine, and can be expected to manipulate their line to McCain's deluded notion of a Greater Collective Will as Will Save America From Herself.

Not to mention a belief that the free-market and self-regulated capitalism with American characteristics is and will forever be the Great White Father of especially the Lower Classes heretofore "enslaved" by State welfare into "embracing Socialistic or otherwise un-American beliefs and feelings" all the more discreetly. That said free market will actually lead the Lower Classes all the more towards a New Golden Age of Empowerment based on Industry, Self-Reliance, Personal Responsibility, Thrift based on Cash Economy and a Wholesome and Simple Home Life thanks to wider selection ... greater choices ... and lower prices "as will greatly help the Lower Classes help themselves."

Which, unfortunately, winds up only keeping the Lower Classes all the more in poverty, fecundity and stupidity, the same to be excused as one with True Patriot Love in All Thy Sons Command.

Let alone epitomising as an ideal worthy of study and emulation an idealised small-town and rural Arcadian vision of Traditional Moral and Familial Values--the kind which, on closer inspection, is really nothing short of Peyton Place; IIBC, studies have shown that "moral turpitude" is all the more likely to be pronounced in rural and small-town America, notwithstanding a tendency to keep such in the closet out of a misguided belief that "neighbour trusts neighbour" and same all the more aggravated by a lack of worthwhile socioeconomic opportunities based on the very free-market paradigms and models which McCain and his droogs still insist on seeing as a Shining Beacon and Guide for the Lower Classes in Particular.

This while risking the further moral as much as socioeconomic bankruptcy of America thanks to weird and unwholesome associations and connexions which McCain is likely to cultivate while officially proclaiming himself to be a superdivine Saviour and Redeemer of America as will Reclaim Her from Herself--howbeit in his mind, not to mention delusions which may issue forth therefrom without provocation or warning that could risk our soverignty being further compromised to the point of potentially dangerous elements exploiting what McCain will likely have wrought via his psychoemotional demons.

And how will McCain likely respond?

As President, "he is above mortal error and weakness."

Don't fall for it.

more cat pictures

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

MEMO TO READERS: Because "truth is mighty, and shall prevail," those of you who especially value "letting America be America again," to paraphrase Langston Hughes, by their opposition to the McCain Presidential campaign, and its articles of faith, would do well to please share this blog item to their e-mail circles all the more.

Especially when it happens to include John McCain sympathisers, Zealots and True Believers; whether this will change their minds is anybody's guess, in all honesty.

And yet do so responsibly; besides, "spam" only hurts the effectiveness of a campaign, and can risk backfiring upon its creator.

"Money is the root of all evil."
Why not put yours in United States Savings Bonds?

more cat pictures

DURING THE 46 YEARS THAT APARTHEID HELD SWAY IN SOUTH AFRICA (1948-1994), WHITE SOUTH AFRICANS WERE FOREVER EXPECTED to regard themselves "by Divine Right" as "privileged" and "morally superior" over all others.

Exected to believe that "privileged" whites could not expect to live in the appalling, yet deliberate, conditions of poverty and stupidity which the regime's Great Within, influenced largely by Nazi Germany, forced blacks and "coloureds" (as the apartheid regime referred to such of mixed race) to live through solely because of their "superior racial position" and Divine Will.

But, as it turned out, the end of apartheid and its replacement by multi-racial, multi-cultural government revealed just how absurd the notion was that the "superior" white peoples of South Africa could never live in conditions of poverty and squalor, let alone homelessness, solely because of an ideal about "racial superiority."

In other words, the notion of white South Africans living in poverty and squalor became one of those subjects not worth discussing in the Rainbow Nation, especially among whites of a certain class (as in too race-conscious of themselves and yet to face post-apartheid realities).

Or could it?

Especially considering remarks by African National Congress (ANC) leader Jacob Zuma the other day after he found white residents of the Bethlehem township, outside Pretoria, living in utter squalor and without electricity or running water (as quoted by the BBC):

I am shocked and surprised by what I have seen here.

The vast number of black poverty does not mean that we must ignore white poverty, which is increasingly becoming an embarrassment to talk about.

[***]

This is not about politics, it's about people who are poor, who are in need and want to be helped by government....

(Almost concurrent with Mr. Zuma's remarks was the release of a report by the charity Helping Hand, whose mission is to help poor white communities across South Africa, which found where some 130,000 white South Africans were homeless--an increase of 58% since 2002.)

Now, maybe it was time to imagine how racists and white supremacists seeking to raise funds for "evacuation and resettlement" of especially poor Afrikaner families from South Africa would react to this news--with more strident and emotionally pathetic appeals to "racial honour" crossing into "emergency," perhaps? (And still, we want to know how the funds so raised will actually be deployed.)

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

WITH CERTAIN ELMER GANTRYESQUE ELEMENTS MAKING ALL MANNER OF CLAIMS ABOUT SEVERE WEATHER BEING SOME CLASS OF DIVINE WRATH AND JUDGEMENT UPON AMERICA for "abandoning His Divine Will and Prophecy" about America supposedly having an "antient and pecuilar" status among the nations (cf. Imperial China in its death throes, especially so under the Empress Dowager Cixi) ... perhaps it was time Your Correspondent suggested that "two can play @ that game!"

In this instance, perhaps it was time to ponder the likelihood of a major heatwave across central Oklahoma prompting Heat Advisories being issued being Divine Judgement for The Sooner State still subscribing to a hard-wired, latent brand of Divinely-Ordained (or so they think) homophobic sentiment--like this example, courtesy of Right Wing Watch:

From the state that brought us Sally Kern comes yet another elected official who believes gays are conspiring against him. Embattled Oklahoma County Commissioner Brent Rinehart is facing felony campaign finance charges, but his re-election campaign is in full swing, distributing a crudely drawn comic book explaining to voters how he stood up to "the homosexuals, the good ol' boy politicians, and liberals"--not to mention a cartoon Satan:

(Via Reason.)

Still, though, Your Correspondent has to wonder if many of the more blatant specimens of "patriotic" or otherwise "healthy" homophobia are themselves emotionally disturbed, or otherwise have past histories of psychoemotional abuse they refuse to acknowledge or otherwise accept.

And try to hide it by way of Al Cohol.

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

TELL ME IF THIS IS ONE FOR RIPLEY:

On the same day that Democratic Presidential candidate Sen. Barak Obama spake to a crowd of some 200,000 @ Berlin's Victory Memorial, his GOP counterpart, for the sake of appealing to the Great Silent Majority of the American Heartland, made a campaign stop @ a German restaurant somewhere in Ohio.

Said Great Silent Majority essentially hardwired in accepting Fox Prolefeed as their one credible source for so-called "news and information" as is, if truth be known, closer to prolefeed--and not to question or challenge the remarks so made under fear of Divine Judgement, or so they believe.

Said Great Silent Majority essentially little more than "white trash" @ its worst--poor, undereducated or homeschooled, easily open to dangerous or questionable suggestion, their minds still weighted with racially arrogant hubris about a Luddite socioeconomic model and paradigm being the once and future socioeconomic foundation of America.

Said Great Silent Majority unlikely to accept Reality except that of a kind which Fox Prolefeed accepts to be Reality--an existentialist sort in the Ayn Rand stylee.

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

STAYING WITH FOX FOR THE NONCE, YOU HAVE TO WONDER IF THE RECENT CIRCUIT COURT RULING STRIKING DOWN THE FCC'S PENALTY AGAINST CBS for that distraction otherwise known as Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" could be cited by Fox as a defence against FCC demands for substantial forfeitures in response to a peepshowesque scene in Married by America a few years back as attracted complaints based, methinks, on Religiopolitical Right-manufactured hysteria.

Especially considering the defence Fox invoketh, in the vein of this classic bit of roadside verse:

THE ONE-HOSS SHAY
HAS HAD ITS DAY
SO HAS THE BRUSH
AND LATHER WAY
USE BRUSHLESS
BURMA-SHAVE

(Otherwise known as suggesting that the prevailing FCC regulations against broadcast of "obscene or indecent material" are somehow "outdated" and "irrelevant" when Fox knows all alone that they sought to "rewrite the rules" on FreeVee so as to better appeal to the likes of Kankerdom and what passes for their purchasing power.)  

more cat pictures

YOUR CORRESPONDENT UNDERSTANDS THAT A FAMILY COURT JUDGE IN NEW ZEALAND HAS ORDERED THE PARENTS OF A NINE-YEAR-OLD GIRL whom they named "Talula Does the Hula from Hawai'i" to turn same over to child-welfare agencies there until such time as a new (and more "approriate") name could be found therefor.

How would she look with a name like that on, say, MySpace, Facebook or similar?

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

PERHAPS THIS WAS AS GOOD A TIME AS ANY TO ANNOUNCE WHERE THOSE AMONG YOU AS ARE FANS OF WISCONSIN DELLS now have their very own online social-networking community they can call their own.

Created by none other than Your Correspondent, who calls this venture "DellsSpace" by name and stylee--and invites all with any sort of connexion whatsoever to the Waterpark Capital to make their presence known in the Information Stuporban's very own take on MySpace.

Complete with opportunities for sharing photos, music, even setting up their own weblog, if so preferred.

And it's FREE.

So feel free to see what DellsSpace is like for yourself. And if you like it, make your place in DellsSpace.

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

HOW ISLAMOPHOBES--ESPECIALLY THOSE INVOKING THE BANNER OF TRUE PATRIOT LOVE IN ALL THY SONS COMMAND TO EXCUSE SAME--would react to the following is anybody's guess.

Especially when you consider where the same:

1. was issued by the Advertising Standards Authority in Great Britain, as it was seen between Land's End and John O'Groats on the satellite network GEO TV; and
2. both the broadcaster (GEO TV) and the advertiser (As-Salaam Halal Foods) are based in what certain scions of England's Green and Pleasant Land still call "the colonies," otherwise known as the United States):

Ad
A young girl presented an As-Salaam food ad on GEO TV that stated "Hi kids, what a nutritious and healthy news. As-Salaam now launches very delicious and 100% halal snacks: try our chicken nuggets, chicken strips, chicken patties, beef burger patties, chicken and beef hot dogs, smoked turkey slices, beef patties, beef bologna, beef salami, turkey breakfast slices and beef breakfast slices.  Now we can really enjoy our healthy snacks with 100% satisfaction.  Thank you Al Salam." The ad ended with several young children eating the products.

Issue
Monitoring staff challenged whether:

1. the ad misleadingly implied that the As-Salaam products were healthy and nutritious; and
   
2. the ad was targeted directly at primary school children.

Response
1.  GEO TV did not comment but submitted the nutritional information for each product.

2.  GEO TV maintained that, because the As-Salaam products were not available in the UK, the rules did not apply.

Assessment
1. Upheld
The ASA considered that the ad presented the As-Salaam products as healthy and nutritious snacks.  We understood that most of their products contained very high levels of sodium.  We noted that GEO TV had not substantiated the claim that the As-Salaam products were nutritious and healthy.  We considered that the ad had given a misleading impression of the health benefits of the As-Salaam products.

The ad breached CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rule 8.3.1 (a) Accuracy in food advertising.

2.  Upheld
We noted GEO TV held an Ofcom licence and was required under the conditions of that licence to comply with the CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code.  We considered that the unavailability of the product in the UK did not mean the rules did not apply.  Although GEO TV did not confirm that they were, we understood that most of the products were high in fat,salt or sugar (HFSS).  We considered that the young presenter coupled with the introductory statement "Hi kids, what a nutritious and healthy news ... try our ... beef salami ... Now we can really enjoy our healthy snacks with 100% satisfaction" directly targeted primary school children with an ad for HFSS products.

The ad breached CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rule 8.3.1 (c) Accuracy in food advertising.

Action
We concluded that the ad must not be shown again in its present form and that the products should not be advertised without adequate substantiation for the claims made.

Which, in its turn, begs the question of how high-sodium foods can be considered not only "nutritious and healthy," but also halal--the Muslim equivalent of the Jewish kosher, in case you ask (meaning, in any case, "fit, acceptable").

(In any case, you should have no trouble finding As-Salaam products in your local halal supermarket--which may require some effort trying to locate outside major metropolitan areas with substantial Muslim populations, notably New York, Chicago, Detroit, the Twin Cities and Los Angeles. And if any of you readers manage to come across any of the As-Salaam products in question with an eye towards trying same, let me know what you think of them in the Comments section.)

more cat pictures

IF THERE IS ONE OVEERRIDING REASON ABOVE ALL ELSE WHICH MATTERS IN CALLING FOR THE COMPLETE AND FINAL IMPEACHMENT AND TRIAL, AND REMOVAL FROM OFFICE, of no less a person of power and authority than His Fraudulency, it would have to be this:

The clear and present danger that His Fraudulency could cross the line into an act of misguided "national safety" which only risks undermining our traditional, antient and pecuilar soverignty and soverign identity even more than what "patriot" groups contend the so-called "New World Order" is secretly "conspiring" towards.

One as could be on the same level as the Nazi regime's display of fanatical paranoia code-named "Operation Valkyrie," unleashed all the more in the wake of the unsuccessful July 20, 1944 plot against Hitler @ the Wolf's Lair compound in what was then East Prussia (and, after World War II, was awarded to Poland), descending all the more into madness as the "Thousand-Year Reich" which Hitler's Nazis hoped would carry Germany into a New Golden Age was collapsing all around by way of not only Anglo-American bombing raids on German cities, but also "scorched earth" moves by the Nazi regime itself and the Soviets marching on Berlin from the east.

That, and the Propaganda Ministry ordering the diversion of some 220,000 Wehrmacht troops from the front lines to appear as battle-scene extras in the last-ditch cinematic epic Kolberg; Herr Goebbels' hope was that the reenactment of the Germans' defence of the Baltic port against vastly larger numbers of Napoleon's troops in retreat from Moscow would inspire a weakened German people in the hour of desperation (or so the official line went) Germany was facing. (In the end, it would be too late; the final prints were ready just days before Germany surrendered, and soon afterwards, the Allied Occupation Authorities banned its release out of fear that such might arouse sympathies for the Nazi regime among audiences.)

In any event, even direct blood relatives of the ringleaders as had no direct involvement in the plot whatsoever would wind up being prosecuted and sentenced, for the most part, to death by hanging from piano wire strung from abattoirs' hooks in sham trials as were laced with obscenities and generally poor taste.

Clearly not the hallmarks of a sane man, true.

In any case, the only way America can be spared the clear and present danger of Operation Valkyrie being repeated by a madman of a President, acting solely out of his own paranoid delusions rather than clear and compelling factual intelligence, is for Congress to exercise its Constitutional duty to impeach President Bush all the sooner--especially before the "New World Order" seeks to exploit chaos and disorder whose blame will fall squarely upon His Fraudulency's hands.

One way to go about it: Sign this petition to pray beseech Congress to open immediate proceedings for impeachment and trial, and removal from office, of His Fraudulency.

In any case, may we be reminded of the immortal words of George Santayana: "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Or, as they'd say in Bloemfontein, "Daardie wie nie onthou die verlede is veroordeel om te herhaal dit."

Think of it, in effect, as a "preemptive impeachment."

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

IT SEEMS RATHER IRONIC THAT, AS FORD MOTOR COMPANY MARKS THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ICONIC MODEL T, which made automobiles all the more accessible to the millions, it announced substantial second-quarter losses put down to declining sales of pickup trucks and larger, fuel-inefficent automobiles in response to growing public interest in smaller, fuel-efficent vehicles for which Ford is now retooling itself.

But then again, you have to wonder if there are those @ Ford headquaters on The American Road in Dearborn who are in league with such specimens of Zealotry and True Belief vis-a-vis energy self-sufficency seeing in Abundant American Coal a cheap and cheerful ersatz gasoline, South African stylee.

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

A NEW BLACK MARK AGAINST MR. "FAIR AND BALANCED" JOURNALISM HIMSELF, BY NAME OF KEITH RUPERT MURDOCH, FROM ENGLAND'S GREEN AND PLEASANT LAND, courtesy of the "elitist" BBC:

World motorsport boss Max Mosley has won a legal action against a Sunday newspaper over claims an orgy he took part in had Nazi overtones.

The High Court ruled the News of the World did breach Mr Mosley's privacy, awarding him £60,000 (about US$120,000) in damages.

Mr Justice Eady said he could expect privacy for consensual "sexual activities (albeit unconventional)".

Mr Mosley admitted a sado-masochistic sex session with five prostitutes, but denied that it had a Nazi theme.

His father was the 1930s fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley.

The paper's story was based on a secret video from one of the women who took part in the sex session at a London flat in March.

At the High Court, Mr Justice Eady said there was "no evidence that the gathering on 28 March 2008 was intended to be an enactment of Nazi behaviour or adoption of any of its attitudes. Nor was it in fact.

"I see no genuine basis at all for the suggestion that the participants mocked the victims of the Holocaust."

The "bondage, beating and domination" that did take place was "typical of S&M behaviour", he said.

"But there was no public interest or other justification for the clandestine recording, for the publication of the resulting information and still photographs, or for the placing of the video extracts on the News of the World website - all of this on a massive scale."

However, the judge did not make the unprecedented award of punitive - rather than compensatory - damages that had been sought by Mr Mosley.

He said: "It is perhaps worth adding that there is nothing 'landmark' about this decision.

"It is simply the application to rather unusual facts of recently developed but established principles."

The newspaper also faces a bill of around £850,000 (about US$1.7 millon) for legal costs.

'No-one's business'

Outside the High Court, Mr Mosley said he was "delighted with that judgement, which is devastating for the News of the World".

"It demonstrates that their Nazi lie was completely invented and had no justification," he said.  

Colin Myler says the freedom of the press is damaged. "It also shows that that they had no right to go into private premises and take pictures and film of adults engaged in activities which are no-one's business but those of the people concerned."

The 68-year-old says his life has been devastated by the News of the World story and the posting of the video footage on its website.

He told the court that the publicity had been "totally devastating" for his wife of 48 years, and he could think of "nothing more undignified or humiliating" for his two sons to experience.

News of the World editor Colin Myler said the paper was pleased at the lack of punitive damages, but added that "our press is less free today after another judgement based on privacy laws emanating from Europe".

As the head of the richest sport in the world, with almost 125 million members, Mr Mosley "had an obligation to honour the standards which its vast membership had every right to expect of him", Mr Myler said.

"Taking part in depraved and brutal S&M orgies on a regular basis does not, in our opinion, constitute the fit and proper behaviour to be expected of someone in his hugely influential position."

Mr Myler maintained that the paper believed its reports were "legitimate and lawful and, moreover, that publication was justified by the public interest in exposing Mr Mosley's serious impropriety".

Legal analyst Joshua Rozenberg said the court ruling was a "warning" to journalists.

more cat pictures

THERE CAN BE NO MISTAKING THE OBVIOUS: HIGH GAS PRICES, NOTWITHSTANDING RECENT DECLINES, ARE MORE LIKELY TO BE THE RULE THAN THE EXCEPTION now and henceforth.

Obviously dictating the importance of sound and practical transportation policy as deemphasises the automobile in favour of alternatives such as rail and bus service to the extent feasable.

The which is the subject of a study which MnDOT (as in the Minnesota Department of Transportation) will be expected to formulate thanks to legislation taking effect from Friday, 1 August--which turns out being part of the same law which bans text messaging while driving and sets further operational restrictions on holders of probationary driver's licences.

No doubt a worthwhile first step for Minnesota's perhaps joining the ranks of states like Illinois, California and North Carolina as are taking proactive steps when it comes to passenger rail thanks to partnerships with Amtrak and Section 403(b) funding (as in the provision of the National Passenger Rail Act 1970 allowing states to fund passenger rail services) ... but then again, the unique characteristics of Minnesota need to be taken into account.

Already, first tenative steps are being taken with the Northstar Commuter Rail line between Minneapolis and Big Lake, with possible later extension to St. Cloud; first services are expected to commence sometime next year.

Other commuter-rail corridors as are under further study are:

• the Red Rock Line (Minneapolis-Hastings-Red Wing);
• the Rush Line (Minneapolis-St. Paul-Forest Lake-Rush City);
• the Dan Patch Line (Minneapolis-Savage-Prior Lake-Northfield); and
• self-named lines to Bethel and Norwood-Young America.

As well, there's been talk of a long-distance commuter line as would operate between the Twin Cities and the Twin Ports, restoring passenger rail links as ended in 1981.

Also worthy of study, IMHO, would have to be:

• extending the Dan Patch Line to its becoming, in effect, a long-distance commuter rail line as would continue past Northfield to Faribault, Owatonna and Austin;
• extending the Red Rock Line to its becoming, in effect, a long-distance commuter rail line continuing past Red Wing to Lake City, Wabasha and Winona;
• regional commuter rail (as it were) that would connect Winona, Rochester, Dodge Center, Owatonna (connecting to the expanded-on Dan Patch Corridor to the Twin Cities and Austin), Waseca and Mankato;
• studying the possibility of reclaiming the Douglas State Trail (itself a former Chicago Great Western railway line) and other former CGW lines between Rochester and Red Wing for a passenger-rail link between the Twin Cities and Rochester (if a bit on the awkward side);
• looking into long-distance commuter-rail potential between the Twin Cities and Willmar, with passenger-rail potential past Willmar to Marshall and Sioux Falls;
• partnering with Wisconsin and Illinois on the possibilities of pooling funds to extend @ least two of Amtrak's Hiawatha Service trains between Chicago and Milwaukee onward to the Twin Cities, not to mention pooling funds for adequate trainsets and track upgrades to permit fast running;
• again in partnership with Wisconsin and Illinois, studying the potential of an overnight train between Chicago, Milwaukee and the Twin Cities as an alternative to auto travel and "cookie-cutter" chain-motel predictability (think the likes of European night-train networks as EuroNight, CityNightLine and TrenHotel); and
• studying the possibilities of reintroducing an international passenger rail link between the Twin Cities and Winnipeg, via St. Cloud, Fargo/Moorhead and Grand Forks (as well as another daily passenger train between the Twin Cities and Fargo).

Done carefully enough, Minnesota could certainly be a shining example for the Midwest to become as much a leader and innovator in passenger-rail development as California, Illinois and North Carolina are already beyond the Northeast Corridor.

Otherwise, what stands in the way?

In any event, MnDOT should exercise its legislative mandate to study passenger-rail possibilities with an eye towards many of the solutions just illustrated. Especially considering where high gas prices bound to get higher may leave us with little or no other options to break automotive dependency.

more cat pictures

IF YOU THOUGHT MICHAEL "LIBERALISM IS A MENTAL DISORDER" SAVAGE'S RECENT CRACKS ABOUT AUTISM WERE RATHER AWFUL AND DISGUSTING, consider the lead-in remarks to such as are now causing him no end of headaches, as aired on his show of the 16th instant (as transcribed by Media Matters for America):

...For a long while, we were hearing that every minority child had asthma. Why did they sudden--why was there an asthma epidemic amongst minority children? Because I'll tell you why: The children got extra welfare if they were disabled, and they got extra help in school. It was a money racket. Everyone went in and was told [fake cough], "When the nurse looks at you, you go [fake cough], 'I don't know, the dust got me.' " See, everyone had asthma from the minority community. That was number one.

Which begs the question of where Mr. Savage got the notion of asthma epidemics among National Minorities being staged or faked just to attract more in welfare benefits--or, for that matter, his own warped delusion of the world: Al Cohol, perhaps?

Mary Jane Weaver?

Seymour Butts?

I. P. Daley?

Snidely Whiplash?

The Kanker Sisters?

Corporal Punishment?

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

SUCH IS THE PRICE OF EXPOSING THE REMARKS OF THE WEIRD AND UNWHOLESOME TO AIR AND SUNSHINE: Media Matters for America's continuing coverage of l'affaire Michael Savage vis-a-vis the "fraud [and] racket" of autism reveals where Mr. "Liberalism is a Mental Disorder" may be resorting to projection in a misguided attempt to save his career, what with several major advertisers having pulled their advertising therefrom (insurer AFLAC being the most recent such) and a talk-radio station in Mississippi having cancelled his show from the other day:

On the July 21 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Michael Savage repeatedly attacked Media Matters for America, calling the group a "Stalinist," "anti-family," "illegitimate, dangerous fascist group[]," and asserted that Media Matters "ha[s] no place in America." His comments came after Media Matters documented, with transcript and audio, his July 16 remarks describing autism as "[a] fraud, a racket." Those comments have sparked protests and generated widespread media attention.

Throughout his three-hour broadcast, Savage asserted:

• "I'm very fatalistic at a certain point. I may have invested 15 years of my life in radio and 40 years of my life in defense of the helpless children of the world--and I have--but if the irony is that I am attacked by gay men who do not have children, in the group called Media Matters, and they win and the children lose, I said, 'Then, it's God's joke. And if that's what God wants, then that's the way it is.' "

• "[M]y comments were taken out of context by this radical, Stalinist, left-wing group, Media Matters that has done this before. They did it with the Muslims. They did it with the immigrants, and they do it of course each and every day as was done in the Stalinist Soviet Union. They have no place in America."

• "Unless you actually listen to a man, it's very easy to crucify him. Remember there's mob--there's a mob mentality out there. We live in very dangerous times where people are taken out of context and crucified in the media. It's interesting to me that I've devoted my entire adult life to defending the defenseless, and here I am, being attacked by those who do not have children, who hate children, who are anti-family in Media Matters, who take a statement that I make out of context and send it to the poor parents of autistic children and have them believe I'm their enemy. It's very, very clever, the devil. The devil is very clever, indeed. Don't underestimate your enemy is all I can tell you."

• "[I]t's ironic that people who hate families and children--a group called Media Matters, filled with anti-family individuals who do not marry; they're men who like men--would take out of context comments that I made last week directed at the misdiagnosed, the falsely diagnosed, and the outright fakers in the autism field and try to make you, the parents of the truly autistic, attack me."

• "If you permit illegitimate, dangerous fascist groups like Media Matters to get away with this, you will be living in the ex-Soviet Union in your own lifetime."

• "[I]t's ironic that you would take the bait from an evil group like Media Matters, which is filled with men who hate families, men who hate children, and men who hate particularly conservatives who believe in borders, language, and culture. Those are the enemies of the truth. Those are the enemies of your children, not me."

• "I want to actually conclude right now by saying again, at 3 o'clock in the morning, I woke up, and I said, 'Oh my God, not again--not those fascists again taking me out of context.' How do they get away with it? How can criminal fascists like those in Media Matters not be stopped by the government for doing this to people by twisting their words and taking them out of context? I said, 'Well, you're living in a quasi-proto-Soviet Union where people can be damned for half-truths.' "

Memo to Mr. Savage, after those of one Hank Greenspun directed @ Sen. Joseph McCarthy: "Toon vsa jou feite, asseblief!"

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

THE PRICE OF "DEFENDING SOUTHERN CULTURAL HERITAGE AND VALUES," or so the neo-Confederate community is fond of using the term to the point of risking becoming hackneyed:

First comes word from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (ironically enough, based in Atlanta) that the South remains perhaps the single most obese region of the country, thanks to "cultural heritage" excusing a diet of high-fat/salt/sugar (HFSS) foods, frying almost everything in especially lard or palm-kernel or cottonseed oil--not to mention their preferred "quick lunch" of a Moon Pie and a bottle of RC Cola.

Now, it's emerged, thanks to the Natural Resources Defence Council, that the South is too dependent upon their cars (and, for that matter, @ higher risk of adverse effects from high gasoline prices) for their own good, considering where the Southern states spend more as a percentage of annual income for gasoline on average.

Add to that a mentality up there with the so-called Club For Growth as is forever insisting that low taxes=jobs=socioeconomic stability being all the more popular across the Deep South--especially so Mississippi, which has been rather notorious for offering tax holidays to labour-intensive manufacturers just to create jobs since the infamous Soverignty Commission sought to invoke "states' rights" as a defence to maintain State-sanctioned racism, and to use "whatever means necessary" towards those ends--excusing such as necessary for G-d, Country and Race.

(Incidentally, Mississippi ranked top of the league tables when it came to obesity as a byproduct of bad diets excused as "cultural heritage" and the percentile of income spent on gasoline.)

In any event, the Southern states have perhaps the lowest fuel tax rates in the country, which may explain why roads in many parts of the former Confederacy may be showing signs of deferred maintenance as are all too obvious (after all, fuel tax revenue is supposed to finance highway construction and maintenance).

No wonder many ill-advised types across the South are still fond of displaying the Confederate version of the Scots Saltaire and defend such as a show of "heritage, not hate" when, in their hearts, it's the exact opposite meaning.

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

IN THE END, WHAT REMAINED OF LAKE DELTON--AND, FOR THAT MATTER, THE DEBRIS OF THIS PAST SPRING'S FLOODING ACROSS THE MIDWEST--had to go somewhere.

As in the likes of the Wisconsin, Rock, Wapsipinicon, Des Moines, Raccoon, Iowa, Illinois and Missouri rivers flowing into the Mississippi.

And the Mississippi, in its turn, flowing into the Gulf of Mexico.

Satellite photography has now emerged showing where all the debris from said flooding has resulted into an emerging "dead zone" in said Gulf of Mexico, where any and all form of aquatic life cannot exist owing to a want of oxygen and nutrtients.

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

PAT "700 CLUB" ROBERTSON, HOPING JOHN McCAIN WILL BE ENSURED "CERTAIN VICTORY" IN INDECISION 2008 PRO DEO, PATRIA ET FAMILIA, was overheard the other day hoping for October Surprise-stylee attacks against Iranian nuclear-processing facilities to influence the electoral outcome (hat tip to Think Progress for the following):

On [Monday's] edition of The 700 Club, Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson sharply criticized the “moderate tone” the Bush administration has allegedly taken toward Iran and its nuclear weapons program. Robertson advocated that Israel look out for the “survival of its nation” and “make some kind of a strike” against Iranian nuclear facilities. He also predicted that it will likely happen before the 2008 elections:

But nevertheless, I think we can look in the next few months for Israel to make a strike — possibly before the next election — because I think George Bush—to use the term an “amber light”—he’s given the amber, the yellow light, saying, “Caution, but go ahead.”

The which, no doubt, some have suggested as a cheap and cheerful way to hasten the Final Onset of Armageddon, the Ultimate Battle Between Good and Evil. But then again, Your Correspondent has to wonder where Mr. Robertson has such an "inside track" on emerging events which, in the end, turn out not occuring @ all.

more cat pictures

TO ESPECIALLY SUCH MISGUIDED SPECIMENS OF ZEALOTRY AND TRUE BELIEF SEEING THEMSELVES AS "PATRIOTS" AND "DEFENDERS OF AMERICAN SOVERIGNTY" for their own selfish ends, do I direct this item.

I should like to ask of you the following, and in return, I would like some honest and sincere answers, not bromides and platitudes passed off as answers which could suggest the same were scripted:

• Where does it state in the Constitution that American soverignty and soverign identity is conditioned by, and conditioned on, isolationist self-sufficency?
• Where in the Constitution does it state that only white male Low Church Christians are entitled the rights, privileges and powers thus enshrined and ennumerate?
• Where in the Constitution does it state that free-market socioeconomic policies and paradigms shall prevail when it comes to regulatory policy?
• Where exactly in Holy Scriptures does it state that free-market capitalism and Christian faith are mutually compatible?
• Where in the Constitution is it explicitly stated that there shall be no legal tender other than gold and silver coin?
• Where in the Constitution does it specifically state that ignorance is to be valued more highly than knowledge?
• Where in the Constitution is anti-Semitism, racism, white supremacy, xenophobia, sexism, male chauvinism and general intolerance sanctioned or justified as one with "the defence of our antient and pecuilar soverignty and soverign identity"?
• Where does it state that the defence of free-market capitalism requires the defence of racist, xenophobic, sexist, misogynistic, anti-Semitic and isolationist policies, attitudes and articles of faith?
• Where in the Constitution is it explicitly stated that the poor and vulnerable be subject to nothing but contempt, fear and loathing?
• Have you no sense of Decency, Sirs, @ long last?
• Have you left no sense of Decency?

You know where to leave the answers....