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SUNDAY MORNING HERE IN THE MINNWISSIPPI ... CLOUDY AND DREARY LOOKING, with off-and-on rain which makes going around on the bicycle holding an umbrella @ the same time rather tricky just to avoid accidents.

In any case, much of this region is seeing what could be a fresh round of flooding thanks to the rain overnight, prompting the Flash Flood Watch to be continued into the day today--as well as a few Flash Flood Warnings issued earlier (since cancelled) for areas to Winona's southwest.

Which is enough to make you wonder if a new round of pseudoreligious bromides suggesting that the flooding is a show of G-d's Withdrawing His Blessings Upon Minnesota for Condoning Homosexuals and Homosexuality could be possible within measurable distance. On the other hand, however, consider the likelihood for where such religious Zealots and True Believers pushing such a meme are really being influenced by Al Cohol more so than Elohim; there's always that possibility, and there was a time when especially Baptist sermons amounted to little more than drunken tirades from religious who were hesitant to endorse the Keeley Cure for Drink, Drug and Other Habits.

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MEMO TO THE NEOCONSERVATIVE ZEALOTS AND TRUE BELIEVERS PUSHING THEIR LATEST MEME ABOUT DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL WANNABE BARACK OBAMA being "Marxist" or otherwise some class of a "Manchurian Candidate:"

In the immortal words of the late Hank Greenspun, founder and longtime editor/publisher of the Las Vegas Sun, in confronting Sen. Joseph McCarthy @ a "patriotic rally" during which Greenspun was referred to as a "Communist" when the Red-baiting, career-ruining Senator (perhaps in his cups @ the time) was intending to say "convict:"

"Show us your facts!!!"

(As a matter of record, Greenspun was convicted in 1949 of violating the Neurality Act for sending firearms to Israel in its War of Independence; however, no sentence was imposed. President Kennedy would pardon Greenspun in 1962.)

And in "showing us your facts," please be aware of the likelihood that a number of programmes such as Microsoft Word, Open Office and Adobe Photoshop can produce documents of such high quality that even police forensic experts in forgery and questionable documents can easily be fooled.

Remember the "Hitler Diaries" as turned out being the product of a disreputable dealer in Nazi memorabilia some 25 years back?

And is your excuse in justifying forgery, trick and deception for corrupt political ends one of "die eindig moet regverdig die middels"?

And One Thing More: Can you show where in the Constitution it is implied or otherwise "etched in stone" that only white male Low Church Christians are entitled exclusively and "as of right" to the rights, privileges and powers so enshrined and ennumerated?  

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WELL, NOT QUITE WHAT I HAD INTENDED; a serious thunderstorm is approaching this way as I write this, dark sky, rumbling of thunder and all that, and it looks as if I may have to cut this short rather quickly.

In any event, appearences can be deceiving weatherwise:

Just this morning, as I woke up, it appeared as if things would turn out rather pleasant and bright ... only to deteriorate from about 9 o'clock on here in Winona (this blog runs on UTC time, know) when the skies started to deteriorate.

And started over to the Kmart to do some shopping of after-sun lotion (for the Dells trip later this summer), pain-relief gel, shave cream and security envelopes. It seemed as if an eerie, almost forboding, sort of silence was hanging over said Kmart; seems hardly anybody was in the store, even considering the hour I went there.

Luckily, the rain held off until about the last minute or so ... and even as I returned back from the shopping, a general sort of mugginess prevailed to the extent of my having to turn on the air-conditioning (which, know, I operate in a "cycler" mode so that it operates only as conditions dictate, thus saving power; it can also operate in fan mode).

Meanwhile, the Minnwissippi is seeing a Flash Flood Watch from 19h CDST tonight (00h UTC Sunday) to 07h CDST (12h UTC) tomorrow because the rains expected for today could translate into serious flash flooding, especially in steep terrain and poor drainage areas, thanks to expected heavy rainfalls as could reach up to 3" in isolated areas--enough to translate into what may be seen as Divine Reprisal for the region's generally supporting Extreme Religiopolitical Right and Neoconservative causes among the Lower Classes (cf. Rev. Fred "Westboro Baptist Church" Phelps contending that the I-35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis last summer was Divine Judgement Upon Minnesota for tolerating homosexuals and homosexuality), among other supposed warnings that G-d A-mighty was about to Withdraw His Divine Endorsement Upon America for our Failing to Honour His Holy and Sacred Commandments Upon America as a Pecuilar Among the Nations.

Well, TT4N....  

The way in which children perceive and react to marketing communications is influenced by their age, experience and the context in which the message is delivered; marketing communications that are acceptable for young teenagers will not necessarily be acceptable for young children.

THUS EXPLAINS CLAUSE 47.1 OF THE CAP CODE FOR NON-BROADCAST ADVERTISING TARGETING CHILDREN, as applies between Land's End and John O'Groats.

The other day, though, Your Correspondent was thinking @ length about a scene in Surf's Up where Edna Maverick (mother of Cody, the hero of this mockumentary), slicing up some raw tuna for dinner with a ice cleaver, relates where "Glen [Cody's older brother, as it were] was the big egg, Cody was the little egg," with a mock "photograph" illustrating the difference.

Which, in turn, calls to mind Clause 47.3(c) from said code, targeting mostly toy, game and model advertisements targeting children in England's Green and Pleasant Land, which cautions advertisers where

[I]t should be made easy for them [children] to judge the size, characteristics and performance of any product advertised and to distinguish between real-life situations and fantasy.

In the case of television advertising, the relevant section @ hand would be clause 7.1.3 (Product Characteristics), which provideth:

If advertisements for products of interest to children show or refer to characteristics which might influence a child's choice, those characteristics must be easy for children of the appropriate age to judge.

Not to mention Note 4 to said clause, as is perhaps relevant to the subject @ hand:

Where the size of toys, etc., may be a relevant factor, the actual size must be made easy to judge. This is often done by comparison with a familiar object of unambiguous size. The comparison must not be distorted by, for example, perspective.

Come to think of it, Your Correspondent might find it stretching things to use a rockhopper penguin such as Cody Maverick for size comparison in commercials for certain popular toys, for the sake of this clause, let alone

the "baby photo" of Glenn and Cody illustrating Edna's remark. 

1) Treason against the United States shall consist only of levying war against the United States, or, in adherence to its enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.

2) The Congress shall prescribe the punishment for treason; but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or of forfeture, except for the life of the person so attained.

THUS DOES ARTICLE III, SECTION III, OF THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION DEFINE TREASON, and directing Congress to establish approriate penalties for treason (which, IIBC, is death).

Judging by the following recent editorial from Montana's Billings Gazette (thanks to BartCop E! for the hat tip), it's all the more likely that His Fraudulency's Great Within may be indirectly guilty of treason by "giving aid and comfort" to the enemy--yet they, in their deliberate exercise of doublethink, hesitate to recognise just such a likelihood of that prospect (or, for that matter, His Fraudulency's hand-picked droog and successor, The Terrible-Tempered Mr. Bang):

Guest Opinion: War spending furthers al-Qaida goal of undermining U.S. economy

By ROBERT WEINER
and JOHN LARMETT

As the Congress takes up the latest Bush administration "supplemental" appropriation of another $160 billion for the war in Iraq, the impact of the war on families has been enormous. Montana now has the highest number per capita of killed or wounded in the country - 26.09 per 100,000 population - and a total of 250 deaths or injuries as of May 10.

In fact, the Congress should consider whether the funding - almost a trillion dollars to date - helps al-Qaida more than us. The question of whom the war funding actually helps and its draining of our own needs should be a major issue in the June 3 Montana primary.

In his audio addresses, Osama bin Laden has underscored the importance of hitting economic targets, threatening the United States with financial ruin. Bleeding the U.S. economy is an explicitly stated and oft-repeated aim of al-Qaida. In 2004, soon after the war began, bin Laden stated clearly: "The Mujahedeen have finally forced Bush to have recourse to an emergency budget in order to continue the fight in Afghanistan and Iraq, which indicates the success of the plan to exhaust (them) to the point of bankruptcy, God willing." Bin Laden emphasized the economic nature of the targets chosen in New York City for the Sept. 11 attacks, proclaiming it to be "very important to concentrate on striking the American economy by every possible means."

Draining our economy

He must be thrilled we've continued the emergency supplemental war funding, draining our economy for more than five years and counting. The U.S. economy is spiraling into crisis with the costs of oil and gas, college education, food doubling and tripling since 2001, drugs and other staples not far behind and home foreclosures at all-time highs.

Al-Qaida continues this objective right to the present.

The war in Iraq has been the economic disaster for the United States that bin Laden, without even having to deploy many resources, wished for (our own intelligence agencies confirm that al-Qaida is no more than 2 percent of the Iraq insurgents; the remainder is the civil strife that has persisted there for centuries).

With just the amount of our Iraq budget in 2007, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi points out, our government could instead have repaired 70,000 bridges across the U.S. rated deficient; rebuilt the New Orleans levees; covered all children in the State Children's Health Insurance Plan; equipped U.S. agencies with interoperable communications equipment not available on Sept. 11, 2001; enrolled 1.4 million more children in Head Start; doubled the budget for the National Cancer Institute; screened all air cargo for 10 years; and hired 51,000 more police officers. Instead, Bush has vetoed programs like CHIP and insisted on war dollars. All the while, al-Qaida has regrouped and strengthened outside Iraq - in Afghanistan and around the world.

Fewer jobs created

While the Clinton administration created 23 million new jobs, Bush has created 6 million - the worst jobs record since Herbert Hoover. The Bush administration chose to sink taxpayers' money into Iraq over public investment.

It is counterproductive to our own security that we paradoxically give al-Qaida exactly what it wants. The CIA's National Intelligence Estimate - now suddenly blocked from public view by the Bush administration likely because the document has spoken too much truth - stated on Jan. 13, 2005, that the war in Iraq "provides terrorists with a training ground" and "opportunity," and "the Jihadists will disperse to other countries" and "merge with local movements."

As to the president's objective to "fight them over there so we don't have to over here," the real question is whether it's al-Qaida keeping us bottled up in Iraq instead of the other way around. It's the classic strategy - divert the enemy to another location away from you, so that they will lose time, troops and effort - while you conduct your own priorities with no interference. Is al-Qaida beating us at our own game?

Editor's note: The war deaths and injuries statement is based on ICasualties data and U.S. Census population numbers. Wyoming is a distant second at 19.31.

Democratic strategist Robert Weiner is former spokesman in the Clinton White House. John Larmett is former foreign policy assistant and press secretary to Sen. Gaylord Nelson and Rep. Jim McDermott.

So waar is die uitwoede?

COMING ACROSS THE FOLLOWING ITEM FROM PEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY'S RIGHT WING WATCH BLOG about a new and emerging Religiopolitical Right-allied "Traditional Values" movement is enough to make you (as much as Your Correspondent) wonder if we may be seeing the sub rosa makings of an Evil Cult hiding behind the banner of "Traditional Values" and the "Defence of the Capitalistic System," among their articles of faith:

Not surprisingly, the Religious Right is upset at the failure of an effort to block California's recent same-sex marriage decision from going into effect. "[N]ationwide legal chaos," predicted the Alliance Defense Fund. The decision "abolishes the meaning of motherhood and fatherhood," opined Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council. A "further extension of their judicial activism," said Pacific Justice Institute's Brad Dacus.

At the same time, readers of the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Times were confronted with an enormous advertisement urging them to "join the Crusade" of "conscientious resistance" to "the homosexual 'moral revolution.'"

An obscure but well-heeled group called the American Society for Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) ran ads [on the 5th inst.] covering two full pages in those newspapers, warning of the threat of same-sex marriage. The ad echoes the now-common Religious Right theme that equality for gays and lesbians would lead to the "persecution" of Christianity, but with 4,600 words in some of the most expensive print around, TFP apparently tried to make the argument in the least succinct way possible, discoursing on Nazism, the definition of truth, various Vatican publications, and Joan of Arc.

By legalizing same-sex "marriage," the State becomes its official and active promoter. It calls on public officials to officiate at the new civil ceremony, orders public schools to teach its acceptability to children, and punishes any state employee who expresses disapproval.…

Left unchecked, this anti-Christian trend will become an unprecedented assault on the First Amendment and our American way of life that we do not hesitate to call persecution.…

As the homosexual revolution's anti-Christian intolerance makes itself felt through increasingly persecutory measures, a terrible problem of conscience arises in any who resist: Should we follow our consciences? Should we give in?

For Catholics like ourselves, the condoning of same-sex "marriage" would be tantamount to a renunciation of Faith.…

This is a battle for the soul of America. The so-called Cultural War is gradually becoming a Religious War.

Tradition, Family and Property is an unusual group. Founded in 1973 after the anti-Communist writings of a Brazilian dissident Catholic activist, TFP brought a unique style of protest—serious young men with red capes, heraldic banners, and brass bands—to issues ranging from abortion, homosexuality, and contraception to anti-Communism, water subsidies, flag burning, and the Gulf War. While the group doesn't have the name recognition of the more media-savvy Catholic League, it still brought in $6.8 million in donations and sales in 2006.