So called Liberal Media ignores the fact that he is an Admiral and not a Sergeant.

Republican Alabama lawmaker Gerald Allen says homosexuality is an unacceptable lifestyle. As CBS News Correspondent Mark Strassmann reports, under his bill, public school libraries could no longer buy new copies of plays or books by gay authors, or about gay characters. "I don't look at it as censorship," says State Representative Gerald Allen. "I look at it as protecting the hearts and souls and minds of our children."

Welcome to the Birmingham Public Library. Where you can read all the classics of great literature, unless they were written by Walt Whitman, James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, Armistead Maupin, Gertrude Stein, Hans Christian Anderson, Oscar Wilde, Marcel Proust, E.M. Forster, Ron Wood, Lord Byron, or plays by Edward Albee (Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe), J.M. Barrie (Peter Pan), Tennessee Williams, (Streetcar Named Desire), also any books about Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and Georgia O'Keefe, and on and on and on...

However we have a whole shelf full of the Left Behind series. It's in the Current Events section.

The Connecticut Forum: The Culture War

Got invited to see the latest Connecticut Forum that was held last Friday. This one was on the Culture War. Guests were New York Times Columnist Frank Rich, Lobbyist and former head of the Christian Coalition Ralph Reed, New York Times Columnist David Brooks, and Newsweek Columnist Margaret Carlson.

Getting to the theater it was clear this was gonna be an interesting evening. Protesters were already out in force. A group was staging a mock Bush press conference on the Bushnell steps while hading out fliers for a counter debate staged a block away at a church.

Frank Rich and David Brooks came off the best. I don't particularly like Brooks much but you could tell he was interested in an actual dialogue of ideas. Margaret Carlson was simply out of her depth really. She was talking like it was Crossfire, throwing out one liners, and being rather unimpressive. Ralph Reed on the other hand, was just a world class asshole. A very polished asshole mind you. He sat there and smiled and churned out preprogrammed responses to any and all questions lobbed at him. Answers crafted to make him appear reasonable and rational, yet at their heart, still tow the extremist line. For instance, when the idea of creationism in schools came up, Ralphie, sticking to his well honed and poll tested talking points, spun it so it was a matter of “free speech”. He was emphasizing how its unfair that we only get to hear one theory, he just wants to hear all the information. And I gotta tell you, if you know nothing of the facts of the debate he comes off as reasonable. But since I do know the facts of the debate, I know he’s a lying sack of shit. Creationism isn’t a scientific theory. Its pure religion and has no place in a Science class. I have a theory that we are all descended from Jedi masters from a long time ago, so why Doesn’t Ralph Reed insist my ”theory” be inserted into every textbook nationwide? Oh that’s right, it’s because I pulled it straight out my ass. Frank Rich did call him out on that, but somewhat belatedly. And I did get a sense of self satisfaction knowing that the man is incapable of standing straight up and simply declaring with no ambiguity, what he believes. Everything has to be spun and finessed to sound better. It’s all deception with him. The man clearly believes that Creationism is gods will and should be taught in schools. But he can’t say it. It’s a tacit admission that he is on the losing side of the “Culture War”.

They actually answered my own question right out of the gate. Namely, is there a culture war? I don’t think so, and neither do most of the panelists. It’s all a construct of the extremes of both sides.

Gay marriage was another big topic, since our State just signed into law a civil unions bill. At this point Brooks and Rich got into a great back and forth, with Brooks admitting that he is pro gay marriage. Rich said it best that it’s really a non issue. In ten years or so we will all wonder why anyone ever thought it was a big deal, pointing out that in the great state of VT, civil unions was the explosive issue that reverberated all over the country, and was going to ruin the fabric of the family, and release the apocalypse. If you go up there now, it’s a non issue. It’s just an accepted fact and no one really cares that much about it anymore. Reed just fell back into his spin and talked endlessly about “States rights” and how state referendums are overwhelmingly against gay marriage. Another spin favorite from the right. If your position on an issue is unpopular and/or immoral, be it segregation, the Confederate flag, gay marriage, make the issue about “states rights” so you can avoid overtly supporting the unpopular issue (which we all know you do). You see, “I’m not for segregation people; I’m for the states deciding what they want to do!” Watching Reed pull this made me laugh out loud since 20 minutes earlier he was arguing passionately for the federal Government interfering in state matters in the Schiavo case.

They also talked extensively about the book “What’s the Matter with Kansas”. With Reed taking exception to the theory that Bush won because he essentially conned people into voting for him. Um, yeah.It went on like that all night.

It was really entertaining and definitely got my blood boiling. If anyone lives in the CT area, you are doing yourself a disservice by not buying season tickets to the CT Forum.

Im goning to the Connecticut Forum tonight and the topic is the Culture War. Panelists are David Brooks, Ralph Reed, Frank Rich, and Margaret Carlsen.

They have a Q and A as the second half. Anyone got suggestions for what to ask them?

Here is another example of the right bullying the “liberal” media.

Bush himself talked numerous times about privatizing Social Security. Then Republicans ran polls that showed the word “privatizing” doesn’t sell well with soccer moms so they then changed it to the better poll tested phrase “Personal accounts”. The religious right stopped talking about “Christian values” and instead made it about “Family values”, we aren’t going to cut social programs were simply going to “slow their rate of growth”. The common denominator here is once the right decides to alter their loaded language, if you still refer to the original wording that they used themselves, it shows that you are biased. You must use their new biased wording in order to be fair.

And so today we got a new one. From Slate, regarding the showdown in the senate over filibusters;
Democrats refer to it as the "nuclear option" because, they argue, it would utterly devastate the Senate. Republicans refer to it by the equally loaded phrase "the constitutional option," noting that the Constitution allows the Senate to make its own rules.


The term “nuclear option was coined by the Republican Rules Committee Chairman Trent Lott on 3/19/03 as reported by the Washington Times. That has been the term used since the beginning. It was only in the last few weeks that orders came down from the RNC that the “constitutional option” sounds better.

But now we have Slate and other media outlets referring to it as some laoded phrase used by Democrats.

Unbeleivable...

I love a good bitchfight.

Time magazine does a cover article by John Cloud on Coulter(I’m not linking that garbage, look for it yourself). It is basically a whitewash of that hideous witch. A good example of the “journalism” standards used in it is that the reporter who wrote the article says he can’t find “many” outright Coulter errors. He knows this because he did a “google search”. That was the extent of the research. Keep in mind this is for a cover article by Time magazine, not some half assed blogger.

In response to that, and other idiotic things about the article, the article was roundly criticized by Media Matters, Eric Alterman, and August Pollak.

Cloud, being effectively bitchslapped by all 3, then responds with this snippy little interview with CJR which he just basically calls people names and throws out straw man and ad hominem attacks at Media Matters and Alterman.

Alterman responds here.

Media Matters here.

Pollak here .

I leave it to my thousands of readers to figure out who's winning this fight.

I know this is an exercise in fulitiy, but what the heck...

Pat Bucahnan and Bill Kriston get a pie in the face. The response from some on the right was how this was chilling and it shows how unhinged and violent the "left" is.

Jane Fonda just got spit in the face by a Vietnam war vet. Don't hold you're breathe on those same idiots (michelle malkin, etc..) talking about how this is madness and shows that veterans and conservatives are really all about intolerance and mindless violnce on innocent people.

On a side note I do find it interesting that some veterans would spit in Fonda's face, yet not be mad at the people that sent them to that pointless war in the first place. Or the current President who cuts their beneifts and institutes a back door draft, and snuck out of serving as well so he could get drunk. He's somehow more of an honorable character to them. It's amazing to me. It really is.

It seems Idahoans understand sarcasm quite well. Too bad they live in freakin’ Idaho.

Idaho’s House of Representatives present HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 29, honoring the film Napoleon Dynamite.


Highlights of the bill;

WHEREAS, Uncle Rico's football skills are a testament to Idaho athletics;

andWHEREAS, Napoleon's bicycle and Kip's skateboard promote better air quality and carpooling as alternatives to fuel-dependent methods of transportation;

and WHEREAS, Rico and Kip's Tupperware sales and Deb's keychains and glamour shots promote entrepreneurism and self-sufficiency in Idaho's small towns

andWHEREAS, Napoleon's artistic rendition of Trisha is an example of the 28 importance of the visual arts in K-12 education

and WHEREAS, Pedro's efforts to bake a cake for Summer illustrate the positive connection between culinary skills to lifelong relationships

WHEREAS, Napoleon's tetherball dexterity emphasizes the importance of physical education in Idaho public schools

Oral arguments in the Grokster SCOTUS case are released.

I was right. Thomas never utters a word. He never does. And he sometimes falls asleep during oral arguments.

I can’t believe I missed this.

The Ultimate Warrior appeared this weekend for the College Republicans at UCONN , and caused a bit of a stir.

Apparently in his remarks, "Warrior" told an Iranian student he should "get a towel" and then talked about how "Queering don't make the world work."

The fallout is proving to be even funnier. First the UCONN Republicans, utterly embarrassed by this fool, issued an abject apology to anyone who would listen(Apparently they had expected a much higher level of debate in inviting "warrior" to speak) . That prompted a response from Warrior in a letter entitled “From the Desk of Warrior” in which he refers to himself in the third person 18 separate times. In it he declares the UCONN Republicans have “decided to bow down and beg forgiveness from various extremist, anti-American, left-wing groups who infest the UConn campus.”

Go UCONN!

To be handed out Monday as they raise the championship banner. Fenway Park's opening day. With the Yankees watching it all from the visitors dugout.

Go Whale.

I'll be the first to admit 1997 was my pre-sports days so I wasn't a "die hard" Whalers fan and only went to a few games. But my friends are fanatical about it to this day, and since my sports awakening in 1998, I have pined for some Hartford NHL Hockey.

But with the lockout hopefully pushing Hockey back to its roots with smaller markets and lower salaries, Hartford is looking to be a prime spot. I mean, who the hell cares about Hockey in Phoenix?

The annual Whalers rally will be held this Wednesday, on the anniversary of their last game, at Mayor Mike's in downtown Hartford. I urge my thousands of readers to attend.

Man, Schiavo’s parents really are sleazy. Deliberatly turning her funeral into a spectacle. Whatever sympathy I had for them is gone. How many of the over 800 people at this funeral actually knew the woman? And how many are right wing nut cacses who are using her for their cause?

Now I know why the husband wouldn’t release the ashes, since he’s said he wants a private burial, not a disgusting media circus for FOX news.

Could this, and this be the final nail in Tom Delays coffin? God I hope so. If he goes down, I’m throwing a party. Not as big as my Brothers anticipated Margaret Thatcher death party, but still.

Really, is there any other politician in congress that is this slimy and unethical? . And how he wraps his sleaze in Jesus all the time. It really takes your breath away.

Asked later at a news conference about possible impeachment proceedings against judges in the case, DeLay said, “There’s plenty of time to look into that.”

Oh Please. Please try this. I'm begging you.

It's time for another...


Sin City opens today. I've been a huge fan of Frank Miller since the late eighties when he came out with the Dark Knight mini-series and his fantastic 7 issue stint on Daredevil entitled Born Again.

Today's NPR has a one hour interview with Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller by fellow comic geek and filmmaker Kevin Smith.

Thanks to Theron for the heads up.

Picard out.