So, global warming a new phenomenon?

Of course not; it's been creeping on us and Gaia since the dawn of Industrialization. Sadly, it's not that we just learned about this in the 1980s either, or for the Gen Y'ers, with Al Gore's An Inconvenient truth.

No, rather, we've known about the effects of man-made emissions on our atmosphere and ecosphere since...hmmm....about 1958.


Check out this video from Raw

Any questions?

-d.s.

Stop me if you've heard this one before....

Getting tree-gnawing crazier by the day...

Arizona: Come for the stultifying Tea Partiers, stay for the on-going constitutional violations.

Oh boy. Arizona, the land that time forgot and progenitor of some sincerely crazy-ass right wing notions (the Gestapo-esque, 'show me your papers', "immigration" law being only the most recent), has outdone themselves in a big, big way.

Specifically, with a state law it intends to pass which permits the State to ignore or violate Congressional laws. 

Huh?

Haven't we heard this one before? If only I could remember....

Oh yea, that's it...

Specifically, the law does the following/is premised upon the following:

"The committee shall recommend, propose and call for a vote by simple majority to nullify in its entirety a specific federal law or regulation that is outside the scope of the powers delegated by the People to the federal government in the United States Constitution," the bill reads. "The committee shall make its recommendation within thirty days after receiving the federal legislation for consideration and process."

According to the bill, "no authority has ever been given to the legislative branch, the executive branch or the judicial branch of the federal government to preempt state legislation."

I don't even know where to begin with this. Since our nation was proto-founded nearly 400 years ago, we've had this go around several times before. Whether it was Massachussets threatening to leave, or Maryland threatening to secede, or South Carolina actually seceding, or the failed Articles of Confederation, the battle for the hearts and minds of states' rights has been a consistent tension in our Nation.

This whole notion, though, smacks of some shit that eerily led to one War, one Reconstruction, and violent, phasic enforcement of Federal law for the benefit of some state citizens.

Again, we've seen this before. For the uninitiated, that's Alabama Gov. George Wallace with the proverbial "stand in the schoolhouse door". That "door" is really the old Coliseum, where my grad office was housed. I'll show you a pic of me in front of the plaque one day.

Simply put, States have long contended that they have the right to abnegate/ignore Federal legislation that gores one axe or another. Be it over slavery, integration, or now -immigration and Obama's 'socialism'- it all comes back to one very vile fact, that says terrible things about us: At its heart, the states' righters have racist, fevered imaginings of a better Ur; one founded on the "right people".

Fortunately, it's a settled issue. As if the Civil Rights turmoil of the 50s-70s didn't address it, and as though the Civil War didn't settle it, it's always been the case, that States cannot circumvent or cherry-pick laws they do not like or do not wish to enforce.

As for Arizona's contentions that "no authority has ever been given to the legislative branch, the executive branch or the judicial branch of the federal government to preempt state legislation", well, that's just plain fucking silly.

In fact, I think there is a long-standing document that specifically addresses this twat-tarded idea...if only I could remember.

Oh yea...that's it.

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

Read that last clause carefully.

-d.s

"Vampyre," "Satanist", Rebublican...

One of these things is not like the other....

Then again, maybe so.

Just when I have renewed faith in humanity, we get the story of Jonathan Tepes Sharkey "The Impaler". A crytpo-"vampyre" and admitted "Satanist", you gotta' admit, he doubles his selfish douche factor right there. If there were any doubt about emotionally stunted, emotionally 15 year-olds, then "satanists" and people who truly believe that they can partake of the sanguine arts are right up there.

Yep, seems mature to me.

I usually have no problem with people who want to run around and claim they are actually vampires (correct spelling, yo), claiming that they are acolytes of Hecate, She of the Three Ways, and profess their love for the primal selfishness and inner id within (talkin' to you, "satanists"). However, when they interject themselves into our lives and the public sphere, then we've got beef.

Specifically, Mr. Sharky (no, I'm not calling you the 'fucking impaler'...Nicknames have to be earned, not self-selected, twaddle merchant), is running for President of these United States.

Oh, yes, you heard me correct.

As you'd expect from a self-centered, megalomaniac, Mr. Sharkey is, of course, a Republican. However, given his alleged "Satanism", I'd definitely think Libertarian would be right up his alley. What, then, does someone who professes his love of wrasslin', blood-drinking, and impalement base his platform upon?

Well, let's say that he's certainly not soft on crime.

“‘Certain criminals, instead of being put in jail, they should be brutally tortured and impaled,’ said Sharkey. ‘Upon them being found guilty of their crimes I’ll beat them, torture them, dismember them and decapitate them.’

 

Interesting position for a man to take who's been imprisoned, ran out of jurisdictions and the like for statutory sexual relationships that verge on the pedophilic...

Sharkey has drawn jail time, probation, and controversy over the years for his relationships with women—and the legal system of numerous states, as we've recently reported. "Let's just say I prefer to sink my fangs into younger women," he told us. And his recent YouTube proposal has touched a nerve.

Where I come from, Sharkey, pedophiles are the ones who get tortured, castigated and murdered...even in prison. When a rapist or serial murderer considers your ilk beneath contempt, time to re-evaluate.

Suffice it to say, I'm not at all impressed by a dumpy, balding, egomaniacal scumbucket who preys on 16 year old girls, and -in all other respects- shapes his other decisions for shameless self-promotion of deluded schlock and juvenile trash. It takes damn more than self-serving motivation and half-assed literacy to run for anything other than a 5K.

And, the worst part about this is that true practitioners of alternative faiths, and those with a fashionista towards Dark Victorian and Romanti-goths will be ultimately tarnished by this. Hell, even Anton LaVey is rolling over in his grave right now: Anton was banging Jayne Mansfield and this twat is exploiting children? In all respects this a lose-lose proposition.

So, no, Mr. Sharkey, you're unfit for civil society, unfit to lead, and unfit to be trusted beyond the boundaries of your imminent ankle-collar.

Truth is a bitch.

So, ummm, no. Not voting for ya'.

 

Break from Reality...

There's no other way to describe the average Fox "News" viewer's perception of their understanding of the world, versus what they actually know...

 My good friend Chas. D. would suggest that it's not killing nearly enough...

According to the Alternet report

In eight of the nine questions below, Fox News placed first in the percentage of those who were misinformed (they placed second in the question on TARP). That’s a pretty high batting average for journalistic fraud. Here is a list of what Fox News viewers believe that just aint so:

• 91 percent believe the stimulus legislation lost jobs
• 72 percent believe the health reform law will increase the deficit
• 72 percent believe the economy is getting worse
• 60 percent believe climate change is not occurring
• 49 percent believe income taxes have gone up
• 63 percent believe the stimulus legislation did not include any tax cuts
• 56 percent believe Obama initiated the GM/Chrysler bailout
• 38 percent believe that most Republicans opposed TARP
• 63 percent believe Obama was not born in the U.S. (or that it is unclear)

That is stultifying stupidity. Right up there with the 7 out of 10 Americans that believe they have an actual, corporeal fallen angel; and the 51% who can name all of the Simpsons but not more than three rights embedded within the First Amendment.

Alternet, not generally known for being a bastion of "fair and balanced" themselves, pretty well sums up how so much disinformation is available in the public's noggins.

Fox News is deliberately misinforming its viewers and it is doing so for a reason. Every issue above is one in which the Republican Party had a vested interest. The GOP benefited from the ignorance that Fox News helped to proliferate. The results were apparent in the election last month as voters based their decisions on demonstrably false information fed to them by Fox News.

Toilet Paper Dispenser goes "nom nom nom"

 Bloodthirsty toilets are just one of the things to fear when going to the potty

The legal standard may be technically correct, e.g., whether a duty of care was breached is a factual question, yet, the case is still ridiculous. The Court can always declare that there was no duty of care here (trust me, when I "clerked --i.e., was a shadow judge-- that is exactly what happened with ridiculous cases).

In any event...

Via the AP

A Michigan woman says she can't work or crochet and her bowling game has suffered since her right hand was broken by a toilet paper dispenser in a restaurant bathroom.

The Michigan Supreme Court, in a 4-3 order, has refused to throw out Sheri Schooley's lawsuit against Texas Roadhouse in suburban Detroit.

***

Schooley, 58, acknowledged it's a "bizarre story." She and her husband were out for dinner on New Year's Eve 2007 when she visited the restroom.

"I reached and the cover of the toilet paper dispenser fell down on my hand," the South Rockwood woman told The Associated Press on Monday. "It looked like the dispenser was up but it wasn't latched. At first I thought I was all right. I thought it was just bruised."

But the pain didn't fade, she said, and her husband had to cut her steak. When Schooley returned to work, she couldn't use a stapler. Diagnosis: broken bone.

***

Which is a shame; because this would be fucking epic...

 

"It is not for this court but rather for a jury to decide if the dispenser that harmed her constituted a dangerous condition," she said.

The court's three conservative justices said the liberal majority was overreaching. In a biting dissent, Justice Stephen Markman noted that the restroom was checked for wet floors and other obvious problems every 15 to 30 minutes.

Texas Roadhouse "apparently also had a legal duty to inspect for hazards that could not reasonably have been anticipated, such as a toilet paper dispenser opening unexpectedly," Markman wrote sarcastically.

Both sides have a point; however, I think this "duty" is a bit tenuous -- unless we're getting to status of persons on land, which seems to not be part of the case. Anyway, it's going to jury, where 12 people in Detroit get to decide whether or not a restaurant has the legal obligation to stop people from putting their hands into the feeding mechanism of toilet paper dispensers.


Where's directed verdict when you need one?

-d.s

Dayna Martin: A hippy who needs punching...

Trust me, you'll want to smack her around in about 5 minutes...

Say hello to Dayna Martin, according to her Wiki entry she is " a La Leche League leader, a natural birth educator, an attachment parenting counselor, and a birth doula. She founded The Babywearing Project". That is all just a very long way of saying that she has no discernible job skills and has conned other dirty hippies to pay her for convincing them that they are just as awesome as she is.

But, Martin has gained new fame as the leader of the "Radiocal Unschooling Movement". An offshoot of homeschooling, unschooling (which is apparently legal in New Hampshire), takes the Rousseau model of "free learning" to new, idiotic boundaries...and the children learn nothing, except for what they want to learn. According to the fascinating, if not infuriating, ABC News article,

They live as though school doesn't exist. They're at home all day, but they're not being homeschooled. They're being "unschooled." There are no textbooks, no tests and no formal education at all in their world.

"Just picture life without school. So, maybe a weekend. We wake up, and we have breakfast, and we just start pursuing what we're interested in doing," said Dayna Martin, a mother of four in Madison, N.H.

"I just personally don't believe that humans learn best when they're trying to learn something that somebody else is telling them to," she said.

And she doesn't necessarily think they need to mind their Ps and Qs. Her hands-off approach extends to other areas of the children's lives. The kids are allowed to eat whatever they want -- even pasta with peanut butter sauce -- as long as it is in the house.
What's more, they make their own decisions, and don't have chores or rules. "Because we don't punish, we don't use the term rules," Martin said.

 Oh, you little rapscallions, of course you can have ice cream again, and don't worry about the mess, Mommy will clean it up.

A complete lack of ground rules is Martin's revolution: No rules, no chores, no dietary guidelines, no balanced meals, no schools, no books; I'm sure that makes her childrens' favorite parent, ever, but what about radical unschooling. How do the kids learn?

"I think sometimes people they'll come over and spend time with us, family or friends. They'll ask me, 'How do your kids learn if they're having fun all day?' Like, they so don't equate learning with fun," she said. "Whatever they're interested in, I try to bring as much of that into their life as possible with as many resources as possible."

Okay, learning can be fun. I get that (ever heard of a Montessori, per chance?). And it is child-directed learning (again, ever heard of a Montessori?). But, without books, or fundamental learning skills, are the children actually going to be prepared? Educated? Psssh-ah, says Martin; she said she has "such a present-based mind-set" that she doesn't think about her kids' futures, and that she just wants them to be happy."

 And, you too can fuck up your kids for life....just buy my book.

Seriously, she poo-poos the notion of children learning, having any sort of self-discipline, or any future skills so that they can better their future. For instance, look at this colloquy between Martin and one of her indoctrinees:

"What if they really do need algebra, and I don't teach them algebra or I miss some specific part of something that 's going to help them to learn algebra down the road right now while I'm in the early phases of their life," Berg asked.

"The fears that you have are so normal," Martin said. "Algebra is not something that everybody needs to know. This life is about honoring the fact that we are not all put on the earth to do the same thing in life. ... It is such an individualized education as opposed to a cookie cutter education where kids are kind of, this bucket of knowledge that you pour into kids and they may or may not learn it."

So, there you have it: Honor this life by making the decision to force you your children to be stupid, ill-educated and utterly without any skills or future. Yep. Sounds like selfish hippie shit to me. I know, you're probably thinking that this may be an artsy family, and I'm being too cruel. Because, the kids are probably learning literature, and, in any event, have decent basic skills.

Let's test that assumption, shall we, with this discourse on classic literature:

What happens when the learning becomes more sophisticated and her kids need to be exposed to Shakespeare or Twain or Henry James?

"I think a lot of people might value that more than others. That that is important and it is part of someone's life. I honestly don't remember, yes, although I know their names, I don't remember the details of what I learned in school about the historians," Martin said.

Okay, so literature (or history, for that matter) is not a strong suit with the Martin family...

Besides conflating classic literature with history, and summing it all up as a matter of whether we should "honor" it or not, what about basic math skills. Surely her 10-11 year old munchkin can add, subtract, multiply and divide...all pretty necessary skills, even if the we don't "honor" balancing a checkbook, or being reduced to a blubbering idiot at checkout counters. Let's see how Devin, her oldest, fared:

Martin said her children have picked up adequate reading and math skills without formal instruction. But when we asked Devin a basic multiplication question, he stumbled.

So very, very sad for these children. Raised in a world without the benefit of testing their minds, being exposed to broad-breadth ideas and notions, testing the world of ideas and their place in this world, learning about the myriad of possibilities for their futures. And, all because this selfish, frankly evil, duo of dunderheaded pussies don't have the gumption to grow-the-fuck up and do what's right for their children...even if every waking moment of every day isn't "fun" or being "honored".

Seriously, Dayna, just let wolves raise your children...it will have the same effect and be more honest that your psuedo-intellectual trappings of "honor" and "freedom".

.

Things you'll regret later in life...

 Aaarrrrggggghhhhhhhhhhh

Sorry, my head is about to absolutely asplode, so I took a much needed break from reality this weekend with some Netflix movies and a lot of diet root beer (I really should just switch to bourbon). With the move to Hawaii, and coordinating cross-country vacay, trying to study for another bar exam, and so forth, I am about as stressed as I've ever been (divorce excepted).

That whining aside, and my being interminably pissed at the IDF and the Likudniks (at home and abroad), I think we need to reflect on regret. And this, my friends, is what you will regret more than anything on this planet...A Sarah Palin Ass-Tattoo....

 But, don't worry, the Marine who mutilated himself with this monstrosity at least has good political reasons for doing so. According to Mr. Lepping "She's the hottest Cougar in the Republican party".

 On second thought, his reasoning is as shitty as his politics.

Now, I devoutly trust that your head has exploded.

.
 

The dangers of YouTube...

I love You Tube, in fact, I start every day with a different music video depending on the mood. However, some things just should never, ever be attempted on You Tube.

Like this...in fact, avoid anything that says "how to pick up girls/women"....

 

 

 

 However, of the many things to avoid on YouTube (juggalos, football fan videos, etc), perhaps none take the cake quite like this gentleman in England. Like many people, he wanted to learn a skill, specifically para-sailing. You're probably thinking that it's an expensive sport: you need to find a body of water, take lessons, rent or buy a good sail?

You'd be wrong, you pussy.

He really paid 300 Pounds for a Parasail off of eBay, and then taught himself how to paraglide...by solely watching YouTube videos.

He said: "I should have joined a club and got lessons but I was trying to teach myself and learn from bits I had seen on YouTube."

Mr Dixon, who used to project manage golf course construction before working entirely voluntarily for the Christian charity, added: "The thing you should never do, which I did, was tether it to a solid object.

"I went shooting up in the air, then banged down on the ground. Then I went up again.


"As I was dropping, I was thinking, 'this is serious'.

 And, serious it was...He broke his fucking back. This goes to show you that while Americans have certainly mastered the art of teh stoopid, we have by no means cornered it.

What are you waiting for? YouTube totally wouldn't lie to you...

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Hasn't Texas fucked America enough?

Coming to a Texas School District near you....

I don't even know what to make of Texas anymore. It's as though the lessons of Kansas' abortive, god-forsaken, politicized and grossly inaccurate textbooks taught them absolutely nothing. Zip. Zilch. Nada. We've all read about many of the crass examples of the new, revisionist history being shoved at children, but there is a whoooole cadre of equally silly shit in there too.

Newsweek has a good little article about the 10 silliest changes to the curriculum. If you ever wanted to be depressed, take a read. However, here's a snippet. For instance, American Imperialism is no longer included in the curriculum; instead, children will told it was "American Expansionism". However, when European Nations' expansion is discussed, it's labeled "Imperialism". And, of course, when the discussion of Russia's expansionism crops up, the Texas brain trusts call it "Communist Aggression".

Filthy commie...

Here's a peek, and be sure to read the whole article (here).

4. Currently, Texan students are expected to learn about "the impact of muckrakers and reform leaders" such as Upton Sinclair and W.E.B. DuBois. McLeroy instead wants students to "contrast the tone" of such people "versus the optimism of immigrants including Jean Pierre Godet as told in Thomas Kinkade's The Spirit of America." Kinkade is the schlocky, sentimental painter popular in malls everywhere.

6. Some of the changes aren't political; they're just random. Thanks to a successful lobbying effort by a Republican from suburban Houston, Texas textbooks will now include a reference to 1920s singer and composer Julius Bledsoe. "How could any of us forget his rendition of 'Old Man River' in Showboat?" Cargill said.

 Fuck you, Texas...Right in the ear

.

Congress out of touch? Absolutely.

You mean this isn't Afghanistan?

We all lament how Congress is out of touch with the concerns of regular Americans. It's as if the American people have some ideas what we want, and how to accomplish it, then Congress will do the exact-damned-opposite. And, in the rare cases when they do get off their asses, the sausages they tend to crank out have ridiculously long implementation times, they sunset or terminate, and -usually- only half ass the job.

 Member of Congress listening to his constituents' concerns....

It's one of the many reasons why I've supported a basic Common Sense test for prospective members of congress:

• How much is a gallon of milk
• What is minimum wage
• How much is a gallon of gas
• What's the difference between ground round and ground chuck
• Name two fast food restaurants with a dollar menu
• What is the name of your community public school (magnets not included)
• Is it cheaper to buy a whole chicken or cornish hens
• What's the best commercial barbecue sauce
• If you don't bake, what kind of bread do you use
• How many miles is it to your public library
• Does your neighborhood have a used book store
• What is the internet

The Candidate's inability to answer  of any of these questions automatically disqualifies him/her from representing "the people"...

 Can't we just form a committee to investigate these troubling issues?

However, we didn't know how pitifully, painfully out of touch these knuckleheads were until the Senate began debating a cap on fees for ATM transactions. As anyone in America with a bank account knows, if you go to get cash from another institution's ATM machine you are charged $2-3 bucks for a $.36 transaction...on top of what your own bank charges you. 

Are you sitting down? Please, I hope so, because this is what  United States' Senators had to say about ATMs. Per the Omaha World Herald

Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., who said he has used ATMs five or fewer times in his life, likened the Harkin proposal to government price controls -- and he opposes it. “I just worry about that kind of entry into the private sector,” said Johanns, a member of the Senate Banking Committee.

“I've never used an ATM, so I don't know what the fees are,” Nelson said, adding that he gets his cash from bank tellers, just not automatic ones. “It's true, I don't know how to use one.

“But I could learn how to do it just like I've . . . I swipe to get my own gas, buy groceries. I know about the holograms.”

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said he hadn't thoroughly reviewed the proposal. Asked outside the Senate chamber whether he uses an ATM card, he said, “I've got a credit card, but I don't use it for cash.”

 Pictured: Senator Ben Nelson's version of grocery stores...

So, there you have it. One Senator doesn't know the difference between a fucking credit card and an ATM/debit card; another one (on the Banking Committee no less) has used an ATM card less than five times in his life; and, yet another thinks bar codes are holograms...and, more damning, is going to vote on ATM fees, when he's never used an ATM card, and has no idea what these fees are. 

It's definitely time to wipe the slate clean folks.

.

Shittiest wizard ever...

V

 

 

 

 

 

Besides this guy....

In Saudi Arabia, a prominent Lebanese television celebrity, who specializes in "love lines" and other crappy advice, is being given the axe (quite literally) for...of all things...fucking sorcery...Per CNN

In a statement released Thursday, the international rights group condemned the verdict and demanded the immediate release of Ali Hussain Sibat, former host of a popular call-in show that aired on Sheherazade, a Beirut based satellite TV channel.
According to his lawyer, Sibat, who is 48 and has five children, would predict the future on his show and give out advice to his audience.
The attorney, May El Khansa, who is in Lebanon, tells CNN her client was arrested by Saudi Arabia's religious police (known as the Mutawa'een) and charged with sorcery while visiting the country in May 2008. Sibat was in Saudi Arabia to perform the Islamic religious pilgrimage known as Umra.

 

Leave Fridays open for beheadings....

All of this obviously brings up some very obvious questions:

• Why, in fuck's sake, do we still consider this morally bankrupt kleptocracy an "ally"
• Why, in the 21st Century, are we hairless apes still mutilating and murdering people over phantom boogeymen?
• Why, if this guy was truly a diviner of the fates, didn't he see this coming? Doesn't that sort of abnegate the entire concept of a seer?

But, really, to answer one, is to answer all...Saudis, bad fucking people.





.

Felix Ortiz: Missing a brain...and taste buds

NY State Assemblyman, Feliz Ortiz

Not pictured, his head up his ass...

This may be the most asinine thing I've ever read in my life. The above gentleman, NY legislator, Feliz Ortiz, has proposed a bill to...ban salt. Via the NY Daily News:

"No owner or operator of a restaurant in this state shall use salt in any form in the preparation of any food," the bill reads....violators would be smacked with a $1,000 fine for every salty dish.

Nom nom nom, motherfucker...this is all kinds of salted.

Seems to make perfect sense to me...the absolute cuisine capital of the United States is New York, noted throughout the world as one of the premier destinations for gourmet goodness, and Ortiz wants to ban salt? In an economic death-spiral, where tourism and dining are one of the few things still robust in the economy.

Like I said sounds perfectly reasonable to me.

Pictured: Ortiz while crafting this proposed bill.

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How can you NOT love America?

Seriously. There is a reason we lag behind damned near every other industrialized nation in science education. When local schools are ran by local boobs with some weird theological axe to grind, and the average kid is more concerned with Halo or Modern Warfare than achievement, this is the kind of shit you get....

 

Once again; I love America...

 via Y!AnswerFail.com  

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Nothing says Viral like Sarah Palin.

In fact, this idiotic bimbo should have her own condition named after her:

Palinitis: (n) extremely contagious mental illness, particularly virulent in, and spread amongst, the same 22% of dead-enders who perpetuated Reagan, W, the 1994 Congress, the birther movement, the "tea partiers" ad infinitum. Symptoms include: vague charisma to those who can neither recognize nor spell charisma, meaningless, incoherent and rambling statements -often mangling the English language; prone to logical fallacies of the most base sort; inability to comprehend the world in terms other than the dichotomous; pronounced superstition and overt displays of piety to a very clearly-defined, if not warped, monotheistic evangelical sect; deep-seated xenophobia with undercurrents of sexism, racism and not-so veiled desire for fascistic police state where the ruling elite are the corporate-military-religious elect.


Did I mention that's she such a dumb bitch she can't even remember her own talking points, to a movement she helped spawn? Behold.

Why won't she just go away? Are we really this fucking stupid and obnoxious as a nation?

.

Haven't we moved beyond inquisitions?

 

Poop is not meant for consumption...even by "witches"

It is the year 2010 by Western reckoning. We have high speed computers that share information with one another. The knowledge rate is doubling every 4 years. Our engineering, medicine, basic sciences are so vastly superior to what they were even 25 years ago. However, we are sorely lagging in common sense, and, in some parts of the world (America included), we are thralls to superstition, hope-peddlers, sycophantic con artists and spiritual hucksters....And, we apparently are still afraid of the dark.

  

The Earth at night....see any boogeymen there?

Such is the case for the Dalit, Nepal's Hindi "untouchables". In the village of Pyutar, less than 30 miles away from Nepal's capital of Kathmandu, these women are still being scourged, tortured, humiliated and even killed. The culprit, as always, is religiosity and superstition...the untouchables are witches!

 

Note well: These are impoverished female humans. Nothing magical about them...not witches.

According to ABC Australia, one such woman, Kalli Biswokarma was just the most recent victim of Nepal's deep-seated superstitions:

Those who beat, punched and kicked Kalli Biswokarma, 47, accused her of casting evil spells on a schoolteacher who had fallen ill in the village of Pyutar, 40 kilometres south of Nepal's capital, Kathmandu.
"I was victimised because I am a poor woman," said Ms Biswokarma, who belongs to the Dalit community - the untouchables on the lowest rung of Nepal's rigid Hindu caste hierarchy.
"Around 35 people came to my home and took me away. They trapped me in a cow shed and forced me to eat faeces and drink urine.
"The next day they cut my skin with blades. I could not bear the torture and I confessed to being a witch just to save my life."

These are pink and purple unicorns...very magical, but still not witches.

 

 

 

As the story continues,"Superstitions are deeply rooted in our society, and the belief in witchcraft is one of the worst forms of this," said Sarwa Dev Prasad Ojha, minister for women and social welfare. "Such traditional practices cannot be wiped away overnight." However, we know what these "witchcraft" accusations are, what lies behind this 3rd World auto de fe. Religiosity of the caste system, violence against women, and plain ole mysogyny.  For the last time people, no superstitions...no spiritual boogeymen...no masters and rigidity made up by other foolish humans.

It's 2010.

 

Now, this is a wytche, but she's probably not magical, and certainly means you no ill. Besides, why on earth would you torture, condemn and execute a pretty woman?

. 

 

Should have listened to me...

Yesterday, when I was ranting about the American Taliban's interference into even the most banal of questions growing humans have about themselves, I noted that rather than banning these materials, we should have open lines of communication about sexuality and adolescence. It's called a teaching moment.

What happens when you don't listen? Worse than you could possibly imagine...

 

The stork will be along shortly.

H/T to Ben for this one via email.

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American Taliban strikes again.

 

Anne Frank, not just an author, a growing girl with natural concerns about her body.

 

Anne Frank, as you are aware, documented the waning moments of her life in her diary. There is much stuff in there that is painful to read: from the loss of her home, her family, uncertainties over the war, the nature of God, and the meaning of life. Also, in the expanded version produced in 1995, Anne was -like most developing adolescents- concerned with the changes her body was going through. There is one passage, in particular, that has the Puritans up in arms:

There are little folds of skin all over the place, you can hardly find it. The little hole underneath is so terribly small that I simply can't imagine how a man can get in there, let alone how a whole baby can get out!

Wow, pretty graphic stuff huh. you'd think that this would be a teaching moment for kids reading this book; an opportunity to discuss adolescence, and growth, and change. But, that would be too even-handed. The better result, according to the Culpepper (Va.) School district is as predictable as it is pathetic. Just ban the whole damned thing. 

 

Make it a double...

This Superintendent, who apparently is unaware of the definition of irony, had this to say 

“I’m happy when parents get involved with these things because it lets me know that they are really looking and have their kids’ best interest (in mind). And that’s where good parenting and good teaching comes in.”

And, that was really my point above. Good parenting, and good teaching, are holistic. Children are not well-served by lying to them, banning materials from them, and -for Chrissakes- denying them one of the fundamental lessons they need to hear, namely that they are not alone...

Hell, we knew this...even back in 1957. 

Dad is simultaneously hilarious and creepy.

And, ladies, don't forget to do your hair and nails and wear your prettiest dress, but -for the love of god- No Square-Dancing!!

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Admiral Akbar knows it's a trap...

And, so should should you, dumbass...

That's a fully operational Death Star....

To be fair, she set him up; but, to be equally fair, he is a real, real big ole' dumbass. 

Gotta love this dumbassery. Nevertheless, with the level of "trust", these two had, this wasn't going anywhere. But, if it did, we know where it would have headed: to the wonderful world of alimony, child support, and Billy drinking, sobbing, quietly in his mom's basement.

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facepalm

Really? Really?

Why are Americans this intentionally fucking stupid?

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That seems about right...

Ever wonder why Americans are dumb?

Damn you iPods and cellphones for displacing books. More folks in law school walked around with these things in hand instead of texts or notes or stacks...

Sigh, myself included.

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