Clinton Derangement Syndrome

Well, the Obamabots are frothing at the mouth again after this video (post failed follow the link): HERE

She talked about her husband running until June. If there was no other suble [sic] message', she would've then said 'and Bobby Kennedy also ran until June'. No, she instead brought up ASSASINATION - completely out of the blue!

Apparently they seem to believe that Clinton is calling for his assassination... Another clear case of Clinton Derangement Syndrome which has now infected close to 3/4ths of the electorate.

The fact is, like it or not, Bobby Kennedy did run until June. Yes, his assassination, after his victory in the June 4th California Primary, did end his campaign, but the point is that he was still campaigning as he hadn't won the Democratic Party nomination.

In fact, the California primary was for the #2 position between Bobby Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy (Humphrey had sewn up a large majority of the "non-elected political machine delegates" (as only 13 States awarded delegates by election back then)). Prior to California, the race was slightly in favor of Eugene McCarthy and still in doubt after and we had more of June to contest. And while Bobby Kennedy managed to get a small lead, the race was for #2 was to continue through the primaries and into the convention. At the time of Kennedy's assassination, the delegate race looked like this:

Hubert Humphrey 561
Robert F. Kennedy 393
Eugene McCarthy 258

Getting us to the next point: People weren't getting hysterical and started beating the drum for McCarthy & Kennedy to withdraw in June and give it to Humphrey.

People understood, back then at least, that candidates have the right to run, no matter how much you don't want them to run. And no matter how many times the Obamabots try to exploit the Clinton Derangement Syndrome, it doesn't make their frothing at the mouth correct, or palatable. Albeit, does put a sardonic light on their "New Hope Change Platitudes Galore" (or whatever) rhetoric.

The Kingston Trio: They Call The Wind Maria

I love this song. Enjoy.

Volga Boatmen - Traditional Russian Bargeman Chantey

Boris Christoff - Song of the Volga Boatmen

Эй, ухнем!
Эй, ухнем!
Ещё разик, ещё да раз!

Разовьём мы берёзу,
Разовьём мы кудряву!
Ай-да, да ай-да, ай-да, да ай-да,
Разовьём мы кудряву.

Мы по бережку идём,
Песню солнышку поём.
Ай-да, да ай-да, ай-да, да ай-да,
Песню солнышку поём.

Эй, эй, тяни канат сильней!
Песню солнышку поём.
Эй, ухнем!
Эй, ухнем!
Ещё разик, ещё да раз!

Эх ты, Волга, мать-река,
Широка и глубока,
Ай-да, да ай-да, ай-да, да ай-да,
Волга, Волга, мать-река,

Эй, ухнем!
Эй, ухнем!
Ещё разик, ещё да раз!
Эй, ухнем!
Эй, ухнем!

Ultra Bra - Tyttöjen välisestä ystävyydestä

Tyttöjen välisestä ystävyydestä (About Friendship Between Girls)

I'm not to sure you'll see this on MTV.

Bush gets something right...

..., world ends tomorrow. Film at 11.:

Bush signs bar to genetic discrimination

U.S. President George Bush Wednesday signed a bill barring employers and insurers from discriminating against people genetically predisposed to disease.

Surrounded by congressional members, Bush signed the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, "a piece of legislation which prohibits health insurers and employers from discriminating on the basis of genetic information," he said.

"In other words, it protects our citizens from having genetic information misused," he said, "and this bill does so without undermining the basic premise of the insurance industry."

Under provisions of the law, employers are barred from basing personnel decisions on genetic risk or predisposition to disease, and health insurers aren't permitted to deny coverage based on genetic information.

Bush thanked members of Congress for working on the legislation, singling out Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who left a Boston hospital where he was hospitalized after having seizures during the weekend. Doctors later determined Kennedy has brain cancer.

"All of us are so pleased that Senator Kennedy has gone home," Bush said, "and our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family."

Ah well, even a broken clock can be right twice a day.

Green damage bill '$3.3 trillion'

A recent estimate of the economic costs of environmental destruction:

BERLIN: The destruction of flora and fauna is costing the world E2 trillion ($3.3 trillion) a year, or 6 per cent of its overall gross national product, according to a report published by German news weekly Der Spiegel.

The European Union and German environment ministry-led research, entitled The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity, will be presented today at the ninth conference of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in Bonn.

Der Spiegel will present extracts from the paper, with the study's lead author, Pavan Sukhdev, a senior figure with Deutsche Bank in India, writing: "The world's poor bear the brunt of the cost."

Der Spiegel says German Chancellor Angela Merkel will announce a sharp increase in her country's funding to combat deforestation in line with Norway, which ploughs $US500 million ($530 million) a year into forest retention.

Deforestation - a huge factor in species loss and global carbon emissions contributing to climate change - is a central theme of this year's conference in Bonn, formerly the capital of West Germany.

Good to know. I guess. Or perhaps just depressing.

Bad Questions to Ask a Transsexual: The Director's Cut

Good to know.

Ex-Gay Ministries - Catholic Style

I thought the completely discredited 'ex-gay' ministry was limited to the worst of the conservative evangelicals. I guess I was wrong:

Catholic Church offers therapy to 'cure' gays in Poland

The sixth-ever International Day Against Homophobia is held May 17, but many homosexuals in Poland will not celebrate it.

The Catholic Church has created rehabilitation centers in Poland to rehabilitate gay people and "get them back on the right path."

The Odwaga Center uses therapy, prayer and chastity to teach its patients to resist their homosexual impulses. Men at the center are taught to play football and women are taught to cook.

I'm just stunned at the silliness of this program. With tens of thousands of man-hours in psychological research into human sexuality confirming the "nature" hypothesis as best explanation, with over 1,500 documented instances of homosexuality across the animal kingdom, never mind humans, we still get this "it's a choice" crap.

If it were a choice, do you not think that millions of gays who would love to have the ability to "flip a switch" and have a "regular heterosexual life" in order to escape the stigma and discrimination of homosexuality? It seems more than ludicrous for a Church based on a highly-dubious collection of stories, frequently altered to fit their agenda, to try to "cure" gays by prayer.

It's nature. It will always be nature. And no matter how many centuries you try to pray the gay away, it isn't going away. And, if praying could, for what do you think Ted Haggard would have prayed? Cheap meth and a hustler?

Because, as we know, atheists...

have no morals without the Bible to provide guidance...

BRYAN, Texas — A minister from a Dallas-area Baptist megachurch was caught in an Internet sex sting and charged with online solicitation of a minor, police said Friday.

Undercover officers posing as a 13-year-old girl communicated with Joe Barron, 52, of Plano for about two weeks. The online conversations were sexual in nature, police said.

On May 6, Barron suggested meeting the girl in person. He eventually made the nearly 200-mile drive to Bryan on Thursday, when he was arrested. Police said they found a web-cam and condoms in his car.

Barron remained in Brazos County Jail on Friday on $7,000 bail. Police did not know if he had an attorney.

Barron is one of 40 ministers at Prestonwood Baptist Church, one of the largest churches in the country with 26,000 members. He ministers to married adults.

Mike Buster, executive pastor, said in a statement that the church had no record or knowledge of previous improprieties or saw any inappropriate behavior in the 18 months Barron was on the church staff.

Buster said church officials are fully cooperating with police.

"We are disturbed and saddened by the reports we have heard and we are praying for the Barron family," he said.

It seems to go without saying that if you get a lurid, perverted sex story in the news, there's going to be a Republican lawmaker or some sort of Priest involved.

We've got the Christian Coalition's Klan-Loving, Gay-Bashing favorite-son, David Vitter, in Louisiana. You know, the man who repeatedly called for Clinton to resign and whose wife, Wendy, was critical of that evil ol' Hillary Clinton for not dumping Bill.

Bob Allen, the Republican Representative was caught trolling for sex in a men's room, about the same time Mr. "I'm Not Gay" Larry Craig was making more headlines. These, of course, happening on the heels of the page-buggering Foley's resignation. And, of course, who could forget Jerry Falwell's right-hand man, found dead in fetish gear and with a dildo up his butt. Other "Family Values" Republicans in the news the past couple of years:

Bruce Barclay (REPUBLICAN)- accused of using hidden cameras to secretly tape hundreds of sexual encounters, many with MALE “ESCORTS”

Matthew Joseph Elliott (REPUBLICAN)- convicted of Sexual Exploitation of a Child

Robert McKee (REPUBLICAN)- charged with Burglary After Alleged Unauthorized Videotaping

John David Roy Atchison (REPUBLICAN)- arrested for soliciting sex from a 5-YEAR-OLD GIRL

John Bryan (REPUBLICAN)- allegations that he had molested three girls, two were 12 – 15

John R. Curtin (REPUBLICAN)- convicted of molesting an UNDERAGE TEENAGE BOY

Richard Curtis (REPUBLICAN)- resigned from the House after reports of his sexual encounter with a male escort became public

Donald Fleischman (REPUBLICAN)- charged with two counts of child enticement, two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a child and a single charge of EXPOSING HIMSELF TO A CHILD

Larry Dale Floyd (REPUBLICAN)- arrested for allegedly crossing state lines to have sex with an 8-year old child and seven related offenses

Ted Klaudt (REPUBLICAN)- found guilty of four counts of second-degree rape of two teenage foster daughters

Ronald C. Kline (REPUBLICAN)- pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography. In 2002, charged with child molestation and under house arrest on federal charges of possessing child pornography

Joseph M. McDade (REPUBLICAN)- was issued a summons on a charge of exposure of sexual organs, also accused of exposing his private parts to two women at a beach resort

Patrick Lee McGuire (REPUBLICAN)- surrendered to police after allegedly molesting girls between the ages of 8 and 13

Jon Matthews (REPUBLICAN)- talk show host in Houston, was indicted for indecency with a child, including exposing his genitals to a girl under the age of 17

Joseph Monteleone Jr.(REPUBLICAN)- city councilman, was found guilty of fondling underage girls and asking them, to have sex with him

Armando Tebano (REPUBLICAN)- pleaded guilty to fondling a 14-year-old girl

Maybe Bush needs to put-out...

... because it's obviously going to take more than hand holding...

Bush fails to win Saudi help on gas prices

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - President Bush failed to win the help he sought from Saudi Arabia to relieve skyrocketing American gas prices Friday, a setback for the former Texas oilman who took office predicting he would jawbone oil-producing nations to help the U.S.

Bush got a red-carpet welcome to this desert kingdom, home to the world's largest oil reserves, and promised to ask King Abdullah to increase production to reduce pressure on prices, which soared past $127 for the first time Friday. But Saudi officials said they already were meeting the needs of their customers worldwide and there was no need to pump more.

Their answer recalled Bush's trip to Saudi Arabia in January when he urged an increase in production but was rebuffed.

Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi said the kingdom decided on May 10 to increase production by 300,000 barrels a day to help meet U.S. needs after Venezuela and Mexico cut back deliveries.

I'm thinking knee-pads at a minimum. Maybe KY-Jelly...

The rest is here.

Fifteen minutes of fame...

...or how being a complete tool can end up making you a worldwide "celebrity." This from the Australian HearaldSun:

AN American mother has been indicted over a MySpace hoax that ended with a 13-year-old girl committing suicide after being spurned by a fictitious boy.

Prosecutors say Lori Drew, 49, and others created a fake MySpace persona of a 16-year-old boy to woo neighbour Megan Meier for weeks.

She then abruptly ended the relationship and told Megan the world would be better off without her.

Megan's October 2006 suicide by hanging, just hours after she read those final messages, made worldwide headlines and prompted calls for social networking sites to crack down on cyber bullying.

Sucks to be her. Not that I feel sorry for her. Actions have consequences, even if you didn't intend them or were too stupid to foresee them. And when the consequences come from being vindictive, childish and reckless... I really don't have the empathy to spare.

Lets Test Them: Evolution vs. Creationism

Worth watching. :)

Separate but Equal, and why I'm likely Voting Green...

Before yesterday's monumental ruling of actual marriage equality for Gays & Lesbians, instead of the wimpy 'separate but equal' back-of-the-bus crap being offered, this was Obama's position:

Barack Obama and Gay Marriage/ Civil Unions: Although Barack Obama has said that he supports civil unions, he is against gay marriage. In an interview with the Chicago Daily Tribune, Obama said, "I'm a Christian. And so, although I try not to have my religious beliefs dominate or determine my political views on this issue, I do believe that tradition, and my religious beliefs say that marriage is something sanctified between a man and a woman."

Barack Obama did vote against a Federal Marriage Amendment and opposed the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996.

He said he would support civil unions between gay and lesbian couples, as well as letting individual states determine if marriage between gay and lesbian couples should be legalized.

"Giving them a set of basic rights would allow them to experience their relationship and live their lives in a way that doesn't cause discrimination," Obama said. "I think it is the right balance to strike in this society."
Sources: Chicago Daily Tribune, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

Now, having this incredible, first-ever 'actual equality' ruling that puts Massachusetts and its 'separate but equal' civil unions statutes a tier underneath, what is Obama's official statement:

Barack Obama has always believed that same-sex couples should enjoy equal rights under the law, and he will continue to fight for civil unions as President. He respects the decision of the California Supreme Court, and continues to believe that states should make their own decisions when it comes to the issue of marriage.

My basic reaction is: Fuck you and the horse you rode in on.

So much for all the Civil Rights work my grandmother did as a Columnist for the SF Chronicle. So much for the suffering others related to my grandmother were subject to because she did the right thing. So much for dead civil rights workers. Or Brown vs The Board of Education... Or all the people who suffered grief, harm, loss and deprivation to over-come a great social injustice.

Separate but equal...

And pandering to "State's Rights" like the Ku Klux Klan, the Separatists, the Wing-Nuts.... Jesus fucking Christ, he's hiding behind SEGRAGATIONIST PROPAGANDA after pretty much getting the nomination sewn up!

Will I vote for Obama despite his position of GLBT? I'm definitely not GLBT, so, for me, it's not a personal issue and I could, if I were less me, probably see past it.

But I am me, all me, and I don't see I need to vote for Obama. While I believe I owe the Country my vote, I do not owe the Democrats. With the huge Democratic majority likely in the House and Senate, I definitely don't owe my vote to Obama.

And I'm definitely smart enough to get past the childish guilt trip the Obama fans keep dropping on me when I express the position.

And, now that I've tracked down the Clinton response:

"Hillary Clinton believes that gay and lesbian couples in committed relationships should have the same rights and responsibilities as all Americans and believes that civil unions are the best way to achieve this goal. As President, Hillary Clinton will work to ensure that same sex couples have access to these rights and responsibilities at the federal level. She has said and continues to believe that the issue of marriage should be left to the states."

Fuck her, too. You stand for all Americans or you stand for none.

Take the word "likely" out of the title. A plague on all their houses. I'm too old to put up with this pandering to homophobes and religious zealots.