What’s Up? 07/26/10

Tags

chimps, Fox Noise, freedom of religion, GOP, human error, Jane Goodall, Muslims, Newt Gingrich, prisons, religious wacko right, Sarah Palin, Shirley Sherrod, Ted Haggart

Mercy mercy me. It’s been a crazy weekend hasn’t it? I mean did ya hear? Fox Propaganda folks and Rush Limpbaugh are suggesting that the White House planted the tape on Shirley Sherrod in the hopes that one of it’s crazy right wing thugs would snap up the bait, and make them all look bad. Yep. I swear.

And Newt and Laura are claiming that they only went with the story because they “trusted” the White House had seen the entire tape. Just another instance they now claim of just how incompetent Obama and his minions really are.

I just love people who can turn on a dime, and actually speak with incredulity such utter poppycock! Oh I love that word. I think I shall poppycock through this post. Word of the day!

Speaking of poppycockers. That would be Ted Haggart. Speaking of himself in the third person, he declares, “Ted Haggart needs to leading a church.” Moreover, he has uttered the words ” I have over-repented.” Now that may be a first. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a human being say that. The cured gay dude wants to put all his “massage gone awry” behind him. And you didn’t think there was humor in Christianity? Oh yes there is! What is apparent here is that Ted needs and more importantly, wants money, and doesn’t want to change occupations, since being a blow-heart evangelist is so lucrative.

Remember when we linked you to the wacko right’s utter shock that Obama used the phrase freedom of worship rather freedom of religion. And that the totals were 9-124 as to the usage, and that Bush used the same two phrases 33-124 times? Well, never one to do their homework, the right wing Faith and Freedom Institute has sent a letter to our Prez, telling him to stop that dangerous talk immediately or they will personally secure his impeachment for this and sundry other violations of the Constitution (one of them being of course his birth certificate non-production). I believe the Prez has gone to his bunker to protect himself from this overwhelming present danger.

Sadly the book Being Wrong, by Kathryn Shultz, will not be read by the above morons, since looking in the mirror is dangerous to vampires. A fine review of  this interesting book can be had at this link. We humans don’t like being wrong, and we sure don’t like admitting we are wrong. But of course, that’s part of growing up–taking responsibility and being an adult. This looks like a most interesting read.

I am alarmed at the utterly ugly rhetoric around the proposed Muslim center being  built two blocks from “ground zero.” I simply am in agony over the hatred being voiced, and the fact that people like Newt and Sarah give voice to this kind of “otherness.”  I’m not surprised, since the GOP in general seems to have adopted in all it’s vileness every form of them against us they can come up with. Do they realize that in the end, all the non-whites add up to more than the whites? The New Yorker has the anti Mosque video and commentary by Amy Davidson.

In a prelude to her upcoming book, Jane Goodall reminiscences on her 50 years in Gombe, in an article in the WSJ. No doubt you have, as have I, watched many a National Geographic on her study of chimps over the years. We have learned much about them, and of course about ourselves in the process. A nice read.

Killing the Buddha has a really amazing interview with Caleb Smith, author of The Prison and the American Imagination. For anyone interested in the state of our penal system and how it came to be as it is, this looks like the book. Read the interview and see if this appeals to you. As an aside, a lifetime ago, I wrote a very long (100 pager) paper on the death penalty in Michigan. Solitary confinement was considered more tortuous than execution. It turned out to be true, and eventually prison authorities pleaded with the legislature to allow the lifers time in the yard. Solitary was driving them quite mad. Smith addresses the history of solitary confinement.

And from Brilliant at Breakfast, we have a delicious look at the cream of the GOP contendahs or hopefuls in some respect. All the nasties are here including the corpse of Ronnie, who may have the best chance of all. Funny stuff.

Okay, enough already. Enjoy your day!