Christmas, Christmas, Christmas.

A poster from the Office for Emergency Management, War Production Board, circa. 1942 – Source.

The Tiny Tyrant is mouthing off again, when isn’t he? This time, bringing up the non-existent war on christmas. Again.

President Trump spoke at the Values Voter Summit today, where he received a rousing round of applause when he bravely declared that under his presidency, people will start saying “Merry Christmas” again.

“We are stopping cold the attacks on Judeo-Christian values,” he said. “As we approach the end of the year—you know, we’re getting near that beautiful Christmas season that people don’t talk about anymore. They don’t use the word Christmas because it’s not politically correct. You go to department stores and they’ll say Happy New Year and they’ll say other things; it’ll be red, they’ll have it painted but they don’t say it. Well, guess what? We’re saying Merry Christmas again.”

There’s no war. There’s no attack. The winter festival of Giftmas has nothing to do with religion, and it’s not something christians are supposed to celebrate anyway.

Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen…. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest … with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold. Jeremiah 10:2-4

And so on. Winter festivals are ubiquitous, have ancient roots, and none of them had anything to do with Christ. Christians attempting to be all outraged over the ‘merry christmas’ nonsense love to wallow in absurdity. If you really want to be painted as the religion of crass commercialism and consumer greed, well, who am I to stop you? As always, christians seem to miss the fact that saying “merry/happy christmas” is not outlawed. You can say it all you want, whenever you want. You simply cannot force other people to say it, which leads christians to scream “persecution!” Unsurprisingly, the Tiny Tyrant seems to think this is something he can mandate, in glittering fake gold, no doubt. Just a thought, but if your so-called values are concerned with not being able to force others to utter a trite phrase, perhaps it’s time to review those values.

All that’s happened is that some people, a bit more enlightened and empathetic than others, had a desire to be inclusive, in the spirit of love and generosity, qualities often assigned to the christmas season. I guess those values aren’t terribly important to those all up in arms over their precious Judeo-Christian values.

Via RWW, where there’s video, if you must torture yourself.

“A thing called the Atlantic Ocean.”

President Trump on hurricane response challenges in Puerto Rico: “This is a thing called the Atlantic Ocean. This is tough stuff.”

Donald Trump blamed the Atlantic Ocean for the federal government’s failed response to Hurricane Maria’s devastation of the American territory of Puerto Rico.

“This is a thing called the Atlantic Ocean. This is tough stuff,” President Trump stated in a Rose Garden press conference with Prime Minister of Spain Mariano Rajoy.

The press conference marked the second time Tuesday that Trump blamed the ocean for the humanitarian crisis. Earlier, Trump stated, “it’s an island, sitting in the middle of an ocean.

No shit, Sherlock. Did someone just tell you that? Most of us know the basics of Puerto Rico, including the fact it’s in the Caribbean Sea, another really tough one, you bet. That does not excuse your ignorant, boneheaded mutterings and complete failure of proper response. Really, who the hell knew oceans are tough stuff? Perhaps the Tiny Tyrant should be tossed off a yacht for a while. After all, he’s the great businessman winner winner winner, so naturally, he could tame the ocean, or make a deal with it. It’s worth experimenting.

You can see some of the responses here.

All The Witch Hunts…

It’s seems that whole clumps of bitter techbros are fleeing to the MGTOW life (that’s Men Going Their Own Way, if you didn’t know), and advocating a life of male separatism. Just a thought, but if you avoid women at all costs, it might not be a surprise that your viewpoints are more suited to a cave than a nice high tech office somewhere. Naturally, this is an evil witch hunt, with the intent to subjugate men (and make them do what? Scrub out the toilet?) and other nefarious things. As always, the irony of men screeching “witch hunt!” escapes them entirely.

One of those who said there had been a change is James Altizer, an engineer at the chip maker Nvidia. Mr. Altizer, 52, said he had realized a few years ago that feminists in Silicon Valley had formed a cabal whose goal was to subjugate men. At the time, he said, he was one of the few with that view.
Continue reading the main story

Now Mr. Altizer said he was less alone. “There’s quite a few people going through that in Silicon Valley right now,” he said. “It’s exploding. It’s mostly young men, younger than me.”

Mr. Altizer said that a gathering he hosts in person and online to discuss men’s issues had grown by a few dozen members this year to more than 200, that the private Facebook pages he frequents on men’s rights were gaining new members and that a radical subculture calling for total male separatism was emerging.

“It’s a witch hunt,” he said in a phone interview, contending men are being fired by “dangerous” human resources departments. “I’m sitting in a soundproof booth right now because I’m afraid someone will hear me. When you’re discussing gender issues, it’s almost religious, the response. It’s almost zealotry.”

Unsurprisingly, Mr. Altizer, when you decide to pontificate about how women should not be in a workplace, and they should be quiet about slaps on the ass, if they don’t want to deal, they should stay home and do what they were ‘made’ for and all that, it will elicit a response. Women have been responding to misogynistic attitudes for thousands of years now. If we, from time to time, snap or yell, well, I’m sure you’ll understand the frustration of having one generation after another having to repeat themselves.

I do love the touch of the soundproof booth, though. For unknown reasons, the NYT has decided to give these sad separatists a full work up, because life is so gosh darn hard for men, especially those of the white variety. I’ll wish them fun in their cones of silence, and continue to pay attention to those men who have happily figured out that yes, women are human beings too.

Full story here.

Glenn Beck’s Revolutionary Design.

Glenn Beck has an excruciatingly long facebook post about his revolutionary redesign of GB everything. By golly, no one has ever thought of this, in all of history, no sir. And no one has ever done this, either, nope! I get the feeling that Glenn doesn’t read much.

In between speeches, conversations in MA this weekend, I am working with the content and product team on last minute adjustments for THE BEGINNING of a new way to deliver news and information on theBlaze.com.

We are soft launching a new front page and a new approach to news Monday.

SOMETHING NEW

I want to get out of the “news and opinion” business and focus on “facts and perspective”.

News is breaking. Let others be first. I want to be driven by facts. I want us to be right and without the hype.

Facts are solid and must be our foundation if we are going to survive as a culture.

Opinion, is something that literally everyone has. Not all opinions are thought out, backed with facts, or even valid. In fact most are not. Some are just flat crazy and are dangerous.

Everybody knows that their opinion needs to be SHOUTED louder or more brutal if they are to be heard over all other opinions. “I am right and you will listen”.

Louder, meaner, crazier.

Perspective, on the other hand, is not something that everyone can offer. It is an invitation to look at an event from a new and unique way. “Have you looked at it from this angle?”

Opinions are shouted. Perspective is ‘offered’

An offer to engage in an intellectually honest and vigorous conversation based on the facts.

WORD GAMES?

Perhaps it is subtle to most but not to me and I hope not to my team. It isn’t just word play. It is a different way to write, speak and behave. To succeed we can’t just say it, we have to live it every second of everyday.

We have been working hard all summer and have had to turn this thing 180 degrees in approach – there is no one modeling this so we all are hoping we get it, but it is going to take us a couple of months. (Thus, the soft launch.).

That’s just a bit of the post. As you can see, Glenn is just boggled that there is absolutely no modeling of this type of approach, not anywhere, ever. This whole perspective business, it’s completely new! A point of view isn’t at an opinion, no, and it’s not possible for anyone to shout their perspective, because it’s so darn different from those angry opinions! I hate to break it to you, Glenn, but everyone has perspective on everything, and it’s generally expressed a zillion times a day by a zillion peoples. I’d offer Glenn a dictionary, but I’m not sure he’d know how to use it.

The full revolutionary process is here.

Oh Yeah, World’s Gonna End. Again.

We have until the 23rd this month, people. We’re all scared to death, right? Right? :yawns: Personally, I’d be thrilled if this bit of the christian mythos were true, bye christians! Unfortunately, the christian god(s) remain a no show.

Joe My God has this completely covered, and if you feel like rotting your brain a bit, here’s a video:

They Aren’t Laughing At Me Now!!1!!

Jim Bakker’s Yuck in a Bucket.

Jim Bakker seems to be under the impression that no one is laughing at him anymore. It won’t take very long to dispel that notion.

“These things, when God does them, God doesn’t fool around!” Bakker bellowed. “Yesterday, I almost lost it. You know, for the last several years, preachers—even in this city—and evangelists have beat the you-know-what out of me and made fun of me because we store food.”

“They preach about it,” he claimed. “Whole revivals just preaching about Jim and Lori, ‘Ha, ha, ha, they’re storing food, that stupid Jim Bakker.’ I just came from the flood zone! Nobody was laughing at me! They all wanted the crazy preacher’s food!”

“When the crisis comes, you people that are ready, your kids that laughed at you won’t laugh any more,” Bakker added. “And I want to tell you something: You ain’t seen nothing yet!”

I had no idea your fellow christians were beating the shit out of you all the time, Jim. You must have a great make-up person. I fully expect they teased you no end, because oh gods, that yuck looks disgusting, and I doubt people who weren’t in a dire situation would want anything to do with it. Considering how many people there are in this country who go hungry every day, seems to me the christian thing to do would be to distribute your yuck in a bucket to those who are just that damn hungry. But we all know what matters to you, don’t we, Jim? Almighty Money Money Money. People are still laughing, Jim. They’ll be laughing more in a moment…

On Thursday, Jim was opining on how he could be shot for wearing a ball cap with a cross on it. (I saw it, it’s in the bucket of yuck video, plain brown with a small white cross on the front). That’s just how gosh darn horrible it has gotten for christians. A fair number of people are running around wearing various moronic Trump hats, draped in confederate flags, and they aren’t getting shot. There are degrees of offensiveness, and while I’m not a fan of christians constantly waving their favourite method of execution around, it’s not terribly offensive. Crosses are fucking everywhere, no one is going to get that bent by a little white cross on a cap. It would actually go quite a long way in protecting you from all the really nasty folk, like Trumpholes, so let’s lose the persecution game, Jim, you suck at it.

Bakker went on to declare that “everything God’s ever spoke to me has come to pass” while fuming that society has made Christians afraid to share their faith. But Bakker refuses to be controlled by that fear, even though he knows he could be killed simply for wearing a Christian hat in public.

“I wear them out in public and I know I could be shot,” he proclaimed. “I know that. There are crazy people out there, but I’m not going to deny the cross. I will not deny the cross! I won’t.”

Who asked you to deny it? Does anyone give a fuck? Because I’m pretty sure no one does, Jim. I don’t care if you dress up as a furry cross, dude. Whatever floats your boat and all that. I would not be remotely surprised if in the near future, Bakker pays someone to shoot him, in a non-fatal manner, of course. Or shows up with a bullet hole in his cap, claiming a miracle.

Via RWW, one, two.

“Evolution is fake science, it is not true.”

Long live evolution, Yehrin Tong.

Dave Daubenmire is frothing again, this time about things he doesn’t understand. Well, to be fair, Dave never seems to understand what he’s talking about.

“Evolution is fake science, it is not true,” Daubenmire said. “Do you know how much government money goes into science research? If you want to get a government grant, you have to make sure that the research that you do is going to support the positions of the government.”

“I would like to see the government do this,” he continued, “why doesn’t the government fund research into whether or not there is really a God? Wouldn’t that be good? Let’s dump a lot of money—rather than dumping all this [money into research] proving there isn’t a God, let’s fund some scientists to do some research to see if there is a God.”

Oh FFS. I am not in any way involved in science of any kind, but even I know there are plenty of organizations funding such moronic “research”, the Templeton Foundation probably being the most recognizable. In research of the past, there were scads of people attempting to prove “god”, “angels”, and “souls”. Didn’t work out. I’d like to take a moment though, to focus on Dave’s wording: “to see if there is a God.” Words matter. Seems Dave doesn’t understand that, either. So, Dave’s apparently not sure there is a god, and which god ‘science’ might uncover, if only the government would give it a chance.

As far as I know, there isn’t any money being unceremoniously dumped into proving there isn’t a god. Money goes to research all the magnificent and wondrous things around us. That’s a lot of stuff, Dave, and biology research is hardly limited to evolutionary studies. Biology would be one of those BIG fields.

A small suggestion, Dave – shut up, get on your knees, and start praying. Hard. I’m sure if you ask nicely enough, and long enough, why that monster of yours might consent to proving it exists, shouldn’t be a problem, right? What if that won’t happen because you don’t have enough faith, Dave? Ooops.

Via RWW.

Guns Aren’t Weapons! No!

Image credit: STILLFX.

NRA TV host Grant Stinchfield is once again attacking the mainstream media — and this time it’s over articles that describe guns and firearms as “weapons.”

Via Media Matters, Stinchfield went on a lengthy rant against an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that talked about fears that campus open carry laws would lead to college students getting drunk and firing their weapons. Stinchfield singled out the use of the word “weapon” as a textbook example of “media bias” intended to make the general public afraid of guns.

“It’s their use of the word weapon that has me bewildered,” he said of the article. “The reporter uses ‘weapons’ in place of firearms or guns so many times, it just becomes bizarre. Here, ‘Fears of gun owners getting drunk and firing their weapons.’ I firmly believe she uses the phrase weapons over firearms in an effort to scare the uninformed.”

Shall we? To the Dictionary!

GUN

noun

  1. a weapon consisting of a metal tube, with mechanical attachments, from which projectiles are shot by the force of an explosive; a piece of ordnance.

  2. any portable firearm, as a rifle, shotgun, or revolver.

  3. a long-barreled cannon having a relatively flat trajectory.

Oh no, look there, right in the very first, primary definition – weapon! Well, maybe there’s a reasonable explanation for this fuckin’ nonsense. Let’s see:

“I don’t like that name at all,” he explained. “To me, the military carries weapons, guns carried for offensive purposes. I carry a firearm, a tool used for self-defense. To me, it is actually a very important distinction. By Georgia, a state rich in firearms history, using the term weapons in an official capacity, it hurts the perception of law-abiding gun ownership.”

Nope. Not a lick of sense to be found there. Gun fondlers always prove they are not in the least fit to be running about with weapons, or to have them stockpiled in their dwellings. Now, firearm is defined thusly:

small arms weapon, as a rifle or pistol, from which a projectile is fired by gunpowder.

Okay, let them have their rifle, bag of powder, and they can keep it dry. At least people would have a chance to run the fuck away, and maybe with their lives. All the weapons which happen to be guns? Gotta go. No more playing superhero or junior g-man or what the fuckever you think you might be. Just gotta shoot? Fine, keep your weapons under lock and key at the local shooting club.

Via Raw Story.

All Lives Splatter.

A Chelan County emergency services worker posted a disturbing joke to the county’s Facebook account, kidding about protesters being rammed three weeks after a Virginia protester was killed by a driver who did so.

The worker managing the county’s emergency services Facebook account posted a crude cartoon with an illustration captioned, “All lives splatter … nobody cares about your protest / Keep your ass out of the Road”

The as-yet unidentified poster included the note: “I don’t wish harm on anyone … but protesters don’t belong in the road!”

Mmm, you don’t wish harm on anyone, but you show a depiction of people being harmed because, “hey, it’s funny, and those libtards deserve it, lol!” I imagine if such was directed at you, emergency services worker, you wouldn’t find it so gosh darn amusing. I sure as fuck don’t. Handing J. Q. Public license to murder is not funny. It’s not funny that open murder is being written into law, because of course, dissent is evil, so you better do all your dissenting someplace legal, like your closet, where you can’t help to effect any change at all.

Chelan County Sheriff Brian Burnett apologized for the post on Monday, saying the non-commissioned employee intended to share it only on a personal account.

“Staff at Chelan County Emergency Management feel terrible that this inappropriate and hurtful post made it onto the Facebook page,” Burnett wrote in the news release. “Changes have already been made in procedure to assure nothing like this will ever occur in the future.”

Oh, and that makes it okay, does it, to change things so this sort of evil shit can’t make it to the official page? Naturally, having employees posting this vile poison on their personal accounts, that’s just dandy! Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think I’d want Chelan County emergency services anywhere near me. Your asshole employees would be just as prone to killing me as helping me, right, Sheriff Burnett?

In recent months, law enforcement workers around the country have been called out for posting the meme and similar statements.

A Slate examination of the trend in August – “Run Them Down”: Driving into crowds of protesters was a right-wing fantasy long before the violence in Charlottesville – highlighted three police officers and one firefighter who were caught urging vehicle attacks on protesters. One Oregon cop was fired for suggesting that drivers “push the right” pedal when facing Black Lives Matter protesters.

Pigs will be pigs, won’t they? This is what happens when cops shops refuse to hire intelligent people. This is what happens when cops shops happily hire white supremacists and assorted dumbshit bigots. Then gives them a license to be homicidal prickshits.

Via Seattle PI.

Sunday Facepalm.

Oh Kevin Swanson, the religious extremist’s extremist. He’s at it again, pouring down Jehovah’s wrath in the form of hurricanes, natch. Mr. Swanson has a solution to Hurricane Irma eating Florida, though!

Kevin Swanson declared on his radio program today that the Supreme Court should immediately reverse its Roe v. Wade and Obergefell decisions before God unleashes his judgment on America in the form of Hurricane Irma.

Swanson, who just last week said that Hurricane Harvey was the judgment of God on Houston, said that these “God-ordained disasters” are a warning to this nation to repent for its myriad of sins.

Now, Swanson said this on the 7th this month, and I have to say, it would be a fun experiment, if you could get the Supreme Court to say, okay, the law is suspended until such and such a date, and see if it would magically wither Irma. We all know it wouldn’t have the slightest effect, and the religious reich would claim that Jehovah got all sniffy ’cause it wasn’t a permanent reversal. Of course, it doesn’t take much to make Jehovah all sniffy and pissy.

“God is in control of what is going on,” he said, “and whether or not Irma is going to do $200 billion worth of damage in Miami … is all in the hands of God. Those winds are going to blow where they are going to blow, but they’re going to blow in the direction that God ordains them to go. Friends, God is in complete control and utter control of what is going on with these hurricanes.”

Well, the wind is gonna go where it goes, but Jehovah is in control, you betcha! So, that’s why Mar-a-Lago and other overblown McMansions of conservative assholes are right in the path, and that’s why we’re all getting taxed for the federal coverage of Pres. Pinchpork’s palace. So, one could go with the assumption that Jehovah isn’t upset about gay people, but conservative assholes. Unfortunately, Jehovah’s aim has always been notoriously bad, so a lot of good people are gonna get screwed over here, but Jehovah has never been one to care about ‘collateral damage’.

“The wrath of God against this nation is intense,” Swanson continued. “I wish that American leaders would sit up and pay attention … The Supreme Court of the United States needs to reverse Roe v. Wade and Obergefell now, this afternoon, before Irma does her damage. It would be a good thing if the Supreme Court of the United States understood that God is in control of these things and God is a personality and God is offended by the sins of this nation.”

Oooh, Jehovah is a personality. A psychopathic one. Yeah, I’m not shaking in my boots over your non-existent psychopath, Mr. Swanson. Climate change, on the other hand, there’s reason to be scared shitless.

Via RWW.

Fetuses for Ba’al!

The stele of Baal with Thunderbolt found in the ruins of Ugarit.

Mark “can’t be too lurid” Taylor, self-styled prophet, is at it again. How does this man manage to do anything like eat? He never shuts up. This time, it’s Baal (Ba’al). Well, Ba’al and people who believe in bodily autonomy and reproductive choice. On to the lurid idiocy!

After repeating his prophecy that God is going to supernaturally remove five Supreme Court justices so that President Trump can replace them and overturn Roe v. Wade, Taylor warned viewers not to be fooled by those who claim they support a woman’s right to choose.

“People have to realize the strongman over America is Baal,” he said. “Baal is a very violent entity, he is the second in Satan’s triune, he is the second in command, he is the counterfeit Christ. It feeds off the blood of the innocent, which is the aborted babies. This is why Baal is the strongman, because the aborted babies are the food source that is empowering Baal.”

Sigh. What a fucktonne of nonsense. In the first place, Ba’al is a placeholder, much like god, in this case, meaning Lord. The actual god was Hadad, a storm and weather god. Things changed over the years, and Ba’al became the name rather than the epithet. Ba’al is mentioned in the bible, more than once, as a rival god to young Yahweh/Jehovah. Ba’al’s worshipers got right up Jehovah’s nose, and he called for them all to be slaughtered, more than once. Ba’al never had anything to do with Lucifer, or his triune, whatever that might comprise. Lucifer wasn’t the convenient fall guy of Ba’al. Different gods, Mr. Taylor. Try reading something, like, oh, the bible. Now, Ba’al is a fertility god, with a particular enmity toward snakes, so I think if he was going to feast on blood, it would most likely be snakes or the local river god. Ba’al was also the patron of sailors and sea going merchants. Not such a bad god. He certainly didn’t hate his worshipers and everyone else like Jehovah. Oh yes, Ba’al’s conflict with Yammu is now generally regarded as the prototype of the vision recorded in the 7th chapter of the Biblical Book of Daniel. Yet another god the bible writers happily thieved.

I’m pretty sure that medical waste incinerators are not made in the form of Ba’al, with all medical personnel and people who are pro-choice suddenly Ba’al worshipers.

Taylor said that “if you’re listening to these politicians and they’re telling you, ‘Oh, we’re pro-choice, it’s all about a woman’s right to choose, it’s all about women’s health,’ you’re being duped, you’re being lied to.”

“They don’t care anything about you,” he said. “All they want from you, as a woman, is to be a breeder for that food source, for you to abort that baby to feed their god called Baal. They don’t care anything about your right to choose, they don’t care anything about your health, all they want is that baby aborted as a sacrifice because every time you abort a baby, it’s a sacrifice to their god called Baal.”

Oh. Apparently, Mr. Taylor does think we’re all worshipers of Ba’al. Well, there are worse gods, to be sure. Topping the list would be that psychopathic monster Mr. Taylor worships, who has a most serious problem with women, along with his followers. Terminating a pregnancy is about not breeding, Mr. Taylor. You want women to be forced to breed and birth, with nary a thought for any woman’s health or welfare, and we all know you couldn’t give a shit about the children, either.

Via RWW.

Trumpholes, Ever Stupid. And Lazy.


Young bodies may more easily rebound from long bouts of sitting, with just an hour at the gym. But research suggests physical recovery from binge TV-watching gets harder in our 50s and as we get older. Lily Padula for NPR.

So, NPR had a health article up about prolonged sitting, and how it affects health, particularly mobility in those of us who are older. Nothing new about that, but I suppose people need to be reminded to get off the couch now and then. The title of the article is ‘Get Off The Couch Baby Boomers, Or You May Not Be Able To Later.’ This was turned into a Twitter campaign, to urge older folks to exercise more. Rather than taking the exhaustive and ever so difficult route of clicking a link and reading the article, ever moronic and lazy Trumpholes assumed this was political, and Democratic a/o liberal in origin, and tweeted their outrage all over the place.

So now the democrat party slogan is “Get Off The Couch Baby Boomers” Typical, demand others who worked, built, suffered do more for them

You can see much more of the idiocy of those who assume, rather than know what they are talking about at Raw Story.