The Sky Is Falling

Or so certain people would have you believe, given yesterday's Supreme Court ruling against educational districts using race as a determinant in school assignments.

As far as I'm concerned, this decision was a slam-dunk. Students were being told they could not attend their choice of schools because of their race. That was the reason that Brown v. BOE was ever filed in the first place.

But, as always, the moonbats came crawling out of the woodwork to explain why the decision was wrong, wrong, evil, racist, halitosis, wrong.

Especially amusing to me was this quote:

"The 5-4 decision reflects the narrowest of court majorities, but it has the potential to touch the lives of many by making it unlawful for public school officials and their communities to consider race among other factors in taking needed steps to address the resegregation of a critically important institution that is more segregated today than it was 30 years ago."

— Cassandra Butts, senior vice president for domestic policy at the Center for American Progress.

Ummm.....OK....so you're mad at the Court for striking down desegregation plans that have resulted in schools being more segregated than they were when you instituted them in the first place.

And along the same inane lines:

Experts say segregation contributes to the educational achievement gap among poor black and Latino students, because it typically means they are stuck in schools with the highest teacher turnover and the lowest rates of parental involvement.

Which, of course, will be solved by importing some white and Asian kids.

No need to do crazy things like....you know....get the parents involved, which would probably also help with, like, discipline, and might then lead to, maybe, a better classroom environment, which could, uh, make more teachers stay, and kinda sorta, lead to better education.

Here I've thought all these years that we could achieve better schools through such dry and esoteric things as testing and enforcing strong academic standards, when it's just like a seasoning rub for steak; all you need is the correct mix of salt and pepper.

Small Minds Corrupting Smaller Ones

Remember Hamas's psychotic Mickey Mouse lookalike who we reported on previously?

If you thought there was no lower level to which they could sink.....there is.

A Mickey Mouse lookalike who preached Islamic domination on a Hamas-affiliated children's television program was beaten to death in the show's final episode Friday.

In the final skit, "Farfour" was killed by an actor posing as an Israeli official trying to buy Farfour's land. At one point, the mouse called the Israeli a "terrorist."

"Farfour was martyred while defending his land," said Sara, the teen presenter. He was killed "by the killers of children," she added.

.

A Hypocritical UN Bureaucrat? Surely You Jest.....

Witness the height of condescension and self-righteousness over the (justified) collapse of the Senate's amnesty bill.

President Bush's plan to legalize as many as 12 million unlawful immigrants from around the world while fortifying the border collapsed in the U.S. Senate on Thursday.

"This is very bad news for Mexican migrants in the U.S.," said Jorge Bustamante, special rapporteur to the U.N. human rights commission for migrants. "It means the continuation and probably a worsening of the migrants' vulnerable conditions."

Yes, because we all know how wonderfully Bustamante's home country of Mexico treats their illegal immigrants.

Mexico had an extremely strict immigration law for both legal and illegal immigrants until recent changes brought on by a new bill. Certain legal rights are waived in the case of foreigners, such as the right to a deportation hearing or other legal motions. In cases of flagrant delicts, such as a person declaring they entered the country illegally, any citizen may make a citizen's arrest on the offender and his accomplices, turning them over without delay to the nearest authorities. Only Mexicans by birth or naturalization and Mexican companies have the right to acquire ownership of lands, waters, and their appartenances, or to obtain concessions for the exploitation of mines or of waters. Mexicans have priority over foreigners under equality of circumstances for all classes of concessions and for all employment, positions, or commissions of the Government in which the status of citizenship is not indispensable. Foreigners can serve in the military only during wartime.

Hobson's Choice

I am of two minds on The Malcontent's poll question for today.

Should I just give up on my ban of North Dallas Thirty?

• Yes
• No

On the one side, yes, I'd love to be able to comment there again. Despite our battles -- or perhaps because of them -- I have enormous respect for Matt and Robbie's insight, savvy, and video capture capabilities.

But on the other hand, "give up" makes it sound like I've just worn them down and bullied my way back onto their blog, as if Matt thinks it's a waste of time to continue blocking and deleting my comments.

I don't want to play that way.

If Matt and Robbie think I can make a reasonable and positive contribution to their community, then that would be grounds for unbanning.

But if they think I won't, but they're tired of dealing with it, then they shouldn't unban me.

Either way, I will continue to link them when needed, praise them copiously when warranted, and criticize when required.

Although I will say that the bar has been significantly raised as to what level actions will "require" criticism.

39.2 Million Suckers

Harsh, yes.

But when one considers this:

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the first female candidate with a serious shot at the presidency, drew the night's largest cheer when she suggested there was a hint of racism in the way AIDS is addressed in this country.

"Let me just put this in perspective: If HIV-AIDS were the leading cause of death of white women between the ages of 25 and 34 there would be an outraged, outcry in this country," said the New York senator.

but remembers this:

It is with sadness that I learn about your efforts to block the bipartisan Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Modernization Act of 2006 (S. 2823) and gut the funding formula reforms supported by 19 of the 20 Senators on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. I must share with you the bewilderment of African Americans throughout the country who cannot understand why you are taking this stand against opening the door to more equitable funding that will chiefly benefit people of color who currently have nowhere to turn but the federal government.

African Americans have overtaken every other ethnic group to become the face of HIV/AIDS in America, and we all have a duty to ensure that every black American living with HIV/AIDS has equal access to the care and support services needed from the federal Ryan White CARE Act to stay healthy and stay alive.

As with most health care problems, people of color are now disproportionately impacted by HIV/AIDS, much more so than at any time since AIDS emerged in 1981. But the current Ryan White CARE Act funding formulas have never been updated to fit the changing epidemic, creating growing inequities that have thrown many patients onto waiting lists for life-saving drugs because money has run out in their states, particularly in the South.

Women of color in the South are 26 times more likely to be HIV- positive than white females. But a third of all Ryan White CARE Act funding is set aside for large metropolitan areas, and most of the states in the South will never qualify. African Americans make up 19 percent of the South's population, but accounted for over 60 percent of all new AIDS cases in 2003. Eight southern states have to treat the same number of people with HIV/AIDS as other states which get more funding under the outdated formulas.

The growing inequities are obvious and unacceptable. Addressing these gaps requires bipartisan compromise. I urge you to join that effort and not to obstruct it.

Your effort to wipe out the adjustment to the hold-harmless provision in Title I, and leave it at 95 percent for three years, will gut the funding that the reforms were trying to secure. It will render the Title I reforms meaningless and sentence African Americans in the rural South to three more years of waiting lists for AIDS drugs and vital services. People in the rural south don't have the tax base or the state resources to survive without federal help in a crisis. Efforts to gut the federal funding in the committee's mark of S. 2823 shows a disturbing misunderstanding for the health care interests of the whole nation and the whole African American community. The CARE Act is a national program, and it's imperative that we fight to make sure it serves all Americans fairly in 2006.

....harsh words seem more than warranted.

In short, Hillary Clinton is badmouthing and calling racist her own refusal to direct HIV funding to the black communities who need it the most -- because her predominantly-white gay Democrat donors in New York City didn't want to go without Gray Goose at their galas.

But does the black community call her on it? No.

What this makes beyond obvious is that Hillary Clinton is a hypocritical liar who will self-righteously condemn in one venue what she practices and pushes in another.

But really, who is more at fault here, the one who lies to and backstabs the minority group.........or the minority group that says nothing and lets them get away with it?

Pride Schedules of the Bourgeois and Overcommitted

• 6 AM: Wake up, throw on grungies, walk dog
• 6:30 AM: Clean Safeway out of bags of ice and preordered sandwiches
• 7 AM: Arrive at home of volunteer leader at agreed-upon previous time, find volunteer leader barely awake and begging for revival formula infusion from Starbucks
• 8 AM: Set up booth at Civic Center, dodging and watching dance/smelling people who are still lit/stoned/whatever from previous night and who have been so busy entertaining themselves, they forgot to bathe
• 9 AM: Find parking spot reasonably close to teardown entrance (five blocks), run down to Muni (six blocks), run uphill from Muni to where car is parked (six blocks), step on it.
• 10 AM: Freshly showered, shaved, reclothed in aforementioned kilt and hat, making mad dash down hill to BART station
• 10:45 AM: Arrive at float fifteen minutes after start of parade, following SRO (Sardine Room Only) BART ride
• 12:45 PM: Float begins to move (yes, two hours later.)
• 1:15 PM: Finish mad dash down Market from Beale to Eighth Street (a distance of 1.35 miles) while pushing handcart loaded with beads, making air-to-air refueling stops with people handing down buckets of beads from float, and dodging Muni tracks, Muni grates, and assorted drunks not associated with Muni.
• 1:30 PM: Fight way through crowd to booth
• 4 PM: Leave booth to run friends back to house to get luggage
• 5:30 PM: Return to booth. (To put that in perspective, approximately 15 minutes of that gap was actually devoted to time in house and eating. Such is the beauty of Muni scheduling and the fact that a half-million people basically had no other way to get around San Francisco yesterday -- the latter seeming to have zero effect on the former).
• 5:31 PM: Can of sugar-free Red Bull consumed. Later determined to be 7th of 9 for the day.
• 6 PM: Tear down booth
• 7:15 PM: Load up booth -- after hour-plus spent guarding booth contents in collapsing festival that looks like a live performance of West Side Story without music, dancing, or Leonard Bernstein, but with far more intoxication, screaming, and threatening gestures than the original
• 7:45 PM: Finish unloading booth into storage
• 9 PM: Arrive home, thanks to kind friend who notices that bus drivers traversing the Castro are all on simultaneous 45-minute coffee breaks
• 9:15 PM: Walk four blocks down- and uphill to get takeout
• 10 PM: Collapse

Why, you ask?

Because, at the end of the day, we brought joy and happiness to several, eye candy to most, and raised somewhere in the neighborhood of $2,000 for people with HIV/AIDS.

That's why.

Does This Confirm Anyone's Suspicions?

You scored as Hermione Granger, You're one intelligent witch, but you have a hard time believing it and require constant reassurance. You are a very supportive friend who would do anything and everything to help her friends out. Hermione Granger 85% Albus Dumbledore 85% Harry Potter 80% Ron Weasley 65% Ginny Weasley 60% Sirius Black 50% Remus Lupin 50% Draco Malfoy 40% Severus Snape 30% Lord Voldemort 15% Your Harry Potter Alter Ego Is...? created with QuizFarm.com

That, and people have trouble pronouncing and spelling my given name correctly, too.

(h/t Army of Mom)

I Am Proud....To Survive It

As you may or may not know, this is Pride Weekend in San Francisco, which means you're going to be seeing very unusual things on the street.....well, more than you usually see, anyway. 18th and Castro are overflowing with queers out and about, the pink triangle is up on Twin Peaks -- and my legs are already hurting.

If you've always wanted to watch our Pride Parade, but weren't within our receiver range, this is your year; through the miracle of modern technology, it will be featured globally on live webcast on Clear Channel's Shake Radio and on our local station KRON, starting at 10:30 AM Pacific time.

For those of you who prefer women, be sure to arrive on time; for those of you who prefer men, you will have about thirty or so minutes to be fashionably late, since it takes approximately that long for the Dykes to move their bikes, bob cuts, and bared boobies the length of the parade route (they go first -- no questions).

Yes, NDT will be in the parade this year, once again in vest and kilt, and a hat of some sort, working tirelessly to keep kiddies and drunks from running out into the street in front of our float, and probably handing out some sort of bauble to the crowd.

Wave if you spot me. ;)

Confirming the Obvious

Read.

Especially this part:

MSNBC.com identified 144 journalists who made political contributions from 2004 through the start of the 2008 campaign, according to the public records of the Federal Election Commission. Most of the newsroom checkbooks leaned to the left: 125 journalists gave to Democrats and liberal causes. Only 17 gave to Republicans. Two gave to both parties.

Perhaps the most ironic twist of all is that Fox News, which does not ban political contributions outright and is castigated as being completely anti-Democrat, in fact has many people who contribute substantial amounts to Democrats -- while organizations which ostensibly ban contributions in the name of fairness have virtually no contributions that are made going to Republicans.

Well....Duh

Mingle² - Online Dating

Not that this surprises me too much; after all, this blog has never shied from discussing such things as nakedness, HIV, unprotected sex, and the other stuff you're not supposed to mention in rooms where there are plastic covers on the furniture.

But, given that I am an obstreperous bastard, I would like to dedicate a song to the raters out of love and respect.

Toodles!

Not Safe For...Ewwwwwwww!!!!

Courtesy of one of my relatives who is fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to live nearby.

Yes, you can click on the picture and make it larger -- but before you do, consider that I may have made it the smallest size possible for a reason.



Nine feet, 1 inches long and ninety-seven pounds, if anyone's counting.

And yes, it's real. It was killed at Hillsdale Lake just south of Kansas City -- which may alarm some new homeowners therein.

UPDATE: Thanks to astute reader Prairie Biker, we may now state that the location and exact weight of the snake is questionable. Apparently this appeared in one spot and has been making the rounds on the Internets of late, with the location changing over time.

Now that that's clarified, if you'll excuse me, I have to finish responding to that nice wealthy widow in Nigeria.......

Anyone Got a Spare Ten Mil?

'Cause I have plans......wonderful plans.....

Brave New Whorled

Matt over at yon Malcontent has up a linkage to an article discussing what appear to be certain characteristics strongly associated with gayness -- in particular, being prone to left-handedness or ambidexterity, and the way in which the hair whorls on one's head spin.

In short, if you spin Southern Hemisphere, you're more likely to be straight, and if you spin Northern Hemisphere, the odds are better that you're not (which still doesn't explain why there are so many hot men in Australia, but I digress).

Crazy, right?

Well, thanks to my admittedly-unusual background, I can tell you.....not really.

Horse trainers and rodeo cowboys have made observation for years that the position of the hair whorl on the forehead of a horse or a cow relative to a horizontal line drawn between its eyes and a vertical line down the middle of its forehead to its nose is a good predictor of its temperament. In bulldogging, a steer whose hair whorl is below that horizontal line tends to keep its head down and plod, meaning you have to reach lower; in contrast, one that is above the line tends to be flighty, faster, and -- paradoxically -- a stopper, who when you pass it on your horse, will probably slam on the brakes, jerk its head up, and knock your teeth out if you're not careful. Same with horses; the more their whorl varies from the crosshairs -- where those two lines meet -- the less desirable their behavior.

Of course, tobacco-addled folk like myself aren't always the best judges of what's what, so one day an amazing person -- a lady by the name of Temple Grandin, whose life is a story in and of itself and who I've had the pleasure to work and speak with -- decided to test this scientifically. Sure enough, she found that it WAS true -- cattle with whorls that were off-kilter, or no whorls at all, tended to be more agitated and showed behavior like high heads and jerky movements like we in the rodeo area know so well (and painfully). Furthermore, as Temple pointed out in more detail (search for "Hair whorls"), the hair whorls are formed from the same embryonic layer at the same time that the brain is forming, which would provide some degree of explanation for their seeming predictive power on behavior.

An interesting and disquieting point in Temple's research, though, is that a strong correlate for it comes from human studies; namely, it has been known for quite some time that humans with Down's syndrome, Prader-Willi syndrome, schizophrenia, and autism tend to exhibit unusual physical traits, such as abnormal hair whorls, a higher tendency towards left-handedness, and a high number of physical anomalies -- i.e. relative finger lengths and appendage sizes -- than the average person with none of these.

On the one (left) hand, that makes a strong argument for homosexuality being in large part biological; all of these particular syndromes have a strong genetic component, with environmental factors playing more of a trigger role than a shaping role. However, on the other hand, that makes of homosexuality a brain misfire -- or, as Doctor Laura famously (and tactlessly) put it, a "biological error".

On the other hand, the implications of this are a bit to the right of cataclysmic. In the majority of the cases of syndromes just mentioned, people can bring themselves closer to "normal", if you will, through medication, therapy, and learning to work around the limitations of their particular situation.

Can the same thing be said for gays? Should the same thing be said for gays?

The answer, in my opinion, is: it all depends. I cannot say that homosexuality is always a blessing, any more than someone else can say it is always a curse. There are simply too many situations, too many scenarios, in which it is one, either, both, or even neither. We all know lives that started and stopped, families torn apart and put back together, utmost joy and blackest despair.

I suppose it all boils down to this; whatever works best for you. And that is why I will not bother getting excited or upset about "ex-gay" organizations, or reparative therapy, or potentially curbing homosexual urgings through drugs, or un-gaying babies in the womb; they will work for some people.

But not for me, thanks.

Meh.....

Matt over at InterstateQ has posted an interesting statement, allegedly by an associate of Tyler Whitney.

Which immediately brought to mind the following quotation from Macbeth:

it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

I suppose one could get more excited than that, but frankly, I've been called worse by marginally better, and I'm well past the point of caring about what someone who will put that much vitriol into a statement says.

Granted, saying outrageous, deliberately-inflammatory, and downright childish things has made Ann Coulter a lot of money....but whoever "Saint Joe McCarthy" is, they ain't even no Ann Coulter.

Meme, May, Mah, Mo, Moo.......

It seems that the latest thing in the blog circles in which I run is the meme -- which, loosely defined, is like a chain letter that doesn't bring down curses on you and your family if you fail to complete it.

I think.

At any rate, since everyone else is baring their souls, I might as well; after all, this blog has never shied from (Not Safe For Work) baring anything.

So here goes:
_____________________________________________________________________________

The Rules:

-- Post the rules, then list 8 things about yourself.
-- At the end of the post, tag and link to 8 other people.
-- Leave a comment at those sites, letting them know they’ve been tagged, and asking them to come read the post so they know what to do.

_____________________________________________________________________________

"Riff off other peoples' answers" wasn't in there, but it wasn't excluded either.....so, as the Greeks used to say, "Adiaphora".

1. My cooking falls at the low end of the metrosexual range. That is, I can cook well when required to impress someone, but still make a substantial withdrawal from the Trader Joe's freezer aisle every week.

And before you ask, my husbear is a great cook; the problem is that neither of us wants to spend the time necessary in the kitchen to do it on a daily basis.


2. I eat things plain. Double cheeseburgers, plain, Taco Bell tacos, no lettuce, and can you bring me some real bread and butter instead of this double-herb crusted oily dripping virgin focaccia something-or-another?


3. I work out 3.5 times weekly (four one week, three the next) -- a habit I started when I....


4. Played football. Middle school, high school, and college. Really. Starting linebacker at all levels, even made all-American in college.

And no, locker-room scenes never really turned me on. Probably because a room you associate with puking after wind sprints is not one in which romantic or sexual moods flourish.


5. Nicknames I had throughout my football career included "Professor", "Maverick", "Express", "Will" (for weakside linebacker -- insert your own ironic "and Grace" here), and "Bucket Butt".

The last referred to my rump SIZE, not to any particular characteristics of it. Honestly!


6. While on the topic of quasi-manly pursuits, I rodeoed in college and afterwards on a nominally-professional basis; I also taught the university's horse training class for undergraduates, which is what I blame for my then-consumption of a can a day of Copenhagen Black.

(Yes, I quit eventually. Some guys thought it was sexy; most were neither impressed or amused.)


7. Boilermaker, cosmopolitan, Amstel Light, Miller Light, Diet Coke, and tap water.

In reverse order.


8. My husbear and I met online.

Some evening you, too, may be messaged by a man and end up selling your house, quitting your job, and moving halfway across the country to a city in which you swore you would never live under any circumstances -- and it was the best decision I ever made.

Your mileage may vary.


Now that that's over, I can only think of a few people to whom to send this:

1. Sonicfrog

2. Jimbo.Info

3. Army of Mom

4. Lab Kat

5. See Jane Mom

6. Cake or Death?

7. Charging Rhino

8. Gryphmon's Grumbles

(Sorry. The meme must be obeyed. I have enough enemies already........)

Rule #1 For Effective Analogy

Use one that works.

And suddenly, I have this vision of Wayne and Garth suddenly turning to each other as the jet thunders overhead, and...um....well....doing it like....

Robbie Nailed It

Word.

(Sorry -- the "Simpsons" episode featuring N'Sync is on this week, so I've had that on the brain).

Update: Other bloggers have started to weigh in with good reads -- The Conjecturer, GayPatriotWest, Rick Sincere, and even a few unexpected spots that are getting a sudden lesson in what happens when you go against the gay grain.

If nothing else, that last gives me hope.

If You Can't Handle It, Block It

Well, Signorile has banned me from his blog -- which is not surprising; after all, he didn't get where he did by allowing people who told the truth to stay around him for long.

Just in case he gets in a deleting mode, though, it seems I should record for posterity the comment I left him last night, in response to his own, that has him all apopolectic.

Um, no, I would like Tancredo to say, gee, I have a loyal staffer who's gay so I DO support employment non-discrimination for gays.
The fact that he employs a gay person speaks volumes for the fact that he does not discriminate in employment against them.

You, in turn, could make it clear that you oppose abuse of nondiscrimination laws by gays, such as in the case of Bonnie Bleskachek.

I want him to say that he DOESN'T support an ammendent to the Constitution of the United States to make gays second class citizens (Federal Marriage Amendment), which he voted for and spearheaded.

Please. You don't even demand that of your own Democrat candidates, nor do you blast gays and gay organizations who support them.

One would think that you would be just as inclined to bash those gays and those candidates -- but that would be only if one wasn't aware of what party and what gay organizations keep you in chardonnay.

Next:

I want him to say that it is GOOD for gays to adopt children in DC, which he voted against allowing.

Well, one of your fellow gay Democrats and HRC supporters thinks otherwise when it comes to gay parenting.

And if you go to my conservative blog, you'll find I have a great deal to say about it. Mostly involving the tendency of you and your commentors to indulge in the sort of hate speech and threats of violence that you affect to despise from the religious right.

Finally, it is North Dallas THIRTY. "North Dallas Forty" should be reserved for the passable novel by Pete Gent and the somewhat-disquieting movie with Nick Nolte.
North Dallas Thirty | Homepage | 06.13.07 - 12:56 am | #

And note that, unlike Signorile, I feel no particular need to block his minions who are setting out to namecall me in my comment section with far less proof than I've put in his.

As Robbie of the Malcontent aptly puts it, "This week, everyone's favorite sad, leftist mess dines on the blood of gay young in a limp attempt at remaining relevant outside of his private circle of elite coastal fags who honestly believe the rest of homosexualdom not living in New York gives a rat's ass."

Heck, They Can't Even Get Facts Straight

As I alluded to yesterday, my commentary over on Signorile's blog isn't being taken very well; in response to my pointing out with clear references their support of what they had previously termed homophobic, they released a wave of whisper-gossip that frankly, I haven't seen the level of since my stint of teaching sixth-graders.

My favorite, though, has to be from commentor "Rick".

I noticed this 'North Dallas Forty' character splattering outrageously homophobic comments all over the blogs. So I did a little digging and guess what I found: about a year ago he was found to have issued a jihad of death threats against gay bloggers like Mike Rogers. He is one of those nut cases just like the ones who blow up Planned Parenthood and issue edicts against abortion doctors. He is a total nut case. He even had to shut down his website after legal action was taken.

Of course, that has no references whatsoever -- probably because of these little issues:

1) He has me confused with GayPatriot.

2) He got incorrect what GayPatriot actually did.

3) He missed that I criticized GayPatriot for what GayPatriot did.

4) He apparently is ignorant, inadvertently or willfully, of what Mike Rogers did to GayPatriot's friends and associates.

What makes this particularly hilarious is that this post from "Rick" came despite my having pointed several of these facts out to "Demesne Lord" -- who, despite knowing the truth of the matter and commenting in the same thread, hasn't seen fit to inform "Rick" or the other commentors.

Again, not that this surprises me much; it's just amusing how blatantly obvious it is.

Update: As reported below, how could we forget JoeMyGod, whose hatemongering (and anonymous) commentors have posted not just Mr. Whitney's home address and phone numbers, but those of his PARENTS as well -- apparently so that their fellows who are out for blood could do their worst.

I'm clocking how long this stays up. Starting at 1:27 PM JoeMyGod commenting time.

UPDATE: And the addresses and phone numbers have been taken down -- as of the afternoon of June 17th.

Let's see, that's only what, three days?

And the same old excuse, of course:

I removed the addresses here once they were brought to my attention. I try to read all my comments, but sometimes the longer threads get away from me.

Apparently JoeMyGod isn't aware of the fact that you can actually READ all of your comments in Haloscan without having to go thread by thread.

It's on the same screen that you use to delete/edit them.

Lies Work Better When Told to the Stupid

As one might expect, numerous people this week, mostly militant atheist, are touting this statistic concerning Americans' views towards how humans came to be as a sign of some sort of scientific apocalypse.

The interesting thing is that, if one looks at the actual data, it's quite historically stable; indeed, if anything, belief in creationism or some sort of divine intervention increased during the "science-based" Clinton administration.

What this means, in my opinion, is simple; people aren't necessary anti-science, but they are smart enough to recognize that, quite often, those who tout "science" are using it for ulterior motives.

Take, for example, the anti-Bush diatribe in today's Chronicle.

Like his failure to take global warming seriously, President Bush's decision to ignore science and veto the recently passed bipartisan bill that would permit federal funding of embryonic stem cell research within an ethical framework spotlights an inconvenient truth. All Americans, not just those who have diseases such as diabetes, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, will pay the price.

Take diabetes, for example. Leading scientists say embryonic stem cell research holds great promise for finding better treatments and a cure for the nearly 21 million Americans, including 2 million Californians, who have the disease. And that's not to mention the 54 million who have pre-diabetes, meaning their blood glucose levels are higher than normal and they're at increased risk of developing the disease. That number is sure to rise. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls diabetes an epidemic and says 1 in 3 babies born today -- and 1 in 2 among nonwhite babies -- will develop diabetes in their lifetime, if trends continue.

And of course, what should we do to halt this horrible, horrible menace?

Stem cell research allows scientists to better explore how to control and direct stem cells so they can grow into other cells, such as insulin-producing beta cells. Creating new beta cells could mean a cure for Type 1 diabetes as they would serve as a source of cells for islet cell transplantation. They could also provide a powerful tool for controlling Type 2 diabetes.

Unfortunately, for those of us supposedly science-free Christians, especially those of us with a biology background, there's a little problem here.

As the article briefly alludes, there are two primary types of diabetes; Type 1, aka insulin-dependent diabetes, in which the islet cells of the pancreas are incapable of creating insulin and require a person to take it externally, and Type 2, or non-insulin-dependent diabetes, where the body loses its ability to respond to the insulin it produces.

Type 1 diabetes is the one that stem-cell research theoretically could most help, since the ability to restore or implant pancreatic islet cells would allow these patients to produce their own insulin. However, according to the CDC's own statement, Type 1 diabetes makes up only 5 - 10% of all diabetes cases.

Why is this important?

Because Type 2 diabetes, which makes up the remaining 90 - 95% of cases, is, according to the ADA itself, on whose board this author , quite preventable -- by changing diet and increasing physical activity. Indeed, in most cases of Type 2, it's not that the islet cells quit producing insulin; it's that, after years of obesity, bad eating, and lack of exercise, the body simply refuses to respond to it.

What this "scientific" commentor is telling us is that we need ethically-questionable research to find a cure for something in which 95% of the cases are, by and large, preventable without a single stem cell anything. Even more ironically, he's citing statistics about how many deaths, dollars, and days lost this is costing us per year -- without mentioning that it's due primarily to peoples' choosing to overeat and not exercise, not to any particular lack of stem-cell-based cures, and that dealing with the former would have far more effect on reducing losses of all three than the latter.

In short, this is on the same level as an argument for the need for embryo dissection to make lung cancer cures from the CEO of a cigarette manufacturer.

But, when one looks at Dwight Holing's donation record, it should surprise no one that he apparently has no ethical qualms whatsoever about perverting science for political purposes, especially when it's anti-Bush.

He's just not used to people knowing something about what he's trying to use for propaganda.

Tiresome, But Not Surprise-some

I was thinking it had been a while since the usual suspects and their comments sections went and savaged another gay person for the crime of being conservative.

Aside from their attempts to smear him with guilt by association and hold him permanently responsible for doing something ostensibly anti-gay prior to his coming out, the interesting thing is watching what they're demanding be done to him.

You have to nip these people in the bud. Today he's fronting for YAF, tomorrow he'll be the Roy Cohn of the 21st Century. To me, people like him are no better than a Black person passing for white and joining the Ku Klux Klan. (I'm not gay but I am Black and that's how I see it.) When someone is working against the rights of people just like him (or her -- Mary Cheney springs to mind, as do Clarence Thomas and Kenneth Blackwell), he needs to be stopped dead in his tracks.

Or, more precisely put:

My heart bleeds, but not for the likes of him. Make him bleed. Make them all bleed. If you aren't up to it. Don't watch, or stay out of politics. This is not a polite and civil endeavor.

As previously noted, it's not exactly a secret that the lives and health of gay conservatives and gay Republicans aren't worth much to these people, but it still is a little jarring to see how blatant they are about it.

What is kind of amusing is the lovely bit of schizophrenia they display, paying lip service to the necessity of "bipartisanship", how desirable it is for for people of all political and religious stripes to come out, the need to work from within the Republican Party to create change -- and then declaring open season, including the use of physical violence, in order to "stop" those who are actually doing it.

Continuing, when last I posted on this tendency of theirs, several comments made were to the effect that I should not hold bloggers responsible for the comments made on their blog.

My response: from personal experience and from my own blog, I know very well that these particular bloggers can rouse themselves to make counter-comments, edit and delete existing comments, and outright ban people from commenting at all. More than that, I know that their "regular" commentors will become quite vociferous and, via email, cry wolf-in-the-fold to the blog owner and complain when someone posts that which they consider objectionable.

Given that, it seems quite obvious that the reason these comments are still there is because neither the blog commentors or the blog owners are opposed to them. Indeed, the only reasons they seem to take down threats of violence and death to people they don't like is when they're publicly embarrassed by them.

Pretty sad when you consider that even the worst of the homophobes have the decency to condemn violence against gays.

Update: Not surprisingly, Signorile didn't take a response to his rant about Mr. Whitney that pointed out that Signorile wasn't even making those demands of Democrat gays very well.

Like I said, though; the fact that these blog owners have no trouble banning and deleting posts by people they don't like does very little for their argument that they shouldn't be held responsible for the hate speech of their commentors.

Update: And of course, how could we forget JoeMyGod, whose hatemongering (and anonymous) commentors have posted not just Mr. Whitney's home address and phone numbers, but those of his PARENTS as well -- apparently so that their fellows who are out for blood could do their worst.

I'm clocking how long this stays up. Starting at 1:27 PM JoeMyGod commenting time.

One Man's EEEEWWWWWW....

is another man's trophy fish.

Ah, wasted entrepreneurial potential.....if only I had known our little creek and tanks (ponds, for those of you non-Southwesterners) were muddy, murky gold mines...

Thick Head, Thin Skin

Let me assure those outside California.....this is a case of the pot calling the kettle chartreuse.

Or, as one of my politico friends put it today, "Hell would be one of the nicer places Migden has told people to go."

Life Imitates.....Uh, Something

All one can say is.....wow.

The scary part is that I could see it catching on as an extreme sport.

Pithy Placement

For some obscure reason, I feel the need to give props to Matt of The Malcontent for his delicious use of a well-placed quote in talking about his site's erstwhile forums.

Of course, they were immediately eaten by the spammers. Then they burned down, fell over and were eaten by the spammers again.

Which comes from.....

Listen, lad, I built this kingdom up from nothing. When I started 'ere, all there was was swamp. Other kings said I was daft to build a castle in the swamp, but I showed them; I built it all the same.

That one sank into the swamp.

So I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. The third one burned down, fell over, and then sank into the swamp....but the fourth one stayed up!

And that's what you're getting lad.....the strongest castle in these islands!

Of course, my favorite line from that is......

Don't like 'er? What's wrong with 'er? She's...beautiful, she's rich, she's got HUUUGE.....tracts of land!

How To Start Your Day Off Right

1. Fill one microwave-safe coffee mug two-thirds full with milk.

2. Microwave milk on High for 2.5 minutes or until milk is warm to touch

3. Stir in the following:

-- One splash of sugar-free hazelnut or almond-flavored Toroni syrup
-- One package Sweet N' Low
-- One-half scoop chocolate or vanilla (or both) whey protein powder

4. Add fresh-brewed espresso to fill mug

5. Top with powdered cinnamon

6. Serve to handsome, sleepy husbear with freshly-brushed kiss and side of hugs.

7. Get some.

Just One Question, Please

How exactly does one "detonate a whale"?

Passionate Viewing

I know Jamie was involved in this somehow.

Personally, having lived a good portion of my life in Kansas, with the only nearby town making Jericho look positively urban, I can only say this......truth was far more dull than fiction.

Here, Have Some More Opiate

I'm waiting for the shrieks of, "Theocrats!"

But of course, they won't come.

This is after all, nothing new......and actually, quite common.

With a swaying, purple-robed choir behind him and Davis at his side, Clinton stood at the pulpit of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Los Angeles, the city's oldest black congregation, and cited Scripture, comparing the recall of the embattled Democratic governor to the mob that wanted to stone an adulteress during Jesus's time.

"Let he among you without sin, cast the first stone," Clinton said. Everyone in politics makes mistakes, the former president told the congregation, which interrupted his talk with repeated standing ovations. But he said the recall is misdirected anger. "Oh, the governor didn't make every single problem go away," Clinton said. "So let's throw a rock at him. It'll make us feel better."

Clinton appealed for cooler heads. "Gray Davis and I have been friends for a long time, and I don't want this happening to him. But this is way bigger than him. It's you I'm worried about. It's California I worry about. I don't want you to become a laughingstock, a carnival or the beginning of a circus in America where we throw people out for making tough decisions," Clinton said.

Then he paused, and urged California voters, "Don't do this. Don't do this," as the congregation erupted in applause.

But, given the usual screaming fit thrown by the Democrat Party if Republicans even dare to say or do anything of the sort......no less hypocritical.