TURTLE THOUGHTS

Catholic Church Hypocrisy Knows No End

Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy, the son of the late Senator Edward Kennedy, has been barred from receiving communion by Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin. The Church is punishing Kennedy for his belief that women should be allowed a choice about whether or not to go through with a pregnancy. Kennedy says he was told he'd be denied the sacrament because he is "not a good practicing Catholic because of the positions that (he has) taken as a public official."  

Catholic politicians who supported and continue to support the war in Iraq haven't been barred from Communion, even though the pope came out strongly against it. Catholic politicians who vehemently support the death penalty are not barred from Communion, even though the Church is against it. But when it comes to abortion, we see that there is a different standard. Why in the hell is the RCC still tax-exempt? If they want to function as a political entity that lobbies and puts pressure on lawmakers, I say, have at it. But don't pretend you're not doing it so you can retain your tax-exempt status.

Remember, It's Only Okay If You're a Republican

Some conservatives are outraged, OUTRAGED, I tells ya, because Barack Obama dared show respect to the emperor of Japan by following protocol and bowing when they greeted one another and shook hands. It purt near gave Bill Kristol and Bill Bennett the vapors on the Sunday gasbag programs.

"I don't know why President Obama thought that was appropriate. Maybe he thought it would play well in Japan. But it's not appropriate for an American president to bow to a foreign one," said conservative pundit William Kristol speaking on the Fox News Sunday program, adding that the gesture bespoke a United States that has become weak and overly-deferential under Obama.

Another conservative voice, Bill Bennett, said on CNN's "State of the Union" program: "It's ugly. I don't want to see it."

"We don't defer to emperors. We don't defer to kings or emperors. The president of the United States -- this coupled with so many apologies from the United States -- is just another thing," said Bennett.

Good, I hope THAT'S settled. God knows George W. Bush would never have done anything like that.

Catholic Church Tries to Bully District of Columbia

The District of Columbia is poised to join the 21st Century by approving marriage equality for everyone, but a last minute blackmail threat from the Roman Catholic Church could throw a monkey wrench into the deal. The bill before the DC Council would not force any church or organization to perform or make space available for same-sex marriages, but the RCC says that doesn't go far enough. They are afraid they'd have to pay domestic partner benefits to employees and would no longer be allowed to deny adoption rights to gay and lesbian couples, so they're threatening to stop providing social services for anybody in the District if the bill passes as is. The Washington Post reports:

The church's influence seems limited. In separate interviews Wednesday, council member Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3) referred to the church as "somewhat childish." Another council member, David A. Catania (I-At Large), said he would rather end the city's relationship with the church than give in to its demands.

"They don't represent, in my mind, an indispensable component of our social services infrastructure," said Catania, the sponsor of the same-sex marriage bill and the chairman of the Health Committee....

...Council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), chairman of the judiciary committee, said the council "will not legislate based on threats."

"The problem with the individual exemption is anybody could discriminate based on their assertion of religious principle," Mendelson said. "There were many people back in the 1950s and '60s, during the civil rights era, that said separation of the races was ordained by God."

Catania, who said he has been the biggest supporter of Catholic Charities on the council, said he is baffled by the church's stance. From 2006 through 2008, Catania said, Catholic Charities received about $8.2 million in city contracts, as well as several hundred thousand dollars' worth this year through his committee.

"If they find living under our laws so oppressive that they can no longer take city resources, the city will have to find an alternative partner to step in to fill the shoes," Catania said. He also said Catholic Charities was involved in only six of the 102 city-sponsored adoptions last year.

Poor Catholic Charities, they might have to obey the law and treat people equally, and if they can't, they'll just take their ball and go home. Exactly what Jesus would do I'm sure.

 

Tennessee State Representative Still a Moron

State Representative Stacey Campfield of Tennessee is one odd dude. Not only has he introduced legislation to grant a death certificate to each abortion granted in Tennessee, he's also been under scrutiny for being an alleged slum lord and falsely claiming that a political rival had been arrested several times for drugs. But you get a better sense of what kind of buffoon the guy is when you realize the fear-mongerer has never successfully passed a piece of legislation.

 
Now there's word that Campfield was escorted by security out of the stadium on October 31st when the University of Tennessee hosted South Carolina in Knoxville. Despite the 'no masks' rule enforced at the football stadium on that Halloween day, the State Representative--who is now running for a State Senate seat---argued with security officers who asked him to remove his luchador (or Mexican wrestler's mask...no word on why he chose this outfit.) Campfield complied by taking off the mask, but he continued to give the officers a hard time. When they asked to see his ticket, it turned out he wasn't even seated where he was supposed to be. His ticket was for section LL, but he'd been sitting in section B. So he was invited to take his luchador and go home.

Marriage Equality Voted Down in Maine

I wish this weren't a surprise. My only consolation is knowing beyond any doubt that those opposed to my right to marry my partner of 17 years are on the wrong side of history. Shame on them. Shame on anyone who denies that marriage is a civil institution that should be available to all Americans.  Religious-based opinions...or opinions based on irrational hatred, ignorance, or fear...should not trump equal treatment under the law for all Americans. This is not a religious argument, it's an equality argument, an AMERICAN argument.    

  And how long can we morally justify putting other people's civil rights to a vote?

Patrick Kennedy: An American Catholic, Not a Catholic American

       

Two Roman Catholic bishops are calling for Representative Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) to apologize for daring to criticize the Church for opposing health care reform. 

Archbishop Timothy Dolan, of the archdiocese of New York, and Bishop Thomas Tobin, who is Kennedy's bishop, called on the Catholic lawmaker's criticism of the church's opposition to healthcare reform, citing concerns over whether the bill would allow funding for abortions.

"I can’t understand for the life of me how the Catholic Church could be against the biggest social justice issue of our time, where the very dignity of the human person is being respected by the fact that we’re caring and giving health care to the human person," Kennedy said in an interview with the Catholic News Service.

"I thought they were prolife?" Kennedy added. "If the church is prolife, then they ought to be for health care reform, because it’s going to provide health care that are going to keep people alive."

Tobin demanded an apology, calling Kennedy's statement "irresponsible and ignorant of the facts" in a statement last week. Dolan, who occupies one of the most prominent and influential positions in the U.S. Catholic church, followed suit this week.

"His remarks were sad, uncalled-for, and inaccurate," Dolan wrote on his blog. "The Catholic community in the United States hardly needs to be lectured to about just healthcare."

"All we ask is that it be just that -- universal -- meaning that it includes the helpless baby in the womb, the immigrant, and grandma in a hospice, and that it protects a healthcare provider’s right to follow his/her own conscience," Dolan added. "This is what the President says he wants; this is what we bishops say we want."

The important thing to remember here is that Patrick Kennedy is an American first and a Catholic second. That means he's a REAL American, which is the least we can expect from elected Members of the United States House of Representatives.

Patrick Kennedy was not elected to represent Catholics, he was elected by a majority of the voters in his district to represent all the people of Rhode Island. Those people need affordable, decent healthcare, and they don't all share the Catholic Church's belief that having an abortion is a mortal sin. If the Church can force a politician to thwart the will of the people in order to meet an arbitrary set of faith-based beliefs, then that politician isn't fit for office.

If the Catholic Church forces its will on elected officials, then what's to stop Scientologists, Islamic fundamentalists, Christian fundamentalists, Moonies, and every other radical religious group from trying to do the same thing? That may sound preposterous now, but who knows what the cultural and religious landscape will look like in 40 or 50 years? We cannot allow a precedent of letting a particular religious group guide American policy. By definition, that is un-American.

Patrick Kennedy, just like his late father, is a patriot. That means he's not going to allow a narrow set of religious beliefs to dictate his decisions--he's going to abide by the US Constitution and thereby represent all of his constituents. The United States of America is not a theocracy. At least not yet, and we have elected leaders like Patrick Kennedy to thank for it.

 

Calling Anglican Haters. Have I Got a Church for You!

The Roman Catholic Church has a problem. Hardly anybody wants to become a priest anymore. Well, hardly anybody who is a celibate-minded penised-person, that is. That's why the Vatican is now slumming by inviting into the fold all the Anglicans (aka Episcopalians in the U.S.) who are mad because their current church doesn't hate enough. All those Anglican women priests and gay priests (and gay women priests!) are scary and wrong, so the RCC is hoping to capitalize on that irrational fear by converting angry and disillusioned Anglicans. And get this: If you're a married Anglican priest, you're still welcome and so's the little lady! So you now have two separate classes of priests, the married and the unmarried. Separate but equal. There's no way you can go wrong with that.

 

We Ignore Radical Christian Fundamentalist Hatred At Our Peril

I've posted about Frank Schaeffer in the past, but this new interview of the former Christian Evangelical leader by Raw Story is still worth a look. Schaeffer says he feels like the canary in the coal mine when it comes to warning America at-large about the dangers posed by radicalized Christian fundamentalists who have taken their persecution complex and irrational fear of The Other to a new level since Barack Obama was elected president.

The bestselling status of the Left Behind novels proves that, not unlike Islamist terrorists who behead their enemies, many evangelical/ fundamentalist readers relish the prospect of God doing lots of messy killing for them as they watch in comfort from on high.

They want revenge on all people not like them -- forever. Knowingly or unknowingly, Jenkins and LaHaye cashed in on years of evangelical/fundamentalists’ imagined victimhood. I say imagined, because the born-agains had one of their very own, George W. Bush, in the White House for eight long, ruinous years and also dominated American politics for the better part of thirty years before that.

Nevertheless, their sense of being a victimized minority is still very real -- and very marketable. Whether they were winning politically or not, they nurtured a mythology of persecution by the "other." Evangelical/fundamentalists believed that even though they were winning, somehow they had actually lost.

Click over to read the entire interview. It's worth your time.

Teabaggers On Parade

Tens of thousands of angry white people (not hundreds of thousands or millions, as they'd have you believe) met up in DC over the weekend to stoke their rage about having a black president. Or something like that. Anyway, the teabaggers brought some lovely signs. This assortment of images comes via the good folk at the Great Orange Satan.

        

UPDATE: Some of the anti-healthcare reformers are trying to inflate their numbers by trying to pass off a five year old photo as a snapshot from this past Saturday.  

Thanks, Joe!

If you're an obstructionist Congressman who hates the president, why not scream out that he's a liar during the middle of a joint session of Congress?  One reason not to do that is because it will enrich your election opponent by more than $200,000 in just a few hours.

That's what South Carolina GOP Representative Joe Wilson is learning today after his disrespectful outburst during last night's presidential address to Congress. Wilson, sitting among a pack of smug Republican Members, apologized almost immediately, but the damage has been done. Along with raising money for his opponent, Rob Wilson, he made himself and his party look like shrieking babies.

     

UPDATE: Rob Miller has now raised $600,000.

Have I Mentioned I'm Really Glad She's Not Vice-President?

I have to hand it to Levi Johnston. He has turned his 15 minutes of fame into something a lot longer. At least it feels that way. His latest?  An interview in Vanity Fair in which he says his baby's grandmother, Sarah Palin, tried everything she could to hide the fact that her daughter Bristol was pregnant.

Sarah told me she had a great idea: we would keep it a secret—nobody would know that Bristol was pregnant. She told me that once Bristol had the baby she and Todd would adopt him. That way, she said, Bristol and I didn’t have to worry about anything. Sarah kept mentioning this plan. She was nagging—she wouldn’t give up. She would say, “So, are you gonna let me adopt him?” We both kept telling her we were definitely not going to let her adopt the baby. I think Sarah wanted to make Bristol look good, and she didn’t want people to know that her 17-year-old daughter was going to have a kid.

Johnston also said that after losing the election with John McCain, Palin just walked around the house pouting about how being governor was hard, and she just wanted to quit and make "triple the money" writing a book or having her own show.  It's a real shame this nutjob didn't become V-P, ain't it?

                           

When Is a Racist Remark NOT a Racist Remark?

Why, when a Republican says it, of course.

The reason the GOP isn't in power has a lot to do with the fact they say stupid shit like this.

"Republicans are struggling right now to find the great white hope." 

   

--U.S. Rep Lynn Jenkins (R-KS)

Ridge 'Fesses Up, But Only When It's Too Late to Make a Difference

Former Homeland Security director Tom Ridge reveals what a number of people suspected all along: The Bush administration used terror alerts to help Republicans win elections.

How is it that people like Ridge and former Secretary of State Colin Powell knew about this kind of stuff but didn't have the testicular fortitude to say something about it when it might have mattered? Political cowardice is the enemy of a democratic republic.

             

                Image from the.zzzone

The "Slippery Slope" to Raging Violence

Frank Schaeffer, the son of ultra-conservative theologian Dr. Francis Schaeffer, is also the author of Crazy for God: How I Grew Up As One Of The Elect, Helped Found The Religious Right, And Lived To Take All (Or Almost All) Of It Back. In a disturbing post on Alternet, Schaeffer draws a straight line between his late father's vehement opposition to abortion and the crazies who are now disrupting townhall meetings because of the lies they've been fed about health care reform.

To the uninitiated, this linkage sounds unhinged. To me it sounds an alarm bell. I know that it taps into 30 years of slippery-slope rhetoric resulting in four abortion doctors being shot and countless acts of violence against clinics. We too began by yelling at people in our marches. In the end, our words opened a door to violent actions.

I'm not sure if the insurance-industry leaders using lobbyists to stir the pot know what they've just hooked into. Do they know that the comparisons of Obama to Hitler, and the call to break up a wholly imaginary "conspiracy" against the elderly may lead the fringe of the fringe to the next step? Is this fear of mine farfetched? I don't think so.

Schaeffer continues...

The fact that otherwise-sane people now believe that United States government is in a conspiracy with the Obama administration to kill our elderly makes sense only when seen in the context of the hysterical, Armageddonlike expectations of the religious right/pro-life movement.

When you understand the link between the hatemongers, the lobbying groups carrying water for the insurance industry and the ideology that came out of the pro-life movement, then you can you understand what is happening today in town hall meetings that are being disrupted by screaming people.

I'm very afraid he's right about all this. We know that people who murder abortion doctors believe they are acting on behalf of God. It's not a large step for them to go after pro-health reform politicians for the same reason.

 

       Frank Schaeffer with his father (date unknown); Frank's book; Frank today

Senator Chuck Grassley Perpetuates "Death Panel" Lie

Iowa Senator (and the world's oldest living Twitterer) Chuck Grassley is one of those strange Republicans who's pretty right wing yet enjoys the undeserved reputation of being a moderate. 

Well, he put that image to rest today when Grassley agreed with Sarah Palin that Obama's health care reform would include 'death panels.' Sam Stein writes about Grassley's appearance at an Iowa town hall meeting this afternoon:

There is some fear because in the House bill, there is counseling for end-of-life," Grassley said. "And from that standpoint, you have every right to fear. You shouldn't have counseling at the end of life. You ought to have counseling 20 years before you're going to die. You ought to plan these things out. And I don't have any problem with things like living wills. But they ought to be done within the family. We should not have a government program that determines if you're going to pull the plug on grandma."

And Grassley's not just any Republican--he's one of the key GOP players who is supposedly helping to create bipartisan health care reform. If this is one of their moderates, just how batshit are the hard core Republicans?

 Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Clowntown, IA)

Corporate Lobbyists Go To Any Length in the Assault Against Health Care Reform

As you follow the health care reform debate (and any other significant debate in Washington), it would be helpful to keep this in mind from consultant Bob Lewis, president of IT Catalysts, Inc., a consultancy specializing in IT organizational effectiveness and strategic integration.

In mass media, the entertainment or information isn’t product — it’s bait. The audience is the product, of which advertisers are both customer and consumer.

Lewis wrote those words in a column posted in 2002, and it's even more salient today. Don't be suckered by talk of horrible "government bureaucrats" making decisions about your health care. The people currently making those decisions are insurance company employees who have every incentive in the world to deny a claimant's coverage.

Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are government run programs, and I'm not hearing anybody enraged about health care reform talking about doing away with them. If government run health care is bad, there'd have been a long-running grassroots movement against it.  So don't be fooled: This fake, corporate/ industry astroturfing we're seeing now is just smoke and mirrors.

            

(Image from FarLeftSide.com--h/t to Crooks & Liars as well as D.Aamodt)

Some New Obama Conspiracy Theories to Consider

If you have real questions about Obama's birth, you owe it to yourself to read this piece. If nothing else, at least you won't look like a complete idiot when someone brings it up.

Even though there's evidence proving Obama was born on American soil, that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of other Obama conspiracies to keep the wingnuts busy. See for yourself.

 

Proof the 'Birthers' in Congress Are Just Playing Games

If you honestly believe there's any doubt about whether Barack Obama was born in the United States, why on earth would you vote for a resolution recognizing Hawaii as Obama's birth place?

The answer is even though you leap at the chance to get the rightwing base in a froth by insinuating there's a conspiracy of deception involving the president's birth certificate, you don't have the guts to say it on the record. It's spineless moves like these that work up both sides, right and left. Lather up the base, get a bump in donations, over-promise, then under-perform, and blame the other party and/or the media for your shortcomings. Works every time, and we all keep falling for it.

Progressives are seeing it as much as Conservatives are--politicians will say anything that works to get them in office, but in the end, they all end up playing a friendly game of DC Insider.

We must change the way we look at politicians in the U.S.  The old left/right dichotomy doesn't work any more.  Take the Political Compass test to get a sense of where you are. My spot on the Political Compass shows:

Economic Left/Right: -6.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.05

If you want to know what that means exactly, you can start by reading the Political Compass FAQ. I'm not sure what my point on the Compass indicates, but it puts me close to Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama, so I can live with that.  Take the test and feel free to leave your results in comments.

Is Ann Coulter Comparing GOP Senator Jim Inhofe to a Klansman? (yes)

If you're so rightwing-batty that even Ann Coulter thinks you're crazy, then you can rest assured you're paving new ground in the Completely Insane department. Coulter was talking about the 'Birthers' and their obsessive contention that the president is not an American. As she told Geraldo Rivera on Foxnews...

"So for CNN or MSNBC, or you Geraldo, the liberal on Fox, to be bringing this out as if it's an issue, you know, it's just a few cranks out there," said Coulter. "It's like when networks bring on the three remaining Klanners in America, on TV."

I can't decide which pleases me most...Is it that Coulter compares Republican Senator Jim Inhofe to a Klansman; or that she is blaming the liberal media for the Birthers' hystrionics.

                                                                         When even this nutjob thinks the whacked-out theory that Obama is an undocumented alien is crazy, well...rest assured, it's frickin' certifiable.  

It's Funny Cause It's True

"A group of elderly transvestites in embroidered gowns is opposing immigration equality for same-sex couples."

--quote from blogger Joe.My.God writing about American bishops' opposition to immigration equality for non-American partners of American gays and lesbians                                                                          A gaggle of American bishops admires the "Prada Pope" during Benedict XVI's recent visit to the U.S.

More Rightwing Domestic Terrorism

Earlier this year, when the Department of Homeland Security issued a report warning about the dangers of increased rightwing extremism, you'd have thought they'd called for the ritual slaughter of every GOP firstborn. The "shock" and faux outrage at being singled out was both loud and predictable. Bunch of morons. And then some rightwing nutjob kills Dr. George Tiller in Kansas. And today, some other crazy rightwing terrorist opens fire at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. Were these acts just coincidental to the report's release? 

Republican political leaders like Rush Limbaugh, Dick Cheney, and Sean Hannity have spent years working their base into a lather about the dangers of terrorism and extremism. But for them, there's just one kind of terrorist--he's brown and he's Muslim and he "hates us for our freedom."

There are some terrorists out there who match that description, I'll give you that. But the other terrorists--the white, Christian, rightwing, domestic kind--are the ones who have been killing Americans lately. 

Catholic Archbishop: Report Documenting Systemic Child Abuse Will "Overshadow" Abusers' Good Work

Which is worse: The Roman Catholic Church, the Church of Scientology, or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints?  Every time I get them prioritized, a bit of news comes along to up-end my mental apple cart.  It's easiest to hate the Scientologists because, face it, they're total loons. (Also, I love good science fiction, and that certainly leaves out the stories that L. Ron Hubbard pulled out of his con-man backside.) 

The Mormons are kooky, too, what with thinking Jesus and Satan are brothers, that Christ hung out in pre-United States of America, and I'm not even going to get into their weird underwearing habits.

But today, the worst religion award goes to the Catholic Church, which we now know aided and abetted hundreds of child abusers and rapists in Ireland over a period lasting for more than 60 years. 

A nine-year, 2600-page report compiled by Ireland's Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse concluded that systemic physical, psychological, and sexual abuse were common in state-sponsored but church-run "reform" schools throughout the country from the 1930s through the 1990s.  The children were captive victims, sent to the schools for truancy, misbehavior, or for having the misfortune to be born in a dysfunctional family, which was defined to include children of single mothers.

You can read all about the report and everything that led to its release via the links above, but the detail that sparked this post was something said by Catholic Archbishop Vincent Nichols, who was just recently installed to preside over England and Wales.

It’s very distressing and very disturbing. And my heart goes out today, first of all to those people who will find that their stories are now told in public…. Secondly, I think of those in religious orders and some of the clergy in Dublin who have to face these facts from their past, which instinctively and quite naturally they’d rather not look at. That takes courage. And also we shouldn’t forget that this account today will also overshadow all of the good that they also did.

Did you get that?  The abusive religious orders and clergy are courageous! (Yes, and how courageously they fought against this report being released.) And not only that, the archbishop fears that all this pesky nonsense about child rape and systemic abuse occurring for decades might take away from all the good that they did. (Yeah, how 'bout that. And I hear that when he wasn't killing and eating people, Jeffrey Dahmer collected donations for the March of Friggin' Dimes. Why have we allowed proof of his homicidal cannibalism to make us forget that?)

So, take cheer, you self-righteous Mormons and freaky-deaky Scientologists. As long as the RCC is around, you'll always have an institution to look down on.

    

                

Newtie the Clown

                                            

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is popping up all over recently, bad-mouthing Nancy Pelosi and generally reminding everybody why he was kicked out of the Speaker's chair (and Congress altogether) a decade ago. The problem is, as Eric Boehlert writes, who really cares what Newt thinks? And why on earth does the lamestream media persist on giving this clown a platform?

If you don't think the press' treatment of Gingrich is bizarre, then please point out the prominent Democrat who was driven from office during the 1990s, suffers from dreadful public approval numbers, has no actual base of political support, hasn't been elected to office in more than a decade, hasn't had his hands on the levers of powers since before the iPod was invented, and yet is treated like a Beltway big shot. Who is the wildly partisan '90s Democrat who spits out falsehoods with stunning regularity, wallows in sophomoric name-calling, and yet the press corps obediently follows around, making sure to report his or her every utterance as news?

Who?

The double standard the press has concocted for Gingrich is blindingly obvious. What gives? Asked during a reader chat why Gingrich's "every pronouncement" gets turned into a "media moment," The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz claimed that the former speaker "is quite adept at drawing media attention" and that he "knows how to frame an issue ... in a way that will generate headlines."

Of course, Howie Kurtz is a certified putz, so his take is no surprise. If Gingrich ate a live baby on FoxNews, Kurtz' response would be to host a roundtable about whether the child was tasty enough to deserve being devoured by a Republican.

By the way, if you're not an Eric Boehlert fan, consider becoming one. Along with running the essential media watchdog organization Media Matters, he's just released Bloggers on the Bus: How the Internet Changed Politics and the Press, which is an insightful look at the growing prominence and importance of progressive blogs and bloggers.  

Keep Talking, Dick, You Evil Bastard

When Dick Cheney talks, the Democratic party looks better and better. Let's hope the Cheney gabfest continues.   

                                                                                                                                                            

                                               

Tipping the (Bathroom) Scales of Justice

Amid the rightwing gasping about the oppression of white males on the US Supreme Court, there is another meme worming its way through the blogosphere about whether some of the top candidates to replace David Souter are too...well...Rubenesque. 

In an article for The Daily Beast, Paul Campos writes: 

 

Consider the two women widely considered the frontrunners for the nomination: former Harvard Law School dean and current Solicitor General Elena Kagan, and federal appellate judge Sonia Sotomayor.

Within hours after the news broke that Souter was resigning, concerns arose that Kagan and Sotomayor might be too fat to replace him. A commentator on the site DemConWatch.com noted that of the three most-mentioned candidates “the oldest (federal judge Diane Wood) is the only one who looks healthy,” while Kagan and Sotomayor “are quite overweight. That’s a risk factor that they may not last too long on the court because of their health.”

It's hard to dispute Campos' thought that, for some men, "the only thing more intolerable than the sight of a powerful woman is the sight of a powerful woman they don’t want to sleep with."

                 The Two Scales of Justice    

 

MN Congresswoman Is Mean As a Snake & Dumber Than a Box of Hair

According to Eric Alterman at The Daily Beast, Minnesota Republican Rep. Michelle Bachmann has accomplished a trifecta:

...anyone can be incoherent, malevolent, and factually incorrect at any time. But it takes real talent to pull off all three simultaneously.

There are lots of ways to be wrong, but Bachman manages to hit all of them, so she gets high marks for consistency. Read the whole article, it's worth it. You'll come away feeling better about yourself if for no other reason that you're not Michelle Bachmann.

M. Bachmann IS Batboy (pic courtesy http://witlist.blogspot.com/)