Another One Bites the Snow

From the Huffington Post:

President Bush announced Friday that press secretary Tony Snow, who has waged a battle with cancer while manning the White House lectern, will resign and be replaced by his deputy, Dana Perino, on Sept. 14.

“It’s been joy to watch him spar with you,” Bush told the White House press corps in the briefing room.

Snow, who had said recently that he would leave before the end of Bush’s presidency, said cancer was not the reason he was stepping down. Instead, the father of three said he needs to make more than his White House salary of $168,000. He can earn far more money on the speechmaking circuit.

It must be tough being paid so little to lie for a living.  He did it for quite a time though . . .

Gay Marriage is Go in Iowa

From The Huffington Post:

DES MOINES, Iowa — A county judge struck down Iowa’s decade-old gay marriage ban as unconstitutional Thursday and ordered local officials to process marriage licenses for six gay couples.

Gay couples from anywhere in Iowa could apply for a marriage license from Polk County under Judge Robert Hanson’s ruling.

Wow.  Looks like there’s some rationality in Iowa yet.

Maps for US

As a follow up to this post, here’s a great site someone made to address the serious issues that Ms. South Carolina discussed, as such:

Maps for Us

Sample map:

I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uhmmm, some people out there in our nation don’t have maps and uh, I believe that our, I, education like such as uh, South Africa, and uh, the Iraq, everywhere like such as, and I believe that they should, uhhh, our education over here in the US should help the US, uh, should help South Africa, it should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future, for us.

Iraq doing Better through White House’s Eyes

From the WashingtonPost:

Iraqhas failed to meet all but three of 18 congressionally mandated benchmarks for political and military progress, according to a draft of a Government Accountability Office report. The document questions whether some aspects of a more positive assessment by the White House last month adequately reflected the range of views the GAO found within the administration.

But most interesting:

The person who provided the draft report to The Post said it was being conveyed from a government official who feared that its pessimistic conclusions would be watered down in the final version — as some officials have said happened with security judgments in this month’s National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq.

It is sad that no one can trust the government.  It is also sad that the government doesn’t realize that the truth might actually be more useful than their dreamed up bull shit.

Harry Potter and the Idiot’s Diversion

Morris Berman writes:

For every intelligent book you, the reader, might read, millions of other readers occupy themselves with titles such as Aliens are Among Us!  or Protect Yourself from Emotional Abuse, and that is, if they read at all. . . Don DeLillo echoes this sentiment when he writes, “If serious reading dwindles to nothingness, it will probably mean that the thing we’re talking about when we use the word ‘identity’ has reached an end.”

In Morris Berman’s book The Twilight of American Culture, he discusses, among other things, the collapse of American intelligence.  It’s a remarkably interesting and depressing read.  I highly recommend it.

Quote of the Day – Sigmund Freud

Religion restricts this play of choice and adaptation, since it imposes equally on everyone its own path to the acquisition of happiness and protection from suffering.  Its technique consists in depressing the value of life and distorting the picture of the real world in a delusional manner — which presupposes an intimidation of the intelligence.  At this price, by forcibly fixing them in a state of psychical infantilism and by drawing them into a mass-delusion, religion succeeds in sparing many people an individual neurosis.  But hardly anything more.  There are, as we have said, many paths which may lead to such happiness as is attainable by men, but there is none which does so for certain.  Even religion cannot keep its promise.  If the believer finally sees himself obliged to speak of God’s ‘inscrutable decrees’, he is admitting that all that is left to him as a last possible consolation and source of pleasure in his suffering is an unconditional submission.  And if he is prepared for that, he could probably have spared himself the détour he has made.

–Sigmund Freud

Republican is to Scandel as Bees are to ______

 

Honey.  Apperently. 

A republican strategist is pretty frustrated reports the NYT:

“The real question for Republicans in Washington is how low can you go, because we are approaching a level of ridiculousness,” said Mr. Reed, sounding exasperated in an interview on Tuesday morning. “You can’t make this stuff up. And the impact this is having on the grass-roots around the country is devastating. Republicans think the governing class in Washington are a bunch of buffoons who have total disregard for the principles of the party, the law of the land and the future of the country.”

And this from the party that was up in arms about Clinton lieing about a blowjob. 

And what ever happened to the republican party being the party of strong moral values?

But what scares me most is that all this has been going on and the republicans still enjoy a large supporter base.  WTF?

Ted Haggard Needs Your Help!

What does that man have to do with Ted Haggard you might ask?  Well, it goes like this.  Ted Haggard (proud owner of a .75 million dollar house in Colorado Springs) is going to get his masters in Arizona.  He wants needs YOU to pay for his education and living expenses.  And for your conveinience you can just mail him a check directly, or if you need a tax write off, you can mail a check to a defunct charity that will take 10% of it, mail him the rest, and oh yeah, it’s run by a registered sex offender. 

Read all the creepy details here.

So the man who heads up the defunct charity Families With a Mission—the charity that’s going to take a 10% cut from all “tax deductible” donations to the Haggard family—would appear to be a registered sex offender. Well, in Hawaii at any rate. Paul Huberty has not, according to publicly available records, registered as a sex offender in Colorado, something he is required to do by state law.

What’s that?  What do you have to say about that Ted?  Yes, it does sound like you’re a horrible human being.

More Maps!

I’ll say it again.  Sweet Jesus.  This is a perfect example of what is wrong with this country.  Here’s a youtube video of Miss South Carolina Teen USA answering one of those tough map questions.

What do you think of that?

Sweet Jesus.  What is it with republican senators and getting it on with other men in public bathrooms?  From the Washington Post:

Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho), a three-term senator, “pleaded guilty earlier this month to misdemeanor disorderly conduct charges stemming from his June arrest by an undercover police officer in a men’s restroom at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.”

Craig was evidently just trying to play footsie,

Craig, 62, was merely accused of playing footsie under the stall door and “brush[ing] his hand beneath the partition between them.” Craig contends that it’s all a big misunderstanding, explaining to police that “he has a wide stance when going to the bathroom.” 

and doing something with this hand, but still tried to get out of it by flashing his credentials.

Craig showed officers his Senate business card and asked them: “What do you think about that?” Apparently, not too much, as he was arrested, fined $500 and “placed on one year’s probation, beginning Aug. 8, the date he pleaded guilty. He could face an additional $500 in fines and a 10-day jail sentence if he violates probation.”

It seems like only yesterday that Bob Allen started paying black men to suck them off, you know, because he was afraid of them.

Quote of the Day – Sigmund Freud

The religions of mankind must be classed among the mass-delusions of this kind.  No one, needless to say, who shares a delusion ever recognizes it as such.

–Sigmund Freud

Alberto Gonzales . . . Don’t let the Door Hit you in the Ass on your way OUT

From the NYT:

WACO, Tex., Aug. 27 — Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, whose tenure has been marred by controversy and accusations of perjury before Congress, has resigned. A senior administration official said he would announce the decision later this morning in Washington.

Sweet Jesus.  It’s about time.  Attorneys General should work for the US Government, and the US people, not the Bush legacy.

Thou Shalt Drag Thy Slow Pokes Behind Vehicles

From Court TV:

The parental consent form Francis McClintock signed before sending her 15-year-old daughter to the Love Demonstrated Ministries Christian Boot Camp hinted there would be some tough love involved.

But authorities say the treatment McClintock’s daughter received at the faith-based camp amounted to assault. When the girl couldn’t keep up with other campers on a morning run, she was allegedly tied to a truck and dragged down a road.

Yeah, that’s what Jesus would do.

Thanks to Kate for the submission.

Profile of an Ignoramus: Rick Santorum

This will be a semi-regular feature at Fear of Ignorance – every now and then I’ll gather more information than you wanted to know about someone I find particularly offensive.  No, I’m not going to include the good with the bad, that would be no fun.  Besides, these will be cases where I’m pretty sure that the bad outweighs the good anyway.

Today’s subject:  Rick Santorum.  Following are some of the things that Rick Santorum have said and done that make him a giant prick.

Quote of the Day – Aldous Huxley

At least two thirds of our miseries spring from human stupidity, human malice and those great motivators and justifiers of malice and stupidity, idealism, dogmatism and proselytizing zeal on behalf of religious or political idols.

–Aldous Huxley