Five Before Chaos

Please, please, please, someone keep this madman away from Africa.

As you’re probably well aware of by now,  AIDS in Africa is one of epidemic proportions -

About 22 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are infected with H.I.V., according to Unaids. In 2007, three-quarters of all AIDS deaths worldwide were there, as were two-thirds of all people living with H.I.V.

Yet Pope Benedict continues with the Catholic church’s “when monkeys fly out of my ass” strategy in terms of how to reduce the spread of AIDS:

Benedict also asserted that the Roman Catholic Church was in the forefront of the battle against AIDS. “You can’t resolve it with the distribution of condoms,” the pope said aboard his plane to Cameroon. “On the contrary, it increases the problem.”

The pope said that a responsible and moral attitude toward sex would help fight the disease.

He then went on to retract the apology to Galileo, saying he was indeed wrong in forgiving him, and the Catholic Church is once again supporting the heliocentric model of the universe. I mean, this man is an idiot, and a very dangerous one, and equally dangerous are the people that take what this idiot says seriously and as truth (I know several people like that, so I have some experience with it). Of course, he doesn’t explain how using a mechanism that blocks the virus is somehow making the problem worse, but when you have so many people who listen to what you say uncritically, no matter how ridiculous, why waste time explaining yourself when you don’t need to?

There is something else to be taken from this, that, aside from ignoring the reality that people will always have sex (in all ways, shapes, and forms), is that he’s pushing this stuff in a region of the world that has some of the worst poverty and illiteracy on the planet. If he pulled this crap here in the U.S. or in Europe, he’d get laughed at.

Apparently Palin’s and not-Joe the not-Plumber aren’t the only serious mental defects out there shilling for McCain. Who the hell decided to let this caveman speak and thought it was a good idea?

I’m really enjoying the Republican meltdown, immensely. Aren’t you? As I’ve said before, they suck at introspection and self-reflection, big time, with the dominant narrative being that “they just weren’t conservative enough”, which is based on this false notion that we’re really a conservative nation, and not just a conservative one, a borderline retarded, batshit-insane conservative nation.

The UK Telegraph has a nice piece right now about how the GOP is pants-pooping about a landslide election that could potentially give Obama a huge mandate and even more power. But the best line is at the end, after the GOP blowhard they talk to is going on about how those conservative “intellectuals” who think Palin is a cancer are now “dead to the party”, and even funnier is this line here. I practically pissed my pants:

He said: “Win or lose, there is a ready made conservative candidate waiting in the wings. Sarah Palin is not the new Iain Duncan Smith, she is the new Ronald Reagan.” On the accuracy of that judgment, perhaps, rests the future of the Republican Party.

“The accuracy of that judgement.” Snicker. Will the fun ever stop?

Sirota also has more on this over at Open Left. Worth a read.

I know, not-Joe-the-not-plumber’s 15 minutes of fame are just about up, but he made an appearance on right-wing chronic masturbator Sean Hannity’s show the other day and said some unsurprisingly stupid things. He really is Joe Twelvepack. The Rude Pundit’s got a good take on it…

(emphasis mine)

And there, in a nugget of anti-wisdom, is all the delusional glory of white working class people who support Republicans. Apparently, for them, money for things like welfare or food stamps or whatever, which is fine when they need it, but is socialism when others do, is just pinched out by a money-shitting, giant bald eagle or something. Maybe Jesus jacks off, and where his seed falls, trees with golden apples grow. Maybe Uncle Sam just pukes greenbacks.

It also means, for anyone paying attention, who gives a shit what Wurzelbacher thinks? He’s an obvious idiot, not, as Hannity said, offering a manly hand job, “You’re the heart and soul swinging that wrench, you’re the heart and soul of what makes this country great.” No, actually Wurzelbacher is what makes this country a fucking laughingstock and a pathetic inbred cousin of what it could be. There’s plenty of working class people who actually do understand how taxation and social safety nets work. They also know that “spreading the wealth,” unlike what John McCain says, is what once made America great.

Seriously, I haven’t beat a subject to death like this since the whole racist VT secessionist movement story 2 years ago. It’s just the gift that keeps on giving, like looking at a car wreck. But I must move on. Most of the thinking persons in this country have figured out she’s an idiot. In fact, “Sarah Palin + idiot” is giving me tons of Google action lately.

Two more things, and I’ll try to move on (but I make no promises). First, one of the best comments about last night’s debate comes from one of the commenters over at Boiling Mad:

If Obama resorted to leaning on Ebonics the way Palin leaned on the redneck dialect, conservatives would be calling him the n-word.

Indeed, and you betcha! (wink wink)

Second, there’s some seriously must-read Matt Taibbi out there right now, Mad Dog Palin. There’s just too much quote-worthy stuff in it, so go read the whole thing. A sampling:

All of which tells you about what you’d expect from a raise-the-base choice like Palin: She’s a puffed-up dimwit with primitive religious beliefs who had to be educated as to the fact that the Constitution did not exactly envision government executives firing librarians. Judging from the importance progressive critics seem to attach to these revelations, you’d think that these were actually negatives in modern American politics. But Americans like politicians who hate books and see the face of Jesus in every tree stump. They like them stupid and mean and ignorant of the rules. Which is why Palin has only seemed to grow in popularity as more and more of these revelations have come out…

Here’s what Sarah Palin represents: being a fat fucking pig who pins “Country First” buttons on his man titties and chants “U-S-A! U-S-A!” at the top of his lungs while his kids live off credit cards and Saudis buy up all the mortgages in Kansas.

The truly disgusting thing about Sarah Palin isn’t that she’s totally unqualified, or a religious zealot, or married to a secessionist, or unable to educate her own daughter about sex, or a fake conservative who raised taxes and horked up earmark millions every chance she got. No, the most disgusting thing about her is what she says about us: that you can ram us in the ass for eight solid years, and we’ll not only thank you for your trouble, we’ll sign you up for eight more years, if only you promise to stroke us in the right spot for a few hours around election time.

If I don’t talk to you before Monday, have a good weekend.

It’s really down to two groups now – the Republican dead-enders/kooks who probably still think Bush is a good president, find incompetence, demagoguery and secrecy an asset, and can’t wait for the Rapture… and guys who want to sleep with her. Although I can empathize with the second group to a marginal extent, I can’t help but feel if these are some of the same guys who would “want to have a beer with W.” How’d that work out for ya, fellas?

Who cares if she’s a flat-earther/oil-sucking/wolf-killin’/law-floutin’ godidiot ditz? News flash, fellas. You’re not going to sleep with her. Please forget about that before you enter the voting booth. If you can’t, enter the local peep show booth instead, put a few quarters in the slot, grab a Kleenex, take care of yourself, and do the rest of the country a favor (added bonus: you’re not taking care of yourself with a woman, meaning less chance that you may reproduce).

But, seriously, even if you did, do you really want to stick around afterwards and have to listen to her tell you about how she saw some fossil somewhere of some human and dinosaur footprints together? Can you really sit there, nod your head and act like you care? Cuddle? Not worth it. At all.

Yeah, I thought I was done with the CFIWU’s, but there’s still plenty of these people going around screwing it up for the sane people, so here we are. Two things, actually.

The first is from Ed at Dispatches from the Culture Wars.

First off, the hate group known as the American Family Association has their Baby Jesus butt-plugs all up in a bunch. Again. Why? Well, the European Union might (GASP!) pass a UN resolution that opposes sodomy laws:

Notice that the AFA is objecting to a non-binding declaration supporting the right of gays and lesbians not to be made into criminals, on the grounds that it will be used by “radicals” to overturn laws that do make them into criminals. Do you need any more evidence that they really do think gays and lesbians should be thrown in prison? Yes, these people really ARE that extreme.

Some 90 countries have laws that ban sodomy, and could eventually feel the brunt of the U.N. action.

They leave out one tiny little fact: virtually the only nations that actually enforce anti-sodomy laws are nations run by Islamic reactionaries based on Sharia law, like Iran and Saudi Arabia. You know, the very same nations who give support to the very terrorists we are fighting against around the world. The ones they constantly rant about as being evil – except, of course, when they agree with them, as they do here. And they wonder why we sometimes call them the American Taliban.

Of course, who’s surprised by this?

Continue reading

Eh, howzabout “falls mainly on his face”? By now you’ve probably heard of McCain’s Spanish interview in which he apparently thought Spanish PM Zapatero was some Latin American leftist kook, and he didn’t even seem to understand that Spain wasn’t in Latin America. He’s either confused as his aging synapses continue to deteriorate, or he’s just so conditioned by the neocons to react that way toward anyone with a Latino-sounding last name.

Or perhaps he feels Palin is beating him in the cluelessness/stupidity department, and he’s striking back, his gooey POW manliness threatened. I’d like to say that these two are making Bush look like Mensa material. Palin, perhaps is already there, but at this rate McCain’s not far behind.

Whew… didja catch that interview? She’s almost dumber than Bush. Mike Seitzman at HuffPo summed it up best:

Now, I want to be clear and speak directly to those of you who LOVED that Palin interview. You’re an idiot. I mean that. This is not one of those cases where we’re going to agree to disagree. This isn’t one of those situations where we debate it passionately and then walk away thinking that the other guy is wrong but argued well. I’m not going to think of you as a thoughtful but misguided person with different ideas who still really cares about the country and the world. No, sorry, not this time. This time, if you watched those interview excerpts and weren’t scared out of your freakin’ mind, then you’re mentally ill, mentally disabled, or mentally disturbed. What you are NOT is responsible, informed, curious, thoughtful, mature, educated, empathetic, or remotely serious. I mean it.

…or “Why America is the Laughingstock of Much of the Civilized World, part 23241″.
Funny story in the WaPo about a hick from Texas named Robert Hurt, who left his bubble and his 14 children(!) to go to DC, only to be horrified at the sheer amount of public nudity on display. Now, we’re not talking Vermont-style public nudity, which almost always involves the last people on earth you’d ever want to see naked, we’re talking nude statues:

Hurt, 54, a Kerrville, Tex., rancher and father of 14, told us in a phone interview he first came to Washington a decade ago for a gathering of the evangelical Promise Keepers on the Mall. “It was probably not much different than ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’ going to Beverly Hills,” he joked. At the National Gallery, he was appalled to see statues of unclothed people. “I found it very inappropriate,” he said. Returning a few years later, he discovered Arlington Memorial Bridge, flanked by the bare-chested figures of Valor and Sacrifice.

“The Lady Godiva thing — that’s what it conjured up, and that’s not what our country’s about,” he said.

Hurt notified his elected officials of his concerns but believes nothing was done. While he said he respects free speech, “I believe art affects a country indirectly. I have been studying the decline of morals in this country. It’s sending the wrong message to children that nudity is fine, that nakedness is fine. . . . There are degrees of vulgarity, and it opens up the door for the other stuff.”

Uh, okay. Seems he must have gotten naked more than a few times with that wife he treats like a “human Pez dispenser” as one commenter put it. Methinks he’s been staring at a few too many bulls balls on the ranch. It’s funny how he’s been “studying” the decline of morals in this country. There must be a book somewhere about it with a few monosyllabic words and colorful illustrations written about the subject somewhere that I didn’t know about.