You don't see that many jewish Aryan skinheads, you don't see that many black KKK members (OK - Dave Chapel did do a hilarious bit about a blind black man who was a white supremacist). And before somebody gets their panties in a knot, no, I'm not going to say the Republicans are as bad as the KKK or the Nazi's - but let's be clear: the Republican party has ran for years with a "moral" agenda that includes no abortions, no gay marriage, and no sex with animals.

I could be wrong about the animal thing, though.

What brings on this rantage? A story about Glenn Murphy Jr., who had just been elected President of the Young Republican National Federation just resigned his post. Evidently, the police are questioning him about performing "...an unwanted sex act ... while the man slept...". That's right - unlike the guy in Florida who got caught giving a blow job to an undercover police officer (and now says he did it because he was scared of the big black man), evidently Murphy was so hard up he had to blow a guy while the dude was asleep.

Look, I have no problem with gay people. I love gay people - I've got people who are as gay as I am straight, and I like them just as much as everybody else (and for the record, no, they don't all have good fashion sense). If you like guys - great. If you like girls - great. If you're a girl who likes girls, hey, I can understand. If you're a guy who likes guys great for you.

But at some point, you've got to come out of the cloest. You've got to say "OK, I'm gay, I like people my own gendeer, and I'm not going to run around bashing other gay people because I can't handle it". It's called being an adult. I know it's hard. But it would certainly give us less to groan about every time the leader of some homosexual bashing group turns out to be a flaming homo themselves. (Yeah, I'm looking at you, Haggart.)

Source: The News and Tribune

There are 4 things that work for the series:

1. Good story. The story - and the overreaching arc involved - is actually rather interesting, and the "OMG NO WAI!" moments for the first several books are really good surprises - this isn't Scooby Doo where you can figure out who it is within 5 minutes, but a lot more complex - even for a "children's" book. But by the end, the stories are less about "the problem of the week" and more about the overreaching arc: Harry versus Voldemore, the ancient battle between Good and Evil revisited.

2. Every year, the characters get 1 year older. Which means that unlike the old Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew/Three Investigators (hey, don't get me wrong - I enjoyed them and others as a younger Paladin), this means that every year, the characters get a little more mature. They face new kinds of challenges, not just "Duck Harry, it's a dementor", but also "Wait - can I *trust* this grown up? What aren't they telling me"? Personally, I think the first 4 books are the "child" books - Potter is a child, and relies on the rules of the adults around him (even if he breaks them when he feels it's necessary). The last 3 books are the "adult" series - Potter becomes an adult, and has to face responsibility, and the consequences of his actions. In the first 4 books, the worst thing (other than death, perhaps) would be expulsion or failure. In the last 3 books, it was death of his loved ones, not just himself - and Harry has to recognize that he can't *always* be right, which is part of growing up.

3. Hidden levels. On the surface, the series is about child witches and wizards getting in and out of magical trouble. But as you dig deeper, you find the Rawling has filled her books with subtle symbolisms. The last 3 books especially deal with a kind of WWII kind of worry - governments falling even though the threat is real, while at the same time looking at the kind of things in the "War on Terror". What happens when power is used to keep a populace at fear of the *wrong* thing, and people's rights are removed for "the greater good"? What happens when government, which should be protecting the people, instead is the tool of weak minded people who would rather protect their power than see the truth?

Other symbols abound. Without giving much away, Harry's owl is Hedwig - which is also the patron saint of orphans. Later on, when Harry loses Hedwig, it's clear he's left his orphan status behind: he is an adult now, and must stand on his own two feet. Other symbols, usually in the names of characters (such as a fierce witch named after the queen of the Amazons, or a wizard named Lupin with a problem with the moon).

4. The messages - both obvious and hidden. One of my favorite lines from the series is Dumbledore telling Harry that he has a choice: to do what is right, or what is easy. I think that is the most succinct example of the difference between Good and Evil I have ever heard. It's a near perfect reflection of Yoda telling Luke that the Dark Side of the Force is not stronger - but it is easier, and faster to attain. Rawling gives us the flip side: Evil isn't just doing "bad things", but it's taking the easy way out. It's easier to torture a person for information instead of doing real police work. The former might get results, but the latter ususally leads to the Truth. It's easier to discount something you don't *want* to be true to be a lie, than it is to accept the Truth and prepare for difficult times ahead. It's easy to put a person in jail when you don't *know* if they're guilty of a crime - harder to try them and let them get away when the evidence doesn't add up.

This last reason is why I think that Rawling's work will stand the test of time. A child can read them and get the story. A teenager can get them and get get the maturity. An adult can read them and get the message. A scholar can read them and delight in the symbols. Books that contain levels like this last for eternity - and that's why we love them.

Remember, pro-lifers: people *outside* the womb are God's children too.

I don't get why this is a hard thing to understand. Evidently, in the minds of some Pro-Life people, killing fetuses is wrong, but killing doctors/nurses/gay dogs in the name of Jesus is fine. So when someone like David McMenemy of Detroit decides that torching a woman's reproductive clinic, hey, it's all good - we're saving unborn babies from abortions!

Might have helped if he had known that the clinic he tried to burn down doesn't do abortions. And I guess it was nice of him to apologize and make it clear that really, honest, he's got nothing to do with the pro-life movement in general. Right before he was sent to jail.

I wonder what the bible says about prison rape. Well, at least he doesn't have to worry about birth control.

Source: DesmoineRegister.com

However, as Paul said, "The love of money is the root of all evil". Or, sometimes, just stupidity. When you plan on making a lot of money by doing something like, say, buying a bunch of iPhones to sell on eBay, read the part that says "Two per customer". Remember that? "Two per customer".

Because if you should show up 15 minutes before the iPhone launches, then pay the guy in the front of the line $800 for his spot so you can buy 10 iPhones, maybe that would be a good thing to know. Or else that guy who just got a free iPhone (and accessories) might laugh as your big money making venture blows up on your face.

Reading - it's fundamental.

Source: MyFox Dallas

I just finished watching "SiCKO". Let me start by saying that Michael Moore drives me crazy. He comes up with really good stuff, then ruins it by putting himself into it. With "Michael and Me", that actually worked, because it was his town. But "Bowling for Columbine" - we could have had all of the good stuff about people in Canada and how they have the same movies as the US without the violence, or discussions with Marilyn Manson (who came across as very lucid and logical, for all of the oddness he surrounds himself). He had a good interview with Charlton Heston and showed the old guy to be a bigot, then he ruins it with the sob story of the girl.

"SiCKO" still has Michael Moore walking around, but the guy actually shows some restraint, and mostly lets the evidence speak for itself. And the evidence boils down to this:

United States citizens are getting fucked up the ass when it comes to health care.

Preventive care is almost unheard of. Our health care system ranks 37th in the world, yet we spend more on health care by percentage than countries with universal health care! We get a prescription bill that prevents negotiation of prices with pharmaceutical companies by the government, and when we want negotiation (you know - use market forces that we're always told are such a good thing), we're told that our leaders will veto it.

What the hell is up with that? The US government wants to go "Hey, pharmacy companies, we can either go with medicine A, or Medicine B. How much will you charge us for Medicine A? Oh, that much? Well, go fuck yourself, because we can get Medicine B for half the price. What's that? You're going to lower your prices? Well, go figure!"

Now, I could bring up the issues about education. But why can't we just create a system like this:

1. Government run hospitals/health care institutions. If you're a citizen, you get in for free, you get treated for free. Preventive care is included in the cost, and doctors get paid more for making their patients healthier.
2. If you want to go to a private institution/use your own insurance, go on ahead - nobodies going to stop you, but you get a refund on your taxes for not using the "universal" system.

Boom - you can choose your own doctor if you want your really expensive health care system, and if you can't afford it, then you get treatment so you can take care of work. It encourages people to work more because they don't have to worry about their health care costs, and when they do get hurt, they get fixed up and back to work (so they're more productive).

And, by allowing negotiations between doctors and pharmacy companies on a gigantic block (aka - the US citizens), you could reduce how much was spent on health care while increasing their care. Holy shit - what a crazy idea!

Instead, we have a system where people get richer for *not* treating people, and call that "the market at work". Last time I checked, the market system was suppose to provide the best service at the best cost - not the worst service at the worst cost. But then again, the health care industry isn't exactly a true marketplace, or else we'd allow a gigantic block of people negotiate how much they want to pay for medicine.

Oh, and don't get me started on education. But that's another rant for another day.

I swear, there is some sort of contest going on for who is the stupidest district attorney in America. Is it possible to be dumber than the jackass who got Genarlow Wilson convicted for being a 17 year old getting a 15 year old girl to give him a blowjob, and got sentenced to jail for 10 years for it, then when Wilson was released wanted to appeal?

Incredibly, yes! Imagine a district attorney so stupid, that he's charge an 8 year old boy with touching a 14 year old girl on the breast. But wait - there's even more dickery! It seems that the 14 year old girl was playing Truth or Dare and told the boy to do it. I can even see inside this district attorney's brain right now -

"Duuuuhhhh! I like donuts! Hey, boy touch girl on breast - boy bad! Boy go to jail! Wait, boy 8? Too bad! Boy should have known better!"

Congratulations DA from Salt Lake City, Utah! You are the dickiest district attorney in the land!

Source: KUTV

I'm sure there are some really good reasons to kill someone. Granted, I can't think of many off the top of my head that don't involve "they're trying to kill me/someone else/they took my Pop-Tart", but I'm sure there are other good reasons out there.

Like when you beat a man, drag him down the stairs so his head bounces on every step, strip off his clothing and leave him in a ditch - and when he dies, hides the body in your Dad's garage. What excuse could you have for that if you're one of the three men accused of doing this?

"Oh, we thought he gay." Oh, well, then it's all right, then! After all, it's perfectly acceptable to kill people just because you don't like their sexual orientation. While we're at it, lump in color of their skin, gender, religion, occupation, eye color, and whether they believe Professor Snape is a good guy or a bad guy.

Or, you could just not be a murdering dumb ass. Yeah, I'd take Option #2 as well.

Source: Daily Kos, WTHR, Bloomington Alternative.

Well, you don't have to worry about global warming any more. It seems the Southern Baptists took a vote, and basically said that sure, global warming is happening, but it's not humans fault, and even if it is, we shouldn't do anything about it, since it might hurt people's economies.

Yeah, because Jesus was all about making money instead of cleaning shit up. It must have been Trump 3:15 "Verily, verily, I say unto you, always do the right thing and take care of each other - unless it gets in the way of your profits. When that happens, screw your fellow man. Hard."

Source: Houston Chronicle

Unless, of course, you don't go through official dipshit government channels. Bob Teixeira had the audacity to convert his car so it ran on vegetable oil, which he could buy used from places like McDonald's and then filter it and drive around. No money to terrorists or the like.

And, evidently not to the state and federal government, which tell him he's going to get charged $1000 from each, plus a $2500 bond just to use the oil. Gee - why do we think that oil companies are too involved with our government when trying to run alternatives gets you fined up the ass?

Source: Charlotte Observer through Dvorak Uncensored