Was Gomer Pyle USMC a documentary?
The latest Zogby Poll has some very disturbing numbers in it. Apparently 90% of U.S. troops serving in Iraq think the invasion was in retaliation for Saddam Hussien's role in the 9/11 attacks. Given that even the White House has admitted there was no link between Saddam and 9/11, one must ask what the hell is going on in the U.S. armed forces? Are they hitting people in the head with ball peen hammers as part of basic training now? Are all recruits forced to watch FOX News for extended periods ala Clockwork Orange? If this were some half-assed blogosphere based poll of the 101st Fighting Keyboarders over at Free Rethuglic or Little Green Noballs, I would understand the results, but this is a poll by a reputable major polling firm.

But can they get me sharks with frickin' laser beams?

Man Descending (see the links) shows us the way to an engineering company that specializes in hidden passages, trap doors, concealed compartments et al. I know who is gonna get a chunk of money when I win the lottery.

Tweedum and Tweedumber
First we had ill-informed right wing dingbats in the the United States running around renaming chips "Freedom Fries" and pouring perfectly good wine down the gutter in retaliation for France not blinding following them to war (and who seems to have made the right call there?). Now Iran is getting in on the action - no more Danish pastries, they are now "Roses of the Prophet."
Two countries - one is a borderline fascist police state obsessed with threats from the outside world and run by a bunch of ignorant, fundementalist theocrats who think they have been chosen by God to run roughshod over international law and world opinion - the other one is Iran.

Jebus, we hardly knew ye
For the most religious nation in the western world and the proud home of muscular evangelical protestentism, the United States and its people apparently know diddlysquat about Christianity, at least according to Harper's Bill McKibbon. Go read what he has to say at:
The Christian Paradox (Harpers.org)

here's the lede:

"Only 40 percent of Americans can name more than four of the Ten
Commandments, and a scant half can cite any of the four authors of the Gospels.
Twelve percent believe Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife. This failure to recall the
specifics of our Christian heritage may be further evidence of our nation’s
educational decline, but it probably doesn’t matter all that much in spiritual
or political terms.

Here is a statistic that does matter: Three quarters of Americans believe the Bible teaches that “God helps those who help themselves.” That is, three out of four Americans believe that this uber-American idea, a notion at the core of our current individualist politics and culture, which was in fact uttered by Ben Franklin, actually appears in Holy Scripture.

The thing is, not only is Franklin’s wisdom not biblical; it’s counter-biblical. Few ideas could be further from the gospel message, with its radical summons to love of neighbor. On this essential matter, most Americans—most American Christians—are simply wrong, as if 75 percent of American scientists believed that Newton proved gravity causes apples to fly up. "

And a shout out to the Canadian Cynic (see blogroll) for pointing me to this.

Not to get all tin-foil hatted on you, but...
Bartholomew's notes on religion has an interesting tale of covert Christians In Action at work in Uganda. Apparently someone made a booboo and a former GOP operative and Christian activist who claims to be a former spook has landed in jail for running guns.

Blessed are the Meek
For they shall inherit the Earth, which is good, since as Monty Python pointed out, "they have a hell of a time." The Meek will not be found among the conservative evangelical Christian groups suddenly setting up shop in Ottawa, secure in the knowledge that they helped elect Stephen Harper and now it is payback time. U.S. religious right bogeymen like Rev. James Dobson and the GOP's own Gollum Ralph Reed have their personal representatives amongst the flock setting up lobby groups.
The Galloping Beaver has a round up of the Christofacists flocking to Ottawa

Holy shit -- literally
Because these guys are both "Holy" and full of "shit" -- have a look at this article on "Biblically Correct museum tours" and tell me it isn't a sign of the impending educational apocalypse that is going to roll around in about 20 years when all these home-schooled Jesus freaks make up a significant portion of the voting population in North America. Why is it that the religion that gave us the Renaissance and Thomas Aquinas is now dedicating itself to the pursuit of total ignorance. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts.

Bible Guides Tour Museums to Counter Science

By CATHERINE TSAI
The Associated Press
Friday, February
17, 2006; 7:00 AM

BOULDER, Colo. -- Inside the flagship lab of the National Center of Atmospheric Research, a dozen home-schooled children and their parents walk past the offices of scientists grappling with topics from global warming and microphysics to solar storms and the electrical fields of lightning.
They are trailing Rusty Carter, a guide with Biblically Correct Tours. At a large, colorful panel along a wall, Carter reads aloud from a passage describing the disappearance of dinosaurs from the earth about 65 million years ago. He and some of the older students exchange knowing smiles at the timeline, which contradicts their interpretation the Bible suggesting a 6,000-year-old planet.

"Did man and dinosaurs live together?" Carter asks. A timid yes comes from the students.
"How do we know that to be true?" Carter says. There's a long pause.
"What day did God create dinosaurs on?" he continues.
"Six," says a chorus of voices.
"What day did God create man on?"
"Six."
"Did man and dinosaurs live together?"
"Yes," the students say.

Mission accomplished for Carter, who has been leading such tours since 1988. He and the other guides counter secular interpretations of history, nature and the origin of life with their own literal reading of the Bible. And they do so right at the point where they feel they feel science indoctrinates young people _ museums.

Go and read the whole thing and weep. On the other hand, does this mean that we can take a handful of biologist and logicians and take tours of kids through churchs? How about going around to the homes of Jehovah's Witnesses and trying to get them to take a copy of "Science"?

"...Cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria!"
Switzerland 2, Canada 0.
My world no longer makes sense.

Dave and Cheryl over at the Galloping Beaver are quickly becoming my favorite bloggers. Here is a great post on just how Canada is about to be massively screwed up for a generation by an idiotic ideologically-driven bunch of no-nothings
The Galloping Beaver: The Conservative Plan Is Unfolding As Predicted - part one

IN YOUR EAR

Kevin Wood / Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer

GRACE POTTER AND THE NOCTURNALS
Nothing But the Water
Buffalo Records, 2,500 yen

With their sophomore indie album Nothing But the Water, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals take a step toward the big time. In turning down several major label offers in the United States, the 22-year-old singer-songwriter and her band have placed their trust in manager Justin Goldberg, a former Sony A&R man and born-again indie record advocate.

The group have generated some buzz, making the charts in their home state and touring as an opening act for fellow Vermonter Trey Anastasio as well as big-name blues and rock acts including the Dave Matthews Band, Robert Cray and the North Mississippi All Stars.

With Buffalo Records releasing the album in Japan, the listening public here may be one step ahead of North Americans in that they will be able to walk into a record store and buy this disc. It will only be lack of distribution and label support that keeps this album from being a breakthrough hit in North America.

Nothing But the Water is terrific blend of blues, retro-rock, Americana and blue-eyed soul. Potter plays a mean Hammond organ, writes great breakup songs and has powerful, bluesy-but-smooth voice that brings Dusty Springfield, Bonnie Raitt and Koko Taylor to mind, with the phrasing and power of a gospel or soul singer in the Otis Redding-Tina Turner vein.

While Potter can belt it out with the best of them, her tendency to always swing for the fences sometimes works against her--think Melissa Etheridge and Janis Joplin. Sometimes less is more, and the more intimate moments on the album, such as "Ragged Company" and the taut country-gal blues of "Left Behind" are among the best. "Some Kind of Ride" suffers a bit from diva overdrive, but makes up for it with some great funky soul.

Enough good things cannot be said about the opening "Toothbrush and My Table," a jocular, almost jaunty breakup song that amounts to a laundry list of possessions the singer wishes to reclaim. Woe betide anyone who gets in the way, lest the empowered singer "start blasting Cat Scratch Fever!" It is hard to imagine a more radio-friendly single, and the song has enough musical and lyrical hooks to fill at least one side of a Carole King album. Just try getting it out of your head once it gets in there.

Grace Potter is a name you'll be hearing in years to come.

RYAN ADAMS
29
Universal, 2,548 yen

A number of critics have chastised Americana auteur Ryan Adams for eschewing quality for quantity with his prodigious output. I won't be one of them. Adams' chaff is what most artists would call wheat.

This latest album is his third release in 12 months following on last spring's double CD Cold Roses and late summer's Lights of Jacksonville, both recorded with the Cardinals, but it hardly seems like a mere afterthought.

A definite downer, 29 is full of sad songs like "Elizabeth, You Were Born to Play That Part" and "Nightbirds" that are as good as any Adams has written.

For the most part, 29 features Adams' wounded voice backed by sparse piano or guitar. He mines the same early '70s vein he always has echoing Neil Young, Bob Dylan and Tim Buckley. The title track puts new lyrics and a garage rock feel to the Grateful Dead's "Truckin," and Adams pushes the boundary between pathos and self-parody on "The Sadness" with mariachi horns and over-emotive vocals.

But on the whole, the album is another solid effort.
(Feb. 9, 2006)

More blog round up
Not all new, but all "must reads" - we at the woodshed scope out the blogosphere so you don't have to!

Amanda Marcotte teaches the thicker-skulled among the trolls about feminism 101.

Glenn Greenwald whups on the claim that lockstep Bush brownshirts are "conservative"

Galloping Beaver warns of the invasion of Canada by the Bible-thumping theocrats

The lovely and talented TBogg testifies on those who put the mental in fundementalism

Neocon see, neocon do
Ezra Levant shows why Western Standard is the Canadian version of (insert title of your favorite U.S. neocon wingnut journal here, but it is probably as influentual and widely read as The Weekly Standard). No one thinks that running these cartoons at this stage is a 'defense of free speech' especially when accompanied by comments like this:

"Levant, meanwhile, asks why society finds it more acceptable to poke fun at the Christian faith, pointing to a recent cover of Rolling Stone magazine
which shows hip hop artist Kanye West made up to look like Jesus. "Why are we making a special exception for one religion?" asked Levant, who is Jewish.
"I know why. Because Christians, when they're upset, they write a letter to the editor. Radical Muslims, when they're upset, burn down embassies."

But he's not trying to provoke anyone, heavens no! Just keep in mind that Western Standard has been the flag bearer of the Alberta based conservative-reform-western separatist movement in Canada and is probably what Stephen Harper reads on the can at 24 Sussex.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all for poking fun at organized religion and exposing its hypocracy (See "kissing Hank's Ass" in the Other Resources list). I particularly dislike radical Islam, militant orthodox judaism and the various brands of muscular evangelical Christianity favored by the conservatives around the world.?I don't mind other people believing what they want to believe as long as they don't try to push it on other people via the legal, political and education systems or by knocking on my door when I have a hangover. The people who are out burning embassies are being used by their leaders to distract from the real issues facing their nations. The people publishing these cartoons are getting just what they want - a reaction that lets them paint all muslims as foaming-at-the-mouth violent radicals. A pox on both their houses.

The legend of Bwana Dick
Zappa references aside, Deadeye Dick Cheney has accomplished one thing with his foray into hunting actual wild animals. He has taught us something valuable: the circumstances underwhich one may shoot a Republican lawyer and financial donor without legal repercussions.
Firedoglake has far more to say about this, and as always, says it much better. Hunting accidents don't "just happen" unless the person with the gun is being careless, but I bet Harry Wittington is thinking to himself that the next time he goes shooting with Bwana Dick, he's leaving the Osama Bin Laden mask at home.

I'll take political appointments that suck for $400 Alex

A:He's a unilingual Anglophone who runs a wheat farm in Albert and has just been named Parliamentary Secretary for La Francophonie

Q:Who is Ted Menzies

Stageleft:. Life on the left side has the best take with " And Harper's Hits Just Keep On Comin'!"

Calling all lawyers
I'm curious and seeking a free legal opinion. David Emerson ran as a Liberal in the riding of Vancouver Kingsway. He begged NDP supporters to vote for him in order to keep the Conservatives from winning the seat. He said the day before the election that if elected he would be "Stephen Harper's worst enemy" and was elected to Parliament. The Conservatives came a distant third with 18% of the vote. Two weeks later, at the opening of Parliament, Mr. Emerson defects and joins the Conservative Cabinet. Much screeching, shouting and gnashing of teeth ensues on both sides of the floor.

My questions: Can voters in the riding, the Liberal riding association or the federal Liberal party sue David Emerson for breach of promise? Can he be forced to return campaign contribution for acting in bad faith?

Just curious...

Let the disaster begin
Well it has finally happened, the lunatics have taken over the asylum
Fear and Loathing in Canada (both the excellent blog and the sentiment) outlines Harper's Agenda as the new Prime Minister is sworn in (and around here, sworn at)

This round up of the new cabinet gives more than the benifit of the doubt to some of Harper's choices.

Let's take a less rose-coloured look at few over the next few days, starting with Peter MacKay, the new Foreign Affairs Minister and former almost Mr. Belinda Stronach (and possibly the new almost Mr. Sophie Demaris?). He also led the Progressive Conservative Party for about 15 minutes before someone noticed the party had died and was starting to smell worse than usual. Apparently MacKay is regularly voted the sexist male MP by Commons staff - clearly an important qualification since romancing rich and powerful women seems to be what he is chiefly known for. As foreign affairs minister, it couldn't hurt if MacKay had a fling with a President Condeleezza Rice or a President Hillary Clinton - though I'd prefer if the breakup didn't include sending the 82nd Airborne to get back the jilted president's toothbrush, favorite t-shirt and White House coffee mug.

Hopefully MacKay will stick to his knitting and do his sucking up in Washington through his yet-to-be-named ambassador. Who will it be? After all Canada's ambassador to Washington will be a vital playing in the Harper effort to get back on side with Dubya's neocons without looking like they've actually donned kneepads.
Names being mentioned include Brian Mulroney, Mike Harris and Preston Manning. Surely there will be Senate seats at least for purveyor of "Common Sense" and old time Injun Fighter Mike "better dead than red" Harris, Brian "the Chin that walks like a man" Mulroney and Parson Manning. I think MacKay should at least consider Joe Clark. Just imagine the stammering, the polite "excuse me, uhh wait just a second now, aww c'mon guys" kind of Jimmy-Stewart-in-the-first-half of "The Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance" kind of standing up for Canada we'd get then!
Our new foreign policy: Whatever Dubya says it is. Move over Tony Blair.


Other, far superior examinations of the start of the slide downhill can be found at Galloping Beaver, who puts the hurt on turncoat David Emerson, who is no Belinda Stronach. Canadian Cynic also smells a rat concerning the man who begged NDP voters to vote Liberal to stop the Conservatives and then two weeks later joined the Tory Cabinet. Doubtless Emerson's new collegues will be as harsh on him as they were on Stronach, who served a year with the Tories and had public conflicts with the leadership before she jumped ship. I'm no fan, but lets just see if new immigration minister Monte Solburg calls Emerson "a dipstick"

Later this week we will look at:

• Justice Minister Vic Toews, who want Parliament to tell the Supreme Court to go pound sand and outlaw gay marriage. He pleaded guilty to breaking campaign laws in 1999 too.
• Public Security Minister Stockwell "Doris" Day who is bound to come up with his own patriot act by the end of the year, probably by taking the one in effect in der Fatherland, I mean "the Homeland" to the south and swapping proper nouns around.
• Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, late of Mike Harris nonsense revolution

Blogworld roundup
Both The General and Dave Neiwert have been looking for donations, so cough up - bandwidth isn't free. The General appears to have raised the desired amount nearly overnight, and I'm sure Dave will too, but paying for what you get out of a lot of the professional blogs is always a good way of making sure the good guys win. You could also trying clicking through on their advertising links.

Majikthise has a very scary post about the real reason several female U.S. soldiers died of dehydration in Iraq. It seems they refused to drink anything late in the day because they were afraid of being raped by their brothers in arms if they went out to the latrine at night.

Half of my blogroll seems to be nominated for a Koufax award this year for blogs most deserving of wider recognition. Personally, I already think of Rising Hegemon, The Talent Show and Sisyphus Shrugged as major leaguers with Happy Furry Puppy Storytime and Lawyers, Guns and Money not far behind them in terms of notoriety. Axis of Evel Kneival and the newly discovered and much appreciated Galloping Beaver are both lesser known, newer blogs - and both link here. Hard to say which to vote for, though I do get more traffic from Galloping Beaver. We will forgive Wampum for overlooking us again this year (sniff) and hope that one of the aformentioned nominees gets some love from the voters. See the blogroll for links and check them all out and vote early and often for your favorite when the polls finally open.

Oh, and Cathie from Canada had a car accident but wisely resists the temptation to curse about the moron that totalled her car.
.

Death to the extremists!


One British Muslim who either has a subversive sense of humor or needs to spend more time reading his Koran and less time reading Danish newspapers. As do these people - seriously folks, get a grip, remember Islam is supposed to be the religion of peace.

Yelling fire in a crowded mosque

I like the one of him losing his touque, but you can choose the Mohammed cartoon you like best from the Only Canadian News Source to Publish Mohammed Cartoons.

I think the faithful need to learn a little more tolerance for the sacreligious acts of us nonbelievers, but really, what the hell was the Danish newspaper thinking? Even flattering images of the prophet are forbidden - did they think running a drawing of him with a bomb for a turban was going to go unanswered?

In the words of a Great American (tm)
Shut up! Just Shut UP!
AMERICAblog: Because a great nation deserves the truth has the scoop on the Pentagon's attempt to intimidate the Washington Post over a cartoon that shows Rumsfeld in a bad light.