Away for the next month...

I'm leaving in a few days for a trip to Europe. I might not find the time to write any more before I leave. Or I might. Who knows? I suppose it will be a matter of whether I have the time on my hands, and if I find anything to sufficiently piss me off enough to bother writing about. So much of everything lately is redundancy.

At any rate, I'll be back the second week of June. Until then, you'll have to be content reading what I've already written. I'll be updating my other blog on the Albigensian Crusade when I get back, as I'm going to be in France where the crusade took place, so if you're interested in that, check back in June.

They Don't Hate us for our Freedom

They hate us for our Corporatocracy, and the endless greed that goes with it.

Study: Poverty fueling Muslim tension with West

By DAVID STRINGER
Associated Press Writer
May 7, 1:51 PM EDT

LONDON (AP) -- Joblessness and poverty are a more potent source of tension between Muslims and wider European and U.S. society than religious differences, one of the first major studies of Muslim integration since the Sept. 11 terror attacks claimed on Thursday.

Attacks by Islamic extremists on the United States, and European capitals like Madrid and London, have sparked debate about whether a failure of Muslims to integrate into Western society has fueled extremism and created divisions between communities.

But a study of around 10,000 people in 27 countries by the Gallup polling company claims non-Muslims - including the public and lawmakers - have misunderstood the attitudes of Muslims in the West, stifling attempts to promote better understanding. Muslims in the West are more patriotic, more tolerant and more likely to reject violence than the rest of Western society believes they are, the study claims...

The study found that only 10 percent of British Muslims consider themselves integrated into British society, compared to 46 percent of French Muslims and 35 percent of German Muslims. Mogahed, an Egyptian-American Muslim, said unemployment and access to education were key factors in isolating Muslims in the West.

The study found that 38 percent of British Muslims said they had a job, lower than the figure for the British general public - 62 percent - and lower than Muslims in Germany or France, where 53 percent and 45 percent respectively said they were employed. Mogahed said that Muslims, particularly in Britain and France, feel marginalized because they have more difficulty finding jobs than non-Muslims, and typically have lower incomes.

"Economic integration may become more precarious in light of the current financial crisis affecting Europe," she said. Another key finding of the study was that that Muslims don't prioritize their faith over patriotism, Mogahed said.

The study found that 77 percent of British Muslims feel a strong sense of British identity, compared to 50 percent of the country's non-Muslims. In France, around half of Muslims and non-Muslims say they feel a strong sense of patriotism...

And this just goes into Muslims who live in the west. They're discriminated against and people assume that they're really terrorists in disguise. I once knew a girl, she was Muslim and had a small child who was about three. All of them were American Citizens. Her family ran a convenience store and one day she told me that this older man came into the store, and when he saw her in her headscarf and the child, he pointed at the toddler and said something to the effect of "He'll grow up to be a terrorist too." I was appalled that someone would assume that because of one's religious persuasions that that automatically makes them a terrorist. Excuse me, but the kid's three. You don't even know if he'll have strong religious beliefs when he grows up. It's absolute, unadulterated ignorance and racism/ethnocentrism, and there's no excuse for it. How can you talk about a toddler like that? How cruel and stupid do you have to be? Is it any wonder that they don't feel integrated into society?

I mean, if you see an Irish Catholic, do you call his kid a terrorist because of the IRA? They blew people up over religion. Do you automatically assume such a thing? Or does it really have more to do with race as to why Muslims get hated on? After all, the Irish guy is white. And don't try that whole "the Koran is different than the Bible" argument, because that's bullshit. Both books are full of barbarity and god righteously ordering the smiting of this or that group of people. Indeed, a portion of the Koran is a retelling of the Bible with the names spelled differently, but no one has a problem with the Bible. Even the Bible says that you should kill unbelievers. Where's the outrage over that?

"If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, "Let us go and worship other gods" (gods that neither you nor your fathers have known, gods of the peoples around you, whether near or far, from one end of the land to the other), do not yield to him or listen to him. Show him no pity. Do not spare him or shield him. You must certainly put him to death. Your hand must be the first in putting him to death, and then the hands of all the people. Stone him to death, because he tried to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Then all Israel will hear and be afraid, and no one among you will do such an evil thing again." Deuteronomy 13:6-11

Indeed, Christianity itself has historically been a violent religion. Just look at the Inquisition or the pogroms against Jews.

People forget that there are crazies in all walks of life, and while religious convictions (of any type) can fuel that, there are plenty of people who are just plain fucking crazy, and religion has nothing to do with it. Luckily, I think the majority of people, regardless of their religion are basically good people.

When society starts demonizing an entire group of people because of their religion or ethnicity, bad things follow. All one must do is look at history to see this.

Civil War over Slave Gay Marriage

Because tearing the country apart over giving legal rights to other people is... is... wait. That's exactly what happened during the Civil War in the 19th century. Our ancestors tore this country apart over slavery, with half the country wishing to deny blacks the right to be free, to be considered human, instead of 3/5^ths of a person.

Fast forward 144 years and we have black people in DC up in arms, clamoring to deny others of their legal rights. They should be ashamed of themselves. This is a nation of laws, not a nation of religion. You don't like it, don't marry someone of the same sex. This isn't about what your sky god thinks or what you think he thinks. This is about same sex couples having legal rights provided by our secular government. If you don't like it, move to Saudi Arabia. Let me know how that whole theocracy thing works out for you, k?

Barry Warns of "Civil War" Over Gay Marriage

D.C. Council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8), the only council member to vote against the bill today to legalize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere, predicted today there could be a "civil war" in the District if the Council decides to take up a broader gay marriage bill later this year.

"All hell is going to break lose," Barry said while speaking to reporters. "We may have a civil war. The black community is just adamant against this."

Barry made his remarks a few hours after a group of same-sex marriage opponents, led by black ministers, caused uproar in the Wilson Building after the Council voted 12 to 1 to recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere. They caused such a ruckus that security guards and police had to clear the hallway. The protesters shouted that council members who voted for the bill will face retribution at the polls.

Although he has been a longtime supporter of gay rights, Barry said he voted against the bill to satisfy his constituents in Southeast Washington.

"What you've got to understand is 98 percent of my constituents are black and we don't have but a handful of openly gay residents," Barry said. "Secondly, at least 70 percent of those who express themselves to me about this are opposed to anything dealing with this issue. The ministers think it is a sin, and I have to be sensitive to that."

But Barry said he disagrees with the ministers' antics today at the Wilson Building, saying the chaos "sets the movement back."

Oh, and by the way, the great irony of this, is that the Bible supports slavery too. Maybe those black people in DC should go back to being slaves since the Bible says it's okay. {/snark}

"Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ." Ephesians 6:5

"All who are under the yoke of slavery should consider their masters worthy of full respect, so that God's name and our teaching may not be slandered." 1 Timothy 6:1

BTW, I never thought I would quote the Catholic Encyclopedia in any seriousness, but you know, there is a time and a place for everything.

..."according to Greek law and usage, the slave was in a complete subjection to the will of his master, possessing no rights, even that of marriage."

So, there you have it. It is true. Humanity learns nothing from history.

Miss California: The Homophobic Hypocrite

Because nude photos are so Christ-like. *roll eyes*

Yes, this doesn't surprise me, not one little bit. It's because the extreme Fundamentalists love to tell everyone else what to do, but they think that they are exempt from their own rules.

Miss California Nude Picture Carrie Prejean Naked Photo Scandal

"Hmmm…These explosive pictures could be devastating for Miss California, whose anti-gay marriage campaign recently resulted in a partnership with the National Organization for Marriage and helped to make her increasingly popular with right-wing conservatives.

Can you guys believe the nerve of this bozo? Using the Lord Jesus Christ as an excuse to support inequality when she’s just as big a sinner as anyone?

Let this be a lesson to us all; you may want to refrain from chastising other people about how they live their lives when there are digital photos of your ass buried on somebody’s hard drive. This reminds me of something my mother always said when I was growing up- Ah, that’s right, something about stones and glass houses. Ring a bell?"

This reminds me of so many other bible thumpers, who were exposed as frauds. Because this is what it boils down to. She is an air-headed idiot, who probably likes to party too much, and has done who knows what (and done who knows who), but has the audacity to stand in front of cameras and tell two people that they shouldn't be together because of her religious beliefs, which obviously don't mean very much to her in the first place.

Indeed, if she wants to take the Bible literally, she ought to put some fucking clothes on. How dare she expose herself like that! {/snark}

From a Biblical standpoint, she is a whore. She picks and chooses her verses, when they're useful for hating on other people, but ignores the ones that urge modesty, saying that the use of makeup and jewelry is a sin. I don't even know what the Biblical writers would have thought of bikinis, as they weren't invented yet, but I'm sure that those crotchety old priests would have disapproved, for the masses that is. I'm sure they were as lecherous as the next priest.

The Christians are so good at judging and hating other people. If they were truly Christians, they'd take the words of their so-called savior a little closer to heart. I believe it was a parable about throwing stones at someone when the stone throwers themselves were just as guilty. Something too about not judging. But why does anything that Jesus supposedly say matter? I mean, much of it was quite ethical, and some if it was insightful, but if it gets in the way of hate, well we can't have that.

Oh, and apparently there are some racier photos than the one displayed here. I'm sure they'll be leaked later.

Apparently there may be more too. Give a man enough rope and he will hang himself.

Miss California Denounces Racy Photo Leak

"I am a Christian, and I am a model. Models pose for pictures, including lingerie and swimwear photos. Recently, photos taken of me as a teenager have been released surreptitiously to a tabloid website that openly mocks me for my Christian faith.

"I am not perfect, and I will never claim to be. But these attacks on me and others who speak in defense of traditional marriage are intolerant and offensive. While we may not agree on every issue, we should show respect for others' opinions and not try to silence them through vicious and mean-spirited attacks."

What is this about "high school" photos? The photos so far that have been released are estimated to have been taken quite recently, after her boob job. You know, my dad used to warn me about saying too much. Apparently Miss Carrie Prejean didn't get the same advice.

A Disaster for Tourism in Mexico

It really is a disaster that the swine flu seems to have started in Mexico, not least of which is the hit to their economy, a lot of which is fueled by tourism. It's not enough that they already have a ton of problems on the border, with all the violent drug cartels, the kidnappings, and murders in broad daylight.


Not that many years ago, twenty maybe, one could go down to the border and cross it to go shopping or have lunch. Those days are long gone, unfortunately. I wish it weren't so, as I love travel and have never been to Mexico. We live so close to it, but it's really not safe to go there anymore. There are Mexican nationals who travel between the US and Mexico because of work or personal reasons here, and even they won't go to the border towns, they only travel through them, usually early, early in the morning. Indeed it has gotten so bad, that many who live in the border towns have come up here to stay with relatives.

And there's a great danger of the violence spilling over the border. Indeed, earlier this year in Pharr, which is near McAllen, a live grenade was tossed into a bar where off duty police officers frequently hung out.

It's really terrible for the people having to live there, and the Mexican military seems out gunned, and outnumbered. I really don't have an answer on how to stop it all either. Well, I do, but no one will like it. Legalize all drugs and tax the hell out of them. There you go. Perhaps it's not realistic, but in my head it makes sense. All of a sudden the cartels are without business, because you can buy your drugs legally. Of course, no one will like this idea, because it's not "moral" whatever that is. As if it's "moral" to allow people to suffer under the cartels, but whatever. I've always been of the mindset that if one is going to do drugs, they're going to do them legal or not, and if they're not going to do them, they won't even if they're legal. I wouldn't do drugs, even if they were legal. I don't smoke cigarettes, so I wouldn't even smoke marijuana, even though I don't think it's all that bad for you.

I also think that the fact that it's taboo, probably leads some people to do it. I have known people when I was younger, who abused alcohol because their parents were teetotalers, and it was a reaction against that. They drank to spite their parents, or to see if they could get away with it. I on the other hand, had parents who were a bit more open than that, and insisted that if I was going to drink or something, that I be safe about it. I never had an urge to go and get drunk as some of my friends did. I think it's something psychological.

And we're in a huge mess tax wise, with the Republicans screaming they don't want more taxes. Well, here you can have your cake and eat it too. Imagine all the tax money from legal narcotics. Imagine all the money saved by not prosecuting people for damaging their own health. Now don't get me wrong, if you're driving under the influence, or causing a disturbance because you're on drugs then you need to be prosecuted as such, but if you want to sit in your own home and fry your brain, that ain't none of my business.

You know, it was entirely different at the end of the 19th century. I read a really interesting article not that long ago, that many middle and upper class women were totally addicted to heavy duty narcotics because they were marketed as elixirs for their health. But the thing is, they didn't understand how bad it was for them. IMHO, education is the answer, not punishing people for it. You see, this is why we wound up with the mob in the 30's because they outlawed liquor, and the mob filled a niche. As I said, if one is going to do it, the legality of it is generally not a deterrent. Just sayin'

Swine Flu Creates Backlog at Labs

So, the Swine Flu, now being called H1N1 (which isn't even bloody accurate as there are other flu that shares that type) or North American Flu, has turned out to probably not be that big of a deal. However, it has exposed some enormous problems in our medical testing labs. For example, where I live not far from the Mexican border, we have hundreds of suspected cases of flu, but no confirmed cases yet, even though they sent the first test swabs off a week ago. It's no surprise there are so many cases here, as many of the people here, even if they've been here for decades or even generations, have family in Mexico, and with the Easter holiday, many of them went to visit relatives and vice versa.

Texas lab swamped with swine flu samples
© 2009 The Associated Press
May 2, 2009, 12:07PM

AUSTIN, Texas — Only a fraction of the nearly 2,500 nasal swabs sent to the state health department lab have been tested. The Austin lab had tested 181 of the 2,492 nasal swabs received from counties around the state by Friday, Department of State Health Services spokesman Doug McBride told the Austin American-Statesman for Saturday's editions.

The lab's single testing machine became overwhelmed Wednesday when samples began flooding in from around the state. Three more machines are being added, more staff is being trained to run on two more shifts and the lab will work seven days a week to catch up, McBride said. The lack of test results does not change how doctors treat patients, but makes an accurate count of cases impossible.

"I'd like to know how many (cases) there are," said Dr. Pat Crocker, medical director of Dell Children's Medical Center in Austin. "We have heard disappointingly little from the state."

That hospital's emergency room received twice as many patients Thursday as usual. On Friday, the hospital set up three air-conditioned tents with cots to treat overflow patients in a covered parking area. After state labs test samples from counties, they forward possible swine flu samples to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention lab in Atlanta for final confirmation. The CDC also is sending supplies to state labs so they will be able to start making their own confirmations.

"Part of what we're trying to do is speed up the confirmation time," said CDC spokesman Scott Bryan. With the additional machines and personnel, the state lab should be able to handle 200 cases per day, whereas now it can do 70, McBride said.

Maybe it would behoove them to take this as a lesson, because if this really were a virulent pandemic that would kill a lot of people, many would be dead before they could even get the results back. But I won't hold my breath. As history has shown, we never learn anything.

Oh, and on that note, so much for Texas being self-sufficient as that gasbag Perry was spouting a couple weeks ago. Instead, he's accepted federal money and federal stockpiles of Tamiflu, and then declared a state of emergency so Texas is first in line for federal aid. We can't even test 10% of the samples of flu in less than a week and a day, much less operate without federal assistance. I dare say that horse won't ride.

When a Work of Fiction Threatens your Religion

Why does a work of fiction threaten their beliefs so much? I just don't get it. As an aside, Angels and Demons was a much better book than The Da Vinci Code. Indeed, The Da Vinci Code movie was much better than the book, and that typically doesn't happen often. I won't tell you why, because it would spoil the story.

At any rate, the Catholic Church had to throw a hissy fit and not let them film in all the places they wanted to because it wasn't the "correct" view of Catholicism.

Ron Howard: Vatican obstructed 'Angels & Demons'

By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press Writer

ROME (AP) -- Director Ron Howard claimed Sunday that the Vatican interfered with efforts to get permits to shoot certain scenes of his "Angels & Demons" religious thriller in Rome - a charge the Vatican said was purely a publicity stunt. The film, which stars Tom Hanks and is based on the best-selling novel by Dan Brown, has its world premiere Monday in Rome...

At a press conference Sunday, Howard said he hadn't sought cooperation from the Vatican based on the opposition he encountered filming "The Da Vinci Code," another Brown novel that angered many Catholic leaders. But he said the Vatican nevertheless exerted influence regarding his filming permits, and he was told it would not be possible even to shoot scenes in Rome that had churches in the background.

"When you come to film in Rome, the official statement to you is that the Vatican has no influence," he said. "Everything progressed very smoothly, but unofficially a couple of days before we were to start filming in several of our locations, it was explained to us that through back channels and so forth that the Vatican had exerted some influence."

"Was I surprised? No. Am I a little frustrated at times? Sure," he said.

Nevertheless he said he felt that he was able to preserve the overall "Angels & Demons" experience despite the restrictions by recreating scenes on sets. For the Sistine Chapel alone, some 20 members of the production crew - posing as tourists - took photos of all the frescoes, floor mosaics and paintings of the tiny chapel where popes are elected - until they were told to stop, the film's Web site says...

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, refused to comment on Howard's allegations about church interference, saying his charges were purely designed to drum up publicity for the film. Last summer, Rome's diocese confirmed it had barred producers from filming inside two churches because the movie didn't conform to the church's views...

The 2006 film "The Da Vinci Code" took in more than $750 million worldwide. It prompted calls for boycotts by church leaders worldwide with the idea that Jesus married and fathered children and by depicting the conservative Catholic movement, Opus Dei, as a murderous cult. Reaction from church leaders to "Angels & Demons" has been more muted, though one Italian bishop, Monsignor Antonio Rosario Mennonna, said Saturday the film was "highly denigrating, defamatory and offensive" to the Catholic Church, the ANSA news agency reported...

You know, I have to ask if Monsignor Antonio Rosario Mennonna has even read either book, or for that matter even seen the movie that he is talking about. Because quite frankly, I don't see Angels and Demons, the book anyway, as any of the adjectives he uses to describe it, but whatever. I'm just a heathen so what do I know?

I will definitely go see this movie, if only because Ewan McGregor is in it. You know, going from a heroin addict in Scotland to an important official in the Catholic church is a big step. Or maybe it was just the logical progression of things. Lulz.


For those of you who don't know, Ewan McGregor played the part of a heroin addict in Scotland in the movie Trainspotting, and as far as I know, isn't actually a heroin addict himself.

Let Her Get Fat: Saudi Arabia clamps down on Gyms for Women

You know, I'm fascinated with countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran, where their women allow themselves to be treated like chattel. Yes, I say "allow" because, well they do. The only way that anything will change there, is if there is a movement against the powers that be. Sure, people will die, but if you're not willing to die for your freedom, then you'll never get it. If enough of these women would say that enough was enough and take to the streets en masse and demand their rights, they'd have them. But you see the problem is complex, because many women there like things the way they are. I don't understand it at all, sort of like how I don't understand how any woman who has half a thought in her head could be in the Republican party, but I digress.

Besides not being able to drive, women in Saudi Arabia are apparently not allowed to work out either. The government has been cracking down on gyms, and doesn't even allow women or girls to participate in sports in public schools because they "might lose their virginity." Yes, this all goes back to some twisted fucking sense that a guy needs a virgin, something I never understood, because do you really want someone who has no idea what they're doing? But that's another post entirely.

Saudi Arabia clamps down on unlicensed female gyms
Thu Apr 30, 2009 5:45pm EDT

By Asma Alsharif

JEDDAH (Reuters) - "Let her get fat!" is the slogan women in Saudi Arabia are using to challenge a clampdown on female-only gyms. Unhappy at the growing number of unlicensed female gyms, the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs recently closed two in the Red Sea city of Jeddah and one in the city of Dammam on the Gulf Arab coast for not having a license...

Female participation in sports has long been a controversial issue in the kingdom, with physical education banned from public girls' schools and clerics issuing religious prohibitions on female participation in sports... "The idea of female fitness is non-existent within our government," said Fouziah Alouni, a prominent women's rights campaigner...

The result has been high rates of diabetes and even bone frailty among women, which the Ministry of Health says it wants to combat. "Football and basketball are sports that require a lot of movement and jumping," Sheikh Abdullah al-Maneea, member of the official Supreme Council of Religious Scholars, said in a religious opinion published in Okaz newspaper Thursday.

He said such excessive movement may harm girls who are still virgins, possibly causing them to lose their virginity... Women's gyms can only exist inside hospitals as "health centres" supervised by the Ministry of Health but prices are so high, at least 1,000 riyals ($266) a month, that only the affluent can afford membership.

Cheaper versions have sprung up under name "beauty salon" or "studio" but now their future is in doubt. Madawi Al-Hassoun of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce said the chamber has been trying for three years to find a government body prepared to take on board licensing female gyms. "Some people don't like women to go out of their homes. This is a common struggle for female businesses in Saudi," she said.

(Editing by Andrew Hammond and Paul Casciato)

In fact, Saudi Arabia is the only country not to allow any women to participate in the Olympics, and yet they're allowed to compete. I really can't believe that the IOC allows that. Everyone was protesting allowing China to host the games, but it's a real toss up when it comes to human rights violations between the two. I can't decide which one is worse. I didn't see anyone protesting about Saudi Arabia's participation. And you know what? Our government is really good friends with Saudi Arabia. We invade Iraq, a secular country, and what happens? They're now ruled by religious fanatics. America FTW! Not.

I have read other articles in the past, where women who would go jogging would get harassed by the religious police. I suppose that a lot of why they allow themselves to be denigrated to second class citizens has to do with brainwashing. When you're told all your life that you are nothing, that you are not equal, you will more than likely believe it. It's a pity really, that you deny half your adult population any rights. What if one of them, if they had been allowed to do so, came up with the cure for cancer, or any number of other things.

Indeed, organized religion has been a drain on this entire planet. It has set us back a thousand years. The Catholic Church burned people at the stake for putting forth scientific ideas that contradicted the Bible, or in the case of Galileo forced him to recant his "errors" that the earth revolved around the sun. They would have burned Galileo if he'd been willing to die for what he believed and refused to recant, but he wasn't. I suppose he was content to go back to his house, where he spent the rest of his life under house arrest, and ponder on how the joke was on the Chruch, because the earth revolved around the sun anyway.

Would You Like Some Swine Flu in Your Burger?

I read this article about how despite the Swine Flu outbreak, which probably isn't that bad after all the press hysteria (surprise, surprise), that many people who are sick are going to work anyway because they have no sick time. This was something that I had forgotten. I used to work for various fast food restaurants before I went to college, and there, you have no sick pay and no vacation as far as I can remember.

I have a white collar job now, I get 10 days of sick time and 10 days of vacation a year. I can use my sick time for anything, like if I need to go have my eyes checked, or if I need to take care of personal business. I think that should be standard for every job, but what do I know? I must be a socialist commie (probably throw fascist in there too) because I support worker's rights. It's a terrible thing that a great majority of this country doesn't even realize that they're getting the shaft and they keep voting for the ones who are screwing them over.

Swine flu or not, many workers can't stay home

By JOCELYN NOVECK

NEW YORK (AP) -- You wake up one morning and you're feeling achy and feverish. The directions from health officials battling swine flu are clear: Stay home from work. Don't risk infecting others. And certainly don't send a sick kid to school.

But what if you're one of the estimated 57 million working Americans with no paid sick days?
...
"The problem has really come into sharp relief the past few days," said Debra Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women and Families, which has long pushed for paid sick leave. "Many people don't even realize that almost half the private sector - 48 percent - has no sick days, not even a single one."
...
Making matters even worse: Those least likely to have sick leave are low-income workers, particularly in fields like food services, child care and the hotel industry - in other words, the people you most want to be staying home if they're sick...

The Associated Press interviewed a number of workers in the food industry. Not surprisingly, most didn't want their names used for fear they would be fired. They told stories of coming to work with a fever or flu in order to keep their jobs, and of seeing sick co-workers sneezing and coughing near food... A study on sick leave found that 68 percent of those without paid sick days had gone to work with a contagious illness like the flu or a viral infection...

Making the problem even thornier: Kids. Children get sick all the time and infect each other. Yet even among those workers lucky enough to have paid sick leave, few have flexible sick days that can be used to care for a family member... Advocates for family-friendly policies point out that the U.S. is the only country out of the top 20 world economic powers with no federally mandated sick days. Put another way, some 140 other countries have them.

No U.S. states have them either, though three cities have passed such measures: San Francisco, Washington and Milwaukee, where implementation has been held up by a lawsuit...

There are two types of people. There's the worker, who apparently is content to be screwed over, and then there's the higher ups, thankful that the workers don't realize that they should be getting the better end of things, especially considering that the CEO of most major companies makes hundreds of times the annual pay of their workers.

And I just want to point out, that I as bad as the evil Wal-Mart is painted to be, they provide a little sick time to their employees, or used to at any rate. I don't know about now.

Oh, and you want to know why the economy is in the tank? Henry Ford, as much of an anti-Semitic bastard that he was, realized that if he would pay his workers enough, they'd buy his product. Well guess what? We don't pay the majority of people in this country enough to afford to live, much less buy anything. But we have a solution for that. We give credit cards to everyone! The working class can then go out and charge it, but they still can't pay for it. So they can file bankruptcy, and get credit cards again. Yes, this really does happen. I have seen it with my own eyes. But now there's no credit unless your rating is sky high, and so the working class can't buy anything, because they didn't have the money for it in the first place. And our economy is in a death spiral because of it.

Michele Bachmann Dodges Question

Not surprising that the anchor at Faux News didn't insist she answer the question. Indeed, I'm surprised they even asked it. The appropriate answer would have been "I'm an idiot."

Miss California: Still a Homophopic Prick

This girl just doesn't know when to stop. She just keeps digging herself deeper into her own hell. Now she's given an interview to Faux News. I'm sure she's enjoying this popularity, although she says she is dumbstruck by all the publicity. If that's the truth, she's even dumber than I thought, and I already knew she wasn't the brightest crayon in the box.

"I'm grateful for the outpouring of support from the great majority of Americans who know in our hearts that Americans should treat others with respect, even when we disagree -- especially when we disagree about important moral issues like marriage."

Respect? Respect is denying other people rights? Is this really the platform of Miss California. Why have they not stripped her of her crown? This isn't a "moral" issue you stupid, ignorant piece of chattel. It's a civil and legal issue. If you want it to be about "moral" things alone, then the government better cease to recognize any marriage at all. Oh, but it gets better.

"You probably know by now I believe very strongly that a marriage is between a man and a woman. This vision of marriage is not hateful, it's not discriminatory. It's good."

Apparently, dim-bulb here needs a dictionary for Christmas. To help her define the term "discriminatory". It is discrimination when you allow civil and legal rights to married couples of the opposite sex, but not to those of the same sex. Like power of attorney. The right to visit their significant other if they're dying in the hospital. If you're not married, and your partner is dying, his or her family can refuse you entry to his or her hospital room because you are not related or married and have no legal right to see them. I can't even begin to imagine how absolutely devastating that is. And if you are to die, your partner cannot carry out your final wishes, because they have no legal right to do so. And this doesn't even get into issues of health insurance, tax exemptions, and other things that have to do with government and not religion.

"I do not want to raise my own children in a world where this traditional view of marriage is considered hateful or discriminatory."

Dude, I really don't want your dumb, unthinking self having children. Please, use protection.

"VAN SUSTEREN: Are you taking heat for this? Because there certainly was a lot of controversy when you answered the question at the pageant, and then Perez Hilton blogged about it, and it sort of got everything all revved up.

PREJEAN: Am I taking any heat for this?

VAN SUSTEREN: Yes, any additional heat for hooking up with the National Organization for Marriage.

I mean, are people giving you a hard time, or supporting you? In the last few hours, what's it been like?

PREJEAN: I haven't had any negative feedback. I've had only positive feedback."

Case in point. She can't even interpret the question. She is a liar or just plain stupid as well. You haven't had any negative feedback? Are you living in a bubble, you ignorant, unthinking prick. Or are you just a liar?

"VAN SUSTEREN: What is your thought on civil unions?

PREJEAN: My thought on civil unions? You know what, Greta? I don't have the answers to everything. I'm not running for political office. I don't have the answers to everything, you know, in the world out there."

I bet she doesn't even know what a civil union is. Fucking idiot.

PREJEAN: Well, I'm not a politician, so I can't give you an answer to that.

Thank god, because we have enough stupid politicians as it is.

VAN SUSTEREN: How did you get involved with them? They watched the pageant and watched the controversy, and they called you?

PREJEAN: Oh, this is a huge issue right now.

And they actually got in contact with me, and just said we thank you for standing up for what you believe, and, you know, traditional marriage. We see that you, we could tell that you wanted to win Miss USA so bad that night, and you took a stand. And, you know, you aren't afraid to stand up for what you believe in. We respect you for that.

So that's kind of how they reached me.

Come on, we're not fucking stupid. They paid you off. I wonder how much money they waived in her face to get her to risk losing her crown as Miss California, because surely she had to know the risks. Unless she's even more dumb than I thought.

Revoke her fucking crown California! I can't believe for a second they want someone like this representing them and their state. What a loser.