tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105660272026-02-25T03:15:40.886-05:00<b>The disillusioned rantings of a tart-tongued harpy: Politics, Religion and anything else that gets my panties in a wad</b>Ol Crankyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03062952528573304148noreply@blogger.comBlogger850125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10566027.post-43270508255055637932010-10-10T10:19:00.003-04:002010-10-10T11:11:07.440-04:00

Just as BushCo was a source of international embarrassment for the Americans who neither supported them nor believed in their policies, Bibi Netanyahu and the Israeli right-wing is a continued source of shame for the vast majority of Jews worldwide. The distinction between Israel and Jews is not one non-Jews make. Much of the vitriol spewed against Israel and her policies come in the form of

Ol Crankyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03062952528573304148noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10566027.post-23383790830677880322010-04-03T08:37:00.005-04:002010-04-03T12:28:35.146-04:00

Patients, Americans, Consumers, lend me your ears. . . federal prosecutor Mike Loucks comes not to praise Pfizer, he comes to tell us we're Pfucked. According to Loucks, Pfizer is just too big to be penalized in any truly significant way because the appropriate and legally prescribed penalties would not only exclude the company from Medicaid and Medicare, they would lead to the company's

Ol Crankyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03062952528573304148noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10566027.post-91449194043793840612010-01-14T18:19:00.002-05:002010-01-14T18:26:21.977-05:00

I'm not a big fan of the Red Cross so my donations will be made to really great organizations:Medicine without Borders - which has already set up medical tents to treat victimsandInternational Medical Corps which is a great organization despite having Sienna Miller as an ambassador.

Ol Crankyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03062952528573304148noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10566027.post-8969633865229846362010-01-13T10:01:00.013-05:002010-01-13T10:39:42.619-05:00

Art by Mike Mitchell.Late to the Meme and not normally inclined to comment on late night TV, I just felt I'd add my $0.02. While the focus of the blame for this late night debacle is NBC's epic failure when it comes to network TV programming and piss poor handling of the situation, I just feel the need to point out that Jay Leno and his ego (which is exponentially larger than his prominent chin)

Ol Crankyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03062952528573304148noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10566027.post-82715075786938848812009-12-19T09:37:00.004-05:002009-12-19T10:02:45.294-05:00

I've said this before and I'll say it again (and again. . . ): People put way too much emphasis on words to the point where people can find (or create) slight where is does not exist. At the rate we're going, it's just a matter of time before it will only be safe to communicate through binary code. For once, the assault on language is coming from the EU which seems to be taking a hard line on

Ol Crankyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03062952528573304148noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10566027.post-87986911997773646872009-11-01T14:58:00.002-05:002009-11-01T15:37:27.037-05:00

Roman Polanski is once again proving that great artistic talent does not make him an honorable human being. In the face of his victim, Samantha Geimer, requesting the charges be dropped due to the negative impact the media attention to the situation has had on her health, Polanksi is promising to cough up lots of cash to the Swiss government so they will release him from jail even though that

Ol Crankyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03062952528573304148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10566027.post-6297909893732113412009-10-01T14:52:00.002-04:002009-10-01T15:02:33.850-04:00

Wasn't the FTC supposed to relay a decision on Wye-Pfi yesterday? I'm hearing crickets chirping, but nothing else from Pfizer, here in Pharm Country. Could it be that the FTC is doing some Pfizering itself and making the "too big to fail" drug giant jump through hoops?Tags: health care mergers &amp; acquisitions FTC pharma off label promotion Health medicine Pfizer Wyeth

Ol Crankyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03062952528573304148noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10566027.post-88083252344021986242009-05-13T15:54:00.002-04:002009-05-13T17:13:56.041-04:00

In this case, the renegade drug company is none other than General Mills purveyors of such nasty contraband as Cheerios®. My first reaction was to crack up hysterically at what, on the surface, appears to be histrionics in the face of overblown health claims for something that is no more than a tasty treat (and pretty darned good potty training tool). In all honesty, General Mills' advertising

Ol Crankyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03062952528573304148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10566027.post-91422470748782725512009-03-09T16:11:00.003-04:002009-03-09T16:23:04.408-04:00

Today's announcement that Merck will buy Schering-Plough just marked another notch in the belt of bad news for not only the economy, but for drug development and healthcare worldwide. Pharma company failures, unlike the banking industry, not only have the capacity to wreak havoc on the economy with the job losses but also brings with it the threat of negative impact to drug supply and effective

Ol Crankyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03062952528573304148noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10566027.post-56182395510546842962009-02-04T12:40:00.002-05:002009-02-04T12:49:17.334-05:00

So, according to CNN, President Obama has announced that he'll deflate Golden Parachutes for execs who take bail out money: "For top executives to award themselves these kinds of compensation packages in the midst of this economic crisis isn't just bad taste -- it's a bad strategy -- and I will not tolerate it. We're going to be demanding some restraint in exchange for federal aid -- so that when

Ol Crankyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03062952528573304148noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10566027.post-9498928517830311582009-01-11T11:52:00.008-05:002009-01-11T12:39:50.853-05:00

Wow, talk about selective memory where a friend is concerned. This morning I ready an editorial in the Inky that really irked the hell out of me. In the piece, former Reagan staffer Jeffrey Lord writes of the need to show mercy and offer a posthumous pardon on his old friend Budd Dwyer. In 1986, Dwyer was offered a plea bargain for accepting a $300,000 kickback. A plea bargain under which

Ol Crankyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03062952528573304148noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10566027.post-35457633469227512162009-01-03T09:40:00.002-05:002009-01-03T10:17:16.865-05:00

Like many a public figure caught doing something that could impact their bottom line, Air Tran issued an apology for severely screwing up the vacation plans of Atif Irfan, his family, and a family friend. The apology, issued mere hours after the airline insisted all actions taken [or not] were appropriate and that there was nothing for which they needed to apologize has a tinge of a "we're sorry

Ol Crankyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03062952528573304148noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10566027.post-39749204110951903372009-01-02T10:41:00.003-05:002009-01-02T11:19:41.870-05:00

All one has to do to confirm that I have absolutely no psychic abilities is to look at the decisions I've made in my life about men and more than 1 job, however, I'm pretty confident predicting that AirTran will lose (or quickly settle) one lawsuit that has yet to be filed in response to an incident that occurred yesterday afternoon:A Muslim family removed from an airliner Thursday after

Ol Crankyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03062952528573304148noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10566027.post-55862273948155453522008-12-30T10:23:00.005-05:002008-12-30T18:02:28.257-05:00

I don't blog on Israel too much, the reason for this is two-fold:I'm severely conflicted where Israel and her actions as a sovereign nation are concernedDiscussions about Israel leave me with a huge headache that comes with bashing one's head against a brick wallOutside of Israel, the only support the country gets is from a mixture of Jews who are so acutely aware of antisemitism they see it

Ol Crankyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03062952528573304148noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10566027.post-38051864395018221122008-12-25T10:40:00.002-05:002008-12-25T11:42:20.114-05:00

Every year at Christmastime which, sometimes, starts as early as Halloween, I start what seems to be a tradition of posts on the so-called "War on Christmas." The now annual battles start with Christianity's biggest loudest, most obnoxious and, by default, morally superior defenders throwing down the gauntlet to challenge anyone who shows lack of respect for one of the most holy Christian

Ol Crankyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03062952528573304148noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10566027.post-921139482193397102008-12-21T13:09:00.006-05:002008-12-21T14:20:23.558-05:00

David Hiltebrand's article about all the films opening on Christmas Day and how a treck to the movies is the "new" way to celebrate the holiday was one I pretty much ignored in today's Inky. While I have had the fleeting thought that something was amiss when hearing a movie is opening Christmas Day, the thoughts pretty much flew out of my head as quickly as they popped into it. The timing of

Ol Crankyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03062952528573304148noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10566027.post-89623219384134834632008-12-21T07:25:00.002-05:002008-12-21T08:52:06.878-05:00

About 42 years ago, Bill Barnes committed a crime - a nasty, heinous crime that left a young man critically wounded. Walter Barclay, a 23-year old rookie in the Philly police department, was paralyzed after being sprayed with gunfire from Barnes' weapon during an armed robbery.As a result of the crimes he committed, Barnes was tried and convicted of attempted murder and related crimes. He

Ol Crankyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03062952528573304148noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10566027.post-919403272115885382008-12-20T08:13:00.003-05:002008-12-20T08:41:58.417-05:00

and in this economy, maybe we can hope that Ne-Yo's ode to High Yellow hits his biggest asset. Ne-Yo recently made the following comments to a couple of radio DJs during an interviewAll the prettiest kids is light skinned anyway . . . Essence (and a bunch of other sources too)The video of the interview in which Ne-Yo decided to reinforce the asinine intra-racial bigotry has been removed from

Ol Crankyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03062952528573304148noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10566027.post-33339898827713607692008-12-16T19:46:00.002-05:002008-12-16T20:03:03.934-05:00

Like many logical thinking people and organizations who think nobody should be permitted to use their right to freedom of religion to deny rights to others, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has found something reassuring in the statements of former NAE lobbyist, Rev. Richard Cizik"This week the National Association of Evangelicals lost a good man but even worse it lost credibility as a religious

Ol Crankyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03062952528573304148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10566027.post-37676412970455590002008-12-14T18:48:00.005-05:002008-12-14T18:58:02.049-05:00

Honestly, Bill Donahue (aka the Catholic League) protests everything he considers to to be disrespectful to Catholicism, so why have I not heard a peep about the following tasty bit of blasphemy?a candy rosary?

Ol Crankyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03062952528573304148noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10566027.post-16728325091626110182008-12-13T16:18:00.008-05:002008-12-14T19:04:28.358-05:00

For those of you who wonder how the wingnuts get regular, generally rational, mainstream/moderate people to support their crazy-assed antics, the percolating new cause célèbre provides us with an inside look. This morning, I received an email from my dad's cousin who (I think) is relatively moderate. The subject line was "Fwd: No Flag pins" ABC NEWS BANS FLAG LAPEL PINSThis is true and even

Ol Crankyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03062952528573304148noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10566027.post-83667031877633581892008-12-13T08:34:00.002-05:002008-12-13T09:59:31.093-05:00

In yet another stunning example of why Evangelical/Fundamentalist Christians have a reputation of intolerant bullies who resort to legislative force when their testimony fails to convert you, Evangelical lobbyist Rev. Richard Cizik resigned after having the audacity to inject some common sense into the politics of personal lives. Said Rev. Czik to NPR [emphasis added]:"I'm shifting, I have to

Ol Crankyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03062952528573304148noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10566027.post-82088711370894829402008-12-09T13:22:00.002-05:002008-12-09T13:34:52.785-05:00

Well it looks like Illinois Gov. Rob Blagojevich will be moving from a position in state government to one with the federal government, but I don't think it's the kind of move he thought he had in store. In an astounding example of arrogance and stupidity, it seems the Democrat thought he'd make some lifestyle improvements for his family by attempting to sell President-Elect Obama's seat in the

Ol Crankyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03062952528573304148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10566027.post-20884094063974264582008-12-07T13:39:00.004-05:002008-12-07T16:04:01.150-05:00

Myron Rolle is an athlete worthy of any fan and, if you have any doubts, the following proves itEmbedded video from CNN Videotags: Myron Rolle football academics

Ol Crankyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03062952528573304148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10566027.post-47194092955989097202008-12-02T17:33:00.004-05:002008-12-02T18:07:46.864-05:00

Oh my goodness-gracious, yet another store is refusing to cater specifically to Christians who hate their religion so much, they've made shopping a critical part of one of their holiest holidays. This time it's CostCo, the bulk item superstore that directs advertising to members who pay to join their shopping club. CostCo told one of Don Wildmon's minions at the AFA that the store doesn't set up

Ol Crankyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03062952528573304148noreply@blogger.com13