The Exaggerator

A new low in "post hoc" from the Religiopolitical Right

Fri, 16 May 2008 02:30:49 GMT

REV. JOHN HAGEE, CO-"SPIRITUAL ADVISOR" TO THE TERRIBLE-TEMPERED MR. BANG OF INDECISION 2008, otherwise known as John McCain, takes that fine art of conservative propaganda of the post hoc, ergo propter hoc school to a new and exciting low with these remarks in video form (hat tip to Brave New Films and Right Wing Watch):

Which, interestingly enough, raises the question of whether the "economic reasons" angle (as in defending and maintaining a labour-intensive, Luddite-model socioeconomic paradigm based on free-market capitalism as Great White Father) may likely be the next cheap bromide and patsy anti-abortion Zealots and True Believers will want to invoke in defence of their articles of faith.

Just like Nicolæ Ceauçescu's Communist regime in Romania--only they don't want to acknowledge the interconnexion with Ceauçescu tacitly.

glitter-graphics.com

Open letter to the Zealots and True Believers in Kulturkrieg

Fri, 16 May 2008 01:05:24 GMT

To whom it may concern:

I suppose you know who you are ... and it is to you who contend that the United States is now in a state of what you would call Culture War (and should best be called by its German translation, Kulturkrieg, for reasons you will understand), that I address you @ this time.

And I should like to use this opportunity to ask of you what would be your ideal of an American Defining Culture (Amerikanischer Leikultur) for all purposes and intents you may attach to the concept.

The which raises interesting questions galore, and then some:

Would your ideal of an Amerikanischer Realkultur be rooted in hatred, bigotry and intolerance, in particular--
1. anti-Semitism?
2. Islamophobia?
3. racism?
4. homophobia?
5. xenophobia?
6. Producerism?
7. general contempt for the poor, minorities and other vulnerable elements of Society?
Would your ideal of an Amerikanischer Realkultur emphasise an idealised model of white middle-class Low Church Levittown values? Would these values regard as virtuous:
1. free-market capitalism as Great White Father?
2. said capitalism being subjected only to laissez-fare self-regulation based on industry Codes of Good Practice?
3. isolationist self-sufficency within free-market capitalist models and paradigms?
4. America having been "predestined" as The One True Centre of the World, the Universe and the 28 Known Galaxies, not to mention Portal and Gateway to Heaven?
5. invoking His Name to justify fear, loathing, contempt and hatred against "inferior peoples and societies," to be reinforced by "whatever means necessary," including force or violence if need be?
6. the White Man's Burden as one with Christian Honour and Identity?
7. a "Lord and Master mindset for America" (cf. a BDSM dominatrix in stereotypical black leather and bullwhip), holding The Rest of the World as nothing less than slaves subject to the bidding of her American Masters?
Would your ideal of Amerikanischer Realkultur be class-subjective; i.e., such cultural options available being conditioned by one's socioeconomic position and where they reside?
(As example: Those in lower-income or otherwise economically-distressed areas of the country would more than likely receive such specimens of Realkultur tending to the low, pornographic and generally tasteless, usually lacking in plot, story or production values by deliberate design.)
Would you consider the Muzikschaukultur in and around Branson, Missouri to be an ideal "litmus test," so to speak, for what you would consider Amerikanischer Realkultur defined? How and why?
Are you expecting your ideal of Amerikanischer Realkultur to have an educational benefit tending to propaganda?
Are we to expect what amounts to a "stab-in-the-back" mindset (cf. Nazi Germany's preferred excuse to justify reclaiming Her Rightful Glory and Honour through fear, violence and anti-Semitism) being a recurring theme in your Amerikanischer Realkultur ideal, the intention throughout being one of promoting True Patriot Love in All Thy Sons Command--said Patriot Love being one rooted in xenophobia?
Would your designs on an idealised Amerikanischer Realkultur be such as regard Old Glory to be some class of a Holy and Sacred Icon Having Mystical Powers, not unlike Nazi Germany's treatment of the swastika "blood flag" having been made holy by the blood of the Beer Hall Putsch martyrs?
Would your designs on an idealised Amerikanischer Realkultur emphasise a "Holy Blood and Soil" mindset serving nothing short of racist, xenophobic and jingoist ends? Can such expect to be reinforced by endorsing a genre of literature based on the German such of Heimatroman ("regional novels") whose plots are, for the most part, formula-based and overzealously glowing?
Would your designs on an idealised Amerikanischer Realkultur emphasise a "back to the land" idealism which can be interconnected with the "Holy Blood and Soil" such?
Would your designs on an idealised Amerikanischer Realkultur be further reinforced by your preferred interpretation of American History--one as is, for the most part, overzealously glowing to the point of sugar-coated and racially selective?
Would your designs on an idealised Amerikanischer Realkultur be expected to reinforce the "America is a White Christian Nation" meme your kind enjoys propagating (cf. apartheid South Africa's constantly pushing the same message to reinforce White Racial Honour and Privilege which apartheid sought to sanction)?
Would your designs on an idealised Amerikanischer Realkultur excuse a special "cultural heritage" defence to justify such specimens of "traditional" (yet politically-incorrect) specimens of said Realkultur such as blackface minstrel shows and men-only gatherings such as "smokers"?
Are you now, or have you ever been:
1. an alcoholic?
2. addicted to narcotic, hallucinogenic or otherwise habit-forming drugs?
3. a sex fiend or maniac?
4. a regular patron of adult businesses?
5. a wife- and/or child-abuser?
6. a chronic and habitual gambler or spendthrift?
7. an undischarged bankrupt?
8. declared mentally ill, insane or otherwise incompetent?
9. subject to police watch or observation?
10. diagnosed with a Loathsome Social Disease?
11. a member, or otherwise associated with, a known subversive or otherwise conspiratorial organisation?
Have you no sense of Decency, Sir, @ long last?
Have you left no sense of Decency?

These questions are submitted because the "right-thinking American people" you claim to be acting for want answers.

And answers based on facts, not scripted, meme-laden platitudes and patsies.

You know where to leave the answers--so long as they are tasteful and respectiful.

see more crazy cat pics

MEMO TO READERS: Because "Knowledge is Power," you are strongly encouraged, as is the case with past Open Letters posted to this blog by Your Correspondent, to share this with your circle of friends and contacts.

But share it responsibly. "Spamming" is not good.

glitter-graphics.com

Ballot plebiscites Your Correspondent would love to see--and see defeated

Fri, 16 May 2008 01:02:46 GMT

CERTAIN ULTRACONSERVATIVE GROUPS MUST HAVE THIS JONES, AS IT WERE, FOR THE POWER AND POTENTIAL OF USING INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM on the ballot papers of the several states which allows such as a way to propose legislation without having to go through legislative ex-lax and delay.

In particular, by using the device as a way to promote conservative articles of faith where trick or deceit can be used to fool voters all the more vis-a-vis the real intent of the plebiscite question.

Three particular ballot plebiscites which Your Correspondent would just love to see--and see defeated (howbeit more than likely @ local level, as such which I am about to address tend to be local issues)--would have to be:

A ballot plebiscite calling for a "temporary" relaxation of local recycling-collection schemes "to stabilise market prices" for recyclable materials (i.e., paper, cardboard/paperboard, glass, tin, aluminum, plastic bottles).
A ballot plebiscite seeking the "complete, final and binding" abolition of laws in such states as California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai'i, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont mandating a deposit of between 5 and 10¢ on non-returnable beverage containers.
(Those two no doubt of especial and particular interest to the so-called "Wise Use Movement" as is looking for fresh and innovative ways by which to use up the waste without producing significant and measurable consumer benefit--let alone invoking Darwinian principles which their Zealots and True Believers otherwise oppose.)
A ballot plebiscite seeking to replace municipal monopolies on liquor sales with free-market competition; the belief here being that such will "lead to greater freedom of choice" as well as lower prices, notwithstanding where municipal liquor stores (where allowed) have usually helped keep property taxes low and discouraged consumption among the Dregs of Society.

Any questions?

Or any word on questions such as the above appearing on ballot papers come November?

glitter-graphics.com

Thanks to BlogMad: Ten Reasons Why I Blog

Thu, 15 May 2008 20:31:17 GMT

THANKS TO CRAPWORLD, WHO I RAN INTO VIA BLOGMAD, COMES A NEW TAGLIST OF TEN REASONS WHY I BLOG (instructions follow):

As one with a history of psychoemotional abuse, cruelty and maltreatment, I wound up developing very strong opinions in spite of attempts to silence me through "mental hygiene" based all too much on medications and fear.
It's not every day that you can get a "letter to the editor" published in the local gazetta.
I need to express myself. In my own way. On my own terms.
I want to make my own unique and distinctive mark on the Information Stuporbahn, and in such interesting times as these.
Since when did those in receipt of welfare and/or State Social Security have to keep quiet ("goodthoughtful," in Orwellian Newspeak) as a condition of receiving benefits?
Silence=acceptance, as the old rule hath it. Especially considering my experiences.
An avenue to earn (or try to) extra income over and above what I get from disability benefit, considering my disability being a "black mark" against employment in the minds of many employers.
Trying to explain where "emotional well-being" requires you to work in a sheltered workshop isn't exactly the sort of thing as will win friends or influence people, let alone put food on the table. Especially considering the unstable work assignments and pay as seem to be the rule more than the exception.
Trying to prove, by example, that the dyslexic don't necessarily have to express themselves in dry, simple sentences reminescent of Dick and Jane.
As a T-shirt slogan of the late 1970's/early 1980's had it, "If you can't dazzle them with brilliance ... baffle them with bull." And what better venue to do so than in the Greater Blogosphere?

=============

NOW, HERE'S WHERE YOU COME IN: After offering your Ten Reasons Why You Blog in your such, copy the following and add your own blog to this list. And keep this ring going, the better to maximise traffic to this and other blogs who join in:

Start to copy:
Ten Reasons Why I Blog. 1. Mel Avila Alarilla 2.Crapworld 3. The Exaggerator

glitter-graphics.com

Is His Fraudulency seeking to justify Total and Continuing RAHOWA?

Thu, 15 May 2008 15:44:10 GMT

IT APPEARS AS THOUGH HIS FRAUDULENCY MAY REALLY BE WANTING TO DEFEND THE NOTION OF TOTAL AND CONTINUING UR-RAHOWA with his wise-arse remarks before the Israeli Knesset suggesting that the Democrats are in the same league ideologically as those who sought appeasement with the Nazis prior to World War II.

In effect, defending nothing less than a sham war (cf. what the Oceanic regime was using in Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four as a distractionary tactic) towards the "real" goal of the ur-RAHOWA Against International Terrorism: Nothing less than America as Lord and Master of the World, the Universe and the 28 Known Galaxies, controlled all along by the "antient and pecuilar" of the White Male Low Church Christian Power Structure.

Said Power Structure dominated, by and large, by nothing less than the Dregs of Society using G-d and Country to create an aura of respectability as conceals the likes of:

alcoholism;
drug addiction or abuse;
spousal and/or child abuse or neglect;
chronic and habitual gambling;
frequenting prostitutes or other adult businesses;
sexual perversions (especially when children or animals are involved); and
"leading an immoral, idle or dissolute lifestyle."

Never mind the greater socioeconomic consequences America winds up facing, let alone that which those calling themselves "patriots" fear most: The Evil Empire otherwise known as the "New World Order" "usurping [America's] antient and pecuilar soverignty and soverign identity***with reckless and utter disregard for [American] history, traditions and experiences" based on free-market capitalism as Great White Father.

*************

REV. FRED PHELPS AND HIS SO-CALLED "WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH" IS RATHER FOND OF PLAYING THE DIVINE JUDGEMENT CARD @ their "educational rallies" of disruption, claiming that all manner of natural disasters in recent months is nothing short of Divine Judgement and Condemnation upon the "morally superior" United States for tolerating homosexuality in contravention of the Holy and Divine Will Ordained Upon America.

Now, it turns out the Topeka inbreds have competition from Fox Prolefeed in the Divine Judgement and Condemnation Propaganda Department; as NewsHounds elaborates:

On February 22, after we experienced a series of freak wintertime tornadoes, evangelical minister Erwin Lutzer was a guest on Fox's "premiere business news" show, Your World w/Neil Cavuto. The most prominent chyron Fox aired during that segment was, "Freak Weather, Earthquakes: Is God Punishing Us?"

Well guess what? Reverend Lutzer was back again today (May 13, 2008) to speak to Neil Cavuto's audience over a chyron that read, "Slew of Natural Disasters: Is God Punishing Us?"

According to Luzter, yes He is. Lutzer said, "We have to understand that God is in charge of nature," and because "the Earth is cursed by sin, has these kinds of catastrophes." Katrina, the Burmese (I refuse to call in Myanmar because that name was assigned to it in 1989 by the illegitimate military dictators who rule the country) typhoon and the Chinese earthquake are a "kind of megaphone from God, reminding us of certain lessons that the world should be taking note of." There "is no doubt that God has a message for us in these natural disasters." It "teaches the brevity of life," and "what is really valuable." "At the end of the day, eternity is even more valuable than time."

Comment: So folks, Cavuto didn't see fit to tell his "business news" audience what happened on Wall Street today but he did work in a little Bible class. Oh, and watch your step. Be afraid. God's watching. If the terrorists and the liberals and the immigrants (and the fill in the blank) don't yet you, "he" might.

No wonder Fox Prolefeed has that certain appeal to the vulnerable and easily-influenced of Society....

*************

WITH SO MUCH UNHEALTHY ATTENTION, PERHAPS CROSSING TO THE DISTRACTIONARY, being focused on Democratic Presidential wannabe Barack Obama's wearing (or not) a flag lapel pin, maybe it was time to ask how many of those who call themselves "Confederate Southern Americans" (not just such who sympathise with neo-Confederacist movements) are seen wearing lapel pins displaying the Confederate perversion of the Scots Saltaire.

And excusing such as a symbol of "Southern Heritage and Pride," even if there are some in Florida wanting the state split in two, based, for the most part, on the concept of:

Florida North running roughly parallel to I-10 through the panhandle up to Jacksonville; and
Florida South comprising pretty much the rest of what's become known as America's Wang (as in Tampa/St. Petersburg, Orlando and the theme parks, the Space Coast, Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, Sebastian Inlet, Ron Jon Surf Shop, Weeki Wachee Springs, Silver Springs and the Keys).

And if Tallahassee can be expected to remain Florida North's capital, might I suggest that Florida South's such be Doctor Phillips, to the southwest of Orlando (about halfway between Universal Studios Florida and Walt Disney World as the crow flieth on a direct path, in case you need to use the theme parks as a point of Orlando-area geographic reference).

*************

SOMETHING THAT THE GREAT GONZO MIGHT FIND INTERESTING comes from out this way in the Minnwissippi:

Seems that a housewife took to beating up his boyfriend with a squeegee and other implements of mayhem after he was seen eating her out of house and home (as in the leftovers she had in the refrigerator).

*************

YOUR CORRESPONDENT WOULD LIKE TO GIVE A SHOUTOUT @ THIS TIME TO THE BLOGGY AWARD SITE for giving The Exaggerator a somewhat favourable review the other day, though finding fault with the likes of clutter along the side and the "inconsistency of typography" from time to time.

On the latter point, may I explain why:

Such I deem necessary to distinguish between my own comments (in Times New Roman, size 4) and quoted material (in Arial, size 3; quoted material within quoted material is in Courier New, same size--highlighted in any case).

Now you know(?!).

glitter-graphics.com

Memo to the Subway Alumni of Slippery Rock University, or what remains thereof

Thu, 15 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

FOR SOME REASON, THE FOOTBALL PROGRAMME @ SLIPPERY ROCK UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA SEEMS TO HAVE LOST ITS MYSTIQUE in recent years as the "underdog" collegiate football team sure to attract laughs as much as curiosity.

And to think it all started as a hilarious aside to a dispute over who deserved to be the top-ranked collegiate football team of 1936, Pittsburgh (according to the Football Annual and numerous coaches' polls, notably the United Press such) or Minnesota (according to the Associated Press and the Dickinson System).

As RockAthletics.com, Slippery Rock U's official sport website, explains:

Reams of copy that spewed the platitudes of the Panthers and Golden Gophers, compared scores and schedules - and even cheerleaders. One sportswriter thought the argument was foolish. To prove it, he wrote a story supporting Slippery Rock for No. 1.

Backtracking across the scores from the '36 season, the journalist proved his point:

Slippery Rock beat Westminster, which beat West Virginia Wesleyan, which beat Duquesne, which beat Pitt, which beat Notre Dame, which beat Northwestern, which beat Minnesota.

How could anyone argue with that logic?

Readers of the article, which was reprinted by newspapers all over the country, apparently enjoyed a story that poked fun at big football schools and supported a small one. They loved the name "Slippery Rock." As a name for a typical small school, it seemed almost too good to be true.

Some 33 years later, another writer - Bob Payne - made a case for The Rock playing in the 1969 Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif.

Payne duly pointed out a "which beat" sequence that included The Rock and, among others, Virginia, UTEP, Kansas, Syracuse, Iowa State, BYU, Arizona, Utah, Arizona State, Minnesota, Iowa, Michigan State and Michigan - which had earned a berth in the 1969 Rose Bowl.

Payne further validated his contention by pointing out Michigan had beaten Purdue, which beat Notre Dame, which tied Southern California - which had earned the berth opposite Michigan in that year's Rose Bowl game.

[***]

One year after The Rock was declared as the mythical national champion by the aforementioned sportswriter, Boston scribe William Gary Cunningham recognized the potential for an appearance by the legendary Rock and was instrumental in persuading Boston University to schedule Slippery Rock in the 1937 season-opening game.

A crowd of 6,000 fans - considered "large" at the time - gathered at Fenway Park for the game. Many came to prove to themselves and friends that such a place as Slippery Rock actually existed.

To the crowd's astonishment, The Rock took the opening kickoff and marched nearly the length of the field before the drive stopped inside the Boston University 5-yard line. The hosts scored twice early in the game on razzle-dazzle plays, then, in the third quarter, unveiled a hidden-ball trick for their final tally in a 20-0 win. But that did not deter the honorary SRU alumni from the Boston area from frantically waving Green and White pennants.

[***]

People cheer for Slippery Rock because they think the name sounds funny. That's why Rock football team has the largest honorary alumni body of any school in the country, with the possible exception of Notre Dame. Sidewalk alumni fan clubs, official and semi-official, have been documented across the nation.

There are fans who will call from all corners of the country to hear a final score, who will pull off the highway and spend $100 or more at the school's bookstore, who will stand and cheer when the public address announcer heralds another Slippery Rock victory.

Why? Because there's a piece of The Rock in all of us.

"Slippery Rock is the USA's college football cult team," USA Today's Erik Brady once wrote.

In any case, those among you who can still be considered "subway alumni" for Slippery Rock may be curious about what their 2008 football schedule is like.

As Frank McCourt would say, "'Tis:"

30 August: @ Seton Hill University (don't confuse with Seton Hall, folks)
6 September: @ Millersville College
13 September: Kutztown University of Pennsylvania (K/O 18h)
20 September: Gannon University (K/O 19h)
27 September: @ Mercyhurst College
4 October: @ Indiana University of Pennsylvania
11 October: @ Clarion University of Pennsylvania
18 October: Edinboro University of Pennsylvania (K/O 14h; Homecoming)
25 October: @ California University of Pennsylvania
1 November: Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania (K/O 13h)
8 November: East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania (K/O 13h)

Slippery Rock's home games are @ N. Kerr Thompson Stadium on campus ... and in case you're wondering just where Slippery Rock is, just follow I-79 to Pennsylvania exit 105 (northbound) or exit 113 (southbound); however, if you need more specific driving directions for your particular circumstance....

Anyhow, all the best for "The Rock" this fall.

glitter-graphics.com

For those still seeing depictions of homosexuality on TV as one with Corruption of Morals and Decency....

Thu, 15 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

THE RELIGIOPOLITICAL RIGHT'S HOMOPHOBIA BRANCH IS ALWAYS RATHER LEERY TO THE POINT OF PARANOID every time TV (especially so FreeVee; i.e., over-the-air broadcasting, as opposed to cable or satellite transmission) or cinema depicts homosexuals or homosexuality in a positive, human sort of way (as witness their hard-wired Zealotry and True Belief that homosexuality is, was and will always be a Serious Mental Aberration, notwithstanding the American Psychiatric Association declaring otherwise in 1972).

And is rejoicing every time foreign broadcast regulators impose fines on broadcasters for broadcasting positive depictions of homosexuality (as was the case twice in Singapore over recent weeks; the city-state regards homosexuality as a Travesty and Perversion of Nature, and won't take too kindly on positive depictions of the epicene), hoping such mindsets will be timely adopted in the "morally superior" United States for the sake of maintaining "our antient and pecuilar soverignty and soverign identity" (as if suggesting that same was conditioned by an unyielding and unswerving defence of Victorian and 1950's "moral values" as were, in the mind of @ least one historian, cover for nothing short of contempt towards the vulnerable of society).

Meanwhile, in Japan--if the following "WaiWai" item from the Mainichi Daily News is to be taken as credible--public broadcaster NHK somehow had to walk across minefields, as it were, in approaching the subject of homosexuality:

Coverage of homosexuality by Japan's notoriously squeaky clean, hyper-conservative public broadcaster NHK has so far been as hard to find as a G-spot, but the taxpayer-funded network is finally coming out of the closet, according to Shukan Shincho (4/24).

NHK's Education Channel program "Haato wo Tsunago (Let's Connect Hearts)" will screen a program on homosexuality on April 28 and 29, continuing its trend since hitting the air two years ago of taking on controversial topics like child abuse, learning disabilities and hikikomori recluses.

"We've covered gender identity on the program before and some responses to those shows urged us to consider the problems facing homosexuals, so we decided to pick up the issue," an NHK spokesman tells Shukan Shincho.

"The show basically involves talking to homosexuals, their families and their associates to find out what sorts of problems they face and what we can do about them. We asked them about what it means to come out or not, why some homosexuals feel uncomfortable with being open about their sexuality and how friends and relatives react to those who are out. All cases discussed on the program are based on existing examples."

Homosexuality in Japan is typically accepted, but rarely talked about openly, though many overtly gay performers appear on TV screens.

Appearing as a guest on the program will be Kanako Otsuji, a 33-year-old woman who has made a political career out of being openly lesbian.

"NHK first talked to me about the program in February. At the time, they said they were only doing background work for a show, but even then I was really surprised that high and mighty NHK was showing an interest in gay and lesbian affairs. I thought it was finally a sign of the times," Otsuji tells Shukan Shincho. "For a long time, the media has basically ignored the homosexual community. TV sometimes picked up the subject, but almost always on variety shows where comic drag queens were the features. It looks like TV is finally going to take a serious look at the issues facing the gay and lesbian communities. I really was surprised when I first heard NHK was going to do the show. Now I'm proud of it for doing so."

Ira Ishida, one of the hosts of the program, also lauds NHK for taking on a topic still widely regarded as controversial in Japan.

"When we announced on our website that we were going to do a show on gays and lesbians, we received over 70 mailed responses from viewers even though the show hadn't aired. It's unprecedented to have so much response to a program before it has even gone on," Ishida says. "It seems like there were lots of viewers waiting for us to pick up this topic."

Media commentator Nobuo Shiga is also pleased at the development.

"I'm sure this is the first time NHK has ever done a program on gay and lesbians. And for its Education Channel," he says. "NHK has been trying to broaden its viewer base and this project is certainly a huge step for it."

Those in the homosexual community are naturally pleased.

"It's revolutionary for NHK to cover this topic," the leader of a gay and lesbian support organization tells Shukan Shincho on condition of anonymity. "In the past, NHK producers have contacted me on countless occasions to say they have an interest in doing a show about homosexuality, but they're bosses have always nixed the idea. Awareness of homosexuality in wider society is still not great, or at least that's what the bosses refusing to cover the issue were always saying. The closest thing homosexuality ever got to coverage on NHK was the homosexuals working as performers in the adult entertainment business. I think things have changed now, though."

Honestly, now:

How many cases do you know of in which children suddenly "became homosexual" just by watching a film or TV programme in which homosexual characters were featured prominently? (I'm talking about cases in which clear and unbiased clinical documentation exists, not the highly anecdotal "friend-of-a-friend" propaganda popular among the Religiopolitical Right when it comes to whipping up homophobic feelings among their target audience of Those Who Should Know Better.)

glitter-graphics.com

Blame today's delay on a cable outage

Wed, 14 May 2008 18:51:26 GMT

YOUR CORRESPONDENT WOULD LIKE TO ACKNOWLEDGE A DELAY IN GETTING TODAY'S ITEM POSTED inasmuch as the cable-modem connexion which Your Correspondent useth failed for about an hour's time.

And apologises as well.

Meteorologically, last night's showery and dreary look has since turned to clear skies and generally mild conditions up here in the Minnwissippi as I write you all @ this time. And things should be slightly nicer heading into the weekend, with maxima in the low 70's possible (though rain could be possible again on Sunday).

*************

WITH COMMENCEMENT SEASON NOW IN FULL-ON MODE, perhaps it was time that Your Correspondent used this occasion to send his best wishes to those who will be graduating as the Class of 2008, never mind their being from high school or university.

And those of you looking for gifts for that special graduate in your heart can look to Amazon.com, Amazon.ca or Amazon.co.uk for what you may need to give. And, in so doing, show your support for The Exaggerator in the process.

Likewise with Mallratz, my new online mall which will serve to compliment this blog--and help support same.

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IT LOOKS AS THOUGH THE SO-CALLED "UNION OF MYANMAR" MAY BE SEEING A DOUBLE WHAMMY as risks not just a major humanitarian crisis on top of that already wrought ... but also pose a threat to the Myanmari military regime.

Especially as new estimates suggest where some 125,000 may have been killed in this past weekend's cyclone and reports from international humanitarian aid organisations about the Myanmari regime taking too much of the relief supplies for themselves, and with reckless and utter disregard for the suffering.

So what rationale does the regime actually have for such behaviour in the face of tragedy?

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YOU MAY HAVE SEEN ADVERTS ONLINE FROM NEWSMAX IN A CONTEXTUAL SENSE over recent weeks asking "Should Hillary Quit? Vote Here Now!"

The which, if we are to believe ConWebBlog, is really nothing less than an "opt-in" survey, which can be notoriously inaccurate and flawed, perhaps fatally, by virtue of the methodology being used. As well as the results therefrom perhaps being deceptive.

In any event, Hillary Rodham-Clinton, notwithstanding her Presidential campaign being in debt to the tune of $20 million after winning West Virginia's Presidential primary yesterday, remains committed to sure victory heading into the Democratic convention in Denver this August ... and one option which has been suggested as a way for her campaign to regain some financial stability (per CNN) would be to have Barack Obama's Presidential campaign fund loan Rodham-Clinton's such the amount of the debt, conditional on her leaving the race.

Nonetheless, the forces of conservative Zealotry and True Belief are getting rather ballisto to the point of paranoid about the prospect of a black Presidential candidate, which they see as being a Clear and Present Danger to the White Male Christian Power Structure regarded as an Antient and Pecuilar with American Soverignty and Soverign Identity.

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AND ANOTHER THING:

Whence comes the argument that only White Male Christians (especially so the Low Church stylee) can be True and Loyal Patriots?

Doesn't this suggest that the Lower Classes can't be trusted when it comes to loyalty and/or patriot love because of their dependency on State welfare @ the expense (or so perceived) of a "healthy respect for industry, self-reliance, personal responsibility, thrift based on cash economy and a Wholesome and Simple Home Life"?

Can the same be said of Jews? Muslims? Homosexuals?

After all, James Boswell reminds us in his Life of Samuel Johnson that "patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."

*************

PLANNED PARENTHOOD DOESN'T FIND FUNNY PRANK PHONE CALLS TO LOCAL CHAPTERS offering donations to provide abortions to those of colour; the better, presumably, to whip up racist feelings in Those Who Should Know Better.

Which have been recorded on YouTube, in two parts:

En laat ons nie vergeet waar apartheid Suid-Afrika was vir ewig roep op "regter-dink" wit families om te Maak Babas vir Botha. . . .

glitter-graphics.com

Proof that you can't always trust everything you receive in your e-mail

Wed, 14 May 2008 00:44:58 GMT

EVERY SO OFTEN, YOU RECEIVE SOMETHING IN YOUR E-MAIL AS CAN'T QUITE BE CONSIDERED SPAM, YET ITS CONTENTS LEAVE YOU WONDERING whether to accept such @ face value--especially if it contains advice to forward it on to others in your e-mail rings.

Case in point, as dissected by ConWebBlog:

Remember that April 25 WorldNetDaily article making the misleading claim that "annual U.S. military casualties overall during the first six years of the Bush administration are well below the average for the 26-year period beginning in 1980"? Turns out that story has been hanging around a lot longer than we thought.

According to a March 27 Army Times article:

A spam e-mail making the rounds in the military community serves as a reminder that facts can be flexible when they are launched anonymously into the vast void of cyberspace.

The e-mail, entitled, Some very interesting statistics: Military losses, 1980 through 2006, states that more U.S. service members died on active duty during the eight years of the Clinton administration, when there were no major U.S. military conflicts, than in the first six years of the George W. Bush administration, during which the military was fighting two large-scale wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The e-mail offers year-by-year U.S. military death totals from all causesoperations, illness, accidents, suicides, etc.from 1980 through 2006.

The data supposedly were taken from a periodically updated Congressional Research Service report on the subject, which in turn is based on statistics compiled by the Pentagons Defense Manpower and Data Center.

Theres just one problem: The figures listed in the email are wrong. They vary markedly from the figures published in the cited CRS source document.

[...]

But some simple math using the figures listed on page 7 of the CRS report reveals that the figures for several of the years under Clinton are inflated, while figures for some of the years under Bush are downplayed.

Snopes has also debunked the military deaths email as well.

Yes, it appears WND used this false spam email as the basis for its own article, despite touting the work as "a WND investigation."

WND's main contribution appears to be using correct fatality numbers to arrive at its conclusion. But as we detailed, comparing raw fatality numbers, as WND and the spam email did, fails to take in account the total number of military members among which the deaths occured. In fact, the rate of military fatalities was higher in 2005, the latest year for which full fatality statistics were available, than at any other time in the 26-year time frame examined.

Curiously, none of this history is mentioned by WND--perhaps because while WND corrects the email's faulty numbers, it embraces its faulty premise.

This isn't the first time the ConWeb has based articles on spam email. In 2004, Newsmax simply reprinted the contents of a spam--faulty numbers and all--purporting to list the differences between counties that voted for George W. Bush in 2000 and those that went for Al Gore.

In other words, you can't always trust everything you get in your Inbox.

And I'm not just talking about all those "pleas for help" from low-level Nigerian civil servants, "winning notifications" from various offshore lotteries you don't quite recall entering, offers for "Cialis soft tabs" and other "doctor approved and recommended" medications and other obvious specimens of "spam."

glitter-graphics.com

Something to ask the anti-taxation Zealots and True Believers for once

Wed, 14 May 2008 00:39:55 GMT

"We want to reduce the level of government to the point where we can eventually drown it in the bathtub."

THUS OBSERVED GROVER NORQUIST, ONE OF THE MORE PROMINENT SPECIMENS OF ZEALOTRY AND TRUE BELIEF in the anti-government arena (thanks to his so-called "Americans for Tax Reform," methinks really a front of "the Four Hundred" seeking to reclaim their "antient and pecuilar rights, privileges and powers***entitled them by unwritten tradition"), in encapsulating his articles of faith.

Unaware all along that, in the end, they would have to look for ways to avoid attracting Unwelcome and Unnecessary Attention from Those Meddling Bloggers--as in playing the Andrea Yates card, as it were, blaming Divine Providence for so ordering.

Which begs Your Correspondent asking how these Zealots and True Believers expect to finance government and public projects without recourse to taxation--and yet not wanting to let slip hints that their real agenda is nothing short of a State Corporate and Incorporate, not unlike Fascist Italy.

What have they to fear, "schizophrenic germs"?

glitter-graphics.com

So things are back to normal for once....

Tue, 13 May 2008 16:35:35 GMT

IN CASE YOU REGULARS PROBABLY DIDN'T QUITE NOTICE, BLOGDRIVE HAD SOME TECHNICAL ISSUES OVER THE LAST TWO DAYS precluding the immediate posting (as opposed to postdated such) of blog material.

The reasons for which were never disclosed up front, leaving Your Correspondent, no doubt, quite frustrated psychologically trying to find answers or explanations therefor.

In any case, the afflicted postings are now up, and your patience and understanding are greatly appreciated. Not to mention your support, especially so in form of online shopping--be it off to the side of the page or through my new cybermall.

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IN THE WEATHER DEPARTMENT, ESPECIALLY SO HERE IN THE LIKES OF MINNESOTA, which takes great pride in having such diversities of climatic extremes for the latitudes so situate, you learn rather quickly that appearences can be deceiving vis-a-vis how the weather will turn out as the day wears on.

From a sunny (if breezy) afterlunch yesterday, Your Correspondent can discern a change from hazy sunshine this morning to what could be a showery afterlunch into evening. Forecasts call for the showers to transit these parts around midnight, with a return to nicer weather likely tomorrow.

As for the Syttende Mai weekend (Syttende Mai being the Norwegian national day, celebrated with festivals in communities with substantial Norwegian populations like Spring Grove and Westby in these parts), it should be partly cloudy Friday and Saturday, with showers likely on the Sunday.

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FOR THOSE NEEDING ANOTHER REASON WHY THE OXYCONTIN SOW CAN'T BE TRUSTED (yet still is, particularly so among Those Who Should Know Better), Brave New Films' Fox Attacks unit calls your timely attention to the following video, as speaks for itself:

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AND IS IT JUST ME, OR IS MISSOURI SEEING SOME MAJOR BIG DIVINE JUDGEMENT IN TORNADIC FORM thanks to a possible Constitutional Amendment in the Show-Me State as would require "proof of valid citizenship" as a formality to exercise electoral franchise, never mind the price of electoral disenfranchisement ensuing among the Lower Classes @ the expense of an "elect***entitled as of right" which the Zealots and True Believers of hyperconservatism see themselves as exclusively entitled?

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AUSTRALIANS, AS MUCH AS GERMANS, CZECHS AND BRITS--OR PERHAPS MAYBE A LITTLE MORE SO--HAVE WHAT COULD BEST BE CALLED A QUASI-RELIGION OF BEER (or, as the Aussies oft call it, "the amber nectar") which can get out of hand @ times.

As witness the use of "name-and-shame" campaigns listing such as have been arrested for DUI in local gazettas for the sake of warning.

And the likes of the following, duly noted by the BBC:

A car driver in Australia has been fined for strapping down his beer rather than his young child.
Police said they were "shocked and appalled" when they pulled over the car south of Alice Springs in Australia's Northern Territory.
They said the 30-can pack of beer was strapped down between two adults in the back, with the five-year-old child unrestrained on the floor.
The driver was handed a fine of A$750 (US$709; C$706; £362; 455; Rs.29,753; ¥73,734).

The fine was for failing to ensure a child was wearing a seatbelt as well as driving an unregistered and uninsured vehicle.
'Blank' look
The car was pulled over on the Ross Highway last Friday.

Constable Wayne Burnett said: "I haven't ever seen something like this before.
"This is the first time that the beer has taken priority over a child... The child was sitting in the lump in the centre, unrestrained."
When Constable Burnett handed over the fine he said the driver "just looked at me blankly".
"He didn't get it," Constable Burnett said.
"I asked him about the fact the child was unrestrained and the beer was, and he said he didn't know anything about it."
Superintendent Sean Parnell of Alice Springs police said the incident was a "timely reminder" to ensure "all passengers are secured".

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AND IS IT JUST ME, OR DOES IT SEEM AS IF SOUTH ASIA IS EXPERIENCING STAR-CROSSED TIMES OF LATE, what with the cyclonic devastation across the so-called "Union of Myanmar" (and the military junta in charge claiming the exclusive right and monopoly of how and where aid is handled) ... and an earthquake hitting China's Sichwuan province, with estimates of the known dead being over 10,000?

glitter-graphics.com