Tragedy in Orlando: Bars, Blame, and Bullshit

Trump says the Orlando shooter was born in Afghan, and revved up the media with a renewed dedication to keeping out the Muslim immigrants. Bullshit. This was a natural-born American man.


Some people are calling for confiscation of weapons of anyone under investigation by the FBI or on the No Fly list. Bullshit. I'm liberal as hell, but that would be an insane infringement on rights, not to mention easily and often abused. Besides, after several interviews, the FBI cleared Omar Mateen and he was removed from the watch and no fly lists.


[That said, holy shitballs did you see the piece Omar was packing?


Sig Sauer MCX

SIG SAUER developed the MCX rifle for America’s special forces. Their goal: a firearm that’s as quiet as an MP5, as deadly as an AK-47, and more modular than anything ever designed.

So, uh, maybe that weapon shouldn't be commercially available.]


Many, many conservatives are dredging the river again for the "Obama won't say Islamic Terrorism!" And that's bullshit. Obama is passive-aggressive trolling here. ISIS is all "Hey, we're The Islamic State!" and Obama grins and says "nope." He's not afraid to call it what it is, or catering to the PC crowd, he's refusing to give any legitimacy to ISIS by not recognizing what they are doing as Muslim in nature. Somehow, the conservative internet brigade that regularly incorporates mild invective with "The Democrat Party" and "Moslem" doesn't get that.

And speaking of insane bullshit and anti-anything-Obama-says, a Missouri county has refused to fly their flags at half mast. Grumble grumble Obama sucks. Hey, let's pull out the Flag Code and be dicks about a tragedy because Obama and gays.


This was a horrible tragedy, but the emerging story appears to be that American-born Omar Mateen was a very conflicted individual. He was Muslim with a hard homosexual lean. And he hated it, hated it in himself, and in that conflict found vindication for his hate in some radical online materials. He gave a shout-out to ISIS through 911, as a cry for help or attention or both. Of course, ISIS saw the carnage and was like "Ooh, yeah, that's all us, man! We totally had a part in that!"

This is not about immigrants because Omar was born here. This is not about Islam because religion was a bystander to rage. This isn't about terrorism because it was not an act planned to create fear for an agenda. And this isn't about guns or laws because there is literally no rational policy or legislation that could have been in place that would have stopped this from happening.

If anything, this is about the stigma and taboo our society still places on homosexuality. Despite a victory for same sex marriage, our society as a whole is still sopping with hate and fear and ignorance when it comes to the LGBT community. Perhaps if Omar felt comfortable in the world around him, felt at home with what was inside, a calm would have taken root instead of his ultimate decision. And that's the fault of his religion - most religions - and lingering ignorance and, in some way, every single one of us.

Be peaceful.

Charleston Shoot: How Conservatives Cope

The conservative reaction to the black church shooting in Charleston has been an odd one. I'm used to "it's not a terrorist so it's a crazy person" defense of the singularity of the events despite the singularity of some of what they call terrorist events. But this is different.

Dylan Roof walked into a church after a Bible study and killed nine people.

If Roof had done this and claimed he was an atheist and hated the religious, that would take top billing. "Oh, the persecution! Religion isn't safe in America today!" If he had done this and was a Muslim, he would be an assumed terrorist and been taken very seriously if he'd said he did it to harm Christians in the name of Allah. "The outrage! Terrorism and Sharia Law is taking over America! Christians aren't safe!"

But he took up a flag as his symbol and claimed he was a racist and his intent was to kill black people. He openly said racist things during the shooting. And we get instead lulz about flags killing people, outrage over stores ceasing to sell it, and Hannity saying it's not about race because "how can you take the words of a psychopath seriously?"

Hay, we're not racists cause that guy's nuts and hey what about this innocent flag!?

Why? Because whenever racism rears its ugly head, conservatives don't deal with it, don't discuss it. They blame everyone else like it wasn't them who farted. Fox had some goons on the other day saying it was the fault of the Democrats that this happened. Why? Democrats race-bait and Democrats were racist back in the day. (They conveniently forget basic history and that the racists in the Democratic Party went Republican about 60 years ago.)

But when a racist psychopath is NOT in the news? Fox is rife with commentary in racist code on "urban," "freeloaders," "Obamaphones," "welfare queens," the abundance of black-on-white crimes, and the need to drug test those on public assistance.

And what was our shooter mumbling about when he was filling people with bullets? Blacks raping whites and the free ride they get in our country.

I wonder where he heard that.

That Lying Malkin and Catholic Hospitals

Michele Malkin, like most of the right-wing conspiracy nuts, is more than pleased to stretch the truth and leave out inconvenient facts in order to drive the "ACLU is the Devil" and "War on Religion." This past week on GOPUSA, she penned an ignorant rant entitled The ACLU's Unholy War on Catholic Hospitals. Malkin writes:

Civil liberties activists have a particular vendetta against devout Phoenix Catholic Bishop Thomas Olmsted, who recently revoked the Catholic status of a rogue hospital that performed several direct abortions, provided birth control pills and presided over sterilizations against the church’s ethical and religious directives for health care.

Through all her blathering, Malkin got one thing right: there is an Unholy War on Catholic Hospitals. But that war is coming from the Catholic Church itself.

Let's take a look at the actual facts of the story of St. Joseph's:

• Founded in 1895 by Sisters of Mercy (yeah, not exactly "rogue")
• Performed an abortion as a last resort to save the life of a mother - who already had 4 kids - because severe symptoms of pulmonary hypertension would have killed her.
• The child could not have survived out of the womb, i.e., would have died either way: due to abortion or because the mother was dead.
• Bishop Thomas Olmsted excommunicated the nun involved in the decision.
• Bishop then stripped the Catholic status of the hospital based on this one event.

Malkin is out of touch and a liar. Bishop Olmsted is a sanctimonious moron.

As opposed to this being a story about the ACLU, this is a story about how far removed from reality the patriarchy of the Catholic Church is in our world. A lot of people in the Catholic Community are upset about this event, and not because an abortion was performed. On the contrary, Catholics nationwide are wondering how a bishop could choose doctrine over life, could publicly say that in the eyes of God it is better that a woman and her unborn child die and leave four children motherless than make the best of a terrible situation. And on top of it? Let's damn a nun to hell. Nice.

Catholics are splintering off, creating their own congregations, or simply no longer attending church because more and more people are realizing that in the arcane structure of the Catholic Church the Rules of Man take precedence over the Grace of God, that volumes and volumes of guidelines lose the most basic tenets of the simplest things Jesus ever said. "Treat others the way you would like to be treated." "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle than for a rich man to get into heaven." Stuff like that.

So that's the story, Michele. I realize that anything that comes from the right is suspect, but this was just deplorable. It's not the ACLU or Barack Obama or George Soros or lefties or Democrats that are in the wrong here; it is the Catholic Church.

Haggard Going Down (Again)

The enchantment of dick-suckin' lips

It was almost two years ago that I batted around the Ted Haggard dirty homo meth story. Please note that Ted Haggard has opened himself up to the ridicule I ladle upon him because he is a hypocritical monster of a human being. When you're an evangelical megachurch pastor and shit grin your way to stardom by a doctrine of clean livin' and how homosexuals are going to hell and then trade drugs for gay sex and when you are caught try to shrug off culpability by saying you have a drug problem and hiding in rehab, you deserve a shitstorm of pain.

Well, it appears that our pastor cum persona non grata has another skeleton hiding in the closet with him. Looks like Haggard buggered a 20-year old male volunteer to the church. Say it ain't so, Ted.

Oh, he does. Kinda.

There was a little sumpin-sumpin going on, it came out at a low level or he knew it would come out, he met with his wife and the man to apologize for an in appropriate relationship and then the church paid the guy for moving expenses, counseling fees, and his college tuition. And Teddy bear says there was no physical contact.

Exactly. Because he was so fucking forthcoming last time. Clinton never inhaled and Haggard never swallowed. That's why there's egg on his face. Well, maybe it's not egg...

The only conclusion that can be drawn from these events, encounters, and bald-faced lies is that Ted Haggard doesn't truly, deep within his heart, believe one goddamned bit of the drivel he's been preaching for years. For if he did, he would act in such a way as one does when they have a conviction that one day they will have to answer to the God of the friggin universe for their transgressions.

Or maybe he's at peace with an eternity of hell for a little cock. Or a lot of cock - he's still young and there's a lot more tail (between the legs) to be had.

Holy Batshit Coulter!

I have to give Harry Smith credit for his playful masochism in bringing Ann Coulter to the show, and immediately take it away from him for allowing this batshit crazy loon to pimp her whiny victim book.

Best line "You should have a cross." Watch it.


Watch CBS Videos Online

...and boo to me for posting it and spreading the virus. But it is funny.

Waiting for the Other Shoe to Launch

When I saw this in a news break yesterday during the finale of Survivor (Yay Bob!), it made my evening. Then it made my day today. Over and over and over again.



Finally, we get someone who wants to disagree with Bush, hand him what he deserves, and it's not some politician who has to play nice and not offend. Unfortunately, Bush probably didn't understand until someone explained it to him what a tremendous insult the sole of the shoe represents in the Arab world.

UPDATE: Al-Zaidi charged for throwing shoes in presence of Maliki, not for aiming at Bush

The Wilkow Arguments

Yes, still more on Andrew Wilkow.

I originally wrote, after getting Sirius Radio, about someone I'd never heard about before: Andrew Wilkow. Why? He's a right-wing nutter and drives me insane some days. What do I mean by "some days?" I listen to him as long as I can stand because he's got a unique perspective, bases his many arguments in the founding documents of our country, and I respect his opinion even if I don't agree with it. Most of the time.

I'm still getting comments on my original post (most anonymous right-wing cowards with bad grammar skills), and one came through the other day that needed notice:

"How can you say Rush or Wilkow make things up?"

Rush Limbaugh makes shit up all the damned time, misappropriates stats to bounce his opinions, and cherry-picks quotes with inferences designed to fire up his ignorant, worshipful base. Talk about messianic. There are dozens of sites that'll give you a rundown; this isn't one of them.

But I figured Andrew deserved a little more. So I specifically listened to see if anything didn't quite jive. And, damn, shit just didn't jive.

It started with Andrew stating that the top three leading causes of death in America were smoking-related cancer, obesity, and promiscuous sex ("AIDS-related death" is what he said). While I have no reason to argue with the smoking-related cancer (and other problems associated with it) and obesity (and problems associated with it), but promiscuous sex?

I looked at the primary avoidable causes of death in America and compiled a list of references from the CDC, Vandenberg Air Force Base, and The Mayo Clinic.

They all list things like heart disease, cancer, stroke, accidents, flu, Alzheimer's, diabetes, and septicemia.

Where does that gay AIDS sex come in? It doesn't. If he was citing something, I could not find it, and everything that could be found wasn't even close. This would be one of those "made up" things, skewered truth to twist his argument.

But what was the argument? It was an argument against Universal, socialized medicine. Unfortunately for Andrew, Barack Obama's health care plan is not "Universal health care" as he repeatedly claimed.

The argument itself centered around how wrong the socialism aspect of health care is if someone who smokes or is obese or has promiscuous sex and taxes the system unfairly because everyone is paying into the same system but some people are getting more out of it. That, encapsulated, makes a bit of sense.

But where does the argument end when it comes to practical applications in a "perfect," capitalist-driven medical society? Well, kind of in the suck state it's in now: controlled by an insurance collusion where competition is not defined by gaining the most customers, but by cutting costs, dropping risk, and leaving even those with insurance unable to get the treatment they may need. We've got differences in cost for people who smoke and some creeping up for obesity. Next comes labs - high cholesterol, diabetes, etc. Then DNA. And then the insurance companies raise and raise and raise rates at will, cite whatever they want, and are unaccountable to anyone. Why? The Great Right Wing Deregulation Machine.

That's no way to keep people healthy. Our form of health care in America is a collapsing disaster. And socializing it could only be a good thing.

Why not? Every government employee is currently receiving socialized, government-controlled health care. Personally, I pay property taxes based on the value of my home and have equal access to services such as fire and police. Do they take into account whether or not I don't lock my doors or have a gas stove or an open fireplace or smoke in my house, all things that increase the chances of me requiring those services? Nope. Why? We live in a society where parts of it are already socialized. And those parts work pretty damned well.

And as for socialism, The Republican Vice Presidential candidate is governor of a state that holds socialized, collective control of the oil in the state and every resident gets a check cut by the state. Now that's socialism.


One final note on the show. Andrew Wilkow, railing against the red herring that is conservative ACORN scare tactics, asked "Why would you have to file one fake ballot?" What follows are actual facts:
- No one is committing voting fraud. That happens when you vote. Hence the name.
- No one is submitting fake ballots. See above.
- Employees of ACORN are not perpetuating an organized attack at the heart of democracy; they are idiots trying to pad their pockets, making this employee fraud.
- ACORN is the victim of this fraud.
- Not one fictional person, including Mickey Mouse, will show up to vote on November 4th because they do not exist in this reality, nor would they have a valid ID to match their fictional address.
- Federal law states that every voter registration collected must be submitted, even if it appears fraudulent.

This is a non-issue, and the fact that Andrew Wilkow took this tack, wielded the purposefully-confused righty rhetoric designed to grow fear, well that makes him nothing more than a tool on this topic, an appendage of the Republican Terror Machine. And while this example - mixing up the language, turning a non-issue into a scare tactic - is not him making things up, if he's as smart and "intellectual" as he says he is, he should know better. And if he does, then he's purposefully lying. And that's even worse.

NOM California: Yay Bigotry!

The National Organization for Marriage California sent me some hate email in the form of a celebratory call to action:

We've succeeded in the first phase of the most critical battle in the nation over the future of marriage. On Monday, the Secretary of State of California certified that we had the signatures necessary to get the California Marriage Amendment on the ballot. Thanks to the efforts of everyone who prayed, donated, volunteered, circulated or signed the California Marriage Amendment petition, the voters of California will have the chance to overrule our Supreme Court and protect marriage in our state.

So, horray for NOM for bigotry! Horray for inequality! Horray for ignorance!

The email goes on to scare the homophobes even more, that if you live in California that means more queers and if you don't then your state could be next. Queers I say! Queers!



So if NOM California is so bent on limiting the rights of same-sex couples, why is their token heterosexual couple composed of a woman and a shorter, wispy-haired manifestation of chemotherapy androgyny, photoshopped with a butt-chin?

Earth Day Makes Me Angry

Well, not Earth Day per se. It's the satellite radio and right wing blogs that make me angry. They're all railing about being inundated with Earth Day and how bad and bullshit it all is. Right now I'm listening to Fox Across America with Spencer Hughes and he's crapping himself about what "brainwashing" his kids are going to come home with because they might have discussed Earth Day in school, because the War Against Global Warming is "war against capitalism" and "war against Western Civilization."



The far right wing has gone from questioning popular and well-accepted science to abject quackery. Many believe the following:

• At the top tier of batshit crazy is those folks who refuse to believe that global warming is even real, often citing the ignorance of Global Cooling in the 1970's and claiming we are going to be looking at more cooling to come. None of them acknowledge that a piece of Antarctica four times the size of Manhattan collapsed into the ocean a couple weeks ago.


• If they do believe that Global Warming is a reality, it is not because of humans, but a long-disputed idea that it is solely because of a complex variety of the Earth's tilt and proximity to the sun. Wingnuts say it is insane liberal egomania to think that little ol' us humans could affect the environment, could affect the planet as a whole. These folks ignore well-established theories, basic scientific understanding, and anything any liberal has to say.


• Not only is Earth Day a horror and brainwashing, but because of alternative and bio-fuel research, we have food riots (and that is the sole reason, of course). This is a first: because of a generalized liberal focus on Global Warming, we've got Conservatives to give a shit about poor people - in other countries.


• Global Warming is a hoax and liberals are purposefully misleading the world in order to make themselves rich, damage American industry/jobs, and institute Socialism. No mention is made of conservatives beginning wars in order to make themselves rich, damage American industry/jobs, and institute a Police State.


• The obviously pagan Liberals treat the Gospel of Al Gore as their Religion.

No, this is not a joke.

And Al Gore is to blame! Understand that most people who think that Global Warming is a hoax are Conservative Republicans. Right Wing whackjobs hate liberals so damned much and, by association, Al Gore. Al Gore has made the world more aware of the problems we face with "An Inconvenient Truth." So at the detriment of the entire planet Earth, conservatives will refuse to agree with a liberal, because to do so might somehow, indirectly lead to admitting that Al Gore should have been the president, legally, about eight years ago.

Wingnuts are not only sadly attacking liberals and science, but their own. The attacks have gone from "try the science" to "I'm throwin' my shoe at the stupid train because it's stupid. Trains 'r' stupid. Trains." Bush recently announced a focus on climate change and then there's Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, sitting on a couch with - gasp! - Nancy Pelosi addressing - GASP! - Climate Change. Take a look:



And then there's NewsBusters, the self-proclaimed Right Wing equivalent to Media Matters. Unfortunately for them and as is par for all direct comparisons between Liberals and Conservatives on the internet, we're piloting advanced aircraft and they're wearing a shit grin over the two pence kite they just bought. But we're on Global Warming on Earth Day today, so let's address Brent Baker's "NBC 'Green with Envy' Over Swedes for 'Showing Kindness to Planet'."

Let that title sink in for a second, because that's the meat and potatoes of it. Brent Baker is apparently outraged that NBC turned Earth Day into "Earth Week," changed their logo to green to signify something to pay attention to, and did a story on how Sweden pays attention to the planet by lauding and providing an accessible public transportation system, is trying to be fossil fuel (an admittedly-limited fuel source) free by 2020, and keeping the environment clean.

Thank God for Brent Baker for exposing "the network's activist agenda." Earth Day - or Week - is about understanding and trying to eliminate the horrible things us human beings are doing to our environment, an environment that we need to support us: plant trees, stop pollution, etc. You know, the basics.

Based on this outrage for keeping our planet habitable, Mr. Baker is ostensibly shitting on his dining room table, eating from the rim of his toilet, or both.

Athletes are fearing going to China for the 2008 Olympics because of what the Chinese have done to the environment. Of course, it's pure hubris to think that we can affect the planet.

This is the politics of Global Warming. Here's the reality: no matter what you believe, dumping tons and tons and tons of waste into the environment in the form of solid, liquid, and gas is going to affect the environment. Lil ol' us nothin'. No, even if we fired every nuclear weapon in every arsenal we would not "destroy the Earth," but we would make life as we know it impossible. We can affect the planet. We are affecting the planet. And should our houses not be in order very soon, it shall be a plague on both them, Conservative and Liberal alike.

Pope Blames Priest Rape on Society

I'm not kidding. In front of tens of thousands of followers and other assorted religiophiliacs, in direct reference to the Priest scandal - you know, that whole pedophilia thing - Pope Benedict XVI said that the degradation of society's values are to blame.

"Children deserve to grow up with a healthy understanding of sexuality and its proper place in human relationships. They should be spared the degrading manifestations and the crude manipulation of sexuality so prevalent today."

Perhaps he should make that clear to the priests that fuck little boys in the ass.

Suicide by Singulair

If you weren't getting enough suicide risk from your own anti-depressants, how about some suicide risk from Singulair to round out your day?

The FDA today announced that it is working with the drug company Merck to investigate a possible link between Merck's asthma and allergy drug Singulair and behavior/mood changes, suicidality (suicidal thinking and behavior), and suicide.

The FDA's investigation may take nine months. As of now, there's no proof that Singulair directly affects suicide risk.

Exactly. No proof. However, noting that the FDA does not regularly shit out money to debunk big sellers in their drug company conspiracy team, there's obviously some impetus behind it in the form of reports. Singulair has already had to adjust their warning labels to include "tremor (March 2007), depression (April 2007), suicidality (October 2007), and anxiousness (February 2008)." Is this an attempt to boost sales of Zoloft?

Wait. Just to be clear: Merck already knows and acknowledges that their drug can cause suicidal thinking and behavior, but will be awaiting the FDA's study results before they pull the trigger (so to speak) on actual suicide. That's like saying that attraction between two people is known to lead to hand-holding, kissing, fondling, nakedness, oral sex, and rubbing the head of the penis on the clit, but we're going to need a full nine-month study to determine if it actually leads to fucking.

Message from Merck to depressed asthmatics: we'll address your issues once we're done rolling naked in our money; you see, we're doing a study to see if money can lead to fucking.

Glenn Beck's Taste of American Health Care

And then Glenn's like OMG, "horribly awry" surgery, American medicine might not care about average Joe...understands compassion..."full fledged suicidal." I am not going to disrespect a man who's obviously gone through a pretty harsh ordeal with comeuppance, but what the hell is going on?

One thing's for sure: Monday will be something to tune into, radio and television as it were.


(h/t to TVNEWSER on Media Bistro)

Bush Wants to Bring Bhutto Suicide Bomber to Justice

Yesterday, after it was mostly understood that a single suicide bomber opened fire at former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and then 'sploded, President Bush announced "Those who committed this crime must be brought to justice ..."

Note to President Bush's speechwriting team: you might want to explain to him that the person responsible is dead. Suggested intervention script based on the most recent information: "See, this t'rr'rist dinna like Bhutto, so he got close and shot at her, but'e missed. But'e's wearin' a bomb too and blowed 'imself up. When he 'sploded, part a da bomb hit'er in the head, killed'er dead. Heh." Explaining that you're not talking about Buddha is on you.

Bush: I Don't Know Nothin' 'Bout Birthin' No Oil...Iran!

From an AP transcript of the Bush-Kozy lovefest:

Q: Mr. President, with oil approaching $100 a barrel, are you concerned that your hard words for Iran on its nuclear program are helping drive up oil prices, which can end up hurting the U.S. economy?

BUSH: No. I believe oil prices are going up because the demand for oil outstrips the supply for oil. Oil is going up because developing countries still use a lot of oil. Oil is going up because we use too much oil. And the capacity to replace reserves is dwindling. That's why the price of oil is going up.

Now, I believe it is important for us to send clear signals to the Iranian government...

Blah blah blah... we need to attack Iran!

While dry-humping the new, Georgie-lovin' President of France in Washington this week, President Bush alluded to his complete ignorance of how our world works. Oil prices go up, in part, because of a basic supply/demand structure, but our recent surge is tempered in the forges of energy forecasters and traders.

All you have to do is watch the morning news and hear "Oil prices took a leap today because of fears of a possible storm in the North Sea" or "...because of fears that Bush may attack Iran" or "...because of fears that Wonka Bar production may move to Oompa-LoompaLand." Jumpin' Jesus on a pogo stick!

But the President is very good much sexy friends with people who make shit-tons of money all over the world trading in the everyday affairs of regular citizens and wants to make sure that when his caustic second term is over that he can jump back in the pimped out money pool with all the folks he allowed to benefit from his two terms in office. Between horrendous military contracts, education tomfoolery, and allowing Big Oil to rape America, he's going to be one of the richest bastards in the world by March of 2009. As long as he doesn't invest in the dollar.

Or he's just - really - mentally retarded and doesn't even have a basic understanding about how the world economy works.

I'll accept arguments from either end. To paraphrase a British punk paraphrase: America is Dead...Long Live America!

The Bastard's Bastion: Out of Context!

Larry Craig played footsie under an airport bathroom stall in the hopes of fellating some man meat, or having his meat fellated. Then, when it turned out that his courting overtures were directed towards a man of the law, in order to cover it up, he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge. At least that's what the devil liberal media says. Obviously, his actions were totally taken out of context (and that's okay because the GOP has decided that under the rug and back in the closet is good enough for them - despite a conviction - good enough for America, and good enough for earmarks).

Rush Limbaugh made an outward, generalized claim that any member of the U.S. Military - past or present - who was or is against the war in Iraq is a "phony soldier" (complete transcript and audio). But this is even more of an outrage: the liberal media is not only taking it out of context but is just plain lying.

On Wednesday morning, Fox and Friends Brian Kilmeade blamed the sexualization of children on I Dream of Jeanie: "Barbara Eden lowered the bar by wearing that sexy outfit, traumatized me as a child and then every kid wore the Barbara Eden outfit, and that's when times were good." Jon Stewart poked at Brian Wednesday evening. Thursday morning, the FnF trio chuckled about how the Liberal Media has an agenda to take FOX out of context. Brian, after admitting to getting Jon Steward's "traumatizing myself" joke only after hearing it for a second time remained sheepishly silent about the previous day's comment, as those taken "out of context" are generally prone to do.

Also on Wednesday, it was revealed that when Arnold Schwarzenegger said that marijuana was not a drug, you guessed it, it was taken out of context.

Thursday, Dog the Bounty Hunter was heard (or beeped, at least) repeatedly dropping the N-bomb in a message telling his son to break up with his black girlfriend, Monique Shinnery, ironically because he doesn't want her "drunk" ass hearing him say "nigger" and going to the press (it's an ugly word and I do not hide behind euphemism). Preliminary reports emerged that the phone message was taken out of context.

None of the previous instances of heinous misinterpretation were, in fact, misinterpreted. But the right wing is slowly dissolving the idea of context as a whole. Out of context is the new black, and unless we try to counter-act this trend, context will eventually be another casualty of a dying system of accountability.

More on Cincinnati's Baby-cookin' Lady

Thanks to commenter dmvnana on my last post on Mom Bakes 2-Year-Old in SUV, Walks Free, I was prompted to further outrage and tracked down this terrifying information from the Cincinnati Enquirer:

UNION TWP. - The day Cecilia Slaby died wasn't the first time her mother left the 2-year-old alone in a car, according to police reports made public Wednesday.

Brenda Nesselroad-Slaby was warned by a former administrator at the preschool attended by Cecilia's 5-year-old sister, Allison, not to leave her toddler in the car by herself.

A parent had complained about seeing Cecilia left in a car last winter.

A teacher at the Compass School in Loveland told police that twice in the two days before Cecilia's death she heard Nesselroad-Slaby describe leaving the child unattended in a car.

Teacher Tara Phillips told police that on Aug. 21 Nesselroad-Slaby arrived at 5:10 p.m. to pick up Allison.

"She told Allison to hurry up because the baby was in the car," Phillips wrote. The same thing happened the next day, Phillips said.

"We were acting out a story when Ms. Slaby came to pick up Allison about 3:05," Phillips wrote. "Allison asked Mom if she would stay to watch her part. Mom stayed, and they both left at 3:15. Mom didn't go to check on the baby."

Debbie Wolf, a former Compass School administrator, told police that after the parent expressed concern last winter about a baby left in a car, she told Nesselroad-Slaby "that her child should not be left in the car alone. Mrs. Slaby apologized."

Wolf told police the incident prompted the school to warn parents in its newsletter that "no child should be left in a car unattended."

A couple of things to note here: The law in Ohio states that you can't have negligence without endangerment, and endangerment requires intent to harm. Apathy, forgetfulness, stupidity, even if repetitive, even if in abundance enough to make you want to scream at the world and punch the wall, is not enough to send someone to jail in Ohio. Ohio Revised Code even defines Involuntary Manslaughter - something I would've thought would fit the "I didn't mean to kill my baby" defense - is only applicable in the case of committing or attempting to commit a felony or misdemeanor. And as we saw in the last article, because of lack of intent, neither of those works either; they cancel each other out.

Hamilton County Job & Family Services is looking into whether she is a threat to her other daughter. They have a 24-hour "Child Abuse and Neglect Line." Let's throw that one on the barby as well.

HCJFS Child Abuse and Neglect Line
(513) 241-5437

Clermont County Prosecutor's Office
(513) 732-7223

Glen Este Middle School
(513) 947-7700

West Clermont Local School District
(513) 943-5000
contact_wcs@hccanet.org

We Are Not OK

From Suspect Device for Bush's visit on the 2 year anniversary of Katrina:

Chopper Crash Blame Game: Driver or Media?

A nice one for the families, ABCNews.com, via AP Photo/La Voz-The Arizona Republic, AJ Alexander

On Friday, you have probably heard, there was a not-so-crazy car chase in Phoenix, Arizona. During the chase, two media choppers - each holding a pilot and cameraman - collided and dropped to the ground, leaving no survivors.

In examining the wreckage and maintenance logs for possible causes of the crash, police have come to one possible answer: blame it on Christopher J. Jones, the cause of the chase.

What-what?

Yes, the police are now looking at charging Chris Jones with four counts of murder on top of everything else. I am not a bleeding heart "the criminal is the victim" sort, especially when some jackass steals a car and runs from police. But the helicopter crash falls far from his lap.

I'm not going into a diatribe on media morality, but if it bleeds, it leads, and if those photogs had captured a spectacular pile-up, violent suicide, or hostage event, the footage would have led every news hour for a week and they might even have been up for a local Emmy. This means more viewers, more ratings, more money, etc.

If a police officer died in pursuit of Chris Jones, another charge is not out of the question; an officer's job is to serve the public good, and while an official chase is not without questions of necessity, better to get a criminal off the streets than not.

But that's not what happened; somebody fucked up while chasing the $USDs pinned to Chris Jones's ass, and now four people are dead.

I could reductio ad absurdum this into the ground or reduce it to the station's fault for having certain policies or equipment, the police's fault for giving chase, or even God's fault (because, in the end, doesn't He run the show?).

Adding criminal charges to Chris Jones because a couple peeping toms with media passes and helicopters killed each other is like blaming the malaria the National Geographic photog gets on the antelope that was taken down by the lion.

I'm still searching for words, but unless it's the simple, obvious, "everyone loves a patsy and we've already got one" angle, how does this even make sense?