Let freedom reign.

Sorry about the lack of posts lately, the sheer number of issues to write about has me a little stunned. I'm starting to think that Bush is just never going to get what's coming to him, regardless of what he does to America and it's people.

Anyways, I felt it was time for a little fun, or horror depending on how you look at it. This Freeper thread, entitled: Making Islam illegal -- is it the West's only choice?" is probably the most ill-informed and disgusting thread I've ever seen on any conservative site. Even the traditional conservatives are sickened by the commentary of others. From the featured article:

So, the question becomes are we at that time now? Are we fast approaching a time when Mosques will be closed and banned? Have we come to a time when Islamic literature is turned away from our borders? Have the childish and dangerous reactions of Muslims to this cartoon in a Danish newspaper proven that Islam cannot be trusted to be a vital, peaceful, and law-abiding segment of society?

It is looking like yes is the answer to these queries.

Naturally, most of the readership of Free Republic agrees:

Yeah, but we don't set fire to embassies and shoot people over it.

We've got to quit burying our head in the sand about this. The sooner we realize that this is a war of good v. evil the better off we will be.

So *that's* what it must have been like in germany, circa late 1930's. I've allways said reading comments on Free Republic is like using a time machine that only goes backwards.

While the moral implications of having to completely subdue, or wipeout, a billions Muslims is daunting, the followers of the schizophrenic, pedophile-founder of this Cult must be made to understand that our generosity and patience are limited.

You heard it here first, the genocidal massacre of a full sixth of the world's human population is "morally daunting". You know, I hate to keep using Nazi analogies, but if you throw me a slowball, I'm taking a swing...

The First Amendment prohibits this.
Not a problem. We already have a precendent in the U.S.

In 1836 Missouri's govenor issued an extermination order against all Mormons in Missouri, based on nothing more than lies and innuendo.

The federal government at the time said nothing about this order being unconstitutional. To the contrary, the federal government was complicit and a willing participant in the actions against the Mormons.

Several years later when the Mormons were in the Utah terrirtory they sent an army to "keep an eye" on them.

Why can't we now do at least the same to a "religious" group that has a proven track record of violence and terrorism?

I guess everythings wrapped up in a nice little package then, call the army!

Well, you get the Idea. I don't think any more needs to be said.

Dick shoots off prematurely, stains hunting record...

Everyone's jumping on this story, so I just figured rather than just link to the story, I'd put in a plug for the exceptional legal-themed blog, Firedoglake. She's been covering this like crazy today, with well thought out legal issues and intelligent comments by the readership as well.

Update: Feb. 17 2006
Whittington got discharged from the hospital early and gets right up onto a stage and basically says the equivalent of "Thank you sir, may I have another?" Click here for the NYT story and take a good look at that face of his. Then try to imaging saying this about the man that shot you:

"My family and I are deeply sorry for all that Vice President Cheney has had to go through this past week," Mr. Whittington said today. "We send our love and respect to them as they deal with situations that are much more serious than what we've had this week."

Mr. Whittington said of the vice president, "We hope that he will continue to come to Texas and seek the relaxation that he deserves."

Why don't you tickle his balls while you're down there Harry?

He continues on to say that the incident is not easy to explain to those of us who aren't familiar with "the great sport of quail hunting". Oh yes, that wonderful, magical "sport" of canned hunting which involves the shooting of hundreds of birds that were born and raised in cages specifically to be released and act as targets for bored, rich assholes.

Seriously, these birds have never flown before and they don't regard humans as any sort of threat (in fact they associate humans with feeding time and are likely to be drawn to them rather than away). So basically you can just trounce through the bush, blasting away defenseless animals left and right until you feel like enough of a man. Cheney's no stranger to these kind of "hunts". I looked up some other hunting trips and Cheney has been recorded as bagging 70 pheasants in one day, then lunch, followed by a new hunt after releasing penned mallard duck.

Anyone who could participate in a hunt like that is a soulless coward.

America to Katrina victims: "Go away, you aren't our problem anymore"

Iraq vs. Katrina












I just wanted to do my small part to keep the Katrina battered south coast in the public eye today as the cut-off for federal aid looms near and permanent housing arrangements haven’t been worked out for many.

"All I got is a couple pairs of pants and some shirts. The pressure is on," said Jonathan Gautier, 26, one of the six, who was also carrying a single plastic bag filled with clothes.”

"As he moved out his belongings, Melvin Robinson, 40, said he did talk to a FEMA representative by phone and was told he didn't qualify for an extension of his hotel stay because the agency is paying apartment rent for his family in Dallas, and wouldn't support two residences for the family. Robinson, a Regional Transit Authority bus driver, said he must be in New Orleans to keep his job but has no place to bring his family. "When I tried to get an extension, the FEMA lady on the phone, she was so unruly, she said, 'That's not my problem,'..."Everybody says 'Come back, come back.' There's no place for us to stay," he said.

Issues about which areas to rebuild and which to demolish are still being worked out and many of the promised trailers and other, more permanent housing solutions are caught up in red tape.

On a personal level, I was never surprised with the often appalling conduct of America’s war in Iraq. The American government (especially the current administration) has shown time and time again that its support of foreign democracies and peoples tends to be selective at best, but to treat their own citizens this way reaches a new low.

I don’t often give to disaster charities, not because of conviction, more often because I’m hardly making ends meet myself but I did donate to Katrina relief. I spent as much as I could afford with that one, giving to the Red Cross about 3 days after the hurricane because I knew right away that Bush was going to treat this one like he does nearly everything else, just look away and hope everyone forgets.

The gulf coast needs a distinct plan for recovery, not more empty promises and platitudes, and watching Bush talk about Iraq in the SOTU (while spending less than a minute on the gulf coast) after all these years of mixed results and outright failure, I realized that’s all he has…

Manufactured religious outrage reaches new heights of desperation...

Farah, seen here dining on a meal of pure manifest outrage.

This. Shit. Needs. to. Stop.

Do we not have enough real problems in the world to concern ourselves with, without getting in a big fucking huff over Kanye West pretending he's persecuted?

Have all the hungry children been fed, and therefore we can we can spend time debating whether or not AOL's new advertising campaign is secretly taking one of the lord's eight thousand names in vain, or if the gay might infect the nation’s youth if they market to them?

I must have gotten 3 emails from worldnetdaily yesterday (don't let them have your email address, they're worse than porn sites) with this story as the headline or lead story.

Go ahead, read it. Look at the screencap that WND took, absorb it all. Then try to imagine having the same reaction to that simple marketing campaign as Ian Millar.

Millar: 'Points out to AOL executives that "I AM" is the English translation of YaHWeH, the self-proclaimed name of God.

"He is the Creator and Savior of the world," explains Millar. "He alone is to be worshipped. To take His name in vain, or use as a common thing is blasphemy, a vulgar sin of offense. Perhaps you have not read the Third Commandment, since they have removed it from so many public monuments in the last decade. But breaking it as a means of marketing your products offends the mind of everyone who worships Him." '

Oh there's more. I just wanted to break and mention how great it was that he managed to get in a shot at the removal of the commandments from display in the courts.

"You must immediately change the name of your program," he told Jonathan Miller, the chief executive officer of America Online, and John Buckley, corporate communications officer for the company, in a pointed letter. “I can assure you that you will lose business over this marketing tactic from people who worship the Almighty. But worse, you have offended Him by your actions; whether they are deliberate or ignorant. To treat as common the name of God is wicked. God is patient, but mankind is today making an error of epic proportions by the deliberate actions of mocking the Almighty; particularly in the technologically advanced society. His patience with the mockery of mankind will come to an end."

Now everyone, pay attention: If you decide to use the non abbreviated form of "I'm", you are also deciding to spend your everlasting afterlife in the burning cesspool of hell! God said it folks, not me.

I wonder if it even occurred to these geniuses that "I am" is re-arrangement of the letters "AIM" which just so happens to be the thing they're hocking. I wonder what it must be like to go through life, finding hideous blasphemy everywhere and not even considering other, more benign and coincidental possibilities.

I've got news for this guy, in Canada, we've had a beer company (rhymes with Nolson) that operates in the states that used "I am" as their slogan for the past 5 years. Nobody complained at the time, nobodies complaining now. Get a life.

The CEO unsurprisingly denied any references to god in the campaign...