Happy Birthday, Chuck Berry

84 years ago today, one of the all-time greats in the history of American pop music was born.



Chuck Berry will always be remembered for the "duck walk" and the signature riff, but he never does get enough credit as one of the all-time great songwriters.

That's why EVERYONE covers Chuck Berry:






















“If you had to give rock’n’roll another name, you might call it Chuck Berry” -John Lennon
“Why should I write songs when Chuck Berry wrote them all?” -George Thorogood

Sharron Angle's Handlers Still Letting Her Speak in Public

From the Las Vegas Sun:

Here is Sharron Angle speaking to a group of Hispanic students:

"So that’s what we want is a secure and sovereign nation and, you know, I don’t know that all of you are Latino. Some of you look a little more Asian to me. I don’t know that. [Note: it's the Hispanic Student Union. The whole room is Hispanic teenagers.]

Because if you want to win over a group of minorities, your best bet is to go with some variation of "Ah, I can't tell any of you apart!"

What we know, what we know about ourselves is that we are a melting pot in this country. My grandchildren are evidence of that. I’m evidence of that. I’ve been called the first Asian legislator in our Nevada State Assembly."

Yeah, I don't think anyone has ever called you that, Ma'am. I think maybe you heard wrong. Maybe they said you were the first Aging masturbator in the State Assembly. Maybe they said you were the first Crustacean in the State Assembly. Maybe someone said that you were the biggest frustration in the State Assembly.

UPDATE: The Angle campaign says she made that remark about being the first Asian legislator because "a reporter thought she looked Asian."

Has no one in Nevada ever seen an Asian person?

It's not that difficult. Check it out:



Asian Man



Hispanic Man



Asian Lady



White Lady



Crazy Asian Lady



Crazy White Lady


I suppose at this point, Angle should get points for not pulling at the corners of her eyes and chanting "Ching chong, me love you long time!"



UPDATE: Crooks & Liars has the video:



She's even stupider than I thought!

Movies I Have Never Seen

That everyone just assumes that everyone else has seen.

In alphabetical order.

Avatar

Bull Durham

ET

Deliverance

Die Hard

Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Field of Dreams

Good, the Bad and the Ugly,The

It's a Wonderful Life

Jaws

Lethal Weapon

Matrix, The *

Rocky

Slap Shot

There will be Blood **

Titanic

Top Gun ***

Also, I have never seen anything with Bruce Lee, Only one Dirty Harry movie, and only one James Bond (During high school, my friends and I would go see whatever happened to be playing at the $!.50 theater. That is how I saw "Octopussy," which killed any interest I might have had in seeing any other of the Bond series.)

* I saw a couple of scenes when my friend was showing off his fancy newfangled DVD player. They were awful.

** I know this got great ink, but I hated Magnolia, I wa underwhelmed by Boogie Nights, and I'm just not that eager to sit through, what is it, like 3 1/2 hours to give Paul Thomas Anderson a third strike.

** * I did see part of this at a friend's house. I fell asleep. I don't think I missed much.

The Washington Post is Pathetic, Tony Perkins is an Asshole

So last Monday was National Coming-Out Day. I didn't know there was such a day, but it seems like a good idea. Apparently, the Washington Post doesn't share that view, because their guest columnist for that day was the truly egregious Tony Perkins of the horrible Family Research Council.

There has been a rash of suicides in the news lately. We hear these horrible stories about young people being tormented to the point of ending their own lives simply because their classmates hate them for being gay. Truly horrible. So the Washington Post gets notorious gay-hater Tony Perkins to comment. What the fuck?

Here's the explanation they provided to GLAAD:

GLAAD's initial tweet:
The @WashingtonPost Gives Platform to Anti-Gay Activist http://bit.ly/crX6q5 #LGBT #gay

Washington Post reply:
Hi @glaad, we're working to cover both sides. Earlier, we hosted Dan Savage of It Gets Better in a live chat. http://wapo.st/aA8SXX

Yeah. They think that there are two sides to this story. The story about suicide. They had anti-suicide columnist Dan Savage (who is awesome, by the way) so now you have to have, what, a pro-suicide column for "balance?"

I'm not sure when this started, this insistence on "balance." I assume it's a byproduct of the 40+ year right wing assault on the media. Media outlets are so terrified of being labeled "left-leaning" or "liberal-biased" that they bend over backwards and forwards to give the appearance of objectivity to every story. That's why a large percentage of people believe that the "jury is still out" on global warming, because any time there's a story about rising sea levels or melting icecaps the media fell the need to include some Exxon-funded hack scientist proclaiming that up is down, hot is cold, and the icecaps are growing. It's bullshit, of course, but apparently enough people are buying it to make it worth the industry's while to keep funding the bullshit stream.

But this sinks to a new level of disgusting. Take a look:

Christian compassion requires the truth about harms of homosexuality

By Tony Perkins

The media has recently been filled with reports of several recent suicides by teenagers who are reported to have been victims of "anti-gay" bullying. Some homosexual activist groups lay blame at the feet of conservative Christians who teach that homosexual conduct is wrong, as well as pro-family groups such as Family Research Council which oppose elements of the homosexual political agenda, such as same-sex "marriage."

So right away, here comes the "oh, it's not our fault. Just because we teach people to hate doesn't mean we're responsible for their hatred!"

The Christians and pro-family leaders I know are unanimous in believing that no person, especially a child, should be subjected to verbal or physical harassment or violence--whether because of their sexuality, their religious beliefs, or for any other reason. Such bullying violates the Christian's obligation to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, and receives no support from the pro-family political movement.

Except for the verbal harassment they get from the pulpit.

Where bullying has occurred, the blame should be placed on the bullies themselves--not on organizations within society who clearly oppose bullying. I suspect that few, if any, such bullies are people who regularly attend church

Riiiiight. No one who attends church would be hateful towards the gay kids. Also, none of the Klansmen I know would ever be mean to black folks.
Look, I grew up in one of these conservative churches, and I know the contempt in which they hold gay people. And they're not shy about admitting it. They really seem to have this idea that people say to themselves "hmm, I'm evil, but I feel like I could be eviler. What could I do to really show my hatred for God and all that is good. . . I know, I'll be gay!"

Religious faith and a return to traditional family values are more likely to be a solution to the problem of bullying than a cause.

See, if you gays weren't destroying the family, maybe you wouldn't be getting bullied. So really, it's your fault!

However, homosexual activist groups like GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) are exploiting these tragedies to push their agenda of demanding not only tolerance of homosexual individuals, but active affirmation of homosexual conduct and their efforts to redefine the family.

Exploiting these tragedies? Trying to prevent future such tragedies is not exploiting these tragedies, you asshole! How do you see a group of people that are trying to keep young folks from despairing to the point of suicide and think "how can I discredit these people?" What kind of horrible person thinks like that?

There is an abundance of evidence that homosexuals experience higher rates of mental health problems in general, including depression. However, there is no empirical evidence to link this with society's general disapproval of homosexual conduct.

Now I don't know why he included that link, because here is what it links to:

The results of several breakthrough studies are offering new insights on gay men, lesbians and bisexuals. Among the key findings:

• Several studies suggest that gay men, lesbians and bisexuals appear to have higher rates of some mental disorders compared with heterosexuals, although not to the level of a serious pathology. Discrimination may help fuel these higher rates.

• A study found lesbians reported equally strong levels of mental health as their heterosexual sisters and higher self-esteem.

• A new study of gay and lesbian youth finds that they are only slightly more likely than heterosexual youth to attempt suicide, refuting previous research that suggested much higher rates.

So the article he links to actually seems to be saying the opposite of what he is saying.

And it includes this quote from Susan Cochran, PhD, an epidemiologist in the University of California, Los Angeles School of Public Health, who authored or co-authored many of the studies.

"these are certainly not levels of morbidity consistent with models that say homosexuality is inherently pathological." For another, the data simply don't prove either pro- or anti-gay arguments on the subject, whether it's that the inherent biology of homosexuality causes mental illness or that social stigma provokes mental illness in LGB people, she says.

You know, if you're going to lie, you really shouldn't link to a page that shows that you're lying.

Within the homosexual population, such mental health problems are higher among those who "come out of the closet" at an earlier age. Yet GLSEN's approach is to encourage teens to "come out" when younger and younger--thus likely exacerbating the very problem they claim they want to solve.

This time, he doesn't even bother trying to back up this claim with any sort of evidence.

This next paragraph might be the most disgusting:

Some homosexuals may recognize intuitively that their same-sex attractions are abnormal--yet they have been told by the homosexual movement, and their allies in the media and the educational establishment, that they are "born gay" and can never change. This--and not society's disapproval--may create a sense of despair that can lead to suicide.

So, one group of people tell you that you're an affront to God and you have to change a large part of who you are in order to be acceptable. A second group tells you you're fine the way you are, and don't bother trying to change because even if it were a good idea, it doesn't work anyway. And you're going to sit there and tell me it's the second group that causes despair?

The most important thing that Christians can offer to homosexuals is hope--hope that their sins, just like the sins of anyone else, can be forgiven and their lives transformed by the power of Jesus Christ.

Translation: brainwash them into thinking that they can and should pray the gay away. Tell them that being the person that they are is inherently a "sin" and that they need to change into a different person or they'll burn in hell. That's considered hope? Hope because you're going to lie to them and say that this kind of change is possible?

I knew a guy years ago who was trying to do this. He was trying to force himself to be hetero, he dated at least one girl that I know of. And he was miserable. And when he would call my friend "Joe" asking him to come to a gay bar and pick him up because he was too drunk to drive home, some people I knew said he was "just confused." I didn't know this guy very well, he was sort of a friend-of-a-friend or whatever, but I'm pretty sure his family disowned him. He had Christian bumper stickers all over his car and talked a lot about God, but no amount of religion was going to turn him into a breeder. I wish I had been more sure of myself back then. I could have taken him aside and at least tried to give him some support. I don't know where he is now, I don't even remember his name. I barely knew him, as I said. I just hope he's come to grips with himself and embraced his identity.

Anyway, Perkins' disgusting bullshit screed goes on in this vein for a while longer, I can't stand to even look at it. The article is here, if you want to read it. It's not a fun read, but it's a pretty good insight into how these people think. Also, at the end, the Post is kind enough to provide a link to the FRC, in case anyone reading this article would like a second dose of ugly hatred.

It Might be Wise to Stay Out of Concord, NH for a While

Johnathon Irish of Concord, NH is either a member of, or is affiliated with the Oath Keepers.

The Oath Keepers, if you've been fortunate enough to not be aware of them, are a very scary offshoot of the militia movement. What makes them scarier than your average militia group is that their raison d'etre is to organize military personnel, veterans, and law enforcement officers around a promise to resist what they seem to think is incipient totalitarianism.

Well, recently Johnathon Irish and his already-married-to-someone-else fiancee, Stephanie Taylor, had their baby taken away by social workers.

According to John, they took the baby because of his affiliation with oathkeepers, which is totally true except for the "oathkeepers" part.

According to the Concord Monitor:

. . . according to an affidavit provided to Irish by the state Division for Children, Youth and Families, state officials took the child because of Irish's long record of violence and abuse. According to the affidavit, a judge determined that Irish abused Taylor's two other children. She is still married to the father of those children. . .
The affidavit also says that the police in Rochester report a "lengthy history of domestic violence" between Taylor and Irish, and that she accused him of choking and hitting her on more than one occasion. According to the document, Irish failed to complete a domestic violence course as ordered by the state, and that a hearing was held last month to terminate Taylor's parental rights over her two older children.

So, mainly it seems it was the whole domestic violence thing that concerned the State of New Hampshire more so than the oathkeepers thing. But you know, to-ma-to / to-mah-to.

Although, the whole Oathkeepers thing had to be cause for concern as well. Here's what Johnathon Irish's father had to say on the subject:
(via Crooks & Liars)

The reason they are concerned with Oath Keepers is that Johnathon has a fanatical attitude that Oath Keepers is an organization that is planning to overthrow the present government, and bring us back into strict accordance with the Constitution. And Johnathon's feeling on that is he needs to be acquiring weapons to be ready for that overthrow.

So, yeah, being a violent paranoid nut with a lot of guns might not really make you the best choice to be raising a baby.

Irish, 24, said in an interview yesterday that he had never abused his fiancee or her other children. He said he was unemployed and collected disability because he is blind in his left eye from a childhood accident.

"Ah hate thet ther dang ol' guvmint!" he did not add. "Now 'scuze me while ah go cash mah dis'billty check!"

Oh, but the reason you might want to stay out of New Hampshire for a while? This:

Concord

Oath Keepers plans rally

The director of a self-described anti-totalitarian group is urging supporters to rally outside a New Hampshire courthouse this week in support of an Epsom couple whose newborn was taken last week by state social workers.

Oath keepers and courthouses are generally not a good mix:

'Oath Keeper' under arrest after driving to Tennessee to take over courthouse, conduct 'citizens arrests' of public officials

By David Neiwert

A Georgia man has been arrested in Tennessee--authorities say he headed to Madisonville, armed and prepared to take over the courthouse.

Darren Huff stands charged of traveling in interstate commerce with intent to incite a riot and transporting in commerce a firearm in furtherance of a civil disorder.

The FBI says Huff traveled to Tennessee armed with a pistol on his hip and an assault rifle in his truck, intent on carrying out citizen's arrests of 24 federal, state, and local officials, and on seeing that another man did not face trial for trying to do the same.

And these people are freaking serious. Here are some comments from the Oathkeepers website referring to the New Hampshire baby case:

it is an outrageous crime against humanity and we all have to stand up against any of this – peacefully but firm!

UNITEDWESTRIKE

I personally believe that Americas problems with government oppression began when black people were allowed to participate in the process. They have no respect or value for the law or the constitution and are the source of all of our problems.

It is quite apparent that this Country is under tyrannical rule. Yet, here we are day after day, letting the atrocities continue. ILLEGAL ORDERS ARE FOLLOWED EVERY SINGLE DAY AGAINST THE CITIZENRY! Yet nobody comes to their defense.. Many of you here, and you know who you are, are nothing but traitors and hypocrites. Not all of you, but a great majority.

Dear Oathkeepers,

Do not allow this to cause you to shrink from your righteous cause before humanity, there are things you can do to protect yourself.

1- Homebirth.
……there are more childbirth and mother accidents and deaths in the hospital slice and dice procedures that home birth….study it. There are some O.B.’s that work with midwives. Or you can get a licensed midwife who has credentials equal to an O.B. Husbands, and wives, you too can take courses in home birthing. Don’t give your families into the hands of the monsters.

2- Find an O.B. who supports the standing of the oathkeepers and notify all oathkeepers which family doctors can be trusted. Don’t give out information on your pregnancies/ due dates to extended friends or family.

3- If you have older children that are outraged at this rediculous persecution. You MUST give them a chance to speak to the herd out there. Give them a chance to go before the media and tell the herd that their parents are heroes. The media cannot demonize children.

4- Homeschool your kids. Homeschooling alone can make you a target but do it anyway. There are excellent online programs and you can take your children for academic testing to make sure they are ahead of the general public education system.

5- Prepare for an event like this by having some Oathkeepers get their homes preprepared to take in foster care of other oathkeeper children. Find relatives who support you as an oathkeeper and if a child is suddenly and deliberately being taken you can request to the state to have them removed immediately to your relatives home.

***You will find that the gov will do the same thing in the public schools. One day your child won’t come home from school and you will find they were picked up from your public school.

This is the mentality of the "Oathkeepers." And they are made up largely of active duty and retired military and law-enforcement personnel. In other words, guys who have guns and know how to use them. And now they have a cause and "martyr" to rally around. This is not going to end well.