Category: Uncategorized

After almost nine years and moving to a new server, it’s always good to test.

Headline blatantly stolen from Ace of Spades.

Top post until after the anarchy ends, which might take several days to a couple weeks…

A sample (with some editing for language):

Another goon steps in to say…

Actually, this is not a good thing. It is a statement that some of those familly values that Sarah [Palin] is advancing could not even be passed along to her own kid.

I still like Palin, but, if true, this is not good.

It’s this punitive and unrealistic worldview that gives conservatives, and especially conservative Christians, a bad name.

Listen up, Stupid: You can do “all the right things” and live your life according to Christ and teach your kids values and all that stuff, but guess what? You’re still going to sin.

Your religion, in fact, explicitly states that no one is without sin, except Christ, so implying otherwise is a direct heresy against Christ’s teachings.

And furthermore so will your kids sin. And their grandkids.

The worldview is utterly naive and unrealistic, which would simply be chuckleworthy, if not for the other part of it: Because there is among some this heretical belief that accepting Christ is a perfect defense against all sins, these j***offs become nasty and gleefully judgmental about others falling short. It’s not really morality; it’s just a pretext for self-celebration and exulting in the travails of others.

Christ didn’t ask you to be smug nasty p****, did He? No, I don’t think that’s among his teachings.

[…]

No one wants to be preached at. Or rather, some like being preached at, but for a couple of hours on Saturday or Sunday, thank you, and by a representative off the church we’ve selected, and not 24/7 by an endless parade of Concern Scolds who have appointed themselves Conscience Ministers Without Portfolio and General Universal Missionaries for Caring.

But the same effect happens when strict moral conservatives just won’t give it a f***ing rest about sex and older forms of conventional morality. There is not a much bigger audience for that, either. It’s not as if people are looking to be bullied without pause by self-appointed Morality Inspectors all godd*** day long, and it’s just that we dislike the particular service offered by the liberal moral scolds.

Call this Morality Fatigue. Yes, I kind of agree with most of what you say about morality, at least to some extent. But you know what? I didn’t f***ing ask you to serve as my substitute conscience, nor to be my proxy in moral scolding anyone who errs, and if I were seeking someone to fill such a position, I’d want to see a resume and references first. I’d want to know that you actually are qualified for the position.

And, quite frankly, your enthusiasm for this job does not count in your favor, nor does your presumptuousness in performing the job’s fuctions before I’ve made you a formal offer of employment.

A bit of reluctance to accept the title, even if offered, might just increase your odds of landing the job.

I really don’t see how this buffoonish, cartoonish view of human morality (and immorality) serves the purposes of moral teaching at all. It makes mockery of the whole idea of morality and thereby drives people towards nihilism. People confuse message and messenger all the time. And if the messenger seems like he’s full of s***, it’s easy to conclude that so must the message be, too.

“We need a exit strategy!” The WaPo:

D.C. police stepped up efforts last night to curb violence in the hard-pressed Trinidad neighborhood of Northeast Washington, choking off access to several streets there to force drivers to pass through the new anti-crime checkpoint, Chief Cathy L. Lanier said.

The Montello Avenue checkpoint, where police demanded that motorists account for their presence in the neighborhood, was set up Saturday night for the first time, but some drivers circumvented it by using nearby streets to enter Trinidad, Lanier said.

She said police were “going to be narrowing the funnel a little bit” by guiding the flow of traffic toward Montello Avenue. However, it appeared that the number of officers assigned last night was insufficient to fully implement the plan, and the strategy took on many aspects of a work in progress.

[…]

As traffic backed up, officers found it necessary to remove traffic cones that were intended to close some of the streets. Nevertheless, the checkpoint operated on Montello Avenue, where motorists were questioned closely about their reasons for being there and were asked to provide identification.

On Saturday, police turned away about half of the 50 cars that tried to pass through the checkpoint. Twenty-six drivers were denied access because they “refused to give enough information to continue through Trinidad,” said police spokeswoman Traci Hughes, offering the first statistical review of the law enforcement activities.

Your papers are not in order!

And from the Examiner:

Police officers were dispatched to D.C.’s controversial neighborhood checkpoints this weekend despite not having undergone constitutional training, The Examiner has learned.

Mayor Adrian Fenty and his interim attorney general, Peter Nickles, emphasized a strict training regimen for officers when trying to sell their quarantine program to a wary public last week. But two 5th District police sources told The Examiner that within a day of launching the no-go zones, untrained officers were ordered to the barricades.

When the officers protested, their supervisor admitted that he hadn’t been trained, either. He told them to re-christen the barricades “safety compliance checkpoints” in case anyone asked, three police sources told The Examiner.

[…]

Lanier’s fiat establishing the “Neighborhood Safety Zones” declares that “only those members who have successfully completed all NSZ-related training required by the Chief of Police may participate in the implementation of an NSZ.” That training, the order continues, “shall include specific limitations on members’ exercise of discretion in determining whether a vehicle will be permitted to enter the NSZ.”

Nickles said last week that the city’s legal defense of the checkpoints rested on federal court decisions upholding similar “targeted” checkpoints — so long as the officers were properly trained.

Looks like the city’s papers aren’t in order either!

If that makes sense. Richmond Times-Dispatch:

Louisa County grand jury yesterday reinstated 13 theft counts against a former Catholic priest convicted in federal court of defrauding two local churches of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Rodney L. Rodis, 51, was sentenced in February to five years in federal prison for diverting for personal use money donated to the Louisa County parishes he headed. The panel also indicted a suspended Howard University soccer coach accused of using the Internet to solicit sex from a minor, said Thomas A. Garrett, Louisa’s commonwealth’s attorney.

Louisa County authorities initially charged Rodis with 13 felony embezzlement counts last year after church officials realized he had stolen donation money. Then-prosecutor R. Don Short dropped the state counts to allow the federal case to proceed.

Garrett, subsequently elected the county’s commonwealth’s attorney, said the federal courts did a good job addressing the fraud and money laundering charges, but thought the theft should also be addressed.

Pardon the blasphemy.

The Arizona Republic:

The senator also vowed to protect New Orleans from future Category 5 hurricanes, seeming to give little regard to costs.

“First of all, to protect the lives of American citizens, we can always find the money,” McCain said. “One of the ways we can find the money is by reprioritizing the public-works projects, which are now based too often on the power of an individual congressman or senator rather on the basis of priority or need and cross-benefit.”

So, how exactly does he plan to protect a city against a Category 5 hurricane with wind speeds equal to or greater than 156 mph and 18 feet or greater storm surges?

A Category 5 hurricane’s wind speeds are equal to an EF3 (136–165 mph) or an EF4 (166–200 mph) on the Enhanced Futija Scale:

An EF3 causes the following damage:

Entire stories of well-constructed houses destroyed; severe damage to large buildings such as shopping malls; trains overturned; trees debarked; heavy cars lifted off the ground and thrown; structures with weak foundations blown away some distance.

An EF4 causes the following damage:

Well-constructed houses and whole frame houses completely leveled; cars thrown and small missiles generated.

So, is this “Moses” McCain’s master plan?:

[flv:https://www.imsurroundedbyidiots.com/videos/moses.flv 512 288]

Again, bonus points if you can name the source of that video.

H/t: Ace of Spades HQ (content warning)

I’ve converted and uploaded the video of the tax rate hearing from the April 8, 2008 Board of Supervisors meeting.

Watch as Jeff Sili pushes for a $0.07 to $0.12 tax rate increase while everyone else wants a $0.045 (Popowicz) or a $0.05 (Acors, Rozell, Thomas) rate increase. This guy (Sili) is a Republican right? That’s what that (R) besides his name means right? A Republican (and Chairman of the Caroline County Republican Committee no less) wanted to give you an increase in your tax bill between $70/$100,000 to $120/$100,000.

The video’s about 42 minutes long and 105 MB big. If you’re on dial-up, grab a copy of GetRight (so you can resume the download if your internet connection dies), use the link for direct download (after the embedded video), and use Moyea FLV Player to play the file after it finishes downloading.

There is some great banter between Acors, Popowicz, and Thomas in the 12 to 13 minute mark, by the way. :)