tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59942022011-04-21T19:26:49.597-05:00Mother Mary RantsThis blog is mostly rants against the Bush League and its corruption, cronyism, and incompetence. I still feel strongly about the degradation of my beloved homeland. But I'm spending most of my time these days working on my shop at CaféPress. For unique, funny T-shirts, stickers, magnets, buttons, mugs, and other apparel and goodies, visit my shop, <a href="www.cafepress.com/extremelysmart">Extremely Smart</a>.Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.comBlogger791100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1161974150029182622006-10-27T13:34:00.000-05:002006-10-27T13:35:50.040-05:00Speaking at the signing of the "Secure Fence" act on October 26 (yet another GOP oxymoron!), George W. Bush alleged, not for the first time, that illegal immigrants do jobs that Americans don't want to do. This is nonsense. Americans DO want those jobs; they just don't want to work for slave wages. Illegal immigrants, lacking the necessary documentation, almost invariably have no other choice.
Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1160409835207127732006-10-09T11:01:00.000-05:002006-10-09T11:09:57.440-05:00So on Saturday, Jeb Bush was in Pennsylvania to support the reelection bid of a Pennsylvania senator who resides in northern Virginia, when a group of protesters started chanting "Jeb, go home." His security detail thought it appropriate to attack the activists with stun guns while Jeb hid in a nearby supply closet.
This is so startling it bears repeating: The governor of one of the largest Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1158949453108002512006-09-22T13:22:00.000-05:002006-09-22T13:24:13.126-05:00There's a famous anecdote, variously attributed to George Bernard Shaw or Winston Churchill, in which the protagonist asks his dinner partner whether she will sleep with him for one million pounds. She agrees. He next asks her whether she will sleep with him for five pounds. "Certainly not!" she exclaims. "What kind of woman do you think I am?" "We've settled that," our hero replies. "Now we're Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1153237290267288332006-07-18T09:41:00.000-05:002006-07-18T10:41:31.950-05:00Contraceptives work to prevent the creation of an embryo. Despite this indisputable fact, the anti-choice movement can talk only about "embryonic death" and "murder," usually "wanton."
George W. Bush insists that a blastocyst, a set of two to a few dozen cells too small to be seen without a powerful microscope, is "fully human." Well, of course it is! A human sperm meets a human ovum and becomesMaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1151259927286097492006-06-25T13:09:00.000-05:002006-06-25T13:34:17.643-05:00These days, the Republicans with their usual hypnotized chant accuse Democrats of two grave sins: they "undermine our troops" and they encourage enemies of the United States to "believe America has no political backbone."
First: I am trying to imagine how criticism of an unjust, unwise, and unnecessary war of aggression could "undermine" the troops unfortunate enough to have been sent to Iraq toMaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1148748582678045672006-05-27T11:46:00.000-05:002006-05-27T11:49:42.693-05:00If the current U.S. Supreme Court thinks that abiding strictly by foundational precedents is prudent and necessary, it should take to heart "Ex Parte Milligan," a case the Supreme Court decided in 1866. A Southern-sympathizing civilian attorney named Lambdin (really!) P. Milligan was arrested by the Union army in 1864 for trying to release rebel prisoners of war; he was tried, convicted, and Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1147806252917889902006-05-16T13:59:00.000-05:002006-05-16T14:04:12.930-05:00In his remarks on May 16 about The Da Vinci Code, Howard Troxler unfairly dismisses the book as "patent nonsense," most of its allegations either sheer invention or "totally twisted" distortion. He writes good-humoredly about how all good Christians must "debunk" the upcoming movie, which his ESP tells him is going to be "half-baked."
My goodness me, how the gentleman doth protest! As a Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1145634450194270392006-04-21T10:29:00.000-05:002006-04-21T10:47:30.296-05:00On April 19, 2006, Ed Helms, Senior White House Correspondent for "The Daily Show," explained why Scott McClellan, who had just resigned his position as White House press secretary, was going to need detoxification (note: Ed did NOT use the euphemism "Bushwah." He said "Bushit," pronouncing the two Ls after the U.):
President Bush and his administration "read the poll numbers, they know most Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1141072458030859282006-02-27T15:10:00.000-05:002006-02-27T15:34:18.076-05:00I am profoundly disappointed with the outcome of "Dancing With the Stars" last night!
It was bad enough that "Master P," a rap artist, survived to the fourth round of the competition. I would call "Master P" a clodhopper, but that would be an insult to clodhoppers everywhere. "Master P" did not respect the competition; where everyone else averaged 31 hours a week of practice time, "Master P" Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1139244521204020492006-02-06T11:44:00.000-05:002006-02-06T11:48:41.216-05:00On February 6, in an op-ed article about September 11, 2001, historian Joseph J. Ellis wrote that that dreadful day "does not threaten the survival of the American republic."
Oh, really? As a result of Sept. 11, we now have a president who, a year after signing a secret executive order authorizing torture of political prisoners, signed a law forbidding such torture with the announcement that he Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1138654950238262202006-01-30T15:52:00.000-05:002006-01-30T16:02:31.926-05:00Following is a verbatim transcript of President Bush explaining Medicare Part D:
WOMAN IN AUDIENCE: I don't really understand. How is it the new plan going to fix the problem?
PRESIDENT BUSH (verbatim): Because the — all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculated, for example, is on the table. Whether or not benefits rise based upon Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1137267439280688222006-01-14T14:28:00.000-05:002006-01-14T14:37:19.293-05:00Ellen Smith writes on today's Washington Post op-ed page, "Why not make the pre-Bush MSHA the model for freedom of information? A return to the former practice would be healthy and would keep the government in check through greater public scrutiny." She is right — and that is why the government will never return to the former practice while Mr. Bush is in office, or indeed any admiring successor.Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1136917658440502322006-01-10T12:00:00.000-05:002006-01-10T13:59:43.060-05:00At his first confirmation hearing, Samuel Alito included in his opening remarks the statement, “No person in this country, no matter how high or powerful, is above the law, and no person in this country is beneath the law.” This statement is either stupid or frightening. If everyone is on the same plane as the law, then no one is subject to the law; the law becomes irrelevant.
Presumably, JudgeMaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1134576972744860572005-12-14T11:14:00.000-05:002005-12-15T10:50:00.373-05:00Is this the season of "peace on earth, good will to all"? On December 10, a fundamentalist megachurch published a full-page advertisement in the St. Petersburg Times that began "To HELL with 'Happy Holidays,'" and went on evilly from there. They spent almost $4,500 to promise strife on earth and ill-will to all who refuse to commercialize the birth of their lord and savior. Imagine how many Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1132954110404974332005-11-25T16:23:00.000-05:002005-11-25T16:28:30.440-05:00I had a passing thought recently: The so-called "theory" called "intelligent design" (it's actually a hypothesis, and not even a scientific one) ought to contain the seeds of its own destruction, since it EVOLVED out of creationism.
The fact of the matter is that the word "theory" has a special definition in science. In science, evolution is a theory the same way GRAVITY is a theory. Doubtless Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1132427499375558192005-11-19T13:23:00.000-05:002005-11-19T14:50:09.926-05:00A letter to the editor of the St. Petersburg Times claims that on the subject of torture, the United States has only one choice: We can trust President Bush's leadership and "authorize torture," OR we allow "the destruction of our nation."
Leave aside the fact that torture does not work. Any evidence extracted by torture tends to be extremely unreliable. Just ask any of the millions of women Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1128796778929844262005-10-08T13:07:00.000-05:002005-10-08T13:49:17.626-05:00I can almost find it in me to feel sorry for President Bush. Morally required to find a nominee for the Supreme Court who is impartial, unbiassed, and unobjectionable to the rabid partisans he has created on both sides of the aisle, Mr. Bush chose his crony and "office wife" Harriet Miers. Ms. Miers has stated that she believes Mr. Bush to be "the most brilliant man [she] ever met."
Now Mr. Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1127766270581745282005-09-26T15:19:00.000-05:002005-09-26T15:24:30.586-05:00Annus horribilus is Latin for, you guessed it, “horrible year.” It’s a pun on annus mirabilus, or “year of wonders.” Queen Elizabeth used the term to describe 1992, the year that her sons Charles and Andrew both divorced and Windsor Castle caught fire. And Kofi Annan used the phrase on December 21, 2004, to describe last year (silly boy).
The ongoing debacle in Iraq. The Terri Schiavo political Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1127507128158263462005-09-23T15:23:00.000-05:002005-09-24T14:33:32.156-05:00It is clear that the devastation caused by hurricanes Katrina and Rita is going to require a new New Deal. We are going to need a Gulf Coast Regional Redevelopment Authority, similar to the Tennessee Valley Authority. We are going to need a gigantic new jobs program modeled on the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps. We are going to need to revive the Reconstruction Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1125934186087356272005-09-05T10:20:00.000-05:002005-09-05T10:44:50.856-05:00It is horrifying to realize that the Bush administration was better prepared to deal with the aftermath of its headlong rush into a fiction-based war of choice than it has been to deal with the aftermath of hurricane Katrina.
On Sept. 4, several Bush defenders rushed to announce that the catastrophe would only cost $26-billion to recover from. Ha! Multiply that low-ball figure by fifty and Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1125586417240974432005-09-01T09:28:00.000-05:002005-09-01T09:53:37.300-05:00It's really beginning to grate on me when voice after voice tells me that Hurricane Katrina is one of the worst natural disasters ever to strike the United States. "One of"? "ONE OF"?? Show me one that's worse! Show me one that has elicited the second outpouring of international sympathy in four years. Heck, I'll be generous — show me one that even comes CLOSE to being as bad.
Do not belittle Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1124114566157092592005-08-15T08:47:00.000-05:002005-08-15T09:02:46.190-05:00How charming of George F. Will to spend an entire column (the one in my local newspaper was entitled "A Closer Look at the Constitution," Aug. 14, 2005) setting up a straw man, labeling it "liberal," and knocking it down for the amusement of troglodytes.
Will is right in cherishing the U.S. Constitution as a jewel. He is correct that the Constitution embodies the philosophy that individual Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1123089125340335402005-08-03T12:05:00.000-05:002005-08-03T12:18:22.690-05:00So, the president thinks that religion, disguised as "intelligent design," ought to be taught in science classes. How droll.
For those of you who are just as poorly educated, let us recap: Scientists observe reality and develop theories to explain what they see. They test their theories as rigorously as they can, evolving newer theories as necessary. They are open to collegial input and review. Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1121872374766525952005-07-20T10:11:00.000-05:002005-07-20T10:12:54.770-05:00If I hear much more conservative ranting about judges who legislate from the bench, I may scream. First off, the ranters don't have any problem with judges like Roy Moore legislating from the bench. Far-right legislation from the bench is no problem for them. Which means they are hypocrites, at best.
And second, the ranters also don't have the slightest problem with senators and representativesMaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1121788755837642182005-07-19T10:58:00.000-05:002005-07-19T11:03:59.096-05:00I have a question for self-described Christians who support the war in Iraq: Where in the Bible does it say that the God of love wants you to hate your enemies? (I can name MANY places where the Bible says we are to love our enemies.) Where in the Bible does it say that the Prince of Peace is all in favor of preemptive war?
And here's a second question, for Muslims who refuse to denounce the Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1121441762640950382005-07-15T09:58:00.000-05:002005-07-15T10:36:02.696-05:00Today's newspapers ran a story that said, in part, that the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982 "was supposed to prevent secret agents from betraying one another — it was not meant to be a tool to investigate partisan vendettas."
Obviously, Karl Rove's betrayal of Valerie Plame, and by the domino effect dozens of others, was indeed a partisan vendetta — a vendetta on the part of a Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1120934044789677542005-07-09T13:19:00.000-05:002006-01-10T14:08:27.116-05:00Poor Annabel. Morning after morning she would get into the box and strain to pee, forcing me to watch her as I waited to clean the box of its overnight deposits. I thought she had cystitis, a female problem in which you “gotta go, gotta go, gotta go right now,” even when there's nothing inside to go. I had cystitis when I was ten years old; it's no fun, but it goes away.
The remainder of this Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1118242130625348932005-06-08T09:45:00.000-05:002005-06-08T09:48:50.630-05:00The pharmacist refused to fill my prescription for contraceptives because allowing women to control their own sex lives is immoral in his religion.
After I was raped by my uncle, the pharmacist refused to fill my prescription for the morning-after drug, because making any distinction between the rights of an adult woman and the rights of a collection of living cells smaller than the point of a Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1117480980664450072005-05-30T14:21:00.000-05:002005-05-30T14:23:00.670-05:00In 1864, Abraham Lincoln wrote, "I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As the result of the War, corporations have been enthroned. . . . An era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people . . . until wealthMaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1117135005878527192005-05-26T14:11:00.000-05:002005-05-26T14:16:45.883-05:00A Stalinist regime can be distingished by the following:
(a) Only one political party is allowed to exert power; if any other party is allowed to exist, it is ignored, disrespected, or abused.
(b) The ruling regime exerts an iron control over the dissemination of information. There is a Fox News-like media, but the country's rulers are so secretive they even classify their fathers' old to-do Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1115143335661736592005-05-03T11:30:00.000-05:002005-05-03T14:03:08.370-05:00There is a large cult whose members delude themselves that they are Christians. They worship the Bible, usually the 1611 translation, as if it were as infallible as God is, including such hilarious passages as Exodus 17:8-13. They act as though God is a vending machine and prosperity equals righteousness. Their heretical and blasphemous "Rapture," in which billions who do not belong to their cultMaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1113765702408285642005-04-17T12:13:00.000-05:002005-04-17T14:21:42.410-05:00For the last few weeks, our Republican leaders have been in a swivet. Tom Delay, that master of honor and probity, calls our courts "unaccountable" and "out of control." And now on April 24, the Family Research Council plans "Justice Sunday," which it calls "a live simulcast to engage values voters" — code for "members of the 'Christian' far right" — "in the all-important issue of reining in our Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1111427237904865922005-03-21T12:45:00.000-05:002005-03-21T12:47:17.906-05:00If you took an MRI of Terri Schiavo's brain today, it would reveal that all the parts that used to make her a functioning human adult have died and been replaced by water. This is a fact.
This makes the whole controversy surrounding Terri's "rights" as nonsensical as the debate over abortion. Should Terri, or a fetus, vote in the next presidential election? Drive a car? Drink alcohol? Marry? If Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1110915651718143962005-03-15T14:37:00.000-05:002005-03-15T14:40:51.720-05:00Speaking on behalf of those who believe Terri Schiavo's empty husk ought to be kept alive for the next fifty or so years, many decades after her soul was welcomed home by God, Howard Troxler wrote, "Human life is sacred, and it is not up to us to say when it should end."
I would retort to these well-meaning but deluded people, unless human beings are as divine as the Deity, ALL life is sacred Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1105880853866481782005-01-16T08:04:00.000-05:002005-01-16T08:07:33.866-05:00Promise: That President Bush would be a uniter, not a divider. Fact: The nation is more bitterly divided today than it has been since the Civil War.
Promise: That we would catch Osama bin Laden, "dead or alive," and bring him to justice. Fact: Osama who?
Promise: That Saddam Hussein was the real mastermind behind 9/11. Fact: He had nothing to do with it.
Promise: That it was urgent to rush Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1105715316162865752005-01-14T10:03:00.000-05:002005-01-14T10:08:36.163-05:00Re: No evidence of criminal conduct in Plame case, Jan. 13
How entertaining — Republican apologists Victoria Toensing and Bruce W. Sanford can find no Republican wrongdoing in Robert D. Novak's "outing" of a CIA agent, based on information provided by someone from high in Vice President Cheney's staff. The fact that the vice president rules his office with a rod of iron, and his staff takes no Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1102274023579006512004-12-05T14:10:00.000-05:002004-12-05T14:13:43.580-05:00In his latest defense of George W. Bush's vanity war in Iraq, Charles Krauthammer writes that the international community acted rightly in "rejecting a fraudulent election [in the Ukraine] run by a corrupt oligarchy." Why did the international community not reject our Nov. 2 election, which relied on machinery supplied by a Republican company called "despicable" by the California Supreme Court Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1101678660374612272004-11-28T16:41:00.000-05:002004-11-28T16:55:55.573-05:00During the four days before the election, I kept an informal log of political ads for two hours a day. Since I live in Florida, some half-hours' ads were 100 percent political. I counted 8 ads that were pro-Kerry, 9 ads that presented selected facts about George Bush (e.g., his snuggly relationships with Saudi Arabia and Big Oil), 5 ads that were pro-Bush, and 33 ads that provided proven Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1100980911347348122004-11-20T14:18:00.000-05:002004-11-20T15:01:51.346-05:00In her Nov. 20 column, Anne Applebaum defended electronic voting machines that do not provide paper trails. Against those who believe that such machines are only as reliable as their programming, she scoffed, "Are you really sure that your bank isn't using secret software to steal $9.72 from your retirement account each week?"
For decades, yes, banks have been "stealing" money from depositors,Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1100718547188621592004-11-17T13:57:00.000-05:002004-11-17T14:09:07.186-05:00What a wonderful time for democracy we're living in!
First, President Bush announces that by "reaching out" to the almost half of the United States who voted against him, he actually meant only those who already "share our values." These values include duplicity, slander and libel, secretiveness, and the belief that George W. Bush was anointed by God to bring about Armageddon, but never mind.Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1099669686915085072004-11-05T10:44:00.000-05:002004-11-05T10:48:06.916-05:00On Nov. 3, George W. Bush promised to "reach out" to the close-to-half of the population who voted against him.
On Nov. 4, he explained that this meant that he would reach out to those who "share our values." In other words, if an opponent comes crawling on hands and knees and promises to convert to Bushism, Dubya will be gracious; otherwise, go Cheney yourself.
Then, with an arrogant Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1099166396328305232004-10-30T13:42:00.000-05:002004-10-30T14:59:56.330-05:00Once upon a time, a wolf raided a village. The wolf stole and ate a baby. The village was devastated by grief.
"I'll get that wolf, dead or alive!" declared George. Everyone in the world was on the side of the village, except for a few wolves from other forests.
But the wolf was born in the same wolf pack as George's best friend, his dog Bandar ibn Sultan (known as "Bandar Bush" in many Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1098137875735613902004-10-18T17:16:00.000-05:002004-10-19T14:46:53.230-05:00On August 6, 2001, after 197 less than grueling days on the job (54 vacation days between 1/20 and 8/1!), George W. Bush decided that having yet another vacation was more important than an urgent CIA warning entitled "Osama bin Laden Determined to Strike in the U.S."
On October 18, 2004, Mr. Bush accused Senator John Kerry of having "a September 10" attitude.
To me, a September 10 attitude Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1097519892605843612004-10-11T09:47:00.000-05:002004-10-11T13:38:12.606-05:00What on earth has Charles Krauthammer been smoking?
In his most recent column, Krauthammer claims that of course Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda want Sen. Kerry to win, because they are, like so many millions of patriotic Americans, in favor of "Anybody But Bush." The terrorists are afraid of Mr. Bush, Krauthammer suggests, because Mr. Bush is "aggressive, preemptive, and often unilateral." A Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1096996068705386632004-10-05T12:59:00.000-05:002004-10-05T12:07:48.706-05:00In the July/August issue of the Atlantic Monthly, author James Fallows, in an article about Senator John Kerry's debating skills, noted in passing "the striking decline in [George W. Bush's] sentence-by-sentence speaking skills," and speculated that perhaps Mr. Bush is suffering from some problem similar to dyslexia or a learning disability. "The main problem with these theories," Fallows Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1096600101333105402004-09-30T22:02:00.000-05:002004-10-01T09:44:18.583-05:00In the first debate between George W. Bush and John F. Kerry, Sen. Kerry presented a detailed indictment of the many failures of the Bush Administration in Afghanistan, Iraq, North Korea, Iran, Syria, and the Sudan, to name but a few. He applauded the decision of President George H.W. Bush not to invade Iraq, for fear of becoming mired in a quagmire, and he questioned George W. Bush's obsession Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1095972967064556572004-09-23T15:54:00.000-05:002004-09-23T15:56:07.063-05:00 The Republicans are demanding to know who supplied the true but clumsily forged memos documenting George W. Bush's absence without leave during a time of war, a felony. (The truth of the memos' contents is never mentioned, of course.)
As I understand this story, CBS relied on the word of several individuals who have first-hand knowledge of the time and place in question, and on the word of oneMaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1095966860799965402004-09-23T14:12:00.000-05:002004-09-23T14:14:20.800-05:00 On Sept. 22, George F. Will sneered at Senator John F. Kerry's "dreamy belief that even with a war raging he [can] campaign on domestic issues."
How dare Sen. Kerry make a campaign issue out of millions of jobs lost and millions of Americans without health care? How dare Sen. Kerry make a campaign issue out of Mr. Bush's virtually single-handed transformation of a $5 trillion surplus into a Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1095786900474100842004-09-21T12:09:00.000-05:002004-09-21T12:22:34.540-05:00
How to Tell the Difference
Between
Stalinism and Bushism
Stalinism
Bushism
Only one political party is allowed.
George W. Bush has frequently stated his second-term goal of making the Republican
Party the U.S.'s only Party. Today's Congress is under such tight White House control
that the truth is only a matter of terminology.
State Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1093540854533989972004-08-26T12:16:00.000-05:002004-08-26T12:52:54.300-05:00Islamic terrorism cannot be defeated by military might. The "war" on terrorism is doomed to failure, a failure as or more abysmal than the "war" on drugs or a "war" on kudzu.
Terrorism is born not from poverty — many terrorists come from wealthy or prosperous families, as Osama does (and Osama has a personal fortune in the millions even today) — but rather from powerlessness, repression, and Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1090848787509271792004-07-26T08:28:00.000-05:002004-07-26T08:33:07.510-05:00Late in the afternoon on Friday, July 23 (what conveeeeeeenient timing!), the Pentagon released payroll records from George W. Bush's 1972 service in the Alabama National Guard. The records clearly show that then-Lt. Bush, who had qualified to serve as a pilot not much earlier, was not paid for July, August, and September of 1972, a period during which it is known that Bush, instead of honoring Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1090697593216954882004-07-24T13:32:00.000-05:002004-07-24T14:33:13.216-05:00Following is a list of "Things You Must Believe to Be a Republican." Most of this list arrived in a much-forwarded e-mail, but some items I added myself.
li {margin: 0.25em auto 0.25em auto; }
Things You Must Believe to Be a Republican
Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you are a famous conservative radio host. Then it is an illness and you needMaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1089904809705642272004-07-15T10:14:00.000-05:002004-07-15T10:20:09.706-05:00I just learned that the ancient Greek word for "dildo" was olisbos. Since the island of Lesbos was so pro-feminist that homosexual women are still known as lesbians, and since the words would seem to be related (L-S-B) wouldn't it be cool if the original name were "Dildo Island"?Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1088364033907508132004-06-27T14:08:00.000-05:002004-06-27T14:27:05.493-05:00Following is an e-mail exchange between me and an Internet acquaintance I have never met a man whose political opinions are diametrically opposed to me, but who still sends me the occasional rant on how perfect the world would be if all people who took the phrase "liberal democracy" seriously would just go away. My acquaintance's words appear in the gray boxes.
p.ronnie {background: silverMaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1088091309585990832004-06-24T10:34:00.000-05:002004-06-24T10:42:31.190-05:00On June 23, President George W. Bush referred to arguably the worst scandal of his administration the systemic approval of torture summed up by the shorthand "Abu Ghraib" as "the Abu Ga-reff . . . situation."
Despite the mountains of evidence to the contrary, Mr. Bush is nowhere near as stupid as he is content to allow the world to believe he is. His mispronunciation of "Abu Ghraib," whichMaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1086706595635824272004-06-08T09:54:00.000-05:002004-06-08T09:57:29.176-05:00It was 1988 when Jamaica made history by entering a team into the Winter Olympics bobsledding competition. None of the men on the team had ever seen snow before. They did not win. But as Dr. Johnson famously remarked in a misogynistic context, it is like seeing a dog walk on its hind legs even though it is not done well, "you are surprised to see it done at all."
The 1993 movie Cool RunningsMaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1085238965437958552004-05-22T10:06:00.000-05:002004-05-22T10:16:05.436-05:00How charming. The London Daily Telegraph just printed a raving right-wing attack on the left wing and labeled it an editorial, so that they didn't have to worry about anything as inconvenient as facts.
Fact: Calling applause for Michael Moore "gruesome" and labeling him "self-regarding" and the "portly archpriest of the anti-Bush cult" does nothing but signal that the editorial writer is a Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1084286958430296142004-05-11T09:33:00.000-05:002004-05-11T09:49:18.430-05:00Now, let me get this straight: In the alternate universe in which George W. Bush lives, secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has been doing a "superb" job, while admirable public servants Eric Shinseki, Paul O'Neill, and Larry Lindsey had to be fired for the crime of telling truths that Mr. Bush did not want to hear. (And in fact, by his actions, has shown he has not managed to hear even now.)
Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1083609966863347142004-05-03T13:46:00.000-05:002004-05-03T14:25:54.763-05:00In her April 29 column, Maureen Dowd quotes a relative of George W. Bush. According to this relative, President Bush views his war on Iraq as part and parcel of the war on terrorism and as "a religious war." According to this relative, Bush "doesn't have a P.C. view of this war. His view . . . is that they are trying to kill the Christians. And we the Christians will strike back with more force Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1083177285011495302004-04-28T13:34:00.000-05:002004-04-28T13:39:00.796-05:00When a really big graphic goes up on the Internet, a considerate designer uses a technique called interlacing. The first thing a Web surfer sees is the entire picture, but only every eighth line or so. The closes analogy to the way this first picture looks is a blur. You get the overall idea, but none of the details. Showly the lines fill in lines 2, 9, 17, etc., then lines 3, 10, 18, etc., Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1083000890292560912004-04-26T12:34:00.000-05:002004-04-26T12:41:28.390-05:00I had a totally nutty idea over the weekend!
First, some background: it has long been my opinion that to call God Lord
and King is wholly the opposite of what Jesus had in mind. It is a
sacralization of both misogyny AND hierarchy, and it contributes to the
fact that most Christians are NOT proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus to all
the world; we are proclaiming the Gospel of Paul and Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1082645896147743992004-04-22T09:58:00.000-05:002004-04-22T10:02:23.030-05:00God has been "imaged" in a lot of ways stern father, nurturing parent, mother hen, she-bear, rock, fortress, wind, etc. The fact is that since God must by definition be both transcendent and infinite, virtually any image anyone cares to use must by definition be infinitely wrong.
The best way to "image" God is to imagine that you, the Earth, the solar system, the Milky Way, the Universe Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1082642126566423822004-04-22T08:55:00.000-05:002004-04-22T08:59:33.420-05:00QUOTE OF THE DAY: Asked why the United States should NOT invade Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein, the U.S. Secretary of Defense replied: "Once you've got Baghdad, it's not clear what you do with it. It's not clear what kind of government you would put in place of the one that's currently there. . . . How much credibility is that government going to have if it's set up by the United States Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1082053093251183402004-04-15T13:18:00.000-05:002004-04-15T13:44:40.293-05:00Here's my idea for a swell commercial for the Kerry campaign. A songwriter named John McCutcheon has written an entire song using nothing both quotations from Dubya "make the pie higher," "I will not retort to personal attacks" (har!), etc. Let the commercial makers just string together a whole bunch of Dubya's malapropisms calling himself chief executive officer of the U.S., delivering the "Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1080838990884198062004-04-01T12:03:00.000-05:002004-04-15T13:24:37.310-05:00Yes, I know that on March 30, George W. Bush threw Condoleezza Rice to the wolves, politically speaking, and will now graciously allow her to stop spreading lies and scurrilous half-truths assassinating the character of yet another Bush Administration alumnus to every news program in the world, and tell her version of the truth to the 9/11 commission under penalty of perjury.
But I'm still Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1079372824530777712004-03-15T12:47:00.000-05:002004-03-15T13:52:36.263-05:00Here is the problem with Christianity with virtually all Christianity. Jesus told his disciples and apostles to tell the message of Jesus to all the world, to make disciples of Jesus out of everyone they could.
And for almost two thousand years now, virtually all evangelists have been taking the message of PAUL to all the world, in order to make disciples of PAUL out of everyone they could.Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1079113105711112102004-03-12T12:38:00.000-05:002004-03-12T12:41:36.716-05:00The Republicans are trying to make a big deal out of John Kerry's muttered comments, when he thought his microphone was off, about how many members of the current administration are crooks and liars. It is regrettably indiscreet, but Mr. Kerry at least has the defense of honesty.
What about a candidate for the presidency standing in front of a microphone that the candidate KNEW was open, Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1078698261901688362004-03-07T17:24:00.000-05:002004-03-07T17:27:26.530-05:00Re: “The Passion of the Christ”
Mel Gibson is on the record as defending his anti-Semitic interpretation of the gospel story with the claim that it is as historically accurate as possible. This is not true, on several counts. First, as many critics have already pointed out, the four canonical gospels contradict each other on numerous points where and when Jesus was born, whether he spent oneMaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1078697907040189702004-03-05T17:14:00.000-05:002004-03-07T17:23:07.076-05:00Following is the text of an e-mail I sent to family members.
Dear loved ones:
The last time I wrote to you, our cat Biscuit had just died unexpectedly of cancer at the age of six.
It gets worse.
Three days after Biscuit died, it was time for two-year-old Hobbes to make his second trip to the vet. Everything was fine until we got to the vet's parking lot. There, the door to Hobbes's Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1077730352950512542004-02-25T12:32:00.000-05:002004-02-25T12:37:23.000-05:00Re: "Bush: Ban Gay Marriage,"
St. Petersburg Times, February 25, 2004
What a hullabaloo over what ought to be a strictly private contract between individuals!
This article quotes the president of the Christian Coalition of America and the Family Research Council as saying, “Nothing short of an amendment [to the U.S. Constitution] will protect the institution of marriage from an Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1074536374063435152004-01-19T13:19:00.000-05:002004-01-19T13:21:32.483-05:00Biscuit was the smartest cat we ever had. We called him our Mensa puss.
On May 6, 1998, I was two days away from graduating from seminary. My dear cat Sybil Fawlty had died of old age several months before. For a graduation present, Jerry took me to the local PETsMART, where the humane society was holding an adoption event.
Biscuit was about five months old, and the bright lights and loud Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1074431745709761712004-01-18T08:15:00.000-05:002004-01-18T08:17:42.606-05:00At his press conference announcing his wish that the U.S. return to sending people to the moon and then begin sending human beings to Mars, President George W. Bush referred to astronauts as "spatial entrepreneurs."
Since George W. Bush completed only six months of his two-year tour of duty flying an outmoded airplane for the Texas National Guard, preferring instead to go AWOL during a time ofMaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1073925955693518492004-01-12T11:45:00.000-05:002004-01-12T11:49:06.610-05:00The evening news informed me a day or two ago that a Shi’ite mosque in a predominantly Sunni neighborhood had been bombed. Six were dead and dozens were injured.
I have no very clear idea of why the mosque was bombed (and I'll bet the residents of Baquba, Iraq don't either). The principal difference between Shi’ite Muslims (roughly 10 percent) and Sunni Muslims (roughly 90 percent) is that theMaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1073750199634707352004-01-10T10:56:00.000-05:002004-01-10T10:56:55.520-05:00I had a brilliant idea last night, or at least I think it's brilliant.
As I understand it, today when a woman has a mastectomy, they just scoop out everything, leave her flat, and stitch her up again. I've seen photos of women with startling scars. Also as I understand it, sometimes the patient is not allowed reconstructive surgery and a breast implant, and sometimes even when she is, it's notMaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1068055983612107062003-11-05T13:13:00.000-05:002003-11-05T13:13:06.986-05:00My husband came up with a great new locution last night the word "cringe" used as a transitive. As in "The TV show 'Frasier' often cringes me," or "The TV show 'The Office' cringes me in every episode." It's SO much easier than saying, "This show (or person, or event) causes me to cringe, to cower before the horrible humiliation that a character on the show (or whatever) is about to incur." Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1067960927584443102003-11-04T10:48:00.000-05:002003-11-04T10:48:50.343-05:00I've been wondering for years now if a vampire cannot be seen in a mirror's reflection, how can that same vampire's image be captured on photographic or movie film? It seems to me that if you're invisible to a mirror, which is basically glass with a backing of silver nitrate, you also ought to be invisible to anything that relies on silver nitrate as one of its ingredients.
Here's a Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1067873596629483172003-11-03T10:33:00.000-05:002003-11-04T11:10:56.466-05:00All this hullaballoo about homosexuality and the Bible. Doesn't anyone understand that the Bible was written anywhere from 3,200 to 1,900 years ago the Bronze Age and the Iron Age? Doesn't anyone understand that they didn't think out of anywhere the same terms, concepts, or zeitgeist as we moderns do? For heaven's sake, toilet paper wasn't invented until 1867!
There are exactly SIX verses in Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1067204771399924962003-10-26T16:46:00.000-05:002003-10-29T14:03:16.610-05:00Scientists have long been mystified by "dark matter." It must exist, for the Universe to behave as it does, but what is it? Where is it? How will we know it when we finally find it?
We also know that light and other energies have a "weight." If Einstein's famous theory is right, energy is equivalent to matter traveling at the speed of light squared. I find it at least plausible that "dark Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5994202.post-1067204300150566212003-10-24T15:38:00.000-05:002003-11-04T10:51:39.606-05:00Some of you may remember a great fake commercial in the earliest days of Saturday Night Live, for mental health care for your canine companion Puppy Uppers and Doggie Downers.
A news show in the middle of October told the world that Pope John Paul II, who had been in failing health for several months, suddenly seemed more vigorous. I turned to my husband and said, He must be on Pope-y Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01056984015159362511noreply@blogger.com0