Most cases of molestation did not involve children, and they did not involve rape. The most common victim was a post-pubescent male victimized by homosexuals, the most common offense being "inappropriate touching." The figures being bandied about are nothing more than a wild guess provided by the Church's critics; they bear no relationship to reality. How do we know? Because when hard data are available on these matters, the projections are proven wholly inaccurate. Moreover, it is a lie to say that sexual abuse is being covered up at the highest levels of the Vatican. The homosexual scandal took place during the sexual revolution, and most of the offenses ended a quarter-century ago. To charge otherwise is scurrilous. The Holy See is not a member of the ICC, making it difficult to prosecute. Nonetheless, the Catholic League will contact the ICC today, providing documentation of our own that demonstrates how partisan this complaint really is.
The ignorant ass told that unfunny trifecta joke over and over and over and over.
9-11 was just another joke to laugh about to this brainless child in a man's body.
Re-writing history - the GOP is great at that.
New York Magazine - Newticles gets cut off by Wolfie, but the expression is priceless.
###
Starting illegal wars is sooooooo the opposite of repugnant.
One of the greatest arguments for bringing Jesus to Africa is to end dangerous superstitions that lead to acts like this:Eleven villagers accused of setting a pastor alight after accusing him of using a magic penis to sleep with women still don't know whether they'll face trial or not.Obviously, these superstitious villagers were possessed by demons. If only they had accepted Christ's death and resurrection, partook of His flesh and drank His blood, held a huge prayerfest to ask God for rain, and joined us in battle against the non-believing forces of Islam, Pastor Malwane would be alive and punishing witch children today.
[...]
Community members had accused him of talking to animals and using an invisible penis to sleep with women in the informal settlement.
They also accused his wife of turning into a snail and terrorising the community.
"The Native American people were cannibals and they ate people. And so you can see a manifestation of that in the churches where people turned against people and kind of cannibalized other people's ministries. So there's been a lot of prayer over that in Houston, Texas, they've done a lot of intercession over that and broke the curses on the land. We just had a prayer meeting in Houston a little a week ago, the governor of Texas, really as an individual instigated this, and 35,000 people showed up to pray and it was only a prayer meeting called within three months, three month period of time. So what happened? The land is starting to rejoice, you see, because of that prayer." - tax free self-proclaimed prophetess Cindy Jacobs.The Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence just launched a new website that profiles the members of the National Rifle Association Board of Directors. Scanning through the rogues gallery of far-right apparatchiks, it's no wonder why it's impossible to reason with these people and come up with sensible gun control laws — laws, by the way, that a supermajority of Americans support, according to Gallup. That's 86 percent of Americans either want stricter gun laws, or gun control laws kept as they are today, which ostensibly includes the Brady law and so forth.
Nevertheless, I stumbled onto Grover Norquist's profile as one of the directors. As the cable news media continues to elevate him as some kind of serious man of seriousness, it's striking to review some of the awful things he's said over the years.
Some examples, beginning with a bit of flagrant sexism:
On August 17, 2011, Norquist commented on the "Super Congress"—a joint Congressional committee tasked with reducing U.S. debt—in the New York Times, saying, "The Republicans are serious budget reformers; the lady from Washington [Democrat Senator Patty Murray] doesn't do budgets."
And some racism…
In 2008, Norquist described then-Senator Barack Obama as "John Kerry with a tan."
And more sexism…
In 2003, Norquist was quoted in the Denver Post as saying, "Bipartisanship is another name for date rape."
Date rape generally involves a man raping a woman he knows. So the sexism here is the implication that date rape is the fault of both people involved — in the metaphor "both parties" cooperating to do the awful thing. In other words, the woman — the victim — shares the blame somehow. Definitely not the sort of character who should be allowed anywhere near gun laws.
So I wonder how many times Norquist will appear on MSNBC and CNN between now and Election Day 2012 as a serious analyst: a shill for the gun lobby and a far-right overlord who has no issues with sexism and racism.
(This post is written as part of the Media Matters Gun Facts fellowship. The purpose of the fellowship is to further Media Matters' mission to comprehensively monitor, analyze, and correct conservative misinformation in the U.S. media. Some of the worst misinformation occurs around the issue of guns, gun violence, and extremism, the fellowship program is designed to fight this misinformation with facts.)
###
The Republicans won't like this.
Aides revealed for the first time that the plan will include limits on itemized deductions for individuals who earn more than $200,000 a year and families that earn more than $250,000.
Eliminating those deductions will bring in an additional $400 billion in revenue, said Jack Lew, director of the Office of Management and Budget.
They're closing loopholes.
###
The Rude Pundit: GOP debate: Compassion is for losers
###
Republican Debate Showcases the Big Lie
During World War II, the U.S. Office of Strategic Services was mandated to write up a psychological profile of Adolf Hitler. As part of their report, they wrote the following of the madman:
His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.
As I sat watching the Republican debate last night, it became more apparent than ever that the GOP's demonization of Barack Obama, both the man and his record, was taken right out of Hitler's playbook. Their refusal to take blame in any measure for the current economic collapse either by way of George W. Bush's policies or by their obstructionist ways over the last three years in preventing economic recovery would have made Adolf proud. As would their tendency to not only spew lie after lie but to also ensure that the lies are so unbelievably huge that it makes the naive doubtful that anything so outrageous could be anything but the truth. Last night's debate was a perfect example.
Via Politifact:
WOLF BLITZER: "Gov. Perry, the president in his new plan has a lot of tax cuts, payroll tax cuts, middle-class tax cuts, tax credits for hiring veterans, tax credits for hiring long-term unemployed people. Are those things you would support?"
RICK PERRY: "And he's going to pay for them all with raising your taxes. That is the issue. He had $800 billion worth of stimulus in the first round of stimulus. It created zero jobs, $400-plus billion dollars in this package. And I can do the math on that one. Half of zero jobs is going to be zero jobs."
A blatant, "monstrous" lie which rated a Pants on Fire rating from the fact checkers.
…the president's Council of Economic Advisers estimated that between 2.5 million and 3.6 million jobs were created or saved by the stimulus through the fourth quarter of 2010.
Separately, the council's report cited four independent analyses by the Congressional Budget Office and three private economic analysis companies. Here's what the groups found:
• CBO: Between 1.3 million and 3.6 million jobs saved or created.
• IHS/Global Insight: 2.45 million jobs saved or created.
• Macroeconomic Advisers: 2.3 million jobs saved or created.
• Moody's Economy.com: 2.5 million jobs saved or created.
Then there was this beaut from Bachmann.
We know that President Obama stole over $500 billion out of Medicare to switch it to Obamacare.
Again, Politifact to the rescue.
The bill doesn't take money out of the current Medicare budget but, rather, it attempts to slow the program's future growth, curtailing just over $500 billion in anticipated spending increases over the next 10 years. Medicare spending will still increase, however. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects Medicare spending will reach $929 billion in 2020, up from $499 billion in actual spending in 2009.
And so it goes. If the Office of Strategic Services was asked to write a psychological profile of today's Republican party, here's what they'd most likely write.
###
As Media Matters, points out, the GOP is beyond mindlessly petty.
###
Why the US pays far more than other countries for health care
Here's the gist of the CNBC story:
1. We like to sue doctors.
2. If the government is the sole insurer, there's less paperwork for doctors.
3. Governments in other countries negotiate the price of prescription drugs - this is why in Europe I paid 1/5 to 1/6 of the US price for the same drugs manufactured by the same drug company.
4. Doctors, and particularly specialists, make a LOT of money in the states. Less so abroad.
5. Yeah, there's some rationing, but... So you have to wait for a hip replacement in Canada. Whoop de doo. In the US, if you don't have insurance, you won't be able to even afford a hip replacement, and if you do have insurance, you'd better hope that your copay isn't very high, or the surgery isn't very expensive, or you still won't be able to afford it if you're fronting 50% of the cost (or even 20%).
###
Dr. Ron Paul Praises Kent Snyder, His 2008 Campaign Manager, for his 'Sacrifices' for the 'Cause of Liberty', Including dying without Health Insurance and Leaving His Mother with a $400,000 Hospital Bill
###
This is what happens when you do the bidding of Republicans. You can outdo even THEIR presidents and they still treat you as if you're Karl Marx.
Eleanor Clift:
Obama has invested so much time demonizing the Bush-era tax cuts for the rich that he has obscured the true narrative of his presidency. Class-war rhetoric aside, Obama is one of the most prolific tax cutters in recent history, with a record that puts him squarely alongside that of George W. Bush.
Crunching the numbers at the liberal think tank the Center for American Progress, analyst Michael Linden found that if one compares the cost of tax cuts in just the first four years of Bush's term (2001–04) to the first four years of Obama's (2009–12), Obama's tax cuts are bigger. The value of the Bush tax cuts were about $475 billion in those first four years, or about 1.1 percent of GDP. Obama's total about $1 trillion, or 1.6 percent of GDP.
Obama has cut taxes to lower levels than Bush did, says Linden. This is because, of course, Obama thus far has extended all of the Bush tax cuts and then cut taxes on top of that. His original stimulus bill in 2009 had $290 billion in Making Work Pay tax cuts. His speech Thursday night before Congress advocated for another $175 billion in payroll tax cuts, which come on top of $110 billion from last December's budget deal. Speeded-up expensing for business adds another $10 billion or so.
All in all, Obama is responsible for many billions in tax cuts, yet the popular perception is that he has raised taxes.
Because he has sat silently by while allowing Republicans to call him whatever they want. But of course he can't fight back, that would be unseemly and not in the spirit of Washington comity.
The logical response to this is that obviously tax cuts don't work as economic stimulus and it's time to stop doing it. But that would require courage.
###
###
College graduates are the fastest-growing group of consumers who have filed for bankruptcy protection in the past five years, according to a new study by a financial nonprofit, which underscores the broad reach of the Great Recession. (WaPo)
We're screwed.
###
Six thousand American soldiers, marines and airmen dead ... for nothing. Trillions of dollars flushed down the toilet. Constitutional rights shredded. International respect destroyed.
But the greatest loss caused by the illegal invasion of Iraq may have been our ability to base decisions on reality.
Jonathan Schell in The Nation:
###
The income of the typical American family dropped for the third year in a row, putting it at 1996 levels when adjusted for inflation, according to a new Census report. The median earnings for men who work full-time year round is particularly troubling, hitting a low not seen since 1978, when adjusted for inflation.
###
Yesterday on the View, former Vice President Dick Cheney commented on marriage equality, saying, "I think freedom means freedom for everybody and you ought to have the right to make whatever choice you want to make with respect to your own personal situation."
Unless you're a darkie in the Middle East.
###
With record number of Americans falling into poverty, Rand Paul says the poor are getting richer even faster than the rich!
###
Now that the economy is back on track and Americans are back to work...
Steve King invites Obama's drunk uncle to party with Congress
The entire illegal Kenyan Obama family is just running around the U.S. drunk as sailors, or maybe Somali pirates, because they are African. The rest of us might be willing to sit back and watch this Once Great Nation collapse because of it, but not Iowa-Approved Grim Reaper Steve King, who would like to bring Obama's drunk uncle before Congress, maybe so everyone can share hilarious drunk driving stories. Here he is, like that muppet who lives in a trash can, cackling about how awful everything is, and why it is Obama's uncle's fault. READ MORE »
###
You know those dirty syringes loaded with a terrible cervical cancer-preventing drug cocktail that Rick Perry was sneaking around and chucking basically nonstop at the innocent young ladies of Texas like a mad pervert on a dart-throwing spree, back in 2007? Well, Michele Bachmann has consulted her expert panel of invisible witch doctors just now, thank Jesus, and their findings are pretty much the worst thing imaginable: those injections are making girls retarded. No, really! There's evidence! "Some lady" who may or may not exist approached Michele Bachmann right after the debate last night (this "lady," she has very good political timing, see) and told Michele that the HPV vaccine made her daughter "suffer mental retardation thereafter." SCIENCE LIKE THAT, IT IS IRREFUTABLE. Video after the jump. READ MORE »
###
Urantian Sojourn wonders why the GOP won't help Obama
###
The dumbing down of America
Republican wins Weiner's seat.
The seat has been held by a Democrat for over 80 years.
No comments:
Post a Comment