I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

I was listening to a programme on NPR Friday morning.  The discussion was about Portman's decision to support gay marriage.  One caller very astutely asked "Do we have to wait until every congress person has a loved one who is gay, who has been raped, who has lost their job thanks to the company going overseas, who requires food stamps because minimum wage doesn't pay enough to live on etc., for them to learn that any form of discrimination is painful for all of us and bad, bad, bad for our country?"

That picture of Donald Trump's non audience is priceless!

This case is a perfect example of trying to lay the blame on the girl because she drank too much, instead of laying the blame on the two boys who committed acts of sexual assault and violence upon her.  The judge got it right.

Steubenville, Ohio (CNN) -- Two Steubenville high school football players accused of raping an allegedly drunk 16-year-old girl were found guilty by an Ohio judge on Sunday.

Judge Thomas Lipps announced his decision after reviewing evidence presented over four days of testimony in the case against 17-year-old Trent Mays and 16-year-old Ma'lik Richmond, who were tried as juveniles.

Mays and Richmond were tried before Lipps, a visiting judge, without a jury. The trial moved quickly -- and through the weekend -- to accommodate the judge's schedule.

Mays was also found guilty of disseminating a nude photo of a minor.

Mays was sentenced to a minimum of two years in a juvenile correctional facility. Richmond was sentenced to a minimum of one year, but like Mays could be in detention until he is 21.

Palin did not say that she could see Russia from her house; that was Tina Fey AS Palin.  Palin did say that you can see Russia from an Alaskan island, and she's right about that.

Layne, I have to disagree with you.  She may not be intellectual-smart, but she's street- and people-smart.  I do think she's incredibly lazy (brain-wise).  Case in point:  After being elected mayor of Wasila, she hired a town manager.  Reeaaalllyyy?  You need a town manager for a budget of $27 (or thereabouts)?  

Ugh.

I'm with E on the smarts. Intelligence doesn't have to be intellectual, as in "book learning." Palin is street wise and creatively cunning (and more). She is a pathological liar, so she doesn't really care about facts. She is intellectually lazy, but shrewd in her own malicious way. For a quitter, she has done extraordinarily well.

But I have to thank Palin for inspiring so many laughs. Pity she has also made so many people around her suffer. I don't mind making fun of her, though. I think she is without a conscience. All of the telltale signs are there. Thank God she is heading back to obscurity.

Yes, I do E. She's more circus fodder these days. No one talks about her as a presidential candidate and right now the republicans' chief priority is to find a national figure- whoever that is, that is who they will concentrate on. Palin is more like the Lyndon LaRouche of yore - popping up every so often getting whackos and extremists all excited, but representing nothing. She's too lazy, remember. She could barely follow through on a semester or two in the same college or even a governorship. She lacks the stick-to-it-ness to stay on the stage.

But again, Thank you Sarah for inspiring so many great laughs!

Something for the Palins and goofy Repugs of this world:

Pip good luck with your new home. I am very nervous and moody over this change. Part of my problem is that I really would like to move somewhere warmer and I know hubby really would prefer staying in the NW. I'm also just plain overwrought these days. I'm blaming it on letrozole because otherwise I'd have to assume I've gone round the bend!



Our plan is to divest ourselves of a great deal more stuff and then once I retire in the fall we will travel for awhile. I hope it all works out.

Wow, Palin had a tough time at the Couric interview.  Why was she repeatedly glancing down?  Crib notes?

I lifted this from Mark Vieharden's blog.  So perfect:

No One Does Run-On Sentences Better...

I have been fighting all day to stay awake. Anyone else in my region feel it? I'm wondering if it's the cloudy weather. Keep telling myself I am going to my club to do some exercise and I can't get tail or tuft off a couch to get dressed!

In the meantime, I have been watching murder shows - Canadians - remember the case of Bernardo and Homolka?  (http://murderpedia.org/male.B/b/bernardo-paul.htm) She is out scot free living in the Caribbean, apparently.

Athena, I learned about that case recently, because a friend was freaked out to have found this woman on a parenting board somewhere. Apparently she is not only out, she is married and has little kids.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/03/15/1729331/cpac-slavery-minority-outreach/?mobile=nc

CPAC Participant Defends Slavery At Minority Outreach Panel: It Gave ‘Food And Shelter’ To Blacks

By Scott Keyes and Zack Beauchamp  on Mar 15, 2013 at 4:23 pm

CPAC participant Scott Terry

NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland — A panel at the Conservative Political Action Committee on Republican minority outreach exploded into controversy on Friday afternoon, after an audience member defended slavery as good for African-Americans. 

The exchange occurred after an audience member from North Carolina, 30-year-old Scott Terry, asked whether Republicans could endorse races remaining separate but equal. After the presenter, K. Carl Smith of Frederick Douglass Republicans, answered by referencing a letter by Frederick Douglass forgiving his former master, the audience member said “For what? For feeding him and housing him?” Several people in the audience cheered and applauded Terry’s outburst.

After the exchange, Terry muttered under his breath, “why can’t we just have segregation?” noting the Constitution’s protections for freedom of association. Watch it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGfCX9sJqqc

ThinkProgress spoke with Terry, who sported a Rick Santorum sticker and attended CPAC with a friend who wore a Confederate Flag-emblazoned t-shirt, about his views after the panel. Terry maintained that white people have been “systematically disenfranchised” by federal legislation.

When asked by ThinkProgress if he’d accept a society where African-Americans were permanently subservient to whites, he said “I’d be fine with that.” He also claimed that African-Americans “should be allowed to vote in Africa,” and that “all the Tea Parties” were concerned with the same racial problems that he was.

At one point, a woman challenged him on the Republican Party’s roots, to which Terry responded, “I didn’t know the legacy of the Republican Party included women correcting men in public.”

He claimed to be a direct descendent of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

The panel continued to be racked in controversy, as an African-American audience member repeatedly challenged the racism on display at this event. CPAC is the marquee conservative conference of the year, with speakers ranging from former Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney to Senator Marco Rubio.

Update 

K. Carl Smith, the panelist from Fredrick Douglass Republicans, released a statement following the media storm related to the racist outburst in his panel. Astonishingly, he reserves the brunt of his criticism for the female reporter who raised objections to the comments being made in the room:

I was invited by the Tea Party Patriots to conduct a breakout session entitled: “Trump The Race Card” and share the Frederick Douglass Republican Message.  In the middle of my delivery, while discussing the 1848 “Women’s Rights Convention,” I was rudely interrupted by a woman working for the Voice of Russia. She abruptly asked me: “How many black women were there?”  This question was intentionally disruptive and coercive with no way of creating a positive dialogue.

In addition, a young man who wasn’t a Tea Party Patriot, made some racially insensitive comments, he said: “Blacks should be happy that the slave master gave them shelter, clothing, and food.” At the conclusion of the breakout session, I further explained to him the Frederick Douglass Republican Message which he embraced, bought a book, and we left as friends.

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They don't even hide it anymore -- they say it in public at a C-CRAP panel on "minority outreach."  Un-freaking-believable!  But all they need to have is "better outreach."  ETA - go to the article to see the video of him actually saying it.  SMH.

Here's another one to give you nightmares.  Heckuva job, Texas!

L

Sunny, feel better soon!