Random News Stories

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

Well...?

HOW DID IT END?

[Cardinal Pizza Deliverance.]

Sorry. It isn't a funny story. It's a sick one. But spoiler alert, no one found Jesus.

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

Sorry. It isn't a funny story. It's a sick one. But spoiler alert, no one found Jesus.

EVER MORE INTRIGUED.

[Cardinal Pizza Deliverance.]

Sorry. It isn't a funny story. It's a sick one. But spoiler alert, no one found Jesus.

EVER MORE INTRIGUED.

I wrote something about it, two years ago. Just found the post. Not A Hypothetical.

It was the same group of kids every summer, twelve to sixteen kids (ages 5 to 17) being carted across poorly paved roads in one giant van. That was the 'ride' portion of the trip. Three or four summers we went. The prizes were bible comic books, plastic dinosaurs, and stickers. We got candy at the gas station on either the trip there or the trip back. Jolly Ranchers and Starbursts and Tootsie Rolls. That was the 'treat' portion. Whoever won that day's Bible Study Quiz thing got to ride up front, where it was cooler. It was all really lame and somewhat boring but it was something to do and an excuse to hang out with other kids, which didn't happen often. Then shit changed.

[Cardinal Pizza Deliverance.]

I'm sorry. I have got to get over this.

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

I'm sorry. I have got to get over this.

Shit, I'm sorry I pushed it

[Cardinal Pizza Deliverance.]

I'm sorry. I have got to get over this.

Shit, I'm sorry I pushed it

I'm sorry I brought it up. I don't even remember making the post ITT.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

Sorry. I thought it would end in a much less horrible clusterfuck.
OUCH.

[Junkenstein]

Define Privilege:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-22619361

A mayor has driven his car through the doors of his local Tesco Express.

Councillor Terry Buckle, mayor of St Edmundsbury in Suffolk, drove his car into the store at Lawson Place, Moreton Hall, on Tuesday afternoon.

He was taken to West Suffolk Hospital with minor injuries but later released. His family said he was "alright".

Morteon Hall councillor Frank Warby said: "He had a slight mishap. They are automatic doors so opened as he approached."

Suffolk Police said officers were called to the store, which is on the outskirts of Bury St Edmunds, at 16:35 BST.

'Speedy recovery'
A spokesman said the doors of the store were broken but there was "hardly any damage" to the car.

Tesco said no customers or staff were hurt.

A spokesman said: "We wish the driver a speedy recovery and are relieved that none of our other customers or colleagues were hurt during this incident.

"An ambulance attended the scene and the shop is open and trading as usual for our customers.

"We'll be working as quickly as possible to get the front of the store repaired and back to normal."

I pull that shit, I go to jail. He pulls that shit, and he gets a get well soon card. Remember, drink-drive laws only apply to some in the UK. This isn't the first guy to be found in a car, in highly irregular circumstances and no breath/blood samples taken.

[Junkenstein]

Reasonable reactions in Paris:

A man has killed himself inside the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris in the French capital, causing its evacuation.

The man pulled out a shotgun and shot himself through the mouth beside the main altar shortly after 16:00 (14:00 GMT) - in front of some 1,500 people.

He was later named by police as 78-year-old Dominique Venner, an award-winning far-right historian.

Mr Venner had recently been involved in the campaign against the government's decision to legalise gay marriage.

On Saturday, President Francois Hollande signed the bill into law.

Earlier on Tuesday, he had written on his blog a critique of the same-sex marriage bill.

"New spectacular and symbolic actions are needed to wake up the sleepwalkers and shake the anaesthetised consciousness," he wrote.

"We are entering a time when acts must follow words."

So this guy's legacy will be bag searches before entering the Cathedral then.

[Junkenstein]

Odd timings here.

Saw this first:

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/karl-rove-white-house-surveilling-fox-reporter-is?ref=fpb

Appearing Monday on Fox News, Karl Rove attacked the Obama administration's surveilling of Fox reporter James Rosen in a leak investigation as "chilling" and its rationale for doing so "beyond the pale."

"We had to confront this question during the Bush administration," he said. "There were leaks of classified information and in each and every instance, the focus was on the potential leak, not the reporter who received it."

Rove defended the need to prosecute leaks but said the media shouldn't be targeted.

"This is really chilling," he said.

Host Megyn Kelly noted that in 2005, New York Times reporter Judith Miller went to jail for refusing to reveal a source.

Rove said of Rosen: "This is a clear declaration by the FBI and Department of Justice they considered him a target of a criminal investigation, and wanted to prosecute him for criminal conspiracy. This is beyond the pale."

Then 10 minutes later-ish this:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/05/20/richard_milhous_obama_118475.html

In the past week, Nixon's name has been invoked often, and not in a way that pleases the current president or his loyalists. Unless it's a reference to his dramatic 1972 visit to China, Nixon is not the president any of his successors enjoy being likened to -- especially when the suffix "gate" is attached to it.

Barack Obama was only 13 years old when Nixon resigned from office one step ahead of the posse. This is old enough to know that correlations between himself and the 37th president should be contested, which Obama has done.

"I'll let you guys engage in those comparisons," he replied when asked at a rainy Rose Garden appearance Thursday how he felt about the Nixon parallel. "You can go ahead and read the history, I think, and draw your own conclusions."

This response echoed language employed earlier in the week by Obama's spokesman, Jay Carney. "I can tell you," the White House press secretary told reporters, "that the people who make those kinds of comparisons need to check their history."

Fair enough. Carney was a colleague of mine in the White House press corps during the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush years, and he summoned a pretty good institutional memory about the beat. Nixon's presidency unraveled on the shoals of widespread criminality with no precedent in American politics. So, yes -- by all means, let's leave Watergate out of it.

Yet, I can't help but think that Nixon and Obama have more in common than either man's devotees might imagine.

Richard Milhous Nixon was thin-skinned, felt persecuted by the opposition party, had a penchant for classifying political adversaries -- and journalists -- as "enemies," and tried to control his image so fiercely that, ultimately, zealous aides committed illegal acts to further his re-election.

But even before that had happened -- and before Nixon himself began directing a coverup -- truth had become a casualty of his administration. This is the parallel between Richard Nixon and Barack Obama.

Nothing new really, Rove's an cretin and Obama has a variety of issues.

I mainly took this a moment to reflect upon what the world would be like now if Nixon had Drones.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Odd timings here.

Saw this first:

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/karl-rove-white-house-surveilling-fox-reporter-is?ref=fpb

Appearing Monday on Fox News, Karl Rove attacked the Obama administration's surveilling of Fox reporter James Rosen in a leak investigation as "chilling" and its rationale for doing so "beyond the pale."

"We had to confront this question during the Bush administration," he said. "There were leaks of classified information and in each and every instance, the focus was on the potential leak, not the reporter who received it."

Rove defended the need to prosecute leaks but said the media shouldn't be targeted.

"This is really chilling," he said.

Host Megyn Kelly noted that in 2005, New York Times reporter Judith Miller went to jail for refusing to reveal a source.

Rove said of Rosen: "This is a clear declaration by the FBI and Department of Justice they considered him a target of a criminal investigation, and wanted to prosecute him for criminal conspiracy. This is beyond the pale."

Then 10 minutes later-ish this:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/05/20/richard_milhous_obama_118475.html

In the past week, Nixon's name has been invoked often, and not in a way that pleases the current president or his loyalists. Unless it's a reference to his dramatic 1972 visit to China, Nixon is not the president any of his successors enjoy being likened to -- especially when the suffix "gate" is attached to it.

Barack Obama was only 13 years old when Nixon resigned from office one step ahead of the posse. This is old enough to know that correlations between himself and the 37th president should be contested, which Obama has done.

"I'll let you guys engage in those comparisons," he replied when asked at a rainy Rose Garden appearance Thursday how he felt about the Nixon parallel. "You can go ahead and read the history, I think, and draw your own conclusions."

This response echoed language employed earlier in the week by Obama's spokesman, Jay Carney. "I can tell you," the White House press secretary told reporters, "that the people who make those kinds of comparisons need to check their history."

Fair enough. Carney was a colleague of mine in the White House press corps during the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush years, and he summoned a pretty good institutional memory about the beat. Nixon's presidency unraveled on the shoals of widespread criminality with no precedent in American politics. So, yes -- by all means, let's leave Watergate out of it.

Yet, I can't help but think that Nixon and Obama have more in common than either man's devotees might imagine.

Richard Milhous Nixon was thin-skinned, felt persecuted by the opposition party, had a penchant for classifying political adversaries -- and journalists -- as "enemies," and tried to control his image so fiercely that, ultimately, zealous aides committed illegal acts to further his re-election.

But even before that had happened -- and before Nixon himself began directing a coverup -- truth had become a casualty of his administration. This is the parallel between Richard Nixon and Barack Obama.

Nothing new really, Rove's an cretin and Obama has a variety of issues.

I mainly took this a moment to reflect upon what the world would be like now if Nixon had Drones.

I will posit that Nixon was a more ethical President than any we've had since Jimmy Carter.

[Junkenstein]

I'm intrigued. Why?

[Doktor Howl]

I'm intrigued. Why?

We could start with the clean air & water acts.

And that he lost his job because he wouldn't let his men swing in the breeze.

Sure, he was a paranoid freak, but he had beliefs.

[Junkenstein]

Interesting. Must read up on more on him more. Always worth considering this kind of angle, adds to the magnificence of the monster. 

I think I was partly reacting with gut, assuming there must have been someone better in the meanwhile. Then I thought through who I could remember.

Fuck, that's depressing.