Rien N'est Change.

"But what then is capital punishment but the most premeditated of murders, to which no criminal's deed, however calculated it may be, can be compared? For there to be equivalence, the death penalty would have to punish a criminal who had warned his victim of the date at which he would inflict a horrible death on him and who, from that moment onward, had confined him at his mercy for months. 
Such a monster is not encountered in private life". -Albert Camus

Thanks to Judge C.

It's good to read

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut can now be read by students in the Republic, Mo school thanks to the school board ruling making it available as independent reading.

Mark's Not in Arkansas Anymore

Our own Mark Howell helped fight off the recent Taliban attack.  He's shown here about the 2:30 point firing from a standing position (somewhat forward and toward the left), with his left side toward the camera and standing atop a blue container. Please be careful buddy.
See also Congratulations Mark Howell.

Not All Campbells Are Evil.

I’m as mad about Glencoe as the next guy and have periodically blasted the Campbells for their breach of hospitality.  In fairness, though the leader was a Campbell, only about 4 of the other soldiers who took part were Campbells.  Let's not paint them all as evil.  There have been good ones including Dr. Jenny, Craig, the 13th Duke Argyle, Kathryn Campbell Grover, and Rob Roy MacGregor's mother. The clan also had some great music.

A Hangman Without Conscience.

"Perry's willingness to execute a man who was almost certainly innocent comes uncomfortably close to regressing to the days of human sacrifice. Sacrificing an innocent man won't prevent other houses from accidentally catching fire and killing the innocent people inside, but it's clear that Perry will not hesitate to pander to voters who cling to hopes that periodic blood-letting will somehow save us all."

Rick Perry executes justice, Texas-style-Perry may have lost no sleep over Texas's 234 executions during his tenure, but the death penalty panders to crude bloodlust.  By Amanda Marcotte in The Guardian

Standing By.

Thanks to Chad

Why Pundit Picks Perry in Primary.

                       

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Oh My God, Rick Perry Is Going to Be Our Next President - Second Installment
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

Thanks to Myra Hellen

                    

Two Ole Boys That's Favorites Wherever They Go.

“Quite honestly, I couldn’t put it down,” Satan wrote.  ‘It was almost like a book I would have written myself.’
In what could be construed as minor criticism of the book, Satan admitted he was ‘miffed’ that Mr. Cheney took total credit for the idea of invading Iraq, but added, ‘We were such close collaborators at the time, it may be hard for Dick to remember whose idea was whose – half the time we were finishing each other’s sentences.’”  Cheney’s Book Features Foreword by Satan ‘Couldn’t Put it Down,’ Says Prince of Darkness -The Borowitz Report
Thanks to Young Judy via Young Art

I Miss the Old GOP. Really.

“Both parties are rotten - . . . But both parties are not rotten in quite the same way. The Democrats have their share of machine politicians, careerists, corporate bagmen, egomaniacs and kooks. Nothing, however, quite matches the modern GOP.

. . .  the Republican Party is so full of lunatics. . . .[and] is becoming less and less like a traditional political party in a representative democracy and becoming more like an apocalyptic cult, or one of the intensely ideological authoritarian parties of 20th century Europe. . . .
John P. Judis sums up the modern GOP this way:

   ‘Over the last four decades, the Republican Party has transformed from a loyal opposition into an insurrectionary party that flouts the law when it is in the majority and threatens disorder when it is the minority. It is the party of Watergate and Iran-Contra, but also of the government shutdown in 1995 and the impeachment trial of 1999. If there is an earlier American precedent for today's Republican Party, it is the antebellum Southern Democrats of John Calhoun who threatened to nullify, or disregard, federal legislation they objected to and who later led the fight to secede from the union over slavery.’"  Goodbye to All That: Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult by: Mike Lofgren, Truthout.com
Thanks to BD.

It's Better Than It Was and than It Will Be If You Swallow the Hook.

"If you get tricked into thinking that Obama has made things worse and that we should go back to what we were doing before Obama -- tax cuts for the rich, giving giant corporations and Wall Street everything they want -- when those are the things that caused the problems in the first place, then we will be in real trouble." Three Charts to Email to Your Right-Wing Brother-In-Law by: Dave Johnson 

Thanks to Karen

Practice, practice, practice

"Our true home is in the present moment.
To live in the present moment is a miracle.
The miracle is not to walk on water.
The miracle is to walk on the green Earth in the present moment,
to appreciate the peace and beauty that are available now.
Peace is all around us--
in the world and in nature--
and within us--
in our bodies and our spirits.
Once we learn to touch this peace,
we will be healed and transformed.
It is not a matter of faith;
it is a matter of practice." Thich Nhat Hanh

Myra's Retirement.

 

She was a little bored. It was hard to find something to do at first, but now she's having fun and feeling young again.

Cookie Monster

A CEO, a Tea Partyist, and a union worker are sitting at a table with a plate of a dozen cookies. The CEO takes 11 cookies, leans over to the Tea Partyist, and says "You better watch out for that union worker, he wants your cookies."  Thanks to Bob.

Another Sign From God.

Thanks to Young Art

Texas Taliban Led by Mullah James Richard Perry.

“Prior to 9/11, the Taliban government in Afghanistan did not register very much on American radar screens, with one notable exception: when it blew up two colossal images of the Buddha in Bamiyan province in early 2001. But destruction of treasured artifacts isn't just limited to the Taliban. There's a right-wing politico-religious presence centred in the US, but with a global reach, engaging in similar practises, destroying religious and cultural artifacts as a key aspect of its ideology of ‘strategic level spiritual warfare’” (SLSW).  From, America's own Taliban by Paul Rosenberg

Thanks to Bob

Presidents' Vacations & Such.

You Might Be A Conservative If… 

1: You’re irate over the president taking so many vacation days on the taxpayer’s dime (61 thus far), but you thought George W. Bush earned every minute of his leisure time (196 days at the same point in his presidency).

2: You’re happy with your 40 hour work week, paid vacations and company-provided healthcare, but you’re strongly anti-union, because those commies haven’t done anything for you lately.

3: You strongly support the First Amendment and it’s guarantee of religious freedom to all, but you don’t think Muslims have a right to build an Islamic Community Center in Manhattan.

4: You believe Ronald Reagan was a devout Christian, even though he hated going to church, but any president who spends twenty years going to the same Trinity United Church in Chicago must be a Muslim.

5: You believe when a Republican governor creates a healthcare package with an individual mandate for everyone in his state, that’s a good idea. But when a Democratic president does it, suddenly it’s unconstitutional.

6: You’re so enthused about demonstrating your Second Amendment rights, you can think of no finer place to brandish your pistol in public than at a presidential rally.

7: You believe Bill Clinton was responsible for Osama bin Laden’s escape ten years ago, but thankfully George W. Bush caught up with him and killed him in Pakistan.

8: You believe in putting American jobs first, except when president Obama rescued 1.5 million GM and Chrysler autoworkers, because that was socialism.

9: It angers you that you can’t communicate with the Mexican busboy at your local Olive Garden, but when you took a vacation to San Francisco’s Chinatown, you thought it’s quaint that so many Chinese-Americans are holding fast to their traditional language. Because that’s America!

10: You deny that the lunatic who tried to murder Gaby Giffords was a conservative, even though he targeted a Jewish, pro-choice, pro gay rights, Democratic Congresswoman.

11: You thought it was perfectly normal that every president in history had an untethered right to raise the debt ceiling when warranted, but when Obama asked the GOP held congress to do it, you thought it only natural that it be tied to cutting Social Security and Medicare.

12: When the new 112th Congress was sworn in, you swooned as they promised to focus on “Jobs, jobs, jobs.” But when they pivoted, and went after NPR, Planned Parenthood and gay rights, you cheered.

13: You accuse president Obama of raising your taxes to the highest point ever, even though they’re lower today than at any time since 1950.

14: You believe the wealthiest Americans are “job creators,” and they are — but it doesn’t bother you that all the workers in those positions are in India, China and Malaysia, and they’re doing the jobs that our fathers once did.

15: You believe gays are anti-American, because their lifestyle is a threat to the children… unless they’re married to Tea Party-backed presidential candidates from Minnesota.

16: You strongly defend individual freedom, but that freedom doesn’t include a woman’s right to decide her own healthcare needs.

17: You believe corporations are people too, and are deserving of the same rights as the rest of us. Just not the same obligations to pay personal income tax free of corporate loopholes, or penalties for massive criminal behavior and tax evasion. In these matters, corporations are deserving of special rights.

18: And since corporations are now people too, you must believe in their right to a driver’s license, the right to marry, to adopt children, etc. These rights shall not be denied to Exxon, Halliburton and BP (but still immune from the right of the People to try, convict and sentence to death any corporation that conspires to commit a felony… because at that point, they’re suddenly not people again.)

19: You still believe Climate Change is a myth, and the recent record highs, lows, floods and droughts around the world coinciding with climate scientist’s predictions are all an amazing coincidence. Oh, and Al Gore is FAT!

20: You believe when George W. Bush took the national debt from $5 trillion to $11 trillion, it was necessary for him to do so to keep America safe. But when Barack Obama added to it by trying to rescue the country from a second Great Depression, he was deliberately trying to destroy America!

21: You believe America is a God fearing country, and that the Almighty protects those who believe just as you do. But it’s never crossed your mind that the majority of tornados, hurricanes and floods all occur in the Bible Belt.

22: You believe that no matter who’s in the White House, the office, if not the man himself is deserving of your respect. The only exceptions to this rule, are if his middle name sounds Muslim, and if he’s not at least as white as that black guy who works down in the mailroom at the office. 

You Might Be A Conservative If… By Bruce Lindner in Addicting Info
Thanks to Bob

God Bless Rev. Stone & Heartsong Church. Jesus is Proud.

“Rev. Steve Stone was just trying to be a good neighbor.
Two years ago, the pastor of Heartsong Church in Cordova, Tennessee, on the outskirts of Memphis, learned that a local mosque had bought property right across the street from the church. So he decided some Southern hospitality was in order.
A few days later, a sign appeared in front of the church. ‘Heartsong Church welcomes Memphis Islamic Center to the neighborhood,’ it read.
That small act of kindness was the start of an unlikely friendship between the two congregations, one that made headlines around the world. Members of the mosque and church have shared meals together, worked at a homeless shelter, and become friends over the past two years. When Stone learned that his Muslim friends needed a place to pray for Ramadan because their building wasn’t ready, he opened up the doors of the church and let them hold Ramadan prayers there.
Critics said that Stone was a heretic for allowing people of another faith to pray in his church building. He says he’s just doing what Jesus taught him to do. ‘Jesus told us to love our neighbors,’ Stone told Sojourners. ‘These people are actually neighbors.’” Excerpt from God's Politics A Tennessee Church Welcomes its Muslim Neighbors by Bob Smietana 
See, also, Welcoming Muslims for the LOVE of Christ By Mahmoud El-Yousseph
Thanks to Rev. Sandi

A Choice Between a LDS & Dominionists? Jesus Christ!

"Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry . . . have deep ties to a fringe fundamentalist movement known as Dominionism, which says Christians should rule the world.
With Tim Pawlenty out of the presidential race, it is now fairly clear that the GOP candidate will either be Mitt Romney or someone who makes George W. Bush look like Tom Paine. . . . If you want to understand Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry, understanding Dominionism isn’t optional."

From, A Christian Plot for Domination? in the Daily Beast.

Thanks to J.S.

Childwhisperer.

Lynn Larimore Stanberry took Cuz's 6 year old grandson from not wanting to be near a horse to riding by himself in an hour and a half. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it. She's really good with horses and kids. For those of you who don't know, Lynn started barrel racing while in college & rode a bronc on her 30th birthday. Thanks Lynn

King Willard?

“. . .Mitt Romney told an Iowa crowd . . . .that the U.S. government shouldn't raise taxes because ‘corporations are people’ too. From Talking Points Memo:
    Responding to a question from an audience member as to why Social Security should be included in deficit talks when it doesn't add to the deficit, Romney drifted into a defense of corporate rights.
    ‘Corporations are people, my friend,’ he said. ‘Of course they are.’
    After receiving jeers from the audience over the quote, he elaborated: ‘Everything corporations earn goes to people. Where do you think it goes? Whose pockets? People's pockets. Human beings, my friend.’ In some respects, corporations are treated as individuals, like when it comes to spending huge sums of money on elections and in matters of free speech. When it's convenient, in other words.” Romney: "Corporations are people" in Arkansas Times Blog
“Today there are, . . .insidious, enslaving forces at work in America.  Today's emerging tyranny emanates from a New King, from a nonliving power center composed at its core of monolithic corporate entities encased and protected by endless layers of governmental bureaucracies. The primary strategy of the New King is to convert all rights, all human energy, all goals and, at last, all humans into fungible commodities, for the New King exists solely for commerce and its life's blood, its green blood, its money--and its singular mission is profit. The New King's principal means of control is the media that sells us the myths of freedom, that,  when we doubt, reassures us we are free, and that programs us and our children to accept the notion that all human function, all human desires, indeed, even immortality itself can, at last, be satisfied at he marketplace.”  Gerry Spence in From Freedom to Slavery