Time Wasted Talking

I spoke recently with someone who said they had questions about something. Then while I’m trying to answer the questions they ask me to put the response in writing because they’re “better with paper.” Then why not just give me the questions on paper as well?

Hart Logic

A few weeks ago Fmr. Sen. Gary Hart sent a letter to the Iranian government warning of an very possible attack from the US and giving some rather curious advice to possibly avert it.

Obvious stuff like I don’t think he’s part of the state department and had no business writing the letter aside, let’s have a look at the logic. First, I don’t think the Iranians are stupid or naive. They are right next to Iraq and could most likely hear the bombing. The administration has been quite clear about their intentions since the Iraq war started. Unless Hart thinks they are in fact that incompetent why write the letter?

BS Identified

Whenever you hear the phrase “I know that I know that I know” it is most likely coming from someone who doesn’t know.

Not blaming Bush or his Christian cronies for this one

Commerce City, CO - A young man was arrested for fighting with his girlfriend over which gang their toddler should join.

The things that pass for “important” in people’s lives…

And it’s only going to get worse.

H/T: Below The Beltway

3-Figure Brains, 6-Figure Incomes

A Washington, DC, airport ticket agent offers some examples of why our country is in trouble!

1. I had a New Hampshire Congresswoman ask for an aisle seat so that her hair wouldn’t get messed up by being near the window. (On an airplane!)
2. I got a call from a candidate’s staffer, who wanted to go to Capetown. I started to explain the length of the flight and the passport information, then she interrupted me with, “I’m not trying to make you look stupid, but Capetown is in Massachusetts.” Without trying to make her look stupid, I calmly explained, “Cape Cod is in Massachusetts, Capetown is in Africa.” Her response - click.
3. A senior Vermont Congressman called, furious about a Florida package we did. I asked what was wrong with the vacation in Orlando. He said he was expecting an ocean-view room. I tried to explain that’s not possible, since Orlando is in the middle of the state. He replied, “Don’t lie to me, I looked on the map and Florida is a very thin state!” (OMG)
4. I got a call from a lawmaker’s wife who asked, “Is it possible to see England from Canada?” I said, “No.” She said, “But they look so close on the map.” (OMG, again!)
5. An aide for a cabinet member once called and asked if he could rent a car in Dallas. When I pulled up the reservation, I noticed he had only a 1-hour layover in Dallas. When I asked him why he wanted to rent a car, he said, “I heard Dallas was a big airport, and we will need a car to drive between gates to save time.” (Aghhhh)
6. An Illinois Congresswoman called last week. She needed to know how it was possible that her flight from Detroit left at 8:30 AM got to Chicago at 8:33 AM. I explained that Michigan was an hour ahead of Illinois, but she couldn’t understand the concept of time zones. Finally, I told her the plane went fast, and she bought that.
7. A New York lawmaker called and asked, “Do airlines put your physical description on your bag so they know whose luggage belongs to whom?” I said, “No, why do you ask?” She replied, “Well, when I checked in with the airline, they put a tag on my luggage that said (FAT), and I’m overweight. I think that’s very rude!” After putting her on hold for a minute while I looked into it (I was laughing). I came back and explained the city code for Fresno, CA is (FAT - Fresno Air Terminal), and the airline was just putting a destination tag on her luggage.
8. A Senator’s aide called to inquire about a trip package to Hawaii. After going over all the cost info, she asked, “Would it be cheaper to fly to California, and then take the train to Hawaii?”
9. I just got off the phone with a freshman Congressman who asked, “How do I know which plane to get on?” I asked him what exactly he meant, to which he replied, “I was told my flight number is 823, but none of these planes have numbers on them.”
10. A lady Senator called and said, “I need to fly to Pepsi-Cola , Florida. Do I have to get on one of those little computer planes?” I asked if she meant fly to Pensacola, Fl. On a commuter plane. She said, “Yeah, whatever, smarty!”
11. A senior Senator called and had a question about the documents he needed in order to fly to China. After a lengthy discussion about passports, I reminded him that he needed a visa. “Oh, no I don’t. I’ve been to China many times and never had to have one of those.” I double checked and sure enough, his stay required a visa. When I told him this he said, “Look, I’ve been to China four times and every time they have accepted my American Express!”
12. A New Mexico Congress woman called to make reservations, “I want to go from Chicago to Rhino, New York .” I was at a loss for words. Finally, I said, “Are you sure that’s the name of the town?” “Yes, what flights do you have?” replied the lady. After some searching, I came back with, “I’m sorry, ma’am, I’ve looked up e very airport code in the country and can’t find a Rhino anywhere. “The lady retorted, “Oh, don’t be silly! Everyone knows where it is. Check your map!” So I scoured a map of the state of New York and finally offered, “You don’t mean Buffalo, do you?” The reply? “Whatever! I knew it was a big animal.”

Now you know why the Government is in the shape that it’s in.

Hey O’Reilly, Factor THIS!

And I don’t want to go on a lynching party against Michelle Obama unless there’s evidence, hard facts, that say this is how the woman really feels. If that’s how she really feels — that America is a bad country or a flawed nation, whatever — then that’s legit. We’ll track it down.

Okay so O’Reilly says that at the end of a discussion about some alleged attitude issue with Michelle Obama having to do with her being angry. Whatever Mrs. Obama is or isn’t angry about does not matter. This is about language and appropriateness. What I’d like to know is if she were of any other ethnicity would O’Reilly have used the word lynch? Somehow I don’t think so. This is not funny. This is not tongue-in-cheek. There is no “good faith” dodge you can apply. This is the same foolishness we heard from Kelly Tighlmann a few weeks ago. I know Woods forgave her and says it is a non issue. That is between them. It’s no less excusable than the supervisor in New York who put a noose over the cage where his employees came to get their supplies last year. In the case of both these talking heads, if a black colleague talked about riding down the street and firing a MAK-11 at either of their houses he or she would probably have been fired before the show was over. Yeah, okay it’s a stupid thing to say. But he’s a broadcast journalist. They had to have said something about minding your audience and being careful about what effect the things you say have on a listener. If he’s one of those loquacious idiots who just talks and talks and talks, pays no attention to what comes out of his mouth and then expects other people to let him know when he has crossed the line, well that’s what I’m doing here! Supposedly we’re not allowed to shout fire in a theatre. Then why should talking about killing someone in a broadcast come under protection? Freedom of speech? I don’t know. I’m sure that wasn’t what the framers of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution had in mind either. Not that anyone’s necessarily listening to them.

See we don’t need to hold white people accountable for things their ancestors did 100 years ago. There are too many of them doing much the same things today. I’m not sure what I want him to do…shut up? apologize? retire? go to Syria and draw caricatures of Mohammed? harass a tiger at the zoo? I can’t decide.

H/T: Daily Kos and Media Matters

More on WBC - This is actually pretty funny

I know what this church says is distasteful. We may protest the content, but we cannot protest their right to say it. Seeing this kind of thing makes me realize that we have more evolution to go through as a species. I am saying evolution because that requires one thing to die off while another flourishes.

Readings from The Overamplified Bible

It looks like the wonderful Westboro Baptist Church will be picketing the funeral of late actor Heath Ledger. They are the ones behind the “godhatesfags” website. I’m not going to get into the OT vs NT debate here. But what happened to “hate the sin but love the sinner” idea? Which is about the best one can expect from many in Christian circles. It’s sad. But I suspect the WBC is going to be surprised when many they denounce are in Heaven while many from their number are in the same Hell they are saying Heath Ledger went to. When I was a in Evangelical circles there were always people speculating about whether a deceased person was in Heaven or Hell. I even did my share of that spiritual masturbation. Unless these people have some spectral CCTV into the afterlife they have no clue. We don’t know who’s going where. We only know that we hope to go to one place or another. Our final destination is up to God, who were he a lawyer would have issued a cease and desist letter to these people for copyright infringement and plagiarism. Disrupting funerals, harassing mourners, desecrating graves and other acts of disrespect for the dead are just as evil acts as what WBC is saying of the people they hate.

I thought I had heard it all

when a caller to CoastToCoastAM asked if the people who lived before the time of Christ counted the years backwards until his birth.

I thought I had heard it all.

Then today I heard about someone who said that dinosaurs were Satanic genetic mutations.

Angels and ministers of grace defend us…

Headphones removed too soon

I put my headphones up and the noise making guy started making his noises. Since it’s not something I can ever predict I just have to deal with it. I have to admit it’s been a while since he’s had one of his wild urges. I think he may have an extra area in his brain that stores snippets of sounds he hears and at some point his conscious lobes disengage and leave this buddha box connected to his mouth.