Entries from May 2008 ↓

As many of you know, we here at BoMb have been supporting Mike Gravel’s candidacy since he was a Democrat. Ideologically, he lines up with everything we stand for:

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From BBC News:

Apparently, a creative-minded car salesman in Missouri had an idea on how to stop flagging car sales due to increased gas prices: buy a car, get a gun for free!

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Apparently, Las Vegas’ Mcclarran International Airport has taken the next step in full on Big Brother-hood for the United States by putting RFID tags with all the of the traveler’s information into their luggage tags, so you can feel an extra slap in the face as you pay $15 for your first checked bag on American Airlines.

I was reading an article this morning on the new American Airlines luggage charge (THAT’s gonna go over well), and noticed an aside starting on page 3…Las Vegas is using RFIDs in outgoing luggage tags now to help move bags more efficiently.

Now, I’m not saying I’m even completely against this, used correctly…but I had no idea that it was occuring. THAT I don’t like…especially since I have a bag sitting in the hallway that just came back from Vegas! Checking…nope, no I’m an arphid note on it.

But oh yeah…it’s there.

It is no secret that a group of unknown InterTubes users have been trying to make life very hard for the Church of Scientology. From DDOS attacks on the Church’s website to monthly protests highlighting the group’s less-than-PR-friendly tactics of disconnection and fair game, Anonymous has been trying to “enturbulate” (a Scientology word for annoy, pester, or otherwise be a pain in the ass) the church ever since Scientology tried to pull a video of Tom Cruise from YouTube and threatened media site Gawker with a lawsuit for distributing said video.

The Church has retaliated by unmasking members of Anonymous and attempting to block protesters from their Scientology Center in Clearwater, FL, but have to date not used the sort of tactics known as “fair game” that cause Anonymous to mask themselves. Fair Game was a policy under which known detractors of the church were subject to defamation, harassment, and worse. _[1]

The Church of Scientology’s website acknowledges the Church’s former activities, such as the framing of Paulette Cooper for bomb threats against the Church, but says such events were the work of rogue agents with the Guardian’s Office (including founder L. Ron Hubbard’s third wife, Mary Sue), and such illegal activities no longer happen within the Church.

“It subsequently came to light that a handful of GO staff members had been influenced to adopt an “anything goes” approach in dealing with government discrimination against the Church. These dupes infiltrated and burglarized several U.S. government offices to obtain copies of files maintained and circulated about the Church. Obviously such activity was illegal and directly violated Mr. Hubbard’s policies.”_[2]

The Church further states that Fair Game is no longer an acceptable practice and was revoked by Hubbard himself. _[3]

And yet, one member of Anonymous says s/he was held hostage in a Church of Scientology Center in Amsterdam yesterday, with church members attempting to obtain his/her personal details.

Here’s the story in his/her own words: Continue reading →

English tabloid, The Daily Mail, is a bastion of integrity and well-research journalism, and every year it surprises me that no writer is nominated for a Pulitzer! Take for example their most recent probing investigation into “why no child is safe from the sinister cult of emo.”

Some describe it as a cult or a sect, but in reality the term ? derived from the word “emotional” ? encapsulates a trend that is becoming hugely popular among Britain’s schoolchildren.

A trans-Atlantic import, its followers dress in black, favouring tight jeans, T-shirts, studded belts and sneakers or skater shoes.

Hair is all-important: often dyed black and straightened, it is worn in a long fringe brushed to one side of the face.

Music also plays a critical role.

Emos like guitar-based rock with emotional lyrics.

American bands such as My Chemical Romance, Good Charlotte and Blink 182 are particular favourites.

…

My Chemical Romance made it to No.1 in the UK chart with Welcome To The Black Parade in October 2006 – the ‘black parade’ is a place where all emos believe they will go when they die [emphasis ed. at BoM]

Wow! And this from a paper which is published in a country that brought the world The Smiths, The Cure, and The Sex Pistols, none of which were as dangerous for children by influencing depression or anarchy (or a weird love of toast and fax machines) like Emo bands!

That’s right, lock your children up ladies and gents! The Plain White Ts are going to make your children commit suicide in numbers that would make the Japanese envious.

Wait, the Plain White Ts can’t be emo! They’re plain white ts. Now, if they were plain black ts, maybe…but only if they teach kids about joining the black parade.

Ah, the Daily Mail: scare mongering that even FOX News can find excessive!

I know the IRS has stimulated The Husband and myself, as evidenced by our bank account doubling over night. However, apparently the IRS had a computer glitch recently that resulted in some people getting stimulation that should have been directed to other people’s accounts.

“We do know of instances of problems; we’ve heard of situations where stimulus checks have gone to the wrong people’s bank accounts,” conceded Kevin McKeon, the Internal Revenue Service spokesman for the New York region. “We’re getting a lot of calls to the toll-free number.”

_{[Source: NewsDay]}

Ooops.

If you have yet to be (economically) stimulated by the government, there are toll-free numbers you can call:

866-234-2942
800-829-1954

To find out when to expect your stimulation to occur, try the IRS website’s Where’s My Stimulus Payment and FAQ.

I just watched Grover Norquist embarrass himself, conservatives, and Americans in general on (last night’s) Colbert Report. Thank GOD he associated himself with McCain and the Republicans. If he’d called himself a Libertarian, and maligned my people the way Dennis Miller constantly does, I’d have cried.

Come on, small government people. Our cause is good! It’s worthy! It’s a message that should be spoken! We need someone better than that to stand up for small government!

Maybe, oh I don’t know, someone like this:

To be filed under “Backpedal faster, bitch”:

Today, John McCain announced that he believes we could see troops withdraw from Iraq as early as 2013 which isn’t very early at all, and by which point he would have single-handedly destroyed the world by going to war with every country that looked at him funny. And there are a lot of those.

Apparently, steadfastly holding onto an opinion that less than 30% of the country believes in is not good for politics! Who knew?

There are, of course, reasons why Mr. McCain would set a potential withdraw date in his candidacy, other than trying to draw in independent and moderate voters who may be swayed by a message of change or by Mike Gravel’s awesome libertarian policies!₁ And, it may not be that he too has been obsessively listening to Handlebars by Flobots and now wants to end the world in a holocaust. Remember, kids:

2013 would be after he was out of office, should he only serve one term.

You shouldn’t invade other countries, like Iran, when your troops are fighting on two different fronts with little international support.

By 2013, we may have no troops to send or withdraw.

He’s an old man who had skin cancer and is from Arizona–he could die soon.

Apparently, Dubya just can’t learn his lesson!

In a speech to the Israeli parliament today, the nation’s current commander and chief decided to take a swipe at diplomacy loving Barack Obama, who has previously stated he would like to foster dialoge between the US and countries like Iran, with this winning statement:

“Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: “Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.” We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.”

Mr. Bush, if you invoke Hitler or Nazi Germany for the sake of an argument, you lose. It’s cheap, it’s petty, it’s a straw man argument, and without Godwin, straw man arguments are automatic failure in debate. Any high school debate team member knows that. But, more over, we now have Godwin’s law, and you keep breaking it. Are you trying to tell me that you can’t think of anything else about Barack Obama (the fact that he wants to practically turn the country into a democratic socialist state leaps to mind) that you have to bring up Hitler when you are addressing Jewish people? Are you retarded?

Oh yes, I forgot. It’s the same person who wants to know “Is our children learning”. I’m sorry. I forgot.

Now, as my name is The Wife and I blog with The Husband (who I am, in fact, married to) I would like to tell you all about the joys of marriage. It rocks. Seriously. Yes, some people bitch and moan about their spouses, to the tune of several “take my wife please” jokes. But, at the end of the day, coming home to someone you love is great, but there’s a certain security in knowing that if something happened to The Husband, I’d be notified. If he was in the hospital, I could be with him night and day. I have the right to execute his Living Will, if he had one (which he doesn’t. We need to work on that.)

That, my friends, is why it is awesome that California got its head out of its ass and took a step toward joining Masshatachuttes as the second state to allow gay people to enjoy marriage!

“In view of the substance and significance of the fundamental constitutional right to form a family relationship,” Chief Justice Ronald M. George wrote of marriage for the majority, “the California Constitution properly must be interpreted to guarantee this basic civil right to all Californians, whether gay or heterosexual, and to same-sex couples as well as to opposite-sex couples.”

Link: California Court Affirms Right to Gay Marriage NYTimes