Even more misc. news

More miscellaneous news for you to munch on...

The Prez sneaks one in
During a G-8 summit meeting, your president apparently ran up behind German Chancellor Angela Merkel and gave her a quick massage; much to her chagrin. So now he's using world summit meetings to make unwanted advances at women, huh?
Will somebody pul-lease give this guy a little oral attention so that we can impeach him already. Sheesh!

Putin lays the smackdown on the Prez
Speaking of the G-8 conference, did anyone else watch the video where Russian president Vladimir Putin pulled Dubya's pants down in front of everybody during the press Q&A session? I wouldn't do any justice by trying to explain it. See it for yourself.

Seeing how just about every world leader thinks that Bush is a blithering idiot, I'm wondering how people in places like Mexico and the UK feel knowing that their leaders actually worship this guy.

Bush gets recorded cussing at a G-8 lunch
As if Bush's other G-8 antics didn't have the world smacking itself on the forehead, apparently your president was recorded saying that Syria should pressure Hezbollah to "stop doing this [expletive]"; regarding the rise in violence in the Middle east.

As funny as this story is, I can't really blame him for this one. But, as the leader of 'the free world', and allegedly a champion for peace, democracy, and diplomacy, how does it look when comments like this go from off the record to on the record?

A connection between race and politics?
This is a pretty old article, but I think it's worth mentioning anyway. This article points out a study which suggests a sociological connection between political affliation and hidden biases. But, as compelling of an article as this was, I really don't need a study like this to tell me that people who vote Republican are more likely to have racist tendencies. I mean, even many black Conservatives appear to have disdain for anything that is 'black' (or, to use the proper vernacular, "urban").

Last month, I was watching a special on A&E that mentioned that many whites became Republican after the OJ Simpson trial. If this is true, this further supports the idea of a racist, elitist Republican system. Now, pul-lease don't think that I'm implying that Democrats are the good guys here. They're just as culpable. Except, they participate in -- what I call -- unenlightened racism. I discussed this notion in a previous post, when I mentioned that MLK had more of an issue with white do-nothing liberals than he did with blantantly racist conservatives. I'm passing the blame all around...

Church builds a Christian Statue of Liberty
I didn't learn about this one until just now; but apparently a church in Memphis just built what they call a "Statue of Liberation", a 72-foot tall Christian Statue of Liberty. I wish I was making this up...

This $2.5 million 'Statue of Liberation' is designed similarly to the Statue of Liberty, except that the Liberty torch is replaced by a cross, and the "give me your tired, your poor...etc." inscription is replaced by Roman numerals for the Ten Commandments.

Ignorant stuff like this (or, let's say building multi-million dollar life centers, and buying new carpet and pews for your church, while the community is in rumbles) makes me wonder why I even bother fooling around with churches these days.

President is always right?
Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony from Steven Bradbury, head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. As Bradley was being questioned about whether Bush’s interpretation of the Hamdan case was right or wrong, he sarcastically replied, “The President is always right.” See it for yourself.

I don't know about you, but I get a sense of discomfort hearing people openly say this kind of stuff, whether it's said sarcastically or not.

Middle Eastern Death Match
It doesn't look like things are getting any better in Lebanon. After only a few days after being dragged into this nonsense, there have already been over 300 deaths and 1000 wounded Lebanese citizens. Israel's rumble with Hezbollah is costing more than just the lives of Israelis.

Let's continue to pray for a sense of peace and restoration before too many more lives are destroyed.

FMA defeated in the House of Representatives
In an interesting turn of events, the Federal Marriage Amendment proposal was struck down again in the House of Representatives this week. Though the amendment did receive a simple majority, it wasn't enough to satisfy the Constitutionally two-thirds majority to pass.

While I don't subscribe to the homosexual agenda (sin is sin, no matter how you slice it), I think that the banning of this ridiculous proposal is a victory for human rights. Just because I think that homosexuality is wrong doesn't mean that they should be robbed of basic human rights. Before homosexuals are homosexuals, they are human; first and foremost. Discrimination (even against people whom the "moral" society would deem 'wrong') is not to be tolerated on any level.

When it comes to gay rights, I've heard them all:

"If we allow gays to marry, the population will eventually die off." Oh really?! So you mean to tell me that the 8% of the world's gay population (a very generous number. It's probably even lower than that) will kill off the rest of the world?

"The gay increase will increase the spread of AIDS". I don't buy that either. In fact, I think that AIDS is a man-made virus. I mean, the first case of AIDS was reported in an African monkey back in the fifties. It didn't make its way to the states as part of an epidemic until the early 80's.

"It destroys the sacred instituition of marriage." You don't say? So, how do you explain the fact that in 2005, there were 7.8 marriages per 1000 people in this country; matched by 3.7 divorces? That's on a 53% success rate, people. Plus, throw in ridiculous celebrity marriages, marriages for money and security, and "forced" marriages. If anybody's destroyed marriage, its us heterosexuals...

At the end of the day, I don't care about protecting an instituion as much as I am about protecting people. Whether I agree with a person's lifestyle or not, injustice is never acceptable.

Bush vetoes stem-cell bill
Speaking of bills that didn't quite make it, your president officially vetoed his first bill since entering office, when he rejected to expand federal support for embryonic stem cell research.

This move has generated mixed responses from his conservative cohorts. On the one hand, Bush is catering to the "religious" conservatives who take the 'moral' high ground (that's a laugh!) . But -- in doing so -- he's alienating himself from moderates (like Nancy Reagan, Bill Frist, and even Orrin Hatch). I wonder how that'll affect Conservative loyalty to the Prez.

Also, it offends me that Dubya uses the "We can't destroy life in order to save life" mantra every time he justifies his stance on stem-cell research. I mean, isn't that exactly what he's doing with this nonsensical war in Iraq? He's out there making war, with a certainty that some soliders are going to die. It's funny how the ends justify the means for him in one case, but not in another...

Ex-CIA operative to file civil suit
Even after Karl Rove avoided major jail time by outing ex-CIA operative Valarie Plame, he apparently isn't out of the woods yet. According to this article, she and her husband have filed a civil lawsuit against Rove, Dick Cheney, Scooter Libby, along with a few other "John Doe's" for outing her identity, ending her career, and -- essentially -- endangering her life. To think, they went through all this trouble and planning just to get back at Joseph Wilson for calling the President on his lies.

Maybe this will show them that revenge is not always the best way to go.

I guess that's it for now. But, I'm sure that more stupid and wacky adventures are around the corner. Stay tuned...

Have a great day!

- ACL