See But, Politically, He'd Have To Reconsider

"The bottom line is that, whatever good Oprah may have done with her money, when it comes to medicine and science, she is a force for evil. Her intentions may be the best in the world, but that is only why she is the living embodiment of the cliche that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. That's especially true when that same road is also paved with no mental filter of critical thinking to keep out nonsense, and Oprah clearly has no mental filter when it comes to pseudoscience and quackery."

-- Orac, who none-the-less voted for The Evil One's hand-picked candidate, which ain't exactly smart nor showing any kind of Respectful Insolence.

Dude

"Have you ever been offered a natural remedy that was so obviously without any merit that you refused to bottle it and sell it to your gullible customers, or does pretty much anything go?"

-- Saltycdogg, asking Britain's "homeopathic" Neal's Yard the kinds of questions they can't answer, which got him In The Pipeline.

Their Weapon

"Sharon Stone may argue that cutting caffeine is a cure for cancer, but day in day out the,...press reels out stories about how burnt toast is carcinogenic or how a red wine a day can delay your tumour. The star of Basic Instinct isn’t the problem here."

-- Emily Hill, gingerly telling us - whether we're discussing NewAge celebrities or NewAge journalists - we're surrounded by idiots, in Spiked!

Totally Cool

Hat Tip: Hot Air

Yea, Wicked, Baby!!! (Nice Choice Of Words)

"You know things are not all fairy dust and unicorn poots in Liberal World."

-- Stop The ACLU, on the wonderfully wicked cartoonist, Ted Rall, and his wicked realization of the liberal wickedness he's been a party to - as a wicked Obama supporter - never once thinking, wickedly, down the road he might decide to Stop The ACLU.

All Together Now

"Wikipedia, the giant online encyclopedia anyone can edit, has decided to block contributions from computers owned by the Church of Scientology, saying that it has changed copy to advance its own agenda."

-- ABC News

"Norway is considering prosecuting some Scientology practices. The Ministry of Health and Care Services says that the use of the 'OCA' personality test in sales may constitute fraud as well as being part of a pattern of medical malpractice.

The statement came after three undercover journalists took the test. Scientology staff said they should buy a course to solve psychological issues. One was advised to avoid medical care; another was told she needed either a course or 'chemicals'.

A Scientology spokesman blamed individual staff and disclaimed responsibility. The test is notorious since a Norwegian suicided the same evening she received negative results and was subjected to 'hard sell' in a Scientology center in Nice, France."

-- Short News

"The Church of Scientology in France went on trial on Monday on charges of organised fraud."

-- Reuters

"The interior ministers of Germany's 16 states have launched an investigation into the activities of the Church of Scientology, hoping to assemble the evidence to support banning the U.S.-based organization from operating in Germany."

-- TIME Magazine

Seen Your Country In That Sun Gone Shine?

"Barack Obama has long been known for his socialistic convictions and messianic tendencies. That he therefore wants to rule rather than represent and to dictate rather than debate is not hard to understand. And while he may not come right out and say it, he expects us to pledge allegiance to him. He said as much when he told Republican House members just three days after his inauguration that the quicker they quit listening to voices that run counter to his, the better for us all.

...Obama wants his judgments and convictions to be our guide in all spheres of life, even when his judgments run 180 degrees counter to the natural law that guided our Founders or the Bibles that guided the Puritans. Therefore, it was as easy for him to skip the National Day of Prayer on May 7, 2009, and open the door to the legalized killing of 'days-old unborn children for [stem cell] research' as it was for him to tell GM what type of cars they’ll be building in the future if they want to remain extant.

Obama has long been opposed to the traditional values that undergird this nation and has been wise enough to war against those values in the name of those values, thus disorienting those whom he can’t intellectually disarm. For example, when he discusses any of his personal positions that go against the Christian faith, such as his pro-abortion stance, he always makes certain to mention that he’s a Christian in the process. The implication being that Christianity’s chief characteristic is some vague acceptance of all positions as equally valid instead of the orthodox, historical Christian insistence on truth and justice, good and evil.

Ultimately, this allows him to dismiss Christianity’s ethical claims on the life of the believer altogether. This was clear when he spoke about the tensions between his pro-abortion stance and Christianity at the Call to Renewal Conference in 2006: 'Democracy demands that … religiously motivated [individuals] translate their concerns into universal rather than religion-specific values.'

This is also how Obama sidestepped the implications of his support for abortion when giving Notre Dame’s commencement address. He made it sound like the pro-abortion and anti-abortion positions are just two viable positions that Christians can hold. While he admitted that these two positions flow from 'views … [which] are complex and even contradictory … [and] irreconcilable,' he wisely avoided the use of smaller but more important words such as 'right' and 'wrong,' and asked that members of the 'irreconcilable' factions 'honor the consciences' of those with whom they disagree on the abortion issue. Never mind that this tactic allowed him to continue down the path of supporting abortion without having to explain why he supports it or to justify his use of taxpayer dollars to fund the practice."

-- AWR Hawkins, "a conservative writer who holds a Ph.D. in military history from Texas Tech University", noticing Obama's obvious tactic of using of the NewAge concept of duality in American politics - which a lot of "non-judgmental" types love but expect the rest of us to ignore - probably because they don't read Pajamas Media.

Trapped In The Bubble

"I’m all for new media, but new media will get nowhere so long as outfits like the Huffington Post make a mockery of the facts,..."

-- Pejman Yousefzadeh, on the lib's most popular cult site - we can't call it a news site - where he found lies, lies, and more lies, unlike at The New Ledger.

Why Is This Idiot Smiling? (He's Fooling You)

"I cannot recall an instance like this where the President's official spokesman has blasted the press of a key ally - in this case America's closest friend, Great Britain.

This kind of attack would normally be made against the likes of the North Korean or Iranian state media, but in the current climate of 'engagement' with America's enemies the White House is far more likely to attack its own allies. Gibbs' remarks have echoes of a senior State Department official's anti-British statements to The Sunday Telegraph after the appalling handling of the Prime Minister's visit in March.

The British press, especially the Telegraph, has been singled out because they frequently publish articles critical of the Obama administration and are not afraid to take on the status quo in Washington. Increasingly, millions of Americans are turning to online UK news websites for cutting edge reports on American politics and U.S. foreign policy that the mainstream media refuses to cover in the States, especially if it is unflattering to the Obama White House.

Robert Gibbs' completely unwarranted rant against the British press is an absolute disgrace, and the President should disown his views. An unreserved apology by Gibbs is also in order.

For all its talk of 'raising America's standing' in the world after the Bush years, the Obama administration is doing a spectacularly bad job of reaching out to its allies. Unfortunately this is the new face of America's public diplomacy, which will only serve to alienate public opinion across the Atlantic. Congratulations Gibbs - you've just made an enemy out of the entire British media, quite an achievement for the man in charge of selling the President's message."

-- Nile Gardiner, making the Obot's latest betrayal of Britain plain, in The Telegraph.UK.

Goddammit, You Assholes Gotta Hug Me!!!

"If somebody were to not hug someone, to never hug anybody, people might be just a little wary of them and think they are weird or peculiar."

-- Gabrielle Brown, a freshman at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School in Manhattan, giving us a nice example of cultish thinking - and how it leads straight to unwarranted discrimination - while still getting a pat on the back from The New York Times.

Point Taken

"CHARLIE ROSE: How would you have lived your life differently based on what you know now?

ELIZABETH EDWARDS: Boy,...I certainly,..would not have voluntarily put myself in a position where,...I would feel so betrayed,...You know, I might have married somebody else,..."

-- Mickey Kaus, making a note that dealing with the whole "my spouse was dumb enough to fall for NewAge and commit adultery" thing still hasn't brought any of the much-promised joy, peace, and/or love to the "mind, body, and spirit" of the Edwards' household - imagine that! - and even after it's been posted on Slate.com.

Helmet Heads

"The advent of no-fault divorce, in which one party can abrogate the marriage contract without penalty or consideration of the other party, has completely destroyed the notion that the government plays a role in protecting 'integrity and well-being of the family.' In fact, I’d argue that serial marriers of the kind seen in Hollywood (or in Washington DC) do more to undermine marriage than single-gender unions would ever do."

-- Ed Morrissey, making us wonder why so few notice these things (Oh yea: NewAgers are happy to have re-branded being selfish - "without penalty or consideration of the other party" - as "self-empowerment") floating aloft, like Zeppelins before the crash, by so much Hot Air.

Expect Great Things

"Judge Sotomayor would be,...one for whom the law is a voyage of personal identity,...She is,...steeped in the legal school of identity politics,...The danger inherent in this judicial view is that the law isn't what the Constitution says but whatever the judge in the 'richness' of her experience comes to believe it should be."

-- The Editors, not as impressed with the power of belief as many would think, unless aware they write for The Wall Street Journal.

We're Stunned. We Can't Move: We're Stunned.

"Let's talk about another part of the left Web: Huffington Post. HuffPo is certainly 'new media,' supports a wide range of progressive and liberal causes, is on the Daily Kos's selective blogroll, and is a pernicious source of medical misinformation. At HuffPo, that takes the form of anti-vaccination tropes and the occasional support for homeopathy. HuffPo staff have been demonstrably sympathetic to those causes, and the responses to pro-hard-science counterpostings are ... well, they aren't so pretty. Daily Kos must not follow that road. This community has embraced the banner of 'reality-based' with pride. So here's reality,...claims of a medical conspiracy, of insurance companies engaged in self-defeating suppression of cheap 'cures' to keep patients suffering ... is quackery.  It's the first step down the road that ruined science journalism at the Huffington Post."

-- Serpents Choice, standing with the skeptics - and exhibiting a level of rationality that's positively shocking - because (based on past performance) neither could be expected from The Daily Kos.

Yea, You Trendy Douchebag

In Other Words, It's Nutty As A Fruitcake

"While utopianism has a bright side – it is a way of imagining a better world – it also has a dark side characterized by escapism and a disengagement from reality,..."

-- Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger, on "Why environmentalism keeps imploding", when they're trying to build The New Republic.

Just Ask Your Local NewAge Psychic

"Some say that the word 'cult' or 'sect' is a pejorative label used to discriminate against 'new religious movements.'

However, it seems disingenuous to ignore the historical significance and modern day applications of the word cult or sect.

Today many controversial groups that have been called cults or sects are seeking to either eliminate that description or ignore it.

Some academics with close ties to such groups have become little more than apologists, labeling the word 'cult' a 'four letter word.'

These apologists often prefer the supposedly politically correct title 'new religious movement' (NRM).

But historically cults have always been with us and they continue to be a part of the world today."

-- Rick Ross, still out there, fighting the good fight, and acting as The Guardian.

Cult apologists? Now we wonder who they could be,...

They Couldn't Call It "Spinach" Or Something

"Nine days prior to [Harvey] Milk’s death, more than 900 followers of Jim Jones—many of them campaign workers for Milk—perished in the most ghastly set of murder-suicides in modern history. Before the congregants of the Peoples Temple drank Jim Jones’s deadly Kool-Aid, Harvey Milk and much of San Francisco’s ruling class had already figuratively imbibed. Milk occasionally spoke at Jones’s San Francisco–based headquarters, promoted Jones through his newspaper columns, and defended the Peoples Temple from its growing legion of critics. Jones provided conscripted 'volunteers' for Milk’s campaigns to distribute leaflets by the tens of thousands. Milk returned the favor by abusing his position of public trust on behalf of Jones’s criminal endeavors.

'Rev. Jones is widely known in the minority communities here and elsewhere as a man of the highest character, who has undertaken constructive remedies for social problems which have been amazing in their scope and effectiveness,' Supervisor Milk wrote President Jimmy Carter seven months before the Jonestown carnage. The purpose of Milk’s letter was to aid and abet his powerful supporter’s abduction of a six-year-old boy. Milk’s missive to the president prophetically continued: 'Not only is the life of a child at stake, who currently has loving and protective parents in the Rev. and Mrs. Jones, but our official relations with Guyana could stand to be jeopardized, to the potentially great embarrassment of our State Department.' John Stoen, the boy whose actual parents Milk libeled to the president as purveyors of 'bold-faced lies' and blackmail attempts, perished at Jonestown. This, the only remarkable episode in Milk’s brief tenure on the San Francisco board of supervisors, is swept under the rug by his hagiographers."

-- Daniel J. Flynn, doing one of those "Is it live or is it Memorex?" comparisons on the movie Milk - and taking all this "cult" stuff pretty seriously - which would surprise us if it wasn't coming from the ever-ready City Journal.

Yessiree, it looks like another uncovered tale from the land of Jumbo de la Mumbo - AKA funny/sunny cult-loving San Francisco, California. Brought to you (in Hollywood's irresponsibly spiffed-up and re-packaged form) via every damn medium you can get your grubby little hands on: Uh huh, Ladies and Gentlemen, Milk's a falsehood for you and your loved ones to pass around while the rest of NewAge society's "spiritual" types enjoy sucking all the marrow out of reality.

Oh what fun you'll have, repeating what Harvey Milk never said or meant (all originally delivered by Sean Penn) and watching it dribble down front as it exits your mouth or nose - or you pee your pants - staining the body politic with that which never was and never should be. Go on, try it, you lustful liars:

Milk - it does a body (of lies) good.

Where's It Gotten You So Far? (We're Out There)

"When Cheney first began pushing back against Barack Obama’s repeated and scornful assessments of the Bush administration, most analysts figured that Cheney was tilting at windmills — and that the GOP needed to distance themselves from Cheney.  The rapid re-evaluation appears to have made hash of that advice. If Cheney — a politician as unpopular as Richard Nixon — could strengthen his standing by demanding an honest debate from the President, then perhaps other Republicans should be following suit."

-- Ed Morrissey, having one of those "D'oh!" moments, which can sure use up a lot of Hot Air.

"An honest debate"? What is "an honest debate" in this environment? Dick Cheney can take on the president only because he's Dick Cheney and he has the position and resources to do so. The CIA can take on Nancy Pelosi, sure, but the farther we are from power - out here in "TV Land" - we can be shouted down, right or wrong, by anyone, at any time, for any reason. Sabotaged even, in any number of appropriately cowardly fashions.

Republican or Democrat, we know the first reaction of cowards, as Ed Morrissey points out above, is to "distance themselves" from anyone determined to have "an honest debate". How far away they stand, or whether they possibly take action, is determined by how angry the mark becomes - which is usually determined by how big and stupid a lie (or lies) a mark was being asked to swallow - our only point being you can count on it that, unless it's meant ironically, cowards will always come up with something other than "Let's have 'an honest debate.'" They couldn't be called cowards otherwise.

Why, you start that "honest debate" stuff and who knows where it could lead?

"Green" Goes Down With The Goode Family!!!

Outside Of Politics, It's All Good,...

"One of the most important talents for success in politics is the ability to make utter nonsense sound not only plausible but inspiring. Barack Obama has that talent."

-- Thomas Sowell, without mentioning what failing "in politics" Obama's supporters are revealed to possess, though such graciousness should and will be limited to The National Review.

So Clean You Can See Yourself (Like We See You)

Hat Tip: Mystic Bourgeoisie

Sticks And Stones, Kids, Sticks And Stones,...

"I can’t believe they intended to call Pelosi a 'pussy' knowing how offensive it is,..."

-- Allah Pundit, on the RNC's new James Bond/Nancy Pelosi video, unintentionally suggesting that American politics (and society) has entered some kind of politically correct kindergarden phase - where no adult can dare be offended by anything someone says, regardless of what awful things are done to warrant such disapproving comments - and, thus, joining the Democrats in their NewAge sandbox, spewing Hot Air.

What Is Up With The Lotuses? Get Your Own Fucking Lotuses! You People Have Gone Lotus Fucking Crazy! Lotus! Lotus! Lotus! Lotus!

"Three days after being elected Gaya MP, Hari Manjhi finds himself in the middle of a controversy that may soon snowball into a criminal case against him.

A photograph in a vernacular daily today shows Hari Manjhi injecting medicine to a patient as a part of a 'thanksgiving' exercise in his Bodh Gaya village.

Manjhi, a self-proclaimed school dropout, is also a 'doctor' and learnt the 'trade' from a 'master', a quack who has been in the trade for the past 15 years.

Quacks, most of them illiterate, are revered in rural India and in the local language are called jhola chhap dactars.

Quackery, according to senior lawyer Ashok Kumar, is a non-bailable criminal offence punishable under Section 420 of the IPC and the offence carries seven years of rigorous imprisonment.

However the Gaya district magistrate, Sanjay Kumar, is reluctant to take action against the MP on the basis of a newspaper photograph. But, he conceded that if the charge of practising quackery is proven, it would be a serious charge against the politician.

Sanjay Kumar added that an inquiry has been ordered and a follow up would be taken on the basis of the inquiry report.

On his part, Hari Manjhi clarified today that he has been treating poor patients for chhoti moti bimaris (simple ailments) with sui aur goli (injections and tablets) for the past 15 years. Then he proudly went on to add that he was a 'non Matric'.

Further probed, Manjhi admitted that that he had dropped out of school — in fact the politician 'does not remember till which class he studied'. 'Khali garib log hamare pas ata hai (only the poor come to me),' said Manjhi, as an explanation.

On being quizzed, district BJP chief Lalita Singh admitted that she knew Manjhi practised homeopathy. When reminded that non-Matriculates cannot study homeopathy, she said that she did not have 'an idea' of the MP’s personal details.

The person who seemed sympathetic was writer Ahmed Qadri who believes that Hari Manjhi may not be aware of the crime he was committing by that practising medicine without proper authority of Medical Council of India. However, ignorance of law is no excuse, believes legal experts.

The issue has brought embarrassment to the state BJP that adopted Hari as the 'lotus bearer' in the Gaya parliamentary constituency."

-- An Unknown Correspondent - probably also too embarrassed to show himself - even from The Telegraph of India.

Think Before Trying Our Red Hot Chicken Wings

"Stunned bystanders watched in horror as an angry protester turned himself into a fireball yesterday.

Graduate Bashir Ahmed Mir doused himself in petrol and set himself alight after being unable to find work.

Onlookers doused his burning body in water and he was said to be in a stable condition in hospital last night.

Bashir trained in electro-homeopathy, an alternative medicine which originated in the 19th century.

He torched himself in Srinagar because his degree is not recognised by the Indian Medical Council, which regards the practice as 'quackery'."

-- The Mirror

Now Go Back To Your Trains, Old Man

"In the months after 9/11 the political class was in a panic to stop any more jihadi attacks on the American homeland. After all, American Air 93 was taken over by al Qaeda maniacs to blow up the White House or the Capitol. That plot only failed when the passengers rebelled and ended up crashing the plane into the ground with all aboard.

Ms. Pelosi is therefore asking us to believe that in those panicky months her delicate sensibilities were on the side of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed — and not on the side of all the career politicians of Washington, D.C. Like herself.

Fat chance!

But if Pelosi admits lying to her own voters for eight long years, the unavoidable implication is that all the other Democrats also lied about the evil Bush administration, along with those wellsprings of truth and integrity like the New York Times and the Washington Post. So Nancy’s lie drags down the entire Leftist sucker narrative."

-- James Lewis, saving the rest of us the trouble (Thanks, Dude) at Pajamas Media.

Shut Up And Eat Your Vegetables

"It was a mark of her vulnerability that shortly after her arrival she fell under the sway of a murky quasi-religious cult dedicated, as she puts it, to 'vegetarianism and metaphysics', that attempted to take control of her life and succeeded in taking most of her money. 'I was pretty young and very alone. I didn't live with them or anything – so I wasn't that far gone. Much later I did some research into cults to try to understand what had happened to me; and the way they operate is they hook people on very intellectual and existential ideas. And people who are always questioning and thinking, that kind of personality can sometimes lead to hopelessness, and that's where they get you.'

It also surprised her to discover, she says, that research suggests in terms of IQ people who end up in cults 'tend to be really smart'. She laughs. 'That didn't make me feel quite so bad.'"

-- Mick Brown, talking with Hollywood's Michelle Pfeiffer about cults, 'vegetarianism and metaphysics', and probably a lot of other "totally unrelated" issues, in The Telegraph.

There's No Reasoning With These People

"If fine speechmaking, appeals to reason, or pleas for compassion had the power to move them, the terrorists would long ago have abandoned the field."

-- Dick Cheney, making the same point we have about cultism, in The Telegraph.

Drats And Double Drats

"Nothing is worse for happiness than a cultivated sense of entitlement."

-- Glenn Rreynolds, going for the goal against Ann Althouse's woe-is-me feminism - and SCORING! - as the Insdtapundit.

Jealousy? Riiight - That's It: Go For It

"It’s not so much his religion that’s alienated so much of the public,...but something else,...People are jealous. Pure envy."

-- Roberta Armani (Giorgio Armani's stupid sister with the "empty private life") telling us why we don't like Tom Cruise - because it simply can't be his participation in "the world's most dangerous cult" - according to The Telegraph.

Push Her Head Down (You Have Already)

"I cannot help feeling that this is a setup. I do not believe these allegations to be right and proper and I do not believe it should be before this court. It feels like a witch hunt. And it has been a lot to deal with all these years. He has never set himself up to be a guru. He is a friend of many gurus but he is not one himself."

-- Clare Davis, another idiot and friend of Michael Lyons, AKA Mohan Singh - who faces five charges of rape and three of sexual assault - telling us the all-too-familiar story of how she has suffered as her "health guru" palled around with other gurus - though he isn't one himself - and went by different names, while constantly facing false charges of raping women "all these years", forcing poor ol' Clare to get all Ham & High.

Tie Your Mother Down

"American feminism has been shaped by a legacy of racism. In a compelling and illuminating exploration of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century feminist thought, Newman explores how racial thinking distorted liberal ideals of citizenship and democracy and limited the commitments of white women to equality for all. Everyone interested in the deep-rooted and paradoxical consequences of hidden racism should read this book."

-- Alice Kessler-Harris, Rutgers University, reviewing Louise Michele Newman's "White Women's Rights: The Racial Origins of Feminism in the United States" - which, of course, you never considered before blindly going along with Feminism - but can still read about on Amazon.com.

Hat Tip - until we're getting tipsy: Mystic Bourgeoisie

Stretch, Bitches: You'll Never Touch That Flag

"SANTA MONICA, Calif. — The yogis arrived toting their mats and towels and SIGG water bottles. Some had waited a half hour before being allowed to claim tiny plots of floor just inches from one another. They jostled and chatted while setting up their spaces, some kicking up into handstands to loosen up.

It was 9 a.m. on a recent Saturday. The decibel level rose to that of a rowdy cocktail party. The crowd was a mix of Type-A careerists and tattooed freelancers who mold their work schedules around their yoga practice — or professionally accessorize their Lululemon outfits with heavy engagement rings. Today everyone seemed relatively calm; in the past, eruptions of mat rage have led to tears.

And then the teacher walked in. He had a gray crew cut, a message-free tank top and shorts, without a Buddhist bead or Sanskrit phrase visible anywhere.

'Come on people, let’s get started,' he said in a New York accent, as if leading a conference call.

Then he cranked up 'Misty Mountain Hop' by Led Zeppelin and led the students through a warm-up of sun salutations. Soon he had them stretching into a difficult split pose.

'Didn’t you see the torture memos this week?' called out Jane Harman, a 63-year-old devoted student in the front row, who also happens to be the United States Representative for the South Bay region of Los Angeles County.

The teacher responded, 'That’s why I’m doing this.'"

-- Deborah Schoeneman, putting the lie to how calm and peaceful yoga makes people ("eruptions of mat rage have led to tears") and further exposing the Democrats as a party of cultists (Jane Harmon!) and allowing us to remind you, once again, it's already old news the newspaper of choice for NewAge presented-as-normal-thought coverage is The New York Times.

We Shouldn't Try To Reach Out And Help But,...

"Hypocrisy is the least of her offenses. It still boggles my mind that this is the best the antivaccine movement can come up with. It boggles my mind even more that Oprah Winfrey would sign her up to spread her stupidity. It boggles my mind that denialists can still, after all the mountains of scientific, clinical, and epidemiological evidence that do not support their paranoid beliefs that big pharma and the CDC are conspiring to 'poison' their children with vaccines to make them autistic.

I guess that even after all these years, I still can't understand such irrationality."

-- Orac, nailing Jenny McCarthy - heh - but still unable to accept what's right in front of his face (Pssst - Hey Doc, come on, you can get this: they're NewAgers,...) making the whole "spiritual" tragedy as deep and meaningful as it could possibly get, and yet, so worthy of not-so Respectful Insolence.

O.K., O.K., We Got It: Say It Again

"The Obama campaign and subsequent election represents the biggest, most successful political con of my lifetime."

-- Tom Elia, repeating the same damn refrain over and over again, like we've somehow hired him as The New Editor.

But What If You're Not Religious Or Racial?

"There's no religion or no race that could disagree with what's taught in there."

-- David Knighten, a member of Texas' House of Yahweh cult - who has "taught classes" at the Pulaski County jail in Little Rock, Arkansas for more than four years - on the acceptability of his own teachings, to The Associated Press.

Reign, Reign

"We are told that very expensive carbon regulations are the only way to respond to global warming, despite ample evidence that this approach does not pass a basic cost-benefit test. We must ask whether a 'climate-industrial complex' is emerging, pressing taxpayers to fork over money to please those who stand to gain.

This phenomenon will be on display at the World Business Summit on Climate Change in Copenhagen this weekend. The organizers -- the Copenhagen Climate Council -- hope to push political leaders into more drastic promises when they negotiate the Kyoto Protocol's replacement in December.

The opening keynote address is to be delivered by Al Gore, who,...is a politician, a campaigner and the chair of a green private-equity firm invested in products that a climate-scared world would buy.

Naturally, many CEOs are genuinely concerned about global warming. But many of the most vocal stand to profit from carbon regulations. The term used by economists for their behavior is 'rent-seeking.'"

-- Bjorn Lomborg, still out there jabbering about the climate - the political climate - because Barack Obama's changed everything, yada, yada, yada, in The Wall Street Journal.

He's The Funkiest Worm In The World

"Mr. Obama's appealing campaign images turned out to have been fleeting,...the campaign commitments he made were shallow,...he used words meant to mislead the public,...Over time, those things can catch up to a politician."

-- Karl Rove, bringing us all up-to-date on the latest late-breaking news, in The Wall Street Journal.

And Do Black People "Out" Themselves As Black?

"Gay people aren't born by the river in a little tent."

-- Ann Althouse, catching on quick to the weak gay cultural appropriation of Sam Cooke on American Idol - and, thus, also passing up a ride on The Homo Rainbow - which (as one would expect) often passes through the Althouse.

A Little "Runny" Toward The End There, Too

"Kara was always a thin kid."

-- WSAW Staff, reporting on another believer's I-love-my-child-so-much-I-killed-her trial, because - unlike almost every other media outlet - lunacy's considered breaking news around Wisconsin's WSAW.com.

"Sects" Or Sex? What if They're Both Together? (We Wouldn't Want To Get Into Any Trouble,...)

"A government report warns that religious sects are on the increase in France, tripling in the last 15 years to reach at least 600 different movements across the country.
 
The report also denounces a huge increase in unqualified therapists, warning that sects are using the personality coaching and self-help trends to target impressionable people.
 
25 to 30 percent of psychotherapists in France are not certified practitioners. Some are charlatans, who use their practices to recruit the vulnerable. The Internet has also become a frequent tool for sect recruitment.
 
The Miviludes, a French religious sect watchdog, recommends setting tougher standards to control therapy practices, as well as drawing up an exhaustive list of all sect-like activity in France."

-- France 24

There's Nothing We Can Do To Help

"With this type of activity, education is the most important element."

-- The San Diego Police Department, on the problem of psychics abusing NewAgers and their stupid beliefs - which seems pretty lame considering how dumb they are - but there it is, on 10 News.com.

This Is Why We Can Never Go Anyplace "Nice"

"Oliver Stone has never been one for shying away from controversy, building a long and largely successful filmography around some of history's most talked-about figures. So is it any wonder that Stone's next project might just involve the infamous Charles Manson? 



Variety is reporting that the murder of Sharon Tate and the activities of the Manson Family cult – the subject of prosecuting attorney Vincent Bugliosi's widely-known book Helter Skelter -- may be turned into a feature film by the director."

-- Christopher Monfette, forcing us to scream "It's about fucking time!" in front of the little ones - destroying all the God damned serenity around here - and badly affecting tiny IGN.com.

Nobody Lives Forever - So What?

"Israel knows it needs to coordinate its strategy on Iran with other nations and that attacking Teheran's nuclear facilities would mean 'big trouble,' CIA director Leon Panetta said on Wednesday.

Acknowledging that he had recently traveled to Israel to meet Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and warn him against a strike on Iran, the CIA chief told Global Viewpoint that he 'felt assured' Israel would not break ranks with Washington's strategy.

'Yes,' he said, 'the Israelis are obviously concerned about Iran and focused on it. But [Netanyahu] understands that if Israel goes it alone, it will mean big trouble. He knows that for the sake of Israeli security, they have to work together with others.'"

-- The Jerusalem Post.com Staff, who (right about now) have to be occasionally wondering if, when said in this order, the words "work together with others" - meaning "others" who won't fight for you - could be considered security risks, especially to The Jerusalem Post.

If I Am He As You Are He As You Are We Then We Are All Pretty Fucked Up For The Duration

"Effective medical treatment for a child shouldn't be sacrificed for a parent's beliefs."

-- Amy Forliti and Patrick Condon, passing on the word of Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, while ending an article about NewAger Colleen Hauser and her cancer-stricken son, Daniel - who are possibly fleeing to Mexico rather than obey a court order that Daniel receive chemotherapy - but all without one word, still, about the ethical practicality of eliminating belief itself, which would be My Way News.

Dan Brown Makes Fools Of You All (Not Hard)

"The success of this message — which also shows up in the work of Brown’s many thriller-writing imitators — can’t be separated from its dishonesty."

-- Ross Douthat, getting at the core issue of the New Age beliefs Dan Brown sells in his books and movies ("his real competitors are,...spiritual gurus like Eckhart Tolle and Deepak Chopra. He’s writing thrillers, but he’s selling a theology,...with,...libels fabricated by 20th-century Wiccans") - a NewAge belief few probably admit or even recognize - including those at The New York Times.

Wow: An Intelligent Speaker We Can Agree With

Before he became the host of Fox News Channel's rollicking late-night show Red Eye in January 2007, Greg Gutfeld had worked at magazines as varied as The American Spectator, Prevention, Men's Health, Stuff, and Maxim UK. And, as the fortysomething California native once told Reason.tv, he applied for—and was rejected with extreme indifference—a job at Reason.

Gutfeld appeared recently at Reason Weekend,...where he was interviewed by Reason Senior Editor Katherine Mangu-Ward on topics ranging from media bias to intolerant liberals to the health benefits of smoking to the reason why the drug war is the dumbest thing imaginable. With the possible exception of Bill Maher.

Approximately 30 minutes. Warning for viewers prone to high-blood pressure, heart palpitations, and sour-puss syndrome: Gutfeld mixes humor, outrage and language salty enough to cure a side of bacon. Proceed at your own caution.

Faking The News To Look Good (And Printing It)

"Times reporters would certainly not have high-fived the colleague who’d cost Obama the election."

-- Mickey Kaus, on the ACORN story - and the general dishonesty of The New York Times - during the last election, on Slate.

More Proof Of Why People Today Are So Stupid

"Scientists say Ida - squashed to the thickness of a beer mat by the immense passage of time - is the most complete primate fossil ever found.

With her human-like nails instead of claws, and opposable big toes, she is placed at the very root of human evolution when early primates first developed features that would eventually develop into our own.

Another important discovery is the shape of the talus bone in her foot, which humans still have in their feet an incredible 70 million lifetimes later."

-- Alex Watts, on the discovery of evolution's "missing link" between ape and man, on Sky News Online.

Too Busy Wondering Who Will Win American Idol

"The noises that the tenants thought they had heard coming from the cellar beneath them had been real: the thumping, the moaning, the strange clanking noises emanating from deep underground.

But nobody thought to investigate."

-- Stefanie Marsh and Bojan Pancevski, commenting on the case of Elisabeth Fritzl - who was held as a sexual hostage by her father, Josef, for 24 years - and making our love for those referred to as "our fellow man" just sour, in The Daily Mail.

Shut Up: All That Matters Is What's On The Inside (But, In Your Case, That's Pretty Gross As Well)

"Here I stand, 40lb heavier than I was in 2006 (Yes, you're adding correctly; that means the dreaded 2-0-0.lbs). I'm mad at myself. I'm embarrassed. I can't believe that after all these years, all the things I know how to do, I'm still talking about my weight."

-- Oprah Winfrey, who (apparently) doesn't have anyone around her who can say she's too fucking self-involved - which, in itself, is an ugly statement about the level of freedom and honesty her followers workers enjoy - in The Daily Mail.

Taking A Little Off The Top

"We really do find pleasure in other people being mocked and slammed. The other thing is that most people consider the whole celebrity culture a little pathological. And these kind of really raw acidic attacks on these individual celebrities, to some extent, are an indictment of celebrity culture in general."

-- Robert Thompson, a Syracuse University professor of popular culture, commenting on Eminem's latest musical offerings - which we haven't heard and expect to be awful - but, even though we don't care for his later work, we'd be hypocrites if we didn't say we welcome Rap's White Lion back to the fold, in The New York Daily News.

Otherwise, You Couldn't Get Him To Shut Up

"Ted Kennedy has never stopped feeling guilty over the death of Mary Jo Kopechne.

In 'Ted Kennedy: The Dream That Never Died' - out today - author Edward Klein reveals that Ted visited with Mary Jo's parents twice following her death, but could never find the words to confess how the 28-year-old died.

'Ted had us come to his house in McLean [Va.], saying he wanted to talk,' Mary Jo's now-deceased mother, Gwen, told Klein. 'But [the visit] was uncomfortable - for all of us. Ted led us to believe he was going to explain what really happened. But when the time came, after plenty of small talk, he said he just couldn't talk about it. It was very puzzling. Twice we drove all the way down there [from Pennsylvania], and twice he couldn't talk about how our daughter died.'

Mary Jo Kopechne was killed on July 18, 1969, when Kennedy accidentally drove his car off a bridge on Martha's Vineyard's Chappaquiddick Island. Although the senator swam to safety, his passenger, Mary Jo, drowned in the car. Kennedy left the scene and didn't contact authorities until the following day. He eventually pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and was given a suspended sentence of two months in jail."

-- Laura Schreffler and Sean Evans with Amanda Sidman, on one of the Democrats' most celebrated crimes - covering for this drunken and portraying him as a saint - in The New York Daily News.

The Brainwashing And Exploitation Continue,...

"Parents will be invited to do yoga with their toddlers and hug them in a new BBC children's TV show.

Mothers and fathers may be forgiven for thinking they have travelled back to the late 1960s when they sit down with their children to watch Waybuloo.

The series, which it is hoped will be as big a hit as the Teletubbies, is said to be imbued with a 'hippy' philosophy."

-- The Daily Mail

Alfie Patten's Early "Life Lesson" In Women, Selfishness, Bondage, Sex, And Honesty

"Alfie Patten, the 13-year-old who achieved notoriety as the baby-faced father, has been told the child is not his.

After months of speculation, it can be revealed that Alfie, who would have been only 12 when baby Maisie was conceived, is not her biological father.

The teenager believed he had made Chantelle Stedman, 15, pregnant, but DNA tests have shown that the three-month-old is someone else's daughter.

The news can only be reported after East Sussex County Council failed in an attempt to ban reports of the case.

When the story broke in February, following Maisie's birth, there had been suspicions that Alfie, who looks no older than eight, was not the real father.

DNA tests were called for after several teenage boys claimed Maisie could be their daughter. But, before tests could be carried out, Mrs Justice Baron at the High Court ruled that the rights of the teenagers took precedence over the Press's right to report the case.

She passed an order that banned the reporting of any new information concerning Chantelle, Alfie and Maisie.

A further judgment made earlier this month by Mrs Justice Eleanor King, said the girl had been called a 'slut' by four people she did not know.

The teenager said she 'was crying a lot every day' and feared that the insults would 'go on forever'.

Alfie was 'extremely distressed' when he was told he was not the baby's father in March, the judgment revealed."

-- Caroline Grant, on what has to be the greatest discovery of this kid's life - whether he knows it or not - which is the position we've always held, along with The Daily Mail.

Jesus Said "Don't Taze Me, Bro!": Hilarious

Sorry But Here It Is Again: Liberals Are Idiots

Whether It's The New York Times, ACORN, The Democrats, Or The Obama Administration, We Told You: It's All A Bunch Of Self-Serving Lies

How much did Barack know about ACORN's activities?

He knew everything,...

American Men - Reduced - To (And By) Pussies

"'Home Game'" Mr. Lewis's account of becoming a father to his three children, begins promisingly. 'At some point in the last few decades, the American male sat down at the negotiating table with the American female and -- let us be frank -- got fleeced,' he writes.

The poor sucker agreed to take on responsibility for all sorts of menial tasks -- tasks that his own father was barely aware of -- and received nothing in return. If he was hoping for some gratitude, he was mistaken. According to Mr. Lewis: 'Women may smile at a man pushing a baby stroller, but it is with the gentle condescension of a high officer of an army toward a village that surrendered without a fight.'

American men now find themselves in the same position as Gorbachev after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Having done the decent thing, and ceded power without bloodshed, they are now looked on with good-humored disdain. (Full disclosure: I am a father of four living in London and can confirm that the situation for British men is no better.)

This is good stuff -- the American male is a pitiful creature -- and it is followed by plenty of examples from Mr. Lewis's own life. No sooner has his first daughter arrived than he is transformed into a surrendered husband, forced to take her to a succession of 'Mommy and me' classes. At one point, while living in Paris, he ends up in a swimming pool with 'a dozen scantily clad Frenchmen,' all accompanied by their newborn babies. It isn't long before he has been thoroughly brainwashed by the politically correct mumbo-jumbo that passes for wisdom in 'parenting courses.' 'I understood that my job was no longer to force the party line upon Quinn,' he writes. 'My job was to validate her feelings.' His wife, who used to look up to him as a glamorous writer, begins to view him as an 'unreliable employee.'"

-- Michael Lewis, reviewing a book that details a bit about why this blog is what it is (we've never given in to this "politically correct mumbo-jumbo" - and never will) which is why feminists - and their wimpy "partners" - hate us, though we must be loved by The Wall Street Journal.

Democrats: They Can't Win Even After Winning

"Let's face it, this is shaping up as George W. Bush's best month in years. The last time the 43rd president enjoyed this kind of vindication was when a bedraggled Saddam Hussein was pulled from a hole in the ground by American soldiers in 2003. All of Barack Obama's efforts to cast the Bush administration as an immoral stain on American history have not merely collapsed, but collapsed on the heads of Bush's most public and vocal critics."

-- Abe Greenwald, showing that time - and integrity - can do wonders for a person's image, also in Commentary.

Shouldn't There Be Little Pocket Books At Borders Detailing These Kinds Of Things?

"From the president’s new speech,...entitled, 'Two Pillars of a New Foundation.'

'I have spoken repeatedly of the need to lay a new foundation for lasting prosperity; a foundation that will support good jobs and rising incomes; a foundation for economic growth where we no longer rely on excessive debt and reckless risk - but instead on skilled workers and sound investments to lead the world in the industries of the 21st century.

Two pillars of this new foundation are clean energy and health care.'

Does Obama know that pillars rest on top of foundations, not the other way around? If George W. Bush said something like this, we’d never hear the end of it."

-- Noah Pollak, noticing the supposedly-Smartest President Ever is about as intelligent as our supposedly-Dumbest President Ever, which makes for pretty good Commentary.

Does Anyone Just Call Lying "Lying" Anymore?

"This is the story of an ambitious new administration running up against reality at home and abroad."

-- William A. Galston, kind of admitting Obama ran "on" delusional bullshit during the election - while, now that he's won, he's "running up against reality" - which is, remarkably, still being studiously avoided in The Los Angeles Times.

The InstaHypocrite Soils Himself In Public

"Physical bravery is a much bigger deal for old men than young ones. I don't care how many draft deferments Dick Cheney received. He's a very brave man. His heart is somewhere between forty and sixty percent dead. He's known this for a long time. He has nevertheless continuously exposed himself to stress that would kill much healthier men, and he has done it without the single most powerful incentive any man can have for accepting the back-handed honor of the vice-presidency of the United States. He never intended to run for President. And he didn't. Now, when he could be luxuriating in the last-years comfort of a loving family, he comes back again to do battle in the political arena, where he can legitimately expect nothing but abuse, contempt, and ridicule. Why? Because he's a patriot. Because he believes in what he advocates. Period.

Why have we never given him his due before? We have a good excuse and a less good truth to share. The excuse, which is valid, is that the leftists were so determined to portray him as the real president of the United States, manipulating the idiot puppet Bush, that to make him the center of any post was to authenticate the false notion that he was something more than a particularly hard-working and involved vice-president. We didn't want to seem to be exalting the lie that President Bush was not the man truly in charge.

The less good truth is that the left succeeded so spectacularly in demonizing Cheney that it was simply easier, even for those of us who trafficked in satire, to forfeit that game. They ran the score up so unfairly but amazingly high against him that defending him in any but the most cursory way felt like a self-destructive wound to our own credibility. That one's on us. We should have defended him personally, just as we defended Bush for quite similar reasons. We chose not to, because we were being more political than honorable. A bitter pill to swallow, especially when it's administered by a liberal journalist who doesn't agree, as we do, with most of Cheney's positions over the years.

As I said. We're embarrassed.

...Cheers for Dick Cheney."

-- The InstaPunk, making the kind of admission this blog is designed to never have to stoop to - We state it all, unpopular or not, and stand by our positions (because seeking popularity in politics is a fool's game, resulting in mea culpas like the one above) which is why, we think, right or wrong, we're not covered by Glenn Reynolds, or Ann Althouse, or any of the other wimpy and/or hypocritical media folks out there - Like Dick Cheney, we refuse to ever look back and find ourselves caught up short, like this "popular" blog called InstaPunk.com.*

*BTW: Is this self-revealed cowardly hypocrite (scared of the Left?) another relative of Glenn Reynolds in the online mediasphere? Kinda hard to keep 'em all straight, at this point, with the Instapundit, the Instawife and Instadaughter, etc.

Funny: None Of The Quacks Diagnosed You

"I picked up something on the plane to Nepal. So although I managed a week trekking, I was then struck down with what felt like awful flu. I couldn't stop shivering and at that high altitude I was so weak that the guide told me I could not go on.

Once home, my GP diagnosed viral pneumonia, which had left me with post-viral fatigue. He said I must take six weeks off work and sleep as much as possible.

Thankfully, I took the advice of my aunt, Baldish Bilkhu, a trained homeopathist who recommended a herbal remedy called Kali.Phos, which contains potassium phosphate. It's brilliant for boosting energy levels and is ideal for anyone feeling run-down.

I'm convinced taking it speeded up my recovery as I was well enough to return to work after four weeks.

That was when I started to take a look at the world of holistic medicine. I found a holistic retreat in Goa called Yoga Magic and booked myself in as a treat.

They had an inspirational masseur called Vishnu and a Reiki practitioner, Ramsay, whose treatments rebalance the body and helped me release pent-up tension. After my first session with him I cried for an hour.

Now I try to go back every year to rebalance as the experience made me so much more aware of my body.

I felt revitalised for a year, but then I suddenly started losing weight at a terrifying rate - a stone in a week.

My GP diagnosed an overactive thyroid (hyperthyroidism) and referred me to an endocrinologist. I was jumpy and irritable - classic symptoms and quite unlike the normal me.

My endocrine system was clearly in turmoil as I've since been diagnosed with an underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism) and have to take the synthetic equivalent of the hormone, thyroxine.

It's crucial for anyone with hypothyroidism to be physically active as one of the symptoms is that your metabolism can slow right up, so I've just run the London Marathon.

My Goa experience prompted me to embark on a six-month diploma in holistic massage - massage to treat the whole body."

-- Priya Kaur-Jones, a woman too stupid to be delivering the news in England, telling the usual insane story of being an ignorant NewAger who goes to doctors to discover what's wrong and deliver a cure - while also teaching her all those sciencey-sounding big words - and, then, going to quacks and giving them credit for her good health - in The Daily Mail.

To learn more about Goa's wonderful health programs, click the tag, below.

NewAgers Can't Do Right To Save Their Lives

"I thought I would be cured."

-- Farrah Fawcett, who "underwent painful experimental cancer treatment in Germany after declining conventional surgery" - and is still dying of bowel cancer though real doctors in America had a plan to save her life - as reported in The Daily Mail.

Madonna Is A Stupid, Uninteresting, Miserable, Insecure, Immature, And Totally Worthless Bitch

"Boys know what's what. They put you in your place - and quite right, too."

-- Libby Purves, getting to the unalterable point while wallowing in the ritual insanity of so-called "feminists" today - which only girly-men encourage - not The Daily Mail.

Dope-Ah-Mean

"When a person is in combat, the brain releases the pleasure-enhancing drug dopamine."

-- Patrick West, reviewing a British television program about violence and discovering (unsurprisingly) it's not all bad, on Spiked!

Environmentalism: Empty-Headed Nonsense

"Gaia is mysticism, pure and simple, an anti-human concept that really suggests that our existence is no more worthy than that of any other living thing. In fact, human beings are exceptional, not because some supreme being or holy book says that we are, but because the reality of human history and society, and our mutual, enlightened self-interest, indicates that this is so. It makes perfect sense to be concerned about environmental matters if they threaten human welfare. But it makes no sense to put the wellbeing of any other species, let alone a mythical earth-intelligence, above that of people."

-- Rob Lyons, running down the field with the ball, when it should have already been Spiked!

Egyptian Pyramids, Chinese Medicine, And Indian Spirituality, Can't Hold A Candle To The Awesome Power Of American Ideas

Driven

"The path out of darkness begins with those exasperatingly persistent individuals who are constitutionally incapable of capitulation."

-- Jim Collins, from his book, How the Mighty Fall and Why Some Companies Never Give In - letting us know we're on the right track - though it sounds so much better coming from Business Week.

When You Have A Roast The Meat Gets Cooked

Hat Tip: I Own The World

You Might As Well Forget It: We're Lost

"Its existence was highly classified."

-- Stephen F. Hayes, revealing that Joe Biden, our out-of-his-fucking-mind stupid Vice President - who just can't shut-up - has revealed the location of the Vice President's secret bunker (while in the process of dissing Dick Cheney, of course) surpassing the usual idiocy that passes for The Weekly Standard.

When Reality Is Rubber (And You Are Glue,...)

"Here are the key points about the Law of Attraction that didn't make it into the movie: Key point #1 is that unless you combine the Law of Attraction with impeccable integrity, you can attract a peck of troubles along with anything positive that comes your way...

...Key point #2: Using the Law of Attraction is a quick way to trigger your Upper Limit Problem,...The Upper Limit Problem is the tendency to sabotage yourself when you experience a rapid upsurge in success. If you haven't built a solid foundation of integrity under you, a rapid upturn in your fortunes can bring forth old self-esteem issues that cause you to bring yourself back down to your more familiar lower level of success..."

-- Kathlyn and Gay Hendricks, two prophet-types who were supposed to be in The Secret movie, on why we don't hear that much out of Oprah's pal, Rhonda Byrne, anymore (the lying bitch is in court - having an "Upper Limit Problem"!) which seems to point to Rhonda - before the film was released - having fucked up her own Whirled Musings.

Damn But Religion Can Be Scary (And Weird Too)

Hat Tip: Little Green Footballs

Look At It This Way: At Least She's Not In A Cult

"A 30-year-old Northern California woman has pleaded not guilty to charges that she had sex with three teenage boys.

Deborah Towe faces 11 felony counts, including unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, oral copulation of a person under the age of 16, committing lewd acts upon a child and arranging a meeting with a minor for a lewd purpose.

The boys were 15 and 16 years old.

Police in Anderson, about 150 miles north of Sacramento, began investigating in April after two girls from a local middle school reported that a friend's mother was having sex with boys.

In a 48-page report released this week, Towe told police she was protecting her daughter by diverting the boys' attention to herself."

-- The Associated Press

Worship The Goddess All You Want: Won't Help

"Past studies have found that happiness is partly inherited, that Republicans are happier than Democrats, and that old men tend to be happier than old women."

-- Robert Roy Britt, on why our life is better than yours - well, that and Live Science.

Hooray: Now Everybody Knows You're Crazy!!!

"The words of my family were, 'You are mad. You're never going to win'."

-- Patricia Putt, the silly whatever-her-name-is psychic who, indeed, is mad - and thus did not win James Randi's $1 million paranormal prize - but did get a previous mention here, and one in The London Free Press.

She's Even Starting To Look Like L. Ron!!!

We got this photo from Gloss Lip - which has a great expose' on all the wonders of Scientology - but you can save yourself the trouble of reading it and just look at the shape Kirsti Alley is in to get the idea: As one of their top celebrity supporters, this photo should be exhibit "A" of what effect a little long-term (and expensive) cultism can do for your life.

Hail Xenu!

Embarrassing: The Eurovision 2009 Winner

Come On: Step Up, Big Guy

"As a candidate, Obama pushed the notion that George W. Bush was a constitutional Neanderthal and destroyer of American values. Now he’s discovered that it is really hard to figure out what to do with these really bad people."

-- Jennifer Rubin, again mentioning that which must not be mentioned - Obama's (and the Democratic Party's) hypocrisy and politically expedient lies during the election - on Pajamas Media.

Michael Shermer: Why Darwin Matters

Get some popcorn: This is a lecture, kids.

The Jenny McCarthy Song

Hat Tip: Respectful Insolence

Look At It This Way: It Could Be Worse

"He does not believe he is ill currently. The fact is that he is very ill currently."

-- Judge John Rodenberg, ruling in the case of Daniel Hauser, whose parents claimed he was "a 'medicine man' in a cult of faux Native American wannabes,...led by Philip 'Cloudpiler' Landis,...a white man who claims to be a naturopath and Native American 'healer' peddling 'cures' for AIDS and cancer" - which Orac exposes all the time - on Respectful Insolence.

Hauser's parents could have called Karine Anne Brunck, TMR's killer/healer ex-wife, who regularly over-estimates her "powers": Their troubles would now be over.

But, of course, we'd still be blamed somehow.

It Works The Same Here (Or It's On It's Way)

"The Soviet Union believed the circus to be 'The People's Theatre',..."

-- Franco, on Universal Healthcare, clowns, and where the two come together - Britain, actually - creating what he calls Hypersanity.

Toast

"How bizarre is it for conservatives to be demanding [Pelosi's] resignation for prevaricating about a policy they support full-throatedly? I know, I know — “it’s not that she condoned waterboarding, it’s that she lied” — but if the left forces [Pelosi] out, it won’t be because she’s a weasel. It’ll be because she didn’t have the moral acuity to throw caution to the wind after 9/11 and shrug off the odds of more attacks all so that Khaled Sheikh Mohammed wouldn’t be pretend-drowned."

-- Allah Pundit, on the lying weasel - with no moral acuity - who leads the Democratic Party, usually with a lot of Hot Air.

Hollywood Comes To It Senses (Sort Of)

It's All A Pack Of Lies: Deal With It

"He spoke at a Barack Obama veterans rally in front of the Capitol in July, co-hosted several events with then- congressional candidate Jared Polis and attacked Republican Senate candidate Bob Schaffer in a TV ad paid for by the national group Votevets.org. And the mostly Democratic candidates he supported — looking for credibility on veterans issues and the war — lapped it up appreciatively. Now, politicians are dealing with news that the man they believed to be a former Marine and war veteran wounded in Iraq by a roadside bomb, in fact, never served in the military — but did spend time in a mental hospital."

-- Michael Riley, on Rick Strandlof AKA Rick Duncan, another exhibit in the Democrats Are Crazy! Sweepstakes, from The Denver Post.

Glenn Reynolds cynically adds:

"Doesn’t really matter. Election’s over, and he served his purpose."

Yea: getting the Insane Clown Posse elected to public office in America. How does it feel y'all?

Believing Pelosi Was One Thing But This Guy?

"This was all a lie and political posturing, but it was effective,..."

-- Doug Welsh, in an e-mail to Glenn Reynolds, on Nancy Pelosi and "the Democrats’ accusations that Bush lied us into the Iraq war", on Instapundit.

Hopefully, They Won't Get "Hysterical" Again

"The problem is that between 2003-2008 there was such hysterical antagonism to Bush that the combatants never worried about the often vicious means they used to achieve their supposedly lofty ends, and so now, finding themselves in a position of responsibility, are infuriated that anyone, well, would even conceive of playing hardball as they once did.

The striking thing about the sudden wounded-fawn Democratic syndrome is that Cheney is far milder than Gore was, that the CIA is not the firebrand Pelosi has been, and Bush has been silent about Obama in a way that even Clinton was not about Bush. If this softball stuff excites such outrage, what will happen if politics really get rough, say, as it was around 2007?"

-- Victor Davis Hanson, sticking one in the Democrat's eye, from The National Review.

He'd Be On Another Plain If There Was One

"President Obama is reinstating the same deeply-flawed military commissions that in June 2008 he called an 'enormous failure.' In one swift move, Obama,...backtracks on a major campaign promise,..."

-- Larry Cox, executive director for Amnesty International, hoping for change but learning to accept he's been lied to (by what seems like almost everybody) possibly even on the PR Newswire.

"I Wish I Had Some Handcuffs!!!"

Don't Look And No One Will Know (You Like It)

"The Internet’s version of a sandwich board-wearing lunatic, spewing nonsense at random pedestrians."

-- Karl, not being homophobic to Andrew Sullivan but just taunting him - because Sully's SO VERY BIG - plus Karl was sure he felt some Hot Air.

A Good Time Is Being Had By All (Of Us)

"It would be funny if the stakes — the future direction of this country for many years to come — weren’t so high.

It’s still hard not to feel just a bit of schadenfreude watching many of Barack Obama’s supporters, particularly those who are among the well-positioned or financially well-off, fidget, whine, and moan as they discover what those of us who actually researched and studied the guy before the election knew about him."

-- Tom Blumer, gettin' all schadenfreude on us, or maybe - just trying to nail down this photo - off of Pajamas Media.

Anybody Feeling "Enlightened" Yet?

"Antioxidant supplements appear to cancel out many of the beneficial effects of exercise. Soaking up those transient bursts of reactive oxygen species keeps them from signaling. Looked at the other way, oxidative stress could be a key to preventing type II diabetes. Glucose uptake and insulin sensitivity aren’t affected by exercise if you’re taking supplementary amounts of vitamins C and E, and this effect is seen all the way down to molecular markers such as the PPAR coactivator proteins PGC1 alpha and beta. . . . I think that there’s enough evidence to go ahead and say it: exercise and antioxidants work against each other. The whole take-antioxidants-for-better-health idea, which has been taking some hits in recent years, has just taken another big one."

-- Derek Lowe, discovering what we've been trying to tell you (in no uncertain terms) in as many ways as possible - as well as how ugly it gets when we see what everyone's been really supporting: it's a barrel of shit, but that's what's In The Pipeline.

Next Week: The "Media" Isn't Playing "Fair"

"The administration's central activity -- the political allocation of wealth and opportunity -- is not merely susceptible to corruption, it is corruption."

-- George Will, pompously asserting there may be something "wrong" here, from the perch he calls The Washington Post.

Oh, If Only We Could All Be Sane

"If I get a fortune cookie in a Chinese restaurant, I mean, of course, even I have a tendency... I mean, of course, I would hardly throw it out! I mean, I read it, I read it, and I just instinctively sort of, you know, if it says something like: 'Conversation with a dark-haired man will be very important for you,' well, I just instinctively think, you know, who do I know who has dark hair? Did we have a conversation? What did we talk about? In other words there's something in me that makes me read it, and I instinctively interpret it as if it were an omen of the future, but in my conscious opinion, which is so fundamental to my whole view of life, I mean, I would just have to change totally to not have this opinion, in my conscious opinion, this is simply something that was written in the cookie factory, several years ago, and in no way it refers to me! I mean, you know, the fact that I got--I mean, the man who wrote it did not know anything about me, I mean, he could not have known anything about me! There's no way that this cookie could actually have to do with me! And the fact that I've gotten it is just basically a joke! And I mean, if I were to go on a trip, on an airplane, and I got a fortune cookie that said 'Don't go,' I mean, of course, I admit I might feel a bit nervous for about one second, but in fact I would go, because, I mean, that trip is gonna be successful or unsuccessful based on the state of the airplane and the state of the pilot, and the cookie is in no position to know about that."

-- My Dinner With Andre (film) with a good example of rational thought AKA critical thinking - which this blog doesn't see enough of - courtesy of Althouse.

For the record: We would not only throw the cookie out but the silly message would go unread without so much as a thought. And, yes, we apply the same reasoning to the Bible, the Koran, the Torah, and all those stupid NewAge pamphlets floating around out there. It's bullshit solipsism - one and all:

We are men and women, in the 21st Century, and we should consider acting like it.

It's Finally Official: You HAVE Been Fooled Again

"Roger Daltrey has been praising Prince Charles' backing of complementary medicines, revealing that homeopathy saved the life of his son."

-- Hello Magazine

Too Many Cooks In The Kitchen, Maybe?

"Mr Sam was not treating his daughter as a homeopathy patient and was receiving advice from other homeopaths in how to fix her condition."

-- Larissa Cummings, coving the case of Thomas Sam - the homeopath who killed his own kid - and giving us a picture of how effective these water salesmen are as a group, in The Daily Telegraph.

Homeopathy Explained (As If It Can Be)

It Doesn't Work Like That Here

"Port Harcourt—The death toll in the midnight cult-related killings in Ogbunabali community, Obio/Akpor Council, Rivers State, has risen to nine, up from five last week,  Vanguard investigation has revealed.

...The apparent reprisal murders were traceable to the killing of an alleged cultist by a rival cult gang in the community last week, following which his soul-mates vowed to avenge the death of their colleague with as many deaths as possible.

Witnesses said the nocturnal brigands were usually armed with short axes, with which they attack their targets in the dead of night, dealing several blows of the weapon on their victims and walking away unchallenged."

-- George Onah, showing Africans, at least, are allowed to discuss cultism without being labeled "crazy", on Vanguard.