Happy Halloween

Purrfect explanation of the immigration debate

XXX sermon

Ah, this classic Oral Roberts tape is growing legs in the blogosphere. I guess they don't call his movement charismatic for nothing. Talk dirty to me, Big Boy:



My favorite part is his denouncement of "INSANE" hOmoooosexxxuals who "D-I-E die":

"I go to church too, but it didn't, you know, make me queer. Well, I wouldn't buy that 100%. Please erase that from the tape. Let's edit that part out, OK?"

Too close for comfort

Philadelphia has a judge who thinks it's just fine for men to gang rape a working girl at gunpoint. Because the 20-year-old single mom agreed to certain sexual acts for money, it's only "theft of service" when the home she agreed to go to turned out to be an abandoned building where she was held at gunpoint and raped by 4 men, says Judge Teresa Carr Deni. Deni dropped, for no legal reason, all the sexual and assault charges, including assault with a deadly weapon. Feministe has the story.

When some of the same guys did the same thing a few days later in a completely separate case with another woman, prosecutor Rich DeSipio didn't even bring the case because he "wouldn’t demean her that way,” calling the earlier case "a farce." And did he try to prosecute any of them on prostitution charges? Apparently, Philadelphia officially condones that.

Shame on both of them. It's open season on women in Philadelphia.

Merry War-mass

The War on Christmas comes earlier every year -- now as soon as we're done worshiping Chris Columbus.

And what would Jesus, prince of peace and preacher on the Mount, love more than this bumper sticker?

"This is America! And I'm going to say it: 'Merry Christmas!'"

In the words of Eddie Murphy, "I'm Gumby, dammit."

Blog of the week

Interesting blog of artists and poets, Exterminating Angel Press, has this Floyd Webster Rudmin editorial.

Conspiracy theory is "deconstructive history" because it is in rebellion against official explanations and against orthodox journalism and orthodox history. Conspiracy theorists cast out demography, market forces, technological development, social evolution, and other abstract, constructed categories of explanation. Conspiracy theory is radically empirical: tangible facts are the focus, especially facts that orthodox doctrine tries to make disappear. There is a ruthless reduction down to what is without doubt real, namely, persons. Conspiracy theory presumes that human events are caused by people acting as people do, including cooperating, planning, cheating, deceiving, and pursuing power.

Quote of the week

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice:

“In any country, if you don’t have countervailing institutions, the power of any one president is problematic for democratic development.”

Was she really just talking about Russia in this New York Times piece?

Flickr photo: Buddy Stone

Let's see them call him a fibber now

The right-wing propagandists managed to twist Vice President Al Gore's rightful statements that he had a role in initiating the Internet as we know it and that his friendship with Erich Segal was one of the inspirations for the author's tear-jerker, "Love Story."

The Nobel committee has awarded its annual Peace Prize to Al Gore, and that's about as clear and absolute as claims to fame get.

Can't be a little bit pregnant

And New Jersey's U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, a Bush Pioneer eyeing Drumthwacket, can't be a little bit partisan.

His office issued three press releases yesterday about indictments against Democrats around the state but failed to mention the FBI caught a pretty big Republican fish.

Frank Barbera, the former Treasurer of the Atlantic County Republican Party and a political ally of County Executive Dennis Levinson, was arrested by FBI agents this week on bribery charges ... Barbera is accused of offering a $5,000 bribe to Craig Callaway in 2005, while Callaway was serving as the Atlantic City Council President. Callaway is now serving a 40-month sentence following his own bribery conviction.