Only the good die young...

Sorry to post twice in one day but this has gotta be one of the stupidest things anyone has ever, ever said.

"African-American males have a — have had a shorter life span than other sectors of America," said White House press secretary Scott McClellan. "And this will enable them to build a nest egg of their own and be able to pass that nest egg on to their survivors."

Take it easy, Condi, honey, that big job consulting for Halliburton is just four short years away:

Well, now, that's a different take on it...

quote at bottom is from Huey Long: "When fascism comes to America, it will be draped in an American flag."

click on the image to see other interesting stuff from propaganda central.

And don't get me started about Bear in the Big Blue House...

From Reuters:

"[Focus on the Family's James] Dobson was quoted by the New York Times on Thursday as having singled out the wildly popular SpongeBob during remarks about the video at dinner this week in Washington, D.C.

SpongeBob, who lives in a pineapple under the sea, was "outed" by the U.S. media in 2002 after reports that the TV show and its merchandise are popular with gays. His creator, Stephen Hillenburg, said at the time that though SpongeBob was an oddball, he thought of all the characters in the show as asexual.

It is not the first time that children's TV favorites have come under the critical spotlight of the Christian right. In 1999, the Rev. Jerry Falwell described Tinky Winky, the purse-toting purple Teletubbie, as a gay role model."

But here's another take on a children's character, from Captain's Log:

"According to Bishop Sharon A. Brown Christopher of Illinois, Tinky Winky is a bishop: "The episcopal color is purple," she notes, "and our liturgical shirts are purple." She also points out that "the purple Teletubby has a triangle on its head – the Trinity!"

However, this episcopal theory doesn't go far enough, according to Freethinkers website. The triangle on the Teletubby's head, plus the fact that like Tinky Winky, Jesus is often shown wearing a purple robe (see above), means that he is actually a new representation of Jesus. "Perhaps this is the Second Coming," the site helpfully concludes. No prominent theologian was available for comment on this vexatious doctrinal issue."

Blue Gal, whose children have watched Teletubbies many times, would like to go on record as believing that, like many of her favorite church leaders, Tinky Winky is a tranvestite, NOT a homosexual.

Shame

People who should be ashamed of themselves, besides those who ate cowboy boot chocolates at the inaugural?

Oh, how 'bout, FOX NEWS CHANNEL? File this one under "huh?"

Last April 26, FNC reported that the economy was improving because "14 states now have an unemployment rate that is lower than the national average."

Congratulations to Michael Moore

Revelation xii.7:
And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.

Okay, in this instance the Dragon was Shrek Two. But if we're going to congratulate Michael Moore for his People's Choice Award, we can't get upset about Wolf Blitzer's online "polls". Neither are genuine, both are part of the world wild web hype-o-rama machine. But Michael fights, and the dragons are subdued, and having such a brave, brave, brave saintly warrior in our corner, we can forgive some sanctimony..."Oh! Disney won't release my documentary in which a little girl's dead body is heaved onto a truck! They just won't treat me fairly! It's censorship! I'm on my way to Cannes right now, I'm so upset!"

In any event, Saint Michael Moore, you are one of my dearest heroes. Thank you for what you do and who you are. We need you and love you dearly.

This is the ad. Stop this man.

Wanted to make sure you saw the anti-Gonzales ad in the NYT last Friday.

It's here. (PDF format)

Thank Yous

Many blues are wanting to thank Barbara Boxer. I heard Barney Frank say that in the halls of Congress, there's no contact better than snail mail. Emails and calls are just too easy; thirty seven cents tells your congressperson you really care. So send her a thank you n-o-t-e (perfume optional):

The Honorable Barbara Boxer
112 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

It may be that one reason Ms. Boxer was such a champion this week was just such a letter writing campaign. Go figure.

I am sending email to Paul Krugman and Bob Herbert for their great op/ed pieces in Friday's NY Times. That paper does make a Blue Gal feel a little less lonely in this sad red nation.

Alternatives

Found out there's a red gal in a blue state out there. She lives in the People's Republic of California and I have some sympathy with her, as her state shows just how bad it can get when "concerned Democrats" so completely have their way. But just as Birmingham is a (more) Democratic island in Alabama, I think she is probably in her own little Republican oasis in San Diego.

I try to keep Blue Gal as ad free as possible, but do buy Homegrown Democrat before it goes out of print. It's on sale now. A lovely book, and a great comfort to Blue Gals everywhere.

Garrison and the raisin are older dads with tiny tots, too, but the raisin is older and his kids are more and younger.

I just LOVE this man!!!

Click on the picture and poke around rejesus.co.uk for more food for thought.

From the same site:

Prayer

Teach us, good Lord, to serve you as you deserve:
to give, and not to count the cost,
to fight, and not to heed the wounds,
to toil, and not to seek for rest,
to labour, and not to ask for any reward,
except that of knowing that we do your will.

Ignatius of Loyola, soldier and founder of the Jesuits (1491-1556)

It's all how we treat each other

A commenter to my previous post decrys politics in favor of how we treat each other.

So I agonized for most of the day whether to post the now infamous hooded torture victim from Abu Ghraib on my site. We're so busy with the Tsunami right now that torture victims rate second place. (if you've forgotten or are a Bush voter, thememoryhole.org-great name- has photos.) Yep. Nevermind politics, Mysteryseven, it's all about how we treat each other.

Which reminds me. Why is Rumsfeld still in office?

Memo to Rumsfeld: I checked out Mysteryseven's site and hey, he looks young enough to be drafted.

Sell your stock in Home Depot, folks

It's one thing to give money to elect him, another to give BIG bucks to inaugurate him.

The inaugural hit parade is here.

The Counter Inaugural is on.

redefeatbush.com
Turn Your Back on Bush

This might make you feel better

I wish there were more walkway overpasses in Birmingham. Then we could do something like this:




Freeway Blogger makes a blue gal feel good.

Only in Alabama....

Only in Alabama would a judge wear a robe embroidered with the Ten Commandments into court. News story here.

Read a really good response from another local minister, James L. Evans, here.

As Evans says, this judge "replied he believes the Ten Commandments represent the truth 'and you can't divorce the law from the truth.' I guess it's also hard to divorce a sure fire political gimmick from a political opportunist either."

Yet these gimmicks work in this state, and many Alabamians rally to these political opportunists like flies to bear scat.

Does Jesus sit at the right hand of God and vomit over what is done in His name?

Got any good drugs?

Okay, just three questions:

1. If they can stop pushing Celebrex prescriptions on TV, why can't they stop pushing ALL of them?

2. How much does a congressman cost these days? Answer: No one knows, Pfizer hasn't put one up for sale lately. (thanks, Dr. W.)

3. Who's got more work, the pharmaceutical spin doctors or the damage lawyers? (go ahead, Google "Vioxx" and "legal" together. I'll wait.)

"Yeah, I got your WMD's right here..."

A winning caption, but which one of the three says it? If you can do better, Jluster is having a photo caption contest here.

Anyone still sad about Bush winning? Would this be as funny with Kerry and Mary Beth Cahill?

Is it Easter yet?

Just looked up my old friend Ari Goldman in order to send him a holiday card and found his review of the Mel Gibson movie.

Ari, I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU from this one Christian. The gigantic error of the Christ movie is not only that it denies the message of Jesus in favor of some "message" delivered by his executioners. It is that watching violence against Jesus is somehow constructive in a religious sense. That violence has a good religious use, is the fundamental error which leads to terrorism and war. Those Christians who think watching that porn is good religious instruction because "it really happened that way" are missing the whole point. To a good Christian the resurrection happened too, and the resurrection undid everything that Pilate and company attempted to do, most importantly undoing the hate.




Available as a magnet from EvolveFish

Bob left a nice comment below. Read his Passion review here.

INUNDATED!

Please! Blue Gal has been inundated today with demands for promotion on her blog. Michael Moore is comparing the Democrats to a battered woman, those Retro vs. Metro people (hey nice banner with Kerry ads going into a vortex) think Bush stole the election again, (but I thought he learned his lesson last time!) and the busted tees guys want me to vote for Pedro? I just don't have time for this.

So we'll just take a well-deserved time out from party politics to celebrate a little gender politics and the fact that the man below is straight. Sorry boys, this one is NOT for you, thus living proof there is a Goddess, and from the looks of 'im he's a regular Blue Gal reader...hmmm I feel sooo much better now.

Oh, and I'm returning all those Krispy Kreme gift cards

Second Nature wrote me about buyblue.org, a website dedicated to promoting those corporate entities that support the Democrats.

In the words of the site's founder:

"I'm quite certain that since the very day Al Gore invented the Internet, people all over the United States have been getting online to share information about politics, corporations and even organizing boycotts. ...At BuyBlue.org we are making a list and checking it twice, we know who’s been naughty and who’s been nice. If you want to send a message that you’ve had enough and you want your country back, that you want to be heard; I urge you to check out the list and make appropriate purchases. Make this year a Blue Christmas!"

Kudos for the Al Gore joke, but I'm suspicious of all corporate sponsorship. WalMart and Starbucks are supporting NPR's All Things Considered down here. Does that make them nice all of a sudden? Is that just their way of sucking up to "concerned women of a certain age"? It ain't workin with this one.

The BuyBlue list is convenient for boycotts, they're right. Lookee just how few corporations supported Dems over Repubs, and who knew Krispy Kreme could be so red? Or in the words of wise man Wacky Neighbor, "Apparently Victoria's Secret is that she's a flaming Republican."

If I had lots of money to spend this Christmas, I think I'd get everyone down here a bumpersticker from Evolve-Fish, which they can put next to the ribbon magnet on their SUV (click on the image to order one yourself):

Well, ya know, Hitler and Mussolini had each other...

Many of us reacted with the "civilization as we know it is ending" when we read about Clear Channel getting their news from Fox. Oh please. Just keep telling yourself and everyone around you, Fox is not a real news source. Don't you dare take them seriously. And Clear Channel clearly has not learned the lesson of Monty Python's Life of Brian...tell the people they can't listen to something and they will run in droves to get it.

{Insert Halliburton joke here}

get the t-shirt here

I just love NatLamp's takeoff on the JFK shooting game. If you're old enough to remember the print magazine reference for the George W. Bush item, take a moment to be smug with me.

Yes! Yes! We all bow to Fafblog! Yes! Yes!

Here's Fafblog and his sidekick Giblets talking to Wolf Blitzer

WB: How much thought goes into your "web blog" "posts"?

F: Oh we do not think at all when we post! That would defeat the entire purpose!

G: Blogs must be spontaneous intant reactions to the lightning events of the everyday! Giblets fires up a random news article, pounds his head against the keyboard several times, an hits the "publish" button for the purest of pure blog posts!

F: Otherwise you are not truly flowin in the electric consciousness Wolf.

WB: Do you think blogs are transforming the discourse in America, and if so how so?

F: Oh they definitely are Wolf. There is not much that can resist our transformin internet power.

G: We are MADE of the internet. We course with its febrile energy!

F: An we will make the discourse faster because blogs are faster. When someone starts talkin bout somethin that just happened five minutes ago someone else will say "oh I already heard about that yesterday, borin" an they will drop it cuz it's borin.



I can only dream of being such a blogger...