Girdles for men

Being a 40-something baby boomer (or I just missed being one, I can never quite tell), I can appreciate the utility of a man-girdle. But still, it reminds me of my mom telling me that when they were kids they'd buy really tight blue jeans, get them soaking wet, then slip them on in the bath, under water, and let them slowly dry and shrink on their bodies.

There's also the issue of wearing one of these things, picking up somebody really hot, and then you get home and they find out you're wearing a girdle. I'm not sure there's enough Viagra in the world to fix that one. Read More......

The day that Jed Bartlett took on Dr. Laura

Read More......

Juan Cole on neo-con dreams of Iran

With our previous musings on the Jeffrey Goldberg Atlantic article in mind, I'd like to point out Juan Cole's thoughts on the matter. The piece contains a good discussion of "neo-cons in the wilderness" and weighs in on my question: Who's being played by the Jeffery Goldberg effort?

For Cole, the administration is the target all the way (my emphasis):

Despite being willing to stop in at an occasional cocktail party, President Obama could not care less what the Neoconservatives say, want or do. Few have been appointed from their ranks to high and influential positions in the Obama administration, in contrast to W.’s, where they held the 8 key positions that allowed them to help push the US into a decade of rampaging wars. . . . Their main project of today, an aggressive war on Iran, is a non-starter with the current White House, its generals, intelligence officials, and most importantly with a public already unemployed, beggared and indebted to the tune of $13 trillion, in part because of the Neocons earlier mad adventures[.]

The neo-cons are not without allies, however:

They have more assets than is visible on the surface. They have perhaps half of America’s 400 billionaires on their side. They have the enormous military-industrial complex on their side. They have the Yahoo complex of besieged lower middle class White America on their side. They have the Israel lobbies on their side. They have important segments of the Oil and Gas lobbies on their side. They have the whole American tradition of permanent war on their side. They should not be underestimated.

Cole thinks the war-ginning ploy won't work (whew):

Goldberg knows that Obama is not actually going to war against Iran. Despite what he says, Bibi Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, is for all his bluster far too personally indecisive to take such a major step (and certainly not without an American green light; Bibi thinks Clinton had him undermined and moved out of office for obstructing the Oslo accords, and does not want to risk the same fate for causing trouble for Obama in Iraq and Afghanistan). How Goldberg could miss this truism in Israeli politics is beyond me.

Take a few minutes to re-read that last quote. It's syntactically dense, but loaded.

A fine and comforting set of conclusions, and I hope Professor Cole is correct. We do not need one more war with a Muslim nation. In this area — war with Iran — Obama appears to be playing it exactly right.

Shall we ride in triumph through Persepolis? Not this week.

GP Read More......

A trip down memory lane with Dr. Laura

Dear Dr. Laura:

Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from your show, and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination. "End of debate," as you say.

I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some of the other specific laws and how to follow them.

1. When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord-Lev.1:9. The problem is my neighbours. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

2. I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

3. I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanliness-Lev.15:19-24. The problem is, how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.

4. Lev. 25:44 states that I may indeed possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighbouring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?

5. I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself?

6. A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination-Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this?

7. Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle room here?

8. Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev.19:27. How should they die?

9. I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?

10. My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev. 19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse
and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? Lev.24:10-16. Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14)

I know you have studied these things extensively, so I am confident you can help. Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging.

Read More......

228 million eggs recalled after salmonella outbreak

Somewhere in Spain, "Chris in Paris" is saying "told ya so."

An Iowa egg producer is recalling 228 million eggs after being linked to an outbreak of salmonella poisoning.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said eggs from Wright County Egg in Galt, Iowa, were linked to several illnesses in Colorado, California and Minnesota. The CDC said about 200 cases of the strain of salmonella linked to the eggs were reported weekly during June and July, four times the normal number of such occurrences.

Read More......

Are Iraq combat operations really over?

Interesting questions: Is this really a withdrawal? And how does Obama want it to be perceived? There are a lot of layers here. (Note before we begin, that the "withdrawal" was mandated, going to happen anyway; this looks at the shape it takes and how it's rolled out.)

The Iraqi layer. Iraq is trying to form a government. The Allawi vs. al-Maliki cage match seems to be a draw, after al-Maliki falsely painted Allawi's coalition as "Sunni" (it's "largly Sunni" but also cross-sectarian). Al-Maliki's attempt to glue all Shiites to himself, which failed, could leave room for a "neither of them" Shiite to step in. The U.S. would obviously like to see the next government formed soon.

The "withdrawal" — which only has to appear to be a withdrawal — acts a mood-pacifier. Juan Cole:

Obama’s withdrawal is an act of contrition that can begin the process of repairing relations between the US and the Arab world, a world that increasingly views the Obama administration as a disappointment because of its failure to follow through on pledges such as the two-state solution in Israel/Palestine.

Whom does it benefit? I'm not sure, but it's wheels within wheels over there. Watch and listen. (And don't forget the left-behinds; see below.)

The Obama-Dem layer. Here the "withdrawal" absolutely has to appear real; thus the Breaking News parade of force and heavy vehicles, a grand national show of "redeployed" American might. (The word "retreat" isn't invited to this party, since as we all know, Iraq is not Vietnam.) The New York Times:

“We are with the last combat troops” in Iraq, the NBC correspondent Richard Engel said at 6:30 p.m. Eastern.

There are two elements to that snippet, the military and the press. Both are key to its effect.

Who's the market for the Obama-Dem layer? "Liberal" Dem voters, perhaps even some of the younger crowd who may know deployed families (or still fear being among them). The message — This is Team Change keeping its word.

The Obama-Pentagon layer. Here the left-behinds are the story, and what they'll be doing. The same Times report later says (my emphasis throughout):

The movement of the trucks, televised live on “NBC Nightly News” and simulcast on MSNBC, was a largely symbolic demonstration that the war, as Americans have known it, is in its waning phases. . . . Operation Iraqi Freedom becomes Operation New Dawn . . . More than 50,000 troops will remain in Iraq; they will be reclassified as trainers.

The phrase "rebranding" comes to mind. As does the rarely mentioned use of mercenaries (sorry, contractors). Jonathan Turley:

What has been largely ignored in coverage is not only that 50,000 military personnel remain but . . . [t]he Obama administration is planning to more than double the number of private security guards it has in Iraq — up to 7,000 — according to the New York Times. They could find a few extras in Afghanistan where the Administration was surprised with an order to get its civilian security forces — most of the 45,000 contractors — out of the country.

During MSNBC's wall-to-wall "breaking" coverage, one of the commentators (Richard Engel, I think) said the left-behinds will do Special Ops work. This has to please the military, and everyone else invested in the muscular exercise of American power, including many Dems and Independents, plus whatever Republicans Obama can peel away. Call this the "Obama-testosterone" layer if you will, since it counters the always-present "Dems are weak" assault.

Note how the left-behinds, though, complicate calculations for the Iraqis. 60,000 foreign troops with SpecOps assignments can swing a lot of decisions in semi-client states.

The Republican layer. I think this paints them into a corner, but I could be wrong. Are they really going to say — "Return those troops to Iraq this minute, you coward!" I'm looking forward to seeing how they play it; I really am.

The "professional left" layer. Ah. We know what Obama's trying to do with these folks. How will they react? On this hangs the 2010 election, in my opinion, since we know that this bunch includes more than loudmouth bloggers, but actual Dem boots on the ground. The base is de-motivated for a number of reasons; if you ask for a list, get coffee first. It won't be a short one.

Bottom line? This is a tricky triangulation, and I'm not sure it can be pulled off. Some groups have to believe the "withdrawal" is both real and not a retreat. Some have to believe it's a wink-wink affair, with Mr. T leading the left-behinds to testosterone glory. And the administration has to speak to both groups at once.

Eighteen-dimensional chess indeed.

GP Read More......

America's war on 'the other'

Attytood:

A few months ago, I spent a Sunday morning in the parking lot of the Wal-Mart on Thomas Road in East Phoenix, just on the cusp of the immigration flare-up over racial profiling and Arizona's repressive law called SB 1070. It was quieter then -- a weathered 39-year-old Mexican in a wool cap with a New York Mets logo named Roberto Valdez who told me of his trek across the desert to seek work in Phoenix as a day laborer. Weeks earlier, Mexican day laborers like Valdez had been harassed on the weekends by angry white nativists, but in March of 2010 the nativists had moved on. Many had joined the Tea Party, and some were campaigning for GOP anti-immigration zealot J.D. Hayworth for U.S. Senate. Why waste time on "the Other" Roberto Valdez, when America now had "the Other" daring to occupy the Oval Office in the person of Barack Obama.

Five months later, the American political debate -- in a time of crushing 9.5-percent unemployment, record foreclosures and bankruptcies, and climate change linked to catastrophes from Moscow to Pakistan to Iowa -- has been hijacked over the arcane question of whether to allow an Islamic cultural center in lower Manhattan. The controversy is stunning -- but it should not be. The national brouhaha over the $100 million Muslim Park51/Cordoba House proposal is not an anomaly but rather the culmimation of an alarming downturn in America's mood, its discourse, and even our former ambitions as a beacon of religious and political tolerance. In 2010, a large swath of the American public -- led by ratings-mad media mavens and immoral politicians like Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin -- had declared out all-out war on "the Other" in America in all its alleged forms, from immigrants to Muslims to non-white aides working in the West Wing of the White House and of course the president himself.

And it is threatening to rip America apart in a way that we have not seen in 145 years.

Read More......

Taxpayers paid for Vitter aides travel to court

The man is a serial adulterer who frequents prostitutes, does anyone seriously think he's going to have a problem with this?

Taxpayers footed the bill when a former aide to Republican U.S. Sen. David Vitter traveled to Louisiana on trips coinciding with court-related activities involving the aide’s most recent DWI arrest.

Vitter’s U.S. Senate office expense account records show two trips by Brent Furer from Washington, D.C., to Louisiana —one in 2007 and the other 2008.

The dates of the trips match times Furer was scheduled to make appearances related to his Dec. 28, 2004 arrest for driving while intoxicated and other related charges, according to Baton Rouge City Court records.

Read More......

More bad economic news: unemployment claims rose last week to 500,000

This isn't good. Not good at all:

The country got some more disappointing news about jobs on Thursday.

Initial claims for unemployment rose last week to a seasonally adjusted half a million, the first time since November that they have reached that level.

The Department of Labor said in its weekly report that the seasonally adjusted jobless claims climbed by 12,000 to 500,000 from the previous week’s revised 488,000.

Wall Street analysts had expected the seasonally adjusted claims to drop.

Everyone is hoping that the claims will drop and the unemployment rate will drop. Well, everyone except the GOPers who created the economic crisis, wouldn't do a thing to help fix or end the crisis and are expecting to reap political gains because of the horrible situation. Read More......

More on Dr. Laura's professional demise

The NYT reminds us of an important point. At her peak, Dr. Laura was only second to Limbaugh.

In her three decades on the radio, Dr. Schlessinger’s popular show — at its peak it was the second highest-rated radio show after The Rush Limbaugh Show — has come under fire from rights groups a number of times. In 2000, a coalition of gay activists launched a Web site, StopDrLaura.com, and organized protests and boycotts across the United States and Canada in response to her comments about homosexuality, which she referred to as a “biological error.” They were also angered by her outspoken stance against adoption by same-sex couples, and remarks in which she said that a “a huge portion of the male homosexual populace is predatory on young boys.”

Dr. Schlessinger apologized for many of her comments, but many of her advertisers left her radio show, and a television show she started in 2000 was ended a year later. On the Web site StopDrLaura.com Tuesday night, a headline at the top of the home page declared, “We Stopped Dr Laura.”

StopDrLaura.com was a campaign I started with a few friends. (You can skip the summary of the campaign, and go straight to the old StopDrLaura.com Web site here.) Read More......

More Americans than ever think (wrongly) that Obama is a Muslim

How much you wanna bet they all watch FOX News and follow Sarah Palin on Twitter?

The number of Americans who believe -- wrongly -- that President Obama is a Muslim has increased significantly since his inauguration and now account for nearly 20 percent of the nation's population.

Among those who say Obama is a Muslim, 60 percent say they learned about his religion from the media, suggesting that their opinions are fueled by misinformation.

More than a third of conservative Republicans now say Obama is a Muslim, nearly double the percentage saying so early last year. Independents, too, are now more apt to see the president as a Muslim: Among independents, 18 percent say he is a Muslim, up eight percentage points.

Read More......

Crazy Coulter dropped from crazy right-wing conference after accepting invite to speak at crazy right-wing gays' conference

It's all so... Read More......

Thursday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

The President is heading to Martha's Vineyard for vacation later today. I'm sure there will be endless cable chatter about all aspects of this vacation, especially the location.

The Washington Post wants George W. Bush to weigh in on the Cordoba House controversy in a editorial titled, "Where are the Republicans who will reject pandering and prejudice?"

But this is a case where Mr. Bush's own party could benefit from a dose of adult supervision. As president, Mr. Bush never stopped making the distinction between Muslims and the terrorists who pervert their religion. As a politician, he understood the value to the Republican Party of reaching out to minorities, including Muslims. A word from Texas right now could offer his would-be heirs a useful lesson.

Pandering and prejudice define the GOP. Not sure W. can help his party, but he should do it for the country.

I didn't get picked for the jury yesterday. In DC, it's like clock-work. Every two years, DC residents get the jury duty notice. In any other city, I wouldn't even be in the pool. I'm a lawyer and for years I worked with victims of gun violence. But, that doesn't matter in DC. I've been on two juries already. And, I do think it's an important civic duty. But, I'm really glad I didn't get picked this time. It was going to be a long, intense murder and murder-for-hire trial. Read More......

Howard Dean: 'Mosque' should move

Via Glenn Greenwald, this report:



My heart breaks. Glenn comments:

The New York Times today details that proposed mosques in multiple locales in New York City -- far away from the Sacred, Hallowed Space of Ground Zero -- are provoking similar backlashes. Two weeks ago, Yahoo News reported on similar incidents from around the country. These are the real sentiments at the heart of this controversy.

So sad. Posted without (much) comment. Our own view is here and here.

GP Read More......

1 in 5 US teens have some hearing loss

From the Chicago Trib:

Teenagers aren't necessarily tuning out adults; they simply might not be able to hear them.

The proportion of teens in the United States with slight hearing loss has increased 30% in the last 15 years, and the number with mild or worse hearing loss has increased 77%, researchers said Tuesday.

One in every five teens now has at least a slight hearing loss, which can affect learning, speech perception, social skills development and self-image; one in every 20 has a more severe loss.

Read More......

White House apparently not very happy with Professional gay Democrats either

It's not entirely clear why the White House thinks all of these on-the-record whine fests are a good idea. Read More......