Climate Change ads apologize for the failures of our current leaders.

Greenpeace has unveiled some pretty stirring ads depicting aged world leaders apologizing for their inaction on climate change. There is little else to say as the pictures do all the speaking, but I would consider these examples of a wonderfully executed ad campaign.

More images after the jump

(more…)

read more

Congress passes moral judgement on Tiger Woods and is lost on the irony.

Tiger Woods was being considered for a Congressional Gold Medal for his part in breaking down barriers in the sports world and promoting good  sportsmanship. However, now that he has been exposed as a living human being, capable of flaws, Congress has decided to withdraw the honor.

Democratic Rep. Joe Baca of California was pushing for Tiger Woods to be recognized for his achievements by purposing a piece of legislation that would have honored him and his accomplishments. In light of recent events, he has stated that he will not pursue the legislation this session. The medal is the highest honor that Congress possesses to honor civilians for their contributions to society. (More after the jump)

(more…)

read more

Senate may be gifting HealthCare Reform. America asks, “Did you happen to get a gift receipt?”.

Senate negotiators have ended the day announcing they are close to reaching a deal on a “progressive” set of Health Care Reform packages. While no one is giving any details on these compromises, they have been sent to the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) for further financial analysis. Once the CBO returns the numbers and they are found to be within the fiscal range of their goals, the legislation will go to the floor for a vote. While this entire parade has been back and forth, with many a moment of near death, it is expected that Health Care Reform will indeed pass the senate and become law.

Yet, for some reason, I do not find myself elated or excited.

While I think this country needs radical reform on many of its levels, both financially and socially, I have little hope that this bill will bring the reform we so badly need. The single payer plan was dead before it hit the tracks, but it still haunted reform with its possibilities. Many of us had hoped Obama would come to the table and revive it, bringing with it some of those terrifying socialist ideals (Ahh the horror!) that the right has been screaming about.

The plan as it stands now would allow people ages 55 – 64 to buy into Medicare, while expanding Medicaid availability to those within %150 of the federal poverty line. (Is it sad that I think I am one of those people?) A separate plan, offered up by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), would create a program available to those within %300 of the poverty line, modeled after her own states Basic Health system.

(more…)

read more

ABC: America’s go to station for teaching women to shut the hell up, or else.

ABC’s “Good Morning America” is sending some  crazy mixed messages these days.

First they cancelled Adam Lambert’s performance because of all the homosexual juice he was spraying around all willy nilly and now they offer convicted domestic abuse fan, Chris Brown, an interview AND a live performance. The best part of this roller coaster of stupidity is that when contacted about the apparent homophobia, ABC had this to say.

“He (Adam Lambert) was not canceled over a gay kiss. He showed himself to be unpredictable on live TV.”

In other words, ABC is unsure whether or not Adam Lambert will start fisting patrons, but are positively assured that Chris Brown will start beating random woman. Classy ABC, classy.

ABC is hoping for the same ratings boost that Rihanna gave them during her Diane Sawyer interview, in which she described Chris Brown as soulless, when he was beating her silly.

Brown, who taped his interview with Roberts last weekend, was sentenced in August to six months’ labor and five years’ probation after he pleaded guilty to assaulting Rihanna in February.

The top ABC insider added: “Chris Brown’s interview was booked way before Adam Lambert took to the stage. It is to give him a chance to respond to Rihanna’s interview.

What exactly is there to respond to?

“Did you beat her?”

“Yes”

Interview over.

If you would like to call ABC and voice your displeasure or possibly recommend some other domestic abusers, feel free.

ABC Audience Relations
1-212-456-7477

read more

Palin gets punk’d…. again.

Canadian comedy show, “This hour has 22 minutes” has punk’d the gullible former Governor. Shocker…

The talk show sent its star, Mary Walsh, in character as “Marg Delahunty” in the hopes of getting Sarah to say something about the Canadian system of Health Care or something generally stupid on any subject. Never one to disappoint, Palin had this to say.

“Keep the faith” Palin said, “because common sense conservatism can be plugged in there in Canada too. In fact, Canada needs to reform its health care system and let the private sector take over some of what the government has absorbed.”

According to Mary, no one was allowed to ask any questions of Palin, even when having their book signed by her. Which is rather odd, considering how much “common sense you betchas” the woman carries around.

Awkward.

According to a recent poll, 90% of Canadians approve of their Health Care system, with a large majority thinking theirs is better than the U.S. despite the constant groans about waiting times for non emergency surgery.

read more

Catholic Child Abuse: Decades of Disease

According to a recent report, authorized by the government of Ireland, the Catholic  Church in Dublin has been covering up the crimes of its priests for decades. Child abuse, rape and molestation have all been committed under the watchful eye of the church and its figure heads. Individuals who felt they could control the systemic problem by dealing with it in their own way, fully acknowledging they had broken both civil and canon law.

Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, who handed over more than 60,000 previously secret church files to the three-year investigation, said he felt deep shame and sorrow for how previous archbishops presided over endemic child abuse – yet claimed afterward not to understand the gravity of their sins.

The church has a widely accepted stance against homosexuality and abortion, which they consider to be immoral acts, much more dangerous than “average” sin. (Even though the Bible clearly states no sin is greater than another.) Then again, I suppose you would have to read the whole thing to really grasp that concept and let’s be honest, the Bible is boring as hell.

The report included 46 priests who had a total of 320 complaints documented against them, with one priest admitting he molested over 100 children, while police have a feeling it was much more. Another case involved a priest who had admitted he molested a child every two weeks for nearly 25 years. Several of these priests were convicted of their crimes, albeit decades after they had been accused and 14 of them passed away before ever being held accountable. Astonishingly, 6 of them are currently still active priests. However, I think we can all agree that child abuse is acceptable, as long as we stop gay marriage.

Three Dublin archbishops – John Charles McQuaid (1940-72), Dermot Ryan (1972-84) and Kevin McNamara (1985-87) – did not tell police about clerical abuse cases, instead opting to avoid public scandals by shuttling offenders from parish to parish and even overseas to U.S. churches, the commission found.

It was not until 1995 that then-Archbishop Connell allowed police to see church files on 17 clerical abuse cases. At that time, Connell actually held records of complaints against at least 29 priests, the report found. Connell later pursued a lawsuit against the investigators in an abandoned bid to keep them from seeing more than 5,500 files documenting the church’s knowledge of abusive priests.

The report said all four archbishops sought “the maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the church, and the preservation of its assets. All other considerations, including the welfare of children and justice for victims, were subordinated to these priorities.”

The investigators lauded a handful of priests and mostly low-ranking police who pursued complaints and prosecutions, almost always unsuccessfully, from the 1960s to the 1980s.

Senior police officers “clearly regarded priests as being outside their remit” and handed “complaints to the archdiocese instead of investigating them,” the report said.

The best part of all of this hypocrisy is that I just recieved this is in my email from the Catholic News Agency

I guess Jesus was a hypocrite and God is a child molester.

Read the entire article at The Huffington Post

read more

Update: Climate Change emails hacked. Earth still on fire.

 

[Image: "Earth Egg," from the CC-licensed Flickr stream of azrainman]

BoingBoing has a great article discussing the recent hacked emails from the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit. I didn’t read much into this story, because when I read the email, there was nothing in there that even looked like it was a part of some massive Al Gore sized conspiracy theory, as many conservativeve pundits have claimed. However, to be fair, I also have the cunning ability to comprehend what I read, so that could just be me.  When I had first heard of this story, naturally the headlines made it seem like the worlds scientists where engaged in some secret agenda…. out to push… clean energy and solar panels? I mean honestly…. I have no idea what the pluses of such a massive conspiracy would be… besides of course, not catching on fire when you walk outside.

For those of you NOT in the know, here is the email in question that has sparked the conspiracy theory.

From: Phil Jones
To: ray bradley ,mann@[snipped], mhughes@
[snipped]
Subject: Diagram for WMO Statement
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 13:31:15 +0000
Cc: k.briffa@[snipped],t.osborn@[snipped]
Dear Ray, Mike and Malcolm,

Once Tim’s got a diagram here we’ll send that either later
today or first thing tomorrow. I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature
trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20
years (ie from 1981 onwards) amd [sic] from1961 for Keith’s to
hide the decline. Mike’s series got the annual land and marine
values while the other two got April-Sept for NH land N of 20N.
The latter two are real for 1999, while the estimate for 1999
for NH combined is +0.44C wrt 61-90. The Global estimate for
1999 with data through Oct is +0.35C cf. 0.57 for 1998.

Thanks for the comments, Ray.

Cheers, Phil

If you were unable to find the “conspiracy” in there, let me help you. Phil Jones has asked for some of his numbers to be sexed up, in an attempt to make the report look nicer. The actual climate numbers are correct, he has just asked for them to be upped a little. As to why he asked for this, no one knows. I can only assume he wished to make his report look even more important. How one scientists personal report on his own findings, relates to the entire world’s base of climate data, is beyond me. It would be like assuming all Ford cars were shitty because one dealer in Nebraska tried to sell you a lemon. (Note- all Ford cars ARE shitty)

However, nut jobs around the world see this as proof of our climate overlords impending collapse.

For a break down of the events and some recently updated information, head on over to BoingBoing.com

read more

Adam Lambert to America, “I am not your babysitter.” CBS gets boner from lesbian kiss.

Adam Lambert sat down with some white woman on the Early Show and was impressively mature and intelligent. Not that I would think he would be anything other, but for as much as I post about him on here, I know very little about the man off  stage.

Adam held his own, in what appeared to be, a situation where the interviewer was attempting to push an agenda or hoping to make him feel guilty for his AMA performance. Once you watch the video, her bias is hard to ignore, but that could just be me paying attention and using my ears.. who knows?

When pressed about the issue Adam stated that he wasn’t a babysitter and that it was the job of the parents to be watching their own children, especially considering his performance appeared at almost 11 o clock at night. Parents in America are notorious for blaming television for the things that are being shown to their children, rarely taking responsibility for their child’s viewing habits.  This blame game reaches well beyond the gamut of live television or even sitcoms. Family Guy is often bombarded with this kind of lazy parenting and the show even references this from time to time.

Other than coming off non apologetic and intelligent, something else happened in this clip that you may have missed.

CBS blurred out the male on male kiss from Adam’s performance, but had no issue showing the Madonna/Britney incident from years earlier. This is even more noteworthy considering Adam draws attention to the apparent double standard in television and pop music, during his interview. CBS had responded to the double standard with this.

“We gave this some real thought. The Madonna image is very familiar and has appeared countless times including many times on morning television. The Adam Lambert image is a subject of great current controversy, has not been nearly as widely disseminated, and for all we know, may still lead to legal consequences.”

The logic behind this is questionable, simply being that if it was the act that was inappropriate and not the amount of times it was viewed, both images should have been deemed inappropriate. Homophobia is alive and well, no matter how often people attempt to paint Hollywood as a liberal bastion of gay sex. Trust me… it’s not. I lived there and I was rarely offered free homosexual sex… and you know I tried!

Gross.

read more