The Lasso of Truth

Wards of the state -- aren't we all?

It leads one to wonder what kind of system hands over 3 helpless children and a $2,400 cheque every month to a single woman, with very little background checking and absolutely no follow-up...

Early Saturday, Calvert authorities made a gruesome discovery: the bodies of two children encased in ice in a freezer in the home of Renee D. Bowman, 43. Bowman has been receiving a monthly government subsidy of $2,400 to care for her three adopted children

[..]

With Bowman in jail, charged with child abuse, and investigators working to piece together what happened, the case again shined a spotlight on the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency, which recommended Bowman to a D.C. Superior Court judge as a suitable adoptive parent in 2001 and 2004. The girls had been wards of the D.C. government.

No one thought to check that they were enrolled in school.  No one checked to make sure they were adjusting well to their new home.  Not a single soul checked to make sure they weren't being beaten and starved to death and subsequently stuffed into a freezer for the better part of a year.

This is the same government we entrust with our health care and the education of our children.

Fucking glorious.

I don't know if it's art...

I love carving pumpkins.  I mean I love it.  I will usually carve between 5-8 pumpkins each year, for Halloween.  But even I might find this project a little too taxing...

Star Wars junkies will enjoy the entire collection.

The gallery of Nightmare Photography is not for the faint of heart.

But the truly horrifying, is the gallery of Fashion Burkas

All the rage, I'd say.

The Omnipresent God question

A psychologist examines the question of why people believe in God...

All we can ever know for certain about death is that a living person grows strangely still. We each have a fantasy about what happens after death and this fantasy determines how we see the purpose of life. If we see death as the end of our identity, the purpose of our life becomes making this life satisfactory.

There is an infinite number of ways in which we might choose to define "satisfactory", but whichever we choose becomes our purpose.

If we see death as the doorway to another life, we have to decide whether this next life will be better than this one. To give us hope, we decide that the next life will be better. This raises the question of justice. Do all people go on to this better life, or are there standards that have to be met?

A sense of justice leads us to choose standards, and in doing so we condemn ourselves to living this life in terms of the next. If you set standards which you can easily reach, you limit the amount of self-inflicted pain you will suffer, but if you acquire, say, a Calvinist conscience you set yourself impossible standards, and berate yourself for your constant failure to live up to them.

I have argued in the past that religion as I have known it, is arranged to ensure you never measure up.  The concept of original sin is a primary example of the inherent bias within Christianity that assumes mankind as automatically fallible and unable to reach by any means, the level of goodness expected to win the grace of God.  While many think this is a means of motivating good behavior through humility, I see it more of a self-defeating concept that causes many to give up hope of ever being good enough.  After all, when the standard is being measured against an unattainable constant, the strain of reaching becomes a discouraging and futile effort.  Add to this, the stipulation that it is not one's place to question God's plan, and it suddenly becomes a prison of condemnation without explanation, from which no escape can be made.

I spent many years there.

My metamorphosis from doubt-filled God-fearing uncertainty, to the logic and serenity of atheism, was a sudden and final rejection of the burden of guilt and irrationality I always felt in the practice of religion.  Many have judged me harshly for this.  None the least of which have been my own fellow Conservatives.

In light of the subject at hand, I delved into the archives to revive my original post on the subject here:

The Godless Conservative

Leftards

All Class.  All. The. Time...

Seriously, Sarah Heath Palin, I can't live without you. Like Paulson to Pelosi, I'm on my knees, begging you to be my partner in comedy until Nov 4th, when Barack Obama sends you and the entire GOP back to Wasilla with gift baskets of condoms and rape kits.

Every word that shoots from your sarcastic yet uninformed mouth is a gift from God. (Or a witch!) And Sarah, you head my favorite family since the Brady Bunch. The adorably miserable Bristol, soldier-boy Track and his coke habit, the Christchild Trig, Piper the licker and Willow, the mysterious one. Don't get me started on the Eskimo husband Todd who keeps puttin' it in ya after all these years.

The only surprising thing is that this missive managed to pop into her tiny little intellect without the overwhelming presence of acidic profanity.

Maybe she's had some therapy.  Or a head injury.

Grasping for Relevance

The Mighty Windbag proclaims on behalf of Mother Gaia and future generations…

"I believe we've reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants that do not have carbon capture and sequestration,"

A former vice-chief lawmaker, advocating civil disobedience?  Somehow I get the impression he’s implying something  a little more invasive than a letter writing campaign or consumer boycott.

In addition to making tenuous links between oil shale and things like global poverty and the sub-prime market catastrophe, Al offers panacean solutions to issues not traditionally associated with environmental measures…

Gore's solution for the climate and energy crisis may help resolve the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, Sudan as well.

"Let's start with Darfur," he proposed. "Darfur has more sunlight falling on it reliably than almost any other place. There's a belt across that part of Africa into the Middle East. We ought to build solar, electric plants there and connect them with a super grid that goes across the straits of Gibraltar and up through the Balkans and across the Mediterranean and replaces coal and oil."

One wonders how the installation of solar panels in the desert, is meant to inspire warring Muslim factions to stop hacking each other to death with machetes, but perhaps it is not for us to question why.

Personally, I would prefer not to entrust my energy needs, to a handful of basket-case nations that can’t even figure out how to grow a decent field of vegetables.

But that’s just me.

Maybe this doctor should work in a prison...

Where the term "pain in the ass" goes from being figurative to literal...

A man alleging a Maryland doctor stapled his rectum shut during an operation — causing him to go without defecating for 17 days — took his federal lawsuit to trial Monday in Baltimore.

Ronald Watkins, 64, of West Virginia, is suing Manuel Casiano, a doctor in Frederick County, for allegedly botching a 2004 surgery that left Watkins with permanent bowel problems.

“The reason for suing Dr. Casiano is very simple: His rectum was stapled shut,”

Happy Monday!

Yesterday, our wonderful children were gracious enough to play quietly and allow us to sleep in until around 9am.  At that time, I roused myself to go down and prepare breakfast, but upon opening my bedroom door, I was faced with this glorious sight...

He's 9 and he's now officially my favorite ;)

I have finally taken the time to pilfer through the Wayback Machine and rebuild my archives.  To the right, is a new list of Classic Wonder Woman, featuring some of my old favorites from the previous Lasso and the long-forgotten North American Patriot.  I will be adding more over the next few days so readers who are new to The Lasso can tool around over the last 3 years and long-time readers can now reminisce.

Enjoy!

Weekend Pinup

I hate to say it, but I feel like I'm going through a little bit of election fatigue.  Between the high-pitched race in the US and my own, much lamer and tamer campaign up here, I find myself craving the quiet quirkiness of a simple news story.  But being a political animal, I simply cannot tear myself away...

~ The Huff-poseurs join forces with the Great White Hoper to slam McCain for -- GAWD FORBID! -- not mentioning the middle class during the debate.  Lost on all these losers, is the simple explanation that unlike the Obamessiah and his "in your face" harridans, perhaps McCain isn't interested in stoking the flames of an all-out class war.  Perhaps all Americans are Americans deserving of consideration, without parsing per income -- at least in the McCain camp.

~ And speaking of the debate...Cassandra offers the best (and most thoughtful) post-debate analysis.  It is long but worth a full read.

~ "We need an Al Gore for child development," -- you mean a preachy, preening, hypocritical blowhard?  But there's already so many...

~ What we really need is a frenzied carbon auction.  I thought carbon was bad, but I guess as long as the government and environmental agencies can rake in every last dollar for it we find suddenly that some is ok.  Next up will be lotteries for private citizens to win the right to heat their own homes.

~ A Brazilian man has been caught with nearly $2 million in traffic fines.  See?  I told Mikey I wasn't the worst...

~ Finally, a wicked gallery of Iron Man design art.

Setting the stage

It was a study in contrasts, a spirited encounter between a young, black Democrat and an aging, white Republican as America's economic future hangs in the balance

You can just hear the winds blowing over the plantation, can't you?

Don't we have cows in this country?

Between unsafe toys, poisonous toothpaste, deadly pet food, and faulty drug products...

Can anyone tell me why we are still buying anything from China?

Strange bedfellows.

The Pinkos get an audience with the head of a state that hangs gay men in the street and still advocates the stoning of women...

The meeting, which took place in a cordial and positive atmosphere, was considered a great breakthrough.
“It’s rare for a head of state to take time during an official U.N. visit to meet with the peace community, especially in a situation where the host government—represented by the Bush administration—is so hostile,” said Evans, co-founder of CODEPINK. “The fact that the meeting took place and was so positive is, in itself, a major step forward.”

h/t

Equality at any cost

Right Wing News highlights a Fox News report that calls out the socialist engineering behind the current financial crisis in the US (including video)...

The really scary thing here is that the very same oblivious people who were responsible for this whole crisis in the first place are now running Congress, denying that they had anything to do with the problem, and they are the very same ones working on the bailout.

Who could have predicted that lending people money, based on criteria other than their ability to pay it back, would backfire in a raft of defaults?  Only economists everywhere.

But what do they know?

A whole new meaning for the term "had her lips done"...

I used to run with a crowd of Goth types, many of whom were heavily into the art of “body modification”.  Personally, I never understood the appeal and actually found much of it to be quite gruesome.  But in light of my own C-cup sized argument with mother nature, I’m not generally in a position to judge.

There was this one, though…

A friend of mine was unhappy with the appearance of her southern bits and consulted with a plastic surgeon about getting a labia reduction.  The quote she was given for the procedure was in the ballpark of $2,600.  The exorbitant cost of the procedure delayed her plans but being the resourceful and determined sort, she eventually found a more economical way to accomplish the esthetic difference she was looking for…at a tattoo parlour…for $300.

Now, I may be naïve but this seems like the kind of thing one would be best to leave to medically trained professionals in a safe and sanitized environment.  It’s not something that should get relegated to the bargain basement.

Since we lost contact with each other shortly afterward, I have no idea how it turned out.  Maybe she was just fine, and supremely happy with her new bits.

Who knows?

So, what brings on this less than orthodox little trip down memory lane in the festering black hole of my past life, you may ask?

Well apparently my friend is not alone.

All I can say is, yikes!

Where track marks become the new concentration camp stamp...

A drug addict is willing to live in a sewer and stick a filthy needle filled with a deadly poison, into their veins – running significant risk of suffocating in a pool of their own vomit, if not just slowly destroying any hope they have of leading a normal life – but the Health Ministry that has decided the beleaguered taxpayer should not be expected to subsidize and perpetuate this highly destructive practice, is engaging in “genocide”?

Crikey.  I though only smart people could graduate from medical school.

Proof that there really is a God!

Singer Bette Midler has told Sky News she is quitting touring - to help save the planet.

The 62-year-old says she feels that the fleet of 14 lorries she uses to ship her show from city to city causes too much pollution.

Now if we can only get rid of Barbra Streisand and cow farts, we just might save the world!

Welcome to socialized medicine

And the Utopian gloriousness of "universal health care"...

Health officials in Manitoba have launched an investigation into the death of a man who waited 34 hours for treatment in a Winnipeg emergency room.

The 45-year-old man was dropped off at the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg around 3 p.m. Friday, health officials have confirmed. He was found dead, still in the waiting area, just after midnight Sunday.

From "grim milestones" to "grim statistics"

The left and their military body count fetish...

The U.S. Army is nearing a grim statistic: The number of soldiers who committed suicide this year is on pace to be an all-time high. The record was set in 2007 when there were 115 suicides.

The Army says there have been 62 confirmed suicides by active duty members in 2008, with 31 unconfirmed cases that appear to be suicides.

The Army has responded with suicide prevention programs, but the trend has yet to be reversed.

To draw attention to the issue, Fort Drum, an Army base in upstate New York, hosted a march on Sept. 12 to remember victims of suicide.

If the media is so concerned about the self esteem of soldiers, maybe they should stop calling them baby killers and murderers.

And can somebody tell me the count on suicide bombers who kill themselves in the name of a deranged, murderous ideology?  Maybe they're not keeping track...

Where is Lorne Greene?

Because I smell a spinoff for Wild Kingdom, in the wings...

A nightly carnival where bachelors are ridiculed into getting married is under way in northern Nigeria.

Until 1 October, Kano's "Bachelor catcher" and his band of musicians will roam the streets, parading a bachelor they have caught in a noose.

The carnival is part of the celebrations of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, where people fast during the daylight hours.

[..]

After sunset, when Muslims break their fast, it is traditional among Kano's Hausa population for young men to go into the streets in groups and go door-to-door dancing and singing.

People give contributions of food or money.

Delayed Pinup

No pinup today because I am busy installing a pond and garden in the front yard.  Stroll through the Justice League or do yourself a favor...enjoy the sunshine and good weather while we still have it.  Drop anything of interest in the comments and I may use it for a Monday morning pinup, instead...

The Incredible Shrinking Obama

So sayeth Rex...

Mr. Obama, however, has a kind of welcoming emptiness. Eager acolyte or stern observer, both find it difficult not to add, or project, the most flattering, even jubilant, fill-ins. The Obama candidacy, in its rocket-blast phase when he outsoared Hillary Clinton, drained the dictionaries of every superlative. The great "O" had them swooning in the stands. Why?

True, Oprah had passed her potent wand over him, but even the afternoon regent of a thousand therapies has stays on her sorcery. Mainly, his was very much a candidacy constructed by those who were drawn to him. If there was any meaning to that fortune-cookie poeticism that "we are the ones we have been waiting for," it was that his campaign was a feedback loop. People saw what they came to see. Mr. Obama was the slate; the crowds brought their own chalk.

This is the nature of Mr. Obama's particular kind of charisma. People project their best wishes on him, they fill in the blank of a very attractive and plausible outline. His is not, emphatically, a charisma of deeds. For what has he done, save run for president? He is an accommodating vessel - cool, smart, biracial and "unfinished." This is the Gatsby quality of him that others have noted. Like Gatsby, he is a receptacle of others' glamorous invention.

It's the seventh sign of the apocalypse

The first time that I have ever agreed with Rosie DiManno...

He is a deserter.

Not a war resister, not a draft dodger as thousands before him who sought refuge in Canada from conscription during the Vietnam era, but a bolter, an abandoner of fellow soldiers – those who went, avidly or reluctantly, hawkish or dreading combat to the bone.

[..]

"I'd rather go to jail than kill people,'' Hinzman asserted.

Actually, he'd rather not go to jail, otherwise he wouldn't be here and trying to stay.

"If you want to call me a coward for not wanting to kill people, then go ahead,'' Hinzman told the Star.

Not wanting to go to Iraq with your troop, is what makes you a coward.  Not wanting to face the consequences of that cowardly decision just makes you a dishonorable weasel.  Trying to frame your cowardice in terms of moral superiority makes you a chump who is undeserving of the Canadian hospitality you have taken such grievous advantage of.

When your plane takes off on Monday, look down over the suburb of Brampton...I'll be the one waving both middle fingers from the ground.

Goodbye and good riddance.

Or so Mayor Miller tells me...

The great city of Toronto would be an oasis of peaceful bliss and happiness, if we could only get a handgun ban.  I just know it.

Gah! They didn't...!

The sweet, wonderful love of my life and I have a long-standing argument going, over the innate milquetoast lameness of station wagons.  When I met Mikey, he drove a Volvo wagon which is admittedly, reasonably cool.  We do however, part ways from there.

A wagon is the natural transportation vessel of the Clark W. Griswold's of the world, or fat, lumpy public educators with big, smelly dogs and houses filled with cats.  They are not cool and no matter how much you try -- with the addition of spoilers or fancy rims -- they will never be sporty.  Sorry Mikey.

For this reason, I was struck absolutely dumbfounded by the freakish, blasphemous aberration, inflicted upon a perfectly innocent piece of automotive perfection...

Kind of like watching Christian Bale get cleat-kicked in the face.

Mikey is a high-risk activity!

I'll just have to take my chances.

A cold day in hell, at my house...

Is Facebook Distracting Us From Porn?

Porn is and always has been a key component of the Internet -- 10% of all Web searches, according to Hitwise. But it used to be bigger -- and could be getting displaced by social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook.

As far as I'm concerned, Facebook is just a different kind of porn...only duller and with no sound.  It's what I like to call "me porn", where you get to pour over how many friends you have, and how much time they spend sending you useless virtual trinkets and writing on your "wall".  It lends glamorous relevancy to people who are too repressed to use the handycam for the real thing.

To extend the metaphor...I guess the R.I.P. Facebook sites, set up to mourn the latest tragic death of a teenage gang-banger, would be the social-networking version of a snuff film.

The polls are so close...

Doesn't make sense…unless it's race.

Because the possibility that many Americans simply don't want the Great White Hoper's brand of change is INCONCEIVABLE!

Is it just me

...or is architecture in New York starting to look like they deliberately want it to topple over?

From the firm that brought us Beijing's Olympic Bird's Nest, a Jenga game on a world scale...

OMA offers a new residential high-rise, the plans for which were revealed to New Yorkers on September 11th...

No indication yet, whether a lifetime's supply of Gravol would be offered to future residents.

In their own words

Science Debate 2008 posed 14 specific questions, related to the field of science, to both of the presidential contenders.  Topics of discussion were as follows:

* Innovation
* Climate Change
* Energy
* Education
* National Security
* Pandemics and Biosecurity
* Genetics Research
* Stem Cells
* Ocean Health
* Water
* Space
* Scientific Integrity
* Research
* Health

The questions and their answers, side-by-side for comparison purposes, can be found here. 

The Audacity of Negative Hype

And how "going negative" has it's advantages...

Let us stipulate that between her introductory speech in Dayton and her address to the Republican Convention, the mainstream media’s coverage of Sarah Palin and her family was ridiculously overblown.  Millions of people saw these unhinged accusations, and then they say Palin perform, and they stopped believing what the talking heads were saying about Governor Palin.  The unintended consequence of the media’s venom was to inoculate Palin, so to speak, from any future criticisms—even legitimate ones.  Meanwhile, nobody on the right expected three front page New York Times articles about poor Bristol Palin on the same day.  After catching his breath, McCain decided that since the media coverage was going to spin him walking on water as being unable to swim, he might as well attack hard.  In for a penny, in for a pound, so McCain went for a ton.

So Adorable

Courtesy of John Cox.