Everyone has one, some are one.

Weathergirl makes a neat little round-up of some 'choice' comments made by your more... psycho elements in the 'sphere regarding Operation Midwife.

There's some weird cats out there, that's for certain. After reading this lot, who is there to dispute it?

For some of the worst, check the uber-glibness of that CL freak. Jeez, what an arsehole.

What would Jesus do?

Rev. Gregory A. Boyd is disowning conservative politics:

One woman asked: “So why NOT us? If we contain the wisdom and grace and love and creativity of Jesus, why shouldn’t we be the ones involved in politics and setting laws?”

Mr. Boyd responded: “I don’t think there’s a particular angle we have on society that others lack. All good, decent people want good and order and justice. Just don’t slap the label ‘Christian’ on it.”

Holy f*cking sh*t! A reasonable evangelical. Sure he doesn't believe homosexuality is an ideal and does not agree with abortion, but he is not interested in controlling others to follow his (and Jesus') beliefs, he suggests that he will act accordingly and others can follow his example.

Believe it or not, this church scene freaked him out:

He said he first became alarmed while visiting another megachurch’s worship service on a Fourth of July years ago. The service finished with the chorus singing “God Bless America” and a video of fighter jets flying over a hill silhouetted with crosses.

“I thought to myself, ‘What just happened? Fighter jets mixed up with the cross?’ ” he said in an interview.

Dude. Dude, dude! I'm absolutely flabbergasted that this guy actually exists, let alone is prepared to voice these opinions. Cost his church $7M, mind you. Some of his followers didn't like his suggestion that Republican policy does not equal God's will.

Crazy times.

Who dares.. lives to continue f*cking up our world

In the feedback section of Crikey's Friday newsletter, is this excellent call from a reader:

Andrew Smith writes: Re. Yesterday's editorial. You make the mistake of assuming your readers actually care whether "terrorist act" is committed against a "high-level Australian politician". I for one am considerably more concerned with the targetting of innocents. The thought that the architects of policies should suffer for their consequences is quite frankly cheering. This would be in stark contrast to the usual Way of the World, which is to exact retribution for the sins of the leaders upon the led. One of the nice things about the (sorta-kinda) democracy we live in is our politicians are eminently expendable. Blow one up, elect another. Next to the safety of my Beloved and our children, that of our elected (un)representatives pales into insignificance.

Word. Amen. True 'dat. I hear ya.

Ill logic

Tim Dunlop comments on a David Frum piece:

"Seeing as we cannot maintain the peace in Iraq, we have but one overriding interest there today — to keep Al Qaeda from creating a base from which it can plot attacks on the United States."

Um, I thought one of the reasons we invaded in the first place was because Saddam already had links to al Qaeda and were making plans to attack the United States?

Oh, wait, rational thought employed while reading neo-con nut-job's pap, there's your problem right there. That'll be $50, thanks.

The birth pangs you couldn't refuse

Uri Avnery:

"It seems that Nasrallah survived," Israeli newspapers announced, after 23 tons of bombs were dropped on a site in Beirut, where the Hizbullah leader was supposedly hiding in a bunker.
...

The killing of the man is a national aim, almost the main aim of the war. This is, perhaps, the first war in history waged by a state in order to kill one person. Until now, only the Mafia thought along those lines.

Mafia, eh? Fits in perfectly with my view of this lot.

Governing for power

Tim Dunlop's Power Walking post has a neat round-up of the last 10 years of the Australian Federal Government under Howard:

On any objective reading of the facts, what emerges is a government that wants to perpetuate its worldview, not by winning the arguments on their merits, but by stifling dissent, rigging institutions, and concentrating power in the hands of a them-friendly elite.

Boo-yah!

It's all about Ooooooooil!

Bill O'Reilly:

Why should you care about the violence in Israel and Lebanon? That is the subject of this evening's "Talking Points Memo."

The answer to that question is because it affects your life. Every time stuff like this happens, the price of oil goes up and the worldwide economy totters.

Ah yes, they really know how to get you thinking about the big issues.

Who's in the house!?!

Cross-Border Shooting Kills Civilians:

In another development, an Israeli military official claimed that Iranian Revolutionary Guards were involved on some level in a missile strike that badly damaged an Israeli naval boat off Lebanon’s capital Beirut on Friday, killing one Israeli sailor and leaving three missing.

The official said the exact role of the Revolutionary Guards was not clear, but the Iranian forces were working closely with Hezbollah in Lebanon, as they have for more than two decades.

Iran's in the house!!!

I love the show that MC Neo-con and DJ God's Chosen put on, but as usual, them rival Arab gangs start throwin' chairs at each other, the show stops and security goes ape-shit on everybody.

Beyond the front cover

In case your interested about the region where our team is responsible for a whole heap of stress..
Zarqawi's death angered some Jordanians, poll shows:

Meanwhile, the survey revealed a slight shift in opinion regarding perceptions of Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaeda; the June 18 to 23 survey showed that 41.1 percent of respondents considered Al Qaeda to be a terrorist group compared to 48.9 percent in a December 2005 poll that followed the bombings.

Observers are in agreement that people's anger over the bombings has subsided since then and that the recent developments in Iraq and "the US-blessed" Israeli assault on Gaza explain this shift in perception.

The survey also showed that the Jordanians distinguish between "Bin Laden's Al Qaeda" and "Iraq's Al Qaeda"; 54 percent of the national sample considers the group in Iraq to be a terrorist one, while 15.6 percent still see it as a legitimate resistance group.
...
77.3 percent labeled US operations in Iraq as "acts of terrorism."

Well, I'm with that 77.3 percent.

Whenever I see the twin towers in a movie scene, or some sitcom opening title sequence, I always think about the people who worked in the building and those who died in it. Poor bastards. I can appreciate why 9/11 causes so many to pop a fuse.

F*ck terrorism. F*ck senseless violence on the innocent and powerless. F*ck it all.

Above all, f*ck those warmongers who capitalised on it, prolonging the pain, exacerbating the damage and getting our collective necks snapped in the mouse trap.

Manage the damage

NYT's op-ed columnist, David Brooks, tacitly admits that the Iraq invasion is a major political fuck-up (yeah, yeah, thousands dead, too. You happy now Mr 'turn the place into glass' Dennis Miller?):

For in the midst of the inquisition all of American liberalism has been reduced to one issue, the war. Just as some edges of the pro-life movement reduce all of conservatism to abortion, the upscale revivalists on the left reduce everything to Iraq, and all who are deemed impure must be cleansed away.

Oh, so we should just drop it and move on? Nice one, Brooks, you shill. The Iraq War is just one manifestation of the evil which fills the war supporters and their conservative brethren

The op-ed article is a pay-per-view but this fella's blog has it complete.

And they chant: "Look at the scoreboard!"

In Big Shift, U.S. to Follow Geneva Treaty for Detainees:

Beginning shortly after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the military lawyers warned that the administration’s plan for military commissions put the United States on the wrong side of the law and breached international standards. Most important, they warned, the plan could endanger members of the American military who might someday be captured by an enemy and treated the way detainees at Guantánamo have been.

But the lawyers’ sense of vindication at the Supreme Court’s 5-to-3 decision is tempered by growing anxiety over what may happen next. Several military lawyers, most of them retired, have said they are troubled by the possibility that Congress may restore the kind of system they have long argued against.

Along with Iraq, this is another major f*ck-up by Howard: supporting the Bush Admin on Gitmo and the treatment of the people detained there.

Game recognise game

US soldiers charged with rape and murder:

All were charged with conspiring with Green, who was accused by US prosecutors of going with three others to a house near the checkpoint they were manning outside Mahmudiya, near Baghdad, and of killing a couple and their two daughters. The five could face the death penalty.
...
Two soldiers who said they went to the house accused Green of killing the parents and child before he and the other soldier in the home raped Abeer. Green then shot her too, they said.
...
Two sons, aged 13 and 10, survived because they were absent from the house at the time.

So, all you 'pro-war, eye for an eye, turn the place into glass cause we (wrongly) believed Iraq was responsible for 9/11' clowns. What are you gonna expect from these two kids in a few years?

Late for a date

Adam Carolla hangs up on Coulter.

Can't say I know who Adam Carolla is, but I like his style. Shame he invited Coulter on his show in the first place.