Recently in WTF???? Category

And OH. MY. GOD! it burns.

What is even more embarrassing, this incredibly stupid woman comes from Minnesota.

Politically Connected

"Some suggestions are that perhaps we would see an enhancement of wildlife expansion because of the warmth of the pipeline," she said during her Wednesday appearance on WCCO-Radio's "Jack Rice Show."

Bachmann noted a caribou population increase, from 2,700 to 30,000, since the Trans Alaska Pipeline System from Prudhoe Bay was built in 1977.

The pipeline has now become a meeting ground and "coffee klatch" for the caribou, she said.

Coffee klatch? Meeting ground? Christ on horseback, she is a fucking dumb-ass. She makes Dana Carvey's Church Lady look absolutely progressive.

This incident has been popping up for the last couple of days. I first read about it in the Star-Tribune, but just couldn't bring myself to actually make a post about it. I mean, it just can't be that our country is that fucking stupid. Accuse someone of being a Wizard? What next? Drowning of Witches? Unbelievable.

Yet, here it gets traction. But what really makes the whole thing ridiculous is the feeble attempt by the school district to cover its ass:

Tampa Bay's 10 talked to the assistant superintendent with the Pasco County School District who said it wasn't just the wizardry and that Picular had other performance issues, including "not following lesson plans" and allowing students to play on unapproved computers."

So, it wasn't just wizardry? The thing is, it shouldn't have even been mentioned at all. If he was having a problem with actually doing his job, than you say; "Hey, dumb substitute teacher, you ain't doing your damn job. Follow the lesson plans or we will not call you back for other assignments."

See? Now, that was simple.

Obviously, though, it was not even that he was not doing his job. There was no mention of prior warnings, or efforts to redirect this man's performance. He was accused of being a wizard and than suddenly, there is a performance issues.

Now, I could try to down play the whole stupidity of this situation by noting it is Florida, but it still is a part of the United States. Besides, I've got some great blogger friends from Florida, so it can't be as bad down there as this incident implies.

Personal disclosure: I did spend 6 months in Florida when I was in the service, mostly in a drug induced fog. I was stationed in Orlando, taking classes for nuclear power. Amazingly, I passed. I really couldn't tell you about Florida thought, because if I was not studying, I was smoking lots of pot.

To be honest, I smoked so much of it I use to hallucinate. In fact, some days I wonder if I ever really came out of the hallucinations. I mean, George W. Bush as president? Yeah, I am still hallucinating.

By way of Fixer's post over at Alternate Brain, I stumbled upon this. And then came across this. It's going to be one of those days.

Oh. I am never going to eat a cucumber from my fridge ever again.

Pharyngula

You know, I can understand why the people who work at denying evolution deny evolution; they are too damn stupid to survive the evolutionary process.

I see I am not the only one who thinks His running is a waste of time and effort:

All Spin Zone » Ralph Nader Running Again
It’s hard for me to believe that Nader can’t seem to stuff his ego in his back pocket, and make a quiet exit out the side door. He lost his positive legacy on November 7th, 2000. He lost my respect (and that of many others who supported his true life calling of consumer activism). Personal note to Ralph: yes, sir, I do blame you.

Would you please just go retire! They did not ruin Social Security for you, Ralphy.

Technorati Tags: Election 2008, Ralph Nader,

From U Are A Tree: I think trippy is way to mild a term for this:

Shakopee Valley News

Zyprexa, as well as the other atypical antipsychotics, are being prescribed for children, even though this is an unapproved, off-label use. Eli Lilly has been charged in allegedly pushing the drug for children in more than one state.

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, WRONG!

This is nothing more than lazy parents and teachers looking for the easier, softer way to deal with children.

Children are naturally hyper. Children are naturally loud. Children have a tendency to be mean and cruel to each other. Name calling, anger, temper; it is all par for the course with children. They become overwhelmed with their own growing energy. They have short attention spans. They do not need medication.

An ADHD diagnosis should not be made by a primary physician at the local clinic. Nor a child put on any type of antipsychotics, or any mood-altering chemicals, unless they have been thoroughly evaluated by competent, trained and experienced psychiatrists.

All any child really needs is patience, tolerance, and love; with firm, consistent, and continuous boundaries (which requires constant effort by parents to think about more than themselves) that will teach them proper social behavior. And finally, parental realization that they will not see instantaneous results.

I swear, some days it seems our society is one big addict; always wanting what it wants when it wants it and wanting it Right-God-Damn-Now!

This is amazing!



Yes, a Katana sword was able to deflect and even split bullets with it's edge. Amazing.

Hat tip: You Are a Tree

Now, this is cool:

haha.nu

I never knew such things could be done with legos.

Find out just how much you need to drink to kill yourself.

Jackson Pollock.org

Create your own Jackson Pollock painting!

Prison Planet.com

So we chose to 'microwave' our cash, over $1000 in twenties in a stack, not spread out on a carasoul. Do you know what exploded on American money?? The right eye of Andrew Jackson on the new twenty, every bill was uniform in it's burning... Isnt that interesting?

Now we have to take all of our bills to the bank and have them replaced, cause they are now 'burnt'.

We will now be wrapping all of our larger bills in foil on a regular basis.

I don't know if this is legitimate, so it's offered without comment.

The Agonist

Republican Presidential Candidate Tom Tancredo told a Danish journalist that Europe Should Deport its 20 Million Muslims. This was last night on the first episode of a mini-documentary series on America, Clement in America.

He's as stupid as Bush. What person in their right mind makes an idiotic statement like that? Well, obviously, someone, such as Tom Tancredo, who does not have a mind. What the hell do you say to such stupidity? I can't even imagine his brain has the capacity to keep him breathing. True, he's alive. But what kind of life can you live with a brain that has an apparent maniacal desire to commit political seppuku?

To be honest, I don't want to know the answer.

Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Offering a grammar lesson guaranteed to make any English teacher cringe, President George W. Bush told a group of New York school kids on Wednesday: "Childrens do learn."

Bush made his latest grammatical slip-up at a made-for-TV event where he urged Congress to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind Act, the centerpiece of his education policy, as he touted a new national report card on improved test scores.

This is suppose to be the role model for millions of American students? No Child may be left behind, but our president sure as hell was.

Washington Post

A Pentagon group has encouraged some U.S. military snipers in Iraq to target suspected insurgents by scattering pieces of "bait," such as detonation cords, plastic explosives and ammunition, and then killing Iraqis who pick up the items, according to military court documents. The classified program was described in investigative documents related to recently filed murder charges against three snipers who are accused of planting evidence on Iraqis they killed.

This is stupid on so many levels, it's unbelievable. How, exactly, do you guarantee that the person picking up the "bait" is truly an insurgent? You can't. And that's the problem. Humans are an inquisitive bunch, and sometimes things that stand out catch our attention. We want a closer look. And I am not alone in this thought:

Eugene Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice, said such a baiting program should be examined "quite meticulously" because it raises troubling possibilities, such as what happens when civilians pick up the items.

"In a country that is awash in armaments and magazines and implements of war, if every time somebody picked up something that was potentially useful as a weapon, you might as well ask every Iraqi to walk around with a target on his back," Fidell said.

But, I guess in the world of this Pentagon group, all Iraqis must be insurgents. No doubt they see inquisitive humans as insurgents.

And obviously some snipers realized they killed innocent people, or people that obviously could not easily be identified as insurgents. So, they tried to cover their asses.

Jesus H. Christ, what an all around bad idea. How the hell do we win hearts and souls if we are killing indiscriminately in this manner. Well, obviously we don't.

Seriously, this is fucked up. If, that is, it's actually a program in place:

"We don't discuss specific methods targeting enemy combatants," said Paul Boyce, an Army spokesman. "The accused are charged with murder and wrongfully placing weapons on the remains of Iraqi nationals. There are no classified programs that authorize the murder of local nationals and the use of 'drop weapons' to make killings appear legally justified." [highlighting mine]

ABC News Blog: Political Radar

For politicians, hecklers come with the territory. But the arrest and detention of Meyer at Kerry speech on Monday stood out in at least two respects: Police acted aggressively in trying to silence Meyer, and the entire incident was captures on video -- making it an immediate Internet and TV sensation.

I've been refraining from commenting on this story because, well--the kid was an idiot. And it would appear that Meyer was looking for a conflict. Indeed, I find it somewhat convenient that a video camera was on him from beginning to end.

Not that I am suggesting the Campus Police handled the situation correctly. From all appearances, they were fools duped into looking like fascist henchmen. There were definitely better ways to have handled the situation. Now, though, the rest of the nation sees the police as thugs quick to use weapons simply because a person is struggling.

Struggling does not justify the use of a Taser. I suspect these officers lacked the training to adequately defuse a situation. It would appear they also lack the training to handle a struggling person.

On the other hand, Andrew Meyer appeared to be looking for a conflict. From Will Bunch of Attytood:

Every piece written by Meyer, mostly intended for the Alligator student newspaper and one or two published in a daily newspaper, the Sun-Sentinel, is an angry diatribe against someone, no matter what the subject matter -- Republicans, his fellow students, Florida quarterback Chris Leak, even a fraternity Dance Marathon for charity.

Of course, not everything got published.

"Not printed in the Alligator...whatever, f--- my editor," it reads atop one of the articles reprinted online, a strange rant against Valdosta, Georgia. We can't imagine why they didn't, with gems like this paragraph:

We stopped at the local Chinese buffet, which my friend John would later describe as "terrible" and "horrific," which said fast sounds like "terrific," which is what I'm sure he meant to say. After dinner, we picked up some supplies at the dollar store (torch fluid, bleach, aluminum foil, orange soda, three lighters, and four plastic Barbie dolls: $15), and drew strange looks from the cashier. In Georgia, you have to make your own fun.

Frankly, Meyer's writings are often hysterical, although I don't think intentionally so. He's determined not to allow facts get in the way of a strong opinion -- creating this classic lede in the process:

Admittedly, I know very little about Student Government. But I think I got the gist of it from the Alligator -- bickering between parties blah blah blah, corrupt candidates blah blah blah, nothing ever gets done, etc. -- and, from what I can tell, the entire system needs to be completely revamped.

Of course, the problem with having such strong, instant opinions is that sometime you change them, as apparently evidenced by this note he placed atop a column/review of the movie "Sin City":

Oops. Everyone is allowed to screw up once, and this is mine. In retrospect, I should have used the movie to point out how good comic books are, not the other way around. I was low on time when the idea came to me, so I didn't really think about what angle I should use.Oh well.

In the meantime, Meyer made a lot of people really, really angry. His column attacking Leak, who would eventually bring Florida a national championship in football, as a "bad player" was especially unpopular, as you might expect. One email that he reprinted:

Find a new major, you waste of flesh! Journalist is not the career that you are cut out for, especially sports journalism. You see, to write about sports, you need to have some hint of knowledge about the sport which you are writing about. And as far as I can tell, the only thing you are qualified to to write about is smoking out in a VW wagon. You are clearly a liberal hippie who has destroyed every braincell in your head. People like you do not deserve to be at a school as great as the University of Florida.

There's so much more, but I simply suggest you read through his body of work. I'm sure there are some gems here that I missed. The one thing I rarely saw in any of his large, rant-filled body of printed work is actual reporting (unless you count getting drunk in rural south Georgia). Do they not teach that in the telecommunications program at the University of Florida?

Looks like Mr Meyer is attempting to create the next sensation in journalism. Makes sense, what with Gonzo Journalism mostly on the decline. However, I believe making yourself the story is not really the intent of Gonzo Journalism.

Well, this story from CNN confirms my suspicions that it was a set-up:

"You will take my question because I have been listening to your crap for two hours," Meyer told Kerry, according to the police report of the incident.

He then turned to a woman and said "Are you taping this? Do you have this? You ready?" the report said.

Clarissa Jessup, who contributed I-Report video of the incident to CNN, said Meyer gave her his camera and asked her to shoot video of him posing his questions to Kerry.

[snip]

Meyer responded, "What did I do? Get off me ... get the f--- off me, man, I didn't do anything. Don't Tase me, bro, I didn't do anything."

Police noted that his demeanor "completely changed once the cameras were not in sight" and described him as laughing and being lighthearted as he was being driven to the Alachua County Detention Center.

"I am not mad at you guys, you didn't do anything wrong. You were just trying to do your job," Meyer said, according to the police report.

At one point, he asked whether there were going to be cameras at the jail, according to the report.

Yup, idiots all the way around.

weeklystandard.com

Tomorrow--as General David Petraeus provides his Iraq assessment to Congress--the antiwar group MoveOn.org is running a full-page advertisement in the New York Times under the headline: "General Petraeus or General Betray us? Cooking the books for the White House."

Let's be clear: MoveOn.org is suggesting that General Petraeus has 'betrayed' his country. This is disgusting. To attack as a traitor an American general commanding forces in war because his 'on the ground' experience does not align with MoveOn.org's political objectives is utterly shameful. It shows contempt for America's military leadership, as well as for the troops who have confidence in him, as our fellow soldiers in Iraq certainly do.

For Christ's Sake, could you be just a little more shrill? You'd think they saw a mouse at their feet.

Let's not get into just how desperate they are, morphing betray into traitor.

Idiots.