Saturday Musings

Gee, whoda thunk it? Bush is lying again, this time about an alleged plot to attack Los Angeles two years ago. Odd that he just happened to bring the story up as he is going around the country tyring to sell his illegal Spying-on-Americans program; odder still that the "plot" he told us about is as ficticious as those WMDs we flattened Iraq for...

From the same Fantasy Island base camp that President Pretzel inhabits, come new headlines trumpeting that a low-fat diet has no beneficial medical effects. If one ever had any doubt that the chief concern of the news media is not to report even the most basic story accurately, but instead to jump on the best cheap headline they can find, this dispells them. The story about an 8-year study on over-50 women which found "little" beneficial effects from a "low-fat" diet is being shamefully, and dangerously distorted. The fact remains that saturated and trans fats are very bad for you, while polyunsaturated fats can have beneficial effects -but this study, designed over a decade ago, did not take that into account, and so on; read here for a more balanced report on the meaning of the study, and stay away from those McDonald's fries- they are still bad for you.

The head guy of Hezbollah is really upset over what he sees as the religious intolerance shown by the Danes and the rest of “The West” when they published those cartoons satirizing Muhammad. And they say irony is dead. Here's a guy whose blood-soaked, terrorist organization regularly blows up, shoots, crushes, spindles and mutilates people who they hate simply because they are the wrong religion, and he's upset that people are being intolerant of his religion because they drew some cartoons. He said it was up to "The West" to pass laws banning free speech when that speech might anger Muslims. I think that's a great idea, and I know what the head of Hezbollah can do to help it along- he should hold his breath until we all pass laws like that.

And another thing (now that I’m on the topic)- I just heard yet another Muslim fundamentalist going on about how “The West” has no respect for Islam and “The West” has to pass laws to restrict freedom of speech, and “The West” “will not be allowed” to do anything disrespectful of Muslims… –except he didn’t say “The West”, he kept using the phrase “The Infidels”. There's tolerance and respect for you.

Earth to "outraged" Muslims- they were cartoons. Frankly, the last thing we have seen practiced by your religious fanatics in the last 50 years or so is “tolerance”. In the name of your religion you murder and pillage, enslave the female half of your population and muzzle Free Speech. And then you have the balls to lecture other folks on “religious tolerance”. Go fuck yourselves. When you give women equal rights, and stop harrassing and killing Jews for being Jewish, we will listen to you lecture about respect and tolerance.

That also applies, btw, to the whacko Religious Christian Right here in America who want to do more or less the same things- you can all go fuck off too. This has nothing to do with whether you worship Mohammed or Jesus or Yoda- it has to do with Religious Fanatics of all stripes who insist that everyone else has to be just like them. It especially applies (and this is what really pisses me off about the Muslim fanatics now in the news) to hypocritical, murderous religious fanatics- that is, those who feel perfectly justified murdering, or supporting murder and violence, in the name of their religion and then get all hot and bothered when other people "disrespect" them. This month it's radical Muslims, next month it could be the freakazoid Christian Holly Rollers who gun down doctors who perform abortions.

As Eric Bogle wrote-
“Oh I wish I could be there,
the day you go to meet your God.
When you lift up your bloody hands and cry
'I did it all in your name, Lord!'
That age-old obscene lie,
lifted up as a prayer.
When your God looks deep, deep inside your soul,
I wish I could be there."

Those of you not from New England may have missed this story, but a few weeks ago a young mother and her baby were found shot to death in their bed, and the husband suddenly flew to England. Well, no prizes for what happens next- the husband was arrested by British police yesterday and will be extradited back to Massachusetts. Turns out that he was despondent over his business going bad, and it is alleged he decided to do a murder-suicide thing, but chickened out between "murder" and "suicide". Here's a suggestion for pricks thinking the same thing- when you do it, do the suicide part first.