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The Douchebaggery Report
 "You can uncover your balls now, she's gone."
Her slutty, dysfunctional, secessionist, adulterous, knocked-up, drug-dealing, house-burglarizing fucked-up family.
You betcha.
Get on your snow machine and get outa here and also to.
Posted by IanDB1 in GLBT
Fri Jul 03rd 2009, 09:13 AM Media Release Thursday, July 2, 2009 Contact: Richard Ferraro Director of Public Relations (646) 871-8011 ferraro@glaad.org GLAAD Announces Project to Combat Homophobia in Virtual Communities GLAAD’s Digital Media Program to Hold Panel with Leading Tech Companies New York, NY, July 2, 2009 – The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), the nation's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) media advocacy organization, today announced a new project to address homophobia in virtual communities and educate users on LGBT issues. “As more and more people turn to virtual communities to connect with each other and for entertainment, we need to ensure these spaces are LGBT-inclusive and safe for our community – right now that’s not always the case,” said Rashad Robinson, Senior Director of Media Programs at GLAAD. “Our new project and work with leading tech companies aims to both educate users on the impact of homophobic remarks and put sustainable policies in place that make the experience fun and inclusive for everyone.” As part of this project, GLAAD will focus on a range of virtual communities including networked PC games, social networks, online gaming and virtual worlds. The project will also address policies related to commenting features on blogs, Web sites and message boards. GLAAD will work to ensure such communities remain committed to: o Providing safe spaces for LGBT people to connect o Enact the best policies to prevent anti-LGBT defamation o Educate users of these communities about the effects of homophobia. GLAAD’s Director of Digital Media, Justin Cole, will head the project. “In most cases, the policies devised by these companies were done so to stop defamation from happening – to protect LGBT people. For instance, by banning the use of the word ‘gay,’ the companies were preventing people from using it as a slur. Unfortunately, the unintended consequence of this is the creation of a virtual closet, where LGBT people cannot live, game, or interact openly,” Cole said. “Our aim here is to work with all the players – including companies, gamers, journalists, and community moderators – to develop sustainable policy solutions that address the rampant homophobia, provide safe spaces for LGBT people, and make the experience fun for all.” GLAAD will also be convening a groundbreaking panel discussion in Silicon Valley on July 18, 2009, that will spotlight the issue of homophobia in virtual communities and include the perspectives of both gaming companies and LGBT gamers. Confirmed panelists include representatives from XBox Live, Electronic Arts, Inc., Linden Lab, the Entertainment Software Association, and GayGamer.net. For more information on the panel event and to RSVP, please visit: www.glaad.org/digitalevent. The project is the culmination of work already in progress: o Earlier this year, Cole traveled to the Microsoft corporate headquarters to meet with XBox Live and discuss their policies after GLAAD supporters noted that XBox Live suspends user accounts if they make reference to their sexual orientations or self-identify as LGBT in their profiles. o GLAAD contacted Electronic Arts, Inc. after a message board for players of “Star Wars: The Old Republic” locked message threads about LGBT issues. EA corrected the problem and posted an apology. o GLAAD has placed calls to action and reported Facebook groups and YouTube users that openly advocate for the harming and killing of LGBT people. In all cases, the user accounts were rightly suspended. GLAAD began its Digital Media Program in June 2008, creating the foremost program dedicated to new media advocacy in the LGBT movement. The program includes monitoring online media for defamation and ensuring fair, accurate and inclusive online coverage of the LGBT community. The highly trafficked glaadBLOG began as part of the program to increase visibility of LGBT issues, disseminate information and call supporters to action. GLAAD selected Justin Cole to lead the program as its Director. Previously, Cole served as Deputy Director of Online Communications at the influential media watchdog group Media Matters for America. About GLAAD The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) is dedicated to promoting and ensuring fair, accurate and inclusive representation of people and events in the media as a means of eliminating homophobia and discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. For more information, please visit www.glaad.org . More: http://www.glaad.org/Page.aspx?pid=810 RSVP Here: http://www.glaad.org/digitalevent
... firing six-shooters around the place.
They should play-up Bush for laughs.
LINCOLN: Four score and seven-
Bush: Score? You wanna see a score? Watch this drive! Shock-and-awe! Yee-hah! Pow! Pow!
Hamilton: Good sir Bush, put those pistols away unless you wish to duel like a man!
Bush: Heh heh. The guy in a wig is lecturing me about being a man. You know how many people I killed, wig-boy?
That Sound You Heard Was O'Reilly Turning Over In His Grave: How The Far Right Elected Al Franken by Steve Young | July 2, 2009 - 1:14pm "I don't know if we've ever had an opponent who is so disliked by Republicans as Al Franken," said Minnesota Republican Party Chair Ron Carey. "It's one thing to lose to an honorable opponent, but Al Franken is not considered an honorable opponent by Minnesota Republicans." If Mr. Carey and the rest of the Republicans would like to see how they've come to realize their - as well as Bill O'Reilly's worst nightmare - they need only look in the mirror. When I sat down in 2002 to speak with Franken about how seemingly adversarial conditions played a positive part in his life for my book, "Great Failures of the Extremely Successful," he had no idea that some of his greatest adversaries would help him to become a member of one of America's most exclusive clubs∑the U.S. Senate. Back then I brought up the possibility of Franken going in to talk radio, but he intimated it was probably the last thing he would do. Funny, it ended up becoming just that, right before he ran for the Minnesota senate seat held by Republican Norm Coleman. More: http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/22616
By Will Higgins and Tim Evans, USA TODAY SHIPSHEWANA, Ind. — Freeman Wingard is Amish, but he spent the last decade living quite differently than the popular characterization of the Amish as farmers, their plows hitched to enormous draft horses as they eschewed influences of the outside world. Wingard took his family to restaurants every week, made trips to Chicago and vacationed in Florida. That was when, he says, he was earning $40 per hour working in a Northern Indiana recreational vehicle factory. <snip> The economy has taken some toll on most of the USA's 400 Amish settlements, experts say, but none has seen such a widespread impact as the country's third-largest Amish settlement in Northern Indiana. "Nowhere in U.S. Amish history has a down economy affected the Amish so much," said Steven Nolt, a professor at Goshen College who has written about the Northern Indiana Amish. "It's a pivotal time for them." More: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-0... Fuck 'em.   
Posted by Hemant Mehta in FFRF, General, Lawsuits on June 30th, 2009 | 28 Comments Jason lives in Indiana, home of the “In God We Trust” license plates. He applied for a personalized license plate reading NO GODS. Take a wild guess what happened… Rejected. Why? It was deemed inappropriate. According to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles: Personalized license plates allow creativity; however, under Indiana Statue IC 9-18-15-4 (b) the BMV may refuse to issue a combination of letters or numerals, or both, that carry a connotation offensive to good taste and decency.
The BMV will deny a personalized license plate request if an objective, reasonable person would find that the customer’s proposed expression on the personalized license plate application is determined to carry a connotation offensive to good taste and decency, is misleading, or is otherwise prohibited.
<snip> He’s already contacted the ACLU in Indiana and FFRF. Sounds like he has a case, no? More: http://friendlyatheist.com/2009/06/30/is-a... /
Sarah Palin Is Not Stupid Is an ad hominem attack really the best way to express disagreement? Skeptoid #160 June 30, 2009 Podcast transcript Listen http://skeptoid.com/audio/skeptoid-4160.mp... Subscribe http://skeptoid.com/subscribe.php Today we're going to delve into the minds of those who actively promote misinformation, political oppression, terror, conspiracies, and anything else that detracts from the public good. What drives them to do so? Are they right in their own minds, or do they know that what they do is wrong? More importantly, what should we know and understand about these people? I'm going to go out on a limb and start with a concept that may seem shockingly politically incorrect to some: I'm going to disagree with the popular perception that Sarah Palin is nuts. Let me tell you something about Sarah Palin, but first with the understanding that I don't know any more about her than you do; I've never met her either; and I didn't vote for her. Stupid people don't tend to attract contributors, managers, supporters, and electorates. If she'd exhibited stupidity on the Wasilla city council, they probably wouldn't have elected her mayor. If she'd exhibited stupidity as mayor, they probably wouldn't have elected her for a second term. Her appointment to the Oil and Gas Committee by the governor was probably not because she'd behaved stupidly. Finally, stupidity probably does not characterize most successful bids to run for governor of one of the United States. Does she exhibit an almost robotic and uncritical point-by-point support of the Republican platform? Yes. Is she undereducated for her position? Possibly, her bachelor's degree is in journalism. It's arguable that she's demonstrated a clear disdain for, and illiteracy in, science. She gives every indication that her religious beliefs and her party guidance determine her priorities. But welcome to reality: That's the way a lot of people work, including a lot of people on the other side of the political aisle. <snip> Look at Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, and consequently the United States' greatest mass murderer of children. To best prepare ourselves to prevent this kind of thing happening again, we have to be sure that we accurately understand the motivations behind it. McVeigh is a guy who lived in a world of conspiracies. The people he surrounded himself with all believed the same thing: That the government was out to get them. When you live and breathe that 24 hours a day, when it's your entire sphere of influence, it's not delusional. It was a vicious circle. The more input he received, the more he sought out such information. Well understood perceptual phenomena like confirmation bias made it normal and healthy for McVeigh's brain to reject information that did not indicate the government was out to get him. Eventually he got to a point where the best move — in the context of what he believed was going on — was to strike back, as violently as possible. We are better prepared to deal with Timothy McVeighs if we don't allow ourselves the intellectually lazy shortcut of "Oh, he was just some nut." The same goes for Sarah Palin, Ben Stein, Ken Ham, Bill Maher, Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey, and Prince Charles, all people who actively promote bad science or misinformation, and who believe they're doing the right thing. That's an important point that's too often overlooked. With few exceptions, most honest promoters of bad information have good intentions. They're not crazy raving lunatics out to get us. If you want to have an informed, rational conversation with one of these folks, and you want them to be receptive to your statements, approach them as you would any public figure who works hard in the public good. At a fundamental level, they're on our same team: They want what's best for people. More: http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4160  Listen http://skeptoid.com/audio/skeptoid-4160.mp... Subscribe http://skeptoid.com/subscribe.php
Our New American Marianne by Anne Laurie We may never be allowed to call Donald Rumsfeld, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, William Kristol, or any of their prosperous fellows to account for their crimes during the ginning up and prosecution of our latest War Against the Iraqis. But, by the Christianists’ God, we can at least ensure that the face of America’s nightmare behavior there will be ostracized from Appalachia’s fast-food emporiums and public housing : “Former Army reservist Lynndie England hasn’t landed a job in numerous tries: When one restaurant manager considered hiring her, other employees threatened to quit.”
...
She doesn’t like to travel: Strangers point and whisper, “That’s her!”
Her family received hate mail from all over the world because of the publicity surrounding the photographs and trial and, 5 years after the abuses were discovered, letters just keep coming.
This, despite the fact that England wasn’t actually accused (or convicted) of physical abuse of prisoners — and despite the fact that the Senate Armed Services Committee concluded that the abuses at Abu Ghraib were the direct result of Administration policies that “conveyed the message that physical pressures and degradation were appropriate treatment for detainees.” England, by even the most sympathetic reading, failed to protest when ugly and un-American deeds were committed in her presence. She hasn’t shown much “remorse” for her crimes, if only because she doesn’t have the ability or the training to memorize the mandatory Repentance Script (and maybe leak a few tears on-camera when ‘confronted’ with the ‘evidence’). And it’s not as though she were the only undereducated PTSD-ridden veteran and single mother struggling to get by during this recession. But should she really be the single individual who suffers most for the crimes at Abu Ghraib, just because she’s become the “face” of America’s sins? More: http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=23393 Hat-tip to: http://twitter.com/charyl/statuses/2402896...
Luxury yachts offer pirate hunting cruises Luxury ocean liners in Russia are offering pirate hunting cruises aboard armed private yachts off the Somali coast. Wealthy punters pay £3,500 per day to patrol the most dangerous waters in the world hoping to be attacked by raiders. When attacked, they retaliate with grenade launchers, machine guns and rocket launchers, reports Austrian business paper Wirtschaftsblatt. Passengers, who can pay an extra £5 a day for an AK-47 machine gun and £7 for 100 rounds of ammo, are also protected by a squad of ex special forces troops. <snip> The ships deliberately cruise close to the coast at a speed of just five nautical miles in an attempt to attract the interest of pirates. "They are worse than the pirates," said Russian yachtsman Vladimir Mironov. "At least the pirates have the decency to take hostages, these people are just paying to commit murder," he continued. More: http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_33747... Hat-tip to: http://twitter.com/free_textbooks/statuses...
Comics artist Mark Sable detained for Unthinkable acts By Ian Randal Strock May 13, 2009 Boom! Studios sends word that comics writer Mark Sable was detained by TSA security guards at Los Angeles International Airport this past weekend because he was carrying a script for a new issue of his comic miniseries Unthinkable. Sable was detained while traveling to New York for a debut party at Jim Hanley's Universe today. The comic series follows members of a government think tank that was tasked with coming up with 9/11-type "unthinkable" terrorist scenarios that now are coming true. (See this article for more on the series.) Sable wrote of his experiences: "Flying from Los Angeles to New York for a signing at Jim Hanley's Universe Wednesday (May 13th), I was flagged at the gate for 'extra screening'. I was subjected to not one, but two invasive searches of my person and belongings. TSA agents then 'discovered' the script for Unthinkable #3. They sat and read the script while I stood there, without any personal items, identification or ticket, which had all been confiscated. "The minute I saw the faces of the agents, I knew I was in trouble. The first page of the Unthinkable script mentioned 9/11, terror plots, and the fact that the (fictional) world had become a police state. The TSA agents then proceeded to interrogate me, having a hard time understanding that a comic book could be about anything other than superheroes, let alone that anyone actually wrote scripts for comics.  More: http://sfscope.com/2009/05/comics-artist-m... Hat-tip to: http://twitter.com/sungenis/statuses/23788...
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