Conformity

By definition, conformity means "action in accord with prevailing social standards, attitudes, practices."  In accord.  Used in harmony, then of social standards.  What possibly could be in conformity?  Well, the Pope thinks that pedophilia is "fully in conformity with men and even with children."  TheNewCivilrightsMovement.com

Pope Benedict XVI also claimed that child pornography was increasingly considered “normal” by society.  Considered normal.  That might explain why there is a prevalence of priests who abuse children.  (A total of 10,667 individuals made allegations of child sexual abuse by priests. Philvaz.com)  Their devine leader thinks that pedophilia and pornography is okie dokie.


This is the same Pope who thinks that same-sex marriage is going to weaken the principles of natural law and will make mankind an endangered species.  But, sexually assaulting children ain't going to do anything to natural law or mankind.


Hmmm, shall we conform to the Catholic Church?

The Royal Treatment

Again, it is a slow news cycle.  Not much going on this week between the two holidays.  But this just in!  How crazy are these young Royals?  Prince Charles has 149 "attendants", but his son and future daughter-in-law have opted out of having servants.


How could that be?  Doesn't every princess want to be waited on hand and foot?  Especially a commoner who is moving into the Royal circle.  A senior royal source says "They want to do their duty and make sure they are a real asset to the country but they are private individuals who want to get on with their lives."


Having servants would be a real asset to the country?  I guess hiring the locals to clean the loo would be an asset.  Bad Royals.

But is it News??

So yeah, it is the week between Christmas and New Year, so perhaps we shouldn't expect to have any real breaking news.  But, the headline writers maybe should have found other things to write about.


First off, it seems "Obama Has Achieved Cigarette-Smoking Milestone."  That is some important political news there.  "I can report that it's been probably about 9 months since he last smoked a cigarette," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said.  So the free world is so much safer now.  HuffingtonPost.com

Then there was this story: "Obamas make rare trip to church."  Yep, the family went to church on the Sunday after Christmas.  This should definitely substantiate the case that the President is indeed a Christian, and again the free world is safer.  Google.com

Makes one wonder if Sarah Palin will chime in on these revelations.  Doing such healthy things like quitting smoking and going to church would be along the lines of things that Sarah doesn't agree with.  Well, as long as the Obama's are doing them.  " Michelle Obama's initiative to improve children's health by encouraging better diets and sufficient exercise is mocked by Sarah Palin as just another intrusion by government into the daily lives of our citizens."  HuffingtonPost.com

Can't wait to read what she will say in 140 characters or less on smoking and church...

On the Eve of the Eve

There are so many things that could be written about today.  Oprah believes in the intelligence of the American Public.  HuffingtonPost.com  Reality TV might be taking over scripted dramas. CNN.com or any other number of odd stories today.  But for this daily blog, I just have one thing to say!  Thanks for reading.

Teach Your Children Well

Or not.  The AP reports today "23 percent of recent high school graduates don't get the minimum score needed on the enlistment test to join any branch of the military."  That means that the education system is turning out people who can't "answer basic math, science and reading questions."


And their social studies skills are in danger too.  "A far-right faction of the Texas State Board of Education succeeded Friday in injecting conservative ideals into social studies, history and economics lessons that will be taught to millions of students for the next decade."  HuffingtonPost.com

And what type of "conservative ideals" are they injecting?  Well, taking Thomas Jefferson OUT of the world history standards; No church-state separation; describe the U.S. government as a "constitutional republic," rather than "democratic"; won't require that “students learn that the Constitution prevents the U.S. government from promoting one religion over all others”;  'the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s - but not anything about liberals.


There are a few more, like no hip hop, so sex/gender differentiation, and no Edward Kennedy.  Yet some Democrats were able to keep out the part that said the civil rights movement led to "unrealistic expectations for equal outcomes."

Sad part about this is that since Texas is the biggest, the standards that the school board adopts gets printed in all the text books throughout the states.  So, teach your children the good ol' Texas way.  Not the right way.

Amazing what you can learn on TV

Last week, the Daily KC reported on a University of Maryland study that proved that Faux News viewers were the most uninformed.  The demographics for Faux News is primarily Republican, since Faux News is spewing the GOP platforms as "news".  There were some blatant, out-and-out lies that Faux News was "reporting" to the viewers.


In light of poll results released today, one would wonder if Faux News has ever reported on Creationism vs. Evolution.  Well, obviously they have.  A quick Google search of "fox news creationism" returned "About 203,000 results (0.26 seconds)".  So that might explain the poll results.


"A new Gallup poll, released Dec. 17, reveals that 40 percent of Americans still believe that humans were created by God within the last 10,000 years."  And of those who responded, 52% of the Republicans believe in creationism.  HuffingtonPost.com

The Wikipedia entry on "Creation–evolution controversy" states that "Within the scientific community and academia the level of support for evolution is essentially universal."  Wikipedia.org 

Hmmm, maybe that 52% hasn't evolved much?

How does that make you feel?

CNN Breaking News:  President Obama signs $858 billion measure that extends tax cuts for two years.  It probably makes the wealthiest Americans feel very, very happy.  Folks like Bill Gates, who is Forbes number one billionaire with $54B, are gushing with excitement.

But maybe Bill and the others won't show too much emotion.  A study in Psychological Science finds "affluent people -- in terms of income, social status and education -- have trouble detecting others' emotions."  The co-author Michael Kraus says, "They show a deficit in empathic accuracy."  So, they may not be dancing in the streets. HuffingtonPost.com

One would think that perhaps Forbes #97, George Lucas at $3.25B, would be able to show emotions.  Come on, he invented Yoda.  Now the rest of America, not able to make it to Forbes list, will show emotions -- but probably not happy ones.  "U.S. income inequality will exceed the records set in the months preceding the crash of 1929 and the financial crisis of 2007." 
DailyFinance


Guessing that the Politicians who caused this should be happy too.  Wait, they are affluent people, too.  Nevermind

Not sure if it is all that accurate

FoxNews.com put out poll results today that says only 29% think President Obama would win re-election, while 64% said they expected him to lose.  That is not too suprising.  These would be FAUX News viewers.  FAUX News likes to slant the news to meet their objectives (read - email instructing news staff to avoid the term "public option," and call it "government-run health insurance" or something about climate control).


So, it is not surprising that after displaying their Republican bias, FAUX News would be able to sway their viewers to believe that Obama has no chance.  Now, a NBC/WSJ poll found that 42% to 39% think Obama would beat a generic Republican candidate.  PoliticalWire.com


Is Huckabee generic enough?  What does he look like in a black and white plastic bag?

Out of (Parental) Control

A completely ridiculous story today from NPR.org:  "Consumer Group Sues McDonald's Over Happy Meal Toys."  Yep, that's right.  "The Center for Science in the Public Interest filed a lawsuit today against McDonald's in state court in California to stop the company from advertising toys with Happy Meals."  NPR.org

"Marketing to kids is an end-run around parental control," says Stephen Gardner, CSPI's director of litigation.  But wait?? What about that "parental control"?  How many children under the age of 8 are actually able to buy a Happy Meal?  Plaintiff Monet Parham, a 41-year-old mother of two from Sacramento, is just "fed up with the pestering".  So it is really worth all the time and money spent on a lawsuit so that this mom just doesn't have to say no?


Ms. Parham has other options.  Don't let the kids watch television, and definitely don't hit the drive thru.

It Really is Faux-ed Up

It is amazing that 2,024,000 people watched Fox News on Friday December 10, 2010.  42% of those viewers were ages 35-64 and 23% were 25-54. (TVByTheNumbers.com)  All of these viewers are over 18, which makes them eligible to vote.  But, sadly, if they are watching Faux News, they are being lied to about what is going on in the world.


The DailyKos.com reports today "World Public Opinion, a project managed by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, conducted a survey of American voters that shows that Fox News viewers are significantly more misinformed than consumers of news from other sources."  That's right, Faux News makes you stupid. (DailyKos.com) 

So, although Faux News tells us that the stimulus lost jobs or health reform will increase the deficit or Obama initiated the GM/Chrysler bailout and wasn't born in the US, it just ain't so.  Faux News is "deliberately misinforming their viewers" because of the Republican Party's vested interest in these topics.


Fair and Balanced?  Nope... Dumb and Dumber

But why cry about it?

On Barbara Walter's show, Oprah started crying.  "I'm not a lesbian. I'm not even kind of a lesbian," she said.  Ok, she and Gayle are just really good friends.

But, being a lesbian is nothing to cry over.  Or not being one.  Or maybe just being accused of being one.

UPDATE:  Ok, Oprah wasn't crying over spilt lesbianism.  She was crying about not having told Gayle this:  "She is the mother I never had. She is the sister everybody would want. She is the friend that everybody deserves, I don't know a better person."  Now Gayle should know. (HuffingtonPost.com)

It's funnier before you know that, though... But when Walters asked her "But do you think that Sarah Palin is qualified to be president?"  Oprah just said she was "not going to answer that question."  That is sort of an answer

Hunting Reality

For entertainment purposes, Sarah Palin shot, killed and dressed a moose.  She predicted that people wouldn't like it too much:

"Unless you've never worn leather shoes, sat upon a leather chair or eaten meat, save your condemnation."  Sarah Palin on Facebook


But some didn't save the condemnation.


"I can't make a distinction between what you get paid to do and what Michael Vick went to prison for doing." Aaron Sorkin
HuffingtonPost.com

JeffDanziger

Basically, Sarah is running the longest political ad in history on TLC.  Wonder who she will shoot and kill next?

An interesting stocking stuffer?

What do you get for the girl who has everything this holiday season?  This might just be the thing.  It sort of falls in line with the "Ugly Christmas Sweater" thing, though.

It seems that some old "Baron" who lived in Miami, passed on recently, and in his estate they found that he owned a pair of Queen Elizabeth's underwear.  Yep, that's right, QE left her drawers on some airplane back in 1968 and the Baron got them.  And now they are for sale.
CelebrityObsession365.blogspot.com

And what would one hope to spend on the Queens unmentionables?  The estate is "hoping to get around $9,000." 

You can get ugly shorts at Target for a heck of a lot less.

Embracing

So Bristol Palin thinks that if Margaret Cho just understood the things that the Palins believe in she "would embrace us faster than KD Lang at an Indigo Girls concert."  Well, at least that's what she typed on her Facebook page in response to Cho's assessment that Sarah "harshly and openly" blames Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston for losing the 2008 election and made Bristol join dancing with the stars.
HollywoodGossip.com

But maybe not everybody would embrace the Palins if they just understood better.  Kate Gosselin obviously doesn't embrace the Mama Grizzly.  The two TLC "reality stars" were supposed to get together for a camping trip in Alaska.  This could have brought the "plus 8" mom back into the fame she once had before dropping Jon.  But, she doesn't get the camping in Alaska concept.


"It just kills me that people, like, willingly do this."  She tells the camera.  "I don't see a table, I don't see utensils, I don't see hand-cleansing materials," she whimpers.  Bummer.  So there was no camping. She gathered up her children and, mere hours after their arrival, they have eaten and run.  As Sarah points out "We had lunch with them on a sand bar."
HuffingtonPost.com

Wonder if Kate will embrace KD Lang at an Indigo Girls concert then?

Road Rage?

It could be either some road rage (taken on by the road) or it could be the road's feeling about snowy weather.  A “Don’t Walk” signal at a crosswalk in Spokane, Wash., sent a most impolite message to pedestrians on Wednesday. (FoxNews.com)

Spokeswoman Marlene Feist said "snow was embedded in the electric sign."  And the snow had creatively blocked two fingers on the left and one on the right -- leaving the middle digit proudly standing alone.

Not sure that I believe that this was entirely an unintended accident.  Snow embedded in sign probably would have made a fist...

Here's to you traffic!  Or F You SNOW!

Can They See Me at My House?

Ok, granted Sarah Palin never actually said that.  It was her doppleganger, Tina Fey who was spoofing her comment "They're our next-door neighbours and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska."  So, can the Russians see her?  Well, they obviously have formed an opinion about her.


JoeMyGod.Blogspot.com reports today "Russia's Pravda newspaper is blasting Sarah Palin as an unpatriotic traitor."  They accuse of her unpatriotism because of what she has said about the President of the United States.  "She accuses President Obama of not taking 'steps' to assure the (WIkiLeaks) leaks were not published."  Pravda then asks where she and "her GOP" were before and during the 9/11 attacks.


Such eloquent writing by the newspaper, too.  "Spankin' Sarah Palin comes across as a pitifully inadequate anachronism from the times of the Far West."  Pravda also describes Palin as "a clown short of a circus" with the tact of a "boorish drunkard bawling obscenities at a funeral."


Ahh... and where does one get a subscription?

FOOD FIGHT!!

That is the hot topic today.  It is all about food.  The only thing that the Senate can agree on is food.  In an article at AboutLawsuits.com, the passing of a new food safety bill is praised as "Sweeping" and "Bipartisan".  So, the thought of "MORE GOVERNMENT" to regulate and require more inspections so that kids in the midwest don't get poisoned by salmonella laced eggs, is just fine with this group.  They can't agree on anything else, but at least they can agree on no more e coli.


But there may be another battle along the food lines coming up.  Last week before Thanksgiving, as you  may recall, Sarah Palin was very upset with Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" program to get kids to eat better and be more active.  Sarah thinks (and that term is used lightly) the government needs to quit trying to control everything and let parents exercise their "God-given rights" to make their own decisions for their families. (AssociatedContent.com)  So it is not the government's place to save the kids this time.  Let the parents raise obese children if they want to.


Wonder what Ms. Palin would think if the government wanted to regulate another group of people's diets?  "The U.S. Army plans to get new recruits into better shape with a revamped approach to health, fitness and diet at basic training." (HuffingtonPost.com)  Imagine that.  The government wants to replace soda fountains with milk and juice dispensers and white bread and pasta will be replaced by whole grains.


Come on, Sarah!  Go fight a war with the Army!  It is a Private's "God-given right" to eat whatever the hell they want to!  You go get 'em, Palin. 


Where is a good, old fashioned - fling the gravy - type of food fight, when you need one?