In a story I found on bartcop.com, Ronald Chavez, a security coordinator for a subsidiary of Halliburton was severely beaten last week by a group of fellow employees reportedly called the "Redneck Mafia."
Apparently Mr. Chavez made the mistake of voicing concerns about security at Baghdad Airport while within hearing distance of these thugs, so they let him have a dose of "compassionate conservatism". I can add nothing but my disgust with this behavior. Bastards. Full sad story here: http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/12194.html
Novak's Latest Knuckledragging Episode
Below is an exceprt of yesterday's Crossfire transcript. I had to read it to believe what I had been watching...
BEGALA: -- Well at the heart of the Catholic Church's clergy abuse scandal, were not just the priests who raped children also the bishops who knew about the abuse and failed to stop it. Perhaps the worst of these moral monsters was Cardinal Bernard Law. Law reassigned Father John Geoghan from parish to parish even though Geoghan had been accused of child abuse. There's also evidence that under Cardinal Law there was a pattern of covering up allegations of abuse and shuffling child molesters from parish to parish. Today Law received one of the highest honors of the church, giving one of just nine eulogies for Pope John Paul II. For such a holy man to be eulogized by someone who abetted such evil is a tragedy and an outrage. Law is a disgrace to the Holy Mother Church. He ought to be cleaning bedpans for the poor in Haiti, not being honored in Rome.
NOVAK: I'm just Catholic convert, Paul, so I don't know that much, but I do know that I don't think Archbishop Law -- Cardinal Law, is a monster. I think he's a sinner, just as you and I are sinners. I think we have to have a little redemption. He has had his Archdiocese of Boston taken away from him. The reason he presided over this Mass was that he's been assigned to that church and they were having the Mass at that church. So I think a little forgiveness for a man who obviously has sinned, I think that's being a Christian.
BEGALA: I think taking the lord's name in vain is a sin. Abetting child molestation is a lot worse a sin, he should not have this honor. But we will just respectfully disagree.
Respectfully disagree my ass. Begala let Novak off easy. Cardinal Law is a goddamned criminal. To paraphrase the late, great Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, there is a special place in the low rent section of hell for this brute. As my friend Bartcop has asked on his site: Who is responsible for having molested more children, Michael Jackson or Cardinal Law?
So where was this sense of forgiveness when Bill Clinton was having fun with Monica? Novak is a troll. Of course he sees nothing wrong with Cardinal Law's actions. And since he is a "converted Catholic", that means he is in lock-step with the religiously insane monsters running the White House. One would think that after having leaked the name of a CIA asset that his credibility would have instantly vanished, but rather than having been fired, or even investigated for his part in that debacle, the SOB still has a forum in which to drag his knuckles. Shame on CNN for keeping this shabby little hack on their payroll.
Senate Panel Ready To Give Up Space Exploration Entirely
WASHINGTON - A Senate committee on Tuesday hailed President Bush's choice to be the next NASA administrator while giving rocket scientist Michael Griffin a daunting list of tasks, including saving the Hubble telescope and speeding the delivery of a new manned space vehicle.
Thus begins a seemingly innocuous story I found on Yahoo about the changing of the guard at NASA, but if you read between the lines you'll sense that America's continued disinterest in space exploration and space science in general is as ingrained as it has ever been. A clue can be found in this paragraph:
A scheduled vote Tuesday was put off when Sen. George Allen, R-Va., sought information from Griffin on such issues as administration plans to cut NASA's budget for aeronautics research. Some 1,000 jobs at NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia could be lost under President Bush's proposed budget.
Full story here: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=753&e=1&u=/ap/20050412/ap_on_go_co/nasa_chief&sid=84439559
Remember when President Bush claimed to want a manned mission to Mars, and to re-establish voyages to the Moon for the purpose of establishing a permanent manned presence there? I knew he was full of old shoes when he said these things, but what was revealed in the above passage all but proves that he doesn't give a damn about space exploration.
I was seven years old when Apollo 11 landed the first astronauts on the Moon. I've been a space enthusiast ever since that day. With the help of an uncle who was an amatuer astronomer, I began to learn about this exquisite science, and in my young mind I envisioned a world in which I'd be able to travel to the Moon or to Mars as I entered adulthood.
Little did I realize that political hacks like Senator William Proxmire of Wisconsin would help to doom our space program and cause it to horribly regress throughout the 1970s and 80s. He "awarded" a Golden Fleece prize to the federal programs that he claimed were a waste of taxpayer money. The NASA budget was one of his favorite targets. Oddly enough, he had no problem raking in millions of Greenspans in dairy subsidy money for his state.
It is thanks to people like Proxmire that NASA had to cut back on programs. These cuts caused the horrible space shuttle Challenger (1986) and Columbia (2003) accidents. We don't need another NASA administrator to simply bend over saying "Thank you sir may I have another!" as we lose valuable opportunities to expand the scope of our knowledge of the universe.
I suppose it is a miracle of sorts that we have had any success at all with our recent unmanned missions to Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. But just imagine how much more effective these missions would have been, or how much earlier they could have been carried out if it weren't for the cowardly leadership to which we seem to have grown accustomed. Then again, what else can we expect from the anti-science, anti-logic party these days?
Won't You Be My Neighbor?
And in keeping with the spirit of ending things on a lighter note, I submit for your examination an AP Strange News story from Japan in which blasted music at her neighbor for over two years:
TOKYO - Japanese police arrested a 58-year-old woman for triggering insomnia and headaches in her next door neighbor by blasting rock music at her almost continuously for over two years.
Miyoko Kawahara was arrested on suspicion of inflicting injury on the 64-year-old woman by playing loud, fast-paced dance music almost 24 hours a day on a portable stereo she had pointed at her neighbor's house 20 feet away.
Police launched their investigation after doctors diagnosed the neighbor with insomnia and headaches they attributed to the noise, a local police spokesman said on condition of anonymity. The police said Kawahara started blasting the sounds in November 2002. The police haven't pinpointed a motive for the alleged prolonged harassment, but the spokesman said the two women had spats over minor issues he declined to identify.
Under Japanese law, those convicted of inflicting injury on another person face up to 10 years in prison or a fine of up to $2,800.
There is no mention of the artists Ms. Kawahara favored, which is a shame. I'm a heavy-metal hammerhead from back when hairspray and lipstick were NOT considered part of the scene. From my own music collection I can imagine continuous loops of Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Motorhead, Iron Maiden and a lot of other loud bands. I'm quite certain that none of these acts were featured in Ms. Kawahara's broadcasts, because if they had been then I'm just as certain that it wouldn't have taken the authorities 29 months to notice and act.
That's all for now. It is snowing here in the wilds of north-central Massatucky as I type this. Curt Schilling makes his 2005 debut tomorrow night as the Red Sox take on the Yankees.
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