$11.68 Billion *Quarterly* Profit for EXXON.

We obviously need to open up more area to drilling to help the American (oil money) people.

P.S. That's a U.S. record for quarterly profit. It broke the record of $11.66 billion set last year...by EXXON.

HIV Cure Hope

We've of course heard that before, but you can hope.

Deepest Live Fish Catch: 7,100 Feet

Amazing. Because such creatures live under such enormous pressure, bringing them up normally kills them long before they even reach the surface. But they have pressurized tanks that they put live catches in while at depth, and the latest technologies have allowed for these records.

"Pressurised recovery has been around for the past 30 years, but this is the deepest fish-capture under pressure - the previous record was 1,400m. This is also the first time pressurised capture has occurred at a hydrothermal vent," said Dr Bruce Shillito, marine biologist at the Universite Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France.

The shrimp species were caught at 1,700m (5,600ft; Mirocaris fortunata and Chorocaris chacei) and 2,300m (7,500ft; Rimicaris exoculata) at two vent fields, Lucky Strike and Rainbow, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

Stop Arresting Pot Smokers

It's none of the government's business, and it's a waste of money. And Barney Frank and Ron Paul agree:

In a shot at Republicans, Frank said it was strange that those who support limited government want to criminalize marijuana.

Strange and a strangely common kind of ModernRepublican hypocrisy.

Wikipedia Photo Hijinks [Update: Doobie Now Gone]

I'm, uh, pretty sure this Muslim guy - Shi'a Islam's Imam Ali - isn't supposed to be smoking a doobie in his wiki image. (Right side of page, painted image.)

[Note: Post edited. I thought the image might be of Islam's Prophet Muhammad; it's not.]

Update: The image has been fixed. I've saved the old one.

Knoxville Killer's Library: Savage, O'Reilly, Hannity

The person responsible for those murders is Jim Adkisson, but this deserves noting:

Inside the house, officers found "Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder" by radio talk show host Michael Savage, "Let Freedom Ring" by talk show host Sean Hannity, and "The O'Reilly Factor," by television talk show host Bill O'Reilly.

When you peddle hatred toward Liberals - and I really mean hatred - on a daily basis, you deserve to be talked about when things like this happen. You deserve to be linked to the story forever.

Booze Shrew Binges Nightly

Doesn't get drunk:

Malaysia's pen-tailed tree-shrew waits until nightfall to binge on fermented nectar from the bertam palm.
The animal could give insights into how humans' alcohol tolerance first evolved, the scientists say.[...]

Nectar from the flower buds of the bertam palm is fermented to a maximum alcohol content of up to 3.8%.

Each bud is a miniature brewery, containing a yeast community that turns the nectar into a frothy beer-like beverage.

Yet the animals, which are about the size of a small rat, do not seem to get drunk at all, researchers say.

House Close to Apology for Slavery

This type of thing can seem meaningless and nothing but show or worse, but it has its place, in my opinion:

While many states have apologized for slavery, it will be first time a branch of the federal government will apologize for slavery if the resolution passes, an aide to Cohen said.

And it can be done exquisitely:

Yosemite Fire Threatens "Thousands of Homes"

Started by a target shooter.

Interesting side story:

Politicians and others in power have been known to order air drops to make for good television. It's an expensive way to say "we're doing all we can." Of course, firefighters on the ground see through the smokescreen. They call the useless but expensive flights "CNN Drops."

Dead Man Was Taser'd Nine Times in Handcuffs

The case goes to the grand jury:

Baron "Scooter" Pikes, a 21-year-old sawmill worker, had tried to run from police in Winnfield, Louisiana, when they tried to arrest him on an outstanding warrant for cocaine possession.

But a coroner's report found Pikes had been handcuffed and on the ground when first hit with the Taser and might have been dead before the last two shocks from the 50,000-volt device were delivered.

He taser'd him because he wouldn't stand up fast enough. Jesus. Then he covered it up and said Pikes was high on cocaine and PCP. But drug tests came back negative.

Now to a Louisiana grand jury.

John Prine: Writing Sam Stone

Seems appropriate today.

22,000 Vets Call Suicide Hotline

The fruits of George Bush's unnecessary war:

WASHINGTON - More than 22,000 veterans have sought help from a special suicide hot line in its first year, and 1,221 suicides have been averted, the government says.

According to a recent RAND Corp. study, roughly one in five soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan displays symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, putting them at a higher risk for suicide. Researchers at Portland State University found that male veterans are twice as likely to commit suicide than men who are not veterans.

This month, a former Army medic, Joseph Dwyer, who was shown in a Military Times photograph running through a battle zone carrying an Iraqi boy, died of an accidental overdose after struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder for almost five years.

Horrible News Out of Knoxville [Updtd 3]

A member over at Daily Kos has terrible news about his church.

Some man entered our church with a shotgun and started shooting indiscriminately into the sanctuary while children were performing "Annie" on stage. At this point, one person is dead and five are critically wounded. Three members of the congregation bravely tackled the gunman and held him until he was caught by Knoxville police.

Knoxville was the first place I had a home of my own after leaving the home I was raised in, so it has that special place in my memories. My thoughts are with them all.

More at CNN.

More from Knox Views.

Update: More from Knox News. None of the children present were hurt:

Make sure everyone knows that Greg McKendry was a hero, a total hero.

Update 2: Suspect motivated by hatred for the liberal movement.

update 3: Three victims improving, one "stable."

Saturday Sonata: John Prine and "Souvenirs"

My tenth Saturday Sonata is up at The Peace Tree. This week's subject: Mr. Jopn Prine and really sweet version of one of my favorite songs by him, "Souvenirs."

Drew Carey Video on Man Facing 100 years for Selling Medical Marijuana

Watch this video (about 10 minutes long). Post this link. Spread this information, please. And three cheers for Drew Carey. (Link fixed.)

Charlie Lynch is the owner of a medical marijuana dispensary in Morro Bay, California. Though the business is legal under state law, Lynch was arrested in July of last year for violating federal drug laws. Last month, he was featured in the Drew Carey documentary below. As the video explains, Lynch is facing extra charges for giving medical marijuana to 17-year-old Owen Beck, who used the drug to treat the symptoms of bone cancer.

Lynch faces up to 100 years in prison. His trial begins Tuesday.

Judge to Michael Savage: Go Away, You Idiot

A little piece of good news about a small, small man.

John Prine: Six O'clock News

One of the great, deadly John Prine songs. I unfortunately couldn't find a video of Prine himself doing it, but YouTube had this guy. I don't know who he is, but he actually does a nice, simple version of the song.

Wanda had a baby in nineteen fifty one.
The father was stranger and a stranger was the son.
Call that child James Lewis, call these rooms a home.
Changing all them diapers, polish all that chrome.
C'mon, baby, spend the night with me

All around the schoolyard, playing all the games
Running, laughing back and forth, the kid with two first names
Stranger in the closet, lock the diary
The past is running faster, singing harmony
C'mon, baby, spend the night with me

"God bless this kitchen," said the knick-knack shelf
"The dinner's almost ready, Go and wash yourself"
Jimmy's growing up now and Wanda's growing old
The time is growin' shorter, the nights are long and cold
C'mon, baby, spend the night with me

Sneaking in the closet and through the diary
Now, don't you know, all he saw was all there was to see
The whole town saw Jimmy on the six o'clock news
His brains were on the sidewalk and blood was on his shoes
C'mon, baby, spend the night with me
C'mon, baby, spend the night with me

Scott McClellan: We Gave Fox Talking Points

Like Olbermann says in the video, we all knew this was true, but to hear it - it's still shocking. The White House "frequently" fed Fox News commentators talking points so they could spout them on their shows as if they'd thought of them or came by them, while doing reporting work, themselves. They didn't say "We were told today by so and so in the White House," which would have been actually doing honest journalism, they'd just report the talking points as if it were honest news. It could have been something like "Things are going great in Iraq, there are definitely WMDs in Iraq, it was just a few bad apples at Abu Ghraib, and the like.

Fox News was and is a branch of the White House. The propaganda branch.

Like Rachel Maddow says, it just makes you mad. What brings good people to keep voting for people like this? And like she also says, "That's propaganda, and it's supposed to be illegal."

Undocumented Immigrant Murdered in Penn. [Updtd]

Three teenagers charged with the murder of 25-year-old Luis Ramirez.

Three white teens were charged Friday in what officials said was an epithet-filled fatal beating of an illegal Mexican immigrant in a small northeast Pennsylvania coal town.

The FBI's Hate Crime Statistics page, with yearly reports.

Update: Amy Good man interviewed an eyewitness (transcript):

ARIELLE GARCIA: He was at our house all day that afternoon. And it was around maybe 11:00, he asked us to take him uptown to drop him off, whatever, he was going to go home. So, we leave him at the Vine Street Park, and we drive away, Victor and I, and about two minutes later he called us and told us to come back, that people were beating him up. So we get back as fast as we could. And when we get there, he was—like the fight was over, like the boys were walking away, but they were still screaming like racial slurs, like “Go back to Mexico!”

And so, Victor and I ran up to Luis, and we said, “What happened?” But he was so mad, he wasn’t really talking to us. And those kids kept yelling stuff, and he went back, and the kids turned around, and the fight started again. So Victor, my husband, tried to like stop the fight. He tried to get the kids off of Luis, but kids were trying to fight my husband. So my husband got the kids off of him, and we couldn’t stop the fight between Luis and the—but next thing we know, Luis was on the floor. And so, me and Victor, we ran up to his side, and we were at his side. We were trying to wake him up, and the kids are still like kicking him and kicking him. And somebody—I don’t know who, but they kicked him like in the left side of his head so hard that that’s what killed him.

Bomb Blasts in India

At least four bombings in India, in Ahmedabad in the western state of Gujarat. (More at the Hindustaniat blog.)

Yet another Indian blog on the story.

Yeti Hair DNA Tests...Inconclusive

So far, anyway.

I had to link to this because it allows me to tell my Yeti story: In early 1987 I was walking down a Himalayan mountain trail, alone, toward a little town when a scream that set my hair on end filled the enormous valley. It sounded like a woman - with lungs the size of Volkswagens - screaming in anger/horror, and went on for what seemed like 15 seconds or more. Then two or three trees across the valley started shaking back and forth like mad.

I mean it had to be a Yeti. Right?

I dropped my sack and watched intently for an hour or so, finally continued down, and the sun went down on me. I lost the trail, got very scared, and finally found that town, soaking wet from the creeks I'd forded (and fallen in), my hair full of burrs. People looked at me like I was a Yeti.

Holy crap, I just found a site that mentions and has photos of the cheese factory in a tiny village right near where I stayed, not far from the Yeti incident.

I love parts of my life.

First Female 4-Star

You've come a long way, Army.

P.S. There can only be somewhere around 35 in all the military at any one time. (wiki)

FARC Release 8 More Hostages

The especially good news about this release, the story explains, is that it was arranged exclusively by the Red Cross. Their effectiveness and safety had been brought into question after the rescue of Ingrid Betancourt and 14 others, including three Americans who'd been held since 1993, earlier this month. During that mission one of the rescuers wore a Red Cross jacket - a breach of international law that could endanger other Red Cross workers around the world.

The freed American hostages, mostly unknown to Americans all these years, were drug-war civilian contractors Keith Stansell, Marc Gonsalves, and Thomas Howes, who were captured on February 13, 2003, after their small plane crashed in the Columbian jungle.

Eric Cartman is a Right Wing Blogger

Holy crap this is funny.

1. Obama visits troops in Kuwait; plays basketball with troops; makes 3-point shot; soldiers cheer.

2. One of the most popular BushRepublican bloggers in existence, University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit, responds.

3. Read the response and hear it as if Eric Cartman of Southpark were reading it:

Anyway, that's not so cool as Kass makes it sound. My high-school friend Steve Proffitt once made a more than full-court shot -- from the opposite end of the Maryville College gym, as he walked out the door -- over his shoulder, all the way to the far goal, nothing but net. He was so cool, he didn't even see it as he continued out the door without looking back. Now that's cool...

BushRepublican Bloggers: going where only cartoons have gone before.

"The Dog Song" on The Earl Clifton Radio Show

A dirty song I recorded in my office into GarageBand made the show. I'm even on the poster!

And, uh, the sound effects aren't mine, just to note.

Glenn Beck: America's Creepy Uncle [Updtd]

I figured Glenn Beck's hiring at CNN was something the network would wake up from rather quickly. But no. There he is, two and some odd years later, hosting a daily program on "The Most Trusted Name in News." Yippee for us.

Here's a tid-bit from the Beck bio, eerily similar to that of America's Creepy Viagra Huffer, Rush Limbaugh:

Beck's radio career started at age 13 when he won a local radio contest to be a disc jockey for an hour. Soon after, Beck juggled three different radio jobs at a Christian station, a rock station and a country music station but was fired from all three on the same day at age 14.

Wait, there's more:

After a bout with alcoholism and drug addiction, Beck became a Mormon and embarked on a new career in talk radio.

I've put together a Modern Republican Success Template: fail; fail; fail; fail; fail while drunk or high; do something churchy; make millions being pompously ignorant and intolerant on radio and TV (or become president).

It's beautiful, really. You can almost see Jesus' eyes shining through it.

And what wisdom has Uncle Glenn brought the masses? This:

That was Hitler's plan. His enemy: the Jew. Al Gore's enemy, the U.N.'s enemy: global warming.

And, on his radio show, not long before being hired by CNN:

"[I'm] thinking about killing Michael Moore, and I'm wondering if I could kill him myself, or if I would need to hire somebody to do it. No, I think I could."

And this, which one can almost hear coming from the lips of Thomas Jefferson:

We must preserve our symbols of national pride and power, be they a flag, a cross, characters like Superman or G.I. Joe.

And this one, which I think especially shines a light on the CNN employee's inner world. It's America's Creepy Uncle offering sage advice on "ugly women":

OK, so anyway, I was talking about ugly people. Ugly people, if you're a guy, you can get past it. I don't think you can as an ugly woman. I don't -- no, I don't. If you're an ugly woman, I apologize. Oh, you've got a double cross, because if you're an ugly woman, you're probably a progressive as well. Oh, jeez. I'm sorry. Today's just not your day. But you know what? If you believed in God, you'd know that there's going to be another chance for you. You don't have to be ugly in heaven. You're going to be your perfect self, and there will be another perfect somebody waiting for you on the other side. Until that time...

CNN: the most trusted name in beautiful, godly news. And we're talking Glenn Beck beautiful and godly.

Update: Oh Lord, Beck on CNN today:

CHETRY: So you think that it was a bad move for [Obama] to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas?

BECK: I think it is. […] But if you’re sitting down and you’re talking to people, as he has said that he wants to do, and try to bring everybody together, you cannot bring people together that have extremist ideology. […] You do not get into bed with people that want to destroy you and run you into the sea.

Uh, Glenn, both Pesident Bush and John McCain have met with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas:

Bush has said Abbas is “a man of courage,” “a man of peace,” and a leader who is “willing to speak out and act on behalf of people who yearn for peace” while McCain has said Abbas is someone capable of settling “differences in a peaceful and amicable fashion.”

Funny and sad, sad and funny.

CNN: "Is Marriage Really For White People"

Do stories like this have something to do with the fact that a scary black man is THIS CLOSE to being president? I think it just might.

Bottomfeeders on Amazon

My very own CD, Bottomfeeders, is available on Amazon.

You can listen to samples (track #7, "You Can Use My Bathtub," is one I'm truly proud of), and can of course buy them digitally by the song (only 99 cents) for your iPod or computer.

That is all!

Columnist Robert Novak Hits-and-Runs Pedestrian [Updtd 2]

Novakula, in his black Corvette convertible, nailed a pedestrian and tried to flee (also on CNN):

As he traveled east on K. Street, crossing 18th, Bono said a "black Corvette convertible with top closed plowed into the guy. The guy is sort of splayed onto the windshield.”

Bono said the pedestrian, who was crossing the street on a "Walk" signal and was in the crosswalk, rolled off the windshield and then Novak made a right into the service lane of K Street. “The car is speeding away. What’s going through my mind is, you just can’t hit a pedestrian and drive away,” Bono said.

He chased Novak half a block down K St., finally caught up with him and then put his bike in front of the car to block him and called 911. Traffic immediately backed up, horns blared, and commuters finally went into reverse to allow Novak to pull over.

Bono said that throughout, Novak "keeps trying to get away. He keeps trying to go.” He said he vaguely recognized the longtime political reporter and columnist as a Washington celebrity but could not precisely place him.

Finally, Novak put his head out the window of his car and motioned him over. Bono said he told him that you can't hit a pedestrian and just drive away. He said Novak responded: “I didn’t see him there.”

He didn't see the guy who was "splayed onto the windshield." Ha! How much you wanna bet the guy looks like Joe Wilson.

Update: The victim may not be so slightly injured afterall.

Update 2: Oh geez, the guy was 86 years old, not 66.

Update 3: Novak writes about the accident, and the tumor. I believe he did not know he hit the man.

Saturday Sonata IX: Rush on the Colbert Report

My ninth Saturday Sonata is up at The Peace Tree.

Featured this week: the first appearance on American TV in 33 years of the Canadian Prog-rock group Rush. Enjoy.

When Kangaroos Attack

An attack, a hero dog, and the deadly claw of the kangaroo, at my snazzier, smarter blog.

Coldest Place in Universe:Super-Collider in Switzerland

Freaky stuff.

A vast physics experiment built in a tunnel below the French-Swiss border is fast becoming one of the coolest places in the Universe.

The Large Hadron Collider is entering the final stages of being lowered to a temperature of 1.9 Kelvin (-271C; -456F) - colder than deep space

.

Pretty soon they're going to make that massive black hole that destroys the galaxy. I hope it's not one of George Bush's secret golf days. That would be a bummer.

Jon Swift on the Brilliant New Yorker Cover

Nice to see some people kept their heads.

This week's New Yorker has a cover by artist Barry Blitt of Michelle and Barack Obama dressed in their native garb, which has apparently offended many in the liberal blogosphere. My first impression on seeing this cover was that the New Yorker had written an exposé revealing that Barack Obama is indeed a Muslim, Michelle Obama was a member of the Black Panthers (or the Mod Squad) and that the Obamas hate America and burn American flags in their fireplace. Then David Remnick, the editor of the New Yorker, issued a statement saying that the illustration is actually intended to be satire, a decadent form of humor invented by the Romans shortly before their civilization was overrun by barbarians.

I hate that I have to say this - but Jon Swift does satire. Okay? No babies were harmed when he wrote this. I promise.

The "Gotcha Journalism" Defense

"Yeah, they got me on tape selling access to the White House in exchange for huge donations to George Bush's presidential library - but that's just gotcha journalism."



The worst part of that is the reporter repeating that Payne says it's just "gotcha journalism," without noting that it makes no sense at all. He may as well have said, "Yeah, they got me on video shooting that guy - but that's just 'gotcha journalism'."

Kids Love the Double Slit Experiment

For reasons I can't understand a YouTube video explaining the famous double slit experiment (proving the particle and wave like properties of light) has more than 3,000 Digg hits today. I mean it's fascinating, and well explained - but 3,000 Digg hits? Weird. Anyway, here it is:

Missing Soldiers Found

Tragic.

Remains of two US soldiers missing in Iraq since their capture more than a year ago have been found, a US defense official said Friday.

The families of Private Byron Fouty, 19, and Sergeant Alex Jimenez, 25, have been notified by the army.

"They have been returned from Iraq," said the official, who asked not to be identified.

Rest in peace.

Hidden Red Cross Report Documented Torture

Can someone put the bad guys in prison now?

Red Cross investigators concluded last year in a secret report that the Central Intelligence Agency’s interrogation methods for high-level Qaeda prisoners constituted torture and could make the Bush administration officials who approved them guilty of war crimes, according to a new book on counterterrorism efforts since 2001.

Is the Red Cross a joke now, like our Congress?

Athiests in the Military

This is disturbing:

Two years ago on Thanksgiving Day, after refusing to pray at his table, Hall said he was told to go sit somewhere else. In another incident, when he was nearly killed during an attack on his Humvee, he said another soldier asked him, “Do you believe in Jesus now?”

Hall isn’t seeking compensation in his lawsuit—just the guarantee of religious freedom in the military. Eventually, Hall was sent home early from Iraq and later returned to Fort Riley in Junction City, Kansas, to complete his tour of duty.

He also said he missed out on promotions because he is an atheist.

“I was told because I can’t put my personal beliefs aside and pray with troops I wouldn’t make a good leader,” Hall said.

The guy put his body on the line for the U.S. -through two tours in Iraq - and that's repaid with institutionalized bigotry. That is fundamentally and up its walls and all over its roof Un-American.

PZ Meyers has more.

Jonah Goldberg: 40 Floors of Stupid

I started this yesterday morning. It depressed me and I stopped. The subject has since been all over the intertubes - thank the gods - and addressed by sharper scalpels than mine, but I'll add it for posterity's sake.

***

Jonah Goldberg probably felt very clever and not-at-all-racist (wink wink) when he wrote today that Barack Obama's call for young Americans to volunteer 50 to 100 hours a year a form of slavery. The column starts with this:

There's a weird irony at work when Sen. Barack Obama, the black presidential candidate who will allegedly scrub the stain of racism from the nation, vows to run afoul of the constitutional amendment that abolished slavery.

Goldberg said "Barack Obama" and "slavery" in the same sentence. Get it? Get it? Cuz Obama's black. Get it? Does Goldberg actually believe that Obama's idea for offering college students tuition money in exchange for entering volunteer programs would violate the 13th Amendment? Of course not. He just wanted to say "NIGG**" really bad but couldn't.

It's followed by this:

For those who don't remember, the 13th Amendment says: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime ... shall exist within the United States."

I guess in Obama's mind it must be a crime to be born or to go to college.

In Jonah Goldberg's World Full-o-Stupid, volunteering is the same as involuntary servitude. Next:

In his speech on national service Wednesday at the University of Colorado, Obama promised that as president he would "set a goal for all American middle and high school students to perform 50 hours of service a year, and for all college students to perform 100 hours of service a year."

He would see that these goals are met by, among other things, attaching strings to federal education dollars. If you don't make the kids report for duty, he's essentially telling schools and college kids, you'll lose money you can't afford to lose. In short, he'll make service compulsory by merely compelling schools to make it compulsory.

This is painful and troubling stupid. This is a man who has a column in the Los Angeles Times. These exact words appear in todays LAT. They should have air pollution and Jonah Goldberg column-warnings in L.A.

First: " If you don't make the kids report for duty..." My God. Who exactly is the "you" referring to here? Who "makes" the kids "report for duty"? (Nobody of course. It's a program that college students sign up for if they want to. My god.)

Second: "...he's essentially telling schools and college kids, you'll lose money you can't afford to lose." What? This is telling colleges something? Anything? It's telling them that they're going to "lose money"? No, it's not. If it's telling colleges anything, it's "You're going to be getting a lot more money because this is going to enable more people to go to college. And pay you money."

What a fucking idiot.

And it's somehow telling students they're going to "lose money"? Again: what a fucking idiot. Offering students money is telling students they're going to lose money. Jesus. We plod on, as through chin-deep snow:

It's funny that, when the right seeks to use the government to impose its values, the left screams about brainwashing and propaganda. When the left tries it, the right thunders about social engineering. But when left and right agree -- as seems to be the case on national service -- who's left to complain? As ever, the slipperiest slopes are greased with the snake oil of "bipartisanship."

Let me see if I understand this: Jonah is not somebody on the Right "thundering about soacial engineering," he's merely a sage on a mountaintop offering his wise council about this tax-credit for volunteering program which the Left and Right agree on.

Okay.

But it's really just the opening lines of a journey into neverland. Witness:

It's funny that, when the right seeks to use the government to impose its values, the left screams about brainwashing and propaganda. When the left tries it, the right thunders about social engineering. But when left and right agree -- as seems to be the case on national service -- who's left to complain? As ever, the slipperiest slopes are greased with the snake oil of "bipartisanship."

After all, Obama's hardly alone. Sen. John McCain is a passionate supporter of Washington-led (and paid-for) "volunteerism," as is President Bush. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) and John Edwards both campaigned for the presidency on compulsory national service.

Perhaps thanks to the JFK cult, which sees the refrain "Ask not what your country can do for you ..." as an all-purpose writ for social meddling, even the idealistic hipster crowd is on board. Devotees of Rolling Stone and MTV, who normally preen like cats in a pool of sunshine over their alleged libertarianism when the issue is sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, see nothing wrong, and everything right, with involuntary servitude -- as long as we just call it "voluntary."

I honestly feel kind of lost. In an article in which he seems to be railing against the commie hippie Democrats (and black people, wink wink), he now veers out of control into, the " left and right agree" on this; bumps into McCain, a "assionate supporter of Washington-led (and paid-for) "volunteerism" (wait...is it not involuntary servitude anymore? I thought...oh hell); and then somersaults back to this all being the fault of the "JFK cult." He doesn't seem to have a clue as to what he's talking about.

Then, my god in heaven, this comes out (I have to blockquote it again):

Devotees of Rolling Stone and MTV, who normally preen like cats in a pool of sunshine over their alleged libertarianism when the issue is sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, see nothing wrong, and everything right, with involuntary servitude -- as long as we just call it "voluntary."

Um, ISSUES, anyone? And the more times he writes "involuntary servitude" the stupider the whole world becomes.