Early Happy Thanksgiving

I'll be traveling up North to visit my in-laws for the Thanksgiving holiday and won't have (much) access to the web. So, I thought I'd just post a quick little message today to wish everyone a very enjoyable Thanksgiving holiday... don't eat too much and I'll see (well, electronically interact with) ya'll next week!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Merry Fucking Christmas, Daniel Henninger

There it was, in the Wall Street Journal, the most incredibly fucking stupid thing I've read in a long time. You see, it is the lack of people saying "Merry Christmas" and the so-called "War on Christmas" that caused the financial meltdown... and not, well, not greed and the lack of reasonable regulations.

I rubbed my eyes, shook my head clear, and decided that I must have read it wrong. But no, there it was, in all its insipid glory.

Could it be meant as a joke? Shit, I hope so, but it isn't funny, so probably not. And that right wing turdbag Rupert Murdoch owns the WSJ, so it looks like anything goes now in terms of being published in the Journal, as long as it adheres to a right wing ideology... even if it is colossally insane.

Huge Amounts of Water on Mars

NASA scientists have discovered enormous underground reservoirs of frozen water on Mars, away from its polar caps, in the latest sign that life might be sustainable on the Red planet.

Ground-penetrating radar used by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reveals numerous huge glaciers up to one half-mile thick buried beneath layers of rock and debris. Researchers said one glacier is three time the size of Los Angeles in area.

"All together, these glaciers almost certainly represent the largest reservoir of water ice on Mars that's not in the polar caps," said John Holt, a geophysicist at the University of Texas at Austin and lead author of a report about the discovery, which appears in the November 21 issue of the journal Science.

"In addition to their scientific value, they could be a source of water to support future exploration of Mars," said Holt.

Ted Stevens Loses

Alaska GOP Senator Ted Stevens has lost his bid for a seventh Senate term, the Associated Press reported. Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in the United States Senate, has until tonight held his seat since 1968.

Democratic opponent Mark Begich, mayor of Anchorage, had an insurmountable lead of 3,724 votes in Tuesday's tally, with only 2,500 left to be counted.

It is great news that this convicted felon has lost his re-election bid...

To quote Queen: Another One Bites the Dust!

Will You Scratch My Nuts?

The Ted Stevens Watch

Republican Sen. Ted Stevens, a titan of Alaska politics convicted of felony charges last month, fell behind by three votes Wednesday as the count resumed in his re-election bid.

Democrat Mark Begich, the two-term mayor of Anchorage, began Wednesday down more than 3,200 votes but closed the gap as officials resumed counting early and absentee ballots. The tally was 125,019 to 125,016.

Neither side expected to be able to claim victory Wednesday. By late afternoon, officials had counted more than 44,000 of the roughly 90,000 outstanding ballots.

Three votes! That would be classic if that fucker lost by three votes... even better, just one vote. I'd laugh and laugh and laugh!

"Fox and Friends" Snipes at Atheists

The American Humanist Association (AHA) has launched a holiday advertising campaign, with ads in major newspapers and posters on Washington, DC buses proclaiming, "Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness' sake."

AHA spokesman Fred Edwords told the Associated Press, "Our reason for doing it during the holidays is there are an awful lot of agnostics, atheists and other types of nontheists who feel a little alone during the holidays because of its association with traditional religion."

The hosts of Fox and Friends naturally saw this as something to snipe at. Brian Kilmeade found it particularly hilarious and offered a variety of possible slogans to promote sympathy for the feelings of lonely atheists.

He began with, "A lot of times during the holidays, we don't think enough about people who don't think enough about the holidays."

He then offered, "There's nobody's birth to celebrate, so give an atheist a hug."

His third suggestion was that "atheists should get together and not celebrate all at once."

But the accumulated paradoxes finally made Kilmeade's head explode. "I really don't understand this story," he expostulated. "I don't understand the campaign. They don't want -- leave them alone!"

As an atheist, I do not feel left out of Christmas. I celebrate the season with my family and friends as the non-religious holiday it mostly has become.

If you're interested, here is the information on the holiday campaign from the American Humanist Association.

Ralph Nader Now Officially a Crazy Old Man

Ralph Nader, the consumer advocate turned professional political sideshow, was interviewed by Fox News on Election Night and asked about this statement he'd made earlier on a radio show:

"To put it very simply, he [Barack Obama] is our first African American president, or he will be. And we wish him well. But his choice, basically, is whether he is going to be Uncle Sam for the people of this country or Uncle Tom for the giant corporations."

Surely, you'd like to believe that Nader could have made his point without using a racial slur, wouldn't you? Or is he just a relic of days gone by and doesn't realize how stupid his statement was?

It is now time for Nader to slink away and live the remainder of his life out of the public lime light. What a sad way for someone who was a crusader, of sorts, to go out.