Quote

A spokesperson for expected Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has resigned, after critics questioned his conservatism because of his sexuality.

You’re not born conservative, it’s a lifestyle choice. You can be cured if you have faith and good people to help you.

[Quote]:

Okay, I now have definitive proof that al Qaeda has actually won. It hasn’t achieved the dissolution of the United States, or succeeded in murdering millions of Americans, or  re-established the Caliphate, but it has caused our government to debase itself in the name of security. To wit:

My mother-in-law was traveling home to Rhode Island from Washington Reagan airport this past Tuesday night when, passing through the TSA naked-porno machine, she triggered an alarm.

A bit of background before I continue: My mother-in-law, though youthful in outlook and an all-around very attractive person, is also 79-years-old,  4’11″ if she’s lucky, and weighs about 110 pounds. She was in Washington to visit her grandchildren, and to lobby the Rhode Island congressional delegation as part of the American Library Association’s National Library Legislative Day. She is not a threatening person, in appearance or demeanor. I don’t know this for sure, but I think she was probably carrying a library tote bag of some sort — or perhaps it was an NPR tote bag — as she approached the security checkpoint. A general rule: terrorists don’t carry tote bags.

She entered the machine and struck the humiliating pose one is forced to strike — hands up, as in an armed robbery — and then walked out, when she was asked by a TSA agent, in a voice loud enough for several people to hear, “Are you wearing a sanitary napkin?”

Remember, she’s 79.

My mother-in-law answered, “No. Why do you ask?”

The TSA agent responded: “Well, are you wearing anything else down there?”

Yes, “down there.”

She said no, at which point, the friend with whom she was traveling, also a not-young volunteer library advocate, came over and asked if there was a problem.

The TSA agent said, again, in full voice, “There’s an anomaly in the crotch area.”

This is, of course, a painful post for me to write. Like most normal American men, I don’t want to see the words “my mother-in-law” and “crotch area” in the same paragraph. But let me go on anyway.

My mother-in-law said, “As far as I know I don’t have any anomalies in the crotch area.”

The TSA agent told her she would have to go through the scanner again. She demurred, saying she didn’t like the machine very much. The agent told her she could opt for a pat-down. My mother-in-law refused to be frisked, figuring, correctly, that “they were going to pat-down my crotch area. I mean, there wasn’t an anomaly in the chest area.”

So she went through the scanner again. Of course, this time — one minute later — the TSA found no “anomalies,” and she was free to go.

The experience left her flummoxed, however. “What did they think I was, a lady underpants bomber?”

I asked her if she felt  embarrassed by the manner in which the TSA treated her.

“I’m not embarrassed,” she said. “I just think they’re stupid and their machinery is defective and they should learn to whisper when they’re talking about my crotch, or anyone’s crotch.”

The question is, How did it come to pass that the federal government takes official and invasive interest in the “crotch areas” of 79-year-old grandmothers? Have we just gone crazy?

[Quote]:

An election year is a shit blizzard. Every place you go for news online — whether it’s portal sites like Reddit, or aggregators like Google News or Yahoo! News or RealClearPolitics, or goddamned clips from late night talk shows — they’re all about to get buried under a brown storm of bullshit inflammatory headlines desperate for your click.This turdstorm of pointless click-bait filler is a problem for anyone who wants to be an informed voter. To learn anything useful, you need to be able to sort through all of the garbage to find the actual information and insight. So let me just tell you right now that you can safely ignore any story if …

Quote

News Corp. has said the comments on Rupert Murdoch in a scathing British parliamentary report were “unjustified and highly partisan” and pointed out that the committee itself was split on whether to include the remarks.

Murdoch himself said on on Tuesday that the report which said he was not fit to lead a major global company made for difficult reading.

…

Labour MP Tom Watson, himself a target of phone hacking, held Rupert Murdoch chiefly responsible.

“More than any individual alive, he’s to blame. Morally, the deeds are his. He paid the piper, and he called the tune,” said Watson.

“It is his company, his culture, his people, his business, his failure, his lies, his crimes, the price of profits and his power.”

Watson added that the Murdochs “brought shame on our police force and our parliament. They lied and cheated, blackmailed and bullied. And we should all be ashamed when we think how we cowered before them for so long”.

Even though the Murdoch press is hammering the Cameron government just before local elections in Britain, Conservative on the committee did disagree with the majority findings.