“In Locombia, even we puppets are called terrorists!”
This was taken at a demonstration in Bogotá, where at least 80,000 students and teachers protested against government cutbacks to health and education. Indignados are everywhere, but in Latin America, they make it look fun!
…be it women:
…or children:
Yes, that’s right…human beings are now objects to be “won” in stupid radio contests.
Incidentally, both these contests are being held by Canadian radio stations. Isn’t there some kind of CRTC legislation against this kind of audience-grabbing stunt? Or human-rights legislation? Or, in the case of the Russian male-order bride contest, immigration legislation? Or, in the case of that poor scared-looking little tyke, health-care legislation?
In short: Is there no law against this sort of thing, this commodification of human flesh? Because it sure reeks of all kinds of degradation and dehumanization to me.
Sexual abstinence could cost you dear.
Jean-Louis, 51, found that out the hard way after his divorce.
According to Le Parisien, the Niçois was sentenced in May 2009 by the court of appeals of Aix-en-Provence to pay 10,000 euros in damages to his ex-wife Monique for “absence of sexual relations over several years”.
[…]
After more than twenty years of life together, Jean-Louis could easily have said that “relations had simply been spaced out over time”, or claimed “fatigue due to long work hours”, or even “health problems” to justify this near-absence of sexual rapport, but he did none of that.
The law is the law…along with notions of respect, fidelity, security and mutual assistance, the maintenance of sexual relations is a duty according to the Civil Code, and is on the list of conjugal duties that spouses must do when they marry.
Translation mine.
Actually, this may not be so stupid. What’s stupid is that he got away with that for more than 20 years, and only a divorce finally made him aware of his blunder. All I can say is that Monique must have had the patience of a saint.
Crappy Labor Day weekend, everyone! So, how’s that jobless “recovery” been treating you? Like shit? No kidding. If it’s jobless, it’s not a recovery, no matter how the media spin it. And speaking of spinning, here are this week’s wankers, unspun, in no particular order:
1. Fucking Dubya. “Why didn’t we know this?” That’s all he’s got to say, after willfully ignoring a PDB on Hiroshima Day, 2001? Dubya, you DID know. And you LET it happen. Quit fucking lying. After ten years, this is just so goddamn disgusting, this endless disingenuous bullshitting.
2. Dick Fucking Cheney. Yes, he’s a heartless fucking cyborg. And he still thinks waterboarding is nothing but a harsh interrogation. I’d suggest we give him a taste of his own medicine, but let’s face it: a robot wouldn’t feel shit. PS: What Ron said. PPS: “Pinochet” him? That’s way too kind. I propose trying and jailing him BEFORE the bastard motherfucker croaks. PPPS: Not believing that drunkenness was just a youthful indiscretion, either.
3. Tony Fucking Blair. Yes, he really is Fucking Dubya’s fucking poodle. Used to be I thought he’d been dragged into it, but it seems he was willing. Yeah, a coalition of two. How fucking lovely! PS: Oh, UGH. With endorsements like that, a move to the True Crime section of the bookstore is all but inevitable.
4. Rush Fucking Limbaugh. Somebody please take the Pigman’s OxyContin away, he’s hallucinating now. He seriously thinks Barack Obama wanted Hurricane Irene to be worse? You mean like KATRINA worse, Rushbo? PS: Ha, ha.
5. Pamela Fucking Geller. Rick Fucking Perry, Christian dominionist theocrat, is “the enemy”? Doesn’t this crazy wingnut bitch have any friends? Apparently, no…at least, not as long as insane ideological purity is the criterion of friendship. Or just plain fucking insanity. With her, it’s hard to tell.
6. Rick Fucking Santorum. While we’re on the subject of people who drool when bells ring, how about Icky Ricky Man-on-Dog, who barks whenever someone says “gay”, and thinks they’re out to get him? He’s now using the J-word, too. Someone inform #5… PS: Also, it’s “bigotry” to point out that a bigot is bigoted. Oh Ricky, your homophobia is so GAY.
7. Bill O’Fucking Reilly. We’ve been long overdue for another Billo sex scandal, so this one’s a real end-of-summer treat: His wife (allegedly) schtups the sheriff. How does Billo get back at the lovers? By getting the cop’s own police department to spy on the officer for him. Since when are cops private dicks to rich FUX Snooze dicks?
8. Bernard-Henri Fucking Lévy. A wanker on two counts: (1) Libya is NOT “liberated” yet, and (2) even if it were, he wouldn’t deserve a shred of credit for it. Nor, for that matter, does any other foreign imperialist. If you want a truer picture of what the French have been up to in North Africa, I suggest watching The Battle of Algiers.
9. Wayne Fucking Bell. Publishing (and defending) a grotesque 9-11 “coloring book” that glorifies violence and Islamophobia (as well as the long-debunked “Osama was hiding behind his wife’s skirts” myth)? Cue Wanker #5 to clap like a performing seal with zealous approval. As one of the ThinkProgress commenters put it: “You know, there seems to be an awful lot of text on the excerpted page, far more than is typical for coloring books, at least in my experience of them as father to a kindergartner. Honestly, any kid who can read and process that much text is probably not all that interested in coloring books anymore. Which strongly suggests that this was published as an attention-getting stunt.” Attention, and money. Not to mention ginning up irrational prejudice in impressionable kids. Disgusting on all counts.
10. Donald Fucking Rumsfeld. Another BushCo piece of shit who’s written a book to capitalize on all the nauseating publicity in the run-up to 9-11, the Tenth Fucking Anniversary. And who clearly doesn’t give a shit for the suicides his opportunistic, lie-based wars-for-profit have generated.
11. Thomas Fucking Warda. Blaming a sex-abuse victim is bad enough. But saying that the girl, who is all of 14, will “eventually forget all about this”? And that the married, 52-year-old abuser somehow forgot that teenagers were off limits because he had cancer? I don’t know about you, but personally, I’d find such things awfully hard to forget at ANY age, even if I tried. Just as I’d have trouble forgetting that the slimy defence attorney of the scumbag is an unpardonable asshole for insinuating such things.
12. Eric Fucking Angell. Rape isn’t fucking funny. Neither is using it as the basis of a creepy “comedy” monologue. Especially not if you’re the shit-weaselly perp of the incident in question. Being warned, when you got to the bit about entering her hotel room uninvited, that there is a 5th Amendment, should have been a cue that this was not going to end well. And that “fishhook” bit? The women in the audience were booing and hissing for a reason, dude. “Take it to the next level”, in your own words, and turn your sorry, seventh-rate ass in.
13. Steven Fucking Seagal. What do you get when you take a washed-up action film star, the world’s worst fucking sheriff, a man accused of animal cruelty (cockfighting), and throw them together to shoot a so-called “reality” show? You get a tank driven by the washed-up action film star into the home of the man accused of animal cruelty, at the behest of the world’s worst sheriff. And you also get one dead puppy and a lot of dead roosters. Yeah, poser, talk to us again about how much you hate animal cruelty — when you finally stop doing it yourself.
14. Christine O’Fucking Donnell. Cthulhu!!! Ahem. Abdul Alhazred has NOTHING on her. Swear.
15. Howard Fucking Portnoy. Anti-racism is “anti-science”. Who the fucking hell KNEW??? Oh yeah, slight problem with that: Your racist source is long discredited, asswipe.
16. and 17. The Fucking Brothers Ford. Public services and light rail transit for Torontonians are “gravy”…but Ferris wheels, extra shopping malls (in a city already inundated with shopping districts, and denizens growing ever shorter on cash to spend there thanks to the high cost of real estate), monorails and football stadiums are “essential”. You gotta hand it to Robbo and Dougie, they sure have vision. Unfortunately, it’s the kind that comes from drinking too much fucking rotgut. PS: Ha, ha. Looks like even the most rabidly right-wing cops don’t appreciate being lumped in with the “gravy”! Better pray the RIDE program doesn’t catch you at one of their roadblocks, either, Robbo.
18. Kirsty Fucking Lane. The next time you rob your boss blind to pay for your trying-too-hard “posh” wedding (which was also in exceedingly poor taste, BTW — Fugg boots, anyone?), you might want to think twice about inviting him. After all, he might connect the dots between you crying poor and all those embezzled quid, luv.
19. Christina Fucking Martin. Black or white, NO woman goes to her hairdresser for an anti-choice lecture. She goes to get her hair done. And no, abortion isn’t at all like slavery. (It isn’t the #1 killer of black people, either. But if you want to talk young black women who can’t afford a safe, LEGAL abortion, you might be kinda-sorta onto something there.)
20. Ahmed Fucking Hasnain. 9-1-1 is not the number of the Better Business Bureau. And really: ordering a hooker and then complaining when you get two? That’s just too fucking funny.
21. Angelo Fucking Persichilli. Yeah, try and tell me that this isn’t Stephen Fucking Harper’s way of flipping l’oiseau at les Québécois. The guy is his new communications director, doesn’t speak French, probably won’t learn how before his ass is canned, and already is on record as dissing la belle province. If this is Harpo’s way of trying to woo the (traditionally NDP/Liberal) “ethnic” vote, it’s already an Ethnic Fail.
22. Silvio Fucking Berlusconi. Italy is “shitty” and “sickens” him for not letting him get away with crime after crime after crime? Aside from the whining (unattractive coming from any man, undignified coming such an old one), that’s a major fucking case of projection there. Italy is sick of his shit, and so is everyone else who’s heard of it. And I’m sure they won’t be sorry to see him go…provided that he leaves what he owes in back taxes behind.
23. Xavier Fucking Thompson. Perhaps he and Rick Fucking Santorum should get a room. They both seem to have remarkably similar views on how bigoted it is to call bigots out on their bigotry!
24. Mike Fucking Stahl. Perhaps he and #23 should make it a threesome with Icky Ricky. Or, even better, let’s all us pagans, heathens and unbelievers start a registry for stupid fucking fundies, to let them know what stigma means.
25. Catherine Fucking Hakim. There’s a good reason she didn’t want to talk about her book, even though she went on the telly to flog it — it’s because it’s nothing but a compendium of all the utterly demeaning sexist drivel that’s been debunked over and over and fucking over again, and she knows it. It’s indefensible, and therefore all efforts at defending it would be wasted. But hey, maybe she should get together with this disgraced Korean politician, it sounds like they might actually hit it off. Spend that Erotic Capital, Cathy baby!
26. Sue Fucking Dvorsky. Instead of the Iowa Democrats being “embarrassed” by a progressive group that sounds like it’s actually doing their work for them, how about they get off their fucking duffs, quit kvetching about how “embarrassed” they are, and, you know, get progressive already?
27. Christopher Fucking Parker. Yup, I’d say he pegged himself just about right. He IS a dumbass white boy from Wisconsin. And he’s lucky that it was only the Chicago cops he had a run-in with there on the South Side, and not Leroy Brown. PS: That $100,000 bribe offer was a nice touch. Too bad that it, too, was an Epic Fail.
28. Matthew Fucking Vadum. Who the hell is this nobody, and why is he calling the late Jack Layton “a poser”? Oh yeah, I know: PROJECTION, yer Honor! PS: What he calls “un-American”, the rest of us call DEMOCRACY. Also, he looks like a fuckin’ cracker. Yes, the hashtag #MatthewVadumFuckFace does nicely for ME, thanks.
29. Joe Fucking Lieberman. I had no idea that Barack Obama was the least bit “concerned with offending Muslims”, but apparently Dubya’s bucket-boy thinks he is. And that it’s “hurting the war effort”. If Holy Joe were the least bit reality-based, he might realize that the war effort is hurting the war effort, and warhawks like him are the real ones to blame.
30. Victoria Fucking Jackson. She went on a cruise to Alaska with some like-minded (i.e. EQUALLY MINDLESS) teabags. She had some experiences that will last a lifetime. She saw a whale shoot “spray” from its blowhole, and a bear crossing the street. She saw salmon spawning, and an otter eating them. And she watched as some other teabag “confronted” a “liberal, biased” journalist with some corny, irrelevant story about a Republican who wasn’t a teabag! Amazing how she could do all that without once leaving the cozy echo chamber of fellow idiots, but I guess anything’s theoretically possible for a washed-up comedienne whose SNL schtick was to recite bad poetry (her own) while standing on her head.
31. Jane Fucking Cunningham. If you ever needed proof that right-wing women do NOT have other people’s best interests at heart (only their own, and those of the business ruling class for whom they front) here you go. She wants to repeal the ban on child labor. Great, let’s enslave her kids! Or THEIR kids! After all, fair’s fair! Give those little bastards a work ethic, dammit! Because they sure as hell aren’t going to inherit one from HER.
32. The Fucking Texas Police Chiefs Association. Thanks for confirming the whole world’s suspicion that your profession is just popping with racist rednecks, bigots and cheaters, ossifers.
33. David Fucking Bovino. Speaking of racist, how about shooting yourself in the arm to get some sympathy from the girlfriend who dumped you, and then blaming it on two black men? Yeah, just as you’d expect: Very effective. I’ll bet the ex is congratulating herself right now on making the correct decision.
34. Chris Fucking Jeon. Welcome to Jackass, the Libyan Revolution. The only thing that could possibly have made it “sicker” is if this college clown had gotten his thrill-seeking ass killed.
35. Dominique Fucking Strauss-Kahn. Because he got off. Because he got out. And because the criminal justice system blatantly fucking FAILED. Tristane Banon, I wish you all the luck in the world; you’re going to need it. Fucking wanker plans to sue you for “defamation”, i.e. telling the truth.
And finally, to everyone who’s been hyping the upcoming 10th anniversary of 9-11. Class and dignity (not to mention good fiscal sense) would dictate not continuing to make it a casus belli, but of course, islamophobia never sleeps. Neither does war profiteering. And neither do liars. And I’ll be watching you all very closely for more wankage in the week to come. Sadly, I don’t doubt that there will be plenty.
Good night, and get fucked!
Chavecito’s now on his third round of chemo, but his cheer is unimpaired. And his hair looks like it’s starting to grow back, too.
Oh lord. I hope this officer did protect while he was, um, serving:
According to The Smoking Gun, this unprofessional-but-oh-so-romantic moment took place in New Mexico, in an oft-vandalized location. Hence the camera on hand to capture it all. Apparently the man in uniform is with the Santa Fe sheriff’s department.
And yes, that is a Chihuahua doggie looking on. Obviously he’s with the K-9 unit!
UPDATE: The cop in question has since been identified, and fired. No word on who the woman is, or if the situation was entirely consensual and/or licit.
In a nutshell, always believe what dickish men in suits tell you:
Kang was indicted earlier this year on charges of making sexually abusive remarks during a dinner with dozens of female students from Yonsei University in Seoul, portraying female TV presenters as prostitutes.
During the dinner, Kang told one of the students who hopes to become a TV presenter, “Do you know that you have to give ‘everything’ to become an announcer? You want to become an announcer despite this?”
He told another student who had once met President Lee Myung-bak with him, “Back then, the President was staring at you the entire time. Men are the same. We all like pretty girls.” He added “If the first lady wasn’t sitting right next to him, the President would have asked for your number.”
The asshole who gave this “advice” was a Korean politician (and was turfed from his party for saying that, and narrowly missed a prison term and the loss of his parliamentary seat as well), but entitled dudes who think like him are, let’s face it, a global problem.
And one that might just be solved if more women stood up and blew the whistle on them, as the aggrieved party did in this case.
And if you don’t believe me, here ya go.
Jack Layton’s untimely death has triggered another orange wave across the country, a new poll suggests.
The Harris/Decima survey conducted for The Canadian Press pegs NDP support at 33 per cent – tied with the ruling Conservatives and well ahead of the Liberals at 21 per cent.
That’s almost a three-point gain for the New Democrats since the May 2 election, which vaulted the party into Official Opposition status for the first time in its 50-year history.
The Tories are down almost seven points while the Liberals are up two.
Harris/Decima chairman Allan Gregg said the NDP gain is most likely attributable to “the Jack effect.”
“The national outpouring of emotion we witnessed over Jack Layton’s untimely death appears to have translated directly into increased support for the party he leaves behind,” Mr. Gregg said.
Of particular note, considering that we have a provincial election coming later this fall, is this passage:
In Ontario, Mr. Gregg said the NDP is more competitive than at any time in its history. The Conservatives were at 34 per cent, followed closely by the NDP at 30 and the Liberals at 29. The Greens were at seven.
Something to capitalize on, no? Nothing would please me more than to see the floor mopped with Tim Hudak, and the ghost of Rae Days finally exorcised from Queen’s Park.
Meanwhile, Orange Phoenix has a nice sound.
Francis Barlow’s illustration to “The Bat, The Birds and the Beasts”, by Aesop.
Yesterday I blogged about how there’s talk of a Liberal/NDP merger. Now someone else has weighed in on the same…with a smack-my-forehead silly suggestion as to who should lead this theoretical new party:
Curiously, the person best qualified to fill Jack Layton’s shoes is not a New Democrat.
Rather, he is Bob Rae, the interim leader of the federal Liberal Party.
These days, not all New Democrats are fond of Rae. He did warm their hearts when he formed the first-ever NDP government in Ontario 21 years ago. But in 2000, he publicly and somewhat testily broke with his party before, eventually, joining the enemy Liberals.
I think I’ll stop blockquoting there; it only gets more wretched.
Can we really take this seriously about how much Rae had in common with Layton? For instance: Bob Rae, “a gifted orator”? I can’t remember a single thing he said that was striking enough to be worth repeating; it all rang curiously colorless and hollow. In fact, I can’t remember anything he said offhand, at all. He uttered it all with so little true conviction that it made no impression on me. That never happened with Jack Layton!
And it lists all kinds of other very tenuous “links” between the two, including the wacky notion that both “pragmatically” tried to turn their respective parties to the right — a “pragmatic” move that backfired disastrously for both, if I recall correctly. Turning right and going “Oh-oh-oh, me too!” is not the way to win votes for a leftist party; it’s just another way of saying to your real constituency: “Don’t vote for me, either”. Who wants a lite version of what they’re supposedly voting against? Give us something to vote for, not less of something to vote against!
The Liberals’ electoral failure this past spring speaks for itself. They went for “me too”, and got “nope, not me”. Bob Rae had his chance when there was talk of a coalition. He could have built bridges back to his old party and sought common ground, but he reneged and stayed with the “new”, rightardly, not-so-liberal Liberals. He is yesterday’s (failed) leader precisely because of that right turn, and that is how voters will forever remember him.
Jack Layton’s worst moments came in similar fashion. The New Democratic rank and file recently refused to strike the words “democratic socialism” from the party charter, among other things, which is a direct slap in the face to the idea of a right turn being “pragmatic”!
And we uncarded voters also weren’t happy with Jack Layton’s failure to whip the vote over the preservation of the long-gun registry. I distinctly recall wank-listing him over that, with a heavy heart then and now. But I don’t regret speaking that piece of my mind. The Montréal Massacre still matters to me, and I was shocked that Jack Layton, who after all hails from Montréal AND spearheaded the White Ribbon campaign against violence, could be willing even for a nanosecond to sell out his real, progressive constituency for a few piddling votes he’d never get, from those who think the New Democrats are all fucking commies anyway!
Jack Layton is with us no more, and that’s a damn shame, but it won’t blind me to his mistakes, and it shouldn’t stop the rest of us from learning from them. When he turned right, he lost us. When he turned left again, he got us all back, with interest. Why won’t Tom Walkom acknowledge that?
Bob Rae is, like the Bat in the Aesop fable, neither bird nor beast. But since he has made his bed with the Libs (a better fit for him, IMO; less stigma to selling out over there), the thing for him to do is lie in it. That party has done itself in with right turns and corruption and a lack of democracy from within. And if it tries to take over the NDP, they’ll all lose my vote, and those of other disgruntled progressives, too. No sense going on enabling this failed “turn right, turn right” political machinery any longer.
Or, to quote a wonderful passage from Anne Lamott in Bird by Bird:
My Al-Anon friend told me about the frazzled, defeated wife of an alcoholic man who kept passing out on the front lawn in the middle of the night. The wife kept dragging him in before dawn so that the neighbors wouldn’t see him, until finally an old black woman from the South came up to her one day after a meeting and said, “Honey? Leave him lay where Jesus flang him.”
I gave up on this merger after the last election, when it became obvious that there was going to be no change in the usual arrogant drunk-husband pattern of the Liberals.
So, sorry, Mr. Walkom, but you crapped out an awfully lazy-minded column there. Bob Rae isn’t the next Jack Layton. Nor is he the potential savior of the theoretical Lib-Dem merger party (which will probably go nowhere, just like the half-assed attempt at a Lib-Dem-Bloc coalition). He’s the sad little man who, in real life, ended up selling out to corporatism…and giving us Ontarians ten dreary years of Mike Harris, Ernie Eves, and a whole slew of other grotty SupposiTories who, despite intense scandal, only fell up and are now sitting in Harpo’s cabinet. And after that, the déluge: weak-tea reformism à la Dalton McWimpy. (Who is a much more apt person to compare Bob Rae to, BTW.)
That is Bob Rae’s true legacy. An inspiring progressive leader he most certainly is not.
And I prefer to “leave him lay where Jesus flang him”.
