We are a culture of voyeurs.  Admit it, we love to watch.  We watch the news to see the exciting things happening to someone else.  We watch the paparazzi as they chase down the rich and famous for us, to gift us with the candid glimpses.

We see John Edwards primping his hair, George Bush flipping off the camera and OJ in a drive by slow speed chase, all in blazing glorious colour, brought to us by toilet paper commercials and fast food resturants.

We like to watch the indiscretions of others on Cheaters, and the foolishness of people in everyday life, all for the chance to win 10 grand on America’s Funniest videos.  In friendlier moments we watch silly pets, but then we tune into Hells Kitchen to watch hopeful chefs be browbeaten by a megalomaniac, or watch the hopeful top models be diligently trained in the creation of illusion.

Cops and Dog the Bounty Hunter make us feel safe as the bad guys are brought down, and Dateline makes us secure as another pervert is exposed, and not in the way they wanted.

Face, it we live vicariously in the videos that infest our TV.

And the news is no better, as traffic copters turn into criminal chasers, video taping the slow chase of OJ, all the way up to the weapons laden bank robbers.  The copter soars overhead, and catches every lurid moment of the high speed chases and the emotional turmoil of a rescue.  What makes this scary is when you see the copter circling and you see its proximity to other news copters and the police helicopters.

These pilots, the pushers to our armchair thrill seekers, take extraordinary chances, sometimes for good reasons, as when the pilot thwarted a kidnapping/carjacking.  But invariably the luck would run out and tragedy would strike.

And it did.

No Distress Seen Before Air Collision

People who saw two news helicopters collide and plummet to the ground while covering a police chase say the choppers did not appear to be in distress beforehand, investigators reported Saturday.

SVC alerted me to this.

Mama Sheehan was continuing her campaign against reason, and Atlas Shrugs was there.

See the video below and enjoy how the conservative voices of dissent were pushed as away as possible, and their American Flag were called dangerous weapons…by the cops.

See the exploited kids too.  The pictures are at Atlas Shrugs.   But the picture at the bottom of this page speaks a thousand words.  Or see it here.

And Pam is my hero for keeping her temper and filming so much of this idiocy.

And here it is:  Saint Cindy speaks.  She want to beat Nancy Pelosi for congress. Well, here is what you will get:  A rambling diatribe against the protesters, against Bush and Hallyburton, and against the democrats.

Saint Cindy still hates everyone.

Nothing new here…move along folks.

  And the picture of the day:

Pam is my hero.

 Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, The Virtuous Republic, Is It Just Me?, Perri Nelson’s Website, Big Dog’s Weblog, Right Truth, Stuck On Stupid, The Amboy Times, Pursuing Holiness, The Magical Rose Garden, Woman Honor Thyself, Stageleft, Wake Up America, Pirate’s Cove, Nuke’s news and views, The Pink Flamingo, Wyvern Dreams, CommonSenseAmerica, Dumb Ox Daily News, Church and State, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, 123beta, DeMediacratic Nation, Adam’s Blog, Webloggin, Cao’s Blog, The Bullwinkle Blog, , Conservative Cat, Jo’s Cafe, Conservative Thoughts, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, The World According to Carl, Blue Star Chronicles, High Desert Wanderer, and Public Eye, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Once again an issue has cropped up that is being completely misrepresented by all parties, and once again, it is up to me, your host, to clarify the real issues.

First of all, the Plan B pill, or the morning after pill was developed to act as a preventative to contraception.  It does not terminate pregnancies, it prevents them from happening at all.  Specifically they prevent ovulation, like birth control pills, or they prevent fertilization, like a condom.  The active ingredient is the same as the one in the Norplant birth control implant.

So the conservatives who blast this as an abortion pill need to get a grip.  The only Christians with any moral standing might be catholics, or other faiths who (by dogma) oppose all forms of birth control.

Now.  The pharmacists.  Some pharmacists refuse to dispense it on moral grounds.  Sounds bad, but how bad it is really depends.

Let’s break this down with some of the common scenarios and my take on them.

• If the pharmacy stocks the pill, then the pharmacist should suck it up.  If it’s stocked, dispense it.  Period.
• If there are more then one pharmacists in that same store, then sure, let one of the others do it for you, but consider leaving and finding a job where the choices of products do not cause you so much dilemma.  And I would add that I fully expect you to defer to sell the pill, IUDs, condoms, spermicides and any other kind of contraceptive.  If you want this moral ground, you had damn well better be consistent.
• If a pharmacy decides to not stock it at all, sorry, the customer does not have a right to demand a product, except by the force of their business.  They vote with their wallets and take their business elsewhere.

It’s as easy as that.  Of course, it is never as easy as that.

The WaPo has this to say:

Plan B Use Surges, And So Does Controversy

One liberal blog has jumped on the bandwagon about the two middle school kids being charged as sex offenders for running down the hall slapping butts.

This is hardly a shock, this particular blog, Shakespeare’s sister, has left common sense behind ages ago.

First up was Jeff who wrote:

Boys Will Be Boys and They’ll Always be Jerks

I’m always fascinated by what people find to be a travesty of justice. I myself worry about things like torture, or death penalty cases with shoddy evidence. But the right seems to be perpetually concerned about a different class of case.

Most of you have heard about the case of Cory Mashburn and Ryan Cornelison, two middle-schoolers in Oregon who were arrested for slapping the behinds of several of their female classmates. Now, I tend to agree with Tracy Clark-Flory that some of the consequences Mashburn and Cornelison are facing — most notably lifetime registration as sex offenders — are excessive for the crime. But that has to do with my objections to the sex offender registry laws in general, which tend to be extremely punitive and cast too wide a net in affixing scarlet letters, while not actually helping prevent diddly squat.

But while I think that’s perhaps over-the-top, the level of minimization of this crime — and it is a crime, after all — on right-wing blogs is amazing. 

 Of note is the fact the actually took me to task specifically for my denouncement.

Karl at Learning Straight Up says this is a reason to homeschool — not the slapping, but the charges:

Leaning Straight Up, not Learning you moron.

His summary:

Now, I find all this opprobrium fascinating for a variety of reasons, but the main one is how it keeps hammering on the same theme: “What’s a little fondling between friends, huh? Boys will be boys, after all. Some of the girls might have liked it — heck, one girl even said girls slap butts too!”

As expected, Ward Churchill did not accept his loss of tenure gracefully.

Fired Colo. professor sues university

A professor who was fired after comparing some Sept. 11 victims to a Nazi sued the school Wednesday, saying officials retaliated against him for exercising his right to free speech.

Note that straight off the bat the article screws up the facts.  They imply that he made the comparison and was fired for it, when the truth is much different.  The irony is that they knew that, as the next paragraph shows.

Ward Churchill was ousted by the University of Colorado’s governing Board of Regents after three faculty committees accused him of plagiarism, fabrication and other research misconduct.

Churchill, a tenured professor of ethnic studies, had triggered a national outcry with an essay comparing some World Trade Center victims to organizer Adolf Eichmann.

That is clearly true, but he has been busy since then.

said his dismissal was based on other writings and that his firing was unrelated to his Sept. 11 comments. The academic investigation did not include the Sept. 11 essay but began after university officials concluded it was protected by the First Amendment and that he could not be fired for writing it.

As outrageous and disgusting as his writing was, they are right, it was protected speech.  His plagiarism however, is not.

Churchill has denied the research misconduct allegations and called the investigation “a farce” and “a fraud.”

Being himself a fraud, he should know.  There is reason to believe he isn’t even Native American, according to the census records.  See here.  If true, that means his fraud goes even farther back to his hiring, as he was hired under a diversity program.

The best he can claim, apparently, is associate or honorary membership.

His lawsuit, filed in Denver District Court, charged that after the essay came to light, “the university vowed to examine every word ever written or spoken by Professor Churchill in an effort to find some excuse for terminating his employment.”

Thank God the House is acting on this critical issue:

House Votes to Ban Permanent Bases in Iraq

“The Democratic Congress will go on record – every day if necessary – to register a judgment in opposition to the course of action that the President is taking in Iraq. The Democratic Congress will go on record – every day if necessary – to fight for a redeployment of our forces as the central element of a New Direction strategy for Iraq.”

- Speaker Pelosi, 7/25/07

Today, the House passed H.R. 2929, Banning Permanent U.S. Bases in Iraq. This bill states that it is the policy of the United States not to establish any military installation or base for the purpose of providing a permanent stationing of United States Armed Forces in Iraq. It also states that it is the policy of the United States not to exercise U.S. control of the oil resources of Iraq. The measure bars the use of any funds provided by any law from being used to carry out any policy that contradicts these statements of policy.

Why is this futile?

First I don’t recall anyone suggesting we do.  This is an empty threat.

Second, of all the military bases in the world, having bases in the middle east might actually be somewhat strategic, more so than many other bases. 

Congress seems to forget that we have military bases worldwide, over 700 in more then 50 countries.  The military should determine whether Iraq is strategic.

Not Nancy Pelosi.

There are a ton of actual important issues Congress is ignoring so they can trot out this dog and pony show to appease the nutroots.

 Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Perri Nelson’s Website, The Random Yak, DeMediacratic Nation, guerrilla radio, Big Dog’s Weblog, Stuck On Stupid, Webloggin, Cao’s Blog, The Bullwinkle Blog, Conservative Cat, third world county, Nuke’s news and views, Planck’s Constant, The Pink Flamingo, Dumb Ox Daily News, Right Voices, and Public Eye, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

You would think he would have been nailed long before.  He was active constantly in his never ending quest to convince people his wild theories are true, did it never occur to him that his own truth would be exposed?

The story comes from Newsbusters and Hot Air, via Orbusmax:

Movie creator charged

An Oneonta man who helped produce a 9/11 conspiracy documentary that became an Internet hit was arrested Monday for allegedly deserting the Army.

Korey Rowe, 24, a veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq, was picked up by deputies at about 10:45 p.m. Monday, Otsego County Sheriff Richard Devlin Jr. said.

Rowe was arrested on a “military warrant” that Devlin said was brought to the attention of deputies by the Oneonta Police Department, who received information from a source outside of that department.

Rowe previously told The Daily Star he enlisted in August 2001. He left the Army in June 2005, according to the Louder Than Words website.

He seems to have not shared how and why he left.

The Associated Press reported last month that deserters are rarely court-martialed by the Army.

Although 3,301 soldiers deserted in the 2006 fiscal year, there were just 174 troops court-martialed.

The AP report said some deserters are returned to their units, while others are discharged in non-criminal proceedings.

It isn’t like the Army cared, really.

Desertion rates have been rising since 2004, but the Army does little to seek out deserters and instead relies on a database that can be cross-checked by local law-enforcement agencies during encounters such as traffic stops, the report states.

The Department of Defense public-affairs office did not immediately return a call for comment Tuesday.

Of course the innuendo will be that he was grabbed for underhanded reasons.

A woman who answered Rowe’s cell phone Tuesday and identified herself only as Kristy said Rowe was “taken” from a house Monday night.

The DA has backed off of the initial severity of the charges for the two boys going to trial for slapping bottoms.

Prosecutor: Jail unlikely for teens in “spanking” case

Yamhill County prosecutors say jail or sex offender status is unlikely for two McMinnville middle-schoolers who spanked girls in the school hallway.

Psst:  Quick, act tough…

But District Attorney Brad Berry said his office considers the matter involving two 13-year-olds, Ryan Cornelison and Cory Mashburn, to be more than just horseplay.

Berry said his office has been swamped with calls and e-mails by people who say the initial ten counts of sex abuse and harassment was an overreaction.

Yea, duh!

The boys families said they were furious at what appeared to be backpedaling by Berry.

Tracie Mashburn asked why the family would be threatened with severe consequences if the state wasn’t going to follow though.

Ryan’s father, Joe Cornelison, said Berry is simply doing damage control.

Initially the boys had been charged with felony sex abuse and spent several days in detention. They also were temporarily suspended from school.

Family members said offers of help with legal expenses, which are causing strains on both families, are coming in from around the country and beyond. 

Common sense is slowly creeping into town.  Watch out.

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Perri Nelson’s Website, DeMediacratic Nation, Adam’s Blog, Right Truth, Big Dog’s Weblog, The Pet Haven Blog, Webloggin, Stuck On Stupid, The Amboy Times, Conservative Cat, Pursuing Holiness, Conservative Thoughts, third world county, The World According to Carl, Pirate’s Cove, Blue Star Chronicles, The Pink Flamingo, and Planck’s Constant, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

The idea here is that you do not buy any fruit that is imported because of the carbon footprint in transporting it.

No tangerines for you?

The politics of global warming got very concrete, and oddly difficult, In a meeting with local environmentalists in the coastal town of McClellanville today, where Elizabeth Edwards raised in passing the importance of relying on locally-grown fruit.

“We’ve been moving back to ‘buy local,’” Mrs. Edwards said, outlining a trade policy that “acknowledges the carbon footprint” of transporting fruit.

“I live in North Carolina. I’ll probably never eat a tangerine again,” she said, speaking of a time when the fruit is reaches the price that it “needs” to be.

Edwards had talked about “sacrifice,” at the meeting, but Elizabeth’s suggestion illustrated just how difficult it is to sell the specifics of sacrifice.

Asked about her comment immediately after the event, John Edwards avoided the question twice, then said he isn’t sure.

“Would I add to the price of food?” he asked. “I’d have to think about that.”

UPDATE: Just to be clear, he’s not talking about a food tax. The basic point is that any plan that imposes new costs on carbon emissions is going to make anything that’s transported long distances with fossil fuels cost more. It is, in a way, a moment of clarity in this debate.

I cannot for the life of me understand why people claim that the rich are out of touch.

It took long enough, but after years of irresponsible comments, plagerism and God knows what kind of liberal crap shoved into the heads of his students, Ward Churchill is history.

‘I’m going nowhere’ says Churchill after firing

The University of Colorado Board of Regents voted to fire Ward Churchill on Tuesday evening, prompting the promise of a lawsuit from the embattled professor.

The Board of Regents passed a motion to accept the recommendation from CU President Hank Brown to fire Churchill from his position in the Ethnic Studies department.

The measure passed with an 8 to 1 vote. The vote was made just after 5:30 p.m. and Cindy Carlisle was the dissenting vote. The move came after academic committees found in 2006 that Churchill was guilty of academic misconduct, including plagiarism.

Churchill and his supporters then participated in a Native American ceremony outside of the building.

“I am going nowhere,” said Churchill. “This is not about break, this is not about bend, this is not about compromise.”

Churchill touched off a firestorm in 2005 after an essay surfaced which he wrote shortly after 9/11 likening some victims in the World Trade Center to Adolf Eichmann, who helped carry out the Holocaust.

University officials concluded he could not be fired for his comments because they were protected by the First Amendment, but they launched an investigation into allegations that he fabricated or falsified his research and plagiarized the work of others.

In 2006, a university committee found Churchill guilty of academic misconduct, including plagiarism and a faculty panel recommended he be demoted and suspended for a year without pay. In May, CU President Hank Brown recommended Churchill be fired.

The man is a fool, an idiot and a fraud, and he got what he deserved.