~ after keeping al-zarqawi in the headlines for a second day by telling us that he was still alive when iraqi, then american, forces arrived at the bombing site, on the third day the prurient interests do not let up, with the msnbc headline:

Skimpy women”s clothing found at al-Zarqawi site

as this is sure to get a rise out of any hot-blooded fan of the latest trophy killing, calling to mind how the details of the lives of uday and qusay hussein so titillated an american public, we fear that they are set up for disappointment when they skim the article for the sordid details and find only an unsexy description of a single “leopard-print nightgown”.

~ it is ‘news’ that al-zarqawi is dead now. why do cnn, msnbc, abc, and others also consider watching a video of a bombing to be following ‘news’? it is newsworthy that some thing has taken place; does touting the act as a spectacle truly make the event more important? ‘see! al-zarqawi’s corpse! see! his house getting blowed up!’

cnn showing off the video of al-zarqawi’s safe house getting bombed is the moral equivalent of al-zarqawi releasing a video of nick berg’s beheading on his website.

‘rip: 12.2000-6.2006’
(more…)

~ when it comes to banning gay marriage:

“I don’t believe there’s any issue that’s more important than this one,” said Sen. David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican.

does this dipshit have an email address? he is from a state that was royally fucked in last year’s hurricane, and he can’t think of something ‘more important’ than his attempts to legislate against equal rights for all americans. i suspect that if they could get him on the phone, there are more than several people in southern louisiana who could give him some ideas of what is ‘important’ this year.

apparently there is a paucity of ideas in those there congress halls, for the right-wing fringe represented by Senator Brownback froths that men getting married “is harmful to the future of the republic”. the future of the republic! So that is what the Republicans want to protect the nation from; it isn’t as though we are enmeshed in an never-ending war against terrorists and freedom-haters – according to Republicans we needn’t worry about the record national debt, the cost in lives or money, the u.s. marines’ defiling of our national integrity in haditha, busted medicare, fuel costs, our rent going up $50 next month, or those hordes of immigrants we were being told to worry about just last week. in fact, the mere mention of outlawing gays has persuaded people to forget that the republican senate plans this week to repeal taxes on the wealthiest americans.

The only thing that is possibly crazier than Sam Brownback is the notion of Canadian terrorists storming parliament and cutting off heads.

~

Lioness in zoo kills man who invoked God

KIEV (Reuters) – A man shouting that God would keep him safe was mauled to death by a lioness in Kiev zoo after he crept into the animal’s enclosure, a zoo official said on Monday.

“The man shouted ‘God will save me, if he exists’, lowered himself by a rope into the enclosure, took his shoes off and went up to the lions,” the official said.

“A lioness went straight for him, knocked him down and severed his carotid artery.”

The incident, Sunday evening when the zoo was packed with visitors, was the first of its kind at the attraction. Lions and tigers are kept in an “animal island” protected by thick concrete blocks.

’nuff said!

~ we have what is likely to be the final ‘the angry red planet single day distance record’: