“Dan is so dreamy!” Sigh.

If, after seeing this, anyone has the stomach to read about Rick and his BFF Dan Savage, here’s a linque to the Huffington Post.

 It took us until noon or so today before we managed to force ourself to actually read Grover Norquist’s Op. Ed. in today’s New York Times. You see, we’re so used to bubbling up and boiling over with fury every time we read a disingenuous, dishonest and mendacious opinion piece by a prominent conservative that we just weren’t sure we could take one more. In these pieces the author generally strikes a tone of deep concern for the federal debt, the solvency of Social Security and Medicare and the well being of  “average Americans,” proposes solutions that would devastate all three of those things while pretending to improve them, and then backs it up with a series of blatantly false studies, cooked statistics and fuzzy math.

But Norquist’s piece surprised us in that regard. For not only does Norquist dispense with artificial concern for the country’s debt picture, he’s quite straightforward in announcing that his entire program is built around the notion that the government must be dismantled at all costs, the deficit be damned. Read more »

Maybe it’s because we’ve lived our entire life on the Left Coast — where religion is certainly present, and just as certainly not suffocating — that we fail to see the point of something like this:

Because we represent such a small sliver of the American population and are often seen in a negative light, I believe that it is imperative that atheists make themselves known. A 2010 Gallup poll demonstrated something the LGBTQ community has recognized for some time: people are significantly more inclined to oppose gay marriage if they do not know anyone who is gay.

We weren’t aware that living La Vita Heathen was a matter of genetics, and the writer — who himself happens to be gay — should know better than to make a comparison like that. For that matter, his later comparison of atheists to Muslims, while at least categorically correct, overlooks the nasty distinction that American bigotry against Muslims is actually racist, seeing how most Muslims don’t exhibit Nordic traits.

Read more »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6EaoPMANQM

Part two of Harbottle and Lewis’s instructional video series to teach even the most regenerate Aussie yahoo how to address a parliamentary commission.

In case you dear sweet people are not aware, H&L did not only represent I, Benedick, before the bar at the Old Bailey (I was in a navy suit, club tie, very clean-cut, athletic, upstanding youth) against Her Majesty’s government but the firm also represents HRH herself.

Queen v Queen? [Independent UK]

“The shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration that will occur Friday night if Congress does not reach a deal to extend its authorization would result in the ‘immediate furlough’ of 4,000 workers, bring a halt to $2.5 billion in airport construction projects, and cost the government about $200 million a week in lost airline ticket taxes, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said on a conference call Thursday.” [ThinkProgress]

“Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has signed a bill that officially classifies beer as alcoholic. Until now anything containing less than 10% alcohol in Russia has been considered a foodstuff.” [BBC, via Daring Fireball]

Rebekah Brooks may be gone but her glory days as editor of The Sun, Britain’s biggest selling ‘newspaper’ won’t soon be forgotten.

Whether it was swilling pints in the pub with the lads, printing the names of accused sex offenders, brokering deals between her boss and prime ministers, or arranging back-door access, Rebekah’s networking skills were legendary.

And lest we think that the stupefying awfulness of Britain’s tabloids has been somehow exaggerated take a look at Rebekah’s handiwork. (There will be a prize for anyone locating the source of a recent post here at Stingue)

Alright, alright (UK spelling, thanks very much), so she’s not the only one responsible but as I think we’ve already proved (not ‘proven’ for god’s sake because it has been proved), rule #1 is — Blame the Woman.