And speaking of particularly Utah perversions...

...how about the Legislature? The Rethuglicans railroaded an omnibus education bill last session that had as many ingredients as fruitcake. Now a citizen group is filing a suit challenging the constitutionality of that suit because, hey, the State Constitution has a single-subject requirement. And Greg Curtis, Speaker of the House and point-whore for his law firm's lobbying efforts, is pissed. He thinks it's an invasion of the Legislature's authority for the courts to interpret the Constitution. These assclown Norsefires are never going to get that checks-and-balances thing or that it's the courts' job to interpret the Constitution. No, they're rich, white, Mormon patriarchs, and they can run anything better than you. Including your own life.

Speaking of pervs...

...the Texas raid on the FLDS compound is proceeding to the hearing stage. The news there is full of stories of how the courts, the state bar, law enforcement, social service agencies, and many others are working together to overcome the logistical nightmare of such a big case in such an isolated area so that the kids are protected while everybody gets a fair day in court. The Utah news, on the other hand, is full of histrionics about how the Texas authorities have gone too far and how the children are being traumatized by separation from their parents (as opposed to the trauma of being a child bride [for the girls] or being brainwashed into believing having a child bride is a good idea [for the boys]). This state is just sick.

Alright all you pervs...

...Emma Watson is legal now. Turned 18 earlier this week. Like a cute, rich girl who pulled straight A-Levels is going to want anything to do with you fat, pathetic, wimpy, geeky wankers.

Ben Stein is a Whore

Well, OK, that was a given. The whoredom of anyone who was a speech writer for Tricky Dick is thoroughly established. Stein, though, has been working on his intellectual credentials the last several years (Intellectual by US standards, that is, which means you drool only a little and can usually get to the bathroom by yourself. Which is yet another reason the rest of the world views the US as a joke. A cruel joke with too much money, too many weapons, and not enough sense to manage either.). Now he is using his new "legitimacy" in his new film "Expelled," which supposedly exposes the persecution of those who espouse "intelligent design" (I put that in quotes because there is in fact nothing intelligent about "intelligent design." And there are good reasons mainstream science doesn't accept it as an alternative theory, such as: 1) little if any evidence offered supporting it, its proponents focusing instead on attacking evolution, and failing miserably; 2) no methodology for potentially falsifying the theory, understandable since it's in fact scripturally based and most of its proponents can accept no falsifying; and 3) no methodology for scientifically examining an intelligent designer. Stein, along with all the other proponents, simply ignores all this and claims "academic persecution.").

The depth of Stein's intellectualism is apparent, though, in his marketing of the film. There have been no screenings for critics, and the only screenings have been for carefully selected groups of evangelicals. In other words, Stein's film is an exploitive shit fest that he expects to rake in a bunch of cash by preaching to the choir, not by actually exploring the issues. I am so shocked.

Mallard Fillpants, Tax Expert

After being quiet for awhile, that assclown anidae Mallard Fillpants is making noise just in time for taxes. Using that oh-so-reliable waste dump The Tax Foundation as his source, he trots out the factoid that the average American works until April 30th to pay off the tax burden (a right-wing factoid that has been shown time and again to be a marvel of massaged bookkeeping). Then he really goes off the deep end and claims that the Kennedy, Ray-guns, and Chimpy tax cuts increased tax revenues (i.e. that supply side dreckonomics works), even though no one has yet to show any connection between those cuts and any supposed increases in tax revenues (Kennedy's increased revenues were the result of the business cycle, with the country recovering from the recession that hit at the end of the Eisenhower years. Ray-guns "increased" revenue through a series of accounting tricks and smoke-and-mirrors. If revenue increased under Chimpy, it was the result of the false economic growth of the last few years, fueled by real estate and mortgage speculation, and it's all gone now. Fillpants is also ignoring that Ray-guns and Chimpy were cutting taxes for the wealthy while increasing the deficit, thereby increasing the long-term tax load for the rest of us.).

Then he goes for the patently absurd, still relying on The Tax Foundation, and claims that the average American spent more on state and federal taxes last year than on food, clothing, and housing combined. Wait a minute. Pull out your 1040 and your state tax form. Add up the total taxes you paid, even before any refund. Is that as much as you paid on mortgage/rent last year? I didn't think so. Let alone adding food and clothing in. It never ceases to amaze me the brass-plated bullshit Norsefire keeps shoveling at us. And the average moron on the street eats it up with a big spoon.

Texas Busts Perverts Utah Wouldn't Touch

For such a lightly populated state (There are fewer people in Utah than in the Seattle-Tacoma area, for example.), there is a mind-numbing amount of stupidity packed in here. Just watch any governing body in action. Or the broadcasts of the semi-annual drivel fest known as LDS General Conference, one of which we had clog the arteries of normal life just last weekend. But certainly the most malevolent example of Utah stupidity has been the wink-wink nod-nod it's given the mobs of child molesters hiding in plain sight in polygamist compounds for over a century. Utah has ostensibly given them a pass on religious freedom grounds, although anyone with more wit than a sack of shit knows that religious freedom does not allow you to nail your pubescent niece (I suspect there were two other reasons for turning a blind eye: 1) too many members of Families That Matter secretly involved, and 2) opening that can of worms would also have opened up the orthodox LDS Church's child molestation problem, which isn't limited to little girls.). In spite of this local epidemic of thickness, Utah finally managed to prosecute and convict the leader of the largest group of pervs, the FLDS Church, but it took everything Utah fucktard law enforcement had to do it.

Because of the Utah "persecution," the FLDS moved their headquarters to west Texas. What they didn't figure, though, was that the Texans had no motivation to look the other way (covering up the "sexual indiscretions" of evangelical Christians and right-wing politicians is another matter), so the Rangers kicked the door in and hauled the kids out. There has been much hand-wringing by the usual gang of idiots here in Utah over "persecution" and "oppression," but sane people (i.e. people from anywhere else) generally echo church-state scholar and attorney Marci Hamilton's statement, "Nobody's had the guts to do what Texas authorities did...finally a group of authorities realized they couldn't let it go on any more."

So what do we take away as lessons? First, the obvious point that, in spite of constant noise about caring for children, Utah cares far less about children than it does about the maintenance of the appearance of propriety and of religious authority. Second, and ultimately more importantly, is that we once again see what religion is really about: abusing the weak. Every religion in this country that claims any significant amount of authority (polygamists, LDS, evangelicals, Roman Catholic) have been exposed as having used that authority to commit heinous crimes and then cover them up for years. What do these criminal organizations offer society in return? A road to Heaven through their sewage? If you cling to such idiocy for comfort, I would submit that you too have been abused by these paragons of piety and are so brainwashed that your opinion needs hermetically sealed, not allowed to shape public policy.