Virgin of Guadalupe

Days later and I cannot move on from this good story of hopeychangy diplomacy:

You can find the story many places. I choose Cather's version because I love this book -- and read it at least once every year: In Death Comes For The Archbishop, Willa Cather includes the story of the visitation of the Virgin of Guadalupe. In 1531, Juan Diego, Mexican monk, traveled from his monastery to Mexico City, meeting the Blessed Vigin along the way. Mary asked Diego to find his Bishop and tell him to build a church on the spot where she speaks. She waits for Diego to return. The Bishop scoffs at his poor monk's tale. Chastened by his Bishop, Diego goes off to take care of his sick uncle. Needing meds for his uncle, he returns to his monastery, using a different route this time, intending to avoid the Virgin. Mary appears again, asking Diego why he's avoiding her. He tells her about the Bishop and his sick uncle. She assures him his uncle will be all right, healed within the hour, and tells him to revisit his Bishop. Diego asks for a sign to convince his Bishop and she tells him to gather up some roses -- though it's December. He does. She arranges the roses in Diego's cloak and tells him to deliver them to his Bishop. When he does, the roses fall out, and the Bishop and his vicar fall to their knees -- as well they should, because in the cloak is a painting of the Blessed Virgin in blue and rose and gold. And yes, a church was built on the spot where the Virgin first appeared in the New World.

Now that's a useful story to know here in Aztlan, especially with all of the Virgin decals and Virgin t-shirts and Virgin tats to be seen around here. I once told el artiste he should make one of his famous bead boy hangings with the Blessed Virgin as his subject matter. He didn't agree at the time. Then I saw a painted one in a movie once -- not quite the same, a bit more vulgar than el artiste's work, but same idea. Being pretty low-brow myself, if I ever have a door of my own, I might get one of those.

Anyway, true story:
Last week Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Kissinger visited the shrine of the Blessed Virgin in Mexico City.
Monsignor Diego Monroy had the almost 500-year-old image of Mary lowered from its altar in the basilica for a closer look by the visiting dignitary:

"Who painted it?" Clinton asked.

"God," the rector replied.

Heh.
Clinton also lit a candle during her 30-minute visit and, on her way out,
obviously channeling the unholy trinity
of Janet Reno, Donna Shalala and Slick Willie,
told a crowd of Mexicans:

"You have a marvelous virgin."

Thus spake ignorance. Twice.

In Rodham-Kissinger's defense, she was raised suburban Methodist. And spent years as our lady of Arkansas. What could she know of history? Or miracles?

Which Illini villages are missing idiots today? I'm just asking. You might ask too.

Jesus be a big bolt of lightning.
__________________________________________________________________
UPDATE:
THE ICON AND THE BATTLE-AXE
__________________________________________________________________

PETA Kill$ Puppie$ By The Thousand$

PETA Killed 95 Percent of Adorable Pets in its Gitmo Cages During 2008

Animal Killer Group’s 2008 Disclosures Bring Pet Death Toll To 21,339

WASHINGTON DC – Today the nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) published documents online showing that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) killed 95 percent of the
adoptable pets in its care during 2008. Despite
years of public outrage over its euthanasia
program, the animal rights group kills an average
of 5.8 pets every day at its Norfolk, VA
headquarters.

This is not surprising coming from an organization once run by a compassionate gal who thinks:

A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy.”
— Ingrid Newkirk, President, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)

No difference then, between a boy and a rat, or, say, between Colonel Sanders and Adolph Hitler. But, keep sending your dollar$ to the deep thinker$ at PETA! No $cam here. $ave the animal$!

Shabbat Shalom

The music to which they're -- I mean we're -- dancing tonight? Right here.
_____________________________________________________________

OSHA, The Taliban Needs OSHA

Blundering Barbarian Muslim Blows Up 6 Islamo-fascist Compadres

KABUL, March 26 (Reuters)

A wannabe suicide/murdering bomber
accidentally blew himself up on Thursday,
killing six other Koran quoting
bloodthirsty butchers as he was
bidding them a fond
fare-thee-well before leaving
to slaughter his intended target
of infidels.

"The terrorist was on his way to his
destination and saying bye-bye to his
beloved associates when his murder/suicide
vest exploded at an inopportune time,
commiting instant karma, the kind of
karma for which we can only hope for
more" said a spokesman barely able to
suppress his post-Islamic glee.

Contento says adieu my brothers, now go with Satan to your eternal reward.
______________________________________________________
We've been in Afghanistan how many years and
still no workplace safety regulatons?
OSHA standards for preventing just such on-site accidents to be found here.
______________________________________________________

Jonathan Leo Ph.D., Jeffrey LaCasse, LMU, De Busk, Harrogate, JAMA, Fontanarosa, BMJ, Seratonin

Click here or scroll for more Dr. Leo.

Jonathan Leo Ph.D., LMU, De Busk, Harrogate, JAMA, Fontanarosa, BMJ

Health Blog
Wall Street Journal's blog on health and the business of health.

March 13, 2009, 1:18 PM ET JAMA Editor Calls Critic ‘a Nobody and a Nothing’

By David Armstrong
Editors of The Journal of the American Medical Association, better known as JAMA, can be a little thin-skinned when it comes to outsiders taking issue with studies published in the prestigious medical journal.

Jonathan Leo, a professor of neuro-anatomy at tiny Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tenn., posted a letter on the Web site of the British Medical Journal this month criticizing a study that appeared in JAMA last spring.
...
Leo says he received an angry call from JAMA executive deputy editor Phil Fontanarosa last week, shortly after Leo’s article was published on the BMJ Web site. “He said, ‘Who do you think you are,’ ” says Leo. “He then said, ‘You are banned from JAMA for life. You will be sorry. Your school will be sorry. Your students will be sorry.”

Read the entire amazing elitist comedy here.

_______________________________________
Update:


Leo response here.
WSJ update here.
One more while we're at it, from today's MedPage Today.

El updato from Chicago.

And sure, Contento is connected to this story and to Dr. Leo. Just ask him how and he'll tell you. And that's more disclosure than you'll get from the esteemed peer reviewed medical journal JAMA.

Barney Frank, Antonin Scalia

After Rep. Barney Frank, D-MA, admitted he feared a
Supreme Court ruling on homosexual marriage because
“that homophobe Antonin Scalia has too many votes
on this current Court“, the associate justice called on
all Americans to “have patience with Rep. Frank as he
struggles with his heterophobia.”

Read it all here.

Thanks Scott, long time no see.

Alexander the Great, Hephaestion, Bagoas, Persian Boy, Philip of Macedon, Olympias, Roxane, Buchephalus, Mary Renault

.
.
.
Greek Orthodox Courtier/Archbishop Compares Obama to Alexander, son of Philip of Macedon, lover of Hephaestion, rider of Bucephalus, lover and slave-owner of Bagoas the Persian eunuch.

At the White House’s celebration of Greek Independence Day
Wednesday afternoon, President Obama got a little
unexpected flattery from Archbishop Demetrios,
the head of the Greek Orthodox Church in the United States.

Listing a series of challenges Obama will need to
deal with as president, Demetrios predicted:
Demetrios to Obama: "Following the brilliant example
of Alexander the Great...you will be able to cut
the Gordian knot of these unresolved issues."

Me? I love Alexander. Or the story of Alexander, the
violence and brutality of the times notwithstanding.
Sure I read Mary Renault when I was a kid.
How could one not?
And sure I read Valerio Massimo Manfredi a few years ago.
(In translation, alas.)
How could one not?
But hey Mr. Burns, you know your history?
You don't see any discrepancies between metropoof community organizer and stud conquerer of the known world?
But you're right, unexpected or totally-to-be-expected, that was flattery.
Flattery in the classical, historical, royal, clerical courtier sense...

Questions:
If Slick Willie was the first black president, does this make Obama
the first um, Greek president? Hey, the Archbishop brought this up, not me.

Does this make Rahm Emmanuel Hephaestion?

Or does this make Rahm Emmanuel Bagoas, Obama's Persian Boy?

Is Michelle Obama now Roxane, Alexander's Bactrian/Afghani wife?

And doesn't Hilary Rodham Kissinger play a convincing Olympias, the Great One's serpenty, coniving, murderous mother?

The Innocence Of Youth / George Weber Hearts John Katehis

George Weber. Internet Sex. Internet Hook-up. Trolling for teens. John Katehis.

I cannot go here today.

Or here.

Or here.

Or here or here.


Better click on summa those links before they get shut down.

I did go here.
And here to Weber's blog...
Weber's in here at Katehis's age:






______________________________________
John Katehis looks like Shane Boyd to these tired eyes.

1002 Words

Frankie Knuckles

Wayne, Bruce

Gotham
















Thanks, Jfaye.

Barneyphobic

Talk about the pot calling the kettle beige, Congressman Barney Frank says Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has a mental disorder.

Barney Frank, former sugardaddy/landlord of a
call-boy service, operating out of his own home,
unbeknownst to the Congressman, of course,
called Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia
a "homophobe" in a recent interview with the
gay news WEB site 365gay.com.

What, you never heard of 365gay.com?
Leaving aside the unfortunate illiterate etymology of the term homophobe
-- hell, it's entered the language, let's not break it down, let's go with it -- still,
I'd have to look it up but I think a phobia is an irrational fear.
I doubt that Scalia fears homos. May not likem, but probably
doesn't fear 'em.
Now a Frankphobia is an entirely reasonble disorder. Soon to make it into the DSM IV.
Ever listen to boy lollypop's demonic congressional lisp? Scares me.
And there ain't nothing irrational about that fear.
And thanks, Boys in the Band, for the beige line.
------------------------------
Random selection of previous Barney posts: here and here.

Weenies

Non-Kosher Hot Dog Incites Righteous Gustatory Rage At Jewish Eatery

Restaurant owner had to brandish electric
knife to fend off
enraged Jew while
protecting gentle
Gentile employee.





___________________________________________________
Our Helpful reminder: Look for the kopacetic label:

Missing Picture

Gunman Kills 3 Officers, Wounds 4th in Oakland

The afternoon mayhem began when two motorcycle patrol officers stopped a 1995 Buick sedan in east Oakland, Oakland police spokesman Jeff Thomason said. The driver opened fire, killing Sgt. Mark Dunakin, 40, and gravely wounding Officer John Hege, 41.

People lingered at the scene of the first shooting. About 20 bystanders taunted police.

The picture of the gunman has mysteriously disappeared from the web this morning. Saw it Saturday night. Hey, I'm just saying.

Above The Bones

It's Mishka again. Still with the MM
and this time with the long intro,
but so what, MM's talking about his
dad and he's bringing us Mishka.
Like back in January.

Thanks MM. And thanks for Og.

Promptly

The first two months of the Age of the Hopeychange have been an eye-opener. I expected it to be ideologically distasteful to me, but I didn’t expect it to be so inept. Not because I had any expectations of President Obama’s executive skills. But I assumed he’d have folks around him who could take care of details like governing, while he pranced around as the smiley-face hopeychange frontman. But the bench is still empty save for a handful of mediocrities. And the disconnect between the smoothly scripted mush and what’s actually happening makes the telepromptered cool look even more ridiculous.

Musical Interlude

Shabbat Shalom

Speaking of the Green

Senora Chavez notes:

Greed is certainly a vice; but so is envy.
And the latter is not only one of the
Seven Deadly Sins, it happens to be
forbidden by the Ten Commandments.
We’re not going to be better off if we get
rid of excessive greed but replace it with
something just as unsavory.

Bottoms Up

One more from
Saint Patrick's Day.

Compare and Contrast

“I was shocked to learn of the comment made by President Obama
about Special Olympics,” Palin said in a statement. “This was a
degrading remark about our world’s most precious and unique
people, coming from the most powerful position in the world."

Double YYs Guys
Typical "Progressive"casual cruelty.




Professional, political apologies are so easy -- and always so meaningless.

Who Said Dat?

Teleprompt this.

Reflections from the hard drive of
the machine that enables the voice
of the Leader of the Free World

Yes! There will be growth in the spring!

Musical Interlude

(You know I don't like to use the bad words, especially in public
but sometimes they're the only words to use, so beware: F-bomb alert.)

Feelin' Preachy

Never much into the whole green beer, green river thing, often been into the preachy thing though:

This St. Patrick's Day set aside, for a moment, the shamrocks, snakes, green beer, Touchdown Jesus, and river dancing. Engage, if you will, the authentic, towering figure of what was once Irish Christian culture: St. Patrick, a noble son of Roman Britain, possibly an atheist from his youngest days, and a grievous sinner as related in his public confession. He was a captured slave who found God in the solitude of a foreign, barbaric land without family, friends or social intercourse for six years.

Read it all, before your corned beef and suds gluttony. Did ya miss that link? Here it is again.
And: St. Patrick for adults.
But I know you, so hey, it's a Bushmill's day, not a Jameson's day. Jameson's is Protestant whiskey, Bushmill's Roman, so toast right.
_______________
Preachin's done, it's time for Irish Movie Night:

It's Not Fear, It's Observation; And/Or: History Repeats

According to Billy Briggs, Hitler’s birthplace has become the focus for neo-Nazis across the world:

And so I have come to Austria to investigate how Fascism and
extremism are moving, unchecked, into the forefront of its society. 

... And just as the Nazis gained power on the back of extreme
nationalism and virulent anti-Semitism, the recent unprecedented
gains in Austria were made on a platform of fear about immigration
and the perceived threat of Islam.

FPO leader Heinz Christian Strache, for example, described women
in Islamic dress as ‘female ninjas’.

How could this be unprecedented if it happened once before? And: Perceived threat? How about actual threat. And and: looks to me like it's not just the neo-Nazis, but the paleo-Nazis too....And and and: how is Strache's description an example of fear? I don't get it. It's kinda funny. Or, who are the nazi Nazis now? Austrians? Or Islamo-barbarians? And and and and: has anyone around here read Steyn's America Alone? That's on the BookAss MustRead list. Short version: Demographics Are Us.

_____________
Contento says: Everybody Sing!
_____________
Update: More news from Austria. Related? Or unrelated. You be the judge.
_____________

Shabbat Shalom

EIB

Excellence In Billboards

Let's see, the Democrat National Committee is paying for billboards to attack Rush Limbaugh, because Limbaugh is more important than the economy and because Limbaugh is more important than Islamic barbarians, and because Limbaugh is more important than school children. Has the DNC forgotten that people need kitchens and jobs and people need McNuggets! All the real need and the DNC holds a sloganeering contest, choosing the one over there as the weener.

I'm a little slow witted, but is this a pro-Limbaugh or anti-Limbaugh billboard? No, really, I can't tell. And has the DNC noticed the upward spike in Limbaugh's audience since they commenced their attack on Palm Beach's happiest golfing, yoyo-dieting, ex-oxycontin using, luvable fuzzball of an entertainer? And just what is it about Limbaugh of which they're afraid? I'm just asking.

Who are these silly people with their Limbaugh obsession?

Alaskan Graphic

News from the publishing world (hey, we're just reportin'):

Sarah Palin graphic biography sells out at US bookshops

Our Governor Mrs. Todd Palin, it turns out, remains extremely popular in the US – at least among readers of graghic publications. A graphic biography of the Alaskan governor was released in the US yesterday and has been flying off the shelves, with its publisher already rushing back to press for a second printing.

Telling Palin's life story – from PTA president to her surprise nomination as John McCain's running mate, to the pair's failed bid for the White House – the 32-page comic is an "even-handed perspective" of Palin's accomplishments, according to its publisher Bluewater Productions.

BookAss notes that a comic book biography of Hillary Clinton, the most cheated-on woman in history, was also released yesterday and is proving popular not only in Arkansas but also among the thick-ankled among us all across the fruited plain.

Who Are These People?

Who votes for them? What is this party?

Straight from the AP:

Democrats block compassionate bid to extend DC vouchers to children of the poor
14 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats have dealt a setback to a school voucher program that gives schoolchildren in the nation's capital the chance to attend private schools.

The Senate voted 50-39 along mostly party lines to reject a bid by Nevada Sen. John Ensign to extend the program beyond the 2009-2010 school year. That leaves in place a provision contained in a huge spending bill that requires Congress and the Washington, D.C. government to re-approve the program. Republicans say that is likely to kill it.

About 1,700 mostly low-income and minority students kids receive the $7,500 vouchers, which offer an alternative to the troubled D.C. school system.

The White House is not fond of the program but issued a statement saying currently enrolled kids should not have their educations disrupted.

We all know I'm a wait'n'see kinda guy, often hoping (if I may use that word) I'm wrongo. But I never am. Wrongo. Plus: I try not to have issues. Issues are for those who care. And I don't. Care. But some days issues have me. Here're 1700 kids -- including two at Sidwell Friends, where the Obama chillin's go -- condemned, yeah, that's the word, condemned by the Democrats to DC public school education. WTF? And oh yeah, Sidwell tuition is $28,442 per child per year. Plus additonal fees. Good enough for we, too bad for thee, poor little DC loserkind. Say one thing, do another. Your compassionate Democrats at work.

Look, it's clear he's a devoted father and family man, our President Obama. What about his power to affect the families of others in a positive way? Why else seek the job? Affect away. It's only a few million$ for these kids.

Update:
Voucher Kids

Camille in Bahia

Here she is.

Tereza Batista Home From The Wars

Thank you Camille.

Choco-Chili

Dark find of the day: Dark chocolate infused with premium red chili...

Miss Him Yet?

Word of the Day: Ecliptic

Okay, it's 2075 and the space cadets are in the Terra Space Station, above the:

...90th meridian, to be exact. Their orbit lies in the ecliptic, the plane of the Earth's orbit around the Sun, rather than in the plane of the Earth's equator. This results in them swinging north and south each day as seen from the earth. When it is noon in the Middle West, Terra Station and the [school ship] Randolf lie over the Gulf of Mexico; at midnight they lie over the South Pacific.

Got that?

The plane of the ecliptic is well seen in this picture from the 1994 lunar prospecting Clementine spacecraft. Clementine's camera reveals (from right to left) the Moon lit by Earthshine, the Sun's glare rising over the Moon's dark limb, and the planets Saturn, Mars and Mercury (the three dots at lower left).

The ecliptic is the apparent path that the Sun traces out in the sky during the year.

Even with pics and gentle explanation it's still gonna take me a minute to figure this out. But look at Saturn, Mars and Mercury over there. Sweet. Can't see that from the back yard. Where's Uranus?

I Like Ike

Andy Thomas

Shabbat Shalom

Apparently It's The Year Of The Hat

Nice.











------------------------
Update 2:00 P.M.:

Time For A Trip To London

Latreasa Goodman

In other voting news: A McNuggets "Emergency"

Floridian called 911 three times over McDonald's chicken shortage

MARCH 3--Angered that her local McDonald's was out of Chicken McNuggets, a typical loser called 911 three times to report the fast food "emergency."

This is not the kind of change we had envisioned when we saw Aretha's hat. And sure, click on the Floridian -- I love that word -- link above for audio of the distress calls.
Time for some 'Nuggitz stimulus from the White House.

T-Shirt'o'the'Week

Yeah, I too "...confess to some misgivings about the mode of public discourse in 21st-century America." Thanks, Mark Steyn.
But this IS kindda funny.
In an abstract way and only as long as you ain't the one getting beat on.

Snoop Dogg & Calypso Louie

Calvin Broadus Joins Nation Of Islam

Allah Akbar and far be it for me to suggest anything nefarious in a name change, Eugene Walcott, aka: The Charmer. We all know Contento tampered with his own name a time or two.

______________________________
Hmmmmmmmm. Was that just last week -- six days ago -- we said:

Beat the Hollywood rush. It's not too late for y'all to convert.

Cut and Pasted

I can't comment on or add to what Smith says here.

Last updated: 4:29 am
March 1, 2009
Posted: 2:01 am
March 1, 2009

For two and a half minutes near the end of "Taking Chance," the new HBO movie about the body of a young Marine returned home for burial, there is no sound except for the salute of the riflemen and the Wyoming wind battering the flags that stand at half mast as the shattered remains of PFC Chance Phelps are placed at rest. The silence amounts to perhaps the most eloquent statement Hollywood has yet made about the Iraq War.

Its main competition is an earlier scene in the same movie. Driving along a country road behind an SUV carrying the casket, Lt. Col. Michael Strobl finds other motorists forming an impromptu funeral cortege out of respect for the departed.

"Taking Chance," which is the only Iraq movie to show the troops in a wholly positive way, is also the only one people are watching. The film industry has reduced our troops to dupes, dopes, deserters and losers in an insane clown posse of laughably bad films like "Stop-Loss," "In the Valley of Elah," "Lions for Lambs," "Home of the Brave" and "The Lucky Ones." To say that these relentlessly skewed movies, made by people innocent of any knowledge of the military, are flops would be an understatement: "The Lucky Ones," for instance, which starred Tim Robbins and Rachel McAdams as desperate and moronic vets on leave, last fall grossed $267,000, a figure that wouldn't even cover the cost of advertising. It was yanked from screens after a single week.

"Taking Chance," though, a work of transcendent sorrow and infinite dignity, was watched by two million viewers on its first HBO showing last Saturday, the best figure for an HBO original movie in five years. Though the violent death of a serviceman informs every frame, it is also a powerful statement about duty and honor as embodied in the stark face of USMC Lt. Col. Michael Strobl, nobly portrayed by Kevin Bacon with a chesty military bearing and a hidden well of resolve. The film is based on Strobl's experience escorting the remains of Phelps, who was killed in action in 2004 and who inspired Strobl to keep a journal published on blogs such as Blackfive.net.

To show the fallen as heroes is too much for some to bear. "There is surely an edge of propaganda to the unfailing grace and dignity of the process showcased in 'Taking Chance,' " snarked Ray Richmond in The Hollywood Reporter. " 'Taking Chance' is saved from patriotic sentimentality by its attention to detail and Bacon's performance," said Mary McNamara in the Los Angeles Times. Saved! Whew. That was a close call.

In the New York Times, Ginia Bellafante ruled that "Taking Chance" contained "a flatness that made me feel unpatriotic for being bored." She needn't worry. Finding this stately but cathartic film boring isn't unpatriotic. It's merely cloddish.

Taking the Silver Star for snark was Jeffrey Wells of the popular movie blog Hollywood Elsewhere. If you have ever served in the military, I advise you to skip the next paragraph. Especially if you are armed.

Wells says that "Taking Chance" "sells the honor and glory of combat death in a 'sensitive' way that is not only cloying but borders on the hucksterish. Which I feel is a kind of obscenity . . . It may be one of the most inspired con jobs of all time in the way it walks, talks and acts apolitical . . . and yet deep down, it's a film that will warm the cockles of Dick Cheney's heart. 'Taking Chance' is about simple sadness and dignity in the same way that Scientologists offering free stress tests are just trying to make your day go a little smoother."

Since Wells apparently scorns all "combat death," not just those in Iraq, I wonder whether he is a local pacifist as well. Maybe if there were no ceremonies to honor fallen police officers, the force would be unable to recruit new talent and disband. Then criminals, unprovoked by the presence of law enforcement, would simply disappear?

"Taking Chance" makes no case for the Iraq War. It asks merely for understanding and respect of those who sacrifice. The pain etched in Bacon's face is so profound that by the end of the film, you feel why he says, "I should have been over there. I was trained to fight. If I'm not over there, what am I?" Then he delivers his highest praise: "Those guys - guys like Chance - they're Marines.

Thanks, Kyle.