Dungeon Diary

Tarzan Toy - A Boys Favorite Plaything?

2009-11-27T18:22:00.001-06:00

This one is amazing, and just in time for Christmas!

Tarzan Fail
by failblog

Dubai Awash In Debt - Asks For Hiatus On Repayments

2009-11-26T22:54:00.002-06:00

The city state of Dubai, also known as what I call the "Architecture Factory" is putting on the brakes. Driven by immense debt incurred in it's insane building projects, like the worlds tallest skyscraper in the middle of the desert or the palm shaped islands, the emirate is over $60 billion in debt.
The call for a debt standstill for 6 month has shaken the world markets. Seems everyone is surprised that Dubai is in trouble. I have to wonder do these folks who are the power brokers in he world markets every do some basic arithmetic?

Sheik Mohammed has been spending like a drunk who thinks he won the lottery and now everyone else is figuring it out. Certainly hope he doesn't take the rest of the middle east down with him.

GOP Rewriting History Again - No Terror Attacks Under Bush?

2009-11-25T10:43:00.001-06:00

Sure feels like 1984 at least the fictional one. Dana Perino is trying to rewrite history in an interview where she claims there were no terrorist attacks under the Bush administration. Hummm? So what was 9/11 and that Anthrax thing?

Atlanta Police Sued By Eagle Patrons

2009-11-25T08:09:00.003-06:00

Lambda Legal is representing 19 individuals in a lawsuit over the police raid on the Atlanta Eagle. From an interview in OnTop Magazine, Greg Nevins, supervising senior staff attorney in Lambda Legal's Southern Regional Office made this statement:

“The illegal activity going on in the Atlanta Eagle that night was committed by the APD (Atlanta Police Department).... If it is APD procedure for elderly men and wounded veterans to be thrown to the floor and harassed simply for being in a bar having a drink after work, then the APD should change its procedure."

During the raid, no one was allowed to leave the building and police forced 62 patrons to lay prone on the floor while they collected IDs. Anyone questioning their activity was told, “Don't speak until spoken to” or “Shut up.”

Maybe the patrons of the Rainbow Lounge should take note? The Fort Worth Police and TABC have clearly covered up their tracks with their lame investigations that found no wrongdoing, yet one of the men they detained was sent to the hospital with a brain injury. Where is the outrage?

An Ocean On Mars?

2009-11-24T08:17:00.002-06:00

Last night my partner and I were looking at Google Mars. It's a wonderful program developed from the photographs taken by several Mars probes and includes details I had never seen before. We were postulating the features that are obviously due to erosion.

Today, I find this article which states that Mars once had a great ocean in its northern hemisphere and was a damp and rainy place. Pretty cool stuff. Especially when you consider how similar Mars and Earth are and that leads to the obvious question, was there life on Mars?

Hummm? Damp rainy, oceans, most likely a richer atmosphere? I suspect it is only a matter of time before we find the first Martian fossils.

I hope I am around to see that. I can only wonder how it will affect the theology of folks who cannot envision a God big enough for life on other worlds. Should be some interesting crises of faith.

Anti Gay Hate Crimes Rise Alarmingly

2009-11-23T15:06:00.002-06:00

The latest report from the FBI shows that hate crimes against LGBT people are rising at a rate of nearly 11%. That is reason for alarm.

The statistics are a bit dusty, since these were from 2008, but I guess it takes time for law enforcement officials from around the country to compile them. Of the 1706 people who were targets of sexual orientation hate crimes here is the breakdown according to the FBI:

57.5 % were victims of an offender’s anti-male homosexual bias.
27.3 % were victims because of an anti-homosexual bias.
11.6 % were victims because of an anti-female homosexual bias.
2.0 % were victims because of an anti-heterosexual bias.
1.6 % were victims because of an anti-bisexual bias.

The breakdown reflects a couple of strange things, first the general anti-homosexual category seems odd anbd the lact of "transgendered" as a category is also troubling. With the new Byrd/Shepard Hate Crimes Act in place I suspect the next compilation will include trangendered victims as well.

DADT Hearings On Hold - Indefinitely

2009-11-23T09:05:00.003-06:00

Senator Carl Levin, who in October said that Don't Ask Don't Tell would be brought up at a Senate hearing in November has apparently decided it is not a wise move and has pulled it off the table.

In an article on the blog LezGetReal.com sources are quoted as saying the issue will most likely be tucked into next years DOD appropriations bill. This confirms what Barney Frank intimated in an Advocate magazine interview last week.

Once again the Democrats are delaying LGBT issues. I have to wonder if they really plan to do anything or just delay hoping we will forget? Here's the deal, we won't forget!

Airport Blogging

2009-11-20T19:35:00.003-06:00

Stuck at the airport so I am bored. Only bright spot was watching a crowd of Palin fans "boo" her as she left a book signingbefore signing all their books. Small comfort!

Jon Stewart & Mick Foley On Protecting Gay Rights

2009-11-20T08:23:00.000-06:00

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

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www.thedailyshow.com

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Health Care Crisis

Virginia Foxx Rewrites History

2009-11-19T12:31:00.004-06:00

The Republicans continue to try to rewrite history. If it wasn't bad enought that Fox News is using faked footage to imply broad support of the radical right agenda, now another Fox, this one in Congress is just plain telling big fat lies!

Representative Virginia Foxx (R-NC) told these whoppers:

"Actually, the GOP has been the leader in starting good environmental programs in this country.... Just as we were the people who passed the civil rights bills back in the ’60s without very much help from our colleagues across the aisle,”

Of course she forgets it was during the Kennedy/Johnson years that the Civil Rights Act was debated and passed. She also forgets that a good portion of southern Democrats might as well have been Republicans since they were about as ultra-conservative.

Fox and Foxx are full of crap, but that's just my opinion!

Fox Claims Disciplinary Action For Fake Footage Of Palin

2009-11-19T09:47:00.002-06:00

In the category of "I'll believe it when I see it", Fox has said they will discipline the people responsible for the fake footage of alleged crowds at a Sarah Palin book signing. The actual footage was of a campaign rally last year.

This follows their other false footage from the anti-health care reform on Sean Hannity's show where they actually showed footage from the "teabagger" rally months previously. Fox seem unable to live in the real world, and like the GOP they continue to create their own reality. The problem is now the FCC may get involved for them disseminating false information.

Fox News Fakes More Footage!

2009-11-18T17:07:00.002-06:00

Fox News, or as I call it the "all GOP Channel", has been fudging their footage again. This time in support of their favorite celebrity, Sarah Palin. Afternoon host Gregg Jarrett breathlessly spoke of the huge crowds Palin is drawing at her book signings and the showed footage of her behind a teleprompter waving at the crowd, holding McCain for President signs? Oh come now!

How stupid do you think the average Fox viewer is? Never mind that rhetorical question!

Palin Gets On My Nerves

2009-11-17T09:04:00.003-06:00

Will someone call Sarah Palin and tell her that her 15 minutes of fame are up!

Her fiction filled book seems to be everywhere, yet I have met no one but pundits and fact checkers who have read it. She is all over television and frankly, she gives me a headache.

Her fake folksiness act no longer works and though she is an easy target for Tina Fey, I just wish she would go away.

Presidential material? Nobody in the GOP seriously thinks so unless they just want to put a smartly dressed air head in the White House....oh wait, they already did that with George W!

Water on the Moon!

2009-11-13T14:33:00.003-06:00

Water on the MOON! Now that is big news.

The recent NASA mission that bombarded the lunar surface generated a plume including a significant amount of water vapor. This means our vision of the moon being a cold dry place is wrong and it could have implications for further exploration and for the search for life on other worlds as well.

Coney Island Redux

2009-11-13T08:36:00.003-06:00

Last month, my partner and I paid a cold rainy visit to Coney Island to make a pilgrimage to Gargiulio's restaurant. It's a tradition for me to have a great Italian dinner at one of Coney Island's landmarks. The other landmarks are dwindling. Astroland, though never a great amusement park was still a remnant of what Coney Island used to be, is long gone. Luna Park and Steeplechase are dim memories for only the older crowd, and the last remnants of Coney are the Cyclone roller coaster, Wonderwheel Park and the Sideshow by the Seashore.

Today the city gave the aging fun-zone new hope. New York announced a 12.5 acre amusement park and major revival projects for the boardwalk and entertainment areas surrounding it. Read more here on Huffington Post.

GOP Funds Abortions

2009-11-12T19:33:00.002-06:00

No really! Their health insurance program for the Republican National Committee actually pays for abortions. The hypocritical votes of Republicans forcing a "no publicly funded abortions" clause in the health insurance reform is amazingly cynical.

Of course I should have expected no less.

Lou Dobbs - Buh Bye!

2009-11-11T21:28:00.002-06:00

Tonight Lou Dobbs leaves CNN. I suspect in a few days he will show up on FOX. His once semi-coherent voice has become a shrill call for the right as he rants about illegal aliens and other far right diatribes.

Perhaps he will be happier somewhere else?

Veteran's Day

2009-11-11T08:29:00.002-06:00

I always try to spend a few moments in meditation remembering the veterans who have gone to war in the name of our freedom. Though I have often disagreed with the government as to the need for the wars they wage, I never have lost respect for the men and women who fight them.

I also spend a little time praying for peace. I pray for a day when nations work out their problems at a negotiating table and not a battlefield. Want to get involved? Check out the Dallas Peace House.

AIG CEO Feels Restricted By Government Pay Czar

2009-11-11T08:22:00.002-06:00

Spending the first two weeks on the job telecommuting from his villa on the Adriatic Sea where he oversees wine production in his vineyard, Robert Benmosche feels pinched. Apparently he resents government oversight of the company the US Taxpayers now own and wants more "freedom" to dole out bonuses to his execs.

My heart bleeds for him!

Mayan Calendars & UFOs

2009-11-10T08:06:00.002-06:00

As the opening day of the new disaster movie 2012 nears, the internet is abuzz with pseudo-science! Talk of the end of the world abounds and yet it is nothing new. Back in 1844 a guy named William Miller claimed that Jesus was coming back and he knew the exact date. October 22, 1844!

Thousands of his wide eyed followers gathered for the second coming and waited with breathless anticipation. The next morning brought disappointment, yet Miller continued to wait for Jesus until his death several years later. That event "the great disappointment" actually gave birth to the Adventist movement and eventually the 7th Day Adventist Church.

Maybe a new church will form in 2013?

The Mayan calendar is segmented into cycles and one does end in 2012, but another begins immediately following that.

Other crackpots claim a planetary alignment will throw the earth off kilter or some such crap. According to NASA, don't hold your breath. Once again it's a load of hooey, but this time it's being exploited for profit by writers and movie makers instead of religious zealots.

So have fun at the movie and sleep well knowing that we have a much better chance of destroying ourselved with our weapons and carbon emissions than we do of an apocalypse in 2012.

Don't Ask, Don't Give

2009-11-09T16:34:00.002-06:00

Interesting tactic launched by the folks at AmericaBlog and one that might get the attention of the White House. The Gay-TM is officially turned off until the President and his people begin prodding Congress to do the right thing and repeal DOMA, DADT and pass ENDA! So many acronyms!

Here is the petition.

Far Right Forms New Party In Florida

2009-11-09T12:49:00.002-06:00

Conservatives have circled the wagons in Florida and are engaged in a circular firing squad. Not content with Charlie Crist who many of the right wing-nuts consider too liberal they have formed a new political party. The Tea Party!

This is pretty good news for progressives. If the GOP splits into right wing and further right wing, their power will be even further limited than it is now. My hope is that this kind of schism will relegate the Republicans and their ilk to a minor Southern party with little actual power. Now if we can only get the Democrats to understand how powerful their position is and start behaving like the majority party!

Joe Leiberman Still In The Pocket Of Health Insurance

2009-11-09T10:08:00.003-06:00

How to put this tactfully? Sen. Joe Lieberman is a dick. yup that just about sums it up as kindly as I can put it. He has sworn to kill the health care bill so long as there is any chance of reasonable and affordable insurance for all Americans. He still clings to the delusion that private companies do it better.

Well, Joe, go take your Ayn Rand books and invisible hand of the market and stuff it. You know very well the insurance companies will do everything they can to gouge American's however and whenever they can. Just try jumping through the hoops to get any kind of procedure approved... oh that's right, you have GOVERNMENT HEALTH INSURANCE!

What a piece of work you are!

Fundamentalists Stone Adulterer

2009-11-07T10:21:00.002-06:00

Ah the delights of fundamentalism!

In Somalia, the country without a government, or at least one that works, a crowd of fundamentalists stoned an adulterer to death. The woman he impregnated will be killed once she has her baby. I guess "life is sacred" to these Muslim fundamentalists. In truth, these might as well be Christian fundamentalists. If they really believe the Bible is inerrant, there should be more stoning and public executions. (Deut. 22:22)

The whole fundamentalist problem is an inability to do critical thinking and a willingness to consider anything written as truth. So for the fundamentalists reading this, it is written:

"Thou shalt not inflict thine own ignorance upon others."

Jon Stewart Does A Killer Glenn Beck Impression!