Pollywogs!

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/12/22/223842/31

I picked some of the juiciest as an appetizer:

20. The implication that there was something wrong with the war plan is amusing." –Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, on criticism of his management of the Iraq war

16. Capital punishment is our way of demonstrating the sanctity of life."– Orrin Hatch

9. Isn't that the ultimate homeland security, standing up and defending marriage?" –Sen. Rick Santorum

5. "President Washington, President Lincoln, President Wilson, President Roosevelt have all authorized electronic surveillance on a far broader scale."–Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, testifying before Congress 

4. I feel the best way to ensure Americans' freedom is to tighten restrictions on that freedom in any way possible. Only through wiretaps, illegal searches and seizures, unfettered government intrusion, a controlled media and a complete crackdown on free speech can we ensure the liberties of all people." — Attorney General John Ashcroft

1. Hmmm, uhh, hah — ummm — I, the answer is — I haven't really thought of it that way, heh, heh. Heh. Here's how I think of it. Ummm — heh heh. First I've heard of that, by the way, I, ah — uhh — the, uhh — I, I guess I'm more of a practical fella. Uhh. I vowed after September the 11th that I would do everything I could to protect the American people. And, uhh — my attitude, of course, was affected by the attacks.ha ha …ummm Let me see… I knew we were at a war. I knew that the enemy, obviously, had to be sophisticated, and lethal, to fly hijacked airplanes, uhh, into — facilities that would, we would, killing thousands of people, innocent people, doin' nothing, just sittin' there goin' to work."–President George W Bush, after being asked if the war in Iraq and the rise of terrorism are signs of the apocalypse

Ripped from the comments section:

"Facts are stupid things." — Ronald Reagan, 1988, a misquote of John Adams, "Facts are stubborn things."

"Trees cause more pollution than automobiles do." — Ronald Reagan, 1981

"Fascism was really the basis for the New Deal." Ronald Reagan, 1976

"When the President does it, it's not illegal." — Richard M. Nixon

Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we.  Our enemies never stop thinking about new ways to harm us and our country, and neither do we." — George W. Bush

We know where they [Iraq's WMD] are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south, and north somewhat….
(Rumsfeld in an) Interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC This Week, March 30, 2003

"We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did." - Rep. Richard H. Baker (R) Baton Rouge

Ugh… 

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=oddlyEnough

Motorists who seem to turn off their brain when switching on their car's satellite navigation system have had a number of spectacular crashes in the past year…

Hmm…you mean when I don't think about driving, I become more dangerous?

In southern England a 29-year-old woman survived unscathed after misreading her satnav and driving the wrong way on a motorway near Portsmouth at nearly 120 km (75 miles) per hour, according to a local newspaper.

When stopped after 22 km of dodging oncoming traffic, she told police she had only followed the satnav orders.

I can understand how difficult it is driving in a new location,I wasn't having fun driving around JFK on Long Island, let me tell you that…so many god damn roads running side by side, exits, on ramps, jesus what a crazy place.  I was thinking a satnav would make it easier…which it might, as long as I don't make the mistake of resting soley on its decision making powers…

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16322314/

Former Texas agent teaches how to hide, stash, and fool drug officers

Cooper, who said he favors the legalization of marijuana, made the video in part because he believes the nation’s fight against drugs is a waste of resources. Busting marijuana users fills up prisons with nonviolent offenders, he said.

“My main motivation in all of this is to teach Americans their civil liberties and what drives me in this is injustice and unfairness in our system,” Cooper told the newspaper.

…

News of the video has angered authorities, including Richard Sanders, an agent with the Tyler Drug Enforcement Agency. Sanders said he plans to investigate whether the video violates any laws.

“It outrages me personally as I’m sure it does any officer that has sworn an oath to uphold the laws of this state, and nation,” Sanders said. “It is clear that his whole deal is to make money and he has found some sort of scheme, but for him to go to the dark side and do this is infuriating.”

What is infuriating is that no one in the government questions STUPID FUCKING LAWS!  They continually try to box life with law after law after law, trying to build an artificial wall around reality to 'keep us safe'…from ourselves!  

Sworn oath to uphold the laws of blah blah blah YOU FUCKING COCKSUCKER.  Show me a cop that doesn't break traffic laws on a regular basis and I'll show you a cop that has EARNED HIS DOUGHNUT.  

Sorry if I'm a little irate, I've been the victim of illegal search and seizure as a teenager, and interrogated without access to council (also as a teenager)…cops will bend (and break) the law any time they can to 'enforce' the law, when it should be the absolute opposite:  the police should be the avatars of the law, the living embodiment of virtue, honesty and public service.  Instead…you get shit like this and this (ok, the second isn't really the cops fault, but you know they blindly enforce good laws and bad).

UPDATE: I guess I should note, in an effort to at least appear fair and balanced, that the three other times I had been pulled over by state and local cops who were the model of professionalism.  Once, for speeding on 220 (my one and only speeding ticket), once for having a 'discombobulated inspection sticker' (quickly cleared up), and once because I drove through a checkpoint and the cops were certain I had been drinking at a local party they were trying to bust (they quickly learned, at the back of my truck, with me surrounded by about six uniformed officers, that I was certainly NOT drunk…what they didn't learn (and for which I'll eternally be grateful for) was that I was as high as a kite, had a mini-bong in the door pocket of the truck (I think a larger one under the seat), and one pants pocket was bulged with empty candy wrappers, the other with a balled up empty baggie, contacts in, eyes must have been red like meatballs…I guess I was lucky they were looking so hard for one thing, when I stepped out of the truck with perfect balance, poise and had my shit together, I knocked THEM off guard…

But, one bad apple spoiled the whole damn bunch, for me… 

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/12/

It's no wonder the federal government did not want to release details for a year, because once again, it's all handouts to Big Oil who set new records in profitability while sticking the middle class with the bill. Good grief, can we re-set priorities and worry about the middle class again and quit giving more welfare and handouts to the richest?

If Exxon can give half a billion dollars to the CEO, I see no reason why taxpayers should have to fund their business since they seem to be doing pretty well without taxpayer handouts. These are not small companies who need help to get started, but very mature companies who bathe their executives with lavish compensation packages and then pass on the bill to governments around the world, rich and poor alike. I don't know what is worse between them asking or governments actually giving over the money.

I tried writing something insightful about corporations, compensation, the working class, the government and taxes, but I couldn't seem to get anywhere.  I'm sure you know it all already…one thing:  consider extravagant compensation.  At what point does it go from absurd to criminal?  Does such a point exist?  By compensating one individual to the point of a half a billion dollars for a single year, are you literally stealing money from thousands upon thousands of other people?  Should it be considered in that fashion, for society to be fair, equitable and just?

"Are humans still evolving? In the vernacular sense of improving morally and intellectually - by cultural changes - I think so," says Steven Pinker. "In the biological sense of changes in the gene pool, it's impossible to say." If pressed to come off the fence, however, the Harvard-based evolutionary biologist knows where he stands. "People, including me, would rather believe that significant human biological evolution stopped between 50,000 and 100,000 years ago, before the races diverged, which would ensure that racial and ethnic groups are biologically equivalent," he says.

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/mg18925421.300

Why is he a pussy?  He just danced around the truth, for fear of 'looking bad'.  The hard truth is that evolution does NOT function in the same way on people who have subdued the wilderness, augmented their bodies with technology and surgery, and medicated their illnesses with antibiotics and drugs (the article touches very briefly ('some experts', including the light-footed Pinker, ohs nos) on this at a couple points, but doesn't bring it out as the massive force on natural evolution that it is).  I mean, that is a simple fact…evolution is a natural process…the things that technology has allowed us to do…man made.  People are still evolving, but the evolutionary pressure is VASTLY different than it was 50,000 years ago, which was VASTLY different than it was 10,000 years ago, and vastly different than it was even 200 years ago.  

Steven Pinker, go find your balls.  You're allowed to say people are different.  It sounds like the pile he REALLY doesn't want to step in is whether some of the more recent differences (the ones that make some people burn easy in the sun, for example) are necessarily 'better' in some way than the others.  The thing is, evolutionary pressure determines what is 'better'.  If people need 'this' to survive, evolution is damn well going to select for that! 

Whether people are still evolving DOESN'T NOT have anything to do with what people 'think' evolving means.  What the scientists are really saying is "I know if I say something that sounds racists, you're going to destroy me", "You don't know what evolution means, technically"…and then you have this chestnut:

 "Without a doubt, the most important selective pressures continue to be on brain function," says Wills.

What an idiot.  Since when was the advancement of technology and society pushed forward by the entire population together at once?  And, you don't need a brain to make children, you need a…well, you know what you need…it sure as hell isn't a particularly good brain.   Any idiot can make a child, and it seems that the more educated people are, the fewer children they have.  Wills must mean that the smartest people don't spend time fooling with education, they just get down and fuck as much as possible, and make tons of babies.  Hmm…I guess it depends upon your definition of 'smart'…from an evolutionarily 'spread your genes' standpoint, it makes perfect sense… 

Maybe I'm being to hard on those two.  They are trying to explain practical biological happenings to a myth-filled, god-fearing public and they don't want to be labeled a racists to boot.   The article is quite good actually.