Matt of All Trades blog, like the title suggests, is by a Vermont author and offers offbeat musings on pop culture, media, journalism, humor, weirdness, stupid people, smart people, my life as a journalist, landscaper, photographer, married gay man, dog lover and weather geek and more. It's run by me, Matt Sutkoski, a native Vermonter living in St. Albans, Vt.
Dave Daubenmire, easily one of the dumbest people in America
Almost everybody got over interracial marriages many decades ago. I mean, really, who cares, right?
There are a few particularly ignorant holdouts, however. They are there principally so that we can mock and laugh at them. I've got a doozy for you.
According to the Friendly Atheist, via Right Wing Watch, one of these losers is some idiot named Dave Daubenmire, who claims to be a "Christian" pastor. He said he recently took his daughter to the zoo, which proved to him that interracial marriage is wrong. Here's his "logic."
"You don't see eagles marrying buzzards, do you?" he said.
As is obvious to everybody except the extremely dumb and racist Daubenmire, eagles and buzzards are different species. Plus, to be Captain Obvious, wild animals don't get married. Animals of the same species mate, but last I checked, eagles and buzzards and other animals don't get a marriage license from the town clerk then go down to the courthouse to tie the knot.
But whatever.
Segregation is A-OK according to Daubenmire, too. At the zoo aquarium, the guy that runs it keeps certain fish out of the tank because those certain fish would eat all the other fish.
Hmm. I have not heard of one human interracial couple in which the one partner eats the other. But I guess that's besides the point.
The idiot Daubenmire has said many, many spectacularly dumb things in the past. He says, for example, masturbation is gay sex because you are having sexual contact with someone of the same gender. He says, really oddly, that "big business" is using fetal tissue in food supplements, additives and sweeteners.
I'm writing all this as a public service: The next time you are feeling stupid or ignorant, remember you have nothing on Dumb Daubenmire.
Some people who are active on social media and are not Donald Trump fans have been getting weird, kind of threatening robocalls on their phones from what appears to be the pro-Trump crowd.
Nobody is quite sure if all this is a joke, a real threat, a harmless prank or just more social media bullcrap. But I have to admit it's unnerving.
Luckily, evidence is pointing toward the "harmless prank" theory, but the fact that this can be done is probably giving the evil alt right ideas even as I write this.
The robocalls warn the anti-Trumpsters to stop making "negative and derogatory posts about President Trump," said Brett Vanderbrook, who was driving for Uber when he got the call a few weeks back.
After Gizmodo first published the story, several readers said they recognized the voice in the recording as being from Ownage Pranks, a service that places automated prank calls. "Citizens for Trump" is a prank offered by the service, says Gizmodo, but the trouble is there is a real organization called "Citizens for Trump" that really are just that and active.
Gizmodo, and pretty much nobody else, is sure whether the real Citizens for Trump is behind these robocalls.
They are kind of cartoonishly scary. Here's part of the script:
A man's voice comes on. "We've been monitoring some of your posts and it does seem that you've beem making some rather negative comments about President Trump. Is that correct?"
Then there's a pause as if the voice is waiting for an answer. Then it continues: "Listen, we're going to have to ask you to lay off on the negative and derogatory posts about President Trump, OK?" Then another pause, then more: "What's your problem, anyway? Don't you want to make America great again? Well, you've been warned. We'll be keeping an eye on you. Have a nice day."
It doesn't sound like a lot of people have received this robocall, but it is chilling, even if meant as a joke.
They say Big Brother is watching you. So is obnoxious brother, apparently.
A striking image from Charlottesville today: A black cop trying to keep the peace while racists and the KKK rally behind him.
It's a horrible day in Charlottesville, Virginia as a bunch of white supremacists and Nazis descended into town, and as of 1 p.m., there had already been violent clashes between these turds and counter-protesters.
Many of the so called white nationalists (read complete ass wipes) are toting guns, so it'll be a miracle if nobody gets killed.
The Nazis that descended on Charlottesville last night with torches was a nice touch, too. Nothing like a good old revival of the violent KKK to cheer things up, right?
It does take two to tango, and if there is violence and fights, it's the fault of both the KKK types and the counter protesters.
However, the white supremacists are the aggressors here, and the stupidest people are the ones that think they'll get their way through violence and intimidation. Exhibit A of this stupidity is on full display in Charlottesville today.
And everybody, please start calling them the alt.right. They're not cool, like alt.country or alt.whatever hipster trend is out there.
Call them what they are: white supremacists, Nazis, horrible people, whatever.
Meanwhile, we set a low bar for President Trump, so given that low bar, I have to appreciate Trump for condemning the violence today.
The problem is when a Muslim does something hateful, it's called terrorism by politicians and many members of the media. When a white guy does something similar, it's dismissed as just a lone nutcase.
But the database we got in June shows that 115 of the 201 terrorist attacks cited in the report were carries out by right wing extremists. This includes people like the supremacists, militias and "sovereign citizens."
Another 63 cases were done by Islamic extremists, and 19 were from left wing extremists, wuch as ecoterrorists and animal rights militants.
So when you hear ultra conservative snowflakes whine that they're being terrorized by maurading liberals, don't believe it.
The white supremacists can be violent, no doubt about that. But oppressed? Don't think so, bud. Maybe get smarter, shut your trap when you want to spout hate speech and mind your own business and then you'll be more successful in life.
The reason nobody is hiring you is not because there's a big affirmative action thing going on. They won't hire you because you're a complete turd.
Still, complainers gotta complain. One incident crystallizes this. According to Gizmodo, idiot white guy Richard Spencer, en route to the Charlottesville shindig, said he stopped at a restaurant but they wouldn't serve him. He says it was based on his viewpoints, that he was being treated like African Americans attempting to go to lunch counters in the 1960s.
But the real reason why the restaurant wouldn't serve Spencer is because at the time he stopped by, the eatery wasn't serving anybody. It was morning, and they don't open until 5 p.m. The place was closed.
Restaurants tend not to serve would-be patrons when they are closed, dude.
Anyway, here's hoping the white supremacists in Charlottesville display their extreme dimwittedness today for all the world to see, all the while avoiding this devolve into violence.
However, as I write this, I just learned a car slammed into a crowd of people protesting against the white supremacists, and there are multiple injuries.
Let's all work together to call out all the white supremacists, expose them to harsh daylight of reason, and watch them wither away.
Big trucks "rolling coal" emitting huge clouds of black smoke. Healthy and not adding pollution to the atmosphere, right?
There's one in every crowd. Or several.
Certain people on the road want to be more obnoxious than everyone else.
It's a competition, you see.
One bit of obnoxiousness that's been popular for a few years is a phenomenon called "rolling coal."
Young men, almost alll of them losers with very small dicks who are overcompensating, trick out their big he-man pickup trucks with a smoke stack and mechanical stuff that lets these morons trick the engine to need more fuel.
The result is a burst of black smoke that has bystanders choking on the fumes, other drivers blinded by the clouds, and these losers laughing hysterically. Because they're too stupid to laugh at anything else, I guess.
Ogburn: "If you've never heard of rolling coal, Jake Rogakis can explain it in one sentence."
Rogakis: "To roll coal is to pretty much just floor it and blow as much black smoke as you possibly can."
Ogburn: "Rogakis has tuned his diesel engine so that he can blow clouds of thick black smoke from his tailpipe on purpose."
Rogakis: "It's just fun. Like, go drive my truck. You'll have a blast, guaranteed."
Ogburn goes on to explain that Rogakis is one of about 100 guys hanging around a Fort Collins strip mall, mostly to compare notes on their big trucks and their rolling coal contraptions.
I really hope Fort Collins is so boring people are reduced to doing this, but my guess is the problem is not really Fort Collins, but these young guys without imagination.
Ogburn asked Brock Anderson and Cory Wiggins, who were in another group from Rogakis at that Fort Collins parking lot, why coal rolling is so popular.
Anderson: "I'm not sure. It's - you know, why do people do a lot of things, you know what I mean? It's 'cause everybody's doing it."
Wiggins: "You also get more power, and it's just something cool. Ladies like it."
Anderson: (laughing) "No, I don't know if women like that."
Wiggins: "No, all ladies love it."
Anderson: "No"
I'm with Brock here. Notice how delusional Cory is. He thinks he's such a lady killer with his black smoke and his presumably teeny tiny, um, anatomy. By the way, Brock Anderson is fairly reasonable. Unlike some of his friends, he says he only does this out on the farm, with nobody around, so nobody gets a cloud of black smoke in their face.
My guess is most women, and most people for that matter, actually don't like rolling coal. Guys, don't date the few women in the world who like rolling coal!
Anyway, let's go on.
Let's get back to our friend Jake Rogakis, who loves his rolling coal truck.
He says he doesn't envelop people in smoke, "Unless they, like do something to make me mad, cut me off."
There ya go, Jake. They cut you off, you blind them with smoke and have them crash into somebody else. Real considerate of you.
Rogakis, like many coal rollers, has a particular enmity against bicyclist. It seems all these guys with big trucks hate bicyclists.
"If you see a bike, you just can't help but to do it. No matter how many times you do it, every single time, you'll still get a smile on your face."
Yeah, blinding bicyclists in choking smoke and making them inhale potentially cancer causing and lung disease causing diesel particles is a real laff riot.
A bicycle tour group from Canada was recently the victim of some idiot repeatedly rolling coal with his big nasty truck in otherwise scenic north-central Vermont,says the Burlington Free Press.
One of the tour group members, Steven Fischer, said his group was blasted by the truck, then it came back.
"Ten minutes later it was my turn. The truck - at least I think it was the same one, but I can't be certain - pulled up beside me and unleashed another black cloud."
This, not surprisingly, is not the first time bicyclists in Vermont or elsewhere been tormented by those idiots rolling coal.
The Free Press quoted Phyl Newbeck of the Green Mountain Bicycle Club who said he's been blasted by these idiots.
By the way, if you were thinking this rolling coal stuff is illegal, it is. It violates the federal Clean Air Act. Plus federal and many state guidelines prohibit altering vehicle exhaust systems like the rolling coal boneheads do.
Of course, it's hard to catch all these idiots because you can't read the license plates through all that smoke.
So, we can only hope for karma for these small dicked diesel dumbasses. They deserve a good asthma attack, or a little bit of lung disease, maybe?
That's mean, but karma's tough, you know.
Here's a video of a motorist haveing to deal with some idiot "rolling coal" in Essex Junction, Vermont:
Click to make it bigger and see how some so called "religious" people insulted a waitress at a North Carolina restaurant.
Alexandra Judd is a waitress in a Charlotte, North Carolina restaurant and a recent experience she had proves that there definitely are bigots in that state.
North Carolina is in the news spotlight over the so-called "bathroom bill" that in some cases would force transgendered people to use public restrooms that don't correspond with their gender. It also effectively endorses the "right" of some people to discriminate against the LGBT community.
Judd, who is a lesbian, said a group of patrons left without leaving a tip.
Yeah, that happens sometimes. People don't leave tips and that screws over the waitstaff.
But that wasn't what bothered Judd.
The group left a hateful message on the bill, and pointed Judd to that ever popular Bible verse, Leviticus 20:13 that bigots use to shroud their homophobia in "religion," says television station WBTV in Charlotte.
"If a man also lie with mankind as he lieth with a woman, both them have committed an abomination....They shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them," reads the Old Testament Bible verse.
So there you have it. This group of so-called Christians thought the Christian, holy thing to do is insult somebody.
If these "Christians" don't like gay people, fine. Going out of their way to insult people?
If that's what their religion says to do, I'm staying away from it as far as possible.
This post isn't a swipe at all Christians. It's a swipe at the small minority of them who are actually confused over who is holier than thou.
Certainly not the idiots that visited the restaurant where Judd works.
The people who left this "tip" for Judd also wrote "praying for you."
Yeah, right. Praying that the only see and hear from people exactly like them, is more like it.
Anyway, Judd was of course infuriated and hurt by this, but she's not going to let it get her down. Why should she? Why should she waste her time thinking about morons who are nothings anyway?
She wrote this message to the morons on Facebook: "Don't pray for me, darling. I have everything I could possibly want and need in my life."
Which is certainly more than the people who left the "tip" have. It must be awful to have so empty a life that they have to go around insulting random people in the name of "religion."
A YouTube video shows one of the most dangerous road rage incidents I have yet found online
Gawd, people calm down.
Kristian Rosa, in the car, tries to cut off the motorcyclist
filming the incident. A chase between the two
ensued, reaching speeds of over 100 mph.
In it, Rone Gonzalez, 23 has a GoPro, or cell phone or some other video device on as he's driving his motorcycle around Homestead, Florida.
The wild video recorded by Gonzalez is at the botom of this post. Worth a terrifying watch.
Something happened that annoyed an idiot named Kristian Rosa, 30, in a red car, to start trying to chase Gonzalez and cut him off and knock him off his bike.
Both guys really put a lot of motorists in grave danger. In a desperate attempt to get away from Rosa, Gonzalez goes top speed down a four lane road, in the wrong lane, nearly causing head on collisions with several vehicles.
He was right to try to get away, and I guess his hands were tied by Gonzalez swerving all over the road to try t run him down, but still.
Meanwhile Rosa persists for miles and miles. I don't know what got him so angry, but he really needs some help with anger management.
Gonzalez, the motorcyle driver was charged with misdemeanor reckless driving and Rosa, in the car, faces a felony aggravated assault charge and misdemeanor reckless driving.
Both guys later said they regret what they did, says local10.com, the ABC affiliate in the Miami area. A little late now.
Gonzalez said he is an inexperienced rider and panicked when the chase started. "I will admit when I am wrong. All of this stuff wasn't on purpose but an attempt to get away.....I didn't choose to get on to oncoming traffic. He blocked my path in both lanes. I didn't want to harm myself or other people."
As for Rosa:
"I'm not proud of what I did....All I can say is that I learned a big lesson. A lot of things could have happened in that short time. It only takes a second for an accident to happen, yet we both took no consideration over our loved ones or the people around us at the time."
Remember that, kiddies, before you act on your anger at other drivers, no matter how stupid they might be.
Incredibly idiotic, self-absorbed and moronic parents
ruined a children's Easter Egg hunt in
Connecticut over the weekend. There was trouble
at a similar event in Vermont, too.
PEZ decided it would be fun to hold an Easter egg hunt over the weekend near their Connecticut museum
It turned out to be a bad, bad idea.
Because some parents can be real selfish idiots.
To make sure their precious darlings got the prize eggs before anyone else, and to make sure other kids went without so their offspring could, some parents rushed the fields with the eggs before they were opened, and ignored staff instructions to wait, says the Hartford Courant.
There was also similar trouble at another Easter egg hunt here where I live in Vermont.
At the Connecticut event at Pez, it turned into chaos as a result, and ultimately canceled. Thanks for ruining Easter, jerky parents!
Here's the Facebook statement from PEZ:
"Unfortunately, people whose to enter the first field prior to anyone from PEZ staff starting the activity. The crowd moved to the second field, waited for only a couple of minutes and proceeded to rush the field without being directed to do so and before the posted time. Due to the actions of a few, the good intent (of the event) was quickly turned into a mess. I would like to seriously apologize to each of our guests, this was not something created to frustrate or make people angry."
One parent said her kid got a bloody nose because another parent pushed him to the ground so their kid could get the candy or whatever. Another kid's Easter basket was broken in the rush, says the Hartford Courant.
The Courant quoted one parent, Sandra Laviana-Aitken, who wrote on Facebook: "......human greed took over. People foret what it is like to be nice and patient and share all things they obviously were not teaching their children."
Another witness, Nicole Simmons, said, according to the Courant,"Even in the few minutes we were there, you could see the crowd of people almost like a swarm covering the field and just everywhere with no regard that there were other people, children and cars around them."
Yet another woman said parents were letting their uncontrolled children pick up eggs prior to the start. Then when the event started all the parents rushed in and were picking up the eggs."
Nice example you set for your kiddies, you adult jerks. Just grab all you can and leave everyone in the lurch. If there's rules to the game, ignore them.
Your children are going to be really special adults. They'll probably end up embezzling money from some charity because they were taught to grab everything they can and rules are stupid, and who cares if somebody else gets screwed over.
Some parents complained that the PEZ event got out of control because there wasn't enough staff and security there. Yeah, but you'd think a simple family Easter egg hunt wouldn't require deploying the National Guard and Army Rangers to keep the peace.
But I guess I'm mistaken.
At Wilson Castle in Proctor, Vermont, that other Easter egg hunt turned ugly when something like 1,200 people showed up and lines got long. By all accounts, the event was poorly organized.
According to multiple media sources, people became annoyed by long lines and a lack of organization, and as the police report said, there were "multiple irate parents."
In this image from WCAX-TV a guy who became belligerent
at a Proctor, Vermont Easter egg hunt flees from the cop who tried to
arrest him. A probably unimpressed kid in the foreground looks on.
One jerk in particular got more and more belligerent, and the State Police showed up.
He made loud threats, demanded a refund, and then escalated things further. He fought verbally with a cop, who tried to arrest him, Vermont State Police said.
The guy ran, the police used pepper spray to calm him down, and he was booked.
Police had to chase the guy on foot for a short distance, and had to pepper spray him to get him under control. Jack Thurston of NECN reported the pepper sprayed and arrested guy is Michael Cuthbertson, 34, of Newbury, Vermont. He was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
He pleaded innocent to the charges and told NECNthat "everything went haywire" during the incident.
"I never tried to hurt anybody. I never planned on hurting anybody.....I do believe these charges are trumped up and highly overrated, Cuthbertson said in the NECN interview.
Cuthberton told NECN he's not a bad person, but wanted his money back so he could something more meaningful with his kid with the $20 he spent at Wilson Castle.
The Proctor event's organizer, Party OutFitters apologized for the event and promised refunds to ticket holders who didn't get in.
Members of "Y'all Qaeda" are still holed
up at an Oregon wildlife refuge. Sigh.
I was going to follow the lead of law enforcement and pretty much ignore the crazy guys who took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge over in Oregon.
Apparently, they're annoyed by what they think is the evil federal government taking away our rights to the citizens' land. Or set fire to it to control varmints or something.
This place is a wildlife refuge, which, um, is open to the public. Anyone. At least until these yahoos showed up. Now nobody can go there except them. Are they the only people who think they are U.S citizens?
I hope they're not quintessential U.S. citizens, because such citizens would be bozos.
If not for the expense this takeover is costing us taxpayers, and the fear and inconvenience to the Oregonians living near the refuge, this would seem like a farcical movie comedy that gets mixed reviews.
Let's go over some of the highlights of this takeover.
Federal law enforcement is ignoring them. A lot of the rest of us are not exactly calling them terrorists, but things like "Y'all Qaeda""Yee-hawdists" and "Vanilla ISIS"since they're such wannabe but failing militants.
I've also seen them referred to, as Raw Story points out, "Yokel Haram," "Fail Qaeda" who are participating in an "Infantada."
There've been some great Tweets about this outfit, such as "Y'all Qaeda follows a strict interpretation of Shania (Twain) law." and "Every successful revolution starts with the takeover of a closed visitor center with a gift shop."
2. The group put out a call via social media to get supplies, like food, clothing and the like. They probably got some of that, but many people, also inspired by social media, sent lots of dildos instead.
3. One of the idiots, Joe Oshaugnessy, collected donation money for the cause. When a newspaper revealed that Oshaugnessy lied about being a U.S. Marine, he got depressed and went to a hotel and used the donation money to drink his sorrows away.
Another Vanilla ISIS member tearfully announced this turn of events on Facebook. Awwww. So sad!
4. Robert "LaVoy" Finicum, who is pretty much Y'allQaeda spokesman in Oregon, complained that the state of Arizona took away the foster kids who have been staying with his wife Jeannette at their Arizona home.
Now, I can't knock Finicum for helping boys from troubled homes find a sense of self-worth and independence at his ranch.
".....having one parent away from home for a significant period of time committing a number o fhigh profile federal crimes would seem like at least a plausible reason to remove the children. This doesn't seem to occur to Finicum."
Also, says Talking Points Memo and Oregon Public Broadcasting, Finicum and his wife got most of their income from being foster parents. For a guy who wants government off our backs and likes his individualism, it's a little strange he's living off government subsidies.
Oh well, I guess it's OK to be a bit of a hypocrite if there's money to be made.
I wasn't in this mess, but if you caused a winter vehicle crash like this or made it
worse, just know that I and everybody else hates you.
To the person who caused a highway crash today on an icy winter highway:
I hate you. Intensely. Hundreds of other people really really hate you, too. Those hundreds of people who hate you were the ones caught in the traffic jam on the way to work this morning.
Because you are a stupid, selfish jerk who crashed into other cars, because you're stupid and selfish.
It's winter, so the roads tend to get icy. Especially after it snows and the temperature plunges to around zero.
To most people, I"m being Captain Obvious when I say that, but not you. Because you're oblivious. You are too trying to break land speed records, texting gossip to your boyfriend or girlfriend, swerving all over the place until you cause a crash.
My ire, of course, is not directed toward the unfortunate people who were driving cars that you smashed into. It's directed toward you.
I hope nobody got hurt. Except you. I hope you got hurt. Not hurt in a permanently debilitating way. Just hurt so you feel physical pain for the next few days. You deserve it.
Did you cause this crash because you subconsciously enjoy the attention? I know, I know. You didn't hop into your trash of a car or a pickup truck this morning and say, "I'm going to cause a big crash."
However, you have a sad, pathetic life and nobody pays attention to you, so maybe this is the way to get noticed? People will notice you now, when you drive like a maniac and crash into about five cars on the Interstate, right?
You caused the crash because you don't give a damn. You figure it's not your problem that you wrecked somebody else's car. Maybe injured them. Caused a five mile long backup that made lots of people late for work and school. Maybe made them lose some pay. Get chewed out by the boss. Miss an important final exam at the university.
You figure it's not your fault that police, fire and rescue personnel had to go out in this awful weather, perhaps risking their lives, to deal with morons like you who caused this crash.
Because it's never your fault, is it? Yeah, we shouldn't be on the road when you want to drive and text, drive and drink, drive and speed on ice, drive and do donuts on the middle of the Interstate. We should just let you have your fun and get out of the way, right?
Why were the rest of us driving so slowly, you ask. So slowly you were forced to drive with your car's front bumper an inch from the rear bumper of the car in front of you, instead of backing off a bit. You just had to crash into that car when he braked to avoid the snow plow, right.
Doesn't everybody understand they MUST drive dangerously fast, just to accommodate you? Doesn't everybody realize you're the most important person in the world?
You probably figure we are all in the way, that we shouldn't have been there when you spun your car out of control on the ice.
Now that you caused this winter highway crash, deep down you're loving it, aren't you? You're the center of attention. People are paying attention to you. It's negative attention, but hey, it's attention.
For once in your life, nobody is ignoring you. Feels good, doesn't it?
Again, I hope you got injured in the crash, just to take the shine off your moment of glory.
Now you can play the victim. Isn't that wonderful? You can blame the crash on someone else, when you tell all your friends about your adventure. How the other motorists didn't get out of your way. How the state DOT didn't clear the ice off the road.
Because, after all, to your mind, even if its 10 degrees with snow and freezing rain falling heavily, the DOT trucks are supposed to magically make the roads dry with not a speck of ice, right?
The DOT failed, in your mind. So you drove for the conditions you wish the roads were in, instead of the condition they actually were in.
Frustratingly for us, there are really no consequences to you for your driving this way in the winter. Sure, if the cops are in a particularly bad mood, they might write you a ticket. If you're especially unlucky, your insurance rates might go up a bit. You have to get your car repaired or replaced. Oh, boo-hoo.
But you're get off scot-free in terms of fixing the other cars you wrecked. Making up for lost wages for people who weren't working, but stuck in the traffic jam you created on this snowy highway. Are you going to pay us for the time we need to deal with insurance, bring our cars into repairs, get caught up at work?
No. Because you don't give a damn. Life is all but you, isn't it?
Look, all of us make mistakes, and any one of us might absentmindedly cause a crash. But more likely, it's you, habitually texting, drinking, speeding and driving like you need to get to your destination within a millisecond that's causing this problem.
You caused the crash this morning, and you will cause other ones in the future as well, I'm sure.
I wish the cops would jail people who cause these crashes. I wish the courts would somehow make you pay off all the people you hurt or inconvenienced. Revoke your drivers liscence permanently. Maybe put your name and picture on the Internet so you could be publicly shamed.
None of us know you, but as I said, we all hate you. I hope you somehow feel the hate rays.
Need an aspirin for your sore neck, asshole? Sorry, I took the last one for the headache you gave me.
Would it help if I tried to strangle you.? I won't. But many people want to.
To get an idea of how many stupid winter drivers there are out there, get a load of this Wisconsin DOT traffic cam on a snowy highway. Most people are driving carefully enough, but all it takes is maybe 10 percent of the motorists driving like maniacs to create ever worsening chaos:
The mug shot of jailed idiot Kentucky county
clerk has the right wing inflamed, and the rest
of us thinking about how tedious she and her friends are.
I know I've maybe written quite enough of Kim Davis, that idiot county clerk from Kentucky who decided to go to jail rather than issue marriage licenses to same sex couples.
I also know I won't change the minds of the people who inexplicably support her, but really, I'm one of zillions of people who MUST vent about her.
In the grand scheme of things, she's not all that important, but I still always worry when people hijack politics and policy in an attempt to force the nation to embrace their toxic "religion."
There are a lot of villians here besides Davis, that's for sure. It's amazing the creative ways find to justify this bigotry.
The most common trope I've seen is with the jailing of Davis, the government is rounding up Christians because of their beliefs. "The federal government has started to incarcerate Christians," Todd Starnes of Fox News breathlessly Tweeted.
No, the jailing of one person for failing to uphold the oath of an elected office after failing to follow orders of the court.
I'm being Captain Obvious here, but nobody is being jailed for their religious beliefs. Davis can say whatever she wants. And if we're rounding up Christians for proclaiming their beliefs, then why isn't Davis' fourth husband in jail as he has been very publicly supporting her beliefs.
Because the First Amendment is still solidly in place, that's why.
We'd better hope presidential candidate Mike Huckabeeis never elected, as he obviously wants to turn this nation into a theocracy. Here's his Tweet: "Kim Davis in federal custody removes all doubts about the criminalization of Christianuty in this country."
Presidential candidate Ted Cruzbasically said the same thing. And on the bright side, Huckabee's planned "Free Kim Davis" rally next week at the jail she's being held at ought to be a hoot
So it's OK for the government to deny services to the public because of the government official's religion?
Of course, the goverment was giving Davis some religious accommodation. She could have stepped aside and let a deputy issue marriage licenses, but she would not let anybody in her office do that.
"So when people like Huckabee and Cruz come to Davis's defense, they're not standing for religious liberties They're advocating for someone's ability to use her role as a government official to impose her religion on others, including people on her own staff in a way that discriminates against same sex couples. If that doesn't violate the separation of church and state enshrined in the Constitution, I'm not sure what does."
Huckabee and his ilk are just rewriting history. If you don't like the facts, change the "facts" to suit your ideology.
One insightful, sarcastic Tweet I saw written by Kip Manley puts that idea to shame. "Kim Davis is the bus driver, unjustly prevented from being able to force Rosa Parks to sit in the back."
The hypocricy among the Davis crowd is something else. One classic example was cited by the JoeMyGod blogyesterday. A flight attendant who is a recent convert to Islam is suing because her newfound religious fervor makes it a moral issue to serve alcohol to people on planes.
Over at the very conservative site Brietbart, Pam Geller is having none of it, asking why the Muslim would want to be a flight attendant in the first place if it involves serving alcohol. And what about the right of passengers to be served alcohol, which is completely legal in the United States. And the flight attendant is asking for special rights, which is unfair, Geller said.
All possibly valid points, really. So why doesn't it apply to Davis?
"Brand new religious fervor? Check. Won't do the job she was hired for? Check. Demand for special exemption? Check. Public denied totally legal service? Check. But hey - this time it's not a godly white Christian woman, therefore very suddenly (and only-this-one-time-plus-for-all-other Muslims) separation of church and state is an actual THING."
All these threats to civil and religious liberties that Davis thinks she is "protecting" is reason to worry, of course. We need to counter their silly arguments even as we know we won't convince people like Davis, Huckabee and the Right Wing Nut Brigade.
Still, we need to laugh, too.
To celebrate our contempt for Davis, here's a nice ditty Sandy and Richard Riccardi wrote and posted about her, called "Shut Up And Do Your Motherfucking Job"
As you can tell by the title, there is some NSFW language in here, but it is FUN!
Watch:
An amazing numher of people don't seem to understand that if you're going to drive slowly, you should stick to the right lane.
However, there's apparently a huge population of people who are frustrated parade grand marshalls: They're not happy unless there's a long line of other cars in back of them, so they crawl along in the left lane.
This is of course dangerous, because it causes other drivers to weave from lane to lane trying to get by these slow idiots, which increases the chances of a crash.
Others apparently drive slowly in the left lane to teach faster drivers a "lesson." They figure the speed they're driving is the speed everyone else should go. "Why does anybody need to go faster," the smug self-selected speed arbiters in the left lane say.
The left lane slowpokes seem to be a pet peeve a lot of people other than myself. There's a whole website called leftlanedrivers.orgdedicated to eliminating the scourge of left lane turtles. You can even order a mirror image of a "move over" decal for your windshield so left lane slow people can see it in their rear view mirrors.
Of course, laws mean nothing to our left lane slow pokes. I'm sure they'll these passive aggresive idiots will still keep put-putting along at a left lane crawl. Can't do anything about them, I guess.
This really dumb bro in Florida wanted to set up
a shooting range in his yard in the middle of a densely
populated suburb. What could go wrong? Add caption
Joseph Carannante, 21, who lives near St. Petersburg, Florida, likes to target practice with his gun.
Nothing wrong with that. Lots of people do.
Problem is, he wants to do it in a densely populated neighborhood where a lot of kids live. And because of lax NRA-inspired laws, he can.
Caranannte's front yard shooting range is little more than a pile of sand. Like that's going to stop a bullet.
This isn't some remote place with no houses. It's a densely populated suburban neighborhood. Houses and yards are all right next to each other, and Carannante is right in the middle of it.
Talk about carrying Second Amendment rights too far! Yep, Carannante has the right to have a gun and shoot it. But he thinks that his Second Amendment rights trump his neighbors' right to enjoy their own property without fear of getting killed.
Oh, Carannante is so generous! He's offered to let his neighbors know when he's going to shoot, so they can all hide and stay out of the line of fire. So on weekends, when the kids want to play outside, Mom and Dad want to fire up the barbecue, and the new people down the block want to gather on the deck for some afternoon cocktails, they can't.
Because Carannante all but said he expects everybody to hide away while he fires his gun. Apparently, it's too much work to drive all the way to a shooting range, poor baby.
Like Florida doesn't have a zillion shooting ranges.
"I don't want to have to go to a gun range, when I can just go outside my door," Carannante whined to WFLA.
Hey, it's only a 9 mm gun he's got. What could go wrong?
At the urging of the NRA, Florida has a law barring municipalities from barring gun ranges in people's yards.
"Legislators passed a law in 1987 that declared state statutes superseded the laws of local municipalities when it comes to gun regulations. Upset that some cities were still toying with local ordinanes, the Legislature passsed another law in 2011 that authorized hefty penalties for violations. Local officials could be removed from office and face personal fines of up to $5,000 for passing gun regulations."
But even the local NRA head thinks Carannante is a bonehead, and disputes the idea the law allos Carannante's stupidity. Says BayNews9 in Florida:
"An NRA lobbyist in Florida also made a statement about the issue Monday. 'Shooting ranges don't belong in dense residential neighborhoods and, in fact, nothing in the law allows them,'" said Marion Hammer.
There was some possible good late breaking news this morning on this situation.
Via the Daily Kos, a neighbor reports that a local radio station and a Florida shooting range helped out. Said the neighbor:
"This morning, a popular radioshow at102.5 "The Bone"called young Mr. Carannante and offered a one year free membership to a gun range, donated byShooter's World in Tampa.....They convinced the kid to commit to tearing down the pile of pallets and sand."
That's good, but it appears the neighborhood, the radio station and the shooting range all had to offer rewards for stupid Carannante to give up his plan. That's why this world can be sad. They only way we can protect ourselves from awful people is to reward them.
Something ain't right.
Speaking of "Ain't Right," we now offer, from the Washington Post, a simultaneously sad, infuriating and funny account of an airline flight on July 31 on which hotel heir Conrad Hilton III was aboard.
Pretty faced rich boy bro Conrad Hilton III caused a HUGE ruckus on a overseas flight last summer. Makes him sound like the Worlds Most Obnoxious Person.
As the Post describes him: "Meet Conrad Hilton III, younger brother to Paris and some kind of royalty in his own mind, it appears."
Anyway, Conrad Hilton III was Not Pleased with his flight experience aboard the British Airways Flight 269 from London to Los Angeles.
Of course, the FBI and other law enforcement are Not Pleased with Conrad's behavior, and he was in court this week facing federal charges of being an asshole on a plane. A really big dick, actually.
The Washington Post quotedfrom a conversation Conrad had with the FBI, which is contained in a 17-page indictment against Conrad filed this week in U.S. District Court.
"'I told all of them I could get all of their jobs taken away in less than thirty seconds,' Hilton said, according to the complaint, as he recalled interactions with flight attendants. He credited a man at the back of the plane with stopping him from killing a flight attendant 'If that man wasn't there, that guy (the flight attendant) would have been #%*&# killed on that flight. A hundred percent I would have killed him.'"
On the bright side, Conrad's narrative to the FBI matches that of flight attendants and passengers on the flight, who also had conversations about the experience with the FBI. No need to sort any "he said, she said," is there.
See? Conrad is so helpful.
It all started roughly a half hour into the 10-hour flight, when attendants started the task of serving drinks to passengers, but Conrad kept standing the aisle, blocking the way and refusing to move.
"One flight attendent described Hilton as flying from 'one tirade after another' throughout the flight. He complained that the flight attendants were ignoring him or 'taking the peasants' side.' He whined about being upset because he broke up with his girlfriend, one flight attendant said. He bragged that his dad would bail him out of the situation as he had in the past. After all, he's already banned from several other airlines, he told the flight attendants." 'My father will pay this out, he has done it before. Dad paid $300,000 last time,' Hilton allegedly said."
Gawd, I don't care how rich Conrad's dad is, this dude is too expensive. If I were dear old dad, I'd jettison the kid and make him get a job at McDonald's or Walmart. That would teach him.
"Food and drink service were delayed for more than 40 minutes as flight attendants struggled to deal with Hilton walking up and down the aisles in a rage. Just about every sentence featured the f-word. And Hilton seemed particularly keen on directing his rage against male members of the flight crew. One flight attendant reported to investigators that Hilton at one point swund at him but missed his face by 'about ten centimeters.' His fist hit the bulkhead instead. 'If you wanna square up to me, bro then bring it on and I will %&*$# fight you,' Hilton allegedly told the flight's co-pilot in another incident."
If I were the co-pilot, I would have let Conrad try to fight. I'm sure everyone who paid good money to be on the flight would have been more than willing to jump in and help.
I think Conrad's pretty boy face could use a good messing up anyway. It would give him character. Lord knows he needs it.
Conrad complained that a male passenger was giving him the "stink eye" which Conrad took to mean either the guy wanted to fight him or have sex with him.
I really, REALLY think the guy wanted to fight you, Conrad. And maybe flush your head down the toilet.
You were already spending too much time in the bathroom anyway, smoking a joint, says the flight crew and FBI. The pot didn't mellow you out much, did it?
Conrad, exhausted from his duties of being an enormous prick, finally fell asleep the crew tied him up with restraints. Conrad later woke up, discovered the restraints and screamed, "I'm goin to $*&@ kill you!"
Yeah, whatever.
If convicted, Conrad faces up to 20 years in prison. But don't worry, he won't spend so much as a minute behind bars. I'm sure daddy will bail him out of this mess, again.
But if I ever find myself on a flight with one Conrad Hilton, III, I won't put up with his bull.
I'm one of those "peasants" who would find something fun and humiliating for him. It would be a blast!
Or better yet, maybe our Florida gun nut can use Conrad Hilton III for target practice instead of the pallets and pile of sand in his yard that he wanted to use.
Today's New York Daily News
Front Page was graphic, but much
more tasteful than an idiotic
couple mugging for the cameras
behind a journalist reporting on this.
That move was caught on videotape as police tried to arrest Garner on suspicion of illegally selling cigarettes.
Anyway, Kaden was giving her update on the demonstrations and the tree lighting, when a couple moved into position behind Kaden and on camera, the guy cartoonishly pretended to choke the woman, who cartoonishly reacted by waving her arms and faking a scream
What a classy couple. I'm sure they thought they were hilarious.
The Internet is pretty unforgiving, and I'm sure this couple will be identified soon, and all hell will break out. They'll get death threats, lots of flame, lots of harassment on line and elsewhere.
No, this couple doesn't deserve death threats or harassment. But shame on them!
The video of this moronic couple is below, but to soften this up, I also posted an image of the excellent New York Daily Newsfront page today which uses Garner's last words "I can't breathe!" as he was being choked by the cop.
Unlike in many media outlets, I'm not going to name the person I'm about to describe. I know you will be able to find his name in the links, go ahead and click on them, but don't follow any links to any web site associated with this moron.
Here's why: The idiot, described very generously as a "Ukranian journalist" but is really just a loser, makes a game of going to all these Red Carpet Events world wide to be obnoxious with famous people.
He does it for attention and possibly lucrative web hits. And that's why I dislike him so much. It just doensn't seem like an honest day of work to me, and he literally molests people to "earn" his fame and fortune.
The idiot who is the subject of this post is dragged away after harassing America Ferrera at Cannes last week.
He's stormed the stage when Adele was winning a Grammy a couple years back, and has tried to grab and kiss the likes of Will Smith, Bradley Cooper and Leonard DeCaprio over the years.
Gawd knows how he gets into these venues all the time. They keep giving him press credentials, but oh well.
Yes, I know celebrities put themselves out to the public, so they should expect a certain loss of privacy and should realized they'll get more scrutiny than the average person.
And yes, it's good to have a sense of humor, a sense of mocking around celebrities. It's fun to pop a few ego bubbles from time to time.
But that doesn't give anybody the license to be a pervert, for fun or profit or any other reason.
They call this guy a prankster. That implies merry. He needs another, negative word to describe him. Obnoxious doesn't do it justice.
And somebody should find a "prank' that teaches him a real lesson.
I'm being a scold and I know it. But this guy is a prime example of the level of commerce in many corners of the Internet.
I'm not sure I like a world where obnoxiousness is a valuable commodity.
Most people would think 6th grader Adrionna Harris was heroic
for taking a razor blade away from a fellow student who
was harming himself. Her school, however, decided her actions
were criminal and tried to expel her, that is until the
media backlash set in.
Since she held the razor for an instant, in the stupid, ignorant dumb, shameful eyes of the Bayside Middle School in Virginia Beach and their zero tolerance bullshit, she had a weapon in her hand. Time to get rid of her.
They suspended her for 10 days and were going to expel her permanently.
Of course, faced with an ENORMOUS backlash in social media after the WAVY report came out, the school is quickly backing down, and allowed Arionna to return to school Friday. But it's just a PR move. I'm betting Arionna's expulsion would have stuck had the media not gotten its hands on this news.
Almost all of the other zero tolerance overreaches I've complained about in the past involved students who actually didn't do things perfectly and might have actually deserved a minor punishment, like a lecture or even a half hour detention after school.
But here, Adrionna did everything right and was actually heroic. She found a kid cutting himself with a razor. Really, the classmate was in immediate danger. Since nobody else was around at that moment, Adrionna had to think quickly on her feet.
She did and her parents are justifiably proud of her behavior. As would any parent or school. Except for the stupid people at Bayside Middle School, apparently.
To summarize Adrionna's actions:
1. She recognized a serious problem.
2. She took immediate action by taking the razor away.
3. She got rid of the razor immediately so it would not pose a continued danger
4. She quickly told an (allegedly) responsible adult what was going on, so everyone would be protected.
The only mistake Adrionna made wouldn't have been a mistake in a normal setting. Her "error" (read honesty) was telling school administrators what happened. They would otherwise have never known she had that razor for a split second unless she'd told them.
Schools are supposed to places of learning. Here are the horrible lessons Bayside Middle School seems to be determined to teach students:
1. If you see somebody who needs help. Do nothing. It only causes trouble. 2. If you think somebody else could help a person in need, again, don't say anything. It's not worth the bother. 3. Rules are to be followed, even if it makes no sense to do so. For instance, if you're driving, we all know we should stay in our travel lane all the time. However, if there is a kid playing in the lane we're in, common sense is to swerve around the child if we can't stop. But the rules say we can't get out of our lane while driving so it's better just to run over the kid. But don't stop to help the kid once you've run him over. As I said that would only cause trouble. 4. Lie to adults or at least withhold information from them to ensure you don't get in trouble. 5. If people get wind of you following the rules no matter what and that you didn't help somebody in need, and these people criticize you, backtrack and pretend to be sorry or pretend to help, but only because that's good PR.
I'm glad to report that these hideous, moronic lessons the school is trying to teach Adrionna are lost on her. The girl seems to be a bright, compassionate young woman.
A WAVY reporter asked Adrionna what she'd do if faced with the same situation. She replied, "Even if I got in trouble, it' didn't matter because I was helping him...I would do it again even if I got suspended, yes."
But imagine the chilling effect this whole thing has on other students who might be faced with a dilemna on how or whether to help.
By the way, what about the boy who was cutting himself? He needs help. But he was holding on to the razor, too. So instead of getting the kid counseling and medical help, I imagine the school will work really hard to get the boy in jail instead. That'll teach him!
School administrators said their hands were tied. The strict zero tolerance policy came down from the School Board, so the principal and others had no flexibility to consider the reality of Adrionna's situation without holding an expulsion hearing.
Yep, there we go again. Obey the rules even if it this case they cause much more harm than good.
A lot of people commenting on the WAVY article on their Web site want heads to roll at the school. Maybe they should hire people that have at least a hint of common sense.
But I bet that won't happen. They'll just let the bad PR wave wash past them, and go on with being stupid.
I hope most other schools aren't like Bayside. If any other school administrators act this moronically in any other school district, I fear for our nation's future.
Whirled Pies in Eugene, OR survived an
attempt by some wacko to set the place
on fire using his moonshine because staff there
opted not to serve him more booze because
he was already wasted.
I say this because every time I turn around, I learn of some new idiot making a scene in a restaurant or some other business because they don't get their way, the big babies.
Out in Eugene, Oregon, staff at Whirled Pies, a pizza parlor, asked a couple to leave after they had too much to drink, reports television station KMTR in Eugene.
They didn't take it well. Whirled Pies staff, who were closing up shop for the night anyway, escorted them to the door.
The guy came back five minutes later, heaved a planter through the glass front door, terrified the staff and tried to set the place on fire using the moonshine he brought with him and a restaurant curtain he tried to use as a wick for his hillbilly Molotov cocktail.
Luckily, the fire didn't really get going and Whirled Pies wasn't that badly damaged.
The people at Whirled Pies at least have a bit of a sense of humor over the whole episode, posting the following message on their Facebook page:
"Special this weekend, flame thrower pizza with spicy garlic cream sauce, house made sausage, and green chiles. Come help us get things back to normal. Thanks for all the well wishes and crucial community support."
However, things aren't going so well for our mad moonshine guy, Matthew Curtis Bossard, 32, and his lovely companion, Leticia Kagele, face a variety of charges.
Plus, I doubt they will ever be allowed in to Whirled Pies to enjoy their yummy pizza.
I've always been simultaneously fascinated and appalled by people like these clowns at Whirled Pies who go totally off in public over the stupidest things.
Are they ill? Drama queens? Attention seekers? Perpetually angry losers.
Take this hefty woman in some McDonald's somewhere putting on quite a performance over, well I'm not sure, either a botched order or a dispute over change for the order. But it's quite a scene in this video, taken about a year ago. (Maybe she should win an Oscar for this presentation.)
Coca-Cola thought they had a winning ad concept. Actually, they did!
A woman in a headscarf in a soda commercial
with people singing "America The Beautiful"
in another language. Horrors!
Why not have people sing "America The Beautiful" in different languages?
It would be throwback to that famous early 1970s Coke commercial when a diverse group of people crooning on a hillside wanted to "teach the world to sing in perfect harmony."
So off Coca-Cola went and did their multilingual "America The Beautiful" ad to run during the Superbowl
Perfect!
America is full of different kinds of people. Many of them are immigrants who brought their own cultures, own habits here, to mix into that proverbial melting pot and continue the centuries long tradition of changing and strengthening the country.
The different but unifying takes on "America The Beautiful" would tie that nicely together, no?
No.
Not in this age of ugly "discourse"
The extreme right wing went ballistic with the ad. I've got a classic example.
"Executives at Coca Cola thought it would be a good idea to run a 60-second Superbowl ad featuring children singing "America The Beautiful," a deeply Christian patriotic anthem whose theme is unity -in several foreign languages. The ad also prominently features a gay couple.... ....The lyrics of the song, written in 1893 by Wellesley College Professor Katherine Lee Bates, ask God to grant America 'brotherhood from sea to shining sea.' As far as executives at Coca Cola are concerned, however, the United States of America is no longer a nation ruled by the Constitution and American traditions in which English is the language of government. It is not a nation governed in the Anglo-American tradition of liberty. It is instead a nation governed by some all inclusive multi-cultural synthesis of the various forms of government in the world, as expressed by the multiple languages used in the Superbowl ad."
Whew! I don't know where to start withhis little editorial. Generally I wouldn't, because fighting with a skunk gets you all stinky, but I'll give it a whirl with this clown Michael Patrick Leahy.
OK, the song has a Christian influence, with its reference to God and all. But since when is Christianity limited to English speakers? A Christian churchgoer in, say, El Salvador who only speaks Spanish isn't really a Christian? Huh?
Leahy mentions the gay couple in the ad. Um, gay people live here, and most of them seem to love America and think America is beautiful. (I'm one of them!) So, the problem is????
"America The Beautiful" was indeed written by Katherine Lee Bates. Not that it matters at all, but she was gay. Just sayin.
How is singing "America the Beautiful" in other languages unconstitutional? I don't even see a mention of "America the Beautiful" in the Constitution. Or any requirement to speak English, for that matter.
How is the ad not unifying? They're people of different backgrounds coming together as one unit to sing the praises of America. Leahy, you're confusing me!
Leahy also says English is the language of our government. True enough. But I don't believe the people in the Coca-Cola ad were government employees singing on behalf of the government. They were singing on behalf of Coca Cola, to help them sell more soda. Capitalism! What's wrong with that? Isn't capitalism part of the American tradition too?
How do the people in the Coca-Cola ad violate our sense of liberty? They were free to sing the song and they do. We are free to like or dislike the ad. Liberty!
How is this ad making the United States governed by some sort of synthesis of other governments in the world? I can't find any suggested in the ad that our government should change.
And I don't think our government changed to something weird and foreign because a bunch of people were singing in different languages during a commercial break from a football game.
I'm picking on this Leahy character but judging from social media in the past couple of days, there are a lot of people at least as dumb as he is.
Look, xenophobia has been a strain running through America ever since it started. Every generation of people who immigrated here who spoke different languages were despised by a minority of people. And most immigrants who came here spoke various languages, and as they settled in, most of them t switched to English, or at least their offspring did.
So the bleatings of Leahy, all those Twitter trolls who agree with him and their ilk are nothing new. I'm amused by the sense of victimhood here, though. All those damn foreigners changing America. As if that hasn't been the case for more than 200 years. Oh well.
I also know people like me and reporters bringing up the "debate" over this Coke ad are overhyping it. I know that most people, including a large proportion of conservatives either like the ad or don't give a damn about it either way.
And yes, I'm feeding the trolls by bringing all this up. But I still think a great way to use the American tradition of free speech (enshrined in the Constitution!) is to use free speech to mock and ridicule people who use their right to free speech to say dumb, damaging things.
That way, maybe we can move on to things that matter, rather than scream and holler for weeks on end about a pleasant but inconsequential television ad for soda pop.
Besides, all the outraged right wingers who are threatening to boycott Coca-Cola because of the ad are stirring up a lot of interest in the soft drink giant, so they're probably selling more Coke than ever before.
Here's the ad if you haven't seen it. Below the ad is a video from Brenda Wood, an anchorwoman from WXIA in Atlanta. You have to watch/listen to her commentary. It's such a great takedown of the bigots.
As any reader of this blog knows, I am absolutely fascinated by stupid people.
Everybody except a few trolls was
happy the lovely Nina Davuluri won
the Miss America pageant last week.
In that spirit, we bring you Miss America and America's Got Talent. Or at least the stupid trolls' reaction, or lack of reaction to both events.
Much has been made over the newly crowned Miss America, the lovely Nina Davuluri of New York.
Like all of the other fresh-faced contestants, Davuluri is an all-American young woman. Born in Syracuse, New York (which is, um, in America) she is beautiful, smart, ambitious and nice.
What's not to like about her, even if you, like me, don't follow the Miss America pageant slavishly?
As always, people felt pretty good about Miss America.
Except in Xenophobic Stupid Troll World.There, Davuluri is an Arab terrorist. Apparently there's no difference between people of Indian and Arab descent in Xenophobic Stupid Troll World, XSTW for short.
And in XSTW, all people of Arab descent are going to blow up your building and shoot you in about five minutes.
Davuluri isn't blonde, did a sort of Bollywood dance number for her talent sketch, and has a "weird" last name. So not American, and definitely a terrorist in XSTW.
Much was made of the reaction in XSTW, but they are only noticeable because they are loud and obnoxious. I don't think, and I hope, there's not many of them.
The trolls are also inconsistent. Over on America's Got Talent this week, a guy named Kenichi Ebina won the annual talent competition.
Ebina isn't even from America. He's Japanese. So how did he win America's Got Talent? With, um, talent, but maybe the Xenophobes are mad about this too?
Dancer and performance artist Kenichi Ebina won "America's Got Talent" last week.
Not really. So far, there hasn't been the kind of backlash against Ebina that there has been against Duvuluri.
America's Got Talent hasn't been around long enough, and hasn't yet gotten the all-American cache, apparently, to piss of the denizens of Xenophobic Stupid Troll World like when in the Miss America contest.
For the record, Ebina deserved the win in my book. The performance artist's skills at dance, video projection, art, mime, computer technology, storytelling and more is beyond astounding. I'd pay damn good money to see his show. I hope he has a long, successful career.
And let's hope the so-called people who live in Xenophobic Stupid Troll World don't discover that Ebina won "America's Got Talent" and is performing in America.
They'll start talking about some stupid Japanese invasion or something.
