Thursday, September 04, 2008

Blobs of News

DCU won the US Open Cup last night with a 2-1 home win over USL1 team Charleston. I was there. It was cool. Aftermath:



Yeah. It's a shitty cellphone cam. And I'm not a photographer.

I attended with the Dogred brothers, blackDogred (I'm not gonna call him a pussy, because that just bumps up his blog traffic, but he sure crashed hard after the giddiness of the postgame celebration of additional fucking hardware in our club's trophy locker, hardware that we saw earned and awarded with our own little eyes), MDogred, and Elric7Dogred.

Elric7 is kind of a comforting presence. He's calm, he's twisted, he's wicked (I mean that in a good way), and after knowing each other for over 30 years, but out of touch for most of it, he and I haven't lost our capacity for making each other giggle like schoolgirls over some remarkably random shit. I will not go into further detail, except to affirm that it's good to be seeing Elric7 from time to time again.

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So check this out. A well-constructed study gives further--and fairly damning--evidence that there's no connection between vaccines and autism, at least in the case of the MMR vaccine, the one that started the insanity. Goal-post-moving, denial, irresponsible charges, and malicious ignorance ensue. Last night, I was explaining to blackDogred (who is not a science guy, but is skeptical and intelligent enough to wonder whether I have any idea what I'm talking about on things like this) about the gulf in science here; believing that vaccines cause autism is exactly like believing in the Flat Earth Theory, Creationism, or the Easter Bunny. There is no controversy, and people who believe that vaccines cause autism and refuse to vaccinate their children are ignorant, malicious, or some combination thereof. Vaccinate your fucking children, assholes.

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And finally: Sarah Palin is simply a lying bag of shite. Her gender is irrelevant, her politics are hateful, hypocritical, and devoid of substance, and her propensity for sustaining attacks on her family from her own side, while using as a diversion from her appalling lack of substance some bitching about a story that would've died two days ago but for her own whine, is reprehensible. She's lying about her fiscal policies, she's lying about her record, she's lying about Obama. Her experience is virtually nonexistent: Whispers pointed out to me in conversation 10 minutes ago that the county in which we reside has a population roughly 50 percent greater than the state she governs, making this guy, who is a Democrat but a Douchebag-American, more than 50 percent more significantly experienced than she is.

She's a fucking disaster of a public figure and her selection as a candidate for Vice President remains an insult to all Americans, including polar bears.

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Hooray for Fascism!

The news from St. Paul is pretty disheartening. Dig in:

Greenwald on Federal involvement in pre-convention police raids.

Greenwald on today's arrests--280 arrests was the last number I saw.

Democracy Now's Amy Goodman arrested for asking to speak to a police commander about two DN journalists beaten and taken into custody.

The Uptake's coverage, including video of a St. Paul police presser. The most charming quote come at about the 7-minute mark of part 3 of the video, whereat a St. Paul PIO tells us that "Obviously, each of the individuals arrested was involved in some criminal activity."

Niiiiiiiiice.

Some of these independent newsies--certainly the ones I'm linking to--are of a liberal bent. But streaming video doesn't lie. Go fuck yourselves, Twin Cities police agencies. Way to reassure all of us that police ain't pigs.