Grow up, lady.

Not only all our troops suffering from "porn addictions" every bit as pernicious as the post-traumatic psychosis suffered by Christopher Walken in The Deer Hunter, but porn even caused Abu Ghraib:

Chaplains are reporting that pornography addiction is a serious problem among our troops, even though alcohol and porn are banned for those serving in Iraq:

In Iraq, alcohol and pornography - including Internet porn - are banned for enlisted personnel out of sensitivity to adherents of the country's dominant religion, Islam. But despite the prohibitions and blocking software on military computers, Father Mark Reilly, who served as a Marine chaplain in Iraq this year, said increasing numbers of both men and women serving in Iraq have access to porn and have become addicted.

"I don't think I've ever been confronted as much face-to-face with men and women - in and out of the confessional - saying, 'I'm addicted to porn and I don't know how to get out of it,'" Father Reilly said. "They're looking for a life preserver. It's wrecking their marriages. Like any addiction, they lose control."

British historian Joanna Bourke said that at their worst, pornography causes imitative behavior like the Abu Ghraib photos - made by and for porn addicts. "The abuse is performed for the camera," she wrote in the London newspaper The Guardian. "These obscene images have a counterpart in the worst, non-consensual sadomasochistic pornography."

Janet LaRue wants the DoD to fund more "sexual purity" kits (that's what they're actually sold as) to help the troops block porn from their computers and their lives. I suppose I agree to some extent -- if some troops want such things, why shouldn't they have them? If a cheap little widget can help a military man fight temptations which he does indeed wish to fight, I'm in favor of giving it to him. Just as I'm in favor of getting beer to the warriors who might want a drink. And, frankly, if some soldiers aren't so worried about being tempted by porn, I'm in favor of letting them improve their morale by letting them knock one out when they wish. Ms. LaRue disagrees:

The Department of Defense (DOD) cannot effectively protect our military from pornography and its copious adverse consequences by banning porn only in Muslim countries. The DOD needs to understand why the troops at home are ordering the "sexual purity kits" - they need homeland security from pornographers.

For starters, the DOD must strictly enforce the Military Decency and Enforcement Act of 1996 (Act) on U.S. military bases, which it hasn't been doing. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld the constitutionality of the Act in General Media Communications v. Cohen and the Supreme Court denied review.

So, she's not just in favor of helping those troops who want help in avoiding porn, she wants to make sure any troops who might actually want to view such filth can't see it.

She's not really interested in helping the troops. Or, I guess, she's in favor of helping them, against their wills if need be, because she knows what's best for them.

And that just serves as a warm-up for demanding a nation-wide crackdown on Demon Porn.

All plainly unserious, yet another example of a reductivist retard trying to use the war to advance The Great Big Single Issue That Enables Them To Simplify A World Which Is Distressingly Complex.

Found, ironically enough, at Pandagon, who shares LaRue's single-minded idiocy. Just an idiocy of a different sort.

I Guess I Was Unclear: Pandagon finds this absurd; she's not linking the article because she agrees with it, but because she finds it to be an example of goofball rightwingery. I agree with that. (Though her slam of it is kind of silly, for reasons I won't get into; but even with such an easy target, she can't manage a rebuttal without lapsing into illogic.)

What my last sentences were intended to mean were that LaRue and Marcotte were two sides of the same goofball reductivist coin. Both have a limited capacity for comprehending the complex world as it actually is and find, therefore, a great deal of comfort in crudely reducing everything into cookie-cutter paradigms that are simple enough to let them feel the've got a pretty good handle on things.

That's what I meant by "ironically" there -- yes, Pandagon saw this woman as the crude reductivist she is, but Marcotte can't see she's cut from the same dogmatic, anti-intellectual, religious zealotry cloth.

And Marcotte is religious, of course. A true fundamentalist. That she doesn't believe in God is no proof of her irreligiosity -- a religion can survive without having a God, but every religion needs a Devil. And Marcotte's got one, or, rather, three billion of them -- men.

Pardon the lapse... I decided spur of the moment on Saturday morning to go to New York, and, due to problems in every single phase of my trip, it took me almost ten hours to get from Boston to New York. And then there were still further problems after that, so finally, after dealing with buses, subways, etc., for almost twelve full hours, I had to get really drunk, and I'm still hung over two days later. Not just from the booze, but from exhaustion.

Posted by: Ace at 01:55 PM | Comments (248)
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It's a Daytona 500 thread!

My law school roommate (an attorney in Miami) scored a couple of tickets to the Daytona 500, which explains why you haven't been seeing my posts here for the past couple of days.

I tell you this, because I know you missed me. My e-mail box overflows with comments like the following:

Jack! Where are you??? I can't imagine life without you and your daily bon mots. Hurry back soon! S. Johannson.

At first, that e-mail was pretty exciting. Then I found out the "S" stood for "Steve".

Anyway...what a race! I really wanted Mark Martin to hold the lead on the final lap, as I tend to root for the old guys on the circuit. Plus, I would have loved to see the ARMY car in the winner's circle.

Oh well...the Chevy's kicked butt. The weather was great. A car flipped over and caught fire, and the women of NASCAR were the t-shirt lifting racing groupies that we all know and love.

So what a day! If you feel like commenting on the race, have at it.

Posted by: Jack M. at 01:11 PM | Comments (47)
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Part 1 is here; content warning for some macabre photos and some language (like an NYPD cop calling Loose Change producer Korey Rowe a "fucking idiot.")

The second excerpt from these guys -- just about 45 seconds in -- let's you know how far gone they are.

The other four parts are here. Great stuff. It's old, but it was new to me.

Over at LGF there's a video of a sadly brief BBC report on the Truthers. The clip is too short for debunking, but at the end you can see the Jim Jones sort of Krazy Konspiratorial Kibbutz Dylan Avery has set up so he can be around his stoner miscreants 24/7.

Posted by: Ace at 12:42 PM | Comments (37)
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I'm sure you've seen it. It's not nearly as bad as I expected. It's also not very good at all, but that means it's like pretty much every other comedy show on tv, including the allegedly hilarious Stewart and Colbert.

Allah felt the t-shirt bit was crushingly didactic. Well, yes. But then, I kinda thought it was almost worth it to see a t-shirt with Kim Jong-Il's picture and the slogan "No Fat Chicks," which is always funny in a funny-because-it's-not-funny kind of way.

I like See-Dub's take on the show: It would be good for all for the show to do well, because if a kinda-lame, kinda-preachy conservative "comedy" show can get ratings, it proves there's an audience desperate for this sort of thing.

Posted by: Ace at 12:19 PM | Comments (32)
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Good news for a change. Well worth watching, if only to provide hope that there is an alternative to the toxic psychopathic brand of Islam so popular around the world.

Such as in Nashville, where arguing with a Muslim cab driver about religion can get you a hit-and-run in the name of Allah.

A "very smart military blogger" you know as Greyhawk is part of the surge of troops, by the way. He reflects on the anti-surge non-binding resolution passed by Democrats in the House, and notes the Democrats have chosen to do precisely what Ayman al-Zawahiri asked of them.

Posted by: Ace at 12:09 PM | Comments (13)
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Yeah, it's old, but maybe new to someone else.

Darryl Delacruz, a Silicon Valley engineer, said he would miss the "liberating feeling" of running naked in Fremont Older Open Space Preserve. But he conceded his personal comfort was less important than the discomfort he caused others.

"I'll go back, but I'll be wearing clothes," he said. "I don't want people to have the wrong impression."

Seems he's not a perv, just an enthusiast.
Thanks to eddiebear

Posted by: LauraW. at 07:08 AM | Comments (38)
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I just deliver them.

From Phinn: Nerdcore Rap.

I'm sorry.

Also, from Mesablue's blog, the worst commercial ever.

Please accept my most heartfelt apologies.

Another one from Lightning-Fast Linkwhore Man.

Please stop crying. I love you. I tell you every day that you're beautiful to me. Shhhh.

Shhhh.

Posted by: LauraW. at 08:38 PM | Comments (46)
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One of the unfortunate perks of being elected to public office is the power to bring your little pet peeves before the legislative process.

PHOENIX -- It's still going to be legal in Arizona for trucks to have splash guards with racist terms and silhouettes of naked women.

The state House on Thursday rejected a Democratic amendment that would have banned splash guards with images that are "obscene or hateful."

Tempe Democrat Ed Ableser sponsored the amendment. He said he'd seen a splash guard that used a derogatory term for black children and said he wanted to make sure that people with hateful motives didn't inflict them on others.

Democratic Rep. Theresa Ulmer of Yuma supported the amendment and said it fit with lawmakers' other efforts to crack down on pornography and sexual predators.

Flash to Arizona Dems: See, this is the trouble with freedom. People use it.

Having bad taste and making a public ass of yourself are protected under the Constitution. An exaggerated silhouette of a woman is not obscene, it's just unrealistic. Racist speech is still protected speech.

You cannot protect kids from rudeness. And you probably shouldn't, unless you want them to grow up to be fragile milquetoasts.

No one, not even 'the children,' are harmed by these images. Kids are far more durable than that. Get over yourself.

If these folks have nothing better to do all day than take on the deadly threat of tacky mudflaps, maybe they should leave public office and let somebody with an understanding of the U.S. Constitution and a sense of priorities take their seats.

Posted by: LauraW. at 06:35 PM | Comments (54)
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Another video from the guy who did that awesome George Washington video last year (which is here, if you somehow haven't seen it yet).

Via the Mirth Canal, as usual.

Also as usual, a content warning.

Posted by: AndrewR at 06:30 PM | Comments (18)
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Hi everybody.
Been checking out the usual places for new funny news and coming up uninspired.

Help.
If you have some tips or interests, drop them in this thread, let's get this engine going again.

Posted by: LauraW. at 05:39 PM | Comments (29)
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