Good Morning

Oh, I am really trying to stay awake here, but just not making it work at all! This sinus crap has its grip on me dammit. So…this is going to be a link dump…with a huge image gallery to boot!

It looks like there is some wingnut asshole planning a revolution? I guess you can call it that, I don’t know what else to call this shit: Operation American Spring promises to drive Obama from office this Friday

Self-styled revolutionary patriots plan to converge on Washington, D.C., this week to drive President Barack Obama and disloyal lawmakers out of office.

“We are calling for the removal of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Nancy Pelosi, and Eric Holder as a start toward constitutional restoration,” said retired Army Col. Harry Riley, leader of the Operation American Spring protest group. “They have all abandoned the US Constitution, are unworthy to be retained in a position that calls for servant status.”

Operation American Spring aims to pressure those lawmakers who remain – or are replaced by officials of their own choosing – “to sponsor and pass very Constitutionally crafted State legislation to dissolve the size, powers, scope and spending of the U.S. Government by 2/3rds.”

Yes, that is no mere coincidence that my first link of this morning’s news reads is about a douchebag… and all the images you will see on the thread today deal with douches. I am very literal when I feel like shit.

The activists say they expect 10 million to 30 million like-minded Americans to join them Friday in the nation’s capital for a rally patterned after Occupy Wall Street and “Arab Spring” protests.

They also plan a sister event the same day in Bunkerville, Nevada, where militia groups have gathered to support scofflaw rancher Cliven Bundy in his dispute with the federal government.

Organizers also anticipate “incremental nullification” by state legislatures of “all withholding taxes, employment taxes, employer taxes, and income taxes.”

“This will effectively DOUBLE the size of ALL American Middle Class family weekly paychecks and cause our local city and town economies to boom,” the group promises on its Facebook page.

Tea Party Nation promoted Operation American Spring last month in an email to its members from founder Judson Phillips, who hinted at a violent response from the federal government, and sent invitations in January to the protest.

“There is no way a militia with small arms can defeat the kind of arms the U.S. government can bring to bear on such a battle, but one has to admire the courage of those people who showed up to confront them,” Phillips said, comparing the protest to the American Revolution. “That’s quintessentially American!”

Gawd, can’t these assholes be arrested for treason or something? (I know that they can’t.) You really need to read the rest of that Raw Story article, it is beyond belief…well, no it is not. We all know what these batshit crazy bastards are capable of…Case in point: Ron Paul fanboys think those Sandy Hook truthers are on to something, so hmmm…

After the post went about about the dick who stole the sign from Grace McDonnell playground and then called the girl’s mother to tell her her daughter never existed, I was alerted to a little somethin’ somethin’ at The Daily Paul.

What is the Daily Paul, you might rightly ask? It’s just a hub for Ron Paul lovin’ and also ‘Peace … Gold …Love,’ just like Jesus and Ron Paul preached when they were talkin’ ’bout rEVOLution. Over at the Daily Paul you can get your fill of guvmint being wrong stuff, sovereign citizen updates, and some truly sweet Ron Paul swag, ownership of which will come in handy if you wear it to your interview for an ambassadorship in Rand Paul Administration.

Providing, of course, President Rand doesn’t cut off wasteful communication with foreigners because they are not Americans.

And you can also find out that the whole Sandy Hook massacre thing that left 27 people dead seems a little hinky and is probably not true and here is just the guy to ‘splain it all to you from this man-castle in Florida.

Meet Wolfgang W. Halbig.

This dude is not your average douche of the truthers…he has credentials. The former law enforcement kind…and he has been “inside” the public school system…as the Raw Story article continues,

He’s worked in public education as a teacher, dean, assistant principal, principal of an alternative school and as the Director for School Safety and Security for the Seminole County Public Schools, a school district of approximately 65,000 students.”

He has also been a Florida State Trooper, which gives him law enforcement cred, because Florida is the crazy crime center of the universe.

[...]

What set Wolfgang’s conspiracy gears ratcheting up into overdrive was a couple of Florida homicide detectives stopping by his home and telling him to quit sending harassing letters to Connecticut officials and school board members and even the Sandy Hook nurse who hid in a closet with some kids. You can read a few of his increasingly shrill letters here.

My favorite is to Sandy Hook Elementary nurse

To: Sally Cox <xxxx@newtown.k12.ct.us>
Subject: SHS Parent Contact

I am a trainer for the US Justice Department COPS IN SCHOOL PROGRAM.

Are you a registered Nurse?

Why in the closet for four hours?

Why close your eyes when you have seen blood before you are a nurse?

Wolfgang W halbig

Seems like a reasonable request of a woman who was on-site when a crazy person strolled around and murdered twenty elementary children and six of her friends and colleagues. WHY SO QUIET LADY! WHAT ARE YOU HIDING!??!

And lest you think that Halbig is just a lone crank in the wilderness, he set up an account at gofundme to raise money to complete his ‘investigation,’ because he needs the money to hire lawyers to depose employees of the school and the officials who investigated the massacre and, hey, maybe a few of those fake grieving parents.

Who wouldn’t want to relive those days to satisfy the curiosity of some guy who lives a thousand miles away?

Total raised so far: $20,370.00, with the page shared 1.5K times on Facebook.

What the fuck is it with these people?

They are so willing to donate money to the cause of shit like this, but will not consider a slight tax for assistance to feed hungry kids in their own states?

Go and read the whole article, I picked through it, there is more audacity to shake your head at…also Alex Jones.

Since I am on the douchebag crazy kick now: Tea Party Scores Wins in Tuesday primaries | Washington Watch | McClatchy DC

That should make you cringe.

What about this for a turn: Not Crazy Enough | BobCesca.com | News and Politics Blog and Podcast | We Cover the World

Why did Charleston Republicans censure South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham? Was he caught wearing diapers with a hooker?

No, of course not. Republicans don’t censure for that anyway. Lindsey Graham was censured for not being crazy enough.

The censure document against Graham included more than two dozen points, such as Graham supporting President Barack Obama’s nominees for the Supreme Court and also working with Democrats, according to the Post and Courier of Charleston, South Carolina.

The vote to censure Graham was 39-32. It was conducted by secret ballot.

Graham is charged with committing the most unholy of sins; working with Democrats for a very brief moment before going back to bleating about Benghazi.

Seriously, I feel like we beat a dead horse here. It just amazes me, these right wingers are like the EverReady bunny…they never quit.

Now that it is prom season, Teen Girl Kicked Out Of Prom So Her Dress Wouldn’t Lead Boys To ‘Think Impure Thoughts’ | ThinkProgress

The dress was not bad either, I have seen way worse:

A 17-year-old high schooler from Virginia says she was kicked out of her prom because the parental chaperones were worried she was inspiring “impure thoughts” among the boys in attendance. Even though her dress adhered to the “fingertip length” dress code requirement, she was asked to leave.

Clare recounts her experience in a guest post on her sister’s blog. After Clare and her boyfriend bought tickets to the Richmond Homeschool Prom, she bought a new dress that she made sure was long enough according to the event’s “fingertip length” rule. But Clare is 5’9″, and even though the hem of her dress was within the guidelines, she says her long legs led some chaperones to assume she was breaking the dress code.

After Clare and her friends hung out a little bit on the dance floor — she writes that they weren’t even dancing, just “swaying with the music and talking and enjoying ourselves” — Clare was pulled away by one of the dance’s organizers, who told her that some of the fathers chaperoning the event had complained about her. They reportedly said that her dancing was too “provocative” and she was going to “cause the young men at the prom to think impure thoughts.”

When Clare protested that she wasn’t even doing anything, she was told that her dress was too short and she needed to leave. She says she demanded to speak with the woman who was in charge of the prom, but the other chaperones refused to let her.

“I was told that the way I dressed and moved my body was causing men to think inappropriately about me, implying that it is my responsibility to control other people’s thoughts and drives,” Clare writes in her blog post. “I’m not responsible for some perverted 45 year old dad lusting after me because I have a sparkly dress on and a big ass for a teenager. And if you think I am, then maybe you’re part of the problem.”

The so-called “fingertip rule” is a common dress code requirement in public schools to monitor girls’ hemlines. But Clare isn’t the first student to complain that it doesn’t accurately reflect different body types. Last week, an eighth grader in California wrote a letter to the editor of the Merced Sun-Star arguing that it’s a bad way for schools to regulate shorts. “Some girls have longer arms, almost to their knees, and others have arms that end about quarter of the way down their thighs. How is enforcing this rule equal and fair if fingertip-length varies?” she pointed out.

I love what she wrote about her ass…and about the men being part of the problem. Kudos to you Clare!

And one thing honey, your ass is nowhere near big babe!

In a surprising ruling: Texas judges halt execution over mental health appeal | Al Jazeera America

Go figure, I was certain that execution was a go for launch.

The US is on a special list, according to the UN: GENEVA: U.S. alone among Western countries on lack of paid maternity leave, UN finds | Now that, is not a surprise.

So, big news in underwater archeology:Exclusive: Found after 500 years, the wreck of Christopher Columbus’s flagship the Santa Maria – Archaeology – Science – The Independent

More than five centuries after Christopher Columbus’s flagship, the Santa Maria, was wrecked in the Caribbean, archaeological investigators think they may have discovered the vessel’s long-lost remains – lying at the bottom of the sea off the north coast of Haiti. It’s likely to be one of the world’s most important underwater archaeological discoveries.

“All the geographical, underwater topography and archaeological evidence strongly suggests that this wreck is Columbus’ famous flagship, the Santa Maria,” said the leader of a recent reconnaissance expedition to the site, one of America’s top underwater archaeological investigators, Barry Clifford.

“The Haitian government has been extremely helpful – and we now need to continue working with them to carry out a detailed archaeological excavation of the wreck,” he said.

If that does not tickle your fancy, perhaps this will? Video: Dumbo octopus | Earth | EarthSky

If you have never thought of an octopus as being cute, here’s your chance.

This dumbo octopus was spotted during the NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer Gulf of Mexico 2014 expedition and identified as the highlight of the cruise by many of the scientists and viewers alike.

Scientists say it displays a body posture that has never before been observed in a cirrate octopod (Cirrata is one of the two main divisions of octopuses.) And non-scientists say it displays a cuteness never before observed in an octopus!

And, if a dumbo swimming octopus doesn’t do it for ya, maybe this? Most detailed view yet of Milky Way’s magnetic fields | Science Wire | EarthSky

A new map of the entire sky offers a remarkably detailed picture of the magnetic fields that shape the Milky Way, including field lines that run parallel to the plane of the galaxy and great loops and whorls associated with nearby clouds of gas and dust.

Researchers created the map using data from the Planck Space Telescope, which since 2009 has charted the light from the universe shortly after the Big Bang known as the cosmic microwave background (CMB).

But Planck also observes light from much closer than the farthest reaches of time and space. With an instrument called the high frequency instrument (HFI), Planck detects light from microscopic dust particles within our galaxy. The density of the dust is incredibly low; a volume of space equal to a large sports stadium or arena would contain one grain.

But then, you may be the sentimental type, so something like twins being born holding hands is syrupy enough for you: These Rare Newborn “Mono Mono” Twins Held Hands Just After Birth

Identical twins are rare, but monoamniotic identical twins, who share the same amniotic sac and placenta, are even more so—they make up just 1% of all twin pregnancies. That’s why everyone is so excited that a lucky Ohio mom gave birth Friday to a pair of “mono mono” twins who clutched each other’s hands as doctors held them up.

“They’re already best friends,” said Akron, Ohio, mom Sarah Thistlethwaite, 32.

Then again, nothing makes me feel feisty like reading about old people in wheelchairs and walkers kicking ass and taking names.

Silver Patrol: Crime-fighting seniors on the beat look out for one another | Al Jazeera America

ean Smoak, a 70-year-old great-grandmother, made her way across the parking lot of her senior housing complex on a recent Friday night with her cane in hand, looking out for drug dealers and prostitutes.

The dealers, she said, cruise down Black Rock Avenue from Park Avenue in their “fancy sports cars” and stop by the lot’s entrance, where they reach out their car windows and exchange drugs for cash.

Smoak, a retired health care worker, said she’s fed up. She’s been jotting down license plate numbers, which the leader of her senior crime watch group plans to pass along to police.

“When they come and do that, other dangerous things can happen,” she said of the dealers. “The person that is waiting for it can come and steal money from people coming into the building.”

Smoak has also been taking notes on the dates and times she sees prostitutes on the corner, suspecting that some stray from a nearby homeless shelter.

“They come out with their Daisy Dukes and short skirts and tights,” she said, “and they’re standing there like they’re talking to themselves and they wait for a car to drive by.”

Smoak is one of 10 members on the Silver Crime Patrol at the Eleanor, a 63-unit, low-income senior housing complex on Park Avenue on Bridgeport’s west end.

See, birth and old age…a cycle of life…if you will. Pictures at the link, you won’t be disappointed.

On another fight, this one for life too: Henna Crowns Help Cancer Patients Bring Beauty to a Difficult Time

Henna Heals, which boasts 150 henna artists around the world, offers a substitute to the traditional hats, scarves, and wigs that many use (my mother swore by the entire line of Raquel Welch wigs when she lost her hair) to cover their heads. Artists create intricate temporary crowns on the bare head with homemade henna paste. The designs last for about two weeks and, according to the organization’s founder, Frances Darwin, are both empowering and healing:

“This is all about them reclaiming a part of themselves that would normally be perceived as ill or damaged or not nice to look at and making it more feminine and beautiful.“

Nice.

And finally, an explanation of the douche advertisements: Early contraceptive ads, for your viewing pleasure

.…Lysol advertising in the 1920s and 30s – specifically, on the use of Lysol as a contraceptive douching agent. Needless to say, it didn’t work so well, and lots of women ended up with vaginal burns and lots of other medical problems from applying Lysol to their lady bits.

1

ETA: these are 4 of the 8 ads I looked at personally, from 1926-1934, but Lysol contraceptive advertising continued through the 1950s.