http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2013/01/15/the-snowy-line Comments On: The snowy line by Max Brantley en-us Copyright 2013 Arkansas Times. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, Arkansas Times readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact Arkansas Times. robert@arktimes.com (Arkansas Times Webmaster) Sun, 19 May 2013 00:00:01 -0500 Sun, 19 May 2013 08:30:00 -0500 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss
Bill Clinton ran a stunning race for U.S. Congress in 1974 and aided by Watergate came close to reclaiming the 3rd District. In 1976 he won the Attorney General's office and in 1978 won the Governor's office, lost in 1980, and came back in 1982 to hold it till he won President in 1992.

Bill Halter has nowhere near the same record. He threatened to run for Governor, garnering significant donations for a primary challenge to Mike Beebe. Then used those donations to buy his way into a narrow primary plurality and narrower runoff win for Lt. Governor. Finally he faced a General Election challenge via Jim Holt. His next attempt at elective office, he was thumped in the primary and even more greatly so in the runoff.

I know Bill Clinton. I served under Bill Clinton. I would call Bill Clinton my friend. Bill Halter is no Bill Clinton.
Posted by Drew Pritt]]> Wed, 16 Jan 2013 07:22:55 -0600 Arkansas Times
My story is similar. But I did have a grownup whisper it's bs.

3rd grade in a Catholic school, back about '67.

Had known for years about fake.

But had gone along with it because some myths paid well. Santa, knew it was made up but if you pretend, supposed grownups gave you more stuff. Plus parents really seemed to have fun doing those things. Ghost stories and queidgy boards (sp?) were fun to scare the young and the dum with.

The school was run by nuns and with nuns. Really old nuns. They were pissed that after being nurses or whatever where "retired" or forced to teach/babysit kids.

We had an old nun expire and they sent in a new nun. HOT! Really young. Hardly looked as old as 8th grade girls at the school.

Plus the year before they had "Updated" nun outfits. From Flying nun type garb to hems just below the knee. Polyester collars instead of the heavy starched linen of old.

So we have this nun and even 3rd graders were starting to suspect it was all BS. When challenged about it, the new nun said Noah's Ark was a parable used to teach a point. Said it had never happened. She looked right at me.

We went out at 10 am recess and told the whole school. Oh! the excitement in the air! Playground was all abuzz. A bunch of near scirmishes, "is not!", "is too!", "is not!!", "is so, a nun said so!!!".

By lunch, the rebelion had been stomped down.

Hot nun had to "explain" that although ALL parts may not have been historically factual, (still debate among scholars over some minor issues!) it was a fact.

The Hot nun looked right at ME. She knew I knew that she had been stomped down.

From then on I knew I wasn't the only one around with the knowledge of the Emporer's clothes. It was quite calming and freeing. But even at 8 I knew it would be easier to just go along with the flow and tide for the most part and let others have Santa until they figured out themselves. You can't force Democracy on a country, you can't bring a believer to reality and you can't push a chain.
Posted by Citizen1]]> Wed, 16 Jan 2013 07:18:03 -0600 Arkansas Times
Ever since I first encountered "The Great Flood" in vacation bible school, maybe a couple of years after it occurred, a long time ago, I've given it way, way too much thought.

It's supposed to be cute, then, a little drawing of a boat with two of every kind of animal, with the two giraffes and two elephants sticking their heads out the little portholes and all. But even then, I thought about all the thousands and thousands of giraffes and elephants and pandas and all the other animals struggling day by day to reach ever higher and higher land only to ultimately drown. And what exactly had they done to deserve all that? God was all pissed off at the humans....why not just kill them some way? It didn't seem fair and God sounded kinda mean. But it was explained to me that we should fear God...that's the real meaning of all that tragedy.

Then as I got older, I got to thinking about all the technical details. How big would the boat have to be? How did Noah and his family gather up 2 of every kind all over the world? With God's help I was told. But still, it must have been a daunting task. How did they gather up jaguars, turkeys and countless other species from the western hemisphere that Noah didn't even know was there in the first place? How did God drown the fish? Did Noah have aquariums on board--a whole lot of extra weight there? And the birds left off the Ark? You know thousands of birds were fighting every day, after the water had covered all the land, trying to land on the ark, roosting at night, rustling around up there, messin' up everybody's sleep and with all that bird shit all over.

And now, that creationist bunch up in Kentucky, tells us that dinosaurs were on the ark too. Now, you've added tons and tons of lizards to the boat, not to mention the extra pterodactyls and such adding to all that chaos up on the roof. No wonder Noah got drunk immediately after it was all over. Sheesh, what a trip!

The theology seemed a little suspect too. God was starting all over with His plan. God, being prescient and omniscient, would've known all along that this scenario was going to take place and then that people, even with their shorter lifespans after the flood, would still stink up the place. It didn't even do any good after all that effort! Add stupidity to the attributes of God. But He works in mysterious ways.

I just wish that some educated adult would have taken me aside after that first day in Bible School and just whispered "It's all bullshit" in my ear. That act of kindness would have saved all that time that I've spent obsessing over ol' Noah over the years. Just wasted time that I could've used figuring out why pieces of Superman's home planet became poisonous to him after he moved here. Even the astrophysicists have trouble with that conundrum.

And, oh yeah, how did God handle the whales? They'd refuse to drown, and even two great blues aboard the ark would have..... I can't let it go.
Posted by Olphart]]> Wed, 16 Jan 2013 02:29:15 -0600 Arkansas Times
How did Noah do it? Hermaphrodites - transvestites ???

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H108mSSov3A
Posted by eLwood]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 23:51:57 -0600 Arkansas Times I haven't eaten pork in over 20 yrs. Plan to keep it that way.
ask me about how industrial pork farms use "tiered" feeding.
Posted by eLwood]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 23:42:24 -0600 Arkansas Times
I share your sentiments about Paul Ryan and his ilk.

To repubs, every sperm is sacred. Cue Monty Python!
Posted by the outlier]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 23:18:40 -0600 Arkansas Times
WIES and I were discussing a scenario after reading that. Let's say a man was brutally raped to the point his rectum was ripped to bloody shreds and the tip of his penis was cut off. (Not sure if a man did it or a woman stuck a weed-eater up his ass and did a Lorena Bobbitt. That's neither here nor there, frankly.)

This raped man could no longer poop from that area, couldn't have sex again and later found out he had contracted a deadly disease. Obviously he was traumatized from the whole ordeal.

Let's then pretend that I, a Republican US Congresswoman from the Great State of Arkansas, propose that this man cannot get treatment from the contracted disease because it was "God's Will for him to get this. God's Will should be done because God doesn't make mistakes,'' I'll announce while holding the Bible.

I assume I'd be thrown out of office because I'm a lunatic. That's crazy talk.

(Brief aside: Why is it always God's Will when a woman gets impregnated but it's not God's will when someone gets cancer or even gets sick? Shouldn't we let everything run its course and be Christian Scientists?)

How is Paul Ryan different from the crazy US Congresswoman I describe? Let's say I'm brutally raped where my vagina is ripped to shreds. I'm traumatized to the point where I wished for death. I then learn my attacker impregnated me but I can't have an abortion because Paul Ryan and Teabaggers say I can't.

Is my being impregnated by a rapist's sperm different than the raped man contracting a deadly disease? The teabaggers would say yes. To a raped woman, I think it might be worse to carry a reminder of the horrific attack for nine months and unleash a spawn of Satan on the world.

I say we shouldn't treat the raped man's disease until it's the size of a 3-month-old fetus, and then we'll call it even.

All this makes me wish there were more rapes of men (Oh, not really. I guess. Just Paul Ryan or Mike Huckabee? No, no, just kidding.). Republican men don't give it a thought because they've never walked to their car or down an empty stairwell, looking over their shoulders thinking that someone could rape them. I've never been raped - knock on wood - but I know someone who has. It's a fear all women live with. Progressive men don't have that fear either, but at least they're not trying to pass legislation to give more power to the freaking rapist. Jeez!

On to more important topics before I turn in...WIES bought a huge ham for Christmas. We ate part of it and put it in the freezer. WIES thawed it out and we put it in the black-eyed peas for New Year's Day. She then put it back in the freezer, causing great consternation from me.

ME: Dear, we have to throw out that ham. It's not good, plus it's taking up too much space in the freezer.

WIES: It's still good. It's cured ham.

ME: We're not poor. Let's throw out the damn ham because we'll get trichinosis.

WIES: It's fine and we're not going to waste food. I'll put it in some kind of casserole this weekend.

This is the toaster thing all over again. Is the damn ham going to give us trichinosis or not?

Hugs to all, except for assholes (Stanford/Pangburn putz, you come to mind)

Mrs. Sistertoldja
Posted by Mrs. Sistertoldja]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 23:01:19 -0600 Arkansas Times
"Most GOP voters continue to believe that congressional Republicans are out of touch with the party base, while Democrats are happier than ever with how their team is performing in Washington, DC.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 30% of Likely Republican Voters believe Republicans in Congress have done a good job representing their party’s values over the past several years. Sixty-three percent (63%) of GOP voters think congressional Republicans have lost touch with the party’s base throughout the nation.


http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_con…
Posted by eLwood]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 22:37:26 -0600 Arkansas Times >Halter is not as savvy,....he is no Bill Clinton.

No he isn't. He started higher on the totem pole, thanks to Bill.
Clinton lost one, won one before going for guv's office. Same record Halter has.
Does the order matter?

What should be of tremendous interest to detached election watchers is that both Dustin and Bill will both be 'comeback kids.'
Posted by eLwood]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 22:21:13 -0600 Arkansas Times
http://bluearkansasblog.com/?p=8135

Cannot believe the sorry SOB would show his "face" again around these parts.
Posted by DrewPrittisAPhony]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 22:13:40 -0600 Arkansas Times entertaining yes, fair no.

“Have I gone too far?”
Kathy Griffin
Posted by Zatharus]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 22:10:14 -0600 Arkansas Times
You're being too kind here. I know you're seldom accused of that but, IMPLICITLY racist!?
...and Joe Stalin was implicitly communist, I suppose.

Two-Bit Twat is about right though.
Posted by Olphart]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 22:00:42 -0600 Arkansas Times
But the Republicans who keep pushing this issue have to be careful. The specter of Jeremy Hutchinson and Tim Hutchinson's sexual misconduct would be raised. You may say what's the difference, right? The difference is those candidates and guilt by association and political rhetoric, ASA! Hutchinson would be affected because they have build a reputation on "family values" and on "righteousness".

Bill Halter earned the angst of some when he threatened a primary challenge, but then he switched to the Lt. Governor's race. When he primaried Blanche Lincoln, and lost, he severed what ties he had left. There are very few in the party who like, trust, or will go to bat for Halter. He has a brand that is severely challenged at this point. When this happened to Clinton, Clinton humbled himself, apologized, and rebounded. Halter is not as savvy, and as much as he compares himself to, he is no Bill Clinton.
Posted by Drew Pritt]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 21:15:58 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by plainjim]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 20:33:12 -0600 Arkansas Times
Having been forced to briefly impersonate Ann Coulter in Tampa, I feel I've walked a mile in her pumps, so to speak.

I rarely use certain terms for my sisters.

Except when they fit.

So Ann, the Two-Bit Twat, touted another cherry-picked bigotty-babbity babbling (believed by only the brain-dead): this time, implicitly racist.

SO GOP.

“If you compare white populations, we have the same murder rate as Belgium,” she threw out misleadingly.

I adore Myrddin's public takedown of the Skinny Skank on AmericaBlog.

"Ann Coulter’s claim is merely the last gasp of the gun-nut strategy of talking about anything other than guns. They have tried video games, lack of prayer-in-school, and gun free zones in schools. Having seen those fail, they wheel out Ann Coulter to beat the race drum, as only she can."

http://americablog.com/2013/01/ann-coulter…
Posted by Norma Bates]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 20:18:40 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by Cato]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 20:04:24 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by Ron Rizzardi]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 19:16:43 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by plainjim]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 19:16:29 -0600 Arkansas Times
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1…
Posted by Cato]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 18:45:27 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by Verla Sweere]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 18:21:28 -0600 Arkansas Times
Chauncy?! Chauncy Gardner? Is that you?! Why you ol' sonofagun!!! Where in hell you been the last 35-40 years? We've been needing your political wisdom down here for quite some time now.

To those of you who don't quite get this, all I can say is that you hadto've Been There.
Posted by Olphart]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 17:14:03 -0600 Arkansas Times
Who would introduce and promote legislation to do away with Medicare and send granny to an early grave via insurance company denials?

Only the devout Christian with a fetish for Ayn Rand the atheist. He also has a fetus fetish. You know, "Moderate Mitt's" sidekick, him, that one!

"Republican Paul Ryan Protects Rapists’ Rights in New Fetus Bill

Buried deep in the latest Fetus Rights Bill (aka, Sanctity of Human Life Act , H.R. 23: To provide that human life shall be deemed to begin with fertilization), wherein feti are given more rights than the women carrying them, is a section that will allow a rapist to sue his victim in order to stop her from getting an abortion, specifically if she were trying to get an abortion in a state that allows them while she lives in a state that does not. . . .

http://www.politicususa.com/paul-ryan-prot…

apparently ol Paul didn't get the memo either:

"Republicans don't get it."
--Senator Kay B. Hutchinson (R-Tex)
Posted by eLwood]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 16:40:12 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by Rutrow]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 16:33:37 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by Jack]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 16:29:12 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by beerforbreakfast]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 15:50:26 -0600 Arkansas Times