Friday cat blogging!

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

There something both elegant and just a little bit spooky about this photograph. I really like it.
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"Sue, baby. Sue."

And why are we not suprised that Halliburton is negligent? Take a look:

April 29 (Reuters) - Louisiana shrimpers have filed a class-action lawsuit against oil giant BP Plc and owners of the oil rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, marking the first claim for economic losses stemming from the disaster.
...
The complaint says Halliburton "improperly and negligently performed these duties, increasing the pressure at the well and contributing to the fire, explosion and resulting oil spill."

You can read the complete article right here on the Reuters site.
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Needs to go viral IMHO

(Hat tip to Paul over at Byzigenous Buddhapalian.)

One of Maher's best

Here you go:

Every asshole who ever chanted 'Drill Baby Drill' should have to report to the Gulf Coast today for cleanup duty.

-- Bill Maher

I so agree.
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Pants on fire

Oh my goodness. Just look at this:

Dr. Ergun Caner, the president of Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, has been a rising star on the Religious Right, entertaining audiences at major Religious Right gatherings with his hip, irreverent stories about his upbringing as a radical Muslim and his conversion to Christianity. Just this week, his story was featured on Focus on the Family’s broadcast, “From Jihad to Jesus.”

Turns out, according to a growing chorus of critics – many of them Southern Baptists and other Christians – Caner has apparently been lying for years about his childhood and his life story. It’s hard to even summarize the extent of the deceptions being described by his critics, but they include his claims to have grown up in Turkey and to have personally involved in Islamic Jihad, when court records from his parents’ divorce place him in Columbus, Ohio when he was just a few years old. Check some of the critical websites for voluminous debunking of Caner’s colorful (and apparently fanciful) stories about learning about America through TV broadcasts in Turkey and more. Some charges are even more directly related to his ministry, such as his claims to have debated top Muslim scholars around the world. Caner’s critics say there’s no evidence of those debates.

These are no vague or reckless charges, but carefully documented exposes that draw from Caner’s sermons, speeches, and online videos, and other public records. Liberty doesn’t seem to have responded publicly, but recently posted a revised version of Caner’s bio with disputed claims removed.

You can read the rest of it right here on Right Wing Watch.

So is he mentally ill or just a con man? I really don't know what to think. Maybe more will come to light in due course.
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Today's QuickVote

It's from the CNN website, of course:

Do you agree with the Navy's decision to allow women to serve on subs?

Yes - 71%

No - 29%

I'm relieved by this result. That speaks well for the progress that's been made in this society.
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Abortion and this state

Look what happened in Oklahoma today:

The Oklahoma Senate voted Tuesday to override the governor's vetoes and pass two strong anti-abortion measures.

One law requires women to undergo an ultrasound examination and listen to a description of what it shows before getting an abortion.
...
Henry said he was disappointed by Tuesday's vote.

"It signals the beginning of another costly and possibly futile legal battle for the state of Oklahoma. Both laws will be challenged and, in all likelihood, overturned by the courts as unconstitutional," he said. "I fear this entire exercise will ultimately be a waste of taxpayers' time and money."

In a statement issued after his vetoes Friday, Henry sharply criticized the laws.

"State policymakers should never mandate that a citizen be forced to undergo any medical procedure against his or her will, especially when such a procedure could cause physical or mental trauma," Henry said. "To do so amounts to an unconstitutional invasion of privacy."

Henry said one of the flaws of the ultrasound bill was that it lacked an exemption for rape and incest victims.

Let me be very clear here about my own position. I think abortion is always a tragedy. I also believe it is clearly the taking of a life. The question before us, however, is who gets to decide. I would much rather trust a woman and her health care provider to make this difficult decision than the state.

That is all.
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Something about justice

By Dante Shepherd (used with permission)

Many thanks to Karen Bottoms for introducing me to the Surviving the World site!
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Sunday art blogging

Artist: Suzanne Valadon

Image from Wikimedia Commons

An illuminating "game"

I really want to urge you to go on over to a blog called Ephphatha Poetry and read the following post: "Imagine if the Tea Party Was Black" by Tim Wise.

Here's just a bit of it:

Imagine that hundreds of black protesters were to descend upon Washington DC and Northern Virginia, just a few miles from the Capitol and White House, armed with AK-47s, assorted handguns, and ammunition. And imagine that some of these protesters —the black protesters — spoke of the need for political revolution, and possibly even armed conflict in the event that laws they didn’t like were enforced by the government? Would these protester — these black protesters with guns — be seen as brave defenders of the Second Amendment, or would they be viewed by most whites as a danger to the republic? What if they were Arab-Americans? Because, after all, that’s what happened recently when white gun enthusiasts descended upon the nation’s capital, arms in hand, and verbally announced their readiness to make war on the country’s political leaders if the need arose.

Imagine that white members of Congress, while walking to work, were surrounded by thousands of angry black people, one of whom proceeded to spit on one of those congressmen for not voting the way the black demonstrators desired. Would the protesters be seen as merely patriotic Americans voicing their opinions, or as an angry, potentially violent, and even insurrectionary mob? After all, this is what white Tea Party protesters did recently in Washington.

There's more. And it's truly worth reading.

Hat tip to MadPriest over at Of Course I Could Be Wrong.
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Saturday limerick blogging!

Time for a new category and so limericks it is! :-) I just found this one:

A preoccupied vegan named Hugh
picked up the wrong sandwich to chew.
He took a big bite
before spitting, in fright,
“OMG, WTF, BBQ!”

Could only have been written in the internet age!

(And, lest anyone get offended, I'm a vegetarian, myself.)
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Friday cat blogging!

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Update on Arizona immigration bill

Oh dear. The governor of Arizona has signed the bill into law that I posted about just below.

You can read about it here.

Now take a look at a comment someone made:

The tea partiers must be organizing one heck of a protest against this law that allows police to stop anyone they feel *might* be here illegally and demand proof of citizenship, right? This is big brother government at its worst, making American citizens of hispanic descent feel as if they have to carry around their birth certificate or citizenship papers in order to "prove" they belong. So where's the outrage from the tri-cornered hat crowd?

Where's the outrage, indeed?
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Oh. My. God.

Are you aware of the new immigration bill that has been passed in Arizona and it now waiting for the governor's signature?

Jim Wallis tells us about it in an article entitled "Arizona’s Immigration Bill is a Social and Racial Sin".

This literally made me sick to my stomach. I'm still queasy from it. Here's how the article gets started:

I got up at 4:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning to fly to Phoenix, Arizona, to speak at a press conference and rally at the State Capitol at the invitation of the state’s clergy and other leaders in the immigration reform movement. The harshest enforcement bill in the country against undocumented immigrants just passed the Arizona state House and Senate, and is only awaiting the signature of Governor Janet Brewer to become law.

Senate Bill 1070 would require law enforcement officials in the state of Arizona to investigate someone’s immigration status if there is “reasonable suspicion” that the person might be undocumented. I wonder who that would be, and if anybody who doesn’t have brown skin will be investigated. Those without identification papers, even if they are legal, are subject to arrest; so don’t forget your wallet on your way to work if you are Hispanic in Arizona. You can also be arrested if you are stopped and are simply with people who are undocumented — even if they are your family. Parents or children of “mixed-status families” (made up of legal and undocumented, as many immigrant families are out here) could be arrested if they are found together. You can be arrested if you are “transporting or harboring” undocumented people. Some might consider driving immigrant families to and from church to be Christian ministry — but it will now be illegal in Arizona.

For the first time, all law enforcement officers in the state will be enlisted to hunt down undocumented people, which will clearly distract them from going after truly violent criminals, and will focus them on mostly harmless families whose work supports the economy and who contribute to their communities. And do you think undocumented parents will now go to the police if their daughter is raped or their family becomes a victim of violent crime? Maybe that’s why the state association of police chiefs is against SB 1070.

This proposed law is not only mean-spirited — it will be ineffective and will only serve to further divide communities in Arizona, making everyone more fearful and less safe. This radical new measure, which crosses many moral and legal lines, is a clear demonstration of the fundamental mistake of separating enforcement from comprehensive immigration reform. We all want to live in a nation of laws, and the immigration system in the U.S. is so broken that it is serving no one well. But enforcement without reform of the system is merely cruel. Enforcement without compassion is immoral. Enforcement that breaks up families is unacceptable. And enforcement of this law would force us to violate our Christian conscience, which we simply will not do. It makes it illegal to love your neighbor in Arizona.

I had the great privilege of hearing Jim Wallis speak at the Cathedral in Oklahoma City about ten year or so ago. Afterwards he and I had a conversation that I found enormously helpful and encouraging. He is a thoughtful, reflective man with a keen sense of responsibility and never sees matters in reductionistic or overly simplistic terms.
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I like this:

It's actually a lapel pin. You can order one right here.

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