Abortion Doctor Killed at Church

Today we hear that Dr. George Tiller, who survived a shooting (1993) and a bombing (1985), was shot dead at church in front of his wife.

It seems to me that there are two ways to think about this from a cultural perspective: one, that periodic waves of violence against abortion doctors reflect very little about how pro- or anti-choice our society is. Two, on the not-so-bright-side, that you have to consider the role of the Creeps with Airtime in raising the negative profile of Dr. Tiller and others to the point where they are targets of violence carried out by maniacs.

Maniacs of a less violent nature applaud Tiller's death all around the Internets. See, for example, "Why is the death of a satan worshipper tragic?"

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Where are these green shoots they are talking about?

Check out this on the continuing depressing state of the world: Paul Krugman gives some other famous schmoe what-for, Bill Bradley sounds like he should take Geithner's job up from under him, and George Soros shows up because if you're that rich apparently you are de facto. A good read, but where are the ladies on the panel? Not sure if you've noticed, but Obama's been talking a lot about how he wants to encourage men to go into professions like nursing . . . from the looks of it we could maybe use some women in the profession of explaining why and how the world is falling apart too.

Really, Bill Bradley is quite impressive here.

Anyway, off to Pomona right now to see Propagandhi. I'm not even going to bother going into how excited I am because I've been wanting to see this show since I was thirteen years old. And I love going to Pomona, it scares me, and I haven't been there in several years. Big night all around. Again, I know it isn't fashionable to say this, but it's hard to think of a better punk band around these days.


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Souter intends to retire, sort of looks like he'd be good in a Western

Justice Souter today announced that he's moving on to greener pastures, wants to "return to his native New Hampshire." This on the heels of the NH General Assembly legalizing gay marriage (possible veto pending) this morning.

Maybe it's not a coincidence, maybe he too has been waiting to gay marry?

Anyway, this is sort of ambivalent news I guess, since we're still a few retirements from changing the composition of the stupid stupid Supreme Court. However, I am really excited about the Republican circus that could result from this week's newly filibuster-proof Democratic majority. Assuming that Barack gets through his first choice, I think it's obvious that soon all marriages will be at least 65% gay by law.

Have you seen Souter recently, by the way? I'm used to this photo, which makes him look sort of sprightly, if a bit gray.
Well, apparently this photo is circa 1990, because today he looks like he has been partially reconstructed from pieces of an old baseball mitt.

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Awkard Internet transaction follow-up

Being completely broke, I am cancelling my subscription to eMusic. Looking back, I guess I've never gotten much out of it anyway. So I'm downloading my last 40 songs, and I decided to download Ma Rainey's Black Bottom because it has "Shave 'Em Dry Blues" and I like that song.

Three days later, I get an email in my inbox: "How did you like Ma Rainey's Black Bottom?" Um, just fine, thanks?

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What's the 211?

For my own odd reasons I am calling LA County's 211 service today . . . and the first thing you get on the menu is, "For information regarding Swine Flu, press . . . "

Is it just me, or is the constant stream of pandemics both completely boring and sort of suspect? I mean, I know people have died, but people die of all sorts of things all the time. Including communicable diseases. You know? I may be proven wrong: I felt the same way about natural disasters until the huge typhoon, followed by Hurricane K. Felt like a real creep back then.

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Arlen Specter Specter leaves Republican Party

Arlen Specter just made the switch from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party. How does this read? The Republican Party has gone so far outside of the mainstream that their fogeys are starting to abandon ship? Or the Democrats, by virtue of the two party system and the Republican Party's insanity, is forced to cast such a wide net that it will never actually manage to come up with any sort of real political philosophy?

Also does this mean Specter will change his mind on the Employee Free Choice Act? Or will he still oppose it and use EFCA to demonstrate his continued independence from party politics?

Arlen Specter is really really old.

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No Way Miss USA

So, in the year 2009, why is it even acceptable to parade young women around in an extra-fancy dog show on television? Right?

Anyway, in case anyone didn't see this, Miss California weighed in on the gay marriage debate during the Miss America pageant. As the various Misses always seem to do, Miss Golden State began her answer by indicating her own fundamental misunderstanding of the way the world works: she says that she is happy to live in a country where people can choose gay marriage or "opposite marriage." So either Miss California lives in Vermont or Miss California is technically quite stupid.

She follows up that gem with the assertion that, "In my country, in my family" marriage is between a man and a woman. No disrespect obviously, that's just the way we do things in my country/family.

Miss California is from San Diego. And this is what happens when you let people from San Diego out in public. I've said it for years, folks: Fresno-by-the-Sea.

One other thing: the person who asked the question was Perez Hilton. Props go to the guy for forcing a salient and important question onto the Annual Vapid Bullshit Parade, but honestly I had no idea he actually counted as a TV-worthy celebrity. I thought he was a mid-level Internet celebrity, somewhere between the Goatse guy (don't worry, no photo) and the Obama Girl. You know, way down in the lower echelons of fame, next to Malt-o-Meal in the cereal aisle.

So here's an important question about the United States circa 2009: how do we feel about Perez Hilton being a national pop culture figure? Keep in mind that this man is notable for only one reason - his website posts photos of drunk celebrities who have accidentally flashed their vaginas on the way out of the limo.



Apparently Perez Hilton later called Ms. Killer Cali a "bitch," and here she responds on MSNBC. The whole thing has the catty, gossipy feel of late high-school. Miss California is praying for Perez Hilton, Perez Hilton unapologizes to Miss California about calling her a bitch, only to up the ante by dropping a c-bomb on her startled ass. Then, Miss California is all like, "Well I have 4,000 friend requests on Facebook!" I am not joking. We later learn that an authority figure in the form of some higher-up at the Miss USA Ranch steps in and chastises Miss Blue Eyeshadow for being, you know, a prejudiced ass.



It bears mentioning that Miss Meth-Hub of Southern California looks like a freeze-dried weirdo throughout both clips.

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