Monthly Archives: April 2012

Pamela Geller – Scum of the Week

Posted on April 29, 2012 by Terry| 5 Comments

It seems like I’ve had a lot of “Scums of the week” lately.  What can I say, there’s a lot of people out there that deserve them.  Pamela Geller is one who richly deserves the award, and is someone you could probably give it to about every week.  THIS week’s Geller related issue is a “conference” organized in Detroit to ostensibly talk about a young Muslim woman who was murdered.  Given Geller’s attendance and the attendance of other anti-Islamic bigots, and it’s very clear the “conference” is yet another excuse for a bunch of redneck bigoted pigs to spout their hate.

Geller has a long history of anti-Islamic statements, many of which border on the downright bizarre.  Obama is a favorite target of hers, as she has said on countless occasions that we currently have a “Muslim in the White House”.  A sampling of some of Geller’s more disgusting quotes, from SourceWatch.org:

  • “Obama is a third worlder and a coward. He will do nothing but beat up on our friends to appease his Islamic overlords. All this is going down while Obama plays footsie at his nuclear nonsense campfire — sucking up to Iran’s enablers while beating up our allies.”
  • “It is well-known that Obama allegedly was involved with a crack whore in his youth. Very seedy stuff. Why aren’t [the media] pursuing that story? Find the ho, give her a show! Obama allegedly trafficked in some very deviant practices. Where’s the investigation? . . . Back in the early 80′s, there were only two reasons to travel to Pakistan. Jihad or drugs. I think he went for the drugs and came back with jihad.”
  • “Jews refuse to get on Obama’s Trains”. . . “Obama is pressuring Jews to “evacuate” from parts of Israel? And what Warsaw ghetto does the muhammadan [sic] president have in mind? I think I am gonna hurl. The Jews will not go. The Jews will not submit to this century’s nazis [sic] and Mansourian poser.”
  • (On the passage of health care): “The moochers and the looters, the crooks and degenerates voted at 1 am this morning to rip the constitution to shreds, to rape the American people and to nationalize medicine.”
  • Repeatedly accuses Obama of being a Muslim: Geller’s blog contains 267 posts tagged “Muslim in the White House?”
  • Geller claims that “devout Muslims should be prohibited from military service” because she believes that Adolf Hitler and Nazism were inspired by Islam.
  • In the wake of the terrorist attacks in Norway committed by Anders Breivik, she claimed that the young people killed were bound to become “leaders of the party responsible for flooding Norway with Muslims who refuse to assimilate, who commit major violence against Norwegian natives including violent gang rapes, with impunity, and who live on the dole.”

A lovely woman.  What irks me about pieces of crap like Geller is how they rely on the HATE and bigotry of others to make money.  Hate is a big business in America, with an entire industry built around losers like Geller and the hatred they spew.

The MSNBC story I linked to above has some absolutely scary parts to it.  This line really struck me:

Although many Americans have never encountered a Muslim in person, about 43 percent questioned in a recent Gallup Poll said they felt at least “a little” prejudice against Muslims.

“Many Americans have never encountered a Muslim”?   I guarantee that most Americans have encountered a Muslim, but this line to me epitomizes how many Americans THINK about Islam, as if it’s some foreign religion with no place in America itself.  That ridiculous lead-in to this sentence is a perfect complement to the stat that 43% of Americans said they feel prejudice against Muslims.  OK, America, if you supposedly haven’t ever MET a Muslim…why the HELL do you feel “at least a little prejudice” against them!?!?

It’s no wonder that scum like Geller can thrive in America.  There are one hell of a lot of bigoted, small-minded Americans out there who just eat up the kind of crap that Geller spews.  Congrats Geller on the first of your “scum of the week” awards.

Posted in Culture Wars, Scum Of The Week

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Government Gone Wild – Birders Under Attack!!

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Terry| 1 Comment
Bird Bath

Thanks to the crack NYC Health Department for protecting the public from the deadly birdbath scourge that is threatening humanity itself.

I’m a liberal.  To hear some talk, you’d think all liberals are lovers of big government.  No.  Government has its place, but….I’m also a pragmatist.  I have little tolerance for government waste or unnecessary intervention in people’s lives, especially when simple common sense seems completely absent.  Things like the GSA Las Vegas controversy make me PO’d on many levels.

In New York City, birders (and others) have been getting citations from the city health department.  The “Crime” for some of them?  Having a bird bath.  Evidently in New York, it can be a crime to have, of all things, “standing water in a birdbath”.  Funny, I thought that was the whole point of a bird bath.  But the New York City health department is cracking down on ANY standing water in its war on West Nile Virus.  Good luck with that, NYC.  I’m SURE you’re going to eliminate all standing water in the entire New York City area.

If you read the story, it says the NYC Health Department “amended” their standing health code to allow them to control not only mosquitos, but also any CONDITIONS amenable to mosquitos.  Thus, the ability to give $300 tickets to people for the simple “crime” of having a bird bath.  Funny how that seems to happen, where government powers seem to “creep” and expand.  And THIS coming from a flaming liberal, but stuff like this brings out the inner “Ron Paul” in me.

I’m sorry, NYC, mercilessly cracking down on criminal birders and their evil bird baths is NOT going to stop West Nile Virus.  What it IS going to do is make a lot of people PO’D, and get folks complaining even MORE about government.  As someone in government, I can say…the LAST thing we want is for folks to get more upset about government.  Trivializing the law and ignoring common sense accomplishes nothing except to raise people’s dander.

Posted in Birding, Birds

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Ron Brown – You Must be Fired

Posted on April 26, 2012 by Terry| 2 Comments

University of Nebraska LogoFor those of you who don’t know him, Ron Brown is a long-time Nebraska football assistant coach, much beloved and respected in my Cornhusker state.  Or at least he was.  Oh, I’m sure there are many that still feel the same about him after this week.  Do NOT count me among that crowd.  Ron Brown…you MUST be fired.

Ron Brown wears his religion on his sleeve.  OK, fine.  It has served him well at times, such as his “healing” prayer he led when Nebraska played at Penn State, right after the Jerry Sandusky scandal broke and Joe Paterno was dismissed.  It was a horrible week where nobody was really thinking about football, but the game went on.  Brown led a prayer with members of both teams before the game, with a focus on the young victims of Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State coach who was accused of sexually assaulting a number of young boys.

Nice moment for Brown, right?  Sure.  He got a lot of positive press from leading that prayer.  And in one fell swoop, he’s blown all that good will this week, to the point where I’m DEFINITELY not the only one saying he should be fired.  Brown’s downfall?

Brown made a special trip to Omaha to testify AGAINST a proposed anti-discrimination ordinance.  Brown was against the ordinance, because it protected gays from discrimination.  Brown, as always, is saying he’s putting his faith above all other considerations, and is saying that his faith DEMANDS that he speak out against homosexuality.

But for ANY human to actively lobby AGAINST a discrimination bill?  To effectively lobby FOR the right to discriminate against a certain class of human beings?  I’m sorry, Mr. Brown, but I find your actions COMPLETELY reprehensible.  I don’t give a DAMN about how you interpret your religion.  You’re an employee of the University of Nebraska.  You listed the FOOTBALL STADIUM as your address, for god’s sake, when speaking against the anti-discrimination bill.  The University has allowed you to use University logos and symbology in your ministry in the past. 

You have strongly associated yourself as a Nebraska Cornhusker, as a state employee.  As a fellow Cornhusker, I am ashamed of your actions.  You gotta go…

Posted in Culture Wars

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Scum of the Week – S.D. Whooping Crane Poacher

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Terry| 7 Comments
Whooping Cranes

There is NO mistaking the sight of a Whooping Crane standing in a field. Didn't stop one South Dakota redneck from popping one off with a high-powered rifle. (Photo by Larry Johnson - Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License)

There’s absolutely no doubt in my mind who my “scum of the week” award is going to.  I had a post about a short birding trip I did Sunday morning, where I was pleasantly surprised to find 3 Sandhill Cranes west of Sioux Falls.  Such beautiful, large, majestic birds, they CERTAINLY stood out as something “unique” that you don’t see in this part of the state that much.

Imagine that same creature, but even larger, and brilliantly white.  That would be a Whooping Crane, and there would be NO doubt that’s what you were looking at, if you saw one standing around.  Well, in South Dakota, there’s a certain percentage of the population that believes it’s their god given right to take a shot at anything that moves.  Near Miller, South Dakota, someone saw a Whooping crane standing in a field, HAD to have known what it was…but decided to get out their high-powered rifle and kill it. 

Don’t get me started on the “hunting culture” of South Dakota.  YES, there are many hunters who ARE true sportsman. But…just in the past few years during my birding and fishing trips I’ve seen 1) two guys shooting out their pickup windows and killing a bevy of American Coots 2) Two young teen boys being dropped off at a Wildlife Protection Area who proceeded to start shooting all the songbirds they saw, 3) Some complete IDIOT who had wing-shot a goose but didn’t know how to finish it off, so was chasing it through a field, stomping on it and kicking at it 4) Three dead hunting dogs lined up under a tree, shot by…presumably a hunter (out-of-state?) who didn’t need their services any more  5) and fishermen on the Missouri who caught their limit of walleye, left, came back “empty-handed” an hour later, and immediately started to catch their SECOND limit. 

And those are just some of the illegal things.  There are also the hunters that really disgust me, even when they’re doing something that’s legal in this state.  I have zero stomach for people who kill just for the sake of killing.  That is NOT “sport”.  Best example…those who stop in prairie dog towns and just start popping them off, leaving there to rot.  I remember one memorable day when I went to one of my favorite prairie dog towns for birding, and lined up on the fence were three dads and about 6 young boys, all resting their guns on the fence, shooting all the prairie dogs they could see.  Another of my favorites…the local goose “hunters” who ”hunt”  just outside of Arrowhead Park by Sioux Falls, a place where hundreds of VERY tame geese hang out.  Hell, if you wanted to “hunt” them, you wouldn’t need a gun, you’d just have to bring a piece of bread and grab the stupid thing by the neck when it came up for a bite.

Gotta love “sportsmen” like this who think the natural world’s purpose is to satiate their own selfish desires.  As I said, NO, I don’t want to paint all hunters or fishermen in this light.  I’m a fisherman myself and greatly enjoy the resource, and know that most folks ARE law-abiding citizens who appreciate the resource.

But…when I see stories like this jackass who popped off the Whooping Crane with a high-powered rifle, it’s VERY hard for me to remember the ‘good’ sportsmen, and VERY easy for me to remember all of the other horrible sportsmen that I’ve run across.

Congrats, Crane killer…you are hereby awarded a VERY well-deserved “Scum of the Week” award.

Posted in Environmental Awareness, Scum Of The Week

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Immigration in Reverse

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Terry| 3 Comments
Immigration Trends since 1990

Immigration from Mexico has declined sharply in recent years, yet Republicans have still tried to make anti-immigration rhetoric a key part of the campaign. Graphic from the Pew Research Center and the Washington Post article referenced here.

I wonder how right-wing nutjobs are going to spin this.  For the first time since the Great Depression, there’s actually an OUTFLOW of Mexican immigrants from the U.S., as immigration into the U.S. is at about 1/4th of what it was in 2000, and half as much as it was when Obama took office, while more people are moving from the U.S. to Mexico.

Mitt Romney, as well as most of the former Republican field, all have tried to woo “conservative” (OK, let’s be honest and just say ”bigoted”) voters with very strong anti-immigration rhetoric.  Just think back a few months during the debates, when you had Repub candidates falling all over themselves talking about which one of them would build the biggest wall or would beef up border security the most.  Republicans have attacked the Obama administration, stating that ridiculous tough anti-immigration laws like those passed in Arizona and Alabama are necessary, because the Federal government supposedly wasn’t doing its job.  Yet the analysts who provided the immigration report note it was a tougher deportation stance under Obama that is partially responsible for the change in the immigration trend.

I find the entire immigration debate rather distasteful.   I think it’s quite obvious that simple racism is the true motivation behind many folks’ very strong anti-immigration views.  When you see a Romney or other pol pandering to the anti-immigration crowd, I think they’re mostly playing off people’s underlying racism for their own political game.  God knows Republicans have made an art form out of subtly (or not so subtly) using race to their political advantage, be it the immigration debate, or the quite transparent voter “fraud” laws that do little to combat fraud (what little there IS in the United States), but do a lot to ensure a weaker minority voting bloc. 

In an ideal world, this report would make Republicans think twice about using anti-immigration rhetoric for political gain.  However, we don’t live in an ideal world, and I have no doubt that we STILL will hear anti-immigration rhetoric from the right, particularly as the Arizona and Alabama laws continued to be publicly and legally debated.

Posted in Culture Wars, Politics

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Bad Advice! Don’t go Fossil Hunting Here!

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Terry| 5 Comments

Back in December, I had posted a blog post entitled “Best Day Ever”.  And it was!  My 8-year old son and I had heard about a place to walk along the shores of the Missouri River, where you could find fossils.  We tried it one weekend morning, and had a blast!  For a couple of hours poking around the shoreline, we found an ancient fish vertebrae, a Mosasaur vertebrae, and a “tube worm” fossil.  Coupled with some birding we did that afternoon, and that wonderful sunny December day was indeed one of my “best days ever”.

Sounds great, right? You bet!!  However, it seems in life there are no “best days ever” without some reciprocal thing happening to balance it out.  As I’ve just learned, you CANNOT actually disturb or pick up a fossil in this location!  Thanks to my “Best Day Ever” blog post, I just had a little sit down chat with a ranger from the Corps of Engineers.  Turns out the spot my son and I were at is Corps of Engineers land, and you are NOT allowed to collect fossils here. 

The spot…along the Missouri River, by the Platte-Winner bridge in South Dakota on the west side of the Missouri River.  I have my own thoughts about this topic, but for once, I’ll listen to the side of me responsible for self-censorship and won’t provide them here.  Suffice it to say that if you try to fossil hunt in this area, if you’re on Corps of Engineer lands, it’s probably illegal.  And if  you do it, you may get a visit like I just did.

The one great difficulty though…there are NOT signs in this area that point this out.  The guy told me that Federal lands each have different rules, depending on who is managing it.  In this area, there’s a mix of Federal land management types, and there are NO signs that warn you against fossil hunting, or where one management type starts, and another begins.

Think the only “safe” thing to do is to avoid fossil hunting here altogether.  Or you too may get a “visit”.    To avoid any more trouble…that’s the last I’ll ever say on the topic out here.

Posted in Uncategorized

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Birding surprise – Sandhill Cranes

Posted on April 22, 2012 by Terry| Leave a comment
Sandhill Crane - Grus canadensis

A lone Sandhill Crane, struggling against a strong wind, trying to catch up to two other companions.

One of the things I enjoy the most about birding and bird photography is the complete unpredictability.  There are days I’ll go out, thinking I’ll come home with many photos, given where I was going and what time of year it was.  Then I’ll come home nearly empty handed.  On other days, I’ll try to squeeze in a very short trip close to home, and I’ll come back with photos of something completely new.

Today was one of the latter days.  I went birding this morning, just planning on spending an hour or two west of Sioux Falls.  The western part of Minnehaha County has a lot of wetlands and lakes, and I thought I’d see if any shorebirds, waterfowl, wading birds, or gulls were around.  At Weisensee Game Production Area, the first sight that was obvious were about 100 American White Pelicans wheeling in the sky, about to land on the water.  As I got closer however, something else caught my eye.  A Sandhill Crane had been standing on the shore right next to the road, and had flown up and landed a bit further up the shoreline.

Sandhill Crane - Grus canadensis

Another shot of the same bird

I had photos of Sandhill Cranes from the Platte River in Nebraska (the famous spring hotspot), from Alaska, from Wisconsin, and from Yellowstone.  But I didn’t have any photos of Sandhill Cranes in South Dakota.  In my part of the state, right next to the Iowa and Minnesota border on the east, we simply don’t get many Sandhill Cranes coming through.  I’ve seen them on the rare occasion in the spring, but on the handful of times I’ve seen them here, it’s always been a small flock that was just flying over.  I’d never seen one actually on the ground in my part of the state.  I was thus excited to see this guy, and wanted to try to photograph him.

He had flown about 50 yards away from the road, and I could see him poking along the shoreline of the lake.  I parked the car and started to walk in his general direction, taking my time, moving low and slow, trying not to disturb him.  The bird seemed unconcerned as I approached, and I was able to get some shots of him foraging on a little sandy bar sticking out into the water.

As I got closer though, I had another surprise.  From just 20 feet in front of me, two more Sandhill Cranes rose up from the grass.  They seemed to have been hunkered down in tall grass next to the water, perhaps trying to stay out of the very strong wind.  They seemed as surprised to see me as I was surprised to see them!  They immediately took off, flying up, and then directly over me.  I was cursing my lack of preparedness a bit, because by the time I had the camera up and started taking shots, all I got were ”butt shots” of the pair flying away.

Sandhill Crane and Canada Goose

Another Sandhill Crane, near a Canada Goose. Cranes are indeed quite tall birds, but when you see them next to something like this goose, you realize they're not the most massive birds out there.

However, when I thought I’d blown my opportunity, I heard the 3rd Sandhill Crane from behind me.  He had just taken off from his spot on the sandy area and started flying towards the other two birds.  I couldn’t have asked for a better photo opportunity.  He was headed north into a very strong wind, and thus wasn’t moving very fast.  He was also moving past me just to the west, with the morning sun providing perfect lighting.   He struggled with the wind, moving slowly, but eventually he did catch up to the 2 other Sandhills, with all three of them appearing to drop down into an agricultural field well to my north.

I didn’t try to find them after that, I’d already taken about 50 shots of the lone Sandhill Crane struggling against the wind.  I had some other birding and photo successes in the short time I was out this morning, but the big surprise of the Sandhill Cranes certainly made my day.

Posted in Birding, Birds

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Pope off his rocker – Scum of the Week #2

Posted on April 20, 2012 by Terry| 1 Comment

Given I just named a Catholic Bishop the “Scum of the Week”, I wasn’t going to dwell on this one very much.  However, this week, I’m inclined to just put a blanket label on the Catholic Church as a whole and call them the combined “Scum of the Week”.

A group of Catholic nuns in the U.S. were berated by his “holiness” for having a “radical feminist agenda”.  Their “sin”?  NOT actively lobbying against gay marriage, and NOT actively coming out and lobbying against abortion.  It wasn’t something they actually DID that got them in trouble.  They were focused on poverty issues and equal rights.

Silly nuns!! They should KNOW the Catholic Church these days does NOT stand for equality OR care about poverty issues.  The nuns were reprimanded for, well, for CARING, and for not acting like bigoted pigs that treat gays like something less than HUMAN BEINGS.

This pope is taking the Catholic Church backwards, not forwards.  To berate nuns for talking too much about poverty and equality?  Congrats, you are the first Pope that I have bestowed a “Scum of the Week” award to.

Posted in Scum Of The Week

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Tough Being in Government Right Now

Posted on April 20, 2012 by Terry| Leave a comment
Secret Service Agent Chaney and Palin

THIS is the "Top Story" on CNN? The Secret Service guy in the background, posting this on Facebook and saying at the time, he was "checking out" Sarah Palin?

Don’t get me wrong with the tone of this post.  The Secret Service / prostitution scandal is disgusting.  The story about the GSA and what they spent on their Las Vegas meeting was disgusting.  As representatives of the government both groups should have obviously known better.  There’s no doubt people have the right to be upset about those stories.

However, in the big scheme of things…are these stories that REALLY deserve to be at the top of the headlines for the past 2 weeks?  A bunch of guys visiting prostitutes?  Yes, not good, but not exactly something that’s a shocking story.  The GSA thing?  Disgusting, but in terms of money, it’s less than $1 million.  The point of this blog is that the media is SO focused on “gotcha” journalism, that the REALLY important stories are crowded out by what are, really, quite minor stories.

I go to CNN today, and at the time, the story at the VERY top was “Former Secret Service Agent Checked Out Palin”.  Really, CNN?  You couldn’t find anything better to have as your feature story this morning?  A former Secret Service agent posting on Facebook that he “checked out” Sarah Palin?   THIS is one of the top stories affecting Americans right now?

Oh, I get it, CNN, you’re milking this Secret Service thing for EVERY last drop.  But GMAB.  A SS guy posting on Facebook that he was “checking out” Sarah Palin?  OK, yes, the guy is an idiot for actually posting that on Facebook, but I’m not even sure it’s an “offense” worthy of any discipline to the man himself, much less a story that deserves the top headline on one of the leading “news” (hah!!) sites in the U.S.

One thing Republicans have done a completely MASTERFUL job of since the financial collapse…turning ALL of the attention away from corruption and greed on Wall Street, and focusing ALL of America’s hatred towards our very own government.  I’m in government.  I see the truly WONDERFUL work we do, many things that people just can’t live without, other things that truly enrich people’s lives.   But yet the entire political discussion in the U.S. right now seems to be focused on the evils of our government and just how fast we can whittle it away down to nothing.  Wall Street corruption?  Nobody blinks an eye anymore when a corrupt CEO gets paid $30 million a year.  But yet a SS guy “checks out” someone and it becomes the major news story of the day.

When I see “major” news stories like a SS guy checking out Palin, what crosses through my mind are folks like Paul Ryan, John Boehner, and Mitch McConnell, sitting back and LAUGHING at how they’ve hoodwinked America into believing government is the root of all evil.  All while they propose budgets that reduce services for those that need them, and funnel more money to their very rich benefactors.  Well played, Republicans…you’re getting EXACTLY what you want.  And, as always…the American public is too damned ignorant to pay attention.

Posted in Politics

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Scum of the Week: Bishop Daniel Jenky

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Terry| 2 Comments

Calling a Catholic Bishop the “Scum of the week”???? You’re damned straight.  I get SO sick of those on the right sensationalizing EVERYTHING.   Bishop Daniel Jenky this week was comparing Obama’s “radical, extreme secularist agenda” to what happened under Hitler and Stalin, claiming Obama is waging a full-out culture war on Catholicism and religion in general.

All I have to say Bishop Jenky…GIVE…ME…A…$UCKING…BREAK.   PLEASE, Bishop Jenky, enlighten me as to the tremendous pressure the church is under from the Obama administration.  Is religious freedom threatened in ANY way by the Obama administration?  If you bring up the contraception issue, please, just shut the hell up.  Calling that a “culture war” and an attack on the church, and comparing it to Hitler and Stalin?  Really?  The Obama administration has already caved and is providing all kinds of loopholes for religious organizations on the contraception coverage issue.  Don’t you feel just a WEE bit like a jackass, Bishop Jenky, for comparing that to religious oppression under Hitler and Stalin?

Obama has been in office for almost 3 1/2 years, but yet wackos like Jenky, or ROMNEY for god’s sake, are claiming that it’s the NEXT four years where Obama’s evil secularist plans will really take shape.  When the contraception thing was made into an artificial controversy, those on the right claimed it was just the beginning of a war on religion that Obama planned to wage after the 2012 election.   It’s not just this, the right tries to play up EVERYTHING as if the end of the world is nigh.   From The Lorax movie to Obama, EVERYTHING seems to be part of some evil liberal conspiracy to turn America into a religious wasteland and a communist haven.

Just shut the hell up.  There is NOTHING threatening your religious freedom in the U.S., you’re free to do pretty much whatever the hell you want.  But that doesn’t seem to be enough for many, who seemingly won’t be happy until some nutjob like Rick Santorum sits in the Oval Office and turns America into a full-blown theocracy.

Congrats for winning this week’s award, Bishop Jenky, it’s well deserved.  The one thing you’re right about, Bishop Jenky, is that there IS a very dangerous, radical element in America today that wants to drastically change the historical framework of the Nation.  But it sure as hell isn’t Obama, it’s that guy you see in the mirror every morning.

Posted in Culture Wars, Scum Of The Week

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