They made the NY Times. No opinions here- just go check it out.
Alive and Well
It appears that Jennifer Wilbanks is alive and well:
A Georgia woman, who was found in New Mexico early Saturday and who said she had been abducted, admitted today she had made up the story because she was nervous about her upcoming wedding, police said.
Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz said Jennifer Wilbanks, 32, had told them she had taken a bus to Las Vegas, Nevada, and on Saturday had taken another bus to New Mexico.
Earlier, Wilbanks had told family members and police that she had been abducted by a man and a woman in a van. She was to be married Saturday.
“Agents and detectives learned Miss Wilbanks had become scared and concerned about her pending marriage and decided she needed some time alone,” Schultz said.
Glad she is alive, but a two things:
1.) Many modern weddings are a ridiculously cruel joke, and by my observations, have little to do with the relationship and everything to do with wasteful displays of extravagance and opulence. I have seen women ruin up to two years of their lives planning weddings, because everything has to be perfect. It puts an obscene financial burden on many parents, causes undue stress, and the myth of the perfect wedding needs to be stabbed in the back and buried face down. If and when I get married, I hope we elope, marry at my bride’s parents house, or in a small church. We can have fried chicken, rigatoni, wedding soup, and green beans served buffet style, and if the guests don’t like it, well, they can then quite literally eat cake.
Classy, aren’t I?
2.) Now that I know Wilbanks is alive and well, it would have been nice if she could have kept up the ruse for several more days…
Why, because by then we could have humiliated and ruined the career of the Nancy Grace, the loudmouth bitch who systematically condems anyone charged with a crime. The woman does nothing but posion the well for anyone charged with anything, is vindictive, nasty, spiteful, dishonest, and she contorts everything to create a presumption of guilt. When you confront her with her behavior, she always claims something along the line of “Presumption of innocence doesn’t mean I have to suspend my personal opinions.”
Can’t you just hear her saying things like this:
Why won’t he just take another lie detector test? Why does he want it to be videotaped? Why can’t he account for his time better that night? Look at him- he is well over six feet tall and she is just a skinny thing- that doesn’t say something to you? You know, I have heard rumors about him and other women, and they don’t look happy in their pictures together.
If you can’t imagine Grace saying all those things, it is because you haven’t been paying attention to Cnn’s own judge, jury, and executioner, whose own tragic past has turned her into a loathesome blight on society. I really enjoyed the time Scott Peterson’s father dressed her down. More here about “Hang em High” Nancy Grace- the woman is a real blemish on society, including this greatest hit on Richard Ricci- the man who was wrongly accused of kidnapping Elizabeth Smart, who died shortly after being arrested of an aneurysm (yes- Nancy Grace is enough to give you an aneurysm):
CALLER: Hi. Is it possible for the FBI or the law officers involved in the case to use sodium pentothal on Mr. Ricci and find out if he has any involvement with this girl
Onward Christian Airmen
Last week I reported on the toughest 44 Jews in the world, referring to the 44 Jews who were opressing nearly 3800 airmen at the Air Force Academy. Of course, they were doing nothing of the sort, but rather were themselves the subject of abuse from proselytizing evangelicals who attend, teach, and run the Academy. The report listed up to 55 complaints, and if Barry Lynn’s Americans United (a group I generally treat with great skepticism) is correct, the situation is worse than I even imagined:
Religious intolerance is systemic and pervasive at the U.S. Air Force Academy and, if nothing changes, it could result in “prolonged and costly” litigation, according to a report issued Thursday by a group advocating strict separation of church and state.
The 14-page report listed incidents of mandatory prayers, proselytizing by teachers, insensitivity to religious minorities and allegations that evangelical Christianity is the preferred faith at the institution.
“I think this is the most serious, military-related systemic problem I have ever seen in the decades I’ve been doing this work,” said Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. “There is a clear preference for Christianity at the academy, so that everyone else feels like a second-class citizen.”
The actual report can be found here (.pdf), and some of the abuses listed include the following:
1.) We have been informed, for example, that, during a Basic Cadet Training session attended by a team of observers from the Yale Divinity School, one of the Academy chaplains
Debunking the Bigot Brigade
Kudos to the Wall Street Journal for killing this nonsense (they also link to this excellent display of outrage from Jon Stewart):
Last week, the Texas House of Representatives passed a child-services bill with an amendment that would make Texas the first state in the nation to prevent same-sex couples from becoming foster parents. The state Senate passed a conflicting bill without that measure, and the two bodies are debating how to proceed.
The proposed ban attracted national media attention, and several “pro-family” groups seeking to drum up support for the bill have been circulating some troubling stats about gay parents. Among the most striking, stated during a CNN program: children in foster homes with same-sex parents are 11 times as likely to be sexually abused as those with heterosexual parents.
To get on CNN, that number snaked through a twisting path, from a little-noticed Illinois study published by an antigay scientist/activist in a psychological journal, to several conservative Web sites, to, finally, the attention of a Texas activist who presented her misinterpretation of the study on national television, essentially unchallenged. It’s a textbook example of how flawed numbers can gain national attention if advocates work hard enough — especially when there aren’t widely-known conflicting estimates.
And guess who was behind this? If you said the Colorado Springs God Squad crew, the ones who ‘just want their voices heard,’ go get a cookie:
Ms. Adams told me that her source for the claim was an article she had read on the conservative site WorldNetDaily, about a study published in February by Paul Cameron, chairman of the Colorado Springs, Colo.-based Family Research Institute, a group that says homosexuality is a major public-health threat.
When pressed on his ‘findings,’ Cameron responded:
When I told Dr. Cameron about these criticisms, he responded, “All scientists have bias,” and, “There is no perfect study.” He does contend that those who commit same-sex child abuse are gay, regardless of whether they identify themselves as homosexuals. And while Dr. Cameron said Ms. Adams’s conclusion about his research might be wrong, depending on the proportion of gays among Illinois foster parents, he stood by the conclusion drawn by Ms. Adams: “Those who come into [family-services agencies] waving the homosexual banner should be excluded, because they are a much greater risk to children,” Dr. Cameron said.
These guys are all in bed together to tell you who you should be in bed with.
Oh, and btw- both Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council extensively use the ‘research’ of Paul Cameron and cite him as an ‘authority.’ You have heard of them, right? They are the poor, oppressed Christians whose religious freedoms are being threatened who ‘just want to be heard.’
(Via Tom Maguire)
Wishful Thinking
Here. Can we at least agree that second term Presidents can’t be lame ducks until after the mid-term election?
Silly.
Really- Religion Should Have a Role In Policy Making
More nonsense from the idiots:
Bad news: deaths from cervical cancer are on the increase.
Good news: there’s a new vaccine that stops the virus that causes the cancer.
Unfortunate news: the virus in question, human papilloma virus (HPV), is sexually transmitted.
Obvious news: you simply have to vaccinate girls before they become sexually active.
Unbelievable news: “religious groups are gearing up to oppose vaccination, despite a survey showing 80 per cent of parents favour vaccinating their daughters.” Bridget Maher of the Family Research Council, a leading Christian lobby group says, “Giving the HPV vaccine to young women could be potentially harmful, because they may see it as a licence to engage in premarital sex.”
Fucking idiots. We are just lucky polio and cancer and Alzheimers and who knows what else aren’t sexually transmitted. Then the God squad would really have us in a bind. Morons.
I don’t care what you say- anyone who leaves their child unvaccinated so they don’t think they have a ‘license to engage in premarital sex’ not only needs their head examined but needs to be publicly shunned and refused entry into public policy debates.
Really- Religion Should Have a Role In Policy MakingPost + Comments (24)
Gbye, Judy
Personally, I liked Judy Woodruff. I will miss her. I liked Bernard Shaw, too. HE had that great, brassy voice that just was pleasant to listen to.