I continue to be astounded at the number of people who choose to be offended by things that don’t exist. I refer this time to a story in the 31 August 2008 issue about the Republican vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin:
Politics
Funny YouTube Irony
Something fairly funny happened with a recent video, which was about a homophobe politician running for re-election while under the cloud of felony indictments over his first election.
Weird News Video #7 — Comic Genius
Episode #7: “Comical County Commissioner”, from True’s 20 July 2008 issue.
Beauty and the Beast
Two stories this week have photos: the sexy mayor of Arlington, Ore., and the idiot robber using a bottle of cologne as a weapon.
First, the moron.
Fornigate, Lindbergh and Hawaii
Ten years ago this week I wrote two full columns: the regular one, and one on the breaking scandal with President Bill “I Did Not Have Sex With That Woman” Clinton. I (and many others) dubbed it Fornigate, and it led to his impeachment.
Another Empty Suit
Another fun story that’s made even more fun by seeing the photos involved:
Politics and Tibet
We have now left Lhasa, Tibet, and we discovered that this was quite an interesting time to be here, politically speaking.
Jerry Falwell, American Taliban
Jerry Falwell died this week. There’s quite a bit of traffic coming into my page where I dubbed Falwell one of the American Taliban in disgust over his using the 9/11 terrorist attacks to further his own agenda. I followed some of those links back to the blogs which were quoting me, with titles such as “JERRY FALWELL IS DEAD. Good.” and I’m glad he is dead. Indeed there were so many that I Googled the combination of “Cassingham” and “Falwell” …and got a couple of hundred hits.
Cassingham’s Laws
After tagging a story with “Cassingham’s Second Law”, I got a pile of email asking me to post what my first law was. So here you go.
Republican Bash?
I have something to say about last week’s story “about the vice president” (as most people are terming it):
Why You Need to Vote
Midterm elections are being held in the U.S. on November 7. Midterms, which are called that because they are for open seats in the federal House of Representatives and Senate but not the President, tend to have low voter turnouts. That is a huge mistake.
Political Correctness II
Speaking of pointing out the foibles of politicians (as I did in last week’s entry), and speaking of political correctness, last week’s story about the U.K. Member of Parliament who called people in his district “inbred” brought quite a few comments, with most being hard on me.
Equal Time …to Invoke Indignant Anger
A fair number of governmental bodies have a minister say a prayer at the start of official meetings — an invocation. When criticized by those who favor a true separation of church and state, they often insist that the invocation is not really religious.
Proof I’m a Stinking Liberal?
Ronald Reagan died last week. I didn’t happen to mention that fact in last Friday’s free edition — which “naturally” brought a grumpy complaint from Jeffrey in Florida:
Who “Deserves” Freedom?
We’re often told not to discuss politics or religion in polite company. But sometimes your hand is forced. It all started with two stories that appeared in subsequent weeks — in the 9 May and 16 May 2004 issues:
I Demand You Agree With This
There was a story last week about the governor of West Virginia, who was so outraged over a joke T-shirt that he demanded 1) that the seller remove them from its stores and catalog, 2) recall them, and 3) destroy them. The company refused. My tagline: “…In other news, the indignant governor said no, it’s untrue that only inbred buffoons think they can stop people from telling jokes.”
When is Racism OK?
When some idiot in the public eye spews forth an outrageous racist remark or two, they’re always called to task! And rightly so. Well… are they really? What happens when people are afraid to call a racist a racist, because they’ll be called racist? This story was in True’s 29 February 2004 issue:
Liberal Bias AGAIN?!
In last week’s issue I ran two stories that were wonderfully balanced, politics-wise. Yet the response was very, very telling. First, here are both stories:
Groan: Not Again!
Last week there was Yet Another Political (this time, anti-war) ad, and as expected I got a bunch of complaints and petulant “unsubscribe” demands.
Politics is a Dirty Business
In the 25 August 2002 newsletter, there was a paid ad for an anti-Bush bumper sticker. The ad’s headline: There’s Dirt Under Every Bu$h. That led to (ahem) several reader letters: