What would Stephen Fry say if he were confronted by God at the pearly gates?

This is two minutes and 24 seconds worth watching:

"Bone cancer in children? What's that about? How dare you?"

Sarah Palin & Donald Trump must be pissed at The New York Times (again)

In this chart on the Times website today, those pointy-headed eastern liberals list the following twelve potential candidates as expected to compete for places on the stage of the 2016 GOP Clown Circus: Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Scott Walker, Mike Huckabee, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Rick Santorum, Rick Perry, Bobby Jindal, Carly Fiorina, and Ben Carson.
No Donald?
No Sarah?
How can they not take this woman seriously as a candidate for the clown college?

Watch a cantankerous old Senator confront Code Pink: "Get Out of Here You Low-Life Scum!"

Think for a second how close John McCain came to becoming President until he committed political suicide with his vice-presidential pick. You can see him bravely confront senior citizens with signs at the three-minute mark of this video.


It's also worth thinking about how many bombing raids were supported by all three former Secretaries of State in this Armed Services Committee hearing: Kissinger, Schultz, and Albright. They remind us that there was no lack of American military aggression around the world long before Dubya took it to a new level.

WOO HOO! We may have ourselves a full-fledged Clown Circus for the ages in 2016!

Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin told The Washington Post in an interview Friday that she is “seriously interested” in running for the White House in 2016.

“You can absolutely say that I am seriously interested,” Palin said, when asked to clarify her thinking about a possible presidential bid.

Seriously.

Lars Andersen may have just made it necessary to redo every historical or fantasy movie involving bows and arrows...

As an archer myself (on a level nothing like this), I have never even imagined something like this was possible:



And this video of one archer from Denmark has the fringe benefit of making anyone who uses a gun (with whatever level of cold-blooded expertise) look like a coward and untalented tool.

It's Friday. Forget Politics.

There's a curious white ermine in a tree stump...




Have a great weekend. I hope you have lots of snow, whether you're an ermine or a human.

Could this be the stupidest thing Rush Limbaugh ever said?

I know it's a high bar, but when I was skimming a recent rant of Rush's entitled, "Liam Neeson: Perfect Liberal," I ran across this description of the site of the Charlie Hebdo attack:

"The attack happened in France where the cops are unarmed, where the magazine people are unarmed.  The cops are unarmed. The cops show up on bicycles..."

This is as ridiculous as describing the man who said it as "soft-spoken" and "thin" and "thoughtful" and, God forbid, "liberal."  Has he been to France? When I traveled there in the 1970s, it was the first time I had ever seen police with assault weapons. It was also the first time I saw a very visible, heavily armed, and motorized National Police force in every city and town I visited. How can we believe anything else that Rush has to say about Liam Neeson and gun control in this think piece when he gets simple facts so howlingly and completely wrong.

I can understand if Rush never wanted to visit France, but can he visit Google? Can he do a simple image search for "French Police"?

Just because it's Wednesday and I'm bored.

Bill O'Reilly n'est pas Charlie (and neither is anyone else at Fox News claming a sudden infection with Francophilia)

Bill O'Reilly dot com may be out of stock for this popular item from the days of "Freedom Fries" and the "Axis of Weasel," but his Boycott France bumperstickers are still on display there a week after the Charlie Hebdo attack:

Screen grabbed on 13 January 2015.

Speaking of the attack, it's worth learning to read French (a.k.a., the "Freedom Language") just to experience this heartbreaking first-person account from Charlie staffer Sigolène Vinson featured in Le Monde this morning: «C’est Charlie, venez vite, ils sont tous morts».

Liberals on the Rise.

Following up on last January's post about the upward trend in self-identifying liberals, the trend continues this year, with the Gallup poll finding 24% of Americans applying that proud label to themselves in 2014 -- another all-time high since this poll started in 1992.

In the twelve years between 1992 and 2004, the percentage of liberal Americans rose two points from 17% to 19%. In the ten years since TrueBlueLiberal.Org first opened for business, this percentage has increased FIVE points from 19% to 24%. We don't take all the credit, but it can't be just a coincidence.

You're Welcome!

Viewing Charlie Hebdo artists as cartoonists rather than victims.

This was recorded two days after the murders of Charb, Cabu, Tignous, Wolinsky, Honoré, and others in the Charlie Hebdo offices. Even if you don't understand a word of French, this video from On n'est pas couché will give some idea of how well known and well respected these artists and their profession were -- and are:

This Blog Could Not Exist in Saudi Arabia

Please read this appeal from the PEN American Center: Saudi Arabia: Halt Flogging of Raef Badawi

Raef Badawi has been sentenced to ten years in prison and 1,000 lashes (scheduled to be delivered in groups of 50 after Friday morning prayers for 20 weeks, beginning today) for the great "crimes" of “insulting Islam” and “founding a liberal website.”

The United States should not accept this from an ally without the strongest condemnation, especially during this week when we have seen the brave journalists of Charlie Hebdo die for the right to express themselves freely. If Charb, Cabu, Tignous, and Wolinski had tried to publish their cartoons in a weekly published from Riyadh rather than Paris, we can be sure that they would have been executed -- or at least flogged 1,000 times -- long before this week.

I don't expect a formal public rebuke of our friends on the Arabian peninsula from the US Government, but I'll add this small formal "FUCK YOU SAUDI ARABIA" from TrueBlueLiberal.org.

It's Winter, So It's Time Once More to Hear from Climate Scientist @realDonaldTrump

It's record cold all over the country and world - where the hell is global warming, we need some fast!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2015

#JeSuisCharlie