NBC's Medium features bad writing, horrible acting, and a goofy premise. But, that doesn't stop some people from watching it. However, the show could have a damaging effect if viewers cannot distinguish television from reality.

Given the overly superstitious nature of our society, NBC has a responsibility to run a disclaimer similar to the following:

This show is a fantasy. In real life, psychic powers do not exist. “Mediums” do not help police solve crimes. Do not be taken in by “mediums” pretending that they can help you communicate with the dead.

The Skeptic's Dictionary has an excellent article on mediums.

Very little that Republican politicians do could shock me, but the latest Bill Frist scandal is outrageous. It turns out a so-called AIDS charity, “World of Hope Inc.,” started by Frist has become a slush fund for Frist's cronies.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051217/ap_on_go_co/frist_charity

A particularly damaging passage from the article:

The rest of the money went to overhead. That included $456,125 in consulting fees to two firms run by Frist's longtime political fundraiser, Linus Catignani. One is jointly run by Linda Bond, the wife of Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond, R-Mo.

Frist is already facing allegations of insider trading. One has to wonder how much else is going on the leader of Senate Republicans.

Will Log Cabin demand Frist's resignation from the Senate or are they happy that he is looting money for people with AIDS?

(with apologies to no one)

Verse 1:
It's the most horrible time of the year.
With families fighting and siblings yelling that
“His toy cost more!”
It's the most annoying time of the year.

Verse 2:
It's the crap-crapiest time of the year.
With O'Reilly yapping and parents a-snapping,
When mobs hit the mall,
It's the crud-crudiest time of the year.

Bridge:
There'll be wrists that get slashed up, some rivers for drowning,
and some will have pills in big gulps.
There'll be hospital visits and tragic demises,
and some will slide off of the road.

Verse3:
It's the most horrible time of the year.
There'll by panic shopping, and jaws will be dropping,
when in-laws are near.
It's most depressing time of the year.

I've never been much of a fan of her music, but I always have thought that Barbra Streisand is a good person. Recent events have shown how good of a person she can be.

Ms. Streisand has made the news by cancelling her subscription to the Los Angeles Times, in response to the firing of liberal, anti-war columnist Robert Scheer. As previously discussed here, the firing was the result of Times publisher Jack Johnson's ire over Scheer's columns criticizing Bush's war in Iraq.

She points out that Scheer's replacement, Jonah Goldberg, cannot “be trusted to provide me with accurate, unbiased news and forthright opinions.” As readers of this rightist columnist know, his pieces generally involve disjointed regurgitations of GOP talking points. It would be difficult to know what, if anything, Goldberg really stands for, given his utter lack of originality.

This would be a good time to remind people to Contact the L.A. Times and demand that Robert Scheer be rehired.

Every year, some people bemoan that others aren't living up to the original meaning of Christmas. If only they knew what that original meaning actually was.

Christmas originally was the Saturnalia, a Roman Solstice celebration which involved an orgy of sex, wine, and food.

If you want to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas, eat like a pig; get drunk; go to an orgy; and celebrate a fertility goddess.

Some fundamentalist Christians have found out about this. Enjoy a cute rant by a fundie who doesn't want other fundies to celebrate Christmas.

http://www.ynca.com/christmas.htm

Rightist Connecticut Senator and phony Democrat, Joseph Lieberman, has shown an even greater willingness to lick the boots of the Bush regime, once again attacking Democrats who are speaking out against Bush's illegal and unAmerican war in Iraq.

Anyone who is paying attention to what is going on in Iraq knows that the war in helping Al Queda's terrorist recruitment efforts enormously. In an excellent Alternet article, Fawaz A. Gerges points out something terribly important:

Iraq is slowly and gradually replacing other theaters as a forward base for the new jihad. Today, a large concentration of active jihadis exists in Iraq, not in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen or Saudi Arabia. According to a 2005 report by the National Intelligence Council, the CIA director's think tank: "The al-Qa'ida membership that was distinguished by having trained in Afghanistan will gradually dissipate, to be replaced in part by the dispersion of the experienced survivors of the conflict in Iraq." This report took a year to produce and includes the analysis of 1000 U.S. and foreign specialists, and represents the conclusion of American intelligence, which cannot be dismissed as politically and ideologically biased and antiwar.

In his desperation to pander to the Bush regime, Lieberman is helping our nation's greatest enemy, Osama bin Laden. In the process, he is furthering the political agenda of the people who rammed airplanes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. It's time for Lieberman to retire. He has nothing to offer our country.

Republicans are always babbling on about how they supposedly support our troops. In defending herself after being criticized for her unpatriotic comments on the House floor, Jean Schmidt claimed that she supports our troops, though no one who genuinely supports our servicemembers wants them to die for corrupt Bush Regime cronies like Halliburton, Big Oil, and the Religious Right.

Schmidt's supposed support for the military already was on shaky ground. Now, we have learned that she lied about what one Marine said in order to make a false accusation against another Marine that is serving in Congress. This person just is not fit to hold public office. Tell Schmidt to resign in disgrace and stop betraying our troops and our country.

Jean Schmidt’s Contact Information

Washington, D.C. Office
(202) 225-3164

Cincinnati Office
(513)791-0381
Fax: 513-791-1696

Portsmouth Office
(740)354-1440

Campaign Office
Phone: (513) 575-0840
Fax: (513) 575-1201
Joe Braun, Campaign Manager (Joe@JeanSchmidt.com)

The Los Angeles Times seems determined to join the rest of the corporate media as a right-wing activist endeavor. They have pretty much dropped doing investigative reporting on the GOP, despite how massively corrupt Bush, the Republican Congress, and Schwarzenegger are.

Now, the paper has canned Bob Scheer, the most talented columnist the LA Times has ever produced. Scheer's work appeared in the paper for 30 years, starting as a reporter. Publisher Jeff Johnson is widely known to be angry about Scheer's columns criticizing the quagmire in Iraq and calling for withdrawal of US troops. It's a shame that the Times has fired its best columnist merely because he is patriotic enough to oppose Bush's unAmerican and illegal war in Iraq.

The paper even tried to enhance its GOP credentials through the required mendacity, in this case by lying about the number of readers who protested Scheer's firing. I remember when the LA Times was a great paper. It has devolved into a propaganda rag for the GOP without any integrity or journalistic standards whatsoever. In other words, it has joined almost all of the corporate media here in the U.S.

Contact the Los Angeles Times and demand that Scheer be reinstated and that the Times reinstitute journalistic standards rather than acting as a mouthpiece for the GOP.

In a previous post, I mentioned a Christian wrestling federation as well as the pornographic nature of pro-Wrestling for so many bisexual and gay men.

It turns out there is another Talibanist-Christian wrestling federation: “Freedom Championship Wrestling.” Based in the Staten Island, their shows are held in a fundie church.

You can learn more about this bit of fundie weirdness at:
http://www.1wrestling.com/columns/chatterbox/default.asp?articleid=11041&page=7
http://www.mediaman.com.au/articles/the_flight.html

There are a few bad photographs of their recent show at:
http://home.earthlink.net/~ringsidehighlights/fcw/show1/fcw-102503-017.htm

Their web site is only a placeholder for now, but it might be worth a few laughs if you check it out in a few months.

I don't know how long this will federation will be around, they share their name with a web site that shows animated matches of wrestling action figures.

The Bush Regime has just announced a settlement with the Archdiocese of Boston that supposedly includes stricter controls on priests but has no criminal penalties for Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston or any of his subordinates.

This is an obvious political payback for support the Roman Catholic Church gave Bush in the 2004 campaign, support that violated that church's tax exempt status. Militant Christian fundamentalists have long used pedophilia to bludgeon the lgbt community, yet Bush, a militant, Christian fundamentalist, is letting pedophiles and their protectors off easy. Why aren't Talibanists like Falwell and Robertson screaming in outrage over this?

The Republicans who supported the "nuclear option" compromise promised to support the judicial filibuster when it is used for extraordinary circumstances.

The nomination of a dangerous, anti-constitution extremist like Alito to the US Supreme Court is an extraordinary circumstance, and the GOP knows this. Yet, two GOP Senators, Mike DeWine and Lindsey Graham, have announced that they will support abolishing the judicial filibuster in the so-called “nuclear option” if Alito is filibustered.

The Democrats who trusted these Republicans were betrayed by cold, calculating, liars.