Granted, the day after this article came out, the White House decided not to release any death photos of bin Laden. Thankfully, they realized that anything that might both piss off Tea Baggers AND al-Qaeda is probably the way to go.

I have chuckled at friends and family who have gotten viruses or had online accounts hacked by trying to view supposed Osama death photos and video. Thank God none of them have called me for help. I probably would have hung up the phone given that most of these folks consider themselves good Christians most days.

I have no interest in seeing a corpse, much level the added joy(?) in reveling in who it is.

I have also been disgusted in some folks who I had previously believed were more mature than in what they have shown themselves to be. As asinine and pointless as it actually is, I went about un-friending those folks from Facebook in most cases. Does that wake them up or change their mind? Oh no, they’ll just be pissed at me in reality, at least the ones I mentioned it to. Some mere acquaintances just got the bump.

Am I morally superior to these folks? No, of course not. But I know enough that if you gloat over someone’s demise, that says a hell of a lot more about YOU than it does the target of the violence, necessary or not. I haven’t always been this calm about it, but the more I see of this world, the more I realize that some folks are more alike than others. And the folks bleating to see death photos have more in common with suicide bombing poor Muslim street kids being used by rich Saudi pricks like bin Laden than with me.

As for how I heard the story in the first place, it was part of this discussion on Talk of the Nation. Stick around for the phone calls, they are sadly instructive of the kinds of folks we live alongside.

Comedy Central video link

No clearer words on the matter than what Smiley says here.

Even judging by the comments, some people continue to embrace lies and stupidity. You cannot prove anything to them. Facts are just more meaningless fluff to them. So, let us ignore them and move on. Leave them to die with other dead ideas. There are Darwin Award nominees who haven’t yet chewed on the power line. Screw ’em. We don’t need them.

Your compassionate conservatives are at it again. We give farmers money not to grow stuff. We give oil companies billions and trillions in tax breaks to fleece us at the pump, if not to ruin our coastlines.

But poor people? Let’s screw with them. In Michigan, the baggers and bastards want to mandate that those fostering children ONLY buy those kids clothes at thrift shops .

Hey, it isn’t enough that these kids need a home and have shaky foundations for life. Let’s let it be publicly known their garments are hand-me-downs at best.

That won’t make them feel unworthy of a society’s love and respect, now will it?

Meanwhile, here in Minnesota, the new pack of Rethugs wants to make it illegal for folks on public assistance to have more than $20 cash in their pockets.

People need to open their eyes and see these people for what they are.

Here is a very strong argument that, while Osama bin Laden is dead at the bottom of the ocean, he got most of what he wanted.

Granted, he was up against a dolt in Bush and a society that apparently likes to be afraid and more racist and violent than our enemy’s worst pre-9-11 misconceptions of us, but he still had to have died with some form of smug satisfaction.

I mean, he had six years of living in a mansion while we were debating whether or not we should let TSA agents molest our children. If that isn’t winning, what is?

Read this.

Then read it again. If the face of Christianity in America was Jim Wallis, I’d probably start going back to church.

Instead I hear stuff about how my dog is going to hell because he is microchipped and that Catholics are Satanists. And that was just the last sermon I heard – and ever will allow myself to hear – in my mom’s Baptist church.

And y’all wonder why I won’t vote Republican.

For one thing, I certainly don’t want to be lumped in with these people.

Fix your party folks. You’re not worth talking to while you let this kind control the agenda.

The past election brought forth a bumper crop of conservative racists and general loons. They even took over the legislature here in Minnesota.

So now, these folks feel like they can say what they truly believe. Normally, I’ll all for that.

Actually, I’m *still* for it, but it is frightening that American citizens willfully vote for people who blame our poor schools on integration.

You know, this from the same party who don’t pay teachers well and then accuse them of being rich “parasites” for daring to form unions and have rights.

This from the same idiots who love to ban – and sometimes burn – books, try to alter the history books to ignore large groups of people, not to mention reality. The same kind who hate science and want to teach creationism. Who loathe the concept that children might actually learn about their bodies and thus try to force abstinence only ed and ignore that kids have sex, whether they should or not.

The same folks who hate that kids are fat but don’t see the correlation between that and the soda machines and food company sponsorships all over the buildings and sport arenas.

The same folks who mock the First Lady, often in hateful racist tones, when she tries to address why our kids are unfit.

I’m ranting, but these are the kinds of people who should be kept far, far away from the levers of power. Hey, the left has them too. But Nader is an election spoiler, not a primary candidate of the Dems. When you look at the Palins, Trumps, Huckabees, and Gringrich types having a serious chance to hold power – and who have in the past – you gotta question the sanity, logic, and, yes, patriotism of those who vote for that kind of person.

Here is what the Japanese consider part of a proper disaster pack.

I’m not judging. I’m taking notes for when I build mine for next year. You know, when all the psycho sadistic “religious” types start blowing stuff up because they think it’s the end of the world.