From the BBC article:

President George W. Bush told Palestinian ministers that God had told him to invade Afghanistan and Iraq – and create a Palestinian State.

Abu Mazen, Palestinian Prime Minister, and Nabil Shaath, his Foreign Minister, describe their first meeting with President Bush in June 2003.

Nabil Shaath says: “President Bush said to all of us: ‘I’m driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, “George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan.” And I did, and then God would tell me, “George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq …” And I did. And now, again, I feel God’s words coming to me, “Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East.” And by God I’m gonna do it.'”

Abu Mazen was at the same meeting and recounts how President Bush told him: “I have a moral and religious obligation. So I will get you a Palestinian state.”

Where have I heard that before? Let’s see… man kills people on the direct instruction of a supernatural entity… for one, David Berkowitz.

Alabama state senator joins noted meteorologists Al Qaeda, Pat Robertson… blames Gulf storms on gambling. From here:

Hurricane Katrina and other storms that battered the Gulf Coast were God’s judgment of sin, according to state Sen. Hank Erwin, R-Montevallo.

“New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast have always been known for gambling, sin and wickedness,” Erwin wrote this week in a column he distributes to news outlets. “It is the kind of behavior that ultimately brings the judgment of God.”

After touring Gulfport and Biloxi, Miss., and Bayou La Batre, Erwin said he was awed and humbled by the power of the storm. But he wasn’t surprised.

“Warnings year after year by godly evangelists and preachers went unheeded. So why were we surprised when finally the hand of judgment fell?” Erwin wrote.

… and it seems dumb to begin with.

Here’s a device that you mount to the underside of your toilet seat lid. It detects movement then shines a green light if the seat is down, or a red light with a target if it’s up. Based on reading just the top part of the image, my initial thought would be like an retina scan for your “wedding tackle” (got that last bit here).

Nothing says “life is sacred” like a convoy of semis rollin’ down the highway, plastered with ginormous graphic photos of aborted fetuses. Yee-haw, praise Him.

Disney has started to sell Old Yeller Dog Food. That’s fucking demented. Who could possibly want to buy a dog food based on a movie in which the title dog suffers rabies and is killed by its owner?

25 stupid quotes about Katrina.

My favs:

13) “We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn’t do it, but God did.” –Rep. Richard Baker (R-LA) to lobbyists, as quoted in the Wall Street Journal

4) “We’ve got a lot of rebuilding to do … The good news is — and it’s hard for some to see it now — that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast, like it was before. Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott’s house — he’s lost his entire house — there’s going to be a fantastic house. And I’m looking forward to sitting on the porch.” (Laughter) —President Bush, touring hurricane damage, Mobile, Ala., Sept. 2, 2005

12) “Now tell me the truth boys, is this kind of fun?” –House Majority Leader Tom Delay (R-TX), to three young hurricane evacuees from New Orleans at the Astrodome in Houston

2) “What I’m hearing which is sort of scary is that they all want to stay in Texas. Everybody is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this (chuckle) – this is working very well for them.” –Former First Lady Barbara Bush, on the Hurricane flood evacuees in the Houston Astrodome, Sept. 5, 2005

There’s a billboard in Beverly that we drive by all the time. It’s usually appropriate for the area. It usually has ads for cheap liquor or bad movies. The best though, was an ad for a lawyer that specializes in defending drunk drivers. His tagline was, “When Pleading Guilty Is Not an Option”. The Globe has an article on him. What’s funny is that when he talks about his job, he assumes the guilt of his clients. From the article:

”I really like the people I represent,” says Jones, who is 48 and lives on the South Shore with his wife and two daughters. ”They are regular people. They’re your father, your sister, your neighbor, your teacher. This is somebody who has that extra glass of wine or that extra beer, the person with a buzz who gets pulled over. They are horrified and humiliated.”

Also, on the back of his business cards are tips on how to get away with drunk driving.

I suppose this could happen anywhere, but things like this seem to occur with regularity and particularly flagrant stupidity near my home town.
The front page article in this weekend’s Paducah Sun concerned the trial of a local County Attorney and his wife, who were charged with a variety of misdeeds, including providing alcohol to minors, attempting to conceal evidence from this police, attempting to use influence to prevent a police investigation, and most lurid of all, an “unlawful pelvic exam”.
Their teenage son was quite unpopular, so they decided to throw a huge keg party following homecoming to boost his social standing (country logic right there). When the party of 80+ teens got out of control (surprise, surprise) and word spread that one intoxicated girl had been raped, the mother (a registered nurse) inspected the girl’s nether regions without her consent, thus eliminating any possibility of a rape kit being performed. Then they concealed the entire incident (including from the parents of the possible sexual assault victim), and the husband tried to use his connections to stall a police investigation.
On the stand, the mother said something to the effect that she was doing what a “good parent” would.
They got off on all counts, except for those related to buying the keg. Good parents, y’all.

The full story is here.