Brett Baier proves himself to be an ignorant, arrogant, disingenuous asshole by disrespecting the President, the office and the nation with his childish Teabagger behavior. Watch:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Disgraceful.

From the blog of Jim Wallis, CEO of Sojourners:

Last week, when radio and television talk show host Glenn Beck said that social justice is a “code word” for Communism and Nazism, and urged people to leave their churches if they teach social justice, I decided that message needed to be challenged.

[...snip...]

In fact, on Friday, I sent Glenn a letter proposing that the two of us sit down together and have an open and public discussion on what social justice really means and how Christians are called to engage in the struggle for justice. I said, “let’s make this a civil dialogue and not engage in personal attacks on each other — which is never helpful in trying to sort out what is true. So let’s talk about the heart of the matter.”

Beck, the unstable lunatic that he is, responded on-air yesterday, the Ides of March. An excerpt of his response, again from Wallis's blog:

So Jim, I just wanted to pass this on to you. In my time I will respond — my time, well, kind of like God’s time, might be a day, might be a week to you, I’m not sure. But I’m going to get to it in my time, not your time. So you go ahead and you continue to do your protest thing, and that’s great. I love it. But just know — the hammer is coming, because little do you know, for eight weeks, we’ve been compiling information on you, your cute little organization, and all the other cute little people that are with you. And when the hammer comes, it’s going to be hammering hard and all through the night, over and over…

Um, sure Glenn.

You're a perfect example of insanity and extremism, living in a world fabricated to achieve maximum delusion.

Go get 'em.

On a final, ending note, from Lordrag of DelphiForums -- my new favorite quote about Beck:

When Glenn Becks looks into the Abyss, the Abyss shudders, and says, 'That guy is fuckin creepy.'

Yeah, he is.

Apple Computer's new iPaq may come with a few extra headaches...like, needing to send the unit back to Apple if/when the battery fails, for a swapped out unit that may (or may not) be refurbished and which will not be returned with any of your personal content intact.

And they'll do this for only $99 plus $6.99 shipping.

Neat, eh?

...yeah, now I'm just chompin' at the bit for the opportunity to get screwed like that buy one of those puppies.

No, really -- stop laughing, dammit.

...oh, alright...fine.

For those of you who can remember that far back (was it really that long ago?), IE6 was a web browser that had major market penetration.

In many respects, it still does: I have plenty of clients who are still using it, much to my chagrin -- there are issues with handling some of the newer web technologies that have sprung up since its heyday.

According to CNN,

(CNN) -- More than 100 people, many of them dressed in black,
were expected to gather around a coffin Thursday night to say goodbye to
an old friend.

The deceased? Internet Explorer 6.

The
aging Web browser, survived by its descendants Internet Explorer 7 and
Internet Explorer 8, was to be eulogized at a tongue-in-cheek "funeral"
hosted by Aten Design Group, a design firm in Denver, Colorado.

Ah, well.  Times change. People -- and technologies -- age, pass away and are honored by their successors.  Ideally, the progeny learn from the trials and tribulations of the parents and ancestors, and the knowledge & wisdom of the past helps set a guidline for the future.

Or something like that.

Click the image to go to the Alten Design Group's "ie6funeral" page, and in the comments below share some of your thoughts about the browser(s) you use, and how the web has changed over the years. (How long have you been around on "teh intertubez" anyway?)

Crossposted to DailyKos.

Over the past few weeks, amid weird mishaps and unexpected issues, I've been thinking a lot about Mumsie, my mother-in-law who passed away from Alzheimer's Disease two years ago. I've been working to catch up on items I've got to finish for a special project I'm working on with another Kossack on the topic of Caregiving, so she's naturally not been far from my mind.

And perhaps we've not been far from hers.

Just sayin'.

Hat-tip to someone in Pulling to the Left, a Delphi forum. (I can't find the original thread to hat-tip appropriately. Sorry.)

Hey folks, just a quick update on why I'd suddenly gone scarce. I had a few issues crop up that directly challenged my capacity to be online for the better part of the past two weeks, both physically as well as time-wise.

Aside from a tax issue that cropped up and had to be dealt with, I'm also just completing my dealings with a minor computer revolt (mine, which is nearly resolved but which had gotten to the point where it became increasingly unusable over the past 2 1/2 weeks, to the point where it has been virtually unusable for most of the last week, plus several other family machines -- Wifey's, which was the least impaired and from which I was able to occasionally hop on to keep in touch, plus my father's and one of my brothers' machines).

On top of those fun factors, I've dealt with some client issues and -- the capper -- a recalcitrant lower back that went out right around the time my computer started to get really wonky. Two weeks ago, I could sit for short periods but -- if I sat too long -- I couldn't walk when I got up.

UPDATE: As of 5:00 PM EST -- The child has been located; the Aunt is still at large.

Via NECN (New England Cable News):

(NECN: Swansea, Mass.) - Massachusetts State Police and Swansea, Mass. police are searching for an abducted one-year-old girl.

Read more

Hat-tip to LordRag of DelphiForums

A small plane, overloaded with fuel, has crashed into a building that housed IRS, CIA and FBI offices, according to the MSNBC.

The "overloaded with fuel" part, when combined with the government building aspect, makes this a candidate for an act of terrorism, but if the act was intentional -- and initial indication by witnesses suggest that the pilot had full control -- the question this: is it an act of foreign, or domestic, terror?

At least one person has already started asking whether this might be a potential example of domestic teabagging terrorism, a.k.a. teabaggers gone over the edge and firmly establishing themselves as a dangerous and unstable new form of domestic terrorist.

More as the situation is updated throughout the day.

[UPDATE - CM1] He left a manifesto? Supposedly and below the fold. [update 2] And the crazy comments pile up:

"Here's What's Insane: LOTS Of People Are Defending Joseph Andrew Stack"

[update 3] And now Joseph Stack has a legion of insane "Don't Tread on Me!" facebook fans. Link and image capture in the comments.

Hat-tip to Lordrag of DelphiForums.

Posted without further comment:

Click image for source and larger rendering.

From Popular Mechanics Reviews:

When filmmaker Josh Fox got a lucrative offer to release his family land for natural gas drilling, he didn't sign it—instead, he went out to investigate the drilling process, known as hydraulic fracturing, and its effect on the environment. The technique, developed by Halliburton, has opened up new land in 34 U.S. states to drilling. At a time when the U.S. is dependent on foreign countries for most of its energy and the country is in the midst of a recession, the appeal and immediate benefits of the technique are obvious. But on his 24-state journey, Fox discovers that in disparate areas affected by drilling, streams have turned toxic, aquifers are ruined, livestock is dying, residents are ill—and their tap water is flammable.

Here's the clip they provided:

For those interested in more reading, there's a short list of pieces on hydraulic fracture already available on ePluribus Media over the fold.

  __________  

Yes, it fits onto a bumper sticker:

And it's pointedly accurate...the last thing the GOP would ever want to see.

Hat-tip dmhlt 66 of DailyKos, from the diary by ericlewis0.

Hat-tip to Helen of DelphiForums, and to Wikipedia for the text. The following is a studied portrait of a TeaBagger neonazi by none other than Rod Serling, circa 1963. -- GH

Portrait of a bush-league Führer named Peter Vollmer, a sparse little man who feeds off his self-delusions and finds himself perpetually hungry for want of greatness in his diet. And like some goose-stepping predecessors, he searches for something to explain his hunger, and to rationalize why a world passes him by without saluting. That something he looks for and finds is in a sewer. In his own twisted and distorted lexicon he calls it faith, strength, truth. But in just a moment, Peter Vollmer will ply his trade on another kind of corner, a strange intersection in a shadowland called the Twilight Zone.

Where will he go next, this phantom from another time, this resurrected ghost of a previous nightmare - Chicago; Los Angeles; Miami, Florida; Vincennes, Indiana; Syracuse, New York? Anyplace, everyplace, where there's hate, where there's prejudice, where there's bigotry. He's alive. He's alive so long as these evils exist. Remember that when he comes to your town. Remember it when you hear his voice speaking out through others. Remember it when you hear a name called, a minority attacked, any blind, unreasoning assault on a people or any human being. He's alive because through these things we keep him alive.

The biggest danger to America today is the one presented by those who most loudly beat their chests to proclaim their patriotism, while trying to use it as a tool to spread hatred, fear, disillusionment and racism.

From the first episode (Challenges of Life) of the new BBC series Life. YouTube video posted by pacificwhiteside; hat-tip Jazzy720 of DelphiForums for the heads-up.

It's nice to know that there is, at least, some signs of intelligent life on this planet.

Below is the video from the White House website on President Barack Obama's question and answer session with House Republicans. President Obama accepted an invitation from the GOP to speak and participate at their annual retreat. GOP pundits and advisors later said that having cameras broadcast the session was a bad idea, admitting that their hope to embarass the President and further their agenda of opposition took a major body blow by the event.

Let's watch (85 minutes):

And the GOP reaction, via Think Progress?

Hat-tip LordRag of DelphiForums for pointing out the link to this.

Fun, eh?