Ever wonder who makes Spandex ... that clingy fabric which nature-loving cyclists seem to find irresistible?

You might be surprised to discover that the major manufacturer of Lycra (also known as Spandex) - Koch Industries - is the kingpin of the "climate denial" industry and a major financier of the tea party movement.

As The Huffington Post reports here, Greenpeace has discovered that since 1997, Koch Industries and its PACs have given nearly $50 million to climate change-denying groups like Americans for Prosperity, known for its role in organizing the tea party movement.

Every now and then I'm struck by a curious quirk in the personalities of some people I happen to stumble across: all-consuming selfish arrogance.

I don't think there's anything more irritating than the unpleasant experience of encountering such vile people ... the sort who assume the rest of us exist only to serve them, and who believe they somehow deserve to be first in line, that they are innately better than everyone else, and that they possess some sort of divine gift of preference.

Sunday, as we were arriving back home from a brief vacation, our plane landed and we heard the usual "Please remain seated until the plane comes to a complete stop and the captain has extinguished the seatbelt sign".  Yet inevitably, the instant wheels hit the tarmac, irrepressibly arrogant passengers began retrieving their overhead baggage, then standing in the aisles, blocking those seated ahead of them who should, of course, exit first.

Such an ignorant clod was a woman who stupidly stood beside me for a good five minutes, apparently exasperated that the side of the plane didn't magically open to let her out first, and then when the appropriate time came for me to retrieve my bag, blocked my access.

When I courteously asked her to "excuse me, please" as I attempted to reach in front of her to retrieve my bag from the opposite overhead bin, she utterly ignored me.  So when I proceeded to get my bag anyway, within inches of her face, she glared at me as though she somehow owned the air around her. I honestly wanted to smack her a good one (and she certainly deserved it), but common decency prevailed (on my part, not hers).

Such people must suffer from such an acute sense of personal inadequacy that they overcompensate to the point of sheer impudence.  In a way, I honestly feel sorry for them.  On the other hand, a good dose of their own hauteur might be their best reward.

Well, at least not all southern school administrations are hopelessly bigoted (as they certainly are in Mississippi).

In Georgia, a school prom story with a happy ending.

In 1997, the US deployed Joint Task Force 6, a military patrol of combined armed services, along the remote stretches of the border east of El Paso. They wore camouflage and sunglasses and hid in the creosote and cactus. A Marine saw what he thought was a drug smuggler in the distance and then he convinced himself the criminal had pulled a gun. He aimed down range, shot, and killed an 18 year-old goat herder named Ezequiel Hernandez, Jr. The boy was bringing the family's goats up from the river where they had been drinking water. He is buried on a lonely mesa with a view of the mountains to the west and Mexico to the south. The house where he lived his entire life and the spot where he died are all visible standing next to his grave. His impoverished family had little more than stones and a wooden cross to mark the place where he lies.

Texas Governor Rick Perry now calls for armed flying drones to patrol that border?  Good idea?  Read this and decide.

"How far can a political party grow and prosper and lead on anger alone? This is the dilemma that faces the Republican Party today. But it is not apparently an issue anymore. That is the way its leadership has determined its fate for the coming years. For it will now be the party of anger."

Read more in this article by Stephen Schlesinger.

"By rejecting any deal with President Obama over health reform, conservatives and Republicans set the stage for their most crushing legislative defeat since the 1960s."

Here, a well-known Republican reflects upon his party's waterloo.

"Hope is the faith that, together, we can make things better. Optimism is a passive virtue, hope is an active one. It takes no courage to be an optimist, but it takes a great deal of courage to have hope. Hope is the knowledge that we can choose; that we can learn from our mistakes and act differently next time. That history is not a trash bag of random coincidences blown open by the wind, but a long slow journey to redemption." ~ Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

As Frank Schaeffer says in The Huffington Post:

"Obama is one of the most intelligent presidents to ever step forward in American history. The likes of his intellectual capabilities have not been surpassed in public life since the Founding Fathers put pen to paper. His personal character is also solid gold. Take heart, America: we have the leader for our times. He's just outworked and outsmarted the far right and the far left. The Tea party troglodytes are reduced to yelling racial epithets from the sidelines. The Lefty critics have egg on their faces."

Hallelujah!  Amen!

Contrary to Muslim terrorists who claim that their bloody violence is in the name of their religion, it's not.

As respected Islamic clerics explain, the term "Jihad" can only describe a "... struggle to improve one's self and/or society", and by traditional definition, other than "Jihad of the sword", (which must be conducted by an organized national military under international rules of engagement, called "Jihad as-sayf" - never by extremist terrorists), it is not violent, and cannot be considered to be a "bad thing".

Violent terrorist attempts at such "improvements" are something else entirely, known to enlightened Muslims as "Hirabah", which is punishable by ignominious death (and never martyrdom). As the Holy Qur'an states:

"The punishments of those who wage war against Allah and His Prophet and strive to spread disorder in the land are to execute them in an exemplary way or to crucify them or to amputate their hands and feet from opposite sides or to banish them from the land. Such is their disgrace in this world, and in the Hereafter theirs will be an awful doom save those who repent before you overpower them; you should know that Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Ever Merciful." [Qur'an 5:33]

Alas, misguided and under-informed so-called "Mullahs" who recruit young men to blow themselves up in subways are doing a serious disservice not only to their unfortunately gullible believers (who will most definitely never meet those heavenly virgins), but also to the international image of Islam itself.

Here is a very interesting on-line educational lesson by CIE - The Council on Islamic Education which teaches the important distinctions between jihad and hirabah.  Take a moment to check it out ... you'll find it interesting.

Not that terrorism is in any way limited to Muslims.  We Christians have lovely examples of it in our history too, such as Tomás de Torquemada's infamous autos-de-fe in the name of Christianity during the fifteenth-century Inquisition, and in fact embarrassing contemporary news reports of violent and near-violent intolerance by screeching right-wing Christian extremists yet today.  Every religion has its nut cases who attempt to justify their own selfishly wrongheaded power-grabs and self-justifications in the name of a religion they rarely fully understand.  Goes with the territory ...

What we must avoid is unquestioning acceptance of the term "Jihad" by bloody Muslim terrorists to excuse their horrible violence.  It just isn't so.  As viewed by any religion including Islam, such extremist terrorists are nothing but criminals, pure and simple.

That's my license plate (one of my domain names), so I'm hardly one to laugh at other vanity plates.

But these are really above and beyond:

Vanity plates are inherently lame. But for some people, that's not enough. Those people feel the need to take their status of "I'm the worst"...

The Most Inappropriate Vanity Plates Of All Time

News item:  According to a recent report, losses from Internet fraud more than doubled in 2009, with scams that falsely used the FBI’s name generating the most complaints, the law enforcement agency said.

The total dollar loss rose to $559.7 million last year from $264.6 million in 2008, based on amounts reported to the Internet Crime Complaint Center, a partnership between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center.

Remember - the FBI never ever makes first contact with anyone via e-mail.  It just isn't done.  So if you receive any e-mail message about any subject claiming to be from the FBI, delete it and forget it - it's a dangerous phishing effort to grab and use your personal information.

And as with all things Internet, the usual warnings apply:

• Never open any e-mail from anyone you don't know or with whom you don't have a prior business relationship.
• If you must open suspicious mail, never click on any link within it, and if such a link looks like a well-known site, manually type its address into your web browser.  Remember ... it's easy to disguise links in e-mail addresses.
• Especially if you ever visit porn, gambling, or non-U.S. web sites (they're most notoriously hideouts for Internet scam artists) first make certain that you have installed an effective virus protection program, that all it's appropriate options are turned on, and that it's definitions are up to date.

In this Washington Post article, we find alarming attempts by regressively conservative Texans to subvert clearly documented facts of American history by imposing upon their school children rewritten versions which are not only inaccurate, but which may affect schools far beyond the borders of that state.

Texas truly is hopeless.  I wrote it off as an intellectual backwater shortly after it became painfully obvious what a brainless nincompoop Dubya is. 

I suspect that there are indeed a few urban areas in that state containing at least a modicum of intelligent citizens, but they appear to be so woefully outnumbered by creatures whose sole source of information is Faux News (probably on a black and white TV set with rabbit ears) that any hint of an informed voice is drowned out by boneheadedly stubborn ignorance.

Rewriting history is something we've previously relegated to repressive totalitarian regimes such as China, North Korea, and the USSR - reminiscent of the final years of the Soviet Union when the name Stalin miraculously disappeared from history books.  Here in the twenty-first century, how very disappointing it is to see American citizens heading down into that same dark snake pit.

From "Petraeus Makes His Move", at TPM, Josh Marshall says:

I mentioned a few days ago that part of the backstory to the recent crisis in US-Israeli relations is tied to a briefing David Petraeus gave the Adm. Mullen and the Joint Chiefs back in January.

And as Petraeus says:

"The conflict foments anti-American sentiment, due to a perception of U.S. favoritism for Israel."

"Perception"?  Please!  Perception hell!  That's no perception ... it's a hard, documented, historical fact.  And a damned shame at that.

"Arab anger over the Palestinian question limits the strength and depth of U.S. partnerships ..."

"Question?"  What, exactly, is that "question"?  And who is asking it?  There is no "question".  Get real.  There is only arrogantly unyielding, militaristic aggression on the part of Israel, being met with defensive retaliation by the Palestinians.  Tit for tat.  If that war is ever to end (which I frankly doubt), one side or the other is going to have to compromise, and that's never going to be Palestine, because they're the victims in this never-ending tragic opera.

"...  and weakens the legitimacy of moderate regimes in the Arab world. Meanwhile, al-Qaeda and other militant groups exploit that anger to mobilize support. The conflict also gives Iran influence in the Arab world through its clients, Lebanese Hizballah and Hamas."

Absolutely.  Perfectly obvious and could not possibly be more clear.  If our nation is ever to even begin to surmount terrorism, we MUST adopt fair, rational, and equal diplomacy and support of both Israel and Palestine ... and that support must NOT include arms sales so that they can keep killing each other with our weapons.

I recently wrote a rant here stating in no uncertain terms that I was absolutely sick to death of The Beatles, if I never heard another Beatles song, it would be too soon, and if Muzak played one in my elevator, I'd get out at the very next floor.

Well ... a friend sent me this link to a treatment of their music which, I must admit, is charming.

THIS, ladies and gentlemen, is a way I can once again enjoy The Beatles.

Tired of endless waits on the phone to reach Customer Support at your bank?

Tired of endless lines at your bank, where only two of their six teller windows are staffed?

Tired of supporting with your hard-earned savings an organization which rewards incompetent management with million-dollar bonuses?

Tired of paying ever more silly fees for even the smallest and simplest banking services? 

Then perhaps it's time you moved your money from that giant "too big to fail" banking institution into a smaller community bank where you're actually a real live person rather than just an account number.

Here, Bill Maher makes just that suggestion, and here you'll find a service which can tell you what small local banks and credit unions near you cordially invite your business.

Still not convinced?  Then watch this video.

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin?

In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works.

Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere.

Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Seldom does a discussion or public debate with religious people about same-sex marriage get very far without turning into a shouting match.  For that reason, the subject is often simply avoided or discussed only among people who already support it.

On this web page, a Baptist minister offers a path for reasonable, rational, non-hysterical discussion about the subject.  Worth reading.

It's apparently getting a wee bit uncomfortable in the Vatican, as the German Catholic sex scandal edges ever closer to the Pope and his documented history of inappropriate handling of priestly pedophilia. 

"A subordinate took full responsibility for allowing the priest to later resume pastoral work, the archdiocese said in a statement."

In other words, a lackey took the fall for His Eminence.  Sound familiar?

Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) primary challenger, former Arizona congressman J.D. Hayworth, warned this past weekend that the same-sex marriage decision handed down by the Massachusetts Supreme Court is so loose in its logic and wording that it could lead to a man marrying his horse.

Ya know ... I can't so much laugh at pathetically brain-dead politicians like Hayworth so much as the other-worldly people who elect them.

Two great quotes:

"Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives". ~ John Stuart Mill

"Conservatives define themselves in terms of what they oppose". ~ George Will

"What's great about Republicans in Congress ..."  Hilarious!

  Ya gotta see this video:

Words fail me ...

Pope Makes Nice With Ugandan Murderers

Ya know ... it just never fails to amaze and infuriate me to realize just how ignorantly and viciously bigoted some people can be.  Such regressively ugly venom is even more stunning when it spews forth from an elected representative.

A classic example of such an utterly perverted sense of morality is Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s attempts to dismantle discrimination protections for gays and lesbians at Virginia’s colleges and universities.  Using arcane state law, he fantasizes an end to the hard-won prograss toward equality which LGBT Virginians have fought for and rightfully deserve.  Of course Virginia college students, staff, and administrators, as well as more sensible politicians condemn this truly sad excuse for a man.  If not so reprehensible, his antics would be comic.

Nothing so much as this sort of garbage reminds us that The Commonwealth of Virginia really is below the Mason-Dixon Line, with a human-rights mentality stuck somewhere in the civil-war era, and very much a part of the lower and slower south, Suh! 

One might have vainly hoped that the death of such creatures as Jesse Helms and his christianist henchman Jerry Falwell might have signaled the beginning of the end to politicized homophobia (you know, those aspiring politicians who use gay-bashing as a cheap and easy way to rally gullible low-IQ voters into their camp).  But no, the intolerant vitriol lives on across our great nation in unrepentantly bigoted politicians such as Steve King (R-IA), Virginia Foxx (R-NC), Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), and Trent Franks (R-AZ).

Here's an interesting blog article about them and their sleazy ilk.

A common-sense position long overdue:

Senators: Lift ban on gays donating blood

The marriage industry is set to reap serious profits from gay marriages.

All the more reason for Repuglicans to highly favor them.

Read details here.

After thirty years, one of the first major GLBT films has been resurrected, remastered, and is due for release soon.

It should be an interesting watch. Learn more about the movie here.

The market concentration for health insurance is so monopolized in some areas that insurance companies are rignt now, today, willing to happily raise prices and lose customers.  If ever there was a time when government intervention is sorely needed, it is now.

See the sordid details here.

Yet once again, the more vehemently they oppose gay rights, the more likely they are to be closeted gays themselves.  Watch the video ...

Popular search engines like Google (and wannabes like Bing and Yahoo) are such fun.  Even more fun is looking at them "from the other end" - that is, back up the line from the web sites they lead you to.  Here on Jon's Blog our analysis system reveals tons of statistical stuff, but among the most interesting are the search words used which ultimately lead the searcher to this blog.

Here are a few of the more interesting, in order of frequency - along with a comment or two - and yes, they all relate in one way or another to an article I've posted here:
   
richard r vensal dds  (Vensal appears to be a quack on-line doctor with a dental degree who claims to cure cancer.)

don't ask don't tell

deegay stream url  (Deegay is a gay music streaming service.)
   
vensal asparagus cancer cure  (Uh-huh ... sure.)

men fashion
   
younglife speedos

can i build website and blog with nucleuscms  (Nucleus CMS is the software platform which supports this blog.)
   
interesting article: "my mom had been taking the full-stalk canned style asparagus that she pureed and she took 4 tablespoons in the morning and 4 tablespoons later in the day. she did this for over a month. she is on chemo pills for stage 3 lung cancer in the pleural area and her cancer cell count went from 386 down to 125 as of this past week. her oncologist said she does not need to see him for 3 months."  (Yes, really ... this huge text phrase was an actual search term!  And it worked!)

as dumb as a sack of hammers

teabaggers no sense of humor  (Truly!)

gay internet radio

telebouncer robo call

commercial free contemporary gay music

do gay israeli men bunk with straight ones in the military  (Hmmm ... does make ya wonder ...)

slovenia gay

800 927 2291 sears  (That's the phone number of a relentless Sears telemarketer.)

can you imagine having a christian demonstration against islam in downtown baghdad?  (No.)

gracie allen quotes

internet dance radio

truth of fiction did you know andy rooney

gracie allen how to become president full  (Old time radio personality Gracie Allen did indeed once run for president - well, sorta kinda ...)

german hookers  (German?  Hookers?  What a concept.)

boystownlive.com ap iphone  (Boystownlive is another gay music streaming service.)

football faggots  (That one must have returned tons of hits all across the Net.)

Congratulations to the enlightened and fair-minded citizens of our nation's capital, where their logical and rational extension of the rights of marriage to same-sex couples takes effect today, Wednesday March 3, 2010.

Of course selfishly bigoted and hypocritical opponens of this right continue to hammer away with their silly arguments about "tradition" and blather on with blunt-instrument scare tactics regarding the costs to business for treating ALL their employees equally, while hundreds of enterprises who cater to the entire process of weddings from jewelry through invitations to cakes and lawn tents have dollar-signs in their eyes at the prospect of vastly increased business generated by gay and lesbian newlyweds with statistically larger expendable incomes.  Not to mention all those joyous travel agents and hotels who have been suffering during the current economy, and the prospect of increased tax revenue to a financially struggling city ...

Great news, folks.  Let this be a lesson to the rest of the nation ... fairness to those who honestly believe in the institution of marriage really CAN benefit everybody not shackled by venomous prejudice and outdated dogma.

Read more about this here.

A recent scientific study finds that higher intelligence is associated with liberal political ideology, atheism, and men's (but not women's) preference for sexual exclusivity.

For example, the study, published in the March 2010 issue of the peer-reviewed scientific journal Social Psychology Quarterly, finds that young adults who subjectively identify themselves as "very liberal" have an average IQ of 106 during adolescence while those who identify themselves as "very conservative" have an average IQ of 95 during adolescence.  And just BTW ... they also tend toward being atheists.

Read the report here.

Here's an interesting article in Details Magazine about gay-oriented communications devices and services.

Added bonus - Yours Truly is quoted in that article.  How 'bout that!

SYDNEY (Associated Press) -- About 5,200 naked people have embraced each other on the steps of Sydney's iconic Opera House today for a photo shoot by Spencer Tunick.

He said "It was difficult to get the straight participants to embrace the gay participants and vice versa ..."

Who knew?  Amazing.  Or not ...

Read the article and see the photos here.