Mike's Blog

I knew Kansas was odd but this is just sick

But it's male husband and female(little girl) wifey so it's ok in Kansas. I guess I'm gonna have to broaden the scope of old jokes like "if I marry my brother's daughter am I still an uncle?". Can't just relegate those sorts of comments to Arkansas anymore.

Man Charged for Having Sex With Teen Wife

By KEVIN O'HANLON

The Associated Press
Tuesday, July 26, 2005; 8:14 PM

LINCOLN, Neb. -- A 22-year-old man faces criminal charges in Nebraska for having sex with an underage 13-year-old girl, although he legally married her in Kansas after she became pregnant.
...

"The idea ... is repugnant to me," said Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning. "These people made the decision to send their ... 14-year-old daughter to Kansas to marry a pedophile."

He said the marriage is valid, thanks to the "ridiculous" Kansas law, "but it doesn't matter. I'm not going to stand by while a grown man ... has a relationship with a 13-year-old _ now 14-year-old _ girl."
...

Kansas law, however, sets no minimum marriage age, although case law sets the minimum age at 14 for boys and 12 for girls. The marriage must be approved by both parents or guardian, or by a district court judge...(lWaPo via Atrios)

I really hope Bush DOESN'T fire Karl Rove

It would be so so much better to have him arrested at the White House and taken away in handcuffs. Of course that's not going to happen. He would 'resign' first, but it's a nice thought.

But just imagine. A warrant for his arrest.  Squad cars with lights flashing pull up to the White House. Rove is taken away in handcuffs down the front steps of the White House with his coat over his head.

Finally the White House Press Corp starts asking some questions

They were asking about Rove today each time Scottie danced a bit and said how the White House was helping the investigation by not talking they asked basically the same question a bit differently.  They wouldn't give up. Watch the the video feed on Crooks & Liars.

                McClellan’s Evasive Maneuvers                      

Today in the White House press briefing, Press Secretary Scott McClellan tried a few different tricks to cajole reporters into not asking difficult questions of him. McClellan was taking tremendous heat for refusing to comment on Rove and the leak investigation despite having done so numerous times before (the video will be available here later today; we’d urge you watch at least the first 10 minutes). (Think Progress)

      

I thought the bombing in London was a bad thing.

I'm certainly glad that Fox News clarified this was a team building exercise.

...
KILMEADE: And he [British Prime Minister Tony Blair] made the statement, clearly shaken, but clearly determined. This is his second address in the last hour. First to the people of London, and now at the G8 summit, where their topic Number 1 --believe it or not-- was global warming, the second was African aid. And that was the first time since 9-11 when they should know, and they do know now, that terrorism should be Number 1. But it's important for them all to be together. I think that works to our advantage, in the Western world's advantage, for people to experience something like this together, just 500 miles from where the attacks have happened.... (link)

Flag thoughts for the 4th of July

I went down to the dedication of new the flagpole in Livermore this morning. Very impressive, 120 foot fiberglass pole that alone cost $40,000, a bit less than a 1/4 of the total cost of replacement.  This replaced the 126 foot wooden flagpole which was erected in 1905 ($207). (Link to history)

Afterwards there was a re-dedication of the peace monument close to the Livermore Public Library. As one of the speakers said when he was invited to speak at the peace monument re-dedication, "oh, something for the right and something for the left'. He also said what's really sad is that everyone knows what that means. "The flag doesn't belong to the president, it belongs to the country". He's worked at the Labs for 30 years and in all the time that he's worked there he's only met one person who was really pro-nuclear weapons. He said another old-timer said that if any of the weapons were ever used he would immediately resign as everything he'd worked for his entire career failed.

I’m not sure I agree with implementation of that idea. 6,000 actively deployed, many ready to launch in 15 minutes, is a bit more than a deterrent. I would be more in the mind that a dozen or so very very large weapons would be more of a deterrent.  If I were a North Korean, Iraqi, Iranian, Pakistani, etc. I would be putting a bit of pressure on my government not to build nuclear weapons since if they were ever launched against ANYONE. My entire country and many around it would be turned into fused glass. That's a deterrent. That’s not good either really, but 6,000 ready to launch nuclear weapons is not the answer and Shrub planning on building more isn’t make it any more of a deterrent. Some pictures I took over on the left or here's a link if they've already scrolled by.

Anyway, the flagpole dedication this morning reminded me of a great post I'd seen back in January. And After reading the article in the German post one of those songs came into my head that you just can't get rid of, but slightly modified.

The German article used a wonderful word , new to me, but the meaning is immediately obvious if you know even a very little German. The word was “Hundescheissestecker”. The German news article said how the police where on the lookout for this “Hundescheissestecker” but didn’t really know what they would do as they couldn’t think of a law against sticking flags in dog poo. And then this little song popped into my head the way those annoying songs like “It’s a small world….” do. (My apologies for using that phrase from the familiar song, I know that’s going to stick now for awhile, but you get the point.) The one that popped into my head though, was I thought, a good slight alteration of another one. And one that now pops into my head whenever I see a flag or a hot dog or dog poo.

The link to the German article no longer works but I remember the word "Hundescheissestecker" and the song where it seemed to fit perfectly. I thought what a great word. Here's a link to the blog post where I came across it. Other good links on the blog post.

. .

Ach ich wünsch ich wär ein Oscar Meyer Wiener Hundescheissestecker

Das wär' für mich das Schönste auf der Welt

Denn rausgeputzt als Oscar Meyer Wiener Hundescheissestecker

würde ich geliebt und auch bestellt.