Just imagine if a young black man had shot a cop and then claimed he’d intended to use some other weapon he had on him.  How likely is it that the jury would have bought into that?

As far as I can tell, Mehserle is a cold-blooded killer.  So are many other cops–he just had the bad luck to be caught on video.  And he’s still only going to pay the price for involuntary manslaughter, assuming this verdict even survives appeals.  That’s what you get for negligently killing someone in a car crash, for example.

It makes me sick.  I’ve got to go now…and evacuate.

After an ABC News report that secret Bible messages are encoded on gun sights used by the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan, at least two other countries that also use the equipment in Afghanistan are now considering what action to take.

…The sights are used by U.S. troops and in the training of Iraqi and Afghan soldiers. The model numbers inscribed on the scopes include coded references to New Testament verses.

…”The perfect parallel that I see,” said Maj. John Redfield, spokesperson for CentCom, told ABC News, “is between the statement that’s on the back of our dollar bills, which is ‘In God We Trust,’ and we haven’t moved away from that.”

…On Tuesday, Redfield of CentCom told ABC News that the inscriptions did not violate the directive against proselytizing. “This does not constitute proselytizing because this equipment is not issued beyond the U.S. Defense Department personnel. It’s not something we’re giving away to the local folks.”

The U.S. is not a Christian nation–it’s a secular nation and always has been, despite the attempts of fundamentalist know-nothings (and some knowing liars) to rewrite history.  The U.S. Constitution does not mention God, and it specifically prohibits any governmental establishment of religion or any religious test to hold office.  A U.S. treaty from 1797, signed by our second President John Adams, states explicitly that “the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”

Major Redfield’s arguments are ludicrous.  Constitutionally, the U.S. military can’t proselytize among U.S. soldiers any more than it can among foreign nations.  And “In God We Trust,” constitutionally dubious as it is, isn’t offensive to Muslims and isn’t used to kill people–people overseas are not going to care that it’s on U.S. money.  But Muslims may find it very offensive indeed for their coreligionists to be shot at with guns that have Biblical citations on them.

They’re not in some secret code, as the lede might imply–the article later states, “John 8:12 [is] referred to on the gun sights as JN8:12″  JN8:12 is hardly a very secretive way to refer to this verse, which reads, “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”  I guess that has some mystical connection with the light of a gun sight.  (I’m not joking here–apparently all of the verses cited on various different guns have to do with light.)

Trijicon’s director of sales and marketing “said the issue was being raised by a group that is ‘not Christian.’”  In other words, the person who represents the firm making these guns uses an ad hominem fallacy to try to discredit a message because the people it comes from are purportedly the wrong religion.  The gun sight codes aside, why is the U.S. government doing business with religious bigots?

“When I run, I’m totally incognito because I’m not wearing the trough full of makeup.”

–Sarah Palin, Alaska’s First Jogger
[update: soon to be FORMER First Jogger]

The celebrity mag pol strikes dirt again

Just imagine how angry she’d get if a Democrat suggested that there’s something she gets out of a TROUGH…let alone LIPSTICK…

McCain:  “Well, that’s not entirely correct, but part of it is true.  Obama IS for abortion.  Besides, his wife worked with Bernadine Dohrn, and who knows what that wild bitch might do?”

Corporate news media:  “Palin’s claim seems to be significantly exaggerated.  But then, Obama claimed that McCain voted with Bush 90% of the time; and yet, depending on how far back you go, you can get a number that’s less than 90%.  As you can see, BOTH SIDES of this hotly disputed race are distorting each other’s records.  McCain, being the honorable man he is, has of course distanced himself from Palin’s controversial remarks.”

Okay, none of this really happened…but it almost might as well have.

If the U.S. health care system performed as well as [the] top three countries, there would be 101,000 fewer deaths in the United States per year, according to researchers writing in the journal Health Affairs.

Sure, ignoramuses — sure, ugly Americans — put France down every chance you get. Engage in all the xenophobia you want, and then try to bury your grief with a vacation in Paris after a loved one dies due to lack of health insurance, here in the Good Old U.S.A.