As much as I enjoy the photos, I have to ask — are your bassets some kind of anti-vampires? Will they expire in a puff of smoke if they are not being bathed in sunbeams?

Two points:

@tejanarusa: “…it’s not a matter of religious values.”
Of course it is, goddammit!

Technically, it’s probably not. Rather, it’s a matter of power. Living humans are the power source of societies — you cannot be a powerful king if you don’t have lots of lesser humans whose energy you can control and direct. So lots of landrace, vulnerable people are a necessity. This is harder to accomplish if birth control and early abortions are readily available. If these people get troublesome they can always be dealt with. But if they’re not even born, the would-be tyrant is out of luck (unless he can import them, which strategy brings with it another set of problems.)

Second point: I believe that in common law, a child born in wedlock is formally a child of the couple, regardless of the identity of the biological father. This remains the case even if the couple subsequently divorces. In addition, the biological father of a child is liable for child support regardless of how that child was engendered.

I assume then that under Santorum’s “God’s Law” if his wife was criminally impregnated, Santorum would be on the hook to raise and care for that man’s child, and could only get child support payments from the rapist if he was identified but not jailed. That’s a bit tricky, eh?

If the rapist was active enough before he was finally imprisoned, this could be a very successful genetic strategy. But it would result in a marked increase in the genes that predispose to successful rape behaviour, and a decrease in the Father Knows Best genes. I don’t know what those genes might actually be, but there mus be SOME difference between the two courtship styles.

We hear a lot about anchor babies — not so much about “cuckoo fathers.” Is Santorum ready to raise a criminal’s offspring as his own child? It would be interesting if someone had the balls to ask him, just before ending their career in journalism.

Noni

Lovely Wisconsin — the new Mississippi of the North!

“…you realize that in her world it’s a mirror image of ours– but only in her imagination…”

Which is why I now call them the Opposite Party. The more opposite their statements or intentions are, the more “core” they are to the right-wing.

There was an article recently discussing how dictators and cult leaders come to have followers who say such extreme things about them or their regime. [Aha! Here it is! http://abandonedfootnotes.blogspot.com/2011/03/simple-model-of-cults-of-personality.html

In part, it says “The dictator wants a credible signal of your support; merely staying silent and not saying anything negative won’t cut it. In order to be credible, the signal has to be costly: you have to be willing to say that the dictator is not merely ok, but a superhuman being, and you have to be willing to take some concrete actions showing your undying love for the leader…”

In a party structure, the more extreme and punitive the party, the more crazy talk you will get from members of that party.

The result over time is destructive — the group is hollowed out till only liars, manipulators, and loons remain. Then, either the group collapses, or becomes violent to preserve itself.

Noni

I wrote a little editorial a few years ago that said if “marriage” was simply about children, then no couple should be allowed to actually marry until one of them was, at the very least, pregnant. Everybody else could have civil unions. I got some pretty annoyed mail on that one.

Anything by R. A. MacAvoy. I especially loved her “Lens of the World” series.

You call that a replica skull? Looks like something from Wal-mart or Savers bargain post-Halloween clearout table.

Now THESE are replica skulls: http://www.headsandtails.co.uk/Skulls&skeletons/S&S.htm

And these are real ones: http://www.skullsunlimited.com/products_by_order.php?id=82

We had our Yule bonfire in the snowy woods last week, burnt up the old log from last year and roasted this year’s decorated log, cheering on the fire by tossing in paper cups of firewater aka Everclear. All this while drinking ahem “cocoa” and eating the most amazing apple muffins as the sun rose (albeit invisibly behind cloud cover.) Every year I think we’re nuts to be up and away at the crack of 5 to get to our wooded spot in time to build the fire, and every year I come home glowing and steeped in smoky fragrance. Ya gotta love Yule.

Candlemas, btw, is Feb 2nd.

Noni
surrounded by the other sort of dogs – the ones who don’t conspire

@joshuanorton chestnuts, FTW!

As for the fireplace, two notes:

1) When I visited on the west coast north of Seattle a number of years ago, it never got really cold. BUT goddam the winter humidity, creating a chill that went right to the bone no matter what clothing I wore. A fireplace would have been a godsend.

2) Who needs an excuse for a fireplace?

Watching my neighbours over the back fence, up here in Canada, it is like watching an abusive psychotic husband moving back in. And she’s helping him move in, carrying one end of the sofa despite her unhealed broken arm.

The Canadian Supreme Court decided in January 2010 that Khadr’s human rights under our charter had been violated by our federal government. Lots of details here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_Khadr

I think what will happen if he is returned to Canada, and if he survives the rest of his sojourn in government care, will be that his human rights case will be taken to our courts whether or not our neo-cons are still in power, and the findings will be in his favour, and he will be released and almost certainly be awarded damages of some sort.

Maybe he will even run for high office, hey? Confessing to war crimes isn’t necessarily a barrier to high office.

Noni