Suffolk House

Packed up the family today and thought we’d go get some over-priced burgers at Friendly’s on Larkfield. To be fair, we had two good experiences there this summer. One waitress in particular was very, well, friendly. Today? Not so much.

But I don’t like to beat up on the waitresses. I wouldn’t be writing this if the problem was the waitresses because I don’t think anyone in the service industry is paid enough to pamper my ass (though for a $9.00 hamburger, I’m starting to question just how firmly I believe that now). Anyway, in addition to the matter of the waitress, the place was filthy, service was slow, and the manager seemed very uninspiring.

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I’ve long suspected that Tom Coburn is a fascist moron. I’m not certain that he’s a fascist, but the evidence seems to keep lining up (see image below). Recently, Coburn has been participating in some tried and true rhetorical activity that is as mundane as it is effective. He’s arguing, believe it or not, that Democrats are ringing up debt.

“Sooner or later Congress will have to confront the reality that we are on an unsustainable course that is a severe threat to not just our future prosperity, but our ability to advance the cause of freedom in a world that doesn’t always share our values.”

Despite his lofty rhetoric, this millionaire’s voting record doesn’t suggest one of fiscal responsibility. Evidently, it is more important to return money back to the rich by passing tax cuts than it is to find ways to balance the budget. He’s left trotting out the exhausted lines about “pork.” Meanwhile, he helped authorize a war costing hundreds of billions of dollars. Still, Sen. Coburn doesn’t see fit to recognize the numerous Democrats who didn’t support the war, who if they’d had their way would have saved the U.S. more than $500 billion.

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Here comes a story from the Chicago Tribune about a Wheaton College Professor who was fired for divorcing. Evidently, most merciful and all-knowing Wheaton President Duane Litfin has passed judgment - as in cast the first stone - against Wheaton College English professor Kent Gramm. His divorce has evidently rendered him incapable of, as their mission explains, “combine [ing] faith and learning in order to produce a biblical perspective needed to relate Christian experience to the demands of those needs.”

As one looks more closely at the Wheaton College mission
one notices no mention of or commitment to citizenship or social justice. Just to their god. As such, it follows mercy doesn’t factor in, as naughty behaviors are just simply profane. Naughty behaviors should be walled out of the city of god. Let these victims of evil suffer under the weight of their sin (in god’s name, of course!).

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Just when you think Florida really sucks, they go and ramp it up some more (SO!!!!! glad we left that place!). Florida is considering adding the following plate to its enormous selection of speciality plates:

I can’t even blame it on a Republican this time; the plate was proposed by State Rep. Edward Bullard, D-Miami.

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By all accounts, Maj. Freddy Welborn is an easy-going Christian guy who tolerates plenty of people, provided they are similar to him. His picture below appears to depict an affable guy. Still, hard-nosed Christo-Fascist warriors come in all shapes and sizes.

Don’t let the smile fool you. This guy has rank in the U.S. Army, but he literally thinks he is God’s soldier (sounds jihadist doesn’t it? Just wait!)

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Over the last eight years or so, the growing alliance between Jews and Republicans had puzzled me. I mean, the political right and Jews? I don’t get it. This is evidenced by positively received evangelical outreach to Israel and Sen. Lieberman’s support for the Bush administration. Anyone with a pulse that reaches the brain knows that Israelis are using evangelical sympathies to advance their agenda; I mean, why turn down support that will help protect your nation, even if it is from insane people who think you will rot in hell?

It is going to take an extra-special measure of tolerance for Jews to stay cozy with Republicans after this stunt (which is actually quiet consistent with GOP history). According to USA Today, Republican candidate for the 2nd US House District Tony Zirkle has recently given a speech to Chicago Nazis. Here he is below (no shit!).

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Is Past Roger Byrd a Pedophile? I’m just trying to get people thinking about Pastor Roger Byrd of the Jonesville Church of God in Jonesville, S.C.

I ask this question simply to cause people to realize and to see what possibly could happen if we were to have another pastor out there who is a pedophile.

I don’t know. See it asks a question: Are they pedophiles? In other words, do they like sex with children? I don’t know. They probably say they aren’t. I hope they aren’t. But I don’t know. And it’s just something to try to stir people’s minds. It was never intended to hurt feelings or to offend anybody.

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Below is an image I found of Maj. Freddy J. Welborn. Welborn is a coward.

Read here about how he failed to defend a U.S. soldier who was in harms way. In my opinion, this is about as weak as a man can be. The story explains that another soldier didn’t believe in the same things as many of the other soldiers with whom he’d been working. Despite threats and taunts, and reports of said activity, Welborn not only failed to assist the soldier, he may have contributed to the activity.

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Sargeant Teehan, second precinct narcotics detective, seems to have remedied our neighborhood drug dealer issue.

We were experiencing a revival of the drug pick-ups. Last summer, people would pull up, honk, kid would run out, drive around the neighborhood, and drop off kid. Since January, however, he stopped going out to the car, preferring to sell his goods inside the house. So, as those who read know, I began calling the Second Precinct of the Suffolk Police.

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In this morning’s NYT is a story about an organic farmer being fined $50,000 for failing to apply for building permits with an agency that doesn’t issue building permits. Asked to produce evidence it had ever issued permits, the Adirondack Park Agency couldn’t answer. The point of this post isn’t necessarily to highlight the plight of the farmer. Instead, it is to point out how popular control of government is slowly ceded to conservative corporatists. Conservative corporatists capitalize on stories in which the little guy is beat up by government. They absolutely salivate over stories about liberals being put down by government liberals. This story involves the latter; it is a story in which New York’s Deputy Secretary of the Environment Judith Enck can’t see fit to muzzle one of her agencies. The Adirondack Park Agency fined a farmer $50,000 for failing to apply for building permits from them (though he’d received local building permits) even though the Park Agency had virtually no history of requiring building permits - an absolutely no history of regulating construction on farms. This is a story fit for ditto-heads, Hannity, and Bill O’Reilly’s oxygen deprived “culture warriors.”

I’m Judith Enck…”

…and I’m incompetent.

Officials at the park agency appeared to be unclear if the action they were taking was setting a precedent. Cecil Wray, the commissioner who presides over the agency’s enforcement committee, could not recall if the Adirondack Park Agency had ever required a farmer to have a housing permit.

After search further:

After a search, the agency found records of two permits that had been issued to farmers for housing in the last 30 years, including one for mobile homes.

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