What I know

Two things I know for certain:

1. When you tweet Truth to Power and they block you, you win the right to the moral high ground.

2. Everywhere in the developed world, 10-year olds grow out of playing with guns. But in the USA, that doesn't happen.

Can someone, ANYONE, explain 2 Kings 18:27?

And this is an actual quote :-   

But Rabshakeh said unto them, "Hath my master sent me to thy master, and to thee, to speak these words? Hath he not sent me to the men which sit on the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own piss with you?" 

That's pretty fucking scatalogical considering the supposed proximity of Godliness to Cleanliness.

Getting back on my hobby horse

To date the media coverage of the candidates vying for their party nominations for the Presidency has been nothing short of APPALLING.

When this election is over it will go down as having the worst ever coverage from the media. Remember at the last election when, because the process took so long to resolve the GOP candidate that the media apologized for simply "covering the horse race" and for being way too quick to declare front runners and hence the presumptive nominee? Cain, Santorum, Bachmann? Anyone remember the disservice to the electorate of that?

And now in 2016, it is only worse. The media in lock step, just follows the polls and calls that political reporting.

How's this for an idea? COVER THE CANDIDATES. ALL THE CANDIDATES. Tell us their views. Tell us their policies. Send reporters out and find us some facts. INTERVIEW PEOPLE. Educate the public.

Just reporting about the polls has led to the absurd situation of Donald Trump leading the GOP field, a man who has ZERO chance of being President. And who's second in these polls? Dr Ben Carson, a man beloved by the right for making a very silly speech at a prayer breakfast and who has been living high on the political hog ever since. Again, a man who has not a snowball's chance in you-know-where of being President. A man who has said things just as asinine as Bobby Jindal or Mike Huckabee but who, because he's up there in the polls is getting just the glowing coverage without the scrutiny. Why? Because the poll number is all that matters, not views, not opinions, not lack of opinions. "It's all about the number ma'am".

And if poll numbers are high, the media gives these candidates more publicity making their poll numbers high and reinforcing the wall of separation of legitimate candidates from the public.

God help us, but this utter utter nonsense of what is passing for political reporting has to stop.

And please please please CNN in particular, have your reporters and editors talk about the political stories of the day, I have no use for this "GOP strategist" or that "Democratic consultant" spinning a speech at me THAT I JUST WATCHED.

Stop that.

#NoBushesNoClintons

My 2015 Trip to Montreal album on Photobucket

Sometimes a link is all you need.

And then you will have a 2015 Trip to Montreal album on Photobucket.

Oh boy! Did I eat well or what?

Pinterest Strikes again

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And then there were 17....

So Jim Gilmore has entered the race for the GOP nomination for President. Holy crap! I never thought you could find someone with less chance of becoming the nominee than Bobby Jindal or Carly Fiorina, but apparently I was mistaken.

This man has even less name recognition than George Pataki. How is that even possible?

Mr Gilmore was the  68th Governor of Virginia from 1998 to 2002, so he will be pushing that "Executive Experience" button for all it's worth in his brief yet already doomed campaign.

Here is a pic of Governor Gilmore, in case he comes up to you in the street and asks you for your vote. He won't, but I think it is important to at least put up his picture before he is engulfed by political oblivion.

Take a quick look. He won't be running for long.

 

Covering the horse race

Soon we will be entering a very traditional part of the Presidential campaign season - the time when the media start to issue their mea culpas apologizing for only covering the horse race and the meaningless polls; and promising to do better "covering the candidates and the issues".

But not quite yet. They aren't quite ready yet to DO THEIR JOB.

Right now they are in full on "Trump is leading" mode, hanging on every word the jackass says, sucking in all the coverage like like a vast NJ Superfund site combined with a black hole and an utter ideas-free political void.

That's why CNN covered Trump saying stupid shit this week rather than Governor Kasich's announcement he was running. Ditto last week, where Trump sucked all the air out of Scott Walker's announcement.

So here is my friendly advice to the media..

1. Polls are utterly without value right now. Stop covering them. I don't want to hear the word "Quinipiac" again until December.

2. In a huge field, it is very easy for the biggest blowhard to seem important. But he really isn't, having as he does, no chance of being anyone's nominee. So stop coming off like he's all there is to see.

3. If you want to cover the candidates, COVER THE CANDIDATES. All of them. Equally. So the voters can see if there is actually any gold in the dross.

4. Every night do a bit, ON EVERY CANDIDATE. What is Bobby Jindal doing today? Governor Perry? Stick a cub reporter on Pataki. Show us Carly Fiorina parking her broomstick before she makes a speech.

5. Cover the candidates' policy announcements. In depth. So we can see if they have any ideas or if they don't. So we can see who is just bombast in a $3000 suit or a mouthpiece for Heritage Foundation.

6. At least make an effort to be informative. Pictures of Trump standing at the border tell us what? They tell us NOTHING.

7. And stop having political spinners like Ana Navarro and Van Jones on every day telling us how we are supposed to feel about shit we have just seen for ourselves. You have reporters and Political Editors for analysis, USE THEM.

And then there were 16

So the Big GOP clown car careened into Ohio today and as full to the brim as it is with wannabes, never-will-bes and nobodies, I think Chris Christie leaned against a door just a tad and it eased open by the thinnest crack allowing the boyish-faced John Kasich to run up and say "Room for one more"?

John Kasich is a good candidate because he's a Governor. This potentially gives him some leverage to bash Congress. You know the thing: "I'm a Washington outsider. I can get things done. I have Executive Experience".

But a man with NINE TERMS in Congress should be no-one's idea of an outsider.

And if he insists on playing the outsider card, his opponents need to call him out on it every single time he says it.

And the other negative? No-one knows who he is nationally.

He's like George Pataki but with better hair.

Finally the True Contest Can Start

With Scott Walker now formally announcing his candidacy for the GOP nomination we have the two candidates in the race that the Republican party really wanted to see all along.

Namely Scott and Jeb!

All the other people running are just providing the background noise for the campaign. And of course with only 10 being able to get on the stage for the first Fox led debate, at least seven will be out before they get out of their starting blocks.

So it comes down to a Tale of Two Governors. As it was always going to be.

Scott, with his proven purist conservative credentials - a man who has gotten shit done and survived a leftie-inspired recall election. He will surely prove to be a formidable opponent to Jeb! with tremendous appeal to the party base. But will his brand of scorched earth conservatism prove palatable to a wider electorate? It is hard for me to think so.

So Walker's tactic has to be to burn Jeb! on not being ideologically pure enough. And then once he has the nomination, to run away from all the positions he has espoused to that point, to "appeal to the middle". Because if he does not tone down the rhetoric, his chances of being President are just about zero.

And Jeb! has to the hoe the row of the completely opposite strategy.

Jeb! has to lurch to the right during the nomination process. He has to prove he is the "True Conservative" and hammer away at his record as Florida Governor. All while forgetting he ever heard the words "Common Core", "Immigration" or "Mexico". If he can push his most conservative achievements as Governor and not suffer any mishaps ( aka Rick Perry Moments ), then the nomination will be his. He has been The One from the beginning as far as the GOP is concerned.

So if Jeb! does manage to convince the party faithful his is conservative enough and he gets the nomination, then he just has to forget everything he said to that point and revert to being Florida Moderate Man: John Ellis Bush. Then the Presidency should at least hove into view for him.

The GOP race now is finally starting. Hillary is probably more fearful of Jeb! than Walker, simply because Walker's record is so unambiguously to the right of Jeb's and harder to muddy up in the roiling electoral waters to come.

My mantra of #NoBushesNoClintons remains. But only a fool would think it impossible that both Hillary and Jeb! cannot get their party nominations.

Scariness Abounds - The Clown Car Becomes a Double Decker

So two more candidates have thrown their hats into the ring for the GOP nomination for President. Neither has any chance of being the Republican Party nominee of course, but this week they added themselves to the every burgeoning field of egomaniacs who seemingly want the job.

Piyush "Bobby" Jindal aka "The Louisiana Boy Wonder"

This man has royally fucked over Louisiana as that state's Governor, and the first time he was given a national stage on which to speak, he completely failed to convince anyone as to his competence or his political stature.

That national opportunity came on February 24th 2009 when he was given the opportunity to deliver the official Republican response to President Obama's speech to a joint session of Congress. He was simply inept, unconvincing and plain bad.

All his opponents need to do is play excerpts from that speech over and over again with the tag line "Wrong for Louisiana; Wrong for the Presidency".

And currently running at a heady 0.8% in the polls, this is a man whose chances are as likely as a snowstorm on Bourbon Street in August.

Chris Christie

Two words damn him from the outset - and they are "President Obama".

Forget all the scandals - that's just New Jersey politics at their finest.

To get the GOP nomination, you have to appeal to the Republican base. Those people will forgive all kinds of skeletons in your political closet, but what they won't forgive is paling around with Obama.

And after Superstorm Sandy, that is what Governor Christie seemed to be doing.

And the ads against him will say "Too close to Obama; Too removed from our values."

---||---

As I said before, neither of these men has an earthly chance of being President. But what their candidacies do is make it quite likely that the GOP nominee will need initially to have two things going for him - a 15% ranking in the polls and Name Recognition.

This means with such a large number of people running, Donald Trump genuinely has a shot.

Please also note I did not say "two things going for him or her" because Carly Fiorina has more chance of leading the AFL-CIO than getting even a sniff at the GOP nomination.

But mark my words, with a field of candidates as large as this, a Large Buffoon has a chance. But as of my writing this blog Mr Trump seems to be saying enough outrageous things that he his self-destructing his Presidential bid before it even gets going. He's like the Space-X rocket of this nominating process.

I think there is something in the water down here

Recently, Tullian Tchividjian the grandson of Billy Graham announced he was resigning from his position as the Senior Pastor of the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale because of a personal "moral failing" - apparently he was driven into the arms of another by wifely infidelity.

Though his wife's riposte to his initial explanation for his resignation of "Well, that's his story!" is kind of telling.

Pastot Tullian in happier times

Tullian's downfall comes only 15 months after Pastor Bob Coy of Calvary Chapel of Fort Lauderdale also resigned over what itself was initially described as a "moral failing". Though as you can see from the picture below taken just before his demise, Pastor Bob was already auditioning for his part of a Lost Soul Wandering in the Desert of Moral Bankruptcy. Either that or he was moonlighting as a lumberjack while still pulling in his $500,000 a year salary from what we can now laughingly call a "Church". HALF A MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR? You've got to be shitting me.

But alas Calvary Chapel, you are not.

Since his ouster, we have learned that Pastor Bob was having multiple affairs while also enjoying the fleshly delights found in Internet Pornography. So pretty much he succumbed to the curse of any asshat moralizer - participation in the stuff he condemned to his flock just about every Sunday. And how often do we see this behavior? ALL THE DAMNED TIME.

Pastor Bob indicating his preference in waist sizes

So what is going on here? And can we see any patterns of behavior to look out for in the future?

Well one thing these guys had in common was wastrel youth. Both were admitted druggies before "finding the Lord". I'm sure they would both make some bullshit "Prodigal Son" argument as to why they should legitimately have been given jobs as Pastors when they got their breaks into Big Time Ministry. But perhaps those early lives should have raised some red flags to the Churches leaders who hired them?

Perhaps we can make a rule: Druggie at 25, no $500,000 tax free ministry job at 45. You can work for the Church with that past, but leading the flock for the Big Bucks? I don't think so. Christ preached forgiveness for sure. But I don't think he taught His Church should be gullible and easily hoodwinked.

And secondarily.....

Both of these falls from grace happned in South Florida - a State of tropical heat, little clothing, body shots and very tiny bikinis. Could men of dubious moral character such as these two resist the temptations Florida offers every day? After all, they could not resist the call of drugs when they were younger. And the hot girls of South Florida know what to do to get a man with a half  million dollar salary to party like he's 18 all over again.

So I see these two cases as very much related. And both falls from their respective ministries should have been at least anticipated by the people who made these men the leaders of multimillion dollar congregations.

Want to to see what South Florida tempatation can look like? Well here is the Miami-native actress formerly know as Ms Selena Rose...

South Florida Temptation

So only one question remains. And it is "Who's next?"

It's only a matter of time. We all know it.

The clown car now needs to be a clown coach

"You're gonna need a bigger boat" is one of the great lines from the movie "Jaws". I think the necessity for a bigger mode of transportation could now be applied to the GOP clown car with the addition of John Ellis Bush ( aka Jeb! ), Donald Trump and Donald Trump's ego entering the race for the GOP nomination for President.

Though I'm sure Trump would quickly snipe back at that by saying "My boat/car/mansion/estate/empire" are already as big as they can be. And it they're aren't it's all the fault of the rapist and leprous ISIS-supporting immigrants who are restricting my God-given freedoms of assholery and buffoonery."

So as the reverse of any kind of winnowing process is entering full gear, we now have two more candidates for the GOP nomination. And one will actually be the GOP nominee.

John Ellis Bush ( aka Jeb! )

Straight off the bat, I refuse to say "Jeb Bush" because that's saying "John Ellis Bush Bush" which when you think about it, is really Fucking Stupid. And while we are on this subject. puh-lease mainstream media, why did you all to a man say "The name Bush is not even in his logo for President"? The "b" in Jeb stands for "bush" you lazy lazy lazy morons. Even the BBC god bless 'em, were guilty of running with this less than honest narrative.

Stop it. Don't do it again.

So the Big Dog is in. And what we can now say is that we saw the Big Dog coming on the horizon a long time ago and strangely as he has come closer, we didn't see his stature increasing. This means that when he finally arrived at Miami-Dade College for his Big Event yesterday, instead of a towering candidate ready to take on the mantle of front runner, the Big Dog of our expectations shrank before out eyes into a wee Mexican Chihuahua speaking in Spanish.

And I think when it was translated it came out as "No-one deserves to be President, except me and any members of my family who want to hold the office in future."

Now Jeb has his work cut out for him for sure. His stances on Common Core and immigration reform are problematical to the GOP base, but he's the Party Choice, so he will get the nomination. All he has to keep saying is that he won't compromise his positions and his PACs just need to spin ads out their asses about him being a "Man of Principle and Integrity". Then barring any major scandals coming up, the nomination will be his.

And then we come to The Buffoon....

Donald John Trump Sr.

Why?

I have two theories. Both are outlandish. Both could be true.

(1) The hairpiece wants to run free on the White House lawn.

Or (2) Mr.Trump really feels the need to run because that explanation in "Cabin In The Woods" why blondes are stupid, WASN'T JUST A STORY.

Get me a Stretch, this Clown Car is too small. Part 1b

And just when you thought there was only John Ellis Bush left to enter the GOP race, up screams an Uber car in the parking lot where our fictitious clown car limo is idling and who falls out all drawl and no clue.......?

Of course it's Governor Rick Perry of Texas. A man condemned out of his own mouth in his last Presidential bid and as every Texas Governor before him, roundly rebuked by the pen of the late Molly Ivins as to his complete unsuitability for the job to which he aspires.

And just in case you don't know what I mean, Google "Weak Gubernatorial System" and get back to me.

Texas has such a system. The Governor is pretty much a figurehead position in the state. His main functions being to open public buildings and deny clemency to death row inmates. The powerful men in states like Texas are all in the legislature. The Governor in Texas isn't a Decider, he's an Endorser of what is laid before him. Just a Signer if you will.

It really frosts my nads when I hear "Well, he has 'Executive Experience'. He was the Governor of the second largest state in the nation" because no he doesn't really and so what? If you have no true power, it doesn't really matter what size your state is.

And what the heck was going on with the music playing in today's announcement of his new Presidential bid? Does he have advisers telling him to act all Jerry Lee Lewis or something? God that was bad! And way too obtrusive. And all Honky Tonk Revivalist.

And just before we go.......

Texas Governors always say they cannot grant clemency in Death Penalty cases because that is the job of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, and indeed if that Board does vote to not give clemency, the Governor has to abide by their decision. That is how the Texas non-clemency procedure works. The Governor has authority to grant clemency only upon a written recommendation of a majority of the Board of Pardons and Paroles. Amazing I know.

HOWEVER........

The Governor appoints the members of that board and if he wanted to, he could stack it with people who would favor clemency - not anti-death penalty proponents, just with people who have, I don't know, some sense of humanity.

But no, Texas Governors always hide behind this complete fig leaf of "Not my decision" when in actual fact, they could easily make Texas a more humane state by just doing the right thing and making a death sentence REALLY REALLY HARD to carry out.

And if a Texas Governor did that, and the number of executions was drastically reduced and people saw nothing bad came of it, then I think we could see eventually Texas going the way of Nebraska.

Which would be beyond a Good Thing.

Get me a Stretch, this Clown Car is too small. Part 1

I fall off my chair laughing every time I hear a GOP operative or party shill say with a straight face, "Unlike last time, today we have a really strong field of candidates".

I think that's code for "At least we don't have a Mormon this time!" and "We have an African-American guy who's not Herman Cain." and "We've got a woman too".

So who are these Strong Candidates? Who stands out for you? I don't really see any of them being President.

Dateline 06/01/15 the following people have declared for the GOP nomination and they are all pretty universally BAD candidates.

Rick Santorum
Rick is trying a novel strategy. He's running as a "Man of the People" and against the GOP's principle backers - Big Business and their Big Money. The problem as I see it is that even though last time Rick finished second to Mitt "Mittens" Romney he can never appeal to sufficient people with this strategy to even get the barest of campaign traction.

Plus of course, Rick still has a huge Full-Of-Himself Religion Problem that can never be overcome.

And taking the dead baby home to "meet the family"? Absolutely NOT. Absolutely CREEPS ME OUT.

Ted Cruz
Senator Cruz is I think we can say, the Tea Party darling. This dooms him with the sensible people. And no matter what the courts say, he does still bring with him that whole "not born in the US thing".

Senator Cruz is supposed to be this "Master Orator" from his days of debating at Harvard - to date I've seen no evidence that he's more than a Talking Points Machine. Hitting all the notes in a speech is surely better than writing those points on your hand, but you have to be engaging while you do so. And Ted Cruz is not that.

Rand Paul
Two things probably rule out Rand Paul, (1) he's too much his own man and (2) he is a Junior Senator - and we all know how that worked out last time. Yes, I realize the Junior Senator millstone can also be hung around Ted Cruz's and Mark Rubio's necks.

Senator Paul is however right on War and on the Loss of Liberties after 9/11.

However some of his statements in the past concerning the Civil Rights Movement have been very problematic. I'm sure that will come up at some point.

Carly Fiorina
The woman who almost destroyed H-P, outsourced 30,000 US jobs and yet walked away with $22 million when she was canned, is in this race for one reason and one reason only. And that is to beat on Hillary. Relentlessly and not in a sexist way.

Ben Carson
One inappropriate speech at a National Prayer Breakfast and the monstrous ego of the medical profession, do not make for a viable candidate. Doctor Carson has already shot himself in the foot multiple times. He will only do so again as time goes on. He is wildly popular with the Republican Base, but as I like to remind everyone, Al Queada also means "The Base". Doctor Carson is in the race to trash the President's record while not being pinnable with the R-word.

His chance of gaining the Republican nomination is ZERO.

Mike Huckabee
Governor Huckabee thinks the way to the nomination is to out-Christ-y Rick Santorum. News just in: This may work with the rabid-most wing of the GOP, but it won't in the end win you the nomination after you've scared off the party's Corporate Masters and Bag Men.

Also with the Governor, his "Sticking By The Duggars" strategy is a Big Loser.
 
Marco Rubio
Another Junior Senator who's not getting the nomination. But as a Vice Presidential candidate Senator Rubio is absolutely golden.

His quest for the nomination fails because he's too Hispanic on the Immigration question. Also his slightly fudged family backstory to make the whole "Fleeing Communism for Freedom" narrative more heroic is really unseemly. And smacks of "trying too hard" to ingratiate himself with GOP voters.

You're young, you speak Spanish, you can bring Florida votes to the Electoral College. VP should be enough for you. THIS TIME.

George Pataki 
To run for President in the age in which we live, you have to have Name Recognition. Without that, you will never have the money to run even a mediocre campaign. Sheldon Adelson can only have one horse in the race. And I don't think Governor Pataki is his guy.

Lindsey Graham
Well you have to hand it to The Dapper One, calling for more US troops in Iraq as one of his major campaign promises, dooms him out of the gate. If he was a racehorse, they'd be putting him down right about....now.

Revisionism

When I was growing up, everyone knew the story about the rich man and the camel and the eye of a needle.

And we all knew what it meant. It meant rich people don't get into Heaven because Jesus said you had to give away all your shit to follow Him. And that people are greedy and duplicitous bastards who won't do that.

So we all knew that what the story was about was something that was difficult to do. And we all knew that being a true and faithful follower of Christ was going to be very hard for people who care more for their wealth than they do for the fortunes of the poor.

But now, we have a brand new spin on the rich man and the eye of the needle.

IT'S NOT A REAL NEEDLE PEOPLE!

The problem of being richer than Croesus and not getting into Heaven is now officially solved. And it's all thanks to....Geography!

Because now I'm hearing Jesus was actually talking about a rich man entering Jerusalem via the "Needle Gate" which was quite narrow. And this "Eye" of the gate would necessitate any new super-rich Jesus follower simply having to REARRANGE THE BAGGAGE ON HIS CAMEL and then "Bob's your uncle and Charley's your aunt" and into Heaven he can go without worries. All your wealth? Well that's yours to keep Sir. Enjoy your stay, have the veal. And don't forget to tip your waiter.

This is of course utter, utter, utter, revisionist bullshit of the highest order.

And you know why? Because if what Jesus said was as the new lie attests, my Bible would say "It is easier for a camel to go through THE Eye of THE Needle than it is for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven".

And you know what? It don't say that it my copy. It says "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven".

And anyone perpetuating this new lie can kiss my ass in Hell when we meet.

The Minnesota Loon is cawing again...

And if you say this....

"With his Iran deal, Barack Obama is for the 300 million souls of the United States what Andreas Lubitz was for the 150 souls on the German Wings flight - a deranged pilot flying his entire nation into the rocks. After the fact, among the smoldering remains of American cities, the shocked survivors will ask, why did he do it? "

....people will ask....

"How the Flying Fuck did you ever get elected to Congress, you deranged unhinged woman?"

Inappropriate Signatures in Tech Forums

I've seen inappropriate and unprofessional signatures on emails and tech forums, but can you beat the one below?

"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: 
soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author) 
The NRA is offering FREE Associate memberships to anyone who wants them.
https://www.nrahq.org/nrabonus/accept-membership.asp 
Operator, please trace this call and tell me where I am. 
---||---

Because I don't know about you, but I always want some NRA with my tech help.

It just makes it sound so much more....reliable.

                 Know what I mean?

Close Mindedness

So two seemingly unrelated events are happening today that actually are strangely about the same thing.

And that thing is Close Mindedness.

The inevitable backlash against the HBO documentary "Going Clear" is now in full swing with Scientology's cannon fodder throwing themselves over the barricades armed only with a Church website and no independent thoughts.

Their sole intention? To do the Church's bidding and discredit the film along with the author of the book on which it is based.

These are people not open to reason. People whose minds could not be more closed if they lived all their lives in a locksmith's basement.

And it's sad. Sad to hear people who cannot break out from the mental straitjacket they willingly took unto themselves when they allowed the Church to get their financial hooks in them.

They act just like the victims of any con. They can't believe they are being duped. And you can't persuade them otherwise. And the kicker? Having a financial stake in their own progression through "The Hierarchy", which binds them even closer to the cult and their not-really-benevolent Masters.

Classic mind fuckery.

And then there is the Canadian town of Chilliwack BC that is banning Richard Dawkins "The Magic of Reality", a book that might teach children about actual real world stuff - but they are still allowing the Bible because that is "suitable educational material".

Yes, in 2015, the cold and frozen North is still awash in cold and frozen minds.

Minds just as closed as any cultists.

All we can do is hope that reason will thaw the mental ice, breaking the bonds that hold some people in backward and dangerous thinking.

And I use the term "thinking" it the loosest possible way imaginable.

There's a Religious Bubble

If you ask people if they believe Washington politicians are living in a bubble in our Nation's Capital, you will receive a variety of replies, "Sure" and "Absolutely" and "They know nothing about real Americans" and "They are completely out of touch".

You know how it goes.

Now, I'm sure the argument of political insularity can be made, but I'm more inclined to think that the coziness of Washington and the lure of being close to the actual Seats of Power may have more to do with the perception of the Washington Bubble than it's actual reality.

After all, they do have to get out of DC occasionally, if only to get re-elected so they can come back to bask in K-Street's alluring glow.

No. I want to address a different bubble. And perhaps a more insidious one.

Amongst the ever fragmenting media landscape in which live, any politician can find a friendly outlet to announce his new "exciting legislation".

And for GOP types those outlets are programs like James Dobson's "Family Talk" and Bryan Fischer's gig on AFA radio and wherever there is a microphone with Tony Perkins from the FRC behind it.

These programs are actually Big Religious Bubbles where pols of varying intellectual stripes from Governor Mike Pence to Senator Rand Paul to Senator Ted Cruz to Representative Michele Bachmann of the United States House of Representatives of the United States to former Partial Governor Sarah Palin can get on the air and utter their complete BS without any push back.

"Death panels in Obamacare" - Of course there are.

"Our Religious Freedoms are under attack" - Yes! We have to do something about that.

"Reparative Therapy works" - You are so right Mrs Bachmann!

"Climate Change is a myth and any Federal regulations are insidious intrusions into States' Rights". And on and on and on.

And if there are callers on these shows.....they are all sycophantic ass-kissers whose sole purpose is to reinforce to the politicians that their Groundbreaking Proposals are....Groundbreaking and REALLY REALLY NECESSARY.

Oh yes. They are so necessary. And thank you Governor/Senator/Dog Catcher for bringing up this important problem. After all at the end of the day, it's "All About The Children".

And eventually all this sycophancy and all this self-congratulatory back slapping with no-one uttering a single probing question, yields us RFRA laws.

Laws that are unnecessary and very very divisive.

So actually, though I do think politicians get out of the Washington Bubble, what we have to ensure is they don't just step into the Religious Bubble when they do.

What is a Troll?

An inquest just took place in the UK city of Leicester concerning the suicide of a woman who was confronted by a Sky News reporter for a story about Internet trolls.

As this story is being reported by the BBC, it should be raising serious concerns.

The woman was seemingly obsessed with the Madeleine McCann abduction case and had tweeted over 400 times on the subject between November 2013 and September 2014.

Now to me that does not sound a lot. Many people become drawn into the latest "Case Of The Century" and want to comment on it. Or be part of it. Or let the world know that they really, really, really know what happened.

These are sad people for the most part. And some like Nancy Grace get paid a shitload of money to pick at the carcass of the collective human misery such cases produce. And do it night after night after night. And why is Nancy special and this lady not? Because of a towering insight? Because of having the biggest microphone? Because she CARES so much more than regular folks? Of course not. Nancy is just so very special because she thinks she is.

So this woman in the UK made 400 posts over almost an entire year. And she didn't actually send them specifically to any members of the McCann family who eschew a social media presence. So where is the harm? Where is there any modicum of wrongdoing? How did the Sky News reporter track her down to confront her over her trolling? Did he find her by journalistic sleuthing? By serious gumshoe work?

No her name was on a list.

The reporter, let's call him Mr.B, told the inquest he and a cameraman confronted the woman after Sky News obtained a dossier of alleged Twitter trolls handed to police.

So the cops gave him the list? Why would they do that? Is that even legal? Was it their list? If it was, why are they keeping lists of people who aren't committing any fucking crimes?

If the list came to the cops via some Internet busybodying "watchdog group", we need to know who they are so that in the future, we can stop them from making and passing on such lists to any law enforcement agency. They are the 21st century equivalent of meddling old people with nothing better to do than report their utterly groundless suspicions about shit they know nothing about to the authorities.

This woman took her LIFE because she was on that list. And the people who compiled it should be named and ashamed. And the police officers who gave it to the reporter should be ashamed.

And the reporter should be ashamed.

But like Nancy Grace when she hounded that poor Vietnamese woman to suicide, he isn't.

And the real tragedy is, no-one is.

And if anyone can explain this sentence from the BBC report, you are a better person than I :-

"Coroner Catherine Mason concluded she had killed herself and called for sales of helium to be regulated."