One Bullet, One Scotch, One Beer . . . . . .

Oh rapture!  The Flying Spaghetti Monster does indeed answer prayers!

Observe:

A gun range in Oklahoma is thought be the first in the state to apply for a liquor license.

“As a group we wanted to build a place, the first one in Oklahoma, where you could go in, shoot, enjoy the retail area and then go to the café,” Jeff Swanson, owner of the Wilshire Gun Club recently told KOKH.

When the club is complete, the 40,000 square-foot facility is expected to have 24 firearm lanes, 10 archery lanes, a simulation room, classrooms, and a VIP lounge with alcoholic beverages.

Swanson said that club members were being discouraged from shooting while impaired.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/04/15/beer-and-bullets-oklahoma-gun-range-applies-to-sell-liquor-to-shooters/


Redneck bravado, booze and guns -- what could possibly go wrong with that combination?

And don't you just adore that little disclaimer by the owners stating that club members will be "discouraged from shooting while impaired?"  Basically they're telling the Hee Haw crowd - "we don't recommend discharging your deadly weaponry while your brain is swimming in Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, but if you're determined to do so, this is the place to do it because -- FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDOM!!"

Actually dear readers, The Gadfly is happy that the gun goon guys will have a place to go and let off some steam and assuage the persecution complex that they have been constructing and nurturing since the election stealing, Kenyan, Muslim, Commie terrorist appeaser took their White House away from them and began giving taxpayer paid for freebies to his lazy neegro and messican friends.  And therefore, if a few of them happen become unlucky enough to be in the path of a fellow, inebriated club member's errant aiming, c'est la vie.  It's a win-win for a safer, saner society.  Right?  Think about it -- and then tell The Gadfly our society wouldn't be a more pleasant and rational place to live with fewer of these asswipes around:

And that is about all that The Gadfly has to say on this sordid subject.



----TFG

Battle Stations Men! Line Up The Women and Children at the Front and The Rest of Us Take Cover!!

[ click to enlarge ]

Jeebus - these asshats are bigger losers than what The Gadfly originally had them pegged as.

Observe:

Oath Keeper Richard Mack told Fox News in an interview today that if the Bundy Ranch standoff had continued, or if federal agents started shooting, they planned to put women in front of the men in order to generate sympathy and publicity. 

TPM:

“We were actually strategizing to put all the women up at the front,” Mack said in a Fox News clip pulled by The Blaze. “If they are going to start shooting, it’s going to be women that are going to be televised all across the world getting shot by these rogue federal officers.”

http://crooksandliars.com/2014/04/cliven-bundy-and-friends-planned-use-women


Ya' see folks - they was strageterizin' to puts all da' wimmen' folk up front so's when the lead got to flyin', none of da' true 'Murrikan Patreets' woulds be shot,  and insteads, could continues to serve God and da' seconds amendment.


Can anyone of you dear readers, explain to The Gadfly how these cretin's intent at employing the battle tactic of using women (and presumably children should they be available) as human shields in a gunfight is any fucking different than what The Taliban and Al Qaeda do when they're in firefights with U.S. Marines?

This is your modern day, conservative movement America.  Bullies and thugs in numbers and when armed, but when confronted with the prospect of a more powerful foe, their true, cowardly persona presents itself in all of it's chicken-hearted glory for the whole world to see.

There is video at the C&L link - from a Fox "News" affiliate no less - of this jagoff Richard Mack telling a Fox reporter of his ingenious and brave war strategy.

The Gadfly has basically lost what little respect he had remaining for these people and their "cause."  In fact, The Gadfly will tell you that he probably wouldn't lose any sleep if these dumb asses do provoke a violent confrontation with the authorities and a few of them get a bus ticket punched one-way to Judgement Day.



----TFG

If They Cared About the Rest of Their Fellow Americans as Much as Their Cattle, Perhaps There Would Be Some Empathy . . .

[ click to enlarge ]

Apparently, because FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDOM! or some such other ambiguous crap, The Gadfly is supposed to feel affinity with and sympathy for these putzes:

Republican Arizona lawmakers are upset with a brewing showdown in Nevada between the federal government and a rancher who claims rights to graze his cattle in a remote area about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

Rep. Bob Thorpe of Flagstaff said Thursday he is among about three dozen state legislators sending a letter to federal and Nevada officials about the standoff between rancher Cliven Bundy and Bureau of Land Management officials.

Federal officials say Bundy has racked up more than $1.1 million in unpaid grazing fees over the years while disregarding several court orders to remove his animals.

Thorpe says lawmakers aren’t arguing over whether Bundy has broken laws or violated grazing agreements. They’re more concerned with what they perceive as government heavy-handedness and how officials are restricting protesters to “free speech zones” near the closed off federal land.

Tea Party Republican state Rep. Kelly Townsend tells the Las Vegas Review-Journal she was shocked after seeing the video where federal police used a stun gun on one of Bundy’s sons.

http://lasvegas.cbslocal.com/2014/04/11/tea-party-lawmaker-nev-cattle-roundup-reminded-me-of-tiananmen-square/


Oh horror!  The authorities used a stun gun on some right wing cowboy who was breaking the law.  Oh fucking woe is us!!  The world has never seen such brutal, unwarranted and counterproductive behavior by law enforcement people before!!!

Except of course it has:

Over 80 people were arrested in downtown Manhattan during a protest against Wall Street on Saturday. Protestors are complaining that police used excessive force. Judge for yourself.posted on September 25, 2011 at 11:55am EDT

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/violent-pictures-from-occupy-wall-street-protests



Now -- if you go to that buzzfeed link right above, you'll see photos of a bunch of peaceful, unarmed, non-aggression minded Occupy Wall Street protesters exercising their right to peaceably assemble and petition their government for redress of grievances.  For you Constitutional scholars, you might recognize that language as being a core tenet of the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution.  What you will also see at the link is the overly aggressive response of law enforcement authorities to those Occupy protests, resulting in not only in taserings, but also physical violence by the authorities.

And The Gadfly recalls very fucking clearly that when news broke of the Occupy Wall Street violence by the law enforcement authorities against protesters, the right wing crowd could not contain their glee -- in fact they laughed at it and complemented the cops and praised their actions.

So now the shoe is on the other foot huh?   And they want The Gadfly to admire their protest against the government to uphold long established federal law of disallowing private usage of public lands without permit just because their hero is claiming some bullshit, manufactured stake to sovereign citizenship.

Fuck them.  The Gadfly is tired of their hypocrisy.  They are all for protecting the rights of a single, obstinate asshole who has been warned for 15 fucking years that he was breaking established law, yet some college students and Americans who wanted to publicly protest and express their views that Wall Street is a bloodsucking leach on the American soul, deserve to get their heads bashed in by cops for daring to exercise their right to assemble and peacefully protest?  Sorry - it don't work that way.

You can't have one form of freedom for one segment of society and another, inferior form of freedom for other segments.  It's all or nothing for everybody - equally - and the sooner the right wing conservatives get that very uncomplicated principle through their thick fucking skulls, then perhaps our philosophical and political movements can find some common ground with each other.



----TFG

If The Shoe Hits . . . . . . . It Was Well Aimed . . .

Oh it's only going to get stupider as the 2016 election gets nearer dear readers:

Before a wig-wearing nutjob threw a shoe at Hillary Clinton, the footwear flinger gave her heart to accused Colorado mass killer James Holmes.

Alison Ernst, 36, of Phoenix, was identified Friday as the sneaker-tossing kook who targeted the former First Lady one day earlier during a speech at a Las Vegas casino.

And Colorado officials confirmed she was the loopy lady escorted from the courtroom after a bizarre — and bald-headed — outburst during an August 2012 court hearing for Holmes.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/hillary-clinton-shoe-thrower-identified-article-1.1753512


American politics truly does attract the gamut of freaky loons when the time comes close to trading out the old Prez for a brand spanking new one.

The Gadfly has no doubt that 2015 and 2016 are going to offer up some crazy fucking stories with a political bent to them.  And The Gadfly will wager his tequila stash money that the majority of that crazy will be courtesy of your friendly, neighborhood, right-wing nutbag crowd.

Anyhow, Hillary got off easy on this one.  In The Gadfly's view, getting smacked in the melon with a shoe is the minimum penalty she could have paid for her craven support of George and Dick's Great Iraq Clusterfuck.

Just saying . . . .



----TFG

The Further Travails of Spooks, Inc. . . . . .

Sigh . . . .

The National Security Agency on Friday strongly denied a news report that said the government failed to warn the public about the notorious Heartbleed software flaw -- allegedly because the NSA wanted to continue using it to gather intelligence.

The story, by Bloomberg News, said the NSA left countless Internet users and businesses vulnerable to hackers for the past two years, in order to continue exploiting the Heartbleed bug as a powerful tool for obtaining passwords and other data from users' accounts.

http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_25547591/nsa-used-heartbleed-bug-capture-information-report-says


The Gadfly has just three simple observations if this turns out to be true:

1.  The NSA is populated with way, way, way too many people who have watched way, way, way too many Three Stooges and Keystone Kops episodes.

2.  Class-action lawsuit against the NSA and the government for every business and American who has been a victim of online fraud or identity theft the past few years.

3.  Edward Snowden doesn't even have to publicly defend himself anymore.  The NSA clowns are shooting themselves in the foot at every turn.


Who needs enemies abroad when we have our own fucking saboteurs right here, embedded deep within the bowels of our own fucking government?


----TFG

It's All Over When the Fat Boy Sings . . . er .... Squeals . . . . .

[ click to enlarge ]

Belated congrats to Stephen Colbert for being named Late Night's replacement for the legendary David Letterman.

News of Colbert's new gig is causing right wing brains to explode all over the place, which if you ask The Gadfly, is an event that simply cannot occur often enough.

Even the Corpulent Lord of AM Hate Radio, through the haze of Oxycontin that swirls around what remains of his little lizard brain, threw a 4XXL kiniption fit:

Rush Limbaugh framed CBS's decision to replace retiring "Late Show" host David Letterman with professional conservative skewer Stephen Colbert in some decidedly apocalyptic terms.

"CBS has just declared war on the Heartland of America," Limbaugh said Thursday on his radio show. "No longer is comedy going to be a covert assault on traditional American values. Now it's just wide out in the open."

"What this hire means is a redefinition of what is "funny" and a redefinition of what is comedy," he continued. "It's the media planting a flag here. I think it's maybe the media's last stand, but it's a declaration. There's no unity in this hire. They've hired a partisan, so-called comedian to run a comedy show."

Colbert, for the record, will be dropping his Comedy Central character, a parody of modern U.S. conservatism, for the "Late Show" gig.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/limbaugh-colbert-late-show


Haha!  The hiring of Stephen Colbert equates to "war on the Heartland of America?"  Jeebus -- what a fucking drama queen.

Even more hilarious is the beached sperm whale's breathless assertion that mainstream comedy in America today is "a covert assault on traditional American values."

If by "values" Limpballs is referring to the selfish, greedy, cruel, vindictive, cowardly, immature and arrogant behavior that comprises the heart and soul of the modern day conservative movement, then by all means count The Gadfly in as a proud foot soldier in the comedy army that is perpetrating said assault.

The Gadfly surmises, aside from professional jealousy, that what has gotten Limpy's Depends Diapers tied in a knot more than anything is the thought that Colbert, in his transition from cable's Comedy Central, to a major, national network late night show, is now going to have even a wider audience to ply the mastery of his trade of afflicting conservative assholes like Limpballs and skewering their assholery.

And even though Colbert is claiming that he will be "retiring" his Colbert Report faux conservative persona, the bottom line is Stephen Colbert does not suffer right wing bastards lightly.  And so look for him to invite some of them on to his show, and employ the dark art of his brand of satire to expose the frauds for what and who they truly are to a broad cross-section of American television viewers.

And that dear readers, is why the news of Colbert's ascendancy to Letterman's throne scares the shit out of Limpballs and the rest of the wingnut conservatives - for not unlike the effect on vampires, shining the light of day on their destructive politics and activities is a very, very bad thing for their movement.  To which The Gadfly says --- YAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYY!!



----TFG

Clowns to the Left of Us, Jokers to the Right, Here We are, Stuck in the Middle With Them . . . . .

Jon Stewart demolishes the juvenile, pathological and psychotic hatred that the wingnut conservatives have for the idea of government helping disadvantaged Americans gain access to basic, affordable health care.

*Spoiler Alert - you will enjoy this clip infinitely more if you have seen Quentin Tarantino's movie 'Reservoir Dogs' and fondly recall the 'Stuck In the Middle With You' scene:

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook

Sometimes all that remains to fight them with is dark humor.



----TFG

Is a Single Penny Difference in Price for a Box of Shitty, Processed Food Truly More Important Than the Economic Well-Being of Millions of Americans?

If this country had any conceivable sense of right and wrong, this truly should piss off more people than what it is:

Would you be willing to spend one penny more for a box of macaroni and cheese if it meant that Walmart workers would no longer need food stamps to survive? Because that's all it would cost, according to an analysis by American Public Media’s Marketplace.

While it's unclear how many of Walmart's workers are on food stamps, as many as 15 percent of the company's employees in Ohio are. Applying that same percentage to the rest of Walmart's workforce, Marketplace estimated the company would need an extra $4.8 billion to lift its average wages across the U.S. enough to get all of its workers off public assistance.

Walmart workers cost the government about $300 million a year in food-stamp costs, according to Marketplace. A single 300-employee Walmart store may cost taxpayers anywhere between $904,542 and nearly $1.75 million per year.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/09/walmart-workers-food-stamps_n_5092262.html


The one question first and foremost to careen across The Gadfly's consciousness about this story is -- why are taxpayers subsidizing the workforce and the profit margin of six of the wealthiest human beings on the face of the fucking planet?

The six Walton heirs own more wealth than the bottom 40 percent of Americans.  For you fuzzy math people, that translates to six people owning more wealth than 130 million of their fellow Americans.

The second question that occurred to The Gadfly is, who in their right fucking mind would not be willing to pay 1¢ more for a box of macaroni and cheese, if that additional penny resulted in, not only the end of tax payer subsidizing of Walmart's wage-starved employees, but also a living wage for those workers?  Who would be against that?  These people - that's who:

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The intransigent dumbassery of the Tea Party is costing the taxpaying public hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars per year - costs which the ruling elites have cynically, and immorally, strapped to the backs of the American middle-class.  Additionally, it is directly impacting the ability of the country to recover more quickly and effectively from the financial crisis, is contributing to increased poverty levels, and is creating a permanent underclass of full-time workers who are trapped in a system devoid of upward mobility and financial stability factors.

While Walmart is the biggest parasite when it comes to the corporate blood-suckers, there are many, many more (such as McDonald's, Yum Brands, Target, etc.) whose employee wage structures are just as destructively regressive.

A commanding majority (76%) of Americans, including 57% of self-described Republicans, support an increase in the minimum wage.  So then - why are the conservative Republicans and the Tea Partiers in the Senate and Congress blocking any movement on the issue?  Are they so blinded by their visceral hatred of the black guy in the White House that they happily and obtusely impede solutions which will ease the economic suffering of their fellow Americans?  Why?  What is their motive?  The Gadfly will tell you why -- because those politicians are not beholden to their constituents as they claim to be - no - you see, dear readers, the truth is that they are pretty much devoted to looking out for the interests of these guys instead of the people who elected them:

[ click to enlarge ]

And until the rest of America comes to the long-awaited determination that it is time to send an unambiguous message to the conservative Republicans and the Tea Party that their and their family's interests are equally, if not more important than those of Charles and David Koch, their wealthy investors, and their billion dollar pollution conglomerates, then there really is no reason to believe that renewed prosperity and change for the better are anything more than a fantasies that are destined to never see the light of day in the reality-based world.

A good place to start the process of sending that message is to get your carcasses off the LaZy-Boy lounge chairs and drag it to your polling place come November.  Do a bit of research, find out who the Koch/Tea Party candidates are and pull the lever for anyone other but them.  It really is that simple dear readers.



----TFG

Unka' Rupert Finally Admits That Which Was Always Obvious, Except to Those Who Willfully Chose to Deny Reality . . .

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Straight from the jackal's own mouth:

In an interview with Fortune, News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch credited Fox News with having "absolutely saved" the Republican Party, praising the network for giving "voice and hope to people who didn't like all that liberal championing thrown at them on CNN." But Fox News has not just given "voice and hope" to conservative news watchers. The network has been instrumental in helping Republicans for years by actively promoting and fundraising for GOP candidates, serving as a staging ground for numerous network employees to prep runs for office, championing Republicans' legislative goals, and systematically smearing and lying about an immeasurable number of Democrats, progressives, and any policy initiatives the network found insufficiently conservative.

During the same exchange, Murdoch reportedly bristled at the suggestion that Fox promotes the tea party, potentially at the expense of the GOP:

CNN:  Does it bother you at all, Rupert, that there is a view that Fox News has contributed in a big way to the political discontent in the U.S., degraded the political process, and maybe, in spotlighting the Tea Party, even hurt the Republican Party? 

Murdoch:  I think it has absolutely saved it. It has certainly given voice and hope to people who didn't like all that liberal championing thrown at them on CNN. By the way, we don't promote the Tea Party. That's bullshit. We recognize their existence.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/04/10/rupert-murdoch-is-dead-wrong-about-fox-news-pro/198835


Is that what "news" networks are in the business of Mr. Murdoch -- seeing to the salvation of their chosen political party and giving aid and comfort to that party's adherents??

The Gadfly does not ever, ever, fucking ever again want to hear any conservative, be they foe, friend or family, use the words "Fair and Balanced" in the context of speaking about the credibility of Fox "News."  FUCKING EVER!!!!!

Oh - and that line from Murdoch claiming that Fox did not promote the Tea Party.  Pure, unadulterated lying horseshit.  Go review the link above for reams of evidence to the contrary, and not only that, The Gadfly clearly recalls Fox's incessant on-air shilling for the Teabaggers all over their network in the wake of Obama's 2008 election and inaugural, because The Gadfly wrote about it on the pages of his own shitty little blog!  And that propagandizing has not ceased.  On any given day you will find Tea Party people spewing their bile in bulk all over that network's programming from dusk to dawn.

For a media tycoon, Murdoch is either very stupid to not know that just about every thing they have put out over the public airwaves in the past decade has been documented (videotaped) for posterity, or his cynicism as to just how blindly ignorant and uninformed that his viewers are, is so deep that he just does not give a shit.  Either way, it is a glaring reflection of his obviously unsavory and deceitful personal character, and if conservatives are of the belief that a man who would lie so blatantly about something so easily provable is the type of individual they wish to throw their movement's lot in with, then it stands to reason that it also speaks dubious volumes about the integrity and motives of the people behind that movement.



----TFG

Excuse The Gadfly Whilst he KISS the Sky . . . . .

This is just fucking sad.

In his long-awaited autobiography, "Face The Music: A Life Exposed", KISS guitarist/vocalist Paul Stanley accuses the band's fellow co-founding members Ace Frehley (guitar) and Peter Criss (drums) of resenting Stanley and KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons for controlling the group's creative output — which Stanley says occurred because Frehley and Criss' songwriting contributions "just didn't amount to much."

"Ace, and particularly Peter, felt powerless and impotent when faced with the tireless focus, drive and ambition of me and Gene," Stanley writes. "As a result, the two of them tried to sabotage the band — which, as they saw it, was unfairly manipulated by [us] money-grubbing Jews."

Stanley reiterated to Larry Getlen of the New York Post that yes, he does believe that Frehley and Criss are anti-Semitic.

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/kiss_paul_stanley_accuses_ace_frehley_and_peter_criss_of_anti-semitism.html

The Gadfly was smitten by the allure of freakdom, in the form of KISS, during his high school years, circa 1977.

They were weird, they were loud, they were brash and ugly, and they were unrepentant and scared the shit out of all of The Gadfly's friend's moms.

Now, thanks to Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, they're just a couple of old, geezer fucking rock stars still trying to cash in on their glory days, only their greed has caused them to lose sight of the reality of who and what made them the cash cow that they are today.

Gene Simmons is a money whore.  He is also the last person in the world The Gadfly would view as an honest man - considering his history of adultery and shady business deals.  Paul Stanley is a fucking narcissistic twit who has deluded himself in to thinking that his music is in the same pantheon as The Doors or The Rolling Stones or Led Zeppelin, instead of just being a beer drinking party band.

Here's the deal --- Gene, Paul, Ace and Peter -- were and still are KISS.  The replacements do not change that formula.  Not one bit.

Gene and Paul can go fuck themselves -- Their greed and selfishness and inability to reconcile says everything about their personal character.

Too bad too -- cuz The Gadfly really loved this shit . . . . .




Get over the arrogance and the petty "hurt" feelings.



----TFG