Well guess which Wasillabilly family is nominated for TPM's Golden Dukes ward, under the category "Best Scandal -- Sex and Generalized Carnality." Did you peek?

Here are the categories according to Talking Points Memo:

Best Scandal -- Sex and Generalized Carnality -The Palin clan for the brawl of the century (no, no sex but nominated for just generally gettin' down and dirty when everyone's good and drunk.) 

-Gov. Tom Corbett who was Attorney General when members of his staff exchanged pornographic emails. 

-Carl Demaio for multiple sexual harassment allegations. 

-Investigator David Nieland, who conducted the internal review of the Homeland Security Department's prostitution scandal, and then resigned himself over an incident involving a prostitute in Florida.

Aww, come on! Those other scandals cannot hold a candle to the Throwdown at the Hoedown!

I mean we have both pictures AND audio.

You can actually HEAR the drunken stupidity, and threatening behavior for yourself.

Okay look according to Josh Marshall of TPM the decision will not be rendered until December the 31st, so that gives us quite a few days to let him know that there is NO scandal more deserving of that award than the Palin drunken family brawl.

Don't just stand there, go leave a comment. And make sure to leave links to the police audio too.

No way can we let those scandal wannabes Tom Corbett of Carl Demaio walk away this thing.

Federal judge throws out challenge from Joe Arpaio calling the President's immigration reforms unconstitutional.

Courtesy of Reuters: 

A federal judge on Tuesday threw out a lawsuit brought against Barack Obama by an Arizona police chief who called the U.S. president's sweeping immigration reforms unconstitutional, saying the plaintiff lacked legal standing in the case. 

Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia denied the demand by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio for a preliminary injunction to halt the policies. 

Arpaio, who calls himself "America's Toughest Sheriff," filed the case last month, saying Obama had overstepped his powers by bypassing Congress and ordering the changes himself.

No the President did not overstep his powers, but you sure did you pink underwear pimping piece of shit.

Well SOMEBODY sure had a great Christmas.

Courtesy of USA Today: 

For a movie that wasn't even coming out at the beginning of the week, The Interview is ending it in style. 

 The Seth Rogen/James Franco comedy at the heart of the controversy involving Sony hackers racked up nearly $1 million on Christmas Day in 300 independent movie theaters around the country, according to Variety. The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema chain, one of the staunchest supporters of screening the film, sold out all of its Christmas screenings in its 17 locations. 

It's a decent haul for a movie that, due to threats of terrorism, was pulled by major theater chains such as AMC and Regal. 

The Interview has also done well on video-on-demand platforms since its Wednesday release. While none of the sites has disclosed download or streaming numbers, Variety reports The Interview is the best-selling film on Google Play and YouTube Movies. And according to CNN, there were also 750,000 illegal downloads of the film on Thursday. 

"The audience reaction was fantastic — the limited release, in under 10% of the amount of theaters originally planned, featured numerous sell-outs and a first-day gross over $1 million," said Rory Bruer, president of worldwide distribution for Sony, in a statement to CNN.

You know every once in awhile you recognize that you are in the middle of a pivotal moment in history. 

And we have had a lot of them recently. The first black president. The Affordable Care Act. The Climate Change agreement with China. The reopening of diplomatic relations with Cuba. The newly released Senate torture report. I could go on.

And this is another one.

It is the first time that we have seen hackers impact a major studio, or ANY large corporation, in such a dramatic fashion.

Even yesterday there was still disagreement over who exactly hacked Sony, and there was yet another hack on online gaming platforms yesterday as well.

So while The Interview may have ultimately benefited from all of the attention and goodwill that resulted from the Sony hack, it is unlikely that this is the last time this is going to happen.

I have no idea what this ultimately means going forward, but I am willing to bet that it will result in increased security and less internet freedom down the road.

After 18 months Rep. Darrell Issa finally releases his report which finds, hold on for a shocker folks, NO connection between the White House and the IRS "scandal." What?

Courtesy of the LA Times:  

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista) wasted enormous congressional resources over the last 18 months trying to inflate the IRS "scandal" into a mountain. The release Tuesday of his final, petulant report on the affair marks what may be its final decline into a mouse. 

The bottom line: Contrary to his assertions in countless appearances on Fox News, there's no evidence that the Obama White House directed -- or indeed was involved in any way -- in the supposed targeting of conservative nonprofit groups for special scrutiny by the IRS. There's no evidence that "tea party" groups were exclusively targeted, as opposed to tax-exempt "social welfare" organizations from across the political spectrum. 

The evidence set forth in the report, which was issued by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform's GOP majority without sharing it first with the Democratic minority, instead depicts an IRS struggling to apply complicated rules for nonprofits engaging in political activity, all without guidance from Congress. 

Issa launched his investigation last spring with the charge that the IRS had screened c-4 applications for words such as "tea party" in their names in an effort to deprive conservative organizations of a tax exemption.

Of course that turned out to be bullshit as the report  reveals that the IRS also applied scrutiny to various liberal groups seeking the c-4 exemption as one of the keywords they were looking for was "progressive."

In fact the ONLY group applying for the exemption, who did not receive it, was a group called Emerge America, which trains Democratic women to run for office.

So in other words there was a wild goose and Darrell Issa spent millions of taxpayer money to chase it around for a year and a half. 

And let's not forget that Issa wasted similar amounts of taxpayer money in his "Fast and Furious" and Benghazi investigations.

God what a tool.

President Obama's poll numbers on the rise. Just in time to ruin the new year for Republicans.

Courtesy of CNN:  

Improving views of the economy have helped hike President Barack Obama's approval rating to a 20-month high, a new CNN/ORC poll showed Tuesday, as markets climbed to record levels at news of an economy in overdrive. 

More Americans still disapprove of the job Obama is doing as President. But at 48%, Obama's approval rating is at its highest point in CNN polling since May 2013. 

The gains were driven by newfound backing among women, independents and millennials — groups where Obama's approval numbers jumped 10 percentage points from a month ago.

You know the only thing better than good news, is good news that you know will irritate the GOP.

I have a feeling that if the President continues his new "Fuck you I'm going to do it anyway" attitude that his poll numbers will probably keep right on climbing.

And if he manages to get Gitmo closed....well then all bets are off.

You know when it comes to mocking Sarah Palin and other conservatives, I bow to the master. Bill Maher.

That may be an oldie, but it is also a goodie.

By the way did any of you notice my gift to you yesterday?

No?

Well it was a whole day without a Sarah Palin post.

You're welcome.

Now for those who have been pestering me about my next post with information from my source, that is in the works right now.

Today I am sending off an e-mail with a list of the questions that you all suggested in a previous post.

When she responds, and after a phone call or two for clarification, I will post more information.

I don't have a timeline right now, but I expect it will be within the next week or so.

Tweeted by NDT yesterday morning. Update!

On this day long ago, a child was born who, by age 30, would transform the world. Happy Birthday Isaac Newton b. Dec 25, 1642
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) December 25, 2014

Well at least he was actually born on December 25th.

Personally I would love to see Christmas changed to celebrate the birth of Sir Isaac Newton rather then the mythological birth of the Christ child.

Update: Apparently Professor Tyson's tweets did not go over well with everybody.

Of course that just makes me like them all the more.

President Obama wears crown. Republican heads heads to explode in 3..2..oh let's face it they're still all 'sploded from the last thing he did.

Courtesy of Politico:  

Sporting a tiara in a photo posted Wednesday, President Barack Obama seems to have broken his own rule of “you don’t put stuff on your head if you’re president.” 

But that’s the power of the Girl Scouts.

White House photographer Pete Souza shared a photo on Instagram on Wednesday of the president donning a tiara with a group of Girl Scouts from the White House Science Fair earlier this year in May. In the caption, Souza wrote the girls from Tulsa “convinced” Obama to join in on the fun. 

Yeah let me tell you as the father of a daughter of my own, little girls can talk dads into doing ANYTHING.

I myself have attended more than one tea party where the only other attendees were my daughter and her stuffed animal collection. (Sat in chairs so tiny that my knees were up my nose the entire time.)

Personally I like Michael Cohen's take on this:

There's really no getting around the fact that Obama no longer gives a f**k: pic.twitter.com/NVtjsUD9Uj
— Michael Cohen (@speechboy71) December 24, 2014

And let's hope he spends the rest of his presidency not giving a f**k. (You know about conservative opinions, not the American people.)

P.S. Don't bother pointing out the difference between tiaras and crowns, like I said I have a daughter.

I just thought the word "crown" made a better headline. 

Well it's Christmas, and this IS the Immoral Minority, so let's stick a pin in the virgin birth story shall we?

Now I am sure that I have already covered this in the past, but I recently stumbled across an interview on Raw Story of Dr. Tony Nugent, scholar of world religions, and a symbologist.

Oh, and he is also an ordained  Presbyterian minister.

And I really liked his no BS explanation for why so many ignoramuses stick giant Nativity scenes on their lawns at Christmas.

On why we think Mary was a virgin:

The familiar Christmas story, including the virgin conception and birth of Jesus, is found in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. Scholars have pointed out that these stories are somewhat disconnected from other parts of these Gospels and the rest of the New Testament. In fact, by the time he is a young boy in the temple, Jesus’s parents seem to have forgotten the virgin birth. They act surprised by his odd behavior. There is never any other mention in the New Testament of these incredible events! These stories seem to be an afterthought, written later than the rest of the gospels that contain them. To make matters more interesting, the stories themselves have inconsistencies and ambiguities – contradictory genealogies, for example. Our Christmas story (singular) is actually a composite. 

Or consider the idea that Mary is a virgin. The Greek writer of Matthew quotes Isaiah as saying: “a parthenos shall conceive and bear a child.” The Hebrew word in Isaiah is “almah,” which means simply “young woman.” But the Greek word parthenos can mean either a virgin or a young woman, and it got translated as “virgin.” Modern Bible translations have corrected this, but it is a central part of the Christmas story.

You know for the "inerrant word of God" this book is certainly full of historical inaccuracies, and mistranslations. 

So did early Christians believe in the virgin birth?

Jewish Christians, the first Christians, didn’t believe in the virgin birth. They believed that Joseph was the biological father of Jesus. Part of their Christology was “adoptionism”–they thought Jesus was adopted as the unique son of God at some time later in life. There were disagreements about when – Mark suggests the baptism, Paul suggests the resurrection. 

Over time, gentile Christianity replaced Jewish Christianity. There were Jewish-Roman Wars. The Jewish Christians were marginalized and oppressed. The Gentile branch became dominant. Eventually we get the gospel of John which pushes the sonship of Jesus back to the beginning of time. This writer is at the other end of the spectrum from the Jewish Christians.

So apparently all of the relatively rational early Christians were told to shut up, and that left the less than rational ones to interpret the story of Jesus. Well that figures.

So just how should we view stories in the Bible? 

We need to be able to appreciate these stories as myths, rather than literal histories. When you understand where they come from, then you can understand their spiritual significance for the writers and for us.

Well good then I have been doing it right since I was just a boy.

I apologize if this interferes with your ability to enjoy the holidays. But take heart!

I mean sure the Biblical stories about Jesus are complete horse pucky, but at least we know Santa Claus is real. Right?

Right?

New TLC show about gay Mormon men, refusing to admit they are gay. But you know, they are.

Courtesy of HuffPo:  

"My Husband's Not Gay," a TV special about a group of Mormon men living in Salt Lake City who are attracted to other men but have chosen to marry women is headed to TLC. 

The special will follow couples Jeff and Tanya, Pret and Megan, Curtis and Tera, and a 35-year-old bachelor named Tom, according to The Wrap. 

Quotes from the trailer include "With our faith in God we believe we believe we can overcome anything," "I like to say I've chosen an alternative to an alternative lifestyle" and "I'm interested in men I'm just not interested in men."

This almost cries out for a Jeff Foxworthy like bit called "You might be gay if..."

You might be gay if....you like to nibble the batter off of your corndog before swallowing it whole.

You might be gay if...the first thing you notice when you see your beautiful totally nude wife emerge from the shower is that she's done something different with her hair color.

You might be gay if...you cannot quote any football stats but have memorized every episode of "This Old House."

And you might be gay if....you are the male half of any of these couples.

I swear leave it to religious people to convince themselves that by denying the love they so desperately seek that they are somehow making God love them more.

Just goes to show that denial is not simply a river in Egypt.