Some?

Some HOA’s should be labeled as terrorist organizations…………

That’s a comment to an item on the website of KHOU, Channel 11 in Houston.  The title of this post is my reaction based on my experience with homeowner’s associations back when I lived in Texas.  The one I  had to deal with personally by virtue of my house being subject to it served no objectively useful purpose whatsoever; all it did was harrass the people who lived there and attempted to extort money from us (up to and including filing liens and never removing them even after resolution of the underlying matters.)

H/T to Nikki Araguz for pointing the story out, BTW.  One of her attorneys, Mitch Katine (one of the attorneys who represented John Lawrence and Tyron Garner in Lawrence v. Texas – and also someone who happened to be in court on a different matter the morning I handled my first name/gender change case and, afterward, gave me an ‘attagirl’ for succeeding) is representing the Sardo family in this case.  Granted, I’m not sure I’d want a pet pig for myself, but I’d probably prefer having a PBP live next door to me than a family of christian dominionists.

A Spring family fighting to keep their pot-bellied pig has filed a lawsuit against their HOA.

The Sardo family lives in The Thicket at Cypresswood subdivision with Wilbur, their 60-pound, 8-month-old potbelly pig.

In July, they got a notice from their HOA saying they had 30 days to find Wilbur a new home.

The HOA said Wilbur had to go because the neighborhood’s deed restrictions ban livestock.

Wilbur’s owner, Missy Sardo, was initially told that if she could get 51 percent of the homeowners in the subdivision to sign a petition agreeing to allow the pig, the deed restrictions could be changed.

The Sardos got the signatures and started a Facebook page for their pet, which now has a following of over 4,400 people. But about a week later, Missy Sardo said she got a second letter from the HOA saying the petition wouldn’t change anything, and they would have to find Wilbur a new home, after all.

I would hope that, if there’s proof of the ‘get 51%’ letter and proof of the signatures, then the terrorists HOA should be estopped from screwing with the Sardos.

“According to the USDA, potbelly pigs are classified as pets, not livestock, and Wilbur was – in fact – sold and taxed by the State of Texas as a pet,” Sardo said. “The HOA has made demand that we get rid of Wilbur, and we just can’t do it. He is part of our family, and the deed restrictions permit household pets. Wilbur is a household pet, and we have decided to fight for him.”

Unfortunately, the state of Texas recognized Christie Lee Littleton’s marriage to Jonathan Littleton when it was to the state’s advantage to do so – but when Christie Lee tried to rely on that reality….

Well, you know….

And You Think *I* Have an Attitude?

You don’t wanna mess with this character.

When he gave me this look at the Houston Zoo in 1994, I ran home and cried.

Breaking News Regarding the Economy

Major activity in DC today:

WASHINGTON (APE) – Today, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D – Calif.) introduced a sweeping economic bill, which includes:

1. Elimination of all welfare
2. Elimnination of all unemployment insurance
3. Elimination of all student loan programs
4. Elimination of Medicare and Medicaid
5. Elimination of Social Security
6. Elimination of the federal flood insurance program
7. A complete restructuring of the national tax structure in which federal and state taxes are paid only by those making less than $50,000 per year and the federal government will penalize any state or local governments that attempt to levy taxes of any kind on anyone making above $50,000 per year.

At a press conference shortly after the bill’s introduction, President Obama gave it his full endorsement.

Immediately thereafter, House Speaker John Boehner (R – Ohio), called the House into emergency session, bringing the measure straight to the floor for a vote, in which the measure was soundly defeated – before anyone in the Republican majority bothered to read it.

A short time ago, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R – Va.) issued a press release in which he stated, “DOH!”

Three (And a Half) Out of Four….

From the Houston Chronk:

A national conservative leader thinks that the Politico story today headlined “Is Rick Perry Dumb?” is really, really dumb.

And biased. That old liberal media bias that you’ve heard so much about.

Penny Nance, the CEO of Concerned Women for America, an organization of social conservatives, reacted furiously to the Politico story, saying it was the latest in a long line of negative media stereotypes of right-of-center politicians.

“Is Ronald Reagan electable? Is George Bush a wimp? Is Michele Bachmann crazy? Is Rick Perry dumb?” asked Nance, citing famous — or infamous — media headlines about conservative candidates.

Uhhh…

Well, yes, Reagan got elected – though, of course, neither Nance nor CWFA are going to mention that in no small part that was less the result of Reagan himself than the combination of Carter disintegrating like a pile of packing peanuts in a hurricane and the corporatist media ensuring that there was no viable third option (John Anderson?  John Anderson?).

Bush?  I seem to recall Saddam Hussein still being around when his kid stole the presidency.

Bachmann?  If she believes the shit she’s spouting then, yes, she is crazy.

Perry?  If he believes the shit he’s spouting then, yes, he is dumb.

“It’s bad enough to raise these questions but the pathetic mainstream media only asks them about conservatives. Today’s Politico story about Rick Perry is just the latest example. Where was the 2007 Politico lead story raising questions about whether or not Barack Obama was all style, no substance and just might be in over his head? That might have saved us from a presidency that is defined as a miserable failure with every passing day. Where was the 1991 Newsweek cover asking ‘Does Bill Clinton have a problem with the truth?’ Such a story could have certainly spared this nation in ways too many to count, and there was plenty of evidence of such a problem while he was running.”

Nance says these stories (or lack of them) lead to an inescapable query: “Perhaps the American people should be asking: ‘Does an unbiased mainstream media really exist, or is it just an extension of the Democratic National Committee?”

Unbiased….

Like FOX?

Weirdness

Can someone explain to me why President Obama appointed Franklin Graham to be chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers?

Dan Lungren: Fungus in Human Form

The contempt that people like Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Koch) have for America and Americans has to be making the nation’s founders seriously consider crawling out of their graves just so they can commit ritual suicide in protest.

As C&L notes:

[P]erhaps if Lungren didn’t limit himself to reading Heritage and AEI Foundation publications, he might actually learn that many economists have recommended the expiration of the Bush tax cuts.

Today’s Lesson in Rhetorical Anti-Excellence: How to Overplay a Hand to the Point of Turning it into a Gangrenous Foot

I thought for sure that the person who would overplay the gift handed to the Exterminationist Twins would be Cathy Brennan herself.

But…

Seen on Facebook one Wednesday afternoon in August:

While I certainly don’t want any Gay, Inc. vampires or Raymondistic trans-exterminationist vampires (first or second generation) in my house, is it really accurate to say that merely mentioning a vampire means that you’re mentioning someone that everyone wants to kill?  Tom was kind enough to mention Twilight and True Blood, neither of which I’m really into even though I am aware enough of them to know that, even though there are some folks within those franchises who view vampires negatively there are plenty who view them orgasmically as well.

But lets think about some other vampires who, if you were to assert that a comparison of yourself to any of them was somehow a threat of violence, the only actual violence that would ensue would be your own attempts to escape the clutches of the white-suited people who will be taking you to the rubber room.

Merely mentioning a vampire means that you’re mentioning someone that everyone wants to kill, eh?

Even Grandpa Munster?  (Cue up the countdown to some Exterminationism Twins defender mentioning the Munsters episode in which Grandpa turns himself into a sorority girl to rescue Herman who, while in a Grandpa-induced coma was placed inside the Alpha Kappa sorority house; also cue up the countdown to some Exterminationism Twins defender claiming that Herman was a misogynistic criminal for invading the private space of the sorority house while comatose.)

Even George Hamilton as Dracula?  (Yes, there were some folks who were trying to kill him – though with one of them being Richard Benjamin’s Dr. Jeffrey Rosenberg and another being the head of a hungry family who thought that the in-bat-form Hamilton was simply a little black chicken that he could feed his family with its difficult to take much of that seriously – but the Romanian government really just wanted his castle.)

Even Susan St. James as Cindy Sondheim? (Remember, at the very end of Love at First Bite she becomes a vampire too; okay, her cat might have wanted to kill her but (1) we don’t know that as it wasn’t in the film, (2) wouldn’t you want to kill somone who locked you in a refrigerator?, and (3) she locked the cat in the fridge before she became a vampire so, technically, the issue is not relevant to this discussion.)

Even Dracula as portrayed by a still-young-and-good-looking, pre-Frost/Nixon Frank Langella? 

Even Count Floyd from SCTV?  (Yes, he voiced the intro to one song by a group that’s a bit too heavily influenced by Ayn Rand, but I can’t imagine anyone really holding that against him – not even Ed Grimley.)

Even The Count from Sesame Street? (C’mon…he’s The Count from Sesame Street!)

Even The Vampire Lovers?

I hereby declare the hubbub involving the Casebeer-Roberts Facebook conversation to be over and resolved in favor of Casebeer and Roberts – not that anything Tom said about it above is inaccurate or that their engaging in such a conversation in that forum was any brighter of a move than it obvously wasn’t.  However, we all – and I mean all – knew that it was just going to be a tool that the trans-exterminationists and/or their Stockholm Syndrome-addled cyber entourage would use to attempt to attain victimhood.

Well, that’s working about as well as CONTROL’s cone of silence.

Here’s looking at you, skid.

Is it Really Any More Ridiculous Than a Certain ‘Transsexual = Rapist, Wink, Wink, Nudge, Nudge’ Angle?

From Pam’s House Blah:

In fairness to the Blah, it actually is pretty sad:

While the gay community have been busy with other matters [Kat’s query: Has NGLTF been busy responding to the Brennan-Hungerford exterminationism manifesto?], members of the religious right are perpetrating a slow but consistent march to a claim that acceptance of homosexuality will soon lead to the acceptance of pedophilia.

The key here is that these folks are not saying that pedophilia and homosexuality are connected, but rather are using a faulty “slippery slope” argument, i.e. – “just like the gay community is receiving more acceptance, pretty soon the pedophiles will be getting more acceptance.”

It began when the Liberty Counsel’s Matt Barber and a researcher by the name of Judith Reisman attended a recent symposium of a group – B4U-Act – who is seeking to  reduce “stigmatization and stereotyping of people who are attracted to children.”

Barber is no stranger to the gay community for his offensive anti-gay comments, but Reisman is not that widely known.

All you need to know about her is that she is a former songwriter for the show “Captain Kangaroo” who suddenly became a researcher (she does have a doctorate, but it’s in communications). According to writer Terry Krepel, she was given a federal grant of more than $784,000 to study 30 years worth of Playboy magazines. Her findings were dismissed as “paranoid pseudoscientific hyperbole.”

Let’s see…

These definitions would allow all males – including registered sex offenders or males subject to a domestic violence order of protection – to assert “gender identity” as a means to invade female-only space.

Let’s also see…

Behavior that would normally be considered criminal will now be protected as a civil right.

I’m just remindin’….

And I’m gonna keep remindin’….

The Intellectual Vomit of America’s Obscenely Rich

Stuart Varney:

The image we have of poor people as starving, living in squalor really is not accurate. Many of them have things, what they lack is the richness of spirit. That’s my opinion.

My opinion?

I think the Bolsheviks may have been right.

For Who?

Seen recently in the comments section to the Queer Channel Media piece about Pee Wee Solmonese getting ready to open his golden parachute:

I think that all in all the Joe Solmonese era at HRC will be seen as a positive one.

Its pretty sad when comments by laurelboy2 aren’t the most ridiculous ones on a web page.