Newsfront; Rushing Yards

Rushing Yards

Who on earth could have imagined that Rush Limbaugh’s bid to become a co-owner of the St. Louis Rams would have been met with opposition from the team? How about anyone who ever listened to the babbling idiot? As ESPN reports:

NFL Players executive director DeMaurice Smith on Saturday made a move to solidify the union against a bid by conservative talk show radio host Rush Limbaugh as part of a group that aims to purchase the St. Louis Rams.

In an e-mail to the union's executive committee on Saturday specifically addressing Limbaugh's bid, Smith said, "I've spoken to the Commissioner [Roger Goodell] and I understand that this ownership consideration is in the early stages. But sport in America is at its best when it unifies, gives all of us reason to cheer, and when it transcends. Our sport does exactly that when it overcomes division and rejects discrimination and hatred." […]

At least seven NFL players have publicly opposed Limbaugh's interest in purchasing the Rams with Checketts. In Smith's communication Saturday with his executive committee, the union leader encouraged players to speak their mind on all matters, including Limbaugh's bid. […]

Limbaugh has expressed a number of controversial racial ideas in the past. For example, he suggested that Gen. Colin Powell supported Barack Obama's presidential candidacy simply because he was black, and he also stated that the media wants black quarterbacks to do well and that Donovan McNabb doesn't deserve much of the credit he has received for the Eagles' success. 

It’s rare that we can actually salute the National Football League for getting something right, but hell, even a stopped clock….

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Nobel Gasbags

That Nobel Peace Prize that Obama won is totally going to weaken his standing to the American people. Right? Right?

That’s not what Gallup is reporting:

Barack Obama appears to have gotten a slight bounce in support after he was announced as the Nobel Peace Prize winner on Friday. His 56 percent job approval rating for the last two Gallup Daily tracking updates is up from a term-low 50 percent as recently as last week, and 53 percent in the three days before the Nobel winner was announced.

Yeah, it was ridiculous for the president to win the prize, but even more ridiculous is how consistently, inescapably wrong the political press manages to be about everything in this country.

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How Is Your Garden Pro?

We always suspected those kitschy garden gnomes were up to something, and now—from Germany, natch—we’ve got the proof. In the small Bavarian town of Straubing, an artist has installed 1,250 gnomes in military formation, their right arms making the Nazi salute.

Naturally, any reference to Hitler tends to rub Germans the wrong way, but per this piece in Der Spiegel, it appears that misuse of garden gnomes is what particularly irks.

Earlier this year [Ottmar] Hörl, 59, attracted attention by exhibiting a golden gnome making the Hitler salute in an art gallery in Nuremberg. Someone filed a complaint against him but the public prosecutor's office said it would not press any charges because the 40-centimeter sculpture was clearly meant as satire.

Garden gnomes remain a firm fixture in Teutonic gardens and the gnome population is estimated at 25 million. However, there is a growing trend toward gnomes that make obscene gestures, commit suicide or engage in sexual activity, and courts have ordered figures to be removed if they offend neighbors.

It is probably troubling that German courts appear more responsive to gnomic defacement than Nazi imagery, but this thing’s just too damn funny to care. Of course, that’s what some people said about the Beer Hall Putsch….

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Sing a Song of Douchebags

There are moments when right-wing idiocy ceases to be funny anymore—when the world would just be a better place if these people were locked up, or lobotomized. This is one of those moments.

Perhaps you recall the furor caused by this relatively innocuous YouTube upload, in which students at a southern New Jersey school sing about their support for Obama. Yeah, it’s definitely a bit off—if these kids were lauding George W.’s neoconservativism, God knows our first instinct would be “indoctrination.”



But still, does this kind of thing warrant 60 protesters standing outside the school, waving signs and chanting “Shame on you,” while school is in progress? Because that’s what happened yesterday in Burlington Township—these fucking cretins stood in front of a school filled with four- to seven-year-olds and protested.

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Pigs Catch a Poke

Via MediaBistro comes a sordid tale of illicit pokes and restraining orders. The Tennessean reports on the arrest of a woman for using Facebook for illegal purposes.

Shannon D. Jackson, 36, was arrested Friday, Sept. 25 for allegedly violating an order of protection.

According to the affidavit filed in Sumner County General Sessions Court, Jackson is accused of using the “poke” option on Facebook to contact a Hendersonville woman, thus violating the terms of the order of protection, which stipulates “no telephoning, contacting or otherwise communicating with the petitioner.”

Poking is a feature unique to Facebook that conveys no other message but informing a user they have been “poked” by another user.

Naturally, this kind of case asks more questions than provides answers. What if Jackson had tagged the victim in a photo? If she invited her to find out which Sex and the City character she would be? Because if the cops arrested people for that last one, we wouldn’t have any complaints.

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