fuck context

Why American car companies are going out of business - and should be out of business.

Exactly how many mistakes can you possibly make in these two signs? At what point are you too ignorant and illiterate to really do much of anything, let alone make signs for your Ford dealership?

Coyotes

Two coyotes in my backyard at 6:30 this morning. They walked around for half an hour or so. Also noted: the yapping dogs I usually hear seem to have stopped.

They Live

Oh yeah, and:

"Sooooo... we don't have to go to jail now, right?"

The more than $764 million that Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, his insurers and religious orders have agreed to pay since 2002 to alleged victims of clergy abuse surpasses any previous settlement. The total includes the $650 million pledged Saturday.

Major clergy abuse settlements nationwide since 2002

	Number of	Settlement
Archdiocese/Diocese	claimants	(in millions)
Los Angeles	570+	$764
Boston	983	$157
Portland, Ore.	315+	$129*
Orange	90	$100
Covington, Ky.	350+	$85
San Francisco	113	$73**
Oakland	56	$56
Spokane, Wash.	175	$48
Tucson	60	$36
Sacramento	33	$35
Louisville, Ky.	250+	$30
Hartford, Conn.	44	$23
Milwaukee	10	$17

From looking at these numbers it's pretty clear that the Boston Altar boys are GIVING it away. Come on kids: You work HARD for the money!

All those different styles absolutely terrific

Mexican Pulp Novel Cover art

Ratzinger Roundup

Inspired by todays declaration that all other christians are infidels, we present: The many moods of Field Marshall Ratzinger.

intolerant

lucky party

drinky

just following orders

querulous

competetive

coquettish

crapulent

winsome

intense

Vatican declares all other christians heretics, declares new crusade against protestants

Field Marshall Ratzinger today declared that most non-catholic christian denominations could not even be considered churches:
he Vatican on Tuesday said Christian denominations outside the Roman Catholic Church were not full churches of Jesus Christ.

The Vatican said other churches are "wounded" since they do not recognize the primacy of the pope.

A 16-page document, prepared by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which Pope Benedict used to head, described Christian Orthodox churches as true churches, but suffering from a "wound" since they do not recognize the primacy of the Pope.

But the document said the "wound is still more profound" in the Protestant denominations -- a view likely to further complicate relations with Protestants.

"Despite the fact that this teaching has created no little distress ... it is nevertheless difficult to see how the title of 'Church' could possibly be attributed to them," it said.

Achtung!

Gods Punish Missionary with their Favorite Weapon

Religious Book Seller Struck By Lightning

CBS - A man making a trip from Puerto Rico to South Florida to raise money for his religious education remains hospitalized Monday after he was struck down by a bolt of lightning which flew from clear blue sky on Sunday. He was selling religious materials when he was hit.

Hailu Kidane Marian was working with members of his religious group, selling religious materials door-to-door in a Northwest Miami-Dade neighborhood, when the bolt from the blue struck him down.

"I heard a boom, and I looked and the guy jumped back, and he just laid there, stiff," said witness Maria Martinez.

"He's unconscious, he's in a coma," said Francisco Perez, leader of the Puerto Rico-based group. "It's difficult what happened, you know, but what can we do? Things happen in life, but we still believe in God."

Surge Rules

BBC - A deadly truck bombing in a busy market in northern Iraq has killed 105 people and injured 240, police say.

The morning blast destroyed the market in the small town of Amirli, south of Kirkuk, killing many people instantly and trapping dozens among the rubble.

It was the deadliest single attack in Iraq since April, correspondents say.

It came as 29 people were killed in separate violence, including 22 people who died overnight in Diyala province when a suicide bomber hit a cafe.

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An extra 30,000 US troops have been deployed in Iraq, mainly in and around the capital Baghdad, since the launch of the security drive or "surge" in February.

The BBC World Service is monitoring its effects, week by week, by looking at military casualty figures, the pressure on hospitals and quality of life for ordinary civilians.

The build-up of US troops in Iraq is now complete. The level of violence has not decreased, with attacks shifting away from places where US forces are concentrated, such as Baghdad and Anbar, into other, less defended provinces.

During the seven-day period ending on 4 July, there were 617 violent deaths compared to 299 for the week before. As in the previous two weeks, most of those killed were civilians - 365 of them. There was also a big increase in the reported deaths of insurgents, up from 98 dead last week to 175.

These figures are from the Iraqi Interior Ministry, whose figures are consistently lower than anyone else's estimates of casualties.

As everyday life goes on despite the violence, Iraqi civilians have to contend with other difficulties - from long power cuts and lack of jobs to fuel queues.

The families helping paint a picture of these hardships in this survey are from different areas of the city - which can mean different pressures according to the religious make-up of the area and the subsequent security risks.

If anything, they report petrol being even more expensive than last week and they are getting less electricity from the grid - for two of the families less than an hour on average per day.

Food shortages are also a problem in some quarters - people said they had difficulty buying food in al-Fadhil this week because the neighbourhood was shut down by the national guards after fighting broke out between locals and the Mehdi army militia.

One of the hospitals covered by the survey provides some grim details about the death toll.

Al-Yarmouk received 10 limbs with the rest of the bodies missing, 22 victims who had been beheaded, 45 people killed by one car bomb alone in the al-Baaya district and the bodies of 13 people who had been shot in the head.

Baghdad Killings 'Rise Sharply'

The number of unidentified bodies found in Baghdad has increased despite the launch of a security drive in the capital in February, Iraqi police say.

They say that 540 corpses - many of them tortured or mutilated - were discovered in the city in June.

The number is still considerably lower than in 2006, when the monthly total of bodies found at times exceeded 1,000.

Four million Iraqis have fled their home since the invasion. That is 15% of the country's population.

Ken Bacon, the president of Refugees International, is critical of the U.S. reaction to the crisis.

"The American response to this I think has been pretty pathetic," said Bacon. "The reason is that I think it is very politically difficult for us to admit that one of the consequences of our intervention in Iraq is an exodus from the country because every refugee who leaves is a vote of no confidence against the American program."

And don't forget, Iran sucks too.

Serge rules

"There's a trilogy in my life, an equilateral triangle, shall we say, of Gitanes, alcoholism and girls." -Serge Gainsbourg

and not Serge...

Van Nuys = bail bonds & pawn shops

Oh yeah, there's also a sale on beef feet. But that wasn't in Van Nuys. That was from the grocery that is nearest to my apt.

Also not Van Nuys. Fairfax.