He keeps doing shit like that to me. First, here's what the Federal Trade Commission has decided to shred the First Amendment : Bloggers who offer endorsements must disclose any payments they have received from the subjects of their reviews or face penalties of up to $11,000 per violation, the Federal Trade Commission said Monday. And here's what Tom Knapp says in reply : Dear Federal Trade Commission: Go f--k yourselves. This is my blog, not your blog. I will write whatever I choose to write, I'll write it for whatever reasons I choose to write it, and I'll disclose as much or as little about those reasons as I damn well please. If you think you can squeeze $11,000 out of me over it, feel free to try. You won't get a dime you don't take at gunpoint, and the only way you'll stop me from continuing to write as I please is to stick me in jail or kill me. Yours in liberty (hah!), KN@PPSTER Somehow it just doesn't have any impact to jump up and down shoutin...

There used to be a derogatory saying about South Carolina: Too small to be a state, but too large to be a penal institution . Ironically, despite an abundance of gracious people in many places, Palmetto State politics and the South Carolina blogosphere continues to descend into a racist, homophobic gutter. The one you've heard about, of course, is GOPer activist Rusy DePass joking about Michelle Obama, gorillas and evolution . Here's one that might have escaped your attention: Daniel J. Cassidy is a member of the South Carolina Advisory Board to the US Commission on Civil Rights. Here you can find him presenting himself as the watchdog over the proper expenditure of Federal funds for tutoring disadvantaged students . So far, so good, right? But Cassidy also publishes a blog called Sunlit Uplands , whose subtitle is Faith, Freedom, Defense of the West, Renewal of the Culture . Let's sample some of Cassiday's blogging choices over the past couple of days, keeping in...

The babble in the blogosphere over perceived legions of Glenn Beck sleeper cells (meeting in their Chuck Norris footie pajamas) arming themselves for treason and sedition misses a major point (why am I not surprised?). Part of what is stirring these folks up is a belief that the Federal government is busily making contingency plans to declare martial law. Consider John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute : Bush expanded presidential power to, among other things, allow government agents to secretly open the private mail of American citizens; authorize government agents to secretly, and illegally, listen in on the phone calls of American citizens and read our e-mails; assume control of the federal government following a "catastrophic event"; and declare martial law. Thus, the groundwork was laid for an imperial presidency and a potentially totalitarian government-- a state of affairs that has not ended with Barack Obama's ascension to the Oval Office , despite hopes to th...

First, the best, from Kids Prefer Cheese (Michael Munger posting) referring to GOP criticisms of the current administration: Look, people, you CAUSED this. A little humility might be in order. I understand that the Obamarama is painful, as it is for us all. But you had the keys to the halls of power, and all you did for 8 years was run up the deficit and lick your own private parts in public. Now the strangest line, from Delaware's own Kilroy : I guess the only time possible where Delaware Liberals might wake up and smell the coffee is if Obama ask them to drink his piss! Although I have to give props for a fairly close second in both categories to Dave Burris at Delaware Politics for this (slightly expurgated; Dave does not use asterisks) comment: F**K RUSH LIMBAUGH. He is a valueless entertainer who has done as much to ruin our party by pushing people to the lowest common denominator as has any other person. I am a conservative because I believe that the original intent of the ...

Here are two post headlines referring to a new study of porn: Classically Liberal : Born Again and Porn Again: Is There a Connection? Delawareliberal : Porn in the USA: Conservatives are the biggest consumers Both purport to chronicle, with considerable glee, the reporting of a new porn study by economist Benjamin Edelman , entitled Red Light States: Who Buys Online Adult Entertainment? . Here's CL talking about the conclusions: One state seems to subscribe to porn channels more often than the other states. I won’t leave you waiting—it was Utah. Yes, the Beehive state, the Deseret Kingdom of Mormonism has more porn subscribers than any other state. No doubt they are all fantasizing about their future multiple wives in the afterlife —or not. In second place is Mississippi, home of countless fundamentalists. The next tier of states in porn consumption are all Bible-belt states, but one: Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and Florida. The one exception is North Dakota, which at least ...