AdamSmith

Lit in a desperate and unoriginal light! You and MsAnnie can both look for a letter from my attorney regarding violation of my copyright on all poopy images in this forum.

"...About an hour after U.S. District Judge Callie Granade's ruling, Mobile County opened up its marriage license office and started granting the documents to gay couples, according to David Kennedy, an attorney for one of the couples who wed." http://www.cbsnews.com/news/judge-rules-alabama-county-must-marry-same-sex-couples/ Now to see whether the resisters in other counties relent.

Today's federal district court order here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/255598034/1-14-cv-00424-55-Order

Federal judge orders Alabama official to issue marriage licenses to gay couples Standoff intensifies as US district court judge targets Mobile County official in ruling that reinforces previous decision striking down same-sex marriage ban http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/12/alabama-same-sex-marriages-federal-judge

Let me put it another way. Where does your animosity toward this site come from?

P.S. Whose payroll are you on?

Nothing like a string of upbeat, constructive posts to prove one's commitment to bettering a forum. As callipygian explicitly posted a hyperlink back to the source location where lookin originally made his post, your calling it 'stealing' is hard to interpret as other than deliberate hatefulness on your part.

Charles Manson's fiancee wanted to marry him for his corpse: source The New York Post This plot was too crazy even for Charles Manson. Manson’s engagement to a woman 53 years his junior was part of a wild scheme of hers to profit by putting his body on public display after his death, says the author of an upcoming book. Manson’s fiancée, 27-year-old Afton Elaine Burton, known as Star, sought to wed the convicted mastermind of the Sharon Tate murder and eight other slayings so that she could gain possession of his corpse, according to journalist Daniel Simone. Burton and a pal, Craig Hammond, planned to lay out Manson’s remains in a glass crypt, Simone says. The pair figured their bizarre California version of Lenin’s Tomb would draw huge crowds and make big money. But Manson, 80, does not want to marry Burton and has no interest in spending eternity displayed in a glass coffin, Simone told The Post. “He’s finally realized that he’s been played for a fool,” Simone said. Another reason the madman balked at the plan is because he believes he is immortal. “He feels he will never die,” Simone said. “Therefore, he feels it’s a stupid idea to begin with.” Charles Manson in 2011 (left) and in 1970Photo: AP Manson’s and Burton’s marriage license expired Thursday. “They plan on renewing the license, and things will move forward in the coming months,” says a statement posted on Burton’s and Hammond’s website. Burton and Hammond — who uses the nickname Gray Wolf — could not be reached for comment. The wedding was postponed “due to an unexpected interruption in logistics,” the site says. Manson entered a prison medical facility for treatment of an infection about two months ago and cannot receive visitors, Simone said. California prison officials would not comment on either Manson’s medical condition or his whereabouts. Simone and a collaborator, Heidi Jordan Ley, are seeking a publisher for their book, “The Retrial of Charles Manson.” Manson and other inmates at Corcoran State Prison in California are helping the project. The authors say they spoke with Manson regularly before his phone privileges were suspended two years ago. They also corresponded with Manson and his inmate friends by mail. According to the authors, Burton and Hammond hatched their plan to display Manson’s corpse about two years ago. Initially, the duo asked Manson to sign a document that would let them take his body when he dies. Manson and BurtonPhoto: MansonDirect.com/POLARIS “He didn’t give them a yes, he didn’t give them a no. He sort of strung them along,” Simone said. Burton and Hammond regularly brought Manson toiletries and other items. Stringing them along kept the goodies coming, Simone said. When it became clear last year that the purportedly death-proof Manson would not green-light the plan, Burton and Hammond switched to the marriage idea, Simone says. If Burton married Manson, the pair realized, California law would give her possession of Manson’s remains upon his death, Simone said. Simone believes Manson never intended to marry Burton. “Manson never consented to the wedding in the first place and never will,” he said. Another Simone book, “The Lufthansa Heist,” about a $6 million armed robbery at Kennedy Airport in 1978, is due out next month. He co-authored it with “Good­Fellas” mobster Henry Hill, who died in 2012. http://nypost.com/2015/02/08/charles-mansons-fiancee-wanted-to-marry-him-for-his-corpse-source/

Ai yi yi. Charles Manson calls off his wedding -- for the weirdest reason You've heard the phrase 'she only wants you for your body,' but it seems that serial killer Charles Manson's bride-to-be took that a bit too literally... 27-year-old Afton Elaine Burton announced her engagement to jailed killer Manson back in November, but their wedding plans took a dramatic turn when journalist Daniel Simone looked into the case, the NY Post reports. Supposed superfan Burton had hatched a plan to gain the rights to Manson's body when he dies in order to make cash by displaying his corpse to the public in a glass case. At this point, even Charles Manson is, like, I'M OUT. Simone - who is investigating Manson for his book The Retrial of Charles Manson - said that Manson scrapped the wedding plans because 'he’s finally realized that he’s been played for a fool,' but don't feel too sorry for this jilted lover yet. Manson is allegedly not impressed with Burton's plan to entomb him in glass for the public to gawp at for a particularly Manson-ish reason: He's convinced that he is immortal. Simone said: He feels he will never die. Therefore, he feels it’s a stupid idea to begin with. That clears that up, then. Check out Afton Elaine Burton talking about her affianced before her little quick money scheme was exposed. [Link to video below] If the real life Manson is just a bit too weird for you, the movie Manson Girls is in development, starring The Devil's Rejects' Bill Moseley in the titular role. http://moviepilot.com/posts/2015/02/11/charles-manson-calls-off-wedding-for-the-weirdest-reason-2683374?lt_source=external,manual

Chief Alabama judge would defy Supreme Court in gay marriage rulingCNN.com Washington (CNN) The chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court insisted Thursday he will continue to resist efforts to implement same-sex marriage in his state, even if the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage later this year. Chief Justice Roy Moore likened an eventual U.S. Supreme Court ruling in favor of same-sex marriage to the Dred Scott ruling and Plessy v. Ferguson, two 19th century Supreme Court rulings that upheld slavery and segregation, respectively. "If it's an unlawful mandate you can refuse to mandate it. You can dissent to the United States Supreme Court," Moore said in a testy interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo on "New Day." "I will follow the law as I interpret it." Moore has ordered lower court judges in Alabama not to implement a federal court ruling that overturned the state's ban on same-sex marriage. Moore's actions come despite the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal to stay the federal ruling, effectively allowing same-sex couples to marry in the state for the first time on Monday. Judges in some of the state's counties refused to allow same-sex couples to marry in spite of the federal court ruling. "That's not the federal law. What you're confusing is law with the opinion of a justice," Moore told Cuomo. "What one lone federal judge says is not law." Moore is personally opposed to gay marriage and steadfastly against legalizing gay marriage, insisting that Alabama recognizes the "divine" nature of the definition of marriage. Moore also characterized the federal judge's ruling that overturned the state's ban as an "attempt by the federal court to control the state," which he called a "federal intrusion into state sovereignty." The battle Moore is waging is just the latest for a controversial judge who sticks to his guns and won't bend to federal law when he believes it is wrong. Moore was booted from the state's supreme court when he refused to implement a federal ruling ordering the removal of a monument to the Ten Commandments at an Alabama judicial building in 2003. He won a statewide reelection to reclaim his chief justiceship in 2012. http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/12/politics/ray-moore-alabama-gay-marraige-supreme-court-slavery/index.html

I will disclose a state secret: lookin is actually P.G. Wodehouse.

Endearing. Includes her fascinating observations on vocal technique. 'I didn't want to be a diva' Forty years as a soprano earned Joan Sutherland the name La Stupenda. She still finds it rather embarrassing, she tells Martin Kettle http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2002/may/08/artsfeatures

Jon Stewart's Proud Tradition His needling of the powerful is as old as the Republic. http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/02/jon-stewart-proud-tradition-115121.html#ixzz3RUXVbkMD

A profile by (cute-assed ) George Packer. The Quiet German The astonishing rise of Angela Merkel, the most powerful woman in the world. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/12/01/quiet-german

Having faced journalistic deadlines myself, that is very often exactly the way these things go.

Angela's Assets Vanity Fair January 2015 http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/01/angela-merkel-profile

The Bloomberg publications platform, formerly BloombergBusinessWeek, is pretty good these days. Here from its opinion section: The World According to Angela Merkel BloombergView Feb 9, 2015 9:05 AM EST By Leonid Bershidsky It's hard to be Germany these days. In a world that is growing fiercely divided after two decades of middle-of-the-road orthodoxy, Chancellor Angela Merkel's government and the country it represents increasingly seem like the world's last bastion of common sense. But Germany's rejection of emotion and every kind of extreme have proven a powerful irritant. Paradoxically, the more Germany strives to pursue the middle path, the more often it is reminded of its Nazi-era crimes. Germany is now fighting on two fronts at the same time: foreign policy, where Merkel has been pushed forward by other Western leaders as the chief negotiator with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and economics, where Greece has challenged the bailout system for bankrupt European nations that Germany has painstakingly built over the past three years. In both these developing sagas, Berlin has been fiercely criticized by radical adversaries, but has stubbornly persevered. In the Ukraine crisis, Merkel's stand has always appeared ambiguous. Initially, she was a skeptic of economic sanctions against Russia, diluting a U.S. campaign to inflict costs on Putin for the annexation of Crimea. That changed after Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was downed over eastern Ukraine: Merkel became an advocate of sanctions as a long-term strategy to weaken Putin's regime. As Putin stepped up support for Ukraine's separatist rebels -- and lied to Merkel's face about it -- the chancellor wouldn't rule out strengthening the sanctions, and her special relationship with the Russian president grew more perfunctory. Now, energized by U.S. calls for arming Ukraine, which she sees as dangerous, Merkel is again willing to discuss a peace deal with Putin. She has even flown to Moscow for talks, which suggests she may be prepared to accept some of his territorial and political demands to achieve a lasting cease-fire. On the surface, Merkel's actions appear to reflect an inner conflict between her strong values, which Putin has repeatedly trampled on, and her no-nonsense practicality, which calls for a compromise to end the fighting on European Union borders. No wonder she has been getting flak from both from Russia and from the U.S., her critics indulging in cheap shots by referencing Germany's Nazi past. In the Russian parliament, ultranationalist deputies have been demanding compensation from Germany for World War II damages to Russia. U.S. Senator John McCain accused Merkel of pursuing the kind of appeasement that allowed Adolf Hitler to make advances in Europe in the late 1930's. "History shows us that dictators will always take more if you let them,” Senator McCain was quoted as saying in Munich last weekend. "They will not be dissuaded from their brutal behavior when you fly to meet them to Moscow -- just as leaders once flew to this city." Merkel's seeming inconsistency, however, is tactical rather than strategic. She has stubbornly been searching for the least costly solution for Europe, one that drives a path between Moscow's Scylla and Washington's Charybdis. She is as far from embracing Putin's ambitions to recreate some version of the Soviet Union as she is from endorsing remote U.S. warmongering. She is the only Western leader capable of telling Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko that he cannot win a war against Russia, no matter what weapons he might get from the U.S. "I cannot imagine any situation in which improved equipment for the Ukrainian army leads to President Putin being so impressed that he believes he will lose militarily,” she said at the security conference in Munich, looking Poroshenko in the eyes. “I have to put it that bluntly.” German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier spoke for Merkel and her entire government when he explained, also at the Munich conference last weekend, that Germany's common-sense stand was not "a form of cowardice or a fact that we're oblivious of our past and our history." "We know the region, and this is why we're so persistent and persevering, despite some disappointment," Steinmeier added. Germany has shown the same stubbornness in dealing with the Greek challenge. Finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble gave up no ground in talks with his Greek colleague Yanis Varoufakis in Berlin last week, insisting Greece should stick to the terms of its EU-led bailout. In response, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras last night renewed his pledge to seek compensation from Germany for its wartime crimes. "I cannot overlook what is an ethical duty, a duty to history," he told his country's parliament in an emotional speech that was full of references to "blackmail" and "lectures " -- all barbs directed at Germany, which, as Greece's main creditor, has been unwilling to provide debt relief. Germany's stubbornness is a matter of values. Last year -- a year ahead of schedule -- the country balanced its budget for the first time in more than 40 years. The country had rising tax revenues and falling unemployment (the jobless rate now stands at 6.5 percent, down from 6.9 percent at the end of 2013), despite almost zero economic growth. Germany's fiscal responsibility is an example to its neighbors which they would rather ignore, because following it would require hard work. Germany, however, has been willing to accept practical compromises in economic matters, too. It gave in to calls for European Central Bank quantitative easing, for example. (And it will likely benefit most from the policy, in any case -- while other European governments use the lax monetary policy to buy more time to avoid reforming their bureaucracy-clogged economies, the weaker euro will make German exports more competitive.) Merkel will probably end up accepting some kind of compromise with Greece, too, to preserve euro area unity. Germany's approach to crisis management isn't a mystery. It starts off by asserting and defending its conservative, perhaps somewhat outdated values until that policy hits a dead end. Then, it works hard on a compromise solution that departs from these values in small ways but allows for a consensus that discourages radical posturing. The values are important for anchoring expectations in subsequent negotiations. They are not, however, rigid ideological dogmas worth fighting for to the exclusion of common sense. This is an emerging leadership style that's very different from Washington's unabashed hegemony-seeking or Moscow's anything-goes opportunism. If Merkel proves that it works by engineering solutions in both Ukraine and Greece, Germany will emerge as a new center of power capable keeping the world's radical impulses in check. But there's no guarantee Merkel will succeed. Steinmeier suspects that his country may have come to this junction too soon, pointing out in Munich that Germany was "put to the test much sooner and much more severely than we could have fathomed last year." If Germany fails in either Ukraine or Greece in the weeks ahead, it will have to rethink its international responsibilities. According to Steinmeier, 70 percent of Germans never wanted an expanded role in the first place. http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-02-09/the-world-according-to-angela-merkel

Constitutional scholar Noah Feldman opines that the U.S. Supreme Court "may have been motivated to deny the stay at least in part by the desire to signal to Moore that it's unhappy with his shenanigans. Admittedly, the court would probably have denied the stay anyway. But by directly confronting the Supreme Court's authority, Moore may have guaranteed that Justice Anthony Kennedy would vote against any stay, because it would look like judicial weakness." http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-02-09/alabama-s-gay-marriage-showdown