Family Guy is really raunchy, politically incorrect, offensive and over the top, so much so that I know (hipster) moms of under-14s who won’t allow the kids to watch it unless they’ve pre-screened the episode. Says one:

Not always appropriate and TMI for kids. There’s some stuff they should learn from parents not cartoons.

And at least one episode may be too inappropriate for airing by Fox. Saturday at a Comicon panel in San Diego, series creator Seth MacFarlane

revealed he’s producing a controversial episode about abortion for the upcoming season. But he and others on the panel said that Fox was unlikely to air the episode. 

"20th Century Fox, as always, allowed us to produce the episode and then said, ‘You know what? We’re scared to f–king death of this,’ " MacFarlane said.

He added that it may however come out on DVD. An earlier episode "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein" was rejected by the network, though it later aired in syndication and was included in a DVD set. 

Family Guy, nominated this year for a best comedy series Emmy, has twice been canceled by Fox-TV. The network changed its tune though earlier this year, signing a $100 million dollar deal with MacFarlane.

Today Sarah Palin said goodbye to her gig as Gov GILF. The multi-tasking former media star slung salmon burgers with her right hand and greeted with well wishers with her left at the annual Alaska’s Governor’s picnic. Before she practiced for a great future as a fry cook, Palin gave a two minute farewell speech described as rambling:

We slowed the rate of government growth, and I vetoed hundreds of millions of dollars of government excess,” she said, veering into a rant about Hollywood and the right to bear arms.

You’re gonna see anti-hunting, anti-Second Amendment circuses from Hollywood. They use Alaska as a fundraising tool for their anti-Second Amendment causes… Hollywood needs to know: ‘We eat, therefore we hunt….

"What I promised, we accomplished.

"We can resist enslavement to big central government. Beware of accepting big government largesse… melting into Washington’s powerful arms….. I resisted the stimulus package."

Yes, but she has her own stimulus packaged–a lucrative book deal, htough wit phrases like those last two maybe she should look to Harlequin Romances as an option.

The Anchorage Daily News reported that the band played "She’s a Brick House."  Other highlights, along with Piper getting her hair sprayed purple:

The picnic drew all ages and walks of life. Homeless lined up for free hot dogs, young couples pushed baby strollers, elderly tourists ambled in to see what was going on. It was a cultural cross section of Anchorage, with whites, blacks, Natives, Pacific Islanders and Asians on the park strip.

Cassidy Fuavai, 21, said he was there because "everybody was coming." He didn’t have an opinion on Palin.

Phoebe Maurer and LB Abbey, also in their 20s, said they live near the Park Strip and wanted to see the picnic, have some free food. Maurer said Palin can’t be expected to be taken seriously as a presidential candidate after quitting her job as governor. Abbey said he thinks Palin is a "moron" who has been kind of embarrassing for Alaska.

Palin had some strong words about free speech and for the media, as seen in the video above, including:

In honor of the American soldier, ya quit makin’ things up!

Alaska blogger and Palin critic Shannyn Moore told Achorage Daily News that she came to the farewell picnic after receiving an anonymous e-mail saying she should wear a bullet-proof vest if she planned on attending. Moore said:

Today is a great day for Alaska and Alaskans

Keep the day job. Whatever that is.

Drat! Blast that pesky meddlesome kid! Levi Johnston is the reason Sarah Palin can’t have nice things! 

According to this week’s National Enquirer–the same paper that busted John Edwards and spotted OJ Simpson in a pair of Bruno Magli shoes, thus costing him millions in the wrongful death suit brought by the Goldmans–about-to-be former Alaska governor Sarah Palin is ticked off because Levi Johnston, father of her only grandson Tripp, is about to score his own reality series before she gets a chance to be a big deal talk show host on the teevee!

Oh, the shame.  The Enquirer reports that Levi and his sister Mercede (rhymes with "paid") will star in the unnamed reality program on a channel which has yet to release a press statement about this totally awesome moment in broadcast history.

Quoting a friend of Levi, the Enquirer revealed that Palin was:

"stunned to learn Levi may go on the air before her–especially because she’s the only reason he’s famous!"

The tabloid says that one of the reasons Palin quit was to get her own political talk show. But I sort of hope she’ll do some guest spots first with Rachel Ray and Martha Stewart, showin’ the gals stuff like how to field dress a moose and cooking’ up some of that good, clean fresh Alaska protein. I bet you can make wolverine stew on the engine of snow-machine!

It’s a little unsettling to realize that members of Congress and other elected officials live in a freakish cult mindset where they believe demons can cause just about every problem known to mankind, and follow pastors who teach that economic collapse is because the emperor of Japan allegedly had sex with what they categorize as a succubus.

Jack Hayford, who ministers to John Ensign, introduces Peter C. Wagner in this video, and Wagner explains the 1993 troubles in the Japanese economy:

So, there is a spirit called a "harlot", a principality who dominates nations, who dominates territories, who dominates people groups, very very clearly – to such an extent that she has fornication with kings. And I can give you an example of how she does this. Japan, as a nation, is one of the nations of the world which has consciously, openly invited national demonization…Since the night that the present emperor slept with the sun Goddess, the stock market in Japan has gone down – never come up since. This has been a disastrous year – first year the rice harvest failed, first year Japan has ever had to import rice

Wow! So could possibly America’s economic collapse be due to Republican family values politicians having sex with real people?  Those pesky demons!

I’m all for religious freedom, but sadly these nutjobs aren’t. Followers of Jack Hayford and Peter C.Wagner–guys like John Ensign and his fellowshipping frat bros at  C Street, along with Sarah Palin–are wrapped up in a lot of theocratic nonsense (in part developed by Ted Haggard, who might not be the best guide, unless you’re looking for meth and "massages") which

effectively demonizes everyone on Earth who does not subscribe to Haggard’s and Hayford’s form of evangelical Christianity.

 Once again, I am going to invoke the First Amendment, which gives me the right to have my zany religious views, you to have whatever you like or none at all, and these paranoids who think statues of owls and frogs invite demons into their houses to keep that faith. But maybe noton the tax payer’s dime.

Seriously, these people are crazy.

[H/T Talk2Action]

How could anyone not want to go to this absolutely lulz-filled weekend of wingnuts, whackjobs, blowhard bloviators, bigots, hypocrites and high-horsed, narrow-minded numbskulls known as the Values Voter Summit?

It’s a tea party on acid, beyond Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas. Oh won’t someone send me, pleeeeeease? (Sadly though, my Values Voter heroes, John Ensign, Mark Sanford and Paul Stanley weren’t invited….)

Along with guests like the obvious (Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Bachman, Bill O’Reilly, Rick Perry, Jeb Bush, Jim DeMint, Don Wildmon, Glenn Beck, Bobby Jindal) and party fossil celebs Fred Thompson, Ben Stein and Phyllis Shlafly, plus actor Gary Sinise and former teen star turned-uber-freaky Jesus dude/Way of the Master pitchman Kirk Cameron, there will be the new illiterati of the theocons: Those multi-media stars Sarah Palin, Carrie Prejean and Stephen Baldwin! Wow, there is part of me that wishes Baldwin would pull a Rob-Lowe-at-the-1988-DNC-Convention video moment with the two former beauty queens. Now that would have some value!

Check out these rocking breakout sessions! It’s gonna be so hard to decide which ones to attend!

• SPEECHLESS – SILENCING THE CHRISTIANS
• THUGOCRACY – FIGHTING THE VAST LEFT WING CONSPIRACY
• DEFUNDING PLANNED PARENTHOOD
• ACTIVISM AND CONSERVATISM: FIT TO A TEA (PARTY)
• THE THREAT OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
• OBAMACARE: RATIONING YOUR LIFE AWAY
• MARRIAGE: WHY IT’S WORTH DEFENDING AND HOW REDEFINING IT THREATENS RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
• THE NEW MASCULINITY
• WAIT NO MORE: FINDING FAMILIES FOR WAITING KIDS
• TURNING THE TIDE IN YOUR GENERATION

And you betcha, the Values Voter Summit is a real value! It’s only $99 for the whole weekend (special event meals not included), $200 for the weekend plus the Saturday Evening Faith, Family and Freedom Gala Dinner Honoring Phyllis Schlafly (black tie optional).

There’s also a $550 package that includes:

Briefing and Exhibits Pass; Friday Breakfast Sponsored by American Values; Friday Luncheon Sponsored by Focus on the Family Action; Saturday Breakfast Sponsored by The Heritage Foundation; Saturday Luncheon Sponsored by American Family Association; Private Reception and Faith, Family & Freedom Gala Dinner Honoring Phyllis Schlafly on Saturday Evening 

 but I’m not sure I could stomach all that food for thought.

Sadly, Palin and Prejean haven’t confirmed, nor have Mitt Romney, Maggie Gallagher, Sean Hannity, or over half the names on the invited speakers page which reads like a C Street spank bank list, but even if they don’t, it’ll still be hoot with sixteen exhibitors like Let Freedom Ring, Watchmen on the Wall,  Chalcedon, the very Catholic group American TFP (Tradition, Family, and Property), The American Civil Rights Union, Liberty University School of Law, and of course Americans United for Life, plus sponsors American Family Association, the Family Research Council (plus FRC Action, their legislative action group) and The Heritage Foundation.

And gosh, for a a bunch of folks who want to uphold the Constitution, it seems they are a little teeeny bit confused on this part of the First Amendment

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof 

since the Values Voter Summit (which by virtue of the word "voter" and the presence of legislative action groups has to do with getting Congress to enact laws) are urging churches to get involved in the political process:

Accept our personal invitation for pastors to attend the Values Voter Summit.
We believe this event will be a blessing to pastors and their ministry and will further equip pastors to speak boldly on the critical moral issues of our day.

Promote the Values Voter Summit in your church.
Promotional materials that you can use to inform your congregation about this important event will be available for downloading in the next couple of months. Among these promotional materials will be a bulletin insert. We are asking churches across the nation to put the insert into your bulletin…

There’s the implication that pastors speaking will lead to voters voting–and voting along lines that are church sanctioned, thus muddying the separation of church and state, as the pressure will be on Congress from these voters to enact laws that reflect narrow and specific religious values. 

Also, it seems a little tacky to promote stuff like this in the churches, as it a political event, not a charity walk for cancer research.

But the Values Voter Summit still look like the trippiest weekend ever! So are we going?!

[H/T Theopalinism.com]

The centuries old tradition of making prayer requests at the Western Wall in Jerusalem–the last remnant of the Second Temple which was destroyed by the Romans circa 70CE–has gotten an update for the 21st Century.

Now instead of actually going to the Western Wall also known as Kotel and the Wailing Wall (the time, the money, the carbon footprint!), those who want to get a quick request into God can simply tweet YHWH–or Whoever, the don’t seem super fussy about what your Divinity is named– via @sendaprayer. The prayers will be then printed out and placed amongst the stones by somebody on the other end.

There’s also a Facebook page for

[t]he first iPhone App that sends prayers to the Western Wall in Jerusalem

with a link to the iPhone store. Cost of the app? $1.99

I sort of wonder if the rabbis sit around a get a good laugh at some of the requests.

The American Apparel, the largest garment manufacturer based in the United States, known for its progressive  policies–including above-living wages; health insurance, English classes and subsidized lunches for employees; use of solar energy; organic/clean grown cotton; and recycling– has refused to cave to anti-gay threats.

This Monday the window of the chain’s store in Silver Springs, Maryland,  featuring a tee shirt with the slogan "Legalize Gay" was smashed overnight. Nothing was stolen.

On Tuesday, according to Washington D.C.’s City Paper

an anonymous caller informed the Georgetown location that as long as “Legalize Gay” is on display, the storefronts can expect more broken glass…

Walter Reed, the Georgetown store’s merchandiser at first took down the tee shirt, but after speaking with American Apparel headquarters in Los Angeles, replaced the Legalize Gay display. On Wednesday WJLA reported:

employees at both locations say they received death threats, the spokesperson for the chain said.

According to one employee who answered the phone at the Silver Spring location Wednesday, the caller said: "Why is that T-shirt still in the window? You should take it down or something will happen to you." 

The employee didn’t want to be identified after someone threatened her life, she said.

She added: "Some of the employees are kind of unsettled by the fact that we are keeping up the mannequins simply because it does affect our safety here."

The store manager says despite the act of vandalism and the threats, the display is not going anywhere and the shirts will remain on sale and prominently displayed.

American Apparel issued the following statement today:

[A]n American Apparel store in Silver Spring, Maryland had a window broken by someone upset over the company’s support for gay marriage. Our Georgetown location and others in the areas have received similar threats. We just wanted to use this forum here to announce that not only are they not going to prevent us from speaking out on an issue that is important to this company and our employees but we’ll continue to run Legalize Gay advertisements in papers across the DC-Metro area. We’ll also send Legalize Gay t-shirts to any group in Washington DC that is fighting for gay rights and will help support any protest or rally for the cause. We don’t find this kind of thing funny and we definitely don’t find it intimidating.

 The "Legalize Gay" tee shirt campaign is in other cities across the country, and is an outgrowth of the defeat of Prop 8 and other civil rights issues. From the American Apparel website:

In the fall of 2008, Proposition 8 passed in California, striking down the legalization of same-sex marriage. Now the decision rests in the hands of California’s Supreme Court, with state lawmakers declaring the vote unconstitutional.

Equal rights for all – repeal Prop 8.

[H/T Washington Blade]

Wow! These are the best gift item ever–and they’re almost sold out! Printed on high quality Felix the Cat blotter paper, Psychedelic Republicans trading cards have fun facts like the spirit animal of each of the featured  24 GOP honchos. Dick Cheney’s? A naked mole rat.

That’s right – your world is finally complete! It’s amazing wacky fun time with all-new Psychedelic Republicans^TM trading cards! Collect them all, and gaze on in helpless, pupil-dilating wonder as your favorite C-SPAN stars morph into groovy explosions of technicolor quasi-fascism!

Geriatrics and children alike thrill to the wholesome mind-bending challenge of purchasing the entire collection! 

Maybe this explains the Birthers.

Jackson Brown successfully sued John McCain, the Ohio Republican Party and the Republican National Committee for copyright infringement, false endorsement and violating his right of publicity when "Running On Empty" was used without permission in a McCain campaign ad that aired on TV and the Internet. Heart, John Mellencamp, and the Foo Fighters also had their music misappropriated by the GOP during the 2008 campaign.

According to Billboard, the Republicans:

settled out of court for an undisclosed amount of money and a public apology from the Republican camp, along with a pledge "to respect and uphold the rights of artists and to obtain permissions and/or licenses for copyrighted works where appropriate."

It’s a start. What else do they have to apologize for?