Flames. Flames on the side of my face...

Pandagon links to a story that is so utterly horrifying you may not believe what you're reading:

A federal discrimination lawsuit was filed Thursday by the surviving family members of a man who died of a heart attack after the police chief allegedly prevented his friend from performing CPR.

…According papers filed in court Thursday Snead had begun performing CPR by the side of the road when Bowman arrived and told Snead to stop because Green was HIV positive.

When Snead didn’t stop the CPR, Bowman grabbed Snead by the shoulders and physically barred Snead from continuing CPR at a critical point in Green’s resuscitation. Snead, who had not realized at first that Bowman was a police officer, obeyed his commands.

While Green fought to stay alive, Bowman prevented anyone else from aiding Green until EMS workers arrived approximately 10 minutes later.

While they were putting Green in the ambulance, Bowman informed EMS workers that Green was HIV positive. Although the EMS workers ignored Bowman’s warnings and performed CPR on Green, he passed away shortly after arriving at the hospital. He did not have HIV. The court papers said that Bowman based his assumption that Green was HIV+ because he knew Green was gay.

Yes, that's right, a police officer stopped good samaritans from attempting to do CPR on a heart attack victim because he was convinced the man had AIDS. And where did this diagnosis come from? Well from the fact that he apparently knew the victim was gay and, as we all know, all gay men have AIDS, right? You'd think someone in law enforcement would at least be fairly up to date on the medical realities of HIV, but you'd bewrong:

“Bowman’s actions were a frightening abuse of power,” said Rose Saxe, a staff attorney with the ACLU’s AIDS Project. “It’s hard to say what was more shameful: that Chief Bowman assumed Claude Green was HIV positive solely because he was gay, or that Bowman was so ignorant about HIV that he felt you couldn’t safely perform CPR on an HIV positive person.”
[...]
“We have brought this lawsuit to stop Police Chief Bowman from hurting more people,” said Green’s sister Anita Tickle, a practicing nurse. “I have spent my life helping sick people, including people with HIV, and I cannot understand how Bowman could possibly justify his actions. We’ve known for two decades that HIV is not easily transmitted and that it is safe to perform CPR on someone with the disease. That’s something a police chief ought to know too.”

This just makes me sick.

Well here's another state I'll never move to

Not that I was big on moving to Missouri in this lifetime anyhow, but this pretty much cinches it for me:

Missouri legislators in Jefferson City considered a bill that would name Christianity the state's official "majority" religion.

House Concurrent Resolution 13 has is pending in the state legislature.

...

The resolution would recognize "a Christian god," and it would not protect minority religions, but "protect the majority's right to express their religious beliefs."


The resolution also recognizes that, "a greater power exists," and only Christianity receives what the resolution calls, "justified recognition."

Missouri to its population: "If you're a non-christian you'd better not let the sun set on you in this state, y'hear?" You know, it seems to me that a while back Christians were a minority faith on the wrong side of a state religion, and they didn't seem to like it so much... Guess it's all right as long as they're the ones in power this time around.

Falafel finally cracks

As Hurley might say, "Duuuuuuuuuuude...":

O'Reilly threatened radio show caller with "a little visit" from "Fox security" for mentioning Olbermann's name on the air

Summary: On his nationally syndicated radio show, Bill O'Reilly threatened to turn over the personal information of a caller to "Fox security" because the caller mentioned MSNBC's Keith Olbermann. As Media Matters has noted, in recent weeks, Olbermann has repeatedly awarded O'Reilly the "Worst Person in the World" designation during his show, MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann.
[...]
From the March 2 broadcast of Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly:

O'REILLY: Orlando, Florida, Mike, go.

CALLER: Hey Bill, I appreciate you taking my call.

O'REILLY: Sure.

CALLER: I like to listen to you during the day, I think Keith Olbermann's show --

O'REILLY: There ya go, Mike is -- he's a gone guy. You know, we have his -- we have your phone numbers, by the way. So, if you're listening, Mike, we have your phone number, and we're going to turn it over to Fox security, and you'll be getting a little visit.

HILL: Maybe Mike is from the mothership.

O'REILLY: No, Maybe Mike is going to get into big trouble, because we're not going to play around. When you call us, ladies and gentleman, just so you know, we do have your phone number, and if you say anything untoward, obscene, or anything like that, Fox security then will contact your local authorities, and you will be held accountable. Fair?

HILL: That's fair.

O'REILLY: So, just -- all you guys who do this kind of a thing, you know, I know some shock jocks. Whatever. You will be held accountable. Believe it.

We'll be right back.

Wondering if Ol' Loofah actually brought the hammer down? Well, it seems he did:

Today I made a phone call to Bill O'Reilly's show; I told him I wanted to talk to him about Alito, which was the topic, but before I did that, I told him I was thankful to him for turning me on to Olbermann. He immediately hung up on me. At around 4PM, EST, I received a phone call from Anthony (I have his last name and phone number,) head of Fox Security, saying that I made a harassing phone call to O'Reilly today.

I got the call on the phone I used to call him; the head of Fox Security introduced himself and asked if I called Bill O'Reilly today, because I harassed Bill O'Reilly. I pleaded ignorance, and asked how many calls were made and what was said?? He said again that harassing phone calls were coming from my phone. I asked him how many? He did not know. I asked him what was said that was harassing? He said that he did not know what was said but that it did not have to be what was said, but how many calls were being made. He tried to make like I made 20 phone calls instead of one, and that I cursed O'Reilly out. All I said was that I was grateful to O'Reilly for turning me on to Olbermann. Then he hung up.

I called my lawyer to let him know what is up. I emailed Keith O. and let him know what happened.

Bootjack time with O'Reilly.

OH MAH GOD, I have got to be home in time to catch Keith O. tonight, he's got to be positively drooling over this!

Update:

Ooops, looks like several people have gotten on Bill's naughty list, but the real perp this time is Mike over at Calling all Wingnuts:

We got him today. One mention of Keith Olberman and Bill wet his pants. After a week of pinpricks (about 3-5 mentions of Olberman), this one finally got to Bill…

In this call, you’ll hear Olberman’s name mentioned. It didn’t get broadcast - Bill dumped it. This sound comes from the Bill O’Reilly premium membership I just paid for. (I vomited in my mouth as I hit the “Finalize Order” button).

Tomorrow I want to have a big push. Today we reduced O’Reilly to making false and empty threats. Tomorrow, crush him.

Click his site link if you want to listen to the actual exchange.

Apparently Olbermann's running a pool on when Bill's going to have an on-air breakdown, he thinks November, I gotta' say it's right around the corner, myself. Maybe April, if the falafel holds out.

Second Edit:
Best comment ever over at Eschaton:

"My name is a killing word."
-- Muadib Olbermann, God-Pundits of Dune
Uncle Smokes