Going off the reservation

I have finally had enough of TimeWarner's bullshit. I called them this morning and cancelled my service. It will be interesting to see what they do re: billing.


I will be restricted to checking my e-mails and limiting my rants to a few minutes a day for the time being. I'm sure that will make a number of clueless assholes quite happy.--c'est la vie.


Cheers and be well.


As Rocky Racoon said, "I'll be better, doc, as soon as I am able."

I'm not a very nice person, V 2Brazillion

I was commenting on another blog the other day (here: http://southernbeale.wordpress.com/2014/07/11/gmooooooops/) being my usual, not terribly polite, self and had, as sometimes happens, a disagreement with another commenter.

Barbs were flung or gauntlets thrown by myself and Mr. McCarthy and after a couple of sallies he left the field (not that I felt as if I had "won" anything) saying:

"I could give example after example of scientists who have committed even obvious fraud using their credentials and standings as scientists who have not been defrocked, as it were. Some retaining major academic positions and renown within the community of scientists, Fritz Haber was given the Nobel in Chemistry in 1918 when he should have been on trial for war crimes using his science, for example. But I won’t abuse the hospitality of Southern Beale to do so. Only, apropos of her post, when it comes to biological creations that could reproduce, uncontrolled and to horrific results, there is no reason to trust scientists to police themselves and good reason to not allow them to."

I made additional comments to him and other folks. The comment thread went dormant and it's now closed. That's all good.

What's not so good is that Mr. McCarthy then went back to his blog and wrote a post about the exchange, an exchange in which he was the victor, I guess. I became aware of this when I found an e-mail which I had missed when it was sent last week. I went to his blog:  (here: http://zthoughtcriminal.blogspot.com/2014/07/you-can-always-tell-atheist-but-you.html).

It's not that I don't expect people to take away that I'm a prick after an exchange like the one we had--or that I actually give a fuck if they do. But, it tends to annoy me when someone does something like he did.

I went to that thread and typed a long comment which for one reason or another would not post properly. It's below this paragraph. Let me be fair, or as fair as I get, in saying that Mr. McCarthy might be a really swell person, I don't know him. I doubt that we'll be buds, but that's not terribly important.

________________________________________________

Most of us are grown up enough to consider the source on a blog when the other person is a frequent commenter. Apparently, you're not.

 

Your first post was an accusation. You said:

 

"His faith in the benevolence and omniscience of scientists who are just as corruptible as anyone else is willful blindness."

 

That's an accusation of all scientists as being corruptible; but wait, there's more.

 

This:

 

"Science, as a profession, isn’t notably good at following its own rules, as the frequent retraction of papers, at times due to fraud, quite often due to the review process being either faulty or fraudulent, itself."

 

is your reply to my comment that scientists, as a class, are no more or less dishonest than other people.

 

Did you miss the bit in my second comment where I said:

 

"Right. That shit happens in every profession except politics and religion."

 

BEFORE saying:

 

"I don’t believe in omniscience, being atheist I expeshly don’t believe in GODLY omniscience." ?

 

It was you who first brought up omniscience which, though you may be unaware, is a faculty that is demonstrably unavailable to humans.

 

FWIW, I don't accept as "settled" the issue of the safety, efficacy or economic fairy dust of GMO's, NuKiller power, U.S. foreign policy or any of a large number of other products and enterprises that public and private corporations or the gummint engage in.

 

You never answered this question:

 

"So, who brought the fraud to the attention of the scientific journal? It had to be someone with at least a modicum of scientific training, yes?"

 

So, who was it that broke the story and what is the level of their scientific  expertise? For that matter how do MOST of these stories wind up being told? It's not like anyone who has no understanding of science is going to be able to refute it. It's a classic slippery slope argument.

 

You seem to have a hard-on for science; why do you even use sciency stuff like the internet?

Home of the Free, Land of the Mutt

N.B.:

If you're coming here from FTB, welcome. Unless you're one of the several trollishfuckbags that have infested the blog of late. If that's the case, Fuck OFF!

Comments are moderated because some of my lurkers are very sweet people who do NOT want to read comments by people who use words such as, "Fuck", "Fucker", "Asshole", "Douchebag" and other profane or obscene terms*.

"We were not a nation of immigrants in 1789.”

Thus speweth Pat PuKKKecannon, here:

http://www.wnd.com/2014/07/america-no-longer-1-nation-1-people/

He's right that they weren't REAL immigrants, expeshly if you think of MurKKKa being more like Sudetenland in 1938 or Silesia at around the same time. Not immigrants, except in the same sense as the Scots-Irish in Belfast and other parts of Northern Ireland were in the period ca. 1600--1750. After 1715 a lot of the Scots-Irish came to the colonies and did much the same as they done in Ireland, supplanting the original inhabitants (and in both cases helping the Crown to rid itself of "troublesome" individuals, tribes and nations.

and that's only ONE of the numerous, assholishly obnoxious and completely fucking WRONG memes that Pat is pushing in his latest Op-Fucked-in-the-head columns @ WND. How anyone can consider people like PuKKKecannon, Scalia and other ReiKKKwingers to have EVER been intelligent is way the hell beyond me.

This:

http://www.charliekeenan.com/product/homeland-security-t-shirt/#

is one of my favorite t-shirts, since the first time I ever saw it. I'd buy one if I did that sort of thing.

Needless to say but the current FUKKAK** at the U.S./Mexico border is sorta pickin' up where Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and some other places since 1945 left off in the area of killing totally innocent people for being fucking alive and hurting our fee-fees.

This:

http://asiasociety.org/blog/asia/video-former-mandarin-major-now-builds-us-china-relations-banjo

is how I prefer to have our international relationships fostered.

*      Unless they're my comments or the comments of people I like.

**    First Unholy KKKristian KKKrusade Against Kids

The KKKristian War on teh GAY!!

That above? That is your brain.


This below? That is your brain on teh GAY!




It appears that the largely KKKristianist ReiKKKwing of the GOP* has decided that flogging one dead horse, The War on Drugs, is not enough.

Now they want to show the same level of the Burnin' Stoopit indignorance and bigotry on another front--the War Against teh GAY!

I don't got no crystal ball but I can see a line clear to the horizon, starting with the Chik-Fil-Aholes who will now want to restate their "religious convictions" that require them to be complete dicks. Not that they need to tell us twice that they're complete dicks.







*   The 99+% that give the rest a bad name.

Hitler took away our gunz, no, wait it was Putin, no wait, we had gunz but decided not to fire them at Russian Spetnatz and fucking tanks, 'kay? thxbye.

Tell me that I'm just a bit behind the curve and other people have been trumpeting this loudly from the rooftops.

Crimea had LOTZAGUNZ when they got annexed by Putin.

This:

http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/cp/Ukraine

says that Ukraine (of which Crimea WAS a part) had something like 6+ gunz per person. And we're not talkin' bout single shot, bolt action .22 cal. "plinkerz*"; nosireebob, we're talkin' bout AK-47's and other military weppins--a fuckton or so of them.

I gotta do some more googlin' and Buddy the Wonderdog sez I need a walk** and so there's that. This might get more treatment later.







*    According to at least one FBI source the round used most frequently for killin' people. The source is several years (or more) old so it may have changed, still....


**  I have not, to date, had to kill anyone or even carry a Colt 1911 in my Kimber 4000183 CC holster. And Buddy never says "HooooooooooooooooooooAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!", neither.

Memorial Day is not Veterans' Day, homz.

I was over at Penigma's blog, just a few minutes ago. There is a post on there, thanking U.S. military veterans on this Memorial Day.

I can only speak for this veteran.

First; Thank you.

I am a veteran but I'm still alive. I appreciate that people want to thank U.S. soldiers, sailors, wingnuts* and marines. Please do it on Veteran's Day.  Memorial Day is for the fallen, either in battle as a result of wounds from battle or after their live is otherwise over. That's just my take, ymmv.

Second; I don't need praise or thanks for something that I did almost 50 years ago.

I enlisted in the AF (prolly one of the handful of genuinely thought out decisions I made in my life) and was lucky/smart enough to know that the AF sent far fewer troops into combat zones than the Army or Marines. I don't do large steel boats, very well.

I'm not a fighter (nor much of a lover--kvetching, though, I'm good at that, DAMNED GOOD!) so a non-killing job was good for me and my country. I don't need to be thanked for that, although I would not insult a person doing so--unless of course they are some political stuffed-shit** or a wingnut v 2.0 who is using the occasion to make political hay*** EXPESHLY if they're chicken hawks.

What I DO require from my country is that they honor the commitments made to me and other veterans in return for our service. Nothing more, nothing less.

It appears that the GOP is going to use the Phoenix VA scandal to push for privatization of the VA medical centers. If you want to do me and every veteran who uses or might use those services (just about everybody who has worn a uniform for the required time is potentially a client) make sure that your congress critters are aware of this AND opposed to it. And send that fucking asshole John Boehner a personal "Go FUCK Yourelf". Boehner did serve, sorta, eight weeks in he got an honorable discharge for a bad back. He looks remarkably good (although it appears that he could have been the original "Agent Orange" if he had gone into, say, the CIA). So, don't diss him. Thank him for his eight weeks of service--THEN tell him to go fuck himself.

Thank you, dear reader**** for taking the time to come and visit my blog.

Resume the parade of stuffed-shits (not a politician) with their faux patrioligiousness on Main St. USA! USA!! USA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




*   That term was used back in the early 70's by folks who disparaged USAF as "non-soldiers". I'm sorry it was stolen by people to use as a descriptor for the unhinged loonz that populate the ReiKKKwing of MurKKKan politics. Oh, btw, you guys that didn't like me and thought I was NOT a "REAL soldier"? Fuck you, very much.

**    NOT a typo.

***    Digressing for a moment from my current rambling incoherency. GOPinheadz like building strawmen and throwing crap against the wall to see what sticks. I'm not sure if they're aware that bricks can be made using straw and dung (Source: http://inhabitat.com/one-brick-two-bricks-lets-use-poo-bricks/). Indeed, I like to think of the modern GOPeabaggist Party of being built like a shitbrick house.

****   And yes, "reader", I know that I have "grate blog with much good idea for my think about." and I'm rushing out, first thing tomorrow to open a bank account so's I can send you some routing numbers and passwords to allow you to give me millions of dollaz so's I can buy Viagra at a HUGE discount that will only be small when viewed next to my enormous jo--, well, you know what I'm saying.

Today is Memorial Day

Today is Memorial Day.

Today is the day we honor and acknowledge those who died in military service on behalf of this country.

Today is the day we honor and acknowledge that sacrifice in defense of our nation, our form of government, our Constitution.

The core premise of our government, what is established by our Constitution, what was so beautifully articulated by Abraham Lincoln, president during the Civil War which inspired this holiday, is "government of the people, by the people, and for the people". 

That is what those men and women, all of them back to the American revolution died to protect and defend and to ensure continues.

That government of the people, by the people, takes place through the function of one man (or woman), and one vote.

That is NOT one vote ONLY for a few, special, privileged people who have the 'right' color, ethnicity or origins, the 'right' religion, or the 'right' economic status, or the 'right'  political ideology.

That is the opposite of one person/one vote.  That is the opposite of legitimate representative government - the form of government that defines our nation. 

That was what those wars where those people died we honor today were fought to oppose - to prevent control of government by the few, to prevent human beings from treatment as second class citizens.

I think about that every time I see an effort by conservatives to suppress or limit or restrict or in some way impair or make more difficult the right of people - American citizens - legally to exercise their right to vote.

The National Report recently ran this headline, reflecting an ugly moment of honesty and candor:

Secret McConnell Recording: Tea Party Lost Primaries Because It “hasn’t learned to conceal its racism”

“They have their strong base, their core. But, they don’t have success courting the middle. You know why? It’s their overt racism. The Tea Party hasn’t learned to conceal its racism. That’s where they fail. The Republican party knows better. Want to keep minority voters from the polls? Fine, set up hindrances to “prevent voter fraud”. Want to cut social services? Fine, but do it for “fiscal conservatism”. These Tea Party idiots and their supporters are out hollering the N word, calling Obama an ape, suggest Michelle is a transvestite. That alienates the middle. That’s what costs them. You want to think those things? Think them to yourselves. You want to legislate against that them? Come up with an excuse. The Tea Party will remain an also ran unless they work on their poker face a bit more”.

It should be obvious to Mitch McConnell and to all conservatives that keeping minority voters from the polls, or keeping anyone from voting as easily as others vote that he is dishonoring what those veterans fought and died to protect by voter suppression.

By voter suppression I mean

•  creating long lines by reducing polling places or making them inaccessible, 
• reducing early voter days, 
• not providing bathrooms to people who come to a location to vote, 
• purging legitimate voters from voting rolls, 
• voter ID when there is not a problem with voter fraud that would be solved by that solution-in-search-of-a-problem, 
• laws which disenfranchise criminals who have paid their debt to society so as to disproportionately disenfranchise minority ethnicities
• laws which make it more difficult or expensive for people to register to vote
• laws which privatize voting, and which require voting machines that result in 'hanging chads' or dubious electronic results vulnerable to tampering

Think of that today. Think about what people died to preserve, think about the ideal, think about Lincoln's words (a liberal), think about Jefferson's words (another liberal) in the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

All men (and women) are created equal, have equal rights, all men - and women - are NOT second class citizens.  Men and women have bled and died for that.

Whining while Discriminating = GOP

from the WAGE project:


Employers pay women less than they pay men for the same reason male dogs lick their balls - because they can.  And like male dogs, employers won't stop willingly.

THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR NOT PROVIDING EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK. PERIOD.  FULL STOP.

It is a systemic problem in need of a system-wide legal solution; it has been ongoing for more than 40 years without the 'free market' providing anything resembling a solution to the problem.

There is absolutely NO factual basis to claim that women don't want to earn equal pay - as was made by a Wisconsin conservative law maker who took as his factual authority his understanding of something claimed by the blond idiot Ann Coulter.

There is absolutely NO factual basis for a claim made by a Texas woman in that state's Republican party that men are better negotiators.  And there is absolutely no rational assertion that demanding to be paid fairly and equitably will result in being perceived as inferior in any way, or as whining.  These right wing women just make stuff up; it has no validity or substance. Those are all radical right wing excuses -- BAD excuses - for cheating women.

It is a systemic problem, part of the larger problem of suppressed compensation for large sectors of the labor market, and is reflected (for example) in the failure to adequately raise the minimum wage to keep pace with inflation.  It is reflected as well in the disproportionate number of women in so-called 'C-class' positions (CEO, COO, CFO, etc.) and in the smaller percentage of women in the more important positions of authority in government than the percentage of women in the population (governors, members of Congress and the Senate, and of course NO woman president EVER).

Conservatives hate women, they hate minorities, and they are the servile puppets of bad economic policies and corporate entities whom they serve instead of their human constituents.

Recently we had two examples of failed Republican thinking:
from MSNBC, quoting MN Rep Andrea Kieffer:

“We heard several bills last week about women’s issues, and I kept  thinking to myself: ‘These bills are putting us backwards in time. We  are losing the respect that we so dearly want in the workplace by  bringing up all these special bills for women, and almost making us look  like whiners,‘ “ Kieffer said last Wednesday.

In some Minnesota counties, women make considerably LESS than the average of $0.77 to every $1.00 earned by men for equal work.  In Minnesota, where the minimum wage is below the federal level, in some counties the average is considerably lower.

Kieffer is playing the front-person for the Republican line which is trying out the stratagem of using their token women to make misogynistic statements for a change, after the epic failure of their male-dominated "legitimate rape" and other public relations fiascos.  The right wing women are not any more successful; the problem is the message and the policies, not just the messenger.  We've seen other radical right conservative women fail, from Michele Bachmann on pretty much everything, to the offensive claims of women like Phyllis Schlaffy that "good" women are never sexually harassed in the workplace:

"Sexual harassment on the job is not a problem for virtuous women."
- Phyllis Schlafly

Of course, we KNOW that is a false assumption, and blaming victims for bad conduct by employers and those in management positions in authority over them is wrong, just like denying equal pay for equal work. NO woman 'deserves' to be harassed, just like no woman - or man, or child - deserves to be raped or otherwise sexually coerced, or abused in the workplace in any way.

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/p/phyllissch383405.html#o4LlVbJxGCugL5CG.99

Sexual harassment on the job is not a problem for virtuous women.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/p/phyllissch383405.html#o4LlVbJxGCugL5CG.99

And the same criticisms of factual deficiency can, of course, be said of any policy or legislation from the right relating to women's reproductive health, privacy, or freedom of choice.

Kieffer, a good little empty-headed plastic dolly reciting pre-recorded lines like an old "Chatty Cathy" doll, is just following like a good little soldier where she is directed to go by the big old white men in charge of the MN GOP.  There is not an original thought in the mix, or an independent idea.:

continuing from MSNBC:

“I wasn’t completely shocked or surprised. This seems to be a pattern  of really sort of ignorant remarks by Republican lawmakers in this  state as well as around the country. I think what we’re seeing is these  legislators and other Republican elected officials really, truly showing  their stripes,” Ken Martin, party chair of the Minnesota  Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, told msnbc.

Equal pay pits women against women in Texas 

The battle for equal pay continues to be a dividing issue in  states around the country, including Texas. Cari Christman, executive  director of a political action committee for Texas Republican women,  last weekend struggled to explain the GOP’s opposition to fair-pay laws.  Women don’t need measures like the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, she  argued in a television interview, mostly because “women are extremely  busy.” In an attempt to clarify her counterpart’s comments, Beth  Cubriel, executive director of the Texas Republican Party, this week  explained that men are better negotiators than women.

Republicans continue to demonstrate they do not value women, or view us as equal, ranging from comments like Rush Limbaugh's comment that
"we already have museums for women, they're called malls", but excused that comment by noting “Hey, I could have said brothel.”   to the Texas governor Republican candidate, Greg Abbott, who would undo the Lily Ledbetter Act -- and did, regarding women college professors in the Texas state education system (as well as in his own office, ditto minorities, who are paid less than white men).

Conservatives believe thing that are demonstrably NOT TRUE, things which are usually hateful, hurtful and demeaning. Facts are not the friends of conservatives; they appear to be totally unacquainted with them.

If we leave it to the radical right, women will lose the vote, be kept at home mostly barefoot and pregnant, less educated, dependent for financial support, and probably stuck in corsets and long dresses with high collars and long sleeves, and no freedom or equality.  The GOP and worse, the tea party  are oppressors and do not believe in or value women, the family, genuine equality or freedom.  Their evil actions give the lie to their words, and to add insult to the injury, they don't even make the effort to produce credible lies.  The radical right deserves to lose badly in the 2014 election cycle, and this is an issue that will hurt them more than most.

Conservatives must go.

Follow on pilin-on Jimbo

Poor, poor pitiful Jimbo, he likes to come over to Southern Beale's blog and leave his bons mal.

It's okay with me if he does that, as long as he doesn't mind being pointed at, laughed at and vilified for it.

After being criticized for parroting the ReiKKKwing's anti-Obamacare propaganda (yesterday), he said that he doesn't know who Frank Luntz is and he doesn't listen to Fox. I find the first claim to be plausible (although not really excusable) the second? Nah.

This was my comment following his latest (and as in the previous post it's got a few edits: sue me)
___________________________________________________

“I have no clue who Luntz is as I do not watch Fox News ”

You used ten words more than were necessary, counting backwards from “News”.

THIS:

“Luntz frequently tests word and phrase choices using focus groups and interviews. His stated purpose in this is the goal of causing audiences to react based on emotion. “80 percent of our life is emotion, and only 20 percent is intellect. I am much more interested in how you feel than how you think.” “If I respond to you quietly, the viewer at home is going to have a different reaction than if I respond to you with emotion and with passion and I wave my arms around. Somebody like this is an intellectual; somebody like this is a freak.”[3]

In an article in The New Yorker Luntz is quoted as saying, “The way my words are created is by taking the words of others…. I’ve moderated an average of a hundred plus focus groups a year over five years… I show them language that I’ve created. Then I leave a line for them to create language for me.”[8]

In a January 9, 2007, interview on Fresh Air with Terry Gross, Luntz redefined the term “Orwellian” in a positive sense, saying that if one reads Orwell’s Essay On Language (presumably referring to Politics and the English Language), “To be ‘Orwellian’ is to speak with absolute clarity, to be succinct, to explain what the event is, to talk about what triggers something happening… and to do so without any pejorative whatsoever.”[9]

Luntz’s description of “Orwellian” is considered to contradict both its popularly-defined meaning as well as that defined by George Orwell.”

and this:

“Luntz was Pat Buchanan’s pollster during the 1992 U.S. Republican presidential primary, and later that year served as Ross Perot’s pollster in the general election.[11]
Luntz also served as Newt Gingrich’s pollster in mid-1990s for the Contract with America.[12] During that time, he helped Gingrich produce a GOPAC memo that encouraged Republicans to “speak like Newt” by describing Democrats and Democratic policies using words such as “corrupt,” “devour,” “greed,” “hypocrisy,” “liberal,” “sick,” and “traitors.”[13][14]”

are both from wiki. There’s a fuckton of primary source material on Luntz, a lot of it true, the rest is from GOP/RNC sources and various ReiKKKwing “(NON)Think tanks” and “expertz.”.

This:

“IN THE SPRING of 2009, as the titanic fight over President Barack Obama’s health care proposal was beginning, Frank Luntz—an infamous Republican consultant who specializes in the language of politics—drew up a confidential 28-page report (PDF) for congressional GOPers on how they could confront, and defeat, Obama on this crucial issue. He suggested that they use a particular phrase: “Government takeover of health care.” And they did. Again and again, for the entire months-long debate. During one Meet the Press appearance, Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), then the House minority leader, referred to Obama’s plan as a “government takeover” five times (without once being challenged).”

is from Mother Jones (an unabashedly progressive source (one that is not funded by some deep pocketed billionaire assholes who have a vested interest in extracting money--without offering anything of value in return--from the working poor and middle class) and there’s plenty more to read.

Luntz and his fellow Liars-for-hire pretty much CREATED the current problems that we are seeing with Obamacare. A large part of their “work” concentrated on disinformation, misinformation outright fabrication to sway the low information voter (Yes, Jimbo, that would be your crowd). Utilizing pretty much the same tactics as the MIC (you can look it up) and the NRA and the KKKristianist ReiKKKwing to gin up the hatred for all things that do NOT make the 1%’ers any moolah. They also got at least 16 states to go along with the GOPers' Congressional obstructionism In order to get the fundies and other Teabaggists on their side they throw them the red meat on hot button issues like teh GAYanything, evillution, uppity wimmen and their satanic desire to control their own vaginas, AGW and last, but certainly not least, people who have the temerity to be PWB*.

Now, now, Jimbo, I know that you might want to offer that Frank Luntz has a BA and a Doctorate from OXFORD UNIVERSITY. Indeed he does, those degrees qualify him to be a propagandist, not an economic analyst or healthcare delivery systems specialist.

Read up on Luntz and his cronies or don’t and just keep coming here and shoveling their shit into the threads. I’ll be waiting to call “bullshit” and tell you that you’re an idiot.


* Presidentin’ While Black

IT COSTS TOO MUCH! IT COSTS TOO MUCH!! IT COSTS TOO M--, HUH! I'M SAVING MONEY? THAT CAN'T BE RIGHT!

And here we have another post engendered by a spectacularly braindead member of the Teabaggist Nation's comment, here:

http://southernbeale.wordpress.com/2014/03/17/best-healthcare-in-the-world-v-eleventybillion/#comments

My comment got away from me, as tends to happen, and so I copied it to post here as I wasn't sure that it would fit on Southern Beale's comments section. It appears it did. This is a slightly edited version of that comment.

_________________________________________

"“If it had been $500 I would not have been able to afford it.” What do you suggest for the people that now have $1000 or higher deductibles to go with their new Obamacare health insurance plans?
If you can’t afford the deductible do you really have health insurance or access to health care?"

If I didn't have the VA, shit for brains, I'd be in that pool of people who didn't have any kind of coverage UNTIL Obamacare came along.

Is Obamacare the panacea for the endemic clusterfuck that is the current state of U.S. healthcare? Not hardly. Is it WORSE for those who had NO coverage before?  Ask anyone who's on it--Anyone who isn't too stupid to understand basic economics or isn't busy shilling for the GOP, like this useful idiot:

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140310/LIFESTYLE03/303100100/Dexter-cancer-patient-who-called-health-care-unaffordable-will-save-more-than-1K

who, it turns out (wotta sooprize!):

"is the ex-wife of Mark Boonstra, the former Washtenaw County GOP chairman whom Gov. Rick Snyder appointed to the Michigan Court of Appeals in 2012."

Now, I don't know about you, Jimbo, but I suspect that the last thing an ex-wife of mine (especially one who claims as Debbie Boonstra did, that she's NEVER been political) would be interested in doing is giving MY political party a boost. She's either too fucking dumb to do her own shopping or she's lying--there's really not a middle ground.

Specific facts, Mr. Sooperjeenyus, you need specific facts. Give us the plan to plan comparisons, not your fucking bullshit talking points. You libertardlican moronz are constantly spewing anecdotal and apocryphal stories about how you're all being fucked over by Obamacare without any genuine DATA to back up your hand waving healthcare horror stories.

You want to come here and peddle your Kochian bullshit, be prepared to be called a liar, jerkoff.

Based on numerous earlier comments by you, I'm guessing that your default position is that people who aren't you and your near and dear can go fuck themselves if life throws them a curve like cancer;  they get seriously injured in an auto accident caused by some idiot who has no insurance or shot by some moron with a semi-automatic handgun, 14 in the mag, 1 in the pipe and fewer than that many functioning brain cells to work with.

Do you have any idea why healthcare in general and visits to ER's in particular are so expensive? It's BECAUSE people who don't have money or insurance use them for minor injuries and low-threat illness ISNTEAD of a doctor. The patient is seen, diagnosed, treated and sometimes admitted for further treatment. A bill is sent and ignored because the recipient of the bill has NO FUCKING MONEY and NO FUCKING INSURANCE. Do you get how that works, Jimbo?

I'm not sure how you think that keeping people from having some sort of coverage, so that they can see a doctor or nurse practitioner without going to a fucking hospital is going to be a net cost savings device. Explain to me WHAT mechanism will do a better job, go ahead--but do some reading before you say something else as stupid as what you said in your most recent comment. Or do you simply think that we should just let people get sick and die or hunt them down to eliminate them from society*. Those are pretty much the three choices you have, you selfish, self-centered, sanctimonious schmuck.

*  Fortunately, for me--at least for the time being--I'm a veteran and all of those flagwaving asshole republicans in Congress are restrained by their need to appear to give a fuck about veterans are restrained from following their native inclination to cut any funding that doesn't make the rich richer or increase the level of intrusiveness into women's vaginas.

GAY, it's the NEWEST black!

I often get my ideas for posts by visiting other peoples' blogs and seeing a post that they've written.

I read the post and think to myself:

"This calls for some truly absurdist comment."

and, well, things just get legs, noI'msane?

Ms. dog gone over at Penigma put up a post yesterday about the idiocy of the now completely Teabagged GOP (in her defense, idiocy is about the only GOPeabaggist activity that there IS goin' on); it's here:

http://penigma.blogspot.com/2014/03/gay-black-any-minority-that-is-not-old.html#comment-form

It's like they think that the poor, jobless, homeless, illiterate or ill--without health insurance--people are in those categories by having made a  conscious decision to be there. Actually, given a choice between any of those things and being a heartless, braindead, pack mentality, KKKristian tribalist Teabaggin' piece-of-shit, I think that many of us WOULD choose to be in one of the former categories. 

I was going to leave a reply but then I decided, wth, I'll just do a post about that post. Here 'tis.

________________________________________

Per Mr. Stewart's face-palm moment in the linked post, the leftist propagandists are trying to get you to buy into the notion that it's the racebaitin', gayhatin', witch huntin' majority that IS the SA arm of the post-1960's GOP are makin' shit up as fast as they can. They will try to convince you that it's all a
"Great Rightwing Conspiracy" to just say things that are not true. Like, if it's not some fucking nonsense about Obamandingo's FEMA Death Camps, run by his Islamatheonazi , nancybooted jackthugs who're comin' for yer gunz and white wimmen then it might be the meme about how Obamascare healthplans are going to be forced on MurKKKa's TROO PATRIUTZ(tm) by Shariacourt judgimams! That's what they want you to believe, that we, the Party-O-GOD are horrible people and liars!

But, now, NOW, the truth is out. MurKKKa is poised to tip over the precipice! Our GREAT AND GODLY NATION is about to go full S&G*!! Teh GAYmawwiage is becoming MANDATORY, state by state; the Stars&Bars, er, I mean the Stars&Stripes will be replaced by the Rainbow Battle Flag of Dominance and Ruination!!!

There will be two sets of drinkin' fountains. The ones for teh GAYZ will be at a normal, convenient height but the ones for Heterochristians will be at a height that forces them to bend double at the waist and grab their ankles!!!!*** and THEN drop their trousers 6!. Oh, wait, a minute, that'll have to go the other way around (note to self: for speech at the rally, change it to "Drop trou, bend double at the waist and grab your ankles) yeah, okay.

And that's just the beginning. Within a year or two, your home and business will be confiscated and turned over to one of teh GAY, unless you're willin' to pass by doin' your job while wearin' lipstick and a tutu (if you're a man) or a flannel shirt, DADjeanz and Doc Martens (for the wimmin) 7!

Then, in rapid succession, they'll take your good, GODfearing children and put them in GAYMadrassas where they will have to learn samesexlove and wear really gorgeous outfits 8! They'll have their choice of beverages with their bento box lunches, as long as it's HOMO milk 9!

Then, when they've completely taken over our beautiful country, they'll be comin' for YOU 10! That's right, Mr./Miss/Mrs. tolerant, complacent, live'n'letlive, wimpy JESUS worshipper 11! The ObamandingoFEMA will come for YOU and put YOU into their festively painted tumbrils**** and take YOU off to teh GAY Death Camps 12! When YOU arrive YOU will be stripped naked by very well built and quite attractive young men (or ladeez, as the case warrants) and forced to watch, "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" or some other GAYhorror propaganda film***** 13! After they have debased, despoiled and disgraced YOU with their torturing, they will give you a choice; embrace teh GAYNESS, go over to the Multi-colored Side OR DIE 14! Choose YHWH and you're off to the GAYotine highway 15!

Hey, bunky, I'll bet that scared out ALL your body fluids (when you're "Shitscared" it's not a convenient, tight package, if you get my drift? But, I mean, really, didn't that just give your poor, persecuted KKKristian heart a little bit of a thrill (especially that last bit about being stripped and all--c'mon you KNOW that you had some sinful thoughts at that point).


I've been thinking about turning black for a long time, now, just for the free Cadillac, gummint supplied crack'n'smack and all that sweet, sweet TANF (Up to $10K/ week if you use just this one weird trick! True story).

Your post makes me think, however, that turning black AND teh GAY at  the same time would be a much better idea. That way I would get all of the above plus I'd be able to make the huge majority of U.S.ians that are Christians all butt-hurty by making them bake GAYmawwiage cakes and divorce their current spouses to marry same-sex in-laws**



*  Sodomistical & Gommoreahic

**  We're only thinking of the children. t's far better for them to be able to tell all of their classmates that instead of having two daddies or mommies that they can, for example, say, "I have two daddies, but one of them is my uncle, so that's all good, yeah?". Well, you've heard of "KKKompassionate KKKonservatism", right. This is Accomodationist Atheism.

***   In the interest of pixel conservation, I will, in future use a symbol/numeric, um, symbol, starting with "5!" to appropriately convey the escalating level of urgency in dealing with the plummeting level of morality being FORCED upon us by teh Gayz 5! (CewudImeen?).

**** They'll look somethin' like this guy:  http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=still+photos+of+the+child+catcher&id=FB792A8BBC845A122306A4091E58A5ED1D881D48&FORM=IQFRBA#view=detail&id=DA634F33FEDF172BBBF54479A842D5CDD27D2DCC&selectedIndex=6


*****  YOU have to admit that Terence Stamp looks way less like a homofascist in "Priscilla" than he does here:  http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Terence+Stamp+as+general+in+Superman&id=4D6536845EAF420D6CE67DE99BCFA09AD8C022D2&FORM=IQFRBA#view=detail&id=2661604A51E4E3B56A3F4D2EADBD2182E919F800&selectedIndex=178

For the right wing nuts of all stripes, flavors and varieties

Science is the future

Priorities, always priorities. And perhaps failed values.

And more science

The Radical Right subset of propagandists are in high gear.

Understandably, the main stream media is not joining in their hysteria mongering.   It is unique to the crazy right wing nuts that they need relentlessly to present themselves as victims when they are nothing of the kind; it is embarrassing what a bunch of pathetic, gullible, lying whiners conservatives have become.  Make no mistake, this is a radical right driven faux narrative, it is not bi-partisan.

The purveyors of prime red meat propaganda have been claiming gun confiscations in New York, New Jersey, and now Connecticut, with the fear-mongering that other locations will be next -- "COMING TO A STATE NEAR YOU, SOON." and "RUN AROUND WITH YOUR HAIR ON FIRE PANIC".  Without the lie, the "anti-gummint" rhetoric is just ludicrously silly pure B.S.

So, the radical right gun extremists LIE. Loudly. Often. They appeal shamelessly to the fact-averse and the willfully ignorant.

The only problem with the propaganda is that no such confiscations or legal seizures have taken place. (Confiscation is defined, for a working definition here, as a legal seizure involving due process in court.)

At issue are the gun control laws in Connecticut and New York. The propagandists are running around with loaded rhetoric and their hair on fire, claiming that "OH MY GOD! The GUMMINT IS COMIN' Ta TAKE OUR GUNS!", and that law enforcement is going to be going house to house, helmet and visor wearing, bullet-proof vests buckled in place, jackboots polished to a high gloss, kicking down the doors and tossing the house looking for your illegal assault weapon.  And .....maybe shooting your dog or kid, depending on the propagandist.

Here is the reality, which differs MARKEDLY from the propaganda on all points.

First of all, if you did not register your assault rifle and/ or your large capacity magazine, during the nearly nine month period available to do so to be grandfathered in,  you were stupid, probably that special kind of stupid unique to the delusional gun-obsessed, as distinct from normal people who have a rational view of their guns.

A letter WAS sent out, to people who tried to register their assault weapons and large capacity mags AFTER it was too late to do so.  THOSE people were informed that they were too late - because they were, and because the law as written had no late provisions in it- so people were informed of their alternatives which were:

1. VOLUNTARILY turn over the weapon or mags to law enforcement.

2. Take it out of state

3. Sell it to an FFL dealer

4. render it inoperable (aka D-WAT it.)

If you do number 4, you could turn the former assault rifle it into a great desk lamp for the gun-nut man-cave....

Nowhere is the word confiscation used, nowhere is it implied, or suggested.  Calls to the CT Dept. of Public Protection Office, Firearms division indicate no such action or communication about action is contemplated.  Ditto calls to the CT AG. 

What I was told, and what I confirmed, is that the ONLY way for law enforcement to seize a weapon, ammo or a magazine is if a person is in imminent danger to themselves or other, due to apparent mental illness or if they are committing or CLEARLY about to commit a crime.  That is not the result of the post-Sandy Hook law, by the way -- THAT dates back to 1998.

The only way for seizure of an illegal assault weapon is through a court-issued warrant, and then only after a court hearing has ruled on the legality/illegality of the weapon.  Simply receiving a letter that your request for registration was too late is NOT grounds for such a warrant, because there are multiple options for possible legal disposal of the now-illegal firearms, etc.  That means that while you clearly had an assault rifle, etc. AT ONE TIME, there is insufficient basis to issue a warrant, because there is absolutely no information that shows you still have that firearm after receiving the letter, and the state themselves provided you with the information to act legally.  The assumption has to be that you are legal and law abiding, not that you are guilty and unlawful. Otherwise you have grounds to dispute the legality of the warrant, and anything that results from it - or so I have been told.  I'm not a lawyer, nor do I claim to be.  However there does seem to be ample support for the basis and success of such a challenge in other contexts, in the form of what is in legal terminology, a motion to suppress  under the exclusionary rule, and the protections of the 4th Amendment against unlawful search and seizure, as well as possible protection under state Constitutions.

So, if you are serious about wanting to commit civil disobedience to protest the law which made having an UNREGISTERED assault weapon illegal, you pretty much have to take your assault weapon with you into the nearest police station with you, and dare them to arrest you.

If you are not willing to engage in that kind of protest and to face arrest and prosecution, you are just another person who is a common criminal, a person who makes the choice to do something against the law, hoping you won't get caught and held accountable.

Those who did not register their now-illegal assault weapons and large capacity magazines so as to have them grandfathered in legally were pretty stupid.  They are now NOT law abiding gun owners, when they could have so.  But if an assault weapon owner did not do the smart and legal thing, there is absolutely zero reason to expect their door to be kicked in by storm-trooper gun-grabbing LEOs.  That has not happened, will not happen, could not happen.

We hear, often, from the gun-deluded, that the possession of firearms leads to a polite society.  Ordinarily I would strenuously disagree with that point of view, given our daily occurrence of road rage and other violence with firearms where people behave badly instead of better because of possessing weapons (legal or otherwise).  However, given that a person who commits domestic violence, resulting in the issuing of a restraining order, criminal or civil, might also address possession of guns, both legal and illegal, we might hope that before hitting a spouse or significant other, the domestic abuser might want to think about what will happen if his intended victim testifies under oath that he has an illegal assault rifle and/or illegal large capacity magazines.  Just maybe, in order to keep his dirty little secret a continuing secret, he will control that impulse to commit abuse.

I doubt it, but we can hope.

Bullshit anti-unionist memes by bullshit anti-unioist memers

My right hand is kinda hurty because a surgeon took out a non-standard issue part, yesterday and wrapped it up with some gauze'n'stuff. OT, but do you ever notice how bandages and casts are like snow? When they're all new and sparkly you get, like, GIGAsympathy. But, when the bandages get sorta shopworn or your cast has things like, "I'm on stoopid!" with arrow pointing at YOU, well, people start thinking that you're homeless or clumsy or whatever. Just a thought.

Anyhoo:

Southern Beale, who has a very nice, generally civil blog, is a bit of firebrand at times. I like that about her blog--also, too, she does most of the heavy lifting with sources and suchlike. The only drawback is that general civility of hers. It often is extended to mouth-breathing, braindead fucktards and other KKKonservaKKKlowns of the reptilican stench,  er, I mean, "stripe", yeah, that's what I meant. Wait, a second, skunks are stenchy AND stripey. Winning!

One of her more obdurately indignorant trolls is a feller who signs as "Jim from Memphis". He seems to specialize in trollin' any OP/blog thread that has a progressive liberal flavah. His latest attempt at "proving" how wrong liebral ideas are was on this thread:

http://southernbeale.wordpress.com/2014/02/11/i-hate-it-when-mom-and-dad-fight/

about the upcoming vote for union representation at the Volkswagen plant in TN.

Along comes Jim with his completely nonsensical assertions, straight from whichever "Screw off the top-o-yer skull and shovel in some GOPbullshit" meeting or website he was at after being assigned to disinformatitize the thread.

I tire of this idiocy, it's never original, and it's never undebunked. It's always the same boilerplate horseshit that is a specialty of the ReiKKKwing noise machine.

I tend to be less patient than most folks and when my hand hurts and I have to waste my time with assholes like Jim, lest his lies go unchallenged, I tend to be, um, impolitic. Whatever.

Jimbo, this one's for you, you braindead fucktard.

______________________________________________________________________

Fortunately, for you, Jimbo--and the rest of the Teabaggist Indignorati that sometimes infest the threads here--my hand is wrapped up in a lot of gauze and tape after having something removed from it yesterday by a nice bunch of doctors at that socialist VA Medical Center in Syracuse. Because of the limited freedom of movement and some pain in that hand, I won't be bothering with completely deconstructing your Randian talking points.

Union contracts ensure that people that the union sends to do a job are actually qualified to do it.

Your precious "Free market" approach to doing things--always with the least skilled/cheapest labor available leads to mining disasters (UAW people are NOT in management, the management that makes the stupid/criminal decisions about mine safety that result in those disasters). Teacher's unions work with both the state and various school districts to make sure that teachers are qualified/certified to teach the subject and to work with the student population--unlike private KKKristian schools and homeschooling religidiots who teach "creationism" and bogus, revisionist history as a matter of pride.
No union, at GM, Ford, Chrysler, U.S. Steel, Cannon Textiles, Computer City, Sears, J.C. Penney, any Wall Street Investment house, any major bank or the hundreds of other companies that have lost $Trillionz, FUCKING TRILLIONZ, JIMBO, in the last 30 years--gambling with their shareholders' equity (and, in many cases, their employees pension funds) on some "get rich quick" scheme.

Nope, sunny jim, it's capitalist managers/owners that have made every fucking one of those decisions whether they were offshoring to Asia or keeping the jobs as close as Mexico--cutting costs AND quality by having unqualified chuckleheads making decisions to take short term profits and externalize long term environmental and infrastructural damage or practice economic terrorism against communities that don't want to "get along to go along" (per Mr. Sam).

And do you know who RILLY HATEZ ON UNIONZ, Jim? Well, here's a hint; it ain't democrats, liberals, progressives or reasonably sane republicans. The folks that HATE unions are, overwhelmingly, uneducated/ineducable boobz like you--useful idiots to the 1%'ers--the investing class AND totalitarian leaders of every stripe.

There's an enduring and completely false meme amongst the gunzloonz that Hitler's worst anti-democratic act was to strip teh jooooooos of their gunzrightz*. But, long before Hitler's heinous "Final solution" was implemented, waaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in 1933 he had gutted the union movement in Germany by rolling up all of the various trade unions into TWO unions, both subservient to the Nazi party**--after jailing, beating, killing and otherwise intimidating their various leaders. This was accomplished simultaneously with their outlawing of political parties who opposed the Nazi's militarism, nationalism, expansionism and totalitarianism.

So, the company you keep, in your anti-union feelings, is at best a group of greedy, deceitful and callous profiteers; at worst, it is a band of murderous fucking thugs with the blood of millions on their hands. Oh, I almost forgot, them guyz? they're all racists, too. Sorry, Jimbo, it seems that you're in bed with a buncha guyz who all won the asshole quinella.

You, the guy who makes so much fucking money that Obamandingotaxation  is puttin' a hurt on you? You're poor; if you ever had a soul, it's homeless.

Fuck off.

*  Which didn't make a pisshole in a snowdrift's difference to how the jews were dealt with. If they had resisted with gunz they would simply have died sooner when their entire community was leveled by Wehrmacht tanks or Luftwaffe bombers

** Another enduring meme of the ReiKKKwing is that 'Dolfie HAD TO stop teh unionz, cuz they was corrupt commies. Oddly, his litany of invectives against unions was something like that he employed when talking about European Jews, gypsies, slavs and other undesirables and "sub-humans".

___________________________________________________-


You may now return to watching the Schochi Olympics or some other timefillin' activity you were involved in--just so long as it isn't work!!

Colorado Lies about 'Merica', and more lies about 'Merica' are repeated in Minnesota

cross-posted with permission from myself

The radical right is notoriously fact-averse, and engages in outright lying, deception and misrepresentation.

That is sadly true of the Minnesota religious right political activist group, The Minnesota Family Council as well.

On February 7th, that group sent out a mass-mailing that is clearly designed to create the misconception that patriotism, and especially the first Amendment, is under grievous attack from our public school system. The reality could not be further from the truth, but the error persists unaddressed and uncorrected in the right wing media and blogosphere bubble, and it persists in the attempts to use that propagandist fear-mongering to raise money for their cause. (When you have to lie, you're losing.)

Here is the claim from the email, and the link to the original false story at - no surprise - Fox News, complete with the usual obligatory deceptive image of a large American flag to make an emotional rather than rational appeal. taking a swipe at inclusion and multi-culturalism along the way:

It's Not "P.C." to Honor America??

"Students and parents at a Colorado high school are outraged after administrators turned down their request for a spirit week day honoring America because it might offend non-Americans.

'They said they didn't want to offend anyone from other countries or immigrants,' a 16-year-old member of the student council told me. 'They just really did not want to make anyone feel uncomfortable.'"

To the young patriots at Fort Collins High School, I offer these words: America, America, God shed His grace on Thee. Don't let your teachers tell you otherwise. --Todd Starnes, Fox News & Commentary

Of course, as is usually the case with these hysterical stories of conservative victimization, it's not true. In fact, it is not even remotely as represented by Fox News and the Minnesota Family Council's little fund-raising fear-mongering hate-promoting anti-public education system email.

From CBSlocal:
Poudre School District Releases Statement On ‘Merica Day’ Controversy
FORT COLLINS, Colo. (CBS4)- The Poudre School District has released a statement regarding “Spread the Love Week” dress-up days which at one time included a day called “Merica Monday.”

This is the statement they released: As Poudre School District, FCHS Student Council students and FCHS administration have continued discussions regarding the Spread the Love Week dress-up days, additional clarifying information has emerged.

Based on these conversations, we now understand that miscommunication and misunderstandings clouded the situation.

Originally, FCHS Student Council proposed Merica Monday (based on alliteration) as a dress up day to show pride in our country. Administration discussed concerns about the negative connotations of the term Merica with regard to being inclusive to the entire student body. At that time, Student Council presented alternatives including America Monday, My Country Monday and Patriotic Day. At that time, FCHS administration agreed to My Country Monday, but later reversed the decision. Amidst media and community attention, FCHS Administration and PSD released a statement earlier this week focused only on the negative connotations of the terminology surrounding Merica Monday and announcing Monday would be America Day. This offended members of the FCHS Student Council who had previously suggested this alternative. As a means of resolving the situation, both sides discussed the issue at length on Thursday. Everyone agreed that both sides had the best of intentions but missed opportunities and miscommunication caused the situation to escalate. Additionally, everyone agreed that all parties involved are proud of their country and this situation is not an indication that anyone involved is unpatriotic.

Student Council and administrators are committed to working as a team for the benefit of all FCHS students.

Spread the Love week is about unity and raising funds for the FCHS charity of choice, Respite Care Inc. It is about taking the time to see the good in our community. Dress-up days serve as a way to express our pride in the school and each other. They also serve as a means to get the student body excited to give to those who are less fortunate. Next week, it is important to remember that we are here to support each other and make our school, our town and our world a better place. We are Fort Collins High School and we are here to Spread the Love.

We encourage the Fort Collins High School and Poudre School District community to join us in Spreading the Love and donating to Respite Care Inc.

Yeah, NOTHING about making anyone feel bad about being American.  NO assault on our first amendment rights or anything remotely like what the radical right is claiming.  Radical righties are a bunch of dirty, ugly, bigoted liars.