man up, or shut up

Carville... didn't he make cakes?

clipped from punkrockhr.com Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities We never have honest discussions as Americans. If we did, we would talk about how the system is rigged. We are fooled into fighting over divisive cultural issues that aren’t all that divisive to anyone under 40, but we are never asked to weigh in on important issues like national security and foreign policy. We can’t get a fair shake and be involved in shaping our own economic destinies because the people in power have us arguing amongst ourselves over a smaller & smaller piece of the economic pie. The change we seek won’t come from Obama, the GOP, or anyone on television who profits from the status quo. The revolution will come from you

Dear Politician: (an open letter you may cut & paste)

Dear Elected Member of the Democratic Party:

I probably voted for you in the past election. Not because I like you, but because the other candidate most likely to win was an option I would not be able to tolerate.

I won't make that mistake again.

I could have voted my conscience, but we both know picking any other candidate would have the same ultimate effect of writing in someone I actually I thought could represent me. I chose, instead, to vote against the one I thought would do the most harm, by casting a ballot for the one whom I believed would do less harm, but would prevent the worst from happening.

It was akin to voting on which finger to get cut off. (Go ahead, pick.)

I usually say, "it's like being told you're getting a vote on getting a sharp stick in the eye, and showing up and finding the choices are 'right' and 'left.'"

But I feel in this case it's finding out they're holding a vote on cutting off one of your fingers, and you'd really like to say, "pinky," because you don't play piano and can count on one hand anyway, but you find the vote is open to a lot of other people, and most of them are voting either "thumb" or "index."

I'm sure they have their reasons for their choices - maybe they dislike the way you point your index finger at them, or the things to which you give your thumbs up, and maybe they all think it's the other fingers that are necessary, for observing marriage, rational discourse and having something you can extend whilst sipping tea - but, damnit, if you had to pick just one of those two, you'd really rather it was one and not the other.

And so you try to influence the decision in whatever small way you can.

I'm a registered Republican. Mostly because whenever I try to talk sense to someone who cannot see reason, and they counter logic with name-calling, staring in with, "you whinny, liberal, socialist..." I can say, "what do you mean? I'm a Republican." I do believe in small, responsible government. I don't like a government that wastes the funds its given, nor violates the trust of protection of its citizens. That is why I cannot vote for most of the candidates in the current Republican Party. They are not interested in a republic, they are fascists.

I believe this country is made up of resources, and for it to remain strong, those resources need to be protected for future generations. One of the country's strongest resources is its people, for a country is nothing if not the people that make it up. They need protecting as well.

That is why we have governments - to protect people from those that would do them harm.

I'm changing my party affiliation to Democrat. Again, not because I like you. So I can make whatever small gesture I can to ensure you, and people like you, represent the real will of the people - more that you have the interests of the people in mind - when you do the job you are being paid to do, or you will find yourself out of a job.

As I said, I cannot vote for those who have corrupted the party of Lincoln and Roosevelt, creating a circus of hatred and anti-intellectualism, all to obscure their giving of the country itself away to corporate greed. To the extent that you continue to work with them, I cannot vote for you, either. I'm changing my affiliation so I can vote against you in the next Democratic primary.

No amount of special interest cash-funded ads will dissuade me that you've sold my interests to them. You may think you're getting more votes by getting their support, but you sure as hell are losing mine.

Right twice a day

My wife is complaining about her new watch - which happens to be my watch. That it was once mine gives her license to speak disparagingly about it.

"This watch is crap." As is everything that is or once was mine, including my new smartphone (on which I'm writing this), one of our cars and our computer. While the computer was financed jointly, as resident geek it is my duty to maintain it. So, even though she has her own login, settings, applications, etc., and even though I can usually use it without issue, when something isn't working as well or as fast as it should, it's crap.

The issue with my... her new watch is the date window. She says the date doesn't advance at midnight like it should.

"Is it advancing at all?" I ask with the voice of an experienced help desk analyst.

"Yes, but it's advancing in the middle of the day, not at midnight."

"So you're saying the date is advancing at noon, not at midnight?"

"Yes."

I had to repeat that at least once more before it started to sink in. I eventually got a "shut up" out of her, as she started to reset the watch.

You bailed out my mistake, I deserve a bonus for that

we (you, I, us, the taxpayers) gave the "too big to fail" banks our money so they wouldn't collapse, collapse under their own weight from their own mistakes created by their own greed, and now that they're solvent again, they're rewarding themselves for the fuck up, instead of paying us back

clipped from open.salon.com 2009 closed with the stock market rebounding 61 percent from its March lows, and “Wall Street is ready to pat itself on the back for its huge gains with big bonuses,” potentially surpassing the record payouts of 2007. Wall Street’s 2009 bonus pool could total $200 billion the return to big bonuses will also allow Wall Street banks to claim billions in tax breaks: Many American banks already pay minuscule federal income taxes, the payout-related breaks will reduce their tax bills further Altogether, the top three Wall Street banks — Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley — will gain nearly $20 billion in tax breaks based on their employee compensation this year. Compensation related tax deductions will total about $80 billion across Wall Street, In 2008, Goldman Sachs paid an effective tax rate of just 1 percent NOT ONE OF THE BANKSTERS WHO COMMITTED THE FRAUD THAT CREATED THE MORTGAGE CRISIS HAS GONE TO JAIL.

I won't suffer, so you must

explain to me again why the entity you manage isn't doing as well as it should, and I'm the one who has to take the income hit

clipped from open.salon.com take to the streets and demand adequate funding for our children’s education instead of Wall Street bailouts and wars, economic hard times are precisely when workers need – and are motivated – to fight hardest in order to avoid being victimized and forced to bear the entire burden. workers in the private sector should demand that the company open its books and let the workers’ representatives determine for themselves how much the company is taking in, and where the money is going. Public sector workers who are asked to “share the pain” should demand that the money used to bail out Wall Street bankers and bomb civilian women and children be used instead to pay government workers decent wages to deliver public services. strong enough to force the bosses to share the benefits of the post-World War II economic boom with US workers, raising their standard of living to the highest in the world. The lessons of the militant labor union struggles of the prewar era must be relearned, and soon.

would you cut off your arm to save your leg?

to get what we got, what do we have to give up? What if that's not acceptable?

clipped from open.salon.com scared to death that, because they perceive limited health care benefits pie, it's they who are going to lose their slice in order to accommodate other's fair shares Why do we pay for war, to kill people, to kill our own, and balk to preserve health? Please add this to your essential reading list today.  I thank you.  Let's see how far this bill gets

I deserve health care, you don't

that's a paraphrase, but given comments from a certain drug-addicted blowhard, an accurate sentiment

clipped from www.huffingtonpost.com Limbaugh Lauds (Socialist) Medical Care in Hawaii I received no special treatment." in Hawaii, no one gets special treatment, because everyone can get it. all Members of Congress that have a medical office paid for by taxpayers Dick Cheney who had socialist pacemakers implanted paid for by the government, and George W who had a government-paid socialist colonoscopy while in office. Members of Congress over 65 get single-payer socialist medical care from Medicare. Hawaii nearly-universal since 1974. the costs of everything the highest in the nation, health care premiums in Hawaii, are nearly the lowest and their costs per medicare beneficiary are the lowest in the nation. Rush does not live in Hawaii and so his costs are not covered having that "socialist" system for more than 3 decades has not reduced the quality of the care he received. Rush appears to have survived his encounter with socialist medical care. If Hawaii-style medical care is good enough for Rush Limbaugh, it is good enough for me.

do who I say, not what I do

in closing: "I've long thought that the solution to the cheap, cost-free moralizing that leads very upstanding people like Karl Rove to want to ban same-sex marriages (which they don't want to enter into themselves, and thus cost them nothing) is to have those same "principles" apply consistently to all marriage laws. If Karl Rove, Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh and their friends and followers actually were required by law to stay married to their wives -- the way that "traditional marriage" was generally supposed to work -- the movement to have our secular laws conform to "traditional marriage" principles would almost certainly die a quick, quiet and well-deserved death."

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/pages/2010-California-Protection-of-Marriage-Act/

clipped from www.salon.com Rove: Champion of "traditional" divorce By Glenn Greenwald an outspoken opponent of same-sex marriage, citing "5,000 years of understanding the institution of marriage" as his justification.  He also famously engineered multiple referenda to incorporate a ban on same-sex marriage into various states' constitutions Texas' "no-fault" divorce law, basically allows any married couple to simply end their marriage because they feel like it.  one of the states which has constitutionally barred same-sex marriages, and has a Governor who explicitly cites Christian dogma as the reason to support that provision, yet the overwhelming majority of Texan citizens make sure that there's nothing in the law making their own marriages binding or permanent -- i.e., traditional.  They're willing to limit other people's marriage choices on moral grounds, but not their own, and thus have a law that lets them divorce whenever the mood strikes.

Win, or go home.

Anyone who's ever watched a football game, seen one team completely dominate the other in total offensive yardage, yet still lose the game, can understand why the current health care bill(s) being debated need to be fixed.

Most legislators, on the other side, understand the purpose of the game is to win - not both sides working together to rack up as many points for each other as they can.

I don't care what Harry Reid says, that the current legislation, as it's written, does a lot to fix what's broken. It does. A little. But too little. It is unacceptable in its current form. Agreeing to implement it is giving up.

"Gee, you guys played a pretty good first half, how about we call it a draw?"

If the other side cheats, uses sneaky, underhanded tricks to sway the game their way, you can't sit and cry that the ref didn't call it - you just have to play that much harder.

This isn't little league - both sides won't get trophies for just showing up. No one is going to congratulate you on game well-played, cheer you for scoring, no matter the outcome.

To my senators and congressmen: play well, or be traded next year.

What would Jesus buy?

Does Black Friday mean more to you than Good Friday?

Why are we upset that a retailer doesn't evangelize?

clipped from news.yahoo.com Christian Group Launches New Attack on Christmas Commercialism "Christians get all bent out of shape over the fact that someone didn't say 'Merry Christmas' when I walked into the store. But why are we expecting the store to tell our story? Advent Conspiracy churches have donated millions of dollars to dig wells in developing countries through Living Water International and other organizations. a fraction of the money Americans spend at retailers in the month of December could supply the entire world with clean water. one in which people spent a little less and thought a little more, expressing their love through something more meaningful than a gift card. A movement like the Advent Conspiracy is countercultural on two fronts - not just fighting the secular idea that Christmas is a month-long shopping and decorating ritual, but the powerful conservative notion that the holiday requires acknowledgement from the nation's retailers to be truly meaningful.

father & son

father & son

Who says we need reform?

Wife's premiums went up 55%, co-pays doubled, have 10% "co-insurance", deductible doubled. Now paying $6k/yr for $8k max payout.

Luckily we're not required to have ins. Wait, what? Well, at least we'll have public health care. Oh, about that...

clipped from www.salon.com Meet your new health insurance company overlords we still end up with a system that's based on private insurers that have no incentive whatsoever to control their costs A system based on private insurers won't control costs because private insurers barely compete against each other. you'd think the insurance industry would be subject to the antitrust laws the Senate bill still keeps Big Insurance safe from competition by preserving its privileged exemption from the antitrust laws. From the start, opponents of the public option have wanted to portray it as big government preying upon the market, and private insurers as the embodiment of the market. But it's just the reverse. Private insurers are exempt from competition. Without some mechanism forcing private insurers to compete, we're going to end up with a national healthcare system that's controlled by a handful of very large corporations accountable neither to American voters nor to the market.

Well just pound me in the ass and call me fish

Homemade shiv not included.

Seriously. Is this what you want your kids playing with (rated T, 13+)?

I sometimes think the various "Dope Wars" and "Mafia" games on Facebook, and certainly the likes of "Grand Theft Auto" are in bad taste (scoring points for engaging in criminal activity), but is this any better? I don't know if they're related to all the other "tycoon" games out there (Railway Tycoon, et al.) but this is going too far.

Or is it?

From the game description: "Private prisons have become the new growth industry." Unfortunately, that's true. And herein is the underlying problem. The description goes on: "You will construct and run an efficient rehabilitation facility with nothing but money on your mind." [emphasis added]

You are clearly not concerned with "rehabilitation" when there's "nothing but money on your mind."

News flash, folks: this is not a game - this is currently going on in this country in the real world. The US ranks 1st in the world in per capita prison population. That is, we put more of our citizens behind bars than any other modern nation. Why? Because we're inherently so bad? Because we're so much better than the rest of the world at fighting crime? Or because it's in the financial interests of a select few?

We're building prisons at a frightening rate - and still the ones we have are grossly overcrowded. We have a drug policy that puts teens in the hole until they're middle aged for having the audacity to get high. I could go on. I'll only mention tangentially the conspiracy theory about the plans to lock up large segments of the US population - like we did to the Japanese American citizens during the onset of WWII - during an imminently anticipated "civil unrest." Good thing we don't protest any more.

[CD-ROM Game - PRISON TYCOON.]

Hershey's Packaging Perfectly Contradicts Itself - mediabistro.com: AgencySpy

From the post: "It's bad enough that Hershey's has the audacity to make health-benefit claims on a bottle containing chocolate syrup. But by some oddity of logic, the nutrition facts lists the daily calcium percentage at "0%". During a recession, flat is the new up?"

via: Hershey's Packaging Perfectly Contradicts Itself - mediabistro.com: AgencySpy

what's wrong with mergers?

if it's so bad, why haven't we read anything about it?
</sarcasm>

clipped from www.salon.com Sure, NBC's Hulu is awesome -- but now Comcast is set to own Hulu. And free television online is not part of Comcast's business model. And Comcast is how 16 million American households connect to the Internet. Comcast is determined to prevent the watch-whatever-you-want-free future. massive cable companies that control broadband access to the Net for millions of Americans actually can affect the variety of options available to entertainment consumers Do only idiots pay for cable?