Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Musings on the state of the world



Freddie Prinze, who is an actor, has been dissing Keifer Sutherland, who is also an actor. Who cares, I wonder? Why does he feel the need to do that? Whatever happened to the notion that if you can’t say something good about someone, say nothing at all? That almost always makes life more pleasant for all involved.


Sarah Palin has concocted a new TV channel. She’s gonna tell us the truth about Obama and other not real Americans. She’s gonna do an end-run around those lib’rul media folks! And you can participate for only $9.95 a month or about $100 per year.


I went poking through a bin of cheapo DVD movies at Walmart. Unscientific guess: 90% are steeped in violence…murder, mayhem, war, terror, ghoulish crap, etc. Argh!


What has happened in our country that we have so many absolutely stupid people? The political right, including teapot crackpots, are smothering our ability to govern effectively. Now they’re talking impeachment although they have no clue what Obama might have done to suffer such a thing. These stupid people deny climate change and global warming; they reject the “theory” of evolution even though they cannot define the word, “theory,” in its scientific sense. There is no question about either of these things; they are not debatable.

It’s like the idiot teacher who made her 8th-graders write an essay as to whether the Holocaust really happened!


 And how did we get so screwed up about guns? How did carrying loaded guns around in public get to be a symbol of freedom? Guns have only one purpose - to kill. I know they can be used in the sport of target shooting but one can do that with non-lethal weapons or ammo just as well. We kill almost 40,000 people a year in this country with guns! And the NRA, which has bought and paid for most of our politicians, insists we need more guns. Their latest crazy proposal argues that gun safety should be taught in elementary school.


It’s hard to believe that we are again fighting about the right to contraception. Contraception! As if there are not enough people in the world. And the doofuses who most oppose abortion are also most involved in the attempt to disallow the use of contraceptives, which, if they had their way, would mean more abortions! It’s a religious issue, nothing more. And this is supposed to be a secular country which means our laws are not based on religious beliefs!

The real nut cases have gone so far as to say that personhood begins at conception. Please. A fertilized egg is not a human being. A fetus is not a human being. One does not become a living, real human being until one is born and it doesn’t matter what the religious right or the Roman Church thinks about that because what they believe is based on religious precepts, which are fantasy and not reality!


In Pakistan a bunch of Muslim “true” believers attacked and killed a grandmother and her two daughters because they belong to an unacceptable sect of Islam and posted “objectionable material” online and that was blasphemous! Blasphemy has no meaning outside of religion. There is no such thing in real life.

This is religion at its worst. It is also the religion of much of the world, a religion that has no regard for human life or human freedom. Religion always, and I mean always, limits one’s freedom. If you belong to a religious sect, you have given up your autonomy and become a pissant who must believe what that sect preaches no matter how goddamn crazy it is!


A federal judge has ruled against Washington, D.C.’s ban on handguns in public. This seems to be how the 2nd amendment is now being interpreted: “The Second Amendment secures an individual right … to carry a common weapon outside the home for self-defense.” What? As an historian I would insist that the 2nd Amendment secures no such thing! The 2nd Amendment was to provide weapons for state militias in times of crisis - “well-regulated” state militias, not for every Dick who has a small penis and needs a gun to be a “man.”  The NRA has done its work of confusion and rewriting history very well!


Have you noticed that these days just about every commercial on TV has people jumping up and down or dancing on tables or generally making fools of themselves? Where did that crap come from? Kids can’t even sit down and eat a bowl of cereal without jumping up and dancing around the kitchen. People can’t take their RAV4 Toyota camping without jumping and screeching and hollering around a campfire. Craziness!


Lana Del Rey (whoever that is) says she has “Slept with a lot of guys in the industry.” I’m assuming she means the entertainment industry. Don’t know why she thinks it’s important to tell us that, though. It’s probably what everyone assumed anyway.  And why would you announce to the world that you are a slut?


Geraldo gave out some marriage advice the other day. For instance, he said men are the breadwinners, although he also admitted more women are working these days. Oh, and he claims that what women bring to a marriage is their youth! That’s it? Did I mention this bozo has been divorced four times?


You knew it would come to this!  The Church of Satan, referencing the recent Hobby Lobby decision by the Supremes, argues their female members have the right to refuse anti-choice materials when seeking an abortion. Thirty-five states require women to get “counseling” from a doctor before they can get an abortion (said “counseling,” of course, consists mainly of warning them about “non-existent health risks”). The Satanists say such laws “violate their members’ belief in scientific accuracy and the right to determine what to do with their own bodies.” Yes! Chew on that one, you Supreme Court christianists!


Speaking of really stupid, ignorant fools, I bring you Michele Bachmann (who, by the way, just might run for prez in 2016 - doesn’t that whet your whistle?). Ms. Bachmann has the solution for all those kids from down south trying to get into this country: Put ‘em in labor camps; make ‘em work; teach ‘em what they should know (like god and that this is and always has been a fundy Christianist country), the goal of which is to have “them pay off their past, present, and future care expenses, while assimilating them into American culture.”

Yes, this idiot says she follows the guy who some call the Prince of Peace.


“Political language … is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” —George Orwell


The White House (i.e. the Obama administration) put out another Global Warming warning today. According to Jason Furman, who chairs the Council of Economic Advisers, the cost of dealing with climate change rises by 40% each decade.

Some actions being taken include reducing methane emissions from the natural gas and distribution system; the establishment of new rules to cut methane emissions from oil and gas wells on public lands; and the Obama administration is partnering with IBM, Amazon, Microsoft, Coca Cola and other business entities to use available data to “help make agriculture and food production more resilient to climate change.”

Yeah, but does the average Joe on the street or the average crook on Wall Street really care?


Talk about being removed from reality:  As noted above, Sarah Palin and other of her ignorant compadres have been yammering about impeaching the president for months now. In fact, the newly-elected Majority Whip has said he would not take impeachment off the table. Other Repugs have been talking the talk, too.

But weepy John Boehner claims that this impeachment talk is a White House “scam.” The Obama folks dreamed it up in order to motivate their supporters to give more money and time to the Democratic Party. I’m always amazed at the ability of Republicans to make up things out of thin air and then insist that what they just created is reality.


Speaking of guns: Crooks and Liars reports that Peter Nathan Steinmetz, a brain scientist, was arrested at Phoenix Airport for waving an AR-15 around and actually pointing it at a couple of folks. He has the “right” to carry such a weapon in an airport, so his arrest was due to “inappropriately carrying” the weapon. What person in his right mind would do such a thing or condone such nonsense?

People with a very small brain!


Pam Bondi used to be a Hillsborough County (Florida) prosecutor. Then in 2010 she got elected to be Florida’s Attorney General. She has been a vocal mouthpiece for the criminal governor, Rick Scott. She’s also gotten rich. Before her election in 2010, her net worth was reported at $472,260. In 2012, it was $780,871. As 2013 drew to a close, it had jumped to $1.24 mil. Amazing, isn’t it? Poor girl makes good in Florida politics.

Thanks to our friends at Yborcitystogie for this bit of news.


It’s only Tuesday, but I don’t think things will improve much by Saturday.

Monday, July 28, 2014

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Sarah Palin in Denver at Conservative Summit



Listen to this rambling mess and note the slurring of words, the awkward silences, the weird sounds she makes. It makes one wonder if she was lifting a few glasses of Alaskan hooch before her speech.

If you have a strong stomach and can get all the way to the end you'll hear her start talking about how God does not drive parked cars.

She would sure make a great president, dontcha know.


[Thanks to Crooks and Liars where this video was posted yesterday by David Neiwert.]