To say that the NFL has handled the Ray Rice spousal abuse situation poorly is akin to suggesting that Ebola is only slightly terminal if not treated properly.
Quite simply put, it has been atrocious. It has resulted in one bad decision after another as the league's head office staggers from one PR disaster to the next. And to top it off they now have to deal with the Adrian Peterson child abuse case.
Now I don't know if you have seen the pictures of this "spanking" or not, I have, and I honestly wish I hadn't. This wasn't "discipline", this was flat out, sadistic abuse. Mr. Peterson has not denied his involvement, nor denied the method by which he savagely beat his son (one of five from five different women I believe), but the excuse offered was "i got beat like that when I was growing up and I turned out fine." Well actually Mr. Peterson, no, no you didn't turn out fine. You turned out to be a fully grown adult that thinks it is perfectly normal, indeed just a regular part of growing up, to use a tree branch to beat your cowering, screaming son, bloody. You savagely beat him with a tree branch all over his body, including his genitals, because he swore at his sibling. Boy I bet he learned his lesson, huh?
His employer, the Minnesota Vikings, initially deactivated him from playing in the team's first home game this past weekend, ostensibly because of his off-field behavior/legal troubles, but more practically because he was in jail in Texas answering a warrant for the afore-mentioned child abuse. He then posted bail, and the team said he was reactivated for this upcoming weekend's game. Except that now he isn't because it turns out that this gem of a father has beaten at least another one of his children bloody. And there are pictures of that one too.
The NFL is now in an utter disarray as they try and figure this all out. They initially suspended Ray Rice for two games for knocking his fiance out cold, and dragging her unconscious body out of an elevator, then, when the videotape of the attack was made public suspended him indefinitely and his team fired him. Think about that for a second. He had admitted that he had knocked her out cold and dragged her limp, temporarily stunned body out of an elevator, but it wasn't until visual evidence of that attack was made public did either his team, or the league, think they might not want him around anymore.
With the Adrian Peterson case, photographic evidence of the results of his sadistic abuse was enough for one weeks' suspension, but he wasn't indefinitely suspended from team activities until photographic evidence of a second, separate beating of a different child came to light.
So, according to the NFL, if you knock your woman out, but there's no video you get a two week suspension, and if you beat one child bloody you only get a one week time-out. Perfect, so the moral is don't beat your woman senseless if it might be caught on video, and only beat one child to blood, because two bloodied children is just wrong....
My head hurts...
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
The National Felons League...Part I
As things go rapidly from bad to worse for the NFL (or, perhaps more accurately the National Felons League) as teams find out that a surprising number of their violent and aggressive players are just as violent and aggressive off the field as on, it strikes me as somewhat peculiar that the general public seems outraged by these events.
Let me explain; it's not just that the game they play itself is based on aggressive possession of someone else's territory, or that it is by design a male-dominated activity whereby women are solely seen as jiggling eye-candy on the sidelines at the games, but these multi-million dollar thugs have always been this abusive, and they have almost never had to face responsibility for their actions.
It starts out in high school where, in some parts of the country, 'Friday Night Lights' isn't just a sporting event, but a religious experience. The successful boys on the team get preferential treatment at the schools, and blind-eyes are turned by Johnny Law when they "act out" or engage in "typical boys just being boys" pranks like raping unconscious girls at under-age drinking parties.
They behave in a criminal manner, but, for the most part, it is swept under the carpet and they get back to the business of being star high-school athletes.
End result - no culpability for their actions.
Then they go to college. Here, where the booze is at least legal, the "boys will be boys" pranks tend to escalate to more grown-up crimes like, assault, DUI, aggravated rape so on and so on. These too are swept under the rug, as are the failing grades which get excused, or changed, or in some cases, have someone else take the exams for you, so that they can get back to the business of being star college athletes.
End result - no culpability for their actions.
Then they go to the NFL. The game is even faster, even more brutal, but the rewards are astronomically higher. This is being done in an arena where hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake, and where franchises are worth billions. Here the crimes move to the highest level, assault with deadly weapons, vehicular manslaughter, obstructing justice, spousal abuse, child abuse, murder, and murder-for-hire.
End result - the general public is outraged that these players would behave this way, because it's not as though they've played to a different set of rules than the rest of us since the first time their athletic prowess was discovered.
Oh wait....
Never mind...
Let me explain; it's not just that the game they play itself is based on aggressive possession of someone else's territory, or that it is by design a male-dominated activity whereby women are solely seen as jiggling eye-candy on the sidelines at the games, but these multi-million dollar thugs have always been this abusive, and they have almost never had to face responsibility for their actions.
It starts out in high school where, in some parts of the country, 'Friday Night Lights' isn't just a sporting event, but a religious experience. The successful boys on the team get preferential treatment at the schools, and blind-eyes are turned by Johnny Law when they "act out" or engage in "typical boys just being boys" pranks like raping unconscious girls at under-age drinking parties.
They behave in a criminal manner, but, for the most part, it is swept under the carpet and they get back to the business of being star high-school athletes.
End result - no culpability for their actions.
Then they go to college. Here, where the booze is at least legal, the "boys will be boys" pranks tend to escalate to more grown-up crimes like, assault, DUI, aggravated rape so on and so on. These too are swept under the rug, as are the failing grades which get excused, or changed, or in some cases, have someone else take the exams for you, so that they can get back to the business of being star college athletes.
End result - no culpability for their actions.
Then they go to the NFL. The game is even faster, even more brutal, but the rewards are astronomically higher. This is being done in an arena where hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake, and where franchises are worth billions. Here the crimes move to the highest level, assault with deadly weapons, vehicular manslaughter, obstructing justice, spousal abuse, child abuse, murder, and murder-for-hire.
End result - the general public is outraged that these players would behave this way, because it's not as though they've played to a different set of rules than the rest of us since the first time their athletic prowess was discovered.
Oh wait....
Never mind...
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
When celebrity nipples are more important than war crimes..
Okay, some thoughts about the leaking of various and sundry celebrity women's nekkid pics. Can we get a little perspective here? Yes, this was gross violation of their privacy, but this talk about how this is just a continuation of the overall objectification of women, and how this continues to shame them, is, in my humble opinion, massively overblown.
These women all agreed to have these pictures taken, no-one forced them, and men, since the beginning of time, have done all they can to look at women naked. We're hard-wired that way. Oh, and really, 'objectifying'? Seeing Kate Upton or Rhianna starkers is different from how they present themselves in their day jobs how exactly?
Yes, again, these were private photographs, never meant to be seen by the public at large, but in the bigger picture, when we look at muslim radicals committing atrocities on a daily, if not hourly basis, in Iraq, and Russia and Ukraine are on the verge of a war that could trigger yet another global conflict, and the polar ice caps continue to melt; we're really supposed to get all bent out of shape because Jennifer Lawrence posed nude for her boyfriend once, and some sneaky git stole the pics from the cloud and posted them on the web?
I think not.
These women all agreed to have these pictures taken, no-one forced them, and men, since the beginning of time, have done all they can to look at women naked. We're hard-wired that way. Oh, and really, 'objectifying'? Seeing Kate Upton or Rhianna starkers is different from how they present themselves in their day jobs how exactly?
Yes, again, these were private photographs, never meant to be seen by the public at large, but in the bigger picture, when we look at muslim radicals committing atrocities on a daily, if not hourly basis, in Iraq, and Russia and Ukraine are on the verge of a war that could trigger yet another global conflict, and the polar ice caps continue to melt; we're really supposed to get all bent out of shape because Jennifer Lawrence posed nude for her boyfriend once, and some sneaky git stole the pics from the cloud and posted them on the web?
I think not.
Monday, May 5, 2014
Sorry folks, but we are screwed.
Recently Chris Hayes wrote an article for The Nation magazine that set my head spinning. In it he basically laid out the difficulty that we face in getting the Fossil Fuel industry to do the right thing, and help save the planet.
In short it has been calculated that the maximum amount of carbon that can be added to the atmosphere and not increase the global temperature by more than 2 degrees (we've already raised it by 0.8 degrees) without major, catastrophic, global changes to the planet is 565 gigatons. That's it. No more. The problem? The total amount of proven reserves of carbon that is readily extractable using today's technology is 2795 gigatons, fives times as much as the maximum "safe" amount. The value of that carbon? Roughly $20 trillion. So, in order to save the planet, we have to find a way to persuade the Fossil Fuel Industry that the assets that they thought they could use, the assets that some are keeping on their books today even though it is still in the ground, well sorry, but you can't have them. Kiss that $20 trillion goodbye, it has to stay in the earth.
Good luck with that.
Above and beyond the fact that the Fossil Fuel Industry would simply tell us to go fuck ourselves as they caught their breath between bouts of raucous laughter, is that there is a knock-on effect to the damage that their carbon pollution in the atmosphere has caused. Namely, that global warming is opening up more areas to drill. Ten or twenty years ago the idea of drilling for oil in the Arctic, or off the coast of Greenland was inconceivable because it was hellaciously expensive. Now, thanks to the disappearing ice, not only is it economically feasible, they're already doing it.
In the most recent episode of 'Years of Living Dangerously', a series of documentaries on the Showtime network highlighting the impacts and effects of Global Climate Change, a correspondent (Lesley Stahl) went to Greenland to see the effects of glacial melting firsthand. I'm pretty sure we've all seen similar videos as massive chunks of ice, some the size of Manhattan, fall into the sea, and the massive lakes that now form on top of the ice drain into the depths of the glaciers further accelerating the calving process. What this has meant is that vast areas that were previously off-limits are now viable for oil exploration, and indeed Greenland has granted hundreds of permits for exploration to begin. But what made this segment truly eye-opening was the conversation with the Prime Minister of Greenland, Aleqa Hammond. In the interview Ms. Stahl put forth the suggestion that maybe it wasn't such a good idea to allow the Fossil Fuel industry to explore for oil in Greenland as it could be disastrous for the rest of the planet. The Prime Minister looked at Ms. Stahl as though she had just silently farted and the initial waves of that awful scent had only just begun to invade her olfactory system. And to be honest, why wouldn't she?
As concerned members of the rich capitalist world stand around and point and shake their heads at the devastation their addiction to oil has caused as the Greenland glaciers crash into the sea at an ever-increasing rate, the folks that actually live there are rubbing their hands with glee. Billions of barrels of oil have suddenly become more viable to capture and the prospect of finally sharing in the global wealth the Fossil Fuel Industry creates finally appears to becoming a reality. Who wants to be the one to tell them that they can't participate? Who wants to be the one that says, 'No, for the benefit of the planet we can't allow you to become as rich as we are'? Or, more to the point, if we are to persuade them not to allow drilling, whom exactly will compensate them for 'doing the right thing'? The USA? China? The UN?
So, here we are. In order to stop the temperature of the planet from reaching the point that the lifestyle we have all become accustomed to simply ceasing to exist, all we have to do is persuade the people that are primarily responsible for the increase in the first place, not to drill anymore. Not only that, but they have to leave their reserves in the ground. And give up a metric shit-tonne of money. This would be akin to putting an alcoholic in the middle of a distillery and telling them that not only can't they take a sip from the bottle right in front of them, but they can't have any of the booze in the millions of cases stacked all around them in the distillery's warehouse. Oh, and some of the poorest folks on the planet must be told that they cannot join the party the rest of the modern world has been having for nigh on a hundred years, because the partiers have just suddenly figured out that it is going to kill us all.
The only thing the Fossil Fuel Industry values more than the size of their oil reserves is the politicians in their hip-pockets, and with the prospect of cheap oil money about to flood into Greenland, whom exactly is there to tell either group that the carbon party is over? I can't think of anyone that would stand a snowballs chance in hell.
And that is why I think we are all well and truly screwed.
In short it has been calculated that the maximum amount of carbon that can be added to the atmosphere and not increase the global temperature by more than 2 degrees (we've already raised it by 0.8 degrees) without major, catastrophic, global changes to the planet is 565 gigatons. That's it. No more. The problem? The total amount of proven reserves of carbon that is readily extractable using today's technology is 2795 gigatons, fives times as much as the maximum "safe" amount. The value of that carbon? Roughly $20 trillion. So, in order to save the planet, we have to find a way to persuade the Fossil Fuel Industry that the assets that they thought they could use, the assets that some are keeping on their books today even though it is still in the ground, well sorry, but you can't have them. Kiss that $20 trillion goodbye, it has to stay in the earth.
Good luck with that.
Above and beyond the fact that the Fossil Fuel Industry would simply tell us to go fuck ourselves as they caught their breath between bouts of raucous laughter, is that there is a knock-on effect to the damage that their carbon pollution in the atmosphere has caused. Namely, that global warming is opening up more areas to drill. Ten or twenty years ago the idea of drilling for oil in the Arctic, or off the coast of Greenland was inconceivable because it was hellaciously expensive. Now, thanks to the disappearing ice, not only is it economically feasible, they're already doing it.
In the most recent episode of 'Years of Living Dangerously', a series of documentaries on the Showtime network highlighting the impacts and effects of Global Climate Change, a correspondent (Lesley Stahl) went to Greenland to see the effects of glacial melting firsthand. I'm pretty sure we've all seen similar videos as massive chunks of ice, some the size of Manhattan, fall into the sea, and the massive lakes that now form on top of the ice drain into the depths of the glaciers further accelerating the calving process. What this has meant is that vast areas that were previously off-limits are now viable for oil exploration, and indeed Greenland has granted hundreds of permits for exploration to begin. But what made this segment truly eye-opening was the conversation with the Prime Minister of Greenland, Aleqa Hammond. In the interview Ms. Stahl put forth the suggestion that maybe it wasn't such a good idea to allow the Fossil Fuel industry to explore for oil in Greenland as it could be disastrous for the rest of the planet. The Prime Minister looked at Ms. Stahl as though she had just silently farted and the initial waves of that awful scent had only just begun to invade her olfactory system. And to be honest, why wouldn't she?
As concerned members of the rich capitalist world stand around and point and shake their heads at the devastation their addiction to oil has caused as the Greenland glaciers crash into the sea at an ever-increasing rate, the folks that actually live there are rubbing their hands with glee. Billions of barrels of oil have suddenly become more viable to capture and the prospect of finally sharing in the global wealth the Fossil Fuel Industry creates finally appears to becoming a reality. Who wants to be the one to tell them that they can't participate? Who wants to be the one that says, 'No, for the benefit of the planet we can't allow you to become as rich as we are'? Or, more to the point, if we are to persuade them not to allow drilling, whom exactly will compensate them for 'doing the right thing'? The USA? China? The UN?
So, here we are. In order to stop the temperature of the planet from reaching the point that the lifestyle we have all become accustomed to simply ceasing to exist, all we have to do is persuade the people that are primarily responsible for the increase in the first place, not to drill anymore. Not only that, but they have to leave their reserves in the ground. And give up a metric shit-tonne of money. This would be akin to putting an alcoholic in the middle of a distillery and telling them that not only can't they take a sip from the bottle right in front of them, but they can't have any of the booze in the millions of cases stacked all around them in the distillery's warehouse. Oh, and some of the poorest folks on the planet must be told that they cannot join the party the rest of the modern world has been having for nigh on a hundred years, because the partiers have just suddenly figured out that it is going to kill us all.
The only thing the Fossil Fuel Industry values more than the size of their oil reserves is the politicians in their hip-pockets, and with the prospect of cheap oil money about to flood into Greenland, whom exactly is there to tell either group that the carbon party is over? I can't think of anyone that would stand a snowballs chance in hell.
And that is why I think we are all well and truly screwed.
Friday, May 2, 2014
In defense of Jeremy Clarkson....sort of...
One of the presenters of the highly-rated BBC show 'Top Gear' has reportedly been found to have mumbled the word 'nigger' in some out takes of an episode several years ago when reciting the children's rhyme 'Eenie, meenie, miney, moe..'...
He has recorded what appears to be a genuine and sincere apology, which has quite predictably, not placated his critics...
....the fact that he supposedly mumbled it twice, before completely changing it on the third take seems to suggest he is NOT a racist, that he WAS aware that that particular word is now verbotten, and that he had tried to make sure that neither of those takes made it to air...
Of course if he had wanted to avoid the controversy entirely he could have simply just not mumbled that word at all, and used something else...
On this occasion, and because like it or not the word 'nigger' is in the original rhyme - for fucks sake I grew up saying it along with millions of other small British children - I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt...
But his earlier 'slope' remark that also generated more than a little justifiable outrage, was completely out of order. Top Gear producers have subsequently admitted that they KNEW that 'slope' was a racist term, but that they were using it in a "light-hearted" manner...Ah, so that makes it alright you see?
Not so much.
To sum up, Clarkson is a deliberately confrontational, self-important, obnoxious, knuckle-dragging, 20th century throwback conservative...but i don't believe he is a racist. I think he is simply a Grade-A moron.
And I don't think he should be punished for that.
He has recorded what appears to be a genuine and sincere apology, which has quite predictably, not placated his critics...
....the fact that he supposedly mumbled it twice, before completely changing it on the third take seems to suggest he is NOT a racist, that he WAS aware that that particular word is now verbotten, and that he had tried to make sure that neither of those takes made it to air...
Of course if he had wanted to avoid the controversy entirely he could have simply just not mumbled that word at all, and used something else...
On this occasion, and because like it or not the word 'nigger' is in the original rhyme - for fucks sake I grew up saying it along with millions of other small British children - I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt...
But his earlier 'slope' remark that also generated more than a little justifiable outrage, was completely out of order. Top Gear producers have subsequently admitted that they KNEW that 'slope' was a racist term, but that they were using it in a "light-hearted" manner...Ah, so that makes it alright you see?
Not so much.
To sum up, Clarkson is a deliberately confrontational, self-important, obnoxious, knuckle-dragging, 20th century throwback conservative...but i don't believe he is a racist. I think he is simply a Grade-A moron.
And I don't think he should be punished for that.
Friday, August 16, 2013
The International Olympic Committee has a chance to do the right thing....
...but it's going to take some gigantic, some might say Olympic-Sized, balls to do it...
Bottom line, per the Olympic Charter, the Winter Games currently scheduled to take place in Sochi, Russia next February need to be moved or cancelled entirely due to the recently enacted "anti-gay" law in Russia. This hateful new law is no different in intention or practice from any of the Anti-Semitic laws passed by Adolf Hitler's Nazi government in the run up to WWII. The goal is the same, the legally codified demonization of a select, specific, easily identified group of people, with the tacit acknowledgement that 'extra-judicial justice', i.e. gay-bashing, will not be prosecuted.
This is unacceptable. For any country. But it is especially malodorous considering the fact that the country we're talking about is unashamedly using the upcoming games as a PR campaign to prove how much more developed and modernized they are since the last Olympic games in Moscow in 1980.
It is inconceivable that the sort of twisted logic emanating from the IOC President Jacque Rogge as he tries to find some way out of this mess, would even be attempted if the Russian legislation was anti-women's rights, or anti-Muslim, or anti-'insert-ethic group here'. But for some reason, because it's just 'The gays', the IOC is trying to find some miniscule escape hatch that will allow them to justify their acceptance of Russian bigotry under the Olympic flag.
In Principle Number One of the Olympic Charter it states that Olympism is all about 'social responsibility and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.' But wait, it gets better, in Principle Number six it says "Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement." Even the IOC's own Mission Statement says that their role is "to act against any form of discrimination affecting the Olympic Movement." Not a hell of a lot of wiggle room there it seems...
And yet, rather than insisting that Russia repeal this law or face the consequences of losing the games, the IOC is desperately trying to find a way to keep the games there. It is looking for "assurances" that gay athletes won't be "impacted" by this law, neatly side-stepping the fact that "regular gays" in Russia are "impacted" by this law at the hands, and fists and boots, of skinhead thugs on a near daily basis.
It is staggering to me that this is even an issue. The IOC should inform the Russians that due to the passage of that piece of legislation the Sochi games have been withdrawn. Period.
But they won't.
There's far too much money at stake for the Russians, and the IOC, for this to happen, and so, some sort of vague assurances will be given by the Russians that they promise not to beat up any foreign gays for a two-week period in early 2014, and the IOC will turn a blind eye to their own hypocrisy, cash the sponsor's checks, and move on.
So much for the Olympic Spirit.
Bottom line, per the Olympic Charter, the Winter Games currently scheduled to take place in Sochi, Russia next February need to be moved or cancelled entirely due to the recently enacted "anti-gay" law in Russia. This hateful new law is no different in intention or practice from any of the Anti-Semitic laws passed by Adolf Hitler's Nazi government in the run up to WWII. The goal is the same, the legally codified demonization of a select, specific, easily identified group of people, with the tacit acknowledgement that 'extra-judicial justice', i.e. gay-bashing, will not be prosecuted.
This is unacceptable. For any country. But it is especially malodorous considering the fact that the country we're talking about is unashamedly using the upcoming games as a PR campaign to prove how much more developed and modernized they are since the last Olympic games in Moscow in 1980.
It is inconceivable that the sort of twisted logic emanating from the IOC President Jacque Rogge as he tries to find some way out of this mess, would even be attempted if the Russian legislation was anti-women's rights, or anti-Muslim, or anti-'insert-ethic group here'. But for some reason, because it's just 'The gays', the IOC is trying to find some miniscule escape hatch that will allow them to justify their acceptance of Russian bigotry under the Olympic flag.
In Principle Number One of the Olympic Charter it states that Olympism is all about 'social responsibility and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.' But wait, it gets better, in Principle Number six it says "Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement." Even the IOC's own Mission Statement says that their role is "to act against any form of discrimination affecting the Olympic Movement." Not a hell of a lot of wiggle room there it seems...
And yet, rather than insisting that Russia repeal this law or face the consequences of losing the games, the IOC is desperately trying to find a way to keep the games there. It is looking for "assurances" that gay athletes won't be "impacted" by this law, neatly side-stepping the fact that "regular gays" in Russia are "impacted" by this law at the hands, and fists and boots, of skinhead thugs on a near daily basis.
It is staggering to me that this is even an issue. The IOC should inform the Russians that due to the passage of that piece of legislation the Sochi games have been withdrawn. Period.
But they won't.
There's far too much money at stake for the Russians, and the IOC, for this to happen, and so, some sort of vague assurances will be given by the Russians that they promise not to beat up any foreign gays for a two-week period in early 2014, and the IOC will turn a blind eye to their own hypocrisy, cash the sponsor's checks, and move on.
So much for the Olympic Spirit.
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Disney didn't kill Bambi...the state of Wisconsin did...
Posted without comment is this story from Scott Walkerstan...
http://www.wisn.com/news/armed-agents-raid-animal-shelter-for-baby-deer/-/9373668/21272108/-/item/0/-/13d8x2mz/-/index.html
Thank God they're keeping us all safe from rogue baby deer....
(My head hurts)
More later....
http://www.wisn.com/news/armed-agents-raid-animal-shelter-for-baby-deer/-/9373668/21272108/-/item/0/-/13d8x2mz/-/index.html
Thank God they're keeping us all safe from rogue baby deer....
(My head hurts)
More later....
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
A picture tells a thousand words...or, why the GOP still just doesn't get it...
Folks,
After the almighty ass-kicking that Mittens got earlier this month courtesy of Mr & Mrs American voter, a veritable landslide of Electoral Votes and a majority of the popular vote for the President, some would think that the republican party might sit back and ponder as to whether their divisive, exclusionary polices had something to do with that.
Did their fetus-loving, woman-hating, race-baiting, dog-whistle cornucopia of multi-million dollar ad-campaigns truly backfire? How could it be that their billionaire benefactors like the Koch brothers, and Sheldon Adelson had crucially mis-calculated the pulse of the American voter? (You know, by getting the poor-folk to vote against their self-interests yet again by claiming that the President was going to take away their guns, force them into a gay marriage and let illegal immigrants have sex with their daughters whilst banning Christmas in favour of Ramadan and Kwanzaa.)
The phrase "I spent $300 million dollars and all I got was this lousy Romney/Ryan tee shirt" comes quickly to mind. And not without a bloody great grin from myself I hasten to add. But one would have thought that after the Democrats had not just held onto the Whitehouse (handily), maintained their majority in the Senate (by adding a slew of highly qualified female candidates) and rejecting some of the most hateful, bigoted ignorant Teabaggers foisted upon an un-willing nation in the last mid-term election (take a bow Joe Walsh you dead-beat bastard and Allen West you war criminal), that maybe, just maybe, the powers that be in the GOP would stop for a second and see if maybe the problem wasn't the voters, it was them....maybe they should have been more pro-women? More tolerant of those with different coloured skin, religions or sexual preferences?
Well, they've thought about it and their answer is...it's NOT THEM....
Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present to you the chairpersons of the next republican-led House of Representatives Select Committees...
Look at all of that diversity...
The GOP. The Party of Fucking Idiots.
After the almighty ass-kicking that Mittens got earlier this month courtesy of Mr & Mrs American voter, a veritable landslide of Electoral Votes and a majority of the popular vote for the President, some would think that the republican party might sit back and ponder as to whether their divisive, exclusionary polices had something to do with that.
Did their fetus-loving, woman-hating, race-baiting, dog-whistle cornucopia of multi-million dollar ad-campaigns truly backfire? How could it be that their billionaire benefactors like the Koch brothers, and Sheldon Adelson had crucially mis-calculated the pulse of the American voter? (You know, by getting the poor-folk to vote against their self-interests yet again by claiming that the President was going to take away their guns, force them into a gay marriage and let illegal immigrants have sex with their daughters whilst banning Christmas in favour of Ramadan and Kwanzaa.)
The phrase "I spent $300 million dollars and all I got was this lousy Romney/Ryan tee shirt" comes quickly to mind. And not without a bloody great grin from myself I hasten to add. But one would have thought that after the Democrats had not just held onto the Whitehouse (handily), maintained their majority in the Senate (by adding a slew of highly qualified female candidates) and rejecting some of the most hateful, bigoted ignorant Teabaggers foisted upon an un-willing nation in the last mid-term election (take a bow Joe Walsh you dead-beat bastard and Allen West you war criminal), that maybe, just maybe, the powers that be in the GOP would stop for a second and see if maybe the problem wasn't the voters, it was them....maybe they should have been more pro-women? More tolerant of those with different coloured skin, religions or sexual preferences?
Well, they've thought about it and their answer is...it's NOT THEM....
Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present to you the chairpersons of the next republican-led House of Representatives Select Committees...
Look at all of that diversity...
The GOP. The Party of Fucking Idiots.
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Note to self: Never, EVER play poker with President Obama...
I don't normally gush like a teenage girl at a Justin Bieber concert, but watching Obama in last night's debate was nothing short of inspiring. His self-control at not cock-punching the arrogant bastard that was baying at him all night long was nothing short of miraculous. A lesser man than The Prez would probably be nursing some heavily bruised knuckles this morning but the 'Black Ninja' as Bill Maher tweeted last night was far, far cooler than that...and that brings me to my point.
This is the same guy that was in the midst of the operation that would wind up taking care of Osama Bin Laden, a defining moment in his Presidency, and yet he still went and yucked it up with the gathered presstitutes at the Correspondents Dinner without so much as a hint as to what must have been on his mind....
And then there was last night...his previously cocksure opponent, reeling from a battering the likes of which he has probably never seen yet so thoroughly deserved, thought he had that one moment when he could take down his nemesis with one clean blow to the berries...he was going to get him with the 'act of terror' card...he even baited him, to make the moment that much sweeter...and the only thing the President said was "please proceed Governor"...and then, in super-slo-mo Robme started his punch from waaaaaaaaay downtown...his eyes gleaming with the knowledge that he finally had his adversary right where he wanted him...but then 'Wooooooooosh' his clenched fist missed the target and instead of watching Obama crumple to the floor in a defeated heap, he was greeted by the moderator's knee as it hit him directly in the balls... "I'm sorry Governor, actually he DID call it an act of terror the next day"...and the President? Well he calmly sat there with a wry grin on his face that said quite clearly "Have you had enough punk? Well, have you?"..
So, for all of the wailing and gnashing of teeth and rending of garments on the left about the first debate, President Obama showed us last night what a true people's champion looks like...and also the reason why I will never, EVER play poker with this man...
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Election 2012....this year it's PERSONAL
Dear republican friends:
Unlike the toolbags in D.C. it is possible for you and I to sit down and have a reasoned debate, friendly disagreements, and occasionally find some common ground, but this year's election has changed that. This year the election is more than just Dem vs Rep, Blue vs Red, this year it's personal.
Almost a year ago my best friend in the whole world, my wife, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She fought it with all of her might and thankfully has beaten back that disease, not without great sacrifice, much worry, and a shit-ton of bills, but she has kicked cancer's ass...but it has left her with something that could be just as dangerous, and no less a threat to her health - a "pre-existing condition".
That three word phrase can mean the difference between having a long, healthy life, and one filled with fear, pain and potential financial ruin.Until the President signed the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) into law my wife would have been shit out of luck if she changed jobs and wanted to get health insurance. Now, thanks to Obamacare, insurers are prohibited from discriminating against her because of that disease. Not only that, but they are forbidden from capping her insurance limits, so that if something else comes along, she won't have to worry about whether she has enough insurance to cover that too. Plus, our kid gets to stay on our insurance until they turn 26.
The republicans have vowed to repeal Obamacare. All of it. Think about that for a second. A major political party in the US wants to take health insurance coverage away from 26 million people, and allow insurance companies once again, to refuse to pay for coverage once you hit their artificial limits, and to make millions of young American adults simply go without healthcare. I can think of no other time in the history of this country when a major political party campaigned on, in actual fact touted, it's desire to deliberately hurt millions of its own citizens.
You might be considering voting republican because you think they'll lower your taxes (they won't). Or because the Democrats are going to take away your guns (they won't). Or because they're tougher in the war on terror (they aren't - ask Bin Laden if you don't believe me). Hell, you might be closed-minded enough even to do it because you don't like the skin colour or religion of one of the candidates, but if you come out of that voting booth having put an 'x' next to the republican party column, you may very well have signed your own death warrant. You see, cancer doesn't care what party you belong to, and it sure as hell doesn't care if you can afford to pay to try and beat it, but the insurance companies will be with you every step of the way, counting every single thing you need, and they will have no problem at all, in fact you will have voted to allow them, to just let you die instead.
A vote for the republican party this year says to every single American citizen that has a "pre-existing condition", including my wife, that you don't give a shit about them as long as you think your taxes are going to go down. And I think you are better than that.
Yes. This year, it's personal. Do the right thing.
Unlike the toolbags in D.C. it is possible for you and I to sit down and have a reasoned debate, friendly disagreements, and occasionally find some common ground, but this year's election has changed that. This year the election is more than just Dem vs Rep, Blue vs Red, this year it's personal.
Almost a year ago my best friend in the whole world, my wife, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She fought it with all of her might and thankfully has beaten back that disease, not without great sacrifice, much worry, and a shit-ton of bills, but she has kicked cancer's ass...but it has left her with something that could be just as dangerous, and no less a threat to her health - a "pre-existing condition".
That three word phrase can mean the difference between having a long, healthy life, and one filled with fear, pain and potential financial ruin.Until the President signed the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) into law my wife would have been shit out of luck if she changed jobs and wanted to get health insurance. Now, thanks to Obamacare, insurers are prohibited from discriminating against her because of that disease. Not only that, but they are forbidden from capping her insurance limits, so that if something else comes along, she won't have to worry about whether she has enough insurance to cover that too. Plus, our kid gets to stay on our insurance until they turn 26.
The republicans have vowed to repeal Obamacare. All of it. Think about that for a second. A major political party in the US wants to take health insurance coverage away from 26 million people, and allow insurance companies once again, to refuse to pay for coverage once you hit their artificial limits, and to make millions of young American adults simply go without healthcare. I can think of no other time in the history of this country when a major political party campaigned on, in actual fact touted, it's desire to deliberately hurt millions of its own citizens.
You might be considering voting republican because you think they'll lower your taxes (they won't). Or because the Democrats are going to take away your guns (they won't). Or because they're tougher in the war on terror (they aren't - ask Bin Laden if you don't believe me). Hell, you might be closed-minded enough even to do it because you don't like the skin colour or religion of one of the candidates, but if you come out of that voting booth having put an 'x' next to the republican party column, you may very well have signed your own death warrant. You see, cancer doesn't care what party you belong to, and it sure as hell doesn't care if you can afford to pay to try and beat it, but the insurance companies will be with you every step of the way, counting every single thing you need, and they will have no problem at all, in fact you will have voted to allow them, to just let you die instead.
A vote for the republican party this year says to every single American citizen that has a "pre-existing condition", including my wife, that you don't give a shit about them as long as you think your taxes are going to go down. And I think you are better than that.
Yes. This year, it's personal. Do the right thing.
Friday, September 7, 2012
Some simple Bill Clinton arithmetic for you...DNC > RNC
Hello to all of my reader!
As you know this week we had the Democratic National Convention and I have to confess I am still basking in the afterglow of three glorious nights of inspiring and uplifting speeches. We publicly and collectively grew a spine this week and put the angry old rich white-guy party on notice that we've had as much of their bullshit as we're going to take...
With that in mind, may I present this one graphic which I think sums up this week to a tee...
We have alot of work to do in the coming weeks no doubt, but this weekend you can relax a little knowing that the Democratic party is in the finest, fittest, fighting shape of its life.
Fired up and ready to go? You bet your ass I am!!!
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Not with a bang but a whimper...
As the RNC hate-fest slowly reaches it's 'crescendo' tonight with Mitten's acceptance speech, I can't help but feel just the tinsiest bit sorry for the old plastic, used-car-salesman lug-head and his party.They had very high hopes for their KKKonvention. They had all of their "No really, we're not ALL woman-hating, race-baiting, homophobes" banners pre-printed, they were all ginned-up to get their hate on against the evil black man in the Whitehouse, and the christaliban religious nutjobs were gleefully squirming in their tidy-whities at the party platform that allow them to officially hate 'teh gays' and force rape-victims to go to term with their rape-babies - because you know, that's what God planned all along...
But then mother nature, or more precisely hurricane Isaac, decided to rain all over their parade.
Literally.
So instead of the televised orgy of hatred, bigotry and intolerance towards President Obama that they had so desperately desired, we got coverage of New Orleans getting drowned again (way to go Army Corps of Engineers - see Harry Shearer's excellent documentary 'The Big Uneasy' for a better explanation), and President Obama acting all Presidential by declaring a state of emergency and offering Federal assistance to all states that needed it.
You know, just like President Bush didn't.
The KKKonvention finally got under way a day late, but there was trouble from the very beginning. The Paul-bots immediately refused to play ball, the RNC wouldn't even say their messiah's name out loud during the nomination process, and some delegates threw some peanuts at a black CNN camera-women saying "that's how we feed the animals"...In other words, the truly classless cluster-fuck the Democrats have been secretly praying for since Mittens bought himself the nomination.
Oh sure, we had Queen Ann grace us peasants with her presence in a $2000 dress as she read her speech (badly) from the tele-prompter, a sin only if you're Democrat apparently, exalting working women everywhere as the backbone of America, even though she has no idea what that actually entails. Then we had New Jersey's Governor Chris 'Humpty-Dumpty' Christie who managed to talk about himself for seventeen minutes before remembering that he was there to nominate someone called 'Romney', and not try and persuade us that his states unemployment rate of 9.7% (fourth highest in the country) is somehow better than the overall US unemployment rate of 8.3%. (Quick note to any republicans reading this, it is probably not a good idea to trot out as the personification of the economic policies you'd like to enact across the country, a Governor who presides over a state that is 47th in the country in GDP growth, 44th in personal income growth and lost 12,0000 jobs just last month....)
In a desperate attempt to pull the fat from the fryer they had Todd Akin's number one fan, Mike Huckabee, throw some red meat to the assembled comatose crowd as he 'aw shucked' his way through his attacks on womens' rights, the chairwoman of the DNC and of course, 'teh gay'. Then, Paul Ryan, the guy the Koch's picked for Rmoney as his running mate, made his debut speech wearing his big-boy pants for the first time ever, but instead of the hoped-for home run, he instead managed to thoroughly soil himself on national television with a speech so full of mis-representations and outright, bald-face lies that even Fox "news" (yes, that Fox "news") had to distance themselves from him.
So that brings us to today. The day that Rmoney finally gets to put on his prom dress and parade in front of an adoring crowd as they crown him with his nomination. The day that launches him officially on his quest to kick that lying, muslim, socialist, Kenyan, marxist in the teeth, and finally put the 'white' back in the Whitehouse. Only no-one really seems to give a shit about any of that. Instead of the pundits wondering what his speech will contain, what vast sweeping vision or policies he might outline, or whether he will manage to pull off the upset of the century and actually appear to be a real human being, they are all consumed with who the 'mystery speaker' will be that's on the schedule. Not the fact that this will be his first national speech, not the fact that he will be the official republican nominee, nope, the presstitutes are more interested in a 'mystery speaker' than the guy the gop has picked to go up against the President.
I don't know about you, but that's gotta suck, even for a soul-less automaton like Wall Street Willard, kinda like going to pick up your prom-date but instead of being ready to go when you get there, she's sitting on the couch with a bunch of her girlfriends watching Jersey Shore eating Cheeto's and scratching her butt...
So as this sorry-ass excuse for a National Convention winds down, like a sit-com that got renewed for one season too many, I sit here and can't help but feel a little bit of pity for them. I know what it's like to be disappointed, I'm a progressive liberal afterall, but for a party that prides itself on unanimity and strict 'message discipline' this election campaign has been an utter disaster from the primaries up through the KKKonvention.
But then I remember what they say they stand for, and who they really represent (hint - it ain't anyone making less than six figures, gay, of colour or female) and that tiny bit of pity disappears and instead becomes a great big grin. These miserable, bitter, angry, nasty, selfish, bigoted assholes have finally reaped what they've sown. And I kinda like that.
Fuck 'em all.
Cheers!!!
But then mother nature, or more precisely hurricane Isaac, decided to rain all over their parade.
Literally.
So instead of the televised orgy of hatred, bigotry and intolerance towards President Obama that they had so desperately desired, we got coverage of New Orleans getting drowned again (way to go Army Corps of Engineers - see Harry Shearer's excellent documentary 'The Big Uneasy' for a better explanation), and President Obama acting all Presidential by declaring a state of emergency and offering Federal assistance to all states that needed it.
You know, just like President Bush didn't.
The KKKonvention finally got under way a day late, but there was trouble from the very beginning. The Paul-bots immediately refused to play ball, the RNC wouldn't even say their messiah's name out loud during the nomination process, and some delegates threw some peanuts at a black CNN camera-women saying "that's how we feed the animals"...In other words, the truly classless cluster-fuck the Democrats have been secretly praying for since Mittens bought himself the nomination.
Oh sure, we had Queen Ann grace us peasants with her presence in a $2000 dress as she read her speech (badly) from the tele-prompter, a sin only if you're Democrat apparently, exalting working women everywhere as the backbone of America, even though she has no idea what that actually entails. Then we had New Jersey's Governor Chris 'Humpty-Dumpty' Christie who managed to talk about himself for seventeen minutes before remembering that he was there to nominate someone called 'Romney', and not try and persuade us that his states unemployment rate of 9.7% (fourth highest in the country) is somehow better than the overall US unemployment rate of 8.3%. (Quick note to any republicans reading this, it is probably not a good idea to trot out as the personification of the economic policies you'd like to enact across the country, a Governor who presides over a state that is 47th in the country in GDP growth, 44th in personal income growth and lost 12,0000 jobs just last month....)
In a desperate attempt to pull the fat from the fryer they had Todd Akin's number one fan, Mike Huckabee, throw some red meat to the assembled comatose crowd as he 'aw shucked' his way through his attacks on womens' rights, the chairwoman of the DNC and of course, 'teh gay'. Then, Paul Ryan, the guy the Koch's picked for Rmoney as his running mate, made his debut speech wearing his big-boy pants for the first time ever, but instead of the hoped-for home run, he instead managed to thoroughly soil himself on national television with a speech so full of mis-representations and outright, bald-face lies that even Fox "news" (yes, that Fox "news") had to distance themselves from him.
So that brings us to today. The day that Rmoney finally gets to put on his prom dress and parade in front of an adoring crowd as they crown him with his nomination. The day that launches him officially on his quest to kick that lying, muslim, socialist, Kenyan, marxist in the teeth, and finally put the 'white' back in the Whitehouse. Only no-one really seems to give a shit about any of that. Instead of the pundits wondering what his speech will contain, what vast sweeping vision or policies he might outline, or whether he will manage to pull off the upset of the century and actually appear to be a real human being, they are all consumed with who the 'mystery speaker' will be that's on the schedule. Not the fact that this will be his first national speech, not the fact that he will be the official republican nominee, nope, the presstitutes are more interested in a 'mystery speaker' than the guy the gop has picked to go up against the President.
I don't know about you, but that's gotta suck, even for a soul-less automaton like Wall Street Willard, kinda like going to pick up your prom-date but instead of being ready to go when you get there, she's sitting on the couch with a bunch of her girlfriends watching Jersey Shore eating Cheeto's and scratching her butt...
So as this sorry-ass excuse for a National Convention winds down, like a sit-com that got renewed for one season too many, I sit here and can't help but feel a little bit of pity for them. I know what it's like to be disappointed, I'm a progressive liberal afterall, but for a party that prides itself on unanimity and strict 'message discipline' this election campaign has been an utter disaster from the primaries up through the KKKonvention.
But then I remember what they say they stand for, and who they really represent (hint - it ain't anyone making less than six figures, gay, of colour or female) and that tiny bit of pity disappears and instead becomes a great big grin. These miserable, bitter, angry, nasty, selfish, bigoted assholes have finally reaped what they've sown. And I kinda like that.
Fuck 'em all.
Cheers!!!
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Welcome to another episode of "As the GOP implodes.."
"...brought to you by, Bain Capital, outsourcing American jobs for three decades, Bain Capital, No Bain - No Pain.."
*Fade in to the wretched, tear-stained wrinkly face of Todd Akin staring bleakly into a mirror*
TA: "I don't understand why they hate me so.."
Mirror: "Maybe because you're a soul-less, ignorant fucktard?"
TA: "But I apologized and everything!"
Mirror: "Yes, but they can smell bullshit a mile away, besides saying 'I used the wrong words' doesn't absolve you of the fact that you are a soul-less, ignorant fucktard."
TA: "But the VP pick agrees with me...he co-sponsored legislation that changed the definition of rape only just last year!"
Mirror: "Yes, well, he's got his own problems to deal with, that legislation you both voted on would have banned IV fertilization, the method his future boss used to get his wife pregnant with three of their five children. So he's going to throw your ignorant, soul-less fucktard ass under the bus all day long...plus he has a math problem...he forgot that he asked for $20 mill from the Govt stimulus he railed against, he forgot that his wife had a trust with $5 million in it, and let's no forget he's a "devout catholic" that worships a chain-smoking atheist that espouses the "fuck you jack, I've got mine" approach to civic duty...so yeah, he's not going to come to your defense anytime soon.."
TA: "But how come everyone on Fox News hates me too? They work for us, right? Someone needs to remind them of that fact.."
Mirror: "Sure, everyone knows they're our mouthpiece, that's less of a secret than fat people like to eat, but you can't just piss off 50 percent of their viewers and expect them to still want to spoon with you at night..."
TA: "But I'm not the only one that thinks this way, the party platform says that even if women get pregnant by rape or incest they shouldn't be able to get an abortion."
Mirror: "Look Todd, just because you belong to a political group that actively hates 50 percent of the population, doesn't mean they or you are right, hell even the self-loathing log-cabin guys are up in arms about your platform."
TA: "Yeah, but who gives a shit about those fairies? They still haven't figured out that their entire existence is a contradiction in terms...What is it about "We hate your fairy asses so much that if we could, we'd stone you all to death in a public square every sunday before going to church" don't that understand? Shoot, they make about as much sense as a chicken voting for Col. Sanders."
Mirror: "Yeah Todd, let's not go there shall we? I'd have thought that you guys have heard enough talk about gay folk and fried chicken to last a lifetime.."
TA: "You're making me hungry."
Mirror: "Todd, pay attention, you have a real problem on your hands, everyone, including your own party, wants you to get out of the race."
TA: "Fuck them, I'll appeal to my base, they'll still vote for me!"
Mirror: "Yeah, Todd, you've got the 'angry, stupid old white-guy' vote wrapped up...what about the other 80 percent of the population?"
TA: "Did you forget we live in Missouri?"
Mirror: "Oh yeah, silly me...fuck it, stay in...you'll be a shoo-in!"
*Fade in to the wretched, tear-stained wrinkly face of Todd Akin staring bleakly into a mirror*
TA: "I don't understand why they hate me so.."
Mirror: "Maybe because you're a soul-less, ignorant fucktard?"
TA: "But I apologized and everything!"
Mirror: "Yes, but they can smell bullshit a mile away, besides saying 'I used the wrong words' doesn't absolve you of the fact that you are a soul-less, ignorant fucktard."
TA: "But the VP pick agrees with me...he co-sponsored legislation that changed the definition of rape only just last year!"
Mirror: "Yes, well, he's got his own problems to deal with, that legislation you both voted on would have banned IV fertilization, the method his future boss used to get his wife pregnant with three of their five children. So he's going to throw your ignorant, soul-less fucktard ass under the bus all day long...plus he has a math problem...he forgot that he asked for $20 mill from the Govt stimulus he railed against, he forgot that his wife had a trust with $5 million in it, and let's no forget he's a "devout catholic" that worships a chain-smoking atheist that espouses the "fuck you jack, I've got mine" approach to civic duty...so yeah, he's not going to come to your defense anytime soon.."
TA: "But how come everyone on Fox News hates me too? They work for us, right? Someone needs to remind them of that fact.."
Mirror: "Sure, everyone knows they're our mouthpiece, that's less of a secret than fat people like to eat, but you can't just piss off 50 percent of their viewers and expect them to still want to spoon with you at night..."
TA: "But I'm not the only one that thinks this way, the party platform says that even if women get pregnant by rape or incest they shouldn't be able to get an abortion."
Mirror: "Look Todd, just because you belong to a political group that actively hates 50 percent of the population, doesn't mean they or you are right, hell even the self-loathing log-cabin guys are up in arms about your platform."
TA: "Yeah, but who gives a shit about those fairies? They still haven't figured out that their entire existence is a contradiction in terms...What is it about "We hate your fairy asses so much that if we could, we'd stone you all to death in a public square every sunday before going to church" don't that understand? Shoot, they make about as much sense as a chicken voting for Col. Sanders."
Mirror: "Yeah Todd, let's not go there shall we? I'd have thought that you guys have heard enough talk about gay folk and fried chicken to last a lifetime.."
TA: "You're making me hungry."
Mirror: "Todd, pay attention, you have a real problem on your hands, everyone, including your own party, wants you to get out of the race."
TA: "Fuck them, I'll appeal to my base, they'll still vote for me!"
Mirror: "Yeah, Todd, you've got the 'angry, stupid old white-guy' vote wrapped up...what about the other 80 percent of the population?"
TA: "Did you forget we live in Missouri?"
Mirror: "Oh yeah, silly me...fuck it, stay in...you'll be a shoo-in!"
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
John McCain vouches for Mittens (sort of)
In my most recent post I had suggested that it was more than a little strange that John McCain, the guy that actually has seen Mitten's tax returns, hadn't said anything in defense of the guy that came in second to Alaska Spice in the 2008 republican Veepstakes (think about what THAT says about Rmoney for just a moment). Well now, Senator McCain has corrected that and come out with a statement saying, in essence, not much, really. Oh, the words sound like a solid vouch for the not-yet-confirmed republican nominee, but when you re-read the actual words, they don't say what he wants you to think they say. "Nothing in his tax returns showed that he did not pay taxes". Senator McCain's statement is very carefully parsed indeed. You see, everyone pays some taxes, property taxes, sales taxes etc etc, but not all of us pay Federal and State taxes, especially those of us that are very, very rich and have a cadre of lawyers and accountants to ensure that fact.
I would, however, like to thank Sen. McCain for bringing the tax return issue to the front-burner again, especially after the M$M spent the entire past weekend fawning over Mittens pick for V.P., a former social-security recipient that wants to demolish the very same safety net that he so handsomely benefited from in his formative years. (More on that would-be granny-killing hypocrite later). But what Senator McCain's bluster and baloney still doesn't answer is the one, most obvious question of all: If Mitten's tax returns are perfectly legitimate, and they show that he did pay taxes and by default that Harry Reid is completely and utterly full of shit, why doesn't he just release them and PROVE IT?
I find it hard to believe that a republican would eschew the opportunity to knock a Democratic politician's dick in the dirt, especially someone like the Senate majority leader. As mendacious as Rmoney is, a man who has shown he is not beneath approving campaign commercials that are entirely truth-free, I cannot believe that he continues to endure the battering that his secrecy is causing, when the alternative would be the modern-day equivalent of having photographic evidence of your opponent being found in bed with a live boy or a dead girl.
It just doesn't add up. Unless there's something so naughty in those returns he has to keep them secret or risk losing much more than just a general election.
Stay tuned kiddies...this is far from over...
I would, however, like to thank Sen. McCain for bringing the tax return issue to the front-burner again, especially after the M$M spent the entire past weekend fawning over Mittens pick for V.P., a former social-security recipient that wants to demolish the very same safety net that he so handsomely benefited from in his formative years. (More on that would-be granny-killing hypocrite later). But what Senator McCain's bluster and baloney still doesn't answer is the one, most obvious question of all: If Mitten's tax returns are perfectly legitimate, and they show that he did pay taxes and by default that Harry Reid is completely and utterly full of shit, why doesn't he just release them and PROVE IT?
I find it hard to believe that a republican would eschew the opportunity to knock a Democratic politician's dick in the dirt, especially someone like the Senate majority leader. As mendacious as Rmoney is, a man who has shown he is not beneath approving campaign commercials that are entirely truth-free, I cannot believe that he continues to endure the battering that his secrecy is causing, when the alternative would be the modern-day equivalent of having photographic evidence of your opponent being found in bed with a live boy or a dead girl.
It just doesn't add up. Unless there's something so naughty in those returns he has to keep them secret or risk losing much more than just a general election.
Stay tuned kiddies...this is far from over...
Friday, August 10, 2012
I'm beginning to think Mittens doesn't have a 'tax problem'' at all...
...I think he has a 'crime problem'...
When even the festering cesspool of lies and mis-direction laughingly calling itself Fox "news" has Obama beating Rmoney by 49 - 40 in their most recent poll data, you get the sense that the as yet not-nominated republican candidate, is in some pretty deep shit.
He is being taken to task about the outright lies in his campaign commercials, but this time these criticisms have come from traditionally republican-supportive media outlets, and NOT the so-called 'liberal media'. His campaign has already pulled out the "war on religion" card in some markets, which is traditionally used to motivate the bible-thumping base just before the election not typically used before the party convention, and he steadfastly refuses to come clean about his tax returns.
Willard 'Mitt' Rmoney may be many things but stupid isn't one of them. He must surely know how this continued stone-walling is causing his campaign to rapidly take on water, so why not release them and face the music?
George Will, a conservative commentator no less, made his once-a-campaign salient point recently, that Rmoney as a businessman is used to looking at risk v. reward all the time, and has obviously done the calculations regarding his tax returns and concluded that NOT releasing them will cause his campaign LESS damage than releasing them would. Everyone immediately started to try and guess as to what could be so toxic in those returns that his campaign would be better off taking the hammering that it has, rather than just throw the raw meat to the baying hounds and let them have at it for a few days. Surely it can't be as simple as the fact that he just paid alot less in taxes than everyone else, can it?
Look, he's a rich guy that likes to pay minimal taxes, we get that, that's the game the rich have always played, so sure, if he releases them and it shows that he paid an effective tax-rate of 0.00% for the past ten years he'll take a hit, but he'll use that as a badge of honour amongst his supporters. He'll use that as an excuse to say that the tax-code needs to be revamped, and that everyone should pay lower taxes and that's why he's running for office. He would actually be able to turn it into a positive for his campaign.
Unless, of course, his effective tax-rate isn't the only issue.
I know enough about the tax code and the IRS to not fuck with either, and I take my yearly fleecing with as much good grace as possible, but when you're rich you can hire lawyers and accountants whose sole function is to do precisely that. Their job is to fuck with the tax code and the IRS as far as possible, without winding up with their clients wearing silver bracelets and getting a one-way ticket to Club Fed. This is how the rich keep their money, by classifying regular income as 'passive investment returns' or 'dividend reinvestments' or 'refunded asset depreciation allocations' or any number of other gobbledygook sleight-of-hand card tricks, but ALL of them have one thing in common. They are all at least vaguely legal. Which leads me to believe that Willard isn't worried about fallout from paying less taxes than most folks that hold down two minimum-wage jobs nowadays, or the fact that he used offshore banks to hide some of his money, I think he's worried that his accountants have done such shady stuff over the last ten years that if the IRS took a real hard look at them, never mind losing the election, he could wind up losing his freedom...
And one last thing to ponder, of all of the people that are calling the Democratic Senate Leader Harry Reid a 'dirty liar', or that his comments asserting that Rmoney hasn't paid any taxes in the last ten years "belittle his position in the Senate", bear in mind that none of them are speaking from a position of authority. None of them have actually seen the returns. The one person that HAS seen those returns, Senator John McCain when he vetted Mittens for a potential VP slot in 2008, hasn't said a single word about whether Harry is telling the truth or not. And in this case, that silence definitely speaks volumes.
Stay tuned kids...this could get mighty interesting...
When even the festering cesspool of lies and mis-direction laughingly calling itself Fox "news" has Obama beating Rmoney by 49 - 40 in their most recent poll data, you get the sense that the as yet not-nominated republican candidate, is in some pretty deep shit.
He is being taken to task about the outright lies in his campaign commercials, but this time these criticisms have come from traditionally republican-supportive media outlets, and NOT the so-called 'liberal media'. His campaign has already pulled out the "war on religion" card in some markets, which is traditionally used to motivate the bible-thumping base just before the election not typically used before the party convention, and he steadfastly refuses to come clean about his tax returns.
Willard 'Mitt' Rmoney may be many things but stupid isn't one of them. He must surely know how this continued stone-walling is causing his campaign to rapidly take on water, so why not release them and face the music?
George Will, a conservative commentator no less, made his once-a-campaign salient point recently, that Rmoney as a businessman is used to looking at risk v. reward all the time, and has obviously done the calculations regarding his tax returns and concluded that NOT releasing them will cause his campaign LESS damage than releasing them would. Everyone immediately started to try and guess as to what could be so toxic in those returns that his campaign would be better off taking the hammering that it has, rather than just throw the raw meat to the baying hounds and let them have at it for a few days. Surely it can't be as simple as the fact that he just paid alot less in taxes than everyone else, can it?
Look, he's a rich guy that likes to pay minimal taxes, we get that, that's the game the rich have always played, so sure, if he releases them and it shows that he paid an effective tax-rate of 0.00% for the past ten years he'll take a hit, but he'll use that as a badge of honour amongst his supporters. He'll use that as an excuse to say that the tax-code needs to be revamped, and that everyone should pay lower taxes and that's why he's running for office. He would actually be able to turn it into a positive for his campaign.
Unless, of course, his effective tax-rate isn't the only issue.
I know enough about the tax code and the IRS to not fuck with either, and I take my yearly fleecing with as much good grace as possible, but when you're rich you can hire lawyers and accountants whose sole function is to do precisely that. Their job is to fuck with the tax code and the IRS as far as possible, without winding up with their clients wearing silver bracelets and getting a one-way ticket to Club Fed. This is how the rich keep their money, by classifying regular income as 'passive investment returns' or 'dividend reinvestments' or 'refunded asset depreciation allocations' or any number of other gobbledygook sleight-of-hand card tricks, but ALL of them have one thing in common. They are all at least vaguely legal. Which leads me to believe that Willard isn't worried about fallout from paying less taxes than most folks that hold down two minimum-wage jobs nowadays, or the fact that he used offshore banks to hide some of his money, I think he's worried that his accountants have done such shady stuff over the last ten years that if the IRS took a real hard look at them, never mind losing the election, he could wind up losing his freedom...
And one last thing to ponder, of all of the people that are calling the Democratic Senate Leader Harry Reid a 'dirty liar', or that his comments asserting that Rmoney hasn't paid any taxes in the last ten years "belittle his position in the Senate", bear in mind that none of them are speaking from a position of authority. None of them have actually seen the returns. The one person that HAS seen those returns, Senator John McCain when he vetted Mittens for a potential VP slot in 2008, hasn't said a single word about whether Harry is telling the truth or not. And in this case, that silence definitely speaks volumes.
Stay tuned kids...this could get mighty interesting...
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Prometheus: Back to the future from the past in the future
I'm not going to give you the back story because I'm sure you've all seen at least a thousands tv commercials for it so here, in brief is my review...Spoiler alert? Why bother, nobody reads this blog anyway so who's going to have anything spoiled for them...
I give it a solid B+...which in this day and age of interminable Adam Sandler flicks, Vampire romances, and relentless cartoon/super-hero sequels, here was a movie that really tried to stand out...and it succeeded...sort of...
I really wanted to like Noomi Rapace's character because she's a great actress, but I simply didn't buy-in to the relationship with her partner...there was another one of those "I'm going to try and eat your face off because that's how passionately-in-love people kiss" scenes, which was totally unbelievable...and the rest of the time the supposed knowing glances flashed between the two lovebirds were more reminiscent of a sudden 'did you remember to let the cat out' moment rather than a 'I connect with you at a molecular level of love, man' emotion...
Idris Elba with an American accent...what a waste...I think his lines would have sounded soooooo much better in his natural accent...think 'John Luther In Space'...with guns...and aliens..what could go wrong?
Charlize Theron was apparently just there to try and look highly efficient and erotically pent-up as the ships' Commander besides, as it turns out, all she really wanted was a damned good rogering anyway...
All the other scientists got eaten...we all knew that was going to happen, right?
Which leaves Michael Fassbender's performance as David.
One word. Spell-binding. (okay, technically that's two but you get my point).
He absolutely makes the movie. You are never quite sure what his character's agenda is, which is weird 'cos he's a robot and they're supposed to be programmed right? But he is without doubt what drives the movie. Sure there are slimy monsters penetrating the orifices of various unwilling hosts, and sure there's the question of just who these 'Engineers' really are, but at the end of the day, the only person you care about is David, and he's silicone based. And that's why the movie is ultimately a bit of a let-down. The over-arching theme in the whole movie is about mankind finally figuring out the answer to the ultimate question of who, or what, created us, and in the end the only person really worth caring about was the bloody robot...
Oh, and the movie blatantly sets up at least one more sequel (a banner trailing from the spaceship as the credits started to roll saying "If the box office take is enough we'll see you in 2014" would have been only marginally less obvious..) which i find insulting and annoying, but at least it's not going to be another fucking Die Hard movie so it does have that going for it...
If you're into the franchise I don't think you'll be too disappointed after all it is way better than anything they produced after Aliens, and if you're just looking for a gloriously filmed sci-fi thriller I don't think you'll be let down either. Definitely worth the price of admission.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
How to write good...
Because no-one reads this when they're my words, I'll steal someone else's..namely Frank L. Visco...
1) Avoid alliteration. Always.
2) Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
3) Avoid cliches like the plague. (They're old hat.)
4) Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
5) Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.
6) It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
7) One should never generalize.
8) Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said " I hate quotations."
9) Comparisons are as bad as cliches.
10) Be more or less specific.
11) Understatement is best.
12) Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.
13) Don't be redundant. Don't use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous.
14) Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.
15) One word sentences? Eliminate.
16) Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
17) Who needs rhetorical questions?
I hope to incorporate these rules in my future writings so that you, dear reader, might enjoy them more and tell all of your friend about this blog so that one day, I too can get paid for writing as good as I can.
1) Avoid alliteration. Always.
2) Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
3) Avoid cliches like the plague. (They're old hat.)
4) Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
5) Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.
6) It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
7) One should never generalize.
8) Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said " I hate quotations."
9) Comparisons are as bad as cliches.
10) Be more or less specific.
11) Understatement is best.
12) Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.
13) Don't be redundant. Don't use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous.
14) Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.
15) One word sentences? Eliminate.
16) Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
17) Who needs rhetorical questions?
I hope to incorporate these rules in my future writings so that you, dear reader, might enjoy them more and tell all of your friend about this blog so that one day, I too can get paid for writing as good as I can.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Bigots and zealots and liars, oh my!!
So North Carolina has banned the marriage of same sex folks, even though fucking your cousin is still perfectly legal (just not the gay ones). The problem with this hateful, bigoted, backward-ass legislation is that it invalidates ALL civil unions....even those between a man and a woman....too bad they didn't spend as much time reading as they did hating in that state otherwise they might have caught that one before it passed...
As previously stated AZ has officially gone completely off the deep end with it's hatred of *insert special interest group here*. This week Governor Jan Brewer, who for all the world does a very passable impersonation of Skeletor's wife, banned state funds going to Planned Parenthood, because, you know, nothing says 'Save the Children' quite like not giving free pre and post-natal health care to women that can't afford it.
But the real winner for me is in the 'bald-faced liar' category. May I present to you one Jonah Goldberg. This particular right-wing ass-carrot has a new book out, if by 'book' you mean page-after-page of nonsensical ramblings of the under-developed brain of a person who's sole claim to fame was that his mommy tried to get President Clinton impeached for getting a blow-job from a fat Jewish chick.
The title of this monumental waste of trees and ink is "The Tyranny of Cliches: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas", which sounds ominous, bookish and semi-retarded all at the same time. That's not the problem though, the problem pops up on the dust-jacket of the book where, it is claimed, Jonah Goldberg has "twice been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize". Why is that a problem you ask? The answer is simple. Jonah Goldberg hasn't been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Ever. When challenged about it his response was a typical right-wing knee-jerk of "I didn't do it, it's someone else's fault".
Hey Jonah, I have an idea, the next time you want to write an entire book about someone else's "dishonesty", I'd suggest you don't put your own lies on the front page.
Cheers!
As previously stated AZ has officially gone completely off the deep end with it's hatred of *insert special interest group here*. This week Governor Jan Brewer, who for all the world does a very passable impersonation of Skeletor's wife, banned state funds going to Planned Parenthood, because, you know, nothing says 'Save the Children' quite like not giving free pre and post-natal health care to women that can't afford it.
But the real winner for me is in the 'bald-faced liar' category. May I present to you one Jonah Goldberg. This particular right-wing ass-carrot has a new book out, if by 'book' you mean page-after-page of nonsensical ramblings of the under-developed brain of a person who's sole claim to fame was that his mommy tried to get President Clinton impeached for getting a blow-job from a fat Jewish chick.
The title of this monumental waste of trees and ink is "The Tyranny of Cliches: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas", which sounds ominous, bookish and semi-retarded all at the same time. That's not the problem though, the problem pops up on the dust-jacket of the book where, it is claimed, Jonah Goldberg has "twice been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize". Why is that a problem you ask? The answer is simple. Jonah Goldberg hasn't been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Ever. When challenged about it his response was a typical right-wing knee-jerk of "I didn't do it, it's someone else's fault".
Hey Jonah, I have an idea, the next time you want to write an entire book about someone else's "dishonesty", I'd suggest you don't put your own lies on the front page.
Cheers!
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
New Arizona law mandates that all new babies be named Jesus...
Well okay, that's not what the law technically says, but since the upshot of the new Arizona legal definition of when life begins is actually two weeks before conception, it stands to reason that all births in Arizona will by definition be Immaculately Conceived. And we all know what happened the last time that was said to have occurred....
Glad the 'War on women' is completely made up by the 'liberal media'.....
(I blame the heat, they can't ALL be religiously insane, women-hating fucktards in that state can they?)
Glad the 'War on women' is completely made up by the 'liberal media'.....
(I blame the heat, they can't ALL be religiously insane, women-hating fucktards in that state can they?)
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Nothing important really, but....
It's been a month since I wrote my last post and not a soul has read it...Excellent!
So what's been happening? The republican presidential nomination race is still going on, albeit with Mitt Rmoney looking more and more inevitable after every result comes out. It's so stale that even the presstitutes in the M$M have seemingly grown bored over the whole thing and turned back to following celebrity gossip with refreshed vigor after the passage of Whitney Houston. Turns out she died of a heart attack of some sort and wound up face down in the tub with traces of cocaine all over her hotel room. Most of her music was mainstream pap that I neither cared for or listened to, but her voice was amazing. Her rendition of the American National Anthem at the Super Bowl in 1991 brings goosebumps to this Brit's arms every time I hear it, and stands out as quite possibly the best vocal rendition ever. (No-one beats Jimi Hendrix's version, though).
What else? Oh yes, a lard arsed, right-wing fucktard on the radio caused himself all sorts of trouble when he called a young women that testified in Congress a "slut" because she wanted her employer to pay for her birth control. In the rest of the civilized world what that young woman was saying makes perfect sense and no-one gives a shit, but in this christo-fascist era bitches need to keep their mouths closed, and their legs open, and focus on staying pretty rather than worrying about a career in public speaking apparently. According to the neanderthals on the right the toughest decision a woman needs to concern herself with nowadays should be whether or not to wear her 'Hooker shoes' when she blows her husband as he watches SportsCenter on ESPN after she's cleaned the table of the remnants of the dinner she spent all day cooking...
Also several (republican controlled) states have passed, or are looking to pass, laws that effectively codify the rape of any woman that wants to have an abortion, by forcing them to pay for a trans-vaginal ultra-sound. (A trans-vaginal ultra-sound is one where the woman is penetrated by a wand, not the usual one where they only rub jello on the tummy). These laws would apply even in the cases where the woman might have become pregnant through rape.
And the republicans in congress can't figure out why they are less popular than genital herpes...
In Florida (a well-known haven for nutters and crazies) an Hispanic man murdered a black kid who was armed with a very threatening bag of candy and a hoodie....the fact that he wasn't arrested by The Filth has upset more than a few folks in this great country, not least of which are all the sane people...
Oh, and NOAA just came out yesterday and said that this past March was the hottest in recorded history.
But global warming is a myth....
My head hurts.....
So what's been happening? The republican presidential nomination race is still going on, albeit with Mitt Rmoney looking more and more inevitable after every result comes out. It's so stale that even the presstitutes in the M$M have seemingly grown bored over the whole thing and turned back to following celebrity gossip with refreshed vigor after the passage of Whitney Houston. Turns out she died of a heart attack of some sort and wound up face down in the tub with traces of cocaine all over her hotel room. Most of her music was mainstream pap that I neither cared for or listened to, but her voice was amazing. Her rendition of the American National Anthem at the Super Bowl in 1991 brings goosebumps to this Brit's arms every time I hear it, and stands out as quite possibly the best vocal rendition ever. (No-one beats Jimi Hendrix's version, though).
What else? Oh yes, a lard arsed, right-wing fucktard on the radio caused himself all sorts of trouble when he called a young women that testified in Congress a "slut" because she wanted her employer to pay for her birth control. In the rest of the civilized world what that young woman was saying makes perfect sense and no-one gives a shit, but in this christo-fascist era bitches need to keep their mouths closed, and their legs open, and focus on staying pretty rather than worrying about a career in public speaking apparently. According to the neanderthals on the right the toughest decision a woman needs to concern herself with nowadays should be whether or not to wear her 'Hooker shoes' when she blows her husband as he watches SportsCenter on ESPN after she's cleaned the table of the remnants of the dinner she spent all day cooking...
Also several (republican controlled) states have passed, or are looking to pass, laws that effectively codify the rape of any woman that wants to have an abortion, by forcing them to pay for a trans-vaginal ultra-sound. (A trans-vaginal ultra-sound is one where the woman is penetrated by a wand, not the usual one where they only rub jello on the tummy). These laws would apply even in the cases where the woman might have become pregnant through rape.
And the republicans in congress can't figure out why they are less popular than genital herpes...
In Florida (a well-known haven for nutters and crazies) an Hispanic man murdered a black kid who was armed with a very threatening bag of candy and a hoodie....the fact that he wasn't arrested by The Filth has upset more than a few folks in this great country, not least of which are all the sane people...
Oh, and NOAA just came out yesterday and said that this past March was the hottest in recorded history.
But global warming is a myth....
My head hurts.....
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