And on a more serious (and slightly unrelated) note, the topic of children who rape. Call me cynical (and people often do), but a poster and a workshop condemning rape aren't going to cut it. That's all.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Wah, Wah your way...to the nearest EXIT!
Finally, an uplifting news story. It's not enough that parents get tax credits and whatever else it is that they want for their snot-nosed-swine-flu-incubating little brats. So if you needed one more reason to like Southwest Airlines, this may just be it.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Not Homoween Anymore
Dan Savage on the heterozation of Halloween, and why that's not a bad thing.
I have to admit I find using Halloween as an excuse to dress like a whore to be somewhat aggravating, but if you dress up as a dead whore, then that's ok.
I have to admit I find using Halloween as an excuse to dress like a whore to be somewhat aggravating, but if you dress up as a dead whore, then that's ok.
Change
In what is shaping up to be a nice trend, President Obama reversed another stupid policy from the 80s. Since 1987, thanks largely to Jesse Helm's homophobia, the United States did not allow people with HIV to enter the country. Early next year, the HIV Travel Ban will be lifted, further doing away with the stigma associated with that disease.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
More Stupid Poll Questions
This time courtesy of a Fox News poll. They are asking who is more determined to win the war in Afghanistan: President Obama or al-Qaeda/the Taliban? First of all, al-Qaeda and the Taliban are now two very distinct entities. Some in the Taliban might be sympathetic to al-Qaeda, but many are just fighting because they oppose the Karzai government. Furthermore, the question should be whether the American people want to win the war more than al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and well, they're kind of all over the place.
No such question was asked in their poll during the previous eight years of the war. I have no idea why that could be...
No such question was asked in their poll during the previous eight years of the war. I have no idea why that could be...
Good ol' C.I.A.
An already Vietnam-esque situation gets even...Vietnam...ier with the revelation that the Afghan President's brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, is on the payroll of the C.I.A. President Karzai's brother is widely believed to be heavily involved Afghanistan's booming opium trade. I can imagine this would piss off the military who are trying to halt opium production because it funds the Taliban. Perhaps we're seeing some tension between the intelligence community and the military playing itself out on the pages of The New York Times.
Governmental Incompetence: Cash for Clunkers
I can understand sticking by your ideological guns and all, but I don't understand anyone defending the cash for clunkers program.
Everyone can recall that when it was first rolled out, it ran out of money much faster than Congress predicted. Then American car makers didn't receive the brunt of the spending (though with Toyota's being made in San Antonio and Ford being made in Mexico, that may be a moot point). And, then there were the dealerships that "sold" the cars but didn't get paid by the government like promised and were put into financial dire straits of sorts and STILL haven't been paid months later.
And now, news is emerging that, despite the astronomical number being claimed on the government run website Cars.gov of 700,000 cars being sold due to the program, it probably instigated more like 125,000 sales (that's a 560% overstatement), not to mention that for each of those stimulus-y purchases, it cost we the American tax payer $24,000 for each car - that's over 5 times the max $4,500 government rebates.
So, the government spends 3 Billion dollars so that 125,000 new cars can be sold, claims it's a whopping success despite its terrible execution which lead to the program being scrapped, then totally, purposefully, misrepresents the numbers on their .gov website.
This coming on the heels of what I posted to as "bad" earlier, i.e. the news that the number of jobs created or saved by the stimulus was actually overstated by several thousand.
These are the people who refer to a bankrupt program, medicare, as an indicator of success. And now they want to run healthcare? My God...the incompetence of politicians is unbelievable
Everyone can recall that when it was first rolled out, it ran out of money much faster than Congress predicted. Then American car makers didn't receive the brunt of the spending (though with Toyota's being made in San Antonio and Ford being made in Mexico, that may be a moot point). And, then there were the dealerships that "sold" the cars but didn't get paid by the government like promised and were put into financial dire straits of sorts and STILL haven't been paid months later.
And now, news is emerging that, despite the astronomical number being claimed on the government run website Cars.gov of 700,000 cars being sold due to the program, it probably instigated more like 125,000 sales (that's a 560% overstatement), not to mention that for each of those stimulus-y purchases, it cost we the American tax payer $24,000 for each car - that's over 5 times the max $4,500 government rebates.
So, the government spends 3 Billion dollars so that 125,000 new cars can be sold, claims it's a whopping success despite its terrible execution which lead to the program being scrapped, then totally, purposefully, misrepresents the numbers on their .gov website.
This coming on the heels of what I posted to as "bad" earlier, i.e. the news that the number of jobs created or saved by the stimulus was actually overstated by several thousand.
These are the people who refer to a bankrupt program, medicare, as an indicator of success. And now they want to run healthcare? My God...the incompetence of politicians is unbelievable
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Ayers-Heads
Some people still believe Bill Ayers ghost-wrote Dreams From My Father. Luckily for us they write HILARIOUS, detailed articles articulating their reasoning for our amusement.
I hope no one finds out Stokely Carmichael wrote personal statement for law school admission before he died.
Joe Lieberman Just Wants Attention
He just can't pass up an opportunity to try to screw Democrats, and he can't even keep his reasons straight for why he opposes the public option he used to support. The public option will lower premiums because it will be competing with private insurers for the same customers. Private insurers are free to raise their rates to appease providers but it doesn't seem like a very smart business model.
It just sucks we have to live with him as a senator for four more years.
Debts, of all kinds.
Here's a good article regarding the general concept of "debt" as it applies to the Obama Administration's policies on finance, politics, energy, and foreign relations. Yes it's conservative, but I believe the author's comments, principally on the precarious national debt situation, are mostly common sense and well founded.
Because if the country goes broke we all lose.
Because if the country goes broke we all lose.
BASEBALL: World Series '09 Game 1
Tonight is game 1 of the World Series between the National League Philadelphia Phillies and the American League New York Yankees. The Phillies won the World Series last year and are going for two in a row; the Yankees haven't been since 2003. And by National League allegiance default, I'm rooting for the Phillies. Let's go Phillies!!!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Something I can agree with...sorta.
Although I'm innately skeptical when the government gets involved in anything - because they generally muck it up (medicare was projected to cost $10M, ended costing 10 times that...woops!) - I can agree with Senator Joe Lieberman's cautious approach to healthcare reform and the hot potato that is the public option.
Iiiiiinteresting
I little while ago I remarked about the Levi's ad using a recording of Walt Whitman's voice reading his poem "America." Apparently this ad, along with the "O Pioneers!" ad were directed by Cary Fukunaga, director of the excellent film Sin Nombre. The more I see these ads the more I like them. They are a reminder that advertising, while usually shallow, can serve as a great medium for artistic expression. Throughout history most great paintings and sculptures were commissioned by rich people, so what's wrong with them being commissioned by big corporations? Hell this is a good way for a director to earn money to finance more personal projects.
Get Motivated!
George W. Bush's debut as a motivational speaker in Fort Worth was a smashing success. I can only hope the show comes to Houston. I think it's worth a sick day to go hear the former President talk about dog poop.
A choice quote from someone who attended the event:
A choice quote from someone who attended the event:
One attendee told the Washington Post that his lack of speaking abilities sounds "incompetent if you are president. But here it can be inspiring. It makes him seem like a regular guy, no better than me."
Battle of the Networks
I don't care about the cable news networks, i.e. MSNBC, Fox, CNN, or Headline. Hell, I don't even watch them due to my lack of cable. When I do watch the news, I watch the BBC on PBS in the evenings because it's one of the few clear channels I can get, and I'm definitely not watching Katie Couric - she scares me.
So this story about CNN coming in last place is fairly innocuous, but the reason I feel compelled to discuss it is that I love how CNN is being portrayed as the hard news network, not a bias or opinion network like Fox or MSNBC, two networks I am neither defending nor deriding here.
However, there are times when I see cable news, at the gym for instance when I run on the treadmill. It was during one of these runs that the 9/12 hullabaloo was gong on and Anderson Cooper quietly smiled and call the the attendees, ahem, "teabaggers."
As if he didn't know what he was saying.
Like I said, I don't really watch the stuff, I get my news from the internet,PBS, and the radio. But, reporting on how CNN is strictly a straight shooting network seems a bit skewed to me.
So this story about CNN coming in last place is fairly innocuous, but the reason I feel compelled to discuss it is that I love how CNN is being portrayed as the hard news network, not a bias or opinion network like Fox or MSNBC, two networks I am neither defending nor deriding here.
However, there are times when I see cable news, at the gym for instance when I run on the treadmill. It was during one of these runs that the 9/12 hullabaloo was gong on and Anderson Cooper quietly smiled and call the the attendees, ahem, "teabaggers."
As if he didn't know what he was saying.
Like I said, I don't really watch the stuff, I get my news from the internet,PBS, and the radio. But, reporting on how CNN is strictly a straight shooting network seems a bit skewed to me.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Public Option In
The Senate health care bill will contain a public option with the "opt-out" provisions I've discussed previously on this blog. Although there have been whispers that the public option was back for a few days now, this is still quite a turnaround for something most of the mainstream media declared dead a few weeks ago. This development shows that Harry Reid is confident that he has the votes to cut off debate and prevent a filibuster when the bill is introduced after it is scored by the Congressional Budget Office. With the public option included the bill will likely lose the support of the lone Republican, Olympia Snowe, who might have voted for health care reform. However, I don't think it really matters. This is a Democratic bill and getting one Republican to vote for it isn't going to change that. Maybe this means Democrats wont have to water the bill down and make it worse to please the Maine twins like they did with stimulus. It will be a close call and I'm sure there's much more health care kabuki theatre to come.
They may be bloodsuckers, but...
I despise insurance companies. We all know they will screw anyone over to make dime. Of course, that could be said of any business. But, most other businesses aren't dealing with peoples' lives so directly. Nonetheless, they do serve a purpose. And according to the numbers, apparently being in the health insurance business isn't as profitable as everyone's making it out to be. This doesn't make me like them any more or less, I'm just cutting through the political rhetoric (and outright lies in some cases) is all.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
BASEBALL: World Series 2009
So, the Yankees have secured their place in the '09 world series against the defending champs , National League Phillies. Watching the whole ALCS was a little hard for me because I don't like the American League. I'm a National League guy, the league the Astros play in. As such, I never really had a dog in the ALCS fight. I hate the Yankees. Buncha N.Y. bleach-toothed douches like Jeter and philanderer A-Rod. Plus, I can't stand the blatant bias towards the Yankees/AL of the broadcasters. But, I also don't care for California, or it's baseball teams, much less their American League team the Angels. At the same time, I love Andy Pettite (four time World Series Winner and Texas native) and I wanted him to win tonight, which he did, but he pitches for the Yankees. So conflicted. Either way, it was an awesome game and I'm looking forward to the 2009 World Series starting this Wednesday.
Hopefully the Astros will get their act together and realize that having a team that is essentially the retirement center of the MLB is not a good strategy.
Hopefully the Astros will get their act together and realize that having a team that is essentially the retirement center of the MLB is not a good strategy.
Unbelievable
The New York Times pays Ross Douthat to write this crap.
It's hard to make progress in the middle east and all of our varied wars around the globe when idiots like this are all too happy to oblige Osama Bin Laden and act like we're on some new "crusade" ordered by the frickin' Pope.
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