I'll just leave it at that right here and suggest that you click through and take a look for yourself. It's a good question, I think. An important question.William Calley and the alleged Pan Am bomber were both convicted of mass murder. Yet Calley's recent appearances have provoked no outrage. Why the double standard?
I don't know whether the world is run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it.
Will people wake up and see what this party is really all about? Truly, I don't see how anybody possibly could say this and not realize how racist it is.A Republican congresswoman apologized Thursday for saying that her party is looking for a "great white hope" to counteract President Obama's political agenda.
Kansas Rep. Lynn Jenkins told the Lawrence Journal-World that she did not intend to make a racist comment, and was simply saying that "Republicans have been suffering in recent years and we need a bright light."
I guess I'm just in some kinda weird mood this morning.....After months of committee meetings and hundreds of hours of heated debate, the United States Congress remained deadlocked this week over the best possible way to deny Americans health care.
"Both parties understand that the current system is broken," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters Monday. "But what we can't seem to agree upon is how to best keep it broken, while still ensuring that no elected official takes any political risk whatsoever. It's a very complicated issue."
And before anybody hollers, I do know that the Federal Reserve is not technically a government agency. (I didn't write the piece.) The point made is still well taken.This morning I was awakened by my alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the U.S. Department of Energy.
I then took a shower in the clean water provided by a municipal water utility.
After that, I turned on the TV to one of the FCC-regulated channels to see what the National Weather Service of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration determined the weather was going to be like, using satellites designed, built, and launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
I watched this while eating my breakfast of U.S. Department of Agriculture-inspected food and taking the drugs which have been determined as safe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
At the appropriate time, as regulated by the U.S. Congress and kept accurate by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the U.S. Naval Observatory, I get into my National Highway Traffic Safety Administration-approved automobile and set out to work on the roads build by the local, state, and federal Departments of Transportation, possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level determined by the Environmental Protection Agency, using legal tender issued by the Federal Reserve Bank.
On the way out the door I deposit any mail I have to be sent out via the U.S. Postal Service and drop the kids off at the public school.
After spending another day not being maimed or killed at work thanks to the workplace regulations imposed by the Department of Labor and the Occupational Safety and Health administration, enjoying another two meals which again do not kill me because of the USDA, I drive my NHTSA car back home on the DOT roads, to my house which has not burned down in my absence because of the state and local building codes and Fire Marshal's inspection, and which has not been plundered of all its valuables thanks to the local police department.
And then I log on to the internet -- which was developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration -- and post on Freerepublic.com and Fox News forums about how SOCIALISM in medicine is BAD because the government can't do anything right.
He will be greatly missed. May those of us who hold the same dream dear continue to carry that torch and never give up.The Kennedy name is synonymous with the Democratic Party. And at times, Ted was the target of partisan campaign attacks. But in the United States Senate, I can think of no one who engendered greater respect or affection from members of both sides of the aisle. His seriousness of purpose was perpetually matched by humility, warmth, and good cheer. He could passionately battle others and do so peerlessly on the Senate floor for the causes that he held dear, and yet still maintain warm friendships across party lines.
And that's one reason he became not only one of the greatest senators of our time, but one of the most accomplished Americans ever to serve our democracy.
His extraordinary life on this earth has come to an end. And the extraordinary good that he did lives on. For his family, he was a guardian. For America, he was the defender of a dream.-- President Barack Obama
This is very disturbing, of course. One of the false beliefs being studied was the claim that Saddam Hussein was linked to the terrorist attacks of 9/11.Co-author Steven Hoffman, Ph.D., visiting assistant professor of sociology at the University at Buffalo, says, "Our data shows substantial support for a cognitive theory known as 'motivated reasoning,' which suggests that rather than search rationally for information that either confirms or disconfirms a particular belief, people actually seek out information that confirms what they already believe.
"In fact," he says, "for the most part people completely ignore contrary information.
I wonder if this has always been true of human beings or if this is a recent phenomenon. Either way, it is very, very worrying as our survival as a species depends on our ability to correct what we are convinced is true according to the actual facts that are pertinent.The study team employed a technique called "challenge interviews" on a sample of voters who reported believing in a link between Saddam and 9/11. The researchers presented the available evidence of the link, along with the evidence that there was no link, and then pushed respondents to justify their opinion on the matter. For all but one respondent, the overwhelming evidence that there was no link left no impact on their arguments in support of the link.
Here's the problem. All these "old white people" are undoubtedly using Medicare and receiving Social Security benefits - both government run programs. Can you say "irony"? Of course you can. (Bet you can also say "stupid".)Have you seen what's going on with these town halls? I don't want to say they're out of control. But they're starting to show them on ESPN. I haven't seen old white people this upset since they canceled 'Murder, She Wrote.'
--Bill Maher
And still we don't begin to cover everybody.Total spending on health care, per person, 2007:
United States: $7290
Switzerland: $4417
France: $3601
United Kingdom: $2992
Average of OECD developed nations: $2964
Italy: $2686
Japan: $2581
I'd like to be optimistic about this material doing much good in the realm of political discourse. I'm not. However, knowing some of this stuff may well help you keep your sanity.How to argue logically is therefore one of the core intellectual skill-sets of scientific skepticism. It is why skeptics will frequently whip out their logical fallacy detectors when arguing with defenders of not-so-critical thinking or true-beliefs. Even in everyday conversations we commit and encounter countless errors in logic. It is therefore highly valuable to be familiar with the common ways in which human logic goes astray.
Also the internet has resulted in an explosion of human communication, especially, it seems, arguing. Much of the social constraints are lifted when typing over the intertubes under a pseudonym. Knowledge of good and bad arguing are therefore more essential than ever for the computer literati and wannabe internet flame warriors.
Hat tip to Helen and Harry HighwaterHell, I can’t, for the life of me, figure out what value the insurance companies add at all. Seems like all they do is skim money off the top, add layers of paperwork, and then screw people when they get a serious illness.
-- John Cole
Well, that's amazingly gracious of her.Shortly after PittGirl, the former ghost writer for Pittsburgh's popular TheBurghBlog.com, revealed her true identity, she was fired from her job.
Virginia Montanez came clean on her new Web site, ThatsChurch.com, after calling it quits more than six months ago writing for TheBurghBlog.
On her new site, Montanez revealed that she worked at the college access program NEED, which often works with Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's office and UPMC [University of Pittsburgh Medical Center]. However, PittGirl often targeted "Lukey" and UPMC while writing for TheBurghBlog.
"As I feared would happen, I am no longer working at NEED. Listen. It’s okay. NEED is a wonderful organization doing what it needs to do, look after its rich history and stellar reputation. They don’t need me there as a distraction. I’m very sad about their decision, but I understand it and I am going to accept it and move on. There is no need to go to bat for me with them," Montanez wrote Thursday...
For a long time now I've wished the Democrats would grow some spine. I keep getting disappointed.So what have learned in the past 8 months?
1. Give the Republicans 40% of the stimulus package for wasteful tax cuts and they will:
a. Vote against the bill anyway;
b. Claim that you're the one who wasted all the money; and
c. Say that the bill isn't working, when their provisions were the only ones supposed to kick in immediately.
2. Unilaterally cave on one of your biggest promises on health care reform and the GOP will:
a. Still claim that you're being partisan.
b. Still oppose anything you come up with.
c. Vote against the bill anyway.
Fake Letters to Congress. Investigators have uncovered a total of nine letters sent to Congress falsely claiming to be from charities expressing opposition to climate change legislation.
No one has a right to sit down and feel hopeless. There's too much work to do.
I hurt myself today
To see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
The only thing that's real
The needle tears a hole
The old familiar sting
Try to kill it all away
But I remember everything
What have I become
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know goes away
In the end
And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt
I wear this crown of thorns
Upon my liar's chair
Full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair
Beneath the stains of time
The feelings disappear
You are someone else
I am still right here
What have I become
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know goes away
In the end
And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt
If I could start again
A million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way
We need to ponder that one. We humans, I mean. All of us.In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken," and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time someting like that happened in politics or religion.
I nicked this from over at MadPriest's place. You know, these rabid conservatives would do well to proofread their messages.You can't pray away the gay. You just can't.Focus on the Family, James Dobson’s anti-LGBT empire and the largest organization in the religious right, announced earlier this week that it would be selling off its ex-gay therapy program called “Love Won Out.” The organization says it’s part of an effort to downsize in the wake of record profit losses of nearly $6 million. The news comes days after the nation’s largest psychological organization released a report condemning ex-gay therapies.
Fortunately, she is not thought to have much of a chance at winning the nomination. Still, this is troubling because it seems to be part of a larger movement to promote fundamentalism within the public sphere.Republican mayoral candidate Anna Falling said Tuesday that putting a Christian creationism display in the Tulsa Zoo is No. 1 in importance among city issues that include violent crime, budget woes and bumpy streets.
And here's a comment to that article that I have to say I appreciate:Americans appear to be souring on Sarah Palin, according to a new national poll.
Thirty-nine percent of people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Wednesday have a favorable opinion of the former Alaska governor and last year's Republican vice presidential nominee. That's down seven points from a poll conducted in May, and it's also nine points lower than the 48 percent who now say they now view Palin unfavorably. Forty-three percent viewed Palin negatively in May.
That one's rich, huh?Don't listen to them, Sarah.
The GOP needs you, America needs you, and most of all Democrats are counting on you to finish sinking conservatism.
Don't let us down – a nutcaselike you is a one-in-a-million find.
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra Please go read the whole thing. I promise you, you'll be glad you did.If there is a future wave of wellness on this planet, of harmony, of peace, of an end to war, of mutual understanding, of equality, of fairness, I don't expect it will come from a government, a military force or a corporation. I no longer even expect it to come from the religions of the world, which together seem to have brought us as much war as they have peace. If there is a future of peace for humankind, if there is to be an understanding of how these invisible, internal things should fit together, I expect it will come from the artists, because that's what we do.
I don't think people like that even care about hypocrisy. It's the "I've got mine; screw you," attitude that they seem to think is not only acceptable but laudable.My Republican brother has worked for the FAA all is life, has the best health care available and the government even sells his house for him when transferred to another area yet he constantly screams about us "socialists". Go figure. Those types not only lack self awareness they have no appreciation for irony and that's why they're so damned stupid. You can't even point out their hypocrisy to them.
So what's the answer to the title question? I fear it is "yes".Idiot: foolish or senseless person. A fitting characterization of those who say that government run programs are an abomination apparently unaware that what they are saying applies to: Medicare, Congressional medical coverage, and Medicaid; Veterans Administration - benefits and hospitals; Social Security and SSI; Public schools and universities; Firefighters, policeman, sheriffs, and forest rangers; FBI and CIA; U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corp., Air Force, and Coast Guard; and The United States Post Office.
Some of these older foolish and senseless people are biting off their own noses to spite their faces by ranting and raving about government control of health care without apparently realizing their Medicare and VA coverage are government run.
And, of course, Palin exploited the fact (again) that she has a disabled child. She claimed that Obama's plan would include a "death panel" that would decide whether her Down's syndrome son was "worthy of treatement" or not. It's absolutely preposterous and she knows better.Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean told CNN Sunday that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin had deliberately made up charges that the Obama administration’s health care bill would lead to euthanasia.
“About euthanasia, they're just totally erroneous. She just made that up,” he said. “Just like the ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ that she supposedly didn't support.“There's nothing like euthanasia in the bill. I practiced medicine for a long time, and of course you have to have end of life discussions — the patients want that. There's nothing… euthanasia's not in this bill.”
I'm sorry, folks, but this stuff is simply pathetic. I mean really, really, really pathetic.[B]efore I go about demonstrating how, sadly, easy it is to prove the dumbness dragging down our country, let me just say that ignorance has life and death consequences. On the eve of the Iraq War, 69% of Americans thought Saddam Hussein was personally involved in 9/11. Four years later, 34% still did. Or take the health care debate we're presently having: members of Congress have recessed now so they can go home and "listen to their constituents." An urge they should resist because their constituents don't know anything. At a recent town-hall meeting in South Carolina, a man stood up and told his Congressman to "keep your government hands off my Medicare," which is kind of like driving cross country to protest highways.
I'm the bad guy for saying it's a stupid country, yet polls show that a majority of Americans cannot name a single branch of government, or explain what the Bill of Rights is. 24% could not name the country America fought in the Revolutionary War. More than two-thirds of Americans don't know what's in Roe v. Wade. Two-thirds don't know what the Food and Drug Administration does.
...
Nearly half of Americans don't know that states have two senators and more than half can't name their congressman.
...
Sarah Palin says she would never apologize for America. Even though a Gallup poll says 18% of Americans think the sun revolves around the earth.
...
The average voter thinks foreign aid consumes 24% of our federal budget. It's actually less than 1%.
...
[D]id you know only about half of Americans are aware that Judaism is an older religion than Christianity? That's right, half of America looks at books called the Old Testament and the New Testament and cannot figure out which one came first.
Pathetic. Truly pathetic.The United States of America - the only country on earth where people protest to support their right to be screwed over by corporations.
There's more and it's really worth reading.Compare who we were then with what we've become, and we have to ask; whatever happened to that "can-do" American spirit? Why have we gone from gung-ho idealists, capable of solving any problem, to a country of naysayers, who can't seem to solve problems without tearing ourselves apart in the process? In the forty years from 1929 to 1969, we solved the problems of an economic system that had once caused us to slide into Depression on a regular basis; we wired almost every home in the country with electricity; we created an infrastructure that was the envy of the world; we created an educational system that turned us from a largely illiterate society into a literate one; we made it possible for everyone who wanted to, to go to college; we created a mortgage system that allowed everyone who could afford one to buy a home; and we became the preeminent manufacturing power in the world. Between 1929 to 1969, a span of 40 years, we went from one of the most devastated nations in the world to being the premier economic superpower in the world. And we did it through sheer force of will.
...
Look at what's happened in the subsequent 40 years. We've shipped almost all of our manufacturing overseas, and we make almost nothing that has an American name on it, and we have pretty much given up on the prospect of ever competing with the rest of the world. We have gone from being the largest creditor nation in the world to being the largest debtor nation in the world. We're more addicted to oil than ever before, and more dependent on others for it than at any other time in our history, despite the fact that technology exists to free ourselves from that addiction and dependence. And we are the only country in the industrialized world (although I guess we're more post-industrialized these days) that hasn't managed to cover everyone with health insurance.
Yes, and not just on public lands. Are we ever going to wake up as a species and realize that this is a matter of truly catastrophic urgency?The federal government must take decisive action to avoid 'a potentially catastrophic loss of animal and plant life' in national parks, according to a new report that details the effects of global warming on the nation's most treasured public lands.
The difference between the promise of healthcare for everyone and the new mantra of health insurance reform is akin to what Mark Twain once described as "the difference between lightning and a lightning bug."
The above excerpt is from an article entitled "Sick Man Lookin’ for a Doctor’s Cure" by Christopher Cooper.Lyndon Johnson had his flaws. But he was no Bill Clinton, no Barack Obama, no feel-your-pain-compromise-away-your-rights milquetoast. When that fat son of a bitch thought something was right he fought for it. Thus: Medicare. Don't like government health care? Don't sign up for it, citizens; repeal old age health insurance, you simple-minded legislators.
Suppose we had a president who did what he believed in. What if he twisted arms and bashed heads together and called in favors and crowded people into uncomfortable corners and used the great good will and support of the hopeful, desperate people whose votes put him in office in an unrelenting campaign to demand that the giant insurance companies find some other way to keep their executives in private jets and shiny suits and waterfront second homes. Or go out of business, if they prefer. What if he told us he would accept nothing less than a revolution in the way we fund health care so that there was no middleman, no profit taken out, no financiers between you and a cure, pain relief, well-being, good health and personal dignity.
All he would have to do is to say, "Single Payer." Then tell us all that single payer means government payer, not government-as-doctor. He would have to talk about health care reform, not insurance reform.
Ha! "We know what you are, sir. We're just arguing about the price."
So true, so true.
UPDATE: Here's a comment I found to the above video:
We do know that the gov't option will not refuse anyone due to a pre-existing condition - healthcare profits should be capped and the public option will force down prices - public healthcare will also be good for business as they won't have to pay ransom to the HMOs - everyone wins, unless you're holding shares of some soon to be outdated HMO - the U.S. spends more per capita on healthcare than any other country in the world, yet ranks well down the list in terms of health.
People in other countries are simply flabbergasted that here, the only way to get health care is if you prove you're NOT sick. If you think about it for a minute, you will see how utterly backward that is.
