Right-Wing Violence

Republicans are human?!

There is a great article in the Christian Science Monitor ( I know, I feel sick too) about the Republican Party spending large sums of money on hotels, limousines, and almost $2000.00 used at Voyeur, one of LA's great strip clubs.

I personally don't care if they bankrupt themselves buying mayonnaise and condoms. What I care about is the hypocrisy. The party of family values is spending money at a club in which there are live S&M shows? Nice. That actually sounds like a great time. But this is supposed to be America's Party; God's Party! Not to mention that while a vast number of citizens are unemployed and the democrats are continually roasted for spending money to try to help people, the Republicans are gallivanting (awesome southern word) around, spending $17,500 on private jets and $20,000 on a really nice hotel in DC.

Just imagine for one second that the Democrats were the ones doing this. You wouldn't need a radio or TV to hear Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck crying at the top of their lungs. But hey, we can't have unemployed strippers now, can we?

Here is your party, Teabaggers, GOPers, and crazy Christians!

Just Like Clockwork

The insurance companies are fighting with the administration over covering sick children. The insurance companies agree that they have to cover pre-existing conditions, but say they don't actually have to write a policy on the child until 2014.

This all could have been avoided if the bill hadn't been so watered down and had a strong public option in it. It took the insurance companies one week to find a loophole for themselves. I am not sure we can call this a loophole, though. When the bill is centered around not implementing all of its benefits at one time, putting off actually forcing companies to cover children until 2014, what was supposed to happen? Did anyone think this wouldn't happen? This is the problem I had, and still have, with the bill.

“The concept that insurance companies would even seek to deny children coverage exemplifies why we fought for this reform,” said Representative Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California and chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Are you fucking serious? You fought for reform so that the healthcare companies, whose sole purpose is to make money and now has complete control of the healthcare industry thanks to this bullshit bill, can continue screwing over the public? Anyone who takes Waxman seriously about this is off their rocker. If they were really concerned about making sure the children were going to be covered, they wouldn't have put the date of compliance at 2014.

Now the companies have agreed to comply with the wishes of the White House. Are they not a merciful lot of overlords?

It does not matter whether if the insurance companies try to help the kids or not. This bill should have never been allowed to be crafted by the insurance industry. This is just the beginning. I am going to predict that we are going to see a lot more of bullshit like this. The next stop is going to be massive rate increases to cover all of the sick people that they don't have to cover yet.

The Rapture and the Stupids

People who believe in the Rapture are fucked up. Merry Eastermas.

Ricky Martin: Gay at 38

Ricky Martin was found Gay at 38.

In other news, the sky is blue, ice is cold, and sex is pleasurable.

Ohio, what is wrong with you?

My favorite overgrown Oompah-Loompha John Boehner has played his hand, and is going to end up loosing. The Columbus Dispatch wrote an OK article on how Boehner has become the voice of the Republican Party and is taking them... somewhere. There were a few parts of this article that were laughable.

Former Republican congressman David Hobson of Springfield said the speech helped Boehner "5,000 percent" with House Republicans, adding that "John is a stronger leader in the party today. I think he still has the ability to work with the Democrats. He's not an extremist."

He isn't an extremist, I agree. He is an opportunist. He saw a way to steer the Luddites that compose his party down the road to crazyville. However, I don't think he understood exactly how much of a frenzy that the masses would be worked up to. Regardless, he has done so and is still trying to channel the anger of his party into repealing the health care bill.

This anger is no good. The people are lashing out against everything; breaking windows in congressional offices, screaming racial epithets at members of congress, faking an anthrax letter to Anthony Weiner, and threatening the family members of congressmen. This has got to stop. As long as people like John Boehner are allowed to continue fomenting this anger, there are going to be more acts of violence that are going to escalate until someone ends up dead.

By any other name, it's still racism

Recently at work, a coworker and I were conversing on some of our customers and how they can't seem to let us know exactly what is wrong with their equipment. He began to tell me a story about how one of his customers had not bothered to go out and check his equipment before he called us for service to verify what was wrong with it. While he was telling me this, he made mention that the person was a "black guy". It got me thinking; what was the purpose in telling me that the guy was black? It had no bearing on the story or why the wrong information was called in. The implication was clear: the black guy was too lazy to go check the equipment himself, QED.

There must have been a point that became unacceptable to be outwardly racist and just disguise it as a descriptor. This is the south where people are generally open about their feelings towards non-whites and non-straights. It seems that now it is OK to tell a story about someone being lazy, then talk about how lazy they are. I guess we are all supposed to have the same preconceived notions about black people being lazy, brown people being thieves, and yellow people being smart. I would prefer someone to just say "he was a lazy negro" than to beat around the bush. At least I would know to give that person a wide birth. Instead, you get trapped in what seems to be pleasant conversation only to be blind-sided with some out-of-the-way unneeded description. Besides, how many situations have you been in that the retelling required a description of what color the person is?

I am sure this is not a new thing. Perhaps I am just beginning to notice. Maybe I am overreacting and looking for something that isn't there. It does matter when you become uncomfortable talking to someone when the conversation seems to be heading down the wrong path. What do you think?