raving lunacy - oxymorons for the 21st century

Occasionally something comes by that is too good to be trapped in email.

One sunny day in 2009 an old man approaches the White House from across Pennsylvania Avenue where he’s been sitting on a park bench. He speaks to the U.S. Marine standing guard: “I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.” The Marine looks at the man: “Sir, Mr. Bush no longer is president, and no longer resides here.” The old man says, “Okay,” and walks away.

The following day, the same man approaches the White House, says to the same Marine, “I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.” The Marine again tells the man, “Sir, as I said yesterday, Mr. Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here.” The man thanks him and, again, just walks away.

The third day, the same man approaches the White House and speaks to the very same U. S. Marine saying “I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.” The Marine, somewhat irritated at this point, looks hard at the man and says, “Sir, this is the third day in a row you have been here asking to speak to Mr. Bush. I’ve already told you that Mr. Bush is no longer President and no longer resides here. Don’t you understand?”

The old man looks at the Marine: “Oh, I understand, all right. I just love hearing you say it.”

The Marine snaps to attention, salutes, and says, “See you tomorrow, sir.”

Not all of the election news is good. Arizona remains a RED state, mostly because McCain is a homeboy. Ignorance is curable, stupidity is not.

Fear of Queers is alive and well here in the Grand Canyon State, and may very well become part of the Arizona Constitution. Proposition 102 passed amending the constitution to define marriage as being between one man and one woman. With divorce rates at or above 50% we know how well that is working.

However, in a spirit of unity and lunacy, lets go with this for a moment. Since same sex marriage is illegal already in Arizona, and the man woman thing is so important, let us come together and strengthen this.

No sense polluting the sacred marriage  with acts that can be construed as anti family. Since this is billed as a family initiative, by all means let us require procreation as a part of the marriage contract. Prop 102 was sold as a Family initiative, and there is no more positive proof than having children.  To insure that this takes place, let us outlaw all sexual positions but the missionary with the man superior. This is so our little sperm buddies do not leak out.

In the case of infertility, we can have the state drop off a kid every so often, so we can keep the perfect family train running. It will be a while before we can get the age of consent down to puberty, so we have to do something with these accidents. Think of the money we can save by not housing and feeding all those unwanted children. Besides we can use the beds for those people who have come out of the closet, we can set up reeducation camps and use electro convulsive therapy (shock treatments) because nothing says love like 10,000 volts in your brain.

Let us also make cunnilingus, fellatio and sodomy crimes as they do not  promote the meeting of the sperm and egg. Besides it is how those people scratch their twisted sexual desires. To be sure that we can keep the sacred marriage contract on track, we can educate our children how to spot these behaviors and give them a hotline to turn in mommy and daddy. You know, clubs like Sperm Saviours and Egg Keepers. We can award prizes like Disney Movies, burgers and candy bars.

We will also have take back the rainbow as a happy symbol of heterosexual life and not as a secret badge for those people who think that they are okay having sex with the same sex. Fashion and interior design will take a hit in the short term, but we don’t have money to spend on that sort of frivolity anyway.

We have just has a historic election where we have elected a black man who less than 150 years ago was owned by someone, and less than 60 years ago could not be an equal member of our society.

So now we want to deny liberty and equality to people whose sexual orientation is different?

Like I said earlier,

Ignorance is curable, stupidity is not.

President Bush can leave town anytime now. Start packing!  Really, get the fuck out the White House now so that we can fumigate, and begin to repair the damage that you have caused. Even Nixon got a clue. We will need someone to count the silverware however. And I hope the door hits you in the ass hard enough to render you mute for the  rest of your miserable life.

My luck is changing, as normally when I vote, the other guy wins. It may be because how I spent the day of the election.

After voting as the sun was rising, I puttered around the house for a little bit, and then sat down and watched  Buffy the Vampire Slayer The Complete First Season on DVD.

There is a certain emotional elegance to this. No commercial interruptions, and not watching talking assholes on TV explaining vote counting, with no doubt pithy analysis (as they always do). People who read shit off  teleprompters are not at the top of my list as folks I regard as credible, especially in an arena where addition can be done by me. When I did check the results I used the web. Much better and a lot quieter.

Electing Barack Obama president was a watershed event in American culture. Not because he is black, articulate, or has dumbo ears, but because he has vision and no political contributor remoras sucking at his neck, unlike the other guy. The only folks he owes is us, and I think he will honor that. Saying Politics and Honor in the same paragraph is its own event.

Papa does have a brand new bag.

My vote is for Obama.

That’s one.

Your vote will make two.

And so on.

This is the first Presidential Election where I am actually voting for a candidate rather than against a politician. Having voted  for 36 years, because it is really the one true right left, it is important. Besides, even with McCain having a home state advantage, if he wins here it will be paper thin.

My fantasy is Obama crushes McCain so we can call the election around an hour after the polls close. McCain retires from public life forever, Sarah Palin gets a job as a spokes model for the NRA, and I win the lottery.

Here in Arizona I will be voting against every Republican Incumbent.  Also in Arizona we have the Proposition Follies.

Proposition 102 wants to keep the gays in the closet by amending the State Constitution making marriage the union of one man and one woman. That’s a No.

Proposition 200 says it wants to reform Payday Loans, but being written by the Payday Loan Support Group, it is a No.

Proposition 201 will open the door for anybody to sue any home seller for alleged ‘defects’ regardless of not being the buyer. Ambulance chasers rejoice! This is another one of those full employment for attorneys deals. Another No.

Proposition 202 is relates to closing the loopholes on businesses who hire illegal aliens. Yes here. There are enough loopholes in the original legislation to drive semi loads of illegal aliens through.

Prop 300 is a salary bump for state legislators. Hell No! There are few reasons.

A lot of what passes for law and legislation in Arizona gets lifted from Federal Law and gets the serial numbers filed off.  A moron with search and replace can do that. One might point out that there is little discernible difference between morons and legislators, but that would petty and do a great disservice to morons.  The current crop of legislators are firmly jammed up the assholes of Developers and Builders. They are ignoring solar energy, health care and education. Proposition 202 is a shining example of why they don’t deserve a pay raise.

So much for me. Get your own ass out and vote.

Tax and Spend is the label that the Republicans have used to splash Democrats in elections for years. It is true as Dems like to spend money on things that have broader impact beyond individual congressional districts. They also understand that these things cost money that has to come out of our pockets. Not a totally unreasonable theory as just everybody with a pulse understands money for stuff.
However, they do remember where the money has to come from.

Republicans like to run on platforms of smaller government and no regulation of ‘free markets’. We can see how well that is working. The Republicans need a label too. Blindfold and Bailout is my choice.
They blindfold us and themselves into thinking that the market will redistribute, trickle down, or that the Social Welfare Fairy will cause them to see beyond personal wealth and comfort. When that doesn’t happen, they create a crisis requiring a Bailout. Iraq, Terrorists, War on Drugs, Credit Default Swaps.
Then they disguise motion as activity with a Bailout!

What is most disheartening is just how many folks still think that 4 more years of Republicans is okay.

The last hurrah of the Bushwhack Administration is upon us. The Bailout is such an epic bit of bullshit as to make me believe that we need a few more years of Republicans to finish the rape and pillage of America, turning the sports stadiums across the country into soup kitchens, converting golf courses into homeless shelters, and demonstrating that Black Holes are located on Wall Street.

Driftglass presents The Large Badloan Collider

Some interesting stuff on the intertubes this week.

National Federation for the Blind’s 6 Million Dollar Payday.
Target and the NFB have settled out of court for 6 million bucks.. At issue was the position that Section 508 of the Americans with Disabilities Act includes retailers who are also online.

The Flashturbationites and the AJAXians web designers have been given yet another pass to make the web unusable to folks who do not have a full set of capabilities.

MetaFilter has a great commentary which points out the positions that various folks hold.

This ’settlement’ does nothing to settle whether or not people with visual, aural, or other disabilities, are equal under the law. It is a cheap out for Target, about 10 minutes sales profit.

Digital Preservation
Sustainability of Digital Formats
This is a very technical discussion about various digital formats for creating and preservation of digital media. This is an interesting document coming from the Library of Congress who used to be the Depository of Record for Copyrights, and keeper of the Public Domain, but has since bent over and grabbed its ankles for the ‘entertainment’ industry since 1976, when mandatory deposits were abolished.
They may be thinking ahead, but they will be out of a job real soon unless copyright is reset back to 14 years for everybody.

Safe Harbor ahead for YouTube

“In a development that could portend some good news for Google-owned YouTube, a federal judge in San Jose has ruled that Veoh, the video-sharing service, isn’t liable for copyright infringement for material that was uploaded to its site.”
Source: WSJ LawBlog

DUH!!

Finally Politics
Sarah Palin for VP? One bullet from the Presidency? Get Fucking Real!

According to this release:

The proportion of working-age Americans who have medical bill problems or who are paying off medical debt climbed from 34 percent to 41 percent between 2005 and 2007, bringing the total to 72 million, according to recent survey findings from The Commonwealth Fund. In addition, 7 million adults age 65 and over also had problems paying medical bills, for a total of 79 million adults with medical bill problems or medical debt.

Brings new meaning to the concept Working to Death.
It gets worse.

Other key survey findings include:

* Among the medical bill problems reported in the survey: 28 percent are paying off medical bills over time, up from 21 percent in 2005, and 27 percent of adults under age 65 said they had problems paying or were unable to pay their bills in 2007, up from 23 percent in 2005.

* More than half (53%) of insured working-age adults who have deductibles that represent 5 percent or more of their income reported medical bill burdens and debt; one-third of adults with lower deductibles face these kinds of difficulties.

* While adults in families with incomes under $20,000 a year report the highest rates of lacking coverage during the year, more adults in moderate income families are going without insurance. In 2007, 41 percent of adults in families earning between $20,000 and $40,000 a year reported a time uninsured during the year, up from 28 percent in 2001.

* Most people who were uninsured at any point in the last year are in working families. Of the estimated 50 million American adults who were uninsured in the last year, 58% were in families where at least one person was working full-time.

* People who are uninsured or underinsured experience inefficient care; nearly half of adults (47%) under age 65 who had gaps in their health insurance or were underinsured reported they had experienced problems such as test results not being available on time, receiving duplicate medical tests, and delays in receiving results of abnormal test results; in contrast just 26 percent of adults who are adequately insured reported these inefficiencies.
Source: EurekAlert.org

The Commonwealth Fund Report announcement is here The report in PDF is Here

Micheal Frasse has an interesting post about the money floating around Fannie Mae in administrative salaries. Here is the money shot:

The top 20 FannieMae employees each make more than US$1 million a year; in the last five years, almost US$250 million in bonuses was distributed. With these kinds of numbers, how can the institution be on the brink of insolvency?

He notes the poison effect of money in politics.
He also mentions Larry Lessig’s Change Congress platform. The initial ‘planks’ are
1. accept contributions from individuals only, lobbyists excepted
2. support the fundamental reform of congressional earmarks.
3. support reform to increase transparency in Congress.
4. support public financing of public elections.

These are interesting but do not go far enough.

1. Contributions from individuals should also be confined to the state where the congresspersons are running. Letting individuals and groups from areas outside the districts and states contribute to your candidate is perhaps more corrosive than any other money used and dilutes your contribution.

2. Congressional earmarks are just a symptom of current legislative practice. Legislation should only occur on an issue basis. One issue, one piece of legislation. No amendments, no ‘and for other purposes’ language, or multi part legislation.

3. increasing transparency is a function of participation in the process.

4. Public financing is an endgame strategy, that requires a lot of thought to make work. Here in Arizona we have it, and it spends more time in court than contributing to the political process.