Oh, this is rich:
An on-line game about a fictitious coup by President Obama. (Wingnuts of America, gamers are not exactly your ideal demographic, unless you’re offering free pizza and Mountain Dew.)
The mind boggles.
Calvin Trillin is my hero of the day!
Mr. Trillin’s verse comment about Roman Polanski, from The Nation:
A youthful error? Yes, perhaps.
But he’s been punished for this lapse–
For decades exiled from LA
He knows, as he wakes up each day,
He’ll miss the movers and the shakers.
He’ll never get to see the Lakers.
For just one old and small mischance,
He has to live in Paris, France.
He’s suffered slurs and other stuff.
Has he not suffered quite enough?
How can these people get so riled?
He only raped a single child.
Why make him into some Darth Vader
For sodomizing one eighth grader?
This man is brilliant, that’s for sure–
Authentically, a film auteur.
He gets awards that are his due.
He knows important people, too–
Important people just like us.
And we know how to make a fuss.
Celebrities would just be fools
To play by little people’s rules.
So Roman’s banner we unfurl.
He only raped one little girl.
Take back your birth methods, goddamnit!
Did you know that electronic fetal monitoring (EFM), lauded in the 1970s as an inroad to prevent cerebral palsy and other birth injuries, has only resulted in an increase in the percentage of C-section births–up to 33% (double what it was 10 years ago). (Cerebral palsy occurrence hasn’t changed since 1945.)
Do one-third of all women need major abdominal surgery in order to bear a child? Really?
Did you know that in the last 20 years the incidence of induced labor has doubled to 22% of all births in the U.S.?
Do women really need to be injected with a drug in order to have a baby?
Did you know that the incidence of maternal death is actually three times what is reported, because the U.S. is the only country that shortens the tracking time for such deaths to six weeks post-natal. (All other countries track it for a year.)
Why?
Did you know the number of maternal deaths in the U.S. has jumped from 7.5 per 100,000 births to 15.5 in the last 23 years?
Doesn’t that appall you?
Did you know that midwife-moderated home deliveries for low-risk births result in:
- a 2.1% rate of episiotomies (33% for doctors and a hospital)
- a 9.6% rate of induced labor (21% for hospitals)
- similarly-reduced rates of C-sections, forceps and vacuum deliveries, and epidurals
Consider the option of a midwife. What would you rather have?
a hospital, unnecessary drugs and medical procedures, and unconsciousness during one of the most important events in your life (and the most important of your baby’s)?
or
the comfort of your home, the loving assistance of your partner, and a midwife who knows what you’re going through and has any required medical assistance available at a moment’s notice?
Talk to your OB doctor, and don’t take that “Doctor knows best” condescension and the warm pat on the shoulder. Take charge of your births, just like you take charge of your life.
An arson suspect, a governor, and a fire expert walk into a bar…
Cameron Todd Willingham, who refused to plead guilty for a lighter sentence
So, you take an apparent case of arson and resultant deaths, you convict someone of it, and you execute the guilty party.
Years later, arson experts (including Craig Beyler, one of the most respected in the field) bring up strong evidence that indicates that the fire was accidental. This comes up before a review board, which is rightly concerned that the wrong person was sentenced and executed, and an investigation of the issue is planned.
As governor of that state, what do you do? You could:
a) support the discovery of the facts in the case (if any were missed), discover any missteps in the pursuit of justice, and humbly apologize (and possibly offer some sort of recompense) to the family of the executed man on behalf of the state if facts dictate that he was not guilty;
or
b) ignore the whole thing;
or
(c) dismiss three members of the review board (causing cancellation of the scheduled inquiry), proclaim that the executed man, Cameron Todd Willingham, was “a monster”, tell the review board to “look forward, not backward”, and then run scared that he won’t get the GOP’s nod to run for re-election in 2010.
Guess which one Texas Governor Rick Perry chose?
…and speaking of pronouncing moral judgment…
Gotta love the ginchy vintage web design!
The congregation of the Amazing Grace Baptist of Canton, North Carolina, is planning to put to the bonfire all English-language versions of the Bible except the KJV (King James Version), as well as books written by such heretics as Billy Graham, Mother Teresa, the Pope (those dirty Cath-o-licks!), and other heathens. Recorded music will also see the torch–everything from rap to country to contemporary Christian. These folks don’t miss a thing, do they? There are also promises of “great preaching and singing”, as the site says.
Oh, and they’re serving BBQ and fried chicken, and all the fixin’s. If they offer decent peach cobbler, I might show up.
Pronouncing moral judgment
Q: When should you openly disagree with someone who makes a statement concerning morality when you disagree with it?
A: Always
To quote Ms. Rand:
“Nothing can corrupt and disintegrate a culture or a man’s character as thoroughly as does the precept of moral agnosticism, the idea that one must never pass moral judgment on others, that one must be morally tolerant of anything, that the good consists of never distinguishing good from evil.”
Do it. Every time the situation occurs.
Having said that, two things should be kept in mind:
#1 Remember the context of your disagreement. If you don’t like biker gangs, it’s not the best idea to walk into a hangout bar, climb a table, and yell “Bikers are assholes!”. Your level of disagreement may be as mild as a quietly uttered “I disagree”, or as strong as daily campaigning for a moral cause. The degree of disagreement is not of paramount importance, as long as the disagreement is openly stated.
#2 Remember that pronouncing such judgments requires that you yourself maintain a proper moral life. You may be wrong (and you will be sometimes), but you must be honest enough with yourself to be rationally certain.
(Note: I am not an objectivist. I agree with a good deal that Ayn Rand said and wrote, but I vehemently disagree on many of the real-world applications of her philosophy that she and many of her followers have espoused.)
The poor pay for it
The poor in America pay the highest rates for:
1) loans (The poor are a “bad risk”, so banks won’t loan, and other loans–from paycheck cashing places and other less formal means–are at usury rates.)
2) transportation (Buses and taxis cost far more per mile than using a car.)
3) food (Since transportion is dear, and most poor don’t live within walking distance of discount grocery stores, they eat fast food and grocery shop at expensive convenience stores.)
4) medical services (ER is usually the best they can do, and most don’t have insurance)
5) birth (These costs are less obvious and more insidious–very little pre-natal care, no post-natal care, poor nutrition, minimal or no education, etc. In many ways, this one is more costly than the other 5 combined.)
It took a Republican to stand up to DOMA, I guess
Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill last night bringing into law California’s recognition of same-sex marriages made in other states.
That’s a big fat goober of spit in the eyes of most of the other states. There’s at least one governor with political cojones. Now if he would stand up to the wingnuts in his own state…
Rational science education = fascism: O’Reilly
So…if you absolutely insist that faith-based concepts like “intelligent design” and “creationism” (the same thing) be excluded from a class teaching science (a rational system not based upon faith), you are indulging in fascism.
(pause)
I’m waiting for them to pull the other finger.
Language is a virus? What does that make thought?
Big TOTH to Tom Tomorrow. He deserves a big sloppy kiss for this one.
Has everyone gone *completely* batshit crazy over the term “czar”?
The term as far as it applies to the U.S. government was entirely a media invention, and has happened before.
President George H. Bush (aka Prince George the Oblivious) appointed William Bennett, Reagan’s Secretary of Education, as the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Since Bennett was in essence completely in charge of the U.S. “war on drugs” (a completely pointless, tragic, devastatingly harmful money pit of a government program), the press got around to calling Bennett the drug “czar” (the title used by the pre-Bolshevik rulers of Russia).
The approbation stuck, and the use of the term “czar” to denote presidentially-appointed personnel who wield plenipotentiary powers to create and implement policy became common.
Now, those who don’t know history continue to demonstrate their preponderance to repeat it. When the early U.S. presidents gathered trusted friends about them to advise on domestic and foreign issues, the press and Congress began to derisively call such groups of advisors “kitchen cabinets”. The phrase got shortened to “cabinet”, and became calcified (if not codified) into governmental structure.
It was the same damned thing.
So, the ignorant who wring their hands about “commie pinkos” being appointed can now unclench and take a breath.
Mary Cheney is pregnant; wingnuts go frit.
Bless Pam over at Pandagon–she’s always ready with a laugh when it’s most needed.
Is it really that difficult to grasp the concept that gay partners can lead the same sort of stable, loving family life that straights (sometimes) do?
Really?
A moral prayer
I don’t blame the film industry for the statutory rape and underage drug use instigated by Roman Polanski (although I do blame sympathizers like Debra Winger, who need to wake up and smell the need for justice to be done)…
I don’t blame capitalism for the greed-headedness of many corporate CEOs (although I do blame Michael Moore for condemning an economic system that allows him to make his films)…
I don’t blame mass media for the excesses and blatant lies coming from Fox News (although I do blame Rupert Murdoch for making profits from his warping of the news industry)…
I don’t blame the medical system in America for the continued criminal neglect inflicted by the medical insurance system (although I do blame Congresscritters for allowing Big Insurance to remove their balls)…
I don’t blame the Christian religion for the hypocrisy and hatred perpetuated by right-wing fundie nutballs (although I blame the Pope for not rooting out the rape and pedophilia that he passively condones)…
I don’t blame those who find “alternative” lifestyles personally distasteful (although I would fight to the death to preserve the right for others to practice any sort of sexual act as long as it is among consenting adults)…
…and I don’t blame the food industry for trying to make food as affordable as possible (although I would personally strangle with my own hands those who push corn syrup, artificial preservatives, and substandard, filth-laden food on unwitting consumers).
So mote be it.
Way to go, Dave!
I am not a David Letterman fan by any stretch of the imagination. I think his humor (the style of which I call “New York humor”) isn’t very funny. (I put Jerry Seinfeld, Jay Leno, and Larry David in the same category; I’ve yet to even smile at anything said on the old Seinfeld sitcom–except the Soup Nazi.)
That being said, I have to stand and salute Mr. Letterman for last night’s on-air apology to his wife for his pre-marital affairs. Letterman has stepped out of moral bounds on several occasions (the joke about Sarah Palin’s younger daughter getting pregnant was pretty edgy), and he regularly comes back to publicly apologize for such gaffes.
I was struck by his statement:
“…if you hurt a person and it’s your responsibility, you try to fix it.”
Truer words rarely spoken.
Now, maybe the GPS Lady in his car will speak to him again.
