Sauce For the Gander

Don't know much about Ms Miller, but it sounds like she'd have been a good one to talk to about a lot things.

And just to be clear - I don't think I can be a "feminist" any more than a woman can be a "masculinist", but all of us could at least try to see things from a perspective other than our own once in a while.

hat tip = Tennessee Guerilla Women

Uhm...'Scuse Me

...but you said my premiums would be going thru the roof(?)

This is just a quick and dirty look, and I should tell you right now that I haven't checked this out at all. (Democratic Underground posted the link)

So there's a whole big pile of caveats and yeah-buts left to sort thru, but still - WTF, Bubba?

Today's Quote

"This is the question 'the right' has to answer:  Do you want smaller government with less handouts, or do you want a minimum wage?  Because you can't have both.  If Colonel Sanders isn't going to pay the lady behind the counter enough to live on, then Uncle Sam has to, and I for one am getting a little tired of helping highly profitable companies pay their workers."  --Bill Maher

Piercing The Veil

In all the huffing and puffing about the significance of a few off-year elections, there's one or two little items that got lost in the shuffle.

Here's Charlie Pierce, on trying to see beyond the trees, and into the forest - or something.

This was a raid, plain and simple. These pensions are not retirement plans. They are deferred compensation. They are money that workers are owed because they and their unions were willing to compromise on salaries in exchange for moe money after the workers retired. This is the kind of thing that has been going on all over the country for quite some time under the guise of "unfunded liabilities," which, in most cases, are "unfunded" because the people who were supposed to fund these plans reneged over decades to do so. (It is also a scam beloved of new brotastic centrist Governor Chris Christie, among others.) It is generally sold by the grifters promoting it as a rank appeal to worker jealousy. (That garbageman has a pension and you don't? No fair! And everybody forgets to ask why private-sector workers don't have pensions any more.) As such, it has worked extremely well. It certainly should have sold itself in Cincinnati. Instead, mirabile dictu, the voters saw through the charade and shredded it at the polls.

--and--

This was an assault on money owed to city workers, money that got itself squandered by, among other people, the vulpine bastards on Wall Street. The vote in Cincinnati was a carefully selected test case for ripping off workers for the benefit of large financial services institutions. That it failed was one reason to cheer last night. The next time someone tells you the Tea Party is a vehicle of protest for ordinary Joes and Janes, feel free to laugh in that person's face.

We Aim To Please

Pick a Bias Confirmation; any Bias Confirmation.

In case you were wondering just how squishy and soft the late great WaPo has gotten.

The Day After

So yesterday here in Ol' Viginny, we got us a few Democrats elected Governor, Lt Governor; and possibly Attorney General (the Dem is leading by a coupla hundred votes in that one).

It's seen as a semi-bigtime repudiation of the Radical Right, but the change is confined to the top spots - important and pretty satisfying in itself, but not exactly the "transformational phenomenon" a lot of people were looking for; not when the House of Delegates appears not to have changed one little bit.

A quick look at the Delegate races, and we still have 65 Repubs and 33 Dems with 2 races still too close to call as of about 5:00 this morning - and both of those were shaded in favor of the GOP candidate.

So we'll see if McCauliffe has the chops to get anything done, and/or the balls to jam thru some agenda items using just the Governor's letterhead.

Bringing it way down to a tight focus, we did manage to piss off the local Repubs somethin' awful by handing the incumbent a pretty sound thumpin' (12 or 13 points).  Brad Sheffield is our brand new representative for the Rio District, Albemarle County Board of Supervisors - way to go, Brad.

But maybe we should be talking more about why there were 45 seats in the House of Delegates that went uncontested this time around. 29 Repubs and 16 Dems had no opponents at all.  It seems almost half of our "representatives" can reasonably be considered Delegates-For-Life(?)  In a state that advertises itself as the nursery of American democracy and the birthplace of presidents; in a country that's constantly thumping its chest and crowing about bringing out the greatness in everybody by going toe-to-toe with the best possible competition; blahblahfuckin'blah - that's kinda fucked up right there, guys.

But hey - we're all happy cuz...you know - Hillary, right?

Local Precinct Pic

This is a picture of the Republican tent outside my precinct  (Earlysville Volunteer Fire Company).  I hadn't notice until one of "our" Dem voters pointed it out, but there's no electioneering signs for either Ken (Kenny The Kooch) Cuccinelli or for Mark (The Dark Legacy) Obenshain.

I have to wonder if there's any kind of statement being made here when 2 out of your 3 top guys aren't represented(?)  And how is it that you leave out Cuccinelli and Obenshain, but you're OK with a freak like Jackson?

Politics is weird, man.

Today's Entrepreneurial Inspiration

Cuz we need to wake up and recognize that with a little hard work and American know-how (and a coupla billion tax dollars), an elementary school can be just as safe as any other combat zone.



They piss on our heads; they tell us it's raining; and then they sell us umbrellas.

No soul and no honor.

hat tip = Addicting Info

Shattering Quietly

I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry (cover) --Jimmie Spheeris

Boiled Down Floyd

Wish You Were Here --David Gilmour



(can't find a link an Amazon)

Fallball, Anyone?

SDSU playing the game the way it oughta be played:

Cloudy Tonight

Brighter Days --Loggins & Messina



I've seen brighter
I've known brighter days
Lying alone in the shade
(Of a manzanita)

It's been sweeter
Bitter sweeter days
I know it's not for always
But all I can say is
I've seen better days

Is summer gone
Has it been that long
I guess that's what seasons will bring
I'm caught again
in the Autumn wind
But I remember spring

For I've seen brighter days
Seen lighter places to stay
along my way
Oh, I've seen brighter days

I've seen warmer
soft and warmer nights
Lying with love by my side
(in the Sycamores)
There've been finer, yeah
I've seen mighty finer nights
Knowing what's wrong or what's right
It just don't matter
when you're in warmer nights

But here I am
Like a sea blown wind
under my thunder and rain
I'll ride the waves
'Til the sunny day
comes to me again

Oh, I've seen brighter days
Seen lighter places to stay
along my way
Oh, I've seen brighter days

Wild Horses

Wild Horses --Stones



Childhood living is easy to do
The things you wanted I bought them for you
Graceless lady you know who I am
You know I can't let you slide through my hands
Wild horses, couldn't drag me away
Wild wild horses couldn't drag me away

I watched you suffer a dull aching pain
Now you decided to show me the same
No sweeping exits or off stage lines
Could make me feel bitter or treat you unkind
Wild horses, couldn't drag me away
Wild wild horses couldn't drag me away

I know I've dreamed you a sin and a lie
I have my freedom but I don't have much time
Faith has been broken tears must be cried
Let's do some living after we die
Wild horses, couldn't drag me away
Wild wild horses we'll ride them someday
Wild horses, couldn't drag me away
Wild wild horses we'll ride them someday

Friday Tune

I'm A Man - (cover) Chicago:

Cuttlefish Are Awesome

I May Be Movin' Slow

...but that don't mean I ain't goin' nowhere.

Ms Norah Jones and Broken:

Seems A Bit Odd

Propaganda that's good - the stuff that works - always makes for "art" that's cheesy and obvious; and if the fevered results weren't always so deadly, it'd be pretty fuckin' funny.

And, oh yeah.  What's with all the bullshit (ie: propaganda) that comes from the wingnuts about how we can't leave god out of the picture - because that's what the Nazis did?  Bullshit's what I call it cuz bullshit's what it is.

Sound familiar?

Truth In Small Packages

Ya gotta know it's bad when a 12-year-old kicks your ass in public.



One of the big precautionary tenets in fighting any kind of battle is that you have to go to great lengths to avoid fucking up the kids.  Fuck over a kid when he's 10 or 12 and you've got an implacable enemy for the next 50 or 60 years.

Halloween Culture

Today's Pix