Today's Deep Thought

It's illegal in the US for any person to own another person - because people are people and  not property.

If a corporation is a person, then why is it legal for anybody to own it?

Service To Their Country

This young man is a great example of who we want serving in a professional military, and a perfect example of what we stand to lose when we make stupid decisions on what we want those pros to do.

John Kasich

...is a petty, vindictive prick.

Col Wilkerson

When I piss and moan about 'honor', this is part of what I have in mind.

Larry Wilkerson is no hero owing to the simple fact that he didn't say any of this when he was in a position to make it stick, and to make a difference by coming out with it. It's possible that he was just too close to the problem at the time; or that he was living the nightmare scenario for any military pro, where you start to get the feeling that the people in charge are leading you off the cliff, but your training and experience are telling you just to keep your head down and do the work. "Theirs not to reason why" and all that shit.

In the end, though, every soldier has to make a judgement call as to whether or not his orders are inside the legal and ethical boundaries. You don't ever stop being responsible for your own actions.



Watch the whole series here.

Ah Yes, I Get It Now

Today, Stan Collender is the smartest guy in the room.

Here's his lead-in to his blog post at Capital Gains and Games.

On the one hand, many Congressional Republicans are insisting that they don’t have to vote for an increase in the debt ceiling because the presumed dire consequences of not acting won’t be that bad. On the other hand, they’re also insisting that not raising the debt ceiling will indeed be harmful and, therefore, the White House had better agree to do what they want.

Spectacular.

Nice Try, Willard

Romney's new campaign ad takes a line from an Obama speech, and tries to do a turn-around. It fails badly, but I'm not sure anybody's gonna notice.

My question: In that one line - or anywhere in that whole speech - how exactly did Obama say unemployed people were bumps in the road?

This is typical Repub nonsense. They're so sure you have your head up your ass, they think that's how they need to talk to you. It's as if they're saying that there were so many people unemployed, it caused a recession.

If your premise is false, it's impossible for your conclusion to be true.

And Jesus Wept

Rick Santorum stakes his claim to the extreme. He says he wants criminal prosecution for a doctor who performs an abortion procedure, but he won't support penalties for a woman seeking the abortion. So there's the catch (and there's always a catch). These guys just want to look good for their wingnuts, and make it seem a little less than complete horseshit for the rest of us, while they push for laws that will turn out to be impossible to enforce, and overturned on the first challenge in any court.

I'm very glad the Dems are finally getting around to calling these dipwads out, even tho' the Press Poodles can't quite figure out how to ask these guys what exactly the law would require.

Scenario: You cross paths at the grocery store with a woman you're casually acquainted with. You chat, and she tells you she's pregnant for the 4th time, and you get the impression she's not too thrilled about it. You see her again 5 months later. She's obviously not pregnant now. She tells you she "lost the baby a few weeks ago", and she seems not only relieved, but kinda happy about it. Under Santorum's Law, are you obligated (as a good citizen) to report this to the local authorities so they can question her and decide whether or not there's been illegal activity?

The Wallow Fire

Still not contained, the fire has eaten over 400k acres since it started (May 30).

More great news; dry and windy weather should push it well over the current champion fire (from 2002) into first place by a fair margin.

See the progress of the beast here.

We hear practically nothing any more about AGW when these disasters pop up.  Have we finally begun to notice that when one of these huge things happens - lately anyway - we're no longer looking back to the 1800s or (usually) even the early 1900s to find the previous record-setting event?  So we've just kinda quietly accepted the whole thing now?

Typical Nonsense

Herman Cain doesn't like the term African-American because he doesn't like being "labeled".  So he labels himself "American. Black. Conservative."

Jeffrey Goldberg's post over at Bloomberg:

At a convention of the Conservative Political Action Committee in February, Cain told an enthusiastic audience: “They call me racist too, because I disagree with a president who happens to be black.” To cheers, he went on, “You will get called racist simply because you happen to disagree with a president who happens to be black. You are not racists! You are patriots because you are willing to stand up for what you believe in!”

That last bit is what I've come to see as a good example of a defining statement for "conservatives" in general.

I think what he's trying to say is about right - dissent is a patriotic thing.  But in their little heads, the rubes are going to decode that message as: "my political positions may mean I'm a racist, but as long as I stand up and declare them openly, then my racism makes me a patriot; and I know this because my black friend Herman told me so."

Along the same lines (and remembering their willingness to accept revised history), support for Cain also provides the Repubs additional cover.  "See?  We have a black guy too.  But our black is a good black guy.  He's not all superior and uppity like your black guy."

Quick Question

Gabby Giffords should be going home after almost 6 months of treatment which (so far) has included trauma surgery, many days in ICU, at least 2 high-level MedEvac style transports, reconstructive surgery, 150+ days inpatient time, etc.

I'm not bitchin' about it, but what exactly did all this cost us?

Second, what about the costs of caring for all the other victims of that one shooting incident?

I don't think it's a stretch to assume we're talking about multiple millions here.  So really what I'm asking is this:  On what plane of existence does it make sense for a society to spend that kinda money for the sake of a manufacturer, a wholesaler and a retailer to make $36 on a 30-shot magazine?