Urinalysis

This one makes the rounds every so often.

I was thinking that if one of you "conservative" geniuses ever once tho't of challenging the Pee Test in the courts on 4th and 5th Amendment grounds (eg), maybe you'd feel a bit less inclined to shit on poor people all the fuckin' time.  Cuz that's really it, right?  You need to be absolutely sure that you never have to admit that the guys you're always voting for are bending you over the table and fucking you with your pants on; you can't stand thinking that everything they've told you over the last 30 years is total bunk; and how they're using you to do their dirty work on everybody else.

So it just can't be that you're allowing yourselves to get fucked over.  It's really all about how you need that shit to roll on down the hill, so you can feel a little better about the whole filthy mess - that you helped create - that you help perpetuate every time you buy into this cynical manipulation.

Would this be a bad time to start talking to you about accepting responsibility for your part in turning this country into the giant FUBAR that you're always pissin' and moanin' about?

Today's Quote

"I concur with you strictly in your opinion of the comparative merits of atheism and demonism, and really see nothing but the latter in the being worshipped by many who think themselves Christians."

-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Richard Price, Jan. 8, 1789

(Richard Price had written to TJ on Oct. 26. about the harm done by religion and wrote "Would not Society be better without Such religions? Is Atheism less pernicious than Demonism?")

And Now...

...Mr Diety himself - Brian Dalton, at Imagine No Religion in Canada last year.

It cuts early at the end, but it's just Dalton doing some plugs for the Mr Deity series.

God-Given Rights(?)

The First Step

From the premier episode of The Newsroom, Aaron Sorkin's latest attempt to remind us of the true greatness of what (and who) we once were; and to get us to think about how we can be great again.



As usual tho', reading the comments is depressing.

Today's Bumper Sticker

via Democratic Underground

Romney Loves America The Way A Tick Loves A Dog

A Real Comparison(?)

Sometimes I have a kind of Love/Hate relationship with myself.  Especially when I do shit like this.  It feels like I'm goin' along with the crap I absolutely loathe about our current state of "debate".

That said, how am I supposed to resist an opportunity like this?

Let's see if we can spot some tiny hint as to the difference in the work ethic of our major party candidates this time around.

Vacation 2012

Spending some time back home in Colorado.  I'm never not amazed at how spectacular the weather can be here.  Just the fact that it can be a roasty toasty 90˚ during the day, but if you sit in the shade, it's not bad at all (the wonders of low humidity).  But the best part is that when the sun goes down, it cools off.  Practically no such thing as 85˚ and muggy at 11 o'clock at night.

So anyway - I'm being kinda lazy, so the prospects of getting any serious blogging done for the next several days are pretty slim.

Today's Quote

I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute -- where no Catholic prelate would tell the President (should he be Catholic) how to act and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote -- where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference -- and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him or the people who might elect him.

I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish -- where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches, or any other ecclesiastical source -- where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials -- and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all.

    -- John F Kennedy, address to the Ministerial Association of Greater Houston, September 12, 1960, from Albert J Menendez and Edd Doerr, The Great Quotations on Religious Freedom 

ACA Starts To Pay Off

Don't let the Repubs know, but Obamacare is starting to come thru in a way that's gonna piss off "conservatives" somethin' powerful.

A friend in Charlottesville is a small business owner; single, 2 not-quite-grown-and-gone kids.  She's almost always somewhere between OK and Ah Crap, with the occasional tight-roping along the edge of Holy Fuck.  The way an awful lot of people have had to live for  a good 20 years or more.

Today, she showed me this little slice from her insurance carrier, informing her that they've cut her a rebate check because they didn't quite meet the new 80/20 Rule.  Under ACA, insurers have to maintain a Medical Loss Ratio of 80%:20%.  Simply put, of all the dollars in premiums they collect, they get to keep 20% of it for Admin and Salaries and Bonuses and Shareholder bennies (profit), etc - but they have to pay out at least 80% of that money to Healthcare Providers (docs, nurses, hospitals, etc) in the form of Medical Care Claims.  If they don't come up to that 80%, they have to divvy up the leftover money and pay it back to their subscribers.  So my friend is getting a check for about 80 bucks.  She won't be vacationing in St Bart's or putting in a pool, but it's better than it was and that's good for now.

I wonder if any of my "conservative" friends have gotten the same thing - and if they have, I wonder if I'll ever hear about it.