Yeesh

While we're feeling dewy and inspired by how plucky and brave these guys are, let's try to avoid thinking this isn't just supremely disheartening.



Yes - it's both.  But why the fuck do we think it's OK to put people thru this kind of hell? Do we really believe it's good for a thousand people to have to live like feral dogs in order to give 30 kids a small shot at making it outa there alive?  This 'tough-love-pull-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps' bullshit is exactly that - it's bullshit.

Here's a tho't: let's stop dumping our garbage on people and then pretending that's what makes 'em good people.  Imagine where these folks could take themselves if they didn't have to start in the shitter.

Tea Party Logic

via Wonkette:

“I am upset at the cost” [$2.4 million], Representative Giovanni Capriglione, a Tea Party Republican from Southlake, told the Star-Telegram. “I think we need to remember why we are having this extra special session. One state senator, in an effort to capture national attention, forced this special session.

“I firmly believe that Sen. Wendy Davis should reimburse the taxpayers for the entire cost of the second special session. I am sure that she has raised enough money at her Washington, D.C., fundraiser to cover the cost.”

Because "democracy" should be available only to those who can pay the admin costs out of their own checking accounts, or of course, from the slush fund they set up in the shell organization hidden in their Super PAC.

Follow The Money Indeed

This is my Rep in Congress - the "honorable" Robert Hurt:

Here's a quick look at Mr Hurt's top 10 contributor sectors, and - merely by the wildest of happenstance - why Lil Bobbie sits on the Banking and Finance Committee:

Anybody surprised?  Yeah, I didn't think you would be.

No soul and no honor.

Find out about your Rep at MapLight

Today's Pol Toon

Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc

This little spiel (the part that matters IMO) from Pat Robertson is a near-perfect example of the classic "after this therefore because of this" argument.

1) The Roman Empire fell apart
2) Some of the Romans had "porno" murals on their walls depicting all kinds of sex acts (which Mr Robertson apparently disapproves of)
And so, without benefit of any actual fact, or cause-and-effect link, the attitude of some of the Romans that sex should be free and fun is what led directly to the fall of Rome.



And of course, that's exactly what's happening in USAmerica right now because of all the LGBTs who think they shouldn't be fucked over and treated like a buncha skeevy dogs.

What a complete doofus this guy is.

Wanna know one reason the Roman Empire fell apart and doesn't exist now?  Cuz a lot of crazy shit happened over about 300 years, and a lot of assholes convinced a lot of Roman Rubes that all of their problems (and all of the solutions for those problems) could be boiled down to a few simple 10-word phrases that could be neatly scratched into the ass end of their ox carts.

Need one more?  OK, try this one - sex was a big part of Roman Religious Tradition.  So following your logic, you're saying the Roman Empire was destroyed because they believed more in their religion than they did in their civil government.

Try listening to what you're actually saying once in a while, Patsy - and then get over your fuckin' self.

Finally Back - With Today's Pix

Today's Pun

If Satan ever goes bald, there will will be Hell Toupee.

Hat tip = oldest boy, Nick

Yay, Exceedingly Rich People

I'm glad the new baby in the British royal family is alive and apparently doing just fine.

However, I'm having a pretty hard time understanding why we need to spend the better part of 3 days talking about it, devoting hours of air time and gallons of ink, and the large piles dollars it takes to put all those Press Poodles on the ground to gush about the astoundingly awesome and thoroughly amazing prospect of two normal people who fucked at least once, and then had a baby because of it.

Get over yourselves.

Away For A Bit

So I'm doing the vacation thing here in Colorful Colorado, and my iPad is not the most effective tool for posting stuff.  Please excuse my inability to dazzle you with my brilliantly insightful horse shit for  a while.

Another thing I've noticed is that editing an existing post on iPad can be very difficult because there seems to be something of a glitch in that I can't scroll down thru the post that I'm trying to fix.

If anybody else is having the same problem, please take a moment and advise.  Thanks.

See y'all later.

Today's Oxymoron

Political Reality.

Evolution.  Cigarettes.  Fracking.  Climate Change.  Vaccination.

The list goes on and keeps growing as we keep adding more "issues" that oughta be decided in the lab or in the field by people who're trained to figure out just how all this shit works.

BTW, I put quote marks around the word "issues" because the things on that list are not issues at all.  The things on that list are facts.  They're facts that can be - and have been - verified by the people who actually know what they're doing.

And the "fact" that you have an opinion to the contrary doesn't mean your opinion must be considered in any way equivalent to those facts.

But I digress - the point here is that I was recently hipped to an old Henrik Ibsen play from the 1880s that cuts so close to what's going on now that it made my ears feel hot and the hair on my back stand up.

Here's a little taste from a TV production done in the early 1960s:

(The town is on its way to becoming a big commercial success as a health spa, but a local doctor (Thomas) discovers the water is contaminated, but his brother Peter who is mayor and so a bidness player is hard to convince - and if you've been paying any attention to the redux of Newspeak and Coin-Operated Government and Know-Nothing Rubes and any number of "types" running rampantly abroad in this joint lately, you can guess what a big sloppy mess it turns into - including the old timey versions of Press Poodles and Bloggers)

Sub-par sound levels, but not so bad considering the times and the fact that they did it live in a TV studio.



The more things change...dontcha know.

hat tip = The Professional Left podcast

Here's the Librivox audiobook: