Tag Archives: Health care

by

Searching for the Gem

Estate saleAre you a junkie?

“Psst, come over here so we can whisper.”

Does your heart go pit-a-pat at the idea of buying other people’s stuff at bargain prices?

Yeah, I know. It’s just too good to pass up.

I like estate sales way more than auctions. I hate to wait for hours for “my” item to come up and then the bidding starts about a kazillion more than I could ever pay in the first place.

Estate sales are neat and tidy. Everything is already marked.

We went yesterday to a great one. Chock full of lawn and garden this and thats. I mean stuffed with planters and statues, chairs and tables. Just stuffed. We bought a bear carved from a log with a welcome sign. That went at the front door, hoping to distract from the lovely? piece of patio stone with the words “The Payton” carefully painted on it, a gift from our handyman. Of course it’s Peyton and not Payton and it should have an ‘s at the end. We must of course show it. We would not be rude.

We also got “Juanita” a two-foot terra-cotta Indian woman with long braids and an ample girth. She’s in the living room hopefully giving off good vibes. Then I splurged on a copper sculpture that is a series of rings mounted on a disk. I guess I should take a picture, but anyway it’s a piece of authentic art produced by a sculptor here in Las Cruces. I also picked up a glorious leather purse on the cheap which is the perfect size.

We are going back today when things are “half price” an ultimately “best offer” to gather up some garden urns and perhaps some wall artwork.

Sequester-Army-KnifeI am so freakin’ tired of the word, and all it entails.

I am so tired of idiots.

Boehner looks more and more the boob as one-trick pony. If he says, “it’s time to get serious about spending cuts,” I may hire a thug to go to DC and beat him to a pulp.

It’s time to get serious about kicking your ass to the curb.

It’s time to get serious about kicking the Tea Bibbers to the curb, permanently.

It’s time to require a basic test to anyone who wants to run for a government office. Prove that you can read. Prove that you can think. Prove that you can count to 100. I don’t know, something. I’ve heard more stupid from people who got people to actually vote for them for some office than I care to remember.

Seriously, my dog could do the job. Seriously, I think he could.

Just-MarriedI really think this is gonna happen.

I mean I really do.

I think the Supreme Court will overturn California’s anti-gay marriage legislation.

About 30 other states have similar ones. They should fall too.

If the Court does invalidate it, hopefully it will be on a denial of equal protection under the law, a constitutional precept. Us constitutional law trumps and any state law or constitutional provision.

Game over.

Then perhaps we can get on with other issues rather than continuing our relentless attempts to punish people who aren’t like us.

The same will probably not be said for the Voting Rights Act and section five. That is probably going to fall. And that is a shame. Instead it ought to be upheld and broadened to cover the entire country. And it ought to prohibit any attempt that tries to disenfranchise any group of people, be their students, the elderly, or ethnic minorities. Voting is our most precious right. We should bend over backwards to make sure than everyone who wants to can. And maybe we should mandate that everyone does.

ObamacareThe GOP assured us that they would NEVER go willingly into the land of Obamacare.

They would kick and scream, they would throw themselves upon grenades if need be.

No never!

But political realities have a way of changing stubborn minds. Fearing that his time in office is limited, Governor Scott of Florida has had a change of heart. Chris Christie saw the logic of the situation as well.

Bobby Jindal has not. Which is a pity, since he counseled that the GOP must stop being the party of stupid. He’s the one of stupid for continuing his hold out. I mean who wants to be in the same camp as Ricky Perry from the grand old state of delusion, Texas? I mean Bobby, you still have New Orleans! You are not in Mississippi or Alabama, fighting for your very IQ life. I mean really Bobby.

whichwayWell it just ain’t about Obamacare though.

It’s about everything these days.

It’s about immigration, and gay rights. It’s about women’s rights. It’s about taxes, and loopholes.

How to rid themselves of TEA! When all the respectable Republicans (assuming they exist) just want a cuppa joe.

Boehner looks sad most of the time.

He must weep a lot at night.

The Tea Bibbers on the other hand, are all gleeful. They are too stupid to know any better.

I tell ya, it is so unfair to elephants to have them embarrassed this way in association with jackasses. I mean is that an irony or what?

We’re hitting around 70 degrees here today. I mean that is enough to make a heart sing is it not?

brave-but-dumb

Related articles
by

Whose Ox Is Getting Gored Today?

Bullfighter Jose Tomas With some folks, freedom and all that fuzzy patriotic stuff can be, shall we say, relative. Much like fundamentalists and their rather astute manner in taking what they like in the Bible quite literally (even when that is not the actual meaning) and ignoring that which they don’t agree with, it seems that our more loudmouthed extremists on the right do the same thing.

You don’t have to watch it. Suffice it to say that our Hannity of Faux News is busy calling Mayor Bloomberg a nanny for his efforts to help his constituents stop ingesting such awful fake food into their bodies.

Now you can agree or not agree with Bloomberg on this. I tend to agree, but I also recognize that it’s very hard to impose such things on people who are addicted to the high sugar, high fat, no nutrient value of a lot of fast food and drink. And there is this other thing–it is an impingement in a sense on one’s right to kill themselves if they so choose.

Note we are not talking about school lunches and the right of school officials to help children develop good eating habits in the first place. That is a laudable goal, and schools provide the opportunity for some children to get the only decent meal they get all day.

But juxtapose Hannity’s silly outrage at Bloomberg’s behavior with that of Nikki Halley’s attempt to limit food stamp usage in her state to only “healthy” food items, meaning that you can’t use them to buy chips and soda and stuff like that I presume. Is she now to be called “nanny” Halley? I’m sure Republicans support her efforts to reduce “obesity” in her state, or is it just possible there is some other motive involved?

I recently had a conversation with a man who hates government programs like food stamps, precisely because he has “stood behind people in line who had food stamps and they weren’t buying good food, but stuff that was unhealthy, and “stuff I wouldn’t be buying if I was allegedly that poor” The real motive being–I want to control charity to others so I can make sure it goes to the “right” people and is used in the “right” way. He had early objected when he offered some leftover pizza to a man who asked for a couple of bucks. When the man reiterated that he’s just like the two bucks, the guy grew incensed, since “he wanted the money, obviously for something other than hunger relief.”

This raises the ugly specter of folks that think they have the right to control those people who they deign to give help to. I you think I’m assuming a bit too much here, I invite you to the case of Florida and Governor Scott’s attempt to impose drug testing on welfare applicants. 

A federal district court ruled Scott’s attempt blatantly unconstitutional, and a Federal appellate court agreed, finding unanimously that the attempt to monitor citizens in this fashion violated their 4th Amendment rights. Note the assumption made here by Scott and Republicans: that welfare recipients necessarily pose a significantly higher threat of drug usage than other citizens. Such is neither warranted by the facts or commons sense, and bespeaks a racist overtone that is apparent to at least me.

Now, I’m told that the conservative seeks to remove government from interfering in the lives of individuals. These examples, serve I think to suggest that that is nothing but balderdash to use a quaint conservative term. It all depends it seems on whose freedoms are at stake–the tiny minority of fellow-traveling extremists, or all those “others” who we don’t really like simply because they ain’t like us.

¥

What to know the ugly truth of why health care costs are so high? It’s because they charge ten times more for stuff and you get stuck with it. They give you a Tylenol and the charge is more than a whole bottle would be at the drugstore. There is a major exposé in Time this week and you can read it here. Thanks to Squatlo Rant for the link up.

¥

Best news of the day? Oh by far it’s that Tom Latham, (R-IA) has determined not to run for Tom Harkin’s senate seat. Latham is a true conservative, but he’s not insane. This leaves the pathway wide open for the one and only truly insane candidate on the extremity of the Republican Right little toe—-our favorite idiot Steve King.

And that means that Bruce Braley, an excellent Democratic candidate who is already “in” for running, is sure to win this seat.

I cannot wait to watch this one. King, who is so famous for not debating his opponent, won’t get away with it this time. It should be fun.

Dear Karl of course was threatening to send in his money against King, which hopefully only will make him want it all the more, and that is all she wrote, said the spider to the fly.

Related articles

 

by

Gimme What I Want! Just Give Me A Second to Decide What That Is!

Lindsey Graham Flings his poo

Lindsey Graham Flings his poo

Yes, our little Lord Fauntleroy is having another tantrum. Lindsey has apparently missed the fact that (a) the election is over and his side lost and (b) the tea baggers are not sophisticated to understand that he is no longer a MODERATE and is one of them, (at least until his next election). He continues to wring his hands with plenty of “oh what to do, what to do” as his hankie waves desperately.

Usually it’s enough that Johnny S tells him what to do and Lindsey dutifully says, “yes Johnny boy, whatever you say, oh you cute old grumpy drawers,” but as they say, fear is a powerful thing. Faced with the serious threat of being “primaried” Lindsey has looked down and started to see a Johnson actually peeping out of his nether regions. It may be a tiny Johnson, but according to the pictures he’s seen (on THOSE sites on the Intertubes), he’s pretty sure it’s  a real Johnson all right.

And well, he is in a full-blown episode of the vapors. “Lawdy, lawdy, what ever shall I do without that fine old office to nap in on the Hill?” What would Truman Capote do at a time like this? Write a book?

Anyway, dear old Lindsey is threatening to hold up the nominations of EVERYBODY until he gets his way. After all, he’s can’t come up with anything else to raise cain about since nobody has yet called for him to come down and ride the Queen’s float in the Mardi Gras festivities. It is apparently also insufficient that Lindsey has been named as the proof positive that Darwin was wrong. The Smithsonian has promised his brain front and center status at his demise, or sooner since he has little use for it anyway.

In the end, we see, Republicans are in such a feeding frenzy of their own, that all good people globally need only sit back and watch the festivities. Popcorn anyone?

Φ

Meanwhile, over in the United State of Zooniville (once referred to as Arizona), the good Sheriff of Stupidham, Joe Arpaio, who arms anybody who shows up and calls them “volunteer deputies”, has set aside the important business of birther investigation (well he MIGHT try for a third term ya know), and has taken up the cause of “protectin’ the lit’lins in our scools”. Yes, none other than ACTOR Steven Segal, ACTOR if I forgot to mention, has been called upon  to LEARN the gun-happy volunteers how to strap on up, and catch them some crazy. Maricopa county, Zooniville now has some 3,500 of these folks, loaded with clips and weaponry sneakin’ around every public place, demanding “lemme see your hands! On your knees! Spread ‘em”.

If you contemplate a vacation in the area?

NO!

Darwin you LIAR!

Φ

The NRA may be one of the greater collections of sub-human examples of what Darwin got wrong. Beyond La Pee Pee Pierre, there is this delightful jackass who spoke at the NRA Wisconsin State Convention, one Bob Welch.

Welch is mighty darn sure that there will be no gun legislation of any kind, because of course, that can’t happen until it’s okayed by them, and they are not okaying a damn thing except more rhetoric that you all better keep buying every gun in sight, cuz, well, you know why.

We have a strong agenda coming up for next year, but of course a lot of that’s going to be delayed as the “Connecticut effect” has to go through the process. [...] What’s even more telling is the people who don’t like guns pretty much realize that they can’t do a thing unless they talk to us. After Connecticut I had one of the leading Democrats in the legislature—he was with us most of the time, not all the time—he came to me and said, “Bob, I got all these people in my caucus that really want to ban guns and do all this bad stuff, we gotta give them something. How about we close this gun show loophole? Wouldn’t that be good?” And I said, “no, we’re not going to do that.” And so far, nothing’s happened on that.

Connecticut effect huh? Human’s call it GRIEF you sick bastard.

And guess what?

reagangunAnd in 1999, you blowheads were ADVOCATING complete and full background checks.

Tell us again that this is not about your conspiracy-under-every-bed ideas that the Black guy in the White House is gonna declare himself king and take away all your guns? Tell us that, huh?

Go do that impossible thing to yourself will ya?

Φ

While we have plenty of examples of private industry attempting to lower the number of hours worked by their employees to under 30 hours so that they can avoid providing health care (Applebees, Olive Garden, etc), the state of Virginia through its budget plan seeks to do the same thing. This appears to be the first incidence of a Republican led state intending to hurt its citizens in order to vent its anger at Obamacare.

As citizens of those states see that their counterparts in other states continue to receive health care, I believe that Mr. McDonnell and his band of Republican light-heads will rue the day they tried this little trick.

Republicans have long forgotten exactly WHY they are elected in the first place.

Φ

I gotta tell ya, my phone has been ringing off the hook ever since the news hit.

What new?

Oh the pope is taking early retirement.

Yeah, he’s heading off to soak up the sun along the Riviera.

Anyway, everyone is begging me to give ‘em the scoop on who will be the new Pope.

Seein’ as how I’m Catholic and all, and well Bennie calls me nearly every week. . . .

Well, il papa John Paul II, was an ultra conservative, and while clutching the throne of Peter, he hugely enlarged the College of Cardinals, and made sure that all his new Cardinals were of a similar right-wing persuasion.

So, unless the Holy Spirit jumps into the fray as in Vatican II (now gutted by humans who of course KNOW better than God), expect that the next pope will not be any more friendly than the last two when it comes to contraception, gay marriage, women’s ordination,  or anything along those lines.

You heard it here.

Related articles
by

Butterflies From My Head

Butterflies-in-my-head-a24141876As I have noted before, my head overloads at times. I figure not to deprive you of the wisdom that gushes forth unprompted. It would be a waste to well, let it go to waste.

I was thinking about words. I do some of my best thinking while plodding along my daily walk with Diego the Wonder dog of the Chihuahuan desert. I like some words, and I don’t like some words. Are you like that? Trouble is, I don’t really hate any word, so when I think of words I don’t like, I can’t remember them. If I hated them, no doubt I would. But I just dislike them.

One I did think of was embarrassment. I’m never sure when I type that sucker if it is double M and double S or if one of them is singular and if so, which one. I don’t like words with P’s in them much. I play a game similar to boggle and P words slow me down. My pinkie is apparently not as dexterous as my other fingers. And I just discovered in typing apparently, that p’s together are okay, but words like pope and people and popular screw me up because the p’s are separate. If the P word has an L in it, then I tend to get married to the backspace, because I always screw those up.

Glad I got that off my chest. Are there letters you don’t like? I have to think more about that.

I read a few days ago that some professorial type did a study on Fox watchers. I mean he actually talked to admitted Fox watchers. Actually he TESTED Fox watchers. He found that their median IQ was 80, a full 20 points below the national or international average of 100. He was quick to point out that people with 80 IQ’s were fully functional and could have  “happy life”.  Yes they certainly can. Most dogs have happy lives too, and I’m quite sure their IQ’s are no better than 80.

The point is, such folks are probably fairly incapable of critical thought. You ever hear a statement that upon first impression sounded right? Upon reflection, you of course see the fallacies within it. You realize it is not at all true, but it’s one of those things that people might have accepted for centuries without really asking themselves, “is this really true?”

Take for instance the phrase, give a man a fish and you will feed him forever, teach a man to fish and he will feed himself.

That  sounds oh so true. But is it?

It can be. But if the man lives in the desert, it’s not likely to help him much. Or if he is very old, or disabled, or has others to care for that take up all his time. So it’s a general proposition that handouts aren’t always the best answer, but then again, sometimes they are.

Comparisons can get you in a world of trouble too. The Republicans like to compare the state of the US budget with a family budget. It seems to make sense. The average person when faced with personal debt will first of all cut out a lot of things from their budget. They will cut our so-called luxuries. But what is a luxury just for starters? To a musician, cutting out a ticket to the symphony may be worse than cutting 25% of the food budget. Ya see what I mean?

And cutting spending (which Republicans tout at the answer), isn’t really how we operate is it? Like I said, it’s part of what we do. But we do other things as well. We get a second job sometimes (create more revenue) or we invest in education to learn new things that might get us a higher paying job (stimulus). Republicans always forget that stuff.

They call the wealthy job creators. But they aren’t really, only incidentally. Nobody starts out with the desire to “hire people”. When people have jobs, they get paid, and they spend money. That creates demand for products and services. That causes entrepreneurs to invest in increased production which leads usually to hiring of new people. See how that works? It’s money in the hands of the consumer that generates jobs.

My dental issues have reached gargantuan levels. The amount of money is staggering. I can afford it, if that is the right word. Spending money on my mouth is hardly my way of having fun. I would rather buy a Prius, or some similar new vehicle. And believe me I could almost do that.

My dentist is a man who thrives on courtesy. While I’m sitting there with my mouths gaping, he chatters, “Good job Sherry, you’re a great patient. Lisa? Isn’t Sherry a fine patient? Lisa you did this prep perfectly. Good job, Lisa!” Lisa of course, thanks him profusely. Excuse me if I’m not overwhelmed by “being a great patient.” I’m a paying one and that is all he cares about.

When I protest that I’m a bit shocked (well I did nearly pass out when I saw the numbers on the estimate), he nods, “yes, yes, it is expensive. So expensive. But we will work with you. Whatever you need to do, we will work with you to achieve.”

Translation: We will not cut a penny off the bill, and we will not let you owe us for ten years, paying a bit at a time. But we will do what you need a tooth at a time, even if it takes ten years. He actually proudly told me of the woman who took ten years to get her teeth done. He no doubt thinks he’s benevolent.

I figure that even the average working class stiff can’t afford dental care without insurance. Dental care is not a right. It’s only a privilege for those who can pay. How can people think that way? Of course the same goes for health care in general. Aren’t these human rights?

When the US is only the 16th best country to be born in today, something ain’t right.

So what are you bitching about today?

by

Snarking My Way Along

 

 

I do believe that Willard and Paulie could win a contest of “whoppers” told. The crap spewing forth from those rich lips is unbelievable.

The best that Boehner the Orange can say about his pal Paulie, is that he is not a knuckle dragger conservative. That must be the Tea-Pots.

But Willard said nobody should run for President (or be a heart-beat away I assume) who doesn’t have at least 3 years in the real world of business. But Paulie has sucked off the government teat his entire life. According to Ayn Rand, that’s not compromising principles but merely recuperating “reparations”.  Go Paulie Go!

Meanwhile, it is being hotly debated whether the Willard penchant for lying is a character flaw, or a mental defect.

It is hard to understand how he can blatantly tell lies (the one about “you didn’t build this” being the MOST obvious), and not know they are lies.

Does the desire to be King of the World really cause one abandon all principle? Or is the absence of any principles the hallmark of a presidential candidate? A hard decision I reckon.

I almost look forward to the occasional gaffes by the Dems. To watch the GOP talking heads blow gaskets over the perceived “outrages” is utterly funny.

Did you see Sarah explain that she couldn’t think of a single Republican who had EVER  said such mean and outrageous things in a public campaign.

Jon Stewart then followed with a long series of snippets from her 2008 campaign. Pallin’ with terrorists ring a bell? Sistah Sarah, thou memory is short.

The Tea Tippers are sure busy telling me about how I am losin’ my freedoms at light speed. And it’s all to do with that usurper in the “WHITE” house, who shoulda have known, well that the BACK door was his entrance.

Anyway, they don’t seem to be yappin’ a bit about losing their freedom to vote across Amerika. Oh but, I forgot. It ain’t “their” kind that is, is it. It’s the young and the old and the poor and the NOT WHITE who are, and who gives a damn about them?

Which is why they are all for this supply side economics of which they know nothing at all, except that anything that takes away from the moocher class is a good thing–except that when you listen in on those conversations at those country club establishments of which ordinary folks can’t attend except as waiters–you too are declared to be of the moocher class.

And if you get you way, you will soon find that out. And then who are you gonna come crying to?

Still the choice is hard for the average red-neck.

Where are the PROTESTANTS?

Politics make strange bedfellows they always say.

And one of them doesn’t believe in condoms so I’d be very careful if I were you.

And while both sides sling mud with varying degrees of misleading jabs, we continue NOT to have the conversation that should be the hallmark of a civilized democratic society.

Do we believe that everyone who is born is a human being, precious and to be cherished such that he or she should be fed, clothed, housed, educated, medically cared for, provided with meaningful work at fair wages and with time to enjoy one’s life? Is that the bottom line basics that all of us deserve?

Or do we believe that we live in a jungle where the fittest survive, and if you are lucky, you get the best of things, and if you are not, you scrap by with hard work thankful for the end of your life and some peace?

Which is the promise of our founding? Which is the hope of our parents? Which is the vision of our species?

But then again, maybe we don’t deserve any better:

Related articles

 

by

Well, I Been Busy

Ya think you are done?

Yeah, I bet you did.

Done with me talking about moving in? Sure, I’m done.

Almost.

It seemed that Thursday and Friday got filled up with doing stuff.  The Contrarian had his first VA appointment, mostly because he needed his meds renewed. That went peachy as they say.

So then we headed off to Home Depot to order window “treatments”. A mix-match of drapery (Martha Stewart panels for the patio door–the sliding bamboo panels we wanted were outrageously expensive at nearly $1000), wooden blinds and a hot little ditty called “faux stained-glass film.”

This last we decided to use in the two odd windows on either side of the front door, which are 14 inches wide and probably five feet or more in length. We liked the idea of letting the morning sun in but still providing privacy. I located a perfectly matching metal wall hanging at Pier 1 Imports yesterday, and so together the entrance looks quite nice.

All that stuff takes a lot of time to put up, so like I said, we have been busy. Pier 1 was my major stop yesterday to get pillows for the chairs and sofa. And like I said, I found the wall hanging. And where I could have spent another $3-400 bucks easily with all the neat stuff I saw. I’m dangerous in a place like that. The prices are enticing and well, I guess I just like their style.

So, here it is Saturday and I am just about done with my work day but for dinner which is made mostly but for the cooking. Marinated steaks for the grill, corn salsa, left-over Mexican rice with green chile salsa, and some left over baked beans. The Contrarian takes care of the grilling.

I have about six recipes to post on the other blog. I’m reading The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, and I have the Excel spreadsheet ready to go to start cataloging the books. I have a hair cut appointment on Monday, the Contrarian has to stop at the VA again to see a technician about his ear, and then we need to hit the bank, Verizon, and eventually Wal-Mart before the end of the week. Not so much, lol. Oh and I forgot, the Contrarian is spending his time searching Craig’s list for a truck.

Just your typically over-whelmed (almost) American retired couple. We are managing to find time to enjoy ourselves along the way.

Meanwhile, the beat goes on.

The GOP is really really sure it hates the AHCA, and it’s really sure that it will do all kinds of utterly dastardly things to all of us. Beyond that. . . .

It comes down to “reduce costs” (somehow).

That’s pretty much all they have to say.

Course, they say that while partaking in all the benefits of the new law themselves, or, indulging in the nice health care package that they enjoy as members of the government.

Willard promises us many things. None of them are actually details, just grandiose grand statements of how much better we will be off with him. He can’t go into the details of exactly how he will do that stuff–that would be giving the opposition a heads-up and we can’t have that. It all comes down to trust.

Don’t it always?

While that is going on, Willard is subjected to much inquiry about his money.

Really rich folks are notorious for not liking to get into the particulars of how they manage their money.

They know the tax code like nobody else on earth, and we would be shocked to discover how they can secrete away so much of their gains without paying taxes.

Willard says he pays every dime he’s required to and not a nickel more. Direct quote.

I guess that is an example of patriotism.

As Rinsed Penis said, “it’s the American way to avoid paying taxes.”

Is that something Willard will be teaching us if elected?

Plenty of the country has more things to worry about, as its been mighty hot.

Everyone here in Las Cruces keeps telling us “it’s not usually this hot here”. It’s been over 100 a whole lot, and I guess it’s not usually quite that hot.

I know it’s been really hot just about everywhere.

George Will tells me to get over it, “it’s summer after all.”

But if 10 of the hottest years on record have occurred in the past 12 years, and 20 of the hottest have occurred in the past 30 years, I figure there is a problem.

Mr. Inhofe, idiot Senator from OK claims global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people. He says, it’s outrageous to imagine that human beings can interfere with what God created. I’m pretty sure Satan has interfered with the connections in Mr. Inhofe’s brain. As I said, he’s an idiot. Don’t believe me? Go look up idiot in the dictionary.  You’ll find his face there. I’m sure.

Willard went a visiting to the NAACP.

He told them how much he liked their music.

He told them that he liked ‘em all just fine, and he would like them to visit him in the WH now and then and give him their “sense of things”.

He said some unkind things about the President.

For that he was booed.

But he smiled, and said, “take a look, I’m your real friend.”

Which reminds me that somebody once said, “with friends like that. . . .”

The Tea Party folks over at Americans for Prosperity seem not to know that they are a part of a front organization funded and run by the Koch brothers.

Prosperity is right. But it ain’t you’re prosperity they are lookin’ out for.

Wanna guess whose?

Oh come on.

Give it a try.

Guess.

While you’re at it, look up the word “duped” in the dictionary.

Don’t be surprised if you find your own picture there.

Just sayin’.

by

Existential Mindtwisting

You can drive yourself quite silly if you spend much time wondering how something came from nothing, and what came before the “big bang” and how where some atomic particles are concerned at least, they can be in more than one place at the same time, and that the very act of observing alters reality.

And then there is always tsunamis, tornadoes and hurricanes to worry about.

To say nothing of whether it’s safe to drink the milk when it’s a day past its expiration date.  That last one bothers the Contrarian to no end.

Anyway, I’m really glad it ain’t my job to think about that stuff. It is one of the main reasons I didn’t mark an X next to particle physicist on the “what I want to be when I grow up” form that I filled out in kindergarten, or maybe first grade.

That and the fact that they pretty much track you away from physics as a major if you think that Alice and Wonderland was silly fantasy claptrap and not worthy of the human mind. (Which is not to say that I didn’t enjoy the movie–the one with Johnny Depp, for who in their right-thinking female mind would NOT like anything starring the most gorgeous, adept, magnificent, actor in the entire universe, which is saying a lot given that I have familiarity with only one stinkin’ planet in the entire universe which must contain billions and billions as Carl Sagan used to say.)

Which is all a very long way around to saying that you might like to take a look at this book if you do like to waste lazy Sunday afternoons in a hammock thinking about these types of things. It is written by a guy named Jim Holt, and is called “Why Does the World Exist?” You can read a nice review about it here.

Frankly I think that it exists because Satan knew we would have to think about it, and that would drive us crazy, and thus provide the “in” he needs to work his evil machinations. Or on the other hand, it might be because there had to be a good place to put fruit cakes that the other universes banned as uneatable. One or the other, I am sure.

(I can hear the applause from here–connecting Johnny Depp and fruitcake is a difficult task to be sure. There must be a Pulitzer out there with my name on it.)

¤

I’m not sure any human being has spent as much time reproving again and again that he is a horse’s ass than the ubiquitous Texas Governor, Rick Perry. Think about it. Can you come up with a better candidate for permanent court jester?

Mr. I-can-only-think-of-two Perry, assures America that he will have no truck with that socialistic Affordable HCA, no matter what the Supremes have to say. Dumbo says he ain’t gonna set up no exchanges, which is odd, given the fact that the Federal Government will then set them up for him. Hardly the hands-off my medicare approach that one would think he would favor. But having only left-over oatmeal in the brain-case does apparently lend to such anomalies.

¤

I know I heard this in passing. I was passing through one room and into another, gathering all the belongings–all the important ones that is. It’s called a bug-out bag, and smart folks who know that disaster is just around every corner, always have one. And to listen to Rinsed Penis surely you must know that that disaster is set for the day after election day this November such (horrors), President Obama be re-elected.

The man claims that our very nation is at stake.We must elect Willard to “save America” to preserve “our way of life.” Read all kinds of white racist crap into that of course.

I think Rinsed has swapped some DNA with Michele Bachmann. Makes ya shiver.

¤

Okay, I’m all for adding a new sub-unit of humanity–men or women who don’t claim they are transgender, but exhibit a hatred of their own sex that is damaging to the sex. I wish to call them butt-faced Pygmalions infused with cactus-juice blood, my term. Feel free to call them what you like, as long as you keep a long stick handy.

A “woman” called Janis Lane is head of the Central Mississippi Tea Party. Not the entire Mississippi Tea Party mind you, but only the central part. She’s a really important person. Well here is here take on women–herself:

Lane: Our country might have been better off if it was still just men voting. There is nothing worse than a bunch of mean, hateful women. They are diabolical in how than can skewer a person. I do not see that in men. The whole time I worked, I’d much rather have a male boss than a female boss. Double-minded, you never can trust them.

Because women have the right to vote, I am active, because I want to make sure there is some sanity for women in the political world. It is up to the Christian rednecks and patriots to stand up for our country.

Now, given her “Christian” feelings, mightn’t her HUsssband, step in and shut this thing up and get her back to cookin’ his breakfast? Just a thought.

¤

Have a wild one. Adios

Related articles