Can They Get Any Crazier?

Tags

abortion, right to choose

I do not mean to offend anyone.

That said, lets begin offending!

Seriously, I recognize that people have legitimate feelings and beliefs on this subject. I can sympathize. I can even say (easy coming from my perch as post-menopausal of course), that I might personally agree with those who say that it is taking a life. For me it might have been had I decided to do such a thing at the time that I was capable of conceiving. It never happened so I can’t say.

All that being said, let’s look at some points of contention:

(1) when does life begin? The simple answer to the simple-minded is “at conception. When egg meets sperm, cell division begins. But pregnancy does not, and some 50-80 percent of all fertilized eggs don’t implant successfully, and this can take six to twelve days to happen. Where you draw the line raises a host of really ugly problems that are legal in nature, and that is why when life begins is a subject medical and legal experts would rather avoid.

(2) Is personhood different from life? Surely most of us would say yes. When in the growth of the foetus does it become a person? Most would argue when it has viability outside the womb. Other’s of course want to return to that moment of conception. Again, medical experts will differ and the legal implications are huge.

(3) can you rationally be for some types of abortion and not others? Can you justify logically abortion to save the life of the mother? Are you not tampering with God’s province then? Can you make exceptions for rape and incest and if so why? Morally aren’t you compelled as Steve King is to ban them all? (men find these issues so darned easy don’t they?)

(4) what are the common lies told about abortions: (a) it causes  breast cancer (b) it causes infertility (c) most women regret them later (d) forcing women to watch ultrasounds will change their minds (e) abortions psychologically damage women (f) imposing severe regulations on abortion clinics makes abortions safer (g) abortions threaten women’s lives and health. None of these claims are remotely true.

(5) Fetuses suffer pain at abortion. This is not true either. Most medical experts based on a myriad of studies don’t believe a fetus is capable of pain prior to the cortex being wired in at 24 weeks. The vast majority of abortions are done before this period.

(6) the US in the guise of the right to anti-abortionists is well-known for its save the fetus at all costs” but then ignore the infant, child, youngster afterward. The same people who are in the forefront of pushing these anti-abortion bills through the House of Representatives, are the same folks who vote against food stamps, contraceptive care for women, medical care for children, and a host of other social programs that ensure that youngsters born in this country will be raised under healthy conditions. The argument is clear, you aren’t pro-life if your ONLY concern is bringing forth a birth, a birth you then abandon.

As you can see, the issue is a complicated one and there are no easy answers. While it is easy to take a flat stand as many Republican men do (not having to contend with pregnancy has it’s benefits), when you get in the weeds the going gets pretty darn hard. Not that most of the far right has any problem with being disingenuous or illogical.

On the anniversary of Roe v Wade, the GOP House thought to take advantage of the situation and pro-offer a bill that would make their base happy, and accomplish nothing since it could not pass the Senate, nor be signed by the President. It was a win-win for them. •

Until even some of their Republican ladies even thought that the bill went too far, encompassed too much, and was just full of some of those unintended consequences mentioned in (1) and (2). Marsha Blackburn, (R-TN) and all around stupid person, charged with marshalling the bill through the House, retreated in the face of  growing distrust in their own caucus. The provision that proved deadly was the requirement that rape victims would be denied an exception to the general ban unless they had reported the rape to police.

The extremists on the right are predictably displeased and threatening to pressure those wavering Republican women. I’m sure it’s the traditional, if you want to keep your job, you better!

With all this at hand, just how comfortable are you with telling another woman what is best for her? I know I’m not. And I will support her right to decide these very complicated matters herself and with the people she chooses to ask advice of. As they say, if men could have babies, this would never be an issue.

• • •

It Wasn’t THAT Long Ago. . . .

Tags

abortion, contraception, fundamentalism, GOP, Hobby Lobby, Women's issues

A little history seems in order.

Okay, so before we start, let’s get this straight. This is not an anti-male diatribe, much as you may think it is. There are damn well plenty of stupid women out there who have drunk the kool-aid and think women’s place is in the home, tending the kitchen, children and pets, in that order. The trouble is, the women who tell you that are ANYTHING BUT stay-at-homers themselves and even if they are, they are writing blogs, books, and preachin’ on social media that YOU should not be like them, but rather like the fantasy women they envision–pampered, protected, cared for, and wiper of runny noses all wearing that crisp peter pan-collared cotton frock and perfectly shined respectable two-inch pumps and pushing the vacuum with a free hand.

Whew. . . .

No this is against paternalism and all its ugly underbelly of psychological signals that tell the female gender that they are all they can be just by primping in front of the mirror and making very sure that that eyeliner is on straight and that lipstick is the latest fashion color of the season.

Ya see, I grew up in that tween place, on the cusp, able to see both shores as it were.

Women got the vote in 1920. My mother was born in ’26, so she grew up having it, though I must say, she pretty much used is as far as I can tell, as her husbands explained to her was right and good. But her mother came into her adulthood without it, my grandmother was born in ’01, so it impacted her most. I knew these women for whom the vote was a “new” thing,  but grew up knowing that voting was no different for me than for any guy I knew.

It was not until the 60’s, during the general period of awakening that lots of minorities were going through, least of all white males who were being conscripted to be the fodder in another war, but one this time that seemed to merit no one’s patriotic fervor, that we women began to learn of our own deeper oppression. We began to learn that it was not okay that our bodies were not our own to control, that we were not by “nature” relegated to certain types of jobs, and paid less in others simply because we were women.

We learned that there was much more to do in this journey to equality.

And we secured our right to control our bodies–in other words–to make mistakes just like men do with theirs.

And we worked hard to break through glass ceilings that prevented us from being fighter pilots, (if that’s what we wanted), neurosurgeons, police officers, firefighters,  and corporate CEO’s. And then we discovered that even when we got the jobs we didn’t get the pay, and we began that fight too.

Always with a certain segment of scared men and the women they controlled telling us that we were going against God, country, and well, nature itself.

Always with those who believed that as we gained our power to control our lives, theirs would somehow be diminished. Sharing is a hard lesson to learn.

They argued of course that women would become “just like men”, or worse, punish men in some Amazonian-driven lust for power themselves.

They argued that we would cry during tense negotiations with a Khrushchev and rain down upon America the nuclear holocaust that permeated the Cold War era.

They called us atheistic feminists and the spittle trickled down their chins, catching and rerouting through grizzled stubble, that they wiped away with grubby fingers still clutching ragged signs with misspelled words echoing their hate: Back to the kitchen you sluts!

But while these battles went on quietly across America with thousands of dedicated women, all the clamor died down, and life didn’t change a whole lot. We figured we were still on the journey, but life as we know it hadn’t stopped, and someday we would reach our goal of full integration and equality in America. Most of us thrived in a world that seemed increasingly equal to us.

And then along came the “IMMORAL MINORITY”  waving their bibles, and explaining to middle-aged white men who had failed in the great American dream to be great achievers, that women were the problem and not corporate greed. Women were and always were the problem ever since that bitch picked that apple off that tree and seduced God’s great creation Adam into sinning. Women were the problem.

And as the rich got richer and the poor got poorer and the great middle started to age and find that damn they weren’t much better off than their parents, some thing had to give. Corporate America became adept at focusing the blame on minorities, takers all. Suddenly, feminism became a dirty word again. Our enemies are mostly aging white men who feel left behind (damn that Rapture, where are you?). The feel and it’s certainly palpable at this point, emasculated by articulate, educated women.

Ask me about it. I belong to a forum of my old high school, and my wars always end up being against these male types (one of which actually said that he ended up calling me names because “I drove him to it.”), and women who believe that women were created to serve me according to their fine uneducated reading of certain pseudo-Pauline texts.  And invariably they block me, so I can read the their comments and they don’t have to respond to mine. Except that there are men on the forum who are just as liberal as I am, just as knowledgeable, and just as “in-your-face”, and they don’t get blocked. Why? Because men can argue with men, but women must be very careful to be properly respectful lest they be branded as “stupid” and “a troll” and “self-defined intellectual”. (I was once told that educated people were “pissants” all, by one tiny-penised patriarchal dope.)

So along comes Hobby Lobby and it’s claim that its corporate religiosity is being assaulted by requiring it “pay” for certain contraceptive methods it in its utter stupidity deems abortifacients, and the Feds have no right to make them offer same to their employees. There is so much wrong here that it’s sick. First, HL provided all these methods before they were picked as the “plaintiff” and then told, “damn, guys, you offer this stuff already!” Hobby Lobby owner Green claims “shit, I have no idea”. Hobby Lobby gets I would guess 80% of its inventory from China, a nation that makes abortion a national policy and until recently required it after one child. Hobby Lobby has a 401K retirement benefits package which includes owning shares of various big pharma companies which, you guessed it, manufacture all the abortifacients that HL moans about.

So the SCROTUS decided that corporate religious well-being trumps women’s rights to good health. Along with that, they decided that there can be no buffer zone between women trying to enter clinics that offer contraceptive care along with abortions and those who want to scream at them demanding that they “think again”.  Women seeking treatment at a PPH clinic must be within “spittin’ distance” of those who seek to turn them away.

Across America, Republican led legislatures make it hard if not impossible for poor women to get reproductive care of any kind by loading down clinics with regulations (aren’t Republicans against business regulation as a matter of principle?) that are so burdensome that they have to close.

And all this in the name of NOT ABORTING. When all of these restrictions do exactly the opposite.

Republicans in Congress vote down equal pay for women.

There is a line.

It has now been crossed.

We will not go back.

Vote in 2014 as if you life depends on it, because control of it is surely at stake.

 

 

 

 

And What Was the Point Again?

Tags

and learned again, crap I learned, guns, Humor, ranting, satire, unlearned

Or: I am a masochist and I love it!

I was thinking about doing a post about Planet Earth traveling through the Backwards Belt. Trust me, it exists, astronomers just haven’t discovered it yet.

Since we passed through that belt of backwardness, everything pretty much means the opposite of what it portrays itself as meaning.

Example:

Stated Truth: Rick Perry signs into law a bill that is designed to help ensure women’s health safety. It inadvertently might make it more difficult for clinics who do abortions as a minor part of their total service.

Actual Truth: Rick Perry and those like him hate abortions because they have found it useful to portray themselves as “good Christians” for political purposes and making regulations (which are absolutely a job killer in any other arena according to the GOP mantra), so onerous that it essentially puts most women’s health care clinics in Texas out of business and thus makes abortions unavailable to millions of Texas women is the real goal.

Another example:

Stated Truth: Republican controlled states throughout the nation pass laws making it much harder to vote for their citizenry under the stated purpose to reduce the fraudulent use of the ballot to dilute the value of real voters vote, and thus to alter the real will of the people.

Actual Truth: Republicans can’t will elections because they have so alienated the vast majority of middle America, so the only effective way to get a win is do make it as hard as possible for voters who are likely Democratic voters to cast their vote.

Another example?

Stated Truth: The only defense against a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun. Guns don’t kill people, people kill people. The government is determined to take away your guns because it knows that it can do anything once you have no recourse through armed rebellion.

Actual Truth: We hope you will buy more guns in an effort to feel safer from the government and if you aren’t afraid of the government, we will do everything we can to make you afraid, in the hopes that you will buy more guns. We get rich and powerful that way, and we really like that.

Okay, so you know all this stuff already. Of course you do. You wouldn’t be reading this blog unless more or less you agreed with me. We all have learned that. We all started out on this Internet adventure thinking that we would have a forum finally to talk about issues and hash out differences, and come to agreement, more or less.

We knew there were crazy people, but we didn’t think they were us. But they are.

Because if you care about what is happening to this country, then it makes you crazy.

If you don’t believe me, read this: The Most Depressing Discovery about the Brain Ever.

Except, that it’s not. There are TONS of similar studies. Heck Jonathan Haidt’s book, The Righteous Mind, is ALL about the same subject.

The truth is, the more you care, the less you are persuaded that you are wrong by facts. You look the facts straight in the face, and your lyin’ eyes, well lie. The remark attributed to  Richard Pryor comes to mind: “Who you gonna believe, me or your lyin’ eyes?”

We are about to go round and round in this circus of guns. After yesterday, and another mentally disturbed man, with a history of inappropriate use of weapons, manages to buy more, and walk into a facility and start killing folks. And WE WEEP that we are such a place where people who are ill are ignored as long as they stay out of our way and don’t gum up our life.

And the head of the trauma center Dr. Orlowski said this:

And we will all say similar things, and we will all mean it, and the crazies on the other side will mean what they say, because they really believe that we’re coming to take their guns and then force them onto communes where they will eat three squares a day and pray to Allah upon pain of death, and that there are death panels, and that Obama is a Kenyan Muslim, and that quiet is kept, black and brown people just not aren’t quite like “us” and never will be, *wink* *wink*.

And I think they are loon crazy bastards and I wish they would just tend to their Ice Road Truckers and Boo Boo whoever that is, and stop meddling with adult issues. Because I can’t convince them that they are wrong on just about everything, and I am told that I am not better, just the other side.

And I HATE believing that, which is quite a corker when you think about it, because if I say, they are wrong, and I’m right, and I’m not like them, then according to the professorial class, I am but proving their point. So.

But I AM NOT LIKE THEM.  I do listen to other views, and I do change my mind, so how can I be like them?

But I sure can’t change them.

So let’s just face it.

All of us bloggers who are pounding away at the keys because we want to make a difference?

Well, we aren’t.

BLOGGING: WELCOME TO MY DIARY.

Or to be “today” let’s call it journaling.

Or, to be cool, let’s call it a rant.

Crap, I sometimes wish I was just part of the great grey cloud that only cares about whether my pinochle game will be disrupted, and of course what they are serving for lunch today at the senior’s center.

Chicken ala King anyone?

 

Why I Remain Optimistic

Tags

editorial, guns, law, political awareness, society, Trayvon Martin, Zimmerman

It was a sobering Sunday. Sobered by the awful truth that once again, the judicial system has failed us as a society. It is intended to do so from time to time. It needs be that way if we are to have a better than even chance of not convicting on whims and possibilities. But that does not lessen the pain in the individual case.

Progressives have a serious flaw in our desire for fairness, equality, and laws that “do no harm” to the greater number. We can only equate “us” to the great us of humanity, and humanity isn’t there yet. Confused?

It is seemingly a proven fact that the great march toward more “civilized” behavior is the product of the group, the tribe. We collect into groups for some purpose that seems to serve the individual, but along the way, the group can and does, when working properly, become more important than the self. It allows us to be altruistic, compassionate, and so forth even when not to our individual interests.

Failure to identify with a group leads to what Émile Durkheim’s called anomie wherein there is a mismatch between what the individual conceives of as societal norms and what the society does. In other words, people become adrift, and unconnected to the larger world about them. Progressives push for a world wherein everyone is provided for at some basic level. They stress the individual and they/we argue that “we” are one in our humanity–that is our group. Most of humanity is no where near that place in their own head. There are still too many “others” out there. So Progressives push for a world that the world is not yet ready for.

What has that got to do with Trayvon Martin? Nothing much, and almost everything if you will bear with me.

A young black male travels the streets of a neighborhood at night. He is “profiled” by a man who has self-styled himself as some sort of neighborhood sheriff, carrying his weapon, patrolling his self-designated neighborhood, looking for “bad” guys. He comes equipped with a radio to call the real police should he come upon one of his prey. He stalks the young man, until in fear the young man stops and confronts his stalker. Some sort of physical altercation ensues, and the wanna-be cop now succumbs to a fear of the youngster he stalks, and shoots and kills him.

A law allows him to do this. This law says that he can “stand his ground” if fearful for his personal safety. Even when that situation was entirely self-created. As one twittered or facebooked, “wow, I can pick out people I don’t like, stalk them until they turn to confront me, and then claim I’m scared and kill them. What a cool law!”

It’s a law brought to you by the NRA and ALEC. It is a law designed for white people who carry guns to avoid being prosecuted when they go too far (by normal understanding), killing unarmed people who may or may not be threatening them with a beating or worse. It has been passed in some twenty-five states as of this writing. Homicide rates have gone up 7-9% in the states that have passed such laws, proving that the killing is good in them. That translates to something like 500-700 more dead bodies. There is no proof at all that crime is reduced.

So where is the silver lining?

There is none really, not in terms of the facts, but I would argue that there is still good news out there to proclaim.

Were you outraged? Depressed? Sad? Were you surprised? If you were, any or all of these, AND if you hadn’t thought much about such things before, or considered them this bad, well, change has come your way.

If you believe that it is simply different to be young and black in America than it is to be white and young. If you believe that guns may not kill people but people with guns kill more people. If you believe that a stand your ground law is wrong on many levels since it rewards those who create their own terror from which to shoot from. If you were surprised that this was not at least manslaughter in the eyes of the law. If you were offended that Fox Noise continued throughout the trial to gin up the fear among whites that there would be rioting in the streets if Zimmerman were acquitted. If you were any of the above—

Join the ranks of those of us who have always known and believed these things. Join us in the tens of hundreds if that’s all “you” constitute. Perhaps “you” are tens of thousands. But you will remember and you will join an organization or be sure to vote next time. You have tipped over into a “group” whose success you now champion, something greater than self, something that is good for all.

And when you do, you add imperceptibly to the number needed to reach that magic number called the “tipping point” when we as a human family start seeing all of us as our group, our tribe.

If across the land the GOP remains engaged in the act of denying women the right to choose how to care for their own bodies and how to tend to them medically, and some tens of hundreds of women become enraged, and some tens of dozens join groups and vote accordingly, then they and you will add to that magic number called the “tipping point” when we as a human family start seeing all of us as our group, our tribe.

That is the civilization toward which I cast my vision. That is the future as I see it. It will come slower or faster than I hope, project, or believe, but it is inevitable I contend. We may lose ninety percent of the battles, but even in the losses we convert some, who become so disgusted with power misused and people abused that they join the HUMAN RACE.

The best remark I heard yesterday was “I dream of a time when a George Zimmerman rolls down his window and yelled, ‘hey kid, need a ride?’ to a young Trayvon Martin.” One day it will be a reality.

Related articles

• Race, Justice, and the Political Economy of Vigilantism (concurringopinions.com)
• The Real Winners Of the Zimmerman Trial Were the NRA and ALEC (politicususa.com)
• Richard (RJ) Eskow: I’m Sorry, Trayvon, But We’ll Walk On (huffingtonpost.com)
• It IS About Race: Study Finds Significant Racial Bias In ‘Stand Your Ground’ Laws (addictinginfo.org)

Some Uncomfortable Truths

Well, take it from me.

People can really suck.

If you are looking to prove that, it’s fairly easy.

It’s just about as easy to prove that they don’t.

But this post is not about the latter. It’s about the former, because this ain’t no pie-in-the-sky utopian blog, it’s a rant haven where the ills of society are regularly pointed out to the tone-deaf idiots who don’t read this blog anyway, but should.

That said.

People really can suck.

I was over reading Squato Rant’s post today about how Tennessee continues to screw over poor people,  because they can. And it pointed out a very serious truth to me. People continue to believe what they want because it serves some purpose–mainly their moral worldview. Now their moral worldview may be world’s away from mine, and thus, from my perspective damned offensive, but they actually (hate to admit this but it’s very true) believe it just every bit as sincerely as I do mine. The fact that to do so is jackassery in the extreme is also part of my worldview.

But I have to admit that they are sincere.

You see we not only search for that which supports our being right in the world, we also vary the amount of proof required accordingly. According to Professor Haidt, it’s called, can/must thinking.

See, when we want to believe something, we look for any evidence that says we can. It doesn’t matter if most of the evidence says we can’t, as long as some speck of evidence says it’s “rational”. So you want to believe in creationism? Sure. While the vast array of evidence suggests that the earth, the universe and all it contains,  was not created in six days, there is that pesky bible, if believed literally, which says it was. And if there is one shred of question about ANY tiny aspect of evolutionary theory (and there always will be), then I’m “allowed” to believe in creationism, no matter how utterly crazy that is. I can believe in it.

But conversely, when you don’t want to believe something, you look for any shred of evidence that suggests that you are not required to believe in it–must I? No, it might be incredibly prudent in order to not look like the wrong end of an elephant, but if you are willing to do that, by all means, there is that little hole in the evidence over there. Go stand by it and proclaim that evolution isn’t true because they haven’t solved this mystery of how life originated from inert matter.

So that’s where we find ourselves, each clinging to all sorts of things we want to, while denying all sorts of other things we don’t want to believe are true.

The fact is, the truth is what it is no matter what.

Now there is some answer here. We gotta assume that most people are interested enough in reality to mostly cling to stuff that is actually true, and mostly discard that which is not. We gotta assume that most people are psychologically sane in other words. And since we have cars, computers, skyscrapers (do they still use that term?), and electric can openers, we can pretty much assume that that assumption is correct.

So here is just a list of stuff that ain’t true no matter how many times you say it. Just in case you are confused.

1. People who have a lot of money are not “job creators”. They are experts in making money. They try to make as much as they can, and that means selling whatever they sell for the most money, and at the cheapest cost to themselves. Cheapest cost, includes labor. Nobody hires one more person that they think they can get away with and still make the highest profit. (Proviso: there are some rich folks who aren’t in it for the money, and actually believe in everyone making a fair wage. These are called exceptions to the rule).
2. Climate change is real. No matter how much you wish it weren’t and no matter how much you don’t want to pay for it, it’s still real. I just read that Senator Inhofe from the great? state of Oklahoma, used to believe in climate change. That was before he found out how much it would cost to repair the damage. Well he decided to look for “evidence” to the contrary, and shockingly, he found it. Truth is sorta not interested in costs Senator.
3. America was not designed to be a “Christian” nation. It was created by men who were more deist than anything. Moreover they were men of the Enlightenment–the idea that reason was supplanting religious explanation for physical phenomenon. The came from theocratic countries and wanted no part of that sort of government–hence the 1st Amendment and its proscription against government intruding on religious freedom. Even St. Paul recognized that God was known through creation by the use of mind: “since God has made it plain to them: ever since the creation of the world, the invisible existence of God and his everlasting power have been clearly seen by the mind’s understanding of created things.” (Rom. 1: 19-20) See, it’s not a trick, we can trust our minds and our senses.
4. The North won the civil war. Get over it. Same with Obama.
5. Women will still have abortions as a last resort no matter what you legislate Republicans. You can force them to go to back-alley charlatans or you can get out of the way so they can obtain them safely. They always have gotten them throughout history. That’s the truth.
6. The world is increasingly NOT-white. Deal with that. Or at least get over it. It’s true, and it’s going to remain true. It is also true of this country which will be more non-white than white shortly. Trust me, I live in New Mexico. I live in a city where the population of Latino people is larger than that of the white population. I can’t imagine why anyone would care. And you get to learn a whole new cuisine and culture. What is bad about that?
7. In any universe known or unknown, the truth is that Louis Gohmert (not giving people food stamps to buy King crab legs!), Steve King, Michele Bachmann, Ted Cruz, Rick Perry, James Inhofe, and a whole list as long as my arm x 20, are still going to be insufferably stupid, evil, and owned by big business interests. They represent loons. Is that a good use of your tax money.

That’s just a few. No doubt you have others.

 

And the Nominee for STUPID is. . . .The GOP

Oh my head hurts. I mean seriously people, the list of nominees for MOST STUPID is the most widely contested race of all.

Shall we poll the Internet denizens?

Here are some of the nominees. Feel free to add any you can think of. The winner will receive a dead fish wrapped in the NYTimes, delivered by a pony express rider wearing a Dior gown of sparkling crystals.

1. Proving that he can’t read, Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin says he will sign a new bill requiring an ultrasound of any pregnant woman seeking an abortion. Having learned nothing from what happened in Virginia when Governor McDonnell also planned to sign the same sort of thing, Walker announces that “I don’t have any problem with ultrasound”. No I guess HE doesn’t. But perhaps if it were required that all men who decide to treat women like children and tell them what to do with their own bodies, should undergo a lobotomy, he might, just might, change his tune. But then again, maybe not.

2. Arizona House Representative, Trent Franks resurrected the old “rape victims block the pregnancy” argument of Todd Akin, stating the “incidence of pregnancy following rape is very low.”  This was in support of a bill introduced by Franks making abortion illegal after 20 weeks. Democrats had introduced an amendment making an exception for rape and incest. It appears that Republican man are raised to believe that they are doctors by osmosis. It’s a male thing.

3. So utterly against any immigration bill are some Republicans that they don’t even want to debate the issue. The reasons are obvious. The final bill may well pass the Senate, and then it’s on the House where Boehner will wring his hands and insist that he’s only there to help the House speak it’s will. The likes of Steve King and Louis Gohmert and Steve Stockton, will provide the show there. For now this group joins in a team effort to win the golden smelly carp award: Sens. John Barrasso (Wyo.), John Boozman (Ark.), Mike Crapo (Idaho), Ted Cruz (Tex.), Mike Enzi (Wyo.), Charles E. Grassley (Iowa), James Inhofe (Okla.), Mark Kirk (Ill.), Mike Lee (Utah), James Risch (Idaho), Pat Roberts (Kan.), Tim Scott (S.C.), Jeff Sessions (Ala.), Richard Shelby (Ala.) and David Vitter (La.). A finer band of brothers in stupid cannot be found.

4. Virginia Lieutenant Governor nominee, E. W. Jackson wrote a book, and published it. It is called The Ten Commandments to an Extraordinary Life. Trouble is, he misspelled Commandments to Comandments in the title. Then he said that yoga would lead to satanic possession.

5. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK) is somebody you probably never heard of. I suspect you can continue to not hear of him. He took to the floor last week in the House and ranted on about how the President was “a vengeful liar who lacks the moral compass” to lead the nation. He likened himself to Patrick Henry. He thinks he did a good job. Trouble is, I guess he forgets that the polls suggests he may be the one without a moral compass. It’s improper to cast such vitriol on the House floor. But alas it’s nothing new for the crazy crew. And by the by, all his reasoning was based on factual untruths. ALL of them. So I guess he’s intellectually impaired on top of being a flagrant abuser of the mouth.

6. Darrell Issa claimed through selected editing of testimony, that the order to select “conservative” applications for tax-exempt status came “from Washington”. He promised that the full transcripts would be released shortly. Of course the full transcripts said just about the opposite. The person who has owned up to the screening methodology, describes himself as a Conservative Republican and says he doesn’t believe there was any political motivation in the process, but merely a method to extract those applications that would undoubtedly necessitate deeper analysis. Issa now claims that release of the full transcripts would be “dangerous and irresponsible.” He now claims it is Cummings who is the problem.

7. Now I admit, this is not a Republican. But well, we have loved Carl Levin for many years. But we are pretty darn happy he’s decided to retire. He voted to keep the decision-making on rape charges in the hands of command. It was wrong. He sided with the military men. It was wrong. This kind of thing makes no sense on any level. It doesn’t promote cohesion in the ranks. It promotes distrust. Shame on him. And on Clare McCaskill who also voted this way.

So that’s my line up for today.

As I said, please add your favorites.

It’s hard to miss a week without Gohmert being on the list I know.

But he’ll be back in the top ten. He won’t let us down.

So.

Vote.

Vote often.

 

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The Chronically Stupid Aways Find an Obtuse Angle

Tags

abortion rights, education, gay rights, GOP, gun control, Media, rightwing idiots, teabaggers, Women's issues

So much stupid, so little time to expose it all.

First there is the Daily Caller. The Daily Caller is a piece of stupid run by Tucker Carlson, from Fox Noise. The Daily Collection of Stupid leaves no stone unturned in its attempt to be irrelevant, stupidly funny, and masterful in its invention of new ways to be stupid every day.

You no doubt have always known that the Reactionary Right, of which the Daily Curd attempts to be the voice for, is a huge supporter of gay rights? You’re not aware of that? Well, slap yourself silly dumb person and listen up.

You see, it’s a crying shame, that compromise bill worked out by Senators Manchin and Toomey. Those darn Democrats, always seeking to betray and abuse their gay brothers and sisters.

The bill, Daily Crap points out, will discriminate against gay gun owners. See if you can figure out why?

Figured it out yet?

Well, you see, in states that don’t recognize gay marriage, said gay gun owner will be forced to submit his or her partner to a background check before selling them or giving them a gun for Christmas. That’s because the “family exception” to the proposed new law would not be recognized in non-same-sex marriage recognizing states.

Yes, indeed. I kid you not as they say.

I guess they forgot the provision about neighbor-to-neighbor transfers. I mean what can be more neighborly than actually living in the same house? Seems about as friendly as neighbors can get doncha think?

I gave you the link, lest you think I was pulling your leg, or attempting a frontal lobotomy with a rusty butter knife.

Next on our hit parade of stupid is the ever growing legend of another of those Texas wonders, Steve Stockman.

You remember Steve right? The Texan Representative who decided it was a great idea to invite Ted Nugent, aging rocker with like two old hits over 30 years old, who loves guns more than he loves his kids, and all around crazy conspiracy-laden anti-Obama screamer, to the State of the Union speech? THAT Steve Stockman?

Well this is his new way of attracting the marvelous people who contribute to his campaign to continue being a public nuisance.

This is his newly designed bumper sticker which you can attach to the bumper of your car, horse, or forehead, proclaiming you too are stupid as hell.

Is there anything left to say here? Stockman is offensive on just about all of Dante’s levels of hell.

But my favorite this week? Oh that was easy. You probably heard about the kerfuffle about Melissa Harris Perry’s promo for her show on MSNBC? Where she talks about the education of our children and suggests that children just don’t belong to their parents, but in fact belong to the entire community?

The Really Really Ridiculous Right started fainting and running for smelling salts on that one. One heard the immediate refrain, “COMMUNISM” expounded by the likes of Rush, the Drudge, Daily Caller, and Newsbusters.

Newsbusters said this: “. . .the notion of collective responsibility for children was a philosophy that undergirded the Cultural Revolution in Communist China under Chairman Mao. I bring that up because, as you may recall, another Harris-Perry “Lean Forward” spot contains a reference to a “great leap forward,” which calls to mind the disastrous agricultural reform plan which starved millions of Chinese to death in the 1950s.”

Sarah, “HEY, remember me?” Palin tweeted: Apparently MSNBC doesn’t think your children belong to you. Unflippingbelievable.

Rush ME MORE DRUGS Limbaugh said: So how does this manifest itself? So you need your yard mowed, what do you do?” he continued. “You go knock on the door down the street — your kid that you don’t own. I do today. For the next hour, your kid is going to mow my yard. And then after that, my trash needs taking out and after that I need somebody to go to the grocery store for me and my kid’s tied up, so I’m claiming your kid. How does this work?”

From the Lonely Conservative (who decries a new promo declaring that people have basic human rights to education, food, housing and so forth): Maybe in her next promo she can just come out and quote directly from the Communist Manifesto.

Okay folks, settle down. Let’s recall a few things. There is a rather famous saying, “it takes a village to raise a child.” That is in fact the title of one of Hillary Clinton’s books. Let’s not forget that we all pay property taxes wherever we live, and part of that money goes directly to support local school systems. Guess what? Those who are not parents pay them as well, on the theory that EVERYONE  has a stake in children being educated.

Has everyone on the Right forgotten the “good old days”? You remember when extended families lived together and everyone thought that all children were so much better off having more people busy raising them? Remember the Waltons? Remember when we were children and the teacher as “loco parentis” was considered “always right” if we were disciplined? Remember when any neighbor had a perfect right to correct your behavior if not physically, at least verbally?

Do we not all have a stake in the future of our next generation of teachers, lawyers, doctors, soldiers, and seamstresses? These are the folks who will govern the country when we are using our walkers in the hallways of senior facilities.

I mean how stupid can you be to see something sinister in what Ms Harris-Perry said? How much must you twist and distort it to make it look dangerous and “otherly”?

Do you not see that it is exactly this utterly over-the-top reaction to something so innocent and benign and TRUE, that makes even the fairly non-interested middle of America think the far Right has more than a few screws loose? The GOP and it’s cadre of stupid are swirling into the sinkhole of oblivion and pretty much nobody cares.

Next: RED Jello is a Commie plot with nanobots invading your body and indoctrination in each red sugary gelatin grain.

Related articles

• Rep. Steve Stockman, super genius (dailykos.com)
• MSNBC host thinks your kids are her kids & vice versa (theblaze.com)
• Because Melissa Harris-Perry is That Good, Limbaugh and Palin Are Attacking Her (thisblksistaspage.wordpress.com)
• Glenn Beck: Harris-Perry’s Public Education Promo Part of UN Conspiracy to Collectivize Children (crooksandliars.com)