The Running of the Bulls. . .hit

Tags

editorial, IRS, tax exempt status

Okay, get your outrage ready followed by your thinking caps. It, to pare a Bette Davis phrase, “is going to be a bumpy ride.”

Let’s get rid of the outrage first.

1. It’s bad to target identifiable public groups of people for special scrutiny unless they are promoting pedophilia or making Adolph Hitler’s birthday a national holiday.
2. A man as smart as President Obama is, is surely very good at getting elected and surely very bad at managing his Administration–at least he has a lot of really incompetent people working for him that aren’t doing him any favors.
3. Anything that gives Tea Potters the ability to dance in the street in glee is just wrong on so many levels–mostly because they dress like idiots who missed the bus to the Super Bowl tailgate party.
4. Fourth, Jon Stewart already said it better than you could anyway with this:

“Well, congratulations, President Barack Obama, Conspiracy theorists who generally can survive in anaerobic environments have just had an algae bloom dropped on their fucking heads, thus removing the last arrow in your pro-governance quiver: skepticism about your opponents.”

TeaPotters should of course get somebody to explain to them what he said meant.

Okay, outrage over.

Now, let’s examine the facts, which are still fairly small in number, which allows me the joyous whimsy of speculating all over the place about both what might have happened and why. Given that I’m reputed worldwide to be a fairly decent prognosticator (if you don’t count the times I was wrong), I’m sure you will find my analysis spot on as they say or don’t say. You choose. (We are not getting into the DOJ “new” scandal today, so relax, you won’t go into brain overheating).

Okay, let’s begin.

This goes back, in my humble opinion, and with a tiny bit of help from the ever bubbly Contrarian, to *drum roll* Citizens United. That amazingly short-sighted, ill-thought-out, and all around stupid decision opened the floodgates as you no doubt recall to all kinds of bad things. Corporations could give unlimited amounts of money to elect those persons who would support their cause that the only good dollar is one in the pocket of a rich person, for only they know what to do with it.

Okay, okay, so it also allowed all sorts of other “groups” to also gather and spend tons of dough to influence the minds of mostly mind-numbingly stupid voters.

With me so far?

So a lot, and I do mean a lot, of folks figured out that they wanted to get in on the action.

In the world of the IRS is a thing called a 501 (c) 4. This is a tax-exempt status, not quite as pure as a 501 (c)3 status. It allows you to collect money and not pay taxes on it, but the donor can’t claim it as a tax-exempt donation. The status is reserved for groups who operate “for the promotion of the public welfare.”

See the truck? See the truck drive through the gigantic hole in the wall?

What the hell is public welfare?

Well, I knew you would ask that.

The ACLU is considered to do so. But so is the NRA.

See the more rigorous status, the 501 (c) 3 status requires that you stay the hell out of politics in any way shape or form. The 501 (c) 4 status is a bit more lenient. It allows one to lobby for legislation and also to engage in political activities as “long as their primary activity is the promotion of social welfare.” The mack truck as you can see is still driving right on through.

So a whole bunch of organizations pop up, all claiming they are for the public welfare, when in reality they are really about promoting candidates and issues. Enter the TeaPotters and various other right-wing groups.  To be fair, and we aim for fair,  there are (although to lesser number) plenty of left-wing organizations who also are trying to do the same thing.

Now Cincinnati is the office that apparently is the hub of the IRS operation to approve or deny applications for this status. One can assume that following Citizens United in 2010, there was a general flood of applications as everybody including grandma wanted to get in on the action. (I’m told something like 60,000 would not be far off the mark) The status is valuable since, some of the money is tax exempt which allows more of it be used as the organization desires, whether it be to “public welfare” or quite frankly in some case to allow for bigger salaries to those who run the things. Hint: you can make a good living by setting up and running one.  Also donor lists are not required to be publicized.

What to do with this flood of applications which may well have driven the wait time up many additional months?

I figure that some mid-level bureaucrats, who were told in no uncertain terms to clear the backlog, and “no you were not getting any more workers” because the GOP just says NO!, dreamed up this computer program to sort through applications and flag those that would in all cases require further scrutiny–i.e., were they actually doing “public welfare” or only a front for a political agenda. (It’s fairly hard to argue that any Tea party group or any Occupy Wall street group could be anything but political.) The program used words like tea party, phrases like government not working, taxes, and so forth.

As I understand it, of the numbers of kicked out applications (requiring further scrutiny and action) 25% involved right-wing organizations. The rest involved either left-wing or other groups who did not meet the criteria, being not fraternal organizations of chickadee lovers, chocolate addicts anonymous, or things of similar ilk.

At some point, higher-ups learned of the practice. Discussions were had, and all seemed convinced that it was not aimed at “enemies” so much, as to simply weed out by computer rather than by hand, those applications that would require more time. The normal applications could thus be passed through within a reasonable time.

Of course, it became known up the chain of command what was going on. But apparently this raised no red flag (as it should have) as it was discussed and explained to them.

This is born out by the fact that during this entire episode, one Doug Shulman was head of the IRS. Now Mr. Shulman was appointed and began his leadership of the IRS in March of 2008, having been appointed by George W. Bush. He completed his term in November of 2012. He testified that there was no such thing going on in the IRS, as late as March of 2012. While it is still unknown whether he was aware of the practice, it is now thought that he probably did.

This suggests to me, that he did not consider it aimed at suppressing right-wing groups so much as helping to alleviate the backlog and limited to pulling out those applications that would otherwise require additional scrutiny anyway. It appears that the agency’s interests had turned to increasing revenue since the early 2000’s, and it was felt that as much as 1.2 billions were being lost to tax exempt groups in the 2012 election alone. Clearly some of this, if not most of it, should not be tax exempt under the current laws.

Shulman is and has never been a politico. His entire career has been spent in the business arena. That suggests that while his political affiliation is unknown,  he probably supports business interests and it seems unlikely to me that he would deliberately turn a blind eye to some deliberate effort to damage conservative groups, which typically favor business interests. Thus we can take him at this word I think that there was not attempt to “target” conservative groups per se.

This suggests that the real problem here is not one of an “enemies list” so much as what you get when you try so hard to depoliticize an organization that none within it have the political nose to see a HUGE problem for what was probably created as a benign process to speed up the process for legitimate applications while leaving more problematical ones for later.

In other words, any political junkie would have seen this immediately as “DANGER, DANGER WILL ROBINSON!”,  but they were not so seen by your average apolitical bureaucrat.

So that’s my initial take on it.

Of course weigh in.

Related articles

• The IRS should review all 501(c)(4) organizations (evergreeninstitute.wordpress.com)
• IRS nonprofit division overloaded, understaffed (publicintegrity.org)
• The Monday Long Read: Why the IRS scrutiny of conservative groups is less nefarious – and more necessary – than you think (americangladiators.wordpress.com)
• The IRS Shoots Itself in the Foot, Then Reloads (motherjones.com)
• The IRS Was Wrong – But Many Political Groups Should Not Be Tax-Exempt (business.time.com)

They’re All Bums–Well Most of Them

Tags

Catholic Church, filibusters, gun control, Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell, pedophilia, President, senate, wacko right

Yeah, you heard me.

I try to get away from the idiots but they just keep coming. There is no end to the incompetent, self-serving bull crap going on in Washington. I mean it makes your head swirl.

First we got old Wayne La pee pee Pierre and his survivalist mentality. How’s this for logic: we can’t do background checks (which he FULLY endorsed in only 1999) because criminals won’t come in to submit to them.

Why shock me to death Whiney Wayne. I guess we shouldn’t have laws against bank robbery either, cuz you know, the bank robber he’s just not going to obey it.

Why can’t we have limits of the types of weapons that are sold? “Because we can’t trust these people,” according to Wayne. These people being the operative word here, as in “liberals” or “blacks” you know. Just because they say they won’t take shotguns and hunting rifles and regular handguns, “they” might just be lying.

Just as you Wayne lie to your constituents when you tell them that “who knows, the next disaster like a tornado the government might not show up, and well, people will have to defend themselves from marauding hoards.” Yeah you utter base excuse for a human being. That is so likely to happen.

If gun manufacturers can’t come up with better arguments than that, well, you deserve to be pistol-whipped boys.

BITE ME!

And then there is the king wimp of them all, Mr. Harry Reid, you know the soft-spoken little twit that Democrats are somehow forced to accept as Majority Leader in the Senate?

Why Harry, when asked about his support for gun safety legislation, says, “these are all things we need to take a look at.”

Take a look at ?

Where the hell have you been for the last two months you mealy-mouthed sucker on the NRA teat?

You’re the freakin’ MAJORITY leader. You’re in charge of what gets brought to the floor. You’re supposed to be a good guy remember? What is there to “understand” about high-capacity clips? Shall we ban anything over 10, or anything over 6? Boy that took a lot of time to “study.” And doesn’t it behoove somebody on your staff to have actually read Diane Feinstein’s bill? Is it so much different from the last one you enacted? What exactly do you do all day, other than feed lettuce to the Turtle Man?

Get off your stupid ass and DO something, and while you are at it:

BITE ME!

Speaking of whom, or what, or it, Turtle Man McConnell, I hear tell you are gonna filibuster the President’s nominee Richard Cordray once again to head up the Consumer Protection Division? This after you all admit there is not a damn thing wrong with his qualifications. This is solely because you don’t like the agency. Well that’s a new one.

Never in the history of the Republic has a party filibustered a nominee simply because they don’t like the agency he or she is going to head. Now we understand that those beholden to big business want no part of protecting consumers. No that would be wrong, You’re the party of rugged individualism. People have to take care of themselves. I mean it can’t cost too much to have a lab test done to find  that the damn medicine that  Pfizer produces won’t kill me, immediately, or grow hair on the bottom of my feet in two years.

This crap is absurd. And your pal Harry, God bless his stupid little head, was so scared of your wrath that he ignored the real opportunity to put an end to this insane misuse of the filibuster when he had the chance. Jimmy Stewart is crying in heaven today.

So Mitch?

BITE ME!

And Harry?

BITE ME AGAIN!

The President mentioned that he went skeet shooting at Camp David. Of course the insane Right, went insane, insinuating that the President was lying. Not because they hate him, of course, and if he cured cancer, they would see it as a Muslim Brotherhood Plot. No. Not for that reason. They don’t trust him, since he’s done so many darn things that were illegal and well everybody knows all of our FREEDOMS are hanging by a threat.

So he no doubt lied about the skeet shooting, for some reason, but reasons don’t matter, and are too hard to figure out, so let’s just say he lied, because well Black people have a habit of doing that, *nudge nudge*.

So the White House produces a picture of the present firing a gun that all agree is the type used for skeet shooting.

So of course, IT’S A FAKE!

It’s another conspiracy folks and the survivalists sure do love them some conspiracy.

BITE ME! ALL OF YOU!

Some of you may have heard of Archbishop Roger Mahony, retired from the archdiocese of Los Angeles in 2011 after having served since 1985. He and his top aide, Thomas Curry were both implicated in covering up child abuse by a series of priests. Just released documents show they actively attempted to protect priests from prosecution and withheld their names from police.

They have, in their retirement, been stripped of all public and administrative duties. This was done by now Archbishop  Jóse Gomez.

Children, we are told were threatened if they told the truth of what happened to them.

There was one way that a Church which claims to be the holder of the Keys of St. Peter and THE church of  Christ, (which you may or may not buy. I don’t and I am a Catholic), and that is to expose and drive out of the priesthood anyone who assaults a child. Period. End of discussion. You can offer them all your prayers and whatever, but first you REMOVE THEM FROM THE PRIESTHOOD. They are not fit to be priests. They are not some common sinners. They are predators of innocent children.

To all you who make excuses for my Church and it’s utter failing in this matter, I say:

BITE ME!

Oh, and I’m in a darn good mood today. The Ravens won, I walked the dog, the housework is done, the Contrarian cleaned the oven, and he’s taking me out to lunch. I’m happy as a clam. You don’t want to see me when I’m hot. No I suspect you don’t.

Related articles

• Will Harry Reid’s Filibuster Deal With McConnell Bite Him On the You-Know-What? (themoderatevoice.com)
• Photo of Obama Shooting Skeet Stirs Controversy (usnews.com)
• Harry Reid: “I’m not personally, at this stage, ready to get rid of the 60-vote threshold” (washingtonpost.com)

Food, Huh! What Is It Good For?

Tags

crap I learned, diets, food, life in the foothills, lifestyle

Okay, you caught me. I’m avoiding politics. Just for a bit. I’m tired of reporting on idiots. Tired up to the tippy-top of my noggin with fools and dopes, and all manner of misanthropes who permeate our political landscape. The last was the isolated butt-stupid “law enforcement” personnel across the country who have determined that “they will not enforce unconstitutional gun laws”. These missing-links to humanity are nothing but assholes with inverted mouths. To suggest that they haven’t thought this through would be to suggest that they can think in the first place.

So.

What ya wanna talk about today?

Food? I thought so.

I been reading about food lately. I read The China Study, and now I’m reading, Healthy at Every Size. I won’t bore you with long drawn out descriptions except to say that the first does an excellent job of proving that for health reasons, a plant-based diet is probably the very best any person could choose. Of course only a tiny segment of the population is or ever will be prepared to never eat a hamburger, a glorious slice of Vermont Cheddar, or a gnaw upon a spicy rib bone. The second, fairly echoes my conclusion but goes ever so much further stating once and for all, that diets don’t work, except again for a tiny segment of the population.

I tend to agree with both. I cannot do a plant-based diet. I’m not that tiny segment. I have tried every manner of diet, and been successful on most all. Until I had lost the weight and tried to eat NORMALLY again. I do mean normally too. I put the weight back on faster than a nearing 40-year-old says “I do”, and as then some. It’s all quite predictable, for diets interfere with the bodies own dynamics, and as soon as the diet is done, the body starts to repair the damage at it sees things. It does little good by the by to try to tell it otherwise. It has a mind of its own.

You see this has to do with systems that are evolutionarily developed over millions of years to care for the body (itself) when the brain sitting atop all this mass of flesh was not smart enough to make the right decisions. A whole mass of interconnected “stuff” in our brains, bloodstreams, and so forth released chemicals, slowed them down, pushed them about, all to regulate what we ate and when. For a lot of millions of years, we did just fine.

Then the mirror was developed. And we saw that fat butt, and that round tummy, and well we became insane. We started to artificially alter our size. And our inborn systems have been rebelling ever since. You diet, the brain says, “we’re starving–quick slow systems down!” So our metabolisms fall making our calorie output slower than normal. We become hungrier, and  the normal level of our satiety is thrown off kilter. So when we stop starving ourselves, we eat more, more often.

Then the food industry comes into play. They want to make money. They don’t care about our natural mechanisms for maintaining a healthy body. They use high fructose corn syrup because it is cheap. It goes into everything now. It messes up the “satiety” bells and whistles. So we eat more and more often. They use all kinds of additives that affect the proper release of various chemicals and so forth into our bloodstream that help us to decide what to eat and when. They mess it up. So we eat Cheetos, instead of an apple.

The government is complicit. They subsidize farmers who grow corn. It stays cheap so it can be the favored supplier of sweeteners. In Europe, by the by, you can hardly find soda pop that uses HFCS (high fructose corn syrup), because it’s BANNED as UNHEALTHY. Here you can’t find any without it. It’s in bread and almost all boxed and pre-made foods.

The government promotes the use of milk, although studies suggest it plays a part in breast and prostate cancer, onset juvenile diabetes, and cant’ be digested properly by tons of people. There are no good studies that say its a good way to avoid osteoporosis either.

Fast food places supersize foods because the french fries are so damn cheap that they can double the size at about only 40% of the cost. And over time, the consumer becomes used to the larger size, and considers it the “normal” portion. The more we eat, the more we crave it. We mess up our internal systems. Go into a McDonald’s and ask for a “small” fry. They will not have a clue what you are talking about. There is no such thing as “small” any more.

We don’t eat because we are hungry. And we don’t eat what our body needs, we eat what our drunken brains have been taught to crave. We eat because it is noon, and we eat a salad because we want to be “good” until evening when we are starved and we devour a bag of chips and a twenty-ounce coke.

Now, I’m not trying to talk you into anything here. But these two books are worth your attention before you start yet another weight-loss scheme. If only to alert you that you can’t depend on the government to keep you safe, nor frankly even a lot of the various medical associations. You cannot believe how many of the things like Pediatric Doctors Associations (and similar things) are heavily contributed to by all the “bad” food makers to get a nod. These associations have a maddeningly bad habit of altering their “advice” to include “reasonable” portions of soda, chocolate, and all the other things we know are not real food in return for those hefty “donations”.

I’m simply trying to make better food choices, and exercise because I find it fun, and because it makes me feel better. I’m trying to make most of my diet from real foods, and meals created from whole ingredients.  Being healthy is, at my age, increasingly much more important than whether I can pop my buns into a pair of sexy jeans. Way more.

Related articles

• High fructose corn syrup linked with diabetes (thenaturopathicnutritionist.com)
• Soybean Oil: One of the most harmful ingredients in processed foods (sott.net)
• Dr. Mercola: Why Americans Are Less Healthy, and Die Sooner Than People In Other Developed Nations (consciouslifenews.com)
• This is how the food industry makes Americans fat and hungry (rt.com)
• Fructose Sugar Tells the Brain To Keep Eating (livescience.com)
• Imaging study examines effect of fructose on brain regions that regulate appetite (esciencenews.com)
• Diabetes Rates Higher in Countries Using Lots of High Fructose Corn Syrup (nlm.nih.gov)

The Food Wars

Tags

evolution, FDA, food, health, Human Biology, medicine, nutrition

We are living in the WRONG century insofar as food is concerned. That’s obvious, and needs no explanation, but I’ll give you one just in case.

We are smart enough to manufacture the stuff that tastes and looks edible, but are just beginning to have the tools to determine whether we are in fact genetically destroying the human race as a result.

You know what I mean. I grew up in the 50’s and 60’s and thus was in on the ground floor of manufactured edibles. Bisquick, tubed biscuits, mashed taters in a box, and some horrifying thing called “Helper” preceded by things life “beef” and “tuna.”

We were stabilized in all this by things called “preservatives” which basically meant that the shelf life of said faux food could be centuries. We are dripping in a thing called “high fructose corn syrup” cuz somehow it works better than plain old cane sugar.

Now, most of the crap we grew up eating was declared “safe” by an FDA which we thought was actually looking out for us, but we now know is just a shill for the food manufacturing industry, so all these decades later, some of us feel rightly SCREWED.

Americans spend a ton of dough on over the counter digestive aids. Look at Walmart’s my lovelies and see a whole section devoted to stuff designed to make it all go down and through and out without too much pain. We belch and gag and well, do other unmentionable things in an effort to extract some nutritional value out of soy-lent green masked as ding dongs.

Somewhere in the 70’s or so, people started to do actual studies which got everyone worrying. So we ingested tons of bran muffins, cut down on coffee, stopped drinking soda with real sugar, and a myriad of other rules of the road designed to improve our health, or at least stop the damage we had already done.

We are just beginning to have the capability to determine the long term genetic effects of all those chemicals. Who knows, it may already be too late. We may have introduced the genetic oops into the mix (sorry all you silly creationists, but evolution continues ya know even if you pretend it doesn’t) already for all we know.

Every few months we are admonished to stop eating so much of this, and add more that into our diet. If in fact we tried to follow all this goodly advice, I dare say we would spend the better part of every day just working out the schedule.

And, then there is that thing called exercise! It went from 15 minutes three times a week, to 4 times a week, then 2o minutes, then 5 days a week, then 6, and now its 30 minutes 7 days a week. It’s walking, and then it’s strength training too, and then, well it makes a body take to their bed in self defense and exhaustion, I tell ya.

And then, exercise the brain. Fend off Alzheimer’s–do math, puzzles, read, or don’t, since there is plenty of literature that say it won’t make a difference. Or eat broccoli, since it seems to be good for much that ails us.

I cannot imagine the young mother these days faced with trying to give her kids a decent chance at a long and healthy life. Where to begin? I have no clue, and frankly, I’ve given up.

What I do mostly and I say mostly most seriously, because my addictions to crap are well, addictions after all, and I’m a firm believer that we can only address about 2/3 of all addictions without going mad, so choose which 1/3 you intend to relish until you die an unnatural and earlier death than you should.

So I mostly stay away from processed food. I long ago tossed the Bisquick and tubes of dough. I don’t by frozen meals or canned gravies and all that jazz. I mostly stay away from a lot of processed meat and pretend side dishes with suspiciously weird looking “flavor” packets. Amazingly, most of this stuff can be cooked from scratch in a few minutes of time, and taste wildly better than their counterparts of ground up cardboard flavored with grape-like taste nuggets.

I have no idea whether I’m healthier or not. But it’s a measure of control, and it’s hugely cheaper as well, which is a bonus. We grow a big garden and I actually like making salsa and tomato sauce for my spaghetti from real tomatoes and garlic and onions and all that. Sure, it won’t last until Christmas like the jars I can get in the local assembly line “food” dispenser, called Piggly Wiggly or Walmart or HyVee or any number of silly names.

Course we eat meat, and I KNOW that is probably cancer on a plate, as well as plenty of other genetic mutating sludge, but there is, as I say, only so much one can do about addictions. And fish is no bargain either, since more and more it comes from polluted waters and is probably not fit for consumption.

We are out there alone my friends, in the big world of food. No one to protect or guide us much. In a couple more centuries, we should probably have this all down pat. No doubt we will be able to discern  the properties of every food with our new third eye. But oh, just think of the added expense of all that mascara!

Who Protects Us Now?

Tags

Bush, Faux Noise, journalism, Media, Muslims, Rudi Giuliani, terror attacks, terrorism

It’s ironic that in an age of ever increasing access to information, we are quickly becoming the most uninformed generation in perhaps all of American history. That might be going a bit far, but not by much.

We live with Internet access to literally millions of bits of news and facts, along with the ability to turn to 24-hour cable “news” 24/7. You’d think we would be experts on the political scene and all those other “scenes” as well. But ‘fraid not.

Surely, something can be said for our educational lack. I went to a fairly passable county school back in the 60’s. Yet, given our small size, the choice of classes was lacking and certainly only the basics were taught.

I, and my classmates learned to read and write and cypher adequately. We learned the importance of voting, and being patriotic. We learned that some bad things were done (not soo00 important), but we had a continent to conquer and ultimately we were the next best hope for humanity. I guess this was adequate to the middle of the 2oth century, but it is woefully inadequate now.

We are assured that there is only one worthwhile economic system–the free market one–as we slide into economic hell. The fact that most Americans today spend most of their waking hours just keeping their heads above water might account for the fact that we spend almost no time actually learning the facts of health care, our foreign policy, the state of the rest of the world, the truth about scientific advances, and on and on.

So it’s not surprising that Rudi Giuliani tells lies to the likes of George Stephanopolous and nobody, including George even blinks an eye. If you missed it, Rudi joined a list of shabby neo-cons who are spreading the lie that there were no terrorist attacks under Bush at all! George, I’m told, has admitted his faux pas  at not challenging the former mayor, but what matter? Heck, those who knew better still do, and those that don’t, well they don’t watch George anyway. They are firmly attached at the hip to the Faux Noise liars who know this routine so well.

Yesterday, a Brit stopped by the blog and dropped a few f-bombs around (since deleted by me) and basically railed as how I as a liberal was a sodomite supporting, Muslim defender. He, who goes by the name “Larry” of course is a proper Christian, despite his sexual invitation for me to have sex with a goat.

Now being from Britain, I can only say, whew. . . .just goes to show that idiocy is spread across the globe and is not the sole province of the US of A. More, I can point at Larry as another of those who so helps to radicalize people left and right. Contrary to his ugly opinion of Muslims, from what I hear, they are doing their best, at least in America, to decry in the strongest terms that those Muslims who espouse radical jihad are NOT Muslims according to their understanding of Koran.

Yet, this kind of truth, doesn’t find much purchase in the media. They have succumbed to the simpler mode of journalism, that requires little in the way of research or actual work. Just grab a camera, take a few shots, grab a microphone, and shove it in the faces of passersby for their input. Voila` we are ready for air.

Was it only a few years ago that Woodward and Bernstein offered us a glimpse of real investigative reporting? How soon that turned into investigating marital infidelities, and drug usage. It has failed completely to actually investigate truth. Somewhere and somehow, journalism has become the duty of journalists to let everyone have their opinion voiced, without “editorial” comment.

Well, I agree, I don’t care what the reporter’s opinion is, but I do care what the facts are. And when AHole is spouting verifiable “facts” I want them verified and confirmed or denied. And that is your job Ms reporter. It’s what you get paid for. Yet we find little of this any more. In fact  organizations called “Media Matters” and “Factcheck” and others are designed to actually do that job, the one that journalists don’t bother with any more.

Yet, you have to be motivated to learn the truth to even know of the existence of these sites, let alone actually read them. And precious few of us are. Most of us are plainly not interested at all, or we have hitched our horse to the teabagger supporters at Foxy and depend on them to ‘splain things.

Maybe this has always been so. Maybe in 1884, the US landscape was made up of essentially the same percentages of know some things and know nothings. I don’t know. I do know that at one time, most towns, not cities mind you, had competing  newspapers. Cities might have as many as four major voices, and lots of smaller ones. Today, most cities are owned by one media conglomerate or other.  A failure of course of our fine “regulatory agency” the FCC.

It often seems like beating one’s head against the wall to decry the never ending failure of the media to tell us truth rather than the usual gossipy innuendo that passes for facts. It was called in the past the 4th estate. It was accorded some respect. It was feared by politicians and corporate heads. It could uncover the hidden lies. It could make or break an industry. It had integrity. It was like superman, out for Justice and the American way.

How far it has fallen, and how dumbed down we have become. We need a super hero, and we need one fast.

Short Takes on the Day 11/13/08

Tags

2nd Amendment, Bush, Casseroles, chocolate, Desserts, environment, Greek history, guns, Literature, NRA, psychology, Recipes, religion, Saints, sociology, tex-mex, turkey, Women's history

It’s simply shockingly sad. Bush is doing his level best to help out his business friends at the tail end of his disastrous presidency by trashing the environment. All the plans, regulation loosenings and so far are designed to help industry make money, and reduce the protection of lands and animals now in place. It will take much time and effort by the Obama people to undo this. It was said that Clinton was only able to undo about 13% of what Daddy Bush did at the end of his presidency. True, Clinton did the same and Dubya could only undo 3% of the Clinton environmental protections. Why this evil man is intent on destroying the earth is beyond me. He has his, why can’t he let us at least exist? AlterNet has the story.

I recently read a book called “Deep Economy” about how we might revision our economic mantra of “growth is good.” It dealt largely with environmental issues, but did make the point that studies show that Americans are deeply unhappy overall as compared to much of Europe and many other countries as well. Money and buying stuff does not make us happy it turns out. A World Health Organization now places the US first in those countries whose citizenry is depressed and otherwise mentally ill. Read more, and discover that if you are stressed with not enough time, not enough leisure, you are very much not alone.

While much against the theology of Augustine can be argued with, there is something very right about a guy who asked God to cure him of his sexual needs, but “not quite yet.” He became a very human being for that statement in his Confessions. That being said, his birthday is today, and I think we should all pause and remember this great Father of the Church. If you would like to read more about this incomparable man, link to Gill’s Ancient History Blog.

You might enjoy this aside: Being a blogger, we all get used to our private and overused phrases. Much as John McCain drove us insane with “my friends” we all have our peccadilloes when it comes to language. Britannica Blog gives us “the 10 most overused and useless expressions in English.” Did you find one you use? Numbers 4 and 5 were ones I think I use a bit too frequently.

Uncovering women’s history is always fascinating. Every heard of a woman by the name of Cynisca? Probably not, but she was the first woman to compete and win an Olympic event, and we are talking about 396 and 392 BCE. Read this fascinating tale with tons of historical background at Rogueclassicism today. G,wan, get a little knowledge, your brain will thank you for it.

Speaking of birthdays, yesterday’s was Grace Kelly. That wonderful biographer Elizabeth Kerri Mahon at Scandalous Women does her usual top notch job and presents you with a lovely reflection on this American Princess.

If you are a history buff, you might find this new blog fun. It’s called Histatic! The history blog for all your inquisitive needs. Give it a look see and bookmark if it suits your fancy. I’ll be picking up the feed and checking it for good posts that you might enjoy.

I had a co-worker when I was a lawyer, who used to go to magazines like Bon Appetit and others of that type and make their entire holiday menu. I have never done such a thing, and frankly won’t because we have found the perfect Thanksgiving menu on earth, all from different sources. But if you want to do something different, Baking Delights has a full menu for you with all the recipes. You might not choose to make it all, but you might find a recipe that you do like. I think I should try to post the incredible stuffing recipe we used last year. First time we ate every drop of stuffing I tell you, and I will never do another turkey that isn’t brined either. Enjoy!

Simply Recipes gifts us with a great Tex-Mex dish. It’s similar to enchiladas, but she says without the trouble. It’s often used as a breakfast food. Give it a look if you love Mexican food. This looks like one I’ll add to my repertoire. Full directions are given for Chilaquiles.

And just to close out the recipes, here’s one you should not miss. Easy as anything to make, elegant for the holidays, and it is Chocolate! Now that combination is not to be missed. Called Chocolate Purses, you can wow your guests and also adapt easily to your own particular tastes. What could be better? Our thanks to Uncommon Artistic Endeavors.

This next story has been on the news in the mainstream media for a few days. Partly it makes me just laugh and partly it makes me sick to my stomach. The NRA has done an excellent job in making up a scare story that Obama is gonna take away guns, and gun sales have skyrocketed. That’s the funny part, the scary part, is the gun sales have skyrocketed. What kind of world are people living in that they have to run out and buy $1000+ assault rifles before they are banned? What kind of nut wants one? The winners are of course the NRA and its beloved gun manufacturing industry. Once again the idiot poor does the bidding of the rich. Crooks & Liars has the story.

Oh Goodie Goodie, DistributorCapDC has a quiz for couch potatoes and prizes too! Hurry on over and take it, win win win, I never win a thing. Maybe this time!

And to close out, just a personal observation. Sarah, our dear Sarah is being called the gift that keeps on giving for Democrats. She is making more of an ass of herself, now that she is out from restrictions and can do things her way. Although she claimed many of her woes were the result of the left wing media, she is courting that media for all it’s worth these days. She is granting “exclusive” interviews nearly every day. True to form, she says nothing, and says that nothing in such circular fashion that one can but weep with joy that the girl hasn’t lost her stupid touch. You might have thought she would bone up a bit, but word is that her latest foray on Larry King resulted in answers about the federal economic bailout that were “stunning” in their lack of any knowledge of what it entailed.

Miss Palin continues to adhere to the idea that politics is a piece of cake and requires no real knowledge of anything. Since she is apparently interested in virtually nothing, this works well for her so far. Her press conference at the Governor’s meeting consisted of 3 questions and then was closed down. The other governors felt a bit left out as you can guess. She was not wanted there in the first place so we are told. Sarah is that annoying fly that you cannot swat and cannot evade. It will soon be time to bring out the assault spray and overkill the land in order to make sure she gets her fatal dose.

I know this sounds weird, but a bunch of political bloggers and others have set up a food network site. You can find it here, called the “Internet Food Association.” Some of our favorites, such as Simply Recipes are on board. Who knows who might be next. Bookmark it and check it out if you love food and new recipes.

Have a greater day than ever before!

Lil Bits of Rancor or Not 7/17

Tags

Anglicans, astronomy, Congress, Election 2008, FCC, gay rights, Health care, herb, History, HIV/AIDS, Iraq, Jesus, maps, Mars, McCain, Media, Republicans, spices, tex-mex, War, Women's issues

McBu$h loves the press, especially his cadre that rides the MacBus. But only to a point it seems. The new McShame plane has a couch and captains chairs reserved for “special journalists”the good guys who have to earn a seat by saying good things about the Mav. Yep, let’s hear it for Democracy McBlech style.

The entire purpose of the surge in Iraq was not to develop a strategy to win the war–that is impossible by most rational accounts. It was to reduce violence to a degree that would allow time to work out a means of withdrawl in a way that allowed the Iraqis some reasonable opportunity to take over. That is what neither Bush nor McBush seem to get. John Bruhns has a fine explanation at the Huffington Post.

Lest we forget, a lot of folks are excited these days. They are astronomers and they are having a ball with all the new photos of Mars. If you would like to take a look at some, then link here. Exciting stuff!

If you think that the mainstream media sucks as I do, then trot over to this site and sign the petition to inform congress how you feel about consolidation of media outlets by large conglomerates. In the past, citizenry have had an impact so it’s worth the time to sign on.

Secret Recipe Blog has a nice recipe for Copycat Lawry’s Taco seasoning. The packets are expensive, and you usually don’t need all of it. Most of this stuff you have on hand, and so make up a batch, and put in a saved used spice jar and you have it ready when needed to spice up that Tex-Mex meal.

When you try to talk out of both sides of your mouth, it almost always fails. McCain again can’t remember what he said 2 months ago, 2 years ago, or yesterday for that matter. His interviews are starting to be fun, as his staffers have to clean up after him, explaining his inexplicable remarks. Today it’s gays and adoption, yesterday it was insurance coverage and viagra. Read it and giggle.

Another wingnut of late, Senator Elizabeth Dole, has the chutzpah to try to rename a HIV/AIDS bill after deceased Jesse Helms. Does this strike anyone as insane? The man palpably hated AIDS patients and had NO sympathy for their disease. Ms. Dole seems to be partaking of the same senility water than Mr. McCain imbibes regularly.

The Church of England has voted to ordain women bishops. Women of History has a in depth look at the vote and the debate. Women have already of course been ordained as bishop in the American Church, the Episcopal and also in Australia. The ultra right wing of the Catholic church is of course sick, since they were hoping for a reunion of the two churches. They of course are rabidly against women priests.

World History Blog has a great little link to a site that specializes in maps, both domestic and international. Apparently you can put in modern day addresses and even trace land ownership back through several layers. There are more than 200,000 maps to access so it looks like it might be a fun and educational place to stop by.

Angry African on the Loose has a pretty interesting and thought provoking essay entitled “Who would Jesus vote for?”It’s worth your time. Rearranging one’s priorities is always worth time. Take five minutes and think. It’s as Martha says, a good thing. Keeps that Alzheimer’s at bay too.