Existential Ennui

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Existential Ennui

Tag Archives: PPH

Putting “Bob” in a Search Engine

06 Wednesday Mar 2013

Posted by Sherry in An Island in the Storm, Education, GOP, Health care, Humor, Media, Medicine, Satire, teabaggers, The Wackos, Women's issues

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

critical reading, critical thinking, Louis Gohmert, Media, PPH, right wing extremists, sex education, Texas

Robert Melendez 1You know, everybody says they “don’t believe everything” they hear. Everybody likes to think of themselves as discerning individuals who eyes can’t be covered with wool. But the truth is, most people aren’t educated, or have not taken the time to really work at what can only be termed a skill set.

Being a critical reader doesn’t come naturally. A Facebook friend of mine is busy trying to educate a few people about how to tell the questionable from the reliable. He makes a good point. You might want to ignore a source that gives you salacious or wild headlines without a corresponding story. In other words, if the headlines don’t turn out to match the actual verifiable facts in the story, well, you might want to look elsewhere.

A case in point was a recent Rachel Maddow show wherein Ms. Maddow referred to the town hall meeting that John McCain had. A woman referred to her son as having been the victim of gun violence. She wanted to know about what laws Congress might pass. McCain first expressed his condolences for the loss of the woman’s son, and then remarked that “Congress was not going to ban assault weapons.”

Now Rachel indicated that the tape of this had been edited by a local news operation, and that “it might unfairly portray Senator McCain as lacking in compassion. (the tape omitted the sentence regarding McCain’s sympathies). The tape was offered for the news that McCain was saying that the GOP was not going for any ban on assault weapons and this was before there had even been any hearings on Feinstein’s bill.

Yet, the headline from a right-wing shrill machine was something like “Rachel Maddow gleefully admits she edited tape to make GOP look bad.”

I assume you get the point.

The Daily Caller has been pushing the Melendez story. You have obviously heard about it. Melendez is accused of cavorting with paid prostitutes at a friend’s home in the Dominican Republic. The story was apparently “leaked” by GOP operatives and offered to ABC news. They declined.

The right-wingers would say, “see, the MSM is in the pocket of the Democrats. They don’t report on misconduct of one of their own.” Is that what happened? No. Not at all.

The fact is that ABC interviewed one of the “prostitutes”. When asked how she knew that the man she had only known as “Bob” was a US senator, she replied that “I put his name in a search engine and Melendez’ picture came up.”

Why, I invite you to try that and see what you get.

ABC news declined the offer as “unreliable”, which of course The Daily Caller jumped all over it. Which one do you want to use as a source of information? (And I’m not pushing ABC news since I don’t find them all that good either.)

Which brings me full circle, since yesterday I unfairly maligned a nurse quite possibly, for failing to render CPR assistance to an elderly assisted-living woman. Apparently the woman had signed a DNR and I can presume that the nurse was aware of it. Or I would expect that was possible. In any case, I admittedly relied on only what I heard on news broadcasts from MSM and failed to delve any deeper into better sources. Mea Culpa. Live and learn. Hoisted on my own petard. (please insert any another euphemism that seems appropriate)

†

I’m inclined at this point to urge the government to just put a big ole fence around the state of Texas. Now granted, they are a big state, and they have a big population, but for Jimminy Cricket’s sake, they can’t have THAT many idiots can they?

Louis the Loon Gohmert is wasting your tax dollars once again with his amendment rider to a budget bill that would prevent any “federal funds” being used to transport the President to any golf outing until “White House tours are resumed”. Louis woke up from a drug-induced dream and thought he was in Lilliputian land again. The White House suspended tours to save money ala the sequester. Louis takes up space on the planet. I vote to suspend him from a hot air balloon, attached to the capital dome.

Another dim bulb in the state Senate wants to suspend operations like Planned Parenthood from submitted sex education materials to schools that teach sex education. Although all such materials are already subject to public availability and parental veto, Ken Paxton thinks (I know, a crazy word to apply to many in Texas), that present law doesn’t go far enough.

Places like PPH should not be allowed to offer health care information because of course they have a “conflict” of interests. Being that they provide abortions, they most surely would be promoting sex by unmarried teens as a way to, you know, keep business up.  While no example of any information that does that was offered as proof, insiders believe that if you put the brochures in water with a teaspoon of sugar, the words “HAVE SEX NOW!” will appear across the top of each page.

Okay, I added that last part.

And people talk about the misuse of taxes.

Related articles

  • Daily Caller sticks with Menendez claims; ABC News discredits them (dailykos.com)
  • MSNBC Uses Selectively Edited Video to Smear McCain (freebeacon.com)

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Where’s My Fire Extinguisher?

19 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by Sherry in 2nd Amendment, Brain Vacuuming, Energy, Entertainment, Environment, Essays, Evolution, GOP, Humor, LifeStyle, Reproductive Rights, Satire, Sociology, teabaggers, Women's issues

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

2nd Amendment, Books, climate change, evolution, GOP, intellectualism, lifestyle, PPH, teabaggers, Wisconsin, Women's issues

war-on-women-in-one-graphic-fullIt really strikes one as insane, except to the insane I guess. And the GOP is home to a whole lota insane. After taking a drubbing in 2012, you’d think they would be about figuring out how to appeal to the groups they lost badly to, LIKE WOMEN!

No, instead, they are still doing the big daddy shuffle–no no missy, you just don’t trouble you pretty little head darlin’, I’ll do what’s best for you.

And they are, to the tune of moving all in in their war against Planned Parenthood. In good old Wisconsin, home of the Koch-addicted Governor Walker, has just managed to cut funding for PPH by a whopping one million, forcing them to close four clinics in rural areas.

Upwards of 2,000 women will lose the only health care they have.

All in the name of preventing PPH from its abortion agenda–which accounts for a mere 3% of its business.

But big daddy knows best.

I would like to kick big daddy in the balls. Actually, that’s a great idea, and a great contraceptive method. More women need to do it to Republican legislators around the country who think they know best when it comes to women’s health. . .or lack of it.

§

I spent considerable time and precious time (for my time is quite valuable) yesterday trying to rid Firefox of its pop-up problem. And it is their problem, most of the windows are Mozilla creations. They can’t fix their own stuff, so I downloaded some malware fixes and that didn’t work either. So I have transferred most operations to Explorer (finding Chrome very ugly to work with) and figure to dump Firefox. I assume the dang program is corrupted. If anybody knows an easy way to transfer “favorites” I’d be appreciative. I have so far not figured that baby out.

§

I was mildly intrigued some time ago when I heard of the paleo diet. The Contrarian often regales me the fact that he “drinks” anthropologically–with great draughts of liquid much as our ancestors did at the old drinkin’ hole. One needed to get in and out quick before some saber tooth came along and made you his midnight snack. But I’ve never had a satisfactory explanation of why grains were not allowed since grains were certainly available to paleolithic people in the form of wild rice and wheat.

There is a movement about that suggests that we are evolutionarily speaking still more cave-lady than 5th Avenue in terms of our genetics, and this mismatch of cave and five-inch heels is the source of much of our unhealth today. It sounds right, but is it? Some call it the paleofantasy. If you’re intrigued too, then read more about it here. Common sense conclusions are very often wrong. Were we every “perfectly” adapted to our environment?

If you don’t believe in evolution, then ignore the above, and just ask “what would Noah do?” AND BITE ME!

§

Do you have a list of books you are “going to read?”  I don’t mean the stack next to your chair which you can’t wait to get to. I’m talking about the books that make you feel guilty because you know you should have read them, yet you just can’t get past the first ten pages without wanting to tear out your hair. Do you keep saying one day you WILL read James Joyce? How about Proust?

Anyway, I was just wondering if there are others out there like me. Do you die in guilt? Or are you doing anything about it?

I’m nosy like that. Probing through the folds of other people’s grey matter.

§

Speaking of probing brain matter. Let me ask you this? No not, you dear reader, you are sane. I’m talking to stupid in the back. Come on UP stupid.

I have a question for you. Do stupid people actively sit around thinking up stupid things, or do stupid thoughts just fall into your head and stick there until you are forced to expel them verbally?

Missouri seems to have a virus floating around of stupid.

A GOP’er (aren’t they always) has introduced a bill in the state legislature (perhaps it’s really the state day-care center for the mentally infirm), that would make it a FELONY to propose any law that would in any way restrict the rights of gun owners under the 2nd Amendment.

Yes, it’s now illegal to make constitutional laws.

Or it would be.

If there are enough stupid to match the gargantuan stupid of Mikey Leara.

Can anybody top that?

§

Not to be outdone, just out stupided, is Kansas, dear old Kansas or KANS ASS as you might wish to think of it.

It seems there, that the GOPer’s are busy introducing bills that would require that teachers teach falsehood–namely that there is some scientific controversy about the existence of man-made climate change.

Yessiree Bob, we got us some climate deniers here, and they have adopted the ALEC-supplied legislation and introduced it.

So, who will win? Missouri or Kansas?

Don’t you Texans feel just a might better now?

§

Saw the last show of the season for Downton Abbey last night. All I can say is bummer, dude. And I’m pretty darn good at spotting things ahead of time. That carefree driving down a country road happy as a lark? It’s the harbinger of death. Always is. Now the long wait until the next season.

Oh I forgot. Liberals are supposed to hate Downton. For it’s classism no doubt. What a crock of poo.

Related articles
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  • State Closes Four Planned Parenthood Clinics Due To Budget Cuts (huffingtonpost.com)

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Carmen Miranda Meets Bullwinkle the Moose

29 Friday Apr 2011

Posted by Sherry in African American, Gay Rights, Humor, Individual Rights, LifeStyle, racism, Reproductive Rights, Satire, What's Up?, Women's issues

≈ 22 Comments

Tags

Britain, gay rights, PPH, racism, Royal Wedding, Stonewall Uprising, wacko right wing, Women's issues

Okay, so Troy Mills isn’t such a fashionista’s dream, but we do have a clue at least. We may tend more toward straw hats and baseball caps, but we know awful when we see it.

Pictured here are Prince William and Sarah Ferguson’s daughters, Beatrice and Eugenia. I know not which is which but does it matter?

The blue monstrosity fails on every level from the gaudy blue to the what look like grapes plated on her hat overlaid by a feather duster.

The beige dress on the other is fine, but that thing glued to her forehead is simply ghastly. I mean it looks like a pair of antlers.

Those were the only serious faux pas I saw among attendees at THE wedding. The Beckhams looked elegant in every respect.

Of course hats are essential at any Royal affair, and so all the women were decked out in hats of every description and style. A couple of other women (no doubt purchasing from the same “designer” and I use that term loosely) also chose to tack wriggly messes of snakes alongside their heads. These were simply not hats, but head dresses and thankfully were worn by lesser unknowns who assuredly won’t be in any family pictures.

I have no clue why the Royals are so big on hats. I’m sure there is a history, but I’m not aware of it.

One person of course stood out among all the women and that was Katherine herself. I thought her gown was simply beautiful in every respect as was that of her sister’s who was her matron of honor. They were elegance and beauty personified.

All this of course is so much hoopla about nothing much at all. Much more important things are going on in the world, but heck, we don’t really have anything comparable and its kinda fun to see all the pomp and circumstance.

Oh, one important proviso here. The Contrarian warned me against writing anything at all positive about the Royals today. He reminded me that it takes only two people in Iowa to have a person committed, and he would sure be unhappy should I not be available to accompany him to New Mexico.

So, if you don’t see me around here next week, do look into it and come to my assistance. I’m not crazy for watching a Royal wedding! No I am not!

♦

Me thinks they speak with forked tongues. The wacko extremist right is not giving up its fight to defund Planned Parenthood, now called “Klanned Parenthood” in an attempt to marry the group to its founder, Margaret Sanger who certainly did have racist ideas.

However, so did the several other institutions in their infancy, and certainly there is no reason on earth to attribute Sanger’s beliefs to the groups activities today. Of course the insane right continues to paint the organization as out to commit genocide on the African-American community. The do this by citing that African-American abortion actual numbers are higher than for other women. This of course means nothing at all, it simply means there are more poor black women than white who need its services.

Moreover, these same groups who are “so concerned” about the lives of African-Americans, are the same folks who are against affirmative action programs, the use of federal funds to aid poor women and children (more black than white) with health matters and such things as Head Start and so forth.

Worse, they are the first to screech against any black person who suggests that racism still exists in this country, calling them “racists” and players of the “race card.”

These are the people who continue to disbelieve that the President was born in the US, and now question how he got into Columbia and Harvard, ugly innuendos that convey a covert racism that is all too clear.

♦

Don’t know if you saw this or not, but last night we watched a taped PBS American Experience, on the Stonewall uprising. If you are not aware, the Stonewall was a gay bar in Greenwich Village in NYC. Periodically the NY police raided these establishments rousting patrons and generally disrespecting all gay people. This was back in the early 60’s.

One night, for reasons unknown, the patrons decided not to go nicely, and soon the streets were filled with protestors. The police are the ones who finally backed down.

What was more poignant and sickening were the stories many now middle-aged and older gay men and women told of those times, of some of the systems in place. Worst of all was a police detective addressing a school of youngsters, all around maybe 10 years of age, warning them to avoid homosexuals and that behavior because in his words, “we will find you and arrest you.” Imagine saying such things to children.

It was uplifting in how far we have come, and utterly sad in remembering where we were.

 

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Nothing That Follows is Meant to Be a Factual Statement

13 Wednesday Apr 2011

Posted by Sherry in Abortion, Budget, Congress, Corporate America, Economy, Energy, Essays, GOP, Humor, Individual Rights, John Boehner, Jon Kyl, poverty, Reproductive Rights, Satire, teabaggers, What's Up?, Women's issues

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

abortions, budget, debt ceiling, economy, gas prices, GOP, John Boehner, John Kyl, Koch Brothers, Medicare, oil speculation, PPH, taxes, Women's issues

Sen. Jon Kyl as a Youth

You might have missed it. John Kyl said that PPH uses 90% of its government funding for abortions. It actually uses about 3%. When his office was contacted in regards the discrepancy, they said,

“Senator Kyl’s remarks were not meant to be a factual statement.”

As you can imagine, everyone from Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert down are having a field day.

“Not meant to be a factual statement” is the new “I’m lying in hopes of deceiving people to agree with my position.” And yes Jon, we do understand that “everyone on your side of the aisle” is doing this. But well, you know, what your mom said, “that don’t make it right, boy.”

♦

Johnny “Cheetos” Boehner, is a good little soldier. Word is he’s been asking his parents (big business) if it’s okay to screw around and have some fun with the debt ceiling issue. Word is he was told “NO” or it’s off to the corner for you Johnny. Seems business sees this issue as a good deal different that government shutdowns. Johnny was free to play games on that, but not with the debt ceiling.

Which goes to show you, that sometimes I may actually be right. Remember, just days ago, I urged the President to stand his ground on this issue. Others apparently now agree with me. Wow, do you think I should run for office?

♦

The Ryan budget plan is simply draconian. The man who voted for the Bush tax cuts, the medicare prescription drug bill, and both wars, is now fully willing to protect the rich and destroy every safety net that the poor and seniors have. The issue is now being framed as a moral choice–are we going to put the onus of the budgetary difficulties only on the poor and those least able to weather them, or are we going to do the fair thing, and ask the rich to pay taxes at a rate that many millionaires agree was fair, during the Clinton Administration?

Shall it be children and women, working and poor who bear the brunt or billionaires and millionaires? Sen. Mark Begich asks us to make a moral choice.

And lets not forget, that the deficit problem will disappear if we do only one thing: let the Bush tax cuts expire at the end of 2012. Yes, if the GOP is truly about the business of eliminating the deficit, then it’s a no-brainer. But of course they aren’t really about that are they?

♦

Being nearly 61 years of lovely age, I admit that Medicare and Social Security are on my mind a lot, and I definitely have a “horse in the race” as goes budgetary issues. Our move to New Mexico (at least the easy life scenario) is based at least in part on those expected checks starting next April.

While most “solutions” don’t call for impacts to be made on either that would affect me, I don’t care to get on that slippery slope at all if at all possible. Robert Reich has a post on this issue, and says that Medicare is the solution, not the problem. Good reading.

And further, polling suggests  a plurality of Republicans favor taking no action against Medicare, and instead they favor raising taxes on the rich. Ah, GOP you have a problem I think.

♦

The Contrarian keyed me on to this next one. I was wont to put the blame for rising oil prices on OPEC, and their taking advantage of unrest in the Middle East. Turns out its good old Americans who are doing the dirty deed. Oil speculation, fostered by guess who? The Koch Spawn. As you might expect, the GOP does it best to reduce any regulation by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Koch controls oil from the minute it leaves the well until it is sold to retailers and speculates on pricing, along with its good buddy Enron. Think Progress has this important story. But another example of the rich getting richer and the rest of us paying the price.

♦

A good post entitled “9 Things the Rich Don’t Want You About Taxes.” Shockingly, the GOP has been dishonest with us. Please read all the crap they push and all too many of us take as gospel. All the usual stuff is debunked, along with the idea that tax cuts for the rich create jobs. Yeah, well we kinda have figured that one out haven’t we?

♦

What’s on the stove? Spaghetti with Bolognese sauce, salad, bread

Related Articles
  • Jon Kyl Is Sorry If He Gave Anyone The Impression That The Things He Says In Public Are Factual (huffingtonpost.com)

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