Yin and Yang

You Choose, You Lose

I owe Sharron Angle an apology.

She's not insane.

She's just a plain old Republican hypocrite.

But she did make some good points:

-Amend the Constitution to make English the official language - that might be drastic, but I agree with the sentiment.   You can't have a Melting Pot with insolubles like language differences.

-Government's job is not to create jobs, it's to make sure that the environment exists in which people can start businesses which create jobs.   Again, got to agree.   Which leads to...

-Health insurance should be determined by the marketplace.   Can't argue with that.   It's government interference on behalf of the Medical Industrial Complex that make intervention on behalf of the people necessary.   Wouldn't it have been nice if the Republicans had teamed up with the Dems against the MIC and created the level playing field that Ms. Angle mentions above?   Yes.   It also must be noted that with fair-market health insurance, perhaps people might start making better choices (diet, smoking, excercise) knowing that they might live shorter, more painful lives as a result of bad decisions.

That being said... To me, being gay is no different than having red hair or being left-handed.   So to deny marriage to gay couples is just more of that Ol' Time Republican Hypocrisy - "More freedom for people who believe the way we do."   As Ms. Angle noted, 70% of the voters in Nevada chose to "protect marriage".   That's where referendum fails and the courts need to intervene.   Apparently Ms. Angle is not familiar with the phrase, "tyranny of the majority".

Harry Reid.   Oh, poor Harry.   He looked like nothing more than the stereotypical, incumbent politico.   He's been in Washington so long he's become an artless master of the usual dog-and-pony show. Just going through the motions in the never-ending battle to keep his job.

This is not a choice.

Made in Heaven

Badabing!

I feel I must preserve this exchange. It is priceless.

Comment by txchick57
2008-07-02 07:30:52

you know it’s a winner by the screechy objections put out by Reid, Pelosi, etc. They say it would take 7 years to get any of it out of the ground. If Bill Clinton had not vetoed the drilling in 1996, however, we’d have that oil right now and probably not $4 gas.

Comment by edhopper
2008-07-02 09:11:16

Jimmy Carter put policies in place to end our reliance on ALL foreign oil in 25 years. Ronald Reagan stopped every program Carter instituted and opened vast new areas for drilling.

But go on an blame Clinton.

Comment by lavi d
2008-07-02 12:16:51

Ronald Reagan stopped every program Carter instituted and opened vast new areas for drilling.

But go on an blame Clinton.

Ouch. That had to hurt.

Comment by NoSingleOne
2008-07-02 13:47:03

Game, set, and match.

Twofer

Obamary?

Furthermore

We have countries ruled by a 7th century religion in charge of 21st century weapons.

That should be enough to get anyone to trade their ATV for a bicycle.

Victory Gardening

A while back, there was a Government Public Service Announcement on television which attempted to link drug purchases with the funding of terrorism.

Well, anyone with a functioning bahrain stem can figure out that the local gas station funds a hell of a lot more Islamic groups than the local pot dealer.

If we were really serious about shutting down Islamic terrorism, we, as a nation, would go out of our way to avoid using unnecessary oil.   But, hell, this ain't 1941, is it?

Just Say No

Mike Hickaboo doesn't believe in evolution.   Which, basically, means that he doesn't believe in science.   Personally, I am horrified that the United States, in the frickin' 21st century for fuck's sake, has an anti-science presidential candidate who is anything other than a fringe embarrassment.

I fear for our future.

[update]

Ah hell, I fucking hate this.   I just looked at a couple of videos of Huckabee laying down his line, and he basically says what I think, "I don't know how long it [evolution] took"

Actually, he seems as reasonable as a religious whack-job can be.

I don't have the energy to work up another post tonight, so I'm going to let this hatchet job stand.   Feel free to disregard it.  

Just for the record, statements like, "I have a personal relationship with Jesus" make my skin crawl.   As far as I'm concerned, that's right up there with, "The aliens probed my anus".

Wow, listening to Huckabob, he sounds god-awful level-headed.

I'm disarmed.

But then, he could just be lying trying to get elected.   It's happened before.

Freeworthy

• If you can criticize your government...

...you might live in a free country

• If you can remove public officials when they misbehave...

...you might live in a free country

• If you are considered innocent until proven guilty...

...you might live in a free country

• If you have a right to be tried by a jury of your peers...

...you might live in a free country

• If you can do whatever you want with your body - take drugs, get tattoos, abort fetuses, commit suicide...

...you might live in a free country

• If you have a say in what laws are passed and taxes collected...

...you might live in a free country

• If you can worship whatever god you like, or none at all...

...you might live in a free country

• If you can have consensual sex with and marry any other adult...

...you might live in a free country

• If your government makes laws and fights wars only to aid and protect its citizens...

...you might live in a free country

• If you can publicly mutilate or destroy your own property - flags, crosses, books, pictures...

...you might live in a free country

• If you can travel throughout the land without showing "papers"...
  

...you might live in a free country

• If you can post this on your website without going to jail...

...you might live in a free country

Breaking News

On Tuesday President George W. Bush delivered what some have called his longest, most detailed argument yet that Al Qaeda is not in Dick Cheney.

Speaking to 300 troops at Charleston Air Force Base in South Carolina, the president argued that a new unclassified report clearly indicated no connection between the Al Qaeda who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks and the rogue elements in his vice-president, which he explained are the trapped souls of past political rivals, consumed over the years.

Politicians, intelligence officials, and regional analysts have met Mr. Bush's recent assertions with much skepticism.

Right Wing Strippers

The other day I posted about the fact that you can get a slick, glossy, medium-x porno mag for free in greater Las Vegas.

Well, it turns out this publication has a peculiar bent.   And I'm not talking kinky.

I spent a little more time reviewing the current issue (just reading the articles!) and discovered something pretty amazing.

There is a two-page section on politics in the May issue, penned by Jeff Alexander.



Jeff mentions that he is a moderate conservative.   All well and good.   But the interesting thing about this is why the management of Strip would choose a right-leaning columnist for the type of publication that historically owes its very existence to lefty institutions such as the ACLU, People for the American Way and Americans United for Separation of Church and State and, most ironically, to people like Larry Flynt.

It's remarkable that a porno mag about strip clubs would feel better off siding with the political party most closely associated with organizations like Focus on the Family, Christian Coalition and the Family Research Council.

You see, assuming all of the items in the section are written by Jeff, then he's a long ways away from being a "moderate".   Despite the fact that the US is currently struggling with arguably the most intractable presidential administration in history; an administration with troubling interpretations of the Constitution, and stuck in a war started on tragically weak evidence, what are his items of interest?

Nit-picking Al Gore over global-warming and bashing the Clintons.

I kid you not.

Not one word about, oh, say Alberto Gonzales, DeLay, Abramoff, Plame, Katrina, Cunningham, Abu Ghraib, illegal wire-tapping and, most importantly for a magazine like this, the war on unmarried sex.

You'd think Strip would more quickly associate itself with the president who got a little action on the side in the White House, rather than the one who believes that God tells him what to do.   (Perhaps I missed the part of the Bible which says that ogling strippers and nekkid wimmen in magazines is OK, as long as you don't cheat on your wife?)

Not only that, but the Bush administration, through the Dept. of Justice, is "cracking down" on pornography obscenity.

This must be a difficult line to toe for the magazine's publisher.   It seems to indicate that their desired demographic is aligned with the political group most bent on their elimination.

I must point out that I have only read this section in one issue. If I can pick up another copy next month, I'll check and see if they give equal time to a moderate liberal.

To read the rest of the "political" section, you'll have to pick up the mag at Lee's Discount Liquor (I've only seen it at the Rancho location).   I don't know if the political section is available online, because the site which is the magazine's home, charges for access.   (Pick up a free mag and then pay for access to a website - that, in itself, is an interesting experiment in new media)

Elect Willia Chaney

...because, um, I look like Wanda Sykes!

(who's pretty damn funny - Wanda, that is)

Rancho near Texas Station

That Was Close!