What's the BBC referring to?

Phoenix NPR plays BBC news here and there throughout the day, and I've heard the BBC announcers reporting about news in
Somali-er
Indy-er
Chine-er
Australy-er
Americ-er
Ken-yer
Kory-er
Flori-der
Carolin-er (both north and south)
Alask-er
Indian-er
Californ-er
Nevadd-er
Arizone-er
I'm not quite sure where all of those "-er" regions really are, but the English invented the language, so I really should find out.

Newt, Palin & Dimbulb want to kill old people!

Rachel Maddow this evening has a poignant piece about how Dimbulb did voice ads on talk radio earlier this year for "legalzoom.com" promoting living wills (just as she does!), Gingrich wrote in the Washington Post about Gundersen Lutheran Health System in La Crosse Wisconsin's initiative to get 90% of the residents to have advanced directives, and how 1/2 term former Alaskan governor Palin declared April 16th 2008, as "Health Care Decisions Day" in Alaska.

You can't make this stuff up. What a bunch of lying, two face, flip flopping, fear mongering hypocrites.

Health Care For the American Poor, is NOT Christian

Oh, one would think that taking care of the sick, or letting the sick take care of themselves on a level playing field, would be a "Christian" thing to do, support Jesus Christ's teachings, what with the Beatitudes
"And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake."

...and Matthew 10:41-42, Proverbs 22:22, Deuteronomy 26:13, Proverbs 31:6-9, Matthew 25: 35-40, and on and on, in both the New and Old Testaments (which 1/2 of all Americans don't know which one was written first).

Yeah, you MIGHT think that, but you know, when Jesus Christ comes again, it'll be the Rapture[TM], and no one will care if you've got Health Care or Not. I actually heard a "Republican Strategist" use this logic (that the Rapture[TM] is coming) arguing it at the end of the The Ed Show on MSNBC today. "You think Christ will take time out, during the Rapture[TM], to see if there's a public health care plan passed?" she shouted.

Selfish, narrow minded, CINO moron.

It's "Indians" not "Native Americans"

Last weekend, Dr Desert Flower and I went to the Heard Museum here in downtown Phoenix. It was a great museum show casing Arizona's indigenous tribes, their histories, their art, their cultures, their way of life's destruction by the white settlers and by federal US troops as well as by Mormon settlers from the north, and it detailed their mis-management and deliberate cultural realignment by the Federal bureau of Indian Affairs in the last century. It was also Admission Free on the 2nd Sunday of the month, which was an unexpected bonus (they take donations at the door on the 2nd Sunday for those who can give).

One theme I kept noticing at Heard, as well as in Washington DC at the "National Museum of the American Indian" about 4 years ago fro my friend Rick R's wedding, is that the indigenous peoples DO NOT call themselves "Native Americans" or "Original Americans" or "Indigenous Tribes" or other PC names. Nope. They refer to themselves as "Indians". Therefore, going forward, I will refer to them as "Indians" as well. It's not derogatory, or demeaning. It's what Indians in America call themselves, in Arizona and in DC (at least). I have no need for contrived labels that white people come up with to try and make themselves feel better. Many other Indians agree with me here, here, here, and here. So many worried non-Indians seem to get that wrong - heck I did for 40 years, before I realized "Native American" is seen as demeaning.

Bob Inglis & Glenn Beck, not BFFs

Bob Inglis, who ran UNOPPOSED in the South Carolina Upstate (representing eastern Greenville, Spartanburg, and the metropolis of Boiling Springs, where I once had tires mounted and balanced) got SHOUTED DOWN in a town hall meeting recently, when he told his constituents to "turn off the television when Glenn Beck comes on".

Inglis, who is rather moderate Republican - though he still only wants to protect un-born Americans and thinks once you're out of the womb, you don't need no protectin' - is not a bad guy. I never voted for him when I was living there out of principle that I do not vote for someone running unopposed, as I don't support totalitarian regimes that I am not personally the head of (ask my son sometime about the Benevolent Totalitarian Dictatorship he grew up in). I doubt Inglis will run unopposed again.

The ignorant, fearful, lemming like, mis-informed SC Upstate Right Wing Rednecks, who I used to work with, lived near, tolerated peacefully in the SC upstate, go nuts on Bob. Further promoting the Republicans as a purely regional party of the upcoming white minority.

The 'anybodybutbob' video is an amazing showcase of total ignorance. When swine flu or any epidemic hits SC in the future, DO NOT send vaccines! Let SC get their energy from angry anti-American Islamic regimes since the federal guvernmint should not use energy efficient light bulbs! "Listens to NPR too much"? LMFAO! Ignorant, mis-informed fools. No, watch Fox instead. Dee-de-dee!

"We Want Our Country Back!"

When you say "We Want Our Country Back!" Do you mean the CSA?

What a bunch of ignorant, confused, sore loser lemmings, who are so EASILY mislead by Right Wing mis-information. Euthanasia has traction, yeah, key on that! "Guv-mint bureaucrat between me and my doctor!" - regardless that there's already a profit minded private insurance bureaucrat denying you care between you and you doctor - yeah, key on that!

Stupid Birthers. Stupid medicare recipients protesting against Government provided health care. Stupid unemployed (and without insurance) protesters believing their talk radio Masters and faking injuries. How long will it be before a mirror-image "B" is scrawled into another fool?

Wow, Bill Maher was so very right in his New Rules commentary last Friday.
"...At a recent town hall meeting in South Carolina a man stood up and told the Congressman to "keep your government hands off my Medicare!". Which is kind of like driving cross country to protest highways. This country is like a college chick after two Long Island iced teas. We can be talked into anything, like wars. And we can be talked out of anything, like health care."

Tip of the hat to my buddy Matt for these gems.

Robot Chicken, Not Squidbillies

Under advisement of a life long friend, I started watching Robot Chicken while riding the stationary bike, 2 episodes at a time. I've found it remarkably creative and amusing. My old friend also recommended Squidbillies... but after watching, or rather, wasting 30 minutes of my life today, seeing the very first episode where they explained Early Cuyler's origins, and a second episode where he is hired as the Dan Halen CEO, I found it at best slightly funny, and at worst, a chaotic mis-match that could only be written on while high and intoxicated. If a character gets killed, like the sheriff did in the origins episode, he should remain dead, for at least the episode. I know the Simpsons bring back dead characters in new episodes often, and it's funny - but killing off a character 2 or 3 times in the same episode, I don't truck with that.

Robot Chicken has a catchy theme song.. buck buck buck..... as the credits roll too! =)

Fundamentalist Extreme Straw Grasping

Crooks & Liars has this hilariously ludicrous piece, about how BHO was called out as the Anti-Christ, by Jesus[TM] himself!

A good laugh before bedtime! LOL!

Comedy writers could not make this kind of stuff up!

Why Do I Keep Contrasting Science & Republican Ideology?

Because Scientists do. This is an extract from an recent issue of Science, one of the premier, peer reviewed journals of the reputable, real science community. The AAAS ran a member poll, where thousands of scientists replied.

Debt, Debt, Everywhere - I see red

But... it's all Obama's fault? Isn't it? =) [as a percentage of GDP, see here]
Inheritance can be very unpleasant, no?

AZ State Board of Registration, but of what?

When I moved to AZ, I made sure to register my PE license, since I enjoyed taking the test back in SC in 1992 so very much. This month's newsletter has something in the header I've not noticed before:
"...SURVEYORS AND CLANDESTINE DRUG LABORATORY SITE REMEDIATION FIRMS"

Really? I knew Arizona had a problem with meth labs, but I had no idea there was a separate Board of Technical Registration classification that includes 7 firms to date. Yikes.

Persuasion

I was doing some file cleaning from my hard drive this afternoon, and found this gem from my buddy Matt in 2006. Ah, the good ole days of W's administration!

MoveOn.org has found it's mirror image

The Republicans and Right Wing Conservatives are not as stupid as they seem to be - to rational, thinking, non-ideologues, who are persuaded by facts - at least in observing what works, and then adapting that model to fit their own means. Freedomworks.org is the Extreme Right Wing (or the newest mantle "libertarian") homologue of the "progressive" (or "far left") MoveOn.org. George Soros' millions are analogous to Steve Forbes' millions. MoveOn doesn't typically pay their activists to attend town halls, where-as Freedomworks has many hired guns who follow their scripts - lock step, as the Right does so well.

MoveOn has 5 million supporters. Freedumbworks does not publicize how many supporters they do or do not have, but the very angry, very vocal, disenfranchised far right is less than 5% of the US population (at least for those who oppose health care reform), whereas independents are a solid 1/3rd and supporters of Health Care reform are the vast majority of Americans.

Everything Needs To Be "For Profit"!!

All this outrage about how "Health Care NEEDS to be PROFITABLE!"
Why stop at Health Care? Why not make Everything in the U.S. subject to the free market, let Capitalism drive perfection into every aspect of our lives. After all, only Socialist Countries fund and regulate things like:

• Sewage Treatment
• Municipal Water Supplies (you know, Cholera & E.Coli free, that sort of thing)
• National Defense
• Disaster Relief (response to earth quakes, hurricanes, floods, etc)
• Election Regulation & Monitoring
• Police Forces
• Fire Departments (and yet somehow, Ambulance Services are still for profit?)
• Securities & Exchange Enforcement & Regulation (who needs that, anyway?)
• Murder Investigations
• Bridge Maintenance
• Dam Maintenance
• Fire Code Enforcement
• Elevator Inspection & Code Enforcement (think about that next time you press the button to select your floor)
• Product Safety Regulation (for the profit driven companies who don't care if they sicken or kill a few consumers from time to time)
• Food Safety Enforcement (like E.Coli on lettuce, or tomatoes, or... )
• Air Traffic Control (so that one for-profit company's radar network doesn't have to hand off to another company's for-profit radar network, when the lives of 1000s of people are at stake)
• Road Maintenance, especially on Federal Highways (ever drive on I-40 across New Mexico? yikes! pathetic)
• Charity Health Care (Doctors without Borders, The Red Cross, Red Crescent, etc... you know, the places that the Angry Right Wing Believers insist that the poor should get their Health Care)

Let's make absolutely every aspect of our lives open to the free market. Come on people! What are we waiting for?

Ahmed Rashid - An Informative Read

I just finished Ahmed Rashid's Taliban - Militant Islam, Oil & Fundamentalism in Central Asia last weekend. Chalk full of personal interviews, facts, time lines, maps, glossaries, 4 pages bibliographies, colloquialisms, 20 pages of foot notes, written in 2000, Taliban was well organized, insightful, and a very interesting read. The follow on book Descent Into Chaos - the U.S. and the Disaster In Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia, written in 2008, I'm only 20 pages into so far.

Through his detailed accounts of the region's history, the main power brokers, and current events, Mr. Rashid subtly expresses a sadness for his native Pakistan as it implodes and staggers drunkenly down the road to disaster paved with corruption & drug money while driven with a fear of India and a proclivity for extreme fundamentalism. I'm looking forward to driving through this 500 page tome.

If you're looking for light hearted entertainment, this aint the book for you. If all the somewhere-a-bads, and vague-i-stans intrigue you, the differences between a Mujaheddin and a Taliban fighter elude you, and clueless Western myopic parachute reporting aggravates you, then give Rashid's works a try.

How Well Off Is Your State?

Dr Desert Flower sent me this handy link last weekend: https://www.healthcare.gov/
It nicely summarizes the haves and have-nots. My favorites are my former state of SC, and current residence in AZ. They're just facts, showing the existing landscape.

Nobody (80% of America) wants to give up a damn thing, as long as they stay healthy. First time they're struck with a serious illness, and their private (not employer provided) personal health insurance plans drops them, or wriggles a way of declaring the illness a pre-existing condition (you took an anti-inflammatory once, 10 years ago!), or they want to change jobs and can't afford COBRA (or try this COBRA instead) =P ...then hopefully they'll have some good bootstraps.

Right Wing Fear Mongering and Dis-information (they want to kill old people! the government wants to ration health care! soylent green is people!) has mobilized the polarized, lemming-like, very-selfish-I-got-mine-screw-you disenfranchised masses to vociferously attack any form of change, no matter how small or non-existent the sacrifice is to Joe-Six-Pack. I suspect America will remain the medically dysfunctional, hyper-selfish, polarized boot strap colony of CINOs that it's evolved into over the last 60 or so years. Il faut voir

March2014 update:
Affordable Care Act: Obamacare & Health Reform Facts
http://healthreform.kaiserpermanente.org/

Understanding the Impact of Obamacare on Medicare http://blog.ehealthmedicare.com/media-center/infographics/?pid=11

What does Marketplace health insurance cover?
https://www.healthcare.gov/what-does-marketplace-health-insurance-cover/

Affordable Care Act: State-by-State Impact
http://www.hhs.gov/healthcare/facts/bystate/statebystate.html

The Lifestyle Revolutionaries Guide to Addiction Intervention
http://www.lakeviewhealth.com/InterventionGuide.pdf

Boy Sticks Fork Into Outlet

"Boy Sticks Fork Into Electrical Outlet"
"3 American Hikers on Iraqi Border are seized by Iran"
"Licking Frozen Flagpole Makes Tongue Stick"
"Boy Pokes Grizzly Bear In the Eye with Stick And Is Mauled"
These are not news stories. These are people making very bad decisions. They have to suffer the consequences of their actions. Don't ask for a diplomatic mission to free you. Don't plead to have Bill Clinton come to negotiate for you. You get what you deserve.

Unless you are in an SNL skit like "Bad Idea Jeans", don't do stupid things with the expectation that nothing bad will befall you.

Red Pill, Blue Pill. BHO = Morpheus?

I saw this last week while traveling. Colbert puts it beautifully.

Looking North at Dawn? or South at Dusk?

I saw this beautiful image online last month, and saved it as my desktop. I tried to look on Good Earth with the angular pan feature, to line up the buildings, but my version of Google Earth no longer has a Z-axis tilt feature =(

I've been to this city almost a dozen times... I Should Know this... but... I THINK it is Dawn looking North, since there's no large spire that is next to Place de 18 Juin to the SE of the Tour Eiffel, like there should be if it is looking South.

What do you think?

Malkin's gone off the deep end...

I guess desperation combined with having one's distorted paradigm shattered after 8 long years of believing you were in some sort of self-proclaimed majority, leaves a person grasping for straws, hunting witches where there are none, becoming more and more delusional. Michelle Malkin's distorted "biography" of Michelle Obama is a good example how political extremists filter and mis-interpret facts, and publish out-right lies.