The road to hell

I'll give President Obama some much deserved props for his gun proposals.  Frankly, they were a lot bolder than I thought they'd be and commit to a much broader swath of reforms.  The fact that even these modest proposals have the NRA and gun nuts frothing at the mouth is just gravy.

The reason I will maintain my healthy skepticism that anything will change regarding gun violence in America (other than the you have to be a math major at M.I.T. to count all the gun-related deaths in America over the past several decades and still our gun laws remain remarkably weak) though is the fact that the President's proposals are not being fought by the NRA as an entity for the rights of gun owners, but rather are being fought by the NRA as a wholly owned subsidiary of America's gun manufacturers.  And they're more than happy to spend any amount of money to make sure that any old idiot can continue to purchase their wares.

Because in America we all know that money talks and good jobs, sensible laws, public safety, healthy ecological conditions, and a better life for all our children walk.  Couple that with the fact that unlike just about any other manufacturer, gun manufacturers, thanks to the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act that our wonderful Congress passed in 2005, won't be held financially liable for deaths resulting from the guns they manufacture and you have a recipe for, well, nothing much getting done to curb gun deaths in America.

A much wiser person than I once noted that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and while I appreciate the effort President Obama and Vice President Biden put into stopping gun violence, unless they figure out a way to stop the gun lobbyists, their plans are pretty much going to hell.

Peace,
emaycee

The best government money can buy (and that ain't much)

Well, well, well...who would have ever guessed that Gov. Gutless and the republican Michigan legislators passage of right to work for less laws wasn't really about creating jobs or lessening the influence of those mean old labor unions.

Nope, what it was really about (and is everywhere right to work for less laws are passed) is Gov. Snyder and republican legislators getting a chance to fellate anti-American republican billionaire Dick DeVos.  Bravo, gentlemen!

It's reached a point that when someone plays the "Theme from Deliverance" people aren't going to picture some incestuous backwoods hilljack, but the citizens of the state of Michigan instead.

I'm so fucking proud.


Peace,
emaycee

Mr. Irrelevant

Watching John McCain's performance during today's confirmation hearings for President Obama's next Secreatry of Defense, the second thing I thought was how far his reputation has fallen.  From war-hero, maverick Senator, to irrelevant, bitter old man.  McCain wants to argue over whether the Iraq War was some sort of success for America?  Fucking really?  For fuck's sake, no one gave a shit four years ago and no one gives a shit now.  The Iaq War was an unmitigated disaster and no amount of whining from John McCain is going to change it.

By the way, the first thought I had while watching McCain today, was "Thank fucking God Obama lambasted his ass four years ago so we didn't get stuck with our second straight numbnuts for President."

Peace,
emaycee

The Father of the American Revolution

Every February, we as a nation celebrate--and rightfully so--the birthdays of two of our greatest Presidents:  Washington and Lincoln.  The Father of our nation and the man who saved our nation.  Both of these men are a huge part of our national heritage, but neither may have had the good fortune they had without the man called the Father of the American Revolution:  Thomas Paine.

Today is the anniversary of Thomas Paine's birthday (born January 29, 1737).  Most Americans may not realize (myself included before a few months ago) the legacy of Tom Paine.  His political tract, Common Sense, is the best selling book in American history.  In January of  1776 there were approximately two and a half million people living in America.  Over the next three months, by Paine's estimate, Common Sense sold 120,000 copies (historians' estimate: 500,000). That may not sound like much, but to put those numbers in the context of America today, it would be comparable to a book being released today and by the end of April selling 15 million copies (by historians' estimate, 60 million).

Common Sense was discussed and analyzed by thousands of American patriots, most especially those not of a wealthier breeding, and provided the impetus for the Revolution that would begin in earnest on July 4, 1776.  Paine not only talked the talk, he walked the walk:  after the colonies declared revolution, Paine signed on (at the age of thirty-nine) as a private in the army of General George Washington.  During his time in the army, when the colonies were suffering massive defeats, Paine also took the time to write The Crisis papers, a series of essays that were read to the troops to strengthen their resolve (Most famous line:  "These are the times that try men's souls....").

Paine would go on to serve our young nation in various capacities, but made tremendous mistakes in a) severly criticizing George Washington after he became President (Paine believed Washington had conspired to have him thrown in prison in France while Paine was there exhorting the masses during the French Revolution), and b) massively underestimating how hateful Christians could be when one questions their doctrine (as Paine did in his The Age of Reason) and came to lose much of the stature he had so richly earned.

When Paine died in 1809, a mere six people attended his funeral.

I have no idea what Thomas Paine would make of America today, but for all our faults and inanities, it's a hell of good place to call home.  So Happy Birthday, Mr. Paine--and thank you for being the impetus that got this crazy ball we call America rolling.

Peace,
emaycee

Halfway there

At the time of the French Revolution, approximately 40% of France's citizens were living in poverty.  While there were many reasons and many of different financial stations that led to the demise of the monarchy, one has to imagine that poverty-stricken forty percent fought with a lot more desperation than those of a higher financial status.  Many parents, one supposes, are capable of just about any atrocity when unable to feed their children and lacking any social safety net.

Nobel Prize winning Economist Joseph Stiglitz noted this week in a piece for The New York Times that the biggest impediment to our economic recovery from The Great Recession is income inequality.  (Aside:  Wouldn't it be nice if just once we had a Presidential administration that would actually listen to people like Dr. Stiglitz who actually give a shit about people like us?)  Dr. Stiglitz outlines the causes and offers solutions, but alas offers no concrete proposals for how we cure the greed of America's upper financial crust, or make our political leaders less subservient to them.

At a time when one in six Americans lives in poverty, when one in five had trouble finding enough money to pay for food...one has to wonder how long America's poor and soon to be poor are going to stand in front of the restaurant window, with their hungry children in tow, and stare in at our financial elite as they dine on filet mignon before the rocks come crashing through that restaurant window.

In the land of Milk and Honey, when milk and honey is the promise for fair labor, not delivering milk and honey for fair labor is eventually going to haunt you.

One wonders if our wealthy friends and our political leaders realize that...

Peace,
emaycee

When does Jesus get his share?

Who would have ever guessed the Catholic Church would use a law that gives no legal rights to fetuses in a court case?

Oh, that's right--it's about money.  Namely the Catholic Church not being willing to give any of its mountain o' cash to some poor bastard who lost his wife and unborn twins due to the careless actions of a doctor in one of the Church's hospitals in Colorado.

Can someone point out the biblical passage where Jesus exhorts us to protect the Church's financial assets?  Because I must have missed that one.

Who knew that Jesus was such a business whiz?

Peace,
emaycee

Worst. Businessman. Ever.

Seems one George Burnett, a smoothie shop owner in Vernal, Utah, is charging Liberals a dollar more for their drinks than conservatives, and donating the extra dollar to conservative groups.  Mr. Burnett makes the highly dubious claim that Liberals are happy to pay the extra charge, but then cites as his lone example a conservative who bought his Liberal wife one of these drinks (wives, as anyone who's been married knows, are incredibly forgiving of their husband's idiocy).

Myself, I wouldn't piss on his establishment if it was on fire, even if his drinks tasted like the nectar of the Gods.  And I highly doubt there are many Liberals who would.

But I think the larger equation here is that this is another fine example of why republicans shouldn't be allowed anywhere near our fiscal policy.  I've worked in retail establishments for well over thirty years, and all of them wouldn't dream of doing anything to piss off one customer, let alone 35-40% of their possible clientele.  And anyone who would, just to make a point, shouldn't even be allowed to sit at the table while we're having serious discussions about the future of this country's finances.

"Stupid is as stupid does" is fine as a punch line in a movie, but for fiscal policy that affects whether or not our families eat and have a place to live, fucking stupidity just doesn't cut it.

And the George Burnett's of the world are not an aberration--their thoughts are what passes for policy in today's republican party.

Peace,
emaycee

Barack Hussein Obama

You know who the most decent person in America is?

President Obama.

I mean really--how many of us, after four years of the idiot birthers, the dumb ass truthers, the Obama is a socialist morons, the Obama is a fascist numbnuts, the Obama is Hitler dolts, and unprecedented republican obstuctionism, could have stood before the American people today, made our inauguation speech  and not said something like this:

"And to all you haters out there, go fuck yourselves!  I won--enjoy the next four years, asshats!"

I know I couldn't have.

Peace,
emaycee

Tonight's top story...

I thoroughly believe the reason the remote control was invented was because of local newscasts.  Personally, I can watch about five seconds worth before I'm reaching for the knitting needles to pierce my eardrums.  It's a panorama of idiots and idiocy.

So I wasn't surprised that a recent Rolling Stone assessment of local news cited a study that showed half of our hometown weather forecasters do not believe climate change is happening

For fuck's sake, the people who run, report, and broadcast local newscasts couldn't sniff a fart and detect an odor.  Denying scientific fact comes as naturally to them as incompetence.

Peace,
emaycee

Touchdown Jesus H. Christ

Keeping in mind that a) I'm not a fan of Notre Dame athletic teams, and b) I think college football is a business like Wal-Mart or GM and not an actual sport (everybody who thinks Alabama is the national champion, raise your hand! we have a winner:  the Crimson Tide! yippee!)...

...does it bother anyone else that American journalists can dig deep and find that some college's superstar linebacker has an imaginary dead girlfriend, but were completely clueless when it came to the "weapons of mass destruction" that led to a war that cost thousands of American lives and nearly wrecked our economy?  Or completely missing all the warning signs that our economy was a shell game before it collapsed?

Somewhere along the way our priorities got awfully fucked up.

Peace,
emaycee

The difference between us and them

This will seem petty to some, but I truly believe it illustrates the difference between Liberals and conservatives.

If you've ever worked for a retail establishment that offers shopping carts to its customers, you know what a royal pain in the ass it is to collect the carts once customers have stopped using them. It doesn't take long for a parking lot to look like nanobots gone wild.  And it's even worse in winter, when it's freezing and the wind is whipping them from one end to the other.  Some people may not realize that often those carts slam into parked and moving vehicles, and said retail establishments are financially responsible for those accidents.  Actually, its customers are:  there is a percentage added to the price of every retailer's wares to cover the dents and scratches caused by errant shopping carts (among other misfortunes).

All of which is why those persons responsible for collecting such carts are very greateful for those kind souls who return their shopping carts to the cart corrals after they've loaded their cars.

Yesterday, the Beautiful Girl and I went for our bi-monthly grocery shopping trip.  After we had finished shopping, as we were loading up the trunk of my car, I noticed the person parked next to me had several bumper stickers on the back of his or her car that were, shall we say, less than kind to those of us of the Liberal persuasion.  I thought it somewhat humorous that the car was next to mine which is covered with bumper stickers much more supportive of our point of view.  Once the trunk of our car had ben filled, being a kind soul, I turned to return our cart to the corral.  As I did, the gentlemen who had parked next to me pushed his cart to his car and began to unload it.  My first concern was that he would make some untoward remark to the Beautiful Girl who is officially neutral in the political wars.  But he emptied his cart rather hurriedly, left it just where he'd set it, got in his car, and quickly drove off.

And that is exactly the difference between us and them I mentioned at the start--they just don't give a fuck about their fellow Americans.  It didn't bother him that other cars wouldn't able to get around the cart he'd left in the middle of a parking spot, didn't bother him that some poor kid making seven bucks n hour was going to have to drag ass his cart through the snow out of harm's way, didn't bother him that his cart could go whipping in the wind into another person's car and damage it--instead of simply walking 5 to 10 feet to put it in the corral.

It was as if he thought himself privileged, the task beneath him, the rest of us his mere servants.  It was an utter disregard for his fellow Americans, and the reason that it is not just enough to defeat republicans, but that we must annhilate them.

Peace,
emaycee

Baseball's Wax Museum

I could write a dissertation on all of the idiot Baseball "writers" and their "reasoning" behind their failure to elect any new members to baseball's hall of fame this past week.

But I want to focus on one notion that seems to be guiding their voting:  this idea that somehow the baseball hall of fame is some sort of shrine, and its hallowed walls sacred.

No, it isn't.  There are churches that are sacred.  There are sites that the Virgin Mary has reportedly visited, like Fatima and Lourdes, that are sacred..  The baseball hall of fame is a glorified and overly expensive tourist trap. It bears as much resemblance to a shrine as a garbage dump.   My brother and I visited it a few a years ago and were done in a matter of a few hours.  Unless either of my sons would like to visit with me I can envision no scenario--especially since it's located in BFE--in which I would ever visit it again.

I'm willing to grant that of the four major sports hall of fames (baseball, football, basketball, hockey) that the baseball hall of fame is easily the best--but that's about the equivalent of being the sweetest smelling turd.  It still stinks.  If you are truly interested in the history of baseball, there are hundreds of books and thousands of web sites that will give you much more information (and considerably more in-depth) than you'd get visiting the hall of fame dozens of times--and be much cheaper.

Frankly, the only difference between Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum (other than Tussaud's being much cheaper) is the fact that they don't let not particularly intelligent or perceptive sportswriters decide who gets a half-assed replica of themselves in Madame Tussaud's.


Peace,
emaycee

Lemon socialism

Lemon socialism--a term I heard for the first time today--refers to to those brave souls on Wall Street and within corporate America who want to stick U. S. taxpayers with their losses and keep the profits for themselves.

It's good to know that instead of the best and brightest, our job "creators" are really the gutless and the castrated.

I note this because it seems AIG--the insurance giant we bailed out with our tax dollars that could have gone instead to infrastructure or education or helping the poor--is considering joining a lawsuit seeking monetary damages by equally despicable AIG shareholders who feel the terms of our bailout were too "harsh."

The poor little fucking crybabies.

It's enough to make a fucking maggot puke.

Peace,
emaycee

Just do it, Part II

Speaking of republicans' eyes popping out of their fucking heads--segues are for amateurs--wouldn't it be a whole lotta fun if Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick would appoint Barney Frank to fill John Kerry's Senate seat (provided Kerry is confirmed as Secretary of State) until the results of the special election  to replace him are certified?

Imagine Alan Grayson with wit and nothing to lose--more good times.

Peace,
emaycee

Just do it

Apparently--and oh, irony of ironies, thanks to republicans--it's possible for President Obama to request a trillion (that's right, a fucking trillion) dollar coin, have it minted, and use it to wipe out the unpaid debt until such a time as sane people run America and decide to pay for the bills they've already run up.  Voila!  Debt ceiling threat neutered.

It's times like this that I wish President Obama were a hardcore believer in the Liberal tradition.  First of all, imagine how cool it would be for kids fifty years from now to learn about the trillion dollar coin--definitely add a fun twist to American History.

But mostly, it would be so much fun watching the republicans' eyes pop out of their heads like some bizarre ass Looney Tunes cartoon, watching Obama a) thwart their "leverage," b) while using their own law to his advantage, and c) with a ruse about as crazy as one their own Antoinettes could dream up.

Good times.

Peace,
emaycee

The least among us

As the fiscal curb negotiations proceeded, we heard often--and rightfully so, as we make up the vast majority of Americans--about helping the middle class.  Kudos to the Chicago Tribune for reminding its readers that another very large (unfortunately) constituency is also still in desperate need of help:  the poor.

As the editorial notes, the amount of hungry and homeless Americans continues to rise despite the (somewhat sluggish) economic recovery.  In the wealthiest nation in the history of mankind, this is simply unacceptable.

The editorial suggests we do not let the spirit of giving expire as the Christmas season ends.  It correctly states that we should not depend on government alone to help the poor--both public and private assistance is needed.

I work running a thrift store for a non-profit organization.  I am one person among several who works in the store, and it is a rare day when I do not take at least one phone call (it's always from a woman, usually on the verge of tears, spitting out words that are among the hardest she's ever had to say) from people who need reliable transportation to get back and forth from the doctor, need a place to stay until they can get back on their feet, can't pay their heating bill, or the worst, can't feed their children.  They are not people looking for a free ride--they're just looking for some help until they can help themselves.

Try as we might, we cannot take care of every person who needs help.   We just don't bring in enough money, despite the best intentions of many, many people.

And this is why we need government--to supplement (and then some) the best intentions of some very good people.

It's either that, or we step over dead men, women, and children as we go about our daily lives.  And that would not be, despite conservative wishes, the promise that is America.

Peace,
emaycee

Lessons from the motor city

Dear Sen. Reid,

    It is my understanding that during a particularly heated discussion with Speaker of the House Boehner during the fiscal curb negotiations, Rep. Boehner told you to "Go fuck yourself."  Your reponse was reported to be, "What are you talking about?"  Speaker Boehner, perhaps thinking you had not heard him correctly, repeated his curse.

     As you are a Mormon, it is possible that you are not familiar with how to respond to such an insult as the one Speaker Boehner hurled at you.  As I am from the Greater Metro Detroit area, let me school you:  the correct response is not, repeat not, "What are you talking about?", but  rather, "Blow it out your ass, mother fucker!"

     I hope this helps you in your future dealings with Speaker Boehner.

Peace,
emaycee