Category Archives: Quotable

Poor Little Rich Folk

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You are not the only person in the cross-hairs. We all are. This man and his administration are gunning for everybody who has success, wants to have success.

…the rich are gonna stop getting all the good stuff! This is income redistribution! This is returning the nations wealth to its quote-unquote rightful owners! This is a civil rights bill. This is reparations. Whatever you want to call it.

That’s why this isn’t about health care. It’s about wealth redistribution and class envy and getting people who can’t read this to think it’s going to be good for ‘em, because rich people are gonna get stuck again.
–Rush Limbaugh

Those things I highlighted in bold? All the blather about reparations and wealth redistribution is just the filler in this particular Limbaugh rant. The meat of the matter is an extremely wealthy man doesn’t want to part with any of his money to help anyone else in his society or his society in general.

What I find most annoying about Limbaugh, other than that he is a raving madman, is that his listeners are predominantly people in the middle class and lower who will never –NEVER– be anywhere near as wealthy as Limbaugh or even close to being rich at all, and yet he goes on and on about how rich people are going to get screwed, and these people eat it up with vigor. Yup, when he’s going on and on about rich people getting screwed, that’s when he’s being most honest … and how many people are actually as wealthy as Limbaugh? Certainly not the majority of his fan base, that’s for certain.

Why should anyone not wealthy give a damn about the wealthy? It’s not like they are in any danger of not living in large and fancy houses, driving large and fancy cars, eating fine and fancy meals, getting whatever health care they want or need, and having whatever expensive toys they want whenever they want them if they have to pay some more in taxes. Hell, right now, they aren’t even paying as much in taxes as they did under Reagan, and they do all seem so fond of the Reagan Era. I listen to some of my family members –Dittoheads one and all– ranting away about how rich people are going to get screwed, and then the next thing out of their mouth is them wondering how they are going to pay the bills this month. Why are they so damn worried about wealthy people? I can pretty much assure you that the wealthy don’t spend a lot of time worrying about them, and as I pointed out to these family members they all got tax CUTS, so what are they complaining about?

I personally don’t give a damn about wealthy people. I don’t wish them any harm of any sort. I just don’t spend a lot of time thinking about them, because I’m pretty sure that whatever they need or want they will be able to obtain without any stress. I don’t have to worry about them going hungry or dying from lack of health care or being homeless. I do have to worry about people in the middle class or lower having these kinds of problems. We should all be worried about that, including wealthy people like Limbaugh. A strong and thriving society can only be achieved when everyone has the basics of life: education, food, shelter, and health care. The only way we are going to achieve that is if those who are already thriving (and well beyond thriving) help.

I’ve moved through several tax brackets in my life. Sure, paying taxes sucks, because who really wants to send thousands of dollars anywhere without seeing direct results in one’s own life, but still, I don’t complain about it. Lin and I don’t really even get all the benefits we should, seeing as we don’t have kids in school or ever heading off to college, we aren’t eligible for any kind of welfare for food, shelter or health care, and I’m sure there are other benefits that those less fortunate than us get from our tax dollars that I haven’t even considered. We’re cool with that, because where we are now puts us in a position to have a better existence than so many other people who aren’t doing so well, and we both feel that everyone should have the basics of life, even if we have to help pay for it.

But the combination of greed and a lack of compassion is an ugly thing, isn’t it? Doesn’t lead to a thriving society, and eventually if some equilibrium and equality isn’t brought back into our society, the wealthy may discover that living in a third world country sucks, even for the rich.

Where are the Christians?

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…the first and highest priority when you apprehend him is not to make sure he gets his Constitutional rights, he’s not even a citizen, but to get all of the information you can about where he came from, who trained him, where they are, are there other attacks coming? Where are they coming? And if that means, frankly, you have to deny him pain medicine because he’s badly burned, I think you go ahead and do that. I’m not arguing for torture. I’m arguing for hostile interrogation of this fellow because our job is to protect American lives. It’s not to make sure his Miranda rights haven’t been violated.
–Pat Buchanan on Morning Joe, MSNBC

Withholding pain medication for someone in pain isn’t torture in Pat’s world. Not that I am surprised about that. He is, after all, a super-Christian† of the American variety, and they do seem to have some odd definitions of what is and is not torture.††

Also, Pat, the guy has been talking. No “hostile interrogations” or torture necessary. Amazing, isn’t it?

I really wish MSNBC (and all news outlets) would stop giving this guy a soapbox to spew from.

The title of this post is the same as one of Pat Buchanan’s editorials from some time back, in case you were wondering.

Footnotes
  1. † I always wonder if this guy really thinks he’ll be seeing the pearly gates of his heaven after death, what with all the vile and hateful –if not flat out evil– crap that spews out of his mouth. [↩]
  2. †† I also wonder if Pat would think being nailed to a cross is torture, but I’m pretty sure the answer would be “Not if the person being nailed to the cross wasn’t white (or gay).” Which is ironic considering the fact that Jesus probably wasn’t pale skinned with blond hair and blue eyes. [↩]

White Chickens

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Somehow, I made it through the day and got some things accomplished. I am, of course, fatigued and plan to eat dinner, have some after-dinner lemon bars, and then I will be passing out on some flat surface somewhere in the house.

I have nothing at all to say about this day, so I will now share with you my favorite poem in the entire universe:

XXII

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

–William Carlos Williams

Centrist

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I just wrote a rather angry and possibly offensive to some post, and I saved it as a draft. I’d have loved to hit post, but I’m entirely too busy this week to deal with an overflowing inbox full of hate mail and drama on my web site. Therefore, I will save it for later. Perhaps the need for that particular rant will pass. I will share with you the opening line:

Want to know how I can tell I am a centrist politically?

The lefty-liberals make me just as crazy as the far right-wingers.

That’s all for now, folks!

Morning Stupid

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Terribly early in the morning to already be posting a “most stupid thing read today” post, but I really doubt I will run across anything this stupid the rest of the day.

I, like any sane human, think Hitler was the worst person to ever live, or at least on par with Bin Laden or Obama.

Bin Laden is not in any way “on par” with Hitler. Seriously. No. Not at all. Not even close. I imagine Bin Laden wishes he was as good as Hitler at being an evil, maniacal psychopath, but he isn’t and never will be. But this person didn’t say Bin Laden was “on par” with Hitler. No, they said Hitler was “on par” with Bin Laden, and that makes it downright stupid. On the scale of evil-doers in history, Bin Laden is a small-time crook.

And Obama? Really? Obama is comparable to Hitler?! I can’t even begin to explain how this isn’t true and whoever says it is true is either ten years old or hasn’t ever read any history at all. Clueless. Completely clueless about Hitler and Nazi Germany. Gah.

What’s really annoying is this comment wasn’t posted at a news or politics web site. No, it was on a forum for an online game. I don’t tend to discuss politics on non-politics forums, but if no one else counters this nonsense, I may have to do so, at least in a private message. I don’t care if the person is only ten years old (they seem to be an adult), it’s time for them to grow up and be educated. Bin Laden is no Hitler, and Obama is certainly no Hitler. As an ethnic Jew who lost family thanks to Hitler, I am finding myself somewhat offended by these comparisons.

Or maybe I’ll just close the browser window and walk away, because I’ve begun to discover the sort of person who would compare Obama to Hitler is the sort of person who isn’t capable of being educated, learning anything, or ever changing their mind. Just flat out willfully stupid and usually not worth the time to engage.

Still peeves me though. I play games and hang out on gaming forums to get away from the politics, and now the stupid is creeping in even there.

I Threw a Second Punch…

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“Yes, sir, I did. He came at me, calling me an idiot. And when … he got within my range, I threw a punch,” Rice said during an interview with Fox News.

“Then I threw a second punch, and my fist ended up in his mouth,” Rice said. “He bit my pinky finger off.”
–NBC Chicago

Let me relay some ancient and seemingly forgotten wisdom:

Sticks and stones may break my bones,
but words will never hurt me.

Too many people have either never heard this before or have forgotten that it is true.

Words can sting. Words can make you angry or sad. Words can make you feel and think all sorts of things. Words can make you want to do things, which you can choose to do or not. Words can “hurt” you in those ways, but they don’t truly do you any harm. What does it matter if some person you don’t know and will probably never see again yells at you, gets in your face, and calls you an idiot? What does it really matter even if it’s someone you do know? It’s not causing any damage or harm to your person. It can’t even hurt your feelings unless you let it. It certainly doesn’t warrant hitting someone.

The first thought I had when I first heard someone’s pinky had been bitten off by an Obama supporter at a health care reform event was “What was the person who got his finger bitten off doing to make someone bite their finger off?” Then I wondered how someone’s pinky ended up close enough to someone’s mouth to get bitten off in the first place. Ever try to grab someone’s hand and move it around when they don’t want you to? Not easy. Anyway, there’s two sides to every story, you know. All I was hearing was “this poor old man had his finger bitten off by an ObamaCare supporter!” That’s a pretty violent act, and it isn’t really all that easy to get someone’s pinky in your mouth to bite it off. In order for me to bite someone’s pinky off, they’d have to be doing something fairly egregious and violent to me, and their finger would have to somehow end up in or near my mouth. At that point, by my thinking, the pinky is fair game. For all I know, the person is planning on making punch three or four … or worse.

Then the news showed the clip of Mr. Rice making the statement I quoted above. I had to rewind it and look it up on the internet to be sure I had heard correctly. Apparently, he threw a sucker punch at someone as soon as they got “into range” and then on the second punch, his fist ended up in the other guy’s mouth. There may be more to the story –I’m sure we’ll hear all about it– but using William Rice’s own words explaining how he became detached from his pinky, I’m going to have say I won’t be shedding any tears for him.

Of course, I don’t run the justice system, so no doubt the currently unknown finger-biter will end up in jail, and Mr. Rice will continue to be shown as the victim for losing a bit of a finger while he was punching someone in the face for yelling at him and calling him an idiot.

What an idiot.

Deep Thought

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“You cannot speculate about the path you didn’t take.”

“You didn’t pass that way, and the possibilities of what may have happened had you chosen that path are without end.”
–Orb

Hey, Dick!

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“I knew about the waterboarding, not specifically in any one particular case, but as a general policy that we had approved,” said Mr. Cheney, who noted that neither a gun nor a drill had actually been used on detainees. “The fact of the matter is the Justice Department reviewed all those allegations several years ago.”

“The judgment was made then that there wasn’t anything that was improper or illegal,” said Mr. Cheney, who was speaking in an interview on Fox News Sunday.
–Cheney Offers Sharp Defense of C.I.A. Interrogation Tactics, NYT

By the way, Mr. Cheney, waterboarding is torture.

Secession is the Answer! Not!

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I’ve noticed that Texas has been in the national news again, and who knows, it may go to world news tomorrow. When the words “Texas” and “secession” are uttered in the same sentence, media magic happens … and the world gets one more reason to point and laugh at Texas and Texans. You know, ALL Texans, because obviously we ALL think alike.

I’m going to preface this by saying that the person in the following video does not in any way represent the majority opinion of Texans as a whole. We have some “interesting” individuals who hold extreme minority views running for governor. We always do. We also have crazy people. This particular rally had a crowd of about 200 people. It’s not like there were thousands upon thousands of people storming the steps of the capitol demanding we leave the Union. Normal Texans know that secession is not the answer to anything, and don’t hate the American flag –or America. Really. It’s true. I swear.

The people appearing at this rally will not be the next governor of Texas. It’s surprisingly easy to run for the position … for the truly motivated. Winning is somewhat more difficult.

But it is interesting to listen to what they have to say and notice the dichotomy between Republicans circa 2001-2008 and the more fringed edges of the party today.

Here’s the opening line:

“I hate that flag up there –that flag that’s above the Texas flag. That’s a United States flag. I hate the United States government.”
–Larry Kilgore

Then there’s Debra Medina, also running for governor, who said this:

“We are aware that stepping off into secession may, in fact, be a bloody war. We are aware. We understand that the tree of freedom is occasionally watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots.”
–Debra Medina

And this reportedly happened as well:

After the rally, lingering secessionists clashed with pro-health reformers holding another rally at the Capitol. Kilgore was seen yelling at some pro-health care reform advocates to “Go back to the U.S. where you belong.”

Anyway, it’s always good to keep tabs on what these folks are saying, but they aren’t at all the majority view, and I can’t see them becoming the majority view anything in the near future. It would be really nice if the news media wouldn’t do its best to make it seem like Texans, in general, support this kind of nonsense, but that’s exactly what many of the talking heads and their talking head experts did this evening. Made me a bit angry.

These secessionists really aren’t worth paying much attention to, aside from entertainment and to make sure they aren’t inciting any actual violence, and please stop attributing their delusional views to all Texans (or even most Texans). Generalizing about whole populations is wrong, no matter who is doing it.

And I just have to note this as well:

“When they raised her [Goddess of Liberty statue] to the top of this Capitol they wanted to face her south so she would forever have her back turned to that nation to the north that knew not liberty.”
–David Miller (Texas Nationalist Movement)

I’d be willing to bet good money the capitol building and Ms. Liberty facing to the south has a lot more to do with the beautiful view to had of the Colorado River (especially back before buildings couldn’t be taller than the capitol building) than turning our back on the north.

I should have been in bed hours ago. Dammit. I guess I’ll go take a nap now, since I have to be up again in an hour.

The Race is On

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“If Washington style answers are the solution, my instinct is that Texans are going to say thanks but no thanks.”
–Governor Rick Perry, Texas

First off, it sounds like someone has been hanging around Palin too much. Thanks, but no thanks? Yes, just like he said “thanks, but no thanks” to stimulus money for our unemployment fund … and then borrowed a whopping chunk of change from the federal government for said depleted unemployment fund. Oh so very typical.

“It is clear Washington has no interest letting states pursue their own tailored solutions to problems that affect our citizens.”
–Governor Rick Perry, Texas

I am still waiting to hear how he intends to solve Texas’ health care problems (which are vast). I imagine it will be by cutting more funding for public programs and knocking a bunch more people and children off the MedicAid/SCHIP rolls. I mean, that’s how he’s tailored his solutions for our health care problems in Texas thus far.

Here are some Texas facts for you:

Texas Health Care Facts

We’re number 1! We’re number 1! Oh, we’re number 1 in having the most uninsured people in the country. Not much to be proud of, is it? Yes, during the course of Perry’s long reign over Texas, he’s done a slam-bang job of improving our health care system. NOT! Don’t even get me started on how he’s screwed up everything else as well.

His fellow Republican opponent in the race for governor isn’t better:

“If you want to know what healthcare will look like in Texas when I’m governor, think the opposite of what is going through Congress today.”
–Kay Baily Hutchinson, Texas Senator

Seems to me we already have the opposite of what is going through congress today, and as usual, she’s not offering any solutions of her own. The only good thing I can say about her at this point is she’s against toll roads, but that’s not enough to win my vote†.

Footnotes
  1. † Though if it looks like there isn’t a Democrat running in their primaries who I feel I need to give my primary vote to, I will likely be voting for Hutchinson in the Republican primary. I just feel that strongly that I don’t want Perry in office anymore. I will have to hold my nose while I do so. [↩]