Boehner's Mandate

John Boehner has pointed to the recent congressional election results as some sort of mandate to President Obama that business as usual from him is not what the American people want.

I have very little respect for Boehner, his intellect, and I always know when he lies - his mouth is open. But even John Boehner knows what the real message of the last election was. It swung republican and extreme right only because most Americans didn't bother to vote. Disgusted with Boehner and his congressional colleagues - both republican and democrat, they just didn't bother. Reflective of their apathy, utter disgust, and lack of faith in congress and in our system of goverment, this last election cycle saw the worst voter turnout since 1942 - save for the fanatical right.

Of course Boehner knows this. Prior to the election he was all to aware of congress's 13% approval rating - and could of cared less. If he cared he'd have interpreted the approval rating and now the abysmal voter turnout as a mandate to congress. He doesn't - his political survival all that matters - after sating his greed, lust for power, and maintaining his staus quo.

Chritsy's Ebola Choas - A Primer for the Oval Office

Maine nurse Kaci Hickox observed the same isolation precautions when caring for Ebola patients in West Africa as those recommended by the CDC and as followed in the US. One could make an argument that in fact health care workers there are better at it than in the US given the amount of practice they have had. Furthermore the CDC has made it clear that Ebola patients are not contagious until symtopmatic, and do not recommmend blanket quarrantine for those who have cared for Ebola patients. What then is Govenor Christy's rationale for doing just that? Is it as simple as fear, arrogance, ignorance and bigotery? 'Clearly West Africa cant do anything right, thank god I - Govenor Chris Chrity - am here to save the people and set the CDC right'.

I'd say if west Africa is a place that cant do anything right then perhaps Gov Chritsy shoud move there - he'd fit right in. I'd say that save for the fact I could not wish such a fate on any people - not even those in New Jersey.

If its not bigotry and fear driving Christy's decsions then by logical extension he simply has no choice but to put all health care workers who have cared for Ebola patients into 21 day quarantine - including those in the US. Or maybe he could just shut up and let the CDC - the people who know what they are talking about - lead us through this crisis.

My Boat

Im a neophyte but already know shell take care of me. And if not - it will be a wondrous death

She’s alive with a quiet, deep, ancient presence - thousands of years in the making, beautiful

She'll take me - anywhere, everywhere

She brings me to my knees - physically, emotionally, redefining my very life, while exposing who I really am

a small price to pay for any great love

Clowns and actresses

Cindy McCain thinks Gwyneth Paltrow a joke. Sort of like when her husband choose Sarah Palin as his VP and lost his bid for the presidency. 

War

Governments start wars.

People pay the price - horribly so

Then they get to pick up the pieces and relearn peace and forgiveness.

Thirty years later - we do it all over again.

Go Ban Yourselves

Whatever happened to sticks and stones will break your bones but names will never hurt you?
My god America - grow up.
I could give a rats patoot if some team owner is a racist in private.
I could care less if a president lies about an affair.
My wife is Jewish - I don't care if some country bumpkin fool gets on national TV and pronounces his hatred of Jews.
Who cares?

Oh the outrage, the indignation, the fuss - for days and days.
Banned for life. Impeached. Shunned.
How dare they?

Here's what I say to you - blah, blah, blah.

There are a lot of people who aren't going to like you, treat you fairly, or act with the purity and to the standard you feel they should. As long as they are not acting on their words, or what they do causes real harm, who cares?

And what about you?

Millions starve in a world of plenty while you ignore them, too busy whining about the latest name caller. Hundreds of thousands are murdered in unnecessary wars you are hardly aware of - you too distracted by some player lying about oral sex.

Why don't you take a good look at yourselves

Is it possible to ban yourselves?

Wounded Elephants

I once had a boss who told me I wrote like a wounded elephant.
He should know - he was married to one.

Easy Prey and Cowards

Those who lobby against federal and state support of higher education by and large represent student loan lenders - predators all. 

Since by law you cant just walk away after defaulting a student loan or even dismiss the debt in bankruptcy I would then have to ask what reason the high interest rates? What reason the systematic defunding of our universities and colleges by government resulting in rising tuition that for many, is unreachable - except through student loans and strangling debt. 

Student loan predators and a corrupt government overly influenced by them and their lobbyists - that's what.

So hey, good idea. Prey on our future scientists, physicians, researchers, and engineers, poets, novelists for a quick buck today - never mind bankrupting our future.

People spend 20 years in prison for drug offenses. By those standards these predators should die by lethal injection. The harm they do - immeasurable.

Do me a favor

Most of the New Testament was written in the first and second centuries A.D., but not compiled into a single book probably until the fourth century AD. Both the authors and those that compiled it, were men who were at least partially influenced by the need to expand the church's base and power.
According to them Jesus was born during Hanukka, died and was resurrected during Passover, as example.

If I wanted to convert Jews or Pagans in order to expand my congregation, I would for sure offer rites, rituals, and holidays to compete with existing ones. So coincidence or competing for believers? Gods words or human invention?

Here's the thing. As a non-believer I recognize these questions are a matter of faith - not for me to question another's faith. If only believers could learn to return the favor.

Redneck Earthlings

Planet Earth - love it or leave it.

Media, Mayhem, and Money

America you have become fraidy cats.
You live in a state of constant fear of imagined threat - and it has consumed you.
Death panels, a terrorist behind every bush, mushroom clouds, a child molester on every street corner.

Where are your children who should be playing in your neighborhoods free to roam and explore as children should? Play date?

What purpose your airport surrender of civil liberties?

Tell me again why you must arm yourself to the teeth?

Because you live in constant fear of imagined threat and you haven't the guts to get on with living.
You have swallowed hook, line, and sinker the 24 hour news cycle and the state of constant hypervigilance, paranoia, and fear so necessary to sell you the news. Coming to get you.

Oh sorry - didn't mean to frighten you.

One World

Here's a question for you.
How many people died in Vietnam? 50 odd thousand??
Wrong.
4 million civilians died in vietnam - 4 million.
Hitler killed 6 million jews. We murdered 4 million vietnamese.
I'd like to see a memorial to them.
I'd like to see a memorial to all those that have ever died in war.
I'd like to see us all mourn human death and suffering wherever and to whomever it occurs.
I'd like to see the day when we learn to value human life - all of human life.
Not just the culturally familar. .

Highly Functioning Sociopaths

At the center of sociopathy is a lack of empathy for others. Or rather an inability to experience, to feel, for others.
It is a necessary but not sufficient condition of sociopathy.
Add in a lack of conscience,a large dose of narcism, and a grand and glorious "master plan" to finally obtain the power, control, and glory owed - not earned - owed - and you have all the conditions necessary for a highly functioning sociopath.
Dick Chaney, Carl Rove as examples.
But this idea that one has to be a smart or as good at it as they are to be sociopathic is wrong.
I know lots of less successful sociopaths - academic medicine in my experience - full of small minded, less intelligent, highly functioning sociopaths.
I can only imagine Wall Street, and big business.
Here's the thing.
They are not to be admired as cunning, focused, and skilled at what they do.
Take away empathy and conscience and almost any fool can do the same.

Verizon and a weapon of mass financial destruction

As you travel internationally data roaming on your smart phone can be expensive - very expensive.
So you do what I do - turn it off.
Here's a little secret - Verizon has now turned your phone into a financial bomb.
Ticking away in your pocket.
If that roaming gets turned on, even for just a minute, while you're still roaming you can be billed $500, $1000, $2000 in data roaming usage.
What they do is stack all the undelivered data waiting for that moment when that data gets turned on - then they dump it all -  make a one minute mistake - get a $500 bill.
Tick tick tick......

Win-Win

Dear NSA

Lets take your supercomputers, now used to surveil pretty much everyone on the planet - guilty or not - as if straight out of some Orwellian nightmare - and instead use them to find the root causes of terrorism and fix them.
There's a brand new supercomputer, some 100,000 square feet large, in your facility in Utah.
Now that's a lot of computer.
So lets just switch it over and ask it how best to end this perpetual nightmare. Solve for the root causes of terrorism, best ways to fix them, and watch the threat melt away over the next generations - current terrorists probably lost causes.
Over the long run we'd be a whole safer than anything you might accomplish with your current strategies, and just think - you'd actually welcome the press leaks. 
Win-Win

P.S. Oh and when you're done how about applying your billions and your computers in finding a cure for cancer.

One Thing Right

I said I thought he was a sociopath.
They said, no, no - he's not smart enough.
But must you be smart to be sociopathic?
imagine what you could accomplish unencumbered with a conscience.

He would indeed be surprised at how transparent he really is
Only another narcissist would buy into his persona - making him a fine early warning system
Only problem is - he goes where his type thrives - the alarms then - deafening

Well at least he loves his family.
Or at least he makes very sure you think he does.
Claims credit for others labors and ideas.
Has never had, never will have, an original thought.

In his mind perhaps he'll be president someday.
Or at least chief of some power structure.
More likely he'll live out his pathetic fantasies only in his mind.
One thing is sure - deep down he will forever loath himself.
At least he's got one thing right.