ThePoliticalCat

"Americans": Not the Center of the Universe

2009-11-19T20:15:00.000-08:00

Dharapak/AP

It is true that I, Ms. Manitoba, was born on the prairies of Manitoba. Canada. I am a naturalized citizen of the United States.

Some folks think Canadians are just like "Americans" -- we're not. Especially French Canadians -- Quebeçois, Manitobain, Ontarois etc. Look again. Look deeper. (And ... maybe ... dare I say it? Maybe, travel a bit.) For one thing, we put "Americans" in quotes because we remember that there are many Americans -- not just the ones that live in the United States. Canadians believe that they are Americans too -- North Americans. We don't imperialize the name.

And when we see President Obama bow to Emperor Akihito we don't get our undies in a bunch.

For example:

"Treasonous"; "Idiot-in-chief"; "Shocking display of fealty to a foreign potentate"; "How low will he go?"; "Undignified,"; "A first-year English teacher trying to impress with Karate Kid-level knowledge of Japanese custom," were among the harsh headlines and comments in the American press and the blogosphere on the president's bow.

[from an article in online version of The Nation]

"Americans" need to understand that they are no longer (never were) the center of the universe.

Please read this wonderful article -- "More Important Things to Worry About" -- from the online version of The Nation.

And, if you'd like to find out more about the really important stuff, listen to today's interview with Orville Schell on Terry Gross's Fresh Air radio program.

Caturday!

2009-11-07T08:44:00.000-08:00

from our friends at www.icanhascheezburger.com

Have a great Caturday, everyone!!!!!

Caturday: Did somebody say "Vampires" ?

2009-10-24T08:49:00.001-07:00

Willy Billy Button says "Happy Caturday" !!!!!

Women's Rights: Jamie Leigh Jones

2009-10-21T11:55:00.000-07:00

This woman has guts. She really does. She's taken a horrible experience and turned it into a blazing fight for justice. I look at her sweet little face and think, if I was her father, brother, husband, boyfriend? Some KBR employees would be sitting around wondering what happened to their gonads.

You know who else has guts? Our newest Senator, Al Franken. Watch him kick KBR's lawyer's ass nine ways to Sunday.

Minnesota, you did the right thing by giving us this wonderful guy. He comes to his committees and hearings PREPARED. He reads everything. And he's sharp as a tack.

Go, Senator Al!

Now I see why the Rethuglicans were so terrified of letting him into the Senate. He does not mealymouth around.

So, Minnesota, all y'all gotta do now is get rid of that batshit-crazy Bachmann and we're, like, on, yaknow?

Damn, he rocks. DiBernardo's going to take a week or two to dislodge that pointy boot from his ass. Serves him right too.

Caturday!

2009-10-10T07:43:00.000-07:00

from those wonderful folks at www.icanhascheezburger.com

Have a great day, everyone!!!

Peace and Love is right, congratulations President Obama

2009-10-09T19:19:00.000-07:00

All we are saying, is give peace a chance! On this day, John Lennon's birthday, I want to congratulate President Obama on winning the Nobel Peace Prize. I think it is well deserved and I hope this prize gives him even more encouragement and resolve to pursue policies that promote peace and not war. Yes, it is a dangerous world, a jungle out there, but I think he is trying to build relationships in the world and is pursuing diplomacy as a means to reduce tensions and solve problems. There is a lot of work to be done, we're not there yet and may never get there, but I hope this gives President Obama even more encouragement and resolve to do that.

And I know how this rankles the far right wing in this country, all the looney bin nuts. The assholes from hell. Real stinking smelly ones at that. I'm sure they are just livid at the thought of President Obama being successful and representing America as a shining light in the world in a way those war mongering bastards, like a neighbor from hell, never could. This is a point of pride for America and these assholes ought to get their heads screwed on straight and recognize it. But in the meantime, shut up your fucking pie holes and maybe we all will be rewarded with a world we can live in. Now that I got that out, I can go back to being peaceful. Congratulations President Obama!

Meta: Announcement

2009-10-08T11:03:00.000-07:00

Blogging light to nonexistent over the next few days, as this blogger hies off to parts nearby on a brief holiday, leaving Ms. Manitoba to hold down the fort.

See y'all in a few, comrades! (There's another word that won't make it into the New Conservative Bible being written right now by über-gay rightard John Schlafly.)

Stay safe and happy, y'awl! Back in a bit.

Religion: It Makes You Craaaaaazy

2009-10-06T21:31:00.001-07:00

Hahaha. Apparently, Phyllis Schlafly's ever-so-closeted QUEEN of a son has decided to invite help from fellow Conservapedians in rewriting the Wholly Babble. You know, to remove all that "liberal bias." Here's how they plan to go about it:

1. Framework against Liberal Bias: providing a strong framework that enables a thought-for-thought translation without corruption by liberal bias

2. Not Emasculated: avoiding unisex, "gender inclusive" language, and other modern emasculation of Christianity

3. Not Dumbed Down: not dumbing down the reading level, or diluting the intellectual force and logic of Christianity; the NIV is written at only the 7th grade level

4. Utilize Powerful Conservative Terms: using powerful new conservative terms as they develop; defective translations use the word "comrade" three times as often as "volunteer"; similarly, updating words which have a change in meaning, such as "word", "peace", and "miracle".

5. Combat Harmful Addiction: combating addiction by using modern terms for it, such as "gamble" rather than "cast lots"; using modern political terms, such as "register" rather than "enroll" for the census

6. Accept the Logic of Hell: applying logic with its full force and effect, as in not denying or downplaying the very real existence of Hell or the Devil.

7. Express Free Market Parables; explaining the numerous economic parables with their full free-market meaning

8. Exclude Later-Inserted Liberal Passages: excluding the later-inserted liberal passages that are not authentic, such as the adulteress story

9. Credit Open-Mindedness of Disciples: crediting open-mindedness, often found in youngsters like the eyewitnesses Mark and John, the authors of two of the Gospels

10. Prefer Conciseness over Liberal Wordiness: preferring conciseness to the liberal style of high word-to-substance ratio; avoid compound negatives and unnecessary ambiguities; prefer concise, consistent use of the word "Lord" rather than "Jehovah" or "Yahweh" or "Lord God."

Truly. You can't make this shit up. These denizens of rightwingnuttia are determined, I tellya, de-fucking-termined to write all that socialist, communist, love-yer-brother shit right out of teh Holy Book. So, John Schlafly — are you going to take someone's dick out of your mouth long enough to edit out all teh gay-h8ing crap? Or are you going to be a weenie in every sense of the word and leave it all in?

Republican Jesus courtesy of RepublicanDirtyTricks, which you should only read right now

Of course, because logic is not their strong point, they don't seem to have realized (will they ever?) that by rewriting the supposedly Inerrant Word of Gawd, they're proving that, far from being inerrant, it is simply the work of man, who changes it to suit his sentiments of the moment. This is called being hoist by one's own petard. And although Wikipedia insists that a petard is a small bomb that could blow up and injure the party using it on others, I prefer to believe, in keeping with the root word, pet, which is French for fart, that these moral midgets run the risk of blowing themselves up to the M-o-o-o-o-n with their own farts.

Because that's what this project represents: pseudo-intellectual farts in a strong wind, which have a definite likelihood of blowing right back up the arsehole of those who delivereth them and propelling them on to, as it were, greater heights.

I can't wait to see what the churches and the religious right, the last bastion of ReapUglyCon support, have to say about this. Methinks it ain't gonna be good.

Entertainment: Too Funny!

2009-10-06T14:59:00.000-07:00

From friend and fellow-blogger Nunya, over at PolitickyBitch:

Because she knows how to make a Cat laugh!

Caturday!

2009-10-03T22:36:00.000-07:00

ICHC FTW!

Happy Caturday, everyone! Celebrate wiv Baysment Cat! Even Baysment Cat takes Caturday off from the all-important task of harvesting souls.

On the home front, the felinoids (we call them felinoids because they always feel annoyed, no matter what you're doing) are welcoming the fall with sleeping, sleeping, and still more sleeping. Interspersed with a little ass-biting. Madu has eased up on his rodent extermination duties thanks to the presence of some hooty owls which appear to be nesting in a nearby tree. They're new to the area, or at least new of late. The first time we heard one, we thought someone was coughing.

Madu and Gojira NOT fighting for a change

In the event, they seem to be keeping the nasty little pocket gophers away, which delights the plants, no doubt.

We're hiking tomorrow, a four-mile hike, possibly, along a relatively easy trail. Slight elevations, a little scree, nothing too rugged.

Although we have our eye on a guided hike to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro for 2011. Slowly by slowly, as my people say.

Do cats suffer from sleep apnea? Two of the fattest in the Home Tribe are snoring so loudly these days, it's enough to wake a body from a sound sleep. Or deep sleep, anyway.

Happy Anniversary, Mr. President and First Lady!

2009-10-03T22:32:00.001-07:00

President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama

It is the anniversary of the President and his lovely First Lady, and they celebrated with a quiet dinner. What a joy this lovely couple is!

Happy anniversary to you both. May your marriage flourish and bring you, your children, and your nation joy for many more years.

Announcement: Parks and Photos

2009-10-02T11:00:00.000-07:00

Beautiful photos of a beautiful park over at the sisterblog.

Also, art, in American Prayer Flags. If you know of a gallery interested in hosting this exhibit, let us know.

Politics: Incitement to Violence

2009-09-29T19:39:00.000-07:00

ICHC FTLOL

The Foofaraw-Of-The-Day (hereinafter FoTD) was that some motherfucking idiot butthole surfer decided to create a poll asking whether his fellow FaceBookers thought that President Obama deserved assassination.

For those who don't use FaceBook, lots and lots of third-party developers write little apps that you can use to do silly stuff on FB, like create stupid polls that actually go to your FB account and pull all kinds of data about you and your friends and then sell it to people who want to pay money to find out what kind of people use FB and how dumb they are and also how likely to pay money for the dumb things these people want to sell them.

So there's this third-party app that lets you create polls. And most of the polls are really silly, harmless stuff like "What flavour of ice-cream are you?" and "Do you wear frilly panties?" and shit like that.

Well, this bright soul (not) decides to create this fucking poll about whether the President should be assassinated, and the choices it gives you are (Yes), (Maybe), (If he cuts my healthcare), and (No).

Some 700 or so other idiots found this poll and decided to take it. Well, actually, the first person to take it probably sent it to five other friends, who sent it to 25 other friends, and it snowballed. To the credit of most of the idiots who took it, the answer was NO by a staggering margin. And the total number of responses was very small in terms of the total number of users on FB. And, the Internets responded by reporting the dumb motherfucker to the Secret Service.

To FB's credit, they immediately suspended polls when this was brought to their attention. They then had a little talk with the app developer, asking him to fix his code so that no one could ever do such a revoltingly swinish thing again. Which he is, I believe, doing as we squeak. They also had their little session with the Secret Service and, no doubt, have turned over captured IP addresses and the like.

Welp. It won't be too long before the Men In Black have a little conversation with the feckin' eejit who wrote that feckin' poll, will it, now?

Good luck, you scum-sucking swine. You're going to need all of it that you can get. Not that we think you should be allowed much of anything, with the exception of bread, water, and shelter from the elements in a jail cell for some years, but hey. You get your day in court while the prosecutor tries to prove you guilty.

Maybe this will stop the likes of Annhole Coulter, Glen Blech, and Flush Rimbowl from making their unacceptable and unwarranted cracks about poisoning Supreme Court Justices, or the Speaker of the House, or shooting at the Speaker or the President.

Listen up, Fuckwits, one and all: US Code TITLE 18 PART I CHAPTER 115 § 2385:

Whoever knowingly or willfully advocates, abets, advises, or teaches the duty, necessity, desirability, or propriety of overthrowing or destroying the government of the United States or the government of any State, Territory, District or Possession thereof, or the government of any political subdivision therein, by force or violence, or by the assassination of any officer of any such government; or
Whoever, with intent to cause the overthrow or destruction of any such government, prints, publishes, edits, issues, circulates, sells, distributes, or publicly displays any written or printed matter advocating, advising, or teaching the duty, necessity, desirability, or propriety of overthrowing or destroying any government in the United States by force or violence, or attempts to do so; or
Whoever organizes or helps or attempts to organize any society, group, or assembly of persons who teach, advocate, or encourage the overthrow or destruction of any such government by force or violence; or becomes or is a member of, or affiliates with, any such society, group, or assembly of persons, knowing the purposes thereof—
Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both, and shall be ineligible for employment by the United States or any department or agency thereof, for the five years next following his conviction.
If two or more persons conspire to commit any offense named in this section, each shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both, and shall be ineligible for employment by the United States or any department or agency thereof, for the five years next following his conviction.
As used in this section, the terms “organizes” and “organize”, with respect to any society, group, or assembly of persons, include the recruiting of new members, the forming of new units, and the regrouping or expansion of existing clubs, classes, and other units of such society, group, or assembly of persons.

So before you form into astroturfer organizations carrying placards advocating the violent overthrow of the government, please note that it is a fucking CRIME as defined by law. There are penalties for this kind of hate speech. You can't run around flapping your ugly gobs about killing people without consequences.

Do you understand, you cone-headed dimwits? The Free Speech amendment to the Constitution gives you the right PEACEABLY to assemble. Read it, idiots:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

If you're not assembling PEACEABLY, without guns or hate speech or threats or incitements to crime, well, there are consequences for that kind of behaviour. You have to take responsibility for your bullshit, assholes. Better start sending money to the ACLU now, motherfuckers, because they're the only ones that will bail your oversized useless lardy asses out of the hoosegow.

Moreover, these heah threats you're making against your freely and fairly elected President? That shit is laid out in the same fucking code, you worthless buttfucks. Read it and meep: TITLE 18 PART I CHAPTER 41 § 871.

Threats against President and successors to the Presidency

(a) Whoever knowingly and willfully deposits for conveyance in the mail or for a delivery from any post office or by any letter carrier any letter, paper, writing, print, missive, or document containing any threat to take the life of, to kidnap, or to inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States, the President-elect, the Vice President or other officer next in the order of succession to the office of President of the United States, or the Vice President-elect, or knowingly and willfully otherwise makes any such threat against the President, President-elect, Vice President or other officer next in the order of succession to the office of President, or Vice President-elect, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
(b) The terms “President-elect” and “Vice President-elect” as used in this section shall mean such persons as are the apparent successful candidates for the offices of President and Vice President, respectively, as ascertained from the results of the general elections held to determine the electors of President and Vice President in accordance with title 3, United States Code, sections 1 and 2. The phrase “other officer next in the order of succession to the office of President” as used in this section shall mean the person next in the order of succession to act as President in accordance with title 3, United States Code, sections 19 and 20.

OK, assholes? Didja get that? Do you understand the words of more than one syllable here? The next time one of you motherfuckers starts making that cocksucking pout of the lips and spouting off about the tree of liberty being watered with the blood of tyrants? Y'awl better be prepared to see some Men In Black coming through the front door, the back door, or both.

What part of PEACEABLY TO ASSEMBLE do you pointy-headed assholes not get? "Peaceably to assemble" does not mean "bring your fucking Uzis and AK-47s to the town hall and terrify little children and old ladies," do you get that yet?

Because by all you fucking hold holy, you brainless walking excrement, if you harm one hair on the head of our lawfully elected President, our Vice-President, or our Speaker of the House, be prepared for some real patriots to kick the holy fucking shit out of your cheetos-laden ass.

Health Care: What YOU Can Do

2009-09-29T14:33:00.000-07:00

If you've been following the Health Care Reform fight, then you know that the Senate Finance Committee met today to vote on Max Baucus' bill.

Well, five Blue Running Dogs joined the Republicans to vote against the public option authored by Senator Rockefeller (D-W.Va). This, despite the fact that two out of every three of their constituents (or more) FAVOUR a Public Option. And despite the fact that the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) has already published a report stating that Rockefeller's version of the public option would save the government between $50 billion and $150 billion over a ten-year period.

Needless to say, ALL the Republicans voted against the Public Option. So down it went in flames.

The time has come to fight back, people. Get off your duffs. A commenter at HuffPo left the following information on who to contact, and how:

BAUCUS: Phone: (202) 224-2651 Fax: (202) 224-9412
LINCOLN: Phone: (202) 224-4843 Fax: (202) 228-1371
CONRAD: Phone: (202) 224-2043 Fax: (202) 224-7776
NELSON: Phone: (202) 224-5274 Fax: (202) 228-2183
CARPER: Phone: (202) 224-2441 Fax: (202) 228-2190

If you are a constituent of any of these primo assholes, then it is your DUTY to call or fax them and demand to know why they have rejected Rockefeller's money-saving public option. They're now debating Chuck Schumer's version of the public option, a much weaker, watered-down version which won't save the country as much, if anything.

Any constituents of Charles Grassley out there? If you believe you deserve as good health care as he gets thanks to your taxes, call or fax him too, and ask him why he made this statement:

"Government is not a competitor. Government is a predator."

— Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa).

Does he really mean it? Has he given up HIS taxpayer-financed health care? Who is his private health care insurer? Why does he not switch over to private health care? If they're good enough for us, they should be good enough for him.

ICHC FTLOL

Give them all an earful, peeps. They deserve it. They've earned it.

Note: This blog does not advocate violence against anyone. However, we reserve the right to mercilessly mock our so-called elected representatives.

Additional note: Although it would be great if the people's representatives could be spayed or neutered, it is, unfortunately, too late, as most of them have already flung their obviously unworthy genes into the pool.

Entertainment: Humour

2009-09-27T22:50:00.000-07:00

ICHC FT LOL

It's needed.

While wingnuttia is exploding in faux outrage over ACORN "scandals," you know, all mad because people are actually helping tenants to organize and poor homeowners to renegotiate their bank loans and evictions and stuff; and the neocons are screaming about starting YET ANOTHER FUCKING WAR FOR CRISAKE in Iran, conveniently ignoring the fact that General Stanley McChrystal wants half a million fucking troops for fucking Afghanistan, that we don't fucking have; and conveniently ignoring the fact that that big, fat, lardassed war criminal Dick "They Call Me That For A Reason" Cheney is wandering around free, as is Shrubya McWarCriminal; we pause to mop our fevered brow and offer you — bad jokes. They're really bad.

Hey, we need the entertainment.

After an Air Jamaica flight reached its cruising altitude, the captain announced: "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain; welcome to Flight 025, non-stop from Kingston to Miami. The weather ahead is good, so we should have a smooth, uneventful flight. So sit back, relax and...OH, MY GOD!"

Silence followed.

Some moments later the captain came back on the intercom. "Ladies and gentlemen, I'm sorry if I scared you. While I was talking to you, a flight attendant accidentally spilled a cup of hot coffee in my lap. You should see the front of my trousers!"

One Jamaican passenger yelled, "You BUMBO Rassclaat eediot!.... you should see de BACK of my trousers!!!!!"

I'm sorry, some Jamaicans will probly find the language offensive, but I just LOLed.

This one's for the geeks among us:

Two missionaries are looking down into a jungle clearing at hundreds of natives gathered around a stone likeness of a huge zero.

They strain to hear what the natives are chanting, and finally make it out: "Nulll, nulll, nulll...".

"My God!" one says quietly to the other. "Is nothing sacred?"

Science: The Hubble and Redshift

2009-09-27T16:09:00.000-07:00

Is this cool or what?

Measuring the redshift allows astronomers to figure out how fast these entire galaxies are rushing away from us.

The Big Bang — it's not just commonsense. It's the LAW!!

OK, that was gravity, but in these dark times we need to focus on science to draw us out of the bleak Armageddonish view of the future being promulgated by rightwingnuttia. Carl Sagan was right. "Billions and billions of stars ..." Just waiting for us to explore them all.

Politics: War Atrocities

2009-09-27T11:59:00.000-07:00

Goya, War

Because, as you know, this blog is dedicated to peace, to the end of war and its atrocities, to the hope of a brighter tomorrow when we will no longer throw our children — and everyone else's — into the gaping maw of Moloch.

The combat soldier, as an absolutely deprived person, responds to direct situational exigencies. [...] Deadening fear intermingles with acts of bravery. [...]

If enemy prisoners are taken, they may be subjected to atrocities in the rage of the battle or its immediate aftermath. The soldier's distaste of endangering civilians may be overcome by his fear that [the enemy], of any age or sex, can be responsible for his own death (Ed: Or the death of those of his comrades whom he has been trained to think of as his best and only friends.) Where the opportunity arises, looting often occurs. War souvenirs are frequently collected either to be kept personally or later sold to rear-echelon servicemen. (Italics added. Editorial note from ThePoliticalCat.)

— Charles C. Moskos, as cited inMalaya and Singapore During The Japanese Occupation

The "absolutely deprived person" status that is inflicted on servicemen as part of their basic training has the effect of deadening them to all that is human and humane. Apparently, such deadening no longer has the desired effect, for even these poor, pitiful humans retain some vestige of conscience and feeling. They come back from their war crimes with PTSD, and inflict upon their loved ones, neighbours, families, and society in general, the cost of rehabilitating them and dealing with their costly and painful suffering.

Thus, our armies now seek robots, "unmanned drones," that do not, and cannot, suffer any twinge of conscience about killing the innocent, the unarmed, the civilians who are so unfortunate as to live in a zone of war.

It is stated as a matter of fact in many of the memoirs written by PoWs in the Pacific Theater during WW II that their Korean and Taiwanese guards were often more brutal and inhumane than even the Japanese soldiers, who committed unparalleled war crimes in their imperialist expansion into Southeast Asia. Upon reading at greater length of the treatment meted out to these unfortunate "Imperial subjects" of Korea and Taiwan, it becomes clear that the dehumanization process to which these unfortunate "subjects" were subjected could only be remedied or stalled by inflicting upon their helpless prisoners torments that were at least as unpleasant as those that they themselves suffered.

Thus the cycle continues. Each person one rung up on the ladder of abuse directs their kicks and blows to those one rung below. Those at the very bottom of that ladder have no one upon whom to vent their frustrations and rage, and so turn them inward and punish each other and themselves, as they have been taught and shown to do.

Picasso, Guernica

When will humanity emerge from these dark ages? When will we evolve beyond the need of war? It must come soon, or we will surely destroy ourselves and all we hold dear. Iran announced the existence of a hidden uranium-refining facility, and everywhere, the neocons have crawled out of the woodwork demanding an immediate attack upon that unfortunate nation. Why? Because the government of the State of Israel, a bunch of neocon hacks and hawks to the last man, are "afraid" of the possibility that Iran might soon have nuclear weapons. Earliest estimates of this happening range from one to five years. Not that facts should get in the way of hysteria, of course.

Israel possesses an arsenal of nuclear weapons, but will neither confirm nor deny that it does so. Israel is not a signatory to the NNPT (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty). Iran is. Iran has notified the IAEA, as required by its membership in the IAEA, of its "secret" facility. Iran has also agreed to permit IAEA inspectors to assess its nuclear sites. Israel, not being a signatory to this, most important treaty, refuses to release any information whatsoever about what its doing with nuclear power. Israel is a hawkish state, constantly engaging in acts of hostility against its neighbours, supported by the U.S. to the tune of $10 million in taxpayer money PER DAY. In addition to obscene yearly quantities of military aid. Just this year, despite our own horrendous economic situation, we gave Israel nearly $3 billion in military aid.

The interests of the Israeli people are not being represented by their government, which prefers to use its own civilians as an excuse for further armament rather than negotiate peaceful solutions with its neighbours. Children of Abraham, of Hagar and Sarah, the time has come to beat your swords into plowshares. If you do not, then you will all be obliterated when the Third World War begins, because there are too many people who want it to begin on your doorstep. It is not a war that anyone will survive.

As Tom Lehrer sang, "We'll all go together when we go." Rather than contemplate the death of every living being on this planet, let us work together to a just solution. It can be done, if we all insist on it. Those Christian Dominionists who want Armageddon and The Rapture, do you think that teacher who said "Love thy neighbour as thyself; there is no greater commandment than [this]" would care for your efforts to create Armageddon?

Crossposted over at The Peace Tree

Caturday! Belated, Dammit

2009-09-27T10:51:00.000-07:00

It was too hot to do much of anything yesterday except lie about in misery, reading a labour history of Malaya and Singapore between 1933 and 1941. So we fucked up.

We bring you a belated Caturday post in apology.

ICHC for teh LOL!

And on the seventh day Ceiling Cat rested. And has been resting ever since.

The tomatoes are abundant, the Naked Ladies are still blooming (determined little buggers that they are), and the sweet alyssum is delighting the bees with its honey-scented flowers. Fleabane is spreading throughout the garden, with its sweet, pink-rayed yellow faces, and the big blue lily turf has finally, hesitantly, set a few flower spikes. Pissing in the garden is a tradition at La Casa de Los Gatos, and the kitties sure do help out as much as they can. A cave has been constructed under one of the lavenders, just big enough to fit the Fat Bandicoot's fat tush. Those (black and) white kitties gotta stay out of the sun, yaknow. Or risk skin cancers.

That's right. If you have a white, or mostly white, kitteh, be sure to keep them out of the sun. Or put SPF lotion on them. I don't think teh kittehs really go for the whole hats-n-shades, long-sleeved shirts look.

An owl has taken up residence in a nearby redwood tree. The hoots can be disconcerting in the still, hot nights, but I'm hoping the native rodent population will be suitably fearful of trespassing on what's left of the (scorched, dry, sunbaked) garden.

It's never been this hot in the decades that I've lived up here in the fog belt. Two days a year, we'd get up to, oh, 90F. Last night the thermometer was definitely in the 90s, but it's been that way off and on throughout the year. What will winter be like this year?

James Inhofe should only spontaneously combust for all the lies he keeps flogging about global warming. Oklahoma, where the fuck did you find such an unqualified all-time ignoramus and loser? Isn't there anyone in the state with more than one working brain cell?

The only positive thing to say about this heat is, it sure does put one in the mood for rubbin' nubbins. So if you have a nubbin that needs rubbin', do like these guys:

Picture courtesy of T.L. Holland, via teh InnerToobs

OK, maybe just the ones in the left panel. Those guys on the right have way too many sharp teeth goin' there.

And remember, if you can't be with the one you love — love the one you're with! And if you ain't with anyone, goddammit, get out there and start looking. If everybody was fucking a lot more, we'd be too tired to fight as much.

Oh, yeah, and here's your song:

Health Care: Who's the Real Victim, Here?

2009-09-23T09:43:00.001-07:00

Well, Will Farrell wants YOU to know the TRUTH about the public option:

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

Mr. Ferrell, you da man!

Laugh your ass off, peeps. It's one of the few moments of Teh Funny in this long and bitter fight.

Caturday!

2009-09-19T12:25:00.000-07:00

ICHC

The garden calls!

The Shasta daisies shriveled up and went south thanks to the exceptionally long spell of hot, dry weather we've had. It's fire season now, and in a month's time, hot dry Santa Ana winds will be blowing. The garden's mostly weeded but the last week's two days of wet weather has caused annoying weed sproutage, and we must repair to its recondite depths to pull those suckers out before THEY get dry and provide kindling to the oily eucalypts on neighbouring slopes. The idiot neighbour has planted their lower garden with Spanish broom. Or is it Scotch broom? Right next to an extensive wooden fence.

The big bougainvillea has lost most of its vivid magenta flowers. The small one has put forth a couple of hopeful-looking buds, though we suspect they won't last long in the heat. The naked ladies (Amaryllis belladonna with their perfumey scent) are nearly done blooming, their pure pink trumpets beginning to dry and droop a little. Big blue lily turf (Liriope muscarii) didn't flower this year, and hasn't spread very far either.

The yellow cosmos made a good showing. And magenta-flowering ice plant is creeping back (must be eliminated!) The California lilac (Ceanothus, which isn't a lilac at all but a supposedly-fragrant native) has gotten very woody and leggy in spots and must be pruned hard, though getting down to that part of the hill is as much as a human life is worth. Very tricky, and interspersed with thorny climbing roses and nettles. The bloody deer did not bother to prune my fucking roses for me this year because the lousy buggers have been too busy eating the fucking tomatoes, wouldn't you know? Venison carpaccio is how they're ending up, the little fuckers.

No gaillardia blossoms, although the echium and the buddleia were profuse, for a change. But the buddleia is deadwood, mostly, now, and the echium's long floret-laden spikes are brown with seed to set. Luckily, the plumbago lining the hill is lifting sky-blue heads to the sun, and red-and-yellow lantana and lavender continues to feed the bees and visiting birds. And, of course, the Brazilian princess flower, Tibouchina urvillea, has a few buds left. Oh, and white oleander is flowering all over the hill. Needs a hard cutting back, or it'll get too spready and leggy and collapse all over itself. Rather as we've been known to do around the seventh glass of alcoholic beverage.

Fuck it! It's Caturday, the sun is shining, there's a terrific pasta sauce with homemade tomatoes awaiting our hungry maws, and we're off to the garden, felines in tow. Let's hope Madu has left no new dead and partly disassembled rats on our favourite resting spots. It's hard enough to weed the garden with feet splayed and one hand clinging to the nearest rock or branch, without having to worry about avoiding rat guts as well.

Ai neva duz dis. Ai eetz dem all up.

The Police State

2009-09-18T12:42:00.000-07:00

Cheye Calvo and Trinity Tomsic

Update. Cheye Calvo, mayor of Berwyn Heights, writes a piece in the WahPoo (Washington Post, in case you hadn't guessed) about the ordeal he suffered at the hands of the police of Prince George's County, as we blogged before.

We're glad to see that Mayor Calvo and his wife, Trinity Tomsic, have filed suit against these apparatchiks of the fascist state. These are the people the ReapUglyCans want us to submit to. They're pro-police, pro-authority, pro-the strong, long arm of governmental control — at least until it comes to them. They, themselves, are, of course, beyond the reach of the law. Or think they should be. Schmucks.

In case you were comatose at the time and failed to see anything about the case, the Prince George's County sheriff's office, in the course of a War on Drugs police sting, delivered a package of marijuana (the noble weed, for crisake! Aren't there shitloads of meth freaks they should be concentrating on? Fuckwits.) to the Tomsic-Calvo household, then used that incident for a "no-knock" breaking down of the Tomsic-Calvo home's front door, and held the inhabitants at gunpoint (including Tomsic's elderly mother) for several hours.

Oh, and they shot the couple's two friendly black Labs, one just a puppy. Shot them dead and left them lying in pools of their own blood while they held Mayor Calvo and his mother-in-law at gunpoint.

The poor little pupsters

They did all this without bothering to coordinate with the Berwyn Heights police. What a bunch of fucking eejits. Naturally, when it came out that a middle- to upper-middle class WHITE family had been held at gunpoint and had their pets murdered before their eyes, the outrage over the incident went international, and the Sheriff's office got the butt-fucking it deserved.

Of course, they do this every day in this country to people of colour. Even college professors.

At least Calvo and Tomsic will get their day in court. Hopefully, they'll succeed in bringing about the death of this "no-knock warrant" shit, as blatant a violation of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution as ever there was. Does anyone think the Founding Fathers would have approved of this?

Music

2009-09-18T12:35:00.000-07:00

over at the sisterblog. After years of searching, I find Amazing Blondel online. Don't like it? Don't whine to me about it. Three pieces from Side 1 of Fantasia Lindum.

Yes, I do realize the cover art up there is from the Evensong album, not Fantasia Lindum. Tough.

Politics: From The Department of

2009-09-14T14:50:00.000-07:00

Holy mother of god, you can't make this shit up.

No matter how hard you try.

Wingnuttia in all its rancid, um, glory? Gloryholeyness? Holy quacking duckshit, people. Not a single one of these benighted dipshits has the first fucking clue what they're talking about. Not one. Just listening to them makes our brain hurt. Fascism=Socialism=Communism? Do they have the first fucking clue that millions of progressives, liberals, and socialists came together to defeat the fascist Germany, Italy, and Japan during World War II? That millions of people died to rid this world of fascism? That the fascists hunted down and murdered progressive Socialists and labour organizers and ... most frightening of all ... just about anybody who looked and talked like this bunch of morons?

In the Third Reich, every single one of these hapless fools would have been sterilized on eugenic grounds. Their collective IQ is probably lower than the number of teeth they possess.

Please. Listen to them for as long as you can. It'll make you hurl. Jayzus is King. Fuck you, manureheads. Jayzus may be your fucking king, but this country has a constitution that says NO FUCKING KINGS ANY MORE! No how, no way. And church is SEPARATE from State. So fuck you and your Jayzus. Take your caterwauling to your fucking insane brethren and cistern. Shrieking Shiva! The Marching Morons, by gum.

PS: Is it just me or are they a bunch of old, fat, white, out-of-shape turds who are probably benefiting from the very same "gubmint-run" programs that they're protesting? Yaknow, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, VA, disability benefits, workers' comp, unemployment benefits, and the like? And what a diverse group!

Health Care: This Is Your Song!

2009-09-12T20:07:00.000-07:00

Yeah!!! We're Number 37!

Longtime friend, commenter, and fellow-blogger Brian sent me this. Catchy tune, huh? Pity we can't play this at all the town halls!

Enjoy!

Health Care: The Man Is On FIAH!

2009-09-12T11:25:00.000-07:00

Your President Needs YOU

To fight for health care!

Listening to our President addressing Minnesotans in a health care town hall. It's all good, people, it's all fantastic. He's laying it out for the people and they are going WILD! He just announced that the same people in Congress who are yawping about how Medicare will be killed, chilled, spilled, spat on, shat on, are the same people who have been trying to kill Medicare for years.

President Obama reiterated that he was willing to listen to anyone who had workable ideas for health care, regardless of their political affiliation. But, in a new move, he also stated,

"I will not waste time with people who think it's just good politics to kill health care. [...] I'm not going to let people misrepresent what's in my plan. I will not accept the status quo. Not this time. Not now."

He talked about how members of Congress have been fucking around regarding this legislation. He also said that there was agreement about 80 per cent of health care reform. The remaining 20 per cent needs to be nailed down, but he did say we are closer than we have ever been to achieving health care reform.

"This is the hard part. This is when the special interests, the insurance companies, the people who think this is a good way to bring Obama down -- this is when they spread wild rumours."

He talked about "pundits" in Washington who have said, "Maybe you're trying to do too much too soon." Let me guess: those pundits would HAVE health care, yes? He called out those who depict his push for health care reform as "socialism" by pointing out that when FDR introduced Social Security, his enemies called it "socialism" too. He pointed out that senior citizens helped pass Social Security and Medicare, and detailed FDR's struggles with change.

In closing, he said something that I've always strongly felt: Change doesn't come from the top down, it comes from the bottom up. He called on the people of Minneapolis, and of Minnesota, to help him. The crowd greeted him with shouts, cheers, roars, chants, and multiple standing ovations.

Can I just say how sorry I feel for the Secret Service dudes who have to keep him safe? The people love him, everybody wants to touch him or photograph him or shake his hand. And there's something very genuine about Mr. Obama. He seems to really like people, like physical contact with people.

One didn't get that feeling with either of the Bushes. The elder Bush was clearly a patrician New Englander with a genuine physical discomfort around people. He didn't seem to have any empathy with those who didn't belong in his "class." The younger Bush had a completely inappropriate set of behaviours that was downright creepy. He grabbed the Chinese Premier by the sleeve to drag him offstage (the look on Hu's face was priceless. If he'd had the Patented Laser Glare, Georgie would've been fried to a crisp).

Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!

He tried to give a decidedly unwelcome back rub to the German Prime Minister that resulted in a public show of horror on her part. Anyone who's ever been groped by some creepy uncle or child molester will empathize with Ms. Merkel's reaction. He manhandled female athletes in a well-publicized shot.

President Obama comes across very very different. He's openly affectionate to his wife and children. He's reserved and cool in public, yet he seems to like the people he interacts with, genuinely like them. He seems genuinely appreciative of their ideas and opinions, he seems to care about their travails.

ICHC

So he's asking us to step up now and fight for our health care. Are you going to do your bit? All fired up? Ready to go?

It's the fight of our lifetime, people. Unchecked, healthcare costs have long since outstripped wage increases (wages have been stagnant for quite a while); the American consumer has made reductions in spending to deal with the facts of stagnant wages, unsustainable debt, an economy struggling out of recession, financial sector malfeasance, and tightened credit — and those reductions seem to be becoming part of the norm. In other words, don't expect the American consumer to increase spending when this recession is over. In an economy that is largely fueled by the hitherto-profligate spending habits of the American consumer, this is not the best sign. But it is a sign of the times. A sign of the changes that need to be made for a sustainable planet, a sustainable globally interactive economy.

If health care costs (currently between 15 and 20 per cent of GDP) are not contained, they will soon amount to an unsustainable burden on the economy. Very soon. It makes sound fiscal sense to move towards cost containment AND broadly inclusive health care. We pay double what Canadians do for less care. And in an era of global connectivity and climate change, we are at greater risk than ever of epidemics. So do your bit, peeps. For yourself, your friends, your family, your nation, and your world.