Just ask G.O.P. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/25/us/politics/majority-leaders-quest-to-soften-gops-image-hits-wall.html
Thursday, April 25, 2013
A New Low for House Republicans -- Just Ask Eric Cantor!
Thu. April 25, 2013:
On climate, deregulation, guns, immigration, sequester, tax reform, and just about any issue you can think of -- Is there really any lingering doubt about WHO is rendering Washington dysfunctional?
Just ask G.O.P. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/25/us/politics/majority-leaders-quest-to-soften-gops-image-hits-wall.html
Just ask G.O.P. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/25/us/politics/majority-leaders-quest-to-soften-gops-image-hits-wall.html
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Clearance Sale on Obscure but Surprising Recent Articles
Wed. April 24, 2013:
Dear Readers, who have time, will not regret these uusual articles:
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/22/business/media/in-boston-cnn-stumbles-in-rush-to-break-news.html?pagewanted=all
Rushed, and therefore awful, reporting during the Boston Marathon bombing week.
2. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/10/arts/music/brad-paisleys-wheelhouse.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Country Music star Brad Paisley gently tries to talk down country fans from the more extreme rural positions
-- such as racism.
3. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/01/opinion/we-can-love-form-1040.html
Filing tax returns can be an act of civic virtue.
Ralph Kramden, in a 1953 episode of The Honeymooners, tells his wife Alice,
"I didn't mean that before what I said about income taxes. Boy, we should give everything to the government> We're living in a great country. This is the greatest country in the world."
4. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/15/opinion/a-fairer-corporate-tax.html
If, as Mitt Romney said, "corporations are people, my friends," then let's tax them too, on a sliding scale, just the way we used to!
5. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/22/world/africa/anna-merz-protector-of-black-rhinos-dies-at-81.html
"Samia, an orphan rhino whom she raised from babyhood, even crawled into bed with Mrs. Merz -- not entirely to her delight. Samia would follow her around like a dog . . . If Mrs. Merz fell, Samia would extend her tail to help her up."
6. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/24/world/europe/israel-and-palestinians-reach-deal-on-unesco.html
Israel & Palestine actually agree on something!
Dear Readers, who have time, will not regret these uusual articles:
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/22/business/media/in-boston-cnn-stumbles-in-rush-to-break-news.html?pagewanted=all
Rushed, and therefore awful, reporting during the Boston Marathon bombing week.
2. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/10/arts/music/brad-paisleys-wheelhouse.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Country Music star Brad Paisley gently tries to talk down country fans from the more extreme rural positions
-- such as racism.
3. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/01/opinion/we-can-love-form-1040.html
Filing tax returns can be an act of civic virtue.
Ralph Kramden, in a 1953 episode of The Honeymooners, tells his wife Alice,
"I didn't mean that before what I said about income taxes. Boy, we should give everything to the government> We're living in a great country. This is the greatest country in the world."
4. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/15/opinion/a-fairer-corporate-tax.html
If, as Mitt Romney said, "corporations are people, my friends," then let's tax them too, on a sliding scale, just the way we used to!
5. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/22/world/africa/anna-merz-protector-of-black-rhinos-dies-at-81.html
"Samia, an orphan rhino whom she raised from babyhood, even crawled into bed with Mrs. Merz -- not entirely to her delight. Samia would follow her around like a dog . . . If Mrs. Merz fell, Samia would extend her tail to help her up."
6. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/24/world/europe/israel-and-palestinians-reach-deal-on-unesco.html
Israel & Palestine actually agree on something!
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Man Bites Dog: "China Censures America on Human Rights"
Tues. April 23, 2013:
Dear Readers,
A revealing side-door view of how much damage conservative policies have done to
daily life in the USA of 2013:
"China Censures America on Human Rights" [recent Boston Globe headline]
The Chinese count the ways:
1. US military operations in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen. [The Bush administration's March 2003 preemptive strike on Iraq prolonged and enabled the crises in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen.]
2. Political donations to election campaigns have undue influence on US policy.
3. "American citizens do not enjoy a genuinely equal right to vote." Decreased turnout in the 2012 presidential election and a voting rate of just 57.5 %.
4. Serious sex, racial, and religious discrimination in the USA.
5. Gun violence is a serious threat to the lives & safety of America's citizens.
Conservatives in US politics are almost entirely responsible for all 5 of these human rights violations.
_________________________________________________________________________
But issue #5 seems particularly avoidable & senseless.
Item: A New Hampshire police chief left a loaded Glock handgun on top of a safe in a closet at his home.
Then, he left to run errands. While he was out, a 15-year-old son of his girlfriend turned the gun on
himself.
Item: Texas prosecutors, openly threatened by a man who eventually shot & killed them, regularly carried
handguns to protect themselves from this man. Gun-rights folks emphasize the right to carry your own
gun for self-protection. SOME PROTECTION! A lot of good "the 2nd Amendment" did these Texas
prosecutors.
Item: Gun rights people keep claiming that ANY gun laws violate the 2nd Amendment.
One rural town historian says, "there's probably the same percentage of people who are in favor of the
Second Amendment as those who are in favor of these stringent laws." [SO: ANYONE
FAVORING ANY GUN SAFETY IS FAVORING BACKGROUND CHECKS IS FAVORING
"STRINGENT LAWS"? AND, YOU'RE EITHER FOR THE 2ND AMENDMENT, OR YOU'RE
AGAINST IT -- CAN'T HAVE BOTH!]`
Item: Arkansas's Senator Mark Pryor said, "As a general rule, people in Arkansas do not want any gun
control." North Dakota's Senator Heidi Heitkamp said, "It's not what any other senator believes. It's
about what the people of North Dakota believe."
WELL HERE'S AN IDEA: HOW ABOUT SENATORS TRYING TO EDUCATE & LEAD
THEIR CONSTITUENTS ON THE CONCEPT THAT THEY CAN HAVE THEIR 2ND
AMENDMENT, KEEP THEIR GUNS, AND, SIMULTANEOUSLY, GAIN MORE PUBLIC
SAFETY ALL AT ONCE THROUGH COMMON-SENSE SAFEGUARDS!
Item: This is what University of Texas author Zachary Elkins in, "Rewrite The Second Amendment":
Strengthen the language of guaranteed right to bear arms, AND, increase public safety with
background checks, trafficking checks, gun-safes, mental health screens, et alia.
Item: Boston Globe columnist James Carroll writes,
"What makes democracy as fragile as it is precious -- and Athens reminds us of this, too -- is that a minority of self-obsessed citizens can destroy it. The Constitution will not survive if its Second Amendment is made to count for more than all the others."
Item: The NRA once supported an expansion of background checks. But after Newtown, it changed its mind, AND NO ONE HAS FORCED IT TO EXPLAIN WHY THIS CHANGE.
Item: The NRA's buffoonish spokesman Wayne LaPierre is "effective" because his supporters say his
main strength is that he is "a guy who will never fold." WHAT A VIRTUE! A MAN WHO WILL NEVER GIVE AN INCH. Just what we need in this nation of ideological gridlock.
Item: Fox News always cuts away, if any footage might undermine the credibility of gun-rights extremism.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/19/business/media/fox-news-msnbc-and-the-gun-debate.html
GABRIELLE GIFFORDS, FURIOUS OVER THE SENATE'S COWARDLY REJECTION OF A GUN SAFETY BILL, SUGGESTS AN ANTIDOTE:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/18/opinion/a-senate-in-the-gun-lobbys-grip.html
3 PARANOID WORDS ARE ALL THE NRA NEEDS TO DEFEAT ANY GUN BILLS:
"NATIONAL GUN REGISTRY"
7 MORE WORDS WILL DO IT, TOO:
"OBAMA WANTS TO TAKE OUR GUNS AWAY."
Dear Readers,
A revealing side-door view of how much damage conservative policies have done to
daily life in the USA of 2013:
"China Censures America on Human Rights" [recent Boston Globe headline]
The Chinese count the ways:
1. US military operations in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen. [The Bush administration's March 2003 preemptive strike on Iraq prolonged and enabled the crises in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen.]
2. Political donations to election campaigns have undue influence on US policy.
3. "American citizens do not enjoy a genuinely equal right to vote." Decreased turnout in the 2012 presidential election and a voting rate of just 57.5 %.
4. Serious sex, racial, and religious discrimination in the USA.
5. Gun violence is a serious threat to the lives & safety of America's citizens.
Conservatives in US politics are almost entirely responsible for all 5 of these human rights violations.
_________________________________________________________________________
But issue #5 seems particularly avoidable & senseless.
Item: A New Hampshire police chief left a loaded Glock handgun on top of a safe in a closet at his home.
Then, he left to run errands. While he was out, a 15-year-old son of his girlfriend turned the gun on
himself.
Item: Texas prosecutors, openly threatened by a man who eventually shot & killed them, regularly carried
handguns to protect themselves from this man. Gun-rights folks emphasize the right to carry your own
gun for self-protection. SOME PROTECTION! A lot of good "the 2nd Amendment" did these Texas
prosecutors.
Item: Gun rights people keep claiming that ANY gun laws violate the 2nd Amendment.
One rural town historian says, "there's probably the same percentage of people who are in favor of the
Second Amendment as those who are in favor of these stringent laws." [SO: ANYONE
FAVORING ANY GUN SAFETY IS FAVORING BACKGROUND CHECKS IS FAVORING
"STRINGENT LAWS"? AND, YOU'RE EITHER FOR THE 2ND AMENDMENT, OR YOU'RE
AGAINST IT -- CAN'T HAVE BOTH!]`
Item: Arkansas's Senator Mark Pryor said, "As a general rule, people in Arkansas do not want any gun
control." North Dakota's Senator Heidi Heitkamp said, "It's not what any other senator believes. It's
about what the people of North Dakota believe."
WELL HERE'S AN IDEA: HOW ABOUT SENATORS TRYING TO EDUCATE & LEAD
THEIR CONSTITUENTS ON THE CONCEPT THAT THEY CAN HAVE THEIR 2ND
AMENDMENT, KEEP THEIR GUNS, AND, SIMULTANEOUSLY, GAIN MORE PUBLIC
SAFETY ALL AT ONCE THROUGH COMMON-SENSE SAFEGUARDS!
Item: This is what University of Texas author Zachary Elkins in, "Rewrite The Second Amendment":
Strengthen the language of guaranteed right to bear arms, AND, increase public safety with
background checks, trafficking checks, gun-safes, mental health screens, et alia.
Item: Boston Globe columnist James Carroll writes,
"What makes democracy as fragile as it is precious -- and Athens reminds us of this, too -- is that a minority of self-obsessed citizens can destroy it. The Constitution will not survive if its Second Amendment is made to count for more than all the others."
Item: The NRA once supported an expansion of background checks. But after Newtown, it changed its mind, AND NO ONE HAS FORCED IT TO EXPLAIN WHY THIS CHANGE.
Item: The NRA's buffoonish spokesman Wayne LaPierre is "effective" because his supporters say his
main strength is that he is "a guy who will never fold." WHAT A VIRTUE! A MAN WHO WILL NEVER GIVE AN INCH. Just what we need in this nation of ideological gridlock.
Item: Fox News always cuts away, if any footage might undermine the credibility of gun-rights extremism.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/19/business/media/fox-news-msnbc-and-the-gun-debate.html
GABRIELLE GIFFORDS, FURIOUS OVER THE SENATE'S COWARDLY REJECTION OF A GUN SAFETY BILL, SUGGESTS AN ANTIDOTE:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/18/opinion/a-senate-in-the-gun-lobbys-grip.html
3 PARANOID WORDS ARE ALL THE NRA NEEDS TO DEFEAT ANY GUN BILLS:
"NATIONAL GUN REGISTRY"
7 MORE WORDS WILL DO IT, TOO:
"OBAMA WANTS TO TAKE OUR GUNS AWAY."
Monday, April 22, 2013
New & Old Readers Offer More Taxonomy for Important "Swears"
Mon. April 22, 2013:
Bitesfromedwin proudly announces a new & observant reader -- the "Ph of Ph" [the Philosopher of Philadelphia]. Please relish his take on an important taxonomy, to help us navigate our
everyday lives:
Bitesfromedwin proudly announces a new & observant reader -- the "Ph of Ph" [the Philosopher of Philadelphia]. Please relish his take on an important taxonomy, to help us navigate our
everyday lives:
I feel that its worse to be an asshole. Assholes have objectionable deep seated personal traits that are maintained for their entire lives. Their actions are often hurtful and always annoying.
Douchebags on the other hand are merely pathetic and they do not necessarily impose costs on everyone they encounter. In fact douchebags can overcome their defect, whereas assholes cannot. As one anedotal example, virtually all the boys Abby and Sara knew in 9th and 10th grade were considered by my girls to be douchbags. Yet years later some of them were elevated to a more tolerable status, and even became friends. The asshole does not make this progress.
That being said, the sound of the word "douchebag" can be more degrading than the sound of "asshole".
And then there are some cases of assholes being douchebags, and even at least one very extreme case of a douchebag who is also an Undisappeared Asshole.
Thems my thoughts on this weighty matter.
Dave [K--------]
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Discerning "Swears" for Fun & Profit
Sat. April 20, 2013:
BUT, DEAR READERS, ARE YOU SURE THIS LABEL IS ACCURATE?
Please read the following link, with All Due Discernment:
http://www.onassholes.com/a-taxonomy-of-prick-dick-shit-and-jerk-2/
BUT, DEAR READERS, ARE YOU SURE THIS LABEL IS ACCURATE?
Please read the following link, with All Due Discernment:
http://www.onassholes.com/a-taxonomy-of-prick-dick-shit-and-jerk-2/
Friday, April 19, 2013
The Bro's Fought the Law, and The Law Mostly Won
Fri. April 19, 2013:
Watertown Crowds Cheering Law Enforcement Vehicles
It's now 9:43 pm Fri. April 19, 2013. Exactly an hour ago, Law Enforcement took "Suspect #2" into custody in Watertown, Massachusetts. Global television showed crowds along the lighted streets, cheering all police, and especially the ambulance which drove off toward a hospital with the suspect, who has lost "a significant amount" of blood.
The cheers are well-deserved, especially for the outstanding work in culling so much visual evidence isolating the 2 suspects around the Boston Marathon finish line. Police work after that was complicated, dangerous, and needle-in-haystack work, against cold-blooded killers armed with firearms and Improvised Explosive Devices.
20/20 Hindsight:
1. Check ALL houses? Several neighbors in the neighborhood around 67 Franklin Street
-- where the suspect turned out to be hiding in a shrink-wrapped boat at least much of the time -- said they were surprised that the much-publicized "house-by-house search" in a 20-block "Watertown Crime Scene" perimeter did NOT include a search of their houses.
WHY NOT?
2. Police now say that the suspect was bleeding in or near another house, but that spot was evidently
ONE BLOCK OUTSIDE THE 20-BLOCK PERIMETER? WHY?
3. No searchers -- nor residents -- thought of checking inside the shrink-wrapped boat in the back yard at 67 Franklin Street.
WHY NOT?
Capture Scene: The Shrink-wrapped Boat at 67 Franklin Street, Watertown, MA
The suspect is said to have been at the other spot, bleeding, for some time, before moving to the boat where he was eventually captured alive, in the backyard of a residence at 67 Franklin Street, Watertown, Massachusetts.
Watertown Crowds Cheering Law Enforcement Vehicles
It's now 9:43 pm Fri. April 19, 2013. Exactly an hour ago, Law Enforcement took "Suspect #2" into custody in Watertown, Massachusetts. Global television showed crowds along the lighted streets, cheering all police, and especially the ambulance which drove off toward a hospital with the suspect, who has lost "a significant amount" of blood.
The cheers are well-deserved, especially for the outstanding work in culling so much visual evidence isolating the 2 suspects around the Boston Marathon finish line. Police work after that was complicated, dangerous, and needle-in-haystack work, against cold-blooded killers armed with firearms and Improvised Explosive Devices.
20/20 Hindsight:
67 Franklin Street, Watertown, Massachusetts
1. Check ALL houses? Several neighbors in the neighborhood around 67 Franklin Street
-- where the suspect turned out to be hiding in a shrink-wrapped boat at least much of the time -- said they were surprised that the much-publicized "house-by-house search" in a 20-block "Watertown Crime Scene" perimeter did NOT include a search of their houses.
WHY NOT?
2. Police now say that the suspect was bleeding in or near another house, but that spot was evidently
ONE BLOCK OUTSIDE THE 20-BLOCK PERIMETER? WHY?
3. No searchers -- nor residents -- thought of checking inside the shrink-wrapped boat in the back yard at 67 Franklin Street.
WHY NOT?
Capture Scene: The Shrink-wrapped Boat at 67 Franklin Street, Watertown, MA
The suspect is said to have been at the other spot, bleeding, for some time, before moving to the boat where he was eventually captured alive, in the backyard of a residence at 67 Franklin Street, Watertown, Massachusetts.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
The Senate's Gun Vote & the Rural/Urban Divide
Thu. April 18, 2013:
The string of angry, disrespectful, divisive, gotcha, ideological comments after the article below, pro & con, are really what endangers the USA most right now -- not terrorist attacks.
Urbanites: TIME TO RESPECT OUR RURAL SELVES.
Without them, grass would grow in our empty city streets.
Ruralites: TIME TO RESPECT THE URBAN PART OF THEMSELVES.
2000 years ago Aristotle said,
People "come to the city to live; they stay in the city to live the good life."
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-17/congress-rural-bias-puts-gun-control-out-of-reach.html?alcmpid=view
The string of angry, disrespectful, divisive, gotcha, ideological comments after the article below, pro & con, are really what endangers the USA most right now -- not terrorist attacks.
Urbanites: TIME TO RESPECT OUR RURAL SELVES.
Without them, grass would grow in our empty city streets.
Ruralites: TIME TO RESPECT THE URBAN PART OF THEMSELVES.
2000 years ago Aristotle said,
People "come to the city to live; they stay in the city to live the good life."
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-17/congress-rural-bias-puts-gun-control-out-of-reach.html?alcmpid=view
Monday, April 15, 2013
Just Blocks Away, from Boston Marathon Explosion 2 Hours Ago
Mon. April 15, 2013:
It is now 4:51 pm Mon. April 15, and this report comes to you from a residence, one block from the Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown:
It is now 4:51 pm Mon. April 15, and this report comes to you from a residence, one block from the Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown:
We're okay. But evidently we were more lucky than we realized, and quite close to the explosions at Boylston & Exeter.
Ruth & I were on the packed Green Line, subway train sitting at Arlington stop. The usual hopelessly garbled voice came on, saying either "RRowllbazzle )(&^%$#@!," or, possibly, "Station Closed. Everyone exit the train and go up to street level." So we joined the throng, all of us clueless of any crisis, trudging up the steps to Aaahlington Street. Up there, still lots of Marathon crowds milling around, and everyone under 30 was cursing at their cellphones for not working. Then emergency vehicles started pouring in from all over. We walked over to Charles Street toward MGH, to pick up a shuttle bus to the Chaaalestown Navy Yard,
just a couple blocks from our condo. Ambulances were pouring into MGH. We could see police cars coming into town from everywhere. A whole bus full of fire-fighters careened around a corner, lotsa unmarked cars flashing blue lights, black police pickup trucks even rushing over the Tobin Bridge from places like F***in' Reveah. Now, we are hearing at least 2 people killed, and
25-28 people injured, including limbs blown off.
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Quote of the Day:"I may be a Republican. I'm not an idiot."
Wed. April 10, 2013:
The GOP mayor of Lancaster, California:
Global warming will eventually persuade others to realize that locally generated renewable energy may provide a safety net as the cost of cooling desert homes go up.
[Is global warming indeed a threat?}
Absolutely. "I may be a Republican. I'm not an idiot."
The GOP mayor of Lancaster, California:
Global warming will eventually persuade others to realize that locally generated renewable energy may provide a safety net as the cost of cooling desert homes go up.
[Is global warming indeed a threat?}
Absolutely. "I may be a Republican. I'm not an idiot."
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Is the NRA the Real Axis of Evil & Evil Empire?
Wed. April 3, 2013:
Dear Faithful Readers, and Faithless Ones too,
If you have ever suspected that the NRA -- not the Yankees, not Iran or Iraq or North Korea -- may be the real Evil Empire or Axis of Evil, then this is for you.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-01/the-nra-opposes-common-sense-hunting-too.html?alcmpid=view
Dear Faithful Readers, and Faithless Ones too,
If you have ever suspected that the NRA -- not the Yankees, not Iran or Iraq or North Korea -- may be the real Evil Empire or Axis of Evil, then this is for you.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-01/the-nra-opposes-common-sense-hunting-too.html?alcmpid=view
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)