A**holery, Sh*ts & Sh*theads: Hospital Billing, Magic Prayers, and Child-size Rifles

Wed. May 8, 2013:

                     [The Discerning will note:  the little white sign underneath the larger signs]


A**HOLES, Sh*TS, and SH*THEADS ON PARADE --


1.  Hmmm. As I remember from my time in the Delaware Valley, the term "piece-a-shit," when applied to a person (also denotes a lie or exaggeration) suggests total worthlessness, without the bite of a "shit" or the potentially interesting psychic characteristics of a "shithead." Incidentally, I would argue that a "shitheel" is similar to a "shit," and perhaps the original term, later shortened for convenience.

I do admire the Urban Dictionary:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=shitheel

On Mon, May 6, 2013 at 8:40 AM, Dave K wrote:

Greetings,

Honored to pass along my two cents here.

One should be aware that making fine definitive distinctions must be balanced with the need and joy associated with the immediacy of a response to bad behavior. As it often happens, our exposure to shits, pieces of shit, shitheads and assholes is very short and we have no time for analysis. Taking too long to express a response is not nearly as much fun as exclaiming "What a piece of shit" or "see that asshole?" instantly, even at the risk of inaccuracy of definition.

That being said, I feel that shit, or piece of shit, implies that the subject has been extruded from the company of decent people. Perhaps their fault, perhaps not - but extruded nevertheless. Shithead seems to imply behavior that is purposeful. Thus anyone can be a shithead, if only in a single aspect of their behavior.

We have here in the City of Brotherly Love a fine example in our institution of Municipal Traffic Court. Judgships on this court require no educational or professional qualification, and its a pretty cushy job. Nobody knows who the candidates are so the candidates that top the list on the ballot are always elected (one of the cool things about my membership in the Pen and Pencil is hearing city journalists describe city hall stuff, like selecting places on the ballot by drawing numbers from an old Horn and Hardardt coffee can). These folks are so corrupt that all nine of them are under federal indictment and the state is trying to abolish the court.

So are they shits or pieces of shit, or are they shitheads? Research reveals that since they were elected, its hard to claim their extrusion from society. Since they are all under indictment one would have to conclude that since their behavior is purposeful, they must be shitheads.

I add the term pieces of shit, perhaps a local phrase that deserves wider usage.

Hope this forwards the discussion.

2.  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/08/business/hospital-billing-varies-wildly-us-data-shows.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Hospital billing is sometimes 6 times more at one hospital than another for the same work
-- and OFTEN 3 to 5 times more.  None of this was likely to come to light, without Obamacare.


3.   http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/08/opinion/claiming-to-hear-the-voice-of-god.html

Having auditory hallucinations is not particularly rare, and need not be alarming.  
Believing in them, however -- and especially believing that they have the authority of a supreme being -- is the most dangerous of all possible delusions.  


4.  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/08/opinion/children-and-guns.html

I find it abhorrent that the people of Burkesville, Kentucky, are not willing to learn a lesson from the tragic shooting of a 2-year-old girl by her 5-year-old brother.

Is there any thoughtful, well-reasoned case for the existence of a child-sized rifle?  This is not a rhetorical question.  I simply want to know the answer.