Monday, July 23, 2007

I Knew It

I figured it would only be a matter of time:



I mean, one of the top Democratic presidential candidates having a first name that was only one letter away from the world's most notorious terrorist--I knew it would be inevitable.

Once again proving that there is no limit to how low the other side will go.

By the way, in case you were wondering, that's Mitt Romney smiling in that picture. And he was more than happy to autograph it.

Thanks to BuckeyeStateBlog for the picture.

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Great Britain: Strong as an Ox

(This is a semi-follow-up to yesterday's post.)

It would seem that Hollywood, and perhaps the world in general, seems to think that England will always prevail.

You see, much in the same way New York City always seems to be destined to be destroyed in the movies, England always seems to be destined to survive whatever apocalypse will destroy the world not so very long from now.

By the way, why is it that celluloid versions of the future always seem to depict the world of the future(s) either as a high-tech utopia or a post-apocalyptic wasteland? Of all the movies I've seen, only Minority Report seemed to achieve some kind of middle ground between the two.

But I digress. As I was saying, England always seems destined to somehow survive whatever cataclysm has rendered the rest of the future world a barbaric wasteland. You see it in everything from movies like Shaun of the Dead to V for Vendetta. (And if you haven't seen either of those movies, stop reading now and go to your local video store and pick them up. You won't be disappointed.)

What is it about England that has everyone convinced it will survive?

Well, for starters, part of it may have to do with the fact that it survived for so long. I mean, here is an island nation whose total land mass is less than the state of Idaho (I include Northern Ireland), with limited natural resources, and with no shortage of enemies throughout the ages. And it's a nation that has not only survived centuries of brutal military assaults, but has beaten them all back and in most cases repaid the favor in spades.

It's also the nation that founded this nation of ours, and that, despite our differences over the decades, remains to this day one of our strongest allies.

It's also a nation that maintains its standing as one of the oldest surviving monarchies, despite the fact that its monarch is little more than a figurehead, and that its royal family is lately plagued by more scandals than Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, and Michael Jackson combined.

And it's a nation that is famous for the "Stiff upper lip", the trademark stoicism that has carried the British through crisis after crisis for years.

In fact, the only thing I can think of that will bring Great Britain down is if some kind of plant virus were to destroy every single tea leaf in the world.

Without tea, England would be gone in a day.

Friday, July 20, 2007

Children of Men

I recommend that the 3 readers of this Blog do 4 things.

1) Rent the movie in the Title of this post.

2) Watch the movie and the special features.

3) Pray for the survival of mankind.

4) Hope that our children will forgive us for the world we are leaving for them.

Good night, and Good Luck.

Monday, July 16, 2007

Sad.

Ran across this car in the parking lot of a local grocery store. Please, please, PLEASE tell me this is not the saddest thing you've ever seen in your life:



Seriously, personalized license plates aren't cheap. So how much sense does it make to spend that kind of money to advertise to the world what a complete and total dork you are?

Perhaps the words of William Shatner can best explain how sad this is:

You know, before I answer any more questions there's something I wanted to say. Having received all your letters over the years, and I've spoken to many of you, and some of you have traveled... y'know... hundreds of miles to be here, I'd just like to say... GET A LIFE, will you people? I mean, for crying out loud, it's just a TV show! I mean, look at you, look at the way you're dressed! You've turned an enjoyable little job, that I did as a lark for a few years, into a COLOSSAL WASTE OF TIME!

I mean, how old are you people? What have you done with yourselves?

You, you must be almost 30... have you ever kissed a girl?

I didn't think so! There's a whole world out there! When I was your age, I didn't watch television! I LIVED! So... move out of your parent's basements! And get your own apartments and GROW THE HELL UP! I mean, it's just a TV show dammit, IT'S JUST A TV SHOW!


Now I realize that he was talking about trekkies--sorry, trekkERS--but just replace the words "TV Show" with "movie", and replace William Shatner with Mark Hamill or Harrison Ford, and then imagine the owner of that car standing in the front row of the crowd. Suddenly the speech isn't so much a humorous SNL sketch as it is a desparate cry for help.

Saturday, July 14, 2007

The One True Church--NOT!

This week, Poop--er Pope Benedict XVI has approved a document asserting that Catholicsm is the One True Religion, and that the Eastern Orthodox Churches are defective, and that other Christian Churches are not true churches.

And may I say to Poop-er Pope Benedict XVI this: Fuck You!

And may I further add: And the horse you rode in on!

Perhaps I should change that to the Chariot you rode in on.

Yes, the Chariot. For you, as the head of the Catholic church, have refused to acknowledge that there may be any advances of mankind past the wheel.

You see, God gave us the power of imagination.

And that power enabled us to imagine that there might be something to do other that spend our entire life worshipping Him.

That power enabled us to imagine that some day, humankind might find a cure for diseases that had killed millions of us.

That power enabled us to imagine that someday we would break the bonds of gravity and fly.

That power enabled us to imagine that some day, humankind might esape the bonds of this Earth, and live in the Stars.

That power enabled us to imagine that we as a people would launch a deep space probe named Voyager, loaded with data that NASA scientists thought was the best humanity had to offer, into the interstellar void.

And that power of imagination helps me to think that my 2 nephews will one day lead humanity in establishing a human Republic in Space that will last for Millienia. Hey, a man can dream.

And, most importantly, that power of imagination helped us believe that God wouldn't mind if people chose to worship Him in dozens, if not hundreds, of different ways.

So I reject your finding that there is no other valid religion. As I have rejected every other tenet from a religion that seems to want to stay permanently mired in the 15th century. Mankind has progressed in spite of the Catholic church, not because of it. And I have to believe that we are all the better for it.

Monday, July 09, 2007

Sicko

So. I went to see Sicko over the weekend.

Yes, I have seen every Michael Moore film ever made. In case you hadn't noticed, I am an unabashed liberal. I make no apologies for this. I firmly believe that every social advancement in this country has been championed by liberals. Abolition of slavery immediately pops to mind...

So, keeping the film in mind, I reject any arguments that Moore has created a propaganda piece designed to demonize the American medical system, and advance the cause of socialized medicine.

As Moore pointed out, we have socialized a lot of things in this country. Fire, police, education (for the most part) spring to mind.

So why not health care?

Because, in 1971, a man named Kaiser managed to convince the Republican Administration that providing health care could be profitable. The same administration that created the Environmental Protection Agency, by the way.

I firmly believe that the Health Maintenance Organization was created to help people. After all, who could be unhappy about companies that had the ultimate goal of encouraging people to live a more healthy lifestyle?

But over the course of the next 30+ years, that goal became corrupted. The almighty dollar reared its ugly head. And these companies became increasingly profitable by demonstrating how much care they could NOT provide, instead of the reverse. And as the insurance and drug companies showed increasing profits, they gained even more incentive to make those profits even larger. It became a vicious cycle of greed.

It culminated in the deregulation of drug companies in the mid-90's. A flood of commercials for drug companies hit the airwaves, driving the demand for drugs to treat everything from high cholesterol to erectile dysfunction.

As a result, we as a nation watched our quality of health care decline even as its costs rose. I myself, in the 11+ years I have been in my current job, have seen my health care costs more than quadruple. And I have insurance!

Conservatives complain that Moore's film lionizes the health care systems of other countries while ignoring their faults. Not one mention is made of the faults readily apparent in our own system of health care.

After all, if you had a choice between waiting a few weeks for a medical procedure or being totally denied that procedure, which would you choose?

I thought so.

Thursday, July 05, 2007

The Pardon in all but Name

So. Scooter Libby has received a full pard--er, commutation of his sentence from Idiot Boy--er, president Bush.

What this means is that the only man to be held slightly accountable for leaking the name of a covert CIA operative to the media, thus ending her career, will not spend a day in jail, and his token fines (you may think 250K is not such a token fine, but consider that a special fundraising commitee has already raised 2 Million for his defense and any financial penalties he may incur) will not even cause him the slightest inconvenience.

And while you may say that now he is a man with a criminal record (pending reversal on appeal), I might point out that many other people involved in White House scandals and who now have criminal records to show for it have gone on to have long and prosperous careers (G. Gordon Liddy, I'm looking your way here!)

The Constitution of the United States states: "Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort."

Valerie Plame was heavily involved with countering the efforts of rogue nations, terrorist groups, and other nefarious characters to obtain materials for constructing nuclear weapons. She did this, presumably, by building a secret network of informants throughout several African states which posessed the resources necessary to construct these weapons. These informants would in turn inform her of anyone attempting to obtain said materials. In other words, she was doing the job she had been assigned to. We will probably never know how well. It is a well-known tenet that only the failures of the CIA are ever known.

But publication of her name in the media ended those efforts for good. And irreparably destroyed her career. All in the name of embarassing her husband, a well-known critic of the Bush Regime. A regime, I might point out, that considers any criticism of it to be treason of the highest order.

Scooter Libby, leaking the name of Valerie Plame, committed treason by giving aid and comfort to the enemy, by way of letting them know exactly who they could not trust. He no doubt did this on the orders of Vice President Cheney and/or Karl Rove and/or "President" Bush. We will probably never know just how high up on the food chain that order came from.

But we will always know that Scooter Libby committed Treason as defined by the Constitution. And he will never spend a single day behind bars for doing so.
And that is a disgrace.