Wasilla, Alaska, July 27, 2009. The Republicans have finally released their health care plan. Sarah Palin, Michael Steele, and Rush Limbaugh, joined by Bobby Jindal and the Blue Dog Democrats, have announced their plan: "The Single Prayer Plan."
The good news is that the health care plan is free. All you need to do is pray that you don't get sick, and pray that you don't need medicine. The bad news is that it is not proven to be effective.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Hunting Now Considered Feminine Behavior
Anchorage, Alaska. Dec. 25. Hunting Now Feminine Behavior for Conservative Republicans. It is well known that hunters want to kill to be in touch with their primitive side. They want to dominate beings and kill them in order to feel tough, masculine, heroic, and all that.
Of course, this begs the question of "How does shooting a defenseless living being at a distance of 100 yards or greater, or from a helicopter Sarah Palin Style, make one feel tough, masculine, heroic and all that?" This raises a second question. Given that Sarah Palin hunts, and given that Palin is a female and a de facto role model of femininity for conservative Republicans, then isn't hunting now a
feminine behavior for conservative Republicans?
Friday, July 24, 2009
New Jersey's Gangster Rabbis
New Jersey's Gangster Rabbis - Next to Jack Abramoff they look like Boy Scouts.
The Gangster Rabbis allegedly stole money. One allegedly offered to broker the sale of a kidney. And they allegedly bought and sold hack politicians like shmatas. Big deal. They don't come close to Bernie Madoff, and he wears normal clothes. Eats lobster. Summers on the Hamptons. That is, he used to.
But Abramoff, he was one of the biggest, baddest Jew-hoods pretending to be a mensch. He's like Arnold Rothstein - fixed the World Series, Meyer Lansky - hit his "friend" Bugsy. While Abramoff was only a low level hack in the organization, he helped steal THE COUNTRY, nu, they suborned the Department of Justice - the whole Executive Branch - and much of the Legislative Branch.
But the good news about Abramoff's Gang is it seems to be those guys are as farklempt as they are meshugah. Sure they still dally with men and women to whom they are not married. Sure they have that shicksa from Alaska, who really only likes one Jew.
Ciao, Shalom, Peace,
Glossary
Farklempt - pron. "far-klempt", fucked up.
Meshugah - pron. "meh - shu - gah" crazy and stupid. Or stupid and crazy. Or Republican.
Nu - pron. "new" - in this context - well, nu, we discussed that yesterday.
Shiksa - pron "shick-sah", non-Jewish woman.
Shmatas - pron "shmah-tahz" - rags, clothes, washed up hack politicians.
The Gangster Rabbis allegedly stole money. One allegedly offered to broker the sale of a kidney. And they allegedly bought and sold hack politicians like shmatas. Big deal. They don't come close to Bernie Madoff, and he wears normal clothes. Eats lobster. Summers on the Hamptons. That is, he used to.
But Abramoff, he was one of the biggest, baddest Jew-hoods pretending to be a mensch. He's like Arnold Rothstein - fixed the World Series, Meyer Lansky - hit his "friend" Bugsy. While Abramoff was only a low level hack in the organization, he helped steal THE COUNTRY, nu, they suborned the Department of Justice - the whole Executive Branch - and much of the Legislative Branch.
But the good news about Abramoff's Gang is it seems to be those guys are as farklempt as they are meshugah. Sure they still dally with men and women to whom they are not married. Sure they have that shicksa from Alaska, who really only likes one Jew.
Ciao, Shalom, Peace,
Glossary
Farklempt - pron. "far-klempt", fucked up.
Meshugah - pron. "meh - shu - gah" crazy and stupid. Or stupid and crazy. Or Republican.
Nu - pron. "new" - in this context - well, nu, we discussed that yesterday.
Shiksa - pron "shick-sah", non-Jewish woman.
Shmatas - pron "shmah-tahz" - rags, clothes, washed up hack politicians.
Single-Payer Health Care
The Critics of a single-payer health care system, which would expand Medicare to cover everyone, claim to be against rationing health care. Their fear is that some nameless bureaucrats will tell me which doctors I can see, and tell my doctors what to do. In truth that is precisely what we have today. Insurance companies ration health care. Insurance company bureaucrats tell us which doctors we can see and tell our doctors what to do - if we have insurance.
If we don't have insurance, and we're really, really sick, we go to the emergency room. This is an inefficient use of emergency room resources. It is paid for by the people with insurance and the
taxpayers. However, unless you're in a diabetic coma or have just had a heart attack or stroke, the ER is not designed to treat cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, and other chronic illness.
Insurance industry run health care is motivated by the managers of insurance companies to maximize revenues and minimize expenditures. The Cato Institute, the Heritage Foundation, and other conservatives would call this a “Market Failure.” Just as national security operations should not be defined and run by private contractors, health care should not be run by private industry.
Our government, in the words of President Lincoln, is “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” A government run health care system would be motivated by citizens demanding high quality health care for the people.
If we don't have insurance, and we're really, really sick, we go to the emergency room. This is an inefficient use of emergency room resources. It is paid for by the people with insurance and the
taxpayers. However, unless you're in a diabetic coma or have just had a heart attack or stroke, the ER is not designed to treat cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, and other chronic illness.
Insurance industry run health care is motivated by the managers of insurance companies to maximize revenues and minimize expenditures. The Cato Institute, the Heritage Foundation, and other conservatives would call this a “Market Failure.” Just as national security operations should not be defined and run by private contractors, health care should not be run by private industry.
Our government, in the words of President Lincoln, is “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” A government run health care system would be motivated by citizens demanding high quality health care for the people.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Haiku of earth sea and sky
This a magic place
No Witch, Wizard, Genie, Jin,
Just Technology
Yet a dark side here
From burning the rocks and tar
Poisons gas and heat
Nunuck bear home floats
Bed of ice on open sea
Melts nanuck to die
North Pacific Gyre
Toxic plastic looks like food
Bags we use but once
Turtle sees plastic
Floats like jelly but not food
Turtle eats to die
Death food in the sea
Dumb animals eat plastic bags
Why it look like food
We burn coal and oil
Mercury hot gas carbon
We burn rocks for heat
We strive for more stuff
Nuclear is still claimed safe
Safe if you are dead
Chesapeake near death
Algae grow on chicken waste
Oxygen all gone
Baby Orca dies
Endocrine system failure
PCB's in food
We kill for more stuff
Won't never have enough
We must kill for stuff
Iceberg floats submerged
Waters dance from ice to sea
Deep, Cold, Wild and True
Still waters run deep
Tuna Burgers Water Song
Breathe feel ride the waves
Children of the west
To live sustain the garden
Must learn harmony
No Witch, Wizard, Genie, Jin,
Just Technology
Yet a dark side here
From burning the rocks and tar
Poisons gas and heat
Nunuck bear home floats
Bed of ice on open sea
Melts nanuck to die
North Pacific Gyre
Toxic plastic looks like food
Bags we use but once
Turtle sees plastic
Floats like jelly but not food
Turtle eats to die
Death food in the sea
Dumb animals eat plastic bags
Why it look like food
We burn coal and oil
Mercury hot gas carbon
We burn rocks for heat
We strive for more stuff
Nuclear is still claimed safe
Safe if you are dead
Chesapeake near death
Algae grow on chicken waste
Oxygen all gone
Baby Orca dies
Endocrine system failure
PCB's in food
We kill for more stuff
Won't never have enough
We must kill for stuff
Iceberg floats submerged
Waters dance from ice to sea
Deep, Cold, Wild and True
Still waters run deep
Tuna Burgers Water Song
Breathe feel ride the waves
Children of the west
To live sustain the garden
Must learn harmony
Saturday, June 20, 2009
The GOP Embraces Diversity
The GOP Embraces Diversity,
Omeha, NE, June 20.
Michael Steele, one of approximately 16,500 African Americans in the 55 million strong GOP, announced a new Diversity Initiative in the GOP. Steele intends to double the membership in the GOP. In doing so he will also double the number of African Americans, Jews, Moslems, Hindus, Buddhists, and Atheists (well, maybe not Moslems and atheists) by 2020. He will do this in part by bringing back Colin Powell. He acknowledged that if he doubles the membership of the GOP, and doubles the number of African Americans, Jews, and others their numbers, as a percentage will remain constant. "That's a statistic. And statistics," he said, "are for geeks."
Steele also intends to embrace homosexuals, figuratively, but not literally. "We will embrace gays, figuratively speaking, of course," he said.
The GOP is planning on hosting a Christian and Diverse Music Festival featuring the Village People, Mattisyahu, Bette Middler, and Bob Marley in Branson, Mo.
The precise demographic breakdown of the GOP is below. Steele acknowledge that the GOP is 99.48% white Christians, and even if the population of those others doubles, it will still be 99.04% white Christians. "This is America," he said. "We want to fit white in."
Omeha, NE, June 20.
Michael Steele, one of approximately 16,500 African Americans in the 55 million strong GOP, announced a new Diversity Initiative in the GOP. Steele intends to double the membership in the GOP. In doing so he will also double the number of African Americans, Jews, Moslems, Hindus, Buddhists, and Atheists (well, maybe not Moslems and atheists) by 2020. He will do this in part by bringing back Colin Powell. He acknowledged that if he doubles the membership of the GOP, and doubles the number of African Americans, Jews, and others their numbers, as a percentage will remain constant. "That's a statistic. And statistics," he said, "are for geeks."
Steele also intends to embrace homosexuals, figuratively, but not literally. "We will embrace gays, figuratively speaking, of course," he said.
The GOP is planning on hosting a Christian and Diverse Music Festival featuring the Village People, Mattisyahu, Bette Middler, and Bob Marley in Branson, Mo.
The precise demographic breakdown of the GOP is below. Steele acknowledge that the GOP is 99.48% white Christians, and even if the population of those others doubles, it will still be 99.04% white Christians. "This is America," he said. "We want to fit white in."
| Total | Per 10,000 | Percentage | Description |
| 54,714,000 | 9948 | 99.48% | White Christians, including Evangelicals, Roman Catholics, Protestants, Mormans, Greek Orthodox, and Hispanics of Cuban Origin |
| 225,500 | 41 | 0.41% | Asians |
| 16,500 | 3 | 0.03% | Hispanics, of non-Cuban origin |
| 11,000 | 2 | 0.02% | Jews |
| 16,500 | 3 | 0.03% | African Americans |
| 5,500 | 1 | 0.01% | Asian Buddists |
| 5,500 | 1 | 0.01% | Native Americans |
| 5,500 | 1 | 0.01% | Athiests |
| 55,000,000 | 10000 | 100.00% |
|
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Obama on Israel, The Holocaust, and the Palestinians, in Cairo, June 4, 2009.
Obama on Israel, The Holocaust, and the Palestinians, in Cairo, June 4, 2009.
Obama doesn't tell people what they want to hear; he tells people what they need to know.
Obama understands the ramifications of the Holocaust and the legitimacy of Israel perhaps better than I do. In 154 words (paragraphs 2 and 3, below) the President slammed Achmadinejad, neo-Nazis, other Holocaust deniers and the whole anti-Zionist movement into a brick wall.
Recognizing that the Palestinians have legitimate aspirations and a painful history, even if some of it was "brought about by Israel's founding" does not minimize or undermine Obama's support for Israel. Indeed, speaking the facts supports it. In the context of the painful history of the Palestinians, Obama used the phrase "brought about by Israel's founding." But this means that Israel's founding may have precipitated certain events which have come to pass in the history of the Palestinians. This does not mean that Israel or Israelis are directly responsible for those events. If I am driving and I stop at yellow light, knowing it is about to turn red, and someone in back of me rear ends me, they are at fault. I am not at fault, even tho my actions precipitated the collision.
Here's the excerpt from Pres. Obama's speech in Cairo, June 4, 2009, published on the Internet at WhiteHouse.gov. (Click here for the full speech)
--
(I would, however, argue that the aspiration for a Jewish homeland is rooted in Judaism and Jewish culture, Zionism started in the time of the Roman exile - long before Hertzl observed the Dreyfus trial in France, long before World War II. However, I would agree that the international political will to support Zionism came about after W W II. And the President was speaking in Al-Azhar University in Cairo. He was there to lecture on America and the world today, not Jewish history.)
Peace,
Obama doesn't tell people what they want to hear; he tells people what they need to know.
Obama understands the ramifications of the Holocaust and the legitimacy of Israel perhaps better than I do. In 154 words (paragraphs 2 and 3, below) the President slammed Achmadinejad, neo-Nazis, other Holocaust deniers and the whole anti-Zionist movement into a brick wall.
Recognizing that the Palestinians have legitimate aspirations and a painful history, even if some of it was "brought about by Israel's founding" does not minimize or undermine Obama's support for Israel. Indeed, speaking the facts supports it. In the context of the painful history of the Palestinians, Obama used the phrase "brought about by Israel's founding." But this means that Israel's founding may have precipitated certain events which have come to pass in the history of the Palestinians. This does not mean that Israel or Israelis are directly responsible for those events. If I am driving and I stop at yellow light, knowing it is about to turn red, and someone in back of me rear ends me, they are at fault. I am not at fault, even tho my actions precipitated the collision.
Here's the excerpt from Pres. Obama's speech in Cairo, June 4, 2009, published on the Internet at WhiteHouse.gov. (Click here for the full speech)
"The second major source of tension that we need to discuss is the situation between Israelis, Palestinians and the Arab world.
"America's strong bonds with Israel are well known. This bond is unbreakable. It is based upon cultural and historical ties, and the recognition that the aspiration for a Jewish homeland is rooted in a tragic history that cannot be denied.
"Around the world, the Jewish people were persecuted for centuries, and anti-Semitism in Europe culminated in an unprecedented Holocaust. Tomorrow, I will visit Buchenwald, which was part of a network of camps where Jews were enslaved, tortured, shot and gassed to death by the Third Reich. Six million Jews were killed -- more than the entire Jewish population of Israel today. Denying that fact is baseless, it is ignorant, and it is hateful. Threatening Israel with destruction -- or repeating vile stereotypes about Jews -- is deeply wrong, and only serves to evoke in the minds of Israelis this most painful of memories while preventing the peace that the people of this region deserve.
"On the other hand, it is also undeniable that the Palestinian people -- Muslims and Christians -- have suffered in pursuit of a homeland. For more than 60 years they've endured the pain of dislocation. Many wait in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza, and neighboring lands for a life of peace and security that they have never been able to lead. They endure the daily humiliations -- large and small -- that come with occupation. So let there be no doubt: The situation for the Palestinian people is intolerable. And America will not turn our backs on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity, and a state of their own.
"For decades then, there has been a stalemate: two peoples with legitimate aspirations, each with a painful history that makes compromise elusive. It's easy to point fingers -- for Palestinians to point to the displacement brought about by Israel's founding, and for Israelis to point to the constant hostility and attacks throughout its history from within its borders as well as beyond. But if we see this conflict only from one side or the other, then we will be blind to the truth: The only resolution is for the aspirations of both sides to be met through two states, where Israelis and Palestinians each live in peace and security. (Applause.)
"That is in Israel's interest, Palestine's interest, America's interest, and the world's interest. And that is why I intend to personally pursue this outcome with all the patience and dedication that the task requires. (Applause.) The obligations -- the obligations that the parties have agreed to under the road map are clear. For peace to come, it is time for them -- and all of us -- to live up to our responsibilities.
"Palestinians must abandon violence. Resistance through violence and killing is wrong and it does not succeed. For centuries, black people in America suffered the lash of the whip as slaves and the humiliation of segregation. But it was not violence that won full and equal rights. It was a peaceful and determined insistence upon the ideals at the center of America's founding. This same story can be told by people from South Africa to South Asia; from Eastern Europe to Indonesia. It's a story with a simple truth: that violence is a dead end. It is a sign neither of courage nor power to shoot rockets at sleeping children, or to blow up old women on a bus. That's not how moral authority is claimed; that's how it is surrendered.
"Now is the time for Palestinians to focus on what they can build. The Palestinian Authority must develop its capacity to govern, with institutions that serve the needs of its people. Hamas does have support among some Palestinians, but they also have to recognize they have responsibilities. To play a role in fulfilling Palestinian aspirations, to unify the Palestinian people, Hamas must put an end to violence, recognize past agreements, recognize Israel's right to exist.
"At the same time, Israelis must acknowledge that just as Israel's right to exist cannot be denied, neither can Palestine's. The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements. (Applause.) This construction violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace. It is time for these settlements to stop. (Applause.)
"And Israel must also live up to its obligation to ensure that Palestinians can live and work and develop their society. Just as it devastates Palestinian families, the continuing humanitarian crisis in Gaza does not serve Israel's security; neither does the continuing lack of opportunity in the West Bank. Progress in the daily lives of the Palestinian people must be a critical part of a road to peace, and Israel must take concrete steps to enable such progress.
"And finally, the Arab states must recognize that the Arab Peace Initiative was an important beginning, but not the end of their responsibilities. The Arab-Israeli conflict should no longer be used to distract the people of Arab nations from other problems. Instead, it must be a cause for action to help the Palestinian people develop the institutions that will sustain their state, to recognize Israel's legitimacy, and to choose progress over a self-defeating focus on the past.
"America will align our policies with those who pursue peace, and we will say in public what we say in private to Israelis and Palestinians and Arabs. (Applause.) We cannot impose peace. But privately, many Muslims recognize that Israel will not go away. Likewise, many Israelis recognize the need for a Palestinian state. It is time for us to act on what everyone knows to be true.
"Too many tears have been shed. Too much blood has been shed. All of us have a responsibility to work for the day when the mothers of Israelis and Palestinians can see their children grow up without fear; when the Holy Land of the three great faiths is the place of peace that God intended it to be; when Jerusalem is a secure and lasting home for Jews and Christians and Muslims, and a place for all of the children of Abraham to mingle peacefully together as in the story of Isra -- (applause) -- as in the story of Isra, when Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed, peace be upon them, joined in prayer. (Applause.)
--
(I would, however, argue that the aspiration for a Jewish homeland is rooted in Judaism and Jewish culture, Zionism started in the time of the Roman exile - long before Hertzl observed the Dreyfus trial in France, long before World War II. However, I would agree that the international political will to support Zionism came about after W W II. And the President was speaking in Al-Azhar University in Cairo. He was there to lecture on America and the world today, not Jewish history.)
Peace,
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