Obscanity: You'll know it when you see it

Cafferty File: Tell Jack how you really feel Blog Archive – More important for U.S. president to be liked or feared outside the country? « – Blogs from CNN.com.

I guess you kind of have to define “fear” – are we talking, “Damn, this dude means business, I’d better not fuck with the USA or I’m gonna get my ass kicked” kind of fear? Or are we talking, “Jesus Christ, this guy is an ideological lunatic with access to nuclear weapons. I fear for the planet” type fear? It really does make a difference. Take 2000 – 2008, for example.

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive – Georgia congressman: Wilson’s outburst ‘carefully calculated’ « – Blogs from CNN.com.

Well, duh. I can’t imagine anybody really believes that was an “impassioned” cry of protest. Please. He planned it carefully, knew ahead of time that it was going to happen, and fully intends to milk it for all it’s worth when it comes to fundraising and climbing the political ladder. Just you wait. This Wilson guy will be out on the campaign trail raising money for the national party in 2010 and 2012, no doubt about it. He may even have delusions of presidency.

It’s Joe the Plumber all over again.

“Insurance companies are detail-oriented enough to deny claims for things like typos. If you spell something wrong, do you really deserve surgery? I don’t think so.”

Facebook | Videos Posted by Kim Tasky: I could maybe watch this forever..

Quite possibly the best cat video ever.

Except maybe for this one. Or this one.

Shhhh.

• Add this to the “OMG WTF?!?!?” file: “The U.S. Forest Service has apologized for suggesting that campers who eat tortillas, drink Tecate beer and play Spanish music may be armed marijuana growers, calling it “regrettable” and “insensitive.”” I guess “racist” was not on their pre-approved word list.
• In eight states, plus D.C., being a victim of domestic abuse constitutes a “pre-existing condition” for health insurance purposes – and Republican lawmakers voted to keep it that way.
• Tina Fey gets a Creative Arts Emmy for her heart-breaking, gut-wrenching portrayal of Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live. Also a winner: Joss Whedon’s “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.” Yay!
• Check out the National Geographic channel’s special, “Explorer: Sex, Lies and Gender.”
• Great New York Times editorial on the US health care system compared with “socialist” France. Turns out the Republicans are wrong about that, too. Whoddathunkit?
• Take a few minutes out of your day to visit storiesofhealth.com and watch real people share their health-insurance horror stories. Reform now!
• Bernanke says the recession is “very likely over.” What is this, “mission probably accomplished”? Gee, I wonder why I’m skeptical.
• Student who plays too many video games slays intruder with samurai sword. The comments are hilarious.

Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.

Patrick Swayze Dies After Long Battle with Cancer – KTLA.

October 2009: Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele on the U.S. Treasury | vanityfair.com.

Last October, Congress passed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, putting $700 billion into the hands of the Treasury Department to bail out the nation’s banks at a moment of vanishing credit and peak financial panic. Over the next three months, Treasury poured nearly $239 billion into 296 of the nation’s 8,000 banks. The money went to big banks. It went to small banks. It went to banks that desperately wanted the money. It went to banks that didn’t want the money at all but had been ordered by Treasury to take it anyway. It went to banks that were quite happy to accept the windfall, and used the money simply to buy other banks. Some banks received as much as $45 billion, others as little as $1.5 million. Sixty-seven percent went to eight institutions; 33 percent went to the rest. And that was just the money that went to banks. Tens of billions more went to other companies, all before Barack Obama took office. It was the largest single financial intervention by Treasury into the banking system in U.S. history.

Yeah… the “Obama Recession” indeed.

Physician Views On The Public Health Insurance Option and Medicare Expansions (PDF).

In conclusion, the majority of physicians in the U.S. support using both public and private insurance options to expand health insurance coverage. A majority also supports Medicare expansions. Majority support for the public option is consistent across physician specialties, practice settings, and regions of the country, and therefore should be carefully considered by lawmakers as they finalize legislation to reform health care and provide coverage for 46 million uninsured Americans.

Caster Semenya withdraws from event amid gender firestorm – More Sports – SI.com.

This is so freaking sad. All athletes have various advantages over one another – training and hard work are surely a component, but truth be told, some people are just unusually talented at certain things, and are destined for particular sports. Some people have large lung capacity… long arms… giant-like height… Why are sex-related differences sooooo much more significant than any other differences? Leave this poor girl alone and let her run.

The Scandalous Fall of the Modern Conservative Movement | TPM Photo Galleries.

It’s not so much the fact that these guys are all scum that bothers me – I mean, power does corrode virtue, and plenty of Democrats have cheated – albeit usually not in such gloriously perverse ways. It’s that these men are all scummy hypocrites – they deny marriage rights to loving, committed people even while they completely disregard their own marriage vows. They cry sin and hellfire only so people will look away from the men attached to the pointing fingers. It’s disgusting.

GOP Lawmaker’s Graphic Sex-Bragging Caught On Tape | TPMMuckraker.

Mmmmm, yummy delicious family values! Clearly gay marriage was responsible for this.

The Card Game – Overspending on Debit Cards Is a Boon for Banks – NYTimes.com.

Some banks further increase their revenue by manipulating the order of a customer’s transactions in a way that causes more of them to incur overdraft fees.

You’re damned right they do. I’ve had that happen to me many times. They ALWAYS put debits through before credits, even if the actual order didn’t happen that way. Sometimes if you check your online banking, you’ll see your deposit, and then later you’ll see that they’ve slipped in a charge BEFORE the deposit, even though it took place after and you SAW that there was nothing before it earlier. It’s total bullshit.

That said, I’m amazed they failed to mention ING Direct’s Electric Orange Checking, which carries a $250 overdraft protection that charges interest, not unlike a credit card (or line of credit). You pay interest when your account is below zero, instead of paying obscene fees. This seems like a better way to do it, at least from the consumer’s perspective – the consumer pays a fair, non-abusive fee for the overdraft service.

Obama Back To School Speech: FULL TEXT.
Oh, but apparently this version is okay because it is different from the original text, which read, simply, “Worship me, young minions, and do my bidding.” Or something.

What amazes me is that people are still looking at this speech and seeing socialism. What the HELL is wrong with wanting to work to make your country better? What is wrong with looking outside yourself for motivation and goals? We can’t all be selfish Ayn Rand freaks.

When I first heard about this so-called “controversy,” I thought, “What could he possibly have said to enrage these people so much?” Now I find out – it’s not so much WHAT he said, because he hasn’t yet said anything. They’re concerned about the mere fact that Obama will address school children at all. I guess when you teach your children that black people are uneducated and unworthy, you don’t want them picking up newfangled ideas at school.

“Thinking about my kids in school having to listen to that just really upsets me,” suburban Colorado mother Shanneen Barron told CNN Denver affiliate KMGH. “I’m an American. They are Americans, and I don’t feel that’s OK. I feel very scared to be in this country with our leadership right now.”

Yes. How dare schools expose AMERICAN children to… um, the President of their nation?

Uneducated wingnuts never fail to amaze me.

Incidentally, both Reagan and Bush addressed schoolchildren as well. Neither address sparked such a ridiculous backlash. Then again, neither of those Presidents had dark skin and a foreign sounding name. Also, they weren’t liberals. Therefore, their addresses were entirely appropriate.

Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Renames Chubby Hubby to HubbyHubby.

From the press release:

“At the core of Ben & Jerry’s values, we believe that social justice can and should be something that every human being is entitled to,” said Walt Freese, Chief Executive Officer of Ben & Jerry’s. “From the very beginning of our 30 year history, we have supported equal rights for all people. The legalization of marriage for gay and lesbian couples in Vermont is certainly a step in the right direction and something worth celebrating with peace, love and plenty of ice cream.”

“Senator Kennedy did not go to England” | The Bilerico Project.

t was inevitable that some lamebrain conservative would try to make political lemonade with the lemons of Ted Kennedy’s death. So Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women For America, stepped into the lemonade stand. She just pointed out that when Senator Kennedy “faced a serious health problem he did not go to England, he did not go to Canada, he did not go to a country that has a government plan. He sought treatment in the country that he believed had the best treatment available, and that is America. That is a lesson that we can take from Ted Kennedy.”

Yeah. He used his handy-dandy government-provided insurance – the same insurance he wanted to make available for all Americans. Funny how he remembered the American people, while so many Republicans in Congress keep their precious insurance all hush-hush while they fight to keep the rest of us sick and uninsured.

This makes me laugh. Kind of like when the wingnuts claimed that under a nationalized healthcare system like they have in the UK or Canada, somebody like the genius Stephen Hawking would have been shoved aside and deemed unworthy of care. Never mind that Hawking is from the UK and was in fact not shoved aside.

TheHempFactor on the Tax, Regulate and Control Cannabis Act of 2010.

Okay, legal eagles… I’ve got two questions for you. 1) Do you see, anywhere, ANY language that actually *exempts* industrial hemp from the proposed regulations to be imposed upon cannabis? and 2) Does this wording or does this wording not indicate that a 4-oz (half-cup) stick of “green butter” would result in a tax of $200?

This. Is. Why. I. Hate. The. Initiative. Process.

3 arrested in medical marijuana raid | ABC News

Last week, the LAPD raided two businesses in west Los Angeles that also claimed to be medical marijuana dispensaries.

I know nothing about this church/dispensary that was raided – maybe it was legit, and maybe it wasn’t. But let’s try that last line again: Last week the LAPD RAIDED TWO MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES in west Los Angeles. There is no “claiming” – they were dispensaries, with a real verification procedure and real patients who had real illnesses.

The 12 most annoying types of Facebookers – CNN.com.

I give it 48 hours before somebody comes up with a quiz app: “Which of CNN’s 12 Most Annoying Types of Facebooker Are You?”

YouTube – Barney Frank Confronts Woman At Townhall Comparing Obama To Hitler.

Good Old-Fashioned Discipline | Forward.com: “British Teens Get a Taste of Orthodox Life on Reality TV”.

Interesting. I wonder if they really did go back!

90 percent of U.S. bills carry traces of cocaine – CNN.com.

Admittedly, that is disturbing. But frankly, I’m a little bit more worried about the prescription drugs polluting our water supply.

How legalizing marijuana could help close the budget gap | The Hemp Factor.

NOW, please! I’m so sick of hearing about furloughs and college class cancellations. This is money the California economy NEEDS.

Fresno Cooperative in Danger; Opponents Just Don’t Get It | The Hemp Factor

No kidding. 😛