All Killer, No Filler

Georgia Man Killed in Drug Raid Was Face Down When Shot in Head, Says Family's Lawyer

NO I'M NOT OLD—YOUR MUSIC REALLY DOES SUCK

I like this song, though:

Anarchy Does Not Equal Anarchy

Anarchy means chaos. A truism that most folks on both sides of the aisle will gladly agree on. But does it really, or is it, as this gent points out, just a way to shock us all into fear and submission?

Anarchy refers to a society without a central political authority. But it is also used to refer to disorder or chaos. This constitutes a textbook example of Orwellian news-speak in which assigning the same name to two different concepts effectively narrows the range of thought. For if lack of government is identified with the lack of order, no one will ask whether lack of government actually results in a lack of order. And this un-inquisitive mental attitude is absolutely essential to the case for the state. If people were ever to seriously question whether government actions are really productive of order, popular support for government would almost instantly collapse. The identification of anarchy with disorder is not a trivial matter. The power of our conceptions to blind us to the facts of the world around us cannot be gainsaid.

--John Hasnas, Professor of Business and Law, Georgetown University

Still Here. Still Pissed.

I used to think limited government was the answer. Now I think NO GOVERNMENT is about the only logical next step.

Still Pissed

Affordable For Whom?

Not just California. It's everyone I know. EVERYONE. Being dropped and being forced to pay more for less.

Biggest scam ever.

Haiku Monday: Bare

It seems like years since I've played. But Rafael called, so who can help but heed his requests?

Prada platforms flung,
toe curls extrude warmth and wet.
Mud stuck pedi cure.

Liar Liar Pants on Fire

"If you like your private healthcare plan, you can keep your plan. Period. Nothing in this plan will require you or your employer to change the coverage or the doctor you have."

Really? Then how come mine, a perfectly good, affordable plan that provided me with everything I needed and nothing I didn't was just canceled? Why am I now being forced into another plan whose premiums have tripled and my deductible doubled, and I have no idea what it covers because it doesn't tell me? (Although, they were awfully proud to tell me that I now have full coverage for maternity and mental health meds.)

A couple weeks prior to Obamination Care coming down, my Facebook feed was lousy with people yippee-skippying for this travesty. That stupid cartoon, remember that one? That explained to us idiotic, uncaring souls just why Obamacare was so gooooooooood for us? People thumping me on the head for not showing any compassion, for not caaaaaaaarrring that millions of people could now have insurance.

For days now, however, nothing but crickets chirping.

Dear America: how do you all like your shark-skinned savior now?

I'll check back in a couple months to check in with all you True Believers.

The Insanity Begins

 

 

Received via email today:

"Thank you for being a Presbyterian Individual HMO Plan member. We have some very important news that will require action on your part. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) healthcare reform law requires all health insurance plans to meet new requirements. Because of these new requirements, your current Presbyterian Individual and Family Plan will no longer be available after December 31, 2013."

New. Requirements. According to WHOM? A bunch of bureaucrats who know better than I do what my health care needs are?

Goes on to explain that I will only have two options from which to choose: A plan that includes maternity, a plan that does not. That's it. And, of course, no mention of costs. Those they'll spring on me when I'm forced to make the phone call to choose my plan. 

Oh, but the good news is, I get a health club membership AND free behavioral health meds along with whatever plan I choose. Which I suppose is a good thing, because I will need those meds when I go all Walter White on their asses . . .

In the meantime, I should expect a "packet" in the mail very soon explaining what the government now thinks is good for me, whether or not I actually want—or even NEED—that coverage or not. Bye-bye high deductible $90 a month plan that has always done exactly what I need it to do without putting me in the poor house.

Hello . . . God only knows what . . .

Breaking Sad

Less Despairing of our Future

This in a public education music class? I'm impressed.

Haiku Monday: Reflection

-->

Sentimental gaze

conjures too much woe. Dylan

nailed it: Don’t look back.

* * * 

Serendipity is our hostess with the mostest this month.

Drop on by and play, why don't you?

Pigs From a Gun

Liberty is the default. Always. It's just not negotiable.

Mas Musica para la Revolucion

Pray for Oklahoma

My heart goes out to Pam, Kym, and their families, friends, and everyone in Oklahoma City, Moore, and it's surrounding communities. So many people in that region have helped make S.B.'s company the success that it is, and we consider Oklahoma a second home. We are thankful that everyone we know there is safe, but so many others have suffered devastating losses. Please consider donating money to viable local charities and to the Red Cross to help these good folks try to piece their lives back together.

Insert Appropriate Who Lyric Here

Noam Chomsky: Obama's Attack on Civil Liberties Has Gone Way Beyond Imagination

Chomsky nutshells Obama perfectly:

"What it is is the same kind of commitment to expanding executive power that Cheney and Rumsfeld had. He kind of puts it in mellifluous terms and there's a little difference in his tone. It's not as crude and brutal as they were, but it's pretty hard to see much of a difference."

The right wing votes those who make them feel superior, the left votes those who make them feel good. Neither are in power to help; just to perpetuate more power. Unless and until we have a third alternative, a party that leaves us ALONE, we're doomed.

Definitions Matter

According to Merriam-Webster:

Hero • he-ro, noun. 

plural: he-roes

1 a. mythological or legendary figure often of divine descent endowed with great strength or ability

   b. an illustrious warrior

   c. man admired for his achievements and noble qualities

   d. one who shows great courage

2. a. the principal male character in a literary or dramatic work

    b. the central figure in an event, period, or movement

3. a. an object of extreme admiration and devotion: idol 

* * * 

Dear Mainstream Media:

Quit overusing the word. Just because something happens to people, and they survive, does not make them heroes. Just because a person happens to walk into his back yard and discovers something completely by accident, does not make him a hero. In fact, it's insulting to those who truly ARE.

Thanks,

Moi

Cone of Silence, Please

Eye on the TV
'cause tragedy thrills me
Whatever flavor
It happens to be like.
Killed by the husband
Drowned by the ocean
Shot by his own son
She used the poison in his tea
And kissed him goodbye
That's my kind of story.
It's no fun 'til someone dies.

Don't look at me like
I am a monster
Frown out your one face
But with the other
Stare like a junkie
Into the TV
Stare like a zombie
While the mother
Holds her child
Watches him die
Hands to the sky crying
Why, oh why?
'cause I need to watch things die
From a distance.

Hard Week's Month

Or something along those lines. I have no excuses. I've been busy, work piled up like dominoes, dog and family duties, and now Maddie in surgery for a series of tendons she busted running hell bent for leather after a coyote a couple weeks back. The surgeon guaranteed us an outcome that will have her back to her lil' ol' pistol self.

But not after 8–10 weeks of recuperation. In a crate.

Yes.

Shoot me now.

And Louie is certainly not going to be happy.

"Until the day I can once again play Doggie Smack Down with my sister and double team the squirrels with our ferocity, I will lie here in protest and refuse to move. But make sure I still get my snacks, okay?"

Typical Maddie. Always wants Louie's toys, sneaks in to get them, then walks away once she does. He don't care. He just wants her to looooooooooovvvvve him!

Thought of the Day

Haiku Monday: Forgetfulness

Mem’ries buried deep,

conjured suddenly. My name?

Grandma can’t recall.

* * * 

Miz Boxer is hosting this week, since she won last week's hot and heavy competition. Check it out. Don't forget now, you hear?