Curious

Why is it that when Health Care costs soar higher and higher, the republicans fight tooth and nail against any government intervention whatsoever but when gas prices shoot sky high they scream that the (Democratic, natch) president is not doing enough to intervene.

Priorities people. Get some.

My Hero

Whoever made this is a rock star. Suck it Dodge.

Got the link from Avitable.

He Was Pushed

This story is just too good (funny) not to share.

"Chen Fuchao, a man heavily in debt, had been contemplating suicide on a bridge in southern China for hours when a passer-by came up, shook his hand -- and pushed him off the ledge."

Calm down, the jumper didn't die, there was an inflatable cushion on the ground under him so he ended up with spine and elbow injuries instead of his head squashed on the pavement like a watermelon.  If he had died, I would never have posted this.  I'm sick but not THAT sick!

This is a semi-regular occurrence in Seattle, with the bridge of choice among the suicidal being the Aurora bridge.  And it almost inevitably is during rush-hour traffic causing some frustrated commuters to holler "JUMP" at the suicidal individual trying to decide if they do indeed want to go through with it.  The man in China who pushed the jumper off immediately made me think of the Aurora bridge traffic snarls the last time this happened and if any of the people who yelled "JUMP" would really have gone so far as to push the poor guy off the bridge.

I sure hope not.

But it's still funny.  Since the guy didn't die and all...

Physician Assisted Suicide

In November, Washington State voters passed Initiative 1000 - the Physician Assisted Suicide Law - by a margin of 59% to 41%.  I voted against it.  The idea of allowing doctors to help people kill themselves gives me the heebie-jeebies and an uneasy feeling that by making it legal and acceptable, we are starting down a road that ends in a very bad place.  

I couldn't articulate my feelings - and got into a bit of an argument with Grandmother over the whole thing- until I was directed to the website for Not Dead Yet by a Professor for a school assignment for my Disability and Human Rights class and I started to read the articles and commentaries there.  After spending a lot of time reading all the info on their site I felt relieved that I wasn't being paranoid and bizarre about the whole thing and thought I would try to put into words just exactly why I think legalizing physician assisted suicide is a terrible idea.

The health care system in this country is a for-profit endeavor.  Health insurance companies and executives make money, a lot of money, and if people who have been diagnosed terminally ill are given help to kill themselves then a lot of insurance companies are going to save a lot of money by not having to cover costs for pain management, hospice care and other care designed to make the patient comfortable at the end of their life.

Now all health insurance companies make their profits by collecting premiums and denying whatever benefit coverage they can get away with - end of life or not.  Personally I feel that the entire system is immoral, no one should profit by preventing another person from recieving medical care.  But it strikes me as being even worse for an insurance company to cover the cost for a doctor to kill a terminal patient - regardless of the phrase 'physician assisted suicide' it is a doctor giving their patient a treatment that results in the patient's death, it is the doctor killing their patient - and increase their bottom line by doing so.

People with disabilities are discriminated against every day in this country.  In the media we get the message that it would be better to be dead than to be disabled.  People like Professor Peter Singer say that parents should be allowed to kill their children in infancy if they are expected to grow up with disabilities for the simple reason that infants are "non-persons".  He also says it should be legal to kill older "non-persons with disabilities".  Ironically Professor Singer is also a well-known animal rights activist.  Apparently "non-persons" are different from animals and shouldn't get the benefit of the doubt that animals do.

Please read this article by Harriet McBryde Johnson about her conversation with Professor Singer.  It is ten thousand times better written than anything I could ever hope to write and is truly enlightening.

In a society that devalues the lives of the disabled, a policy legalizing physician assisted suicide is truly troubling.  I can't say it any better than Diane Coleman does in her op-ed article titled "Disabled Group Objects to 'Dignity' of Assisted Suicide, Doubts Motives"...

"Why, disabled people ask, do we see so many news stories lately about the burdens we impose on our caregivers, and so few articles about the nation's ability to provide the long-term care people really need and want?

If the values of liberty dictate that society legalize assisted suicide, then legalize it for everyone who asks for it, not just the devalued, old, ill and disabled.  Otherwise, what looks like freedom is really only discrimination."     ~Diane Coleman

This article was published in the Rocky Mountain News on March 19, 2005.

Some of the people I love the most in the whole world are disabled.  The implications of legalized physician assisted suicide to them is extremely troubling and scares the shit out of me.  No matter how well a law is written, abuses are always possible.  Ask any lawyer, social worker or judge.  And if we, as a society, begin to believe that it is acceptable for doctors to end patients lives, are we starting down a road towards euthanasia for the disabled, infirm or those who are costing us time, money and effort to care for?  Is this a step down that road?

Grandmother is ninety-three and terrified of ending up bedridden for years and years.  She was an enthusiastic supporter of Initiative 1000 and has told me many times that if she becomes bedridden, unable to wash or toilet herself or out of her mind from dementia that she wants us to help her end her life.  I don't know what I would do if it came to that, but I do know that whatever we - her family - do if such a situation arises, we would do it out of love.  It would be the hardest decision any of us would ever have to face in our lives, it would be messy, and it would break our hearts.  And that is the way it should be, not as simple as a doctor writing out a prescription.

Suicide should be difficult, Initiative 1000 makes it easier and that scares me.

The Roman Clueless Church

It's been a while since I've talked about something controversial or the fact that condoms are a good thing and should be distributed free via helicopters raining them down on the populations of every country in the world so let's see how many people I can piss off today.

Am I the only one who thinks the Pope is a complete fucking lunatic?

In March, he told a gathering of people that "HIV/Aids is a tragedy that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which can even increase the problem"  What the FUCK?  Adding insult to injury, he made this astonishing statement of stupidity in AFRICA, a continent with 22 million of its inhabitants infected with the Aids virus - ONE THIRD of all the infections in the whole world!

Apparently the way to prevent the spread of HIV/Aids, in Africa as well as the rest of the world, is by marital fidelity and abstinence.  Now I'm not a professional comedian but given the abysmal rate of abstinence among Catholic clergy when it comes to molesting children and the massive cover-up of it by Catholic leadership including the Vatican, I'm thinking that the Pope saying "don't have sex" is pretty damn funny.  His priests who made a VOW OF CHASTITY TO GOD can't even keep their damn dicks in their pants so how the hell does he think that's going to work for everyone else?

Then there is the fact that he lifted the excommunication of a Bishop who doesn't think the Holocaust happened.  This guy also believes in unicorns, fairies and leprechauns.

But the most heinous thing this Pope has done (to my knowledge at least) so far is excommunicating the mother and doctors of a nine year old girl after they aborted the twin fetuses she was carrying as a result of her stepfather's repeatedly raping her.  Ok, so the Pope wasn't the one to excommunicate the doctors and mother, it was Archbishop Jose Cardoso Sobrinho, but a senior Vatican cleric backed up the decision and the Pope, the head Grand Wizard of the whole shebang said and did NOTHING to indicate he felt the decision was wrong, immoral or fucked up in any way.  Oh, and one more thing, the baby raping slimebag who impregnated his nine year old stepdaughter - not excommunicated.

So a priest who is stupid enough to not "believe in" a documented and verifiable historical event doesn't deserve to be excommunicated but doctors and a little girls mother who perform a medical procedure to SAVE THE GIRL'S LIFE are not worthy of being Catholics?  Have I got that right Pope Darth Sidious?

I do not understand why the Catholic church still has over 1 billion members when the leadership is so hypocritical and - I'll say it - unchristian.  There is hypocrisy and evil in all religious groups but the Pope is the one and only leader of every Catholic in the world and is, supposedly, God on earth.  This means that if you are a member of the Catholic Church, you are supporting his decisions and actions.  You have accepted him as your leader and by default, are agreeing with him.  WHY?  It's not like there aren't any other organized religious groups whose leadership isn't stuck in the middle ages.  

At this point, I don't believe that tradition can be held up as a reasonable reason to stay with the Catholic Church.  Even if every generation of your family has been Catholic back to the very beginning of the organization, do you think that supporting the church - and this Pope in particular - are reasonable?  If every Catholic, hell even if only half of all Catholics, rose up and quit the church because of the decisions its leadership has made then you can bet your holy rosary that changes would be made.  They want people in the pews, tithing money.

But as long as regular Catholics on the street continue to support the church by remaining as members, the leadership has absolutely no reason to change their stance on anything and will continue on their merry way.

I just don't understand.

Hello President Obama!

1-20-09, the End of an Error!

Happy happy joy joy!

see Sarah Palin pictures

The Beginning of World War Three?

Hamas vows to dig in their heels and fight.

Hospitals with already low to non-existent supplies due to the blockade of Gaza are unable to care for all the injured.

Food supplies are dwindling.

Iraqi Ayatollah is calling for support of Gazan citizens.  (Is it just me who gets nervous about what exactly he means by support?)

And The Huffington Post reports that "A group of influential conservative Iranian clerics launched an online registration drive on Monday seeking volunteers to fight against Israel in response to its air assault on the Gaza Strip".

Am I the only one that thinks this kind of large scale violence is going to INCREASE support for Hamas among the people of Gaza - exactly the opposite of what Israel says its goal is?  No, I'm not.  I really want to go over there and slap the shit out of every leader on both sides.  Just like I tell my kids, BEATING EACH OTHER UP WILL NOT HELP YOU GET ALONG BETTER, IT WILL ONLY MAKE IT WORSE.

Idiots.

(India and Pakistan, that goes for you too.  Put away your nuclear weapons and play nice.)

Mumbai

The absolute terror in Mumbai is so awful.  Arun Shanbhag has pics (some have blood in them but he warns you first) and a first-hand account of what's going on.

You can follow Twitter's Mumbai tweets, in real time, some of which were from people in the thick of it.  Last night as I watched there were people tweeting from inside the hotel - the hostages and possibly even the terrorists.  How all this new technology will change the world is yet to be seen.

My own frustrations with hosting Thanksgiving dinner?  Gone, all gone.  It's so frustrating that I can't do anything - just like I felt after 9-11.  I've got an appointment to donate blood on Saturday and will donate to the international Red Cross but that just doesn't seem like enough.

Horrible.

Proof That Congress Disapproves of Prop. 8

You're welcome.

Intelligence is Elitist

This article by Andy Borowitz titled "Obama's Use of Complete Sentences Stirs Controversy" is the funniest thing I've read in a long time.  Go read it and I DARE you not to laugh out loud.

Now I am going to step AWAY from the computer and STAY away until I have finished writing a 6-8 page paper on the tenets of snake handlers in Appalachia using the first person accounts in Brown and McDonald's book, a 6-8 page paper linking Berger & Luckmann's The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge with my research topic of the transition between middle school and high school and prepared a debate arguing that historically, the primary determination of who receives the death penalty in the United States is race.

When I'm done, I can have my internet back.  Husband is going to help me out here and disconnect the wi-fi because I have no self control.

Both of those books are listed on the right in my Goodreads box but the only one I would recommend is the Snake handler one which is fascinating.  The Berger-Luckmann is PAINFUL and should be burned.

Bail Out the Auto Industry? WTF?

I wonder if it has occurred to any of the governmental leaders who are contemplating a bail-out for the auto industry that if we had universal healthcare and a decent pension plan for the elderly then the car companies wouldn't be bankrupted by providing those things to their retirees?

I think that would be a better investment of gazillions of dollars then bailing out companies whose CEO's have their heads up their asses and can't make a good product that people want to buy.

All these companies and banks that are failing need to be allowed to fail so they won't make the same fucking mistakes over and over again.  Let's create jobs by investing in our infrastructure (there are a lot more bridges that are in danger of collapsing) and our health care industry rather than bailing out badly run private businesses.

Yes We Did!

I can't remember ever being this thrilled about an election or this hopeful for the future of not just the U.S., but the whole world.  Husband, the kids and I were all glued to the television last night along with the whole world, watching history being made.  Obama didn't just win an election, he changed the very fundamentals of politics in this country.  And his speech was humble and inspiring and let us know that the calm, hard-working man is ready and willing to roll up his sleeves and dig into the godawful mess that this country is in.  I cried!  For a politician's speech!  Me who comes from a long line of sarcastic cynics!

The lack of gloating and chest thumping in Obama's acceptance speech and the way he reached out to not just his supporters but the whole country was awesome and I truly and desperately hope that he is able to bring together people as American's and get them to look beyond Democrat and Republican.  He was totally gracious to McCain and I was impressed at the cheers the crowd had for McCain.

John McCain's speech was also wonderful and reminded me of why I used to respect him.  He seemed calm and composed, as if relieved that he no longer had to pander to the wacko's in his party with whom he really didn't agree.  The reaction of the crowd when he talked about working together to help the country get out of the awful mess it is in was a little disturbing - I hate to think that these people would rather let the entire country go down the toilet rather than help Obama succeed - but it is also more difficult to be magnanimous in defeat than as the winner so I will give them the benefit of the doubt.

For the first time that I can remember, I am not convinced that my grandchildren will be around to see the end of human life as we know it on this planet.  I have hope for the future...it's a beautiful feeling!

Hey McCain and Palin....

Neener neener neener.

This is Worse Than Christmas

I can't stand it, the election has been practically all I can think about for days and now I have to get through my classes, grocery shopping (vomit) and daughter's 2 hours of math tutoring before I can glue myself to the television and watch the election returns.

The Stranger is throwing a party at the Showbox in Seattle that I had planned on going to but the kids are just as excited about this as I am so I'm gonna stay home with them and we will all watch the returns as history is being made.  (We hope)

Only a few more hours...

No On Prop 8

I found this pic on Reclaiming Miss Havisham and she got it from Inside Bay Area.  I can't decide which family has the bigger balls.  If you live in the Bay Area, it takes some pretty big ones to put a ginormous Yes on Prop 8 sign on your house but the response (totally legal for 72 hours) of two women who parked the SUV painted with "Bigots Live Here" is pretty ballsy too.

I'm gonna award this one to the two women who parked the painted SUV for creativity above and beyond!

If you live in Cali, vote No on Prop 8, if you don't then donate to the No on Prop 8 campaign.  If this thing passes there it will just be a matter of time before it spreads to other states like a virus.

McCain Gets An Endorsement

Al-Qaeda has endorsed McCain as the best candidate to further their goal of exhausting the U.S. militarily and economically.

I wonder how McCain is going to spin this little gem.  And after this, who in their right mind would support McCain?

The Debate Watch You Will?

I'm looking SO forward to it.  And hoping that Colin Powell makes his endorsement for Obama immediately after.  Republicans all over the country are not just jumping ship on McCain, they're jumping ship on the whole damn party.  It will be interesting to see if this is the crisis that allows a third party to get a foothold in the system.

I love politics!

see Sarah Palin pictures

McCain & Palin are Desperate

Did you watch the debate last night?  Did you see McCain nudge his wife to take Obama's extended hand to shake so he wouldn't have to?  Hear McCain call Obama "That One"?  His hatred for Obama was palpable.  He looked like an angry bitter man pissed off that he is losing the election.  Or an angry bitter two year old who is mad because it's his bedtime.

In a New York Times editorial from today, they said McCain and Palin are "running one of the most appalling campaigns we can remember...far beyond the usual fare of quotes taken out of context and distortions of an opponent's record - into the dark territory of race-baiting and xenophobia".  Given that these were the tactics used against McCain by the Bush campaign in 2000 - remember the rumors of an out of wedlock black child fathered by McCain that turned out to be his adopted daughter from Bangladesh? - I'm appalled that he would fall to such a low.  

And Palin is ENJOYING her rabble rousing.  She positively delights in comments from the crowd shouting "kill him" and "traitor", referring to Obama, when she is addressing a crowd of her supporters.  This from a woman who has strong ties to a secessionist party (she has addressed their convention MORE THAN ONCE) in her home state of Alaska.  Watch the clip from The Jed Report:

This whole campaign is totally out of control.  I think the way McCain has allowed it to deteriorate, along with his choice of Palin for his Vice-Presidential running mate make a pretty good argument that he is in the grips of early dementia or alzheimer's.

Or he is just totally fucking crazy.  Either way I don't want him anywhere near the Presidency.  I wouldn't even want him teaching my kids high school poli-sci class.

The Mudflats Blog from Alaska

I discovered this blog while avoiding homework and it is funny AND political - my favorite combination outside of tequila and limes.  Dad will especially appreciate this blog!  The latest post is about a moose who stole a swingset.

One of my favorite quotes is from yesterday's post, "the McCain campaign is getting desperate.  They've tried just about everything to postpone, or lessen the carnage of the looming bloodbath that will be the Vice Presidential debate this Thursday night".  What a fitting description!

I'm thinking Thursday night might be a good night for a party...

FEMA Fucks Hurricane Survivors Yet Again

I cannot believe that after Katrina, the federal bureaucrats in D.C. didn't pull their collective heads out of their collective asses to put together post-disaster plans that might actually HELP people.  Now they have decided that they are not going to distribute ice to survivors of the latest round of hurricanes - nope, that is now the state's jobs.  Except, as the director of the Mississippi Emergency Agency says, "because neighboring states have to contract out their plans for ice, they are essentially competing against each other in the face of disaster".  

So Texas and Louisiana get to pay for ice at the highest possible price after a disaster that devastates their states and incurs billions of dollars of damages they are also responsible for because FEMA - which is a FEDERAL AGENCY - is delegating it's job back to the states????  Isn't the point of having a federal agency to make things like post-disaster aid and relief move more quickly and efficiently because it is all done by ONE agency (like, oh, FEMA, there's an idea!) rather than have it parceled out to the states to do individually?

Or maybe we should have the governors of any states affected by hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, etc. just have a WWF smack down to decide which state's citizens get first crack at the ice?

I need to bitch-slap someone, where's Dick Cheney when I need him?

Erica C. Barnett at the Stranger alerted me to the latest incompetency of our government with this piece on Slog.