Now here's a great clucking idea

I'm sure you've all heard this but it still boggles my mind—Nevada Senator wanna-be Sue Lowden has proposed bartering with your doctor as a solution to health care costs. Don't have insurance? Bring the doc a chicken. Or maybe, if you're facing major surgery, the whole coop. Or perhaps a calf.
I wonder how many chickens I'll need for my next colonoscopy? Five, fifteen? Maybe he'll want a pair of goats.
If he asks for snakes, I'm outta there.

The insanity of this idea is even more apparent if you ask, as Rachel Maddow asked on her program, will the doctor be able to pay his electric bills with chickens? How many chickens will that new x-ray machine cost?

And what about city dwellers? They don't have chickens. Maybe they can bring in some of those "alley rabbits" (AKA rats). I hear they taste just like chicken.

I wonder how many trout I'll have to catch to get that root canal I need?

I can just see pathetic scenes like this being played out:
Farmer: Officer, I caught this scoundrel trying to steal my chickens.
Officer: What do you have to say for yourself?
Thief: I'm not really a crook. I just need some chickens so my daughter can have the operation she needs.
Please don't throw me in jail, give me some chickens! (breaks down in tears)
This would be a great idea for a tear-jerker movie. If somebody makes one, I better get a cut of the profits. you heard it here first.

I haven't seen it but I hear Ms. Lowden has an ad out now claiming her proposal was taken out of context. No it wasn't. The evidence is all over YouTube. She can't even lie intelligently.

I have to send her a thank-you note. She made my day.

I'm a conservative

Yes folks, (both of you) I have arrived at the logical conclusion that I must be a conservative. What has led me to this rather startling conclusion is the Rachel Maddow Show's coverage of the "Values Voter Summit." This is an event organized by the Family Research Council which attracts all the Repubicans who want to ingratiate themselves with the tin hat fringe of the right. Many leading lights of the Repubican party will show up at some point, like Romney (he of the haircut) and Tim Pawlenty and Mitch McConnell and Eric Cantor.
They have some kind of workshops called "breakout sessions" where they discuss topics such as "True Tolerance—countering the Homosexual Influence in Public Schools" and "Global Warming Hysteria—the new face of the 'death agenda'("if people are the problem, what is the Final Solution")."

So—if 'True Tolerance' means opposing homosexuality, and if trying to save the environment is a 'death agenda', then, ipso facto, being liberal must mean being a conservative.

And here I thought it was just "Talk like a Pirate" day. It's also "Opposites day."
Aarrr, I am a conservative, matey, an' if ye don't believe it ye'll have to walk the plank. The Repubican plank.
So if I am a conservative, then politicians like Mitch McConnell and Eric Cantor must be liberals. They are certainly liberal in their condemnation of those who don't think like them, who dare to differ from their white male anglo-saxon protestant self image and heritage.
They are liberal in their asshattery.

I am proud to be a conservative conserving the freedoms listed in the Constitution and Amendments, and protecting them from yahoos who want to deprive freedom from those they fear and hate.

I'm getting pretty sick of those malcontents and their butchering of the English language and their hate-filled and fearful little minds. The Repubican leadership won't acknowledge that the rhetoric of hate they are ignoring/encouraging can lead to danger and violence. They don't realize that the ones who are energized by this talk, once all the "liberal" enemies are gone, will come after they themselves. Hate and fear, once unleashed, cannot be brought back to heel easily.

Okay, now here's a weird little news tidbit— Public Policy Reporting says that 18% of New Jersey conservatives think that Obama is the Anti-Christ, and 17% are not sure. Is this weird and wild or just dispiriting?

Just goes to show you how stupid people are. Actually, I, I AM the anti-Christ, it's just not public knowledge yet.

It will be, you heard it here first.
Soon, my minions will be living in your condominiums and enjoying those time-shares in Cozumel.
Live (or not) with it.

Isn't the internet wonderful? In one short posting I have gone from a conservative to the anti-Christ. (some would argue there is no difference).
Talk about self-promotion. I love the world we are living in.
good night all (two of you)

I'm collecting stuff

Stuff like this quote from George Carlin: "The best thing about getting old is you're not responsible for remembering things anymore."

Works for me.

Also took this screen shot from the Rachel Maddow Show:









"the Dick" Cheney as Darth Vader.
An old joke by now but ever relevant.
This guy is something else. He is definitely the supreme example of someone who never will admit, or even consider, that he was, and is, wrong.

He seems to be taking his traveling Medicine Show around the country to friendly venues anywhere, (North Dakota?) where he might find some sympathetic response.

Waterboarding? Well, we only did it a little bit (183 times in one month to one guy).
And Obama is making the country less safe by not being the hard ass we were.
I mean, he's acting like a real American, with values and all that weak-kneed stuff.

Mr. Silence is now "Mr. Can't Shut Up." Go back to your underground bunker, Dick, we don't need you. Even Repubicans don't need you—you just remind everyone of the terrible botch-up your administration was.

Not that the Obama administration has been an unbridled joy—there is the problem of those pesky military tribunals, among others—but it is a model of probity and sanity in comparison to the recent past. And besides, we don't really want anyone to be perfect.

God knows what I'd do with my time if I didn't have someone in the Government to bitch about…

Besides, as a rule we humans don't really go for perfection all that much. It's one reason we keep God (and Jesus and Buddha and Allah and the rest of that deity crowd) at arm's length. To emulate them we'd have to give up too much. Being perfect is hard work—I'm here to tell you. It's a struggle every day, and I don't get no sympathy.

Now I got myself all depressed. I'm going to go cry myself to sleep.

Bon(ehead)us

Ah, everyone is in a fine dither about the AIG (that's pronounced "Aaaaiigghh!) bonuses for the very same wingnuts who brought the company to its knees.

"Joe, you oversaw the division that insured the uninsurable and turned the company into a financial Chernobyl. Great job! Couldn't have done better myself. Here take a few mil, just as a symbol of our appreciation.
Don't spend it all in one place. Heh, heh."

Makes sense to me. Man, if I'd have gotten bonuses for all my eff-ups over the years, I'd be on easy street.

The explanation from Edward M. Liddy, latest CEO, (wonder if he's any relation to G. Gordon Liddy who ran the "plumbers" operatives who burgled the Watergate?) said it was in the contract and is necessary for "employee retention."
Retention bonuses.
Sounds kind of anal, doesn't it?
Maybe they should get more fiber in their diets.

Best part, I heard on the Rachel Maddow show, is that eleven of the wingnuts got their "retention bonus" and left the company. Those bonuses really work.
My guess is that they were escaping rather than just leaving.
They all should have gotten pink slips instead of green checks.

Of course, considering the size of the bonuses compared to the size of the bailout money we've given (yeah, we—you and me) AIG, that amount is small potatoes.
All those Congressmen who are bitching seem to forget that there was an amendment in that stimulus bill which would have prevented this. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. said that he and Sen. Snow of Maine had put one in, but it somehow disappeared by the time the bill was voted on.
Gee, how'd that happen?

So a lot of this is a distraction. Aggravating, but it's just scratching the itch while ignoring the melanoma.
Instead of spending so much time on this, Congress should be working on ways to make sure the vast bulk of the money is being used the way it was supposed to be used. They should be exercising our owners' rights, since we now own the bulk of the company.
(I still want to borrow my corporate jet to fly down to Puerto Rico for my daughter's wedding.)

Congress could also be examining its own soul to see how it contributed to this problem. But hell, I'm not going to wait for that.

In one of his few bonehead moves so far, Obama, or his minions—same thing— was suggesting that soldiers with health insurance should use that instead of depending on the VA.
"Lost your leg in Iraq? Blue cross will take care of you. All you need to do is come up with the 5 grand deductible."
Even a conscientious objector like me knows that if you send a guy out to fight for you and possibly die or get maimed in the process, then you owe him something. Something like all the medical care he needs. I believe I saw somewhere today that that doofus idea has been dropped.

I'm running out of rancor. Gottagive up the brandy, it makes me too mellow.
Good night all (or rather, both of you.)

It's kind of hard…

… to get back in gear after the election and subsequent euphoria. I mean, everybody's tired.

Happily the Democrats are helping out. it seems that they have let Lieberman keep the chair of the Homeland Security committee. He is Benedict Arnold without even the glory of the leg wound at Saratoga. *
His popularity in Connecticut is tanking big time. The only benefit to his staying in that position is that now he owes, he owes, Obama for not working to push him off the chairmanship, and he has to be a good little Democrat to save his own butt in Connecticut.

Speaking of euphoria, there is a video of election night at Hampshire college, arguably the most leftist college in the US. It shows the students celebrating in the college yard and spontaneously breaking out in the "National Anthem." Possibly a first, and very touching also.

In good news it seems that the felon senator Stevens of Alaska is losing to his Democratic opponent Begich. Which means the Polar Bear Goddess will not be able to appoint a Republican to replace him when he resigns to go to the hoosegow.

On the bad side, the Bushman is issuing a lot of presidential rules deregulating and further pillaging America's resources. Folks, it's not too late to impeach him. (I wanted to say impeach that -something else- but I want to respect the office at least if not the occupant.) Why, oh why is that man so blind to the damage he is doing?

Sometimes these rules are hard to change. I hope that everyone puts pressure on their congresspeople to do something about this.

Johnny Mac and the Big O got together for a meeting today. Apparently McCain doesn't mind palling around with guys who pal around with terrorists.

Barack Obama has a YouTube spot now. And he used the internet to great success in his campaign. It's going to be a real sacrifice for him to lose his Blackberry.

Arianna Huffington filled in for Rachel Maddow last night. Disappointed as I am at not seeing our Cummington girl on the air, I have to admit a real weakness for European accents. Is that dame married?

Barack's Mother-in-law will be living in the White House with them?
Is there going to be no rest for the man? You can run, Barack, but you can't hide.

Enough rambling.
G'nite all.

*Benedict Arnold was wounded in the leg fighting for the revolution at the Battle of Saratoga. This before becoming a turncoat. There is a monument to his leg at the site.