[Content Note: Homophobia.]
Republican Senator Rand Paul doesn't believe in the concept of gay rights "because I don't really believe in rights based on your behavior." Does believe in the right to bear arms. Is total asshole.
Showing posts with label Jackasses. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jackasses. Show all posts
Good Grief
Former Fetus; Current Dip$hit
[Content Note: Anti-choice jackassery.]
Republican Texas state Representative Jonathan Stickland decided to make an Important Statement when he heard people from Planned Parenthood would be visiting the capitol:
I'm guessing that "organizations that murder children" aren't welcome in many elected officials' offices. (Unless they are corporations who merely kill children as collateral damage to turning a profit.) Of course, Planned Parenthood does not "murder children." Which is why the totes cool sign outside Stickland's office doesn't read "Former Child."
Insert here the usual commentary about how if anti-choicers want to convince me they really give a fuck about saving "children," their garbage platform wouldn't look like a how-to manual on harming the most vulnerable children in the country.
This F#@king Guy
[Content Note: Climate change.]
If you're not familiar with Jim Inhofe, here are two things you need to know about him:
1. In 2012, he published a book titled The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future, in which he laid out his genius theory about global climate change: Because "God's still up there," the "arrogance of people to think that we, human beings, would be able to change what He is doing in the climate is to me outrageous."
2. He is a Republican Senator from the state of Oklahoma, and he is the chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
Just perfect decision-making from the Republican Party, as always: Appoint a guy who believes global climate change is a hoax to lead the Senate Committee on the environment.
Yesterday, during a debate on the Senate floor, Inhofe "opened by showing pictures of an igloo his daughter's family built during a snowstorm five years ago, when he said 'the hysteria on global warming' began. Then Inhofe reached into a bag he had brought with him and pulled out a robust snowball."
Video Transcript beginning at 0:08, after C-SPAN intro:So, basically, the Republican chair of the environment committee just threw a snowball "to the president" to prove that global climate change is a hoax, because he has all the scientific sophistication of your conservative uncle who posts shit on Facebook like, "If global warming is real, then why is it so cold outside?!"
Inhofe, an older thin white man, stands on the Senate floor, with a giant picture of an "igloo" sitting on an easel behind him and a snowball sitting in a plastic bag in front of him.
He says, as he reaches into the plastic bag: "—of national attention, in case we have forgotten, because we keep hearing that 2014 has been the warmest year on record." He pulls out the snowball and holds it up in his hand. "I ask the chair: You know what this is? It's a snowball. And that, just, from outside here. So it's very, very cold out. Very unseasonable. So, here, Mr. President—catch this!" He tosses the snowball (which was caught by a Senate page, offscreen). "Mm-hmm!"
There ain't enough heaving sigh in the world for this fucking guy.
There Are "Shoe Truthers" Now, Because Of Course There Are
[Content Note: Attempted assault; disablist language.]
So, a few days ago, a woman named Alison Michelle Ernst threw a shoe at Hillary Clinton while she was giving a speech in Las Vegas. The shoe missed; Hillary was fine; she made a joke about it; Ernst was arrested and questioned and freed after being given a misdemeanor disorderly conduct summons.
Reasonable people might be concerned for Clinton's safety, given that Ernst managed to slip past security (including Clinton's Secret Service protection detail), despite the fact that she wasn't a credentialed conference attendee, wasn't wearing a conference ID badge, and wasn't asked to present the badge to gain entry to Clinton's speech, as all attendees were ostensibly required to do.
But the conservative "shoe truthers" are not reasonable people. And so their primary concern is accusing Clinton of staging the incident and criticizing her reflexive reaction:
Some conservative media figures are openly wondering if Hillary Clinton staged an incident during a speech in Las Vegas on Thursday in which a woman in the audience threw a shoe at her.Somehow, I don't think Clinton is worried about convincing her supporters that "the Benghazi people" are not serious people who act in good faith.
...A blog post published Monday at the website of Fox News commentator Bernard Goldberg speculated that Clinton probably "calculated it beforehand," as is "almost always true" with things that happen to her.
"So it would not be stretching logic to suppose that Hillary arranged to have the shoe thrown at her," wrote Arthur Louis at Goldberg's site. "Remembering the Bush incident [when an Iraqi journalist threw two shoes at President George W. Bush], she may have calculated that this would make her seem presidential. This would explain why Ms. Ernst was not pounded to a pulp by Hillary's bodyguards, and why she seems on the verge of getting off scot free. Don't be too surprised, the next time you visit Phoenix, if you see her sitting at a table in a downtown Hillary for President store front, stuffing and sealing envelopes."
On Monday, Rush Limbaugh entertained the same idea, telling radio listeners he "can totally relate" to those who believe that "everything the Clintons do is staged or choreographed." Asked about it by a listener, he emphasized that he hadn't studied the incident and isn't too concerned about it, but said people have told him Clinton's reaction "wasn't natural."
"I'm sorry, I'm ill-equipped to comment," Limbaugh said, adding: "Maybe it's because, in my subconscious, I think it was staged, or set up, or whatever. ... I don't know why anybody would be throwing a shoe at Hillary unless -- maybe it's an attempt to make the Benghazi people look like nuts and lunatics and wackos."
Other conservatives steered clear of trutherism but slammed the "liberal media" for obscuring George W. Bush's superiority in the art of shoe-dodging.Embarrassing stuff.
"What one clearly sees in this video is that Hillary Clinton makes no effort whatsoever to actually 'dodge' the shoe," wrote Sonny Bunch at the Washington Free Beacon. "Rather, she flinches after it has gone whizzing by her head. A far more accurate headline would’ve been 'Hillary Clinton Luckily Unharmed by Her Slow Reflexes.' Typical liberal media, covering up the truth for their favored candidates. ... Whereas Hillary reacts well after the danger has passed, George W. Bush preemptively sees danger coming and positions himself to avoid it."
National Review's Jonah Goldberg favorably cited Bunch's piece and found a way to make his point with a Benghazi reference.
"I don't expect reporters to say 'Hillary Clinton instinctively cowered from shoe like it was the unavoidable truth about Benghazi.' But, as the guy who was hit by a Ford pickup truck told the police, that was no Dodge," he wrote.
Quote of the Day
[Content Note: Appropriation; racism.]
"I feel like 'embattled' or 'disgraced' will always follow my name. It's like that black football player who recently came out. He said, 'I just want to be known as a football player. I don't want to be known as a gay football player.' I know exactly what he's saying."—Paula Deen.
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA NO.
Also: HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA FUCK YOU.
Here's a tip, Paula Deen: If you don't want to be forever known as That Disgraced Lady with a Cooking Show, then you have to stop doing heinous shit like comparing yourself being rightly vilified for engaging in racial discrimination to a gay man who doesn't want his identity to eclipse his career in a sport widely hostile to that identity.
And, not for nothing, Paula Deen, but if his words were so meaningful to you that you felt compelled to quote them during an interview, then maybe it was worth learning his fucking name—Michael Sam—instead of referring to him as "that black football player."
You Might Be Suuuuuuuper Racist If....(Updated)
[CN: Racism]
A. You found a "White Student Union" on your campus.
B. You say the following with a straight face:
"If we are already minorities on campus and are soon to be minorities in this country why wouldn't we have the right to advocate for ourselves and have a club just like every other minority?"C. You want to celebrate "white identity" in a club where students of "European and European-American descent" can gather.
D. You are definitely not bothered if your "club" is also known as a "hate group" by the SPLC.
E. All of the above.
Extra credit bonus question: In a paragraph or so, please describe the level of genius it takes to assert that a plurality is a minority, to confuse "whiteness" with "European descent," and to ignore all the other fun whites-only clubs, such as the Every Single Governor of Georgia Alliance, The Presidents 1-43 League, The Georgia GOP Caucus Moose Lodge, and the KKK.
NO CHEATING.
ETA: If you need a visual aid for this test, the GSU WSU's flyer can be viewed at this link.
I'm Sorry That I'm Not Funnier About Abortion
[CN: denial of agency, reproductive rights issues, privilege].
Rob Walker has a problem with the fake reviews on Amazon for Wendy Davis' running shoes. Apparently, they are just not funny enough:
I’ll leave it to others to determine what the Davis story means for politics; I am concerned about what it all means for goofing off on the Internet.Oh thank goodness. I was afraid no-one would address this key aspect of Davis' heroic filibuster. What with all the bodily autonomy and such, I hadn't even considered: are people supporting the right to choice funny enough?
... The Amazon page for Mizuno Women's Wave Rider 16 Running Shoe quickly filled up with hundreds of fake “reviews,” which various observers pronounced “awesome,” “passionate,” and “trenchant.”THE HORROR! THE HORROR! I wept, gently, for the crimes of my fellow pro-choicers. If only we had remembered that our primary purpose was to provide entertainment for the Doodz of Mt. Privilege! PLAY ON, PLAYERS!!!
But when I actually read the reviews, I discovered something no one seemed to be mentioning: They are not funny.
Consider these alleged highlights: “Guaranteed to outrun patriarchy.” “I tried on a pair at the local mall and suddenly Texas Republicans started telling me what to do with my genitals.” “If you are looking for a shoe that will never yield to the floor, pressure or good ol’ fashioned boy’s club bullying this is the shoe for you.” “Even if you wear these gems without sox for three days straight, they still smell better than a republican Lt. Governor who tries to push a low through past midnight.”HAHAHAHAHAHAA! Er.... I mean, uh, nope! That is definitely not funny. NOT FUNNY.
Whatever your politics may be, I seriously doubt you’re laughing at any of that.
Unless of course, you've actually had had to outrun patriarchy. If you live in a world where a state-sponsored inherently violent ideology threatens your health, reproductive capacity, and life. If defending agency is more important to you than preserving the "creative inspiration and genuine hilarity" of Amazon reviews.
Because as long as you're in a position where you don't have to give a shit about any of that uterus stuff, then I guess you can write the following with a straight face:
The Davis shoe responses do something altogether different – repurposing Amazon review space into just another medium for the same old party-line cheap shots. They are about as entertaining as status update along the lines of “there goes [Fox/MSNBC] again, distorting the truth!” or the childish name-calling of any given comment thread.Ah, yes, partisan name-calling. Because sure, complaining on World Net Daily that MSNBC refuses to cover Obama's nefarious plan to turn America into a Communist paradise via accessible healthcare and tastefully designed shoe racks is just like pointing out the horrors of the GOP's mandatory forced childbirth policies. It's almost exactly the same, except for where one is an unfounded conspiracy theory with interesting accessories, and the other is the state-sponsored valuation of fetuses above the rights of actually born human beings.
(But not human beings that matter, apparently.)
Well, send me a postcard from Mount Privilege sometime, Mr. Walker. I hear it's a beautiful view.
Quote of the Day
[Content Note: Homophobia; gender essentialism; gender binary.]
"You know, maybe part of the problem is we need to go back into the schools at a very early age, maybe at the grade school level, and have a class for the young girls and have a class for the young boys and say, you know, this is what's important. This is what a father does that is maybe a little different, maybe a little bit better than the talents that a mom has in a certain area. And the same thing for the young girls, that, you know, this is what a mom does, and this is what is important from the standpoint of that union which we call marriage."—Republican Representative from Georgia Phil Gingrey, on the House floor, expressing his continued support for the Defense of Marriage Act.
Everything about this quote is genius, obviously, but I especially like the part where only dad does something "a little bit better" than mom.
Someone please send Rep. Gingrey a memo that not all marriages/families have a mom and a dad. Some of them have one or the other. Some have two moms. Some have two dads. Some have three moms or four dads, and some have parents that are neither moms nor dads. And some have zero, because not all marriages are for babymaking.
This fucking guy.
And his entire fucking party.
Quote of the Day
[Content Note: Gender essentialism.]
"I'm so used to liberals telling conservatives that they're anti-science. But liberals who defend this and say it is not a bad thing are very anti-science. When you look at biology—when you look at the natural world—the roles of a male and a female in society and in other animals, the male typically is the dominant role. The female, it's not antithesis, or it's not competing, it's a complementary role."—Fox News Contributor and Tenured Professor of Gender Geniusology at Soundslegit University Erick Erickson, on the Pew Research report which found that women are the sole breadwinners in 40% of US households with children.
[See also.]
Yeah, It's Because I'm a Partisan
[Content Note: Descriptions of sexual violence; guns.]
Yesterday, I wrote of the Cleveland Kidnapping Case: "I haven't written much about this case, because it's a hard one for me." Conservative blogger Robert Stacy McCain has a different theory:
No, Robert Stacy McCain, the reason this case is hard for me is not because Ariel Castro is a registered Democrat. The reason this case is hard for me is because I was raped by a man who not only raped me in my own home, but also used to take me to his home, at the end of a gun, and lock me in his basement, and hurt me there, too. It's hard for me because, when his father found me, shivering and afraid, he told his son, "Tell her to make a pizza while she's down there," before he walked back upstairs and shut the door behind him. It's hard for me because I was forced to make fucking dinner for the abuser who called me his girlfriend and his cruelly indifferent father.
Reading about this case brings all of that back—the parts I most hate thinking about, the parts I don't usually write about. That's why it's hard.
Not because I'm a partisan, you reprehensible stain. Because I'm a survivor.
So This Happened
[CN: domestic violence]
Yesterday on Twitter, @sp0ka tweeted about a restaurant near them, Roots Bistro, who posted this sign (that @sp0ka took this picture of [used with permission]):
I know, I know. It's almost unbelievable.
On Twitter I asked:
So, @roots_houston, you think beer should be like rape. Like hitting a partner. Like humiliation and threats. Like control. Is that right?
— Misty Clifton (@mistyclifton) April 14, 2013
I didn't get a response. Shocking, I know.
The Houston Press Food Blog (@EatingOurWords) noticed this as well and contacted Roots Bistro:
When contacted about the sign and its intentions, a manager on duty who identified himself as Kenneth offered the following explanation: "That sign is not up now. It was up literally for 10 minutes and it was pulled down."On Twitter the Press Food Blog told me: "The employee who put it up saw it on the Internet and thought it was funny."
"We'll go on the Internet and look at other businesses and what they post on their signs," Kenneth said. "Another business had posted it," Kenneth continued, and the employee who put together Roots Bistro's marquee apparently took that as a cue that the message was somehow acceptable.
Roots Bistro posted an apology on their Facebook page:
As the General Manager of Roots Bistro I would like to formally apologize for our recent signage . In no way would we ever ever promote violence on any level. We work tirelessly to support the people and organizations in this city and would never want to hurt or offend anyone. I applaud and support the passion displayed by people who believe in this cause, and fully support you in this. During the time that we have been open, we have supported many organizations and charities, including local women's shelters, and will continue to do so. I sincerely hope that you will accept my apology and continue the fight to support your cause!This is the sign that went up after they took the other one down:
* Nationwide, nearly one in ten high-school students (9.8 percent) has been hit, slapped or physically hurt on purpose by a boyfriend or girlfriend.
* One in three teens reports knowing a friend or peer who has been hit, punched, kicked, slapped or physically hurt by a partner. (source)
* Among victims of intimate partner violence, about 1 in 4 women (24.3%) and 1 in 7 men (13.8%) have experienced severe physical violence by an intimate partner (e.g., hit with a fist or something hard, beaten, slammed against something) at some point in their lifetime.
* Female victims experienced multiple forms of these types of violence; male victims most often experienced physical violence.
* 81% of women who experienced rape, stalking or physical violence by an intimate partner reported significant short or long term impacts related to the violence experienced in this relationship such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms and injury. 35% of men report such impacts of their experiences. (source)
Seriously, Roots Bistro.
***
More info and support:
The National Domestic Violence Hotline (US & Canada): 1-800-799-SAFE or see their site
Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network (RAINN): 1.800.656.HOPE or the National Online Hotline
Elsewhere on the Internetz...
This dipshit mixes up Melissa McEwen—who is: 1. Not me; 2. The author of the Hunt Gather Love and Paleo Drama—and me, then tries to retrofit a post in which he originally attributed one of McEwen's posts to me, creating this fucking mess of nonsensical gibberish which includes a picture of me stolen from someone else's Facebook account.
Reading is fundamental!
So I tweeted at Richard Nikoley, the author of this amazing post, in order to let him know he has clownhair for brainz and also to let him know he does not have my permission to use that image.
. @rnikoley Hey, bozo: @melissamcewen and I are not the same person. Your edited post is garbage. I have nothing to do w/ Paleodrama.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) April 2, 2013
. @rnikoley Also: You do not have my permission to use my image. Unless you use this one: twitter.com/Shakestweetz/s…
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) April 2, 2013
[The image is of me flipping off the camera.]
Mr. Nikoley responded by telling me that I lack reading comprehension, and that if I had a problem with his posting the picture, I should take it up with Google, with a link to an image search for my name.
. @rnikoley I am taking it up with you. You published the photo. I am telling you that you don't have my permission. You gonna ignore that?
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) April 2, 2013
. @rnikoley I am AWARE the picture has been posted in other places. But I am telling YOU that you do not have my permission to post it.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) April 2, 2013
. @rnikoley Your ethical position is: Someone else posted it w/o permission, so that means I can too? Awesome. Cool ethics, bro.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) April 2, 2013
That's when he blocked me, lol.
So, basically, this fucking dingaling can't tell the difference between two women with a similar name (hey, we're all a monolith anyway, right?), tries—badly—to cover his tracks, and leaves up the picture of me he does not have my consent to use, even though I literally have nothing to do with the blog post with which he's taking issue.
Anyway.
One of the things I love about people reposting this photo of me is that it's always accompanied by commentary on how I'm fat and there's a lot of embedded/implied shit about how I should be super embarrassed by this photo because I'm visibly fat and making a funny face mid-storytelling. Uh, nope. I'm in my favie Atari shirt having fun at Deeks' house. I pretty much love it.
I look at that picture and remember a great day that ended with Deeky and me staying up almost all night having a tumbling conversation about meaningful things. Deeky and I were already friends, but that was one of those days which changes the shape of a friendship into something more and better and grander than it was the day before.
That was a day, a day spent with Deeky and Spudsy, two of my favorite people on the planet, in which I was full of love for them and felt loved right back.
No amount of using that picture to try to shame or hate me will ever change that.
It's mine. No matter who steals it.
[Related Reading: Adventures in Blogging, Part Wev.]
NOM Continues to be Supergross
[Content Note: Family and reproductive policing; homophobia; abuse.]
As if we needed any additional evidence that the virulently anti-gay National Organization for Marriage is just fully the worst, here is John Eastman, NOM's chair, talking about the Supreme Court justices who will soon be ruling on same-sex marriage—specifically about the families of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Clarence Thomas, both of whom have adopted children:
"You're looking at what is the best course societywide to get you the optimal result in the widest variety of cases. That often is not open to people in individual cases. Certainly adoption in families headed, like Chief Roberts' family is, by a heterosexual couple, is by far the second-best option," said John Eastman, chairman of the National Organization for Marriage. Eastman also teaches law at Chapman University law school in Orange, Calif.Different-sex two-(cis)parent families with adopted children are "second-best." Obviously, different-sex two-(cis)parent white Christian families with babies created in magic vaginas under Jesus' watchful eye are the bestest-best. But otherwise acceptable straight white Christian cis people with adopted kids are okay, I GUESS.
I don't even know where to start with this garbage.
There's the implicit assertion that adopted children are less than. There's the implicit assertion that adoptive parents are axiomatically inferior to birth parents. There's the casual eliding of the millions of people who are abused by their birth parents, and the millions of people who are not abused by adoptive parents. There's the implicit demeaning of single- and same-sex parent and blended households. There's the implicit assertion that biologically defined families are inherently superior to families of choice. There's the implicit assertion that families are defined by parenting. There's the gross judgment and ranking of family structures, as if the best family structure isn't the one that best works for everyone in that family, rather than conformity to an externally-defined ideal.
And then there's the hilarious irony that the same conservative nightmare thugs who insist that adoption is a viable alternative to abortion then turn around and demean adoption when it suits their homophobic policies.
Unreal. This would be fucking hilarious, if it weren't so unfathomably cruel.
[Via Andy.]
This is a real thing in the world.
[Content Note: Homophobia; HIV+ prejudice; rape culture.]
This is the actual public testimony of "concerned Minnesotan, father, and husband" Mike Frey, given yesterday at a public hearing on marriage equality in the Minnesota State House. His major concern about marriage equality is the cost to Minnesota taxpayers of all the AIDS that same-sex marriage will cause, and he's got a lot of excellent facts to back him up:
[Frey asks to have a packet of information [sic] handed out to the committee members]Thanks for all the solid info, Dr. Genius!
My name is Mike Frey, and I speak as a concerned Minnesotan, and father, and a husband. And the thing about same sex marriage is that people who are married do have sex. And when same-sex people are married, they do have sex—there's something called sodomy. Sodomy defined in Minnesota is sex by or with the mouth or through the anus. When there is ejaculation into a vagina, there is a barrier there — as in your packet it states there — of a cellular tissue that doesn't allow the sperm, that has an enzyme at the head of it, to penetrate the blood flow. It is designed to go to the egg — that enzyme is designed to burn the outside membrane of the egg cell — go inside the egg, and then deposit the DNA. We call that conception.
When ejaculation occurs inside of a colon — it is a highly absorbent material — the cells do not have a barrier for the sperm, and those enzymes to enter into the bloodflow. When the enzymes enter into the bloodflow and a continued, prolonged, um, environment to that happens these enzymes into bloodflow it causes what we know as AIDS — Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. And AIDS of course brings on common diseases, colds and things, and it magnifies them to a point where it's unhealthy. Not only does it strengthen the disease within the carrier of AIDS — the person that has a destroyed immune system — but it also strengthens the disease that can be spread to the society at large.
There is an example in Los Angeles County, California, where among the gay community a rash almost like boils, and a very raw skin broke out on the hands, feet, butt, mouth of these gay communities and they couldn't find a cure for it for a long time. Their doctors called the Centers for Disease Control and they couldn't find this cure for it. The cure they found, a very extrenuous [sic] antibiotic, was Zyvox. It cost $2,400 for one course of use.
I urge you to vote against the changes inside this bill, because it's going to put a health risk for the society at large, and it's going to put a financial burden on the people of Minnesota to be able to support all the diseases that will come out of this. Thank you so much for your time.
All these years, I was under the impression that unmarried straight, gay, and bi people can have sex. And that not all married people have sex. And that lots of straight and bi people are into sodomy. And that lesbians exist. And that the reason half of the world's HIV/AIDS population are female is, in fact, because of our "biological vulnerability to HIV infection" which makes us "twice more likely to become infected with HIV through unprotected heterosexual intercourse than men." GLAD TO HAVE ALL THAT CLEARED UP!
This guy is the fucking worst. I have seen some rank homophobia in my day, and burying it behind Jesus and "tradition" are terrible enough, but burying it behind a garbage science lesson and fearmongering about the public cost of HIV/AIDS is somehow extra terrible.
And, frankly, Mr. Frey had better hope that the government is not persuaded to start legislating against unions whose sexual consequences could cost the taxpayers money, as long as we're still funding public education for schoolchildren.
Anyway. One final thought: Who the fuck are these conservative dudes who imagine cis women have magic vaginas?! We can stop pregnancy after rape with our magic vaginas! We can stop the transmission of HIV with our magic vaginas! We can stop speeding bullets with our magic vaginas!
Would that my magic vagina could stop these dipshits from talking.
[H/T to The Captain.]
Quote of the Day
"When a physician removes a child from a woman, that is the largest organ in a body. That's a big thing. That's a big surgery. You don't have any other organs in your body that are bigger than that."—Republican Alabama State Representative Mary Sue McClurkin, who is definitely a genius and obviously bored with the anti-choice classics, so figured she'd drop some new material.
Via Maya, who observes that a fetus is not an organ (nor is it a child), that nearly 90% of abortions take place in the first trimester, during which the fetus is about the same size as a smelt, and that a "first-trimester surgical abortion takes about 10 minutes and usually doesn't even require general anesthesia," which is an unusual definition of "big surgery."
Whooooooops!
Dispatches from Planet Republican
Taking a page from the Mitt Romney playbook, Republican Governor of Mississippi Phil Bryant said in an interview yesterday that healthcare reform is unnecessary because every USian already has access to healthcare:
There is no one who doesn't have health care in America. No one. Now, they may end up going to the emergency room. There are better ways to deal with people that need health care than this massive new program.I will reiterate what I said when Professor Mitt Romney of Dunnoshitboutshit University said the same stupid thing: There are, in fact, lots of people in the US who do not have access to insured healthcare, and do not go to the emergency room even when they need it, for fear of crushing medical bills.
In fact, lots of people with shitty insurance—hell, lots of people with GOOD insurance!—make the same decision, because insurance doesn't cover everything. There are deductibles and "patients' portions," that can be 20% (or more) of extraordinarily expensive medical treatment.
I suppose that's something that doesn't matter to a dude like Bryant, insured by the government on the taxpayer dime, who probably hasn't looked at his own medical bills in years (if ever) and has no idea that his personal assistant pays whatever his patient portion is along with the rest of his bills.
But to average USians, taking on the cost of medical care, even with insurance, is something to consider, even in emergencies.
This guy doesn't understand—and evidently doesn't care to understand—a most basic reality of average people's experiences in this country.
For the record: "Emergency rooms serve as a place of last resort, but 45,000 Americans still die every year because they lack health insurance, or one every 12 minutes."
Fuck off, you cloistered plutocrat. And take the rest of your garbage party with you.
Quote of the Day
[Content Note: Guns; racism.]
"I urge our president to use caution when attacking clearly defined absolutes in favor of his principles. When absolutes are abandoned for principles, the U.S. Constitution becomes a blank slate for anyone's graffiti."—Wayne LaPierre, executive director of the National Rifle Association and professional jackass, in response to President Obama having said in his inaugural address that USians should not "mistake absolutism for principle," despite the fact that the President only obliquely referred to gun reform by saying: "Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia, to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for and cherished and always safe from harm," which obviously entails much more than preventing gun death, as his address made abundantly clear.
Aside from the fact that LaPierre is a rank liar and a tedious hyperbolist, I wonder how many of our white presidents have been accused of spraying "graffiti" on the Constitution.
Republicans Do Not Live on Planet Earth
[Content Note: Guns; disablism.]
Republicans do not live on the same planet we do. That is the only explanation I have left for shit like this:
Rep. James Lankford (R-OK), the fifth-ranking House Republican, laid the blame for gun violence at the feet of an unusual suspect: the children of "welfare moms" who commit fraud.Moms are diabolical, y'all. Especially "welfare moms," who are always stealing the stick-figure family decals off the rear windows of soccer moms' minivans, when they're not drugging up their kids and giving them guns to play with while Mommy defrauds the government.
In a meeting with constituents earlier this month in Oklahoma City, a woman asked the GOP congressman what he was doing to combat all the children who were committing gun violence because they were high on psychotropic drugs. Lankford replied that he "agree[s] with that" and then went on to blame Social Security disability fraud for the rash of gun violence around the country.
..."I agree with that. I think there's a bunch of issues that, quite frankly, most liberals are afraid to talk about. [...] Where are we on all those psychiatric drugs? We've overmedicated kids. Quite frankly some of the overmedication of kids are because welfare moms want to get additional benefits and if they can put them on SSI through maintenance drugs, they can also put them on Social Security disability and get a separate check. That is wrong on every single level. Not only is it fraudulent to the government, but it also tells a kid with great potential, 'don't try because you're disabled.'"
Suffice it to say: Social security fraud is not even remotely to blame for gun violence.
In Fiscal Year 2011, the Inspector General's office opened up 4,600 fraud cases related to Social Security disability programs. This number includes a wide variety of fraud, including lying about one's marital status, stealing money from someone who has died, or unreported income. The actual number of people committing the type of fraud Lankford describes is a minuscule fraction. Meanwhile, nearly 10,000 people are gunned down in an average year.WELFARE MOMS!
Situations like this beg for an application of Occam's Razor. Which seems more likely to contribute to gun violence: "welfare moms" overmedicating their kids in order to commit Social Security fraud, or the vast proliferation of guns and how easy it is to obtain one?
So this is the Republicans' current working theory: Anyone who uses guns to kill people is crazy. (Except, of course,
The one thing we know for sure is that it's definitely women who are to blame.
Today in Perfect Solutions
[Content Note: Rape culture.]
GOP Pollster: Stop Talking about Rape:
It's way past time: House Republicans need to stop talking about rape.That is obviously just a perfect solution. Definitely keep your vile, ignorant, disgraceful, indecent, reprehensible, colossally contemptible attitudes and opinions about rape exactly the same, but just don't tell anyone about it. Genius.
That's the message GOP lawmakers got here Wednesday evening from Kellyanne Conway, a top GOP pollster.
Conway dispensed the stern advice as part of a polling presentation she made alongside fellow GOP pollsters David Winston — an adviser to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) — and Dave Sackett. The comment was described by several sources in the room.
Conway said rape is a "four-letter word," and Republicans simply need to stop talking about it in their races for office.
The NRA Is the Worst
[Content Note: Guns.]
Of course: NRA TV Ad: Obama 'Elitist Hypocrite' Because His Daughters Have Armed Guards.
The National Rifle Association [which has called on Congress to put armed police in every public school in the nation following the Newtown shooting, a move rejected by many teacher groups] is amping up the political rhetoric in advance of President Obama's gun violence prevention announcement scheduled for Wednesday. On Tuesday, the NRA posted a video on its website accusing the president of being "an elitist hypocrite" because his daughters have armed guards at school. CNN reported Tuesday night that the video "is running on the Sportsman Channel, a cable network focused on outdoors programming such as hunting and fishing.""Fair share." Sure. Because every child in the US is under the same exact threat as the children of presidents.
..."Are the president's kids more important than yours? Then why is he skeptical about putting armed security in our schools when his kids are protected by armed guards at their school?" the NRA ad's narration reads. "Mr. Obama demands the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes, but he's just another elitist hypocrite when it comes to a fair share of security."
[H/T to Jordan.]
