Bleh.

UPDATE:

I’m currently working on redesigning and reorganizing the site.  I’m still figuring out the template system, but it shouldn’t be long before I have something concrete.  Also, the site will be divided into different sections, but pages will be re-directed appropriately.  Hopefully I’ll be done soon!

Ingredient: A Dash of Relief

The primary season is finally over! Thanks Hillary for saying you’ll support Barack Obama. You’ve run an incredibly bitter and negative campaign, and liberals everywhere thank you for aiming your cannons across the aisle for a change. Please, don’t play the veepstakes. That small percentage of extremely vocal and stunningly obnoxious supporters who say they’ll vote for McCain are now saying they wouldn’t vote for Obama even if you were on the ticket. They’re the weak-minded morons I have repeatedly described, and the Republicans are playing them like a fiddle. So please, let it go.

Yeah, yeah, party unity. I’m not interested in prolonging the division, but after running the kind of ruthless, cutthroat operation we’ve suffered over the last 4 months (let’s face it, February was when things turned ugly), she’s the one who need to make amends and redeem herself. To be honest, I hope she does. She could be a great asset to the Party and the country, but first she needs to lick her wounds and swallow her pride. Additionally, any Obama supporters who start pouring salt on said wounds by gloating should throw themselves off a bridge, right now.

Ingredient: A Healthy Smattering of Sleaze

I’ve got to hand it to the Republicans, who are proving to be every bit as stubborn and tenacious as the Clinton campaign was. I mean, seriously: internet trolls? That’s their strategy? It makes sense that the only thing they have to rely on are smear tactics, spreading rumors and subterfuge (let’s not be coy, they’re frauds). What else can they use? They set the standard for epic failure on issues like policy and record, and they know it.

For all you Vonsters and Dittoheads out there who believe Limbaugh’s crap that “the Democrats gave us McCain,” as justification for your fraudulent little campaign, read the “frauds” link. It wasn’t us who gave you John McCain. Sans Michigan and Florida, we were too busy making sure our favorite got the Democratic nomination to bother with foiling your plans. Maybe what Limbaugh and his followers have failed to realize is that they’ve become irrelevant. They failed to realize that they, not the “liberals,” are the problem and people are sick of their shit. They might have a few reasons to be bitter.

In short, the Republicans are going to lose because they deserve to lose. Cry about it somewhere else.

Ingredient - Road Rage.

I’m expanding my targets of gas price-related anger. Instead of focusing on a few, I’m going to spread my anger evenly on all those responsible, including the oil companies, the speculators, the GOP and the ones I get to deal with most, BFV drivers.

Big. Fuckin’. Vehicle.

Nothing bothers me more than seeing a BFV capable of hauling steel beams to a construction site in the bed of the truck, yet not have a single scratch on it. Why does this bother me? They don’t fucking need it! Get a car. Get a smaller truck, hell, get a Chevy Blazer. They drive well, they’re spacious, the gas mileage is better, and you don’t look cartoonish getting in or out of one. The bottom line: if you don’t use a truck for work, don’t buy a goddamn work truck, dumbass.

Then there are the BFV drivers who have no courtesy or regard for others on the road. As I sit here trying to imagine the elitist attitude and sense of entitlement of those who would purchase one of these things, I can’t what is going through the mind of one of these miscreants as they pull into a gas station and neglect to pull into the far end of the pumps, thus forcing you to go around them, missing the pump they should have used because of the width of the turn you had to make due to the unnecessary size of their vehicle.

I got to experience this last night, and for the last time, I swear. The cocksucker in the drivers seat, naturally, was the only one riding in their 10 mpg vehicle. Great. They come out wearing nicely tailored garments undoubtedly made from linens skillfully crafted at the hands of a 7 year old working in a garage-turned-factory on the outskirts of Calcutta. I finished pumping gas and went inside to pay.

After waiting in line for about five minutes, the same shithead cuts in front of me in line. I responded with a booming voice that wasn’t quite a yell, but designed to be loud and imposing,”EXCUSE ME I WAS STANDING IN LINE FIRST,” then stepped in front of them. If the fucker would have said anything, I’d have been more than happy to give them a pipe wrench polish on their BFV as soon as I stepped out the door. Assholes.

When they’re not cutting me off, trying to hit me or doing something completely rude, my encounters with BFV’s and their owners tend to be benign. When gas is at $4/gallon, the economy is in the shitter, our illegal invasion is going terrible and the asshole in the BFV has a GOP election sticker on their bumper, I tend to get a little less friendly.

Most of the time when I see someone driving a BFV, I simply think,”Nice SUV. Sorry about your penis.”

As an aside, can anyone tell my why the fuck there are so many Impala’s on the road? I can’t drive for 5 minutes without seeing the ugly ass-end of one of these things staring me in the face.

Ingredient: 1 lb of Satisfaction

After running the most positive campaign I can recall, Barack Obama came out swinging in the GE. Now the crybaby pisspants Republicans are whining about it by calling him a hypocrite. Why? Because it’s “politics as usual” and “negative campaigning.”

Really? I haven’t seen any ad hominem by the Obama camp. I’ve seen some propagandistic comparisons to “Bush’s third term,” but nothing serious. In fact, almost every attack has to do with McCain’s stance on the issues and, by extension, calling his election Bush’s third term does a pretty good job at summing it up.

What the wingnuts are really saying is “you can’t attack us, period.” I can see why they’d adopt this attitude, considering how their shitty policies led us to an illegal war and an economic recession while letting companies run amok with little or no regulation and are thereby directly responsible for the fix we’re in.

They’re certainly not pulling any punches though. They’ve already called Obama a liar. Then there’s the internet trolls and his shameless speech last Tuesday, in which he criticized Obama’s proposals while repeatedly lying through his dentures. Ooh, a point-by-point with the transcript could be fun…

Ingredient: Republicans are fucking scary.

It seems the average Conservative is still excessively bad at making a case for… well, for anything, really. Take, for instance, your average dittohead troll:

It’s the same old spill from liberal bloggers. They are blinded to the facts. Obama is not a reliable candidate. He has not even finished his term at present. Do you think if there were a higher office he would quit the presidency to run for it? There is not a higher office in America. Maybe they do agree with his voting record, as short as it is. To associate MCcain with the klan is completely ignorant on their behalf. His record shows bipartisan efforts. Obama’s does not. McCain’s past shows strong leadership and reform. Obama’s does not. Of course it does not matter to the leftist. They will continue to attack based on their biased,bigotted forum.

This is an excellent example of what I’m referring to. The have a penchant for making broad-based, absolute statements. They state them as if they were set in stone, factual and unchanging. What’s terrifying about it is that they never question themselves. They say what, but they never, ever, ever say why. “They are blinded to the facts.” How? “Obama is not a reliable candidate. He has not even finished his term at present.” Why does that make him unreliable? “Do you think if there were a higher office he would quit the presidency to run for it?” Moot question, implications appeal to ones ignorance rather than their reason. “There is not a higher office in America.” No shit? Was this written by a fourth grader? There is one higher office you Cons recognize: CEO. “Maybe they do agree with his voting record, as short as it is.” Who agrees? Are you talking about this voting record? John McCain has his share of No Votes too, buddy.

The rest of it is just too goofy to mention. Obama, for instance, had a reputation for getting the other side involved at the state level. McCain, if you read the news, has turned out to be a political wind vane. Whichever way the wind is blowing, especially around an election, John McCain is sure to follow.

This, I think, is why I want to be an educator, especially at the college level. Maybe, just maybe I can lead someone to reason before they become assimilated. At the very least, it would be a victory to get someone to reason with themselves to at least express why they think that way, instead of just presenting their opinion to the world. Saying why you think someone is a communist is worth far more than simply stating that you think they’re a communist. Better still is to logically demonstrate how your reasons are valid. Not a single one of the conservative dipshits who’ve left comments on my blog have done this, but I’d shake the hand of one who finally does.

The sad thing is, this comment was one of the better ones! Blows ol’ Vonster right out of the water. Sure, it reads like it was written by a third grader, but at least the person was trying.

I learned something today: my math skills have severely diminished. To be fair, It’s been 10 years since I completed a math class, and at least 7 years since I’ve taken one (and dropped it, as previously mentioned). I figured I could pick up where I left off and run with it.  Hell, all it is is moving around numbers to simplify or balance an equation, how hard could it be?

So today, I was scheduled to take a math placement test at ICC. I had a calculator and some scratch paper, and had perused my old notes and taken some new ones in preparation. No serious studying, just a quick refresher.

Question #1:

“Oh, hey, I remember this! That’s the property of… SHIT!”

Okay, bad start, but I squeeze out a passable answer.

Question #7:

“The answer…. is C?”

Alright, I’m still in this. This isn’t as bad as I thought.

Question #8:

“Okay, I recognize this formula! It’s… it’s… sonuvabitch!!”

The results were ugly. I actually got bumped back a level!

Math isn’t hard. At least not until you have to deal with theories and advanced concepts. There’s not much understanding involved, really. Everything has a principle, every operation has a function, everything has a method and a formula. It’s orderly–follow the steps and everything will be alright. If only I remembered the fucking things.

So now I have at least two more classes to add to my list: the one I ought to be taking and the one I’m stuck with instead. Dammit.

So yesterday I awoke to find that my basement had flooded overnight. I called work and told them I wouldn’t be in. Ten minutes later, my wife came home and told me she’s pregnant.

What a day! Though now I’m sort of depressed, as it means I must chop off the ol’ yarbles. Despite being on the pill, my troops still captured the enemy base.

I’m optimistic though. We tend to make friggin’ cute babies:

In response to an opinion piece that spoke unfavorably of the venerable and holy Oil Industry, some moron made the following claim: the environmental activists and lobbyists are the reason we’re paying $4 at the pump.

Cue studio laughter.

Yes, fella, because environmental lobbyists have sooooo much more money than Big Oil and can hire sooooo many more lobbyists.

I don’t get people like this. They’re essentially fanning away mosquitos while ignoring the tiger that’s eating their leg.

Reminds me of the 90’s when the right-wingers pointed to seatbelt laws, bicycle helmet laws and video game ratings or the parental advisories on music as the harbingers of democracy’s impending demise while describing how it would lead to a totalitarian police state while abusing the phrase “Big Brother.”

Now we have all sorts of GOP-originated big government, and people like this are still swatting at the mosquitos! Jeez.

What we’re seeing here with the protection of Big Oil is a co-dependent mingling of government and business, providing us with, as KO once put it, a textbook example of fascism. Thanks, guys. Way to love freedom.

——-

I’m really looking forward to having another Democrat in office. The wingnuts go from vanilla crazy to full-throttle batshit insane.

The fundie’s shed bit the dust. I think I’ll be a good neighbor and offer to help when they clean it up.

From the Peoria Pundit:

Opinion: 21st century slavery in the United States

Glenn Beck can be a real doofus at times, but he is right on the money on the issue of illegal immigration:

The unspoken truth is that these businesses don’t hire illegal aliens because they can’t find American workers, they hire illegal aliens because they don’t want American workers. And it has nothing to do with wages.

Illegal aliens mean no workers’ comp claims, no age, race or sex discrimination lawsuits, no healthcare premiums, no unions, and no demands for raises, vacations or bigger offices. In fact, illegal immigrants are the perfect employees because they’re not employees at all; they’re corporate slaves.

Economist Dr. Thomas Sowell once said, “Blacks were not enslaved because they were black, but because they were available.” Can’t the exact same thing be said for illegal aliens? They’re available and we’re allowing them to be exploited in the name of cheap groceries.

Is the price of fruit really the standard we want to live up to as a country? Is that really who we’ve become?

I’m all for legal immigration. And I’m all in favor of increasing the amount of legal immigration, and making it easier.

But what we’ve allowed to happen here is an environment where good jobs are beign sent elsewhere by companies like our very own Caterpillar Inc., while low-paying jobs that can’t be exported are being taken over by the 21st century’s version of slave labor.

This cannot continue.

Usually I have nothing to say about Bill’s politics. I either agree with them, am neutral on the topic, or disagree, but not strongly enough to bother with it. Today falls under the latter category, but I do have a few things to say about the reasoning of the guy in the quoted snippet.

I disagree with the premise. The guy says “it has nothing to do with wages,” yet lists “no demands for raises” as a reason. It can’t be both. That’s what it comes down to: wages and healthcare. The rest is filler. I also think they’re missing something the corporations have in their favor: the leverage of non-citizenship. Unions? Lawsuits? Honestly, who are these people going to complain to without being deported?

I also think the notion that American workers are an unbearable burden to these companies is bogus. Sure, workers are both a liability and an asset. That’s the nature of employment. The problems listed here are not so frequent or excessive as to warrant this type of behavior from companies. I’ve worked at the same company for over two years and have not heard of a single instance where any of these was an issue, yet the company has nearly 2000 employees. The way the guy in the quoted article makes it sound, American employees are nothing but opportunists looking to make an easy million at a company’s expense, and if that’s the case, how do any companies who employ Americans remain in business?

I think the conclusion hits closer to the mark with its description of the kind of opportunism that leads to so-called corporate slavery. The thing is, certain individuals (read: wingnuts) tend to be mad at the wrong people for causing this. Illegal immigrants may be breaking our laws by being here without documentation, but it’s the corporations who are hiring them or shipping jobs overseas.

This begs the question: are illegal immigrants hurting us by being here, or are companies hurting us more by hiring them instead of Americans?

Yeah, I don’t disagree with the guy’s conclusion, but his reasons for getting there could use some work.

From PJStar.com:

What do child predators, wildfires, crops and shrimp have to do with U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Sorry, there’s no punchline to that setup. The answer is, of course, nothing. Which is why we’re not laughing at an attempt last week by certain congressional Democrats to tie a supplemental military funding bill to a bunch of unrelated matters.

In the Senate’s version of the war legislation these “domestic add-ons,” as they’re being called, included $50 million to track kiddie predators, $350 million to fight Western fires, $400 million in rural school assistance and $75 million to prop up commercial fisheries. Another add-on was a provision awarding extended work permits for hundreds of thousands of immigrant farm laborers.

The House’s version, meanwhile, had $5.8 billion for New Orleans’ levees. It also tacked on a measure to extend unemployment for Americans whose benefits have run out, and another to block the Bush administration’s attempt to cut Medicaid.

Look, our objection is not to these domestic priorities in and of themselves. Each one is an important issue worthy of due congressional consideration.

But they absolutely do not belong next to the $165 billion necessary to fund operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through the rest of President Bush’s term.

Indeed, riddling the war legislation with add-ons was a purely political move. For some Democrats, it was a dare to Bush — if he wants his war bucks, he’ll have to choke down a spoonful of unrelated spending, as he did last year to the tune of $17 billion. For some Republicans, it was an opportunity to support the war and bring home the bacon to constituents. GOP Sen. Richard Shelby, for instance, eagerly sent out a press release to Alabamans bragging about fishery assistance.

Tomfoolery like this is why Americans can’t stand politics. And it’s a disservice to the thousands of Americans serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, as the fate of their funding gets hung up on Capitol Hill.

So bizarre are the political motivations involved and so entangled are the defense/domestic add-on measures that some fiscally conservative House Republicans actually helped anti-war House Democrats defeat the military funding.

Congress should let war spending — and child predator spending, and Medicaid spending, and school spending, etc. — stand or sink on their own merits.

The entire premise of this article is wrong, and if this is the depth of his or her understanding of rather common methods and processes, the author of this opinion piece should probably never write about Washington politics again. Ever.

Really, I wish every budget problem could be analyzed by devaluing it as a cheap political game. First off, if you think Congress never gets anything done now, could you imagine if they had to make a separate bill for each individual funding request, then debate and vote on each? No thanks. That’s what the House and Senate Appropriations Committees are for.

The fact of the matter is, if Congress tried passing any of these on their own (or even attached to another, less important bill), there’s a chance Bush would veto them but a better chance they’d never get called to the floor. Since this particular bill is one that needs to pass no matter what, it’s their best chance of getting the requested funding. What Congressional Democrats (and even a healthy number of Republicans) have finally realized is that the only way to pass much-needed spending is to attach it to something the president wants.

The hypocrisy of this article struck me as well. Bush is the one who started playing hardball by vetoing everything that came to his desk. Now that Congress is playing hardball, it’s suddenly unfair? The article even states that these attachments are important. What, then, does it tell us when both parties feel it is necessary to add them to a war spending bill to get the funding they need? It tells me that the president can’t be reasoned with and needs to be led by the proverbial carrot to make any progress. You may have noticed similar problems Illinois lawmakers are having with the governor.

Unfortunately, the Journal Star’s new website doesn’t have a category titled “Abject Filler and Other Banalities,” so this article ended up in the Opinion section. That’s the unfortunate drawback of opinions; you don’t have to be informed to have one.

The other day, actress/activist Sharon Stone made a remark that the recent earthquake and aftershocks in China were the result of “bad Karma” for the occupation of Tibet. I haven’t seen the response to this yet, but it ought to be indignant. Not only is this in extremely poor taste, it’s insulting to the thousands of victims both dead and displaced who have suffered tremendously in the aftermath of this disaster. Sharon, shame on you.

I’m sick of this kind of opportunistic bullshit where people exploit the tragedies of others to further some political cause. They’d benefit by spreading their message using something relevant to their cause, rather than trying to cash in on someone’s tragedy, especially when there’s no feasible correlation between what’s being compared.

You right-wingers ought to take a hint from this. When one of our people says or does something stupid, we say something about it. The next time one your nutbag buddies says something like “Hurricane Katrina was God’s punishment for gays,” “the holocaust was Hitler doing God’s work,” “9/11 was God’s punishment for America’s sins,” equate diplomacy with appeasement, use tragedies like the NIU shooting to promote their views against conceal/carry laws or to trump up their case against violent video games, laughably and quite inaccurately stating that America was founded to eradicate Islam… fucking call them out on it! Stop defending this lunatic opportunism and start holding people accountable for making idiotic statements, even if they vote for the same party you do. Remember accountability? That thing you say the left goes without? Give it a spin try sometime–you might rediscover your dignity.

Remember how I’ve often remarked on how far politics in this country have shifted to the right? This is the kind of thing I’m talking about. Behold, the good ol’ days:

Hat tip to Grandma’s Attic.