(Matt Davies via GoComics.com)
Gail Collins, on “Rocks in Space”:
… Space exploration is one of the extremely few areas in which there is a lot of bipartisan agreement in Washington… nobody wants their constituents to be clobbered by an asteroid. Really, this is a priority. The Obama administration is currently promoting an “asteroid grand challenge,” in which we’re invited “to find all asteroid threats to human populations” and figure out what to do about them.
And — this is good news, people — we’ve already pinpointed about 95 percent of all the rocks in the solar system that are of planet-mashing size.
I know that you are now instantly focusing on the remaining 5 percent, as well as the multitudinous smaller fellows that are capable of taking out Massachusetts or Paris — or your local shopping center. Everybody is in favor of finding them too, particularly since one grazed Russia earlier this year, causing the House Science Committee to hold a special Threats From Space meeting.
Even members of Congress who pooh-pooh the peril of global warming believe in the danger of global asteroid-exploding. I am thinking about Rep. Lamar Smith, the Texas Republican who heads — yes! — the House Science Committee. And Sen. Ted Cruz, the top-ranking Republican on the Senate Subcommittee on Science and Space, who demanded that we “do what needs to be done” to prevent an asteroid from hitting the earth and smashing into a major American city. Or a Canadian one.
Despite all this cheerleading, there hasn’t been all that much money spent on the mission. Discover magazine estimated that over the past 15 years, the United States had spent less money on asteroid detection “than the production budget of the 1998 asteroid movie ‘Armageddon.’ ” In which Ben Affleck won Liv Tyler but the earth lost Shanghai, much of New York and Bruce Willis….
NotMax
Celestial ‘roid rage can be a calamitous thing.
WereBear
I’m sure it was the movie which convinced the wingnuts. They don’t believe in science.
Schlemizel
Toothpaste for dinner had a very accurate cartoon that fits quiet nicely into the conversation:
http://www.toothpastefordinner.com/082213/science-vs-the-people.gif
Science that is inconvenient is simply gainsaid, but if morons panic over the 1 in a trillion chance that leprechauns will eat their genitalia while they sleep Congress can be counted on to hold hearings and make all sorts of grand pronouncements.
OzarkHillbilly
I don’t know what they are worried about. This planet will be cooked unless we get hit by a planet saving asteroid.
Suffern ACE
@Schlemizel: I woke up this morning to find my glasses broken on the floor. Which is pretty much equivalent in my case to waking up and finding that leprechauns have done a nasty number on me. I would not dismiss leprechaunology so quickly.
Baud
Wait, so now we don’t want to bring on the asteroid?
Sly
There is bipartisan support for space exploration because NASA did a reasonably good job spreading out its projects among several states, including to Texas, over its 55 year history. Johnson Space Center alone pulls in somewhere around five billion a year and employs, indirectly (through local grants and contracts), close to twenty thousand. Even if you went by conservative spending and workforce multipliers, that’s lots of money for lots of people, and not just in the Houston metro area.
Rosalita
@NotMax:
LOL. you win the thread
c u n d gulag
GOP POV:
WAIT!
WHAT?
This was about getting hit by ASTERoids?
We thought it was about getting hit with HEMORRHoids!
Neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeever mind.
Oh, and cancel any money we’ve allotted, and give it to the military, to keep protecting us from the USSR!
Baud
@c u n d gulag:
No. You’re thinking about the House of Representatives.
c u n d gulag
@Baud:
I believe House Republicans are known as ASSteroids.
Short for “Assholes On Steroids!”
Baud
@c u n d gulag:
I like that.
Comrade Jake
All I know is that I’d like to see someone put that Ted Cruz asshat into orbit. What a jackass that guy is.
Billy Dilly
To quote Billy Bob Thornton in Armegeddon.
It’s a big assed sky!
raven
Bradley Manniing just announced he wants to live the rest of his life as Chelsea.
http://www.today.com/news/bradley-manning-i-want-live-woman-6C10974915
Burt Hutt
In the spirit of open threads, I get to start my day by having my 14 year old lab euthanized. Just capping off a horrible night of seizures mad disorientation for her. Better still is introducing death to my 10 and 5 year old kids.
Fuck.
raven
I don’t want to go to Chelsea.
Baud
@Burt Hutt:
Aw, man. That sucks.
raven
@Burt Hutt: Really sorry to hear this.
Burt Hutt
Yeah, it sucks about 1000x. Thanks for the support Baud and Raven. I know this blog community is full of pet lovers so thanks in advance for anyone else’s words of support as well.
Her name is Montana and she is technically a yellow lab but she really looks like a miniature polar bear. So many terrific years with her but we don’t want her to suffer any more.
SiubhanDuinne
Test.
c u n d gulag
@Burt Hutt:
That’s terrible!
And it’s probably worse for the children, because they had that wonderful dog in their lives, their whole lives.
My condolences…
raven
@Burt Hutt:
We who choose to surround ourselves
with lives even more temporary than our
own, live within a fragile circle;
easily and often breached.
Unable to accept its awful gaps,
we would still live no other way.
We cherish memory as the only
certain immortality, never fully
understanding the necessary plan.
— Irving Townsend
JPL
@Burt Hutt: Lots of hugs for all of you. It really does suck.
MomSense
@Burt Hutt:
Sending my sympathy and lots of hugs to you and your family.
Joey Maloney
@Burt Hutt: I’m really sorry to hear that. Peace to you and your kids.
rikyrah
The nation’s full faith and credit is not a ‘leverage point’
By Steve Benen
Thu Aug 22, 2013 8:00 AM EDT
About a week ago, National Review’s Robert Costa reported that congressional Republicans are considering an incredibly dangerous new plan: they’re prepared to hold the nation’s debt limit hostage again, creating a crisis comparable to the one we saw in the summer of 2011, unless Democrats agree to take health care benefits away from millions of Americans.
Earlier this week, Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), a prominent member of the House Democratic leadership, said he now sees this scenario as likely. And overnight, Reuters reported that another GOP debt-ceiling crisis appears to be on the way
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/08/22/20134901-the-nations-full-faith-and-credit-is-not-a-leverage-point?lite
Debbie(aussie)
@Burt Hutt:
my thoughts are with you and your family at this sad time, (((((((((Deb))))))))))
rikyrah
UK Stands Up to Greenwald and Media Bullying: Miranda Was Held for Possession of Stolen Information That Would Help Terrorism
Wednesday, August 21, 2013 | Posted by Spandan C at 7:57 AM
Good for the UK Home Office. They seem to have had it with the faux outrage peddled by Glenn Greenwald and his bootlickers in the international media conglomerates (such as Comcast MSNBC). They are standing up to the bullying and just went on the offense, saying Miranda was held for being in possession of “highly sensitive stolen information that would help terrorism”.
Isn’t this what we’ve been saying since, oh, since this happened? Despite the attempt to turn this into some sort of a nefarious new world order crackdown on freedom of the press, no principle, and certainly no law, protecting the freedom of the press entitles employees of media organizations to roam free across the globe while in possession of contraband or highly sensitive stolen documents – business or government (or with any stolen property for that matter).
http://www.thepeoplesview.net/2013/08/uk-stands-up-to-greenwald-and-media.html
Betty Cracker
@Burt Hutt: I’m so sorry. We faced a similar situation several years ago, and helping a child come to terms with the loss of a beloved family member is heartbreaking.
rikyrah
Even Republican young adults want health insurance, poll finds
Obamacare may have become a partisan issue, but more Republicans than Democrats have signed up for one of its most popular provisions, according to a survey published Wednesday.
The survey also pokes holes in the idea that most 20-somethings act like “Young Invincibles” who believe they don’t need health insurance.
A team at the Commonwealth Fund, which strongly supports healthcare reform, looked at one of the main target groups of the 2010 Affordable Care Act – young adults who have been going without health insurance. One of the most popular provisions of the law lets people age 26 and younger stay on their parents’ health insurance.
“Public opinion polls found a partisan divide … but Republicans and Democrats both took advantage of the young adult provisions,” says Commonwealth vice president Sara Collins, who led the study. “In fact, more Republicans than Democrats did.”
They found that by last March, 63 percent of young adults identifying as Republicans had enrolled in a parent’s health plan in the last 12 months, compared to 45 percent of those who considered themselves Democrats. About 26 percent of the 1,800 adults surveyed said they were Republicans, 28 percent said they were Democrats and the rest either said they were independent, some other party, or did not say.
http://www.nbcnews.com/health/even-republican-young-adults-want-health-insurance-poll-finds-6C10963044
RobertDSC-Power Mac G5 Dual
@rikyrah:
Round them up and send them to Gitmo for domestic economic terrorism.
rikyrah
What the Affordable Care Act Means to Communities of Color
Dr. J. Nadine Gracia
August 21, 2013
01:50 PM EDT
Ed. note: This is crossposted from hhs.gov/healthcare. See the original post here: http://tinyurl.com/kh5lnrn.
Recently, I traveled to Oakland, California, to participate in a town hall about how theAffordable Care Act is improving health and strengthening communities – especiallycommunities of color that have long faced disparities in health and health care.
As the event was coming to a close, a woman in the audience stood up and asked if she could read a letter from her daughter. Her daughter hadn’t been able to attend the event, she told us, but wanted to share her story with everyone.
She had started college a few years later than most, at the age of 22. During her freshman year, she was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis – a devastating discovery. But there was one source of relief: thanks to the health care law’s provision enabling young people to stay on their parents’ health insurance until the age of 26, she was able to stay on her parents’ health plan, access the treatment that she needed, and continue her studies. And even though she has since turned 26, the opening of the new Health Insurance Marketplace – and the law’s ban on discrimination due to pre-existing conditions- will provide her with new opportunities to secure affordable coverage.
The last excerpt that the woman read from her daughter’s letter was directed to President Obama. Thank you, she wrote. The health care law had helped to save her life.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/08/21/what-affordable-care-act-means-communities-color
rikyrah
Fake IRS Scandal Backfires as Democrat Sues the IRS over 501 (c) Regulation
By: Adalia Woodbury
Aug. 21st, 2013
After years of failed pretend scandals, Republicans thought they had a winner when they went after the IRS.
Based on the Inspector General’s report Republicans tried to persuade America that the IRS was unfairly scrutinizing Tea Party organizations that were seeking the coveted 501 (c) (4) status. Darrel Issa spent months holding “hearings” trying to suggest the IRS was out to get the Tea Party and trying to find a link between this and the White House. Ted Cruz and Rand Paul led the vengeance crusade to shut down the IRS based on the latest “scandal” that never was.
Our Sarah Jones reported on the unredacted IRS Treasury’s report’s conclusions. The report revealed that Issa was lying (again) and so was the Inspector General. In fact, the whole audit was skewed to make it appear that the IRS targeted the Tea Party when the reality was that organizations across the political spectrum faced scrutiny.
Republicans really did it to themselves with this “scandal.” Their previous attempts merely meant they looked like desperate fools focused on smearing the President because they don’t have any ideas. This time, they may lose the one thing they treasure more than using millions of tax-free dollars to smear Democrats – the ability to shield their donors from public scrutiny.
http://www.politicususa.com/2013/08/21/democrat-sues-irs-501-c-regulation.html
Emma
@raven: Good for him. If Chelsea is who he is, then that’s who he should be.
Emma
@Burt Hutt: Crap. That is horrible. Hugs for the whole family.
gelfling545
See, here’s what I don’t get. “God” will not allow global warming to destroy the planet but is totally ok with an asteroid doing so and people shouldn’t need to do anything about the former but really need to get to work on the latter?
boatboy_srq
Ms. Tyler isn’t worth Shanghai, “much of New York” (would that be Manhattan, Bronx or Queens?) – and definitely not Willis. BAD exchange IYAM.
@WereBear:
Wingnuts don’t even believe in space.
Patricia Kayden
@Burt Hutt: Sorry to hear about that. Great that you have 14 years of happy memories though.
raven
@Emma: I agree but I don’t know what that will mean in Leavenworth.
boatboy_srq
@Burt Hutt: [[hug]]
We’re all there with you.
Patricia Kayden
@rikyrah: Shhhhhh! Greenwald and Snowdens are heroes. Stop criticizing them.
I wish we could focus more on pushing Congress to make changes to the Patriot Act and NSA surveillance instead of focusing on Greenwald and Snowden.
Citizen_X
@Burt Hutt: Very sorry to hear that. My condolences.
boatboy_srq
@rikyrah: woo-HOO! THAT will be one fun case to watch.
@gelfling545: Reminder: the Hand of Gawd (well, the Xtian Gawd at least) that punishes the unRighteous unBelievers is palpable, visible and immediate. The Strong Arm of Gawd that protects the Good Upstanding Right-Thinking Patriotic Xtian Real Ahmurrrcans™ is invisible, intangible and otherwise impossible for yoomans to detect. So the Xtian Jeebus shouters are fully ready to identify rapidly-occurring disasters as PROOF that Gawd is Real and Dislikes Teh unWorthy unWashed unXtians amongst us (regardless of whether any of said unWorthy unWashed unXtians were in the path of said disaster), and can dismiss long-term trends because the His Rod and Staff shield them from lasting harm despite all tangible signs to the contrary and don’t you know they weren’t hit by that last Righteously-Generated Disaster and if they were then they were Blessed With Survival. Like frogs in the pot, they’ll happily simmer in the pot all the way to boiling because It’s Just Two Degrees Warmer This Summer and Jeebus Wouldn’t Kill His Chosen People after all.
Omnes Omnibus
@Patricia Kayden: I remember this blog pushing calling campaigns for the ACA. I wonder why someone who cares about surveillance and privacy issues hasn’t used his blog to push for support for Leahy and Wyden’s efforts on these issues. Maybe it is more fun to bitch about them in a confrontational way using the most polarizing sources available and then complain that people complain about trolling.
Amir Khalid
@Burt Hutt:
Virtual hugs from me too. Take care.
boatboy_srq
@rikyrah: Interesting how “theft of intellectual property” – that one libertarian “I Owns This” piece of Teh Intertubz – isn’t so important to them when one of theirs gets bagged for it, no? Greenwald’s done some excellent reporting over time. But double-standards don’t work for anyone.
Tone In DC
@Patricia Kayden:
Gotta agree with you on that.
Belafon
Has anyone mentioned this: David Dewhurst, Lt Governor, called the Allen, TX police department to try to sway how his nephews wife was treated after she was arrested for shoplifting:
The officer says there’s nothing he can do since it’s now in the hands of the Collin County authorities.
gnomedad
@Schlemizel:
The next time I hear “the climate has always been changing”, I will reply, “How do you know that? Personal experience? Gut feeling? Surely you don’t take the word of scientists!”
JCT
@Burt Hutt: Strong thoughts and sympathy headed your way – I just posted about going through a similar situation with my son a number of years ago on the “dog” thread.
It’s never easy – my kids were soothed by going through tons of family pics of them with the dog and remembering the fun.
Thlayli
@Burt Hutt:
It’s a horrible decision to make, but there just comes a point where you can’t let them go on like that.
My condolences.
skerry
@Burt Hutt: I’m so sorry for your family. Such a hard thing to go through.
Chris
@gelfling545:
It’s the “really need to get to work on” part that weirds me out. How do you know the asteroid wasn’t meant to be, as the apocalypse? We cannot think to thwart God’s will!
boatboy_srq
@Belafon: Dewhurst sounds like every other Teahadist POd that he can’t actually own people anymore.
Amir Khalid
About Manning. To go by the US Army’s statement, it looks like a novel situation for them — a prisoner claiming to be transgendered and seeking hormone therapy, which the Army doesn’t ordinarily provide. I assume that once he arrives at Leavenworth he will undergo a psychiatric evaluation. If his gender identity issue is confirmed, how much of a struggle will it be for him to get the therapy he’s seeking? Is there someone — one of the lawyers Soonergrunt has been consulting, maybe — who can enlighten us?
cmorenc
@OzarkHillbilly:
The irony is that our progeny twenty million years into the future, are going to be searching for suitable-size asteroids to deflect so they pass *closer* to the earth (on its side away from the sun) rather than *farther*, in order to move earth’s orbit further away from the sun as its luminosity progressively increases as part of its own natural stellar life-cycle. Otherwise, the fate of the earth longer-term will be to become cooked to a cinder.
raven
@Amir Khalid: From what I gather he/she would have to be moved to a federal prison.
Jockey Full of Malbec
@rikyrah:
I would be very surprised if Cantor supports a shutdown.
If he does, I hope the DNC at least tries to flip that seat: A lot of his constituents in VA are being hit hard, personally, by the sequester.
Alexandra
There is no agreed medical or psychiatric test for being transexual. Patients who self-diagnose have the expectation and absolute right to be called what they wish to be called. Any statement such as this:
…is denying the self-testimony and integrity of the patient. No need to cast doubt by saying ‘if’ or calling the patient ‘he’. It’s utterly ignorant.
The only way to ensure diagnosis is through what’s called the ‘real-life’ test, which involves walking the walk, so to speak, and living your life fully in the gender which you feel you are. Which means changing your various IDs and your name, including drivers license and passport, even birth certificate in some countries. Only then, once you’ve demonstrated that you are able, or at least committed, will hormones and surgery be considered… and it usually takes at least two consulting psychiatrists to consider.
Whether Chelsea Manning can meet those requirements in custody is another question altogether. Usually, in various justice systems around the world, post-op transwomen are kept with other women. Pre-op transwomen can sometimes be kept with men, or more usually in ‘western’ countries, in solitary for their own protection.
Note: I use the term ‘transexual’ specifically for those seeking permanent surgical reassignment.
MomSense
@rikyrah:
All great links, thank you!
Seanly
@Burt Hutt:
I feel for you. Never an easy choice to make.
SiubhanDuinne
@Burt Hutt: (Had major problems posting anything earlier, hope this gets through.) I am so very sorry for your loss. Montana will take a piece of your heart with her, but she’ll leave so many great memories, which I hope will make you smile. Big {{{{hugs}}}} to you and your kids. It just sucks, having to make that call.
catclub
@boatboy_srq: “Wingnuts don’t even believe in space.”
How about lebensraum?
Omnes Omnibus
@catclub: I don’t think they like foreign food all that much.
CaseyL
@Burt Hutt: I’m so sorry. I know it’s little consolation, but 14 years is a good run for a Lab. Hugs to you and your family.
scav
@catclub: Depends entirely upon whose leben is being straumed. “Those People”, you know.
Cacti
Metropolitan police have opened a criminal investigation based on the contents of David Miranda’s seized electronics.
Glenn’s record as the Typhoid Mary of “investigative journalists” continues unabated.
Davis X. Machina
@Omnes Omnibus: Leahy and Wyden isn’t enough. No merely regulatory legislation is good enough.
It’s like NHS/USA > Medicare for All > Exchanges w/ Public Option > PPACA.
The correct line is “Gentlemen do not read each other’s mail”, and shut it all down.
rea
We need to come up with a freee market solution to astroids destroying the earth. Taxing people for asteroid protection is immoral–see here:
http://www.volokh.com/2011/02/15/asteroid-defense-and-libertarianism/
(I’m kidding–he doesn’t appear to be)
Omnes Omnibus
@Davis X. Machina: And it is edgier to FP a quote from one of the Pauls than to promote those other guys.
Jockey Full of Malbec
@Davis X. Machina:
What if your enemies (and rivals) don’t happen to be ‘Gentlemen’?
Jay in Oregon
The funniest thing about the right-wing assholes crying about Al Jazeera America on Twitter are the ones bitching about “paying for propaganda” and begging for The Blaze to be picked up instead.
The Other Chuck
@gnomedad:
“Shut up, that’s why.”
You can’t win logical arguments with people who refute logic.
Emma
@Jockey Full of Malbec: Then after your death you become a Great Legend in the Tolkien style. The Shining City that Wouldn’t Defend Itself. But your pure undefiled memory will live on in the slave quarters.
um….
[scurries off to write down ideas for novel]
boatboy_srq
@catclub: Wingnuts believe in space, but it’s two-dimensional space. OUTER space is for the folks who write science fiction. Read between the lines: they still think Earth is flat and they’re all for retrying Galileo for proving it’s not.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jockey Full of Malbec: Issues aren’t complicated. Everything is black and white. Multiple things do not happen at once. You should know this.
Jane2
@Burt Hutt: Montana must have been a wonderful member of your family. Euthanizing a pet is always hard….what a horrible day for you and your kids. Condolences.
Davis X. Machina
From the BBC…
Bloody imperialist warmongers.
Irresponsible saber-rattling like this should make Americans ashamed, and more appreciative of the cooler heads of left-leaning European governments like the French.
rikyrah
Republican Governors: Shhh, Don’t Call Our Obamacare Money Obamacare!
Sahil Kapur August 22, 2013, 6:00 AM 7871
A variety of Republican governors have sought federal funds under Obamacare, many of them to expand Medicaid eligibility for more residents, a centerpiece of the law that the Supreme Court made optional for states last year.
But shhh! Don’t call it Obamacare, they say, for they despise that law.
In the latest example, vociferous Obamacare critic and Texas Gov. Rick Perry is seeking roughly $100 million in federal funds under a program set up under Obamacare, called Community First Choice, to help states provide home-based health care to chronically ill Medicaid patients, as Politico reported this week.
Perry’s office said Politico’s story was “not accurate” and pointed TPM to a Texas Tribune article in which the governor’s aides downplay the connection of the funds to Obamacare, and noted that what they’re seeking is not the broader Medicaid expansion to extend eligibility to more low-income residents.
“The bottom line is it has nothing to do with Obamacare,” said Perry spokeswoman Allison Castle.
Only it has everything to do with Obamacare. As the Department of Health and Human Services explained last February, the new Community First Choice program was explicitly set up under the Affordable Care Act and offers federal funds so states can pay a higher reimbursement rate to providers of home-based care. The aim was to ratchet back an incentive for ill patients to go to a nursing facility when they can be cared for at home.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/08/republican-governors-shhh-obamacare-medicaid.php
Davis X. Machina
@Jockey Full of Malbec: Well, then you shouldn’t have any enemies or rivals, then. Then it’s self-solving. Be realistic, demand the impossible.
Because it’s always May of 1968.
catclub
@Davis X. Machina: “The correct line is “Gentlemen do not read each other’s mail”, and shut it all down. ”
I thought that quote simply showed that some guy had no idea of what Intelligence Agencies are actually doing. Those agencies have ALWAYS been reading each others’ mail.
And just like the question ‘Who is my neighbor?’ reveals that most folks do not consider a large portion of humanity their neighbor. All those agencies will claim that those being spied on are not actually gentlemen, so the constraint does not apply.
Cris (without an H)
If the topic of asteroids hitting the earth is of interest to you, you really should be reading Phil Plait’s Bad Astronomy blog. That’s totally his beat.
Villago Delenda Est
@Sly:
Pardon me, but the government CANNOT create jobs, and is a drain on the economy.
Which explains why Rethugs are the first in line to prevent the closing of military bases that the military wants to close because they’re unnecessary to DoD’s mission.
ruemara
@Omnes Omnibus: funny you say that. I’ve been wondering about that too. Obviously, asteroid gnomes.
@BurtHutt: So sorry for your loss, but you’re right to not put her through this anymore.
catclub
@rikyrah: Funny!
Much of medicaid goes to keeping old people in nursing homes. And I can state that those people are often white, with kids who have calculated how to strip all the personal assets so that the elders qualify. THAT part of medicaid is important!
lojasmo
@Emma:
Good for
him.her. If Chelsea is whoheshe is, then that’s who he should be.Fixt (I hope)
Redshirt
I’m the best damn Asteroids pilot you’ve ever seen. You want to stop an asteroid? Call me up. I’m ready. I’m always ready.
Davis X. Machina
@Villago Delenda Est Ha! Logical surd! “Unnecessary military base”. Indeed. Or “Heh, indeed.’
Davis X. Machina
@catclub: Shhhh. If word gets out the GOP will sever it, pass it and shit-can the rest. Worked with SNAP and the agriculture bill.
Belafon
@catclub: And once again, from all the people I know, it’s only the rich ones that really try to do that. Most of the middle-middle class I know think they should do the right thing.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@WereBear:
The Wingnuts are motivated by fear, pure and simple. That’s why their entire agenda is negative and nothing positive.
catclub
@Davis X. Machina: “Worked with SNAP and the agriculture bill. ”
I wonder what is becoming of the SNAP part? As well as how the part that passed the House is faring in the Senate.
‘worked’ meaning, this is what they did, not that they have yet succeeded in making their decision stick.
catclub
@Belafon: Usually paying for a short stint of nursing home care consumes all the assets.
Davis X. Machina
@catclub: Yeah. “Worked’ as a parliamentary maneuver
Another Holocene Human
I’m too angry to post this on FB, so I’m posting here. Fuck you, Maureen Down. Just… Fuck you.
http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2013/08/21/2505991/maureen-dowd-bill-deblasio/
First she called the President OBambi, and I said nothing….
Kyle
Having a Texas Republican as head of the House Science Committee is like having the Amish run your IT department.
Another Holocene Human
@catclub: Yup. Yup. Exactly.
It’s a very unfair system because more educated/wealthier middle class people figure out how to move assets around and protect the family whereas poorer middle class families, less educated, maybe less family members, end up losing homes and all of that … in some states they even take your car!
Like the Irish laws during the Plantation, when a Catholic couldn’t own a horse worth more than so many pounds. Some states set the car value exclusion too low in this era of expensive used cars.
Davis X. Machina
@Kyle: We had one of those. They just hung one of those ‘Slow Vehicle’ triangles on the CPU, and got back to the plowing.
Another Holocene Human
@Villago Delenda Est:
Why can’t they–okay, I know why, but just spitballing here–why can’t they open civilian research or administrative facilities when they close bases, like beef up government social programs, do ag development research, do climate research (something military is doing, almost exclusively), fisheries research, social work, direct medical care, nationalize some utilities and repair lines to rural residents (a la TVA… I mean, fuck it, many of them are in the financial shit right now anyway, or will be damn soon)?
Reinvest that star wars crap into the US economy? Fuck that “we have no money” bullshit, we are a fucking rich ass country. How about reducing inequality and making people’s lives better… as if American lives mattered? How about that?
Another Holocene Human
@Cacti: And this is the next lede: “Nick Clegg has backed David Cameron’s decision to send a top civil servant to The Guardian to urge them to destroy classified data.”
The only response that occurs to me here is “Nana nana boo boo.”
Of course they will still be saying 20 years on that it’s a partisan Tory-vs-Labour thing and that Nick Clegg just wanted to shut up the opposition and what a chilling effect on journalism [letting an irresponsible, narcissistic, vindictive douchebag run his mouth and drag your paper through the mud] this was.
Kyle
@Another Holocene Human:
Repukes only like the parts of government that commit violence. If they can’t get rid of services that help people, they want to make them as mediocre, humiliating and inconvenient as possible. Fear and punishment is their whole ethos.
Another Holocene Human
@Alexandra:
Yeah, and that’s complete and utter bullshit. That’s how TG people get killed. Many TG people do not pass after puberty without some surgery and hormones. That is why there is a black market in hormones. TG people are statistically far more likely to be killed in bias crimes than gay people, and I bet you thought that was bad, right?
The whole living for a year thing is like the whole let him pick himself up by his bootstraps canard. Put someone in risk of life and limb and if they live, we’ll give you hormones.
Then add in state laws that require certain surgeries… not for any medical reason, just to fulfill a Procrustean urge to fit every person into a proscribed gender binary… it’s a completely hateful, patronizing, and ‘let’s you take all the risks while I watch’ situation.
Now you know why there are “surgeons” in mini storage lots offering sex reassignment surgery.
Now you know why there are FTMs getting hepatitis from street T.
Now you know why there are PhD educated “gender outlaws” who live openly as TG and refuse to go through the psychiatrist’s hoops.
And that is only the beginning of knowledge.
Sex reassignment surgery, btw, was not invented for the benefit of gender minority people but for the benefit of a homophobic majority which couldn’t deal with the tension of the intersexed, the transgendered, the transsexual. While it’s good that we have many more medical options now, especially for youth, history shows that in many places and times there was a space for third-sexed people to live freely in the community without the requirement of modern medical intervention.
Another Holocene Human
@Amir Khalid:
Prisoner, sure, but don’t let the Army play too coy. Nobody missed this news in the 1950s: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_Jorgensen
Alexandra
@Another Holocene Human:
I’m post-op trans and have worked with a number of organisations on their diversity policies including human rights organisations, as well assisting a number of groups and individuals with their own journeys. I’ve even been a case study for changes in law.
I’ll happily admit that where I come from and where I’ve lived, the standards of care may be higher and more ethical and compassionate than practiced in the US.
You, on the other hand, sound a little bitter. If you don’t think there should be gatekeepers and protocol, then that’s where we’ll have to disagree. Sorry about that.
Mandalay
@Amir Khalid:
The BBC is already referring to Manning by the terms “she”, “her” and “Chelsea”. As far as they are concerned Manning’s request is good enough for them.
I am not so confident the change will be as simple for the authorities who control Manning’s future.
Southern Beale
It’s a cavalcade of hilarity over at my place today. Two funny posts, if you have a twisted sense of humor …
Emma
@Another Holocene Human: Forget it, Jake, it’s Maureen Dowd. Our national Heather.
Emma
@lojasmo: Yeah. I was writing fast and not thinking. I do hope she gets the help she needs. Poor bastard’s had enough bad luck for a lifetime when she ran into Assange.
TriassicSands
I’m surprised Republicans would support anything having to do with finding and destroying rogue celestial bodies that threaten the mass extinction of the human race. I mean that relies on science and besides, the evidence that dinosaurs were killed off 65 million years ago by such an event is clearly nonsense on a planet that is only about 6,000 years old.
Burt Hutt
@raven: What a wonderful piece of poetry to console. I’ll have to steal that.
Thank you all for the sentiments from around the world. 27% of Americans probably don’t appreciate it but an empathetic veterinarian really helps, too. We might not be ready to get another dog immediately but we will eventually.
Montana was a wonderful and integral part of our family. The loss is particularly acute for our 10 year old. But we talk and allow all emotions to come out and try not to hide them. We were fortunate to have a lab for 14 and a half years. The love between humans and our pets/masters is a wonderful gift that we cherish.
PopeRatzo
“Hey look over there! An asteroid!”
Sonofabitch…