Thursday, January 06, 2011

The truth about opposition to the Affordable Health Care Act (read: ObamaCare)

I heard that Mika Brzezinski woman on Morning Joe today ask Eric Cantor a question about the Affordable Health Care Act, referring to it as "ObamaCare". Now I thought that these two (Scarborough and Brzezinski) were supposed to be the "truthsayers" for each of the two sides (liberal and conservative) in these arguments. For Brzezinski to use that term shows me that she is nothing more than a shill for the right wing. I don't mind if a commentator refers to the AHCA as ObamaCare when they are reporting an instance of someone else using that term, but when a news reporter/commentator representing themselves as a fair and honest commentator does it, it is just wrong. Brzezinski wants us to believe that she is just that; a fair and honest person. It sickens me to see our conversations about important topics reduced to juvenile name calling. I don't like it when Olberman does it. I don't like it when Limbaugh does it and I especially don't like it when people who represent themselves as 'independent" thinkers do it. It is just inflammatory invective just like adding the name "Pelosi" to all that one assumes is wrong with Congress. It is not fair and it is not intelligent debate.

Here is a great editorial cartoon that was posted by my friend Kathy on her Facebook page today. It really lays out what the whole "ObamaCare" argument boils down to. 

Tuesday, January 04, 2011

This guy is such an inspiration

... in so many ways.

You know how you wish more professional athletes would come out — while still actually playing their sports? Now Welsh British Lions rugby player Gareth Thomas has done just that. Too bad Americans have never heard his name before. Or even what his "caps" record means. 

But across the pond, in fancy Europe, it's a big deal. Because a guy who was celebrated for screwing lots of ladies (and thereby cheating on his wife), and pummeling other guys who dared question his heterosexuality.

From The Daily Mail:
As a young man he bonded with rugby mates in the pub over tales of sexual conquests, and flirted with pretty girls eager to bag a sporting hero.

After his marriage in 2002 to teenage sweetheart Jemma – the woman he called his 'rock' – he spoke movingly of their desire to become parents and the heartbreak of her suffering three miscarriages. And if anyone dared to suggest he was anything other than 100 per cent straight, Gareth 'Alfie' Thomas was prepared to make them see the error of their ways. With his fists, if necessary.

But, as he admits in the Daily Mail today, it was all a pretence, a fragile artifice – and one which came crashing down around his ears on November 4, 2006, following a Wales game in Cardiff. Breaking down in tears in the changing rooms of the Millennium Stadium, Gareth finally realised he could not go on living a lie. Keeping his true sexuality a secret was destroying him.

Well Gareth was on Ellen's show and had a few things to say. I say: "Good for him! "I wish more people would get over it and come on out. The more we show folks we are just like other folks the sooner it will be a non-issue
Watch:



Here's a headline you don't see everyday...

And such a nice looking young man too.

Baltimore Man Posed As Cancer-Stricken Lesbian To Get Teens' X-Rated Pix.

Douglas Lee Patrick, 39, was sentenced to 10 years in prison after entering a plea agreement in a Baltimore court. He acknowledged posing on social networking sites as an 18-year-old lesbian with cancer to get underage girls to send him X-rated photos. A raid on his home last year turned up a computer filled with videos and pictures of children being molested.

This should be interesting... Clarence Thomas' former girlfriend to pen a "sexually driven" memoir about realtionship

Former Clarence Thomas girlfriend has deal for 'sexually driven' memoir.

A former girlfriend of Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas has a deal for a "sexually driven" memoir. Lillian McEwen, who dated Thomas in the 1980s, has signed with TitleTown Publishing, a Green Bay, Wis.-based publisher specializing in true crime and "inspirational" survivor stories. "D.C. Unmasked and Undressed" is scheduled to come out in early February, TitleTown announced Tuesday, adding that the book was "sexually driven."

McEwen, a retired administrative law judge, broke a long public silence last fall when she told The Washington Post that Thomas often made inappropriate comments and was "obsessed with porn," allegations made by former Thomas colleague Anita Hill during his 1991 confirmation hearings. Thomas vehemently denied such behavior.

Monday, January 03, 2011

Not "PC" but pretty funny

OK... please do not call the American Association of People with Disabilities on me over this. Just send your complaints to complaints@dropdead.com. Thanks!

From "The New Adventures of Queen Victoria"

Aging actress in trouble alert

Aging actress and serial bride Zsa Zsa Gabor is in the news again. It seems that the 93 year-old actress and celebrity has a lesion on her leg and the doctors have said that they should amputate it (the leg). Frankly if I were Zsa Zsa I'd get rid of that crackpot phony "Prince" Fredric von Anhalt first, then the bum leg.

Prinz und Prinzessin von Anhalt. The Prinz was born a commoner and was adopted as an adult by an old German Princess because he paid her for a title. The rest of the von Anhalt family do not recognize his membership in the family (go figure).

Zsa Zsa retuning home from an earlier hospitalization. Couldn't someone get the old girl a scarf or something to cover up the curlers? Good Grief!

Diet Update

Sorry Antoinette... no more pastries for me!
As it is the new year and one is called upon to make resolutions, I deemed it the appropriate time to go back on my diet. When we last left off I had lost 49 pounds and was feeling great. Now 118 days later (I got that from my Wii Fit Balance Board this morning), and after the usual reasons for people going off their diets (disinterest, life/emotional challenges, the holidays) I find that I have gained a little weight. I was terribly worried that I had gained all of the weight back and was finding every excuse not to have to get back on that damned Wii to weigh myself. After working at Latham and seeing kids gain 20 pounds in 3 or 4 days away from the place I was really scared.  Today I said "Enough!" and did it. To my surprise I had only gained 17 pounds. Now I can approach this diet thing again knowing that even though I had gone off my diet and eaten anything I wanted I still made enough good choices to have kept me from any more of a damaging weight gain than the 17 pounds. 

So I am back at it folks. I am not going to do the Jenny Craig thing again this time. I am going to do my own personal analog of that diet using their basic carb/protein/fat ratios and portion sizes, but will be making all of the food from fresh, not frozen foods whenever possible. We will see how that goes. I know you all wish me luck in this endeavor. I will keep you all informed.