1. In one of the many Friday night media drops that have become so common in the last five years, it was announced that Sec't of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius has tendered her resignation. It was time for her to go since all of the early problems with the rollout of Obamacare have been solved and miraculously the numbers match the predictions. [Stop laughing!] But she didn't resign "to spend more time with her family". Knowing that she probably can't get a job in the private sector because of well, incompetence, she has hinted that her next goal is to run for Senator from Ohio [ oops, I meant Kansas]. I call that a blinding example of the Peter Principle. Hey, maybe, she'll win and be the first to vote to repeal Obamacare!
2. A new study being published in the Journal Of Neuroscience this week has found that casual marijuana use causes potentially harmful changes in the brains of 18 to 25 year old brain particularly in the "regions of the brain that are key to regulating emotion and motivation". No, really? Here's the link to the Daily News article - LINK
Yeah, it potentially harms motivation. That's what we need more of, right?
This study is interesting in that the pro-pot lobby has always maintained that pot is safer than alcohol, but that might not be true. Anyway, I am not opposed to the legalization of marijuana and I think that it is downright cruel to deny cancer sufferers the very real benefits, but let's not kid ourselves that it's not potentially harmful.
3. And this was reported last week. NYC has the most segregated school system in the country! Yes, WE'RE NUMBER 1! WE'RE NUMBER...oh, wait...that's not good. One would think that it should have been a southern city. Not only that, but NYC is also the most segregated city in the country too. Now I have a theory as to why. You see, those state above the Mason-Dixon line have spent so much time denouncing the segregation and racism issues in those states below the Mason-Dixon line, that they just plain forgot to look at their own racial issues. Anecdotally speaking, when I moved to New York City in 1989, I was shocked at the blatant racism that would never be tolerated in any traditionally Southern region. And it is clear that it has not changed much in 24 years.
Oh, and it actually snowed yesterday. I blame Canada.
Feel free to comment on these or any other topics of the day...
CORRECTION: Soon to be former HHS Sec't Sebelius may run in Kansas, not Ohio as previously stated above. Sorry for the confusion.
64 comments:
If I were Sebalius I would look into a nice quiet ambassadorship to Norway or Bahamas.
I blame Canada for everything.
Koshcat said, "I blame Canada for everything."
Me, too. And we're in good company.
Bloomberg is spending 50 million dollars on promoting gun control. Money down the toilet IMHO though I'm sure that it will be an effective fundraising tool for the NRA.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/15/us/bloomberg-gun-safety-initiative/
The hard truth is that both sides are dug in and the Supreme Court is firmly on the side of the NRA (they declared gun ownership an individual right not too long ago).
I'm not personally big on guns but I don't view guns as the driver of or a solution to the crime problem, so I guess I fall more the pro side of the equation.
Practically speaking, there is nothing the American government can do to stop anyone who really wants a gun from laying hands on one (gun control is kind of like Prohibition and the War on Drugs).
Am I the only one who can see the hilarious stupidity in some conservatives going after Sharpton not because he tried to deal coke but because he became an FBI informant when he was caught?
'Snitches get stiches!' isn't a cry I ever thought I'd hear from anyone calling themselves a conservative :). Truly we live in interesting times.
Most voters think Obama is a liar. Not sure how much that is worth (I honestly can't recall any modern president voters weren't convinced were liars in their second term) but its got to bode well for the 2014 midterms.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/04/16/fox-news-poll-many-voters-say-obama-lies-to-country-on-important-matters/
About six in ten American voters think Barack Obama lies to the country on important matters some or most of the time, according to a Fox News poll released Wednesday.
Koshcat and Backthrow - Thank goodness. I thought I was the only one who saw through their ruse! Those Canadians are a wily bunch pretending to be all friendly attitude and "How's aboot a Molsen, eh?".
The Dishonorable Senator Cruella DeVille from Ohio?? As far as the pot study goes, I welcome any honest studies. They admit more work needs to be done. From my own college and early 20's experience in the 60's and early 70's, I can honestly say pot seemed less destructive, and definitely less addictive. That said, I do believe, like a lot of things, pot has been engineered to be much more powerful than what we had a generation ago. I always felt northerners were just as "segregationist" and "racist" as southerners. Prior to the civil war, very few "freeman" blacks were to be found in the north, but many of the freed slaves flocked to the big urban centers. I am not condoining, but people tend to be products of their times.
Anthony - I think the issue with Sharpton has to do with him trying to spin this as if he volunteered to wear a wire for the FBI out of his concern for community. You know, Sharpton as "hero" putting himself in harms way for the betterment of humanity. But the reality is that he was wearing a wire to save his butt from going to jail for a very long time on a drug trafficking charge. And until, Sharpton admits his culpability in the falsely accusing people of rape and sodomy causing loss of careers and livelihoods, I really do not care what anyone says about him. He is no hero and a just a self-serving race hustler. And now that he is back in cahoots with City Hall, we can expect more from Sharpton.
You see, Giuliani and Bloomberg refused to kiss Sharpton's ring or give him any more clout that any others Unlike during the Koch and Dinkins administrations he was accorded a special place and was consulted on all things to the point that people died in riots because Dinkins played Sharpton's game. So now that de Blasio et al are kissing his ring again, you can expect to hear much more and I would not doubt that he will wield his mighty hustling sword once again. Btw, his #2 at his National Action Network was appointed to the Mayor's wife's new non-profit - Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City - that raises money privately to support a variety of city causes.
Bev, Ohio? Wow. So her punishment was pretty severe if Obama banished her to Ohio.
You just read that wrong in your flu-ridden haze - "You are getting sleepy....sleeeeeeppppyyyyy.....
Okay, oops, I did write Ohio. I meant Kansas...oh, you know, one of those fly-over states that is in the middle where we don't care about [said in an obnoxious bi-coastal accent] Okay, I will change it.
Bev,
I get all that, but its silly to focus on the 'FBI informant' part rather than the 'aspiring drug dealer' part.
Bev, LOL! That's too bad. I think it would have been great if Obama had banished her to Ohio. :D
Anthony, A chunk of the conservative world has gotten really stupid lately and is focusing on all the wrong things. In particular, they are suddenly embracing positions they were once diametrically opposed to... like all the love for Putin.
On this issue, I agree. What I've seen seems to be aimed more at him being a snitch than anything. I guess we're the anti-law and order party now.
Anthony, I understand and you are right about that. Since I do not get much conservative news, but lots and lots of Al Sharpton news, I didn't realize that they were focusing so much on the "snitch" aspect rather than the "drug trafficker" aspect. I find "drug trafficker" trumps "snitch" any day...
Bev, You're smart to avoid places like Breitbart. They've basically stripped themselves naked and gone Lord of the Flies over there. It's like a contest to have the nastiest knee-jerk opinion.
Andrew - I agree with you about Breitbart. They have just gotten stupid over there since Breitbart died. The few things I do read, I stop before the comments section because it has become so nonsensically divisive, it's not worth challenging. Though I do when there are stupid articles and comments about taking down McConnell and the like in 2014. Stupid, shortsighted and ignorant.
Bev, The comments are something else. The few times I've ventured into them, I've left fairly quickly: hateful, racist, vile, moronic, and awash in anti-GOP group think.
It reminds me of listening to gangs shouting at each other, only there's no other gang shouting back this time.
BTW, I saw something about Cuomo possibly being indicted for something?
Sadly, you´re right about the Breitbart sites. Andrew Breitbart would not have liked it. I noticed that John Nolte is not taking part in the anti-GOP hysteria and I sometimes wonder what he thinks about his readers ...
I don´t think he likes to write about movies and then get 100 comments like "I haven´t given any money to Hollyweird since 1989 and I´m not going to watch this one either because the editor worked on a Sean Penn movie once." No fun.
"...has found that casual marijuana use causes potentially harmful changes in the brains of 18 to 25 year old brain particularly in the "regions of the brain that are key to regulating emotion and motivation"
DAMN it all makes SENSE now!
I´m for legalization but the people who think there will be no problems are naive. I´m not even sure legalization leads to more freedom. Five years from now you won´t be able to paint houses without peeing in a cup first because a stoner once dropped a hammer on poor Mrs Allen.
Cuomo...uh...what? I will check it out. It may be that he is having a tiff with the US Attorney who has been arresting all the elected officials in NY for the last few years. I will check it out.
But in other news - this is very chilling - Jews ordered to register in East Ukraine Let's hope this is a hoax.
El Gordo, I feel sorry for Nolte too. He seems like a decent fellow and a lover of films and I can't imagine Big Hollywood has become anything like what he envisioned when he started.
Bev, What's wrong with that? Don't you register your Jews in NYC? All kidding aside, I'm amaze how open so many people are with their antisemitism. When did this become acceptable again? It's frustrating.
Yes, Andrew, we register Jews in NYC...at Tiffany's! Ba-dum-bum! Hey I can say stuff like that 'cause I'm Jewish. Seriously, in the 60-late '80's anti-Semitism fell out of fashion and went underground, but since then it has slowly but steadily reappeared. Since 911 it has begun to bud and is now almost acceptable even when racism is not. It is frightening to read comments in articles on HuffPo - the defenders of all that is right and fair - about Israel or Jews and how openly anti-Semitic that are. And I have been a anti-Semitism skeptic up until the last few years.
John Nolte was the first guy to get me into following conservative blogs and he also played a huge part in getting me into old movies when he recommended the movie Night Nurse as a "TCM Pick o' the Day".
I watched it and 2 things happened: (1) I fell in love with Barbara Stanwyck (still am) and (2) really got into old movies and the Turner Classic Movies channel*.
*I am alas, unable to watch it due to only having Basic Network. :(
From what I know, Jews are the universal scapegoat in the Western World.
Of course, in something like Ukraine, so this could easily be a lie spread by pro-Western Ukrainian factions. A number of whom are quite anti-semetic. (And I say this as a supporter of the Euromaidan)
I should mention that the pro-Western/anti-Moscow Ukrainians contain a fair number of Neo-Nazis or Nationalists with Nazi sympathies in their ranks.
As Tom Lehrer so aptly put it in his song "National Brotherhood Week"
"Oh, the white folks hate the black folks
And the black folks hate the white folks
And the right folks hate the wrong folks
And everybody hates the Jews..
Bev, In the 1970s, it struck me as a false charge the left lobbed at the right. In fact, so many of the right's intellectuals were Jewish that it struck me as a truly stupid thing to assert. And I saw no evidence of it anywhere.
Then after 9/11, I saw it start to appear on the fringe left. By now, it's fairly mainstream left. I don't know that I see it on the right, but I definitely see it on the left.
P.S. Tiffany's LOL! Better than WalMart!
Speaking of Nazis...
There is this: LINK
Neo-Nazis open up a store in a Jewish neighborhood (that is also close to a Muslim neighborhood as well).
So it is clear what this means: In the countries such as the US and Britain, Nazis are simply trolls. They lost their big war and were utterly discredited.
Now they can only do this: Troll everyone else.
Kit, Nolte always struck me as a nice guy and an excellent ambassador for conservatives to deal with the world of film. I still recall having several interesting conversations with him about Hollywood in which he was extremely knowledgeable and thoughtful.
But BH has made some serious mistakes that drove out the people interested in films and opened the door for the whackos to flood the place. Then they went tabloid everything became intensely politicized. What a mess.
BTW, if you want to see an interesting story about the monetary connection between talk radio and the Tea Party and how some (Levin) have flip-flopped with their views to satisfy their sponsors, this is worth the read:
LINK
I don't think it tells us anything we didn't already know if we are being honest, but it would probably shock a lot of people if they heard their leaders admit it.
Kit and Andrew -
Agreed about Nolte - he's better when he talks about movies as opposed to strictly politics and his passion is to be envied. I followed Nolte through three different sites: Libertas, Dirty Harry's Place (his old net handle was Dirty Harry), and finally BH where it all went off the rails.
I don't know how Nolte feels about others like Shapiro and Schlichter but, of the three, one is clearly saner than the rest. :-D
I forget when I fell for Miss Stanwyck. It was either The Lady Eve or Ball of Fire. :-)
Kit, Nolte, Shapiro and Schlichter.... one of these things is not like the other...
Seriously, Shapiro is bubble boy. Schlichter is a massive c*cksucker. Nolte seems like a nice guy who actually knows what he's talking about. I'm not seeing a pattern. But I am seeing why things aren't going to so well.
Andrew,
What do you mean by "Shapiro is a bubble boy"? He is stuck in a thought-bubble?
Kit, He doesn't strike you as the kind of kid who was home schooled and his parents picked his friends for him? Then he went to college and studiously avoided mixing with the strange, depraved creatures around him? To this day he has no idea why anyone would ever want to drink alcohol, engage in extra-marital sex or watch unholy television! And I hear tell that if you turn him upside down, his rear end will recite Ancient Greek Poetry.
Andrew -
I don't want to waste the bandwidth on the little one (Shapiro), but I recently figured it out.
When you (or any number of serious intelligent right-of-center folks) complain about something, there isn't much hyperbole. You state the facts, you explain why X should happen or why Y is bad. There's a point and a purpose and at the end, everyone has been educated. I may disagree, but it's appreciated.
When the little one writes about something, it comes off as completely sanctimonious. I don't want to make assumptions about his upbringing (pod person), but I agree with the bubble part. It's like he went full Breitbart mode without having experienced life on the other side. At least guys like Breitbart, Klavan, et al went from left to right. The little one is the kid at the end of the table saying, "Me too!"
It brings to mind the old saying about a fish not knowing that it's wet.
Alas, I have not watched or read him enough. But the stuff I have read never really did anything for me.
Scott, You don't always agree with me? Sniff sniff Well... that's ok... I guess. :(
In all seriousness, that's the problem with Shapiro -- he criticizes without having any idea what he's talking about. He's never experience it himself, he's never even met with people who have. And he comes across as someone who is repeating a theoretical objection without any real idea if his opinion is well placed or not.
I can't tell you how many times I realized that he simply didn't understand what he was attacking.
Kit, He never did anything for me either. As I just said, most of the time it strikes me that he doesn't know what he's talking about. But even beyond that, he typically sounds very self-righteous, but ultimately says nothing. He's the master of the meaningless statement.
Looks like Snowden is going to die of radiation poising or maybe be the victim of a 'trigger happy mugger' real soon. At least he has the courage of his convictions, I guess.
What amazes me about the whole thing is not the spying or even Snowden's betrayal and subsequent, but how lax the NSA was to let a contractor get access to all of that data.
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/18/edward-snowden-oped_n_5173041.html
One day after he asked Russian President Vladimir Putin about surveillance, Edward Snowden, known for leaking details of U.S. intelligence eavesdropping, said Putin "must be called to account on surveillance just like Obama."
A few thoughts...
First, what's with all the Ohio hate? As a former, temporary resident of the Buckeye state, I can tell you it's neither the monetary mess California is, nor the out-of-its-mind, increasingly Soviet state of Washington. Sure, it's a battleground state every year. (Largely the result of conservatives taking it for granted and then having the looking-down-from-the-nose attitude that most conservatives have for Millenials- as Kit described in his earlier article.) But it's not the ends of the earth!
Now, if Sebelius was to be truly banished, she would've been sent to that h***hole/toilet bowl/hopeless wasteland of the state just north of the Ohio border. Want to know why that state has no death penalty? Because if you lived there, you'd want to die and they'll never let you off the hook that easily!
And second...
"He's the master of the meaningless statement."
So, Ben Shapiro is the Carl Sagan of Breitbart? I never found Shapiro enlightening, but Andrew's description seems to work. There's one of those in every group, I suppose.
Ooh, ooh, ooh! Can I be the "one of those" in this group!?!?
No, Bev. I don't think so. Your statements are too meaningful. And much more entertaining! :)
Rustbelt, I've got litany of complaints against Ohio starting with the fact I've never made it 5 miles in that state before I see some cop working a speed trap. That seems to be the only industry. And of course... Cleveland. 'nuff said.
Bev, We don't have one of those yet, so feel free to submit your resume! :D
House GOP might push immigration this year.
LINK
-----------------------------
WASHINGTON—Speaker John Boehner and other senior House Republicans are telling donors and industry groups that they aim to pass immigration legislation this year, despite the reluctance of many Republicans to tackle the divisive issue before the November elections.
Many lawmakers and activists have assumed the issue was off the table in an election year. But Mr. Boehner said at a Las Vegas fundraiser last month he was "hellbent on getting this done this year," according to two people in the room.
A spokesman for Mr. Boehner didn't dispute the account but said no action is possible until President Barack Obama proves himself a trustworthy partner to Republicans.
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Sibelius tapped her ears together 3 times (because there isn't a brain between them) to get back to Kansas..Sharpton's nothing but a steaming pile of manure in my opinion. Bloomberg, what a sorry excuse for a human being, he's just another jerk NY mayor trying to make everyone else like him...
Yeah, Ohio cops are legendary for that, Andrew. I have many Ohioan family members with many stories to tell. (The best ones involve the cops that follow you across an entire county and pull you over for going one mile over the limit. Really disrupts your ability to play "Count the Cornfields.")
I just try and pretend that Cleveland doesn't exist- like the Steelers do. (Sometimes, I just imagine that it's an invading, renegade part of That State Up North.)
BTW, I got to meet Captain Sullenberger. He's the pilot who landed the plane in the East River after bird strikes disabled it. What a gentleman and very quiet hero.
Rustbelt, That's been my experience with Ohio cops too. Serious Nazis.
By "That State Up North," I take it you mean "Robocopia"?
Kit, It would have been a lot smarter to do that last year. Playing this out this year is a mistake.
Critch, I concur with your assessment of Sharpton and Bloomberg. Nice Oz reference!
Andrew,
Democrats will get the credit for it, won't they?
Kit, That's not really the problem. The problem is that they could have passed it last year and been done with the circus surrounding it and then let the public shift to the failures of Obamacare. But doing it now will bring back all the howling and screaming and borderline-open racism from the fringe while the leadership will again appear to be weak-kneed and out of touch.
Basically, it's an opportunity to put our own side in the worst possible light and expose why nobody likes us. Moreover, it completely takes the focus off Obama at the worst possible time.
Seriously, doing this now is retarded. Election years are the years you give awards to puppies and pass bills called "The Making Granny Happy Act." They aren't the year that you try to pass bills that expose the flaws in your party.
I said repeatedly that the only thing worse than "Mayor Bloomberg" is "FORMER Mayor Bloomberg", now didn't ? Well, except now, in retrospect what's really worse is "Mayor de Blasio", but that's for next week.
A quote for the day, one many should take to heart:
"It is not enough for a prophet to believe in his message; he must believe in its acceptability. Christ, St Francis, Bunyan, Wesley, Mr Gladstone, Walt Whitman, men of indescribable variety, were all alike in a certain faculty of treating the average man as their equal, of trusting to his reason and good feeling without fear and without condescension." —G.K. Chesterton
Sorry about the late reply, Andrew. Busy morning and afternoon at work.
"Robocopia?" That IS a good name for that State Up North. For me, it's more of a college thing. :)
Kit, great quote! You really make me want to read more of Chesterton's work.
Thank you.
I got an 88 dollar ticket the other week for not wearing a seatbelt (first time I'd been pulled over in almost twenty years). Its kind of BS, but I don't blame the cops. I figure they have quotas to meet.
It hasn't happened in a while but for a long time it used to be common for local cops to just line this one particular street (which sees very little foot traffic since its out in the suburbs but lots of vehicular traffic) every few weeks, looking for a guy going 2 miles over the speed limit or not wearing their seatbelt.
Grrrr...police traps. Anthony, it makes me crazy. I drive rarely since I live in NYC, but I got caught in a set up sting a few months back. I turned on a "no turn" street because I couldn't (with about 10 other cars, btw) proceed because of a huge truck double-parked blocking our way. Grrrrr. What a set up and I couldn't talk my way out of it. Up to that point, I hadn't had a ticket in 35 years. BUT, always wear your seatbelt because it saves lives AND as they say."click it or ticket". ;-)
UPDATE: Sebelius has decided not to run for the Senate (in any state) probably because she saw her polling numbers - Roberts (R) 54% to Sebelius (D) 37%...
Bev and Anthony, I hate police traps. Go stop real crime.
I have a long and none-too-happy history with the police. I had a cop follow me right on my ass at 55 mph from the NY border with Penn all the way to Syracuse one Sunday morning. I've had cops threaten me (three times). I've smarted off to cops twice (once by reflex). I once offered a cop a donut after he pulled me over... did not play well. Been hassled for not-broken "broken" headlights. Got into a shouting match with a cop at an intersection that lasted an entire light cycle. Etc.
So much for law and order.
Bev, Maybe she should run in one of the other 57 states?
Rustbelt,
Its from The Twelve Types. A good read, though one of his lesser known works.
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