a question

This is an open question to the conservatives out there, that I hope generates some conversation, If health care is not a right, then what is?

Why do we have a right to own guns and to keep every penny that we make, but we do not have the right to care when we get sick?

Think about it.

A few news flashes

John Boehner said last night in a speech on the House Floor "Can you go home and tell your senior citizens that these cuts in Medicare will not limit their access to doctors and further weaken the program instead of strengthening it?"

He said like many others have that we have to resist Government Medicine and strengthen medicare. Now I say this with as much respect possible to those who say this, but ARE YOU ALL IDIOTS?!!!!

Medicare is in fact, gasp, Government Medicine. It is run by the God Blessed Government! It is Socialized Medicine in every way! As is Medicaid and the health care that the army has(that incidentally has been called by conservatives the best health care in the world).

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I am not a huge fan of hypocrisy. And arguing against government health care by saying how great Medicare is is, wait for it, Hypocrisy!

John Boehner also said that the Republicans weren't involved enough in the process. I will simply put what I yelled at my computer screen while I watched him say it "We put you on national freaking TV! What more do you want?! You refused to negotiate!"

Boehner's Health care speech

Last night the house passed the health care reform bill. Before they did minority leader and next speaker of the house John Boehner made a powerful and emotional speech.

I thought it would be good for you all to hear.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1c8VKXz7Lt4&feature=youtube_gdata

quote of the day

"I do have a test today, that wasn't bull. It's on European socialism. I mean, really, what's the point? I'm not European. I don't plan on being European. So who gives a crap if they're socialists? They could be fascist anarchists, it still doesn't change the fact that I don't own a car. Not that I condone fascism, or any ism for that matter. Isms in my opinion are not good. A person should not believe in an ism, he should believe in himself. I quote John Lennon: "I don't believe in Beatles, I just believe in me." Good point there. After all, he was the Walrus. I could be the Walrus, but I'd still have to bum rides off of people."
--Ferris Bueller

a few words on sampling and the census along with some ideas for the 2020 census

Census are being mailed out and filled out this week so I decided to give you, surprise, a few words on sampling and the census along with some ideas for the 2020 census. So here we go.

While there are undeniable flaws in the Census system we have now, I don't think that sampling is a fair solution. I do not say that for political reasons, on the contrary my political party would be helped by sampling, I just have this crazy idea that when you count you should start at one, go to two, and then to three, and so on. I believe that no matter the expense we should make sure that everyone is counted. The government needs to reach out to leaders in the minority communities to help with getting minorities counted.


When you think about it there is really no reason why the census should cost 2.6 Billion Dollars. I mean basically you're(yes I know I'm talking directly to the government while before I wasn't, deal with it) mailing a ton of letters. I mean, come on, you guys own the post office can't you say to your employees “ don't charge us for these. We pay your salary after all.”? The government paying for postage is like a restaurant owner having to pay for dinner. It's crazy.

You could also probably find High School or College kids to volunteer or work minimum wage ringing doorbells or reading the letters or whatever it is census workers do. Then you get a paper company to donate paper for you, they can put in their commercials “Official paper of the U.S. Senate.” and find an ink company to donate the ink. So basically you're not paying for postage, paper, ink, or help. So it won't have to cost 2.6 Billion anymore. While we're on the subject, how the heck did you manage to spend 2.6 Billion Dollars. That is, and I worked it out on a calculator, $118.308,879,863 for every person in the united states. Surely paper and ink and postage couldn't have cost that much. Now that you don't have to spend 118 bucks per person you can put more money into making sure that minorities are counted and that people aren't counted twice. Now that I've brought it up I just wanted to ask how did you manage to count people twice. I mean it's kind of hard to do it accidentally.

The Supreme Court ruled that sampling was unconstitutional and I don't see any need to stir up trouble, resentment and anger over something that will become unnecessary if we are able to make the current system cost effective and able to count everyone.

quote of the day

"And the Lord spake, saying, "First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then, shalt thou count to three. No more. No less. Three shalt be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once at the number three, being the third number to be reached, then, lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it."

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Alice In Wonderland Review

So I just came back from watching Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland. Now I will say this up front: I love the cast. I mean how could you make a movie with Johnny Depp, Michael Sheen, Anne Hathaway, Stephen Fry, Alan Rickman, Christopher Lee, Timothy Spall, and Crispen Glover not be great?

Let me tell you how, get the worst script you can find and then tell the actors not to actually bring anything new to the characters. For the first time I can actually say that Tim Burton really did not direct this movie well. I think the whole "Oh look what we can do with CGI" phase is now over because of a guy called James Cameron made a movie that had the best CGI ever and everything will seem bad in comparison.

The acting in this movie was not bad exactly, but it was so safe. I mean Johnny Depp played basically the same character he played in Pirates of the Caribbean. He did well as Jack Sparrow because it was so out there and by the third movie the role was getting a little old and annoying. The Mad Hatter took about half a scene to get old and annoying. I have yet to see a version of Alice In Wonderland that I like, which is a little unsettling as I'm in a play version of the book. Also the way the dress sometimes shrunk and stretched with Alice while other times it did not. The Ending was also terrible.

The writing for the beginning of the movie was just terrible. All the characters just basically said what they were thinking and feeling. The scriptwriter didn't even try to make Alice's suitor sympathetic. In fact, the scriptwriter didn't try to make any of the "bad" characters sympathetic. The Red Queen got on my nerves really quickly and Knave was just kind of weird.

On the plus side Anne Hathaway was great as the White Queen and Mia Wasikowska was very good as Alice, she succeed where the previous actresses who have played Alice failed, she made her sympathetic and not annoying.

In short it was a boring, deeply strange, and safe movie. It was highly formulaic when you strip away the odd characters you have hero hates real world, finds weird one, discovers that he/she is the hero of a prophecy and meets a wise old man, he/she doesn't think that they can fulfill it, friend of hero is capture by villain, hero rescues friend, hero escapes to good guy's hideout, hero stills doesn't think that they can do it, mentor tells hero that they can and then dies, hero fights bad guys, hero wins, hero decides to leave the wonderful world where they have been staying and goes back to the far inferior real world solely because it is the "real world"(why can't the nice world be real and the bad world be fake, who decides that one is real and the other isn't?), Hero turns life around and becomes happy, peppy song plays over credits. Tim Burton, you done us wrong this time and what's with Alice not telling her sister that her sister's husband is having at least one affair? What message does that send to your daughter? And while I'm talking about your daughter and messages that are sent to her from this movie, why does Alice have to have a romantic relationship with the Mad Hatter, why do movie heroines always have to have romantic relationships? It's so messed up.

lyrics of the week

This is a song very loosely based on Free's All Right Now. But the tempo is much slower and only the first verse follows the lyrics of the song at all. The verse chords are G to C to G to C and so on. The chorus chords are G to C to F repeated. I capo it on the third fret but it's not necessary. This song is about Alice in Wonderland and the author is, well, me.


All Mad Here
Rock4Ever95


He sat there smiling from his head to his feet
I walked up and said hey there
what's your name
are you insane
maybe we can see things the same
so let's move down and find a new cup
before time passes by

Chorus
They're all mad here
they're all mad here
they're all mad here
oh they're all mad here

My day started with a fall down a hole
I chased a white rabbit with a waistcoat
he said he was very very late
but I don't know for what date.

chorus

I met a hatter and a march hare
i met a dormouse asleep in his chair
I met a duchess and her pig a babe
I met a lot of freaky people on my travels today
because

Chorus

I met the cheshire cat
and he smiled so wide
and the rest disappeared
I asked him which way to go
and he said go this or go that
it doesn't matter because

chorus

I found the queen
playing croquet with hedgehogs and flamingos
she said off with her head
and I started running
and I never stopped because

chorus

It's not great art or anything but I Like it.

quote of the day

"What's Islamic extremism? It's strict adherence to a particular interpretation of 7th century Islamic law as practiced by the prophet Mohammed, and when I say "strict adherence," I'm not kidding around. Men are forced to pray, wear their beards a certain length. Among my favorites is there's only one acceptable cheer at a soccer match: 'Allah-uh-Akbar.' "God is great." If your guys are getting creamed, then you're on your own. Things are a lot less comic for women, who aren't allowed to attend school or have jobs. They're not allowed to be unaccompanied, and oftentimes get publicly stoned to death for crimes like not wearing a veil. I don't have to tell you they don't need to shout at a soccer match because they're never going to go to one. So what bothers them about us? Well, the variety of cheers alone coming from the cheap seats at Giants stadium when they're playing the Cowboys is enough for a jihad, to say nothing of street corners lined church next to synagogue, next to mosque, newspapers that can print anything they want, women who can do anything they want including taking a rocket ship to outer space, vote, and play soccer. This is a plural society. That means we accept more than one idea. It offends them... You want to get these people? I mean, you really want to reach in and kill them where they live? Keep accepting more than one idea. It makes them absolutely crazy."

---Josh Lyman in the west wing episode Issac and Ishmael which was written in response to 9/11