Corporations

Here are some interesting points on personhood by Roy Barnes former governor of GA.

”A Corporation has no soul. It can not repent and be born again even by the most determined Southern Baptist evangelist. 

It can not marry, even to a corporation of the opposite sex, much less the same sex.

“It can not vote. A corporation can not adopt a child or be compelled to pay child support. A corporation can not think or have an opinion.

“Even the most conservative in our society recognize the difference in corporate and personal existence when they argue a corporation should not pay taxes because it is an artificial creature passing through levied taxes to consumers.

“The examples are endless. 

This is from a paper by Roy Barnes on the Citizens United decision and its effects on his campaign for governor last year.


I like the part about how corporations have no soul, they can't repent and be born again even by the most determined Southern Baptist evangelist!!  And how it can't marry or be forced to pay child support!!

Every rational thinking person knows corporations are not persons, so why is this falsehood being perpetuated by the courts.  I've always been led to believe that the courts were all about truth!!

Why Aren't More People Pissed????

On the right is a chart from last year (click on it and click again to enlarge to be able to see it better) showing how the U.S. compares to other countries on healthcare.  On average we spend twice what other industrialized countries spend per capita.  The closest any of the countries listed here comes to our spending is Switzerland and theirs is only 2/3rds of ours.  That's not even taking in to account the millions of people in this country that don't have any healthcare coverage.  Now if we are spending twice as much and getting a helluva lot less, doesn't that strike you as a BAD DEAL????  We have a  lower life expectancy and a higher infant mortality rate, so we do lead in something, but it's not a good thing.  Seems to me someone is getting fucked on this deal and I would say it's all of us!!!

Now why would anyone fight to keep such a PISS-POOR system???  I can see the rich bastards being for it as they are for anything that makes them money by fucking over everybody else.  But why would Joe-Sixpack or Joe the Plumber be for this???  Would the Wal-Mart shoppers be happy if they were told, "You have to pay twice as much for this stuff as the rest of the world!!"  Hell No, they wouldn't, there'd be riots.  So why do these same people want to keep the old fucked-up system in place????  Is it because they have been sold a bill of goods, "We have the best healthcare in the world."  Fifteen years ago whenever some "DittoHead" would repeat that line of BULLSHIT, I'd say, "No, we have the most expensive healthcare in the world!!!"  While I like to say "I'm smarter than the average bear", I'm no fucking genius, and I figured it out a long time ago.  So why doesn't the rest of the country???

Could it be that most people that have insurance aren't paying the full fare???  Those that get insurance thru their jobs usually only pay part of the premium while the employer pays most of it.  And those without insurance believe the bullshit about how they can always go to the ER when truly sick or hurt.  The apartment manager here where I live told me he pays $800 a month for his medical insurance and another $800 for his adult daughter.  That's $9600 a year each.  Unless they have some kind of medical catastrophe,  there is no way someone would get that much medical treatment in a year.

Example: The Old Lady knew a couple who lived in Sweden.  The woman got breast cancer which metastasized and finally killed her.  My cousin got breast cancer which metastasized and finally killed her.  The difference; the woman in Sweden never had to worry about how to pay for her treatment, whereas my cousin had to ask friends and relatives to hold spaghetti dinners to try to pay for things like drugs for chemo and she had what some consider good medical insurance.

One thing that has me scratching my ass in bewilderment is my "retarded military" relative who has socialized healthcare(medical plan for retired military, VA and next year will be on Medicare) saying he wants to be in "control" of his healthcare and that's why he wants to see "Obamacare" repealed.

Taco Bell

Mark Twain Quotes

"You believe in a book that has talking animals, wizards, witches, demons, sticks turning into snakes, burning bushes, food falling from the sky, people walking on water, and all sorts of magical, absurd and primitive stories, and you say that we are the ones that need help?"
— Mark Twain

"Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it."
— Mark Twain 

 "Sanity and happiness are an impossible combination."

— Mark Twain 

"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please."
— Mark Twain

"I did not attend his funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it."
— Mark Twain

"Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society."
— Mark Twain

"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and man."
— Mark Twain

"Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it."
— Mark Twain

"Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself."
— Mark Twain

"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect."
— Mark Twain

"Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint."
— Mark Twain

Snow Joke

December 8
6:00 PM. It started to snow. The first snow of the season and the wife and I took our cocktails and sat for hours by the window watching the huge soft flakes drift down from heaven. It looked like a Grandma Moses Print. So romantic we felt like newlyweds again. I love snow!

December 9
We woke to a beautiful blanket of crystal white snow covering every inch of the landscape. What a fantastic sight! Can there be a more lovely place in the Whole World? Moving here was the best idea I've ever had. Shoveled for the first time in years and felt like a boy again. I did both our driveway and the sidewalks. This afternoon the snowplow came along and covered up the sidewalks and closed in the driveway, so I got to shovel again. What a perfect life.

December 12
The sun has melted all our lovely snow. Such a disappointment. My neighbor tells me not to worry, we'll definitely have a white Christmas. No snow on Christmas would be awful! Bob says we'll have so much snow by the end of winter, that I'll never want to see snow again. I don't think that's possible. Bob is such a nice man, I'm glad he's our neighbor.

December 14
Snow lovely snow! 8" last night. The temperature dropped to -20. The cold makes everything sparkle so. The wind took my breath away, but I warmed up by shoveling the driveway and sidewalks. This is the life!

The snowplow came back this afternoon and buried everything again. I didn't realize I would have to do quite this much shoveling, but I'll certainly get back in shape this way.

December 15
20 inches forecast. Sold my van and bought a 4x4 Blazer. Bought snow tires for the wife's car and 2 extra shovels. Stocked the freezer.

The wife wants a wood stove in case the electricity goes out. I think that's silly. We aren't in Alaska, after all.

December 16
Ice storm this morning. Fell on my butt on the ice in the driveway putting down salt. Hurt like heck. The wife laughed for one hour, which I think was very cruel.

December 17
Still way below freezing. Roads are too icy to go anywhere.

Electricity was off for 5 hours. I had to pile the blankets on to stay warm. Nothing to do but stare at the wife and try not to irritate her. Guess I should've bought a wood stove, but won't admit it to her. God I hate it when she's right. I can't believe I'm freezing to death in my own living room.

December 20
Electricity's back on, but had another 14" of the damn stuff last night. More shoveling. Took all day. Darn snowplow came by twice.

Tried to find a neighbor kid to shovel, but they said they're too busy playing hockey. I think they're lying. Called the only hardware store around to see about buying a snow blower and they're out. Might have another shipment in March. I think they're lying. Bob says I have to shovel or the city will have it done and bill me. I think he's lying.

December 22
Bob was right about a white Christmas because 13 more inches of the white crap fell today, and it's so cold it probably won't melt till August. Took me 45 minutes to get all dressed up to go out to shovel and then I had to poop. By the time I got undressed, pooped and dressed again, I was too tired to shovel. Tried to hire Bob who has a plow on his truck for the rest of the winter; but he says he's too busy. I think the jerk is lying.

December 23
Only 2" of snow today. And it warmed up to 0. The wife wanted me to decorate the front of the house this morning. What is she nuts!!! Why didn't she tell me to do that a month ago? She says she did but I think she's lying.

December 24
6". Snow packed so hard by snowplow, I broke the shovel. Thought I was having a heart attack. If I ever catch the man who drives that snowplow I'll drag him through the snow by his nose and beat him to death with my broken shovel. I know he hides around the corner and waits for me to finish shoveling and then he comes down the street at 100 miles an hour and throws snow all over where I've just been!

Tonight the wife wanted me to sing Christmas carols with her and open our presents, but I was too busy watching for the snowplow.

December 25
Merry -bleeping- Christmas! 20 more inches of the slop tonight. Snowed in. The idea of shoveling makes my blood boil. I hate the snow! Then the snowplow driver came by asking for a donation and I hit him over the head with my shovel. The wife says I have a bad attitude. I think she's a fricking idiot. If I have to watch "It's A Wonderful Life" one more time, I'm going to stuff her into the microwave.

December 26
Still snowed in. Why the heck did I ever move here? It was all HER idea. She's really getting on my nerves.

December 27
Temperature dropped to -30 and the pipes froze, plumber came after 14 hours of waiting for him, he only charged me $1400 to replace all my pipes.

December 28
Warmed up to above -20. Still snowed in. THE WITCH is driving me crazy!!!

December 29
10 more inches. Bob says I have to shovel the roof or it could cave in. That's the silliest thing I ever heard. How dumb does he think I am?

December 30
Roof caved in. I beat up the snow plow driver he is now suing me for a million dollars not only the beating I gave him but also for trying to shove the broken snow shovel up where the sun don't shine. The wife went home to her mother. 9" predicted.

December 31
I set fire to what's left of the house. No more shoveling.

January 8
Feel so good. I just love those little white pills they keep giving me. Why am I tied to the bed?

Remembered this from some years back when we actually had to deal with snow.  Found this at basicjokes.com.

Snow

This is the weather report from the local weekly newspaper UP on the Tundra.  What's interesting is that as of Jan. 15th there have been 119 inches of snow where my place is and about 30 miles away to the West the total is only about half.  About 30 miles to the Northwest the total is about 1/3th.

Recently we had a couple inches of snow here in Hot-Lanta followed by freezing rain.  The area was basically shut down for most of the week.  Personally I would rather be UP on the Tundra when it snows than here as it is a lot easier to deal with the snow there than here.

Useless Media

For the last week or more the Fucking Media have been pontificating on the President's State of the Union address which he will deliver TONIGHT!!!!  The McDONALDIZATION of this country is getting pretty FUCKING bad when they can't even wait for the meat to hit the grill!!!  I am getting fed up with all the talking heads talking about what the President may or may not say, or what he should say.  I think the thing that chaps my ass the most is the FUCKING PREBUTALS by all the FuckingRepublicans.  Whatever happened to letting the man give his speech before picking it apart and putting your lying spin on it???

Witticisms

Some witticisms.

Always remember you're unique, just like everyone else.

The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT'S relativity. -- Albert Einstein

Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.

When I hear somebody sigh "Life is hard" I'm always tempted to ask "Compared to what?"

The way some people find fault, you'd think there was some kind of reward.

Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy.

Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less until he knows absolutely everything about nothing.

Those who drink to drown their sorrows should be told that sorrows know how to swim

The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.

Love isn't only blind, it's also deaf, dumb, and stupid.

If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.

When bosses talk about improving productivity, they are never talking about themselves.

I doubt, therefore I might be.

You cannot achieve the impossible without attempting the absurd.

The gene pool could use a little chlorine.

Cole's Axiom: The sum of intelligence on the planet is a constant. The population is growing.

Another Bear

Thought I'd put up another bear.  While Yogi is OK, this shows a different point of view.

Sometimes doing nothing is more tiring than working!!

                                                                               

Also wanted try something as I changed my blog editor.  Had problems with writing stuff under the picture.  If I did a caption under the picture, it would center under the picture.  Then I could not get it to stop centering under the picture when I wanted to go back to regular text.

Hopefully I got something figured out this morning. 

My Totem, The Bear

Ever since I learned about people believing in totems, I've thought if I've got a totem, it would be the bear.  And No, it would not be Yogi Bear, even tho I have said at times that I am smarter than the average bear.(Judging by what I see in real life and in the media, that ain't saying a helluva lot!!)

I have never been morning friendly, usually growling at anyone who dared to wake me before my internal clock did.  Lately I've noticed that I am kind of hibernating, I sleep longer during winter than I do the rest of the year.  This may or may not be a sign of something.  Could just be that as I don't really have much to do there's no reason to get up early. 

Usually in March when the weather starts to warm up a little and the snow UP on the Tundra starts to melt, I perk up.  Problem is there is usually too much snow(UP on the Tundra) to do anything, so I do things like spread ashes on the snowbanks so they will melt faster.  Here where there isn't any snow, it just means I won't be as likely to find an excuse not to go for a walk as I am when the weather is cold(for here that is).

WMD

This may explain where the idea of WMD came from!!

Colbert

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Rush Limbaugh Speaks Chinese
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

Love the translation of Rush's Chinese.   Rush can also speak a little Negro Dialect.

Symbolism

Three-Eleventys of a Brain

Poor Joe, NOT!!

Internet Explorer 9 Beta

Yesterday morning while doing stuff in my hotmail account I saw this box on the side that said "Internet Explorer 9 Beta" and also "Free download".  I figured this would be one way to stop the Internet Explorer 8 upgrade pop-up from happening almost every time I fired my confuser up.  I had heard that some people were having problems with Internet Explorer 8, so I figured well version 9 should be better than 8, that's what I get for thinking.  After I got it downloaded and installed, I started surfing the intratubes.  Worked OK until I decided to do a post in blogger.  At first I couldn't do a link in the blog post. None of the icons above post body worked.  I went into blogger settings and put it back to the old editor(I had just switched to the new editor last week, thought I'd try it as it  was recommended.  After switching back to 'old editor' I was able to do the link in the post.  Later I was going to put up some pictures and after I uploaded them to the blog post and clicked on "Done" they disappeared.  Went back to using new editor and again none of the icons worked. 

After mentioning the problems I was having working in blogger after installing the new browser, The Old Lady(who knows a helluva lot more about confusers than I ever will) said, "Was it a Beta?  You never download a Beta as they haven't worked all the bugs out yet."

Then I remembered the info on the new browser mentioned there was an icon to click on to make it work with older browsers and websites.   It's next to where you type in the URL and looks like a page that has been ripped in half.  After I clicked on it I was able to work in blogger with the new editor and put up some pictures and a video. 

Yesterday I did a graphic about rock, paper, scissors.  This one is just scissors beats paper.

Marijuana

More Funnies

Most Persecuted Or The Biggest Whiners??

Salon.com has an article about how rich white conservatives are being persecuted. It gives examples of how some on the right have made up stories about being attacked by the evil "libruls", but usually the truth comes out eventually. The problem is a lot of people hear the original story and very few hear the truth. Then there is the "Government-Hating Circle-Jerk Echo Chamber" that forwards the story of the attack, but not the follow-up story that shows the attack was made up and/or self-inflicted.

Even when they controlled all three branches of the government, Congress, White House and the Supreme Court, they acted like they were a weak, pitiful minority being picked on the all-powerful "libruls"!!

H/T to Skippy for the link to the article.

Some Funnies

 

Physics In Action

Best Line I've Seen All Year

"Glenn Beck's head is still so fully up his ass that he tickles his lungs when he blinks."
H/T to Rude Pundit where I got this line.

Why They Call It Fossil Fuels

Keeping Track of Your Kids

Facebook, Twitter Revolutionizing How Parents Stalk Their College-Aged Kids

After doing a rant, thought I'd put up something a little lighter!!
Years ago I heard about a couple that kept a police scanner going in order to keep track of their kids.  This is just newer technology and more high-tech!

Government-Hating Circle-Jerk Echo Chamber

The Old Lady says I should trademark or copyright that phrase.  Would that I could.  I came up with the phrase "Government-Hating Circle-Jerk Echo Chamber" after receiving numerous e-mails from a relative.  E-mails that were either Far-Right in nature or extremely racist Anti-Obama ones.  I have known for years that there are groups of individuals that send e-mails around to lists of people in their e-mail contacts.(Having been inflicted to e-mails by more than one individual.)  It was just recently that I thought of these groups as an electronic 'Circle-Jerk'.  The other two parts of the phrase are self-explanatory, everything from the Never-RightWingNut fringe is "Government-Hating".  Most of the e-mails are circulated to like-minded people so as to form an "Echo Chamber", because they keep reinforcing each other with these e-mails.  The sad fact is they don't think before they click on "Forward" and in this case the box should be labeled "Backward"!!

In a post last week I mentioned going back and forth with this person on FB.  (Actually I would have been better off arguing with a stump, at least when you get tired of arguing with the stump, you can sit on it and rest.)  One of the final straws was an e-mail about your order has been backordered and said due to explosive demand your order is backordered.  Then when you scrolled down there was a picture of Obama on an urinal cake holder in an urinal.  Now as much as I despise aWol, I would never do anything like this to him.  In fact, I wouldn't piss on aWol if he was on fire!!!

 

As a result of this and other racist e-mails, I sent him a goodbye e-mail asking him if his God was OK with his ignorance and bigotry??  His response was a reply that said "God loves you", like I give a shit about whether or not his imaginary friend likes me!!!!  He is one of the lunatic fringe that scares me, a Bible-Banging NRA nut.

The sad part is we grew up together are were good friends most of the time.  His father claims his ex-wife drove him crazy and he may have a point.  Seems like he got to be worse while he was a civilian employee for an Army aircraft facility in Texas.  While he hated Texas, working there seemed to reinforce the Hard-RightWing Military mindset.  He unfriended me on Facebook, but I'll survive.

Repeal

Fruitcake

In A Lighter Vein

Some Days I Almost Feel Sorry For The Poor Bastards,

Conservatives that is, but not the Rich Bastards. Spent most of yesterday going back and forth with someone on FB who had put up a link declaring "Millions of Rebels Waiting to be Tapped". It was an article about the evils of Healthcare Reform. I made the mistake of commenting, asking if he was going to free himself and give up his "Socialist-Government medical care?? Of course NOT, he claims he earned all three of his medical plans. Then I asked him why he posted the link?? Then he comes back with he can post anything he wants long as it is legal and is only his and God's business. Why bring the mythical being somewhere in the sky into it, all I asked was "WHY??" In the course of the back and forth he threw this question from out in left field(or in his case, right field), "What does healthcare have to do with selling your house?" At this point I thought he had totally lost it, gone completely around the bend, Full Blown Bat-Shit Crazy. He kept telling me to read the whole bill( why should I waste my time reading something where almost all of it doesn't apply to me and even lawyers would have trouble understanding it)!! Turns out there is a provision in the bill for charging a 3.8% levy on capital gains above the threshold for individuals or couples($250,000 for individuals or $500,000 for couples, that's if they sell something for that much more than they paid for it). After looking around the Intratubes, I finally found what he was talking about and on Snopes.com found the true skinny on it. I sent him the link on it, said he didn't have to worry about it and asked him to read it. His reply was that he hadn't read my link, but he had read the whole bill and should he only care about things that affect him?? This is what I call being willfully Ignorant!!

Last year he was all pissed off about this plan to tax all financial transactions HR 4646. Said he didn't want to pay any taxes except sales tax(this from someone whose entire income is from the government)!! Turns out there is a bill to do a 1% tax on all financial transactions except buying and selling stocks. It was introduced by Rep. Chaka Fattah, D-PA. several times the last being in 2010. It had no, zero, nada, zilch co-sponsors and died in committee because of lack of support. Even tho I pointed this out to him last fall and sent him the link to it on Snopes.com, he still insisted that this would be passed by the Democrats after the election. We all know what happened in the Lame Duck Session and it never came up. My guess is he didn't read that one either, "Don't confuse me with the facts, my mind is made up . There is not DOUBT in my military mind"

The thing that kills me is that even when confronted with the facts they refuse to accept them. The only information that counts is what they hear in their Government-Hating Circle-Jerk Echo Chamber. Those pesky facts, they seem to have a librul bias. Or is it that the Never-Right deals in innuendo, half-truths and outright lies???

My plan is to ignore him in the future. We Finns have this interesting quirk, when we figure out that arguing with someone is a waste of breath, we stop talking. That doesn't mean you won the argument, it means the person you were arguing with has decided you aren't worth talking to.

Onion News

Snowy Conditions Proving Hazardous For Nation's Idiots

Aurora Australis

H/T to Migrant Tales for the link to the link for this awesome picture. It was taken from a satellite.

Road Test Of Radar Detector

Picture taken while parked in a parking lot.

My radar detector that I paid a couple bucks for got road tested recently. We went down I-20 to Vicksburg then down and across Louisiana to Tejas. After spending several days in Tejas, we headed for home by way of Mobile, AL. Then finally from Mobile to Hot-Lanta. The unit seemed to work, got alerts on all the bands, it helped us to see the cops sooner than we would have without it. We don't usually drive that fast that the detector would be necessary, but it still helps.

It worked fine out on the highway, in town it gave a number of false alarms because of automatic door openers even when set on 'City'. All in all I'm pleased with it and considering what I paid for it, I'm real happy.