Sean Hannity on President Obama last night

Hannity talked about Obama storming out of some conference with the Israelis in London yesterday, and mentioned that he had told us so in the campaign last year . . . Hannity then starts whining and waving that old flag of "Obama's gonna make the world beat us up!"

Instead of these Republicans complaining all the time, why don't they do something more constructive, like start a campaign of people writing TO the President to tell him that they want him to take a more active role in foreign affairs - instead of trying to pretend that he's the President of the Democratic Party Americans, we should ALL start talking to him for what he is - the President of ALL OF US!

So, if Hannity is going to spout that he's afraid that President Obama will do nothing if we found out that North Korea torpedoed a ship with perhaps some of our citizens on it, perhaps Mr. Hannity should encourage his listeners to write, email, call, Tweet, 'book, or even TELEGRAM the President to say that we want him to take a hard line.

Instead of complaining, let's get active: stop hating what he's doing, TELL him what you want him to do.

(Just try to keep it clean, OK?)


VG

French game show

Heard on NPR last night there was a French game show on which the contestants dealt electric shocks to a man strapped to the chair, and during the course of the game the players, egged on by the crowd, took great pleasure in giving more frequent and intense shocks.

Turns out that the man in the chair was just an actor, and was never really in any danger, nor received any pain. However, the reporter mentioned that the players, who delivered the "shocks" may have undergone stress, driven by guilt, over what they had thought they had done. This report insinuated that the game may not have been "fair" to the players.

I say that's a load of crap - I hope they feel bad. If they didn't feel bad, now THAT would worry me. These players knowingly gave pain to another human being. Just because they didn't actually give any pain does not let them off the hook. They CHOSE to inflict pain, that's what they thought they were doing, therefore that was the choice they were making. Any sort of negative emotional reaction they had after that incident isn't good enough - they should have had a negative emotional reaction BEFORE going on the show - then they would have suffered no pain whatsoever.

VG

Heard that the dems are being threatened with assassination

The Republican Right instigated the violence being hurled against Democratic lawmakers. However, they will never admit it. They are like the manipulative bully on the playground who gets his friends to beat up your child, partly in order to avoid blame, and partly because manipulation is so delicious.

What's sad is that we all know it is true; the Republicans have created an environment in which violence is acceptable, and retribution is becoming the norm.

What's also sad is that Americans, over time, will really like much of the legislation passed in this bill: they'll get coverage even with pre-existing conditions, they can't be dropped automatically if they get sick, etc.

I can only suggest that we hold on, continue forward, bring out the love and light and reason of Christ, and pray to Him to grace us with the wisdom to see His plan, and to adjust our will accordingly . . . and also, to pray that He gives us the patience to listen to others, and overall, the love to accept them.

I love you, my Republican brethren, I truly do. However, I hate what you're doing - the dissemination of lies and the fostering of mistrust, to the point where citizens threaten the lives of lawmakers who pass a bill that gives Americans health care. The absolute insanity of it makes my guts hurts.

But still, I love.


VG

Wonderful week - and it's only Wednesday!

What a wonderful week this has been!

The government actually voted in a health care package that promises to do horrible and terrible things to the American people, things like: give everybody access to doctors and hospitals, and which will make sure that my daughter will still be able to get her asthma medication from insurance companies who, last Saturday, would have refused to cover her for a "pre-existing medical condition." From now on, our local hospital will no longer be able to expel from their ER people dying of a ruptured appendix or suffering from severe gallstones simply because they lack coverage.

Also, those pesky Canadians did the unthinkable, the horrific, dirty lowdown thing of actually silencing the most evil strident voice of sheer hate that this side of the border has ever produced - Way to go U of Ottowa - you may not be my Alma Mater, but you're my new favourite!!!
(and just so you naysayers really understand it - silencing Ann Coulter is not silencing free speech, it's silencing HATE SPEECH. Hate is not free - it costs us in ways we can't calculate in cold hard cash.)

Lastly, and even though people deride him for a) not using more active verbs and b) not spanking Germany as well, the POPE at long last issued a proclomation at least acknowledging that Irish Catholic priests molest little boys, which is something that every male in Ireland under the age of 60 knows all too well. For what little other solace it might give, at the very least he spoke the words: which would only be surpassed by George Dubya Bush to admit verbally that he invaded Iraq and killed our economy with a 800 BILLION unwinnable war for no other reason than he had "daddy" issues.

If only we could get him to admit that . . . but hey , this week's gone so well already, maybe I'll hear the announcment on CNN by Friday.

Nice!

VG

Bunning - help me figure this out

OK OK, so

we have ONE senator, who has stopped payments to the unemployed (i.e. "poor") AND stopped highway construction (isn't that all the JOBS CREATION that the Republos are so desirous of?) because he SAYS that he doesn't want the deficit to increase.

YET!!! He basically has stated (and I think the others have caved to this demand, we'll know in a day or so) that he would stop his opposition to paying the unemployed and letting highways get built IF the government agrees to stop taxing estates over $7mil.

SO, if these American buggers can follow the logic, basically, Bunning is saying that he

will SPEND MORE

if the government TAKES LESS.

Let me spell this out for you - make it simple so you can understand it: you tell your family that you're not going to buy food for them until you start bringing home less money. And when that pay cut comes, then you'll go out and buy more things.

Wouldn't your spouse kick you out on your arse if you tried that?

Shouldn't we do the same to these guys.

I tell you this, pleebs, if you seriously vote for people who will only spend money to help the American workers ONLY when they get tax breaks for their rich buddies, AND WHEN THEY TRY TO SELL IT TO YOU IN A PACKAGE OF "I'M TRYING TO BE FISCALLY RESPONSIBLE" then you deserve the crud government you get.

Let me say it one more time, just so you get it right:

Bunning says he wants to be fiscally responsible.

Bunning stopped payouts.

Bunning will agree to payouts if estate taxes are cut.

Cut estate taxes = government gets less money.

That means less money for things like, oh, I dunno, UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS AND HIGHWAY CONSTRUCTION.

So, he's willing to contribute to a scenario that would decrease income and increase expenses, which is directly contradictory to his statement of wanting not to increase the deficit.

He's a liar - and the American people are buying the lie. I mean, you have to know you're being lied to.

Don't you?

Please, tell me you know.

I'm drowning here!

VG

Liberal Christian

And yes, I am a liberal Christian.

Which may sound incongruous, but it is only incongruous because of how our current culture has divided this country, and made Jesus Christ synonymous with hatemongers and trash throwers.

This country needs to shake off this insipidly infantile culture in which everything is either black or white, right or wrong, day or night, Right or Left.

Things are never that simple.

But I'll try to make them simple:

As a Liberal Christian, I believe that government should be there to help people. Yup, that's right - Health Care, baby: Socialized Medicine. There, I said it.

I also believe that you should pay your taxes. Many people in America don't believe they should pay their taxes. Ergo, they don't want a government. (They just want the government to kill foreigners, either on our soil or theirs).

I also don't believe in same-sex marriage. (Sorry! I know that's unpopular, but it's true)
Actually, I feel that same-sex marriage is simply trying to obtain the tax breaks that married couples enjoy. Those tax breaks were only put in place by a government that saw that marriage was in decline, and they did that to keep marriage from declining (they thought it would save the moral fabric of the country); however, that is disengenuous, in that if people get married for the cultural and social advantages, then they are not truly becoming a unified body. Therefore, I say we do away with marriage as a civil right, get rid of any tax benefit for married couples, and let marriage be a matter of the church, to be recognized by the government, but not supported by an extra 2 grand back on April 15th. The government will provide a civil contract for all couples, straight or gay, who just want to use it to divide their stuff when one dies.

No one will be happy with this proposal, but then, no one's happy now.

I also believe that corporations should be taxed - heavily.

I also believe that we should keep our national parks out of the hands of the oil companies.

I also believe that Jesus Christ wants people to pay their taxes, help other people, and support a government that provides basic social services to its citizens, such as food, shelter, education, and

HEALTH CARE!!

Perhaps somebody could explain a different position to me, but I just don't see how somebody can call themselves a Christian and spout a conservative viewpoint. Perhaps I'm buying into the "one or the other" viewpoint, but truly, Christ came to show us love, and His mandate was for us to love God and love each other - and truly I don't see any conservative who really can say he or she loves their fellow neighbor.

Like I said, please explain to me if you care to do so.

Anti-Government Republicans

Oh yeah, and what's all this about the Republicans being against big government. Throughout 2009 all I ever heard was every Republican congressman or senator complaining about the government being the problem.

This is strange, because they worked hard and spent a lot of money to get into a club that they don't want to be in. That seems to be some sort of psychotic self-loathing, to work all your life to become somebody you don't like.

If you don't like the government, don't be a part of it.

Personally, I don't play golf. Don't like the game. Don't ever talk about it. But if I were a Republican, that would mean that I would learn it and spend all my money to join the club, and then tell everybody beyond the fence how evil all my golfing buddies are.

That's your elected Republican contingent, folks. When are you going to wake up?

Tea Party

The problem with the Tea Party movement is that they have taken their name from an incident that was protesting taxation without representation.

We do have representation. We elected these people. Every person in two of the three branches of government is an elected representative.

The Tea Party isn't American. They just don't want to pay taxes. But they've tapped into a patriotic symbol so that they can use it as a thin mask for their vitriol.

WSJ today

People are so upset over the full body scans starting to be implemented at the airports. In Germany there was a protest, and mainly people are claiming the invasion of privacy.

Hey, I'm about as non-invasive as the next guy, but to be honest, I don't really care if they scan me at the airport. If they want to look under my clothes to get a good look at my big fat belly and my flaccid forearms and the hairy moles on my back, be my guest.

But beyond the fact that I no body issues (I'll admit, if I HAD a great body, I'd probably have issues!) I really think that a person's expectation of privacy should extend to what that person owns.

For example, I believe that officials should not be able to search your car without reasonable cause. OK.

But you own your car. You do not own the plane. You do not own the airport. You don't even own the seat for which you've purchased your ticket. Your $100.00 to $2000.00 has only RENTED that seat for a specific numnber of air miles between one location or another. You have NO "right" to privacy while you are on their plane.

"AH!" you say, "but I own my clothes!" As though you can outwit the great Verble Gherulous!

To which Verble responds, "Yes, and therefore, they should only ask you if they can see under your clothes. But if you refuse, then they have the right not to let you into their airport, or on their plane, and if you lose the money that you paid for that rented seat, then that is the price you pay for standing up for your right not to have somebody look at your flabby belly or the hairy moles on your back."

'Nuff said!

VG

Poem for January 11, 2010

[NOTE: every name mentioned in this poem will have been replaced in one year.

OK. Maybe in one generation . . . I’ll give them/myself that.]

everything is a collage.

our thoughts are not our thoughts, and the images that we perceive are no longer our images, they

are the images that we encounter in our google searches and the words that we speak

are not our words:they are only the words that we repeat from what we
read on twitterfall, and our sense

of

location, we do not

position ourselves to north/south/eastor/west, anymore,
we are only

where we see ourselves on our cellphone GPS/and
our friends, our real friends, we can only touch on

Facebook, and our only thoughts are the thoughts that we
write on our blogs, and we say

nothing

but what we speak into
our webcams to upload to YouTube,

nothing else is real but this.

We are now the

nothing real,

but this.

Merry Christmas?!

and we're right in the middle of the Christmas season and it might as well be the middle of summer for all the lack of joy and darkness hanging all over everything - I swear to you, fellow citizens, that I've been Merry Christmasing my way across this town and it seems like everyone is stone cold scared to say it back . . . it's as though if they SAY "merrry Christmas" that somehow they'll be convicted of being an intolerant sexist racist immigrant-hating scumbag.

Which should show you just how badly the religious right has screwed up Christmas for the rest of us.

Basically, for this "holiday season" I will make this stand:

1) There is only ONE holiday: it's Christmas, and it's the birth of a little baby who grew up to save the world by dying for it. why? Because He loved us better than we could ever love each other.

2) I'm sorry that certain small-minded bigots have smeared Christianity to the point where nobody wants to believe that a little baby was born to grow up and die for us because He loved us so much, but since He did, then the rest of us have got to TAKE CHRIST BACK! Let's get Him away from the fanatics and put Him right at the center of our hearts, where He belongs, and

3) I am gonna keep saying MERRY CHRISTMAS until I'm the last one left. Because when I say Merry Christmas I am wishing each and every single human being on this planet Love, Peace, Joy, Happiness, Harmony, Salvation, Relief, and Rest!

So Merry Christmas everybody!!!!



VG