I don’t usually venture into matters metaphysical in this blog, but I couldn’t resist posting this:
Okay, if you’ve been paying any attention to the ultra-paranoid wingnut Rep. Michele Bachmann (R – Minn) or the late-night comedians who mock her, you’ve already heard that there are those on the right-wing fringe (also known as Republicans in good standing) who are objecting to the upcoming 2010 census as some sort of sinister left-wing plot.
A sinister left-wing plot mandated by Art. 1, Sec. 2 of that document of the radical left known as the U.S. Constitution.
Bachmann and others have announced their intention to boycott the census next year because…well, I’m a little unclear why, actually…apparently it has something to do with ACORN (the right’s favorite villain after Obama and the Clintons). And they are urging others on the lunatic fringe to boycott it as well.
Now, personally, I’m actually okay with large numbers of people in the red states boycotting the census, because the net effect if they do is that they will lose further representation in the House of Representatives, resulting in additional representatives being apportioned to the blue states. Fewer Republicans in the HoR? Sounds good to me.
However, I do feel obligated to point out to Rep. Bachmann that she might want to be cautious in her public statements about her intentions with respect to the 2010 census.
See, she’ll still be in office when it occurs (barring any revelations that she’s been hiking the Appalachian Trail like Gov. Sanford of South Carolina). And when she was sworn in, part of her oath was to uphold the laws and constitution of the United States.
And the census is required by both the laws and the constitution. As is participation in same.
Now, I’ve been known to criticize unjust laws and even engage in a little civil disobedience from time-to-time, in spite of my own oath to uphold the laws and constitution back when I was practicing law.
On the other hand, this blog (read by literally tens of readers) is about as high-profile as my own comments ever get. Nobody is pointing a microphone or a television camera at me.
Of course, they’d have to find me first, but that’s beside the point.
The point is, if Bachmann refuses to participate in the census, well, she’s pretty much giving a road-map to anyone who might be inclined to make an example of her by prosecuting or impeaching her for her refusal to participate every time she opens her mouth in front of a TV camera and announces her intent to boycott the census.
Just sayin’…
-jane doe
Matt Taibbi has apparently abandoned all hope. The system is completely fucked, and so are we. I’d leave, but where would I go? I’m taking suggestions, if anyone has any.
-jane doe
Okay, yeah, once again I’ve been terribly negligent about updating this blog. Frankly, I had hoped that the need for this blog would go away after the shrub left office. I thought I’d feel better about things once the grown-ups were back in charge.
Silly me.
But where to start?
Dick Cheney’s All-Torture, All-The Time Tour?
The Obama White House’s insistence that we just accept that we don’t torture anymore so we should just move forward?
The whole same-sex marriage issue?
The screams of “Socialism!” from the far right in response to just about everything that Obama proposes?
The murder of Dr. Tiller?
So many things worthy of comment, I hardly know where to begin…
Okay, it’s not an original piece, like Funk Vigilante’s excellent Worst President Ever, but the video matchup put together by blog The Full Ginsberg (apparently a reference to going on all five Sunday news talk shows in one day) is still pretty good:
Just what are they preaching in evangelical churches these days?
A recent study by the Pew Research Center reveals that evangelical Christians are the most likely to support torture. The more often they go to church, the more likely they are to support such tactics.
Now, I don’t claim to be a biblical scholar. Because, hello? Buddhist. But I’m pretty sure Jesus would not be down with waterboarding.
Wasn’t he all about turning the other cheek? Treating others as you would have them treat you? Compassion? Letting he who is without sin cast the first stone?
And yet, that is the result of the survey. Regular churchgoers at evangelical Christian churches are more likely to support torture than any other group.
Questions? Comments?
-jane doe
Okay, I’d written this whole thing about how the wingnuts who want to teabag the White House really ought to consult UrbanDictionary.com before they embarrass themselves further, and pointing out the logical failings behind this supposed grass-roots protest, but really, David Shuster did a much better job last night on Countdown, so I’ll just let him say it:
Her name was French for “you paid too much for that coffee”, but the name came with her when we got her from an organization that raises guide dogs for the blind, and there was no changing it.
She was a beautiful yellow lab, though a bit heavyset in her later years as she became less active. She came to us after a brief stint with a blind person in California. She lost the guide dog gig because she never really shook the instinct to chase birds and squirrels, and that’s a really bad trait for a guide dog to have. But she was very loving and well-behaved outside of the birding tendencies.
For a number of years, she worked with my mom as a therapy dog at the local hospital, where patients and staff alike adored her. She would work with patients in physical therapy and would also visit children in the oncology unit on a regular basis, and always left smiles in her wake. She seemed to know which patients could play and which were more fragile and just wanted a little affection. Fuzz therapy, I called it.
One of her favorite things to do was go for rides in the car, and when the weather allowed it, she would often accompany my mother on her errands around town. Sometimes when my dad was restless, he and Latte would just go for drives up in the mountains or out in the country. She would also go on frequent walks through Garden of the Gods with me when she was younger.
Even in her later years, she remained good natured and affectionate. When my brother’s toddler would climb all over her, she would just kind of look at us with a slight doggy smile on her face, wagging her tail once or twice to let us know she was willing to suffer the indignity of being a climbing toy for a drooling 14-month-old.
When the end came, it was relatively quick, and she did not seem to suffer much. In her final days with us she was showered with love and affection, and when she stopped eating and was having trouble walking, we took her to the vet, who ended her suffering when it became clear that her organs were failing and this was not a temporary problem she could recover from.
She was a good dog, and she will be missed by all who knew her. She’s left a hole in our lives, but those lives were richer for having her in it for the time we had with her.
Rest in peace, Latte. If there’s a heaven for doggies, I know you’re there now, scaring all the birds in sight.
-jane doe
Okay, this video (which originally aired on the east coast broadcast of SNL in 1998 but was edited out of the west coast broadcast a couple hours later) has already been pulled from YouTube, probably because it was embedded over at Disinformation, but it’s still up at Google videos. Watch it quick before NBC makes them take it down for “copyright violations” (and not at all because it is critical of NBC).
-jane doe
