SCIENTISTS ELECTRONICALLY CONNECT BRAIN IMPLANTS IN TWO RATS ON SEPARATE CONTINENTS, TOGETHER THEY "COMMUNICATE" TO SOLVE PROBLEMS

 

 

            I'm not at all sure how I feel about this story... (still working out the ethical hiccups).

            Scientists have managed to wire the brains of rats with implants, allowing the rodents to "communicate" and problem solve electronically, despite being on different continents.

            The Guardian reports that Miguel Nicilelis, a pioneer in the field of robotic prosthetics controlled by the mind, has managed to prove that rats with brain implants were able to  pass along problem solving techniques to one another while wired together over the internet.  He had this to say about the experiment:

             "Basically, we are creating an organic computer."

             The question of whether such technology could be used to "connect" human brains is one of the first to pop up, followed by a slew of ethical concerns about the necessity of such experimentation.

              But putting aside the PETA-type concerns associated with animal testing, can we be far off from the day when a brain implant could be used to pass along information from one human mind to another?  And if that is possible, will it always be used for good?

              After all, why waterboard a detained suspect when you can just implant a device into his brain and read his thoughts?  Will we soon be able to perform this function without surgery by use of external mind-scanners?  Are there Constitutional concerns involving involuntary search and seizures involved if we're talking about searching human minds and seizing information?

              I'll go out on a limb and volunteer Dick Cheney's brain for future experimentation.  I'd really like to know if there's even the slightest hint of remorse locked away somewhere in Darth Cheney's psyche...

              And you just know if there's a way to pass along mental memory and cognitive recognition, someone will wire themselves to a computer, download the contents of their mind, and attempt to install that "memory" into a machine or robot in some far-fetched attempt at immortality. 

              Again, the image of Dick Cheney springs to mind.

             

WANT TO KNOW WHY THEY HATE "OBAMACARE" SO MUCH? YOU NEED TO READ THIS TIME MAGAZINE COVER STORY!

    
           I received this week's copy of Time Magazine in the mail a few days ago, and I've been trying to get my head around some of the information contained in the cover story.  If you haven't read this article yet, you owe it to yourself and anyone you love to get thee to THIS SITE and do so, now!

           Whenever the subject of health care reform pops up, the usual suspects on the left and right begin to spout statistics justifying their positions for leaving things as they are, or urging the country to adopt a program of single payer universal healthcare for all.  Before the first volleys have even been fired in the debate, tempers will rise, and the inevitable charges of Socialism are thrown around.

            It would behoove anyone who takes part in those debates to read Steven Brill's article.  He takes a few individual medical cases, explains the outrageous billing practices those patients were subjected to, compares those costs with what Medicare routinely pays for the same tests, medicines, and procedures, and then points out the obvious failure in our current system.

            Did you know that the health care industrial complex spends more than three times what the military and defense industrial complex spends to lobby our Congress?  Since 1998, the health care industry has spent $5.36 billion to lobby Washington D.C., compared to $1.5 billion for the defense industry and $1.3 billion for the oil and gas lobby.

             Did you know that as a nation we spend more on healthcare than Japan, Germany, France, China, Britain, Italy, Canada, Brazil, Spain, and Australia combined?  According to this article, our $60 billion cleanup bill for the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy is only about one week's worth of health care costs in America.

              Brill takes individual tests and procedures billed by hospitals and compares those charges to what Medicare pays for the same tests and procedures, and the results will make you angry.  Or at least, they make me angry.

               Did you know that a simple chest X-ray costs Medicare $20.44, but that you could be billed anywhere in the neighborhood of $250 to $300 for the same picture?  Did you know that if you go to a hospital with chest pains and they administer a troponin 1 test to see if you have elevated levels of certain proteins in the blood (which are prime indicators of a heart attack) you'll be charged somewhere around $200 for that blood test, but that Medicare routinely pays hospitals $13.94 for troponin 1 tests?

               Brill interviewed Jonathan Blum, who is deputy administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and asked if Medicare rates cost hospitals money.  Here was his response:  "When hospitals say they are losing money on Medicare, my reaction is that Central Florida is overflowing with Medicare patients and all of those hospitals are expanding and advertising for Medicare patients.  Hospitals don't lose money when they serve Medicare patients."

               Time Magazine devotes 24,000 words to Brill's story, and in it he tries to explain why this country spends 20% of its gross domestic income on medical care, and why the results of that exorbitant spending are so poor in comparison to those of other nations.

                I guarantee you one thing:  if you take the time to read this article you will definitely pay attention to your next medical billing statement.  And if you're 64 years old and end up being bankrupted by medical bills that would have been covered under Medicare had you been a year older, you'll probably wonder why we suffer with this bullshit when every other industrialized nation on Earth funds health care for its citizens.

 

IS ANYONE ANYWHERE HAPPY WITH THEIR CABLE TELEVISION PACKAGE AND PRICE? (Why do we pay through the nose to have shit pumped into our houses?)

            There's an article by Derek Thompson, a senior editor at The Atlantic in which he tries to explain why it is that your cable company provides you with (and requires you to pay for) so many channels you never watch.  Turns out, the cable company isn't to blame.  According to this article, they're forced to pump all of that extraneous shit into your cable box by the mega-corporations who own the channel packages.

            The article centers around a lawsuit filed by Cablevision (a cable company) against Viacom (a company that provides channels and network packages to cable companies).  Turns out, companies like Viacom force cable providers to broadcast dozens of channels their customers don't want in order to get the channels they DO want.  The reason WE can't get "a la carte" programming, and simply pay for ONLY the channels we want to buy, is because cable companies can't get "a la carte" packages, either.

            Right now my lovely (and dangerous) wife and I pay over $180 a month for cable television and internet services.  Our cable package includes one DVR box, two small converter boxes, and HBO for our only premium channel.  If Bill Maher's Real Time is ever cancelled, we will be HBO-less... 'cause that's all we ever watch on THAT channel.  (for the record, please don't remind me I can watch Real Time on Hulu or Netflix a few days after the original broadcast... I'm weird about watching topical news-related programs in real time, instead of replayed after the fact...)

             But I digress...   We pay $180 a month and watch about ten or twelve out of the hundreds of channels offered on our cable menu.  There are vast portions of the television guide we skip over during our searches, much like much of America is considered "fly over" country by the people who live on either coast.  We don't watch reality shows, shopping networks, kiddie programming, the God channels, or 90% of the sports channels offered.   But we PAY for all of that shit in order to get those ten or twelve channels that carry programming we DO want to see.

              This past weekend we spent a couple of days in a bungalow that had the premium Direct TV package.  Again, hundreds and hundreds of channels we had no interest in watching.  I'm sure it's an expensive service the owners provide to those who rent their property.

              What other service in the world requires you to buy ten or twelve products for every one product you actually want?  Other than medical care, I mean.  Obviously, you need those nine unnecessary tests and procedures when you go to the doctor with bronchitis... just like you need a vaginal ultrasound with your abortion.

              But seriously, what other commercial endeavour gets away with insisting you purchase unwanted goods in order to get the product you desire?

              And why do we subsidize shitty television channels?

              The first politician to step forward with a Viewer Protection agenda would be voted into office without spending a minute of his or her time fundraising for the campaign.  If Americans were allowed to purchase only the television programming they wanted to pay for (what a concept!) would that mean the death of the God channels and the shopping networks and fifty of those kiddie networks?  Hell no, because there are people out there willing to pay for that shit.

              I'm just suggesting we let the free market decide what's viable in the cable television marketplace, instead of having unwanted crap piped into our homes by corporate whores.

               I'd love to hear someone defend the current system.

               Anyone happy with their cable bill, programming, and service?

WE BE BACK... (WHAT DID WE MISS?) SOME PHOTOS FROM OUR TRIP TO REELFOOT LAKE

            A few days ago I got the distinct impression that if my wife didn't get out of town and away from her day-to-day routine she would end up hurting someone she loves dearly... probably me.

             I'm observant like that.

             So I found an inexpensive bungalow rental near Reelfoot Lake in west Tennessee, and last Sunday morning we drove off to enjoy a couple of cell-phone free days in the woods. The place was basically a mobile home bricked into the ground, with a nice covered picnic area and a large fishing dock on the northern bayou of the lake. We took steaks, shrimp, and enough adult beverages to keep us out of convenience stores and restaurants for two nights away from home.

             We had to contend with cloudy, unappealing weather conditions for the most part, but that just reenforced our desire to stay indoors and "off the clock". I did manage to step out for a few photos of the songbirds feeding above the water out back, and of the purple martin colony in the yard of the property owner next door.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

               The owner had a couple of frisky dogs on the property, and it was a hoot watching them wrestle and play in the backyard.  This is a shot of one little nip that brought out a yip and a little seriousness to the romp...





                      The shot below is a Photoshop creation from a crop of another photo.  If you click on the photo to "embiggen" it, you'll see the pixelated artwork.

 

 

 

        
 

GOP REP. SAYS LYNDON JOHNSON IS ROTTING IN HELL BECAUSE OF VIETNAM, AND NEEDS TO MAKE ROOM FOR DICK CHENEY...

               Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) was the asshat who wanted to rename French Fries as "Freedom Fries" in the Congressional cafeteria, which is reason enough to keep an eye on him from now on, just for the humor potential.

                But Jones had something to say at the Young Americans for Liberty conference in Raleigh that's worth mentioning regarding his vote to authorize the war in Iraq in 2003.  Apparently, Jones thinks it should be a crime worthy of prosecution to falsify intel in order to send young America men and women to their deaths, and he's willing to back that up with a proposal to make it a crime to do so.

               Jones mentions war criminal Dick Cheney by name.

               Here's a quote from his speech:


“Congress will not hold anyone to blame,” Jones said. “Lyndon Johnson’s probably rotting in hell right now because of the Vietnam War — and he probably needs to move over for Dick Cheney.”
The remark drew applause from the audience, while Jones went on to praise Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) for helping him understand the role of the constitution and Congress when deciding whether to go to war. (Young Americans for Liberty stemmed from Paul’s 2008 presidential campaign.)
Jones himself voted in favor of the war in 2003, but has expressed regret about the decision and become a vocal critic.
“Too many times in Washington nobody apologizes, especially when you send young men and women to die,” he said. “We apologize if we get caught by the police driving drunk, if we have an affair, then we apologize. But never does anyone apologize for buying into a lie to send men and women to die.”

RIP CLEOTHA STAPLES

       The first child born to Pops and Osceola Staples has passed away at age 78.  Cleotha had suffered from Alzheimer's.

 

ANN COULTER USES NIGER YELLOWCAKE BULLSHIT TO JUSTIFY IRAQ WAR (and calls libertarians "pussies" because they want to legalize pot)

Ann Coulter in a previous life                                   

 

 

            There aren't many people on this Earth I have a reflexive loathing for, but Ann Coulter is definitely one of them.  If I had to choose between saving Coulter or Sean Hannity from a burning room, I believe I'd go for more gasoline while I made the decision.

            There's something about this smirking bitch that makes me all stabby.  It goes beyond her hurtful and hateful rhetoric, because there are DOZENS of hate-mongers out there making fortunes for saying outrageous things for fame and attention.  No, this goes far deeper.  I truly find the woman despicable in every regard, and blame her for much of the toxic atmosphere that pervades political discussion in America.

            A couple of nights ago Coulter appeared on Fox Business Network's Stossel before a live audience of about 1,400 libertarian college students, and predictably, she started fireworks with her rhetoric.

            On the subject of legalizing pot, Coulter noted the libertarian crowd's approval of the concept by calling them "pussies".  Here's a portion of the transcript from Mediaite:

“This is why people think libertarians are pussies,” she said.

“We’re living in a country that is 70-percent socialist, the government takes 60 percent of your money. They are taking care of your health care, of your pensions. They’re telling you who you can hire, what the regulations will be. And you want to suck up to your little liberal friends and say, ‘Oh, but we want to legalize pot.’ You know, if you’re a little more manly you would tell them what your position on employment discrimination is. How about that? But it’s always ‘We want to legalize pot.’”
 

              When Stossel asked her "Why can't gays get married?" Coulter replied:
"Well, they can.  They just have to marry a member of the opposite sex."

              Of course, that went over really well before a college-aged crowd of libertarians.

               But the line that pisses me off more than anything else she had to say was when Stossel brought up the subject of the Iraq war and whether or not it was truly necessary for the United States to invade that country.

               It was at this point (early in the program) that Coulter fell back on a convenient and persistent lie.  She said it was necessary to overthrow Sadaam Hussein because he was "definitely looking for uranium from Niger."

              I'm currently reading Michael Isikoff and David Corn's Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War.  One of the "facts" given by the Bush administration during the runup to the Iraq invasion was the completely bogus yellowcake from Niger story, an angle every intelligence service in the free world dismissed as false.

              Now here's Coulter, almost ten years after the fact, using the same, tired excuse for the Iraq war, even though the yellowcake from Niger documents were proven forgeries, and even though the resultant investigation of the White House led to a prison sentence for Scooter Libby after he and Karl Rove saw to it that Valerie Plame's covert CIA identity was made public.

               It's almost as if she's bought in to the theory that if you tell a lie often enough, sooner or later it will be accepted as actual fact.

               If Stossel had more testicles than Coulter (and I'm not at all sure he does) he would have stopped her RIGHT THERE and blasted that bullshit line of reasoning out of the fucking water.  But he didn't.  They moved on to legalized drugs and gay marriage, just to keep it lively.

              A few days ago, war criminal Dick Cheney appeared on a Faux News gab-fest to repeat many of the same lies he used to justify the blunder of the Iraq war when he was in office.  These people never stop selling their bullshit.

              It would be sweet if just once, ONCE! someone called them on it with actual facts.

             

               

LOUIE GOHMERT SAYS WE NEED ASSAULT RIFLES AND EXTENDED MAGAZINE CLIPS TO FIGHT SHARIA LAW AND OBAMA'S DRONES... (thanks, Louie, I was worried we had the worst delegation to Washingon...)

 

 

 

 

Rep. Louie Gohmert  (jackass- Texas)                                     

          About a week ago a friend of mine suggested the state legislature in Tennessee was so ignorant and backward that it constituted "Texas Squared".  As much as I hated to admit it, he was probably right.  But then I looked at the asshats we've sent to D.C. and shuddered at the thought that we not only had the largest concentration of morons, homophobes, and bigots in our General Assembly, but probably the most embarrassing Congressional delegation in America.

          I take it all back.  As long as Rep. Louie Gohmert is taking air out of the atmosphere and drawing a Congressional paycheck we can rest easy here in the Volunteer State.  This guy makes stupid people happy by setting the curve on intelligence tests.

          Louie's latest foot-n-mouth eruption took place on the radio airwaves when he agreed to hold forth on the 2nd Amendment on Freedom 107 Radio with host Jeff Akin.  Gohmert justified his opposition to gun regulations by saying that we need our personal arsenals to fend off the Muslim hordes who want to make Sharia Law the law of the land in America.  Not only that, but he suggested that folks in certain states down south might want to bring down an unmanned drone, and you need at least fifty rounds in a magazine to pull THAT off, right?

         "It is for our protection -- and the founders' quotes make that very very clear -- including against a government that would run amuck," Gohmert said, before shifting gears. "We've got some people who think Sharia law oughta be the law of the land, forget the Constitution. But the guns are there, the Second Amendment is there, to make sure all of the rest of the amendments are followed."

            And later he added this gem:

           “But I had somebody last week in Washington from either Georgia or Alabama was saying, ‘Look, this goes back to we have got to have at least 50 rounds in our magazines because on average that’s about how many it takes to bring down a drone,’" Gohmert recalled. "I hope he was kidding, I don't know for sure.”

               Holy Jebus, how do people in Texas sleep at night knowing this guy is out there representing them in Congress?

               Between Gohmert and Tennessee's Rep. Marsha Blackburn there has to be a PSA message we can use to warn pregnant women about eating paint chips or inhaling mercury vapor...  Nothing else explains this sort of thing.

ALL POTTED UP IN CALIFORNIA? NEW BILL SAYS YOU CAN'T DRIVE A CAR FOR A WEEK... (but we're out of Doritos, dude!)

 

 

           There's an article in Think Progress about a California state Senator's bill which would make it illegal for anyone with any trace of THC in their blood system to drive an automobile.  If the bill becomes law, anyone who has toked up would have to wait more than a week before driving a car.

            Here's a portion of the proposed bill:

This bill would make it unlawful for a person to drive a motor
vehicle if his or her blood contains any detectable amount of a drug
classified in Schedules I, II, III, or IV of the California Uniform
Controlled Substance Act, unless the drug was consumed in accordance
with a valid prescription issued to the person by a licensed health
care practitioner.

             In other words, if your doctor prescribes a powerful narcotic, you can still navigate around the streets of Los Angeles because the doctor said so, that's why, but the guy who took a toke from a blunt on a boat at a lake party four days ago is a threat to public safety.

            Makes perfect sense, if you're a lobbyist for Big Pharma, or don't have a fucking clue as to the psycho-active powers of pot.

            According to this article, studies have proven that impaired pot smokers are twice as likely to cause an accident as un-potted drivers.  By comparison, drivers under the influence of alcohol are nine times more likely to cause a wreck than sober drivers.

            Of course, measuring the blood alcohol content of a drunk driver is quantifiable, and those measurements have legal limits.  Simply detecting marijuana in someone's blood system, on the other hand, doesn't give anyone a clue about that person's level of impairment.  A stoner who has been breathing through a bong all afternoon is a lot more likely to be an unfit driver than a person who got a contact high at a party a week earlier.  This bill doesn't make a distinction between the two.  Got pot in your system?  You're unfit to drive.

            Meanwhile, a guy who slammed fifteen shots of tequila at a Cinco de Mayo party the night before can legally get in his car and weave his hungover ass to work at the bank the next morning.

            I'd say this bill needs a little work.

SOMEBODY TAKE SOME OF THIS GUANO! IT'S GETTING IN THE WAY 'ROUND HERE...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"ARE YOU STRESSED?" PRACTICAL JOKE REACHES NEW LEVEL OF SERIOUS...

             These guys went to a lot of trouble to prank folks waiting for their flights at an airport.  I thought some of MY old practical jokes were elaborate, but these people are on another level~!

              People are nervous at airports these days without this sort of nonsense...

JACKIE AND DUNLAP DISCUSS THE POPE'S RETIREMENT ("I don't read the Bible naked!")

          "He just told God to stuff it?"

 

CALM DOWN, EVERYONE, IT'S CALLED "SATIRE" AND IT'S MEANT TO BE HUMOROUS...

 

          Sometimes I wonder if we've managed to jump the media shark in this country.  When our news is delivered to us online by dubious sources, it's often easy to read a headline or story and completely buy the premise contained therein, without a second thought as to that source's credibility.  Such blind gullibility has burned my butt a time or two in the past, but I'm happy to discover that a lot of folks often make the same mistakes.

          For example, did you hear that Sarah Palin is going to be teaching four different courses at Harvard's prestigious Kennedy School of Government?  Or that the former half-term governor of Alaska has signed on to be a guest commentator on Al Jazeera America when that network is up and running?  It's all true.  Read it on the internets, so it must be true.  It was right next to that story about military detainees at Guantanamo getting G.I. benefits, didn't you see it?

          All three of those ridiculous stories have duped serious people in the past few days. 

          Washington Post columnist Suzi Parker read this Palin "quote" in an article from The Daily Currant and ran with it like a cat with a mouse:

"As you all know, I’m not a big fan of newspapers, journalists, news anchors and the liberal media in general,” Palin told the Web site The Daily Currant. “But I met with the folks at Al-Jazeera and they told me they reach millions of devoutly religious people who don’t watch CBS or CNN. That tells me they don’t have a liberal bias.”

            Parker was later informed that the article was satirical, and wrote a correction to her original story.

            As good as that one was, it wasn't even the best story cooked up by The Daily Currant last week.  Time Magazine's writer/editor Bobby Ghosh read a story on that site saying that Palin had been invited to teach four courses over the next three years at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and sent out the following Twitter link:

              And my personal favorite "oopsie" comes from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who was tipped off by a constituent that prisoners at Guantanamo were being paid G.I. benefits.  Outraged by such a scenario, ol' Turtle Face did what any Senate Minority Leader would do,  he fired off a letter to Elizabeth King, the Pentagon's Congressional Liaison:

 “I am writing on behalf of a constituent who has contacted me regarding Guantanamo Bay prisoners receiving Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits,” McConnell wrote in a letter acquired by Danger Room. “I would appreciate your review and response to my constituent’s concerns.”

             Turns out the original story provided by McConnell's concerned constituent was from The Duffle Blog, a satirical organization specializing in fake military news.

             I'm considering the possibility of writing one fake blog piece per week, just to see if I can get a rise out of a serious person somewhere down the line.

             "Joe Scarborough tells Conservatives to Ignore Rush Limbaugh" might be a good one.  Wait... That's a real story.  He really did suggest that conservatives move away from news sources like Faux News and El Rushbo, saying:

"Just for conservatives that think they have to stay in their own little media world, since Rush Limbaugh went on the air and became a national figure, Republicans have lost five out of the last six presidential elections in the popular vote," he said. "Since Fox News went on the air in 1996, Republicans have lost four out of the five last —"

             Oh well.  Give me a few hours and I'll come up with something really wicked!

              You'll read about it soon...

            

DID YOU WATCH "HUBRIS: SELLING THE IRAQ WAR" ON MSNBC LAST NIGHT? (if you did, you're probably as pissed as I am this morning....)

 

 

         I knew better than to set aside an hour of a perfectly fine evening to watch a one hour recap of the lies and disinformation used by the Bush/Cheney administration to trick the American people, our Congress, and the rest of the world into the invasion of Iraq.  But I watched it anyway.  And this morning I'm having a hard time understanding why none of the people involved in that criminal enterprise have been brought to justice.

          I guess it's the same reason none of the Wall Street bankers have been tried for their crimes.  Powerful people can do terrible things, commit verifiable crimes, and yet never face the criminal system for their deeds. 

          But watching the televised special report based upon the book by Michael Isakoff and David Corn reminded me of the timeline of events that led to the worst foreign policy blunder in American history, and I'm having a tough time letting it go this morning.

          I've written these words before on this blog, and don't mind writing them again:  Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Powell, Tenet, Wolfowitz, and about five other assholes deserve their day in court before a war crimes tribunal at The Hague.  Anything less than a forced public defense of their actions leading up to the invasion and occupation of Iraq is a miscarriage of international justice.

          And every parent, brother, sister, or child who lost a loved one in that criminal endeavour should be a million times more determined to see justice done than I am. 

          Where's the goddamn outrage?

 

 

           Instead of holding up cabinet appointments, perhaps Lindsey Graham and John McCain could demand a special investigator to comb through the evidence uncovered in last night's documentary.  Maybe, instead of bitching non-stop about a riot that left four Americans, including an Ambassador, dead in Benghazi, they could explain their actions prior to and during the Iraq debacle. 

            Maybe a few minutes of precious Congressional hearings could be spent going over the details of how Congress and the American people were manipulated into supporting a war based upon cherry-picked intel known to be false at the time of its presentation to Congress and The United Nations.

            No... that would be a waste of time.  Why bother sorting through the bullshit?  Only 4,000 Americans and 100,000 Iraqis died.  Only about 15 million Iraqis were displaced.  All it did was shift the delicate balance of power in that region toward Iran... so that people like John McCain and Lindsey Graham can beat the drums of war in an effort to gin up ANOTHER goddamn invasion of choice.

            Fuck every one of those bastards, and anyone else who doesn't think these crimes against humanity are worth worrying about at this late date.

 

BROTHERS BLOW UP THEIR HOUSE CELEBRATING LOTTERY WIN (baby, baby light my bong...)

         I'm so surprised this happened in Kansas, and not in Tennessee or Alabama...

         According to the Wichita Eagle, two brothers who had just won $75,000 in a lottery drawing were celebrating at their house when one of them (the brains of the outfit) decided to go into the kitchen to refill butane torches with which to light their bongs.  After emptying a couple of large butane fluid containers, the fumes apparently found their way to the gas stove's pilot light and caused an explosion.

          The girlfriend of one of the guys loaded a few stray kids into a car and dropped off a badly burned idiot at a local hospital before fleeing the scene.  Police then went to the injured guy's house and arrested his brother, who admitted having pot and methamphetamine in his possession.

 

 

           I'm wondering if $75K is going to be enough to get Mr. Science out of the burn ward at the hospital.  Probably ought to set aside some of those winnings for a few more lottery tickets.

OHIO STATE FAN'S BUCKEYE STICKER GETS HER PULLED OVER BY COPS IN TENNESSEE WHO MISTAKE IT FOR POT SYMBOL ( 'cause drug dealers always put bumper stickers on their mule vehicles, you see...)

       It's bad enough we have the worst state legislature in America.  It's worse that our schools have some of the worst academic success rates in the country.  But when the police serving and protecting within our borders seem to have a dangerous combination of bad politics and stupidity, things can get ugly, in an embarrassing way.

       On February 4th, 65 year-old Bonnie Jonas-Bogglioni and her 66 year-old husband were driving through Tennessee after attending the funeral of Guido Bogglioni's mom in Ohio.  As they approached Memphis on I-40, their car was pulled over by a pair of unmarked black SUVs with flashing blue lights (common around here... by the way).  The police officer who approached Mrs. Bogglioni asked her what was the meaning of the pot sticker on her bumper.

       Now, before we go any further, let's stop and think about what we've already learned.  Two unmarked police vehicles stopped an out of state car occupied by two elderly folks, because it had (what they thought) was a marijuana sticker on its bumper.  If having a bumper sticker bearing an image of marijuana is illegal in Tennessee, that's a new one to a lot of us.  But what happened next is even more baffling.

 

 

        Mrs. Bogglioni explained that the sticker in question was actually an Ohio State Buckeye sticker, the same kind they award to and place on OSU football players helmets for great plays.  Mr. Bogglioni even got out of the car to show the officers his 2002 National Championship sweatshirt, complete with the same logo design.  It turns out that Bonnie Bogglioni, who lives in Plano, Texas, is a former president of the OSU Alumni Club in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.  They're football fans.  They're not drug runners.  And if they were drug runners they probably wouldn't advertise their bidness on the back bumper of their van.

        The cops were apparently unimpressed with the explanation and told the Bogglioni's to "lose the sticker" before they released them to continue on their journey.

         "It's just amazing they would be that dumb." Mrs. Bogglioni was quoted as having said about the police officers.

          Yep... it's amazing.  But if you pay attention to what happens in Tennessee, nothing this stupid will ever surprise you.

       

        

"NO AFRICAN-AMERICAN NURSES TO CARE FOR BABY, PER DAD'S REQUEST" RESULTS IN LAWSUIT (Flint hospital reassigned black nurse to placate racist baby daddy...)

          A black nurse working at Hurley Medical Center in Flint, Michigan was reassigned to another ward after a man bearing a swastika tattoo demanded the hospital prevent African-American nurses from caring for his newborn child.  Tanya Battle, a nurse with 25 years of service at the hospital, found a note on the baby's chart reading "No African-American nurses to care for baby per dad's request" when she reported for work the following shift. 

          The hospital's lawyer objected to the request, the note was removed from the baby's chart, but according to a lawsuit filed by Battle's attorney, no black nurses were ever assigned to care for the child during the month it was in the hospital's neo-natal intensive care.

          At what point does common decency compel a hospital administrator to tell a patient or that patient's guardian that their request will not be honored? Why not just tell the asshole he can take his child to another, more bigot-friendly facility if he doesn't like the way they operate?  I would have given this sumbitch about ten seconds to decide if he wanted the child cared for at my hospital, or not.  He could pack his shit, arrange for an ambulance to move his baby, and hit the road Jack, or he could shut the fuck up and agree to have his child treated like every other child in the building.

           Catering to shitheads like this bastard is one of the reasons we're still dealing with this pre-Civil War mentality in America today. 

           I hope Tonya Battle takes enough out of that hospital's liability fund to make them reassess future requests like this one.

 

WNEM TV 5

RESTORED VERSION OF "BAMBI MEETS GODZILLA"... ('cause some things are worth digitizin')

          The first time I saw this was at a party, nearly shitfaced, when someone popped in a VHS tape and turned it on for the crowd.  Needless to say, the ending caught me by surprise.  Pleasantly...

          The film's been restored, and I'm happy to share the cleaned up version with both of my loyal readers.

"Well, I'll be a son of a bitch! Delmar's just been saved!" ( command performance required for the niece's babtism in the morning...)

         Mrs. Squatlo and I received an email invitation a day or two ago to attend a religious ceremony here in town.  You don't have to be a regular reader of this blasphemous screed to know that yours truly has some problems with organized religion.  Or disorganized religion, for that matter.  I consider the entire concept of organized idolatry to be an elaborate hoax, a continuous celebration of superstition and myth that afflicts the vast majority of Americans.

          But I digress...

          We've been asked to attend the baptism of Cindy's niece, and neither one of us could come up with a fast enough excuse to avoid the commitment, so tomorrow morning we're going to skip our normal routine of Bloody Marys and the Sunday crossword puzzle to drive across town for church.  I could probably have gotten away with a personal abstention, claiming prior scheduling conflicts or some other bogus alibi for lounging around the house, but the little shit asked me herself to attend.  How do you look a seven year old in the eye and say, "No, I don't believe in god or these ridiculous religious ceremonies."???

           But while I've been pondering the thought of dress shoes for tomorrow's ordeal, I began to wonder if my own kids had ever been baptized.  I was pretty sure I hadn't had anything to do with such a thing, but I can't claim to know what all might have happened after my EX and I divorced twenty-three years ago...

           So I called my son and asked him if he'd been baptized.  He said he hadn't, but that he HAD jumped into Percy Priest Lake a time or two, and wanted to know if that counted for anything.  I told him a dunk in a lake with "priest" in the name was probably as good as any other moistening for the absolution of one's sins, and let him get on with his Saturday debauchery.

           When I called and asked my daughter the same question she wanted to know why I was even confused about such a ridiculous thing.   I had hoped to just get a simple yes or no answer, but it's hard to avoid the inevitable follow-up questions when you ask something like that.  My daughter reminded me that she would have been about fifteen years old when her mom remarried into a slightly more religious lifestyle, and that if anyone had insisted she submit to a religious ceremony of any kind I certainly would have heard about it.

           Looking back, I understand why she would say that.  When my daughter was fifteen she more closely resembled Linda Blair's character in The Exorcist than Meg Tilly's character in Agnes of God.  I would have heard about it.  Hell, the entire town would have heard about it.

 

           Anyway, we're getting up for church tomorrow.  I can hardly wait.

 

BILL MAHER THINKS THE CATHOLIC CHURCH NEEDS A FEMALE POPE (after all, Catholics, if the Pope can quit, so can you!)

               This is just brilliant....

ELIZABETH WARREN GRILLS BANKING REGULATORS IN VERY FIRST OVERSIGHT HEARING (and now you know why the Big Banks are terrified of this little woman)

         I've tried a couple of times to embed the vid clip of Sen. Elizabeth Warren asking banking regulators about their history of taking Big Banks to trial (they haven't, if you're curious, too) and for whatever reason the clip won't post on Blobber (and I'd give a tooth to have the old Blogger format back!)

         But here's a still shot that sums up her questioning:

 

UNITED NATIONS GROUP WORKING TO PREVENT ASTEROID STRIKES ON EARTH (but they better not bring their Socialist asses to Tennessee, by god...)

           The dinosaurs were wiped out by an asteroid or meteor striking the Earth millions of years ago, and scientists are concerned that a similar catastrophic impact could occur in the future.  In fact, a United Nations working group has been studying options to predict and prevent such an event for the past twelve years.  Their work has been highlighted by this week's near-miss as an asteroid "half the size of a football field" will pass within 17 thousand miles of Earth.  This article didn't state whether that "football field" was an American football field or a European soccer field, but I don't think it matters all that much since it didn't hit us.

           What matters is that a group of former astronauts submitted a report to the U. N. working group back in 2008 with suggestions for avoiding another extinction event on Earth, and the U.N. is going forward with plans to keep us safe.

            But while the rest of the civilized world might be happy to hear that the United Nations is concerned enough about our safety to keep an eye on things, at least one or two elected representatives in Tennessee's General Assembly are making sure no one from the U.N. shows up in the Volunteer State with their Socialist bullshit ideas about asteroids, meteors, or any damn thing else, for that matter.

            A couple of years ago a rumor started spreading among the tinfoil hat crowd that the U.N. intended to come to various (red) states to monitor elections.  Actually, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe was the group offering to send official observers to monitor our elections, not the United Nations.  But why let a few pesky ol' facts ruin a perfectly good conspiracy theory, right?

           Anyway, one of the teabagger types up in Washington County started making speeches vowing to keep the U.N. out of Tennessee if only the good people of his district would send him to Nashville as their state representative.  And if you want to get elected around here, a great way to make some noise is to bash the United Nations, or its twenty year old recommendations for sustainable resources called "Agenda 21."

 

            So the folks in upper east Tennessee sent James "Micah" Van Huss to the House of Reprehensibles, and this week he followed through on his pledge to keep Tennessee U.N.-free by submitting HB 588 for consideration.

             Here's a snippet of the proposed law:

“Any representative of the United Nations who enters the state loses all official status and shall not operate in the state in any official capacity.” H.B. 589, meanwhile, puts forward that “Representatives of the United Nations shall not observe elections in the state” and that “violation of this section is a Class C misdemeanor.”

            In other words, as soon as the United Nations rep crosses our border we pull their official status, and if they start snooping around our voting precincts we might just lock their asses up.

            We're so proud, I tell ya...

 

"CAN I FINISH?" SUMS UP TELEVISED POLITICAL DISCOURSE IN TODAY'S MEDIA (hilariously, at that!)

      I found this Comedy Central clip on Mediaite.  It's from the Nick Kroll sketch show on that network, and pretty much mimics the frustrating chaos that occurs when cable news shows insist upon keeping the discussion lively, instead of letting anyone finish a thought.

       This is more realistic than many of us are comfortable watching:

 

CONSERVATIVE ORG FREEDOMWORKS PRODUCED VIDEO WHICH INCLUDED FEMALE INTERNS SIMULATING SEX WHILE DRESSED AS HILLARY CLINTON AND A GIANT PANDA? WTF???

           Okay, first of all, I don't really care what conservatives and their organizations do with their money as long as it doesn't encourage ordinary people to piss on the environment or support politicians who are wholly owned servants of billionaire merchants of evil.  They can gather together to read passages from Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" for all I care... and they probably do.  Until a few minutes ago I thought that was about the extent of Republicans' interest in pornography, except to insist that it be banned.

          But I was wrong, big time.  Certain Republicans ARE interested in pornography, and some of the more influential of them have just been called out for spending their organization's money to produce a video which included a brief scene in which a female intern dressed as a giant panda simulated oral sex on another intern wearing a Hillary Clinton mask.

 

 

           Believe it or not, this video was originally meant to be shown at the FreePAC conference in Dallas on July 26th of last year, to thousands of grassroots and religious fundamentalist conservatives.  Someone familiar with the content of the promotional video managed to convince those in charge to scrap plans to air the video at that conference, or we would (no doubt!) have heard about this months ago.

            You might expect something this bizarre (and can you think of a more appropriate word for it?) to have been dreamed up by some misguided underling at FreedomWorks, perhaps another intern with a limited budget and time on his hands.  Maybe a rational person could find a way to explain this as some sort of sick joke, never meant to be made public.  But no... this film was produced under the direct supervision of Executive Vice President Adam Brandon of FreedomWorks, and it was meant to be shown at an arena filled with fundie conservatives from across the country.

             Someone planned this scene, purchased costumes, paid interns to act out a simulated oral sex scene, and filmed the show with the intent to display it at a conference of sexually repressed Jesus Freaks in Texas.

            To help promote Tea Party conservative Republican values.

            You can't make this shit up, no one would ever believe it.

            No word on when we'll get to see a bootlegged copy of the video, but you know there's one out there and sooner or later someone will find a way to get it online.

            Needless to say, lawyers for the organization are now intensely investigating this matter, and you can expect folks who are regularly stricken with the "highly offended" virus to fall ill once again.

            It sort of reminds me of the brief scene in Kubrick's The Shining when Jack Nicholson's character is walking though the Overlook Hotel and finding hallucinations around every corner.

            I truly believe this is a worthy use of conservatives' cash.  Much better than funding the campaigns of people like Rand Paul or Paul Ryan.  It's far better for costumed pandas to get screwed than it would be for the entire country.