Unrelated, but also Unbelievable

First off > "Poverty" rates fell this year. I use quotes because our government defines the poverty line as $20,444 for a family of four with two children. No misprint, folks. Frito, Jason, Johnny, imagine living off of $20K a year?!? So even with these insane standards, only 12.3% of our citizens live below that line. So only one out of every eight citizens of the richest nation in the world make an average of $9.83/hour, $4.91/hour if both parents are working. [figures assume a 40 hour work week]

The real kicker in the study? The number of un-insured Americans jumped from 15.3% to 15.8%. Not huge, but it represents about 2,000,000 additional citizens without health coverage. We're moving in the wrong direction.

Second > The U.S. is the most armed country in the world. Anyone shocked? Everyone feel nice and safe? Still lock your doors at night?!? Some fun facts:

• U.S. citizens own 270 million of the world's 875 million known firearms


• About 4.5 million of the 8 million new guns manufactured worldwide each year are purchased in the United States


• The United States has 90 guns for every 100 citizens


• Yemen had the second most heavily armed citizenry behind the United States, with 61 guns per 100 people

WOW! I wonder why we have violence issues in this country....Someone write me and say its our Constitutional right, I dare you!

I may be guilty, but please, PLEASE....

Don't call me GAY! Aren't 'Republican' and 'Homosexual' synonyms now? At any rate, here's what the 'news' is reporting about the incident, and here's the police report. I have absolutely no issue with gay people, and find it hilarious that the same bloc attempting to restrict the right of gays is the same party with so many closet homos. Let's break this down for a moment. I can almost accept the 'I'd-rather-just-plead-guilty-and-get-this-over-with' defense. Almost. But if I'm a (Republican) US Senator, I sure wouldn't just enter a plea and hope it goes away.

Speaking of GAY (super!), Ted Haggard is back in the news. You can read about it here. Long story short, he's here (Arizona), he's straight (queer), get used to it (and please give him more money).

Diebold = Premier

WOW!!!

"...Diebold Election Systems has decided to steal a page from the playbook of that paragon of corporate responsibility Philip Morris (aka the Altria Group): Diebold will erase its sorry history with a simple name change!
Henceforth, when reaching for an example of mind-boggling incompetence, please say "Premier" rather than "Diebold," because Diebold Election Systems is now Premier Election Systems.
The name change, the company says in a press release, "signals a new beginning" and a "fresh identity" -- though in the same release the firm concedes that it will still be making and pushing the same sorry voting machines (machines that, as Princeton computer scientist Edward Felten and his colleagues showed last year, are actually vulnerable to a virus-based attack)."

Unreal. Keep this in mind, folks! It's right in our own back yard! (Fun Fact: I worked there as a contractor for a few months!)

Creation Musuem, One Lie After Another

I have avoided this topic since I first found about it, before it even opened its doors. The Creation Museum is a testament to how far this country has moved backwards. Any possible questions science hopes to answer, the religious right shows up to keep people stupid and handing them money. Sure, this piece of crap cost $27,000,000 to build, but at a rate of $19.95 per adult, and with 160,000 retards already attending, they'll have their money made in a couple of years. Then it pure profit, as generation after generation visit to continue the lies.

Think I'm being too harsh? Let's take a look, shall we? How about the dinosaurs. Did you know, for instance, that they were indeed aboard Noah's Arc, that they were on Earth only a few thousand years ago, and that they might possibly still be alive? Yes, all of these FREAKING OUTRAGEOUS LIES are passed of as 100% truths by these monsters. Did you know that the Earth is still consider the center of the universe? That incest wasn't that bad back in the day? That the pyramids in Egypt are only a few thousand years old? Or that we now know the year the Earth was created....4004BC?!?

There are many, many hours of reading the lies perpetrated by these horrid humans. I find that if I start, my blood pressure rises quite rapidly, and I cannot continue. But it seems I'm not the only one angered by these morons...

• Several neighbors are upset with the increase in traffic, and worried about how all the people/pollution/litter will affect their once green valley. Although these freaks will probably tell you, "We cannot destroy or help the Earth, only god can."
  
• Legitimate scientists/researching are starting to speak out at the lies. Its one thing if these distortions are passed off as a belief. But to pass them off for absolute fact is destructive.
  
• "The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, a world-wide scientific and educational organization concerned with vertebrate paleontology, contends that the museum presents visitors with a view of earth history that has been scientifically disproven for over a century." Enough said.
• "The Brisbane-based Creation Ministries International has filed a lawsuit in Queensland's Supreme Court against Mr Ham and his Kentucky-based Answers in Genesis ministry seeking damages and accusing him of deceptive conduct in his dealings with the Australian organisation." That's right, the guy responsible for spreading these lies is being sued for deceptive conduct...See you in Hell, buddy!
  

Want a peek inside this monument to money, greed, control, and lies? Here's one man's journey (NSFW). Like another opinion? Here you go. And in case you missed it, the guy who played Adam in an original movie at the museum was forced to leave, because of his past work. Oops! Can't discuss sex at the creation museum! unless it involves incest, of course....

As I started with, I was aware of this crap-hole before they opened on Memorial Day, 2007. However, I resisted the temptation to write about it, because I didn't want to offend those close to me who are religious. So why did I change my mind? Because this weekend, my own parents are giving away their money to these evil overlords. While it saddens me, it sadly does not surprise me at all. There is a lot of money to made off of stupid, susceptible people, and there are millions of those in America. The country I loved is gone, and its been replaced by a Nation State worse than Iran.

The real terrorists? The religious right. Let's rise up against them.

My Thoughts on Turd Blossom....

I'm not sure if any of you know this or not, but I absolutely dispise Karl Rove. He cost McCain a legitimate chance at the 2000 election with his push polling, but that was neither the beginning now the end of his evil. He starts his deseptive ways back when he was at university, and they continue t othis very day. I would have been very happy to see him leave the White House after it was revealed he commited TREASON and revelaed the name of a covert, undercover CIA Agent. But at this point? Completely useless. He probably wants to concentrate on stealing another presidential election next year.

So I say, good ridance, Turd Blossom. I hope you don't die a firey, painful death, seriously. Oh yeah, and thanks for destroying our country.

Real Quick....

Not only is he from Pittsburg (Kansas), but he listens to Rush everyday!

Censorship, Scientists, and GOP

I will start off with an admission....Although I loved Pearl Jam's Ten album, I've haven't really been thrilled with anything they've put out since. But they continue to record, tour, and make a living making music, so more power to them. I've always agreed with their stance against Ticketmaster, and with their politics in general. So I guess I shouldn't have been to surprised when I read this article. I'm sure is just "technical difficulties." A major US corporation would never engage in censorship, right? Riiiiiight....

Sticking with the topic of huge monopolies....er, corporations...This is just 'shocking.' Liberals will tell you how FoxNews is anything but [news], and conservatives will complain about how they've been listening to the liberal media their entire lives, so Fox is just a balance. And they'll both tell you how the Internets [series of tubes, not a dump truck] are full of lies and misleading info (Drudge). The truth is, living in our society, with information so readily available, you have two obligations to yourself. 1) Be careful. There's a plethora of bad info out there, and very little useful info, usually hidden. And 2) Be all-inclusive. Check out both sides of the aisle. I hate Rush Limbaugh, and think 85% of what comes out of his mouth is a lie. But I check out his site once a week, to see what/who he lying about. "Know your enemy." And to that point, read this article. It's pretty short, and I can't tell if I agree with this guy or not. Either way, 'shocking!'

On to the scientists...I am a firm believer that the Earth has entered a period of warming. 99.999% of all scientist would agree with that statement. The question becomes, is it man's fault? In my opinion, to say man has zero influence on the environment is foolish and laughable. I'm not pro-pollution. At the same time, to think that we're all going to stop driving gas guzzlers is also unrealistic. Balance is the key, and it's also not in the cards, at least with the NeoCons in charge. But I think the scientists do themselves a disservice when they release statements like this. We all remember Katrina, no doubt. And I'm sure we all remember the promise of 'even more hurricanes in 2006 than in 2005.' How did that work out? Let's not give fools like Rush, Hannity, and Coulter any more ammunition! Americans are generally pretty stupid, and when you can easily prove something wrong, they will tend to dismiss it, if told to do so by other people. Have Rush spread propaganda saying there is no Global Warming, and people believe it. Does it matter that its false and Rush is no more a scientist than a drug free American? NO!

Lastly, does this article seem ironic to anyone? The GOP is basically saying, "Hey brown people! We'll ignore your problems! We'll do everything in our power to keep you out of our country! We don't like you! But please vote for us!"

A Suggestion from Bob "The Hell"

Bobby B. writes...

"You need to write something on the blog about how suburban sprawl/construction somehow turns the entire Cleveland metro area into a river every time it rains nowadays."

Bob, of course, is referring to stories like this. And to his point, at the same time I-480 was being closed due to flooding, my wife and I were driving down to Uniontown for a doctor's appointment. And the freeways down that way were fine. Very wet, but not flooded. And don't think it wasn't raining as hard. We had several waves of torrential rain. So were does it end?

I'm hiring an Existential Detective to investigate my coincidences, because we just watched I ♥ Huckabees last night, and one of the many themes is urban sprawl. Somehow methinks Cleveland is not alone in this situation....Thoughts, everyone?

[By the way, when looking up the flooding story, I saw this on the front page of The Plain Dealer. Alright, cleveland.com, but what's the difference, except for price? Anyway, sorry local coke-heads!]

I almost forgot.....

I almost forgot to mention this story. So either we're selling $20,000,000,000 worth of high-tech weapons to Saudi Arbia, or we're "losing" weapons to insurgents in Iraq. Doesn't this remind anyone else of something that came to light 20 years ago? I suppose we're doomed to fail....How long did it take Rome to fall?

Bizarro World?

OK....Being upset with Democrats for being spineless isn't that much of a shock me...Although I honestly didn't think they would help the NeoCons rape us of our civil liberties....But when I read this next story, I nearly soiled myself. It hurts every ounce of my soul to even type the following words...I....AGREE with....NEWT Gingrich! One of the biggest hypocrites in modern politics...Someone who was out promoting a trilogy he wrote about what life would be like had the South won the civil War. Yes, basically a piece of human excrement. And I agree with him. What is wrong with me? Or are we just in some sort of Bizarro World?!?