Sober Panda Time

Attention America: There's an election in 2012, and you have to make a choice.

I've taken to referring to President Obama as "sober panda time" (for an explanation see: Anagram Fun ), but the reality is he's still our best choice. Not great, but, I mean, consider the alternatives:

Mitt RoMoney...he reminds me of Kryten from Red Dwarf, but he's a simple rich corporate bastard who will promote the corporate interests and pander to a theocracy. And go to war with Iran for no good reason.

Newt "the newt" Gingrich...a thieving hypocritical bastard who will promote the corporate interests and pander to the theocracy. And go to war with Iran for no good reason.

"Santorum" (yeah, go ahead and google it)...a straight ahead theocrat, with a side of pork barrel corporate interests. And would start a war with Iran for no good reason.

Ron Paul...will never win. A racist who would legalize pot, but ban abortion. Although, he probably wouldn't go to war with Iran.

And that's it. That's all that is on the menu. Your choice is between sober panda time, who's been decidedly mediocre, but is sane, or a bunch of loonies. I (as an extreme liberal) am not thrilled with sober panda time, but he's been reasonably competent. The alternatives are flat out insane. So this is my political position for the rest of the election cycle: Vote for Sober Panda Time! Re-elect Sober Panda Time! At least he's not insane, greedy, or likely to start a war with Iran.

The Forced Chastity Party

Hard to believe, but somehow there's a roaring political battle about insurance coverage of contraceptives. In 2012. The republicans are couching the debate in terms of religion, but their real goal is banning contraception coverage in ALL insurance plans for ALL women. Because, in their world, women shouldn't be having non-procreative sex.

This may come as a shock to the right wing prudes, but women enjoy sex (at least, in my experience), too. Human beings enjoy sex. Regardless of what your sky god tells you. And we're just not realistically going to limit our sex to making more human beings, regardless of someones religion. Buddy badtux the snarky penguin says it well in his header "Religious fundamentalists are motivated by the sneaking suspicion that someone, somewhere, is having fun -- and that this must be stopped."

See, it's one thing to debate abortion (though I'm sure you can guess where I stand): nobody "enjoys" an abortion. Abortion is "yucky" (in reality, all internal medicine is "yucky". The insides of a human being are not aesthetically pleasing). But now the anti-abortion people are taking their anti-sex crusade to the thing most likely to prevent abortion. Because they really are opposed to sex.

(It should be noted that these same fundies are also anti-homosexuality, which rarely leads to abortion.)

I just can't see how this is a 'winning' issue for them. Maybe it's because I'm an old 'free love' hippie from the sixties, but I just don't see the opposition to sex as popular. Most of us want our fucking contraceptives.

Advanced Weapons Systems

Oh, great...now the President has access to an extreme marshmallow cannon. Do we really want to trust this President with this kind of firepower?

(Actual story: Obama explained at the annual White House Science Fair his pledge to use the White House to honor achievers in science.)

More at: www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/president-obama-kicks-educate-innovate

And cue the next wingnut outrage line: "Obama is shooting marshmallows!", or something like that. Leave better lines in the comments, if you would, please.

Blogroll Amnesty Day

A tradition begun by skippy the bush kangaroo and the late, much missed, jon swift, blogroll amnesty day is a great time to link to blogs that deserve more attention. Or, in my case, to update a blogroll that hadn't been touched in quite a while. I deleted a few blogs that have gone 'dark' but left some who just haven't posted for a while. And I've added blogs that might interest you, because they interest me. The logic is something like: hey, if you're 'here', you might also like it 'there'. So here are some places you might want to check out:

Critter's Crap: Jerry Critter shares a lot of my political attitudes and sense of humor.

Disaffected and it Feels So Good: more politics, both liberal and cynical.

HISTORIES OF THINGS TO COME: Very cool reads, odd and historical.

Infidel753: Finds all kinds of news that you'd otherwise miss.

Jaybird's Jottings: He's a Giants fan. Also, Washington DC history.

of mule dung and ash: I can't believe I didn't have mulebreath on the blogroll before now! Oversight corrected.

Owl Farm Blog: Anita Thompson's blog. That should be enough reason to check it out.

Poison Your Mind: Wrong ideas that appeal to you.

PoliticusUSA: More politics.

the burned over district: Montag is another who should have been on the blogroll long ago.

Wonders & Marvels: Yes, they are.

Zen Comix: The source for the cartoon above, and a great cartoonist in general.

Backwaterlinks: Another good read.

And the rest of the blogroll are all really smart, cool people who you should check out. Also, if you have a blog you'd like to share, leave a link in the comments and I'll be happy to add it. No commercial sites, please (unless they're paying me a very large bribe).