Yeah, about that war

So, yesterday there was a local protest against the war in Afghanistan, which I attended with my friend. Along with about eight other people (although one of them may have only joined to bum smokes). Not sure if there actually was a "march", as my friend and I decided that entering a pub for a cool beverage was a better use of a Sunday.
Afghanistan is certainly no Vietnam, as the lack of a real "anti-war" movement proves, but we've been fighting this stupid thing for eleven years now. Has anybody noticed?
It's a sad commentary when even an old hippie like me finds himself drinking beer and watching football instead of protesting...but at least my beloved 49ers won big.
And, later, we had a really good pizza.

Debate!

                                                 (If watching the debates, you need this)
            So I get out of class early tonight, told to watch the debate. Um, "yay!", maybe? We are assigned to write a paper on "what is said about health care?" instead.
Yeah, that sounds tough.
            And, since I'm posting, my beloved Giants eliminated the hated Dodgers from the playoffs last night. That feels good.
            I'm about to watch this debate between Willard and Sober Panda Time...
More beer, please.

Election Math

One of the fun things about an election year (if you're as warped a political junkie as I am) is watching which creative numbers get use to predict the outcome. I may have an odd sense of humor, but I used it to find this at Bad Attitudes , by Jay Bookman at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution :

After all the speeches and campaign ads and debates, politics comes down to cold hard numbers. It always has; it always will.
In my model, as in most such models, we start with the basics: The number of women to whom the GOP candidate’s grandfather was married at any one time, which in this case would be (4). You multiply that by the number of extramarital affairs conducted over a lifetime by the spouse of the current secretary of state (237). (CAUTION: This number could shift at any moment.)
You then add the number of emails sent in the past four years depicting the Democratic nominee with a bone through his nose, which would be 457,283. You divide that by the total number of beers and cigarettes tried by the GOP nominee in his lifetime (2), divided again by the total number of beers and cigarettes consumed by the Democrat (58,399).
You multiply that by the square root of the number of hair follicles transplanted into the Democratic VP (√6,798=83.53) divided by the best marathon time fraudulently claimed by the Republican VP nominee (2.55).
Subtract the percentage of Americans gratuitously insulted by the GOP nominee (47), add the number of times in a best-two-out-of-three match that the First Lady would beat you arm-wrestling (3), and then also add the number of dog-lover votes — in units of tens of thousands — lost by the Republican for transporting an aptly named Irish setter (Seamus) on the station-wagon roof (236.5).
Finally, you add the number of percentage points that all polls but Rasmussen are skewed in favor of Democrats (10). Voila!

You now have the mortal-lock number of electoral college votes that the Democratic nominee will win in any given year.

– Jay Bookman
heres-the-math

Now, the only factor he forgot to include in his calculation is: the number of mindless pundits with hair good enough to get them onto TV (623, but subject to change between now and the election) divided by the number of unstable leaders in the Middle East and North Africa (17, but variable), and add that number for the total electoral votes of whomever the eventual winner is. Simple, isn't it?
(If you understood and enjoyed this post...well...I guess that's why you're reading this blog. Get help.)

Willard's Latest Stupid Idea

When I first read this, I thought it was some kind of satire. I really didn't believe that Willard could really be stupid enough to actually suggest this (in the wake of his wife being on a flight on Friday that had a minor cabin fire):

When you have a fire in an aircraft, there’s no place to go, exactly, there’s no — and you can’t find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don’t open. I don’t know why they don’t do that. It’s a real problem. So it’s very dangerous. And she was choking and rubbing her eyes. Fortunately, there was enough oxygen for the pilot and copilot to make a safe landing in Denver. But she’s safe and sound.

That's right, he really said that you should be able to open the windows on a commercial airplane. Which would allow you to breathe for, oh, maybe three seconds before explosive decompression sucked you and fellow passengers out of the plane.
Well, physics is just another science with a liberal bias, so Willard is against it. Just what we need running the country.

American Patriot

Couldn't help but notice another great moment in hypocrisy...this week, senate rethuglicans blocked the Veterans Jobs Act, a bill to help those who served gain decent employment. One of the "NO" votes was cast by former POW, St. Sleazy, John McCain. Seems like it was only four years ago that he was campaigning loudly about "support our troops" pro-war heroism. I guess St. Sleazy believes patriotic words should count for more than actual deeds.

"Not Elegantly Stated"

Yeah, Willard, you should have found a more 'elegant' phrase to explain that poor people are losers, unworthy of your attention. Really, the peasants must be made to understand that their role is to serve their betters without question. And Willard would really prefer if the elderly and disabled would have the decency to crawl off and die quietly so he can continue to avoid hearing about them. If they can't be decent servants,who needs them? Willard bravely stands for "Government of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich", and if you're not one of the rich, well, that's your own damned fault.
Speaking of people who Willard can't be bothered with, Palestinians. Willard plans to kick their can down the road, and hope for some decent outcome in the future. Preferably one where they can either be used for slave factory labor in an outsourced manufacturing plant, or quietly dead so as to stop inconveniencing the Israelis.
Well, for possibly the first time in his campaign for Oligarch, Willard said something that was actually true: "not elegantly stated" is an honest motto for his platform.

I'll Propose A Deal

I would be willing to accept a ban on gay couples getting married if we can also ban ignorant people, stupid racist people, and anybody else "we" don't like from getting married.
Otherwise, equal rights for all.
(I guess that even means including republicans getting married. Uh...yuck.)

Um, Willard, Just Shut Up.

The Willard Rmoney unit should really avoid talking about anything relating to foreign policy. Given that absolutely nothing that he's said in response to the Libyan protest tragedy has any basis in facts, and that trying to use the death of an American ambassador for political gain is horribly inappropriate, he really should Just Shut Up(!) if he hopes to buy the presidency.
All Willard actually knows about foreign policy is which countries are cheapest to move American jobs to, and where to find the best offshore tax havens for your millions of dollars. He might have some idea which countries he'd like to start a war with (not ones where he keeps his money), but anything more complex is beyond his comprehension.
It scares me to think that there are people who will vote for him. Years ago, I thought I'd never see a president who was worse than Nixon. Shrub came along and proved me wrong. Now we have Willard, who actually looks worse (and even dumber) than Shrub. Words fail....
Added: Romney's Incendiary Response to US Embassy Deaths in Libya Proves Him Incapable of Being Commander in Chief

Why is he even bothering?

Judging by the convention speeches, I'm really starting to wonder why Willard is even bothering to run for president. I mean, when you're that filthy rich, why degrade yourself in public for a position where you'll have less power and freedom than you currently have and take a major pay cut? If he really wants the attention of a nation full of fawning acolytes (which I think he does), he could just go out and buy a country. There are quite a few nations that would be within his price range, and many of them have very nice climates where the population has never known of a "minimum wage". Some of them even speak English.
Trust me, Willard, if you actually do end up buying the presidency you're going to end up with a serious case of 'buyer's remorse'. You're not going to be able to turn this country into a gated country club, and the American peasantry will never really "learn their place".

I'm a Sad Case

"Uh, Hi! My name is Pygalgia, and I'm an addict"
I'm a sad case. It's time to admit it: I'm a political junkie. I'd been trying to stay off of the stuff, but tonight I got home from school (evening classes this semester), and I turned on NPR. Live from the looney bin (R) convention. And, well, I ended up listening to it. Which is not a healthy thing to do. It's one thing to browse political blogs on occasion, but to actually sit and mainline Mrs. Williard and Chris Chrustie, the governor of high fructose corn syrup, in one sitting...sad.
Kids, I really hope you'll stay away from politics. It's a terrible habit, and once you're hooked, it just might ruin your mind.
(since most of my readers aren't exactly "kids", and likely are already heavily abusing politics, you'll understand the advice was purely satirical.)

This Election has Become Surreal

I'm beginning to wonder if someone is putting powerful hallucinogens in the water of this country. It's seems like each day brings campaign news that sounds like something only Lewis Carrol would create. We have rethuglicans saying that they're the ones who will "defend Medicare" from Sober Panda Time, that "mean, angry man running a campaign of hate", who's somehow stealing from Medicare by saving it money over the next decade. See, it's really, really mean of Obama to point out when Willard Rmoney is lying (which is "always"), and also he's an evil Muslim who eats pork chops and brews beer in the White House.
Now Willard and Ayn Rand that spooky Catholic creep are also campaigning against women and sex. Really, they are. Beyond the Todd Akin "gaffe" of actually saying what most rethuglicans actually think, one need only look at their party platform. Full civil rights for all Zygotes, period. No abortion (or many forms of birth control), regardless of the circumstances of conception, including rape.
"I believe and I think that the right approach is to accept this horribly created, in the sense of rape, but nevertheless, in a very broken way, a gift of human life, and accept what God is giving to you." said Rick Santorum (the guy who came in second in the GOP craziness derby). Also, Ryan has repeatedly vowed to put Planned Parenthood "out of business".
Maybe I hang out with a different kind of woman, but the women I know enjoy sex, and are against forced pregnancy. You know; "normal". So it boggles my mind that the mega-millionaire and the mini-millionaire might actually win while campaigning against sex and for forced pregnancy. I'm not surprised that a Mormon and a Catholic would support misogyny; just that they might actually succeed.
I don't think I like whatever this drug is.

A 'Politics and Beer' Post

Haven't posted much lately, I know, especially about politics. I just can't seem to get beyond sputtering "bwa-huh-wha?" at the absolutely surreal outrageous lies that are repeatedly spewed by Willard R-money. I mean, I've been a political junkie for decades, so I'm not surprised when a politician lies. But most of the lies are based on some slant of reality; there's usually some sort of factual connection within the lie. The Willard unit seems to have no connection to reality when he lies, and yet he still has a very good chance of being elected President. I find this extremely confounding.
So I'd rather post about something that makes more sense to me: beer! Did you know that Sober Panda Time  stocks his campaign bus  with his own homebrew? It's true:

In perhaps the most startling revelation so far in Obama’s three-day bus tour across Iowa, it was revealed this morning that the White House brews its own beer, and that the presidential bus is stocked with bottles of that beer.
blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2012/08/14/revealed-the-president-brews-his-own-beer-and-brings-it-with-him-on-the-road/

So there's your choice, voters: the incumbent is a homebrewer, the challenger is a Mormon. Who would you (this is the most foolish political question to ever become a 'meme', but I'll ask it anyway) rather have a beer with?
(p.s. A brief personal note for those who care: I'm fine, on break from school. Solid 4.0 last semester, and next semester starts in two weeks. The ongoing life in poverty is getting to be a drag, so I really hope this education pays off in the end.)

No Surprise, Really

Looks like America is about to get shut out on medals in whitewater at the Olympics once again. No surprise, as the IOC drug testing regime keeps all our best whitewater kayakers out by testing for THC which it calls a 'performance enhancing drug'. Which I suppose it is for whitewater. Certainly, all the best boaters I've known would have a hard time passing clean urine.

Happy Ramadan

(photo by George Breed)
Well, Happy Ramadan if you're Sunni. If you're Shia, you have to wait until tomorrow. If you're Michelle Bachman, you're full blown batshit psychotic either day.

Republicans being Republicans

I really shouldn't be surprised when the party of greedheads behave like the greedhead bastards that they really are, but I did sort of think that they'd be a little more subtle about it during the election season. Yet, the senate republicans actually came right out and filibustered the "Bring Jobs Home" act:

Washington (CNN) -- Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked the No.1 item on the president's congressional "to-do-list," refusing to allow a vote on a bill that would give tax breaks for companies that "insource" jobs to the U.S. from overseas while eliminating tax deductions for companies that move jobs abroad.

With job creation the top issue this campaign season, and outsourcing being blamed as a big contributor to the high unemployment rate, Democrats saw the bill as an election-year winner. Sponsored by Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Michigan, who is running for reelection, the bill made it to the top of the "to-do list" for Congress President Barack Obama unveiled earlier this year.

The Bring Jobs Home Act would provide a 20% tax break for the costs of moving jobs back to the United States and would rescind business expense deductions available to companies that are associated with the cost of moving operations overseas.

www.cnn.com/2012/07/19/politics/senate-bring-jobs-home-bill-blocked/index.html

It would be somewhat amusing to keep a scorecard of how many of these same republican senators campaign on the issue of "jobs", and blame Sober Panda Time for the weak employment numbers. In fact, I'm ready to give a (very small and worthless) prize for the first time McConnell or one of his cohorts says "Jobs, jobs, jobs" during a campaign speech. Because you know they will.

How Do I Get That Kind of Job?

OK, dear readers who keep stopping by, here's a long overdue political post.
If you're paying any attention to today's news, you've heard that Ol' Willard R-Money is catching a bit of flak over whether he stopped running Bain Capital (the bane of the working person) in 1999 or not. My favorite response to this comes from Booman at the Booman Tribune (one of the best on the blogroll), who notes this:

If, as Romney claims, he did no work for Bain Capital between February 1999 and 2003 then he received roughly $400,000 for work he didn't do.   The alternative is that he committed a felony, which even his defenders at FactCheck.org acknowledge. The $400,000 is significant because it was salary or compensation for work, and not interest payments or dividends or some other capital gain. But that doesn't mean that Romney didn't make a fortune on the roughly 6,000 jobs (at a minimum) his company destroyed in the four years in question. Let's be clear about this. Whether or not Mitt Romney was actually making day-to-day decisions for Bain Capital in the 1999-2003 time period, he was the CEO, chairman of the board, lone stockholder, and 100% owner of the firm. Even if he wasn't doing any work, he was being paid for work. Even if he didn't even look at the deals that cost at least 6,000 Americans their jobs, he profited from those transactions.
That's what makes it strange that he would use his absentee ownership as an excuse. If his partners had made bad deals and lost Bain Capital all its money, does anyone think Romney wouldn't have been upset?
Who gets paid nearly a half a million dollars to do nothing? 
www.boomantribune.com/story/2012/7/12/16519/4359

Yeah, that's the kind of job I need: one that pays me $400,000 for doing nothing. Sure would beat being a poor college student. It's for reasons like this that, despite all his flaws, I support Sober Panda Time in 2012.
(also, Happy 100th Birthday to Woody Guthrie on Saturday.)

Giant Wombats

Yeah, I haven't been able to put up many posts lately. So I hope you'll appreciate a prehistoric giant wombat as a token reminder that this blog still exists.

A mass grave of prehistoric “giant wombats” – a marsupial the size of a rhinoceros – has been discovered in Australia, according to reports.
The discovery of about 50 diprotodon skeletons was the biggest to date and could shed light on why the animal become extinct, BBC News reported.
Diprotodon, a relative of the modern wombat, was the largest marsupial that ever lived and had a pouch that was large enough to carry an adult human.

According to the Australian Museum, it was “widespread across Australia when the first indigenous people arrived, co-existing with them for thousands of years before becoming extinct about 25,000 years ago.” Fortunately for the people, diprotodon ate plants.
(a mass grave of three-ton wombats found)

To heck with cloning mammoths or dinosaurs. This world needs three ton giant wombats!
(Perhaps we could send several to this year's republican national convention, just for fun.)
Anyway, thanks for stopping by!

Not Dead Yet!

Since I haven't posted anything for about six weeks, here's a quick post to say:
"I'm not dead yet! I'm feeling better!"
Short story: I'm in school full time, and enjoying it. Minneapolis is way too humid when it gets hot. I don't have regular internet access, and I have a hard time thinking about posting while I'm in the library or the school computer lab. Hopefully, I'll have this all remedied soon and can share more drivel with you. Thanks again to those who dropped money on me. It has really helped.
And, above all else, remember this: Homemade pizza should always have at least four different toppings!

Supermoon! (and fresh blegging)

On Saturday (May 5) at 11:35 p.m. EDT, the moon will officially turn full. And only 25 minutes later the moon will also arrive at perigee, its closest approach to Earth — a distance of 221,802 miles (356,955 kilometers) away

.
So, tonight is a "supermoon", which, naturally, I wont see. Ever since I moved to Minnesota, anytime there's an interesting astronomy event the weather is guaranteed to be cloudy. Meteor shower? Total overcast. Eclipse? Worst (and the only big) storm of the winter. Tonight? Completely cloudy with rain all night. I'm beginning to think Minnesota doesn't allow sky watching. It's also Cinco de Mayo and Kentucky Derby day, so there's plenty to celebrate.
Blegging: I know that it was only a couple of months ago that I blegged at you (and I'm totally grateful to those who gave donations. I hope you all got my "thank you" emails), but it's a new month, and again I'm struggling to meet my bills.
On a positive note, after way too many months of beating my head against the wall of underemployment I have decided to change my direction. I'm going back to school! From talking to my advisor, I guess being a 53 year old college student is a new trend. I'm going to start with recertifying in some old skills that I haven't used in over thirty years, and then expand into an exciting new modern field (medical records technology networking, if you really want to know) where I can hopefully find a decent job!
Which is another reason why I'm blegging: before I can actually collect financial aid, I have to pay a variety of fees for admission, registration, and transcripts (having attended seven different colleges seemed like a fine idea at the time, but now I have to pay for seven different transcript requests) which aren't that big individually, but add up to a challenge while I'm having trouble keeping the lights on. Once I get through these next few hoops, I'll be fine for the future (although I'll get to have a wonderfully large amount of student loan debt, which is a new American trend) and hopefully engaging in a whole new future. I just need some help right now.
I know this is a tough economy, and times are tough for most everybody (damn, I forgot to have any friends in the top 1%!), but any help you can drop on the paypal button on the right will be greatly appreciated!

Odd, but very cool

I've been a lifelong fan of Bob Dylan, but I never thought of him as someone on whom a Presidential Medal of Freedom would be bestowed. Looks like 'Sober Panda Time' has pretty good taste, judging by his choices:

The White House announced a slate of 13 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Thursday — a list that includes folk singer Bob Dylan, former secretary of state Madeleine Albright, former Israeli president Shimon Peres, novelist Toni Morrison, and former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.

Other notable recipients include astronaut and former Sen. John Glenn, University of Tennessee coach Pat Summitt, Girl Scouts founder Juliette Gordon Low (posthumously), and Polish resistance figure Jan Karski (posthumously).

The Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, is presented to individuals "who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors."

"These extraordinary honorees come from different backgrounds and different walks of life, but each of them has made a lasting contribution to the life of our Nation. They’ve challenged us, they’ve inspired us, and they’ve made the world a better place. I look forward to recognizing them with this award," President Obama said in a
statement.

The ceremony will be in "late spring," according to the White House.

Dylan has had a 50 year long recording career, which is pretty remarkable all by itself, but I doubt that he ever expected this honor.
Added: While Dylan has done some movie bits over the years (I still enjoy his role in "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid"), today's music stars are only suited for playing aliens on screen.