The Health Care Bill and You

I won't mince words. I'm pro-health care. Furthermore, I'm pro-health care for everyone. I also have a strong socialist streak.

I'm sure that there are some folks out there who feel different than me, perhaps even for some legitimate and sane reasons, but I'm seeing lots of opposition to the health care bill for completely batshit insane stuff.

Let me get right to the point again: If you are getting your information about the health care bill from Glenn Beck and the folks at Fox news, then you may as well be consulting the neighborhood four year old about it. Here's a challenge for you, if you're a Fox news follower. Tell me three things that the health care bill will do. And if one of those is "Give viagra to sex offenders", then I really can't help you. Try this - look up the bill on the internet. Read about it - no, not on the fox news forum - go look it up on the rest of the internet.

I know that politics gets mighty polarized, and dems and repubs sit on opposite sides of the fence on some issues, but are you really going to let Glenn Beck convince you that "The Democrats" are trying to destroy the country? Are you that gullible?

I suppose the other side of that coin is that I'm flabbergasted by the Republican Congressional effort to stop the health care bill. A bill that is aimed at HELPING PEOPLE.

Who Writes These Things, Seriously....

If one wants to be careful in this day and age, and not get raped or robbed, or have a kidney stolen and be left lying in an icy bathtub with a note from European Organ Black Market thieves, one has to pay careful attention to their actions.

For instance, it  has come to my attention that I could be the target of gang violence by flashing my headlights at another car.  Additionally, gangs are coming up with more and more complicated schemes to trap people in their nefarious plans.  Most recently, by putting fliers on car windows, leaving life-like babies in carseats by the side of the road, or even using old women to plead for help.   Now, I don't know about you, but as soon as I see a flyer in my window, or a baby by the side of the road, I hit the gas!  I'm not falling for one of those tricks!  And if I see some old woman yelling for help, let me tell you - I'm going the other way!

So really, who writes this stuff?  These things don't just pop into existence.  They have an origin, someone sat down and came up with this, and typed it up and sent it out.   Some of it is simple urban legend.  The "flashing your high beams and getting shot" thing has been around since at least the early '90's.  Obviously, urban legends have been around for a long long time, but the newest sub genre, the "Gangs preying on stupid white people" is particularly annoying, and in my opinion, racist.

While it could be argued that some urban legends are just morality stories, these gang related ones just seem to heighten the old "white people are afraid of black people" thing, but more than that, they reinforce a negative racial stereotype.  These folks have never heard of Occam's Razor.  In these stories, gangs seem to have ties to nefarious mustache-twirling comic book villains.  They launch hugely complicated schemes to trap people, instead of the old method of simply hitting someone over the head when they're not looking.

 White people are apparently so afraid of black folks, or street gangs, that they're willing to believe almost anything.  It would be a fascinating social experiment to see how much people would be willing to swallow.  "Yes sir, gangs are posing as real estate agents, and selling homes to people, and then once the home has sold and the deal is closed, they use a copy of the key that they made to break in to the house to rob and rape everyone!"

So if you know the dude who's writing these things, let him know that there's a beautiful woman in the hotel lobby that wants to buy him a drink.  Don't mind her faint eastern European accent.

Health Care, analogized as Pizza

sane people: "Since we're hungry lets get some pizza."

the far right: "Oh, no way, I refuse to eat raw fish."

sane people: "There's no raw fish on pizza..."

the far right: "raw fish carries bacteria you know, and can easily kill people."

sane people: "But, there's no raw fish on pizza."

the far right: "If you get pizza, it will fundamentally change everything."

sane people: "pizza doesn't have raw.. wait, what?"

the far right: "Yeah, you ordering that raw fish pizza will fundamentally change this country."

sane people: "Well, there's no raw fish on the pizza, but-"

the far right: "Raw fish kills tons of people."

sane people: "- if you want to suggest something different..?"

the far right: "How about not raw fish pizza? it will destroy america."

sane people: "How will it destroy america?"

the far right: "You must want to kill people, that must be why you're ordering raw fish pizza."

sane people: "Look, I just saw that everyone was hungry and am trying to feed us."

the far right: "Communist."

Gaming related annoyances

Awhile back, I posted a question to the too-clever-for-their-own-good gang over at The Forge. Its the place you go to talk about indie games, or how to play games - and I mean 'how to play' them in the snooty Simpson's comic book guy voice.

I asked a simple question, and gave some context.

All of the answers completely ignored the question, and provided tons of feedback about my context.

Let me analogize: Let's say you post on a home repair website, "Hi, I'm replacing the garage door to my home, and I wonder if you would recommend brand A or brand B?"

And you receive some responses:
"Interesting project. Sounds like your home must be aging some. Have you checked to make sure that your roof is not leaking? A leaking roof can really kill your home, it causes all sorts of problems."

"When I'm replacing a garage door, one of the first things that I always do is mow the lawn. Why? Well because an unkempt lawn looks awful, and just drives me nuts!"

"Instead of replacing your garage door, have you considered tearing down your garage? You could convert it into a patio or a nice garden."

I even posted a followup, to point out that no one was really addressing my question, and that the context was just that - context. To which my replies were like this:

"Well, I don't understand why you are not concerned about your roof. Doesn't sound like wise planning to me!"

Gee, imagine that. Someone on the internet needs punching, AGAIN!


Second gripe:
Nit picking over pregenerated characters. I'm running a game with pregens. Thusfar I've had almost no problems, everyone is fine with playing what I've handed them. Except one dude, who wants to nit pick over it, and then when I'm less than willing to start changing stuff (or letting him play characters that are not available), he's not interested. Good riddance.

Left 4 Dead 2 Brouhaha

Chalk this up to me ranting into the void of the internet. I don't think any of you are big into Left 4 Dead.

So Valve announced Left 4 Dead 2, a sequel to their incredibly well selling team based zombie shooter, Left 4 Dead. How's that for a gob of descriptors?

The internet has its panties in a wad, apparently. Masses of unwashed and rebellious nerds are screaming angry that Valve would have the audacity to be working on a sequel, a mere year after the release of the first one.

This is my note to those screaming masses. Get over it. You're just pissed because you think its "too soon". Don't be a dumbass. You know you'll end up rushing out and buying the damn thing. (Because it will, in all likelihood, be awesome, which is kinda the entire point of Valve creating a sequel. Doing it again, just better.)

That is all.

Someone at Comcast needs to be punched in the face

We are trying to tighten our belt, making small sacrifices to reduce our unnecessary expenses every month.

We picked up HBO a couple years ago so that we could watch Sopranos, and Rome, and some other stuff. Last month, we decided to go ahead and nix our HBO subscription.

I put a call in to Comcast, and said "Hey, we'd like to cancel HBO." I was told that we'd been grandfather'd in during the transition from Time Warner to Comcast, and so the rates for some of our services were costing us less than they were currently priced at. Still, we eventually established that we could save about ten bucks a month by going ahead and getting rid of HBO. Done.

Or not.

This month's basic bill is almost ten dollars higher than it was previously. That's right. We dropped HBO to reduce the amount of money that we were sending to Comcast, and now our monthly bill is more. Looks like in the process of canceling HBO they moved us from Plan Somethingorother, to Plan Somethingelse. So sometime today I get to call in and try to explain this to someone who doesn't get paid enough in the first place. I have a sneaking suspicion that this is going to be like pulling teeth.

Message Skipped

I gotta share this.

We have a salesperson up in the northeast who has a blackberry cell phone, as well as an IP phone in his home office. The IP phone is connected back to our main company phone switch, and behaves pretty much as though it was any other normal phone at our company.

Note that he has voicemail both on his IP phone and on his cell phone. This is important later.

Because he travels a lot, we have setup the voicemail on his IP phone so that if he receives a message, it will call his cell phone. It goes something like this:
Joe leaves a message on Salesguy's IP phone.
Salesguy's cell phone rings.
Salesguy answers and hears "This is the phone system calling, if you are Salesguy, please press pound to continue."
Salesguy hits pound, the system asks for his password, and then he can listen to Joe's message.

Well, Salesguy told me some time ago that its not working right. He can't get the messages. On further investigation, he says that when he's prompted to hit #, he does so, and hears "Message skipped", and never gets the voicemail message.

Huh. Weird. So I got my hands on his phone and tested it myself. I called and left a voicemail on his IP phone. His cell phone rang, I heard the voicemail system, pressed # when directed, and it worked like a charm. No problem.

I chalked it up to user error.

Well, he tells me that he is STILL having the problem. So I make a note to get with him when he's down next and sort it out.

Today, I get this email:

"My cell phone said I have 7 messages. The first one didn't prompt me to press pound if I was the correct person and just played my voice mail. The other 6 messages all prompted me to press pound and when I did, it announced that message as having been skipped. The same was true for all six messages."

DING!

I got it.

In case that is still mysterious to you, let me analogize it. You pick up the phone and call your friend Dave. You get Dave on the phone and say "Hey man, do you want to run to the comic shop with me?" Dave says "yes", and you go pick him up, and off to the comic shop you both go.

Or.

You pick up the phone and call your friend Dave. You get Dave's answering machine, and you say "Hey, just wanted to see if you wanted to run to the comic shop with me." When Dave checks his answering machine later, he hears your message. To which, for some reason, Dave answers by saying into the phone "yes", which obviously you cannot hear, because Dave is talking to his answering machine.

.
.
.

So what was happening was that he was getting voicemail on his IP phone. The phone system was calling his cell phone, but when he didn't answer or was out of the service area, it ended up in his voicemail, where it recorded a message asking him to press #. Which he did. Which the cell phone voicemail did not understand.

I have a better plan

I'm no economist, but here's my plan for this economic crisis.

Lets let those big investment banks burn.
Edit - I had to fix my terribly flawed math.


Let's take that $700,000,000,000 in American Taxpayer dollars, and turn around and give each american $2,000. We'll still have some money left over!

I'm paying off some bills. How about you?

Y'know, I was thinking the same thing

So, blogging is slow going for me lately. I'll have some content again soon I'm sure.

Meanwhile, here's more fuel for my "The Media and Politics are mind numbingly stupid" thing.



(Image from Todd Alcott's livejournal)

So.... McCain is totally right. It is wrong for one nation to invade another. Wait - why does this sound somehow familiar?


(Image from Frostfirezoo)

This is dumb, but not altogether shocking. I'll call it "We Are Winning The Olympics!" spin.

I owe the lives of my children to Channel 5

Oh no! I better tune in! Otherwise I won't know how this is a threat to my family!

Thank you Channel 5!

Math and Phone Companies

I'm no math wiz. Still, this one was pretty easy for me.

In their defense, this appears to be a 100% technical problem. All of the people that I've spoken with have been super friendly and understanding.. and just as importantly, able to do math.



We sent in a check for $1,722.34.

D&D Geeks

In which I criticize my own.

When D&D nerds get together, they don't compare penis sizes. They discuss how long they've been playing D&D through the ages. What editions, how old they were when they first played, etc.

Here are quotes from a thread on a certain forum.

"I'm in my late 20s as well and I've started playing with the Red Box, touched briefly AD&D2, then played some of 3.0 and 3.5 (the latter mostly through OGL games though).
I've also played several other RPGs."

"Starting with the Red Box doesn't mean they started the year it came out - it was the 'current' version for several years. Also maybe you're confusing it with the Red Book.
I'm 33 and started in 1982 (on my 8th birthday) with the basic set BEFORE the Red Box - the one with the Red Book and Keep on the Borderlands, not the one with Bargle"

"Starting with BECM/RC to AD&D, then 3.0, then HackMaster/AD&D1 (you just have to ignore some wules to make HM equal AD&D1), then 3.5, and finally alterning 3.5 in our Friday Game Night and Classic D&D/Labyrinth Lord as an not-so-afterschool activity at the centre where I'm teaching. If you think about it, most of the gaming happens during the teens (12-23 or so, I'd say), when you're in highschool or college."

"I'm 30 and have played every edition through Red Box.
My aunt, who worked for Ral Partha, started me at the tender age of 9.
It's not impossible."

And me? I started with the teal box back in '54, when I was -22 years old. *SNEER!*

Oh, where is some video of Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons.

Actually, those quotes are basically the whole end of that thread.

Stupid D&D monsters

This has made the rounds, you've probably seen it. In case you haven't, and also, for me, for when I go hunting around for his in a year to read for giggles.

http://www.headinjurytheater.com/article73.htm

Our Government

I am continuously incensed and infuriated at the actions of our government.

That's right, incensed AND infuriated.

Today, Bushie signed into law a bill that undermines the Constitution that was part of the foundation of our nation.

In it, things like rape are outlawed, but the President is given liberty to define "torture".

In addition, and thanks to for bringing this to my attention, apparently Tennessee is working on state legislation to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman. GIVE ME A FUCKING BREAK. Why are we so fucking concerned with whether two consenting adults might want to bring some formality to their commitment to each other? Oh, because they're THE GAYS? Please. A threat to family values in America? How about divorce, people? Want to know what is a threat to family values in America? How about single mothers who, despite working perhaps two minimum wage jobs (note that the government recently voted to keep the minimum wage pretty fucking minimum) are barely able to support their families? How about our failing schools or any one of a hundred other things that I'm sure you could find that are wrong and fucked up in this country, and that maybe we could fix if we spent just half the time on it that we spend worrying about the god damn gays.

Oh - Foley - right, cybersex with underage pages Foley - is about to name the priest who molested him.

I have to apologize right now. I rarely wish terrible things on people. I'm pretty damned opinionated, but I try to see things in a positive light.

This guy can go fuck himself. I hope that he fades immediately into obscurity and that along the way something moderately terrible happens to him. Quit begging for pity, asshole. Fuck off.

Oh, and remember Ken Lay? From Enron? The guy who was responsible for fucking a ton of people out of their pensions? Well, he didn't do it. Not according to a appelate judge who, since Lay died this past summer, has abated the conviction. I bet that asshole is laughing in his grave, at all the people he fucked.

"At least no one died."

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/10/11/shays.kennedy.ap/index.html

From the article linked above:
Republican Rep. Christopher Shays defended the House speaker's handling of a congressional page scandal, saying no one died like during the 1969 Chappaquiddick incident involving Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy.

"I know the speaker didn't go over a bridge and leave a young person in the water, and then have a press conference the next day," the embattled Connecticut congressman told The Hartford Courant in remarks published Wednesday.

"Dennis Hastert didn't kill anybody," he added.

What the fuck? Talk about some fucked up logic. "Yeah, I'm sorry, I really shouldn't have done that. But remember when Saddam Hussien gassed those Kurdish villages? Boy, I didn't do that, you know."

I just don't think that "I didn't kill anybody." is a valid defense. Unless we're talking about a murder trial. And we're not. Let me remind you, since the Republicans are trying really hard to generate a smoke screen, that we're talking about a Congressman who engaged in some pretty goddamn questionable behavior, and a party that apparently had at least some information about this problem going back to 2001.

Give me a fucking break.

Dear Congressman Foley,

Dear Congressman Foley,

Being gay, having been molested, and having a drinking problem are not excuses, or shields to hide behind. You're a sick dude. Sure, you need some help. Possibly some jail time.

You and your lawyer seem to be desperately flailing about looking for some sympathy. You're certainly not going to get any here. In fact, this flailing about just makes me more angry about this whole mess you've created. See, you're helping to foster the idea that that "the gays" are a bunch of savages who molest boys like, as a matter of course.

It's unfortunate that you were molested. But that certainly doesn't let you off easy.

For shame, sir.

Apparently my elected officials are bored

I've never been elected to serve in congress. I've never been an intern or employee at our legislative branch. Heck, I've only *been* to washington DC three or four times. But I don't need to be a veteran of the Beltway to feel like congress is twiddling their thumbs.

But you know what? There are lots of things I would rather my elected officials be doing than voting on whether or not to congratulate Spelman College on the occasion of its 125th anniversary or whether or not to ship horses to places that people might eat them.

I'm serious, aren't there issues going on that need to be addressed? Horses are very nice, yes, but so are cows I suppose, so fuck them. Why are our elected representatives wasting my time and money trying to make sure that people don't eat horse meat?

/rant

No troops for you!

So the other day was the 5th anniversary of 9/11.

I observed it by going to work, watching an episode of COPS, and playing computer games.

I'm not sure that I can clearly state my thoughts on the anniversary. I didnt lose anyone that I knew in the attacks. That's not to say I'm untouched by them, but to me the anniversary is more a time that I look back and see how badly our government has fucked this whole thing up. I see that, sadly, more than I see the loss of all of those people in the attacks.

But now, the point of my post today. No Troops For You! (or, how we're still fucking up this supposed "war on terror")

Remember back almost 5 years ago, how after the attacks everyone around the world was horrified. We had the world behind us. We all looked to bushie to lead us.. and he sure has led us. Right into a bog. But I'm getting ahead of myself. The world mourned with us. We looked for the perpetrators of the terrible attacks and we were told that Osama bin Ladin was behind them. He was in Afghanistan, being sheltered by the Taliban. The Taliban were not a nice bunch of folks. Now, that's sorta easy for me to say perhaps.. they were hardcore islamic fundamentalists. I'm not. They were harboring bin Ladin and hosting training camps apparently for terrorists. Bad stuff. But I feel compelled to mention that in the greater scheme of things, they were no worse than at least a half a dozen governments that I can think of. But.. they were providing a home for bin Ladin, and that's who we were after. We asked them to give him up, they refused, and we went in. It was good stuff! We were fighting the good fight.

Now fast forward. About four and a half years.

Remember how during that time we kicked the Taliban out, chased bin Ladin into hiding, and then moved on to Iraq? I'll skip all of the pages and pages of discussion on Iraq for now, because I'm still talking about Afghanistan, I'm afraid. Within the last few months, the reigns were handed over from the US to NATO in Afghanistan. Guess what they're doing over there. Any guesses? That's right. They're fighting the Taliban. The Taliban were the guys who were harboring... oh wait, I just talked about this.. Where we kicked them out of Afghanistan and then moved on to Iraq. Well, it seems that we forgot to mention to the Taliban that they were defeated. Cause they're back, and back with a vengeance it seems. Suicide bombings have been rare or non-existent in Afghanistan. Until recently. Earlier this very month a suicide bomber in southern Afghanistan killed a provincial governor. And then another suicide bomber attacked the funeral of said governor. And... the commander of NATO forces on the ground in Afghanistan has called for member nations to send more troops to help out with the fight on the ground. He's calling for reinforcements, people. But uh, he's getting no help. Wait, Canada is sending in another 120 troops I think, to compliment their 2,300 on the ground.

Now, here's what I'm driving at. We did the right thing by going into Afghanistan and chasing bin Ladin and ousting the Taliban. Then *before the smoke had even cleared* we went charging off into Iraq. And now guess what? Apparently we didn't do the job right the first time. So now, not only are we (well, NATO) still fighting over there, but we're also not willing/able to give the commanders on the ground what they need to be able to fight this thing! Which, you know, is the same problem our commanders faced going into Iraq.. Some people think it is part of the reason we're having so much trouble over there now.

So there you go. That's what I did with my September 11th.


P.S.
Linkage! Because I don't want you to just take my word for it.

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/09/10/afghanistan.fighting/

http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&ct=us/1-1-0&fp=4508a21cd856d030&ei=BXwIRe-4GNDyaM2erOYN&url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/68f79698-41ed-11db-b4ab-0000779e2340.html&cid=1109486822

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5341654.stm

Our Administration

Ok, so I feel that America needs me to weigh in on two topics, both pertaining to our leader, George W.

Note: in researching this blog entry.. which I do for every blog entry, extensive research! I found that the following google search produces a number of interesting links: bush shit

The other day, not knowing that he was was being recorded, Bush said "We got to get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit." Ha! I'm sure others have thought of it, but the title for this section of my blog entry just came to me. "THE 'SHIT' HEARD ROUND THE WORLD" I am a genius.
I really have only one thing to say on this. Get the fuck over it. I know that we Americans are extremely prudish, and despite that, I'd wager, a solid majority of our taxpayers use this word and others on a daily basis, we dont see it on TV or radio. Its like we're somehow ignoring a big elephant in the living room. An elephant with the word "shit" tattoo'd across its side. I think there are tons of bigger things to worry about than whether someone used a four letter word. Be offended about starvation in africa, or US soldiers raping girls in Iraq, or the plight of women in Guatemala, and please! use swear words!

The other Bush thing I wanted to mention is the weird sortof massage that Bush tried to give to German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently. [link] What the fuck was that? Why did Bush decide to give the German Chancellor a neckrub? It'd have been funnier if she'd have punched him.

I'm amazed. Shocked and appalled.



ganked from kyrene

FEMA will not accept Amtrak's help with evacuations
FEMA turns away experienced firefighters
FEMA turns away supply trucks from WalMart

FEMA will not let the Red Cross deliver food
FEMA prevents morticians from entering New Orleans
FEMA blocks 500 boat citizen flotilla from rescues and delivery of aid
FEMA fails to utilize 600 bed US Navy hospital ship
Chicago offers massive assistance. FEMA to Chicago: "Send one Truck"
FEMA turns away generators
FEMA: First responders urged NOT to respond
This is how Michael Brown got this job that he is totaly unqualified for

EDIT:
It turns out the food display Bush posed in front of was fake.

So was the levee repair.

A few other people have had some things to say as well. My friend, Dave, as well as innocent_man