Roseless This December

So far, I do not have roses in December. Perhaps Darling David has been mingent this entire month.

Yoohooooooooooooooo, Darling David...

"Mingent." That is my lovely, adopted word from Save The Words.

Mingent: discharging urine.

Used in a sentence: Darling David is currently mingent. Please call back later.

My brand new, factory-fresh husband brought me yellow Sweetheart roses today. He said he’d still bring me roses when we’re a wrinkled, old, vaguely cabbage’y-smelling couple. Happy Sigh.

Utilitarian Ethics

Utilitarianism is the idea that the moral worth of an action is determined solely by its contribution to overall utility: that is, its contribution to happiness or pleasure as summed among all persons. It is thus a form of consequentialism, meaning that the moral worth of an action is determined by its outcome: put simply, the ends justify the means.

As applied to medical decisions, a Utilitarian would decide if treatment for another person contributed to the overall good of society. Would treatment extended be better allotted to another person? Would the expense of treatment be better spent on other endeavors? Would the time allotted to the afflicted person be a benefit to society at large -- and by further extension, would that benefit to society be greater or lesser than if that treatment was diverted to another, similarly afflicted person?

Medical Utilitarianism is exactly: Determining the utility of the person in need of medical attention, then providing or withholding treatment based on that entirely subjective assessment.

Our Democrat-heavy congress has included a section in the new stimulus bill that would put Utilitarianism in the forefront of medical treatment. A new bureaucratic department, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor and 'guide' treatments to make sure your doctor is administering appropriate and cost effective medical care - as will be dictated by the federal government.

Hospitals and doctors that are not 'meaningful users' of this brave new system will face (currently undetermined) penalties. The determination of what a 'meaningful user' is will be left to the discretion of the HHS secretary, who will be empowered to impose "more stringent measures of meaningful use over time" (HR 1 EH, p511, p518, p540-541). Will your doctor, and the administration at the hospital at which he or she has privileges, be willing to buck the system to treat you? Are you willing to bet on their dedication to the Hippocratic oath? Perhaps more tellingly, are you willing to bet your parents, siblings, spouse, child, grandchild, neighbors, co-workers, tribe, etc.'s continued existence? Because that's exactly what's at stake here.

Just how useful are you and all the people that you know?

Do you smoke? You will be placed much further down on the list of treatment recipients than pretty much everyone else in the country.

Are you fat? Just above the smokers on that list, chunky.

Diminished mental capacity? Well, that's not very useful, is it?

Handicapped? Not much you can do that an able-bodied person couldn't do better.

Criminal? Mmmmm, how criminal? Do you think antisocial thoughts? Do you own a gun? How many deductions do you take on your W2? It's counterproductive to expend time, money and energy on social criminals such as you.

Here's a thing: I'm a pretty useful person, for now. To toot my own very useful horn, I'm pretty darn smart, and I work in 'critical infrastructure.' I'm reasonably able-bodied. I'm friendly, clean and thrifty. I have produced only one child, and thus have not overburdened our fragile planet with extraneous life. I am far enough off from retirement that I could probably get a kidney if I really needed it. I'm looking pretty good for rationed healthcare right this minute. My parents, however, would be dead today under that plan.

Under that plan, my beautiful, funny, insightful, volatile, amazing daughter would be permanently disabled; my grandson, who is a beacon of light, would have been allowed to die at birth; my sister, the nurse, would have been dead in childhood.

In fact, if the bureaucrat deciding my 'appropriate care' when I was a teenager had a beef with the military (and what are the odds of that?!), as a military dependent I would have been very expendable and then very dead at the age of fifteen. (I was a particularly useless teenager, anyway.)

A similar trajectory can probably be plotted for each and every one of you -- unless you are a celebrity, or a politician, or a member of a protected political class. Are you one of those kind of special, valuable people? No? So very, very sad for you.

Here's a little info our politicians better know about me: I don't value my life anything like I value the lives of my loved ones. I don't value my life more than certain bedrock principles.

Here's my promise: If this plan is passed into law and in any way harms anyone that I love, I will hunt down the bureaucrats involved in that harm and kill them in clever and inventive ways -- I'll leave it the reader to decide if I mean that metaphorically. Remember, though, I am extremely smart and I could absolutely do it and get away with it.

Further, again if this plan is passed into law and in any way harms anyone that I love, I'll go after the politicians who voted for this abomination. For those who can reason, it should be apparent that it is very, very difficult to stop a person who is friendly, clean, thrifty, smart, and willing to die in the pursuit of justice.

And I am not alone, Congress. We are legion.

[To the tune of R*E*S*P*E*C*T]

K*a*k*is*toc*racy
Find out what it means to me
K*a*k*is*toc*racy
Take care, WTF

Little Red Riding Hood: A Tale of Capitalists, Socialists and a Government Wolf

Once upon a time there lived in the village of Section8, just outside the county of Berkeley, a little country girl; everybody called her Little Red Riding Hood.

One day she decided to travel through the forest to the Big City to visit her secured bonds.

As she was going through the wood, she met with a great, grey Government Wolf. The Wolf asked Little Red Riding Hood where she was going. The poor child, who did not know that it was dangerous to stay and talk to a Government Wolf, said to him, "I am going to check on my bonds, which have a guaranteed minimum value. I am a Capitalist, you see, and have worked hard and invested my earnings in my future and the future of my country."

"It is a very big wood," said the Wolf. "Did you bring a lunch?"

"Oh I have these few crumbs," answered Little Red Riding Hood; "it is all that is left from the great economic meltdown of '08 and '09. Still, I can buy more bread to feed my family when I sell my secured bonds. That way, we are not a burden on our society, and I can re-invest in yet more bonds. That is the Capitalist way."

"Well," said the wolf, "you are an evil bond holder. I will eat YOU now!" The grey Government Wolf immediately fell upon the poor girl and ate her up in a moment. During the attack, the girl's pitiful few bread crumbs had fallen upon the ground.

Hiding behind some acorn trees were three Socialist Pigs. "Hooray," whispered the three Pigs, "the Wolf has eaten that nasty Capitalist girl and spread her bread crumbs! Now the birds will take those crumbs and eat them, thus giving them more strength to fly and drop seeds and berries all over the village. Everyone is equal and the birds will feed us all!"

The three Pigs ran back to Section8, where they told all of the Villagers what they had seen. "Tra-la-la, " sang the Villagers of Section8, "we don't have to work anymore, for the birds will feed us now! Thank you, thank you, Government Wolf!"

"You are welcome, Village People, " said the Wolf. "Now, I will stalk and eat each of the three Pigs. For if it is good for the village when I eat one Capitalist girl, it is surely excellent for the village if I eat THREE Socialist Pigs."

"Well, that is entirely fair, " shouted the Villagers, "for the Pigs would consume much more than their share of the seeds and berries that the birds will soon shower upon us." So the Wolf ate up the three Pigs, and the Villagers held a party for the kindly Wolf that was so helpful to them all.

Some time later the Villagers noted that, while the birds had indeed dropped a few seeds and berries upon the village, they were all starving. The Villagers had stopped working and farming and depended entirely on the anticipated largesse of the bird droppings; they had grown no wheat at all to grind at the now abandoned town mill. "Whatever shall we do? We are starving," cried out the Villagers. "Where is the Government Wolf, who will save us all?"

The Government Wolf loped into town and proceeded to kill and eat each of the Villagers, who were by this time too weak to fight him off.

"For that, you see, is what a Government Wolf does, " said the Wolf. "A Government Wolf cares nothing for Capitalists or Socialists or Villagers. A Government Wolf, of course, only cares about filling his belly."

As he padded off back into the great forest, the Wolf looked back over his shoulder for a moment. "I'll be in your town soon, " the Wolf said, looking directly at the Reader.

- BrendaK, May 2009

Read A Good Book Lately?

Not if Obama & Co., UnLtd. have their way -- and McCain/Feingold made it all possible.

The Obama Administration claimed that BCRA allows the federal government to ban a 600-page book if it mentions a candidate's name only once, a 90-minute movie if it mentions a candidate's name once, or even a toy action figure of a candidate. If the organization uses a single dime of its general funds to produce, promote or distribute any such materials during the "blackout" periods, it becomes a federal crime.

Read all about it...while you still can..

Insanity

It is vitally important to our President that women be able to kill their unborn children without any restrictions whatsoever, but no one should be able to consume the rutabagas they grow in their own backyard.

Born alive infants - as a result of botched abortions - must be made to die alone of neglect (as legislated by State Sen. Obama and further supported by Presidential Candidate Obama), but people choosing to purchase and drink unpasteurized milk present a clear threat to the nation.

The Calluses On My Freckled Hands

HR875 includes roadside fruit & vegetable stands, the basil growing in your kitchen window, and the garden I FULLY INTEND TO PLANT this year:

Basically, the Obama administration is going to put every single garden, from herb gardens in your apartment windowsill to farmers markets to big corporate farms, under government control. You have to track all of your crops and plantings, you have to comply with whatever healthy and safety codes the government institutes, and you have to submit to random surprise inspections of your property. There are no exceptions. If you have a kitchen garden or an apple tree and you're the only one who eats the fruit, you still are under federal government control.

Of course, corporate farms already have all of this tracking and compliance stuff in place, so really this is just a way of preventing individuals and small farmers from growing their own food, with the stick of a million dollar fine per day, per infraction (which the new agency gets to keep for itself), up to 10 years in federal prison — and there is no judicial review or process necessary to seize and condemn food and (presumably) farmlands.

another take:

Basically, HR 875 sets up a MASSIVE new government bureaucracy called the Food Safety Administration, and compels anything known as a "food establishment" to register with the federal government (paying registration fees of course) and to submit to inspections that are at different intervals depending on the type of "food establishment" you are.

The (formerly) ubiquitous summer roadside vegetable stand appears to be both Category 3 and 5 "food establishments" since they sells "fresh produce in ready-to-eat raw form" and "stores, holds, or transports food products prior to delivery for retail sale".

The explicit exclusions in Section 3 (13)(B) do not exclude roadside vegetable stands.

Section 3 (14) explicitly declares "any farm" (no matter what the size) to be a "FOOD PRODUCTION FACILITY".

Section 406 is a real doozy which places the burden of proof on the small farmer or roadside stand operator to demonstrate that none of their goods were participants in interstate commerce (the basis for this whole thing appears to be the Commerce Clause)

Call your congress-creeps, email the White House, fax your state representatives. Food production cannot be left solely to the discretion of the Federal gov't. - and your backyard garden/co-op/roadside produce vendor is none of their freakin' business.

OUTLAW!

Yet Another Anecdote From My Fascinating Life

Many, many years ago I worked for two summers at the Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, Ohio.

Cedar Point (used to, anyway) recruit employees from colleges in states near Ohio - they rarely hired anyone actually in Ohio. Why, you ask? Well, because that way all of the hourly employees (of which I was one) could be classified as migrant workers. You got no benefits, they had no liability if you got injured on the job, they could fire you for any reason or no reason at all, and they didn't have to pay minimum wage.

Now, it wasn't entirely sucky. They would have each recruit sign a contract specifying their duration of employment. If you completed your contract, you got paid a quarter for every hour you had worked, bringing your hourly total to 20¢* over minimum wage. At the time that wasn't a bad deal at all; a nice little 'retention bonus' that surely did help back on campus. Which nicely brings me to the point of this (are you fascinated yet?) anecdote.

Contracts are legally binding agreements and must be honored, even contracts with migratory workers and eeee-vile investment professionals. What the House did with HR 1586 IS a Bill of Attainder, meets every definition of ex post facto law, and is being utilized as a distraction from the utterly incompetent performance of the Obama administration.

Damn near everything our government does is just wrong. That's not a new thing to the current Congress and administration, of course, it's just so much worse at this time. All of our roosting chickens have come home with bird flu, so to speak.

Lest you think I'm just a Rebel Without A Solution, here's my handy-dandy 5 point solution to our economic and social woes; there's a little somethin' for everyone:

*****************

1. Congress: Institute the Fair Tax immediately. Then see Point 3 below.

2. Judiciary: Restrict the Federal Government to only those actions enumerated to it in the Constitution.

3. Legislators And Assorted Aides: Out of shame for your collective venality, gross incompetence and breathtaking corruption, resign your offices post haste. Please give serious consideration to moving to Mexico, where opportunities for such as you abound.

4. Electorate: Quit voting for RINOs, Socialists and other assorted loons.

5. Obama: Take your TelePrompter, your fishmonging CoS, and your entire Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time Administration and just...go.

**************

There you go, glad I could help!

*Edited because, .20¢ is not the same as 20¢. Yeah, I know. Estoopid editing tricks.

Pay Your Taxes!

How many of you are paying too much into withholding?

You know what to do about that, right?

Why Go John Galt, When You Can Go...

Filling In the Blanks for the MSM

As retrieved from ABC News Article: Chronology of Israel's Relationship With Gaza

— June 1967: Israel captures the Egyptian-controlled Gaza Strip during six-day Mideast war. An Israeli census put the population at 380,000, at least half of whom were refugees from Israel. Today the population stands at about 1.5 million. The U.N. lists just over 1 million as refugees and their descendants.

Preceded by PLO/Fatah border attacks and concerted attempts to cut off all water supplies to Israel, war on Israel is declared by Egypt, Syria and Jordan with supporting troops supplied by Kuwait, Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Employing courage, guile and a stubborn refusal to lay down and die, Israel decisively wins the "Six Day War" which allows them to take ownership of the strategically important Gaza area.

— December 1987: A clash in the Jebaliya refugee camp sets off Palestinian uprising, which lasted until 1993 and claimed the lives of more than 2,000 Palestinians and 192 Israelis. The militant Islamic Hamas is formed early in the uprising.

Palestinians continue lobbing rockets and mortars into Israel in defiance of existing ceasefire treaties.

— September 2005: Israel withdraws its troops and all of its 8,500 Jewish settlers. It retains control of Gaza's airspace, coastal waters and border crossings.

Israel completes withdrawal from Gaza as part of the so-called 'Land For Peace' process. Incoming Palestinians destroy all material improvements made by the Israelis, including the destruction of farms, roads and office buildings/supplies. Palestinians continue lobbing rockets and mortars into Israel in defiance of existing ceasefire treaties.

— June 2007: Hamas violently seizes control of Gaza after routing forces loyal to rival Fatah faction of President Mahmoud Abbas.

Any remaining Gaza infrastructure previously created by Israelis is demolished. Palestinians continue lobbing rockets and mortars into Israel in defiance of existing ceasefire treaties.

— June 2008: Hamas and Israel reach truce to halt the cross-border rocket attacks and end Israeli offensives in Gaza.

With the assistance of Palestine, Lebanese Hezbollah terrorists add the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers to their repertoire. In defiance of a general ceasefire truce, Palestinians continue lobbing rockets and mortars into Israel.

— November 2008: Palestinians resume rocket and mortar fire into Israel after Israeli incursion.

Previous quote should read: November 2008: In response to rocket attacks initiated by Palestinian militants acting IN DEFIANCE OF A CEASEFIRE TRUCE *and to shut down the main tunnel through which the militants were smuggling those rockets*, Israel launches an incursion into the Gaza Strip.

— Dec. 19, 2008: Hamas formally declares the truce over, rocket fire on Israel intensifies.

Undeterred by the lack of a ceasefire treaty to violate, Palestinian terrorists continue lobbing rockets and mortars into Israel. Rockets reach as far south as Beersheba, with Tel Aviv thought to be within Palestinian missile range.

— Dec. 27, 2008: Israel launches a fierce air offensive, killing more than 200 Palestinians in the first day.

Palestinians continue lobbing rockets and mortars into Israel. Following sound military tactics, Israel responds with superior tactics and weaponry.

— Jan. 3: Thousands of Israeli troops launch a ground offensive in Gaza.

Palestine's ability to lob rockets and mortars into Israel is somewhat diminished by the Israeli destruction of munitions dumps in a UN school, various mosques and most police stations. Smuggling tunnels used to transport weaponry supplied primarily by Iran and Syria, are among the targets Israel attempts to destroy via strikes launched with pinpoint accuracy (designed to minimize civilian casualties).

***

There you go, ABC News. FTFY. Glad I could help.

Inspired by Mac - A Gentleman and a Scholar

On Proportional Responses

When I was 5 years old, there was a little boy about my age that would punch me in the nose. He never said a word to me, I had no idea who he was. He would just walk up, punch me in the nose and run off.

I don't think it was a crush gone terribly wrong.

The first time it happened, I told my dad. My dad told me that I would have to handle it myself (with the hindsight of adulthood, I realize now that he couldn't very well go out and beat up a kindergartner for me). Soooooo, anyway, the next two times this obnoxious kid walked up I did try to talk to him. I DID try to make a friend out of him.

Without saying a single word, he would punch me in the nose and run off.

The fourth time this serial nose-puncher walked up, though...I snatched up a two-by-four laying on the lawn and - without saying a word - I clocked him. BLAM, laid him out on the front lawn. The little bully went running off after I went inside to tell my parents what I'd done (my dad, in a very bemused way, was rather proud of me after he determined that I hadn't killed the little snot - mom was pretty much appalled all the way around).

The point is, the nasty little gnome never bothered me or came near me or even looked at me again. Overwhelming, aggressive force and superior weaponry had convinced him of the error of his ways.

Moral of the story: If you can't make a friend out of an enemy, then whack the bastid on the head with a mighty 2x4.

Reason for the story: GO ISRAEL! Break out the adult version of a 2x4 and clock the bastiges.

A Matter for Discussion

Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him. The task of black theology is to kill Gods who do not belong to the black community. . . . Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy. What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love.

-- James Cone, on Black Liberation Theology

**************

Ok, given the above, and given that this is what Trinity (including the new top pastor there, a Rev. Moss) espouses, how must this affect Obama's two daughters? Because there's no getting around the fact they are 'part white.'

Since statistically very few people in America are 'pure' in their ethnicity, how much must the people embracing this liberation theology hate a part of themselves?

This is not just a despicable, ugly and hateful theology; it's a theology that damns not only the 'other,' but also it's practitioners.

I believe it is a religion of despair, that presumes to call itself Christian -- but has very little to nothing at all in common with Christian precepts*.

*Disclaimer: I am not a Christian, much less a scholar of Christianity. Feel free to correct me if I've got the precepts of (mainstream) Christianity all wrong.

Down Heah...