Archive for August, 2009
Moral? You’re joking, right?
Posted by The Big Kahuna in It's Just Life...Sorta, Our Country, Political Insanity, You gotta be kidding! on August 31, 2009
So amidst the cries from (internet inventor) Al Gore that America has “… a moral duty to pass health care reform…“, now we see the other Democrats shamelessly using Ted Kennedy’s death as a bludgeon to strengthen that same ridiculous “argument”.
How “moral” is it to use this guy’s death this way?
For those that have forgotten, let’s recap:
1. Teddy had the best health care his and the government’s money could buy. Funny, but his plan is not now, nor would it ever be the same plan that the Demothugs would force down your throat.
2. I seem to recall those fabulous fans o’ the “public option” voting to exempt themselves from it.
3. Let’s see, Ted was well over 40, with a diagnosed illness that was in all practical terms terminal. So, under the plan being proposed he would have been a perfect candidate to simply be refused care (or at least be offered reduced benefits) in favor of a younger, more “appropriate” candidate.
So I think it’s pretty stinking immoral to use Ted Kennedy as an imperative for the Obamacare health plan. They’re in two different universes and trying to tie them together is inexcusable. The real imperative here is to stop allowing these guys to keep redefining terms to suit their political agendas.
I’m never happy to see someone suffer and die due to the ravages of disease, but you just cannot mention Ted Kennedy’s situation and universal health care in the same breath and be serious…
I need a new name
Posted by The Big Kahuna in Blogging, Uncategorized on August 31, 2009
In the most recent incarnation(s) of this blog, I’ve spent much more time discussing politics and absurd news stories than writing about the topics its name would suggest. I think it may be time to consider a new title.
Of course I do still write on-topic here and again so I don’t want to come up with a name that would somehow make posts like that seem out of bounds either.
…I can’t believe I’m about to do this…
I’m looking for (honest) suggestions for a new name for the blog. I’m trying to come up with something that’s catchy and interesting, but general enough to cover the range of things I seem to be straying toward along with the original notions.
Post your suggestions here and let the best title win! (Or not. In which case I’ll probably come up with something dull and geeky…)
It struck me funny…
Posted by The Big Kahuna in Our Country, You gotta be kidding! on August 28, 2009
I was listening to a radio talk show last night, where the guest was a labor union spokesperson for our fair city. The topic of discussion was the Obamacare package. As you might expect, the guest was in favor of government-funded “universal” health care. At some point in the conversation, he began to make the case that Conservatives are always grousing about how there must be competition for free markets to work and how hypocritical it is that when the government offers competition to private industry, those same Conservative hypocrites cry foul. I almost fell out of my seat.
I’m sorry, but for a union representative to attempt to seriously discuss “competition” is virtually a joke. Can you imagine a unionized organization competing with a non-unionized business for some work? The cries of “foul” and “unfair” from the union would drown out any other considerations. The basic concept of unions nearly always prevents “fair” and competitive behavior. I was just in awe of this guy invoking “competition” as a premise for socialized health care. Amazing.
Don’t get me wrong, I think that unions have had some positive impacts. Overall though, I think their negatives currently outweigh their advantages. One has but to examine the American automotive industry to have a solid (and truly sad) example.
Add to that, the fact that “competition” here is meaningless. There is no competing with an organization (the government) that has NO mandate to make a profit and which can in fact lose money. Please, attempting to use “competition” as a lever for socialized medicine simply offends any reason or logic.
So while I was pretty put off by this guy, it also struck me as hilarious that this joker thought he could make a rational case for this sad excuse for legislation by invoking “competition”…
This stuff just boggles the mind…
Twitter as aggregation point?
Posted by The Big Kahuna in Blogging, Social Media on August 24, 2009
I’ve been Twitter user for a while, but I must say haven’t been consistent about it since the beginning. It’s taken me a while to get myself wired to post stuff there. Add to that the fact that I’m often irritated by the useless drivel that folks tweet and you get something of a picture why I am the way that I am.
In the recent few months, I’ve also begun using Facebook. To some extent, I find it a bit more engaging than Twitter, for reasons I’m not sure I can articulate. For some reason, I tend to be more inclined to post stuff there even though the effect is largely the same as Twitter.
Now what I can say about both services is that I’m often frustrated by the character-count limitations they impose. If you hadn’t noticed, I do sometimes wax verbose and those services just don’t handle my random detours. That’s where my blog comes in. You can certainly make the case that if someone wants to bloviate at length on some subject, Facebook and Twitter ain’t the place for it.
To handle this situation in at least a limited fashion, I’ve been using Twitter as a “blog post notifier” tool. It’s essentially a chain of notification-forwarding. When I post *anything* to Twitter, my account there is configured to forward the entire post to Facebook. That’s dandy, but the main thing I’m trying to accomplish is notifying my vast army of followers (not!) that I’ve posted something profound or pithy on my blog. Wordpress being the excellent tool that it is, provides a Twitter notification function that sends a nice little “new Blog Post…” notice to my Twitter account. Since all my posts in Twitter arrive in Facebook, I have those two covered. It’s pretty handy and even provides a friendly bit.ly shortened URL to the post. Slick.
Now the process isn’t bi-directional and that’s a good thing. I don’t want a new blog post to appear each time I write something in Facebook or Twitter, however it would be nice if I could post something in Facebook and have it show up in Twitter. There probably is already something that’ll do it for me, but I haven’t taken the time to look.
So, for me Twitter has become a “social media aggregation point”. I imagine that’s not what those folks originally envisioned but for the moment it works well for me. Now if I expand my social media outlets, I could be out of luck…and time!
You decide…
Posted by The Big Kahuna in It's Just Life...Sorta, Our Country, Political Insanity, You gotta be kidding! on August 21, 2009
My wife and I have been looking at replacing my aging vehicle (11 years old). Between chatting with folks at dealerships and reading on the Internet and newspapers, it’s quite clear that dealers who are participating in the “Cash for Clunkers” programs are having trouble getting paid. For some, this has left them with a severe cash-flow problem that could lead to bankruptcy.
The program ends tomorrow (8/22/) and from all appearances, the government that wants to run a single-payer, “public option” health care plan can’t even take a few billion dollars and distribute it properly.
How in the world could anyone expect them to handle something as massively complex as a nationalized health care system?
Lest you had any remaining doubts…
Posted by The Big Kahuna in It's Just Life...Sorta, Our Country, Political Insanity, Politics on August 18, 2009
…take note of Obama’s continuing assault on traditional values here.
Is this not the most liberal, anti-Judeo-Christian values president we’ve ever seen, or what?
Please people, it only takes a second to see the path this POTUS and Congress are dragging us. Are you willing to let the government decide what your values should be?
Are these the folks you want governing…?
Posted by The Big Kahuna in It's Just Life...Sorta, Our Country, Political Insanity on August 13, 2009
From http://twitter.com/geek:
Please, you must read this. The stupidity is palpable from this woman. She can feel the effects of “global warming” when she’s flying? Are you kidding me?
I have never seen a more inept and fact-ignoring crew in all my years…
I guess I had it all wrong…
Posted by The Big Kahuna in It's Just Life, It's Just Life...Sorta, Our Country, Politics on August 11, 2009
More nonsense from Nancy Pelosi and her merry band of thugs…
I was under the impression that free speech was a Constitutionally guaranteed American right. However, according to some of our Congress-critters, that’s simply not the case. According to Ms. Pelosi and lapdog Steny Hoyer, if you disagree with the Obamacare debacle at more than a whisper: You. Are. “Un-American”.
I’m pretty sure that these uninformed bozos don’t have a clue what things were like in the founding fathers’ time. Shouting and burning foes in effigy was quite common leading up to the revolution and beyond. I’m also completely sure that without this kind of dissent, America as it came to be, would never have been. Plus, isn’t it a relief that (for the moment) in the USA, you can shout, protest, and burn someone in effigy? Imagine living somewhere like say, Iran, Iraq or any one of dozens of other places on the globe.
Where were the howls of “Un-American” behavior during the MoveOn.org days or when Acorn sent folks to shout down various town-hall meetings? I guess it’s ok if you’re shouting down those that disagree with the Socialist-sect…
While I’m in favor of intelligent, considered discussion and dissent, it’s simply re-defining a term to say that protests are Un-American. It’s yet another attempt to turn the focus *away* from the issue: That Obamacare is a disaster waiting to happen and “real” AMERICANS DON’T WANT IT! According to this crew, if you’re a 77-year old woman shouting that you don’t want the crap they want to force down your throat, you’re:
a) A terrorist
…and…
b) Un-American
What other new definitions for those that disagree are forthcoming? Wait for it, ’cause it’s on its way.
Folks, your mandate should be quite simple: Shout at the top of your lungs. Write your Congressmen. Fax them. Email them. Call them. Go to town-hall meetings and let them know you don’t want this junk. Vote out those who promote these things.
Do the truly American thing.
You don’t suppose…
Posted by The Big Kahuna in It's Just Life...Sorta, Our Country, Politics on August 10, 2009
…that Congress is in such a hurry to pass the Obamacare package because they don’t want massive public outcry putting a damper in their grand plans, do you?
I’m just astounded…
Posted by The Big Kahuna in It's Just Life...Sorta, Our Country, Politics on August 6, 2009
Somewhere along the line, I missed the point that if only Congress is allowed to take control of your health care, the entire economy will recover…
Amazing economics.
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