What Got Cut

What got cut from the stimulus bill - CNN.com

What got cut from the stimulus bill(CNN) -- A coalition of Democrats and some Republicans reached a compromise that trimmed billions in spending from an earlier version of the Senate economic stimulus bill.

• $100 million from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (original bill $427 million)
• $122 million for Coast Guard polar icebreaker/cutters
• $100 million for distance learning
• $2 billion for broadband
• $100 million for National Institute of Standards and Technology
• $50 million for detention trustee
• $50 million for NASA
• $50 million for aeronautics
• $50 million for exploration
• $200 million for National Science Foundation
• $100 million for science
• $122 million for Coast Guard Cutters, modifies use
• $5.8 billion for Health Prevention Activity
• $2 billion for Health Information Technology Grants
• $1.25 billion for project based rental
• $2.25 billion for Neighborhood Stabilization
advertisement
• $1.2 billion for retrofitting Project 8 housing

Boy it's a good thing Learning and Compassion are such high priorities in our government policy hirarchy. /Sarcasm

Man Robs Bank So He Can Go Back To Jail

Police: Man Robs Bank So He Can Go Back To Jail - Local News Story - WLKY Louisville

Man Robs Bank So He Can Go Back To Jail
Edward Sutherland Hoping For Federal Cell
By Steve Burgin/WLKY


Lt. Jim Mueller with the Metro Robbery Unit said all their suspect wanted was a one-way ticket back to prison, preferably in the federal system.

Sadly he doesn't get to goto federal prison. And why be shocked? Prisoners are indeed treated better than the poor in many ways, but do not dare construe that as some kind of blood thirty idiot demand for further neglect and cruelty to prisoners, quite the reverse.

I just think if we are prepared to feed rapists we should be prepared to feed the homeless.

And yes it's the rich who should foot the bill. The more you have the more you pay such that any money past 100 million dollars is taken.

The rich in my view constitute a standing crime against humanity.

There is literally nothing any single human can do to earn the right to sit on 100 million dollars or more.

One is enough for anyone. If you can't be happy with one million dollars you need brain surgery or heavy medication, and you damn sure should not be given any more money.

Because you know what? Someone starved to death today you selfish whiny parasite. I don't care if you gave five million away, if you have 2.5 left, you didn't do enough.

Scientists Find that Low Self-Esteem & Materialism Goes Hand in Hand

Scientists Find that Low Self-Esteem & Materialism Goes Hand in Hand

Scientists Find that Low Self-Esteem & Materialism Goes Hand in Hand

Rodeo_drive_2 “Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need.”

~From the movie Fight Club, based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk

A Galaxy classic...with a recession going full force, we thought this feature might help ease the pain.

Researchers have found that low self-esteem and materialism are not just a correlation, but also a causal relationship where low self esteem increases materialism, and materialism can also create low self-esteem.

Well duh. Seriously what are we going to pay to steudy next that wiping removes poo from one's behind?

The mind is a dopamine addict, linking something finite, like stuff, to something infinite, like pleasure, given the brains baancing act, which anyone who's ever tried to take a hot bath knowns, is a mistake.

But then again some people need to be told the obvious, so I guess... Awesome!

Now I'm all sad, I better go buy something so my girlfriend doesn't leave me.

94-Year-Old Atlanta Woman Arrested, Shackled To Bed

94-Year-Old Atlanta Woman Arrested, Shackled To Bed, Says Family - News Story - WSB Atlanta

ATLANTA -- Family members are outraged after they said their 94-year-old relative was arrested and shackled to a bed at Grady Hospital.

Fran Daniel said her mother, who suffers from dementia, was charged with assaulting her roommate at a metro Atlanta nursing home.

The nursing home said the 80-pound elderly woman physically attacked her roommate.

The nursing home said it asked the roommate's family if they wanted to press charges and that's when police were called.

Garreau was released on bond.

Her family is searching for another nursing home.

After working in a nursing home for a few weeks, a very good one by nursing home standards, I can say with conviction, that they should be outlawed. Warehousing our unwanted elderly until they die is not something a mature and affluent society tolerates.

They should be hospitalized, or provided with sufficient home care, the end.

And you're agree with me if you'd watched great grandmothers forced to sleep sitting up in their wheel chairs just because the home wants everyone to eat and sleep at the same time.

The home I'm speaking of is Woodland Oaks in Ashland Kentucky.

Read here for more.

Obama's Healthcare Plan: Dear Secret Service

Health Care

Establish a National Health Insurance Exchange with a range of private insurance options as well as a new public plan based on benefits available to members of Congress that will allow individuals and small businesses to buy affordable health coverage.

Dear Secret Service

Hi, my name is Brandon. I've been reading a bit about Obama and his intentions.

It seems clear to me that Obama is the first President we've had since Kennedy that cares about the people. The snippet above is just one tiny piece of evidence for this in a veritable ocean of good (both in terms of intelligence and compassion) thinking.

As the only government agency with a majority protection mandate. The others seem to be more about killing than defending. I would like to publicly offer my services.

Real heroism is taking risk, not applying risk. Shooting someone isn't heroic, taking a bullet, is.

I don't have many skills, and almost certainly none you'd find useful except one. I'm willing to seriously risk my life to keep this man alive so long as he's our president.

And given the power levels of the people he appears to be working against, and their penchant for violent reprisal in the form of terrorists and lone gunmen, that might actually come in handy someday.

So if you guys ever need me for human sand bag duty, I'm in.

If my reader's hadn't noticed. I REALLY like Obama. I think I would have liked Ron Paul more, given his desire to attack the evil at it's fiscal root, but hey the man is obviously trying, if he's not the greatest conman of all time.

Spend to love

For stores, a very un-merry holiday

Sales during the crucial year-end shopping season evaporated as economic woes trumped gift-buying enthusiasm among consumers.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The 2008 holiday sales season is one of the worst for retailers in decades, as consumers' concerns about the economy and job losses crushed the typical year-end shopping exuberance.

Good. I'm tired of watching the system squeeze every last dime out of people based on the lie that if you don't spend you don't love. I'll bet this year families got closer than ever on the whole as they were forced to "explain" why they couldn't afford to say what they wanted to say with gifts.

I'll bet hugs and kisses and tearful letters and homemade expressions of affection abounded this year. And we're the better for it.

I'm sure the top one percent still made their dollar and traded cars among themselves, but if we finally learn that we don't have to spend to love, maybe they'll join us in our little boat before too long.

8 year old girl cannot legally divorce her 58 year old husband…

Saudi court tells girl aged EIGHT she cannot divorce husband who is 50 years her senior

A Saudi court has rejected a plea to divorce an eight-year-old girl married off by her father to a man who is 58, saying the case should wait until the girl reaches puberty.

The divorce plea was filed in August by the girl's divorced mother with a court at Unayzah, 135 miles north of Riyadh just after the marriage contract was signed by the father and the groom.

Lawyer Abdullar Jtili said:"The judge has dismissed the plea, filed by the mother, because she does not have the right to file such a case, and ordered that the plea should be filed by the girl herself when she reaches puberty."

As once can imagine, this has a lot of people upset. But in my opinion that anger is somewhat misplaced and not entirely selfless.

And so I commented on another blog...

Oh please. We put 8 year olds in halter tops, and hot pants that say “juicy” across the seat, and see to it they are preggers or at least deflowered by 15.

I love how judgmental of other cultures we are. We have the highest teen pregnancy rate in the world, the highest prison population of the industrialized world, and we’re hip deep in a pedophile witch hunt.

We don’t care in this country if 8 year old boys are molested by the elderly clergy en mass, but one little foreign girl MIGHT get molested and we lose our minds.

The bottom line is a lot of men read that and got jealous because they want a 16 year old at 40, and this is just a bit much even for them. The Saudi depravity reflects their depravity hence the rage.

If you’re really so pissed, how about we bomb them? Oh wait they can fight back. And they sell us our oil.

In short, put up or shut up.

To which was replied...

Frohergeist

@Brandon M. Sergent -

1.) I don’t put 8 year olds in halter tops and hotpants, nor do I see to it that they’re statutory raped. If you do stuff like that, please stop. Or at least stop projecting it upon others.

2.) I’m assuming you live in sub-Saharan Africa when you say “we”, because they’ve got the highest rate of teen pregnancy in the world. The United States has the highest population percentage in prison; what does that have to do with any aspect of this article? Also, I can’t tell if you’re outraged that there’s a “pedophile witch-hunt” going on.

3.) I care if little boys are being molested by clergy. I’m also allowed to care if “one little foriegn girl” might be molested thru conventions of regional religious doctrine. Once again, plz stop projecting.

4.) Most disturbing projection yet. Is that the bottom line? You really don’t think people can earnestly get upset over tacit governmental approval of (at best) systemic undermining of women’s rights or (at worst) statutory rape? That this is clearly the sole fault of the envy of depraved Western mid-life-crisisers?

5.) What a preposterous false dilemma. And even more projection. “If you do not approve of someone’s actions, destroy them UTTERLY or you are a hyprocrite!” Is that how the world works for you? Utter subservience to your will, or destruction? No other options? Absolutely everything in life is more complicated than “A; if not A, B.”

You’re a psychopath. Not in the flippant, disparaging term; the clinical term.

My complete reply is as follows...

@Frohergeist

"I don’t put 8 year olds in halter tops and hotpants."

I'm pleased that you personally do not engage in this behavior but a quick trip to your local mall or walmart will show that others do. If you do not see this behavior personally in your area, well good for you. In that case I'd suggest you go clothing shopping for an 8 year old girl. It's an eye opening experience for those that have not.

See the rest of my reply at http://newshate.blogspot.com/2008/12/8-year-old-girl-cannot-legally-divorce.html

I will not reply in full here, I doubt the post's author wants a flame war.

"when you say “we”"

I meant, industrialized world, my apologies. Obviously crushed third world nations will have a higher TPR.

"what does that have to do with any aspect of this article?"

I was suggesting that we have little right to be judgmental until we get our own house in order.

"Also, I can’t tell if you’re outraged..."

Yes I am. Pedophilia is a problem we exacerbate for profit. It's a public health issue, not a legal one. Just like the drug war.

"I care if little boys are being molested by clergy."

Good for you. So do I. But I must remind you that you are not the whole of the United States. I'm speaking of the American populace generally. As far as the media goes, attacking the church and its battalion of molesters was a passing fad, at best.

"You really don’t think..."

Of course they can. I'm commenting on why. Things like what the article are speaking of happen all the time, yet this is supposed to be news.

In the face of female circumcision, honor killings, torture, and human right's violations generally in these countries, which magically aren't news anymore, if they ever were, I have to ask, why?

I have a theory...

Because we are a culture Obsessed with underage sex, that's why. If she had been beaten to death with a rock, or had her genitals stitched shut, or both, we'd not be having this conversation, because it would not have been a story.

But because some guy gets to potentially raise her to be a little sex slave, and screw her the instant he feels like it, we're all frothing at the mouth. Color me cynical, but I can't help but think a good chunk of that rage is jealousy.

And no, obviously some are angry for what I would call ethical reasons, such as myself, and perhaps even you. But even those people need to be reminded that this is not an honest reporting with the aim of solving the problem. News is a business. And sex sells. If this really was news to the people merely because its an extreme ethical violation, and not a pedo fantasy come to life, Amnesty International would get more hits than foxnews.com. We control what gets covered. If the demand were there for real news, we'd have it. We don't, so there isn't.

"No other options?"

Setting aside the fact of a probable Tom Clancy style reaction if the 8 year old girl in question was a doe eyed white American, I'll say sure, there are other options. But considering the froth spitting hatred, and armchair torture-expert style, reaction to domestic pedophiles, I'd say bombing the Saudis into radioactive glass seems a rational response by comparison.

My personal suggestion would be an immediate and complete international boycott of all Saudi imports and services spearheaded by the United States domestic economic consequences be damned. I personally choose to be poor and sleep at night, rather than be rich and worry about my soul.

But you and I both know that's not going to happen. America hasn't been something to be proud of in decades, if ever. In my opinion America is one of those looks good on paper not so much in execution kind of things, but I digress.

I believe they could skin a dozen infants in Saudi Arabia and broadcast it live on Al Jazeera and we'd do nothing, we'd demand some sort of gesture, but ultimately we'd forget, and we'd damn sure not let it interfere with out football watching. My suggestion of bombing was primarily designed to make people think "well why don't we bomb them?" in the face of such strong "justification." Hopefully they'd realize, it's because they have our economy grabbing its ankles.

My core point is this; obviously we don't Really care. If we did we'd be doing something about it other than waxing self-righteous on a blog. Hell, look at 911, 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals, and our government invades Iraq, and we let them? Come on.

We can't look up from our collective genitals long enough to care, hence our interest in this case.

Your reaction is case in point. You feel personally insulted by my position, which says more about you than me. Ironic, considering your repeated claims of projection on my part. The point is I don't care about you personally, I only care about the arguments you present, and the ideologies you represent. you on the other hand have no idea what you hate, and so for the moment, it's me.

"You’re a psychopath."

Perhaps. That's not for me to judge is it. Pick a point of my logic, a point you feel is the result of mental defect. I'll show you my thinking.

If the world did judge me, by merely stating it to be the case without evidence, as you have, my response would be along the lines of the following.

"See, I'm not a monster, I'm just ahead of the curve." - The Joker

Go read this, right now.

America's Most Overrated Product: the Bachelor's Degree - Chronicle.com

I have a hard time telling such people the killer statistic: Among high-school students who graduated in the bottom 40 percent of their classes, and whose first institutions were four-year colleges, two-thirds had not earned diplomas eight and a half years later. That figure is from a study cited by Clifford Adelman, a former research analyst at the U.S. Department of Education and now a senior research associate at the Institute for Higher Education Policy. Yet four-year colleges admit and take money from hundreds of thousands of such students each year!

Nuclear Deal signed with India.

Bush signs nuclear deal with India - CNN.com

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush signed into law the lifting of a ban on nuclear trade with India.

The Senate voted last week to overturn the ban. The House of Representatives later passed the bill without debate.

Excellent use of the fiscal crisis/distraction.

Much like gun control, I'm in favor of nuclear weapon freedom, for many of the same reasons.

I'm fine with everyone owning a handgun and a rifle and even a machine gun, but I don't need everyone's basement looking like a gun museum. Same with nukes, one or two for everyone. The really dangerous weapons don't even need industry to produce anyway.

I think this is a good thing. Besides, on the whole nuclear power is safer than coal because you at least have a chance of safely dealing with its by product, where as you don't with coal.

Worthless