So, the History Channel is apparently showing a “history of the bible” mini-series. This dude sums it up for you so you don’t have to waste your time. NSFW language.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUOg5F886xw&feature=youtube_gdata_player]Monthly Archives: March 2013
Dream Flight
So, last night I had a dream. In it, some friends and I were trying to get somewhere. The ticket agent at the airport said that she can get us on a flight that would take us there and, if we would just have a seat, she’ll get us on it momentarily.
We all sit down and the ticket agent proceeds to help other people. No matter what destination these people want to reach, she tells them that they should get on our airplane. “Hi, I’m trying to get to Chicago.” “Oh, well, this plane doesn’t go there but it’ll get you closer, let me get you a ticket.” “Hi, I’m trying to get to Antarctica.” “You should get on this plane, it’s going in your general direction.” And they all would get on.
My subconscious is apparently trying to tell me that sometimes you need to take steps to reach your goal instead of trying to reach your goal right away. Of course, I have no idea to what goal my subconscious is referring. Stupid subconscious.
Then again, I was actually able to reach my goal in one hop in the dream. So maybe my subconscious was just mocking all those people who get sidetracked when trying to reach their goal. In which case, my subconscious is kind of an ass.
The Great Migration And The Voting Rights Act
During oral arguments for the case conservatives hope will overturn key enforcement sections of the Voting Rights Act, Chief Justice John Roberts asked if the South was more racist than the North. This, along with Scalia’s racial entitlement idiocy, shows how completely out of touch a bunch of elite old white men can be.
The South still has a much bigger problem with racism than the North. That things are infinitely better in the South than they were in the mid 1900s there can be no doubt. But to think that all the problems that the Voting Rights Act was enacted to prevent have been solved takes a willful disregard to both history and the human condition.
The Great Migration was a mass exodus of blacks from the South to places North and West. The reasons for it are many and varied, but it can be boiled down to institutional racism. It happened in fits and starts from the 1910s to the 1970s. When it was over, around 11 million blacks had left the South.
Think about that. The Great Migration didn’t end until the early 1970s. Jim Crow laws were passed as late as 1965. Lynchings occurred as late as 1964.
This all ended just before I was born. Many of the people who are responsible for the conditions that caused institutional racism are still alive. Their children, who were fed that hate on a daily basis are still in power. Every single person on the bench of the Supreme Court is old enough to remember schools being desegregated. All of this history is their history.
How quickly history can be forgotten.
An Actual Genuine Fillibuster
God help me, I agree with Rand Paul. Yesterday, he actually got up to speak for hours against John Brennan’s nomination as CIA head. His focus was targeted drone strikes which the Obama administration has claimed unlimited authority to do. I have nothing against John Brennan, but kudos to Rand Paul for actually getting up and doing something about this. Targeted drone strikes against American citizens is a crime against the Constitution.
I guess I should say I only partly agree with Rand Paul. He seems to only be worried about the targeted killing of Americans on American soil and doesn’t seem to care at all about targeting them in other countries. As if your rights as a citizen disappear because you cross a border. This leads me to believe that he really doesn’t actually care about the targeted drone strikes and that he’s just making political hay out of an incredibly important issue.
I’m glad someone’s taking about this issue, but grow some balls, Rand Paul. Targeted killings of Americans is either wrong or it isn’t. It depends not on where the American happens to be standing.
Republicans Don’t Want A Grand Bargain
This Ezra Klein article gets to the heart of the obstructionism that is the meat and potatoes of the Republican party. Barack Obama is Charlie Brown and the Republican party is Lucy. Every time Charlie Brown tries to kick that football, Lucy pulls it away. And no matter how many times this happens, it’s still Obama’s fault that there is no Grand Bargain. Because, you see, he’s not acting at all leader-y with his compromising. Or he’s not communicating well with his detailed plan that anyone can read.
There is literally nothing Obama can do to get Republicans on board with any of his ideas. Obama has presented the Republican party with a deal that includes EVERYTHING that they want and only one thing that they don’t want; a slight raising of taxes. Bargaining requires two parties that are willing to bargain. Republicans are not. And instead of covering this fact, we get a bunch of press articles about how both sides are to blame. Both sides are very decidedly not to blame in this instance. It’s all Republicans.
Commutageddon? More like Commutaheaven!
Well, Commutageddon is a bust. The morning commute was exactly the same as it always was and the evening commute was actually faster than usual.
Maybe there were so many people off today because of Casimir Pulaski Day? Or maybe so many people were scared off because of the dire warnings of mass hysteria? Either way, I’ll take it.
AIDS Cured In Newborn
A baby in Mississippi appears to have been cured of AIDS! As with any extraordinary claim, they’ll need to get some backup to see if it’s actually true or not, but what a breakthrough if it’s true!
If it’s true, this will be only the second human to have successfully been cured of AIDS. The first was a man in Germany who got a bone marrow transplant in 2007 from another man who had an HIV resistant mutation. Obviously, that needs to be taken with a grain of salt as well.
Some things that I didn’t know. The United States has been very successful at limiting the transmission of HIV from mother to child through pregnancy and birth. Thanks to a wonderful prenatal medicine operation, only 200 children a year are born HIV positive in the U.S. Compare that to the rest of the world where there are more than 300,000.
Prenatal medicine is vastly important. Medicaid is a primary source of prenatal medicine funding for poor people. Think about that if you think we should cut Medicaid.
You Have No Idea How Bad Inequality Has Gotten
Below is a video that really gets to the heart of how unequal society has gotten. Think about this the next time you complain about Obama wanting to raise taxes on the top 1%. These people aren’t going to suddenly stop creating jobs because their taxes go up a percentage point or two. They are amassing wealth because they enjoy the power, not because they enjoy the wealth. And even if they do like the wealth, do you honestly think that they’re just going to stop accumulating it just because their taxes go up?
One minor quibble about the video. They get socialism wrong. Socialism’s goal is not, nor has it ever been, perfect redistribution of wealth. Although, I guess they do use the definition that everybody seems to think socialism means.
Oh Noes, Sequestration!
It’s Sequestration Day in Washington D.C. and it’s much ado about nothing. $1.2 trillion dollars over 10 years, half cuts to defense and half to discretionary spending. The big secret is neither party really cares. Everything you’re reading trying to blame the other side is just posturing. Both parties want much more discretionary spending cuts and there are enough Republicans that want defense spending cuts to make this a pretty good deal. So really, if you don’t work in the areas affected by the sequestration, you won’t even know it has happened.
There is some talk of cutting military salary, but I have to assume that’s just an empty threat. If it is an empty threat, shame on the Obama administration for making it. There are so many more ways to cut defense spending like the F-35 Joint Suffocation Fighter. That doesn’t mean that they will, of course.
The big challenge is the looming governmental shutdown that will occur near the end of March if Congress doesn’t bother passing a budget. If that happens, we’re likely in for another recession. The biggest roadblock there is Republicans. Basically, Obama is willing to give Republicans everything they want and is only asking to return tax rates to Clinton era levels. You know, when the economy was in the crapper. Oh, wait, no, that’s not right.
Ah, Those Blacks And Their Racial Entitlement
Really crappy decision week continues at the Supreme Court. This time, it’s the Voting Rights Act. During oral arguments, Justice Scalia had the gall to say:
Now, I don’t think that’s attributable to the fact that it is so much clearer now that we need this. I think it is attributable, very likely attributable, to a phenomenon that is called perpetuation of racial entitlement. It’s been written about. Whenever a society adopts racial entitlements, it is very difficult to get out of them through the normal political processes.
Yes, that’s what the Voting Rights Act was designed for, racial entitlement. You know, being allowed to vote and stuff. Entitlement. And once they have that entitlement, it’s so hard to take it away from them later. Then you get black people being president and stuff.
My favorite part is “It’s been written about.” So have unicorns. Doesn’t make it real. Plus, where has it been written about? Stormfront?
The writing’s on the wall. The Voting Rights Act is all but dead. Post-racial America will soon be getting more post-racialer.