As CEO, COO, CIO and CFO of both Maison Tropicale S.A. and Compana LLC, I would like to announce that my takeover of the Nielsen Hayden empire is nearly complete. Patrick, to make the transition to total domination easier, this week you and Teresa need only submit breakfast cereal choices for my approval. Next week we will add your lunch menu and opinions on free trade agreements. By April you will be lobbying your Congresscritter for extended Presidential term limits during wartime...
MOOOOHAHAhahahahaha.....
Mel introduced me to Molly's work just as I was really hitting my stride as a liberal. Her words crystalized our thoughts and made us howl with both laughter and righteous rage.
It's already been said, but bears repeating... damn, damn, damn, damn.
First, a quick gimmee.... I don't think anyone will have any trouble imagining what my homeless/street clients think about the usefulness of a tax cut to improve their access to health care...
Someone upthread talked about the lack of awareness among the target groups of the availability of current assistance programs. This is SO true. Here in Minnesota there is still a network of general assistance medical programs, but our asswipe of a Gov does everything he can to not only keep word of them from getting to the streets, but also is making it harder and harder for the average person to navigate the bureaucracy of getting signed up.
In mid-2005, the Doc I work with started an aggressive program of signing his drop-in clinic patients on to the general assistance plans. Our funding was drying up (Thank you, AGAIN, Gov Pawlenty, you moronic twit) and we were faced with closing. We don't bill our patients for any services, but due to his efforts, a couple hundred street people are now signed up and eligable for real care in a regular clinic, we have received about 50k in state reimbursement (and will be staying open at least another year), and the taxpayers have been saved well over a million dollars in ER visits.
I have to imagine that this scenario could be played out in most states and large cities. What we have been doing, within the existing system, can WORK... It only makes sense to expand it to a national scope.
James (#53 & #62) is absolutely correct. Any system that is not based on universal free coverage for EVERYONE will never work. On the other hand, we have now shown that a system where the billing is transparent to the user, with no out of pocket expenses for the user, can work even with the hosed-up aid programs we currently limp by on. Think how much better it could be with a unified, national program...
My rats stare at me accusingly from their cage, as if chiding me for allowing them once again to be marginalized by the Hamster Menace...
Who seeks not for love?
Tawny cuteness overwhelms
Rats find no justice
#50 CaseyL - First off... I'm glad I'm not the only one feeding whatever is brave enough to come into my back yard. We have 'coons, 'possum, squirrels, feral cats, rats and crows at our feeding stations and all of whom (except the squirrels) love Meow Mix.
We've watched our furry bandits use their hands more times and in more ways than I can count. Even without thumbs they seem to be almost as dexterous(sp?) as we are. They are smart enough to get the idea of a sliding deck door, and have used those little hands in an attempt to pry the door wider several times when I've been feeding them out a barely open door.
I pity those who don't see the beauty of these creatures, especially the raccoons (and yes, Anne, even the Grackles)...
Note to anyone who condones, advocates or practices live leg trapping on "pest" creatures: The Chinese have 9000 Hells in their mythology. You are cordially invited to find the one least pleasant to you, and rot there.
Favorite T-shirt: Support Our Troop, Bring Them Home!
Favorite Button: Impeach Cheney First!
The all-time best (Since I'm a Red Cross volunteer):
Support Disaster Relief: Impeach Bush Now
RedMolly: I think Rove and Cheney are Grolims... Rummy was their choice for Election-Day sacrifice, and Condi... well, a ball-gag would certainly improve her leather costume. Maybe we can graft it in permanently...
Rob #37: A fission bomb converts something like 0.001% of its fuel mass to energy
That matches what I've always heard... which means that about two millimicrograms (worth about one oz. of C4) up Bushy Squirrel's right(wing) nostril should be juuuuuuuuust about enough to clear out his mental block...
Isn't one definition of a fool someone who keeps doing the same thing over and over when it isn't working?
Fragano, you gave me a flash of insight that explains it all...
Bush is a Murgo!
William #25: You're right, he's no neo-con. He's worse. Greatest? Please... tell me why... this I've got to hear... Not get the '08 nod? Not likely. He's their Great White Hope. And any day Bush speaks is America's darkest political day.
Anaea (#13): If you cook, have an aloe plant. Cut off a peice and rub it on a superficial burn before it starts to bother you...
As a general rule, for the first 12-24 hours, it's not a good idea to put anything gooey, thick, and/or sticky (which leaves cold water and/or wet ice packs) on the vast majority of burns. Even things that make it feel better (like your aloe) can have a detrimental effect by trapping residual heat inside the injured tissue. Cold water is great for both stopping the burn and the initial pain, but remember that even a quick burn instills a large amount of heat under the visible area. This heat must be allowed to dissipate naturally, and it takes time. Most people tend to apply feel-good-stuff way too soon since, after all, it HURTS! But in doing so, you can make the burn worse and significantly delay the healing process.
My father was a roofer, and got frequent nasty sunburns. He was taught by a firefighter to take an extremely hot shower after such a burn, and he found it helped the discomfort a lot. BUT, after years of badgering by myself, he discovered that the sunburn healed better and faster without the shower. The same holds true for sprays, creams, ointments, and even aloe (although the aloe is probably better than any of the other options).
Clark #56: Telepathy or whatever allows knowing intentions must be nice - never reliably developed in my world.
Study harder. Years of seeing a huge variety of resistance methods (and the response and attitudes of authority) on a near daily basis gives not telepathy, but good insight into the psychology of these situations. I stand by my assertion.
I'd really like to know why the official version just can't be true?
Who ever said it can't be? It changes nothing. The police used excessive force beyond the needs of the situation. They did so deliberately and with a specific plan/goal in mind. The sequence of events once the tasing began clearly indicates that.
Clark #63: 58 They [Tasers] are less lethal than firearms Depends
DEPENDS? There's a few areas of knowledge never reliably developed on your world, my friend.
Samantha #79: Nobody shouts that angrily without making similarily violent movements with their body, especially if they perceive a threat to themselves. In my opinion, from what I know and what I have perceived, the first tasering was fully justified.
Wrong and wrong. I have people shout in my face every day, and very few of them ever actually take a swing at me. In seven years, only a couple dozen have become assaultive, and only half of those make an all-out (i.e. dangerous) attack.
The first tasering was in NO WAY justified. I've been there, and this wasn't even close.
TomB #114 & Emma #115: Excellent observations.
THN #27: Have you ever been beaten to the floor? Standing up is not a natural response, unless you think it'll give you a chance to fight back or run away. Tabatabainejad wasn't in a position to do either. Standing up while you're being beaten exposes your face, throat, collarbones, abdomen, hands, and knees to direct blows. Staying down means the blows mostly land on your back.
I think you're right here. Anyone who even thinks of getting up once security has them on the floor is looking to fight. The response I've seen over and over at my Detox is that the person being subdued will go fetal and cover.
A lot of that decision (to cover or fight back) seems to be based on the methods used to get the person there. We employ absolute minimum force when possible, and the result is cooperation more often than not. Fighting back is part of a cycle of escalation that happens when extra force is used (occasionally by necessity).
When police are involved, the amount of force used initially, and the violence in the response by those being subdued (the subduee?) is almost always higher. There seems to be a point where this levels off and the overwhelming nature of the initial force is enough to keep those subdued from fighting back.
So the instinct to fight back seems to be triggered most often by medium-high force usage, which is where the video seems to place this incident.
If I can see this pattern, so can the police. By using the Taser before they had to, they were attempting to goad the student, probably because of his ethnicity. When he wouldn't fight back, they goaded him further. Disgusting.
I deal with the police and the people they take off planes, trains, and the streets every day. I'm currently awaiting a subpeona for a police brutality case that happened right in front of me. I understand the pressures that police face in their lives (my best friend is a 20-year Officer). As a ride-along, I have helped in dozens of semi-to-moderately violent arrests. All this gives me a good idea of where the line is. This one went way over the line.
Thanks for posting this thread, Teresa. Knowledge is power.
Bush War II.
Could also read: Bush II War
or even: Bush II War II (Bush II War I being Afghanistan)
(ps: Melody suggests the Sold War)
I'm waiting for someone to put Ann Coulter in Pundits of Gor...
David (#11) -- We had those in Minnesota about 20 years back, give or take. I thought they made for a clear and readable ballot, but they disappeared after only a few years... Can you send yours back here?
Of course, I'll take being asked to hand-write each candidate in reverse-Sanskrit over the Diabolical Diebold... let's hope THAT one dies a quick death...
McD (#274):Good thing there wasn't a third-party candidate for anyone to vote their conscience on. That would have sent a Republican back to Congress.
Further proof of this wisdom: Minnesota's 1st District was a total write-off for us, with SS Uberfuhrer Gil Guknecht a shoe-in for re-election. Except that today ol' Gil is clipping janitorial ads in the local paper while updating his rap sheet... I mean, resume'... while Freshman Congressman Walz books a flight to Washington.
The margin was only a couple thousand votes... multiply this by only a few Districts nationwide and the headlines would have been "Democrats Heartbroken Over Lost Opportunity"...
This was from the last thread, but I posted it there before I realized there was a better place for it...
THN: Shannon Chamberlain, Edward Oleander, it's surely possible to disagree with Scraps without calling him "undereducated".
Umm, Teresa, I was supporting Scraps... I think the re-election of Pawlenty in Minnesota today was a perfect real-world example of his logic in action. I agreed with his posts and DO NOT consider them un- or under-educated in ANY way. It was Shannon's (il)logic I was taking issue with... To me, her later post (#206) shows that she still is stretching Scraps' point well beyond it's reasonable premise and into an illogical zone that distorts what I believe he meant.
Update: It's pretty clear now that the Antichrist-in-waiting won re-election. He is coming on stage to make his victory speech as I type...
Shannon: My objection is the principle (and yes, for some people here it does seem to rise to the level of principle) that voting for a third party candidate in any race and in any context is wrong, because it "takes votes away" from someone else. Bullshit.
Tonight, Minnesota provided a perfect example of why I don't agree with you. The race was very tight, and even now has not been officially called except by AP. If it turns out the Dem lost, it will be because an Independent took about 7% of the vote. Polls indicate most of that would have gone to Mike Hatch (Dem). Now we get four more years of a man who is just plain Evil. But it might not be four more years. This victory will likely make this buttwipe (Tim Pawlenty) the leading contender for a Vice Pres bid in 2008. This makes a local disaster a national catastrophy. All because a lot of people refused to help bail because they were mad at all the boat builders. They voted in an attempt to effect long-term change in a time where we truly need emergency short term help. Doing this put their long-term goals farther away than ever. My mother would say they bit off their nose to spite their face.
Incidently, I read my guides and did my Googling. In every case, I vastly preferred the stands of the Democratic candidate. THAT is why I voted a straight Dem ticket.
THN: Shannon Chamberlain, Edward Oleander, it's surely possible to disagree with Scraps without calling him "undereducated".
Umm, Teresa, I was supporting Scraps... I think the re-election of Pawlenty in Minnesota today was a perfect real-world example of his logic in action. I agreed with his posts and DO NOT consider them un- or under-educated in ANY way. It was Shannon's (il)logic I was taking issue with... To me, her later post (#206) shows that she still is stretching Scraps' point well beyond it's reasonable premise and into an illogical zone that distorts what I believe he meant.
BTW - Your comments in #212 describe my own political journey from Reagan Republican to flaming Liberal pretty closely.
Lenora (#230): Canuck here, so my opinion doesn't influence the US election one jot (GO DEMS!) but, while some people have got a bit strident on the "Vote Domocrat straight ticket or else!", those opposing this point of view who criticise its advocates as suggesting this is the only way to go ANYWHERE, EVER, seem to have missed where this started: the people advocating it are advocating it IN THIS ELECTION; and most of them don't advocate doing it on an ordinary day (See people like Debra Doyle, amysue, and Sandy B. above).
Thank you. That was the (perhaps poorly communicated) reasoning behind my supporting the straight Dem vote idea in the first place... A one-time desperation strategy in a desperate time.
Minnesota retains Gov Tim Pawlenty... aw, fuck. Watch for him to offer multiple BJs to every Republican leader for a shot at being McCain's running mate. Trust me, it would be a BAD, BAD, double freaking BAD thing... There is still enough santorum to spread around...
| Year | Number of comments posted |
|---|---|
| 2007 | 6 |
| 2006 | 65 |
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