RNS Quote of the Day: 01/09/08

In a post somewhat related to the one below, Pudge of Sound Politics writes about Washington State’s Insurance Commissioner, Mike Kreidler, is attempting to get a bill passed that would mandate health insurance for all Washington residents, either through private insurance or government run coverage.

Kreidler makes many astonishing statements, including one about how insurance rates and taxes will not go up if his proposal gets past, to which Pudge replys

Raise your hand if you actually believe this. Then slap yourself with it.

Pudge

It is the only right thing to do.

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If you can’t prove the truth, just lie a little bit

Like this study from The Commonwealth Fund does.

Between 1997–98 and 2002–03, amenable mortality fell by an average of 16 percent in all countries except the U.S., where the decline was only 4 percent. In 1997–98, the U.S. ranked 15th out of the 19 countries on this measure—ahead of only Finland, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and Ireland—with a rate of 114.7 deaths per 100,000 people. By 2002–03, the U.S. fell to last place, with 109.7 per 100,000. In the leading countries, mortality rates per 100,000 people were 64.8 in France, 71.2 in Japan, and 71.3 in Australia.

You can read the whole thing at the above link, but out of 19 nations, it rates France as #1 and the US as last in the whole group, behind countries like Greece and Portugal.

But, oops, way down in the fine print you’ll see that this study doesn’t include most cancers (pdf). Why would they do something as blatantly dishonest as that, since cancers kill a large number of people around the world? Because the US leads the world in diagnosis and treatment of cancers, by a rather large margin I might add.

Kevin Drum at Washington Monthly puts up the graph and holds his nose up high. Too bad he can’t (or refuses) read the fine print.

Posted in Useful Idiots | Leave a comment

Works for me

I don’t know why this is proving controversial?

A lawyer for three Islamic militants convicted for their role in the 2002 Bali bombings says the mode of their upcoming execution violates Islamic law.Their lawyer, Achmad Michdan, says the men prefer to be executed by beheading rather than firing squad, which is Indonesia’s normal mode of execution.

I’m down with that. For me it is as easy as going to the bathroom: Its option “1” or “2”. Either way the toilet gets flushed.

Found at LGF

Posted in Evil walks the earth | 1 Comment

More Politics Today

What with all these people getting to vote today, I feel more than a bit left out since I have to wait until February 19th before I get the chance to do so.

Nonetheless, I’m a Friend of Fred and have come to the conclusion that I cannot vote for anyone else in either the Primary of the General and keep my conscious clean.

Here is a link to the vid Fred put out as he skipped NH and headed down to South Carolina. If you like what you hear, click on this link and donate today to keep his campaign going.

No matter what, even if the worst happens and I have no viable Fred to vote for by February 19th, I’m still casting my vote in his direction on that day.

However, if I have no Fred to vote for on November 4th, I have already decided on my write-in candidate

cthulhu4prezpreview5_2.png

I live in Washington, so my non-(R) vote isn’t going to matter and I’m going to have some fun.

Also, unlike the Repubs, The Big C’s party doesn’t screw around. They’ve already named their VP contender

Glenn Danzig

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Gotta Read

Maybe not today, but definitely sooner rather than later

First up, Eric at Classical Values takes Glenn “The Puppetmaster” Greenwald to the mat for insisting that Glenn “The Puppyblender” Reynolds is a racist for linking and quoting Jonah Goldberg writing about Obama. Includes excerpts of a post from The Puppetmaster himself that actually is racist in whole.

Speaking of race and those on the left getting away with their racism, I was listening to the TV at the gym yesterday and Matt Lauer was licking HRC’s ass in an interview and he quoted her as saying “Obama is a very inspirational speaker, but he hasn’t doe the kind of spade work to actually make his words into results” or some such nonsense.

Of course Lauer went and asked HRC about why she sees Obama as an “inspirational speaker” and said nothing about the “spade work” portion of the quote.

You cannot tell me that if anyone on the right had said that, even if they themselves were black, that we wouldn’t still be hearing about it today.

But moving on…

For sheer idiocy, you could not do better than this post from Ian Welsh at the FireDogLake blog titled “Why Financial Crises Will Keep Happening” in which he supposedly uses reason to come up with a thesis that basically states unless rich people start getting taxed at a 90-95% rate, the economy will never run smoothly again.
And lastly, I think I found this at Uncle’s place a couple days back, but this link goes to a list of things NOT found in the Constitution. A must have for those conversations with the perpetually stupid, such as those who think healthcare is a right.

Posted in Too Stupid to Live | Leave a comment

RNS Quote of the Day: 01/08/08

Lee, formerly of Right Thinking from the Left Coast, and currently of Lee in China (a blog which you should click over to right after you’re done here and just keep hitting the “Previous Entries” button) on the topic of the Iranian boats harassing the US Navy ships in the Straight of Hormuz yesterday

As someone who has personally been aboard both the USS Arleigh Burke and the USS Ticonderoga, and seen the weapons systems on these classes of ships firsthand, I would have gotten a stiffy if they had been able to unleash hell on those fucking Iranians.

Lee

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Just a tip

For Jane Hamsher of the FireDogLake blog, who is most famously know for promoting Ned “Lame-O” Lamont over Joe Lieberman in the 2006 Connecticut Primary, thereby forcing Lieberman to run as an Independent to keep his Senate seat.

After one of the Fox newsbabes asked Lieberman if he thought he would accept if McCain offered him the VP spot, Liebeman said he’d refuse.

To which Hamsher responded

Will someone get the hook and take that mendacious, crazy, warmongering old prick off the national stage?

To which the only response is: (there is a reason it is below the fold)
Continue reading →

Posted in Order of the imperial upraised middle finger. | Leave a comment

Today is the Day

I got this email last week, but thought today would be the best day to post it.

Dear Phil,

Yesterday was an amazing day! We got a ticket to the next dance!

We beat expectations and the “experts” and finished third.

I started on the Iowa bus tour nearly three weeks ago. We barnstormed through more than 50 cities and towns, covering many miles. I visited town squares, diners, fire stations, local newspapers and more.

I took my message directly to the people and they responded…and that’s why we are going on to win this election. After two national debates in New Hampshire over the weekend we will be heading to South Carolina.

But I will be honest. I must have your help.

The resources that we invested there were well spent, but have left the cupboard a little bare. We had a strong showing but we’ve got some more ground to cover.

My old pickup has driven me to victory twice in Tennessee and with the fill-up you provided last week, it drove my message home to the voters of Iowa.

The day after Christmas I challenged you to fund my media campaign. Once again the media scoffed at what we were trying to accomplish–they said Americans don’t give to campaigns the week after Christmas. It’s another one of those rules that I don’t care too much for.

Well, guess what?

Over those next three days, 4,465 Americans responded to the challenge, and invested in our consistent conservative message. The total we raised was $297,238!

Once again, we challenged the conventional wisdom and the so called experts, and proved them wrong.

Now I need your help again. I’m in this race for the long haul and I want to win.

The next target in our sights is South Carolina. It has always been critical to our plan for victory.

Like in Iowa, we have a strong organization there. And again, I will be back on the bus, visiting key cities and towns, talking directly to the people.

Television advertising is critical to our success. I need your help to make sure that we have the resources to capitalize on our momentum and take our message to the airwaves.

Once again, I’m calling on my friends.

Beginning now, for the next 7 days, we need to nearly double our last challenge.

I need your help to increase our budget by $539,492.

I also need your help adding to our tremendous online community. I want to get as many people on board to hear the news of this campaign directly from me, and not through the filter of the main stream media. I want to increase our Friends by 50,000.

When we hit that goal, we will be able to reach the voters that we need…our conservative message will get out.

Every penny will go to South Carolina media. Every penny will move us one step closer to victory.

We did it before. And today we have the momentum. Let’s do it again.

I’ve got to have your support to make it happen. We’re a team.

On to victory!

Sincerely,

Fred Thompson

Also included in the email was a request for me to forward this message on to ten friends and ask them to become “Friends of Fred”. I hope that I can get all ten of the people who will be stopping by RNS today to do that and contribute whatever they can to help get him a 1st or 2nd place finish in South Carolina.

I’m in the process of doubling my last contribution (half now, half this upcoming Friday).

We saw in Iowa that when the words gets spread, the people vote for Fred. Help him spread the word.

Make Frederalism a word your co-workers and neighbors understand.

Click here to visit and/or donate.

Posted in Kewel! | 2 Comments

That is Why

You have to kill them.

Sex offenders at state center are getting porn

The state’s treatment center on McNeil Island for its most predatory sex offenders is surrounded by concertina wire and security cameras. Mail and visitors are searched, and the staff can’t even bring iPods to work.

But that hasn’t kept some men held at the Special Commitment Center (SCC) from getting their hands on thousands of images of child pornography.

In the past two years, at least four of the 267 residents have been charged with possessing illegal pornography, and officials there are investigating several others. The latest case emerged just before Christmas, when the FBI arrested a 49-year-old child molester who had computer CDs full of graphic child pornography stashed in his room.

Managers of the SCC say they don’t know how the material is getting in. The most recent arrest has prompted at least one personnel investigation, though no one has been disciplined.

However it’s happening, the managers agree with law-enforcement leaders that it’s unacceptable. All of the men have proven, sexually violent urges and must undergo treatment before they can ever be released into society.

Well, what do you know? Government employees can be incompetent!

Not real big news there. We’ve seen government paid head-shrinkers let rapists and murderers loose over and over and over again, with the same old result: More rapes and more murders.

Which is why I was shocked when I saw that Louisiana actually got something right (link found at 4RWWs)

Supreme Court to rule on death penalty for child rape

The Supreme Court said on Friday it would decide whether the death penalty can be imposed for the crime of raping a child, expanding its review of how capital punishment is carried out in the United States.

The highest U.S. court agreed to hear an appeal by a Louisiana man who is the only person in the United States on death row for a crime other than murder. He is arguing the death penalty for child rape violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

This guy’d be dog food if it were up to me. “Rape” period: Child, adult, quadraped, etc., if you sexually violate anything with a state of consciousness higher than a cantaloupe, it would be a death penalty deserving offense.

But I’ll be called “unreasonable” anywhere but here for those ideas.

Oh, here are two more news stories from last week involving murders and rapists from just up the interstate

Convicted killer Brian Peak is set to be released from prison after serving 14 years for murdering 16-year-old Melanie Santiago in 1987.

Peak is moving in with his mother who lives across the street from a Lincoln Elementary School in Hoquiam.“It makes me furious, I’ve got two teenagers. There’s a grade school that only goes up to grade six living right across the alley.

That scares me to death,” neighbor Mary Anne Myers said.According to state documents obtained by KIRO 7 Eyewitness News, Peak has been diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic with a history of failing to take his medication.According to police, because of the laws at the time of Peak’s conviction, he is allowed to move in with his mother and will not be supervised by the Department of Corrections.

“They’re pretty much powerless to do anything to keep an eye on this guy once he’s out and we just want to ensure that the public is safe,” Sgt. Steve Fretts with the Hoquiam Police Department said.In response to public concern, Hoquiam police created a public bulletin about Peak’s release noting that he has the right to live as a “free man.”

“I don’t think he belongs around the school, I really don’t,” neighbor Dennis Caruthers said.

Well then, you and all your now outraged neighbors shouldn’t have voted for the wuss candidate (aka: Any Democrat) back in the 80’s. This guy should be dead via the noose or the needle (yes, tossing his ass off the Space Needle counts as “The Needle” to me).

But for ultimate injustice, try this one

Joshua Hoge doesn’t need much spending money these days. Behind the locked doors of Western State Hospital, his basic needs — food, clothes and a constant stream of antipsychotic medications to keep his delusions at bay — are paid for by the state.

But Hoge has the chance to one day become a wealthy man.

From inside Western State, where he’s spent most of his time since stabbing his mother and brother to death with a butcher knife in 1999, Hoge is fighting to inherit part of his mother’s estate.

Should he succeed, it could be a windfall for the 37-year-old schizophrenic, who was found not guilty of the slayings by reason of insanity.

After Hoge killed his mother, Pamela Kissinger, her family won $800,000 in a civil suit against King County when it was determined that a public-health clinic had failed to give Hoge his medication and was partially responsible for the slayings.

Oh yeah! State screws up and gets the mother murdered, has to give her estate money, and now the murderous and still insane son is quite possibly going to get his hands on it to fund the lawyers that can get him out of the mental hospital early!

What is so damn wrong with offing a mentally deranged individual who is willing to murder? Just cause their brain is tweaked does not mean they should get a free walk around the bases. If they’d have been caught in the act by someone with enough wherewithal to stop it, they’d be dead.

Why the soft and cuddly after the fact?

Posted in Evil walks the earth | 1 Comment

RNS Quote of the Day: 01/07/08

First QotD of the New Year! And its a two-fer!

I was just going to borrow this quote from the Samizdata.Net blog

Imagine telling somebody twenty years ago that by 2007, it would be illegal to smoke in a pub or bus shelter or your own vehicle or that there would be £80 fines for dropping cigarette butts, or that the words “tequila slammer” would be illegal or the government would mandate what angle a drinker’s head in an advertisement may be tipped at, or that it would be illegal to criticise religions or homosexuality, or rewire your own house, or that having sex after a few drinks would be classed as rape or that the State would be confiscating children for being overweight. Imagine telling them the government would be contemplating ration cards for fuel and even foods, that every citizen would be required to carry an ID card filled with private information which could be withdrawn at the state’s whim. They’d have thought you a paranoid loon.

Ian B. – Samizdata commenter

He’s partially right. There were people saying these things, they were called Republicans. Unfortunately, by 1992 those fears had largely subsided and, oddly enough, the people who were still saying these things were only then called paranoid.

So take some time and find and old political discussion adversary and pour some water on them.

Why, you ask?

Well, fellow Samizdata commenter “countingcats” supplies the answer in just the first couple comments of the above link, referring to those who denied these things would happen

Seriously, if these people were any more stupid they would need watering twice a week.

And as soon as I get a moment, this’ll be in the rotating comment box file.

Advisory: Please resist the urge to use urine as the liquid for the former adversary.

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