Now I remember why I was an independent all those years.

[Atticus]

67% of Americans polled believe in polls

[Good Old Neon]

67% of Americans polled believe in polls

 

And 48% of those respondents strongly agree that they were being hit-on by their respective poll-er.

[moxiebean]

I think Death Panel For Grandma would be an awesome name for a Ben Gibbard tribute band.

[bobbob1313]

You son of a bitch.

[Atticus]

have any spineless democrats showed up yet to defend themselves for aborting old people?

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

have any spineless democrats showed up yet to defend themselves for aborting old people?

 

Two words here:

 

Soylent Green

[ikol]

I read Atlas Shrugged and thought it was a pretty awful book. Basically, as Good Old Neon says, it is poorly written on just about every level I can think of.

 

ikol, did you like the book itself, or the theme(s) of the book? Just curious. Obviously, plenty of people like the book itself.

 

Agreeing (somewhat) with the themes certainly helped, but I actually liked it more for the plot. I first read it back in high school when I was still forming my beliefs and didn't know much about Ayn Rand, so it wasn't just that I was a rabid fan of her philosophy. The writing style is pretty simple and there are definitely plenty of over the top dramatic parts, but it had a plot that kept me interested. I never would've thought I could get through a 1200 page book about a railroad company.

[kwall]

the fountainhead > atlas shrugged

[M. (hristine]

you know, there will be a lot of fake boobs buried in the ground in another 40 years or so

Interesting thought.

 

Someone told me not long ago that I was one of the few women he knew who still had a uterus.

 

Wombless and plastic boobed, we have acually become Barbie dolls. Better living through science!

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

Jewish.

 

Or he might be a gypsy.

 

 

One of the most perfect exchanges ever recorded for posterity. Obama ain't Moses and he damn sure ain't Hitler. I think ridicule is the best way to handle batshit crazy people.

[ikol]

the fountainhead > atlas shrugged

 

Agreed.

[Good Old Neon]

And sure enough, as if on queue…

 

Democrats Alienating Themselves From Voters?

 

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,540600,00.html

 

Snippet:

 

HANNITY: What do you make — I'm watching Barney Frank and it doesn't really surprise me. And he's got a very safe district. But the arrogance, the condescension, you know, the battling with the voters. Something's changed and I can't quite pinpoint what it is. I've never seen voters attack this way. Have you?

 

Now, if I’m not mistaken, Hannity et al had a field day mocking folks who compared their lord and savior, George Bush to Hitler, yet now that the jackboot is on the other foot, these crazies are fine, upstanding voters just looking for answers. Barney handled it the way it should have been handled from the beginning, swiftly, bluntly and honestly. You want to speak and behave like a moron, fine, more power to you, but if you do, you ought to be prepared to suffer the consequences.

 

Some day, and this day cannot come soon enough, the pressure resulting from the cognitive dissonance within the heads of these right wing assholes is going to reach a tipping point, and when it does, their melons are going to erupt in Scanner-like explosions, en masse.

 

[Oil Can Boyd]

what ethnicity is that exactly?

That article got his quote wrong. He actually said "I'm going to revert to my ethnic heritage and answer your question with a question ..."

[Atticus]

Some day, and this day cannot come soon enough, the pressure resulting from the cognitive dissonance within the heads of these right wing assholes is going to reach a tipping point, and when it does, their melons are going to erupt in Scanner-like explosions, en masse.

 

my money is on your head exploding from irritation and resentment long before the event you just described.

 

I really think you could use that sno cone I offered. Or at least a few donut holes.

[Good Old Neon]

my money is on your head exploding from irritation and resentment long before the event you just described.

 

I really think you could use that sno cone I offered. Or at least a few donut holes.

 

You might be right. What are the odds on me getting a dozen of those Sno Cones?

[Atticus]

I will work on that and let you know. it may involve some dry ice.

 

deep breaths in the meantime.

[Tweedling]

I loved the part when Barney "Elmer Fudd" Fwank brought up the Iraq war during the Health Care town hall meeting. I think the woman who used Nazi to describe the HC bill was completely out of place but Barney, try and stay on point here.

[bobbob1313]

The way the right attacks Barney Frank for things not having to do with his politics is pretty disgusting. I was watching the video of his response to that woman on Youtube and the first similar video was "The 600,000,000,000 FAG".

 

Rush Limbaugh also likes to play clips of him altered to have a chipmunk voice and then plays a parody song called "Banking Queen" over top of it.

 

Attacking an openly gay politician for being gay in our country is pretty fucking low, in my opinion. It takes a really brave person to be able to put up with the bullshit that comes along with just being openly gay, let alone being openly gay in the public eye and being a divisive political figure to boot. It would be very easy for him to slink back in the shadows.

[Guest Speed Racer]

Attacking an openly gay politician for being gay in our country is pretty fucking low, in my opinion. It takes a really brave person to be able to put up with the bullshit that comes along with just being openly gay, let alone being openly gay in the public eye and being a divisive political figure to boot. It would be very easy for him to slink back in the shadows.

 

Very well put. I think it says a lot about the character and quality of people who attack him for his sexuality when, as you say, his politics themselves are divisive - an easy target for constructive criticism, if there ever was one. Thankfully for him, the GLBT community, and his constituents, I think your last sentence is dead-wrong. Barney Frank loves attention, and I don't mean that in a bad way at all. He thrives in the spotlight - if he didn't, he wouldn't be the congressman that he is.

[ih8music]

 

Now, if I’m not mistaken, Hannity et al had a field day mocking folks who compared their lord and savior, George Bush to Hitler, yet now that the jackboot is on the other foot, these crazies are fine, upstanding voters just looking for answers. Barney handled it the way it should have been handled from the beginning, swiftly, bluntly and honestly. You want to speak and behave like a moron, fine, more power to you, but if you do, you ought to be prepared to suffer the consequences.

 

John Stewart had a pretty good segment about this last night. On Fox, protesting against the president was considered horribly wrong and unpatriotic... up until jan 2009. now these people are portrayed as heroes and defenders of democracy.

 

And to be fair, I don't have much of an issue with people yelling crazy shit and even being disruptive during townhalls (with the exception of those bringing weapons to the rallies) - it's been done before and it'll be done again. What I do have issue with is how "the media" (i.e. Hannity, Rush, Beck, etc.) portray these groups as being representative of some type of national uprising, whereas other protesters who don't align with conservative ideology would still be considered extreme zealots. People who use rhetoric like Obama is a Nazi or protest about insane, implausible stuff like death panels should not be portrayed as "concerned citizens" opposed to healthcare reform.

 

To steal Dana Gould's line... you know who should be compared to Hitler? Hitler! (...and maybe Chaplin)

[ikol]

Aren't a lot of the people comparing Obama to Hitler with the Lyndon LaRouche cult?

[kwall]

. . . implausible stuff like death panels . . .

"death panels" aren't really implausible. we already have them in the insurance companies. any group of people (panel) who can deny coverage for some life-saving procedure (hence, resulting in death) could be called a death panel. as i understand the whole "death panel" issue as raised by palin, it is a caution against assuming that the proposed government insurance agency will never deny coverage. of course, it must, and will.

 

seems to me that, here, as with most issues, the point of contention is that liberals are afraid of this power residing with businesses, while conservatives are afraid of this power residing with the government.

[ih8music]

"death panels" aren't really implausible. we already have them in the insurance companies. any group of people (panel) who can deny coverage for some life-saving procedure (hence, resulting in death) could be called a death panel. as i understand the whole "death panel" issue as raised by palin, it is a caution against assuming that the proposed government insurance agency will never deny coverage. of course, it must, and will.

you're giving Palin more credit than she deserves... here's what she said

 

The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.

 

the "level of productivity to society" twist is the horribly cynical, fear-mongering part of it. She wasn't making a rational argument that even the govt's system will have limitations that need to be flushed out and may have consequences on the level of care one receives - she's instead creating this imagery of the gov't using this system as a means of thinning out the herd.

 

They're completely different arguments - one makes sense and is worth debating, the other is lunacy.

 

seems to me that, here, as with most issues, the point of contention is that liberals are afraid of this power residing with businesses, while conservatives are afraid of this power residing with the government.

that's a fair statement. I personally would rather have it in the hands of someone accountable to me politically rather than someone trying to maximize his profits.

[Beltmann]

Aren't a lot of the people comparing Obama to Hitler with the Lyndon LaRouche cult?

Well, "a lot" is relative and I don't know what you mean by it. Regardless, I think we can agree that the vast majority of Obama-is-Hitler protesters are aligned with right-wing groups rather than LaRouche. The more relevant point deals with how each side of the spectrum generally treats their lunatic fringe: While mainstream Democrats have a long record of shunning and marginalizing LaRouche types (like Frank dismissing that woman), mainstream Republicans are now actively courting and riling up their crazies (like DeLay validating the birthers last night).

[Beltmann]

"death panels" aren't really implausible. we already have them in the insurance companies.

When Sarah Palin declares in a speech that our current private insurance system is "downright evil," and concedes that the current push for reform is designed partly to address how private denial of coverage is killing people, then we can talk about whether she has any intellectual honesty.