If all six Republican apointees to the New! Improved! Super Mini-Me Congress have signed Grover Norquist's Blood Oath to never, ever raise taxes, and this super committee is supposed to be one of those "Let's Solve The Budget Deficit Problem Committee Wherein Everything's On The Table," how's that gonna work?
Shall we start taking bets now?
Showing posts with label Budget battle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Budget battle. Show all posts
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Friday, August 05, 2011
Millionaire America. Happy at last!
Calhoun’s Can(n)ons for August 5, 2011
Whew! That was a close one. A band of crazed Democratic socialists in Congress were threatening to reduce the country’s massive debt by both making cuts in various government programs, including Medicare and Social Security, and – horrors! –by balancing those cuts with higher taxes on the rich and super rich, until the newly elected Tea Partiers saved the day, took the country hostage and threatened to take our economy over the cliff unless Congress promised that there would be No Taxes, not even on the ultra rich.
Not wishing to see the US economy ruined, which could have triggered a world-wide crash, the weenie Dems caved. Now, you’d think that such a meek capitulation would make the average working American furious, knowing that they alone would be the ones bearing all the pain of cuts to their safety net, but, no. They were jubilant because Americans, no matter what their station in life, truly believe that they are the millionaires and billionaires that the proposed tax hikes would have affected.
Which is why they elect and re-elect representatives who are rabid Norquistian No Taxers, staunch ideologues who believe in the theory that millionaires and billionaires (like the voters) are “job creators,” and that taxes are “job killers,” even though there is little historical evidence to support either claim.
And, believing themselves to be millionaires, the American voters also don’t need or want any social safety nets either, and vote accordingly. They’re apparently convinced that they’ll never lose their jobs (don’t need any of that socialistic unemployment insurance; that’s just another government give-away). They also believe that they’ll never lose their job-related health insurance or that their health will never fail (don’t need or want any kind of national health-care reform, and certainly not some awful socialized medicine like Medicare.) Being rich, they don’t’ need it. The private market will take care of their few needs. And if it doesn’t, well, that’s no problem. They have millions. They’ll just pay the doctor and hospital out of pocket.
And as for getting old and needing some kind of “social security?” Not needed. They’re rich and will pay their own way.
And so, in the middle of a near depression, they elected lots of new cut ‘n slash Tea Partiers and re-elected their staunch oath-signing No Tax Norquistian incumbents and sent them to Congress to slash the budget and cut government programs to the bone, and/or to try to kill them altogether. And keep taxes low or zero on millionaires and billionaires (and corporations who’ve skated out of paying taxes altogether) so all those non-tax-paying “job creators” can create jobs. And if you look around you, you’ll see how well it’s worked. The corporations that were awash with hoarded money, paying out obscene bonuses to their CEO’s, and/or getting tax breaks for moving jobs off shore, have, with this latest budget deal, started hiring again. Factories are humming. Every day I can hardly lift up the newspaper, so heavy is it with “help wanted” listings from all these “job creators.” Companies are desperately opening up hiring halls in towns across America just begging people to come work. And Millionaire America is once again filling the malls and shopping centers, buying everything in sight. I can only imagine the kind of sugar plum dream retailers will have this Christmas.
All of which is great news since the recently promised cuts-only to the federal budget will mean that hundreds of thousands of federal employees are about to lose their jobs and be added to the unemployment rolls. And those federal cuts will also trickle down to add to budget woes in the states, with state employees getting even more pink-slips as well. But, not to worry. Federal, state and city workers are all millionaires, too. And all those private sector, un-taxed, cash-hoarding job-creators are ready for them! Step right up. Here’s a job application blank. Name your salary! Happy days are here again.
Talk about a win-win for Millionaire America where every man thinks he’s King Croesus and votes accordingly. And if that wasn’t enough good news, Congress, always messy and often dysfunctional at best, has now decided to make itself irrelevant. It will create a tiny new Super Congress – the Gang of 12 – that will decide what to do about the budget. Talk about Grover Norquist’s wet-dream; make government small enough to drown in a bathtub. Grover’s never been able to drown the real Congress before – it was too big. He couldn’t fit them all into his house, let alone into his bathtub. But twelve unelected people?
Ah, piece of cake.
Whew! That was a close one. A band of crazed Democratic socialists in Congress were threatening to reduce the country’s massive debt by both making cuts in various government programs, including Medicare and Social Security, and – horrors! –by balancing those cuts with higher taxes on the rich and super rich, until the newly elected Tea Partiers saved the day, took the country hostage and threatened to take our economy over the cliff unless Congress promised that there would be No Taxes, not even on the ultra rich.
Not wishing to see the US economy ruined, which could have triggered a world-wide crash, the weenie Dems caved. Now, you’d think that such a meek capitulation would make the average working American furious, knowing that they alone would be the ones bearing all the pain of cuts to their safety net, but, no. They were jubilant because Americans, no matter what their station in life, truly believe that they are the millionaires and billionaires that the proposed tax hikes would have affected.
Which is why they elect and re-elect representatives who are rabid Norquistian No Taxers, staunch ideologues who believe in the theory that millionaires and billionaires (like the voters) are “job creators,” and that taxes are “job killers,” even though there is little historical evidence to support either claim.
And, believing themselves to be millionaires, the American voters also don’t need or want any social safety nets either, and vote accordingly. They’re apparently convinced that they’ll never lose their jobs (don’t need any of that socialistic unemployment insurance; that’s just another government give-away). They also believe that they’ll never lose their job-related health insurance or that their health will never fail (don’t need or want any kind of national health-care reform, and certainly not some awful socialized medicine like Medicare.) Being rich, they don’t’ need it. The private market will take care of their few needs. And if it doesn’t, well, that’s no problem. They have millions. They’ll just pay the doctor and hospital out of pocket.
And as for getting old and needing some kind of “social security?” Not needed. They’re rich and will pay their own way.
And so, in the middle of a near depression, they elected lots of new cut ‘n slash Tea Partiers and re-elected their staunch oath-signing No Tax Norquistian incumbents and sent them to Congress to slash the budget and cut government programs to the bone, and/or to try to kill them altogether. And keep taxes low or zero on millionaires and billionaires (and corporations who’ve skated out of paying taxes altogether) so all those non-tax-paying “job creators” can create jobs. And if you look around you, you’ll see how well it’s worked. The corporations that were awash with hoarded money, paying out obscene bonuses to their CEO’s, and/or getting tax breaks for moving jobs off shore, have, with this latest budget deal, started hiring again. Factories are humming. Every day I can hardly lift up the newspaper, so heavy is it with “help wanted” listings from all these “job creators.” Companies are desperately opening up hiring halls in towns across America just begging people to come work. And Millionaire America is once again filling the malls and shopping centers, buying everything in sight. I can only imagine the kind of sugar plum dream retailers will have this Christmas.
All of which is great news since the recently promised cuts-only to the federal budget will mean that hundreds of thousands of federal employees are about to lose their jobs and be added to the unemployment rolls. And those federal cuts will also trickle down to add to budget woes in the states, with state employees getting even more pink-slips as well. But, not to worry. Federal, state and city workers are all millionaires, too. And all those private sector, un-taxed, cash-hoarding job-creators are ready for them! Step right up. Here’s a job application blank. Name your salary! Happy days are here again.
Talk about a win-win for Millionaire America where every man thinks he’s King Croesus and votes accordingly. And if that wasn’t enough good news, Congress, always messy and often dysfunctional at best, has now decided to make itself irrelevant. It will create a tiny new Super Congress – the Gang of 12 – that will decide what to do about the budget. Talk about Grover Norquist’s wet-dream; make government small enough to drown in a bathtub. Grover’s never been able to drown the real Congress before – it was too big. He couldn’t fit them all into his house, let alone into his bathtub. But twelve unelected people?
Ah, piece of cake.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Nope, Republicans Aren't Fit To Rule
And it isn’t just the looney-tune Tea Partiers. Nope. Even the old guard has drunk the Grover Norquist Kool-Aid. Which is funny, but telling.
When addicts want to pretend that they’re going to sober up, the first thing they do is swear an oath that, Tes, indeedy, they won’t touch Demon Rum ever again, promise, promise, promise! They’ll even sign The Pledge. Then, because their word is worthless since they have absolutely no control over themselves, they lock up the booze or pills, then put the key in a big carton of water and put it in the freezer so that in a few hours, when they just gotta have that drink or that pill, they’ll have to get out an ice pick and hack away at the block of ice. They think that’ll keep them from their drug of choice.
That’s what Republicans are now reduced to – having already signed Grover Norquist’s No Tax Pledge, now they’re pushing a Balanced Budget Amendment (the equivalent of that block of ice) since they’re simply incapable of governing, incapable of making the basic decisions our elected representatives are asked to make: raise revenue, then spend revenue for the public good. That process takes self control, and a certain level of pragmatic toughness and the flexibility to say no at certain times, yes at certain times and sometimes to say yes and no at the same time, as in Yes to that amount, No to that amount. But Republicans aren’t capable of doing that. Like any addict, they went on an 8 year binge and put two wars, a drug entitlement program and tax breaks for the wealthy (their “base”) on the national credit card (aided and abetted by their fellow Drunk Democrats) and now it’s time to pay the bill, they refuse. Instead, they’re busy proposing to sell the house and children and are now desperately trying to get an amendment to the constitution (which will take years, if ever) instead of simply doing their job – pass a compromised debt bill that gave them nearly everything they asked for.
But they walked away. They can’t help it. They’re not in control of themselves and are now desperately looking for something – A pledge! A Law! A Constitutional Amendment!-- that will remove all responsibility for their actions from themselves and locate it in some external control.
And if the country defaults and the economy goes to hell? Not important.
Nope. Unfit to rule.
On the other hand, I must admit to a certain sense of gleeful anticipation of a default – the vast majority of people who voted these Tea Partiers and Norquistians into office are not The Super Wealthy – they’re mostly (scared, angry) working folk, (the same ones the past 8 years of wealth transfer upline has hit the hardest), the less well-to-do, the elderly, the very people who will be hardest hit by any economic chaos that will ensue. It’s their Medicare that will be slammed, their 401-k’s that will diminish, their car-loan that will cost more, their local federally funded programs that will bite them most heavily.
While the shocked cries of, “Hey, I wanted Big Government drowned in the bathtub, but that didn’t mean MY benefits!!” will be music to my ears, there will, sadly, be a whole lot of silent people trapped in a world of hurt and that won’t be music of any kind.
But then, that’s what happens when you elect addicts. Their lack of self control causes no end of chaos and pain for those around them. It’s the nature of the disease. And if the voters keep enabling them, well, then they’ll get the sad consequences as well.
From the Fury of Norse Boys Who Feel Small and Sexually Inadequate, God Deliver Us
It was the penis, of course. It usually is, finally, ultimately, the penis and a little boy worried about his, worried that his little playmates would call him a sissy, a little boy longing for his distant father, a young man upset and angry that his divorced mother was “feminizing” him, worried that his “liberal” countrymen were soft (feminized) panty-waists. Secretly worried that he might be gay, or might be considered less than a manly-man. So he mooned over and dreamed of the most homo-erotic male-bonding fantasy of all: The Knights Templar.
And brooded about the 1683 Siege of Vienna, and followed anti-Muslim blogs (including many American right-wing “Christian” hate blogs) whose bread and butter consisted of drumming up fear of the dreaded Other and urging manly-men to come to the defense of Europe once again – Manly Christian Crusade! Manly Knights Templar! Swords and the Clash of Civilization! Exactly what a little boy angry at Mummy and fearful that his penis was inadequate would be drawn to.
So he got a gun. And made bombs. And dreamed of being a hero. A Christian Crusading Knight. Big penis. Big manly muscles. Big in all ways. A savior of Europe. A Viking Scourge. The Hammer of God. That’d show Mummy.
Then he fired off his big bomb then went to a summer camp and killed children. When captured by authorities (so much for being a Viking no-quarter-asked hero heading for Valhalla), his defense attorney declared that it’s likely that he’s “insane.” But “insanity” isn’t what his pathetic, egotistical manifesto reveals. What it ultimately all came back to was this: A little boy worried about his penis.
That’s what it always comes down to: Small frightened, confused, wounded children. And the price society ultimately pays for those untreated wounds is always ferocious.
When addicts want to pretend that they’re going to sober up, the first thing they do is swear an oath that, Tes, indeedy, they won’t touch Demon Rum ever again, promise, promise, promise! They’ll even sign The Pledge. Then, because their word is worthless since they have absolutely no control over themselves, they lock up the booze or pills, then put the key in a big carton of water and put it in the freezer so that in a few hours, when they just gotta have that drink or that pill, they’ll have to get out an ice pick and hack away at the block of ice. They think that’ll keep them from their drug of choice.
That’s what Republicans are now reduced to – having already signed Grover Norquist’s No Tax Pledge, now they’re pushing a Balanced Budget Amendment (the equivalent of that block of ice) since they’re simply incapable of governing, incapable of making the basic decisions our elected representatives are asked to make: raise revenue, then spend revenue for the public good. That process takes self control, and a certain level of pragmatic toughness and the flexibility to say no at certain times, yes at certain times and sometimes to say yes and no at the same time, as in Yes to that amount, No to that amount. But Republicans aren’t capable of doing that. Like any addict, they went on an 8 year binge and put two wars, a drug entitlement program and tax breaks for the wealthy (their “base”) on the national credit card (aided and abetted by their fellow Drunk Democrats) and now it’s time to pay the bill, they refuse. Instead, they’re busy proposing to sell the house and children and are now desperately trying to get an amendment to the constitution (which will take years, if ever) instead of simply doing their job – pass a compromised debt bill that gave them nearly everything they asked for.
But they walked away. They can’t help it. They’re not in control of themselves and are now desperately looking for something – A pledge! A Law! A Constitutional Amendment!-- that will remove all responsibility for their actions from themselves and locate it in some external control.
And if the country defaults and the economy goes to hell? Not important.
Nope. Unfit to rule.
On the other hand, I must admit to a certain sense of gleeful anticipation of a default – the vast majority of people who voted these Tea Partiers and Norquistians into office are not The Super Wealthy – they’re mostly (scared, angry) working folk, (the same ones the past 8 years of wealth transfer upline has hit the hardest), the less well-to-do, the elderly, the very people who will be hardest hit by any economic chaos that will ensue. It’s their Medicare that will be slammed, their 401-k’s that will diminish, their car-loan that will cost more, their local federally funded programs that will bite them most heavily.
While the shocked cries of, “Hey, I wanted Big Government drowned in the bathtub, but that didn’t mean MY benefits!!” will be music to my ears, there will, sadly, be a whole lot of silent people trapped in a world of hurt and that won’t be music of any kind.
But then, that’s what happens when you elect addicts. Their lack of self control causes no end of chaos and pain for those around them. It’s the nature of the disease. And if the voters keep enabling them, well, then they’ll get the sad consequences as well.
From the Fury of Norse Boys Who Feel Small and Sexually Inadequate, God Deliver Us
It was the penis, of course. It usually is, finally, ultimately, the penis and a little boy worried about his, worried that his little playmates would call him a sissy, a little boy longing for his distant father, a young man upset and angry that his divorced mother was “feminizing” him, worried that his “liberal” countrymen were soft (feminized) panty-waists. Secretly worried that he might be gay, or might be considered less than a manly-man. So he mooned over and dreamed of the most homo-erotic male-bonding fantasy of all: The Knights Templar.
And brooded about the 1683 Siege of Vienna, and followed anti-Muslim blogs (including many American right-wing “Christian” hate blogs) whose bread and butter consisted of drumming up fear of the dreaded Other and urging manly-men to come to the defense of Europe once again – Manly Christian Crusade! Manly Knights Templar! Swords and the Clash of Civilization! Exactly what a little boy angry at Mummy and fearful that his penis was inadequate would be drawn to.
So he got a gun. And made bombs. And dreamed of being a hero. A Christian Crusading Knight. Big penis. Big manly muscles. Big in all ways. A savior of Europe. A Viking Scourge. The Hammer of God. That’d show Mummy.
Then he fired off his big bomb then went to a summer camp and killed children. When captured by authorities (so much for being a Viking no-quarter-asked hero heading for Valhalla), his defense attorney declared that it’s likely that he’s “insane.” But “insanity” isn’t what his pathetic, egotistical manifesto reveals. What it ultimately all came back to was this: A little boy worried about his penis.
That’s what it always comes down to: Small frightened, confused, wounded children. And the price society ultimately pays for those untreated wounds is always ferocious.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Well, That Explains It
Finally, proof positive: The Republicans are full of crap.
For years they’ve galloped around ringing those bells and shooting those guns and hollering about the deficits! The deficits! The deficits! They demanded government cuts, cut ‘er to the bone because the deficits were too high and we’re all gonna die in the streets like dawgs!
So, they go into negotiations with the Dems, demanding more and more cuts and the President keeps seeing them and raising them (including tossing Social Security and Medicare into the “cut” pile) until they had on the table four trillion in cuts versus one trillion in higher taxes for the wealthiest Americans, as well as closed tax loopholes that aren’t helping the economy and certainly aren’t “creating any jobs.”
And the Republicans walked away. Four to one. Four to one! And they walked, willing to let the country go into default in order to further their own political careers and to protect their wealthy clients (what George Bush called “my base”).
Of course, the American people put all these extremist Tea Partiers and Republicans into office so they could drive America off the financial cliff rather than remove a tax break on rich folks’ second, vacation homes. This in a country where a good many people’s first and only homes are under water and another good chunk of people don’t have any homes any more.
Conservative columnist David Brooks, in a recent NY Times column, said he is beginning to believe that Republicans are not fit to rule.
He’s right.
Speaking of Unfit
Dan DeVaul is once again facing jail time for running a “sober living” Sunny Acres facility for homeless people by housing them in buildings that aren’t up to code and that the County feels are unsafe. And they aren’t up to code because, at this point, bringing them up to code would cost about $25,000 for the various building fees required to begin work.
And who could waive the fees so getting the upgrades done so the people living there now wouldn’t have to return to living in the creek? The Planning Commission. And have they done so? Not to my knowledge.
So, DeVaul may go to the hoosegow and the judge will decide on August 5th whether the people now living there must vacate the place entirely and go live in the creek (which everyone agrees is MORE unsafe, unsanitary, and illegal than Sunny Acres, but there you are) and the situation goes once more into an unsolved mess.
True, true, for the years this mess has gone on, both De Vaul and the County repeatedly had a chance to ask themselves: Do you want to be right or do you want to get something done? And they repeatedly wanted to be right, so here we are again at Stupid.
Let’s hope the County Planning Commission waives the fees. Then, perhaps a separate Board can be formed that would be co-administered by the Board and whatever County bureau oversees homeless issues, and subject to full audits. (I add that caveat because I think this has been a sick game for De Vaul and before anyone sends him or Sunny Acres a dime, I’d want a serious check on those donations.) Then a campaign to raise building and fix ‘er up money could be started so Sunny Acres can continue offering the homeless a sober-living place that may help solve some of their problems.
But I won’t hold my breath. In the game of rights fighting, sick, homeless people just become pawns. So, I’m betting on the creek at this point.
I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do.
The New York Times reports that Kody Brown, a polygamist from Utah (and who’s starring in the TV show, “Sister Wives,”) is planning on filing a lawsuit to challenge the polygamy law based on “the 2003 United States Supreme Court decision, Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down state sodomy laws as unconstitutional intrusions on the ‘intimate conduct’ of consenting adults. It will ask the federal courts to tell states that they cannot punish polygamists for their own “intimate conduct” so long as they are not breaking other laws, like those regarding child abuse, incest or seeking multiple marriage licenses. . . . Making polygamous unions illegal, they argue, violates the due process and equal protection clauses of the 14th Amendment, as well as the free exercise, establishment, free speech and freedom of association clauses of the First Amendment.”
Well, bring it on, I say. If you support gay marriage, then can polygamy be far behind? Or polyandry? (Having spent Sunday shoveling out the garage and cleaning out all the gutters, soaking wet and scampering up and down ladders, the thought of having several husbands with their long Honey-Do lists began to look positively lovely along about 3 p.m. let me tell you!)
Mr. Brown, his four wives and 16 children and stepchildren are in for a battle, but the question remains: Why not? Adults are fee to live together now in whatever grouping they want to, providing they don’t violate zoning laws (too many people under one roof) and men and women regularly make babies all willy-nilly and all minus a marriage certificate. And blended families and so-called “serial marriages” result in some pretty confusing hers/his/ours homes.
So why not legitimize the ad-hoc arrangement, thereby allowing baby daddies to legally sign on to their offspring and legally give wives the civil protections of “marriage/civil unions,” rather than continue the muddled mess we have now?
True, there are serious issues in the minority of isolated Mormon fundamentalist groups of illegal child marriages and the stultifying fundamentalist culture of keeping the women subservient, pregnant and uneducated and tossing the excess young boys out of the fold, but those issues can be found in other wacky religious cults and other weird fundamentalist religions groups, all of which are protected under the first amendment. Plus, those issues don’t seem to be what Mr. Brown and his TV family are dealing with – being all well educated, modern and wealthy. And likely those issues wouldn’t be what a larger group of polygamists would be dealing with.
So, I say, bring it on. Time to have that public discussion: Just what is “marriage” anyway, and just what connection should the state have in deciding how we create (and un-create) our “families?” If the state’s reason for getting involved is based on protection of the young and vulnerable and in seeing to administering a set of laws can deal with property issues and financial responsibilities and rights of inheritance & etc, then all of those issues surely would aid a polygamous household even more than a monogamous one.
It’s About Time
President Obama is now sending condolence letters to the families of members of the military who have committed suicide. Good on him. It’s about time. And may be a sign that finally – FINALLY – the military is beginning to understand just how lethal PTSD and acute stress reactions can be to soldiers. (Or anybody else for that matter.)
Stress and trauma are killers – literally. The toll they take on the physical body is as deadly as cancer or heart disease. This isn’t a matter of some “psychology,” it’s biological and totally beyond the control of the victims. Fight, flight, freeze are governed by the amygdala and operate without volition. And those biochemical actions constantly bathe the person in a bath of adrenaline and other chemicals that, if repeated and repeated, have serious physical consequences.
The term Wounded Warrior fits any soldier who has served in any capacity in any theatre of war, anywhere. And untreated PSTD is a combat wound as lethal as any other.
And I’m glad the President and the military are finally getting around to understanding that. Now I can only hope the military’s resources can be brought to bear on the problem. Great strides have been made in treating the horrible wounds our new wars are inflicting on our soldiers. Now we need great strides to be made in effectively treating the insidious and too-often ignored dangers of pre, ongoing and post-traumatic stress, because it’s a killer.
For years they’ve galloped around ringing those bells and shooting those guns and hollering about the deficits! The deficits! The deficits! They demanded government cuts, cut ‘er to the bone because the deficits were too high and we’re all gonna die in the streets like dawgs!
So, they go into negotiations with the Dems, demanding more and more cuts and the President keeps seeing them and raising them (including tossing Social Security and Medicare into the “cut” pile) until they had on the table four trillion in cuts versus one trillion in higher taxes for the wealthiest Americans, as well as closed tax loopholes that aren’t helping the economy and certainly aren’t “creating any jobs.”
And the Republicans walked away. Four to one. Four to one! And they walked, willing to let the country go into default in order to further their own political careers and to protect their wealthy clients (what George Bush called “my base”).
Of course, the American people put all these extremist Tea Partiers and Republicans into office so they could drive America off the financial cliff rather than remove a tax break on rich folks’ second, vacation homes. This in a country where a good many people’s first and only homes are under water and another good chunk of people don’t have any homes any more.
Conservative columnist David Brooks, in a recent NY Times column, said he is beginning to believe that Republicans are not fit to rule.
He’s right.
Speaking of Unfit
Dan DeVaul is once again facing jail time for running a “sober living” Sunny Acres facility for homeless people by housing them in buildings that aren’t up to code and that the County feels are unsafe. And they aren’t up to code because, at this point, bringing them up to code would cost about $25,000 for the various building fees required to begin work.
And who could waive the fees so getting the upgrades done so the people living there now wouldn’t have to return to living in the creek? The Planning Commission. And have they done so? Not to my knowledge.
So, DeVaul may go to the hoosegow and the judge will decide on August 5th whether the people now living there must vacate the place entirely and go live in the creek (which everyone agrees is MORE unsafe, unsanitary, and illegal than Sunny Acres, but there you are) and the situation goes once more into an unsolved mess.
True, true, for the years this mess has gone on, both De Vaul and the County repeatedly had a chance to ask themselves: Do you want to be right or do you want to get something done? And they repeatedly wanted to be right, so here we are again at Stupid.
Let’s hope the County Planning Commission waives the fees. Then, perhaps a separate Board can be formed that would be co-administered by the Board and whatever County bureau oversees homeless issues, and subject to full audits. (I add that caveat because I think this has been a sick game for De Vaul and before anyone sends him or Sunny Acres a dime, I’d want a serious check on those donations.) Then a campaign to raise building and fix ‘er up money could be started so Sunny Acres can continue offering the homeless a sober-living place that may help solve some of their problems.
But I won’t hold my breath. In the game of rights fighting, sick, homeless people just become pawns. So, I’m betting on the creek at this point.
I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do.
The New York Times reports that Kody Brown, a polygamist from Utah (and who’s starring in the TV show, “Sister Wives,”) is planning on filing a lawsuit to challenge the polygamy law based on “the 2003 United States Supreme Court decision, Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down state sodomy laws as unconstitutional intrusions on the ‘intimate conduct’ of consenting adults. It will ask the federal courts to tell states that they cannot punish polygamists for their own “intimate conduct” so long as they are not breaking other laws, like those regarding child abuse, incest or seeking multiple marriage licenses. . . . Making polygamous unions illegal, they argue, violates the due process and equal protection clauses of the 14th Amendment, as well as the free exercise, establishment, free speech and freedom of association clauses of the First Amendment.”
Well, bring it on, I say. If you support gay marriage, then can polygamy be far behind? Or polyandry? (Having spent Sunday shoveling out the garage and cleaning out all the gutters, soaking wet and scampering up and down ladders, the thought of having several husbands with their long Honey-Do lists began to look positively lovely along about 3 p.m. let me tell you!)
Mr. Brown, his four wives and 16 children and stepchildren are in for a battle, but the question remains: Why not? Adults are fee to live together now in whatever grouping they want to, providing they don’t violate zoning laws (too many people under one roof) and men and women regularly make babies all willy-nilly and all minus a marriage certificate. And blended families and so-called “serial marriages” result in some pretty confusing hers/his/ours homes.
So why not legitimize the ad-hoc arrangement, thereby allowing baby daddies to legally sign on to their offspring and legally give wives the civil protections of “marriage/civil unions,” rather than continue the muddled mess we have now?
True, there are serious issues in the minority of isolated Mormon fundamentalist groups of illegal child marriages and the stultifying fundamentalist culture of keeping the women subservient, pregnant and uneducated and tossing the excess young boys out of the fold, but those issues can be found in other wacky religious cults and other weird fundamentalist religions groups, all of which are protected under the first amendment. Plus, those issues don’t seem to be what Mr. Brown and his TV family are dealing with – being all well educated, modern and wealthy. And likely those issues wouldn’t be what a larger group of polygamists would be dealing with.
So, I say, bring it on. Time to have that public discussion: Just what is “marriage” anyway, and just what connection should the state have in deciding how we create (and un-create) our “families?” If the state’s reason for getting involved is based on protection of the young and vulnerable and in seeing to administering a set of laws can deal with property issues and financial responsibilities and rights of inheritance & etc, then all of those issues surely would aid a polygamous household even more than a monogamous one.
It’s About Time
President Obama is now sending condolence letters to the families of members of the military who have committed suicide. Good on him. It’s about time. And may be a sign that finally – FINALLY – the military is beginning to understand just how lethal PTSD and acute stress reactions can be to soldiers. (Or anybody else for that matter.)
Stress and trauma are killers – literally. The toll they take on the physical body is as deadly as cancer or heart disease. This isn’t a matter of some “psychology,” it’s biological and totally beyond the control of the victims. Fight, flight, freeze are governed by the amygdala and operate without volition. And those biochemical actions constantly bathe the person in a bath of adrenaline and other chemicals that, if repeated and repeated, have serious physical consequences.
The term Wounded Warrior fits any soldier who has served in any capacity in any theatre of war, anywhere. And untreated PSTD is a combat wound as lethal as any other.
And I’m glad the President and the military are finally getting around to understanding that. Now I can only hope the military’s resources can be brought to bear on the problem. Great strides have been made in treating the horrible wounds our new wars are inflicting on our soldiers. Now we need great strides to be made in effectively treating the insidious and too-often ignored dangers of pre, ongoing and post-traumatic stress, because it’s a killer.
Friday, July 08, 2011
Twilight's True Blood
Calhoun’s Can(n)ons for July 8, 2011
The U.S. seems a country hell-bent on its own failure
Clive Crook, editor, The Atlantic
Heeeees Heeeeere . . .
Grover Norquist, the President of “Americans for Tax Reform,” has even surfaced on the front page of our little local newspaper. “Anti-tax diehard looms large in showdown,” says the headlines. The Tribune is several years too late. Grover had already infected Sam Blakeslee, our previously moderate, sensible, pragmatic, reasonable, compromising git-‘r-done, Republican State Assemblyman.
It was a creepy and horrifying thing to witness. In a cynical, politically expedient move to get the official blessing from the Republican Central Committee for his run for State Senator, Sam sidled up to offer Grover his neck while signing on to the No Taxes Ever Blood Oath. One bite and suddenly our sweet sane Sam was lost forever into Grover’s weird vampire world of extreme right-wing looniness. In place of his oath to support the constitution of the state of California, Sam was now bound in darkness to Grover and instead of voting for some reasonable tax increases to keep the state from imploding during our recent budget battles, Sam’s message was clear: California and all my constituents can fall into the sea for all I care. I am a Norquistian now.
True, Sam’s Norquistianism got him publicly lambasted, but it worked to get him elected to the State Senate and even though he then declared that he wouldn’t take any more blood oaths, heh-heh, it was too late. Grover’s bite was utterly transformative and permanent. So when the budget crunch came, Sam voted to cut the poor and sick and little school kids to the bone rather than agree to keep even a small tax on yacht sales. Constituents be damned. Unless they own yachts, that is.
And so it goes. Across the country Grover’s Twilight presence has Republicans enraptured and shoving forth their necks for his fatal bite, a wet-dream swoon over his vision of starving government to the point of being able to strangle it in a bathtub.
That and the fact that the True Blood rush also garners lots of guaranteed campaign boodle from corporations who never met a government regulation or a tax they would tolerate, ever, so a weakened government drowning in a bathtub and unable to stop or hinder their predation, is night music to their wolfish ears.
Which is why Washington is now heading for a debt ceiling/default crisis: It’s not enough that True Blood extremist Republicans in thrall to Grover are willing to see America default and thereby plunge the world into an economic disaster, they are now threatening the few moderate Republicans left in that august body into sitting by while the country falls into the sea. It’s all True Blood gore and creepy dripping teeth in the hallways of Congress now, and here come the werewolves!
Or maybe not. According to the AP story, a handful of sane Republicans are finally finding a spine and are pushing back. Says Senator Tom Coburn, (R, Okla,, a guy nobody could claim is anywhere near “moderate”), “ ‘You’ve got 34 Republicans that say they’re willing to end this, regardless of what Grover says. That’s 34 Republicans that say this is more important than a signed pledge’ to Norquists’ group.”
Adds Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, “It’s a disservice to our nation for someone to be allowed to set a standard which really could threaten our economy.”
Poor Durbin doesn’t understand. With extremist Norquistian Republicans and Norquistian wannabes, service to nation has nothing to do with it. That Blood Oath is political love at first bite – Unlimited Campaign Money from the Koch Brothers! Continued “carried interest” tax breaks for Republican peeps -- a handful of Wall Street Hedge Fund Bazillionaires! A Winning Bumper-sticker Campaign Slogan! Perpetual Employment on the Tax-payer-funded Government Teat! What’s not to love about that true blood bond?
All supported by the American voters who repeatedly put these infected guys into government precisely so they could drown it in a bathtub. Until the voters find out that their Medicare and their Social Security will be the first things to be found floating face down in that tub. But by then it’ll be too late to even grab the garlic.
The U.S. seems a country hell-bent on its own failure
Clive Crook, editor, The Atlantic
Heeeees Heeeeere . . .
Grover Norquist, the President of “Americans for Tax Reform,” has even surfaced on the front page of our little local newspaper. “Anti-tax diehard looms large in showdown,” says the headlines. The Tribune is several years too late. Grover had already infected Sam Blakeslee, our previously moderate, sensible, pragmatic, reasonable, compromising git-‘r-done, Republican State Assemblyman.
It was a creepy and horrifying thing to witness. In a cynical, politically expedient move to get the official blessing from the Republican Central Committee for his run for State Senator, Sam sidled up to offer Grover his neck while signing on to the No Taxes Ever Blood Oath. One bite and suddenly our sweet sane Sam was lost forever into Grover’s weird vampire world of extreme right-wing looniness. In place of his oath to support the constitution of the state of California, Sam was now bound in darkness to Grover and instead of voting for some reasonable tax increases to keep the state from imploding during our recent budget battles, Sam’s message was clear: California and all my constituents can fall into the sea for all I care. I am a Norquistian now.
True, Sam’s Norquistianism got him publicly lambasted, but it worked to get him elected to the State Senate and even though he then declared that he wouldn’t take any more blood oaths, heh-heh, it was too late. Grover’s bite was utterly transformative and permanent. So when the budget crunch came, Sam voted to cut the poor and sick and little school kids to the bone rather than agree to keep even a small tax on yacht sales. Constituents be damned. Unless they own yachts, that is.
And so it goes. Across the country Grover’s Twilight presence has Republicans enraptured and shoving forth their necks for his fatal bite, a wet-dream swoon over his vision of starving government to the point of being able to strangle it in a bathtub.
That and the fact that the True Blood rush also garners lots of guaranteed campaign boodle from corporations who never met a government regulation or a tax they would tolerate, ever, so a weakened government drowning in a bathtub and unable to stop or hinder their predation, is night music to their wolfish ears.
Which is why Washington is now heading for a debt ceiling/default crisis: It’s not enough that True Blood extremist Republicans in thrall to Grover are willing to see America default and thereby plunge the world into an economic disaster, they are now threatening the few moderate Republicans left in that august body into sitting by while the country falls into the sea. It’s all True Blood gore and creepy dripping teeth in the hallways of Congress now, and here come the werewolves!
Or maybe not. According to the AP story, a handful of sane Republicans are finally finding a spine and are pushing back. Says Senator Tom Coburn, (R, Okla,, a guy nobody could claim is anywhere near “moderate”), “ ‘You’ve got 34 Republicans that say they’re willing to end this, regardless of what Grover says. That’s 34 Republicans that say this is more important than a signed pledge’ to Norquists’ group.”
Adds Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, “It’s a disservice to our nation for someone to be allowed to set a standard which really could threaten our economy.”
Poor Durbin doesn’t understand. With extremist Norquistian Republicans and Norquistian wannabes, service to nation has nothing to do with it. That Blood Oath is political love at first bite – Unlimited Campaign Money from the Koch Brothers! Continued “carried interest” tax breaks for Republican peeps -- a handful of Wall Street Hedge Fund Bazillionaires! A Winning Bumper-sticker Campaign Slogan! Perpetual Employment on the Tax-payer-funded Government Teat! What’s not to love about that true blood bond?
All supported by the American voters who repeatedly put these infected guys into government precisely so they could drown it in a bathtub. Until the voters find out that their Medicare and their Social Security will be the first things to be found floating face down in that tub. But by then it’ll be too late to even grab the garlic.
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