Last Call

Republicans are sociopaths, frankly.  Take Reince Priebus for example, on the resurgence of the Jeremiah Wright nonsense by a GOP SuperPAC:

I know how it works. It’s the Democrats and Barack Obama that want the story out there. He wants the story to play out in the media, because for every day that [Obama adviser] David Axelrod and this President don’t have to talk about their broken promises when it comes to jobs, the debt, and the deficit — the more time they can talk about hypotheticals that may or may not come true — is a day they want to win on. So, look, this president’s got a bigger problem and his problem is no matter what he puts out there, no matter what distractions he puts out there, he can’t change the truth and escape the reality of where we are in this American economy. And it’s no good.

Note how he operates here, he's disavowing the Wright attacks, blaming President Obama for them, and then scolding the media for buying into President Obama's narrative that Republicans are the ones bringing this up.

Of course, Republicans are the ones bringing this up.  In fact, they brought it up multiple times last week. But as with everything with Priebus, it's all Obama's doing as he has manipulated the press into covering it as news.  And he'll say it every time it happens until November, because he's a sociopath and a liar.

And he'll get away with it.  The media can't complain, if they do they're in on the conspiracy.  And six more months of this is guaranteed:

1. GOP Super PAC says something awful about the President.
2. RNC says it's a distraction.
3. RNC accuses the President and the media of orchestrating it and dares them to prove otherwise.
4. Pushback on awful thing is muted.
5. Media bemoans that both sides do it.
6. Repeat.

Priebus knows exactly what he's doing and is going to get away with it scot-free because otherwise the Village proves him correct in taking sides with Obama.  And they will do everything they can to avoid that, including selling the GOP lies wholesale.  Watch.

Diet Slurpee? Don't Mind If I Do!

It probably says something more about America than it does about 7-Eleven, but starting this month the retailer is rolling out a product that seems right for its time: a sugar-free Slurpee.

Fanta Sugar-Free Mango is this month’s diet flavor. 7-Eleven said it has spent two years coming up with the formula for a simple reason: customer demand.

“For years we’ve gotten calls through our guest relations hot line, ‘When are you going to have a diet Slurpee?’” company spokeswoman Margaret Chabris said. The calls have come not only from the weight-conscious but from diabetics and those with other nutritional issues, she said.

As the number of diabetics increases every year, more sugar-free options are needed.  Those not affected often scoff, I've had to listen to many lectures on how diabetics should just not have any sugar.  I've been told this while the know-it-all was scarfing a doughnut, and another time while eating cookies.  Do as I say, or lose your feet and go blind.  Or something like that.

There has also been great improvement in mixed-sugar products where some sugar remains but every possible calorie is shaved until it affects flavor.  That's also helpful for those who just want a treat now and then, and are willing to hit the treadmill to pay for their indulgence.  Zero sugar and zero calories isn't a requirement but it's handy.

Fanta Mango is a great place to start, and new flavors are coming.  I hope they are here before the Missouri summer hits full swing.  A Slurpee is a treat I gave up years ago, I can't wait to have one again.

Study Suggests Gaydar May Be Real

(CBS News) Can you judge someone's sexual orientation just by looking at their face? According to a new scientific study, both men and women may have this inherent "gaydar" ability.

The research, published in the May 16 issue of PLoS One, showed that both men and women correctly judged a person's sexual orientation by simply looking at the person's picture more frequently than they would by chance. Participants were able to pick a woman's sexual orientation in over two-thirds of the cases, the study showed.

It's interesting but the numbers are far from conclusive.  However, there is enough to suggest that in some cases we can read beyond skin deep to learn about people.  We process so much information behind the scenes that it is plausible that we are able in some cases to identify sexual preference from subtle data.

A recent article suggests babies develop racist behaviors as early as nine months old, which demonstrates how much children pick up mom and dad's social cues.  Couple this knowledge with how we process faces, and we may finally make some real progress in identifying race and other traits, and how we perceive them.  Unlocking that may lead us to a better understanding of ourselves and of sexual orientation.  Considering the tensions on all sides of the issue, understanding and scientific advancement can only be a good thing.

A Fair Call

A bipartisan group of prison reformers is calling on the Federal Communications Commission to stop phone companies from charging inmates what they call unreasonable and predatory rates to make phone calls.

Why such astronomical fees? Phone companies often pay commissions to the state after they've won an exclusive contract to provide phone service at a state's prisons. (All but eight states allow these exclusive contracts.) The phone companies then pass on the cost of paying the state to inmates and their families, who have to shell out as much as $17 for a 15-minute call, the group says. That can add up to $250 a month to call home for an hour each week—a cost that the often-poor families of inmates can hardly afford.

Prison is punishment enough, most would agree.  The reality is, while a family member is locked up, there is still the need to address family issues, and an hour a week to speak to loved ones is not an obscenely generous amount of time.  A single hour to participate in the lives of spouses, kids and extended family is fair.  It would seem reasonable for the FCC to set limits to protect the innocent from paying fees without justification.

In the great scheme of things, this is much more important than a nip slip or an F-bomb on television.

Strange Day In Ohio

CLEVELAND (AP) — A Cleveland woman was charged with murder Saturday in the stabbing death of her best friend, who tried to drive away afterward and fatally struck the accused woman's 2-year-old daughter, police said.

The two women were sitting in a running parked car Thursday when they got into an argument, police said. Kimberly Black left the vehicle, went into her house, returned with a knife and stabbed Sharice Swain in the face and neck, said Sgt. Sammy Morris, apolice spokesman.

The wounded Swain then stepped on the gas pedal and hit Black's two young children, who were standing near the car. Two-year-old Kimshia Ruffin was killed, and her 1-year-old sister, Taraji Ruffin, was struck, but her injuries were not considering life-threatening, police said.

They still have no idea what caused the fight, but a woman and a child are dead.   There is an idea that Swain was trying to hit Black with the car, and that hitting the child was a mistake.  Let us hope so.  It won't bring the child back but will keep an already sad story from becoming any worse.

When details come out, we'll surely update you.  I truly am curious to hear what could have made such an enduring friendship turn to murder.

Austerity Hysteria, Again

It's gotten to the point now that austerity can never fail, it can only be failed.

House Budget Commitee chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) says that his plan to slash government spending on programs for the poor while increasing defense spending and giving tax cuts to the wealthy would actually “prevent austerity.”

NBC’s David Gregory on Sunday pointed out that the debate over whether slashing budgets would grow the economy was not just happening in Europe, but in the U.S. as well.

“This question of austerity in Europe, they had failing economies, nearly depressed economies,” Gregory told Ryan. “The answer throughout the region was to slash their budgets. Has it failed?”

“No, David,” Ryan replied. “I would say they’ve also raised taxes. This is a cautionary tale of what happens when politicians who make a lot of empty promises end up running out of the ability to borrow money at cheap rates and now they are broken promises. It’s a cautionary tale of what will happen to us if we stay on the path we are on.”

“What we’re saying is let’s get on growth and prevent austerity,” he continued. “The whole premise of our budget is to preempt austerity by getting our borrowing under control, having tax reform for economic growth and preventing Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid from going bankrupt. That preempts austerity.”

See, austerity isn't massive cuts in government spending, austerity is the end of government spending.  Massive cuts that will hurt hundreds of millions of Americans so that people like Paul Ryan can get tax cuts is "necessary sacrifice", not "austerity".

It is the duty of the serf to sacrifice for their lords.  That's what America was founded on, after all.

Another Milepost On The Road To Oblivion

The Republicans have truly lost control of their rough beast, slouching towards Washington DC.  Here's GOP Rep. Joe Walsh of Illinois at a town hall meeting:

“Obama wants everybody on government run health care,” he said. “That is a legitimate opinion, I wish he were honest and he would tell us that.”

“Let them go to Europe,” a constituent at the town hall replied. “We are the only country on this planet that is still semi-free — until the 1900s.”

“We’re losing it,” Walsh interrupted.

“I know we are, that is the problem,” she continued. “But we fought for this, we need to keep our freedom and we aren’t because of the seditious behavior of people who lie about who they are and get into all of our public offices, and then we can’t get them out in time before they do the damage and we have been sleeping for one hundred years. It is sedition. I mean, they did it underground. If they are honest brokers and they believe in what they’re saying and where they want this country to go — like Obama — then you’re right he should have said it before he was elected, and said I’m a socialist, I believe in socialism, in communism, Nazism, whatever, and say this is where I want to lead the country — not do it underhandedly.”

OK, so we've got a woman who point blank calls the President and his supporters "seditious" and believes that the President believes in socialism, communism, Nazism, whatever".  What does Joe Walsh respond with?

“However you want to label or define it, don’t you think after three and a half years as a country now we have a really good idea where this President wants to go?” he said.

Profile in courage right there.  Because charges of sedition and going full swastika is "just a label" when applied to Democrats or the President.  You do understand that to millions of these folks, you don't count as American, or even human.  You don't belong in their country.  They would have you deported or strung up as a traitor or worse if it were up to them.

And you know what?  If we sit on our asses and don't vote and don't get the word out and don't oppose this idiocy, it will be up to them.  Because this ignorant, hateful woman?  Her vote counts precisely the same as your vote or mine, and she's going to vote.

Will you?

Don't think they believe there's a civil war going on in the US already?  They believe it.  Enough to say that in front of their congressman.  And if we do nothing, this country will be run by the people elected by women like this.  Period.

We're just 3 Senate seat losses and a White House loss from these folks controlling the whole ball of wax. 

Mull that over for a while. 

StupidiNews!

• A rare solar eclipse dazzled from central Asia to the US Midwest late yesterday as the moon and sun formed a "ring of fire".
• Virginia will become the first state with voter ID laws to issue identification to every voter, as well as to educate all voters on how to get the free IDs.
• Newly-minted billionaire and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg married his long-time girlfriend and med school graduate Priscilla Chan over the weekend.
• Kentucky's king of pork, GOP Rep. Hal Rogers, is apparently behind the Army spending $17,000 a piece for helicopter drip pans at a manufacturer in his district.
• Internet romance scams burn on average 15 Americans a day at a cost of nearly $9,000 a piece, according to new FBI figures.