StupidiNews!

• Hurricane Ernesto has made landfall on the Mexican Yucatan, near the border with Belize, but it's expected to re-enter the Gulf of Mexico later today.
• A mentally disabled man has been executed in Texas for killing a police informant in 1992, despite testing showing the man had an IQ of just 61.
• New Zealand's Mount Tongariro volcano has erupted for the first time in over a 100 years as residents sought shelter from ash and debris.
• Famed British football club Manchester United is expecting to raise nearly $4 billion in its stock IPO this week, making it the most valuable sports franchise on Earth.
• Scientists are using wearable devices that monitor your heart rate and other biometric data in order to act as an "unhackable" key to prevent data theft.

Last Call

"Papa" John Schnatter, of Papa John's Pizza fame, says Obamacare is going to jack up the price of his pies, so get ready to fork over more green, America.

On a conference call last week, CEO and founder John Schnatter (a Mitt Romney supporter and fundraiser) said the health care law's changes — set to go into effect in 2014 — will result in higher costs for the company — which they vowed to pass onto consumers.

"Our best estimate is that the Obamacare will cost 11 to 14 cents per pizza, or 15 to 20 cents per order from a corporate basis," Schnatter said.

"We're not supportive of Obamacare, like most businesses in our industry. But our business model and unit economics are about as ideal as you can get for a food company to absorb Obamacare," he said.

"If Obamacare is in fact not repealed, we will find tactics to shallow out any Obamacare costs and core strategies to pass that cost onto consumers in order to protect our shareholders best interests," Schnatter vowed.

Meanwhile, the cost of that 20 cents is Papa John's employees get affordable health care.  Gosh, how horrible that must be for them.  Most employers would be thrilled with that and say "We're looking forward to helping our Papa John's employees stay healthy through affordable health care, including preventative care and checkups, so that people will consider our pizza chain a great place to work."

Nope.  It's "It's your fault we have to give our slutty pizza drivers birth control pills, so we're going to make you customers pay for it.  You should probably foment REVOLUTION as a result."

Sigh.

Remember, employees are the enemy.

Today In Village Idiocy

Has National Review's Ramesh Ponnuru ever had a decent idea in his entire life?

Cable-television shows about politics are often blamed for polarizing Americans. To this way of thinking, they are responsible for much of the incivility of today’s political culture and have made it harder for us to work together to solve our problems.

This concern seems overblown to me. While the shows don’t help, their effect is probably small. The main sources of polarization lie elsewhere (especially, I would argue, in the way that courts have put social issues at the center of national politics). 

Hey nimrod, which side keeps constantly suing to try to have the courts overturn established precedent on Roe v. Wade or to curtail the Civil Rights Act?   Asshole.

The real problem with the cable-TV shows is that so much of the discussion on them is dumb, one-sided or both. (I trust that readers don’t need me to supply examples.) Their main function seems to be to provide Team Red and Team Blue with their daily talking points and with fresh causes for outrage at the other side. A lot of people seem to like this kind of thing, and it has its place in a robust democracy.

There is a way to elevate the political debate a little bit, though, and it’s simple: One of the cable networks should bring back “Crossfire.” Yes, that’s the CNN show that Jon Stewart attacked in 2004 for “hurting America,” shortly before its 23-year run ended. 

Yes, because the real problem in America is not enough cable TV news shows where one side lies, the other side points out the obvious lie, and then the conclusion is "Well, both sides are probably guilty here."

What we need is far fewer cable TV shows and referee calls from the Village, where news is presented as factual, not to fit whatever ideology that happens to be in vogue.  The Village is incapable of it.  We need less of you pundit jagoffs, not more.

Another Milepost On The Road To Oblivion

Bereft of actual policy points he can make that don't involve releasing his tax returns and not wanting to blow the one shot he has at changing the subject with a veep pick right now Romneybot flips through Newt's Contract With America playbook and comes up with this gem of an ad campaign. First, the President's policy fixes:

Changes to welfare pushed by President Barack Obama's administration are providing his Republican challenger Mitt Romney with material for a new round of attacks, including a television ad released Tuesday. The changes, which would allow states greater flexibility in administering their welfare-to-work programs, came in a directive issued by the Department of Health and Human Services in mid-July. At the time, some Republicans claimed the new rules amounted to a "gutting" of work requirements for welfare recipients, which were a central element of the bipartisan welfare reform law signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996.

Let's pause for a minute here.

The changes would relax paperwork and reporting requirements for these programs, allowing the states to put more money towards actually helping people move from assistance programs to gainful employment, giving more power to the states to run the programs as they see fit to adapt for employment conditions in their general areas.  This seems like EXACTLY THE KIND OF THINGS REPUBLICANS SCREAM ABOUT WANTING TO DO.  But because Republicans can't possibly resist being racist chunderdouches, they derive this nonsense from the new requirements:

In Tuesday's ad from the Romney campaign, an announcer points to Clinton's achievement, and claims Obama's directive would "gut welfare reform by dropping work requirements." "Under Obama's plan, you wouldn't have to work and wouldn't have to train for a job. They just send you your welfare check," the announcer continues. "And welfare to work goes back to being plain old welfare."

Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul said the welfare ad was one piece in a larger push to highlight the Obama administration's changes to ways states administer welfare. "Middle-class Americans are working harder and harder to make ends meet," Saul wrote. "Under President Obama, they have fewer jobs and less take-home pay. And now, President Obama wants to take their hard-earned tax dollars and give it to welfare recipients without work requirements." Romney, she wrote, "would restore the work requirement in the welfare law so that recipients know the dignity of work instead of the dependency of a handout."

BLACK PRESIDENT CRISPUS GETBUCKS IS GIVING YOUR HARD-EARNED WHITE WELFARE TAX DOLLARS TO SHANIQUA AND TYREEK AND BEBE'S KIDS.  Clearly impeachment is a requirement, so you might want to RSVP now before the Unemployed Nubian Shock Troops arrive and drink up all the Hennessy you got on your shelf and make more Halfrican-non Americans with your chunky blonde daughters.  Soon they'll be EVERYWHERE and the only growth industries will be nail salons, check cashing joints and hair weave factories and the national language will officially be changed to Ebonics.

At this point, the ni-CLANG! Clock is at like 11:58 and 55 seconds, and it's first week of August still and we've got Romney busting out the Welfare Queens And Strapping Young Bucks card.  Where's he going to go next, showing White Man's Burden as a documentary on a possible second Obama term?

Let's keep in mind that the directive actually says that if the states submit a plan that lowers the work requirements, the plan will be rejected by the feds.  And a number of Republicans in red states have been eager to get behind waivers for these bureaucratic and reporting requirements as a money-saving tool for cash-strapped state governments because hey, let's not forget that the majority of welfare benefits go to white people, because white people are a majority of the population in most red states still. 

President Obama is going "You know what, these reporting requirements really are burdensome at this point in our path forward on economic progress, and I'm going to make things easier on people." But no, once again a moderate Republican move is fine until Obama does it, then it becomes "President Pootie Tang is giving free shit to lazy negroes while an out of work, frustrated broke white guy is staring in the mirror going "He hate me."  That's all that matters as the Romney campaign hits a dismal new low and we're still 90 days or so out from the election.

The knowledge that Romney will have to go even more negative and more awful with three months left makes me wonder just how far we're going to get.  Romney in blackface?  Romney with dancing Mammies?  Romney smashing watermelons in front of a Church's Fried Chicken?  Romney re-enacting episodes of The Wire?  Where's he going to go next?

Because wherever it is, it's going to be worse than this disgusting, awful piece of racist garbage.  You can count on it.

Bad Bosses Suck... Now With Scientific Proof

Psychologist Robert Hogan, an expert on personality assessments, has seen them all.

"Every employed adult reports some significant time working for an 'intolerable boss' and those (employees) that try to defend themselves are gone," Hogan, ofAmelia Island, Fla., told a session this weekend at theAmerican Psychological Association annual conference. The meeting, which drew more than 10,900 psychology professionals, wrapped up Sunday.

"Seventy-five percent of working adults say the worst aspect of their job — the most stressful aspect of their job — is their immediate boss," Hogan says. "Bad managers create enormous health costs and are a major source of misery for many people."

Companies that take care of employees get better results.  There is a line, but more care given to employees yields benefits for everyone.

As for our workplace satisfaction bearing on our health, that's a no-brainer.  Work is a major component of our lives, and our satisfaction and happiness are important.  I can vouch for it on a personal level.  I hadn't been happy with my career for a couple of years and my stress was incredible.  Now that I have found a great job that works for me on all levels, my blood pressure, diabetes and overall well-being have improved dramatically.

Do what you love.  You'll be happier and healthier if you do.

Oops! Airline Fluke Bills Passengers Repeatedly

DALLAS — Southwest Airlines says it has begun filing refunds to customers who were accidentally billed multiple times for a single flight, after a half-price online ticket promotion backfired.

The special sale designed to celebrate Southwest's reaching the three million mark in Facebook fans was supposed to give customers who booked flights on Friday a 50-percent discount on certain fares.

Instead, hundreds of frustrated would-be fliers wound up posting stories on social media about how their credit and debit cards were being repeatedly charged, in some cases 20 or more times.

Aggravating, but it happens.  They're making good on it, so while I can understand the frustration it will come out okay in the end.  Still, I can't imagine what I'd do if I checked my bank balance and saw I'd been billed twenty times for a flight.  I'm pretty sure I would faint after a long stream of poetic naughty phrases.

School Of Hard Knocked Up

Louisiana GOP Gov. Bobby Jindal's disastrous experiment with turning the state's education system into a for-profit charter school nightmare funneling taxpayer education dollars to religious schools while destroying the state's remaining public schools  and destroying public libraries continues unabated, and the latest revelation in this monstrous mess is the fact that one of these public charter schools taking taxpayer money is in clear violation of the Constitution and Title IX with a policy that expels female students for being pregnant.

If an administrator or teacher suspects a student is pregnant, a parent conference will be held. The school reserves the right to require any female student to take a pregnancy test to confirm whether or not the suspected student is in fact pregnant. The school further reserves the right to refer the suspected student to a physician of its choice. If the test indicates that the student is pregnant, the student will not be permitted to attend classes on the campus of Delhi Charter school.
...
Any student who is suspected of being pregnant and who refuse to submit to a pregnancy test shall be treated as a pregnant student and will be offered home study opportunities. If home study opportunities are not acceptable, the student will be counseled to seek other educational opportunities.

In other words, get with child, get thee hence.  No section of the rulebook about Baby Daddies however, apparently that behavior is too difficult to stop enforcing, even though teenagers magically get pregnant through osmosis or something.

Needless to say, now that these assholes are taking state taxpayer money, they are subject to federal laws, including the Constitution and Title IX, which expressly forbids expelling a student for being pregnant.

The ACLU is giving these guys time to completely rewrite their rulebook before they drop the hammer on them in what could be the shortest federal case in national history.  Me, I'd still pay to be in the courtroom for the whole 7 minutes it took to decide this case.

PS, Jindal's plan is coming to a country near you should Romney and the GOP gain control of Washington and then use tax dollars for religious charter schools to teach complete nonsense.

Fact Check Yourself before You Fact Wreck Yourself, Again

Scott Lemieux notes the PolitiFact people are throwing boatloads of red flags on Harry Reid, the Most Awful Senator ever.

Give the most useless website in the known universe this: they’re consistent. Once again, they have awarded a “pants on fire” award, in this case to Harry Reid, despite providing no evidence whatsoever that Reid lied. Here’s the problem:

Many readers asked us to put Reid’s claim to the Truth-O-Meter. We conclude that Reid, despite repeating the claim on at least two occasions, has not produced any solid evidence it is true.

This is not, in fact, constitute a “lie.” If it is, than Romney has told “pants on fire” lies about what he’s paid in taxes as well. And PolitiFact is double-pants-on-fire-with-an-additional-Pinocchio lying, since they haven’t provided the slightest evidence that Reid wasn’t told by someone that Romney hasn’t paid taxes. As always, PolitiFact simply doesn’t understand what facts and lies are, which is kind of a problem when you purport to be a fact-checker. 

Doesn't matter.  POLITIFACT CONFIRMS SEN. REID IS "DIRTY LIAR" is all that matters in our Village media.  Mission Accomplished for the Fact Checkers, because after all there's no way that anyone can prove Harry Reid isn't lying.  No documents exist that we could check to see if Harry Reid's statement about Mitt Romney's tax returns is true or not, so clearly this is a "both sides do it" moment and Harry Reid should probably resign.

Or he should accuse the Obama administration of being infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood  See, it's possible that's true, so we can't give that a Pants on Fire.  It's not like there's a clear set of documents that could swing this argument decisively.

But we'll never know the truth, so it's probably best that the Democrat lose all credibility and be driven from office.  What can you do?

StupidiNews!

• Tropical Storm Ernesto may reach hurricane strength as it angles for the Yucatan and the Gulf of Mexico after dumping a foot of rain on Jamaica.
• Sikh community leaders say Sunday's deadly terror attack on a gurdwara in Wisconsin is the result of "collateral damage from 9/11".
• President Obama has signed a law giving health care to thousands of ill Marines and their families exposed to contaminated water at Camp Lejuene, North Carolina over a 30 year period.
• Hong Kong trading house Standard Chartered faces suspension of its US division after evidence of a quarter of a trillion in financial transactions with Iran have surfaced, violating US sanctions.
• It's the return of the video arcade as Generation X is sharing a hip, retro pastime with "barcades" and a new generation of gamers coming of age.

Last Call

If you've been paying attention to the election prognostication sites, you've probably noticed a trend:  One, that the popular vote is going to be razor close, and two, that the electoral college vote is going to be a landslide in President Obama's favor.  Michael Tomasky at the Daily Beast explains:

Imagine it’s election night, say 10:45 east coast time. Four eastern states haven’t been called yet: Ohio (18), Virginia (13), North Carolina (15), and Florida (29). Also, in some Western states, the polls haven’t closed, or the races are too tight to project just yet—Colorado and Nevada, say. Arizona has just been called for Romney. At this point, Romney actually leads, 188 to 182. In this scenario I’m assuming Obama has won Iowa (6), which is admittedly close but where his lead has been stable at three or four points, and New Hampshire (4), where Obama has a similar fairly small but stable lead, and Michigan (16), where the gap appears to be opening up a little.

So it’s a six-vote Romney edge. They’re feeling great up in Boston. Especially with the big Eastern four still up in the air. Right?

Not really. Let’s look at these West Coast states. Even though they’re still voting in California, obviously Obama is going to win it (55). And equally obviously, he’s going to win Washington (12) and Oregon (7), where neither side even bothered to spend a dime. Throw in Hawaii (4). Those 78 votes haul Obama up to 260. That’s something to keep in mind for election night: Whatever Obama’s number is at 10 pm Eastern, add those 78 EV’s—they’re a mortal lock, and a hefty insurance policy. If he wins Nevada (6) and Colorado (9), it’s over.

In other words, Obama can lose the big Eastern four—Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida: all of ’em!—and still be reelected.

And barring some huge cataclysm, he’s not losing all four of those states. If he wins even one—say Virginia, the smallest of the four—then Romney has to win Colorado, Iowa, and New Hampshire; all possible, certainly, but all states where he has been behind, narrowly but consistently, for weeks or months.

In other words it's entirely possible that Romney could win the popular vote, and lose massively in the electoral college.   You'll recall that was the outcome in 2000 as well, only the electoral college was also decided by a few hundred votes in one state:  Florida.

Can you imagine what the wingers would do if that happened?  I can.  Calls for open, armed revolution against the "illegitimate" US government, an "American Spring".  FOX no doubt refusing to refer to Barack Obama as the President.  Calls to "reform" the electoral college by splitting votes along congressional district lines, massively favoring the GOP.  It would be chaos.

And should the GOP win the Senate, they would of course abolish the filibuster and impeachment proceeding would begin in the House immediately.

So yes, the Obama/Romney contest isn't a done deal, but the real battle is in the Senate, folks.

Parents "In The Wild" Are More Likely To Hit Or Pinch Kids, Study Finds

Parents modify their behavior when they know they're being watched, a study finds.  They also vastly under-report their use of "negative touch" which ranges from restraining, spanking or pinching the children to get them to comply.

How many?  Somewhere in the 20% range.  How's that for scary?

The objective was not to resolve whether those approaches were morally okay, but simply to gather data to help scientists read how we really are with our kids.  They do, however, conclusively prove that negative touch does not improve a situation.  Well, duh.  Taking a child who is upset and compounding the issue is like driving all the way around the world to get to a street you just passed.

Discipline methods

Of the 106 episodes, 24 (or 23 percent) involved negative touch, while another 35 (or 33 percent) involved positive touch. Finally, in 38 percent of cases, the caregiver did not touch the child at all.

Male caregivers used touch equally for both boys and girls, but female caregivers were more likely to use negative touch with boys and positive touch with girls. Contrary to stereotypes of harsh disciplinarian fathers, when male caregivers did correct their children by touch, it was more likely to be positive rather than negative.

Negative touch was associated with a negative reaction from female children, and researchers saw no evidence that negative touch was more likely to get a child to obey than other methods. When kids were happier, they found, they were more likely to comply. And negative touch did not make kids happier. [10 Scientific Tips for Raising Happy Kids]

"If your child is upset and not minding you and you want to discipline them, I would use a positive, gentle touch," Stansbury said. "Our data found that negative touch didn't work."

The Family That Beats Up Gays Together Stays Together

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (AP) — Three children from the same family are in juvenile custody after allegedly attacking a Missouri woman, and the victim believes she was targeted because she is gay.

The Southeast Missourian (http://bit.ly/QoSkT6 ) reports that Jeana Terry, 41, and her partner Lisa Lange were inside their home July 24 when a 16-year-old girl who lives nearby allegedly began shouting anti-gay slurs. The girl then allegedly gathered her 13-year-old sister and 11-year-old brother, went to Terry’s porch and pulled her outside when she came to the door, according to authorities.

“Once I was down, it was pure chaos,” Terry said, describing being repeatedly kicked and hit.

Gee, maybe they have learned it from the adults in the area.  I mean, why not celebrate afterwards with a Chick-Fil-A sandwich?  I personally don't allow fast food places to affect my beliefs, but it would be hard to deny that it's become the chosen church of the heterosexual bigot.

These kids aren't confused, they are reacting to what they see.  What they're being taught.  Their mother is trying to say the women started it, but witness accounts tell a different story.

“They were kicking, stomping and beating the hell out of her,” neighbor Mima Poole said.

Terry said she may need eye surgery and still suffers from bruising, nausea and dizziness.

Those aren't the actions of scared kids fleeing from an antagonistic adult.  Those are the actions of kids acting out on what they think is acceptable behavior towards gays.  If ever we needed proof that discrimination shouldn't be tolerated, this is it.

Be Prepared... For Stupidity

LOS ANGELES — Boy Scouts of America internal documents reveal more than 125 cases in which men suspected of molestation allegedly continued to abuse Scouts, despite a blacklist meant to protect boys from sexual predators.

A Los Angeles Times review (http://lat.ms/OT9zx5) of more than 1,200 files from 1970 to 1991 found suspected abusers regularly remained in the organization after officials were first presented with sexual misconduct allegations.

The newspaper says predators moved from troop to troop because of clerical errors, computer glitches or the Scouts' failure to check the so-called "perversion files."

Good thing they took care of the really important things, like letting valued non-molesting members loose because they're gay.  Relax, the world is safe once again.

So, in light of the Penn State cover-up, do you think reactions will change for an agency that apparently failed to protect kids from abuse after more than adequate warning?  My guess is yes, they will pay a steeper price than before.  I'm totally cool with that.

Man Shoots Wife - In Hospital

Akron, OH -  Ohio police say a 66-year-old man entered the intensive care unit of Akron General Medical Center and shot his 65-year-old wife while standing at her bedside.

Akron police told The Associated Press early Sunday that the woman is in critical condition.

Police say John Wise, of Massillon, entered the hospital shortly before 9 p.m. Saturday and went to see his wife, Barbara, in the intensive care unit, where she had been admitted a few days earlier. Authorities say Wise pulled out a handgun and shot his wife of 45 years.

Nobody knows why at this time.  This poor woman may not be able to tell police what led to the shooting, if she even knows.

Podcast Versus The Stupid Episode 1: Pilot

Our first (and very rough) podcast is now available and if you're wondering what Bon and I sound like, well now you know.  We discuss the Olympics, Gabby Douglas, Serena Williams, and the nasty double standards these champions are being hit with.  Haters gonna hate, I suppose.

Listen to internet radio with Zandar Versus The Stupid on Blog Talk Radio

Give us a listen and let us know what you think.