Well Recuuuuuuuse Me!

Steve Martin has nothing on Clarence Thomas but a form of the great comedian’s shtick should be used by the hypocritical Supreme Court Judge far more than anyone realizes.

When Mr. Martin wanted to get a laugh from an audience, as if he had to try, he would feign ignorance at a silly thing he had said or done and revert to his stand up clarion call of “well excuuuuuuse me!”

Justice Thomas, either by way of his past life as a defense attorney for big business or his current bed sharing duties with Ginny the anti anything Obama crusader should break the Guinness record for recusals. Unfortunately this man refuses to do so and continues his assault on the American middle class in favor of a country run exclusively for corporations.

One particularly annoying and unbelievably troubling case involves Monsanto and genetically engineered alfalfa.

Now when you mention Alfalfa to most of my generation visions of Spanky and Darla (OMG I loved her) come to mind. But instead of being a member of ‘Our Gang’ the grain of which we now speak grows in fields across this great land.

The original case in a nutshell (sorry about that) revolves around a genetically altered seed meant to keep bad creatures away from grains and allow that grain to grow strong and plentiful.

There is nothing wrong with that and so far the story seems milquetoast but wait, it get’s much better.

You see Monsanto charged anyone who used their altered product, rightly so, but they went a step further. The company not only insisted on payment for the first use but continued to charge the farmer using the seed every year hence even though it propagated itself without any help from mama Monsanto.

The thing is when a farmer put down the Monsanto product birds that were not under contract with the conglomerate were free to pick the seeds up and deposit them on lands owned by non Monsanto customers.

Big business boys don’t like that sort of 'spreading the wealth' without getting at least the lion’s share of things so they sued the farmers upon whose land the birds dropped the seeds.  One assumes they did not subpoena the birds as co-conspirators but...

The farmers claimed total and truthful ignorance as they did not intend to use the product and therefore should not be held liable or responsible for any moneys owed the big bad business boys of Monsanto.

The case was hotly contested and Monsanto’s lawyers were able to get a favorable ruling.  Unbelievably the farmers were directed to give up much of their profits to poor poor Monsanto.

And once again America is safe for large multi national impersonal greedy corporations. (Cue the music, "Oh beautiful, for spacious skies...)

The attorney fighting for the rights of that company was, you guessed it, none other than the soon to be known as Long Dong himself – Clarence Thomas!

Fast forward to the present and a case about to be heard by the current Supreme Court of the United States involves a ban on the same genetically altered and modified alfalfa seed.

And just who is it who has not felt the need to recuse himself from hearing the case?  Ginni’s bed buddy Clarence. Anita Hill would be so proud of old Long Dongle!

And speaking of bed buddies one wonders what kind of pillow talk goes on when those two get under the covers.  After all Virginia Thomas is a staunch Tea Party activist hell bent on destroying anything that gets in the way of human rights such as health care.

If there is a slight odor of partiality on the Supreme Court justices never hesitate to beg off the case. Everyone understands that for the most part, where there’s smoke…

So why does this man not excuse himself from hearing and judging the case?

It would appear to be an obvious question with an even more obvious answer.  He still wants to help his old company Monsanto in any and every fight against the little guy.

Alfalfa was made famous by Hal Roach when he created Our Gang and the Little Rascals, a group of lovable kids trying to survive in a grown up world.

Cockroach Clarence Thomas is also becoming famous by being a part of a different gang of rascals hell bent on destroying the little guy and returning the world to corporations.

Of course this is just my opinion but if I am proven wrong, well, excuuuuuuse me!

Would You Rather...?

When my kids were young one of the games they played required nothing other than their imaginations and wit. It involved absurd choices of impossible scenarios and the determination of which was the lesser evil.

For example one would ask the other, “Would you rather be an ant about to be stepped on by a big fat guy or a moth getting squashed on the windshield of a fast moving car?”

Some bright people at a toy company eventually hijacked the simple exercise of imagination and turned it into an unnecessary board game but that’s America!

But the funny thing is the game, like Trix^® is not just for silly kids but is inadvertently played by every living person every day and with far more important consequences.

Every choice we make whether it be conscious or sub is determined by a decision and most of the time we will choose the path of least resistance or greater return.

And armed with that knowledge and the time to research our decisions or those of others we can generally understand their underlying cause.

In today’s world where most of us are aware of the environment and its importance to our continued life and well being the choice to cause no further pollution would appear to be a ‘no-brainer.’

If simply using disposable, biodegradable paper cups for our morning coffee could help the environment there would appear to be no reason not to do so.

So why did the Republican leaders in the House of Representatives actively choose to overturn a Democratic decree to use paper products in government cafeterias?

Did Speaker of the House John Boehner find some obscure study that shows biodegradable cups are harmful? Perhaps he and his Republican colleagues are deathly afraid of paper cuts and they feel they are saving Americans from that awful fate.

Or could it be some lobbyist or special interest group has quietly explained the facts of life on ‘the Hill’ to the leadership of the House?

“Would you rather continue using the paper products or buy my service, wink wink, say no more, say no more.”

Now I am not saying he's on the take, nor do I mean to impugn the reputation of the good Representative from the great state of Ohio but he did make a conscious choice to overturn a good existing policy. I am certain he is not being unduly influenced by special interest groups, or at least I hope not, right?

Our Congressmen and women must make real hard choices every day. These choices affect the lives of hundreds of millions of Americans. In some cases they could change the course of world history so they must be debated lucidly, using all available facts.

Even choosing which problems to tackle first is a signal of their utmost importance and a choice they should not take lightly.

That is why the decisions by the Republican leadership across the country should make all Americans sit up and take note.

After running for office on the mantra of creating jobs and promising to work on that as job one the new House majority has instead chosen to set its sights on:

Breaking labor unions and taking away their collective bargaining rights;

Firing or laying off many public workers and teachers to balance the budget deficit they caused by removing any tax burden from the wealthy;

De-funding such subversive organizations as National Public Radio;

Taking away support of that silly family oriented group known as Planned Parenthood;

Explaining away tax cuts for the wealthiest of the wealthy by claiming they will create jobs (only not in America);

Overturning hard fought legislation that sought to clean the air we breathe by defunding the EPA;

Refusing to remove subsidies to the most profitable industry in the history of the Earth, oil companies;

And repealing any health care law that seeks to help Americans in need but cost insurance companies some of their record profits. (This was actually their first decision in office!)

The list of choices these men and women have made in the few months they have held the majority in the House is staggering and will surely stagger the middle class and others for some time to come.
Many of the above choices, as well as a few others had only two things in mind, break the backs of groups who support the Democratic Party and funnel more wealth into the pockets of the wealthiest of the wealthy.

Choosing big business over Big Bird may not seem like a big deal but it is a clear one.

The choice for the American voter would also seem clear.
But if we can survive the strange choices being made by the Republican Party until November 2012 we can then show them our choice for new leadership going forward.

Oh, and as for the question at the top of this post I believe the answer is obvious, the moth! Clearly both creatures would be dead but at least the moth would cause the murderer to take note!

Vote for FAIR DST!

Why must we change the clocks forward only to then change them and back?
Haven't we moved far enough ahead in the scheme of things to the point where we don't have to fool ourselves into thinking it's 9am when it's really only 8?
Are we really that dumb?
If you like daylight savings time then why not leave it on all year long?
What is it called in the Winter, Nighttime Savings Time, Daylight Losing Time?
And aside from the obvious pain in the ass of having to change all the various clocks of our lives why must we lose the hour during one of our two days off?
Most of us (myself finally included after a 2½ year hiatus) work five days a week.  But we only have a two-day weekend!!
So why not 'spring ahead' on a Monday at 4pm? Everyone hates Mondays anyway so make them shorter. It's a win-win!
Naturally we would have to keep the 'fall Back' portion of the absurd chronological ballet on a Saturday to at least hold on to the perceived gain.
Of course we could do the hour jiggle on a Friday afternoon at 4pm and hasten our leap into an early weekend as well!  I am down with either of those two ideas but don't touch my Saturdays!  Weekends are sacred, dude!
Someone told me that we are only loaning out the hour in spring and we get it back in the fall.  Fine, then if it's a loan I want interest!  I want an hour and a half in fall!
Daylight Saving Time was originally put in place to conserve electricity. The theory was that a longer daytime would mean less need to have your lights on in the home thereby holding down energy consumption.
Unfortunately studies show that while the lights were on for less time the overall energy usage actually increased. We had to turn up the heat earlier in the morning during the cold times and run our air conditioning longer in the height of Summer.
But then again the lords of our economy, the power brokers and especially the Arabs who were lucky enough to settle on ground filled with black gold love the fact that we waste more energy.
And studies have shown that there is a significant rise in the number of heart attacks on the Monday after the dumb 'spring ahead' nonsense!  It seems that the loss of sleep combined with the stress of having to get back to work an hour earlier than your body expects, and make more money for your CEO (face it, you don't get more, do you?) tends to take its toll.
Well I guess that means it does help the health care industry so...
DST was also supposed to help the farmers get their work done while it was light out.
REALLY?
Well in all fairness to the 17 individual farmers left in America CHANGE YOUR ALARM CLOCKS AND LEAVE THE REST OF US THE HELL ALONE FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!
Let Elsie sleep a few minutes longer and we'll all benefit!
Sorry to rant about this but I didn't get enough sleep last night.  Damned alarm clock.


AND THE TOTALLY UNOFFICIAL RESULTS OF THE POLL:
46% FAVOR CHANGING THE "SPRING AHEAD" PORTION OF DST TO FRIDAYS @ 4PM!
23% SAY LEAVE DST ON FROM NOW ON - DON'T EVER FALL BACK AGAIN.
AND
30% SAY WE SHOULD JUST DUMP THE THING ALTOGETHER!  (I ASSUME THE DUMP THE THING PEOPLE WANT TO DO THAT AFTER "FALL BACK" IN NOVEMBER.)
NOBODY, 0% OPTED FOR MONDAYS OR CONTINUING THE PROGRAM AS IS!!!

WAKE UP CALL

The world is watching the terrible devastation in Japan caused by the massive earthquake and for now wondering where the tsunami will hit and how bad it will be.
But for the land of the rising sun the the rising tide added it's own level of destruction as homes, boats and people were swept away without warning.
This is yet another example of how powerful nature is and how helpless we are in the face of such an intense natural disaster.
In some small way the people of Japan are prepared for the worst.  They are aware of the possibility of quakes and tsunamis and have prepared to the best of their abilities escape routes.  They also built structures able to withstand most average earthquakes.  Unfortunately this was not an average one measuring just under 9!
But what about other disasters that we can prepare for?
Mother Nature is not going to wait for us to get our acts together before testing our preparedness.
Are we ready for the continuing increase

in the intensity of storms?
Are we just going to sit back and close our eyes to the warming trend of the Earth without so much as a plan of attack?
The storms we have experienced over the last couple of years and should start to see on a regular basis must be a wake up call.
We cannot predict earthquakes, yet but we are able to warn people about an impending tsunami, at least some of the time.
We can almost predict volcanic eruptions but not all the time.
The reason we have gotten better at those predictions is due to advances in science.
We must continue to listen to science and the scientists who have no agenda, no axe to grind and no ulterior motive other than moving society forward and helping us and our children live better lives!
Scientists have been warning about global climate change for years and it is high time we listen!  Stop the idiotic political posturing funded by special interest groups who care only about their bottom line and start worrying about the human factor!
If we choose to continue to ignore the writing on the wall that wall will fall faster than the famed wall of Jericho.

Fair Marriage

The recent decision by the Obama administration on how to defend attacks on the ridiculous 'defense of marriage act' has brought out far more than 12 angry men, and women.  He stated that he will ask the Justice Department to not rigourously defend the law should it reach the upper levels of our court system.
Naturally we expect many people to have comments on every subject and this one brought out much anger.  One letter to the editor asked us to think how we would feel if President Bush had chosen which laws to follow and which ones to break.  That one caused me to shake my head and create this rant, one that should not be necessary in America in the year 2011!
This is a copy of what I posted on Newsday.com:

"There will always be at least two sides to every story and this one is certainly no exception. But each side must adhere to the facts or their arguments will fail.

President Obama is not choosing which laws he will uphold but rather expediently deciding which ones his administration will not vigorously defend due to their inherent unconstitutionality. Naturally this non-defense policy will only kick in should the conflict reach the Supreme Court! Until then any laws of the land will be followed by this President.
As for one writer's claim about President Bush and our reaction if he had chosen to ignore laws, IS HE KIDDING? Did the writer live in a cave for the 8 years under the rogue Presidency of Mr. Bush and his operatives?  Please go back and look into Patriot Act and dig a little deeper than the misleading title.
Gay men and women who live in America and follow the rules and laws that govern our country have been singled out for ridicule and discriminated against their entire lives! They pay taxes and contribute to our economy in precisely the same way as the so-called straight community. It is time to be straight with them and stop this ridiculous demonization.
Gay bashers should stop and remember the (slightly altered) famous line from Hamlet, "Me thinks they doth protest too much." Then they should look within themselves for reasons why.
Gay marriage does not affect my marriage in any way shape or form!  In fact allowing that segment of our citizenry the same pain and pleasure the rest of us experience might prove to be a double edged sword for them but it is the only way to go in a truly free and democratic society."
 
As for the country in general and the adherence to the laws of the land I would like the people who are against 'gay marriage' because it is the current law of the land to answer the following question:
WHAT WAS THE RESULT OF THAT SUPREME COURT DECISION ENTITLED ROE v. WADE?
See if you can remember Dr. George Tiller, the man who was shot to death IN HIS CHURCH.
Get back to me on that one before you hop up on your 'holier than thou' soapbox with your concealed multi-capacity assault weapons and your praise for the murder of innocent law abiding citizens.