Reality vs. Republican Reality

August 28, 2012RobotPirateNinja Uncategorized Tags: I said...what is it?, What Built IT, What is it, Who Built That, You didn't Built That Leave a comment

Obama, July 13: There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me — because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t — look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. (Applause.)

If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.

The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together. There are some things, just like fighting fires, we don’t do on our own. I mean, imagine if everybody had their own fire service. That would be a hard way to organize fighting fires.

So we say to ourselves, ever since the founding of this country, you know what, there are some things we do better together. That’s how we funded the GI Bill. That’s how we created the middle class. That’s how we built the Golden Gate Bridge or the Hoover Dam. That’s how we invented the Internet. That’s how we sent a man to the moon. We rise or fall together as one nation and as one people, and that’s the reason I’m running for President — because I still believe in that idea. You’re not on your own, we’re in this together.

via FactCheck.org : ‘You Didn’t Build That,’ Uncut and Unedited.

-Reality

you didn’t build that.

-Republican Reality

You see, it’s much simpler. And appeals to a certain type of person.

Yo, I heard you like hot summers and droughts, so I added hot summers, melting sea ice, droughts and wildfires to your hot summers and droughts

August 28, 2012September 5, 2012RobotPirateNinja environment, My World, nerd, Sci-Non-Fi, us Tags: Climate Change, Conservatives, global warming, Melting Polar ice Leave a comment

Arctic Sea Ice Hits Record Low—Extreme Weather to Come?

Arctic sea ice is thawing at a historic rate, scientists say. In fact, a recent analysis of satellite data “utterly obliterates” the previous record, set in 2007.

The chief culprit? Global warming. The potential upshot? Longer and more intense extreme-weather events such as heat waves, cold spells, and droughts.

On Monday, researchers at the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center said the rate of Arctic sea ice decline is now the highest that has ever been observed. In August, the sea ice disappeared at an average rate of about 39 square miles (a hundred square kilometers)—or about twice as normal, NSIDC scientists say.

Moreover, the area of Arctic sea ice around the North Pole had shrunk to 1.58 million square miles (4.1 million square kilometers)—the smallest measurement since 1979, when satellite observations began.

It’s a sick situation when science predicts something will happen, gets it wrong….but gets slammed because they were too conservative in their predictions.

Double irony…”conservatives” actually reject the entire notion this happening at all.

John Hodgman nails it, repeatedly, with a huge hammer

August 28, 2012August 28, 2012RobotPirateNinja advice, Big Business, Election 2012, funny, government, Opinion, Poli-Fi, religion, us, war Tags: Expert in all he surveys, John Hodgman, obama, Voting, Winners, Winning Leave a comment

Why Winners Should Vote for Obama – The Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/john-hodgman/how-i-learned-to-be-a-winner_b_1834692.html?utm_hp_ref=entertainment&ir=Entertainment

After that I learned to appreciate Obama in a different way. I appreciated that he inhabited a world in which idealism — and ideology — could never by sheer force of will overcome objective reality, and the hard compromises, uneasy truces, and constant errors that must be made to live in that world. I especially felt better about this position when I learned that John McCain carried an indian feather around FOR LUCK. This was not how I wanted my country run. By myth and superstition and magic tokens.

This is similar to my own understanding, as I realized Obama could best be described as a “pragmatic realist with liberal aspirations“.

It just makes a whole more sense that trying to paint him as a radical. Unfortunately for many on the left, that’s not good enough, and appears to be the same as Romney. As Hodgman notes, that’s generally loser talk.

And make no mistake, the rational folks are losing this country…one little election at a time.

Those on the right who began wishing in 1980 to dismantle the Great Society, de-regulate and de-unionize business, and starve the beast of the federal government are, you may have noticed, very close to succeeding. I am not saying this to scare you; maybe you agree with them. But the point is that it happened because they endured the compromises, hypocrisies, and retreats needed to get the wins, and profoundly change policy in ways we barely noticed — the repeal of Glass-Steagall; the massive tax cuts; the empowerment of corporations as political donors. These things did not happen because conservatives who believed in them kicked Reagan out of office in 1984 for failing to outlaw abortion immediately. It happened because they won elections.

Mitt didn’t know how Ann’s manslaughter affected their family

August 28, 2012August 28, 2012RobotPirateNinja curious, Election 2012, government, history, Opinion, Poli-Fi, sex, us Tags: Abortion, Absent Fathers, Ann Romney, Manslaughter, Miscarriage, Murder Leave a comment

Ann Romney tells of miscarriage – Tim Mak – POLITICO.com

Mitt Romney, sitting alongside his wife, appeared taken aback by the story, leading CBS interviewer Scott Pelley to ask if he’d heard that story before.

“I hadn’t heard the story about Craig coming home from school that day and being so devastated,” said the presumptive GOP nominee. “I’m not surprised. He’s a very tender heart and a wonderful father today himself.”

As to the title…if abortion is murder…miscarriage is manslaughter. If this was a real person that died, as the Republicans want to change the law to say it was, there should be an investigation.

Was it irresponsible actions that led to the death? An absent father? My guess is that conservatives will whine more about the tone of this post than the obvious and impssible legal situations their own policies would create (of which the post title is one).