politics

Romney Once Again Proves How Different the Real World is from His World

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Here’s the “gaffe”.

“We don’t have a setting across this country where if you don’t have insurance, we just say to you, ‘Tough luck, you’re going to die when you have your heart attack,’  ” [Mitt Romney] said as he offered more hints as to what he would put in place of “Obamacare,” which he has pledged to repeal.

“No, you go to the hospital, you get treated, you get care, and it’s paid for, either by charity, the government or by the hospital. We don’t have people that become ill, who die in their apartment because they don’t have insurance.”

He pointed out that federal law requires hospitals to treat those without health insurance — although hospital officials frequently say that drives up health-care costs.

[full story]

Here’s the reality.

A 24-year-old Cincinnati father died from a tooth infection this week because he couldn’t afford his medication, offering a sobering reminder of the importance of oral health and the number of people without access to dental or health care.

According to NBC affiliate WLWT, Kyle Willis’ wisdom tooth started hurting two weeks ago. When dentists told him it needed to be pulled, he decided to forgo the procedure, because he was unemployed and had no health insurance.

When his face started swelling and his head began to ache, Willis went to the emergency room, where he received prescriptions for antibiotics and pain medications. Willis couldn’t afford both, so he chose the pain medications.

[full story]

Again…reality and Mitt Romney’s version of reality differ a great deal.  He says what happened never happens…but it did.

So the question remains…is he ignorant of reality or lying about it?  It has to be one or the other.

Charles Darwin biopic having trouble finding American distributor

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Charles Darwin biopic having trouble finding American distributor

—

Paul Bettany plays Charles Darwin in Creation
Paul Bettany plays Charles Darwin in Creation

The next round of the war on culture is coming soon (or not) to a theatre near you.

From the Telegraph:

Creation, starring Paul Bettany, details Darwin’s “struggle between faith and reason” as he wrote On The Origin of Species. It depicts him as a man who loses faith in God following the death of his beloved 10-year-old daughter, Annie.

The film was chosen to open the Toronto Film Festival and has its British premiere on Sunday. It has been sold in almost every territory around the world, from Australia to Scandinavia.

However, US distributors have resolutely passed on a film which will prove hugely divisive in a country where, according to a Gallup poll conducted in February, only 39 per cent of Americans believe in the theory of evolution.

I read this news with a rather heavy sigh.  When I read those numbers (and recall recent attacks on science in my homeland) I feel nothing but sadness and shame for my state.  After a weekend when the U.S. lost one of its great scientists, I can’t help by be bothered by the irony at work here [1].

On the one had, we have a scientist using the understanding brought to the world by Darwin on the functioning of living species.  Indeed, some of Darwin’s direct work was on the changes brought about in species of plants and animals that had been domesticated by our own.

This hand includes work that saved an estimated 245,000,000,000 lives by improving crop yields to such a degree that predictions of global collapse brought about by our species’ proclivity for reproduction [2].

For his insights into the nature of nature, Darwin is castigated as the embodiment of evil by some.

Movieguide.org, an influential site which reviews films from a Christian perspective, described Darwin as the father of eugenics and denounced him as “a racist, a bigot and an 1800s naturalist whose legacy is mass murder”. His “half-baked theory” directly influenced Adolf Hitler and led to “atrocities, crimes against humanity, cloning and genetic engineering”, the site stated.

The film has sparked fierce debate on US Christian websites, with a typical comment dismissing evolution as “a silly theory with a serious lack of evidence to support it despite over a century of trying”.

This sad and hateful bias against science and explanatory theories, even as it saves millions of lives and averts global disaster, is a big part of why I have such issues with the conservative movement in the U.S.

People often lament about the lack of agreement is political circles about how to go forward given the deep problems we are currently facing.  In the case of politics, there is often a deeper and more rational reason for that divide, being that each of has has different life experiences which guide and inform our politics and therefore differ on how to properly deal with reality.

When it comes to science, however, the purpose of the scientific method t is to remove thae bias of personal experience and propose theories that *anyone* would find to be true if they collected their own data.  Sadly, however, the politics still come into it, as we will soon see when the next legislative battle regarding how to deal with global warming, and our responsibility to deal with *another* looming apocalypse comes to the political fore [previously foreshadowed here].

Perhaps there will be another Borlaug, using the insights of Darwin, to turn Gore into another Malthus.

One can only hope.

[1 source]

Norman Ernest Borlaug (March 25, 1914 – September 12, 2009)[1] was an American agronomist, humanitarian, and Nobel laureate, and has been called the father of the Green Revolution.[2] Borlaug was one of only five people to have won the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal.[3] He was also a recipient of the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second-highest civilian honor.

—

During the mid-20th century, Borlaug led the introduction of these high-yielding varieties combined with modern agricultural production techniques to Mexico, Pakistan, and India. As a result, Mexico became a net exporter of wheat by 1963. Between 1965 and 1970, wheat yields nearly doubled in Pakistan and India, greatly improving the food security in those nations.[6] These collective increases in yield have been labeled the Green Revolution, and Borlaug is often credited with saving over a billion people from starvation.[7] He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 in recognition of his contributions to world peace through increasing food supply.

[2 source]

A Malthusian catastrophe (also called a Malthusian check, crisis, disaster, or nightmare) was originally foreseen to be a forced return to subsistence-level conditions once population growth had outpaced agricultural production. Later formulations consider economic growth limits as well. The term is also commonly used in discussions of oil depletion.

Based on the work of political economist Thomas Malthus (1766–1834), theories of Malthusian catastrophe are very similar to the subsistence theory of wages. The main difference is that the Malthusian theories predict over several generations or centuries, whereas the subsistence theory of wages predicts over years and decades.

The Most Cliched Things I’ve Written Recently

RobotPirateNinja 3_RobotPirateNinja, archaic interfaces, bullshit, curious, Doh, gaming, government, internet, media, My World, myth, nerd, random, stupid Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Rules:
Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you.

Done in the third person, for effect.

1. Roy likes some plot in his porn.  Hey, what can I say, I’m a romantic.

2. Roy is a bit too honest sometimes.  I’m working on being a better liar.

3. Roy is absolutely sure the next statement is true.

4. Roy is totally positive the previous statement is false.

5. Roy has been studying infinite self-referential loops for a while now.

6. Roy has been studying consciousness for a while now.

7. Roy sometimes repeats himself.  In the third person.  Sometimes even in fourth.

8. Simon says start over.  From the top.

9. Roy wrote a short proof for the existence of evil (according to Simon) in this list.  He also posted a longer one to Flickr a while back.

10.Roy has been accused of a crime he didn’t commit, and not accused of one he’s sure he committed. He’s also been accused of a crime he committed, was honest about it, and went to prison for a few days.

11.Roy likes to tell stories.  Some of which are based on true stories, some of which I pull out of my ass.

12.Roy would like to mention the POMA stories are usually the happy ones. 

13.Roy enjoys discussing politics and religion, but only if the people in the conversation follow simple rules.  Rule #1: Define terms.

14.Rule #1 means you usually don’t actually talk about politics or religion, but what words mean.  It’s like Fight Club, but in real life and with characters instead of actors.  Err, English characters…you know…letters.  Fighting makes you tougher, and what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.  Suck it up.

15.Roy is pretty sure Rule #1 ends most discussions before they begin, and certainly before they become violent. 

16.Roy is almost positive that most bad arguments and many wars come from two people, or two groups of people, using the same word to define different things.  “God” is a big one, in this context.

17.Roy has some rather curious, and rational, definitions of God.  Yes, there is more than one that applies.  Hence the confusion and the killing.  Sooooo much killing.

18.Roy is pretty sure our species has figured it out again, just in time for us to self-annihilate and let the turtles take over.  Again.

19.Roy doesn’t really think there are Aliens, but if there are, he’s pretty sure he knows where they are hiding.

20.Roy has friends from all over, and is rather adept at making new ones.  It’s about one word, and projecting that word into the minds of others.  Smiles work, as does honesty, kind words and sincere interest.

21.Roy also knows how to shatter minds and hearts.  Hey, it comes with the territory.  You have to learn how to break it before you can put it back together.

22.Roy is like an ogre and a troll.  He’s got layers and they regenerate.

23.Roy has watched New York City sleeping.  It was cute and cuddly.  Then it nearly killed him.

24.Roy kept re-creating himself until he was happy.  Then he started freaking people out with what he had created, and how he did so.

25.Roy is like a computer with feelings.  Yea, computers have feelings.  Well, one of them, anyway.

26.Roy is pretty sure he found a serious flaw in Newton’s math and is absolutely positive Newton was a nutjob.

27.Roy doesn’t believe in imaginary numbers.  And thinks rules are made to be broken and fixed later.

28.Roy is totally positive he has solved that whole “moral relativism” problem.   And the mind/body one.

29.Roy spent twenty years in a cave studying light and the things light does.  He also read his first book on quantum mechanics at about 15.  He didn’t tell anyone.  Intellectualism was a dirty word in his home.

30.Roy likes to calculate things in his head, and made up a system of calculus to do so.  But it’s more of a metaphorical calculus than a mathematical one.  It does, however, work for math too.  Solves it, in a sense.

31.Roy can prove that P=NP and that it sometimes doesn’t.  The solution, curiously enough, includes an infinite number of zeros.  Also, you need at least one time dimension.   

32.Roy thinks the Buddha was hilarious and that Jesus had a better sense of humor than most modern Jewish comedians.  

33.Roy knows that without a brain to process reality, it looks a whole lot different.  This is why he values his time here so much it often looks like he’s wasting it.  And why he doesn’t believe in traditional versions of Heaven or Hell.  They are both real, and here.  I’ve been to both and lived to tell about it…for some god-damned reason.

34.Roy thinks that if you can’t explain your theory to an eight-year old, it’s either not a very good theory, or you don’t understand it yourself.  Eight-year-olds, dude. 

35.Uncle Roy is a big hit with his nieces and nephews. Roy is not so much a big hit with his own family.  See his list of “25” things for a few hints.  What, it wasn’t supposed to be in base 22.5?  Says who?

36.Roy got the fuck out of Texas after college to free his mind.  He came back after he freed his soul.

37.Roy knows a bit more, and a bit less, than he lets on. 

38.Roy is really fun to watch football with.

39.Roy decided to go with RobotPirateNinja because it’s the coolest thing ever and was bored shitless watching the economy collapse around him. It was only a matter of time, people.

40.Roy has probably written more online that most people will read in a lifetime.  If you factor in the illiterates.  What?!  It’s not like they are going to read this and get all pissy about it.

41.Roy thinks making fun of illiterate people is mean and should certainly not be done in prose. 

42.Roy is mean sometimes, for comedy’s sake.  Comedy is a right bastard.

43.Roy has been very blessed and is moderately cursed. 

44.Roy acts like a slacker but is a cave-dwelling over-achiever.

45.Roy has lived in a cave since about 10.  He thought everyone did.  Then he realized it’s only most people, and they live in caves of their own creation.

46.Roy likes it better outside.  A lot better.

47.Roy is an Eagle Scout.  This got him his first real job.  Which then got him his second.  Which then got him his third (repeat until last summer).

48.Roy sometimes thinks N-dimensionally, which is tiring and stressful, and more fun than people might imagine.  Kinda like sex.

49.Roy is pretty sure he talks too much, but he’s got a lot to say.  Spending twenty years in a cave will do that do a man.

50.Roy is a big fan of the number fifty.  It’s waaay cooler than twenty-five, although hyphens are fun too.

0. Thanks for reading.  I could do this all day.  Did it for a month, turned it into a book.

What Talking About Issue Looks Like (Joe Biden)

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I know a lot of you don’t know what it looks like, as it happens quite rarely during “silly season” (at least on major cable channels), but this is how it looks when you go out and talk to people about actual things that matter.

This is what real politicians do.  Go out and explain the reasons why our healthcare system needs to be fixed (international competition) and a bit about a governing philosophy (we can’t fix all your problems, but we should at least be aware of them).  Explain how you balanced a budget, and what happened when an “experienced” executive took over.  Explain what needs changing and how it could be better.  Pretty basic stuff.

“Image-based” politicians try to limit their exposure to the public.  For a great example of this, see: Bush, George W.

For a current example…watch the news…

Campaigning keeps Palin from media

Palin will spend much of the next few weeks campaigning with Sen. John McCain, a move that not only capitalizes on the Republican enthusiasm for the vice presidential nominee but also limits her exposure to the news media.She left Washington for Alaska on Wednesday, her first trip back home since being named to the ticket.

McCain and Palin traveling together limits her exposure to reporters and gives McCain’s top aides more control of her.

Palin has not done interviews after one she gave to People magazine on the day she was introduced as McCain’s vice presidential choice.

[full article…which includes this bit]

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, has sought to burnish her executive credentials by telling how she had engineered the deal that jump-started a long-delayed gas pipeline project.

Stretching more than 1,700 miles, it would deliver natural gas from the North Slope of Alaska to the lower 48 states and be the largest private-sector infrastructure project on the continent.

Palin has asserted the pipeline will help lead America toward energy independence.

An examination of the project has found that she has overstated both the progress that has been made and the certainty of success.

The pipeline exists only on paper. The first section has yet to be laid, federal approvals are years away, and the pipeline will not be completed for at least a decade.

In fact, the pipeline might never be built.

Biden’s money quote from his speech: “Name me one single thing that John McCain and Sarah Palin are talking about, on the major issues,  the issues that affect our lives and our security.  Name me one, one, where they disagree with George W. Bush.”

Now this is kinda the point of the media here.  This is a pretty basic question that should be addressed.  It should be fairly easy to address.  Where are you different from Bush?   We keep hearing about “executive experience” and “mavrickness” but where is the meal?  The appetizer was fascinating, but is there a meal coming?

Or are we going to be told to go straight to dessert, and go eat some cake?

That Maverick Reformer from Alaska

RobotPirateNinja 3_RobotPirateNinja Tags: , , , , , , 1 Comment

I was just doing a bit of reading about John “Yes, I’m that crazy” McCain’s pick for his running mate, Sarah Palin. (that is Newsweeks’ interview, here’s my previous coverage).

I was reading a bit about her fighting corruption and crime when she came into office, which is no doubt something many will claim to be a strength for her in the campaign.

Then I started to think a bit about Alaska, the type of people there, the type of government there, and a bit of the history of the place.

My general understanding is that Alaska is something of a strange place with a strange economy.  With 1.1 people per square kilometer, it makes sense why.  Wyoming is relatively bustling with just over 5 per sq/km.  As a natural result of their low population (0.5% of U.S.) and huge natural resource reserves (+20%), they are swimming in cash, land, and privacy.   Pretty much the opposite of the rest of the United States.  As a “freak state” (like Hawaii) you have to have a valid U.S. passport to get there over land (thanks, Patriot Act!).

In such an environment the government functions more as a distributor of that natural wealth (which has quintupled in the last 6 years) rather than trying to make do with generated wealth.  This can be a very  corrupting environment, as we have seen in many oil-based economy driven governments.  We can see that corrupting influence in action by taking a historical look at that maverick reformer from Alaska.

Stevens soon gained a reputation as an active prosecutor who vigorously prosecuted violations of federal and territorial liquor, drug, and prostitution laws,[9] characterized by Fairbanks area homesteader Niilo Koponen (who later served in the Alaska State House of Representatives from 1982-1991) as “this rough tough shorty of a district attorney who was going to crush crime.”[15] Stevens sometimes accompanied U.S. Marshals on raids. As recounted years later by Justice Jay Rabinowitz, “U.S. marshals went in with Tommy guns and Ted led the charge, smoking a stogie and with six guns on his hips.”[9] However, Stevens himself has said the colorful stories spread about him as a pistol-packing D.A. were greatly exaggerated, and recalled only one incident when he carried a gun: on a vice raid to the town of Big Delta about 75 miles (121 km) southeast of Fairbanks, he carried a holstered gun on a marshal’s suggestion.

Yup, another gun-toting Alaskan, bringing law and order to the frontier.   Who then became fat and happy and corrupt in an environment where the biggest debate is how big the checks are going to be from from the government.

So what does this say about Palin?  Not much, other than that she is following the pattern.

What does this say about the pattern? That, I think, is the point.

Now someone could make the argument that Palin hasn’t been in Alaskan politics long enough to become corrupted by the twisted relationship relative to most government/governed setups.  But we’ve already seen some evidence that she is willing to use her power to settle personal scores.

In 2005, Ms. Palin alleged to Mr. Wooten’s supervisors that he had threatened to harm her sister and father and had engaged in numerous instances of misconduct, including using a stun gun on his 10-year-old stepson, according to state documents.

In one instance, she told state investigators, she overheard him on the telephone threatening her sister: “I’m gonna f-kin” shoot your dad. He’s gonna get a lead bullet.”

Mr. Wooten told investigators he tested a Taser stun gun on the boy at his request but never threatened the Palins. An internal police investigation substantiated the stun-gun incident and some other charges but threw out most of the rest. Mr. Wooten was suspended for five days in 2006.

Through a spokesman with the Public Safety Employees Association, he declined to comment.

On July 11 of this year, Ms. Palin fired Department of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. Mr. Monegan then complained that she and her husband had pressured him to fire Mr. Wooten.

Ms. Palin, in a statement, denied that, saying she had removed the commissioner she had appointed 18 months earlier because she wanted “a new direction.”

She said she will cooperate with the legislative probe, which is expected to be completed by November.

My guess is that the “probe” will complete sometime around November 6th or 7th.  It’s an old school tactic, delay until after the election.

Given that in a year-and-a-half-of-executive-experience she has already shown some sides of abusing her power, is that really what the U.S. needs right now?

Changing the World, Internet Style

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So there’s been an ongoing battle in the United States over the nature of our knowledge. Which is to say, how we communicate our knowledge to the next generation of Americans. While the vast majority of this battleground is decided, there is a persistent hotspot regarding the nature of Human Creation.

Or perhaps I should more accurately say, human evolution.

I’m not going to go into all the details right now, but basically all life on this planet is related. Small genetic changes over time have led to different species, including our own. That’s basically it. If I had to reduce it to a verse or two to hand down verbally over many generations, that’s how I’d say it.

If I didn’t have knowledge of genetics and DNA and all the evidence that supports their existence and the theories and science surrounding them, I might instead reduce all human knowledge to something poetic. Maybe along the line of …

24 ¶ And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
26 ¶ And God said, Let us make man in our image, 1 Cor. 11.7 after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. Mt. 19.4 · Mk. 10.6

[more here]

That’s pretty much all background information for the meat of this story, which is how the Internet is helping us help each other teach the next generation a…shall we say…more enlightened understanding of how we came to be we.

As mentioned previously, the topic of the battleground is Evolution. The location of the battleground is Kansas. The time of the battleground is the Election.

And so bOINGbOING gets the ball rolling…

Progressive geek looking for 3,000 people to help him win Kansas election against dinosauric anti-science/pro-surveillance dude

Posted by Cory Doctorow, July 16, 2008 7:29 AM |

Sean Tevis is a geeky geek from Kansas who’s fed up with his state rep, an anti-abortion, anti-evolution, pro-censorship, pro-surveillance, anti-gay incumbent. Tevis — an unknown — is polling within three points of his opponent, and is looking to raise some Internet dough to kick this guy’s (extremely tight) ass, and to promote his cause, he’s made a fantastic, XKCD-style toon called “It’s Like A Flamewar with a Forum Troll, but with an Eventual Winner.” Specifically, he’s looking to raise $8.34 from 3,000 people (no state rep in Kansas history has ever had more than 644 donors). I’m in*. Who’s with me? Link (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)*Actually, I’m not. I’m a dirty foreigner and I’m not allowed to meddle in American elections. Someone else donate $8.34 to this guy for me, OK?

Which then got picked up by Digg.

And somebody on Kos mentioned it. If it involves fundraising and progressive causes, Kos is going to be a part of the solution.

Anyway, all of that led to this.

UPDATE!

Backup

Donate

We’ve met our goal to run a competitive campaign, but you can help us win. It’s for an excellent cause, you’ll be making history, and you will be greatly appreciated.

…which is awesome.

—

You can read the whole story, XKCD-style here.

We’ll keep you updated on the story of this guy…

And his fight to help make things a little bit better in one way or another.

/Sean Tevis pimping over.


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Politic Like a Rock Star, Politic Like a Rock Star

RobotPirateNinja cool, myth, Poli-Fi, President 08 Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

Obama’s Convention Speech Moved To Stadium, Democrat Will Accept Nomination At Invesco Field, Which Can Hold Up To 76,000 – CBS News

(AP) Barack Obama will accept the Democratic presidential nomination before up to 76,000 people at the Denver Broncos’ football stadium instead of the smaller arena where the rest of the convention will be held, party officials said Monday.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said the final night of the convention would shift from the Pepsi Center, which can accommodate 21,000, to Invesco Field at Mile High.

Obama. He’s bigger than Pepsi.

This sounds like a fun move. I have absolutely no doubt the place will sell out. I’m just left sadly wondering if security is going to be tight enough.

Ahem….

UPDATE: Just got this from the Obama Campaign.  Looks like they know the “common people” like to play the lotto.  Political lotto…

Robot Pirate Ninja —

Join Barack at the Open ConventionI wanted you to be the first to hear the news.

At the Democratic National Convention next month, we’re going to kick off the general election with an event that opens up the political process the same way we’ve opened it up throughout this campaign.

Barack has made it clear that this is your convention, not his.

On Thursday, August 28th, he’s scheduled to formally accept the Democratic nomination in a speech at the convention hall in front of the assembled delegates.

Instead, Barack will leave the convention hall and join more than 75,000 people for a huge, free, open-air event where he will deliver his acceptance speech to the American people.

It’s going to be an amazing event, and Barack would like you to join him. Free tickets will become available as the date approaches, but we’ve reserved a special place for a few of the people who brought us this far and who continue to drive this campaign.

If you make a donation of $5 or more between now and midnight on July 31st, you could be one of 10 supporters chosen to fly to Denver and spend two days and nights at the convention, meet Barack backstage, and watch his acceptance speech in person. Each of the ten supporters who are selected will be able to bring one guest to join them.

Make a donation now and you could have a front row seat to history:

https://donate.barackobama.com/yourconvention

We’ll follow up with more details on this and other convention activities as we get closer, but please take a moment and pass this note to someone you know who might like to be there.

It will be an event you’ll never forget.

Thank you,

David

David Plouffe
Campaign Manager
Obama for America

And there you have it.  It’s a raffle for back stage tickets to the political event of the year.

Brilliant!

U.S. Health Official Visits the Right Wing “Think” Tanks

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Medicare drifting towards disaster: U.S. official | Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Medicare is lurching toward disaster and it is too late for the Bush Administration and Congress to do anything about it, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said on Tuesday.

He said the next administration will have to act to stop rising costs and get control of the $400 billion federal health insurance plan for the elderly, which now covers 44 million people.

“Higher and higher costs are being borne by fewer and fewer people. Sooner or later, this formula implodes,” Leavitt said in a speech to the right-leaning Heritage Foundation and American Enterprise Institute think-tanks.

“There is serious danger here,” he added. “Medicare is drifting towards disaster.”

This is very true, and it needs to be addressed.  It would be much easier to address if we weren’t spending a couple billion a day blowing shit up, but that would never occur to Heritage or AEI, as they believe some war now and again is absolutely essential to their donors.

The funniest part is the partisan dig at the end.

“It troubles me that this matter is not receiving more attention in the presidential candidates’ discussions. The next president will have to deal with this in significant part,” he said.

Yea, I mean…no one is talking about health care at all as an issue…no one…no one at all…

BTW, those are the “health care” pages for the three Presidential possibilities.

One of the first things to do when in a hole is to stop digging.  Stop digging now. 

 

Silly People, Political Ads are for Nuts

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The Swamp: Clinton’s offended Pa. voter – not

Barack Obama can take some solace out of Hillary Clinton’s new television ad in Pennsylvania. At least one of her supporters featured in the spot hammering Obama for his small town comments isn’t registered to vote in Pennsylvania.

Clyde Thomas, who sports a goatee in the ad and says, “the good people of Pennsylvania deserve a lot better than what Barack Obama said,” is actually registered in New Jersey. He voted there for Clinton Feb. 5. He only recently moved to Bethlehem, Pa.

Frankly, I think the whole “bitter” thing is an idiotic story.  The fact that Clinton, who has over $100,000,000 since leaving the Whitehouse is calling someone who earned their stripes doing community organizing “elitist” is so far out of crazy town it could only be considered rational during a Presidential political campaign.

King of Gore on Video Game Violence

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Stephen King on videogames | Videogames | The Pop of King | News + Notes | Entertainment Weekly | 1

What really makes me insane is how eager politicians are to use the pop culture — not just videogames but TV, movies, even Harry Potter — as a whipping boy. It’s easy for them, even sort of fun, because the pop-cult always hollers nice and loud. Also, it allows legislators to ignore the elephants in the living room. Elephant One is the ever-deepening divide between the haves and have-nots in this country, a situation guys like Fiddy and Snoop have been indirectly rapping about for years. Elephant Two is America’s almost pathological love of guns. It was too easy for critics to claim — falsely, it turned out — that Cho Seung-Hui (the Virginia Tech killer) was a fan of Counter-Strike; I just wish to God that legislators were as eager to point out that this nutball had no problem obtaining a 9mm semiautomatic handgun. Cho used it in a rampage that resulted in the murder of 32 people. If he’d been stuck with nothing but a plastic videogame gun, he wouldn’t even have been able to kill himself.

Case closed.

Nice argument there, scary-writer man.  Really.