GREAT Comeback.

I can't explain if you have never seen the original, but I laughed my ass off at this. Enjoy.



Ok then, here's the original. =)

It's Official, Bitches

"Maiden Names"

The idea of a maiden name is just really weird. Maiden basically means Virgin, or Unmarried, which were I guess supposed to mean the same thing at one point. We should just stop saying Maiden name at all. Just say Last Name at Birth. It makes more sense.

Those Goddamned Mormons are at it Again

Why the fuck people think they should be given a vote on CIVIL RIGHTS is beyond me. That never ends well. As we know they legalized same-sex marriage in Maine. Now those Mormon assholes have begun that same bullshit campaign there as they used in California to take the rights away from gay couples there.

 

I for one do not give a shit what people do in their private lives. I almost never meet any of my co-workers' spouses, and nothing people do in general affects my life. They want to marry, pay their taxes, and raise their kids? WHO GIVES A FUCK?

 

Let 'em.

 

Support Protect Maine Equality!

Deeeeeeeeeep Breaths...

When I got hitched to that freakazoid in 97 whom I later threw off the Tidalgrrrl Bus, I never changed my name legally. Now that I'm going to change it for realz I know why people don't do it on a regular basis. What a convoluted mess!

 

1. Specialty doctor's office

- has to wait until I get my new insurance card.

 

2. New Insurance Card

- has to wait until my employer's HR department submits it.

 

3. Employer

- new name badge

   (has to be given out by the police department, if they are not available then I'm SOL)

- new logins for computers

   (has to be done by the computer people AFTER I submit a work ticket).

- insurance status

 

4. Driver's License

- has to wait until I notify the Social Security Administration in person with marriage certificate and passport and driver's license.

- marriage certificate has to wait until we actually hitch up tomorrow night.

 

5. SS Card

 

6. Bank account + Visa Card

 

7. Co-op Membership update

 

8. Passport

- can wait until I'm damn good and ready, or 2 months prior to Amsterdam trip next Spring.

OUCH~!!

I saw this on CBS.com, written as "As Vets Suffer, VA Staff Get $24M Bonuses".

 

What a load of shit!

 

As they put it: In scathing reports this week, but they don't mention that it was a VA report by the Inspector General that let them in on the story!  News agencies are all about spin.

 

This was an egregious waste of taxes - but one office of criminals isn't the entire VA. And "suffering vets" don't have anything to do with this. No one was denied care, payments, or disability because the Tech and Info services office manager decided to defraud the government.

 

Man, that shit burns my ass. The VA employees work their asses off to give good care to veterans and then CBS has to come out with bullshit stories like this.

 

Why not just cover the story as is? It's not like it's less egregious to say HUGE GOVERNMENT FRAUD~!!ZOMG!!11!!!eleventy!!

Best quote of the day

Let's call libertarians what they are:  leeches.  They want to take the society that the rest of us built with our tax dollars and get services from it without having to pay in themselves.

Comment #29: Mnemosyne  on  08/20  at  01:47 PM

Awwwwwwwwww!

Just watched a mama squirrel fight and squirm to get her baby firmly in her mouth so she could climb back up to their tree lair.

 

 

Media Matters Kicks Ass Once Again!

What I've done is shorten this to basically bullet points to make it more readable. Great stuff! I am just glad to see it finally in one place. What the Talking Noise Machine has done is overwhelm the average American with so many goddamn lies that to wade through is an awful big task. What's true? What's not? And WTF did Lou Dobbs just say? LOL, I'll drink to that scare tactic any day~!!

Myths and falsehoods about health care reform (click for entire article)

MYTH 1: There is no health care crisis

CLAIM: The health care system currently works fine, and only a purportedly small number of uninsured people would benefit from reform.

REALITY: Roughly 25 million Americans were underinsured in 2007.

 

The underinsured do not receive adequate care and face financial hardship.

 

Insurance companies currently rescind policies when their insured customers need treatment.

 

Currently, insurance companies deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions.

MYTH 2: Health care reform will impose rationing

CLAIM: Progressive health care reform proposals will introduce a system of "rationing" into American medicine.

REALITY: Insurance companies already ration care.

 

Sanjay Gupta: "I can tell you, as a practicing physician ... who deals with this on a daily basis, rationing does occur all the time."

 

Insurance companies ration care by rescinding coverage.

 

MYTH 3: Health care reform provides for euthanasia, "death panel"

CLAIM: House health care reform bill mandates end-of-life counseling that will pressure seniors to end their lives.

REALITY: Advance care planning is not mandatory in the House health care bill.

PolitiFact: McCaughey's claim that seniors would be encouraged to end their lives "is an outright distortion."

CLAIM: Health care reform would establish a "death panel."

REALITY: "Death panel" claims have been conclusively discredited.

MYTH 4: Health care reform legislation will cover undocumented immigrants

CLAIM: Under health care reform, you will be denied care, and it will be given to undocumented immigrants instead.

REALITY: House bill stipulates that those "not lawfully present" may not receive subsidies to purchase insurance.

 

Senate HELP bill excludes those "not lawfully present" from federal funding.

 

MYTH 5: Health care reform will raise your taxes

CLAIM: Health care reform would be funded by broad-based tax increases.

REALITY: The surtax in House bill applies only to income exceeding $350,000 per year for joint filers.

MYTH 6: Health care reform would tax all small businesses

CLAIM: The House Democrats' bill will raise income taxes on small businesses.

REALITY: Ways and Means committee stated that according to JCT, only 4.1 percent of small-business owners would be affected by surtax.

CLAIM: House Democrats' bill would subject all small businesses to an 8 percent payroll tax as a penalty for not providing insurance to employees.

REALITY: Companies with annual payrolls of less than $250,000 would pay no penalty under the House bill.

MYTH 7: Health care reform would add $1 trillion-plus to deficit

CLAIM: Health care reform "would add around $1 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years."

REALITY: CBO found that House bill would increase the federal budget deficit by $239 billion over 10 years -- not $1 trillion.

MYTH 8: House bill would ban private individual insurance

CLAIM: House health care reform bill would "outlaw individual private coverage."

REALITY: The bill does not "outlaw" private individual insurance.

MYTH 9: Obama said he didn't read House bill

CLAIM: Obama "admitted" that he has not read the House health care reform bill.

REALITY: Obama actually said he was "not familiar" with opponents' false talking point that bill would ban private individual insurance.

MYTH 10: Co-ops are an adequate substitute for a public option

CLAIM: The co-op "compromise" eliminates the need for the public option.

REALITY: Progressive experts argue public plan is necessary for successful reform.

MYTH 11: Obama is pushing a system like the U.K. and Canada

CLAIM: Obama is pushing a single-payer system like Canada's or a nationalized health care system like the United Kingdom's.

REALITY: Obama has rejected Canadian-style single-payer system and U.K.-style nationalized health care.

MYTH 12: Obama, Dems pushing "socialized medicine"

CLAIM: Health care reform proposals are socialist and will lead to socialized medicine.

REALITY: Conservatives have trotted out "socialized medicine" smear for 75 years -- and it's never been true.

MYTH 13: Prominent opponents of health care reform are credible

CLAIM: Betsy McCaughey is a credible health care expert.

REALITY: Betsy McCaughey is a serial misinformer who has perpetuated numerous falsehoods about health care reform.

CLAIM: Rick Scott is a credible health care expert.

REALITY: Rick Scott was chairman of a scandal-plagued hospital firm.

CLAIM: Newt Gingrich is a credible health care expert.

REALITY: Newt Gingrich has a financial stake in opposing Democrats' reform proposals.

MYTH 14: Government can't run a health care program

CLAIM: Medicare has failed, and so the government can't be trusted to "run health care."

REALITY: Medicare costs have risen more slowly than private insurance.

Medicare is extremely popular.

The government currently provides the "best care anywhere."

In a 2005 Washington Monthly article headlined "The Best Care Anywhere," Philip Longman wrote of the Veterans Health Association (VHA): "Outside experts agree that the VHA has become an industry leader in its safety and quality measures. Dr. Donald M. Berwick, president of the Institute for Health Care Improvement and one of the nation's top health-care quality experts, praises the VHA's information technology as 'spectacular.' The venerable Institute of Medicine notes that the VHA's 'integrated health information system, including its framework for using performance measures to improve quality, is considered one of the best in the nation.' "

 

Good times!

http://i30.tinypic.com/2qi1vyx.jpg

This is where I used to shop?

Fuck Whole Foods.

 

Reading through the WSJ online Op-Ed was tougher than I thought. I heard last week from my beloved boy-toy that the owner of Whole Foods wrote an article that made him look like a raving idiotic Libertardian, and that people were calling for a boycott of his shops.

 

So anyway I mentally filed it away and came back today to look it up. What an ASSHOLE. I'm never shopping at Whole Foods again. I have Trader Joes and the Co-op and the Jenny Street Market. I have no need to patronize that fuck.

 

Before the article even begins there is a quote in italics from Margaret Thatcher which you know, is a good clue that the writer is going to underwhelm with compassion.

 

I did actually make it through the whole thing, but my head almost blew up when I read this:

 

Whole Foods Market pays 100% of the premiums for all our team members who work 30 hours or more per week (about 89% of all team members) for our high-deductible health-insurance plan.

 

We also provide up to $1,800 per year in additional health-care dollars through deposits into employees' Personal Wellness Accounts to spend as they choose on their own health and wellness.

Money not spent in one year rolls over to the next and grows over time. Our team members therefore spend their own health-care dollars until the annual deductible is covered (about $2,500) and the insurance plan kicks in. This creates incentives to spend the first $2,500 more carefully.

Jesus Fuck! What does a yearly $1,800 cover in this country's current healthcare structure? About a box of tissues. So, you know, if you get sick then you're just not being careful enough. I mean, what the fuck is your problem? You knew the money would run out, and here you needed an emergency appendectomy? Oh, well - you'll just need to be more careful in future. Especially since you've got the high-deductible insurance plan in the first place, so you've got to pay exorbitant fees for everything.

 

Anecdotally, I was on a high-deductible insurance plan from one of my lower-paying jobs, and guess what? I couldn't afford to see a doctor for anything. I did get sick, and ended up with $7,000.00 for my co-pay. I'm not shitting you, and neither are the collection agencies still after my ass for it.

 

He says further down:

 

Repeal government mandates regarding what insurance companies must cover. These mandates have increased the cost of health insurance by billions of dollars. What is insured and what is not insured should be determined by individual customer preferences and not through special-interest lobbying.

 

Oh yes, because insurance companies are going to cover expensive, lifesaving procedures out of the goodness of their hearts? What IS it with Libertardians and the "goodness of their hearts" argument? Insurance companies are NOT GOOD~!! See my prior blog post to see what insurance companies do, since Marriott stated it was the insurance company attorneys that came up with that defense for them.

 

That aside, how exactly are the insurance companies going to be held accountable to insure according to customer preferences any more than they are now, which is not much? Without government mandates nothing gets done. Ever. I truly believe anyone who thinks we need less government is a fucking moron.

 

So then, this Whole Foods Fuckwit starts with the outright lies:

 

Enact Medicare reform. We need to face up to the actuarial fact that Medicare is heading towards bankruptcy and enact reforms that create greater patient empowerment, choice and responsibility.

 

Oh noes!!!111!!!eleventy!!11! He used the term "actuarial fact" so it must be true!

 

Except that it's not. I think it was Al Franken doing his part to piss off the Right when he broke down the Medicare-bankruptcy bullshit and presented evidence that showed that Medicare isn't in danger except from the fucking GOP who'd like to gut it.

 

A careful reading of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution will not reveal any intrinsic right to health care, food or shelter. That's because there isn't any. This "right" has never existed in America.

 

You know, I'm hearing this a lot. People are saying to me and in different articles, etc. that they are against healthcare reform because there is no right to healthcare. And while that is true, isn't it a right of every human to have compassionate treatment and shouldn't we agree to help others because otherwise we're assholes? No one has to show me a law that says I should treat others the way I'd like to be treated. I just choose not to be an asshole. The only people who look for loopholes so they can be selfish jerks, are, well...selfish jerks. So in a way it's wrong to say that there is no right to healthcare, because shouldn't we all have a right to it under life, liberty and pursuit of happiness? *shrug*

 

So yeah - I'm never shopping at Whole Foods again. Fuck those Fucks.

More outrageous victim blaming and intimidation

Well, apparently I know which hotel chain NEVER to use. And I plan to tell them why. Check this out from the Stamford, CT area. (via a poster at Pharyngula, thanks Carlie!)

And then, please let Marriott know how you feel about them claiming this woman was at fault for being raped at gunpoint in THEIR parking garage in front of her two children. Also, you might mention how you feel about them outing her case to her acquaintances as a form of intimidation.

https://www.marriott.com/suggest/suggest.mi

UPDATE:

I contacted Marriott customer service.

To Whom it May Concern:

Let me direct you to this article in which it claims that your company is attempting to find a rape victim negligent in her own rape at gunpoint in your parking garage in Stamford CT.

http://www.connpost.com/ci_13048604

There was also mention of disclosing her identity to her acquaintances as an attempt at victim intimidation.

I assure I have stayed at your hotels in the past, but could not stomach doing it again if this is your idea of customer service. As a woman, as a parent (edit: step-parent, but I'd shit a brick if this happened to anyone I knew), and as a citizen I find this repugnant in the extreme.

I have also directed my friends and colleages to stop patronizing your hotels if this is the way your business is conducted.

Finally, you should be ashamed of yourselves for treating a human being in this manner.

Good Day.

Woah...Straw Man Much?

LOL of the day:

 

In which I receive an email from VA employee.

 

 

Subject: Free American Health Care NOW!

 

Please take a minute to sign this petition keeping Government control OUT of healthcare.

http://www.freeourhealthcarenow.com/

 

My reply:

 

 

Subject: RE: Free American Health Care NOW!

 

You mean like the VA? That's government health care and I think we should keep it.

 

- TiG

This came back:

 

That is health care for those that actually DID something for us..the least we can do is do something for them...I hope you are NOT suggesting that those that fight for us should be TOLD to fight for us...I don't want that, thank you.


C----- H----
USDA, ----, W------- Field Office

 

 

My reply:

 

I'm not suggesting – I'm saying straight out that the VA is government health care and we should keep it. 
 
- TiG

 

 

This came back:

 

It is Health care that is given to those who are BRAVE enough to fight for my rights... I don't believe ALL Americans are BRAVE and thus their healthcare is NOT  a RIGHT.  That is what I am saying.  When my government starts TELLING people they HAVE to fight for our rights...that is when we are in a Dictatorship..and I for one do not agree with THAT.  Point?


C----- H----
USDA, ----, W------- Field Office

 

 

 

My reply:

 

 

WOW..what an INTERESTING use of CAPS to spew out WORDS that had NOTHING to do with what I WROTE in that EMAIL.

 

Thanks though!

 

- TiG

 

See my quote below - it's my email tagline for a REASON.

--
"Ridicule is the only weapon that can be used against unintelligible propositions. Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them."   -Thomas Jefferson

 

To be fair to my fellow Americans, I also received a HUGE SMILEY from one vet who works with me, and another one who wrote back that she "couldn't agree more" with what I said.

I have not received any more correspondence from idiot person at the USDA.

Maaaa..widge...

I love The Princess Bride. That wedding scene is just so great - well, all the scenes are pretty great. That movie is just a classic. If you've never seen it then you've severely missed a pop-cult cornucopia.

 

Go see it. =)

 

Oh, and I'm getting married in about a week and a half, for what it's worth.

Dis-Gus-Ting~!!

Oh for the love of FSM. I should KNOW better than to read these fucked-up pieces of anti-feminist shite on Slate. But I'm a glutton for punishment. Where do I start?

For decades, owing to an incident in early childhood, I've been mildly ashamed of my interest in power tools. At my public elementary school in Dallas in the early 1970s,

Ok, let's stop right there. We can already see where this tripe of an article is headed. She's female, in elementary school, in Texas, in the 1970s. She gets embarrassed out of woodworking and feels less than a woman her whole life, etc.

Ok. I realize that a lot of women equate their womanhood with doing feminine things, but honestly people - if you HAVE a vagina or otherwise identify your gender as female, YOU'RE A WOMAN.

That's what bothers me about this article. I'm glad she got empowered finally, yadda yadda fucking yadda. But way to stereotype about how women suddenly become men if they like to work with their hands and it ain't knitting. Fuck that noise. And Fuck Slate. And Fuck Me for even reading that shit!!

ADDED BONUS!!

Related Articles

Etsy.com Peddles a False Feminist Fantasy
No, you can't quit your day job to make quilts.

*jumping off a bridge now*

HOLY SHIT!!!!

From the ACLU website:

 

In March 2009, the Circuit Court of Leon County ordered Samantha Burton – a mother of two suffering from pregnancy complications – to be indefinitely confined to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital and forced to undergo any and all medical treatments deemed necessary to save her fetus. After three days of state-compelled hospitalization, Ms. Burton suffered fetal demise and was released from the hospital. 

 

Youch!! Are they fucking kidding?? Ass-backwards hicks with control issues, sounds like to me!! I've been in hospital settings and if there was something going on I've been trained to say "I have the legal right to refuse care, so get away from me!" Yes, I've had to do it. This woman was denied her rights, it's clear. That Circuit Court has just stepped in the biggest pile of steaming trouble that I've seen in some time.

 

Public Service Announcement: DONATE TO THE ACLU~!!!!

--
"Ridicule is the only weapon that can be used against unintelligible propositions. Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them."

-Thomas Jefferson

Where the Fuck is Single-Payer Healthcare??

Cause I have insurance. Very good insurance. And yet...I was DENIED and got a bill for $900 last week. So, er, excuse me - but WTF good is insurance that doesn't cover visits??

 

And I don't want to hear about what insurance the politicians have, because THAT'S what insurance I have. And yet I went to the ER for a fucking migraine, was denied appropriate care by the lame-ass resident doctor, and then the claim was denied. So you'll excuse me if I'm pissed that Single Payer is off the table.

--
"Ridicule is the only weapon that can be used against unintelligible propositions. Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them."

-Thomas Jefferson

August 2009 Shall Not Suck

When's the last time you cried because you were happy? It's awfully fucking rare. This year has been just horrible. If you know me then you know that my Dad died from leukemia after being sick for months. I became suicidally depressed when he got sick and stopped doing everything that had once been important to me. I stopped blogging and seeing friends, and gave up on everything. I let my Crohn's disease get the better of me and was in and out of hospital for different things. It sucked.

 

Things are getting better. I'm on the right dose of meds, my Crohn's is fixed for awhile, I have a new office with big windows and a kind-hearted office mate, and I bought a beautiful Appendix Quarter Horse who is teaching me to ride well. I spend an awful lot of time outside and sweaty and covered in dirt and horse shit, and it's great.

 

This morning I read the update on fellow blogger Within Without, and promptly burst into tears of happiness because he's moved from the hospital into rehab and is continuing to do well. I might start again if I think too much about it. I'm not the weepy sort, but that touched me. Things are looking up, it seems, and I'm feeling hopeful that it's a trend.

 

All around the world there is war, famine, violence by religious fanatics, and economic problems at home. It's good to know that we can focus on what's good and right and get through it, especially with the help of friends. There are good things in my world. I do believe that. And August 2009 Shall Not Suck.

--
"Ridicule is the only weapon that can be used against unintelligible propositions. Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them."

-Thomas Jefferson

What is all the confusion??

I read blogs. Shocker, huh? Most of the blogs I read are either a) Atheist b) Feminist or a mixture of the two. One common theme I have found is a general unwillingness by those associated with Atheism or Feminism to identify as such. "Oh sure, I don't believe in a god or gods, but I'm not an atheist". I don't get that. There are the people who state "Of course women should have equal rights with men, but I'm not a feminist".

 

I don't think it's a misunderstanding about what those words mean, not at all. I think that it's a fear of being called a nasty name like "Feminist" or "Atheist". This is where the struggle lies within becoming more visible and demanding that our rights cease to be trampled on by religious freaks and backwards mysogynists (many of whom are in the same camps). We have to drop the stigma of the labels because no matter what, if you believe in equality for women, or lack of gods, then you are these things (not that there's anything wrong with that)!

 

More and more it's becoming clear that a very large portion of the population believes that religion should be a private thing and that church and state should be separate. There are also (I would say) a majority of Americans who believe that women should have equal rights as far as compensation for work done and career choices. It means a lot to say that the U.S. is very job-centric and it culturally defines us. I believe that is one of the few areas where we all agree (mostly). It's not the healthiest obsession since it stresses us out and we could use more vacation and relaxation time in general, but it's a very common theme.

 

How do these things have common ground? Well, for starters the churches have long been built on the backs of the workers. They have historically kept the workers down and taken their money by convincing them their reward is in the afterlife, so don't bother with this one. The more people realize they've been had by the religious establishment and look to themselves for the important answers, the more time they'll have to devote to whatever they want instead of what they are told to do.

 

Once the masses get a taste of that leisure time they want more. I know I do. Since it's basically the religious establishments who enforce the patriarchy, that will decrease exponentially over time and already has to some extent. It's true that women still make FAR less then men while working in similar jobs (here is just one example), but that will also continue to improve over time (here is a BAD example, but it's a trend). 

 

Now we just have to normalize the idea of calling these what they are: Atheism and Feminism. They aren't bad words - and I welcome all to our ranks!  

--
"Ridicule is the only weapon that can be used against unintelligible propositions. Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them."

-Thomas Jefferson