Yet another reason the current Health Care bill is dangerously flawed is that the tax on so-called “Cadillac” health-care plans isn’t going to impact just the wealthy (the favorite target of liberals) but the middle-class as well (who liberals say they care about). Hell…even the Boston Globe is reporting on this. I know it’s going to fuck me over – I pay for the best possible health-care plan my company offers, and it saved my ass when I had my heart attack a couple of years back, and I’m sure as shit no wealthy executive. So thanks, Obama and crew, for trying to force a bill through that is going to break the back of our country and penalize your core…good thinking.

I noticed something interesting on my ride up to the RMV and my subsequent ride to work this morning: I didn’t see a single Martha Coakley sign. I saw dozens and dozens of Scott Brown signs. I like that.

Once I got into work, I checked my email and saw another from MoveOn.Org about this MA race. The amusing bit in this email is the following line:

“Right wing smear merchants are spending $1 million or more on attack ads, and the tea partiers are out in full force for Republican Scott Brown.”

I live in Massachusetts and I watch TV. I’ve seen the ads. You know who started with negative, smearing, attack ads? Martha Coakley and her Democrat supporters. She started in when she realized, just recently, that winning the election wasn’t a lock, that she might actually have a fight on her hands, that just being a Democrat was (for once) not a guarantee of a win. She aired the first attack ad, and I remember seeing it and thinking “she’s scared, she’s getting dirty.” (more…)

Boston’s City Council defeated a proposal that would have set term limits for the office of the Mayor and the City Council itself. Doesn’t that seem somewhat ridiculous? The City Council…is voting on whether to impose term limits…on themselves. Yeah, no conflict of interest there at all! Surprisingly the vote was a close 7-6 against. I think the following quote from the Boston.com article states pretty clearly why we SHOULD have term limits in place:

Councilor Charles C. Yancey, who has served 25 years on the council, urged his colleagues to vote against term limits. He said they “artificially restrict choice of voters, and I don’t think that’s fair to voters. I believe the collective of voters has wisdom, and we should not second-guess them.”

It’s my interpretation that anytime a politician invokes fairness in relation to their constituents, one should pretty much assume that they’re serving their own interests. I guess 25 years as a professional politician hasn’t prepared Mr. Yancey for a career in the private sector where you are sometimes expected to actually do some work and NOT take bribes (unlike City Councilor Chuck Turner).

If you’re interested in Asatru and are looking for more information, detail and examples of blots (ceremonies/rituals), you should check out the Asatru Folk Assembly’s “Book of Blots” on Lulu.com. I’m a member of the AFA and have just ordered my own copy (for full disclosure’s sake), so this is shameless promotion. :)

I’m thrilled by this news, honestly. As if it wasn’t bad enough that yet another Massachusetts Speak of the House was indicted for corruption (at the Federal level, mind you), it turns out the state used $378,000 of our tax money to cover “the House’s legal costs” during the investigation. This isn’t that shocking (and to most Massachusetts residents it doesn’t matter, because they seem to believe that handing their paychecks over to corrupt, life-long politicians is the way the world should work), but what is amazing is that four House Democrats are calling for an audit of the State House of Representatives! They want a full accounting of the money spent, including invoices. I don’t know what their motives are (there’s not a lot of detail out there), but I’m hopeful that it’s outrage over spending taxpayer money to cover the costs of political fraud and corruption. If so, it’s a small sign of hope in a single-party state that has traditionally run roughshod over the taxpayer (and the pathetic majority of taxpayers seem to enjoy the abuse…maybe MA state tax forms should be accompanied by ball gags and whips), and we should applaud those Democrats for not toeing the party line and actually fighting for what’s right (assuming those are the intentions).

Perhaps you’ve heard of the “Climategate” scandal, perhaps not. Regardless, there’s a nice explanation and brief analysis of why it matters over at The Register. I highly recommend giving it a reading – it might remind us all (myself included) that we need to question instead of just blindly accepting what we’re told. It’s truly scary stuff once you start digging into the scandal, especially now that people are digging into the uncovered code.

Good news! After the Supreme Court ruled in favor of 17 White and 1 Hispanic firefighter who had been denied promotion after they passed their promotion exams but no Black candidates passed, the state of Connecticut will honor the ruling (at the prompting of a federal judge, of course) and promote the firefighters “as soon as practicable.” Connecticut had feared a lawsuit from Black firefighters who did not pass the test if they promoted the White and Hispanic firefighters who did pass the test. The White and Hispanic firefighters brought their own suit claiming reverse discrimination (though I hate that term – discrimination is discrimination, period). The concern is that the promotion test is race-biased, because no Black candidates passed, though as I understand it the test was designed to be race-neutral. Do I think the state should review the test for fairness? Absolutely. Should other firefighters be denied their promotions? Absolutely not.

The simple truth is that over and over and over again in our country, people use weapons, such as handguns, to save their lives, the lives of their family and the lives of their friends…sometimes even strangers. We don’t hear about these stories because most times, the weapons are never actually used, but merely brandished. This is rarely newsworthy (newsworthy = moneymaking, sadly). But recently in Boston, an off-duty security guard who was legally carrying his concealed weapon saved the life of a doctor who was being stabbed by a mentally ill patient. (more…)

“As many as two dozen” people watch a fifteen-year-old girl plied with liquor, assaulted and gang-raped outside her homecoming dance in Richmond, Virginia and not one of them called police, let alone tried to prevent what occurred. What is wrong with us? Seriously, just what the fuck is wrong with people?

It’s still the same old horeshit it’s always been. There’s the usual idiocy of jackass Senators fleeing the scenes of accidents that they caused, possibly while drunk behind the wheel yet again (although he turned himself in a day later, so there’s no way to test…coincidence?). The most fun is saved for yet another federally indicted former Speaker of the House (DiMasi this time, if you’re having trouble keeping them straight), who has new charges laid at his feet. Hey, it’s only corruption, backroom dealings and bribery…that’s what public service is all about, right? But you know what drives me nuts? THE IDIOTS IN THIS STATE KEEP VOTING THE FUCKING CRIMINALS INTO OFFICE!!! You know why I’m so pissed? Because for years I’ve been pushing the agenda that voting is the remedy we have for fixing corrupt political systems. It’s true. But it’s useless to vote in this state because the majority of voters just vote the incumbent back into office, regardless of performance, purely because there’s a “D” next to their name. No one in this state gives a shit about ability or intelligence or integrity, they vote the party regardless. This state isn’t worth fighting for because it’s citizens would rather claim party affiliation than claim their rights. Pathetic.