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Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Obamacare: A Fairy Tale (cross-posted)

I never re-post essays that I find in their entirety, but I'm going to this time, so you'll not have to actually go elsewhere to enjoy all its greatness.  Note: the links in the original did not play along as expected, so you will have to visit there to access those goodies, my little limp-wristed deviants.  Emphasis mine...

Obamacare: A Fairy Tale- or, How The Gay Community Lost Its Magic Power
by Charles Winecoff at Big Government dot Com

Once upon a time, in a kingdom far, far away – called New York City – there was a special place where fairies could go when they weren’t feeling well. It was known as the Gay Men’s Health Project. The friendly bears and slender youths who ran this magical dispensary helped unlucky fairies mend their wings and wee-wees so they could get back to working through their issues and flit off to the nearest after-hours disco, bath house, abandoned truck or dilapidated pier.


Because they knew the empire wasn’t going to do it for them, the handsome lords and lads of Greenwich Village worked in unison to take care of their own kind. An invisible tribe that blended easily into the population at large, they understood that the heterosexist king’s medicine men were not attuned to their unique needs; they did not want uncaring jesters from the court making choices about their bodies. So the fairies raised their voices as loud as they could to make sure they had access to like-minded, sympathetic healers who would not make them feel ashamed of their behavior (and would get them back on the dance floor ASAP).

Then, in the year of eight tens and two, the fairies began to wither by the thousands and fall from the sky. No one knew why. So those who were still of able body came together again to build a new safe haven specifically for their sick brothers: a non-profit service organization called the Gay Men’s Health Crisis. Thanks to the actions and determination of these bold heroes, GMHC succeeded in providing legal aid, counseling, and even some housing to 15,000 fellows affected by HIV and AIDS.

But the elders, led by the prophet Larry Kramer, soon became weary of doing all the work themselves. They wanted support from the royal court. So they amassed an army specifically to agitate and create awareness of the needs of their ailing brethren. They called their legion of troops ACT UP, and their motto was SILENCE = DEATH.

The warrior fairies did not trust the king and queen, who hailed from a make-believe place called Hollywood. Even though there were many fairies in Hollywood, the elders imagined that the king, whose name was marked by a malevolent ”R,” would round up their infected friends and lock them in concentration camps. The fairies only trusted royals whose names boasted a benevolent ”D.”

So fearing the worst, they paid no heed to the warnings of their own shamans. Instead, they fought to protect their underground turf from the imaginary menace of the “R” invaders by keeping their fairy-only, non-reproductive recreation centers open. Thousands more fairies fell from the sky.

Time passed. Powerful potions were eventually conjured up to keep infected fairies healthy and alive. Kings began to grant them audiences, and the peasantry as a whole became more accepting of their existence, and appreciative of their hard history. The fairies were celebrated and honored for the injustices they endured. The peasantry took extra care to be more tolerant of fairy feelings.

But the fairies couldn’t reciprocate. They didn’t know how to trust or to let down their guard. They had become addicted to attention, self-pity, and anger.

When the two mighty towers were destroyed by flying far-right religious trolls, who had a blood-soaked and homophobic history, the new king took fierce action to prevent any further attacks. But because this king also sported an “R’ after his name (and wore a cowboy hat), the fairies felt it was against their religion (D-ism) to support his efforts.

Instead, they mocked him, accused him of plotting a sinister master plan, and prayed for his assassination. They stood in solidarity with anyone who railed against the “R”-lettered king. And they remained willfully ignorant of the plight of their less fortunate fellow fairies in far-away lands, who were still being brutalized by evil trolls. They were no longer capable of recognizing an enemy.

Domestic fairies enjoyed many fetishes, but none was so great as their fetish for the letter “D.” They became isolated from the rest of their countrymen within their own affluent domain, commonly referred to as “the gay ghetto.” They became obsessed with how they were portrayed in minstrel shows, and they presented golden statuettes to any princess who extolled their virtues in the Land of Make Believe. They became lazy and self-satisfied, but annoyed that some people still lived by ancient beliefs and rules that did not include them. They demanded that all beliefs and customs that did not take them into consideration be “reformed” (whether or not they really wanted anything to do with those beliefs).

Finally, in the year twenty and nine, a Savior arrived who was similar to the trolls in color and name, but who wore a holy letter “D.” He promised to be the fairies’ best friend. He promised to ban the law of the land that prevented them from joining in blessed unions like the rest of the peasantry. He also vowed to allow the fairies to serve, in all their proud flamboyance, in His armed forces.

But the King’s seductive words proved meaningless. He was more concerned with soothing the savage trolls with His charm - to what end, no one was sure – while dreaming up ways to siphon the peasants’ money.

To that end, the King passed a grand law that, He declared, would improve the physical and financial health of every single person under the crown, including the fairies. But the peasant majority was suspicious of the King’s intent, and challenged Him, loudly and publicly. This made the King frown, and totally threw Him off his game.

The King wasn’t interested in what the peasants wanted. He believed He was the smartest man in the world. So He just scowled, and lectured, and got His way. His royal henchmen laughed in the faces of the good, hard-working peasants.

The fairies, who were once the most boisterous rebels in all the land, didn’t rush to the peasants’ defense. They made not even a peep. Transfixed by the King’s big “D,” their fairy spirit had been paralyzed. Polarized by pride (and prejudice), they were no longer able to question authority - and certainly not the motives of their smiling Messiah.

It didn’t matter that many of the witch doctors who had long toiled to eradicate AIDS doubted that the King’s costly law would actually be beneficial to ailing fairies, leaving them instead with fewer, less potent spells.

It didn’t matter that nowhere in the final law passed by the all the King’s men were the fairies’ needs – medical or legal - even mentioned. Those crucial words had vanished, quietly replaced by a pricey call for abstinence, something the fairies had long shunned.

It didn’t matter that a provision giving the loving partners of fairies the same tax exclusion as peasant spouses on the value of employer-provided health benefits was also removed. It didn’t matter that the King’s law (which He called “my bill”) made it more advantageous for fairies to remain unmarried.

It didn’t matter that a prosperous mouthpiece for the fairies openly announced his disappointment in the decree, or that a spokesperson for the King declined to comment.

It didn’t matter that one of the King’s henchmen declared that, more important than healing fairies’ bodies, the new law would fix the “mal-distribution” of wealth among the peasantry. Nor did it matter that another apple-polisher let it slip that the underlying goal was “to control the people.”

And it didn’t matter that the UN, which was teeming with fairy-hating trolls, hailed the King’s bill as a demigodsend.

The only thing that mattered to the fairies was that their King had a “D” after his name. In their hard-won comfort, they had forgotten how to fight. They waved away any inconvenient reality that didn’t glorify the mythical icon. Their own tough, triumphant past no longer moved them. A pampered new generation of fairies mistook ”equality” for “freedom,” and had no knowledge of the fickle nature of politics or safety. They believed Lady Gaga was forever.

SILENCE now equalled COMPLICITY.

And so they marched in unison again. Only this time, it wasn’t a movement born of urgency, compassion, or even thought. It was the catatonic death march of the true believer. The fairies had turned into the fanatics they once abhorred. And that is how they gave up their magic power and lost their ability to soar.

Yes, Virginia, there is an end to this story. We just don’t know exactly what it is yet.

I read somewhere else that everything the Obamessiah has ever said should come with an expiration date.  We knew how threatening this guy was to the concept of Liberty, and recognized his rhetoric as such.  Those in the middle were swayed by the smooth reading of a teleprompter, but recently seem to be coming out of their daze.

You fruitcakes thought you had Slick-Willie back on the throne, but it looks like Barry the Muslim has as little regard for you as I do.

Feeling jilted, yet?

Monday, March 29, 2010

Secret FBI Raids

"Allegedly selling pipe-bombs" sounds awfully dubious to me.

If you're in the business of making pipe bombs, wouldn't they be more valuable toward whatever nefarious purpose you had schemed, than whatever money you might get for them? 

Keeping an ear to Mike at Sipsey Street for developments.

UPDATE:

Though we still haven't heard specifically who was arrested (reports are that there were seven), the group targeted by the FBI's Joint Terrorism Taskforce and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, Explosives, and Those Who Say "Nee" included only members of The Hutaree.  I read that Hutaree has made itself into an easy lightning-rod by some of its "statements" and they're probably a case of being the nail that sticks out the farthest gets hammered down first.

News reports include the following from Drudge:
detnews
yahoo
wxyz
freep
and ABC News

Also keeping ears to the ground are fellow bloggers Maggie and Mommy.

The ABC news piece has video, including interview with Mike Lackomar (of michiganmilitia.com who distances his group from Hutaree), as well as a requisite "consulting expert" ex-FBI guy.

Every report includes definition of Hutaree as Christian, and "extreme" and paints American Muslims as the defenseless intended victims of verbalized threats by the Hutaree.  I'd never heard of the Hutaree before yesterday.  And, although I've read everything I could find, I haven't yet seen specific evidence of these "threats."

There certainly is no shortage of righteous indignation from the CAIR/Muslim community...seems like every report has documented that angle.

At least one report claimed that an un-named militiaman (presumably in the Michigan Militia ranks?), and who is a Muslim (what?), was responsible for triggering the raids.  Worth noting: the ABC "consultant" freely characterized the Hutaree (et al) this way, "This crowd tends to be heavily armed, and they're all conspiracy theorists, that the government's trying to take over..." at the 2:03 mark in the video.

Still many more questions than answers.  From my perspective, though, any and every armed American who does not openly submit to the Islamification of America, constitutes some measure of threat to Muslims.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Dear Israel,

My country's Usurper In Chief does not speak for me or my country.  Do what you wish with your land; do what you wish to your enemies.  Your enemies are my enemies.

The so-called President of these United States is a Muslim, and we are learning to despise him, just as he despises you.  Do not feel guilty for your distrust of him.  We don't trust him, either.  He won't place his hand over his heart when regarding the Flag, and does not pledge his allegiance to America, because his allegiances are to those who wish our undoing, just as he wishes your undoing.

If you call me at 3AM, I will answer, and I would come help, if possible.  I still owe those bastards for what they did to 3000 of my real brethren.

Such is true for a great many of us.  Most of us, in fact.

Your friend,

Jeff

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Hate Speech?

What he said.



Even more Hate Speech courtesy of Klavan.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Damn These 5

According to the New York Times online, here is how your North Carolina representatives cast their allegiance yesterday.  Eight Congresspersons, including three Democrats, voted NO.  Among them are my Congresswoman.  These people may be worth keeping around, for having the courage to set themselves apart from the most-egregious power grab in the history of my country.
  1. Howard Coble (R)
  2. Virginia Foxx (R)
  3. Walter B. Jones (R)
  4. Larry Kissell (D)
  5. Patrick T. McHenry (R)
  6. Mike McIntyre (D)
  7. Sur Myrick (R)
  8. Heath Shuler (D)
On the other side of the equation are the following folks.  All Democrats, these bastards voted to shackle you with more taxes and bigger government, and less actual health care.  If these five officials had banded together, they could have thwarted the continuing erosion of Liberty.  As it is, though, they are responsible for the most crushing blow to your freedoms ever, in the history of this country.  Voting them out at the first opportunity is the least we could do.  Personally, I can't imagine a punishment, for the course they've embraced for my country, that is too sinister.  For these five, a traitor's firing squad is too good:
  1. GK Butterfield
  2. Bob Etheridge
  3. Brad Miller
  4. David E. Price
  5. Melvin Watt
Perhaps it's time to seriously consider secession.  Our representatives do not represent us.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

The Healthcare Screw

I was asked by my Congresswoman to attend a healtchcare Town Hall meeting, and declined.  I sent her this letter instead.

Thank you for the invitation, but I don't think I'll be coming. I appreciate the fact that you've offered to have a public forum on the subject. However, I find it hard to accept that our representatives still haven't realized how much we hate the concept of the federal government infusing themselves into our lives, especially as applied to our healthcare.
A Town Hall forum, in my humble opinion, carries about as much weight as an honest vote in the Minnesota Senate race. That is, the socialists who want more government imposed on the citizens will keep "counting" votes or changing rules until they've "won".
With its restrictions on who can buy health insurance, from whom it can be gotten, where we must live to get it or keep it, and how it can be marketed, our government already has too much negative impact on its costs and availability. The culture of our legal-remedy system, where doctors are sued for every conceivable hint at malpractice, has done nothing but fatten the lawyers at the expense of everyone else.
I am a cancer survivor (Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma- July 31, 2007). I lost my job when I told my employer of the diagnosis. That meant I also lost my health insurance. Even before the availability of State Continuation Coverage (Texas) ran out, my former employer changed coverage. That meant, like it or not, my coverage changed. And procedures which were "all covered 100%" under the original plan, were then considered out-of-network. The hospital's and the insurance company's solution was to hand me the bag for the $50,000-plus tab.
I'm not asking for yours or anyone's help or sympathy. I just want you to know that I personally know that there are lots of things wrong, and worth fixing, concerning healthcare. Government insurance is not the answer. More taxes aren't the solution, either, thank you very much.
The federal government could begin by capping damage claims . Other than that, the best thing all government can do is remove itself from the equation. I do not wish to owe the government for my well-being or my livelyhood.


Just get out of the way.


Thanks again,

Also this week, I told a friend of mine about the invitation and my response.  This is a person who has health insurance, paid for by his employer (the taxpayers of his state).  He said to me that the best thing for healthcare would be if the insurance companies were no longer allowed to make a profit.  Their pursuit, in his opinion, of the almighty dollar, was the root cause for the unaffordability of individual health insurance.

I confess, I was dumbstruck by this statement.  I honestly couldn't begin an retort, because I wasn't sure where to begin.  And this is what we're up against.  Good people, like my friend, think that a part of our economy (a very large part, indeed) should be forced to have profit removed from their business equation.  I wish I'd have asked him he'd like all the profit removed from his own paycheck.  His teacher, Vladimir Lenin, would be so proud.  Lenin said that the most important first step toward transforming a culture to socialism is through addicition to so-called "free" healthcare.  He also said that a lie told often enough, becomes the truth.

Even better, though, than my suggestions to my Congresswoman, are the solutions offered by Ann Coulter.  I should copy her entire recent article, but I hope this snippet is enough to get you to go read the whole thing:

Liberals keep complaining that Republicans don't have a plan for reforming health care in America. I have a plan!


It's a one-page bill creating a free market in health insurance. Let's all pause here for a moment so liberals can Google the term "free market."


Nearly every problem with health care in this country -- apart from trial lawyers and out-of-date magazines in doctors' waiting rooms -- would be solved by my plan.
Of course, personally, I'd like to include a clause for those of us with, by some definition, a pre-existing condition.  That clause might read something like, The PE-condition exclusion is hereby nullified if the applicant can win a fist-fight against the Company bare-knuckles champion.  I'd feel awfully good about my chances against just about anybody they could trot out.

Sometime this weekend, folks, the self-serving bastards in Washington are going to screw us.  They've tried every way imaginable to legislatively "pass" their big-government scheme in the open, and have been loudly reprimanded by the constituents.  They're going to pretend to believe that this "deem & pass" trickery will absolve them of being held accountable in November.  What they are also hoping is that once you're part of this new entitlement class, you'll be so addicted to the nanny state, you'll quieten back down and embrace your enslavement.

UPDATE/Important side-note:

If you are a Congressperson holding the deciding vote, or a bloc of a half-dozen at the deciding end of this thing, and you boldly vote "NO!" when the time comes, you'll be praised and hailed and loved even more than Scott Brown was in his victory.  Wouldn't you like to practically guarantee your political future?

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Speaking Of Perversions...

...How about some fish porn?

Freckles got me a fly-tying kit for Christmas, and I've learned to tie several patterns.  Usually, my flies turn out very different from the finished products in the videos and websites that I've scrounged.  But since Hope & Change came to my industry, I have plenty of time to practice fly-tying, as opposed to actual "paying" work.

So, for the past few months, I've been tying Pheasant Tails, Adams, Hare's Ears, Caddis (Caddisses?...Caddi?), Beetles, Wooly Buggers, and so on, and experimenting with things around the shack.  I even used some of the synthetic "guts" from one of the stuffed dog-toys that Maggie mutilated, for the post material on some Parachute Adams.

It's always just an exercise in mimicking the conventional or professional standards, until you get to do some first-person R&D, or I should say, the "R" part...that on-stream research.  That's what this is all about.

A couple days ago, after stopping by Dave's place to get some materials for tying some of his world-famous creations, I spent some time on a Delayed Harvest crick with my own renditions which were making little, inaudible "try me, try me" whimpers from my vest-pockets.  Gotta love the research part of this.

Standard (and very talented, I can say without being boastful) Caddis and Adams flies in a variety of sizes, produced no action.  A Hare's Ear and similar nymphs went unbitten.  Too early for terrestrials, but I tied a few "experimentals" on to see how they'd float: nothing.

Then, I tried the Parachute with the "guts"-post as basically a strike-indicator with a nymph dangling below.

Wham!  This guy hit my fly like it was the tastiest bug he'd seen in weeks.


And I mean he hammered it!  There's nothing like landing a fish on a fly you've tied, especially if it's a design or material-usage equation that you had dreamt up.  What could make it even better?  Well, glad you asked.

At first, I'd thought this was an average (about 14") Brown trout.  But I showed the pic to some folks who corrected me.  That's a Brook trout, and at 14" is a very, very nice Brookie.

Right after photographing this bad boy and returning him to his pocket of habitat, I proceeded to hang that trophy-catching fly in a tree.  Which is the main reason anyone gets into tying his own flies, anyway.  So I tied on a store-bought version of the fly I'd gotten the materials for tying on the trip out.  2nd cast landed a braggin' rights Rainbow in the 20" range, but of which there are no photos.  This was a case of the photographer/fisherman/fly-tyer having fumblina syndrome, and it was either drop the fish or drop the camera.  How much fish porn could you take, anyway?