This is not OK!

A Read-Aloud in the Senate — Or Not

By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

Update | 2:58 p.m. In a counter-maneuver to thwart an effort by Senate Republicans to stall the health care debate, Senator Bernard Sanders, independent of Vermont, has withdrawn his amendment that would create a fully government-run health care system.

The Republicans, engaging in parliamentary warfare, had been forcing the clerks to read the entire 767-page amendment. That move threatened to grind the Senate to a halt for the rest of the day, and perhaps longer.

Read the earlier version of this article below, published before Mr. Sanders withdrew the amendment:

http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/16/a-read-aloud-public-option/?nl=us&emc=politicsemailema1

No, Bernie, no!

Look, people, what the hell are we doing here? Paying a bunch of people to argue about something that doesn't exist and never will exist because those people won't stand up and say, "Quit playing games, jerks. I'm not playing games. No more business as usual."

I am sad and sick about this. And I was just telling a friend this morning that I can't stand to talk about this issue. Well, I finally said something. Don't get me wrong; I'm a freedom-loving libertarian who would like to be able to choose my healthcare option. But I'd at least like us all to have a choice.

Let the bastards stall the debate until we say, "We don't want you to stall the debate any more, you assholes, and even though the pharmaceuticals and other 'health' lobbyists really pay your tab, you answer to the people who elected you and whom you serve..."

What the hell is the sense, if we are just going to get what we have had, and we all know it's not good enough? KICK YOUR GODDAM CAREER POLITICIANS OUT OF OFFICE AND TAKE BACK THIS COUNTRY. Am I the only one who wants that?

...And Uneducated

This one bears no further words. (Just so the FFM knows I am not being lazy.)
Thanks to Charles

Quick Question

OK, peeps, answer me this, that I will put out there before heading into my final final for the semester:

Why is it that Apple computers, Macs, whatever they were and are now, are no longer the choice for educational institutions? I mean, I wonder, because as a battle-scarred veteran educator, I learned and taught on Apples/Macs. But now I am sitting here in the library at school printing out a paper and thinking, I am working on a B.GatesBSMachine. Why?

Sure, those cat-tastically named (as the FFM discovered in recently researching options beyond the B.GatesBSMachine) are expensive, when the price list is set next to the other crap brand (or Dog, as the Fabo Fwamer so appropriately noted.) But, as the Fabo Fwamer also aptly mentioned, one does get what one pays for.

Did our educational leadership sell out to B.Gates like they did to the Business-Exec-Cum-University-Prez jerks?

Long Story

OK, I am done with the most challenging final exam I have taken- maybe ever- and am home and have already shoveled that sweet, sweet, dry, fluffy snow so people can slip up if they want but won't be able to sue me, and even though the UPS guy came through in the snow and dropped a big box with a present for the FFM on the porch this morning, and even though I have to work on my economics paper before the FFM gets here and needs the computer so he can read my blog, I am going to take a little time to write a non-lazy longish story. But don't think it won't be filled with bitter cynicism.

So, here is the deal, I decided as I enjoyed a leisurely walk in the -3degrees, blowing snow, this morning on the way to the dreaded exam: When it snows like this, people are even stupider drivers than when it doesn't snow. They still speed on major streets near campus, often through red lights, and swerve around corners when they still have a red light, or have a green light but the little white walking man is on the WALK sign, meaning pedestrians have the right of way, and so on.

And I ask myself, Why are these people out? Why don't they walk where they want to go, or just stay home? Will the economy crash because a few people stayed home from work today? Will their place of employment fold? OK, things like nursing homes, hospitals and the like, I can see. People need to be cared for. But there are people on their shifts, right? Who maybe would like to get home and have a cup of coffee with a dash of Bailey's in it and then putter off to bed, or to watch daytime TV... But they would stay if need be, right? I mean, after all, they shouldn't be driving home any more than someone should be driving to work. Right?

Let's face it: We (including corporate queen bees and their multitude of drones) allowed a bunch of greedy, irresponsible financiers to fall down on the job and then agreed to pick up the pieces for them, so in comparison, is it wrong to suggest that if a whole bunch of us regular peeps who work for a living took a day off, responsibly, to stay home and safe, off the roads- for ourselves and others' sake- the world would not come to a crashing end?

Or, if we did decide to go out to work, or gawd forbid, WalMart, would we really be messing with the hands of time and fate to be a few minutes late because we drove safely? Or crap, what if we left early? (Although I can commiserate with those who really don't like that idea at all- even though I did leave early today for my slog in the snow, knowing it would not be polite- but also wouldn't kill anyone or cause any economy, or in this case educational institution, to collapse- to be late for a final exam.)

Jerbus Cripes. I probably could have skipped the test and claimed that walking to school in traffic was simply too hazardous.