Morning Seditionists

According to the Today Show and other “news” outlets, I guess today is the day when people go back to work, fire up their computers, and use their company’s high-speed Internet access to buy shit online, killing what promises to be a veeeeeery long day back after a four-day weekend while looking like they’re being productive (or at least awake). I didn’t realize people needed an excuse to buy stuff online (or screw off at work), but I do know that today marks the start of “fuckoff” season here in the US. Productivity at most offices drops by at least 37% between now and mid April. I don’t have “statistics” or “studies” or anything to back that up, but it sounds true, which is all I need. (more…)

On Press the Meat today, homophobe Rick Warren is on to talk about Faith and Charity (two hookers he picked up last night, I think). Then Bill and Melinda Gates are on to tell us that when once you’ve got more money than God and have accumulated pretty much everything you can think of accumulating, you might as well give some of it away. (more…)

Yesterday, we went out and stimulated the economy, buying new kitchen appliances in the never-ending attempt to renovate the kitchen. Of course, we bought a refrigerator that’s about six inches taller than the cabinets under which it’s supposed to sit, and a “microhood” that will also require dismantling some wall cabinets (not to mention I need to run a new water line for the fridge and a new electric circuit – from where, I do not know, at this point), so I not only spent enough money that I couldn’t sleep last night (the fact that I didn’t have any beer didn’t help much either), but I also made more work for myself. On the bright side, the old fridge will go downstairs to become a dedicated beer refrigerator, so I won’t have to go up and down the stairs so often (I just need to get a big funnel for the floor drain). (more…)

I’m not sure what’s more stupid – the fact that the local news station is doing “live remotes” from Target this morning, or the fact that the store was already packed with long lines at the checkout at six o’clock in morning. I shouldn’t actually even be up yet, but when I went to bed last night and turned off my alarm, I apparently managed to set an alarm for 4 AM (a bugle playing revelery, no less). I managed to shut that one off, but then my usual 5:30 Sedition Radio alarm went off, and I figured sleeping in just wasn’t in the cards. It was snowing like crazy when I got up (very pretty, like being inside a snow globe), but that seems to have tapered off now, and it looks like we’re about to break the record for most consecutive days without at least an inch of snow (if we make it through today, it will be 276 days). In other news… (more…)

So, Happy Thanksgiving Day to everybody. I hope there are no Republicans or teabaggers off today, since it was their evil nemesis Franklin Roosevelt who officially signed this holiday into law in 1941. Get your goddamn asses out there and go to work today, you Conservative sons of bitches, lest you be seen celebrating a Socialist Holiday. Come to think of it, Thanksgiving has some pretty darn socialist origins – people of different races getting together, sharing food, giving thanks, and acknowledging that the only way they managed to survive was due to the kindness of strangers (strangers they’d soon attempt to eradicate from the planet, in keeping with Christian tradition), and because everybody pulled together and helped each other out – those who had some, gave some, and those who needed some got some (exhibited today with the whole “need a penny, take a penny” thing). I find it hard to believe that the free-market, keep the government away from my Medicare, tea-partier crowd would stoop so low as to take part in such an evil tradition. (more…)

I had to skip the Obama’s Bollywood-themed State Dinner last night, due to a conflict with the Syracuse basketball game (where my alma mater beat Keith Olbermann’s alma mater). Not that I actually went to the game either, mind you. Instead, I finally got around to watching the new (OK, maybe “latest” would be more accurate) Star Trek movie. I won’t post any spoilers here (to protect both those who haven’t seen it yet, and those who really don’t give a shit), but I will say a couple of things. First, Uhura was pretty darn hot back in her academy days (not that Nichelle Nichols wasn’t good looking, mind you, but Zoe Saldana, oh my; a good reason to go see Avatar, even if she is just computer generated). (more…)

A new report shows something I think we all pretty much knew – most teachers (63%) use their own money to buy food for their students. I predict that Republicans will draw two conclusions from this: teachers make too much money, and school lunch programs need to be cut in order to lower taxes on rich people (and by rich people, I mean multimillionaires, not those overpaid teachers). (more…)

I don’t know if you had a chance to watch Bill Moyers’ Journal on Friday night (if not, you can watch it online here), but Bill – a White House Assistant in the Johnson Administration – used LBJ’s phone tapes and Moyers’ own personal memories to give viewers an inside look at Johnson’s deliberations on escalating the Vietnam War. When JFK was killed 46 years ago, there were 16,000 US “advisors” in Vietnam. War hawks warned Johnson not to “dither,” lest the whole of Southeast Asia fall to the Commies (the boogieman of time) and LBJ took the bait. By 1968, there were over half a million Americans in Vietnam, dying at a rate of about 1,000 a month. Johnson might have been remembered as the Civil Rights President, or for his War on Poverty, or his “Great Society,” or federal funding for education, or Medicaid and Medicare. Instead, he’s remembered for Vietnam. Moyers concluded: (more…)

I don’t know if any talking head idiots will bother to mention it today or not, but it was 46 years ago today that John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, TX. What would have come to pass had JFK survived? Supposedly, Kennedy – no dove – had come to see what a steaming pile of crap Vietnam was, and was ready to get the US the hell out. I don’t think, in hindsight, many people would disagree with that, or that we’d have been a lot better getting out of Southeast Asia back in 1964. Certain other Presidents out there today might want to give that some thought. (more…)

Big day in the Senate today, as it’s up to one or two douchebags to allow the Senate to actually talk about health care reform. Not whether to pass it – or even to allow a vote on passing it – but to allow it to come to the floor for debate and amendment. Pretty stupid system, but one you’ll never see changed as long as it serves to give egomaniacs like Joe Lieberman a form of “power.” On the bright side, it appears that there’s been an agreement on the “Wyden Amendment,” which would allow people – not all people, of course, but some – to opt out of their employer’s insurance plan, and opt in to a public one. (more…)