So, today’s the big day. Conventional wisdom has it that SCOTUS will either strike down the Affordable Healthcare Act, or at least the individual mandate. If the mandate goes, that ought to piss off insurance companies, who will still have to cover all those undesirables out there. So I guess that means higher insurance premiums for everybody that actually buys insurance. If they strike the act down entirely, well, things should stay more or less the same for me, but turn to shit for a lot of other people. Of course, the Medicare for All people say they’ll push for that (good luck with that – I just don’t see it happening with all the money involved, and particularly in light of Citizens United, but I would be happy to be wrong). But maybe Fat Tony was so pissed off the other day because he was on the losing side of the AZ immigration law, and he knew he was gonna lose on Obamacare, too. We shall see.

The other dog and pony show on tap today is the contempt vote on Eric Holder, which I assume is a done deal. It’s all a travesty, of course, though it carries no actual legal weight that I’m aware of, and I’m not sure how many people will actually care. I suppose they can try and make negative ads or something – but they’d have done that anyway.

Darrel Issa now says he doesn’t think Holder (let alone Obama) knew of any guns walking. But it’s not about that. It’s about the documents. That’s the typical Republican MO. Throw some bogus allegation or conspiracy theory out there and get lots of headlines. Then quietly admit it was all bullshit, and find some unrelated bullshit to try and make a case out of.

Well, nothing wrong with this land deal, but he got a blowjob in the Oval Office, so we have to impeach him.

Oh well, time to get ready to get ready.

The photos and video from the Colorado Springs area are pretty chilling. I was reading about the Waldo Canyon fire, and they were saying that they thought they had a pretty good handle on it, but then 65 mph winds just made it explode and spread in three different directions. A guy who flew over in a helicopter said it looked like a military invasion, and homes are just burning to the ground. Like, whole neighborhoods.

Meanwhile, tropical depression Debby is soaking Florida, with up to two feet of water in parts. Could be a bit of a bummer for folks down there on the Gulf Coast and the Atlantic seaboard, because FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program is set to expire soon, and Rand Paul will not allow a vote on a bipartisan bill to extend it for five years unless the Senate votes on legislation declaring that life begins at conception. I guess it doesn’t rain in Kentucky.

I’m not sure why Rand Paul gets to decide that, and I’m not sure what fetal “personhood” has to do with flood insurance, and I’m not sure when, exactly, life begins. But I’m pretty sure life ends when you’ve been under water for a couple of days. And even if it doesn’t end, it’s pretty sucky when you’ve lost everything you own and have no money to replace it.

So keep voting Republican.

I just wish we could send some of that rain to Colorado.

Well, today is starting out better than yesterday did, but I’m still not real happy about the whole work thing. Good thing I have Friday off. I’m glad the Supreme Court gets to go on vacation too. Poor Fat Tony Scalia is all tired and grumpy. Hopefully killing “Obamacare” will cheer him up.

Here’s a pleasant thought for you this morning. Imagine Barney Fife (or Joe Arpaio) with drones, tanks, and M-16s!

Small police departments across America are collecting battlefield-grade arsenals thanks to a program that allows them to get their hands on military surplus equipment – amphibious tanks, night-vision goggles, and even barber chairs or underwear – at virtually no cost, except for shipment and maintenance.
[…]
Which means billions of dollars worth of military gear are in the hands of small-town cops who neither need the equipment nor are properly trained to use it…. At best, it’s a waste of resources (since the gear still has to be maintained). At worst, it could cost lives.

Yeah, but who could pass up a chance to have your own tank to play with (and who hasn’t always wanted a barber chair)?

If you use a Mac, Orbitz thinks you’re a sucker who’ll pay more for a hotel room.

Orbitz Worldwide Inc. has found that people who use Apple Inc.’s Mac computers spend as much as 30% more a night on hotels, so the online travel agency is starting to show them different, and sometimes costlier, travel options than Windows visitors see.

Speaking of Apple, they’ve decided they have to stop claiming that Macs “don’t get PC viruses.”

Up until just a few days ago, Apple’s website was keen to point out that Mac OS X doesn’t get PC viruses, and that the operating system “defends against viruses and other malicious applications, or malware” with “virtually no effort on your part”.

Now, Apple’s changed its tune a little….

Now Apple says their computers are “built to be safe.” They also used to say you could “Safeguard your data. By doing nothing.” But they don’t say that anymore, either. Now they say, “Safety. Built right in.” Which seems kind of redundant. But whatever.

…it’s pretty interesting that Apple has made this change to their messaging.

Clearly they’ve decided that pointing out the size of the Windows malware problem isn’t going to look terribly convincing unless they are also open about that Mac malware also exists.

After all, it was only a couple of months ago that it was found one particular piece of Mac malware had infected 600,000 Macs worldwide, including 274 in Cupertino.

In short, people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.

NBC is paying Ann Curry $10 million to leave her job on the Today Show.

I’m willing to leave my job for half that. And they can keep all the shit in my office, too.

Oh, and what a Monday it is. I really had to struggle to get myself vertical this morning, and it’s gonna be a long, crappy day. It may also be the day the Supreme Court kills the Affordable Care Act. From everything I’ve read, all parts of the act (including the mandate) are completely constitutional, and therefore SCOTUS will declare it unconstitutional, because, well, because they are partisan and political radical activist judges. And assholes (not all, but I’d say they are a 5-4 asshole majority). Oh well, things should only get worse.

But there are more important things to think about. For instance, Reese Witherspoon has a baby bump, and “shirtless” David Beckham Kinda like “Shoeless Joe Jackson, I guess) has a mustache.

Otherwise, I think that’s all that’s going on in the world (except for Colorado being on fire, of course).

Oh well, time to get ready for what promises to be a very long week.

Well, it was 95° and humid here yesterday, and it’s supposed to be about that again today (maybe a little hotter, even), but nothing’s burning, so I’m not going to complain. We don’t have a very long pool season here (as attested to by that Tearjerkers tune Web lined to the other day), but it was definitely a nice luxury to have yesterday. I only wish the dogs would jump in, but they won’t even go in their little kiddie pool (except to stand in it and get a drink).

If you’ve ever watched Bill Maher, then you already know that Darrell Issa is a dick (I’d use the technical, medical term for that, but I don’t want to risk offending any Michigan Republicans). Well, Darrell continues to be a dick as he vies with Dana Pigfucker for California Republican Dick of the Year. I’m sure everyone knows by now that Issa and his cohorts on the House Oversight Committee voted to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress.

As Stephen Colbert said, it was shocking.

“Shocking, that they found someone who didn’t already hold Congress in contempt.”

FL Governor Rick Scott has been trumpeting the job growth in the Sunshine State. Mitt Romney is not amused.

Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign asked Florida Governor Rick Scott to tone down his statements heralding improvements in the state’s economy because they clash with the presumptive Republican nominee’s message that the nation is suffering under President Barack Obama, according to two people familiar with the matter.
[…]
What’s unfolding in Florida highlights a dilemma for the Romney campaign: how to allow Republican governors to take credit for economic improvements in their states while faulting Obama’s stewardship of the national economy. Republican governors in Ohio, Virginia, Michigan and Wisconsin also have highlighted improving economies.

Don’t worry, Mitt. Things still suck around here.

Summer starts at 7:09 EDT tonight. That makes today the longest day of the year (and probably the hottest, so far, though it’s supposed to be even hotter tomorrow) – clocking in at 15h 22m 08s here in my neck of the woods. It all turns to shit tomorrow, though, as we lose one second of daylight. Damn. I say we set the clocks ahead a few minutes to make up for it.

Hot, yeah. You may have heard that there’s a heat wave here in the Northeast. We’ve been asked to conserve energy, so we’re more or less sitting around in the dark around here. It’s quite romantic. I offered to shit off my computer and go home, but they wouldn’t go for it. I could expend a lot less energy by floating around in my pool right about now.

Oh well, at least it’s an early day. I’m not looking forward to seeing how hot the car is.

I got an e-mail from Andy Cuomo yesterday, wishing me a Happy Father’s Day. It was really from him, too, because they pasted a picture of his signature to it, and it was addressed to “Dear Friend” so it was personal. Mostly he told me how great it was to be the father of three daughters and what an inspiration his father was to him (Mario would probably be rolling in his grave, except for the fact that he isn’t dead yet). I don’t really give a shit, Andy. You want me to have a happy Father’s Day? Legalize pot.

I get a lot of mail from “Team Andy” (he doesn’t usually sign them personally, though). The latest one (before yesterday) was to tell my that the US Chamber of Commerce had praised Governor Snotball’s economic reforms. Oh, goody; I have so much love and respect for the US CoC.

Otherwise, yesterday was pretty uneventful. I split a bunch of wood, did my laundry, fixed a couple of things around the house, that was pretty much it. The flush lever in the toilet broke off, so now I have to reach into the tank and pull the chain by hand. I suppose I ought to go buy a new one.

But for now, I guess it’s back to work.

Happy Father’s Day to all you dads out there. The big activity around here is the fly-in pancake breakfast at the little airport nearby. That means skies filled will little planes, most of which fly near and over my house. It’s pretty nifty. Otherwise, it’s gonna be a hot day out there today. In fact, it’s already hot. Guess I ought to go jump in the pool.

I don’t know if you caught this or not, but the Republicans in the Michigan State House of Representatives banned a female Democratic rep from speaking on the floor of the House after her speech on an anti-abortion bill. The offending remarks?

“Finally, Mr. Speaker, I’m flattered that you’re all so interested in my vagina, but ‘no’ means ‘no,’” Rep. Lisa Brown (D) said to cap her remarks in which she expressed stark opposition to a series of bills regulating abortion, including one that would ban the procedure after 20 weeks unless the woman’s life was in danger….

Yes, she used the “V” word, much to the horror of male Republicans.

House Republicans called the remarks over the line and barred her from participating in a subsequent debate on education.

“It was so offensive, I don’t even want to say it in front of women,” one state representative said. “I would not say that in mixed company.”

No doubt he’d be happy to say it behind their backs (and I doubt he’d use the word “vagina” either. But, um, I’m pretty sure most women know they have them, buddy, so it’s OK to say it out loud (I mean, in an appropriate context, of course). And I’m no medical expert, but I’m pretty sure that’s what you call those things (I mean, I’ve heard them called a few other things as well, but I believe that’s the “technical” term).

“If I can’t say the word vagina, why are we legislating vaginas?” Brown said at a press conference. “What language should I use?”

Maybe she should have said “…interested in my Coulter.”

Republicans also ignored another MI State rep (who happens to be a woman; pure coincidence – there is no Republican war on women).

A second lawmaker, Rep. Barb Byrum (D), was also gaveled down after introducing a bill that would require men to prove that their life was in danger before they were allowed to receive a vasectomy.

“I was ignored by the majority floor leader and not allowed to speak on my amendment, which would have held the same standards for men and women when it comes to legal, voluntary procedures in reproductive health, and now I am being silenced for standing up for women….”

Hey, lady, keep you hands off my, um, thingie.

There’s a sentence I never thought I’d write.

Thursday is kind of a bi-polar day. It isn’t Friday, but it’s close enough to Friday that you can see light at the end of the tunnel, and that feels good. But then you start thinking about Friday, and it starts to feel like Friday, and then you realize that it’s only Thursday, and then you get all pissed off and depressed and shit. Still, it’s a lot better than Monday.

So, John Edwards is officially off the hook, as the DOJ officially said they’d leave him alone now. It was a bullshit case from the beginning (not to defend Johnny, who is clearly not exactly the guy we all – or, I all, anyway, thought he was). But at least now I can quit having to hear about it all the time. Funny how Republicans never seem to get prosecuted for the same thing.

Another reason to love “Game of Thrones”.

Is Lance Armstrong a doper or what? And if so, why should I care (I mean, it’s not like he’s Roger Clemens)? Despite never having failed a drug test and the DOJ dropping their investigation into things, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency says Lance is a bad, bad, boy. Sounds like they’re just trying to appease the French to me.

I guess everybody’s heard about the mass layoffs at several newspapers by the Newhouse Corporation – including, as Vernon pointed out to me the other day, the New Orleans Times-Picayune. It’s interesting to note that “picayune” when used as an adjective means petty or worthless (which is maybe not a good thing to refer to yourself as when you’re trying to stay in business), though I assume it refers to the word for a Spanish coin that was worth about a nickel, which I’m guessing is what the paper cost back when the paper started in 1837. Ah, those were the days.

The TP is going to go to a three-day paper and shift more toward NOLA.com, their on-line version. This kinda sucks if you are too poor to have Internet access (and I believe I read somewhere that there are one or two poor folks down that way).

Then again, I have to admit I haven’t purchased a newspaper in quite a long time. The local newspaper seems to be mostly ads, and is a little on the lame side anyway, and I can get a wealth of information online (and not have to get rid of the paper when I’m done with it). Plus, it doesn’t cost a nickel anymore.

The other thing is that I’m pretty turned off by the news these days. I can’t much stomach the political stuff, and I don’t really want to read about the cannibal killer trend (just, please, stay away from where I live). They seem to be blaming everything on “bath salts.”

Why not just legalize pot? I never saw anybody who was stoned attack somebody and try to eat their face off. Hell, I never met a stoner with enough ambition to do more than eat a bag of Doritos (damn sharp corners on those things, especially when you’re trying to force-feed them down your throat).

Oh well, time to get this damn not-Friday over with.