Wednesday, November 21, 2007

I Just Keep Ranting

True conservative soldier abandons Bush administration. Why? Because he saw the crimes at Guantanamo Bay first-hand.

Highway Patrolman uses potentially lethal force when a man doesn't obey him quick enough (and has the nerve to ask why he's been pulled over). This officer should be imprisoned for assault, or maybe attempted murder, and fired.

More Digby: Choice and Consent. Can you have one without the other?

This is why I support Edwards. No member of Congress, no elected official, should have health care if their are Americans who do not have health care. Period.

Asterism looks at the reality of life in Iraq.

It almost never happens! Except that it's happening all the time. People and their pets are being murdered in botched drug raids.

Monday, November 19, 2007

Rants with Links

Long-Time interrogator expert explains what is lost with torture, and why it is ineffective. No one who has a soul believes that torture consistently works, which makes it worse than useless as an interrogation tool. Do not support "leaders" who think torture is ok, such people are scum worse than the folks they want to torture.

Fox News Porn. I don't watch Fox News, I removed it from my cable box because it is pure propaganda, with little actual news content. So I was surprised to find that this "news" channel, which caters to the self-important ultra-religious, shows porn. So much porn in fact, that this link got removed from Digg for being Not Safe For Work... until someone pointed out that everything shown on the website was shown on Fox News. Oops. Apparently Fox serves the sexually frustrated. So that's why so many people watch it!

Tasers are not stun guns. They aren't the answer to any and all threats. Tasers kill. And any police officer who employs a taser on someone who isn't threatening them with lethal force should be removed from law enforcement forever. While I'm sure many officers use tasers appropriately, we keep learning about instances when the victims of taser attacks were sitting, obeying the police, or under control by other officers when they were tased. This isn't acceptable. Police should not use potentially lethal force against people who aren't endangering them. Period.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Rants and Links

The Founding Fathers Intended...

How Health Care is failing in the United States.

Did Global Warming kill the dinosaurs? And if so, why aren't we more concerned? (Yes, I know the planet will be fine, I'm more worried about the parasites living on the planet).

Biofuels are a 'crime against humanity'. Well, if you use food crops, yeah. The whole point is to use wastes from food crop or non-food crop that can be grown on marginal land. I think of it more like this guy does. I want him to work on my car.

I mostly agree with Steve on Pharmacists who refuse to do their job. As long as pharmacies have a clear indication that they let their employees slack off, I don't mind. I just want to know which pharmacies to avoid if I want to be sure of getting my medicine. So I'd argue that a law requiring pharmacies to tell customers that they think their employees opinions are more important than customers' health, preferably in such a way that said employees can't insult or embarass the customers, is needed.

Why "right of exit" doesn't pass the smell test when applied only to public schools. Why not vouchers for health care? For transportation?

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Voting

Yesterday was election day. Today I've been checking out election results and cringing at the total percentage of voters. According to this morning's information, only 25% of registered voters voted so far (not all absentee ballots are in). Considering that registered voters are only a percentage of people who are actually eligible to vote, that makes for an incredibly pathetic turnout.

No wonder this country is turning into a nightmare parody of what it once was.

Thursday, November 01, 2007

Question for Real Conservatives

I'm not really that politically savvy, which is why I rant here and not someplace I'm likely to get lots of readers. So there's a question that I'm just burning to know the answer to, but I haven't seen any Republican actually address:

How, exactly, do bankrupting the nation and destroying our military fit in with true Conservative values?

As that's what the Republican party has done for the last seven years, I guess it must be exactly what conservative voters want. I'm just not sure why. Or how it fits with the understanding of fiscal responsibility I learned as a child. Do conservatives really think that destroying the military is a good idea? Does the record deficit really fit into their plan for a strong economy? Why?