Lamar Smith is a liar and fearmonger November 17, 2009
Posted by jay in Politics.add a comment
I just received yet another propaganda email from my Congresscritter, Lamar Smith. This guy is utterly shameless and has gotten my dander up. Here’s the offensive text of the email:
I support health care reform; however, this bill goes far beyond fixing the problems we all know need to be addressed. Any health care legislation should reduce health care costs and ensure that our health care system is more accountable and accessible to patients.H.R. 3962 mandates a gradual government takeover of the health care industry. This bill increases premiums, increases taxes by more than $550 billion, cut Medicare benefits by more than $450 billion, imposes new tax penalties of more than $165 billion, fails to address medical liability reform, requires many to change their current coverage, and leads to rationing of health care. For these reasons and others, the legislation encountered strong bipartisan opposition, with 39 Democrats voting against it.I supported an alternative plan that would have expanded access to affordable health care coverage for Americans without increasing premiums and taxes or cutting benefits to seniors. It included medical liability reforms modeled after the successful reforms of several states, including Texas, which would save over $54 billion in unnecessary health care costs.
H.R. 3962 mandates a gradual government takeover of the health care industry.
This bill increases premiums
increases taxes by more than $550 billion
cut Medicare benefits by more than $450 billion
fails to address medical liability reform
requires many to change their current coverage, and leads to rationing of health care
expanded access to affordable health care coverage for Americans
It included medical liability reforms modeled after the successful reforms of several states, including Texas
Simple Pleasures August 12, 2009
Posted by jay in Life.add a comment
On advice from my nephew Kinnon (thanks for the heads up), I decided to do something I haven’t done in many years: get up in the middle of the night to see a meteor shower. Specifically, the Perseids, which are associated with the comet Swift-Tuttle. Even with the light of a half moon, I got to see a pretty good show – here’s my tally for the evening:
- 6 Perseids
- 5 Racoons
- 1 Opossum
- 1 Tarantula
Correcting Pat July 21, 2009
Posted by jay in Life.add a comment
Last night, Rachel corrected the many incorrect statements made by Buchanan on Friday. Check out the MSN video for details.
PS – I really hope that WordPress will start allowing random embed tags – Not being able to embed MSNBC videos is a total PITA.
WOW!! July 17, 2009
Posted by jay in LGBT Issues, Right-wing Nutters.2 comments
I watched the following exchange in utter disbelief, mouth hanging open.
Here’s the full discussion (WordPress won’t allow embedding MSNBC video content).
Man, where to begin. I believe the only thing he could have done to offend more people is to throw in “White STRAIGHT men” (which I’m sure he just didn’t think of or he probably would have).
Arrival in Cancun July 4, 2009
Posted by jay in Life.add a comment
Here’s a picture from our balcony. It’s beautiful!
A thought before I head off for a short vacation July 4, 2009
Posted by jay in Life.add a comment
We’re heading off to Cancun for a well-deserved vacation. Before I leave, however, I wanted to pass along a link to an extremely interesting blog post by Dr. James F. McGrath, Associate Professor of Religion at Butler University. I’ll start with a quote and you can follow the link to read the rest.
For those who are enthusiastic about the voices calling for a return to or preservation of the Christian foundations of our society, you will probably find yourself largely in agreement with the sentiment of another famous politician, who said:
The national government will maintain and defend the foundations on which the power of our nation rests. It will offer strong protection to Christianity as the very basis of our collective morality.
Today Christians stand at the head of our country. We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit. We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in the theatre, and in the press – in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of liberal excess during recent years.
For those following currents in American religious and political life, the language sounds very familiar, and you may wonder precisely whose words these are. They are the words of Adolf Hitler. This is a quotation from the address he gave after coming to power in Germany (from “My New Order, The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, 1922-1939″, Vol. 1, pp. 871-872, Oxford University Press, London, 1942).
Read the full article – I believe you’ll find it extremely interesting. With that, everyone have a great 4th of July holiday.
Senator Kay Baily Hutchison’s Position on the Hate Crimes Bill June 28, 2009
Posted by jay in LGBT Issues.add a comment
So, when I heard last week that the Hate Crimes bill was in trouble, I immediately went to both my Senator’s websites and send them a message urging them to support the bill. Because I live in Texas, arguably the reddest state in the US, I didn’t expect it to do much good, but I thought at least they’ll know that there’s one more LGBT Texan that’s speaking up.
Haven’t heard a peep from Cornyn, and frankly didn’t expect to hear from either. I just received the following reply from Senator Hutchison: (more…)
Welcome to the new and improved blog June 26, 2009
Posted by jay in Life.add a comment
Welcome to my new blog site. This one is better because it supports comments (which I really look forward to) and it gives me statistics about visits. I’m slowly moving my old posts over here, but until that’s done you can go back to my old blog posts if you want to find a previous post – they’ll stay available.
Oh, and, that nice image at the top is a sunset from our back porch. Now you can see one reason why I love living here in Austin.
Again, where is our “fierce advocate”? June 16, 2009
Posted by jay in LGBT Issues, Politics.add a comment
After last week’s disturbing brief that, among other things, compared marriage equality to incest, I’ve finally had enough. Starting in 2007, I’ve been giving money periodically to Organizing for America, Obama’s grass roots organization, because I felt very strongly about supporting him and the Democratic party.
Unfortunately, the President has failed on LGBT issues. It’s not that he’s failed in a specific way: rather, he’s failed on all fronts. He’s not commented on the various wins the LGBT movement has had on marriage in the northeast (and Iowa). He’s not talked about DADT repeal. He’s not shepherded any movement in the Legislature on DADT, DOMA, ENDA, UAFA, or, in fact, ANY LGBT legislation, other than to say that, for DADT, it should be done legislatively (yet, Senator Harry Reid, the Sendate Majority Leader, last night said that he thinks it should be handled by the President). And now we have this extremely insulting brief defending the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
His silence is deafening. The LGBT community isn’t stupid: we understand that there are some very big fish to fry. But, after expressly going after our votes and dollars in the election, he can’t even come out publicly with a plan? A strategy? A freaking attaboy? REALLY???
I got another email from Organizing for America (ostensibly from the President), asking for money. Here’s my reply: (more…)
Gay parenting in nature June 4, 2009
Posted by jay in LGBT Issues.add a comment
According to a story on bild.com, a gay penguin couple has adopted an abandoned egg, hatched it after 35 days, and is now raising the penguin chick. By all accounts, they are making great parents. Nothing like nature to prove humans aren’t always right.
