Why I Won't Vote For Hillary

It's simple, it's because her husband betrayed gays and lesbians when he was president, and she has not given me any reason to believe that she would treat us any different if she were elected. It's that simple. So, how could she convince gays and lesbians that they wouldn't be betrayed once again if she were elected? For starters, she could take a page out of Al Gore's notebook and unequivocally endorse full gay marriage rights. But she won't. She could put ending "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" on her agenda for the first 60 days of her presidency, but she won't. Finally, she could forcefully state in her most important addresses, as Obama has done, that gays and lesbians deserve full equality. But she won't. So, I won' t vote for her. Period.

Jim

Charles Durning in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas

Last night I watched the Screen Actors Guild give the great Charles Durning a Lifetime Achievement Award. I've admired his work for decades. Here is his Oscar nominated turn in "Whorehouse."

Sean Hayes And Morgan Freeman Interview

See "The Bucket List"

I haven't felt like blogging lately. I've been busy with other things and the political stuff has been the same old, same old. As I've written before, I don't like any of the candidates, so I'm rapidly losing interest as the campaign progresses. I almost don't care who wins. Yes, I know, it matters for the Supreme Court, etc. but I've been double crossed so many times by politicians that I just have developed an aversion to any of them.

I had a nice birthday celebration that lasted about a week earlier in the month. I visited my mother, who is in a nursing home, for her birthday a couple of days ago. Yesterday Dan and I went to see the movie "The Bucket List" which I liked a lot and Dan thought was just average. One of the exchanges of dialogue between the two major characters, played wonderfully by Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, had to do with "faith," meaning religious faith. The Freeman character questions Jack Nickolson's character about his lack of faith. Nicholson replies something like "I don' believe in tooth fairies, etc." "What if you're wrong?" asks Freeman. Nicholson replies: " Then I win!" meaning that if there is anything after you die, you get to have it even if you don't have faith. My recap doesn't do it justice, but the exchange resonated with me because I am in agreement with the philosophy of the Nicholson character when it comes to "faith." I don't have any "faith" but I'll win anyway if it turns out that I'm wrong. There are a lot of other pearls of wisdom in the movie. Many critics (and Dan) think it's loaded with cliches. Maybe it is, but to me they are simple lessons that are easily forgotten in today's world.

Jim

The Economy is Falling (an old play)

I am not a very strong playwright. There, I said it. With all of the writers on strike, I thought I'd rip some writing from the headlines and see how it comes out.


Setting: a suburban middle class house in Minnesota.

Cast: Middle Aged Mom, Dad, Teenage Sister (Condi) and teen age Brother (Karl).

Dad: I just got the mail. Condi, did you charge something on my credit card? I have a recurring bill of $2 billion a week! This has to be a mistake!


Teen Daughter (Condi): Nope, I was logged onto Myspace last night and this guy Saddam was being a dick. I called a couple of my friends and had him and his bitches nailed.


Dad: I don't think I like your tone young lady and who said you could?

Teen Daughter: My friend Joe Lieberman sent me a text with a blank check. Cool, Huh?


Mom: What's all this stuff with all this Chinese writing on it? Our house is full to the rafters! What did you buy and why do you need all this stuff?


Brother (Karl): Aw schucks Mom, we just went to your good old big box store and bought everything! It was cheap and it was made by slave labor in China! Who cares? If I can't see the misery, than it doesn't exist. Fuck 'em!


Mom: It doesn't set a very good example!


Brother (Karl): Look, I only spent a couple of trillion on crap. But it's kick ass crap! Where the hell else is it going get made?


Dad: Don't worry about it, either of you! Go to your rooms and I'll send you a note from my Crackberry on when you can come down for some cloned meat dinner!


(Kids exit)


Dad to Mom: Hell, am I glad I refinanced this house using a variable rate balloon mortgage! I have a buttload of cash and one low payment! It will never go up as long as the economy stays constant.


Mom: That's a load off of my mind, I just refinanced the kitchen using a 19% credit card! Let me go get the cloned meat on the table!


I was thinking about making this a musical, except with Oompa Loompas singing all of the life lessons as the middle American's families fortunes take on a less than positive direction.


Ooompa Loompa doompety dee, who do you blame when your leaders are psychos? Who elected them?


Oompa Loompa doompety da, how did you make so many bad calls continuing to gorge even after you've fallen?





Oompa Loompa doompety do doo, common sense is missing from you....





So let's recap:


Huge amounts of high interested consumer debt.


Our leaders have used the Saudis and Chinese to finance our debt.


A war that we can't win (and that nobody wants) that costs $2 billion a week.


A housing market that has inflated the average cost of a home sale way beyond reality and used shoddy loans to finance a hugely overheated market.


What actually got me thinking about this was the following: I was watching Ben Stein on CBS Sunday Morning. I have loved that show since I was a kid (I know, weird, huh?) and I actually like Ben Stein. However he has a tendency to oversimplify situations as only someone from the Nixon Whitehouse could do.


Specifically, he was saying that the "potential" recession we may be facing would only last a few months and typically and historically didn't really impact us as much as any of us think. In other words, sit back, go to work and let everything work itself out.


That my friends, is a crock of shit. Let me mention a few things that weren't in past recessions:


$3.50 at the pump.


Trillions in new national debt.


Trillions owed to the Chinese.


Billions vaporized in the housing/finance market


Billions owed in consumer debt


Billions vaporized in a futile Iraq war





We may have dealt with one issue at a time during an economic slump however we now risk creating a perfect storm and something other than a recession. Can you say "depression"? Ah ha, now I might have your attention. And by the way, all the economies across different countries and geographies have some pretty hard ties, when one tanks the other don't do so well. Thus we probably shouldn't look for too much constructive criticism from our friends and foes.


One lesson from this is that apparently after 8 years of Republican rule, the term Fiscal Republican is no longer applicable. Forking over our American jobs to low wage laborers in the evolving third world wasn't such a great idea. Or lining the pockets of wealthy industrialists and contributors by relaxing regulations; probably not a great idea.


And by the way, I'm not convinced that any of the Republicans or Hilary or Barack can come up with something as innovative and intelligent as a TVA. Study your history folks, it's going to be a bumpy road ahead....


PS Feel free to write the end of the play. I thought I'd have everyone dress up in a cat outfit and jump out in the audience. It's kind of like sending a tax rebate out to American families for $800 to $1600 to go buy more shit at a big box store. Dancing like fools in the aisles until everyone leaves.


M

PSS the dog at the top has an interesting story. If someone wants me to write the story let me know by dropping a comment in the comments section.

High Cholesterol Means What?

It now turns out there is room to doubt that lowering cholesterol is effective in preventing heart attacks and strokes. Apparently, this "conventional wisdom" has been enough for the drug companies to gain immediate approval for cholesterol lowering drugs even before so-called "Instance" trials have taken place. These trials measure whether or not the drugs actually do any good in terms of reducing heart attacks and strokes. The full story is in today's New York Times. Bottom line:

"Doctors, patients and the drug industry will be waiting to see whether
regulators are still willing to accept the theory that lower cholesterol is
always a good thing."

Or maybe natural methods like diet and exercise can be just as effective as popping pills.

Jim

The Clintons And Civil Rights

Hillary is out there comparing herself to Lyndon Baines Johnson on civil rights. But what is the real Clinton record on civil rights? Andrew Sulivan nails it - their record is horrible:

"In the 1990s, we saw a burst of grass-roots activism, protest and rhetoric
in defense of gay and lesbian equality. Out of the ashes of the AIDS epidemic,
the gay rights movement rose like a phoenix. And the Clintons, seeing a
fund-raising opportunity, reached out to some in the movement to finance their
own campaign. Those donors trusted them. I wrote the TNR endorsement. But as
soon as the gays had performed their role - financing the Clintons in power and
supporting their campaign - the Clintons turned on us. They dropped their
promise to end the military's ban instantaneously and then presided over a
doubling of the discharges of gay servicemembers under the hideous "Don't Ask,
Don't Tell" policy. They then used the other emerging civil rights issue -
marriage equality - to triangulate against gay couples. They ran ads on
Christian radio stations bragging about the Defense of Marriage Act that
president Clinton eagerly signed. And the only gay people they embraced were
those willing to continue to trade money for access - and loyalty to the
Clintons. Who helped them devise this anti-gay strategy? Dick Morris. Who
recommended hiring him in the first place? Hillary Clinton.
Johnson risked
his entire coalition on the issue of civil rights - a heroic act that still
reverberates today. The Clintons wouldn't risk a smidgen of a percentage point
in a Mark Penn poll for the duration of a news cycle. That's the difference. "

Jim

Krugman On Obama's Economic Stimulus Plan

New York Times columnist and noted economist Paul Krugman has the following to say about Barak Obama's response to the current economic crisis in the making:

"...on Sunday Mr. Obama came out with a real stimulus plan. As was the
case with his health care plan, which fell short of universal coverage, his
stimulus proposal is similar to those of the other Democratic candidates, but
tilted to the right.
For example, the Obama plan appears to contain none of the alternative
energy initiatives that are in both the Edwards and Clinton proposals, and
emphasizes across-the-board tax cuts over both aid to the hardest-hit families
and help for state and local governments. I know that Mr. Obama’s supporters hate to
hear this, but he really is less progressive than his rivals on matters of
domestic policy."

Krugman has been a consistent critic of Obama. In particular, Krugman is critical of Obama's health care plan, which does not cover all Americans, and critical of his plan to preserve Social Security. Krugman time and time again notes how Obama uses the rhetoric of the right in argument for his programs.

Jim

The Greatest Threat To World Peace

...is not Iran, as the "Decider" said in what his aides describe as the most important speech of his current tour of the Middle East. The "Decider" himself is the greatest threat - the starter of wars of aggression, the occupier of foreign countries, the one responsible for taking our country outside of the Geneva Conventions, and for authorizing the torture of detainees. There's just one year left of the "Decider" in office. I hope it goes fast.

Jim

To Jim's Point on Religion....

My thoughts on religion tend to be very similar to Jim's (see Thomas Paine Below). I was recently browsing another blog and this little quote was just too wonderful not to publish again:

Or Even a Little Bit, for That Matter
Question: If Noah and his family were the only people to survive the flood, then how did the world get other races?

Pat Robertson: When Noah and his family left the ark, they split up and went around the world and then, I don't know, got tans or something. I don't know exactly how it happened.

via Celebrity Wit, Jan 7, 2008


Need I say more?
M