Quote of the Day

" Powerful leaders who will cover up for pedophiles aren't likely to give a damn about the plight of the uninsured. "
~Digby

Priests: are they ALL Pedophiles? Nosy people want to know

The Catholic Pedophile scandal just seems to grow wider and deeper every day. The river of sickening accusations and the pricetag that goes along with it makes me wonder whether there will be a Catholic Church when this is done with.

In my mind, the abuse of power by those who arguably should be trusted, who society holds up as examples of purity .. against those who are innocent, with no power and no reasonable expectation that their protest will be acted upon .. is the absolute worst crime that can be done in our society.

That the bishops still have an opinion about women's health care and the balls to dare express that opinion, and the power to make a difference here where church is supposed to be separate from state...

It just boggles my mind.

Check this out.

Quote of the Day

The Republicans fought long and hard for people's right to wait three hours in an emergency room for someone to take their blood pressure, and they went down to defeat, and now they should stop and rethink their Waterloo strategy. The picture of the grinning GOP congressmen holding "Kill the Bill" posters was not an attractive one. Those guys all get excellent hrothgar(sic) from the government, at bargain prices. If you choke on your shoe during a speech in the House of Representatives, you'll be whisked away to Walter Reed, and specialists will extract your hoof from your mouth and your head from your colon and clean you up and all for a tiny annual premium. It does not behoove men who are enjoying a huge pork sandwich to deny a few pork rinds to others and to grin in the process.

~Garrison Kellior

(go read the whole thing)

Pic of the Day

Pic of the Day

Looking at land in OR...

Time to take on China

PAUL KRUGMAN:


" We have to get past a common misunderstanding ... that the Chinese have us over a barrel because we don’t dare provoke China into dumping its dollar assets.

What you have to ask is, What would happen if China tried to sell a large share of its U.S. assets? Would interest rates soar? Short-term U.S. interest rates wouldn’t change: they’re being kept near zero by the Fed... Long-term rates might rise slightly, but ... the Fed could offset any interest-rate impact of a Chinese pullback by expanding its own purchases of long-term bonds.

It’s true that if China dumped its U.S. assets the value of the dollar would fall against other major currencies... But that would be a good thing ... since it would make our goods more competitive and reduce our trade deficit. On the other hand, it would be a bad thing for China, which would suffer large losses on its dollar holdings. In short, right now America has China over a barrel, not the other way around. "

contrast and compare

The Hubbster(D) has a friend that he's known since school days who now has MS, and he goes to visit her several times a month, to make sure to himself that she's being taken care of, and to bring her things that the doctor won't let her indulge in - like candy, ciggibutts, and comfort food. She's quadriplegic, and hanging on to her home by the skin of her teeth.

So, the other day he was picking up some McDonald's for her (yes, I know, but she doesn't have long no matter how healthy she eats), and he noticed a young woman sitting outside. She was skinny and looked kinda down. He asked her if she needed anything, was she hungry? She allowed that she could use a hamburger, looking down in her lap. He asked her if she wanted a soda? She looked up and barely spoke "I could have a soda too?"

He went in and ordered his friend's stuff, and directed them to make a separate bag with a double cheeseburger, fries and a soda, and gave it to her on his way to the car.

Last night as I kissed him goodnight, he was still worrying about her... "do you think she has a place to go tonite?" The overnight low was below freezing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, this morning I get to work, and the boss(R) was talking about the two Toyota accidents that were in the news when I woke up.

His opinion is that now everyone who owns a Toyota and doesn't want to keep it or who now cannot afford their loan is going to go out and crash their car on purpose and blame it on the accelerator.

Y'know, because everyone always thinks that committing fraud will solve their problems...

Some Say - Worse Than McCarthy

Madam, have you NO SHAME?