There's a disturbing trend in America these days. The celebration of winter solstice is getting less and less time in main-stream media and people are trying to associate their religions with the lengthening of days.

Everywhere I turn, people are talking about Chanukah, Christmas and even Kwanzaa rather than the return of the all-powerful life-giver The Sun. Christmas is particularly guilty of stealing light from our holiday celebrations.

The US government chose to recognize Christmas as a national holiday 1870 and I see this as the beginning of the political war on Winter Solstice. Since then, there's only been more and more downplay of the real reason for the season.

We must find a way to stop the war on Winter Solstice and take the holiday back from these heathens. Luckily, we have several iconic figures on our side. The Krampus, AKA Sinterklaas, has been biding his time in the guise of Santa Claus and it shouldn't take much to convince him to join our cause. Jack Frost has always been with us, causing Christmas shoppers to break presents and bones on the ice.

If we can get enough Christians to drink themselves into oblivion in the name of Jesus, I think we can take over, so go out there, distract them with a Jul Log and spike some Egg Nog!

Facebook | Twitter | Reddit | Stumble

Remember way back in 2007 when we found out that Walter Reed Army Medical Center was in disrepair? That was pretty appalling wasn't it? I remember being mad at my government for not taking care of the troops and mad at the workers who waited so long to say anything.

It turns out there's a new reason to be mad at my government for not taking care of the troops. Back in March, in an effort to give special recognition to military personnell who were injured in combat rather than in other military duties, such as training, the armed services sub-committee narrowed the definition of "combat related" disabilities. The Pentagon has interpereted things a little differently.

Army Sgt. Lori Meshell shattered a hip and crushed her back and knees while diving for cover during a mortar attack in Iraq. She has undergone a hip replacement and knee reconstruction and needs at least three more surgeries. ... [T]he Pentagon ruled that [her] disabilities were not combat-related.

 

--LA Times

How, you might wonder does a mortar attack in Iraq not count as "combat related?" Well, that seems to be the fault of congress, but that's not the problem. In my opinion, and in the opinion of the vet I am IMing with right now, that's really not the point. An injury incurred while in the military, in a situation you wouldn't have been in if you were not in the military, should be taken care of by the military.

Go read the article, get pissed off, write your representatives, senators and president.

Facebook | Twitter | Reddit | Stumble

More evidence was released this week that Barack Obama is truely my president (elect). Following more than a little in the footsteps of FDR, he has released the first of his weekly YouTube addresses. How fitting for the internet generation to get a president (elect) who communicates with us directly, in our native environment. How refreshing to finally have a president (elect) who communicates with us at all. We will be spending brain-cycles hoping that deception and dodging won't come any time soon but, in the mean time, we can just sit back and relax, knowing that our president (elect) is truely our president (elect).

Facebook | Twitter | Reddit | Stumble

The 2008 election takes place on Tuesday, November 4.  Minnesota Statute
204C.04, Employees Time Off to Vote, provides that:

"Every employee who is eligible to vote in an election has the right to
be absent from work for the purpose of voting during the morning of the
day of that election, without penalty or deduction from salary or wages
because of the absence."

Facebook | Twitter | Reddit | Stumble

Unlike the candidates, I'm not going to campaign for anyone on November 4th. Now go out and vote or I'll send this guy to get you.

-- via Gizmodo.

Facebook | Twitter | Reddit | Stumble

While listening to NPR this morning, I heard a strange and surprising thing. Rush Limbaugh said

"We're going to have to drag Sen. McCain over the finish line, and then we're going to have to deal with what he does in the Oval Office ourselves,...That's how this is going to have to work. We have to save the country from Obama and then save it and the Republican Party from whoever McCain puts in his Cabinet. We have to do this one step at a time. Do not throw in the towel."

So, basically, what I hear him saying is that it's better to have a bad Republican in office than a good Democrat; that whatever damage McCain does to the country and the Party is a problem to deal with later because having a Democrat in office is worse.

I'm sure that Rush isn't the only pundit saying this type of thing and he's certainly not the only Republican who's not too happy about a McCain presidency. Some Republicans have turned to voting for McCain in hopes that he'll die and Palin will become president, which is a scary thought to me, and some have turned to voting for Obama or, even worse, not voting at all. This concept of voting for the Republican because he's a Republican baffles me.

Maybe it's because I'm from Minnesota and, while, since Franklin Rosevelt, we have voted for the Republican only when Richard Nixon was on the ticket, we have a very independed spirit as far as elections go. Maybe it's because I'm a pretty independent thinker in general. Whatever the cause, my belief is that I should vote for the candidate I believe will do the best job of representing my beliefs no matter what their party affiliation. What Limbaugh and others (I assume) are saying is just like saying that a heart surgeon who failed out of Harvard is better than one who graduated with a 4.0 from the University of Illinois.

I know that "logic" and comparisons to other, easier-to-relate-to situations rarely convince people with outlandish notions to rethink their positions, but that's the way I think. I also find that most people understand things when explained this way. I know that nobody of any significance reads my blog, but I hope that other people think about what Rush says from a position where they can't see the bottom of his boots.

-Illustration by Rex Lameray, published by Belltown Messenger on flickr.

Facebook | Twitter | Reddit | Stumble

I may have shown bias in the past, but I have not been to blatant about endorsing a specific candidate or anything. Okay, maybe I have. Anyway, I was watching the debate last night and came out with some impressions.

The biggest thing I noticed is that McCain lies a lot. I know that all politicians lie, especially if you take into account things they promised they'd do and didn't or couldn't get done. But McCain lies about things that have already happened and are verifiable.

Examples: (Update 10/29 - math and fact-checking)

Oil Imports: John McCain continuously states that we send $700 billion to countries that "don't like us very much."

According to the DOE the US imports about 13,000 13 million barrels of petroleum per day. Assuming a cost per barrel of $100, which is probably fair for this year since we started high and are currently in the $40/barrel range, the cost of that petroleum is around $474 billion per year. So already he's a little off in saying that we send more money for oil to countries that "don't like us very much" than we actually spend on oil. It's only 47% more though, so lets call that hyperbole.

Also according to the DOE, the two countries of the top 15 from which we import petroleum that you could say we have uneasy relations with are Iraq and Russia. Since McCain would also say that Iraq is our friend, I'll give him the benefit of counting Iraq as our friend who "doesn't like us very much". That means that we import about 1200 1.1 million barrels per day from countries that "don't like us very much" for an annual cost of $42 million $41 billion. I don't know anyone who thinks that $42 million $41 billion is anywhere close to $700 billion.

(note: even after these corrections due to my mis-reading of the numbers as barrels/day rather than 1000s of barrels/day, McCain is off by a factor of 20. Not as bad as 20,000, but quite far from the mark.)

Taxes: We also heard about a guy named Joe the Plumber, AKA Joe Wurzelbacher. According to McCain, he's got a double doozey coming. Apparently he wants to buy the plumbing business he's been working for and that will put him over the $250,000 per year income level, meaning that, under Obaba's plan, he'll see an increase in his tax rates. And he's also supposed to be in for a fine for not providing health insurance for his new employees.

As it turns out, that part of Obama's plan is for personal income tax, so if he incorporated, the argument becomes completely different. So let's say Joe doesn't incorporate. He would need a gross adjusted income of over $250,000 per year in order to end up with higher taxes. That means that after paying his employees and buying the extremely expensive copper pipe he probably uses, he'd need to have a quarter of a million dollars left over. If I had that kind of income, I'd be happy to pay higher taxes. As Oliver Wendel Holmes said "I like paying taxes. With them, I buy civilization."

Joe would also get additional tax breaks under Obama's plan in the form of the elimination of capital gains taxes for small businesses and credits for creating new jobs if he decides to hire more people. So, while we haven't seen the results of Obama's plan, it really looks like Joe would have to be in pretty good shape before his taxes would go up. Actually, if he has enough money to buy a plumbing business, he probably makes over $250,000 per year already.

As for the fine for not providing health insurance. That's a little backwards. The Obama-Biden plan gives a tax credit to small businesses that do provide health insurance. So, if Joe decided not to provide health insurance to his employees, he wouldn't be fined, he just wouldn't get a tax credit. Talk about "mis-representation."

Overhead Projectors: Dang, have you seen this thing? It is totally not an overhead projector. Except that it projects things over people's heads. Do you remember going to the planetarium? Do you remember the giant, death-star-like thing in the middle of the room that shot beams of light everywhere? That's what McCain is talking about when he says "overhead projector." I haven't been to a planetarium since I was in grade school, but I'm honestly thinking about finding one and checking it out now. Here in downtown Minneapolis, we don't get to see much of the sky. I'd guess that it's worse in downtown Chicago.

So basically, McCain's point is that earmarks are bad. Well, it's hard not to agree with that in principal. On the other hand, Minneapolis wouldn't have light-rail without earmarks. There are thousands of projects in states all across the US that have been funded by federal earmarks. The Zeiss Universarium Model IX that was for Illinois (which didn't get funding by the way) is one. Alaskas Gravina Island bridge (which Palin got funding for but didn't get built) is another. One of the benefits of statehood and representation is getting funding from the Federal Government for local projects. Huh, I guess it isn't hard not to agree. Earmarks aren't inherrently bad, we just don't all agree how the money should be spent.

Anyway, I know polititians lie. They just shouldn't lie so obviously.

Facebook | Twitter | Reddit | Stumble

I don't know about you, but I'm watching the smackdown tonight.

While Biden, who has been in the US senate since 1972, has to beware of his tendency to lapse into confusing verbosity, the event is being seen as particularly critical for Palin, the Alaska governor, whose knowledge of national and global issues has come under question in recent days.

"Come under question in recent days"... Yeah, that about sums it up.

Facebook | Twitter | Reddit | Stumble

It has come to my attention, reading Pharyngula, that the nation has a new reason to be upset about the current economic situation. Hundreds of thousands of people are going to lose their homes because of predatory lending practices by bankers out for a quick buck. President Bush's crack financial team has decided to give these unscrupulous bankers a hot cash injection to keep them in the market to lend while bailing out the people who probably don't need help, leaving the original hundreds of thousands of future former homeowners without the homes they probably shouldn't have been allowed to buy in the first place.

As a result, Barack Obama has chosen to cut his losses and get out of dodge before things start to really go south.

In the wake of an epic financial meltdown that threatens to derail the U.S. economy for years, Barack Obama announced he was ending his run for President of the United States, declaring to a stunned nation, “Man, this is bullshit.”

In addition to returning all his campaign donor's money, he will be providing discount coupons on qualifying flights to Canada.

Facebook | Twitter | Reddit | Stumble

Back in 2007 when John McCain was running against other Republicans for the post of Presidential Nominee, he made some statements that now cause me to doubt his faith. Not his faith in God, of which I have no doubts, but his faith in his running mate.

I am prepared. I am prepared. I need no on-the-job training. I wasn't a mayor for a short period of time. I wasn't a governor for a short period of time.For 20-some years, including leading the largest squadron in the United States Navy, I led. I didn't manage for profit. I led for patriotism.

This statement strongly implies that he should not trust Palin in any national security issue. And, in case you think I'm making this up, there's a video. (The Huffington Post has a slightly more in-depth article and, regardless of your opinion of their political views, it makes you think.)

I wonder what she would think about that if she were to follow this type of thing.

Facebook | Twitter | Reddit | Stumble