Moore, OK’s City Manager Would Rather See Kids Killed Than Build Storm Shelters to Save Them.

As you know, seven third-graders died in a massive tornado in their elementary school this week: they were suffocated by their school building when it collapsed on them. They died because, and only because, the cheap-ass mother***ers who built their schools decided not to spend money on storm shelters.

Moore’s mayor has seen the light, and is demanding that replacement buildings have storm shelters. One might think that was common sense, and one would be right.

But alas, common sense is anything but common: Moore’s city manager (Steve Eddy) hates the idea: http://www.npr.org/2013/05/23/186171500/okla-officials-toss-around-storm-shelter-issue-after-twister he says that locals don’t like people telling them what to do. Really, Steve? Somebody has to tell you to protect children? Christ on a pogo stick.

He also says that while “you can’t count the value or cost of lives”, “you can count the cost of construction”, and that “homebuilders are influential”. Translation: “it’s better to let kids get killed than it is to spend money to protect them”. Christ on an electric pogo stick.

Mr. Eddy represents everything that is wrong with the Teabaggers and Wingnut “Republicans”: all they care about is slashing services to the community and transferring our tax dollars to their fat-cat buddies. They do. not. care. if our kids die (or if we do). 

Do you care about the lives of children? Here’s Stevie-boy’s phone number: (405) 793-5200.

Let the stupid, heartless bastard know what you think.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Republicans Say: Have a Miscarriage, Go To Prison

Or at least, that’s what Virginia’s “Republican” AG-in-waiting thinks. He feels so strongly about it, in fact, that he wrote a law in 2009 that would imprison women who had miscarriages if they did not call the cops to report the event, and save the miscarried fetus to hand over as evidence.

This is the man that Virginia Repubs think should be their next Attorney General, so it’s pretty clear that they like his ideas about what should be legal or illegal. And he believes that women who endure the tragedy and trauma of losing a child-to-be should be assumed guilty of criminal acts until proven otherwise. So, the rest of the Republican Party of that state (and maybe the entire country) thinks women who miscarry are de facto criminals.

Don’t take the Cranky Word for it: it’s right there in Section E:
“When a fetal death occurs without medical attendance upon the mother at or after the delivery or abortion, the mother or someone acting on her behalf shall, within 24 hours, report the fetal death, location of the remains, and identity of the mother to the local or state police or sheriff’s department of the city or county where the fetal death occurred. No one shall remove, destroy, or otherwise dispose of any remains without the express authorization of law-enforcement officials or the medical examiner. Any person violating the provisions of this subsection shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.” Please note that Virginia already has similar laws on the books.

Class 1 offenses can get you up to a year in prison. A year in prison for someone who did nothing wrong. For a woman who loses a baby. For a heartbroken woman. Yes, that’s what today’s “Republicans” think.

This writer knows families that have lost babies, including his own: indeed, he came within a few months of having a brother named “Chris”, so he gets it. A pity that our Elephantine legislators don’t. Miscarriages are human tragedies, not crimes.

Regardless of one’s political philosophy, how could anyone be so cruel, so callous, so despicable as to summarily imprison grieving mothers who either failed to called the police immediately after suffering a miscarriage, or didn’t keep the remains of the poor lost child in their possession to hand over to the police? How could anyone hate women that much?

And how can anyone (including you) vote for a party that supports such legislation?

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

You Can’t Move Forward if You Insist on Standing Still

You may not know this, but Medieval China was the world superpower in the first centuries of the second millennium. Yes, Southwest Asia and some of the Mediterranean and North African states had influence and wealth (Europe was in the Dark Ages for much of this period, and America had yet to be invaded by we honkies), but China dominated the civilized world, militarily and economically. Until the early part of the fifteenth century, that is.

In that time, China suffered several economic setbacks that threatened their economy and indeed the very state itself. So they pulled back, abandoned the empire they had spent centuries building, and embarked upon an isolationist period that would last for around 500 years. And during that time, Europe and the Middle East pretty much took over the world that the Chinese used to run: indeed, they took even more of the world and ruthlessly ruled and exploited it. Now China wants its old role back, and is having a hard time accomplishing that feat: because, while they slept, we took the planet and have no desire to hand it back to them.

Why is this interesting? Because America in 2013 is a lot like China in, say, 1423: having spent many years being bold and innovative, building and exploring, daring to do great things in the past, there is now a movement to haul ass backwards, or at least to hold still.

Look at our media figures and politicians: far too many of them preach a gospel of fear, ignorance and falsehood; Lies and panic-mongering, media manipulation, and hardly anyone talks about how destructive this is to our nation.

When this writer was a wee lad, America went to the moon. Yes, we did that. We did brave things, bold things, things that mattered to the world, things that were investments in our future.

Nowadays, America is being ruined by a load of greedy, cowardly, short-sighted poltroons. We couldn’t do an Apollo today, folks. We can’t even keep our roads paved properly or our bridges up in the air. We can’t even keep Grandma fed or Junior safe in his school. America is stuck.

And, just like China in the past, America is choosing to be left behind by the nations who still have a pair. We are dooming ourselves to has-been status. Many of our “leaders” aren’t leading us forward: they are doing the exact opposite, if they are in fact leading at all.

The supreme irony? China, having learned from its mistakes, is leaving America in its dust. Because America not only didn’t learn from China’s mistakes: we are repeating them.

Forward? No, backward march. Double time.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

A One-Handed Game of Calvinball (Politics in the American Present)

Ever heard of Calvinball? It is a game in which the rules were made up by two comic-strip characters (Calvin and Hobbes) as they went along, changed at a whim, and sometimes resulting in injury and humiliation: however, the the game rarely results in a clear winner. Calvinball generally seems quite chaotic to an outsider.

The resemblance to politics seems quite apparent to this writer: two teams, each seeking to win, and employing all manner of artifice, cunning, and sneakiness to win the “game” (or at least have fun playing). Indeed, Calvin himself once said, “This game lends itself to certain abuses”, and that reinforces the political analogy.

Confession Time: Mr. Blunt and Cranky despises political parties, seeing them as inherently and actually corrupting organizations. Indeed, they have proven themselves to be every bit as detrimental to our nation as President Washington predicted. But as long as both parties played by the same set of “rules”, one could at least guess what sorts of nonsense and brouhaha would spew forth from our governmental entities.

Of late, the “Republican” party would seem to have decided to play a one-handed game of Calvinball: they have discarded the old rules of the political game, and decided to make up their own rules as they go along, without consulting the other “team” (or sometimes even members of their own). Not surprisingly, this is causing problems, for their party and the nation as a whole. Because, even in a game like Calvinball , both parties need to agree to the same overall framework. As said in the link above, “Calvinball cannot be played by enemies”: all sides must have a certain amount of trust in, and respect for, each other if the game is to be successfully played.

But the Repubs hate hate HATE President Obama in particular, and Democrats in general. Respect is long gone, and trust is nearly as dead. So as they change rules, the Boehner Brigade and Marching McConnells (and their counterparts across the nation) play their one-handed game not just to play, and not just to win; rather, their objective is to destroy their enemies. And that, Gentle Reader, is a really big problem.

The nature of a two-party system is that of a constant tug-of war: but not war. The one is people pulling on opposite ends of a rope to see who can pull the hardest, and the other is about wiping the opposition off the face of the earth. The Dems (especially the Prexy), bless their pointed little heads, are still acting like both sides are pulling on that rope: but the Repubs see the rope as a fuse, which they would love to light so as to blow the other party to smithereens.

Another analogy: in a game that has always been somewhat akin to a full-contact version of baseball, the Jackasses are throwing slow-pitch softballs, and the Elephants have switched to hand grenades. And put land mines under the rest of the field. And packed the stands with little baby elephants, each with his or her bag of peanuts, flag pin, and rocket launcher. And are adding new “rules” as each minute goes by, to boot.

If politics has become a game of Calvinball, then all the players must agree to play Calvinball. Right now, the “Republicans” have switched not just the rules, but the entire game: either the Democrats must also play Calvinball, or their antagonists need to go back to the old game and its rules.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Special thanks to a favorite blogger: NameBrandKetchup for reminding this writer of Calvinball in his post about relationships. Y’all ought to read his blog. Not sayin’ just sayin’.

Republicans Love Sequestration, and Never Mind What the Public Thinks.

Every now and again, politicians reveal their true natures, and we are appalled when we see how loathsome those natures are. So it is with the Sequester: a “worst case” measure that “was never intended to occur”, because of the “indiscriminate and draconian cuts” that would result. It turns out that many (perhaps most) “Republican” “representatives” love them some severe, draconian cuts, as long as they themselves are not inconvenienced by said cuts.

Small businesses, Head Start, and the military are all taking a big hit from the budget cuts that “weren’t supposed to happen”. And the conventional wisdom that said politicians would make a last-minute deal to stop the cuts from going into effect? It turned out to be wrong. And why was it wrong?

Because a lot of TeaPublicans want those cuts, that is why. Veterans’ benefits late? No prob. Kids thrown onto the street? Hey, ‘salright. Grandma going hungry? It’s all good. Because Congress still gets its pay and bennies, right? And so long as they can fly home in comfort, there’s no problem with those nasty budget cuts.

In fact, they actually love those brutal budget cuts, and have no interest in replacing them. They call those who have been de-funded “spoiled little children”, among other things.

People, wake the f*** ing f*** up. The Teabagging “Republicans” (and a few Donkeys, too) do. not. care. about. you. They only care about their millionaire lifestyles and billionaire buddies. And none of them run small businesses, have kids in Head Start, are trying to get the VA to replace a missing leg, or in general give two hoots about the “little people” whose lives are made worse by the Sequestration Cuts.

If you vote for another one of these Wingnuts, here’s hoping you get your budget cut next time round: because you have asked for it.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

State Legislator: Make Children Work for Their School Lunches

A West Virginia “Republican” state legislator said exactly that. If a child gets their school lunch paid for, this Dickensian (accent on “dick”) jackass thinks they should be made to perform janitorial duties, landscape work, and so forth.

Really, Mr. Canterbury? Child labor? Forcing six-year-olds to haul trash and push power mowers? You DO know that’s illegal, don’t you?

Or maybe he just doesn’t care. That seems likely. To be on the safe side, this writer will avoid the town of Greenbrier WV in the future, since the worthies there elected this fool. For all we know, forced child labor might be an everyday occurrence there.

It is worth noting that almost everyone else in the House of Delegates disagreed with him, and school kids in West Virginia will not be required to do slave labor in order to eat.

It is also worth noting that “almost” everyone disagreed. Eight other West Virginia legislators voted with him.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Why Drug Testing For The Poor is a Bulls*** Idea

Every time Mr. Blunt and Cranky sees one of those idiot Facebook posts about “drug testing welfare recipients”, his response is the same: first thing, let’s test the politicians. They get a lot more money than any poor schmuck, and can cause a lot more damage. And in the main, people applaud the idea of testing politicos. But they keep right on spouting the bulls*** “drug test the poor” idea.

So here’s one example of a hypocritical drug-test-the-poor politician : one Chuck Sims, just busted for his second DUI, and yep, a strong proponent of the aforementioned bulls*** idea. That idea, by the way, assumes guilt on the part of the recipient: and that drunken crook Mr. Sims is demanding that we assume that he is innocent. So we see that the whole drug-testing-the-poor campaign is a bulls*** idea, but people keep on spouting it anyway.

Another argument against the bulls*** idea is Florida,where the Guv pushed through a plan that failed in every respect. Oh, and one of his wife’s companies was getting paid to do drug tests under the law that Rick Scott signed. So again, a politician fails an ethical test that he thinks others should pass, but he keeps on spouting the bulls*** idea anyway.

There is almost no evidence that there is a problem with poor folk using public funds to buy drugs, but when does evidence enter into such matters? People keep on spouting bulls*** ideas anyway.

This writer will keep on insisting that our politicos, who can and scam we taxpayers out of millions of dollars, be the ones that we subject to drug tests, financial tests, and every other sort of scrutiny the law allows. And let’s realize that those “public servants” are getting away with all sorts of crooked activities, all the while distracting us with the bulls*** ideas that the vast majority of us believe and spout anyway.

When Doing Nothing Is What You Do

Recently we discovered that the House of “Representatives” will be giving itself about 2/3 of the year off. So they clearly don’t plan on doing anything for their six-figure salaries.

This morning, Mr. Blunt and Cranky heard a story on the news about how Dizzy City has gotten into the habit of forcing other agencies to do nothing. So the trend is being spread across the government, like mold through bread.

Mind you, the government doing nothing might not be so bad if we weren’t still paying full price. Most of us in the real world don’t get paid if we don’t work. But not “our” government, who take our money and provide little or nothing in return.

There’s a word for such people, who take our money under false pretenses and then fail to deliver as promised.

That word is “thieves”.

Mr. B & C

Why Do So Many Politicians Make So Much S*** Up?

Mr. Blunt and Cranky was heading to The Place He Is Paid To Go To this morning, and heard Virginia’s Governor state (as if it were a fact) that Obama has added seven trillion dollars to the national debt.

Not true, of course, but it’s hardly uncommon to hear public figures lying, inventing “facts” whenever they like, stretching the truth, and generally saying whatever serves their purpose du jour without a single thought for truth or accuracy. And it just seems to get worse and worse.

From wack jobs like Sarah Palin who claim that the Obaminator is getting ready to kill us all, to the crazy radio guy who thinks the Prexy is the Antichrist, to multiple mouths spouting the canard that Obama upped the debt by five trillion dollars or more, there is no shortage of lying blather. Indeed, it is so prevalent that it has become commonplace.

And why does it happen? The answer is both infuriating and depressing: they make s*** up and lie because they can.

Think back, gentle reader, and ask yourself how often these zeebs get challenged by the “reporters” who work for the “news” media? Almost never. Guv McDonnell wasn’t this morning, the NPR “journalist” just let the lie fly by. And so the average schmoe believes the lies.

Crimes are committed because criminals find it worthwhile to do so. In this case, politicians, pundits and similar scumballs know that they can say any old thing that suits their sleazy, corrupt, un-American purposes.

They do it because the media lets them. They do it because we let them. If we the people insisted on punishing the lying liars, there would be fewer of them, and fewer lies being told to us.

What kind of America will we have, if we continue to encourage people to lie to us 24/7/365? Ask yourself that question, and then nut up and call the liars out. Like this post just did. If we all demand the truth, we’ll get more of it.

Mr. B & C

A Week of Harsh Truths, Day Five: The Parties Are The Problem

Today is yet another day of Federal Failure. Like Groundhog Day, Partisanship is resulting in repeated crises of its own manufacture, proving to everyone but the incurable lemmings among us that the political parties have destroyed our institutions, subverted our processes, stolen our money and generally put America on life support.

We were warned by some among the Founders that this might happen, President Washington among them. And it has indeed happened, as he foretold.

Don’t believe it? Name a governmental problem or crisis that does not have the word “partisan” associated therewith. Go on, we can wait all day. But here’s a bet that you can’t find one.

You can blame one party or the other, say that one is worse than the other, and you may be right. But the simple fact is: without parties, none of the crap that is used to manipulate us, rob us, divide us, and create manufactured crises would exist. The parties are the problem.

If each and every American would free their mind and renounce partisan affiliation, activities, and financial support, we could force the change that our nation, states, counties and localities deserve. This writer has been living so since 1976, and it has saved him much money while allowing votes for the best candidate, never mind the label attached.

If there was ever a day for Americans to wake up and smell the stench emitted by the corrupt, venal, disgusting and manipulative two-party system, today is it. Put your principles over your party. The nation you save might be your own.

Mr. B & C