OB/GYN Doctors to Politicians: “Get Out of our Exam Rooms”.

The American College of Gynecologists has finally had enough of lying, grandstanding, glory-hound yahoo politicos and their bulls*** anti-abortion laws. In fact, they are calling these “representatives” out, and (rhetorically) whacking them with very large sticks.

It makes sense that people who actually do something would be considered the experts at that thing, yes? So doctors who are trained in a medical specialty and work at it every day would be the authoritative sources, nicht wahr? And those OB/GYNs should be listened to, n’cest pas?

So let’s listen to them (bold text courtesy of the Crankster):

“While we can agree to disagree about abortion on ideological grounds, we must draw a hard line against insidious legislation that threatens women’s health like Texas HB2 (House Bill 2) and SB1 (Senate Bill 1). That’s why we’re speaking to the false and misleading underlying assumptions of this and other legislation like it: These bills are as much about interfering with the practice of medicine and the relationship a patient has with her physician as they are about restricting women’s access to abortion. The fact is that these bills will not help protect the health of any woman in Texas. Instead, these bills will harm women’s health in very clear ways.
We’re setting the record straight, loudly and unequivocally, with these simple messages to all politicians:

Get Out of Our Exam Rooms”

“Facts are very important, especially when discussing the health of women and the American public. And a lot of “facts” are being asserted in this debate. Truth be told, the scientific underpinnings of this legislation are unsound. First, there’s the 20-week ban, which is based on the argument that a fetus can feel pain. Recent and rigorous scientific reviews have concluded that there is no evidence of fetal perception of pain until 29 weeks at the earliest2 (third trimester is 28–40 weeks).”

Yes, these doctors are opening up a big ol’ can o’ Whoop-Ass on the “Republicans” in Texas and elsewhere who are prying into our private lives. And they are calling out these reprehensible scumballs for lying, invading our privacy, and endangering the lives of women and children with their meddling ways.

And the crazy part is, these “representatives” of ours are all too often proponents of “small government” and decriers of “Big Brother government”. People, if there is any more egregious example of Big Brother than a politician trying to stick their fingers into women’s private parts, this writer hasn’t heard of it.

Kudos to ACOG for telling these intrusive, corrupt, lying, sleazebucket politiciians to go pound sand.

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’.

Loony Lefties Need to Recognize Reality and Remember Historical Facts

Those denizens of the extreme Left in America love them some Obama-bashing. Hell, sometimes they bash the Prexy more than do the Raging Righties In Their Tightie Whities.

One comparison that the Loony Lefties like to use is, of course, FDR. The wroth is waxed and the spittle flies from their screeching gobs as they point out how inferior Obama is to Roosevelt. But there is one small problem with these rants, denunciations and polemics: they are just so much bulls***. Here’s why:

As pointed out here in the Chronicle of Higher Education, FDR had him some filibuster-proof majorities. In fact, he had them for 3/4 of his first two terms. Obama, by contrast, had a teensy-weensy majority in Congress for a matter of months, and doesn’t look like having one again anytime soon.

But do the Extreme Left take these facts (and indeed, basic mathematics) into account? No, they do not. Living in their fantasyland of rainbow ponies that poop sparkly butterflies, they must think Obama is possessed of a magic wand that he could use (but for unstated nefarious reasons refuses to use) to turn Wingnut “Republicans” into liberal Democrats. Because that’s what it would take for Obama to move a Progressive agenda through Congress in these times.

Obama may or may not be all that Liberal, but regardless of his position on the ideological left/right line, the Congress is effectively controlled by the Extreme Right. And he cannot move anything even remotely Leftish through Congress (be they judicial nominees, gun control, social welfare programs, or anything else) given the monolithic opposition and numerical advantage of the “Republican” parties.

Until the Left turns out enough voters to elect a huge majority of liberal members to Congress, they will have to understand that Obama can only do what Congress lets him do. That, if you like, is the true comparison to FDR: the voters not only elected him, they also elected huge majorities of liberal Democrats to both houses of Congress. That “little detail” needs to be front-and-center in the mind of every Progressive voter. They can’t just elect one man to office and then sit back in their beanbag chairs demonizing him for four years: they have to elect legislators as well; legislators that represent their interests.

Until that is understood, the Left will be bitter, frustrated and p***ed off. They need to pay attention to the details and take action based on them: not on how they think things “should be”. Remember: “should” sounds a lot like “s***”, and that for a good reason.

If Progressives want FDR-grade results, they need to give Obama FDR-grade majorities in Congress.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Senator Filibusters His Own Bill

File this one under “Partisan politics has gone lizard-s***  crazy”: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell brought up a bill of his from a while back and asked for it to be voted on. As soon as he found out it WOULD be voted on, he filibustered it. Really. Mr. Blunt and Cranky couldn’t make this stuff up:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2012/12/06/dem-unity-forces-mcconnell-to-filibuster-his-own-proposal/

This would be funny if it weren’t so sick.

Mr. B & C