Conversation with Siderealette

In which my two year old daughter is proven to be more intelligent than every living Republican......

Siderealette: Daddy, big cars bad de Earf.


Sidereal

WWJB (Who Would Jesus Bill?)

For all my fellow citizens (notice how I didn't refer to you as my fellow taxpayers?) who are of right leaning political persuasions and who claim to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, I have the following questions:

When Jesus healed the sick, did he check first for proof of insurance? To whom did He send His bill?

Sidereal

Why the Republican Party Sucks: Part 3 of an Inifinite Part Series

Just wondering......

How many of those Republicans in Congress who are opposed to allowing their employers (i.e. ordinary Americans) a "government option" for health care have voluntarily given up the "government option" health care plan that their employers (i.e. ordinary Americans) are providing for members of Congress. One would think that if the "government option" is so bad then the Republicans in Congress would not avail themselves of it, insure themselves privately, and save their employers (i.e. ordinary Americans) the expense of insuring them.

Imagine the tax cut that could be passed along to ordinary Americans if the millionaire lawyers who take up so much space in Congress just paid for their own health care!

Just wondering.....

Sidereal

Sidereal's Second Law of the Culinary Arts (and Sciences!)

When in doubt, feed the kids fish sticks. With lots of ketchup. Because ketchup is a vegetable!

Sidereal

Why the Republican Party Sucks: Part 2 of an Infinite Part Series

I know I'm not the first to comment on this, but I simply cannot let it go uncommented.

Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, on February 24, 2009:

While some of the projects in the bill make sense, their legislation is larded with wasteful spending. It includes $300 million to buy new cars for the government, $8 billion for high-speed rail projects, such as a "magnetic levitation" line from Las Vegas to Disneyland, and $140 million for something called "volcano monitoring." Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington, D.C.

For something called "volcano monitoring"? Has Governor Jindal forgotten the 57 Americans who died when Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980? Are all monitoring services that keep track of potential natural disasters "lard" in his mind? How much worse would hurricane Katrina have been had there been no warning? Or does he honestly believe that services which monitor potential natural disasters are only justified when they benefit his state?

Or is it more likely that his Republican Party handlers decided to try for a cheap shot, thinking that most Americans don't live near volcanos? Or that volcanic eruptions are so infrequent that they could get in a cheap shot and not make too many waves? Either way, if volcanic eruptions can be considered acts of God, then perhaps the Republican Party has now learned what the Almighty thinks of its recent behavior?

The irony of the Mt. Redoubt situtation is that it's happening Republican Barbie's home state.

This is what happens when a political party develops an unhealthy contempt for science, combined with an unhealthy contempt for the citizenry.

Sidereal

Why the Republican Party Sucks: Part 1 of an Infinite Part Series

To get a sense of the priorities of the two major parties in American politics, I took a look at their platforms from the 2008 election. I searched each document for two words: "taxpayer" and "citizen". Here are the results:

Republican Platform:
"taxpayer" = 12 mentions; "citizen" = 17 mentions

Democratic Platform:
"taxpayer" = 3 mentions; "citizen" = 29 mentions

Just for reference, "taxpayer" is not mentioned at all in the U.S. Constitution, while "citizen" appears 22 times.

It is pretty clear that the Republican Party is more concerned about the size of your wallet than anything else when they consider your status as a taxpayer of equal or more importance than whether or not you are a citizen.

Wal*Mart pays taxes; Wal*Mart doesn't get to vote.

Taxpayers don't have rights; citizens have rights.

Sidereal