"Another Pill Stop?"

Modern-day P.T. Barnums work in pharmaceutical advertising.

On the prescription end of the spectrum, they want you to ignore that lengthy list of lethal side effects and interactions and just buy their expensive elixirs so you can "up your game" or treat your "moderate-to-severe" plaque psoriasis.

In the over-the-counter world, the advertisers of Aleve would have you believe in the business-killing, soul-crushing inconvenience of taking more than two pills a day.  Yes, we're apparently so swamped baking bread and delivering packages that there's just no time for anything else -- not even time to swallow.  "Another pill stop?  NO!!!!  My day is ruined!  Do you hear me?  Ruined!"

Word

"Refusing to invest [in the National Institutes of Health] is the budgetary equivalent of cutting off your feet to save money on shoes."
-- Sen. Elizabeth Warren

"I've never seen it like this.  Clearly the problem is within the Republican party.  If you make every issue uncompromisable, you cannot have laws."
-- Alan Greenspan

"The internet is the death of forgetting.  You can't reinvent yourself because it's always there.  You hit Google, and your cavalcade of misdeeds comes rolling back to the top of the page."
-- Alec Baldwin

"There are no close plays.  A man is always out or safe, or it is a ball or a strike, and the umpire, if he is a good man and knows his business, is always right.  For instance, I am always right."
-- Frank "Silk" O'Laughlin (1872-1918.  American League umpire, originator of umpires' hand signals) 

Boehner Vows To Stuff It Up Your ENDA

Yesterday, the U.S. Senate voted to approve ENDA (the Employment Nondiscrimnation Act).  I'm happy to say my Republican Senator, Rob Portman, voted for it.  Good job, Rob.

If enacted into law, ENDA would prohibit an employee from being fired merely for being gay or lesbian, which is legal in many states, including Ohio.  (Hello, Bishop Watterson High School and Carla Hale!)

Since ENDA seems like a perfectly reasonable idea, the Orange Man is naturally opposed.  Speaker Boehner says it will hurt businesses by encouraging frivolous lawsuits and, accordingly, he won't even let it come to a vote in the House.

The Weeper of the House conveniently ignores the fact that a number of states have long had their own nondiscrimination statutes, with zero impact on the business environment.  If ENDA is enacted and somebody sues somebody as a result, if the suit is truly frivolous, it'll be tossed out of court.  So what's your problem?  What're you afraid of?

Boehner is the worst Speaker ever.  He's just a career Beltway hack risen to his level of incompetence.  He was bought and sold long ago, and is now utterly beholden to the forces who care only about their own bank accounts and care nothing for human rights and justice.  

Dave Chappelle As "Clayton Bigsby"

Chappelle is back with a stand-up tour.  Here's a classic bit.  Simple set up, very funny.  Blind from birth, "Clayton Bigsby" is a white supremacist who is unaware that he is black:

Another Reason To Expand Medicaid

As mentioned in the 10/22/13 Buster's blog post, "Good Job, Guv!", the State of Ohio is now being sued over its decision to take federal money set aside by Obamacare to expand Medicaid to more low-income, uninsured people.  Those bringing suit are a handful of hard-right Republicans and a "Right to Life" group.  Among other things, they claim that extending coverage to more poor Ohioans would "jeopardize unborn life."

Gimme a break!  These self-righteous moralists ought to think a lot more about all the life which is already born!

And in fairness, since they're so worried about the nebulous "unborn", shouldn't they be equally concerned with the the other end of the spectrum, the undead?  I mean, have you taken a good look at some of these zombies?  You know they have zero income, they sure as hell have no health insurance, and they're in obvious need of medical attention.

Have a heart -- Ohio's indigent zombies need Medicaid coverage.

Rand Paul Goes Back To College

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has been discovered plagiarizing texts from magazines and Wikipedia.  Having been caught, he said he's (sort of) sorry, will be more careful, and from now on he'll cite his sources in his speeches and articles -- "We're going to do them like college papers."

Hang on there, Rand.  With all your sloppy, lazy plagiarism, you've already done them like college papers!  Better try something different.

Here's How To Get Wayne Lapierre's Cooperation

Ho-hum.  Another day, another shooting.

In the past 45 years, American gun owners have shot 4.5 million of their fellow citizens and managed to kill 1.34 million of them.  While many might call that a tragic epidemic of gun violence, the NRA would call it a good start.

In late October, after the Navy Yard shooter killed 12, Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly (Americans For Responsible Solutions) sent an open letter to Congress citing 16 mass shootings since Sandy Hook and calling for the umpteenth time for legislative action, such as universal background checks.

Yesterday, the facetiously-named "Guns Are Cool" website said the real number was 307.  Their number was not facetious, and did not include the LAX incident or the mall shooter in Paramus, NJ.  They say that Gabby and Mark are using the old FBI definition of mass shooting:  four or more people killed.  By that logic, a gunman who kills 2 while wounding 20 is not a "mass shooter."  But try telling that to one of the wounded.  "Hey, asshole!  You didn't murder me, but you sure as hell shot me!  See?  Yeah, right there, where I'm bleeding profusely."

"Guns Are Cool" defines a mass shooter as someone who, in a single instance of repeated gunfire, wounds or kills four or more people.  Their broader definition still does not include the huge number of standard-issue thugs and crazoids who fire away every day, but hit only three people or fewer.

Click to check out their website:  
www.reddit.com/r/GunsAreCool/wiki/2013massshootings

Their site urges you to "Subscribe.  It makes Wayne Lapierre gassy."

Dear readers, "gassy" is not good enough.  Every time somebody goes murderously nuts with a gun, Lapierre and the NRA insist the solution is more guns.  What?  It's circular logic from hell.  So fuck making him merely bilious.  We need to be much more persuasive.

A friend has made the following suggestion, and Buster concurs wholeheartedly:  The next time a heavily-armed killer randomly shoots up a school, a theater, a restaurant, or whatever, we simply kidnap Wayne Lapierre and cut off one of his fingers or toes.  We continue to hold him and every time it happens again, we lop off another digit. 

In fairly short order, we'll have "Stubby" Lapierre's undivided attention and full cooperation.