Sorry is Sorry except when it's NOT

Just a little note about apologies.  Anything qualified, anything that contains the words (or similar sentiment) "but YOU?" Not an apology.  Anything that goes on to defend whatever's being apologized for?

Not an apology.

So do me a favor, wouldja?  Next time the words "Hey, I'm really sorry, it's just that you . . . " start to come out of your mouth?

Just hush, okay?  Because you're not apologizing, and you're not improving my mood even a little.

Thanks!

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A little lesson in reality for the wanker-baggers out there who seem to think that shutting down the government will "undo" the Affordable Care Act:

It's LAW, you guys. Remember the whole School House Rock gig, with "I am a Bill?"  Remember how that works?  Congress enacts, the President signs, and WOW, it's the law?  Yeah, that's what happened, it is how our country works, it's exactly the process it was founded on.  And you remember what happens when a LAW's constitutionality is challenged?  It goes before the Supreme Court.  You remember them, right?  With their bagger victories like Citizens United and the garroting of the Voting Rights Act?  Yeah, those right-leaning freaks!  They examined the Affordable Care Act and found it . . .

NOT IN VIOLATION OF THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION!

That's RIGHT, boys and girls, the ACA (often known as "Obamacare") is the LAW, and it's CONSTITUTIONAL.  And you know what else it is?

FULLY FUNDED REGARDLESS OF GOVERNMENT SHUT DOWN.  What, no one told you that?  Your histrionic, fundamentally unstable, utterly dishonest bagger representatives didn't tell you that?  Oh, no!

Yeah, they shut down the government in protest of a law that shutting down the government won't interfere with.  But really, it goes deeper than that.  They shut down the government because they want a Presidential do-over. They're still butt-hurt because they lost.

They LOST!  Probably THE defining issue this past election was Affordable Health Care, and they LOST.

I find it deeply embarrassing that there are so-called Americans who have to be dragged, kicking and screaming, toward health care.  That there are some who view the INTERNATIONAL STANDARD of care as something evil, something to be avoided at all costs.  

Shameful!

The rich, who have gotten so much richer in the past few decades, and who contribute so much LESS to our society, be it through wages or taxes, have actually managed to hoodwink us, to turn us against our weakest members, so that we point fingers at the poor and bemoan their need, begrudge them a buck-twenty a day in food assistance, all the while not noticing that we're being buggered senseless by the right and their "corporate-people" masters.  

It's always worked that way.  Always.  If you can turn a people against those weaker than themselves, you can manipulate them all sorts of ways while they're distracted by their hate.  Immigrants, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, the poor, Blacks, Hispanics--it's what the "upper class" does--it distracts us, lets us feel superior to some other group, and takes advantage of our inattention.  

I think it's worse this time around because they managed to tie it all up with "patriotism."  And raging nationalism combined with vicious xenophobia?  Stirred up in a pot of falling educational standards?

Disaster.

We lag behind the rest of the industrial world in . .  . well, pretty much everything but military spending and the percentage of people in prison.  

Think about that.  Educational attainment?  Nope.  Life expectancy?  Nope.  Literacy?  Nuh-uh.  Infant mortality?  Nopers.  Maternal deaths?  Nope.  Health care?  Not even close.  

Oooh, I know!  Guns!  We have more guns per capita AND more murders!  So our proud country can boast top honors in violence, weaponry, military spending, and incarcerated citizens.

And the right has us waving those flags and shouting "America, love it or leave it!"

Which is THE most UN-American thing to say.

We are AMERICANS, when we see something wrong, we're supposed to FIX it, not DEFEND it! I get that our educational standards have fallen, I get that people just aren't as smart as they used to be.  But are we really THIS stupid?

Really?

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Speaking of stupid, I made the mistake of checking the profile of a Facebook friend's friend.  On it was a rather racist/anti-Arab cartoon.  Enough to make me wince just a little, but not enough to really make me upset.  It was the dull-wit comment left by another friend of a friend that got me going.  She says (and this is copied and pasted) "I wish they would all do it once out in the desert..All mussies." 

I.  I don't.  

Oh, gosh.

Her  name isn't Olga (but it's close) and she lives in Wisconsin or Minnesota or Michigan or some such northern clime.  Lovely places.  But one of them has Olga, and that makes it a bit less lovely. Olga's wall is crowded with painful stupidity--so much so, you'd think . . . well, I was going to say "you'd think it would be spilling over," but considering her idiot post on someone else's wall, I'd say it HAS spilled over.  Her wall offers up such gems as Reverent-posted/Olga Shared Photoshopped images of dead babies with comparisons to Hitler.  With her pithy comment "Yep.  Sad."  Memes squealing about "defund Obamacare!" and "Send him back to Kenya!"

And guns, of course.  

And Jesus.  Vertiable butloads of Jesus.  

Because nothing says "Jesus" like hate, bigotry, stupidity, and guns, right Olga?

Olga?

Her friends list is crowded with folks who have guns for profile shots.  A few have bagger takes on Confederate flags.  A bunch of Jesus-y stuff.  A lot of Obama-hating.

She's a stereotype.  Heck, Olga may not actually be real.  Isn't that a reassuring thought?

Here, a collection of meme's from Olga's wall:

I think you get the point.  Olga's an idiot.  But the crowning glory, the one that really drives home just what kind of ugly creature she is?

That's right--our First Lady as a flying MONKEY.  Yeah, racist point made, Olga.  I'm sure your "Tea Party Patriots" will reward you for your slack-jawed adoration.  No, really, I'm sure they will. They'll probably even give you health care that almost begins to approach the industrialized world's standard. 

Or at least easy access to a gun so you can end it when the health problems progress beyond your ability to pay.  Which, considering the breathtaking sums our medical complex demands for even the simplest of treatments, shouldn't be long.

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And that's that.  I'm all politicked out for the day.  Haven't run across any really awful baby names, though I did come across a bit from a guy who won't hire people with crappy names, with a specific stiffy against "black" names.  And I think that sucks--you can't help what your parents named you.  Bad names should result in parental slapping, not prejudice against the victims.

Niiiiiice.