I am especially piqued by Justice Scalia's trivializing of health care with his food/broccoli analogy attempt. It was also evident that all spoke from never having experienced the reality of being without coverage and what that means to a person's life.
I listened to many hours of the arguments and wasn't impressed with the performance of the Solicitor General. It was surprising to me that no part of any argument that I heard referenced the constitution's goal of providing for the general welfare since this is one of the central reasons that our forefathers adopted the Constitution. Instead there was all the nitpicking and hairsplitting over the commerce regulations.
And do we really have a court of nine justices, Thomas was never heard from in any recordings that I heard.
It is going to be challenging to wait until the end of June for the final of this and since the court has become almost as politically polarized as all other government institutions, I fear for the result and that it will not be for the common good.
graysmoke
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Friday, March 30, 2012
COMIC RELIEF
In our family it is endemic to be a voracious reader and that is what keeps me sane. A perfect antidote to cable television.
If you are one that doesn't think the Brits have a sense of humor, then let me recommend that you read Howard Jacobson's "Whatever it is, I don't Like It"--- which is a compilation of columns from his works originally published in the INDEPENDENT -- It tickles me pink.
And if you absolutely must follow the broadcast media - this book is terrific for getting you through the commercials. Or if you are a "bathroom" reader, you know what I mean. LOL. -- the columns are short and beautifully written, I am passionate about his use of the King's English one could say.
The only problem is this can be devoured too quickly.
graysmoke
If you are one that doesn't think the Brits have a sense of humor, then let me recommend that you read Howard Jacobson's "Whatever it is, I don't Like It"--- which is a compilation of columns from his works originally published in the INDEPENDENT -- It tickles me pink.
And if you absolutely must follow the broadcast media - this book is terrific for getting you through the commercials. Or if you are a "bathroom" reader, you know what I mean. LOL. -- the columns are short and beautifully written, I am passionate about his use of the King's English one could say.
The only problem is this can be devoured too quickly.
graysmoke
Thursday, March 29, 2012
ZIMMERMAN
One cannot escape the media coverage on this case so here are some observations that I haven't heard expressed by anyone that I have listened to, this in regard mostly to the video aired yesterday of Zimmerman being brought handcuffed in a squad car to the police station.
Comment 1. -- He was able to exit the rear seat of the vehicle without assistance - with the handcuffs in place, this takes considerable agility IMO and usually the officers place a hand above the head when entering or exiting passengers from that area to protect them from accidentally or intentionally bumping the car frame. Zimmerman did not need this. To me this also gives an indication of a man of exceptional leg strength.
Comment 2. -- Online I have seen the respective weights given as 140/150 for Trayvon Martin and 250 for Zimmerman. Which makes it unlikely, in my mind, that Martin could have bested Zimmerman physically.
Comment 3. -- It reportedly was a rainy evening so why shouldn't Zimmerman have, to some degree, wet clothing even if not knocked to the ground/grass? So the gesture by the officer of appearing to find same doesn't necessarily implicate Zimmerman being "grounded" by Martin.
Comment 4. -- Not related to the video but of interest is the John Doe-ing at the morgue of the body. It seems highly probable that officers would have used Martin's cell phone to identify him - where is the phone? It apparently has been used to time the event. It apparently took place quite early in the evening when it would not raise questions of being in the area as there might be if it were in the wee hours of the morning before daylight.
Why no attempt to reach the parent(s) if the cell phone stored numbers often used?
This case reeks with inconsistency and a lack of official competence.
graysmoke
Comment 1. -- He was able to exit the rear seat of the vehicle without assistance - with the handcuffs in place, this takes considerable agility IMO and usually the officers place a hand above the head when entering or exiting passengers from that area to protect them from accidentally or intentionally bumping the car frame. Zimmerman did not need this. To me this also gives an indication of a man of exceptional leg strength.
Comment 2. -- Online I have seen the respective weights given as 140/150 for Trayvon Martin and 250 for Zimmerman. Which makes it unlikely, in my mind, that Martin could have bested Zimmerman physically.
Comment 3. -- It reportedly was a rainy evening so why shouldn't Zimmerman have, to some degree, wet clothing even if not knocked to the ground/grass? So the gesture by the officer of appearing to find same doesn't necessarily implicate Zimmerman being "grounded" by Martin.
Comment 4. -- Not related to the video but of interest is the John Doe-ing at the morgue of the body. It seems highly probable that officers would have used Martin's cell phone to identify him - where is the phone? It apparently has been used to time the event. It apparently took place quite early in the evening when it would not raise questions of being in the area as there might be if it were in the wee hours of the morning before daylight.
Why no attempt to reach the parent(s) if the cell phone stored numbers often used?
This case reeks with inconsistency and a lack of official competence.
graysmoke
Saturday, March 24, 2012
HEART TRANSPLANTS
These are organs in short supply as you can deduce when you read that there are over 3000 needy patients on the waiting lists maintained by UNOS. So why is a seventy-one year old selected?
UNOS operates under a Federal contract:
http://optn.transplant.hrsa.gov/optn/history.asp
Sorry, but this valuable replacement should have been matched to another recipient. Selecting Cheney does smell of privilege -- and it may discourage donors.
One physician commented that the choice was appropriate and that there are no ethical questions. That is just opinion. Maybe he should poll the other patients on the waiting lists.
graysmoke
UNOS operates under a Federal contract:
http://optn.transplant.hrsa.gov/optn/history.asp
Sorry, but this valuable replacement should have been matched to another recipient. Selecting Cheney does smell of privilege -- and it may discourage donors.
One physician commented that the choice was appropriate and that there are no ethical questions. That is just opinion. Maybe he should poll the other patients on the waiting lists.
graysmoke
Neighborhood Watches
The Trayvon Martin killing and the perpetrator Zimmerman are getting a super heap of media coverage.
One fallout from this is going to be even less willingness to participate in legitimate local watch programs. Usually these groups are authorized by a community's Board, is there a Board in Twin Lakes? Was there authorization ? As communities mature, the boards sometimes become inactive.
Despite all the coverage, I still don't know how many other residents were active in the same group as Zimmerman. I have heard that is not a registered group and that raises questions about whether Zimmerman can claim the authority (and cover?) of being a true representative.
It is clear that the police had, what to me is an excess of contact without questioning his status. Also there has been no list of evidence that police collected at the scene, do they have the bottle of tea, the partial bag of Skittles. It appears they let Zimmerman go and still carrying.
Zimmerman's background shows questionable activity that should disqualify him from being a gun owner, IMO. So details about his permit should be investigated, where is the press on this?
This is an incident that certainly illustrates the USA is still a very segregated society and especially in the South.
A tragedy indeed, can society change quickly enough to prevent any more?
graysmoke
One fallout from this is going to be even less willingness to participate in legitimate local watch programs. Usually these groups are authorized by a community's Board, is there a Board in Twin Lakes? Was there authorization ? As communities mature, the boards sometimes become inactive.
Despite all the coverage, I still don't know how many other residents were active in the same group as Zimmerman. I have heard that is not a registered group and that raises questions about whether Zimmerman can claim the authority (and cover?) of being a true representative.
It is clear that the police had, what to me is an excess of contact without questioning his status. Also there has been no list of evidence that police collected at the scene, do they have the bottle of tea, the partial bag of Skittles. It appears they let Zimmerman go and still carrying.
Zimmerman's background shows questionable activity that should disqualify him from being a gun owner, IMO. So details about his permit should be investigated, where is the press on this?
This is an incident that certainly illustrates the USA is still a very segregated society and especially in the South.
A tragedy indeed, can society change quickly enough to prevent any more?
graysmoke
Monday, March 19, 2012
BAIN bane
So wannabe Mitt Romney thinks he knows how to run the nation's economy because he was a high mucky muck in his own capital venture firm?
What this means is that he can come in and sell off the country's assets for huge profits to funnel to his political SuperPacs and other supporters then after that he can walk away while the nation goes bankrupt.
That's the recipe folks.
Beware what you vote for.
graysmoke
What this means is that he can come in and sell off the country's assets for huge profits to funnel to his political SuperPacs and other supporters then after that he can walk away while the nation goes bankrupt.
That's the recipe folks.
Beware what you vote for.
graysmoke
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Stimulus
No I am not talking about the economy........just wondering how the radical right is going to re-energize the continuing campaigns...........as expected obsessive/compulsive, maybe bi-polar, Gingrich is confirming his problems and Santorum continues to be super sanctimonious and Romney still looks as though he wears a strait jacket. I am not the only one that thinks those jeans he appears in, look like they belong to someone else's body, I heard a female commentator make a remark about getting rid of the false jeans. Jeans get to looking like they conform to the owners body style -- these do not. Now is that going to stimulate you to look discerningly next time you see him wearing them?
Well it beats listening to the rhetoric of the day.
graysmoke
Well it beats listening to the rhetoric of the day.
graysmoke
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
MORE PRIMARIES
Ho Hum........it is getting so dull, the chameleon Romney, the obsessed Gingrich, the deluded Santorum......and a low literacy level in the states holding their elections today......any idiot should be able to guess what the results are going to be. R will hold the urban area where literacy higher and the pentecostal, Catholics and evangelicals will arm wrestle over the rest......maybe a tie might be a relief from the boredom
Really it is getting embarrassing.......
graysmoke
Really it is getting embarrassing.......
graysmoke
Friday, March 9, 2012
a bit of sauce......
I find this hilarious.
In the state of Virginia a woman member of the legislature has introduced what I will call the goose/gander/gender equality amendment to the ultrasound bill and another woman legislator has filed a similar bill in another state, California I believe.
For men who are going to have vasectomies, there will be a requirement for a rectal exam etc. also to require cardiac stress testing before use of Cialis and Viagra .
graysmoke
In the state of Virginia a woman member of the legislature has introduced what I will call the goose/gander/gender equality amendment to the ultrasound bill and another woman legislator has filed a similar bill in another state, California I believe.
For men who are going to have vasectomies, there will be a requirement for a rectal exam etc. also to require cardiac stress testing before use of Cialis and Viagra .
graysmoke
Thursday, March 8, 2012
COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF wannabees/couldhavebeens
Since I was up during the night because of my RLS condition, I watched on C-Span a rebroadcast of the Senate Armed Services Committee with Secretary Panetta and Gen. Dempsey testifying. I don't think I tuned in at the very beginning but I watched more than an hour of it and during that time, Senator McCain and Senator Leiberman had there turns questioning. They are superhawks about intervention precipitously in Syria.
It is obvious that they are not asking themselves a crucial question. So we create more deaths by our intervention, how is that helpful and if intervention confined to air strikes and they do not deter Assad, WHAT THEN?
In my view, this is politicking at its very worst. For shame John and Joe.........
graysmoke
It is obvious that they are not asking themselves a crucial question. So we create more deaths by our intervention, how is that helpful and if intervention confined to air strikes and they do not deter Assad, WHAT THEN?
In my view, this is politicking at its very worst. For shame John and Joe.........
graysmoke
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
RELIGION vs RELIGION?
Is it the Mormons against the Evangelicals, Catholics, Pentecostals et al? That seems to be a major fault in the earthshattering rhetoric of the Republican candidates seeking to be the party nominee for President. Where are the major Protestant denominations in all this? They are strangely silent, maybe "thinking" - horrors - can't have that!!!!!!
THE unCIVIL WAR
Rush's non-apology says a lot more about his ego being much larger than his brain than it does about sincerity and genuine regret. The country has tolerated this ranter for far too many years - I hope he loses all air time and contracts.
What passes for responsibility in his book is quite strange, so what words would have been okay?
And we are to believe that he was trying to be funny? Wow, that's a stretch.
graysmoke
What passes for responsibility in his book is quite strange, so what words would have been okay?
And we are to believe that he was trying to be funny? Wow, that's a stretch.
graysmoke
Monday, March 5, 2012
LIZ'S LOOSE LIPS
It just happened when I tuned in to C-span yesterday afternoon looking for something to watch on the tube, I caught a portion of a panel at the AIPAC conference and Liz Cheney, Jane Harmon and some Mid-East academic, (male) were the panelists.
The moderator gave free rein to Liz's venom revealing her hatred of President Obama, Harmon responded in disagreement with her but still that doesn't acquit Liz of what I consider treasonous language and you should have seen it and read her facial expressions. She was licking her chops at getting in that much scalding of the President. She called him Israel's worst enemy!!!!! Of course the hawks in the audience loved it.......at least that is my interpretation by the sound of applause, the camera did not show the audience so I don't know who or how many were at this particular event. There apparently were many on the schedule and others were to be shown later on C-Span, hopefully they would be more balanced.
graysmoke
The moderator gave free rein to Liz's venom revealing her hatred of President Obama, Harmon responded in disagreement with her but still that doesn't acquit Liz of what I consider treasonous language and you should have seen it and read her facial expressions. She was licking her chops at getting in that much scalding of the President. She called him Israel's worst enemy!!!!! Of course the hawks in the audience loved it.......at least that is my interpretation by the sound of applause, the camera did not show the audience so I don't know who or how many were at this particular event. There apparently were many on the schedule and others were to be shown later on C-Span, hopefully they would be more balanced.
graysmoke
Saturday, March 3, 2012
A "MUST READ"
Since Netanyahou and the POTUS are meeting, this article provides background for understanding the significance of that.
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2012/03/lawrence-wilkerson-middle-east-nancy-schoenberger-israel-iran-nuclear-weapons
Prepare yourself. Don't be an uninformed witness to history.
graysmoke
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2012/03/lawrence-wilkerson-middle-east-nancy-schoenberger-israel-iran-nuclear-weapons
Prepare yourself. Don't be an uninformed witness to history.
graysmoke
Friday, March 2, 2012
AGITATORS
This is my term for the likes of Limbaugh. He has been a woman hater for at least twenty years. Vitriol is his stock in trade. Now with the surplus of media coverage a la cable, the bait gets him just the sort of attention and controversy he craves. And on the internet you would not believe the extreme radical conspiratorial scenarios that are also spawned. The late Mr Breitbart belongs in the same category.
Twenty years ago on a motor trip across the midwest, we kept the radio on in order to listen for weather warnings, even back then there was always the possibility that one would need to get off the road because of hail and stormy loss of visibility. The only radio station that was receivable was one where Limbaugh reigned, I was ready to take the radio out and toss it, he was so anti-feminist even back then. I think he doesn't have a brain, just fat inside like the outside.
What Limbaugh should provoke is a campaign to totally ignore him.......he is like a kid that misbehaves in order to grab attention. The cable coverage is a sucker reaction.
graysmoke
Twenty years ago on a motor trip across the midwest, we kept the radio on in order to listen for weather warnings, even back then there was always the possibility that one would need to get off the road because of hail and stormy loss of visibility. The only radio station that was receivable was one where Limbaugh reigned, I was ready to take the radio out and toss it, he was so anti-feminist even back then. I think he doesn't have a brain, just fat inside like the outside.
What Limbaugh should provoke is a campaign to totally ignore him.......he is like a kid that misbehaves in order to grab attention. The cable coverage is a sucker reaction.
graysmoke
Thursday, March 1, 2012
FLUB FLUB FLUB
Maybe Romney wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth but I think maybe he was born with a PAIR of shoes in his mouth --- at least.
?Light his hair on fire? Mitt the word is "set". Then who can forget his "severely" conservative wording. Was that a teleprompter misread of "seriously" or a memory mid-life moment?
I am wondering if he has some weird brain wiring causing a speech disorder. Political aphasia? Well just cure it by taking those shoes out of the mouth.
graysmoke
?Light his hair on fire? Mitt the word is "set". Then who can forget his "severely" conservative wording. Was that a teleprompter misread of "seriously" or a memory mid-life moment?
I am wondering if he has some weird brain wiring causing a speech disorder. Political aphasia? Well just cure it by taking those shoes out of the mouth.
graysmoke
VER-R-R-Y INTERESTING!!
Charlie Rose had Jon Huntsman on as guest for a second time --again as repository of knowledge regarding relations with China -- , and if ever the republicans could get unjacked from the extremists, he would be the man that should be the moderate Republican nominee. My feeling is that he left the campaign because he wouldn't be tainted by the Tea Party and ilk.
Maybe he would be the ideal third party draft choice. How can that be brought about?
Maybe he would be the ideal third party draft choice. How can that be brought about?
ACCOLADES
My salute to Bob Kerrey.....I am thrilled that he is answering again, the call to serve his country and will run for the senate, the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Nelson, who has been a disappointment. Kerrey has my admiration for many reasons. He is to be respected for his college presidency and innovations in higher education. No post congressional service of influence peddling for him. Not on your life.
Senator Mitch McConnell better take cover.
I hope there is someone in Maine that will run for the seat being vacated by Senator Snowe, and sorry that the extremists in her party are forcing the moderate republicans off the public stage.
It is time the extremists meet their match.
graysmoke
Senator Mitch McConnell better take cover.
I hope there is someone in Maine that will run for the seat being vacated by Senator Snowe, and sorry that the extremists in her party are forcing the moderate republicans off the public stage.
It is time the extremists meet their match.
graysmoke
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