Am I the only one who’s sick and tired of Olympia Snowe? I mean, fer chrissakes, what’s the goddamn fascination with kissing her ass? Just to get one Republican vote? Screw ’em; the fewer Republicans that vote for a bill, the more I think it must be a good one. First off – and I hate to be shallow and superficial, but – they’ve been plastering her photo all over every website I go to (often in rather large size), and, let’s face it, she’s got a face only Ladybird Johnson could love. Secondly, if she thinks Max Baucus’ (he’s a creepy-looking bastard, too) “reform” bill is great, then she must be just as deep in the pockets of the insurance and drug companies as he is. Who the frack elected her queen of the Senate anyway? I mean, the entire population of the State of Maine is about half the population of the borough of Brooklyn alone. Speaking of pissant states (no offense; Maine is really quite beautiful – though it makes Syracuse look like Miami in the winter – and has really friendly people) getting to decide how the rest of us will live, Baucus’ state (Montana) has about half a million people less than Maine. Let’s not forget that other great DINO, Ben Nelson of Nebraska. Nebraska (a state that looks like a parking lot with a shitload of corn planted in it) has a measly half million more people than Maine. So, three states with combined population of less than 4 million people, and they get to rule my world? It just aint right.

Speaking of shit that aint right, the NYS Department of Health has decreed that all health care workers must give up sovereignty over their bodies and undergo forced medical treatment in the form of the seasonal flu shot, and the untested, experimental, rushed to market H1N1 flu vaccine (a series of two innoculations) when it becomes available from the drug companies, who have been absolved of all legal liability should the vaccine kill more people than the flu itself (as was the case in 1976 with the much hyped “swine flu” shots). When the State declares that it owns your body, something is terribly wrong (particularly when the orders come in the form of a fiat from some faceless, unelected, and unaccountable government agency headed by a commissioner – Richard Davies, MD – who was a Mormon missionary; I wonder whether Dr. Dick is gonna get a flu shot, or if he’ll be relying on his magic underpants). I believe we saw this sort of thing 60 years ago in Germany (well, not the Mormon part). Talk about fascism. What’s next? Subcutaneous RFID chips? Bedroom video monitoring to deter aberrant behavior? Death panels? Mandatory abortions? Human/Animal hybrids!? Time to get Glenn Beck on the job, to organize (if not actually attend) a march on Albany.

OK, so, you Apple fanboys (and gals) out there. Is there no such thing as a delete key (no, I’m not talking about the backspace key labeled “delete”) on a Mac, or am I just missing something here? I finally reach out to the Mac evangelists, and you shun me. I may have to join the Syracuse Mac User’s Group, known better by its rather apt acronym, SMUG.

Oh well, time to get this rather long week the hell over with.

So, I’m writing this on a new MacBook Pro 13 that I brought home from work last night. I figured I’d better practice with it, since I intend to use for the labs and workshops at the Adobe Max conference in October. I have to say, there are lots of things I like about it, including the backlit keyboard. I’m still trying to tweak the settings (it comes with “stupid” turned on), and I don’t know as I’d want one as a desktop, because of all the things I do that I suspect would be difficult to set up and run on this thing (though I’ll give it a try), but for surfing the Internet and using the Adobe CS4 apps and that kinda stuff, it’s really pretty nice. This is the first extensive use of a Mac for me since having to support one a few years back. It was one of those all-in-one see-through gumball machine things (that for some reason people seemed to think were a great “design,” but didn’t do much for me; I already knew what the inside of a teevee looked like), right after OS X came out. The people who “had” to have it seemed to have no clue how to use it, and I had to go through all sorts of contortions to get it to do the simplest of things (often having to boot back and forth between X and 9, because, while you were supposed to be able to run legacy, “non-carbonized” apps – like the version of Quark available at the time – in an OS 9 shell, it didn’t actually work). It was disappointing, because, contrary to urban legend, the damn thing would lock up and die constantly. This seems better, so far, but we’ll see….

Seems a bit slow when starting up a new application, but that might be because of all the cutesy cartoon effects and whatnot. I really like the two-finger scroll and the oversized touchpad (once I figured out how to set it to allow tap to click and bottom corner “right-click,” though there are still thins I seem to need to option-click that I can right-click to do on a PC, which is a bit annoying). It has a much larger footprint that my 12.1″ Dell Inspiron (even given the slightly larger screen size), with a fair amount of wasted space (in part due to the large touchpad and more comfortable keyboard size). I don’t know what the official weight is (edit: just looked it up, and it comes in at 4.5 pounds, which isn’t terrible, but not exactly ultralight, either), but it feels quite a bit heavier, too. At home, that’s not a problem, but having trudged through airports with a 15″ Dell brick, weight is something I’m sensitive to. Some of that weight is due to the 7-cell lithium polymer battery, which seems to be worth every ounce. It purports to be capable of 7 hours or use (the Dell gets a pretty solid 5). I unplugged it as I left the office last at about 5:00, played around with it last night (nothing heavy duty), closed it up (but never shut it down), and still have 35% remaining. I’ll have to see how long it lasts playing a DVD.

It keeps telling me that I downloaded Firefox from the Internet, and wants to know if I really want to run it. I do – I really do. Honest. There’s gotta be a place to turn that off, right? So, who knows. My current laptop is getting a little long in the tooth (got it the Summer of 2005) and the sound no longer works (been itching to get a new one for a while now), so maybe I’ll get one of these things for myself. Other than they’re rather overpriced (a very quick look at Best Buy for a similar HP – same screen size and RAM, double the hard drive size, and a lightscribe DVD burner, which the Mac doesn’t have is literally half the price; the Mac is a bit nicer looking, I’ll admit, and I’m not an HP fan, but, damn, we’re talking 2-for-1, and that’s without doing any shopping around) and don’t have a user-replaceable battery (at least in theory; I reckon I could do it). RAM is pretty pricey, too. They currently come with 4-gigs on two chips (only two slots total), and to go to 8GB, Apple wants another $1,000. 😯 Even looking at Crucial, two 4 GB chips go for $799 (and then you have pull the 4-gigs out, but I suppose you could at least sell ’em on eBay, unlike letting Apple stick you for a grand). BTW, what’s the warranty on these things? Like 90 days or something, and then you pretty much are forced to pay for Apple Care (another edit: I see that it’s 90-days for phone support – which I’d never use anyway – and 1-yr on the hardware, which is comparable to most other manufacturers)?

Still, it’s pretty. And it isn’t frickin’ white, which is a big plus. So, we’ll see.

A sad day yesterday, as we lost both Mary Travers and Henry Gibson, who was great as the rather odd judge on Boston Legal. Also sad was Max Baucus’ homage to the insurance and pharmaceutical industries. Nobody on either side seems to like it, so I am officially predicting that this is the version of the health care reform bill that will pass and be enacted, signaling an end to the Democrats brief reign as rulers of both Houses of Congress, as well as the beginning of the end of that Kenyan/Indonesian Mooslam President dude.

Oh well, time to head to work. Post your Mac tips.

Good news for those of you who get health insurance from your employer (or for you employers who provide health insurance for your workers): if current trends continue, the cost of insurance will increase by 166% over the next ten years – to $28,530 per employee. Imagine that. Assuming a 40-hr work week, that’s $13.72 an hour – almost twice the federal minimum wage. And that’s without getting paid anything to cover the co-pays (never mind food and rent). How sustainable is that? Not very, I don’t think.

Forty percent of employers surveyed said they are likely to increase the amount their workers pay out of pocket for doctor visits. Almost as many said they are likely to raise annual deductibles and the amount workers pay for prescription drugs.

Nine percent said they plan to tighten eligibility for health benefits; 8 percent said they plan to drop coverage entirely. Forty-one percent of employers said they are “somewhat” or “very” likely to increase the amount employees pay in premiums….

If only there was, oh, I dunno, some sort of “medicare for all” thingy that could keep costs down while providing health care for everybody and easing the financial burden on employers and employees alike. Hmmm. Nope, that aint gonna happen.

But, if you’re the idealistic type who’d like to try and put pressure on your congresscritters, fell free to give it the old college try. Call your representative to find out where he/she stands on single payer and Rep. Weiner’s amendment. Find your critter here.

Is calling too much effort? Send an email asking for support for the Weiner amendment. It kinda implies that you’re a medical student, but what the hell. Just tell ’em you’re standing up for Weiner, because Weiner stands up for you. Or maybe that you’d like to stick it to the tea baggers with Weiner. Or perhaps tell ’em that, while Republican Weiners are out “hiking the Appalachian Trail,” our Weiner is fighting for Single Payer health care.

Locally, the people have spoken, and it’ll be the woman vs. the really boring Armenian guy (who looks like he’d make a great spokesman for Polygrip®) squaring off in the Syracuse mayoral race in November. Whereas Syracuse is a pretty solid Democratic stronghold, things look good for Syracuse having its first female mayor. But the boring Armenian guy won big in a pretty major upset yesterday, so I wouldn’t count him out.

Well, I see by the old clock on the wall (and there really is a clock on the wall; it’s a bird clock we got as a wedding present that chirps with a different bird song on the hour. Well, it used to, anyway. It hasn’t actually done that in quite a few years; I think it needs a battery or something) that it’s time to head out for the day. Wednesday? Well, it aint Friday, but it’ll have to do.

It’s Primary Day here in New York (and perhaps other places, too; not really up on my off-off-year election politics). Where I live, I don’t think there’s actually anything to vote for (or against). There is a primary to replace the mayor of Syracuse (who is term-limited), but I live out in the ‘burbs (yeah, I know, you thought Syracuse was the ‘burbs), and so I can’t vote in that one. It’s definitely a rainbow slate of candidates, with the Democrats choosing between a white woman, a black man, an Italian guy, and another guy who probably has no chance of winning, but is who I’d vote for ‘cuz he’s been a community activist and has as part of his platform a promise to create dog parks. The Republican field is a bit smaller, with the choice between a black guy and an Armenian (a “business man” who apparently has enough money to put a lot of commercials on the air). Despite the Armenian guy’s advertising advantage (or maybe because of it; this guy is booooooring), the other guy is the favorite.

In the long run, I’m hoping that the woman – a longtime common councilor named Stephanie Miner – wins both the primary and the election. That would give Syracuse a woman as mayor at the same time that Onondaga County has a female (unfortunately, a Republican one) County Executive.

Looks like SC cracker congresscreep Joe Wilson is a serial liar (shocking, I know). Not only did he lie when he called Obama a liar and when he insisted that whatever crappy bill it is that’s in the works for health care “reform” (which is really turning out to be insurance reform, and not very good reform at that) would give illegal immigrants public health care, but it appears he also lied about being an immigration attorney. Oh the shame.

President Obama apparently called Kanye West a jackass for, well, acting like a jackass. It was an off-the-record statement that Goebbels network propagandist Terry Moran tweeted or twittered or twatted or whatever the kids are calling it these days. Moran wrote:

“Pres. Obama just called Kanye West a “jackass” for his outburst at VMAs when Taylor Swift won. Now THAT’S presidential.”

So, is Terry trying to say that calling a jackass a jackass is unworthy of the office? Excuse me for not being very Presidential, Terry, but you’re a putz.

I reckon everybody’s heard that Patrick Swayze has passed away. A shame, but, well, when they tell you you have pancreatic cancer, your number is pretty much up. Your real choice at that point is whether to keep shoving dollar bills into the g-string of the medical-pharmaceutical industrial complex in order to prolong a miserable existence while they tease you 5-year survival statistics and vague hints of remission, or to just say “fuck it; bring me happy drugs – lots and lots of happy drugs. And pot.” Swayze chose the former, but I think I’d opt for the happy drugs. One never knows until the time comes (and hopefully it never will).

The time for going to work has come, however, so I guess I better get a move on.

Just in case you thought for a moment that America was getting over its stupidity, proof to the contrary emerges. No, I’m not taking about the million moron march on Washington the other day. And I’m not talking about Kanye West fucking up Taylor Swift’s moment of glory at the Video Awards (or whatever the hell they call it; I’m not actually familiar with them – or with West and Swift, though I recognize the names), or even the big to-do over Serena Williams saying she’d like to shove a tennis ball down a linesman’s throat (anybody ever recall Jimmy Connors or John McEnroe losing a tennis match over, shall we say, ‘less than sportsmanlike’ language on the court?). No, I’m talking about the fact that, unless you’re planning on traveling out of the country, you probably won’t be seeing the new film “Creation,” because producers are unable to find a US distributor. The reason? The movie is about Charles Darwin, and a movie involving the Theory of Evolution is too controversial here in the land of the Puritans.

…US distributors have resolutely passed on a film which will prove hugely divisive in a country where, according to a Gallup poll conducted in February, only 39 per cent of Americans believe in the theory of evolution.

Movieguide.org, an influential site which reviews films from a Christian perspective, described Darwin as the father of eugenics and denounced him as “a racist, a bigot and an 1800s naturalist whose legacy is mass murder”. His “half-baked theory” directly influenced Adolf Hitler and led to “atrocities, crimes against humanity, cloning and genetic engineering”, the site stated.

The film has sparked fierce debate on US Christian websites, with a typical comment dismissing evolution as “a silly theory with a serious lack of evidence to support it despite over a century of trying”.

Makes you proud to be an American, doesn’t it?

Yep, when I think ‘Darwin,’ I think Hitler, eugenics, and mass murder. As opposed to when I think ‘Christian.’ Then, I only think of mass murder.

How anybody could possibly refuse to distribute a movie with Jennifer Connelly in it is beyond me (even if she does appear to spend the entire movie hidden behind Victorian Era clothes).

Lighten up, Christians! Hell, when I look at Jennifer Connelly, even I entertain the possibility that there really is a God. Just not the kind you have to wind up on Sunday.

Oh, by the way, as for that poor doggie (who apparently was given the name Starr) displaced by the fires out in California and on death row? After lots of mis (and missed) communication over the weekend, it appears she’s been saved, as I was forwarded this email today:

…I called the Devore shelter this morning to make arrangement to pick Starr up. I was told that a rescue had already pulled her. I am trying to find out which rescue she went to. Thank you so much for contacting me and if it turns out that the rescue needs a home for her I will contact you with their information.

So sometimes life doesn’t suck after all.

On Press the Meat today, Gilligan Gregory hosts Assistant Majority Leader Sen. Dick Durbin, Texas wingnut John Cornyn, Howard Dean, and porn industry evangelist Newt Gingrich. Plus, a roundtable with CNBC’s Erin Burnett, author Joshua Cooper Ramo, and NBC’s Chuck Todd.

Over at Faze the Nation, it’s David Axelrod, President Olympia Snowe, Roger Simon of Politico and Syndicated Columnist Kathleen Parker.

On Fux News Sunday it’s DINO and Republican day, with Kent Conrad, Orrin Hatch, Claire McCaskill, Widdle Windsey Gwaham. Then Weaselface Wallace honors brave American patriot Joe Wilson (not the good one). Plus, a bunch of fuxheads will also be on hand.

At the Goebbels network, George Snufalufagus has HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, DINO Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, and asswipe Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty. Then the Axis of Drivel is reunited as George :jerk: Will, Cokie “the hag” Roberts, and Sam :omg: Donaldson are joined by douche nozzle David Brooks at the roundtable.

CNN’s GPS looks at Afghanistan: the bogus election, the war, and the country as a whole. Fareed Zakaria speaks with two of the Afghan presidential candidates, Mick Ware, and a panel of “experts.”

More importantly, though, it’s Week One of the NFL season all day, plus the season finale of True Blood tonight. A big day indeed.

I got an e-mail yesterday about a dog in a shelter out in California who’d been displaced by the fires out there, and was marked for execution. So, I passed the info along to my sister, who got busy and found somebody who recently lost her dog, and seems to be interested in adopting this poor pooch (interested enough to call the shelter and make sure the dog was still there – and hopefully off the kill list). She also found a back-up person in New Hampshire who says he’ll take her (the dog, not my sister) if that falls through. Many e-mails ensued, and hopefully this will all work out. You can’t save the whole world all by yourself, but it would be nice to have something to feel good about for a change. Otherwise, just waiting to watch SU get stomped on by Penn State today. At least it’ll be over with early.

We learned one very important lesson eight years ago today: Presidents have no responsibility for anything that happens during their first term in office until September 12th. That’s right, President Obama, your free ride ends today. Starting tomorrow, you’re on the hook for everything that happens. No more blaming President George Dubya Two Terms Mandate Bush. Oh, wait…my mistake. The nine-month grace period is for Republicans only. They get to say they “kept America safe for eight years,” even though they were either asleep during or complicit in (depending on which theory you prefer) the worst attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor (and for 14% of Republicans, that doesn’t count, ‘cuz they’re not sure Hawaii – which was a US Territory from 1898 until it was admitted to the Union in 1959 – is part of the United States). Sorry, my Kenyan friend, but you started getting the blame for everything the day after election day. Well, except the shit that was Bill Clinton’s fault, of course.

Otherwise, not much has really changed in eight years (and those are Bush years, which is 56 in human years). Oh, we have fewer rights, a little less privacy, torture has been codified as official US policy, the government has asserted the right to arrest and indefinitely detain citizens and non-citizens alike without benefit of warrant or trial (or even a hearing before a judge), etc. But the rich are still getting richer (once in a while one of ’em goes to prison, just to make the little people think there’s justice), the poor are still screwed, and if you’re one of the 46.3 million people who don’t have health insurance, well, make sure you wash your hands a lot. Oh, and if you actually have a job? Make sure you don’t go to work if you get sick (don’t worry about not getting paid or losing your job). Oh, and did I mention you should wash your hands a lot?

Speaking of heath care (and the reform thereof), Orrin Hatch says he doubts Olympia Snowe or Susan Collins will be on board. Duh. But that doesn’t mean the Democrats shouldn’t kiss their asses and give away anything even remotely related to actual reform first. After all, progressives can be shit on, but DINOs and faux “moderate” Republicans need to be appeased. OK, you can have Poland and France, but that’s it. OK?

BTW, am I the only one who finds it ironic (in light of the whole “providing health care to evil illegal immigrants” kerfuffle) that public health care is provided to all Mexican citizens as guaranteed via Article 4 of the Mexican Constitution?

Oh well, a short week comes to an end, and already I wonder how I can get anything accomplished over a measly two-day weekend consisting of college football on Saturday – when Syracuse, starring in the role of the Christians, heads down to Happy Valley to be thrown to the (Nittany) lions of Penn State – and NFL football on Sunday.

So much football, so little time….

I didn’t watch Obama’s speech last night, but by all accounts it was a really good speech, which is great as far as it goes, but speechifying doesn’t go far enough. Obama needs to be able to twist arms in Congress, and I don’t think he’s got it in him to actually put up a fight. Could be I’m wrong. I hope so. One thing that ought to motivate him to fight is the behavior of the Republicans – especially that consummate asshole Joe (not the good one) Wilson. These creatures have no shame, but I reckon their antics play well with the mouth breathers they represent. Can you imagine what Fux and the other traditional media sources would have done with the story of a Democrat yelling out “YOU LIE!” when Bush spoke about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? Or if they’d held up insulting or inflammatory signs? Christ, you’d been hearing about this 24/7 until the 2012 election. Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Bill O’Reilly would be whipping up murderous outrage from their mindless followers, and Karl Rove would be outing Wilson’s wife as a CIA agent or something.

So, you’d think it would be pretty clear to Obama and the non-DINO Democrats that Republicans have no place at the table for health care reform. They can sit at the kids’ table in the other room and have a food fight or something, but the grownups will have to do the big work by themselves. And it would be nice if Obama could do more than give a good speech. I hate to beat a dead horse here, but I feel compelled to repeat that the friggin’ Democrats have the House, the Senate, the Presidency, and Public Opinion on their side. I mean, as Maron might say, WTF! If they can’t get it done with all of that, how can they ever get anything done. Screw the speeches, I want action.

I have to laugh, reading some of the commentary of the speech, lauding Obama’s “comeback,” and his playing “rope a dope.” Yeah, whatever. How many of the minority of people who think there’s gonna be death panels actually watched the speech (never mind were moved enough by it to see the error of their ways)? The only thing that’d change their minds would be if Obama woke up white this morning (but he’d still be married to one of “them,” so I guess the whole damn family needs a Michael Jackson bleach job – especially that voodoo-practicing grandmother). And since when do politicians give a flyin’ frack about “public” opinion anyway? If they did, reform would have been done already (and we’d be out of both Iraq and Afghanistan).

This speech will be forgotten by the end of the week (except how brave Joe Wilson gave that colored fella hell). If Obama really wants reform, he’s gonna have to go kick some ass in Congress. How? I dunno. Maybe threaten to take Max Baucus’ daughter out on a date or something.

Granted, Republicans and DINOs have money and the traditional media on their side (or, rather, the corporate interests that control the media and have all the money have Republicans in their pocket), but, hey, nobody said it was gonna be easy.

What they really need is a big bag of weed.

A big day today, I guess, for Beatles fans, as “The Beatles Rock Band” will be officially released. I’ve never played any of those “Rock Band” type games, mostly because I only like a couple of the songs that I’ve seen on them, and I always thought maybe it would be better to put all that time and energy into actually learning to play a real instrument. This one, though, has me tempted, not just because I grew up with the Beatles and their music, but also because it would be fun to pretend to be able to play a replica of John’s Rickenbaccker 325, or to pluck out the bass line in “Rain” on Paul’s Höfner (I used to turn the treble all the way down and the bass way up and crank that song). Sadly, Rain is not in the forecast for the game. I guess I’d have to settle for playing Eric Clapton’s part in “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”

In more Beatles news, the entire Beatles catalog – freshly remastered – is being re-released today, including a 14 album (though not LP, sadly) stereo box set, a mono box set and individual CDs painstakingly digitally remastered and repackaged with lots of photos, extensive CD booklets, and new liner notes.

Speaking of the Beatles, today is the late Billy Preston’s birthday. 9/9 is also Roger Water’s birthday (he turns 66, which is 99 upside down), and Otis Redding’s as well. It’s also the anniversary of the 1971 release of John Lennon’s “Imagine” album (which coincided with his and Yoko’s appearance on the Dick Cavett Show). On that same day, the inmates took over Attica prison. Chairman Mao Tse-Tung croaked on this date back in 1976, and a fella by the name of Elive Presley made his national teevee debut on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1956.

Of course, it’s also a big day today because President Obama, fresh off of indoctrinating the youth of America with socialist dogma like “listen to your parents,” “do your homework,” “work hard and go to college,” and “watch what you write on your Facebook page,” will attempt to work his voodoo on Congress. I’d really like him to say something to the Republicans, like

And to my “friends” on the other side of the aisle. You know there are no death panels under consideration, and you should all be ashamed of yourselves for the fear and hatred you’ve been fomenting. Shame on all of you. You had your chance to be a part of much-needed health care reform, and you’ve squandered it playing the politics of fear and division at a time when this country desperately needs the courage to come together as one.”

I’d like to hear him send a message to the Blue Dog Democrats, too. But it’s only a two-word message, and probably not appropriate for TV.

Of course, September 9th only means one thing to me. It was 15 years ago today that the phone rang in the middle of the night, and my mom told me that my dad had died. To this day, the sound of a telephone ringing puts me on the verge of a panic attack (fortunately, phone don’t really ring anymore – they kind of chirp or play songs; mine is permanently on vibrate). Fifteen years. Hard to believe. In some ways, it seems like yesterday, and in others, a lifetime ago.

Oh well, back to work again after four days off. This will no doubt be a long one. All I can say is:

Firetruck!