RAEG TIEM NAO

Topical Edit: This. Read it all. All the comments, too.

Remember this rant, where I mentioned that Fox News and other right-wing morons love to use cold weather to go "What global warming?" Well, they were back at it again on Sunday with that dolt Sean Hannity pretending (I hope[?]) to deny anthropogenic climate change based on a blizzard in the northeast. I caught about ten seconds before I was able to change the channel and let me tell you that I raged SO hard. And *bonus* he included in his discussion... Lou Holtz? WTF? Why can't intentionally disseminating false information be illegal? This is not First Ammendment-protected speech. This is lying. And the scary part is that there is a significant slice of the population that believes this drivel.

If you get your news from TV (especially, but not limited to, Fox "News"), you are doing yourself a severe disservice. You are actively melting your brain. For example, maybe you have heard that the stimulus includes $8B for high speed rail connecting Los Angeles to Las Vegas? Just one problem, it's an outright lie. Go ahead, read it yourself. Want to know where we might build rail? Here are the corridors of interest. John Boehner is in a tizzy over it, but you know who gets disproportionate rail service? OHIO.

The stupid makes my head hurt.

Also, let me add that there are so many stupid people out there on other fronts, like grasping a progressive tax system. For example, if your doctor who wants to take fewer patients so that he makes less money because he doesn't understand the concept of tax brackets, get a new doctor. (Equally inexplicable is the fact that ABC News doesn't seem to understand.) And these are the morons who are running around screaming "Socialist!" because the marginal rate on the >$250k/yr bracket is increasing from 35% (which was designed to be temporary, so it's not really an "increase" at all) to 39.6%. Well, then I suppose that uber-lefty Nixon was a dyed-in-the-wool Red Commie with his >50% bracket. As John Cole wrote,

39.6% = socialism
35% = capitalist nirvana

I am in the world's lowest tax bracket, and despite no experience with higher brackets even I understand the system. Idiots. Tax brackets do not make the system complicated. If you hear someone say we need a "fair tax" (i.e. flat tax rate) to simplify the system punch them in the face. Tax brackets are the symplest math possible; the IRS provides you with tables showing how much you owe depending on your income, so you don't even have to do math. Complications in the tax code are elsewhere, not with rates. And I haven't even mentioned that the stimulus that passed included tax cuts for 95% of people.

What really frightens me is that these are the morons who decide elections. They are the ones who up to a couple of days before the election hadn't decided between McCain and Obama, who are polar opposites. Listen, if you supported McCain, and in your own mind you have a philosophy that you adhere to, that you believe, and that you can support using empirical evidence, more power to you. I happen to disagree with you, but at least you are justifying your choice. But if you don't understand how progressive taxation works, if you think that climate change isn't real, if you buy into the concept of a flat tax rate because Mike Huckabee calls it "fair," if you think the world is 5,000 years old, or if you're a dumbass like Joe the Plumber and can't understand that your small business is taxed on net and not gross, please I am begging you to never vote. And I think it would be in your best interests to never actually speak. As the saying, often attributed to Mark Twain, goes,

It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.

Christ on a cracker, the only thing that I cannot stand in this world is stupidity. Sadly, it's what humanity creates most efficiently. If you do one good deed today, please inform an idiot that they are stupid and need to learn about things before they open their pie-hole. Luckily, most idiots are fundamentally incapable of and downright allergic to learning. Unfortunately, they will not shut their yap, but you might feel a little bit better. I never fear to inform someone that they are deficient in the neural area.

Oh hey, look! Someone is angry on the internets! I've now gone cross-eyed with rage. I know, no one wants to read my complaining about people, especially if you fall into one of the categories I'm raging against. So that's enough raging for this week or month... basically as long as I can avoid repugnant thugs, like Hannity or O'Reilly or Glenn Beck.

Just for kicks

Here is an approximation of what is going on inside Ariane's belly now:


That baby kicks like nothing else. According to the book, if a baby is kicking about ten times every two hours while the mother is lying down and feeling for movement we can consider that to be normal activity. Our baby kicks - seriously - two or three times a minute when Ariane is lying down. And I am talking big kicks. I've tried to get video so you could see some movement, but I haven't gotten any yet. There's still time, though.

We're fairly confident of the following: she will be loud, she will break things. I also am under the impression that she'll be athletic, like her mother was. I'll push her to take on mankind's greatest athletic endeavor: Global Guts.


And when she wins that piece of the Agro Crag, you better believe I'm going to ride those coattails of athletic glory like Richard Williams. I'll claim it was all me, then irresponsibly blow through the millions she'll certainly earn in endorsements (we can name everyone who ever won Global Guts, right? hint: purple never won) so she won't have a chance to be self-destructive with it. Just looking out for my daughter.