Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Chronicles of teh Crazy

The fine Americans in our readership will be pleased to know that the GOP-controlled House of Representatives has taken a break this week from casting pointless votes to overturn Obamacare. Apparently 37 of those were enough. For now.

I NEVER TOSSED OFF!!!
Fortunately, the House has moved on to more important things. Like jobs, growth, national security, civil liberties, and taking another run at making certain types of abortion illegal. In this case virtually all abortions post 20 weeks of fertilization.

That's illogical, you say. There's no way that'll pass the Senate, and even if it does, there's no way President Obama would sign that legislation into law. Silly you, with your common sense and your cute outside-the-Beltway (metaphorically, given the geographic breakdown of our audience) simple little life. This is the United States House of Representatives we're talking about. Very Very Important People with a clear understanding of our nation's most vital priorities.

As we've said before, we're not here to debate a woman's right to choose. Not really this blog's oeuvre. But if we were going to do so, we'd be hard-pressed to find an adequate response to Rep. Michael Burgess' (R-TX) scientifically-reasoned position. According to Burgess, abortion after 15 weeks should be illegal...because fetuses like to jerk off.

“Watch a sonogram of a 15-week baby, and they have movements that are purposeful,” he says. “They stroke their face. If they’re a male baby, they may have their hand between their legs. If they feel pleasure, why is it so hard to believe that they could feel pain?”

Burgess, it should be noted, is an OB/GYN, and should probably be aware of the fact that major medical bodies in most of the developed world have refuted the notion that fetuses feel much of anything before the third trimester. I think Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) puts it better than I could when she says, “Well, I think all the members are cognizant of the fact that this is not a Congress that cares much about science."

I get honest political disagreement. I think it's critical to the function of a democratic society. But I agree with The Washington Post's Ezra Klein, who wrote yesterday, "The GOP’s' problem isn’t that it insults the intelligence of the voters. It’s that it insults its own intelligence."

I know a lot of intelligent Republicans. (Well, I know one. Two, maybe.) I wish their voices were the ones that got heard in Washington.

Instead, we get wankery about babywankery. Poor hairy-palmed little fellas. And that's just the Congressmen.

61 comments:

Marls said...

This is a man who, in 2002, ran to the right of Dick Armey's son. He is a member of the TWA Tea Party caucus. What do you expect?

I'd be interested to hear what the inside the beltway'ers think, but it really feels like the years of gerrymandering and other trickery have come home to roost. We have a House of Representatives that is composed only of the political fringe from both sides of the aisle. If you have any interest in political discourse, good luck getting out of your party's primary. I hang up and listen to your response...

Mark said...

That game was unreal last night. Start to to finish, one of the best games I've ever seen. The lesson from the Spurs loss: make your free throws kids.

rob said...

eh, i thought the game was a bit on the flat side. nice finish by altidore, though. got the result we needed.

Danimal said...

no one is better than ezra. wait, what?

rob said...

and marls, i think there's a lot of truth in your point. i think most americans recognize the value of compromise in public policy, and i think the current system has evolved to punish it. or at least make it difficult. i wouldn't want to be john boehner.

Mark said...

I have no interest in discussing anything other than last night's game. It even gave me weird dreams last night.

zman said...

rob said boner.

zman said...

The offensive rebound after bron's missed three followed by bron's made three was a back breaker. Lesson here is don't sit Tim Duncan in what could be the final 20 seconds of his career.

rob said...

speaking of boners, how'd the officials miss the handball on honduras in the box? and how'd dempsey not score on that free header?

i said boner, box, and head(er).

Mark said...

Both of Bosh's offensive rebounds were huge. Especially the second that led to Ray Allen's clutch, game tying, season saving 3.

Other things that stood out to me: Popovich keeping both Duncan and Parker off the floor for extended time to start the 4th. I understand resting Duncan there but not both he and Parker and especially not for as long as he sat Parker. Also, Popovich's refusal to sit Ginobili, who was awful last night. Awful.

T.J. said...

Shoeless Mike Miller draining a three was fun

T.J. said...

Also, Heat "fans" are the fucking worst

Mark said...

Check out @VictorOquendo from last night for some funny descriptions of the 'fans' who left early and then couldn't get back in.

Danimal said...

miami'ans are certainly not better than ezra.
i watched 0.0 seconds of the game last night and was asleep by 9. so what else happened?

T.J. said...

That is a fun read. Dumb "fans".

rob said...

these heat fan stories are awesome. what a bunch of front-running fucktards.

i once stayed at w&m hall while uva built a 23-point second-half lead on the tribe. bunch of my friends left. tribe came back to send it to overtime. tribe lost. i won.

Danimal said...

i love me some "fucktards"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x7fzPsfgPQ

Mark said...

I attended the 31-31 UF-FSU in 1994 game where FSU came back from being down 31-3 at the start of the 4th quarter. I was not yet a UF fan. I was sitting in the FSU student section with my older sister. It was pretty awesome.

TR said...

Not sure I agree with a lot written in this post.

rob said...

that's cool. reasonable disagreement is a good thing. unless you're being unreasonable, you dick.

Danimal said...

fight!

rob said...

i'm too pretty to fight.

Danimal said...

RIP Vince Flynn and his bad-ass character creation, Mitch Rapp. Going to miss them.

That's two fairly prominent writers dead in the last 24 hours, Michael Hastings being the other. 47 and 33 yrs of age.

Mark said...

Hastings' death really bummed me out. So young with so much more ahead if him in his career.

Mark said...

Care to elaborate, TR?

rob said...

i think he disagrees with the analysis of the heat game.

Danimal said...

maybe he remembers tuggin a wee bit at 19 weeks

Clarence said...

Here's what confuses me about (certain) right-wing pro-lifers. Empirical evidence be damned, but in many cases they are fighting tooth and nail to ensure babies are born into poverty, born into the lower end of the socioeconomic scale and will become the very people they detest, those that need Federal assistance to have a fighting shot at making a life. I would simply figure that the callousness certain folks display towards entire populations of actual living, breathing humans could easily include their unborn progeny. We have a huge overpopulation problem on this planet. The last thing, ecologically and economically, we need, are more humans born into probable-fail situations to parents that would preclude their existence if they could. This is an insensitive viewpoint that I have, I know. I'm just surprised some of the more conservative people in this county don't agree with me.

Then again, I need to recognize the power of Christ that compels people.

Clarence said...

County, country, whichever. If that ain't county, I'll kiss your ass.

Clarence said...

Also, it should be noted that I am WAY more bothered by the typo in the post title than any of this.

rob said...

and i'm bothered that i can't find the typo

rob said...

crisis averted. there is no typo.

rob said...

at least no unintentional one.

zman said...

Teh!

Clarence = Freakonomics

rob said...

'teh' is no typo. that's internet comedy, right there, z.

i think i see where tr disagrees with the post.

rob said...

i think we're all surprised to learn that paula deen's not opposed to casual n-word use and the occasional racist jokery.

Clarence said...

Shattering stereotypes left and right today.

I think Rob's intentional "teh" is the funniest joke of the GTB year or the most moronic, unfunny attempt at comedy of the GTB year, depending on which side you're on.

Danimal said...

Slim Whitman. Dead. But he was 90.

Abortion - tough topic. How about we have abortion a)be decided by the states and b) with women as the deciding voters, or kind of deciding - if you have a vagina (on your body), your vote counts as 1; if you have a penis (again, on your body as opposed to having one in a mason jar), your vote counts for something less than that, say 75/80%, and then just let the chips (or dead fetuses? fetus' fetii?) fall where they may.

i'll give clarence the benefit of the doubt on who is getting the abortions. howevaaah, i knew a couple of young girls back in h.s. that had someone's demon seed planted in their loins. these were not poor impoverished young girls, on the contrary. i knew one in particular that had the big A (and no, neither had the fortune of it being a seed of the danimal), and another that carried the baby to term and gave it up for adoption. the latter was reunited with her 20'ish year old daughter about 2 years ago. they've become very close. can't speak for the other one today, but in the years after it had an obvious effect on her. i know b/c i dated her for a few years. (so, she DID have the LATER fortune of, well, you know ;-)

i appreciate your time and love the show!



Danimal said...

am starting to understand via radio outlets, intraweb, gtb, that i should have either watched the game or dvr'd it.

Mark said...

Don't worry, Dan. You didn't miss much. You'll get a chance to see it again on ESPN Classic.

Geoff said...

Abortions bans are not the way forward for the GOP. Sadly, there is significant pent up demand in the House GOP conference for votes on social issues. So, they're letting some pressure out of the balloon.

rob said...

trick question, clarence. it's both.

rob said...

geoff, does your comment validate marls' position re: the composition of the house? i.e., votes on social issues are required because of polarization that's come from more politically homogeneous districts?

Danimal said...

a legal question...if being referred to an attny that is "Of Counsel" for a reputable firm versus a Partner or Associate of same firm, what if any preconceived notions may there be on the "Of Counsel" guy? are there any negative connotations with that?

Geoff said...

Yeah, there's a lot too that. Less than 30 percent of House members come from a "competitive" district, which means the only concern for the majority of members is getting a more conservative/liberal primary challenger. That leads to saying "I don't want to leave any room to my political right/left."

zman said...

Of Counsel is usually an old retired partner, or someone who is good enough to keep around but not quite good enough to make partner. Depends on the firm. I wouldn't look down on someone who is Of Counsel.

Abortion was reserved to the states at one point but it was impracticable.

zman said...

Ayo, vote for Roy Cho, nahmsayin!

http://www.njherald.com/story/22626294/2013/06/18/wu-tang-clans-ghostface-killah-tweets-support-for-garrett-opponent

T.J. said...

Cho quickly responded with a thank-you tweet: "@GhostfaceKillah @WuTangClan Thanks so much! Always been a HUGE fan, will work hard 2 make u proud! Really appreciate the support! #Wutang"

Marls said...

The "Of Counsel" title also depends on the firm. At a smaller firm, it could mean somebody who is not associated full time with that firm. Often small firms will bring in "of counsel" attorneys to help on specific types of matters that the firm does not specialize in.

At larger firms, I would agree with Z-man, adding only that it is often a quality senior lawyer that does not have good enough business relationships to personally drive the revenue necessary to become a partner.

Mark said...

People are learning shit at G:TB today. This feels strange.

Danimal said...

10-4...thanks guys.

rob said...

james gandolfini is dead. damn.

Danimal said...

You beat me to it.

rob said...

anyone got an opinion on the recent spate of articles suggesting alex len could go first in the draft?

T.J. said...

Alex LOLen

Mark said...

It's a potential pick all the way. Len has all the tools you'd want in a big man, tests as a good athlete and is young. He's also helped by the many red flags for Nerlens Noel. Not only is he rail thin (206 lbs) and coming off an ACL tear but he apparently has some really shady guys in his inner circle. Teams are scared of him. Cleveland's biggest need is at center so they're looking hard at Len.

rob said...

kinda think i'd rather have bennett or porter, but you can see len as a solid 10-year pro.

Mark said...

Problem with Bennett is they already have Tristan Thompson. I think Bennett will be a better pro but they don't care about my opinion. They should've drafted Jonas Valincuinas instead of Thompson two years ago.

I love Porter and think he'd fit well there and he was part of a workout in Cleveland with McLemore, Jamaal Franklin and Oladipo today. If he blew them away maybe they look at him at 1.

zman said...

Mark said blew.

Mark said...

This hockey game is fairly entertaining. From what I can tell. I'm not much in hockeying.

Mark said...

If Twitter is to be believed, and I realize what I'm saying there, the whole Aaron Hernandez involved in some way in a murder thing just got real.