Could The New Yorker please put its entire letters section at the Thanksgiving table with Leslie Jones?

 

Returning to old skool blogging with as little fanfare as possible...

The holiday mail malaise meant that I received a copy of The New Yorker, one per day, every day last week.  

And one particular Letters Section ("The Mail," December 15, 2025) has me asking, 'Were the interns in charge of choosing these?'

______

Dylan M. of Brooklyn notes that yes, it's terrible that Trump has demolished Roosevelt's East Wing...

BUT...

The "original structure was built in part by enslaved people." 

SO...

______

Karin S-R of Santa Rosa, CA writes as "a feminist, a therapist, and a mother of twin teen-age boys" and notes that yes, there may be a "so-called crisis facing men..." 

BUT...

"if feminism does not expand its concern to include the well-being of men..."

"feminism cannot depend on the erasure of male identity." [?]

"if [emphasis mine] WE don't help to articulate new, healthier visions of masculinity..." 

[Karin, that sounds like more uncompensated work AND your boys are lucky to have you for a mom.] 

______

George of San Leandro, CA, notes that "nowadays, commentators frequently introduce Trump by describing him as a 'felon' or a 'convicted criminal.'"  

BUT...

"[T]here are about twenty-four million people who have been convicted of felony offenses. Not all of their convictions were the result of fair processes."

[You just KNOW where George is going with this...]

"Words like 'felon' and 'convict' are often used, as in reference to Trump, to signal that someone has inherently low moral worth.  This can contribute to the punishing of people who have already been subject to injustices..."

______

Could The New Yorker please put its entire letters section at the Thanksgiving table with Leslie Jones?

It is the official position of this blog that Jesus Loves Manatees.

And I don't care what Edna at the Citrus County Tea Party Patriots group says:

....teabaggers are crying about the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's intent to place restrictions against boating and other things near the city of Crystal River -- and now they're trying to get all Florida Tea Partiers to ask congress to block the wildlife service, according to the St. Petersburg Times.

And why would they be trying to do this? Because protecting animals like manatees is against the Bible and the Bill of Rights, according to one Tea Party leader.

"We cannot elevate nature above people," Citrus County Tea Party Patriots leader Edna Mattos told the paper. "That's against the Bible and the Bill of Rights."

This newspaper story might be telling the story with a bit of mocking editorializing, but it's still media fail. We need a new rule, Bill Maher:

Just because someone belongs to a tea party group, does not mean they deserve to be automatically quoted in any media outlet, particularly if what they say is akin to the rantings of a street drunk standing in his own urine and shouting at a parking meter.

In more benevolent days, Edna might have been given some sort of place in a mental facility where she could imagine The Bible and Bill of Rights elevating her species above those more endangered than herself. As it is, she's in the Tea Party, so what she says is news.

P.S. Richard Porter you are not being nice to crazy people. Here's a link for ya. ;D

You know who would make a GREAT USAir Flight Attendant?

Sharron Angle.

Football Player gets kicked off of USAir flight for baggy pants due to quote, "dress code"; old white guy bare middriffed bulge-y crotched cross-dresser (yeah, that's him in the second pic) gets seated on USAir flight in spite of other customer complaints, those customers told there was "no dress code".   Whatever. Story via Field Negro.

I'm picking on Sharron Angle because I already had the first photoshop.

PS.  Okay.  Apparently, Naked Midriff Grandpa Cross-Dressers on a Motherfucking Plane is a thing.

Worst Editorial of the Week.

Is this one in Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal.

Its sidebar notes say

The left won't admit that Sarah Palin had a point about rationed care.

then the editorial is about how Sarah Palin sensationalized a very positive aspect of health care reform, end of life counseling, and that the WSJ had already called her on that, because end of life counseling is actually a good thing that private insurance overwhelming provides...

...but you know, when everyone wants health care and sees it as an entitlement there won't be enough to go around so people will die.   Which means Sarah Palin was right all along and people who believe in Death Panels are crazy like a FOX.

Wha?


PS.  Screw "adult conversations" about cutting entitlements.  The GOP has lost all credibility about deficits when they held the nation's agenda hostage for tax cuts for millionaires.

But we do really need to have an adult conversation about death.   Because the grim reaper is going to get all of us.  Even the WSJ made a joke about 100% mortality rates in Americans over the age of zero.

Universal insurance coverage is the right, sane, compassionate, and cost-effective thing to do.  It does not mean that people won't die.  It means that people have health insurance.  That's a good thing.  People with insurance are healthier and live longer.

There are plenty of people who have insurance who are afraid or too busy or whatever to seek care when they need it.  People find out they have cancer too late, for instance.  The Ad Council stays really busy with PSA's attempting to convince people to see their doctors.

Arguing that under universal health insurance plans, people will die anyway, is stupid distracting bullshit.

PSS Karoli tells me NewsCorp is looking to hire an "Online Community Manager."   Yeah. 

 

A modest proposal on "needs" testing Medicare

I'm waking up to NPR these days.

And this morning's story on Medicare cracked me up.  "Health policy analyst Jeff Goldsmith, who has studied the boomer generation" had this to say about the boomers coming on to Medicare this year:

"I think the baby boomers do not have the same type of emotional, almost galvanic skin response to Medicare politics that their parents did, because I don't think the typical baby boomer has thought for more than five minutes about the effect of Medicare on their lives, because they're not old," Goldsmith says. "And Medicare is perceived as something for old people."

The boomers are not old!  And NEVER WILL BE!  That's why they keep electing congressmen over and over again into their 90's.  As long as your Senator is, say, 20 years older than YOU, you're young!  You're young!

Infographic:  Your Congressman is Old.

So here's my modest solution.   Medicare begins a Alternative Program.  Call it MediYoung -- for younger Medicare recipients!   That'll get 'em.

And here's the deal:  It's a $250.00 copay per incident plus a thousand dollar deductible for anything beyond annual checkups and screenings -- but it covers Botoxic and Duvajerm and anti-aging hypnosis whatever up to three times a year.   So the terminally vain get a little discount on their vanity surgery and the taxpayer gets a big discount on anything else that happens to them.    And once they sign up, they can't switch out of it, ever.

But this is such bullshit.  Does that analyst know how many 50-64-and-eleven-months Americans are COUNTING THE DAYS until they FINALLY have single payer, not for profit health insurance?  Because now they have NONE?  Give me a break.

__________

Speaking of vanity, I notice the Kardashian's predatory lending debit card for Princesses has been discontinued.   Here's the deal:

First there are the upfront costs. For a six-month card customers pay $59.95, or $99.95 for a 12-month card. (The median fee for similar, non-Kardashian-festooned products is $10.) After those six or 12 months, there is the $7.95 monthly fee to keep using it. Users pay a $1.50 fee to withdraw cash at an ATM and a $1 fee to check their balance. They pay $1.50 to speak with a customer service representative. If they lose their card, they have to pay $9.95 to replace it. If they want to cancel their card, they have to pay $6.

Wow, how stupid do you have to be to look rich?

But thanks Kardashians! I always love an opportunity to pull out these babies:

The Karl Marx Mastercard:

The Che Guevara Visa:

And my personal favorite, the Emma Goldman mugshot Discover Card ("The Card with Payback tm")

Marxism, and Irony, are now officially dead.

Because when you can sell to American children, miniature PIGS that say "let's go shopping" and ride around in a made-in-China plastic limousine...

Well, there is just nothing left to say.   Except I'm expecting Glenn Beck to expose Rand Paul as a SECRET COMMUNIST any day now.

Please pass the Commie, I mean, Kentucky, Fried Chicken.

\\

PS.  The teacup piggie commercial above? Spot the difference:

Tea Party Planners go for broke!

Linda McMahon thinks the minimum wage is too high.

Arianna Huffington, Mary Matalin Together at Last on the Radio

Click image for larger, original painting and background info, worth the click, here.

As a rule, I don't take the name of my Christian wayshower in vain.

But Jesu Christi.

Not satisfied to armpit fuck Newt Gingrich, Arianna Huffington now co-stars with Mary Matalin on, um, Progressive? Radio?

THE Mary Matalin?  The Mary Matalin who lies professionally for Dick Cheney, endorsed slapping female employees in political campaigns, and whose "imprint" at Simon and Schuster is responsible for

Karl Rove's memoir
Pam Geller's "book"
"Young Guns" (yeah)
and let's not forget....



I don't deny anyone the right to make a living.  But Arianna Huffington is not making a living sharing a platform with this POS.  Arianna at some point was supposed to be a progressive, and now we see that's bullshit.  NO progressive would enable Mary Matalin to come back week after week and just make stuff up, which is what Mary Matalin does.  Lady McCheney? It takes a really big liar to get Don Imus to wonder ALOUD if you have some sort of lying disease.

I don't expect or ask anything of Matalin.  She's beyond help.

But clearly, Arianna doesn't need the money, she needs the attention and celebrity hobnobbing.  It's a disgusting stripping of the illusion that you were EVER one of us, Ms. Huffpo.

I believe the word I'm searching for is, WTF?!?

h/t Mickey Finn

Why Does the GOP think we won't NOTICE

...that they are freaking out about the deficit while pushing for MORE TAX CUTS for their rich friends?



I can't understand why they think we're that stupid...

The Original Memory Hole

Remember when all those pesky Tea Party protesters used to crash our marches with outrageous signs just to make us hippies look bad?








It worked out so well for them. [Update: Heather has video of this.]

WILLIAMS: It’s impossible — it’s impossible for there to be a racist element in the tea party, you don’t get it! The tea party is about human rights, it’s about the United States constitution. The United States constitution mankind’s foremost human rights document.

[MSNBC's Tameron] HALL: What about the signs of the president as an African with a bone in his nose? What is that? Is that about the constitution?

WILLIAMS: Those signs were brought by Crash the Tea party, the coalition of anti-tea party groups, google crashed the tea party. You will find it all there. ... Buy my book!

Madam, I'm Adam. I didn't do it, she made me eat the apple!

PS what you find when you google "tea party crashers" under google blog search is a circle jerk of right wing blogs frothing over alleged fake signs.

Honestly people you can tell the fake signs immediately because

liberals know how to spell.

I'm all for tea party crashing. I just think we should do it naked.

Theatre Candy

I know it is unnecessary for me to say this to regular readers of this blog, however:

Sharron Angle does not speak for me or, I dare say, most Americans, Christian or otherwise. To indicate that an impregnated child incest victim should "make lemonade" out of their situation is callous and hateful, and in contradiction to both the teachings of Jesus Christ and the established laws of our nation.

May her destructive, moldy fundamentalism be cleansed from the nation's discourse by sunlight. Amen.

The Real "Lame-Stream" Media

...is at USAToday, but you knew that.

This paragraph just plain pissed me off for its sheer journalistic bias:

Judith Palfrey, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, says family poverty increases many risks for children, including low birth weight, premature delivery, learning problems, asthma and other health problems. But the conservative Heritage Foundation's Robert Rector says the index offers little new information. He says the report doesn't mention that poor children's family incomes are supplemented by programs such as food stamps and housing assistance. "Most of the report is an advertising tool for more government programs and spending, which are pretty ineffective in increasing child well-being," he says.

So you have this article, written during the worst recession and unemployment since the 1930's, about how more and more children are falling into poverty and you have a quote from a leading pediatrician that this is a BAD thing.

But holy shit printing a story like that would not be BALANCED! Call up the Heritage Foundation and talk to the guy "dubbed the "intellectual godfather" of welfare reform by National Review Editor Rich Lowry" (really, and there are still some people who think I use "fuck" too much while blogging) for a quote about how these people aren't really poor and these children aren't really better off with food and housing assistance because ick those are government programs. A reminder that what Driftglass says in our podcast is true: moving to the "center" and "balance" ALWAYS means a move away from common sense truth towards right-wing ideology. Always.

Really, Liz Szabo, you should be hauled out onto the carpet for that paragraph alone. PS If Obama gets a second term I'm working on nothing but campaign finance and media reform.

Nothing. else. matters.

About that Nun....

...the one who saved a woman's life by terminating the woman's pregnancy? And the nun got...EXCOMMUNICATED!?!

She's got a friend in Jesus, and more particularly, his mom:



Really, the Mother of God is fixing to set her "sit in time out" countdown clock on Ratzinger to infinity.

Don't get me started about that homosexual Cardinal Law and the fact that he has a cushy protected job at the Vatican and they won't allow justice for all the victims of all the male priests he protected from rape charges over the years, but it takes two minutes to kick out a nun who saves a woman's life. What colossal Church-destroying criminals they are.

Shorter President's Executive Order on Abortion

It's like I said.
The Hyde Amendment is in force,
like we always said,
from the beginning,
abortion neutral,
the end.

All that grandstanding will hopefully cost Stupak his seat. And for what?



As I said in an earlier post:

Doncha just love it when pasty white guys grab a cold Bud, don their USA star headband antennae, and straddle the bouncy unicorn of righteousness so they can tell women what kind of health insurance they can't buy?

First up against the wall when the revolution comes.

I can't believe I live on the very same planet where there are women waxing their crotches in order to have Swarovski crystals glued onto that very same area in a decorative manner. The "spa treatment" people promise the crystals last an entire five days.

First of all, the good Lord did not put me on this planet to replace my panties with fake diamond glue-on. All things in moderation, people.

And also. There's a motherfutzing recession on, and that fifty dollars you're spending to rhinestone your pussy could go to feed some Haitians.

image from Anne Taintor

A story I almost missed.

It's not that Sally Quinn's "The Party" column has been removed from the print edition. Yawn.

She claims she offered the column that allegedly ended her print tenure, to show that "even the experts make mistakes." Mistakes like making the ghostly spirit of Emily Post barf in your soup course, as shown in item "C" below:



Is it good party etiquette that one of her last tree-killer columns was a cockpunch (you know where I got THAT word) to her husband because that senile fucker didn't write the wedding date of his granddaughter on his calendar when she clearly had sent a SAVE THE FUCKING DATE CARD and Sally had handed it to him specifically? Fuck!

Their son is getting married on the same day, Sally tells us, because she moved her wedding date up because, as Sally tells us ALL in her WASHINGTON POST COLUMN that she was "thrilled to learn," the bride is alluva sudden pregnant. [I got nothing against that. But life holds few graces for most District of Columbia unwed moms: not having Sally Quinn for a mother-in-law has to be one of them.] And Sally rushed around the house in her Maribou Feather Kitten Bedroom Slippers checking everybody's calendar to make sure the "revised date" ahem, wouldn't be a conflict. But Ben Fuckwad Bradlee's calendar didn't have the granddaughter's wedding written down! Really, I'm slightly disappointed in you, Sally. A really good party planner would have put that fossil's calendar a-w-a-y from him before something, you know, damaging like this happened.

And it's just so unfortunate this "spate of negative stories, both online and in print, about the 'dueling weddings.'"

Dueling weddings? Is that a reference that BOTH weddings are shotgun? Jeebus, Sally. I'd hate to see what you do when you're really sorry about something. But then again it does make your future seating arrangements so much easier knowing neither bride will ever speak to you again.

Oh come on Senator Franken, we KNOW it was you!

Happy Birthday, Sherry of After the Bridge!

So I really wanted to do something special for Sherry, because she is a very devoted reader and commenter to this blog. Since I know she appreciates my writing and um, humor, I wrote this especially for her. Please go to her blog and wish her a very happy day!

I wanted to make a blog cake for Sherry. I knew trying to slice a cake on the internet would get really messy, and would interrupt my morning Scotch, so I went with cupcakes, and of course they had to be Hello Kitty cupcakes, cuz they're so fucking cute.

I searched on Google for Hello Kitty cupcake ideas and holy shit I could have taken the whole morning just to browse the endless stream of freakish Asian cute sugar overload. 210,000 hits in .24 seconds? Fuck me. And even if you're making these for a three year old, get over it: every one of them looked like shit. We have lots of Hello Kitty items cluttering up my fucking house, so I cut out a Hello Kitty (head only, DECAPITATION, PERFECT!) from my Hello, Kitty! social events calendar, fuck you very much. I tried to find one that was the size of a muffin-size cake top, so I could just paste it on a vending machine muffin, but I failed, so I dug out the Hello Kitty Shrinky Dinks kit and baked one in my Hello Kitty toaster oven, too small to stick my head in, but whatever.

One website suggested I purchase white fondant (Sure.), roll this out and with a sharp knife cut 39 (forever, Sherry!) Hello Kitty heads out. They also suggested I use mini M&M's (split in half to get the oblong shape, beyotch) for the eyes and nose. I am also supposed to dye some of the fondant pink and use a flower shape cutter to put by her ear. For the centre of the flower, I'm supposed to have 39 yellow mini M&Ms available, fucking A!

After assembling these, I am to wake up and realize I had spent two hours with mother fucking FONDANT. What the hell was I thinking? So then I made the cupcakes (just basic chocolate cake mix, because hey, why go over the top at this point?) and iced them with canned icing, dyed pink from the blood streaming from my eyes. I put my imaginary fondant Hello Kitty heads on top of the cupcakes, and finally gave up and just used Sharpie pen for the whiskers. Fuck it.

They looked like shit and because of the Sharpie Pen, school paste, and blood they were completely inedible. I had to set fire to them, but that made them look like a kind of cool art installation, you know, Hello Kitty Cupcakes of Death. Perfect!

Happy Birthday Sherry and much love!

Where our healthcare dollars go.

I had to read the letter I received from my pediatrician's medical practice several times over:

Dear Valued Patient:

SIU Physicians & Surgeons has exciting news to share with you.

What...free flu shots for everybody? A new parking garage? An upgrade to the waiting room TV cable lineup? Anything, anything, that might actually improve my personal experience with this medical practice?

Effective on October 1, 2009 we changed our name to SIU HealthCare....

... Along with our new name of SIU HealthCare, you will also see the phrase, "Exceptional Medicine. Partners in Care." We believe this change will make it easier for you to identify and recognize who we are and to know what to expect when you visit one of our medical clinics.

and their website press release notes:

Changing to the new logo on items has begun as current supplies such as stationery items are used up*** – the conversion is expected to be completed by June 2010.

*** but for the letter announcing the change they used new name letterhead.

I'm actually considering wasting the toner and paper to respond in kind:

Dear Dr. Bradley, MD, CEO, SIU HealthCare:

I am writing in response to the recent letter regarding a change in name for SIU HealthCare.

You indicate in your letter that this change in name will "make it easier" for me "to identify and recognize who we are."

Oh Doctor Bradley. Don't get me started.

I immediately identified and recognized lots of things from your letter. Here's three:

• You hired a consultant. High five figure contract if it postdates the current recession, but given that you signed off on this letter, it's possible you were stupid and vain enough to be convinced that low-six was okay with your budget.

• You place a value on branding in health care. Oh, I'm sorry, "HealthCare." That phraseology alone means your consultant is back via the revolving door of Dante's Sixth Circle of Hell, and she'll (oh yeah, she'll...I can see the pencil skirt from here and so can you, John) be heading back from whence she came if Douglas Adams's B Ark for society-draining occupations doesn't get her first. Perhaps she has a choice: eternity burning on a fiery rack or several lifetimes discussing "Total Quality Improvement" with a bunch of telephone sanitizer quality supervisors. I know I'd have a hard time deciding if I was on her death panel, you betcha.

• According to your letter, your "new identity is intended to capture the full array of health care services that we provide" (Okay, telephone sanitizers. Definitely the telephone sanitizers). John honey, tell the truth: isn't this really a last-ditch effort to snatch 'low-risk pregnancy patients with employer-provided Blue Cross' (HealthCare Consumer "A" on your consultant's PowerPoint handout) before the revolution comes?
  

I would bet one month of Medicaid coverage (which at least several of your doctors no longer take) that your consultant ALREADY has a PowerPoint training session on "managing" that revolution when it comes. Let her know in your next teleconferencing meeting how much I admire her devotion to her own "HealthCare" and job security, and, um... good luck with your new logo.

Sincerely yours,

Frances Langum