There was once a web comic called "goats". It was an existential trip through the lives of two slacker roommates, their pet goat who was also a Norse god, a rooster that Hunter S. Thompson would have told to slow down, and a surrealistic trip through time, space, and forcing god to turn himself into a ham sandwich, which one of the characters ate. Strange and funny stuff. The reason I bring this up is that this comic strip introduced one of my favorite tropes of all time, selling a political slogan on bumper stickers and T-shirts. It read, "Republicans for Voldemort".
Who'dathunk that reality would eclipse that?
There is a bill working its way through the Republicant controlled House of Representatives that is just plain mean. It would deny food stamps and government assistance for food to the family of any person on strike. So, sorry you're broke, and sorry you're trying to better the lives of your family, but fuck you and your family. Go dumpster diving.
Look, I understand the argument. I honestly do. If you want to feed your family, return to work. I get that. But this is just plain mean. Setting aside the idea that this is meant to break strikes, taking food away from families on government assistance to make a political point is just evil. It's mean. It's bullying.
And you might want to consider that no one winds up on government assistance magically. If someone on food stamps goes on strike it's because the job they have is so shitty that they need food stamps. It's not the other way around and if you think so then you're a deluded fool.
Consider also this; a surgeon thinks he has found a way to improve the way dialysis is done. If he's right, he could save the government $15K per year per patient who is on Medicaid. so he's asked for a very small grant, $250K - an amount of money that means nothing to our government, to prove his idea. It's worth checking - as the surgeon in question himself said, "This is money…very well spent. If our valve doesn’t work, the government will have lost $250,000. If it does work, they will have saved a gazillion dollars.” Based on roughly 300,000 kidney patients on dialysis on Medicaid, that's a savings of $4.5 Billion every year. That 300,000 number isn't made up - it's the bare minimum required to receive the grant. In reality the number is much higher.
$4.5 Billion. Let's make an equivalence here. Would you spend $2.50 for a chance to turn that into $45,000? I'd do it in a heartbeat - even if I stood a chance of losing the $2.50 and getting nothing in return. I bet you would too. But Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina, the same state this surgeon works in and would run his clinical trials in, is against it - because the funds come from the Health Care Act Obama managed to get through last year.
That's just mean.
Cheap shots:
Repealing "Obamacare" is a death panel.
John Stossel, not the brightest bulb in the 'verse, sets a new standard for low.
No wonder Detroit is a ghost town.
By his own logic, he doesn't have first amendment rights either.
Hey! Another chance to repeat the Scrubs joke!
Oh, can someone please tell me what's up with Huffington Post's fascination with the scene in Los Angeles? I don't live in Los Angeles and don't care.
And because I love you, Cream
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