The Watering Hole, Wednesday, September 18, 2013: Ho–Hum–

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Well, another mass shooting is in the news. Ho–hum—

Time to go out and buy more guns, because, you know, if 3,000 members of the Naval armed forces cannot stop one guy before he kills a dozen people, you have to buy more guns to protect yourself and your family, because, you know, Obama’s gonna take your guns away.

Except he isn’t.

"Walker" Mole, The Zoo's underground reporter.

“Walker” Mole, The Zoo’s underground reporter.

According to sources deep within the Obama Administration, the President is considering an entirely different tact. Instead of calling for registration of gun owners, the President will be asking for all citizens who do not presently own a gun to register their non-ownership status with the Federal Government.

“Non-ownership of guns has never presented a 2nd Amendment problem” a source revealed, on condition of anonymity. “The President’s idea is beautiful in its simplicity. All non-gun owners will register their non-gun ownership with the federal government. Then, if we get a call about gun violence, they won’t have to worry about a SWAT Team taking them out by mistake. Anyone who doesn’t register as a non-gun owner will be presumed to be armed and dangerous, and will be treated accordingly.”

Early reports from the NRA seem to indicate the Association is in an absolute quandry over how to respond to the inherent double-negative in the President’s proposed program. Although instinctively the NRA opposes everything Obama proposes, no one clear voice of opposition to a non-gun-owner registration has emerged, except for that of Sarah Palin, “I think that those Americans who don’t want to own a gun to protect their freedoms should be free to not own a gun free from governmental interference and regulation and every true American who owns a gun should be free to own a gun without having to not register as a non-gun-owner in order to protect the basic liberty that is, to not delcare what someone does’t have.”

OPEN THREAD.
HO-HUM…..

93 thoughts on “The Watering Hole, Wednesday, September 18, 2013: Ho–Hum–”

  1. In the state where I live, that would make for about a couple dozen people.
    Most of them visually impaired or deaf and over eighty in assisted living.

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  2. I’m damn sick and tired of seeing the faces of these mass murders plastered all over the paper and internet. Their faces are saturated in the media as if there’s an all-points-bulletin out for them and the public needs to identify them. Fuck ’em. Maybe this is part of the murder’s delusion where they’re immortalized in the public for their final, heinous deed. Stop giving them a ‘eugoogooly.’

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  3. TPM has changed their commenting system again. They’ve ditched Disqus and gone to their own commenting system. So far I’ve been unable to “sign in” and they have no “sign-up” option except for their premium Prime service!

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  4. Is Obama (and sanctions) getting through to Rouhani?

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  6. The very dangerous world view of XianFndieFkwt Scott Lively :
    his beliefs about gay people: “They’re dangerous predators, even killers. And they caught this gay “disorder” through “an evil game of tag,” a chain of abuse in which gays recruit kids into sodomy just as they were once recruited. In this way homosexuality spreads like “a social cancer,” he claims, until nothing remains of the Christian world.”

    If Jesus were real, he’d resurrect again just so he could knock the living snot out of this asshole.

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    • I’ve said it before and I’ll say to again (and I’ll keep on saying it until they get the hint): These Christian anti-homosexual people think about gay sex way more than even gay people do. They really do. Of course, they would deny it because in their minds, gay people think about nothing but gay sex. But the truth is that the anti-gay people think about it way more, to the point of obsession,

      The next time a Christian relative expresses a thought about it, you should ask them, “How much thought have you given this?” Then ask them “Why?”

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      • If only the Christers would be so revolted by sex, then in a hundred or two hundred years there’d be no more of them. “God” at work.

        A few decades ago, there was a ‘settlement’ in AZ on the banks of the Gila River, somewhere below Gila Bend . . . can’t recall what it was called. Anyway, it was a hyperchrister sect of some sort that believed all sex was EVIL and the work of THE DEBBIL! So, there wasn’t no sex there.

        Can’t remember when it was exactly, but thanks to their prohibition of procreation, the place is now basically vacant, afaik. I suppose there might be one or two oldies still in residence, but . . . well, you know.

        Personally, I’m hoping and praying (Moi?? Yess!!) that each and all such idiots everywhere on the globe STOP screwing, etc. NO MORE of that sinful shit! Think of how much they can ultimately SAVE in medical, food, housing, transportation costs, not to mention education! No more flushing megabucks down the crapper simply to enable more anti-christers!! Etc.

        If anyone knows any Republicans of reproductive age . . . well, please pass this all on to them. They, above all others, should KNOW that if only they stop screwing, the world will be saved!

        **special note: If they need advice on how-to, they can contact Diaper Dave Vitter, (R) Senator from LA-la-land.

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  8. “They’re dangerous predators, even killers. And they caught this Christian “disorder” through “an evil game of tag,” a chain of abuse in which Christians recruit kids into Christianity just as they were once recruited. In this way Christianity spreads like “a social cancer,” he claims, until nothing remains of the Secular world.”

    I fixed it to more closely reflect the real world.

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  9. The House will soon vote on a continuing resolution that simultaneously funds the federal government and defunds Obamacare. We’re headed for a government shutdown. Count on it.

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    • Oh, yeah, we are. And the Republicans are going to use the extremely twisted logic that because Obama refused to do everything they wanted, which included defunding Obamacare in its entirety, that the shut down is entirely Obama’s fault.

      And sadly enough, the media will play this up like a he said-they said controversy and not point out how the Republicans are being lying fucks.

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  10. QOTD:

    “I don’t know why he did what he did, and I’ll never be able to ask him why. Aaron is now in a place where he can no longer do harm to anyone, and for that I am glad.” — Aaron Alexis’ mother speaks about her son.

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  14. speaking of Rick Perry’s handywork in the great state of Texas:

    Texas has highest uninsured rate, high poverty
    September 17, 2013

    AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas continues to have the highest rate in the country of people without health insurance and ranks among the highest in poverty.

    The U.S. Census released data Tuesday that provides a snapshot of how Americans were doing economically in 2012.

    Almost 25 percent of Texans did not have health insurance, compared to the national average of 15.4 percent. The rate was much higher among working-age adults, with 32 percent lacking health coverage.

    Texas ranked eighth in the nation in poverty, with 17.2 percent of the population living in poverty. For a family of three, that’s less than $18,500 a year.

    The data shows Texas made no progress in reducing the number of uninsured or the number or people living in poverty, which includes a third of Texas children.

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  15. In Texas, for example, 55% of working-age adults who make less than twice the federal poverty level lack health insurance, the highest rate in the nation. Texas Gov. Rick Perry is a leading critic of the Affordable Care Act.

    The uninsured rate for low-income adults also tops 40% in Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Virginia and Wyoming. These states have refused to expand their Medicaid programs to cover more poor residents under the healthcare law.

    By contrast, seven of the eight states where the uninsured rate for low-income adults is 30% or lower are implementing the new health law with expanded Medicaid programs.

    These states include Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Vermont. Of them, only Maine, which has a Republican governor, is not opening its Medicaid program to all of its poorest citizens.

    In Massachusetts, which already guarantees its residents health coverage under a 2006 state reform law, just 12% of low-income adults lack health coverage, the report notes.

    http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-health-states-20130918,0,1895924.story

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  17. Well they finally proposed a plan.

    Not surprisingly, it’s stupid.

    House conservatives submit bill to replace ‘ObamaCare,’ amid ‘defund’ fight | Fox News

    A group of House conservatives introduced legislation Wednesday that members say will replace ObamaCare and its “unworkable” taxes and mandates with a plan that expands tax breaks for Americans who buy their own insurance. 

    Under the proposal endorsed by the 175-member Republican Study Committee, Americans who purchase coverage through state-run exchanges can claim a $7,500 deduction against their income and payroll taxes, regardless of the cost of the insurance. Families could deduct $20,000.

    The plan — which appears to be congressional Republicans’ first comprehensive alternative to President Obama’s health care overhaul  — also increases government funding for high-risk pools. The plan serves as a rebuttal to Obama’s claims that Republicans just want to eliminate the health law and are no longer interested in replacing it. And it comes as House Republicans, on a different track, prepare to vote on a budget bill that would also de-fund the existing health care law. Democrats have vowed to oppose that bill, warning the strategy risks a government shutdown, with funding set to expire by Oct. 1. 

    […]

    Individuals with pre-existing conditions who already have coverage would generally be permitted to shift existing insurance without fear of losing it.

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  18. An oil storage tank on a well pad lies toppled by flood waters in Weld County — environmental activists have raised concerns about leaks of gas, oil and hazardous materials from compromised oil and gas industry infrastructure.Rick Wilking/Reuters
    As Colorado reels from a prolonged flooding disaster that has killed at least eight people and left hundreds unaccounted for, environmental groups warn of potential contamination by ruptured oil and gas industry infrastructure.

    In Weld County, an area northwest of Denver and Boulder which has seen some of the worst of the rains, activists point to photos of destroyed wells, tanks and pipelines posted on social media sites. They claim years of “fracking” – the process of drilling for shale gas through hydraulic fracturing – has made the area vulnerable to contamination in the event of flooding.

    “Weld County, where the South Platte River has been flooding uncontrollably, has almost 20,000 active oil and gas wells,” Gary Wockner, Colorado program director for Clean Water Action, told Al Jazeera.

    “It’s the most heavily drilled county in the U.S., and it’s seeing some of the worst flooding,” he said, adding. “Oil and gas and chemicals associated with drilling are going to be spread across a wide swath of landscape.”

    http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/9/15/report-ruptured-pipelinegasleaksoilspillsincoloradofloods.html

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    • Weld County is one of those that wants to secede from Colorado and form a new state. Cuz the commies in Colorado has passed some gun shit laws that sez we gotta use smaller magazines in our assault rifles AND we gotta prove we not be nuts afore we can buy a damn gun! Commies! This here’s Amurka an we kin buy any gun we need to kill them bastards!

      Etc.

      Note to Weld County: don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out. And quit your freakin’ whining!

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  20. HOLY CRAP. Michael Mechanic calls Eric Schlosser’s new book on nuclear weapons accidents “the most unsettling work of nonfiction I’ve ever read”:

    “Here’s the truth: Just days after JFK was sworn in as president, one of the most terrifying weapons in our arsenal was a hair’s breadth from detonating on American soil. It would have pulverized a portion of North Carolina and, given strong northerly winds, could have blanketed East Coast cities (including New York, Baltimore, and Washington, DC) in lethal fallout. The only thing standing between us and an explosion so catastrophic that it would have radically altered the course of history was a simple electronic toggle switch in the cockpit, a part that probably cost a couple of bucks to manufacture and easily could have been undermined by a short circuit—hardly a far-fetched scenario in an electronics-laden airplane that’s breaking apart.”

    http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/08/eric-schlosser-command-control-excerpt-nuclear-weapons?page=1

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  23. Thief leaves spare change, takes elephant dung from car

    A thief rifling through a(n) SUV parked on the lawn of a Fremont home ignored a checkbook, spare change, and an expensive pillow and went for the only sensible thing to steal: elephant dung.

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    • That is so wrong…understandable how disheartening it is for you farmers.

      …rural America only has 16 percent of the population, it gives 40 percent of the personnel to the military.

      It’s not about food, healing the land, stewarding precious soil and resources; it’s all about making sure we keep a steady stream of youngsters going into the military.

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    • What kind of hoops do you have to jump through to get a login there now?

      Who knows if it would even work for me, I’ve had to quit opening Crooks and Liars pages because it makes my computer completely freeze up. I’ve left it overnight, get up the next morning and it was still locked.

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      • It was easy enough. Just provide an email address, user name, and password. Then you’ll get an email with a link to click on.

        Their system must be overwhelmed, since I can’t comment, but it shows that I’m signed in.

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        • There is a message that there are some difficulties being worked out.
          I also found it very easy to sign up — and it’s free. I don’t want to pay any subscription.

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          • It will have to be free.
            I can’t pay for any access online. I won’t enter any financial ID information on my computer at all. I may start selling some things on E-Bay, so I’ll have to do PayPal or something eventually, but to start with, my sales will just go into my ex’s account, since we’re going to start small, and just move some excess used parts I don’t need. My money will just go toward my house payment with her.

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  29. From the un-friggin-believable file:
    According to National Review, Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA) complained in a closed-door GOP meeting that many congressional aides “may be 33 years old now and not making a lot of money. But in a few years they can just go to K Street and make 500,000 a year. Meanwhile I’m stuck here making $172,000 a year.”

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