Half Human, Half What?

Apparently, public schools don't just create godless commiesocialfacists, they create half humans.

That is why we are raising half-humans, because “humanism” is only the distorted, mangled remains of what is left after all the Good is taken away. In order to understand ourselves, we must understand our Creator, and we must look at our world through His lense, not our own, subjective, cock-eyed understanding. A teacher or professor who cannot even reference the name of God is no more capable of passing on usable wisdom to his students than a fish in a fishbowl is able to explain to his fellows how to breathe in air.

Half human, half what? Vulcan? That would be cool! Wouldn't the distorted, mangled remains of what is left after all the Good is taken away be evil? Yeah, take away what is good, and at the least you have notgood. Also, apparently one cannot teach mathematics, physics, chemistry, or gym without referencing god. Seriously, you cannot teach that 1 + 1 = 2 without some mention of god somewhere, right? No, wait . . . um . . . apparently, you can, because I just did it.

Admittedly, one cannot teach the history of the human race, literature, art, music, et al. without mentioning religion*- which is why no one tries to. I went to public school. We discussed the religion of the Pilgrims, for example. We discussed the history of the Anglican Church and Catholicism. We discussed various religions as they impacted whatever else we were studying so as to gain understanding of the subject at hand.

What the blog writer means to say is that one cannot pass knowledge to another person without proselytizing one certain brand of Christianity, and that failing to do so renders children less than human. I, and likely you, are less human than she is.

I feel like I've heard that sentiment somewhere before . . .

*It would be impossible to understand Renaissance art without knowing the basics of Christianity, for example. And too much history has been religiously motivated to be able to gain any real understanding without also understanding at least the most basic positions and doctrines of those religions.

I'm Getting Mine- Go Suck It

jenkins, health care, elizabeth smith, public, option, republican,

From Political Animal, Elizabeth Smith goes to (a) Town Hall:

In this clip, taken at a July town hall meeting, Jenkins is confronted by a constituent named Elizabeth Smith -- a full-time waitress with two young kids. Smith's employer doesn't provide insurance, and she can't afford private coverage. Smith's not looking for a handout; she's looking for an affordable choice.

"I want an option that I can pay for," Smith told her representative. "I work. I pay my bills. I'm not a burden on the state. I pay my taxes. So why can't I get an affordable option? Why are you against that?"

Jenkins responds, literally chuckling at the question, "A government-run program is going to subsidize not only yours but everybody in this room. So I'm not sure what we're talking about here."

Jenkins went on to tell Smith that "people should be given the opportunity to take care of themselves with a refund, or an advanceable [sic] tax credit, to go be a grown-up and go buy the insurance."

(1) "Be a grown up"?! She's a responsible adult working full-time to support herself and her two children, and she's not a grown up? Oh, silly me, in the Republican world, you're only a grown up if you're rich. Bear in mind, Jenkins has government funded insurance. That's right, bitch in the background who says "It's not our job to pay for your healthcare"- we're paying for Jenkins' health care. Apparently, Jenkins is not a grown up.

(2) Fuck you, Representative Jenkins. A woman and children without health insurance is not funny. Fuuuuuuuck you. Seriously. Go fuck yourself. With a chainsaw. Sideways.

It's Not Her Faith, It's Child Abuse

amanda voydatch, home schooling, public, schools, bible, religion, hell,
A lot, and I do mean a lot, has been made of the case of Amanda Voydatch, a 10-year-old homeschooler ordered by the Court in New Hampshire to attend public school this year. The general Christian consensus can be summed up by the mother's lawyer, John Simmons.

Although there is no dispute that Amanda is excelling academically and is generally interactive with her peers, her religious beliefs were seen as being held a bit too sincerely, Alliance Defense Fund allied attorney John Anthony Simmons explained to The Christian Post.

"What this has become is an assault on the child’s faith," Simmons said.

Except that it's not. What this case revolves around is an assault on the child herself.

The court order* stated: "According to the guardian ad litem's further report and testimony, the counselor found Amanda to lack some youthful characteristics. She appeard to reflect her mother's rigidity on questions of faith." The guardian noted that during a counseling session, Amanda tried to witness to the counselor and appeared "visibly upset" when the counselor purposefully did not pay attention.

The guardian also noted that Amanda's relationship with her father suffered because she did not think he loved her as much as he said he did due to the fact that he refused to "adopt her religious beliefs."

That's typical divorced parent child abuse bullshit and it has nothing to do with religion. "Daddy doesn't love you as much as I do." "If mommy really loved you, she'd blahblahblah."

Daddy doesn't love you as much as I do because he doesn't love Jesus the right way.

That's abusive, plain and simple. I'll bet mommy followed that up with "Daddy's going to hell!" Oh, wait, I just read the Court Order in its entirety, and yes, she did.

Can you imagine being 10 years old and believing that (a) Daddy doesn't love you and (b) Daddy's going to hell? Frankly, I think the mother is lucky the Judge didn't change custody on her.



*Properly spelled "Court Order" and it is fascinating reading.

Fear Itself

health care, crisis, public, plan, liberal, obama, democrat,
I think I may have figured out the motivation behind a certain type of health care reform trolling.

Before I discuss that, I would like to say that not everyone opposed to health care reform is an idiotic troll. We've had some good discussions about health care reform here, and while I didn't agree with everyone's opinions, those opinions were researched and well thought out, so I respect them. That is not the sort of thing I am talking about here.

What I am talking about is the sort of person who sees a post about health care reform and automatically comments something like this: I WORK* and that's why I have health insurance. I don't see why I should have to pay for health insurance for people who don't WORK. Because I WORK.

That's just the most asinine response to the health care crisis in the US, and so far removed from reality, that you have wonder what planet they're visiting from. The US pays the most to get the 38th best health care system in the world. That's right, we're behind Malta, Oman, Andorra and Chile. I've never even heard of the second country before, but apparently I'd rather live there.

Beyond that, most of the almost 50,000,000 USians that don't have health insurance either do work or are not working through no fault of their own (laid off). Those that do work either work for a business small enough that it doesn't have to offer health insurance, or they can't afford the health insurance their employer does offer. Then there's people like me who have insurance, but can't afford to use it due to high deductibles and copays. I WORK is not a relevant response to these issues.

As I was fuming over the general stupidity of people, it hit me. These people aren't visitors from The Planet of the Trolls, they're afraid. They look at the world around them, and deep down they know that all those bad things that happen to their fellow USians- layoffs, bankruptcies, foreclosures, health crises- could very well happen to them. Deep down, they know this, and it terrifies them.

I WORK is the health care crisis equivalent of whistling in the dark. They say I WORK because they mean "These bad things will never happen to me because I play by the rules and I try really hard and no, I will not end up in a gutter, dying of a treatable illness. All those people who do end up there are bad, lazy people who did it to themselves. I WORK!"

So, if you're going to feed the troll (and sometimes, you just can't resist), hit them where they're most afraid.


*I can't find the thread I saw that on yesterday, but that is actual how the commentor wrote "work" every time they wrote it.

Recission aka if You Need Insurance, You Can't Have It

health care, public, private, bayh, recission,
Steve Benen at Political Animal did an excellent post on the health insurance industry and recission.

Recission is the practice of dropping people from coverage once they sick, even though they were paying their premiums and obeying all the rules. Oddly, that's quite legal. Oh, health insurance companies will occasionally give some justification for recission in an especially egregious case, but it's always ludicrous.

One executive said rescission is about "stopping fraud and material misrepresentations that contribute to spiraling healthcare costs." So, for example, when a woman in Texas was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer, her insurer dropped her coverage because the company found an instance in which she visited a dermatologist for acne, and didn't tell the insurance company about it. This, the insurer said, was an example of "fraud and material misrepresentation."

Wtf does acne have to do with breast cancer? Nothing. It was just an excuse, and a bad one at that. In fact, it's the sort of excuse that makes one suspect that insurance companies aren't particularly concerned with being called on their behavior. Why should they be?

From the desk of Evan Bayh:

That my wife Susan is being paid $337,000 a year to be on the board of directors of Wellpoint is not a factor when I insist that there be no 'public option' for health care reform.
It is a matter of deep personnal conviction that I believe that if people are going to get sick and require health care, the investor class of our country should be making a profit from it. True reform will be requiring every American to purchase medical insurance thru a for-profit corporation, preferably Anthem or Blue Cross or Blue Shield which are owned by Wellpoint.

Yeah, no conflict of interest there.

Let's not forget what health insurance executives get paid for condemning sick people to suffering and death (unless you think the health care fairy stopped by and cured that woman from Texas?).

*United Health Group
CEO: William W McGuire
2005: 124.8 mil
5-year: 342 mil*

Aetna
CEO: John Rowe
2005: 22.1 mil
5-year:57.8 mil*

Cardinal Health
CEO: James Tobin
2005:1.1 mil
5-year:33.5 mil*

Cigna
CEO: H. Edward Hanway
2005:13.3 mil
5-year:62.8 mil*

Humana
CEO: Michael McAllister
2005:2.3 mil
5-year:12.9 mil*

McKesson
CEO: John Hammergen
2005: 13.4 mil
5-year:31.2 mil*

PacifiCare Health
CEO: Howard Phanstiel
2005: 3.4 mil
5-year: 8.5 mil*

Well Choice
CEO: Michael Stocker
2005: 3.2 mil
5-year: 10.7 mil*

WellPoint
CEO: Larry Glasscock
2005: 23 mil
5-year: 46.8 mil*

Oh, yeah. We don't need a public option. We need to keep paying William W. McGuire $124,800,000 a year to kill people. I honestly feel like grabbing some recissionees and congregating outside his office, chanting "Hey, hey, WWM, how many cancer patients did you kill today?"

Atheists Can't Run for Office

atheism, democracy, atheist, atheophobia, theocracy, religion, public, office, conservative, liberal, united, states

You know, every now and then I think, "maybe I'm being a little harsh about the whole religious thing. Maybe I should back off on it all." Then I see things like this. Atheists are specifically forbidden from running for public office in Arkansas, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Maryland and Mississippi.

Nice.