Historic day--Health Care Reform

This is an historic day. Health Care Reform will become law.

It's also a very good thing. It could be much better. It could include a decent public option. Or, better yet, some form of single payer system. Still, this legislation will help save lives. It will curb abuses by insurance companies. It will provide insurance to more than 30 million more people.

Don't believe all the vitriol from the right. This is not a government takeover of healthcare. Far from it. If anything, this bill entrenches the current system by curbing a few abuses but leaving the whole system largely in tact. Insurance companies will gain millions of new customers--most of which will be healthy, thus increasing the monetary pool from which to treat the ill. And, I think Pelosi was spot on when she noted that it frees workers from being stuck in shit jobs, or unable to start a new business, or take a job with better pay but worse benefits, for fear of losing their health insurance.

I do want to point out that there are potential problems with the bill. I think, for instance, that if the penalties for companies are not big enough, they may drop employee benefits, forcing more employees into the exchanges. That could raise costs.

It's not perfect. It's not single payer. But it is definitely a good start.

Otra vez

Unbelievably grim to hear of the earthquake in Chile after Haiti endured one. Just thinking about how lucky I am to have avoided such a destructive natural disaster. My sypmathies to the people of Chile.

Intent as Defense = BS

Awesome sauce from Genderbitch here.


Intent! It’s Fucking Magic!

23Jan10Crossposted to Questioning Transphobia

"Warning: This post is sarcastic to such a point as you may actually slip in the pools of sarcasm that are dripping off of it. Please walk carefully. The caution cones are there for your protection. Also, we totally didn’t intend for you to slip so we’re not responsible if you do.

Today, someone said a slur. It actually doesn’t matter what slur it was, because you see, he didn’t intend to hurt anyone and therefore it couldn’t possibly be a slur. Much like how intent magically protects the actions of all privileged fuckjobs, intent means that anything you say, no matter how many groups it hurts, what awful views it enables, no matter what systemic bigotries it props up through the usage of language that enforces social concepts that crush a marginalized group, it mystically negates all of that.

So if you out a trans woman? Your uncanny intent wraps around her and protects her from murder, harassment, degendering and objectification by the people you just outed her to! If you say something ableist, you’re not actually contributing to the system that demeans PWD because your intent will gird your words with alchemical shields, made of eldritch power themselves, that prevent the words from creating and furthering social associations between disability and being bad, wrong, broken or unwanted! I know? Isn’t it grand? I love magic!

See, the great thing about this thaumaturgy is that it protects anything a privileged asshole says! So it fits in line completely with that glorious sense of entitlement that privilege tends to confer, basically, the idea that you can say anything you want and should never have accountability for what you say! Because you see, all privileged people have this ancient eldritch power called “Intent”. In fact, intent is one of the primary elements of the world (see figure 1). Like fire, water, wood, metal, air and earth, Intent helps make up an important part of the very existence of the universe. So when you invoke its ancient might, its tendrils of ephemeral power shift in the very fabric of the ‘verse, creating a magic so powerful that you can manipulate thousands upon thousands of threads of fate, just to protect the person you just said or did something supremely privileged and horrible to.



So say, if you make a bunch of racist jokes, instead of contributing to the systemic oppression of POC, the bewitching might of Intent (I’m capitalizing the I now, to give it proper respect as a primary element) spreads out, blocking every single person from fully hearing the awful racist shit you just said, further preventing them from internalizing it and using it to justify actions. It also prevents it from creating an environment where racist behavior is seen as more acceptable, by twisting the very threads of fate there as well! And, the best part? If you say it in earshot of someone who’s offended or hurt by it, the occult powers of Intent change everything! Now, instead of hearing a hurtful slur or sentiment that reminds of past abuses at the hands of privileged fuckjobs, the marginalized person in question only hears the beautiful natural sound of birds chirping. Or whale noises! Because you see, Intent is just that powerful. It literally keeps anyone from getting hurt by your fuckery!

But you see, it goes further than that.

Intent is so unbelievably epic that it doesn’t just cover slurs. No, it covers actions as well! Because you see, the very threads of fate are not immune to this otherworldly flow of what you meant to do or say. So if you kick a trans woman out of a homeless shelter into the cold because she didn’t fit your views of what a woman should be and she didn’t want to be put in with the menz (who would likely rape and murder her, or at least harass her), your Intent literally changes the tapestry of fate so that instead of freezing to death in the cold, she actually is heated by an unexpected fire, lit by a lightning strike from clear skies, onto a pile of garbage that can’t spread the fire to anything else, right next to where she just happened to fall in exhaustion! I know! Isn’t it awesome?!

Intent is a power that you only have if you believe in it. Because so many marginalized people don’t believe in the power of intent when it comes to their/our marginalizations, few of us are able to call on its supernatural strength. Some rare marginalized folk are able to, but only in given situations and generally only in relation to themselves.

But you see, it isn’t even limited to the fuckery of kyriarchy, self applied -ism and/or privilege. It works everywhere else too! Made a really bad business deal that bankrupted your new business but didn’t intend to screw that up? Intent will magically negate the effects of the business deal on your finances! Drove during a foggy night while drunk as fuck and accidentally ran down a college student with your car going at high enough speeds to instantly kill him? Intent’s eldritch power will restart his heart and heal his wounds! Intent has the ability to change everything and anything you do and say to match your intent. That is simply how strong it is as one of the primary elements of the universe. It’s why we’re so darn unreasonable for being mad at the fuckery of privileged assholes, or for even calling them assholes. They didn’t intend to hurt anyone! They didn’t intend to do anything bad! And clearly, due to that Intent, to that thaumaturgic sorcery that spills forth from the mindset of the asshole who claims its power, any harm or bad shit they caused is magically negated!

Because you see, Intent is the ultimate alchemy. It doesn’t change lead to gold, it changes harmful, negative or damaging actions into happy, fun, “everyone hugs and no one is oppressed”, magical unicorn actions. It dips its eerie powers into the pools of time and space and counters each and every ripple of fuckery and pain created by the actions of an unthinking douchebag who was too privileged or self absorbed to see that their actions were a problem.

Isn’t that magical? I sure think so."

Haiti, ma pais

Thinking of Haiti right now after such an awful tragedy. I'm donating to the Red Cross. Please give what you can to help.

Of course he's racist

Rush Limbaugh is a disgusting human being. He's a misogynistic, gay-bashing race baiter.

And yes, he's a racist. Sure, there have been two recent fake quotes which were falsely attributed to the pile of crap that have been discredited, but they are hardly the only evidence. He's got a whole body of work.

These are a sampling...and they are verifiable.


"Take that bone out of your nose and call me back."

"Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?"

--These first two he admitted in a Newsweek interview.


“Look, let me put it to you this way: the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it.”

"You just gotta be who you are, and I think it's time to get rid of this whole National Basketball Association. Call it the TBA, the Thug Basketball Association, and stop calling them teams. Call 'em gangs. You have the Laker Gang, you have the Heat Gang, you have a Timberwolf Gang [distortions of official team names], and let 'em strap up out there, and let 'em market their CDs. Instead of selling concessions, sell CDs out there at the concession stand." Limbaugh later adds, "They're going in to watch the Crips and the Bloods out there wherever the neighborhood is where the arena happens to be, and be who you are."

“Obama's America, white kids getting beat up on school buses now. You put your kids on a school bus, you expect safety but in Obama's America the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering, 'Yay, right on, right on, right on, right on,' and, of course, everybody says the white kid deserved it, he was born a racist, he's white.”

Speculating on why a Mexican national won the New York marathon, Limbaugh spouted, "An immigration agent chased him for the last 10 miles." (USA Weekend, 1/26/92)

"A Chavez is a Chavez. We've always had problems with them"

“Look. It's one thing to say you like it. It's OK. But to try to pass this off as something that you've intellectually examined and have assigned value you to -- ah, sorry, Senator [Kerry]. And I'm not going to believe this business that you don't like heavy metal. I mean, I think heavy metal's probably your anthem. You know, from the Vietnam era and all that. But here, again, don't stand up for white music. Associate yourself with rap.”

"Obama's entire economic program is reparations."

Referring to President Obama and Halle Berry as "Halfrican Americans."

--These can be found readily.

When Carol Moseley-Braun (D-IL) was in the U.S. Senate, the first black woman ever elected to that body, Limbaugh would play the "Movin' On Up" theme song from TV's Jeffersons when he mentioned her.

Limbaugh uses mock "black" dialect -- substituting "ax" for "ask"-- when discussing black leaders.



You have to be in serious denial to justify those quotes and actions. Those are just the more blatant ones. There are many more that read as white populist backlash against minorities, which I would argue are not much more than coded racism and defense of white privilege. And, I get that some quotes require the entire context, but if we allow that, then we must also allow the context of extreme misogyny and bigotry towards homosexuals. The verdict is in. Sorry, but he's a real, living, breathing racist.

Health Care Reform

Get Your Facts Straight

To the crazy-ass birthers

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