Widdershins Tease

Inconsideration

On the edge of reason
‘Tis not of course in doubt

The ultimate in misdirection
This one is centered about

Apologies dont begin to express
My sympathies all for naught

For it’s insane, even inane
But nonetheless a start

Answer:  The Letter N

To see the correct answer highlight the spaces to the right of the “Answer”

PS This brain teaser is for beginners!  They will get harder as soon as we warm up!

OPEN THREAD

The 30% Solution: Voting for Women is Only Half the Battle

Photo By Ruven Afanador for The New York Times

If you acknowledge that there is a 30% critical mass that women need to reach in federal governments before their concerns are addressed on a societal level, you probably also acknowledge that the United States has not come close to reaching that goal. Only 17% of our Congressional representatives are women at the present time. As a result of the silencing of American women’s voices at the highest levels of government, we have a society in which misogyny is institutionalized and widely accepted by both men and women of all ages. Think about Chris Brown, who beat a woman almost to death and got probation, whereas Michael Vick, who tortured and killed animals, got jail time. Clearly a society in which this travesty of justice takes place is out of balance in a deep and fundamental way.

But as to what to do about it, well…that’s where opinions vary wildly.

When proposing a big change in public policy, I always feel it’s best to look at other countries where that goal has been reached, and then see if there is some way we could do the same thing here. It turns out that in 18 of 22 countries with 30% female representation or greater, there has been a quota system and/or a Constitutional amendment in order to enable it to happen. Not only that, but none of those countries have our bizarre two-party system, which Dr. Raymond Smith has termed “The American Anomaly” in his new book, which compares our system with other democracies around the world. (Guess what? We’re, um, an anomaly.)

So, we don’t have a quota system, a Constitutional amendment (ha! we haven’t even gotten the ERA!) or proportional representation in America, but we know that some combination of these factors seems to be necessary in order to reach that magic number of 30%. Considering the existing political climate, I believe that the best approach for American feminists is to put pressure on both parties to adopt a voluntary quota system, and agree to put at least 30% women on every ticket by 2014. In fact, that was one of the things our local PUMA group was going to do, and I think we should still try to do it at The Widdershins.

Morning Widdershins: Forget What’s the Matter With Kansas

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH TEXAS!

This bozo tells his town hall attendees a tale of a woman, who had to beg a doctor to give her infant son a life saving heart operation, after his insurance denied him, that her son would be dead if there was a public option!

I can only hope these people from Texas succeed with their plans……..

I wish they wouldn’t get my hopes up like that!

Whackos, queue twilight zone music!

It is after all the place that spawned Bush, even though he was born in New Haven, went to private schools in Massachusetts, then onto Yale. Something bad happened when he went to Texas LOL.

Okay, I know all Texans aren’t like this, but if they can write a book about Kansas, why not Texas?

Dear Trolls: For Your Information…

Snarkety Snark

If you are planning to go to a blog you dislike in order to start trouble, it is probably best not to use a porn name as your login handle, as people might make fun of you and hurt your trollish feelings. In fact, there are quite a few names that will amuse the moderators and participants of that ever-so-hated space on the Interwebs.

Here is a list of names to avoid:

1. DaddysDarlin
2. MeSoHorny
3. UnderageSexbot
4. Fingercuffs
5. DesperateHousewife
6. WetnWild

Well, you get the idea.

What will REALLY make the moderators laugh is when your friends try to use feminism to defend you after your porn name has been mocked. That is a really big no-no. The last time we looked, feminism and porn did not go so well together, to say the least.

This is an open thread.

Morning Widdershins: Oh Go Cheney Yourself, Dick!

Cheney thinks CIA interrogators, er…  ummm…. torturers should be de-briefed (told what to say) instead of being investigated for torture. He’s a tad upset of Holder’s decision to appoint a special prosecutor looking into interrogation abuses.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney on Friday said the Obama administration should be debriefing CIA interrogators about keeping the country safe rather than trying to punish them for doing their jobs.

In an exclusive interview taped to air this weekend on “FOX News Sunday,” Cheney called the Justice Department probe of interrogators an “outrageous political act” that will do long-term damage to the United States’ capacity to protect the country.

“We had a track record now of eight years of defending the nation against any further mass casualty attacks from al Qaeda. The approach of the Obama administration should be to come to those people who were involved in that policy and say, ‘How did you do it? What were the keys to keeping this country safe over that period of time?’” Cheney said.

Sorry, no can do! AMERICA DOES NOT TORTURE, CHENEY!!!!!

But don’t worry Dick, Glenn Greenwald over at Salon lays out the scoop that no one high up on the torture food chain will be investigated, never mind prosecuted!

Holder’s decision does not amount to the appointment of a Special Prosecutor, since a preliminary review is used, as he emphasized, “to gather information to determine whether there is sufficient predication to warrant a full investigation of a matter.” More important, the scope of the “review” is limited at the outset to those who failed to “act in good faith and within the scope of legal guidance” — meaning only those interrogators and other officials who exceeded the torture limits which John Yoo and Jay Bybee approved. Those who, with good faith, tortured within the limits of the OLC memos will “be protected from legal jeopardy”.

Everyone grab your pop corn and watch the next ACT of a newly released fictional play “Torture Be Gone”. And best of all the show is for free! It’s included in your basic cable package!

DUH!

Bill Moyers states that Obama is a Corporate Democrat, whose re-election is dependent on the forces ($$) of the healthcare industry and Wall Street! Psssst, Bill and Bill, it was a well known fact before he was elected, stop acting like it’s a new epiphany!

Screw The Fundies Action Alert!

Come To Me All You Wimminz, And I Will Steal Your Health Care

I should be used to the moral insanity of the fundiegelical Christian Theocracy Movement by now, I really should. I mean, these are the people who think that if health care reform is passed, every doctor will be “forced” to perform abortions. These are the people who are more concerned with the unborn than the born, who claim to be pro-life but have no problems with war or the death penalty.

But I just couldn’t help my outrage when I saw this email arrive in my Inbox with the subject, “Don’t Let Women Lose Reproductive Health Coverage.” They couldn’t possibly want me to think this could happen at Democrats.com, could they, I wondered? I mean, not with our super-duper more-feminist-than-thou President in charge, the man the fundies call the most radical pro-abortion President ever? Surely with his mighty Heroic Messiah powers, he will smite the fundies from Congress and dismay their attempts to steal our health coverage, yea, verily?

Alas, according to Bob Fertik of the “aggressive progressives,” we women have to worry not only that the new “health insurance reform” is not going to cover abortions, but also that it will take away abortion coverage that millions of women already have. Why? Because of the fundies and their “allies in Congress.” (You will notice that the word “Republican” is missing from that statement. Apparently, there are some Democrats who are so “holy” that they are willing to strip abortion coverage from women too. Ah, bipartisanship at last!)

Morning Widdershins: Mish Mash

Mike Huckabee is disgusted that Democrats might use Ted Kennedy’s Death to push through healthcare reform, therefore politicizing his death. And in the next breath declares under “obamacare” Kennedy would have been forced to go home and take a pain pill and die. Nice to know Huckabee thinks it’s in bad taste to politicize anyone’s death!

Charles Krauthammer thinks any public option will lead to rationing of healthcare, yet he is perfectly fine with the rationing for profit that takes place every single minute of every single day in this country for profit via private health insurance companies. I guess, it isn’t as important to a high falutin tootin editorialist making mucho dinero, when he could pay for all his healthcare expenses. No problemo for him, so obviously there is no problemo for the low life suckers who can’t afford it.

Harry Reid is in FAVOR of a public option as long as it is private!

Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.

You have an infiltrator among you. You actually have since I began supporting Hillary and blogged with many here and at other sites from way back. And I was called an Obot! You fools! I am a Commie. I have been wearing a Red while blogging this entire time. I never lied to conceal my identity. Did no one listen when I said my education was in Marxian philosophy? You ignored my post that came from my login names “gay gal” and “letthemeatchange” and “la-t-da” to your own peril. They were all sock puppets for the Commie Infiltration of America.

You ignored my statement that I declare to the world on my own website every time I manipulated you to link to my art (in hopes you would buy something). It was right there you in front of you, “trained in critical theory and economic sustainability”. (Please buy my art, by the way, so I can turn a profit. My jewelry is actually very affordable. Planned that way since I just introduced my primitive technique and look in welding and wielding copper. I will jack my prices up later once I rope you in. My profit will quadruple so best buy it now and besides that you will have a quality piece of art created by artisan hands that you can turn around and resell for an insane profit once you help me reach fame. And Hillary will you please take my sculpture Vaginal Fortitude that I made for you off my hands so I can reach fame sooner.)

It is impossible to be a Commie and live in American. A Commie is smart and would get the hell out of the greed and imperialism of capitalism or would start participating in it (China) so they can later go off and start their sustainable development and developed commune. I jumped for glee when the Republicans started screaming “socialist” toward Obama during the primaries. You can count on it with any Dem. It only showed your ignorance of critical thinking.

You reveal the reality that our school system does not teach it and our corporate media would have you run from critical analysis like the Red Scare. Surely our school system is bound to get some more tax dollars with every time you show your ignorance peaceful revolution. So freaking funny and ironic. If the public school system would have taught Marxian philosophy you would have known Obama is no socialist. His pockets are lined by the same corporations prior to his presidency, that got him there, and the bulge is only intended to grow.

To the want-to-be Chez Guevaras that fought with a double mocha latte in their hands while supporting Obama to get their technological revolution that would never dare take their Starbucks to the streets for fear that the 800% profit they just paid would spill, you are fools too. You obviously never comprehended dialectical logic taught via Marxian theory because you were training to be a corporate executive of a solor panel company run by Exxon-Mobile. Marx said, “I am not a Marxist”, by the way, you want-to-bee-hive -mentality-faux-environmentalist-Whole-Foods-shopping fools.

How’s that 800% mark-up organic honey that sits solidifying on your shelves because you switched to koolaid, working out for yah? Isn’t all honey organic by the way? I suppose not if Queen Bee was genetically modified. If you faux progressives were smart you would have listened to Dick Morris, “Hillary Clinton is the closet thing to a European-style socialist that we have in this country.” If you would have read her thesis refuting Alinsky, rather than pretending to be an work-from-without Alinsky, you would have realized that she is the infiltrator by opting to work within the system. Did you not believe her when she said, “Vast Right Wing Conspiracy”.

Want-to-be-cult-socialist and cultist screamers for Palin, “Socialist! Socialist! Socialist!”, you are actually unknowingly working together to feed the greed of capitalism that puts you all in the same sinking ship: One gun and bible toting souls of soulless conditions. The others carrying their Queen Bee on their shoulders to the victory for Starbucks for all. Fools sinking into the status quo of and end result of classism with every scream. Keep screaming “racist” from both sides while the rich remain richer and the poor only get poorer while you all pass these soulless conditions onto your future generations and take the rowboat paddle and whop the other citizens over the head. They were freaking doctors and nurses, you idiots, trying to get in the boat to help save you.

While both sides continue to scream Medicare for All Socialism without any understanding of The Medicare Modernization Act of 2003, the rest of us that have a few critical brains cells left and attempt to understand the social and economic benefits of Single Payer suffer. If you had one brain cell of critical thinking left that you have not inbreed out of your familial gene pools, you could see your other fellow sojourners are suffering. Both sides would know the plague that lingers just above the stench of the global historic failures of the unintended consequences (Marx and Engels) of never-to-work Marxist and Adam Smith theory. Talk about Death Panels.

Digg and google until your hearts content to come up with arguments and bad names to call me for being a Commie. I don’t feel like linking to the same shit over and over again. Start with Herbert Marcuse and his analysis on corporate media and mass marketing and consumerism. That should keep your single-cell amoeba thirsting for osmosis occupied for a lifetime. Put down the remote and step away from Glenn Beck and Chris Matthews. Grow some critical thinking fortitude. First start with this. And notice she has on Red .

Morning Widdershins Riddle

How can you double your money, ASAP?

Answer: Look at it in a mirror!

to see the answer use your mouse and highlight the spaces to the right of “Answer”

OPEN THREAD

I have some ’stuff’ I need to do this am!  Please talk amongst yourselves!  Catch ya in the afternoon!