An attempt at stream of consciousness.

I've read that you should try this with music. No citation needed. Maybe I didn't read it, maybe I made it up. So many stats seemed to be made up lately. That whole thing with Rick Santorum (who, if I ever look back this post I probably will have forgotten about). 


I just got a text from my girlfriend. 

Wait, Rick, right... So he made up some stats about the Netherland's killing what equates to about 5% of their population through euthanasia. Which is bullshit... Its okay to lie to republicans because that is what they have grown to expect. That is a pretty sad state of affairs when you think about it. What is the point of telling the truth in politics when you can just as easily get peoples attention by outrageous lies. It will only work when the truth is more outrageous than the lie... which probably wont be too long from now given the state of international affairs. Looking at you Iran. 

Anyways, where was I? I need a job. So about lying, the other way out of this death spiral would be if the media would report on the lies... but they can't. Many people, myself included for the longest time, thought of the media as regulatory body in a way. A chance to catch important people in lies... Not worth it, shareholders in these agencies have interests too and it seems like they don't care.

I realize that this 'blog' which is mainly for my own self... umm, engrandizement? Really leans on the political aspect inner dialog more than anything else. I'm really doing this to maybe work out some of the shit that has been clouding up my head lately. Maybe a list format will help?

1. I wish I had time to draw more, or maybe the money to buy a pad to mess around with photoshop on. I see the pencils I've bought downstairs on my coffee table and it makes me want to draw... Need inspiration.
2. Move out of my parents house. Jesus, I've gotten content here. Yeah, there is a lot of chicken served for dinner but damn, my mom is actually a really great cook. Having cooked mainly pasta or ravioli for dinner for a year, its really been a great change.
3. Job. Yeah I guess thats the next step. The girl (Sam) says that I put things off... I guess I do in this case, but not other cases really. I try to head things off at the pass so to speak.
4. I miss the structure of college. I don't know if I miss the classes, because they were pretty god damn easy, but I do miss the direction. I don't know where I want to be in 5 years, making more money, thats for sure. This list is starting to deteriorate. Should I let Sam read this shit or what...

She tells me I don't tell her enough about what I'm thinking. I think it would scare her. The other day I told her one of my wilder thoughts, which I'm pretty sure everything thinks anyways (not her), and she got kind of freaked out. 

Check phone. Its kind of like me looking over my shoulder. Resist urge to play video games. Look up spelling for urge, looks weird. 

So, my theory that my mind is the only conscious, living mind in the universe (Truman Show-esque), and that everyone else around is a robot who is designed to promote my afflictions for some type of gain... That is the one that weirded her out. She asked "Am I a robot", I said, I don't know a robot hasn't ever asked me that. I made her worried that she was a robot, that her mom was a robot. I convinced her maybe she was still a human with a real mind... Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? I'd like to think that that book is about what I'm thinking of. Ghost in the shell, god of the machine, deus ex machina. 

I've read elsewhere of this idea, probably on reddit. Not to be a hipster, but I would like to think that I thought of this before the idea had been planted somewhere in my head. 


I wonder if when you write like this, there are subliminal codes that get translated into text. Like every first letter of each sentence spells out a word, or a phrase. 


I.N.M.S.T.I.W.S.W.I.T.W.I.W.L.A.I.S.M.M.A.N.I.R.I.M.


In material with wall street journal without lasting summary man in real life. Thats what I got. 


Well, thats quite enough. If anyone asks, I'll pretend my therapist told me to do this this (like coloring). 


My therapist is my mom? Theres a scary thought.


I want to write a book. Should have started six months ago. 


//

29 Reasons why I hate Obama, and why he won’t be elected again:

1. Delayed the decline of a collapsing and outdated American automotive industry. Restructured American gems of innovation like GM into a grotesque new form.

2. Changed the focus of the military to Afghanistan, a country we already conquered, from where it needs to be... with the WMD and rampant terrorism still in Iraq.

3. Closed the proven effective camp at Guantanamo Bay.

4. Supports charter schools and provided more incentives to start them, when most of our kids already go to private schools here in New England.

5. Appointed the first Latina to the Supreme Court, breaking an age old unbroken line of old white men completely in touch with reality.

6. Gave money to people who buy a Prius, blatantly supporting overseas companies. AMERICA.

7. Opened more health centers for the veterans who are intent on abusing the health care system.

8. Improved relations with those pussy NATO countries we walked over a few years ago by cooperating in Libya.

9. Provided incentives to get rid of classic cars. Cash for Clunkers: Offensive.

10. Changed supremely effective military leadership.

11. Closed my god damn offshore tax haven in the Caymans.

12. Wont award my dads no-bid defense contract anymore.

13. Now I have to watch news about casualties of war, I was better off during the media blackout.

14. Gave more money to the FDA and closed the loopholes my energy drink company used to get by their guidelines.

15. Allows Medicare to negotiate with drug manufacturers... seriously?

16. Gave 2.1 million jobs to Mexcans through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, probably.

17. Ended incentives to outsource call centers to India. Now I feel bad about yelling at customer service reps. over the phone when my hot pocket burns my tongue, because they’re American.

18. Made water park information gathering compliant with the Geneva Convention standards and now we call it ‘torture’.

19. Ended the ‘stop-loss’ policy which kept soldiers in Iraq/Afghanistan on extended vacation past they’re ‘enlistment date’.

20. Made power plants produce 15% of their energy from renewable resources. Yeah, lets rely on the Sun for energy. WHAT IF ITS CLOUDY MOTHERFUCKER.

21. Covered 4 million more kids with SCHIP, that just sound dirty.

22. Vaccination programs expanded? I heard that will create super bugs.

23. Cut salaries of senior White House aids to only 100k... I say good, they’ve been useless anyways.

24. Lowed drug costs for seniors... More viagra for grandpa, great.

25. Limited aerial bombing in Afghanistan. Next we’ll be exclusively dropping easy-bake ovens on Iran.

26. Allowed for embryonic stem-cell research. If South Park has told me anything, its that Christopher Reeve is likely to start eating babies now.

27. FDA now regulates my smokes? Big government, get out.

28. Sent our troops home. They probably left for a reason.

29. Killed Osama Bin Laden. Family infighting I guess.

How to Get a Republican Off Your Back About 'Obamacare'

Conservative ‘entertainment news agencies’ across the nation said 51% of Americans didn’t support “Obamacare”, but what they failed to admit was over 14% of that 51% believed the bill did not go far enough into solving health care.


I field hundreds of calls and letters from constituents worried about health care and the general state of the world. Having talked with a lot of well-read, well-educated people regarding this new bill and what it will mean for the Commonwealth, I have come up with several of the most difficult to answer/common questions the right has raised in opposition. I in no way deny the right to opinions of others on the issue: unless it is based on fear, fiction or FOX (The three Republican Fs). My hope is that some of you might take something away from this and be as vocal as the right has been in its opposition.


The background is that opponents have failed in Congress and are now filing lawsuits in several states in an attempt to block health care reform. These lawsuits are completely without merit. This is nothing new. Historically, opponents of major legislation have turned to the courts. The Social Security Act, the Civil Rights Act, The Voting Rights Act, all three were upheld despite the pressure.


These kind of frivolous, junk lawsuits are expensive for tax payers, while tying up resources needed for suits that are based on fact.


The AGs that have filed these suits are running for higher office, scoring political points based on filling suits for political motivation.


So I wrote out this little guide for people like me who are sick of telling these crazy Republicans to stop drinkin’ the cool aid and get over themselves. So…


What to say when crazy right wing Tea Party members argue with you:


Q. This Act violates the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment by making taxpayers fund abortions against their will!
A. This is the one that really pisses me off. The Act provides no federal funding for abortion. At all. Ever. This fact is clear from the Act itself and from the President’s Executive Order. Go away.


Q. Under the Commerce Clause the health care legislation exceeds Congress’s power under Article I of the Constitution used to regulate interstate commerce. Mandating that individuals purchase heath care or pay a fine is unconstitutional!
A. Nope. Congress has the power to “substantially affect interstate commerce” if it is an “essential part of a larger regulation of economic activity in which the regulatory scheme could be undercut unless the intrastate activity is regulated,” under the Commerce Clause. This has been the law for decades. Requiring people to pay a fee is established under the law as well. The US spends of $2 Trillion per year on health care, 1/5 of our GDP and the economy wastes billions each year because of the cost of treatment of uninsured Americans.


Q. The Government doesn’t have the power under Tax and Spend for the General Welfare clause to make people buy health insurance.
A. Yep, they do. Congress has the authority to impose an individual responsibility under the same clause. There will be different authorities that will be established with the Department of Justice on how to litigate this soon.


Q. Fourteen States have claimed in lawsuits that the reform bill violates the Tenth Amendment by commandeering state governments and enforcing federal programs that violate state law.
A. I mean, I thought we went over this… The act doesn’t make the states do anything. They can either set up an insurance exchange to offer competitiveness or they decide not to. If they decide not to, the Sec. of Health and Human Services steps up to make an exchange for the people of the state. Nothing in the law makes the states take on Medicaid either.


Q. The same states have said that the Direct Tax violates Art I, Sec 9 of the Constitution which requires that direct taxes be assessed in accordance with population of states. That makes this an unconstitutional direct tax!
A. Again, nope… the direct tax provision applies only to taxes that are imposed on real or personal property. The fee that individuals would be required to pay if they do not have insurance is based on the EVENT that they do not have insurance, not the ownership of property.


Q. This Act is an infringement of the individual liberty that is protected by the Fifth Amendment.
A. This is my favorite. How can this be an infringement of liberty after the above, and the fact that it will promote freedom by providing millions with a way to stay healthy and prevent economic disaster if they become ill? Plus, every state requires drivers to have automobile insurance, every state requires vaccinations for its children… these are not unconstitutional.
Those were definetly the main concerns.


So what is it going to do for us? Well I can’t say for every state, but for Massachusetts it will provide:
1. more than 70,000 small businesses help via tax credits to make coverage affordable.
2. Prohibit insurance companies from excluding pre-existing conditions for 1.4 million children in the Commonwealth.
3. Improve Medicare benefits for a million MA residents.
4. Reduce Medicare premiums for all the old folks.
5. Provide insurance for the last 2% of MA residents (thanks to the Health Connector’s work) with insurance.
6. Reduce premiums for families by $2000- $2,800 for the same benefits, based on the figures calculated to increase by 2016.
7. Create 6,800 – 11,000 jobs by reducing costs for employers. As Scott Brown, the Republican’s new poster boy (literally) would say, its all about jobs.
8. And allow for about 700,000 students to keep their parents’ health plans until they’re 26. THAT’S US, I certainly don’t want to pay for my health insurance yet. Or my cell phone bill for that matter... amendment?

my 2 cents

j