You may (or may not) have heard that recently SETI had to mothball it’s Allen Telescope Array. Apparently it would cost $2.5 million to keep it operational. That’s a lot of money, especially in these hard economic times, right?
It depends on what’s important to you. I recently saw a bumper sticker that read something to the effect of “we never have enough money for education, but we always seem to have enough money for war”. Think about that. The swath of Republicans we just voted into office (due in no small part to the billions of anonymous dollars filtered through SuperPACs made possible by the Citizen’s United ruling) have been busy slashing funding left and right. They claim we can’t afford these things. Things like health care for all Americans, NPR, PBS, Planned Parenthood, and our educational system. I’m watching my sister facing the possibility of being fired and forced to re-apply for her job as a way of “improving our educational system”. What a crock. Meanwhile, we’re involved in a third war now. We don’t pay our soldiers much, but damn do we buy them some expensive toys.
Microcosmologist has put together a little infographic that shows, quite clearly, where our priorities lie. (there’s more after the picture)
Is this stuff important? Is it worth the money? I defer to the great Carl Sagan.
Please think about donating to SETI, and remember this next time you vote.
Message to Max Baucus: FUCK OFF AND DIE!
Max Baucus has introduced legislation that is basically a handout to the private insurance companies. This legislation cannot pass. It will bankrupt millions and make billions for the insurance companies in the process. In other words, the rich getting richer off the misfortune of the poor.
Fuck off Max. You may be a Democrat, but you’re a fucking corporate stooge. You might as well be George “I represent the top 1% of the rich in this country and the rest of you losers can fuck yourselves” Bush. Jay Rockefeller is trying to get anything even remotely resembling something good for the people in this bill, and you stump him at every turn. I hope they’re paying you well, fucker. If there’s a Hell, I hope you like it warm.
The Truth about Health Care
Dear friends, as I’ve become extremely busy over the last few months I’m afraid I’ve been neglecting my blog. In the interest of maintaining compelling content, I’ve invited my first guest blogger. I present the esteemed Mr. Richard Head. –Cowboy
“Health Care Reform”. Have you ever heard three more frightening words put together? Why do the Democrats feel that they must shove Government-Run Health Care down our throats? Folks, I’m here to tell you the frightening truth about the Democrats and their evil plan for World Domination. That’s right, World Domination. You might think this is just about the Democrats making a fast buck by preying on your sickness, but the sad truth is that it goes far… far further than that.
Mr. Obama, or should I call him Mr. SATAN!!!!, has every intention of dismantling the beautiful heath care system our loving benefactors at the Insurance Companies have lovingly put together for us out of the goodness of their hears. He wants to destroy that. He’ll force you to stand in long lines just to be seen by a doctor, and at the end of that line, you’ll be denied care, or you’ll be forced to pay outrageous sums for even being seen. It’s true, this is what they have planned. The elderly will just simply be euthanized. That’s a pretty way of saying MURDERED!!!!
It’s TRUE!!! Mr. Obama wants to murder your grandparents! If you don’t oppose this bill, you’ll have to explain to your children why you let the evil Democrats murder Granny and Pappy. Your children will be brought before the Death Boards, and there they will be judged whether or not they will be fit to live. So will you, for that matter. And if you’re white, It doesn’t look good for you. It’s right there in the bill on page 666, appropriately enough. They’ll force unwed mothers to get abortions. They’ll force wed mothers to get abortions. They’ll force you into homosexual and lesbian marriages. And to pay for it you’ll be forced to give them the password to your bank account. After that happens, they’ll drain your account to settle your bill, which should reach an appropriate portion of the national deficit. Now you know the real reason behind the Stimulus Bill. It’s not about “saving the economy”, an economy they destroyed in the first place, it’s to drive up the national debt so high that they can justify the outrageous amounts they’re going to charge you at the hospital after they get done slaughtering the rest of your family. But they wont’ take responsibility, all they say is “Bush spent 10 billion a month in Iraq!” Like defending freedom had anything to do with it! The unmitigated gall! And they’ll brand the number 666 on your forehead, “for quick processing next time” they’ll say.
The Health Insurance companies want to stop this madness. We’re your friends! We’ve already managed to save you from the nightmare of free universal heath care like the fascists in Europe have to contend with, we only have to defeat the mandatory public “option” they want to force you into. We want to give you the health care you deserve. We don’t want to get between your doctor and you the way the Democrats do, we want to make sure your every need is taken care of. Don’t let the Democrats destroy democracy! Oppose Health Care reform everywhere! Make sure you listen to Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh for details on how to debate the evil Democrats, they’ve read the bill so you don’t have to. Don’t worry, it’s all taken care of! Just say “NO” to Pinko Commie Heath Care!
Dick.
The Health Care Debate
I tried to find the Republican sponsored commercial that depicts a Washington bureaucrat (who looks suspiciously like an IRS agent caricature) interposing himself between a patient and her doctor. What the ad doesn’t say is that we have that now. Replace “Washington Bureaucrat” with “Insurance Agent”. No difference.
What, you’ve never watched your doctors fighting with the insurance company to attempt to justify care? I have. I watched my Dad’s doctors more or less blackmail the insurance company to get them to approve an “experimental” procedure that has extended his life far beyond the year or so he had in 2001. He’s enjoying time with his grandchildren today. If that doctor had capitulated, my dad would have died when his oldest grandchild was a baby. This is the healthcare system Republicans want to protect. They have a financial interest in doing so, not a humanitarian one. Republicans warn that Obama wants to destroy our healthcare system. Damn straight! We want to destroy the broken system that only works for the insurance companies and replace it with something that works for everybody.
The problem here is that in a Democracy (which is what the United States claims to have, if you weren’t aware), the Government is supposed to be afraid of the people, not the people afraid of the Government. If the government were truly afraid of the people, Universal Healthcare would not be a debate at all. Ask yourself honestly, are you afraid of the Government, or is it afraid of you?
Insurance companies are spending millions of dollars with anti-reform commercials and buying Washington votes. Why? Do they have the best interests of the American People at heart, or are they interested in the billions to be made under the current system which routinely denies needed care to millions? They’re afraid, because they know that every other industrialized country in the world has universal healthcare and it works. They know that our system of paying huge insurance premiums is entirely concocted and unnecessary. They don’t want you to know that.
Did you catch that? The crutches that cost $15 in Canada were $45 in the U.S.? We must have some damn good crutches here in order to charge 3 times as much. Right?
I expect the first conservative to come across my post will respond with something like “If you think it’s so much better in Canada, why don’t you move there?” This probably seems like good logic to them. When you don’t really understand logic, it’s easy to miss a fallacy.
I believe in America and I believe we can fix this. I don’t want to move to Canada, I want the United States’ healthcare system to be the envy of the world, not the laughing stock it is today. You should too.
Wall-E
First, a recant.
I blasted Xbox support in a previous post. While their support still sucks, there was an answer, and the second reply actually got me close enough to find the answer for myself. I appreciate that the support personal are A) providing support for free (well, they get paid, Microsoft provides it) and B) probably constrained to certain responses due to efforts to actually improve support. I also understand that support is a difficult job. I’ve done it. It doesn’t change the fact that their support sucks dog crap, but whatever. It’s fixed now. I won’t sell the Xbox just yet, but I’m not ruling out a Playstation either. At any rate, if the same thing happens to you, the answer is “The License Consolidation Tool”. Despite the websites many assertions that it’s not necessary, it was necessary. Just because the job is difficult doesn’t excuse poor support.
That leads me to DRM and why it sucks and is completely pointless, but that’s another post for later.
Today I had two of my nieces over. I happened to have Wall-E recorded, and thought the kids might enjoy watching it. My wife 
vetoed it because she heard from a friend that it was actually some Hollywood plot to bash fat people and accuse them of destroying the world.
So I watched it to see for myself what Hollywood’s latest evil plot was.
What I saw was a cute movie with a sub-plot containing a cartoonish over-exaggeration of the dangers of rampant consumerism.
So what’s the problem?
It occurs to me that this is exactly what the religious right are deathly afraid of, having a social consciousness and actually being forced to think for themselves. I think the social message “hidden” in the movie is dead on, and not really a bad thing to expose children to.
The Wal-Mart generation could learn something here.
It seems that the religious right are always looking for some plot “to destroy our way of life.” To them I say: “What Would Jesus Buy?” 
First, let me be clear. I’ve abandoned Christianity for many reasons, not the least of which is I no longer believe the adult fairy tale of a “benevolent” “God” watching over all of us and allowing all of the bad things to happen because he works in “mysterious ways”. It’s a load of crap. It’s Santa for grown-ups. I think that there is some sort of higher consciousness, but it doesn’t look out for us on an individual level, it’s not a God, it isn’t accurately described by any religious text ever, and it’s completely explainable by science, even if it’s science we don’t understand yet. So all criticisms of Christians as to whether or not they have any idea of what their own religion dictates should be taken with a grain pound of salt.
That being said, if Jesus were alive today, he’d puke at the sight of the people who call themselves his followers. Yes, I’m talking to YOU Ray Comfort and Pat Robertson! I don’t know a 
single “Christian” alive today that lives the life prescribed by the Christian Bible. For all their faults, the only group I know that actually came even somewhat close was the cult.
I believe that Jesus would say “Stop the wars in the Middle East”. Christians say “Fight them there so we don’t have to fight them here.” I believe Jesus would say “Help the needy” (see Matthew 25), the Religious Right say “No Socialist Health Care!”
Why? Why do Christians (as a whole) seem to be so off? The only answer I can come up with is “Someone told them that.” Why was 
my wife opposed to Wall-E? Because someone told her it was somehow un-Christian. I don’t think anything that was lampooned by the movie is anything Jesus would not condemn. Why do so many Conservatives/Christians/whatever seem to believe whatever they’re told? Are none of them capable of thinking for themselves?
The other night I watched “Sicko”. Just on a whim. I wanted to see what liberally biased crap Michael Moore was spewing in this movie. I’d never liked him because he was obviously a rampant Liberal with an agenda and a movie camera. While I did spot a few places in the movie that were obviously biased, for the most part it 
was a dismal and unfortunately accurate depiction of the piss poor state of health care in America. I’m shocked at how much better it is almost everywhere else. And he identified why it’s different here, and traced it back to Nixon and Edgar Kaiser in 1971. It’s appalling that in this country we give doctors bonuses on being able to deny as many people health care as possible, while in England doctors are given bonuses on crazy dumb-ass criteria like how many people they got to stop smoking.
I was so surprised by my own reaction to this movie, I wanted to share it with my wife. Her first question was “Is this that Michael Moore movie?” and was uninterested in anything that came from it. She was intentionally rejecting anything she might have 
learned from it based solely on things she had heard about Michael Moore, presumably from her religious right friends. I’m glad I didn’t let my own bias stop me. I’ve finally realized that despite being an ignorant conservative for years, I’m really a flaming liberal and I’m finally coming out of the closet. While most people my age are becoming more conservative and start voting Republican, true to the story of my life I’m doing exactly the opposite, I’ve wised up. I’m actually looking in to becoming an activist.
I’m aware that war only begets more war. Our actions in the Middle East are inspiring hate and fear of the West in the youth of that region and actively swelling the ranks of those who want to destroy us. I’m aware that that it takes strength to say “we will not negotiate with terrorists”, but it takes more strength to stick to that principle when the time comes. I’m aware that that it takes a kind of 
strength that’s hard to find to say “we will not submit to terrorism, but neither will we become terrorists ourselves.” It takes one kind of strength to stand up and criticize people like George Bush and Dick Cheney for sacrificing America’s principles when times were dark, and it’s entirely another to stick to those ideals when you find yourself in their position. The recent disappointments from President Obama serve to illustrate that he, just like the rest of us, is only human. Still, let’s hope it doesn’t happen again.
Live Campaign Coverage
The grassroots movement is catching on. Check out live coverage here:
http://www.tsgnet.com/pres.php?id=46832&altf=Uif&altl=Dpxcpz
The best presidential choice yet
I’ve been thinking, and that’s a dangerous thing. I still like Henry Rollins for president, but perhaps there’s somebody I trust to do the right thing even more than Henry. Who could it be?
Then the answer hit me like a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster:
ME!
Of course, why didn’t I think of it before? I’m the one person on the planet I trust to do the right thing in office. Cowboy: President of the United States. Nice ring to it…
I hereby announce my candidacy for POTUS!
Here’s a summary of my qualifications:
- I’ve never been convicted of a felony (convicted, mind you…)
- I’ve never had a DUI (that one-ups Dubya)
- I’ve never been involved in a sex and/or financial scandal as a perpetrator, but occasionally as a victim. (One ups Clinton)
- I’m smarter than George Bush FWIW.
- I have less experience than Barack Obama (remember, that’s a good thing).
- I’m a white guy, but I’m not as white as John McCain.
- I’m not a creationist like Sarah Palin. Neither would my teenage daughter’s baby daddy stand up on stage with me, as he wouldn’t have any working legs in order to do so.
- I believe that freedom of religion means freedom to follow ANY religion, not just Christianity.
- I’m aware that there are more than two points of view when it comes to evolution. Science should be taught in schools. Creation theories should be taught in relevant religious temples. Debate solved.
As president, here is my first term agenda (in order):
- Withdraw all troops from Iraq immediately or even sooner.
- Send a few Navy Seal teams into the mountains where Bin Laden is believed to be hiding, kill the fucker, mount his head on the hood of my brand new $400,000 Maserati, drive around America, withdraw from Afghanistan.
- Hire T. Boone Pickens as Secretary of Energy.
- Hire Henry Rollins as Secretary of Defense.
- Hire Rory Blyth as Secretary of the Treasury.
- Hire Celes as Secretary of State
- Make Morgan Webb my Vice President. I know she’s smart enough to do the job, but mainly I just want her to be around a lot. I’m pretty sure she won’t shoot anybody in the ass either (video games notwithstanding).
- Hire Bill Clinton as Secretary of How To Get Away With Having Hotties in the White House.
- Banish George Bush to the Middle East.
- Energy Crisis: Get an energy plan that will work via Pickens. Kick the crap out of anybody that tries to put a rider on it, intimidate corrupt old politicians until they recant their evil ways and pass my bill.
- Health Care: Model health care after Europe, where it actually works. Change farm subsidies so that farmers are financially encouraged to grow fruits and vegetables. Make McDonalds illegal. Banish Hillary Clinton to Cuba.
- Abortion: I’m personally against abortion, not for any religions reasons, but because I believe a life is taken when one is performed. Instead, I plan to offer free Government Sponsored Surgical Sterilization to everybody with an I.Q. under 110 or from southern California. Said procedure will be mandatory under 95.
In the coming weeks, I will create a way that you can contribute to my campaign, as I know you already see the value in my Presidency. In the meantime, spread the word to everybody you know, and tell them to vote Cowboy in November. Good, yo!.
I’m the Cowboy and I approve this message
The Slippery Slope
I’m continually astounded at buzz around the current election. I listen to people tell me why McCain is great and why Obama is great. Once you cut through the bullshit it usually boils down to why McCain or Obama sucks. Honestly, do you vote for candidates, or against them? Honestly?
Since Nixon in the 70s we’ve had an increasingly cynical view of Washington. This is exacerbated by constant sex or financial scandals, continually lying, broken campaign promises, Right/Left slanted media, movies, failing economies, and wars that don’t make sense. I think we can agree that nearly the whole of Washington is corrupt. Why, then, is it that we keep electing the same people? Isn’t the definition of insanity when you keep doing the same thing and expect different results? That’s what we do, election after election. We keep electing the same people and expecting them to behave differently. We keep thinking “This time they’ll keep their campaign promises.” We keep thinking “This candidate really is different because he says so.” That Is Insane. Are we really that stupid?
Why are we as a country so afraid to consider a third party candidate? Why have we not done away with the absurdly inaccurate and outdated electoral college system? Are we really such a commercially jaded and malleable society that we can only consider the big party candidates with billions to spend on their campaigns? Are we really so pathetic that we’ll vote for McCain just because he’s got a young woman for a running mate? Are we really so obtuse that we’ll vote for Obama only because we’re angry at Bush and the Republicans? Are we really all stupid enough to eat the biased crap the media vomits at us daily (both right and left, don’t kid yourself)? Are we really all so effectively programmed that we think there are only two choices?
Remember Ron Paul?
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/10/paul.endorsement/
“I’ve come to the conclusion, after having spent many years in politics, is that our presidential elections turn out to be more of a charade than anything else, and I think that is true today. It is a charade,” he said.
Paul said a strong showing by the third-party candidates would express the public’s frustration with the current system.
“If you ever get to the point where you believe the two parties are essentially the same, if the majority is outside of the establishment, it’s not very democratic. The process is not working,” Paul said.
Don’t be a robot this November. Stop obeying the programming they give you. Don’t vote Republican/Democrat because your family does, or you always have. And for the love of sanity DON’T VOTE ALONG PARTY LINES! THINK FOR YOURSELF! Look up the Libertarian party, or the Green Party, or the Constitution Party, or independents like Ralph Nader. Or for the love of whatever you hold dear, if you don’t like any of them, FIND SOMEONE YOU DO AND WRITE THEM IN! Don’t just vote for “the other guy.” It’s not a binary problem.
THAT is what the Henry Rollins for President thing is all about. He won’t win, I know that. I’m not stupid. But I can’t in good conscience vote for the candidates from the two giant Good ‘Ole Boys clubs that have been running our government for over a hundred years. It’s time for change. Real change.
Elections are supposed to be the time when We The People can have a say in how we are governed. That’s been taken away from us by two bloated political parties and the media, and we need to take it back.
digg_url = ‘http://taocowboy.blogspot.com/2008/10/slippery-slope.html’;
digg_title = ‘Why you should vote for third party candidates’;
digg_bodytext = ‘I’m continually astounded at buzz around the current election. I listen to people tell me why McCain is great and why Obama is great. Once you cut through the bullshit it usually boils down to why McCain or Obama sucks. Honestly, do you vote for candidates, or against them? Honestly?’;
digg_topic = ‘2008_us_elections’;
//–>
Hey buddy, can you spare 400 Microsoft Points?
XBox appears to have noticed that they have a user base that consists of more than just teenagers. As much as I hate, and have always hated, the term Gen-X, that’s the easiest way to group together people around my age group who have a common experience base around early video games. Not to say we’re the only ones. I’ve met at least two “Gen-Yers” (I apologize) who grew up with the very same games due to having “Gen-X” (last one, I promise) older siblings. They got the hand-me-down Atari 2600 systems. I still have one. Most of the games still work. Pitfall doesn’t, which sucks because that was always my favorite, but I’ve got re-released versions for Win95 and Playstation. (Damn it’s hard to keep that stuff up to date).
Now XBox has found the newest way to get me to spend my rather hard-to-come-by-lately money in the form of Microsoft points again. They’re releasing all of my old favorites on XBox Live Arcade. Bastards! What a cunning, evil plan!
It all started with DOOM. Oh the countless hours spent in the early nineties banging arrow keys and spacebars killing simulated 3D bitmap based hellspawn. I honestly don’t remember if the original DOOM supported multiplayer (I’ve still got it around here somewhere, I’ll check later) but I remember that DOOM 2 did. I had countless hours of fun sneaking up behind my best friend with a double-barreled shotgun and blowing him away (that’s just fun to say), untill somebody picked up the phone and messed up the damn carrier signal on the modem. Ah, modems: good times!
XBox released DOOM on XBox Live arcade a few months ago. Something that primitive probably doesn’t appeal to today’s youth unless they’ve got a video game history fetish, but it’s nostalgic to those of us that pissed away our youth on it when it was new.
Next was PacMan. Oooh, I was GOOD at PacMan when it was a popular new arcade game. Again, today’s youth would probably not look twice at it, wondering “where’s the damn plot line? How do you win?” You didn’t back then. You proved your mastery over others and your right to rule as master of the tribe by showing how long you could survive the onslaught of digital ghosts on a single quarter. PacMan was the very first “SuperGame”. The first game that caused a craze. Today’s market is so flooded with titles that there really aren’t any crazes any more, other than for consoles themselves. Back then we had PacMan lunch boxes, PacMan bedsheets, PacMan pajamas, PacMan records (yes, records. Not CDs. Those big round black things you put on turntables as part of rap music today used to be a music distribution medium.) PacMan cereal (fortified with Sugar Frosting and High Fructose Corn Syrup), and on and on.
Now we have PacMan on XBox Live Arcade. I love it. My kids hate it.
Then Galaga. ‘Nuff said.
Then Frogger. ‘Nuff said.
Missile Command, Warlords, and on and on. Some are the original arcade versions. Some have the original versions plus an updated version (to help the kids out with it. Their brains can’t process 8-bit graphics).
And Finally, the Coup de grâce, Duke Nukem 3D. Oh, they’re killing me! While money is still tight, I figure “Well, $5 for this game isn’t a big deal”, then another $5, then another, they sneak it in on you. Then, an epiphany: I’m paying for games I already own! How do they do that to me? They’re preying on some kind of nostalgia weakness. I’d be fascinated to know what the psychology behind it is.
Another Idiot with a Blog 