A friend of mine had a Lexus park next to the hydrant in front of her house for a week. It got booted, and then one night someone set it on fire.

On Tuesday, I was updating my ballot measures database here at work for what's on the various state ballots in November. One of the ones I added for Oklahoma specifically excludes any judicial system "based on international or Sharia Law." Are you fuckin' kidding me?

One of the ones I added for Oklahoma specifically excludes any judicial system "based on international or Sharia Law." Are you fuckin' kidding me?

Nope. That's a big Tea Party thing, I think. Anyway, it's the latest conservative cause.

Oh hey, Texas isn't the only state that used to be its own republic! [link]

disingenuous bullshit

That pretty much covers what gets me upset about the Republican pledge.

Well, the deal with the healthcare reform stuff was that a bunch of the large insurance companies said that as of today, they would not cover children under a single policy (meaning, just the kid independent of a family policy), because of the whole can't-deny-care-to-kids-with-preexisting-conditions thing.

So the reporter (maybe Robert Siegel? doesn't matter) asked Pelosi what the hell (well, the swearing was implied) could be done to sanction/punish the companies that are doing this. And she chirped out this bullshit reply that, when the "healthcare collectives" start -- IN 2014 -- then *maybe* those insurers would be not allowed to join those collectives. So (she chirped), since *maybe* (though no guarantee) those insurers might be left out for being dickheads, they'll be "punished" 4 years from now for their dickheadedness now, because they'll miss out on those millions of new policies and revenue, PROVING (she chirped) the "bargaining" power of the American public.

Which, frankly, is BULLSHIT. I mean, *seriously*??? A gigantic insurer is going to behave right now, in 2010, because of the potential -- remember, she said *maybe,* not definitely -- that they won't be able to participate in the healthcare collectives FOUR YEARS FROM NOW?!?

Which is basically what the reporter asked, with a definite tone of "You have GOT to be shitting me, Madam Speaker."

And her reply was to parrot (chirp) exactly the same goddamn thing she said the first time. No promise, no guarantee, just that MAYBE in 4 years they won't be allowed to participate.

Somehow I think that "maybe" will be forgotten in 4 years.

But regulation of an industry is bad. Of course. Because we saw how well deregulating the financial juggernaut worked.

And that (in conclusion), is why I'm honked off at the Democrats and, in particular, Madame Disingenuous Bullshit Speaker.

One of the ones I added for Oklahoma specifically excludes any judicial system "based on international or Sharia Law." Are you fuckin' kidding me?

Totally crazy, but I guess it's a good strawman to fire up the base. I wonder how crazy a strawman one could get away with, "We need a law against fucking goats in public, the Democrats have had control of congress for years and have never passed any legislation to prevent public goat fucking. It's about time we stood up for family values and put an end to this."

I wonder how crazy a strawman one could get away with, "We need a law against fucking goats in public, the Democrats have had control of congress for years and have never passed any legislation to prevent public goat fucking. It's about time we stood up for family values and put an end to this."

As Jon Stewart said earlier this week "I'm hoping that people attend our rally with a prior understanding about the immorality of child molestation."

One of the ones I added for Oklahoma specifically excludes any judicial system "based on international or Sharia Law." Are you fuckin' kidding me?

I wonder if it can also be used to disallow any legal defense based on these laws, as in preventing someone from invoking Sharia law in defense to an honor killing.

as in preventing someone from invoking Sharia law in defense to an honor killing.

Isn't it already the case that you can't use "my religion told me too" as a defense for murder/assault/etc?

There should be a big penalty for that, Tep. At the very least, I'd let Sebelius climb up their asses with a toothbrush.