Will Obama supporters call Kerry a racist?

Kerry on the fact that Obama is, uhm, you know, black.

“It would be such an affirmation of who we say we are as a people if we can elect an African American president, a young leader who is obviously a visionary and got an ability to inspire people,” Kerry said. “It will give us an ability to talk to those countries, to in some cases go around their dictator leaders to the people and inspire the people in ways that we can’t otherwise.”

The Massachusetts senator said Obama has an ability to perhaps even empower moderate Islam “to be able to stand up against the racial misinterpretation of a legitimate religion.” Asked by a reporter what gave Obama the credibility to do so, Kerry said, “Because he’s African American. Because he’s a black man, who has come from a place of oppression and repression through the years in our own country. We only broke the back of civil rights, Jim Crow, in the 1960s here. Everybody in the world knows this is a recent journey for America too. And everybody still knows that issues of skin and discrimination still exist.”

Huh. Gee, so will Kerry be called a racist for pointing out that Obama is black? How would the US otherwise *not* be able to inspire moderates Muslims? Oh, right, because our president would be white.

Huh.

Harry Potter and higher education

Harry Potter and higher education

Wtf?

I thought about leaving it at just the 'wtf' line, but then I read further down into the article and got to this;

"If somebody says this isn't worth a Yale class, I would say if we were just reading the Harry Potter books for their literary merit ... I would probably agree with them. [But] the lens of the Harry Potter books actually makes theology ... easier to understand," she said. "It's amazing how many connections you can draw between the theology that we're reading outside of class and the Harry Potter that we've known for 10 years."

"Wtf" doesn't do this justice, I have to spell it out. What the fuck are you talking about? Connections between theology and Harry fucking Potter? What, because both could be argued as fantasy? Or are you talking more about the literally endless "connections" between almost any freaking work of literature in the last two thousands years and theology?

It's called the human fucking condition, you moron! And this dumbass got accepted to Yale? Ever since mankind became aware of his own mortality every single thing we've ever done, written, painted, built, destroyed or worshiped has "connections" to theology. In short, everything about humanity itself has "connections" to theology.

I love how every generation or two people suddenly 'discover' something that has already been known since pretty much time immemorial. The human condition itself has "connections" to theology. Every man, woman and child that ever existed has "connections" to theology.

But it takes a Yale class in Harry fucking Potter to explain it to the current crop of morons that think they've discovered some new twist, some new wrinkle that no one before them has discovered. This, in and of itself, has "connections" to theology, as it's all connected to our mortality and understanding of it.

I got my GED over 20 years ago while in jail for drunk driving and even I can figure this shit out. These people have to go to Yale for the same thing?

The time for federaly regulated national health care is now, people!

Taking into consideration the abuses and incompetence of the Bush administration and the larger GOP failures and abuses over their time in power, is everything the federal government does really a failure?

Social Security, despite it's many failings, is not a failure. It has, in fact, worked almost perfectly as planned. It is one of, if not the most, successful federal programs ever. The FDA has provided us with one of the worlds safest food supplies. The EPA, once again taking into consideration the Bush administration, ensures we have clean water and air, has it been, over all, a failure?

For the most part, most federal programs have been mostly successful. Of course there is waste and abuse, just as there are in any private sector industry. Efficiency alone is not the end all be all measurement of success. Cheaper does not mean better, and some things shouldn't be forced or even expected to turn a profit anyway.

Private for-profit health care has been a disaster in the last couple of decades. As the world labor market turns against us, it's becoming clearer and clearer that the private sector is unable to provide health care for the entire country based on profit and loss alone. I honestly don't see where people can argue continuing the private sector only health care system as 'effective' in any way.

And yet, watch out for the knee jerk, any mention of federally regulated health care will immediately be pounced on as a looming failure of epic proportions. It can not be worse than what we have. You can always buy extra insurance, in fact you can do so right now. People buy it all the time, and they will continue to buy it.

Employer provided health care was the aberration, not the norm. The US was well on it's way to emulating European style national health care before the industrial revolution kicked us and the US economy into over drive. Because our labor pool was so spread out and competition for manual labor intensive workers was so fierce, employers had to compete for workers and thus the employer provided health and retirement system was born.

Now the market dictates manual labor is shit. No more can someone just put in a 'good days work' and expect a living wage. There are so few new jobs being created in the US employers can pretty much pick and choose who they want to hire. Buddy of mine manages the local Papa Johns and the last ad they ran they had like 50 applications the first day for a pizza place job, and the apps ran the gamut from high school kid to middle aged with a wide selection of education and experience.

We can not continue to compete alone against the rest of the world. It's market fucking reality, people! It has nothing to do with whether you think government regulation is good or bad, it's simple market fucking reality. As long as the entire freaking world subsidizes it's workforce with government supplied health care the US will continue to bleed jobs like a stuck pig.

And despite what Romney claimed in Michigan, these jobs are NOT coming back. Other countries have lower pollution standards, lower labor and work safety standards, and they subsidize their industries with government paid health care. How the fuck are we supposed to compete against that? How is our vaunted 'American ingenuity' going to stand against that?

It's market fucking reality, it's capitalism, bitches. The same consumer system that people so hate to love is what's driving US jobs away, and it's our insanely stupid adherence to all facets of profit and loss that keeps us at an extreme disadvantage against the entire rest of the world.

What other nations health care systems look like, how they operate, how efficient they are, or how readily available services are doesn't matter dick squat. The only thing that matters is it's there and it allows everyone in the world to compete at an advantage against the US.

For profit health care and retirement is not the line to draw to make a stand behind. Keeping to it will kill us economically, it's already strangling us. Pretty soon it will choke us to death.

Obama's time is not now.

I really don't see how people think Obama is all that different than any other politician. Babel I believe has posted a number of links about how he came up through the old Tamany Hall style political system, even his early quest for church support even though he wasn't really all that religious to begin with. Then he 'attends' a church for 20 years and only just now, when everyone else notices it, rejects and denounces his preacher of 20 years? If that isn't old skool political pandering I don't know what is.

I see Obama's claims of 'change' and 'hope' hinging mostly on one thing, the fact that's he's bi-racial with hints of other than Christianity in his background and that as a result he can presents a fresh new face to the world.

All his talk about bipartisanship is hooey, as neither side wants to reconcile with the other. They make their political bread and butter demonizing each other, why the hell would they want to work together, lose their respective base support, and further marginalize themselves by increasing voter apathy and disinterest in the political process? Because you know that as soon as both sides start working together to get things done no one is going to pay attention anymore. We only pay attention to train wrecks and freak shows, that's the reality today.

So how is Obama gonna change a system neither side of the two party system wants to change? They change the system, they can't game it when their in power. Yeah it sucks when you're in the minority, but when you get in the majority you got it made, and neither side wants to change the status quo. I just don't see how Obama is going to change squat.

Instead I see the minority GOP running circles around him while he talks pretty and compromises to get them to and they never do, and they never will. Modern Republican politics are based on morality, and just as with morality itself the pious will never compromise. The Democrats will compromise, the Republicans won't. Most of the big name Republicans retiring this cycle, or that have retired in the last couple of years, have been the old skool fiscal cons and moderates. The GOP is becoming even more radical in it's morality based politics, that McCain has had to do and say what he has, even after the utter failure of Bush, is proof enough of the path the GOP has chosen.

We need Obama like when we needed Clinton, after the shit is over, when we can afford to take chances and try new shit and compromise. Obama's time is coming, I just don't think it's now.