This gives me hope that things aren’t as lost as I think. I don’t care who you vote for, just don’t vote blindly based on appearances. Vote based on qualifications and what you think the country needs.

A blue dude in a red state or a red dude in a blue state. The familiar “my vote doesn’t count” mantra. Just because your candidate may not win does not mean that your vote didn’t count.

The system is built on what the majority decides. It is set up that way so that vocal minorities don’t force the country in a direction most people aren’t comfortable going.

We don’t all agree all the time on the direction we want to proceed. That’s why we have elections every four years. If the minority is sufficiently persuasive they can convince some of the majority to change their minds and change to the direction desired by the (previously) minority.

We tend to live in the short term. When we are on the losing side of things we tend to forget the times when things went our way and vice versa. If you feel you are always on the losing side, well…perhaps your views aren’t as mainstream as you think they are. Everyone thinks they are mainstream. We surround ourselves with friends who agree with us because it’s comfortable to not have your beliefs challenged every day. I do it, you do it, we all do it. It’s human nature. We have to remind ourselves that living in echo chambers isn’t a fair representation of the broader world. We have to work to expose ourselves to ideas outside of our groupthink. Make up our own minds about the issues of the day, not just taking the word of the news, the pundits, our friends, our enemies. Truth is mutable and you won’t find it cut from whole cloth in any one location. You have to put the puzzle together for yourself and not simply shave off the edges to make the picture you are comfortable seeing.

Attitudes change in cycles. The country goes through periods when it is more conservative or more liberal. Generations grow up determined to not be like their parents and thus things change.

So again, if your candidate doesn’t win tomorrow that doesn’t mean your vote didn’t count. Just because you didn’t get your way this time doesn’t mean that your vote is pointless. You count as a member of the opposition to the majority. Make a convincing case for your preferences and perhaps you will find yourself in the position of being in the majority when the lake next turns over.

Go vote. There are people in other countries risking death to do what you can do either completely unencumbered or for simply the price of showing a photo ID – the same thing you have to do to use a credit card or write a check.

It’s completely shameful that people in this country don’t vote because they feel their vote won’t count if they don’t win. The overall turnout for an election is shameful. We need to be sure we exercise our Constitutionally protected right lest it be taken from us without us even noticing.

I don’t agree with all of their posters – they do tend to lean a  bit too liberal – but I need this one. Not enough to buy it, but it’s great. And they do let you download high-res, large pictures on their Flickr site.

Okay, for anyone offended by such, this is gonna be foul mouthed and political.

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I cannot believe this is my choice other than Claire McCaskill this fall.

Republican Congressman Todd Akin, currently the GOP nominee running for Senate against incumbent Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill, justified his absolute opposition to abortion (no exceptions for rape) by claiming that the victims of “legitimate rape” have biological mechanisms in place to reject and prevent pregnancy.

Aside from whether or not there is a medical basis for this statement (pretty sure there isn’t any scientific evidence of such) – it’s an idiotically phrased statement. It makes it look like he thinks there is such a thing as legitimate rape. If he does, then there are larger problems than his foot in mouth.

I’m pretty sure I’ll have to not vote in this race. I sure as hell can’t vote for Claire and I will hate myself just as much if I vote for someone this obviously stupid. Not to mention that stupid this deep can only lead to trouble down the road.

These 100% agreement or nothing candidates that we keep getting out of the primary process is keeping us from having candidates that we agree with on even 30% of issues and leaves us stuck with 100% disagreement.

Sigh. Where’re my lottery winnings so I can buy my own island?

If it wasn’t that I know damn well that this was simply a naked attempt to gin up campaign dollars I might edge towards being offended by Michelle Obama’s plea for total strangers to wish Barack a happy father’s day.

He’s. Not. My. Father.

I had one. He was a good one. I don’t need a replacement or a surrogate.

If I had a father, he wouldn’t look a lot like Barack Obama. More to the relevant point, he wouldn’t act like Barack Obama.

For which I am eternally grateful.

He’s not even a father of the nation. He’s not fathered anything except for Sasha & Malia. He’s not even the father of political division, discord, polarization or egotism – those have been around since there were more than 3 human beings together in one place. He’s not really done anything except run for office and vote “present.” All those other things Michelle says he does that make him deserving of felicitations are all things his own children should be honoring him for, not strangers. If they aren’t doing it sufficiently for the Narcissist in Chief then I’m not sure what to tell him.

These people living in the White House just creep me out more and more every week. I wish we could get back to having distant, powerful, dignified families as occupants therein instead of having people elected on basis of popularity, skin color or perceived coolness. I don’t need or want to feel connected to my President. I want him to project competence and solidness so that I trust him in a crisis. That’s it.

I want politics the fuck out of my daily life. I don’t want to have to keep tabs on my government. Sadly, I guess I have to. Either that or I try to become blissfully ignorant. The majority of the nation seems to be content to vote for political offices like they vote for American Idol and to have wagging governmental fingers dictate to them what to eat, how to live, what thoughts are approved… I’m pretty sure I can’t do that…

Make an effort to use at least one of these words in every post from here on out. A significantly larger list than the 7 words you can’t say on television.

This is one of the best Cthulhu election sites I’ve ever seen.

Something else I need to ask, since there will be those wondering the same thing: This interview is being published purely as text—no audio or video. Are you unexpectedly camera shy?

It’s not me. My narcissism is boundless—which it would have to be, being mine. But, upon those rare occasions that I’ve appeared and spoken to mortals: ‘The madness! The horror! The indescribable unpleasantness!’ That ring a bell? There are books about it.

So, if elected—

When elected. Let’s not joke: I’m the Squid from Madrid. Not literally. Again: Instantonic DBrane oasis in the twenty-third dimension. It’s, like, three doors down from Gallifrey.

Was that a joke?

Sure; why not.

Be sure to click through the Issues tabs. Beats SMOD by a mile.

Ia! Ia! Cthulhu fhtagn!

So, I thought the government was going to save money on the government supplied healthcare by having us all die at 70 or so by simply refusing us treatment late in life.

But now there is this from a physicians’ healthcare advocacy group:

“As role model to millions of Americans, the president has a responsibility to watch what he eats in public,” said Susan Levin, nutrition education director with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM).

…

A release noted that eating processed meats was shown in a recent study to increase the risk of premature death.

While I have no problem with President Finger Wag being told what to eat and what not to eat, there are a couple of things here that bother me. First, the whole “in public” thing. They are making (and we are letting them make) food into something as shameful as heroin or crack. We’ll be hoarding Twinkies and setting up black markets for cheeseburgers. Food is not shameful. Overindulgence – in anything – is the problem and criminalizing the food isn’t going to make overindulgence go away.

Secondly, although the death panels are going to assess whether or not we will get that hip replacement or simply be put out to pasture at 70 because the life we have left isn’t worth the cost to maintain us in good quality, they want to make us stop eating food that is bad for our health. Wouldn’t it save time and money if they simply let us eat ourselves to death and die before 70?

So many things about these days bother me but top of the list are all the finger wagging, head shaking, for your own good you simpleton, holier than thou nannies. Why do these people get to suck up all the oxygen in the room?

When he’s on, he’s on. Velociman – filthy, crude and a hell of a writer.

I call myself a one percenter not because I am insanely wealthy, but because I cannot relate to the insanely wealthy trustafarians currently enjoying a nice autumn camp out with no worries. Also, their retarded, unwashed aunts and uncles.

While you’re over there reading the rest of the above, check out the post right above it, too, for his totally depressing, but also funny in an endy way, take on the next presidential election.

The only thing I need to know about Bachmann is I want to keep my fucking bunnies away from her. I’ve seen those eyes before.

When we teach children that everyone is a winner, they all grow up to be losers. Why work hard when everyone wins anyway?

An excellent post over at Word Around the Net on the Occupy protests, if you haven’t seen it yet.

They’ve always been cared for by others, and on the cusp of adulthood, they have no idea how to become adults. They demand that someone feed them, take them to the bathroom, entertain them and tuck them in at night. At the age of two, that’s cute. At twenty-two, it’s pathetic.

RTWT. Precisely why I lament sometimes that I have no children. Depending on these losers to take care of me when I no longer can isn’t gonna be feasible. I better start buying lottery tickets…

UPDATE:

So now they want to stamp money with “facts.” Of course they don’t want all the facts on there. Just the convenient ones. And isn’t it illegal to deface currency?

I don’t get why Iowa is accorded so much importance in presidential races. Is it simply tradition?

Because listening to the Iowans interviewed on NPR about the straw poll, the caucuses, etc, they sound like a bunch of arrogant wankers. Things like “If Perry thinks he can win without coming to the straw poll, he’s got another think coming.”

It’s a freakin’ popularity contest with bribed and hand packed in voters. I have never seen why it is accorded any media time at all or why anyone would be swayed by the Iowa straw poll.

Iowans don’t vote red in presidential elections anyway, so why do the rest of the Republicans in the  nation look to them to guide them in their primary votes?

The Republicans seem to haz it.

I heard Rand Paul today on the radio saying how if they get a vote on Cap, Cut & Balance then no matter what the outcome of the vote, Obama won’t be able to go out and tell the public that the Republicans want to cut off social security checks and veterans’ pay. Because it simply won’t be true any more – they’ll have shown that they have a plan and it doesn’t include those things so he can’t say it anymore.

On what planet can he not lie? He’s been lying since before he ran for office the first time and it’s served him well. Why on earth would he stop now? The media will fact check him and make sure the public knows both sides? Again, on what planet will this happen?

Both parties are playing politics with an enormous problem to which both parties contributed that was decades in the making. We have no real solutions being offered by either side. The only people with the will to change things can’t do it alone and they generally have bad ideas about how to fix the problems that can only be good in the short term if at all.

The public screams for cuts, but when it comes to cutting the programs from which they benefit or programs that make them feel like bad people to cut then they aren’t for cuts anymore. Cuts for thee but not for me. Just like everything else in human society. What they want from their elected representatives won’t fix the problems and the loudest voices are the kooks on either side.

Meanwhile the ever growing independents are hunkered down in between the kooks wishing for sanity to somehow visit Washington because they sure as shit won’t listen to voices that don’t scream.

Sadly, also full of aggravating truths.

The media are loyally doing their best for the Flatline Administration by insisting that the dead parrot economy is not deceased but merely resting for an ”unexpectedly” longer period of time than had been expected.

Read the whole thing.

Mary Still, state representative for the Columbia, Missouri area, had an op-ed out in which she claims that raising taxes is the only way to fix our revenue generation.

She was on the air this morning with Greg Knapp on 710AM and she couldn’t answer his question about how much our spending has risen vs. how much our revenue has dropped. All she could offer was that she knew the university got less funding and therefore, that spending has obviously gone down. Raising taxes is the only answer. (disclaimer: my account below will pull from both what I remember her saying this morning and her linked op-ed so each point may not be found in the op-ed)

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