Another Thing that Annoys Me

This is probably going to offend a lot of people at least a little bit, but I have to get it off my chest.  I am really annoyed by people who say "Q1", "Q2", etc. when they are talking about quarters of the year.  I may be alone, but I find it to be one of the most subtly annoying bits of corporate-speak imaginable.

An Original Affirmation

Is it my lot in life to wait patiently? If I want to stay where I am, it will be.  I do not want to stand by and cower in the shadows of 'great men', hoping that someday a few rays of sunshine will come my way. I want to bask in the sunlight of my own creativity, my own foresight, and my own sweat. I will take both risk and reward in that.  I have been looking for my door into summer, hoping that it would be around the next corner, all the while not knowing that all I had to do was cut a hole in the wall.

OFA Attacks Koch Brothers for Giving Out Booze, Ok with Penalizing Failure to Purchase Commercial Product

Organizing for Action (OFA) send out the email below yesterday, detailing the dastardly deeds of the left's favorite whipping boys, The Koch Brothers (Dun-dun-dunnnnn).  When you get past the class warfare, the envy, and the assumption that youth are an ignorant class of rubes who will follow anyone giving away free beer straight to their death, the hypocrisy becomes a little bit more clear.  OFA thinks that throwing a party and giving away free alcohol to consenting adults in an effort to celebrate lack of support for an intrusive government edict is some "sick crap."  Yet, by their support of the bill, they favor penalizing these same poor rubes for being too ignorant to purchase a fed-approved commercial product.

The email was written as follows:

This should humiliate anyone who's ever been associated with the Koch brothers. 

One of their anti-Obamacare groups is going to college campuses, giving away free booze to try to bribe young folks out of getting health insurance. 

Let them spend their millions on sick crap like that. Whether they like it or not, they're losing this debate, all because of the work you're doing. We're the group that's capable of putting these groups in their place. 

Here's why I'm writing -- we're facing a huge fundraising deadline on Monday, and I need to know if you'll chip in to help.

According to our records associated with this exact email address, you haven't chipped in yet this year:

    -- Supporter Status: Active 
    -- 2014 Membership: Pending 
    -- Suggested action: Donate $5 or more today.

If I had one thing to say to the Koch brothers, it'd be: "SCOREBOARD!"

Despite the millions of dollars they've spent, more than 5 million Americans have already signed up for private plans through the health insurance marketplace. 

We're beating them through one-on-one conversations, helping people get the facts about getting covered, and dismantling the lies these groups are spreading about health care reform. 

No matter what change we're fighting for, it seems like the Koch brothers have always been on the other side.

Our track record is pretty damn good. We've shown we can beat them, because we're building something bigger, stronger, and smarter than just a pile of money. 

We'll never be able to go toe-to-toe with their checkbook -- and we don't need to, because we have a much more powerful tool in the hundreds of thousands of Americans standing up to make their voices heard.

That's what makes us different, and it's what makes these fundraising deadlines so important.

Your donation matters -- chip in $5 or more today:

https://donate.barackobama.com/Fight-Back-Right-Now

Thanks,

Messina

Jim Messina
Chair
Organizing for Action

Don't Tread On My Obamacare

Regular readers will remember that I have somehow been added to the Obama campaign (for lack of a better word) email list.  The most recent email was simply too good to pass up because it contained this image of the new "Affordable Care Act" bumper sticker:

I have to hand it to them that this is a fairly clever play on the classic "Don't Tread On Me" flag, if one is willing to commit willful ignorance with respect to what "treading" means in any real sense.  The sentiment behind "Don't Tread On Me" is Peace and could be elaborated to, "Don't steal my stuff, make me do things against my will, or otherwise mess with me."  Obamacare is a federal law, including myriad rules, regulations, and mandates piled upon an already highly-regulated, semi-socialist medical system.  Without getting too deep in the weeds, "My Obamacare" could be elaborated as, "my right to healthcare services provided by others at a price not determined by mutual agreement and regardless of my ability to pay."  So, "Don't Tread On My Obamacare" really means, "Don't try to stop me from forcing others, through my agent (the state), to provide me a service they may or may not agree to under voluntary exchange."  What mental contortions must one achieve in order to think that this is the way civilized human should behave?

I've said it before, and I will keep saying it until I feel it is no longer necessary.  Rights are those things that should be respected by others, not provided by them.   

Tax Deductions, Cognitive Dissonance and State Worship

I had an epiphany this morning--in the shower as usual.  I have been working for the last couple of evenings on my taxes, and a family member with whom I have had numerous conversations on the topic came to mind.  He knows a considerable amount about the subject, having worked for an accountant for a number of years and heading a household since the mid-1980's.  He knows the deductions inside and out and keeps up on the vagaries of the code, and he exploits them to his maximum benefit.  For this I do not blame the man.  In fact, I find it quite laudable, as you might imagine.  But, what you don't know about this man is that he has never met a government program he didn't like.  I wonder if the thought has ever crossed his mind that his desires for the State to bring us all to Nirvana are countered by his legal attempts to shirk his duty as a citizen?

Intelligent Design My Foot!

I hit my elbow on the bathroom wall this morning while towelling off.  This was followed by immediate pain and tingling shooting down my forearm and into my fingers that lasted for a minute or two.  "Viola!"  I said to myself.  "People who believe in intelligent design must have never hit their 'funny bone'!  No intelligent designer would leave the ulnar nerve so vulnerable."