Let’s Put A Smile On That Face!

Surprisingly there is a grain of truth to this video as there are studies that show that even the intentional act of smiling can improve your mood.

“Another small but effective step you can take to help you feel better throughout the day is to smile often. Smiling – even if just to yourself – can instantly lift your mood”

That said I don’t think those studies used a stab to the neck to remind you to smile so your results may vary.

Too Big To Fail Redux (or) There Really IS A Regulation Fairy!!!

If my memory serves me I seem to recall writing a little ramble nearly a year ago that suggested that it should be illegal for any company to become ” too big to fail”.  I might have even suggested if a company deemed “too big to fail” requires government rescue it must  either be divided into two or more smaller economically non-critical corporations or, if breaking it up is impossible, such a super critical company must, obviously, become a part of the federal government.

Well lookee lookee at what the regulation fairy brought us this morning!!

Representative Barney Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, would introduce legislation as early as this week. The measure would make it easier for the government to seize control of troubled financial institutions, throw out management, wipe out the shareholders and change the terms of existing loans held by the institution.

Well would you just look at that?!  Kick the Republicans out and a smidgen of common sense regulation takes root 8 months later!  I wonder when the Single Payer Health Care fairy will make her rounds?

Ever Hear How Humans Are The Only Animals To Use Tools?

Yeah…I fucking love THAT joke!

Something Is Wrong In America

A pretty good essay.  Give it a whirl.

What Would Republican Jesus Do?

I can’t help but wonder what Jesus would think if he floated down from his cloud and saw the ideas right wing conservatives have been championing as “Christian” these past ten years.  Let’s take a look at a few of these “Christian” ideals.

• They are against closing a detention facility where we jail scores of people without charge, without a fair process of establishing guilt or innocence, and without the possibility of justice or release.
• They are for torturing people for intelligence even though it goes against the Geneva Conventions, our “morals”, and that it produces completely unreliable intelligence
• They are against a democratic government health care plan that would benefit all of its citizens and not just the wealthy.
• They are for the private insurance industry garnering billions in profits at the expense of countless American lives every year.
• They are for gays fighting and dying for our country so long as they keep quiet about being gay and instead lie and pretend to be straight.
• They are against loving gay couples having the right to be married because, um, I guess that would somehow destroy all Republican marriages?
• They are for promoting the weaponizing of America and advocating our right to bear arms to the extent they encourage carrying guns and assault weapons to church and political rallies.
• They are against detailed fact based sexual education for children in schools
• They are for keeping our children ignorant and instead teaching abstinence only even though it has been proven to be completely ineffective and even counterproductive (counterreproductive?).
• They are against a woman having full control and responsibility of her body and her own sexual reproduction.
• They are for vilifying, terrorizing, and even killing doctors who help women who seek specific kinds of legal medical care.
• They are for prayer and God in school but only if it is Christian prayer and the god is the Lord Jesus Christ.  Any other religion (or none) would constitute blasphemy.

Okay, I suppose Jesus would think that last one is alright since He wasn’t much of a constitutional scholar and wouldn’t understand how illegal such a prayer mandate would be.  Aside from that one point I like to think that Jesus would be a little mortified that his name is so closely associated with a group promoting such bigoted, ignorant, and homicidal ideals.

Of course I’m talking about that leftist socialist hippie Jesus here.  His Dad is a lot more in line with the knuckle dragging branch of the Republican party.

Then again “loving and forgiving” Jesus did have quite the mean streak as well.

So much for love thy neighbor.  Meh…maybe the Republicans are right after all.

When A Camerman And A Parrot Fall In Love

…you just never know what’s going to happen.

No, on second thought, maybe you do.

A Democrat With Balls

To those poor insulted Republicans who say “no” to every health care reform that comes up in the House and Senate Alan Grayson says cry me a river.  Grayson had the balls to come on the Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer and once there pulled no punches in his assessment of the Republicans and their stall tactics…and good for him too.  Kudos to you sir.

And to you neanderthal Republicans out there who disagree with him I encourage you to go ahead and prove him wrong or quit your whimpering.

Here’s Grayson’s speech on the House floor that started all the noise…

And here’s his smack down on the Situation Room.

Good stuff.

Prostitution Experts Speak Up About ACORN

I do hope more Republicans choose to chime in…and just to be bipartisan Eliot Spitzer can chime in too!