World of Suck

That is latest reason why abortion should be banned.

“Watch a sonogram of a 15-week baby, and they have movements that are purposeful,” Rep. Michael Burgess, a former obstetrician, said Tuesday.
“They stroke their face. If they’re a male baby, they may have their hand between their legs. If they feel pleasure, why is it so hard to believe that they could feel pain,” he added. Read more

I'm not sure whether to be grossed out that this former obstetrician was watching sonograms for fetuses to put their hands between their legs or think the man an idiot for drawing such a broad conclusion without the support of the scientific community.

Her daughter's disability is no excuse for everyone else's discomfort.

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (AP) -- A woman says she and her 5-year-old developmentally disabled daughter were thrown out of a theater during a "Beauty and the Beast" performance because the girl was making giggling and humming noises she makes when she's happy.[..] "They did not ask me to leave. They told me I had to leave." [..]

Theater marketing director P.J. Prokop denied that.

He said the girl was distracting other theater-goers and the group was offered different seats. Audience members "were turning around; they were looking; they were also kind of gesturing," Prokop said.

"It is the theater's responsibility to try and ensure that everyone can hear and have a good time," he said.

Whether or not the other patrons were "obviously discomfited" is not the issue - what is the issue is Samantha's lack of preparation beforehand. If she knew her daughter couldn't sit quietly through the performance she had the following options: look for seats where her daughter would be the least distracting to others, call the theater ahead of time and ask for advice, try and prep her daughter at home by watching some movies and getting her used to being quiet in smaller stages before attending a large performance.

But no, like so many parents who feel "empowered" by their child's disability they use it as an opportunity to grab some attention, mostly for themselves because really it's society that needs to change.

Torres plans to take up the theater on an offer to conduct sensitivity training for ushers.

She is also working with the Rhode Island Developmental Disabilities Council to develop a guide on how entertainment venues can prepare for people with disabilities.

"I think it's going to have a happy ending for a lot of people," she said.

Really you think so? You think all those theater goers are going to thank you for forcing them to endure a little kid who can't keep quiet or keep still during a performance they paid to see? Ushers need to be educated by someone who threatens their job or the theater with a lawsuit because a disabled child can't have a private performance? Get over yourself Samantha. Next time don't fucking take your kid if she can't manage socially acceptable behavior. The rest of us paid to see the show, not your kid.

Since when have conservative men EVER cared about someone else's pain?

The House Judiciary Committee approved the proposed Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act in a party-line 20-12 vote last week. The bill bans abortions 20 weeks after fertilization unless the woman's life is in danger. (UPI)

Really? Pain? Wtf do you assholes know about pain. What about the pain women have felt for millenia in childbirth? What about women who die from pregnancy complications? It's quaint how the sudden concern for "pain" is now a national issue. Imagine if that were extended to all living creatures. Think that would go over well in Texas if calves were protected because turning them into veal would cause them "pain".

Not to mention that there's no scientific basis for the determination that a fetus feels pain. But that's just a trivial, science-y fact. It has no relevance when it comes to emotional posturing.

The conservative war on women continues unabated. I really hope Hillary runs and wins the next presidential election. It's time a real woman was in charge.

He saw something he wanted so he kept it.

"I took out the ring and showed it to (Putin). And he put it on and he goes, 'I can kill someone with this ring,'" Kraft said, as quoted by the Post. "I put my hand out and he put it in his pocket, and three KGB guys got around him and walked out."

The diamond-encrusted Super Bowl ring worth about $25,000 changed hands while Kraft was visiting St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2005 with an American business delegation that met Putin. At the time, Kraft had said he gave the ring to Putin as a gift.

But the Post story quoted Kraft as saying at Carnegie Hall's Medal of Excellence gala that he had an "emotional tie to the ring" and wanted it back, but the White House intervened and said it would be in the interest of U.S.-Russian relations to claim it was a gift. (WCBV)

Putin deals with all things the same way from women, to material objects, to the Presidency. What he wants, he simply takes because Putin sees himself as no ordinary man constrained by ordinary rules, gosh no, he's Putin.

It's sad that our government strong-armed Kraft into giving up his ring. No one in their right mind, other than a despot, would instantly glom onto another man's trophy but there's no point in being repetitive. The thief committed daylight robbery, the thief (or his supporters) should ante up. The Ruski should pay for the ring or return it. After all, a Superbowl ring in the Kremlin is like pearls to swine, what does the Russian bureaucracy know about teamwork and competition? Their idea of winning means killing the opposition... literally.

They're wasting time and taxpayer money once again. It's the same old shit over and over, like watching a bulimic binge and puke. Every time they're down it's the same strategy, Republicans think it raises their stature to start waving fetus corpses on a stick as a way to garner support. ENOUGH ALREADY. America is tired of the same rhetoric. Women are tired of being targets of a political joust. CUT THE SHIT YOU FUCKTARDS. Don't you have any real work to do? Like say, fixing the economy? Keeping the banks in line? Solving international problems with China? Israel? Iran? North Korea?

WHY THE FUCK CAN'T YOU PEOPLE DO THE JOB YOU'RE BEING PAID TO DO? WOMEN ARE NOT CRIMINALS!

Check your fucking statistics, people are more concerned about their job than if some girl they don't know got knocked up and wants to end her pregnancy. It's none of your goddamned business, politicians don't know shit about medicine and should keep their fucking noses out, expect to ensure people can get the treatment they need. GOVERNMENT SHOULDN'T DICTATE MEDICAL POLICY.

Fuck you Republicans. Fuck you Pro Life douchebags. If you don't like abortion THEN DON'T FUCKING HAVE ONE.

When it comes to screaming at enlisted I tend to think Marines first then Army, Navy comes in distinct third.

The U.S. Navy has updated its text messaging etiquette to use mixed-case rather than all capital letters.

Officially, the move is to make the messages easier to read and save money. Communications within the Navy have been all caps since the 19th century.

"If an ancillary benefit is that sailors reading message traffic no longer feel they're being screamed at, that's a good thing too," a Navy official said.(UPI)

I understand the history behind the caps, back before the advent of mobile communications there was teletype, which was inherently single case. Keeping it to all caps meant eliminating a level of discretion of those tasked with decoding and delivering the message. It also inferred a sense of imperative. The fact that this standard of rigor carried over into texting, however, is somewhat amusing. It shows a level of obedience that most can't fathom.

ASCII has supported upper and lowercase for 50 years. At least now we know how long it takes at least one armed service to catch up to changes in technology.

Getting a speeding ticket rarely puts someone in a good mood. Pleading guilty and sending a check to pay that speeding ticket because it would require a long drive back to some little, backwoods "shitty town" to contest the ticket typically would put someone in a less good mood. Expressing how he felt about Liberty, NY, got Willian Barboza charged with aggravated harassment and he still had to make a shitty two hour plus drive to that "shitty town".

Granted, writing “Fuck your shitty town bitches" on your citation is a bit childish. But when annoyed some people do childish things. However, the fact that Liberty called a childish outburst aggravated harassment has earned them the "shitty town" moniker. Deal with it bitches, because it is ironic that a town called Liberty has no concept of that very principal.

Let me help the folks of Liberty out. Here are a few definitions:

lib·er·ty [lib-er-tee]
1. freedom from arbitrary or despotic government or control.
2. freedom from external or foreign rule; independence.
3. freedom from control, interference, obligation, restriction, hampering conditions, etc.; power or right of doing, thinking, speaking, etc., according to choice.

Certain parties in Liberty may not have liked Willian's chosen way of speaking (or rather writing), but you'd think with a name like Liberty they'd support his right to do it. Perhaps Liberty needs to change its name to something else. To something that carries a bit less inferred moral responsibility. Willian suggested "Tyranny". I might suggest "Sanctimonious". I think it's got a certain ring to it. And thinking that a few naughty words is threatening is certainly sanctimonious.

Ever have a day when it seems like everyone one is getting in your way? First it was the old bitty that pulled out of the side street, cut in front of me, put on her left signal and stopped because of on coming traffic. Then the brainless teenager who walked in front of my car when I was trying to get out of a parking spot and stood there while she yapped on her cellphone looking toward a window on the second floor of building seemingly unaware of anything else. She then walked backwards across the street still looking in the same direction while a line of cars waited. Then the plethora of motorized shopping carts that clogged the aisles in the store and seemed to be parked right in front of the items I wanted.

Yup, one of those days.....

They were just curious. They didn't mean any harm. I guess it should just be OK then and a clerk magistrate decided it wasn't a big enough deal to criminally charge the seven people with trespass. The water supply for the City of Boston tested OK after all, so the group didn't engage in any hanky panky (well, I guess we can't be totally sure on that account) or sabotage. Everybody is fine and no one got hurt.

Personally, I think the clerk magistrate is an idiot. Trespassing is trespassing and they should all be charged. How could seven supposedly intelligent people not know that three padlocks indicate "keep out". Even if all they had in mind was “their education and career interests” for entering a secured area, security at a water supply should be taken seriously. The State Police understand that and they are appealing the magistrate's decision.

It is true that even if the group had terrorism on their mind, it is unlikely that seven people could carry in enough of any agent to adulterate the water to the point of harming the masses. However, it could be a scoping trip. And even if the water supply itself is not a target, what about interruption of distribution? Even if this group had no ill intent, trespassing at a sensitive location should be taken seriously.

I would suggest that anyone with “education and career interests” about public water supplies take a class. Most people would find it a snooze, filled with words like turbidity, flocculation, and disinfection. Also, if these folks took a class they would find that a reservoir is not where all the "fun" is. That would be at the treatment plant. If these folks were geeks that get goose bumps at the thought of the engineering practices behind the scenes at a water treatment plant, perhaps they should look at the EPA's website.

The link above is a bit remedial, but its a start. And far better than trespassing and scaring the crap out of a city that had just been terrorized by a bomb.

The title of her article seems clear: Fathers should act like fathers, not Mr. Moms but the message is as clear as mud. She seems to imply that men need to revert to the macho 1950's tough-love, belt-whuppin era of days gone by. Nurturing, coddling, enfolding is for sissies. What men really need is to give their brat a good smack on the ass and to yell "buck up ya fuckin' pussy" because, according to her, that's how men *really* want to be.

"Father knows best" is long gone. But in an era of shifting gender roles, the maternalization of child care doesn't make sense either. For Father's Day, let's celebrate the complementary role that both parents play, with separate but equally fine styles.

Sounds like the conservative mantra in another, happy Father's Day! format. It's the Catholic church's doctrine against same sex marriage: Men Must Be Masculine, Women Must Be Feminine. No if's, and's or but's thank you.

But what? What do the statistics say? What about those Nordic countries where men are on par with women in terms of child rearing? Are they going to hell in a handbasket? Are they all sissified poofters? Is all this making men feel marginalized? Yes! At least according to Elaine.

Sometimes dads themselves feel inadequate about their child care abilities. Feeling this way can lead them to try to do things the way mom does them. Trying to imitate someone else can be very inhibiting.

Well Elaine either the men you're talking to are the weakest sauce in the XY spectrum, or you're just a moron. Maybe both. Having a dick and chest hair doesn't make a man incapable of learning how to change a diaper without the use of duct tape and a staple gun. Having boobs doesn't mean you're the one with the desire to bake cupcakes for kindergarten birthday parties. But what it does mean is that you're incapable of seeing beyond stereotypes and people who break out of those roles frighten you. By the fact you are ignoring the overall success of the modern family and the rise of women in the workforce it seems you want to brush aside reality for a conservative, fairy-tale. Sorry no. Women are not going back behind the apron, waiting at the door with slippers, pipe and a tumbler of Jack.

So here's my suggestion to you, if you can't do better than "Mothers sometimes think fathers are too "tough," while fathers may see mothers as too "soft."" then you really need to evaluate your urge to share your opinion. It did little other than point out the equally obvious fact that you're a moron.

The receipt was stapled to the form. I know this because I was the one that stapled it. Furthermore I remember this clearly because I had trouble folding the two bits of paper neatly into thirds when trying to stuff the envelope. Still somehow when the two pieces of stapled paper reached EyeMed's processing facility the receipt vanished.

Of course it took weeks to be informed of this by mail. When the EyeMed envelope arrived I thought "check!" but instead it was a single form with some numbers that needed to be decoded. Essentially they said "ha ha no, denied."

I understand completely that I have no choice but to trust EyeMed, since I choose to buy my contacts out of their network but it's clear that for every form they reject by "losing" the receipt it's money they save. Some people will forget they submitted their claims. Others won't be bothered to retrieve another copy of their receipt. I am not one of those.

So I called. "I submitted the receipt it was STAPLED to the form you have." They denied ever seeing the receipt. So I got a fax number from the service representative and faxed it. They promised to call me back once it was received. Half a day later no call. So I called and got another representative. And faxed the receipt. They too promised to call. 3 hours later no call. So I called again, this time the woman waited on the phone until the fax was received at her end (a third, different fax number) and yes, she had it, crooked, but it was there.

So is this the end of my trials? We'll see. But know this EyeMed I WILL NEVER CAVE and use your "in service providers" just because you choose to annoy me with your bullshit and subterfuge. I'll see who I want to and you can't bully me into giving that up.

What's next after this? Dating while pooping?

NEW YORK (AP) -- They aren't looking for sex and they're not in need of baby daddies. It's those two things that landed the single ladies of "Pregnant & Dating" on reality TV to begin with.[..]

While some of the on-air dates know about the pregnancies, most of the men have at least one awkward deer-in-the-camera-lights moment when the subject comes up. And then there's the subject of sex, which the show's moms-to-be are happy to mull on air. It's also the subject that generated a gross-out factor among some on social media.

Ok that's gross. Reality TV is pretty disgusting to begin with, encouraging those hungry for fame to demonstrate the worst human qualities just so they'll stand out. But this is just plain tasteless.

I'm not a prude. I think sex and pregnancy, separate or together, is fine. But adding the voyeuristic element of dating to the equation merely panders to the "pregnancy-sex" fetish. Warhol even dabbled in the concept as part of his art-film Trash, but it was meant to shock, along with live scenes of shooting up and nodding off. Turning it into "mainstream" under the coy premise that "these are ordinary women looking for love" isn't art, not any more than Hustler is art. I also take umbrage with the "surprise" factor, putting men on the air simply to record their shock of being setup. Why not go all the way and set the pregnant women up with transgender guys? There you go, a little omgwtf moment for both parties.

Let's face it, even today being obviously pregnant (with some unknown person's child) and looking for an engagement ring isn't a typical chain of events. Which, I suppose is why this morbid show was conceived. It has all the charm of a freakshow, which is what these ladies are setting themselves up to be seen as.

So what's next? A scatological sequel? Dating while pooping? They can film two people chatting and having dinner while sitting on the toilet. Sounds about as appealing...

Git sucks.

Save your ravings about "how it does things that other systems don't" or "how great it is once you learn its COMMAND LINE INTERFACE." Really? REALLY? CLIs are so 1980s folks. They are NOT an improvement.

"But if you have to there's Tortoise Git" yeah, great, sure. That's dandy once you've created your super-secret-code-ring key (because really everyone is just dying to get into your repo and rape your code base, I mean the Chinese are just slavering to get that little Android app you started a year ago and never finished.) BULLSHIT.

Here's what a revision system really needs to do: allow a user to check in and check out code. That's it. Not 'clone', not 'branch', not 'fuckmyselfsidewayswithaspoon'. Check in. Check out. Maybe, MAYBE roll-back or diff. Check in. Check out.

But not Git. Because Git was designed by someone who HATES developers and wants to lick the salty balls of maintainers who, hiding deep in their little burrows, harbor an infernal resentment against those whose code they're forced to maintain. HATE. That's what Git is about HATE.

Well I hate Git and it hates me. I guess we're even. Except that *I* get to choose what CM we're going to use. And from now on it won't be Git.

The "lover of liberty" and self-declared whistle-blower extraordinaire spilled the NSA's beans and then ran. Because he was afraid that he wouldn't get a fair trial in the US. So he went to China...

HONG KONG (AP) -- The American intelligence contractor who disclosed U.S. government surveillance programs fled to Hong Kong because he believed he wouldn't get a fair trial in his home country, the journalist who broke the story said Monday.[..]

Glenn Greenwald of the British-based Guardian newspaper said Edward Snowden chose the semiautonomous Chinese region because it was the least bad option open to him.

It's hard not to point out the stupidity here. I mean China has the very best possible record when it comes to liberty and human-rights, doesn't it? And Hong Kong may have been a hub of economic development, but that's faded since the UK traded it back to China. Also perhaps he failed to notice that China and the US have been making nice-nice with each other as of late. Think Xi would hesitate to hand Snowden back to the US in a heartbeat? Only if he couldn't find enough red ribbon to wrap him with.

I'd really like to know... from whose line are they from?

HOUSTON (AP) -- Officials say a Houston woman accused of stabbing her boyfriend to death with a stiletto high heel told police she was trying to protect herself.

I'm doubting they were some "off the rack" pair of pumps. I'm rather willing to bet they were a "high-end", couture, perhaps even Jimmy Choo. Even better if they were Christian Louboutin, at least the blood wouldn't show. All I can say is you get what you pay for...

Really he's not a good fit in any way shape or form for Massachusetts. Why, oh fucking why do the Patriots think that he's a good choice for their team?

Tim Tebow may still have a future in the NFL after all.

The New England Patriots seem to think so and plan to sign him on Tuesday if he passes a physical.

I hope he fails the physical for his little "bent-knee" seizures. Who needs a quarterback who can't stay on his feet?

Remington Reimer was the valedictorian of the Joshua High School in Texas. He was warned that his mic would be turned off if he strayed from his approved speech. He strayed when he commented about the First Amendment and being threatened with having his mic turned off. The school made good on that promise (read more)

Reimer’s sister posted on her Facebook page that she was proud of her brother and shared the part of the speech that she said was cut off:

“We are all fortunate to live in a country where we can express our beliefs. Where our mikes won’t be turned off, as I have been threatened to be if I veer away from the school-censored speech I have just finished. Just as Jesus spoke out against the authority of the Pharisees and Saducees, Who tried to silence Him, I will not have my freedom of speech taken away from me. And I urge you all to do the same. Do not let anyone take away your religious or Constitutional rights away from you. This will be the first and last time many of you will hear me speak. I wish you all the best and let’s get this race going!”

We are fortunate to live in a country where we can express our beliefs. It is unfortunate that Remington didn't take theater or choir while he was in school. If he had, he may have learned how to project his voice and that silly little mic would have just been a formality. I wouldn't have had a problem being heard and I have a few years of drama club and about six years of choir to thank for that. Sometimes it isn't what you have to say, it's how far you can project it.

Remy, go and speak proud and speak loud. Just pull those shoulders back, take a deep breath, find your diaphragm and let 'er rip. Even if the back of the room doesn't hear you, some will. Keep the message going. And remember, microphones are for amateurs.