Gun Debate At UT Martin

This should be fun! I just got word that Nashville’s Adam Dread and Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign, will debate two folks from the NRA about Tennessee’s guns-in-bars legislation and the Second Amendment in a panel discussion at UT Martin.

The event will be Monday, Sept. 14, from 7-9:00 pm at the University Center Ballroom at UT Martin. Apparently it is part of UT Martin’s “commemoration of the U.S. Constitution.”

The event is free and open to the public. Please note that this is not a town hall discussion, so leave your “Obama is a Fascist Nazi Socialist” signs at home.


Should be a lively discussion!

Clarksville Mayor Defends Anti-Muslim E-Mail

Clarksville Mayor Johnny Piper embarrasses Tennessee with an anti-Muslim hate e-mail, which he thinks is perfectly fine:

Johnny Piper, the mayor of Clarksville, TN, recently forwarded an anti-Muslim email urging all “patriotic Americans” to protest a U.S. Postal Service stamp that commemorates an Islamic holiday. Piper’s email falsely claims that the creation of the Eid stamp was ordered by President Obama. In fact, the stamp was first issued in 2001, during the Bush administration. It was reissued in 2002, 2006, 2007 and 2008. Nevertheless, Piper is defending his email:

“I don’t see any reason why it would be inappropriate,” Piper said.

He said he forwarded the e-mail to provide “information” that others could make up their own minds about.

“I was surprised at a stamp being developed, and would have thought others would be, too,” he said. He added that he did not know what the stamp was commemorating.

Funny how hate works. The e-mail makes the false assumption that a stamp commemorating a Muslim holiday would be initiated by President Obama, harkening back to the “Obama is a secret Muslim” lies from last year’s campaign. And the e-mail also makes the false assumption that anything “Muslim” would also be un-patriotic, as if it’s not possible for a Muslim American to be patriotic.

I’m just sick of this ignorant crap. Snopes debunks the Eid stamp e-mail and notes:

The EID stamp is also not the first or only governmental or commercial recognition of these Islamic holidays in the U.S. The American greeting card manufacturer Hallmark produces a variety of holiday cards celebrating Eid al-Fitr, and the President of the United States, George W. Bush, extended official greetings, issued messages, participated in commemorations of both Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha (even after the September 11 attacks), and promoted the EID stamp via the White House web site.

The American right wing has gone insane. You really have to hate the current president an awful lot to circulate a hate e-mail blaming him for something that your hero George W. Bush actually did -- and which you never even noticed at the time.

I would love to know the source of these kinds of e-mails. And I would love to know why anyone believes anonymous e-mails that arrive in their in box.

The fact that Johnny Piper sees absolutely nothing wrong with circulating an e-mail like this without even checking a resource like Snopes.com makes him look like an ignorant hick. This definitely is not the image we'd like to present to the world as big manufacturers like Hemlock semi-conductor move into the region.

Moving The Bar

This morning on MSNBC I heard Tripp Baird, a “Republican strategist,” say that if there’s a “bipartisan” healthcare bill supported by Olympia Snowe, “it’s not really bipartisan.”

Jeebus.

So now, according to a “Republican strategist,” a healthcare bill with the support of a moderate Republican isn’t bipartisan. Well, Sen. Snowe, you might as well just leave the Republican Party right now because, apparently, they’ve just dumped you. Your vote doesn’t count in the “bipartisan” score-keeping.

Is anyone in the Democratic Party paying attention to this crap? In the quest for the Holy Grail of “bipartisanship,” that elusive pot of gold at the end of the political rainbow, the Republicans keep moving the bar. In other words, Democrats, you are tilting at windmills. It will never happen.

There will never be a “bipartisan” bill because the Republican Party does not want healthcare reform, period. They keep moving the bar. Now, for something to be “bipartisan” it has to have the support of the fringe wackos who will never, ever support Democratic Party policies because their entire raison d’etre is to oppose the Democratic Party. Are you following me here?

The fringe wackos think President Obama will put his voodoo laser-lock mind-magic on school children, turning them into Socialist zombies in a 20 minute speech. The fringe wackos think President Obama isn’t really a citizen and therefore is illegitimate. The fringe wackos believe a government-backed option competing alongside private health insurance is somehow government control over your healthcare.

You want “bipartisanship” with these folks? No, I don't think so.

Monica Novotny asked Baird if there was any healthcare bill the Republicans would support. Baird basically said no. Insurance co-ops, he said, are basically “public option light.” Olympia Snowe’s support isn’t really bipartisan.

In other words, there simply will not be any Republican support for healthcare reform. They’ve been asked and their answer is “NO!”

I hope the Democrats are listening.

Labor Day In Kentucky

My relatives in rural Kentucky were amazed when we told them about Tennessee’s new guns-in-bars/guns-in-parks law. Amazed and aghast.

“Why would they do that? Why would they pass a law like that?” they asked. Then they laughed.

“Y’all can never make fun of Kentucky again!”

That's just swell. When people in rural Kentucky make fun of you, you know it’s bad.

My Kentucky relatives are not crazy tree-hugging liberals. For those who don’t remember, this was our Thanksgiving.

Thanks, Tennessee legislature. We are now laughingstocks of the mid-South.

Parasites

It’s time for a little science lesson. I studied Environmental Science in college, and while I didn’t go further than undergrad, I took enough biology classes to learn the basic principles of parisitism.

From Wiki:

Parasitism is a type of symbiotic relationship between two different organisms where one organism, the parasite, benefits at the expense of the host.

Unlike mutualism, in which both parasite and host benefit from the relationship, parasitic relationships benefit one party while hurting the other. However, one of the things we learned in evolutionary biology is that successful parasites may damage their hosts but do not kill them until the parasite is well-enough established that it can move to a new host. Killing your host before you’re able to move on to a new one, after all, is to sign your own death warrant.

Which is the perfect segue to my healthcare discussion. Once upon a time health insurance was created to pool risk, thereby lowering costs for consumers. This may have been a mutually beneficial relationship in the beginning but somewhere along the way the insurance game changed. It no longer functions to lower costs for consumers. Instead, through tactics like dumping policyholders when they get sick, denying benefits, buying up competitors through mergers and acquisitions, and other tactics revealed by whistleblowers such as Wendell Potter and the California nurses’ union, it functions to serve its own profit and growth at the expense of healthcare consumers. We all suffer; even if you have great insurance, you are paying for those who do not through higher healthcare costs and higher premiums.

The relationship has changed, in other words, to a parasitic one. It is hurting its host--us--with 40 million+ uninsured and skyrocketing costs that bankrupt individuals and hamstring businesses which increasingly cannot afford policies for their employees.

I don’t think, under our modern system, it is hyperbole to call insurance companies “parasites.”

It’s also important to look at what new host these parasitic entities will jump to when they have depleted our current system, which they are very close to doing. I happen to think that it could be a public option with triggers--triggers that will never, ever be met, just as the trigger in Medicare Part D has never, ever been met, despite thousands of seniors falling into the “donut hole.” Without a public option to compete alongside private insurance, there will be no real competition, and no incentive for insurance companies to lower costs. A triggered public option is a fantasy designed to appease scaredy-cat Democrats and give talking heads on TV something to chew on, but it's meaningless.

This healthcare reform discussion has been dominated by industry from day one. Putting the parasite in charge of saving the host might have made sense to someone who forgot that parasites can change hosts. We have only to look at the natural world to see how little sense that makes.

Somalia, Libertarian Paradise!

And now you have cholera! Take that, evil socialism!

Yet Another CCW Holder Involved In Road Rage Incident

Ooops!!! Looks like another one of those law-abiding CCW permit holders is, you know, not:

KNOXVILLE - A Powell woman with a valid handgun carry permit allegedly pulled her gun on an off-duty Knoxville Police Department official this afternoon in an incident that may have been sparked by road rage, authorities say.

Luann Keller, 55, was charged with aggravated assault, a felony, according to KPD Lt. Kenny Miller.

The incident happened about 5 p.m. when KPD Lt. Dusty Lane, who was off-duty and driving his personal vehicle, was going northbound on Clinton Highway, Miller said.

Keller, who was behind the wheel of a Dodge Dakota pickup truck, was driving behind Lane when she began acting aggressively, Miller said.

"She started blowing her horn and then pulled up beside him and pulled a firearm," Miller said. "She points it at him and keeps on going."

Lane called for on-duty marked units, and Keller was taken into custody without incident at the intersection of Clinton Highway and West Emory Road.

As R. Neal pointed out, there have been a few of these incidents in Tennessee lately. For example:

There was an article yesterday, Sunday, August 9, 2009, in The [Maryville] Daily Times, on a "Road rage" incident. While driving down Alcoa Highway an individual alledgedly "waved the handgun" at another individual trying to travel the road. The individual with the reported handgun was arrested and charged with "aggravated assault".

An on-line version of the report is not yet available. The report is in section A, page 4 of the print edition.

The person alledgely "waving" the handgun appears to have a State of Tennessee handgun carry permit. The person's name, age, and city match a record in the handgun carry permit database. This information was not reported in the article.

How often does this happen? Is it tracked? Is it reported?

Reported? Tracked? Hah! Why would anyone want to do that? Why pop that gun nut bubble which pretends every CCW holder is a law abiding citizen carrying a deadly weapon to save you and yours from the boogey man (cough*cough*brown people!*cough*cough) hiding in the bushes?

Instead we get a bunch of redneck yahoos waving their guns around like they've got some kind of amazing superpower that makes them above the law. And as more people carry their guns more places, I predict we will see more incidents of guns being used improperly.

Nobody could have anticipated that!

(h/t, KnoxViews)

Insurance Company Rules

This one is an oldie but a goodie from the folks at Public Service Administration.

I can't believe you tea bag assclowns are actually threatening revolution to defend this crap. What the hell are you people thinking?

Petty Party

Could conservatives get more pathetic? As if the phony “death panels” weren’t bad enough, we have been given a string of fauxtrage pearls this week from various conservative sources.

First we have the wackos behind Sept. 8: National Keep Your Child At Home Day. These are people like Florida Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer, who thinks President Obama’s Sept. 8 address about education is really a means of socialist indoctrination.

Okay, EVERYBODY PANIC! Education Secretary Arne Duncan has urged school principals around the country to let students tune in to the address, which obviously means Obama will use his magical laser-lock mind-meld powers to turn kids into socialist zombies. Frightened wingnut parents are keeping their kids home from school that day.

Wow. Maybe you guys could spend the day at the library with your kids looking up the definition of “socialism.”

Then we have Kathryn Jean Lopez sparking a phony flag flap. Writes Andrew Sullivan:

Kathryn Jean Lopez suggests that there should be "uproar" over the redesign of the U.S. Mission to the U.N. website, which no longer features a prominent American flag image at the top. This makes us less patriotic than the French, and is presumably a prelude to mandatory Esperanto lessons and black helicopters and stuff. I, for one, am incensed.

This goes nicely with the fauxtrage generated over Nancy Pelosi’s supposed banning of patriotic Muzak on congressional hold buttons. Apparently, if you listen to the wingnuts (or watch Fox News), Pelosi has a thing for smooth jazz and has used her awesome powers to mandate jazz on the congressional phone system.

You just can’t make this stuff up.

I realize some folks are just amazed that conservatives seem to have gone off the deep end lately. But it's little different from the craziness we saw when Bill Clinton was president. Seems there's nothing like having a Democrat in the White House to make the right wing go completely nuts.

Lamar Alexander: Wanker Of the Day

Sen. Lamar Alexander thinks "it’s dangerous” for the government to write laws dealing with end of life issues.

Reports WPLN's Nina Cardona:

Tennessee Republican Lamar Alexander says it’s dangerous to write laws dealing with end of life decisions.

Oh that’s great. I am so glad to know Sen. Alexander has come out against the death penalty.

Wait, that’s not what he said?

Hmmm. Okay, at least let me look up all of his vocal opposition to the famous “Palm Sunday Compromise” orchestrated by fellow Tennessee Senator Bill Frist that interefered in the Terri Schiavo end of life issue.

Wow, can’t seem to find any of those, either.

Okay, let’s look at what he actually said:

“Almost every doctor I know has these sort of discussions with families and with patients as part of an ongoing relationship. For the government to get involved in this at all is risky business and fraught with misunderstanding and a bad idea.”

Let’s be clear on what you are opposing, Senator Alexander. You are opposing Medicare reimbursement of doctors for these discussions.

In other words, you are objecting to Medicare payment of a component of the doctor-patient relationship you admit is quite commonplace, something which “almost every doctor” you know does with their patients.

You are in essence saying that something which is so common that “almost every doctor” you know does it should either be free, or patients should pay for it out of their own pocket.

You, Sen. Alexander, are an asshole.