Thorsday Tonic - Anti-Science

A refreshing dose of rationality on a Thorsday morning. Sit back and enjoy, "Anti-Science", another excellent rap created by the inimitable Tombstone Da Deadman.

Watch it! This song will stay in your head all day!

Time For A Little Color!

I'll take that cerise-colored house, please!

We are having a very dry spring here, after an extremely dry and mild winter.  I noticed the other day that the pine tree in our yard is showing signs of stress, it's needles faded and slightly rusty looking.  Today I saw that the grass in the local parks is dry and yellow like the end of July in a hot summer! Our spring flowers were forced out too early by the unseasonable heat in March and their colors faded within days - sometimes hours - of first blooming. When I was planting some summer annuals this weekend, the earth in some places was so dry it collapsed like gravely sand. I've never seen anything like it here before.

I hope we get rain soon and plenty of it!

Anyway, all of this dryness and wonky weather made me long for spring showers, the soft caress of cool damp fog on the cheeks and the sweet, clean fresh air heavy with the fragrance of lilacs after a late spring rain.  I am longing for deep, bright colors and cool refreshing damp air. And I know just the place to find that!
(via Newfoundland on facebook)

Some houses are wide.
Some houses are thin.
Some are so thin
you can hardly get in.


But wherever you go,
you will hear someone say,
"Come over to my house.
Come over and play!"






Come over to my house.
The fishing is great!
They bite all the time
and you don't have to wait.


Come over some day
and bring plenty of bait.






You can play on my roof, 
but my house is so tall,
it's a long way downstairs
to go after a ball.


My house is bright pink
and it's happy and gay.
Our streets are wet water.
We like it that way.




Every house in the world
has a ceiling and floor.
But the ones you'll like best
have a wide-open door.


Some houses are rich
full of silver and gold.
And some are quite poor,
sort of empty and old.

Some houses are marble
and some are just tin.
But they're all, all alike
when a friend asks you in.


There are so many houses
you'll meet on your way.
And wherever you go,
you will hear someone say  . . .
"Come over to my house!
Come over and play!"
From Come Over to My House, Theo.LeSieg (Theo. Geisel)


And, just for good measure - one last dose of color and glory - and an iceberg!
You're welcome!

Isn't That Just Ducky?

Hello, People!  I am on the road again!

I love driving with my human. I am her co-pilot!

Me and my human are on a roadtrip! I love to watch the world whizzing by.

I love to watch my human driving and she loves to be with me. I am her co-pilot!

We are on the road again!

Isn't that just Ducky!

(click to play!)        


(Willie Nelson - On the Road Again)

This Won't Hurt A Bit!

Amber Cooper with her son Jaden

On NPR this morning, an interview with Amber Cooper - a wife, mother, worker and liver transplant recipient - reminded me to get cracking on a healthcare series. 

Amber Cooper had a successful liver transplant when she was ten years old. She grew up, married, had a child, bought a house and holds down a job. She is a great success story for liver transplantation. She is a great success story full stop.

Life-preserving drugs for transplant
patients, as well as for heart disease
and other chronic life-threatening
conditions cost hundreds, even
thousands, per month.

Ms. Cooper requires expensive medications every day of her life to prevent her body from rejecting the transplanted organ that keeps her alive.  Because of her pre-existing condition, health insurance was always going to be a challenge, but Amber had insurance prescription coverage with her employer - until recently. 

At an all-employee meeting, Amber learned that her company was changing their health insurance coverage and the new "coverage" would not cover any of her most urgent healthcare needs.  You can read or listen to the story.

This story is only one of thousands of stories of Americans who literally face life or death decisions every day because they have no access to affordable healthcare services.  Millions of other Americans have no or not enough coverage, and their stories will join these sooner or later. The richest country in the world has made a huge business out of health, life and death. And Republicans fight tooth and nail to preserve it.

I think it is time that people honestly ask themselves: is this morally defensible?

A group called Physicians For a National Health Program put up an excellent webpage with questions and answers that people might have about the relative merits of a single-payer healthcare system compared to the current for-profit system. While I do not agree with everything they have written (more in future posts), overall this page is an excellent source of information to help people form clear and concise responses to the common concerns that many people have about socialized healthcare.

I will end this brief post with one quote from the site linked above, which is, I think, the fundamental reality of our situation in the USA:

"Q. Won’t this result in rationing like in Canada?  A. The U.S. already rations care. Rationing in U.S. health care is based on income: if you can afford care, you get it; if you can’t, you don’t. A recent study found that 45,000 Americans die every year because they don’t have health insurance. Many more skip treatments that their insurance company refuses to cover. That’s rationing. Other countries do not ration in this way." PNHP FAQs.

"If you can afford care, you get it; if you can't, you don't."  Words to ponder.

In a just society, should decent healthcare be a privilege reserved for the wealthy?

transition to atheism

In just over eight minutes, TheraminTrees lays out exactly how a young atheist might feel and think on the journey out of theism.

(I could have done without the weird eyes bit, but that's just me. Everything he says is excellent. Clear and concise.)

Tuesday Tonic - Beyond Reason

Sit back and enjoy another rap inspiration on this Tuessday morning.

Tombstone da Deadman:  Beyond Reason

(Facebook)

TAX These Christian Haters, NOW!

The YouTube version of this has been cut to remove the damning evidence of Christian hatred, illegal political influence and the most fetid and revolting inhuman bigotry. Obviously, someone from their ranks wanted to erase the evidence which shows the depth of their bigotry. Luckily, Left Hemispheres posted this uncut version.

This pastor openly tells his congregation of his awesome "solution" to the "problem" of homosexuality - herd lesbians into an enclosure surrounded by an electric fence, and herd the "queers" into another fenced enclosure. And "in a few years, they'll die.'

"I figured a way out — a way to get rid of all the lesbians and queers. But I couldn’t get it passed through Congress. Build a great big large fence, 150 or 100 miles long. Put all the lesbians in there. Fly over and drop some food. Do the same thing with the queers and the homosexuals. Have that fence electrified so they can’t get out. Feed ‘em, and– And you know what? In a few years they’ll die out. You know why? They can’t reproduce." Pastor Charles Worley of Providence Road Baptist Church in Maiden, NC.

Voices shout "Amen!"

He polishes off his remarks by asking his audience to imagine a same-sex kiss -  which "about makes him puke" don't you know. The poor guy!  Don't make him imagine it!  The horror!

There is so much real horror in this video, I hardly know where to start.  Is it the homophobia? The hatred of gays and lesbians - even to sharing a plan for their extermination? Is it the blatant violation of church and state as he tells the congregation how to vote?  It's a toss up right now what is the worst part in the video. But what is truly the worst part about this window into the bloodthirsty wishes of people like this is the reality that this is not a minority view in the Christian church in the USA right now. This is happening right now all over the country. If these people manage to gain any more power, they really will use it to harm other people - starting with gays and lesbians and anyone else who does not conform to the narrow gender roles that are acceptable to Christians.

Please watch and please SHARE!

And oh yeah: TAX CHURCHES!!!

How Much Would You Pay For The Universe?

It's the weekend, People, and I have a yard to whip into shape!

Nevertheless, I am nothing if not a font of inspirational material for my readers.  Take a five minute break from your Sunday leisure - or if you are a productive person like Yours Truly, from your Sunday achievements - and listen to Neil DeGrasse Tyson's rousing words in defense of NASA research.

Let's reach for the stars!

Prom Night

Tonight is prom night for my sons and all their friends. 

Enjoy the evening of dining, dancing and the company of friends!

We Are Stardust

3 minutes of musical inspiration for a beautiful Saturday morning. We are stardust, in the highest exalted way. Stand in the middle and enjoy everything both ways; the tininess of us; the enormity of the universe.


Lyrics:

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]
We are part of this universe
We are in this universe
The universe is in us
Yes, the universe is in us

[Lawrence Krauss]
Every atom in your body
Came from a star that exploded
You are all star dust
From a star that exploded

[Tyson]
Look up at the night sky
We are part of that
The universe itself
Exists within us

We are star dust
In the highest exalted way
Called by the universe
Reaching out to the universe

We are star dust
In the highest exalted way
Reaching out to the universe
With these methods and tools of science

[Richard Feynman]
Stand in the middle and enjoy everything both ways
The tininess of us;
The enormity of the universe

[Tyson]
The atoms that make up the human body
Are traceable to the crucibles
That cooked light elements
Into heavy elements

These stars went unstable in their later years
And then exploded
Scattering their enriched guts
Across the galaxy

[Refrain]

[Tyson]
We are part of this universe
We are in this universe
The universe is in us
Yes, the universe is in us