John Terry has been a naughty boy
The news tabloids in the UK have been in a frenzy over a sexual affair between Chelsea defender and England captain John Terry and Vanessa Perroncel, a French underpants model and the ex-girlfriend of England teammate Wayne Bridge.
Terry, 29 years old, married his longtime girlfriend and the mother of this children Toni Poole in a lavish ceremony in 2007 funded at least in part by OK! Magazine. Toni has reportedly left Terry over the news of the affair.
Wayne Bridge played for Chelsea before this season. He now plays for Manchester City. Not only were Terry and Bridge teammates, they were reportedly best of friends. If the story wasn’t already icky enough, reportedly Perroncel became pregnant as a result of the affair and Terry arranged for the woman to have an abortion.
Some are now calling for John Terry to be stripped of the England captaincy. Wayne Bridge is expected to make the squad for this year’s World Cup in South Africa.
I should be interesting to see how this all plays out.
Health care reform bill passes the House
H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act, passed the House last night, 220 for and 215 against. Every Republican except one voted against it. There were 39 Democrats that voted against it. The Senate now has to pass their version of the bill.
So what’s this mean? Here’s a list of some of the key provisions of the bill (from CBS News’ Political Hotsheet):
- Creates a public health insurance option and a national exchange for the uninsured and small businesses to purchase health insurance. The Secretary of Health and Human Services would negotiate rates with doctors and hospitals on reimbursement rates.
- The bill includes mandates for individuals to purchase and businesses to provide health insurance or pay a fine. Individual penalty is 2.5 percent of gross income unless they get a waiver. Businesses that don’t offer insurance pay a fine equal to 8 percent of their payroll. Businesses with a payroll of less than $500,000 are exempt from the mandate.
- Insurance companies are prohibited from denying coverage based on a pre-existing condition. There are caps on deductibles and annual out of pocket spending is capped at $5000.
- Allows individuals up to 27-years-old to stay on their parent’s health insurance
- As amended, it prohibits federal funds from covering abortions. Women would need to purchase riders to insurance purchased on the exchange if they wanted that coverage.
- The bill taxes individuals making more than $500,000 and $1 million for couples. It is a 5.4 percent tax.
The public option will only be open to people who do not have insurance. I’m not sure how this will actually save money, but then again, I’m not an economist. It seems to me that if the goal was to lower health care costs, the public option should be open to everyone. The more people that are enrolled in the non-profit, government run health insurance, the less costly it will be.
I don’t like the provision that will fine people who choose not to purchase insurance. I think fining someone 2.5% of their gross income if they choose to go uninsured is too low. That’s less then they would pay for health insurance. If the goal is to get people to sign up for health insurance, then the fine should be something substantially higher then what they would pay for health insurance. If the fine is too low, some will choose to pay the fine. I also don’t like forcing businesses to offer insurance. Once again, a robust public option open to everyone would allow businesses to get out of the health insurance business and instead concentrate on their business.
I like the part about capping out-of-pocket expenses. I like it a lot. I’m just concerned that it’s too low. Five grand a year is a lot of money if you just don’t have it. The goal is to stop forcing people into bankruptcy if and when something catastrophic happens to them. Don’t get me wrong, a $5,000 cap is better than no cap.
The part about not covering abortions was put in the bill to appeal to members of the anti-abortion party, also known as the Republican party. A lot of good it did. All but one Republican voted against the bill. The bill does allow abortion in cases of rape, incest or where the life of a mother is threatened. How exactly does that work? Say a woman is raped and as a result, she becomes pregnant. Just how then is she to get her insurance to pay for the procedure? Does she have to first wait until her rapist is caught and then tried in a court of law? If her rapist is acquitted, does that mean she wasn’t raped? Also, how does one go about proving that the pregnancy is a result of incest? The whole thing seems incredibly stupid to me.
Richard Nixon was all for aborting mixed-race babies
More tapes from the Nixon White House were released Tuesday and it appears President Nixon had an opinion about the 1973 Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision that struck down state laws that banned abortion. It appears he wasn’t against abortion in all cases. From the New York Times:
Nixon worried that greater access to abortions would foster “permissiveness,” and said that “it breaks the family.” But he also saw a need for abortion in some cases, such as interracial pregnancies.
“There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white,” he told an aide, before adding: “Or a rape.”
I wonder what President Nixon would think about today’s Commander-in-chief? President Obama is the son of a white mother and a black father. The irony in that is really quite something.
Suprise, suprise, man who killed abortion doctor is a right-wing whackjob
Details are starting to emerge concerning the man being held for the murder of Dr. George Tiller, Scott Roeder. From The Associated Press via MSNBC:
Roeder’s family life began unraveling more than a decade ago when he got involved with anti-government groups, and then became “very religious in an Old Testament, eye-for-an-eye way,” his former wife, Lindsey Roeder, told The Associated Press.
“The anti-tax stuff came first, and then it grew and grew. He became very anti-abortion,” said Lindsey Roeder, who was married to Scott Roeder for 10 years but “strongly disagrees with his beliefs.”
“That’s all he cared about is anti-abortion. `The church is this. God is this.’ Yadda yadda,” she said.
Yadda yadda indeed.
Anti-abortion groups shouldn’t be surprised that when they continuously refer to abortions a “baby killing” or “murder”, someone from within their ranks may listen to their visceral rhetoric and actually believe it.
Anyone that thinks late-term abortions are unnecessary needs to educate themselves on some of the horrific birth defects that make them necessary. Do a Google search of Anencephaly and look at some of the photos. If you can look at photos of stillborn babies that are born without most of their head and still believe that late-term abortions aren’t necessary, than you and I will just have to agree to disagree.
Catholic Church excommunicates mother, doctors of 9-year old rape victim who received an abortion
A 9-year-old girl in Brazil was raped by her step-father. When the girl complained of severe stomach pains, he mother took her to the hospital where doctors discovered that she was four months pregnant with twins. Evidently the girl had been sexually assaulted for years by her stepfather. When doctors explained to the girl’s mother that having a twins at such an early age would possibly kill the girl, the mother elected to terminate the pregnancies.
The 9-year-old rape victim received a life-saving abortion.
The Catholic Church responded to the situation by officially excommunicating the mother and doctors. A senior Vatican official defended the action saying that life must always be protected.
What about the step-father? Though he was arrested for raping his 9-year-old step-daughter and possibly her 14-year old handicapped sister, he was not excommunicated by the Catholic Church. The reason? Though the Church views that rape of a 9-year-old to be “a heinous crime”, it’s not as serious as abortion. The Church thinks what the girl’s mother and doctors did was far worse than what the rapist step-father did.
If there was ever a time this poor woman needed the spiritual support that one receives from one’s faith, it has to be now. Instead of supporting her, her church expels her. It’s not as if this woman actually made the choice to have her 9-year old daughter’s pregnancies terminated. This woman had no choice. She no more chose to have the pregnancies aborted than a person chooses to leave a burning building.
Michael Barone is a douche
Michael Barone, senior writer for U.S. News & World Report, was speaking in front of a group of college administrators when he informed the crowd why exactly reporters weren’t very impressed with John McCain’s running-mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.
It’s because she refused to abort her baby with Down syndrome.
From Politico:
“The liberal media attacked Sarah Palin because she did not abort her Down syndrome baby,” Barone said, according to accounts by attendees. “They wanted her to kill that child. … I’m talking about my media colleagues with whom I’ve worked for 35 years.”
He later claimed that he was only joking. Who among us doesn’t appreciate a joke about aborting a Down syndrome baby?
I don’t remember seeing anyone with the name Bible on the ballot
The local newspaper has a photo slideshow on their website that featured various photos taken in Washington County on Election Day. The local newspaper being what it is, failed to put the photos into any sort of context. They didn’t identify anyone in the photos. They offered no explanation as to what the photos were capturing.
For instance, what is this man actually campaigning for? I don’t remember seeing a candidate on the ballot with the name “Bible”. I also don’t remember anything on the ballot that had to do with abortion. I think I would remember that.
If he is Pro-Life, does that mean he is against the death penalty too?
There was something on the ballot concerning gambling. It had to do with allowing slot machines here in Maryland. Personally, I could care less about slots. I don’t gamble or play games of chance. It has nothing to do with my morals or anything like that, I just find gambling to be extremely boring. With that said, I voted to allow slots here in Maryland. The reason? Who am I to tell someone that wants to play slots that they can’t. It’s none of my business.
What exactly is this man trying to get across to the voters? He has a checkmark in the box next to Pro-Life and an “X” next to gambling. Don’t they mean the same thing, a checkmark and an “X”?
I take it that this man was a McCain supporter. I find that to be extremely ironic in that out of the two candidates, Obama is the one that is a born again Christian. He’s the only one that has been married to the same woman his entire life. McCain on the other hand, not so much. He left his first wife for a woman much younger then himself, a woman who’s vast fourtune was built on selling of beer. Most Christians frown on drinking beer, let alone making millions of dollars selling it.
Wasilla rape victims were billed when Sarah Palin was mayor
What exactly does Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate have against women who are rapped? Not only does she think that a rape victim should be forced to have a rapist’s child even if her rapist is a blood relative, Wasilla rape victims were sent a bill to cover the cost of their own rape kit. A rape kit is used by law enforcement to collect physical evidence from a rape. They cost anywhere from $300 to $1,200.
The Wasilla police department would first try to bill the victim’s insurance company and if they refused to pay for the cost of the rape kit, the victim herself was sent the bill. I’m not really sure why an insurance company would pay for the rape kit. They are intended to gather physical evidence, not to treat injuries.
The state of Alaska had to step in and create a special law that forbid the practice from happening. [Anchorage Daily News]
Sarah Palin slashed funding for teenage mothers
You simply can’t make this stuff up. Alaska Governor and Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin used the power of a line-item veto to drastically decrease state spending for programs that help single teen mothers. In other words, girls just like her own 17-year old daughter Bristol Palin.
So not only does Sarah Palin believe that abortions should be banned except only in cases where the mother’s life is at risk, she withheld money from a program that helps young girls that decide not to abort their pregnancy and instead have the baby. She is also against sex education being taught in public schools.
Again, you simply can’t make this stuff up.
Rumor: Governor Sarah Palin’s baby is really her grandson
Daily Kos currently has a blog post — they call them “Diaries” — up that claims that Governor Sarah Palin’s 4-month old baby with Down syndrome might be her granddaughter grandson. Evidently there is a rumor going around that the baby is Palin’s teenage daughter’s child, not the Governor’s.
They linked to an article in the Anchorage Daily News published this past March that broke the news that Palin at the time was 7-months pregnant. The problem was that she didn’t look pregnant. Supposedly her own staff was caught off guard by the news.
It states on Daily Kos that Palin’s teenage daughter was out of school and unseen by anyone for months because she had mono.
I’m somewhat surprised that this story would appear over on Daily Kos. I highly doubt the mainstream news will touch this, unless you consider the National Enquirer to be a member of the mainstream news media.
I’m not sure how Republicans or conservatives will respond to this rumor. Palin is extremely anti-choice. While running for Governor of Alaska, Palin stated in a debate that even if her daughter became pregnant in the result of a rape, she would “choose life”. I believe that is code for forcing her underage child to have her rapist’s baby.
That’s just plain nuts.
How would Governor Palin and her husband respond if their teenage daughter became pregnant? Would they hide the fact that their teenage daughter obviously had unprotected sex and became pregnant?
Bush Administration wants to reclassify the birth-control pill as abortion
From America’s favorite supermarket tabloid, The Wall Street Journal:
A draft regulation, still being revised and debated, treats most birth-control pills and intrauterine devices as abortion because they can work by preventing fertilized eggs from implanting in the uterus. The regulation considers that destroying “the life of a human being.”
This is unreal. Just when I thought the Bush Administration couldn’t get any worse. What will Bush try to do next, ban the horseless carriage? How about antibiotics? Getting sick is God’s will.
Who are we to interfere with the will of God?
Religious group terrorizes Hagerstown residents with giant scary abortion photos
People from the anti-choice group Face the Truth came to Hagerstown yesterday and terrorized people with giant scary abortion photos. Hagerstown is only one stop on their 15 city terror tour. Who knows, maybe they will make a stop in your city too.
My biggest problem with groups like this is that they take photos from a medical procedure and blow them up to 100 times the actual size to make them look like something they are not. They then wave these giant posters in your face and demand (demand!) you look at them.
It doesn’t matter who you are.
It doesn’t matter how old you are.
It doesn’t matter how young you are.
They will force you to look at their ghastly pictures.
It’s as though their right to make you look at ginned up photos is more important than your right not to see the photos.
Some members of Face the Truth even dragged their young children to the event and made them hold signs denouncing a woman’s right to choose.
The members of Face the Truth and other similar anti-choice groups want you to think that a fetus is the same thing as a human baby. The reality is that the two are not the same. Just because a gigantic posterized photo of a fetus might look like a human baby doesn’t make it an actual human baby. Have you ever seen a pig fetus? They too kind of look like a human baby. The same thing applies to a monkey fetus. They look remarkably similar to a human fetus.
That doesn’t mean they are human, even if they look like they are human. Looks can be deceiving.
-
Recent Comments
-
siriunsun: Well, Rick.........you know how it is: John McSame just LOOKS the same as lots of people who were born in the United States. And his name is a lot more in line with certain stereotypes that make lots of sheep in this country feel happy and com...
-
Ryan: Matt Damon? Matt Damon!...
-
Rick: Ryan: ‘Cause this here’s America!We play real football not that pussy European shit! Putting the "F" back in Freedom! ht...
-
-
Sören: Yes I am for real ;-) Never thought that my name is that cool. Actually I would rather change my name if I could......
-
-
Books I Am Reading
-
Music I Am Listening To
-
- Kucinich caves on health care reform. Will now vote for the non-public option health care reform bill. http://bit.ly/9t4gNI
- Peter Graves has died - http://bit.ly/blfTde #cnn
- Courage? Really? http://is.gd/axTwj
Follow me @rickrottman