For the Record...

On Hypocrisy...

A while back, in one of his comments, William accused me of two things.
He said I didn't honestly answer his [goofy, IMHO] question about aborting homosexuals, and that he really wanted to know how I felt.  Well... that's odd, seeing as how I've written extensively on both topics over the past three years, and have permanent tabs at the top of the page on both Abortion and LGBT Issues, giving a quick rundown of my feelings on both of these matters, if anyone is interested.  So I don't know if this accusation comes from either laziness or illiteracy, but there is little more I can say about Abortion or Gay Rights at this point that I haven't said a dozen times already.  So... RTFB, if you honestly can't understand the answer I gave you.

He also accused me of HYPOCRISY.  See... I guess I say a lot of BAD THINGS about people that I think are bad people.  No.. .I take that back. State it more honestly, I should say that I take GREAT PRIDE in the things I say about VILE, BIGOTED, GREEDY, DISHONEST People.  And by some wild universal coincidence, it seems that 90-some percent of these people are Conservative, or Right-Wing, Public Figures.

OMFG! HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?!

Now I get the hypocrisy accusation a lot.  I do. And I invite it.I really do. Because in truth, I'm fairly outspoken about the fact that there is scarcely a vice I can't tolerate, save for hypocrisy.  I loathe hypocrisy above all else. I could even forgive a murder, and yet happily kill the accused myself, should he walk out off death row on a technicality and then go on to become an agressive death penalty proponent and fourth ammendment opponent.  And so: Should anyone ever manage to catch me in a bit of hypocrisy... WELL, HEY... They've WON, haven't they?  And typically lacking any actual evidence to support their arguments, that remains the ONE WAY, the one SUREFIRE way, that a Conservative could actually BEAT ME in an argument.

So I'm not shy about the fact that I get that. A LOT. The problem is?

Conservatives don't understand the first fucking thing about hypocrisy.  They couldn't properly  identify hypocrisy if it turned itself into a snake and bit them in the ass.  Which is probably why their more prominent spokespeople are all such raving, intellectually dishonest HYPOCRITES.

But what about me?

Well...  IF I UNDERSTAND his accusation correctly - and I'm sure he'll need no encouragement to clarify things if I'm missing something - it appears that it is hypocritical of me to say bad things about people who I believe are bad because they say bad things about people.

And, yeah, I suppose that can look like hypocrisy... if you're an idiot.

Because to follow that logic? You can never judge ANYONE!  Suddenly, magically, ANYTHING GOES! Someone could go around calling every Black person he saw a Nigger right to their face, and no one could say that this guy was being an ignorant racist, jackass, because THAT... would be hypocritical.

But... of course that's completely idiotic.

The fact is? That there is no hypocrisy in calling a vile person, a vile person. When they say vile things about otehr people, you do not become a vile person in pointing out that they are a vile person! DUH! One does not need to be tolerant of intolerance in order to avoid hypocrisy.  Now... I'll give you a BE-YOU-TIFUL example of what I'm talking about...

Starting yesterday, and continue on to today, Rush Limbaugh actually had the audacity to refer to a Law Student, who was advocating up for women's health care a "SLUT" and a "PROSTITUTE."  His misogynistic vitriol continued today.

Limbaugh: "I Will Buy All Of The Women At Georgetown University As Much Aspirin To Put Between Their Knees As They Want"

Limbaugh Lectures Georgetown Student: "Ms. Fluke, Have You Ever Heard Of Not Having Sex?"
Limbaugh Demands Women With Contraceptive Coverage Post Sex Videos Online "So We Can All Watch"
Limbaugh To Sandra Fluke: "Who Bought Your Condoms In The Sixth Grade?"  (holy fucking crap!)
Limbaugh's Misogynistic Attack On Georgetown Law Student Continues With Increased Vitriol
Limbaugh: Sandra Fluke Is "Having So Much Sex, It's Amazing She Can Still Walk" (OMFG!)

Limbaugh: Five Dollars For A Month Of Birth Control? "That Makes PMS Almost Worth It" (Really, Rush? Really?)

So... here's my answer: Rush Limbaugh is a vile, despicable, chauvinistic, misogynistic SCUMBAG.

Now... let recap: Limbaugh said some mean things about Sandra Fluke.  And I said some mean things about Rush Limbaugh for doing that.  Shame on me?  Shame on my hypocrisy?

Did you have a fucking brain tumor for breakfast?!

READ THOSE.  LISTEN TO THOSE. EVERY ONE.  And you know what? If you do that and DON'T come to the conclusion that Rush Limbaugh is a vile, despicable, chauvinistic, misogynistic scumbag? Then, sir or madame, YOU are a vile, despicable, chauvinistic, misogynistic scumbag!

I and I will only be revealed as a hypocrite the day I post such vile, misogynistic trash on this blog. (Or chastise people over either foul language or typos.) Well, sir, you will be waiting alongside Adlai Stevenson until hell freezes over, because I am not a misogynist, and I am no hypocrite.

All I can say is that I hope Rush's fourth wife was listening. This is who you married sweetheart. I hope it will be worth it to you. (That's NOT mysoginy, BTW. I don't think she's a bad person. I'm merely pointing out her abysmal taste in men.)

Worst Woman in the World...

Obscenity warning! (I’m pretty pissed off about this!)


Sharon Angle is a scumbag

With each passing day, I become less and less surprised that Conservatives' attitudes towards women are so backwards. I mean… just look at their representative sample: Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachman, Christine O’Donnell, Sharon Angle… You know, maybe if conservative women weren’t so fucking stupid, conservative men might think more highly of women in general. (Of course that doesn’t account for the stupidity of conservative MEN, but that for an entirely different post…)

But Sharon Angle has absolutely topped my list. She’s a stupid, lying, hypocritical, self-righteous, dangerous CUNT. Her latest talking point, following months of lies, distortions, misrepresentation and misinformation? She wants to lower Insurance Costs for the people of Nevada by ending that state’s mandate that insurance companies cover “Autism.”

The “quotes” were hers, BTW. She actually said “Autism” making “quotes” in the air with her fingers.

Candidate Angle? GO FUCK YOURSELF.

A bit of disclosure here: I have two children with “Autism.” No, fuck that: They have AUTISM. And no person with two brain-cells to bounce together (which would apparently exclude Sharron Angle) would deny that they have Classic, Kanner’s Syndrome AUTISM. Another undeniable fact is that the intensive speech therapy and special supports they’ve received have helped them make tremendous progress. Without these interventions, based on the work of many PhD’s and other researchers in the field (something the conservatives always seem to be sadly lacking in) the odds are that they would be (1) Non-verbal today and (2) headed towards a lifetime of being institutionalized. (And yes, that would be on the tax payers’ dime. So really, Sharon Angle’s just an idiot.)

Now… In my home state of Michigan none of this therapy is covered by insurance. Not. One. Penny. Of. It. And up until a few years ago pretty much no states covered it. Today the number is 23 and growing every few months. Autism insurance reform has met with very little resistance outside of the insurance lobby and a very few other special interest groups that put dollars ahead of families and handicapped children. IOW: Scumbags.

Now obviously I'm pretty damned far from being an unbiased debater here. I have no problem acknowledging that I have a dog (two, in fact) in this fight. But why don’t we look at the facts here and see what this “expensive mandate” REALLY costs people.

My family spends about $30,000 per year in speech therapy. Florida (the only state I’m immediately familiar with) covers up to $35,000 per child, but we spend $30K, and have TWO. So let’s use thirty-K as a worst-case number. I don’t know what the rate of Autism is these days, but the rate of “Autism” is about 1%. I’m OK putting that in quotes, because if you use that number, you will be including many children with a level of impairment that only the foremost experts will be able to detect. And they won’t need anywhere near the level of support that my boys do. BUT, in the interest of looking at a worst case scenario, we’ll use the 1% and assume that they’ll ALL need $30 per year.

Remember now: these are absurdly expensive assumptions: We spend $30K on TWO kids, are very happy with the results we've gotten, and a huge portion of that 1% would not need that level of support.

So…

$30,000 per year.

…times a 1% occurrence rate = $300 per year, per family.

= $25 per month.

And that’s just for the 20% of people who pay entirely for their own insurance.

For the other 80% of folks, who’s employer picks up roughly ~80% of the tab?

$5.00 per month.

FIVE BUCKS PER MONTH! Fine: Six, if you want to give a break to the other 20% and not charge their policies extra for it.

FIVE DOLLARS, maybe SIX.

That’s what it costs the people of Nevada, and the other 23 states that have arrived in the 21st Century, to prevent the Insurance Companies from discriminating against people with Autism. To save her voters FIVE DOLLARS A MONTH, ($2.50 each, if we’re talking about a married couple) she’s willing to push tens of thousands of families to the brink of (or squarely into) bankruptcy and condemn tens of thousands of children to living out their lives in state institutions, cut off from the world, unable to communicate even their basic needs and feelings in the process.

Sharron Angle? You are not only a cold, heartless, soulless, hypocritical SCUMBAG, but you’re a cold, heartless, soulless, hypocritical scumbag who’d bad at math.

And remember folks… without that help? Most of these kids would end up in state institutions. That’s what used to happen. Again, I don’t know each what that costs, but it ain’t cheap. (Consider the cost of incarcerations, and tack on whatever you think the additional overhead would be to cover the additional medical and psychiatric staff.) That’s putting aside that this is NOT what anyone would prefer or choose for themselves or their children.

I guess that makes Sharon Angle a “Fiscal Conservative.”

I guess that makes Sharon Angle “Pro-Family.”

Personally I think it makes Sharon Angle a “scumbag.”

And, if I were Conservative, just more evidence that women have no place making public policy. Hey, with stupid bitches women like Sharron Angle serving as examples, I can almost see where their misogyny comes from.


------------------------------------

BTW… I’m not throwing out the word, “hypocrite” lightly here. If you caught Keith Olberman’s WPITW on Tuesday you’d have learned that:

But our winner, Sharron Angle, the radical Republican Tea Party candidate for the Senate in Nevada. You heard her plans to phase out Social Security and Medicare and her complaints about how she has to pay for other women‘s maternity leave, and how states have to pay for kids with, air quote, autism, end air quote. They were her air quotes. And you heard her talk about how Harry Reid is a socialist or an anarchist or Marxist, or whatever he is.

Turns out Sharron Angle gets government health care insurance. Her husband is retired from the Federal Bureau of Land Management. So he gets the same federal employee health program insurance he got while he worked there. And it covers his wife Sharron, as does his pension, paid for by contributions made by current civil service employees. It‘s the civil service government equivalent of Social Security.

So the next time she whines about ending this or relieving Nevada of the burden of that, let‘s see her start by cutting off that socialist insurance she gets, her insurance that you and I pay for. Sharron Angle, hypocrite, today‘s Worst Person in the World.

Keith? I love you, man. But you're going too easy on her, and I’m going to just have to try and top you here.


------------------------------------

One last note, while I’ve admitted bias in terms on my own personal interest, I want to point out that this is no Liberal / Conservative partisan bias here on my part. The majority of states that have mandated insurance coverage for Autism are in fact traditionally considered RED STATES. More Republican leaning states have passed Autism insurance reform that Democratic leaning ones. That’s a fact. An embarrassing one that many Deomcrats are working to fix, but if there’s any partisan advantage here, the benefit remains with the Republicans! (Tea-Baggers and Sharon Angle excluded.)

For a complete list, and for more information on how you can help make insurance companies do the right thing, while at the same time saving taxpayers millions of dollars in the future and allowing more people to live productive and independent lives, please visit AutsimVotes.org.


And whatever you do, don’t vote for an stupid, autism denialist like Sharron Angle.

Another failure of free-market economics and health care...

By now y'all are well aware of my disadain of the for-profit, free-market model of health care.

Here's another example of just how utterly uselss it is.  The same kind of thing applies to rare diseases.  Get a disease that "only" kills a few hundered people a year?  Well, sucks to be unprofitable you.

Just when I think I'm out... they DRAG ME BACK IN!!!

This is NOT another post on the health care bill.  I've said my piece, and  my opinion hasn't changed.

I want to USE a provison of the health care bill, and another moronic email I got from a certain conservative I know to do a little good old fashioned ranting, and demonstrate once more that while the truth depends on your point of view, some of us have a far more defensible point of view!

Background: I have two autistic sons.  If you weren't aware of how insurance companies largely treat autsim, here's a clue, from another Michigan parent of 2 autie's, that I've linked to before, that I think that sums it up pretty nicely. That was pretty much MY experience, almost word for word, anyway.

Now... in this new health care bill there is some stuff concerning this very issue.  You can read the details here but basically: plans offered by state-based exchanges will have to cover speech/behavioral therapy for autism, and plans offered in the individual and small group markets outside the exchange will also have to cover autism. 

I will say this right up front: This bill does NOT help ME.  My family is insured by a LARGE group plan, through my employer and, like most people in Michigan and about 34 other states, will continue to see their childeren discrinimated against, and refused coverage for necessary, scientifically proven and medically necessary speech and behavioral therapy.  (And for the record, I am NOT an anti-vaxxer, and I do NOT practice ANY FORM of 'alternative medicine.'  IMHO, if 'alternative medicine' was worth a damn, it would be called "MEDICINE."  And I have little patience for arguing with those who believe otherwise so, please, DON'T BOTHER.)  In any case, my children will continue to face this discrimination.  And yeah: I'm disappointed.  (Like everyone else, for one reason or another.)

However... my opinion of the provisions IN the bill, largely reflect my opinion OF the bill: They don't go far enough but, compared to the status quo, we (the autistic communtiy) are better off now than we were a week ago.

And Autism Votes felt that, despite being disappointed that the bill didn't end autism discrimination one and for all, they should recognize the hard work that was done on our behalf by three member of congress in particular:

Representative Mike Doyle, DEMOCRAT, PA
Senator Robert Menendez DEMOCRAT, NJ and
Senator Chris Dodd, DEMOCRAT,  CT

And what to my wondering eyes did appear in my inbox, from the most conservative, Republican man I know?

"Looks like our Democratic congress dropped the ball on Autsim again!"

W. T. F.?!  WHO DROPPED THE BALL?!

Even if, as ClassicLiberal pointed out, the biggest insurance company recipient in terms of dollars is Max Baucus, the fact is the Republicans didn't offer a damn thing! NOT. A. SINGLE. BLOODY. THING!

They locked themsleves out of the debate completely and sat on their hands with their thumbs up their asses doing nothing but saying no to everything and lying about the whole thing from day one!

Riiiight.  The failure was on the part of the Democrats.  Well... it was, I guess: They kept trying to please the REPUBLICANS and get any one of those bastards to vote for these needed reforms!

That being the case, I'll be dancing naked in the 9th circle of hell before I'll accept a conservative blaming any of this bill's shortcoming on the Democrats.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the interest of full disclosure, I will have to point out that the majority of States that mandate insurance coverage, about 2/3 of them, are traditionally RED STATES.  (Not surprisingly, CT, PA and NJ are among the few Blue States that do.)  So I'm plenty pissed at some of these STATE legislatures, like Michigan's, who are run at least in part by Democrats and/or have a Democratic Governor, and haven't passed this no-brainer yet. 

But I still know who our friends in CONGRESS are!