Weekend Update - Speeding Up Edition

(And so we continue. We're having sewer problems now, toilet backing up, strange muddyings of the bathtub drain, and occasional odd gurgling sounds coming from the bowels of the house. Had to call Roto-Freaking-Rooter on a freaking Sunday for freak's sake, and wrote a check to a very nice young man for almost 3 times what I make in a day. Took him 20 minutes to snake out the line. Seems there might be some root ball from the hedge mucking up the works. Our good friend Robin has been over digging, looking. Gonna have to rip up part of the deck. The beautiful brick worked B-B-Q patio might have to go. Half the hedge is already gone. Might have to take the fence out to get a back hoe in. It's Spring in Oregon. Tra-la, tra-la. But I digress.....)

• With the passage of the health care bill, or what's left of it, even the watered down version of it has a volatile segment of our society acting like insane idiots. I want to ask, Who ARE these people? but I think I know. I think we all know them. They're people we know, work with, or are even related to. They're not very bright, they're easily influenced by the likes of Beck and Limbaugh, and they consistently vote against their own self interests. One of our conservative friends points out that the polls show that a majority of Americans are opposed to health care reform. I'm at a loss to explain this, actually. Perhaps poor people who have no insurance don't participate in polls? But this latest stuff is just sickening.


• Even Mark Morford is amazed that most of our friendly Democrats finally decided to do the right thing and pass this bill. "Behold, with the astonishing passage of flawed-but-incredible health care reform, we have the concomitant, frightening realization that this remains one of the most acidic, bitter, hopelessly divisive times to live in America and care a whit for national politics while maintaining a shred of morality, hope, a progressive soul." The black commie Nazi did it!


• It's been called a conservative Woodstock, and takes place just days after the historic health care vote that ushered in near-universal medical coverage and divided Congress and the nation. About 7,000 people streamed into tiny Searchlight, Nevada, a former mining town 60 miles south of Las Vegas, bringing American flags, "Don't Tread on Me" signs and outspoken anger toward Nevada Senator Harry Reid, President Barack Obama and the health care overhaul. Even Sara Palin was there, telling the assembled that the big-government, big-debt spending spree of the Senate majority leader, Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is over. "You're fired!" Palin said. For the record, Woodstock was attended by over 400,000.


• And now we're to this: I'm voting for John McCain. Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) primary challenger, former Arizona congressman J.D. Hayworth, warned this past weekend that the same-sex marriage decision handed down by the Massachusetts Supreme Court is so loose in its logic and wording that it could lead to a man marrying his horse.


• They told other priests. They told three archbishops of Milwaukee. They told two police departments and the district attorney. They used sign language, written affidavits and graphic gestures to show what exactly Father Murphy had done to them. But their reports fell on the deaf ears of hearing people. Deaf Catholic boys tried to alert authorities about the abuse they were suffering under the hands of a Catholic priest. This week, they learned that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, received letters about Father Murphy in 1996 from Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland of Milwaukee, who said that the deaf community needed “a healing response from the Church.” The Vatican sat on the case, then equivocated, and when Father Murphy died in 1998, he died a priest. Something is definitely wrong with the Catholic Church, wouldn't you say? I'm SO pleased to be an Agnostic.


• Retired U.S. General John Sheehan said the former chief of staff of the Dutch army had told him that the presence of openly gay soldiers in the Dutch peacekeeping force were seen as "part of the problem" which contributed to the fall of Srebrenica. Arthur writes: In the battle over DADT (don't ask, don't tell) there inevitably had to be a codger posterboy and this retired General seems to have chosen to take a stand in defense of the status quo. Considering that the numbers of those who attacked Srebenica were obviously enormous, since they went on to kill 8,000 in the attack, one presumes that the Dutch were simply overrun. Poor planning, perhaps, but not very likely that it was just the gays.


• The Bad Hat office has recently upgraded to the best speed Comcast can provide. If things look a bit blurry to you this week, it's because we're all moving way too fast. Lean back, take care, and for gawd's sake hang on to the bar!