PAUL RANTS

Posted by Paul at July 30th, 2006

Thank goodness for low poll ratings. Without them Bush would be bombing Iran right now. But he’s still got Israel to fire precision rockets to see if they can hit a Hezbollah fighter among the innocent people in southern Lebanon. That’s Bush’s kind of war. In fact, it is his war. No point in demanding a cease fire. Meanwhile, Hezbollah are bankrolled by Iran and Syria, who are understandably defensive after Iraq. Yes, Hezbollah started this agression, no doubt at Iran’s behest, who have made clear their intention to destroy Israel. Now that the war is on, a well-armed Israel is not about to let up.

Oh, and don’t look now. We have a born again x-alcoholic son of a president looking wide-eyed and out of his depth. But one thing Bush is sure of: the idea of the mideast in flames is not something that should be avoided at all costs. It might just be God’s will. And just think what it could do for low poll ratings.

UPDATE: Defense officials told the Post last week that they were receiving indications from the US that America would be interested in seeing Israel attack Syria - Jerusalem Post

Posted by Paul at July 27th, 2006

First of all, let me just say this: never punch a wooden door with your bare fist. Enough said (But if you’re planning on it, make sure you don’t have Kaiser).

I expected to wait at least an hour for my appointment at Kaiser’s urgent care, so I was prepared for that. It had been a few days since I injured my hand and I was getting used to not using my right pocket, shaking anyone’s hand, or punching any more rigid inanimate objects. Now, it’s my third time using Kaiser’s, umm, services. Let’s roll the dice and see what comes up, shall we..? OK, so I went in and they told me that they couldn’t assess my injury, not there in the doctor’s office, anyway. I would need to go to the emergency room. When I made the appointment I had described in detail the condition of my hand. The operators are not trained to tell you where you need to go, I am told, so they send you to the wrong place. You see, silly unsuspecting HMO user, there are no x-ray machines in urgent care. Urgent care is for people with the flu, that sort of thing. What you need is emergency care. After you wait an hour in urgent care with your minor injury, we’ll send you to wait another hour in the emergency room. There, you’ll pay five times the co-pay amount you just paid in urgent care, where all we did was tell you to go to the emergency room. Got it, you worthless underpaid boob? Anyway, on the way to the emergency room I walked by the x-ray room. There was one person waiting in there. But that would be too easy, to just send me to the x-ray room. There were forms to be filled out in every department. If the form you bring a staff member from one department to another somehow doesn’t sync-up with their chain of beauracratic expectations they blow a gasket, which is a fleeting but welcome change from their complacency. In the emergency room there were at least fifty patients waiting, including a long queue leading to a window marked triage. I looked down at my hand — it was still attached. The other minorly injured people sat there frowning and eyeing me dubiously. Yes, there was one thing I knew for certain: I was so out of there…

The next morning I called to make an actual doctor’s appointment (not an urgent care appointment, since I didnt have the sniffles). There was nothing until September, over a month away. But if I called in at 7am I could check for cancellations. Or, I could go to the emergency room at 3am, when it’s less crowded, and pay five times as much.

You know what? Fuck Kaiser. In October, I can switch to a new provider (yes, a PPO, so get out the wallet — ouch, my hand!). And that’s exactly what I intend to do.

Posted by Paul at July 20th, 2006

(No, this post has nothing to do with Condi Rice)

Being able to squeeze the last bit of ketchup from the tiny corners of these stupid packets is a skill I’d rather not have. They contain enough for about four french fries, two if they’re those big steak fries. I just got back from lunch and I needed seven of these damn things to season my fries. I had three left over and I just threw them in the garbage because, you guessed it, three of them wouldn’t do me much good. Not to mention they had ketchup all over them. I can’t be expected to estimate how many I’ll need for a given amount of fries. Who am I, Rainman?

I propose a larger ketchup packet, at least triple the size. This is America, goddamn it. Burgers and portion sizes have been expanding for some time now (and so have we). So where’s my super-size ketchup packet, something that will dispense a decent sized portion? Hey, give me one jumbo packet and I’m good to go, baby. Forget a random handful or a minimum of three or four tiny packets like some places will allow. Let’s get moving on that, Heinz, times a wastin’.

Oh yeah, and Bush sucks.

Posted by Paul at July 20th, 2006

So Bush finally dusted off his veto pen, or stamp, or whatever it is. Not since Jefferson, who never used the veto, has a president held out so long. Previously when Bush didn’t like a piece of legislation he just used signing statments to put himself above any laws he didn’t like (see my post on this subject). I wish he had done that here; if he and his administration don’t want to use medical waste (most of the 400,000 microscopic blastocysts will become just that) to cure disease, fine. But his veto has denied federal funding for embryonic stem cell research to the entire nation. Singapore and China and the rest of the industrial world will continue to fund the ground breaking research and in so doing leave our once dominant standing in the field of medicine to atrophy. Bush wouldn’t use the veto to help ween us off foreign oil after 9/11, or to deny big oil and pharmeceutical companies sweetheart deals. But he will use it to prevent some frozen medical waste in a petrie dish from being used to cure disease. What about the fully formed sentient 18 and 19 year olds he sends to die or be maimed in Iraq? What about the 400 billion dollars and counting of federal funding spent to turn Iraq into an Islamic fundementalist free for all? I guess in light of all that the stem cell veto is not such a huge issue. It’s just one more small but significant indignity, one more subversion of common sense that won’t get much notice from the general public. That is until they have to fly to Singapore to receive state of the art medical treatment. Maybe somehere over the Pacific Mr. or Ms. American Taxpayer will finally wake up and ask themselves, “What the fuck?!?”

Posted by Paul at July 16th, 2006

Here’s a great article about St. Ken Lay and Bush.

If President Bush can out spend Clinton and LBJ on social programs, not just war, what kind of Republican is he, really? Is it just a rare strain of die-hard evangelical neocons supporting this guy?

I’m sorry, but I’m almost salivating to see how history will account for this reckless presidency. Hey, I wanted to like him, especially after 9/11. The speech he gave at the cathedral in D.C. was very moving. But he let Cheney and Co. dictate where we would go to “fight terrorism” and left the soldiers on Osama’s trail out to dry. And once again the pink elephant in the room: oil. Gasoline prices are going through the ozone. Global warming is in full gear and congress wont let us fund alternative fuels. Oh yeah, and Jesus is on his side (as he encites war in the middle east, vetos nothing, and hypnotizes Christians to march for his war, his greed, and his backhanded charity).

Posted by Paul at July 10th, 2006

Bush Says Korean Missile Shows Need for Shield

The president said in a press conference that the U.S. has a “reasonable chance” of shooting down a long range missile launched by North Korea… Did you get that Kim Jong-il? How about over in Iran, did you get that? A reasonable chance. Being that I’m sitting here on the west coast of the USA, I hope there’s actually a damn good chance. A friend of mine said Bush could just be saying there’s a chance when it’s really a certainty. Which would mean Bush wants North Korea to fire a long range missile. I guess that would help his approval ratings if Bush shot down a missile or two. It would help his defense contractor buddies as well if we built a shield, whatever that is. Or, he could be saying there’s a reasonable chance when it’s actually slim to none. So he’s probably either exaggerating or lying. Or he’s telling the truth. Gee, I can’t wait to find out which…

I never thought I’d say this, but I’m starting to miss the days of Ronald Reagan, who basically came right out and said in no uncertain terms to the USSR that if you try anything we’ll bomb you back to the Jurassic period, period. Sounds nasty and inflammatory, but at least there’s no hidden agenda. Who knows what Bush is thinking? Don’t forget that he buys in to all that end of days, new testament crap as well (which probably would have just made Reagan chuckle). Bush might think North Korea starting World War III is devine prophecy. One can assume there’s a reasonable chance that the president (or those around him) won’t let his religious beliefs, or his low approval ratings, or his inept ability to communicate as a world leader get in the way of actually containing North Korea. Sound reasonable? Not from where I’m sitting.

Here’s a good article on “dear leader” Kim Jong-il