What Ezra Said. Twice at Least

Ezra has been a voice of reason in the HCR process. Many if not most of us want more. But we don't always get what we want. The last few decades it seems like we don't get anything, even that which we need. But this country got an xmas present yesterday, let's just hope that it's the gift that keeps on giving.

HCR

There is no good side to this “bill”. This is a “good” start on the road to an acceptable program. It has been pointed out many places that the 3 big social programs passed in the last 70 years, Social Security, Civil Rights, Medicare all were crappy at their start. ALL of them. But they were a start. They are all better today. ALL of them. Could they be better? Hell yes they could. Hell, Civil Rights should never have even been needed if this were a more, I don’t even know what the words are, maybe better, nation. Could any of them be killed by any congress in the foreseeable future? No. Watered down maybe. See teabaggers saying don’t take away my medicare.
But humans, or at least americans seem to like the big whatever, the big fix it all at once, the all or nothing answer. But nothing works that way. Electricity production – Solar!, No, Wind!, No, Nuclear!, No, Clean Coal!, No, drill,drill, drill!, my car runs on water!. None of it is the answer by itself and some is BS. It takes baby steps and fighting each step of the way. This is the second biggest positive change in 45 years in the way we see this country. The other was when we started to take care of our seniors (medicare) and when we recognized that all animals born with human DNA were actually human (civil rights). Both of these were in the 60’s and took softening up of the legislature over years to get them to pass. I was young in the 60’s but I remember the fights and I didn’t understand why things shouldn’t be the way they ended up. And they didn’t go far enough. Now I understand. Some people are selfish, some are assholes, some are ignorant, some are all of these. Nothing has changed there in 50 or even in the last 5000 years. But this is our time. This is when we get to make change. Will it be enough? Hell no, it never is. Someone the other night accused me of pissing and moaning because I didn’t get the pony. My response was I was not buying a pony. I didn’t expect the pony. And I didn’t get pissed because I didn’t get the fucking pony. I am pissed because that’s what happens when I and millions of my closest friends get unnecessarily and selfishly screwed.

Not Pretty Pictures

Want to see what a recession looks like?
Here's a chart of the unemployment info. Play it through and see what the fuss is about.


Us.

H/T to ari at Edge of the American West

Need To Know Why. This Is Your Answer

Aimai over at Balloon-Juice has a great comment on what's going on in the senate for health care reform.
Finally an explanation.

Fun Today

Over at Balloon-Juice commenter Dreggas posted the following story. It's probably not true but you never know. So for a good laugh and beware it's not monitor-keyboard safe if any thing is being ingested.
Gift Testing