Reviewing the 14-Year-Old Blogroll

(My God, my blogroll is older than the girls trump and Epstein like!!)

It's been a while, so I figured I would see which blogs I blogrolled were still active.

I also have two new ones to add, when I get energetic enough to update the blogroll, FireLawBlog (firelawblog.com, duh...). Attorney and retired chief officer Curt Varone's fascinating and informative analyses of legal problems affecting the fire service. The second is Statter911 (statter911.com, of course), by retired newsman Dave Statter... a great way to keep track of news of importance to the fire service. Pay special attention to his SMACSS pieces -- Social Media-Assisted Career Suicide Syndrome (similar to Chief Varone's YCMTSU category).

Political
BadTux, but he's at a new address: https://snarkypenguin.wordpress.com/
Skippy, The Bush Kangaroo, https://xnerg.blogspot.com/
Mustang Bobby, https://barkbarkwoofwoof.com/
Blue Gal, http://bgalrstate.blogspot.com/
Jurassic Pork, http://welcomebacktopottersville.blogspot.com/
Mock, Paper, Scissors, https://mockpaperscissors.com/


Medical
Ambulance Driver, http://www.ambulancedriverfiles.com/
Rescuing Providence, http://rescuingprovidence.com/ (Providence lost a great firefighter/medic when Michael retired)
The Happy Medic, http://happymedic.com/



Apparently Defunct
Ambulance Ranger
Firegeezer
Life Under the Lights
My Two Cents
White Noise Insanity

What JP Sez...

... here...

(And if you have some coin to spare for JP and his missus, please feel free to help them out.)

New Hampshire Courts and Interpreters

The court system in New Hampshire has adopted some new rules governing the use of interpreters in legal proceedings, saying "a comprehensive, publicly available plan will better ensure that the services are reliable and consistent."

In a dissenting opinion, Justice Robert Lynn disagreed with a provision in the plan that requires interpretation services to be provided regardless of the user’s ability to pay for the services.

Just in case you couldn't guess, Lynn was appointed by then-Governor Judd Gregg to the trial bench, and to the state Supreme Court by Craig Benson, both Republicans.

To paraphrase the bleeding hemorrhoids at the Ayn Rand Center, "fair treatment in the legal system isn't a right, it's a privilege."

It's this kind of reasoning that buttresses what Badtux and Jurassic Pork (among many others) have been saying, that the 1% is determined to obliterate the middle class and take us back to a feudal system.

If your community has a deaf person who needs professional assistance in translating court proceedings, and that person is denied a sign language interpreter's services because he cannot afford to pay the interpreter (the average charge for interpreter services is $50-$75 per hour), does that person receive "due process of law?" If the person suffers a loss in the legal system, as a result of not being able to pay for interpreter, could that person be "deprived of life, liberty, or property," or could his "private property be taken for public use, without just compensation[?]"

In the words of Caribou Barbie, "you betcha, by golly."

By preventing us from obtaining healthcare, or fair legal representation, or education, or even FOOD, the 1% can weaken us to the point where we can no longer resist their oppression.

But that is exactly what the rethuglicans want. They want to strip us of our rights, our protections, our very humanity, to fill their coffers and feed their greed. They want to grind us down and eliminate any rebellion.

Which, by the way, is why so many toothless mouth-breathers in the deep South are rethuglican: they think slavery is just a dandy idea. Duck F***er Phil Robertson expressed his views rather succinctly:

"I never heard one of them, one black person, say, 'I tell you what: These doggone white people' -- not a word!" he said. "Pre-entitlement, pre-welfare, you say: Were they happy? They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues."

Yup, them darkies sure had it good.

 

 

 

Just look at the programs the Teabaggin conservative scum-burping murderers want to eliminate:

 

• Headstart (why do people need an edgimacation, when we're gonna tell 'em what to do?)
• SNAP (aka food stamps; after all, who needs anything more than subsistence rations?)
• Section 8 Housing Assistance (Sheriff Arpaio has the right idea, just use tents)
• Student Loans (keep 'em dumb, and they won't fight us)
• Healthcare (if you get sick, die quickly... don't clog our hospitals with your worthless carcasses)
• Due Process of Law (if they're incarcerated, they work cheap, and if they don't get due process, we get their stuff!)

 

 



 

 



Happy Leftovers Day!!!

Now comes the best part of the holiday season... all those yummy leftovers!  And one of the very best ways of disposing of leftover turkey is on a sandwich with fresh ground black pepper and apple butter (instead of mayo). The apple butters moistens the turkey, but also gives it a little bit of cinnamon and nutmeg kick.

And remember, there are plenty of Americans -- AMERICANS!! -- in the same position as these kids, so be grateful for what you have. And maybe if you have a dollar or an hour (and a conscience), help those less fortunate than you.



... And for the totally useless 1%...

Screw you.

At Least I'm Not Alone...

D r i f t g l a s s has a post up that describes my own situation almost perfectly, except for gender and lack of MIT credentials. Of course, the same can be said by countless thousands -- if not millions -- across the country.

Ms. Barrington-Ward, D r i f t g l a s s, Jurassic Pork, and yr humble and obt svt are all in the same boat: unemployed for so long that we're now unemployable, with credit scores that have been "sledgehammered," in JP's words.

I tell you, if there is reincarnation, I don't want to come back and be a nice guy all over again. I did that this time around, and I have nothing to show for it. Next time, I want to be a mean, miserable, nasty SOB... with lots of money.

It SUCKS to be in this situation. And to the jerkwads who say it's our fault, fine. Let's trade places. You take our cushy, lazy-ass lifestyles, and try to feed your families.

And we'll piss all over you.

Sanctimonious assholes.

Schticks of One, Pottersville Edition

Usually, I use this tag for my own conglomeration of bits and pieces that I don't feel like turning into full posts.

The lovely yet talented Jurassic Pork has done his own turn on this theme.

I especially like numbers three and four:

Thanks to the GOP cutting SNAP benefits, last night I had kids showing up at my door begging me for meat and vegetables.

Last night, Paul Ryan threw all his candy on his roof then told kids, "Wait for it to trickle down."

Yup, that sounds like them.

(And if you could toss some coinage their way, they'd appreciate it)

Some Changes at 618Rants

I have spent virtually my entire working life trying to help people, to make them safe, to make sure they go home to their loved ones at night. All too often, though, I put the needs of the many ahead of the needs of the few, or of the one, as Mr. Spock might say. My career in law enforcement and private-sector security cost me two marriages, a couple of intervening relationships, and almost cost me my life. It left me an alcoholic, vicious, mean, bigoted bastard; it took me almost twenty years to recover from that (I haven't done any drinking since 1989, and had it not been for the lovely yet talented Mrs618, I might never have recovered).

More recently, I've been engaged in firefighting and yet another round in EMS (my third). Because these are paid-on-call jobs, they weren't as time-consuming as police work, but I still tried my very best.

No more.

A couple of things happened yesterday, including hearing my alcoholic, psychologically-abusive father tell my drunk junkie brother that HE was the reliable one... after the lovely yet talented Mrs618 and I left a pair of $50,000-a-year jobs and moved to Maine to take care of my parents. After I've been fixing their house -- at MY expense -- for six years. After putting myself in the hospital a bunch of times with exhaustion, chest pains, bad knees, pneumonias, and a few things that looked like strokes or heart attacks.

Plus, I've been getting some really snotty emails from the local logistics person at the Red Cross, who seems to feel it is MY job to verify all the logistical issues for a class (if that is the case, why do we pay a full-time logistics person? And what does she do to earn her keep?).

I lay awake all night, thinking about things. About 4:00 AM, I felt a door close, then I got really cold, then everything just kind of mellowed out.

I had made my decisions:

• No more caring about anybody other than the lovely yet talented Mrs618, Emily (the Lab), Joey (the cat), and my son.
• I will continue to do the best job I can with the FD and EMS, but that's all it is now, a job. If you live, fine. If you don't, well, sucks to be you.
• Someone else can do the 14 or 15 different functions I'd been filling at the Red Cross for the last six years, including getting up in the middle of the night to go to house fires (I'll still go for the FD, cause they pay me).
• No feelings, no emotion, no empathy, no sympathy. Talk to the hand, dude.
• Ditto with their cultural norms, belief systems, languages, religions or other ethnic crap. You live in the United States, you adjust to OUR way of life. You don't like it? Go back to Trashcanistan.
• I'm not going to worry about watching my tongue anymore. Fat-Ass Paul LePage is a fat-assed teabagging douchbag. So is his fat-assed daughter. So is Rafael Eduardo Hijo de Puta Cruz, Canadian-born anchor baby spawn of cigar-sucking Cuban émigré, Castro supporter and Desi Arnaz wannabe Rafael Bienvenido Chinga tu Madre Cruz. So is Bible Spice and her oxygen-thief brood. And all the other cretinous yahoos who need to chlorinate their little corners of the gene pool, like the various Kardashians: Kleenex, Klepto, Klamato, and Klimax. Half of those fucks oughta be shot. Hell, most of 'em oughta be shot.

I don't know if this blog is going to continue. I may post again, I may not. I don't know.

For those who have stopped by and commented in the past -- the folks like BadTux, Jurassic Pork, The Dark Wraith*, skippy the bush kangaroo, the gone-but-not-forgotten Firestarter5 -- thank you. You gave me the encouragement to continue, and you let me think that maybe I had something worthwhile to offer. For the newer folks, the medical and fire service folks like Michael Morse, Justin Schorr, and Curt Varone, we may not agree on everything, but we tried. By God, we tried. To the folks on the old Yahoo wildlife groups, DLP in particular, thank you for the encouragement (and the occasional ball-busting).

BTW, I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Jurassic Pork and his missus are in pretty tough financial straits; if you can toss a few coins his way, please do. They really do deserve to have a roof over their heads.

* The Dark Wraith has been missing in action for a couple of years now, and Google is now showing his old site (and the companion site BigBrassBlog) as possibly infected with malware, so no links. DW, if you should happen to see this, you are missed. Same for Firestarter5.

_

Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?

(For the kids, that was the title of a popular song back during the Great Depression of the 1930's)

A fellow blogger whom I have mentioned many times is in really dire straits. He and his fiancee are facing some horrific conditions. If you could spare a buck or two (or even a couple of hundred), I would appreciate it, and I know it would be a lifesaver for them. He has a PayPal button at his site. Please try to send some cash his way.

It's my never-met but old buddy* Jurassic Pork, who currently runs Welcome Back To Pottersville. He's a good man who has had some truly crappy luck.

He was one of the first big-name bloggers to blogroll me back around 2006 or so, and has been lurking and commenting here since.


*Yeah, I might be presuming more to our association then he would prefer, but tough. *I* view him as a friend, so neener, neener, neener.

JP nails it. Twice.

Fellow blogger (and one of the first to link to me) has two very timely posts at his place:

• a look at the ten year anniversary of our invasion of Iraq, which should be mandatory reading for all those who think the war only involves scary brown terrorist types, and
• this:

JP and his missus are still finding rough sledding, as they are part of the 99%, so if you could swing by his blog and help them out, both they and I would appreciate it.

Sequestration (and Castration*?)

Our local Mouse Channel affiliate, WMTW Channel 8, has a story today about Acadia National Park in Bar Harbor closing its famous Loop Road and other amenities until mid-May, as a result of the Rethuglican-inspired sequestration. The same process eliminated public tours of the White House, leading some Rethugs to bitch mightily about the BMITWH "holding the nation hostage" to his budget plans or some such nonsense.

Now, granted, I do not have the economic knowledge or training of Badtux or JurassicPork, but allow me to offer some alternative plans to reduce the cost of government:

• Congresscritters -- both Senators and Representatives -- do not get paid until a budget has been passed and signed by the President. Some will claim the Constitution prohibits "adjusting" Congressional pay or benefits until after the next succeeding election; the Rethugs like to say their financial emergency trumps all else -- including national defense -- so it should also trump their financial well-being. Hell, if we gotta suffer, it's only fair they suffer with us.
• Congresscritters no longer get free or discounted travel anywhere for any reason, including official business. They get to fly Grayhound like the rest of us.
• Lobbyists must deposit their bribes campaign contributions into the Treasury, rather than the bottomless pockets of the pols.
• Eliminate free healthcare for Congresscritters. Let them see what it 's like to go without insurance.
• Eliminate free parking privileges for Congresscritters and their staff.
• In fact, eliminate their freakin' JOBS.

Wouldn't you LOVE to see the Zombie-eyed Granny Starver standing on the corner with a little cardboard sign that says "Will teabag for food"?

Scroom.

Scroomall.

* I vote for cutting their nuts off. No anesthesia, no bandages, no mercy. That's the only way to keep them from reproducing.

Joe McCarthy and [Someone] Cruz

Edited 11-03-2013, to reflect the current Senator's full  and correct name.

Joe McCarthy on the left, Rafael Eduardo Hijo de Puta Cruz, Canadian-born anchor baby spawn of cigar-sucking Cuban émigré, Castro supporter and Desi Arnaz wannabe Rafael Bienvenido Chinga tu Madre Cruz  on the right:

 

 

'Nuff said.

 

 

(Based on something the lovely yet talented JursassicPork posted at Brilliant at Breakfast, linking to Michael in Norfolk)

Th' Blizzahd of Ought-Thirteen... Yessir!

Well, here I am, sitting in the living room as "The Great Blizzahd of Ought-Thirteen" rages outside. It's been snowing since morning, even though the main part of the real storm is just starting to affect us. We already have about 8 inches of snow in the yard, and we're expecting somewhere between 24 and 30 inches by the time we're done.

Some interesting cancellations crawling across the bottom of the TV machine: "Some Town Snowmobile Club Outing Postponed to Sunday" and "Some Other Town Snowshoe Hike Postponed to Sunday." Plus, the main attraction up here this time of year -- the National Toboggan escapades at the Snow Bowl in Camden had to cancel their Saturday toboggan runs because of snow. Plus at least one ski area is closed due to excessive snow.

Maine... Life in the Slow Lane.

A 19-car pile-up on Interstate 295 down in Cumberland screwed up the morning commute for folks trying to get into Portland this morning (it even made NBC Nightly News). Evening rush hour didn't happen, as most everybody got out of Dodge by about 2:00 PM.


Oh, yeah, almost forgot... some hacker got into gee-dumbya's email thingie, and posted some pix of dim son's self-portraits... including one in the tub. Not shown: how he was playing 'submarine' with a coupla turds. With presidential seals on 'em. For more on this breaking story, see this piece by the lovely yet talented Jurassic Pork (who is also even more flat broke than I am, so if you could spare a few sheckels his way, I'm sure he'd appreciate it).

Jurassic Pork Strikes Again

UPDATE: from JP: Dude, I didn't write that article. I made it quite plain that Gary Cohn wrote it and I merely crossposted it for Barb O'Brien at Mahablog at her request. My apologies to all involved.

My old buddy Jurassic Pork has an article at Welcome Back To Pottersville that you just simply have to read. It concern the "compassionate conservatism" of one Willard "Mitt" Romney. And how ole Mitt screwed over a guy who worked for one of the many companies the BainBorg assimilated.

Go read it.

And ask yourself why anyone with a net worth of less than a million bucks would vote for this heartless scumbubble.