Obama may cave in on Medicare cuts, just to appease the prickish Republican and Tea Party folks in congress.

The sociopath in North Korea may very well start a war. That's a sure way to thin the herd.

Americans seem in favor of legalizing pot. And, more and more favor gay marriage, or are less and less opposed to denying gays equality.

Scalia has Jesus so far up his as that it must be hard for him to breathe. If it weren't for the NRA providing him a degree of backbone, I think he'd fall over.

A teacher in a nearby community went on line and found two girls who needed help. He decided he'd go visit them. It was a sting operation. The teacher was arrested. His defense, now, is that he had just wanted to help the girls financially, and that he had been to a massage parlor less than an hour ealier, where he had sex with the massage therapist. Therefore,  he was not in need to having sex with the under-aged girls, because he had just been sexually satisfied less than an hour earlier.

I had a letter in the morning paper, to wit: "I'm 70 years old and hate to  think about closing Southeast High School. I started there iin 1957 and graduated in 1960. I was in the first graduating class to have attended all three years at Southeast. I was often engaged as a hall proctor, checking hall passes of my fellow students. I'm retired now and have time on my hands. Maybe the Kansas Legislature will hire me as a bedroom proctor, marking down the time and date of connubial fertilizations."

The couple next door asked me if I knew where they could get a mattress of sufficient size for the two of them and about 30 Kansas Republican Senators.

*****

Cal Thomas is at it again.

Follow Principles Instead of Public Opinion, Cal Thomas, Wichita Eagle, April 3, 2013

History is full of warnings about what happens when people follow public opinion instead of standing by their principles. In its most extreme manifestation, public opinion might well become mob rule when vigilantes take the law into their own hands.

Major media have whipped the crowd into its latest frenzy over same-sex marriage, or should I say “marriage equality”? The latest euphemism likely is intended to make the masses more accepting of what was once unacceptable. And the masses, which increasingly answer “none” when asked about any religious affiliation or moral code, appear ready for it. The U.S. Supreme Court, not the Supreme Judge, now rules supreme.

But there are consequences for living as one pleases. Look at the fallout that our culture continues to experience from the ’60s generation and its throwing off of the ideals and structures of mainstream society. The “Age of Aquarius,” and its countercultural revolution, has given way to an increase in drug use, no-fault divorce, cohabitation, out-of-wedlock births and abortion. Everything’s fair game. Nothing’s off-limits. Anything goes.

Now, we are about to see the latest cultural domino fall. Imagine states without boundaries and speed without limits. What same-sex marriage proponents seem to be asking the court to do is to remove ancient boundary lines for human relationships based on what they wish to do. That opens the door to anything and everything else, depending on how well-organized they are and what political clout they can muster.

Personal experience, like that of Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who announced recently that his son is gay, is now supposed to trump Scripture and the will of California voters? While most politicians take their oaths of office on the Bible, many of them prove by their actions that they don’t believe, or follow, what’s in it. Better they should place their hands on Rolling Stone or People magazines, which more accurately reflect the direction and attitude of contemporary culture.

It’s when individuals, not God, become the standard by which truth and right and wrong are judged that we get a Supreme Court deciding our ultimate direction.

Some liberals believe the Constitution is a “living” document that must constantly evolve to fit the times. It is not. Some liberal theologians believe the same about the Scriptures. They believe these, too, must evolve, because serving God is no longer the standard; serving Man is.

Suzanne Collins, author of “The Hunger Games” trilogy, has observed: “Collective thinking is usually short-lived. We’re fickle, stupid beings with poor memories and a great gift for self-destruction.”

In his 1882 play, “An Enemy of the People,” Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen wrote, “Public opinion is an extremely mutable thing.”

Indeed it is, and the fickle public, relying on the opinion of others instead of eternal truths to shape beliefs, is treading on very thin ice that has already begun to crack.

(JRM Comment: As usual, Cal Thomas is absolutely consistent in his ignorance. Still, we should follow tradition and obey Poseidon. And we should ignore Article V of the Constitution that contains information on how to amend the constitution to insure that it is - and will remain - a living document that can change with the times; eliminating such things as slavery in the process.)

 

One Kansas law is worthy of applause. The statute of limitation for rape has been eliminated.

But then, Kansas gets it wrong:

Kansas Senate determines life begins at fertilization

Dion Lefler, The Wichita Eagle, April 2, 2013

TOPEKA — A bill defining human life as beginning at fertilization and outlawing any direct or indirect state support for abortions cruised to Senate approval Monday.

But not before outnumbered Democrats forced Republicans into politically risky roll-call votes over birth control and whether to exempt victims of rape and incest from state abortion restrictions.

The Senate moved the bill forward with only one minor technical amendment. A final recorded vote is expected Tuesday.

Senate support virtually guarantees that House Bill 2253 will become state law.

The bill has already passed the House of Representatives and Gov. Sam Brownback has pledged to sign any anti-abortion legislation that the Legislature sends him.

The bill at hand, House Bill 2253, makes several changes in state abortion and tax laws, including defining life as beginning at the moment of fertilization and eliminating damage to a woman’s mental health as justification for mid- to late-term abortions.

In addition, the bill:

• Prohibits paid agents or volunteers connected to abortion providers – including Planned Parenthood – from providing any information on human sexuality to students in public schools.

• Requires clinics that perform abortions to provide women with detailed information on gestational development.

• Requires abortion providers to provide patients with a directory of anti-abortion alternative programs.

Supporters say the primary focus of the bill is to prevent abortion opponents from having to provide even the most indirect support of abortion through their taxes.

It would restrict women from claiming any medical or insurance costs related to abortion services as a deduction on state income taxes. It also prohibits any state funding, tax credits or other benefits from going to any medical practice or facility that allows abortions to be performed.

Democrats’ amendments led to an unusually heated floor debate.

Sen. David Haley, D-Kansas City, accused conservative Republicans of pushing “narrow Taliban-like philosophies on our state’s persons.”

Haley, a former Republican, said the party’s focus on interfering in people’s private lives were a big reason he switched parties.

“I was a Bob Dole Republican,” he said. “Some of you all might remember him; most of you don’t.”

Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook, R-Shawnee, who carried the bill on the floor, accused Haley of misrepresenting the intent of the 72-page bill.

“It has to do with giving parents confidence that their children will not be exposed to abortion policy in sex-education classes and eliminates any taxpayer funding for abortions so that taxpayers do not feel their money is going to provide for abortions,” Pilcher-Cook said.

Haley proposed an amendment that would have clarified that defining life as beginning at fertilization would not ban forms of birth control that work by interfering with uterine implantation of a fertilized egg, such as the IUD and morning-after pill.

“The majority of the public, I believe, don’t want to see birth control outlawed,” Haley said.

That drew an angry retort from Pilcher-Cook, who called Haley’s amendment “political high jinks.”

“This is just ridiculous,” she said. “We should be focused on the bill instead of trying to make political points with amendments.”

She said the right to birth control is protected by other state laws, but Haley persisted that if state policy is that life begins at fertilization, some would interpret that to equate birth control with abortion.

Haley’s amendment failed, but did put 27 Republican senators on the record with a vote that could be used later to try to paint them as being anti-birth control. Only the eight Democrats voted for the amendment and five moderate Republicans took a pass.

The same forces clashed over a Haley amendment to provide women and girls who became pregnant through rape, incest or aggravated indecency an exemption from the state’s regimen of strict anti-abortion laws.

Haley said the definition of parenthood in the bill could convey to rapists and other abusers the ability to stop a woman’s decision to abort a pregnancy resulting from a sex crime.

Pilcher-Cook said she found it offensive to imply that she was trying to protect rapists and molesters.

That amendment failed 28-9, but got one Republican vote, from Sen. Vicki Schmidt, a Topeka moderate.

Another fought-over provision establishes a statutory mandate that abortion doctors must provide controversial medical information to women who are seeking an abortion, specifically of a link between abortion and breast cancer.

The National Cancer Institute has characterized that as a “false alarm,” saying: “At this time, the scientific evidence does not support the notion that abortion of any kind raises the risk of breast cancer or any other type of cancer.”

But Pilcher-Cook argued that scientific studies vary and that the information is already provided to women under state health regulations.

The bill would put that requirement in state law, she said.

Sen. Pat Pettey, D-Kansas City, attempted an amendment to remove the language from the bill, saying it was misinforming women.

Pettey’s amendment failed on a vote of 28-10. Two Republicans voted with the Democrats, Schmidt and Kay Wolf, R-Prairie Village.

 

(JRM Comment: Republicans sure are interested in vaginas. The Republicans want a government so small that it will fit in a bedroom. I wonder why they failed to add stoning for any woman who has a abortion? I wonder if they will install a device in every woman to determine the moment of fertilization? I wonder if a fertilized egg will have full citizenship rights? I wonder why we don’t stop electing idiots?)

Kansas gets dumber and dumber. Brownback wants to make a sales tax increase permanent. We had a special 1% tax, but he wants to make it permanent to make up for the loss of revenue due to to his ideological tax cuts.

The Kansas Senate voted that life begins with fertilization -- whenever the fuck that is. "Sorry, your honor. Can't be my kid. It was fertilized at10:30:07: 000000000008, and Iwasn't home until 10:30:08:00000000000009.

We have a ban on quarantining people with HIV. That might be reinstated. Maybe we can do th same for people with acne, gall stones or cancer.

Never know when your finger might inadvertently be inserted into a rctum of someone with colon cancer and you'd catch cancer as a result. One should be protected from something like that. And dandruff. Definitely need protection from that.

We can no longer teach anything about abortion in public schools. We must instruct women about the evils of abortion; how the sky fairy doesn't approve, and the local priest will spank you once he gets done screwing the altar boy.

I hope reincarnation is an option. I'd love to be reborn into a society where religious bulll shit has become something that people laugh about, laugh at how silly and unworthy it was for humans to preference superstition over reality and science.

March indeed came in like a lion ands went out like a lamb. 70 degrees on Easter Sunday. Then Mother Nature's April Fool's joke was a 30 degree day, with wind and sleet and rain.

Murphy's Law #11 ruled: Mother Nature is a bitch!

An opinion in today's paper asks: "What has happened to the English language? Do we really need to use the word basically in each and every sentence? Is there aany word more annoying?"

(JRM Commnet: Basically, "basically" is basically a useful word. Like, basically, it is,  like,  awesome, or basically so.")