Shoot the watchdog – and other political stuff that will either make your head explode or tickle your fancy

So you’ll noticed that I haven’t posted for about a week. Sorry. I open the newspaper, or turn on the TV news, and it’s the same-old same-old.

Until this morning that is. Suddenly I found a number of items ­­– well, three of them anyway – that may not merit a full post on this blog, but that are certainly worth calling to your attention.

Let’s start with shooting the watchdog

Suppose there’s a great government agency. Or suppose, if you don’t believe in such things as great government agencies, that there’s one highly exceptional government agency that miraculously is doing its job. And that job has been helping millions of Americans. How?

It has saved thousands of home buyers from predatory lenders. It has sued and won in a settlement $85 million from a credit card company that would rather fork over the $85 million than go to court over its discriminatory marketing and billing practices.

It has also launched an investigation into the way banks, in collusion with some colleges and universities, rip off college students and get vulnerable kids skewered on a financial hook for a lifetime, or at least a few decades, of unnecessary debt.

In other words, you’ve got a government watch dog that not only barks, but also bites the bad guys. What would you do with this dog?

Well, many of the political prostitutes who call themselves Republican senators and congressman are trying to shoot the dog, of course, before it ruins the political corruption business. Further details here.

To the left march! With laughter

Like most progressive bloggers, when I read the news for more than ten minutes at a time, my head starts to explode with rage. But every so often, a blogger comes along who can get you, well, to use the language of text-a-holics, ROTF!

Such a blogger is Tom Degan. I have no idea why I never came across him the blogosphere before. But I can tell you, I’ll be reading him from now on. And I've posted a link to  his hilarious rage on my own blog.

Just to give you a sample, here’s what Deegan says about himself in his biographical notes:

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: TOM DEGAN is a traitor to this beautiful and bountiful nation of ours. Not only that, he is a disgrace to the flag that all real Americans honor and revere. It is a sad thing to realize that he walks among us, with the same rights granted to decent people everywhere. Here is how utterly contemptible he is - He wrote what you are now reading. He is trying to make you believe that it is being written by a third party. How cruel! He is just being a smug, elitist liberal! Tom Degan has no shame. I take back what I said. "Contemptible" is too kind a word for me - I MEAN "HIM". 

Run over here and read him.

“I don’t know much about science

but I know what I like”

Introducing the case of another ignorant school teacher, (by law that ought to be an oxymoron) this particular school teacher in Indiana, Her name is Diana Medley, and Ms. Medley wants to ban gay kids from the high school prom because she, er, doesn’t “agree” with homosexuality.”Agree?”

Reports the Crooks and Liars blog: 

"I don't believe they were born that way," she opined. "I think life circumstances made them choose that. I think God made everybody equal...  

Wait a second, lady. Just wait a second. This isn’t a matter of opinion. It doesn’t matter what you think, or what I think. This is a matter of science and the interplay between endocrinology and genetics. I know this is hard, lady, but let me simplify this for you. The latest science is that gay kids were wired that way by a combination of the hormones in their mothers’ wombs and genetics that they didn’t ask for. They were just handed the dang things and told by nature to go be gay and have a life. 

On the other hand, Ms. Midley, one might come to the conclusion that you were wired for airhead – unless, of course, you chose airhead.