I'm sure their mothers are proud.

Obviously I didn't write this, but it bears repeating.

I've taken to avoiding the news for the most part lately.  It's a bunch of people arguing about the best way to lie to you, since as you already know, you're being lied to by lying liars who lie a lot.  Nobody is going to cut a damned thing - ever.  The budget for the United States, in any given year, will never be lower than it was the year before.  It will never happen.  Ever.

So the persistent arguments exist for no reason other than to appease various factions of us, in hopes that we'll keep a given group of liars in power.  Do you really think a tax rate increase on a rich dude will cost you your job?  Then you're dumb.  Do you really think a tax rate increase on a rich dude will improve anything about the budget?  Then you're also dumb.  I prefer one group of liars to the other for the most part, since they at least pretend that the real issues will be addressed, but I simply don't care enough to lose any sleep over it.

Probably more to the point, I don't believe that there's anything like a straight news source in this country anymore.  It's unfortunate, but I have to agree with various right-wing hatemongers who have lamented the fact that journalism died in 2008.  Now all we have are the left-wing bomb throwers and the right-wing bomb throwers, with a few bullshitters making a buck by pretending to straddle the line.  Tapper does a pretty fair job for the most part, even though I'm pretty sure he's a liberal at heart.  I think guys like Will and Krauthammer do a fair job, even though they're more of the opportunistic establishment sorts than I would prefer.  Hearing liberals decry their rampant conservatism is amusing to me, to say the least.  Those guys are more conservative than not, but they're hardly fans of Rand Paul and his ilk.

But anyhow, yeah, straight news.  Reuters is good for a chuckle every time bad news comes out, since all bad news under Obama happens "unexpectedly."  (For realsies, you can Google it.)  But the AP is supposed to be the gold standard, right?  And this is what our piss-poor gold standard looks like. 
[Reiterating what I said in the title of this post - nothing in the following blockquote was written, thought, or known by me.  I merely saw this tonight and laughed a rueful laugh.]

Two Wire Services in One!

"WASHINGTON--A transformative health care bill is headed to President Barack Obama for his signature as Congress takes the final steps in Democrats' improbable and history-making push for near-universal medical coverage. On the cusp of succeeding where numerous past congresses and administrations have failed, jubilant House Democrats voted 219-212 late Sunday to send legislation to Obama that would extend coverage to 32 million uninsured Americans, reduce deficits and ban insurance company practices such as denying coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions."--Associated Press, March 22, 2010

"LANSING, Mich.--In an audacious flex of political muscle, Republicans in a single day reached the brink of a goal that for years has seemed an all-but-impossible dream: making the labor bastion of Michigan a right-to-work state. The GOP majority used its superior numbers and backing from Gov. Rick Snyder to ramrod legislation through the House and Senate on Thursday, brushing aside denunciations and walkouts by helpless Democrats and cries of outrage from union activists who swarmed the state Capitol hallways and grounds. At one point, police used pepper spray to subdue demonstrators who tried to rush the Senate chamber."--Associated Press, Dec. 7, 2012

That one comes from James Taranto at the Wall Street Journal.  I don't catch it regularly, but his 'Best of the Web Today' column has always been interesting whenever I've read it.  This one was no exception.

My brother asked me today why my cousin was talking about going to Lansing tomorrow.  I had no idea.  Then I got a call on my Comcast phone number from James Hoffa.  I don't have a home phone, but I have a home phone number.  The cable package came with TV and internet and... you probably know how that goes.  So anyway, I don't have a home phone.  The only people who call my inactive number are telemarketers.  The voicemail greeting is set up in Spanish, just for shits and giggles, so most of them hang up.  The robocalls go ahead and leave a message though.  Tonight's robot Hoffa was going on about protecting workers' rights in Michigan.

"Workers' rights" is code language, as you surely know.  Apparently there's some kind of anti-union deal going on in my home state.  I don't know the details of it, since I really couldn't care less.

People are pretty fired up about it though.  So they're going to protest in Lansing or whatever.  Mr. Hoffa wants me to join forces with the working men and women of Michigan.  I'm probably just going to sleep in though.  I have quite a bit of work to do tomorrow, and none of it will involve union busting or union supporting.  As per usual, I simply don't care.

That article was pretty hilarious though.  Those of us who fall on the 'freedom' side of the neverending freedom-equality tug of war would do well to remember that there are no objective sources on our side either, but the majority of "straight" news in this country comes from folks like those at the AP.  The gold standard.

Had dinner at the Tilted Kilt tonight

Didn't hate it.

Apparently there are more locations coming to Michigan, but the Novi one is A-OK by me.

An outlier has been identified.

As the past week has transpired, I've noticed that the loyalty of SEC fans to their conference is nothing short of creepy.  It's almost like they're still pissed about that 'War of Northern Aggression' or something.  (Hint: They are.)  I suppose there's something to be said for the idea that a losing team might feel better if the team that beat them were to go on and win it all.  Then the losing team can make some sort of perpetual claim to #2 status, or whatever.  But the SEC takes it to a whole new level.

I used to live in Georgia.  I still have relatives down there and, through the wonders of having been a truck driver, I came to know a few other people down there.  So I know that several of them were pretty damned fired up about that game against Alabama yesterday.  They hate Nick Saban.  They hate Alabama.  They hate Bear Bryant's ghost and all the rest of it.  They really wanted to win that game.  But they lost.

Now... they're rooting for Alabama to beat Notre Dame so that the national title will stay in the SEC?  What the fuck kind of hillbilly logic is that?  It's not just Georgia either.  The LSU and Florida degenerates are the same way.

Obviously Notre Dame is an independent in football, so I don't have a direct connection to the conference mindset, but I can't think of a time when I've ever rooted for USC to win a game.  I don't necessarily root against them either (I really don't care if they win or not), but I sure as shit don't have some blind loyalty to a rival program.  I don't root for the Cowboys when the Redskins miss the playoffs.  I don't like the Cowboys - full stop.  Why in the hell would I want them to win a Super Bowl?  I don't root for the Blackhawks after the Wings are out.  I don't like the Blackhawks.  I don't root for the White Sox when the Tigers are out.  I don't like the White Sox.  I can't imagine what kind of loser's satisfaction I would get from being able to say, "Well yeah, we ain't that good, but at least the AL Central won the Series."  That mindset is just stupid, man.  Stupid and creepy.

But at least there's one spot in the SEC where pure unadulterated hatred isn't going to be compromised by weird cult sensibilities.

Sure, they just whacked their coach and there are probably going to be some NCAA issues to deal with in the near future, but at least the Auburn fans still hate Alabama more than they hate everybody outside the SEC.  I was in Auburn once.  Aside from the fact that it seemed like a really remote place, compared with some of the other college towns that I had visited, nothing really stuck out about it.  Just another place along the highway.  But now, thanks to a fairly clever bit of graphic design work that appears to be supporting my Irish, I think I'll like Auburn for the next month or two.