TESTING MY PATIENCE

N C governor, Mayor McCheese is set to continue his policy of kicking anyone and everyone who is already down. He's about to sign into law mandatory drug testing for anyone applying for public assistance.  Why are they doing this? State after state has done this and ended up wasting much more money than they saved.  The governor of Florida was the first to introduce this nonsense, and as it turned out his brother was the owner of the testing company that was used. Arizona tested 87,000 applicants and had 1 positive test result. Florida tested 51,000 applicants  and had 21 positive test results. Over five million dollars of tax money was spent in just two states to deny 22 people welfare benefits. So that is the reason they made this law different, requiring the poor to pay for the test themselves.  But if they pass the screening they may be reimbursed.

What are they going to do if someone tests positive? help them get into rehab and get clean? Educate them on the dangers of addiction? Help them get a job? No, of course not; they will simply dump them from the the program, and how will that help anyone? And so what if someone is using drugs? Does that mean they are unworthy of help?  What about tobacco or alcohol? Why is it that conservatives are always looking for a reason to punish someone they don’t approve of? Well you can't blame them, they are only following their own religious guidelines, only help those who are clean, sober, and perfect.

All of this is simply another attempt to reinforce the myth that if anyone is in need it must be their own fault, and to blame the poor for their own condition. believing this serves to soothe the fears of the middle class, that as long as they are smart and personally responsible they could never end up poor themselves. As though all you have to do is choose to be personally responsible.  It keeps anyone from having to feel empathy for those less fortunate or guilty for not helping.  It also distracts them from noticing what the wealthy have been doing to them for the last three decades. So much for their love of  Constitutional standards when they hold everyone guilty until they can pay to prove themselves innocent.

Why don't we ever have drug tests for politicians? That I could support!

© C.  Erich  Dunne ; july, twenty-thirteen.

ROYAL PAIN

How many babies is Kate Middleton going to have? every time I check CNN she's walking out with another one! Amazingly the crowd reaction is always the same. How do they keep up their enthusiasm?

WIENER TAKES ALL

the wife of national embarrassment Anthony "the penis texter" Wiener made a statement yesterday trying to defend her husband and their marriage. At one point she stated that "our marriage has had it's ups and downs."
We know. He sent everyone pictures of the "ups".

BOY IN THE HOODIE

A guy walks into a bar. he pulls out a gun and shoots at his grandma who is drinking in the corner. He misses. Granma pulls out her gun and shoots back, she misses. The guy shoots his grandma dead and tells the police that because she shot at him, he feared for his life and shot her in self defense. he gets off Scot free.

Thought this was going to be a joke? Well it is -only the joke is on us. When did 'stand your ground' become 'chase them down' anyway? How the hell can you start a fight, and when that fight goes badly for you, you decide to shoot your way out of it and then claim self defense? Zimmerman shouldn't have been allowed to use the 'stand your ground' law, it should have applied to Martin; he was the innocent person minding his own business and doing absolutely nothing at all wrong. He was the one being stalked  and harassed by a gun toting maniac. Since the law says you only have to think someone is going to hurt you, I think that qualifies. Martin even did more than the law requires when he tried to get away from Zimmerman, who himself said Martina ran away from him. (he realized that didn't sound so good for a self defense case and changed it to 'skipping away' WTF?)

The most damning evidence against Zimmerman, beside the dead teenager's body- is his own words which he could not keep straight. Despite the fact that Hannity slow pitched leading questions, all but answering them for him for best defense results. When Hannity asked when he went for his gun Zimmerman actually said "At this point it wasn't MY GUN or HIS GUN, it was THE GUN." as if he wasn't responsible for bringing the gun into this. Like it was just THERE, flaoting in the air maybe and they both had an equal chance at it.  How were Zimmerman's lawyers allowed to say that Martin was NOT an unarmed teenager because he hit Zimmerman's head against the ground? Is the whole world a weapon? if so, we're all armed all the time.

The whole process favored Zimmerman from the beginning. They drug tested the murder victim, but not they guy who shot him? The police were more than happy to just take his word for the whole thing. It took six weeks for him to be arrested or charged with anything.

To add massive insult to injury, Zimmerman's lawyer said that the very idea of prosecuting his client was "disgusting". Then he said he it was sad (and for a second I thought he would slightly redeem himself by saying it was sad that someone had died, but no. . .) that "It took this long to get Zimmerman the justice he deserved." TOTAL DOUCHE.
One more symbol of just what they are Zimmerman said in his interview with Hannity that "He had NO REGRETS about what happened that night." That he didn't want to second guess God's plan. God's plan? God's plan was for him to kill an innocent unarmed teenager and get away with it?

And finally, the irony of ironies, in the 911 tape after accusing Martin of "looking suspicious" and "acting like he was on drugs"  just two among many wild assumptions. You can hear him get one thing right when he complains that "the bad guys always get away..."

© C. Erich Dunne  july twenty-thirteen