Day: April 23, 2007

Vermonters Pushing for Bush’s Impeachment

Buck Banks

If only there were more of them: Bolstered by a recent state senate bill to impeach President George Bush, Vermont activists are heading back to the state capital of Montpelier Wednesday to ramp up pressure on the the state house of representatives to pass a similar bill. More than 130 people (a significant portion of the state’s population) showed up last week to urge lawmakers to pass the impeachment resolution. Organizers are hoping for even more people to show up at the Statehouse cafeteria Wednesday morning.

‘We will descend upon them and lobby them actively, politely and vociferously.’
— Dan DeWalt

The resolution calls for the impeachment of both Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

You go, Vermonters!

Quote du Jour

Buck Banks

As to the Christian system of faith, it appears to me as a species of atheism; a sort of religious denial of God. It professes to believe in a man rather than in God. It is a compound made up chiefly of man-ism with but little deism, and is as near to atheism as twilight to darkness.

— Thomas Paine

Subway Wants You to Eat Fresh, as Long as It’s Meat

Trish

As a vegetarian, I’m used to a little drama when I order food. But at Subway? You know, Subway, that has Jarrod, urging us away from Big Macs? Whatever.

Against my better judgment — as it’s never been exactly smooth at the Subway nearest where I work on Saturday — I decided to pass over Taco Bell and Burger King and “Eat fresh” for lunch.

Subway offers a veggie patty sandwich, but do they train their employees on what to do in case someone wants to eat one?

The line was to the door, full of big guys in matching t-shirts from the Fire Fighting program at the local training academy. I waited, and waited, and waited some more as each one ordered a double meat special with extra meat and a side of meat. There was a moment of entertainment when one of the Butthead-like kids making sandwiches forgot about one he was toasting and smoke poured from the oven. Twenty guys went for the fire extinguisher at the same time.

When I finally got my turn to order, it was from a sandwich maker recently returned from break, who put out her cigarette and popped in some gum just before donning her plastic gloves to smoosh meat, meat, meat into bread.

She asked what I wanted, knife poised to slash into whatever bread I chose, but I said first, “Could I get you to change your gloves?” She stared at me. The 15 people behind me in line paused in their conversations. “For what reason?” she finally barked. For what reason? How about because the nice customer lady asked you to?

As I debated on the quickest way to tell her I didn’t want beef blood and salami grease all in my veggie delight, she figured it out. “You a vegetarian?” she asked. I said yes, and she waved her finger at Butthead, and said, “You have to talk to him.” I looked at him, busy burning someone else’s meat sub on a meat roll, back at her, said thanks, and walked out. I went to Burger King, where I ordered a B.K. Veggie without so much as one eye batted.

So here’s my question. Does Subway really mean it when they say they are vegetarian-friendly? Yes, they offer a veggie patty sandwich, but do they train their employees on what to do in case someone wants to eat one?

I know many of you are thinking that if I want to be a pain in the ass and spoil everyone’s party by not eating meat, I have it coming. As I said before, whatever. But did you happen to catch the study from the University of Rochester Medical Center that shows pregnant women who eat a lot of modern beef are lowering their male children’s sperm count?

…among the 51 men whose mothers were the highest beef eaters, almost 18 percent had sperm counts classified by the World Health Organization as “sub-fertile” (20 mill/ml or lower). By comparison, sperm concentrations were 24 percent higher for men whose mothers ate less beef, and only about 5 percent had sperm counts that could be classified as sub-fertile.

Mothers who reported eating an average of more than one meal a day of beef were referred to as “high beef consumers.” The average number of beef meals was 4.3 per week. Researchers also examined the mothers’ consumption of other meats (pork, lamb or veal), as well as fish, chicken, soy products and vegetables, but did not observe a significant association between sperm count and these other foods.

I’m just saying.

Good vs. Evil: Sheryl Crow vs. Karl Rove

Jon Ponder

As you have probably heard by now, at the annual White House Correspondents’ dinner on Saturday night, Karl Rove got ugly with Sheryl Crow when she had the temerity to question him about global warming. Here’s her version of the story, told with Laurie David, who was also on hand:

Reality has a liberal bias, as Stephen Colbert said. Bushies don’t like it when reality intrudes inside their bubble.

We reminded the senior White House advisor that the US leads the world in global warming pollution and we are doing the least about it. Anger flaring, Mr. Rove immediately regurgitated the official Administration position on global warming which is that the US spends more on researching the causes than any other country.

We felt compelled to remind him that the research is done and the results are in (www.IPCC.ch). Mr. Rove exploded with even more venom. Like a spoiled child throwing a tantrum, Mr. Rove launched into a series of illogical arguments regarding China not doing enough thus neither should we. (Since when do we follow China’s lead?) …

In his attempt to dismiss us, Mr. Rove turned to head toward his table, but as soon as he did so, Sheryl reached out to touch his arm. Karl swung around and spat, “Don’t touch me.” How hardened and removed from reality must a person be to refuse to be touched by Sheryl Crow? Unfazed, Sheryl abruptly responded, “You can’t speak to us like that, you work for us.” Karl then quipped, “I don’t work for you, I work for the American people.” To which Sheryl promptly reminded him, “We are the American people.”

At that point Mr. Rove apparently decided he had had enough. Like a groundhog fearful of his own shadow, he scurried to his table in an attempt to hibernate for another year from his responsibility to address global warming. Drama aside, you would expect as an American citizen to be able to engage in a civil discussion with a public official. Instead, Mr. Rove was dismissive, condescending, and quite frankly a bully.

Reality has a liberal bias, as Stephen Colbert said. Bushies don’t like it when reality intrudes inside their bubble.

Conservatives’ Plan to Arm College Campuses Could Backfire

Jon Ponder

Conservative utopia: In the wake of the Virginia Tech gun massacre, the conservative movement has exposed its utter lack of grounding in practical reality. Last week, both former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and former Speaker Newt Gingrich suggested that the solution to gun violence on campus is to arm every student, professor and (let’s assume) administration staff member.

DeLay was expelled from Baylor for drinking and vandalism. When Gingrich was a professor in Georgia, he was infamous for screwing his colleagues wives. Let’s assume they’re both glad there weren’t a lot of guns around back then.

Have these guys ever seen an episode of the “Real World” on MTV? Imagine the unintended consequences of, say, 20,000 18- to 21-year-olds on the average state college campus carrying fire arms:

  • Guns and alcohol are deadly mix, so every late-night party would have the potential of turning into a bloodbath, especially in the wee hours when young inexperienced drinkers are so blottoed that they have lost the ability to reason.
  • Maybe it’s news to conservatives, but drugs are widely available on campuses, too. Like alcohol, drugs and guns can be a lethal mix.
  • During college years, romantic relationships are at their most fluid. In a world in which every super-posessive young man or woman has a firearm in a drawer, cheaters had better watch their backs.
  • Hyper-achieving students often lose their grounding in reality as they try for good grades. Arming them would put noncompliant professors in their crosshairs.
  • Other students vent their frustration on themselves. Having guns readily available would increase the number of campus suicides.
  • Let’s not even start imagining how armed students might react if their college team loses the big game.

DeLay has apparently forgotten what college life is like. He was kicked out of Baylor University after two years for drinking and vandalism. If armed students at rival Texa A&M had caught him defacing a building on their campus, the Hammer would have been cut down in his prime. Instead, Baylor expelled him and he went on to achieve glory as the poster boy for Republican corruption.

Before he ran for Congress, Gingrich was a professor at a state university in the hinterlands of west Georgia. He ought to know better than to suggest arming campus denizens. Professor Gingrich was infamous for diddling his colleagues’ wives. Would he have wanted his fellow professors to be armed back then?