With more money, of course!

Momentum for federal assistance to struggling homeowners, a non-starter with the Republican administration and many members of Congress only a few months ago, has picked up steam in Washington.

Wow, I wish I had signed up for an adjustable rate, interest-only jumbo loan with a balloon payment, with lots of fine print I didn’t bother to read, so that I could get the government to help pay for it! Suh-weet!

Instead, dumb me, getting that 30-year fixed mortgage that requires me to write a $1400 check every month, with no help from Uncle Sam.

Personal responsibility is so overrated.

I took the Pew Research Center current events quiz and I did quite well:

Here’s Your Score: You correctly answered 12 of the 12 possible questions along with approximately 3% of the public. You did better than 97% of the general public.

Uh, duh… of course I did.

Just one more reason you good people should default your opinions to mine, no matter the topic!

You can take the test right here.

(via Wheels)

Michigan Democrats have reached agreement:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Michigan Democrats agreed Friday to push a do-over primary in early June to give them a say in the close presidential race between Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.

Amid talks with the two campaigns, the four Michigan Democrats said in a statement they were “focusing on the possibility of a state-run primary in early June which would not use any state funding.” Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, one of the Democratic participants, said a likely date is June 3.

It is expected that, soon, Hillary Clinton will also triple dog dare Obama to stick his tongue to a frozen flag pole*.

* No word on whether or not this will lead Obama into a career in porn.

From this article regarding Terry Pratchett donating $1 million for Alzheimer’s research comes this little gem of socialist care:

Mr Pratchett is paying for the Alzheimer’s drug Aricept because the NHS says he is too young to get it for free.

Once he’s older, senile, and beyond help, they will happily hand him the drugs he won’t need at that point for free.

I’m sure, of course, that Mr. Pratchett has little problem paying for the drugs, given his successful writing career. However, what about the (theoretical) 59 year old dockhand who is also suffering?

I guess the NHS is betting that by the time he’s old enough, he won’t even remember wanting Aricept at all. Classy.

[Pratchett] told the conference he is prepared to go to extreme lengths in order to beat the disease.

He said: “Personally, I’d eat the arse out of a dead mole if it offered a fighting chance.

It certainly offers more of one than the NHS.

There’s a slogan for them!

Your NHS: No Better Than the Arse of a Dead Mole!

At least we’d finally see truth in advertising.

Yes, that’s Fox News, to be sure:

Report: Sadistic Killer Lesbians Shared Blood Lust

Because, you know, only lesbians engage in sadism, murder, and bloodlust.

Because they’re - duh - gay!

Little known fact.

Idiots.

Oh Man: Now the lesbians travel through time!

From Vodkapundit:

When recessions hit, the worst thing the government can do is something.

Indeed (sans “Heh”). It’s either too much or too little, and always too late.

Update: And speaking of “getting it” (or not), CNN the other day had a poll on “Who do you blame for the mortgage meltdown?”

13% of respondents said the government.

Apparently President Bush was out there forging signatures on paperwork for all those people who didn’t bother to understand their mortgage or read the fine print, and he also was the loan officer for those mortgage companies dumb enough to give a $250,000 loan to someone making $10 an hour with no other income.

…and we’re obviously pretty nervous that Obama would wipe the floor with us as the Democratic nominee.

This is right up there with Colbert’s hot tip that Obama has fathered a black child.

Another thought: If Barack Hussein Obama had, at age 18, changed his name to Stephen Paul Shlingerdonk, as soon as the Republicans caught wind of it they would be screaming, “Why did he change his name? What is Stephen Shlingerdonk trying to hide??”

That would be followed by crap websites insinuating that Air Force One is going to take down a skyscraper in 2009.

And I would still be making fun of them.

Note: I voted for the man currently in office, so I am not some evil lefty. I’m just disappointed (periodically disgusted) by the far right. As for being disgusted by the far left, well, that’s generally a given, isn’t it?

Just stuff.

Ralph Nader says, “Give the Republicans the White House again!”

The Clinton campaign says “we didn’t intend that Obama photo as a smear“, quickly following up with “not that it was ours, or anything. Whatever. Hey, look over there!” (scurry, scurry, scurry) … looks to me like more politics as usual, which is why I think we might actually see a President Obama.

In matchups looking ahead to November’s general election, Clinton leads Arizona Sen. John McCain by 48 percent to 43 percent. Obama’s lead over the virtually certain GOP nominee is twice that size, 51 percent to 41 percent.

Ouch.

And Heh.

A McDonald’s in California is giving the ancient made-up art of Feng Shui a try, channeling the made-up energy of chi in all sorts of fantastic ways, which is easy to do when you’re just making things up. Perhaps, if the executives in the McDonald’s board room really want to grow profits, they should all watch “The Secret” and compel the universe to make everyone Super Size themselves.

Colorado moves one step closer to retail alcohol sales on Sunday. Hey, look at us, we’re almost all grown up and getting our boobies here.

In a time of war, with economic crises looming, the U.S. Congress still has its priorities straight. Well, for a bunch of pinheads. Which, um, they seem continually bent on demonstrating that they are.

Atheists are fomenting rebellion, rising in numbers! The end is nigh! Hide the women and the whisky!

Also, marvel at how Mary Jordan of the Washington Post draws some moral equivalence between the fanaticism of 9/11 and the “extremism” of someone crossing out “In God We Trust” from U.S currency.

On the flip side, it looks like Texas may be heading back towards breeding stupid children.

Via the magic of Last.fm (see right sidebar), I came across the band Speechwriters LLC yesterday. I dug it. So I went to iTunes, looked it up, saw it was $9.99 for an album and almost bought it.

Instead, I went to Amazon’s MP3 store, and found the same album for $3 less. What did the extra $3 get me at iTunes? Digital Rights Management (DRM). Well, that’s quite the selling point there, Apple. No, thanks, I like my music to have its freedom.

And, uh, that’s all.

When the United Kingdom’s NHS refuses to offer advanced treatment, and the patient decides to pick up the tab on their own dime quid, what happens?

That’s right.

The NHS threatens to stop treatment altogether.

One such case was Debbie Hirst’s. Her breast cancer had metastasized, and the health service would not provide her with Avastin, a drug that is widely used in the United States and Europe to keep such cancers at bay. So, with her oncologist’s support, she decided last year to try to pay the $120,000 cost herself, while continuing with the rest of her publicly financed treatment.

By December, she had raised $20,000 and was preparing to sell her house to raise more. But then the government, which had tacitly allowed such arrangements before, put its foot down. Mrs. Hirst heard the news from her doctor.

“He looked at me and said: ‘I’m so sorry, Debbie. I’ve had my wrists slapped from the people upstairs, and I can no longer offer you that service,’ ” Mrs. Hirst said in an interview.

“I said, ‘Where does that leave me?’ He said, ‘If you pay for Avastin, you’ll have to pay for everything’ ” — in other words, for all her cancer treatment, far more than she could afford.

If she tries everything, even selling her home, to save her own life, she’s out in the cold.

If she rolls over and dies like a good loyal subject, the NHS will gladly pay for it.

Sickening.

Officials said that allowing Mrs. Hirst and others like her to pay for extra drugs to supplement government care would violate the philosophy of the health service by giving richer patients an unfair advantage over poorer ones.

Nevermind that the higher taxes paid by richer citizens pay for the care of the poorer ones.

Remember, kids: socialism makes you stupid.

…as Florida’s State Board of Education concurs that evolution is a scientific theory (because its status was in doubt, I guess).

Florida’s public school science standards for the first time will use the word “evolution,” although the biological concept already was being taught under code words such as “change over time….”

The standards state that evolution is “the fundamental concept underlying all of biology and is supported by multiple forms of scientific evidence….”

Opponents of evolution denied they had a religious motive, arguing that there are flaws in the scientific theory of evolution and that students should be allowed to explore them.

As a compromise, the standards refer to evolution as a scientific theory, explaining that a theory is a well-supported and accepted explanation of nature, not simply a claim.

Quite the compromise the creationists got! A forthright statement of facts regarding evolution. Somehow, I’m guessing that’s not what they were hoping for.

Also of note is the denial by the creationists of having a religious motive. Riiiiiight. Roger that. Sacred cows make the best hamburger, and it seems the religious right makes the best liars.

John Sullivan, executive director of the Florida Baptist Convention, objected to calling evolution the only fundamental concept underlying biology. He wrote in an e-mail to Education Commissioner Eric Smith that Baptists firmly believe there’s evidence of a “Creator-initiated origin of life” but did not object to teaching evolution.

Hmmm, when it comes to deciding whether evolution is the only fundamental concept underlying biology, should I trust a collective of the brightest minds in the world or a man who thinks that a self-contradicting book of myths, written by ignorant men over a thousands years ago and then haphazardly compiled by men in pointy hats with their own patriarchal agendas, is the height of wisdom and learning?

Tough one, that. Might have to ask me for an answer in the morning.