Mixed Bag

Today is Wednesday, 19 May 2010.

Rand Paul yesterday won the Republican nomination for Senate in Kentucky. Rand is the son of Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas), avowed white supremacist and anti-Semite. I can discover no instance in which Rand has repudiated his father’s neo-Nazi values.

Why won’t Rand Paul take a stand against white supremacy and anti-Semitism?

Perhaps because the overwhelmingly-white Republican electorate of Kentucky yesterday voted for a politician who refuses to reject white supremacy and anti-Semitism?
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On occasion, Attorney General of Connecticut, Senatorial candidate, and spoiled brat Richard Blumenthal claims to have served as a Marine in Vietnam, and, on other occasions, he doesn’t. Fact: he didn’t. After avoiding the draft for years by means of student and occupational deferments, with no indication of doing so because he opposed the war, as opposed to wanting to protect his precious upper class arse, Blumenthal joined the Marine Reserves, where he re-built playgrounds and collected Toys for Tots in the deadly trenches of DC.

Yesterday, Blumenthal damned The New York Times for revealing the inconvenient truth that he sometimes lies about his combat non-experience. He characterized the lies as a “few misplaced words”. Hell, happens to me all the time. “Honey, where did I put those words? You know, the truthy ones”.

Blumenthal’s campaign manager should have suggested a statement beginning with a kernel of truth, and riffing from there.

“At Harvard, I was a protégé of Professor (later Senator) Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and then followed him to a post in the Nixon White House. Senator Moynihan taught me many valuable lessons about the life of a scholar and how to be a dedicated public servant. Unfortunately, he also taught me to drink heavily during working hours. As a result, I sometimes misplace my Toys for Tots career, and imagine I was a Rambo Marine in Vietnam. (Hoo rah!) I regret any inconvenience this may have caused the electorate”.

If Blumenthal loses to the Republican, I suggest we donate him to Toys for North Korean Tots.
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The District of Columbia Council is considering a measure to impose a penny-per-ounce tax on nondiet sodas, energy drinks, and artificial juices. Coca Cola, Pepsi, etc. are spending money like … er … water ... in an effort to preserve every Washingtonian’s right to enjoy obesity and diabetes (and, entirely incidentally, mint profits by making America sick).

“The typical American consumes almost three times as many calories from sugary drinks as in the late 1970s. This increase accounts for about half the total per-capita rise in calorie consumption over the same period. Remember, many of these drinks have zero nutritional benefit — unlike meat, cheese or juice.” (“The Battle Over Taxing Soda”, by David Leonhardt, The New York Times, May 19, 2010)

Screw a tax! Ban the crap!

“Nanny state! Nanny state!” So bleat the right-wing sheep. No, not sheep: I don’t believe in insulting animals. “The right-wing anti-Americans”. Current law bans arsenic, DDT, etc. in beverages. Nanny state? Current law bans animal feces in the Teabaggers’ Earl Gray. Nanny state? Current law forbids male adults from initiating twelve-year olds into the beauties of sexual relations. Nanny state?