How about recasting Santa Claus as the Norse god Odin? Of course, sub a swastika in for everywhere there was a star. The coming of Jesus was replaced with the coming of Adolf Hitler—the “Savior Fürher.” Hey, let’s bake some cakes in the shapes of SS and Iron Cross insignias! Let’s rewrite “Silent Night” with nationalistic lyrics!
Senator Ben Nelson had held up the Senate version of “health care reform” with objections of principle, concerning federal funding of abortion. He jettisoned said principles in exchange for having the federal government pick up the tab for all of Nebraska’s future Medicaid cost increases. (Remember, “the federal government” = “you.” That’s your money.) Now he appears to be vote #60, bought and paid for.
Nearly all of them are whores, of course, but it’s rarely this naked and shameless. (Think it’s a coincidence that he’s not up for re-election this year?)
To be sure, there is still plenty to be hopeful about. There is absolutely no chance of unifying the House and Senate versions of the bill between now and the first of the year, so this may yet sit on a Congresscritter or two long enough to seed real doubt about the wisdom of raising taxes by $500,000,000,000 over the next decade, increasing spending by more than $1,000,000,000,000, and cutting Medicare by $470,000,000,000 but just turning around and funding another entitlement with it. Oh, and let’s make damned sure health insurance is something no rational person would want to purchase, and then compel its purchase. Go have a look at what the Congressional Budget Office has to say about this monstrosity.
Or, don’t give it another thought. Lawmakers, ram this through, against the wishes of 6 out of 10 voters! Pay no attention to the calendar clicking over to 2010! I’m sure you’ll have plenty of time to win them back between now and November.
After several failed attempts to sell the Saab car line, General Motors gave up and announced the death of the brand today. The fashionable narrative shall be one of big, stupid, clodhopping GM not understanding what made Saab special, slowly strangling all its uniqueness over two decades of ownership until it finally collapsed.
Saabs are weird, and Saab owners are weird, and automotive weirdness has a lifespan (in this case, about 62 years). The Saab 9-3 and 9-5—what used to be called the 900 and 9000—are today just what they’ve always been: decent, solid, and competitive enough in their respective classes, as well as bizarre enough in detail and experience to never once make you think you’re sitting in anything but a Saab.
There is no growth potential in weirdness as a defining characteristic. Going for higher volume means less weirdness, which means cannibalizing other car lines, which means what’s the point?
Would it have been better off remaining a smallish automobile manufacturing arm of Saab, the aerospace company? Hmmm. Look around and show me a carmaker operating with a similar business model in 2009.
GM’s sins are numerous, but choking the life out of Saab isn’t one of them. Saab was going to die anyway.
Kill the bill! says DailyKos. Indeed. Terminate with extreme prejudice. Opposition from those who think it isn’t socialist enough is still opposition, and it still generates no new law, and tick tock, tick tock…
Oral Roberts died Tuesday. He was 91. Though he had his occasional ridicule-generating moments, I believe he was a sincere and decent witness for Jesus Christ, and the world is better for having had him. RIP.
I’m looking forward to Avatar. I’ve read several rave reviews, including from some sources I would expect to be skeptical about such a spectacle. Looking at the calendar, and given my intolerance for the ubiquity of my fellow man this time of year, I’d guess the week of January 11 looks promising.
Please make your Facebook status make sense. It’s not hard. Say “John Smith is going out for pizza!”, not “John Smith I’m going out for pizza!”
The first bowl games are this weekend. Exciting. Depressing.
I should finish shopping by tomorrow night. Still have to do cards, and the lights this weekend, which are later than they’ve ever been. As I’ve mentioned several times, a lovely Christmas fairy takes on a lot of hustle and bustle, and we appreciate it.
I have officially begun entertaining plausible fantasies of running out the clock on “health care reform.”
The Scream unloaded on the Senate mess today, calling it “an insurance company’s dream.” Senator Rockefeller fired back at the esteemed Dr. Dean, saying of his commentary “It’s nonsense and it’s irresponsible and coming from him as a physician, it’s stunning.”
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Reid’s yanking this and that out of the bill to make Lieberman happy, causing other Democrats to rain rhetorical blows upon both of their heads.
So Christmas is about to lop off another big chunk of calendar, but oh my goodness, does The One ever want to crow about health care reform being passed in his State of the Union address on January 12. How’s that looking to you?
How long into 2010 before it’s full-on campaign season for these nitwits? How many votes in the balance on this crap?
There is a fascinating piece at The Independent this morning on a new exhibit at the National Socialism Documentation Centre, on what the Nazis bizarrely tried to do about Christmas. (Jesus was Jewish, you see—a bit of a problem for the Third Reich.)
