Obama at Notre Dame

Well, the religious Right wing-nuts are at it again. They're all up in arms about Obama potentially speaking at Notre Dame. And, as usual, their reasons are just as hypocritical as ever. They claim Obama shouldn't speak there because he's pro-choice.

And no, you idiots, not "pro-abortion". For the last f&*#ing time, NO ONE IS PRO-ABORTION! No one WANTS to see unborn babies killed. But the educated people of the world know that simply outlawing it doesn't reduce the number of abortions. There are better ways.

But, that's another topic for another post.

Back to the Notre Dame issue. As you probably know, Notre Dame is Catholic, and Catholics are generally avid pro-lifer conservatives. On the surface it makes sense they'd object to a pro-choice speaker. But their problem is their definition of pro-life is so narrow they don't even make sense. Apparently the only life they are "pro" about is the life that has not been born yet. They don't give a rat's ass about the life already here. They'll protest Obama but they had no trouble with Bush speaking there even though Bush has been responsible for the loss of thousands of lives in Iraq and Afghanistan.

By the way, pro-choice does not mean Obama is directly responsible for a single embryo death. He does not order anyone to have an abortion. He does not perform any abortions. He does not even advocate abortions. He just thinks it's not the government's place to get involved in a woman's personal life and thinks advocating prevention is the better course to take.

I thought you conservatives were all about less government in our lives, anyway. Oh, wait. That would make too much sense for you. Never mind.

So, the "pro-lifers" protest Obama, who is not directly responsible for any embryo deaths, but they have no problem with Bush who was directly responsible for thousands of deaths. Bush ordered the bombing of towns in which innocent children died sleeping in their beds. Why do these people not see that as a more heinous crime than simply allowing a woman the right to choose? To most intelligent thinkers, directly causing the death or maiming of innocent already-living children is far more heinous a crime than the loss of an embryo. Yet Bush, who committed these very anti-life crimes, is perfectly welcome at Notre Dame.

Everyone knows the conservatives are hypocrites so it's not all that surprising. (Well, everyone except the conservatives themselves. They seem to be completely oblivious to their own hypocrisy.) But the degree of hypocrisy with these right-wingers is just absolutely mind-boggling.

I can only guess these people just do not think. Period. They just parrot what they hear from crazies like Limbaugh and the words go straight from their ears to their mouths without ever passing through their brains for processing. There's just no other explanation.

With Gas Prices Down Are You Still Paying More?

With gas prices down to just over $2/gal you could still be paying more than that through everything else you buy. So was that $4.50/gal price of gas intended to help boost the economy?

I know that sounds contradictory. How could high gas prices possibly help boost the economy? People cut down on spending travel when they can't afford to fill their gas tanks. And it hurts businesses because the cost of their supplies and merchandise goes up due to higher delivery costs, reducing their profits. How can that possibly be a boost?

In the short term, it wasn't. But let me explain. As you'll probably recall, businesses didn't just eat those higher expenses. With the gas prices staying high the businesses started raising their prices to pass on the expense to the consumer. Everything from major clothing stores to your local restaurant started raising their prices. Pizza joints started tacking on "deliver surcharges" or increasing the current delivery charges. This is all "due to high gas prices", they'd say.

So now we all got a double whammy. Higher prices of gas at the pump plus higher prices on just about everything else they buy too. People complained about the gas prices but were surprisingly sympathetic about local business prices. I recall going into a usual teriyaki joint for lunch one day and noticed that almost every entree on the menu had been raised by $1 "due to higher gas prices". Someone pointed out the increased prices to (presumably) her friend standing next to her and that friend just shrugged and said, "Well they gotta deal with the higher gas prices too" and proceeded to pull out her ATM card.

Ok, so back to the original question. How did all this help boost the economy? Well, think about this. Gas prices have been back down to just over $2/gal for months now. But have you seen any business drop their prices back down to what they were prior to the gas price hikes? Have you seen a single pizza place eliminate or lower their "high gas prices" delivery charge? I sure haven't.

So when gas prices dropped it was an instant and effortless increase in revenues for all those businesses that had jacked up their prices when gas was high. And consumers were so tickled by the fact that they weren't going broke at the pump they didn't even notice they were still getting stung everywhere else. A nice boost for businesses indeed!

I'm probably wrong. I doubt the whole gas price thing was set up just to give businesses an excuse to raise their prices so they'd profit when gas prices dropped again.

But whatever the reason the result is that we are still indirectly paying higher gas prices and we need to start calling them out on it. It's just wrong that they are continuing to use an excuse that's no longer valid to justify higher prices and delivery charges. Call your lawn service company and ask them, "Remember that $10/month increase you tacked on a while back due to high gas prices? Well, now that gas prices are down, I want that previous rate I had." Next time you order pizza ask them why you're still paying that "high gas prices" delivery. Or, better yet, tell them you're not ordering from them until that fee is eliminated or reduced and order your pizza from a place that didn't hike their prices.

We're all still paying higher gas prices through the increased prices on goods and services that businesses haven't lowered since their costs were reduced. Time to start fighting back and not just let them take advantage of us. If we don't they'll use every excuse they can to do it again and again.

Religious Conservative Hypocrites

Newt Gingrich: "Obama administration 'anti religious"

(Read article: CNN Political Ticker )

Uh, no, you idiot. He's not anti-religion. He's just against a Church-State government. Remember that thing we all cherish, The Constitution? Yeah, the one that says there should be separation of church and state? If you conservatives are really so protective of the Constitution like you say you are then you should be glad he wants to keep the government secular.
Hypocrites.