Walker's fundraiser to restore mansion raises some eyebrows
On Sept. 22, the governor and first lady will hold a private reception and croquet tournament at the governor's mansion from 5 to 7 p.m. to raise money to help rehab the Maple Bluff facility.
Because, yeah, that's what people should be concerned with about now, the governor's mansion might need a little home improvement.
Attendees can donate anywhere from $50 to $1,000 to the mansion's nonprofit foundation. Those who drop a grand get a "private reception, private tour, recognition on the invitation, signage and acknowledgment at the event, and admission and (croquet) tournament entry for two."
Because in these economic times, nothing says "let them eat cake" like an $1000 croquet tournament.
The first lady said in her email accompanying the invitation that she hopes the event generates enough "resources to help us restore the Residence to its intended historic charm, beauty, and value."
'Cuz if it doesn't. . . Off with all your heads!
Oh, but wait. It gets weirder.
"I am inviting fellow leading ladies like yourself to please join me in donating a purse filled with some of your favorite things. The purses will then be raffled off at the event," Tonette Walker added. "For example, I'll be donating a Tignanello bag filled with some of my can't-live-without items like my favorite shade of Bobbi Brown lipstick and an Aveda hand cream that I can't get enough of."
Because if you want to raise enough money to re-do the mansion, you can't go wrong with lipstick and hand lotion!
And donating big bucks to upgrade the governor's home totally doesn't count as bribery!
Remember how Bobby Jindal thought it was sooooooo funny that the Federal government would spend money on silly things like volcano monitoring? Frivolous things like government programs to warn people of potential dangers? Oh, how he scoffed at the idea!
But now, apparently he's OK with government programs monitoring potential natural disasters like, say, the National weather Service monitoring Tropical Storm Lee, which he cites 3 times in his declaration of emergency:
WHEREAS, the National Weather Service does not at this time predict this storm to develop into a hurricane, however, the National Weather Service does calculate a high probability this storm will develop into a Tropical Storm. . .
WHEREAS, the National Weather Service has issued a Flash Flood Watch for the next 72 hours for parts of southeastern Louisiana, which places lives and property in jeopardy;
So the difference is what, that there are no volcanoes in Louisiana?
Concealed-carry gun permits let holders bypass Texas Capitol's metal detectors
By Associated Press
AUSTIN, Texas - Everyone from lobbyists to lawyers and journalists is rushing to get permits to carry guns inside the Texas Capitol, where legislators already often tote pistols in boots and purses or stow them away inside their desks.
A unique loophole in a new security procedure means a gun permit is like a special-access pass into the domed building, allowing people who are certified to carry a gun to bypass lines at the metal detectors that were set up after a shooting incident earlier this year.
So, they set up metal detectors after a shooting, presumably to prevent future shootings, but if you definitely do have a gun, you can just go right on through? How does that make any sense?
And why would you need to carry a gun into the State Capitol building? Isn't that one of the safest places you could be? Isn't it already well-guarded by trained law-enforcement personnel?
I don't get the whole concealed-carry fetish anyway. If I were walking around with a shootin' iron in my belt, I'd damn sure want people to see it. I would want muggers to take one look at me and say "not him, he's got a six-shooter!" Why would I want to pretend that I was unarmed? Do these people hope that criminals will try to attack them so that they can then pull their guns and go all Bernie Goetz on them? Okay, I probably just answered my own question.
For the last few days, on the way home from work, I've driven by this billboard:
Holy shit! I mean, it's not just me, right? That is really horrible.
I mean, I get that childhood obesity is a problem. I get that young kids are getting type II diabetes at alarming rates, but do we really need this kind of fat-shaming?
Also, I'm pretty sure it's a lie. I was a scrawny kid myself, but I had a couple of friends who were fat and they seemed like they had about the same amount of fun as I did.
Yesterday I saw a poster on a bus shelter with that same little girl that read something like "Warning! It's hare to be a little girl when you aren't." (aren't little, I presume.) Which might be even more horrible.
So who is this "Strong4Life.com" anyway? I went to the web to find out.
This is the banner that greets you at their website:
The community has had enough! Enough with these fat kids!
I have had it with these muthafuckin' fat kids in this muthafuckin' community!
Then they have a selection of videos like this:
The point of which seems to be that if you are a fat mother with a fat kid, you should just hang your head in shame because you have failed as a parent!
And this one with the little girl from the billboard:
Which teaches us the valuable lesson that if the other kids are being assholes to you, it's your fault for being such a fatty! Not their fault for being little assholes.
About the only other thing the website offers is the chance to "join the community" on Facebook. Apparently, the most important thing we can do to help these poor fat kids is to go on Facebook and talk about them? I don't know. I don't get it.
On the way to work this morning there was a short little story about a fire department who had used the wrong address on the return envelopes for a fundraising drive. And I think it was just supposed to be kind of a cute little "ha,ha silly firemen" kind of an end of the hour feel-good story. But of course, they missed what should have been the point of the story.
Why in the HELL are Fire Departments having to do fundraisers?
Why should fire departments have to ask for donations as if they were some sort of private charity and not a public agency that benefits everyone? This is everything wrong with America in a nutshell. And it's not just this one particular department.
REDLANDS - The Redlands Ladder Truck fund is about halfway to its goal, thanks to generous donations from various organizations. Wednesday was a big day for the fundraiser, as the Redlands FireDepartment received three big donations to go toward replacing its outdated ladder truck.
All those headlines are from the last couple weeks. All these fire departments are having to go begging for money from the public because we have apparently come to a time in our history when we are no longer willing to fund the most basic, most necessary services with our tax dollars. We would rather have our heroes going hat in hand to various philanthropists and organizations than have corporations pay taxes on their billions of dollars in profits. http://news.yahoo.com/u-firms-paid-more-ceos-taxes-study-040551766.html
Someday, when history students are asked "Why did the most powerful nation in the history of the world die out?" they can point to this. They decided that they would rather let fire departments (not to mention schools, police depts, hospitals, etc) go un-funded than ask billionaire CEO's to maybe try and chip in a little.
