The Ubiquitous Grammar Cop

The three objects mentioned in the title refer to a line uttered by Dr. Niles Crane in an episode of Frasier . In that episode, the main plot involves Dr. Frasier Crane working to analyze a persistent dream he has (where he finds himself in bed with a male colleague). When Frasier relays the details of this dream to his brother (a fellow psychiatrist) Niles wryly asks, “Are there images of cigars, bananas, or short, blunt swords?” This deadpan joke about Freudian latency in my opinion describes the source of some people’s animosity and criticism of President Obama. The vitriol goes back nearly two years when Senator Obama began his run for the presidency. People all over the country during the primary season and through the general campaign expressed their concern about the possibility of someone like Obama becoming President. Once he was elected, these feelings metastasized into the Birther movement for those people whose bigotry stands out overtly. For others who congregate in Tea P...

Media-created nicknames for people and the cultural phenomena they spawn existed for decades. There are those who remember the Beatniks from the 1950s and most people, regardless of age, are familiar with the Hippies from the late 1960s and the early 1970s. Now that mainstream media has a profit leech attached to its information-providing hide, these nicknames appear with greater frequency. Just in the last nine months, the American public has been introduced to: Birthers – These are people who vehemently believe that President Barack Obama is not a natural-born citizen. Truthers – This is a new nickname for conspiracy theorists that contend the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks were an inside job. Deathers – These are people who erroneously think the expansion of government-funded health care beyond Medicare, Medicaid, and the Veterans Administration will inevitably prompt the government to abandon health care for the elderly. Sadly, there are people in elected federal office w...

Kramer on Seinfeld once said of baths, "You're sitting in a tepid pool of your own filth!" Well according to research at the University of Colorado - Boulder, showers are no better.

This is simply three shades of wrong. Link courtesy of fark.com

Oh, snap.

Why do some Americans feel that providing health care is something to profit from when it is illegal in nearly every industrial country? This question seems to be lost in the vast echo chamber provided by the media. On a tangent, kudos to Sen. Al Franken for conducting a proper town hall discussion on health care.