Elsewhere, a comment thread poster asked this eternal, existential question:

Do assholes buy pickup trucks, or do pickup trucks turn ordinary drivers into assholes?

Let's peer into the very bottom of this abyss:

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2015/02/no-fixed-abode-real-stories-lazy-ass-highway-patrol/

Ray D Ator
Eileen Dover
Ben Dover

http://thechive.com/2014/12/03/wedding-name-combos-so-bad-they-might-want-to-call-the-whole-thing-off-25-photos/

Interstates and bad drivers. Sad. (a little over 100 miles away - next door for this area)

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/04/sports/football/a-stirring-victory-for-a-texas-high-school-then-the-unthinkable.html?_r=0

More Mattis

http://ijr.com/2016/12/748771-obama-appointed-general-confronted-on-trumps-sec-of-defense-choice-his-1-word-answer-says-it-all/

Yes, please. Let us know how it works out for you.

http://dailycaller.com/2016/12/05/new-york-daily-news-columnist-announces-plans-for-three-city-boycott/

Ohio State.

“That’s all they care about,” she continued, “and they are more scared of the Right and Trump than they are of this terrorist attack that just happened on our campus. It’s sickening to me because I feel like they are gambling with my life in order to reach this multiculturalism lie that they worship in all of my classes — and it’s crazy.”

http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/30230/

In the "water is still wet" category:

“They lied to us. They told us we could have it all, but that’s not true. Women cannot have it all.”

My mentor, a wildly successful criminal defense lawyer in Florida, uttered these words one evening as we sat in her kitchen. She was describing the pain of giving up her dreams of being a mother and a wife to pursue justice for the last 30 years.

http://abovethelaw.com/2016/11/a-woman-lawyers-hard-lesson-you-cant-have-it-all/

“They lied to us. They told us we could have it all, but that’s not true. Women cannot have it all.”

Course its a lie, name a man who ever had it all?

The only people to ever have it "all" are the wastrel children of billionaires and most of that group die of overdoses

from IRA's ABL link:
"All too often, women adjust or give up their careers altogether for the sake of the family, but men rarely, if ever, make the same sacrifice."

Jeeze. What BS.

So men that work as traveling salesmen (leave on Monday and come back on Friday), work as consultants (leave on Monday and come back in 2 weeks on Friday), men w/busted knees, backs, shoulders, lungs, and so on are not "sacrifices" for their family. (You really think the money is that good?)

So her complaint is not that she and other men are expected to marry the company, have their spouses carry the load at home, have their spouses be a certain type, and so on.

Her complaint is that her kids make that unattainable. BS. The men do it and she can too. It's her choice to not do this for her family's sake. If her money is necessary then suck it up baby.

It's her choice to stay home. Just like many men do not take oversea jobs, traveling jobs, work in dangerous environments for their family's sake.

(I turned down a communication job in Turkey in the '70's and there were plenty of other jobs available in the Med, Saudia, 'Nam, and elsewhere.)

Maybe this is just her way of being "emotional".

Sometimes, you point out fake news sites, and sometimes, you spew fake news. What happened to those layers and layers of editors and fact checkers?

http://dailycaller.com/2016/12/05/website-labeled-fake-news-threatens-to-sue-wapo-for-defamation/

"The Rise of 'Zombie Religious Hospitals' "

(I don't know why so many articles these days seem to have TWO titles - and I don't mean the ones with a subtitle. This one has the alternate title of "The Rise of the Zombie Hospitals.")

https://newrepublic.com/article/138065/rise-zombie-religious-hospitals

"Why are so many secular hospitals imposing religious restrictions on medical care?"

@Lenona,

Having two titles is now the rage in clickbait. They test which one drives the most traffic and the winner stays.

I could get into this if—

1. There were more black people. And some Hispanics, because Southern California.


2. They could ditch the kindly-bearded guy with the strummy guitar and a tale to tell.

> they are more scared of the Right
> and Trump than they are of this
> terrorist attack that just
> happened on our campus.

As overseas.

Zombie Hospital
"... they (her doctors) recommended she terminate the pregnancy immediately to avoid the risk of infection. Yet for nearly two months, Swank’s hospital in Silvis, Illinois, refused to perform the procedure."

So the hospital kept the patient for two months? before agreeing to do the procedure?

The patient, in 2009, could not go to another facility to have an abortion? for two months?

Guess it's true but it sounds financially unsound insurance wise and who is that patient in a life-threatening situation?

Zombie Hospital continued:

"Today, one in every six hospital beds nationwide are subject to Catholic restrictions, which prohibit doctors from prescribing birth control pills, implanting IUDs, distributing condoms, administering fertility treatments, or performing sterilizations."

So which of the above is so onerous in today's mobile society. Horrors I did not accept your "right to choose" sad story.

Young adults here drive 2 - 3 hours on weekends to party at clubs (nothing closer). YA drive/fly to remote areas to ski, race, rodeo, and other risky activities w/o concern for the available of medical facilities.

But not getting their birth control prescribed at the local hospital is not to be tolerated! It's their choice. No. It's their right to get birth control anywhere that's convenient.

Wouldn't want the little dears to have to drive across town or stop in at CVS on the way to the club now would we.

I could get into this if.... ~ Crid at December 6, 2016 2:36 PM

Secular Solstice sounds lovely, said in a "aren't you precious" tone you use to address precocious toddlers. But anything that involves folk singers can't be good. When I was a kid, our local Catholic Church would occasionally have a "folk mass." Barely showered hippies strumming guitars, tamping tambourines, and singing quasi-folk songs about God, love, and the Holy Spirit. What fun. Made you long for the days of the Inquisition when these idiots could be stretched on the rack.

Back to the Secular Solstice; I do mind periodically updating songs to reflect scientific or philosophical progress. Puff the Magic Dragon doesn't become Pete the Mythological Lizard without destroying the appeal of the song.

Granted, no one wants to sing about the darkies longing for the old Swanee plantation any more, but the revised version, while less offensive, has lost some of the sense of loneliness conveyed by the original version.

In regards to the ABL link, I often wonder if these women ever discuss what they want after having kids with their partner. I get circumstances change, but it seems as if little to no thought is given before marriage. Certainly, my husband and I discussed our thoughts before we even got engaged. It was an important part of figuring out if our values were compatible.

> anything that involves folk singers
> can't be good.

Saw another article the other day, about Dylan, noting that an "original folk song" is a contradiction in terms.

Folk is bogus. ALL of it.

But not getting their birth control prescribed at the local hospital is not to be tolerated! It's their choice. No. It's their right to get birth control anywhere that's convenient.

Eh, if SECULAR institutions owned by a third party corporation masquerading as a religion dont want to give of medical care for moral reason that is their right.

However, they should be barred from reviving ANY taxpayer money for any reason by any method.

Be it government insurance payments from medicade, tax deductions, property or payroll tax breaks, or government underwritten disaster insurance

I agree lujlp AS LONG AS that applies to colleges, Congress, and sanctuary cities on their respective "we don't need no stinking ______ " stuff.

BTW, this stuff sounds like a business plan for a splintered PP. Women's health issues minus abortion with tax payer funding (situated like the old Pony Express as in a facility every 3? hours driving time with student loan forgiveness for 1 year service type of stuff).

The abortion stuff can easily be for-profit and funded by donations/shareholders as there are so many pro-choice people. Think of the money saved in time in Congress ($0 'cause they don't really think) and in court/lawyer fees (this kills that idea doesn't it).

Wouldn't want the little dears to have to drive across town
______________________________________

I'm guessing you wouldn't be too happy if you had to do that, more and more often, and had to drive farther each time, if you needed a blood transfusion and the secular hospitals in your area were suddenly deciding - increasingly - that they were going follow the teachings of the Jehovah's Witnesses. Or whatever rules the Christian Scientists have. It's about not letting people's rights/access get chipped away to practically nothing.

(Though as I understand it, with CS, you're allowed to seek medical help if prayer isn't working; Doris Day had a benign grapefruit-sized tumor removed when she was young, but she didn't even know it was there because even when she was hemorrhaging heavily, she was trying to solve it with prayer.)

Forgot to say - if she'd gotten care right away, she might not have had to have the very upsetting hysterectomy she did end up having when they removed the tumor.

You are one heck of a fascist Lenona. If you don't like your hospital then find another one. Just because a private company doesn't want to provide a service you would prefer they provide there is no reason to use government force to make them provide it. Why stop at abortions? Why not record players? After all, if they are provided cheaply and locally it is the exact same issue, right? Why not food and housing?

Medicine is no different from other commercial enterprises. If someone won't provide the service you desire then go somewhere else. If no one else provides that service then provide it yourself. That is called a market opportunity.

Again, what do you do when there are no hospitals LEFT will give you what you very much need? Like a transfusion?

It reminds me of an Eastern fable I once heard of - a mountain was reduced to a plain because a single pebble was stolen every day for centuries.

And, for those who don't know, any doctor will tell you that pregnancy and childbirth can be seriously dangerous, even for healthy adults - never mind those who are unhealthy or still in their teens. Birth control, when chosen carefully, need not be dangerous at all. And if vasectomies are not covered by insurance, well, they should be - children can be pretty hard on a man's health and welfare too.

And do you really not mind the idea that there may come a day when your local pharmacist says "no, I won't give you the male pill and I won't tell you who will?" What if they all say that?

That goes for your male acquaintances too, of course.