Swear You’re Having Sex
It’s now 2006. Flashback ten years.
Yes, it’s 1996 and my ten-year-younger self happened to be on a temp assignment with a local accounting firm. During my assignment that accounting firm was purchased by none other than mighty American Express. Somehow, due to a resignation and my temporary position as the ersatz human resources person, I ended up with the fine job of changing all benefits from those of the local firm to the benefit package offered by American Express.
This required a quick study on said benefits. While I was experienced in such things somewhat, hence the initial assignment, this was the first time I had to sign up, ah, “domestic partners”.
The big problem then was how to define just who are domestic partners and who are just roommates. Do not laugh. It was, and is, a conundrum.
Suppose I’m out of a job with my health insurance gone along with the job. I have a friend who is gainfully employed at a company which offers domestic partner insurance. While she might claim single status, say I move in with her and she then requests coverage for me under the company’s domestic partnership package. Who’s to say we’re not same-sex female partners in a loving, permanent relationship?
Or, say, I am an opportunist willing to be identified as my platonic friend’s domestic partner for the greatly reduced price of group health care benefits through her company over the more costlier individual coverage. How can anyone prove the difference?
The problem here is that heterosexuals can live together, although there must be a marriage certificate in this instance, and have no problem with signing up for husband-wife or family coverage on the company group health care plan. This even though the heterosexual couple might well be in a strictly platonic relationship for whatever reason.
The University of Florida now requires that beneficiaries of domestic partner health benefits sign a form swearing that they are “non-platonic”.
Said signatory might not mean much but if there’s a lie involved in this signed declaration, I daresay that in the event of a major and costly health care crisis on behalf of one of the partners, the health insurance company would have ample reason to do a major investigation. What with that sworn affidavit on file and everything. Automobile insurers conduct such investigations all the time to prevent insurance fraud.
The whole thing is not as weirdly strange as it might sound is what I’m saying here.
All that being said, know that myself signed up at least two employees as domestic partners and I did not ask one single question. The firm’s directors called me in, a lowly temp, and read me a riot act. “So and so is as straight as I am,” one managing partner declared. Which only caused me to sigh. I was a temp, had no idea who so-and-so was or his sexuality, and I was not about to question it. Like I was some sort of Solomon capable of threatening baby-cutting to extract the truth of the matter. The people involved told me they were in a domestic partner relationship and that was good enough for me. A quick call to the temp agency and I got another assignment. Who needed this?
Here we are ten years later dealing with the same problem this lowly temp dealt with so long ago.
Heh.
It’s possible this might go to the Supreme Court.
University of Florida employees have to pledge that they're having sex with their domestic partners before qualifying for benefits under a new health care plan at the university.
West Wing Cancelled; Commander-in-Chief Flagging
Here I am stocked with popcorn and ready for a Vinick administration. I even proudly posted a plausible scenario to write in the death of lead character John Spencer.Methinks the writers were wary of trying to write for a Republican administration. What with the House of Representatives, the Senate and the White House all Republican-controlled, The West Wing’s several year Democratic control of the White House needed serious revamping.
Although logic would have it that this is as good a time as any to end the series.
But there’s more! To my dismay, another of my most favored political series, Commander-in-Chief, is also flailing against competition by Fox’s American Idol and a slow return of the holiday audience.
I’ve been suggesting for almost forever that a Mel Gibson type step up to the podium and create a West Wing type series with a conservative slant. For sure the two top political shows are slanted liberally in terms of idealology although I never minded. Conservatives tended to grumble about it, though.
Well last I heard we still have free speech in this country. Republicans have lots of money, right? So why aren’t they out promoting their own cause?
Some suggest that Commander-in-Chief is some sort of nefarious brainwash to prepare us idiots out here in la-la land for a potential Hillary presidency. I say Pshaw! No way does Geena Davis’ character of POTUS in any way resemble Hillary Rodham Clinton save a few glimpses into a more liberal idealology. There is the female thing so perhaps that’s the connection.
At any rate, I await the new Republican political series that my political junkee hunger be assuaged.
From Breitbart.com”
NBC Cancels 'West Wing' After 7 Seasons
From Media Life:
Commander In Chief’s” Geena Davis may have walked away with the Best Actress in a Drama award during Monday’s Golden Globes, but among the American voting public she's sliding in the opinion polls that matter most, the ratings.
They've been on a steady decline for the once-promising freshman show.
“Commander” averaged a 2.4 rating on Tuesday night, an all-time low for ABC's political drama. That’s down 14 percent from the previous week’s 2.8 18-49 rating, its second lowest, for the show’s first original episode to air since Nov. 29. And it’s down substantially, 38 percent, from the show’s 3.9 season-to-date average.
James Bond car sold for over £1m
Well it was a neat car. But a million pounds?
From the BBC:
An Aston Martin car driven by James Bond in Goldfinger and Thunderball has been sold in auction for more than £1m.
Kanye West Poses as Jesus for “Rolling Stone”
This is a fellow with little talent and a great big chip on his shoulder. At least as I see it. The link below includes a picture of West decked out in a crown of thorns and riddled with lash marks.
Whew. I’m supposing this fellow thinks he’s Jesus Christ now.
There’s been a popular sentiment roiling across the Blogosphere so let me pose it here. Many with an axe to grind of some sort against religion resort to using Christian icons to illustrate their disdain. I am reminded of the famous crucifix dipped in blood that was all the rage a few years ago.
Here’s the challenge Mr. West big-mouth. Dress up like Mohammed why don’t you and put your picture on “Rolling Stone”?
Heh.
The Arab street would react immediately I’d suggest. Not at all like complacent Christians whose religion has been fodder for anti-religious zealots for far too long.
If Kanye is as big and brave as he pretends to be, he would have no problem playing Mohammed and Allah to the masses.
From Yahoo News:
In America, they want you to accomplish these great feats, to pull off these David Copperfield-type stunts," he says. "You want me to be great, but you don't ever want me to say I'm great?"
West also says his hit song "Gold Digger" was the best song last year and that it should have been nominated for the Grammy's best rap song category: "That's a gimme Grammy."
Abramoff at the Golden Globes
I saw George Clooney at the Golden Globes ceremony and heard his very stupid joke about Jack Abramoff. I guess he thought it was funny, mocking parents who would name a child “Jack …OFF”. Man, that was such a stretch that I was almost embarrassed for Clooney. It certainly wasn’t funny.
It seems that Abramoff’s father took exception to the slam and wrote a letter proclaiming outrage at Clooney’s silly joke. Although, come on Mr. Elder Abramoff, Clooney’s comments were stupid enough on their own. You should have left well enough alone. That bit about “innocent and decent people who love” your son was really overkill.
From AOL.com:
By Stephen M. Silverman
The father of disgraced Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff did not find George Clooney very funny on Monday's Golden Globes show, when the Syriana supporting actor winner quipped during his acceptance speech: "Who would name their kid Jack with the last words 'off' at the end of your last name? No wonder that guy is screwed up."
In an open letter to Clooney published Thursday in the Desert Sun newspaper out of Palm Springs, Calif., Frank Abramoff, 78, writes, in part: "Your glib and ridiculous attack on my son, Jack, coupled with your obscene query as to the choice his mother and I made in naming him, brought shame and dishonor on you and your profession."
The father goes on to ask Clooney: "What drove you to this lapse in lucidity, I can never know, but you need to know that your words were deeply hurtful to many innocent and decent people who love my son and who cherish our family."
Clooney's rep declined comment to the Desert Sun, saying he had yet to see the elder Abramoff's letter.
Blind Item Fun
From the NY Post Page 6
ASKED:
WHICH pop-singing sensation likes to troll the
Internet for gay quickies? After one unsafe session, his homo hook-up
contacted a tabloid to sell his sordid story and offered a
DNA-encrusted washcloth as proof. If the truth comes out, the singing
idol's fans, mostly middle-aged housewives, will be very upset . . .
GUESSED
Clay Aiken?
ASKED:
WHICH Oscar-winning actor is repeatedly unfaithful? He sleeps around so much, it's taking a toll on his long-suffering wife, a former beauty
now looking stressed-out . . .
GUESSED
Tom Hanks. His wife used to be beautiful.
Denzel Washington. His wife has had to put up with a lot
Warren Beatty. Annette Benning was in American Beauty. Beauty is a clue.
ASKED:
WHICH handsome network anchorman was holding hands with his former girlfriend, a model/actress, in Toronto? It wouldn't matter - if he
hadn't reconciled with his wife.
GUESSED
Ted Rowlands
The artist formerly known as JD Roberts?
Oprah and Osama’s Book Club
There’s been so much flack about Oprah and her bogus pick of the month book, A Million Little Pieces that I can hardly keep up.From the NY Times:
To Oprah Winfrey, the power of James Frey's memoir, "A Million Little Pieces," lay not in whether the author really spent three months in jail, as he claimed, or whether he lost a lover to suicide. Rather, she said in her now-famous call to CNN's "Larry King Live" on Jan. 11, where Mr. Frey defended himself against accusations that he falsified significant parts of his life story,
Ms. Jay said she voiced her objections about A Million Little Pieces to a senior producer for Ms. Winfrey's program on Oct. 1, nearly a month before Ms. Winfrey's interview
In the interest of fair and balanced, and because it’s somewhat dangerous for one individual to have so much power as Oprah has managed to glean, we present another famous person and his recommendation for Book of the Month.
Yes it’s Osama Bin Laden and he recommended Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower by William Blum. Osama famously said in his most recent message from his cave:
"Washington's war on terrorism is as doomed to failure as its war on drugs has been..."
Scuttlebutt has it that Blum’s book is selling like hotcakes. To purchase this book from the famously astute reader Osama Bin Laden, click here.
More Gossip/Speculation HERE
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The Racial Myths Continue
Kaitlyn,
It’s January 2006 and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina continues. Including the myths. Because the media of our day Kaitlyn, still dominated by the Old Media that will likely not be so influential when you read this, found certain sight bytes infinitely more dramatic than flattened houses.
From the Boston Globe:
Yet one reason we saw so many black survivors on the news was that mostly white-populated areas the hurricane hit -- St. Bernard Parish near New Orleans, the cities of Biloxi and Gulfport, Miss., -- received relatively little media attention. Partly, this was because some areas were much less accessible than the city in the days after landfall; partly, because flattened houses look much less dramatic than refugees escaping the flood. Later, the media had their narrative in which Katrina victims were poor and black; white people left homeless and waiting in vain for help did not fit the picture. For some, the race angle clearly served a political agenda. Last October at the ''Millions More March" organized by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan -- with the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton as featured speakers -- the alleged racism of the Katrina tragedy was a central theme. At congressional hearings on the subject convened in December at the request of Representative Cynthia McKinney, Democrat of Georgia, an outspoken member of the Congressional Black Caucus, words like ''genocide" and ''Holocaust" were bandied about. |
Grandmother Was Fooled, Kaitlyn
It was the post below that Grandmother messed up, Kaitlyn. But I’m not going to change a word of it because there’s a lesson to be learned here. Said lesson being that even the most enlightened of us can be fooled.
What happened, some Arizona blogger posted a satire update on New Orleans’ phantom police force. Only not one word of it was true. Yet didn’t Grandmother jump on it as if it were the truth in blessed form?
Note the difference here, Kaitlyn. Grandmother will CORRECT her error. Unlike the Old Media. Which, hopefully, will be sidelined greatly by the time you read this.
Nagin and the Phantom Police
Nagin Apologize
Oh my goodness Kaitlyn but I’ve just got to tell you what Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans went and did. He got on TV this past Martin Luther King Day and declared New Orleans a “chocolate” city and that “God was mad at America”.
That bit about the chocolate, Kaitlyn, is not about cake. Nagin refers to the black people that had been in New Orleans until the levees breached and Nagin sent them all to other states. Now the man gets out and about and declares that New Orleans will be chocolate once again.
He’s calling them back, Kaitlyn. He wants those poor souls he left to drown in their houses as school buses sat unused for evacuation, to come back. Statistics right now, Kaitlyn, show that almost 80% of the African Americans who were evacuated from the flooded city have no plans to come back. This is the populace who elected Nagin. Seems he wants them to come back.
For what? So he can abandoned them again like so mush offal? Perhaps he just wants them to return so they can vote for his own fine self.
He apologized for his poor choice of words but don’t believe it, Kaitlyn Mae. He wanted the message out there.
We’ll see if anyone listens.
From AOLnews.com:
 "I said some things that were totally inappropriate. ... It shouldn't have happened," Nagin said, explaining he was caught up in the moment as he spoke to mostly black spectators, many of them fearful of being shut out of the city's rebuilding. During the speech Monday, Nagin , who is black, said that the hurricanes that hit the nation in quick succession were a sign of God's anger toward the United States and toward black communities, too, for their violence and infighting. He also said New Orleans has to be a mostly black city again because "it's the way God wants it to be." |
Corruption Continues in Louisiana
Consider it documented here, Kaitlyn. Before the storm Louisiana was a mess. After the storm, the thieves are still at it. Clean up, repairs and evacuee relief funds are being taken by those not in need. The FBI are on it.
The indictments will come shortly.
From ABCnews:
| Sheila Thorne, an FBI agent in Louisiana, said the bureau has set up task forces in each of that state's three districts to deal with hurricane-related fraud. "As allegations come in, they will be investigated," Thorne said in a separate interview. Thorne said agents are looking at all levels of fraud in Louisiana, including public corruption. Federal money has been pumped at an unprecedented rate into the gulf states since Katrina struck on Aug. 29, and Louisiana and Mississippi are set to receive billions in aid. "So if a person was predisposed … to commit an act of public corruption, this will be the time when he or she can dig their hand into the public trough," Raucci said. Raucci said there is low-level fraud occurring, including some people misrepresenting their identities to receive federal aid, and more sophisticated scams as well. |
Finally, Moonbat Farrakhan
Still declaring Katrina to be at least partially “man-made”, still race baiting.
The man is an idiot, Kaitlyn. Do not allow history to declare his words as being anything less than idiotic.
From NOLA.com:
| Farrakhan chimed in with his own thoughts about an opportunity provided by Katrina. "God, through Katrina, which was God-made and man-made, gave us an opportunity not only to unite the forces in this locale, but . . . to use Katrina and the victims of Katrina as the clarion call to unite a whole people to action," he said. New Orleans cannot be rebuilt until "we are reconstructed," said the Nation of Islam leader, who announced after touring ravaged parts of the city that he planned to produce a DVD to tell the world about the city's plight. In addition to overcoming harm caused by Katrina, African-Americans must overcome damage caused by racism, Farrakhan said, alluding to neighborhoods with a history of racial divides. "There must be a reconstruction of our minds," he said. "New Orleans is a city that reflects the sickness of what white supremacy has done -- a section of town for the Creoles" where the "brown bag test" was applied to skin color. "Can you build on that kind of garbage of self-hatred?" The church gathering at 4400 St. Charles Ave. was organized by Mtangulizi Sanyika, executive director of the African-American Leadership Project in New Orleans, and Ron Daniels, director of the Institute of the Black World 21st Century, which is based in New York. In a news release, organizers said the event would include an " |
First Katrina/Kaitlyn post-the Beginning-9/6/05
9/7/05-H urricane Folklore/Wisdom and Nastiness
9/12/05-Hillary's "Katrina Kommission" and the Debacle of the Debit cards
9/14/05-FEMA Email; Dumb, blond Louisiana Senators
9/15/05-Ophelia and Grandmother
9/16/05-Katrina and the Helpless Pets
Stop Blaming FEMA-a pictorial explanation
What Will Become of New Orleans?
Katrina Gossip
Katrina Folklore
Nagin,the refinery bill,Character
Cops and Cadillacs
Those NO Prisoners
Documenting the Thieves
Blanco and the Dead
Samaritan Helps Evacuees-Murdered!
Those Wacky Louisiana Emails
The Myth of the Bridge Sniper
As the Media Preens the Myths Are Busted
Nagin and the Phantom Police
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