The godbots descend on the bad news of my heart attack

Now that the word is out that I probably had a heart attack last month, my email runneth over. Most of them are dear friends and family members wishing me the best, a few with questions asking about morbid details, what did it feel like, what’s the prognosis, do I need anything, etc. But there’s been one threatening me with eternal hellfire, a few telling me this is God-eh reaching out to me, and one trumpeting it as God’s punishment, basically for being a progressive and supporting Obamacare. Selected excerpts below:

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Another day in the life of a middle aged peasant

Update: Medical students, cardiopulmonary specialists, and heart patients, this is an actual post written while I was having what was later diagnosed by a cardiologist as a relatively ‘mild’ heart attack. Bear in mind no heart attack is truly mild in any sense of the word. Read below, learn what NOT to do when having symptoms.

So I’m having the usual holiday AS flare up, it seems to get worse in December like clockwork every year. And yesterday afternoon there’s a new worrisome symptom: chest pain! It was kinda behind the sternum, seemed to be in the base of the throat a little bit. It wasn’t debilitating but given my age, 50, and general risk behaviors, eating crap and smoking, not to mention constant high blood pressure and high blood fats, I’m a prime candidate for an MI and this could be a warning sign. To complicate matters, I also used to suffer from chronic panic attacks, so last night was real fun. [Read more…]

DeMint to leave Senate for rightwing think tank

Jim DeMint (R-Secede) has announced he will leave the Senate to head the one of the most influential think tanks in the nation. The Heritage Foundation was created in part by uber wingnut trailblazers like Joseph Coors to offset what conservatives of the time saw as Nixon’s pursuit of liberal solutions (Yes, you read that right). The Foundation rose to prominence in the early 80s as one of the pioneering cheerleaders for ‘reducing government,’ by which they meant exactly what the teaparty means today, robbing from the poor and giving to the rich. They’ve done some other, more novel things too: [Read more…]

This is what traditional media just doesn’t seem to get

Of course I had to turn on the talking heads this fine Sunday morning. One would assume the weekend after a Presidential election the talk would be all about Obama, the campaign, the results, and maybe some thoughts on what lays ahead. Of course that’s not what happened, it was all about how Republicans are going to deal with the many elephants in their house with hints of the evil deficit monster closing in yet again. Exhibit A of our broken celebrity centered media.

I found this on Hullabaloo taken from the clip above and it’s quite illustrative. Frum states the obvious and the entire assembled panel simply ignores his valid point and moves on: [Read more…]

Crazy Joe Walsh rides to Obama’s rescue

You knew the crazy teabagging congressional caucus couldn’t go long keeping their crazy science-y ideas to themselves about the mysterious lady parts. After a dreadful summer topped off by Todd Akin, Quasi-MD., the first debate and subsequent polling seem to finally turn Romney’s way. Which is why I bet crazy Joe Walsh is being told to politely and firmly by his colleagues to please cease and desist before this turns into another Todd Akin flap: [Read more…]

It’s a healthcare scandal!

This ad appeared yesterday showing a man who was laid off from his job of many years after a Bain managed buy out and bankruptcy. He eventually found a job as a janitor at half his previous pay, but without health benefits. You know how this day story ends, those of us living from shitty paycheck to shitty paycheck see it all too often. His wife developed undetected cancer, it progressed, until the symptoms were so pronounced he had to take her to an ER. It was too late, she died 24 days later from stage 4 metastatic cancer. The Romney campaign was quick to point what would have saved her though! [Read more…]

Romney praises Israeli healthcare

Mitt Romney hoped to recover from his London disaster by heading for the salvation of ye olde Israel. Where he paused in the midst of stirring up simmering conflicts to praise Israeli healthcare. Romney said in part, “Do you realize what health care spending is as a percentage of the G.D.P. in Israel? Eight percent. .. You spend eight percent of G.D.P. on health care. You’re a pretty healthy nation. We spend 18 percent of our G.D.P. on health care, 10 percentage points more.” Gosh, how do the Israelis pull this healthcare miracle off? [Read more…]

Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, wtf was Romney thinking

Mitt Romney addressed and it was a trainwreck. He was booed and openly heckled, applause was tepid and halting (Word is the Romney campaign made sure some supporters attended, maybe they were just too embarassed to clap at times). Funniest goddamn thing: At several points, after it was clear just how bad this would be, someone on the organ keyed dramatic notes in a sort of comedic pitch, the kind you hear when a bad guy wearing a black fedora is twirling his mustache. I can’t imagine who in the Romney campaign thought this was  a good idea, but they were wrong.

Aside from that, the speech was full of the usual whoppers, main difference being Mittens wasn’t speaking to the indoctrinated ditto heads he typically enjoys. Politico has a recap of some of it here.