Shut-up Stupid Sunday: Contraceptives

In a win for sanity, under the Affordable Health Care Act, women's basic healthcare now must be covered by their insurance, the millions without insurance are still out of luck. This includes breast exams, contraceptives, pap smears and preventive care on women's internal plumbing. There are still millions of women who this doesn't cover so volunteers, like myself, can still offer free breast exams for women that don't do them themselves.

This policy, being applied universally, will in the short term cost pennies to the insurance policy holders, not enough to pay for a separate rate increase, but save millions in the long run as health problems will be caught earlier and it will decrease abortions.

Naturally with any sane policy the totally insane people have to comment on it.

Bill O'Reilly had to hit the airwaves to say that “Women will be too drunk to use the birth control pill.” Besides showing his total ignorance as to how the birth control pill works, it also shows a little something about Bill's sex life. This might be a shocker to Bill, but women do enjoy sex when they aren't so smashed that they can't control simple motor skills. They just don't have sex when they are sober with Bill O'Reilly. I can't blame them.

Just because Bill O'Reilly has never had sex with a woman that was sober enough to know what she was doing, doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Here is another shocker for Bill, sex is a lot better for both partners when sober.

In college I much preferred girls to be sober for sex. I was one of those sneaky guys that would switch a girl's screwdriver with plain orange juice at a party, keeping them sober for fun afterwards.

So Bill you should really try sex with a sober woman, I realize you might have to pay her for it, but trust me once you try sex with a sober woman, vs one that is so out of it that they can't do anything but lie there, you will be amazed.

Another insane person to comment on this was Rep. Steve King of Iowa who believes that free contraceptives will mean the end of society as women won't voluntarily have kids. Here is a shocker for Steve King; Sometimes women want to have kids, if the time is right in their lives and they have someone with good genes that they would like to pass on. They just don't want to have kids with men that have a serious genetic defect, like stupidity. That is why Steve King has never met a woman that voluntarily wants to have his kids.

So to all the people who believe that women can't responsibly have sex and then have kids when they choose, I say, “Shut-up Stupid, letting women take charge of their bodies doesn't mean that the human race will stop reproducing because they only have kids by accident. It just means they won't pass on the stupid gene that Bill O'Reilly and Steve King seem to possess, which will be a good thing.”

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

Shut-up Stupid Sunday: 10%

Polls show that 10% of the American people approve of the way the republicans are handling the debt crisis that they created. Who the hell are these 10%?

To show my bias here, I can understand the 40% who approve of the way Obama is handling it. I don't agree but I understand.

This crisis could go away if Obama made a speech and said, “F-you bitches, I killed Bin Laden and I'm invoking the powers of the 14th amendment to solve this. Got a problem with that?”

So to anyone who approves of the job that any one involved in the negotiations on this insane theater of the absurd is doing, I say, “Shut-up Stupid, everyone involved is showing their highest levels of incompetence.”

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

Shut-up Stupid Sunday: Pro-Slavery

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” Edmund Burke (maybe)

This is like a case study of how a truly insane ranting when gone unchecked can become accepted as fact.

The religious right in this country has its own religious right, guys that the religious right is as ashamed of as much as most Americans are ashamed of the religious right. One of these guys is Douglas Wilson.

Wilson teaches history from a “Biblical Worldview”, the bible allows for slavery therefore slavery must be good. So he teaches how Blacks were better under slavery than they are now being free.

The leaders of the Religious Right used to do an embarrassed cough and turn the other way when asked about Wilson. Whenever he made the news he was rightfully laughed at.

With all the craziness in the news, people have been laughing at other things and Wilson's insane rantings went unchecked. Now the GOP Presidential front-runner Michele Bachmann and Santorum have signed a pledge that blacks were better under slavery. This should be where this craziness stops. But no, the crazy train is just gaining momentum.

Of all people, President Obama had to allow this to keep going on by advertising a talk he had with some college students where he praised President Lincoln for allowing states like Kentucky to keep slavery after the civil war. He used it as an example a the art of compromise, but rather than place it in the context of being a necessary evil, he held it up as a good thing.

Lincoln's writings seem to show he viewed it as a necessary evil as he said that he hoped to have God on his side, but he had to have Kentucky. Lincoln didn't compromise on that for the sake of compromise, he did it because he believed it was the only way to win the war.

The time as come to draw the line on this lunatic notion that slavery was anything more than a barbaric system that exploited people for the sake of a few bucks. Most sane people are rightfully appalled by the fact that it was allowed to go on for so long and consider it a dark chapter in this country's history.

I can tolerate most ideas even if I think they are insane, but to say that slavery was any but truly evil goes beyond the line.

So to everyone, from the insane people that are pro-slavery to people who even tolerate the idea and don't state that slavery was the most evil, vile economic system ever, I say, “Shut-up Stupid, once you say that slavery had any positive impact on the slave your argument is invalid.”

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

Shut-up Stupid Sunday: Bristol Palin

It seems every generation has to have a stupid media whore begging for attention by claiming she she was raped. This generation has Bristol Palin making the claim so that she can get tens of people to buy her ghost written book.

In the 80s we had Jessica Hahn whose claim to fame was she said, she was raped by Jim Bakker and another preacher for about 15 minutes. According to her after they left she took a nap, showered, and waited for them to come back for another 15 minute session.

After making the news for being a victim she got a boob job, posed for Playboy, and appeared in a Sam Kinison video. As her fame started fading she said that while she and Kinison were alone for 5 minutes he raped her.

Sex in 5 minutes is possible something I know as when my wife and I were newlyweds I jokingly talked about a second round before work, she said I had to leave for work in 5 minutes. Challenge Accepted.

However, the whole Hahn/Kinison story was just absurd.

Then in the 90s we got Paula Jones who said that while Clinton was governor he had state troopers ask her if she would like to meet him in his hotel room, Clinton asked her if she'd like to have sex and she turned him down. Although it was totally inappropriate behavior for the Governor to act so crudely it was not anything illegal. So she said he then whipped out his penis. To describe it she said it leaned to the left. That would be a good guess as 85% of penises do lean that way. But Clinton was left handed and the 15% of men who are left handed have their penises lean to the right.*

This happens because men use their dominant hand to aim while using the toilet. When they finish, with one movement they can push it the opposite direction of their handedness. To make it go the other way they would have to release it and change grips. That would be awkward.

Now Bristol Palin had a book, ghost written for her, that accuses Levi Johnston, the father of her child, of getting her drunk on wine coolers and “stealing her virginity”. She liked it so much she continued to sleep with him. Levi's sister Sadie has quite a different version that she details on her blog.

Even discounting Mercede's account of the morning before, accusing Levi of raping her and that made her go out with him is absurd.

The problem I have with these Media Whores screaming rape to get attention is they demean the real victims of rape. It is a traumatic experience for a woman and when someone says it just to get attention it trivializes it for everyone.

It is bad enough that there are women who for mental reasons or because of personal circumstances falsely accuse men of rape. Authorities are pretty good at determining who these women are and getting them counseling. The media doesn't have to put a spotlight on women who claim it just for Media attention.

So to Bristol Palin when she goes on news programs and claims, “I was raped, tee hee.” I say, “Shut-up Stupid. You are trivializing a serious crime and making the lives of real victims much harder.”

*When I mentioned that lefties lean to the right, and righties lean to the left, how many guys looked down. And how many girls stopped to check their memories?

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

Shut-up Stupid Sunday: Bob Vander Plaats

One of these is Bachmann, looking at the eyes I can't tell which one.

Both GOP frontrunner Michele Bachmann and Santorum have signed a pledge written by Iowa ultra-conservative Bob Vander Plaats in which they vow to ban pornography and has a list of anti-gay, anti-Muslim and anti pretty much everything statements.

First and foremost I want to say, “You can take my porn when you pry it out of my wet, sticky hands.” Moving beyond the assault on the First Amendment the pledge gets worse. It praises slavery:

Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born in to slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African- American baby born after the election of the USA's first African-American President.

This is totally insane, under slavery the people were treated as property and constantly traded and sold at the owner's will. So the father or mother of a child might suddenly be traded to a plantation in another state. The child might be sold on reaching puberty or the owner could just get the hots for the mom start raping her and get rid of the father. Any one who thinks that living under slavery was in any form better than living now is insane.

It attacks gays:

Vigorous opposition to any redefinition of the Institution of Marriage – faithful monogamy between one man and one woman – through statutory-, bureaucratic-, or court-imposed recognition of intimate unions which are bigamous, polygamous, polyandrous, same-sex, etc.

Just a note here, besides attacking gays the language of this also attacks the traditional southern marriage style of serial polygamous, polyandrous marriage. Multiple divorce and remarrying.

Of course it wouldn't be a GOP pledge without an imaginary bogeyman:

Rejection of Sharia Islam and all other anti-woman, anti-human rights forms of totalitarian control.

There is no such thing as Sharia Islam outside the GOP's imagination.

So to Bachmann, Santorum, Vander Plaats, and anyone else who think it's okay to pledge to do racist, discriminatory, unconstitutional things, I say, “Shut-up Stupid, people should have the right to live anyway they want as long they aren't hurting another soul. Thinking anyone is better off in any way as slave rather than a free person is crazy to the point that you should have your head examined.”

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

Shut-up Stupid Sunday: Independence Day

I really can't think of anything more to add.

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

Shut-up Stupid Sunday: Object Permanence

Ken Ham the guy who is behind Northern Kentucky's Creationist Museum where kids can learn that 6,000 years ago men rode on dinosaurs just like in the Flintstones posted on his blog how proud he was that a 9 year-old followed his brain washing techniques.

Here is his post.

I received a letter from a nine-year-old girl who has been brought up on AiG resources. She wrote to me the following:

I went to a NASA display of a moon rock and a lady said, “This Moon-rock is 3.75 billion years old!” Guess what I asked for the first time ever?

“Um, may I ask a question?”

And she said, “Of course.”

I said, in my most polite voice, “Were you there?”

Love, Emma B

When she got home her older sister said, “Mom's birthday is coming up.” Guess what she asked for the second time ever?

“Um, may I ask a question?”

The sister said, “Of course.”

She said, in her most polite voice, “Were you there?”

For a thoughtful and respectful response to Emma B. I refer you to Blue in the Bluegrass

On this site I don't do respectful very well so here is my response to Ken Ham.

Ken,

You might not be aware of this but between the ages of three and a half months and two years old children develop something called Object Permanence.

I guess you never developed this skill, Ken, so let me describe it to you. At some point a child realizes that if they see something and it is taken away so they can no longer see or hear it, the object still exists. Have I blown your mind yet Ken?

Knowing an object still exists when you can't see it is a very useful skill as it means if you search for it there is a chance you can find it.

Now building on this concept of Object Permanence it is logical to assume that the object may have existed BEFORE you saw it! Now Ken I'm sure that the concept that things have existed in the past has your mind rattled, so take a deep breath before reading on because here is where it really gets mind blowing.

If you accept that something existed before you saw it, then there is a chance that that there are other things that you haven't seen yet, and that they exist! Imagine that places like oceans and cities and pastures that you have never seen actually exist.

Now Ken I realize this is a lot of information to process, but here is the really wild part. If you know how something happens you don't actually have to witness it for it to have occurred. So in Emma's case the fact that she or her sister didn't see her mom being born doesn't mean that it didn't happen. In fact I will wager any amount of money that her mom was actually born.

Now Ken, I realize that your head must be hurting realizing that there is a whole world out there that exists even if you have never seen it. You'll want to reject this whole concept of Object Permanence and say that everything was created by God at the exact moment you saw it. In that case since you have never seen me or this post before feel free to assume I don't exist and it is God telling you to, “Shut-up Stupid.”

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

Shut-up Stupid Sunday: Political Sex Scandals

I wasn't going to touch Weiner's penis, but the MSM had to take this small soft news story and stroke it over and over again and make it a huge hard news story and then ram it down everyone's throat. The whole thing is becoming a big pain in the ass.

It's like the old saying, “If you think sex is a pain in the ass, you're doing it wrong.”

I enjoy a good sex scandal as much as the next guy, but Weiner twittering photos of his penis is a small story. Worthy of a quick mention and chuckle and then moving on, not two weeks of round the clock coverage.

I feel the same about other recent sex scandals, Mike Lee sending a chick a beefcake photo and then it was revealed he liked to swap photos with She-males, Arnold knocking up his housekeeper, I'm sure I could find other non-stories that were given way more coverage than they deserve.

I personally think politicians should be held to the same standards as other professionals. Would you care more if your accountant sent pictures of their junk over twitter, or if they were incompetent? If your Lawyer liked She-males, would that matter more than their ability to file a prelimb? If your doctor knocked up his housekeeper, would that matter more than his experience?

There are sex scandals that are worth covering, like when laws are broken.

Larry Craig got a ticket for soliciting sex in a guys bathroom, worthy of a small mention.

David Vitter had prostitutes pamper him where it was illegal, worth the press following to see that he doesn't use his influence to get off, so to speak.

Then there are the real sex scandals where the politicians do despicable things and break laws to cover them up, John Edwards and Newt Gingrich. Those are actual news stories. If my accountant had an affair while his wife was on her deathbed and used his firms money, or a related company's money to cover it up it would make me seek a different accountant.

So to all the people in the media that are treating the Weiner, Lee, and Schwarzenegger stories like they are real news stories, I say, “Shut-up Stupid if no laws were broken then these sex scandals don't deserve more than a passing mention.”

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

Shut-up Stupid Sunday: Hollywood Producers

Growing up I loved comics. There are a number of Superheroes who I would like to see make it onto the movie screen. The Green Lantern is not one of them.

The Green Lantern was always the awkward superhero in DC's line-up. The Hal Jordon version's ring gave him powers comparable to Superman but since Superman always had at least two comics going (Action Comics and Superman) having a pale imitation wouldn't fly, so to speak. The solution was to give him a huge weakness, the entire color yellow. Since yellow is a primary color it was up to the individual writer as to how far into the Yellow-Green or Yellow-Orange this weakness could go. As a result at different times he was written as one of the most powerful superheroes or one of the weakest.

To make the comic story worse, for those of us who bought our comics used, there were 6 different versions of the Green Lantern. When picking up a Green Lantern comic you never knew what you would get.

So now this total mess of a comic is being made into a movie because Hollywood feels comic geeks like me will watch any movie based on a comic. It doesn't matter if that comic should be turned into a movie or not.

I hope to be surprised. Given the totally inconsistent plot of the comic, the writers from DAWSON'S CREEK and SEX IN THE CITY along with the director of SEX THIEF, have pretty much a free hand in making the movie without worrying about staying faithful to the comic.

So to all the producers out there that green light projects just because they are based on a comic and you figure comic geeks will watch any film made from a comic, I say, “Shut-up Stupid, look at the comic you are basing the movie on first or you'll find yourself giving THE GREEN ARROW AND AQUAMAN movie a $200 million dollar budget.”

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

Shut-up Stupid Sunday: Parajournalism and arms length fiction

I doubt there was ever a time when fiction and non-fiction were ever truly separate forms of writing, but there was a time when it was considered the norm to try. Parajournalism, using fictional techniques to set up a non-fiction story wasn't considered real reporting. Walter Cronkite's “You were there” series was a teaching tool, not reporting. Michael Moore's “Roger and Me” was an art film about the emotional impact of GM's outsourcing not a report on the outsourcing itself, Tom Wolfe's books were rightly considered fiction about real events. I don't even want to get into “fictional memoirs”.

Fiction used to have Donnee, or an unwritten assumption, and looked out from the main characters worldview even if the character was flawed or outright deranged. The trend is now towards standing back and watching the main character, more like a movie camera following the action than the writer being god of the world they have created.

Now reporting has turned into the host telling people of their opinion and using the guests as props and in fiction the omnipresent voice is considered bad form. So the tones have completely crossed to the point where fictional situations are viewed objectively and actual facts are viewed subjectively.

The reason is laziness. In reporting it's easier to form the story first and pick out the facts that support the story than to go through all the facts and find the story. In fiction it's easier for the reader to follow one voice than hop in and out of people's heads and have someone speaking over their shoulder as well. It is really easy for an writer to leave the reader baffled as to whose head we are in.

So to all the parajournalist and arm's length writers, I say, “Going the easy path is a fine start, but reporting and writing are professions that means you must be constantly improving your skills. Reporters have to learn to report not give editorials on the events and writers need to learn to write, not report the images they see in their heads. It's not easy but truly worthwhile things in life never are.”

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

Shut-up Stupid Sunday: Blame Stream Media Blamers

The idea of killing the messenger for bad new is nothing new. Public figures caught doing or saying things they regret are quick to blame the reporters. But recently it has become an art form into itself. Sarah Palin elevated this art form by blaming the media for quoting her exact words and placing them in proper context to make her look like an idiot.

She had a good run of being a media whore by yelling at the media, but now there is a new king of this art form.

Newt Gingrich was caught on tape being reasonable. A major faux pas for a Republican these days. So naturally he had to put out a press release blaming the main stream media.

“The literati sent out their minions to do their bidding,Washington cannot tolerate threats from outsiders who might disrupt their comfortable world. The firefight started when the cowardly sensed weakness. They fired timidly at first, then the sheep not wanting to be dropped from the establishment’s cocktail party invite list unloaded their entire clip, firing without taking aim their distortions and falsehoods. Now they are left exposed by their bylines and handles. But surely they had killed him off. This is the way it always worked. A lesser person could not have survived the first few minutes of the onslaught. But out of the billowing smoke and dust of tweets and trivia emerged Gingrich, once again ready to lead those who won’t be intimated by the political elite and are ready to take on the challenges America faces.”

To make this statement more powerful, Stephen Colbert had John Lithgow do a live reading of it.

The Colbert Report
Tags: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Newt has raised the bar on blaming the press for reporting what public figures say.

So to all public figures who want to blame reporters for quoting your exact words and placing them in proper context to embarrass you, I say, “Shut-up Stupid, Newt has raised the bar on this art form so high that a lesser person can not survive the billowing smoke and dust of tweets that is released from this challenge. Newt is the true champion of the fight against the literati.”

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

Shut-up Stupid Sunday: Romance Writers

I was recently discussing the book, THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE with someone and even though I liked the book I had to mention two big problems I had with the book.

The first problem was that the idea of Henry traveling through time because of a genetic condition was absolutely absurd. However I could easily suspend my disbelief as I wrote a time travel novel and I looked at the published papers of physicists who have studied what time is and used all that to make a spot on Earth where three different universes in the Multiverse met in order to make my time traveler's power just highly absurd. The most elegant way I've seen time travel handled was by Kurt Vonnegut in SLAUGHTER HOUSE 5 where he said, “Billy Pilgrim became unstuck in time.”

For this problem I can suspend my disbelief just as easily as when I watch STAR TREK and they travel at 1,516 times the speed of light using the same amount of power that the US uses in a year. To warp space-time that much would require power on the supernova scale.

My second problem with the book is something I've seen in a lot of Romance novels. Henry starts out as a drunken loser, has sex with the love of his life and is suddenly the perfect husband. To give Niffenegger credit the format of the book doesn't show a huge part of their first year together and they do work through some of Henry's issues of feeling his life is out of control as he gets yanked through time at random. But it is a theme that an awful lot of romance writers put in their novels and don't handle as well as she did.

The reason writers use that theme is looking at some couples from the outside it looks like that is what happened. A partier meets the perfect girl, gives up drugs and alcohol and turns into a perfectly stable guy. What really happens is more interesting.

The power of love is strong, all sorts of hormones rush through the brain. These hormones are powerful enough to overwhelm the effects of drugs and alcohol so those things stop effecting the person. However it only lasts for a few months, half a year at most. So falling in love can get a person past the most intense time of withdrawal, but the cravings last for over a year. If the person doesn't truly want to give up drugs and alcohol once the rush of falling in love fades they will be right back to their old ways.

From the outside it does look like a person has been completely changed by having sex with the love of their life, but inside that relationship things are going crazy. The rush of love has gotten the person passed the withdrawal stage when it feels like their brain is declaring mutiny on them, but when the hormones of love subside they are in the recovery stage where everything feels off. It's a numbing stage where the brain can tolerate not having drugs and alcohol but hasn't learned to create its own emotions.

As the hormones that were released by falling in love fade the former addict is in a very bad condition. Sex doesn't have that huge rush that it used to and everything else is totally bland. It is natural to strike out at the closest person while they are getting over their addiction.

For someone who has given up drugs and alcohol for love, the time between the first six months and a year is a time of absolute turmoil. A couple can work together to get passed this time, and an awful lot do it successfully, but it is not an easy time for a relationship.

A lot of romance writers totally ignore phase and just have the female character's magical sexual powers heal the addict with mind blowing sex. This is like having a person want to win a sporting event and doing it without showing the training. It is skipping at least half the process.

The worst part of the romance writers who do this (Niffenegger gets a pass as she did show that having a relationship with someone who is yanked out of time is not the easiest thing in the world) is that they give an unrealistic expectation that mind blowing sex alone can transform a man completely. In real life the mind blowing sex is a good start but to permanently change the patterns of a life time it takes a lot of work and patience.

So to all the romance writers that show great sex totally changing a man forever, I say, “Shut-up Stupid, you're skipping the most interesting time in a relationship, even if it isn't the most pleasant time, and giving false expectations of what happens in true relationships.”

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

Shut-up Stupid Sunday: Paul Ryan

The budget deficit is one the problems that this country is facing right now and there are a few ways to deal with it.

The quickest way is to do nothing. By doing nothing the budget deficit would be gone in 8 years. This is quickest, but probably not the best way. By doing nothing all the Bush tax cuts would expire, and the Obama tax cuts would be gone as well. Funding for the 3 wars we are in would stop. Funding for infrastructure projects would drop down to the levels they were under Bush which were way too low. Extended unemployment benefits would be gone. And a host of other things. So it would cure the deficit spending but slow down recovery.

The second way is to let the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy expire, but keep them for 95% of Americans. Exit the 3 wars over a couple of years. Reduce the military budget. Increase investment in new technologies to stimulate the economy which would start paying back in a few years. And close a lot of the corporate loopholes. Doing that would stretch the deficits out over a decade, but would work to get us out of the recession.

Then there is the Ryan plan. Ax most of the non-defense budget trying to cut $1.5 trillion out of that $600 million budget. Gut Medicare and later Social Security and give huge tax cuts to the rich. Ryan says this would get rid of deficit spending in about 50 years. Everyone who has run the numbers on the plan say it would add $6 trillion to the deficit over that time. That isn't taking into account the cuts to education giving us an uneducated workforce at the time when the bulk of the deficit is supposed to be paid down. Ryan says that's just the opinion of people who can add and subtract.

Shortly after introducing this plan Ryan was surprised that his constituents got angry at him at a town hall meeting. It seems people don't like the idea of having put money into Medicare all their lives only to have it taken away and given to the people that like it the least.

So to Paul Ryan, I say, “Shut-up Stupid and stop whining, Your budget plan makes no sense and everyone can see it is just a front to steal the money that middle class people have paid all there lives and give it to the richest 2% of Americans.”
By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

Shut-up Stupid Sunday: Cutting Immunizations

One of the stupidest cuts that the GOP want to but in the budget is a $156 million cut from the CDC's immunization program. I would love to say that this is penny wise and pound foolish except it isn't even penny wise.

The way immunizations work is they make it harder for the body to catch a disease, not impossible. They also make it so the body can fight the disease easier so that person spreads the disease for a shorter amount of time.

One person getting immunized doesn't do much to slow down the spread of a disease, it doesn't even make that person much safer as they are exposed to lots of people that have the disease. What makes immunizations work is a thing known as “Herd Immunity”.

Basically when 75% of a group is immunized, if one person gets the disease 3 out of 4 people they come in contact with will be resistant to catching the disease. That leaves just one of four that they can easily spread the disease to. The three others act as a buffer slowing the spread of the disease down to a crawl. It means that even unimmunized people have a greater chance of getting a very weakened form of the disease making them immunize themselves.

When less than 75% of a group is immunized people are exposed to the disease from multiple sources and it has a chance to mutate. This means even those that immunized have a greater chance of running into a mutated form of the disease that can make them sick. Naturally the lower percentage of a group that is immunized the faster a disease can spread.

By cutting the budget to the CDC's immunization program that targets the poorest 20% of families, it turns the poor neighborhoods into breeding grounds for nasty diseases. Even if our society didn't have a moral responsibility to take care of these people and let them die on the street it would still effect the rest of society as no group is completely cut off from every other group.

The working poor, who would become the breeding ground for nasty diseases, are the people who clean up the offices of the rich, they serve the meals in restaurants, take care the children, ect. Cutting immunizations spreads the nasty diseases everywhere and effects everyone, not just the poor.

So to those people who want to try and cut immunizations in this country, I say, “Shut-up Stupid, diseases don't care what type of car you drive, how much money is in your bank account, what social circles you belong to. They only care about spreading and to you they are just a convenient host. So cutting immunizations hurts you as well.”

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

Shut-up Stupid Sunday: Teacher's Unions

The GOP has declared war on what they say is the cause of all the nations problems Teacher's Unions. They claim that states with strong union membership don't show better results than states with low union membership. So I tested this claim looking at Standardized Test Scores by State vs. Union Membership here is what I found.

Best on Standardized Tests:

#1 Massachusetts.............99.3% Union Membership
#2 Vermont......................90.8% Union Membership
#3 New Jersey...................100% Union Membership
#4 New Hampshire...........100% Union Membership
#5 Minnesota....................99.3% Union Membership

Worst on Standardized Tests:

#50 Mississippi.................02.2% Union Membership
#49 West Virgina..............10.5% Union Membership
#48 New Mexico...............36.8% Union Membership
#47 Louisiana.....................11.6% Union Membership
#46 Oklahoma......................33% Union Membership

Now correlation does not mean causation, but this is pretty striking. The top states on standardized test results all had strong union membership and the ones on the bottom had weak union membership.

So to answer George W. Bush's famous question, “Is they learning?” it appears that only in states that have high union membership “is” the students learning.

So to anyone who says that union membership doesn't make for better schools, I say, “Shut-up Stupid and look at the side by side comparison.”

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

Shut-up Stupid Sunday: Daylight Saving Time

I set aside 45 minutes to do my Shut-up Stupid Sunday and forgot about DST. So I have -15 minutes to write this.

So I say to George Vernon Hudson, the guy who came up with the idea, "Shut-up Stupid, you completely ruined my day."

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

Shut-up Stupid Sunday: Repeal the Law of Gravity

There are a few bills moving through different states that attempt to put legal restrictions on physics and medical science. In Georgia there is a bill proposed by State Representative Bobby Franklin that would make miscarriages illegal and punishable by death. Full Story Here. This law would put an end to the medical fact that 50% of the time a fertilized egg doesn't attach to the uterine wall, or kill any woman who has unprotected sex (I'm not sure what the end goal is). In Montana there is a bill to declare that Global Warming is natural and beneficial. Full Story Here. Basically the point is if you don't like reality you can just pass a law to change it.

I think we can take these ideas one step farther and give our Space Program a boost. The biggest obstacle in space operations is getting the space craft out of Earth's gravity well. Florida could pass a law repealing the Law of Gravity on the launch pad's at Kennedy Space Center. That way we wouldn't need to build huge rocket boosters just wheel the spacecraft out to the launch pad where we've repealed the law of gravity and let them float off.

To anyone who thinks any of these bills are a good idea, I say, “Shut-up Stupid, the laws of Physics trump any man-made law. If you can't see that you shouldn't be allowed out of your house.”


By Darrell B. Nelson author of Alien Thoughts

Shut-up Stupid Sunday: Union Busters

The Great Recession has been great for the top 1% income bracket in this country, for the bottom 90% not so much.

The cause and solution of the Great Recession is pretty obvious to anyone who has studied even the most basic economic principals. For the last 30 years the wealth of this country has shifted into the hands of the wealthy few while everyone else saw their wages decrease. Now the majority of citizens simply don't have any money to purchase goods, that depresses manufacturing which depresses wages, which leads fewer goods being purchased depressing wages, in a vicious cycle.

There are two powers in the country that can break this cycle, the government and the unions. The government could make a progressive tax system where the rich pay a higher percentage than the middle class, as opposed to the current system where if you add up all federal taxes, Fed, Social Security, Medicare, ect, those making $100,000 a year pay roughly 40%, those making over $250,000 a year pay 33% and the very top income, multi-million dollars a year have their income classified as capital gains and pay 15%.

The federal government could change this so the people who get the greatest share of benefits from the government (the richest) paid slightly more than those who have less, moving money into the hands of people that will spend it, creating demand, making the economy work again.

Unfortunately, the Democrats are unable, or unwilling to take on the wealthiest people in this country, and the Republicans are determined to push through policies that the vast majority of economist say will make the Recession worse.

That leaves the Unions as the only force to deal with the huge wage inequity that is keeping the recession going.

Over the last 30 years the average middle class wages fell slowly as they didn't keep up with inflation. Using the Recession as an excuse, the large corporations are pushing not only to nibble away at middle class wages by not making them keep up with inflation but actively cutting wages. Only workers standing together and saying, “No we won't take this” by having a Union, or the threat of having a Union form keeps them from pushing wages down to starvation levels.

In Wisconsin, Governor Scott Walker gave billions in tax breaks to billionaires as well as proposed selling the public utilities in no-bid contracts to his supporters and expects the middle class to pay for it. If it weren't for the Unions this huge transfer of wealth from the middle class to the richest 1% would have gone through and Governors around the country would declare war on the middle class prolonging the Recession making low wages and high unemployment the norm in this country.

So to everyone who doesn't support Union rights in this struggle, I say, “Shut-up Stupid, the Unions are the only thing that is keeping this recession from turning back the clock on all the economic progress that 90% of the country has earned over the last century. Unless you belong to the top 1% income bracket your current standard of living depends on the Unions being successful in this fight.”

By Darrell B. Nelson author of Alien Thoughts

Shut-up Stupid Sunday: Scott Walker vs. Hosni Mubarak

The Conservative media is shocked that people would compare Hosni Mubarak (the Egyptian dictator who over 30 years took the country's wealth and spread it among his supporters while using the police to suppress the country's citizens Human Rights as defined by the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights) and Scott Walker (the Wisconsin Governor who in one month took the State's budget surplus and doled it out in tax breaks and special deals to his supporters creating a budget deficit while threatening to use the National Guard to suppress the state's citizens Human Rights as defined by the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 23 section 4).

This is a terrible comparison Mubarak didn't run deficits.

One of the purposes of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is “... so that people are not compelled to rebellion against tyranny, human rights should be protected by rule of law.” When a President or Governor uses their power to suppress their citizens basic Human Rights they sow the seeds for rebellion.

Governor Scott Walker violated Wisconsin State Law by refusing to negotiate with the employees elected representatives, an unfair labor practice, and is claiming the budget deficit that he created means that the state should get rid of the law the allows State Employees to have basic human rights.

For his next act Governor Walker is setting the stage to violate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 25 in regard to access to healthcare. In the bill that would destroy the State Employees freedom to engage in Collective Bargaining is a provision that would also turn over the State's Medicare to the Governor. He hasn't said what he will do with this power but he could simply destroy the states program and opt out of the federal program ending medical care for people who have paid for it their entire lives.

Scott Walker, Hosni Mubarak, and every other tin-pot dictator have in common is that they feel no need to honor their citizens basic Human Rights.

So to Scott Walker and anyone else who plan to strip people of their basic human rights, I say, “Shut-up Stupid, any plan, any organization, any system that fails to take into account the dignity and worth of every individual, well that plan is doomed to fail.”

By Darrell B. Nelson author of Alien Thoughts

Shut-Up Stupid Sunday: Governor Scott Walker committing Treason

In an attempt to throw the country back into the 1930s, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has proposed changing state employee unions ability from being able to negotiate “Wages, Hours, and Other Conditions of Employment” to only being able to negotiate for “Wages” as long as those wage negotiations don't exceed the consumer price index. In other words removing collective bargaining for state employees altogether.

This would mean removing Chapter 111.84 of the state's Employment Relations Code which prohibits the State Government from from engaging in unfair labor practices. Under the Taft-Hartley Act this is legal as State Employees are not covered under the Federal Labor Laws.

Even though it is legal (barely) for the Governor to do this it is not right or even the least bit sane.

The reason States are granted the exclusion from the Federal Labor Laws because of public safety. If Firefighters and Police went on strike society would break down quickly. So the idea was to have the states work out more powerful mediation and arbitration procedures than a factory. Gov. Walker is using this loophole to simply bust the unions.

So what can the unions do? Use another loophole to starve him out, literally.

If one union goes on strike there is very little most other unions can do, with one exception Farm Workers. Because farms can't set the prices on their food Farm Workers are allowed to engage in secondary strikes to support workers within the food supply chain. So it is a fair labor practice for Farm Workers not to allow their labor to supply the Governor's Mansion with food.

The other action that can legally be taken is mass picketing. Under the Norris-LaGuardia Act labor organizations are allowed to peacefully picket in any public area. Private Employers can get around this by having no solicitation rules, the State Government can't. Unions and union supporters can fill the common areas of the Government Buildings picketing. As long they aren't threatening they can make sure that lawmakers no longer have free access to cross common areas but merely reasonable access.

What Governor Walker is proposing is an outright attack on the rights of the middle class. The right to bargain collectively is the middle classes only defense against what President Lincoln called, “Wage Slavery” it's up to everyone who doesn't want to see the robber barons come back and control the economy again to rise up against this attack.

So to Governor Walker, I say, “Shut-up Stupid” and President Lincoln backs me up with his words, "All that serves labor serves the nation. All that harms is treason. If a man tells you he trusts America, yet fears labor, he is a fool. There is no America without labor, and to fleece the one is to rob the other."


By Darrell B. Nelson author of Alien Thoughts