They laugh while you suffer, Part 34

If there was ever any doubt that giving huge tax breaks to megacorporations means only that CEOs spend it on themselves and not on growing our economy or creating new jobs, witness all those CEOs giving themselves huge bonuses or redecorating their offices with taxpayer bailout money.

One would hope that “here endeth the lesson,” but I’m betting the lesson doesn’t end here at all.

Press conferences

I’m really digging that MSNBC and CNN (I don’t know about Fox News since I don’t watch them) are carrying the full daily press conferences with White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. I’m pretty sure they’ll eventually stop, but it would be cool if they streamed these on WhiteHouse.gov in the future. We’ve got the freedom to watch House and Senate proceedings via C-Span, but we should have the opportunity to watch these press conferences live and unfiltered too.

Christian Anti-Defamation League: “Bashing”

The hidden cost

The hidden cost of the Republican economic collapse.

Awash in debt, behind on his mortgage and recently fired from his job at a hospital, Ervin Lupoe was planning on leaving California. The 40-year-old father of five pulled his children out of school, packed his SUV with snow chains and winter clothing for him and his family and appeared ready for the trip to his brother-in-law's home in Garden City, Kan. It's not yet known if he was planning on leaving for good in a bid to flee his mounting money problems or if the trip would have only been temporary. Whatever his intention, Lupoe never got to Kansas. Instead, police said, he shot his five children and wife to death before turning the gun on himself.

Obama PLAYED Rush like a cello

A big fat cello.

This article explains how.

Right now Rush is being played. The Obama dinner with conservative columnists, shortly before his inauguration, was as much about excluding Rush as coddling the columnists. Not only did the conservatives fawn, but Rush fumed. It got under his skin. Indeed, the rumor that he might in fact be there (likely coming from the Obama camp), and then his evident lack of an invitation, highlighted the slight. He's tried to make it out to be a political point ever since, but mostly he sounds like a guy who's hurt he didn't get invited to the hot party.

Who’s making money?

Who’s making money these days?

McDonald’s.

US fast-food giant McDonald's said Monday its 2008 net profit soared 80 percent from a year, lifted by growing demand from consumers seeking low-cost meals in a deepening global recession.

Hate crimes

Hate crimes are on the rise since Obama's election.

More trouble for Ted

More trouble for Ted Haggard...

Disgraced evangelical leader Ted Haggard's former church disclosed Friday that the gay sex scandal that caused his downfall extends to a young male church volunteer who reported having a sexual relationship with Haggard — a revelation that comes as Haggard tries to repair his public image.

Brady Boyd, who succeeded Haggard as senior pastor of the 10,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs, told The Associated Press that the man came forward to church officials in late 2006 shortly after a Denver male prostitute claimed to have had a three-year cash-for-sex relationship with Haggard.

Boyd said an "overwhelming pool of evidence" pointed to an "inappropriate, consensual sexual relationship" that "went on for a long period of time ... it wasn't a one-time act." Boyd said the man was in his early 20s at the time. He said he was certain the man was of legal age when it began.

He spied on us more than we knew

Domestic eavesdropping was a lot more widespread than anyone thought. Are we going to find out even more now that we are entering the age of Obama, and the crimes of the Bush administration will continue to come to light?

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Yes we did

Hail to the chief.

Obama eats with the other team

Obama recently had dinner with a few right wing pundits at the home of conservative commentator George Will. So what were their impressions?

Tinnitus

Tinnitus is a ringing or a noise in your head that never goes away. Generally, it's caused by hearing nerve damage. It can be caused by trauma, loud events, or sometimes it's merely a symptom of age or genes. But it's real, and it can range from a mild irritation to suicide-inducing agony.

It never goes away. Not to be confused with that ringing in your ears you sometimes get after a loud concert that eventually fades, this literally is a loud ringing or noise that never, ever, ever, ever, ever stops. Not even in your dreams.

I've had it since January 2003.

Over the years I've learned to cope with it... somewhat. Some people are driven to suicide.

In my case it's worse at certain times and not as bad as others, but it's always there. Sometimes it gets so bad that there is an urge to run screaming into the middle of a freeway until I die. Other times I just close my eyes and wish I was dead. Sometimes it's like having a headache. Every once in a while it retreats enough that I can almost forget. But then it comes back. Stress and fatigue can make it worse, but much of the time there's no predicting when it will be bearable and when it will be severe.

I'm lucky, however. My case is not so bad that I can't hear the sounds I need to hear. I am still able to concentrate. I can still enjoy music. I can still understand conversations. I can watch TV and listen to the radio and "tell" my mind to put the ringing in the "background."

Others aren't so lucky. In some cases the sound is so loud the sufferer can't concentrate on anything else. They're unable to hold a job, sustain a relationship, or accomplish simple tasks.

There are treatments offering various levels of success, but they're often beyond the financial resources of sufferers, and many times insurance doesn't cover it.

So we live with it. And continue hoping for a cure.

Work to find that cure is being done by some organizations. The American Tinnitus Association is one such group. Not only are they looking for a cure, they're also looking for more affordable treatments that can help lessen the severity and suffering.

Check them out and give what you can.

William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy are tinnitus sufferers as a result of being too close to a special effects explosion during the filming of Star Trek's "Arena" episode. Here's a message from Shatner about his experience with tinnitus and the work being done by the ATA:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7bL9BhESYA

True happiness

Kurt Vonnegut's definition of true happiness: "Imagining that something somewhere wants us to like it here." I've taken a darker turn: Imagining that something somewhere is a sick fuck who wants to see how bad it can get. Like the programmer who wants to see if he can crash the simulator. "I know, hee hee, let's introduce religion! And then put the primary fuel supply right underneath the nuttiest ones! BWAHAHAHAHA!" File that next to, "Heh, let's make sex feel really, really good, but make the primary sex organ the thing you piss out of! Hee hee! Oh, and let's have religious nutters go murderously APESHIT over it! Hahahaha!"