Monday, July 2, 2012

A Monday Composite: Ticks, Tax, MO

Oh oh!  Lady M just read What Really Makes Us Fat in the NYT:

From this perspective, the trial suggests that among the bad decisions we can make to maintain our weight is exactly what the government and medical organizations like the American Heart Association have been telling us to do: eat low-fat, carbohydrate-rich diets, even if those diets include whole grains and fruits and vegetables.

Wow! This is huge: if it’s right it means that Lady M’s signature No Child’s Fat Behind program is on the wrong side of medical history. It looks like we’re just going to have to defund that “Dr. David Ludwig of Boston Children’s Hospital and his collaborators” who concluded that it’s not fat that’s making us fat. It’s the carbs: and not JUST the refined ones, butt those found naturally in fruits and vegetables too! It’s not fat, not red meat, not whole milk (far fewer carbs than skim), not delicious full fat cheeses. It’s…fruits! And vegetables!  As you may imagine, this has Lady M’s head spinning:

h/t Gerard                                           Picture from Hemispheres Magazinecolorful Michelle-gerardWelcome to Lady M’s food desert: A world of fruits and veggies…making you fat.   

What a nightmare! Now she wants to leave Camp David early and head back to D. C. because she’s worried about getting bit by one of those ticks that turn you into an instant vegan.

A bite from the lone star tick, so-called for the white spot on its back, looks innocent enough. But University of Virginia researchers say saliva that sneaks into the tiny wound may trigger an allergic reaction to meat — agonizing enough to convert lifelong carnivores into wary vegetarians.

bo and the antsBig Guy on night patrol at Camp David; checking the grounds for vegan ticks

Frankly I think you’re likely to find more vegan ticks back in D.C.. Although I’m not sure why anyone is afraid of them, they don’t look like they could win a boxing match with a flea.

  bill clintonDennis

Famous Washington Vegans: America’s first black president decides to spend more time with his family; ditto, Dennis Kucinich (h/t Vanderleun, aka Gerard)

bill gwenethWhen Gwyneth is “punching above your weight” you might want to consider ordering a steak once in a while Bubba.

 

Anyway, on another front, have you heard our final solution on the Obamacare dilemma? We don’t care what the Justices call it, we’re calling the Obamacare tax a “penalty” for “free-loaders.”

In the wake of the Supreme Court decision to uphold the ‘Obamacare’ mandate under Congress’s taxing power, Democrats are unifying behind a message to refute the GOP contention that they raised taxes on the middle class.

The Dems’ response: No, we didn’t. We simply punished freeloaders. Just as Mitt Romney did. (snip)

“The massive so-called tax increase they’re talking about is the freeloader penalty,” Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) said on CBS’ “Face The Nation, “which would affect at most 1-2 percent of people that could afford health care and instead want to be freeloaders on the rest of us with uncompensated care.”

Actually, the big brains at the Big White prefer the term “free-rider” (because they can pin that one on Romney, which makes it a perfect talking point) butt the distinction between free rider and freeloader is really just semantics, right? Just like the distinction between ‘penalty” and “tax,” right? I’ll tweet the question to Justice Roberts.

Still, it is confusing as heck, even Nancy got things a little mixed up on Meet the Press:

nancy gregory

 "It's a ta—; it’s a penalty for free riders," Pelosi said, nearly uttering the dreaded T-word before cutting herself off.

What I’m more concerned with though is the ever growing size of Nan’s eyeballs:

nancylady gaga

If those pupils get any bigger she’ll turn into an anime; just like Lady Gaga

So semantics-shamantics: whether you call it a tax on the middle class, a penalty for freeloaders or a service fee for, uh…getting “serviced,” the cost to “freeloaders” is the same. And if you fail to pay your tax/penalty/processing and handling fee, it’s still going to be collected by one of our 16,000 new IRS agents.

tax monkeysh/t Lucianne

Butt with all these people going on record saying that it ISN’T a TAX, doesn’t that put us right back where we started from? Because I thought the Supreme Court said it’s unconstitutional if it’s NOT a tax?

This is all making my head hurt, and since it is a holiday week I decided to just have a little fun with mosaic art myself. While the Hemisphere “composite” Lady M is made up of fruits, veggies and bees, I thought, why not do a composite of MO made up of things she actually likes to eat? So with a little help from Raj, here it is; I call it “the 31 flavors of MO” since it’s comprised of picture tiles of 31 of her favorite things:

 

Use your scroll wheel, touchpad or the zoom buttons to Embiggen and MOve around!

I’m using this mosaic to help Big Guy’s reelection bid by running my own special fund raising effort! Here’s how it works: see how many of the 31 flavors of MO you can find (click here if you want to cheat, it’s ok, everybody does it) then just submit your answers (along with a generous donation to Obama 2012) and you’ll be automatically enrolled to win lunch with Lady M! Not only that, you get to pick any three foods from her list of favorites to enjoy at your luncheon (4, if you make a really generous contribution). Sorry, we can’t include airfare in this very special, limited time offer to contribute to our reelection. I’m sure you’ll understand, because, heck, you probably can’t afford airfare either!

So good luck!

NOTE: A Big Thanks to Lucianne.com for making MOTUS one of the BlogsLucianneLoves! thereby ensuring that we’re now too big to fail. And thanks to everyone for filling my mailbag today with congrats!

Linked By: BlogsLucianneLoves, and @AgentInfidel on twitter, Thanks!