Hump Day thoughts.

It's Hump Day, and I have some things on my mind.

First and foremost, RIP Phife Dawg. You were a truly great lyricist.

You and Q- Tip went together like peanut butter and jelly.

 “MCs like to meddle, but here’s my proposition / I let my lyrics flow, and juxt your whole position”

There is lots more where that came from. The "five foot assassin" will be missed.

Second, just when you thought the republicans couldn't get any lower, they start going after each other's wives. This is some really low down stuff.

This has all gotten  so bad that at the next debate I fully expect to see Ted Cruz walk across the stage, get in the orange man's ugly mug, and demand an apology.

I expect it, but I am quite sure that it won't happen. Politicians just aren't built like that. Especially slimy self-centered ones like Ted Cruz.

Then there is Michelle Bachmann. I must admit that when I first heard this story I thought that it was from The Onion. I figured that it was just too preposterous to be true. But then, I realized, we are talking about Michele Bachmann.

“Our feckless U.S. president appeared unfazed by the message he portrayed of American incompetence and historic irrelevance,” Bachmann wrote in a column for World Net Daily.

“In fact, the president appeared pleased with himself and seemed to revel in his infallible cleverness,” she added. “Only he could break the barriers of isolation his misguided predecessors had painstakingly built. Only he could vouchsafe freedom against attack from legions of murderous Communist regimes and Jew-hating ayatollahs.”

But, she said — not without some satisfaction — “the turn of world events humiliated him,” and she wondered if ISIS terrorists might even have been doing God’s will when they bombed an airport and subway station in Brussels, Belgium.

“Maybe our president’s humiliation comes in a manner so devastating it makes one wonder whether the Creator of humankind isn’t reminding this world of the inferiority of foolishness in the face of wisdom,” Bachmann said.

“The president once again mocked his nemesis, the Jewish people and the nation of Israel, by cleverly turning the international press corps toward his brilliant work in Cuba, instead of covering ongoing Islamic attacks against the Jewish state as outlined that very same day at the annual pro-Israel AIPAC meeting in Washington, D.C.,”  [Source]

You know what's even scarier than what she wrote? The fact that "normal" citizens actually voted to send her to Washington over someone else.

Finally, it seems that even dying while black has become a problem.

"MONDAY, March 21, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- Black heart attack patients are more likely than whites to have their ambulance diverted to another hospital due to overcrowding in the closest emergency department, a new study shows.

The researchers also found that long diversions reduced black patients' chances of receiving specialized heart care and increased their risk of death within a year.

The study looked at 2001-11 Medicare data. The researchers included information on nearly 30,000 heart attack patients who were transported by ambulance to hospitals in 26 California counties.
Half the patients had no ambulance diversion, the study found. Another quarter had diversions lasting six hours or less, researchers said. Fifteen percent of heart attack patients had six to 12 hours of diversion, and 10 percent had more than 12 hours of diversion, the study said.

Diversions were more likely to occur for patients being taken to hospitals that served minorities -- particularly those that served large numbers of black patients, according to the study.
Patients with more than 12 hours of ambulance diversion were:

• 4.4 percent less likely to be treated in cardiac care units
• 3.4 percent less likely to be treated in catheterization labs or facilities specializing in procedures to improve blood flow to the heart
• 4.3 percent less likely to receive catheterization
• 9.6 percent more likely to die during the following year.

The study was published recently in the journal BMJ Open."
 [Source]

 

"Diversions". Another fancy term for institutionalized racism.

 

Enjoy what's left of your Hump Day, people.