Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Our Wacky World—4/20/2011

Roger Ebert savages the film version of "Atlas Shrugged Part 1 [of 3]":
"So OK. Let’s say you know the novel, you agree with Ayn Rand, you’re an objectivist or a libertarian, and you’ve been waiting eagerly for this movie. Man, are you going to get a letdown. It’s not enough that a movie agree with you, in however an incoherent and murky fashion. It would help if it were like, you know, entertaining?"
Roger Ebert

Check out the abysmal ratings on Rotten Tomatoes. Note how the Randtards have voted it up a bit.


Westboro Baptist runs into trouble in Mississippi:
"It seems that certain Rankin county pickup trucks were parked directly behind any car that had Kansas plates in the hotel parking lot and the drivers mysteriously disappeared until after the funeral was over. Police were called but their wrecker service was running behind and it was going to be a few hours before they could tow the trucks so the Kansas plated cars could get out."
The Hayride

"Asked why her children were locked in the room, Higdon said they are hyperactive... she told the officer that she can’t find a special school for their autism and tries to home-school them — even though the 9-year-old told investigators that his mother doesn’t teach them... Eckhart is listed in court papers as unemployed; a search for his Facebook page displays a picture of him making an obscene gesture."
The Columbian

"I just can't believe that it happened -- there are just no words for it," Scott-Gonzalez said Tuesday, as she continued to recover from a broken nose and a fractured jaw after being beaten by her estranged husband in a judge's chambers... "It was from behind, I was blindsided, I was knocked out after the first punch"
CNN

'Homosexuals can't go out into the heterosexual community and try to recruit people, or try to enlist them in homosexual acts," Peterson says. He provides an example: "'Here, young man, your hormones are raging. Let's go in this bedroom, and we'll engage in some homosexual acts. You'll find you like it.'"'
Missoula Independent

"A doctor may get $65 for an office visit to appropriately treat a child with an ear infection. If he codes it as “fever” he can be reimbursed for a barrage of unnecessary tests (flu, rapid Strep test, CBC, tympanometry, reimbursed at $15 per test) and charge for a higher complexity visit ($85), raising the total charge for an office visit to $145. And then if the white blood count is elevated, he can justify giving an antibiotic by intramuscular injection at an additional charge of $30-$50. One doctor told Palmieri he does circumcisions in his office because Medicaid pays for them, but he sends simple lacerations to the ER because Medicaid won’t pay for office suturing."
Science Based Medicine

"They don't call Arizona the "meth lab of Democracy" for nothing -- where else could a lack of foreskin prove citizenship?"
Phoenix New Times

It's so stupid that Jan Brewer actually vetoed it.

'A nurse who was supposed to be caring for elderly people got intoxicated on painkillers, abused patients and even used her teeth to tear open a fluid bag designed for a drip... She forced one patient with a fractured hip to get up and walk and told another who asked for a bedpan: "Wet yourself, then."'
The Scotsman

"...PrimeTel Communications has quietly gained control over nearly a quarter of all the 1-800 numbers in the U.S. and Canada, often by grabbing them the moment they are relinquished by previous users. As of March, it administered more 800 numbers than any other company, including Verizon and AT&T... And many, if not most, of those 1.7 million numbers appear to be used for one thing: redirecting callers to a phone-sex service."
MSNBC