For once everything here seems to be moving along smoothly. I’m current with replies. Tomorrow appears routine.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:49 (average 4:48). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From MoveOn: Why Gay Men Are Doing You A Favor By Being Attracted To Each Other, And Not Your Girlfriend
Dang! This could lead to Bubba Teabuggering Bubba, ’cause the gays have all the gals! Yuck! 😉
From Dogwood Initiative: Later, the Tory lobbyist elaborated on Harper’s vote counting approach, saying that since he became Prime Minister in 2006 Harper has orchestrated “staged conflicts” to advance his agenda. From Harper’s perspective, the lobbyist explained, he has won all these “staged conflicts.”
In a follow up discussion a Tory insider elaborated on the Conservative’s disregard for mainstream media, emphasizing they put much more energy into unfiltered communications streams, particularly segmented individual, e-mail and phone conversations to their base driven by a state-of-the-art constituency database. Harper and the Tories also prioritize local media, which publishes their narrative without fact checking or cynical analysis by pundits.
It sounds that the NDP needs to take lessons form the Obama campaign, because the Tories seem to have taken lessons from Republicans.
From NY Times: Now, life expectancy at age 65 has risen, too. But the rise has been very uneven since the 1970s, with only the relatively affluent and well-educated seeing large gains. Bear in mind, too, that the full retirement age has already gone up to 66 and is scheduled to rise to 67 under current law.
This means that any further rise in the retirement age would be a harsh blow to Americans in the bottom half of the income distribution, who aren’t living much longer, and who, in many cases, have jobs requiring physical effort that’s difficult even for healthy seniors. And these are precisely the people who depend most on Social Security.
So any rise in the Social Security retirement age would, as I said, be cruel, hurting the most vulnerable Americans. And this cruelty would be gratuitous: While the United States does have a long-run budget problem, Social Security is not a major factor in that problem.
I took this piece out of the middle of an excellent Paul Krugman editorial, so for your own benefit, please click through. Republicans like raising the retirement cage for Social Security, because it would insure that the rich get an even greater portion of the benefits. Instead raise the pay cap.
Cartoon:
17 Responses to “Open Thread–11/16/2012”
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College Humor.
Bravo!
Welcome Paul! 🙂
Glad you liked it.
Geed needs to have the playing field leveled, raise the Social Security pay cap.
Greed needs to have the playing field leveled, raise the Social Security pay cap.
I agree twice. 😉
4:55 — Porthmadog Wales — Well, I tell ya. This puzzle was a real dog (not a porthma) as far as I'm concerned. I had a whale of a time doing it. Didn't even match the average time.
4:05 I tarried too long visiting Pat Armstrong (Care2 friend) in Bangor, just a hop, skip and a jump north of Porthmadog, across from Anglesley Island.
3:16 I'm top porthmaDOG today!
You dumped us all in the ocean! Great time!
Dang! I thought I had that one!
Puzzle — 4:05 I tarried too long visiting Pat Armstrong in Bangor, just a hop, skip and a jump north of Porthmadog, across from Anglesley Island.
MoveOn — So funny, so true based on my gay friends. Support gay rights and marriage equality. They are civil rights and moral rights!
Dogwood Initiative — Thanks for this TC. I've posted to Facebook (something new for me) and bookmarked the site. I say again, anyone interested in "getting to know" the real Harper a bit better should read Christian Nadeau's book, "Rogue in Power". BC citizens are fighting back against the pipeline, but yesterday I heard that "they" want to build a pipeline across the country to Montréal to ship the bitumen there for refining. Claiming it will reduce a litre of gas by 15 cents. Montréal has so far said 'no' because the environmental and other risks far outweigh the benefits. These guys just don't quit!
Harper's Conservatives have taken out election style ads denouncing NDP leader Tom Mulcair and denouncing his stands saying that they will bankrupt the country. The election isn't until 2015, 2.5 years away. Building on conflict? You bet!
In the same vein as Dogwood Initiative, Open Media has a campaign against telecom giants and repressive regimes around the world that are teaming up to make the Internet more expensive, surveilled, and censored. The stakes couldn't be higher. We need you to take a stand as part of a global community right now. Here's the link http://www.protectinternetfreedom.net/
NY Times — Great article. If you check out life expectancies, the average worldwide is 67.2 years. This suggests that the harder the life, the lower the life expectancy, and the more affluent the life, the higher the life expectancy, which is what Krugman is suggesting. Here is a link to some life expectancy information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy
So what could be the reason for raising the retirement age if not to generally provide social security for the affluent, those that need it least? Given that, according to Bernie Sanders, Social Security is funded for another 75 years, and given that workers continue to fund Social Security through their payroll deductions, why should raising the retirement age be needed? Raising the income cap seems more reasonable.Cartoon — Ahhhhh, Mr Poopy-Head! I hear there is a bobble-head of Mr Poopy-Head coming out just in time for your Christmas shopping! Oh, and for your favourite Republican/Teabagger friend or relative, Mr Poopy-Head eau de cologne! You'll never have to wonder where they are as they will announce themselves! These are in the under $10 gift suggestions so it won't break your budget, but guaranteed to give you the satisfaction of giving a truly appropriate gift that can't be returned or refunded.
I didn't want to tie my comment up in moderation so here are 2 more links to life expectancy stats.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy
Jet lag?
Amen!
Thanks for fleshing it out!
That is exactly my point. 🙂
Just have to say, there seems to be a lot of trouble being straight in the military! Maybe the DADT was never meant to address the gay issues at all, maybe it was misunderstood to be talking about the sausage pizza delivery men who want to be big brass!
LOL! I'm remembering Tail Hook.
MoveOn ~ The video was great! Straight homophobic men, take note!
Dogwood Initiative.~ Lynn, sorry your Harper took so many lessons from our stinking neo-cons down here in the States.
I signed the petition you posted for internet freedom.
NY Times ~ I said this when Alan Simpson proposed raising the retirement age. Working stiffs work harder than desk jockeys like him and do not live as long because we can't afford the elite health care system he does.
Cartoon ~ Great portrait of PoopyHead!
Glad you liked it.
Good! So did I.
Exactly!
Thanks!