Open Thread–11/20/2012

 Posted by at 6:18 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion
Nov 202012
 

Yesterday my COPD  flared up sufficiently to keep me from sleeping.  I have a large grocery order being delivered this morning, and unless I get some rest, getting it unpacked and stored will be horrid.  Therefore, this is today’s only article.  I am not current with replies, but, if I feel better later today, I’ll catch up then.  Tomorrow I have some errands to run, but should be blogging normally.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:25 (average 4:54).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Fantasy Football Report:

Here’s the latest from our Fantasy Football League, Lefty Blog Friends.

Scores:

TomCat Teabag Trashers

Progressive Underdogs

108.60

117.16

Texans Will Rise Again

Playing without a helmet

114.34

73.74

MittsMagicJock

hugos renegades

50.94

88.46

Standings:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Points

 

Rank

Team Name

W-L-T

Pct

Streak

Waiver

For

Against

1 (1)

TomCat Teabag Trashers

9-2-0

.818

L1

6

1277.96

1128.48

2 (2)

hugos renegades

8-3-0

.727

W3

5

1239.16

1027.76

3 (3)

MittsMagicJock

4-7-0

.364

L1

4

1068.22

1109.46

4 (4)

Playing without a helmet

4-7-0

.364

L5

3

1051.46

1177.54

5 (5)

Texans Will Rise Again

4-7-0

.364

W1

2

1058.64

1225.82

6 (6)

Progressive Underdogs

4-7-0

.364

W1

1

1116.38

1142.76

I’m surprised my winning streak lasted as long as it did.

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: JUST RELEASED: Audio Of Former Reagan/Bush Advisor Lays Out How GOP Planned To Win The Votes Of Racists (warning: explicit Republican racist epithets)

 

There can now be no doubt that today’s Republican "dog whistle" statements were specifically designed, years ago, to foster the same racism as the epithets of the 1950s.

From LA Times: Santa Monica may bar Nativity and other seasonal displays in public spaces, a federal judge tentatively ruled Monday.

In a case that has drawn national attention, Judge Audrey B. Collins of U.S. District Court in Los Angeles denied a church coalition’s request that the court require the city to allow Nativity scenes to be displayed in Palisades Park this year, as it has for nearly 60 years.

I would allow the display, if and only if the city provided equal space and time for a displays for any other religious group requesting permission to create one. If atheists objected, it would be perfectly reasonable for followers of the atheist religion to have a display on the birthday of a famous atheist, giving them equal treatment.

From CNN: The intelligence community – not the White House, State Department or Justice Department – was responsible for the substantive changes made to the talking points distributed for government officials who spoke publicly about the attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, the spokesman for the director of national intelligence said Monday.

So much for the bullshit arguments from McConJob, Lindsey Poo, et al.

Cartoon:

20Cartoon

Many convicted there committed crimes less egregious than Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc.

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  11 Responses to “Open Thread–11/20/2012”

  1. Lee Evans says:
    November 20, 2012 at 8:55 am

    Hope you get your bags unpacked and yourself rested by the time you need to do something with their contents!
    Love the last "cartoon" (what a strange application of the word), I totally concur with your final observation of that hideous regime, and wish that some justice could be enacted before the country repeats these infamous crimes against humanity! Speaking of which, I have called the President to demand that he call for an immediate end of Israeli violent aggression against Palestine, that we insist Israel remove its illegal blockade, that Israel cease using US weapons to further their crimes against the Palestinians — I find that our support of Israel in its "ethnic cleansing" to be intolerable!
    Finally as Thanksgiving nears, being a direct descendent of the Mayflower (from both sides of the family), yes I'm a "blue blood", we ought to think of the indigenous people who were responsible for our first Thanksgiving and with the blessings and thanks we share on this day recall what suffering we brought upon them in return – a little remembrance!

  2. Jerry Critter says:
    November 20, 2012 at 9:58 am

    3:42  Did I grab the rose, or did I end up with a thorn in my finger instead?  Time will tell.

  3. Lynn Squance says:
    November 20, 2012 at 10:57 am

    Puzzle — 3:49  Thankfully there was good colour contrast in the rose, otherwise this one might have been a thorny issue!
     
    MoveOn — I found the tape so distorted that I couldn't follow the first half.  However here is the transcript as taken from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Atwater

    Atwater: You start out in 1954 by saying, "Nigger, nigger, nigger." By 1968 you can't say "nigger" — that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me — because obviously sitting around saying, "We want to cut this," is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than "Nigger, nigger."

    I did not know of Atwater so of course I googled him.  Not a very nice picture of a human being, and certainly that is reflected in the tape.  Atwater died age 40 from an aggressive brain tumour.  Here is something he wrote shortly before he died:

    In a February 1991 article for Life magazine, Atwater wrote:
     
    My illness helped me to see that what was missing in society is what was missing in me: a little heart, a lot of brotherhood. The '80s were about acquiring — acquiring wealth, power, prestige. I know. I acquired more wealth, power, and prestige than most. But you can acquire all you want and still feel empty. What power wouldn't I trade for a little more time with my family? What price wouldn't I pay for an evening with friends? It took a deadly illness to put me eye to eye with that truth, but it is a truth that the country, caught up in its ruthless ambitions and moral decay, can learn on my dime. I don't know who will lead us through the '90s, but they must be made to speak to this spiritual vacuum at the heart of American society, this tumor of the soul.

    The Republican/Teabaggers don't seemed to have learned anything from one of their own.
     
    LA Times — I have no problem with religious displays on public land provided that all faiths are able to do it.  For example, last week was Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights, and was marked with parades etc here in Vancouver.  Should the East Asian community wish to celebrate Diwali with a display in a public space, then fine.  All must have equal access.
     
    CNN — It is truly amazing how bullshit dazzles!  It also amazes me how some vested interest politician sitting in his well oiled leather wing back chair, knows exactly what is going on half way around the world, better than others that are on the ground.

    "Gen. Petraeus made it clear that that change was made to protect classified sources of information, not to spin it, not to politicize it and it wasn't done at the direction of the white house. That really ought to be the end of it, but it isn't. So we have to continue to go around this merry go round, but at a certain point when all the facts point in a certain direction, we're going to have to accept them as they are and move on," Schiff said.

     
    Cartoon — Now, we need one of these for Baby Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and others! 

  4. Patty says:
    November 21, 2012 at 5:21 am

    Rest up, Dear Friend. We want you to stay healthy!
     
    MoveOn ~ The RepublicanTs are still using the same scare tactics and wondering why they aren't liked. Duh!
     
    L A Times ~ I don't see what all the hoopla is about. Live and let live. Let everyone have their little displays and leave them alone. You don't have to look at it if you don't like it.
     
    Funny how "Christians" celebrate the birth of Christ by spending lots of money on things they don't really need. What a way to commemorate someone who denounced worldly possessions. Makes no sense to me.
     
    CNN ~John  McConJob, Gasbag Graham and Kibitzer Ayotte should get all their facts straight before they let accusations fly out of their yaps.
     
    Cartoon ~ Nothing funny about it especially when you consider the way our war criminals (to whom you gave dishonorable mention)  got away with everything they did.

    • TomCat says:
      November 21, 2012 at 6:56 am

      Thanks Patty!

      Duh indeed!

      The problem is that Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians want to be the only ones that can do so.

      Amen!

      Amen again!

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