I’m writing for tomorrow and am feeling quite tired. It’s been a busy day, and I’m up well past my bedtime, waiting for a delivery that cannot be made unless I am up to receive it. They came two days in a row and could not get in, because the front desk was unattended. Now they have instructions to call me to let them in.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 2:54 (average 4:10). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From The New Yorker: With an eye toward a Presidential run in 2016, Rick Perry, the Texas governor, is hoping that a two-pronged strategy of wearing glasses and not speaking will make him appear smarter to voters, aides to the Governor confirmed today.
“After the 2012 Republican primary, we knew that we needed to solve what we called the Governor’s smartness problem,” said Harland Dorrinson, an aide to Perry. “The fix that we came up with was glasses, but, as it turned out, that was only half the solution.”
After outfitting Perry with designer eyewear, aides sent him on the road to reintroduce himself to voters, but the response, Mr. Dorrinson said, was underwhelming: “The problem was, he was still talking.”
A round of focus groups convinced aides that only through a combination of wearing glasses and not emitting any sounds could Perry overcome voters’ initial impressions of him.
He’ll never maintain the silence. Verbal TEAbuggery is an integral part of InsaniTEA.
From Daily Kos:
The Washington Post has published an opinion piece from Justice John Paul Stevens in which he analyzes the history of the second amendment, and recent Supreme Court decisions to support his contention that the interpretation of the Second Amendment advanced by the NRA (and recently accepted by the courts) is contrary to the intent of the framers. According to Stevens:
For more than 200 years following the adoption of that amendment, federal judges uniformly understood that the right protected by that text was limited in two ways: First, it applied only to keeping and bearing arms for military purposes, and second, while it limited the power of the federal government, it did not impose any limit whatsoever on the power of states or local governments to regulate the ownership or use of firearms. Thus, in United States v. Miller, decided in 1939, the court unanimously held that Congress could prohibit the possession of a sawed-off shotgun because that sort of weapon had no reasonable relation to the preservation or efficiency of a “well regulated Militia.”
When I joined the court in 1975, that holding was generally understood as limiting the scope of the Second Amendment to uses of arms that were related to military activities. During the years when Warren Burger was chief justice, from 1969 to 1986, no judge or justice expressed any doubt about the limited coverage of the amendment, and I cannot recall any judge suggesting that the amendment might place any limit on state authority to do anything.
Excellent piece. Click through for the the rest of what the NRA, The Republican Party, and the Fascist Five Injustices of SCROTUS don’t want you to know.
From NY Times: President Obama announced Thursday that eight million people have signed up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, including what the White House said were a sufficient number of young, healthy adults, a critical milestone that might counter election-year attacks by Republicans on the law’s success and viability.
The total number of enrollees exceeds by a million the target set by the administration for people to buy insurance through government-run health care exchanges. In particular, the number of young people signing up appears to have surged during the final weeks of enrollment.
That does not even count the three million who are receiving healthcare through expanded Medicaid or the three million young people now covered on their parents’ policies. In short, Republicans are trying to take healthcare away from fourteen million people.
Cartoon:
15 Responses to “Open Thread–4/19/2014”
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I'll check back in later with the puzzle and the rest but had to say this fast:
New Yorker – Only in Andy's world would a political party seriously run a candidate who they cannot trust to open his mouth. Oh, wait. That's reality. I meant a world in which, having fielded such a candidate, they would admit publicly they can't trust him. Oh, wait. That's reality too. Maybe Andy's contribution is the glasses. 🙂
Let's not forget that the worst domestic terrorism on U.S. soil was carried out by right-wing extremists. In fact right-wingnuts have the ignominious distinction of leading the pack on domestic terrorism:
http://thinkprogress.org/security/2012/04/19/467384/chart-right-wing-extremism-terror-threat-oklahoma-city/
I hope it's alright, Nameless, but I am going to copy your piece (with credit, of course) and put it on C2 – those are important statistics!
I implicitly trust ThinkProgress.org
I've never had to retract a statement sourced from them.
Thanks for these articles, TC – and I hope the delivery arrived alright!
The New Yorker: Perry needs more than just glasses to make himself look and sound "smarter". He needs a brain. The voters have already rejected him and is not a viable candidate. Perry needs to be retired out to the polluted fields of the fracking industry in Texass.
Daily Kos: Justice John Paul Stevens is lots more intelligent in his written piece arguing the the very badly "interpretations" of the SCROTUMS 5.
NY Times: Let is hope that these fourteen million people remember what party helped to pass the ACA and the party who wants the ACA repealed in the upcoming elections. The same in not forgetting which party tried, 40+ times, to repeal the ACA in the House of Representatives at a million a pop (vote).
3:30 My wings were beating but I went nowhere fast.
2:43 I'm a quick little bird today. But am I the fastest?
New Yorker ~ Like most TeaPublicanTs, Rick Perry suffers from chronic constipation of the brain and diarrhea of the mouth. I've heard it's incurable unless the afflicted individual goes off InaniTea cold turkey.
Daily Kos ~ I read retired Justice Stevens entire piece and I can't understand the gist of it. It seemed to me that he thinks only militia should be armed. I'm probably wrong but all that legalese in his book confused me.
NY Times ~ It's too bad so many listened to FAUX talking heads and decided to eschew health care coverage. I hope they stay healthy until the next open enrollment in November. Otherwise, they're screwed. That's when they should contact the TeaPublicanTs and see if they'll help them pay. HAH!
Cartoon ~ Home-grown terrorism at work.
Time 3:41 – TC how do you do it?
I guess most of remember the bombing of the Federal building in Oklahoma City, what a horrible thing. One more of many days to live in infamy.
Many of us were wondering just what the new look was all about. I sure want to ask Perry if now that he glasses, can he read? Glasses and not saying a word will no doubt improve Perry's ratings. I'm with Pat, the bluebonnets in April make Texas the most beautiful place. Seas of waving purple with little dots of orange as the Indian paint pops up amidst the blooming Blue bonnets.
It seems that "well regulated militia" is antsy to be less regulated and use those guns to take on the law for their own causes. Be careful what you wish for.
"You can't always get what you want…." In this case we did get some of what we need. Thanks Obama, a total of 14 million people now covered.
Get rested and have a great day TC.
4:23 It stole 23 seconds today for a popup. Probably because when I ran out I left it sitting on the page for 5 hours. Oh well.
Daily Kos – Patty, I don't think he thinks that only militia should be armed. But I think he does think that that is all the Constitution guarantees. Other things, like hunting and target practive, are perfectly fine activities and there's no reason people shouldn;t own guns for those activities, but as a privilege, not as a right, as a car and a driver's license are owned. Incidentally I have said for decades that the NRA ought to be in the forefront of designing sensible gun control that actually protects people, because if they don't, they will wake up and find gun control established that they don't like at all. Just as I, as a driver, should be working as hard as my circumstances allow to establish sensible laws for the use and owbership of cars. If I try to be the fox in the henhouse, eventually I will be treated as such. Need I say that most people don't seem to grasp this?
NY TImes – Well, if the Republicans win in November, it is not impossible for them to succeed in taking health care away from 14 million people. If we win, it is not impossible that 14 million more sign up in the next open enrollment. I know where my hopes are.
Cartoon – Did anyone besides me ever watch "Touched by an Angel"? If you did, and you saw the episode I have in mind, you will know the image this cartoon brings up in my mind that gives me chills.
Examined in the light of historical context – something the gun fetishists seem incapable of doing – the Second Amendment takes on a significantly different complexion; especially the "…well-regulated Militia…" portion that gets so conveniently ignored.
The framers of the Constitution were generally against the idea of maintaining a standing army. Not all of them, but a majority. Having recently concluded a long and bloody war against what was at the time the largest standing army in the world, this makes sense. However, they were also very aware of the need for being able to defend their brand new country, hence the reference to a well-regulated Militia being necessary. To avoid keeping a standing army, they instead chose to rely on state militias that could be called up in time of need. This satisfied the various states that were suspicious of giving up too much of their own power/authority to the newly formed national government. Since the state militias were comprised of citizens of the state who would be called to duty when necessary, that led naturally to the second portion of the Second Amendment to insure that those same citizens would have arms available to bear when the need arose.
In other words, and contrary to what the NRA and their fellow wingnuts would have us believe. The Second Amendment was meant to enable the people to PROTECT the government, not take up arms against it.
The New Yorker: I wish he would shut up, whether he wears glasses or not. I am seriously worried about Texans, they see to be in worse shape than we in Kentucky are with their politicians. At least we have a democratic governor.
Daily KOs: The second amendment has been so badly interpreted for so long, that hardly anyone knows what it actually said. I don't want the meth crazed fellow in the next hollow to possess an AK47. Hunters do not need these weapons, either. If they used them, there would be nothing left of the animal they shot. I personally do not hunt or want to, but hunters are among those who believe everything the NRA says.
NY Times: And it would not bother the Republicans one bit to take health insurance away from those fourteen million people because those people probably do not have the money for campaign donations. They are fighting a losing battle this time, because people who enrolled know that they were lied to by the Republicans who fought the ACA.
Cartoon: I can't believe it has been that long since that horrible bombing. A sad day for our country.
Thanks all! Overslept!!