I’m writing for tomorrow, day 111. It’s late, and I’ve had a hard time getting untracked today. I don’t know why. I just feel a bit lethargic.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:04 (average 5:46). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Fantasy Football:
Players, the live draft of our fantasy football league, Lefty Blog Friends, is Saturday at Noon Eastern, 11 AM Central, 10 AM Mountain, and 9 AM Pacific Daylight Savings Time. You each get to keep up to two players from last year’s team. If you do, they are your first and second round draft picks. If you do not, you get the draft picks instead. It’s a good idea to participate in a couple mock drafts now to get familiar with the procedure. Pay attention to bye weeks so you don’t have multiple players at the same positions with a week off at the same time. Enjoy!!
Short Takes:
From Daily Kos: Julion Evans passed away on July 26, 2014, after a battle with a rare disease called Amyloidosis. He had a large family and an even larger group of friends who wanted to come together to remember his life. His family booked a large church in Tampa, Florida. One day before the service, they were shocked to receive a call from the pastor, telling them the church was canceling after finding out Julion was gay and married to Kendall Caper, his partner of 17 years:
Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christian hatred of the LGBT community extends to the grave. Shame!
From PRWatch: The American Legislative Exchange Council, or "ALEC," met in Dallas on July 30 for its annual meeting. ALEC brings together state legislators and corporate lobbyists to vote on "model" legislation behind closed doors, before those bills are introduced in state houses across the country, stripped of their ALEC origins. As the Kansas City Star has noted, what happens at ALEC meetings "provides a preview for the next state sessions" in legislatures around the country.
What was on tap at ALEC this year? New bad bills, dirty energy, a new lobby shop, and the launch of a spin-off group targeting local governments. Here’s a roundup of last week’s ALEC coverage.
Click through to see what Republican legislators will be parroting nationwide. ALEC bills have one thing in common. When they pass, you get screwed.
From Huffington Post: Problem: Your right-wing brother-in-law is plugged into the FOX-Limbaugh lie machine, and keeps sending you emails about "Obama spending" and "Obama deficits" and how the "stimulus" just made things worse.
Solution: Here are three "reality-based" charts to send to him. These charts show what actually happened.
Dang! These are good enough to get you unfriended by Republican relatives!
Cartoon:
11 Responses to “Open Thread–8/10/2014”
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OK – that cartoon is downright scary!!
Daily Kos – I had read about that, and wondered why two gay men would go to a church that wouldn't have gone near them had they known they were gay. Either way on, it was very, very unkind to let the poor widower know just a few hours before the service that they wouldn't bury his deceased husband – not Christ-like at all!
PR Watch – oh no, ALEC are at it again – Heaven help us!
3:15 I couldn't quite break free of my cocoon this morning.
3:23 you broke free quicker than I did.
3:14 I'm heading back to the cocoon for a nap. Between trying catch that puddy tat and praying the morning through at church for peace, I'm pooped.
Woo Hoo!
FF ~ I'll have to try a few mock drafts this week. I've got my 2 keepers picked already. I'm psyched! Probably end up in last place but I don't care cause it's fun. Thanks for roping me in last year, Tom.
Daily Kos ~ My heart goes out to his husband, family and friends. There is no excuse for a church to do this. Would Jesus? Absolutely not! My nephew and his partner are getting married next year and I cannot imagine this happening if anything happened to him or his husband (to be).
PR Watch ~ ALEC, All I have to say is : Get out and vote in November! We have got to stop their wicked agenda on the states' levels.
HuffPo ~ Thanks for the charts. I saved them. When my brother-in-law goes back to Florida next month, I'll be prepared.
Cartoon ~ He's onky missing the death's Head patch on his uniform.
5:00 I would have expected the butterfly rather than the background to be green myself.
Daily Kos – Even the diarist left out a crucial point; you had to either go to the diarist's source or read a ways down in the comments to learn that the church was the church they both attended along with the family, and which EVANS HAD GROWN UP IN! So they had a better than reasonable expectation of welcome. Which makes the rejection even more heinous. Man of God my extreme body parts. More like, "There go the people. I must hurry and follow them, for I am their leader."
PRWatch – "The Jeffersonisn Project." My God. They stole Susan B Anthony's name for something she would have hated too. Yesterday we had Charlie Koch (would anyone even call him Chuck? Chuck Koch? Too close to upchuck?) quoting Martin Luther King Jr. Does it never occur to them that if they have to invoke people who were opposed to all they stand for to get votes, then maybe they are WRONG?
Huffington Post – Yes, those are great, aren't they. They have been around a while, because they are so telling even from the moment of the change in administrations. Nice to see them brought up to date, and they just get better.
Cartoon – Based on the photos of the open carry crazies, some 1%er must have supplied the uniform. They don't have any clothes that look that professional.
Daily Kos: This is sad and disgusting and not Christian behavior at all. His poor family has enough to deal with all ready and don't need anything else at this time of grief.
PR Watch: I clicked through and was not surprised to see that the Koch Bros are hugely involved with ALEC. We should have a list of the legislators who are owned by ALEC and work to make sure none of them are re elected.
Huffington Post: I shared a chart like this on Facebook a few nights ago. The only comments I got were from my fellow "blues". The "reds" ignored it.
Cartoon: If the Republicans had their way we would have that!
Thanks all. Pit stop mode.
Puzzle — 3:14 I'm heading back to the cocoon for a nap. Between trying catch that puddy tat and praying the morning through at church for peace, I'm pooped.
Daily Kos — WWJD? I wonder if Jenkins ever asked himself that question?
Jenkins actions are reprehensible and un authentic Christian. He is NOT a man of God, and for that reason I will not call him reverend or pastor. He has not earned that appellation. And, he has absolutely NO positive principles otherwise he would be there to support the family and widower, Kendall Capers.
A thought just occurred to me and has me giggling . . . I want to go on a field trip to that church, maybe even take some of my church friends, and during the service start waving a rainbow flag from a seat in the congregation. Hmmmmmm . . .
PR Watch — To directly quote my daddy on his deathbed (he died the next evening) "Kick 'em in the ass!" A drastic action is required in November . . . show all Republicanus/Teabaggers the door in the midterms and get active in local politics and activism.
Huffington Post — That's my kind of reality! This should be on TV. Since Americans are so besot by reality TV, this has the potential to be educational and entertaining.
Cartoon — . . . and they're as intimidating and obnoxious!
5:11 – Puzzle 🙄