Sep 232014
 

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 155.  I’m still mourning the defeat of my beloved Broncos at the hands of the evil Seachickens, but at least, when the week is over, my fantasy football team will remain undefeated.  It’s a busy day.  I have to prepare a Treasurer’s Report for my prison volunteer group, edit changes in the Format we use for CoDA meetings, compose a list of recommendations for 2015, and print and collate multiple copies of all.  Then I need to collect files to transfer to my notebook.  Then, of course there is Monday Night Football.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:03 (average 4:16).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: A climate-change march that organizers claim was the largest on record is nevertheless unlikely to change the minds of idiots, a survey of America’s idiots reveals.

Despite bringing attention to a position that is embraced by more than ninety per cent of the world’s scientists, the People’s Climate March, which took place on Sunday in New York City, left a broad majority of the nation’s idiots unconvinced.

“Look, if hundreds of thousands of people want to march about something, it’s a free country,” said Carol Foyler, an idiot from Kenosha, Wisconsin. “But let me ask them something: if the climate is really getting warmer, why was it so cold up here last winter?”

Harland Dorrinson, an idiot from Hollywood, Florida, was also unmoved by the message of Sunday’s march. “What these marchers don’t realize is that the planet goes through natural cycles of heating and cooling,” he said. “Blaming people for global warming is like blaming dinosaurs for the ice age.”

Skepticism about scientists characterized many of the idiots’ remarks, including those of Tracy Klugian, of Albuquerque, New Mexico. “Those marchers are holding signs that say ‘Scientists this, scientists that,’ ” he said. “Well, how can scientists be sure that the Earth was colder thousands of years ago, when no one had invented a thermometer?”…

That cuts it. Andy is now reporting news without satire.

From Upworthy: A special Upworthy partnership with the UN Climate Summit 2014. Made possible by Unilever Project Sunlight. Read more.

Do you have plans Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2014? Have a minute to chat with global leaders about the environment? You can join me at the the United Nations from your farm/office/bouncy-house/hot tub. (Seriously!)

Upworthy will be holding an all-day #UpChat live at the United Nations Climate Summit 2014, where global leaders are convening to make decisions about the future of our planet. (How to join? See below!)

Enough from me, I’ll let Mr. Freeman take it from here…

 

But for 3,000 intervening miles and disability…

From NY Times: The Democratic candidate for governor in Kansas found himself on the defensive this weekend after acknowledging that he was caught up in a police raid of a strip club years ago.

The candidate, Paul Davis, said he was not arrested or charged in the incident and accused Republicans of “a desperate smear campaign.”

“I was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Mr. Davis said Saturday during a meeting with campaign workers. “Nobody has ever accused me of any wrongdoing.”

Recent polling shows Mr. Davis ahead of the Republican incumbent, Sam Brownback, in the governor’s race, a lead based largely on many voters’ questions about Mr. Brownback’s handling of the state budget…

…“When I was 26 years old, I was taken to a club by my boss — the club owner was one of our legal clients,” Mr. Davis said in the statement. “While we were in the building the police showed up. I was never accused of having done anything wrong, but rather I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

This is what a well know Republican propaganda rag calls "Busted Getting A Strip Club Lap Dance". In fact, he was a young lawyer accompanying his boss to a business meeting 16 years ago. Republicans in Brownbackistan are getting truly desperate!!

Cartoon:

0923Cartoon

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  17 Responses to “Open Thread–9/23/2014”

  1. 5:28  Even this early (for me) the average is up 3 seconds.  The chicken appears not to be amused, which I guess is par for a portrait, at least back in the day when you had to sit still forever for them.

    New Yorker – I think the satire is in the premise that you could find people to survey who admitted they are idiots.  Other than that, I agree with you TC, it is straight fact.

    Upworthy – Only 2000 miles plus disability here (and I guess one can jump in without going there through the miracle of the internet), but I also have commitments here.

    NY Times – Just amazing how knowing all the facts changes the picture, isn't it?  (Anyone besides me ever read "Strip Tease" by Carl Hiaasen?)

    Cartoon – Don't they spell it "just-us"?

    • I have not.  Was it fun for you?

      • I love how Hiaasen disposes of his villains; it's a kind of wish fulfillment for the reader as well as for the author.  That said, I don't even remember what happened to the Senator in this one, but the heroine, the divorced wife of a lawyer who had screwed her financially and in terms of custody, was stuck taking a dancing job, was well and truly hit on by the Senator, and well and truly set him up in return, which he well and truly deserved.  In her spare time, she was organizing the other dancers into a union.  A very funny read, I thought.

  2. I am grieving right alonf\g with you, Tom.  Both my teams lost.

  3. 3:08  I laid an egg with this puzzle.

  4. Puzzle — 3:47  No roosters in my hen house today.

    Personal Update — It has been a rough day.  My Primo has severe kidney problems and is in the hospital.  I would really appreciate prayers for him.  I learned today that my sprained foot is a bit more complicated . . . I have numerous avulsion fractures so they will be longer to heal and I think using crutches just became longer, but I'll check with my physio tomorrow.  Because Primo is so sick, I didn't get any sleep last night, and then the wet, rainy weather has me aching, especially in the hands and shoulders . . . damn crutches . . . so I am off to bed.  Take care everyone.  Maybe tomorrow.

  5. The New Yorker:  Andys satire sounds exactly like what my Republican friends are saying!

    Upworthy:  I would have loved to have been there!

    NY Times:  Surely he knew this would come back to haunt him.

    Cartoon: Sad but true

  6. Andy's satire is positively painful this week!  Thanks TC.

  7. Puzzle — 3:47  No roosters in my hen house today.

    The New Yorker — "That cuts it. Andy is now reporting news without satire."  — No shit Sherlock!  To boot, he isn't even changing any names to protect the innocent! . . . maybe because no right wing nutjob conservative is innocent?!

    Upworthy — "But for 3,000 intervening miles and disability…" — No excuses like distance and disability allowed (unless of course you're in the doctor's office or hospital) — "You can join me at the the United Nations from your farm/office/bouncy-house/hot tub.

    NY Times — Obviously Brownback, a reptillian Republicanus/Teabagger, is worried about his re-election, as all right wing nimrods should be, so he is trying to sow the seeds of distortion and innuendo with no ties to the truth.  Seems that his Republicanus/Teabagger Attorney General has his knickers in a twist to because he senses Republicanus/Teabagger blood in the water.

    Cartoon — JD, you are absolutely correct!  Well put.

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