Open Thread–4/16/2013

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion
Apr 162013
 

Yesterday my COPD was more severe, leaving me sleepless.  I’m still down.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:24 (average 4:32).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times:

For more than two years, European leaders have pushed a cocktail of fiscal austerity and structural reforms on troubled countries like Portugal, Spain and Italy, promising that it will be the tonic to cure their economic and financial ailments. All the evidence shows that this bitter medicine is killing the patient.

Portugal’s highest court recently ruled against cuts to the wages and pensions of government employees. Protesters in Spain have picketed the homes of lawmakers to demand better treatment of homeowners behind on their mortgages. And frustrated Italians cast such a large vote for an anti-establishment movement that the country still does not have a new government more than a month after its national elections.

From the beginning, it was clear that economic austerity (cutting government spending and public benefits) and structural reforms (relaxing tough labor laws and privatizing state-owned companies, for example) could not be accomplished simultaneously during a deep recession. And that painful reality is playing out with no end in sight…

The one European group that have profited from austerity is the 1%, and that goes a long way to explaining why Republicans still demand these same policies that Europe have proven catastrophic.

From The Grist: Solar power and other distributed renewable energy technologies could lay waste to U.S. power utilities and burn the utility business model, which has remained virtually unchanged for a century, to the ground.

That is not wild-eyed hippie talk. It is the assessment of the utilities themselves.

Back in January, the Edison Electric Institute — the (typically stodgy and backward-looking) trade group of U.S. investor-owned utilities — released a report [PDF] that, as far as I can tell, went almost entirely without notice in the press. That’s a shame. It is one of the most prescient and brutally frank things I’ve ever read about the power sector. It is a rare thing to hear an industry tell the tale of its own incipient obsolescence…

Click through for much more. Such an occurrence could destroy the Koch Brothers and other billionaire polluters. No wonder Republicans want to hang onto 19th century technology.

From CNN: President Barack Obama said he ordered the "full resources" of the federal government to respond to the Boston bombings on Monday, and that he also called for increased security around the United States as necessary.

"We still do not know who did this or why," he said from the Brady Press Briefing Room, cautioning people against jumping to conclusions. "But make no mistake, we will get to the bottom of this, and we will find out who did this, we’ll find out why they did this."

Any individuals or groups responsible for the "senseless" bombing, he added, will "feel the full weight of justice."

"The American people will say a prayer for Boston tonight," he said.

Notably absent from his remarks was the word "terror," though federal investigators are classifying the bombings as a terror event. It is not clear if it’s from a domestic or foreign source, a federal law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation said…

There has been a cry from the extreme right that Obama is covering up for Muslims, by not calling the bombing ‘terrorist’, but assuming it was Muslim without evidence is absurd, and unless the motivation was political, it was not terrorist. Now, if I were a pseudo-Christian hatemonger, desiring to kill a few libruls for Republican Supply-Side Jesus, I might consider an attack in the city where the original tea party took place on Patriots Day, which is also infamous to TEAbuggerers as tax day. I’m not saying that’s what happened. I am saying that there are enough possible scenarios that extremists should shut up with their accusations until we have evidence to determine what happened and why.

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Open Thread–1/2/2013

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jan 022013
 

I’m still down, and I’m going to skip the monthly report this month, because the numbers are so bleak.  I was ill for overt half the month.  I’m current with replies.  We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:46 (average 5:09).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: Official Washington was in celebration mode on New Year’s Day after kind of averting a completely unnecessary crisis that was entirely of its own creation.

“This deal proves that if we all procrastinate long and hard enough, we can semi-solve any self-inflicted problem at the very last minute in a way that satisfies no one,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky).

But even as Sen. McConnell basked in self-congratulation, he warned Congress against the complacency that could come with having sort of fixed its own completely avoidable mess.

Don’t forget that the fiscal speed bump was created to satisfy Republican economic terrorism, when they blackmailed America over the debt ceiling, wrecking our credit rating.

From The White House:

Fact Sheet: The Tax Agreement: A Victory for Middle-Class Families and the Economy

At this make or break moment for the middle class, the President achieved a bipartisan solution that keeps income taxes low for the middle class and grows the economy. For the first time in 20 years, Congress will have acted on a bipartisan basis to vote for significant new revenue. This means millionaires and billionaires will pay their fair share to reduce the deficit through a combination of permanent tax rate increases and reduced tax benefits. And this agreement ensures that we can continue to make investments in education, clean energy, and manufacturing that create jobs and strengthen the middle class.

I disagree, because I think millionaires and billionaires still pay far less than their fair share. Click through. This info is worth the time to read it.

From Huffington Post: Wisconsin state Sen. Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend) slammed Kwanzaa, claiming "almost no black people" care about the holiday.

"Almost no black people today care about Kwanzaa — just white left-wingers who try to shove this down black people’s throats in an effort to divide Americans," Grothman said in a press release, according to Patch.

"Why must we still hear about Kwanzaa?" Grothman asked. "Why are hard-core left wingers still trying to talk about Kwanzaa — the supposed African-American holiday celebration between Christmas and New Year’s?"

What can I say? Happy belated Kwanzaa to our African American friends from a white left winger who did not shove it down your throats, because I forgot all about it.  And to racist Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christian hate mongers, Happy Holidays.

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Open Thread–12/28/2012

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Dec 282012
 

Unfortunately, I’m still not out of the woods from a health perspective.  I’m current with replies.  Maybe tomorrow.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:38 (average 5:12).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: Despite clear public support for women’s reproductive rights, Michigan’s Republican-controlled Legislature used the just-ended lame-duck session to ram through harmful measures eliminating insurance coverage of abortions and imposing medically unnecessary regulations on providers of safe and legal abortion care.

The state’s Republican governor, Rick Snyder, can show real leadership and demonstrate respect for women in his state by refusing to sign these ideologically driven bills into law.

Click through for the details. His insistence on continuing the Republican War on Women demonstrates that Snyder, like his Republican cronies, has no respect for women.

From MSNBC: Ezra Klein and EJ Dione discuss the media tendency to blame both sides for the current impasse.

 

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The notion that both sides are to blame is a media lie. One side has given much more trying to come together, while the other side, if anything has moved further away. This misinformation is deceiving the American people, and enabling the Republican Party to insist that, as losers, they should get even more than the winners’ share.

From Huffington Post: Users of the White House’s "We the People" digital petition platform have flooded the site in support of an effort to officially designate the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church as a hate group.

The most popular petition was submitted on Dec. 14, the same day as the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., an incident that Westboro responded to by announcing its intent to picket the funerals of the 26 victims, including 20 young children.,

This group of Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians is arguably the most extreme example of the Republican love affair with hate.

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Open Thread–12/11/2012

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion
Dec 112012
 

I’m sorry, but I still feel like something I should bury in the deep end of my kitty-box.  I’m current with replies.  I hope I’m back tomorrow.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:40 (average 4:39).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: What’s The Big Deal About Fracking? This. This Is The Big Deal

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If you ask me, that’s a big fracking deal!

From NY Times: The cadet, Blake Page [the cadet who dropped out of West Point because of proselytism], detailed his complaint in an article for The Huffington Post, accusing officers at the academy of “unconstitutional proselytism,” specifically of an evangelical Christian variety.

On the phone on Sunday, he explained to me that a few of them urged attendance at religious events in ways that could make a cadet worry about the social and professional consequences of not going. One such event was a prayer breakfast this year at which a retired lieutenant general, William G. Boykin, was slated to speak. Boykin is a born-again Christian, and his past remarks portraying the war on terror in holy and biblical terms were so extreme that he was rebuked in 2003 by President Bush. In fact his scheduled speech at West Point was so vigorously protested that it ultimately had to be canceled.

Page said that on other occasions, religious events were promoted by superiors with the kind of mass e-mails seldom used for secular gatherings. “It was always Christian, Christian, Christian,” said Page, who is an atheist.

For the officers in charge of West Point to conduct such evangelism is a clear violation of the First Amendment, because they are establishing extreme right-wing pseudo-Christianity as the de facto religion of a government funded and operated service academy.  They need discipline for their failure to protect the Constitution of the United States.

From MSNBC: Fleecing the Sheeple

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

There is really only one thing for people who have spent their money on the Republican racket to say: Ba-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a!

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Will God Punish Us?

 Politics, Religion
Nov 252012
 

From the perspective of the Theocon wing of the Republican Party, those Republicans who swear by their Constitutions, while completely ignoring them, America has committed a mortal sin.  We have elected a Kenyan, Communist, Atheist, Socialist, Nazi, Muslim, who has abandoned God, to serve a second term as President.

25GOPJesusSomeday someone will perhaps be able to adequately explain to me why it is that religious conservatives (esp.  southern religious conservatives, cough) see Barack Obama as such an existential threat to them and their particular version of Christianity.

[Rev. Franklin] Graham [(yes, that one)] equated the Obama years with a national rejection of God. "In the last four years, we have begun to turn our backs on God," he said. "We have taken God out of our education system. We have taken him out of government. You have lawyers that sue you every time you mention the name of Jesus Christ in any kind of a public forum."

As far as I know, President Barack Obama has done exactly jack-all in any of these areas. Graham and the other mega-evangelicals are quite certain that there is a war taking place on all these fronts; they are equally certain that it started four years ago, when President Scary Black Man took the reins from President Unmentionable. The only serious religious war I can recall taking place in those years was, of course, the new premise that if employers can’t pick-and-choose employees’ medical care it would be an abomination unto the pope, but that one was tenuous from day one, and isn’t what the popeless Graham is talking about here. He’s talking about "taking God out" of education, and government, and people getting sued for saying Jesus in public, and it almost makes you wonder if the junior Graham’s visions of what’s been going on the last four years is perhaps more linked with all these pro-marijuana laws that keep passing.

That aside, haven’t we done very well at doing all the good and proper Christian things, in the last decade? We’ve gone to extra effort to make sure poor people get as little as damn possible, even in times of severe hardship, which is pretty much what Jesus said if I understand these things right. We’ve continually won the battle to make sure rich people are just plain recognized as our betters, and are treated as such. And the false witnessing alone—hoo boy, don’t get me started… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Daily Kos>

Now, Barack Obama is not Kenyan, Communist, Atheist, Socialist, Nazi or Muslim, even though I have seen Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians make all these claims.  Furthermore, he has not turned his back on God.  In fact, he has expanded support for faith-based community service, begun under GW Bush.  What he has done is to oppose Republican attempts to force extreme piety codes onto women.  He has also had the audacity to govern while black.

Barack Obama’s economic policies mesh quite well with Jesus’ example and teaching, while Republican Supply-side pseudo Christians have abandoned both completely, making them the ones that have rejected authentic Christianity in favor of Old Testament religious legalism.

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Open Thread–11/22/2012

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Nov 222012
 

Thanksgiving has arrived.  As soon as I finish blogging, I’ll start cooking.  The Church of the Ellipsoid Orb has holiday meditations today.  If you will be out and about, please take extra care to be safe.  I’m current with replies.  Tomorrow appears routine.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:46 (average 4:37).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: Bernie Sanders Doesn’t Often Agree With Ronald Reagan, But When He Does . . .

 

I am very thankful for Bernie, but not for the Republican Party that denies truths spoken by their own Saint Ronnie Ray Gun. Indeed Social Security should be off the table.

From MSNBC: There’s a lot to be thankful for.

 

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I am thankful for these things. I am also thankful that Rachel has been a reliable source of truthful commentary throughout the year.

From Right Wing Watch: Of course, Robertson should not have been surprised since earlier this year God told him who would win the election.

I am especially thankful that Robertson has his head so far up his ass, that he sees his own tonsils from the bottom, and that his election victory party was ruined.

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I am thankful for JFK, RFK and MLK, but not for the right-wingers that arranged the murders of all three.

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Pseudo-Christian Hate Lives On

 Politics, Religion
Nov 102012
 

One might think that, given their disastrous fate on Tuesday, Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians would back off their continuous stream of hatred toward and encouragement of violence against LGBT people.  Sadly, if one did think that, one would be wrong.

10gay-hate

The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) plans to expand its campaign to stoke homophobia abroad to undermine pro-equality American companies, according to audio of a conference call obtained by The American Independent. When asked during the call about Starbucks, which had spoken out against anti-gay ballot referenda, NOM President Brian Brown suggested his organization planned to intensify its campaign against Starbucks and other similar companies in countries where homophobia is pervasive:

Their international outreach is where we can have the most effect…So for example, in Qatar, in the Middle East, we’ve begun working to make sure that there’s some price to be paid for this. These are not countries that look kindly on same-sex marriage. And this is where Starbucks wants to expand, as well as India. So we have done some of this; we’ve got to do a lot more.

This strategy is incredibly irresponsible: by associating Starbucks with gay rights in homophobic countries, NOM is singling out Starbucks employees for anti-gay abuse and more generally stoking anger towards LGBT people. The broader Middle East is home to three out of the five countries in the world where homosexuality is punishable by death. Though Qatar specifically isn’t one of them, its government defends other countries’ right to execute LGBT persons and, according to the State Department, “there was an underlying pattern of discrimination towards LGBT persons based on conservative cultural and religious values prevalent in the society.”… [emphasis original]

Inserted from <Think Progress>

Please do not blame all Christians for this despicable behavior.  These bigots’ and their dogma have absolutely nothing in common with the teachings and example of Jesus Christ or authentic Christianity.

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