Feb 132012
 

Yesterday I mourned the absence of light from the Ellipsoid Orb.  The timing of my day was fouled up, because one of the sites, where I post my articles, was down for maintenance, and I had to do it after I woke up.  I ran behind for the rest of the day.  I’m current with replies.  Today I organize for Tuesday’s volunteer day in prison.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today it took me 3:18 (average 4:18).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: Where Americans Most Depend on Government Benefits

13benefits

The darker the map color, the greater the portion of people’s personal income comes from government benefits. Note that the darkest colors are almost exclusively Republican dominated areas. The original map is interactive, so click through for much more.

From CNN: GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney won the close-watched Conservative Political Action Conference presidential straw poll on Saturday.

Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, took 38% of the vote in the poll. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum received 31%, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was at 15% and Texas Rep. Ron Paul stood at 12%.

They wouldn’t let Rabid Ron buy it this year.

From Daily Kos: It’s that the Republicans have staked out a position that requires that they lie, 24/7, 365. Not shade the facts their way. Not put their own spin on the situation. Lie. Big, sloppy, and constantly.

This is one of those articles were you have to read the whole thing to understand it.  Click through for an excellent read.

Cartoon:

13Cartoon

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  17 Responses to “Open Thread–2/13/2012”

  1. Source of map? The only interactive I get is little pop ups with a ridiculously small sample size -like Miami 13 benfits!  The data from the census bureau shows just the opposite of your contention with Democrats being the greatest holder of welfare and other gov’t benefits.

    • First, I apologize if I seem harsh, but you appear to have an agenda that’s not a bit hidden – because the Map’s Source is clearly identified exactly where reliable maps post them, in the lower left corner: “Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis”
       
      Second, it’s clear you spent virtually NO time looking at the map, because it’s replete with detailed data covered in INDIVIDUAL maps for  
      Social Security
      Medicare
      Medicaid
      Income Support
      Veterans Benefits
      Unemployment Insurance
      As well as the inclusive “All Benefits”
       
      Third, maybe ipse dixit works at the blogs where you usually post – but it doesn’t fly here.  Your statement of “The data from the census bureau shows just the opposite of your contention with Democrats being the greatest holder of welfare and other gov’t benefits.” could not be more wrong! 
       
      Do I have Sources to back that up?  You’re damn right I do:
       
      I’ll go out on a limb here and trust you can figure out which ones are the Red States and which are the Blue States.  And you’ll notice that the Sources (United States Census Bureau for both, along with the Internal Revenue Service) are all in the lower left corner.
       
      I’m always open to valid rebuttal, so if you have data from a reputable Source supporting your contentions, I’d be delighted to take a look at it.
      • john gregoire is a troll in more than one way.  When I clicked on his name it took me to a site that my virus checker immediately flagged as containing a virus.   Be careful.

        • Jerry, please let me remind you that here, we treat people, with whom we disagree, with respect and do not call them names.

          I was surprised, because I have been to John’s site before, but just to be sure, I scanned the page, and it is clean.  Random attempts to plant malware happen all over the Internet and often are unrelated to where we are at a time.  Bots probe data streams randomly looking for open ports.

          • I still get the warning.  Here is the first part of it:

            Warning: Something’s Not Right Here!
            empacc.net contains content from stormnouc.cx.cc, a site known to distribute malware. Your computer might catch a virus if you visit this site.
            I apologize for the name calling.  I stand by my warning.
            • Jerry, I have no problem with the warning.   That warning does not mean that that John’s site is distributing malware.  It means that John’s site has some connection to the second site listed that is known to distribute malware.

              Thank you for the apology.

    • John, making unsupportable statements around Nameless is never a good idea. 🙂

  2. 3:41

    Funny how the RepubliicanTs can lie with straight faces.

    Excellent read in the Daily Kos.

     

  3. 3:18  Today’s a tie.  The puzzle is now showing an average time of 7:06.  That seems really high.  Your reported average time of 4:18 seems more reasonable.  I wonder what happened?

    • Agree Jerry.  If I can do it in 4:31, then 4:18 has to be the average.  Maybe they changed the average to 7:06 so I could say that I beat the time by more than a minute!  LMAO  That would be a first!  I always do better with cats!

    • Jerry, when I did it, it was 4:18, but maybe a lot of folks had trouble since then.  Tomorrow, I’m dog meat.

  4. Where Americans Most Depend on Government Benefits — Just looking at Arizona, I have to figure that the darker areas are more sparsely populated (unfortunately the map is not working well for me — the 2nd coming is faster!).  And I just saw an article that an Arizona law would make it illegal to teach law, history or literature tieing the hands of teachers and professors.  Have a look at this short article.  And republicans are worried about the cost of the social safety net.  They seem to be doing a lot to add to the recipients!

     http://www.thenation.com/blog/166183/arizona-law-would-make-it-illegal-teach-law-history-or-literature

    CPAC Straw Poll — Well if you listen to Santorum, Rmoney bought extra tickets to the affair thereby inflating his numbers in the straw poll.  But he said he has never done that (he’s probably got his fingers crossed behind his back!).  I’ve seen comments that Paul has done this in the past but apparently, he wasn’t invited to CPAC this year because he’s too much of a maverick.  A regular Texas cowboy!

    A position that requires that they lie, 24/7, 365 — There is something about lying, once you’ve done it, it is hard to remember who you lied to and what you actually said.  A liar usually gets caught up in his own web.  And you know webs, sticky little buggers that seem to hang around even when you don’t want it to!

    Republican/Teabaggers, not a lot of honour among this bag of thieves, and a whole lot of sticky webs!

    Cartoon — Great cartoon.  I think somebody should contact the SPCA and have Santorum and Rmoney thrown in jail for cruelty against animals.

    • Shameful!  Thanks!

      Maybe Rmoney did.  All the attention was on keeping Rabid Ronnie from doing the same, as he has every year of late.

      Thanks!

  5. Thanks TomCat it was a great read and so true

     

    The real danger isn’t that someone might listen to the Republicans—anyone who lies long enough and loud enough can always find an audience, especially when that someone has three quarters of the television media and ninety+ percent of radio. The danger is that we might forget that they’re lying. Too often Democrats, including this president, have felt that the best way to handle Republican fantasies is to compromise with them. You can’t compromise reality, no no matter how loud the lies

     

    What is even more dangerous is if the American people thinks that a Black President would look down and not compromise.  It is reality if they see it this way.  Let’s hope 2012 will give Obama another 4yrs.  Because you will see were lies of the republians/TeaParty and reality meet. Obama will not take anymore.  The stakes will rise.

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