I’m writing for tomorrow, day 113. I feel able to concentrate again, so I’m back in the saddle. Tomorrow is a a prison volunteer day, but the person with whom I ride down has a conflict, so I can’t go. That may be a disguised blessing, because we’re in the midst of a National Weather Service heat advisory, and the prison activities section, which is directly above the kitchen and poorly ventilated, is sure to be unbearable. But I still would have gone, if I could have. The new series I promised is coming soon. I’m sad inform you that Robin Williams was found dead in his home, an apparent suicide. Please join me in condolences, thought and prayer to all who loved him. Nanu Nanu mode tearfully disengaged.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 2:52 (average 4:45). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takers:
From Irish Times: …US president Barack Obama has begun directly providing weapons to Kurdish forces who have started to make gains against Islamic militants in Iraq.
The US previously insisted on selling arms only to the Iraqi government. US officials say the administration is close to approving plans for the Pentagon to arm the Kurds.
I see this as the best Move Obama could make to avoid the potential need for US boots on the ground. The Maliki (R-IQ) regime has exhibited such a Republican level of both incompetence and corruption that arming the Iraqi government has effectively been arming ISIS.
From AlterNet: Disinformation: Proponents of a securities transactions tax look upon it as a way to punish sinners [Murdoch delinked] (securities traders)
Provocative statements like this allow the editors to get their point across while implicitly suggesting that their opponents are the wacky ones. While the rest of us pay a steep sales tax for shoes and school supplies, investors pay ZERO sales tax on their million-dollar purchases. A speculation tax, given factual analysis, is a logical and obvious and long-overdue tax.
More deception with the capital gains tax. WSJ says [Murdoch delinked]: By reducing the penalty for transferring capital from one investment to another, these lower tax rates increased the mobility of capital. High-income taxpayers sold more assets, declared more income, and paid more taxes.
In other words, according to WSJ logic, a lower tax rate means more tax revenue. A curious conclusion, even for WSJ. Based on oft-discredited theory. But by using fine-sounding, meaningless phrases like "mobility of capital," and by posing a behavioral outcome that fits their philosophy, WSJ is able to sound like they know what they’re talking about.
This is just one of five ways in which the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda Lite, aka Faux Print, is ridiculous. Click through for the other four.
From Huffington Post: Chuck Todd is set to replace David Gregory as the host of "Meet The Press," Politico’s Mike Allen reported on Monday.
Todd, NBC’s political director and chief White House correspondent, has been viewed as the favorite to succeed Gregory, whose tenure has seen the venerable Sunday show sink to third place in the ratings.
Allen said Gregory, who has hosted "MTP" since 2008, is likely to leave NBC.
I welcome this change, although, to be honest, I’m not a fan of Chuck Todd. I’d rather see someone known for integrity, such as Lawrence O’Donnell, in that post. However, if given the choice between David "Raps with Rove" Gregory and a mentally substandard, flatulent Chimpanzee, with acute halitosis, and that masturbates and throws feces on camera, the ape is the clear winner.
Cartoon:
Although, in those days I used a more advanced computer than an IBM PC, I remember those day when, connecting at 110 baud, we watched documents download, one text character every two or three seconds.
A miasma of anti-science, anti-evolution, racist, homophobic, secessionist thinking has clearly fogged the brains of Republican voters in Anne Arundel, which is the home county of Maryland’s capital, Annapolis, and also home to the U.S. Naval Academy, National Security Agency, and Fort George G. Meade.
A Missouri family whose son was killed by a gun that was supposed to be unloaded is asking for “memorial” donations to be sent to the National Rifle Association (NRA) or other gun-rights groups in his memory.