Open Thread–1/19/2015

Posted by TomCat at 12:08 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion

Jan 192015

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 75. I’m still pretty pooped after yesterday’s cleaning jag, but I can rest while meditating on the Ellipsoid Orb, during this High Holy Day. I think I’ll cheer for the Packers to get back at the damn Seachickens for all the Broncos games that weren’t televised here because of them.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:53 (average 4:34). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: President Obama will use his State of the Union address to call on Congress to raise taxes and fees on the wealthiest taxpayers and the largest financial firms to finance an array of tax cuts for the middle class, pressing to reshape the tax code to help working families, administration officials said on Saturday.

This has about as much chance to pass, as there is that Agent Orange will give up his Jameson. What Obama is doing here is providing an example of how to act like Democrats for Democrats.

From Kansas City Star: …Instead [of telling the hard truth], in the governor’s [Brownback] “it’s always sunny in Kansas” scenario:

▪ Tax cuts are not leading to massive revenue shortfalls (but they are).

▪ The state should continue its march to a zero income tax (never mind those pesky revenue woes).

▪ The tax cuts are leading to tremendous private-sector job growth (but most states are actually growing at faster rates than Kansas).

▪ Funding for K-12 schools is a major cause of Kansas’ budget problems (but it’s really not).

▪ The school funding formula must be radically changed (but the governor can’t tell you how).

▪ Giving him near-control of the State Supreme Court appointments would be a great idea (yikes).

▪ God is helping guide him and other elected leaders as he helps Kansas through this mess (how delusional).

The "god", who is guiding Brownback in this is Supply-side Jesus, the polar opposite of the real Jesus. Supply-side Jesus is an invention of the Republican base to justify their hatred, greed, lies, and lust for power. If Supply-side Jesus were real, he would have cloven hooves and carry a pitchfork. The people who deserve this most of all are the Democrats, who stayed home on election day.

From Washington Post: Sen. Elizabeth Warren has an explanation for the singular nature of her power.

“I’ll always be an outsider. That’s how I understand the world,” the Massachusetts Democrat said in an interview. “There’s a real benefit to being clear about this. I know why I’m here. I think about this every morning before I open my eyes, and I’m still thinking about it every night when I go to sleep.”

Being the target of that kind of focus can be an excruciating experience — the freshest case in point being investment banker Antonio Weiss, whom President Obama put forward last year as his nominee for Treasury undersecretary for domestic finance.

Initially seen as a highly credentialed and noncontroversial pick for a low-profile post, Weiss found himself up against a storm of opposition, led by Warren, who said he was yet another example of Wall Street cronyism within the Obama administration.

On Monday, Weiss wrote a letter to the president asking that his name be taken out of consideration.

The tussle sent yet another signal, maybe the clearest yet, of how Warren intends to wield her growing clout. It showed that she and her brand of populism are forces to be reckoned with — not only by Obama and his team, but also by the Democrats’ likely 2016 presidential nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton. [emphasis added]

What can I say? I Red heart Liz!!

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Open Thread–1/11/2014

Posted by TomCat at 12:00 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion

Jan 112015

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 67. I’m still quite tired, after yesterday’s outing, but it was worth it. The pain in my foot is completely gone and will be for a couple months, when the cyst will be growing back. Today is a holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb, and I will be meditating, but tomorrow is my main concern, because my Broncos are entertaining the Colts in the late service. May big horses overwhelm little ones.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:59 (average 5:46). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Media Matters: Fox News contributor and radio talk show host Erick Erickson declared that "the terrorists won in Atlanta" after right-wing media falsely claimed that Atlanta’s anti-gay fire chief was terminated for his religious beliefs.

On January 6, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed dismantled conservatives’ claims that Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran was fired over a book that he wrote which contains anti-gay remarks, explaining that Cochran’s lack of judgment in distributing the book to his employees, and not following instructions regarding his month-long suspension over publishing the book without notice to the city, is what led to his termination.

On January 7, hours after a horrific terrorist attack against staffers of the satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris that left 12 people dead, Erickson wrote [fascist delinked] a blog post that likened the LGBT community to terrorists for objecting to the former Atlanta fire chief’s book, and stated that "the terrorists won":

The Bottom line is this Republican hatemongers don’t get to use freedom of religion as an excuse to violate others’ legally guaranteed rights. However, comparing LGBT Americans to the French terrorists is beyond obscene.

From The New Yorker: President Obama’s plan to offer Americans two years of college for free has come under fire from congressional Republicans, who are calling it a blatant plot to make Americans smarter.

The G.O.P., which has benefited from the support of so-called “low-information voters” in recent years, accused Obama of cynically trying to make people smarter as a way of chipping away at the Republican base.

“You take low-information voters and give them information, and pretty soon they’re Democrats,” Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said.

Andy is right. It’s one of those socialist, Kenyan conspiracies!!

From Daily Kos: Last week Jon Stewart had an "impromptu theme" of social injustice. In one his skits he enumerated all the black males that were killed by police recently. In the process of his enumeration he had a bad call. It turned out according to the coroner’s report that Dante Parker died from from drugs in his body and not from police action. This was according to San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael Ramos.

Fox News just has to be right once by ewillies

Jon makes an excellent point in a hilarious manner.

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Reasons for Hope

Posted by TomCat at 12:44 am Politics, Religion

Dec 282014

More often than not, when IU share an article involving religion, it’s about Republican Supply side pseudo-Christians demonstrating through their intolerance, hatred and greed, the exact opposite of authentic faith. A friend emailed me an article citing positive examples of faith, so I’m passing it on.

It has been a difficult year around the world with wars, conflicts and disease afflicting far too many people. Religion has too often played an unhelpful or even harmful role.

However, throughout the year there have been people of all different religions standing up for what is right, increasing understanding and peace between peoples, helping to serve humanity, and offeingr a prophetic witness for justice.

Here are 14 religious moments during 2014 that give us inspiration and hope for 2015.

Clergy took a major stand for racial equality.

As soon as protests broke out in Ferguson over the shooting of Michael Brown, clergy were on their feet and in the street with messages of equality, justice and nonviolent action. Pastor Renita Lamkin took a rubber bullet for the cause. Others sacrificed sleep and countless hours, opening the doors of their worship houses. When protests erupted in New York for Eric Garner’s death, clergy continued working tirelessly for racial equality, providing the moral backbone of a movement that will continue growing as we move into 2015…

Inserted from <Huffington Post>

Hat-Tip: Pat A.

How refreshing, and I’ve shared only one example. Click through for the other thirteen.

Open Thread–12/27/2014

Posted by TomCat at 12:00 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion

Dec 272014

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 52. This is the only article, because I found very little content that I have not already covered. However, I had the Christmas dinner mess to keep me occupied.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:45 (average 4:40). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: …They are, roughly speaking, the home equity loans of subprime auto. In these loans, which can last as long as two years or as little as a month, borrowers turn over the title of their cars in exchange for cash — typically a percentage of the cars’ estimated resale values…

…More than 1.1 million households in the United States used auto title loans in 2013, according to a survey by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation — the first time the agency has included the loans in its annual survey.

Title loans are an increasingly prevalent form of high-cost, short-term credit in subprime finance, as regulators in a number of states crack down on payday loans.

For many borrowers, title loans, also sometimes known as motor-vehicle equity lines of credit or title pawns, are having ruinous financial consequences, causing owners to lose their vehicles and plunging them further into debt.

A review by The New York Times of more than three dozen loan agreements found that after factoring in various fees, the effective interest rates ranged from nearly 80 percent to over 500 percent. While some loans come with terms of 30 days, many borrowers, unable to pay the full loan and interest payments, say that they are forced to renew the loans at the end of each month, incurring a new round of fees.

Click through for an in depth exposé of how super-rich Republican vulture capitalists, having been driven in disgrace from the sub-prime housing market, are now preying on gullible poor and middle class borrowers through title equity loans.

From SPLC: It has been quite the year at Hatewatch. We’ve identified those who hide in anonymity while financing the racist right. We’ve kept you abreast of events that have plotted the course of the antigovernment movement as it tries to make headway into the mainstream. And we’ve documented in detail the fallacies spread far and wide by major anti-LGBT leaders, especially as they move to advance their agenda abroad.

Before we take a break, we thought we’d give you something of a year in review—the posts on Hatewatch in 2014 that were the most pivotal in understanding the future of the radical right. But don’t worry, Hatewatch will return on Jan. 1, 2015 with more impactful coverage and analysis.

Click through for their year in review, because the SPLC does such fine work. They are an excellent resource.

From Crooks and Liars: Politico writer Jennifer Epstein is quite concerned about how often the President and First Lady attend church.

“The president’s Christian faith is not connected to or dependent upon anyone else’s beliefs about him, any particular policy issue, any moment in the news cycle or anything else,” DuBois said. “The president’s faith existed long before the While House and will continue after he closes the door to the White House for the last time.”

Critics say that wouldn’t be readily apparent from watching his public comings and goings. After disavowing his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, and leaving Wright’s Chicago church during the 2008 campaign, Obama was widely expected to seek out a church in Washington that he’d attend with some frequency. Instead, he’s attended Sunday services only occasionally, visiting a patchwork of congregations 19 times in all since taking office, according to a POLITICO analysis of White House pool reports.

Evidently Epstein and her employer have failed to discern the difference between religion and faith.

I can really identify with this, because I have attended church zero times in the same time period. Is the true Christians the Republicans who attend church several times a week, but practices racism, intolerance and greed, or the people who try to reflect what Jesus taught, whether or not they reject organized churches?

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Open Thread–11/4/2014

Posted by TomCat at 12:00 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion

Nov 042014

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 197, and more important, election day. At this point, I think I can honestly say that I’ve done everything I possibly could to help influence the outcome, and now it’s time for me to do the one thing I hate doing most in politics: become a spectator. Lets just hope that the Republican Party suffers from electile dysfunction, and that when it comes to turn out, they can’t get it up.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:31` (average 5:20). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos (Hat-Tip Pat A from Care2): …The header on this [Republican] mailing says "Your Voting Record is Public Information!"

Then, this ominous note: "The News and Observer reported last week that Barack Obama and Harry Reid’s operation plans to publish and share your voting records with your neighbors after this election."

That’s big news right there. Raleigh has a newspaper? But I digress.

The mailing continues…

"The Republican Party wanted to make you aware of this, so Reid and Obama don’t have the chance to embarrass you for staying home on election day."

And then… at the very bottom… is the (unintentional?) punchline…

…there’s a list with my wife’s name at the top and a note that she didn’t vote in 2010, but did in 2012.

Then, it lists the names of 4 of my neighbors, with notes showing whether they voted in 2010 and 2012.

Let me say that again. They have the very voting record they say the scary and threatening president is going to send to my neighbors, and they’re sending it to my neighbors…

Click through for the whole story. Have you ever seen a more classic example of criminal projection?

From NY Times: A stealthy coterie of difficult-to-trace outside groups is slipping tens of millions of dollars of attacks ads and negative automated telephone calls into the final days of the midterm campaign, helping fuel an unprecedented surge of last-minute spending on Senate races.

Much of the advertising is being timed to ensure that no voter will know who is paying for it until after the election on Tuesday. Some of the groups are “super PACs” that did not exist before Labor Day but have since spent heavily on political advertising, adding to the volatility of close Senate and House races.

Others formed earlier in the year but remained dormant until recently, reporting few or no contributions in recent filings with the Federal Election Commission, only to unleash six- and seven-figure advertising campaigns as Election Day draws near. Yet more spending is coming from nonprofit organizations with bland names that have popped up in recent weeks but appear to have no life beyond being a conduit for the ads.

Groups like B-PAC, supporting Joni Ernst, center, in Iowa, have poured millions into Senate races. Credit Eric Thayer for The New York Times

The groups’ last-minute fusillade of attacks helped push outside spending in races around the country to an average of at least $20 million a day last week. Total spending on Senate races reached $200 million in October alone, significantly more than in the same period before the 2010 midterms.

As much as the Times tries to paint the problem as bipartisan, click through and note that virtually all the examples are Republican.

From Think Progress: An federal district court in Oregon has declared Secular Humanism a religion, paving the way for the non-theistic community to obtain the same legal rights as groups such as Christianity.

On Thursday, October 30, Senior District Judge Ancer Haggerty issued a ruling on American Humanist Association v. United States, a case that was brought by the American Humanist Association (AHA) and Jason Holden, a federal prisoner. Holden pushed for the lawsuit because he wanted Humanism — which the AHA defines as “an ethical and life-affirming philosophy free of belief in any gods and other supernatural forces” — recognized as a religion so that his prison would allow for the creation of a Humanist study group. Haggerty sided with the plaintiffs in his decision, citing existing legal precedent and arguing that denying Humanists the same rights as groups such as Christianity would be a violation of the Establishment Clause in the U.S. Constitution, which declares that Congress “shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”

“The court finds that Secular Humanism is a religion for Establishment Clause purposes,” the ruling read.

The decision highlights the unusual position of the Humanist community, which has tried for years to obtain the same legal rights as more traditional religious groups while simultaneously rebuking the existence of a god or gods. But while some Humanists may chafe at being called a “religion,” others feel that the larger pursuit of equal rights trumps legal classifications.

The Court correctly ruled what I’ve been saying all along. Atheism is a religion. In my opinion, it is the religion that requires the most faith of all.

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Condolences to Our Neighbors to the North

Posted by TomCat at 12:15 am Politics, Religion

Oct 242014

Given my schedule this week, there is no way that I could gain the depth of understanding I would need to provide good analysis for you, but the terrorist attack on our Canadian friends is far too import a happening to let it pass without more than mere acknowledgement. I’ll start with that.

The heart of the Canadian capital was thrown into panic and placed in lockdown on Wednesday after a gunman armed with a rifle or shotgun fatally wounded a corporal guarding the tomb of the unknown soldier at the National War Memorial, entered the nearby Parliament building and fired multiple times before he was shot and killed.

It was the second deadly assault on a uniformed member of Canada’s armed forces in three days. The Ottawa attack heightened fears that Canada, a strong ally of the United States in its campaign against the Islamic State militant group convulsing the Middle East, had been targeted in a reprisal, either as part of an organized plot or a lone-wolf assault by a radicalized Canadian.

Law enforcement authorities in Washington said their Canadian counterparts had identified the assailant as Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, who had changed his name from Michael Joseph Hall, and said he had been a convert to Islam. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation said he had a criminal history of offenses that included robbery and drug possession…

Inserted from <NY Times>

First, allow me to express my condolences for the victims of both attacks, their families, and all who loved them.

Second, I have already seen a tendency on our side of the border from Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians to paint Zehaf-Bibeau as a lefty and to call fore vengeance against Muslims. Reactionary religious fanatics. who would impose their religious dogma on others by force are not lefties. They are extreme right wingers, just like Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians. Vengeance is never the answer, especially when directed at innocent Muslims who have nothing to do with ISIL. Authentic Muslims and Christians must coexist in peace.

North Carolina Personal Nullification

Posted by TomCat at 1:13 am Politics, Religion

Oct 232014

Republicans refuse to accept the inevitable when they have lost on an issue. This is especially true of bigoted hate mongers. Now the issue of whether a state may nullify a federal law was decided in the civil war. Now North Carolina wants to extend the power to nullify to individual government employees.

Since marriage equality’s arrival in North Carolina this month, at least two magistrates have resigned from their roles in the state judicial system to avoid having to officiate marriages for same-sex couples. This week, Senate Leader Phil Berger (R) said he will introduce legislation that allows officiants [sic] to refuse to perform marriages that violate their religious beliefs.

According to Berger, who is continuing to fight the marriage equality ruling with House Speaker and Senate candidate Thom Tillis (R), “The court’s expansion of the freedoms of some should not violate the well-recognized constitutional rights of others.” He doesn’t believe complying with marriage equality should “require our state employees to compromise their core religious beliefs and First Amendment rights in order to protect their livelihoods.”

In his resignation letter, Rockingham County Magistrate John Kallam, Jr. said that he believes marrying same-sex couples “would desecrate a holy Institution established by God Himself.” Swain County Magistrate Judge Gilbert Breedlove said that he resigned because performing a same-sex marriage “was just something I couldn’t do because of my religious beliefs.” According to his reading of the Bible, “marriage is between a man and a wife; any other type of sexual activity other than that is what is defined as fornication.”… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Think Progress>

When it comes to Judge Breedlove, I disagree completely with his beliefs, but I respect his right to have his beliefs. However, his job is performing a service, and same sex couples are Constitutionally guaranteed the right to have that service performed. If he cannot do that job without violating his beliefs, he was absolutely right to resign. I respect that.

On the other hand, Berger is trying to say that the right to freedom of religion congers the right to demy the rights of others, and it just does not work that way.

Leviticus 25:44 gives me the right to possess slaves as long as they are purchased from a neighboring country. Now if Berger is right, than I get to exercise my right to own a Canadian, but sadly, Canadians have the right not to be held as slaves, so I must sadly accept that their right to freedom supersedes my religious right to own one. Dang!!

A political party, whose politicians would confer the right to violate the rights of the others is not fit to govern.

Get Out the VOTE!!!

Open Thread–10/17/2014

Posted by TomCat at 12:01 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion

Oct 172014

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 179. I’m still feeling quite tired from Tuesday’s volunteer work. Next week will be very hectic with a Urologist appointment on Monday (routine semi-annual) and a volunteer day in prison on Thursday. I have to prepare a presentation to give to over 100 prisoners and a dozen crime victims, so I’ll have lots to do between now and then, so I may be intermittent.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:14 (average 4:59). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From sojo.net (Hat-Tip Joanne Dixon): Thousands of people from around the country came to Ferguson, Mo., for a “weekend of resistance.” But for faith leaders it was a weekend of repentance. Twenty of us were arrested in Ferguson yesterday for an act of repentance.

I went to Ferguson as a faith leader but, in particular, as a white faith leader. Because the great disparity between how differently young black lives are treated in our criminal justice system than young white lives is a fundamental injustice that must not only be left to black faith leaders to raise up. Repentance must begin in the white Christian community for tolerating this offense to our black brothers and sisters and, ultimately, this offense to God. Let me be as honest as I can be. If white Christians in America were more Christian than white, black parents could feel safer about their children. It’s time for us white Christians to repent — turn around and go in a new direction.

Repentance is a powerful theme throughout the Bible. But its meaning is often not well understood. Repentance is not about being sorry or just feeling guilty. It is about turning in a new direction. The biblical word for repentance in the original Greek is metanoia, which means you are going in the wrong direction, and it’s time to turn right around.

Most frequently, the only thing we see from the white faith community is the false gospel of division, hate and greed from Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians (the opposite of authentic Christians). An expression of authentic repentance is a breath of fresh air.

From Daily Kos: Georgia Republican David Perdue’s pride in his outsourcing career was screaming out for a campaign ad, and Democratic opponent Michelle Nunn has obliged. The ad is composed almost entirely of news coverage laying out the situation—and it’s damning enough on its own.

So do we want Perdue to take his vulture capitalism to the US Senate? Do we want any of it at all? No! We want Nunn! Get out the VOTE!!!

From The New Yorker: The president of CNN Worldwide, Jeff Zucker, attempted on Wednesday to defuse the brewing controversy over his decision to change the network’s official slogan from “The Most Trusted Name in News” to “Holy Crap, We’re All Gonna Die.”

“This exciting new slogan is just one piece of our over-all rebranding strategy,” Zucker said. “Going forward, we want CNN to be synonymous with the threat of imminent death.”

He added that the network expected to see strong ratings growth as a result of having the words “Holy Crap, We’re All Gonna Die” on-screen twenty-four hours a day.

More straight News from Andy, as he exposes Faux Noise Lite.

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