{"id":10093,"date":"2013-03-08T04:06:32","date_gmt":"2013-03-08T12:06:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=10093"},"modified":"2013-03-08T04:06:32","modified_gmt":"2013-03-08T12:06:32","slug":"open-thread382013-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2013\/03\/08\/open-thread382013-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread&ndash;3\/8\/2013"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Yesterday I got lots of sleep, and I needed it.&#160; I\u2019m current with replies.&#160; Tomorrow should be routine.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Jig Zone Puzzle<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Today\u2019s took me 4:44 (average 5:41).&#160; To do it, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jigzone.com\/puzzles\/2013-03-08-CE2504A965A9\" target=\"_blank\">click here<\/a>.&#160; How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Short Takes<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/front.moveon.org\/the-funniest-anti-gay-marriage-ad-weve-seen-in-at-least-two-weeks\/\" target=\"_blank\">MoveOn<\/a>: <\/font><font color=\"#000000\">The Funniest Anti-Gay Marriage Ad We&#8217;ve Seen In At Least Two Weeks<\/font><\/p>\n<p>&#160;<iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"360\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6jrngYNGNeE?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">This obvious satire makes an excellent point. Republicans act as though who other people love threatens their ability to love. It does not. If threatens only the popularity of their hate.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/03\/08\/opinion\/krugman-the-market-speaks.html\" target=\"_blank\">NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>Four years ago, as a newly elected president began his efforts to rescue the economy and strengthen the social safety net, conservative economic pundits \u2014 people who claimed to understand markets and know how to satisfy them \u2014 warned of imminent financial disaster. Stocks, they declared, would plunge, while interest rates would soar\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2026Sure enough, this week the Dow Jones industrial average has been hitting all-time highs, while the current yield on 10-year U.S. government bonds is roughly half what it was when The Journal published that screed\u2026<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;the important point about these particular bad predictions is that they came from people who constantly invoke the potential wrath of the markets as a reason we must follow their policy advice. Don\u2019t try to cover America\u2019s uninsured, they told us; if you do, you will undermine business confidence and the stock market will tank. Don\u2019t try to reform Wall Street, or even criticize its abuses; you\u2019ll hurt the plutocrats\u2019 feelings, and that will lead to plunging markets. Don\u2019t try to fight unemployment with higher government spending; if you do, interest rates will skyrocket. <\/p>\n<p>And, of course, do slash Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid right away, or the markets will punish you for your presumption.<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Click through for the rest of Krugman&#8217;s excellent editorial that explains why Republican policies are no better than their predictions.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/US\/wireStory\/pivotal-votes-colo-gun-control-measures-18681456\" target=\"_blank\">ABC<\/a>: <\/font>Standing firm on new firearm restrictions, Colorado Democrats are on the cusp of advancing aggressive gun-control proposals Friday in a state balancing a history of heartbreaking shootings with a Western heritage where gun ownership is treasured by many.<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">There is really no conflict between the two. Sensible regulation poses no threat to responsible gun use, just like licensing and registration poses no threat to responsible driving.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Cartoon<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: inline\" title=\"8Cartoon\" alt=\"8Cartoon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/8Cartoon.jpg\" width=\"650\" height=\"400\" \/><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Baggers are still stuck on just fingers.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday I got lots of sleep, and I needed it.&#160; I\u2019m current with replies.&#160; Tomorrow should be routine. Jig Zone Puzzle: Today\u2019s took me 4:44 (average 5:41).&#160; To do it, click here.&#160; How did you do? Short Takes: From MoveOn: The Funniest Anti-Gay Marriage Ad We&#8217;ve Seen In At Least Two Weeks &#160; This obvious <a href='https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2013\/03\/08\/open-thread382013-2\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-open-thread","category-personal","category-politics","category-35-id","category-3-id","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10093\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}