{"id":10175,"date":"2013-03-28T01:43:37","date_gmt":"2013-03-28T08:43:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=10175"},"modified":"2013-03-28T01:43:37","modified_gmt":"2013-03-28T08:43:37","slug":"open-thread3282013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2013\/03\/28\/open-thread3282013\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–3\/28\/2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve spent so much time in bed, lately, that I could not get comfortable in bed yesterday, so I have not slept at all and feel completely pooped.<\/font><\/p>\n

Jig Zone Puzzle<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s took me 4:04 (average 4:38).  To do it click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

Short Takes<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n

From NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>The effort over many years to forge an international treaty regulating the booming $70 billion annual trade in conventional weapons headed toward fruition on Wednesday with a final draft sent to the governments of all United Nations member states for approval.<\/p>\n

Supporters, including a majority of member states, hope that the Arms Trade Treaty will be approved by consensus at a final negotiation session here on Thursday. The treaty would for the first time set international standards for conventional weapons sales, tying them to respect for human rights, the prevention of war crimes and the protection of civilians. Rights advocates have called the treaty the most ambitious attempt to stop the illicit spread of weapons that fuel deadly conflicts around the world. <\/p>\n

I fully support international oversight of conventional weapons sales, but see little chance of ratification here, because ratifying treaties requires 2\/3 of the Senate. With Republicans goose-stepping behind Wayne LaPierre and the gun industry, that isn’t happening anytime soon.<\/font><\/p>\n

From The New Yorker<\/a>: <\/font>In an outburst that shocked many onlookers at the Supreme Court today, Justice Antonin Scalia<\/a> said that it made him \u201cangry beyond belief\u201d that he had to listen to people talking about gay couples all week…<\/p>\n

…\u201cO.K., could we just stop talking about this stuff right now?\u201d Justice Scalia snapped at Justice Kennedy. \u201cI\u2019ve told you all how I feel about this topic, and I don\u2019t understand why we\u2019re going on and on about it unless you all hate me.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the courtroom froze in dead silence, Justice Scalia seemed to gather steam, shouting, \u201cFor two days, it\u2019s been gay this, gay that. You\u2019re all just talking about this stuff as if it\u2019s the most normal thing in the world. Well, it\u2019s not, O.K.? It\u2019s weird and it\u2019s wrong. And just talking about it like it\u2019s O.K. and whatnot is making me angry beyond belief.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although this is satire, Scalia is a walking hate crime.  I wonder if he escaped from Nuremberg.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Think Progress<\/a>: <\/font>During oral arguments this morning, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts appeared to at least entertain the argument by House Republicans that gays and lesbians are too politically powerful for constitutional protection.<\/p>\n

Roberts suggested<\/a> that gays and lesbians must be \u201cpolitically powerful\u201d because politicians are \u201cfalling all over themselves\u201d to endorse gay marriage, according to a tweet by Mother Jones\u2019 Adam Serwer. The brief by Paul Clement, who represented the House of Representatives in defending DOMA, had reasoned<\/a> that gays and lesbians are winning political battles and \u201chave the attention of lawmakers.\u201d <\/p>\n

You can fertilize your veggies with that lie. The LGBT community is so powerful that states have passed amendments to deny them equal rights. Just ten years ago their sexual relations were a crime in many states. If they seem to enjoy popular support now, it is only because of a public reaction to the extremity of the discrimination leveled against them.<\/font><\/p>\n

Cartoon<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n

\"28Cartoon\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve spent so much time in bed, lately, that I could not get comfortable in bed yesterday, so I have not slept at all and feel completely pooped. Jig Zone Puzzle: Today\u2019s took me 4:04 (average 4:38).  To do it click here.  How did you do? Short Takes: From NY Times: The effort over many […]<\/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-10175","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\/10175","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=10175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10175\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}