{"id":10208,"date":"2013-04-05T01:39:29","date_gmt":"2013-04-05T08:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=10208"},"modified":"2013-04-05T01:39:29","modified_gmt":"2013-04-05T08:39:29","slug":"open-thread452013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2013\/04\/05\/open-thread452013\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread&ndash;4\/5\/2013"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">This will sound stupid, but I\u2019ll admit it anyway.&#160; Yesterday I was so excited about the prospect of returning to blogging, that my mind kept racing, as I thought about things I want to say.&#160; I was so hyped over the prospect, that I could not sleep at all, so I need to delay my return for one more day.&#160; <img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none\" class=\"wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-embarrassedsmile\" alt=\"Embarrassed smile\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/wlEmoticon-embarrassedsmile.png\" \/>&#160;&#160; I\u2019ll stay current with recent comments.&#160; Keep keeping your fingers crossed please.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Jig Zone Puzzle<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Today\u2019s took me 3:47 (average 4:46).&#160; To do it, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jigzone.com\/puzzles\/2013-04-05-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\/robert-reich-on-why-you-shouldnt-accept-chained-cpi-from-obama-or-anybody\/\" target=\"_blank\">MoveOn<\/a>: <\/font>Robert Reich On Why You Shouldn&#8217;t Accept Chained CPI From Obama Or Anybody<\/p>\n<p>&#160;<iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"360\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fvXuANd2l80?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">I agree, but with the caveat that I believe Obama and most Democrats are setting the price for chained CPI higher than what Republicans will accept (revenue increase from the 1%) to demonstrate that Republicans consider bipartisanship as all for them and none for us. Nevertheless, please keep making that call, and <a href=\"http:\/\/signon.org\/sign\/mr-president-please-do-1\" target=\"_blank\">sign this petition<\/a>.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/blogs\/itsallpolitics\/2013\/04\/04\/176256720\/oregon-weighs-own-gun-measures-after-mall-shooting-newtown\" target=\"_blank\">NPR<\/a>: <\/font>Oregon state lawmakers have scheduled a marathon public hearing Friday on four gun control bills. The proposals include a ban on guns in schools and criminal background checks for private gun sales.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px\" title=\"5Guns\" border=\"0\" alt=\"5Guns\" align=\"left\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/5Guns.jpg\" width=\"200\" height=\"267\" \/>Opponents are lining up against the measures, but some gun control advocates say the proposals don&#8217;t go far enough\u2026<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;One February rally drew more than a thousand people \u2014 . Afterward, Negru toured the Capitol building with a hunting rifle slung over his shoulder and a handgun at his side\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2026It&#8217;s perfectly legal to openly carry a gun in the state Capitol in Oregon if you have a concealed handgun license. But while no incidents were reported, the sight of people walking the marble hallways with semi-automatic weapons rattled some lawmakers.<\/p>\n<p>That led to a proposed ban on openly carrying weapons in the state Capitol. The other measures would ban guns from school grounds; require more training for people who want a concealed carry permit; and require criminal background checks for private gun sales\u2026<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Even here in Oregon, we have TEAbuggery and InsaniTEA. Ginny Burdick, my state Senator, also wants a ban on assault weapons and high capacity clips.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/04\/05\/opinion\/Krugman-The-Urge-To-Purge.html\" target=\"_blank\">NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>When the Great Depression struck, many influential people argued that the government shouldn\u2019t even try to limit the damage. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ecommcode.com\/hoover\/ebooks\/displayPage.cfm?BookID=B1&amp;VolumeID=B1V3&amp;PageID=41\" target=\"_blank\">According to Herbert Hoover<\/a>, Andrew Mellon, his Treasury secretary, urged him to \u201cLiquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers. &#8230; It will purge the rottenness out of the system.\u201d Don\u2019t try to hasten recovery, <a href=\"http:\/\/krugman.blogs.nytimes.com\/2010\/07\/29\/the-work-of-depressions\/\" target=\"_blank\">warned the famous economist Joseph Schumpeter<\/a>, because \u201cartificial stimulus leaves part of the work of depressions undone.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Like many economists, I used to quote these past luminaries with a certain smugness. After all, modern macroeconomics had shown how wrong they were, and we wouldn\u2019t repeat the mistakes of the 1930s, would we? <\/p>\n<p>How na\u00efve we were. It turns out that the urge to purge \u2014 the urge to see depression as a necessary and somehow even desirable punishment for past sins, while inveighing against any attempt to mitigate suffering \u2014 is as strong as ever. Indeed, Mellonism is everywhere these days. Turn on CNBC or read an op-ed page, and the odds are that you won\u2019t see someone arguing that the federal government and the Federal Reserve are doing too little to fight mass unemployment. Instead, you\u2019re much more likely to encounter an alleged expert ranting about the evils of budget deficits and money creation, and denouncing Keynesian economics as the root of all evil&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Click through for another fine Krugman editorial. Just like a Republican waging class warfare (Hoover) got us into the Great Depression, a Republican waging class warfare (Bush) got us into the Republican Recession. Getting us out of the Great Depression required a Democrat with a stimulus plan (FDR). To get out of the Republican Recession, we need a Democrat with a stimulus plan.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Cartoon<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: inline\" title=\"5Cartoon\" alt=\"5Cartoon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/5Cartoon.jpg\" width=\"650\" height=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This will sound stupid, but I\u2019ll admit it anyway.&#160; Yesterday I was so excited about the prospect of returning to blogging, that my mind kept racing, as I thought about things I want to say.&#160; I was so hyped over the prospect, that I could not sleep at all, so I need to delay my <a href='https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2013\/04\/05\/open-thread452013\/' 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-10208","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\/10208","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=10208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10208\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}