{"id":10554,"date":"2013-07-02T02:18:32","date_gmt":"2013-07-02T09:18:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=10554"},"modified":"2013-07-02T02:18:32","modified_gmt":"2013-07-02T09:18:32","slug":"open-thread722013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/02\/open-thread722013\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–7\/2\/2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

The low temperature at my desk last night was 84\u00b0.  At 11:45 AM, it is now 96\u00b0.  The Weather Service Dangerous Heat Advisory has been extended until Tuesday 9 PM.  I have collected the data for a Monthly Report, but am too wrung out to write it, so this will be tomorrow\u2019s only article.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today\u2019s took me 2:49 (average 4:32).  To do it. click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

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

From NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>Is life too easy for the unemployed? You may not think so, and I certainly don\u2019t think so. But that, remarkably, is what many and perhaps most Republicans believe. And they\u2019re acting on that belief: there\u2019s a nationwide movement under way to punish the unemployed, based on the proposition that we can cure unemployment by making the jobless even more miserable. <\/p>\n

Consider, for example, the case of North Carolina. The state was hit hard by the Great Recession, and its unemployment rate<\/a>, at 8.8 percent, is among the highest in the nation, higher than in long-suffering California or Michigan. As is the case everywhere, many of the jobless have been out of work for six months or more<\/a>, thanks to a national environment in which there are three times as many<\/a> people seeking work as there are job openings. <\/p>\n

Nonetheless, the state\u2019s government has just sharply cut aid to the unemployed<\/a>. In fact, the Republicans controlling that government were so eager to cut off aid that they didn\u2019t just reduce the duration of benefits; they also reduced the average weekly benefit, making the state ineligible for about $700 million in federal aid to the long-term unemployed. <\/p>\n

As usual, Paul Krugman could not be more spot-on.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Alternet<\/a>: <\/font>A Belgian diplomat told the New York Post [Murdock delinked] that he and his family were kicked out of the Metropolis Country Club in White Plains, New York after his wife was breast-feeding their child. He said they were treated like \u201cterrorists.\u201d <\/p>\n

36-year-old Tom Neijens, the first secretary of the Belgium Mission to the UN, went to the country club in June with his wife, 34-year-old Roseline Remans. They arrived for lunch, even though they weren\u2019t members of the club. They were nonetheless granted permission to dine there. <\/p>\n

But when Remans began to breast-feed her her daughter Luka, the trouble began. A female manager allegedly came up to the family and reportedly said, \u201cPlease leave immediately, you are disturbing the members.\u201d Remans was told to finish breastfeeding in the bathroom. <\/p>\n

Dang! If Republicans are so offended by breasts, than why do they keep watching the low-cut blondes at Faux Noise<\/em>? Exploitation must make breasts OK for them.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Crooks and Liars<\/a>: <\/font>According to troglodyte Heritage Foundation President and former Sen. Jim DeMint, lots of women are just thrilled to be forced to have an ultrasound prior to being allowed to have an abortion. And in wingnut world, they’re totally free as well. What a deal! What woman would want to pass that up?<\/p>\n

Apparently you’re not allowed to have a discussion on cable television about either gay marriage or abortion without letting the likes of right-wing hate mongers like DeMint and his buddy, con-artist Ralph Reed come on the air and lie to the viewers as they did here.<\/p>\n

 <\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

The deaths to which DeMint refers are not happening now, but will if Republicans are allowed to return women to the coat hanger days. DeMint is also lying that they are free. This is like telling black people that taking away their right to vote is doing them a favor.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

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The low temperature at my desk last night was 84\u00b0.  At 11:45 AM, it is now 96\u00b0.  The Weather Service Dangerous Heat Advisory has been extended until Tuesday 9 PM.  I have collected the data for a Monthly Report, but am too wrung out to write it, so this will be tomorrow\u2019s only article. Jig […]<\/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-10554","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\/10554","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=10554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10554\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}