{"id":11992,"date":"2014-01-08T00:05:10","date_gmt":"2014-01-08T08:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=11992"},"modified":"2014-01-08T00:05:10","modified_gmt":"2014-01-08T08:05:10","slug":"open-thread182014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2014\/01\/08\/open-thread182014\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–1\/8\/2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m writing for tomorrow, working on the apartment, and getting ready to go out and run a couple errands.  Nothing really exciting is happening on the home front, and that\u2019s a good thing, because this space used to be filled with heat failures, power failures, and raving idiots roaming the halls.  I Like the change.<\/font><\/p>\n

Late update<\/strong>: Later in the day I came down with a cold\/flu and feel just awful  Today\u2019s articles are already written, but expect a lull for a day or three.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today\u2019s took me 4:35 (average 4:35).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

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

From The New Yorker<\/a>: <\/font>The so-called polar vortex caused hundreds of injuries across the Midwest today, as people who said \u201cso much for global warming\u201d and similar comments were punched in the face.<\/p>\n

Authorities in several states said that residents who had made ignorant comments erroneously citing the brutally cold temperatures as proof that climate change did not exist were reporting a sharp increase in injuries to the face and head regions.<\/p>\n

In an emergency room in St. Paul, Harland Dorrinson, forty-one, was waiting to be treated for bruising to the facial area after he made a crack about how the below-freezing temperatures meant that climate-change activists were full of shit.<\/p>\n

What an excellent parody Andy has made of how dishonest Republicans claim that every winter day negates the vast body of evidence supporting global increases in mean temperature and the more frequent catastrophic freak-weather that results from it.<\/font><\/p>\n

From NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>Representative Jim Gerlach of Pennsylvania, a perennial target for Democrats who covet his suburban district, announced on Monday that he will retire from the House after six terms.<\/p>\n

Mr. Gerlach joined a steady trickle of Republican retirements and resignations<\/a>, including Representatives Jon Runyan of New Jersey, Tom Latham of Iowa, Frank R. Wolf of Virginia and Tim Griffin of Arkansas, whose seats could now be in play. In all, 12 House Republicans have announced that they are stepping down, either immediately or at the end of the year. Democrats have seen just one, Jim Matheson of Utah, announce his retirement; Mr. Matheson\u2019s district is so Republican, his departure is tantamount to ceding a seat.<\/p>\n

In a midterm election where the battlefield was expected to be extremely narrow, the fight for control of the House is opening up slightly.<\/p>\n

Here is one more Republican from the so-called "moderate" wing (lightly less insane than TEAbaggers) that has come to realize there is no place for serious politicians in today’s Republican Party.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Daily Kos<\/a>: <\/font>The Federal Reserve officially has a new chair. The Senate, slightly diminished by the polar vortex, voted to confirm Janet Yellen Monday evening, 56-26.<\/p>\n

It’s about time! It would never have happened, had Democrats not nuked the Republican filibastards.  I’m yellin’ for Yellen!!<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\"0108Cartoon\"<\/p>\n

This is the best thing any Republican President has done since IKE left office. \ud83d\ude42<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m writing for tomorrow, working on the apartment, and getting ready to go out and run a couple errands.  Nothing really exciting is happening on the home front, and that\u2019s a good thing, because this space used to be filled with heat failures, power failures, and raving idiots roaming the halls.  I Like the change. […]<\/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-11992","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\/11992","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=11992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11992\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}