{"id":12206,"date":"2014-02-17T00:46:39","date_gmt":"2014-02-17T08:46:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=12206"},"modified":"2014-02-17T00:46:39","modified_gmt":"2014-02-17T08:46:39","slug":"open-thread2172014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/17\/open-thread2172014\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–2\/17\/2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m writing for tomorrow, and although my COPD is still severe, I did get more sleep and feel less drained.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today\u2019s took me 3:38 (average 5:33).  To do it click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

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

From Daily Kos<\/a>: <\/font>…So according to Cruz: <\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Republican politicians are a bunch of liars <\/li>\n
  2. Most Republicans were bluffing all along on the debt limit <\/li>\n
  3. Republicans think the GOP base consists of a bunch of gullible fools <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I’ve gotta’ say, pretty hard to argue with any of that.<\/p>\n

    Dang!! I agree with Cruz!! Would someone please check me for fever?<\/font><\/p>\n

    From Alternet<\/a>: <\/font>Clarence Thomas: Funny, race never even came up in the 60s.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    It\u2019s always comforting when a lifetime member of the highest court in the land says something that leaves your jaw hanging agape.<\/p>\n

    Justice Clarence Thomas does not make a lot of public statements, but when he does, well, it makes you realize why he does not make a lot of public statements.<\/p>\n

    Thomas recently told a bunch of college students that race relations in America were better when he was a kid in the 1960s. Yes, he did. He said that.<\/p>\n

    \u201cMy sadness is that we are probably today more race- and difference-conscious than I was in the 1960s when I went to school. To my knowledge, I was the first black kid in Savannah, Georgia, to go to a white school. Rarely did the issue of race come up.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Hmmm. Perhaps the subject of race did not come up because you could be lynched for bringing it up. Let\u2019s see, it was the height of the Civil Rights Movement when Thomas was a kid. Segregation was pretty much the norm, throughout the south, and parts of the north\u2014certainly in Georgia. and African-Americans who protested racial injustice put themselves in grave danger. But little Clarence Thomas was a happy little camper.<\/p>\n

    The real problem, Thomas continued, is that everyone is just too dang sensitive these days.<\/p>\n

    \u201cIf I had been as sensitive as that in the 1960s, I\u2019d still be in Savannah,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery person in this room has endured a slight. Every person. Somebody has said something that has hurt their feelings or did something to them \u2014 left them out.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Yeupp, that\u2019s all institutional racism is, Clarence. Just a bunch of black people getting their feelings hurt.<\/p>\n

    If my memory serves, Teabag Thomas was sure quick to play the race card, when he was confronted with his criminal harassment of Anita Hill. This is just one of seven deranged Republican comments from last week alone. Click through for the other six.<\/font><\/p>\n

    From Crooks and Liars<\/a>: <\/font>Hundreds of students formed a human wall around the basketball stadium at the University of Missouri on Saturday because the Westboro Baptist Church had pledged to protest gay football player Michael Sam.<\/p>\n

    After Missouri defensive lineman Michael Sam came out last week<\/a> last week, anti-LGBT members of the Westboro church vowed to show up at Missouri’s game against Tennessee. But a group of students<\/a> wearing "Stand with Sam" pins made the extremist group’s demonstration impossible by surrounding the stadium.<\/p>\n