{"id":12964,"date":"2014-06-09T00:01:18","date_gmt":"2014-06-09T07:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=12964"},"modified":"2014-06-09T00:02:58","modified_gmt":"2014-06-09T07:02:58","slug":"open-thread692014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/09\/open-thread692014\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread&ndash;6\/9\/2014"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">I\u2019m writing for tomorrow and resting up for what is sure to be a boring, frustrating day.&#160; Because of being away from home almost the entire day tomorrow getting a useless test, it is probable that I shall have an Open Thread at most to post on Tuesday.&#160; They say that confession is good for the soul, and especially since Lynn is blackmailing me with a pic from the motel\u2019s hidden spy cam (She wants all my catnip for her cats!), I suppose I\u2019d better share that pic of how I got in trouble on my trip.&#160; Day 49.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"0609Busted\" style=\"float: none; margin-left: auto; display: block; margin-right: auto\" alt=\"0609Busted\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/0609Busted.jpg\" width=\"650\" height=\"690\" \/><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">What can I say?&#160; That was some excellent catnip!!<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Jig Zone Puzzle<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Today\u2019s took me 2:52 (average 4:39).&#160; To do it, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jigzone.com\/puzzles\/2014-06-09-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:\/\/www.upworthy.com\/did-a-famous-guy-just-tell-a-whole-ivy-league-school-to-take-it-down-a-notch-with-their-entitlement\" target=\"_blank\">Upworthy<\/a>: <\/font>It\u2019s easy to assume that when you\u2019re super successful, it&#8217;s because you earned it. There have been many times in my life when I thought that, too. But here&#8217;s one successful man who knows otherwise. He wrote a book that got turned into a Brad Pitt movie, guys \u2014 he KNOWS about success.<\/p>\n<p>&#160;<iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"360\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TKKsXLtovm4?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">I agree with him, as far as he goes. Fortune does indeed play a role in success, and the fortunate are morally obligated to help those who are not. What he does not cover so well is the degree to which we all contribute to the success of those who are fortunate by providing the environment in which success is possible.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/news\/obama-student-loans-executive-action\" target=\"_blank\">TPM<\/a>: <\/font>President Barack Obama is prepping new executive steps to help Americans struggling to pay off their student debt, and throwing his support behind Senate Democratic legislation with a similar goal but potentially a much more profound impact.<\/p>\n<p>Obama on Monday will announce he&#8217;s expanding his &quot;Pay As You Earn&quot; program that lets borrowers pay no more than 10 percent of their monthly income in loan payments, the White House said. Currently, the program is only available to those who started borrowing after October 2007 and kept borrowing after October 2011. Obama plans to start allowing those who borrowed earlier to participate, potentially extending the benefit to millions more borrowers.<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">This is clearly a good step, but what we really need is education-for-service plans. Graduates spend X years after graduation teaching, nursing, doctoring, etc. in an underserved poor community, and the feds (we all) pay off their student debt.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rawstory.com\/rs\/2014\/06\/08\/thousands-of-naked-bicyclists-stage-festive-portland-protest-ride\/\" target=\"_blank\">Raw Story<\/a>: <\/font>Thousands of bicyclists, many of them stark naked, poured into the streets of Portland, Oregon on Saturday night for the 11th annual World Naked Bike Ride, a protest that promotes bike riding as an alternative to driving cars.<\/p>\n<p>Nude cyclists with lights flashing in their tire spokes rang bells as they barreled down avenues lined with cheering spectators, while a naked, apparently pregnant woman rode in a bike trailer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a party, but it\u2019s also a protest,\u201d said Carl Larson, a ride spokesman. \u201cIt is about oil dependence, cycling vulnerability and body\u201d image.<\/p>\n<p>Cyclists showed up in Normandale Park an hour before the ride, shedding garments according to the ride theme \u201cas bare as you dare\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The rides are held in more than 75 U.S. cities and in more than 20 other countries, but Portland\u2019s is believed to be the largest, with more than 8,000 participants last year.<\/p>\n<p>But unlike events in other cities, the Portland ride works with local police, being considered as a protest. Officers direct traffic during what is generally a trouble-free event.<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">This is one parade that did not pass under my window.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Cartoon<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"0609Cartoon\" style=\"display: inline\" alt=\"0609Cartoon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/0609Cartoon.jpg\" width=\"650\" height=\"450\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m writing for tomorrow and resting up for what is sure to be a boring, frustrating day.&#160; Because of being away from home almost the entire day tomorrow getting a useless test, it is probable that I shall have an Open Thread at most to post on Tuesday.&#160; They say that confession is good for <a href='https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/09\/open-thread692014\/' 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-12964","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\/12964","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=12964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12964\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}