{"id":13496,"date":"2014-08-19T00:13:22","date_gmt":"2014-08-19T07:13:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=13496"},"modified":"2014-08-19T00:13:22","modified_gmt":"2014-08-19T07:13:22","slug":"open-thread8192014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2014\/08\/19\/open-thread8192014\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–8\/19\/2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m writing for tomorrow, day 120.  My COPD is still severe, and I have pain in my lower back.  I\u2019m hoping against hope that it isn\u2019t another kidney stone.  Just in case, I\u2019m super-hydrating.  (That worked)<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today\u2019s took me 3:01 (average 4:24).  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>Last week\u2019s indictment of Texas Governor Rick Perry has sparked widespread bipartisan support for the concept of sending politicians to prison for ninety-nine years.<\/p>\n

While Americans are divided about the merits of the specific charges levelled against Perry, there is near-unanimous agreement that imprisoning politicians for ninety-nine years is an idea worth exploring further, a poll released on Monday indicates.<\/p>\n

According to the poll, eighty-seven per cent of voters from both parties agreed that sending politicians to prison for such a lengthy period would \u201csolve a lot of problems\u201d and \u201cmake the country safer.\u201d<\/p>\n

LOL Andy. Welcome back! I frequently tell my guys in prison that they made a bad career choice, when the did not opt to be elected criminals, as opposed to convicted ones.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Vox<\/a>: <\/font>Missouri Governor Jay Nixon on Monday ordered<\/a> the state’s National Guard to Ferguson to help contain rising tensions and violence over the shooting of unarmed black teen Michael Brown<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The announcement came after the St. Louis suburb endured another night of violence<\/a> as several agitators, whom Brown’s family and other protest leaders condemned, engaged in shootings, hurled Molotov cocktails, and vandalized various businesses. Security officials reported at least three injuries, although none were police officers.<\/p>\n

"These violent acts are a disservice to the family of Michael Brown and his memory"<\/p>\n

"Tonight, a day of hope, prayers, and peaceful protests was marred by the violent criminal acts of an organized and growing number of individuals, many from outside the community and state, whose actions are putting the residents and businesses of Ferguson at risk," Nixon said in a statement. "These violent acts are a disservice to the family of Michael Brown and his memory, and to the people of this community who yearn for justice to be served, and to feel safe in their own homes."<\/p>\n

A lot of people don\u2019t realize what’s really going on here. We are dealing with two distinct groups. First there are protestors. They are essentially peaceful, and we were moving rapidly toward a resolution, thanks to State Police Captain Ron Johnson, until they were enraged by incendiary statements from the Ferguson Police Chief and the St. Louis County DA, who sabotaged an improving situation. I think that was intentional, and intended to provoke violence to distract from the criminal behavior by police.  The protestors are so angry that they refuse to disband. Second, there are the looters and anarchists. Virtually all of them are not local. They do not care about the issues the demonstrators care about. They are there to commit crimes. I only hope that the National Guard will respond to each group separately and appropriately. My own experience with the Guard in the 1960s has stained the streets of several Eastern and Midwest cities with my blood, as I demonstrated peacefully, so my hope is not high.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Right Wing Watch<\/a>: <\/font>This, weekend Christian Post blogger Michael Bresciani pointed out [pseudo-Christian delinked] the real culprit for terrorist attacks: gay people.<\/p>\n

Bresciani writes that LGBT \u201cperversion\u201d is bringing the world \u201cin danger of judgment\u201d and, in fact, \u201cthese judgments have already begun and terrorism is part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bresciani adds that evolution and the separation of church and state, which he claims is the invention of Satan, are also responsible for inciting divine punishment.<\/p>\n

Simply put, this Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christian is claiming that God is punishing us all, because we don’t hate gay people, believe pseudo-science and allow the unconstitutional choice of Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christianity as the state religion.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\"0819Cartoon\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m writing for tomorrow, day 120.  My COPD is still severe, and I have pain in my lower back.  I\u2019m hoping against hope that it isn\u2019t another kidney stone.  Just in case, I\u2019m super-hydrating.  (That worked) Jig Zone Puzzle: Today\u2019s took me 3:01 (average 4:24).  To do it, click here.  How did you do? Short […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,3,5,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-open-thread","category-personal","category-politics","category-religion","category-35-id","category-3-id","category-5-id","category-47-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13496","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=13496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13496\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}