{"id":13559,"date":"2014-08-29T01:51:59","date_gmt":"2014-08-29T08:51:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=13559"},"modified":"2014-08-29T01:51:59","modified_gmt":"2014-08-29T08:51:59","slug":"open-thread8292014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2014\/08\/29\/open-thread8292014\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–8\/29\/2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m writing for tomorrow, day 130.  This morning I was tied up trying to fix a computer problem.  In addition, I had no water for two hours, because maintenance had to do repairs in a neighboring unit.  I got my research done, but it\u2019s much later than normal.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today\u2019s took me 3:51 (average 4:53).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

Religious Ecstasy<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n

\"0828-Broncos27-Cowboys3\"<\/p>\n

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

From NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>The four-hour tours offered by one of the big gun ranges here are a popular tourist attraction. Starting at $200 a person, a bus will pick up visitors at their hotel in Las Vegas, 25 miles to the north, show them Hoover Dam and bring them to a recreational shooting range called Last Stop, where they can fire the weapons of their dreams: automatic machine guns, sniper rifles, grenade launchers. A hamburger lunch is included; a helicopter tour of the nearby Grand Canyon is optional.<\/p>\n

But on Monday, one family\u2019s adventure went horribly wrong. A 9-year-old girl from New Jersey accidentally shot and killed her instructor with an Uzi submachine gun while he stood to her left side, trying to guide her. A video of the shooting, which her parents recorded on a cellphone, suggests that the girl, in pink shorts and with a braided ponytail, was unable to control the gun\u2019s recoil; the instructor, Charles Vacca, 39, was rushed to a hospital in Las Vegas, where he died Monday night.<\/p>\n

I remember being a nine year old at an NRA shooting range, but the weapon they gave me was a single shot .22 short rifle, not an Uzi submachine gun. I consider any instructor who would put such a weapon in a child’s hands a victim of his own Republican Ammosexuality, but he and the girl’s idiot parents have emotionally scarred the girl for life. She is the real victim here.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Christian Science Monitor<\/a>: <\/font>The toughened economic sanctions the United States and the European Union imposed on Russia a month ago over its actions in Ukraine appear to have had little of the desired impact.<\/p>\n

Instead of pulling back from the conflict in eastern Ukraine, Russia appears to be escalating its involvement. On Thursday, Western officials asserted that more than 1,000 Russian soldiers have crossed the border into southeastern Ukraine to bolster beleaguered pro-Russia separatists.<\/p>\n

That action quickly raised questions concerning what more and what kind of action the West is likely to take in response. And the quick answer appears to be: not much.<\/p>\n

Vladimir Putin (R-RU), aka GOP Pootie, because the Republican Party adopted him on account of his hatred toward and persecution of gay people, is ignoring the sanctions, because he recognizes that we have our hands full with ISIS and he sees the power vacuum in the US, where Congress has the responsibility to decide military action against ISIS, but the Republicans in the House would rather duck their responsibility, and complain that Obama has not taken action, while suing him over the hast time he took action, when they complained that he hadn\u2019t taken action.<\/font><\/p>\n

From CBS<\/a>: <\/font>They rejected him in 2008 and 2012, but Iowa Republican caucus-goers may finally be ready to embrace Mitt Romney as their presidential nominee.<\/p>\n

According to a new USA Today\/ Suffolk University poll<\/a>, 35 percent of registered Republicans and Republican-leaning independents in Iowa would vote for Romney in the 2016 GOP caucus if given the opportunity to do so.<\/p>\n

The pollsters initially gave the voters a list of a dozen potential 2016 Republican candidates, not including Romney. Asked to name their first choice, 13 percent said former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (who won the 2008 GOP caucuses). Another 11 percent named New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, while 9 percent chose Texas Gov. Rick Perry and 7 percent chose former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. <\/p>\n

If the best they can come up with for 2016 is Little Lord Willard, infamous for Etching his Sketch, when reality does not suit them, Republicans are screwed in 2016. Vulture Capitalists make lousy candidates. Their greed sticks to them. Now we need to save the country by keeping them from increasing their power base before then.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\"0829Cartoon\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m writing for tomorrow, day 130.  This morning I was tied up trying to fix a computer problem.  In addition, I had no water for two hours, because maintenance had to do repairs in a neighboring unit.  I got my research done, but it\u2019s much later than normal. Jig Zone Puzzle: Today\u2019s took me 3:51 […]<\/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-13559","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\/13559","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=13559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13559\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}