{"id":15229,"date":"2015-05-12T11:50:07","date_gmt":"2015-05-12T18:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=15229"},"modified":"2015-05-12T11:50:07","modified_gmt":"2015-05-12T18:50:07","slug":"open-thread5122015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/12\/open-thread5122015\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread&ndash;5\/12\/2015"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">I had hoped to include a second article today, but there is not enough time to get it done, because I have to go to a community meeting and then go to coffee with my friend with cancer.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Jig Zone Puzzle<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Today\u2019s took me 2:33 (average 4:51).&#160; To do it, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jigzone.com\/puzzles\/2015-05-12-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.nytimes.com\/2015\/05\/12\/sports\/football\/tom-brady-suspended-for-four-games-and-patriots-fined-1-million.html\" target=\"_blank\">NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, a golden boy of American sports and perhaps pro football\u2019s biggest star, was suspended Monday for four regular-season games without pay by the N.F.L., which said he had deliberately and secretly violated league rules.<\/p>\n<p>The N.F.L. also fined the Patriots $1 million and took away two prized future draft picks, including a first-round choice in 2016, saying that the team, and Brady, schemed to improperly deflate footballs in the A.F.C. championship game last season on the way to securing New England\u2019s fourth Super Bowl victory.<\/p>\n<p>A deflated football is said to be easier to grip, especially in the cold and wet conditions that the Patriots faced at home against the Indianapolis Colts on Jan. 18.<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">I fully support this decision. Although I am a fervent devotee of the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb, I think NFL executives and players have gotten away with far too much for far too long. This will hurt Brady and the Patriots where it counts. In the wallet. May the blessed Orb shine its holy light upon you all.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.upworthy.com\/see-what-researchers-found-when-they-tested-a-bottle-of-fiji-water-against-a-glass-of-tap-water\" target=\"_blank\">Upworthy<\/a>: <\/font>See what researchers found when they tested a bottle of Fiji Water against a glass of tap water.<\/p>\n<p>&#160;<iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/Se12y9hSOM0?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">The only thing you can be sure about is that the bottle is pollution. I treat tap water with filter pitchers, and carry it out with a permanent drinking bottle.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailykos.com\/story\/2015\/05\/09\/1383563\/-Bill-Maher-to-Texans-You-are-the-White-Somalia\" target=\"_blank\">Daily Kos<\/a>: <\/font>Bill Maher did not pull any punches in his justifiable ridicule of Texans in this week&#8217;s Real Time. It was his turn as <a href=\"http:\/\/egbertowillies.com\/2015\/05\/05\/jon-stewart-on-texas-new-insanity-what-would-rick-perry-do-video\/\" target=\"_blank\">Jon Stewart had his turn earlier this week<\/a>. He was discussing the J<a href=\"http:\/\/egbertowillies.com\/2015\/05\/05\/patriot-newsletter-gear-operation-jade-helm\/\" target=\"_blank\">ade Helm 15 military exercise conspiracy theory<\/a> that has metastasized within the Texas right wing. <\/p>\n<p>&#160;<iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"270\" src=\"\/\/www.dailymotion.com\/embed\/video\/x2pkyko\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"480\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe>     <br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymotion.com\/video\/x2pkyko_bill-maher-ridicules-texans-reaction-jade-helm-15-military-exercise_news\" target=\"_blank\">Bill Maher ridicules Texans reaction Jade Helm&#8230;<\/a> <i>by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymotion.com\/ewillies\" target=\"_blank\">ewillies<\/a><\/i> <\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">&quot;White Somalia&quot; ranks with his other creation &quot;Ammosexual&quot;.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Cartoon<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"0512Cartoon\" style=\"display: inline\" alt=\"0512Cartoon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/0512Cartoon.jpg\" width=\"650\" height=\"500\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I had hoped to include a second article today, but there is not enough time to get it done, because I have to go to a community meeting and then go to coffee with my friend with cancer. Jig Zone Puzzle: Today\u2019s took me 2:33 (average 4:51).&#160; To do it, click here.&#160; How did you <a href='https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/12\/open-thread5122015\/' 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-15229","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\/15229","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=15229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15229\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}