{"id":16256,"date":"2015-09-28T07:35:06","date_gmt":"2015-09-28T14:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=16256"},"modified":"2015-09-28T07:35:06","modified_gmt":"2015-09-28T14:35:06","slug":"squatchs-open-thread-28092015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/28\/squatchs-open-thread-28092015\/","title":{"rendered":"Squatch’s Open Thread 28\/09\/2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

OK, it has been a very long day.  I started by doing some research for the blog and then I went to get some things like 18 kg (40 lbs) of cat food out of my car when my 2 boys dashed out the door for a frolic.  Fortunately, they stay very close to the front door.  Unfortunately, they are not want to come in the house when called.  So I waited outside with them until they finally came in.  That however made me 15 minutes late picking up my student, Lucia.  We went to Costco for her very big shop. Fortunately, that is now done and I am at home with my leg up for a bit and back to working on the blog.<\/span><\/p>\n

Puzzle<\/strong> — Today’s took me 3:26 (average 5:14). To do it, click here<\/a>. How did you do? For those that don't know, we always do the 48 piece classic.<\/span><\/p>\n

Short Takes<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

PoliticusUSA<\/strong><\/span><\/a> — Lawmakers had agreed not to reach out for handshakes from Pope Francis as he entered the House chamber, so it was a pointed and deliberate move when the Pope saved his only handshake for Secretary of State John Kerry.<\/p>\n

\"francis-kerry-handshake\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Read the rest of this very short article using the link above.<\/span><\/p>\n

Huffington Post<\/span><\/a><\/strong> — With the bang of a gavel, international leaders approved an ambitious 15-year plan Friday to tackle the world's biggest problems, from eradicating poverty to preserving the planet to reducing inequality. Now comes the tough part: Drumming up support and money to achieve the goals and transform the world.<\/p>\n

Pope Francis gave his backing to the new development agenda in an address to the U.N. General Assembly before the summit to adopt the 17-point plan opened, calling it "an important sign of hope'' at a very troubled time in the Middle East and Africa. …<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The document, titled "Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,'' not only outlines 17 broad goals but sets 169 specific targets.<\/p>\n

The non-binding goals succeed the eight Millennium Development Goals adopted by world leaders 15 years ago. Only one of those has been achieved: halving the number of people living in extreme poverty, due primarily to economic growth in China. At least one other is close – cutting in half the proportion of people without access to clean water – and there are still three months until the goals expire.<\/p>\n

In my opinion, the primary goal must be the cessation of ALL hostilities in the world.  That does not mean that we wait until that happens, otherwise nothing will be done.  But there needs to be respect . . . respect for people and culture; respect for religions or atheism; respect for the planet; and respect for the fruits of the planet.<\/span><\/p>\n

Raw Story<\/strong><\/span><\/a> — Iranian President Hassan Rouhani suggested over the weekend that the Republican presidential candidates were so “laughable” that “the people of Iran look at them as a form of entertainment.”<\/p>\n

“Sometimes when I would have time some of [the Republican presidential debates were] broadcast live and I would watch it,” Rouhani told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. “Some of it was quite laughable. It was very strange, the things that they spoke of.”<\/p>\n

“Some of them wouldn’t even know where Tehran was in relation to Iran,” the president said with a smile. “Some of them wouldn’t know where Iran was geographically, not distinguishing that one is the capital of the other. What they spoke of was quite far away from the truth.”<\/p>\n

Read the rest.  I think we would agree that the Republcan presidential candidates are quite laughable if the prospects of a Republican POTUS weren't so dire.<\/span><\/p>\n

The New Yorker <\/strong><\/span><\/a>— As Pope Francis makes his historic first visit to the United States, millions of Americans are turning out to thank the Pontiff for temporarily displacing Donald Trump from the news.<\/p>\n

As the Pope visits Washington, New York, and Philadelphia, people from every walk of life are expressing profound gratitude that the news media is offering non-stop coverage of Francis’s every move instead of Trump’s, if only for five days.<\/p>\n

I swear, Andy is straight reporting yet again!<\/span><\/p>\n

My Universe<\/strong> — <\/span>"How undignified!  Put me down this second you brute . . . there are people watching!"<\/span><\/p>\n

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OK, it has been a very long day.  I started by doing some research for the blog and then I went to get some things like 18 kg (40 lbs) of cat food out of my car when my 2 boys dashed out the door for a frolic.  Fortunately, they stay very close to the front […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-open-thread","category-politics","category-35-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\/16256","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\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16256\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}