{"id":16338,"date":"2015-10-08T13:57:35","date_gmt":"2015-10-08T20:57:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=16338"},"modified":"2015-10-08T15:28:16","modified_gmt":"2015-10-08T22:28:16","slug":"squatchs-open-thread-08102015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/08\/squatchs-open-thread-08102015\/","title":{"rendered":"Squatch’s Open Thread 08\/10\/2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

Man, did it ever rain today . . . enough that I got soaked going from my car to a building!  Mind, I wasn't moving very fast.  Seems I have done something to my good knee and put the cartilage out of place.  At least when I dried out, my hair was "rain barrel" soft.  And of course, all the windows in our complex were washed today . . . great timing!  My three furbabes were so frantic at the sight of water and brushes on the windows that they went under the bed for much of the day!  Ah life!<\/span><\/p>\n

Puzzle<\/strong> — Today’s took me 3:46 (average 6:05). To do it, <\/span>click here<\/span><\/a><\/strong>. 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

Daily Kos<\/span><\/a> <\/strong>— Drudge: Obama named ISIS that so it would 'be confused with Darrell Issa'.  Dear conservatives: Your entire movement is an exercise in self-parody.[right wing conspiracy theorist delinked]<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Read this very short piece at <\/span>Daily Kos<\/span><\/a>.  <\/span><\/strong> If there weren't so many gullible people, this might actually be funny.  But there is no place for such BS<\/strong> in a modern society.<\/span><\/p>\n

Alternet<\/span><\/a><\/strong> —<\/span> Three Harvard debate team members faced off against three men incarcerated for violent crimes. This was two weeks ago.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

After an hour of fast-moving debate on Friday, the judges rendered their verdict.<\/p>\n

The inmates won.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Read the rest of this story at <\/span>Alternet<\/span><\/a>.  <\/span><\/strong>Rehabilitation through education to prevent recidivism.  What a great programme!<\/span><\/p>\n

The New Yorker<\/strong><\/span><\/a> —<\/span> Citizens of the Roman town of Pompeii who were victims of Mt. Vesuvius’s eruption in 79 A.D. could have survived if they had “just outrun the lava,” the neurosurgeon Ben Carson told Fox News on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

“Most of the plaster casts we have of Pompeii victims show them basically just lying down and whatnot,” he said. “If I had been in Pompeii and I heard Mt. Vesuvius erupting, you can bet I would have made a run for it.”<\/p>\n

Read the remainder at <\/span>The New Yorker<\/span><\/a><\/strong>.  <\/strong>Old Ben proves that not only is he ignorant about science and volcanology, but he isn't any smarter in medicine either.  Good shot Andy!<\/span><\/p>\n

Alternet<\/strong><\/span><\/a> — In July, Barack Obama announced that he would issue presidential clemency to approximately 80 non-violent drug offenders. This news was great, but 80 prisoners doesn’t even come close to being a drop in the bucket that is the prison industrial complex.  <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

However, all of that is about to change. On Tuesday, the Justice Department announced that they will release about 6,000 inmates between October 30 and November 2. This will be the largest ever one-time release of federal prisoners in the history of the United States.<\/p>\n

The early release comes on the heels of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, an independent agency that sets sentencing policies for federal crimes, lowering the penalties for drug offenders.<\/p>\n

Read the rest of the article at <\/span>Alternet<\/span><\/a>.   <\/span><\/strong>There are too many non violent offenders incarcerated in the federal system.  I dare say that there will be much nashing of teeth as the prisons see their revenues drop.<\/span><\/p>\n

My Universe<\/strong> — <\/span><\/p>\n

\"1480674_10151705095801666_1537389258_n\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Now isn't THAT<\/em><\/u> the truth!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Man, did it ever rain today . . . enough that I got soaked going from my car to a building!  Mind, I wasn't moving very fast.  Seems I have done something to my good knee and put the cartilage out of place.  At least when I dried out, my hair was "rain barrel" soft. […]<\/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-16338","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\/16338","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=16338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16338\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}