{"id":23698,"date":"2016-08-29T12:08:20","date_gmt":"2016-08-29T19:08:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=23698"},"modified":"2016-08-29T12:08:20","modified_gmt":"2016-08-29T19:08:20","slug":"open-thread-8292016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2016\/08\/29\/open-thread-8292016\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread – 8\/29\/2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today is the last day in the 80\u00b0s, and then we have over a week of low 70\u00b0s forecast, and I’m really ready for the change.  Last night I slept well for the first time in a week, but feel almost as if I had no sleep at all, so I’m adding a nap to today’s to-do list.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today’s took me 2:56 (average 4:31).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

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

From NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>When Dr. Amjad Bahnassi, a psychiatrist who lives in the central Massachusetts city of Worcester, wants to visit his son\u2019s grave, he braces for the drive to the Muslim burial ground in Enfield, Conn., about 60 miles away. It is the nearest cemetery devoted solely to Islamic burials \u2014 and, he said, it is filling up.<\/p>\n

Dr. Bahnassi, the chairman of the board of the Islamic Society of Greater Worcester, knew the area\u2019s Muslims needed a closer place to bury their dead. The group thought it had found one in rural Dudley, about half an hour away: a patch of more than 50 acres, past a sweet corn stand and deep blue ponds, where there is unused farmland and wetlands hidden from the road by trees and tangled bushes.<\/p>\n

But the organization\u2019s proposal to build a cemetery there became a lightning rod in this small town. It was denounced at meetings and ultimately turned down by the Zoning Board of Appeals, prompting charges of bigotry and drawing scrutiny from the United States attorney for Massachusetts, who announced a civil rights investigation on Aug. 18 into the town\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been here since 1983,\u201d Dr. Bahnassi, 56, a Syrian immigrant and an American citizen, said last week as he stood on the land. \u201cI don\u2019t deserve to die here?\u201d<\/p>\n

I wonder what bogus explanations Republicans have for this bigoted cruelty. Do they fear being haunted by Radical Islamic Terrorist ghosts?<\/font><\/p>\n

From Daily Kos<\/a>: <\/font>Rudy Mancuso has just put out a clever, funny, and all too real YouTube video showing those of us who have inquiring minds \u2014 just what the world might look like through the eyes of a Trump voter.<\/p>\n