{"id":29400,"date":"2017-09-10T13:03:18","date_gmt":"2017-09-10T20:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=29400"},"modified":"2017-09-10T13:03:18","modified_gmt":"2017-09-10T20:03:18","slug":"open-thread-9102017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2017\/09\/10\/open-thread-9102017\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread – 9\/10\/2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s a slow day for news, because Irma [R-FL] dominates media coverage.  All under her assault, even Republicans, remain in my thoughts and prayers.  Wendy is due here in about forty minutes.  It’s a holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb.  My Broncos will not be worshiping until Monday Night, so today, may the Blessed Orb shine it’s holy light on your team.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today’s took me 3:31 (average 5:07).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

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

From The New Yorker<\/a>: <\/font>In a finding that has wide-ranging implications for society, British researchers at the University of Leeds announced on Saturday that they have identified the gene for awfulness.<\/p>\n

The study, which focussed on one adult male and three of his adult children, makes a persuasive argument that there is a \u201cpowerful dominant gene\u201d that makes people heinous.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we began our research, we wanted to find an adult male with pronounced characteristics of horribleness,\u201d Alistair Dorrinson, the scientist who led the study, said. \u201cIn studying three of his adult offspring, we found that they were all carriers of the gene that makes one smug, tone-deaf, and oblivious to the fate of others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additionally, certain subtraits of awfulness, such as an inability to tell the truth, appear to be genetically mediated, Dorrinson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the father is unable to explain honestly why a meeting took place, for example, the son who carries the same gene will also tell crazy lies about that meeting,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But Andy, couldn’t you tell that Trump has defective genes just by looking at his face? RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n

From NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>Almost from the moment Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act collapsed this summer and weary senators fled the capital, Senator Chuck Schumer began calculating how best to take advantage of the persistent Republican struggle to govern.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven when I was on vacation with my family in August, I started looking,\u201d said Mr. Schumer, the New Yorker who leads Senate Democrats, as he recounted the buildup to the stunning debt limit deal that Democrats struck with President Trump<\/a> this past week over the objections of gobsmacked Republicans.<\/p>\n

In an interview with the New York Times podcast \u201cThe New Washington,\u201d Mr. Schumer said he pursued an approach that would allow the Democrats to assert themselves as the minority party in coming showdowns over funding the government and increasing the debt limit, while denying Mr. Trump money for his border wall and seeking protection for the undocumented immigrants known as Dreamers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s our leverage?\u201d Mr. Schumer said he kept asking himself. \u201cWe only had one thing as leverage at that point, which was the debt ceiling.\u201d<\/p>\n

From past experience, Mr. Schumer, like other congressional veterans, knew Republicans would have a difficult, if not impossible, task rounding up votes among themselves to increase the government\u2019s borrowing authority because many conservatives simply won\u2019t vote to do so, even at the expense of the nation\u2019s fiscal stability.<\/p>\n

I agree in principle with what Schumer did, but I think, since he had Trump by the short hairs,  he should have extracted more concessions, such as permanent residence for Dreamers. RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n

From John Pavlovitz<\/a>: <\/font>\u2026I can barely figure out how my microwave works, let alone interpret how a horrific weather event is being wielded by God to teach you or me or gay couples a lesson\u2014and I\u2019d feel like a reckless fraud pretending I know what\u2019s happening. I guess guys like Kirk Cameron and Joel Osteen and Pat Robertson know better, though I\u2019m doubtful.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s ironic that Cameron refers to the book of Job. When Job loses everything and is stricken with grief, at first his friends show wisdom by simply sitting with him in his grief. Only later do they fall into the temptation of placing blame and playing God.<\/p>\n

Maybe we who claim faith should refrain from pretending we understand how this world works when it comes to faith and pain and suffering.<\/p>\n

Maybe we should admit the mystery, discomfort, and the tension that spirituality yields in painful, terrifying times.<\/p>\n

Maybe when people are being terrorized by nature or by the inhumanity around them, instead of shouting sermons at them\u2014we should shut up and simply try to be a loving, compassionate presence.<\/p>\n

Maybe we should stop trying to make God into something as petty, hateful, judgmental, and cruel as we are.<\/p>\n

If the God you\u2019re following and preaching to people in their times of pain is an a-hole\u2014it\u2019s probably not God at all. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s probably just you.<\/p>\n

Amen! God is not an asshole. Authentic Christians are not assholes. Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians ARE assholes! RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\"0910Cartoon\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s a slow day for news, because Irma [R-FL] dominates media coverage.  All under her assault, even Republicans, remain in my thoughts and prayers.  Wendy is due here in about forty minutes.  It’s a holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb.  My Broncos will not be worshiping until Monday Night, so today, may […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,3,5,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-open-thread","category-personal","category-politics","category-religion","category-35-id","category-3-id","category-5-id","category-47-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29400","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=29400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29400\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}