{"id":6601,"date":"2011-12-31T00:01:33","date_gmt":"2011-12-31T08:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=6601"},"modified":"2011-12-31T00:01:34","modified_gmt":"2011-12-31T08:01:34","slug":"open-thread12312011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/31\/open-thread12312011\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–12\/31\/2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday was another slow day for news, but I managed to keep busy with year end procedures, both on paper and on both computers.  I\u2019m current with replies.  Today will be more of the same, plus I have errands to run.  plus it\u2019s a holy day for the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb.  I will be staying home tonight, and if you are going out to celebrate, please exercise care to stay safe.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today it took me 4:57 (average 5:09).  To do it click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

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

From San Francisco Chronicle<\/a>: <\/font>Melody Barnes is leaving as White House chief domestic policy adviser at a time when President Barack Obama’s administration is getting little notice for its work on the home front to fix the struggling economy.<\/p>\n

Barnes, who will be gone by Tuesday, is quick to point out that there have been many domestic achievements, even though the public is dissatisfied.<\/p>\n

I hope he replaces her with a progressive.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Alternet<\/a>: <\/font>US prosecutors are readying criminal charges against British oil giant BP employees over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon accident that led to the catastrophic Gulf oil spill\u2026<\/p>\n

The charges if brought and prosecuted by the US Justice Department would be the first criminal charges over the disaster.<\/p>\n

Thai is certainly a positive development.  Sometimes we mistake the length of time it takes to prepare such cases, without discussing them, as inaction.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Daily Kos<\/a>: <\/font>"The individual suffering from AIDS certainly is a victim\u2014frequently a victim of his own lifestyle\u2014but this same individual victimizes innocent citizens by forcing them to pay for his care," Paul wrote. … <\/p>\n

…"Employee rights are said to be valid when employers pressure employees into sexual activity," Paul wrote. "Why don’t they quit once the so-called harassment starts? Obviously the morals of the harasser cannot be defended, but how can the harassee escape some responsibility for the problem? Seeking protection under civil rights legislation is hardly acceptable."<\/p>\n

Paul, like his fellow Republicans are adopting insane positions.  The former reflects hatred for gay people.  The latter mistakenly assumes that changing jobs is an easy thing to do, and worse, it justifies harassment as condition for employment, by putting the onus on the victim.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\"31Cartoon\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday was another slow day for news, but I managed to keep busy with year end procedures, both on paper and on both computers.  I\u2019m current with replies.  Today will be more of the same, plus I have errands to run.  plus it\u2019s a holy day for the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb.  I will […]<\/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-6601","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\/6601","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=6601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6601\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}