{"id":9772,"date":"2012-12-23T05:01:50","date_gmt":"2012-12-23T13:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=9772"},"modified":"2012-12-23T05:01:50","modified_gmt":"2012-12-23T13:01:50","slug":"open-thread12232012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2012\/12\/23\/open-thread12232012\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–12\/23\/2012"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I spent about three hours doing light housekeeping chores, and I was biting off more than I should have.  Today I have a grocery delivery coming, and more work unpacking and putting them away, so I\u2019m straying down, otherwise.  I\u2019m current with replies.  We\u2019ll see what tomorrow brings.  May the Holy Ellipsoid Orb bless your team, unless it\u2019s the Browns. \ud83d\ude09<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today\u2019s took me 3:57 (average 4:34).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

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

From NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>Republicans continue to embrace the no-new-taxes stand as a centerpiece of the party\u2019s identity, even in the face of public opinion that strongly supports tax increases on high incomes. And some Republicans fear that the party\u2019s commitment to prevent tax increases more and more is coming at the expense of those other, older kinds of fiscal responsibility. <\/p>\n

\u201cRepublicans used to be interested in not running continual rivers of red ink,\u201d said former Representative William Frenzel, a Minnesota Republican who as the ranking member of the House Budget Committee in 1990 helped to negotiate the deficit deal. \u201cIf that meant raising taxes a little bit, we always raised taxes a little bit. But nowadays taxes are like leprosy and they can\u2019t be used for anything, and so Republicans have denied themselves any bargaining power.\u201d <\/p>\n

I agree with a broad premise of this article, except that it is highly inaccurate to call Republicans the party of fiscal responsibility.<\/font><\/p>\n

\"Natl_Debt_Chart\"<\/font><\/p>\n

\"GOP-Debt\"<\/font><\/p>\n

From The Independent<\/a>: <\/font>Replacing the income tax with a wealth tax – 1 per cent on wealth between $500,000 and $1 million; 2 percent over $1 million – would bring in more revenue than all the income tax the federal government currently collects. It would be fairer, too. The very, very rich don’t rely on their incomes. They own things, like companies and securities, that yield dividends taxed at half the rate of incomes that most working Americans depend on.<\/p>\n

I find this idea interesting enough to warrant consideration. In addition, the mere thought of such a system may cause the demise of the Koch Brothers from acute constipation. \ud83d\ude09<\/font><\/p>\n

From Alternet<\/a>: <\/font>An Indiana man who pleaded guilty yesterday to setting an Ohio mosque on fire told a judge he was motivated by media accounts \u2013 specifically those on Fox News \u2013 suggesting Muslims were threatening Americans and were in control of parts of the federal government.<\/p>\n

Details made public at the plea hearing also revealed that the arsonist, Randolph Linn, was carrying a pistol when he entered the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo on September 30, only minutes after several worshippers had left, and that he had more guns in his car.<\/p>\n

As long as Republican Ministry of Propaganda continues to spew bigotry and hate, America will be a more dangerous and more violent place, than it would otherwise be. In this case, we were very fortunate to have avoided, by chance, another Republican massacre. <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\"23Cartoon\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I spent about three hours doing light housekeeping chores, and I was biting off more than I should have.  Today I have a grocery delivery coming, and more work unpacking and putting them away, so I\u2019m straying down, otherwise.  I\u2019m current with replies.  We\u2019ll see what tomorrow brings.  May the Holy Ellipsoid Orb bless […]<\/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-9772","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\/9772","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=9772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9772\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}