I’m feeling very frustrated, because today is a prison volunteer day, and even though I’m improving, I can’t go. The wrist is improving too. I hurt it improperly lifting a big pressure cooker pot full of beans for a several day load of Pork Chili Verde. In the plus side, it’s delicious. After a couple days savoring it my apartment is smelling quite Republican. I can type, but VERY slowly.
Jig Zone Puzzles:
Yesterday’s took me 4:58 (average 5:06). To do it, click here. Today’s took me 4:45 (average 7:16). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From The New Yorker: As the Supreme Court prepared to hear two cases involving same-sex marriage this week, Justice Antonin Scalia said that he would not allow his votes to be influenced “in any way” by his lifelong fear of gays.
“As Justices of the Supreme Court, we have a sacred duty to check our personal feelings at the door,” he told the Fox News Channel. “In my case, that means putting aside my longstanding and profound fear of homosexuals.”
Justice Scalia added that he was committed “to safeguarding the rights of all Americans—even those I personally find terrifying.”
“I take my role as an impartial arbiter very seriously,” he said. “So when I hear a case, I put all feelings of abhorrence, disgust, and revulsion completely out of my mind.”
This has to be satire, because, even though it’s the lie he would tell, Herr Scalia would NEVER admit the true extent his homophobia.
From Alternet: In 1983 the poorest 47% of America had $15,000 per family, 2.5 percent of the nation’s wealth.
In 2009 the poorest 47% of America owned ZERO PERCENT of the nation’s wealth (their debt exceeded their assets).
At the other extreme, the 400 wealthiest Americans own as much wealth as 80 million families – 62% of America. The reason, once again, is the stock market. Since 1980 the American GDP has approximately doubled. Inflation-adjusted wages have gone down. But the stock market has increased by over ten times, and the richest quintile of Americans owns 93% of it.
Click through for four more examples of the extreme inequality in our nation. The Republican party has a solution. Drastically cut taxes and increase welfare for the 1%. Drastically cut earned benefits and raise taxes for the rest of us.
From Think Progress: A racist hate group at Towson University has announced plans to conduct its own nighttime police patrols on campus.
Founded last year, the White Student Union has stirred significant controversy already. The organization has been labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. In addition, its founder, Matthew Heimbach (who goes by the title “Commander Heimbach”), and fellow organizer Scott Terry interrupted a minority outreach panel at the Conservative Political Action Conference this month in order to defend slavery, noting that slaveholders provided blacks with food and shelter. Terry later told ThinkProgress that African-Americans “should be allowed to vote in Africa” and he’d be “fine” living in a society where blacks are permanently subservient to whites.
I see that Republican politics are alive and well at Towson University!
From MSNBC: Lawrence O’Donnell and Chris Murphy (R-CT) discuss something even more vile than the previous Short Take.
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Words fail me, leaving me unable to express the disgust and contempt I’m feeling.
Cartoon:
9 Responses to “Open Thread–3/26/2013”
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3:30 Can you soar with the eagles today?
4:06 I'm cool. But am I cool enough to beat those size 9s and the Critter?
4:18 Although I regularly soar on the back of an eagle during meditation, hawk-eagles are quite a different thing. I'm a pacifist and this bird is just too hawkish for me!
3:26 I ain't nothing but a hound dog!
3:06 I soared with the eagles yesterday.
3:19 Today I am a cool, hound dog.
You Critter Crunched us all!
. . . two days in a row!!!!!
Hey Critter, just went back and did Elvis again — 2:52! I do love purple! My favourite colour!
So glad you're feeling better today. Take care of that wrist. We need your typing skills. Also, how do you expect to beat any of us on the puzzles with a lame paw, TomCat?
New Yorker ~ Funny. Anyone who is adamantly opposed to gay marriage is probably afraid they will "catch the gayness". I always thought so. Satire as it may be, it is very close to the truth. Others are afraid they will be "found out" like the nasty elected official in the airport bathroom.
Alternet ~ I can't click through. It is too depressing. I don't need to be reminded of how my situation has changed. This does need to be drilled into some peoples' head though. I don't feel like ranting today either.
Think Progress ~ Is Towson University an incubator for the Paul Ryan clones?
MSNBC ~ I don't think the leadership of the NRA knows the meaning of "common decency". They are disgusting, vile persons!
Cartoon ~ So very true!
The real irony of white supremacist Heimbach (covered in the links) is that he and his fellow racist, Scott Terry, made their "slaves should be grateful for the free food and shelter they got" comments at last week's CPAC convention is that it was part of their "Minority Outreach" program.
Well, I suppose the fact that CPAC completed their convention without actually burning a cross represents SOME progress.
Baby steps … baby steps
Puzzles — 4:18 Although I regularly soar on the back of an eagle during meditation, hawk-eagles are quite a different thing. I'm a pacifist and this bird is just too hawkish for me!
3:26 I ain't nothing but a hound dog!
The New Yorker — From a Care2 article on the 1st day of oral arguments re Prop 8:
My response: I would argue from the point of the Declaration of Independence (the foundational document of the Constitution) that: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." If all people are created equal, and yet some citizens are denied the right to marriage equality, then there is indeed discrimination.
I might ask Injustice Scalia "When did it become constitutional to exclude homosexual couples from marriage?" especially, when as I noted above, the Declaration of Independence makes it clear that all people are created equal. One could also have used the same argument prior to the ratification of the 14th, 15th and 19th amendments.
I am not a lawyer, but this seems common sense. Maybe that's the problem — Scalia has become to big for his britches and is no longer in touch with common sense!
http://www.care2.com/causes/the-prop-8-hearing-5-key-quotes-and-what-they-might-mean.html
Based on some of his statements in other venues, Scalia does not know how to check his personal feelings at the door. He does not know what impartiality is. He is a disgusting little weasel! (PS I have written confirmation from the American Association of Weasels and Polecats to use the term 'weasel' when referring to Scalia.)
Alternet — As I read the article, I couldn't help but remember the line made famous by John Houseman "They make money the old fashioned way…they earn it." Now although that was for a Smith Barney brokerage ad, it certainly applies to the 98%.
This one point I found particularly poingnant, perhaps because I frequently talk with Duncan, a homeless man for whom I buy a meal once a week:
Excellent article.
Think Progress — I saw this story in Raw Story and was flabergasted. According to Wikipedia, approximately 13% of students are non white. Seems like there isn't any proportional representation on this little campus security scam! There is TUPD who work closely with the county police. I suspect that there will be more instances of arresting WSU members. A hate group indeed! They fit right in with the Republican/Teabaggers.
MSNBC — In another report on this same issue, possibly on Rachel Maddow, one of these NRA calls came at dinner time at the house of a young victim's family. Thinking it might have been grandma calling, a young sibling of the murdered child answered the phone.and then promptly turned the call over to the father. Like you TC, words faill me but it seems that these calls could be classified as harassment. Could not the NRA's executive be so charged? Anyone who condones this behaviour will get a kink in their neck from looking up to see a snake's belly!
Cartoon — Is that Joe Walsh? Looks like to me. He apparently has signed on as an on-air TV personality starting 25/03/13. The old 'deadbeat dad' thing is following him around and apparently he is trying to terminate the requirement to pay child support (01 Feb 13) because he is unemployed. Dig this, his solicitor told the court that he has no assets and is unemployed at no fault of his own. This last part cracked me up! Of course it was his own fault he wasn't re-elected. His position was untenable and he did nothing to change it. He didn't do the job he was hired to do — reprsent the people. He chose instead to represent the Republican/Teabagger party. What an asshat!