I’m writing for tomorrow, and although my COPD is still severe, I did get more sleep and feel less drained.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:38 (average 5:33). To do it click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Daily Kos: …So according to Cruz:
- Republican politicians are a bunch of liars
- Most Republicans were bluffing all along on the debt limit
- Republicans think the GOP base consists of a bunch of gullible fools
I’ve gotta’ say, pretty hard to argue with any of that.
Dang!! I agree with Cruz!! Would someone please check me for fever?
From Alternet: Clarence Thomas: Funny, race never even came up in the 60s.
It’s always comforting when a lifetime member of the highest court in the land says something that leaves your jaw hanging agape.
Justice Clarence Thomas does not make a lot of public statements, but when he does, well, it makes you realize why he does not make a lot of public statements.
Thomas recently told a bunch of college students that race relations in America were better when he was a kid in the 1960s. Yes, he did. He said that.
“My sadness is that we are probably today more race- and difference-conscious than I was in the 1960s when I went to school. To my knowledge, I was the first black kid in Savannah, Georgia, to go to a white school. Rarely did the issue of race come up.”
Hmmm. Perhaps the subject of race did not come up because you could be lynched for bringing it up. Let’s see, it was the height of the Civil Rights Movement when Thomas was a kid. Segregation was pretty much the norm, throughout the south, and parts of the north—certainly in Georgia. and African-Americans who protested racial injustice put themselves in grave danger. But little Clarence Thomas was a happy little camper.
The real problem, Thomas continued, is that everyone is just too dang sensitive these days.
“If I had been as sensitive as that in the 1960s, I’d still be in Savannah,” he said. “Every person in this room has endured a slight. Every person. Somebody has said something that has hurt their feelings or did something to them — left them out.”
Yeupp, that’s all institutional racism is, Clarence. Just a bunch of black people getting their feelings hurt.
If my memory serves, Teabag Thomas was sure quick to play the race card, when he was confronted with his criminal harassment of Anita Hill. This is just one of seven deranged Republican comments from last week alone. Click through for the other six.
From Crooks and Liars: Hundreds of students formed a human wall around the basketball stadium at the University of Missouri on Saturday because the Westboro Baptist Church had pledged to protest gay football player Michael Sam.
After Missouri defensive lineman Michael Sam came out last week last week, anti-LGBT members of the Westboro church vowed to show up at Missouri’s game against Tennessee. But a group of students wearing "Stand with Sam" pins made the extremist group’s demonstration impossible by surrounding the stadium.
Anything that stymies these Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians, as they spread their Republican gospel of hate, works for me. Kudos to those students.
Cartoon:
9 Responses to “Open Thread–2/17/2014”
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4:15 Those tasty fishies in the aquarium must have gotten that old TomCat droolin'. So he sped right up.
4:37 Tried to take a picture and my phone rang.
4:02 Fed to the fishies, cell phone and all. May they have indigestion!
Daily Kos ~ If you have a fever then so do I. I think someone must have slipped Teddy some regular tea instead of the InsaniTea he's so used to drinking.
Alternet ~ Cuckoo Clarence doesn't remember much from his childhood. Could be dementia??? When he was 2 his father walked out on the family leaving his mother to raise 3 kiddies alone. She sent him and his younger brother to live with her parents when he was 7. Grandaddy was the owner of a fuel oil business and an active member of the NAACP. He believed in a good education so he sent his grandsons to a Catholic school to be taught by nuns. Private schools were not segregated very much in the 1950s and 60s. If you had the money, you could buy a first rate education. That's the reason he "was the first black kid in Savannah, Georgia to go to a white school". Selective memory at it's worst! As for the rest of Alternet's stars of the week, my favorite is Sen. Bernie Helpin who thinks it's a good thing the Aurora, CO movie theater shooter had 100 round magazines because the gun jammed. What logic!
Crook & Liars ~ God bless the younger, more open-minded generation. Many of them were probably raised in households with 2 Mommies or 2 Daddies. I think it will become more acceptable as time goes on.
Cartoon ~ No they didn't. Happy President's Day!
5:36 Even subtracting 6 seconds that it charged me planting the pop-up when I couldn't move anything, I still didn't quite make average (and yes, my pop-up blocker is on, thank you very much).
Kos – It does feel funny to agree with Cruz. I think this one falls into the "Even a stopped clock is right twice a day" category.
Alternet – Their weekly crazy wrapup is always worth reading. Enjoyable, not so much. Don't even get me started on Bernie Herpin.
Crooks and Liars – Too bad a special medal can't be issued for these stuents. They deserve one.
Presidents' Day – Union of Concerned Scientists is holding a poll in the form of a playoff to determine our most science-friendly president. One round is already finished, so if you want to vote, hurry. http://www.ucsusa.org/center-for-science-and-democracy/the-most-science-friendly-president.html?autologin=true
Daily Kos: Dang, Cruz must be really mad at McConnell for voting for the raising of the debt ceiling!
Alternet: Poor Clarence, how he hated to pull the race card when Anita accused him. I read the rest of the rants, too. It boggles my mind how anyone can take these nuts seriously.
Crooks and Liars: Gives me hope for Missouri.
Cartoon: I am sure both are rotating in their graves.
Hope you feel better soon.
Puzzle — 4:02 Fed to the fishies, cell phone and all. May they have indigestion!
Daily Kos — Now this has to be put on as many billboards as possible, especially in Republicanus/Teabagger districts!
Alternet — Well Cruz has already said that Republicanus/Teabaggers are liars, so his words mean nothing! No words for Taranto other than "Get a life" and get a life education! Tom Perkins might find himself invited to a "necktie party" for trying to institutionalise vote disenfranchisement! Clarence Thomas is Clarence the Cross-eyed Injustice"! I suggest he not do too much roaring! Coulter and her ilk are the ones destroying the US. Ingraham thinks Obama is abusive? I wonderr how she feels about the Baby Bush/Cheney tag team? Flush Rush! Herpin obviously did not take logic in school. What a banana brain!
Crooks and Liars — Students and other civilised persons 1; WBC 0! Human rights trumps hate!
Cartoon — Aren't they lucky . . . they slept well!
Yum those fishies were good!! BURP!!
Amen to everything else!!
6:53 – Puzzle