Here we go again, We’re getting another three to four days of surprise heat wave with temperatures in the 90°s and 100° starting tomorrow. Today will be high 80°s. I am so sick of this heat, I could scream. Thank goodness I moved in 12/2013. Otherwise, it would have killed me.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:29 (average 5:22). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Daily Kos (classic 3/2010): Dear Dr. Laura:
Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God’s Law. I have learned a great deal from your show, and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination… end of debate.
I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements of God’s Laws and how to follow them.
- Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighbouring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can’t I own Canadians?”
- I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her
- I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual unseemliness – Lev. 15: 19-24. The problem is how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offence
- When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord – Lev. 1:9. The problem is my neighbours. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?
- I have a neighbour who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2. clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself, or should I ask the police to do it?
It’s and oldie, but it’s worth the rerun. Click through for the rest. Dr. Kauffman’s friend is wrong. Owning a Canadian is our God-given right!! 
From NY Times: THE prime minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, has called an election for Oct. 19, but he doesn’t want anyone to talk about it.
He has chosen not to participate in the traditional series of debates on national television, confronting his opponents in quieter, less public venues, like the scholarly Munk Debates and CPAC, Canada’s equivalent of CSPAN. His own campaign events were subject to gag orders until a public outcry forced him to rescind the forced silence of his supporters.
Mr. Harper’s campaign for re-election has so far been utterly consistent with the personality trait that has defined his tenure as prime minister: his peculiar hatred for sharing information.
Americans have traditionally looked to Canada as a liberal haven, with gun control, universal health care and good public education.
But the nine and half years of Mr. Harper’s tenure have seen the slow-motion erosion of that reputation for open, responsible government. His stance has been a know-nothing conservatism, applied broadly and effectively. He has consistently limited the capacity of the public to understand what its government is doing, cloaking himself and his Conservative Party in an entitled secrecy, and the country in ignorance.
Click through for the remainder of this excellent editorial. The author, Stephen Marche, has Stephen "The Whoremaster" Harper (R-Canada), Fuhrer of Harpers Harlots, pegged.
From Raw Story: A liberal guest shouted down former George W. Bush spokesperson Mercedes Schlapp on Sunday after she tried to claim that Jeb Bush would not have trouble defending the Iraq war because Democrats voted for it knowing the intelligence was faulty.
During a discussion on Fox & Friends, Accountability Project Executive Director Nomiki Konst said that Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush was trying to “reinvent history” of the Iraq war.
Faux Noise Bag Alert!!
Note how the Faux Noise décolletage blonde kept interrupting the Democrat every time she started to make a fool of the Republican liar.
Cartoon:
30 Responses to “Open Thread–8/16/2015”
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4:57 (5:22) Are ya feeling hungry enough?
SPLC has a new map up showing street activism since 2012 specifically by the League of the South, the group that inspired the Charleston church shooter. https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2015/08/13/mapping-hate-league-south-street-activism-2012-0
On the plus side, this article gave me some hope: http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/08/14/men-fighting-child-marriage-pakistan Quote: “We men think that we must work for the rights of girls and women…. These issues are basic issues that are keeping our society from progressing. The time will come when women will be empowered and they will replace men and work for their rights.”
DKos – Old but good indeed. My favorite is still #10. The "private family affair" cracks me up every time.
NY Times – I understand that Harper wouldn;t want to be assassinated, but keeping a low profile only protects on for so long, and I think he is pushing it, myself.
Raw Story – Sorry, blood pressure. How in the world did Nomiki get invited to Fox and Friends in the first place?
Cartoon – They must have gotten tired of having to replace the monitors so often because they were covered with white-out.
The visual of a wingnut wiping out all his MS Word "Oops" with whiteout on a monitor screen made me chortle.
Thanks!
Excellent, Joanne! I agree with you on the cartoon! They are still playing peek-a-boo with the old monitors from the 1980’s!
Republicans aren't bright enough to use whiteout. They use … um… brownout.
Those are great finds Joanne.
I love the Dr. Laura letter and it is indeed worth a repeat.
I do pity Lynn having Harper…when will he finally get the no confidence vote that is long overdue?
Jeb's folks are living so much in his family's past they must think his political experience includes rewriting history like the Texas Board of Education keeps attempting.
I agree with Joanne on the cartoon.
Ideally JL, Harper and his Harlots will go into the annals of history on 19/10/15. A non confidence vote in the House of Commons is not possible unless some of the Conservatives broke ranks (when hell freezes over) and all other parties banded together (another when hell freezes over). Currently, there are 159 Conservatives, 95 NDP, 36 Liberals, Bloc Québécois 2, Green 2, Strength in Democracy 2, Independents 8, vacancies 4.
According to some polls out now, the Conservatives are running neck and neck with the NDP among decided voters. It really is going to be a matter of getting out the vote.
Thanks for the pragmatic explanation Lynn…as bad as the Congressional majority we have–no wonder he's gotten such a free ride!
Hopes and prayers!
3:46 Those dogs are too nice not to stop and pet them for a while.
3:15 No doggie fricassée tonight Puddy Tat! You'll have to go to the garden to eat worms.
Another heat wave in the making? That's horrible news for you, TomCat and all those others who have trouble staying on top of too much heat. The trouble with these extreme temperatures is that they are here to stay in the near future. You are indeed very lucky to have moved in time, but your current landlord may need to look into taking precautions to keep the whole building from overheating or freezing to keep living there bearable.
NY Times: Harper may succeed to cloak his government in secrecy and avoid confrontation about his ruinous course in the past 9 years until October, but that doesn't mean he can fully gag the opposition. If he doesn't enter into a debate with them, they have almost free reign to show Canadians what a mess the conservatives have made of their country and pull out all stops in a personal attack on Harper. It won't be as much fun or gratifying if he doesn't bite back, but by now a lot, if not most, Canadians know what harm he has done and will vote with better understanding of the consequences. However, like everywhere else, the opposition needs to get people's a$$es of their couches and into a polling booth first.
Raw Story: As I can't view these videos in the bush, I saved myself from barf bag abuse again, but have little to comment on too. If Nomiki Konst indeed succeeded in showing her debate opponent up for the despicable lies she tells then kudos to her. I'm sure Faux News wasn't all too happy with a guest who exposed Republicans, among then Jeb, for the liars they are and for rewriting history when it suits them (which is always) on a television station that has turned rewriting and lying about history into an art form.
Cartoon: It doesn't really matter if you give Republicans a pencil or a word processor: they can't read or write with either.
The heat in the units in winter is quite good. In the shower rooms, there are heaters with a 30 minute timer, so I can warm the room up before and while showering,
Wiki has what Nancy recalled on Care2 plus more:
"Internet publication of nude photos
In 1998, Schlessinger's early radio mentor, Bill Ballance, sold nude photos that he had taken of Schlessinger in the mid-1970s to a company specializing in internet porn. The photos were taken while Schlessinger was involved in a brief affair with then-married Bill Ballance.[77][78] Schlessinger sued after the photos were posted on the internet,[79] claiming invasion of privacy and copyright violation. The court ruled that Schlessinger did not own the rights to the photos; she did not appeal the ruling.[80] She told her radio audience that she was embarrassed, but that the photos were taken when she was going through a divorce and had "no moral authority."[77][81]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Schlessinger
A Bernie faux pax perhaps:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/08/17/1412728/-Why-Bernie-s-fake-apology-to-black-folk-really-bothers-me?detail=email
They ared twisting the facts. Berniew saids he has reached out individually. The staffer said he (not Bernie) apologized, because the campaign had not done so "officially". Bernie never apologized, because he nover stopped supporting an end to racial injustice. But he IS ithe candidate with an actual plan to do something about it.
notice my word choice of perhaps…
however, if one's staff is doing things separately that can lead to questions about leadership and managerial skills–creates a rock and a hard place scenario
Thanks for your penname info Joanne–I'll watch for it now (although I admit I may skip comments when reading articles)
I agree, but it was climsy. The autnor's clain that it was dishonest is not supported by the facts.
There are a lot of comments on this, many acrimonious. Shaun King is very good at bringing attention to stories that no one else picks up on, and he has a following, and also – let me coin a word – a dis-following, a group that is skeptical. Personally I don't think one needs to be 100% correct to be worthy of attention. My username on Daily Kos is underwriter505 – I'm not saying my comment on that story is my best but I did make one.
More diplomatgic than the article's author deserves, but good comment.
Now that's Underwear505, right?
What a crock!
yup–and the crock overflows with her similar explanations of other hypocritic behavior
20 Jesus Quotes That Would Make A “Christian” Right-Winger’s Head Explode
March 25, 2015Elisabeth Parker Spiritual<!– 0
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Conservatives keep nattering on and on about how much they love Jesus Christ, whom they view as their “personal” Savior. But when you read the following 20 quotes from the New Testament, you’ll wonder what Bible they’re reading.
Dictionary.Com defines the word “Christian” as people who follow Jesus Christ’s teachings (unlike American conservatives) or at least have something to do with Him:
So, a Christian is a person who tries to act like Jesus Christ or at least follow His teachings? Alas, this definition doesn’t sound at all like the conservative so-called “Christians” we keep reading and hearing about in the news.
Do you know any right-wing Christians who truly follow Jesus Christ?
Here are 20 quotes from Jesus Christ for our conservative Christian friends to ponder.
Jesus clearly favors an egalitarian society, yet conservatives have done everything they can to promote public policies that steal from the poor, give to the rich, and screw the middle class. The GOP’s stubborn votes against food stamps and rejection of state Medicare expansions proves they don’t even care about the people who voted them into office.
Jesus Christ commands his followers not to be judgmental towards their neighbors, yet these right wingers can’t stop themselves from making arbitrary judgments about LGBTs, single mothers, people of color, immigrants, non-Christians, poor people, and just about everyone who isn’t white, rich, male, and “Christian.”
Jesus Christ’s famous quote about hypocrisy back in Ye Olde New Testament times explains why conservative Christians say one thing and mean another. They talk about the “sanctity of marriage” between “one man and one woman” while their leaders cheat on their spouses, seek gay sex on the down low, talk obsessively about rape, cheat on taxes, abuse drugs (prescription or not), and engage in illegal acts. Yet, they’re the first to throw a non-violent, first-time drug offender in prison or claim a rape victim was “asking for it.”
Jesus Christ preached peace, love, and kindness to his followers, yet conservative Christians are always the first to blast the trumpets of war. If they had their way, we’d still be in Afghanistan and Iraq, plus we’d be sending U.S. armed forces into Palestine, the Ukraine, and our local homeless encampments.
If the previous quotes make Jesus Christ sound mildly liberal, this one makes Our Savior sound like a Goddamned hippie Communist. Right-wing Christians love heaping scorn on people who get help from the U.S. government, with no thought to whether their troubles are temporary or they’ve paid into the system. Even a lot of left-leaning Democrats demand that people on welfare be held “accountable.” Yet here’s Jesus saying that we should all be fed and cared for — regardless of our morals or how hard we work — just because we exist and God loves us. And as for those lazy, do-nothing “fowls of the air,” Jesus doesn’t even think we worker bees are any better than them.
Unlike today’s conservative Christians, who eagerly serve in the vanguard of the GOP’s war on women, Jesus Christ has no regard for double standards that hold men and women to different rules. At least four women — his mother, Mary Madgelene, and the sisters Mary and Martha — were beloved members of his inner circle. When a crowd gathered to stone a woman to death for the “crime” of adultery, Jesus stopped them dead in their tracks by demanding that the person without sin cast the first stone.
How can a conservative so-called “Christian” read this passage and keep voting for people who give tax cuts to the rich, while slashing programs that feed families, care for the elderly and disabled, house the homeless, provide healthcare, protect consumers, and keep our air and water clean?
Jesus Christ famously roamed the Holy Land giving free healthcare to everyone in need. Even many non-Bible readers are familiar with Our Savior’s healing exploits. Yet, His conservative “Christian” followers in Congress are adamantly opposed to giving Americans access to healthcare. Instead, they waste U.S. taxpayers’ time and money over and over again trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) even though their GOP lawmakers helped design the program, and their 2012 presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, had great success with a similar program during his tenure as Mass. state governor. Go figure.
This biblical passage comes straight from the Savior’s mouth, and describes our country’s conservative Christians to a tee(minus some of the other things they’re “full of”).
Unlike our Mammon-worshipping conservative Christians, Jesus Christ clearly loathes capitalism. Pretty much the only time we ever see Jesus totally lose his cool and go into an Incredible Hulk-like rage is when he returns to Jerusalem with his disciples, and finds the Temple clogged with bankers and vendors. He doesn’t just yell at them, He totally goes apesh*t, wrecks their booths, and drives them out with whips He somehow manages to improvise and fashion on the spur of the moment. One can only imagine how Jesus would feel about Wall Street, the Koch brothers, and ALEC.
If you’ve got any doubt about how Jesus Christ would feel about income inequality, the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, or rich CEOs raking in huge profits while crusading against a long-overdue minimum wage hike, this passage makes it pretty clear that making profits at other people’s expense gives you bad karma in the Great Beyond.
When Jesus Christ’s adoring crowds asked which of the 10 Commandments are the most important ones for them to follow, Jesus turned around and changed the rules. He said that if we first love God, and then love our neighbor, the rest would follow naturally. It’s hard to see how denying gays the right to marry and cutting anti-poverty programs follows Jesus’ teachings. Yet, our conservative “Christian” lawmakers insist this is what we should do.
Conservative Christians claim to love Jesus, and seem to adore shouting their faith from atop their soap boxes any chance they get. But the real Jesus Christ scorned these showy – and often phony – displays of piety, and went out of his way to preach against them.
Jesus Christ always preached mercy for women, children, sinners, criminals, the poor, and even his own enemies. Yet, today’s conservative Christians demand
retroactive abortionsthe death penalty and insist that children who commit crimes should be charged as adults.Jesus Christ always wanted to feed people and extend hospitality to strangers, no matter what their circumstances. Yet, conservative, so-called “Christians” seek to cut back on food stamps and deport immigrants — or bar them from entry.
Thank you, GOP lawmakers, for passing laws and promoting policies that make things harder for most of your fellow Americans.
Or, as President John F. Kennedy more succinctly states, “To those whom much is given, much is expected.” Alas, conservative Christians have gotten this all mixed up. They think that to those whom much is given, much can be expected. Oops.
Unlike today’s right-wing so-called “Christians,” Jesus Christ sympathized with those who work day-to-day to scrape by, and preached that they would get their reward. Meanwhile, Republicans refuse to even consider raising the minimum wage to keep up with the cost of living.
The Christian Right keeps ranting about how raising taxes to pay for programs that help the poor and folks who find themselves in a jam is somehow like forcing us into slavery. But Jesus Christ’s views on feeding, clothing, and helping people in need is unequivocal: He sees it as directly serving Him.
In case the previous half of this passage doesn’t make Jesus Christ’s views abundantly clear, Our Saviour gets more specific. He says that on Judgment Day, He will look askance at people who refused to help those less fortunate than themselves. Not only that, Jesus Christ will curse them and cast them away “into everlasting fire.” It’s shocking that conservative “Christians” keep ignoring this. Maybe someday, they’ll find religion.
I got this from Reverb Press. Sorry it is so long, I couldn't find a link to share. But it fits with theDaily Kos article.
NY Times: I am so sorry that Canada now has Republicans.
Raw Story: This is typical of Faux news, no truth is allowed there.
I love the cartoon!
Well chosen verses–love your neighbor is of greater importance than something in Leviticus, for example.
Good verses. Enough links?
Puzzle — 3:15 No doggie fricassée tonight Puddy Tat! You'll have to go to the garden to eat worms.
Daily Kos — Always funny! "Owning a Canadian is our God-given right!!" . . . only if that Canadian is a Conservative and is forced to move to the US! Don't worry, just don't let him vote!
NY Times — "Mr. Harper seems to think that his job is to prevent democracy." . . . and he succeeds all too well. I was proud of my country being a peacekeeper . . . Cyprus, Rwanda etc. But Herr Harper would rather promote terrorism by entering military conflicts. I was proud of former PM Jean Chretien for not following Baby Bush and the US into Iraq. But Herr Harper would change the Canadian ideal by waging war! I have long known that Harper is a control freak and doesn't give a rat's ass about Canadians. I will try my best to ensure Herr Harper does not win again. We need to get out the vote and defeat this bastard!
OK, short rant over!
Raw Story — Fair and balanced from Faux . . . 2 against 1 Democrat!
Cartoon — The Republicanus/Teabaggerum are in the dark ages! They wouldn't know what a pencil is used for. Great comment JD and Lona.
Who would want to won a conservative Canadian? It would be like owning a rabid animal as a pet.
I agree with Joanne. How about a curvy blonde?
Yes the Biblical quotes need to be liberally shared ( love that) with the "churchy" right….put on your earplugs to avoid the crying, cursing, and denial….
There shall be much wailing and gnashing of teeth.