The Washington Post offers tips on how to keep your EV battery running in frigid temperatures. The link at the end of this graf is supposed to be a "gift link" (from me, Marie Burns, the giftor!), meaning that non-subscribers can read the article. Hope it works: https://wapo.st/3u8Z705
Thursday
Feb052015
The Commentariat -- February 6, 2015
Internal links & defunct videos removed.
Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "Now that they control both houses of Congress, Republicans are beginning to learn the limits of their newfound power. For the third day in a row, Senate Republicans called a vote on a bill to keep the Department of Homeland Security funded. And for the third time, it failed to clear a Democratic filibuster.... The tactics that had served them well when they were in the minority were now being effectively exploited against them. Democrats were gleeful as, one by one, they flashed thumbs down to the Senate clerks and recorded their no votes.... [Republicans] promised voters positive movement when they crushed Democrats in the midterm elections. So far, inertia has prevailed." CW: Stupidest Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), explains why it's all Obama's fault. ...
... Burgess Everett & Jake Sherman of Politico: "Three weeks before the Department of Homeland Security's funding runs out, Congress is skipping town for a long weekend -- and GOP leaders in both chambers are pointing fingers at each other on who must find a way out of the logjam. Some on the Hill are predicting a 'prolonged fight' that may drag on even after the Feb. 27 funding deadline -- a date that Republican leaders insisted on setting but have no clue how to meet.... Meanwhile, neither the House nor Senate will vote on Friday, and they both plan to be in recess the entire week of Feb. 16."
Jason Millman of the Washington Post: "The GOP [healthcare] plan outlined by congressional aides Wednesday is similar to on that the senators offered last year, which the GOP never united around.... There's no actual timetable yet for when lawmakers could write a bill or hold hearings on the plan, and it's unlikely to move ahead of the Supreme Court's decision on subsidies in the King v. Burwell case." CW: As I've read elsewhere, Republicans have made no attempt to ask the CBO to "score" the "plan" because there really isn't any more that a rough outline, with no clue as to how it might be funded, so the "plan" gives the CBO nothing to score. ...
... Update: I may be wrong about the CBO's ability to score the Burr plan. Jeffrey Young & Jonathan Cohn of the Huffington Post suggest the CBO could plug the "plan" into its forecasting model. Young & Cohn's piece outlines the likely effects of this latest fake plan, should it be implemented. ...
... Scott Lemieux of LG&M: "Congressional Republicans are claiming to have a plan to replace the ACA. It is, first of all, not a 'plan' in the sense that Republicans have the slightest intention of enacting it. The point is to not to make health care policy but to give an excuse for five judges who may be ready to embrace absurd legal arguments to strip millions of people of their health insurance, and perhaps fool a few more gullible rubes into thinking the Republicans actually have an alternative to the ACA. In addition, this plan is not really 'new'; it's only a very minor variation from last year's Burr-Hatch-Upton Potemkin proposal. Which means that on the one hand it would ensure many fewer people, and on the other hand involve substantial middle class tax increases and utterly savage attacks on the poor...." ...
... A ruse, Scott? An excuse to cover the Supremes? How could you suggest that? ...
... Peter Sullivan of the Hill: "Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) said Thursday that Republicans might not be able to pass an alternative to ObamaCare until 2017.... Appearing ... on Fox News's 'Special Report with Bret Baier,' Burr said no single idea is likely to generate consensus. 'I don't think so,' he said. 'I think that there are going to be a lot of ideas not only in Congress but around the think tanks here in Washington and around the country.'" CW: Republicans have been "thinking about" a replacement for ObamaCare since Obama signed the ACA into law in 2010. They're going to keep "thinking" till the end of time. ...
... Jennifer Haberkorn: David M.King, 64, is the lead plaintiff on the Supreme Court case that challenges the government's right to grant tax subsidies to millions of Americans.... [He] isn't shy about telling the world that he thinks the president is an 'idiot,' posting altered images of the first lady in Middle Eastern clothing and expressing his hatred for the 'Democraps' who enacted the health care law.... He is skeptical of the media -- offering to let a reporter in only to 'get the chill off' a cold February morning -- and wouldn't discuss the origins of his case." CW: King will be eligible for Medicare next year.
Let No Good Prayer Go Unpunished. John Amato of Crooks & Liars: Wingers go crazy over President Obama's mention, at Thursday's National Prayer Breakfast, of the atrocities of the Christian crusades. ...
... Here's a Red State headline, which Amato linked: "Obama uses National Prayer Breakfast to compare Christianity to ISIS." And this one from Hot Air: "Obama: You know, Christians were just as bad as ISIS a few centuries ago." ...
... Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post finds more confederates who can't handle the truth. ...
... AND Steve M. finds more (because they just keep coming). Steve notes that, contra a wingnut claim, President Lincoln (or so the story goes) mightily questioned the notion of American exceptionalism -- and at the height of the American Civil War. ...
... Here are President Obama's full remarks at the breakfast. Very little in it about the brutal Simon de Montfort & his horrifying Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars. Such a disappointment.
German Lopez of Vox: "The federal government considers marijuana to have no medical value. But US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy on Wednesday said 'marijuana can be helpful' for some medical conditions and symptoms. And it seems like this wasn't a slip-up: the US Department of Health and Human Services appears to be promoting the comments on Twitter.... This is a big deal. In the past, these types of positive comments about pot have been walked back by public officials."
A Win-Win Company Policy. James Surowiecki of the New Yorker: "... last month, Aetna's C.E.O., Mark Bertolini, announced that the company's lowest-paid workers would get a substantial raise -- from twelve to sixteen dollars an hour, in some cases -- as well as improved medical coverage. Bertolini ... said that it was not 'fair' for employees of a Fortune 50 company to be struggling to make ends meet. He explicitly linked the decision to the broader debate about inequality, mentioning that he had given copies of Thomas Piketty's 'Capital in the Twenty-first Century' to all his top executives. 'Companies are not just money-making machines,' he told me last week. 'For the good of the social order, these are the kinds of investments we should be willing to make.'" Read the whole post. Thanks to Victoria D. for the link.
Cecilia Kang of the Washington Post: Sony co-CEO Amy Pascal's "extraordinary rise ended Thursday as Sony Pictures Entertainment announced Pascal was stepping down as co-chair of the major studio, months after she endured a prolonged public relations disaster when hacked private e-mails showed her making racially charged jokes about the president."
He had, they said, tasted in succession all the apples of the tree of knowledge, and, whether from hunger or disgust, had ended by tasting the forbidden fruit. ― Victor Hugo, em> The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, description of Claude Frollo
... AP: "Harvard University has instituted a total ban on professors having sex with undergraduate students, strengthening language the school said did not reflect the faculty's expectations on appropriate relationships between students and faculty members. In a statement released Thursday, Harvard said the change came as part of a formal review of its Title IX policy, the federal civil rights law prohibiting sex discrimination in education." CW: Good luck with that!
Scott Jaschik of Inside Higher Ed: "A controversial professor on Wednesday revealed that Marquette University is trying to revoke his tenure and fire him for statements he made about a graduate instructor, with her name, on his blog. The university says his behavior was unprofessional and that he misled the public about what happened in a dispute between the graduate instructor and an undergraduate student. The professor, John McAdams, says he is being punished for his free speech. He also maintains that Marquette shouldn't be attacking him, given that he is defending an undergraduate's views against gay marriage that are consistent with Roman Catholic teachings. (Marquette is a Jesuit university.)" ...
... Scott Lemieux in LG&M: "The clause that Marquette is using to justify the firing -- 'should at all times be accurate, should exercise appropriate restraint, should show respect for the opinions of others' -- would render academic freedom a nullity."
Tim Egan: "To understand how [fake dietary supplements are marketed in the U.S.], you have to go back to 1994, when Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah midwifed through Congress a new industry protected from all but minimal regulation. It is also an industry that would make many of his closest associates and family members rich. In turn, they've rewarded him with sizable campaign contributions." CW: Diogenes would come away shaking his head in disbelief after the trip through the halls of Congress.
Now for the Finger-Pointing. Dan Williams of Reuters: "A senior Israeli official suggested on Friday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been misled [by House Speaker John Boehner] into thinking an invitation to address the U.S. Congress on Iran next month was fully supported by the Democrats.... 'It appears that the speaker of Congress made a move, in which we trusted, but which it ultimately became clear was a one sided move and not a move by both sides,' Deputy Israeli Foreign Minister Tzachi Hanegbi told 102 FM Tel Aviv Radio on Friday." ...
... CW: Mind you, I don't buy this phony excuse for a minute. Because of this: New York Times (January 28): Israel's ambassador to the U.S., Ron "Dermer relayed the invitation to Mr. Netanyahu from Mr. Boehner, Republican of Ohio, without notifying top officials in Washington or Jerusalem. American and Israeli officials said that Mr. Dermer, in the course of a lengthy meeting with Secretary of State John Kerry just before Mr. Netanyahu’s speech was announced, never mentioned it."
Annals of "Journalism," Fog-of-War Edition
Brian Williams' Memoir Will Be Fabulous!
Margaret Hartmann of New York: Brian Williams' "stories about Hurricane Katrina have also come into question. Over the years, Williams has described seeing a body float by his hotel in the French Quarter, though the area was not heavily flooded like the rest of New Orleans, and made some other strange claims about his time reporting on the storm.... It does seem that the story about the body has shifted over the years." And more. It seems Williams "conflates" his stories on a regular basis & "misremembers" quite a bit. As Hartmann points out, Williams' coverage of the Katrina catastrophe is an important component of his career. CW: If his Katrina fame flames, too, he's just another guy in a bar telling war stories. ...
... John Simerman of the New Orleans Advocate covers much of the same ground Hartmann explores.
Emily Smith & Kenneth Garger of the New York Post: Former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw "is furious that Brian Williams is still in the anchor chair after he sheepishly admitted he hadn't traveled on a helicopter hit by enemy fire. 'Brokaw wants Williams' head on a platter,' an NBC source said. "... a lesser journalist or producer would have been immediately fired or suspended for a false report.'" CW: Two things about this report: (1) It comes from the New York Post's gossip page; (2) Who gives a damn what Tom Brokaw thinks?
Jonathan Mahler of the New York Times: "On Thursday, [NBC News anchor Brian Williams'] real problems started. A host of military veterans and commentators came forward on television and social media, challenging Mr. Williams's assertion that he had made an innocent mistake when he spoke, on several occasions, about having been in a United States military helicopter that was forced down by enemy fire in Iraq in 2003. Some went so far as to call for his resignation. In his apology, Mr. Williams said that he had been on a different helicopter, behind the one that had sustained fire, and that he had inadvertently 'conflated' the two. The explanation earned him not only widespread criticism on radio and TV talk shows, but widespread ridicule on Twitter, under the hashtag BrianWilliamsMisremembers.... Mr. Williams just extended his contract with NBC in December, with terms reported to be as much as $10 million a year for as long as five years. At the time, Deborah M. Turness, the head of NBC News, called him one of 'the most trusted journalists of our time.'"
Brian Stelter of CNN: "If NBC and Brian Williams believed a Facebook post and an on-air apology were enough, they were wrong.... The executives in charge of the news division have declined to comment, perhaps out of a reluctance to advance the story. And following his apology on Wednesday, Williams said nothing more about it on his Thursday night newscast." ...
... HOWEVER, Jake Tapper talked to Rich Krell, the pilot of the helicopter in which Williams was riding, & Krell partially backs Williams' story. As Stelter reports, "Rich Krell, who was piloting the Chinook that Williams was on, tells a different story than the crew members who spoke to Stars and Stripes. Some of things he's said are not true. But some of the things they're saying against him are not true either,' said Krell.... All three of the helicopters were hit by small arms fire, Krell said, supporting Williams' past claims about that." ...
... Al Tompkins of Poynter summarizes Krell's remarks. This is key: "Krell told CNN the chopper was not 'crippled' even after being hit by a few rounds of gunfire. The small arms fire caused damage to the chopper's equipment but not enough to force an emergency landing. Krell said he landed in the desert because of an approaching sandstorm. Krell said it was right for Williams to apologize for saying wrongly that his chopper was hit by an RPG. But the other details of the story, he said, were correct." ...
... ON THE OTHER HAND. Travis Tritten of Stars & Stripes: "Krell’s version was at odds with the recollections of both [David] Luke [-- a ... flight engineer ... who was aboard a helicopter flying along with the one carrying Williams and his NBC crew --] and Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Miller, who was the flight engineer on the aircraft carrying Williams and his crew. Miller and Luke insisted separately that aircraft in their formation did not take ground fire that day and landed in Iraq only because of the sandstorm, which paralyzed coalition operations for days. 'No, we never came under direct enemy fire to the aircraft,' Miller told Stars and Stripes on Wednesday."
Alessandra Stanley of the New York Times: "It may take 10 years to earn it, but trust in news anchors can be shaken in less than 10 minutes.... A public apology is just the first step, and Mr. Williams's mea culpa wasn't very humble. He made his fib sound like a one-time misguided effort to pay homage to veterans.... Those puffy NBC promos that tout Mr. Williams's 'battle scars' and 'integrity' don't help."
Rem Reider of USA Today: "Williams still doesn't get it. Being called out by the vets on Facebook, and the reporting by Travis Tritten of Stars and Stripes, have changed everything. When you are nailed like this, you need a forthright mea culpa, not lawyerly parsing of words. But it's doubtful even that would help, particularly now."
Erik Wemple of the Washington Post: "Why did it take pushback from 'some brave men and women in the air crews.'...? Do these folks have to fight our wars and fact-check NBC News?... The fact that [NBC News] personnel aside from Williams knew that his statements on these events were erroneous should prompt an internal probe as to how these falsehoods circulated so freely."
Andy Borowitz has a list Brian Williams' tales of harrowing experiences which the fact-checking department at NBC News has verified. Here's one of them: "In May of 2011, the elevator in my building suffered an equipment malfunction en route to my penthouse. I was stuck talking to a tax attorney for seven minutes before I was rescued."
We should take care before assuming deliberate deception here. As a memory researcher, I find it credible that Brian Williams had a genuine memory error. We all gradually change narratives about the past in a way that is not deliberate, but because we are under less scrutiny than national journalists, we never realize all the memory errors we make. -- Memory Expert Lawrence Patihis
A Lovely Story of "Misremembering":
Schocking Red, Day 2. Jeff Zeleny interviews Rep. Aaron Schock [R-Ill.] about his lovely offices. Schock, contra reports yesterday, says he will be paying his decorator for her "Downton Abbey" salon knockoff:
...Katie Zavadski of New York: "... Benjamin Cole -- the aide who reprimanded a Washington Post reporter for capturing the period-drama-inspired office -- has resigned after ... ThinkProgress" found that in posts on his Facebook page, "Cole compared black people to escaped zoo animals.... 'I am extremely disappointed by the inexcusable and offensive online comments made by a member of my staff,' Schock said in a statement about the resignation to the Journal Star. 'I would expect better from any member of my team. Upon learning about them I met with Mr. Cole and he offered his resignation which I have accepted.'"
Paul Krugman, Short Version: "Germany to Greece: Nice banking system you got there. Be a shame if something were to happen to it. Greece to Germany: Oh, yeah? Well, we'd hate to see your nice, shiny European Union get all banged up."
Eve Fairbanks in the New Republic on the presidency of Uruguay's José Mujica. A good story to read -- all the way to the end.
Presidential Race
** Matt Yglesias of Vox: "Launching his not-quite-a-presidential-campaign in Detroit this week, Jeb Bush delivered what I think would be an incredible speech for a job that doesn't actually exist. Call it 'Mayor of America.' What Jeb didn't do was offer a speech that suggests he'd be a good president, or is even aware of what the president's job is.... It's crucial to recognize that in the United States, the federal government does not operate as a scaled-up version of a state or local government. The federal government is an insurance company with an army....They also tax differently. State and local governments collect regressive sales and property taxes, while the federal government collects progressive income taxes." ...
... CW: Read the whole post. In it, Yglesias explains as much about Congressional Republicans as he does about Jeb Bush. They think small; they think local. Ergo, they don't actually know how to govern a nation. Yglesias also helps explain why Republicans, especially, get away with fooling voters: voters think locally, too. Guided by shortsighted Republicans (and too many Democrats, including, on occasion our current POTUS), they accept their households & their communities as metaphors for a federal government which actually has quite different functions. ...
Brian Beutler: The difference between Jeb Bush & Scott Walker is rhetorical style. Both Bush & Walker "... see the country's economic challenges almost identically. To the extent that Bush believes inequality is a problem, he revealed on Wednesday that he has no intention of alleviating it by using federal power to distribute income downward, and, like Walker, he believes that the biggest structural force driving inequality is dependence on government."
Former Bushie Michael Gerson: "It has become the Rand Paul pattern: A few weeks paddling vigorously in the mainstream, followed by a lapse into authenticity, followed by transparent damage control, followed by churlishness toward anyone in the media who notices.... When Chris Christie commits a gaffe on vaccination and reverses himself, it indicates a man out of his depth. With Paul, it reveals the unexplored depths of a highly ideological and conspiratorial worldview.... While many prospective presidential candidates seek catchier ways to express their political philosophy, Paul must take pains to conceal the ambition of his ideals.... It is a difficult position for a candidate when every glimmer of authenticity is a potential blunder.... For all its flaws of length and cost, a presidential campaign strips away pose and pretense. And that is a particular problem for Rand Paul."
Claude Brodesser-Akner in NJ.com: "The reviews are in on Gov. Chris Christie's trip to the United Kingdom, and they are not good. 'I think the trip was an utter failure,' said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian.... 'It should have been a trip of "good behavior" instead of showing a short fuse, because by any time an American leader goes abroad, there's a diplomatic nature to the trip.' Brinkley said Christie then revealed a lack of control when he snarled at a Washington Post reporter who pressed him on the West's response to ISIS, 'Is there something you don't understand about "No questions"?'" ...
... Josh Margolin & Shushannah Walshe of ABC News: "Federal authorities have launched a criminal investigation into New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, as well as members of his administration, a man at the center of the investigation told ABC News. The U.S. attorney's office in New Jersey has interviewed former Hunterdon County Assistant Prosecutor Bennett Barlyn, who claims he was fired because he objected to Christie officials dismissing indictments against political allies of the governor. Barlyn confirmed the investigation to ABC News." ...
... Lillian Shupe of the Hunterdon County Democrat has more. (The HCD is a weekly newspaper, not an organ of the Democratic party.)
Beyond the Beltway
AP: "The Roman Catholic archbishop of San Francisco has ... demand[ed] teachers lead their public and professional lives consistently with church teachings on homosexuality, same-sex marriage, abortion, birth control and other behaviours he describes as evil. Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone plans to include the language in next year's faculty handbooks for four high schools owned and operated by the archdiocese.... Cordileone ... has proposed that the contract being negotiated identify all school employees as ministers of the church, a change gay rights groups said would put teachers who do not adhere to the beliefs in the handbook at risk of dismissal. The US supreme court has exempted churches and religious schools from having to abide by federal anti-discrimination laws for employees in 'ministerial roles'." Cordileone was a prime mover of Prop 8, the temporarily successful effort to outlaw same-sex marriage in California.
Tanzina Vega of the New York Times: "Malcolm A. Smith, the former majority leader of the New York State Senate, was convicted on Thursday of federal corruption charges including bribery, wire fraud and extortion. Mr. Smith, 57, a Democrat from Queens, had been accused of conspiring to pay Daniel J. Halloran III, a former Republican city councilman from Queens, and three Republican county leaders ... thousands of dollars in an effort to run for mayor of New York City on the Republican ballot in 2013."
News Ledes
Politico: "Mississippi Republican Rep. Alan Nunnelee has died from complications related to a brain tumor, his family announced on Friday. The Republican was diagnosed with cancer in May and was sent to home hospice last month after doctors discovered a second, untreatable tumor in his brain."
New York Times: "With fighting intensifying in eastern Ukraine and the White House weighing whether to send arms to bolster the government's forces, Western leaders embarked on a concerted diplomatic effort on Thursday aimed at ending a conflict that has strained relations with Russia."
Bloomberg News: "Employers in the U.S. added more jobs than forecast in January, capping the biggest three-month gain in 17 years, and workers' earnings jumped."
Washington Post: "Hackers gained access to the private data of 80 million former and current members and employees of Anthem in one of the largest medical-related cyber-intrusions in history. Authorities said the breach, which was discovered late last month and disclosed this week, did not involve private health records or credit card numbers but did expose Social Security numbers, income data, birthdays, and street and e-mail addresses. Investigators suspect Chinese hackers may be responsible for the breach, according to a person briefed on some aspects of the probe. There are also some indications that other health-care companies may have been targeted...."
Guardian: "Mass surveillance of the internet by the British monitoring agency GCHQ was unlawful until the end of last year, the UK's most secretive court has ruled. The Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) ruled on Friday that the agency's access to intercepted information obtained by the US National Security Agency (NSA) breached human rights law."
Guardian: "The Australian prime minister, Tony Abbott, could be removed from office as early as next week after facing a revolt from within his own party. A backbench MP from Abbott's governing Liberal party announced on Friday that he would be moving a motion to have the leadership declared open. The move followed a series of mis-steps and political blunders by the prime minster, including the decision to award a knighthood to Prince Philip on Australia Day."
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Reader Comments (20)
So tonight it was ABC News. So forget Chuck Toad and Lian Williams, it really was better.
James Surowiecki has a fine post entitled A Fair Day's Wage. He starts out by describing how Mark Bertolini, the CEO of Aetna has raised the wages of the company's lowest paid employees to sixteen dollars an hour. He is a believer in Thomas Piketty's theories and has distributed his book to Aetna's executives. The article goes on to explore - and endorse - the theory that better pay for workers equals a more productive company. It is hard to believe that the leaders of Americas companies could think otherwise, but apparently many of them do.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/02/09/fair-days-wage
Shame on Obama for mentioning something to do with history. America works hard to make sure we do not teach or even consider the word history.
P.S. i think I said this before. My hypothesis on the huge increase in atheism in Europe is due to the fact that after WWll when all children became educated in a country like France your history lesson was largely about the Catholic Church. In France they know about the Cathors. End of story.
And just a little note. A Republican Rep. Chris Smith has now firmly stated that gays are not human, since human rights do not apply to them.
Here's the story on Chris Smith, by Jonathan Salant in NJ.com.
When Mr. Smith in Washington says: ""I am a strong believer in traditional marriage and do not construe homosexual rights as human rights," (Smith heads the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Africa). "Others have a different view and I certainly respect them," I hear this as homosexuals do not have the rights of other humans. He acknowledges that others have different views and he RESPECTS them? how does this work exactly? If I strongly believe something how can I respect an opposite mindset? I might say that I honor their right to have that mindset, but respect it? I think not.
Being burned alive is horrible, anytime, anywhere, by anybody, for any reason.
Remember:
http://a.abcnews.go.com/images/International/ap_nick_ut_pulitzer_prize_image_1972_vietnam_thg_120606_wblog.jpg
~ D.C.Clark, PO2, USN, Vietnam, 1971 - 1973
@PD Pepe: It depends upon what the antecedent of "them" is. You took it to be "a different view," and I took it to be "others." Grammatically, since "a different view" is singular & "them" is plural, Smith would have to mean "others," which also is plural.
I do not suggest that Smith is either grammatically- or politically- or morally-correct. But I will give him the benefit of the doubt on the grammatical part & assume that the "them" he respects are the speakers and not their ideas. I think we agree that one can have respect for other people, just because they are people, yet disagree with their ideas and actions.
Marie
@Marie: Yup––you're correct. I neglected to connect the "thems" with "others" and I thank you for being such a careful reader. Of course one could argue that Smith's plurals and singulars might not be up to par (as evidently mine were not) and he really meant what I thought he meant. Smith is a Roman Catholic who advocates banning abortion in all its stages and is a strong opponent of stem-cell research. This guy is all for LIFE except when it means those "thems" that ain't like the "others".
@MarvinSchwalb Don't miss Charlie Pierce's first post of today, which has more on the National Prayer breakfast. "Crusader Rabbits: The President Livens Up The National Prayer Breakfast"
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/The_Last_Crusade
"... it's not as though the president lacked for other examples of Christian savagery down through the years, from the slaughter of the Albigensians, to the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre to Cromwell's genocide in Ireland,.."
After reading your post, I did a little research on the Cathars (thought I recalled 'tales" about that period, but needed learn more). It all tied in with what Pierce wrote and more.
Thought Obama's remarks were appropriate. Hate the hypocrisy of those who bury they heads up their...urrr, in the sand!
Just to step up little on the Cathars, for those not familiar with the details note that the crusade was under the order of Pope Innocent lll and it resulted in the slaughter of many 10,000 's. The exact number is of course not known. And when I say slaughter I mean the hacking and burning to death of men, women, children, babies.
This is in no way an excuse for the behavior of ISIS but Obama was right, they are not the first people to claim the right to kill under permission of their god.
Well, kids, it's time once again for Lousy Limericks.
Every now and again the absurdity vibrating across the Confederate zeitgeist cries out for some kind of response from the land of the rational, and lacking the ability for deep and serious versification, I prefer to dog them with doggerel.
To wit:
We thought we had conquered the measles
New numbers sitting up there on easels
Say it's made a comeback
due to haters of vac-
cination, supported by weasels.
Wherever teabaggers convene
Cries of "Freedom!" still set the scene
But watch where you eat
'cause their freedom will beat
your interest in pers'nal hygiene.
Feel free to let your own doggerel off the leash for a run around the neighborhood. But don't let him pee on little Mr. Paul's hedges. As he is fond of reminding us, with his characteristic combination smirk and sneer (how does he do that?), he has a shotgun.
Yesterday I posted a comment on other poster's choice of topic and style of writing. Marie kindly reminded me that this is her site not mine and I have no editorial privileges. The unspoken suggestion is, I think, that I should either mind my own business or STFU.
My apologies to all
I posted something similar last night but must have sent it to preview rather than create.
This statement by the NJ winger rep, Chris Smith, who has declared that gays are not eligible for human rights, is another example of the backwards logic that infects the thought processes of these people. Leave it to a Republican to take one of the oldest forms of logical argumentation, the syllogism, and pervert it by using a provably false premise to arrive at a warped conclusion:
All humans have human rights.
Homosexuals do not have human rights.
Therefore
Homosexuals are not human.
When I first read Marvin's comment, I thought it was a bit of an exaggeration that someone was suggesting that gays weren't even human (I don't know why I was surprised, wingers say the most outrageously offensive and insulting things about gays and lesbians; I suppose it's still stunning at how viciously immoral and just plain stupid they can be, and perhaps I was surprised that they'd come right out and say it. Then I remembered Rick Santorum. Never mind.).
But it's no exaggeration. Marvin is correct. Smith's "reasoning" is perfectly clear, on display for anyone who cares to connect the dots. But in order for the conclusion to be true, the other propositions, the premises, have to be true as well. Or, to put it another way, if both premises are true, the conclusion must be true as well.
The middle premise in Smith's argument, homosexuals do not have human rights, however, is conditioned by his religious beliefs, which simply do not stand up in any kind of logical framework. Believe me, Aquinas gave it his best shot. If Aquinas couldn't do it, I'm guessing Chris Fucking Smith isn't going to be challenging the rules of logic anytime soon.
And, as usual, once his message has been repeated in public, he is incensed that anyone would try to hold him to his word (see Randy, Li'l).
But over and above the illogical bullshit, I am more and more outraged that we are all spending so much time and effort debating stuff that is settled, by definition. Time and energy that should be directed at serious problems, not at who can marry whom and whether or not certain people are humans or should be allowed the ability to choose how to live their lives, and whether or not people should allowed a decent baseline quality of life, or allowed access to healthcare. WTF!
Marie has posted a number of links today (and other days) to the effect that these people have no idea how to govern, no clue what to do with the reins of power. That's because they are so mired in trying to redraw outlines that have been set for a long time, set as moral imperatives. I don't give a rat's ass what you think your religion compels you to do. You're free to believe whatever bullshit you want but you are not free to take up my time and spend my money debating stuff that is not open for debate.
These people! Jesus!
DC Clark,
Thanks for that reminder. Every war has it's iconic images, and this one is still hard to look at. It's a pretty nasty way to go, whether up close in a cage or via napalm raining from the skies.
Remarkably, through the offices of the photographer and others who stepped up to help a poor little girl caught in the vise grip of war, Kim Phuc survived and thrived. She lives in Canada today with a husband and two children.
An amazing story.
I'm not complaining about the shit storm falling around Brian Williams for his silly statements, but there's this small, nagging thought about how this sort of thing is only brought to bear on news outlets that, whether true or not, are considered either middle of the road or slightly liberal leaning (neither are quite true here).
Just consider, for a moment, the mountain of absolute lies told on a daily basis by Fox reporters, and Confederate reporters who work for other networks. Absolute lies. Do a search for "Fox lies" and you get 109 million hits. But there has never been this sort of outrage and upheaval. People laugh about it and make jokes about it, but nothing like this.
We won't even mention the fact that Fox perpetuated the Bush Administration lies that started the whole Iraq conflict in the first place. I guess that doesn't rise to the level of a helicopter ride.
I suppose, in a way, it demonstrates the lack of seriousness with which most of the public associates Fox, but still...
@Akhilleus Thanks for your perspective on the media piranha feeding frenzy and piling on surrounding Brian Williams. Yeah, everyone else is a saint and follows journalistic standards to the letter.
But, as you point out none are more egregious than FOX.
P.S. I like Brian Williams. I've always liked Brian Williams.
So there!
So MSNBC is going to reschedule/dump Chris Hayes? I would recommend instead dumping the dark hole of creativity who has decided that a lead story must be the lead story all effing day long such that each and every host must waste half his/her hour regurgitating the daily lead with an endless parade of 'experts' and other hosts. By the time Chris appears the audience has left for somewhere more informative. Like children's cartoon shows. But he should still be able to attract them by the thousands right? Look at his previous hosts Schultz the union organizer, the Rev from another era, and Chris Interruptus Mathews the pundit who is never right but always has his foot in a guest's mouth. What a lineup!
“Congressman Alan Nunnelee has gone home to be with Jesus," his family said in a statement Friday released by his congressional office.
Good. That should keep him from fucking anything up until the End Times at least.
Well now, isn't this special.
According to the Guardian, Israeli Foreign Minister, Tzachi Hanegbi, is letting on, via Israeli media, that Cheeto Man "misled" (I guess he could have said "lied to", but these people all fear a visit from Mr. Politenessman--remember that guy?--should they veer into impolitic and impolite behavior) Bibi into thinking he was coming to address a bipartisan hoedown complete with marshmallows roasting in the well afterwards and everyone linking hands to sing "Kumbaya".
Naturally, neither Bibi nor any other member of Likud saw this visit as a way to poke a sharp stick into the president's eye. The idea!
No word from Boehner yet now that fingers are beginning to point at him. His turn to point at Bibi. Pretty soon they'll arrange the usual circular firing squad and blast away at each other.
"You invited me" "No I didn't, it was your idea" "Wasn't either!" "Was too".
Those right-wingers, they sure know how to pull off their dastardly schemes. Twirl those mustaches, boys, you know how it's done.
This should help any hold-out Democrats from even thinking of attending this bit of clusterfuck theater. Pelosi can go if she wants, but everyone else should take the night off and binge their way through season three of "House of Cards". Much easier way to watch a bunch of political assholes at work.
Haaretz reports that Biden will be 'abroad' when Bibi speaks. Were I a Democrat in the house I'd go missing as well.
Good news for Canadians as our Supreme court affirms our right to doctor assisted suicide.