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
Tuesday
Sep292015
The Commentariat -- Sept. 30, 2015
Internal links & defunct video removed.
Peter Baker of the New York Times:"... to Secretary of State John Kerry, the mushrooming crisis [in Syria] cries out for American attention. No less aware of the challenge, he seems willing to go anywhere, anytime, and meet with anyone in pursuit of a resolution. The idea that it may be elusive, or even impossible, is no deterrent." ...
... Neil MacFarquhar of the New York Times: "President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia suddenly escalated the stakes in his contest with the West over influence in the Middle East on Wednesday, as Russian pilots carried out their first airstrikes in Syria. Russian warplanes dropped bombs near the central city of Homs, according to American officials in Washington.... Russian officials and analysts portrayed the move as an attempt both to fight Islamic State militants and to try to ensure the survival of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, Russia's main ally in the Middle East. But Homs is not under the control of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL."
Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "Sen. Elizabeth Warren, stepping up her crusade against the power of wealthy interests, accused a Brookings Institution scholar of writing a research paper to benefit his corporate patrons. Warren's charge prompted a swift response, with Brookings seeking and receiving the resignation of the economist, Robert Litan, whose report criticized a Warren-backed consumer protection rule targeting the financial services industry."
Your Taxpayer Dollars Wasted on Grandstanding & Lies. Dana Milbank: The House Oversight Committee holds an oversight hearing on videos it hasn't seen. But of course the real purpose was to hector Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards, using other false "evidence" they produced. "A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds that Americans have a more favorable view of Planned Parenthood than of any other entity tested, including the Republican Party and presidential candidates. The group's favorable/unfavorable impression, 47 percent to 31 percent, is actually up slightly from July. What's more, 61 percent oppose eliminating federal funding of Planned Parenthood. Even among the 35 percent who support defunding, only 9 percent favor shutting down the government to do it."...
... CW: I listened to a good part of the hearing, & I am happy to say I did not throw my laptop out the window when I heard heard for the 100th time that Planned Parenthood was "selling baby parts," no matter how many times Richards patiently reiterated that PP does not "sell baby parts"; it transfers donated fetal tissue to research facilities. ...
... Kevin Drum corrects the fake chart House Oversight Committee chair Jason Chaffitz (RTP-Utah) produced at the hearing, claiming it was based on Planned Parenthood's own figures. It wasn't. As Dana Milbank writes in the column linked above: "In fact, the chart said the source was the antiabortion group Americans United for Life -- which [Cecille] Richards pointed out to Chaffetz." Drum: "I'm sure it was an honest mistake, probably due to poor math skills from a lifetime spent in the liberal public education system. So as a public service, I've replotted the data using conventional 'numbers' and 'slopes.' You're welcome":
... Planned Parenthood has performed fewer cancer screenings because "some of the services, like pap smears, dropped in frequency because of changing medical standards about who should be screened and how often," Richards said in the hearing. ...
... Timothy Lee of Vox also is appalled by the chart, & provides an honest one that shows the correct "slope" of the increase in abortions provided (2 percent) & the actual "slopes" for other services PP provides.
I had a bit of fun today and made a donation to Planned Parenthood in honor of Jason Chaffitz and asked that they notify him of my donation at the House of Representatives. I thought some of you might also think that was a fun thing to do. -- Haley S., in yesterday's Comments
... Christine Hauser of the New York Times: "As Planned Parenthood called on their supporters to rally on Tuesday, a state report found no evidence that a Planned Parenthood clinic in Missouri illegally handled fetal tissue. The report by the Missouri attorney general [Chris Koster (D)] was the latest to announce results of an investigation arising from secretly recorded videos claiming that Planned Parenthood was 'profiteering in baby parts.'... In addition to Missouri, officials in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Indiana, South Dakota and Massachusetts have found, after investigations, that Planned Parenthood was in compliance with state laws.Investigations have also been opened in about nine states, including Arizona, where fetal tissue donation is not an option." ...
... Sandhya Somashekhar of the Washington Post: "Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards on Tuesday for the first time directly addressed members of Congress about undercover videos purporting to show that the women's health organization illegally sells fetal tissue for profit, telling members of the House Oversight committee that the allegations are 'offensive and categorically untrue.' At a hearing centering on whether federal funding should continue for the group, Richards forcefully defended her organization, calling it a critical source for cancer screenings, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, contraception care and other services for millions of women, particularly those who are low-income." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
.... Jennifer Haberkorn of Politico: "House Republicans during a combative hearing on Tuesday said that Planned Parenthood doesn't deserve federal funding, citing the group's political activities, travel expenses and salaries. [Planned Parenthood President Cecile] Richards defended the organization's federal support, pointing out that federal funds are not spent on abortion. She also strongly rejected accusations that her organization illegally profits from fetal tissue and organ donation, as alleged by the undercover videos." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... An "Investigation" Where Answers Are Not Allowed. Sara Jerde of TPM: "Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) repeatedly interrupted Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards as she tried to answer his questions Tuesday in front of the House Oversight Committee." ...
... Brian Beutler: "The anti-abortion movement's weapons: shock, lies and Carly Fiorina." ...
... See also Michael Scherer's report under Presidential Race linked below.
House Majority Leader Says Purpose of Benghaaazi! Investigations Was to Hurt Hillary Clinton's Presidential Aspirations. Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she's untrustable. But no one would have known any of that had happened, had we not. [Sean Hannity interrupts] -- Kevin McCarthy, yesterday ...
... Greg Sargent: "Congress is supposed to exercise oversight" of public officials. BUT "The problem comes in the linking of this directly to Clinton's 'dropping numbers.' It suggests that the probes are less about genuine accountability than about driving up her negatives...." ...
... Steve Benen: "Note, McCarthy sees the committee as a legitimate accomplishment of the Republican Congress, not because it's uncovered relevant details about an act of terrorism, but because Hillary Clinton's 'numbers are dropping.' This, in his mind, is evidence of the GOP majority using its power effectively -- by using a supposedly non-partisan investigatory vehicle to embarrass a Democrat with dubious allegations. There was no real reason to create this committee, and the panel itself no longer serves any legitimate purpose. McCarthy's unexpected candor ... served as a timely reminder that the Benghazi investigation that no longer focuses on Benghazi is now little more than a taxpayer-financed farce."
Your Taxpayer Dollars Wasted, Ctd. Stephen Ohlmacher of the AP: "House Republicans advanced legislation Tuesday to dismantle President Barack Obama's health law that could actually reach the president's desk. The House GOP has voted more than 50 times to repeal all or parts of the health law. Almost all the bills died in the Senate. But this time, Republicans are using a special process that prevents Senate Democrats from blocking the legislation. Obama can still veto it, but the vote could provide a blueprint for dismantling the law if Republicans retake the White House in 2016."
Mike DeBonis & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "A generation of House Republicans who have spent the past five years trying to shake up Washington spent Tuesday trying to shake up their party's leadership contests that have moved coolly toward reinforcing the status quo. They had little success. A campaign to draft one prominent, relatively young conservative, Rep. Trey Gowdy (S.C.), into the race for majority leader was extinguished before day's end, leaving restless conservatives to continue their search for a standard-bearer. Meanwhile, the sitting majority leader, Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), moved to tighten his grip on the speaker's chair being vacated next month by John A. Boehner (Ohio), pledging in a series of public appearances to 'change the culture' of the Republican conference in a bid to address the right flank's long-running frustrations with Boehner." ...
... Apparently Boehner & Mitch McConnell have no illusions about the future of the House. Reuters: "U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday that he and departing House Speaker John Boehner will soon launch negotiations with the White House to try to reach a two-year budget deal that covers the 2016 and 2017 fiscal years." ...
>... Seung Min Kim of Politico: "As President Barack Obama and top congressional leaders prepare to launch negotiations on a two-year budget deal, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is maneuvering to cut key Democrats out of the talks...."
New York Times Editors: "In the days he has left, [John Boehner] can revive immigration reform. He can pass the large-scale, comprehensive overhaul that lawmakers had worked on for years, a bill that passed the Senate in 2013 with strong bipartisan support and could have been sent to President Obama's desk but for the obduracy of the nativist right in the House and Mr. Boehner's unwillingness to call a vote." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Calla Wahlquist of the Guardian: "Kim Davis, the Kentucky county court clerk who spent five days in jail for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, is reported to have had a private meeting with the pope during his historic US tour. According to a statement posted on the website of Christian lobby group the Liberty Council, Pope Francis met Davis and her husband, Joe, at the Vatican's Washington DC embassy on Thursday. The statement carries the stamp of the Liberty Council's founder and chairman, Matt Staver, who is acting as Davis's lawyer in her dispute with the court. The statement, which is based on a report from Inside The Vatican, says that the pope thanked Davis for her 'courage' and told her to 'stay strong'.... The Vatican has not responded to the reports." CW: Disgusting, if remotely true. ...
... David Gilbson of Religion News Service, in a straight news report: "Throughout his six-day visit to the U.S., Pope Francis was careful to avoid or downplay many of the hot-button social issues that have roiled American society, and he repeatedly exhorted his own bishops to take a more positive approach and not pick fights that would turn more people off than they would attract. Yet it turns out that even as he was preaching that message the pope met secretly with an icon of the culture wars: Kim Davis...." CW: I guess Francis was following Jesus's admonition to "Do as I say, not as I do." Well, okay, not Jesus. ...
... This report by Jack Jenkins of Think Progress, dated Sept. 28, suggests Francis does support Kim Davis's right to "conscientious objection."
Presidential Race
Eric Bradner of CNN: "Bill Clinton hit ... Donald Trump for running a 'fact-free' campaign, defending his wife Hillary Clinton in an interview Tuesday. The former president touted his wife's accomplishments as President Barack Obama's first secretary of state -- starting with sanctions against Iran -- as he lashed out at Trump for calling his wife's four-year tenure a failure in an interview with CNN's Erin Burnett."
Eliza Collins of Politico: "If Bernie Sanders were president, he wouldn't be as naive about compromise as President Barack Obama. At least that's what the Vermont senator told David Axelrod on the former Obama adviser's first episode of his podcast 'The Axe Files with David Axelrod.' Sanders said that after a 'brilliant campaign,' Obama made a mistake by expecting that he could easily negotiate with the other party."
Politics is a fact-free zone. People just say things. -- Carly Fiorina, distancing herself from dirty politicians
GOP Voters Thrill to Candidate's Lies. Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "On the facts, Carly Fiorina has been proved wrong. But on the politics, her impassioned condemnation of a Planned Parenthood video has turned her into a champion of the antiabortion movement and given her outsider candidacy new momentum." ...
... Michael Scherer of Time: "The video that Carly Fiorina graphically described at the last Republican presidential debate, depicting a moving fetus on a table following an apparent abortion, was released online in its entirety Tuesday morning, according to Gregg Cunningham, the founder of the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, who collected the footage. Cunningham, an anti-abortion activist, declined to identify the date, location or authors of the video.... He also made no claim that the images shown in the video had anything to do with Planned Parenthood.... At times the fetus appears to move, and at other times it appears to have a pulse. There are no images on the full video of any attempt to harvest the brain of the fetus, and there is no sound." ...
... CW: The video -- & even Cunningham -- dispute Fiorina's assertions. According to Fiorina, the tapes show "As regards [to] Planned Parenthood..., a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking while someone says we have to keep it alive to harvest its brain." (I'm not sure what a "fully-formed fetus" is.) Since there's no sound, Fiorina didn't hear "someone say[ing] we have to keep it alive." Further, Cunningham can't confirm that the fetus in the clip was aborted but not miscarried, but he told Time "he is confident the procedure was an abortion, and not a miscarriage, owing to the lack of medical treatment offered to the fetus." So, the opposite of Fiorina's claim that there was an effort to "save" the fetus to harvest its brain. ...
... Update: Sarah Kliff of Vox has more. Kliff also links to an opinion by obstetrician Jen Gunner, who says the clip most likely shows a premature spontaneous delivery, not an abortion. ...
... Jen Gunter: Cunningham's "statement [that the clip must be of an abortion because no one tends to the fetus] underscores the fact that Cunningham has no idea what he is talking about as the fetus is 17-18 weeks and hence pre viable so no one would render care. It is highly atypical to offer neonatal care before 23 weeks. A neonatologist who attempt to resuscitate a 17 week delivery would be considered unethical." Gunner outlines several reasons for her conclusion that the clip does not show an abortion.
Ted [Cruz] has chosen to make this really personal and chosen to call people dishonest in leadership and call them names which really goes against the decorum and also against the rules of the Senate, and as a consequence he can't get anything done legislatively.... He is pretty much done for [in the Senate] and stifled, and it's really because of personal relationships, or lack of personal relationships, and it is a problem. -- Rand Paul, on Fox "News," Tuesday
... Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "One of the three super PACs supporting Rand Paul's presidential campaign has stopped raising money, dealing a damaging blow to an already cash-starved campaign. In a Tuesday telephone interview, Ed Crane, who oversees the group, PurplePAC, accused Paul of abandoning his libertarian views -- and suggested it was a primary reason the Kentucky senator had plummeted in the polls."
Beyond the Beltway
Guardian: "The Georgia board of pardons and paroles has denied clemency for the lone woman on the state's death row after hearing requests to spare her life from her children and from the Vatican. Kelly Renee Gissendaner was scheduled to die by lethal injection sometime after 7pm at the state prison in Jackson. Gissendaner, 47, was convicted of murder in the February 1997 slaying of her husband. She conspired with her lover, who stabbed Douglas Gissendaner to death." ...
... Atlanta Journal-Constitution Update: "The Associated Press reported at 11:31 p.m. that the U.S. Supreme Court has denied a third appeal to halt the execution of Kelly Gissendaner, the lone woman on Georgia's death row." ...
... Updated Lede: "Kelly Gissendaner was executed early Wednesday morning for her role in the murder of her husband in 1997. The Georgia Department of corrections said her death by lethal injection came at 12:21 a.m."
Tony Cook & Chelsea Schneider of the Indianapolis Star: "Rep. Jud McMillin, a rising star in the state's Republican Party, abruptly resigned Tuesday. The Indianapolis Star has learned that the surprise resignation came after a sexually explicit video was sent via text message from McMillin's cell phone. It's unclear who sent the text or how broadly it was distributed.... In 2005, his career as an assistant county prosecutor in Ohio came to an end amid questions about his sexual conduct." McMillin claimed that his cellphone was stolen for 24 hours.
News Ledes
Washington Post: "Hurricane Joaquin rapidly intensified overnight and is now a Category 1 tracking west toward the Bahamas. Though there continues to be a high amount of uncertainty in the forecast, Hurricane Joaquin could track toward the East Coast this weekend, which is now in the cone of the National Hurricane Center forecast."
Washington Post: "Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday said his government no longer considers itself bound by the Oslo agreements in effect for two decades, charging that Israel has failed to live up to its obligations. In an address to the U.N. General Assembly, where the Palestinians have observer status, Abbas said Israel has not followed through on its commitments in the Oslo accords to accept a Palestinian state and to curtail settlement growth on the West Bank and in East Jerusalem."
New York Times: "A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld on Wednesday a federal judge's finding last year that the N.C.A.A. 'is not above antitrust laws' and that its rules have been too restrictive in maintaining amateurism. But the panel threw out the judge's proposal that N.C.A.A. members should pay athletes $5,000 per year in deferred compensation, stating that compensation for the cost of attendance was sufficient."
New York Times: "American warplanes bombarded Taliban-held territory around the Kunduz airport overnight, and Afghan officials said American Special Forces were rushed toward the fighting. But by Wednesday morning, the crisis in northern Afghanistan had deepened, as the Taliban continued to surge outward from Kunduz, the major city that the militants captured on Monday."
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Reader Comments (16)
I listened to the PP hearing on CSPAN during this morning's commute, and I think Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) wins the asshole of the week award, hands down. And I'd like to take this opportunity to note that, whenever I have heard him speak at any hearing over the past few years, he has never failed to be an asshole. I suppose there is something to be said for consistency ... but none of it good, in his case.
Ms. Richards did a great job.
Last week I spoke with the Rocky Mountain PP director, who said that donations to PP are way up, and that they are confident that this current attack will increase their support. She said that they already beat the NRA, hands down, in terms of national polled support and donor loyalty. That may be a non sequitur, but it still feels sort of good.
Nevertheless, I am a bit concerned that one thing that will come out of this donnybrook will be a rising public awareness that PP is also a political organization which facilitates voter support for PP-friendly candidates and voter opposition for anti-abortion (and anti-med care for the underserved) ballot initiatives. They have to do that, because they are under constant legislative attack, but I think that most people think of them as a health provider (and, yes, abortion provider), but the picadors of the right will start to wound them by insinuating that their political arm is somehow "bad." You hear pinheads say that even though all their fed $ comes from service fees (not grants), "money is fungible" and so that PP is using fed $ for abortions and political action.
That "fungible" idea is sort of correct, until you spend the money and put it on the accounts. And if Ms. Richards' testimony is correct, all the accounts are available and have been provided to multiple investigators over the years. ALL have resulted in clean audits. That is quite an impressive record for an NGO that operates all over the country, with low-paid staff and volunteers.
Finally, Rep Cummings was great, pointing out that Chairman Chaffetz's (R-UT) hectoring of Ms. Richards about her salary was the first time he's heard that in hearings, and comparing her salary ($500K+) to the multi-millions salaries of CEOs of companies (Citi, etc.) which receive fed benefits and have been fined for illegal activities recently, where GOP members have never questioned their right to those millions. Rep. Cummings is becoming the superstar of the righteous, in my opinion.
Patrick–-a perfect word for this charade–-a Donnybrook. I must say, however, that Cummings certainly came out strong defending Richards, but it was Carolyn Maloney (D NY) who jumped down Caffetz's throat first accusing him of "beating up on a woman" and said if Richards had been a man Caffetz would never have addressed salary.
Throughout the hearings Cecille handled herself and those snarky males beautifully. She has the self confidence of a successful leader in her field (as did her mother, Ann) and never once did I see her take a back seat. They–-the committee kept her for four hours and yet there she was on Rachel's program looking bright eyed and busy tailed.
And while all this was going on, over on the senate floor who was at the podium talking for over an hour (at whom? Maybe one person?) but our favorite Lone Stranger, Ted Cruz, ranting on and on about the dire straits of everything and anything the Obama administration has not accomplished, and how the "gobble-uns 'll git ya ef you don't watch out!"
Re Kimmy and da Pope (excellent name for a rock band):
Serial adulteress and multiple divorcee gets a secret private audience.
Some friends of mine, CatLicks married for half a century with 4 children, were each previously married. They recently went through the lengthy and not inexpensive process of having their first marriages annulled by the Church. I understand this involved a petition to the Holy See. So they are now legal in the eyes of God and their children and grandchildren are no longer bastards. Hallelujah!
I tried to help. A few years ago I was in Rome. I couldn't get an audience, so I stood in the center of St. Peter's square and shouted up at the famous window: "Eh, Frankie, Paisan! Give Chuck and Sandy a break, whaddaya! They're nice people. They actually believe all that cra... uh... stuff. Jess chill, huh." Don't know if he heard me.
You'd think I would have as much influence as Kimmy. Oh well, one does what one can.
I think the best descriptor for these sorts of hyper partisan Confederate kangaroo courts is "show trial".
Prior to the Planned Parenthood inquisition, representatives of the Confederacy had plainly consulted the GOP Dirty Tricks handbook, a compendium of thousands of pages of sniveling stratagems, moral equivocations, investigative gimmickry, and Machiavellian maneuverings, replete with the usual feints, duplicity, and slimy invention, then covered the whole mephitic aggregate in as oleaginous a mantle of congressional artifice as could be achieved.
As for the truly despicable grilling of Ms. Richards concerning her compensation, I would only point a reasonable person to the congressional hearings held in the aftermath of the Bush Administration economic disaster during which the architects of sub-prime chicanery threw millions into dire straits. I followed these hearings carefully and don't recall anyone demanding to know how much money Lloyd Blankfein was paid by Goldman, or what kind of bonuses were conferred on fraud-master Fabrice Tourre, one of Goldman's chief schemers. These Masters of the Universe, under the indolent oversight of The Decider, nearly brought down the entire country but no one sought to impeach their testimony by waving their paychecks over their heads.
Bereft of legitimacy, honesty, and decency, the GOP doesn't even merit the distinction of a Potemkin political association. A Potemkin party would at the very least try to give the appearance of validity. These people are street thugs, pickpockets, and querulous quacks empowered by their own inverted sense of morality which allows them to bend any rule, break any law, to fray the bonds of common decency in the service of rank partisanship. The entire party is a disgrace.
If it weren't so depressing an enterprise, I'd consider adding up the amount of time (including all the time spent by party pettifoggers and skulking skunks trying to invent "facts" for their congressional bosses), money, and effort spent by this Confederacy of Clowns in trying to destroy healthcare, attack women, and keeping a nothing "scandal" going in order to smear a Democratic candidate, all paid for by taxpayers.
You could fuel several Promethean programs with such wherewithal, convene a modern Manhattan project, build new pyramids or discover the cure for terrible diseases. Instead, the Republican "Party's" adherents spend their political capital and the country's tax monies tearing down, besmirching, smearing, lying, inventing stories to gin up the most horrendous of its army of partisan mouthbreathers.
Were they in charge a million years ago, we'd still be living in caves throwing rocks at each other over which tree to worship.
Greetings, One & All.
If of interest . . .
I: From Politicus/usa
by Rmuse
Monday, September, 28th, 2015
"Iranian President Laughs At Republicans And Compares Them To Saddam Hussein" =>
http://www.politicususa.com/2015/09/28/iranian-president-laughs-republicans-compares-saddam-hussein.html
II: Political Humor by Molton, graphing "The DE=EVOLUTION of The G.O.P." =>
https://plus.google.com/+OleOlson/posts/BFnLMhcX2Vs
Dr. Gunter misspeaks on the issue of offering care before 23 weeks. In Canada, maybe, and in most hospitals in the U.S. without a NICU, but in major hospitals this is not the case. My grandson was born at barely 22 weeks. Today he is a chunky, healthy, perfectly "normal" little marvel.
@Akhilleus writes, "Were they in charge a million years ago, we'd still be living in caves throwing rocks at each other over which tree to worship."
You've made me feel sorry for our ancestors who invented stuff like hunting tools & wheeled carts. They must have been pilloried by their tribesmen/GOP ancestors for being "weaklings" who relied on gizmos to catch & carry.
Marie
Glenn Greenwald is stirring up the pot again. This was news to me:
"The Greatest threat to Campus Free speech is coming from Dianne Feinstein and her Military-Contractor husband."
A disturbing piece along with interesting discussions by the many commenters.
https://theintercept.com/2015/09/25/dianne-feinstein-husband-threaten-univ-calif-demanding-ban-excessive-israel-criticism/?comments=1#comments
Marie,
Can you imagine what the progressive cave people who invented writing had to endure?
This meant that the stupidest pronouncements made by the proto-GOP could be inscribed for all time which, of course, prompted winger cavemen to invent the time honored "My grunts were taken out of context" parry.
Who says evolution is a myth?
Article by Jeffrey Toobin in the New Yorker in re: the cowardice of John Boehner. I agree: Statesmanship=0; Living bourbon to bourbon=10.
http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-pointless-cowardice-of-john-boehner
New Yorker on fire, the last couple days, also an essay on the "scientific ignorance" of Carson. Jeez....who knew.
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/ben-carsons-scientific-ignorance?intcid=mod-most-popular
PD,
Interesting piece. Coupled with the article linked yesterday by Ophelia, it outlines the continued peril for free speech in a nation whose founding document foregrounds it as a primary right.
If you didn't check out the story Ophelia linked, do so; it's a good one. It seems the sort of antipathy evident in the Bush administration for the freedom to report on events in war zones has now been codified in something called, rather humorously, as the "Law of War Manual". Reminds me of "Rules for Anarchists". But the outcome isn't very funny, particularly if you're a reporter sending back stories from the front that don't canonize military leaders:
"Simply by reporting on the US military in a way the Pentagon interprets as "dangerous," journalists could be left open to censorship, incarceration or even the death penalty."
Chapter IV, Classes of Persons contain the new distinctions for the press. (Also, if so inclined, check out Chapter XVI on the jus ad bellum triggers for cyber warfare.)
The rules enumerated in this Law of War thing grant military commanders broad powers to determine whether to treat journalists as friend or foe with no evidence if the decision is a bad one. They can be termed "unprivileged belligerents" and treated like the enemy, or even worse, like terrorists, subject to being caught, imprisoned, or killed, or targeted by drone strikes if necessary and convenient.
Price of battlefield Pulitzers just went up.
Calling Ernie Pyle, come in Ernie, you won't believe this shit.
In case you're the curious kind and would like to see how Republicans play bridge, I've uncovered this very special video. And guess what? It's not doctored.
If you've ever wondered how it is that the deck is always stacked against any non-Confederates appearing before some show trial House committee, here's your answer.
The biggest difference is, the proceedings in this video are fairer than is typical for those we normally see in the House.
(I'm pretty sure the one with the funny hair is Trey Gowdy.)
Hello again. Two things.
First, one of my many frustrations over the abortion issue is the word
'miscarriage'. The medical and correct term is spontaneous abortion. Yes, it is an abortion. While this in no way deals directly with a women's decision, the fact is the great majority of abortions are perfectly natural processes.The cause in the majority of cases is identifiable genetic defects. So,getting back to the Ohio proposal,guess what, a common cause of miscarriage is trisomy 21. Down's syndrome. So if your god created humans, he is the number one 'killer' of fetuses.
Second just to clarify the record, Pope Francis said all the right things (except his visit with the new Republican), but did not do anything. Climate change, the major cause is the religious view on contraception, women should be treated nice but no change in Church policy, feed the poor, our local archbishop spent $500K of church money to fix up his mansion and nothing was done to stop him. And I am sure there are a lot more examples.
Author's wife donates a million dollars to pp.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/01/us/lemony-snicket-the-author-and-his-wife-donate-1-million-to-planned-parenthood.html?hpw&rref=us&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well
Marie, they may have read your form of donation, and did theirs - with a giant wad o' money.
mae finch
Thank you, Akhilleus, for the Chico/Harpo deck-stacking tutorial - Hilarious!
From (the late) Gore Vidal:
"As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it.Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests."
As long as a little humor is in the air, this take on our ancestors can be found with a little googling:
http://www.wsu.edu/~deome/engl101sp2011/syllabus.html