Monday Open Thread
It’s Monday and at least some of you get to enjoy a 3-day weekend. The rest of us have to work. So let’s open this thread.
Anyone who is tempted to rekindle old romances or start new ones on the internet be warned: Facebook is now being cited in almost 20 per cent of divorces.
A law firm in America has made the startling claim after discovering that nearly one in five of its clients named the social networking site in their petitions.
Divorce-Online’s managing director Mark Keenan said he was “really surprised” to discover that out of 5,436 cases, 989 contained a reference to Facebook. “The most common reason seemed to be people having inappropriate sexual chats with people they were not supposed to,” he said.
Ah, the digital age! Facebook is only the tool for cheating spouses, not the actual cause.
It’s about time we started discussing this topic:
Vice President Joe Biden said at a Florida fundraiser Sunday that the 60-seat threshold for passing legislation in the Senate put a dangerous new roadblock in the way of American government.
“As long as I have served … I’ve never seen, as my uncle once said, the constitution stood on its head as they’ve done. This is the first time every single solitary decisions has required 60 senators,” Biden said. “No democracy has survived needing a supermajority.”
Despite that dire warning, Biden said he’s “optimistic” the country will appreciate the administration’s accomplishments: “The American people are very smart, and we’ll demonstrate by November that the project is working.”
I think there needs to be a change because the U.S. will become almost ungovernable if the status quo continues and Scott Brown becomes a Senator. We need to find a way to balance the needs of the minority party with the need of the majority to function. The current rules are being abused and they need to change. I just wish the administration had been making this argument for long and not just now when it looks like they’re about to lose their 60-seat majority.
Tags: Open Thread
Scott Brown now leads Coakley 51-46 on the eve of the election.
The honeymoon is definitely over. For dems to lose a liberal state like Mass is very telling.
New poll just out has it 48-48.
I think that means it’s a toss-up and it will all depend on GOTV. Some website (Rothenberg, Cook) have changed the race to ‘Lean Republican’ or ‘Lean Takeover.’ Watch tomorrow!
Help a 2nd grader out please–My daughter is learning about data, and needs to plot what is your favorite holiday: Halloween, Birthday, Christmas, Presidents Day, Valentine’s Day. We’re a lil’ short on the “critical mass” number of responses she needs, and right now I’m on another project, that can’t stop to dial up and talk to relatives…please just weigh in. Muchas gracias!!
This deserves its own post… Hats off to Joanne Christian and all the hard, emotionally devastating work she’s done in Haiti. I was on the phone with her for an hour and sincerely hope – once she catches her breath – she will write a guest post on what she experienced. A truly amazing woman, who will quickly play down my praise in the name of humility.
Brava, Joanne. I admire you beyond words.
Let them filibuster. They can talk for a month straight if they want. The American people can watch it all and see for themselves who is responsible for nothing getting done in Washington.
Joanne, I love Halloween. Lot of fun, little stress!
An article in the Times Online (i.e., The Sunday Times of 17 January 2010) indicates that the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is on the point of issuing a retraction of a report that Anthropogenic Global Warming is causing Himalayan glaciers to disappear.
A WARNING that climate change will melt most of the Himalayan glaciers by 2035 is likely to be retracted after a series of scientific blunders by the United Nations body that issued it.
Two years ago the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a benchmark report that was claimed to incorporate the latest and most detailed research into the impact of global warming. A central claim was the world’s glaciers were melting so fast that those in the Himalayas could vanish by 2035.
In the past few days the scientists behind the warning have admitted that it was based on a news story in the New Scientist, a popular science journal, published eight years before the IPCC’s 2007 report.
It has also emerged that the New Scientist report was itself based on a short telephone interview with Syed Hasnain, a little-known Indian scientist then based at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi.
I like Thanksgiving.
Joanne – This poll’s for you…
Are those our only choices? Thanksgiving’s not on it.
Favorite holidays. 5 data points. Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, St. Patrick’s Day.
Nice scatter, lol.
Only 2 in the poll (Christmas and Presidents’ Day) are actually holidays. Is this what they’re teaching in school? 🙂 Halloween.
Joanne, I gots to go with Halloween. I help run a Haunted House every year and the kids love it.
thanksgiving was a national holiday last time i checked.
Thanksgiving is not in the poll.
Thanks gang…yup those are the holidays she has to work with. Your input is appreciated, and is helping her get to her “sample”–although probably “Onion” scented. Appreciate the isolated poll Geek!!! WOW!!! Oh it takes a village huh? Mom didn’t help with the homework, the blogosphere did!!!! Thanks again…and keep voting, she’ll have to go to bed soon!
“One survey out of Public Policy Polling showed Brown leading 51-46 percent. Another from American Research Group showed him leading 52-45 percent. Another conducted for Politico.com had Brown leading 52-43 percent.”
Martha Cokehead is finished.
Halloween – the quintessential American holiday: You can be whatever you dream, at least for one day. Just dress the part.
Mrs. Kitty votes for Christmas.
Lonnie, Harker mentioned in NYT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/18/education/18college.html
Can I be honest? That new twitter thingie on the left is annoying. I read on a netbook and it’s right where I read and actually touches the text on the screen – any way to move it to the right? Of course, it doesn’t help that I can’t stand twitter…