Weekend Open Thread
Welcome to your weekend open thread. Yes, the rumors are true. I am taking a break for a while. I’m sure the rest of the crew will take good care of you. This will be my last thread for a while.
Good read about the man who stole the Mona Lisa 100 years ago, making her the most famous portrait in the world.
The Wellcome Trust released some film archives taken of British soldiers suffering for “shell shock” in 1917-1918. Quite fascinating
There are four other videos you can watch. I always thought “shell shock” referred to PTSD. In the video above, I think only the 2nd soldier suffers from what I understand PTSD to be. The other soldiers look like they have a neurological condition, but I’m no expert.
And finally, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker receives a less-than-friendly welcome at the Wisconsin state fair.
Tags: Open Thread
The Wisconsin State Fair used to be such a friendly place, that is until Scott Walker showed up on the scene.
“…that is until Scott Walker showed up…”
Total bullshit, MJ. It had more to do with nondescript ‘mobs’ who preyed upon other nondescript fair goers.
Nothing to do with Walker.
This new political environment is worse than we think:
Something is broken, all right. This is not the same guy who announced his candidacy for Senate.
Good, the best way to increase revenues is to increase economic growth not raise taxes. We need fundamental tax reform.
Government Debt-Beats
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAeoGSqnsp0
King Grover Norquist will not stand for any reform that would allow more money to go to the government. This includes closing loopholes.
Dems once again missing the boat and not mentioning the obvious loopholes, like tax breaks for shipping jobs out of the country or subsidies to oil and gas.
Thank you to unstable isotope for all his hard work. I always almost mis pronuounce his screen name. So I want to offer a new nick name, for unstable, I want to call him unstopable isotope. I know this does not make sense in chemistry, but that is what I always want to call him. What do you say guys?
Anyway, unstable, enjoy your time off.
It gets worse. John Carney is now explicitly promoting trickle-down.
The headline says Carney says debt deal should have been “balanced” – WHOA! We know balanced means raising taxes on the wealthiest so they can share the sacrifice, right? Way to go, John!
But wait:
Uh-oh. “Tax reform?” That doesn’t sound like raising taxes on the wealthiest.
Then cut to the audio:
Cut taxes and revenue goes up. Where have we heard that before?
Can we PLEASE have some tax reform that doesn’t require unicorns? How about just a straight-up promise to let the Bush tax cuts expire?
Show us the numbers, John.
I want one.
I want it to be $99 at Walmart. When everybody has one, we can upload them to a web-based mapping database and plot the location of every police car in real time.
“Thank you to unstable isotope for all his hard work. I always almost mis pronuounce his …”
Dang. I always thought UI was quite a lady…
When is the last time a Cop drove 55mph on I-95?
Oh noes! UI you can’t be leaving. I understand the time commitment you’ve put in here has been huge and you certainly deserve a break. Please come back from time to time. We’ll miss you.
Phil asked:
When traffic was backed up and he couldn’t go any faster?
Behold the new voodoo economics – “tax reform.” Cut taxes and get more revenue. It is the new Democratic party line. Carper, Coons, and Carney are all singing from this hymnbook. It is no doubt coming from the White House. (With the caveat of course that Carper will eventually have some quibble that will force the plan slightly rightward). The expiration of the Bush tax cuts is now irrelevant, because the tax reform bill will render the expiration moot. We will never see the Clinton boom tax rates again.
Trenchant political analyisis from Tom Carper:
UI, please return after a well-deserved break.
You’ll be missed, Unstable Isotope. Thanks for all you’ve contributed, and I hope that you don’t stay away too long.