Archive for September, 2013
This Pope is trying to turn me Catholic
The way things were going under the past two unreformed Nazi Popes, I didn’t think I’d see a Pope talking about how the Church is supposed to enact the gospels of Jesus by being compassionate and serving the poor.
“We have to find a new balance,” he said in the interview, published in Jesuit journals across the world. “Otherwise even the moral edifice of the church is likely to fall like a house of cards, losing the freshness and fragrance of the Gospel.”
He added: “The church’s pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently.”
Question of the Day
We have a hostage situation. Some criminals are threatening to shoot hostages unless the hostages’ loved ones pay the ransom. So the question is, who is to blame for this hostage situation, the hostages and their loved ones who refuse to pay the ransom, or the criminals with the gun?
Take the poll
Thursday Open Thread 9.19.13
So Speaker… and I use that term loosely … Boehner decided this week to have the Republican Party commit suicide. Unfortunately, the suicide plan is to have the country drive towards a cliff and jump off. And since he is the driver and we are all his passengers, and the doors are locked, we have to go with him. So it is more of a non-mutual murder-suicide pact. The government, much of it anyway, will run out of money at the end of the month when the new fiscal year (October 1) starts. Eighteen days after that, the government will run out of borrowing authority when the debt ceiling is reached. So Speaker Boehner had a choice: he could have passed continuing resolutions to fund the government at last year’s budget levels for a certain period of time and have that pass the House with Democratic and Republican votes, as he has done before. Or he could surrender to the fringe tea party caucus in the House and demand that any continuing resolution and any debt ceiling increase be paired with a repeal or defunding of Obamacare.
This demand is insane and ignorant. It shows how mind blowingly stupid Teabagger Republicans are. For the funding of the Affordable Care Act is pretty much already taken care of when the original law was passed. Indeed, you will have to repeal the entire law to defund it. And as long as President Obama is alive and serving as President, the law will not be repealed. A government shutdown will not stop it. The money has already been spent and insurance premiums are already plunging across the country, meaning that the law is already paying for itself.
The Teabaggers, including Jim DeMint and Steven King and Ted Cruz, are all operating under the assumption that the President will cave and repeal his own law. Their entire plan is predicated on that assumption. And that might be a good, thought still very risky, assumption if Obamacare polled badly and the public wanted the Republicans to do everything they can to repeal or defund it. But that is not the case.
How America’s Mental Health Establishment Empowered the Navy Yard Shooter
The security breaches are already being well covered in the public media on the tragic D.C. Navy Yard massacre. So is the absurd U.S. tolerance and obsession with violence. And, hopefully, the gun culture debate is firing up again. But what I’d like my readers to focus on is the total failure of our mental health system, if you can call it that. The dozen innocent victims of the shooter’s crazed act and their families can look to the numerous red flags apparent in his long history of schizophrenic behavior ignored or overlooked by mental health professionals and Aaron Alexis associates alike. And no, it was not within his capability to recognize the illness in his own behavior. The responsibility sits squarely with the so called professionals. They own it as do they own the stunning inadequacy of our country’s mental health care. Here’s what we must address as a society, holding these professionals accountable for joining we the people in fixing this travesty of a system.
Tonight’s The Night! DL Get Together!
Could we have picked a more perfect night! Love this weather! We’ll be on the second floor (either inside or on the deck). I’ll try and find my DL pin! Unfortunately, my printer is acting up, but I’ll try and make a DL table sign!
Thursday, September 19th
7 pm
Iron Hill Brewery
(on the Wilmington Riverfront)
Be there, or be square! 😉
Wednesday Open Thread 9.18.13
NATIONAL–SYRIA–WaPo/ABC Poll: Large majorities of all Americans, including Democrats, Republicans and Independents, support the diplomatic deal struck this past weekend where “Syria places all of its chemical weapons under control of the United Nations, which would then destroy them.” Democrats support it 86% to 12%. Independents support it 82% to 16%. And even Republicans support it 71% to 22%. I guess it is only our media and John McCain that don’t.
The 62 District Strategy – Early 2014 Edition
Today, if I had to give you my opinion on which Senate seats will be competitive and which will not, I honestly think only one will be: the 6th. Ernie Lopez faces a potential primary, and will apparently face a spirited challenge from Democrat Claire Synder Hall. If Lopez loses to Urquhart, then this seat becomes a Lean Democrat race. If it stays Lopez v. Synder Hall, then it is a Lean Republican race with a chance to become a true toss up.
Now, you may be wondering why I don’t think the 4th SD will be competitive, especially since Lavelle barely beat former Senator Katz last time, 50.1 to 47.5. Well, I believe that race was close because it was against an incumbent (Katz) who did his best to swing to the right after being the progressive challenger to former Senate President Pro Tem Tony Deluca. He had to swing to the right because Deluca made his district much more Republican in redistricting as revenge for the leadership challenge, which, ironically, ended up costing Deluca his own seat. So, now the district is more Republican. There is now no Democratic incumbent in office. Lavelle is in the Republican Leadership. He is very vocal and visible in the paper and on the radio. Thus, unless a major Democrat challenges him, I don’t see Lavelle losing this seat for a while.
Tuesday Open Thread 9.17.13
Noam Scheiber expects a government shutdown on October 1, and he thinks it will be a good thing since it will sober up the Republicans ahead of the debt ceiling vote.
Fortunately, a shutdown is almost certainly a good thing. Yes, it can slow the economy and wreak temporary havoc on people who rely on government services. But these consequences are nothing alongside the fallout from defaulting on our debt, which will happen if we don’t raise the debt ceiling by mid-October. That’s why Boehner’s inability to persuade conservatives to postpone their Obamacare demands until the debt-ceiling fight is in fact a hugely welcome development. It gives everyone a chance to sober up before we take on the substantially higher-stakes proposition of avoiding a debt default. In fact, if Boehner and the White House had both been a bit more pro-shutdown back in 2011, when this whole B-movie horror flick started, that year’s debt ceiling fight and the sequester may never have happened, and we might not be in the mess we’re in today. A little bit of shutdown, I’d wager, goes a long way.
CRI – Development Director Position Opening
Do you know someone who would be interested in helping CRI lie about climate change? Are you a hardened misanthrope who would not mind advancing the extreme anti-middle class views of the Koch brothers under the ruse of being a think tank? If so consider joining CRI as our Development Director. This position can be part-time if needed, since most of the CRI’s funding comes from large undisclosed donors. Some experience in selling ones soul to the devil is preferred. For more information please contact Jim Ursomarso at j.ursomarso@att.net or call 302-573-5227.
Thank you.
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