Wednesday Open Thread [2.25.15]

Anyone who knows me on Facebook knows I am a huge Walking Dead fan. It is pretty much the only TV Show I watch live. Well, not to spoil part of the fifth season for any viewer out there, but in the most recent episode, Rick Grimes and his band of survivors of the Zombie Apocalypse encounter a man named Aaron, who tries to convince them to come to a community in Arlington, Virginia that is safe from the Zombie Walkers. Long story short, Rick agrees, and when Aaron and the group reach the community, Aaron is reunited with his boyfriend/husband, Eric, and in their reunion that share a passionate kiss not unlike any kiss you would see between a man and a woman deeply in love who were separated during a dangerous mission and are reunited.

Well, the Walking Dead is so popular now, the most highly watch TV show in the country, and thus it now has uninformed uneducated bigots among the viewership now, and they took to Twitter to complain.

Last nights Walking Dead was really good except for the whole gay thing. Stop promoting sin to be okay.

— Spencer Howe (@MercedesSpenz18) February 23, 2015

For the nonviewers of the show, please be advised that this show is graphically violent. It has featured a woman killing a mentally unbalanced child (who herself had killed her sister so she could turn into a zombie because she thought it was cool, so her own death was necessary to protect the other children, but still….) and cannibals amputating and eating a man’s leg, and not to mention Zombies constantly feeding on humans. And yet this loving kiss between two people who love each other is a step too far.

It has been a banner week with Republican state lawmakers displaying their ultimate lack of even elementary knowledge of anything scientific or medical and yet their ultimate desire to still act like doctors.

Nevada State Assemblywoman and Cliven Bundy supporter Michele Fiore (R) said:

If you have cancer, which I believe is a fungus, and we can put a pic line into your body and we’re flushing with, say, salt water, sodium cardonate ([sic] through that line and flushing out the fungus. These are some procedures that are not FDA-approved in America that are very inexpensive, cost-effective.

Who knew that cancer is like athlete’s foot? Idaho State Rep. Vito Barbieri (R) thinks the throat and stomach are connected to the vagina and uterus. Wrong hole, sir. But there is a sign of hope. In Wyoming, state Rep. Harlan Edmonds (R) was kicked out of a House Labor, Health and Social Services meeting after proposing an amendment to a bill protecting gay and transgender people from discrimination that would make it effective when “hell freezes over,” instead of the date of July 1.

“Many longtime observers said that while some members of the public have been tossed from committees, this was the first time they’d seen a lawmaker removed from a meeting.”

Good for the Republicans in Wyoming for showing a bigot the door.

IOWA–PRESIDENT–REPUBLICAN PRIMARY–Quinnipiac: Walker 25, Paul 13, Carson 11, Huckabee 11, Bush 10, Cruz 5, Christie 4, Rubio 4, Santorum 4, Perry 3, Jindal 2

Key finding: “Tea Party supporters make up 32% of likely caucus-goers and Walker gets 33% of that Tea Party vote.”

NATIONAL–PRESIDENT–REPUBLICAN PRIMARY–Public Policy Polling: Walker 25, Carson 18, Bush 17, Huckabee 10, Christie 5, Cruz 5, Paul 4, Perry 3, Rubio 3

NORTH CAROLINA–PRESIDENTI–Elon: Clinton 46, Bush 40.

First Read: “Few issues fire up a good chunk of conservatives more than personal attacks against President Obama. At the same time, these attacks also turn off swing voters and minorities that the Republican Party is trying to court. And this is the situation that Scott Walker now finds himself in, after refusing 1) to comment on Rudy Giuliani’s assertion that Barack Obama doesn’t love his country, and 2) declining to weigh in on whether Obama is a Christian. Notable conservatives have cheered Walker’s rhetoric and blasted the media for asking these types of questions…. Yet other conservative writers, like Matt Lewis, argue that this rhetoric is only going to alienate other voters… What’s more, as Democrat Robert Gibbs said on ‘Meet the Press’ yesterday, if you’re stirring up controversies on the EASY questions, think what happens when they become HARDER as a presidential candidate.”

“Here’s the thing about playing with fire: Sometimes you frighten your opposition by doing something they couldn’t do — or ever dream to do. Other times, you get burned.”

Foreign Policy: “It’s hard to know exactly what Giuliani meant by this remark beyond his obvious, general distaste for the president, but in comparing himself to Obama, Giuliani makes an implicit distinction: That he holds in his heart an abiding love for the United States that the current occupant of the White House does not.”

“What Giuliani doesn’t mention is that the consulting company that has made him a very wealthy man since leaving public office has done work on behalf of a country that all but certainly does not love America in the vague, jingoistic way Giuliani would like you to believe that he does: Qatar, the tiny oil-rich kingdom has drawn criticism in the past for its cozy relationship with violent Islamist movements.”

Six in 10 Americans favor raising the minimum wage, including nearly half who are strongly in favor, a new AP-GfK Poll shows, while only 2 in 10 are opposed. Six in 10 also favor requiring all employers to give paid time off to employees when they are sick, while two-thirds favor requiring all employers to give time off to employees after the birth of a child.