Monday Open Thread
Welcome to your Monday open thread. The election is less than 24 hours away! VOTE!!!! Tell all your friends to vote, otherwise I’ll come over to their house and drink all their beer and I won’t share it!!! I know our commenters will back me up here, they’ll help bogart non-voters beer, right guys?
This is a really cool science story. Researchers have determined the exact pathogen for the Black Death plagues of the 1300s and its origin in China. Science rocks!
One team of biologists, led by Barbara Bramanti of the Institut Pasteur in Paris and Stephanie Haensch of Johannes Gutenberg University in Germany, analyzed ancient DNA and proteins from plague pits, the mass burial grounds across Europe in which the dead were interred. Writing in the journal PLoS Pathogens this month, they say their findings put beyond doubt that the Black Death was brought about by Yersinia pestis.
Dr. Bramanti’s team was able to distinguish two strains of the Black Death plague bacterium, which differ both from each other and from the three principal strains in the world today. They infer that medieval Europe must have been invaded by two different sources of Yersinia pestis. One strain reached the port of Marseilles on France’s southern coast in 1347, spread rapidly across France and by 1349 had reached Hereford, a busy English market town and pilgrimage center near the Welsh border.
The strain of bacterium analyzed from the bones and teeth of a Hereford plague pit dug in 1349 is identical to that from a plague pit of 1348 in southern France, suggesting a direct route of travel. But a plague pit in the Dutch town of Bergen op Zoom has bacteria of a different strain, which the researchers infer arrived from Norway.
It’s really quite amazing what they can do with DNA analysis these days. I love reading stories like these.
While we weren’t paying attention David Broder has completed his transformation into a crazy person. He’s a neocon now.
Look back at FDR and the Great Depression. What finally resolved that economic crisis? World War II.
Here is where Obama is likely to prevail. With strong Republican support in Congress for challenging Iran’s ambition to become a nuclear power, he can spend much of 2011 and 2012 orchestrating a showdown with the mullahs. This will help him politically because the opposition party will be urging him on. And as tensions rise and we accelerate preparations for war, the economy will improve.
I am not suggesting, of course, that the president incite a war to get reelected. But the nation will rally around Obama because Iran is the greatest threat to the world in the young century. If he can confront this threat and contain Iran’s nuclear ambitions, he will have made the world safer and may be regarded as one of the most successful presidents in history.
Hey, he’s not saying starting a war with Iran is a good idea, only that it’s good economic policy. (Yeah, because war with Iraq and Afghanistan have been great for our bottom line.) Plus Broder is falling for the Republican silliness that somehow money spent to support WWII was not government spending. But he probably has a point, blowing up other countries is about the only money Republicans are willing to spend. Roads and bridges could collapse here for all they care.
Tags: Open Thread
Here’s how Bill Colley from WGMD described Saturday’s rally:
http://www.wgmd.com/?p=12184
“As a friend wrote me, it was a mostly white crowd with few children and not many older people.”
Colley estimated the crowd at “15,000”. I can take one look at the pictures from the rally and see he’s wrong.
Dad says Christine was at Brandywine High School’s homecoming game on Saturday. Random?
Little disappointed he held his tongue.
Wow. He’s just making stuff up. It’s sad people listen to that.
Broder needs to see a death panel. Stat!
Curly might have hurt his head when he fell through the kitchen floor over at the WGOP offices. (not making this up – he’s so obese, he actually fell through the floor).
ugh barf – just saw a snipet on CNN with the O’donnell info-mercial
ummm Russ Murphy all smiles says “we’re going to Washington”
that guy is a delegate to an underground governement -the guy who advocates oerthrow of the Obama administrtion?? that traitor??
the guy who thins Obama is not a US citizen and not legally preseident and who’s LTs Alex Garcia and Teresa Garcia are BIG 2nd amendment folks??
UGH BARF – I just cannot hold it back – wonder if she will come to returns day – wonder if she will have bodyguards.
More than 15,000 people either bumped into me or stepped on my feet alone.
Wilmington Trust gets itself bought up by M&T Bank from Buffalo, NY.
WT still suffering from losses on real estate and construction loans for projects in Sussex Co, I hear.
I am not young, had a brace on my knee And gave up my seat on the Metro to someone older than I who came to the rally using a walker. And I believe there were 15,000 people in my Metro car.
The crowd I saw was incredibly diverse in age and ethnicity. Of course if Colley’s only reporting 15,000 he’s talking about the guys who watched in the bar or something.
For someone reason rightwingers have been freaking out about the rally probably because they were afraid there’d be more people than at Beck’s rally. They were right about that.
AP chooses this day to put out a speculative article:
Contraception could be free under health care law
without one shred of serious evidence such a thing is being planned, or even any real news at all.
Hey Belinsky!
You weren’t the only one watching last night’s game.
From Washington Monthly:
THAT’S NOT AN ESPECIALLY IMPRESSIVE SKILL IN A PRESIDENT…. Before last night’s World Series game, former Presidents Bush took the mound for a ceremonial pitch, thrown, not surprisingly, by the younger one. It was in Texas, and Bush 43 used to own one of the teams in the game, so the Bushes were well received.
But Scott Lemieux notes that the reaction to the pitch from some on the right is rather odd.
Blogprof: “How refreshing that we had a President that knows how to throw a baseball. Bush didn’t ‘wrist’ it like sissy girls do.”
(snip)
Another wrote, “Miss them yet, America? What a moment in Texas. Father, son and baseball — it does not get any more American than that…. Remember Barack Hussein Obama’s pathetic first pitches? Who could forget the lameness.”
Full post:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_11/026411.php
AP is every bit as slanted as FOX. Who owns AP anyway?
Thanks, Pancho. Anyone who carries the name of a talented, misunderstood minion of Mauch is a friend of mine.
Obama was 6th man on a state championship basketball team. John Kerry played varsity soccer for a good Yale team [with a hat trick against Harvard]. Al Gore was football captain at St. Alban’s [and made the freshman basketball team at Harvard].
But the mythmakers of the Right, probably defensively, constantly babble about the he-manliness of conservatives.
wasnt GWB a male cheerleader?
not that there is anything wrong with that… to me anyway. It just seem like a “2nd amendment-solution” offense in teabagland
UI, that is a great story about the Black Death. It is amazing what they can do w/ DNA analysis. For example, the findings from the Human Genome Project completely blew me away.
The World Series is Pelosi v. the Bushes.
13 campaign mailers today…up from the previous average of 5 per day during the last week. Election season: the great post office bailout.
I made a special effort to remove myself from junk mail lists. Is there any way to opt out of these mailings other than de-registering myself? Frankly, I’d rather get credit card offers. At least there are laws that require a level of honesty on them.
Also, either Rebecca Walker is a Republican, or everything she’s sent me wants me to think she is. An “A” from the NRA is not a good thing in my book.
Here’s another dirty trick. I just got a postcard with the headline:
Gerald Brady and Christine O’Donnell
The Pro-Life Team we can Trust!
Gerald tells me he has no idea who sent it out. It should go without saying that he had nothing to do with it. It’s hard to imagine who this might benefit, unless it’s O’Donnell trying to catch a little ride on his coattails.
Celia Cohen has officially decided that the odds are very good that all of the anonymous anti-DEM mailings are coming from Charlie Copeland and his LEAD PAC.
http://www.delawaregrapevine.com/10-10PObox.asp
I wasn’t a big Walker fan from what I saw in the forums. I would vote for the GOP if I lived down in that district.
meh, Nancy, I wouldn’t go that far. Still, I’da rather pulled for Richard Griffiths, who, you know, wasn’t afraid to be a progressive and had the courage to run before it was known that Cathcart wouldn’t.
In a huge waste of money, we have been getting robocalls from both Vincent Gray’s campaign and a group urging a write in vote for Adrien Fenty. They’re both running for Mayor of DC. Problem is we haven’t lived there since 2005. And they’re calling our home number with a 302 area code. Guess they don’t believe in scrubbing their lists.
Rachel Maddow seems to be giving a eulogy of the Obama presidency.
Actually, Rachel’s giving a full-scale smack-down to A1-style mopery.
“They spent their political capital — on policy.”
Policy is half of the job. A full 50% of the job of President is politics. What would your performance evaluation look like is you simply decided to blow off half of your job?
Wilmington City Councildope Michael Brown gives a Robocall for Urq.
To Tommy and other City thinkers: let’s look for a decent Republican for that fourth at-large Council seat. Since 1968, it’s been filled by Bartkowski Sr., Bartkowski Jr., and Brown.
yeah… i realized that about 5 mins after the comment..
jason, it shouldnt be.
“A1-style mopery”
Sure. Tell me how successful Obomba has been on Wednesday. Obomba may be poised to bring a bring about a repub house majority that Bush and Rove dreamed of because of his political incompetence and dishonesty. Nancy Pelosi and the House passed 400 bills, most of which died in the Senate because of Obomba and Reid. She has been the progressive leader, and she’s the one that will probably lose her job. She is the one who spent her political capital on policy while Obomba tried to appease the republicans while trashing his base.
“jason, it shouldnt be.”
Denial of reality = insanity.
Shorter A1: Reid and Obama should have assassinated Snowe, waterboarded Ben Nelson.
http://www.mydamnchannel.com/Harry_Shearer/Music_Videos/MusicVideosWaterboardinUSA_426.aspx
The A1’s of Florida are stickin’ with Kendrick. Jon S, moments ago: “Rather than vote for the guy who agrees with them on most things, they want to elect the guy who agrees with them on nothing.”
Keep waving your pom-poms for dishonesty, incompetency, and corporatism. Rah-rah! You’re gonna be thrilled at the score on Wednesday, I am sure.
Sometimes you gotta fire the coach.
a1, the Rs are going to win wednesday…. but ya know what? in 1+ years when the bills passed HAVENT destroyed God, the Rs are going to have ot answer.
Michelle Bachman has a giant “Boehner”for an impeachment investigation and she is not alone. This is Gingrich, but a lower IQ and more crazy. I cant wait for them to spend the next 2 years wasting everyone’s time…. all of Randy’s acolytes being thugs… It is going to be infuriating at times, but America is so dumb as a whole we constantly need comparison. I cant think of a better way to give the country a look at what to expect from a Teabag government…. remember all they can do AT BEST is stop anything from happening.
Literarily-challenged A1 says “yer mom” via faux-macho cliché, using dated image of spirit squads, displaying his gender insecurity.
Naderite A1’s elected Bush. Now they want Doug Campbell as AG. Well-put, Del Dem: “idiot purists.”