The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    Richard Day's picture

    COLD AS HELL

    By Richard Day on Fri, 12/06/2013 - 8:43pm |

    HAPPINESS IS A WARM CLIME

    Everything is closed HERE, up here in the middle of nowhere.

    The snow keeps on keepin on and roads are closed and schools are closed and buses are closed and stores are closed and....

    We are closed up here in the middle of nowhere.

    Proof that Jay Carney et. al. rarely talks to the president but

    By artappraiser on Thu, 12/05/2013 - 10:07pm |

    just puts on a useless dog and pony show every day, riffing off of and babbling general talking points, or what his staff can find in books and on the internet if there are no applicable talking points:

    White House corrects record, says Obama did live with uncle briefly in 1980s
    By Aaron Blake and Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post, Dec. 5, 2013

    jollyroger's picture

    They have not the standing to sue, nor the balls to impeach.

    By jollyroger on Tue, 12/03/2013 - 2:11pm |

    Not content to have wrested from their lackeys on the Supreme Court the right to exclude from Medicaid millions of low income citizens of Repugnant governed states, the punks infesting the lower house of congress writhe in continued agony over their impotence.

     

    jollyroger's picture

    Corrupt cops are like cockroaches--when you see one in the light, there are 100 hidden in the dark.

    By jollyroger on Mon, 12/02/2013 - 9:06am |

    Louis Scarcella, Brooklyn homicide detective (retired), was not a guy you would want to meet, especially if you were a person of color who was innocent of a crime that needed to be cleared. (Cops dislike inventory just like Walmart dislikes unsold crap).

     

    If you have not been following the saga, Scarcella had amassed a remarkable,( indeed incredible...) series of successes bringing quick arrests and smooth convictions in hundreds of homicides.

    jollyroger's picture

    Hobby Lobby--a conscientious objector to contraception. But just like a war resister, you still gotta serve.

    By jollyroger on Thu, 11/28/2013 - 12:00am |

    There is an interesting congruence between the waiver claimed by Hobby Lobby vis-a-vis contributing fungible resources to a purpose they loath, and the waiver granted a conscientious objector who ref.uses to take an active role in combat.

     

    Both are asking to be excused from  participating in that which they  find odious.

     

    Richard Day's picture

    HAPPY THANKSGIVING DAGBLOGGERS!

    By Richard Day on Wed, 11/27/2013 - 11:59pm |

    File:Freedom from want 1943-Norman Rockwell.jpg

    (This is a blog I have altered thru the years, but I decided to repost it at this last minute for 2013! Not a lot of action here at this time of year, but what the hell!)

    WHY WE SHOULD GIVE THANKS

    I have written afore concerning my doubts about an expanding universe.

    jollyroger's picture

    National sovereignty is dead--get over it. (Also, amend the UN Charter...)

    By jollyroger on Tue, 11/26/2013 - 9:02am |

    Charlie Pierce, (not for the first time) is consumed with iration.  The cause of his irritation: the threat by Inifinito Gold (love that name...) to sue the Country of Costa Rica for $1 Billion (U.S.).

     

    Pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered

    By Flavius on Sat, 11/23/2013 - 8:44am |

    If the Republicans had contented themselves with blocking only one of Obama's nominees for that Washington appeals court they'd have gotten away with it. By blocking all three they went too far. And, given the number of vacancies,put Obama in a position to appoint enough new judges to make a significant improvement in how our laws are interpreted.

     

    jollyroger's picture

    Defunding mental health--stranding the rich and famous

    By jollyroger on Thu, 11/21/2013 - 8:42pm |

    We are grown painfully accustomed to the stories of the homeless mentally ill street person whose violent outburst visits catastrophe upon some random passerby.

     

    Richard Day's picture

    THE NEW FOCUS ON EDUCATION

    By Richard Day on Thu, 11/21/2013 - 2:19am |

    Oh I wanted to tell a story. I saw my granddaughter a couple of weeks ago.

    I witnessed miracles two weeks ago when I again had the opportunity to visit with my grandchild.

    My daughter-in-law has a degree in education. That's fine, my son as a degree in Accountancy. 

    So she finally takes a job at this pre-school (we used to call it nursery school) and gets a discount for her daughter to be enrolled there.

    HIPPA, PHI, and ACA Navigators

    By nothere on Mon, 11/18/2013 - 10:07pm |

    Today, I started a new position with a non-profit human service organization in NYC. A very large, very old, very respected one.

    Not that the size and age are relevant to anything; it's JIC you can read between the lines.

    Richard Day's picture

    UNDER MY THUMB

    By Richard Day on Sat, 11/16/2013 - 2:50am |

     

    KEEPIN' SWEETY DOWN!

    A diary of repub women keepin my sweetie down!

    Not a show stopper

    By Flavius on Thu, 11/14/2013 - 10:34pm |

    The insurance industry is shedding a lot of customers/policies that aren't quite profitable enough .Not hopeless "dogs"or they would have shed them long ago.

    I ask myself "what could make all those policies profitable." And the answer  is.......... 'put them in one pile'. We know that the way insurance  works is that insuring against just one risk is....... risky even tho insuring against 5 thousand of such risks would make sense.

    That's called taking advantage of the "law of averages". Or better "being an underwriter"

    trkingmomoe's picture

    Elisabeth Warren and the 21 st Century Glass Steagall Act

    By trkingmomoe on Wed, 11/13/2013 - 3:37am |

    Senator Elisabeth Warren has been in the news again as the media speculates whether she has a chance to become President or whether she can be talked into running in 2016. I think her bill to bring back the Glass Steagall Act is more note worthy for discussion. 

    This is the pdf file of the bill that is being introduced to the Senate by Senator Warren.  It is the 21st Century Glass Steagall Act.  Senators McCain, King and Cantwell are cosigners. The bill is straight forward and reinstates the Glass Steagall Act.  It is very readable and only 26 pages long with all the changes.

    MrSmith1's picture

    America ala Carte

    By MrSmith1 on Sat, 11/09/2013 - 9:25pm |

    ocean-kat’s recent blog about secessionists, struck a chord with me and reminded me that I needed to finish writing this piece.  It is a topic which has been tumbling around in my mind for a long time.

    I was on Facebook a while back, having a discussion with a friend. She is a single mother living in the UK, and doesn't like being told she must get her child vaccinated. 

    More Than Fifty States?

    By ocean-kat on Thu, 11/07/2013 - 12:45am |

    As I'm sure everyone knows five Colorado counties have voted to secede from the state of Colorado. We're about to see a 51st state! Its a logical reaction to the partisan split that's overtaking the country. But its not as simple as it sounds.

    jollyroger's picture

    A special place in Hell for Republican governors who eschew expanded Medicaid

    By jollyroger on Wed, 11/06/2013 - 4:28pm |

    A poignant letter to the New England Journal of Medicine should serve to focus our attention on the less sensational but more important component of Obamacare.

     

    Your Vote Counted

    By Verified Atheist on Wed, 11/06/2013 - 8:10am |

    Typically, arguing about the value of a vote ends up turning into a discussion on the Ship of Theseus, George Washington's Axe, or the Sorites paradox, except that instead of which grain of sand did we have to remove to turn a heap of sand into a non-heap, the question is which vote(s) caused a particular candidate to win? The question at least appears to become a lot less philosophical when you're a part of it.

    Go Vote!

    By Verified Atheist on Tue, 11/05/2013 - 8:05am |

    Due to apathy, off-off year elections (i.e., elections on odd-numbered years) tend to have lower voter turn-out than even off year elections. The bad news is that, for whatever reason, Republican-leaning voters tend to be less affected by apathy than Democratic-leaning voters. The good news is that this low turn-out means your vote counts more than it would for even-numbered years. So, go vote!

    Moscow's Voice of Truth

    By NCD on Mon, 11/04/2013 - 12:48pm |

    From Edward Snowden's Manifesto for the Truth from his residence under the protection of Vladmir Putin and the decidedly not free and open Russia:

    ....Sometimes the agencies even deliberately try to hide their surveillance of high officials or the public. While the NSA and GCHQ seem to be the worst offenders – this is what the currently available documents suggest – we must not forget that mass surveillance is a global problem in need of global solutions.....

    Richard Day's picture

    HYPOCRISY AS THE RACIST DEFENSE IN THE SOUTH!

    By Richard Day on Wed, 10/30/2013 - 9:47pm |

    You know, we always hear about the travails of the slaves; but what about the travails of the slave owners?

    (me) hahaahahahah

    jollyroger's picture

    Brown students to Ray Kelly: "Frisk you..." Hail Brunonia!

    By jollyroger on Tue, 10/29/2013 - 7:01pm |

    Every so often an especially cool co-ed chooses to enroll at my alma mater, which always gives me a frisson of satisfaction coupled with chagrin that I graduated too early.

     

    Such flashes of pride serve to assuage the residual trauma attendant upon finding myself in the stands at a football game vs. Yale, when those rude Yalies uncorked a chant:"What's the color of shit?  Brown"

     

    But I digress.

     

    trkingmomoe's picture

    Setting a Place at the Table

    By trkingmomoe on Tue, 10/29/2013 - 3:06am |

    A couple of weeks ago on a Saturday, I was in the check out line at a local store. Just ahead of me was a lady checking out only she was over her budget and was having items taken off the bill. It took a while but I was not in a hurry. Shopping is just about the only thing I do to get out of the house these days, so I don't rush through it. After she got her over spending adjusted, she discovered she had left her EBT card at home. I could see her embarrassment in her face as she apologized. She said she would come back in a few minutes. There was tears in her eyes as she left the store. So all of us were switched to another register and I asked the young man checking me out if he thought she would come back. He said yes because she was a regular customer. Her tears of shame bothered me all day. In my head I had visions of her being a single mom that is over worked and tired. I think it is time that our politicians stop shaming people for being in need of SNAP and do something to remove that need.

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