barefooted's picture

    Bite The Bullet

    Guns don't kill people, people kill people.

    That's true. Unless you get pistol-whipped or somebody throws it at your head really hard, the gun won't kill you. What tears through flesh, arteries, organs and bone leaving a person dead or dying is the bullet.

    jollyroger's picture

    If Greece owes money to Germany, doesn't Germanuy owe money to Greece?

     

     

    On a morning when we learn that you may lend to Greece at ten percent more per annum than a loan to Germany, may we not enquire as to the relative equities between these parties if history is weighed in the balance?

     

    jollyroger's picture

    Donald Trump:"Sure, I paid $50 for each cheering extra. It was cheap. I rent people all the ime."

    -- There'll be another 50 for 'em when they upload a video that shows them voting for me in the primary, It's called disintermediation, and it's the sharing economy, pal.

    Why should I spend a fortune on PR when I can just go straight to the target demographic and cut a deal with each individual? It's the American way.

    The Exhibitionist society

     

     

    What is the sensationalist media coverage of events like the Rachel Dolezal identity case and the Texas pool party disturbance telling us about society? Why do we partake of the media coverage? If those two events seem compelling, wait until we hear more about the white cop who shot his wife in her car while other cops were trying to negotiate with him---then while his dead wife lay in the car, along with his child, his fellow cops comforted him once he gave up. So, there I go again.

    Identity: Caitlyn Jenner = Rachel Dolezal?

    So perhaps I don't get inclusiveness, but I'm not sure I understand why a man can feel he's really a woman and we encourage his transition to she - but a woman says she feels she's black and has certainly played the role for a number of years, but in this case it's a scandal.

    Richard Day's picture

    E DOES NOT EQUAL MC2

    I came upon this KO's article that is more than two years old: Conservapedia Disproves E=mc².

    I used to be a big fan of Conservapedia; it was more fun than Rush. Really.

    This pretend encyclopedia was fun, because who gives a damn?

    Elusive Trope's picture

    2008 Flame Wars Redux

    Bernie Sanders seems to be gaining some traction for the Democratic nomination and pits himself against the front runner Hillary Clinton. I doubt her campaign staff will be caught flat footed as they were in 2008 when Obama seemed to come out of nowhere. Already we see Clinton steering her rhetoric to left to counter Sanders. How much of it is just smoke to get through to the nomination we may or may not find out. Sanders has been consistently in his positions and voting. He is after all an Independent Socialist.

    Richard Day's picture

    YAHOO!

     

    Nothin else is going on here except for five or six good blogs that are at least a day old. Except for Hal of course, whom I admire.

    Anyway...

    First, I lose all my emails on Yahoo.

    People will die

    if the Court rules against the Administration  in King vs Burwell.

    There are all sorts of estimates so let's make our own.

    There are 10 million  Obamacare users who didn't have insurance before and they'll once again won't have insurance. Some of them are going to have a life threatening condition in the next two years that would have been treated but won't be now.

    How many?Let's say 5%.

    Some of those 500 K souls will scrape up the money somehow and get better. But lots of them won't .Maybe half.

    Richard Day's picture

    FACEBOOK, AN EXPERIENCE

    Hermes Ingenui Pio-Clementino Inv544.jpg

    HERMES, MESSENGER OF THE GODS!

    Momoe got me to get back to Facebook,after some six years?

    So I get these communiques?

    And I had set up a new profile? Is that what you call it?

    Danny Cardwell's picture

    What Do We Do After Baltimore?

    We can also make reference to all of the illustrious Black kings, queens and warriors of the past, and cite everything that Black people have accomplished throughout history. But what's the purpose of having all that knowledge if we don't use it to move ourselves forward?

    -- Eric L. Wattree

    When I read this it reminded me of Frantz Fanon. Six weeks after the riots in Baltimore what's changed? Modern day attempts at social movements end up being the equivalent of someone yelling in a quiet theater, sure the yelling snaps us to attention and forces us to focus on the disruption, but as soon as calm is restored we find ourselves fully immersed in the distraction on the screen. Likewise, as soon as the camera crews leave the epicenter of the hostilities we, as a nation,  refocus on our individual distractions.

    Elusive Trope's picture

    I Heart Pandora

    I have had a love/hate relationship with computers, internet and the recent wave of technology for some time now. It generally tilted towards more hate than love, but this had to do a lot with the fact that my job, like a lot of people, had me staring at a computer screen (when I wasn’t cursing out the copier) for most of the day. If I had a nickel  for every time I said “I wish computers were never invented,” I wouldn’t be able to retire, but I would have a lot of money.

    Photo (c) 2015 Alma K. Papp

    trkingmomoe's picture

    Hillary Clinton Call Out The GOP By Name For Voter Suppression

    In her acceptance speech for the Barbara Jordan Gold Medallion For Leadership, given to her at Texas Southern University in Houston, Hillary Clinton doesn't mince words about the systematic suppression of voter rights in this country.  She points out in detail the abuses in North Carolina, Texas, Wisconsin and Florida. But she doesn't stop there, she calls out GOP candidates by name that as governors signed laws that made voting more difficult for citizens. As she names them, she makes it know just what they did sign into law that will hurt voters. 

    Elusive Trope's picture

    How I Change the World

    “I walked into a nightmare. I have seen famine in Ethiopia and Bangladesh, but I have seen nothing like this – so much worse than I could possibly have imagined. I wasn’t prepared for this.” Audrey Hepburn, UNICEF photograph, Horn of Africa“I walked into a nightmare. I have seen famine in Ethiopia and Bangladesh, but I have seen nothing like this – so much worse than I could possibly have imagined. I wasn’t prepared for this.” Audrey Hepburn, UNICEF photograph, Horn of Africa

    Most anybody who has delved into social justice and environmental issues has come across the quote by Margaret Mead:

    Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.

    Richard Day's picture

    ERLICH & THE POPULATION BOMB

    Then God said "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness so that they may rule over the fish in the sea, and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals and over all the creatures...

    Dennis Hastert

    In 1964 ,John Profumo, UK Secretary of Defense -and husband of the beautiful Valerie Hobson- was having an affair with the equally beautiful , lower class, 16 year old Christine Keeler,. Who was also having sex with a senior  Russian diplomat stationed in London!

    When the Labour party leader ,Harold Wilson, disembarked at Heathrow he was mobbed by screaming reporters asking  for his comment.His entire reply was

    "No comment........in technicolor"

    Which  should be our reply if asked about Hastert  .Though I fear it won't be..

    Richard Day's picture

    HINDSIGHT IS 10-40

    I signed up for Smithsonian Magazine.

    I end up getting Cars&Idiots, Rolling Stone and ESPN magazines besides The Smithsonian.

    It makes no sense.

    Ten bucks and I keep getting these other magazines and I keep getting these mailings asking me to re-new these other mags I never signed up for!

    Anyway, ESPN tells me 6 weeks ago or so that the Twins will eventually win all of 70 games or so all year and end up in the cellar of their division.

    wabby's picture

    A Memory For Memorial Day

    He sits quietly
    with a small flag in his hands
    haunted by foxholes.

                     ~Mr. Smith

    Danny Cardwell's picture

    Christian Rejection of Humanism: Josh Duggar and Bill O'Reilly

    Matthew 7:15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
     
    Instead of pointing out the contradictions between Bill O'Reilly's and Josh Duggar's professed beliefs and their actions, I thought it would be more interesting to focus on the continued elevation, by many evangelicals, of media figures. Duggar and O'Reilly join a long list of fallen religious personalities who were (foolishly) placed above the flesh they reside in by Christians who should've known better. The need to maintain a pseudo-symbolic order is the modern day version of Aaron creating a golden calf. The idolatry lies in the false belief that political affiliation and social status can grant you direct access to the Most High.

    Free Trade

    Definition: Things get made where it's cheapest.

    Result. US workers don't make them.

    Long term effect: they starve.

    Well,the Government won't let that happen, you think.

    WACO Bikers, Not Guilty by Stand Your Ground?

    I am not a fan of gun battles like the recent biker shootout in Waco, but they may be an inevitable, and possibly legal occurrence in a 'stand your ground' state.  The first biker to threaten another biker or his property with harm, if found, may have broken the law.

    After that initial disturbance, a chain of 'stand your ground' actions, self-defense actions seem to have occurred. It is legal under Texas law, see below, to use lethal force to protect yourself, other threatened persons, or property. There is no requirement in the law to back down or retreat, anywhere, even a public place.

    trkingmomoe's picture

    Finance and Society-New Economic Thinking

    The Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) held a conference in Washington D.C. May 5, 2015 that lasted 2 days.  INET is a nonprofit think tank that was started with a 50 million dollar funding from it's founder, George Soros, in October 2009.  The organization is located in New York City. Robert Johnson is the current President of the organization.  It took 2 years to put this conference together and featured women speakers, though it was not about women in finance but about Finance and Society. Normally a conference on finance like this is dominated by men.

    For years media has covered and interviewed many from think tanks that are supported by right leaning political activist. Little attention has been given to progressive groups so I was not aware this group, There was a need for new economic thinking after the 2008 financial crisis. Soros got together with others that was willing to support a institution dedicated to new ideas in economics and to nurture young people in the field of economics.  The unique thing about this group is it in not about political spin and ideology but a serious look at what is needed to make our economy work for everyone. It also focus on the international economy also because when our banks was in crises, it spread to other countries.

    Just another day at the office

    ".....I was at home in Newton on the morning of Sunday, March 20,2005, when I received notification that the House would convene later that same day to consider the case of a Florida woman named Terri Schiavo.Fifteen years earlier,she had fallen into a comatose state. Once it became clear  her condition would not improve, her husband asked the hospital to remove her feeding tube. This was in accordance with a wish he said she had expressed to him before she was stricken.

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