December, 2015 archive
V-Mail 0
Chez Pazienda catalogs reports from the front in the War on Christmas.
How Stuff Works, Splet Chek Dept. 0
Makes sense to me.
None Dare Call It Terrorism 0
Alfred Doblin points out that, in fact, it is.
I guess Adam Lanza, who shot 26 people inside Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in 2012, was just a man with a weapon. Slaughtering 26 people — 20 were children — was not an act of terrorism because, according to GOP presidential wannabes, a crazed man with a gun killing more than a half-dozen people in a school is not a terrorist. Or James Holmes killing 12 and injuring 70 additional people inside a movie theater in 2012 is not a terrorist.
Read the rest.
Break Time 0
Off to drink liberally.
“The Government Cannot Exalt Itself as . . . a God over the Soul” 0
In my local rag, an evangelical Christian speaks out eloquently against religious bigotry, in particular the current right-wing vendetta against Muslims and Islam.
Given the hatred issuing from so many persons who, as the old man back home used to say, “calls themselves Christians,” I think his article worth noting, even though his theology may differ from my own. Here’s a bit.
(snip)
Make no mistake; a government that can shut down mosques simply because they are mosques can shut down Bible studies because they are Bible studies. A government that can close the borders to all Muslims simply on the basis of their religious belief can do the same thing for evangelical Christians.
None Dare Call It Terrorism . . . 0
. . . but it clearly is.
“No Religious Test . . . .” 0
Reg Henry envisions customs in a time of religious screenings:
Poor border officials. It is hard enough for them to find Cuban cigars in luggage, now they will have to ask, “Do you have anything to declare, you know, like a religion?”
Absurd conversations are likely to abound. “I am a Sufi,” a visitor will say. And the border guard, not trained in comparative religions, will reply: “You’re a softie? Come right in and welcome to the United States!”
A woman in a head covering will be rejected and will protest the injustice: “But I am a traditional Roman Catholic nun.” To which the official will ask his pal, “Hey Joe! Are roaming Catholics on the list?”
Follow the link for more, in which he goes for a Cruz.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
Not quite so good, but still under 300k.
(snip)
The prior week was unrevised at 269,000. In July, filings dropped to 255,000, the lowest since the 1970s. . . .
The four-week average of claims, a less-volatile measure than the weekly figure, rose to 270,750 from 269,250 in the prior week.
QOTD 0
Kerry Greenwood:
Oh, I thought they would be exciting.
I was bored. I remember being bored. It was nice. I didn’t appreciate it at the time.
“No Irish Muslims Need Apply”
4
In the Seattle Times, Nick Hanauer indulges in a bit of hyperbole in arguing against closing our borders:
Imagine an America where Jobs’ father was turned away because of his Muslim faith. You might be reading these words on a massive 25-pound desktop computer right now. When we exclude people, our perspectives narrow, fewer people feel welcome, fewer problems are solved and we enter an economic death spiral of homogeneity.
I’ve had a number of desktop computers. I’m pretty sure none of them weighed even half of 25 pounds; the one I’m using right now weighs about five pounds. Furthermore, Jobs was not a tech genius; he was a marketing genius.
Despite the hyperbole, the author has a point.
Follow the link for the rest.
