September 2013 archive

For Preventing the Poor People in Britain from being a burden to Their Country, and For Making Them Beneficial to The Public

Un hommage á Jonathan Swift

Whenever I travel the country and listen to the newscasts and read the papers, it has become evident that the poor are a significant burden upon the country. Instead of working, women go begging at food banks to provide for their children.  Others sit on the streets with their offspring begging money from their betters. Clearly these lazy creatures assume that we as a society have some responsibility to ensure the existence of their offspring. Moreover, since they have to care for their children, they obviously have no time to actually work to provide for their existence. Their lack of property and their inability to ensure their and their offspring’s survival is threatening the very nature of our society.  

The US: world’s policeman or schoolyard bully?

by Bill Maher, The Guardian

Ever since 9/11, it seems America’s just been itching for a fight – and any Muslim country will do. Really, who acts like this?

New rule: 12 years after 9/11, and amidst yet another debate on whether to bomb yet another Muslim country, America must stop asking the question, “Why do they hate us?” Forget the debate on Syria, we need a debate on why we’re always debating whether to bomb someone. Because we’re starting to look not so much like the world’s policeman, but more like George Zimmerman: itching to use force and then pretending it’s because we had no choice. [..]

Since 1945, when Jesus granted America air superiority, we’ve bombed Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Lebanon, Grenada, Panama, Iraq, Serbia, Somalia, Bosnia, the Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya and Yemen. And Yemen only because the tenth one was free.

How did we inherit this moral obligation to bring justice to the world via death from above? Are we Zeus? It doesn’t make any sense. Our schools are crumbling, and we want to teach everyone else a lesson?

Signatures of Sarin

Are We At War Yet?

Ooh Magoo, you have them now

Everybody’s got that thing, something different we all bring, dont you let it clip your wings

Everybody’s got their own kind of crazy, that’s what makes you so amazing

Get you checkin’ on my swag, Cause confomity so drag, it’s the esses not the tag

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

September 15 is the 258th day of the year (259th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 107 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1963, a bomb explodes during Sunday morning services in the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four young girls.

The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing was a racially motivated terrorist attack on September 15, 1963, by members of a Ku Klux Klan group in Birmingham, Alabama in the United States. The bombing of the African-American  church resulted in the deaths of four girls. Although city leaders had reached a settlement in May with demonstrators and started to integrate public places, not everyone agreed with ending segregation. Other acts of violence followed the settlement. The bombing increased support for people working for civil rights. It marked a turning point in the U.S. 1960s Civil Rights Movement and contributed to support for passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The three-story Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama was a rallying point for civil rights activities through the spring of 1963, and is where the students who marched out of the church to be arrested during the 1963 Birmingham campaign’s Children’s Crusade were trained. The demonstrations led to an agreement in May between the city’s African-American leaders and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to integrate public facilities in the country.

In the early morning of Sunday, September 15, 1963, Bobby Frank Cherry, Thomas Blanton, Herman Frank Cash, and Robert Chambliss, members of United Klans of America, a Ku Klux Klan group, planted a box of dynamite with a time delay under the steps of the church, near the basement.

At about 10:22 a.m., when twenty-six children were walking into the basement assembly room for closing prayers of a sermon entitled “The Love That Forgives,” the bomb exploded. According to an interview on NPR on September 15, 2008, Denise McNair’s father stated that the sermon never took place because of the bombing. Four girls, Addie Mae Collins (aged 14), Denise McNair (aged 11), Carole Robertson (aged 14), and Cynthia Wesley (aged 14), were killed in the attack, and 22 additional people were injured, one of whom was Addie Mae Collins’ younger sister, Sarah.

The explosion blew a hole in the church’s rear wall, destroyed the back steps, and left intact only the frames of all but one stained-glass window. The lone window that survived the concussion was one in which Jesus Christ was depicted knocking on a door, although Christ’s face was destroyed. In addition, five cars behind the church were damaged, two of which were destroyed, while windows in the laundromat across the street were blown out.

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”.

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The Sunday Talking Heads:

Up with Steve Kornacki: Joining Steve Kornacki at the table will be: Kate Nocera, capitol hill reporter, BuzzFeed; Philip Bump, writer, TheAtlanticWire; Amy Davidson, senior editor, The New Yorker; Rep Alan Grayson (D_FL); Rev. Joe Watkins, former WH aide to Pres. George H.W. Bush; Former Rep. Martin Frost (D-TX); Chris Kofinis, democratic strategist, former Communications Director for John Edwards 2008 Presidential campaign; Ginger Gibson, reporter, Politico ; Selena Roberts, former sports writer, New York Times and Sports Illustrated, founder & CEO ofRoopstigo.com, a digital sports network; Susan Ware, historian and author, “Game, Set, Match: Billie Jean King and the Revolution in Women’s Sports;” and Mike Pesca, sports reporter, NPR.

This Week with George Stephanopolis: This Sunday on This Week, host  George Stephanopoulos interviews President Barack Obama at the White House.

The guests at the roundtable are ABC News’ Cokie Roberts and Matthew Dowd; Wall Street Journal editorial page editor Paul Gigot; and Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI); and Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD).

Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer: Mr Schieffer’s guests are former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright; Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), chairman, Senate Armed Services Committee; and Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), ranking member, Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Meet the Press with David Gregory: On this Sunday’s MTP, the guests are  Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), chairman, Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO); former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson; former Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA); and  CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo.

At a special roundtable discussing the latest developments in Syria are New York Times Columnist Tom Friedman; Senior Fellow at the Wilson Center Robin Wright; National Correspondent for the Atlantic and Columnist for Bloomberg View, Jeffrey Goldberg; and NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Andrea Mitchell.

At the political roundtable the guests are Associate Editor at the Washington Post, Bob Woodward; Executive Editor of MSNBC.com, Richard Wolffe; Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker; and Republican Strategist Ana Navarro.

State of the Union with Candy Crowley: Ms. Crowley’s guests are  Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), chairman, House Intelligence Committee; Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), ranking member, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee; Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA); and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT).

Lessons from Iraq, Libya loom large as diplomats ponder Syrian weapons probe

 By Joby Warrick, Sunday, September 15, 10:32 AM

When Moammar Gaddafi renounced chemical weapons in 2003, the Libyan dictator surprised skeptics by moving quickly to eliminate his country’s toxic arsenal. He signed international treaties, built a disposal facility and allowed inspectors to oversee the destruction of tons of mustard gas.

But Gaddafi’s public break with weapons of mass destruction was not all that it seemed. Only after his death in 2011 did investigators learn that he had retained a large stash of chemical weapons. In a hillside bunker deep in Libya’s southeastern desert, Gaddafi had tucked away hundreds of battle-ready warheads loaded with deadly sulfur mustard.

The story of Gaddafi’s deception now looms over nascent efforts to devise a plan for destroying the chemical arsenal of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, another strongman who, in a stunning reversal, agreed in principle last week to give up his stockpile under U.S. and Russian pressure.

The team of All In with Chris Hayes put out a daily request on Twitter asking their followers to send them the things they find most interesting on the internet. This is their finds for Friday the September 13.

1) Jeffery Alan Wagner’s shirtless campaign ad for Minneapolis mayor;

2) Watch hamster Charlie drive a truck;

3) Check out these classic rocket frog photoshops.