Headlines - Sunday April 4

Resurrection

It's been almost three weeks since my next-door neighbor had one of her dogs put down. And ever since then, her surviving dog howls, every single day. He walks around the house, searching in vain for his lost friend.

So with this daily reminder, I've been thinking about grief, and how deeply it cuts when you lose someone. You can't think your way around it, no matter how hard you try. The pain is visceral, it's like being hit by a car. You howl because it's how you let the pain out.

And even though you convince yourself that the pain will never get any better, and that you'll never survive, somehow you do. And then the sun comes out, and one day you notice a crocus and you decide it's a nice day to go for a walk.

And then suddenly, you've gone days without thinking about it. After a while, even a few weeks. You see possibility in your life again. You even start to make plans, and one day, although you swore you'd never, ever forget, you're happy. For one day, and then another. You've made it through, although you never thought you would.

And that sense of joy and that rebirth, that's a resurrection, although we don't call it that. And maybe that's the real story: That we can feel like we're dying, and yet still we're reborn, again and again.

Happy Easter!

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Democrats need to understand that these people aren't just laughable, they aren't just nuts. They're dangerous. They're doing what the Soviets used to do. It's ironic how much the right likes to accuse of being Socialists. (And of course, when they say Socialist, they mean "Soviet.") The right-wing is simply doing what they do best - accusing us of being what they already are.

 

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The same week President Barack Obama riled environmentalists with plans for offshore oil drilling, he faces criticism for signaling he will support a Bush-era policy criticized as giving mining companies unlimited access to public lands to dump toxic waste.

 

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Wellpoint CEO receives a 51% increase in compensation. 

 

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Mainstream evangelical terrorism

 

In Europe during the Middle Ages, Easter was always a season of terror for non-christians. Priests and the aristocracy they protected used the performance of "mystery plays" to whip up hatred against Jews and incite murderous riots by the suffering mobs who might otherwise turn on their earthly masters.

A millenium later, religious and corporate leaders use the fear of liberal change to incite riot and murder among frustrated mobs who might otherwise figure out who their real enemies are.

The domestic terrorism of right-wing violence will continue until we acknowledge its fundamental source and continuing support: mainstream evangelical religion: http://www.theygaveusarepublic.com/diary/5328/mainstream-evangelical-terrorism

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Better accelerate that August withdrawal date to next week - the civil war is on. "Iraqi gunmen have killed 25 people believed to be linked to Sunni militias opposing al-Qaeda, police say. Five women were among those killed, as the gunmen in army uniforms pulled the victims out of their houses in a village south of Baghdad on Saturday. The victims were reported to have been tied up before being shot in the head. Sunni militias turned against al-Qaeda and its militant allies two years ago in what was a key turning point in the campaign to quell the Iraqi insurgency. Baghdad security spokesman Maj Gen Qassim al-Moussawi said police found seven survivors handcuffed in the same area. "Also we confiscated the vehicle which was used in this attack," he said. Local resident Muhammad Mubarak described what happened as "a tragedy". "A group wearing National Guard uniforms and carrying night vision equipment stormed the homes of the victims and took them to their front gardens," he said." 

 

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Bob Herbert: We Still Don't Hear Him

 

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Your only regret, Archiebaby, should be that you didn't call for the immediate and permanent dissolution of the entire corrupt Catholic crime syndicate. "The Archbishop of Canterbury has expressed his "deep sorrow" for any difficulties caused by his comments about the Catholic Church in Ireland. His claim that the Church had lost all credibility because of its handling of child abuse by priests was criticised by both Catholic and Anglican clergy. The Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, said he was "stunned". Dr Rowan Williams later telephoned Archbishop Martin to insist he meant no offence to the Irish Catholic Church. BBC religious affairs correspondent Robert Pigott said Dr Williams' words represented unusually damning criticism from the leader of another Church."

 

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Teabaggers' politics of resentment, self destruction: http://patriotboy.blogspot.com/2010/04/tea-baggers-politics-of-resentment-self.html

 

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Mexicans fleeing narco-violence seek asylum in the United States "Jose Jimenez, a Mexican mechanic, is now doing odd jobs in an American town after escaping a violent northern Mexican city where drug traffickers threatened to kill him when he refused to build secret compartments in tractor trailers to hide U.S.-bound drug shipments. ... He's hoping the U.S. immigration system can keep him alive -- and he's not alone. ... He is one of a growing number of Mexicans receiving asylum in the United States, where until recently most Mexican immigrants had sought work permits. But the escalating drug war violence south of the border over the last four years has prompted immigration judges and federal asylum officers to approve more Mexican asylum petitions. ... "I definitely feel safer now,'' Jimenez said. "But I'm still nervous. These criminals have resources and contacts everywhere.''

 

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Consumerist reports that KFC's mythical Double Down is no longer mythical.

 

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There's nothing like a dunking in dirty water: The River Jordan, where, the bible says, John baptised Jesus and declared him the messiah, is now little more than an unholy brew of raw sewage, chemical run-off and brackish agricultural leftovers.

 

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Flushed Away

 

The planet may still be paying for the cold you had last winter. If it was a bad one, you probably took medicine. Maybe you rinsed the little dosing cup in the sink every time you used it. Maybe you finished the bottle and threw it in the trash. What you surely did several times a day was go to the bathroom — perhaps more than usual if you were taking care to drink plenty of liquids — and some of that medicine passed straight through you. What all this means is that while you were taking your cold medicine, so was your local water supply.

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1976909_1976907_1976871,00.html#ixzz0k8xQq2t0

 

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Why Stupid Has Consequences

They're coming out of the woodwork…

Days after President Obama signed the $938 billion bill into law, a cable television advertisement exhorted viewers to call an 800-number so they wouldn't miss a "limited enrollment" period to obtain coverage available "now that historic health-care legislation has passed."

And there have already been reports of door-to-door salespeople peddling "Obamacare" insurance policies.

As NPR notes, the "bitter and divisive" debate over health reform has been a boon for the scam market, which has sought to exploit the public misconceptions about the bill. Given how quickly the "death panel" meme caught on — and how long such fabrications have persisted in the political discourse — the idea of purchasing an "Obamacare" insurance policy might not seem so far-fetched.

And as usual, the misinformed will be the ones most likely to be suckered in by con artists. That's the price one pays for relying on Fox News and right-wing media for your information.

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