Headlines - Wednesday September 21

 

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Common Dreams: Super Weeds Pose Growing Threat to U.S. Crops

 

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Don Davis: Forget HPV, CDC recommends mandatory Foxxinations

"THIS BRAND NEW VACCINE WILL INOCULATE THE POPULATION AGAINST FOX NEWS, WHICH WILL IN TURN PREVENT MENTAL RETARDATION."

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Jill: What the hell kind of country are we?

Jill: American Sweatshop

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Wisco: Not the "Greatest Country in the World," But Getting There. 

 

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Food stamps were the devil's idea

Survey: 20% of Americans Believe God Won't Run America While Gov't Exists

 

A new Baylor Religion Survey shows that one in five Americans wants to dismantle the government and its heathen sets of economic regulations because this segment of politically conservative folks, the religious nutters, believes that the almighty old white God dude gets into a snit and refuses to do His job running the economy effectively if there are actual human beings (i.e. government) standing in the way tweaking the controls. God hates competition, pretty ironically! "They say the invisible hand of the free market is really God at work," said survey co-author Paul Froese. Basically, think of the economy as "sex" and government regulations as "a condom," which makes a socialist public safety net the religious equivalent of an ongoing abortion. 

From USA Today:

"They think the economy works because God wants it to work. It's a new religious economic idealism," with politicians "invoking God while chanting 'less government,'" [Froese] says.

"When Rick Perry or Michele Bachmann say 'God blesses us, God watches us, God helps us,' religious conservatives get the shorthand. They see 'government' as a profane object — a word that is used to signal working against God's plan for the United States. To argue against this is to argue with their religion."

Most (81%) political conservatives say there is one "ultimate truth in the world, and new economic information of cost-benefit analysis is not going to change their mind about how the economy should work," Froese says.

Yes, and "cost-benefit analysis" is the equivalent of SIX ongoing abortions for anyone keeping score at home. Do NOT mess with rational "analysis," guys, for your own eternal souls. [USA Today]

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A state judge in Alaska has ruled that elderly gay couples are entitled to the same senior citizen property tax discounts granted to legally married elderly couples.

Superior Court Judge Frank Pfiffner said in his decision that the state's marital classification violates the Alaska Constitution's equal protection clause. The ruling was signed Friday and released Monday by ACLU of Alaska. ACLU of Alaska and the national American Civil Liberties Union challenged tax assessment rules on behalf of three couples from Anchorage who were denied tax breaks that they would have been entitled to if they were married. The couples were in committed relationships but were treated as roommates rather than families, according to the Alaska ACLU. The group's spokesman Jeffrey Mittman said Monday one couple, Julie Schmidt and Gayle Schuh, had been together 34 years.

Under Alaska law, married seniors are permitted to exclude $150,000 in home value from their property tax assessments. Disabled veterans get the same deal.

 

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Victimiest most victimized ever victim Rick "The President of Victims" Santorum has had a rough time carrying out his life's mission as an unrepentant homophobic bigot, because his consistent dehumanizing attacks on gay people forced them to start a gay jihad against him (funny how war works, isn't it, Rick?) that makes filthy results pop up top with any Google search of his name or presidential campaign. Most everyone knows this and finds it amusing and would probably forget about it eventually, except that Rick Santorum keeps bringing it up. Now he is appealing directly to the gods of Google to "fix" this with the helpful suggestion that Google would voluntarily censor legal Internet search results if a crazy liberal politician asked them to. That'll win 'em over, Rick! READ MORE »

 

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"Compassion is not religious business, it is human business, it is not luxury, it is essential for our own peace and mental stability, it is essential for human survival." ~Dalai Lama

What a shame that the conservative heart (at least the one currently in use by Republicans), fails to understand the essential need for compassion as a fundamental building block in any society worthy of being called modern and humane.  But then, I'm not sure that compassion is a human quality which can be taught.

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Morford: How to make a creationist weep.

 

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Now we will have the opportunity to see who the real socialists are in the US. (Hint: it's not Obama.)

President Barack Obama on Monday proposed to end a "direct payment" subsidy that gives $5 billion a year to farmers regardless of need, as part of his larger effort to reduce the federal budget deficit.

Direct payments, created in 1996 as a temporary measure, will be the largest farm subsidy this year and terminating them would be a dramatic re-shaping of the U.S. farm program.

Traditional price support programs, which are triggered by low grain prices, are idle this year because of record high crop prices

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Who would have guessed — the elites close ranks. Yahoo(!) seems to be shutting down email about the Wall Street protests. ThinkProgress:

 

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Elizabeth Warren is awesome AND she's the kind of Democrat who can frame an argument in plain, simple language.

 

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GOP Leaders Write Unprecedented Letter Urging The Federal Reserve To Keep Unemployment High

 

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Another showdown over funding for disaster aid threatens yet another government shutdown if Republicans and Democrats can't reach a compromise by Friday. Both chambers need to approve a continuing resolution to keep the government running past September 30, but Republicans have refused to increase funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency in light of recent disasters. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) pledged not to cave and insists the GOP approve $3.65 billion for FEMA.

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Fact-Checking The Fact-Checkers: The AP Releases Misleading Analysis Of Obama's Tax Plan

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Anonymous' Protesters Arrested Under Obscure

'Anti-Guy Fawkes Masks' Law