Conservatives always gripe about “political correctness,” right? So why, then, is the new Republican governor of Maine removing a mural celebrating labor from the halls of the state’s Department of Labor? Because his office got a faxed complaint comparing the art to North Korean propaganda. “In this mural I observed a figure which closely resembles …
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I can’t decide: is Mike Pence (R-IN) just a bog standard Republican hypocrite, or is he as stupid as the proverbial box of rocks? I mean, he can’t say “I’ve never advocated reducing funding for Title X” when he’s the principal author of the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act which “eliminate[s] the entire Title …
And Congressional Agricultural Committees have to keep cash from farm subsidies flowing. But! They want to show they’re doing their part to reduce the budget deficit! What to do, what to do? Herewith an imaginary colloquy: “Well, what else do we have jurisdiction over?” “Food stamps.” “Okay! Then let’s cut them!” The budget letter, endorsed …
Now that the field of 68 has been whittled down to 16 in the NCAA Men’s Tournament, which team nicknames remain? In the East Regional we’ve got the OSU Buckeyes, the Kentucky Wildcats, the Marquette Golden Eagles and the UNC Tar Heels. In the West Regional the remaining teams are the Duke Blue Devils, the …
Since there’s nothing else going on in the world. . . I just found some non-“Prey” books from John Sandford. I’m ambivalent about the Lucas Davenport books Sandford’s written; he’s not a likable character in some of those books. Sandford has gone on to spin off a guy named Virgil Flowers from Invisible Prey into …
While I have as much distaste for Qaddafi as the next guy, and I really don’t want to see innocents massacred by his loyalists, I really don’t see an end game here. Short of getting into one of his palaces and assassinating him, the most likely outcome seems to be a divided Libya, with the …
I have no words to describe how appalling this section of HR 3 is: Barthold replied that the taxpayer would have to prove that she had complied with all applicable abortion laws. Under standard audit procedure, a woman would have to provide evidence to corroborate facts about abortions, rapes, and cases of incest, says Marcus …
In a sensible world this statement by that oh-so-admired Paul Ryan, R-WI, would disqualify him from consideration as a serious man. Told that Senator Harry Reid said yesterday that he wouldn’t consider any changes to Social Security because the program isn’t broken and doesn’t contribute to the deficit (true statements, both of them), Ryan said …
I don’t at all dismiss what’s happened in Japan as trivial, but it occurs to me that if someone had written a script containing a massive earthquake, a tsunami and a nuclear reactor meltdown, the author would be told “You’re in Poseidon Adventure territory. Nobody would believe that.” The confluence of horrible events going on …
One of the best or at least most current sources for news about the failing reactors and the other parts of the Japanese earthquake recovery is the NYT’s The Lede blog. It’s posting live NHK feeds and news/commentary from its reporters on the ground. The latest seems to be that most of the last 50 …