On Owning Your Words

Former editor of Rand Paul’s Neo-Confederate staffer talks about the Southern Avenger | Haire of the Dog:

"While I told him that I would have removed one or two posts — it’s not uncommon for writers to hastily pen a column they later regret — I found the breadth of the request to be excessive, and to be honest, quite cowardly. Doing so, I told Jack, was a repudiation of the very persona he had created as a writer and radio personality. It was a denial of the very views that had made him a local media celebrity and a rising star in the so-called liberty movement, and as such, a slap in the face to all those who had ever supported him. It was best, I said, that if those points of views no longer applied to him, Jack should pen a column detailing how he had changed his mind, but he declined. And frankly, that told me all I needed to know about Jack’s conversion. It was solely for appearances only. It was not heartfelt. It was not true. It was simply to protect his boss, Rand Paul, as he plots a path to the White House in 2016."

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I have written some pretty inflammatory stuff over the years. The difference between myself and this gutless loser is that while there are things i probably should not have written i am not trying to pretend I never wrote them.

Sad really.

Brad DeLong on Rand Paul - White Supremacist edition

Brad DeLong : Conor Friedersdorf Carries Yet More Water for Rand Paul: Thursday Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot-Bang-Query-Bang-Query Weblogging:

 "I will just comment that in a country 10% African-American with America's history, Rand Paul's position on the Civil Rights Act--that since you cannot bring a gun onto private property without the owner's permission owners should be able to exclude African-Americans from stepping onto the premises willy-nilly--is a white supremacist position. "

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yes, it surely is.

Skeet!

Colorado Town To Adopt Drone Hunting Bounty? | Video Cafe:
"DEER TRAIL, Colo. - The small town of Deer Trail, Colorado is considering a bold move. The town board will be voting on an ordinance that would create drone hunting licenses and offer bounties for unmanned aerial vehicles. "

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Driftglass on the GOP

d r i f t g l a s s: "Their Rigidity is Killing Them.":

" The Party of Lincoln is now Rush Limbaugh's gimp-suited plaything and has stacked Congress with enough deeply paranoid, face-defiant, lockstepping meatsticks that, as Ed Rogers, (a top aide to both Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush) notes, to kill "the art of governing in Washington":"

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Very nicely put

Roy Edroso on Racism

alicublog: RACIST WITH AN EXPLANATION.:

"The one thing that never occurs to these guys is that racism is not like monetarism or socialism or academicism or henotheism or anarcho-syndicalism; it's not a thought system we can sit up arguing about all night and be, other than the hangover, none the worse for wear after; it's cancer. Centuries of experience documented by historians and artists show it, if you need guidance, but a few years living in America ought to wise you up to it pretty quick all by itself. "

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I think this is a very smart take on the situation. It is all very easy for we white folk to opine about it but we simply do not live it. This is beyond privilege and getting into an area where we simply do not have any experience which we can bring to bear because when we try we often run into false equivalencies that make us look petty and clueless.

6th Blogiversary

4000ish posts and just short of 60,000  pageviews later I seem to be still here.
Do the math, most of my stuff doesn't get read much. I write pretty much for me. I like that.

That's One Way to cut Education Costs

Hoover discontinues school bus services - ABC 33/40 - Birmingham News, Weather, Sports:

 "HOOVER - AL - Hoover Board of Education met tonight to discuss the proposal to discontinue bus transportation for students effective 2014-2015 school year.   The decision came about after Hoover has been experiencing declining revenues. "

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It would be interesting to see how far the average kid has to go to get to school. Perhaps some research for this evening

60000

Just clicked over 60,000 page views on this shitty little blog.

Kinda cool.

What is difference between Obama and Cruz?

Booman Tribune ~ A Progressive Community:

 "Unlike Honolulu, the city of Calgary is not in the United States of America. Unlike the Panama Canal, at the time of John McCain's birth, Calgary is not administered by the U.S. Government or occupied by U.S. Armed Forces. The only argument Senator Cruz can make for being a natural born citizen is that his mom was born in Delaware. That's sufficient, but it was exactly the same situation Obama would have been in if it had been true that he was born in Kenya. If Obama needed to show his birth certificate to prove his eligibility to be president, then Ted Cruz is ineligible. The Tea Party and Donald Trump should be saying that Ted Cruz cannot be president because he isn't a natural born citizen. But they aren't saying it. "

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I am sure there is a reason .. whatever could it be?Publish Post

3 dead - 20 months

They're watching as guru in sweat lodge case goes free - CNN.com:

 "Fifty-five people followed Ray into the sweat lodge; three died from overheating and 19 others were hospitalized after they collapsed, vomited, had trouble breathing, hallucinated, foamed at the mouth or fell unconscious. 

Ray was convicted of negligently causing the deaths of Kirby Brown, 38, of Westtown, New York; Lizbeth Neuman, 49, of Prior Lake, Minnesota; and James Shore, 40, of Milwaukee. Ray was found negligent, but acquitted of manslaughter charges that could have sent him to prison for 30 years."

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Hard to fathom this one

DOJ should stand down

Conservatives Gear Up For Unlikely Federal Action Against George Zimmerman | TPMDC:

 "Imagine the public outcry if the Department of Justice — Eric Holder’s Department of Justice no less — were to take legal action against George Zimmerman, notwithstanding his acquittal this past weekend. "

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I think this would be a mistake.

Ta-Nehisi Coates indicts us all

If I start quoting I wont stop. Just go read.

On Rape Culture At UNC

University Of North Carolina Allegedly Retaliated Against A Rape Victim For Coming Forward | ThinkProgress:

 "The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill is now facing a third federal investigation into its sexual assault policies. This time, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is investigating allegations that UNC inappropriately retaliated against Landen Gambill, a sophomore at the university, after she publicly came forward about her rape. "

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Ted Nugent For president

Ted Nugent, guitarist and gun-lover, rocks the political world - The Washington Post:

"Hi, I’m Ted Nugent. I have nine children from seven women, and I’m running for president.” Nugent takes a sip of water, having delivered his potential slogan. “Yeah, I’m thinking about it.”"

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Please Please Please

Counterfactuals - Zimmerman Edition

The only counterfactual I am really interested in is this ...

. What would have happened if he would have carried pepper spray instead?

my guess is that he never would have got out of his car and Trayvon Martin would still be alive.

What is a BrushBot

This is a brushbot

On Quinoa

Quinoa should be taking over the world. This is why it isn’t.:

 "Quinoa is a low-calorie, gluten-free, high-protein grain that tastes great. Its popularity has exploded in the last several years, particularly among affluent, health-conscious Americans. But the kinks that kept the grain out of Freshii that day are emblematic of the hurdles it will face to becoming a truly widespread global commodity and a major part of Americans’ diet.  

It shows the crucial role of global agribusiness, big-ticket infrastructure investment, and trade in bringing us the things we eat, whether we like it or not. In short, it’s hard to keep something on the menu if you might not be able to afford it the next day. And the American agricultural economy makes it hard for a new product to reach the kind of steady prices and day-in-day-out supply that it takes to make it big."

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A question for PA Governor Corbett

Governor: Pregnant Women, Breast Cancer Patients Are Free Health Care Moochers | ThinkProgress:

"“What I hear all the time coming out of the administration in Washington is that it’s the working poor [who benefit from Medicaid],” Corbett told WTAE, a local ABC affiliate, on Saturday. “Yes it is working, but you should be investing five, ten dollars in co-pay to understand that you go to to the hospital or the doctors, you just can’t keep going and going and going and think everything is going to be covered. You have to know that you have some interest in what’s going on.” 

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Does he really think that people go to the Dr because it is fun? Most folks I know only go to the Dr if they are on death's door.

Dumbest Thing Rick Perry Has Ever Said

Rick Perry Reacts To Zimmerman Verdict: 'I Think Our Justice System Is Color Blind' | ThinkProgress:

"Arguing on CNN Sunday Morning that the jury in the George Zimmerman case “made the right decision from their standpoint,” Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) dismissed any suggestion that America’s justice system is unfair to African-Americans or other people of color. In Perry’s words, “I think our justice system is color blind.” Watch it: "

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And that is a very long list of dumb things.

A Sad but accurate observation from Digby

Hullabaloo:

"This is filed under our new American credo --- "Protect Us At All Costs!" Americans are so frightened of everything, even 17 year old kids with nothing more than skittles and tea in their hands,  that they must "protect" themselves from all threats by any means necessary. The government police apparatus may be vast, extremely powerful and growing exponentially, but even that is not enough. In places like Florida they empower citizens to carry concealed weapons to "protect" us as well. "

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BooMan on the Zimmerman Acquital

Booman Tribune ~ A Progressive Community:

 "I think Zimmerman executed Trayvon Martin in cold blood. I think he just got away with murder. I think he should have been held accountable for what he did. But, to my dismay, the prosecution did not prove my theory of the case and the defense did several things to cast doubt on my theory. In the end, the defense didn't have to do much to win because that's the way the law is written."

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I think this is a very good take as well.

Ta-Nehisi Coates On The Killing Of Trayvon Martin

On The Killing Of Trayvon Martin By George Zimmerman - Ta-Nehisi Coates - The Atlantic:

"6.) I think the message of this episode is unfortunate. By Florida law, in any violent confrontation ending in a disputed act of lethal self-defense, without eye-witnesses, the advantage goes to the living. "

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I think that this is the real bottom line.