Definitely the quote of the day

This one:

Imagine having schools, no fear, no war. Imagine feeling like any other people in their own country.

-- Santino Anel, a student in the south Sudanese capital of Juba, celebrating the region's near unanimous vote to declare independence from the north

May they have every success. It's been such a long and horrific battle for these brave and persevering people.
~~~

Not at all surprising

This:

We conclude first and foremost that this crisis was avoidable.

-- Phil Angelides, chairman of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, discussing at a press conference the first official government review of the causes of the 2008 economic crisis

Now. Is anybody going to be held accountable?

I'm not holding my breath. How about you?
~~~

Brain failure!

Here's another really good one:



Here, Dr. Tyson explains why an "intelligent design" solution or explanation actually thwarts scientfic discovery.
~~~

Ooh, the snark:

Oh m'goodness:

There's another one over on YouTube in which she meets Thomas Jefferson.
~~~

Something about Ayn Rand

This information seems to be making the rounds on the internet:

Ayn Rand Railed Against Government Benefits, But Grabbed Social Security and Medicare When She Needed Them

Here's how the article gets started:

Ayn Rand was not only a schlock novelist, she was also the progenitor of a sweeping “moral philosophy” that justifies the privilege of the wealthy and demonizes not only the slothful, undeserving poor but the lackluster middle-classes as well.

Her books provided wide-ranging parables of "parasites," "looters" and "moochers" using the levers of government to steal the fruits of her heroes' labor. In the real world, however, Rand herself received Social Security payments and Medicare benefits under the name of Ann O'Connor (her husband was Frank O'Connor).

As Michael Ford of Xavier University's Center for the Study of the American Dream wrote, “In the end, Miss Rand was a hypocrite but she could never be faulted for failing to act in her own self-interest.”

Her ideas about government intervention in some idealized pristine marketplace serve as the basis for so much of the conservative rhetoric we see today. “The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand,” said Paul Ryan, the GOP's young budget star at a D.C. event honoring the author. On another occasion, he proclaimed, “Rand makes the best case for the morality of democratic capitalism.”

Look, I don't begrudge her that benefit at all. It's just ironic (and really sad) that she begrudged it for other people.
~~~

Friday cat blogging!

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Something inspiring

I want to recommend that readers go over to List Universe and read the posting entitled "10 Great Philanthropists Who Are Kids". Here's a little description of one of them:

5-year-old Phoebe Russell needed to complete a community service project before she could graduate from kindergarten. Uninterested in a lemonade stand, she saw a homeless man begging for food and decided to raise $1,000 for the San Francisco Food Bank. Her teacher tried to lower expectations to something more reasonable, but Phoebe’s heartwarming appeal to leave soda cans and donations at the school snowballed. Before she knew it, Phoebe had raised $3,736.30– the equivalent of 17,800 heated meals.

Most of the examples listed include videos which only add to the inspiration.
~~~

A significant headline, I think

Here it is:

In America Today, Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower Would Be Bernie Sanders in the U.S. Senate

The piece is by Rachel Maddow and this is how it gets started:

For the next hour, we begin with the president of the United States addressing the nation and calling for a massive investment in this country's infrastructure, rebuffing the idea of giant tax breaks for the richest Americans, and warning anyone who would dare touch Social Security to keep their hands off.

You want to talk about red meat for the base? Listen to some of the language the president used. "Workers have a right to organize into unions and to bargain collectively with their employers. And a strong, free labor movement is an invigorating and necessary part of our industrial society." Wow.

How about this one? "Only a fool would try to deprive working men and women of their right to join the union of their choice."

Listen to the way he goes after the right here. "Should any political party attempt to abolish Social Security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things, but their number is negligible and"--and the president says--"their number is negligible and they are stupid."

That is not what Barack Obama said [Tuesday] night. That is way to the left of any national Democrat at this point. That was all Republican President Dwight David Eisenhower. That was all the stuff he said when he was president.

And here's another snippet:

But the whole of American politics has shifted so far to the right in the last 50 years that what used to be thought of as conservative, what used to be thought of as a conservative position, is now considered to be off-the-charts lefty.

The rest is worth reading. Definitely.
~~~

Keep Social Security safe

I got the following in an email this afternoon:

Either House Majority Leader Eric Cantor doesn't understand how Social Security works or he doesn't care.

Just hours after President Obama said that Social Security cuts and privatization are off the table, Cantor said that Social Security had to be cut to balance the budget. But here's the thing: Social Security does not and never has added a single dime to the federal deficit.

Let me try to explain this to Mr. Cantor. Social Security is paid for through the payroll tax. Currently, the payroll tax raises way more money than Social Security pays out and things are projected to keep going this way for another couple of decades.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? They add to the deficit. Tax breaks for billionaires? They add to the deficit. Subsidies for big oil? They add to the deficit. Bailing out Mr. Cantor's friends on Wall Street when they make a bunch of shady deals, cause a financial crisis and almost ruin the world economy? That adds a lot to the deficit.

Simply put, Social Security will run a surplus for decades. The rest of the budget runs a deficit. So, why are we even talking about Social Security?

It's from the Democracy for America organization. You can sign a petition to keep Social Security safe right here.
~~~

Our prisons and prisoners

This is a quote of the week from Sojourners:

An exorbitant amount of money is dedicated to incarcerating people. There are ways you can go about reducing the number of people incarcerated. The best way to help them successfully integrate into society and become independent, law-abiding citizens is to make sure they get a job.

-- Nancy La Vigne, director of the Justice Policy Center at the Urban Institute, on state programs that help ex-convicts find jobs. (Source: The New York Times)

So why do we go out of our way, as a society, to keep former offenders from getting a job? Isn't that pretty much guaranteed to make it more likely that they will return to crime?
~~~

A very short article about immigration

Just go read it:

Three Immigration Myths Meet the Facts

The article gives you some useful information - especially if you have friends or family members who tend to spout off anti-immigration rhetoric.
~~~

It's about time

Here's your headline:

Color-coded threat system to be replaced in April

You know, it never was about security. It was about keeping the American people afraid enough so that they would be easier to control.
~~~

"Rule by bumper sticker"

Oh, my. Oh my, oh my, oh my:



This is just willful ignorance.

Okay. The following was published in 1981:

I found the above statement in a larger piece entitled "The Carbon Dioxide Greenhouse Effect". It's all about the history of the science on this matter.

You know, this stuff is not hard to find.

~~~

Well, what can I say?

This is from before the State of the Union address but it's very, very illuminating:

That "I got mine; screw you" attitude

I found the following gem over on the Think Progress site:

Today on a local radio show, freshman Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC) — a fierce opponent of the new health care law — said that she will participate in the government plan because, otherwise, it’s too “expensive.” “Unfortunately, being here in Washington is very expensive,” Ellmers said, who is set to make $174,000 this year. “Yes we do have a salary and we do have benefits. It costs a lot of money to be here. I’ve signed on to the private plan, just like so many in America are on. The benefit is available to me. People need to understand out there it costs a lot money to be here in Congress.”

Words fail me at this point.
~~~

My question, too

This one:

What the Hell Happened to Keith Olbermann?

Here's just a snippet:

The troubling message to progressives is that they remain essentially orphans when it comes to having their political interests addressed by any corporate news outlet. While the Right has built its own vast media infrastructure – reaching from newspapers, magazines and books to radio, TV and the Internet – the Left generally has treated media as a low priority.

Troubling. Yes, indeed, it's troubling.
~~~

Sunday art blogging

Artist: Paul Cézanne

Image from Wikimedia Commons