Friday cat blogging!

Photo from Wikimedia commons

About those who carry out executions

This may be painful to listen to but I do encourage you to do so. It is very moving, very compelling. Dr. Ault's voice sounds utterly authentic.

I like to think I'm in the "honest" category:

No kidding

This:

It is embarrassing. The gridlock and partisanship in Washington right now is disgusting.

-- Mark Warner, Democratic Senator from Virginia, on the dysfunction in Congress; the Senate approved a temporary spending bill to fund the government through Nov. 18 and avoid a shutdown
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Sunday art blogging

Artist: Chen Chengpo

Image from Wikimedia commons

Worth watching, people:

Friday cat blogging!

Leroy Finlay on his sofa

Social Security facts

The following was in an email sent out today by Senator Bernie Sanders:

Republicans hate Social Security because it has been an extraordinary success and has done exactly what it was designed to do. It is the most successful government program in our nation's history and is enormously popular.

When Social Security was developed, 50 percent of seniors lived in poverty. Today, that number is 10 percent -- still too high, but a testament to the success of Social Security.

Republicans have spent years demonizing Social Security and spreading lies about its sustainability. They want to scare Americans and build support for making drastic cuts to the program or privatizing it entirely. Their long-term goal is to end Social Security as we know it, and convert it into a private account system which will enable Wall Street to make hundreds of billions in profits.

The truth is that, today, according to the Social Security Administration, Social Security has a $2.7 trillion surplus and can pay out every benefit owed to every eligible American for the next 25 years.

Further, because it is funded by the payroll tax and not the U.S. Treasury, Social Security has not contributed one nickel to our deficit.
...
Right now, someone who earns $106,800 pays the same amount of money into Social Security as billionaires like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. That is because today, all income above $106,800 is exempt from the Social Security tax. As a result, 94% of Americans pay Social Security tax on all of their income, but the wealthiest 6% do not.

That makes no sense.

I get so tired of people believing and asserting that Social Security is somehow in trouble. It's not. And all we need to do is raise that cap on the tax.

Do we really want more elderly people on the streets?
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The quotation of this tragic night

This one:

To those about to take my life, may God have mercy on your souls; and may God bless your souls.

-- Troy Davis, to the prison employees who would be conducting the execution.
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Tonight's horrible news

This:

Supreme Court denies Davis' request for stay of execution

"An evil deed is not redeemed by an evil deed of retaliation. Justice is never advanced in the taking of a human life. Morality is never upheld by a legalized murder."

-- Coretta Scott King

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My choice for quote of the day

This was in an email sent out by the Committee to Elect Alan Grayson:

You know, we`re 50th in the world now in life expectancy. Canadians live about two years longer. Japanese people live about four years longer. And yet, we pay 30 percent more for our health care than any other country in the entire world. Are you telling me we can`t do better than this?

-- Alan Grayson

We really need this man back in Congress.

The tiny amount I can spare this year for political contributions I have sent to Grayson.
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People, this is so rich:

Be sure to watch it to the VERY end.

I just don't get it...

For the life of me I don't understand why the American voters would want to elect people who don't believe in government to be in charge of government. Wouldn't it be rather obvious that such people would not be motivated to make government actually, you know, WORK?

Friday cat blogging!

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Anti-science consequences

I agree:

These types of messages in this climate have the capacity to do enormous public-health harm.

--Steven Miles, bioethics professor from the University of Minnesota, offering a reward for proof of allegations made by Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann that the HPV vaccine has caused mental retardation

The anti-science movement going on in this country is going to turn around and bite us - probably sooner rather than later.

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Racism

It's really distressing how racism is becoming "acceptable" again. I saw the following bumper sticker on a pickup truck this morning:

"Don't blame me. I voted for the old white guy."

Sure, it's descriptive. But why bring race into it unless one is a racist? Unless part of what the person doesn't like about Obama is the fact that he's not white?

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