Today's edition of quick hits:
* Law-enforcement officials held the latest briefing today on the mass shootings in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, and shed new light on, among other things, how Wade Michael Page died during Sunday's violence.
* Egypt: "The Egyptian military launched airstrikes early Wednesday in its boldest move to date to confront militant cells that have recently taken root in the Sinai Peninsula and used the region as a base for launching attacks against Israel."
* July was the hottest month in the continental United States ever recorded and the warmest January-to-July period since modern record-keeping began in 1895.
* Texas yesterday executed Marvin Wilson, who was convicted of murder in 1992, despite his IQ rating of 61.
* President Obama directed the Agriculture Department yesterday to authorize another $30 million in drought relief. The money will be used "to get more water to livestock and restore land impacted by drought," Obama told reporters.
* Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) is taking the lead on urging the United States and Russia to eliminate the stockpile of chemical weapons in Syria.
* Progress: "[T]he two government-controlled mortgage finance giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, this week reported some of their best quarterly results since the real estate collapse."
* President Obama opposes anti-gay discrimination by the Boy Scouts.
* A prominent official in the Pennsylvania Republican Party said he considers Obama supporters "mentally retarded."
* A year ago, Fox's Eric Bolling's global warming denial was so intense, he asked on the air, "Do we even need our air conditioners next year?" Here's hoping no one in his audience actually threw out their a/c.
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
Leave a Comment:
Bolling's probably an End-Timer... You know, we won't need air conditioning next year because there won't be a next year...
It's always funny how people who clearly don't understand anything about anything think that liberals are "mentally retarded." It's called the Kruger-Dunning effect: people who know absolutely nothing are much more likely to rank their own knowledge on a subject as being much higher than a person who knows a little and can more objectively rank their own understanding.
You can see this at work in every single thing that the Teatards talk about. Economics, politics, science, religion, ad infinitum. There has never been as much fail in one place and one time as currently exists in the American right-wing. They're instructively dumb and wrong about literally every subject they talk about.
At least to be "retarded," one has to have a brain, thus putting oneself ahead of any and all Republicans.
Come on, don't stoop to grade-school reciprocal name-calling.
Heck, I hope they all do! Not that I'd actively wish harm on anyone, but if you so stubbornly believe in your right-wing ideology that you suffer heatstroke, it's your own damn fault. Maybe if enough of the crazies die off from denying the heat and eating anti-gay fast food, we can actually address some of our problems in a sane manner.
What? Surely this is worthy of a mention in today's breaking news:
HuffPo Major story: Families with ties to Death squads provided 40% of the startup capital for Bain.
.
Pass the popcorn.
This is ok as long as you're going to set your sneakers on fire that were made by 10 year olds, and throw away your Apple products that are made by forced labor essentially.
I strongly believe in ethical investing.
Romney finds some tasks ethically challenging- stuff like speaking words honestly or acting on those words.
I consider it a sign of mental duress or sickness for a person to actually refer to others as "retarded".
Gee where's Sarah Palin in all this? Isn't she suppose to get her knickers all in a twist when someone is referred to as "retarded"? What about Trig Sarah aren't you going to make a stand for his sake?...... I guess not because it's Democrats who are being abused.
Eric Bolling’s rise in television was built on his success as a commodities trader. Now he’s just another blubbering idiot on Fox Noise.
One of the main reasons I refuse to vote Republican is how certain people are and how the Republicans patronize to these people. The racist hatred talk that I’ve heard and how certain men talk about women. The racist talk that people of other color, sexual orientation, or religion are not worthy to be anything better and should be deported or gotten rid of. These men talk like women are meant to be slaves and servants to them. That women have no rights and are meant to be subservient to men. And if you actually meet some of these people, you would become sickened and disgusted by such talk. In addition, realize how really sick these people are and surely must have learned the wrong things either in their family up bringing or associated themselves with the wrong people. And what makes it really bad is when even some women listen to these racist narrow-minded men. What I have heard from these people doesn’t make me proud, but disgusted with the whole lot of them.
"...disgusted with the whole lot of them."
I hope you have enough disgust to go around, because there are indeed a whole lot of them from what the polls tell me.
"I thought you were mentally retarded" so i scheduled you for execution.
Voter suppression, Texas-style! [Sorry, very macabre humour.]
Understandable, under the circumstances.
Romney is plasticman!
Regarding the link about Egypt which included this:
"Egypt, which launched air raids against Islamist militants in Sinai for the first time in decades, faces a tough enemy that has used the peninsula's rugged terrain to evade capture in the past.
The assault marked the first time Egyptian fighter planes have carried out strikes in the region since the end of the country’s war with Israel in 1973. They appear to have been carried out with the blessing of Israel, which has pushed Egypt to aggressively tackle the rise of extremism along its border."
So - if I recall correctly - one of the issues with the Arab Spring in Egypt was what Egypt would do regarding Israel.
Wow - I guess we have the answer.
No, we don't really have an answer. The new regime was far less enthusiastic about rooting out Al-Qaeda affiliated Jihadists in the Sinai peninsula than Mubarak's regime was, though the latter dragged its feet, too; some pressure on Israel was considered desirable. What happened this time is that the Jihadists (foolishly, I think) attacked the Egyptian army, killing around 20 soldiers, taking their armored vehicles and attempting an attack in Israeli territory with them (which failed). No nation can just let terrorists carry out this kind of attack with impunity. This doesn't actually have anything to do with Israeli pressure; what they needed is Israel's acquiescence, since the peace treaty between the states requires that most of Sinai remain a demilitarized zone in which only light armanents (certainly not attack aircraft) is permitted.
I'm wondering how long the climate change deniers are going to continue. Every time it snows, they jump up and down claiming that's proof that there's no global warming, then when there are record highs (nearly every year in the last 10), they shut up and complain about other things. How about we all act like responsible, logical, rational human beings and say, "You know what… we can all agree it's getting hotter!" then figure out what, if anything, we ought to do about it? Is the right SO deep in the pocket of certain key industries that they're willing to risk America's economic future, and agricultural future just so their chorines can make a few extra bucks right now? Environmental regulations have never killed a company… and frankly, have never even been that difficult to adapt to. They just cost a bit more, and it seems they're so darn cheap, they are willing to burn the world, rather than pay a BIT more, or make a BIT less.
Hey these people watch Fox (tabloid) News and believe it! If Hannity told them Bigfoot and Batboy had a kid on the whitehouse lawn they'd believe it!
Hey Sed, what did they name that kid?
I believe her name was Ann Coulter!
Texas yesterday executed Marvin Wilson, who was convicted of murder in 1992, despite his IQ rating of 61.
This was the (reasonable) judgment of an expert that the state determined did not provide a correct opinion on the matter. This statement turns that around and assumes he is right, which makes things easier, I guess.
Since the subject of Freddie Mack came up, check out this article from DSNews.com: http://www.dsnews.com/articles/freddie-mac-wont-draw-from-treasury-this-quarter-2012-08-07 DSNews is one of the best industry websites if you want to know what the repo men are thinking.
The term 'mentally retarded', unless it's used in a clinical setting, is usually the mark of someone who has run out of logical arguments. It's not a coincidence that the Michael Savage Show features Mr. Savage stating many times that liberalism is a 'mental disease'. This is the type of argument that you associate with people of that logical caliber.
The arguments from the far right in the last twenty years have become, if anything, even less logical and grounded in fact than when the John Birch Society was in full flower in the fifties and sixties. From advocating for smaller government while passing bills that mandate the government oversee a woman's reproductive choices to stating that they 'oppose the teaching of critical thinking skills' to proposing the power of Jesus as an explanation for celestial mechanics, the Republican party and their handmaiden, the Tea Party, have collectively become the shrill crier on the corner warning of the coming apocalypse based on the number of puppies born under the sign of Scorpio.
It is not all all surprising that they swung this way. What is really disheartening is that there are so many that are marching along with it.
I applaud the use of "mentally retarded", especially as projection in lieu of eventually having to vote for the world's most ridiculously obvious liar and trying to feel good about it!
Good luck with that..
When I saw that Marvin Wilson (executed Texas prisoner) had an IQ of 61, I was surprised that the GOP didn't nominate him for Congress.