Through a Dog’s Eyes on PBS tonight.
John Cole started Balloon Juice early in 2002. Those who have followed along know that this has been quite the journey.
You Stay Classy, Arizona!
Your modern GOP at work:
The Arizona House on Monday voted for a provision that would require President Barack Obama to show his birth certificate if he hopes to be on the state’s ballot when he runs for reelection.
The House voted 31-22 to add the provision to a separate bill. The measure still faces a formal vote.
It would require U.S. presidential candidates who want to appear on the ballot in Arizona to submit documents proving they meet the constitutional requirements to be president.
Phoenix Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema said the bill is one of several measures that are making Arizona “the laughing stock of the nation.”
What if PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Obama orders his secret service detail to punch Republican members of the Arizona House in the neck? Will that prove he is American?
Never Gonna Get It
Just watched a show on the Nat. Geo. channel about Stephen Hawking and his quest for a theory of everything, and it led to a discussion about string theory. Try as I might, I am simply unable to mentally visualize and thus fully comprehend the concept of nine dimensions. I understand what they are saying (sort of), but I simply can not visualize it. They even had little graphics to demonstrate the extra dimensions, yet that still looked two and three dimensional (for obvious reasons) and didn’t help me conceptualize nine dimensions at all.
I’m assuming my brain is just wired differently from those who grasp this.
You’ve Got It Back Asswards
One of the answers to making America healthier isn’t to add more subsidies for farmers markets and the like, it is to simply END the subsidies we’re handing out to big agribusiness and farmers already, particularly grain. And then if you want, go a step farther and stop our foolish sugar policies, and maybe food producers will start using more sugar instead of the heavily subsidized corn syrup, which tastes like shit by comparison and fools the body.
On top of these obvious and immediate benefits, we would also have more power negotiating trade agreements and a greater ability to demand more open markets abroad.
The Winds Done Shifted
It never ceases to amaze me how often it needs to be restated that John McCain can’t lose his integrity, because he never had any, but Daniel Larison makes yet another effort to point this out. So help me, if I could, I would print that out and staple it to the forehead of every journalist in DC if I thought it would do any good.
When You’ve Lost Mark Halperin
I’m as shocked as anyone about this:
It isn’t every day that a consumate inside-game reporter/pundit type like Mark Halperin aggressively calls out one party for lying, but that’s exactly what Halperin did early this morning on MSNBC, talking about the GOP claim that the Dem financial reg reform bill will lead to a permanent bailout. Per the transcript:
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Just this once, defend the Republican position.
MARK HALPERIN: I cannot defend what they’re doing.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Oh, please.
SCARBOROUGH: Look at you! Look at you!
[CROSSTALK]
HALPERIN: They are willfully misreading the bill or they are engaged in a cynical attempt to keep the president from achieving something.
Note how appalled Scarborough is.
Greg says he will have video soon, and that is a good thing, because I need to see this with my own lying eyes.
I Hate to Agree With This Ruling
But I think I do:
The Supreme Court struck down a federal law Tuesday aimed at banning videos that show graphic violence against animals, saying it violates the right to free speech.
The justices, voting 8-1, threw out the criminal conviction of Robert Stevens of Pittsville, Va., who was sentenced to three years in prison for videos he made about pit bull fights.
***But Roberts said the law could be read to allow the prosecution of the producers of films about hunting. And he scoffed at the administration’s assurances that it would only apply the law to depictions of extreme cruelty. “But the First Amendment protects against the government,” Roberts said. “We would not uphold an unconstitutional statute merely because the government promised to use it responsibly.”
Personally, I think people who abuse animals should be slowly beaten to death over a period of weeks with a sock filled with quarters, but I agree with Roberts.