Post-9/11 permanent state of war should have ended long ago – The Washington Post
By Eugene Robinson, Published: September 8
There never was a “war on terrorism.” It wasn’t “terrorism” that crashed airliners into buildings on that brilliant Tuesday morning. The attacks were carried out by a 19-member assault team from al-Qaeda [mjh: largely Saudis, our “good friends”], a terrorist organization then being sheltered by the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. There most definitely was a war against al-Qaeda, and we won. …
[W]e’re stuck in a dour, wartime mind-set that in many ways resembles clinical depression. … Yet here we are — for all intents and purposes, paralyzed. …
It’s hard to overstate the extent to which the 9/11 attacks magnified the nation’s anxieties — not just about terrorism but more generally about the future. Perpetual war produces a state of mind in which differences of opinion become questions of patriotism, adversaries become enemies and ideological territory must be defended inch by inch. Now, after 10 long years, perhaps we can finally get unstuck. Bin Laden is dead, his terrorist organization in shreds. The al-Qaeda that attacked us on 9/11 is defeated.
Post-9/11 permanent state of war should have ended long ago – The Washington Post
Category Archives: NADA – New American Dark Ages
New American Dark Ages
Photo of Paintball Wound
Air and paintball gun injuries caused more than 20,000 ER visits in 2008
ScienceDaily (Sep. 3, 2011) — Hospital emergency departments saw over 20,000 injuries due to air and paintball guns in 2008, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. This represents a 20 percent decrease in emergency room visits for injuries caused by air and paintball guns from 2006.
There are two things that bring more people to this blog through Google. They are this photo of a wound from paintball and the words “clever trever.”
I have to wonder, is it just morbid curiosity? Do paintballers want to see a wicked wound? Does it please them?
Let me tell you the story that goes with the picture, if you don’t know it already. In 2003, my wife and I were walking our dog Lucky around our neighborhood after dark as we did every night. On this occasion, a car sped up behind us. We heard two small explosions and each instantly felt searing pain in our backs. As awful as that pain was — and it was intense — it was nothing compared to seeing the expression on Merri’s face when she cried “I’ve been shot!” while grappling with my own overwhelming fear and pain. It was horrible and I wish a comparable misery on the shooter and his gang. The shooter who cackled wickedly as the car sped by.
Remember, guns don’t shoot people, idiots shoot people. And brutal, cowardly idiots shoot strangers in the back. mjh
PS- Since many of the “clever trever” searchers come from the UK, I trust they are not looking for my take on the Albuquerque Journal’s not-so-clever editorial cartoonist, John Trever (Clever Trever Two, What An Ass We Have In Trever).
First published 6 years ago.
“Within the G.O.P., willful ignorance has become a litmus test for candidates.”
Republicans Against Science – NYTimes.com
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: August 28, 2011According to Public Policy Polling, only 21 percent of Republican voters in Iowa believe in global warming (and only 35 percent believe in evolution). Within the G.O.P., willful ignorance has become a litmus test for candidates, one that Mr. Romney is determined to pass at all costs.
So it’s now highly likely that the presidential candidate of one of our two major political parties will either be a man who believes what he wants to believe, even in the teeth of scientific evidence, or a man who pretends to believe whatever he thinks the party’s base wants him to believe.
And the deepening anti-intellectualism of the political right, both within and beyond the G.O.P., extends far beyond the issue of climate change. …
Now, we don’t know who will win next year’s presidential election. But the odds are that one of these years the world’s greatest nation will find itself ruled by a party that is aggressively anti-science, indeed anti-knowledge. And, in a time of severe challenges — environmental, economic, and more — that’s a terrifying prospect.
“lower tax rates and far lower job creation”
A lot of people linked to Buffett’s column last week. If you haven’t read the whole thing, you should. Buffett is a National Treasure, in marked contrast to those who sneer ‘he should feel free to send a check to the Feds.’ The tight-fisted cheapskates call the shots these days. The notion of a Commonwealth is dying. Even the Founders saw the rightness of progressive taxes and the wealthy paying more because they can. The Rich use the common resources of the nation and often disproportionately. Let them pay more for the good of the nation. The cheap bastards sneer the lazy poor want a free ride – not so.
Stop Coddling the Super-Rich – NYTimes.com
By WARREN E. BUFFETT
I paid was only 17.4 percent of my taxable income — and that’s actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office. Their tax burdens ranged from 33 percent to 41 percent and averaged 36 percent.
If you make money with money, as some of my super-rich friends do, your percentage may be a bit lower than mine. But if you earn money from a job, your percentage will surely exceed mine — most likely by a lot.
To understand why, you need to examine the sources of government revenue. Last year about 80 percent of these revenues came from personal income taxes and payroll taxes. The mega-rich pay income taxes at a rate of 15 percent on most of their earnings but pay practically nothing in payroll taxes. It’s a different story for the middle class: typically, they fall into the 15 percent and 25 percent income tax brackets, and then are hit with heavy payroll taxes to boot.
Back in the 1980s and 1990s, tax rates for the rich were far higher, and my percentage rate was in the middle of the pack. According to a theory I sometimes hear, I should have thrown a fit and refused to invest because of the elevated tax rates on capital gains and dividends.
I didn’t refuse, nor did others. I have worked with investors for 60 years and I have yet to see anyone — not even when capital gains rates were 39.9 percent in 1976-77 — shy away from a sensible investment because of the tax rate on the potential gain. People invest to make money, and potential taxes have never scared them off. And to those who argue that higher rates hurt job creation, I would note that a net of nearly 40 million jobs were added between 1980 and 2000. You know what’s happened since then: lower tax rates and far lower job creation.
My Litmus Test
Above all, I have one question for any candidate: Do you believe in evolution? If the answer is no, you cannot serve in any elected office (or as a teacher).
“To be clear. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy.”
“You wonder if Perry is determined to make George W. Bush seem like Hubert Humphrey”–EJ Dionne
That’s the best line of the day.
Rick Perry and the ‘treason’ card – PostPartisan – The Washington Post
By E.J. Dionne
Right-wingers have always loved accusing those they disagree with of “treason,” and it didn’t take Gov. Rick Perry more than a few days to get there.
Rick Perry and the ‘treason’ card – PostPartisan – The Washington Post
