mjhinton posted a photo:
in our backyard this morning. Eat more doves!
E.J. Dionne: Paul Ryan and the triumph of theory – The Washington Post
E.J. Dionne: Paul Ryan and the triumph of theory – The Washington Post
By E.J. Dionne Jr., Sunday, August 12, 12:10 PMThe Washington Post
If Paul Ryan were a liberal, conservatives would describe him as a creature of Washington who has spent virtually all of his professional life as a congressional aide, a staffer at an ideological think tank and, finally, as a member of Congress. In the right’s shorthand: He never met a payroll.
If they were in a sunny mood, these conservatives would readily concede that Ryan is a nice guy who’s fun to talk to. But they’d also insist that he is an impractical ideologue. He holds an almost entirely theoretical view of the world defined by big ideas that never touch the ground and devotes little energy to considering how his proposed budgets might affect the lives of people he’s never met. …
How can Ryan justify his Medicaid cuts when, as the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation found, they would likely leave 14 million to 19 million poor people without health coverage? How can he justify tax proposals that, as The New Republic’s Alec MacGillis pointed out, would reduce the rate on Mitt Romney’s rather substantial income to less than 1 percent? How can he claim his budgets are anti-deficit measures when, as The Post’s Matt Miller has noted, his tax cuts would add trillions to the debt and we wouldn’t be in balance until somewhere around 2030? …
But the issue in this election will be how Americans want to be governed. Republicans mock President Obama for still thinking like the professor he once was, yet in this race, Obama — far more than today’s conservative theorists and to the occasional consternation of his more liberal supporters — is the pragmatist. He’s talking about messy trade-offs: between taxes and spending, government and the private sector, dreams and the facts on the ground. In embracing Ryan, Romney has tied himself to the world of high conservative ideology. As liberals learned long ago, ideology usually loses.
E.J. Dionne: Paul Ryan and the triumph of theory – The Washington Post
President Obama uses lftar dinner to promote religious freedom | The Capitol Column
President Obama uses lftar dinner to promote religious freedom | The Capitol Column
During a Ramadan dinner at the White House last night, President Barack Obama condemned the attack on a Sikh Temple in Wisconsin. He said any assault on religious faiths “is an attack on the freedom of all Americans” and has no place in the United States.
President Obama also said at the dinner that no American should ever have to fear worshipping in public.
Just the headline must be causing strokes and militia meetings all over the country. And the President defending someone accused of thought-crimes by a lunatic — appalling.
I do appreciate the writer explaining what McCarthyism was. And the House Republican who says don’t judge all House Republicans — who vote as a monolith — by a few loons. OK. Let’s give them the Senate and the White House, while we’re at it.
Kudos to the commenter who spells out the Iron Rule: Do onto others as you think they would do onto you. (The Golden Rule is for wimps and deadmen.) Perhaps progressives should follow conservatives: git a gun!
The Case for Gun Control – TIME
The Case for Gun Control – TIME
By Fareed Zakaria Monday, Aug. 20, 2012
Adam Winkler, a professor of constitutional law at UCLA, documents the actual history in Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America. Guns were regulated in the U.S. from the earliest years of the Republic. Laws that banned the carrying of concealed weapons were passed in Kentucky and Louisiana in 1813. Other states soon followed: Indiana in 1820, Tennessee and Virginia in 1838, Alabama in 1839 and Ohio in 1859. Similar laws were passed in Texas, Florida and Oklahoma. As the governor of Texas (Texas!) explained in 1893, the "mission of the concealed deadly weapon is murder. To check it is the duty of every self-respecting, law-abiding man."
Congress passed the first set of federal laws regulating, licensing and taxing guns in 1934. The act was challenged and went to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1939. Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s solicitor general, Robert H. Jackson, said the Second Amendment grants people a right that "is not one which may be utilized for private purposes but only one which exists where the arms are borne in the militia or some other military organization provided for by law and intended for the protection of the state." The court agreed unanimously.
Things started to change in the 1970s as various right-wing groups coalesced to challenge gun control, overturning laws in state legislatures, Congress and the courts. But Chief Justice Warren Burger, a conservative appointed by Richard Nixon, described the new interpretation of the Second Amendment in an interview after his tenure as "one of the greatest pieces of fraud–I repeat the word fraud–on the American public by special-interest groups that I have ever seen in my lifetime."
Fox News poll: Obama’s lead grows as Romney’s support slips | Fox News
I’m stunned Fox doesn’t spin this. But then, Rove [spit on the ground] manages to. mjh
Fox News poll: Obama’s lead grows as Romney’s support slips | Fox News
The president would take 49 percent of the vote compared to Romney’s 40 percent in a head-to-head matchup if the election were held today, the poll found. Last month, Obama had a four percentage-point edge of 45 percent to 41 percent. This marks the second time this year the president has had a lead outside the poll’s margin of sampling error.
Obama’s advantage comes largely from increased support among independents, who now pick him over Romney by 11 percentage points. Some 30 percent of independents are undecided. Last month, Obama had a four-point edge among independents, while Romney had the advantage from April through early June.
There was also an uptick in support for Obama among women, blacks and Democrats.
Fox News poll: Obama’s lead grows as Romney’s support slips | Fox News
Rove: For Romney, Even Means Ahead – WSJ.com
By KARL ROVE
Wednesday’s Gallup poll had President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney essentially tied, with Mr. Obama at 47% and Mr. Romney at 46%. That’s good news for the challenger: Mr. Romney has absorbed a punishing three-month Obama television barrage that drained the incumbent’s war chest. Historically, undecided voters tend to break late for the challenger.
Neverwas (3+ stars)
I don’t know why this was in my queue, although it has a stellar cast, especially Ian McKellan. And a soundtrack by Philip Glass, which is not really a plus for me. (Too many iterations of Einstein on the Beach in my salad days.) I hate the feeling of dread that a movie is about to get violent. Perhaps it’s a spoiler to say this one never gets as violent as I feared. My hat’s off to the writer/director. (I kept thinking about Bridge to Terabithia and, less so, Ink. If you only see one of these, it should be Ink.)
