Thursday, March 6, 2014

SAR #14065



Is there a non-violent way to get to a post-carbon world?

Without Comment: Over the last 15 years, Washington state has had a job growth rate more than double the national average, payrolls have expanded by 21% in the service sector, and in the last seven its poverty level has been better than the US average. Yet all the while they've had a minimum wage level way above the national level, and had it indexed to the cost of living. Serves 'em right.

Rear Guard Action: Determined to be left behind by the nation, Kentucky's governor has over-ruled his attorney general and will appeal the federal ruling that the state must accept all marriages that are legally performed in any of the other 49 states. Even the gay ones. But he lives in a state where churches give guns as door prizes for newcomers. 
 
Fails Laugh Test: The government is accusing Sprint of charging millions of dollars too much for providing the NSA with illegal wiretaps.

En-titheled: The Roman Catholic archbishop of Newark plans to sell of enough church assets to fund a $500,000 extension on his retirement home, indoor pool and hot tub included. The archdiocese has told its parishioners to suck it up because the house will remain a church asset after the current occupant goes on to his just reward, wherever that might be.

Asked &Answered: Are the Democrats ready to inch back to the left? No, they're not scared enough of the left and are far too afraid of the right.

What, Me Worry? Congress has again stuck the taxpayer with the cost of rebuilding rich folks' beach houses that storms wash away and cleaning up the mud and water damage for all those fools who live on flood plains. 
 
Proportion: Obama's suggestion that the Earned Income tax credit be boosted by $60 billion has been met by predictable Republican hostility. After all it would raise government spending by 0.14% and waste it on the working poor.

Goose/Gander: Congress, which is perfectly happy to let the NSA monitor all of us all the time is really upset that the CIA returned the favor.

Thanks a Million! A Colorado man who was saved from drowning by emergency responders is suing them because they did not rescue him fast enough. He said he really didn't want to, but that he “needs help paying his medical bills,” and didn't know who else to sue.

The Parting Shot:
 Porcupinefish, Diodon hystrix.

1 comment:

mistah charley, ph.d. said...

re en-titheled - i regularly go to catholic mass, which pleases missus charley, but with a unitarian attitude (i am pope devananda of the people's catholic church, also doing business as the sentient beings unitarian universalist association - you may have heard of our founder, pope maurice, also known as father guido sarducci) - so it always strikes me as vaguely humorous when the ash wednesday gospel reading includes the following from matthew, ch 6, vv. 16-18, as it did last night:

"And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you."

this is, of course, read prior to the ritual in which people's foreheads are marked with ashes in the sign of the cross "so as to show others that they are fasting"

i participated in this, as well as the symbolic cannibalism - when in the roman church, do as the romans do - as a pope of the pcc/sbuua [we are all popes - maurice taught the popehood of all believers] i preach that christianity, properly understood, is one of the true religions, in the sense that erich fromm meant:

"The purpose of all the true religions is to help man overcome his narcissism."

there's a 5600 word essay on fromm which explains his view of human nature and is well worth reading - see http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/fromm.html