SAR #14271

How we are governed is not nearly as important as how much.

Collateral Damage: In the US bombing campaign against ISIS, who actually is being killed? Do you care? Does Obama? Does the Nobel Committee? In the same vein, who are the people the US is holding in all those secret Afghan prisons?

Cock, Crowing: Inflation! Inflation is coming! Right Here In River City, Trouble with a capital 'I'. That's the gist of Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher's rationale for an immediate hike in interest rates, to prevent unemployment from falling below some magic number 7%, 6% and why the first thing you know the interest the rich get won't keep up. One of these days the sun will, in fact, come up, but not for a while. And Fisher's cackling will not be the cause.

Sticks & Stones: Russia says that the airspace of Syria is “under its protection” and that Russia will retaliate against the US if it continues to violate Syria's sovereign airspace. Okay, so just how?

Good News/Bad: Climate change is no longer a threat to our children's' future. It is a threat to us, today; it's already here. 
 
Playbook: The Republicans are turning to “religious freedom” and “religious liberty” as the main code-words for this fall's speeches. This is supposed to make them “more inclusive and welcoming” on social issues. They see it as a way of fooling women into supporting the GOP even though it holds them in contempt and votes against their interests most of the time. According to Rand Paul the nation is in the midst of a “spiritual crisis” and that “America needs a revival.” What the country needs, they claim, is the freedom to impose conservative Christianity on others, here and abroad, to require Christian prayer in evolution-free schools, to force Jews to wear yellow stars, Muslims to be dead and all Buddhists to be kindly old Asian guys.

Got Five, Do Hear I Six? Guy in Kansas didn't pay his taxes, so the state tax cops closed his business and confiscated his inventory and now the state is actioning off the material seized, which includes dildos, blow-up sex partners, porn videos, a variety of magazines, and condoms in assorted flavors.

Rights, Wronged: Collingdale, PA police decided to give a local couple grounds to get rich by issuing a citation to them for videotaping them inside their own home. Cops just don't get the concept that they are public servants doing the people's business and are subject to being recorded... and being sued if they get nasty about it.

Quit While You Can: Facebook is selling all the information it has on you (and it has a lot) to a new ad network, Atlas, which will inundate you with ads wherever you go, based on your Facebook info.

And I Quote: 'Littering — the death penalty is probably too strong — but it ought to be punished really severely.” Fox's Tucker Carlson, after arguing that only rich people care about global warming. 
 
True, True: “Americans have no idea how much the Masters of the Universe are paid and vastly underestimate the concentration of wealth at the top.”

Location, Location: Sarah Palin claims that 'Truth is an endangered species at 1400 Pennsylvania Avenue.' And other places, too.