Monday Miscellany and Open Thread

 

"Love is the Law" - The Suburbs

Hey, time to check in.  Sorry for no Mother's Day shout out -- I was pledged and duty bound to tend to chores around the homestead and then it was off to dinner.  (The son, sadly, was up to his eyeballs in finals preparation, so it was Mother's Day sans child.) 

- As expected, the Minnesota Senate passed marriage equality today and Governor Mark Dayton is expected to sign the bill into law tomorrow.  It's one of the few political things that is making me happy these days, what with all the Benghazi and IRS bullshit permeating the airwaves.

- Jamelle Bouie has a chilling piece about the possibility of the Republicans trying to impeach Obama on the strength of these bogus scandals.  It would be madness of course, but  madness is exactly what I expect from these assholes.

- Jamelle also has a succinct piece on racist researcher Jason Richwine.  See also TNC, who puts Richwine's work in its ugly historical context. 

- Also at the Prospect, a good take on the "upside down economy" by Harold Meyerson. 

- But in the interest of always leaving 'em laughing, I have to say there has been a treasure trove of fun with Thomas Friedman in the past few days.  First, the great Taibbi piece in Rolling Stone seeking the best Friedman porn title.  I then discovered the Thomas Friedman Op-Ed Generator, which is inspired. And then for dessert, Tom Tomorrow does "Thomas Friedman, Private Eye."  An embarrassment of riches. 

What's on your minds?

 

Comments

[oddjob]

If the House GOP impeaches Obama over those two matters they will only hasten the day that the Dems. take back the House, and they will have only themselves to blame (AGAIN).

At this moment I'm more disturbed by the grab of all manner of Associated Press phone records by the DOJ. I'm not sure there's smoke or fire there, but I don't like what little I've read so far.

[oddjob]

New development in Arizona: 55% of AZ voters support marriage equality while only 35% oppose it.

(Unfortunately in 2008 the state passed a constitutional amendment banning marriage equality.)

[oddjob]

Why Washington Saved the Economy, Then Permanently Destroyed the Labor Market

(Comparing Washington's reaction to the banking crisis and the unemployment crisis shows how and why government focuses on the rich and ignores the rest)

[nancy]

Great links guys. Thanks. I think. I don't know any more when to laugh or cry. Or how much of each to do.

But Scandal-Gotta-Be-One-There-Gates. That's most important. Top rightnut priority.

Worst Congress ever. I assume few of these insulated folks are connected to anyone who is genuinely suffering from their ongoing patriotic *efforts* to waste time and treasure, both material and spiritual.

[oddjob]

An airborne drone in Seattle may be the vanguard of a whole new set of privacy questions to be settled by the courts.

[Crissa]

It's not like the guy with the drone is doing anything that wouldn't be illegal with a camera on a stick, or his head.

Not that I think she was mistaken, but the quoted conversation with the guy doesn't include, 'does that have a camera, and is it peeping into our windows illegally?' Instead it starts out with a demand that may or may not be legal, which may or may not be immediately able to be complied with.

[nancy]

Certainly throws new light on Hitchcock's "Rear Window." We're all Miss Lonelyhearts now. ;)

On the other hand, an excuse to drop this in -- Shoot Out the Lights. [Love this song}

[big bad wolf]

well, i wonder, if camera or no, there might be some sort of trespass or nuisance suit. if i am playing music too loudly next door to you the cops will come. if i repeatedly enter your near airspace with a drone, whether that may not be the same sort of nuisance.

nancy, feel free to link to the entire album :)

[Sir Charles]

nancy,

It seems to me that the Richard Thompson song could be heard as giving the drone-afflicted woman advice: shoot out the lights.

Now I am not a fan of guns, but I think I'd make allowance for someone shooting down the drone outside of their window.

[oddjob]

"...the vast majority of drones in the United States will probably be used for agriculture. According to a recent report from the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (A.U.V.S.I.), a trade group, over ninety per cent of the U.A.V. industry’s possible economic impact in 2015 (or about two billion dollars) will be agricultural. Drones can be used to more precisely spray crops, keep track of growth rates and hydration, and identify possible outbreaks of disease before they spoil a harvest...."

(Hat tip, Sully.)

[nancy]

nancy, feel free to link to the entire album :)

big bad --Tried. No luck. Sorry. But Spotify I gather will deliver.

Meanwhile, who needs drones? I don't think it's my imagination that people are finding more inventive ways to be jerks these days. How would you like to be secretly captured on film through your window and have the image blown up to adorn gallery walls. Art my ass.

[Sir Charles]

nancy,

I think there are some legitimate uses for drones -- firefighting, crop inspection,some kinds of law enforcement. But the spy in your neighbors' window thing is really not acceptable.

[oddjob]

Drones will be extraordinarily handy for forestry research, both with trees and with wildlife.

[nancy]

Realizing this is a useless exercise, I can't help anyway but try to imagine living in a state that seemingly happily elects and reinstalls two [both!] senators whose responses to a devastating natural disaster, in tornado alley no less, are to be looking for offsets, elsewhere, to pay for disaster relief -- grandstanding, huffing, puffing, demagoguing away -- all while constituents rake through rubble. My god.

I didn't think it could get any worse than Cantor and his bullshit messaging several summers ago of offsets before assistance to those New England libs. But this 'suffer my neighbors' because *purity, patriotism, consistency and my [Tea] Party allegiance* is a new level of divorced abstacted cruelty, is it not? Cruel, unseemly and stupid. Bad people with power.

[nancy]

abstracted. spellcheck is fired. :)

[Sir Charles]

nancy,

And a state that can't spare a few dollars to have schools constructed with below ground shelters, even though it is the most tornado-plagued place on the planet. I don't get it.

The funny thing is that I have a few clients in Oklahoma and they are among my favorites -- just terrific people.

I don't know how they can stand it there.