- Libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara at Principled Perspectives takes on the difficult task of casting liberal triumphs that have earned approval from contemporary libertarian conservatives – abolishing slavery in the US, advancing the rights of women, ending Jim Crow – as pro-Enlightenment, while casting liberal victories that conservatives hate – Social Security, Medicare – as regressive anti-enlightenment.
- Andy Borowitz brings a startling report of an able-bodied senior citizen who refuses to do anything but watch television, yet receives three free government meals every day. Oh come on, you know who it is.
- nojo at Stinque comes up with an inspired rant, thanking extreme conservatives for destroying the healthcare repeal effort, even if their motivation was that repeal was not harsh enough. Says nojo, “bless their shriveled hearts”.
- Frances Langum narrates as healthcare repeal goes down and MSNBC host Joy Reid, serving as a panelist, stomps all over a conservative’s feeble effort to blame Democrats for lack of bipartisan cooperation.
- This was almost lost in the chaos of the aborted vote day. Jon Perr at PERRspectives reported on the last minute problem the CBO had in scoring the Republican plan to repeal healthcare. In the fast shuffle to make it harsh enough to please conservatives, it no longer met the non-partisan definition of health care.
- In looking at why the Republican repeal of healthcare failed, tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors finds one answer in a century and a half of technology. Repeal was defeated by the telephone.
- At MadMikesAmerica, Bill Formby has figured out what Republicans do not care about.
- There is some talk of buyer’s remorse among Trump voters, especially those who may resent efforts to take away their health coverage. Max’s Dad speculates about one other single individual who may regret throwing the election to Donald Trump and who is doing something about it.
- Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged, didn’t see anything particularly startling in news that Trump folks could have been caught up in legal wiretaps of other governments just after the election. Congratulatory calls seem innocuous. But that was before the weird, jerky reaction of Rep. Devin Nunes, all by itself, raised legitimate suspicions of those contacts.
- This week in Donald Trump’s ‘Alternative Facts’, the Baltimore Sun reports on how a Trump falsehood got weird. Moments after our wayward President went to Twitter and stated that the FBI director was saying what the FBI director was not saying, the FBI director directly told the American people that the statement transmitted by the President moments before was just not true.
- Jack Jodell at The Saturday Afternoon Post notes the Trump policy of shrinking the press corps to only that small chorus willing to carry administration tunes.
- Dave Dubya thinks a suggestion by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson might be a worthy answer to Trumpism.
- Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson suggests that Milwaukee violates constitutional guarantees of equality by not providing taxpayer funded bus transportation to religious schools. A plain reading of the First Amendment seems to me to prohibit Congress from providing anything respecting an establishment of religion. Additional post civil war amendments extended those prohibitions to state and local governments.
Traditional conservative argument relies on a bit of gaslighting: the First Amendment doesn’t really say what it says. So I’m especially interested in how James answers the Bill of Rights. Sadly, he doesn’t seem to think that objection worth answering, or even mentioning. At least not here.
- In The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser, Bruce dutifully reports on yet another instance of Christian criminality. In this case, an evangelical pastor commits insurance fraud to pay for his drug habit. Hypocrisy is always newsworthy, as I see it. Christians traditionally seek some variation of scriptural immunity by regarding all humanity as sinful. Our pastor prays aloud that God’s word might break through “the sins and contradictions in my life.” A beloved friend explains why she will never attend worship. “I will not participate in organized hypocrisy.” My answer is always the same. “That’s not fair – – – we’re not organized.”
- My excellent friend, conservative T. Paine at Saving Common Sense, has a friend who voted for Obama, then Hillary, and who now considers how to protect his home. T. Paine makes helpful suggestions which his liberal friend playfully muddles. Which demonstrates the complete failure of contemporary liberal thought, or the humorous side of T. Paine’s friends, or maybe just that T. Paine is a glass-is-full wit on his own.
- Vagabond Scholar brings us angry Irish ballads about violence, death, and English occupation.
- The Journal of Improbable Research covers an event at the University of Oslo. The Luxuriant Hair Club for Scientists (LFHCfS) has announced their choice for Woman of the Year. Apparently, Dr. Anneleen Kool, who has conducted botanical research on how Vikings used plant life, also has lots of hair.
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Seldom Balanced – Usually Fair