January 26, 2013

I lately avoid these gauntlets thrown down.

It looks like I should make an exception in this case, due to your persistent rudeness.

Moore makes weak arguments backing Zero Dark Thirty on torture. He calls it a work of "fiction" even though Bigelow says it's based on true events. He claims it is actually anti-torture simply because it shows it, and doesn't care what lesson most people take from it -- and says "artist" has no responsibility to get it right.

He also claims, correctly, that torture rarely gets good intel and 99 times out of 100 gets wrong or bad info -- but isn't bothered by the fact that the film does not show that. In fact, the movie shows not one but several prisoners giving up something vital after, if not during, torture.

Moore is wrong. And so are you.

January 13, 2013

"Untold History of the US" mentioned this

I have to admit it (was one of the many things in that series that has) stunned me.

January 5, 2013

This series is just flooring me

To think about how different this country would be if the big business interests and party insiders hadn't pushed Henry Wallace out for Harry Truman... smh

January 4, 2013

Obama acknowledged our deficit problem when he spoke Tuesday night.

"The aging population and the rising cost of healthcare makes Medicare the biggest contributor to our deficit," he said. "I believe we've got to find ways to reform that program without hurting seniors who count on it to survive."

The way I read this is that we need Medicare for all, just for the record. I fear that is not what the President will be proposing, however.

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jan/02/nation/la-na-fiscal-analysis-20130103

The article takes a broader view of how the Republicans rely on older Americans -- those who use SS and Medicare -- as their base, while the Dems' support is more heavily concentrated among younger voters... who want spending in in areas of job training and education, setting up this odd dichotomy.

It doesn't explain why all those TeaBaggers go to rallies with signs saying "Keep your big-government mitts off my Medicare", but then only the most profound ignorance seems to do that.

Anyway, the Debt Ceiling Tilt-A-Whirl in a couple of months is going to mean some of us -- like me; I'm six months shy of 55 -- get tubed. They don't call it "Chained" for nothing.

January 1, 2013

TPA's Texans of the Year are the Tar Sands Blockaders

The Texas Progressive Alliance, a consortium of Lone Star-based liberal weblogs, has selected the protesters of the Tar Sands Blockade as Texans of the Year for 2012.

The award has been given annually to the person, or persons or organization, who had the most significance influence -- for good or ill -- on the advancement of progressive interests and causes over the past twelve months.

"As with previous winners (like Fort Worth city council member Joel Burns in 2010, the Harris County Democratic Party's coordinated campaign in 2008, and Carolyn Boyle of Texas Parent PAC in 2006), the Tar Sands Blockaders represent what progressive Texans strive for: correcting injustices through direct action. Sometime that takes place at the ballot box, sometimes in the courtroom, and once in a while it happens in the streets. In 2012, it happened in a handful of pine trees in East Texas," said Vince Leibowitz, president of the TPA.

http://brainsandeggs.blogspot.com/2013/01/tpas-texans-of-year-are-tar-sands.html