Them Scandals Some More
I DO mind that MY health care is at risk from a transparent smear and slur campaign, and nobody “responsible” in the so-called “liberal” media says a word.
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In The Sphere
Tipping Points
“Tipping Point” – Recently I have been struck by how many times I have heard that term lifted up. I heard it in reference to our atmosphere passing beyond the “tipping point” of 400 parts per million CO2. Climate change has happened – we’ve passed the tipping point. I saw this graphically presented this week in the striking images in the feature-length documentary, “HOME.” I heard the term used in the PBS documentary series, “Why Poverty? Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream,” which I also viewed this week. It’s a look at the dangerously widening gap between the rich and poor, and the Koch brothers and others who are promoting and exacerbating that gap. And finally I heard … Continue reading
Scandal Eyes
“the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups”? You mean looking for anonymous Koch bucks in Tea Party 501(c)4′s? Take a gander at this, kiddies, and tell me that C4′s aren’t being abused by long-time Koch associates … Continue reading
Standing Tall for Landowner Rights
by Walter Brasch Julia Trigg Crawford of Direct, Texas, is the manager of a 650-acre farm that her grandfather first bought in 1948. The farm produces mostly corn, wheat, and soy. On its north border is the Red River; to the west is the Bois d’Arc Creek. TransCanada is an Alberta-based corporation that is building the controversial Keystone Pipeline that will carry bitumen—thicker, more corrosive and toxic, than crude oil—through 36-inch diameter pipes from the Alberta tar sands to refineries on the Gulf Coast, mostly to be exported. The $2.3 billion southern segment, about 485 miles from Cushing, Okla., to the Gulf Coast is nearly complete. With the exception of a 300-mile extension between Cushing and Steele City, Neb., … Continue reading
Former Secretary of Defense Bob Gates on Benghazi
The Benghazi Kabuki theater continues as House Republicans push on with “hearing” that some are calling a witch hunt. An apt description… Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told CBS’ Face the Nation that ”some critics of the administration have a “cartoonish impression of military capabilities and military forces.”” Gates, a Republican who was appointed by then-President George W. Bush in 2006 and agreed to stay through more than two years of President Obama’s first term, repeatedly declined to criticize the policymakers who devised a response to the September 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya, that left four Americans dead, including the U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens. “Frankly, had I been in the job at the … Continue reading
‘A’ is for Average: Grade Inflation in America
by Walter Brasch About 1.8 million students will graduate from college this year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. At least one-third of them will graduate with honors. In some colleges, about half will be honor graduates. It’s not that the current crop is that bright, it’s that honors is determined by grade point average. Because of runaway grade inflation, the average grade in college is now an “A.” About 43 percent of all college grades are “A”s, according to a recent study by Stuart Rojstaczer and Christopher Healy, and published in the prestigious Teachers College Record. About three-fourths of all grades are “A”s or “B”s. Throw out the universal curve that applies to everything from height to … Continue reading
Ben-Hur, Benghazi, Ben Gay
Look at that sea of red. Only Little Green Footballs and Daily Kos have any rebuttal to the massive right-wing red/pink blog kkkonspiracies. Because, you know, the REAL criminals of the Benghazi attack were, conveniently, Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama. I mean, Terrists gone be terrists, raht? Continue reading
Loony Weekend Commences
The Bonfire of the Hannitys focuses its annual loon-fest in Houston this weekend. Sarah Palin, looking more and more like a clever Alien simulacrum of what they consider a generic middle-aged SUV driver brought down the house with a paean to stupidity, as mellifluous as fingernails on a blackboard Continue reading
