Well, when you make a profit selling the guns to both the good guys and the bad guys, any gun battle looks pretty cherry I suppose. Do they check the color of the hats at the time of sale, or can they see anything beyond the green of the bills?

I’m a den leader for cub scouts and a Catholic. Or I was a Catholic until the organization decided to jump over a cliff rather than allow women to have any freedom whatsoever regarding positions in the church and birth control. Why can’t these organizations shake these hateful ways and update their dogma to turn these “degenerate” moral failings into natural conditions given by God? Even if you can’t come to fully welcome homosexuality, at least admitting it was decided by God (or nature) and not a choice would make a world of difference in the attitude of the organization.

Scouts is not as bad as the Church IMHO, but the backlash against gays and atheists should be dealt with, the BSA is doing themselves, and what is otherwise an excellent program for boys, a great disservice by not stepping up. At the upper levels the conservatism runs quite deep, so I can’t see this changing anytime too soon. There is a struggle happening though, you see snippets of it in the news now and again. Eventually they will change with the times, they’ll have to. Until then, I find it heartbreaking that the BSA (and the Church) is allowing this sort of hateful malaise to be the sheltered by their organizations. This poor kid and what he had to endure to be a scout should never be allowed to happen.

This really makes my blood boil.

What benefit is this for 95% of the American population? The taxpayer? There is no way in hell this doesn’t send the dollar lower, food and gas prices higher, and absolutely no new jobs. By the way, that’s if it actually works as presented! Otherwise, it does nothing but allow institutions that should be insolvent to continue paying massive executive bonuses on the backs of the suffering US taxpayer. Disgusting.

What does the average citizen get out of this deal? Nothing, but they get it in abundance and open-ended. So we got that going for us.

Those incredible pricks. Wall St is officially dead, our economy is undead, our future is well and buried for at least a generation.

Let me just say that my thoughts and prayers are with those injured and the families of those that were killed, as well as the perp’s family. I don’t know if this guy watched too much TV (or owned one I guess?), listened to too much Rush, was a tea bagging gun nut, or just off his meds. It doesn’t matter, 62 innocent people were viciously attacked and at least 12 of them perished in something pointless and stupid.

I live in North of Denver, I might even know some of these folks. Let’s just chill out on the blame throwing for a few minutes please and remember that for 62 families today is a miserable, awful day. Maybe the worst one of their lives. Soon enough we’ll know we’ll know more than we ever wanted about James Holmes, why don’t we calm the baiting? Aurora is mixed politically, the folks shot were likely Rush listeners, NRA advocates, Republicans, as well as NPR listeners, Obama supporters, perhaps even Occupy marchers.

This shot is awful, please let’s not make it worse.

Unfortunately Pam, you missed the forest for the trees.

We’ve had several votes on civil unions over the years in CO, you never had to listen to the fundies before because they had the votes to squash the legislation. You heard from the pro-LBGT crowd, making sure their butts were covered with their constituents before the legislation went down in flames. For months, we’ve known in CO that this time the signals were lining up for CUs to actually pass and become law, therefore it is the fundies turn to get out there and make noise for their people before they lose.

I don’t know, which do you prefer? To hear speeches from your side as you lose or hear this fundie speech as our culture moves forward. I know which one I prefer, looking forward to hearing as much fundie speech as I can going forward.

Cheers!

Don’t you mean signature failure?

It saves even more when you factor in: no money spent for expensive court trials, jail time, appeals, housing MJ convicts, probation, etc. Probably bumps up to a Billion once all the factors are considered.

Shorter Bloomberg:

Suck it Trebek!

Well, the administration should get off its prudent little ass and nominate someone. Then fire this jackass. Non-action can be as neglectful as the wrong actions. I don’t see any reason not to bring the full weight of protest down on the administration. If they want votes in Nov, let’s see some red meat for the people.

OK, I’ll play the big, bad devil’s advocate on this issue. I’m a Catholic and have heard the argument from their side, although my wife and I have used birth control pills quite happily for years. They actually have a valid and strong constitutional ground for this claim, let’s unpack it (as best I can, I’m no lawyer) below:

So in the USA, we have freedom of religion, as well freedom of personal choice. An organization like the Catholic Church (or the Bishops) can’t overtly influence their parishioners by saying something like, “God wants you to vote for Sarah Palin or you’ll go to hell”. But they can take and push any issue they find important, for example, “God does not want you to abort fetuses, it is murder (so you’ll go to hell).” It’s their right as a groups of citizens to organize, push, pull, and speak to whatever issue they find important, including birth control and abortion. The equalizing force is of course personal freedom and choice, if you disagree enough with the Catholic Church you can leave it (and people do.) But the organization has a fundamental right to take and push whatever angle they believe is important to their religion.

Now one of the central beliefs of the church is the holy trinity: the father, the son, and the holy spirit (or ghost.) There’s no way I can unpack that in a message board, go to wikipedia if you want a good explanation of what it means. Trust me, it’s a little complicated ;) But I can explain this: the mystery of the trinity as expressed by the churchgoer involves marriage. You have a man (the father), a woman (the son), and the holy spirit (the mystical presence of God that makes the miracle of birth/children possible.) This is why when you get married in the church you have to have a sort of “interview” where as part of it each party has to announce that to the best of their knowledge they are both fertile and can have kids. A church marriage REQUIRES all those elements to be in place: the man, the woman, and the holy spirit (possibility for kids.) As a side note, this is also why the church cannot condone gay marriage: it is not a marriage in their eyes if the miracle of birth is not possible. To hammer the point home, I’ll put this yet another way: in order for a Catholic marriage to be valid in the eyes of God, the spirit must be present (and unimpeded) in the coupling for it to be valid.

I’m not going to defend that belief (I don’t really share it obviously), but there it is. Many Catholics believe it though, and they have a religious right under the constitution to such a belief.

Now birth control (of any kind) is seen as stepping in the way of that holy spirit, potentially impeding God’s will in the marriage, therefore impeding the marriage itself. So to force Catholic owned organizations to provide birth control is essentially forcing them to provide something that is directly against their protected religious beliefs. Again, Catholics can choose to use birth control as a personal choice, but to force the organization to provide the means impinges on their freedom of worship. The church cannot prevent anyone from getting birth control (or abortions) if such is legal, though they can push for it to be made illegal. That’s their right under the constitution. But on the flip side, can the govt force them to embrace policies that are directly opposed to their beliefs? The constitution says no, whereas Obama HCR says yes.

To the church, birth control is similar to abortion. If the govt passed a law that said catholic hospitals HAD to provide access to abortions despite their beliefs, that would be an over reach. So how can the govt say they HAVE to provide access to birth control, when it is in opposition to their beliefs? Could you legislate that Hindu hospitals HAVE to serve cheeseburgers (made from beef) on demand? How about legislating that Muslim groups must prepare and serve pork at church functions? Well, unfortunately for many Catholics birth control falls into that sort of category: it is central to their belief that they NOT support it.

So there’s your argument. I suspect the SCOTUS may need to be involved before this is resolved, but IMHO the Church has a pretty strong argument on this one.

Shooter – The other factor always is who pays for what. Does the public take a 80% cut in services so the lenders can only take a 20% cut on loan repayments, or is it reversed? That is what this battle is over: the bill has come due, who pays what? Everyone feasted more than they should have, but who ordered what? Iceland stuck it to their loan lenders and forced them into receivership. Basically, they let the banks fail and the bond/stock holders lost their entire value, the country had a recession due to credit contraction, and now they are ont he mend. Some austerity, but more in line with the “classic” pullback deemed natural after a credit boom goes bust.

In Greece, all the banks should go through the same process and have their bond/stock holders wiped out. But since these elite investors own not only the banks but the governments, they don’t want to take their fair medicine. The entire process of finding a “deal” is a charade IMHO, the proper “deal” is you made bad loans, the borrower can’t pay, now you lose all your money due to poor investment. That’s the free marker in action, anything else is trying to keep rich fools from parting with their money – not a good idea since they are still fools.

Greece will eventually default, or Italy, or Portugal, or Spain, or … and this house of cards will come tumbling down. Not a moment too soon either IMHO, this should have all happened in 2008 when we first discovered our global banking system was insolvent.

I’m critical of the Obama Admin and skeptical of his bona fides, but I offer Congrats on a good well done and a victory well deserved for US women. Why look a gift horse in the mouth?

I live in denver and am a Bronco fan. Tim Tebow isn’t God’s git to all creation, but if he’s a loser, where can I get more? 6/7 and from last to first in division (yes, the AFC West – so it’s like being king of the dungheap.) Then he takes a knee and thanks everyone else on the team after Jesus? Contrast that to Mr. Brady, who throws a s***fit in front of all creation (and the TV cameras) over a bad call by the offensive co-ordinator? He’s a great QB sure, but I’d prefer Tebow.

One quick aside on yesterday’s game: if there was a hero, it was Prater. Dude made an insane 59 yd FG to go into overtime, then anther 50+ to win the game. Tebow was struggling, Prater really came through (arguably, so did Marion Barber – poor freakin’ guy.)

Maybe Tebow raised Prater up a bit and inspired him to perform, maybe not. But watching this same team under Griese, Cutler, Orton, and goodness who else I’m forgetting – they are playing at a different level now. Everyone, not jut Tebow, is really just playing a better game and closing out strong. That has been an achilles heel for Denver, 3 QTRs of great ball, then a Chicago Cubs-esqe implosion in the 4th. It’s been that way since Elway left and it sucks donkeys. Tebow reversed that trend, now you can discount the first 3 QTRs and wait for the insane comeback at the end. Not a great way to plan a team, but 6/7 tells the tale. Imagine if they actually start to learn how to play stronger ball earlier but know they have this ability in reserve? That’s a team I’d love to cheer.

It’s football people. A stupid freakin’ game at the end of the week. Denver is happy with Tebow, we like him above and beyond his Jesus speak or youth or even the 6/7. So screw off, he’s our QB. Go dump on your own, we’re thrilled with him ;)

Damn straight Jon. This is why, love them or hate them, if you oppose the banks you’d better be fighting tooth and nail to support OWS. Not everyone needs to be in the trenches 24/7, but you gotta support those that are there (if you want to see them succeed.)

Any of these ECB guys know how to fiddle? It’s a fun way to pass some time…

Oddly enough, blacks are also brainwashed in our culture to not support the KKK. They don’t even bother to listen to their political platform before saying no. It’s so unfair!

So, how’s that third party primary challenge sounding about now?

I would love to see this tax extension deal scuttle in its entirety, my gut is telling me otherwise. Here’s how I suspect this will play out:

Pelosi refuses to bring the deal to the table, they fiddle around with the estate taxes (probably to a midpoint of Bush and Clinton levels), maybe a few other areas get slightly better for progressives. They use these small changes to peel off just enough support to pass it and it clears the House. Rumbling in the Senate, some kabuki opposition, then passage and unto the President’s desk. No changes to the income tax extensions or (God forbid) the incomes over $250k. Just enough to make a show of “fighting” for progressive values and assuage the massive damage of passing such rubbish. Exactly like the HCR debate with similar political results at the polls in 2012. Next year around February, the Republicans will refuse to raise the debt ceiling and we’ll be a major “deficit crisis” with the only solution offered (from Obama) being massive spending cuts.

It’s like a bad play by poor actors. We only have two options really folks:

* Primary Obama from the hard left in 2012
* Hit the streets with massive protests until we start to get what we want

Nothing else is going to work in time, the longer we wait the worse it will get. Citizens United guarantees that the more elections that roll by, the deeper the fix will become. Time is not on our side folks.

This is great news. Summers has been fucking wrong about every single economic prediction since he stepped through the door. Now we know it’s the right thing to do!