Yesterday was Holocaust Remembrance Day, when we remember the terrible events memorialized on the day the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated. We don’t similarly memorialize the terrible acts that inspired Hitler to build those camps, because the country that did that was ours.
Jon Stewart looks at the Freedom Summit, the Iowa event that brought together Republican presidential hopefuls.
By 98 to 1, the senate voted in favor of an amendment to a bill that declares that climate change is real (the one exception was Roger Wicker of Mississippi). Finally, you say, we can get something done. Wrong, I say. You should know better. The Republicans found a way to twist out of the implications.
In case you missed last night’s state of the union address, here it is (and here are a few departures from the script). It was…OK. It was largely focused on the economy (which is slowly getting better) and increasing opportunity for those who aren’t doing as well — so that was good. I’m not entirely convinced that Obama isn’t still in the pocket of Wall Street, but he talks a good game.
As he heads into his final few years as president, Obama seems to be finally taking a stand on a few things. He is going to veto the Keystone XL Pipeline. Hooray!
In addition to my familiar and tiresome herd of trolls, the Gateway To Reason organizer is receiving more damning information about me from another source: it’s Comma again! And he’s teaming up with slymepitters and Twitter twits! I guess I’m doomed.
I would actually agree with Republicans on something: requiring a basic civics test, as Arizona has done, seems like a reasonable expectation. It helps that it really isn’t very difficult: here’s a set of sample questions, which most people have managed to get more than 90% right (60% is required to pass; I got 100%). I am suspicious of the Republican motives, though: they probably think they are putting up a barrier for immigrants, which seems to be the obsession among Arizona politicians.
Who else is Sean Hannity going to talk to when he needs an expert on Islam? Some brown-skinned guy?
Roy Edroso and Amanda Marcotte are discussing this remarkable example of right-wing false equivalence.
Indeed, the outpouring of support for free speech in the aftermath of the Paris attack coincides with, and partially obscures, the degradation of speech rights in the West. Commencement last year was marked by universities’ revoking of appearances by speakers Condoleezza Rice and Ayaan Hirsi Ali for no other reason than that mobs disagreed with the speakers’ points of view. I do not recall liberals rallying behind Condi and Hirsi Ali then.
OMG! Condoleeza Rice and Ayaan Hirsi Ali were shot and killed? Then yes, we definitely should march in opposition to that criminal outrage…oh. They were just turned away from speaking engagements? Sorry, that isn’t the same thing at all.
