Surprising level of support for Target boycott

Online petitions to boycott something or other are not uncommon and so I was not surprised when one was started to boycott the department store chain Target when it announced that their stores would allow people use the bathroom that is consistent with the gender presentation. But I was surprised at how quickly the number of people signing on reached one million, just one week after the American Family Association announced the boycott move. (Remember: Any organization with the word ‘family’ in the title is likely to be a bigoted group.)
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Another MSF hospital hit by airstrike

TWO UPDATES BELOW

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is one of the few organizations that provide medical services in war-stricken regions of the world, often being the first ones in and the last ones to leave. They take care to let all the combatants know that they are there and avoid any hint of favoring one side or another, so that there is no excuse for attacking them. But despite all those precautions, yet another one of their field hospitals, a pediatric one this time, was hit by a horrific airstrike, killing possibly up to 50 people.
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Talking sense about bathrooms

Stephen Colbert talks some much needed sense about public bathrooms, a topic that has been much in the news these days. I totally agree with him, especially on the issue of chit-chat. I never initiate conversations with other people in public bathrooms, though at work there are often people one knows who feel that it is a good time to exchange news and pleasantries. I reply if they speak to me but get the hell out of there as quickly as possible.
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Republicans really, really love Trump

Donald Trump’s rapid rise in the polls last year to become the leader of the race for the Republican nomination initially caused concern but not too much alarm within the party establishment. Then as his rise stalled and his poll numbers stagnated at around the 35% from January through March of this year, his plurality in the polls was shrugged off as his ceiling of support, his leadership position as an artifact of the field being crowded with 17 hopefuls that was splitting the anti-Trump vote and that as candidates dropped out, their supporters would slowly coalesce around one of the other candidates, preferably the party’s preferred candidates like Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio, and that Trump would slowly lose ground and then disappear.
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There is nothing like changing symbols to drive people crazy

If you had asked me which person’s face was on which US currency note, I would have been stumped. The only thing I was sure of was that it was some white guy from the distant past. Like most people, I am more concerned about the number that denotes the value rather than the ornamentation. But some people are sure upset about the decision to replace Andrew Jackson with abolitionist Harriet Tubman on the front of the $20 bill, seeing it as yet another sign of that dreaded ‘political correctness’ that is ruining America.
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A nightmare ticket?

Ah spring, when during presidential election years political pundits’ fancy lightly turn to thoughts of possible running mates. Usually these speculations try to construct so-called ‘dream tickets’, combinations that its advocates think would either increase chances of victory due to providing balance or satisfy a felt need for ideological consistency if the presidential nominee’s credentials are suspect. Campaigns at this time float many names as trial balloons in order to gauge reactions as well as placate the various factions in their parties that they are being respected and included, and so these rumors should not be taken too seriously.
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