Attacking the disabled

It looks like taking aim at women and minorities is not enough. It now looks like Republicans are going after the disabled.

Democrats are bracing for a new assault from Republicans on the safety net that could come as early as this month — in particular, on disability insurance. In response, Senator Sherrod Brown is urging Dems to go on offense, by calling for an expansion of Social Security, rather than getting into an argument over how much to cut it.
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Another sign that atheists have arrived

On Monday evening, I got a phone call at home. It was a recording from the Rasmussen polling company conducting a survey. Usually, I just hang up but I was doing nothing important and so decided to participate. It asked me a lot of questions about whether I felt the country was on the right track and about president Obama’s performance. It also asked detailed questions about the economy and the immigration issue of children crossing the border. For each question, I was given a set of options to respond corresponding to a number that you enter on the phone.
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How to parallel park perfectly each time

Some years ago, I attended a function at my daughter’s high school. These events are very well attended and parking is hard to get but I found a space and parked and was walking towards the building when a car came to a stop in the middle of the street where there was a parking space and a woman jumped out. I knew her because she was the mother of my daughter’s friend. She gave me her car keys and asked me if I would park her car for her in the space because she did not know how to parallel park.
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The controversy over Monty Python’s Life of Brian

It should be no secret to regular readers of the blog that I am a big fan of all things Pythonia. The five surviving members of the six-person troupe are currently having a reunion stage show and this made me recall the controversy over the release of Monty Python’s Life of Brian back in 1979, one of the funniest films of all time. It amazes me that there was so much opposition to the film from Christians and Jews at the time of its release. Most of the opposition seemed to be from religious authorities and the heads of lay groups of prudes whose job it is to be offended, because they have taken it upon themselves to be the protectors of the delicate sensibilities of the general public.
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Truth or no consequences

Legendary journalist I. F. Stone said, “Every government is run by liars and nothing they say should be believed.” But it used to be the case that if they were caught in a flat out lie, they paid at least some price, at a minimum in some form of public shaming and the lie usually was not repeated. But that no longer seems to be the case and we now have zombie lies that never die and zombie liars who don’t stop repeating them.
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