Quarantine flashback
by digby
At least with AIDS it really was a new disease. Ebola’s been around for a long time and the epidemiologists know how it works.
But still — look how easily people will resort to authoritarianism.
H/T @RyanNewYork
North Dakota’s latest under the radar assault on reproductive rights
by digby
While allegedly “modern” Republicans like SE Cupp may pooh-pooh the Democrats’ War on Women rhetoric, very few people are noticing the under the radar shift in “personhood” salesmanship that’s being tried out in North Dakota:
Amendment 1 may be flying under the radar because it doesn’t specifically mention abortion, birth control, or conception. It’s an extremely vague measure, saying only that “the inalienable right to life of every human being at any stage of development must be recognized and protected.” In fact, its supporters have pointed to the broad language as proof that Amendment 1 isn’t a personhood measure at all, claiming it has nothing to do with redefining life.
But according to Nash, who tracks state-level abortion legislation, Amendment 1 uses pretty much the same language as the other personhood initiatives that have previously come up for a vote in Mississippi and Colorado. It has what she calls the “hallmarks” of fetal personhood measures: it’s seeking to amend the constitution, and it says that life starts at conception. The only thing that’s changed is the messaging strategy around it, since Amendment 1 proponents used to make more explicit connections to abortion.
“This shift in the language is because these measures have been defeated,” Nash said. “They’re moving more toward this incremental language, because when they come out and say the goal is to ban abortion, they lose.”
They know they have to sneak it through because people don’t agree with them.
Keep your eye on this one. If it works they’ll be trying it out in other states, you can be sure of it.
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Reuniting with a human’s best friend
by digby
I heard more than few people say the dog should be put down. I’m fairly sure that in private many of the same people said the nurse should have been put down too …
Anyway, nurse Nina Pham and her pup Bentley are back together.
He can’t stop kissing Nina. pic.twitter.com/e6AikqWsyE
— Sana Syed (@dallaspiosana) November 1, 2014
City of Dallas/DAS/OEM Team Bentley pic.twitter.com/SQ2yMwvVmq
— Sana Syed (@dallaspiosana) November 1, 2014
#Nina, #Bentley, Nina’s parents, the #TexasAM vets and #DallasShelter vet and manager. #Reunion #EbolaFree pic.twitter.com/z4AqJVsjqU
— DallasAnimalServices (@DallasShelter) November 1, 2014
By the way there is no evidence that dogs can transmit Ebola.
Photos courtesy of City of Dallas/ Dallas Animal services. More pics here.
They’ll caterwaul about voter fraud but nobody will believe them
by digby
The more they try to stop them the more they will do it:
These bills and others Tillis and fellow Republicans forced through after they took control of both the legislature and the governorship in 2012 led the NAACP’s Rev. William Barber to launch the Moral Mondays movement in April 2013. For 74 straight weeks now, protesters have held demonstrations near the state capitol demanding a retreat from the state’s sharp right turn.
Now the NAACP is harnessing that anger to get voters to the polls in the most massive mobilization effort the group has ever made in a non-presidential year. Last Thursday, the first day of early voting in the state, the NAACP led 32 marches to the polls—more than in any previous midterm year. Barber’s organization is also calling all of the 286,000 African-Americans who voted in 2012 and 2008 but didn’t vote in 2010, helping register thousands of new voters, buying radio ads, and reaching out to churches. “African-Americans need to vote because we’re the ones who know the most about voter suppression,” Barber told Mother Jones.
Indeed they do. And this too:
If Hagan loses, though, it won’t be African-Americans’ fault. It will be because too many centrist Democrats voted Republican, Barber says. There are 800,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans in North Carolina, many of whom are white. “You don’t lay the blame of this election on black people.”
He’s right. And he’s right to bring it up ahead of time.
But any Democrat who votes for that wingnut Tillis needs to change his or her registration.
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You didn’t build that
by digby
Check out this fantastic site that’s chronicling all the projects the government sponsored during the New Deal. It’s fair to say that the prosperity that came after WWII would not have been quite as dramatic without it.
They haven’t located all of them. But they’ve found quite a few.
If you click over to the site that map is interactive and you can look at what those projects were. Most of them are still in use. I don’t know what we’re going to do when they eventually crumble. They can’t last forever.
h/t to AG
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The top liberal superstitions
by digby
The Wall Street Journal featured this popular story last week called the Top 10 Liberal Superstitions. I’m with her. Those liberals really are dumb.
1. Spending more money improves education.
— Yes, I think we can all agree that spending less money, firing teachers and teaching Intelligent Design improves education.
2. Government spending stimulates the economy.
— So false! You should cut government to the bone when the economy is lagging. Look at Europe. They’re doing great.
3. Republican candidates always have a big spending advantage over Democrats.
— Ok, so she cherry picks groups to compare and leaves out the big outside spenders, but still. It must be false. Because Democrats are the rich ones, sucking off that government teat on welfare and all.
4. Raising the minimum wage helps the poor.
— Wrong. Makes ’em lose their ambition. Once you’re rolling in all that easy money you have no incentive to work hard.
5. Global warming is causing increasingly violent weather.
— Global warming is a hoax. Dr Sarah Palin told me so.
6. Genetically modified food is dangerous.
— Nothing could be worse than giving people information. Just confuses ’em.
7. Voter ID laws suppress minority turnout.
— Hahaha. That’s a good one. Especially since illegals are stealing elections left and right and nobody cares.
8. ObamaCare is gaining popularity
— Everybody hates it and always will. That’s just a fact.
9. The Keystone XL pipeline would increase oil spills.
— Pipelines don’t spill oil, people do. Any anyway, other modes of transporting oil have oil spills too.
10. Women are paid 77 cents on the dollar compared with men.
— women choose not to make as much money as men. They’re just generous like that.
This piece is very popular on the right wing web sites with commentary like this:
You run the risk of becoming infected with moonbattery if you find yourself believing any of these top 10 liberal superstitions, each of which is succinctly debunked at the Wall Street Journal.
There you go.
The funny thing is that liberals do have a whole bunch of superstitions that are worthy of debunking, but they don’t fit the conservative stereotype so they didn’t include them.
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7.7 square miles and 70 mm IMAX
by Tom Sullivan
Interstellar, the new Christopher Nolan science-fiction film starring Matthew McConaughey, may come uncomfortably close to science fact:
McConaughey’s character, known only as Cooper, is a farmer in a world that has become desperately short of food. Human activity has degraded the soil so badly that they’re forced to live in a giant dustbowl and crops are all but impossible to grow.
Although soil degradation is nothing new, Interstellar is proving strangely prescient, as its release coincides with a new UN report showing the trend has reached alarming levels, with 7.7 square miles of agricultural land being lost every day because it has become too salty. Climate change is making the situation worse because warmer temperatures require more irrigation and increase the speed at which the water evaporates, the report warns.
Now if we could only get people to suspend their disbelief and think about climate change for 2h 49m outside a theater.
Happy Halloween everyone
by digby
It always seems like the President really enjoys these Halloween fests at the White House. I can understand why. Kids in costumes are a lot of fun. And I would imagine the president needs a little innocent distraction from time to time.
Meanwhile, I hear that in various places around the country the fundamentalists have managed to ruin Halloween for a whole lot of kids. How sad. And apparently it’s been attacked by people upset at the idea of giving candy to kids as well, which is also daft. I’m big on healthy eating for kids (as is Michelle Obama) but, like her, I think Halloween is the time for such treats!
Ah well, I eagerly await the little kids in my neighborhood tonight. When I asked my little friend Stella across the street what she was going as for Halloween she told me Taylor Swift. I asked her best friend Molly and she said “a chicken.” You’ve gotta love that.
Update: Be sure to check out John Amato’s TOP 50 horror movies of all time.
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