Clearing the Mental Inbox: 3/3/13

 

Been awhile so it’s time to clear the inbox:

·         I could take challenges to Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act more seriously if Mississippi hadn’t just got around to approving the 13^th Amendment banning slavery or the recent increase in voter suppression tactics by Republican politicians targeting Democratic districts.

·         The sequester only proves that Congress is willing to take itself hostage, and then shoot the hostage

·         I am limiting my Sunday Talk Show viewing to Fareed Zakaria’s GPS.  It is educational, global, and free of political talking point bullshit which already dominates news coverage.

·         Dennis Rodman meets with Kim Jong-Un.  Dennis Rodman is on Celebrity Apprentice 2013.  What’s the bad hair equivalent for being a chubby chaser?

·         The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 against a lawsuit claiming the federal government’s excessive secretive eavesdropping powers were unconstitutional.  Apparently since the program is so secretive the plaintiffs couldn’t prove they had been eavesdropped.  That’s a Catch-22 if there ever was one.

·         Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan didn’t help the Muslim worlds cause by publicly stating “As is the case for Zionism, anti-Semitism and fascism, it is inevitable that Islamophobia be considered a crime against humanity."  Condemnation came quickly as new American Secretary of State called Erdogan’s statement ‘objectionable’.  

·         Speaking of John Kerry, he made a reference to “Kyrazkhstan”, erroneously combining Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.  Bad, but not as bad as Cain’s Uzbeki-beki-beki-stan-stan.

·         Maybe someday Ann Romney will realize the election wasn’t about her and she should go back to buying her husband’s shirts at Costco.

·         More on the Russian/American adoption flap. Russian authorities rolled out Yulia Kuzmina, the alcoholic birth mother of Max Shatto to plead for the return of Max’s brother Kristopher from his adoptive home in America.  Three year old Max died in Texas and the Kremlin is calling it murder.  The Russian authorities would have been wiser to keep Ms. Kuzmina under wraps as she arrested on a train a few hours after her appearance for public drunkenness. 

·         Horsemeat showing up in prepared foods all over Europe and now we hear that 60% of tuna sold in grocery stores and restaurants is actually escolar and 87% of red snapper is mislabeled.  At least we know what’s in hot dogs.

·         I enjoy the cat and mouse nature of The Americans and Matthew Rhys is fantastic.  But Keri Russell is miscast and mediocre. Sorry Felicity.

·         Since Newtown Massacre, 2,268 Americans, including 158 children and teenagers, have been killed with guns.

·         74 Republicans claim to support same-sex marriage because it is a conservative cause in line with their smaller government beliefs.  I would take them seriously if I didn’t suspect them of being opportunists trying score potential voter points. 

·         In a recent survey of 200,000 Americans, 3.5% identified themselves gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender or as Conservatives say, that’s a lot of people needing curing.

·         Paul Broun (R-GA), the man who said that evolution, embryology and the Big Bang theory are "lies straight from the pit of hell", provided us with another whopper.  The potential Senate candidate actually claimed that more people die from baseball bats and hammers than guns.  Not even close.  FBI 2011 data states 8, 583 people were murdered with firearms versus 496 people via hammers, baseball bats, etc.

Always great to be back!