Politics

[ACamp1900]

I support a voter ID law in theory, but in principal when it is executed like that.... nope nope nope.

Agreed

 

[T Town Tommy]

Alabama has roughly 4 million people in state with a drivers license. Obviously not all expire on the same day, but if it was bad before to wait in live at the DMV, can you imagine what it will be like now???

Also with the voter ID law....

I support a voter ID law in theory, but in principal when it is executed like that.... nope nope nope. Like Jayhawk said, it's a poll tax.

You can still renew by mail I believe. But whatever Alabama does... you can bet it will be ignorant. They have since floated the idea of taking money from the education fund to make up for the deficit in the general fund. And this coming from a state that is lacking already in education funding. Maybe a better option would be to cut down the number of state employees who simply cash a check each month without having any job whatsoever. And maybe increase the property taxes to an adequate level. But given Alabama's lack of leadership in any area of government, I have no faith in them doing anything that is remotely right.

 

[woolybug25]

You can still renew by mail I believe. But whatever Alabama does... you can bet it will be ignorant. They have since floated the idea of taking money from the education fund to make up for the deficit in the general fund. And this coming from a state that is lacking already in education funding. Maybe a better option would be to cut down the number of state employees who simply cash a check each month without having any job whatsoever. And maybe increase the property taxes to an adequate level. But given Alabama's lack of leadership in any area of government, I have no faith in them doing anything that is remotely right.

Seems like a good idea for one of the states that consistently rank at the bottom for education.

 

[T Town Tommy]

Seems like a good idea for one of the states that consistently rank at the bottom for education.

Well... most of them in the legislature are a product of that education. No wonder they are stupid. LOL

 

[ACamp1900]

anyone watch last night's SP?? I loved the scene where 'PC Thug' beats the living snot out of Cartman, not for the awful things he does, but because he hasn't changed his 'outdated terminology' to be more inclusive of oppressed groups... what you say and how you say it is more important than what you do... spot on imo.

 

[IrishLax]

anyone watch last night's SP?? I loved the scene where 'PC Thug' beats the living snot out of Cartman, not for the awful things he does, but because he hasn't changed his 'outdated terminology' to be more inclusive of oppressed groups... what you say and how you say it is more important than what you do... spot on imo.

I thought last night's South Park was utterly brilliant.

 

[ACamp1900]

I thought last night's South Park was utterly brilliant.

I loved that the hero figure in an episode that basically called all PC peps d bag frat boys, was Tom Brady.... hahaha

 

[Whiskeyjack]

The NYT's Ross Douthat recently gave a speech at ND about religious liberty. Here's a summary of it:

Ross Douthat, author and New York Times columnist, spoke on the evolution of religious liberty in America since the Second Vatican Council on Wednesday afternoon in Decio Theatre of the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center. The event was part of the 2015-2016 Notre Dame Forum, which is titled “Faith, Freedom and the Modern World: 50 Years After Vatican II.”

Douthat said he looked to the Second Vatican Council’s declaration on religious freedom, “Dignitatis Humanae,” to track the evolution of the Church’s attitude toward religious liberty.

“[It] formally established the Roman Catholic Church’s support for religious liberty and developed the Church’s teaching to the point where it was no longer deemed necessary for Catholics to argue for a preferential, state-established position for the Catholic Church in countries around the world,” he said.

Although the document was written in Rome, Douthat said, the “crucial transformative voices” that crafted “Dignitatis Humanae” were American. Furthermore, American Catholicism gave an example of the positive relationship the Church could enjoy with the government.

“Anyone looking for evidence 50 years ago that the Church had nothing to fear from dropping its call for a preferential position for Catholicism could look to the United States, could look to Notre Dame, and be immediately reassured that the Church could flourish, absent such patronage,” he said. “And anyone looking for evidence that one form of liberalism, liberal democracy at least, could be trusted to protect the Church’s freedoms, rather than perpetually going against it … could likewise look to America and could find what looked like very solid proof of concept.

“So while a document like ‘Dignitatis Humanae’ had still been imaginable without the American example, and the arguments that undergirded it might still have resonated as Catholics tried to grapple with twentieth century realities, politically, theology can only be so abstract. It ultimately needs a reference point in actual existing politics. … Having the American example made an immense difference in the debates, its outcomes, and the document and teaching itself.”

Douthat said in contemporary times, the American Catholic consensus that the Church can flourish in the liberal democratic experiment is fracturing.

“One crack is showing up a little on the Catholic left. In the age of Pope Francis, the current pontiff’s scathing criticism of global capitalism and the American-led world order has maybe started to encourage a more radical Catholic left critique of the American system than we have seen since probably the Vietnam era,” he said. “On the Catholic right, especially maybe the younger Catholic right, there’s an increasingly felt tension between being American and being Catholic, stronger even lately than some of the tensions created by Roe v. Wade. And this tension is emerging for a reason that’s relevant for the specifics of ‘Dignitatis Humanae,’ one of the elements of religious liberty that that document deemed essential to the political order — the idea that freedom of religion encompasses the freedom of the religious community.”

The guarantee of corporate religious freedom is no longer apparent, Douthat said, citing recent attempts by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to enforce mandates of contraception on Catholic institutions, as well as ACLU lawsuits against Catholic hospitals.

“What all of these examples have in common, in addition to the connection to the sexual revolution, is that they represent places where state pressure is being brought to bear not on Catholicism as embodied at Mass on Sunday, but on Catholicism as a corporate identity, Catholicism as the impetus and organizing idea behind the institutions which seek to serve the common good,” he said. “In each case, and perhaps more as time goes by, the Church is being told that trying to serve others is not sufficient, that Catholics must accept that the price maybe of their most basic ministry is to accept a secular definition of the common good and be governed in certain ways by secular power rather than the constitution of the Church.”

Douthat said the Catholic Church in America has been weakened in the last fifty years, as evidenced by declining Mass attendance and a decrease in religious vocations, yet the Church maintains a distinctive place in American politics.

“The Church is still large enough, still potent enough, still intellectual enough to have many — to be frank — enemies, who would like to see it weakened or brought low, meaning that Catholics are not or not yet the quirky, marginal, Amish-style religious minority that tends to be tolerated and accommodated very easily under secularism. But at the same time, the Church is too weakened, divided, possibly declining certainly in some cases to effectively fight its battles when those enemies circle or attack.”

Religious liberty protections are often unnecessary for the stronger religious groups, and easy to extend to the weaker religious groups, Douthat said.

“It’s the weakened, but still important, institutions in between that are more likely to see their protections shrink, and that’s roughly where the Church has found itself today,” he said.

Douthat said many who want to restrict the Church’s religious liberties do not view Christianity itself as problematic, but instead identify the problem as one set of issues, where traditional Christian teaching is not compatible with contemporary views on human rights.

“So in this sense, many people who support what I think are real restrictions on religious liberty see themselves as operating in the space of reasonable regulation allowed for by ‘Dignitatis Humanae’ itself, in the passage where the council fathers noted that religious liberty is still subject to certain regulatory norms,” he said. “And many even see themselves ultimately as friends to Catholicism and Christian religions, offering a kind of construction pressure and constructive criticism, a helping hand into sexual modernity — one that will be eventually vindicated by a third or fourth Vatican council, at which point Catholic resistance today will look a little silly.”

Many Catholics agree with these opinions, Douthat said, and the best defense of religious liberty should focus on religious pluralism, rather than on religious liberty itself.

“The part of ‘Dignitatis Humanae’ that matters most in America right now is again the document’s stress on the corporate nature of religious freedom,” he said. “And to the extent that Catholics are hoping to persuade people outside the Church that something important in American life is threatened in the current religious liberty debate, they need to press the case that this kind of communal freedom, this associational freedom, is essential to the American experiment as we know it. And if it gives way to a strictly individualistic understanding of religious liberty, something precious will have been lost.”

Religious pluralism is not a threat to liberal values, Douthat said, but a complement to a liberal democracy.

“A healthy pluralism allows people of any persuasion, secular or religious, progressive or conservative, to build a culture with a sense of mission, a place where certain ideas are generally accepted or taken for granted, certain organizing principles are assumed,” he said. “And at the same time it’s telling them that they have to do this within their own private institutions, rather than aspiring to impose their ideas on a grander, society-wide scale.”

Douthat said the tensions between the Church and the wider culture should also serve as a reminder that the Church does not have a permanent political home.

“Even as we seek to preserve that congruence between the American order and Catholic freedom that inspired so much optimism in 1965, we should also not to expect it to last indefinitely,” he said. “We should realize that liberal democracy, like all political orders, is time-bound and contingent, and not the ultimate good that the Church is called to preach.

As American attitudes toward religious liberty evolve, the Church must be prepared to adapt and move forward, Douthat said.

“If a synthesis between being American and being Catholic, which seemed to be getting easier in the 1960s and may be getting more difficult today, we should be challenged but not necessarily troubled by that change,” he said. “‘Heaven and earth shall pass away,’ Jesus said ‘but my words shall not pass away.’ But he was not talking about the U.S. Constitution.”

 

[phgreek]

While I kind of agree with the bold, I think it is also important to note that many European already want to end the sanctions against Iran. That is why a deal is important (unless you are in the attack Iran fan group). The sanctions as they currently exist are about to crumble one way or another.

...assuming sanctions would crumble anyway, why sell the "snap back" stuff then? That seemed to be central to the poo pooing of criticism of the deal...and if not central certainly a critical element in evaluating it.

 

[pkt77242]

...assuming sanctions would crumble anyway, why sell the "snap back" stuff then? That seemed to be central to the poo pooing of criticism of the deal...and if not central certainly a critical element in evaluating it.

Because that is what people demanded. The truth is that much of Europe is ready to end sanctions and thus we have three options, make a deal, go sanctions pretty much alone, or go to war.

Sanctions against Iran crumble as America wrangles over the nuclear deal | World news | The Guardian

 

[phgreek]

Because that is what people demanded. The truth is that much of Europe is ready to end sanctions and thus we have three options, make a deal, go sanctions pretty much alone, or go to war.

Sanctions against Iran crumble as America wrangles over the nuclear deal | World news | The Guardian

...I hadn't heard the administration acknowledge this, nor have I seen it acknowledged by an American source.

Even so, wouldn't it have been far easier to say...hey this shit is falling apart, we gotta get something in place and then regroup?

Why all the BS...I mean why lie when the truth actually sounds BETTER? Just makes zero sense to me.

 

[IrishinSyria]

...I hadn't heard the administration acknowledge this, nor have I seen it acknowledged by an American source.

Even so, wouldn't it have been far easier to say...hey this shit is falling apart, we gotta get something in place and then regroup?

Why all the BS...I mean why lie when the truth actually sounds BETTER? Just makes zero sense to me.

They have said so, but couched it in diplomatic language. The US hasn't done business in Iran for 30 years and will not after this deal is done, so the success or failure of the sanctions regime was always predicated on the cooperation of the Euros, Russians, Chinese, Indians, and Emirates. Any sign of bad faith in negotiations was always going to collapse the deck of cards. At least with snapback, the US can go back to those countries from a moral high ground.

 

[phgreek]

They have said so, but couched it in diplomatic language. The US hasn't done business in Iran for 30 years and will not after this deal is done, so the success or failure of the sanctions regime was always predicated on the cooperation of the Euros, Russians, Chinese, Indians, and Emirates. Any sign of bad faith in negotiations was always going to collapse the deck of cards. At least with snapback, the US can go back to those countries from a moral high ground.

I get the perspective that the administration might have believed sanctions were not recoverable (now rather I believe that is a different story). What I don't get is, assuming the crumbling was true, it makes far greater sense to lead with that as your rationale, plain, straight, clear. Thats not what happened. Further, if the current sanctions were crumbling anyway, how in hell can you go to the American people in good faith and talk about snap back sanctions...this entire discussion defies logic.

First and foremost, when it comes to Iran we already have the moral high ground...its called non-proliferation. Establishing a deal everyone expects them to break really is not compelling in that regard. However, applying the logic requiring we make this deal to have it...negotiating from moral high ground in this case likely means we are trying to build a coalition for war...because if the current sanctions were crumbling, none of those countries will likely support sanctions...at least quickly enough to be meaningful, and now add in Russia...no freaking way we get anything but go-it-alone or a Nuc Iran. In the end it will be our choice to stop them. Only what we are talking about is after the fact...after they already have it. That, as you know, is a far different endeavor than prior to.

To me this deal was intended to create a balance of power in the middle east we do not have to tend to at the expense of Israel's security...plain and simple. I believe the outcome will not be even close to that...what it will do is proliferate Nucs in an area that is so unstable, it almost assures one will be used...

 

[connor_in]

http://www.iges.org/letter/LetterPresidentAG.pdf

Scientists Ask Obama To Prosecute Global Warming Skeptics | The Daily Caller

 

[pkt77242]

Company hikes price 5,000% for drug that fights complication of AIDS, cancer

A drug treating a common parasite that attacks people with weakened immune systems increased in cost 5,000% to $750 per pill.

At a time of heightened attention to the rising cost of prescription drugs, doctors who treat patients with AIDS and cancer are denouncing the new cost to treat a condition that can be life-threatening.

Turing Pharmaceuticals of New York raised the price of Daraprim from $13.50 per pill to $750 per pill last month, shortly after purchasing the rights to the drug from Impax Laboratories. Turing has exclusive rights to market Daraprim (pyrimethamine), on the market since 1953.

Daraprim fights toxoplasmosis, the second most common food-borne disease, which can easily infect people whose immune systems have been weakened by AIDS, chemotherapy or even pregnancy, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

 

[GoIrish41]

Company hikes price 5,000% for drug that fights complication of AIDS, cancer

That is evil.

 

[Cackalacky]

Company hikes price 5,000% for drug that fights complication of AIDS, cancer

That is evil.

one if the manor provisions in the TPP increase the copyright times for pharmaceuticals making generics not available for decades as opposed to what it is now. It's only going to get worse.

 

[pkt77242]

Altered marriage licenses concern deputy clerk in Ky.

 

[Cackalacky]

The White House has apparently been reading Cacks posts on the long term ramifications of the Republican's Southern Strategy.
#humblebrag

White House cites Cackalacky's excellent analysis on Republcian Voter Strategy

 

[phgreek]

The White House has apparently been reading Cacks posts on the long term ramifications of the Republican's Southern Strategy.
#humblebrag

White House cites Cackalacky's excellent analysis on Republcian Voter Strategy

Clutching my gun and bible over the entire situation...and heading to 7-11 to run it by the indian population...I'll get back to ya.

 

[pkt77242]

Speaker John Boehner to resign from Congress

 

[ACamp1900]

Win. Now can we get just about every other major 'leader' of both parties to join him on the way out?

 

[BGIF]

Pope moving mountains

Pope moving mountains

Boehner, who will speak at a 1 p.m. news conference, also told the lawmakers that Pope Francis' visit to Congress the day before was a crystallizing moment, according to the lawmaker. Boehner then read the prayer of St. Francis to the conference after announcing his decision.


John Boehner resigning from Congress - CNNPolitics.com

 

[IrishinSyria]

Speaker John Boehner to resign from Congress

This seems like the tip of the iceberg. Boehner's been struggling with the right wing of his party for a long time, there's got to be something more that pushed him out. Maybe it was the Pope's visit but that seems unlikely.

e. theory: he's going to test the waters on a run for president.

 

[pkt77242]

This seems like the tip of the iceberg. Boehner's been struggling with the right wing of his party for a long time, there's got to be something more that pushed him out. Maybe it was the Pope's visit but that seems unlikely.

There are a lot of rumors out there, some think that many Conservatives were upset about the Pope's message and it bothered him, some think that he is resigning to avoid a government shutdown (basically the right wing agrees to not shut down the government but he steps down), etc. Who knows right now, but I imagine the reason will come out soon enough.

 

[Cackalacky]

So even McConnell is saying the Tea Party has taken over the Republican Party..... No room for moderate republicans in the Tea Party anymore. Where do they go?

 

[MJ12666]

one if the manor provisions in the TPP increase the copyright times for pharmaceuticals making generics not available for decades as opposed to what it is now. It's only going to get worse.

Patents are issued concerning prescription drugs not a copyright, and I believe that patents expire after 20 years.

 

[IrishLax]

How Trigger Warnings Are Hurting Mental Health on Campus - The Atlantic

Really long ass article that I think is a very interesting lead. Crazy to think how recently I graduated from college and my experiences were nothing like what is being described.

 

[Wild Bill]

So even McConnell is saying the Tea Party has taken over the Republican Party..... No room for moderate republicans in the Tea Party anymore. Where do they go?

Maybe they'll start hookin'. It'll be a step up for them.

 

[connor_in]

How Trigger Warnings Are Hurting Mental Health on Campus - The Atlantic

Really long ass article that I think is a very interesting lead. Crazy to think how recently I graduated from college and my experiences were nothing like what is being described.

Moderators...I think lax just committed a microaggression over here