Spineless Democrats

The Democrats in the White House and both houses of Congress look wimpily spineless this week.  Congress voted to reallocate money for the air traffic control system, with the overwhelming support of Democrats, and apparently Obama is set to sign it.  Once again the Democrats show that they all too often act just like Republicans.  Millions of people are suffering from the sequester, and the Democrats chose to alleviate some minor inconvenience incurred by the affluent.  So much for "sharing the pain".

It reminds me of when they bailed out the homebuilders back in 2009-2010 with the loss lookback.  Wealthy homebuilders were able to recover their losses, while the individuals whom those homebuilders dumped on were stuck with theirs.  A Democratic Congress passed that one, too.  Now they are at it again.  Nice going, wimps.

Colbert on Reinhart-Rogoff

Here's the link to Colbert's discussion of the Reinhart-Rogoff spreadsheet error.

More from Texas and Rick Perry

Here's a good link from Daily Kos.

West, Texas Fertilizer Plant Explosion

Whether or not the  Boston Marathon bombing was over-reported is a matter of opinion.  But the media has been shamefully mute in under-reporting the disaster in West, Texas (read this link for one opinion).  It appears that the perpetrators of the Boston tragedy have been or will be held accountable for their actions.  Whether the owners of the fertilizer plant will be held to account for their negligence is highly doubtful.

Random Thoughts

Some random (mostly unconnected) thoughts after the gun vote, Boston, etc.

• Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council hate group is at it again.  First, a few years back he said that any Christian who voted for Obama (I am proudly guilty) should repent.  Then, he misused Luke 19 to claim that God is a laissez-faire capitalist (see my post of 12/10/2011).  Now he is quoting Luke 22:36 to claim that God is a Second Amendment extremist and wants all Christians to buy guns.  Okay, so first he tries to bind the conscience of Christians who differ with his politics.  Then, in the next two instances, he trivializes spiritual principles to advance his earthly political agenda.  I can only assume it is intentional.  I have been in Wisconsin Synod (WELS) congregations where liberals like Bill Maher are the main characters in a Sunday sermon, and where the president is spoken of disrespectfully in Bible classes.  And this criticism is for their politics, not their religion.  But here is a man--Perkins--who is allowed to be a spokesman for Christians and who is promulgating dangerous and harmful false doctrine, and I have never once heard him publicly called on it by anyone associated with the WELS.  Indeed, if you search in the affiliate Christian Life Resources website, you are likely to find Tony Perkins presented as a favorable ally.  As I 've said before, in the WELS it is okay to have poor doctrine as long as you have the correct politics.  It's shameful and embarrassing.
• Is there any phrase that has become more meaningless on television news than "Breaking News"?
• A relative of mine posted this quote on Facebook:  "Please call them what they are...Muslim terrorists!"  Okay, can we also label Timothy McVeigh, Wade Page, Anders Breivak, et al,  as Christian terrorists?
• I really do believe that people are entitled to have whatever political beliefs they want, but I hope that mine aren't based on fear, paranoia, anger, and hatred.

On Different Planets?

I saw in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel today that Paul Ryan's reaction to President Obama's budget is that Republicans and Democrats are on different planets.  This is news?  Many of us observed a long time ago that Paul Ryan and the Republican (aka Tea) Party were residing in a parallel universe.  So far as I can see, they are still out there.