Link Me Up, Scotty - Losing Their Damn Minds Edition

Monday, February 15, 2016
For the first time, sex slavery is being tried as a war crime.
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A list of Supreme Court candidates who are fully qualified, should the President choose to nominate them. Of course I'm quite sure the Insane Clown Posse that is the current Republican establishment would block each and every one. Which, according to some, means Obama wins anyway.
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Matthew Yglesias writes a fascinating article contending that American Democracy is doomed. He makes the very valid point that Parliamentarian systems have a way to resolve gridlock, and Presidential systems don't, leading to the most ineffective legislature in history. Perhaps it's time for Americans to go back to our roots and revamp the system before it implodes. But I don't think Americans have the political will or courage to make such hard choices.
The idea that America's constitutional system might be fundamentally flawed cuts deeply against the grain of our political culture. But the reality is that despite its durability, it has rarely functioned well by the standards of a modern democracy. The party system of the Gilded Age operated through systematic corruption. The less polarized era that followed was built on the systematic disenfranchisement of African-Americans. The newer system of more ideological politics has solved those problems and seems in many ways more attractive. But over the past 25 years, it's set America on a course of paralysis and crisis — government shutdowns, impeachment, debt ceiling crises, and constitutional hardball. Voters, understandably, are increasingly dissatisfied with the results and confidence in American institutions has been generally low and falling. But rather than leading to change, the dissatisfaction has tended to yield wild electoral swings that exacerbate the sense of permanent crisis.
H/T Brother Seth
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If you're a singer interested in Virtual Choruses, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is working with Peter and Evynne Hollens and others to sing the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah
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Our good friends the Grabills are once again participating in the annual Type 1 Diabetes walk for charity in honor of their T1 son. Please consider supporting TEAM IAN-CREDIBLE HULK and supporting the JDRF in their work to cure and control this life-threatening auto-immune disorder.
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And....cue the right wing whackadoodles who believe the President and his liberal lackies murdered Justice Scalia in order to swing the court left. Because Scalia couldn't possibly have died from natural causes, him being an overweight, out of shape 79 year old man, THAT'S JUST CRAZY TALK.
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NPR with a decent article on Next Generation 9-1-1 technologies, and how Massachusetts is helping to lead the way with this new technology.

Personal note: The company that won the Massachusetts RFP is my former employer, and I was the Principal Engineer in their NG911 practice when I was employed there. Important and meaningful work, but when Moe passed, I didn't have the emotional wherewithal to continue in that job and needed to leave. While it was the right decision at the time, it's one of my few professional regrets.
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Video of my Heart: SNL hits a home run with their new trailer, The Day Beyoncé Turned Black.

 

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