Pavlov's Stepson

cognitivedissonance:

This is why we can’t have nice things.

cognitivedissonance:

The Tampa City Council on Thursday said they would ask Florida Gov. Rick Scott to ban firearms outside the Republican National Convention later this year.

The council has already issued a citywide ban on items like pieces of wood, switchblades, slingshots, containers of bodily fluids and even squirt guns. A so-called “Clean Zone” around the convention area would prohibit string longer than six inches, glass containers, light bulbs, portable shields and gas masks. A smaller protest area would prevent demonstrators from having camping gear, bottles, cans and umbrellas. The Secret Service has said that only law enforcement will be able to carry firearms inside of the convention center.

But Tampa now needs Scott’s help because state law prevents local governments from regulating guns. City officials believe that Scott has the executive power to temporarily suspend that law.

“We believe it is necessary and prudent to take this reasonable step to prevent a potential tragedy,” council member Lisa Montelione wrote in a draft of the letter to the governor.

Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn has said that the state law makes the city “look silly.”

“The absurdity of banning squirt guns but not being able to do anything about real guns is patently obvious,” Buckhorn explained last week. “Given the nature and the potential dynamic of this event, I think it would make sense that you would not want firearms introduced into that environment by people other than law enforcement.”

But… but… Second Amendment! Freedoms! Liberty! I WANT MY BOOMSTICK BEFORE OBAMA TAKES IT AWAY!

I love Bob Buckhorn’s comment. He’s right. It IS silly that the city can ban squirt guns and not real guns from certain places. 

cognitivedissonance:

Joseph Williams moved more than 30 times as a child, living in homeless shelters, church basements, and the homes of family friends. Now Williams, a junior safety on the University of Virginia football team, is taking up a cause supporting university workers who are barely making enough to get by.

Williams is one of 18 Virginia students participating in a hunger strike — now more than a week long — to protest the poor wages paid to many of the university’s service employees. The strike, organized by the school’s Living Wage Campaign, began on February 17 with the goal of getting a living wage for underpaid employees. “I know first-hand what the economic struggle is like for many of these underpaid workers,” Williams wrote in an essay explaining his participation.

This is a marvelous display of solidarity. Good on the UVA students and Joseph Williams both.

The Republican primary field has recently decided to revive the Welfare Queen trope, perhaps in hopes that a bit of that old Reagan magic will rub off on them. The argument, as usual, is that there’s a vast stream of federal money going to people who are sitting on their asses eating Cheetos instead of going out and earning a living instead. These people are being bred into dependence on Uncle Sam’s tit and having their work ethics destroyed.

So the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities decided to add up the numbers and figure out how much money the federal government spends on the nonworking poor. The answer: about 10 percent of all federal welfare spending. How did they come up with that? CBPP’s methodology uses census data to figure out exactly where program dollars are going, but you can get pretty much the same answer using a simpler, easier-to-understand technique. Step One is to list every federal welfare program. Step Two is to deduct spending on the elderly, blind, and seriously disabled. That’s Social Security, Medicare, SSI, and about two-thirds of Medicaid. Step Three is to deduct spending that goes to the working poor. That’s unemployment compensation, EITC, and child tax credits. Step Four is to add up the rest. This overstates how much goes to the nonworking poor, since these programs are open to both working and nonworking families, but it gives you a rough idea.

It comes to about $235 billion, the bulk of which is SNAP (formerly food stamps) and about one-third of Medicaid. That’s 12 percent of all federal welfare spending and about 6 percent of the whole federal budget. Once you account for the fact that some of these program dollars go to the working poor, you end up with CBPP’s estimate of 10 percent, or about 5 percent of the whole federal budget.

(Source: azspot)

abaldwin360:

courierpress.com - An Indiana Senate panel has approved a bill that would allow creationism to be taught in Indiana’s public schools.

The Times of Munster reports (http://bit.ly/yKZdgN) the Republican-controlled Senate Education Committee voted 8-2 Wednesday to send the legislation to the…