Florida State Seminoles

[Owlman]

So I was talking to one of my students today (she's in her 50's). Doesn't know what she's going to do if Romney gets elected. He's not a Christian because mormons aren't Christian. Santorum is Catholic and they aren't Christian because they pray to the pope (she's more scared of Santorum than Romney). Obama is not a Christian because he went to Rev. Wright's church (even though she has no idea what his church really did). Jimmy Carter was not a Christian but Reagan was a Christian. She's hoping that Paul runs as an independent because she thinks he's a Christian.

[Jungle Rat]

This is sort of strange. How does someone lose to someone no one even knows?

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/2012 ... /303070133

[sardis]

So I was talking to one of my students today (she's in her 50's). Doesn't know what she's going to do if Romney gets elected. He's not a Christian because mormons aren't Christian. Santorum is Catholic and they aren't Christian because they pray to the pope (she's more scared of Santorum than Romney). Obama is not a Christian because he went to Rev. Wright's church (even though she has no idea what his church really did). Jimmy Carter was not a Christian but Reagan was a Christian. She's hoping that Paul runs as an independent because she thinks he's a Christian.

I didn't know you taught remedial classes...

[Owlman]

I don't. She's otherwise quite smart in the law, but she accepts whatever her pastor tells her and reads only those specific books that reinforce it. It's actually quite amazing how narrow she is in this regard.

[sardis]

Tell her that you post with a fundamental evangelical and he doesn't ask his pastor for political advice. Just like he wouldn't ask his plummer to perform surgery on him...

[Bklyn]

This is sort of strange. How does someone lose to someone no one even knows?

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/2012 ... /303070133

How I hope this is a petri dish experiment exposing the idiocy of the Citizens United v. FEC case. How awesome would it be to show that a SuperPAC in and of itself can get a 61 years old schlub who lives with his mother elected? That the guy could win without campaigning or spending a dime of his own money?

Lord I hope Colbert is bankrolling him, or something.

[Bklyn]

Bear that in mind in this assessment of Breitbart's professional legacy, the aspect of his life I am most qualified to comment upon. It includes praiseworthy achievements. As Nick Gillespie noted at CNN, Breitbart played an important role in the creation or evolution of pioneering Web sites like The Drudge Report, The Huffington Post, and his "Big" sites -- whatever one thinks about their content, they helped spur advances in the Web medium the fruits of which are now universally available. Said Gillespie, summing up who benefits, "It's the conservatives at Drudge, the liberals at HuffPo, the leftists at DailyKos, the libertarians at Reason. It's all of us and Breitbart helped create and grow a series of do-it-yourself demonstration projects through which we can all speak more loudly and more fully. Breitbart is dead, but the conversation pits he built will live on." Perhaps they'll even improve with time like The Huffington Post, which started out as a glorified online diary for celebrities. It's now publishing Radley Balko investigations. Breitbart also deserves credit for speaking in favor of including gays in the conservative movement and against its idiotic Birther faction, which he helped to pillory and marginalize.

Due to the untimeliness of Breitbart's death, there has been an understandable reluctance to examine his achievements alongside his shortcomings, especially on right-leaning Web sites, for arguing about the man's memory almost immediately turned into another skirmish between ideological tribes. But disagreeing about whether his professional legacy was a boon to the country, as many conservatives insist, or an overall detriment, as others claim, isn't likely to get us anywhere. Suffice it to say that even history's greatest heroes, beloved patriarchs, and loyal family dogs are imperfect. The most hard-core movement conservatives should be able to acknowledge that some aspects of Breitbart's professional life would be better repudiated than celebrated or copied, even if their overall assessment of the man remains emphatically positive.

What follows isn't an attempt to persuade you to share my conclusions about Breitbart's overall impact on the world. The reader can draw that conclusion as well as I can. But having remarked on his innovator's spirit, his contributions to the Web, his passion for his causes, his humor, and his loyalty to family and friends, it profits us to confront his flaws and transgressions forthrightly. Were he a monster, no one would be tempted to copy him. Precisely because he was a charismatic hero to many, avoiding his mistakes requires us to be unsentimental.

Neither personal friends nor ideological allies are particularly good at that, so their obituaries, while very much worth reading, are insufficient. As someone who met Breitbart just a few times, an outsider rather than a member of the conservative movement, and a critical observer of his career who thought deeply about his impact in the course of tangling with him, sometimes bitterly, this is my attempt at an unsentimental critique. What follows is the part of the Breitbart legacy his fans haven't confronted -- and more reasons why they valued him too.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc ... ue/253953/

[It's me Karen]

I don't. She's otherwise quite smart in the law, but she accepts whatever her pastor tells her and reads only those specific books that reinforce it. It's actually quite amazing how narrow she is in this regard.

People like this scare me.

[Bklyn]

Be afraid of a lot of people, then. Those who have a breadth of information are few. It's easier to have the narrow view.

[eCat]

Interesting case

Couple sues health screening provider for failing to detect a chromosome issue resulting in them giving birth to a child with down's syndrome.

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/inde ... cy_he.html

[sardis]

C'mon Warren, pay your fair share...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-0 ... taxes.html

[Bklyn]

The report on Iran's state television quoted Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as praising a recent statement by the U.S. president saying he saw a "window of opportunity" to use diplomacy to resolve the nuclear dispute.

Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters in Iran, told a group of clerics: "This expression is a good word. This is a wise remark indicating taking distance from illusion."

It is one of the rare cases in which Iran's top leader praised an American leader.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/0 ... ?ref=world

(it'll be interesting to see how each side spins)

[hedge]

"At this moment - Obama will be re-elected. Of course that is subject to change if Obama goes off the reservation on a republican hot button issue."

Obama ain't going off the reservation on anything. He's as close to a sure thing for reelection as Reagan was...

[eCat]

watched Game Change. If Sara Palin's people are upset with that then they are idiots. I thought it would lower my opinion of her, it actually raised it.

I also came off liking John McCain more but admittedly I don't think I could have disliked him any more.

I don't believe he is an honorable man, but he came off as that in the show.

I understand exactly why they picked her and to some extent it explains why Romney can't win either.

[Owlman]

based on that, why do you think Romney can't win?

[eCat]

based on that, why do you think Romney can't win?

because he can unite his base, same problem McCain had - and he was forced to go with Palin as a "high risk, high reward" option

Romney isn't a risk taker and he already knows who he wants to be VP

[Bklyn]

I was in Philly helping my dad with some shit, so I didn't get home until 11pm. I started watching it at midnight but fell asleep an hour in. I'll catch the second half tonight or tomorrow.

I think the Palin people lose nothing by complaining about the show. They get to score "Hollywood Liberal Elite" points for their base and the people who do watch it feel better about her than they did before. It's a win/win...actually pretty politically astute.

[Owlman]

read this:

"Gasoline prices have been rising since the New Year because of tensions with Iran, three northeast refineries closing and growing global demand have helped push crude oil prices higher."

Anybody know why 3 refineries have closed?

[hedge]

I don't understand why anybody thinks that even if we drilled enough oil to supply 100% of our needs that it would affect the price at all. We'd just be paying JR Ewing instead of Sheik Baba...

[Owlman]

Most politicians and reporters know that. I saw video on one program that showed Bill O'Reilly, Hannity and I think Coulter admit that there is nothing at all the President can do about high gas prices.

Of course, their videos are all from 2008.