Weekend Open Thread

Filed in National by on August 6, 2011

Welcome to your weekend open thread. Yes, the rumors are true. I am taking a break for a while. I’m sure the rest of the crew will take good care of you. This will be my last thread for a while.

Good read about the man who stole the Mona Lisa 100 years ago, making her the most famous portrait in the world.

The Wellcome Trust released some film archives taken of British soldiers suffering for “shell shock” in 1917-1918. Quite fascinating

There are four other videos you can watch. I always thought “shell shock” referred to PTSD. In the video above, I think only the 2nd soldier suffers from what I understand PTSD to be. The other soldiers look like they have a neurological condition, but I’m no expert.

And finally, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker receives a less-than-friendly welcome at the Wisconsin state fair.

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Opinionated chemist, troublemaker, blogger on national and Delaware politics.

Comments (16)

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  1. MJ says:

    The Wisconsin State Fair used to be such a friendly place, that is until Scott Walker showed up on the scene.

  2. Miscreant says:

    “…that is until Scott Walker showed up…”

    Total bullshit, MJ. It had more to do with nondescript ‘mobs’ who preyed upon other nondescript fair goers.
    Nothing to do with Walker.

  3. puck says:

    This new political environment is worse than we think:

    Coons says the tax system needs to be reformed in a way that increases revenues but does not raise tax rates and tax loopholes need to be closed.

    Something is broken, all right. This is not the same guy who announced his candidacy for Senate.

  4. Republican David says:

    Good, the best way to increase revenues is to increase economic growth not raise taxes. We need fundamental tax reform.

  5. sussexanon says:

    King Grover Norquist will not stand for any reform that would allow more money to go to the government. This includes closing loopholes.

    Dems once again missing the boat and not mentioning the obvious loopholes, like tax breaks for shipping jobs out of the country or subsidies to oil and gas.

  6. Rusty Dils says:

    Thank you to unstable isotope for all his hard work. I always almost mis pronuounce his screen name. So I want to offer a new nick name, for unstable, I want to call him unstopable isotope. I know this does not make sense in chemistry, but that is what I always want to call him. What do you say guys?
    Anyway, unstable, enjoy your time off.

  7. puck says:

    It gets worse. John Carney is now explicitly promoting trickle-down.

    The headline says Carney says debt deal should have been “balanced” – WHOA! We know balanced means raising taxes on the wealthiest so they can share the sacrifice, right? Way to go, John!

    But wait:

    Carney tells WDEL News the best way to tackle the nation’s deficit and debt is with tax reform.

    Uh-oh. “Tax reform?” That doesn’t sound like raising taxes on the wealthiest.

    Then cut to the audio:

    You have to get the revenue on the table, and there’s a way to do it that could be positive for the economy where we would bring the rates down, reduce rates for individuals and for corporations, and reduce some of those tax deductions that frankly don’t create any economic development or growth.

    Cut taxes and revenue goes up. Where have we heard that before?

    Can we PLEASE have some tax reform that doesn’t require unicorns? How about just a straight-up promise to let the Bush tax cuts expire?

    Show us the numbers, John.

  8. puck says:

    I want one.

    new technology that allows them to instantly check license plates to see if motorists owe everything from traffic fines to back taxes. And they can check up to 900 plates per minute.

    “I can drive 55 mph on I-95 and I can pass a parked car on the shoulder and I can still read that tag,” said state police Cpl. Todd Duke, who has the device — known as a License Plate Recognition (LPR) system — mounted onto his patrol car.

    I want it to be $99 at Walmart. When everybody has one, we can upload them to a web-based mapping database and plot the location of every police car in real time.

  9. Miscreant says:

    “Thank you to unstable isotope for all his hard work. I always almost mis pronuounce his …”

    Dang. I always thought UI was quite a lady…

  10. phil says:

    When is the last time a Cop drove 55mph on I-95?

  11. Rebecca says:

    Oh noes! UI you can’t be leaving. I understand the time commitment you’ve put in here has been huge and you certainly deserve a break. Please come back from time to time. We’ll miss you.

  12. Dana says:

    Phil asked:

    When is the last time a Cop drove 55mph on I-95?

    When traffic was backed up and he couldn’t go any faster?

  13. puck says:

    Behold the new voodoo economics – “tax reform.” Cut taxes and get more revenue. It is the new Democratic party line. Carper, Coons, and Carney are all singing from this hymnbook. It is no doubt coming from the White House. (With the caveat of course that Carper will eventually have some quibble that will force the plan slightly rightward). The expiration of the Bush tax cuts is now irrelevant, because the tax reform bill will render the expiration moot. We will never see the Clinton boom tax rates again.

    Not many details have been publicly released on the “Gang of Six” plan. It would cut spending and raise revenue by a ratio of three to one. It would raise about $1.2 trillion in new revenue over 10 years by eliminating tax loopholes while lowering corporate and individual tax rates.

    Trenchant political analyisis from Tom Carper:

    Carper thinks the reason the plan went nowhere initially was because congressional leaders didn’t embrace it.

  14. Another Mike says:

    UI, please return after a well-deserved break.

  15. anonone says:

    You’ll be missed, Unstable Isotope. Thanks for all you’ve contributed, and I hope that you don’t stay away too long.