Looks like someone left you guys alone for a very long time.
Early Morning Open Thread: Happy Eid!
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Or Selat Selamat Hari Raya! — for the holiday that marks the end of Ramadan.
The world changes, and the New Yorker publishes an Irish-American ex-Catholics’ “Confessions of a Ramadan Rookie“:
… In shorthand descriptions of Ramadan, it’s sometimes said that the fast lasts from sunrise to sunset. That’s not true. That would be easy! It actually begins at the first ray of dawn, or, as it says in the Koran, “when the white thread of day becomes distinct from the blackness of night.” On Day One this year, New York City time, sunrise occurred at 5:42 A.M.—a civilized hour at which to finish breakfasting. But dawn came at 4:10. On Day One, the fast lasted over sixteen hours; Day Thirty, this Saturday, will be a breezy fifteen. My father-in-law jokes that, depending on what time of year Ramadan falls, Saudi princes find excuses to spend the month in either Patagonia or Scandinavia, if not the poles themselves, to enjoy the shortest possible days of sacred abstemiousness….
In contrast to some other fasting traditions, Ramadan is intended primarily for focus and elevation, not for penance and atonement. It’s not about mortification of the flesh or otherwise beating yourself up. Around the middle of the month, though, it occurred to me that, despite successfully abstaining from all food and drink, I was only meeting the bare minimum requirements of the fast. During Ramadan, Muslims are also expected to refrain from gossip and complaining, to avoid anger and lust, to increase what should already be a high level of charitability. Fasting was the easy part. I liked to think of myself as someone who was slow to speak ill of people, and for whom generosity was a reflex, but the discipline of the month revealed to me that this was just not the case. I thought of my father, who always had single dollar bills ready in his pocket to hand out to anyone who asked as we walked around Detroit. I thought of a Muslim I know who makes turkey sandwiches every morning during Ramadan, as though he’s preparing his lunch as usual, and then passes them out to the hungry. I’d been focussed on the fast’s physical challenges, but it dawned on me that Ramadan is really about developing new habits, of thought, action, routine. The extremity of the test is what it makes it so vivid…
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What else is on the agenda for the start of the weekend?
In Wake of Voter ID Ruling, Pennsylvania Dumps Online Initiatives to Boost Voting
Gee whiz, it’s almost like they’re trying to make it really hard for “some people” to vote in Pennsylvania:
A spokesman for the Department of State said county elections officials told the agency that implementing the new online initiatives as well as voter ID requirements was too much to handle less than three months before the election.
~snip~
State election law allows absentee voting by any individuals who cannot physically get to polls, are sick or disabled or out of town, but they have to submit proof.
In his decision, Commonwealth Court Judge Robert E. Simpson Jr. noted that the law already allows for absentee ballots for those facing difficulty in getting to the polls. In referring to two of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, he noted that “absentee balloting is probably available to them.”
Simpson on Wednesday denied that request on grounds that meeting the requirements of the ID law was not overly burdensome for voters.
[read full post including updates and link to my annotated copy of the ruling at ABLC]
Open Thread
Very, very long day, I’m exhausted, and I have a toothache. I think my crown is going bad. Wonder how much that will cost me, especially since I just got it two years ago.
In other words, another day in paradise.
Friday Evening Open Thread: “Romney {Hearts} Ryan”
Commentor Thoughtcrime points out:
“Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan” is an anagram for “My ultimate Ayn Rand Porn.”
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(Ted Rall via GoComics.com)
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I {heart} Paul Constant:
If we’re being generous, Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan is a man of contradictions. If we’re being honest, Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan is an idiot. Mitt Romney’s vice presidential pick has problems beyond the basic teabagger contradiction of claiming to be for small government then passing an obscenely large military budget, voting to ban gay marriage, and enacting laws that lessen a woman’s access to abortion and birth control….
In the days since his announcement, Romney has all but disappeared from the right-wing consciousness, with conservative bloggers singing hosannas in Ryan’s name and ignoring the guy at the top of the ticket. It’s a curious event that we haven’t seen before… since 2008, when Sarah Palin eclipsed John McCain and sank his flailing campaign in a matter of weeks.
Of course, Ryan is more dangerous than Palin. Where Palin had a selection of only about 25 catchphrases she could memorize, Ryan has a dictionary full of relevant words he can slap around when he’s under pressure. His statements are just as elusive as Palin’s, but because he’s not speaking in a folksy faux-Southern accent, and because he’s a wealthy white man, people take him seriously….
And so what we’re left with here is the Republicanest Republican of them all, a man who Dick Cheney says he “worships,” a 14-year veteran of the Republican House that drove us off a cliff and then whined all through the Obama administration’s subsequent rescue work. Someone with no qualifications in foreign policy who is happy to talk tough about the Middle East and China when the consequences aren’t his problem. A wealthy young white man who refuses to, for one second, consider what it must be like to be a woman, or a minority, or a member of the lower class, or old. A man whose words mean less than nothing.
Is it any wonder that Romney loves Ryan, can seemingly spend hours sitting next to him and softly chuckling while gazing in his direction, his hands awkwardly curled up in his lap? It must be like looking into a mirror that shows you all your life’s possibilities. It must be like looking at all the potential he used to have. Here’s the distillation of everything Romney believes, and by some fluke, people even like this other guy. If Romney didn’t make Ryan his vice presidential candidate, he’d probably have killed him in a fit of jealous pique.
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Apart from mocking rich white dudes’ unnatural affections, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
Friday Evening Open Thread: “Romney {Hearts} Ryan”Post + Comments (164)
Open Thread: Van Bleg (Repost)
Reposted, because a couple commentors pointed out voting hadn’t opened when I put this up earlier.
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From commentor Hamletta:
Hey, you guys! I am whoring for my peeps, and my city.
Any of you who have Facebook accounts can vote for Lutheran Services of Tennessee in Toyota’s 100 Cars For Good contest today, Friday.
You should do this, because their van is fixin’ to take a shit.
They do what they do because our society has decided the people they work with are beneath consideration, and they need a functioning vehicle to do it….
I may be a whore, but LST is doing the Lord’s work here on earth, and I’m happy to help it along.
Description of Toyota’s program here.
Did they jump or were they pushed?
There are many terrible things about a prolonged economic depression. One is that the those can’t find work sometimes blame themselves and fall into depression, instead of taking it in stride along with the serious people who understand that the middle-class just need to suffer for a while:
So many people have been killing themselves and leaving behind notes citing financial hardship that European media outlets have a special name for them: “economic suicides.” Surveys are also showing increasing signs of mental stress: a jump in the use of antidepressants and illicit drugs, a rise in depression and anxiety among workers worried about salary cuts or being laid off, and an increase in the use of sick leave due to psychological problems.
“People are more and more uncertain about their future, which is leading to a sharp rise in mental health problems,” said Maria Nyman, director of Brussels-based Mental Health Europe, a multinational coalition of mental health organizations and educational institutions.