DN Speak: 9/14/14

Saturday, September 20, 2014

Week In The News: Arming Syrian Rebels, Ebola, Scotland Stays In (Tom Ashbrook, On Point)

And so, Scotland will not go. There’s still a United Kingdom. The Union Jack will have its blue and white. But what an interesting week it’s been in the British Isles. In the USA, Congress votes money for Syrian rebels. House and Senate. But with lots of qualms. Dissenters. Australia sees a beheading threat. China’s Alibaba goes to market on Wall Street. Hillary Clinton goes to Iowa. Chris Christie to New Hampshire. Ebola, still climbing. The NFL still struggling with domestic issues. This hour, On Point: Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines. / Tom Ashbrook

Interview:
http://onpoint.wbur.org/2014/09/19/news-syria-ebola-scotland

Friday News Roundup - Domestic (Diane Rehm Show)

Congress approves President Barack Obama’s funding request for Syrian rebels battling ISIS. The votes in both houses featured rare, bipartisan agreement ahead of midterm elections. Federal prosecutors indict a New York man on charges he tried to provide material support to the Islamic State. A new government report finds security flaws at the Healthcare.gov website that could jeopardize consumers’ personal data. The Kansas Supreme Court orders a Democrat off the ballot, which may affect control of the Senate in the fall elections. And a fourth player is suspended by the NFL over family violence. Guest host Elise Labott and guests discuss the week’s top domestic news stories.

Interview:

http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2014-09-19/friday-news-roundup-domestic

Friday News Roundup - International (Diane Rehm)

President Obama for the first time says he will order air strikes in Syria against ISIS targets. In a televised address, he declares the U.S. will be relentless in destroying the jihadist group. Saudi Arabia and other Sunni Arab states agree to back military and financial efforts against it. The European Union imposes further sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine crisis. With just days before an independence vote, British Prime Minister David Cameron urges Scotland to stay in the U.K. And health experts criticize the global response to the Ebola outbreak as inadequate. A panel of journalists joins guest host Susan Page for analysis of the week's top international news stories.

Interview:

http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2014-09-12/friday-news-roundup-international

The Narrative Of The Koch Brothers Tapes: The Debate We Have To Have

The Koch brothers secret conference tapes have by now generated well over a hundred national media stories, cable news segments, local TV clips relate... Read more

The GOP’s Last Ditch, Unconstitutional Ploy To Save An Unpopular Senator’s Career From Extinction

Kansas is in the midst what is almost certainly the most unusual Senate race of the 2014 cycle. Democrats want their candidate ... Read more

The President Is Declaring War On Antibiotic-Resistant ‘Superbugs’

The White House has been criticized for being too slow to address a problem that's been described as a "ticking time bomb" and ... Read more

Krugman, IMF: Fighting Global Warming Is ‘Cheap’ And ‘Might Actually Lead To Faster Growth’

Two new studies find that "strong measures to limit carbon emissions would have hardly any negative effect on economic growth, ... Read more

Pennsylvania Natural Resources Agency Ordered To Delete Climate Change Info From Website

This is not the first time a state agency has removed references to climate change from its website following the induction of ... Read more

Friday, September 19, 2014

Bible-pushing Christians open the door for Satanic activity books in Florida schools

The spokesman for the Satanic Temple, Lucien Greaves, explained that his organization “would never seek to establish a precedent of disseminating our religious materials in public schools because we believe our constitutional values are better served by respecting a strong separation of Church and State.”

“However,” he continued, “if a public school board is going to allow religious pamphlets and full Bibles to be distributed to students — as is the case in Orange County, Florida — we think the responsible thing to do is to ensure that these students are given access to a variety of differing religious opinions, as opposed to standing idly by while one religious voice dominates the discourse and delivers propaganda to youth.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/09/bible-pushing-christians-open-the-door-for-satanic-activity-books-in-florida-schools/

Wonkbook: What Congress got done, just before going off to campaign

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/09/19/wonkbook-what-congress-got-done-just-before-going-off-to-campaign/

An Interview with Randolph Nesse

Natural selection has designed us not for health, but for reproduction.
https://vp.telvue.com/preview?id=T03105&video=204432

Conservative Christians Trying Their Damnedest to Make America's Kids Wildly Ignorant

"One of the biggest obstacles for the conservative movement when it comes to recruiting new members is, to be frank, reality itself. History, science, economics are all fields constantly churning out information that makes right-wing ideology look silly, nonsensical and even delusional. In response, the conservative movement has launched a massive media campaign against reality that spreads out on Fox News, talk radio and the web, but despite all this, conservatives are not satisfied. The kids are who conservatives really want. That’s why the right is relentless about its attempts to get into public schools, throw out actual information and replace it with false and misleading ideology. Whether or not they’ll actually be successful in tricking kids into becoming conservatives is up for debate, but in the meantime, they are doing a lot of damage to childrens' ability to get a decent education." ... Read more

7.3 Million Americans Enrolled And Paying For Obamacare, Gov't Says

"...The 7.3 million figure does not include other beneficiaries of Obamacare, such as those enrolled under its Medicaid expansion, those who bought plans outside the exchanges (which have to comply with the law's guaranteed benefits), and young adults who are enrolled on a parent's policy..."
... Read more

Catholic Nuns Take On Dark Money In Politics With Nationwide Bus Tour

"Everybody should be able to come to the table. But you can't buy the table — sorry, it's wrong."The post Catholic Nuns Take On ... Read more

Watch Obama’s Top Science Advisor Repeatedly Shut Down Climate Deniers At House Climate Hearing

Holdren had to explain to Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX) why climate scientists don't always measure "global wobbling" when ... Read more

42 Climate Scientists To Rick Scott: Climate Change ‘Is Not A Hypothetical’

The scientists are responding to Scott's statements that he's "focused on solutions" to environmental problems. The post 42 ... Read more

The White House Just Announced $68 Million To Boost Solar And Cut Greenhouse Gases

The carbon pollution cuts from the programs would result in the equivalent of taking 63 million cars off the road, the White ... Read more

Biology Major Bobby Jindal Pleads Ignorance On Evolution And Climate Science

What happens when a highly educated guy with a biology degree wants to run for national office in a party that increasingly ... Read more

Sand Dunes in South Africa [1400 x 933] by Hougaard Malan

Hepatitis C drug in India to cost 1% of the US price

"Gilead will be selling sofosbuvir at $300 per bottle (28 pills meant for one month of treatment at one pill per day), or about 1% of the US price..."
Read more

Almost All Obamacare Enrollees Are Paying For Coverage

"As of Aug. 15 this year, we have 7.3 million Americans enrolled in health insurance marketplace coverage and these are individuals who paid their premiums. We are encouraged by the number of consumers who paid their premiums and continue to enroll in the marketplace coverage every day through special enrollment periods," Tavenner said.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/18/obamacare-enrollment_n_5843402.html

14 Awesome British TV Shows To Stream On Netflix

"Where in the world is Olivia Pope? Will Danny and Mindy really make it? These are the questions most of us are asking going into the new TV season. But for some of us, colder weather makes us crave some solid British TV -- and "Downton Abbey" won't be back until January! Luckily, Netflix has quite a few options to tide us over..."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/13/british-tv-shows_n_5812136.html

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Colbert: Militarization Of Schools Will Teach Kids 'Valuable Life Lessons'

Stephen Colbert defended the Pentagon's practice of giving surplus military equipment to school districts on Wednesday night's episode of "The Colbert Report."
http://crooksandliars.com/2014/09/senate-race-polls-lean-toward-dems-so

The Colbert Report
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Colbert Report on Facebook

Senate Race Polls Lean Toward Dems, So Media Starts Pro-GOP Spin

On Tuesday, there was really good news for Democrats. The latest polls showed them pulling neck and neck to keep control of the Senate, data modelers ... Read more

Biden, a Catholic School ‘Kid,’ Praises Nuns Under Fire From the Vatican

DES MOINES — At a Vatican meeting a few years ago, Pope Benedict XVI unexpectedly asked Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. for some advice. “You are being entirely too hard on the American nuns,” Mr. Biden offered. “Lighten up.”

Last year, Mr. Biden seized on an audience with Pope Francis as another opportunity to praise the sisters who remained the target of a Vatican crackdown for their activism on issues like poverty and health care...

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/18/us/politics/biden-drawing-on-his-past-expresses-common-cause-with-activist-nuns.html?_r=0

Cenk Uygur Takes Joe Scarborough To School On Politics And The Koch Brothers

The Young Turks Cenk Uygur takes MSNBC's Joe Scarborough to task for his criticism of Harry Reid for going after the Koch brothers and the Democrats' ... Read more

"Republicans are counting on a deluge of money from the Koch brothers to help sweep them to victory this fall. But Democrats are looking to perform some political jiujitsu: by turning the controversial billionaires into weapons against the GOP.

"Control of Congress for the next two years could depend on whether they succeed.

"In tight House and Senate races from Colorado to West Virginia and from Iowa to New Hampshire, Democrats and their allies are seizing on the Kochs’ vast spending to tie GOP candidates to the brothers." *

http://youtu.be/sm2DuNenGMs

Wisc. GOPer Drops Out Of Race Over 'Fgs' And 'Nggers' Tweets

Series of twitter rants about "Fgs" and N*ggers" forces Wisconsin Republican to drop out of race. ... Read more

Satanists Protest Bibles In School With ‘Satanic Children’s Big Book of Activities’

Under the Constitution, what's good for an evangelical church is also good for the Satanic Temple.The post Satanists Protest ... Read more

Congressman: Don’t Trust Climate Scientists, They’re In It For The Money

The freshman Congressman said he doesn't accept the scientific literature on climate change because the scientists who write it ... Read more

The United States Has The Largest Prison Population In The World — And It’s Growing

Both in raw numbers and by percentage of the population, the United States has the most prisoners of any developed country in ... Read more

Top Conservative Think Tank: If You Own A Computer, You Aren’t Really Poor

The Heritage foundation's new anti-poverty initiative: trade in your refrigerator for an ice box. The post Top Conservative ... Read more

Audi gets green light to test self-driving cars in California

"After each vehicle is assembled, we fit a temporary steering wheel and set of controls into it," said Google, in a recent blog post. "We'll remove these manual controls after the prototypes have finished being tested and permitted, because our vehicles are ultimately designed to operate without a human driver."
Read more

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Colbert: Lindsey Graham Is Right About ISIS, 'We're All Gonna Die!'

"...Stephen Colbert took his turn during Tuesday night's episode of "The Colbert Report" at mocking Sen. Lindsey Graham's (R-SC) use of doomsday rhetoric to try to push the U.S. into war.

The comedian took aim at Graham after the senator warned that Obama needs to send ground troops into Syria "before we all get killed back here at home." Colbert's turn came a day after fellow Comedy Central host Jon Stewart made fun of Graham's constant reliance on fear by saying he "lives his entire life trapped in 'The Blair Witch Project.'"...

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/colbert-report-lindsey-graham-isis

http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/videos/0agoip/the-kinda-sorta-war-and-the-u-s--s-mysterious-allies

The Colbert Report
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Colbert Report on Facebook

History books spark classroom battle in Texas

AUSTIN (AP) — The long-running ideological dispute over what gets taught in Texas classrooms flared anew over proposed history textbooks Tuesday, with academics decrying lessons they said exaggerate the importance of Christian values on the nation’s Founding Fathers while conservatives complained of anti-American, pro-Islam biases...

http://www.news-journal.com/news/state/history-books-spark-classroom-battle-in-texas/article_a0950fe0-71ab-5cd6-9b0d-43a7ede710e3.html

"BP is NOT committed to the Gulf. Two lbs. of tar balls picked up today in one hour on Perdido Key, FL."

Will voucher students learn biology?

"In a recent North Carolina court decision about the constitutionality of state funded private school vouchers, Judge Robert Hobgood ruled that it is unconstitutional to use state funds to support schools in which the curricula are not subject to any requirements or standards. A clear implication is that in the absence of review by a state educational agency, state funds might be inappropriately directed to the teaching of subject matter that is not clearly presented, not up to date or even incorrect..."

http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2014/09/17/will-voucher-students-learn-biology/

Bobby Jindal Blasts Obama Energy Team As ‘Science Deniers’

As a possible prelude to a presidential run, the Louisiana governor turns the tables on Democrats.

http://observer.com/2014/09/bobby-jindal-blasts-obama-energy-team-as-science-deniers/

How the Bush Administration Covered Up the Saudi Connection to 9/11

It's a story of how the White House sought to suppress evidence that would reveal how much it knew of the attack plot.

How Toxic Followers Enable Toxic Leaders

The crisis at the famed megachurch Mars Hill church has led to steep declines in attendance and revenues and sudden layoffs and closures. It came as a... Read more

German Muslim community announces protest against extremism in roughly 2,000 cities on Friday

"We want to make clear that terrorists do not speak in the name of Islam. I am a Jew when synagogues are attacked. I am a Christian when Christians are persecuted for example in Iraq."
Read more

Teaching Religion In Public Schools: One Calif. City Does It Right

McIntyre emphasized that the curriculum is a comprehensive look at the world's religions, and ... Read more

Survey Finds Obamacare Is Helping Those Who Need Health Insurance Most

Lower income Americans are becoming insured at a greater rate than non-poor Americans. The post Survey Finds Obamacare Is ... Read more

Top Democrat Urges Radio Stations To Drop Rush Limbaugh After He Suggested ‘No Means Yes’

Limbaugh is making headlines for saying that guys know "no means yes if you know how to spot it."The post Top Democrat Urges ... Read more

Scientists Find ‘Direct Link’ Between Earthquakes And Process Used For Oil And Gas Drilling

The USGS research is just the latest in a string of studies that have suggested injected wastewater from drilling is migrating ... Read more

This Changes Everything: Naomi Klein Is Right, Unchecked Capitalism Will Destroy Civilization

Naomi Klein has a new book, "This Changes Everything: Capitalism Vs. The Climate." She argues that because we ignored ... Read more

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Satanists want to give out materials in Florida schools

"If a public school board is going to allow religious pamphlets and full Bibles to be distributed to students, as is the case in Orange County, Florida, we think the responsible thing to do is to ensure that these students are given access to a variety of differing religious opinions," said temple co-founder and spokesman Lucien Greaves...

http://www.kansas.com/living/religion/article2119446.html

Proposed Texas textbooks are inaccurate, biased and politicized, new report finds

"...Ideas promoted in various proposed textbooks include the notion that Moses and Solomon inspired American democracy, that in the era of segregation only “sometimes” were schools for black children “lower in quality” and that Jews view Jesus Christ as an important prophet...."

http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/?p=173279

Atheism has finally found its spiritual leader

"...In just the title, Harris has declawed Dawkins’s benediction, originally expressed in typically scolding terms, and turned it into an inspirational calling for all of us."

http://qz.com/265152/atheism-has-finally-found-its-spiritual-leader/

What Leaving My Religion Did for Me

What things could you add to this list? How has leaving your religion benefited your life?

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/godlessindixie/2014/09/14/what-leaving-my-religion-did-for-me/

Charles Darwin: Uncut Interviews with Richard Dawkins (1 of 3)

https://vp.telvue.com/preview?id=T03105&video=197689

Atheist TV live stream

http://atheists.org/atheistTV/live

Jon Stewart Completely Emasculates Lindsey Graham For His Fearmongering Over ISIS

Jon Stewart took Goober Graham to the woodshed following his unhinged bedwetting rant this weekend that ISIS was coming to kill us all.

http://crooksandliars.com/2014/09/jon-stewart-completely-emasculates-lindsey

YOU'RE vs. YOUR

http://youtu.be/-FdKPEA17m4

Oxytocin: "the biological basis for the golden rule"

Here's the transcript at Medium of a deeply fascinating Aspen Ideas lecture by neuroeconomist Paul Zak, author of The Moral ... Read more

This 'Analysis' Has Been Brought To You By A Defense Contractor

"These former Pentagon officials you see on TV are paid directors and advisers to some of the largest military contractors in the world."
... Read more

http://youtu.be/T3aDFFh0OOE

6 Videos That Prove Ayn Rand Now Rules ‘Christian’ Conservatism

"...6. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Wingnuttistan) says that “we are living in the days of Ayn Rand.” You don’t get a more religious Republican than Cruz, but his ‘End Times’ have more in common with John Galt than Jesus Christ.."

http://www.breitbartunmasked.com/2014/09/15/6-videos-that-prove-ayn-rand-now-rules-christian-conservatism/

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