A Tax Break Busts

Breaking: Federal District Court Declares A Religious Income Tax Exemption Unconstitutional | The New Civil Rights Movement:

A federal district court judge has declared “unconstitutional” a portion of U.S. law that allows “a minister of the gospel” to not pay income tax on a specific portion of their compensation...

Crazy In NC: It's Not What You Think Edition

Don't jump to conclusions. Read the whole story.

North Carolina Pastor Wants Only White People At Front Door (VIDEO):

North Carolina has been the center of political turmoil all summer. The Right Wing takeover of their state houses has passed draconian voter ID laws, and draconian laws against women’s rights have been at the forefront. Their citizens have organically risen up with the effecting of Moral Mondays.

Sadly, it seems like all the damage to citizens is not inflicted by politicians taking away their freedom and humanity. Some of it is from within communities least expected. No one in their right mind would believe this story. It baffles the mind...

The Other Religion

The Gospel According to 'Me' - NYTimes.com:

...Unlike the conversions that transfigure the born-again’s experience of the world in a lightning strike, this one occurred in stages: a postwar existentialist philosophy of personal liberation and “becoming who you are” fed into a 1960s counterculture that mutated into the most selfish conformism, disguising acquisitiveness under a patina of personal growth, mindfulness and compassion. Traditional forms of morality that required extensive social cooperation in relation to a hard reality defined by scarcity have largely collapsed and been replaced with this New Age therapeutic culture of well-being that does not require obedience or even faith — and certainly not feelings of guilt. Guilt must be shed; alienation, both of body and mind, must be eliminated, most notably through yoga practice after a long day of mind-numbing work...

Here We Go Again

Sorry. It's an AP story-- no words. Records: Archbishop Paid Problem Priests to Leave - ABC News

Crazy In NC: Clergy Bustin' Edition

RALEIGH: Clergy lead Monday protests at General Assembly | State Politics | NewsObserver.com:

Despite tornado warnings across the state, several thousand demonstrators gathered Monday under rainy skies to continue the weekly protests of the new policies and laws coming out of the General Assembly.

This week, religious leaders from around the state led the rally that resulted more than 80 arrests, according to Jamie Phillips, an state NAACP attorney. A reporter with The Charlotte Observer, who was interviewing demonstrators, was among those detained.

Many arrested were clergy...

The Other White Minority

Update: Please read the comments.

Appalachian Americans: The Invisible Minority - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com:

Appalachian-Americans are not generally discussed in multicultural textbooks or thought of as a distinct cultural group, yet they exhibit major cultural differences when compared to the common social construct of 'white America'. For this reason they continue to be marginalised, even in a time when acceptance of ethnic minorities and ideals of a pluralistic society are the norm...

...Coal companies hired thugs to intimidate both miners and outsiders who might bring attention to exploitation that bordered on slavery. Union members' houses "were raided by dozens of machine-gun-carrying deputies. Miners were beaten and murdered..." (Rorrer, n.d.)...

...The centuries-old stereotype that anyone with an Appalachian accent possesses a "natural stupidity," is still perpetuated by the media. Television shows like "Beverly Hillbillies", "Green Acres" and "Hee Haw" have been described as "the most intensive effort ever exerted by a nation to belittle, demean and otherwise destroy a minority people within its boundaries" (Bower & Growick, 2003). In one night of reruns, hillbillies are shown being conned into buying the White House, cuddling a talking pig, and rising from a corn patch "to cark the sickest jokes on TV..." (Bower & Growick, 2003). ...

These excerpts are only part of the article, which is long, detailed, and well-cited.

 

Sanford Losing To Dem

The Impolitic: Congresswoman Colbert from South Carolina:

Yes I know I keep breaking my ignore the damnable polls rule, but the latest results showing Elizabeth Colbert Busch leading Mark Sanford by 9 points evokes visions of a liberal Democratic Congresscreature from South Carolina in my head. There's something I find deliciously weird and amusing about that...

The Ass Speakth

Courageous Senators Stand Up to American People : The New Yorker:

...Senator McConnell agreed that yesterday’s vote “sent a powerful message,” adding, “If the American people think that just because they voted us into office and pay our salaries, benefits, and pensions, we are somehow obliged to listen to them, they are sorely mistaken.”

Crazier Hole Gets Deeper

Affidavit says Bachmann approved hidden payments to Iowa senator | StarTribune.com:

U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann’s former chief of staff, GOP operative Andy Parrish, stated in a signed affidavit Monday that the Minnesota Republican approved payments made to a top aide who was barred by Iowa Senate ethics rules from accepting money for his work on her presidential campaign...

Rural v. Urban

I could find no mention in this post of the most obvious difference between the two camps: rural v. urban living. Novels can be written about the differences between the two, but ponder this one factor-- the distance in both time and space between you and your neighbors-- and consider the effect it will have on all your attitudes.

Fred Hiatt: The red-state/blue-state divide is worsening - The Washington Post:

 In the week since modest gun control died in the Senate, those of us who don’t think guns make the country safer have been inclined to blame a few cowardly senators whose votes could have shifted the outcome...

About That Corporate Murder

Texas Explosion Seen as Sign of Weak U.S. Oversight - Bloomberg:

...The Texas plant that was the scene of a deadly explosion this week was last inspected by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in 1985. The risk plan it filed with regulators listed no flammable chemicals. And it was cleared to hold many times the ammonium nitrate that was used in the Oklahoma City bombing...

GOPer Murder Threats

GOP newsletter author: ‘We most likely won’t try to kill’ pro-Obamacare Republicans | The Raw Story:

...The author of a county Republican Party newsletter in Arkansas says that he and other conservatives in the state “most likely won’t try to kill” Republican lawmakers who voted to expand Medicaid under President Barack Obama’s health care reform law.

In the April edition of the Republican Party of Benton County Newsletter, Chris Nogy argued that “this betrayal deserves a quick implementation of my 2nd amendment rights to remove a threat.”

“I don’t feel the same way about the Democrats as bullet backstops as I do about the Republicans who joined them,” Nogy wrote. “We need to let those who will come in the future to represent us [know] that we are serious. The 2nd amendment means nothing unless those in power believe you would have no problem simply walking up and shooting them if they got too far out of line and stopped responding as representatives...”

Confluence Of Amendments

Argument over NRA T-shirt gets eighth-grader jailed. Dress code run amok? - CSMonitor.com:

...A student at a West Virginia middle school was suspended and arrested after a confrontation with a teacher over an NRA T-shirt with a picture of a rifle on it. Public schools have some leeway in setting dress codes, the Supreme Court has found...

GOPers Support Pot Legalization

A GOP Bill To End the War on Pot | Mother Jones:

... Like pothead soccer dads in the sitcom Weeds, however, some of the biggest backers of legalization are turning up where you'd least expect them. Take, for example, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, who last week introduced a bill designed to prevent the feds from arresting pot growers and tokers in states where the drug is legal. "This approach is consistent with responsible, constitutional, and conservative governance," the 13-term Congressman from California's ultraconservative Orange County told me...

Poor O

Boston, Gun Control, and the End of Obama’s Honeymoon: What’s Next : The New Yorker:

...Of course, Obama’s predicament isn’t his own fault. Because of the outrageous filibuster, to get almost anything done in the Senate he has to win over four Republicans and keep all the Democrats in line. In the House, the Republicans have a majority of thirty-one votes. Given this arithmetic, anybody who expected great things from Obama’s second term was being delusional. Absent a surprise Democratic sweep in the 2016 midterms, it was always going to be a four-year slog. That’s the way Presidential second terms usually turn out, as Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush all discovered...

GOP Hypocrisy: Part Infinity

Ted Cruz, Bill Flores Asked For Federal Aid After Texas Explosion, But Voted Against Sandy Relief:

 "A pair of Republican lawmakers who voted against federal aid in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy are now looking for federal aid in the wake of the deadly explosion in West, Texas..."

Everyone surprised by this go stand in the corner.

Coultergeist Tweets About Boston Suspect

The Morning Plum: Foes of immigration reform pounce on Boston bombing:

There’s still a lot we don’t know, but it’s being widely reported that the two suspects in the Boston bombing — one of whom has been killed by police — are brothers of Chechen origin. According to law enforcement sources, the brothers entered the U.S. in 2002 or 2003, and at least one of them has been a legal permanent resident since 2007.

Some on the right are already pouncing on the news to cast doubt on the desirability of immigration reform. This morning, Ann Coulter Tweeted:

It’s too bad Suspect # 1 won’t be able to be legalized by Marco Rubio, now...

Atlas Galting

James Moore: Atlas Has Shrugged: West, Texas:

 ...Why the obvious, even more attendant risks were ignored in West, is a more unsettling question. The state issues the permits for nursing homes and it appears there was one virtually across the street from West Fertilizer, in spite of the known dangers of the manufacture of ammonium nitrate. Not far away, a building permit was granted for a small, two story apartment complex. Is this good judgment by state and federal, and even local agencies? It's not like ammonium nitrate fertilizer hasn't been known to detonate in the past. The 1947 explosion in Texas City of a ship carrying the compound killed 500 people and remains the largest industrial disaster in American history. West happened 66 years and one day after Texas City...

The Daily Flashback: Ollie Edition

Fox News Punditry After Boston Marathon - Punditry For Dummies - Esquire:

...Let us begin with Oliver North, the only commenter on national television with actual experience facilitating the sale of advanced weaponry to terrorist states. North's careful study of federal institutional dining should have ended in 1992 or so, but loopholes is loopholes, and presidents with Alzheimer's are presidents with Alzheimer's, so that's the way that goes. He's genuinely concerned that the investigation of the Boston bombings suffered today because the president came to town. This is a guy, remember, who facilitated one sale of advanced weaponry to a terrorist state not long after terrorists with ties to that state blew up a couple hundred of his fellow Marines. Semper Fi, clown...

More NC Craziness

The NC GOP jumps the shark | NC Policy Watch

...The same week the resolution dominated the headlines, Senate Education Committee Chair Jerry Tillman convinced a committee not to require criminal background checks for charter school teachers. The obsession with charters and vouchers to undermine public education is so strong that even children’s safety is apparently not a concern.

A House committee voted to repeal renewable energy standards that more than 80 percent of people in the state support.

Bills were filed to use the state tax code to penalize parents if their children in college have the gall to register and vote in the town where they attend school. The Senate voted to repeal the Racial Justice Act, sending a message that racial bias in the death penalty is not their concern.

Lawmakers approved Governor Pat McCrory’s appointment of a man to the State Board of Education who not only favors voucher schemes but doesn’t seem to think that gay and lesbian students deserve protection from bullying.

McCrory himself held a press conference to announce he was turning over the state Medicaid program that takes care of the most vulnerable people in the state to the profiteers on Wall Street...