Weekend Update 10-01-2011

I’m sick of the ridiculous war the GOP is waging on public employees. And it’s disheartening that so many Americans actually seem to accept their blatant class warfare and open attacks on the fabric of American society. This column does a good job deconstructing their attacks. The last paragraph is right on target. If Republicans had even the slightest degree of logical consistency, they would be running on an open platform that soldiers (and policemen and firemen and school teacher and …) should “get real jobs”. They don’t put it in those explicit terms because they know they would be thrown out of office. But that is what their rhetoric means when you peel back the veneer. Have we reached such a level of general public ignorance that Americans can’t even do the simplest logical analysis of rhetoric anymore?

A particularly interesting response in these two polls on American opinions about the food industry is the one that found that 42% said the U.S. is “on the wrong track in the way we produce food,” and only 39% said we are heading in the right direction.

For those who think the US is post-racist. You’re lying to yourself.

The modern tomato and slavery.

This is a humorous look at denominational claims.

Ah those job-crushing government regulations. Of course, as we’ve already seen, facts have no impact or traction with the current version of the GOP. They appear immune to them as they’ve become the party of unreality. I don’t expect anything different with this.

Who’s behind the US Farmers & Ranchers Alliance and why it matters. BTW, if you still haven’t watched Food, Inc. you really should. It’s on Netflix streaming the last time I looked and it’s available free to Amazon Prime members in their streaming movies section.

I really like the Hold the Gluten podcast. I’m glad it’s back.

The Moral Question. Republicans have posed the deepest moral question of any society: whether we’re all in it together. Their answer is we’re not.