2015 status updates
In reverse chronological order
Dec 31, 2015, 1:33 PM
The first word I say every year is “happy” and the last is “one”
- from reddit’s “Shower Thoughts”
Dec 17, 2015, 3:38 PM
I’ve said for years: Deficits only matter to Republicans when a Democrat is spending. When Republicans have something they want to do, full speed ahead!
Here’s an article that makes my points for me:
Despite all their talk about what we’re handing to the next generation and how government should balance its books, when it comes down to actually making choices, Republicans are no more concerned about deficits than Democrats are. Crying about the deficit is a tool they use to constrain policies they don’t like.
Consider that the biggest Democratic policy initiative in recent years was the Affordable Care Act, which was completely paid for through taxes and budget cuts within Medicare. The ACA not only didn’t increase the deficit, it decreased it. The biggest Republican policy initiatives in recent years, on the other hand, were the Bush tax cuts and the Iraq War. The former cost somewhere between $2 trillion and $3 trillion, while the latter cost around $2 trillion. There was no attempt to pay for either one, meaning the cost was just added to the deficit.
In the last forty years, Presidents Obama and Clinton reduced the deficit as a proportion of GDP, President Carter kept it almost exactly where it was, and Presidents Bush the Younger, Bush the Elder, and Reagan increased the deficit. Notice a pattern?
And all the Republicans running for president have tax plans that would send the deficit into the stratosphere. They wave away the consequences by saying that they’ll come up with some package of (yet unspecified) budget cuts, or even better, that despite all historical evidence, this time cutting taxes will lead to such an explosion of economic growth that the deficit will actually fall (this is known as a belief in the “Tax Fairy”). But the truth is that they just want to cut taxes, and if one of them becomes president, that’s what he’ll do. And nobody on the Republican side will care what it does to the deficit.
Nov 10, 2015, 1:26 PM
Stunned to hear the news of Allen Toussaint’s passing. He was nothing less than the living embodiment of New Orleans music.
Once, back in my Howl At The Moon days, he appeared in the room while I was on stage. Clearly on his way from one place to another, he stopped for a few minutes to listen to the music. I was thrilled by his presence and humbled by his attention.
Oct 4, 2015, 1:36 PM
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2015/10/stats-for-days.html
More people have been killed in American gun deaths since 1989 (836,290) than in all of America’s wars since 1776 combined (656,397).
“We have met the enemy and he is us.” - Walt Kelly’s Pogo
Sep 29, 2015, 5:56 PM
The GOP is really the party of “free stuff,” it’s just that they give their free stuff to wealthy people. For example, George W. Bush’s tax cuts were skewed towards the wealthy — over 73 percent of the benefits went to the top income quintile, and fully 30 percent to 1 percenters alone. (And Trump’s just released tax plan is more of the same.)
Aug 24, 2015, 1:06 PM
We go to lunch with Darrell and Glen every Tuesday, and at least 50% of the time we eat at Nine Roses in Gretna. Well, we were captured for posterity.
Congratulations to our favorite Vietnamese/Chinese place for winning “Best West Bank Restaurant” in the latest issue of the Gambit.
Aug 11, 2015, 3:55 PM
“Miss Delores” Ledet, my first keyboard teacher, has passed away.
She was the first one to unlock the mysteries of the keyboard for me. I loved learning from her. She got such joy from playing music and that joy was evident in her performances and written all over her face as she played.
Not only that, but she was my Mom’s best friend. I recall countless hours of her and my Mom drinking coffee, chatting and laughing, and I hope they are somewhere splitting a pot of Community coffee right now.
Here’s a picture from my first and only organ recital in 1979 (I was age 12). I played “Over The Rainbow” and “Somewhere My Love (Love Theme from Doctor Zhivago).”
Aug 5, 2015, 2:09 PM
“What’s in your kitchen cabinets? Pots and pans and handheld graters and hateful trash that’s preventing you from calling your estranged sister. Throw them all away. Replace them with a single sunflower seed.”
“Free all of the old lovers you’ve kept shackled in the crawlspace at the back of your closet. Let them take any pairs of shoes you haven’t worn in the last calendar year with them.”
http://the-toast.net/2015/02/24/get-rid-clutter-live-abundantly/
Jun 26, 2015, 1:09 PM
Same-Sex Marriage Legal Decision at SCOTUS
May 21, 2015, 4:28 PM 
Our beloved dog “Sister” passed away this morning. (She was hit by a truck while Ed was distracted with corralling Sprout, who had gotten off his leash.) She was 10 years old this month, and was the sweetest little thing. We are having her cremated. We loved her so much, I can’t even tell you. Our hearts are broken.
Mar 14, 2015, 3:07 PM
Look Like Dis
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