“I reprobate the phrase of parent or mother country applied to England only, as being false, selfish, narrow and ungenerous.” – Thomas Paine

“Not less than 3/5 of the congress to be called a majority. He that will promote discord…would join Lucifer in his revolt.” -Thomas Paine

To be fair, 1000 pages is very long compared to the Republican Heath Care Plan : “If you’re poor, don’t get sick”.

If Republicans hadn’t wasted their month-long vacation complaining about the length of 1000-page bills, they could have read them instead.

We’ve got a poorly-regulated economy that’s stuck in an endless boom-bust cycle, which means we spend a majority of our time either in an economic downturn or slowly coming out of one.

We’ve also got a political system that’s so fractured by partisan rancor that it’s impossible to get anything meaningful done in an even-numbered year due to the overwhelming pressures of midterm and presidential elections.

Something to keep in mind when you hear “sensible” Democrats like Joe Lieberman say things like “I’m afraid we’ve got to think about putting a lot of that off until the economy is out of recession.” If not now, when?

If you want a good price on the Beatles Remastered box sets, I saved over $200 going to aaa.com/barnesandnoble w/ coupon code AAASUMMER9.

Birthers want to see the President’s wiener. Next up : Throw Obama in the ocean. If he floats, he’s a secret Muslim. http://bit.ly/2vRmkM

I wish people understood the difference between “the public interest” and “stuff the public is interested in”. It’s not just semantic.

If anyone ever asks “Would you like to be stranded in Primm, Nevada?”, tell them “No thank you.”

I think there’s a strong possibility the buffet at the Golden Nugget doesn’t really have “a dash of elegance”.

David Kurtz at TPM found this revealing bit from a Politico article on health care :

And this week, he returned to an argument Democratic strategists said shouldn’t be part of the pitch this year — trying to convince Americans they have a “moral obligation” to help people without insurance, a discredited argument from the reform effort under President Bill Clinton.

Yes, if the failure to achieve healthcare reform in 1993 taught us anything, it’s that there’s nothing wrong with letting people die because they’re too poor to go to the doctor. Thanks, Politico!

A 2-point approval drop to 57% for Obama isn’t a dramatic setback when confidence in the GOP still hovers around 20%. http://bit.ly/2iWdZv

Comedian 1) Have you ever noticed gay people are like…?

Comedian 2) Have you ever noticed Asian people are like…? “Have you ever noticed black women never date asian men?” Uses this as an excuse to break out an offensive “Yo yo yo…” African-American imitation.

Comedian 3) Started slightly funnier. Best joke : “It’s okay for me to make an abortion joke. I was half-aborted” Descended into “white guy talks about rap” cliches. Would be more offensive if it wasn’t following (2).

Comedian 4) Just what (1) was missing…a British accent. Using too many “funny” voices. Mentions being Persian so he can tell five minutes of “Persians are covered in hair” jokes. And therapy jokes? Really?

Comedian 5) Tired “it’s hard to be a single girl in the big city” jokes and an extended porn story that was sorta funny. Best delivery of the night, but that’s not saying much.

Comedian 6) Joke about blowing a cop to avoid a ticket that drags on forever. A million little jokes that were so groan-worthy they make Laffy Taffy seem like George Carlin in comparison.

Lifetime broadcast Project Runway in faux-HD stretch-o-vision. Yuck. Squishing 4:3 into 16:9 makes everything look like crap.

Strict constructivism, like compassionate conservatism, is a myth.