POWIP Piece of Work In Progress

Marco Polo on Islam & Other Morning Reading

1400 years of Islamophobia. It's just awful.

Let's amuse him big time in November.

Psychological therapy follows literary criticism and sociology into the brave new world of secular religiosity:

I often get books on psychology sent to me by publishers, and the other day I received Jeffrey Kottler’s On Being a Therapist. The book is now in its fourth edition, and this latest edition “puts the spotlight on the therapist’s role and responsibility to promote issues of diversity, social justice, human rights, and systemic changes within the community and the world at large.”

Whoa: I thought the therapist’s role was to increase the client’s well-being and treat mental illness.

It used to be that therapists just saw clients and sent them a bill. Now — perhaps because the “sending them a bill” part has gotten more difficult in these days of managed care and public skepticism about the profession — they are transforming themselves into superhuman beings who think they can save the entire world. Therapists may have been narcissistic before, but it takes a special kind of narcissism to see one’s own self as a world-saver.

Onward, psychic soldiers.

More Bad Science.

Tater rustlers.

Scientists developing a computer that will demand your full attention when you're trying to get some work done on your cat.

Always read the fine print.

Hahahahaaaaaa. Joan Walsh on the "elitism" and racism of Tea Partiers. Considering that fully 96% of black Americans voted for Obama, that's pretty good, and might have something to do with the way they answered the questions. Whether a pollster would even think to ask similar questions regarding Tea Partiers of liberal protesters is another matter, of course. Strangely, as well, the media showed no interest in the Second Vermont Republic movement during the Bush years. Context is everything (when interpreted by a leftist), especially when it involves tenor. By his timbre, I suggest he might want to stick to music criticism, because sometimes perception is just perception, it seems. Legitimate perception is the property of the left, people, because it is imbued with the self-perceived virtue of the truly virtuous.

Part of the hypocrisy that she sees here is that many Tea Partiers are on Medicaid and Medicare. Hello: many of them are retirees who've paid into those systems all their lives. Would they have preferred to have health savings accounts? They weren't given the option. This is similar to the argument that congresspeople who opposed the stimulus should not have asked for any earmarks for their districts, which is to say, all the loot should have gone to Democrats, even though it's paid for by everybody. On the whole, it's simply outrageous that people who have ample leisure should be involved in politics . . . you know, like college students.

C'mon, any resistance to government expansion is de facto racist. At least Greenwalds are consistent.

Congressman King is apparently responsible for a Marx-quoting nutball flying a plane into an IRS office, but don't expect Joanie Baloney to cover this.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Prayers for Ric Locke and his wife Bobbe [UPDATE, Dan]

A long time friend of some of the authors and readers here at POWIP, Ric Locke, is in need of our support and prayers.  This morning, at around 7:30 am, eastern, his wife Bobbe passed out and was not responding.  The last I heard he was calling 911.

This evening, at around 9 pm, eastern, he checked back in over at Protein Wisdom and filled us in further,  It turns out that Bobbe had suffered a stroke and was in the nuero-ICU at their regional hospital.  Ric said the effect was similar to a lobotomy, and he was understandably distraught.

Ric is a fine, erudite,  man who has suffered economically during the recession of the last two years like many others.  Any among us who can afford it should really visit his site and make whatever donation possible-Ric could use it and certainly would appreciate it right now.  And I would also ask that all the religious among our readers include Ric and Bobbe in their petitions, prayers, and intentions.

May God bless and keep Ric and Bobbe.  And may He heal her affliction, either by His direct interventions, or through the graces of wisdom and skill He bestows on her physicians and other caregivers, and may He grace Ric with the strength to weather this time of trial.  We know Lord that by Your stripes we're healed, and ask that Your will be done.

Amen

UPDATE: There's little I can add to Rocketman's prayer, but I'd like to say that Ric is one of the smartest people on the web. He's a systems analyst at heart, with a penetrating intellect that gets at the how of things. He's also a man: he plans on going to his crap job today.

If readership were a sole function of deserving, he'd be one of the best-known writers on the web. As it is, the least we can do is to let him know that here, at least, we recognize his virtues as a thinker and as a person, and he is in our thoughts and prayers.

We believe that there is a greater Witness to his struggles, and that they are not meaningless. That said, our tokens of appreciation are an extension of the Love that moves us all. Be effusive in your blessings, please.

Rocketman

Left-Wing Thug Ringleader Sought in Ambush of Butsch

From BigGovernment.com

Police are looking for a Caucasian male who appeared to be dirty with auburn color hair in a pony tail. He was wearing a light color T shirt and dark color pants. Up to 5 men beat the couple after they left the GOP event on Friday night.

Meanwhile, Chuck Johnson... Busier than a one-armed paper hanger one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest

No mention of the perpetrator sporting "mandels" or "moobs."

Enoch_Root

AKA. Bobby Donn Brubaker (the most popular man in Mesa, AZ), the Umbrella of Terror, Jack Ketch.

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Cuomo Makes Obama Aide Pay $7 Million Fine

Don Surber:

Obama aide pays $7 million fine

Isn’t this cute, a scourge of capitalism was found handing out kickbacks for state work.

From the Associated Press: “An investment firm founded by former Obama auto industry adviser Steven Rattner has agreed to pay $7 million to resolve allegations that it paid kickbacks while trying to drum up business from New York’s government pension fund.”

What, Rattner couldn’t get Rahm to press Democratic state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to drop charges?

The White House is slipping. Its people are supposed to be above the law.

Pensions, autos . . . whatever. Will they be pressing any criminal charges, or is it merely, y'know, unethical?

Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) also slapped with subpoena.

Obamas made $5.5 million in income last year, mostly on sales of a book that Barack didn't write, but Palin shoud be ashamed of herself.

More hip music: Over Night Low, "The Witch Doctor"

Anita MonCrief: Democracy Alliance and ACORN affiliated group wins Pulitzer Prize with the New York Times

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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President B+ Lauds His Own Humility

You could make this stuff up, I suppose, but what would be the point? Mind blowing.

Glenn Reynolds is old. Heh.

Renegers.

Hey, maybe we could get Joan Walsh to respond to this.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Yet He Wants To Be Able To Read Your Emails Without a Warrant

Just a reminder:

Besides Obama's actual birth documentation, the still-concealed documentation for him includes kindergarten records, Punahou school records, Occidental College records, Columbia University records, Columbia thesis, Harvard Law School records, Harvard Law Review articles, scholarly articles from the University of Chicago, passport, medical records, his files from his years as an Illinois state senator, his Illinois State Bar Association records, any baptism records, and his adoption records.

[Emphasis mine]

Oh, that warrantless access to emails thing? Change! Transparency! O!

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Shhh! Be Vewy Quiet . . .

we'we hunting wewigions!

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Blago: Change to Win

Change Teh Won:

During one recorded phone call in November 2008, Blagojevich told his wife she might be able to become national director of the labor organization Change to Win.

When Patti Blagojevich was having trouble finding salary information for the group on the Internet, Blagojevich told her not to worry, prosecutors said.

" You negotiate that," the government quoted Blagojevich as saying. "I'd like a four-year contract for a million a year or somethin' ... or 750 or whatever. It'd have to be good. Obama's got excess money, he just gives them more money."

In another call, on Nov. 10, Blagojevich discussed with "a variety of individuals" what he might get for the Senate seat, including possibly having Patti Blagojevich named to corporate boards, the proffer stated.

Advisers suggested Blagojevich make an appointment and wait to be rewarded later. The governor's wife disagreed, according to the account in the proffer.

"I don't think you live your life hoping that somebody is gonna help you down the line," she said.

"Yeah," the governor responded.

"That's a bunch of baloney," she replied.

As you may recall, a union training facility went up on the west side of the property developed by Cal Boender and his partners. Funny how that works.

You know that $10k a plate Rethuglican fundraiser at Brennan's in NOLA, after which a young couple was badly beaten? That was outrageous, given the economy. When Gloria Estefan and her husband host a $30k fundraiser for "progressive" causes, though, that's all right.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Foreclosures Jump to 5-Year High, Ash Clouds [UPDATED]

A record number of U.S. homes were lost to foreclosure in the first three months of this year, a sign banks are starting to wade through the backlog of troubled home loans at a faster pace, according to a new report.

RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday that the number of U.S. homes taken over by banks jumped 35 percent in the first quarter from a year ago. In addition, households facing foreclosure grew 16 percent in the same period and 7 percent from the last three months of 2009.

More homes were taken over by banks and scheduled for a foreclosure sale than in any quarter going back to at least January 2005, when RealtyTrac began reporting the data, the firm said.

So, in fact, the repossession rate is likely much higher than it has been for much longer than five years. That $75 billion in bailouts for homeowners: wonder where it went.

At least they've cut taxes:

Larry Kudlow anticipates a "v-shaped" rebound, but I'll believe it when I see it.

Not completely unrelated would be the combination of a solar minimum with volcanic ash clouds from Iceland, which may presage another cold, rainy summer.

UPDATE: Another 369k in March alone.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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