Goodbye to rail station platforms?

For anyone who travels on trains, this sounds like an interesting idea. You always have to step onto a train from a platform somewhere, but if changing trains could be easier, that would be a good thing. Read the rest of this post...

Romney, Gingrich, Santorum drop God from Thanksgiving

Conservatives are criticizing President Obama for not mentioning God in his weekly Internet address, which was about Thanksgiving. The President did, however, mention God in his Thanksgiving Proclamation. Sadly, for Republicans, neither of the top two GOP front runners mentioned God in their Thanksgiving statements. Oops.

ABC News:

Ironically, the attacks on Obama came as the Republican White House hopefuls suspended their criticism of the president on Thursday in favor of a unified message of thanks to U.S. service members and their families.

Three of the Republican presidential candidates – Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum – issued Thanksgiving statements that omitted any references to God. Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain and Rick Perry mentioned God in their statements.

They really have nothing else to run on than garbage like this. Fine, then let Romney and Gingrich (and God's best friend forever, and he won't let you forget it, Rick Santorum) explain why they took God out of Thanksgiving. Read the rest of this post...

LA 'shopping rage' leads to pepper spraying incident

It wouldn't be a Black Friday without something like this. What is the matter with people?

But not all went smoothly. Ten minutes after the Wal-Mart in Porter Ranch opened, a female customer used pepper spray on other shoppers at the Black Friday sale, injuring at least seven people and forcing employees to evacuate a portion of the store, police said.

"This was customer-versus-customer 'shopping rage,'" said Los Angeles Police Lt. Abel Parga. He said one shopper was taken to a hospital after complaining of difficulty breathing.

Police officers, he said, were seeking a female suspect following the attack. Fire officials said they were treating about 20 people suffering minor injuries at the store, which is located on Rinaldi Street near Corbin Avenue.

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Friday dog blogging

Fortunately, my parents' dog, a bichon-maltese names Kukla, gets along famously with my dog, a yorkie-bichon named Sasha. Every time I visit, their day is spent running around the house after each other, and sleeping (nearby each other).

Sasha's Catholic choir boy (choir girl?) photo

Kukla's glamor shot

Sasha's Ninja shot, pouncing on Kukla

Sasha goes for the kill

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Should anyone in Congress be allowed to speak to a citizen like this?

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Even for Congress, this is excessively arrogant. There is no reason anyone should be spoken to so rudely, especially by a member of Congress. Whoever it was that warned the professor during the exchange is also a rude jerk because Douglas Brinkley is 100% right that Congress doesn't own him and that they work for him. Unfortunately the pompous-asses of Washington fail to get that point. I don't give a damn what the rules are, you simply do not speak to someone like that, ever. Good for Brinkley for pointing that out and shame on Congress for their behavior. Read more of the details here.

Since Congress has yet another break coming up soon, maybe they can all do some shopping now and find a book to read over the break. This one looks like a good fit. Read the rest of this post...

Occupy Christmas and buy nothing today? Not this year.

I appreciate the sentiment.  Yes, Christmas has become too commercial.  We all agree.  This, however, is the wrong year to be telling people not to shop.  We need people shopping, a lot,  or we're going to be in this economic rut for many years to come.

Now, as for taking the Occupy Wall Street movement and making it about Christmas and consumerism.  Maybe.  I'm really divided about making OccupyWall Street an omnibus protests for [insert cause here].  At some point it starts to feel very "Free Mumia Jamal" to me (the way practically every single liberal march in the 1990s just had to have a contingent of people carrying "Free Mumia Jamal" signs, even though that cause had nothing to do with the march in question).  Sometimes, even were the ancillary cause just, it comes off as a bit weird invoking it in an entirely unrelated march (e.g., carrying "global warming" signs at a "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" rally).

Occupy Wall Street is doing pretty good on its own.  Don't ruin things.  And in any case, we seriously need to people to shop - consumer spending makes up a huge percentage of the economy (70%).  I'm sorry, but the last thing we need right now is for people to cut back even further.  That's what the Republicans are proposing, and they're wrong. Read the rest of this post...

Syrian tanks bomb rebels as deadline approaches

While the deadline for sanctions is nearing, Assad's troops continue to fight back against the rebels, including military defectors. Neither side is showing signs of backing down though the momentum has to be with the rebels who continue to grow and to fight despite repression by Assad's goons. The Guardian:

In Cairo, the Arab League gave President Bashar al-Assad another 24 hours to accept observers to monitor the violence or face economic sanctions, generating criticism that the pan-Arab organisation was being too slow and too lenient after suspending Syria last week.

Five of the latest victims were killed in Homs, according to the opposition network of local co-ordination committees. Demonstrators were out in the Baba Amr district of the city on Thursday night, calling for the overthrow of the regime.

Security personnel snatched the body of one young man, Sarhan Tarek, who was killed by their gunfire, the LCC said.

The Syrian Revolution General Commission said it had counted 24 dead, including a woman and a child, by nightfall.

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