(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Cheers and Jeers: Thursday [1] ['Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags', 'Showtags Popular_Tags'] Date: 2023-05-11 Michael Crichton makes an interesting argument about technology in his thriller ``Jurassic Park." He points out that power without discipline is making this society into a wreckage. By the time someone who studies the martial arts becomes a master—literally able to kill with bare hands—that person has also undergone years of training and discipline. But any fool can pick up a gun and kill with it. "A well-regulated militia" surely implies both long training and long discipline. That is the least, the very least, that should be required of those who are permitted to have guns, because a gun is literally the power to kill. Letting the noisy minority in the National Rifle Association force us to allow this carnage to continue is just plain insane. I do think gun nuts have a power hang-up. I don't know what is missing in their psyches that they need to feel they have to power to kill. But no sane society would allow this to continue. Amen. And now, our feature presentation… - Cheers and Jeers for Thursday, May 11, 2023 Note: Major milestone alert. Thirteen years ago today we registered for a Twitter account. 4,768 followers and one buyout by evil billionaire Elmo Muskolini later, we're still posting messages that, when read backwards, reveal our official orders from George Soros. If you'd like to join our exclusive, frequently-merry band of scofflaws—including lots of SQUIRRELS and liveblogging Star Trek reruns most nights from 8-9 via the H&I TV network—until a better platform comes along, feel free to follow us at @BillinPortland. But stay away from the trolls. They’re weird. - By the Numbers: 7 days!!! Days 'til Endangered Species Day: 8 Days 'til Rooster Days in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma: 7 Percent of Americans who say the abortion drug mifepristone, used in the majority of abortions, should remain on the market, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll: 66% Percent who believe it should be banned: 24% Percent who say the decision to have an abortion should be left to a woman and her doctor: 78% Number of TurboTax customers who will receive checks between $30 and $85 as part of a settlement for steering low-income Americans away from free tax filing services: 4.4 million Number of tanks that showed up for Russia Putin Glorious Tank Parade in Red Square on Tuesday: 1 - Puppy Pic of the Day: And the winner is... - CHEERS to little green shoots. Remember that term? Was that a Bush era thing? An Obama era thing? Umm…whatever. Looks like, as far as inflation goes, we got ourselves a few green shoots in the Biden era now: A widely followed measure of inflation rose in April, though the pace of the annual increase provided some hope that the cost of living will head lower later this year. This graphic is such a drama queen. [It] equated to an annual increase of 4.9%, slightly less than the 5% estimate and the lowest annual pace since April 2021. [...] “Today’s reports suggests that the Fed’s campaign to quell inflation is working, albeit more slowly than they would like,” said Quincy Krosby, chief global strategist at LPL Financial. “But for financial markets ... today’s inflation print is a net positive.” Please: irrationally exuberate responsibly. CHEERS to slimy peas in a rotten pod. Two more developments this week in the Republican party's quest to be made up of the worst people on American soil. (Insurrectionists! Fascists! Predatory youth pastors! Economy killers! Supreme Court justices for sale!) First, as you may have heard, the 45th president of the United States was found liable for sexual assault and defamation by a jury of his peers. Price tag for assaulting E. Jean Carroll: $5 million. And yesterday the Justice Department announced that the biggest liar in the House of Representatives (and that's quite a feat) is up to his little fleece vest in trouble: Rep. George Santos, the freshman New York Republican and compulsive liar, has been charged with a host of financial crimes including fraud, money laundering, and theft of public funds in an indictment released Wednesday. Who’s got the cuffs? Santos surrendered himself to authorities in New York Wednesday morning. He is expected to appear in federal court in Central Islip on Long Island later Wednesday. The 13 counts in the indictment include seven counts of wire fraud, some connected to fraudulently taking unemployment benefits; three counts of money laundering; one count of stealing public funds; and two counts of lying to Congress. Not to be outdone, the House Oversight Committee released a memo about Hunter Biden that “does not detail a specific allegation of a crime committed by the family or relative of the president.” Say it with me: “Both sides!” CHEERS to fuzzy math. Well, at least fuzzy mathematicians. Einstein's theory of relativity ("The Foundation of the General Theory of Relativity" to be precise) was presented 105 years ago today in front of the Prussian Academy of Sciences. His later words: "Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That's relativity." Or sit with Marjorie Taylor-Greene for a second and it seems like forever. That’s eternity. - BRIEF SANITY BREAK - x This glimpse into Paris in the 1830s is an example of peepshow or tunnel book, a kind of virtual reality of the time capable of giving the illusion of depth and perspective. [read more: https://t.co/onmiSsy7Cf] [the book: https://t.co/XJBS20GwF1]pic.twitter.com/CxdR2WMPTl — Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) May 9, 2023 - END BRIEF SANITY BREAK - CHEERS to Republican Presidents with a conscience. 116 years ago this week, Teddy Roosevelt spoke at the Governor's Conference on the Conservation of Natural Resources. Seriously—he said this in freaking 1907: "The occasion for the meeting lies in the fact that the natural resources of our country are in danger of exhaustion if we permit the old wasteful methods of exploiting them longer to continue. In the development, the use, and therefore the exhaustion of certain of the natural resources, the progress has been more rapid in the past century and a quarter than during all preceding time of history since the days of primitive man. Roosevelt and John Muir in May, 1903 on “the camping trip that changed the nation.” All these various uses of our natural resources are so closely connected that they should be coordinated, and should be treated as part of one coherent plan and not in haphazard and piecemeal fashion." The House MAGA caucus issued a brief statement this morning to mark the occasion: "Teddy who?" CHEERS to the return of the Jedi. Having slain her shingles, Senator Dianne Feinstein is wading back into the fever swamp of Washington D.C. next week to kick ass and confirm judges: Feinstein issued a statement last week expressing confidence that judicial nominees who have stalled in committee will be confirmed upon her return. She’s back! "While the Senate Judiciary Committee has advanced eight strong nominees during my absence, I’m disappointed that Republicans on the committee are blocking a few from moving forward. I’m confident that when I return to the Senate, we will be able to move the remaining qualified nominees out of committee quickly and to the Senate floor for a vote," the senator said. Her return also heralds the resumption of a time-honored tradition she started a decade ago: towel-snapping Ted Cruz in the senate gym. - Ten years ago in C&J: May 11, 2013 JEERS to coin-tossing your way down the altar. Anyone who lives between Delaware and Minnesota got a case of equality whiplash this week. First Delaware's government approved gay marriage, and before you could shout "Sodom!" in a crowded church, Minnesota's House went and passed their own marriage bill 75-59. The opposition has been tepid, to say the least, but I actually learned something this week from the losing side: [S]aid the Rev. Leonard Klein, a Roman Catholic priest speaking on behalf of the bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington: "When you remove male and female from the definition of marriage, all bets are off," added Klein, who urged lawmakers to show an "appropriate humility" for thousands of years of human experience. Wow—I always knew the church considered marriage a sacred institution, but I never realized they were talking about a casino. Even funnier: in the end their full house of worship got beat by a li'l old pair of queens. - And just one more… CHEERS to magic moments in malodorousness. Anyone who reads C&J regularly, besides having questionable taste in reading material, knows that I go cuckoo for corpse flowers (aka Amorphophallus titanum). And this week, good ol' Stinkypants (aka “Pangy”) opened a can of odorama at the Botanical Gardens at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. There's a method to its malodorousness, according to How Stuff Works: Why does the corpse flower smell so terrible? To attract insects of course. Because Titan Arum plants are located so far apart from one another and bloom so infrequently, they need to attract as much insect attention as possible to ensure pollination. Say hello to Pangy. The corpse flower uses its smell to attract sweat bees and beetles looking for a prime location to lay their eggs. By crawling all over the plant, these insects play a vital role in pollinating the Titan Arum. I was going to compare its ungodly smell to the air around the CNN studios during last night's Trump town hall. But that wouldn’t be fair. To the corpse flower. Have a nice Thursday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today? - Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial The hidden force that shapes everything around us: Cheers and Jeers —Vox - [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/11/2168441/-Cheers-and-Jeers-Thursday Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/