Writing for tomorrow, day 96, I’m still pretty pooped, but hope to get some rest today.

Poll Note:

I realized I made a major wording error on out poll. To fix it, I had to restart the poll, so if you already voted, please vote again.

Update:

For the first time, Critter sends greetings to Critter from the outside. He’s a bit overwhelmed, of course, but doing great.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:23 (average 5:06). To do it, click here! How did you do?

Fantasy Football Report:

Here’s the latest in our fantasy football league, after an exciting, but frustrating week. Damn Seachickens!!

Scores:

I bet Patty is Monster Mash twerking right now!! 😉

Standings:

Oh how the mighty have fallen!

Short Takes:

From Robert Reich: One of the most deceptive ideas continuously sounded by the Right (and its fathomless think tanks and media outlets) is that the “free market” is natural and inevitable, existing outside and beyond government. So whatever inequality or insecurity it generates is beyond our control. And whatever ways we might seek to reduce inequality or insecurity — to make the economy work for us — are unwarranted constraints on the market’s freedom, and will inevitably go wrong.

By this view, if some people aren’t paid enough to live on, the market has determined they aren’t worth enough. If others rake in billions, they must be worth it. If millions of Americans remain unemployed or their paychecks are shrinking or they work two or three part-time jobs with no idea what they’ll earn next month or next week, that’s too bad; it’s just the outcome of the market.

According to this logic, government shouldn’t intrude through minimum wages, high taxes on top earners, public spending to get people back to work, regulations on business, or anything else, because the “free market” knows best.

In reality, the “free market” is a bunch of rules about (1) what can be owned and traded (the genome? slaves? nuclear materials? babies? votes?); (2) on what terms (equal access to the internet? the right to organize unions? corporate monopolies? the length of patent protections? ); (3) under what conditions (poisonous drugs? unsafe foods? deceptive Ponzi schemes? uninsured derivatives? dangerous workplaces?) (4) what’s private and what’s public (police? roads? clean air and clean water? healthcare? good schools? parks and playgrounds?); (5) how to pay for what (taxes, user fees, individual pricing?). And so on.

These rules don’t exist in nature; they are human creations. Governments don’t “intrude” on free markets; governments organize and maintain them. Markets aren’t “free” of rules; the rules define them.

Republican rules cause the 1% to get the benefits, and the 99% to pay the costs.

From Blue Oregon: Straight Talk: Oregon republican party chairman Art Robinson

Art Robinson was on KGW’s Straight Talk over the weekend, and I think Laurel Porter is probably still recovering from the post-interview laughing fit she had when it was over because…wow.\\

BARF BAG ALERT!: 24 minutes (or less) of this insane Teabagger is guaranteed to stimulate a projectile visceral response.

From McClatchy DC: Friends say Aaron Alexis [the Navy Yard Shooter] regularly meditated at a local Buddhist temple, was unfailingly courteous and never showed signs of the violence that is now his legacy.

But police reports paint a darker picture of the Fort Worth man, including an anger-fueled "blackout" and shooting in Seattle in 2004 and, more recently, a firearms incident at a Fort Worth apartment, after which a neighbor told police that she was "terrified" of him.

If this guy were white, he’d have been exactly the sort that the Republican Party wants to be able to buy guns without a background check.