On the same day a freight railway bridge in Texas burns down, which will cost an estimated $10m to rebuild.

But hey, nothing wrong with our transport infrastructure or anything.

["automatically" punish family members of people who violate U.S. sanctions against Iran, levying sentences of up to 20 years in prison.]

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) on Wednesday offered legislative language that would "automatically" punish family members of people who violate U.S. sanctions against Iran, levying sentences of up to 20 years in prison.

The provision was introduced as an amendment to the Nuclear Iran Prevention Act of 2013, which lays out strong penalties for people who violate human rights, engage in censorship, or commit other abuses associated with the Iranian government.

Cotton also seeks to punish any family member of those people, "to include a spouse and any relative to the third degree," including, "parents, children, aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces, grandparents, great grandparents, grandkids, great grandkids," Cotton said.

"There would be no investigation," Cotton said during Wednesday's markup hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "If the prime malefactor of the family is identified as on the list for sanctions, then everyone within their family would automatically come within the sanctions regime as well. It'd be very hard to demonstrate and investigate to conclusive proof."

...

Family members of people suspected to be political dissidents in North Korea frequently disappear or are punished by the North Korean government.

Fortunately, since Article III of the Constitution explicitly bans guilt by familial association, and the Fifth Amendment bans guilt without due process, Cotton sheepishly withdrew the amendment.

Sometimes I wonder if these Republicans in Congress do these things purely for satirical comedy value.

I just learned that the only dog left in the world who was older than myself died last week. 

The number of Americans who view the Republican Party unfavorably has hit a record high, according to a new poll released by CNN on Monday, despite scandals that have plagued the White House over the past few weeks.

The poll found that 59 percent of respondents view the GOP unfavorably, a record that has only shown up one other time in the poll's results since tracking began in 1992.

The Republican Party's net favorability ratings are down 8 points in the past two months. The amount of respondents viewing the GOP favorably fell from 38 percent to 35 percent, while the number of people who view the party unfavorably climbed five points, up from 54 percent in March.

The only other time the party's favorability ratings have been this low came in the aftermath of the summer 2011 fight over raising the nation's debt ceiling.

Obama has declared the region a severe disaster area.

Insert obligatory punchline here.

click for context

Why don't they unite?

LEX-ing-tuhn

I was never very good at geography of the state adjacent to the one I grew up in.

I'm sure he means well, but his comments are frequently disastrous.

Didn't everyone think he was gay until he got married?

They still do.  Beards don't fool many people any more.

(I guess I've been taken off of "The List")

i can confirm this

I'm still waiting for Obama to congratulate Phil.

Our silly 'copyright infringement' policy requires that I clumsily chop up this article for you.  I'd recommend reading the rest of it; it's an interesting hypothesis.

Candida Moss, a professor of early Christianity at the University of Notre Dame and a practicing Catholic, wants to shatter what she calls the “myth” of martyrdom in the Christian faith.

Sunday school tales of early Christians being rounded up at their secret catacomb meetings and thrown to the lions by evil Romans are mere fairy tales, Moss writes in a new book. In fact, in the first 250 years of Christianity, Romans mostly regarded the religion's practitioners as meddlesome members of a superstitious cult.

The government actively persecuted Christians for only about 10 years, Moss suggests, and even then intermittently. And, she says, many of the best known early stories of brave Christian martyrs were entirely fabricated.

...

Historians, including Moss, say only a handful of martyrdom stories from the first 300 years of Christianity—which includes the reign of the cruel, Christian-loathing Nero—are verifiable. (Saint Perpetua of Carthage is one of the six famous early Christian martyrs Moss believes was actually killed for her faith.)

Moss contends that when Christians were executed, it was often not because of their religious beliefs but because they wouldn't follow Roman rules. Many laws that led to early Christians’ execution were not specifically targeted at them—such as a law requiring all Roman citizens to engage in a public sacrifice to the gods—but their refusal to observe those laws and other mores of Roman society led to their deaths.

Moss calls early Christians “rude, subversive and disrespectful,” noting that they refused to swear oaths, join the military or participate in any other part of Roman society.

Yeah, she'll probably troll us for a little bit in an attempt to stay relevant just a little bit longer, and then announce that she'll pass.

I made him an avatar, but he doesn't use it. 

Though even if he knew how to, he'd probably be scared of what color it should be.

Out of interest, who are our Norwegian and Chilean posters?

Go.

uh.  bushie?  do you understand the point of insurance?

it is someone in your situation that *needs* insurance.  what would happen if you had to spend just one night in the hospital?  granny's bank account would take a big hit.

I don't know if you already knew this, but Bushie currently gets free medical care from the local Indian community, on account of his own deep (1/32) heritage.

Indian communities are notoriously wealthy in resources, so it's all okay.

That was probably just the limit for how close Ashleigh Banfield and the woman across the street were willing to get to Nancy Grace.

The look on Banfield's face shows it was enough of a struggle as it was.

Unemployment sure is exhausting!

[Nancy Grace and Ashleigh Banfield Hold Split-Screen Interview in Same Parking Lot]

Nancy Grace and Ashleigh Banfield Hold Split-Screen Interview in Same Parking Lot

In a bizarre television and spatial anomaly on CNN this morning, the blanket coverage of two true-crime stories led two news anchors to conduct an odd "satellite" interview from the very same parking lot, background traffic and all.



It seems that Grace and Banfield are sitting in the same parking lot, facing in the same direction, and judging by the speed of the vehicles in their shots, they cannot be sitting more than 30 feet away from each other. Yet, they're behaving as if the are on opposite sides of the world.

...

Later, Banfield would conduct another interview (this time about Arias) with another Headline News host who was in a different location than Grace, but still in the same parking lot; plus a third HLN regular somewhere else in the Phoenix area. (Also, outdoors and presumably close by.) And don't forget the CNN reporter who is standing across the street from her, waiting in front of the courthouse. A four-headed interview with four people in the exact same city covering the exact same story on at least three different programs on two different networks owned by the same company. So much for corporate synergy.

Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City

1. Will Rogers died in a plane crash.
2. This airport is the only one to have 'World' in its name rather than the more customary 'International'.
3. You cannot fly to any international destinations from this World Airport.

loloklahoma

I don't know who Leif is, but he sounds like a real scoundrel.

hello

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!!!!!!  How utterly hilarious!!!!!!!!!!!

it wasn't quite that funny.

......

I don't know who Leif is, but he sounds like a real scoundrel.

hello

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!!!!!!  How utterly hilarious!!!!!!!!!!!

NJ ought to be VERY embarrassed by this. You listening, governor?

NJ and PA are now the only states in the Northeast who are hold outs.

Delaware is South.

lolnope

Once again,

According to the color scheme on that map, Delaware is apparently a Western state.

Flipped his sh[inks] at me once, when I mentioned in passing that an ID is required for most credit card purchases here.  He went ballistic at me for reasons that made sense only to him.

Other than the misogyny, that's the first thing I think of about him.