GOP serves only the 1%

This article, which is short and well worth your time, explains the GOP's reason for existing.  Here is an excerpt discussing the inheritance tax that should whet your appetite:

One [wide spread fallacy] is captured by the statement, attributed to John Steinbeck, that in America “the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.” In other words, optimism bias leads people to wildly overestimate the odds that someday they, too, will be in a position to bequeath vast sums to their families.

at someday they, too, will be in a position to bequeath vast sums to their families.

So long little troll

Some time ago my blog got infected with a troll.  He came from a friend's blog, the friend finally having to moderate everyone's comments to spare readers having to read the troll's political screeds and nasty invective.  Losing the forum of my friend's blog, the troll began the identical commenting on my blog. I let it go for a while, but when he started attacking my other readers he crossed the line. I tried deleting his comments, but that only spawned more combative comments.  Clearly he is prepared to keep commenting on my deletions ad infinitum. You all should not have to endure it. So I have set this blog so that I will review all comments before allowing them to be published on my blog. This will not affect all of you; if you comment, I will publish it (unless you are another troll!)  Freedom of expression does not allow someone to crap on my living room rug.

A good laugh to be had ...

Last night Eileen was looking through her email and started laughing at a video someone sent to her.  In a minute or so she was laughing harder and in another minute or so she was roaring.  I asked her to send me the link.  I played it and was soon laughing myself.  The payoff at the end is priceless.  You can check it out right here.

A snowy time ...

We have been up at our Tahoe/Donner house since last Saturday.  It started snowing heavily in the late afternoon and continued through the night and all day on Sunday.  It was a beautiful storm.  Here is a picture I took out of our second-floor bedroom at about 3:00 pm on Sunday. As you can see the storm was still going strong.  Don't forget to click to enlarge.

Monday it began clearing and we have had sunny weather since.  About half of the snow has melted off, but it was still perfect for some snowshoeing up in the woods behind the partially visible house on the left.  We are going back to Alameda tomorrow morning.  I'll get back into more frequent posts once I am home.

Wishful and wistful thinking

 “When politics goes well, we can know a good in common that we cannot know alone.” 
~Michael Sandel, political philosopher