LiveBlog for Wednesday, October 14, 2009

wallisRev. Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners, calls in at 6:30am Pacific to talk about the importance of health care reform.

Karl Frisch, Senior Fellow at Media Matters for America, calls in at 7:05am Pacific to co-host “Right Wing World.”

Hal Sparks joins the Mooks in studio in L.A. at 8am Pacific for “Humpdays with Hal.”

sarbanesRep. John Sarbanes (D-MD) calls in at 8:30am Pacific to tell us what’s next in the health care reform process.

Historic legislation to expand U.S. health care and control costs won its first GOP supporter yesterday and cleared a key Senate hurdle. “When history calls, history calls,” said Maine GOP-er Olympia Snowe, whose declaration of support ended weeks of suspense and provided the only drama of a 14-9 vote in the Senate Finance Committee.

• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said yesterday she expects that the House will vote on a health care bill by Thanksgiving and that the House version will have a public plan option.

Rampant government corruption might derail the fight against the Taliban and Al Qaida in Afghanistan, even if as many as 80,000 additional U.S. troops are sent to the war, Gen. Stanley McChrystal has concluded.

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Bye all!

Hey, guys...I've been listening, not blogging. Hope you have a great day!

Great point, Hal, that's what I thought about "mandating" health insurance. If you can't afford car insurance, you can't drive a car. If you can't afford health insurance, do they repo your body?? :evil:

Bye, gang, have a great day!

bye hal, mooks and bloggoes.

Have a great rest of the day, everyone!

Bye all, have a day!

Rebekah, enjoy the RW stingers!

Later?

Another Happy Detroit story: Mom drove 15 year old
to murder 19 year old
http://www.detnews.com/article/20091014/METRO01/91...

#206 Not if Wendy has anything to say about it! ;)

Oh dear, Glen Beck is making animal products now...
http://community.stephaniemiller.com/_Glen-Beck-Pr...

Hi Mooks!

200
Yeah, it was up minutes after the show was done.

Lucky! glad yer OK, kit-cat!

#200: I wonder if Ed is off sick today.

PeterW,

Interesting stuff. I find that kind of thing so fascinating. Thanks!

I gotta get off to my under-employment. Bye eMooks.

Hal has stood-up dates on his page?

#199 Great news, Paul. No Sparta for us to day. But, at least you have Lucky back.

I don't think I want to hear Hal do a "blue" act. I so like his PG version on the radio.

And momma will have a front row seat.

Thanks to Shane-O for putting up the Ed Show video so quickly!

Yay, kitty is on his way home. Never thought I'd be happy to say my cat peed.

Awww, hugs and catnip to Sassy Ward. :)

#193, Mithra was a spin-off of Zoroastrianism. Mithra was an immaculately conceived divinity-made-human, born near the winter solstice, a universal savior, died and was resurrected. His symbols were similar to the cross and the chi-rho. And his cult was very popular in late Rome, and - interestingly - in Tarsus (home of Paul).

The church fathers found the religion sufficiently similar that they felt the need to explain it away. Their apologetics had The Devil anticipating Christianity and thus creating a competing religion that was older than it to make it look more credible.

Could we have saved ourselves a lot of grief by calling this "insurance reform" rather than "health care reform"? Who gets as worked up about insurance?

The conservatives sure are better at framing the debate than we are.

#152: The Harmonicats? Thanks for bringing them up. I'm pretty sure I saw them years ago in a tiny club and they were amazing. Never did catch the name though!

http://www.harmonicats.net

PeterW,

I Googled "Mithraism" -- aka Mystery Religion. That's how I learned it somewhere. Yeah, that surely was an influence on Christianity, too.

PeterW,

"Mithraism" wow! Sounds vaguely familiar -- I'll have to Google it.

The more commonly-cited Hellenistic influences on Christianity are Stoicism and Platonism. I think it is hard to argue against that.

Looks like Schumer is going to abolish the Health Insurance Industry anti-trust exemption in an amendment in the Judiciary Committee. He's confident it will make it into the final bill.

w00t!

PeterW,

Exactly. And I don't mean it in a critical way... I, myself, am quite religious.

Most humans strive for meaning and order in life and, absent of religion, the tend towards conspiracy theories, UFOs, paranormal, etc.

I totally get that... and don't judge it. But, it would probably be helpful to recognize that conspiracy theory is as "true" as any other faith-based system of thinking.

#189, Christianity was more of a variant of Mithraism among Hellenized Jews than a Jewish sect per se.

#155: "Christianity was certainly a Jewish sect … 2000 years ago!

I think it has evolved a little since then."

I don't know about that - some of them don't believe in evolution.

#185 Ah, I get it. And they blame us on the Live Blog for going off on tangents! ;)

#186, it also ties into evolution. There's a much smaller cost to an individual making a connection that isn't there (that rustle in the grass is a predator! OMG! Oh never mind.), than failing to make a connection that is (that rustle is nothing. AAARGH! - nom nom nom). So our brains are programmed to see things that may not be there.

I suspect that Conspiracy Theory is religion.

I don't mean in blind devotion -- I mean that it allows people to give order and meaning to the random and unknown.

183- It started when a caller asked if Hal could come to Dragon Con.
http://dragoncon.org/

Glove slap, baby!

And why are we having this discussion?

Most broadsword-fighting is drawcut. Bleed 'em out.

Chopping is for teh movies.

#171: Oh, and a powerful military that overthrows the elected government on a regular basis, but still can't take full control over parts of its own territory that are ruled by warlords and terrorists?

Stephy's bin showin' off her cooter... pics HERE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudemys

[skates]

171 that is the Rethug Vision for Ahmerica.

Stephie in her elf costume... the Liquor Barn wouldn't sell to her...
had to send Max in the store

What about Brad Pitt brandishing a sword as Achilles in "Troy"? Or (dare I utter it before post #200) King Leonidas in our beloved SPARTA? Say it ain't so, Chris!

Oh, I'm back from my meeting. Yay!

Don't tempt me, Hal.

I've walked the streets of Alexandria, VA with a claymore at my hip and a dirk at my front (and a flintlock pistol on a shoulder strap).

Use of swords and sabers would certainly make conceal-carry a moot issue. How could you conceal it?

Does Chris hate Shakespeare too?

I'm a little with Hal and the costume thing - it's not a hugely secual thing with me either.

Santa costumes, Elf costumes, devil costumes.. especially. So cute.

Hippy Elf Chicks for Hal!

The conclusion of conservative America is Pakistan.

A small handful of billionares and the rest working for the free-market minimum wage (between $1 and $2 a day)

168 Feels like the Rethugs pulled a train on America

149 Hey Madduane! Ch O'SubGenius? atheists mocking religion?
well, yeah. But I still like them. I was just watching the
video Let's Visit The World Of The Future, awailable on the youtubes.

Very Disturbing... but Fun! "Units For Eunuchs"

#151: America: love the trainwreck; hate the train.