Summertime, Summertime, Sum-Sum-Summertime, Summertiiiiiiiime!

• Southern Beale on the lies about the Canadian health system, with graphic.
  

  Robert Stein had a really good post up yesterday about this tendency for Republicans to just make shit up, be it making Paul Revere’s famed ride about gun rights and bell-ringing or making specious claims about Canada’s excellent healthcare system. It’s part of a general tendency towards dumbing down American politics, he says. Mainlining stupidity is a two-pronged process, he observes: first Republicans demonize knowledge and expertise or those with knowledge and expertise, then they replace it with misinformation. And then suddenly Republicans have one set of facts, Democrats have another, and nothing ever gets done because we can’t even agree on the problems let alone find solutions.

• Genetically modified food crops.
• Terrance (Republic of T) on the Bush tax cuts, ten years down the road.

  GOP leadership constant tells Americans that “We’re broke” in one breath, and in the next rule out any discussion or letting the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy expire, let alone rescinding the cuts altogether. The extension of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy is now one of the major roadblocks in long-term budget talks.

• In memoriam:  Lilian Jackson Braun.  (The Cat Who... mysteries.)
• And it looks like Blogger might be having a problem...