Labyrinthine Library

21 notes

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) said just hours after a major tornado ravaged his state that he would use the federal relief funds as a cudgel to force Democrats into accepting more spending cuts to programs like Social Security and Medicare.

The death toll in Oklahoma as of Tuesday morning stood at 24, seven of them children, according to revised figures from the state’s medical examiner’s office. Earlier death reports included much higher numbers, but officials later said that some of the victims were counted twice amid Monday’s chaos. Local hospitals took in hundreds of people injured by flying debris as well, including 70 children. Authorities in Moore, Oklahoma have said they expect the death toll to rise.

The Oklahoma Republican revealed his plans Monday night, speaking to a reporter for CQ.com, a subscription-only service. CQ’s public-facing side reported on the comments later that night, saying Coburn will “absolutely” demand spending cuts to offset his state’s need for federal aid after Monday’s devastating tornadoes.

3,910 notes

The Oxford English Dictionary accepts both pronunciations. They are wrong. It is a soft ‘G,’ pronounced ‘jif.’ End of story.

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We stand helpless before the corporate onslaught. There is no way to vote against corporate power. Citizens have no way to bring about the prosecution of Wall Street bankers and financiers for fraud, military and intelligence officials for torture and war crimes, or security and surveillance officers for human rights abuses. The Federal Reserve is reduced to printing money for banks and financiers and lending it to them at almost zero percent interest; corporate officers then lend it to us at usurious rates as high as 30 percent. I do not know what to call this system. It is certainly not capitalism. Extortion might be a better word. The fossil fuel industry, meanwhile, relentlessly trashes the ecosystem for profit. The melting of 40 percent of the summer Arctic sea ice is, to corporations, a business opportunity. Companies rush to the Arctic and extract the last vestiges of oil, natural gas, minerals and fish stocks, indifferent to the death pangs of the planet. The same corporate forces that give us endless soap operas that pass for news, from the latest court proceedings surrounding O.J. Simpson to the tawdry details of the Jodi Arias murder trial, also give us atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide that surpass 400 parts per million. They entrance us with their electronic hallucinations as we waiver, as paralyzed with fear as Odysseus’ sailors, between Scylla and Charybdis.