Daily Blend: Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Yes, that is as unappealing as it looks

♪On the last day of June,♪
♪My PC said to me:♪
♪“Get me a goddamned AV!”♪

• In case you weren’t dying fast enough [pictured].
  (via The Agitator)

• Julian Sanchez at The Atlantic writes about Dave Weigel’s ridiculous and unjust termination from the Washington Post.
  (via Dispatches From the Culture Wars)

• US Senate nominee Sharron Angle (R-Nevada) says that abortions should never be allowed under any circumstances, and that cases of incest or rape are excusable because “God has a plan”. Note to Angle and other Christofascists: Again, just because your beliefs don’t allow you to have an abortion does NOT give you the right to restrict what others can do with their own bodies.

• Nixon on abortion: “There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white, or a rape.” Reagan on Nixon firing the man leading the investigation into his Watergate crimes: “[it was] probably the best thing that ever happened”. What jolly good men.
  (via Dispatches From the Culture Wars)

• China rewrites the history of the Korean War – and finally pins the blame on their close ally, North Korea.
  (via The Daily Grail)

• Ancient Romans had no effective contraception method, so instead of birth control, they chose life control – or slaughtering prostitutes’ babies and hiding the remains. Okay, I cringed.
  (via The Daily Grail)

• And now I think I should listen to my local radio stations more often if this is the sort of stuff I miss.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• New York lawmakers plan to ban homeowners and renters from subletting out beds and/or rooms for less than a month. ’Course, next step is to install cameras and retinal scans in every house and apartment to make sure no-one is allowed to voluntarily exchanged goods and services without some suit knowing about it.
  (via The Agitator)

• Jean diapers. Goddammit, world.
  (via The Agitator)

• Probably the most insultingly stupid article on supposed racism in Hollywood I’ve ever skimmed (I refuse to endure reading through the whole thing). “OMG, White dude plays an Arab in Prince of Persia – that’s RACIST!!” “OMGGG, Indian guy plays the villain in The Last Airbender – RACISM!!!11!” … More like get a fucking sense of perspective. White actors playing roles of other ethnic origins is not racism. It’s fucking irrelevant. I couldn’t possibly care less about an actor’s skin color, unless it’s specifically important – which, in TLA, it is.
  (via @ebertchicago)

As always, if you have any story suggestions, feel free to send them in.

There’s “a wild ride”, and then there’s …

… this possibly NSFW video.

As they say, choose your studs wisely, ladies.

(via Diaphanitas)

The Copenhagen Declaration on Religion in Public Life

As you may have heard, there was a large gathering of godless folks in Copenhagen, Denmark, on June 18–20. Sponsored by the Atheist Alliance International, the Gods & Politics conference attracted such speakers as all-around atheist god (har) Richard Dawkins, JREF founder and famed debunker James Randi, piranha-toothed PZ Myers, outspoken professor AC Grayling, Freedom From Religion Foundation co-founder Dan Barker, Skepchick Rebecca Watson – ie. all the atheist and skeptical bigwigs from around the atheist community, and it was reportedly a big success (though I don’t pay much attention to these things so don’t ask me). One of the outcomes of the event was a Declaration on Religion in Public life, a statement of principles put together and voted on by all those assembled there on the place and role of religion in society, and it reads as follows:

• We recognize the unlimited right to freedom of conscience, religion and belief, and that freedom to practice one’s religion should be limited only by the need to respect the rights of others.

• We submit that public policy should be informed by evidence and reason, not by dogma.

• We assert the need for a society based on democracy, human rights and the rule of law. History has shown that the most successful societies are the most secular.

• We assert that the only equitable system of government in a democratic society is based on secularism: state neutrality in matters of religion or belief, favoring none and discriminating against none.

• We assert that private conduct, which respects the rights of others should not be the subject of legal sanction or government concern.

• We affirm the right of believers and non-believers alike to participate in public life and their right to equality of treatment in the democratic process.

• We affirm the right to freedom of expression for all, subject to limitations only as prescribed in international law – laws which all governments should respect and enforce. We reject all blasphemy laws and restrictions on the right to criticize religion or nonreligious life stances.

• We assert the principle of one law for all, with no special treatment for minority communities, and no jurisdiction for religious courts for the settlement of civil matters or family disputes.

Daily Blend: Tuesday, June 29, 2010

As if the horrible books and films weren’t repulsive enough to those with penises

I’m currently obsessing over this song (part), so here, enjoy. Who knew a film about pirates could have good music like that? I love Hans Zimmer.

• The 10 most “baffling” Twilight products? No; rather, the 10 most WTF-inspiring products, I’d say. (#1 [pictured] fits well with #4, and use them together with #6 … if you want to kill me with the horrible mental image that conjures up.)
  (via @todayspolitics)

• Scary thought: Nearly everyone who worked to clean up the Exxon Valdez spill has died with an average lifespan cut down to about 50.
  (via The Daily Grail)

• Senate grants President Obama the power to shut down the Internet in times of “national cyber emergency”. Libertarians looking less paranoid by the day, it seems.
  (via The Daily Grail)

• Montana GOP envious of the Texas Republican Party’s platform, decides to “keep homosexual acts illegal”.
  (via @todayspolitics)

As always, if you have any story suggestions, feel free to send them in.

This trailer almost makes up for the wait

Urge … to … squee … rising …

*sound of resolve cracking*

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Vox Day’s hilarious(ly absurd) misogynistic rant

Holy Haleakala. I knew that Vox had some serious misogynistic and anti-feminist leanings (as is rather apparent to any rational individual who reads any amount of his writings), but even I was amused, and somewhat dazed, to see the depths to which his delusions of male persecution run in his new column at – where else? – the WorldNutDaily. The whole piece is nothing more than a pathetic woman-denigrating rant about how all those uppity females are so dumb and mean and bitchy and all that; of course, nowhere does he present a lick of evidence for his ridiculous claims (save for a single citation, which in itself only further showcases his stellar knack for unsubstantiated confirmation bias). Just the fact that his piece is titled “Winning the war against men, Part 1” (egads, there’s more to come?) ought to clue you in to the fact that you’re about to suffer through a series of headaches, as can be evidenced by the very first lines:

There is a relentless war being waged against American men that literally spans the entire extent of their lives. From the womb, in which a woman's "right" to abort a male baby for being male is defended but a similar right to abort a female baby for being female is vehemently opposed, to the grave, wherein the disparate impact of old age is ignored despite women living 5.2 years longer than men on the average, men are systematically, structurally and unstintingly under assault.

Talk about starting off with a bang. (Though, that might’ve been part of my brain.) His first claim is that women often choose to terminate male fetuses whilst arguing rabidly against abortion if the fetus is female. This is, of course, completely unfounded; if anything, sex-selective abortion is much more common that the exact reverse is true, at least in many parts of the world such as some Asian countries, where males are often valued more than females for their potential productivity. And his second point is even more ludicrous; is he really attacking women for having a longer average lifespan than men? What does he want, an apology for having a different biological make-up? Vox’s attacks may carry a bit more weight if he didn’t cut his legs out from under himself with such laughable arguments.

Most men understand this on some level, but like the nice dependable man who can't figure out why attractive women repeatedly reject him in favor of unemployed losers with criminal records, they are incapable of doing anything about it because they simply can't believe that women truly do not think or behave like men. Because they want to believe that women are "the civilizing force," their "better halves" or "the fair sex," they are constitutionally incapable of seeing what is, from a rational male perspective, the seething cauldron of amoral solipsism behind the collective pretty face.

Daily Blend: Monday, June 28, 2010

“Pizza cone”

That thing is ghastly desecration of a sacred food, I tell you. →

• Let’s get one thing straight: I love pizza, and I wouldn’t touch that thing [pictured] if my life depended on it.
  (via The Agitator)

• So according to Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R), most illegal immigrants entering Arizona are doing so as drug mules. You know, I’m not sure which she needs to do more: to shut up or to get a clue.
  (via The Agitator)

• Alarming statistic of the day: 72% (36/50) of Guantanamo Bay detainees who have obtained just a minimal amount of due process in court have been found innocent and released. Considering how only 50 detainees have had a chance at due process at Gitmo, how many innocents do you figure there must be in total?
  (via The Agitator)

• Cops: Even in Canada, they’re reliably true to form.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• “Despite the popularity of abstinence-only meal programs in schools across the country, the study found that children who were provided with no food at lunch and cautioned against eating at an early age were no less likely to become overweight than those who were provided with a well-rounded nutritional education.”
  (via @todayspolitics)

• If only I’d known this. Oh, the tests I would’ve saved.

As always, if you have any story suggestions, feel free to send them in.

PZ Myers on the warm fires of faith and the cold reality of reason

PZ Myers’ weekly Sunday Sacrilege posts are always excellent explorations into the nature and credo of religion and its grasp on people’s collective minds, but today’s takes it one step further when he puts on his psychologist cap and delves into one of the most fundamental and important aspects of religion, particularly Christianity: the patriarchal, father-and-son bond and why so many of faith feel that their faith is such an intensely personal experience.

Read your bible. It's saturated with this primitive herdsman mentality: God the Father, sheep and goats, lost lambs and the Lamb of God, flocks and herds. It's anthropologically fascinating, and it's also not necessarily an evil metaphor (unless, of course, you're a woman — the patriarchy is also deeply misogynistic). One of it's most appealing aspects is that it makes the relationship with the universe a close and personal one, of a very simple kind of relatedness, that of father and child. It's one metaphorical generation, direct and immediate, and it colors everything about how we view our place in the world: dominant and submissive, leader and follower, wisdom and naiveté, master and servant, command and obedience. It also tangles up our relationship with the world in those paternal virtues of love and concern and discipline, and often with those less savory issues of the complicated relationships many people have with their fathers, because, face it, sometimes men are jerks. Which also fits with the portrait of the omnipotent god painted by the Bible.

I can sympathize. I loved and respected my father, and any attempt by an outsider to defame or complicate or diminish that relationship would trigger a resentful response from me. Christians and Muslims and Jews have been told from their earliest years that God is their father, with all the attendant associations of that argument, and what are we atheists doing? Telling them that no, he is not, and not only that, you don't even have a heavenly father at all, the imaginary guy you are worshipping is actually a hateful monster and an example of a bad and tyrannical father, and you aren't even a very special child — you're a mediocre product of a wasteful and entirely impersonal process.

It makes that whole business of breaking the news about Santa Claus look like small potatoes. Reality is harsh, man.

[…]

But here's the wonderful revelation. If you're a well-adjusted person, once you've discarded the unhealthy fictitious relationship with a phantasm, you can look around and notice all those other people who are likewise alone, and you'll realize that we're all alone together. And that means you aren't alone at all — you're among friends. That's the next step in human progress, is getting away from the notion of minions living under a trail boss, and onwards to working as a cooperative community, with no gods and no masters, only autonomous agents free to think and act.

Let it never, ever be said that atheists don’t know anything about religion or how it feels to have faith, only to lose it when the cold, uncaring perspective of reality sets in.

(Post title inspired by quote by Robert Heinlein: “One can bask at the warm fires of faith, or choose to live in the cold reality of reason; one cannot have both.”)

Daily Blend: Sunday, June 27, 2010

Again, why Christian hooligans aren’t known for their originality

The annual Loto-Québec/La Ronde fireworks really are something worth all the hassle and packing for. I don’t even know if I go there for the pyrotechnics, or for the always assuredly great musical choices to which the celestial fires dance. Just sayin’.

• Secular billboard reading “One Nation Indivisible” was vandalized [pictured] within a week of being put up. Includes typically unimaginative Christian vandalism.

• So you’re a couple who just rented an apartment, only to find it suddenly re-advertised as for rent just weeks before you were to move in? Oh, that’s just ’cuz you’re gay and the landlord’s a God-fearing nut.
  (via Friendly Atheist)

• Atheist mayor bans Christian prayer from city council meetings. Yes, of course, that’s Mayor Colin Hall of Leicester, England. An atheist mayor prohibiting Christian prayer in government proceedings in the United States? The idea is laughable. (*sad laugh*) And of course, your stupid Christian persecution quote of the day, from Mike Judge of the Christian Institute: “[Mayor Colin Hall is] imposing his own views on the rest of the council.” Because, in the topsy-turvy world where Christians like Mike Judge live, prohibiting religionists from imposing their religious customs is, itself, an imposition upon religionists’ rights.
  (via Friendly Atheist)

• The case of Dr. Dix Poppas and the surgical alteration of little girls’ clitorises: First, the blogosphere was all over the “creepy doctor hacking off little girls’ clits then tests with vibrators for fun” angle. Then, Hannah Rosin at Slate defends Dr. Poppas’s practice, revealing that he was actually using surgery to fix malformed (ie. generally overlarge) clitorises as caused by congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) and that then testing the post-op genitals with a vibrator is the best way to reveal any nerve damage. Now, Dan Savage at Slog and Alice Dreger at Psychology Today attack the Rosin Slate article (with a rather childishly sensationalistic post title on Dan Savage’s part), saying that it’s not the doctor’s call whether or not to “fix” the deformed clits (amongst other issues, too numerous to list here). My take on it all: I know that if I’d been born with six fingers on one hand, I sure as hell wouldn’t be angry now to learn if a doctor had opted to remove the extra digit. Apply that analogy in any way and variation you want; the point is, if a doctor can fix an obvious and potentially embarrassing physical deformity, even – or especially – if it’s part of a child’s genitals, given the importance one tends to attach to that area, then I just can’t dredge up much disagreement about it. (I’ll probably get flamed eight ways to next Sunday for saying that, but there.)

• Shocker: Closure of Guantanamo Bay has been shelved. Not sure which to blame more, dogmatically ridiculous Republicans who did their best (up to and past insane fear-mongering) to oppose the move, or President Obama’s own knack of betraying his previous promises at the slightest political pressure.
  (via The Agitator)

• Awesome photos of lightening striking two Chicago buildings simultaneously.
  (via The Agitator)

• The Gulf/BP oil spill tracker. Includes interactive timeline slider showing the development of the disaster. Informative and scary.
  (via @ebertchicago)

• University reporters agree: Sarah Palin is just plain dumb. (And very, very inane.)
  (via @todayspolitics)

• Don’t worry, US newspapers: You’re not alone in sucking.
  (via @Martynnorris)

As always, if you have any story suggestions, feel free to send them in.

More cute animal buddies

Just plain cute. Need I say more? You know you’re hooked already.

(via @ebertchicago)

The consequences of gay marriage

If you’ve ever wondered what would happen if gays all over were allowed to marry, here’s your answer:

They totally forgot to add “Straight couples turn gay” and “Children become furries”

Wow. No wonder social conservatives are all over the don’t-let-the-gays-marry issue – it would be so boring!

(via Forever in Hell)

Rachel Maddow dispels the myth of Obama’s inaction

Of all the criticisms and attacks aimed at President Obama, both fair and unfounded, the idea that he’s just sitting around getting nothing done is downright false (not that such a fact would stop the GOP and Faux News from spreading such myths, of course). Rachel Maddow takes on the myth of Obama’s inactivity in office and lays out his current heaving record of accomplishments. In the end, whether you agree with him or not, you just can’t deny that he’s been busier in office than any previous president in a very long time.

The closing lines (my transcript):

In each of these achievements and in the list of things he has yet to do – “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, closing Guantanamo – in each of these things, there is room for liberal disappointment. I sing a bittersweet lullaby to the lost public option when I go to sleep at night. But presidential legacies are complex. Not even the Reagan administration’s legacy is pure as the conservative-driven snow. But Taegan Goddard at CQ Politics was right today about nothing this big happening since FDR. The list of legislative accomplishments of this president in half a term, even before energy reform, which he’s probably going to get to, is, to quote the vice president, “a big freaking deal”. Love this administration or hate it, this president is getting a lot done. The last time any president did this much in office, booze was illegal. If you believe in policy, if you believe in government that addresses problems, cheers to that.

Of course, the point that Obama is getting plenty done in office is one that no-one can reasonably deny unless they’re either out of touch or have an agenda to peddle. The problem isn’t that Obama isn’t doing enough; it’s all the things he should have done, and perhaps more importantly, the things he most definitely should not have done – his continuation of the Bush administration’s raping of the Constitution by upholding the suspension of habeas corpus, furthering the PATRIOT Act and its warrantless wiretaps, engaging in indefinite detentions without charges of suspected enemy combatants, and more recently, his brutal crackdown on whistleblowers, whom he’d previously sworn to protect. These are the faults with Obama and his legislative record thus far. Even mess-ups like his failure to close down Gitmo once and for all and his lagging in repealing DADT can be overlooked (though they are certainly sore points); if only he hadn’t expressly broken any number of his past promises in doing the exact opposite of what he swore to do.

As I say: I do support Obama, mostly in the sense of being relieved (if in a somewhat bittersweet manner) that he got in over his rivals (*shudder*). But however good he’s doing, he could stand to do a lot better – starting by not betraying his own professed principles and ideals.

(via @todayspolitics)

Daily Blend: Saturday, June 26, 2010

Ex-WaPo blogger Dave Weigel

It’s not enough that my Internet connection is perpetually on the fritz; now, even my printer has decided to turn into a passive-aggressive asshole. Oh, the joys of temperamental technology.

• The Washington Post forces David Weigel [pictured], great blogger about conservatives, to resign after leaked private messages from Weigel reveal that he dared to have opinions about the assholes on the Right who are actively desecrating the United States and its founding ideals. In other words, the WaPo just revealed itself to be a giant spineless pussy and has lost one of its greatest contributors.

• Faux News: Federal agencies are boycotting Arizona and canceling conventions there. Reality: Dept. of Education will be holding a conference there next week and Border Patrol states that no conferences have been canceled.

• Ho hum: anti-gay group “Americans for Truth about Sexuality” is piggybacking on Illinois Family Institute’s Laurie Higgins’ dumbass attack against Hemant Mehta (Friendly Atheist). Hemant responds with some delicious mathematical mockery – check it that graphic cleavage! (Yes, that’s a double-entendre.)

• From Ed Brayton: “Worldnutdaily: All the News Fit to Hallucinate”. Couldn’t have put it better myself.

• And to think that until just now, I used to believe in each and every one of those steak-grilling myths. Egads!
  (via The Agitator)

• New York senate demands that the NYPD shut down its database of innocent people where were stopped and frisked.
  (via The Agitator)

• A good reaction to an annoying horn.
  (via The Agitator)

• Did Venus once have oceans – and life?
  (via The Daily Grail)

• Bionic kitty will rule you. Also, my room appears to be strangely dusty right now.
  (via The Daily Grail)

• I felt unoriginal posting these vids as posts of my own after PZ already featured them, so here’s just a quick link to two examples of things that A) prove how much of a humongous geek you are, and B) for the second vid, are liable to get you run after with pitchforks.

• GOP not happy with Gov. Schwarzenegger (R-Calif.) and his knack for doing things that they don’t like. Like supporting gay rights, environmental protections, universal healthcare, etc., etc. …
  (via @todayspolitics)

As always, if you have any story suggestions, feel free to send them in.

Inhuman | Chapter 12: Humans and Animals [old edition]

This entry has been removed from Preliator and can now be found over at Creativitas. (See here for more info.)

This would totally make the greatest graphic *evar*

Some things are forever beyond human comprehension. This headline is one of them.

…

Of course, I can only offer this in response:

(via Pharyngula)

Fail Quote of the Day: Vox Day bashes scientists, makes ass of himself (redux ×56)

An appropriate sentiment

I just knew that I shouldn’t dedicate the day’s Fail Quote segment to Rep. Louie “baby-terrorists” Gohmert (R-TX), no matter how ridiculous his fear-mongering was. I just knew that if I waited a little longer, I’d find something even more idiotic. And who woulda guessed it: It’s Vox Day with some brand-new anti-science nonsense:

"Yawning is a sign of sexual attraction, scientists claim."

Right, guys. And when a woman doesn't laugh at a scientist's bon mot, it's a sign she thinks he's really charming. Given that the average scientist couldn't score at a convention of nymphomaniacs with daddy issues, I should think they would be among the least credible people on the subject.

And that’s the entirety of his post. Right … So, Vox quotes a single little sentence, without any hint of its original source or proper context, obviously expecting us to take it completely at face value – and then goes ahead with a mindless attack against scientists without presenting a shred of evidence to support his own silly claim. Yes, his derision is very convincing. I even checked the post’s comments (something I usually try to abstain from doing for my own mental health) in the vague hopes that someone would demand to know where the quote came from – but of course, that was being too generous towards their critical thinking abilities.

Now, for the record, I don’t know whether certain types of yawning can, in certain cases, be a sign of sexual attraction in one way or another (elaborated I to compensate for more-than-likely oversimplification by whichever journalist wrote the piece Vox got that quote from). And honestly, I’m not really interested enough to dig around and find out for myself. But the fact that Vox just uses that little quote with no attributive link or indication of its context pretty much instantly voids anything he may have to say about it. Also, you’d think that someone like Vox, who claims to possess a college degree in sciences (can’t be arsed to remember what, exactly), would know some of the very basics of what it is that social scientists do. Such as, say, the fact that researchers who study love and relationships in humans don’t claim to be love-doctors or dating role-models. They merely study love and emotional relationships between people on a bio-neuro-chemical level, and then try to explain these findings coherently to laypeople. Vox’s misrepresentation of this is as blatant as it is dumbass.

Do people really take this moron seriously? I would hope that they were just humoring his delusions, but I’m afraid I’m not that optimistic.

Rep. Gohmert: Fear the baby terrorists

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX)

Is there any level of absurdity that demagogic Republicans won’t stoop to in order to try and stoke fears about terrorism and national security? Here’s Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) giving a speech on the House floor about how terrorists are supposedly recruiting pregnant women to have US-born children who will later grow up to become terrorists (seriously):

Gohmert: I talked to a retired FBI agent who said that one of the things they were looking at were terrorist cells overseas who had figured out how to game our system. And it appeared they would have young women, who became pregnant, would get them into the United States to have a baby. They wouldn't even have to pay anything for the baby. And then they would turn back where they could be raised and coddled as future terrorists. And then one day, twenty...thirty years down the road, they can be sent in to help destroy our way of life. 'Cause they figured out how stupid we are being in this country to allow our enemies to game our system, hurt our economy, get setup in a position to destroy our way of life.

Um … Somehow, the fact that he claims to have gotten this information in an unsubstantiated interview with a single unnamed retired FBI agent doesn’t really lend his scenario much credibility. Nor does the fact that anyone with half a brain and a cupful of resolve can sneak into the US through its porous borders these days, thus eliminating the need for such ridiculous and contrived infiltration methods.

Poor Republicans. It’s like their brains have collectively melted in the past two decades.

Quote of the Day: There’s nothing “straight” about Fox News

How Fox News actually sees their logo

Fox News often states that it has two halves of programming: its opinion/commentary shows (Beck, Hannity, O’Reilly, etc.) and “straight news” for the rest. Of course, anyone who actually watches its supposedly non-partisan reporting – and has a grounding in fact and reality – can tell you how its supposedly “straight” news is anything but. From a Media Matters article about how Faux lied about federal agencies supposedly boycotting Arizona (when it’s confirmed by the agencies themselves that they aren’t), commenter Bad News left this little retort in the comments (I took the liberty of making a few small edits):

“Straight news”? Fox News is so crooked that if they died, you would need to screw them into the ground.

Why wait?

This is a new addition to my Random Quotes collection.

Daily Blend: Friday, June 25, 2010 – Another record!

Rick Oliver Hereby known as “unlucky bastard”

New record: 16 links! Gracias, Fark.

• There’s unlucky. And then there’s this poor bastard [pictured]. Tip: Don’t ever say “Getting attacked by a bear is as rare as getting hit by lightening” in front of him.
  (via Fark (lost the link))

• Here we go again: Illinois Family Association’s Laurie Higgins once again raising her fiery pitchfork at Hemant Mehta (Friendly Atheist) for … well, for criticizing anti-gay bigotry, it seems. What else?

• The news: an opinion piece in the New York Times asking whether it’s time to make the birth control pill available over-the-counter rather than by prescription. My reaction: … wasn’t it it already? (I keep telling you I’m a n00b.) And seeing as not, then why the hell not? With a country plagued with underage pregnancy issues, you’d think that putting a harmless, easy-to-use and critically needed birth control method within reach of anyone freely would logically be the first thing done, but apparently that’s being too optimistic.
  (via Blag Hag)

• Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment’s Larry O’Connor thinks he’s discovered President Obama’s secret radical agenda! … in a public address that has been broadcast and emailed across the nation (and, thanks to the Net, the world). Now that’s good paranoid “journalism”!

• On the one hand, schools in Provincetown, Mass., will be allowed to hand out free condoms to any students who ask regardless of age, from elementary to high school. On the other hand, giving a kid a condom and teaching him about sex ed won’t instill in him a burning desire to stick his willy into the next girl he sees. So to hell with the prudes: Go for it. We need more contraception, and the earlier the education begins, the better.
  (via Fark)

• Boring: Milford, Connecticut TV reporter caught shoplifting. Interesting: She claims it was for a story she was covering. Dumbass: She’s a traffic reporter.
  (via Fark)

• As if they weren’t crazy enough: North Korea demands that the United States pay them $US65 trillion in compensation for all the hardships they’ve had in six decades of hostility. … No joke.
  (via Fark)

Friday Canine: Is mommy back yet?

[via 7art screensavers | click for full size [800×600]]

Daily Blend: Thursday, June 24, 2010

Fusion reactor

You should worry about the day
That the pain, it goes away
You know I miss mine sometimes …

• One of the defining characteristics that make humans superior to other animals may be that we masturbate a lot. I’m a true golden boy, then. I wonder what that makes religious anti-sex prudes, though …
  (via The Agitator)

• Is it time that the US once again had a fat president? Hey, if it gives us another Teddy Roosevelt …
  (via The Agitator)

• Mark Suppes: Brooklyn-based programmer by day, DIY fusion reactor researcher [pictured] by that remaining time. Do I sense the next Doc Ock?
  (via The Daily Grail)

• Largest dinosaur fossil graveyard ever uncovered in northern Alberta, Canada.
  (via The Daily Grail)

• Cheery thought: Australian Dr. Frank Fenner believes humankind will be extinct within the next century, blames it on population explosion and overconsumption.
  (via The Daily Grail)

• Oh, women. Even their cells are nitpicky. *ducks*
  (via The Daily Grail)

As always, if you have any story suggestions, feel free to send them in.

More children dying from vaccine-preventable diseases

It looks like there’s a new outbreak of pertussis (aka whooping cough) in California, to the point where the California Department of Public Health has officially declared it to be a full-on endemic.

Whooping cough is now an epidemic in California, and is on pace to break a 50-year record for infections for the year.

As of June 15, California had 910 recorded cases of the highly contagious disease, and five babies — all under 3 months of age — have died from the disease this year.

[…]

At least 600 additional cases are under investigation by local health departments. Officials fear that with the number of known and suspected cases at 1,510, the state is on track to beat 1958's record 3,847 cases; midway through that year, 1,200 cases had been reported.

[…]

There is no shortage of vaccines, which are provided for free to hospitals and participating counties by the state health department. [my emphasis]

That’s right: an easily preventable disease that’s been on its way to extinction for years is suddenly putting up a rousing revival, in a locale where anti-vaccination lunacy runs particularly deep. Discounting those who are unable to get vaccinated due to allergies or other medical conditions, we’re talking about normal, otherwise healthy people like you and me, who are falling ill and dying from a disease that you can prevent with ten minutes of your time and a free trip to the local clinic.

And that’s apart from this social disease’s, antivaccination’s, first and main victims: the helpless children who die because of rising levels of sheer ignorance.

Now, some are claiming that this new endemic may not be the fault of the antivaccination movement, that it may instead be due to the area’s high concentration of uneducated and time-constrained immigrants or farm-workers or whatever, people who simply don’t know about the importance of vaccination. I’m sorry, but I just don’t buy that. Whether or not you’re aware of the existence and importance of vaccinations has no relation to your wealth or education level, but everything to do with whether you just live under a rock or not. If you go out in public, watch TV, listen to the radio, read newspapers or talk to more than two people a day, then you’ll be aware of vaccines and how they’re free, and how you really should take the time to get them. Poverty doesn’t make people lazy and choose to skip their shots. Stupidity and ignorance, as brought on by unscientific and damaging campaigns such as antivax lunacy, does.

I really only have one thing to say in response to news like this …

[click for full size [1024×768]]

(via Bad Astronomy)

Vote Clint Webb for Senate

It’s funny ’cuz it’s true. </Homer>

Eh … still sounds better than most currently in office. At least he’s honest about it. Sorta.

(via The Agitator)

In which I’ve just had my fill of misogyny for the week

There is so much that’s utterly wrong with this picture that it’s almost impossible to describe:

Misogynistic graphic: “Why women can be sluts and men cannot”

I genuinely shiver with revulsion at the thought that there actually are people walking this Earth who honestly think this way.

(via Forever in Hell)

What did Muhammad actually believe in?

Oh, my, how wickedly derisive these religious spoofs are getting! For example, I just found out about a British Islamic campaign called “Inspired by Muhammad” and it’s as snarky as anything I’ve ever seen. Just check out one of their ads:

“Inspired by Muhammad” campaign ad (social justice, women’s rights, protecting the environment)

Oh, snap. Obviously, they’re using satire and sarcasm to actually denounce all the social injustices, oppression of women and other societal ailments that are pervading through British society with the influx of narrow-minded bigoted fundamentalist and radical Islamists. How clever …

Wait, what? It’s not satire? They actually mean that stuff?

Oh, dear.

Well, okay then. Rather than tediously point out just how those claims are completely and utterly false, this is a situation that best warrants that greatest weapon of all: truthful snark. And lots of it.

Inspired by Muhammad” campaign ad (sex with children, slavery, racial discrimination) with Quran citations

Look, it’s even annotated and everything, quite unlike the original ad. Oh, Uzza. What would the world do without your acidic teeth?

There are plenty more parodies popping up all over the place as well, including from Jesus and Mo, so keep an eye out for them.

The problem with this campaign is as Hemant Mehta at Friendly Atheist puts it very well:

It’s a nice attempt at a campaign. There’s obviously something wrong with the image of Islam. But unlike the image problems for atheism (that prompted all of our ads), the negative perception of Islam isn’t unwarranted.

Radical Muslims, no doubt, have done awful things and continue to do them.

But Moderate Muslims aren’t helping their cause.

They don’t do nearly enough to criticize the radicals. Sure, they denounce violence in the name of Islam, but how often do you hear them denouncing things like the female face coverings? Anyone remember when they got mad at us for drawing images of Muhammad? One of the most outspoken moderate Muslims, Eboo Patel, compared atheists’ harmless stick figure drawings to a swastika!

And he deserves to be called an idiot for that, many times over.

(via Friendly Atheist)

Black rain in Louisiana

A very, very bad omen in the darkly-ironically-named Pelican State:

And you thought acid rain was a bad thing …

Update: (06/23/10 3:43 PM) – Okay, so I spent a few more moments thinking about this, and it occurred to me … does oil – perhaps not the thick gooey stuff, but the light type that usually forms a thin film on the water’s surface – even evaporate? IANAC (I am not a chemist), so I have no idea. If not, then it seems that these might be something more innocent at work. But it is suspicious for the time being.

(via @todayspolitics)

Texas judge prohibits Creationist institution from handing out scientific degrees

Cartoon: “Billy wins his first Creation Science fair” [click for full size [300×305]]

My oh my, with all the wackaloonery going on down in Texas, especially with the Texas State Board of Education and its infestation of history-distorting theocrats, it’s always a wonderful breath of fresh air when science and reason actually prevails over nonsense and ignorance every now and again. In what’s sure to be a bruising blow to Creationists, a federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit by the Institute for Creation Research, a Creationist group that promotes Biblical literalism, that demanded to allow it to pass out degrees in science education. The court wasn’t kind (and nor should it be):

U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks of Austin found no merit in the institute's claims and criticized its legal documents as "overly verbose, disjointed, incoherent, maundering and full of irrelevant information."

In an e-mailed statement, school representatives said they were reviewing the decision and may appeal.

[…]

The Institute for Creation Research's graduate school, which is based in California, has been offering master's degrees in that state since 1981, according to its website. Aimed at aspiring Christian schoolteachers, the curriculum critiques evolution and champions a literal interpretation of the biblical account of creation.

There’s nothing wrong with Christian schoolteachers, nor with Muslim teachers or educators of any religious branch, just so long as they keep their faith to themselves and out of the classroom. But when they choose to push their unscientific worldview over actual science, their forfeit their right to claim to provide adequate scientific education. Of course, by no means does this spell the end of the IfCR’s attempts at pushing superstitious nonsense into schools, so all we can do is hope that the courts keep fighting the good fight and making the right decisions regarding these education-distorting loons.

(via @todayspolitics)

Daily Blend: Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Mitch Szabo, stupid man

Someday, I’ll have more to put here than random meanderings or U2 lyrics. Today is not that day. So … PUPPIES!!!

• Stupid man Mitch [pictured] threatens to turn evolutionary theory on its head.
  (via The Daily Grail)

• Oh, Detroit: Public School board chairman Otis Mathis caught fondling himself during a meeting with the female superintendent. And then, things get weird. —er.
  (via Dispatches From the Culture Wars)

• Teabagger-backed Senatorial candidate Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) believes that with the failure to pass unemployment benefits, all those lazy poor people will just have to find lower-paying jobs than what they were used to.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• Supreme Court rules that Freedom of Speech only applies when in opposition to hostile entities.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• Excellent Hitler Downfall parody, this one about WikiLeaks and the 260,000 allegedly leaked secret cables/telegrams.
  (via @wikileaks)

• The iPod in 1977.
  (via The Agitator)

• How totally unexpected: Louisiana judge who struck down President Obama’s oil drilling moratorium had a flagrant and poorly-concealed conflict of interest.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• More governments and organizations are blocking their employees from using Google products and apps because Google codes these in SSL, making it more difficult for governments and organizations to spy on their employees. You know, Google might just be our savior in this modern world.
  (via @todayspolitics)

As always, if you have any story suggestions, feel free to send them in.

Daily Blend: Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-Ark.)

Ever feel like you’re stuck in a microcosm, like little Sims? Just waiting for a temperamental gamer god to delete all the doors and set the house on fire …

• Why Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) [pictured] and his faith are one and the same, and also why he is therefore simply unfit for elected public office if he is unable to separate superstitious piety from his political work.
  (via Friendly Atheist)

• Border-jumpers’ newest problem: assault-rifle-toting neo-Nazis who’ve taken border patrol into their own loathsome hands. This cannot end well for anyone.
  (via Dispatches From the Culture Wars)

• Missouri Republican-dominated legislature decides to tackle on those big, pressing issues, like … banning strip clubs.
  (via The Agitator)

• So it’s both sides of an argument who are afflicted with confirmation bias? Yeah, that’s new and shocking.
  (via The Agitator)

• What is it with Bill O’Reilly actually making sense and defending President Obama from unjust attacks these days?
  (via @daveweigel)

• An elderly Washington woman agreed to let drug-investigating cops in only if they agreed not to hurt her dog. So, naturally, they proceeded to ransack her home, find the locked-in dog and shoot it dead.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel: “Feeling sorry for BP is just GOP philosophy.” Sarah Palin: “NOT TRU NOT TRU U POOPYHEAD!!!11!”

• The UK-based Sunday Times retracts a February article about all the anti-Global Warming, anti-IPCC bullshit and issues a detailed apology. Good on them. If only more would do so.
  (via @ebertchicago)

• Amen, brother: Ray Garton at God is for Suckers! on how it has become all but a social crime to criticize religion in the United States. Lengthy and interesting.

• Gays can parent, too: Labor Department to issue regulations ordering businesses to give gay employees equal treatment including unpaid leave to care for newborns or loved ones.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• Glenn Beck’s show hits all time ratings low and the downward trend is only furthering. What say you, Beck? Time to rejoin the Light Side before it’s too late?

As always, if you have any story suggestions, feel free to send them in.

Will Hunting explains why he won’t work for the NSA

This is probably my single favorite scene from the great Good Will Hunting [1997], where the NSA attempts to recruit the titular genius and instead gets a very detailed and chillingly appropriate response.

And because I felt like it, a little transcript of mine for those who can’t watch the vid:

WILL: So why do you think I should work for the National Security Agency?

RECRUITER: Well, you’d be working on the cutting edge. You’d be exposed to the kind of technology that you wouldn’t see anywhere else because we’ve classified it. Super string theory, chaos math, advanced algorithms –

WILL: Code-breaking.

RECRUITER: That’s one aspect of what we do.

WILL: Aw, come on, I mean, that is what you do. You guys handle 80% of the intelligence workload. You’re 7 times the size of the CIA.

RECRUITER: We don’t like to brag about that, Will. But you’re exactly right. So, the way I see it, the question isn’t “why should you work for the NSA?”; the question is “why shouldn’t you?”.

WILL: Why shouldn’t I work for the NSA? That’s a tough one. [chuckles] But I’ll take a shot. Say I’m working at the NSA and somebody puts a code on my desk, something no-one else can break. Maybe I take a shot at it; maybe I break it. And I’m real happy with myself ’cuz I did my job well, but maybe that code was the location of some rebel army in North Africa or the Middle East and once they have that location, they bomb the village where the rebels are hiding. 1,500 people that I never met and never had no problem with get killed.

Now, the politicians are saying, “Oh, send in the Marines to secure the area”, ’cuz they don’t give a shit. Won’t be their kid over there getting shot, just like it wasn’t them when their number got called because they were out going on tour in the National Guard. It’ll be some kid from Southie over there taking shrapnel in the ass. He comes back to find that the plant he used to work at got exported to the country he just got back from, and the guy who put the shrapnel in his ass got his old job, ’cuz he’ll work for ¢15 a day and no bathroom break. Meanwhile, he realizes the only reason he was even over there in the first place was so that we could install a government that could sell us oil at a good price. And of course, the oil companies use the little skirmish over there to scare up domestic oil prices – a cute little ancillary benefit for them, but it ain’t helping my buddy at 2.50 a gallon. They’re taking their sweet time taking the oil back, of course; maybe they even took the liberty of hiring an alcoholic skipper who likes to drink martinis and fucking play slalom with the icebergs. It ain’t too long ’til he hits one, spills the oil and kills all the sea life in the North Atlantic.

So now, my buddy’s outta work, he can’t afford to drive, so he’s walking to the fucking job interviews, which sucks because the shrapnel in his ass is giving him chronic hemorrhoids, and meanwhile, he’s starving ’cuz every time he tries to get a bite to eat, the only blue plate special they’re serving is North Atlantic [?] scrod with [?] Quaker State.

So, what did I think? I’m holding out for something better. I figure, “fuck it; while I’m at it, why not just shoot my buddy, take his job, give it to his sworn enemy, hike up gas prices, bomb a village, club a baby seal, hit the hash pipe and join the National Guard? I could be elected President”.

And this was written and filmed 14 years ago.

Edit: (06/21/10 11:52 PM) – Thanks to uzza for the corrections.

(via @todayspolitics)

Satellite view of the Gulf oil spill

Sometimes, you need to take a few steps (or hundred miles) back and see the bigger picture:

Gulf/BP oil spill, viewed from space

This shot was taken by NASA’s Aqua satellite as it overflew the Gulf on June 12, 2010. You can find more info, along with a link to a massive version of the full photo (of which the above part is just a small fraction), here.

Rightists outraged at select quotes from Ebert’s oil spill post

Dead oil-clogged birds

One thing that’s seemingly endemic to most right-wing bloggers is their tendency to find a nugget they can sink their teeth into, disregarding the rest of the quotes and articles they point to in the (apparently well-founded) hopes that none of their readers will realize how completely contradictory they are. Here’s the latest example: Roger Ebert recently posted a blog entry on the subject of the Gulf/BP oil spill where he recited the uncomfortable truth: that no-one knows what the hell to do about it. He also mentioned all the squawking from the Right about President Obama’s supposed “lack of response” and how he doesn’t appear to be “angry” enough, and spelled it out to them how disingenuous and facile it is to pin the blame on the President as though he were a bloody oil well technician, or as though he could just fly in and solve everything, or as though he and his administration weren’t dealing with what is now an ever-worsening disaster on a scale and complexity level that’s far beyond what anyone ever imagined would happened, let alone what they prepared for.

Naturally, this sort of “stop pinning everything on Obama” discourse didn’t sit well with many Rightists, for whom blaming Obama for all the ills in America (and more) has become their primary M.O.. Chris Yogerst at Big Hollywood, one of Andrew Breitbart’s collection of typical Left-blaming conservative blogs, is particularly peeved at Ebert for his mindless politicized defense of President Obama and his complete lack of caring for the Gulf disaster. Or, at least, that’s what he makes it sound like what Ebert thinks, considering how his response consists of a few select citations from Ebert’s post that border on quote-mining in how he uses them to deliberately portray Ebert’s stance as someone who’s just trying to push a Leftist agenda in waving off Rightists’ attacks at Obama without giving a damn about the ailing Gulf. If only he’d actually read the rest of Ebert’s post or something. Or, more likely, had been honest enough to quote the parts that completely and clearly contradicted his moronic accusations. From the top:

I hate to say this, but Spike Lee was right. We need to “go off” about this oil spill. The slow response is unacceptable at best. Unfortunately, film critic Roger Ebert didn’t listen to Lee’s advice to Obama and is instead the latest apologist for the lack of government response in the Gulf.

And thus, the tone for the rest of Yogerst’s piece has been set. You’d also better get used to his weird and numerous references to Spike Lee, as though a random film director’s comments on such an event were anything noteworthy. For the record, I don’t know much about Lee, though a quick perusal of his Wikipedia page seems to reveal a history of foot-in-mouth syndrome from what I can tell, but I doubt he has much credibility or authority on the matter of an ecological catastrophe.

Stellar pic of the day

Not particularly relevant; just thought this amazing Hubble shot of the spiral galaxy M66 was worth spreading:

Hubble photo of spiral galaxy M66 [click for full size [2732×1891]]

As usual, you can read more about this incredible shot over at Bad Astronomy.

Daily Blend: Monday, June 21, 2010 – T’is summertime!

Touchdown Jesus statue (before lightening) “Why has father forsaken me again?”

Going to visit my aunt/godmother at her new house, so expect light blogging today, if any.

• 19 reasons why Touchdown Jesus [pictured] got struck down. Poor kid, his father just won’t stop killing him. “He is resin.”
  (via Friendly Atheist)

• Of all the downright crazy things that Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) routinely says, it’s actually a dumb racist comment about Obama siding with Black people over Whites that earned him backlash from a Colorado Tea Party group. King should know by now that the Right must keep its racist motivations on the D-L, not broadcast them openly. Silly man.
  (via Dispatches From the Culture Wars)

• What not to get your old man for Father’s Day.
  (via Respectful Insolence)

• Small town of Black Hawk, Colorado, is the first ever to ban cycling due to “health and safety” concerns on its old roads. Huh.
  (via The Agitator )

• Glenn Beck’s fatherhood tips: includes “defend the defenseless” (unless they’re homeless), “teach kids not to lie, cheat or steal through example” (unless its even vaguely ideologically or politically advantageous), “never buy a CFL [energy-efficient fluorescent light bulb]” (because the environment is a meanie and deserves to be punished), and “real men” don’t use reusable grocery bags (they prefer to use the empty space in their skulls).
  (via @mmfa)

As always, if you have any story suggestions, feel free to send them in.