Daily Blend: Thursday, March 31, 2011

Matt Barber

Only a few hours left before the end of the Preliator Survey 2011! Come on, now, I know there’re more than just twelve of you out there. (Right?)

• Liberty Counsel’s Matt Barber: Gay teens commit more suicides because they are cruelly persecuted know that being gay is wrong.

• Newt Gingrich’s popularity sinking rapidly, including amongst conservatives. Good (for the rest of us).

• Roger Ebert has another eloquent post on the unthinking wonder that is the Universe.

• Cat stuck up a tree, Arizona-style.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Rep. Bachmann’s son: Pseudo-intellectual Thesaurus Rex

Thesaurus Rex: He’ll eat us all!

It’s a common claim to make against someone using big fancy words that they’re trying to sound smarter than they really are. This is sometimes true (though most often it’s just a sleazy argument without merit), but nowhere can it be applied any more perfectly than to Rep. Michele Bachmann’s (R-MN) son, Lucas Bachmann, who graced the lexical world with this:

“[M]ovement intellects such as Buckley are indelible,” Lucas Bachmann wrote. "Like the majority of conservatives, I watched and marveled at his eloquent didacticism drawn from a prolix lexicon that can only be described as Buckleyesque."

Ie. “Buckley’s writings are awesome and they really sound just like Buckley!”

If there has ever been a purer word salad than this, then the lexical world has not yet been graced (or impugned) with it. This is just brilliant in its phony, thesaurically-based pseudo-intellectualism. (Not to mention the amusing irony in the fact that in trying to bolster his appearance of intelligence, Lucas is actually trying to become the very thing – an intellectual and “elite” – that his mother so passionately denounces.)

(via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

Fail Quote: Rep. Turner thinks women will pretend to be raped to bypass abortion laws

Rep. Eric Turner (R-IN)

Oh, those ever-tactful, pro-women Republicans. From Rep. Eric Turner (R-IN), arguing against a proposed amendment from Rep. Gail Riecksen (D) to allow exceptions for cases of rape, incest and health risks to the mother to his bill unequivocally banning all abortions in the state:

Turner, in response [to the proposed amendment], argued that this would create a "giant loophole," where "someone who could -- I want to be very careful, I don't want to disparage in any way someone who's gone through the experience of a rape, or an incest -- but someone who is desirous of an abortion could simply say that they've been raped or there's incest."

Rep. Riecken's amendment was shot down 54-42. Seems that right-wing legislators actually take Turner’s line of thinking to heart. Which comes as utterly no surprise to anyone.

(via @todayspolitics)

No, “New Atheism” ≠ The Tea Party

Jacques Berlinerblau [source]

The “New Atheists” certainly are a favorite punching bag for theists, presenting the perfect strawman (rhetorically or otherwise) whenever a given crank wants to valiantly take apart a group that’s made itself notorious for its outspokenness and unrepentant anti-theism. But they’re also frequently attacked by aggrieved non-theists as well, and for the very same offenses they’re accused of committing by the religious … and always with the same unimpressive results.

Jacques Berlinerblau at The Chronicle of Higher Education gives us a good example of this, with his piece following along the same argumentative lines that make attacks by religious anti-atheists so ineffective: replete with the usual strawmen and mischaracterizations, conflations between ideology and adherent^*, and even what appears to be appeals to an atheistic version of “sophisticated theology” (you’ll see) … and, of course, that overlying false equivocation that is the very heart of his piece. It strikes me as rather self-defeating when your entire argument is built upon a logical fallacy.

The whole thing is essentially an expounding on an original “New Atheists = Tea Party” comparison made by Michael Ruse and, to a lesser extent, a rebuttal to David Barash’s rejoinder to Ruse’s piece (though Berlinerblau seems to ignore most of Barash’s arguments). And right after he applauds Ruse for coming up with such a ridiculous comparison, he offers us this stereotypical mischaracterization of the “New Atheists”:

For his efforts [in comparing New Atheists to the Tea Party], naturally, [Ruse] was subjected to the predictable snark of New Atheist trolls. For those not familiar with their world-view, let me help you understand their central and timeless insight: Unless you as an atheist are willing to disparage all religious people, describe them all as imbeciles and creeps, mock every text and thinker they have ever produced, then you must be some sort of deluded, self-hating, sellout, subverting the rise of the Mighty Atheist Political Juggernaut (about which more anon).

Dammit, I keep telling Covenant members not to leave our ruddy agenda lying around …

Canadian media firm seeking professional right-wing trolls

[source]

We hear all the time about how Canada is a model for actual fairness and balance in our media and political discourse, and for the most part, that is certainly true (especially when compared to our Fox News-adoring southern neighbor). But, the truth is that we also have our share of dishonest right-wing agitators who’d like nothing more than to drag everyone down into the festering intellectual swamplands they inhabit for the sake of furthering their self-serving agenda (all typos ^[sic]):

Writers Needed to post Right-wing Comments to social media and news outlets

We are a social media company working for a political organization, hired to help balance the left-wing bias of the major media outlets by supplying a team of writers who will post to newspaper comments, media forums, FB pages, etc. We are NOT officially affiliated with Harper campaign

You writing must be strong, right-wing and use supplied talking points without bogging down in too much detail. You are creating an online persona with a consistent tone. Ideally you can find or make up facts and statistics to stir controversy. Where suited humour, sarcasm and personal insults are welcome.

You are a news junky who is able to log on to news forums, facebook pages several times a day. You are able to write comments tailored to new topics while always repeating key talking points.

Compensation: TBD. hourly rate and volume of online activity. Bonuses for controversial postings that heat up a topic or forum thread.

How to apply: We are more interested in your writing than your resume. To apply submit a 100 word post based on the headline “Ignatieff Promises No Coalition after Election” Show us that you can write from a right wing character voice, score points, stir outrage and use humour.

I guess rank dishonesty and the ability to apply halfway-decent grammar are inversely proportional for the typical conservative, regardless of geo-political affiliation.

(via @todayspolitics)

Daily Blend: Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Pictured: Honesty

Only two days left for the Preliator Survey 2011! If you haven’t taken it yet – yes, you – please help us get to a mighty ten responses!

• This is sick: Animal rights terrorists bored with professors, now plan to start threatening and harming lab students. Orac has more details.

• Surprise! Prominent study showing how online prostitution leads to exponential rises in underaged sex trafficking is complete made-up garbage.

• Remember that Arizonan anti-abortion bill to ban supposed “race-based” abortions? Gov. Brewer just signed it into law.

• Conservatives seem to be genetically programmed to love dishonesty – and suck at it.

• At least they correct themselves.
  (via The Agitator)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Fail Quote: Donohue continues his “child molesters are gays” schtick

Bill Donohue

From Bill Donohue, still sticking to his perverted version of reality wherein child-molesting priests are really just unruly gays:

There is a story about an abusive Jesuit priest in today's New York Times. The headline reads, "Suit Says Jesuits Ignored Decades of Warnings About Priest." There is a large picture of Father Daniel McGuire with his hand on the back of a young boy on the day of his First Communion. The caption below says that the priest "was later convicted of sexual abuse."

The inference is that McGuire was a pedophile. But as the reader quickly learns, all of McGuire's victims were teenage boys. Thus did the Times play politics with this picture—they made it look like he abused prepubescent boys. No, like most molesting priests, McGuire did not want the kids—he wanted adolescent young men. He was a homosexual.

Now, I have no knowledge (or particular interest) in this specific case, which is just one of more than can be crammed into the gaping void that is the Catholic Church’s moral center. I haven’t seen the photo-in-question, and from what we’ve previously seen, Donohue’s descriptions can oftentimes be qualified as “biased” at best.

But, none of that changes the fact that it takes a singularly bigoted and hateful mind to produce the transparently ignorant claim that “molesting priests” who prey on teenage boys in their charge are “homosexual[s]”. As if child molesters made a distinction between boys who are six or sixteen. As if anyone who sexually abused a teenager wasn’t inherently, logically, a child molester. And as if homosexuality, being the mere sexual attraction towards others of the same gender that in absolutely no way affects one’s moral compass or inhibitions, had any damned thing whatsoever to do with determining whether a sane adult would choose to rape children (and teens).

Isn’t it fun how religiosity rots hearts and minds?

(Note: At the time of posting this, the news release-in-question – the email of which I’ve linked to, above – hasn’t been posted on the Catholic League website. Could it be that someone over there had a change of heart?)

Daily Blend: Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Bill Sammon

If you like me and you know it, clap your hands … and then fill out the simple, anonymous Preliator Survey 2011 while you can! (Pretty please?)

• Fox Leaks: Top executive Bill Sammon caught (again) admitting he’d having knowingly lied on the air about then-Candidate Obama’s alleged “socialism”.

• BioWare’s David Gaider pwns the crap out of a homophobic, privilege-wallowing “straight male gamer”. Glorious.
  (via @KyellGold)

• Pathetically obsequious Fox News report on Sarah Palin’s latest “no more whining about the media” declaration.

• 5 Ridiculous Gun Myths Everyone Believes (Thanks to Movies). I was surprised at just how overrated silencers/suppressors^* are.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

* Pro tip: Silencers remove much of the discharge noise, whilst suppressors serve to conceal the muzzle flash with only minimal noise reduction. They’re similar, but different.

Gingrich: America turning into a “secular” “Islamist” country

Newt Gingrich

This is perfect Fail Quote material, but alas, I’ve already made such a post earlier today. So instead, let’s just point and laugh as Newt Gingrich says something stupid:

"I have two grandchildren: Maggie is 11; Robert is 9," Gingrich said at Cornerstone Church here. "I am convinced that if we do not decisively win the struggle over the nature of America, by the time they're my age they will be in a secular atheist country, potentially one dominated by radical Islamists and with no understanding of what it once meant to be an American."

And Gingrich has even less understanding of the meaning of the buzzwords coming out of his mouth. (Although, I do indeed fear the premise of an atheistic society dominated by religious zealots … if only because it would signify that logic itself had died.)

(via Pharyngula)

Daily Blend: Monday, March 28, 2011

David and Charles Koch

• Glenn Greenwald on the Koch brothers’ ridiculous persecution complex.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• Colorado Senate takes a new, particularly sleazy approach for cracking down on prostitution.
  (via The Agitator)

• This dishonest segment from Fox News’s John Stossel proves nothing more than how Americans can be charitable.

• Proof that excessive nationalism shrinks manhood(s)?

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Fail Quote: Palin says she’ll stop whining about the media

Sarah Palin

If you take Sarah Palin’s latest declaration seriously, then my advice to you is to stop replying with interest to all those Nigerian princes in your inbox:

"I'm through whining about a liberal press that holds conservative women to a different standard, because it doesn't do any good to whine about it," Palin said. "When a shot is taken at me, it is water off a duck's back because I know the important things we need to concentrate on in life — especially the national and international issues that are so important in our country."

Of course, that’s pure bullshit, every word of it. There is nobody in the US political scene who takes criticism less in stride than does Sarah Palin, the woman whose made her entire reputation as the conservative base’s political superstar off of bitching and moaning and throwing tantrums at the media’s oft-amused (and increasingly exasperated) examination of her many canards and tall tales. Whenever an anchor or pundit does so much as casts doubt on her latest fabrication, you can always set your watch to the notion that she’ll be appearing within hours on Fox News (or Twitter if she’s feeling eloquent and Facebook when she’s feeling erudite) to snootily proclaim how she’s above all these “attacks” and “smears” – as if correcting her falsehoods were a bad thing, or as if taking every moment available to declare how she’s not affected by criticism weren’t, in itself, the most revealing sign possible that she has skin that’s practically see-through.

It’s also a typical canard of Palin’s to claim that the amount of blowback she receives is somehow indicative of conservative women supposedly being held to a different standard. The fact that conservatives in general (which forcibly includes women) get flak for saying so many ignorant, stupid and dishonest things on a daily basis does not mean they’re being treated any more harshly than they deserve. It means that when you say something false and misleading, you have to expect to get corrected, oftentimes without sympathy. There’s no secret or conspiracy going around liberal circles to besmirch those poor right-wing women (by which Palin apparently means her co-airheads on Fox News). It’s just that they keep saying the sort of stupid shit that merits a constant hammering from those who actually reside within reality.

In the end, though, Sarah, if you really want to stop whining about the mythical “liberal media”, then here’s all I can tell you:

Daily Blend: Sunday, March 27, 2011

Marijuana

• Every single legislator in Seattle declares their support for decriminalizing marijuana [pictured].
  (via @DustyTrice)

• Jill at I Blame the Patriarchy says something stupid, close-minded and actually anti-feminist. Movie at 11.

• The Killer Whale: Biggest Badass in the Animal Kingdom.

• One of the cooler optical illusions I’ve seen.
  (via Infidel753)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Friday, March 25, 2011

Sheriff Joe Arpaio

• The only way to make Sheriff Joe Arpaio [pictured] act even crazier is to include Steven Seagal.

• Pathetic: Big Government blogger deliberately changes an older post to falsely accuse Media Matters of misquoting him.

• “Proof of Creation” ancient dinosaur drawing actually just a mud stain.
  (via @ebertchicago)

• Today’s small dose of awesome: Pro-WikiLeaks billboard in Los Angeles.
  (via @todayspolitics)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Vermont House passes single-payer healthcare bill

[source]

If the US couldn’t get the public option in the nationwide healthcare reform bill last year, then the country might be able to adopt it on a state-by-state basis, at least starting with the more liberal ones. The Vermont House of Representatives has just passed a bill calling for a single-payer healthcare plan, making it the first state to potentially adopt “socialized medicine”:

Lawmakers voted 92 to 49 after nearly two days of debate, including discussion on the floor until the early morning hours on Thursday.

[…]

The legislation proposes to develop a unified health system where all Vermonters are eligible for benefits under a universal coverage program called Green Mountain Care. Democratic leaders are optimistic the single-payer plan will contain the skyrocketing costs of health care and put the state on a more sustainable fiscal path.

[…]

The measure also designs a four-year timeframe to establish a publicly funded system, beginning with the creation of the Green Mountain Care Board on July 1 with a budget of $1.2 million. The five-member board will design a more sensible payment plan for health care providers, control the overall cost to align it closer to Vermonters’ ability to pay and recommend a benefit package for every resident.

It doesn’t seem like the minority of House Republicans can do anything to screw this up, so unless some sort of catastrophe occurs (I’m guessing an inopportune comet strike), it looks like universal healthcare will indeed be a certainty in Vermont. In between being the first state nationwide to enact marriage equality for gays and lesbians, and now this, the Green Mountain State is starting to sound like a pretty cool place. Hopefully, the rest of the American north-east will pay attention, along with the rest of the country.

(via @todayspolitics)

Fail Quote: Vox Day’s bizarre marital priorities

Vox Day

In which Vox Day, replying to a reader at his new pet project, the Alpha Game blog, shares an insight into his strange view of marital duties:

Never marry a woman who does not see sex as part of her marital duties, because she is a woman who does not believe a woman has any marital duties. Sex is the single most important aspect of a marriage, indeed, it can even be theologically argued that sex is marriage.

Look, I don’t know much about women and dating (to put it mildly), but I do know this: If your decision whether or not to declare your intention of spending the rest of your life with someone is based primarily, or solely, on how much sex you hope to expect from them … then hun, you’re screwed. (And not in the way you’re obviously hoping for.)

Seriously, why do so many of these MRA types always make it all about sex? Are they really that insatiably horny, or otherwise unable to find enough willing women to keep their lust at bay? I can hardly imagine the sort of mentality that leads one to believe that something as relatively silly and inane as sex, fun though it may be, is in reality the primary function of a marriage. If you’re that desperate for gratification, you’ll always have your trusty palm-and-five-fingers combo (and whatever toys you’re willing to blow money on). You really don’t need to get this needy for some blessing from (as one anti-feminist put it) those “gatekeepers of sex”.

And if “sex is marriage” … then I suppose the right-wing crusade to protect and uphold the “sanctity of marriage” was lost from the very beginning.

Friday Canine: Happier puppy

[source | full size (1067×853)]

The first openly gay presidential candidate is … a Republican?

Fred Karger (R)

Well, this is something. The first openly gay presidential candidate has just announced his intention to run. Coming right after the first successful Black candidate in US history, that’s pretty awesome. But just in case that that wasn’t interesting enough in itself, here’s the clincher: He’s a Republican. A Progressive Republican. CBS reports:

Barely hours after filing his intent with the FEC to run for the 2012 Republican nomination for president, Fred Karger stopped by Washington Unplugged to formally announce his decision.

Speaking with CBS News congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes Karger said, "I've filed to run for President of the United States." (watch above)

[…]

This is the first time Karger has run for political office, but he has been a behind-the-scenes player for 35 years -- serving as an advisor to Presidents Ford, Reagan and George H. W. Bush.

Karger says he's an "outsider" but has "political experience."

He is also the first openly gay presidential candidate.

Unlike with other LGBT Republican groups, Karger does seem to realize how his openness about his sexual orientation puts him at clear odds with the rest of his party:

Cordes asked when so many of his fellow Republicans are opposed to gay rights and same-sex marriage why he would chose to run as a candidate of that same party.

"Being a gay Republicans is kind of an oxymoron," he said, "I have been a fighter in my party, I have always been on the more moderate side but I'm also a protégé of Lee Atwater. We need to open up this party and that's one of my reasons for running. The party should not be dominated by one faction or another. It should be open to all."

Karger also added, "I want to be a different kind of Republican. The kind of Republican I grew up with. I consider myself to be Progressive. The last Progressive Republican president was over 100 years ago; Theodore Roosevelt."

The article is rather light on information, as is his Wikipedia page. But the little that is included does paint him in the sort of light that I, despite my long-held notion that voting for a Republican is akin to selling your soul to the Devil these days, would be happy to vote for. (You know, were I American and all that. Silly democratic prerequisites.) Gay rights activist opposed to DoMA and DADT, wishes gay marriage were the “law of the land”, supports immigration reform, and even proposes a 28^th Amendment that would grant 16—17-year-olds the right to vote.

Dear Gawd, he may very well be the very first Republican I actually like. Truly, the end times are upon us, or something.

(via @todayspolitics)

Recreating nuclear fission in a high school classroom

The AP Chemistry students at Cleveland’s Horizon Science Academy have thought of another ingenious way of demonstrating what happens when good uranium goes bad.

(via Pharyngula)

Daily Blend: Thursday, March 24, 2011

Bill Donohue

• Doggycide: Gulfport, Mississippi cop responds to report of break-in, shoots dog six times while animal tied up in owner’s back yard. Dog put down at vet’s. Features most understated headline I’ve yet seen.
  (via The Agitator)

• Bill Donohue [pictured]: Those who oppose forcing women seeking an abortion to visit a bullshit-peddling anti-abortion “pregnancy crisis center” are resisting “informed consent”.

• This is cool, funny, interesting, revealing and saddening, all at once. Bizarre combo.
  (via Fark)

• Venezuela President Hugo Chavez: Capitalism may be to blame for lack of life on Mars. Not sure if serious.
  (via The Agitator)

• Actual Expert Too Boring For TV. Unless he gets stuck with an irritable, airheaded news anchor.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Quote of the Day: PZ Myers on Republicans’ marital hypocrisy

PZ Myers

I first saw this a week ago, but somehow neglected to blog it. For our latest inclusion into my list of memorable quotes, here’s what PZ Myers, having recently celebrated his 31^st wedding anniversary, has to say about Republicans and their double-faced stance on the supposed sacredness of traditional values:

It's a strange situation where the political party with more ex-wives than candidates […] is regarded as the protector of the sanctity of the family.

In other news, Kim Jong-il is now in charge of protecting international relations.

Daily Blend: Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Gov. Paul LePage (R-ME)

• Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) [pictured] orders removal of pro-labor mural from … Department of Labor headquarters.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• FFS: Supreme Court considering whether to reinstate copyright status to public domain works such as Shakespeare.
  (via @ebertchicago)

• Lies a-flyin’: PolitiFact looks back on the top ten healthcare reform falsehoods since the law was passed.

• Also, PolitiFact takes a begrudging look at all those whacky chain emails of late. Surprise: Not much truth found within.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

The Daily Show on the US’s freedom-spreading record

Last night, The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart and John Oliver had a brilliant bit where they examined the United States’ euphemistically spotty history of sharing its brand of “freedom” around the Middle East. (John Oliver is always FTW.)

The Daily Show - America's Freedom Packages Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Non-US readers: Go here to learn how to enable Comedy Central videos.

Daily Blend: Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Too true for too many

Be counted! Have you taken the easy-peasy, 100% anonymous Preliator Survey 2011?

• House GOP trying to “plaster some bullshit religious platitude [pictured] on the same government buildings [it’s] simultaneously trying to sell off and close down”.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• Information is Beautiful’s consciousness survey informs me that I am a “Functionalistic Identity Theorizing Higher Order Theorist”. ¿Que?

• Patriotic Teen Fails Spanish.

• Seems about right.
  (via Diaphanitas)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Would-be bully caught with his pants down – literally

How should you respond to someone who starts harassing someone else? Should you boldly confront them until they cower away? Ignore the altercation out fear of injury? I rather think this particular gentleman has chosen the proper method for discouraging a bully:

Though, Chosen Deity help you if the thug you’re trying to de-pants happens to be wearing a belt or some such garment-securing device.

(via Uzza)

Today in stupid faux-patriotic cartoons …

I’ve always felt that forcing everyone, particularly children, to stand up at a predetermined hour and recite some sort of sectarian loyalty chant is rather creepy, somewhat reminiscent of the very totalitarian regimes the United States has previously fought against. And yet, should anyone seize upon their Constitutional right to remain seated during said chant, at least in the US, then just stand back and watch as the hysterical, faux-patriotic demagogues descend upon the poor chap and immediately declare that rather than refusing to partake in a chant that conflicts with their beliefs on ideological grounds (or simply because they think it’s just pointless), they’re actually being unpatriotic, if not treasonous. It’s a remarkably idiotic notion, that refusing to swear your fealty to some government is supposedly equal to opposing them.

This narrow-minded sentiment has now been translated into cartoon form:

[unknown source]

Of course, one thing this cartoonist (whose name I am unable to decipher) fails to understand is that if the injured US veteran really did sacrifice his mobility to defend Kevin’s rights, then not only would he not be upset over Kevin actually using his Constitutionally granted and Supreme-Court-enforced right in not reciting the Pledge, but he would almost certainly chastise that teacher for both criticizing Kevin for using that very freedom he fought for, and for trying to use him and his injury to try and shame Kevin for enjoying that right.

For more amusement, the cartoon came attached in an even more idiotic and transparently Islamophobic chain email that PF over at Forever In Hell takes pleasure in eviscerating. Which is the only treatment this sort of fascistic, flag-fetishising nonsense deserves.

(via Forever In Hell)

Congressional Democrats introduce anti-abstinence-only bills

Well, this is a first, and definitely a step in the right direction. Democrats in both the House of Representatives and the Senate have introduced bills aiming to cut the roughly $50 million a year in funding used to support utterly useless abstinence-only sexual education programs:

"Abstinence-only education doesn't work and is a poor use of federal funding," said Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ), who sponsored the bill in the Senate. "Our nation's young adults deserve access to information that helps them take on real life situations and make smart decisions."

"We need to get serious about educating our young people about sex," added Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), the House sponsor. "Abstinence-only programs fail to address the challenge of unplanned pregnancies and sexually-transmitted infections among our youth, which have reached a critical level."

The bill, known as the Repealing Ineffective and Incomplete Abstinence-Only Program Funding Act, would redirect $50 million spent annually on abstinence-only sexual education to "evidence-based, comprehensive sex education programs," according to a release from Lautenberg. The release cites as evidence that abstinence education doesn't work the relatively high teen pregnancy rate in the United States as well as the HIV infection rate among those under the age of 29.

A national study authorized by Congress and released in 2007 concluded that abstinence-only sexual education, which had been supported by the administration of President George W. Bush, did not keep teenagers from having sex.

About ruddy time. Not only is abstinence-only sex ed patently useless in discouraging the majority of youths from having sex, but it’s also downright counter-productive. The point of sexual education is not to scare teens into waiting before having sex, but rather to educate them about the risks, and especially, the types of protection they can use. Research showing how some kids who undergo abstinence-only classes do tend to wait a bit longer before fornicating is of no support to abstinence-only supporters, either; it’s always preferable to have kids who have sex sooner, but safely, than to have them wait a bit longer, but end up pregnant of catching STDs because they were only taught to hold off on fucking, not how to actually protect themselves when they inevitably became sexually active.

Now, as for these bills, there’s exactly zero chance that the House bill will survive a primary vote, seeing as the chamber is infested with right-wing demagogues who would sooner whore themselves to their Christian-conservative base than to do anything remotely productive these days. But the Senate remains under Democratic control and has already struck down a number of insane House-passed bills (and promises to kill many more in the future, thankfully), so there may yet be hope for Sen. Lautenberg’s attempt at severing federal assistance to this worthless program, which only hinders proper sex ed, rather than affirms it.

(via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

Daily Blend: Monday, March 21, 2011

Back from its belated grave

• Well, this is new. Utah GOP actually trying to offer legal residency to illegal aliens. Good on them.
  (via @ebertchicago)

• The United States isn’t the only country with a failed war on drugs.
  (via The Agitator)

• Washington, DC internal affairs cop repeatedly hits restaurant owner with his car, then leaves unpunished as other cops mock the victim’s request to file a complaint.
  (via The Agitator)

• Randall Munroe of xkcd has a great infographic showing the relative doses of radiation one absorbs from various activities. Phil Plait has more info. (In short: Japan’s Fukushima plant is of no danger.)
  (via Bad Astronomy)

• Remember how right-wing rag Washington “Moonie” Times had ceased print publication? It’s baaack.

• I always wanted one of those computers. Not so much ten years later, though.
  (via The Agitator)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Supplemental tags: Technology • Computers

Daily Blend: Sunday, March 20, 2011

Casey “Casey the Punisher” Heynes [source]

Having slept a grand total of three hours means I’m ready for a new day … right? (Also, no idea how the hell I forgot to post yesterday. Oops.)

• House Republicans’ “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act” would turn IRS into abortion auditors, forcing agents to ask women who’ve terminated pregnancies if they were subject to rape or incest.
  (via Right Wing Watch)

• I don’t know why people claim this is the first time ever that a majority of Americans support same-sex marriage, but it’s certainly still fun to know.
  (via @NotTube)

• Bully regularly hits long-suffering bigger kid [pictured]. Victim snaps, bodyslams the bully, giving him a limp. Incident caught on camera, goes viral on the ’Net. Now bully’s mother wants an apology from “Casey the Punisher”. Yeah, sure thing, sweets.

• Any parent willing to dish out tens of thousands in tuition over this “elite schooling for kindergartners” nonsense deserves what they get.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Minnesota GOP wants to outlaw poor people carrying cash [updated]

GFY. Signed, GOP [source]

And the Republican war on poverty – specifically, poor people – continues:

St. Paul, MN – Minnesota Republicans are pushing legislation that would make it a crime for people on public assistance to have more $20 in cash in their pockets any given month. This represents a change from their initial proposal, which banned them from having any money at all.

[…]

House File 171 would make it so that families on MFIP - and disabled single adults on General Assistance and Minnesota Supplemental Aid - could not have their cash grants in cash or put into a checking account. Rather, they could only use a state-issued debit card at special terminals in certain businesses that are set up to accept the card.

The bill also calls for unconstitutional residency requirements, not allowing the debit card to be used across state lines and other provisions that the Welfare Rights Committee and others consider unacceptable.

Hanlon’s Razor advises that one should never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. Now, I’m quite happy to think of the modern GOP as possessing all the IQ of a bucket of bog-water, but there comes a point where mere dumbassery is no longer a suitable excuse. While I’m quite sure they’re idiotic to boot, there’s no way a collective could actually argue that poor people should be prosecuted for carrying around enough cash to pay for half a bachelor’s grocery list without also being motivated by some sort of animus. Which, of course, is exactly what we’ve come to expect from the GOP when it comes to virtually any minority group.

They aren’t merely the Party of No. They’ve become the Party of Fuck You.

(via Pharyngula)

---

UPDATE: (03/19/11 2:25 PM) – It seems that many have been misinterpreting the actual text of the bill. Rather than forbid folks on MFIP or GAMSA welfare from carrying more than $20 in their pockets at any given time, it would rather merely limit transactions from ATMs or vendors to $20, without actually regulating how much more or less they may have on them. While this does seem marginally better, it’s still quite the idiotic and repugnant proposal – nobody’s funds should be regulated at all, much less those who are in such need of them. (Thanks to Uzza for the correction(s).)

Fail Quote: James O’Keefe doesn’t like being recorded

James O’Keefe

I’ve just gone blind; such was the power of the stoopid in what I’ve just read. (Never mind how I’m still typing. I’m psychic. There.) Apparently, conservative activist and world-class douchebag James O’Keefe recently spoke to the Bayshore Tea Party in New Jersey and reportedly demanded that a photographer for the Asbury Park Press be shown to the door. As if that weren’t immediately ironic enough in itself, here’s what teabagger Charles Measley said in a video to said photographer afterwards:

"This is a guy that's in trouble with the law, he's got lawsuits up the gazoo for trying to help you with your freedom," Barbara Gonzalez, founder of the Tea Party group says in the video. "Because I feel like the people who came here to pay a lot of money, I don't want him to walk off."

That might be the single most hilariously, blindly ironic and stupid thing I’ve ever heard. So our dear little bullshit-monger doesn’t like other people seeing what he’s up to, even at a public setting, and the mere sight of the very tool he’s so quick to use against ideological opponents – particularly when they’ve committed absolutely zero wrongdoing – will send the little coward running with his tail between his legs. Truly, no words can describe such supermassive hypocrisy.

I’m just wondering why we haven’t heard much about all these supposedly gazoo-filling lawsuits. I, for one, would love to cheer them on.

(via Right Wing Watch)

I, Equitator: Day Nine (w/ video!)

I, Equitator: Day One • Day Two • Day Three • Day Four • Day Five • Day Six • Day Seven • Day Eight • Day Nine

I really don’t think my poor abused, um, undercarriage, can take much more of this. Or my hands. Or my legs. Jeez, who knew horse-riding was an endurance event?

Anyway, I have even less to say here than usual, so in brief: Charlotte was already brushed when I got in, so I saddled her up all by myself and took her out into the arena … at which point my attempts at mounting her ended up with the saddle seat suddenly over her ribs. (Long story short: I dun goofed with the saddling part.)

Nathalie, trying to figure out in how many ways I screwed it up. Pity her. [full size (1200×900)]

The great plogging thread

For those of you brave lads and lasses who valiantly defy modern convenience and prefer to manually open the blog in a browser over checking it up in an RSS reader, you may have noticed I’ve just now made a few additions to my blogroll (Favorite Haunts, right sidebar) that were frankly quite overdue (though some of which I’ve only just discovered). In the spirit of both plogging^* some decent locales and (of course) self-indulgence, I thought I’d dump a list of my RSS reader entries here along with a quick explanation of why you should also already be following them as religiously (har) as I do.

Blogging Fodder Collectors

• Bad Astronomy – Phil Plait (aka Bad Astronomer)
  One of the skeptiverse’s central hubs of critical thinking, Phil’s blog is a delightfully quirky mix of level-headedness, debunkings of anything from antivaccination lunacy to perennial (and perennially bogus) end-of-the-world myths, amusing(ly bad) Photoshopped images, geekery, and (of course) more astronomy than you can shake a telescope at. A reliable source of magnificent photos.

• Pharyngula) – PZ Myers
  Arguably the most well-known atheist in the blogosphere, PZ helms the most popular science-themed blog on the ’Net, and for good reason. This is the place to go for all your needs regarding biting sarcasm, mallet-like doses of reality, hardlined anti-theism, expertise in science (specifically evolutionary biology) and all-around anti-stupidity and ignorance. I don’t always agree with his views (or his obvious enjoyment in being a firebrand, nor his childish poll-crashing), but in general, a more than welcome inclusion to any skeptic’s reading list. Also, has a peculiar fetish for cephalopods.

• Dispatches from the Culture – Ed Brayton
  If not my favorite blog(ger), then easily the one from whom I get the majority of my blogging fodder. If you’re looking for sharp and concise (and informative) retorts to idiots and ignorami saying or doing bad things, especially regarding legal/criminal or church-and-state issues, Ed’s always happy to deliver.

Fail Quote: FRC’s McClusky upset over efforts to end anti-gay bullying

Tom McClusky [source]

From the Family Research Council’s Vice President of Government Affairs, Tom McClusky, decrying the Obama administration’s push for anti-bullying policies over fears that they would force anti-gay bigots to stop persecuting LGBT kids:

MCCLUSKY: It’s ironic that when the President was trying to push this bullying program that he cited that he was once bullied as a child, because that’s exactly what his policies are leading to, is bullying by the federal government and by a homosexual agenda that seeks to make children hide their Christianity and their religion in the closet, and to silence those who would speak out against what they don’t believe.

What a tragedy that would be. Cry me an fucking ocean. There are thousands upon thousands of boys and girls undergoing ridiculous torment in US schools – some even being pushed to taking their own lives – because of their sexuality (even when they’re only perceived as being gay), yet the ones McClusky chooses to get all verklempt over are the bullies?

It gets harder and harder not to just assume that these people really have no humanity, their hearts and minds replaced with religious bigotry and suffering from a complete absence of empathy for those undergoing actual hardships and injustices.

Hitchens lays it out about deathbed conversions

To enjoy while I’m away, here’s Christopher Hitchens explaining why it’s wrong that society permits random folks probing sick or terminal people about their possible deathbed conversions, something that is supremely none of their business, just because it’s done in the name of God.

Still as brilliant and eloquent as ever. We need more of him.

(via Diaphanitas)

Daily Blend: Friday, March 18, 2011

Cllr. Michael Thompson [source]

Here’s hoping to get some decent I, Equitator fodder (and some halfway decent pics) today …

• Some good news: Arizona legislature votes down every recent anti-immigration bill. Now for that big one that went into effect a few months back …
  (via @todayspolitics)

• Justice Department report finds New Orleans Police Department might be the most widely corrupt and incompetent of them all.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• Fox Nation’s history of blatant race-baiting.

• Toronto, Ontario councillor Michael Thompson thought his office would be better off with a $300 religious blessing on the day of his inauguration.
  (via Melissa McCarthy)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Iowa House Republicans pass bill to cover up animal abuse

Not in places with wrongdoing occurring. Signed, Republicans

Oh, how deliciously (yet horrifyingly) revealing. Just over a week after we learned that Florida Republicans wanted to ban the photography of farms over vague concerns of intellectual property infringement, it now appears that Republican legislators in Iowa took inspiration from Uzza's snarky comment and have now passed a bill that would prevent the hiring of animal rights activists on farms with the explicit aim of stopping them from secretly filming various atrocities being committed there:

The bill has had strong support from farmers angered by repeated releases of secretly filmed videos claiming to show the mistreatment of farm animals. It was introduced after groups around the nation released videos showing cows being shocked, pigs being beaten and chicks ground up alive.

The Republican-led House approved the measure 65-27. It must pass the Democratic-controlled Senate and be signed by Republican Gov. Terry Branstad to become law.

The bill would make it illegal to secretly record and distribute videos and punish those who take jobs on farms only to gain access to record animals' treatment. Penalties include up to five years in prison and fines of up to $7,500.

As if that wasn’t twisted enough, bill proponents are actually arguing that this legislation would actually encourage farm workers to report abuse more often:

Rep. Annette Sweeney, the bill's manager, said she thinks the bill will lead people to report abuse when they see it rather than wait and publicize it.

"As a livestock producer, I want people to feel if they see something going on, this bill empowers them," said Sweeney, an Alden Republican and a rancher.

What sort of mental gymnastics does one have to pull off to claim that a bill intended specifically to criminalize the revealing of agricultural animal cruelty to the public would actually lead to more of these cases being exposed? You know, I’m not too sure if Rep. Sweeney is being all that honest, here.

And as if that reasoning weren’t egregious enough:

Friday Canine: Happy puppy

[source | full size (1804×1288)]

Take the Preliator 2011 reader survey!

First of all: No, I did not totally rip off Jen’s own idea for a blog readership survey. (Again.) Truth be told, I had been considering launching another survey for a few weeks, but never got around to it. I figured today, with my backlog of things to get done, would present a prime opportunity to start collecting some reader data, so here you go:

Take the Preliator Survey 2011!
(Survey closes April 01, 2011 at midnight.)

Now, last year’s survey attracted a total of 18 responses. Now, my Google Analytics data tells me that Preliator is receiving nearly twice as much monthly traffic as it was in the same period of last year (*obligatory moment of pride*), so that means I’ll be expecting at least 30 responses this time. Think you can live up to the challenge, my dear urchins?

(Yes, I’m aware it’s time I thought of a halfway-clever nickname for my blog readers.)

I’m busy, so enjoy Rep. Weiner’s latest mocking of the GOP

I’ve got a couple of movies I’m quite keen on watching before the stroke of midnight (if only so I don’t go to bed tomorrow morning at seven again), a number of online articles to read, a book to continue revising (now at chapter 14 of 19!), and any number of things to do in between (which may or may not include enjoying some hot, wonderful … uh, food). That, and I’ve got another two posts I intend to make before tending to any of it. So, while I get to it, you can just lay back and enjoy this video of Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) mocking the crap out of House Republicans for holding an “emergency session” with the sole purpose of defunding NPR. It’s a fun watch.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got another yearly survey to set up …

(via @todayspolitics)

Daily Blend: Thursday, March 17, 2011

Sharron Angle [source]

• Texas aims to stop the long-enduring scourge that is academic discrimination against … Creationists.

• New report: New York City blew roughly $75 million on nearly 350,000 low-level, non-violent marijuana possession arrests in 2010. Numbers only expected to climb.

• Guess who’s running for Congress? Sharron “Second Amendment remedies” Angle.
  (via Right Wing Watch)

• PZ Myers has a great post about how successful marriages are built on “secular, atheist” (and overall liberal) values of love and trust, rather than the bonds from socio-political pressure that right-wing authoritarians espouse.

• Roger Ebert posts his reflections on thinking about music. It’s surprisingly close to how I feel about it.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Dr. Mehmet Oz [source | full size (×)]

• Dr. Oz [pictured] sinks ever lower, now featuring professional conman John Edward.

• This sick bastard really stretches the limits of what counts as free speech.
  (via The Agitator)

• Canadian citizenship guide now includes reference to gay and lesbian rights. Weee.

• Interesting question: Why is there no looting in Japan? (My guess: A culture that promotes values of honor and conformity over self-serving hooliganism.)
  (via The Agitator)

• I can actually get behind this God Hates Japan website. (Sad; it used to start with “No, you asshole …”.)
  (via Friendly Atheist)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Supplemental tags: God Hates Japan.com • Satire/Parody • Websites/Blogs