Vox Day: Women should rely on daddy to choose their husbands

Our ol’ pal Theodore “Vox Day” Beale, who’s never encountered a form of misogyny he didn’t take to and spin as a means of preserving (his grotesque ideal of) society, has a suggestion for stripping women of their most basic autonomy:

Who Nose asks a pertinent question:

"If you want to understand why women are not permitted serve in Church leadership, and why human societies do not survive more than a few generations of young women being permitted to choose their own spouses"

It begs the question: Who ought to choose their spouses?

The Church?
The Father?
The Mother?
The State?

The question is further begged: What kind of law would need to be passed to enforce the choosing of a spouse.

Finally, another question is begged: What would you do with the 99% of women who responded to the suggestion or the law with, "F*ck Off"?

1. The Father, with the advice of the Mother.
2. No law is necessary. Simply informing their daughter that a woman who is capable of choosing her own spouse is clearly also capable of paying for her own college education and supporting her own lifestyle decisions will suffice for most parents. If a woman is independent enough to insist on paying her own way in order to pursue a career, she's probably not wife-and-mother material anyhow and would likely end up a reproductive dead end regardless the options she is afforded. We can always hope that instead of children, such a woman will contribute some revolutionary Powerpoint slideshows to society, produce a cure for cancer, or introduce some truly ground-breaking HR policies that will change the world for the better.
3. I would simply wish them the best of fortune in their future endeavors. But the number won't be anywhere nearly that high because women are, first and foremost, the practical sex.

Daily Blend: 04/29/13

James McCormick

Canada is apparently eager to show that it can pass horrible and repressive laws in the name of “national security”, too.
(via @ioerror; RT: @ggreenwald)

A win for reality: James McCormick ^[pictured], who made millions by selling completely useless “dowsing rod”-style bomb detectors, is finally convicted of fraud (after hundreds have already perished).

LGBT history milestone: NBA center Jason Collins becomes first active US big-league sports player to come out as gay.

And finally, Glenn Beck tragically wins wrong kind of Darwin award.

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

Wales measles epidemic traced to antivaccination lunacy

It looks like the antivaccination movement has yet another cause to celebrate:

More than 800 people have been diagnosed with measles in Swansea[, Wales] in this recent outbreak. People are lining up to get their vaccinations, and a campaign has been started to get more people vaccinated, which is a good thing; I just hope it’s in time. But with so many people contracting the illness, serious repercussions are almost inevitable.

Wales has had low Measles/Mumps/Rubella (MMR) vaccination rates for some time … since about 1998, in fact, when Andrew Wakefield published his bogus study in the Lancet falsely linking the MMR vaccine to autism.

Once again, he, Jenny McCarthy and the various Orwellianly-named vaccine “safety” groups out there must be ever so proud.

‘The Daily Show’ compares gun control in US and Australia

Nothing brings the US’s struggles with adopting even the most rudimentary gun safety measures into perspective better than taking a gander at other countries that have already enacted sensible gun control. Here’s a very revealing three-part series from The Daily Show where John Oliver heads goes Down Under for one heck of a study in contrasts, both societal and political:

Left & Right: Boston bombing caused by our pet causes

Tamerlan & Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

Whether it’s from boxing-induced brain damage …

Could the amateur boxing career of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the deceased suspect in last week’s Boston Marathon bombings, have had a role in the massacre? That’s a question leading brain researchers at Boston University’s School of Medicine hope medical examiners look into when they perform an autopsy of the 26-year-old who was killed during a firefight with law enforcement officials early Friday morning.

[…]

“Is it possible that some changes might have gone on in his overall functioning due to his boxing and potentially related brain disease? Yes,’’ said [Dr. Robert Stern]. “Anything is possible. But to then jump to the disease leading to well-planned behavior like this, I couldn’t go there.’’

… or marijuana-induced brain damage …

Accuracy in Media’s Cliff Kincaid is citing reports that the two Boston marathon bombers may have been drug dealers and that “the younger brother was a pothead” to argue “that dope’s effect on the brain is what may have led him into his brother’s terror activities.”

… it’s always reassuring to watch both the Left and Right go to ridiculous lengths to try and shoehorn an as-of-yet unexplained act of terrorism into their pet issues, especially if it allows them to eschew any uncomfortable discussion about possibly complex and nuanced factors in favor of a lazy and uselessly simplistic answer like “their brains work wrong!”.

Another young victim of vaccine-preventable disease

Another family falls victim to anti-vaccination hysteria, another young child pays the ultimate price:

Orange County health officials said a baby died from whooping cough last week.

This is the first whooping cough death the county has seen in decades. Officials said it's been at least 20 years or more since someone died of the disease.

[…]

Officials said the family chose not to vaccinate their child. Some parents are choosing not to fully vaccinate their children because they worry there is a link between the vaccinations and autism.

Vaccines are safe, they’re usually cheap (when not free), and they work. This is scientific fact. The only people pretending otherwise are dingbats who don’t know any better and frauds focusing on their bottom line, both at the expense of an easily misled public.

Get your damn kids vaccinated, people.

(via @mistressmousey; RT: @BadAstronomer)

Today in bad Christianist analogies: Homosexuality vs. adultery

The unquestioned masters of horrible analogies are at it again: Here’s a delightfully nauseating video (in both style and substance) from Christianist group Faith2Action that tries to show why homosexuality is wrong … by comparing it to adultery:

My transcript (yes, you may feel sorry for me now):

TOM and his WIFE are seated on their couch. Both are overweight; Tom is neckbearded.^[1]

TOM: What I’m trying to say is … I have these desires, these … urges … and if I don’t act on them, I’m not really being true to myself.^[2] You love me, right?

WIFE: Of course I love you, Tom!

TOM: If you love me, you’ll support what I do, who I am! I’m … an adulterer!

Tom turns towards his MISTRESS, seated aside him and with whom he’s holding hands. (Not sure how his wife didn’t notice her.) Mistress is even more overweight and is clad in a glitzy purple top and necklace(s?), heavy makeup and sports a gaudy hairstyle.^[3]

TOM: Wow, that felt so good to say out loud!

MISTRESS: I am so proud of you for finally coming out!^[4]

TOM: [to wife] Well? Aren’t you proud of me?

WIFE: I, um …

TOM: Huh, I’m feeling a bit judged, here! Aren’t we, honey?^[5]

Daily Blend: 04/24/13

Deepak Chopra

I promise I’m not dead! I think. Just reading a lot. And trying to work on my songs.

Also, the searchbar to the right now includes an image search. Just so you know.

A proposal: How about parents put on probation after killing one sick child with prayer lose custody of their remaining kids before they kill another one?

CNN is just actively trying to punish its viewers at this point.

What’s more hilarious than über-crackpot Deepak Chopra ^[pictured] whining about TED “censoring” pseudoscientific talks? (No, really, what?)

And finally, I’ve updated ‘A Morning by the Sea’ over at Creativitas.

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

Donald Trump totes burns “overrated” JEW Jon Stewart

Presented for your enjoyment:

I promise you that I'm much smarter than Jonathan Leibowitz - I mean Jon Stewart @thedailyshow. Who, by the way, is totally overrated.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 24, 2013

I imagine The Donald being a failed high school class president candidate who pompously demands that everyone else respect his Very Smart Opinions^TM while everyone else, teacher included, don’t even bother to hide their laughter.

(via Wonkette)

Daily Blend: 04/20/13

With that hurdle out of the way, time to play catch-up:

Only functioning abortion clinic in Mississippi gets a temporary reprieve from being shut down by anti-abortion legislators.
(via @breakingpol; RT: @BreakingNews)

Rio de Janeiro becomes tenth Brazilian state to legalize same-sex marriage.
(via Joe. My. God.)

Imagine that an eighth-grader gets suspended, arrested and charged for wearing an anti-gun shirt to school. Now, imagine it’s a pro-gun shirt. Any difference?
(via @radleybalko)

And finally, the Family Research Council gets busted for blatantly bullshitting about the Boy Scouts. Why, exactly, does anyone still take these pathological liars seriously again?
(via Joe. My. God.)

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

The conspiracy theory flowchart THEY don’t want you to see

You know what it means if you read this, right?

[full size (963×1600)]

That’s right: Now you know too much. They’re onto you.

(via Pharyngula, whose host has finally lost his mind)

Australia: Vaccines (once again) proven safe and effective

It’s more restating the obvious, but that doesn’t make it less worthwhile:

Some good vaccine news for a change: A vaccine against human papillomavirus (HPV) appears to be working. HPV causes genital warts, and can lead to cervical cancer in women. In Australia, which began use of the HPV vaccine in 2007, cases of genital warts in young women aged 12 - 26 dropped 59 percent, and 39 percent for men. Not only that, but cervical abnormalities dropped as well—a glimmer of hope that for these vaccinated women, their chance of getting cervical cancer is dropping as well.

Meanwhile, US scientists and medical workers are still struggling to get the American populace to understand that Gardasil will not turn teenaged girls into sex-crazed nymphos by demonic possession or something. Then again, this is the same country that’s facing more and more outbreaks of easily preventable diseases (some of them deadly) because of baseless and endlessly disproven fears that shots turn children into Rain Man, so you can only expect so much in the end.

Americans: Picking themselves off by passing repressive laws

How long before this passes from cynical prediction to reality?

Transcript: (click the [+/-] to open/close →)

[−]

PATRIOTIC MAN: (reacting to Boston bombing) We must not succumb to tragedy.

---

PATRIOTIC MAN: We’re Americans.

---

PATRIOTIC MAN: (comforting weeping bald eagle and Lady Liberty) Let’s pick ourselves up. Dust ourselves off.

---

PATRIOTIC MAN: (as SWAT trooper brandishing shock baton; drone flies in BG) And pass some repressive laws.

Considering how the surviving suspect, a Chechen-born naturalized US citizen, has already had his Miranda rights suspended (raising the question of why they’re even called “rights” if they’re ignored so easily and routinely), probably not very long at all. If there’s one thing the US has a proven knack for, it’s ignoring the cautionary words of its own beloved Founding Fathers.

Matt Bors adds a little commentary (it’s a few days old, before the alleged terrorists were identified):

As news of the Boston bombing was coming in I was this rush to assign blame to either right-wing patriot types or Muslim terrorists depending on if you were a liberal or conservative. I guess the idea was to score some political points off the dead blown apart bodies by demonizing an entire group. I won’t be surprised if it’s either group, but maybe we should wait until there’s a shred of evidence pointing to a culprit before we make ourselves look like a horse’s ass. There will be plenty of time in the coming weeks for demonizing, overreaction, and further militarizing our local police forces.

(via @ggreenwald)

My art blog: Introducing Creativitas!

If I’ve been quieter than usual this week, the reason is I’ve been spending every day planning, designing and coding (and coding, and coding, and …) a brand-new website that I’m now – finally – ready to unveil. You might remember the false start I had ’round last Christmastime when I tried to set up a separate art blog to try and keep my creative works from being tainted by all my inflammatory political rhetoric (heh). Well, I’ve now gone ahead and finished the job.

Now presenting:

Creativitas

(It took me an inordinately long time to come up with such an obvious name.)

All my music, stories and art has already been ported over there and backdated to their original publication dates, here. I’ll now be replacing their instances here with redirects (rather than deleting them outright, which would screw up links and post counts and other details). From now on, the only time I’ll be mentioning my creative works here is to post the occasional notice whenever I’ve updated something over on Creativitas.

So … that’s about it, then. Off you go, and don’t be afraid to sate my hunger for yummy, nourishing feedback. (Pretty please?)

---

UPDATE: 04/20/13 1:42 AM ET —

Finished. All posts here have been redirected and their comments closed.

Arkansas Republican mocks pro-gun-control “Boston liberals”

Rep. Nate Bell (R-AK)

I don’t have anything noteworthy to add regarding the almost Kafkaesque week the US is going through (not to mention that I’ve been unusually busy with a quasi-secret project that I’ll be unveiling soon). At this point, the most that any rational and decent people can do if unable to offer any direct assistance to those affected in Massachusetts, Texas, Illinois and wherever else calamity has struck in the last few days is to send their hearts and thoughts out to the victims and their close ones.

Or, in the case of Rep. Nate Bell (R-AK), mock them:

I wonder how many Boston liberals spent the night cowering in their homes wishing they had an AR-15 with a hi-capacity magazine? #2A

— Nate Bell (@NateBell4AR) April 19, 2013

Because the only thing to help in a massive police manhunt over an act of violence is a terrified and outraged mob taking to the streets with even more fucking guns.

Better yet, Bell later non-apologized for the timing of his statement, rather than having said such a ludicrously inappropriate thing at all. Because taunting the victims of terrorism should always be kept until after all their blood and tears have ceased to flow. Like, give it a week or something.

(via ThinkProgress)

New Zealand legalizes same-sex marriage

And the land of orcses and Hobbitses makes 13:

New Zealand's parliament has legalised same-sex marriage, the first country in the Asia-Pacific region to do so.

Lawmakers approved the bill, amending the 1955 marriage act, despite opposition from Christian lobby groups.

The bill was passed with a wide majority, with 77 votes in favour and 44 against.

This comes less than a week since Uruguay became the 12^th country to pass LGBT marriage equality, following Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, South Africa, and Sweden. (Johnny Cash would be proud.) Meanwhile, gay marriage is all but imminent in both France and Britain as well.

Sure sucks to be homophobic these days, don’t it?

Daily Blend: 04/15/13

Gitmo

My thoughts and hopes go to Boston, MA today. How utterly senseless.

Alternate lede: “Sure, Gitmo detainees ^[pictured] were captured without charges and illegally imprisoned far away from home for many years with zero due process … but hey, they get to enjoy books and videogames (in between all that sleep deprivation and waterboarding)!”
(via @ggreenwald)

In response to UK’s current measles epidemic, The Independent gives platform to discredited quack responsible for modern anti-vaccination movement. (They later retracted the article.)

Canadian feminist becomes latest target of those compassionate, “human rights”-oriented Men’s Rights Activists.

And finally, here’s what religion has done for us this month:

Transcript: (click the [+/-] to open/close →)

[−]

Massive Islamic protests in Bangladesh calling for the hanging of “blasphemous” bloggers;

The New Zealand Herald: “Beheadings in Papua New Guinea for sorcery”;

Five Jerusalem women arrested for violating Israeli law by praying out loud in public, which ultra-orthodox men find “provocative”;

The Guardian: “Muslim Brotherhood backlash against UN declaration on women rights”;

Hamas in Gaza Strip orders genderal segregation in all schools;

BBC News: “Kenya condom advert pulled after religious complaints”;

French man Wilfred de Bruijn assaulted and beaten for walking with his boyfriend in public;

Large anti-gay protests in Paris, France against pending same-sex marriage legislation;

Gay Star News: “Gay man ‘stoned to death’ in Somalia”;

Senior pastor Bertheophilus M. Bailey Sr. at Claremore, OK’s Mount Zion Baptist Church charged with punching his son in the face;

WHNT.com: “Former Franklin County Pastor Charged With Sexual Torture, Abuse”;

Teacher at Pleasanton, CA’s Centerpointe Christian Preschool ties up two-year-old girl for refusing to nap;

The Times: “Priest accused of sexual abuse at West Sussex children’s home”;

Indiana megachurch pastor Jack Schapp fired and jailed for molesting troubled 16-year-old girl across state lines;

BBC News: “Ex-priest Patrick McCabe sentenced for child abuse”;

Pastor Artelino Vallada at Toronto, CA’s Jesus Christ the Open Door Church charged with sexually assaulting four girls and women;

Irish Central: “Irish Priest accused of sexual abuse pleads with Pope Francis not to be dismissed from Church”;

Police confiscate computers from priest’s home after tracing downloads of child porn to his parish offices;

RTE News: “South African cardinal says paedophilia 'not a criminal condition'” [Which it isn’t. Child molestation is. Get it right, people. —JM]

Priest Angel Perez of Woodburn, OR’s Saint Luke Catholic Church accused of molesting 12-year-old boy;

al.com: “Former Wetumpka youth pastor sentenced to 10 years in prison in sexual abuse of child”;

Rev. David Kramer jailed for molesting young boys in US and Australia;

PostBulletin.com: “Oregon priest gets 6 years for child sex abuse”;

Associate pastor Darin Evans at Elmhurst, IL’s West Suburban Community Church imprisoned for having sex with an underaged girl in public spaces;

PressTV: “Austrian former priest charged with sexual abuse of minors”;

Rev. James Burnett of Mokena, IL’s Saint Mary’s Parish accused of molesting several young boys in his care; diocese accused of knowingly sheltering crooked priests;

Pink News: “Cardinal O’Brien alleged to have been in long-standing physical relationship with male priest”;

North Carolina Republican lawmakers propose bill to establish state religion (bill has since failed);

Oneindia: “Rajasthan: Video reveals family commits suicide to meet god”; and

Woman at church asks worshipers give “$100”, “$1,000” or “$150,000” if they can.

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

Houston restaurant’s beer sales pitch: domestic violence humor!

Snark fails me: Why would anyone, anywhere, ever think this was a good idea?

No, really. I understand the concept of no publicity being bad publicity and all that, but … really?

Some people are weird in a very frightening way.

(via ThinkProgress)

Reorganizing my music; songs offline for a while [updated]

As often happens, I’ve had a sudden change of heart and decided to revamp the folder structure for my music. Which means I have to go and manually rearrange every folder in my FileDen account. Which means changing the MP3 files’ URLs. Which means they’ll all be broken links that I then need to replace (again, manually) across this blog.

I think I hate myself now.

Oh, well. Will update when done. Expect songs to alternate between on- and offline until then.

---

UPDATE: 04/14/13 11:00 PM ET —

Okay, I guess that didn’t take as absurdly long as it usually does. All finished, songs fixed, bedtime.

Local man debunks evolution, sets sights on gravity next

In which local Californian paper Contra Costa Times prints this cogent and thorough debunking of Evolutionary Theory:

Evolution is a fantasy

Jayne Thomas, in her March 29 letter, "Evolution is not a 'viewpoint'," is right in insisting evolution isn't a viewpoint.

The fantasy, not theory, of evolution supposedly works by survival of the fittest. Fittest for what?
Fittest to survive? So evolution merely asserts that those who survive, survive.

My friend, God, nearly laughed his head off when he heard that one.

Raphael Sealey

Berkeley

To be fair, anyone who still has imaginary friends is probably going to believe some pretty dumb things, anyway.

(via Friendly Atheist)

From reasonable regulation of dangerous instruments to tyranny

Yet again, nothing tears through wingnuts’ delusions like a little bit of satire. Here’s Tom the Dancing Bug’s take on all the raging and whining from gun nuts who can’t possibly see reasonable gun control as anything else than an insidious government plot to ban all guns (presumably to leave the sheeple defenseless against a UN invasion to bring about a New World Order, or something):

Transcript: (click the [+/-] to open/close →)

[−]

BLOND-HAIRED MAN: I’ve heard tell that private citizens were once allowed to own them.

---

BLOND-HAIRED MAN: How did we Americans lose that precious right of ownership?

---

BLACK-HAIRED MAN: I know not. Let us ask the very old one. Perhaps he remembers.

---

BLACK-HAIRED MAN: Very old one, how did it happen? How did the government…

VERY OLD MAN: Shhh! There are government ears everywhere!

---

VERY OLD MAN: Long ago, we were happy and free. Responsible owners made sure they were stored and used properly.

---

VERY OLD MAN: Then the government said we’d have to register each and every one of them.

---

VERY OLD MAN: It seemed reasonable. They are dangerous things. But I know what the government really wanted.

---

I and others fought it with all our strength. But the feds needed this foothold and would not be denied.

---

VERY OLD MAN: We lost. And the government had taken the first step on its inexorable path.

---

VERY OLD MAN: Soon after the registration requirement, sure enough, suddenly you needed a license to use one.

---

VERY OLD MAN: Next you were prohibited from owning one without holding insurance! Then came the final step that brought us to today…

---

VERY OLD MAN: The illegalization of car ownership!

BLOND-HAIRED MAN: The fools! Reasonable regulation of dangerous instruments always leads to tyranny!

(via Political Irony)

Is this how celebrities destroy their reputation?

Justin Bieber

I guess I’m a disbelieber now, too:

Yesterday night Justin Bieber visited the Anne Frank House, together with his friends and guards. Fans were waiting outside to see a glimpse of him. He stayed more than an hour in the museum. In our guestbook he wrote: "Truly inspiring to be able to come here. Anne was a great girl. Hopefully she would have been a belieber."

Yeah … if only she hadn’t been too busy hiding from a genocidal regime to fantasize about the teen pop sensation du jour.

(I was, of course, only joking with that title – it’s offenses like getting drunk at home or false accusations that ruin celebrities, not merely being so egocentric that they presumably sleep with plushies of themselves.)

(via Pharyngula)

Vox Day vs. “squee”

Vox Day

Little is more amusing than watching some wannabe armchair psychologist try to analyze a given person or phenomenon, particularly through the prism of the Internet, and wind up so far off the mark they need a search & rescue team to find them. That’s probably why I find such enjoyment in reading this lecture by everyone’s favorite übermensch-in-his-own-mind, Theodore “Vox Day” Beale, about how Real Men^TM wouldn’t be caught dead using such a girly term as “squee” in any context, no way, no how:

The binding is not ideological, but socio-sexual. Now, I don't happen to know what "one of Correia's Alphas" might be, but I find it very hard to conceive that Perlhaqr is either a sexual ALPHA as per Roissy or an Alpha Male according to the socio-sexual hierarchy. He might as convincingly attempt to defend his predilection for hair-braiding or high heels. Alphas do not menstruate, they do not use their iPhones to self-shoot in bathrooms, (they seldom have iPhones in the first place), and they most assuredly do not "squee" over anything.

I see we have a newbie, here. Hi, Vox! Welcome to the Internet. TV Tropes shall be your guide.

One can be excited. One can be pumped, jacked, or psyched. One can rejoice, one can enthuse, and one can celebrate. But one can no more be an alpha male and "squee" than one can queef, lactate, or get pregnant. Only gamma males like McRapey, who revel in their perverse delusions, consider it not only fitting, but downright cool, to express themselves in terms that are popularized and primarily utilized by junior high school girls.

Wow, Mean Girls was, like, totes right about how complicated – and very, very bitchy – all this social stuff is. But please, tell me more about how to conform with the the MRA-Approved Manly Vocabulary for Socially Insecure Males:

Should he wish to lower the probability of attractive adult women recoiling in disappointment, disgust and outright horror, Perlhaqr may also wish to consider excising "OMG", "ZOMG", "soooooooo", and "One Direction" from his vocabulary.

You may take our ‘OMG’s and our ‘Biebz Foreverz’s, but you will never take our smileys! =(

Today’s moment of funny was brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of Rigidly Narrow Social Roles and Antiquated Norms. (You’re welcome.)

Doggycide Roundup: 04/13/13

Casmere

Walterboro, SC (03/20/13): Deputy searching for burglary suspect shoots Zazzie the Labrador mix when it allegedly ran at him, despite having reportedly never shown aggression before. Zazzie later euthanized. Department naturally “stands behind” the “self-defense” killing.
(via Dogs Shot by Police | Facebook)

Coral Springs, FL (03/24/13): Officers chase suspects into fenced yard with American bulldog that got defensive upon seeing intruders, then shoot & kill the “charg[ing]” dog.
(via Dogs Shot by Police | Facebook)

Sioux Falls, SD (03/26/13): Leashed pitbull allegedly pulls away from owner, “chase[s]” a young boy after allegedly biting three others, then gets shot after biting an officer who tried to force him into his patrol car. Dog was later euthanized at vet’s.
(via Dogs Shot by Police | Facebook)

Rock Hill, NC (04/03/13): Officer shoots & kills pitbull that broke from its collar and allegedly “charged”. Second pitbull killed by police department in the same week.
(via Dogs Shot by Police | Facebook)

Memphis, TN (uncertain date): Officer shoots & kills Marley the pitbull mix after he allegedly “charg[ed]” him and bit a painter. Owner unhappy with lack of non-lethal attempts.
(via Dogs Shot by Police | Facebook)

Detroit, MI (04/06/13): Police drug squad shoots five unleashed and “vicious” pitbulls in their fenced yard for being in the officers’ way. Only one dog ^[pictured] survives.
(via Dogs Shot by Police | Facebook)

Myrtle Beach, SC (04/09/13): Officers responding to domestic dispute allegedly bitten (but not injured) by, and then shoot & kill, family’s large retriever dog. Commenter claiming to be owner’s daughter disputes the police’s account in the article comments.
(via Dogs Shot by Police | Facebook)

Statistics:
Shootings: 7 · Victims: 11 · Deceased: 10 · Survivors: 1 · Power Breeds* (dogs stereotypically maligned as “aggressive”: pitbulls, rottweilers, dobermans, etc.): 9

Dreams

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

Daily Blend: 04/12/13

Audrie Pott (15)

Understatement of the Day: “It turns out that the Obama administration has not been honest about who the CIA has been targeting with drones in Pakistan.”
(via @ggreenwald)

I just don’t have the patience (or stomach) today to write about the horrific Kermit Gosnell case, other than to affirm how it’s the perfect argument for why abortion should be fully legalized and easily accessible to ensure women never need to resort to such barbarity out of desperation.

Ditto with Vox Day’s predictably pathetic rant about how pro-choicers are all worse than Nazis and so on.

Another teenaged girl ^[pictured] commits suicide to escape persecution resulting from the publicization of her student gang-rape. Now to watch the rape-culture-soaked media fret over those poor arrested rapists. (Again.)
(via Pharyngula)

Appeals court denies Virginia AG Ken Cuccinelli’s petition to bring back anti-sodomy law.
(via Joe. My. God.)

Uruguay becomes latest country to legalize same-sex marriage.

And finally, Cracked presents some popular online myths, revised for accuracy.

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

Poll: Majority supports gay marriage (and opposes abortion)

Here’s yet another poll, this one by CBS and The Wall Street Journal, showing just how greatly the tides have turned in only a few short years:

Two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two highly publicized gay-marriage cases, a majority of Americans continue to say they support same-sex marriage, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

Fifty-three percent of respondents favor allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry, which is up 2 points since the NBC/WSJ survey last asked this question in December, though that increase is within the poll’s margin of error.

It’s kind of awesome how ho-hum these polls are getting already.

And now to sour the mood:

According to the survey, a combined 52 percent say that abortion should be illegal either with exceptions or without them, versus a combined 45 percent who say it should be legal either “always” or “most of the time.”

This is a reversal from the NBC/WSJ poll in January, when a majority – for the first time – said abortion should be legal in some form or fashion.

I guess this means we can’t really trust the hoi polloi to decide who gets to enjoy basic civil rights or not after all.

Ted Nugent tragically still not “dead or in jail” like he promised

Ted Nugent

Dammit, wingnuts always break their promises. Here’s rabid gun nut and all-around crazypants Ted Nugent addressing the NRA exactly one year ago this Sunday:

"If Barack Obama becomes the president in November, again, I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year. Why are you laughing? Do you think that's funny? That's not funny at all. I'm serious as a heart attack."

*glances at calendar*

To be fair, the Nuge should probably be used to people laughing whenever he’s around.

(via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

NOM: Same-sex couples destroying marriage retroactively

It’s apparent that any wingnut group that could interpret data rationally and honestly would no longer be a wingnut group. Giving credence to this theory now is the virulently homophobic National Organization for Marriage, which recently posted this graph to their Facebook page:

It’s unsourced, so I can’t immediately confirm its credibility, but it appears to mesh with US Census data at a glance.

Now, a reasonable person might look at this data and understand that marital rates have been in a continuous and steady decline for at least 50 years (and presumably longer, given the rate of decline present at the start of the graph), presumably as a result of an increasingly liberal culture that rejects forcing partners to remain trapped in loveless or hostile unions and encourages people to wait until they’re more certain of who they are and what they want in life before deciding to settle down.

And then, there’s NOM’s interpretation:

Marriage rates down, out-of-wedlock birth rates up. Conservatives may have correctly predicted the consequences of same-sex marriage.

Amazing – gay and lesbian couples are so pervasive and noxious that they’re actually destroying society retroactively, starting decades before they were even allowed to marry anywhere in the world! Maybe these arch-conservative groups are onto something after all.

(Or just on something. Something with strong reality-altering properties.)

(via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

Church Sign of the Day: Lamest adult movie night *ever*

Some Christians really don’t hide their love of snuff, now do they?

(via Joe. My. God.)

Congressman Barton: Biblical Flood means drill, baby, drill

Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX)

Renowned oil shill Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) presents a novel argument to support his view that the US should totally greenlight the Keystone pipeline because humans aren’t responsible for that pesky climate change, anyway:

Barton then cited the biblical Great Flood as an example of climate change not caused by man.

"I would point out that if you're a believer in in the Bible, one would have to say the Great Flood is an example of climate change and that certainly wasn't because mankind had overdeveloped hydrocarbon energy."

I believe I have a new one for PZ Myers: “Bible-thumping dingbats wouldn’t be in any position to influence public or environmental policy based on ancient fairy tales.”

Daily Blend: 04/09/13

Rehtaeh Parsons

Another teenaged rape victim ^[pictured] falls victim to rape culture and takes her own life.

Today in pearl-clutching hilarity: Exposing the top “facilitators” of the US’s “porn pandemic”, including Google Play and the American Library Association! (Also: Bonus video featuring Morality in Media’s resident porn-awareness girl scout.)

Westboro Baptist Church to complete Roger Ebert’s awesome legacy.
(via Joe. My. God.)

And finally, I break my practice of ignoring such things by pointing out that the US Interior Department’s Instagram gallery is chock-full of fuckin’ awesomeness like this:
(via BuzzFeed)

[source | full size (607×600)]

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

France foots the whole bill for abortion and birth control

While some places are still struggling to provide half the population with proper reproductive healthcare, France has it figured out:

As of April 1 the French state will reimburse 100 percent of the cost of abortions while teenage girls will be offered free and anonymous contraception.

The French state will reimburse 100 percent of the cost of abortions beginning April 1, while girls aged between 15 and 18 will be offered access to free and anonymous birth control.

The change comes as a law approved in late 2012 comes into force.

Until now, French women over 18 could only receive up to 80 percent of the cost of the procedure, which can run up to 450 euros.

Better yet, the new president, François Hollande, seems to grasp the simple logic that sadly evades all but precious few politicians:

And by coupling it with free contraception for younger girls and women, France hopes to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies, and thus the number of abortions.

RAmen.

(via ThinkProgress)

Handy GOP-to-English guide

Ever find it confusing to translate all those illogical Republican talking points and dog whistles into plain English? Well, worry no more:

Transcript: (click the [+/-] to open/close →)

[−]

GOP Translator

“Family”: The War on Gays

“Pro-Life”: Pro-War, Pro-Death Penalty, and Pro-We Choose For You

“Religious Freedom”: Freedom to Spread Christianity

“War on Religion”: It’s unacceptable that our laws and culture aren’t based solely on my interpretation of the bible^{[caps sic]}

“Capitalism”: A market economy that’s rigged towards the “Job Creators”

“Job Creators”: The source of lobbying funds that keep the system rigged

“Class Warfare”: Stop pointing out that the system is rigged

“Elitist”: Educated

“Liberal bias”: The facts don’t fit our narrative

WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/KFV3Z

It truly is a scary, bizarre world they live in.

(via Political Irony)

Doggycide Roundup: 04/06/13

Rocko the German shepherd

It seems I forgot all about last week’s post. Mea culpa. Consider it a little reprieve, which ends … now.

Fresno, CA (uncertain date): Officers and a police dog chasing a domestic abuse suspect trespass into private yard, then shoot & kill Huera the resident pitbull when she naturally attacks the intruders.
(via Dogs Shot by Police | Facebook)

Greenfield, CA (uncertain date): Kids torment Rocko the German shepherd ^[pictured] in his backyard. Rocko gets angry, breaks out and chases kids away without attacking or injuring anyone, then returns home. Police arrive, shoot & kill Rocko in his yard.
(via Dogs Shot by Police | Facebook)

Chicago, IL (03/20/13): Middle-of-the-night no-knock drug raid results in Lokey the pitbull mix being shot & killed after barking and approaching the violent intruders. Owner maintains Lokey wasn’t aggressive.
(via @radleybalko)

Concord, CA (03/22/13): Police entering a homeless camp allegedly attacked by a “pitbull terrier”, shoot & injure the animal. Dog flees before being brought to a vet; current status unknown.
(via Dogs Shot by Police | Facebook)

Regina, Saskatchewan, CA (03/23/13): Police follow their K9 into a private yard with a chained pitbull; K9 and pitbull fight; officers fail to separate them, so they shoot & kill the pitbull.
(via Dogs Shot by Police | Facebook)

Auburn, WA (03/28/13): Officer investigating vandalism claim approaches home, allegedly gets attacked by Lala the pitbull who “jumped out of a window” and “growled” at him, then shoots & kills her.
(via Dogs Shot by Police | Facebook)

And finally, a palate cleanser: Another police department (this one in Arvada, CO) to receive additional dog behavior training to try and curb animal shootings.
(via Dogs Shot by Police | Facebook)

Statistics:
Shootings: 6 · Victims: 6 · Deceased: 5 · Survivors: 1 · Power Breeds* (dogs stereotypically maligned as “aggressive”: pitbulls, rottweilers, dobermans, etc.): 5

Another Venn diagram of irrational nonsense

Just two weeks after Crispian Jago gave us the Venn Diagram of Irrational Nonsense (a variant of Jago’s Periodic Table of Irrational Nonsense, which itself recently got upgraded), Imgur user dehydrationstation now presents an even more detailed and comprehensive version with “An Organized Collection of Irrational Nonsense” (previous versions here):

[full size (1024×1024)]

There’s something reassuring to the fact that no matter how wide the variety of ways these bollocks can be classified, Scientology will always have its spot of (dis)honor right in the middle of it all.

(via Friendly Atheist)

Daily Blend: 04/05/13

Joe Rogan

PZ Myers voices my exact thoughts concerning Sam Harris vs. Glenn Greenwald on “New Atheism” and Islamophobia.

Benevolent sexism in a nutshell: Compliments are nice; applying them to stereotype an entire category of people is less so. (See: “Asians are good at math”, “Blacks are good at sports”, etc.)
(via Pharyngula)

Phil Plait (the Bad Astronomer) isn’t happy with all this anti-vaccination, anti-global warming, anti-Constitution bullshit going around.

Today’s proudly bigoted “comedian”: Joe Rogan. ^[pictured] He’s since continued on Twitter, naturally.

And finally: “Give me a napkin quick. There's a turd floating through the air.” “I didn’t do it. It ain’t one of mine.” — actual astronauts aboard Apollo 10.

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

Federal judge strikes down age limits for morning-after pill

It’s once again up to the courts to inject a little sense into what should be an open-and-shut affair:

A federal judge ruled Friday that the government must make the most common morning-after pill available over the counter for all ages, instead of requiring a prescription for girls 16 and younger. In his ruling, he also accused the federal government of “bad faith” in dealing with the requests to make the pill universally available, and said its actions had been politically motivated.

The decision, on a fraught and politically controversial subject, comes after a decade-long fight over who should have access to the pill and under what circumstances. And it counteracts an unprecedented move by the Obama administration’s Health and Human Services secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, who in 2011 overruled a recommendation by the Food and Drug Administration to make the pill available for all ages without a prescription.

In a decision in a lawsuit filed by advocates, the judge, Edward R. Korman of Federal District Court, ruled that the government’s refusal to lift restrictions on access to the pill was “arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable.”

Judge Korman ordered the F.D.A. to lift any age and sale restrictions on the pill, Plan B One-Step, and its generic versions, within 30 days.

It still boggles the mind that Secretary Sebelius ruled against the FDA’s previous recommendation at all. But then, maybe I’m just used to living in a country where sense and reason prevail over some (usually religiously-rooted) prudish delusion that all those sweet little youths wouldn’t possibly engage in any naughty playtime together behind their parents’ backs, so why would they need access to birth control, anyway?

Hell, I’m such an unabashed desecrator of “traditional values” that I’d like to see all forms of birth control made available over-the-counter for all ages, and free of cost to boot. I’d even do the same with abortifacients, albeit with an added screening process, even though they aren’t remotely akin to contraception. (Not that the usual ignorant wankers care the slightest about such details.)

(via Joe. My. God.)

Ancient Peruvian mountain ice undone in two decades

Whoulda thunk it: Those conspiracy-mongering scientists are so influential with their all their “climate change”-talk that they’ve even got the weather around the globe going along with their crazy warnings:

Glacial ice in the Peruvian Andes that took at least 1,600 years to form has melted in just 25 years, scientists reported Thursday, the latest indication that the recent spike in global temperatures has thrown the natural world out of balance.

The evidence comes from a remarkable find at the margins of the Quelccaya ice cap in Peru, the world’s largest tropical ice sheet. Rapid melting there in the modern era is uncovering plants that were locked in a deep freeze when the glacier advanced many thousands of years ago.

[…]

Global warming, which scientists say is being caused primarily by the human release of greenhouse gases, is having its largest effects at high latitudes and high altitudes. Sitting at high elevation in the tropics, the Quelccaya ice cap appears to be extremely sensitive to the temperature changes, several scientists said.

[…]

Throughout the Andes, glaciers are now melting so rapidly that scientists have grown deeply concerned about water supplies for the people living there. Glacial meltwater is essential for helping Andean communities get through the dry season.

In the short run, the melting is producing an increase of water supplies and feeding population growth in major cities of the Andes, the experts said. But as the glaciers continue shrinking, trouble almost certainly looms.

Douglas R. Hardy, a University of Massachusetts researcher who works in the region, said, “How much time do we have before 50 percent of Lima’s or La Paz’s water resources are gone?”

Over a millennium’s worth of accumulation undone in a few short years? Impending water shortages that threaten millions of people? Bah, it’s all just a hoax from all those alarmists and lying scientists and whatnot. No need to actually do anything at all. Everything’s just fine. After all, would corporations lie to you?

(via @BuzzFeedAndrew)

Roger Ebert passes away

Well, fuck:

(Chicago Sun-Times)

Particularly upsetting (at least for his readers, amongst which I include myself) is how this news comes barely two days after he announced a temporary “leave of presence” as a new recurrence of cancer was forcing him to scale back his workload. He was even excited at the prospect of finally being able to indulge in a dream of his by reviewing only the movies he wanted to review. The man was forever an optimist.

Quoth PZ Myers: Goddamn motherfucking cancer.

And so departs the world’s most famous film critic, an uncommonly talented writer, an accomplished blogger (I’d never demean him with the label of “pundit”) and a profound and evocative thinker. He was also active in the social sphere, being a vocal supporter of equality and a proud liberal through and through (often to the vapid ire of wingnuts, so you know he was doing something right).

Of particular relevance to me, he was a noted defender of the Theory of Evolution and a large part of the process that introduced me to skepticism and atheism in the first place when I came across his timeless deconstruction of Ben Stein’s Creationist/ID propaganda flick, Expelled. (You can even see my [embarrassingly naive and amateurish] comment from way back when I still believed Evolutionary Theory and Intelligent Design were compatible. Though, in my defense, I was young(er), I was only a quasi-IDist out of ignorance – but of course, who isn’t? – and it didn’t last long).

But above all, Roger Ebert was a staunch humanist (even though he dodged the label of “atheist” as many agnostics do) who always strove to find the best in our fickle little world, and to ameliorate the grittier parts of it. But in simpler terms, he was just a fundamentally good and compassionate man whose ethos can be summarized by this timeless quote of his (which may as well be the motto of liberalism, itself): “I believe empathy is the most essential quality of civilization.”

Farewell, ol’ chap. We were lucky to have you for as long as we did.