Here’s a rather damning illustration of one of the main problems with the US educational system:
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Maybe those Right-wing/Libertarian cranks whinging about overpaid teachers have a point after all. They just need to specify they’re talking about those who teach sports, that sacred cow that no official or administrator apparently has the fortitude to gut in order to preserve resources better spent on proper academic instruction.
(via Pharyngula)
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| 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.
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| 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!”.
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| Rev. John McTernan |
Looks like we have a new Storm of the Century on our hands, though my area will escape the brunt of it. Be smart and stay safe, everyone.
I wonder if there’ll ever be a day when we look back and wonder why the hell we thought sponsoring educational institutions to encourage teenagers to destroy themselves for the public’s entertainment was okay.
(via Pharyngula)
Alternate headline: Religious fruitcake John McTernan [pictured] still thinks blaming gays for bad weather is à la mode.
And finally, here’s a dog with spaghetti (because why not):
(via @radleybalko)
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If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.
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| Gabby Douglas |
Ian Murphy at AlterNet gives us the five most awful atheists. I’m not sure if S.E. Cupp even counts, being an unashamed Right-wing fraud. Though, I’m glad to see someone else tackle Penn Jillette’s libertarian anti-tax weirdness.
(via Pharyngula)
However, Hemant Mehta makes a great point: These people aren’t bad atheists, but rather bad skeptics, or possibly bad humanists.
Conservatives are wetting themselves at the revelation that pro-LGBT liberals can be assholes, too. Though, I do think outright firing him was overly harsh. (The man later apologized on YouTube.)
And finally, did you know that U.S. Olympians [pictured] just aren’t showing enough mindless jingoism patriotism according to Fox News?:
(via @radleybalko)
If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.
Tags: atheists • Ian Murphy • Sam Harris • Bill Maher • Penn Jillette • Ayaan Hirsi Ali • S.E. Cupp • Hemant Mehta • skeptics • humanism • humanists • Chick-fil-A • Adam Smith • Fox News • Olympics • Olympic Games • Olympic athletes • U.S. Olympians • patriotism • jingoism • Alisyn Camerota • David Webb
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| Peter Gleick |
My thoughts on Leaked-Heartland-Anti-Global-Warming-Documents-Gate, in (sorta-)brief: The only (major) objection I would have with what Peter Gleick [pictured] did is if he stole someone else’s identity rather than forge a fake one (and I withhold judgment on that matter until I see confirmation either way). Otherwise, I can only support his actions (even though he apologized for his self-called “serious lapse of [his] judgment and ethics”). No laws were broken, no-one was harmed in their persons or rights, and in the end, truth trumps all. Not that it stops Heartland from crying foul, nor the usual denialist suspects from crowing – even after cheerleading for the “Climategate” perpetrators (who actually did break the law, unlike Gleick) only a couple years previously. But then, denialism of any flavor does usually come bundled with weapons-grade hypocrisy.
All in all: No harm or foul (again, as long as Gleick didn’t steal any real person’s identity), the truth won out, and the anti-science liars are whining because someone used (a watered-down version of) the same tactics they so eagerly applaud when used against actual scientists. It’s only sad that Gleick now faces a ruined career for having ostensibly done the right thing.
And with that out of the way, I now present your links:
Dead-child law in 3 … 2 …
(via The Agitator)
Death by denial: A look at the (literally) dying field of HIV/AIDS denialists.
(via The Daily Grail)
Oh, Canada: Ontario universities sign ridiculous copyright agreement stipulating that emailing links is equal to photocopying, incurring heavy fees.
Homeowner to armed burglar who just shot him in the head: “F—- you, you son of a bitch, now it's my turn.”
(via @radleybalko)
The march sprint to Idiocracy continues.
(via The Daily Grail)
If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.
Tags: Michael Truluck • Kris Keys • energy drinks • dead-person laws • HIV/AIDS denialism • Richard Dawkins • The Telegraph • Adam Lusher • Henry Dawkins • Vox Day • Theodore Beale • Canada • universities • Access Copyright • Western University • University of Toronto • burglary • home invasion • Jay Leone • Samuel Cutrufelli • Ultimate Taser Ball • extreme sports • stun guns • Taser
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| Bill Graber [source] |
Is this a fad now? After “Amina Arraf”/Tom MacMaster, another lesbian blogger, editor of LezGetReal, comes out as a straight American man [pictured]. You frauds are not fucking helping.
(via @BreakingNews)
New Portland, OR cop who reported training officer for theft and abuse of power threatened into silence and forced out of the force.
(via The Agitator)
Rep. Allen West (R-FL) fires intern who “made an error” in retweeting a message from Scissor Sisters in support of Tracy Morgan’s son.
(via @ggreenwald)
Headline of the Day: “Convicted Texas Sex Offender Dies While Raping Elderly Woman”
Sweet move.
(via @donttrythis)
If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.
Tags: Amina Arraf • Amina Abdalla • Tom MacMaster • A Gay Girl in Damascus • Paula Brooks • LezGetReal • Bill Graber • Lindsay Hunt • Quency Ho • Portland, OR • Allen West • Tracy Morgan • Scissor Sisters • homophobia • Isabel Chavelo Gutierrez • rape • baseball
I’m no sports fan, but this is just awesome.
I have no idea if that isn’t against the rules or something, but it seems to have worked. Great for them.
(via Uzza's Notes)
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| MSNBC sportswriter Mike Celizic [source: MSNBC] |
It’s a cold, rainy day today. I guess that means I’ll have to stay inside all day long. … Wait
Power Cops: Woman gets shirt and bra wet at water park with 7-year-old son. Police demand she cover up and give her personal information “for the database”. Having not broken any laws, she refuses. So they arrest her.
(via The Agitator)
Cancer Journal: Heavy, moving article by MSNBC reporter and sports columnist Mike Celizic [pictured] about the couple of weeks he has left to live.
(via The Agitator)
Big Brother: Obama administration filtering hundreds of Freedom of Information Act requests through political channels, gathering information on those who make the requests and their motives.
(via The Agitator)
“Ground Zero Mosque”: Excellent in-depth New York Times profile of imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the man behind the manufactroversial Park51 Islamic cultural center (or “Ground Zero Mosque”). Can be summarized by a single sentence: “In any case, calling him a jihadist appears even less credible than calling him a United States agent.”
(via @hudsonette)
Iran’s Military Fantasies: Iran unveils its first domestic long-range unmanned bomber jet, called an “ambassador of death” – with a “main message of peace and friendship”.
(via @BreakingNews)
Tabloid Truth: For once, I agree with a trashy tabloid’s strong wording on the subject of racist Islamophobic thugs.
(via @religionnews)
If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.
Tags: police • cops • Janet Lovett • Mike Celizic • cancer • sad • Obama administration • Freedom of Information Act • FOIA • Homeland Security • Ground Zero Mosque • Feisal Abdul Rauf • The New York Times • Iran • Mahmoud Ahmadinejad • tabloids • Daily Star • racism • Islamophobia • Muslims • Britain
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| Big Ben (L) & the Mecca Clock Tower (R) [source: The Telegraph] |
Go forth and Disqus!
Saudi Arabia wants to replace Greenwich Mean Time with Mecca Time as the world standard. Their methodology: Building a bigger clock than the Big Ben. … Uh, guys, ur doin it rong.
(via Pharyngula)
Always thought there was something queer about soccer …
(via Diaphanitas)
Rep. Trent Franks (R-Arizona): “[…] we need to realize that [President Obama] is an enemy of humanity” and “one of the nation’s most dangerous enemies”.
Family Research Council: Huge Trekkie geeks or just really, really stupid?
Numerous researchers complain that the religious Right distorted their works to smear LGBT people with false claims.
(via Right Wing Watch)
Secular billboard vandalism called “clever and relatively respectful” by Washington Post editor David Waters.
NewsBusters attacks Jon Stewart and calls him a “hypocrite” for not defending “religious liberty” because he mocked Rightists’ hysterical opposition to the Cordoba House (ie. the “Ground Zero Mosque”) when Comedy Central caved in to radical Islamists threatening violence and censored a South Park episode. Despite the fact that A) censoring to appease dangerous extremists is not infringing on religious freedom but protecting lives; B) Stewart launched into a long segment addressing the controversy, and even ended with a choir chanting “go fuck yourselves!” to the Islamists; and C) NewsBusters praised him for it.
Young woman Janet Moses dies from “accidental drowning” during attempted exorcism.
(via @religionnews)
Robert Knight in the Washington Times: Same-sex marriage is a “fantasy cooked up in hell”, compares homosexuality to (of course) incest, polygamy and bestiality. Y’know, the usual.
As always, if you have any story suggestions, feel free to send them in.
Tags: Saudi Arabia • Big Ben • Mecca Clock Tower • Mecca • Islam • Greenwich Mean Time • soccer • gay • funny • cheerleader • cheerleaders • Trent Franks • Barack Obama • Republican • Republicans • Family Research Council • religious Right • secular billboard • secular billboards • atheist billboard • atheist billboards • vandalism • David Waters • The Washington Post • NewsBusters • Jon Stewart • The Daily Show • religious freedom • Comedy Central • Ground Zero Mosque • Janet Moses • exorcism • exorcisms • Robert Knight • The Washington Times • same-sex marriage • gay marriage • homosexuality
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| The Stupid, It Burns [source: Bad Astronomy] |
Is there any other way to explain the incessant tides of sheer, dishonest, demagogic and dangerous bullshit constantly pouring in from the Right than to chalk conservatism itself up to some form of psychological, emotional or social disorder?
Fox News sinks ever lower in journalistic integrity in sniping at President Obama with false claims at a ceremony congratulating local Queens, NYC bus driver Jorge Muñoz for his heroic efforts in feeding the hungry every night for four years straight.
The Gay Liberation Network (amongst others) organized a counter-protest against Americans For Truth About Homosexuality. Who to believe: the pro-LGBT side, or AFTAH?
Lawsuit: High school student tells her teacher she was raped. Principal then decides to conduct a “sting operation” using the allegedly raped student as bait. Sting goes wrong, she gets raped again. Bonus: Rapist later texts her: “im soo sry i didn't mean 2 make u cry. i'm cant believe i just raped u well bout time u read dis i mite b dead.” Just … wow.
(via The Agitator)
Vox Day [pictured] naturally believes that all that false hype surrounding the Human Genome Project that collapsed (or even backfired) following the revelation of its decidedly lackluster results translates into “[s]cience gets it wrong... again”. Okay: First person to explain to Vox that what the media purports will happen following the closure of a scientific research project does not, in any way, affect the actual science, itself (something that any logical person knows), gets a basket of cookies.
Who dat playin’ basketball with select NBA all-stars for wounded troops? President Obama, dat who.
(via Fark)
Freaky weather: Sunny day at the beach turns into a massive thunderstorm in less than two minutes.
(via Fark)
Boxer dogs are cute. Especially when they’re having fun on trampolines.
(via Fark)
“With the past a trail of ruin, and no indication that the future is being attended to, Fox News is headed into a well deserved irrelevancy.”
Fox News cronies Glenn Beck and Pamela Geller falsely claim that the Cordoba House (“Ground Zero Mosque”) will open on September 11, 2011, when in reality it’s barely in the planning and no timeline has remotely been set.
As always, if you have any story suggestions, feel free to send them in.
Tags: Fox News • Barack Obama • Jorge Muñoz • Gay Liberation Network • Americans For Truth About Homosexuality • gay • gays • rape • Vox Day • Human Genome Project • basketball • soldier • soldiers • weather • thunderstorm • thunderstorms • dog • dogs • Boxer • Boxers • trampoline • trampolines • Glenn Beck • Pamela Geller •
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| Carl Kasell [source: UNC News Releases] |
San Luis Obispo, California deputies burst into a man’s home despite a lack of a warrant or any probable cause at all, then caught on audio recorders fabricating a reason to explain their illegal search.
If you’re a professional football team who loses the World Cup, you go home in shame. Unless you’re the North Korean team, in which case you go home in shame, then face a six-hour public inquisition where you’re accused of betraying your leader and become outcasts.
(via The Agitator)
Minnesota appeals court rules that merely avoiding cops without actually doing anything wrong is grounds for being pulled over.
(via The Agitator)
House of Representatives passes legislation to protect seniors from fraud – no thanks to the 79 House Republicans who voted against it.
Round-up of stories where cops ignore the law and persecute civilians who record their activities.
Upset over former NPR newscaster Carl Kasell’s [pictured] (of Wait! Wait! Don’t Tell Me! fame) nomination for Chicago’s Radio Hall of Fame, Howard Stern attacks and mocks him on the air. Kasell responds. Classy pwnage FTW.
Old News: Security breach resulted in private information regarding roughly 100 million Facebook users being leaked online. News: Info was made available in a torrent at The Pirate Bay and was downloaded many times. Holy Shit: Downloaders include dozens of major companies including Apple, AT&T, BBC, Disney, Goldman Sachs, IBM, Intel, Lucasfilm, Sony, the UN, and even the Church of Scientology, amongst many others. (Note that they were identified via IP backtracking, which leads to specific workstations and not the actual companies, so many of them may just be cases of overly curious employees rather than the organizations themselves.)
(via @ontahb)
Anti-Defamation League joins bigots and the legally illiterate in opposing the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque”. Their reasoning? That while the owners have “every [legal] right to build at this site”, the placement would “cause some victims more pain”. Okay, so a radius of two city blocks is obviously not far enough for Muslims to build anything peacefully without offending people. Maybe two cities over? Would that be acceptable, or “right”?
(via @todayspolitics)
As always, if you have any story suggestions, feel free to send them in.
Tags: San Luis Obispo, California • Fourth Amendment • football • North Korea • Minnesota • police • cops • traffic stops • House of Representatives • fraud • Republicans • douchebags • watching the watchers • Carl Kasell • Howard Stern • radio • Hall of Fame • Facebook • leaks • Anti-Defamation League • Ground Zero Mosque • Muslims
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| Mark Thiessen |
My brain has just been mortally irradiated by the thermonuclear stupid that is Marc Thiessen. (Don’t ask how I’m still alive and cognizant.) In trying to explain just how Americans should hate that filthy “soccer” commie sport [my emphasis]:
The world is crazy for soccer, but most Americans don’t give a hoot about the sport. Why? Many years ago, my former White House colleague Bill McGurn pointed out to me the real reason soccer hasn’t caught on in the good old U.S.A. It’s simple, really: Soccer is a socialist sport.
Think about it. Soccer is the only sport in the world where you cannot use the one tool that distinguishes man from beast: opposable thumbs. “No hands” is a rule only a European statist could love. (In fact, with the web of high taxes and regulations that tie the hands of European entrepreneurs, “no hands” kind of describes their economic theories as well.)
Soccer is also the only sport in the world that has “hooligans”—proletarian mobs that trash private property whenever their team loses.
I think I’m crying, now. Or those could be liquefied brains. Dunno. Don’t care. I’m mourning, here.
(And as for the rioting mobs: Yeah, well, here in North America, our zealots stampede and vandalize whenever their teams either win OR lose. We’re obviously so much better.)
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| BP CEO Tony Hayward |
And the countdown until my Internet connection router finds itself a new home in a thousand different dumpsters continues.
Tired of all those people watching the soccer World Cup? Move to Somalia, where Islamist militants roam around flogging, cleaving and murdering sports nuts who watch the games on TV. Because it now seems you do have to be nuts to watch sports in Somalia.
(via Pharyngula)
Time to declare Oklahoma a lost cause? State Senator Rex Duncan (R) wants to pass legislation that would act as a “preemptive strike” against a possible imposition of Sharia law. Because that’s a huge threat, obviously. What does he think this is, England?
(via Dispatches From the Culture Wars)
Was as much as a third of Mars once covered by a massive ocean of water?
(via The Daily Grail)
New Mexico GOP nominee Tim Mullins: Place landmines along the US-Mexico border. Seriously.
(via @todayspolitics)
Obama doesn’t wanna meet with BP CEO Tony Hayward [pictured]? It’s because “he’s a White CEO”. Oh, so Obama did meet with Hayward? It’s just a sham. Damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t, right, Beck?
(via @mmfa)
38 years later, New British Prime Minister David Cameron apologizes for the event now known as “Bloody Sunday”, where 14 peaceful civil rights marchers were slaughtered by British paratroopers in Northern Ireland on January 30, 1972. (Yes, that Bloody Sunday.)
As always, if you have any story suggestions, feel free to send them in.
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| Red fox |
Sleep comes like a drug
In God’s country
Sad eyes, crooked crosses
In God’s country
The Bad Astronomer’s multi-species Caturday edition: foxies [pictured]!
I don’t know why, but something about this pleasantly backhanded exchange between US and British embassies about bets on the oncoming soccer World Cup made me LOL.
(via The Agitator)
“The U.S. Coast Guard said Saturday it gave BP 48 hours to come up with a [better oil containment method]”. … Or what?? Need to know the discipline for failure to comply, please. I want to relish in it.
(via @todayspolitics)
Oh, nutty Texan Republicans.
(via @todayspolitics)
Another brilliant abortion piece in the Telegraph: apparently, “dozens of teenage girls have had three or more abortions” = “we’re all DOOMED”. Or something. Learn not to extrapolate an entire generation’s attributes from a few sour cases, journalists.
(via @Martynnorris)
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R): The anti-immigration law is gonna tear mixed-status families apart? Why the hell should I care, hombre? Y’know, I really don’t like her.
(via @todayspolitics)
10 things that keep Rightists up at night.
(via @todayspolitics)
As always, if you have any story suggestions, feel free to send them in.
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Just finished yet another chapter for Inhuman. Ten town, six more to go …
In response to the National Day of Prayer, the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) is organizing a new bus ad campaign in Madison, WI, with quotes of the Founding Fathers themselves, JFK and the US Constitution to proudly boast how America is decidedly not a Christian nation, never has been and never will be unless its founding principles are shredded once and for all. I can’t wait to see the expected wingnut outcry over this, or their faces when you make them realize (because they arguably can’t on their own) that they’re railing against the freaking Founding Fathers.
(via Friendly Atheist)
Note to WND columnist Michael Glatze: you’re gay. Learn to accept it and stop spreading such nonsense.
(via Dispatches From the Culture Wars)
I like the Phoenix Los Suns.
(via The Agitator)
Excellent: federal judge strikes down a Florida law that restricts criticism of police as a violation of the First Amendment. Score one for Freedom of Speech.
(via The Agitator)
Another “unfortunate incident” of pointless and unprovoked doggycide.
(via The Agitator)
Clown Beck mocks Rachel Maddow for using a big fancy word he doesn’t understand. You can guess how that turned out. Moron (in every sense of the word).
(via @todayspolitics)
As always, if you have any story suggestions, feel free to send them in.
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On today’s menu: wrestlin’ science-bloggers, political innuendo, daring robberies and athletes playing silly. What more do you want?
Greatest. Headline. Ever.
Once again, you have to wonder whether the editor who vetted this paper was either inattentive, or particularly playful.
It takes a gutsy bunch of thieves
A poker tournament in Berlin, Germany is robbed by six armed men – on live TV. Thankfully, no-one was seriously injured, and it’s unclear whether the daring brigands were able to escape with their ill-gotten riches. An investigation has begun. You can find a video of the first few moments here.
(via Dispatches From the Culture Wars)
What ERV Really Stands For
A somewhat-(in)accurate look at the secret lives within the ScienceBlogs community. I see PZ and Ed are having it out again – can’t those two rapscallions ever get along?
(via Dispatches From the Culture Wars)
More sports fakery
Just another reason why I dislike the vast majority of professional sports: the stupid theatrics. Can’t blame the video, though – neat music.
(via The Agitator)
His mustache fits with his mentality
Balko says it’s hard for him to believe a man with a mustache like that could be such a twerp. I say it just suits him and his character.
(via The Agitator)
As always, if you have any story suggestions, feel free to send them in.
Who know beautiful equines also made star soccer players?
Good footwork, studs.
Heh, heh … coincidences can be amusing.
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I hear Marty Crane yelling about how it’s perfectly okay if it’s between men playing sports already. =P
Yeah, I’m such a zealous fan as to use random obscure references to bygone TV series.
(via The Agitator)
![Joé McKen (18) [taken 07/13/10]](http://i.imgur.com/2wvlR.jpg "Joé McKen (18) [taken 07/13/10]")
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I’m a liberal skeptic, rationalist & third-wave atheist stuck in a rut in Québec, Canada and who spends his time composing, writing, drawing, harboring a layman’s passion for science and technology, getting angry at social injustices, and most of all, jabbing cretins and trolls with sharp pointy sticks. (Oh, and blogging.) Proud owner of a Nize Hat!, an indomitable SIWOTI syndrome and an itchy snark finger.
You can find all my musical, literary and artistic works at my art blog, Creativitas.
![There is probably no [superstition]. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life](http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad171/crispianjago/Probably-No.gif "There is probably no [superstition]. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life")
