But then, why are there so many who believe in this nonsense?
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| Alt text: Dear editors of Homeopathy Monthly: I have two small corrections for your July issue. One, it’s spelled “echinacea”, and two, homeopathic medicines are no better than placebos and your entire magazine is a sham. |
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| Infinity Pool in Singapore |
♪You plant a demon seed
You raise a flower of fire
I see them burning crosses
See the flame, higher and higher♪
Sorry, sir; your pool [pictured] looks quite fantastic and interesting, but I shall never swim there for as long as I live out of fear of a drastically reduced lifespan if I do.
(via The Agitator)
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) signs a bill that nullifies the healthcare reform bill’s requirement for individuals to acquire health insurance. … A bill that he wrote and that includes the explicit statement that said bill has no authority over the federal healthcare reform legislation, thus turning the whole thing into an utter farce.
(via @todayspolitics)
England’s bill for Pope Ratzi’s visit: £20 million. As if A) the Vatican couldn’t pay that sum itself, or B) a guest should charge their host for their travels and stay, or C) the British government should be required to pay for the state visit of a decrepit old fraud at the head of an organization that actively shields child molesters. (That being only their latest scandal, amongst all their other crimes against humanity and reason.)
(via Pharyngula)
Weird kook behavior of the day: Prominent British woo-peddler non-Dr. Gillian McKeith (non-PhD) is all outraged on Twitter because Rachel Moody dared to question her fraudulent credentials from US-based quack groups. Her argument? Criticizing her fake degrees from US quacks is anti-American. … No, you try and parse the logic in that one.
As always, if you have any story suggestions, feel free to send them in.
Tags: swimming pools • Infinity Pool • Singapore • Bobby Jindal • ObamaCare nullification bill • England • Pope Ratzinger • Gillian McKeith • Rachel Moody • woo • quacks • quackery
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| Sylvie Nelson |
Random shameless plug: I just discovered (as in, “got into”) VG Cats, and so should you.
The modern age’s convention in the media: Dare to speak your mind, lose your job for having personal opinions. Or, why the modern media continues to suck.
(via The Agitator)
In my capacity as an enthusiastic and godless U2 fan, I’m not sure how I feel about this. I guess it beats the crap out of most Christian hymns and gospel songs at any rate. Though, I must object to the implication that U2 is, in any way, a “Christian Rock” band. U2’s music is about the very human feelings and ideals of love, hope and peace (in general), not mindless devotion to an imaginary tyrant in the sky. (Not to mention that it’s logically impossible that U2 makes Christian Rock for the simple and evident reason that Christian Rock fucking sucks. QED.)
Has the BP Deepwater Horizon fuck-up triggered an oncoming world-killing natural disaster, the preliminary signs of which are supposedly already appearing? I lack the interest to investigate deeper into the claims and thus remain quite skeptical and unconcerned, as with all such claims … but, as always, still …
(via @ebertchicago)
Border Patrol routinely mistakes a White woman [pictured] for a wanted Black man.
(via @todayspolitics)
As always, if you have any story suggestions, feel free to send them in.
Tags: Dave Weigel • Octavia Nasr • media cowardice • U2 • rock music • church • U2 Eucharist • U2-Charist • Christian music • Deepwater Horizon • Border Patrol • Sylvie Nelson
I still thank God (metaphorically!) that I never needed braces as a kid, but after seeing this timelapsed video showing off the corrective prowess of those little orthodontic wonders, I shall never again mock them for looking so unnatural in a human mouth. No pain, no gain. (Or shame, in this case.)
Damn, did that poor girl need them.
(via The Agitator)
Tags: orthodontics • teeth • braces • orthodontic braces
I’m never really interested in optical illusions – until I encounter one, at which point I usually turn into a giddy idiot in wonder. And these have to be some of the best such illusions I’ve ever seen:
Freaky awesome. So is this quick video showing how the trick works.
(via Bad Astronomy)
Tags: optical illusions • interesting stuff
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| Alvin Greene |
Dammit, why did Gawd have to design the human body so dastardly complicated? It’s a nightmare to learn to draw correctly, you know. Fuckin’ arms, how do they work?! </obscure inside joke>
Why you should vote for the (apparently mentally deficient) Alvin Greene [pictured] for senate.
Teabagger Senate candidate Sharron Angle’s (R-Nevada) new tactic: accusing opponent Harry Reid (D-Nevada) of trying “hit the girl”. By merely criticizing her and exposing her extremist views.
(via @todayspolitics)
When “[t]ake the fucking lemonade and shut the fuck up” is the best way to summarize a loony rant about kids offering lemonade for free on a hot day.
Yet another example why feminists are stereotyped as humorless radicals who see everything through an ideological prism.
(via The Agitator)
3, 2, 1, facepalm: San Francisco’s Commission of Animal Control and Welfare is actually proposing to ban all sales of pets and companion animals in the city. Their fantastic(al) logic: “People buy small animals all the time as an impulse buy, don’t know what they’re getting into, and the animals end up at the shelter and often are euthanized.” And obviously, the logical, proportional solution to that is to categorically ban all pets.
(via The Agitator)
Rush Limbaugh: “If liars could fly, the White House would be an airport.” And you’d be a fucking UFO.
Once again: Climategate was a puffed-up farce that had absolutely nothing to do with the science and everything to do with ideologues and denialist cranks injecting more noise into a non-existing debate. Can we please stop pretending that there’s any scientific dissent on the matter now? Hmm?
(via @ebertchicago)
As always, if you have any story suggestions, feel free to send them in.
Tags: Alvin Greene • South Carolina • Sharron Angle • Harry Reid • Terry Savage • lemonade • feminists • feminism • Back to the Future • pets • San Francisco • Rush Limbaugh • White House • liars • hypocrisy • Climategate • climatology • Global Warming • rabid feminism • radical feminism
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| The end result of allowing gay marriage, according to Vox (and all other irrational cranks) |
In which our favorite pompous bigot reacts to the Massachusetts judge ruling against the gay marriage ban in the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act:
And now that the one
man, onewomandefinition has been arbitrarily struck down on nonsensical grounds, there can be absolutely no question that theoneman,onewoman part will be challenged and struck down as well. All of the homogamy supporters who claim otherwise are already wrong, as anyone who happens to have read a pro-polygamy press release will know. That's a done deal. It's a bit more of a stretch to be able to tell if people will also be able to marry animals due to the presumed consent issues, but you can bet that some horse-loving freakshow is going to try. It's legal in New Zealand, you know.
Witness, one and all, the characteristic outburst of a crank: Declaring that a law is unconstitutional on the grounds that it consists of an irrational and prejudiced infringement upon people’s rights is “nonsensical”; and also, allowing gays to marry = slippery slope to polygamy and bestiality. (Because those are teh bad, donchya know.) As if we hadn’t all heard that before. Poor Vox, he can’t even be original about it anymore. (Too bad he forgot to include marrying children, too, just to make the crankery go full circle … oh, wait, the very first comment does it for him. Never mind.)
Tags: Defense of Marriage Act • gay rights • Vox Day
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| That he included “T Roosevelt” is all the more insulting |
Alvin Greene is the new Ralph Wiggum.
No justice for you: Court declares that actual innocence is irrelevant if you can keep people in jail indefinitely over silly little trivial technicalities. And there goes yet another (particularly large) nail in the coffin of my respect for the legal system.
Boston, Mass. judge rules that the federal ban on gay marriage, the “Defense of Marriage Act”, is unconstitutional. No word yet on how this will affect the law itself.
Glenn Beck can’t spell “heros” or “villians” [pictured]. (Or, if you’ll recall, “oligarhy”.) And he’s got an institution of higher learning named after him? Riiight …
Global security experts agree: Anthropogenic climate change is real and so are the dangers that are coming.
Possible AIDS breakthrough: Scientists discover two powerful antibodies that neutralize over 90% of all known strains of HIV.
(via Diaphanitas)
Perhaps the only useful and agreeable fatwa in history.
Oh, the nightmares. The nightmares!
(via @ebertchicago)
As always, if you have any story suggestions, feel free to send them in.
Tags: 9th Circuit Court • justice system • Massachusetts • Defense of Marriage Act • gay rights • LGBT rights • Glenn Beck • Global Warming • AIDS • HIV • medical research • medical breakthroughs • United Arab Emirates • fatwas • vuvuzelas • World Cup • 56K modems • nostalgia
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| BP board game box art |
When does “slave trade” become “Atlantic triangular trade”? When the Texas Board of Education says so, is when. For fuck’s sake.
(via @todayspolitics)
A happy story of a woman who gained a new face after 7/7 London terror attacks.
(via The Agitator)
Single mother of two with leukemia had her medical insurance coverage terminated (briefly) when insurer claimed she had underpaid her premium – by ¢1. Literally. A fucking penny. But, noo, the system’s just fiiine as it is, isn’t it, Rethuglicans?
(via @todayspolitics)
The Chicago public library commissioner, Mary A Dempsey, smacks down a previous idiotic Fox News report that claimed how public libraries are a “waste of tax money” and ought to be “on the way out”. Taking particular issue with the Fox report claiming that the clientele were focused on the free computers, not the bookshelves: “Your 'undercover cameras' shots were taken in a series of stacks devoted to bound periodicals used for reference. Next time, try looking at the circulating collections throughout the building.”
Uninformed Creationist claims that “Darwinists” never criticize the sophistication and efficiency of the human brain. Allow PZ Myers to explain just how, despite its abilities that still defy human understanding in their awesomeness, the brain also has a multitude of harsh limitations that we could really do without, imperfections that arose as a result, not of intelligent design, but of a biological imperative for long-term survival.
The BP Board Game. … No, seriously. BP made a board game [pictured]. About oil rigs. With “hazard cards” that resulted in spills. “Blow-out! Rig damaged. Oil slick clean-up costs. Pay $1million.” Oh, if only. If only.
Lolwut?
(via Diaphanitas)
Food for thought about money for power: The average Japanese CEO has less than one-sixth the salary of the average American CEO. Not exactly surprising, given how some cultures still have a sense of shame.
(via @todayspolitics)
As always, if you have any story suggestions, feel free to send them in.
Tags: Texas Board of Education • slavery • slave trade • history revisionism • wingnuts • Davinia Turrell • facial reconstruction • London bombings • health insurance • douchebaggery • libraries • anti-intellectualism • Mary A Dempsey • Evolution • Creationists • PZ Myers • neurology • brain • BP • board games • irony • lolwut • humor • Japan • United States • CEO salaries
I’ve always wanted a big fluffy dog. But who’s to deny the appeal of a geeky, metallic pet?
You can also see a pretty cool little “making of” video, here.
(via The Agitator)
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| Logic, too |
One of the most frustrating things when dealing Ray Comfort (not to mention other typical Creationists like him) is his apparent inability to understand even the simplest things – such as, for a totally random example, the fact that evolution has nothing to do with gravity and the weather and the origins of the Universe – no matter how often they are slowly and (very) patiently explained to him by people far more knowledgeable than he is. Is this a testament to his legendary ignorance, or his mythical stupidity (or some fantastical combination)? Apparently, neither (well, maybe) – according to him, he just refuses to understand and accept the “‘scientific’ definition” and instead chooses to understand the nature of the Theory of Evolution as it is believed and explained by the “average person on the street”. Well, that figures.
The average person on the street who believes in the theory of evolution isn't as sophisticated as the staunch believers on this blog. You have your "scientific" definition--"The gradual change and diversification of life on earth," and other people (the great majority) have theirs.
I’m interested in reaching the average person with the message of everlasting life, therefore I speak their language and address their beliefs. So the continual accusations of ignorance on my part (on this subject) are not true.
Actually, Ray, what you’ve just said once again conclusively demonstrates how, yes, you most certainly are ignorant. And also, very, very thick.
You see, Evolutionary Theory is a part of science. Ergo, it is developed and upheld by scientists. Ergo, it ought to be explained by – you guessed it! – the scientists who know a thing or two about it. Not the general undereducated hoi polloi who couldn’t tell you the difference between evolution and abiogenesis. (Har, har, sneaky joke, that.) Because, despite what Ray may believe, what the general public believes is absolutely worthless, considering the simple and indisputable fact that most people are idiots. (Or, at least, critically ignorant of the basics of science.) You cannot honestly tell me that you accept the definitions of scientific theories as given by the sort of morons you see on “Jaywalking” and come out with any shred of credibility. You just can’t. Because you’ve shown that you choose to forgo the actual explanations for what any idiot will tell you. The fact that some false concept is believed in by many idiots does not make it any less false. Or else the argumentum ad populum wouldn’t be a fallacy. And then logic as we know it would vanish. Along with the rest of this logic-based universe.
Tags: Evolution • Evolution denialism • Ray Comfort • stupid
![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")
