Life just went Hollywood on this ’hood’s ass

Well, briefly, but it was cool:

Car burning in street

First off, no-one was hurt that I know of, so this was a harmless spectacle (except for the poor bastard who just lost his car, I guess). I first caught sight of the blaze only a few minutes after it had broken out and no-one was around; cops had blocked the boulevard off (just as rush hour traffic was waning, thankfully, otherwise that unfortunate car probably wouldn’t have been the only thing on fire, I reckon) and were organizing around it.

Car burning in street with black billowing clouds

Pretty big clouds were billowing out, too. These cheap cellphone photos don’t show it, but at one point fire had completely engulfed the vehicle. It was pretty impressive.

Firefighters extinguishing the blaze

Not ten minutes later, the flames were put out and all was safe. Except for the car. I doubt its owner will be driving it home anytime soon.

So … how was your day?

The nature of US politics

One simple graphic, one hefty bundle of implications:

Graphic of the socio-political orientation of Republicans vs. Democrats

Not nearly left-leaning enough.

(via @todayspolitics)

New anti-rape female condom debuts in South Africa

Rape-axe anti-rape female condom

Of all the titles to claim, being the rape capital of the world isn’t exactly the most cheerful, and South Africa has the decidedly dubious honor of being the not-so-proud holder. However, a South African doctor has come up with a contraption that she hopes will dissuade rapists: the first so-called “anti-rape female condom”.

A South African doctor has developed a new female condom that she hopes will combat rape in the most painful way possible.

Dr. Sonnet Ehlers has invented Rape-axe, a female device with jagged hooks that latch onto a man's penis during penetration.

The doctor is distributing 30,000 of these condoms in South Africa during this year's World Cup.

The premise of this device is quite simple:

"It hurts," Ehlers told CNN. "He cannot pee and walk when it's on. If he tries to remove it, it will clasp even tighter."

[…]

Rape-axe is inserted like a tampon and when embedded to a man the device can only be removed by a doctor.

Personally, I don’t really know just what to make of it just yet. The general idea definitely seems to be a good one, working in two ways, both to prevent the aggressor from “finishing the act” with the victim and to make it clear what he tried to do when he comes to a doctor to have the embarrassing device removed. However, I see a few problems as well: First, not all cases of rape include vaginal penetration, so if the rapist prefers to molest women in other ways – orally, or fondling, or whatever – then “Rape-axe” is rendered useless. Also, although the idea of rapists walking around with a clear indicator of what they tried to do latched painfully onto their groins sounds both amusing and useful, this also has the potential to be misused in any number of ways, primarily by any woman who wants to play a rather dastardly trick on an unsuspecting partner. I would hope that authorities would require more evidence than merely being “stuck” with one of these anti-rape condoms on one’s penis before declaring the man guilty of attempted (or “successful”) rape. Also, it’s hard to tell, but the condom as is pictured, above, doesn’t look like the most comfortable of devices to insert into one’s vagina, unless it’s smaller and softer than it looks. And Lord knows how most people quickly eschew security just to avoid some discomfort – just look at all those who don’t wear seatbelts.

Is this a good idea and would it really dissuade would-be sexual predators? I don’t know. But I assume that if most women began using Rape-axe – which, in any case, certainly sounds better than the horrifying example included in the aforementioned article of women actually inserting razor blades into their genitals to try and ward off rapists – then would-be rapists would certainly be more hesitant, at the least. But again, there’s no way to gauge its potential efficacy.

Any thoughts?

Fail Quote of the Day: Palin calls for divine intervention in Gulf

Boats cleaning up oil in Gulf See that measly little fire? That’s God’s wrath, baby

I just noted that Louisiana lawmakers have designated today (Sunday, June 20) as a special Day of Prayer to try and heal the ailing gulf and coastal communities by muttering to a nonexistent sky-fairy. Sarah Palin thought this was worth spreading around:

Gulf disaster needs divine intervention as man's efforts have been futile. Gulf lawmakers designate today Day of Prayer for solution/miracle

Pfft. Silly woman and senators, thinking praying to God will do anything. Everyone knows that in order to get him to do anything, you need chicken blood! Also, be sure to sacrifice a few virgin goats, just for added supplication. Who knows? Maybe God’s listening after all. You know, like how he helped people during the Haiti earthqu— oh, right. Or, during the Christmas 2005 tsunami that wiped out the Indian Ocean coastline … oh, wait. How about when he stopped al-Qaeda from flying planes into … oh, damn, right, he didn’t do jack shit then, either. Tell you what: the second I come up with an example of God ever doing something, I’ll let you know.

Might take a while.

(via @todayspolitics)

Daily Blend: Sunday, June 20, 2010

Fox Nation headline and photo: “Obama Gives Back Major Strip of AZ to Mexico” Oh no he didn’t! … Oh, wait, he actually didn’t

On today’s table: Watching Splice, which looks interesting, and reading a brand new book. Oh, I love slow weekends.

• Censorship in the media: Not just for big-league newspapers.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• Spartanburg, South Carolina Mayor Junie White marked yesterday, June 19, as LGBT Pride Day. Councilwoman Linda Dogan responds by launching into one of the most astonishingly revolting anti-gay rants you’ll have ever heard; not so much for being explicit (it’s not), but for its breathtaking amounts of stupidity, arrogance and hypocrisy.

• The Texas GOP has released its 2010 platform, proudly taking after Uganda’s approach towards homosexuality.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• Bad to worse: Faux News and Fox Nation website both falsely claim that President Obama has given a huge slot of land over to Mexico [pictured]. Daily Kos, via Media Matters, explains how this is a complete, utter and spectacularly blatant lie. Not just a distortion, a smear or mindless propaganda, but downright making shit up.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• How’s this for patheticness: Radio station apparently censored a line of lyrics of a song, “Breakeven” by The Script, that talked about not believing in God.

• Sweet-ness. Check out this huge (as in, mega-super-giganta-colossal-massive large) Radial Tree of Life diagram. A biologist’s insta-orgasm. You actually have to zoom to 200% before you can even make out the names. Freaky awesome.
  (via Pharyngula)

• They must be tired of trying actual solutions, because Louisiana senators are now calling upon … divine intervention. Yeah, come on, God, get off your fat useless ass and do something. For the first time in, oh, 13.75 billion years.

• Gay Walmart employee in Las Vegas, Nevada, forced to reveal his sexual orientation to his co-workers, stripped of his duties and made to wear an identifying yellow vest. Do I smell the ACLU crashing through the walls?
  (via @todayspolitics)

• Glenn “insane wonder” Beck claims that the “anarchists, Marxists, communists, revolutionaries, Maoists” in the government want to eliminate 10% (~ 35 million) of the population to gain control – because they want to and they can. A) Someone get him a dictionary and realize how those terms he keeps flinging around don’t mean what he thinks they do (hint: they’re complete opposites of each other), and B) someone fire him already. Accusing the President of wanting to commit genocide? This jackass needs to get off the air, pronto.
  (via @todayspolitics)

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

Fail Quote of the Day: Vox Day once again tries to tie atheism to historical baddies

Lenin demands that you stop trying, Vox

It’s really getting tiresome, all of these attempts by anti-atheists to demonize atheism by claiming that because some violent tyrannical regimes in the past were nonreligious or even anti-religious, therefore, atheism leads to violent tyrannical regimes. It’s a prime example of fallacious reasoning coupled with glaring historical ignorance, and it’s always certain that those who bring up these “argumentum ad Stalinum” attacks have no idea what they’re talking about. I’ve already debunked this ridiculous “atheism leads to despots” notion in the past, so I won’t repost the refutations here. Instead, I wish to take a look at this latest post by Vox Day wherein he tries to explain, via a quote regarding Napoleon Bonaparte, just how and why atheism is bad because of its purported relation to despots [my emphasis]:

It is not atheism itself that is the problem, but as I explained in TIA, atheism combined with a burning ambition to achieve immortality through material ends. Whether this immortality is achieved through military glory, the creation of a New Man, or the construction of a new society on the ashes of the old one is not important, the point is that the underlying motivation to commit acts of horrific violence involves more than the simple absence of the belief that one will face judgment for one's actions in this life.

[…]

For such men of burning ambition, ideology is nothing more than a means to a self-serving end. Men have little to fear from an atheist libertarian or a Christian monarch, but they have everything to fear from an ambitious atheist who dreams of great actions and is determined to leave the world with the recollection of his existence.

Now, read this – several times, if need be – and tell me: Where does Vox make his point that because some cruel historical figures imposed atheism under their regimes, ergo, atheism is bad? What he seems to claim, here, is that the (only) reason that such despots as Stalin, Pol Pot and etc. were able to carry out their horrific reigns with a sense of impunity is a lack of fear of judgment and/or damnation after they die. The problem with this sort of absurd reasoning – or one of the problems, anyway – is that it thus implies that religious or otherwise God-fearing tyrants with equally powerful ambitions to lay down an enduring legacy won’t create such horrible regimes. The thing is, once you’ve gotten to the point where you’re an evil dictator at the head of an oppressive empire, you’ve either stopped caring and worrying about God and post-mortem judgment, or you’ve become sufficiently maniacal as to believe that you are actually acting upon God’s will, or that you have divine backing one way or another.

It’s not a combination of atheism and a great desire to create a lasting legacy that leads to despotism. It’s anything combined with cruelty and a lust for power that will lead you to becoming a power-hungry monster. Atheism is merely a belief (in non-belief), not an ideology as so many foolishly claim (Vox included), and cannot be any real driving force behind acts of inhumanity, whether committed by a terrible all-powerful ruler or by your average neighborhood serial killer. Once again: One cannot possibly “kill in the name of atheism” – or really, do much of anything “in the name of atheism” – as it is inherent to atheism that there is simply nothing to kill or do anything for. There’re no deities or supernatural entities to suck up to, no doctrines or dogma to impose, no scriptures to uphold. Nothing. As they say: Atheism is to religion what bald is to hair color; in other words, there’s nothing there. You can’t pin your actions on nothing; all that’s left is yourself and your own desires.

Daily Blend: Saturday, June 19, 2010

Penn Jillette

You're not the only one
Staring at the sun
Afraid of what you'd find
You step back inside

• So Penn Jillette [pictured] would go on Adolf Hitler’s talk show. Just not for the reasons you might think.
  (via Friendly Atheist)

• How to determine whether or not convicted rapists are guilty: by checking the back of their ears. Hey, it’s apparently traditional in Vietnam.
  (via Dispatches From the Culture Wars)

• Psychotherapist claims that children really do “see dead people”. Amongst other, totally non-sordid stuff.
  (via The Daily Grail)

• Ultimate proof that Rush Limbaugh is a fundamentally disgusting excuse for a human being: deriding and mocking hungry children and families, saying their parents just “let” them starve, that their pantries are filled with junk food and that they should go dumpster diving. Rush Limbaugh, you deserve to be shot like the fucking pig you are. And I’m not even sure if I’m kidding.

• It begins: White House confirms that it will sue the state of Arizona for its horrible anti-immigration law.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• Inside the mind of the anonymous Internet commenter. Or, why so many commenters are total brainless douches.
  (via @ebertchicago)

• How the invisible hand of the free market works. Love the logo on his chest.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• Gawker has a concise yet highly informative summary of a new blockbuster piece by Salon’s Glenn Greenwald on the case of the arrest of Bradley Manning, a military analyst who allegedly provided WikiLeaks with its now-infamous “Collateral Murder” video, and the strange circumstances that led up to Manning being apprehended. All in all: low-level hacker Adrian Lamo, to whom Manning “confessed” over IM before Lamo turned around and gave him up, is an unethical little piece of crap.
  (via @wikileaks)

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

Teachers in 1960 and 2010

This cartoon is both funny, yet also sad but true.

“Teachers in 1960 and 2010” | Daryl Cagle

Teachers can only do so much. They are merely the guides, the walking and talking reference books. If the kid lacks the discipline or interest to learn, then blaming the teacher is simply moronic and cowardly. Which, of course, explains why it’s now à la mode.

(via Diaphanitas)

Coining a new (preexisting Spanish) term for flip-flopping politicians

And so can you!

I had to marvel when I came across this great comment by qetzal at a Dispatches From the Culture Wars thread about yet more GOP stupidity:

I love the sound of "hipocresia." It's like a combination of hypocracy and amnesia. Maybe we could adopt it into English:

Hipocresia. noun The self-serving ability to forget taking a previous position that was diametrically opposed to one's current position on a given issue.

In fact, “hypocresía” is Spanish for “hypocrisy”, so it’s not as though it were an entirely new word per se. But given the circumstances – namely, that it doesn’t exist in English – I, for one, am more than happy to try and adopt it into my common vernacular. It’s just perfect, and more than merits qetzal his own Internet.

I should ask a certain etymologically-learned friend of mine: what would the qualitative form of hypocresía be? “John McCain is a stellar example of someone afflicted with hypocresía, which therefore makes him a [?].”

Daily Blend: Friday, June 18, 2010

FFRF bus ad: “Sleep In On Sundays” Same effect can be achieved by going to church Sunday mornings, really …

Holy heckapalooza, 16 links? New personal best. You’d think people were sending me story suggestions rather than it just being my mindless browsing around the Nets. (Speaking of which, send me stories nao, will ya?)

• Wow, I didn’t know it was that simple.

• The Freedom From Religion Foundation has a new bus ad: “Sleep In On Sundays” [pictured]. Funny and harmless. So, of course, people are all kvetching about it. How mishegas.

• More John McCain spinelessness: now opposing a pro-immigration bill that he personally co-sponsored in the first place. Ed Brayton’s right: the man’s a political Jabba, only not as intimidating or reliable.
  (via Dispatches From the Culture Wars)

• Karl Rove, in the same interview: President Obama’s bad because he hasn’t met with academic experts. And, President Obama’s bad because he’s filled his administration with academic experts. Oh, pick a side, you soulless moral weathervane.
  (via Dispatches From the Culture Wars)

• Incoherent screed of the day: The biggest problem afflicting the US is … negrophilia (ie. a love for Black people). Brought to you by – where else? – the WorldNutDaily.
  (via Dispatches From the Culture Wars)

• Hard-hitting editorial at the New York Times criticizes the Obama administration for going out of their way to assure that innocent detainees who were tortured through Bush’s “extraordinary rendition” program never get to see their day in court and obtain some measure of justice. Cites the case of Maher Arar, a Canadian man captured by American authorities, shipped off to Syria and tortured for a year before they realized he was totally innocent. He got a roughly $10 million compensation and a measly apology from the Canadian government, which, while hardly enough, is still better than what the US government did, which was effectively to tell him to stop whining and fuck off.
  (via Dispatches From the Culture Wars)

• A look at the strange vitriolic attitude of the American Right’s towards the soccer World Cup. As expected: plenty of bluster and xenophobia and no shred of sense.
  (via @todayspolitics)

Friday Canine: So, you get those tics out yet?

[via dilek tosun | click for full size [1024×768]]

“Make the Pie Higher”: An actual poem (sort of)

Sugar pie Not high enough

First, I present you this remarkable (you decide in what way) poem:

I think we all agree, the past is over.
This is still a dangerous world.
It's a world of madmen and uncertainty
and potential mental losses.

Rarely is the question asked
Is our children learning?
Will the highways of the Internet become more few?
How many hands have I shaked?

They misunderestimate me.
I am a pitbull on the pantleg of opportunity.
I know that the human being and the fish can coexist.
Families is where our nation finds hope, where our wings take dream.

Put food on your family!
Knock down the tollbooth!
Vulcanize society!
Make the pie higher! Make the pie higher!

Sounds like a heck of a crappy bit of poetry, doesn’t it?

Guess who’s the poet?

That’s right … ex-President George W. Bush.

Well, sorta – those are just actual quotes of his that’ve been compiled into that little ditty. Sounds like an attempt of his at speechwriting.

And yes, I will keep posting this sort of stuff until you hang your head in shame, America, and both accept, and apologize for, the fact that you voted this doofus into office. Twice.

(via commenter ttch at Forever in Hell)