Run away from anyone boasting about being a “fiscal conservative”

Face it, with their track record, such a claim is proper grounds for a very hearty mocking.

Cartoon: “Fiscal Conservative” | Steve Greenberg

(via @todayspolitics)

Tags: fiscal conservatives • conservatives • economy • cartoons

Conservatives are right about those lazy unemployed people!

Cartoon: “Lazy unemployed” | Matt Bors

(via Political Irony)

Tags: Matt Bors • unemployment • cartoons

Quote of the Day: Rebecca Watson on atheism, happiness and truth

Skepchick Rebecca Watson has a new video up where she takes on that old challenge-cloaked-as-a-question by theists: “What does atheism have to offer?” It’s not about whether godlessness makes you happier or not; believe in whatever you want if it’s just to get your spirits up, regardless how wrong or utterly delusional it may be. But if you just want the truth – or, should I specify, whatever we humans can determine that is the closest to the truth based on reason and evidence – then atheism is the ticket.

Here’s the short but relevant excerpt:

Let’s drop the whole “atheist evangelism” thing and call out bullshit questions like “what does atheism have to offer?” for just what they are: bullshit. I mean, what does knowing that the Earth goes around the Sun have to offer? Who cares? It just is.

And that’s a new Memorable Quote added to my collection.

(via Diaphanitas)

Tags: Rebecca Watson • truth

Carl Sagan on our anthropocentric conceit

Here’s a wonderful tribute video to one of the greatest science communicators of the past few decades as he discusses the Universe and how very much insignificant we silly little humanoids are in the grand scheme of things.

(via Pharyngula)

Tags: Carl Sagan • Earth • Astronomy • Universe • religion • humanity

Daily Blend: Friday, July 23, 2010

Dan Wheeler [source: KING5.com]

• “Religious Folks Lose Minds Over Atheist Leader” More than usual, anyway.

• What do you get when Sarah Palin screws up simple English and then tries to compare herself to Shakespeare? You get #shakespalin on Twitter, is what.
  (via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

• Dan Wheeler ^[pictured] had his identity stolen by a sex offender years ago, now likely to remain in sex offender registry for the rest of his life.

• Phoenix, Arizona man awarded $855,000 in damages for abuse at the hands of Maricopa County detention officers after being accused (and later acquitted) of raping and murdering his 11-month-old son in 2003. I’m guessing that his name and the fact that he was under Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s jurisdiction had nothing to do with how the case developed, right …?
  (via The Agitator)

• Here’s an idea, child protection officers: How about making sure that parents are actually incapable of taking care of their kid(s) before taking their children away from them into “protective” custody?
  (via The Agitator)

• Oh là là.
  (via Diaphanitas)

• Oh là là, redux. Street View: The amateur voyeur’s legal resource.

• ♪Do I gotta get water from the moon♪
  (via The Daily Grail)

• Fresh from taking on homeopathy and antivaxxers, cartoonist Darryl Cunningham now debunks Moon hoax conspiracies.
  (via Bad Astronomy)

• You have been declared guilty. I hereby sentence you to read a book. (Gotta love those “liberal-minded” solutions. Odd how they often seem to work better, too.)
  (via @ebertchicago)

• Kansas newspaper retracts endorsement of Republican House candidate Tracey Mann when they realize he’s a Birther. Good on them.
  (via @todayspolitics)

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

Tags: Atheists • Christians • Wiccans • Australia • Julia Gillard • weird • stupid • Sarah Palin • Shakespeare • English • Twitter • shakespalin • Dan Wheeler • sex offender registry • identity theft • Delano Yanes • child abuse • wrongful conviction • Maricopa County • blindness • child protection • voyeurism • nudity • Google Earth • Street View • Moon • water • Darryl Cunningham • Moon hoax • penal system • books • Hutchinson News • Tracey Mann • Birthers

Rachel Maddow destroys Bill O’Reilly’s ratings strawman

Urgent memo to right-wing TV pundits: Stop attacking Rachel Maddow. Seriously, just stop it. You can’t win. She is far too intelligent, savvy and clever to fall for your dishonest swipes, and any attempts at smearing or otherwise refuting her will inevitably result in her tearing you apart and picking her teeth with your splintered bones. Cue her schadenfreudelicious response to Bill O’Reilly’s foolish strawman where he attempts to rebuke Maddow’s criticism of Fox “News”’s role in the Shirley Sherrod affair by bragging, as though he were a schoolchild talking about how strong his daddy was, that his ratings are higher than Maddow’s. Seriously … that’s just ducking into the punch.

Now we must wonder how long before O’Reilly is able to sit without wincing.

(via @todayspolitics)

Tags: Rachel Maddow • Bill O'Reilly • Shirley Sherrod • Fox “News”

Bad Astronomer’s Sooper Seekrit Project finally revealed!

And it’s pretty much what we expected it to be. =3 Here’s your first sneak peek at Phil Plait’s latest effort to debunk all the junk science related to the workings of the cosmos and the dangers we may someday face: coming soon to Discovery Channel, Bad Universe.

Sweet.

(via @jennifurret)

Tags: Phil Plait • Bad Universe • junk science • Discovery Channel

Friday Canine: The young’uns pay their due

[via PicsDigger | click for full size [994×819]]

Tags: wolves

Jimmy Kimmel on the Sarah Palin epidumbic

This makes me wish I got Jimmy Kimmel Live! here:

I really kinda wanted to slap that anchorman a little, though.

(via Political Irony)

Tags: Jimmy Kimmel • Jimmy Kimmel Live • Sarah Palin • stupid

Olbermann nails it with the Shirley Sherrod affair

Here saving me from any obligation to write anything of substance regarding the appalling case of Shirley Sherrod’s firing, Keith Olbermann lets it rip and pretty much says everything that needs to be said regarding this tremendous miscarriage of justice. Let me just stand next to this video with a sign reading “what he said”.

As I said: That douchebags like Breitbart and the team at Fox “News” keep acting like douchebags, whilst unacceptable, is certainly understandable. It’s just what they are and what they do. The problem is the people who keep falling for their lies time and time again, and especially, those in charge who enable them and refuse to kick them in the mouth now and again.

Tags: Keith Olbermann • Shirley Sherrod • Andrew Breitbart • Fox News • Barack Obama

Fail Quote of the Day: Pam Geller decries barbarity in Quran

Pam Geller [source: Think and Ask Questions]

Pam Geller, a woman whose writings about Sarah Palin make her sound as though she had heart-adorned posters of the failed Alaskan politician covering every inch of her bedroom walls, has an utterly fangirlish column up at the WorldNutDaily where she praises Palin for opposing the controversial so-called “Ground Zero Mosque” on Twitter. Just about every portion of that piece could serve as a perfectly apt excerpt for this Fail Quote segment, but there’s this bit that’s just breathtaking in its absurdity:

There have been 15,644 Islamic attacks across the world since Sept. 11, 2001. Each one had the imprimatur of an Islamic cleric. What is being done to expunge the Quran of the violent texts that inspire jihad? If Rauf is really a moderate, why isn't he spending his time working on that instead of trying to build this mega-mosque?

So she’s complaining that violent and hateful passages in the Islamic holy book is grounds for terrorist attacks and jihad? Um, Pam, dear – there’s also another holy book that also contains more than its fair share of barbarity. It’s called the Bible, you see, and its many, thousands-years-old endorsements of such things as slavery, killing homosexuals and stoning adulterous woman – amongst any number of other commandments that would put even today’s Islamic theocracies to shame – are perfectly intact and available for all to read in today’s printed editions. And yet, you never hear any Christians complaining about how their treasured scriptures are filled with monstrous acts and heinous commandments – they just rationalize such issues away and cherry-pick which portions of the Testaments they follow. As do all other followers of any other sacred texts on the planet.

Also, it’s not the Quran itself that inspires violent acts, but the hatred that’s perpetuated down the lines of fundamentalist and radicalized extremists and theocrats. And this is inherent to any system of beliefs, be they Islamic or Christian, or religious or political. It just so happens that there are more extremists spawned from Islam in relation to any other religion or political belief, and the reasons for this are many and complex, having to do with social inequalities, stigma, old feuds, and any number of things, of which the actual contents of the Quran play only a very small part. Just as how the contents of the Bible, whilst not strictly adhered to by the vast majority of people, still serve to directly inspire some nutjobs to blow up abortion clinics, or burn witches in the olden days.

(via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

Tags: Pam Geller • Sarah Palin • WorldNetDaily • Quran • Islam

Basil Marceaux for Tennessee governor

And now proving that absolutely anyone can get on the ballot if they’re able to string two words together: Here’s Basil Marceaux, Republican candidate for Tennessee governor, listing some of his positions.

It’s a little hard to make out just what he’s saying with his accent (seriously, you Southerners actually understand each other without captions?), but it seems that his agenda includes:

• Recalling all permits and registrations for guns (“anyone can carry a gun; if you kill someone now, you get murdered or go to jail”);
• Planting grass and vegetation across the state and in any vacant lot (and “sell it for gas”?);
• Removing all (French?) flags from the state and “fly[ing] the real flag with three stripes”;
• Stopping all traffic stops;
• Having everyone say the Pledge of Allegiance, pray to God and “say Amen”.

Well, gosh-darn it, I’m sold. How ’bout you?

(via @todayspolitics)

Tags: Basil Marceaux • Tennessee • Republicans