Daily Blend: 05/13/13

I’m usually proud of my country, but less so when my government decides to sell out science. ^[pictured] (Doesn’t all research eventually lead to “social or economic gain”?)

So much for the idea that dropping from the blogosphere will remove Jen McCreight from the focus of obsessed slimeballs. How brazenly douchey does one have to be to lecture someone about safety whilst deliberately exposing their location?

It’s sad when a silly screed against “liberals” is too inane to even be worth fisking for the lulz.
(via Right Wing Watch)

And finally, I am reaffirmed in my belief that babies are freaking weird.

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

Daily Blend: 05/08/13

Sylvia Browne

In case you needed more evidence that “psychics” ^[pictured] are bullshit-peddling vultures.

Vox Day says the whole idea of “warrior women” is totes ridiculous ’cause what woman would stand a chance against a dude, anyway? (Pay absolutely no attention to all these real-life warrior women who became legends for kicking [mostly dude] ass.)

Here’s a collection of 154 common global warming denialist claims and their easy refutations.
(via Pharyngula)

Oh, noes! The awesome Eugenie Scott, scourge of Creationists everywhere as the head of the National Center for Science Education, retires.

And finally, here’s a dog who tries so hard to make that branch into his stick:
(via @radleybalko)

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

Daily Blend: 05/06/13

Lt. Col. Jeff Krusinski

I’m too bored/lazy/busy reading/excited about tomorrow/tired from “work” to blog much, so here’re some links.

US Air Force officer ^[pictured] in charge of responding to sexual assaults arrested for drunken sexual assault, underlines the US Military’s generally appalling handling of sex crimes.

“Good Riddance: Fox Cancels Long-Running, Drug War-Glorifying, Abuse-Excusing Reality Series COPS”
(via @AndrewKirell; RT: @radleybalko)

Those who slime together, stay together: Anti-Freethought Blogs/Atheism Plus hater encourages Westboro Baptist Church to picket upcoming Women in Secularism conference.
(via Pharyngula)

And finally, how much do you know about science and religion? (I scored in the 15^th and 13^th percentiles, respectively. Which is probably more of an implicit condemnation of the US educational system than anything else.)
(via Bad Astronomy)

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

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.

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)

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)

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)

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.)

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)

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.

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: 04/02/13

Dr. Deandre Poole

So, I guess that should read “exemplary teacher ^[pictured] threatened by student after asking class to step on piece of paper with Jesus’s name in harmless exercise on cultural sensitivity”. And he’s been receiving death threats from those ever-lovin’ Christians, of course.

I was in kinda-sorta-loose agreement with Sam Harris right until he says “[t]here is no such thing as Islamophobia” and that “[it] is a term of propaganda”. Now that’s how you shipwreck an argument, folks. (If he wants to contest the conflation of genuine criticism with bigotry, he should stress that ‘Islamophobia’ only applies to the latter, not that it isn’t actually a thing.)

Reality: Hoaxer dude calls domestic violence counseling line with phony abuse story, repeatedly refuses offered assistance to find free shelter or contact authorities. MRAs: “Abused man ‘denied help’”!

Public Policy Polling does conspiracy theories, reveals an average 10–15% of Americans are effin’ nuts. Not sure why “Bush lied about Iraqi WMDs” is counted as a myth, though.
(via @BuzzFeedAndrew)

And finally, it’s getting almost impossible to tell when Vox Day is being either seriously or facetiously stupid.

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

A little comparison between the two vaccine camps

Herein is a tale of two sides in the vaccine manufactroversy. On the one hand, we have the reality-based camp, which just got renewed confirmation via yet another study:

A new study published in the Journal of Pediatrics Friday may put [worried parents] at ease. Researchers found no association between autism and the number of vaccines a child gets in one day or during the first two years of the current vaccine schedule.

The research was led by Dr. Frank DeStefano, director of the Immunization Safety Office at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Together with two colleagues, DeStefano and his team collected data on 256 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and 752 children who did not have autism. The children were all born between 1994 and 1999 and were all continuously enrolled in one of three managed-care organizations through their second birthday.

The researchers not only counted how many vaccines a child was given, they also counted how many antigens within the vaccines children were exposed to over three different time periods: birth to 3 months, birth to 7 months and during the first two years. They also calculated the maximum number of antigens a child would receive over the course of a single day.

[…]

"When we compared those roughly 250 children with ASD and the roughly 750 children who did not have ASD, we found their antigen exposure, however measured, were the same," said DeStefano. “There was no association between antigenic exposure and the development of autism."

The researchers also found no association between antigenic exposure and ASD.

And on the other hand, we have anti-vaccinationist fear-monger David Kirby, lying about a vaccine-related court case at (where else?) The Huffington Post. Orac reports in his wonderfully thorough (if long-winded) fashion:

Daily Blend: 03/31/13 – Happy Zombie Jesus Day

There’s something especially hideous about sentencing someone to complete surgical paralysis for a crime they committed as a juvenile a decade ago. (From a US-supported “allied” country, no less.)
(via @tomgara; RT: @ggreenwald)

Cracked has a very solid and informative piece explaining how the causes and nature of gun violence are never as simple as we make them out to be.

I am shocked, just as I assume you will be, to learn that the much-ballyhooed “college student suspended for refusing to stomp on Jesus!” story isn’t actually what the wingnuts claim it is.

And finally, while I find it odd that Google chose to celebrate Cesar Chavez over Easter, it’s hilarious how utterly incensed the Christianist-Right is getting over it. Gawd forbid a secular company not celebrate their cherished religious holiday!

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

Vox Day asks some (dumb) questions about feminism

Vox Day

Amidst reiterating his usual claim that feminists are literally worse than Nazis (because most of them promote abortion rights, and terminating pre-viability fetuses that can’t feel or think is obviously worse than murdering millions of mature adults), Theodore “Vox Day” Beale then presents one of his critics with the following query:

[T]he statement [that feminists demand that women be immune from any legal repercussions for any breaches of contract, theft, and murder] not only is true, but it can be easily defended. There is no reconciliation necessary to defend it because it is based on straightforward observation. I direct the following questions to A. Man.

1. Did American women not demand, and do they not presently possess, the right to break marital contracts at will?
2. Have feminists not defended the right of women to kill men who abuse them?
3. Does the feminist definition of abuse include non-physical abuse?
4. Have feminists called for ban on actions that make a woman feel uncomfortable?

And so, partly to break the tedium of spending all day coaxing recalcitrant audio mixing software into working properly, here I go:

1. Wait – that’s a bad thing? Forget for a moment about Vox’s apparent wish of stripping women of the right to extract themselves from abusive or loveless unions; the ideals of personal liberty and bodily autonomy alone – which, as a self-professed libertarian, Vox should take particularly to heart – require that people have the right to enter or leave any relationship as they see fit. (Or are women so inferior to the Great Purveyors of XY Chromosomes^TM that some fundamental freedoms are just too good for them?)

   Furthermore, how does giving women the right to file for divorce somehow equate to allowing them to break any other contract at will? And when has any feminist ever demanded such a thing? That’s an impressive hybrid of strawman and non-sequitur right there.

2. What a ridiculously loaded and overbroad statement. It would certainly help to know what the hell he’s on about; but ravings from fringe-dwelling nuts on street corners aside, no, feminists most certainly do not request the right to murder anyone they see fit, except in extreme cases of self-defense (an exception that applies to anyone, not just abused women).

3. No, Vox, that’s the standard definition of abuse, as employed by anyone, anywhere, ever. Look, it’s in the dictionary and everything:

Loony Headline of the Day: Alex Jones edition

From Alex Jones’s den of hilarious crackpottery:

And here’s the opening paragraph:

President Barack Obama is now the global head of Al-Qaeda – bankrolling, arming and equipping terrorists around the world in order to achieve his administration’s geopolitical objectives – while simultaneously invoking the threat of terrorists domestically to destroy the bill of rights.

You’re welcome.

(via Joe. My. God.)