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.

Headline of the Day: Sins come in threes

(IrishCentral)

(via The Daily Grail)

Daily Blend: 03/13/2013

TJ Kincaid

Heads Up: Later today/tomorrow is when Disqus is slated to force its “upgraded” platform upon users (like me) who still cling to the old, customizable version. Might take a little while for changes to take effect. Stay tuned.

I’m also trying out a new title style for this Daily Blend (rather than the usual long-form date). We’ll see if it sticks. That is all.

Oh, look, it’s another bone-chilling climate study for pseudoscientists and ideologues to deny and lie about!

New Zealand votes to guarantee passage of same-sex marriage. Yay!
(via Joe. My. God.)

Some more gay (in both senses) news: Floundering “ex-gay” group National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) loses tax exempt status, forced to slice their Rentboy budget.
(via Joe. My. God.)

This just in: TJ Kincaid ^[pictured] is still an embarrassment to the atheist community and humanity in general. (Also: Go, Anita Sarkeesian!)
(via @SallyStrange; RT: @jennifurret)

Virginia steps a little further into the 21^st Century by overturning law against “consensual sodomy”. (Wingnut outrage in 3 … 2 …)
(via Joe. My. God.)

And finally, here’s an interactive infographic of global Internet porn habits. (East Europe is amazingly perverted.)
(via Joe. My. God.)

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

Ken Ham accuses non-Biblical literalists of “helping atheism”

Ken Ham

Infighting is funny, Christian fundamentalist edition: Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis is upset at fellow zealots like Mark Driscoll (Seattle’s Mars Hill Church) and Robert Jeffress (Dallas’s First Baptist Church) for shying away from his fetishized brand of Young-Earth Creationism and accuses them of “undermining” Christianity in the process:

During a recent interview on the Bill O’Reilly show, Dr. Robert Jeffress, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, acknowledged his belief that the earth could have been created 13.7 billion years ago.

“I think it very well could have been,” Jeffress told O’Reilly. “One of the things fundamentalist Christians mess up on is they try to say the earth is 6,000 years old. The Bible never makes that claim.”

Ham denounced Jeffress statement maintaining the Bible makes no such claim that the earth is billions of years old.

“Pastors need to be told that when you do that, you undermine the authority of Scripture,” Ham said. “They are helping atheism by undermining the authenticity of the word of God.”

Oh, don’t worry, Ken. As much as we heathens appreciate your fellow bigoted crackpots’s talent for discrediting themselves every time they open their mouths, they really can’t hold a candle to the kind of man who would sink millions of dollars into a stronghold of fantastical bullshit posing as a scientific establishment and whose intellectual/ideological equals can’t match wits with any properly educated sixth-grader.

One good thing about being an atheist: No other group needs to put in as little effort to disprove and discredit its opponents, since they’re adept at revealing their own mad idiocy all by themselves.

(via Right Wing Watch)

Daily Blend: Sunday, February 10, 2013

Chris Hayes

Strong monologue by MSNBC’s Chris Hayes ^[pictured] about depressingly rampant liberal/progressive hypocrisy over the Obama administration’s escalated drone war.
(via @ggreenwald)

The easy solution to anti-gay bullying in schools: Just tell kids that they can pray the gay away!

FBI continues to heroically foil its own fake terrorist plots.

Bigot-tank Family Research Council rehashes the exact same arguments against allowing gays in the Boy Scouts that it used against repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”. Because their predictions were so obviously correct the last time. (And the time before that, and …)

And finally, #INeedMasculismBecause it’s a comedic draw between watching MRAs try to explain their bigotry while the rest of the world laughs at them.

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

Daily Blend: Tuesday, February 05, 2013

Bill Donohue

New York City teen pregnancy rate continues to plummet thanks to easier access to birth control.

Creeping Creationism fails in Colorado.

Continuing from yesterday, Bill Donohue ^[pictured] really, really hates that sexually experienced and shamelessly gay man Andrew Sullivan would dare criticize the Catholic Church’s child-molestation problem. (Note his revealing derision over “consent” – that word obviously has no application or meaning in Catholicism.)

And finally, John Scalzi’s counter-Vox Day fundraiser is starting to make some impressive headlines.

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

Daily Blend: Sunday, February 03, 2013

Jenny McCarthy

Canada’s Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation: “We invited Jenny McCarthy ^[pictured] to headline our fundraiser!” Internet: “WTF?” ORCF: “Um, whoops, sorry, never mind.”

President Obama: LGBT folk should be allowed in the Boy Scouts. Absolutely schadenfreudelicious Right-wing freak-out in 3 … 2 …

John Scalzi has a beautiful plan for dealing with Vox “Racist Sexist Homophobic Dipshit” Day’s endearing little obsession with him.
(via @BadAstronomer)

And finally, please, Slymepitters, do tell me all about how your wretched hive of scum and bigotry is actually a venue for enlightened discourse?
(via Pharyngula)

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

Daily Blend: Monday, January 07, 2013

James Dobson

Most Transparent Administration In History^TM allowed to continue hiding every single detail about its drone war.

Dishonest like a Breitbart acolyte arguing against gun control.

Looks like the design & technology community also has its issues with subconscious bigotry … and knee-jerk twits who perpetuate it.
(via @pzmyers)

Focus on the Family founder James Dobson ^[pictured] laments: “Nearly everything I have stood for these past 35 years went down to defeat.” Coincidentally, my causes are only getting better!

Research indicates crime rates may be directly influenced by … leaded gasoline? First I’ve heard of this; while certain hazards increase risks of congenital defects, can they really have such a clear effect on complex adult behaviors decades later?

And finally, this is even more tragic than what’s happened to the History Channel:

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

Daily Blend: Tuesday, January 01, 2013 – Bienvenue à 2013!

Happy new orbital revolution! [source]

Quick note: I now make it my policy to automatically delete empty or otherwise illegibly glitched comments (as now noted in the Commenting Rules). Just so you know. Carry on, then.

Old but important: Anti-abortion activists actually tried to get a doctor fired for refusing to force a mentally ill 10-year-old incestuous rape victim to endure her pregnancy. I couldn’t find any word on whether Dr. Neuhaus won her appeal in the end.
(via Uzza)

And finally, I am satisfied to learn that Fox News’s Sean Hannity lost over half his audience after it was revealed last November how impressively full of shit he is.
(via @BuzzFeedAndrew)

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

Daily Blend: Friday, December 28, 2012

Al Stefanelli

Ed Brayton eviscerates Al Stefanelli ^[pictured] for his ridiculous rant about Freethought Blogs being an “atheist cult” for radical feminists who hate White men and so on. And imagine, the guy considers himself an ally. Mind, meet boggle.

Relatedly, it seems that Ophelia Benson must really be doing good work discrediting these twits.

2012 was quite a year for the “fast-growing” men’s rights movement, wasn’t it? (Well, no.)

College student learns despairingly many people are turtle-hating assholes. Though, I wonder how many hit it accidentally after swerving to avoid it.

Behold: The Ted Nugent countdown clock. (A possible third option: Carted off to a nuthouse.)
(via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

And finally, here, have some astoundingly (if hauntingly) beautiful photos of what several prominent cities would look like with every single light bulb burned out:
(via @DiscoveryCanada)

“Darkened” San Francisco (by Thierry Cohen)

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

Antivax doctor gets appropriate award

Andrew Wakefield

Rarely has such a fitting prize been bestowed upon a more deserving contender:

Andrew Wakefield, the doctor struck off the medical register for his discredited research that claimed to find a link between autism and the MMR vaccine, can add another honour to his list this Christmas: the inaugural Golden Duck award for lifetime achievement in quackery, set up by the science writer Simon Singh.

Runners-up for the award were Prince Charles and David Tredinnick, the Tory MP for Bosworth and member of the Commons health select committee. The Good Thinking Society, a campaign group led by Singh, set up the annual Golden Duck award to recognise those "who have supported or practiced pseudoscience in the most ludicrous, dangerous, irrational or irresponsible manner".

I wonder if even the remaining lights of the antivaccination camp aren’t starting to distance themselves from Wakefield at this point. Unless they plan to use this latest demerit as more “proof” that Big Pharma^TM is out to get them for their advocacy of The Truth^TM, of course.

(via @BadAstronomy)

Daily Blend: Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Matthew Inman

Introducing @Dronestream: Twitter feed of every reported U.S. drone strike since 2002.
(via @ggreenwald)

Another hapless critic, this time a BuzzFeed contributor, goes after The Oatmeal’s Matthew Inman ^[pictured]. It doesn’t end well (for the first guy).
(via @AdamSerwer; RT: @radleybalko)

What’s more popular than the “rapidly growing” men’s rights movement? Just about anything (including horse porn).

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

Church sign of the day: They can’t possibly be that oblivious

(via Joe. My. God.)

Christianist debater Eric Hovind owned by sixth-grader

Portland State University recently hosted a debate between former-Evangelical-Christian-turned-atheist Bernie Dehler and Young-Earth Creationist Eric Hovind (son of incarcerated tax cheat Kent Hovind), and it apparently went as you’d expect, with the secular humanist doing his best to remain afloat amidst the self-assured goober’s deluge of Biblical nonsense. But one moment in particular stuck out, when Hovind was reduced to a babbling mess by his opponent’s sixth-grader son:

Transcript: (click the [+/-] to open/close →)

[−]

CHAD DEHLER (11): What is your evidence with God? Do you have – whenever you have God talking to you, it’s just one part of your brain actually talking to yourself.

[…]

ERIC HOVIND: What’s my evidence of God? Dad’s [Bernie Dehler] okay with this. The proof of God is that without God, you can’t know anything. And that’s exactly what we’ve seen, here, is when you’ve seen somebody say, “I could be wrong about everything,” they’ve given up knowledge in order to deny the God that they know exists. And that’s why the Bible says it is so foolish to deny God.

DEHLER: So, you’re saying if I don’t know one thing, then I don’t know everything?

HOVIND: No, I’m saying if you don’t know everything, then you can’t know anything to be absolutely true.

DEHLER: So, if I don’t know everything in the world, then I don’t know that you exist?

HOVIND: [slight pause] Unless you have revelation from someone who does know everything. And that someone that does know everything is God, and young man –

DEHLER: So, does that mean if I don’t know everything, then that means that I don’t know God exists?

HOVIND: You can’t know anything. You can’t even – you can’t – the argument and – I’m sorry, Max, thanks for trying to get – how old are you, buddy?

[Crosstalk, during which Max says that he’s eleven years old.]

HOVIND: These are good questions. But the argument is actually kinda simple. It just says, look, you have to know everything in order to say you know one thing to be absolutely certain. Or, somebody who does know everything could reveal something to you so that you can be certain. We all deal in a realm of certainty. We deal with 2 + 2 = 4. You don’t go to the bank and ask for change for a $100 bill, and they give you $5, and go, “Oh, I got some change!” No, you go based on certainty. If I, for example […] I knew everything everything there was to know, if I had all the knowledge and you didn’t, and there was a rule that said I am never, ever, ever allowed to tell a lie [Except that God does lie in the Bible. —JM], and I said, “Chad, I know everything, I’m not allowed to lie – 2 + 2 = 4.” Could you now know that to be true, even though you, Chad, don’t know everything? […]

CHAD: Yes, because I know it, because there’s proof for it. There’s no proof for God.

[light applause]

How can the man expect to be taken seriously as a debater when he’s so helplessly outmatched at his own game by an eleven-year-old? And these people then wonder why few secular intellectuals are willing to waste their time and energy on a stage with them.

(via Friendly Atheist)

Ballot recount spells even more doom for Florida’s Allen West

(Ex-)Rep. Allen West (R-FL)

It’s a shame I haven’t written more about soon-to-be-former Rep. Allen West (R-FL), Tea Partier, war criminal and general raving lunatic, since voters made it clear recently how they’ve had enough of being represented by Bozo’s nutty brother and opted for Democratic contender Patrick Murphy instead. But West being West, he naturally demanded a full recount of early votes, and the results are in – presumably to West’s chagrin:

The odds of Rep. Allen B. West (R-Fla.) prevailing in Florida’s 18th District race grew longer Sunday when a recount of early ballots yielded Democratic opponent Patrick Murphy a net gain of nearly 300 votes, expanding his lead over the incumbent to more than 2,000 votes.

A St. Lucie County recount resulted in Murphy gaining 274 votes, the Associated Press reported. Murphy’s campaign continued to claim victory, while West’s campaign refused to give in just yet, the AP also reported. But the Republican’s options appear to be limited. His deficit is outside the automatic recount threshold, and time is running out.

So it seems the public is even more tired of him than it had first appeared. We can only hope West will finally act like a grown-up and concede the race already before the proverbial fat lady goes on strike over three weeks of nonstop singing, or something.

(via Right Wing Watch)

Daily Blend: Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Savita Halappanavar

Irish woman ^[pictured] has a miscarriage. Catholic hospital refuses to abort the dead fetus. Woman suffers and dies. To keep in mind for the next time some anti-choice asshat claims abortion doesn’t save lives.

Meanwhile, an ongoing study publishes preliminary findings: Women who have an abortion don’t fare any worse than those who are denied.
(via Wonkette)

Ed Brayton nails it: The Republican Party did everything in their power to bring about its latest crushing defeat, and they should absolutely be ridiculed for it.

Radley Balko at his most optimistic: Americans seem to be leaning away from punishment and towards reason and rehabilitation on drugs and crime.
(via The Agitator)

And finally, outsiders shouldn’t have any say in Illinois’s East Aurora School District’s handling of trans anti-discrimination policies, says group of hate-mongering outsiders.

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

Why is a diminished White establishment such a scary thought?

(via Political Irony)

Haters react schadenfreudeliciously to election day results

Call me politically sadistic, but there’s little I enjoy more than seeing wingnuts go into full meltdown mode when their bigoted spiel is thrown right back in their faces by popular vote. And yesterday’s multiple crushing defeats were virtually guaranteed to elicit the highest levels of schadenfreude since, well, President Obama’s first election, really. Add the fact that these kooks are on Twitter, and you get gold like the following:

We can't let this happen. We should march on Washington and stop this travesty. Our nation is totally divided!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2012

Lets fight like hell and stop this great and disgusting injustice! The world is laughing at us.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2012

While I apologize for all the damages caused by exploding irony meters nationwide, it looks like the thing that ate its own brain, otherwise known as former Saturday Night Live comedian Victoria Jackson, has transcended impotent rage and moved on to tears of unfathomable sadness:

I can't stop crying.America died.

— Victoria Jackson (@vicjackshow) November 7, 2012

Thanks a lot Christians, for not showing up.You disgust me.

— Victoria Jackson (@vicjackshow) November 7, 2012

Of course, the funny thing is that her poor, bemoaned Christians did show up. They just don’t appear to follow her morbidly regressive line of thinking. Double-irony?

Election Day wrap-up

Note: 11/07/12 7:20 PM ET – I’ve posted a follow-up edition with tons more links!

Oh you look so beautiful tonight / In the city of blinding lights …

[source]

It looks like Mitt Romney will have to continue campaigning for four more years.

Same-sex marriage: PASSES (or is guaranteed to very shortly) in Washington, Maryland, Maine and Minnesota, all by popular vote! Right-wing homophobes everywhere who continually trumpet the “never passed by popular vote” trope, get fucking lost.

Recreational marijuana: PASSES in both Colorado and Washington! I’d like to see the Obama administration drug warriors crack down on two entire states.
(via @BadAstronomer & @breakingpol (RT: @BreakingNews))

Rape-gate: Republican troglodytes Richard Mourdock (IN), Todd Akin (MO) and John Koster (WA) are all kicked to the curb.

Some of these links are more-or-less preliminary reports, so be sure to look around for further confirmation and details. But nonetheless, today went a damn sight better than two years ago. It’s certainly been one hell of a day for Washington state – gay marriage, pot legalization and getting rid of that “rape thing” moron all in one evening.

You know, I think my faith in humanity may have improved just a tiny little bit tonight.

Edit: 11/07/12 5:04 PM ET – Added some detail about Obama’s anti-pot track record.

Here’s why you *should* vote (for gay marriage)

Kinda late by now, but still, wouldn’t it be nice?

(via Joe. My. God.)