With a year as crazy as 2011 (wait – aren’t we saying that at the end of every year these days …?), what better fitting commemoration is there than JibJab’s annual tribute?
(via Joe. My. God.)
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Finally, researchers have found a valid (so to speak) reason for male circumcision: The Fraunhofer Institute in Germany is growing synthetic skin using cells from infant foreskins (<pause for double-take and/or bleaching of mind’s eye>) in the hopes of finding a replacement for animal testing. The Local reports:
A research organization is growing human skin in the hope of using it to trial cosmetics and medicines, reducing the need for animal testing. The synthetic skin is made using cells from infant foreskins.
The idea of a "skin factory" may sound sinister, but that is exactly what scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute in Stuttgart have created. Their so-called Hautfabrik grows tiny swatches of skin - not for skin grafts, but for testing consumer products.
The renowned institute is presenting their ground-breaking invention as an affordable and sustainable alternative to animal testing, which many consider unnecessarily cruel.
The article then goes into some detail about the process, but I’m sure most of you are now either A) debating the morality of animal testing, B) debating the idea of infant circumcision, or C) baby foreskins eeek!, so I’ll spare us all the pain of excerpting it at length.
At any rate, who knew that with all those bullshit claims about health benefits and appeals to “religious freedom”, it’s science that would end up offering the best incentive for male infant circumcision? (Not enough to actually make the practice any less wrong and repellent, mind you. The concept is good; they just need to use foreskins from adults who chose circumcision knowingly and willingly, and not children who had it imposed upon them.)
(via Joe. My. God.)
Tags: circumcision • Fraunhofer Institute • synthetic skin • animal testing
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| Spook the pitbull |
Doggycide: Gulfport, MS police shoot & kill a pitbull [pictured] during a botched raid – right in front of a 3-year-old – and claim the dog supposedly attacked them despite being chained in the yard.
(via The Agitator)
Shocker: Major anti-copyright-infringement advocates caught with millions of dollars in pirated content. ’Cause what good fascist isn’t also a hypocritical asshole?
Meanwhile, MythBusters’s Adam Savage speaks out against SOPA.
David Barton: Disney, homosexuality and erosion of “Judeo-Christian biblical worldview” to blame for making people think that animals feel and think.
List of some of Kim Jong-il’s titles. My favorite is “Highest Incarnation of the Revolutionary Comradely Love”, which has got to be code for something.
(via The Agitator)
If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.
Tags: Gulfport, MS • Spook • pitbulls • dogs • YouHaveDownloaded.com • NBC Universal • Sony Pictures • Fox Entertainment • Recording Industry Association of America • RIAA • Homeland Security • torrents • Adam Savage • Stop Online Piracy Act • SOPA • David Barton • Rick Green • Christianity • Kim Jong-il • North Korea
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| Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) |
In which Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) takes a leaf from failed Delaware Senate candidate Christine “I’m not a witch, I’m you!” O’Donnell’s book – with similarly disturbing results:
Republican hopeful Michele Bachmann seems to have found a new favorite tag line in the midst of her bus tour: “I'm one of you.”
It's a phrase she's been using more and more, and Monday she seemed to be saying it everywhere she went.
"I am not a politician. I am a real person. I don't even know how to be a politician," Bachmann said in a news conference outside a high school in Grundy Center, Iowa.
"That is why I am in trouble all the time in Washington DC because I am constantly fighting the establishment in Washington, D.C.," she added.
While it’s comforting to finally see her acknowledge her utter incompetence at holding any sort of public office (though not before the entire world had apparently realized it before her), it might be a bit more reassuring if she hadn’t gotten this epiphany while running for President of the United States.
Really, you kooks and nutballs need to stop trying to pretend to be “one of the people”. That would only be true if the global average IQ were below that of a parsnip’s.
(via ThinkProgress)
Tags: Michele Bachmann • Christine O'Donnell
From the crème-du-bigot Bryan Fischer:
Transcript from Right Wing Watch:
Let's assume for the sake of argument that Christopher Hitchens maintained his resolve and did not turn, he did not repent, he died an unrepentant and defiant atheist. That would mean today, if the Scriptures mean anything, that he is in Hell today.
But here's my point, the point I was making earlier is that if he is, if Christopher Hitchens is, in fact, in Hell, he's there because God loves him. Not because God hates him but because God loves him. And I explained what I mean by that. What I mean by that is that God loves us enough to, in the end, give us what he insist on having. If we are determined to have our own way then God, in the end, is going to give us what we insist on having, because that's what you do for people you love.
...
Now if you think about it, and I mention this earlier, to me it would not be a loving thing for God to say to Christopher Hitchens "you spent your entire life, you're still defying me. You died in defiance, you still are in defiance as you stand before me. You don't want anything to do with me. You don't want anything to do with my son. You don't want anything to do with my Gospel. You don't want anything to do with word of God. You don't want anything to do with other people that are followers of me." It would not be a loving thing to compel someone like Christopher Hitchens to spend the rest of eternity in a place that he hated, a place that he does not want to be, a place that he has no desire to be, a place that he has spent all of his life resisting, condemning, avoiding, refusing to embrace. To me, that's not love, that would be a form of cruelty.
From Radley Balko’s “local news hysteria” series, wherein he showcases clips of small-time media outlets breathlessly reporting on the latest supposed big teen scare, comes this bit of breaking news: Sum pplz r meen on teh Interwebz!
To their credit, they do source their information from Know Your Meme, even if they do dress it up with spooky graphics and victimized YouTubers as if they were reporting on anything more than the random brain-droppings of a bunch of maladjusted losers in their mamas’ basements.
Tags: trolling • trolls • local news • media hysteria • Fox 11 News
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| DNR |
Posting at the 11th hour again … #WellActuallyThe23rdHour #PedantryRules
Investigators: Catholic Church covered up the widespread abuse of up to 20,000 Dutch children (one in five) in various Catholic institutions. Cue Bill Donohue’s braying defense in 3 … 2 …
Bullshit artist extraordinaire Kevin Trudeau ordered to pay $37.6 million for violating FTC order to stop scamming. Phil Plait has more.
(via @BadAstronomer)
North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il finally snuffs it. I don’t think the “don’t speak ill of the recently deceased” folks will mind with this one.
Dog disguise kits to get around breed-specific legislation. I applaud the initiative, but I don’t see how it could fool much of anyone.
(via The Agitator)
If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.
Tags: Catholic Church • Netherlands • child molestation • clerical child abuse • Kevin Trudeau • scam artists • con artists • fraud • infomercials • commercials • FTC • Kim Jong-il • North Korea • dictators • dogs • breed-specific legislation • dig disguise kits
![‘Fanboys’ [2008] poster](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uwSlOzF-kAfs6IKJ26jtHxXqgHlbehl9mGuvBzk_qP_euwAvYBfkV8HMn7VYzjvnkmDSWOxBBaDbIOe21ooZU=s0-d "‘Fanboys’ [2008] poster")
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| Except for God |
From my friend Diaphanus:
Two theologians debating the nature of a deity are like two Star Wars fanboys debating the nature of The Force.
A bit obvious, but no less true.
Added to the Memorable Quotes.
Tags: Diaphanus • Ian Miller • theology • theologians • God • Star Wars • The Force
Don’t you just love it when bigots lay out their “scientific” reasons for hating various minorities? Here’s Minnesotan Mark Hayes explaining why he plans to vote in support of an anti-gay-marriage constitutional amendment that Christian-Right groups successfully got on the November 2012 ballot:
It wouldn’t be pretty. [laughs] My response to one of my daughters would be … would be a lot like Katrina hitting New Orleans. It would not be good. That’s about all I can say about it. I’m not sure exactly what my reaction would be, but I know that it would be a bad day. [laughs]
Yeah, blowing up in your kids’ face when they come out of the closet – so funny! On the other hand, at least his daughters are now warned that they would be much better off confiding in someone else.
But wait, he’s just getting started:
My name is Mark Hayes and I’m voting “yes” on the marriage amendment because of my scientific experience [of] reproduction being a basic facet of existence for all organisms. Same-sex marriage flies in the face of that. For any organism, be it animal, plant or human, the reproductive urge is very significant as a driving force in life. As a matter of fact, it is one of the seven qualities to dictate whether something is alive or not.
In memoriam to the Hitch. From Vanity Fair [links removed for brevity]:
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Christopher Hitchens—the incomparable critic, masterful rhetorician, fiery wit, and fearless bon vivant—died today at the age of 62. Hitchens was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in the spring of 2010, just after the publication of his memoir, Hitch-22, and began chemotherapy soon after. His matchless prose has appeared in Vanity Fair since 1992, when he was named contributing editor.
“Cancer victimhood contains a permanent temptation to be self-centered and even solipsistic,” Hitchens wrote nearly a year ago in Vanity Fair, but his own final labors were anything but: in the last 12 months, he produced for this magazine a piece on U.S.-Pakistani relations in the wake of Osama bin Laden’s death, a portrait of Joan Didion, an essay on the Private Eye retrospective at the Victoria and Albert Museum, a prediction about the future of democracy in Egypt, a meditation on the legacy of progressivism in Wisconsin, and a series of frank, graceful, and exquisitely written essays in which he chronicled the physical and spiritual effects of his disease. At the end, Hitchens was more engaged, relentless, hilarious, observant, and intelligent than just about everyone else—just as he had been for the last four decades.
“My chief consolation in this year of living dyingly has been the presence of friends,” he wrote in the June 2011 issue. He died in their presence, too, at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. May his 62 years of living, well, so livingly console the many of us who will miss him dearly.
Our thoughts are with his family, friends and assorted loved ones.
(via @ebertchicago)
Tags: Christopher Hitchens • Vanity Fair
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| Cutest intruder ever |
Look, whatever you think of Cesar Millan and his methods, comparing nudging and leash-training to actual abuse – especially child abuse* – is utterly ridiculous.†
Shocking: Obama administration refuses to veto defense bill with horrible provision allowing gov’t to indefinitely detain anyone, anywhere, without any due process. Meanwhile, the House debates it today.
(via @AdamSerwer)
CDC report exposes the ugly truth about rape in the U.S.: Over 12 million men & women are sexually victimized every year.
(via Pharyngula)
Classy: Vermont fraternity suspended after passing out survey asking “If I could rape someone, who would it be?”.
Baby seal [pictured] wanders into New Zealander’s home, tries to sleep on her couch. Impossibly cute photos ensue.
(via Joe. My. God.)
If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.
* I fully consider corporeal punishment to be child abuse. As I’ve said: If you cannot get your child to listen without hitting them, you’re a failure as a parent.
† I won’t link to what brought this up, as it comes from a very respected friend and I don’t wish to burn any bridges. But it just had to be said.
(PS – My judgment is based on having watched Millan’s show, The Dog Whisperer, for years.)
Tags: Cesar Millan • The Dog Whisperer • dogs • child abuse • NDAA • National Defense Authorization Act • indefinite detention • Obama administration • due process • rape • sexual assault • sexual violence • National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey • NISVS • CDC • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention • Sigma Phi Epsilon • University of Vermont • seals • seal pups • Welcome Bay, NZ • Annette Swoffer
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| Nicole (l) and Jonas Maines |
How telling is it that we must rely on foreign news agencies to expose wrongdoing in U.S. organizations?
Today’s cure for cheeriness: British report exposes the U.S. Military’s rampant rape problem.
(via Pharyngula)
SOPA: An infographic.
(via Techdirt)
Powerful article about a young transgendered girl who has an identical twin brother. [both pictured]
(via @jennifurret)
Toronto Zoo’s “gay penguins” now pursuing females after being separated. Anti-gay activists calling them proof that homosexuality is a curable choice (?) in 3 … 2 …
I didn’t think atheists could lose in court and still hit this much of a nerve.
(via Kochan)
If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.
Tags: US Military • rape • rape culture • The Guardian • SOPA • Stop Online Piracy Act • infographics • Business Insurance • identical twins • Nicole Maines • Jonas Maines • transgenderism • Toronto Zoo • penguins • Buddy and Pedro • Catholic Lane • Mary Kochan • atheists • Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc. v. Brewer • Day of Prayer
![Joé McKen (18) [taken 07/13/10]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_ttYuDNavGhqI0HTxWKAg5SS_VLg-J_p4lczwSXYVlZWmBYAjEYxZRyzScBwW6w4jWhHpSvTCGWQbLj1cd-4ME=s0-d "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")
