Video of the week -- from within the cross-hairs

Lauren Zuniga responds to the deranged Republican forced-birth fetishists. Found via Freak-Out Nation.

Link round-up for 19 February 2012

Enjoy the scenery.

At any party, there's one person who loses something and ends up looking all over the place for it.

Please stop mispronouncing these.

Murr Brewster looks at the dung beetle and the role of genetics in her Scandinavian ancestry.

With some people, there's no point in discussion.

Mario Piperni posts the latest late-night political one-liners.

What is a parasite?

Methinks the game is rigged!

An Oklahoma Democrat fights Republican idiocy in the spirit of Monty Python.

The Onion looks at efforts to save an endangered species.

An ancient and simple tool liberates the imagination.

Pills banned? Give the Sarah Palin birth-control method a try.

A "sovereign citizen" crank declares war on grammar.

"Dogs against Romney"? Unleash the hounds! Protest photos here.

This week has been a Republican festival of sexist cluelessness. Progressive Eruptions looks at the latest outrages against women. Santorum's woman problem goes beyond birth control.

Charles Johnson has another round-up of comments posted at Fox, this time targeting Michelle Obama -- be warned, they're just as bad as the Whitney Houston comments I linked to on Monday.

Here's how Santorum really thinks -- remember, this guy wants to be President.

The Catholic hierarchy has jumped the shark these days (found via Progressive Eruptions).

Republicans' cave on the payroll tax shows that Democrats have learned how to fight them.

Dead people on the voter rolls aren't such a big deal.

Could Santorum really win the nomination? Rasmussen says yes. Possible campaign posters here and here; more here.

Here's more on that study linking prejudice to low intelligence.

Dave Dubya looks at the CPAC hate-fest (found via Progressive Eruptions).

Jack Jodell has ten questions for conservatives.

Republicans' weird use of language is rooted in their dishonesty with their own supporters.

No, this is not class warfare (found via Politics Plus).

That Suffolk poll showing Brown ahead of Warren is probably just an outlier.

One bishop says the birth-control coverage mandate is of the Devil.

Why did Santorum lose his 2006 Senate race so badly?

Don't get complacent, but we are winning the culture wars (found via Republic of Gilead).

Hey, let's not make a big deal out of a paltry few dozen murders.

In this case, a white man was a victim of police racism.

If corporate profits were the key to job creation, well.....

A leak exposes the inner workings of the libertarian war against science funded by, among others, the Koch brothers. More here.

Limbaugh vacations at Puerto Plata, a town with a reputation.

What does it mean to be "raped too much"? Is there a right amount?

The pain of death exposes the stupidity of religion.

As Republican hopefuls battle in Michigan, the real winner is Obama.

Interracial marriage continues to rise in the US, ushering us toward a truly post-racial future.

The financial parasite class no longer has its fangs quite so deep in our throats.

Would President Romney be Boehner's puppet?

Britain's Conservative leader supports Sarkozy, but only up to a point.

Andrew Sullivan, visiting Britain, starts to see the dangers of austerity.

The Muslim co-chair of the British Conservative party calls for Islam and Christianity to unite against secularism. Even in Britain, religion has a bullying attitude.

German socialist leader Sigmar Gabriel, who will become the most powerful man in western Europe after Merkel loses the 2013 election, denounces austerity as madness. Rather than brutalizing Greece, Germany should look to its own history. Escape could come via a return to the drachma.

Muslim terrorists are identified in Thailand -- by prostitutes they partied with.

British scientists re-create music silenced for 165 million years.

It's startling to realize how much we're surrounded by skeuomorphs.

At a conference in the northwest, creationist nutters fall flat again.

Was Stonehenge an instrument of musical magic? (found via Mendip).

Doctors in Los Angeles have successfully used stem cells to repair heart-attack damage in a human patient.

Video of the week -- Hitchens and Khayyâm

How Omar Khayyâm addressed the Muslim clergy of his time. Silly beliefs aren't so harmless when they become a basis for claiming power over others.

Word of the day

In the tradition of Santorum's neologism, Romney's roof-bound hound is immortalized with a new verb.

This year's other Presidential election

The US isn't the only country which will elect a President this year. France votes on April 22, and the results could have Europe-wide or even global impact.

The current President is Nicolas Sarkozy of the conservative UMP coalition, a close ally of Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel (also a conservative) -- indeed, Merkel and Sarkozy together more or less run the European Union, Germany and France being its two biggest economies. Sarkozy's main opponent in the election is François Hollande of the Socialist party. Hollande has a commanding lead over Sarkozy -- 32% to 25% in the latest poll -- and conventional wisdom is that his victory in April is near-certain. There are several other candidates, but in the French system, if no one candidate gets a majority, there is a run-off between the top two vote-getters -- and polls show Hollande would easily beat Sarkozy or any other rival in a run-off.

(The only other candidate with much support is Marine Le Pen of the Front National, a formerly extreme-right party which has moderated under her leadership and rejects the euro currency and EU integration. The fact that her support polls in the 15%-20% range is interesting, but she has no real chance of winning this year's election.)

Why does this matter? Sarkozy, like Merkel, strongly supports the centralized EU and its imposition of austerity policies which are crushing the life out of weaker member nations and are increasingly unpopular throughout the EU. Hollande is somewhat more luke-warm on the EU, but more importantly, he aims to dump the EU-prescribed madness of austerity for the kind of tried-and-true Keynesian stimulus policies that have begun to revive the US -- raise taxes on corporations and the rich, and use spending to encourage job creation. He has described "the world of finance" as his "real adversary". This is one of our kind of guys, not one of theirs. He's also unlikely to get along with Merkel the way Sarkozy does, since Merkel is not only his ideological opposite but has even campaigned for Sarkozy in France.

So when Hollande becomes President, the present German-French co-dominion over the EU is likely to fracture, with France taking a giant step toward economic sanity (French resentment of Germany's growing dominance, and awareness of the damage the euro currency is doing to the French economy, will encourage this). Not only will the split make it harder for the EU to impose its will on smaller countries, but as Hollande's policies begin to revive France, they'll inspire demands for similar policies in other countries.

Conservative, austerity-friendly governments now rule all of the EU's big countries, but in Spain, the Socialists lost the last election because they were too subservient to the EU to govern as socialists, and the right won by default (and is already blowing it). Italy is run by a quisling administration imposed by the EU. Conservatives won Britain's last election because the previous Labour government had been in power over a decade and was pursuing hugely unpopular policies, notably on immigration. Merkel herself is very unpopular in Germany, despite a vigorous economy, and faces an election next year.

The example of a socialist-led revival in the EU's second-biggest economy could well inspire change elsewhere. Greece, Portugal, Ireland, and even Spain are too small and powerless to dare defy the EU too blatantly. France is not.

The mentality of the opposition

Charles Johnson has a collection of comments posted on the Fox News report of the death of Whitney Houston. Take a look.

Update: Here's another example of the mentality that still exists under some rocks in our country.

Link round-up for 12 February 2012

Today is Darwin Day.

Damn right.

Bad Headlines is a blog that posts news headlines as they appear, amusingly truncated, on a small phone screen (found via Plead Ignorance).

These flags are good enough to eat -- or drink.

In a time of flashy, dull mega-movies, don't overlook this little jewel (found via Mendip).

This is a big fuss over a dead fish.

Please let it be like this.

Huffington Post distorts the views of Darwin, Einstein, and Sagan on religion.

Murr Brewster's roving reporter "interviews" Gingrich.

What the hell are they growing in the Netherlands?

Sorry, Mitt, the Republican base just doesn't like you.

Worst valentine card ever.

Congratulations to Georgia's Brittney Baxter, 7, on her escape.

We're seeing the fastest 6-month drop in unemployment since 1984 -- and the stimulus did it.

Here's a state-by-state overview of gay marriage in the US.

Andrew Sullivan has a round-up of reactions to Santorum's sweep.

The Komen Foundation may never recover from its foolish attack on Planned Parenthood.

One of these men was a true American.

A leader of teabaggerdom says the movement is dead.

Republicans oppose this tax cut, since it's for ordinary workers and not the wealthy.

Annabel's first doubts about religion came from learning about another religion (an example of this).

Remember the voter "enthusiasm gap"? It's turned in our favor now.

Traditional values mean crappy relationship advice.

Santorum is a nutcase with a pre-modern mentality.

Who supports the ACA's birth-control coverage rule? Catholics do. There "religious liberty" argument against it is feeble (more here). And make no mistake -- Obama's "compromise" is a win.

What can Republicans do if their economic sabotage fails?

OK, so here's one thing Gingrich is right about.

Mendip isn't buying the Marines' explanation of the Nazi-flag incident.

Too bad more executives aren't like this guy.

Trump is being an asshole to Scotland.

Spain's new conservative government launches an unpopular attack on secularism (found via Preliator pro Causa).

Street violence returns as Greece comes under crushing pressure from the EU. More on Greece here and here.

Yes, a death penalty for blasphemy in the 21st century (found via Preliator pro Causa).

In marked contrast to most Republicans, Obama strongly supports science.

Plants communicate with chemical signals.

The human bias toward pessimism may have evolutionary roots.

The first animal wasn't much to look at.

British scientists find a new way to grow brain cells, a step toward new treatments for Alzheimer's and stroke.

Ohio researchers reverse the effects of Alzheimer's in mice using bexarotene (more here) -- this is especially significant since bexarotene is already approved for use on humans for other purposes, eliminating one step in approval if it is found to help Alzheimer's in humans.

A more extremist Republican party?

The Republican nomination fight matters, we're told, because the future of the Republican party depends on what kind of nominee loses to Obama this November. If it's a nutjob from the Santorum / Bachmann / Paul mold, defeat will discredit the crazies and move the party back to the center; if a moderate gets nominated and then loses in November, the crazies will claim vindication and the party will become even more extremist (more here).

The problem is that the latter scenario is more likely. Despite this week's upset, Romney will almost certainly be the nominee; and while he embodies the evil and cruelty of the financial parasite class, by Republican standards he's sane and moderate enough to have already incurred the profound suspicion of the troglodyte / fundie base. And while nothing is certain in politics, he's almost sure to lose to Obama, possibly in a landslide.

So by this time next year, we may indeed be seeing the Republican party renouncing what moderation it now retains and becoming even more extremist.

But seeing the Republican party as it already is, the mind boggles to contemplate what that would actually consist of. I mean, what exactly could they do to become even more extremist than they already are? Will they want public schools to teach that the Earth is just 60 years old, not 6,000, and that anyone who claims to remember events earlier than that is deceived by Satan? Will the next "personhood" bill declare that life begins at the moment the rapist gets his pants unzipped? Will the next wave of "anti-voter- fraud" laws cut out all the obfuscating detail and just require you to provide proof that you aren't black? Will they push to execute scientists for stem-cell research? Completely exempt millionaires from all taxes? Revoke the citizenship of atheists and anyone with a college degree? Nominate Fred Phelps for President?

My point is, they're already halfway over the shark, in terms of what a political party can be and still remain viable in a modern nation. If they go much further, whatever the details turn out to look like, then the remaining sane members, the McCains and Frums and Christies and Snowes, will either be purged or give up and quit -- they'll either become a new economic-conservative wing of the Democrats, or form a third party and vanish into irrelevance. The remnant Republican party will be a broken instrument in the hands of the financial parasite class, who will find that fixing or replacing it is beyond even their powers.

If we can just get through this next election, it may be the last one that needs to be fought under the present circumstances -- the contradictions and rancor within conservatism may finally blow it apart into its constituent sub-movements, some of which we can do business with when they're no longer locked in coalition with the lunatics. If the Republican party implodes, then given the logistical difficulty of creating a viable new national party in such a huge country, the US could even become a de facto one-party state for a while. If so, the financial parasite class will redouble its efforts to dominate the Democratic party. The real battle of 2016 may be to nominate Warren or someone like her, and to elect a Congress with the same spirit, to take the bastards down once and for all.

Video of the week -- Winterland

Das wahre Leben bleibt geheim. Thanks again to Ahab for turning me on to Unheilig.

Boing! Boing!

"Did you miss me?" Newt Gingrich asked of reporters during his bizarre press conference after the Nevada caucuses. The event served as a reminder of why I, for one, would miss him if he were to drop out of the race, something he sounds very unlikely to do anytime soon. Let's face it, he's the life of the party.

Romney is evil, sure, but it's Gordon Gekko evil, investment capital financial interest-rate ZZZZZ..... Ron Paul is pretty much your standard libertarian nutjob who thinks raising a millionaire's taxes back to Reagan-era levels is an outrageous infringement of liberty, while forcing a woman to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term is not -- but he's been doing this forever and we're all pretty tired of his act, and the Fed / gold-standard crankery is migraine- caliber boring. Even his newly-revealed racism just reminds us that he's a relic of a bygone era. Santorum is the most out-there sexophobic religious nut since Christine O'Donnell, but it's been hard for such a bland squeaky-clean Mr. Rogers image to get much attention in a field so full of colorful characters as this Republican race has been.

Gingrich is the most colorful character of all, the grand guignol figure in the contest. He's the bloody car wreck you can't look away from. A vicious, bloated megalomaniac whose relations with women and attitude toward them call Henry VIII to mind, he's the pit bullfrog of Republicans. I see him skulking in a high-tech lair built inside an extinct volcano, wearing a monocle and stroking a white cat, cackling maniacally over his latest evil scheme while lightning crashes in the background. He's as fun to hate as Lord Voldemort or Darth Vader. He thinks he's Hari Seldon. What other Presidential candidate could inspire an SF parody?

And he just won't quit. During that weird piece of post-caucus theater (entertaining commentary from rank-and-file Republicans here, starting around comment 140), playing Ahab to Romney's Moby Dick, Gingrich declared "I care very deeply about helping the poorest Americans.....I think one of the great challenges of conservatism is to turn the safety net into a trampoline." Yeah, we all know what he meant, but the mental image conjured by that metaphor is a funny one. If our comedians and bloggers are on the ball, they'll milk that one for almost as much as the Moon-colony thing. God knows what else he'll come up with if he really stays in the race all the way to the end. By Tampa the Republican party is going to look like something Ed Wood came up with on an off day. Enjoy the show.

Update: The bitter fight between Republican rivals is leaving the rank and file divided into hostile camps -- see the comment thread here for examples of acrimony between Mitttards, Newtrons, and Frothies. Meanwhile, two new polls (one from Rasmussen!) show Obama with a growing edge over Romney -- savor the panic.

Link round-up for 5 February 2012

SNL imagines Gingrich's Moon colony.

Murr Brewster explores how to be an influential blogger.

How long does a queen last?

Don't poke the big guy.

In Seamus's name -- it's Dogs Against Romney.

Mankind needs faith in the toilet unicorn.

Fashion -- would anyone actually wear this?

Today is the birthday of one of the world's greatest and most unique artists.

Wise words from a wise woman.

This is not the face of a President.

Giant snakes escaping from dumbass exotic-pet enthusiasts are wiping out native mammals in Florida (too bad they didn't get any of the Republican Presidential candidates, but then, none of them look very edible).

Millions of Americans live in a nightmarish illusion.

Here's Fox News summed up in one sign.

Romney can't even get a simple thing like this right.

The Komen Foundation battle isn't over, though the Christian Right is freaking out -- more here.

Republicans keep running into problems with their campaign songs.

Yet another Catholic archdiocese is inundated with legal claims for child molestation.

More insiders corroborate: Ron Paul knew of and approved those racist newsletters. Green Eagle looks at the Paul cult's fascist ties.

Beware of political spin by the lazy media.

Romney knows nothing of how ordinary people live. His tax plan is just another give-away to the wealthiest, but he's not inspiring much far-right enthusiasm. Here's a look at his Bain record. He belongs to a male-dominated cult (found via Republic of Gilead) -- but don't they all?

The Nutty faction of Republicans is shifting support from Gingrich to Santorum.

The Atheist Camel looks at recent examples of Christian cruelty and hypocrisy.

For Republicans to move back to moderation, they need a Clinton- like figure; as it is, they may become even crazier.

Bigoted religious cranks go after JC Penney.

Here's an interesting discussion (both post and comments thread) of Romney's VP options.

The Sarah Burke case highlights the gulf between the American and Canadian health-care systems.

Andrew Sullivan has a round-up of reactions to the Florida primary.

Here's more on how dogmatic fundamentalism is driving away its own younger generation (found via Republic of Gilead).

Britain is beefing up security in the Falklands, just in case.

Doctors fight quackery in Australia.

Dead-Logic looks at atheism and superstition in South Africa.

Egyptians blame their interim military government for the deadly Port Said soccer riot. The Muslim Brotherhood, too, is an outdated relic of the past.

Libya's doing better than you think.

As the Syrian regime escalates its brutality, it loses legitimacy.

This is one hell of a crack.

Muslim fake science is just as pathetic as Christian creationism.

A Moon colony is actually a backward-looking idea since manned space travel is obsolete.

Russian scientists close in on a lake which has been isolated for 15 million years (found via Histories of Things to Come); photos here.

Fixing these proteins should help stop aging in brain cells.

American leadership in technology depends upon educated brainpower, not cheap labor (the same is even more true of the even more important revolution in medical technology, though the essay doesn't mention this).

Must-read #2: blundering bullies

Stonekettle Station has one of the best expositions I've seen on why the War on Drugs is a total failure and inevitably must be so -- and then goes on to explain, in terms even a Congressman could understand, why SOPA would be even more ineffectual and an even bigger disaster. Of course the same applies, in varying ways, to the abortion-banners and porn-censors and all the other fainting-couch pearl-clutchers desperately trying to eradicate everything that makes them feel affronted.

Take action for Planned Parenthood

Under the influence of Republican troglodytes, the Susan Komen Foundation has just withdrawn almost $1,000,000 in funding for breast-cancer screenings by Planned Parenthood. Full story and petition here -- please sign. Thanks to Parsley's Pics for the alert.

Video of the week -- Santorum's twisted world

Sometimes you gotta just stop and contemplate the real meaning of the crap these bastards are spouting. Found via Republic of Gilead. Original quote here.

Must-read #1: empowered bullies

Sorry for the light posting -- this whole month, especially the last couple of weeks, has kept me exhaustingly busy. Since I haven't written much, here's a must-read item from Noahpinion which captures very well what I've long thought is the essential problem of libertarianism -- its cultists rhapsodize endlessly about "liberty" (a word they prefer to the more plain and concrete-sounding "freedom"), but the practical result of implementing libertarian schemes in the real world wouldn't be an increase in freedom or liberty as we generally understand those words; it would be a society of empowered bullies.