Link round-up for 18 March 2012

Republicans rally around Romney (found via Progressive Eruptions).

Salamanders are cool.

The box is infallible.

They don't make Republicans like Eisenhower any more.

The right wing is vetting Sandra Fluke. And making stickers (more here).

What's on Romney's mind?

PZ Myers looks at another nut who thinks science and religion are compatible.

Mario Piperni laments the end of a 244-year-old tradition.

Ramona's Voices looks at the right-wing war on women.

Some homeowners are stopping foreclosures by using banks' own shoddy practices as a legal weapon against them.

The weird Republican primary is partly a legacy of Michael Steele's blundering tenure as party chair.

NPR is ripping off bloggers, apparently.

The number of armed hate groups in the US has exploded since 2008.

Romney wants to "get rid of" Planned Parenthood.

Texas law forces doctors to hurt people.

Bradlee Dean spreads primitive misogyny at an Iowa school.

Bill Maher responds to being compared with Limbaugh.

Jessica DelBalzo speaks truths about abortion that others won't.

Here's an interesting discussion among conservatives on Santorum's anti-porn jihad. Note especially comment 87 and comments by "Susan" -- yes, people like this really exist.

The killing of Trayvon Martin in Florida, and the police response, illustrate the continuing problem of racism. More here.

Obama is the only recent President who hasn't increased government spending.

The author of that Rhode Island prayer banner is now bitching about Jessica Ahlquist's scholarship.

De-regulation and union-bashing will just mean more abuses, not more jobs.

Obama is starting to get the truth out about health-insurance reform, while Republicans lie about the costs.

Being stupid about elections has consequences.

Virginia drags its feet on exonerating the wrongly-convicted (sent by Mendip).

Polls on a Romney-vs-Obama race are still all over the map.

Minnesota school officials practice invasion of privacy worthy of fascists.

We shouldn't fear tax increases.

Defending Christianity on the basis of the Ten Commandments is stupid.

Arizona Republicans come up with yet another way to torment women. Wisconsin Republicans are no slackers either.

The war on women is really a war on sex -- especially birth control.

Limbaugh's ugly ranting may cost him his current beard.

The Romney-Santorum fight is just getting uglier.

Want to compare atheists and fundamentalists? Bring it on!

Santorum ignorantly blunders about science. No wonder Alabama and Mississippi Republicans went for him.

Here's the British Prime Minister's assessment of Obama.

The US isn't the only country with dumbass right-wing science-bashing.

It's impossible to defend Santorum's lies about the Netherlands.

Disease proliferates as austerity policies drive Greece toward Third World status.

Russia's "it girl" joins the anti-Putin movement.

Little Green Footballs and Stonekettle Station look at right-wing reactions to the mass killing in Afghanistan.

If this survey is accurate, it doesn't bode well for progress in Islamic countries.

Tim McGaha looks at Civil War technology.

A Canadian study on pornography fails, for an interesting reason.

The CFC ban worked -- the ozone layer is recovering.

Toxins in seafood may be fueling a rise in nervous-system degeneration -- including Alzheimer's.

Doctors are getting tougher on dangerous quackery.

Scientists in California have developed a way to repair mutations in mitochondrial DNA -- an important component of the aging process.