Link round-up for 27 May 2012

A new titan of bad art emerges.

Why does England copy the US?

I love the smell of religion in the morning.

Check out these steampunk arthropods (found via Mendip).

Watch those commercials or else.

Some religions seem more fun than others (found via Deity Shmeity).

This art rocks!

Why doesn't Superman have a girlfriend? (found via Mendip).

Republicans continue to have trouble with music.

Murr Brewster looks at the death of Hitler.

The Christian Right has succeeded -- "God hates fags" now defines Christianity (more here), to the despair of moderates.

Rock stars don't age well (except women, apparently).

Obama's own history shows the insanity of our present drug laws.

This looks stomach-turning to me, but apparently people once found it enticing.  Here's the underlying reality.

Having failed to get Ellen DeGeneres fired, OMM targets The Gap.

Here are some cute family pictures.

Seamus is dead, yet lives forever, a way of dogging Romney.

How do fundies explain animal homosexuality?  Gay demons.

Green Eagle looks at more of Bain Capital's parasite capitalism.  And there's even more to Romney than Bain.

Over-stressed employees are bad for business.

Mario Piperni corrects Richard Grenell on gay Republicans.

Despite the polls, there's still a chance in Wisconsin -- turn-out will be critical.  But the DNC's failure to invest in the recall is alienating the unions (personal note: this month I've donated to the recall effort rather than to the party).

Don't be fooled by that poll supposedly showing fewer Americans are pro-choice.

The US car industry, rescued by Obama, is now booming again.

We need to stop playing the wingnuts' game.

Christian "morality" is so warped as to be worthy of hatred.

Gay marriage matters -- Republicans keep fighting it, but Obama's leadership is boosting acceptance.

No, both sides are not equally to blame.

Americans Elect failed because there is already a centrist party.

Gun range targets modeled on Trayvon Martin are selling well.

Even some moderate right-wingers have weirdly condescending views about women -- see comments 8, 18, 23, 31.  And Romney's not so moderate -- maybe it's his friends.

I take back everything good I ever said about John Derbyshire.  But to the right, his crime was to be too explicit.

British feminist bloggers take on the MRA clique.

The 16-year-old was suffocated to death in front of her sister -- worse yet, the murderers were their parents.

Maryam Namazie gets an insider's view of Europe's fascist fringe.

As Hollande asserts himself, Europe's focus shifts from austerity to growth.  The EU elite still dreams of abolishing the nation-state and weakening democracy, but instead it's the euro currency which must disappear because it is the real cause of the crisis; time to plan for the end.  Britain is preparing to fend off a flood of economic refugees.

The disastrous effects of laissez-faire dogma in eastern Europe should serve as a warning to the Arabs.  And Asia's 1997 experience with austerity is a warning to the EU.

It's not just toxic food any more -- China floods the US military with fake parts.  But its own economy is stagnating amid rampant corruption and may already be in recession.

Here's more on the mass slaughter of African elephants and rhinos being fueled by idiotic human superstition.

As the Arctic melt becomes more menacing, global-warming denialism loses ground even among fossil-fuel corporations (but teabaggers remain deluded).