Link round-up for 6 May 2012

A new terror haunts rural America -- exploding pig farms.

Here's a Presidential candidate who should satisfy the teabaggers (found via Mendip).

Who is that person on the right?  I honestly have no idea.

A returning soldier gets an enthusiastic welcome.

The trouble with working from home is seeing others having fun while you're working.

Meghan McCain befriends Sandra Fluke, righties freak out.

Fundies resort to a horror film to promote their idiocy.

Product names do matter (fundies might buy the gum for their teens, though).

Mission accomplished, America.

You can get a really good fake ID from China, but it could cost you plenty (found via TYWKIWDBI).

Doubling down on failed abstinence-only policies, Tennessee officially discourages hand-holding by teens -- who are they getting advice from, the Ayatollahs?

Gingrich did a true service to his country -- by shedding light on so many of Romney's negatives.

The right wing has plans for your retirement.

Another example of the barbarity of the "good old days", debtor's prison, makes a comeback.

Obamacare has saved seniors $3.4 billion on prescriptions so far.

The crazy right wing is doomed to decline -- if we can just beat the Republicans this year.

Some of the Occupier movement is committed to political non- participation and irrelevance, while activists struggle to save protests from being subverted by violence -- but others are preparing to fight the parasite class on its own turf.

In citing Obama's achievements, it may be best to focus on just the top ten.

On job figures, take the long view.

Sarah Posner has more on the Grenell fracas and the Christian Right's mistrust of Romney.

Here's fake and real persecution (found via Lady Atheist).

If your son seems "effeminate", hit him.

As a libertarian, Ron Paul lives in a world of theory, not data.  Here's more on his plan for the Republican convention (my discussion is here).

Protests are fine, but to actually get things done, we must engage with the political system.

Some Mormons won't be voting for Romney.

Teabaggers are about to take down one of the best Republican Senators -- and perhaps hand his seat to a Democrat.

Confused by poll fluctuations?  Read this.

One of these things is not like the others.

Obama's way ahead in the Electoral College, according to this analysis by Karl Rove.  Michael Tomasky agrees.

Children see through the fake morality of religion.

Michigan Republicans resort to technicalities to prevent a referendum on the emergency-manager law.

Here's an example of the fissures dividing the right wing these days.

The main reason high national debt harms economies isn't that it's intrinsically bad -- it's that it encourages austeritard politicians to cut spending.

Alex Pareene doubts that the right wing can truly repudiate racism.

Romney is well suited to lead a party of lies and viciousness.  Truth, not so much.

The theocrats of the Christian Right are following an old tradition.

In the US and world-wide, inequality is still growing and still a danger.

In Ireland, the Catholic Church that shielded abusers now condemns reformists.

Socialist François Hollande, who will be elected President of France today, talks tough and has Europe's austeritard elite quaking.  Greece, too, is voting today.  Über-austeritard Angela Merkel faces threats on three fronts.

Update:  Hollande wins, Merkel loses.

France's Front National has become the "protectionist, anticapitalist party of the dislocated working classes" -- this is "far right"?

Everyone wishes Dominique Strauss-Kahn would just go away, but he won't.

As Putin claims his tainted victory, Muscovites protest.

Egypt takes a giant step backward as a comedian is convicted of "insulting Islam".

In Saudi Arabia, it's actually a sign of progress when a woman isn't whipped for driving (sent by Robert the Skeptic).

From Pakistan, another case of religious barbarity.

Free-trade dogma devastates the working class in India.

Brahma Chellaney takes a realistic look at the rise of Asia.

What will happen when North Korea collapses?

An intelligent species is being slaughtered for the sake of human superstition.

I can see right through you.

Intense religiosity correlates with brain atrophy and reduced compassion.

The invention of the wheel was far from easy, and may have happened in eastern Europe (found via TYWKIWDBI).

Want to be more rational?  Try thinking in another language.

A new form of wind power generation avoids the drawbacks of turbines.