Link round-up for 12 April 2015 (a day early this time)

HR Giger would have liked this plant (found via Mendip).

Remember the good old days.

Blogger Tengrain assesses the Republican Presidential candidates in his inimitable style.

What would the world look like if religion were true?

This is the only Confederate flag we should remember.

Gotta love a President who would stop in at the Bob Marley Museum.

After the shooting of Walter Scott and a beating in California, Texas Republicans have a solution -- ban people from filming the police.

Scott Walker's budget-cut mania is driving science out of Wisconsin (a foretaste of what could happen to the whole country if the current incarnation of the Republican party ever gets full control).

Bigoted bullying destroys another life (of course the fundies won't stop fighting tooth and nail against anti-bullying efforts).

The Obama administration stands against conversion therapy (found via Politics Plus).

Paul Krugman explains why Britain's Conservative government may well be re-elected despite being basically a failure.

Stop worrying about offending fundies (they've never worried about offending us!)

This RedState posting is a good example of the fundamentalist mentality (and, to a lesser extent, of what I call the enemy dialect).

Twenty years in prison for an abortion -- not Saudi Arabia, Indiana.

Having destroyed several historic sites and relics, ISIS is now destroying Christian churches and art.

Here's why the Iran deal is a remarkably good one.  Even Iran's religious hard-liners are falling into line, perhaps chivvied by public opinion.

What's the point of a libertarian who doesn't even favor legal marijuana?  And cue baggots devouring their own.

The Godhatesfagsian wing of Christianity feels backstabbed by Pence's cave, and indeed the whole episode has been a devastating defeat for their cause.  Another anti-gay law has been aborted in Nevada.  And the fundies' fixation on the issue will continue to divide Republicans.

If you're a self-described "gay Christian", here's what they really think of you.

Celebrate April 9.

Mass surveillance cannot prevent terrorist attacks -- we only think it can due to bad metaphors (found via GoodShit).

Netanyahu's antics have seriously damaged US perceptions of Israel (found via Fair and Unbalanced).

Red states are energy hogs (found via Earth-Bound Misfit).

Why did the South lose the Civil War?

How useful is the study of other life forms to understanding human aging?  (I wonder about this myself -- it's hard to imagine two life forms more different than humans and yeast.)

The "extinction burst" is why it's so hard to give up bad habits (found via GoodShit).

[Image at top -- see here]