24 January 2016

Link round-up for 24 January 2016

Palin's endorsement helps Trump with a key Republican constituency (found via Progressive Eruptions).  Comrade Misfit is unimpressed.

This wedding photographer knew exactly what he was doing.

Louisiana keeps its blowjob ban, but corpse-shagging is OK (found via Mendip).

As a non-fan of Star Wars, should I feel oppressed?

Colbert pwns Palin.

I guess we're a spectator society.

Cold shower or hot shower?

Going to see a right-wing movie carries certain risks.

Woody Guthrie once spent two years as a tenant of Fred Trump, and it opened his eyes (found via Mendip).

Kaveh Mousavi looks at three men full of life, now lost to us.

Heads start to roll in the Flint water crisis -- more here.  Flint residents are getting some help from an unexpected source.

These are the days of miracle and wonder.

Meet Julián Castro, a strong contender to be Hillary's running mate.

Syrian refugees feed the homeless.

A lawyer for the Catholic Church tries to claw back settlement money paid to an abuse victim.

Americans now support legal marijuana 52% to 34%.  Jobsanger has analysis.  The government now admits that marijuana has cancer-fighting properties.

A former Sea World employee details animal suffering there.

Republic of Gilead looks at the New Year's Eve sex attacks in Germany and how the right wing is exploiting them.  Then there's Trump's recent moronic speech about Christianity and the Middle East.

An Islamist professor explains when slavery and forced sex are OK.

Is fundamentalism a form of OCD?

The Iranian theocracy is banning moderate candidates in the upcoming elections.

To protect abortion rights, Hillary is the clear choice.  She intends to expand access, not just defend it.  Republicans offer only even less freedom.

Child sex workers suffer abuse and exploitation.

The New Republic is unimpressed with National Review's anti-Trump issue.

Vote for the candidate who can actually get things done.

Those militia nitwits still holed up in eastern Oregon have been rummaging through Indian artifacts kept there.

The most revealing thing about Republican legislators is what they aren't doing.

Bloomberg threatens to foul up the election.

Bigots from a backward region are held up as the saviors of Christian bigotry in the West.

During World War II, Japan ventured into stupid tank design (found via Mendip).

This is why some global-warming denialists can't be persuaded by facts.

2015 was the hottest year on record.

Here's an intriguing story involving bitter fruit, ants, and wolf poo.

Here's a zinnia with a difference.

From California comes news of a breakthrough in quantum superposition (found via Mendip).

8 Comments:

Anonymous NickM said...

Well, I have broken the law in Louisiana.

You think that was a silly tank? Now the Japanese could do daft but for real insanity check out this...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landkreuzer_P._1000_Ratte

24 January, 2016 06:39  
Anonymous Zosimus the Heathen said...

Re the cold vs hot shower thing, I remember, years ago, having a thing for taking cold showers, as I'd heard there were all sorts of health benefits they could confer. Unfortunately, the practice probably caused me to waste a lot of water - whenever I turned the shower on, I'd find myself spending five or so minutes just psyching myself up to jump underneath it! So, yes, I eventually gave that little habit up!

Re the wingnuts' fondness for the Benghazi movie and what that says about them, I'd laugh at that were it not for the fact one of the major holidays here in Australia, Anzac Day, commemorates one of our worst military defeats! Still, the aforementioned defeat hasn't spawned all manner of ridiculous conspiracy theories the way the tragedy in Benghazi has, so I suppose that's something.

Re the piece about Lemmy, Bowie and Rickman, yes, their deaths were a tragic business. Probably the one that upset me the most was Lemmy's, as I'm quite a fan of Motorhead. That said, his death didn't come as a complete shock to me, as I don't think he expected to live to a ripe old age himself (given what a hard partying life he led). Ironically, all of the above three individuals seemed to be in quite good shape for men their age, which gives their deaths a particularly cruel irony. Fuck cancer (and its number one cause: aging)!

24 January, 2016 06:53  
Blogger Ahab said...

"When a maaaaan loves a centauuuur..."

The Flint water crisis is an atrocity. Public servants should have NEVER allowed the situation to get this bad. Sadly, another water crisis is just as bad (the water looks like chocolate milk, for crying out loud), but is receiving very little media attention:

http://www.thenewsstar.com/story/news/2016/01/22/water-woes-plague-st-joseph/79172870/

The Lady That's My Skull commentary was breathtaking. With so much technology available to us and so many scientific breakthroughs happening every day, this is an exhilarating time to be alive. Yes, our era still has problems and human misery which we must work to alleviate, but in other ways our era truly is magical.

I read the ABC News story cited in the Freethinker piece and was livid. The Catholic Church will do anything, even browbeat a clergy abuse victim, to protect its money and power. I don't believe the Wagga Wagga bishop's line for a minute. NOTHING this big happens in a diocese without the bishop's green light. He's just backpedaling because the media's in his face now.

I've heard some pretty vile things about wartime rape from a handful of Muslims, but it's heartbreaking to hear them from a woman. Abetting the oppression of your own group is evil. I'm relieved that some Muslims do not follow the edits of the Quran (just as some Christians reject or remain ignorant of the horrible passages in the Bible).

The News From Me post points out an important fact -- people won't question their assumptions if their livelihood, life's work, and pride all depend on NOT questioning those assumptions. It's very much the same with Christian fundamentalists.

24 January, 2016 08:28  
Blogger Shaw Kenawe said...



Loved the "Lady That's My Skull" piece. So many wonders. We waste far too much of our time reading about political asshats. "The world is so full of a number of things, that we should all be happy as kings."

And yes, Zosimus, Fuck cancer!

24 January, 2016 13:30  
Blogger Ranch Chimp said...

Damn ... seems like every damn year is a new year for record warming as being the hottest, eh? The winters have been rough in the northeast corridor too, which is a result to the global warming trend as far as precipt the way I see it, I have familia up there where it's getting hammered too ... many folks lost power too which makes it rough.

No, I did not even know that some of these Republican candidates were so gung- ho on overturning abortion needs and protections, I havent really followed them that much, and been looking at alot of their privatization plans when I do take interest in them ... I can tell you their proposals to anything that has to do with our money is more like robbery. But I dont really think most folks would want to ban abortion, eh? I mean ... abortion is NOT forced on anyone, it's simply a "choice", and one that is needed by everyone, not just any certain group, race, or class status.

I think I heard there is some kind of Democratic Town Hall today/ tonight on the news the other day ... I need to check it out to see if I can catch it on the tele.

I didnt know anything about the oral sex ban in Louisiana which is right next door to us, and about the necro thing, I need to remember that when in Louisiana, an old classic favourite of mine is "Cold Ethyl" by Alice Cooper {:-)

25 January, 2016 05:16  
Blogger Jono said...

After the first few I had to take a break. I was laughing so hard my ribs hurt! Trump and Cruz going for the idiot vote did me in.

25 January, 2016 08:10  
Blogger Blurber said...

I don't know which is funnier, the real Palin & Trump or the SNL version.

25 January, 2016 17:39  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

Nick: As Petr Beckman said, in free societies engineering gets smarter and smarter, but in gangster states it gets bigger and bigger.

Zosimus: Unfortunately lifestyle can have a big effect on health -- I think Bowie smoked cigarettes, for example. But beating aging will be the big one.

Ahab: Yeesh, even the normal water is yellow? It's hard to believe these things are happening in the US and not some hellhole in Africa.

The Bible also includes justifications of rape of prisoners of war, of course. The problem with Islam is not that it's more evil than Christianity, it's that too many people still take it seriously.

Shaw: Unfortunately the political asshats have some power over the miracles. The last time we had a Republican President federal funding for stem-cell research was cut off, for example.

Ranch: Yes, the last record-hottest year was 2014 until 2015 surpassed it. We can expect that pattern to continue.

Since all their state-level victories in 2014, Republican legislators have focused on restricting abortion more than any other single issue.

Jono: It's all fun and games until the idiots actually elect someone.

Blurber: It's getting impossible these days to tell parodies and real news stories apart.

28 January, 2016 07:18  

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