10 December 2017

Link round-up for 10 December 2017

Here's a list of wished-for Christmas gifts from Trump.

Kinda spoils the sexy effect.

He dances best with a bottle.

A meat sandwich, or.....

Even for a simple drawing of a bird, ancient Greek artists managed to include their favorite theme.

Donna at Tell Me a Story finds astronomy to be inspiration against despair.

The Romans had the best animal names.

Don't give pets as Christmas presents (not everyone is meant to have pets -- myself, I doubt I could even keep a cockroach alive).

People are having hot-and-heavy sex with ghosts (but I'm sure the Republicans will soon try to ban it).

Where fanart is concerned, what can lead to plagiarism issues?  (Japan is way more laid-back about this.)

Good point.

Now this is a photo.

TYWKIWDBI posts a gif round-up.  There's also this list of fun facts -- which provoked some corrections from commenters.

See the magnificence of Los Angeles from the air (from a comment by Ranch Chimp).

I wish Trump had met this person early in his career.

Explore the world of specialized libraries (found via Mendip).

Ancient Athens had a snarky safeguard against tyranny.

To any readers who are lesbians:  this student is doing research on lesbian fashions.

Blah blah blah modesty blah blah.

These people exist.

It's sort of intriguing when a Christian writes a post titled "Why Modern Christianity Makes People Vomit" (the post is almost two years old; the things he's talking about have, if anything, gotten worse).

Your taxes pay for hush money for victims of Congressional sexual harassment.

The comment thread on a Breitbart post mentioning Mormonism quickly devolves into ludicrous theological bickering.  Even when they all hate the same people, they can't get along.

This is the educational system of a third world country.

Why would people attend a church that tells them they're worthless and runs what are practically prison camps?

Some powerful people are crying foul on the drive to kill net neutrality.

The Supreme Court holds gay marriage not quite equal after all; on the Masterpiece Cakeshop case, signs are mixed.

Awareness begins to dawn -- give it time.

Football is more important than rape, to some.

Sexually harassed at work?  Just take it and get on with life.

The attack on DACA is undermining US military intelligence capabilities.

Fundie preachers' beliefs make them feel endlessly at war.

Read this before using rat poison.

Well-intentioned misuse of antibiotics can do more harm than good (and no, antibiotics don't work on virus diseases like colds and flu).

We face a jellyfish apocalypse.

Which race has a higher IQ?

The eye of the scallop is a remarkable product of evolution, and very different from the human eye.

The passage of Australia's gay-marriage law led to singing in the gallery.  And that Christian couple who threatened to divorce if it passed has weaseled out.

It's not only Christianity.

Wednesday the 6th, Finland's independence day, marked a full century since independence from the Russian Empire, and was observed all around the world.  Finland contributes more than its share on the internet.  It was the first country in the world to give women the vote.  It also has a nicer President than we do.

Here's another bad case of coddling a criminal.

Poland's Catholic-dominated government has taken sex education out of the schools, but pop-culture figures are fighting back.

Despite the Jerusalem decision, evangelicals are far from being true friends of Israel.

I have no words for this.

Roy Moore liked the American family values of the time of slavery; as for today, he prefers Putin.  But evangelical voters will tolerate anything in a candidate, so long as he advocates forcing women to carry unwanted pregnancies to term.

Mueller has the White House Trumplings feeling a bit jumpy.  Trump's lawyer tries to downplay the Flynn plea bargain.

Michigan's Republican Governor will leave Conyers's constituents disenfranchised for almost a year.

Even NRO's Andrew Stuttaford has a lot of reservations about the tax "reform" bill -- and let's hope he's right about this!  It will even make "dark money" campaign contributions tax-deductible.  The plan may be in trouble, thanks to sloppy writing and promises that weren't promises.

Knowing they don't have long in power, Republicans are looting the country while they still can (found via Mendip).

Trump is still losing support, even among fundies.

[325 days down, 1,137 days to go until the inauguration of a real President!]

6 Comments:

Anonymous nonnie9999 said...

Tengrain finds the best bad ads!

I think I might have just turned vegetarian. I'm at least swearing off coldcuts.

Twitler: stercorecaput (shithead)

Don't give pets as gifts, and don't give plants either. Who needs that kind of commitment and then the guilt when we kill them?

As to the woman who had sex with ghosts. Did the spirit move her?

The bigot baker's case is bullshit, in my opinion. Cake is not free speech. It if was, I would be eating my own words all day long. It's not artistic expression either if he is making it to the specifications of the clients. He might make cakes that can be considered his artistic expression, but in the case of making wedding cakes to clients' specifications, he is displaying his skills, not his art. Not only that, he never asked what kind of cake they wanted. He refused them only because he knew it was for a same sex wedding. Therefore, it was not artistic expression he was protecting, it was his own bigotry.

I had no idea that that's what scallops look like!

OMG! That pic of the Chinese doctors. That made my soul feel good and my heart break at the same time.

I think a lot of evangelicals are lying scumbags. They might say that they don't support Twitler or Roy Moore, but in the privacy of a voting booth, I think they vote for them.

10 December, 2017 15:30  
Blogger Ranch Chimp said...

A few comments I wanted to leave, since I been going through these links here.

The advice of Elaine Chao to women, I have heard myself over the years from a few women ... and that's fine, being her own choice. But not all women are alike in how they choose to deal with these things. I heard a woman on some news the other day, blaming women and the way they dress, flirt or whatever. The point is, that is Chao's choice, doesnt have to be everyones choice ... this is America ... and women dont need to let it go if they dont choose to.

2 importante pieces here as far as antibiotic usage and laying rat poison, as far as loosely using these. I mean, I had rats, and there is no way I will use rat poison (I set traps myself). Antibiotics, same thing ... folks just dont do their research, and it can cost you if you dont. Antibiotics are such a wide range, and targeted for specific things by design. That is why they specify also, to take until script is complete, to also fight the unseen/ unfelt bacteria, I cant tell you how many times I have had to point this out to folks, who casually take a few here and there, hand them out to friends, to try to cure something the damn thing wasnt even designed to do, etc. Actually I try to avoid antibiotics as much as possible, where I know folks that just casually use them everytime they get a scratchy throat or whatever, that way when I do take them and properly, I get positive results.

Speaking of rats/ rodents or whatever ... I liked the dancing bottle dance. I have a possum I feed daily on my patio (actually not a rodent, but many folks think they are). This one is good size, about 18/ 20 inches or so I reckon with tail. But I have had visitors really kind of freak over it, asking me why I feed it, etc ... some get a little uncomfortable when he's around. But he actually wont hurt you, and probably fears folks more than folks fear it. But I also have squirrels and birds and cats I feed to, out there.

Unique libraries are cool ... I frequent the downtown Dallas Central Library weekly, there is much more than just books too.

Poland and sex education ... the strangest part in this to me ... is they say they care about kids, and want to help protect kids ... sex education is an importante part of protecting our children too. In America, they try to put every low income kid they can on ADHD drugs ... and now adults to expand the pharma industry market and profits ... and they complain about smoking pot. We got some f**ked up societies, guy.

I didnt know about the City of Houston suit on same sex couple benefits, that I recall. As to my knowledge, Dallas was the first Texas city years ago to grant benefits to same sex couples, way before same sex marriage was even approved. I dont recall them suing Dallas ... I think alot of folks just had it out for Annise Parker.

Detroit schools conditions ... it's sad ... but, this is what we do in this country, despite our record wealth ... then they wonder why some of the education in inner city areas doesnt get off too well. All I see, like with much else ... is the same move to try to make public education (or anything government/ public) for the same reason ... to PRIVATIZE it like everything else. It will only be a matter of time, at the rate were going, before they even privatize the crummy air we have to breathe as well, after all ... you can make a buck off it.

Lesbian fashions? ... that's a new one on me. I knew several lesbians and bi- girls, and all had their individual styles of dress. I used to have a lesbian bar around the corner from my apartment years back off Lemon Ave in Dallas. Me and a buddy would frequent it from time to time, because on like certain nights in the weekdayz, they would have a $3 door cover and nickle well drinx ... even though there was hardly any men in there, they were pretty cool with us being there.

Later Infidel ....

10 December, 2017 17:09  
Blogger Ranch Chimp said...

Another thing I wanted to add here if I can, concerning your last posting as far as this tax cut thing, I was reading the Bloomberg piece ... absolutely, I dont see any reason why these folks are going to turn patriotic or whatever other nonsense and bring trillions to the U.S. And these new Wall Street crowds, is not the Wall Street of Trump's dad's time either ... it's a different culture today, and not patriotic. I'm not an economist or even understand accounting, as like yourself, but I do understand human nature fairly well. This whole thing stinx, and is pushed for investor over- confidence only, not for workers or related talk, those top investors benefit most ... and you can bet it benefits most Trump and his familia. Goldman Sachs has been pushing these cuts hard, and they have themselves invested, campaign funding- wise, in both parties to accomplish this, so even if Trump wasnt Pres, this is going to be pushed ... Goldman sayz it's needed to sustain the growth going, with the 14.3% or whatever S&P 500 gain, etc ... and all major markets globally are growing simultaneously. All I see myself is a bunch of stock buybacks ... maybe some jobs, but dont see this pie in the sky thing they're pushing. To me, when I look at it, it's growing too fast and too complex, and I feel the smallest investors will get hit hard if anything happens to it suddenly. Young folks can afford to take a hit of course, because they have years of investment ups and downs ahead of them (something I talk to my son- in- law about, because he likes small investment). All these folks that took hard hits in the small sector on their 401K's for instance in the last 08 crash ... it took them the last 8 years to get that back ... how long will it take off another? All I see is a way "overvalued stock market", that rarely does this historically, maybe a bit over 10% of the time. I feel if and when we have another crash, because of this overvalue and extreme rapid growth, it may hit the majority of folks harder than 08 ... like a big bubble bust. Of course, all those largest investors in another crash, will profit from it big time ... but most will lose big time. Just my view on this crap, guy. (F**k no, I dont like how this looks)

11 December, 2017 06:29  
Blogger Jono said...

While illustrating how many idiots are in the world with a great deal of variety in their idiocy, there are the Chinese doctors and 11 year old boy showing a bit of decency that I hope the rest of us are aiming for.

11 December, 2017 11:48  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

Nonnie: The meat in that sandwich is way too fatty.

It's not fair to living things to use them as gifts, that's for certain.

Ghost-shagging raises a number of intriguing questions, most of which I probably shouldn't post about for reasons of questionable taste.

It's too bad the "artistic" argument didn't occur to those Southern lunch-counter owners half a century ago. They could have argued that the act of serving a sandwich to a customer is a type of performance art, and that requiring them to do it with black customers violated their artistic sensibilities.

There are probably quite a few Moore-ons who don't admit to it in public. We'll find out today.

Ranch: Chao is married to McConnell and probably feels obligated to take a dismissive stance on an issue that has the whole party rather embattled. Or maybe she really believes that stuff. I have a hard time figuring out women who are Republicans, unless they're complete religious nutters.

People who stop taking their antibiotics too early are selective-breeding bacteria for antibiotic resistance. A very bad thing.

The anti-sex-education nutters claim they're trying to protect kids, but actually they're just trying to protect themselves against concepts that make them uncomfortable. Anyway, it's important to avoid giving kids ideas. Because of course teenagers would never think about sex at all unless their teachers mentioned it.

The schools in Detroit, like the water in Flint, the under-regulated factory in Waco, the oil pipelines leaking all over the place, etc., show how we're slipping backward on the scale of national development. I've heard that when people from places like Germany or Scandinavia come here now, they're sometimes shocked at how backward things are.

The idea that tax cuts stimulated growth was tested in Kansas and failed miserably. It's never been vindicated in practice, that I know of. We've been steadily cutting the taxes of the rich for decades and the economy has just gotten more and more stagnant and unequal.

Jono: One can always find ordinary people willing to show great generosity toward others, something which seems to be in short supply among many of the wealthy.

12 December, 2017 09:06  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Finland wasn't the first country to give women the vote; that was New Zealand in 1893. Finland was merely the first European country where women could vote.

However, the first place women could vote was the Wyoming Territory, in 1869.

13 December, 2017 19:30  

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