Infidel753

Two maps of Germany

2012-01-28T07:52:00.000-08:00

For much of late 2011 the top news story in Germany was not the euro crisis, but the discovery of a small neo-Nazi terrorist cell which had murdered at least ten people over a period of several years. The case, along with the Breivik massacre in Norway, has focused attention on the threat of violent right-wing extremists in Europe.

In this context I found the following two maps illuminating. The first shows the distribution of votes for the NPD, Germany's most far-right political party, which is a good proxy for the distribution of extremist right-wing views in the population:

Notice how there are just six of Germany's sixteen states where the NPD gets over 2% support: the five states which formerly made up East Germany, plus Berlin (half of which was also part of East Germany). Although the far right in Europe largely defines itself by hostility to non-Western immigrants, these states are not, as you might think, the ones with the most immigrants; except for Berlin, they have the fewest, since most of the immigrants came before Germany was re-unified, and in any case immigrants head for the most prosperous areas because that's where the jobs are. Most Germans (and most Europeans) are unhappy at the presence of large immigrant populations, often for good reason -- but that doesn't lead most of them to extreme-right views.

So if it isn't the presence of immigrants that inflames extremism, what does?

Here's a map showing the distribution of recipients of government anti-poverty benefits -- that is, the darkest areas have the highest concentrations of poverty:

Aside from urban pockets in Bremen and the Ruhr, the same six eastern states stand out. It seems that poverty and joblessness (unemployment remains higher in the former East Germany than the rest of the country), and the anxiety and despair they bring, create an opening for extremists.

"Poverty" is of course a relative term. Germany is probably the most socialist of the major countries of the Western world; its economy is strong, inequality is far less extreme than in the US, and poverty is never so abject as what we routinely see in certain parts of the US.

Yet that just makes the implications all the clearer. If poverty and unemployment in a place like Germany fuel extremism, should we be surprised at what we see in some of the poorest parts of our own country, where low-quality education is also a factor? Our former Confederate states, like the former East German states above, suffer from lingering backwardness.

There are elements in our political class whose hopes for winning elections rest largely on the persistence of fringe-right and racist attitudes in much of our population. And those same political elements seem determined to obstruct any policies that would stimulate the economy or reduce inequality, and are constantly trying to sabotage education with crackpottery like creationism and abstinence-only indoctrination. Maybe they know what they're doing.

Videos of the week -- the man of the hour

2012-01-25T01:06:00.000-08:00

A video tribute to the man rank-and-file Republicans are choosing to hold high the banner of lunacy, bigotry, and hypocrisy as he leads them into battle against Obama.

Most analysts thought Romney won Monday's Tampa debate, but a poll of Florida Republicans names Gingrich the winner by eight points.

Found via Republic of Gilead.

Found via Squatlo Rant.

Link round-up for 22 January 2012

2012-01-22T03:32:00.000-08:00

Best T-shirt ever!

Not the best name for a towing company.

Thank the right person.

Ken Ham descends into a dizzy spiral of circular argument.

The I-75 project puts up signs of the times (sent by Shaw Kenawe).

Fox News is being weird about Andrew Sullivan's Newsweek essay on Obama.

There's more to using Google than you know.

Police and school officials are investigating the vile religious threats against Jessica Ahlquist. Here's another example of the hate. But we already have supportive T-shirts.

Andrew Sullivan looks at yesterday's political earthquake in South Carolina. Gingrich is winning Christian Right support as Romney implodes nation-wide. For an example of what sane Republicans are up against, read this PowerLine post, then read the comments. Race 4 2012 (a good site to follow the Republican contest) looks ahead to Florida and considers the shape of the race now.

Don't forget about Ron Paul.

The people spoke and politicians listened -- the evil SOPA plan is dead. Amusing footnote here. Now we must punish those who supported it. By all that we hold dear.....

Florida police tortured a prisoner to death in 2009.

Yes, this is pretty much how the media cover protests.

America rising: GM is once again the world's top car-maker.

Bob Marshall, Republican delegate of Virginia, is disgusting (sent by Mendip).

Obama stands up to the Christian Right on birth-control coverage.

Here's a sensible proposal from one of the dwindling number of sane Republican leaders.

One out of eight Americans must constantly make burdensome accommodations.

Ron Paul cultists threaten a Georgia family with violence and murder (found via Politics Plus).

"They are not your misguided friends. They are your fully intelligent adversaries".

Better-educated people are more likely to see government as a solution.

Republicans may face a devastating defeat this year. But don't get over-confident -- what if they win?

Some of Obama's achievements have gone almost unnoticed.

A majority of Americans now recognize that inequality is a bigger problem than regulation.

British undercover cops enjoy their work perhaps a bit too much.

Violent religious thugs force the cancellation of a human-rights meeting.

Europe's current policies are economic suicide.

The EU finally does something right, confronting incipient fascism in Hungary.

The Turkish government slaps down Perry.

Internet clichés not withstanding, the "Chinese century" is a myth.

Sane people should stay the hell out of Indonesia.

Cetaceans are people too.

55 Cancri e is a bizarre place (found via Mendip).

Ancient-aliens drivel assumes that ancient humans were stupid.

The last century revolutionized health.

Science is making real progress in fighting macular degeneration.

The Republican horror show

2012-01-20T06:03:00.000-08:00

So the original eight Republican candidates have been winnowed by half. Nein-nein-nein, the wicked witch, the sane guy, and the moron have quit. The remaining choices are a plastic financial vampire, a megalomaniac Elmer Gantry bullfrog with a short fuse, Christine O'Donnell in drag, and that doddering old Jim Crow relic who insists on coming down from the attic every four years to embarrass the rest of the family. Aren't you glad you're not a Republican primary voter?

Don't feel too sorry for those who are, though. Remember how they booed an American soldier, cheered for letting the uninsured die, and gave a standing ovation when the bullfrog put the only black guy in the room in his place for daring to bring up racism. We're not exactly talking the cream of the gene pool here. We've all known people like this -- the kind that lick their fingertips, leave the sound on during TV commercials, and think it's OK to be fat. Now they've stuck tea-bags on their hats and become a political movement. They probably couldn't spell "illiterate" (or even the N-word, apparently), but think they understand the Constitution better than the Supreme Court does. When the bullfrog vented outrage that his ex-wife would do to him what he did to Bill Clinton, these Morlocks drooled with adoration; in fact, they're poised to yank South Carolina out from under the vampire and present it to him as a token of their esteem. And the vampire's looking scared that his tax returns will prove to be the ray of sunlight that crumbles him to dust -- which may well be the case.

The Democrats have been granted the prayer of Voltaire. I'm starting to think this year just might bring us a landslide.

Video of the week -- through science to the truth

2012-01-19T02:26:00.000-08:00

Found via Pajama Dog.

2011 in review -- year of the masses

2012-01-16T03:41:00.000-08:00

2011 was an amazing year. The intense interconnectedness which modern technology has brought to humanity world-wide made itself felt as never before, in a wave of mass protests that drew inspiration from each other despite vast geographical separation and cultural differences. It started in Tunisia, spread rapidly to Egypt and then the rest of the Arab world, then to Europe and our own country, and finally to Russia. Even in China, the tyrants are beginning to tremble.

The circumstances and issues in all these places were different, but the common thread remained. Cynicism, passivity, and defeatism faded before a new realization that ordinary people, organized and energized and determined, can challenge entrenched powers and institutions that seemed as solid and immovable as the Pyramids.

The Occupier movement in the US was a true mass protest. It was not organized or articulate, and it was never clear who, if anyone, spoke for it. But it drew together people of many different kinds who had grasped the central problem confronting our country today -- the explosive growth of inequality to obscene levels, and the destructive stranglehold of the financial parasite class on the economy. For most Americans, real incomes and security and prospects for upward mobility have stagnated and even declined, and we must fight back. The Occupiers may be short on solutions -- may even have created a distraction from real solutions -- but they have, at least, correctly identified the problem.

Originating in Canada but rapidly spreading through the US was another new protest movement, the SlutWalks, triggered by a single clueless police officer's remark that "women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized". This came to symbolize an omnipresent problem which is hard to define but which we all know when we see it -- the puritanical victim-blaming "slut-shaming" mentality which still taints and deforms sexuality even in our supposedly liberated times. All over North America, women marched to demonstrate that they could and would dress however they damn well pleased and that no one had any right to take it as an invitation, or excuse, for assault.

(Fellow males, do remember that we too have an interest here. Beyond the obvious fact that dressing revealingly does not make women legitimate targets of violence, if society keeps sending the message that it does, then they'll stop dressing revealingly -- and what a drag that would be.)

All these movements were denounced by the powers-that-be in the terms usual for reactionaries in the respective countries. From Cairo to Moscow, authoritarians blathered about foreign agitators (Qaddhafi's regime got so confused as to blame the Libyan revolt on both the US and al-Qâ'idah, unlikely co-conspirators). EU elites grumbled darkly about populism and nationalism. American right-wingers seemed to deal with the Occupiers by slipping into "damn those dirty hippies" mode, apparently forgetting which side from back in the sixties ended up being vindicated by history.

Victory is not yet complete, anywhere. In some Arab lands the old regimes still cling grimly to power with increasingly-bloody claws, while in others there is an ongoing struggle to protect hard-won revolutionary gains against theocratic or military reactionaries. The EU has ignored the mass anti-austerity protests in its member nations, though its grip on them is looking ever more shaky. In our country, the Occupier movement seems to be bifurcating -- an increasingly anarchist faction is descending into bullying of the working class like this and this and will eventually fade away, while the elements that want to achieve real change are joining forces with unions and learning how to work within the political system. And it's too early to tell how Russia and China will turn out.

But it's very hard to imagine the old passivity returning. There will be retreats and defeats, even serious ones, but in the long run the people will win.

Best wishes for the coming year to the newly-awakened world, and especially the people who started it all: the Arabs. I never thought you had it in you. I was wrong.

2011 also saw the deaths of three of the world's worst people -- Osama bin Laden, Muammar Qaddhafi, and Kim Jong Il -- as well as of one of its best. And a personification of evil we'd thought long buried -- Jim Crow -- rose up from the dead, in the form of blatant vote-suppression laws in state after state.

It was a year in which Ireland took a firm stand against evil (to the discontent of some), while many at Penn State embraced it.

Obama ended DADT, gay marriage came to New York state, the US Air Force started upholding the Constitution, the first computer more powerful than a human brain came on line, and yet another religious prophesy fell flat.

I'd like to end this post with a visual reminder of the right-wing contribution to America's national debate:

Just so we don't forget.

Link round-up for 15 January 2012

2012-01-15T04:37:00.000-08:00

This person really hates crows.

See where the trees are.

Here's a little something for the horse's ass in your life (found via Mendip).

The church gets schooled, again and again.

Romney can speak French? What a weirdo!

Here's a handy guide to choosing the right religion (found via What Would Jack Do).

This is the face of a hero -- story here.

A Colorado school found these yearbook photos unacceptable -- what "standard" are they "upholding", Saudi Arabia's? More on prudery, from another source, here.

For really kinky sex, see the Bible.

Too many nettards are in dire need of these spelling tips.

Veterans stand against bigoted violence -- in Massachusetts.

Some fundies really misunderstand freedom of religion.

Abstinence-only "education" fuels attitudes that lead to bullying (found via Republic of Gilead).

Supporters of the evil SOPA plan are backing down -- and Obama has come out against it.

If you're a liberal leaning toward Ron Paul, this is a must-read (found via Smartypants).

Ahlquist wins as a judge orders a blatantly-unconstitutional prayer banner taken down at her school, resulting in the usual Christian love.

Nikki Haley is facing a recall drive -- by right-wingers, for not being evil enough.

Educate yourself on the menace of marijuana.

A Georgia school shows gross cluelessness about slavery.

If you look at Romney's "I like being able to fire people" gaffe in context, it's different but just as bad.

Elizabeth Warren's Senate campaign attracts massive support.

Gingrich is another family-values Republican.

Huntsman's campaign is beginning to disintegrate.

Nate Silver looks at how the Bain attacks could affect the general election.

If you don't like the NDAA, look at what really happened and stop enabling it.

A growing minority of economists thinks the US is heading into a strong economic boom, not just a weak recovery -- good news for the country and the Democrats.

Jack Jodell delves into Romney's background and plans. More here; a third post, on labor and foreign policy, is coming.

Film director Paul Haggis encounters creepy religious bullying.

The man who gave us the Bush Presidency says he won't cause trouble this year.

It's not just Santorum -- much of the right wing is waging a war against contraception. More here (found via Republic of Gilead).

We already have this, and it doesn't work.

The MSM are ignoring unions' actions for worker rights.

Republican bullies get a dose of their own medicine.

Tea-party-affiliated Congressmen are, on average, more than twice as rich as other Congressmen.

BP spreads propaganda minimizing the effects of the Gulf oil spill.

Manufacturing jobs are coming back to the US.

US Christians sponsor an honest-to-God witch hunter who has encouraged the murder and mutilation of children.

Britain's Prime Minister picks up a very bad idea all too familiar to Americans.

Scots are divided on the issue of independence from Britain, but all agree they don't want to join the euro.

Italians stage massive strikes against their quisling-regime's austerity policies (background here).

Cardinal Archbishop Antonio Rouco Varela of Spain is a paranoid crank (found via Republic of Gilead).

Ayatollah Khomeini, founder of the Iranian theocracy, approved of men having sex with small children -- even infants. Update (17 January): More here including link to the full text of Khomeini's book (in Persian) and the original text of the quote.

Shark-fin harvesting involves far more cruelty than you think.

Gothic Atheist is back with another tiny, horrifying creature: the epomis beetle.

Food choices can protect your brain as you age.

Watch for these warning signs of medical quackery.

A functioning wire just four atoms wide could be a breakthrough in computer miniaturization.

Tribute to a life-form long vanished (thank goodness)

2012-01-14T02:45:00.000-08:00

Since mid-2009 this blog has been endowed with a stats counter which I can see whenever I log in, which gives me some basic information about numbers of page views, which countries they're coming from, and how they got here. The latter feature shows me the URLs of sites from which people went to mine by clicking on a link there. Many of these are other blogs, but a lot of people also come to my blog via search engines like Google.

In the case of those search engines, I can also see the search term that was inputted which brought up my blog as one of the search results. For example, if someone typed "Muhammad cartoon" or "Chinese view of Hiroshima" into Google and ended up on my blog as a result, I can see those search terms listed.

Well, ever since April last year, there has been one search term which, week by week and month by month, has consistently appeared more often than any other -- one word that, more than any other, has led search engines to bring people to this blog.

What is that search term? It's "eurypterids".

What, you may be wondering, is a eurypterid? Here's one:

I posted this picture back in March, here, having run across it on the internet and wondered what it was. Don't worry, the picture is fake -- it has to be, because it really is a eurypterid, and the last of them died more than 250 million years ago. But they were real.

These monstrosities belonged to the arthropod phylum (animals with jointed exoskeletons including insects, spiders, centipedes, lobsters, things like that); they were ocean-dwellers. There were 246 species of eurypterids that we know of, and probably many more that we don't know of, fossilization being the haphazard process it is. As far as we know, they were the largest arthropods that have ever existed -- the biggest species were even larger than the one in the picture above.

Despite their appearance, the eurypterids were apparently more closely related to scorpions than to lobsters, and are sometimes called "sea scorpions". They did not have stings like their smaller modern relatives, but would still have been terrifying things to encounter -- just imagine finding a "bug" like the one pictured above scuttling about your kitchen. Not exactly the sort of thing you could just step on. And, yes, some species were amphibious, able to walk on land and perhaps even living on land for part of their life cycle.

But don't worry, you will never meet one. The last of them died before the dinosaurs were even a gleam in evolution's eye. Today, we know of them only from their fossil remains.

So why are eurypterids such a much-searched item on the net? Maybe their appeal is somewhat like that of dinosaurs -- extinct animals far bigger than animals of their type, in human eyes, have any right to be. Given their bizarre and unearthly form, they may also fascinate in the same way as the monster of the Alien movies does. If a modern human were to find himself on the Earth of the Ordovician period, when eurypterids flourished, and beheld them scuttling about and perhaps sizing him up as a potential meal, he might well imagine himself to be on some ghastly alien planet.

Whatever the critters' appeal, it's not limited to English-speaking countries. By now I've actually picked up the Russian word for "eurypterids" (ракоскорпионы, ra-ka-skar-pee-OWN-ih), since it crops up regularly in the list of search terms on my stats counter.

Needless to say, this is not a word ever likely to be of much use to me for striking up conversations on the streets of Moscow ("My hovercraft is full of eurypterids"?), but at least I know something not many people in the United States know.

For whatever reason, these long-dead monsters have done much to draw attention to this blog. It seems only right that I return the favor.

The Bain of his candidacy

2012-01-13T04:41:00.000-08:00

Gingrich's scorched-earth campaign against Romney, using Bain Capital as its chief weapon of mass destruction, has implications beyond just Romney's candidacy or the 2012 election. Romney and much of the Republican establishment have denounced this line of attack as an expression of "envy" and as anti-capitalist, but as William Galston observes:

Most citizens make an intuitive distinction between business activities that add value to workers and the economy (running an auto company, for example, as Romney’s father did) and those that shuffle paper to the advantage only of the shufflers.

Or, to use my own terms, the distinction between productive capitalism and the financial parasite class. Even teabaggers harbor an inchoate suspicion of the latter, however much they've been manipulated to serve its interests in practice. What Gingrich has done is to drag this issue into the open and make it explicit. None of this critique is new to us. But it's now coming from a source to which non-liberals are more inclined to give a hearing.

The attack could cost Romney the nomination. More and more Republican establishment figures are sternly warning Gingrich that his line of attack on Romney is unacceptable and must stop. Predictably, this has been followed by a shift of rank-and-file South Carolina Republican voters away from Romney, who now shows as almost tied with Gingrich there. The attacks do resonate with many of them, who are likely to be suspicious of what looks like a clumsy effort to silence the messenger.

Still, Romney will probably be the nominee, if only because those who reject him still can't unite behind a single candidate. But he'll be all the more vulnerable to the Democrats' natural line of attack. Anyone who wants to fend it off by screaming "socialist" will need to explain how Gingrich is a socialist.

Beyond that, the whole issue of the financial parasite class is now being made an explicit election issue in a way it never has been before. If it brings Romney down, then the core raison d'être of the traditional non-theocratic Republican establishment -- the continued subjugation of America to that class, disguised by free-market rhetoric and whatever other squid-ink works best at any given time -- will become much tougher to pursue.

Gingrich is no working-class hero for doing this. His motive seems to be rage at Romney for defeating him in Iowa. The Republicans have embraced the politics of resentment and vindictiveness and exclusion, and now they are destroying each other.

The full 28-minute film on Bain and Romney can be viewed here.

Quote for the day -- the best of a bad lot

2012-01-12T04:37:00.000-08:00

"Mitt Romney is such an ass. He would sell his mother to win the election. He has flipped positions so many times, he would get a 10 on the uneven bars. He makes shit up – like the number of jobs Bain Capital (a venture capital firm – which is designed to make money by getting rid of jobs) has created. He calls Obama a socialist, refuses to release his tax return, ties his dog to the car, denies involvement with Romneycare, thinks only the rich should run for office, thinks corporations are people, claims he is unem- ployed, and touts he is the everyman. But as awful as Mitt is – his rivals for the GOP nomination are even worse."

Axel Grease

Best of the Infidel, 2011

2012-01-12T03:40:00.000-08:00

Civilized warfare

The urgent problem of inequality in the United States

Nuclear power -- a dangerous dinosaur

How violence subverts protest

Germany's left turn

Pastor Jones and the barbarians

The future leans left -- the big picture

Easter

Rejoice at the death of bin Laden

Fight for reachable pragmatists, not ideologists

The day after May 21

Eternal justice, after all?

Global-warming denialism is a trap for the right wing

A victory for free expression in Europe

Save the economy by restoring taxes to normal levels

Independence Day post -- This land is our land

Mexico rising

Ireland stands up to evil

Republicans becoming divided

The drive toward minority rule in the United States

Politically, I don't have a choice

Teabaggers of the left

Libertarians and liberals (1)

Libertarians and liberals (2)

Super-Earths and sexy aliens

Blasphemy Day International, 2011

Questions on the Occupier movement

Occupy Portland, October 2011

Europe awakens

The European Union vs. European nations

Religion is undermined by contact with other religions

The European Union delusion

Christmas post

Video of the week -- the parasite class

2012-01-10T04:21:00.000-08:00

This is from a pro-Gingrich group. Why do we need Republicans to tell the plain truth that every Democrat should be shouting from the rooftops?

Quote for the day -- the totalitarian mind

2012-01-08T10:06:00.000-08:00

"One of the things I will talk about, that no president has talked about before, is I think the dangers of contraception in this country.....Many of the Christian faith have said, well, that’s okay, contraception is okay. It’s not okay. It’s a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be."

Rick Santorum

Link round-up for 8 January 2012

2012-01-08T07:54:00.000-08:00

Art brings the Bible to life.

What if Lord of the Rings had been written today?

The tomb of Jesus has been found!

Check out this hamster-powered submarine (found via Mendip).

This person refuses to run his life on the basis of a badly-written fantasy novel.

This crank says Christians should abandon non-Christian friends or partners.

Let's make one thing sacrosanct for 2012.

The ACLU gets involved when a Missouri public library blocks pagan websites (sent by Mendip).

Hitchens left us some ruminations on Christmas.

Drug legalization is a mainstream position.

The contrast between Santorum and Huntsman illustrates why the latter isn't getting anywhere with Republican voters.

Conservatives love Big Brother.

Jen McCreight has a directory of female atheists.

A scientist speaks out on Gingrich's latest pander to the anti- science right wing.

Santorum has a totalitarian mind-set.

Romney's "locust capitalism" illustrates why I use the term "financial parasite class".

Europe's tallest building is being built in London, but it doesn't really fit in.

Here's a story of deep spiritual belief from Britain.

Finland's schools are among the best in the world, for a surprising reason.

Beginnings of an EU break-up? Greece says it will leave the euro if bail-out talks fail, and member countries are re-imposing border controls. The project was always doomed because there's no such thing as a European people. Meanwhile, austerity continues to take its toll.

Hungary's new constitution is scary; Hungarians, and foreign observers, are alarmed.

Here's one reason I might find Russia a congenial place.

The Inca Empire maintained a fairly complex society apparently without money or trade.

It looks more and more like fracking can cause earthquakes.

Here's a nuclear detonation after one millisecond (found via Mendip).

There are probably billions of planets in the galaxy, but ours is the best. More here.

Stem-cell treatments reverse the effects of aging in mice with progeria.

Video of the week -- lord of evil

2012-01-04T06:05:00.000-08:00

Some people really, desperately need something to be frightened of. Found via Hello Mr. President.

A Santorum surge from the rear

2012-01-04T01:52:00.000-08:00

The final tally from Iowa was Romney 30,015, Santorum 30,007. The champion of the Sane faction of Republicans won by just eight votes over the most theocratic and anti-gay candidate in the field, a man with an underfunded campaign, who lost his last Senate race by 18 points, and who's barely registered in the polls until now.

Ron Paul got 26,219 votes. Add that plus the votes for Perry and Bachmann to Santorum's figure (plus the 58 votes for Cain -- some people really aren't following the news), and the total for the Nutty faction is 74,961, almost two and a half times Romney's number.

Santorum is just the latest not-Romney to surge forth as flavor-of- the-month for the Nutties, of course. Like his predecessors he will likely sink in the polls as he becomes better known (I suspect many fundies don't yet realize that he's Catholic, a religion the Chick-tract wing of fundamentalism considers practically a form of Satanism). But there is clearly a vast chorus of Republicans out there pleading, please, please, anybody but the Sane guy. What's next? A Palin write-in campaign? A draft-O'Donnell movement? I hear David Duke is free. The Republican party has a huge problem here, even if somewhat masked by the fact that the Nutty vote is still divided among several candidates.

Link round-up for 2 January 2012

2012-01-02T10:23:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!

This gal is way too excited about banking.

Planet POV has wish lists for Santa from the right wing.

It's possible to be too convenient.

Sometimes, spelling matters.

If you dislike the lyrics, fine, but sing a different song rather than defiling ours.

I think this person (click to enlarge) could be the ideal Republican Presidential candidate (found via Gothic Atheist). Or maybe this one.

"Twilight" is even more creepy and repulsive than I thought (found via Republic of Gilead).

Daily Kos gets e-mail from lunatics.

Here's what five megabytes looked like in 1956.

Becktoxicated goldtards lose money (but don't worry, gold will go up again at the next high-profile crisis -- the cranks always flock to buy).

What would Jesus spend money on?

Which photo bothers you more?

The chimpanzee who died last month probably wasn't the famous Cheeta.

22 Words has some relatively-non-controversial Hitchens quotes.

Dusty read one of my posts on her radio program (61:40-67:50); her own blog is here.

Teabaggers and Republicans are the more anti-science segment of the American people.

Google takes a serious wrong turn on sex work -- more here.

Here's a list of companies and groups supporting the evil SOPA plan, with their contact info.

Religious nuts hold forth on bio-ethics.

Yes, the Republicans did vote to end Medicare.

Gingrich is willfully obtuse on the issue of religious freedom. Pat Buchanan is worse.

Politics is the art of the possible, and what's possible varies from place to place.

Ron Paul hangs out with friends (more here). And yes, he really is a nut.

Who's responsible for the Ron Paul newsletters? Here's a handy chart.

Health-insurance reform is starting to take effect.

There will be only two choices for President this year -- Obama must win. And his chances are improving, thanks to Republican antics. If you're considering not voting, read this.

The Pope wants you to be stupid.

Voter turn-out is critical -- don't depress it.

Britain is re-orienting its foreign policy away from the EU.

Irish World War II soldiers suffered abuse in their own country (found via Mendip, who comments).

One Spanish village has brought back the peseta, Spain's old pre- euro currency that most Spaniards wish they'd never given up.

The EU is too bogged down in out-dated conservative economic dogma to be able to save the euro.

Investing in education really works.

Russia may have reached the tipping point at which democracy becomes inevitable.

Yes, Judaism also has disgusting religious extremists.

Atheists in Brazil still face an uphill struggle.

The inexorable rise of China has long been an internet cliché, but the underlying reality tells a different story.

Too many fattards think it's OK to be fat (this story is from Britain, but no doubt the same is true here in the US). Some effects of obesity resemble those of aging.

Healthy food can protect the brain from aging.

Here's a striking video of geese in flight.

The colossal "king of herrings" may be the origin of sea-serpent tales.

This book gives a new application of Dawkins's "meme" concept to religion-as-virus.

Tom Harkin is a scientific ignoramus.

If aliens visited millions of years ago, the best place to look for evidence is the Moon.

A new agency will speed up the translation of scientific progress into practical results.

Happy new year!

2012-01-01T05:48:00.001-08:00

The link round-up will appear tomorrow.

Video of the week -- religio-kitsch

2011-12-28T08:37:00.000-08:00

His singing voice is actually quite pleasing, but -- well, just listen. Found via Blonde Nonbeliever, who has the explanation.

The Christian Right loses the future

2011-12-28T01:37:00.000-08:00

This CNN report on young evangelical Christians shows how the increasingly militant and extremist Christian Right is doomed in the long run even while it appears (and in many ways is) more threatening in the short term. Much of its own younger generation is turning against the cultural values it represents.

62% of "millennials" (people age 18-to-29) support gay marriage, for example, compared with 47% of the general public; even 49% of young Republicans do, compared with 31% of all Republicans. The younger generation is similarly more liberal on abortion, pre-marital sex, and re-distribution of wealth.

These generational differences are reflected in church affiliation and political behavior. The report cites a 43% drop in church attendance between the teenage years and early adulthood, as younger Christians are driven away by their churches' crabby and cranky rantings on sexuality and gay issues. 33% of young white evangelical Christians voted for Obama in 2008.

Right-wingers may take comfort from the belief that people get more conservative with age, but that is, in fact, just a common belief which happens not to be true.

Clearly, much of the younger generation of evangelicals has little in common with the established Christian Right, has little basis for loyalty to the broader Republican party, and may even end up deserting evangelical Christianity itself in the long run, for the mushy and meaningless "spirituality" that is so common these days, even if not for outright atheism.

Свобода!

2011-12-26T09:42:00.000-08:00

It started with the parliamentary election on December 4. Putin's United Russia party was able to claim only 49.7% of the vote, down from about 65% in the previous election. With opposition split among Communist, nationalist, liberal, and other parties, the results leave United Russia still easily the biggest bloc. But since there seems to have been widespread election fraud, it's likely -- and widely believed in Russia -- that the ruling party's real share of the vote was much lower than 49.7%.

Protests erupted almost immediately, and quickly spread beyond the cosmopolitan cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg into the normally less-activist hinterland of the vast country. While the regime deployed large numbers of police, overall the response was more restrained than it has been in the past, though several political activists were arrested (most later released). The regime may have been reluctant to provoke an all-out confrontation in the capital given the scale of the protests there, which reached tens of thousands of participants. It may also have been startled by the failure of its established methods of control; it exerts a heavy influence over old media like TV and newspapers, but the protesters used the internet to spread information and organize their activities, and aside from arresting a few bloggers, there was nothing the authorities could do about it.

In the following weeks, the regime offered the usual tired old lines of response used by such governments the world over -- blaming the protests on foreign subversion and the like -- but President Medvedev also tried to reach out to the protesters and offered concessions. It's unclear, by the way, to what extent Medvedev is his own man vs. being a puppet of Putin, who currently holds the lesser office of Prime Minister. Putin is clearly the dominant figure, but Medvedev has steered his own course in some ways, including seeking better relations with the West, in contrast to Putin's confrontational approach.

On Saturday the 24th, the democracy movement showed that it isn't going away, by mounting another major demonstration in Moscow. Organizers estimated participation at 120,000 despite sub-freezing temperatures, a substantial turn-out even in a city of ten million.

It remains to be seen whether or not this movement will have the persistence and determination to bring real democracy, but something has changed in Russia. Protesters now denounce not only corruption and the oligarchs, but Putin himself. Being able to communicate with each other via the internet, outside regime- controlled channels, people have learned how many others share their disgust. As happened at the beginning of the Arab rebellions, a critical psychological point seems to have been passed; fear is no longer strong enough to keep large numbers of people in line.

There is no reason why Russia shouldn't be a normal democracy -- and an ally of the West. Its population is well-educated and its science and technology are at or near Western levels. Culturally it is much more closely related to the West than most non-Western societies are. Russian public-health conditions are terrible by our standards, but this is mostly due to staggering levels of alcohol consumption (and smoking), a problem which is not insoluble. Putin's policy of confrontation with the West is short-sighted given that the biggest threats to Russia -- China and militant Islam -- are also the main adversaries of the West (and of India).

When Communism fell, Russians hoped they'd end up with a social democracy like Scandinavia or Germany. Instead, the country has drifted toward the pattern of Latin America a decade or two ago -- a caudillo state with a tiny, super-rich, parasitic oligarchy lording it over the relatively-impoverished masses. There is no reason to expect an educated and sophisticated nation to tolerate such a dismal outcome indefinitely.

If the democracy movement does mount a serious challenge to the regime, will the outcome resemble Tunisia -- or Libya? Despite the country's authoritarian history, there is some basis for hope. Recall that in 1989 and 1991, Russia (in marked contrast to, say, France's record in Algeria) let its empire go without a fight. If the Red Army had made a serious effort to hold places like Poland, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan by force, the resulting blood-bath would have made the Yugoslavian wars look like a pillow-fight. Yet that did not happen.

The stakes for us are very high. Russia remains a great military power (it has more nuclear weapons than all other countries on Earth combined, for example), and its natural resources and potential technological abilities are vast. As an open society and ally of the West, its value and contributions would be immense.

And frankly it's about time. Russia's history holds much glory, but very little prosperity, freedom, or happiness. Russians deserve better than Putin and a cabal of oligarchs.

Happy holidays!

2011-12-25T04:33:00.000-08:00

Or "Merry Christmas", if you prefer -- Christmas is so eclectic in its origins and character that it seems a shame to limit it to a single greeting. It's basically the old Roman festival of Saturnalia, which featured revelry and gift exchanges, as well as an inversion of social status roles which has unfortunately vanished from the modern celebration (might be interesting to see, say, banking executives waiting on temp workers at Christmas dinner). The concept of December 25th as the birthday of a god seems to have come from the Persian cult of Mithra, which had spread into the Roman Empire by the time Constantine made Christianity its official religion. Later, Germanic touches like Santa Claus and the Christmas tree were added. Today, Christmas is consecrated to the god Mammon, and believers flock to sacred sites called "malls" to offer up large sacrifices of money in hopes that the high priests of economic indicators will announce blessed retail sales figures to ensure a bountiful gross national product.

So, observe whatever tradition you choose.....

.....enjoy the Christmas light displays.....

.....put on some festive Christmas music.....

.....celebrate with family and friends.....

.....and, of course, drive carefully on your way home, especially if it's a long trip.

[Oh Tannenbaum found via Republic of Gilead.]

Link round-up for 24 December 2011

2011-12-24T08:49:00.000-08:00

Aww, how sweet!

Logically, you must be blind.

What if pregnancy tests had existed 2,000 years ago?

Eve the Atheist posts some creepy art by Fred Einaudi.

Gingrich is endorsed by a website that promotes adultery -- hey, he's probably got an even bigger tab running there than at Tiffany's (found via Smartypants).

Left and right may find common cause in fighting against the evil SOPA internet-censorship plan.

Even the Wall Street Journal is aghast at Republicans' bungling of the payroll-tax fight.

If your parents are bigots, show them this (found via Republic of Gilead).

David Frum looks at libertarian obfuscation about the Civil War, slavery, and Ron Paul.

Here's a Ron Paul letter from 1993, removing any doubt that the man is a dangerous paranoid crank; analysis here (thanks to Leslie Parsley for both links). More Paul quotes here. And yes, Paul in 1996 acknowledged writing his newsletters.

Gingrich has some freaky ideas too.

Atheist Oasis looks at the Promise Keepers.

Skyrocketing economic inequality threatens America's future.

Atheists are the biggest philanthropists.

In South Carolina, the Justice Department finally takes a stand against Republican efforts to disenfranchise non-white voters.

Historian Simon Schama remembers Hitchens. Frank Schaeffer looks at the hypocrisy of the Christians who condemn him (sent by Nance), and Bay of Fundie dissects one in detail. Some are already trying to downplay his atheism.

It was smoking and alcohol that killed Hitchens, and it's important to face that fact honestly.

Eric Hobsbawm sees hope in the mass upheavals of this year.

Britain's top foreign-policy man, William Hague, shakes things up.

Conservative analyst Ambrose Evans-Pritchard acknowledges the same point I've been making for months -- the European Union has become a tool of the right wing to destroy socialism in Europe.

German economists debate the dubious efforts to save the euro, which still looks doomed.

As religion dies out in Europe, what to do with all the useless churches?

Journalist Mona Eltahawy describes her experience with brutal Egyptian security men. Women are taking a more active role in the protests.

Qaddhafi was not very nice.

Rats display empathy and altruism. (I don't know why this would surprise anyone. Rats may be small but they're still mammals.)

This is what an orgasm looks like.

There are actually people who think immortality will be a bad thing. They're wrong.

California researchers are on the trail of ways to stop age-related deterioration of the brain.

[Posted a day early this week.]

Uhh.....seriously? Ron Paul??

2011-12-22T05:02:00.000-08:00

Was I wrong about Gingrich being more than just another in the dreary succession of not-Romneys whom the Nutty faction of Republicans have rallied round, then found wanting and dumped? Like Bachmann, Trump, Perry, and Cain before him, he's now losing rank-and-file support (at least in Iowa and New Hampshire) as his negatives and Great Dismal Swamp of sleaze become better known. And the leading not-Romney is now -- Ron Paul??

You almost have to feel sorry for these people. I've heard of scraping the bottom of the barrel, but it's just getting ridiculous. Paul has of course been a libertarian cult figure for years, but has never shown much appeal beyond that. The one thing that might make him interesting to the smarter sort of Republican is that he does attract some support from the left, for his opposition to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and so might pull in a few left-leaning voters. But not many liberals are such blind single-issue voters as to support Paul over Obama. Paul has a good stand on one of my own pet issues -- legalization of drugs and prostitution -- but he's basically just another right-wing crank who rejects evolution and global warming science, wants to ban abortion, and would have the government do even less to address the crisis of skyrocketing economic inequality than it already does. His positives in a few areas where libertarianism deviates from the right-wing consensus are just another of those stopped-clock-right-twice-a-day things.

It goes without saying that he'd be a disaster against Obama in the general election. The last thing centrist voters want is someone who wants to cut the government safety net even more than most Republicans. Those racist newsletters are still out there. And on election day he'll be 77 years old, so if age was such an issue for McCain, it certainly will be for him.

How much chance does he have to be the nominee? A lot of his radical-right stands will resonate well with the teabaggers, and unlike many libertarians he's not soft on illegal aliens (the issue that helped sink Perry and has wounded Gingrich), nor does he have the sexual-hypocrisy baggage that so many Republicans carry these days. The fact that he couldn't win in November might not make much impression on a right-wing base more interested in ideological purity. I really can't see it, though. His isolationist approach to foreign policy could easily be portrayed as leaving the US vulnerable (as it, in fact, would). The cultish behavior of his supporters must surely be off-putting even to conservatives of other stripes.

And he doesn't culturally resonate with the Christian Right base the way Bachmann or Perry do. Gingrich is still way ahead of the pack in South Carolina and Florida, states far more typical of the Republicans' stronghold in the South than New Hampshire and Iowa are. Gingrich isn't a true fundie either, but he plays one on TV more convincingly than Paul does.

So I'm betting that it is Paul who will turn out to be just another not-Romney flash in the pan who will quickly fade, while the Nutty faction will continue to coalesce around Gingrich, as the Sanes already have around Romney. Once Paul fades, unless there's a Santorum surge next, it's hard to see where else the Nutties can go.

Video of the week -- Merry Christmas!

2011-12-21T03:59:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I know, lately I haven't been posting (or reading other blogs) very much. I've been busy. More to come.

Link round-up for 18 December 2011

2011-12-18T03:01:00.000-08:00

Wow, even aliens have Triple-A.

Perry believes in, uh.....

If frogs go extinct, you'll notice.

Anti-wanking crusader and non-witch Christine O'Donnell is back with an endorsement. Hysterical Raisins is inspired.

The key to a good complexion? Orgasms and spinach (found via The Japing Ape, who comments further).

Here's the difference between religions and cults.

There's a fair bit of truth in this.

Buy a calendar and support stem-cell research (found via Maria Konovalenko).

Hitchens is commemorated by Lady Atheist, Advocatus Atheist, Dead Logic, PZ Myers, Toby Young, David Frum, and the magazine he most recently worked for, Vanity Fair. Religious ghouls hoped for a deathbed conversion, and now smarmily speculate, but he made it clear that that wouldn't happen. Other goddists affirm his point about the vileness of religion. Andrew Sullivan and his readers remember the man.

The evil SOPA internet-censorship bill has been stopped -- for now. Congress also heard from the public on a robo-call law.

A whiny sniveling atheist-basher misses the point as usual.

Don't worry, teabaggers will ignore these charts.

PZ Myers looks at a common delusion among atheists.

More Occupier protests on the west coast degenerate into stupid harassment of working-class people.

TARP will end up making a profit for the government.

Defenders of Sharî'ah law practice hypocrisy.

Fog in Channel, eurozone isolated -- Britain was right all along. The EU is becoming a higher-profile issue with voters.

Britain has potential allies -- Ireland and others -- and may now become a rallying point for dissenters.

Britain's Conservatives have cut subsidies to higher education, so students find jobs.

A likely credit downgrade of France puts more pressure on the euro.

The EU's new plans just mean more destruction of socialism and democracy, and the European left is waking up. Unions held major strikes in Italy this week.

Religious thugs attack and threaten Irshad Manji in Amsterdam (sent by Republic of Gilead).

This overview of China hype is on a right-wing site, but makes a lot of important points.

The Arab rebellion has spread to the nastiest Arab regime of all, but the media aren't telling us.

London cab drivers face unique challenges and have brains to match.

Don't tan.

Charles Dickens had a surprisingly large influence on modern culture.

The ocean sunfish is a fish of extremes.

An official US panel recommends banning most medical experi- ments on our closest relatives.

The discovery of chitin in cuttlefish fossils leads to yet another creationist mangling of science.

Video of the week -- Hitchens on morality

2011-12-17T06:16:00.000-08:00

We don't need the "divine" tyranny of fake religious morality.

The Guardian has a round-up of tributes to Hitchens.

Christopher Hitchens, 1949-2011

2011-12-16T03:13:00.000-08:00

We have lost one of our best. Christopher Hitchens spent most of his adult life unflinchingly confronting and denouncing "the main source of hatred in the world"; he contributed to the enlighten- ment of millions -- and even now his words and ideas remain.

He didn't shy from taking on the sacred cows:

Here he is on one of the common religious lies, that the Nazi regime was atheist and was influenced by the theory of evolution:

A naturalized American, he understood the greatness of his adopted country better than many who were born here:

I will not offer the common fatuosity of "Rest in peace". We know that death is not rest, any more than it is a gateway to an afterlife of eternal torment or a trite and inane paradise. Instead I remind myself of the hope that technology will someday be able to bring him back, to a world better than the one he fought to enlighten.

Britain's new defiance

2011-12-11T12:25:00.000-08:00

The major story from the latest European Union crisis meeting in Brussels was not the fact that leaders announced yet another plan to save the floundering euro currency. It was the fact that Britain took an unprecedented stand against the plan, which would have severely threatened its national interests.

Britain is a member state of the EU but does not use the euro, and London is Europe's most important financial center (in fact, the second most important in the world after New York). When it became clear that the other leaders were planning treaty changes which would transfer critical powers from the elected national governments to the EU's unelected central authorities, British Prime Minister David Cameron presented some fairly modest demands to safeguard British interests (you can read them here). The other leaders refused, and so Cameron rejected the treaty changes. Since such changes require unanimous agreement of all 27 member countries, this was effectively a veto.

EU leaders and media reacted with an outpouring of bile against Cameron and Britain. The EU has long been suspicious of Britain, a country which was never enthusiastic about European unification and which has linguistic and cultural ties with the EU's rival, the United States (which is also its biggest export market). Now that suspicion has hardened into outright hostility and erupted into the open.

In fact, Cameron had little choice, and many Europeans probably don't support what their leaders are saying (background here and here). Those leaders are openly threatening to punish Britain, but:

Growing popular hostility to the EU across Europe might come to Britain's aid. Democratic obstacles to the Euro-Plus treaty are beginning to materialise in Ireland, the Netherlands, Austria, Romania and Denmark, while parliamentary opposition in Finland, Latvia and the Czech Republic may also sink the deal.

The EU is forging ahead with the planned deal by other means, but the gist of it is just more of the same austerity and obsession with deficits that are already destroying so many countries' economies. It doesn't address the real problems and assessments so far are negative. It won't save the euro or pull Europe out of its economic death spiral. Britain would do better to strengthen its ties with the US, where tried-and-true Keynesian stimulus policies are bringing at least modest recovery.

And the EU-British breach could well widen. The current British government is a coalition between the Conservative party and the much smaller Liberal Democratic party (somewhat similar to our libertarians). The "Lib Dems" are strongly pro-EU and have been vehemently critical of Cameron's stand. If the coalition fractures, it might force a new election, or an exasperated Cameron might order an election, as a British Prime Minister has the power to do. In that case, the Lib Dems would face a wipe-out. Their pro-EU and pro-immigration stances are very unpopular and their support has been sinking; in fact one poll today showed them falling behind the UKIP, a new party dedicated to getting Britain out of the EU, and this doesn't yet reflect public reaction to the EU's new hostility to Britain, which will likely boost UKIP support even further.

If a new election left the UKIP as the only party that could join the Conservatives to form a majority, or if the EU pushes ahead with measures that really threaten the British economy, withdrawal might become inevitable -- and once one country leaves, others whose economies face ruin under intensified austerity may follow.

Link round-up for 11 December 2011

2011-12-11T09:50:00.000-08:00

Graphic messages drive home the stinking, deadly truth. Do something about it in January.

Santa may be caught unprepared this year.

The latest object of Islamotard paranoia is bananas.

Here's the true meaning of Christmas.

Why vote for the lesser evil? (found via Mendip)

Cats illustrate what drugs do to you.

Fundies think Santa is an anagram.

Here's a preview of the 2012 Republican platform.

Bart Centre reviews the Bible.

This used to happen to me, way too much.

Artist of the week: post-it note virtuoso Don Kenn (found via Eve the Atheist).

We're going to miss Barney Frank.

Religionists largely misunderstand how atheists feel.

This thug chose the wrong victim.

The vile Jerry Sandusky is re-arrested on even further child-abuse charges.

Georgia may soon make a religious motto mandatory on license plates.

Beware the creepy stalker who is also smelly.

Thus speaks the parasite class, then and now.

Republicans are OK with tax increases, so long as they're on the middle class, not the rich.

Here's how to do a real robbery.

Sometimes it's knowledge that provides a straightforward path out of religion.

Global-warming denialist Christopher Monckton gets debunked. So does a fake study on abortion and mental health.

Huntsman flip-flops on whether or not to flip-flop on science. But Santorum knows well where he stands.

Fuzzy thinking on religion gets embarrassing.

Numbers show what really matters to Republicans.

Lady Atheist presents ten reasons why libertarianism is bullshit (how on Earth did she keep it down to ten?).

A Republican attack on Elizabeth Warren reeks of desperation.

Don't be fooled by Ron Paul.

The job situation has improved greatly since Obama took over.

Truth Wins Out confronts the right-wing effort to re-brand bigotry as religious freedom (found via Republic of Gilead).

Perry may be the worst enemy gays have right now. Sane people fight back with parody and YouTube dislikes, and he continues to self-destruct.

The Obama administration stands up for human rights abroad, and right-wingers freak out.

Bill Donohue's latest idea for attacking atheism is just as stupid as everything else he comes up with.

The NAACP is worried enough about Republican vote-suppression efforts to go to the UN.

From 2003 to 2008 the Air Force was dumping remains of US troops in landfill.

A disappointed Obama supporter wises up.

Efforts to defend separation of church and state can move forward in Virginia.

Republican applause lines show a party sunk into ugliness.

Obamacare starts to tame the bloated inefficiency of the private sector.

Rank-and-file Republicans' distrust of institutions may mean the leadership can't save the party from Gingrich. The lunacy is so bad it's starting to worry Karl Rove, and Reagan adviser Bruce Bartlett thinks the country's only hope is for the party to collapse.

Some of Gingrich's weird ideas come from Asimov's Foundation trilogy. Frum thinks his nomination would cause panic among Republicans; that panic may already be starting, as his support soars in early-voting states. He's already lost one voter in his own family.

Working from home is a rising trend, despite stick-in-the-mud bosses.

No, the latest EU scheme won't save the euro.

Army defectors fight for the rebellion in Syria.

The Durban deal could make a real difference.

Some of our commonest words are of unknown origin.

See winners of Nikon's micro-photography competition.

A protoceratops nest tells us a lot about how dinosaurs lived.

A British breakthrough could speed up clinical trials of stem-cell therapies.

They were there for us -- now it's our turn.

Video of the week #2 -- Tea Party USA

2011-12-09T09:43:00.000-08:00

With apologies to Lady Gaga, who would no doubt approve the intent.

Quote for the day -- better off sober

2011-12-09T08:32:00.001-08:00

"The fact that a believer is happier than a sceptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality."

George Bernard Shaw

Is this the man who will face Obama next year?

2011-12-07T05:31:00.000-08:00

Is Newt Gingrich just the latest in a long line of not-Romneys to be test-driven by the Nutty faction of the Republicans and ultimately found wanting, or is he something more? It's been argued that whereas Bachmann, Perry, and Cain were new on the national stage and went down when their flaws were discovered, Gingrich has long been a national figure, and his negatives are already known and "priced in" in his current level of support. There are signs that the anyone-but-Romney Republicans are coalescing around Gingrich at the expense of other not-Romney candidates -- bad news for Romney, whose support is limited to the Sane faction of Republicans (apparently about 25%-30%) and who depends on several semi-viable opponents to keep the Nutty faction divided. If the Nutty faction has indeed settled on a single champion at last, there's a serious chance that he will be the Republican nominee.

In some ways I'd like to see Gingrich in that role. He'd clearly be a representative of the Nutty faction, so his almost-inevitable defeat in the general election would discredit that faction and give the Sanes an opening to regain control of the party (whereas Romney losing to Obama would weaken the Sanes relative to the Nutties). And Gingrich is not a sincere religious fanatic like Bachmann or Perry or Santorum, so if he somehow won, he'd be less dangerous as President than they would, though he'd certainly be very bad.

I'm not quite ready to write off Romney yet, though. For one thing, I'm not convinced that the Republicans currently rallying behind Gingrich are, in fact, already aware of all his baggage -- and he has plenty. Even by the standards of Christian Right hypocrisy about marriage, his history of adultery is egregious, and women fundamentalists have often been less forgiving of such behavior in politicians than the men are. His hint of a soft position on illegal aliens touches a very sore spot for Republicans -- that issue was the beginning of the end for Perry. And Gingrich has a history of receiving large sums of money under less-than-honorable circum- stances. Money scandals are less likely to be widely known than sexual ones simply because they're more boring, but Gingrich's rivals will be more than happy to spend from their own resources to enlighten Republican primary voters, in blunt and dramatic terms, about these matters. Check out this ad from Ron Paul:

There are questions on electability. Despite Krugman's already- viral bon mot -- "Newt Gingrich is a stupid person's idea of what a smart person sounds like" -- the man is clearly more intelligent than the not-Romneys who have preceded him. If he says he wants to eliminate three government departments, he will certainly remember which ones they are, and he may well even know who the President of Uzbekistan is and why it matters. This sets the bar awfully low, though. He's not in Obama's league intellectually, nor -- perhaps more important -- temperamentally. He's always struck me as a thoroughly unpleasant guy, the kind of person in whom an act like serving divorce papers on a hospitalized wife doesn't seem at all out of character. This assessment is worth reading:

Gingrich “only has two modes — attack and brag,” explained one veteran GOP strategist.

“He’s going to blow up at some point, and I’m just hoping it comes before he gets the nomination,” said one unaligned Republican insider, who has worked with presidential campaigns before.

And there's the real question -- will Republican primary voters grasp the depth of Gingrich's negatives in time to avoid giving him the nomination? The Obama campaign clearly hopes not; they've been focusing their attacks on Romney, helping to weaken him, as they clearly consider him the most difficult Republican for Obama to beat. Gingrich, with his arrogance, repulsive character, and history of sleaze, would be a far weaker opponent.

[First video above found via Mature Landscaping; second found via Race 4 2012.]

Update: See here for more on Gingrich's colossal ego, including this description he wrote about himself:

"Gingrich—primary mission: advocate of civilization, definer of civilization, teacher of the rules of civilization, arouser of those who fan civilization, organizer of the pro-civilization activists, leader (possibly) of the civilizing forces."

This man has issues.

Quote for the day -- the set-up

2011-12-06T12:25:00.000-08:00

"It has taken me more than 30 years as a journalist to ask myself this question, but this week I find that I must: is the Left right after all? You see, one of the great arguments of the Left is that what the Right calls 'the free market' is actually a set-up.

The rich run a global system that allows them to accumulate capital and pay the lowest possible price for labour. The freedom that results applies only to them. The many simply have to work harder, in conditions that grow ever more insecure, to enrich the few. Democratic politics, which purports to enrich the many, is actually in the pocket of those bankers, media barons and other moguls who run and own everything."

Conservative British editor Charles Moore (found here), starting to see a glimmering of the light

Video of the week #1 -- extreme shepherding

2011-12-05T04:16:00.000-08:00

Welshmen (and dogs) create amazing art out of sheep. Found via Mendip, though I know I've seen this before.

Link round-up for 4 December 2011

2011-12-04T08:17:00.000-08:00

Check out these awful Christmas decorations (found via Mendip). At least this sweater is topical.

Maybe Brazil hasn't quite caught up.

Women, the Bible has a few words for you.

Bachmann's latest idiocy spawns a meme.

The US was first to put a man on the Moon, but Zambia tried.

Keep these goofy similes for use in your own writings (found via Mendip).

Sign a petition against books that promote child abuse (found via Pajama Dog)

At age 18, Emma Sullivan is the newest First Amendment heroine.

The coming Detroit renaissance offers opportunities.

No matter how much Romney bashes gays, it won't make the fundies like him.

The disgusting Gulnare Baptist ban on mixed-race couples reflects attitudes common among theocrats.

Here are twelve reasons to reject supernatural claims (found via Pajama Dog).

If you haven't read David Frum's epic essay on the derangement of the Republican party, read it now.

Ex-Christian Bruce Gerencser looks at how evangelical preaching drives people away.

We need Alan Grayson, now more than ever.

Fulton county (Georgia) sheriff's deputies show human decency.

Elaine Ecklund distorts the facts about atheists.

If Gingrich is the nominee, the election will turn into a circus.

Stigma, taboo, and prejudice worsen AIDS in the South.

Americans are much less anti-tax than 30 years ago.

Here's an example of the gross abuses involved in sex-offender registries.

Santorum is utterly clueless about science (found via Republic of Gilead).

Meet David Usher, a nutcase even among nutcases.

There's a religious group in the US whose loyalty to the country is questionable, and it's not Muslims (found via Republic of Gilead).

Here's a juicy collection of Ron Paul links.

Pull the dual trigger to consolidate the Democrats' victory in the debt-ceiling fight.

I doubt Gingrich is a Dominionist, but he knows how to pander to them, and has been doing so for a long time (found via Republic of Gilead).

Santorum wants the US to fall behind other countries in science education.

Palin cultists still want her to run.

If this guy were American, he'd make a great Republican.

Britain is cracking down on excessive financial-sector bonuses.

Conservative students at Oxford party tastelessly.

Greeks continue their campaign of strikes and protests against EU- imposed austerity.

This coming January 1 will be the tenth anniversary of the euro currency (EU propaganda video -- note ratio of likes to dislikes -- but very cool visuals), if it lasts that long. Only a fiscal union (code for German control over other countries' finances) can save it, but that won't happen. And all the anti-German hatred is misplaced -- Germany too is a victim of the euro, not the villain.

Iceland never joined the EU or adopted the euro, and responded to the world economic crisis with devaluation and capital controls instead of austerity. It's now the outstanding success of Europe.

Expanding the money supply, not austerity, is the way out of Europe's slump. The US is trying to help.

What gets me about this article is the photo of anti-gay Russian fascists giving the Nazi salute. How can any Russian be so clueless as to do that?

Remember the BP oil-leak disaster in the Gulf of Mexico? Here's how a government handles that kind of thing properly.

Support the Manifesto for a Secular Middle East and North Africa.

The Iranian theocracy continues to imprison dissenters.

Ex-Muslim Gülşah Ökmen describes her path to atheism.

Don't be misled -- Islam is evil.

The 4,000 Syrians murdered by the Asad regime during the rebellion include over 250 children.

Meet the world's biggest insect (yuck warning).

This green energy concept could be called "soylent green energy".

The EU delusion

2011-12-03T08:42:00.000-08:00

Der Spiegel has an article posted which is, if you read it in the right spirit, hilarious. And it's in English, too, so you don't even need to understand German to be entertained by it. The article is Citizens of the EU: How to Forge a Common European Identity.

The translator may not have realized just how well the secondary meaning of the word "forge" fits here, but let that pass. The point of the thing is that the European Union must and will not only unite its 27 assorted member countries into a single giant state -- that's already a given in these circles -- but also get the people of those countries to "feel and act as 'Europeans' rather than members of an individual nation-state."

The first two-thirds of the article, however, actually discusses various ideas for reorganizing the already-hideously-confusing structure of the EU's "government", if that is the correct term for it. A Senate with members representing each country, or a President elected by the whole EU population, would supposedly inspire feelings of European-ness to replace the old national identities.

Only someone who knew absolutely nothing about the human sense of group identity could believe this. If you were to ask a Frenchman what his sense of French national identity is based on, my guess is he'd talk about French history, the French language, the habits and traditions that differentiate French people from people of other countries, and perhaps the great French writers, artists, scientists, and other contributors to civilization. Far down the list, if mentioned at all, would be the structure of the French government, which in any case has gone through all manner of radical changes over the past two or three centuries while France remained France. The fact that France has a directly-elected President has very little to do with why French people feel French.

I'm not even going to touch the suggestion of a directly-imposed EU sales tax. People in Germany and Britain already fume about how much the EU is costing them, and that's with dues paid by national governments, not by individual citizens every time they buy something.

There are repeated assertions that national identity is inevitably eroding over time in favor of a common European feeling. No polling data are cited to support this. Meanwhile, in the real world, Greeks are putting up posters depicting Germans as Nazis, people in the northern European countries are sneering at Greeks and Italians for supposed profligacy and economic incompetence, a few months ago German newspapers were gloating that Ireland's need for EU economic aid would allow Germany to dictate changes in Irish tax policy, established countries like Britain, Spain, and Belgium are threatened with break-up by independence-minded ethnic sub-regions, and nationalistic political parties, some of them dangerously radical, are on the rise in Finland, Denmark, Austria, the Netherlands, and France. There is more rancor, hostility, and resentment between different European nations today than there's been in half a century.

Why on Earth would peoples with such rich and distinctive cultures and national personalities as the French, British, Germans, and Italians give them up and identify with a soulless polyglot jigsaw-puzzle of countries with no history of political unity or common identity? Three generations of totalitarian Soviet education couldn't get the Uzbeks and Estonians to stop feeling like Uzbeks and Estonians.

Then there's this:

In 2009, researchers conducted an experiment as part of a European Union project dubbed Europolis. They brought together 348 men and women from the continent's various linguistic regions for three days. Accompanied by moderators and interpreters, the participants were to debate two challen- ging subjects: climate change and immigration.

The polyglot group of Europeans did not come up with any answers after three days of discussion. Nevertheless, interviews conducted at the beginning and after the end of the debate led the scientists to recognize an effect across all language barriers, namely that opinions had changed. "There are no fundamental obstacles to the introduction of deliberative democracy in Europe," they concluded. In the hothouse of the conference room, a miniature version of a European nation had begun to emerge.

Good grief. You could assemble a great big group of Americans, Koreans, Brazilians, and Ukrainians in a nice hotel somewhere, provide them with "moderators and interpreters", and have them rap about things for a few days, and they'd have some interesting discussions and in some cases change each others' opinions. That doesn't mean there's any basis for a common national identity for those countries.

Towards the end, the question of what actual ordinary Europeans think of all this does get a mention. In Germany, for example, there are two "problems", namely "the Federal Constitutional Court [Germany's Supreme Court] and the German population." Yes, giving up national sovereignty would be unconstitutional, and that pesky group of obstructionists known as "the German population" doesn't want to do it. A couple of minor obstacles there.

But it doesn't matter what the surly masses want, because

.....the population, neither in Germany nor in neighboring countries, has never been asked their opinion about Europe under fair conditions. Who knows what the people think? In fact, for lack of what Habermas calls a functioning European "deliberation" process, the people themselves don't even know what they think. The failed referendums on the European Constitution in France and the Netherlands are a poor indicator of popular views, because in both cases misinformation and domestic political rancor distorted the picture. The new "elite project".....consists in the political class and academia explaining Europe and their goals to the citizens.

Take a moment to savor the rich, steaming arrogance of that. Europe includes some of the best-educated populations on the planet, with some of the oldest traditions of democratic self- government, but the fact that they vote against the elite's grand project every chance they get just means that the elite need to keep lecturing them about what the correct opinions on these matters are.

The EU's leaders, in any case, seem more incompetent than elite these days. Like the Republicans in the US, they are ignoring Europe's gigantic real problem -- high unemployment -- and imposing spending cuts and austerity which have locked country after country into a death spiral of economic contraction which can only end in utter collapse unless those insane policies are reversed. Indeed, the southern countries need not only economic stimulus policies but currency devaluation -- impossible unless they reinstate separate national currencies.

You can see why these people are so terrified of public opinion that recent proposed referendums in Greece and Britain had to be prevented by any means necessary.

While the ivory-tower thinkers quoted in Der Spiegel spin visions of a grand march toward a United States of Europe, in the real world European leaders are staggering from one crisis meeting to another trying to stave off the collapse of the EU's misbegotten common currency, which even some of its boosters are now saying may happen by Christmas. One is reminded of the failed general in his bunker, losing both his war and his grip on reality, dictating grand maneuvers with armies that no longer exist.

There is not going to be a United States of Europe. The effort to create it has led to unnecessary rancor and conflict, wastage of money on a vast scale, a swath of wrecked economies from Lesbos to Lisbon, and a financial crisis even more dangerous (and boring) than what happened in the US in 2008. Only when this grandiose failed experiment is put out of its misery will democratic national governments, freed from EU decrees and the straitjacket of the common currency, finally be able to start repairing the damage.

9-9-9? Nein, nein, nein!

2011-11-30T05:48:00.000-08:00

I've long thought that the contest for the Republican Presidential nomination resembles a demolition derby, albeit one with cars so decrepit and ill-designed that half the time they spontaneously explode rather than crashing into each other. Now at last it looks like one wheezing, battered clunker is about to withdraw from the arena for good. No doubt others will follow.

Video of the week -- Rammstein -- Moskau

2011-11-28T06:04:00.000-08:00

Europe's greatest band offers a dark serenade to Europe's greatest city. The female voice is singing in Russian, not German.

A sample, starting at 2:52:

Ich sehe was, was du nicht siehst
Kогда ты ночью крепко спишь
Ich sehe was, was du nicht siehst
Kогда ты предо мной лежишь
Ich sehe was, was du nicht siehst
Kогда со мною говоришь
Ich sehe was, das siehst du nie!
Раз, два, три!

I see something that you don't see
When you go to sleep at night
I see something that you don't see
When you lie down before me
I see something that you don't see
When you speak to me
I see something, you'll never see it!
One, two, three!

Link round-up for 27 November 2011

2011-11-27T01:13:00.000-08:00

Please donate to the excellent PCTC blog. I have.

Christ, what an asshole.

Enter the Knatolee's World duck limerick contest.

Who's this new rip-off band imitating Justin Bieber?

Here's a religious view of the laws of nature.

Romanians get stereotyped.

Murr Brewster looks at Republican propaganda.

Who's the real bad guy -- God or Satan?

What if the police went after the real criminals?

Would you risk your job over a mere number? (sent by Mendip).

Joseph Cannon unearths the spiritual ancestor of the teabaggers.

Here's a Facebook history of World War II.

General John "Black Jack" Pershing knew how to handle religious fanatics.

Rush Limbaugh speaks out on the Occupiers.

Misogyny is disgusting, but what's the proper response?

Here's yet another example of someone who turned atheist after comparing her own religion to another (as discussed here).

Cynics, this one's for you.

Halal turkeys? There's less here than meets the eye.

Hollywood's long-simmering fascist streak rises to the surface.

A fundie "school" in Indiana commits horrific abuse of girls.

Even some conservatives are rejecting the myth of the non-tax- paying 47%.

If you think this isn't a problem, you are part of the problem.

Weird right-wing hatred has a long history.

A military religious bully is exposed.

Here's an intriguing idea: Elizabeth Warren for President in 2016.

Obama's base remains solid heading into 2012.

Beware the reality-denial of the non-pragmatic extreme left.

And beware of stories that seem too juicy to be true.

Huntsman has some interesting ideas for re-regulating Wall Street.

Most of the Republican Presidential candidates are committed to a fundie world-view.

The Christian Right hates it when the US defends gays against persecution (found via Republic of Gilead).

Republicans have embraced ignorance in every field, and they must pay the price. When the facts don't support their ideology, they resort to denial and name-calling.

People are speaking up for the truth.

It's not just Europe -- austeritards have hijacked the debate in the US as well.

"Black Friday" idiocy illustrates a competitive weakness of the US (though I'd say these idiots aren't typical of most Americans).

Watch dramatic video of a foiled robbery in London.

Immigrants assimilate better when ordinary people uphold standards of behavior in everyday interactions.

Britain's Conservative government wastes money on religion.

The conventional wisdom about the euro crisis is largely wrong.

2,000 people march against austerity in Dublin.

The Greek quisling regime is composed partly of actual fascists.

Even German bonds aren't selling, as investors realize the euro is doomed. Britain prepares to weather the collapse.

As the EU stumbles toward break-up, a new union rises in the east.

British right-wing brats apologize to Obama after an ugly incident.

Daniel Radcliffe goes up in my estimation. So does Australia.

The power of rootless capital threatens democracy world-wide.

Suspicious of the interim military government, Egyptians return to Tahrir square.

In a snub to Islamists, Libya's interim cabinet consists entirely of secularists.

Israelis show solidarity with Aliaa Magda Elmahdy, and the trend is spreading.

Developing countries are getting angry about inaction on global warming.

Idiotic superstition is wiping out the rhinoceros.

Planning a plane flight? Watch out for germs.

Patients, remember who really cured you.

Wind power gets a big boost in Pennsylvania.

Human biology makes natural use of fetal stem cells.

We're getting better at understanding brain repair.

Here's a review of the work of pioneering evolutionary biologist Lynn Margulis, who died this week.

Dinosaurs looked very different from how we picture them.

HIV infection rates are plummeting thanks to modern drugs.

Illinois researchers discover a potential chemical weapon against telomere deterioration, a key element of both aging and cancer.

Video of the week #2 -- the Trifelj Putinard

2011-11-25T05:51:00.000-08:00

Yep, this is pretty much what all religious ceremonies look like to us non-believers.

Quote for the day -- now this is blogging

2011-11-24T09:10:00.000-08:00

"It’s been an entertaining week, hasn’t it? And by entertaining I mean entertaining like getting tazed in the onions, sure there’s dancing and wild hooting involved but you’re going to be sore as hell the next morning. A bunch of drunken rednecks booed the first lady on national TV in an outstanding show of classy Southern sportsmanship while she was at a NASCAR race to promote jobs for veterans returning from war. In defense of these mouth breathers, corpulent swollen carbuncle in the sweaty ass-crack of humanity, Rush Limbaugh, called the nation’s first African American First Lady “uppity” and then tried to pretend as if that statement wasn’t blatantly racist. Here’s a question for you, if “uppity” isn’t racist then how come you’ve never heard anybody, ever, refer to a rich white man as uppity? There’s a word that always follows “uppity,” whether it’s spoken out loud or not, it starts with an N. Ten points if you can figure it out, Good Ole Boys help the Yankees. Rush fans claim his words were taken out of context. Heh. Maybe they should be taken that way, because taken in context it’s abundantly clear that he was defending the hecklers specifically because an educated black woman had the unmiti- gated gall to suggest that their overweight diabetic chicken-fried butter eatin’ and soda swilling kids should maybe have a salad or two and, you know, exercise."

Jim Wright's latest rant at Stonekettle Station -- go read it, the rest is just as good.

Mutual asinine destruction

2011-11-23T04:01:00.000-08:00

In reading the stories of people who were raised religious but later abandoned religion, I've noticed an interesting commonality in many (though by no means all) of them. This is that they began to move away from their original religion not so much because of exposure to atheist arguments, but because of some contact with another religion or irrational belief system.

The recent "Why I am an atheist" series of personal testimonies on Pharyngula provides numerous examples. Matthew Donica was raised fundamentalist, started getting disillusioned after exposure to flamboyantly-crazy creationists, and finally read the Iliad and realized that the Bible, like it, was merely another mythical story. Heather V was raised as a Catholic, then became fascinated with Wicca, then married a Baptist and tried to adapt to his beliefs, then married a non-church-goer and, while trying to persuade him to become more "spiritual", came to see the flaws of supernaturalism. Natasha Krasle grew up with a mushy Unitarian-style "spirituality"; after she and her mother joined a church which proceeded to sink into Chopra psychobabble, they became disillusioned with the church and ultimately with spirituality in general. Adam was raised fundamentalist and began to see the light after studying evolution (in order, at first, to learn how to refute it), but what really turned him around was when his parents got interested in fake "alternative medicine" and he realized that religion was just as silly as the nonsense that so exasperated him about that quackery.

I've seen other such stories over the years. The common pattern is obvious: (1) Person grows up religious in the usual way. (2) Person encounters irrational belief system different from his own religion. (3) Person is shocked that anyone could believe such obvious nonsense. (4) Person starts to notice analogies between the newly- encountered nonsense and his own religion's brand of nonsense. (5) Person eventually realizes that both are silly, and abandons religion.

It's not difficult to understand this. Most religious people (not all, but most) absorb their religion when they are too young to think critically, and then maintain it out of inertia in a cultural environ- ment which treats religion as exempt from the kind of logical scrutiny which people are allowed or even expected to apply to other kinds of beliefs, such as political views. They often avoid reading frontal attacks on religion, which the culture's values still consider rude, inappropriate, "just not done".

But in a pluralistic society, those same values that demand respect for one's own religion also demand respect for other religions. The fundamentalist encountering Mormonism, the Muslim discovering Christianity, etc., and being expected to "respect" concepts which strike him as obviously absurd, feels the same kind of cognitive dissonance that we atheists feel on being told we should respect any religion. Why, this is obvious rubbish! But with prolonged exposure, only the most fanatical can avoid noticing parallels between the new rubbish and the old.

Carl Sagan once made a similar observation about intercultural encounters in the ancient world. Greeks and Babylonians, for example, would notice that their respective pantheons of gods claimed similar roles but were otherwise very different. The obvious explanation was that one set of gods had simply been made up by the priests -- but if one set was, why not both?

Magic underwear? God used to be a man? Ancient Hebrews in North America? How can those Mormons believe such drivel? Why can't they just see the plain sensible truth that Jesus died to save us from a force of evil we're all born with because 6,000 years ago a talking snake persuaded a woman made from a rib to eat fruit from a magic tree?

You may have seen this quote from Stephen Roberts: "I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours." Considering and rejecting an alien religion or superstition forces the theist into precisely this position.

I think this factor has played a major role in the decline of religion which has been going on for centuries and has accelerated in the last century and especially the last ten years. Educated people naturally became aware of belief systems other than their own which existed in distant regions. In a pluralistic society, it's easy to come into some kind of routine contact with different religions. And in the age of the internet, staying strictly within the echo- chamber of homogenous belief takes tremendous effort. Even a person who would indignantly refuse to read an atheist website, even if he lives in a small town in Alabama or Saudi Arabia, can hardly avoid some degree of exposure to other religions.

This is not to deny the importance of frontal attacks on religion such as those of Dawkins, Hitchens, and other New Atheists. Countless people who have abandoned religion have testified that these writings helped them along the path. But for many, it's an encounter with another religion that first sets them on that path.

If this is the case, then religion is truly doomed to further and further decline. The world will not stop getting more and more interconnected. The internet will not go away. Maintaining that echo-chamber of homogenous belief will soon require a total rejection of modernity, to a degree available only to groups like the Amish or the Mormon-fundamentalist cults. Even if we can't destroy religion, the religions, in a cacophony of clashing ideas in billions of brains, will eventually destroy each other.

Video of the week #1 -- the voice of faith

2011-11-21T03:45:00.000-08:00

Although the Arab spring has revealed an encouraging degree of secularism in the Arab world, religion remains a potent force in some circles, as this speech shows. My Arabic, while far from fluent, is good enough to tell that the subtitles are accurate.

Link round-up for 20 November 2011

2011-11-20T10:04:00.000-08:00

These pick-up lines look like the royal road to celibacy.

This guard dog should get the job done.

See the best little outhouses in Texas.

Lying to cover up an affair is understandable, but it can have unforeseen consequences.

Warning label writers must think we're pretty stupid (from Shaw Kenawe).

Satan has been naughty.

You could build a whole world with just Morgan Freeman.

This may be the most embarrassing political endorsement ever.

Stop taking Ayn Rand seriously.

The Seattle Occupier movement is being taken over by bullies, apparently.

It's time for conservatism to dump that far-left bleeding-heart liberal, Grover Norquist. And what about this tax-the-rich socialist? More here.

Under-age prostitution is a very different phenomenon from what activists envisage (found via Feminisnt).

Green Eagle brings you the best quotes from the right wing.

Stop the bullshit excuse-making for Mike McQueary. And stop the nauseating prayers and religious obfuscation.

To fix the budget, go after the tax breaks.

If you don't see why this is a problem, you are part of the problem.

Religious moralism breeds truly disgusting attitudes toward sex abuse -- and even toward killing.

See how the law treats an ordinary person and how it treats the financial parasite class.

Gingrich is as classy as ever. And he's trying hard to win over the Christian Right.

Smartypants debunks the myth that Democrats caved.

Fundie activist Lou Engle thinks abortion is a form of demon worship.

There are people in Wisconsin who want to commit vote fraud.

Ed Brayton visits a pitiful creation museum in Missouri.

Police went to great lengths to hide their brutality in Zuccotti park from the media.

Fundies continue to press their attacks on contraception.

The Patriotic Millionaires group continues to push for restoration of sensible tax rates.

The Bush recession will have a lasting impact on the younger generation.

A lobbying firm proposes an $850,000 propaganda war against the Occupiers.

Captain Stephen Hill, the soldier booed at the Republican debate, speaks out (found via Smartypants).

We'd be far worse off without the social safety net.

Warren Buffett talks class war.

The Occupiers are right about the 1% and about public opinion, but they need a change in emphasis.

What have liberals done that's so offensive? This.

To achieve change, we must understand the rules of the system. More here.

Prospects look good for rolling back Kasich's vote-suppression law in Ohio.

PCTC dissects the lie that Obama is implicated in the nationwide attacks on the Occupier movement.

2012's election offers only two choices: Democrats or disaster.

US conservatives could learn from their British counterparts. More here.

A Catholic Church official assigned to investigate priestly child molestation has been jailed for possession of child pornography (found via Ed Brayton).

The Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain salutes Christopher Hitchens (more on this group here).

Merkel contemplates sacrificing the German constitution on the altar of European unification.

The EU sides with Islamism against oppressed women and gays.

Tens of thousands of Italians march in protest against their new EU-imposed quisling/banker government (restaurant here).

The euro currency is a failed experiment based on out-of-date thinking; Europe must stop trying to save it and prepare to abandon it.

Time Magazine's Paris correspondent opts for appeasement in the face of the Charlie Hebdo bombing.

A tough old Russian tank will parade again despite lying at the bottom of a river for almost 70 years.

Australia shows it is possible.

Egyptian atheist blogger Aliaa Magda Elmahdy protests Islamic puritanism and hypocrisy by posting nude photos; Islamists go apeshit.

As Syria descends into civil war, rebels attack the ruling party's headquarters.

Rich, obese, inbred, outnumbered by imported foreign laborers -- meet the Persian Gulf states.

Here's a book exploring the forgery of the New Testament (for the Old, see here).

Yes, there is a correlation between low intelligence and being fat.

Here's what our ancestors looked like two million years ago.

Chimpanzees use planning and strategy to hunt monkeys.

Not only apes, dolphins, and elephants, but now also octopuses show evidence of high intelligence.

Stem cells emerge as a weapon against chronic heart disease.

MIT researchers have built a chip that can simulate the activity of a brain synapse (though simulating an entire brain will take more work -- the human brain has about 100 trillion synapses).

Europe: the empire vs. the nations

2011-11-19T09:24:00.000-08:00

Few Americans grasp the significance of recent events in Europe. The European Union's stealth war against national sovereignty and democracy has come out into the open.

Within days of Greek Prime Minister Papandreou's announcement of a referendum on Greece's submission to EU-imposed austerity policies in exchange for bail-out loans, the EU pressured him into resigning by threatening to cut off aid. A new government headed by Lucas Papademos, submissive to the EU's will, took office without elections being held. EU bureaucrats have been stationed in Greek government ministries to oversee the imposition of austerity. The planned referendum, of course, was canceled. The Greek people were totally shut out of any say in the decision to turn their country into a vassal state.

Days later, manipulations by the European Central Bank brought down Prime Minister Berlusconi of Italy, a much larger economy whose drift toward default represented the biggest threat yet to the euro currency and to the whole EU project. Berlusconi is a corrupt and repulsive figure, but the Italian people had elected him, and in the normal course of events they could have voted in someone else if they so chose. His successor, Mario Monti, has never received a single vote from any Italian. He, like Papademos, will do the EU's bidding on austerity in exchange for continued economic aid which will keep Italy bound into the system.

Pat Condell was right when he spoke of the EU as "not, in fact, a union at all, but a continent-wide political coup". Ambrose Evans- Pritchard uses the term "putsch". British patriot Nigel Farage is in fine form here, speaking truth-to-power to the EU's leaders:

Days ago, a secret German government memo was leaked which confirms plans to exploit the current crisis to build a centralized European super-state which would be able to assume dictatorial control over weaker member states, and to order (!) British Prime Minister Cameron not to give the British people a referendum on EU membership. At about the same time, details of the pending Irish national budget were leaked -- leaked from the Bundestag, Germany's parliament, raising the question of why the German government gets to review Ireland's budget before almost anyone in Ireland has seen it.

Although Germany is now clearly the EU's dominant country, it is not Germany, as such, that is doing all this. The German people hate the bail-outs they are ultimately paying for as much as other Europeans hate the austerity which is imposed as the price for them; the euro currency and the idea of a pan-European super- state superseding national sovereignty have never been popular in Germany. The German political establishment, like that of the other EU member states, is pursuing its own elitist EU agenda in arrogant defiance of the popular will. (For that matter, the two embarrassing leaks mentioned above make me wonder if there are people in the German establishment who don't like what's going on and are trying to throw a few spanners into the works.)

The empire being built in Europe is not a German empire; this is about class, not nationality. The EU, like the Republican party in the US, has evolved into the political utensil of the financial parasite class. Papademos and Monti, the EU's -- quislings is not too strong a word -- in Athens and Rome, are both former high- ranking bankers. The austerity policies being imposed on the weaker nations as the price of bail-out loans are crushing the life out of their economies in a death spiral of falling demand and rising unemployment, killing all hope of recovery; the purpose is not to help the Greek, Italian, etc. peoples, but to protect the interests of the big lenders from whom their rulers borrowed money in the past. Let social safety nets be shredded, let millions sink into destitution and despair, let the young and talented emigrate to greener pastures beyond Europe -- so long as debt is held sacrosanct and default unthinkable.

Like race in the US, nationality and culture have kept European LIVs divided and distracted from the real enemy. Southerners raged at an imaginary Fourth Reich, while northerners tut-tutted at "profligate" and "undisciplined" Greeks and Italians. Few stopped to think what they themselves would have done had they been an ordinary citizen of the countries they excoriate -- or that those other peoples no more gave informed consent to their rulers' machinations, or foresaw the implications, than they themselves did.

But there are signs that Europeans are waking up. Across Europe, protests against austerity have dwarfed the Occupier rallies in the US. In Greece and (lately) in Italy too, there has been increasing resort to violence, and in all honesty I cannot criticize this. We Americans still have elections that mean something. In those countries, every avenue for peaceful and democratic change has been brutally shut off. As President Kennedy said, a regime that makes peaceful revolution impossible makes violent revolution inevitable.

Greeks and Italians have the right to run their own countries their own way and, if they make bad decisions, to face the consequences and devise their own solutions. That's what it means to be an adult. Providing endless financial support, accompanied by imposing one's own control over every decision, is how one treats a small child. The peoples who created European civilization in the first place have a right to not be treated like small children.

Update: Here's Farage again, from about a month and a half ago, on the struggle between the EU and national democracy:

I told you so

2011-11-17T14:42:00.000-08:00

That guy who shot at the White House last week is a religious crank who refers to Obama as the Antichrist. He has been charged with attempted assassination of the President.

Remember this? And this?

As I said two years ago, "The threat of Christian terrorism may be just getting started."

Hello, I need help with the "sweep" feature.....

2011-11-16T07:09:00.000-08:00

A week or so ago I bought a broom. When I got it home, I noticed something. Below the manufacturer's logo was the inscription:

For Customer Support
9am-5pm EST
please call toll free:
[800 number]

I mean, you expect a computer or software to have a support line, but a broom? I almost felt like calling the number, just to ask what kind of questions they get..... How difficult can it possibly be to use a broom?

Unless..... it's one of those brooms they have in the Harry Potter books. Yes, that must be it. Off for a test drive!

Video of the week -- the cacophony

2011-11-15T06:05:00.000-08:00

".....and then there was a talking snake....."

Link round-up for 13 November 2011

2011-11-13T03:19:00.000-08:00

People need to be more careful with guns.

Do not steal this woman's brownies.

Do not use a pick-up truck as a cooking utensil.

Octopi Wall Street!

Here's Palin's Oval Office (found via Hysterical Raisins).

Murr Brewster looks at the role of ferret sperm in the economy of Wyoming. More sperm problems here.

"Morbid and tacky" indeed -- that's religion for you. Maybe Jesus wanted his followers to be tacky.

What do the US, Liberia, and Burma have in common that makes them different from all other countries?

Make a joyful (and extremely rude) noise unto the Lord.

This real-world Rip Van Winkle couldn't cope (found via Histories of Things to Come).

Here are five things that aren't in the Bible.

Rick Perry's campaign has only one big problem -- unfortunately, it's Rick Perry.

Fundie nuts at the Family Research Council produce a horribly- misspelled prayer against the Occupiers.

Michigan Republicans think certain bullies are OK (found via Republic of Gilead).

Police resort to slimy tactics against OWS.

Andrew Sullivan looks at how the Republicans are teabagging themselves to death.

Here's how that story about a Christmas-tree tax got started.

It's official -- Joe Walsh is a pro-family guy.

Misogynists viciously attack Sady Doyle for pointing out how vicious misogynists are.

North Carolina is trying to make amends for a ghastly forced- sterilization program in the 1960s.

Texas made the right decision here, even if for the wrong reason.

Angry Black Lady has been chronicling the Penn State cover-up. Paterno's latest comment just makes it worse. Don't forget Mike McQueary's moral failing. The disgusting pro-Paterno riot attacked any sense of safe space at Penn State, but this student showed real courage. The program deserves to die. Republic of Gilead has a collection of links.

The hard-line right wing remains unimpressed with Romney (more here). And voters are unimpressed with the hard-line right wing.

Voting one's self-interest is OK only for some.

The Republicans will try to divide us -- don't let them.

Anti-prostitution nuts are about to make another stupid mistake.

God still thinks women are dirty.

What does the Cain scandal say about conservatism?

If you think rising inequality isn't a problem, read this.

Politics Plus reviews the Republican debates. Andrew Sullivan despairs.

The Christian Right is weaker and more divided than we think.

Here's an interesting comparison of teabaggers and Occupiers.

The Feds finally go after the real criminals.

The Republican party should have listened to this guy.

Here's a survey of English-language blogs.

Britain squelches plans by two despicable groups -- one Islamist, one far-right -- to disrupt Armistice Day.

More dirty behavior by the Murdoch empire comes to light in Britain, and there may be bigger revelations to come (found via Hysterical Raisins).

The Greek people are in revolt against the EU elite, and it could spread.

It's time to put the euro currency out of everyone's misery. Britain is preparing for its collapse. A top German economist says Greece would be better off returning to the drachma.

Don't panic over Italy.

British conservatives' effort to limit immigration isn't working out too well, and their own spending cuts may be part of the reason.

Standard & Poor's blunders again.

Entrepreneurs abandon austerity-strangled Europe for dynamic India.

Face it: the hard left got Libya wrong.

The Syrian revolution rages on, with 3,500 people now dead at the hands of the regime; other Arab states move to ostracize Assad.

A senior religious nut asks his fellow religious nuts to stop setting fire to themselves (found via Kriss the Sexy Atheist).

The black rhino is now extinct, a victim of idiotic superstition.

Strange things can happen when part of your brain develops a mind of its own.

Newly-svelte monkeys offer hope for human fattards.

The man who discovered Pluto is on his way there.

Space aliens will be very alien, if they exist at all, which is unlikely.

Solar power is going mainstream.

Scientists believe a true cure for AIDS is achievable.

Video of the week #2 -- to Hitch

2011-11-12T07:47:00.000-08:00

This week's first video recalled one of our best who is no longer with us. This tribute salutes one who is still alive and fighting.

Lesbian torture clinics

2011-11-11T04:41:00.000-08:00

Most of us know about the "cure homosexuality" scams run by various religious crackpots in the US, whose effects range from absurd to psychologically damaging. Ecuador's crackpots, though, take it to a deeper level, operating "clinics" in which lesbians are forcibly confined, often at the behest of their own families, and subjected to gross abuses (including sexual assault) in the name of turning them heterosexual. The clinics are theoretically aimed at gays of both genders, but in practice most of their victims are female, partly because in Latin American culture males tend to escape the control of the family at a younger age. There are about 200 of these "clinics" operating in Ecuador, apparently with the tacit approval of the government.

At a time when Latin America is making such progress (Argentina and Mexico even have gay marriage now), the persistence of this kind of barbarity is shocking. Change.org has a petition to the Ecuadorian government; beyond that, we bloggers can help by getting the word out. Sometimes embarrassment can move those in power to do the right thing.

Breathtaking stupidity

2011-11-10T08:47:00.000-08:00

Thousands of football fans rioted yesterday in protest against the firing of Penn State coach Joe Paterno, who had failed to notify police about colleague Jerry Sandusky's ongoing sexual abuse of young boys.

This is insane. Thousands of people fail to see that firing is not merely justified but a barely adequate response in such a case?

It's so weirdly reminiscent of the Catholic Church child-abuse cover-up scandal, in which the Church dealt with molesters via internal disciplinary procedures or actively shielded them, rather than turning them over to the police. Many Church officials, and even ordinary believers, clearly felt such an exalted institution was above the secular law. Now it seems some fans feel the same way about a football program?!

Look, this is not a difficult concept. If you become aware of child abuse going on, you call the police. You don't bother with your organization's internal procedures. You don't just tell your own boss about it. You call the police. It doesn't matter how admired or important the person committing the abuse is, or how holy or respected your own position is. You call the police. Period.

And all those who behave otherwise, whether they're archbishops or football coaches or whatever the hell they are, need to keep getting slammed across the face with a legal two-by-four by society until they get the message and learn to act on it.

Update: This is the kind of bull$#!T that sometimes makes sports enthusiasts seem like an alien species to the rest of us.

Video of the week #1 -- you are here

2011-11-10T06:06:00.000-08:00

Found via Norbrook.

Victories across the country

2011-11-09T07:13:00.000-08:00

"Today’s defeat of Issue 2 is a major victory for working families in Ohio and across the country. Ohio’s working people successfully fought back against lies pushed by shadowy multi-national cor- porations and their anonymous front groups that attempted to scapegoat public service employees and everyone they serve by assaulting collective bargaining rights."

Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO President

Our side won significant victories in three very different states yesterday.

In Maine, back in June, Republican legislators had repealed the state's election-day voter-registration law -- a move consistent with Republican efforts to limit voting rights across the country. Yesterday voters approved Question 1, a referendum initiative to restore same-day registration; votes are still being counted, but the yes vote seems to have been almost 60%. This bodes well for public support against other such anti-voting shenanigans around the country.

Republicans had attacked Question 1 as somehow pro-gay; adding spice to the victory, not only did it pass, but gay-rights advocates took advantage of the high turn-out to gather signatures for a pro- gay-marriage ballot initiative for next year.

In Ohio, voters rejected Republican Governor John Kasich's law limiting collective-bargaining rights for unionized public-sector employees. This vote had been touted as a major test of the power of unions in American politics, and this victory is reassuring that the unions, an important part of the Democratic base, can still get people to the polls -- the turn-out was the highest in 20 years for an Ohio off-year election, and the union-bashing law was defeated by 61%-to-39%. Never forget that the 2010 disaster was not a pendulum-swing back to the right; what happened was a collapse of voter turn-out, from 62.2% in 2008 to 38.2% in 2010. When turn-out is high, we win.

Vice President Biden spoke perhaps more truly than he knew when he called the Ohio vote a "gigantic victory for the middle class". More and more people are waking up to the fact that class warfare is being waged in this country, against the middle and working class, and are able to see what their own class interests are.

Best of all, in Mississippi, voters rejected a particularly vile "personhood amendment" which would have declared a fertilized egg cell to be a legal person -- the latest attack in the Christian Right's war against abortion and contraception. The amendment would have banned abortion, with no exception even for rape victims, and would also have implicitly banned some forms of contraception and in-vitro fertilization. Again the margin was substantial, with the amendment losing by 58%-to-42%.

Even if enacted, the amendment could not actually have gone into effect because of Roe v. Wade. However, this really makes the vote all the more significant. With Roe v. Wade protecting abortion rights, right-wingers often use anti-abortion votes as a way to symbolically express their support for government enforcement of religious taboo, undeterred by the risk of actually having to face the ghastly consequences a true abortion ban would bring. In this case, however, Mississippi voters chose not to do that. (Also, if the amendment had passed, it would likely have gone to the Supreme Court, giving the right-wingers an opportunity to argue for Roe v. Wade to be struck down.)

None of these three states is notably liberal. We'd have expected results like these in, say, Massachusetts; to see them in Mississippi is all the more meaningful.

When turn-out is high, we win. When unions are engaged, we win. When voters are paying attention to what's going on, we win.

Update: A report on LGBT victories is here.

Bank transfer day

2011-11-08T06:33:00.000-08:00

How much impact did it have? The reports I'm seeing around the net suggest that there was some, though it's early to tell. Smaller banks and credit unions, at least, have reported a major upswing in new accounts. The best report I've run across so far is here.

The biggest banks have total assets on the order of a trillion dollars, so the effect of people removing accounts containing just a few thousand will probably not be very damaging, unless really large numbers of people do it. For much smaller institutions, of course, the value of each individual customer is much greater. Frankly, I'd rather go somewhere where I'm more valued.

There has even been a meme circulating to the effect that giant banks would prefer to get rid of small depositors, on the grounds that such large numbers of small accounts are more trouble to administer than they're worth. Wells Fargo even responded to Bank Transfer Day by launching a new sub-bank called Abbot Downing, open only to customers with net worth above $50 million, as if to tell the 99% it doesn't care if they leave or not. Personally, I suspect psychological counter-warfare. Banks, from the biggest to the smallest, are always actively trying to recruit new customers, including customers of modest means; they wouldn't do that if they didn't see a net gain from having those customers. Note, too, how fast the big banks backed down on debit-card fees after complaints proliferated. That doesn't suggest that they're eager to lose our business, or even indifferent to it.

It will take a while to find out how much effect the bank transfer idea, as opposed to a single symbolic day, is having. Probably only a fraction of the people who feel motivated to move their money bothered to do it on that specific date. Myself, I'm still in the midst of switching; spreading the process over several days makes it easier and less glitch-prone than doing it all at once.

By the end of the year we should be able to get a clearer picture of the total impact. Obviously the big players aren't going to go out of business, but I suspect they'll at least feel enough of a pinch to realize that, in these days of greater class awareness, there's a price to be paid for angering the public.

Link round-up for 6 November 2011

2011-11-06T08:31:00.000-08:00

.....and she probably does.

This stuff is not real living.

You're so Cain.....

Sometimes chutzpah pays off.

Here's a Republican-to-English dictionary (found via What Would Jack Do).

So that's what's messing up the climate.

Here's a great creepy Halloween costume, and some really bad ones (both found via Mendip). Jack Jodell has scary monsters.

Show us your pussy!

Norbrook has a suggestion for right-wingers who hate federal "interference" in the states.

Republicans show their true colors once again.

Sense intrudes on an idiotic discussion, and all Hell breaks loose.

Here's a really stupid T-shirt (found via Ed Brayton).

Hey girls, where's your respect for tradition?

The free market allocates resources rationally.

Joseph Cannon notices an interesting coincidence in California.

The evangelical mind is dominated by fear.

Glenn Beck's favorite gold nutters get indicted for fraud.

Don't claim voting doesn't work if you haven't tried it.

A major right-wing website has banned Romney supporters (found via Brains and Eggs).

David Frum looks at various scenarios for Republicans and teabaggerdom.

What does polling about Hillary Clinton say about America?

Right-wing nutters again denounce the gay-rights movement as the work of Satan.

If you don't think this is a problem, you are part of the problem. More here.

Where has political violence come from?

Nevada takes a step against foreclosure abuses.

Don't be fooled by the big banks' climb-down on debit-card fees -- they'll find other ways to screw you over. Keep fighting back.

Religious bigot Rose Belforti gets a challenger (found via Ed Brayton).

Old USSR or new USA? Cops jail a student for two nights for being out without ID.

Right-wingers need to stop calling the questions about Cain a "lynching".

Truth will out: by 49% to 39%, Florida voters agree that the Republicans are deliberately sabotaging the economy.

If you want to follow the Bible, here's a start. Or you could just do this.

Obama's health-insurance reform is delivering.

Voters sniff out what Perry really is.

Are ours really 40 times better than Germany's or Japan's?

RJ Balson & Sons butcher shop has been open for quite a while.

Lancashire, England, doesn't normally have earthquakes, but.....

Pompous, arrogant leaders can't save the European Union from the disaster the euro common currency has created -- and the end-game may be not far off.

A top German socialist offers some straight talk in Dublin.

Here's another look at how the EU and the euro are ruining Europe.

Religious thugs firebomb a French newspaper.

EU-imposed austerity drives the best and brightest to emigrate.

The euro currency is like a religion, with priests, dogma, and heretics.

A Greek school produces a German-themed calendar.

From Canada, a remarkable story of love and survival (found via Eve the Atheist).

Here's a very classy Ukrainian computer.

How to tell Chinese and Japanese apart? Here's what they thought 70 years ago.

Forbes's current list of the world's most powerful people holds few surprises (though I doubt #4 and #13 will stay for long).

Mental recursion separates humans from other animals -- or maybe not.

Junkie spiders do OK, but check out the last web.

Solar power holds promise in some surprising places.

Brain-machine integration is already being done in animals.

Senescent cell removal proves to be a remarkably effective anti- aging technology in mice.

Celtic Thunder

2011-11-04T07:55:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I drove up to Seattle to see Celtic Thunder. It's just a couple of months since I discovered this sensational Irish singing group, and when I found out that they were in the midst of a tour of North America with a stop only 170 miles from here, I simply had to go.

The afternoon show was almost sold out (the evening show was sold out) and it was an unusual experience, while waiting to enter, to be surrounded by 2,900 people who were all able to pronounce the word "Celtic" correctly. The audience, interestingly enough, skewed heavily female.

The show started on the dot, and the next two and a half hours were a continuous burst of energy. All of the performers are powerful singers and some of the songs were quite emotional, notably "Isle of Hope / Isle of Tears" about the Irish emigrants to America. There was a mix of traditional and popular songs, more than thirty in all, plus two instrumental numbers with stunning dancing. The show finished up with a rousing performance of the patriotic "Ireland's Call", with all six singers in formal kilts, and the audience responded with a standing ovation.

Here are a couple of videos to give you a sense of the flavor of Celtic Thunder's shows:

See also "Heartland", unfortunately not performed in the current tour -- perhaps out of concern that Americans wouldn't relate to singing in Gaelic?

Celtic Thunder's tour page is here; they're in our country through December 17. If they're performing anywhere near you, the show's well worth checking out.

European spring

2011-11-02T07:34:00.000-07:00

On the last day of October, the leader of a small country made a decision whose consequences will ripple across the world.

European Union leaders had finally agreed on yet another bail-out plan for Greece. In exchange for more loans and a 50% "haircut" on existing debt, Greece was to accept even more EU control over its economy, and austerity policies cutting so deep that they could be more accurately characterized as disembowelment. The euro currency, we were told, was saved, at least for a while.

Greece's socialist-in-name-only government has always voted to kowtow to the EU and impose austerity as ordered, but the Greek people have been showing their anger with strikes and ever-more- violent riots. On Monday, Prime Minister Papandreou announced he would hold a referendum.

Background: EU rules for membership in the euro require keeping national debt and deficits within rigid limits. Over the last couple of years, recession in many countries has cut tax revenues and increased demands on social safety nets, so deficits have risen; this is part of how counter-cyclical stimulus normally works to help an economy out of recession. But in Europe, EU rules have forced spending cuts, driving down employment and demand, further slowing these countries' economies and increasing their deficits, which requires more spending cuts, etc. The worst-hit countries have gotten bail-out loans from the EU, but these loans come with strings attached in the form of further austerity policies which drive the target countries even deeper into recession.

The EU's stance is similar to that of economic conservatives in the US, forcing cuts and austerity when the real need is for stimulus policies to create jobs. The EU is essentially dismantling socialism in lands where it has existed for decades. But in the US, conserva- tives can be voted out of office. In Europe, voting for a different party just means bringing in a different set of people to obey the same orders from the EU.

Another tool a country can normally use to escape recession is currency depreciation, which makes its exports cheaper and thus more competitive. But Greece, Portugal, Spain, and Ireland no longer have separate currencies which can depreciate. They have no way out of the EU-imposed death spiral. It's no wonder that Greeks have been rioting and that Spain saw the world's biggest protest rallies during the October 15 day of action.

There is no democratic accountability. The real decision-makers in the EU aren't elected and can't be voted out. Most big political parties in all EU countries share in the elite pro-EU consensus. Majorities in most countries bitterly oppose EU policy, but they have no one to vote for to express this.

Over the weekend, in a private e-mail, I said that if I were Greek, Spanish, or Portuguese, I would be ready to resort to violence. Democracy in those countries has been abrogated and every peaceful avenue to stop the austerity madness has been closed off. These peoples have been backed against the wall and given no way out except emigration or revolt. (Even Britain, which doesn't use the euro, has suffered from this trampling of democracy, and was recently denied a referendum on continued EU membership.)

Papandreou's bombshell announcement has changed that. The Greeks, at least, will now have a chance to demand a new course.

Make no mistake -- that isn't what Papandreou wants. He's part of that elite pro-EU consensus (the conservative opposition is even worse; it opposes the referendum). But he may be running scared. A German economist who described the referendum plan as "suicide out of fear of death" was talking about political suicide or death, but just a few days ago enraged rioters tried to attack the Greek parliament and ministry of finance. Greek leaders may well feel that continuing to ignore the popular will would endanger their physical safety. This referendum is a concession which the masses forced from their rulers, as the rebellions of the Arab spring have driven tyranny into retreat.

The EU leadership and its toadies, all the sober respectable people in suits to whom the problems and fears of ordinary people are just economic abstractions, have denounced the referendum plan. And no wonder. This small spark of democracy, kindled in the country that invented it, could blow up the whole system.

The Greeks will very likely vote no on further submission to the EU. This would mean no more bail-outs, likely bankruptcy of the government and being expelled from the euro currency, default on debt held by foreign banks, and all manner of turmoil -- but Greeks have been through that kind of thing before. It's the devil they know. Voting yes, to continue the current course, would just mean more and more austerity and stagnation and decline for ever and ever, with de facto foreign rule thrown in. After a no, with its separate currency and economic independence restored, Greece could at last begin to work toward recovery. And, like dominoes, Portugal, Spain, Ireland, even Italy will likely follow the same path. The euro currency and perhaps the EU itself will disintegrate.

Over the next few months the spokesmen of the financial parasite class will bombard us with predictions of doom. The "markets", which must be left unfettered no matter what misery they bring to millions, will panic. Stocks will go up and down (as they are always doing because of one thing and another). We will all fall off the edge of the world and be eaten by dragons. And, in fact, there will probably be some short-term pain, even here in the US.

But the referendum cannot be held until January, giving other countries time to prepare. And Europe's depressed economies can't recover until austerity is abandoned, which looks impossible as long as the EU is in place, and until they recover the flexibility which an independent currency can provide, which means the euro must go. Once Europe's peoples have cast off this Moloch, the return to economic sanity and prosperity can begin -- which will ultimately benefit the whole world, including us.

Updates: Daniel Hannan discusses the EU elite's contempt for democracy; Ambrose Evans-Pritchard observes that the euro has ruined southern Europe and southern Europe is about to wreck the euro.

Video of the week -- this is Halloween

2011-10-31T06:39:00.000-07:00

Happy Samhain! For a very cool earlier video of the week, see here.

Link round-up for 30 October 2011

2011-10-29T07:43:00.000-07:00

[Posting a day early this time. I will not have internet access for much of this weekend.]

Yep, that pretty much sums up religion.

Tremble before the awesome balloonosaurus rex.

Pundits blame the poor, but.....

IO9 takes a look at the making of Alien and the genius of HR Giger (found via Mendip).

I've never liked the GOP's using that noble animal, the elephant, as its symbol -- but I'll accept this version.

This can't be a real campaign ad.....can it?

Aliens may not be too impressed with us these days. Nor with this guy (found via Mendip).

We should be thankful to religious extremists.

Here are a few handy translations of teabagger signs.

I've always thought churches need more transparency.

Which do you find more shocking?

PCTC has a proposal for a progressive manifesto.

Anti-gay-marriage nutters get caught misusing yet another photo.

Does income truly reflect what each one contributes?

Parsley's Pics assembles a very informative guide to the factors that distinguish the most conservative states within the US.

A brutal assault in Ohio is captured on video, but the punishment doesn't fit the crime.

Crabby old dinosaurs Bennett and Robertson whine that feminism is undermining masculinity.

It's better to face harsh reality than accept the false comforts of religion.

The 2009 stimulus kept more than six million Americans out of poverty.

Those fake anti-abortion "crisis pregnancy centers" reveal their true fundamentalist agenda.

Oakland's city government has its priorities. Don't trust the media, or the police; listen to the Marines.

Scott Lively has heard a message from God, but the result isn't an improvement (found via Republic of Gilead).

There are actually two separate Republican nomination races (this is the same divide I've called Sane vs. Nutty, here and here).

Some of the wealthy support the Occupiers.

Read about the recent religious harassment of a Marine veteran -- then sign the petition (found via Preliator pro Causa).

Here's wealth re-distribution that Republicans support.

The police violence in Oakland draws attention from as far afield as Britain -- and here's how our country's rising inequality looks from Germany.

Here's a Republican Presidential candidate the Christian Right could never support.

In trying to make things better, we must take care not to make them far worse.

Yes, Cain really is nuts.

Romney will have a tough time winning over the Republican base.

The US health-insurance system imposes much higher overhead costs on doctors than Canada's socialist system.

The US Air Force is purging its training materials of religious bigotry (background here), with the help of military atheists.

Balloon Juice has a good overview of our economic situation and why the Republicans don't want to do anything about it.

Fundies push their latest totalitarian initiative in Mississippi by lying about science.

Most Americans think the Republican party represents only the interests of the wealthy.....gee, I wonder why.....

America grows polarized on gay marriage -- the fundies are going the opposite way from everybody else.

Perry may be on the verge of a scorched-earth campaign against Romney.

A "Quiverfull" guide for wives reveals the bizarre ideal of woman- hood promoted by Biblical fundamentalism (found via Republic of Gilead).

Here's some more sleazy TSA behavior (though the agency has taken action in this case).

Given the nature of today's right wing, we should have expected this: prominent wingnut Cindy Jacobs says the Occupiers are in league with demons.

Bloomberg debunks yet another right-wing talking point on economics.

Occupiers in London issue a manifesto.

Some German experts think the very measures being taken to save the euro currency may destroy it. Keep an eye on Italy too.

In one way, Europe's leaders have done a better job than ours (found via Politics Plus).

Anti-German hatred continues to fester in Greece.

Sometimes the most important news happens outside the US.

There are signs of a little justice for the Catholic Church.

There are still countries where insulting some stupid religion can get you a prison sentence. Be grateful for the Enlightenment.

This took guts: Yemeni women burn their veils in protest.

Following Qaddhafi's path: the Syrian regime's thugs shot and killed forty peaceful protesters on Friday.

The best evidence yet that al-Nahda, the top-vote-getting party in Tunisia, is not extremist: they promise tolerance of gays.

The cracking of the Copiale cipher highlights a new approach to deciphering unknown writing systems.

A newly excavated bunker in France gives insights into life during World War I.

Nazi ideology had nothing to do with Darwin and a lot to do with religion (see this too).

Measles is on the rise in the US, thanks to stupidity.

It's now feasible to build a unified electrical grid for the entire Mediterranean basin.

Global warming has been shrinking glaciers world-wide; now Chinese scientists join in raising the alarm.

A speech defect found in one British family provided a clue to the genetic roots of language ability.

Soon it may be possible for those who eat meat to do so without the cruelty to animals and inefficient use of resources which meat production now requires.

Video of the week -- the land of my ancestors

2011-10-27T04:46:00.000-07:00

Music by Murray Gold.

Two votes

2011-10-25T05:12:00.000-07:00

On Sunday the people of Tunisia, the country that launched the Arab Spring at the beginning of this year, voted in their first free election. Turn-out reached 90% of registered voters, a figure that would be truly stunning if achieved in the United States; people were lining up before dawn to vote. The value of democracy is, perhaps, better appreciated among those who have recently had to fight hard for it.

The vote was for an assembly which will write a new constitution and plan elections for a president and legislature next year. The big winner was the moderate Islamist party al-Nahda, which won between 30% and 40% of assembly seats. This is disappointing but not necessarily cause for alarm. Al-Nahda does seem genuinely moderate; a party leader said its goals are "stability, conditions for a dignified life and the building of democratic institutions" and "the right conditions for investment in Tunisia", and the party promises it will "respect Tunisia's strong secular tradition and the most advanced women's rights in the Arab world". Many who voted for al-Nahda said that they hoped it would take care of the poor -- clearly the secular parties need to do a better job of convincing the masses of their commitment to socialism.

Also, the secular vote was divided. There are two main secular parties (one of these, Ettakatol, is likely to join a coalition with al-Nahda), and the total number of parties participating was over eighty. Hopefully there will be some consolidation before the election next year. Finally, as one secular-left activist pointed out, even if 40% voted for the Islamists, that means 60% did not.

The election sets a valuable precedent for the Arab world, a region where democracy has not traditionally thrived, to say the least. Elections will be held over the coming months in Egypt and Libya, and likely elsewhere if dictators continue to topple. After Tunisia, those peoples know they don't need to settle for anything short of a genuine free vote.

The following day, a very different vote was held in the country where modern democratic institutions originally evolved.

The British Parliament held an acrimonious debate and vote on whether or not to hold a referendum on Britain's continued membership in the European Union. The Conservative Prime Minister, David Cameron, did not want this vote; like most of Europe's political elite both left and right, he adheres to a rigid pro-EU consensus. However, Britain has recently introduced a process whereby any proposal from the public which wins over 100,000 signatures on an online petition will be considered by Parliament, and the British people forced the EU referendum onto their leaders' agenda via that method.

There was never any chance that the initiative for a referendum would actually pass; the leadership of all three large British parties solidly opposed it (even the leftist Labour party leadership is part of the pro-EU consensus, despite the fact that the EU's imposition of austerity policies is now wrecking socialism in country after country). And even if it had passed, it was clear that Cameron would nevertheless simply refuse to hold the referendum. But even so, Cameron invoked a rarely-used rule whereby he, as party leader, is entitled to simply order his party's legislators to vote as he chooses -- in this case, against the referendum.

In an unprecedented rebellion, 81 Conservative legislators defied him and voted yes. A further 14 abstained or refused to vote. Two who held minor cabinet positions resigned those positions to show their displeasure.

The referendum initiative still lost. But the sledgehammer heavy- handedness of Cameron's determination to allow it no chance at all has highlighted the gulf between the political elite and the popular will over the EU (a poll showed that if a referendum were indeed held, 49% would vote to leave the EU, 40% would vote to stay -- and most Britons agree that there should be a referendum).

The issue will not go away; the size of the rebellion suggests that the elite consensus is weakening in the face of popular discontent.

In the meantime, it looks like British commentator Pat Condell is right: "Soon the Arabs will be lecturing us on democracy."

Link round-up for 23 October 2011

2011-10-23T08:37:00.000-07:00

Harold Camping and his dumbass followers were wrong again.

Our side can spell.

At last -- a right-wing comic-book super-hero.

Here's a humane use of paint.

Oh, come on, these speakers can't be that good (NSFW).

That "beware the educated" poster is now for sale.

The latest right-wing critique of the Occupiers is pathetic beyond belief.

But he loves you.

The US Catholic Church is reviving an old tradition -- exorcism.

Cops catch a stupid idiot.

This pretty well sums up the media response to the Occupiers.

Rot in peace.

Want to run from police cars? A cop has some advice for you.

Well, what would Jesus think of this? And this (found via Blonde Nonbeliever).

Here's a way to imagine Romney's wealth.

15-year-old Cameron Smith ran away from his family, but there's a bit more to the story than that.

The California Medical Association supports legalizing marijuana. A majority of Americans agree, but Republicans prefer the heavy hand of big government. More right-wing anti-freedom initiatives here.

Every major ad company in Los Angeles rejected a "controversial" billboard, but look at what they've accepted.

Buggery is not as pervasive among gays as some non-gays think.

Michigan cops use legally-questionable tactics against drugs.

Hit back against predatory banks and unleash your inner chimp.

Perry's campaign exploits anti-Mormon prejudice against Romney (found via What Would Jack Do). Teabagger distaste for Romney is still dividing the right wing.

Right-wingers have become economic vandals; they have to hope we don't notice what they're doing.

The Republican party's ideology, and its ability to win elections, are a product of its relationship with the Christian Right.

The verdict of history is in: laissez-faire economics is a failure.

America's leading socialist, Senator Bernie Sanders, finds his views getting more of a hearing these days.

The parasite class blames its victims.

67% of New York City voters support OWS. Martin Luther King's daughter says he would support them if he were alive today.

Obama showed that if the masses are on your side, you don't need the moneybags.

Annual incomes in the US are still falling -- except for those of millionaires. The top 1% have been pulling away from the rest for over 20 years.

Romney supports predatory banks over ordinary Americans.

Rush Limbaugh supports brutal religious terrorists over the American government.

Teabagger Melissa Brookstone calls on business to stop hiring in order to undermine Obama. After a backlash, teabaggerdom weasels around the issue.

Religion poisons government's ability to address problems.

Two Massachusetts Republicans stage a vile scam to discourage voters.

Esther Lenett, age 93, has a message for Congress.

To fend off the threats posed by the right, we need to focus on passing practical legislation.

The Values Voter Summit is a festering cesspit of un-American bigotry.

The MSM show a clear bias.

For Cody Feldman, atheist authors were there when he needed them.

Santorum opposes gay marriage, contraception, "the sexual liberty idea", and probably anything else that's fun.

Here's a little Biblical morality to brighten your day.

If you take the trouble to analyze Cain's 9-9-9 plan, it's clear that Cain himself didn't bother to do so. But his incoherent babbling about abortion may hurt him even more.

Catholic bishops are behind HR 358, the "let women die" bill (found via What Would Jack Do).

Under Obama, deportations of illegal aliens have risen to the highest levels ever.

Richard Dawkins explains why he won't debate William Lane Craig.

The insanity devours its own: birther nutjobs target Rubio.

The Arizona Republican party loses a life-long activist.

Official prayer doesn't fix deficits in Pennsylvania any better than it does drought in Texas.

Right-wingers across America rant and rave against the Occupier movement; more here. But one leader expresses some sympathy.

Republicans' ideology on taxes is almost as crazy as their religious fanaticism.

The Christian Right doesn't want "Dominion", it just wants to take over the government. Don't be fooled.

Beware of fake scientists peddling bigoted rubbish.

Even more disturbing than the right's distortion of science is its rejection of the scientific world-view.

The US has the worst child-abuse rate in the developed world.

Obama does foreign policy differently than Bush did.

Did Susan Sarandon have a point about the Pope? Let's look at the record.

American troops in Afghanistan burn O'Reilly's book.

The collapse of Britain's nascent economic recovery holds a warning for the US.

A church's claim to cure AIDS by prayer has caused at least three deaths in London (found via Republic of Gilead).

EU elites plot further centralization as discontent smoulders in Britain, where voters want a referendum on continued member- ship but their Prime Minister is determined not to give them one.

Euro coins will never be as cool as British ones.

One EU agency may have cause to mourn Qaddhafi.

The Murdoch news empire pays a settlement of £2,000,000 to the family that suffered most from its sleazy phone-hacking.

Cash-strapped Greece eyes the wealth of the parasitic Greek Orthodox Church.

More monstrous evil from the Catholic Church: Up to 300,000 newborn babies in Spain were stolen from their mothers and sold, with the mothers being told the babies were dead. "A Spanish magazine published photographs of a dead baby kept in a freezer at the San Ramon clinic, supposedly to show mothers that their child had died." More here (sent by Mendip).

Many girls in India are given names that translate as "unwanted". One district holds a renaming ceremony to give hundreds of girls a better start in life.

The Iranian theocracy carries out secret executions.

Nine months after the beginning of the Arab Spring, Tunisia holds its first free election.

Learning nothing from Libya, Syria's regime escalates repression.

The fight against religious anti-gay bigotry is world-wide.

Britain is a leading developer of anti-global-warming technology, but doesn't seem to want to use it.

German scientists' work on artificial blood vessels is a step toward growing organs in the lab.

Research affirms: The best tools we have now to fight aging are exercise and avoiding stress.

A thought on Obama's announcement

2011-10-21T15:46:00.000-07:00

The Republican Presidential candidates are fond of promising to undo everything Obama has done -- repeal Obamacare, re-instate DADT, etc. I wonder which of them will be the first to promise, if elected, to re-invade Iraq?

Video of the week #2 -- take back America

2011-10-21T05:40:00.000-07:00

I have no clue who this dude is, but he's (mostly) speaking for me here.

Qaddhafi dead!

2011-10-20T06:29:00.000-07:00

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Land of discontent

2011-10-19T06:04:00.000-07:00

An interesting pattern has emerged from the October 15 protests. Here are the ten cities which had the largest rally turn-outs, with estimated attendance [source]:

Madrid: 500,000
Rome: 100,000 - 300,000
Barcelona: 60,000 - 400,000
Valencia: 100,000
Lisbon: 20,000 - 100,000
Santiago: 10,000 - 100,000
Zaragoza: 40,000
New York: 35,000 - 50,000
Porto: 10,000 - 20,000
Berlin: 5,000 - 10,000+

Only one of these cities is in the United States. Eight are in western Europe. Four, including three of the top five, are in Spain alone. If the high-end estimates for the four Spanish cities are correct, total turn-out was over one million in a nation of 46 million.

What's going on over there? For decades Europeans have been most notable for passivity in the face of their rulers' arrogant and destructive policies. Poll after poll showed that high immigration, the loss of national sovereignty to the European Union, and the imposition of the euro currency were deeply unpopular -- yet there were none of the mass protests and campaigns to influence politicians that characterize American political controversies. Early last year, when I sought to call fellow American liberals on the carpet for defeatism and passivity in the face of a political setback, it came quite naturally to say "You sound like a bunch of Europeans." I certainly couldn't say that now. What's changed?

Well, for one thing, there's obviously the recession. But the US is suffering from that too. The difference lies in the policies adopted in response, and in who is deciding them.

The 2009 stimulus program in the US was too small for the scope of the problem, but at least it was a stimulus program and it saved millions of jobs which would otherwise have been lost. In most European countries, austerity policies -- the exact opposite -- have been followed, with utterly predictable results: deepening stagnation, rising unemployment, and rising emigration as people despair of jobs in their own countries ever coming back. Spain's unemployment rate recently hit 21%, the highest rate in the developed world.

Why? The biggest European countries do have conservative (by European standards) governments, but that's only part of the problem. EU rules for membership in the euro currency, which most EU countries use, require that deficits and national debt be kept below certain figures. Since recession reduces tax revenues and increases claims on public benefits, it naturally increases the deficit, and so spending cuts must be imposed. Also, the common currency precludes the depreciation of a national currency which would normally make exports cheaper and thereby provide a stimulus without public money being spent. Trapped by these constraints, the hardest-hit countries must turn to the EU for bail-out loans -- which come with conditions attached in the form of further austerity policies.

It has been aptly said that obsessing over deficit reduction at a time of high unemployment is rather like obsessing over water conservation when your house has caught fire. The resulting problems have come to a head in Greece, where the public is rioting and striking against the policies the EU has forced the government to impose, but Spain and Portugal are in a similar position, and Italy may be heading there. In a normal situation, the public would simply vote for a party with different policies, but in those countries, that no longer works; electing a different set of leaders just means choosing a different set of people to implement the same orders from the EU. Economic failure has made Europeans aware of how democracy is being destroyed (eloquently explained here) -- is it any wonder that people are taking to the streets?

A successful economic stimulus also reduces the deficit; as jobs come back, more tax revenue comes in and claims on the benefits system decrease. Austerity under the same conditions leads to a kind of death spiral; spending cuts lead to more unemployment and falling demand, which slows down the economy even further, which reduces revenue and increases claims on benefits, which raises the deficit and spurs politicians to make even more cuts, etc. That's what's happening in Europe now.

(There are two major exceptions to the pattern. Britain has more independence of action because it doesn't use the euro currency. Its current conservative government is also imposing austerity policies, but not at the EU's behest; a wiser future government would be free to change course. Germany is by far the biggest and most prosperous European economy, but that means it has ended up committing the lion's share of the money for the bail-outs of other countries, and its people are as unhappy about this as the southern Europeans are about their situation.)

If European countries abandoned the euro currency and the EU, they would be free to let their currencies depreciate and apply stimulus policies to whatever extent their elected leaders decided was best. Until that happens, it's hard to see how their economies can recover. European peoples are just beginning to grasp this.

The next few years over there could get rather interesting.

Video of the week #1 -- for democracy in Europe

2011-10-17T02:01:00.000-07:00

More straight talk from Pat Condell, this time on the biggest threat to democracy and prosperity in Europe -- the "European Union".

Republican candidates: my assessment

2011-10-17T01:56:00.000-07:00

Rick Perry: The candidate for people who think George W. Bush was too intellectual.

Ron Paul: The candidate for those who think the economy we have now is too egalitarian.

Rick Santorum: The candidate for people who think Fred Phelps is too tolerant.

Herman Cain: The candidate for those who think the rich pay too much tax, the poor pay too little, and the deficit isn't big enough.

Newt Gingrich: The candidate for people who think Ted Haggard wasn't hypocritical enough about morality.

Michele Bachmann: The candidate for those who think Rick Perry, Ron Paul, Rick Santorum, Herman Cain, and Newt Gingrich are too sane.

Mitt Romney: The candidate for conservatives who realize the Republican party has gone nuts but still want it to run the country.

Jon Huntsman: The candidate for.....uh.....are any of them even voting for this guy?

Link round-up for 16 October 2011

2011-10-16T06:51:00.000-07:00

Here's a really embarrassing fundie effort against Halloween.

Tim Minchin does for Texas what Perry can't.

What if Dr. Seuss wrote "The Call of Cthulhu"? (found via Mendip).

I love this poster of what tyrants fear.

America's bigots face a crisis.

Artists of the week: RedShoulder anime-style, Keira Rathbone on typewriter.

Splash!

To reach the princess in her castle, it's a difficult journey.

Keep your eye on the goddam road.

Here's a fascinating re-telling of The Thing -- from the monster's viewpoint.

Is there a "crime" when the "victim" brags about what happened?

And, yes, why is this illegal?

A New York detective testifies that it's been "common practice" among police to frame innocent people on drug charges.

Parsley's Pics has a Republican bestiary.

Anna Arrowsmith looks at some myths about porn.

The town of Centralia has been on fire for half a century.

Adultery could save your marriage. Or you might prefer to just stay single.

Learn about Romney's positions (found via Smartypants).

You have to wonder how someone this prudish can stand living in the real world.

"The Clergy Project" helps clergy escape the darkness of religion.

In addition to Fred Shuttlesworth, another civil-rights pioneer died last week.

A tumultuous life in religion leads at last to freedom.

When Gingrich complains about "judicial supremacy", he's talking about this (found via Leftwing Nutjob).

It never ends -- a Kansas bishop faces charges for hiding evidence of child abuse.

The debt-ceiling fight has vanished from most people's radar, but Smartypants thinks it will influence next year's election.

AlterNet reviews Americans' shift away from religion.

A right-wing journalist admits inciting violence at an Occupier rally. Egyptians in New York look at the protests, while blogger Dakinikat has suggestions, one job-exporting CEO misses the point, and Business Insider has data backing up the legitimacy of the grievances (found via Progressive Eruptions). Or you could just look at this sign. Finally, for the "53%" twits, there's this.

Erick Erickson makes a feeble effort to exonerate Wall Street.

The ruling class indulges in blaming its victims.

This one-percenter is cool.

A Tea Party co-founder offers some support -- and a warning -- to the Occupiers.

Jack Jodell reports from the Occupy Minnesota event last week.

My guess was right -- Occupy Portland yesterday drew 3,000 to 4,000 people (my report here).

Politics Plus looks at the police violence in New York.

Blogger Ahab finds some sane people at the Values Voter Summit.

The clash over Mormonism shows Republicans deeply fixated on religion; foreign media are starting to notice, but there's no excuse for being surprised. Jeffress may have done Romney a favor by exposing prejudice, but he has a history of such statements, and Romney's teabagger problem isn't going away.

This article's a bit old, but it's a good review of the Republicans' problem with crazies.

What will the teabaggers do if Romney's the nominee?

IEET has an interview on Mormons and politics.

Herman Cain advocated for stench and disease. His tax plan is nonsense and he probably got it from a video game.

Republicans won't let us have a jobs bill, but they'll do this. Pelosi is appalled.

The "moral majority" is shrinking -- of its own accord.

Republicans are pushing a law that would imprison you for using marijuana in foreign countries where it's legal.

The BBC has photos from October 15 rallies world-wide; notice how the MSM over-emphasizes the tiny violent minority in Rome. More world-wide photos here; Politics Plus has a report.

Canada's economic experience holds an important lesson for us.

Britain's Conservative government proposes tough measures to limit immigration.

Germany opens its borders to Polish workers, but not many seem interested -- conditions in Poland have improved.

Norway proudly maintains an open society despite July's horrific terrorist attack.

Forced marriage could soon become illegal in Britain (isn't that illegal already?).

Greek protests descend into anti-German hatred (click the grey arrow to the right of each picture to see the next one).

Atheism is spreading like wildfire in the world's biggest Catholic country.

Iranians use soccer games as a forum for protest.

After deadly religious violence in Cairo, the Egyptian transitional government holds emergency talks with Christian leaders.

The Syrian revolt seems set to escalate after authorities open fire on a funeral.

Superstition brings horror to Uganda as child sacrifice flourishes.

Scientists rebel as Texas officials censor a report.

Tyrannosaurus rex was even bigger than we thought.

[Image at top: October 15 rally in Madrid, Spain -- click to enlarge]

Occupy Portland, 15 October 2011

2011-10-15T15:40:00.000-07:00

I went to today's Occupy Portland rally downtown. The turn-out was impressive; I'm no good at estimating crowd sizes, but it must have been several thousand.

It was a joint rally combined with another group's protest against the war in Afghanistan. This increased the impression of lack of focus from which the Occupier movement still suffers; while the two causes may well have a considerable overlap in supporters, they are distinct.

Nevertheless, judging by the signs displayed, most people were there for the Occupier rally; the dominant themes were inequality, jobs, and the criminality of the rapacious financial sector.

[Click on any photo for a bigger version.]

I don't know what was up with all the tents -- there were far more than you see here. Perhaps a permanent encampment is planned? Update: I got this wrong -- there has already been a permanent encampment there for over a week.

There was a good cross-section of citizenry. Few people gave me the impression of being students, hippies, unwashed, or any of the other clichés favored by MSM coverage of the movement.

The majority of the signs were home-made, and expressed a wide range of sentiments.

The march paused for a rally which featured music and speeches, both at earsplitting volume which made it difficult to talk with people. The speeches ranged from on-target to frankly incoherent ranting on the Middle East. Proponents of various causes weaved through the crowd giving out leaflets. Jarringly, the Israel-bashers were out in force.

One leaflet I was handed by a serious-looking man my own age was for a "Jobs with Justice" march next weekend; I may well go.

In an absolutely grotesque display of missing the point, there were even some Ron Paul supporters present; I can only assume they were trying to glom onto the out-of-Afghanistan element, not us. They even joined the march when it started up again. The danger of co-optation by the right has been raised already and it needs to be firmly squelched; the Occupier movement, if it is to stand for anything at all, must be explicitly anti-libertarian.

But I think most people present did get the point. There were even at least two signs supporting the AJA, and most participants were clearly there for the economic / anti-financial-sector cause.

And I've never heard so many supportive honks from passing cars. I didn't see a single one go by without enthusiastically blaring its salute.

It's still early, but my current feeling about all this is much more optimistic than my initial assessment of it. From here in Portland, at least, it looks like the start of something very big.

The Occupiers' day

2011-10-15T03:53:00.000-07:00

The Occupier movement has designated today as a mass day of action, with events planned for "951 cities -- 82 countries". Yes, the movement is spreading beyond the US, and why not? The damage wrought by a de-regulated, out-of-control financial sector has been world-wide.

This week protesters invaded and vandalized the Goldman Sachs building in Milan, Italy's financial capital, and there are efforts to mobilize in Frankfurt, Germany's financial center. Note, though, that the relevant conditions in other countries are very different. Germany is already a model socialist state; compared to the US its social safety net is robust, economic growth is strong, and unem- ployment and economic inequality are low. There have already been mass protests in several of the more economically-damaged European countries this year, but their target has been austerity policies, and the force imposing those policies is the European Union, not the banks. An effective movement for change will need to focus on the distinct problems of each region. But Europe's situation does resemble ours in one way: while many countries suffer from stagnant growth and double-digit unemployment, an out-of-touch political establishment bizarrely navel-gazes over debt and deficits instead of focusing on job creation.

Back in the US, Eliot Spitzer argues that the Occupier movement has already won by shifting the political discussion to the issue of unemployment where it belongs, though I'd argue that Obama deserves some of the credit for this. The movement is also working on its biggest weakness -- its lack of specific goals to rally behind. Here's a list of "demands for Congress" from OWS. The first eight, which have apparently received enough votes to make the official program, seem solid -- bank re-regulation, the Buffet rule, investi- gation and prosecution of financial criminals responsible for the recession, and similar. The list of original proposals (scroll down) included some items that are good in themselves but would have detracted from the movement's focus (opposing the PATRIOT act and the war on drugs) and even a nod to 9-11 conspiratardia, so the selection of the top eight from among them shows the kind of pragmatic and practical approach I've been hoping for.

On my other question about the Occupiers -- whether they can get the level of participation necessary to achieve anything (turn-out in the hundreds of thousands) -- today may give us the beginning of an answer. The Occupy Portland rally on October 6 drew at least 10,000 people in a medium-size city (metro-area population 1.7 million), and if this is typical of the rallies across the country, then the movement at least has the potential to reach the size it needs; I haven't seen any comprehensive hard numbers, though.

(But attendance at rallies is not the only, or the best, measure of effectiveness. 300,000 people staying home and calling Congress to demand passage of the AJA would mean a hell of a lot more than 300,000 people scattered among park camps in 100 cities.)

One promising sign: 54% of Americans have a favorable view of the movement, compared with just 27% for the Tea Party. And this despite MSM belittling and disparagement.

More links of interest: Shaw Kenawe has a report from Occupy Boston last week; Political Carnival has cartoons (the first one is wonderful); and an older generation of activists is turning out to support the new.

Update (8:43 AM Pacific): So far most rallies in Asia and Europe have been quite small -- one in Rome was larger, but was sullied by a small group of violent people. We'll see what happens in the US.

Update 2: Looks like Madrid is holding quite a big rally, perhaps because Spain already has a large and vigorous anti-austerity protest movement.

[Image at top: Occupy Portland, October 6]

Video of the week -- Asche zu Asche

2011-10-14T04:37:00.000-07:00

If I had to name one band as my all-time favorite, it would be Rammstein. My translation of the song:

Warmer Körper, heißes Kreuz, falsches Urteil, kaltes Grab
Warm body, hot cross, false verdict, cold grave

Auf dem Kreuze lieg' ich jetzt
Sie schlagen mir die Nägel ein
Das Feuer wäscht die Seele rein
Und übrig bleibt ein Mund voll.....Asche!
On the cross I now lie,
They drive the nails into me
The fire washes the soul clean
And what's left is a mouth full of.....ash!

Ich komm' wieder, in zehn Tagen
Als dein Schatten, und werd' dich jagen
I come again, in ten days
As your shadow, and I will hunt you

Heimlich werd' ich auferstehen
Und du wirst um Gnade flehen
Dann knie ich mich in dein Gesicht
Und steck' den Finger in die.....Asche!
Secretly I shall rise from the dead
And you will beg for mercy
Then I'll kneel in your face
And stick my finger in the.....ash!

Asche zu Asche, und Staub zu Staub
Ash to ash, and dust to dust

A previous video of the week by Rammstein is here.

Quotes for the day -- appreciating reality

2011-10-13T11:14:00.000-07:00

"I don’t believe in gods for much the same reason that I don’t believe in fairies, bogeymen, ghosts, lucky gems, leprechauns, Santa or the Easter Bunny. There isn’t a shred of convincing evidence for the existence of any of them, plenty of evidence that they are grossly surplus to requirements for explaining any phe- nomenon, and that proposing them just creates more problems than it solves. There just isn’t a good reason for believing in any supernatural being, and plenty of good reasons for not believing."

"My atheism is but a small bud sprouting from the scientific thinking that lets me appreciate the real world, the real universe, as it actually is, in every other aspect of my life. Atheism should be one of those things you arrive at in any honest quest for truth – but it’s not an ends in itself. And science, reason, rational thinking and sceptical enquiry are the best tools devised for uncovering reality. There are of course “other ways of knowing” – it’s just they’re complete bollocks. Beyond laughable in the shadow of empirical science..... Find me a person who could uncover the structure of the atom, of light, of the complexity of life through “other ways of knowing”. It’s exasperating, ridiculous and sad that adult humans can even utter those kinds of opinions with a straight face."

Heather Dalgleish, Scotland

"The world as explained by science is so beautiful it makes me weep. Literally. When I think about these tiny jiggling particles that constitute everything, when I gaze into the sky and see the vastness of the Cosmos, when I sit in my chair, smoke a pipe and consider life on Earth and try to wrap my head around the unimaginably complex processes that allowed me to form as a human being and now ponder life itself, when I try to imagine and appreciate how much we have accomplished, when I see the shrouded realm of what we do not yet know my eyes brim with tears of emotion, my heart leaps with expectation and wonder. I am so grateful that I am privileged enough to live in times of great scientific understanding and in social circumstances that exposed me to all this information. It is marvellous. It is profound. When I hear anyone proposing an invisible being whose existence denies the weight of all the things I hold dearest, I feel like I have been slapped in the face. Any concept of god steals away the world’s beauty and wonder and mints it into a mere cog in some strange machinery. It is outrageous to me and most offensive. It beslimes the greatness of human discovery and I will have none of it."

Radek Szyroki, Poland

(Both from the "Why I am an atheist" series at Pharyngula)

How will the Occupiers react?

2011-10-12T05:24:00.000-07:00

Republicans have blocked Obama's jobs plan in the Senate. They voted unanimously against it, using the threat of a filibuster (now utterly routine from them), while Senate Democrats were almost unanimous in support.

This event presents an opportunity to find out how relevant the Occupier movement is to practical politics and the business of getting things done, as opposed to merely airing grievances. One party has offered a program of concrete actions to address some of those grievances -- the paucity of jobs and the explosion of inequality caused by a half-century of cutting taxes on the wealthy (economists and the CBO agree that the plan would be effective and actually reduce the deficit); the other has contemptuously rejected it. The difference in stance towards the Occupiers' expressed concerns is as plain as can be.

Will they respond to this? Will they even notice?

Link round-up for 9 October 2011

2011-10-09T04:50:00.000-07:00

Here's why the Pope might want a voodoo doll.

Prison -- your, er, sunflower will never be the same.

Here's some religious logic and religious degradation.

Murr Brewster looks at fashion and gender issues in the reptile- smuggling industry.

There may be more Blackadder on the horizon (found via Mendip).

Tremble, Texans -- PZ Myers is among you.

Yes, this is a real headline. And the comments on the story behind it must be seen to be believed.

Matt Dillahunty puts his own twist on twelve-step nonsense.

Bill Bennett talks rubbish about the "immaturity" of young men.

We'll tell you when to be offended, Herman.

Mendip has some choice words on the day of Steve Jobs's death.

McGinniss's new book on Palin is a hit (found via Progressive Eruptions).

St James Infirmary launches a well-conceived campaign for sex workers.

Right-winger John Jay indulges in violent fantasies.

Read of how one atheist soldier was treated in the US military.

Romney, speaking at the Values Voter Summit, denounces anti- Mormon fundie Bryan Fischer, though not by name (the audio on the video is annoyingly out-of-sync, but there's a transcript). The fundies continue their Mormon-baiting. Andrew Sullivan assesses the religious ugliness that has consumed the party.

Update: Don't miss Republic of Gilead's report, direct from the Summit, on the fundie flap over Mormonism.

Pat Robertson is getting some flack from the right -- for describing Romney as a Christian.

Karl Giberson looks at the insular fundamentalist subculture that formed Bachmann and millions of others.

Fundie nutjob Janet Mefferd claims that homosexuality is a pagan plot to shut up fundie nutjobs (sounds kind of cool, actually).

Christian apologist Matt Slick defends honor killings; atheist Martin Wagner calls him on it.

Bernie Sanders tells it like it is; more here.

The environmental impact statement on Keystone XL may not be worth much.

More austerity madness: Topeka, KS considers decriminalizing domestic violence to save money.

The CBO confirms that the AJA will work and will pay for itself. Obama isn't taking "dead" for an answer; now it's up to the rest of us to get behind him.

We need to keep saying it -- Obama has accomplished a lot. He has the right message for the times.

Osborne Ink takes up the call -- enlist the Occupier movement to help pass the AJA.

Here are some Occupier participants who have prior experience with occupation. Tahrir Square veteran Mosa'ab Elshamy has advice for the movement; an Andrew Sullivan reader has some suggestions for its critics; Manifesto Joe worries about it being co-opted by the right. Nate Silver compares media coverage of the movement with that given to the teabaggers.

The Occupy Portland protest on Thursday the 6th apparently drew at least 10,000 people. Politics Plus has more.

Republican vote-suppression schemes could disenfranchise five million Americans (sent by Shaw Kenawe).

Here's a great state-by-state list of voter ID requirements (found via Parsley's Pics).

Romney's Fox ad may help him win the nomination, but could also come back to haunt him in the general election. More here.

McConnell's latest claim is beneath contempt.

Atheist Zachary Moore attends a Christian men's conference; Don Cook visits another.

FFRF inadvertently helps expose tax evasion by an Ohio church; the church denounces this as an attack by "Satan and his imps".

Mentioned here in passing: even Republican voters prioritize job creation over debt reduction, 51%-to-13%.

Never mind denying certiorari -- this judge clearly has no business even being a judge.

Yet another innocent man in Texas is freed after 25 years in prison for a mistaken conviction. Such cases are not rare.

In Colorado, Charles Farrar is trying to escape a 145-year prison sentence for a crime that probably never happened (found via Preliator pro Causa).

America's founders worried about the political influence of great wealth. More here.

Obama won't do it, but sign this petition anyway.

It's just common sense -- in a global economic slowdown, inflation is practically impossible.

Joseph Cannon has an interesting take on the Amanda Knox case and weird European stereotypes of Americans. Read this too.

The EU threatens to sue to force Britain to let foreigners exploit its social safety net.

Meet Richard Sulik, the Slovakian politician who wants to derail the euro bail-out fund.

Der Spiegel looks at how the euro could end. Daniel Hannan argues that a return to national currencies would be much easier than the alarmists claim.

The mystery of Central America's crystal skulls leads to Germany.

We need to dispel these ten myths about China.

Al-Awlaki wasn't the first US citizen to suffer the consequences of turning against America.

Obama has done more to crush jihad in two years than Bush did in eight.

Will there be a cyber-war someday? Probably not.

Too much alcohol blunts your immune system.

The NCI confirms -- there is no link between abortion and breast cancer.

Japanese scientists discover a possible stem-cell cure for diabetes.

California researchers are making progress on using nanoparticles to fight brain cancer.

As science explains more and more, religion is left with less and less to claim.

[Image at top: Occupy Portland, found via Politics Plus.]

Quote for the day -- the voices of the wreckers

2011-10-08T04:23:00.000-07:00

"Throughout modern economic history, whether in Western Europe in the 1920s, in the US and elsewhere in the 1930s, or in Japan in the 1990s, every major financial crisis-driven downturn has been followed by premature abandonment — if not reversal — of the macroeconomic stimulus policies that are necessary to sustained recovery. Every time, this was due to unduly influential voices claiming some combination of the destructiveness of fur- ther policy stimulus, the ineffectiveness of further policy stimulus, or the political corruption from further policy stimulus. Every time those voices were wrong on each and every count. Those voices are being heard again today, much too loudly. It is the duty of economic policymakers including central bankers to rebut these false claims head on. It is even more important that we do the right thing for the economy rather than be slowed, confused, or intimidated by such false claims."

Adam Posen (found via Green Eagle)

Go and read this!

2011-10-06T12:31:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you see a piece of writing so exquisite that all you can do is think "I wish I had written that!" PZ Myers's recent essay on religion, accommodationism, and fuzzy thinking is such a case. He hits every point that makes that mentality so exasperating, and dispatches them perfectly. Go read it now!

Occupation distraction

2011-10-05T05:47:00.000-07:00

I'm increasingly worrying that the Occupy Whatever movement could do the progressive cause in this country some real harm. It's sucking up attention and enthusiasm which, especially right now, are needed elsewhere.

If you haven't already, please read the critiques I linked to in the last link round-up, by Joseph Cannon and Feminisnt. The problem with the Occupy movement is that (a) it does not have specific, clearly-articulated goals, and (b) there is no sense of how, exactly, the actions it is taking are going to achieve whatever the goal is.

The movement claims inspiration from Tahrir Square. But Tahrir Square had a clear goal -- the end of the Mubarak regime. And it succeeded because it was a mass movement -- the protests drew hundreds of thousands of participants, not just thousands. When the Occupy movement can get 300,000 mainstream Americans together in one protest, in one place, and they stay there for weeks or months, it may accomplish something, but right now it seems very far from that point.

Others have drawn inspiration from the Arab Spring. Earlier this year, anti-austerity demonstrations in Portugal and Britain drew hundreds of thousands of participants. Yet notice that even they have not been able to force their governments to change course, partly because these were one-day events, big but quickly over. Also, democratic governments are less brittle than dictatorships.

Today, the people of Greece are launching their own campaign against the austerity policies which their craven rulers are forcing on them at the behest of the EU -- a campaign of mass strikes and a tax revolt. They've got a chance if participation is high enough -- hundreds of thousands of working people, not just thousands of people from the fringe.

Some have made an analogy with the teabaggers, hoping that the Occupiers can become a similar force for the left. But insofar as the teabaggers have accomplished anything, they did it by focusing on electoral politics -- supporting candidates and getting them into office. Amorphous ranting against "the system" has certainly been there, but that's not what got things done.

How many of the Occupiers voted in 2010 -- when a collapse of turn-out enabled the Republicans to take the House and create the paralysis they decry? How many will vote next year?

So far I see nothing that suggests the Occupy movement has the potential to achieve any concrete results whatsoever (well, there's one small exception, but I'll get to that in a moment).

Right now, we do have an opportunity to achieve something real. With his American Jobs Act, Obama has finally broken away from the Republican navel-gazing over the deficit that has consumed Washington for months, and made a serious proposal to deal with the greatest concern of mainstream Americans -- unemployment. Economists agree that the plan will stave off another recession at least. As Booman Tribune points out, Obama is finally doing what his critics on the left say they want -- drawing a line in the sand and showing willingness to fight for what the country needs. The Republicans insist the plan is DOA, but mass public pressure has swayed legislative outcomes before -- never forget how, in 2007, a mass outpouring of public fury (which crashed the Senate's telephone system) stopped an illegal-alien amnesty which had bipartisan support and was considered a done deal. Who's to say that a similar mass display of support now couldn't scare enough Congressional swing votes to get the AJA through?

Yet when I look around the liberal blogs today, I'm seeing very little being posted about the AJA, and a lot being posted about the Occupiers. The energy and enthusiasm which, properly focused, might actually get something done, is being diverted into what looks like an exercise in plowing the sea.

As I mentioned, I do see one small sign of hope about the Occupy movement. This is the fact that it's attracting some significant support from unions. Unions are pragmatic and not ideological; they have clear goals and know what works and what doesn't work to achieve those goals, and they're very engaged with electoral politics and the Democratic party. And -- forgive my bluntness -- their decision-makers are people older and more experienced than those who seem to predominate among the Occupiers.

If the union connection can help the Occupy movement become coherent -- help it develop specific practical goals and grow into a large-scale, sustained movement with a plan for achieving those goals -- then it may actually get something done. (And by "large- scale" I mean what I said about Tahrir Square above. 500 people in each of 15 cities doesn't mean anything.) A sign of this would be if the movement starts pushing for action on the AJA.

Update: Two more worthwhile posts on this topic: Joseph Cannon warns of libertarian subversion of the movement, while Nance suggests that bloggers try to shape its agenda.

Video of the week -- the right's real agenda

2011-10-03T12:07:00.000-07:00

Frank Schaeffer explains the true nature of the present-day American right wing -- what the MSM, and a lot of the left, still don't grasp. Found via Politics Plus.