fuddmain

"Even scarier is why people have stopped thinking global warming is real. One major reason pollsters..."

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 14:47:49 -0400

“Even scarier is why people have stopped thinking global warming is real. One major reason pollsters say is we had a very cold, snowy winter. Which is like saying the sun might not be real because last night it got dark. And my car’s not real because I can’t find my keys. That’s the problem with our obsession with always seeing two sides of every issue equally — especially when one side has a lot of money. It means we have to pretend there are always two truths, and the side that doesn’t know anything has something to say. On this side of the debate: Every scientist in the world. On the other: Mr. Potato Head. There is no debate here — just scientists vs. non-scientists, and since the topic is science, the non-scientists don’t get a vote. We shouldn’t decide everything by polling the masses. Just because most people believe something doesn’t make it true. This is the fallacy called argumentum ad numeram: the idea that something is true because great numbers believe it. As in: Eat shit, 20 trillion flies can’t be wrong.”

- Bill Maher (via azspot)

Super Punch

Wed, 12 May 2010 14:04:27 -0400

Super Punch

Balloon Juice

Fri, 07 May 2010 08:33:18 -0400

Balloon Juice

Tea Party, Health Care, “Reload”—the long view « The Historic Present

Thu, 06 May 2010 16:15:17 -0400

Tea Party, Health Care, “Reload”—the long view « The Historic Present:

Right now, the health care bill that passed Congress this month is causing an almost inexplicable torrent of rage amongst a small portion of Americans. These are the small minority of very vocal people who always want to stop the American experiment of accepting and driving social change (see The Great American Experiment), a reactionary fraction who always believe the past was better than the present and far better than the ominous future the latest social change is going to unleash.

In these times, it’s good to be a historian, because you have the long view. You know that there have always been these reactionary groups, ranging from the inane to the harmful. The “Know-Nothings” or American Party in the 1830s and 40s terrorized Catholic Americans and won many political seats on a platform of stopping immigration from undesirable countries, eradicating Catholicism, and generally setting up a police state run by white Protestants. In the late 1800s, groups like the Immigration Restriction League and the Workingmen’s Party authorized terror against immigrants; WP leader Dennis Kearney led his men on a rampage through San Francisco’s Chinatown in 1877, destroying homes and businesses, to inaugurate his campaign against Chinese immigration. The state of California eventually passed several laws stripping Chinese immigrants of their civil rights.

In more recent history, the reaction of the fringe against the Civil Rights movement and the federal laws and Supreme Court rulings that championed equal rights for all races is fresher in our memory.

So when faced with the Tea Partiers and brick-throwing anti-health care fringe of 2010, we can defuse their seeming power by reminding ourselves, and others, that these groups come and go at moments of national crisis or change, they spew their hate and then after a decade or so they disappear. Temporarily, of course; there’s always the next fringe group to take over for them. But they remain fringe because of their illogic and their basis in hatred and fear.

Parody oil spill T-shirt - Boing Boing

Thu, 06 May 2010 14:30:30 -0400

Parody oil spill T-shirt - Boing Boing

Right-Wing Extremists Take On Local Law Enforcement, Lose

Thu, 06 May 2010 14:26:52 -0400

Right-Wing Extremists Take On Local Law Enforcement, Lose:

Right-wing extremists who question the legitimacy of Barack Obama’s presidency tried to take on local law enforcement recently — and they seem to have come out on the losing end.

First, a Tennessee man was arrested after walking into his local county courthouse to try to effect a citizen’s arrest of a grand jury foreman who had refused to investigate President Obama’s legitimacy to serve — an encounter partially caught on video. That enraged one Georgia-based member of the far-right OathKeepers group. Responding to a call from an extremist leader, he drove to Tennessee with an AK-47 in a bid to get his comrade released — only to wind up getting arrested himself.

These people are crazier than shithouse rats.

I believe this is a video of the attempted citizens arrest.

Anti-Gay Leader Caught With Male Prostitute Pleads Ignorance, Then Altruism | TPMMuckraker

Thu, 06 May 2010 08:40:35 -0400

Anti-Gay Leader Caught With Male Prostitute Pleads Ignorance, Then Altruism | TPMMuckraker:

When George Alan Rekers, a cofounder along with James Dobson of the Family Research Council and a leader in the ex-gay movement, was caught walking off a plane from Europe with a young male prostitute, he first insisted that he didn’t know the young man was an escort until halfway through their 10-day vacation.

“I had surgery,” Rekers told the Miami New Times, which broke the story yesterday, “and I can’t lift luggage. That’s why I hired him.”

Rekers had hired the escort, dubbed “Lucien” by the New Times, through the websiteRentBoy.com (NSFW), a popular site that hosts ads for gay male escorts. There’s little mistaking what the site is for.

The site’s users first encounter a disclaimer that the may encounter “content and materials that are of a graphic and/or sexual nature,” and must agree to terms and conditions before entering. The homepage is predominantly photos of naked men. To search for an escort, or “find boys,” one can even select a specialty: “rentboy,” “sugardaddy” or “masseur.”

Take it away Iron Maiden:

Believe in me - send no money
Died on the cross, that ain’t funny
But my so called friends they’re making me a joke
They missed out what I said like I never spoke
They choose what they wanna hear - don’t tell a lie
They just leave out the truth as they’re watching you die
Saving your soul by taking your money
Flies around shit, bees around honey

Holy Smoke Holy Smoke, plenty bad preachers for
The Devil to stoke
Feed’em in feet first this is no joke
This is thirsty work making Holy Smoke

taste-bud: finished chocolate, banana, salted caramel and...

Thu, 06 May 2010 08:28:11 -0400

taste-bud:

finished chocolate, banana, salted caramel and peanut cake (by cannelle-vanille)

Why did someone tie dog turds together and put them on a plate?

(via Zandar Versus The Stupid) In the spot, which ran over the...

Wed, 05 May 2010 14:58:18 -0400

(via Zandar Versus The Stupid)

In the spot, which ran over the weekend on a Fox affiliate in central Florida, Fanelli stands between a middle-aged white man and a younger, swarthy fellow. “Does this look like a terrorist?” he asks, gesturing towards the white. Then, pointing to the darker dude, he adds: “Or this?”

I forgot that Timothy McVeigh, the Unabomber, and those Hutaree blockheads were all swarthy and of Middle Eastern descent.

southpol: Asked tonight who I’m supporting now that the Bulls...

Wed, 05 May 2010 08:51:39 -0400

southpol:

Asked tonight who I’m supporting now that the Bulls are out of the NBA playoffs, I answered: Los Suns.

Crying Toddler - a haiku

Wed, 05 May 2010 08:29:14 -0400

toldorknown:

Lowered head to push
Her mommy, but mommy moved.
Thud! (the wall did not)

Balloon Juice » Paula Deen Makes KFC Look Like...

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 10:11:14 -0400

Balloon Juice » Paula Deen Makes KFC Look Like Slackers

Paula’s Food Network show is “Paula’s Home Cooking”, which makes the point that the shit people slap together at home can often be far worse than anything KFC, Burger King or McDonald’s sells.

Losing our cherished freedoms

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 08:37:44 -0400

squashed:

The Tea Party is livid about our purported “loss of freedom”. But … we haven’t lost any freedoms under Obama. (Except fake freedoms like the freedom to get a tan without paying a 10% tax.)

At least, most of us haven’t lost any freedoms. If you’re Hispanic and in Arizona, you’re likely to be stopped and interrogated by the police for looking insufficiently white. But that’s not Obama’s fault. And that doesn’t seem to bother the Tea Partiers.

teejayhanton: newsweek: Spotted by our Sarah Ball: “This is...

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 15:20:32 -0400

teejayhanton:

newsweek:

Spotted by our Sarah Ball:

“This is Alabama. We speak English. Learn it.”

—Tim James, a Republican candidate for governor of Alabama. James’ campaignposted this ad on YouTube last week (with disabled comments, presumably to avoid any commentary in languages other than English), getting at the most important issues in his state, which has 11 percent unemployment and among the lowest educational attainment rates in the nation.

Sad thing is, he’ll get elected. Seriously though, will printing that test only in English save enough money to pay for education?

Actually, this numbskull skull doesn’t understand that it will cost them money. Here’s Steve Benen:

Tim James may or may not have thought to look into this before using it as the basis for a television ad, but Alabama administers the test in multiple languages in order to qualify for federal transportation funding. If a James administration insisted on dropping the current standards, it wouldn’t “save money” for Alabama; it would do the exact opposite. For that matter, courts have, more than once, rejected efforts to mandate English-only exams.

What’s more, as a substantive matter, the reason officials want the exam to be available in multiple languages in the first place is because they want drivers to get drivers licenses and demonstrate proficiency when it comes to operating a vehicle and understanding the rules.

dcwhip: here is a very happy elephant. i’d be this happy to be...

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 12:13:16 -0400

dcwhip:

here is a very happy elephant. i’d be this happy to be on Design Crush too!

I recognize him. That’s the elephant on the Jungle Cruise at Disney World.

Super Punch: James Cameron just bought an NFL team, and...

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 10:36:33 -0400

Super Punch: James Cameron just bought an NFL team, and here’s the logo

Fowl Math For A Chicken-Based Health Care Economy | TPMDC Total...

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 12:36:18 -0400

Fowl Math For A Chicken-Based Health Care Economy | TPMDC

Total U.S. health care costs in 2008: $2.3 trillion
US population: About 300 million
Average cost of health care per person: $7,681
Average weight of a chicken: 5.9 lbs
Market price per pound: 85 cents
Average spot price per chicken: $5.02
Average number of chickens per resident needed to cover health care costs: 1,530 chickens
Total number of chickens needed to cover United States health care costs: 459 billion chickens
Estimated worldwide chicken population: 16 billion chickens
Current worldwide chicken shortage to cover U.S. health care: 443 billion cluckers

Of course, it should be noted that chickens are only one of many commodities, and are thus only one component of a barter economy — for example, Tennessee state Rep. Mike Bell (R) has referred to Mennonites paying for health care with vegetables. There are also the options of beef, pork, turkeys, sugar, metal ore, or even finished products like iPods or gasoline. What would really help here is if there were some kind of single, universally accepted commodity, which could be used as a medium of exchange for all the others…

"The measure, like the other anti-immigrant laws of recent years, is hypocritical. Arizona’s..."

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 12:01:53 -0400

“The measure, like the other anti-immigrant laws of recent years, is hypocritical. Arizona’s low-wage, low-quality economy is built around the inexpensive labor of illegal immigrants. Construction, tourism and landscaping companies have made huge profits on the backs of workers making less than citizens and lacking even the minimal protections and safeguards that Arizona provides. Why do you think you “get so much house for the money”? The remains of the state’s agriculture industry would die without illegals. Anglos from the toffs in north Scottsdale to working stiffs in Phoenix get housekeepers and yard care for a fraction of its real cost. As Phoenix, especially, became a narrower economy focused on house building, illegals became more important. The people in power sure as hell weren’t going to pay competitive wages for citizens, much less allow unions. In exchange for this exploitation, the illegals pay a disproportionate amount of their incomes in taxes because Arizona relies so heavily on regressive sales taxes. And, yes, they use hospital ERs — they work for companies that offer no benefits. These anti-immigrant laws are the state’s gratitude. This, along with the “sweeps” by the Badged Ego of Maricopa County. Of course if one really wanted to attack illegal immigration, one would go after the employers that hire them. Arizona has rarely done so. And no wonder. How many degrees of separation are there between the immigrants toiling to improve the riches for the local economic elite and Sen. Pearce and his gang? Or wealthy Republican John Sidney McCain III? Don’t dig too deep or look too far.”

- Rogue Columnist (via azspot)

Look Upon My Werks, Ye Mihgty, and Depsair! | Rumproast

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 17:06:52 -0400

Look Upon My Werks, Ye Mihgty, and Depsair! | Rumproast

Super Punch: Super Mario/Godfather mashup

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 09:05:00 -0400

Super Punch: Super Mario/Godfather mashup