I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, 'wouldn't it be much worse if life *were* fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them?' So now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe. – M. Cole
Oh my, what *will* the GOP/TP do when Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion and didn’t obey their will? He was joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan. Thank you all for doing what’s right for the country.
Unsuprisingly, Justices Anthony Kennedy, Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas were in the minority.
It’s about time the US moves toward other humane, developed nations that find caring for *all* of their citizens to be the right thing to do. It has always struck me that for a bunch of people who want to claim that the entire US is “Christian”, and who claim that they are the majority, that these same people want to ignore their own supposedly holy book that says one should take care of those who are less fortunate than oneself. I’d think that universal healthcare would be one of the first things that they would support. But they don’t. Well, I shouldn’t be suprised by more hypocrisy.
Of course, the GOP/TP will predict the end of the world because of this. Indeed, I’m sure some are waiting for a big pissed off Jesus to decend from the sky a la Revelation. Like other predictions of such things, that’ll fail too.
The only thing that concerns me about such decisions is that the GOP/TP has to feel even more desperate now. And desperate people do stupid, and often violent, things. However, even the thoughts of that possiblity should never prevent us from moving forward into a more equitable society.
Many years ago, I had the great pleasure and honor to meet and have dinner with George Takei. This was at college when I was helping pick speakers to come in. He had been at my college before, back when I was then in junior high and since I got the chance, and me being a good Original Series Trekkie, I made sure we got him again. He even signed my Technical Manual (of course on the navigation page! Yes, I’m a nerd. Big suprise, eh?) He is indeed as nice as he appears on TV.
Now he’s probably known as much for his work for human rights, specifically gay rights as he is for portraying Mr. Sulu. I have one of his t-shirts: http://www.allegiancemusical.com/its-ok-be-takei-merchandise But I got one of the original ones that are *much* closer to the uniform badge 🙂
And he has come up with a wondeful image just to show how ridiculous and idiotic bigots are ———————————–>
As my husband, and sure others have said: In Cookie Veritas
This is an addition to a lovely ad that Kraft did. General Mills is also in the fray since they’ve also said that they don’t support a Minnesota ballot measure that wants to again restrict rights to only heterosexual couples. You can happily eat Toaster Strudel, Haagen Dazs and….. BUGLES and be happy that General Mills is a decent organization.
Now get out there and tell Kraft and General Mills how much you appreciate their anti-bigotry stance:
In a prior post, I discussed the voter ID law and how it would impact those who would tend not to vote for the Republicans/Tea Party. And now we know that the Republicans meant it that way by their own words. House Majority Leader Mike Turzai – R, Allegheny County has forgotten his talking points and said what everyone knew was the case.
“Pro-Second Amendment? The Castle Doctrine, it’s done. First pro-life legislation — abortion facility regulations — in 22 years, done. Voter ID, which is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done.”
Voter ID being passed: cause. Gov. Romney to win : intended effect.
The original story about this from Politics PA here. And The Maddow Show also caught it.
It seems that the claims that the voter ID law in PA is indeed meant to disenfranchise voters, an attempt to corrupt the very basis of our representative democracy, are correct (it also demonstrates that the GOP/TP are out to force their religion and beliefs on everyone via legislation). Many knew that was the case and that the GOP legislators were lying when they said it was only about “voter fraud”, a supposed “real problem” and so very “widespread” that they cannot demonstrate to be so at all (citing hmmm, one instance “Joe Cheeseboro” in the city of Philly). Not Rep. Turzai’s spokesman Stephen Miskin, not Attorney General and now Governor Tom Corbett.
Honestly, guys, if it’s so pernicious a problem, your offices should be overflowing with instances that you should be constantly be handing out, not getting constantly caught with your figurative pants down.
Now, I know most if not all of these legislators who have told such lies also claim that they are very pious people which conflicts with a lie told intentionally. Will they be honorable enough to admit what they’ve done? Or will they depend upon an ignorant and lazy constituency not to hold them accountable for their actions and unsubstantiated claims?
One of my all time favorite pieces of classical music is O Fortuna, which is often played as battle music (that godawful movie Excalibur) but hasd nothing to do with that at all.
I’m also a little hard of hearing, so this lovely hilarious YouTube version is perfect for me.
This is the darkest beer so far. The Dark Cherry Stout from Northern Brewer is a dry stout, so if you hold your nose and drink you don’t get a sweet taste. It comes with 4 oz of cherry extract.
the foam! the foam!
As per the recipe, you put the extract in just before bottling. Smelled good and was noticable after a couple weeks in the bottle. After that, I couldn’t have told you it was there. I’d probably up the cherry extract quite a bit when making this again.
When poured, no matter how carefully, there was a hilarious amount of foam. The foam reminded me of the old molasses sponge candy. Definitely not the fruited wheat beers that are so popular, but a nice change from standard stout.
Appalachian Brewing Company has been in Harrisburg since 1997 (they now have other locations too). We were there about two weeks after it opened and have been going back ever since. It’s named for the Appalachian Trail that passes about 8 miles to the south of town. And no, I’ve never walked any part of it. The building is a reclaimed industrial brick building from Harrisburg’s history. They’ve done a lovely job with it. We were also to their very first Capital City Invitational Beer Fest, which now is insanely crowded. IMO, the thing should move to the PA Farm Show Building. Continue reading “A night out – Appalachian Brewing Company”→
Nothing like a big honkin’ belt buckle to make me respect theology
If you’ve frequented various blogs, especially and ironically the freethought blogs it seems, you will have seen an ad that claims that there are 6 reasons to believe in God at a website called everystudent.com.
Being bored, I followed that link and found that the author Marilyn Adamson does indeed give six claims on why she thinks people must believe in her god but alas, anyone who actually thinks and who is a rational person will find them pathetically funny and ineptly deceitful. Unfortunately, there’s not one scrap of anything new here. I do find it a shame that this group of Christians is out there wasting more money trying to convert others. Such a waste of resources, but alas this is typical for this type.
Ms. Adamson claims to have been a “former atheist”. She may have been but she’s also one of the dumbest former atheists in existence evidently if these “reasons” convinced her that this god exists.
Let’s look at her claims. Here’s a link to her site if you wish to bother and one can see the sources she uses for her footnotes. Unsurprisingly, they are creationist sources and the bible as well as a couple of books used deceitfully to make it appear if actual scientists agree with this creationist nonsense.
“1. Does God exist? The complexity of our planet points to a deliberate Designer who not only created our universe, but sustains it today.”
Pity we can’t put those who are sure their ignorance is just as good on an island where they can put their idiocy to the test.
Lest anyone be surprised, an economic group seems to be making headway in influencing the North Carolina legislature to ignore reality and to substitute their own. In the complete spirit of anti-intellectualism, the people at NC-20 want to pretend their ignorance is considered just as good as anyone’s knowledge because they have *said* so. Unsuprisingly, this attitude is similar to the prevalent attitude in such states where science is also hated if it shows other dearly held delusions, like creationism, are wrong.
The current SB 819 has the following text: (e) The Division of Coastal Management shall be the only State agency authorized to 10 develop rates of sea-level rise and shall do so only at the request of the Commission. These 11 rates shall only be determined using historical data, and these data shall be limited to the time 12 period following the year 1900. Rates of sea-level rise may be extrapolated linearly to estimate 13 future rates of rise but shall not include scenarios of accelerated rates of sea-level rise.
This means that these people have decided that scientists are wrong and they can make up their own methods of measuring sea level so they can officially ignore anything to do with global warming and its predictions of sea level rise.
King Canute – Wikipedia
This is rather reminiscent of the story of King Canute of Denmark. The king was sure that his power would stop the tidesfrom advancing (there is also some thought that he was trying to make a point about how only a god is powerful). And of course he failed. This king was at least smart enough to realize that there was some greater power than he had, though unfortunately he thought it was the Christian God, which is indeed as impotent as he was. The laws of physics are what control the tides (Bill O’Reilly’s amazingly stupid opinion not withstanding) and are what controls global warming. And natural laws don’t care what a bunch of willfully ignorant fools want to claim, no matter how much they might legislate or shake their bibles and pray at the encroaching seas.
I am of the opinion that they could be encouraged to be the idiots that they wish to be, but let everyone in those counties never again ask for or be qualified to receive any state or federal aid of any type. No hurricane assistance, no help from any branch, bureau or office that dares to use science to make decisions. If the science that informs those programs is not good enough for predicting the observed sea level rise, then surely it’s not good enough to predict hurricanes, to control the spread of disease, to breed better crops, etc. Surely such people would not want such aid *if* they are honorable and truly believe that science is not accurate or beneficial. Such people wouldn’t want be hypocrites? Right?
Well, we all know the answer to that. Yes, they are that hypocritical and are that dishonest, having no problem declaring that their lies are the truth in so many ways. We can hope that after being shown the facts, being ridiculed and demonstrated as hypocrites, they might change. But it’s not the way to bet.
Another excellent essay on just how ridiculous these people are:
Club Schadenfreude 