Karen O: All Is Love

From Where The Wild Things Are, available at iTunes:



Brilliant!

Water on the moon

Moon Water: A Game-Changing Discovery @ Space.com and images

We Grow

From USA Today:

Americans who don't identify with any religion are now 15% of the USA, but trends in a new study shows they could one day surpass the nation's largest denominations — including Catholics, now 24% of the nation.

No superstitions, no shackles...

My Pre-Ordered Copy Should Arrive Soon

Dawkins' new book, The Greatest Show On Earth, is available now.


For me, I assume it will be mostly elementary. But, like TMBG's Here Comes Science, one sometimes needs to know that a comprehensive, pedestrian scientific explanation is out there for the ignorant, obstinate superstitious among us. And we can relish in the book's simple explanatory glory, just as the religious enjoy reiterating their favored voodoo through verses and psalms. Only ours is based on reality and advocates hurting no one...

(B)V-1 Beetles

I really don't know what to think about this. It's either a great advancement towards getting my Jude Law-bot body or a scary omen of an insectoid robot-zombie holocaust.



Either way, I welcome my automaton-beetle overlords and beg for assimilation. Unless they can do that shit with squids.

A Great Article About Secretary Gates

From Wired:

Robert Gates: Overhaul the Pentagon

Well-Deserved Emmys

HBO's "Grey Gardens" won 6 Emmys, including "Best Made for TV Movie"[sic] and "Best Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie" (Jessica Lang). It deserved as much. We watched it because I had heard it was weird and interesting. Instead, it was a slice of retarded Americana, twisted yet familiar. Drew Barrymore also deserved an award, but oh well.

Watch it and you won't be disappointed.

Put The Gays In Charge

The Emmy's were unprecedentedly tolerable, thanks to alpha-gay host Neil Patrick Harris. When people receiving awards take time to thank the homo in charge for a job well done, one has to wonder: why aren't we in charge of more?

Harris pulled off the night with comedy and class; just watch the schmaltzy-turned-ballsy (and technically difficult) opening song he performed:



On another positive note, during the montage of "Drama TV in 2008," Battlestar Galactica was featured prominently. And people ballyhooed during it. Maybe one day scifi will be recognized...

Beyond The Republican Assertions About The End Of The European Missile Shield Program

The guys over at my favorite naval warfare blog, Information Dissemination, sum it up:

We seem to be heading towards one of two conclusions. Either big time sanctions are applied on Iran, or Israel attacks Iran by the end of the year. Today's actions suggest Russia will support the sanctions, but I guess we will have to wait and see.

They, like me, support this move by Secretary Gates. As the last post on this blog reiterates, the State Department is ill-equipped to handle the change, but it's a good one.

We have THAAD and Aegis (and the Israelis have Arrow). Theater ballistic missile defenses work. To continue to throw money at a system that would require massive expenditures to be deployed in a decade is retarded, especially when the whole point of the "shield" was to intimidate Russia. A few well-placed F-35s and F/A-18s, along with THAAD and Aegis, could do just as well.

Not the least bit surprised

Hitting Bottom in Foggy Bottom in Foreign Policy.

My Vote Wasn't Wasted: A "B-L-A-C-G-E-R" Who Will Always Defend His Minority Over Whites

I Take It Back

Maybe I wished that Green Day's 21st Century Breakdown was just a quasi-science fiction album and not a prophesy. With what's going on in this country now, the opus was the latter.

So, I change my review of Green Day's last album: 21st Century Breakdown is the best punk album of this decade.

If you've seen the evangelical Christian-driven racist protests fueled by Republican apologists/cynics, doesn't the following ring a bell?

I am a nation
a worker of pride
My debt to the status quo
The scars on my hands and a means to an end
It's all that I have to show

I swallowed my pride
and I choked on my Faith
I've given my heart and my soul
I've broken my fingers
And lied though my teeth
The pillar of damage control

I've been to the edge
And I've thrown the bouquet
Of flowers left over the grave
I sat in the waiting room
Wasting my time
And waiting for judgment day

Praise liberty
The freedom to obey
Is the song that strangles me
Well don't cross the line

Oooh dream, America dream
I can't even sleep
From the light's early dawn

Oooh scream, America scream
Believe what you see
From heroes and cons?!

Or, to quote my favorite radio liberal talk show: we have become a nation of "angry asshats."

I want to leave now...

As We All Suspected, Ned Is In Cahoots With The Undead

From Cute With Chris.

Mr. Deity Vs. Michael Shermer

I reiterate: Rule #1 - People are stupid.

Charles Darwin film 'too controversial for religious America'. This is the sort of thing that makes me want to finish my career with another team.

Book Review: Republican Gomorrah

Max Blumenthal worked his way into the heart of the modern Republican machine and researched the origins of the Christian evangelical movement. His pedestrian result, Republican Gomorrah, still reads as a brilliant summary of what backed the Republican rise to power after the disastrous 70's and later took them down in the late 2000's: the sadomasochistic authoritarian wish-thinking of the religious right.

Blumenthal introduces his book with a story about Eisenhower, who despised McCarthy and the "persecution" thinking behind him. Using Eric Fromm's clinical dissection of the authoritarian mindset, he links RJ Rushdoony, Francis Schaeffer (who, strangely, was pro-gay), and James Dobson to the rise of an autocratic, fascistic anti-Enlightenment movement that hates the freedom it so cynically promotes.

Whilst narrating the lurid story of the rise and fall of the evangelical-driven Republican party, Blumenthal uses Fromm's Escape From Freedom to explain how its leaders and followers formed a culture of sadomasochism: prostate yourself to the master (here, the mass delusion of fundamentalist Christianity and its leaders), admitting you are a sinful creature in need of Jesus (and "Christian" father figures like Dobson). That masochism gives its followers the strength to sadistically prey on those considered lesser, weaker, and outside of "The Family." Twisted racism, misogyny, and homophobia were contemptuously played as "death" cards to rile a group of disillusioned, privileged middle-class white dopes into promoting a sectarian anti-egalitarian social agenda, a hoary righteous platform both espoused and ignored by the most cynical amoral reprobates imaginable, and a fiscally conservative agenda that was anything but.

One of the more interesting narratives in the book is how Dobson hated Gingrich and Armey because they were too "secular," ie they didn't pay homage to Dobson. If you wonder why the two moderate Republicans in the last election were Obama and Clinton, it's because Dobson systematically replaced any fiscal, reasonable conservative with superstitious twats subservient to the odious, born-again (and admitted Dobson follower) Tom DeLay.

McCain won the Republican nomination because the religious base was split between the fiscally moderate Mormon Romney (who believes that Jesus and Satan are brothers!) and the fiscally irresponsible Huckabee (who believes in every crazy anti-Semitic, racist superstition the religious right loves). After McCain won, the only way to appease those "Family" voters was: Sarah Palin, a hot meat puppet of the neocons who had the intellectual prowess of her Down Syndrome son Trig, and who was admittedly tied to Alaskan Christian Dominionists (many of whom wanted to secede from the US). As someone who lives in a part of our country that actively engaged in treason roughly 150 years ago, I have nothing but contempt for a woman who schtupps a former member of a secession party whilst campaigning that middle-class white people in fly-over country are "real Americans" --as though the multicultural, multi-religious, diverse people of industry living more closely together in urban areas aren't. Palin, and the religious right, failed to see that their charges against the elitism of the "others" were nothing more than a condemnation of their elitist simpleton culture. They still haven't grasped that moderate Americans have figured it out.

The book is sickening; it's no wonder the Republicans have lost every single intellectual supporter they had, from Goldwater to the Buckleys to libertarians like me.

And like Joe Scarborough, who nailed the recent "controversy" over Obama telling kids to work hard and study. Watch his visible revulsion and celebrate the last of the pragmatic (small r) Eisenhower republicans.

Uh Oh

Military rumor mills are buzzing:

• Ramadan ends on September 19.
• Iran has stated that it will continue its nuclear program, even as we agree to hold talks.
• Did Netanyahu go to an undisclosed Arab country on Monday?
• Did Netanyahu go to Russia this week?
• Without anyone saying anything, Putin states that attacking Iran is unacceptable?
• At the same time, we have deployed an unusual number of submarines.

Could be nothing, but there is another issue: the disappearance of the Arctic Sea. On the positive side, Le France has urged Russia not to sell air-defense missiles to Iran.

All of this could be a confluence of unrelated events. I'm not panicked, but I would not be surprised if war broke out within the next couple of weeks.

Speaking Of Carriers...

Here's a pic of potential B-2 fodder, the Chinese remodeling of the Russian carrier Varyag.

Apparently, China doesn't like Russia's island.

Even the Chinese aren't dumb enough to think that one carrier, or even a modest fleet of them, would ever engage the US Navy except during the most tense of diplomatic stand-offs. The point of a Chinese carrier is to protect interests abroad, same as ours. Should the US ever go to war with China, the US Air Force (with the power of Super Jesus behind them) would explode whatever warships our submarines didn't sink long before our carriers got within striking distance.

But having a carrier, even an old bad one, is better than none at all. And getting one signals China's wish to evolve into a global military power.

The United Kingdom Joins France (Kind Of)

The UK has started work on their new carriers, the first of which is the HMS Queen Elizabeth. What a horrible name, considering their current, aging carriers are named Invinsible, Illustrious, and Ark Royal. But then again, our next aircraft carrier is sadly named the USS Gerald Ford. I guess "Midway," Coral Sea," or "John F. Kennedy" seemed too political for a Republican congress to name a major warship class after...

HMS Queen Elizabeth, a medium carrier capable of catapult launches

Here's the good news: the UK has quietly stated that it will be buying F-35Cs instead of F-35Bs. The F-35Bs are the short take-off and landing versions of the F-35 Lightning 2, designed to replace the Harriers. The F-35Cs are the American carrier versions, which means that the UK carriers will support both catapults and arresting gear. In other words, they will not be light carriers: they will be oil-powered medium carriers.

Better 2 medium carriers than 3 light ones. Or even 4 light ones.

Le France may buy one, though they prefer nuclear power. I predict they will forgo these and instead build another nuclear carrier.

Here's my hope: with a medium, catapult carrier design going into production, maybe other European navies with light carriers will follow. If Spain and Italy build a medium-class carrier each, based on the British design, and France builds another large carrier, then we are golden. A European Union with 6 good carriers (and Japan with 3 light ones) will contribute more to global security than our having 1 over 10. And I question how we can ever justify a navy with over 10 supercarriers (and over 8 amphibious assault/light carriers) after 2020.

That's So Much Nicer Than The Horrible Stuff Ned Tells me

From Pharyngula.

That'll do.

“It’s not where you start,” he said “It’s where you end up.”

McElroy settles down
to lead Tide.
Alabama 34 Va. Tech 24

Album Review: Here Comes Science

After listening to "Science Is Real" on the Amazon.com site about 20 times, I decided to buy the music-only version of Here Comes Science on iTunes, even though I had already pre-ordered the CD/DVD version from Amazon. It's only 10 bucks on iTunes if you don't get the videos, and I don't have a problem with buying something twice when it comes to TMBG.

So the review: it's the best TMBG album ever, ever, ever, regardless of whether it's for kids or adults. It's like any Pixar film: it's for the adults as much as it is for kids. Lincoln, Flood, and Apollo 18 are all brilliant, but this one surpasses them all.

The sun is a miasma of incandescent plasma, not a mass of incandescent gas. And science is real.

My favorite song, however, is the last: The Ballad of Davy Crockett (In Outer Space).

Maine Does It Right

Bigots have succeeded in getting the recently passed Maine marriage equality bill put to a "people's veto." I'll spare my rant on why any democratic republic's decisions should never be subject to a majority popular vote. Instead, I'll give kudos to Maine's pro-equality machine. Unlike California, the anti-bigotry side in Maine is running ads that are hot-dog awesome:

Helicopters Fly Over The Wall Of Separation

Governor Jindal of Louisiana, the creationist who has participated in an exorcism, is frequently touted as a potential Presidential hopeful for 2012. And while he didn't fly to Argentina to adulterate with a hot upgrade, he did use taxpayer money to be flown by helicopter to church services across his state.

Sound somewhat familiar?

Maddow nailed it:

Nevertheless, Jindal still has “a separation of church and state problem here,” reenforced Maddow. “… The governor has been sold to us as a fiscal conservative, a social moralist and an enemy of government waste. You know, none out of three ain’t all that bad, is it?”

"Sun Shines In The Rusty Morning"

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has taken many beautiful pictures of what the camera's designers are describing as an "airplane view" of the red planet. They are quite stunning.

I Think They ARE Giants

They Might Be Giants has a new kids album/movie out September 8 called Here Comes Science! PZ Meyers got an early copy and reviewed it here, while Amazon has the first video from the album up, "Science Is Real." The song equates angels with unicorns and elves, so you know who's already upset...I, on the other hand, will now declare that "Science is real!" everywhere I go, whenever science is brought up. "Science is real" may be the best sentence ever uttered, the "Amen" of atheists everywhere.

Science is real.