2.28.2009

Where Is The UN?

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe continues to destabilize Africa with his totalitarian ineptitude. He has now vowed to continue seizures of white-owned farms, even though--to date--his policies have taken Zimbabwe from a nation with an abundance of food to one of starvation.

Consecutive years of drought and the land reform programme launched in 2000, in which some mostly 4,000 white-owned commercial farms were seized and redistributed to blacks, have added to Zimbabwe's difficulties.

The scheme has drastically reduced agricultural production, which once accounted for 40 percent of the economy, as most of the new beneficiaries lack both farming equipment and expertise.

This issue is not about black servitude; it's about bigotry and superstition. Mugabe has held onto power by promoting the worst sort of racism, authoritarianism, ignorance, thuggery, and superstition. And the result?
Some three million Zimbabweans, a fifth of the population, have fled the country's economic and political instability, and are now supporting their families with both cash and food.

My name is Robert, and I'm here to starve you!

Of course, the gays are a huge problem in Zimbabwe. Crops have been wilted, food has been redistributed, the government has become totalitarian, dancing and singing are rampant, all because of the gays. Right?
[It] degrades human dignity. It's unnatural and there is no question ever of allowing these people to behave worse than dogs and pigs. If dogs and pigs do not do it, why must human beings? We have our own culture, and we must re-dedicate ourselves to our traditional values that make us human beings... What we are being persuaded to accept is sub-animal behaviour and we will never allow it here. If you see people parading themselves as lesbians and gays, arrest them and hand them over to the police!
Where are the calls for invasion for the sake of "democracy" from the right wing? Where are the calls for human rights on the left? What the fuck is the UN doing that this isn't a priority?

Humans are gross...

I want one

HULC

The HULC is a completely un-tethered, hydraulic-powered anthropomorphic exoskeleton that provides users with the ability to carry loads of up to 200 lbs for extended periods of time and over all terrains. Its flexible design allows for deep squats, crawls and upper-body lifting. There is no joystick or other control mechanism. The exoskeleton senses what users want to do and where they want to go. It augments their ability, strength and endurance. An onboard micro-computer ensures the exoskeleton moves in concert with the individual....


Lockheed offers ready-to-go supersoldier exoskeleton

From the vid, the HULC certainly seems a step forward on Raytheon's rival XOS mechwarrior suit, which at last report still trails an inconvenient power cable to the nearest wall socket.

Not so the HULC; four pounds of lithium polymer batteries will run the exoskeleton for an hour walking at 3mph, according to Lockheed. Speed marching at up to 7mph reduces this somewhat; a battery-draining "burst" at 10mph is the maximum speed.




2.26.2009

From LGF

Some Pro-Evolution Bloggers

We weren’t intending to make a big thing of it, but we should have known that as soon as we offered to link to pro-evolution bloggers, the links would start pouring in through the hatches. Here’s the most current list, just to give ‘em all big plugs for standing up for science in their own ways. (Note: you can always find pro-evolution bloggers—if not always conservatives—at ScienceBlogs too.)

Defining “Creationism” Down

Instapundit

Noblesse Oblige » Which Controversy? Discovery Institute vs Science

Daimnation!: Darwin’s next fight

The Atheist Conservative : If I saw an angel or if man was made of brass

Chicago Boyz » Blog Archive » Happy 200th Birthday, Charles Darwin

Well That’s Just Dandy....: I Don’t Know Why This Is So Hard To Understand....

Kerplunk - Common sense from Down Under: The Discovery Institute’s willful destruction of Christian values

sisu: ‘Why can’t we get over our post-Marxist nostalgia?’

Blog Here Now

skepticlawyer » My Enemy’s Honour

Copious Dissent - Understanding Evolution Matters

Public Secrets: One more thing...

zombietime

Ringo’s Pictures

Because No One Asked

Rite Wing TechnoPagan: creationism

Darwin Central

The Right Stuff

Buttle’s World

Science « Because No One Asked

Founding Bloggers

From Reason Hit & Run

Philip Jose Farmer, RIP

A bit creepy since I purchased this about 2 weeks ago at the Priceville used book store....


2.24.2009

A Solid List

I linked to a list a post of straightforward answers dealing with common criticisms of atheism over at my blog - link.

2.22.2009

What the @#&%?!?

From Glenn Reynolds:

February 21, 2009

FIVE STATES CAUSED THE FORECLOSURE CRISIS? “The beneficiaries of taxpayer charity will be highly concentrated in just five states - California, Nevada, Arizona, Florida and Michigan. . . . It turns out that the five states with by far the highest foreclosure rates have some things in common with each other, but very little in common with most other states.”

UPDATE: Some thoughts from Dan Riehl.

ANOTHER UPDATE: A reader emails: “Whatever became of Rep. Laura Richardson? The Democratic Black Caucus member that no one talks about at all, the one with the 4 mortgages, all in foreclosure, the one who got to vote on the measure making debt forgiveness a non-taxable event? How about reviving interest in her touching case?”

Well, here’s a story on her multiple defaults from last summer. Plus, some thoughts on double standards.

MORE: Here’s a more recent article on Laura Richardson:

First Rep. Laura Richardson was having problems making house payments, defaulting six times over eight years.

Then after a bank foreclosed on her Sacramento house and sold it at auction in May, the Long Beach Democrat made such a stink that Washington Mutual, in an unusual move, grabbed it back and returned it to her.

This week, in the latest chapter in the housing saga, the Code Enforcement Department in Sacramento declared her home a “public nuisance.” The city has threatened to fine her as much as $5,000 a month if she doesn’t fix it up.

Neighbors in the upper-middle-class neighborhood complain that the sprinklers are never turned on and the grass and plants are dead or dying. The gate is broken, and windows are covered with brown paper.

Seems to me that she and her colleagues are taking about as good care of the country . . . .

Plus this: LAURA RICHARDSON PROMISES TO EXPLAIN ALL THOSE DEFAULTS–AFTER THE ELECTION. I don’t think she did. I love this bit:

“This election is about fiscal responsibility,” she said.

But she is defining fiscal responsibility narrowly.

”My personal [financial] experience is not what this particular election is about,” she emphasizes.

Your political class at work.

2.19.2009

Hitch went drinking

From a blog........



"I dont know if you find this as news worthy or not, but Christopher Hitchens is currently in Beirut sponsored by the same group that owns that crap NOW Lebanon. He got in a few nights ago and surprisingly went out drinking. On his way out of the bar he saw an SSNP poster and wrote on it "Fuck the SSNP". There just happened to be some SSNP thugs near by--most likely asking people for their ID, and most likely to no avail--and saw him write on the poster and kicked his ass. He is still walking with a limp."Update: This story has now been confirmed. Look, it's widely known that since the May 2008 events the SSNP guys have behaved like thugs in Hamra (where the ass-kicking took place). But seriously, would you roll into East L.A. and start writing over gang signs? I mean, is that smart? C'mon, Brother Hitchens, we're rootin' for you, but have a little walkin' around sense. He was probably at De Prague. Where the wait staff is, like, 90% SSNP. Abu Muqawama's Top Three West Beirut Watering Holes: 1. Barometre (cheap arak, great fattoush); 2. Captain's Cabin; 3. Danny's. (In response to a reader, the great Chez Andre closed sometime a little over a year ago. That hole-in-the-wall was great.)Update II: Well, score at least one for Hitch. Our spies report that at his talk at my alma mater tonight, an earnest young woman in a hijab stood up and demanded to know whether or not the Palestinian people have a right to their own land and history. Hitchens just looked at the girl and explained, "Well, I once wrote this book with Edward Said..."

2.16.2009

If I can't have my way, I'll sue

Orwellian Evolution Lawsuit

The University of California Museum of Paleontology has a website titled, Understanding Evolution For Teachers, and on that site is a page addressing the oft-repeated fundamentalist claim that evolution and religion are mortal enemies: Misconceptions: Evolution and Religion are Incompatible.

The misconception that one always has to choose between science and religion is incorrect. Of course, some religious beliefs explicitly contradict science (e.g., the belief that the world and all life on it was created in six literal days); however, most religious groups have no conflict with the theory of evolution or other scientific findings. In fact, many religious people, including theologians, feel that a deeper understanding of nature actually enriches their faith. Moreover, in the scientific community there are thousands of scientists who are devoutly religious and also accept evolution.

Well, the idea that religion and evolution can coexist peacefully is absolute anathema to some, and now a “schoolteacher” is suing UC, with the bizarre Orwellian argument that this statement is unconstitutional: Cal Web site draws anti-evolution lawsuit.
Even the odious Discovery Institute is putting in its 2¢.

2.14.2009

This Is What Happens When Preachers Promote Self-Loathing

The son of televangelist (multi-millionaire) TD Jakes is a homo. And, thanks to his father's upbringing, he's been charged with indecent exposure.
The son of T.D. Jakes — the Dallas megachurch pastor who’s called homosexuality a “brokenness” and declared that he would never hire a sexually active gay person — was arrested in a gay sex sting in Kiest Park in January, according to Dallas police reports.

Jermaine Donnell Jakes, 29, faces a charge of indecent exposure after allegedly exposing himself in front of two undercover vice detectives shortly after 10 p.m. on Jan. 3. Senior Cpl. Janice Crowther, a DPD spokeswoman, confirmed Thursday, Feb. 12 that the detectives were both male.
And TD Jakes' response? Support...but not really:

“It is in moments like these that I am so grateful that we do not preach that we are the solution, but we look to Christ for resolution,” Jakes, pastor of Dallas’ megachurch The Potter’s House, said in a written statement provided to The Dallas Morning News late Friday night.

“So then, as a very human family with real issues, like many other people, we will draw from the same well of grace to which we have led others to drink and be refreshed,” the statement said.

How about, "I love my gay son?" How about, "He did this because I never recognized his sexuality in a grown-up way, but instead preached against homosexuality based on ancient texts and bullshit superstitions?" How about, "I forced my son to seek sexual pleasures in public parks by denying modern science and my son's own best interests so I could be a sanctimonious, money-grubbing twat?"

FUCK YOU ASSHOLE!!! This guy has written many books on how to be "a man" and how to be "a real dad," all the while condemning the gays. Let's see what his next book is about now that he has to look biology, and his own hypocrisy, in the face.

A museum for us



2.12.2009

Look Into Your Gut

Colbert is a genius!

Unhappy Darwin Day!

After 150 years and mountains of evidences, most Americans still don't accept evolutionary theory as valid.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: On The Origin Of Species contains many orders of magnitude more evidences supporting evolution than all of Christendom has supporting the assertion that The Gospel According To John was actually written by some guy named John who was an apostle of some guy named Jesus. Which is none.

What a fucked up country we live in...

Happy Darwin Day!


Darwin turns 200 today, and this year marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of On The Origin of Species!

2.11.2009

Insert sarcastic comment about the clerks knowing it was a Bat'leth here

Pic Shows Man Robbing Stores With Klingon Sword
Clerks Recognize Sword As 'Bat'leth'
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- A surveillance picture released by police Wednesday afternoon shows a man armed with what appears to be a small Klingon sword, holding up a 7-Eleven convenience store.

That same man robbed another 7-Eleven store store a half-hour later, and remains at large, Colorado Springs police Lt. David Whitlock said.

The first robbery was reported at 1:50 a.m., at 145 N Spruce St. The clerk told police a white man in his 20s, wearing a black mask, black jacket, and blue jeans, entered the store with a weapon the clerk recognized from the Star Trek TV series.

The robber demanded money and left with an undisclosed amount.

A half hour later, police received a call from a 7-Eleven at 2407 N. Union Blvd., where a man matching the previous description entered the store with a similar weapon. He also demanded money from the store clerk. The clerk refused and the robber "transported" himself out of the store on foot.

Both clerks described the weapon as a Star Trek Klingon-type sword, called a "bat'leth."

Neither clerk was injured in the robberies.

The Startrek.com Web site describes the Klingon weapon as crescent-shaped and about a yard long. However, the weapon that the man was wielding appears to be smaller than that. The bat'leth has points on both ends, two points in between and a handle on the outside.

Police said they don't know if the sword used by the robber was made of metal.

Klingons were warlike enemies of the good-guy United Federation of Planets in the original "Star Trek" series but were allies in "Star Trek: The Next Generation."


Mallet is everywhere

I've been going to ReasonTV for a while now & watching their videos. Today, I watched this one: Mississippi Drug War Blues: The Case of Cory Maye. (It's excellent & infuriating all at the same time.)

Also, I noticed that it had won Best Documentary Short at the Oxford (Mississippi) Film Festival 2009. I went to the Oxford Film Festival blog & noticed a familiar name- no, not Morgan Freeman, wisenheimers-

“There’s so much satisfaction in putting something together and watching people enjoy it,” said Michelle Emanuel, festival co-director with Micah Ginn and Molly Fergusson.

"This isn't the Joads eating dust and paper for 10 years...."

Lest we forget....

Losing Our Religion
Do more than light a candle for the patron saint of capitalism

Before he ran for president, Rudy Giuliani gave a couple hundred speeches a year all over the world, to all sorts of groups—business, philanthropic, political. He would often include a riff about how capitalism has improved more lives and done more to lift people out of poverty than any other economic system. The line was usually greeted by polite nods or even raised eyebrows, especially in Western Europe and the bluer precincts of the United States. But when I saw him deliver it in Poland and Russia, it killed.

In those former Communist countries, people burst into furious applause as their translators uncoded Rudy's ode to free markets. Having lived under centralized economies, they get it. We don't.

The speed with which venerable American institutions—Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Wachovia—have disappeared or been gobbled up is jarring. But in most cases, that's just creative destruction at work. What Joseph Schumpeter defined as "the process of industrial mutation that incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one."

What's far more disconcerting is how quickly Americans seem willing to throw off our last few vestiges of freedom and adapt a nationalized, Washington, D.C.-based set of standards—replete with pay caps, government-preferred industries (and companies within those industries), and massive new government employment—all in the panicky name of "stability."

Even more startling is that this new economic catastrophe is only about four months old. This isn't the Joads eating dust and paper for 10 years—the stock market was at its all-time high in October 2007 and it has only been since this past October that things have gotten scary bad.

Many religions make saints out of those who refuse to reject their beliefs despite extreme duress. Jesus is a pretty good example, and then there's Count Valentine Potocki, a Polish aristocrat who converted to Judaism and was killed for refusing to renounce. He's been a hero to the Jewish people ever since. So why are Americans—the inventors of Google, the assembly line, and the Pocket Fisherman—suddenly so willing to ditch all we've known and put our trust in Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid?

My theory is that it's because no one is really standing up for capitalism. No one seems willing to make the case that life lived by one's own wits is, while arguably riskier and more nerve-wracking, better and more enjoyable than one lived under the yoke of big government. And when someone does try to stand up for freedom, he invariably sounds like a ranter, is called a Paultard (or some other schoolyard taunt) and is sent scurrying for cover.

It doesn't have to be this way. Someone could make the case for free markets, arguing that success only has value if failure is an option. He could do it in a way that regular people understand, in a way that even inspires people.

I know this because I saw it on YouTube—and so have almost 200,000 others.

In the grim old days of 1979, when statism was on the march and all but a few free market odd fellows were promoting economic freedom, Milton Friedman was interviewed on television by Phil Donahue. In full helmet-hair glory, Donahue asks the great professor whether the wealth gap and the divide between haves and have-nots proves that capitalism has failed, that "greed" has caused great suffering.

Donahue: "When you see around the globe the mal-distribution of wealth, the desperate plight of millions of people in undeveloped countries ... when you see the greed and the concentration of power, do you ever have a moment of doubt about capitalism and whether greed is a good idea?"


Friedman: "The world runs on individuals pursuing their separate interests. The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus. Einstein didn't construct his theory under order from a bureaucrat. Henry Ford didn't revolutionize the auto industry that way. In the only cases in which the masses have escaped from the kind of grinding poverty you're talking about, the only cases in recorded history are where they have had capitalism and largely free trade. If you want to know where the masses are worst off, it's exactly in the kinds of societies that depart from that. The record of history is absolutely crystal clear: that there is no alternative way so far discovered of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by a free enterprise system."


It is a joy to listen to Friedman's forceful and persuasive defense of capitalism. These two-and-a-half minutes should be mandatory viewing for every American. Especially those who believe that "stimulus" in the form of creating government jobs by confiscating the wealth of others will improve our nation's economy.



2.06.2009

"The Future of Terrorism"

Iran's New Satellites: The Pasdaran in Space
Walid Phares

The Associated Press revealed to the world Tuesday that "according to Tehran, Iran has successfully sent its first domestically made satellite into orbit, as announced by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad." But while the Iranian President claimed the move was to develop "science for friendship, brotherhood and justice," AP noted this was "a significant step in an ambitious space program that has worried many international observers."


2.05.2009

And as a commenter pointed out, Jimmy Buffet is still alive ....

Now life is short and it's filled with stuff
So let me know baby when you've had enough....
-- Surfin' Dead

Lux Interior obit @ Reason, with a clip from The Cramps' live performance at the Napa State Mental Hospital.



2.04.2009

Cute With Chris: What Was I Thinking?

Hitler used to be 11!

Back the fuck off kid!

Another Mallet Freshman After His First Party

This poor boy just had dental surgery. We've all been there kid.

An Enlightened Capitalist Helps State-funded Science

A Boston business magnate is donating $100 million to HIV research, specifically to create a vaccine.

Meanwhile, anti-HIV gene therapy goes to trial
. It's a potential treatment and vaccine.

Prayers continue to save no one. Gods, to date, are useless against this retrovirus.

Another Transitional Fossil Is Not Found

Creationists always say that no transitional fossils have been discovered. Well, another one hasn't been discovered.This fossil is a transitional whale species. Superstitious creationist twats will argue that it is neither. Of course, if your mind is not polluted by nonsense, the find is fascinating.

John Stossel: The Reason.tv Interview

Set your Tivos to stun! John Stossel's 20/20 special, Bullshit in America, will air on Friday, March 6. Based on six segments from Reason.tv and featuring Drew Carey, Stossel will take a long (and libertarian) look at immigration reform, medical marijuana, eminent domain abuse, and much more.

2.03.2009

Eddie Izzard: Stoned Olympics

Kettle, Line 2. It's A Pot. It Says You're Black.

Plug your irony meter into a surge protector; otherwise this article about loser Kurt Warner will blow the needle off.

"A lot of people believe 13 is an unlucky number," Warner said, "but I've kind of embraced it."

He added: "A lot of negative things come with the No. 13. My life is never dictated by superstitions. My faith is first and foremost. If you believe that God's in control, there is no reason to believe in superstitions."

Credulity, benightedness, and obliviousness all in the same package. How convenient.