Preliator pro Causa

Daily Blend: Friday, January 27, 2012

2012-01-27T20:52:00.000-05:00

Rep. Larry Pittman (R-NC)

Arkansas man Tased, beaten and arrested despite having committed no crime. Court partially sides with him, awards him … $1.
Whoopsie: Pastor and Rep. Larry Pittman (R-NC) accidentally sends out mass email calling for “public hangings” for “abortionists, rapists and kidnappers”.
(via @radleybalko)
The Internet: Rallying people around good causes like never before.
40 questions for fundy Christians.
(via Rob F)
Headline of the day: Drug-fueled-orgy-ruined-by-bear-spray edition.
(via @radleybalko)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Derrol Kirby III • Danielle Ingram • James Marschewski • police brutality • excessive force • Larry Pittman • hanging • capital punishment • public execution • Reddit • Omari • Faaraja • orphanages • Christians • Christianity • fundamentalism • fundamentalists • Stephen Barclay • Leanne Reid • bear repellant • bear spray • orgies • Owen Greenan

Study: Prejudice and conservatism linked to lower intelligence?

2012-01-27T15:15:00.001-05:00

While it’s obvious that prejudicial and regressive ideologies can be espoused by anyone, anywhere, a new study tentatively claims that bigotry and social conservatism tend to be more pronounced in people of statistically lower intelligence:

There's no gentle way to put it: People who give in to racism and prejudice may simply be dumb, according to a new study that is bound to stir public controversy.

The research finds that children with low intelligence are more likely to hold prejudiced attitudes as adults. These findings point to a vicious cycle, according to lead researcher Gordon Hodson, a psychologist at Brock University in Ontario. Low-intelligence adults tend to gravitate toward socially conservative ideologies, the study found. Those ideologies, in turn, stress hierarchy and resistance to change, attitudes that can contribute to prejudice, Hodson wrote in an email to LiveScience.

Now, before anyone jumps the gun in either direction, I’ll point out that this is just one study that purports to discern one small link between overall intelligence and general levels of prejudice. I suspect there may naturally be any number of intervening factors at play, localized cultural viewpoints and religious beliefs being key amongst them. I’d also like to know just where the study’s sample pool comes from. In the end, I’ll leave it to actual experts and statisticians to decide just how reliable these findings are.

But nonetheless, it certainly does seem to mesh with both common sense (think the growing anti-intellectual/anti-“elite” sentiment amongst conservatives of late) and other bits and pieces of research we’ve seen on related matters so far. It also apparently supports similar findings from previous studies, as noted in the article, itself. All in all, it boils down to basic human psychology: People who are less able or privileged in life for one reason or another, especially those stuck in more restrictive or regressive cultures, tend to stick more to their traditional and tribalistic guns, which acts to discourage higher levels of tolerance and open-mindedness for new or different things, including other social groups and minorities. That much, at least, has been established beyond debate.

(via Joe. My. God.)

Tags: LiveScience • conservatives • conservatism • IQ • intelligence • prejudice

Inhuman Soundtrack | 02: Down to Earth

2012-01-26T23:26:00.001-05:00

Inhuman Soundtrack (#02)
Down to Earth
Composed by Joé McKen
Last updated: 01/26/12

This is the second piece in the “soundtrack” for my upcoming novel, Inhuman, picking off moments after where 01: ‘Escape from the Chartraine’ left off and spanning the rest of Chapter 01: ‘Escape and Arrival’.

Written & recorded with Sibelius 6; mixed with Audacity 1.3.

You are free to use & share my music as long as I am properly credited as the original creator. Song(s) available upon request.

Inhuman Soundtrack | 01: Escape from the Chartraine

2012-01-26T23:14:00.000-05:00

Inhuman Soundtrack (#01)
Escape from the Chartraine
Composed by Joé McKen
Last updated: 01/26/12

This is the “score”, so to speak, for the very first scene in Chapter 01: ‘Escape and Arrival’ of my Inhuman series (disregarding Sean’s introductory journal entry). It’s so annoying when you wake from a peaceful dream to find your spaceship exploding out of nowhere …

Written & recorded with Sibelius 6; mixed with Audacity 1.3.

You are free to use & share my music as long as I am properly credited as the original creator. Song(s) available upon request.

Daily Blend: Thursday, January 26, 2012

2012-01-26T22:29:00.000-05:00

Bill Gates

Shorter Washington State police: “There’s no good evidence for it, but we think your kids might all be getting hooked on heroin.”
(via The Agitator)
“In sum, Obama has deftly and intelligently pursued ignominious and ignoble foreign-policy goals.”
The Land of the Free slips to #47 in world press freedom index. (Canada is #10 – yay?)
(via The Agitator)
Funny world: Founder ^[pictured] of evil technological empire is quickly becoming the greatest philanthropist in human history.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: heroin • Washington • Dave Hoag • Glenn Greenwald • Barack Obama • foreign policy • Press Freedom Index • Reporters Without Borders • USA • United States • Canada • Bill Gates • Microsoft • Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation • charity • Global Fund

Zon: ‘My Little Pony’, Derpy and ableism

2012-01-26T21:53:00.003-05:00

This is a guest post by Zon. The opinions expressed herein are theirs and might not necessarily reflect my own (though chances are they do).

Full disclosure: I am a bit of a “brony”, myself; I enjoy the show, though I don’t take any part in the fandom.

I've been a huge fan of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic since the middle of the first season. I found the characters creative, real, and endearing, the writing solid and well-planned, and the animation pleasing to the eye. For a kids show, it manages to work quite well for any age group.

The matter that I have decided to chime in on is the first vocal appearance of a well known background pony, named Derpy Hooves by the fandom. I'm going to skip the history of this character, since there is a lot that would need to be said. I was confused, however, when I found out that there were quite a few people who were offended by her appearance, saying that she was perpetuating an ableist stereotype. After reading these posts, however, I have decided that I do not agree.

I'm not saying that you shouldn't be offended by this. I don't care if you get offended by anything, provided that when you start talking about why you're offended, you keep your argument reasonable. I can even understand why Derpy's appearance can be seen as offensive. Personally, I don't think it is, but I can't speak for everyone.

I really think that everyone is reading a bit too deep into this. I can't imagine that anyone from the studio would be so insensitive as to think “Well, let's give her the voice of a retarded person”. As for the clumsiness, I think everyone needs to keep in mind that this is a kids' show; it started as a kids' show, and will continue to be a kids' show for its entire existence. The fact that adults started enjoying it was more of an accident, really. To a kid, clumsy is funny. Ask any parent if they ever dropped something in front of their kid, and if the kid started laughing about it. To a child, it's funny. I remember a moment from my childhood where my father slipped on ice and accidentally whacked my mother with the snow shovel. I thought it was the funniest thing I had ever seen.

These kinds of characters pop up everywhere. Just look at Patrick from the show Spongebob Squarepants. He talked in a low, slow voice, and asked such questions as “Is Mayonnaise an instrument?” and was completely unable to understand that he was working at the Krusty Krab while answering the phone. You could also look at Osaka, from the anime Azumanga Daioh, whose head was always in space. Stimpy, from Ren and Stimpy, who picked his nose, stuck the 'findings' under a table and kept them in a fridge as a collection. Eugene, from Hey Arnold, who was well known as a jinx. Heffer, from Rocko's Modern Life. Dog, from Catdog. Cartoon Network had its fair share of this archetype as well. Ed, from Ed, Edd, and Eddy, the titular character from Johnny Bravo, Cow, from Cow and Chicken, I.R. Baboon, from I Am Weasel, and Billy, from Billy and Mandy. These types of characters are nothing new, and will be continuing to pop up for years to come.

The big thing I see in this case, however, is that we don't have enough information on Derpy to really make any assessment of her true personality. She has shown up for just under a minute of screen time. We see enough of her to know that she is clumsy, something we knew from a scene in season one, where she dropped a variety of objects on Twilight from a flying truck, but we have no more information. She was also dealing with Rainbow Dash, a character who is well known for her impatience. There is not enough here to make a call on Derpy's real self.

To those who are offended, by all means, keep being offended. However, before telling people that we need to understand why you're offended, maybe you should wonder why we are not. Meet somewhere in the middle here, and understand that not everyone thinks the same way, and not everything means one absolute thing. Let the writers and animators do their thing. If Derpy has more vocal appearances, we'll get to learn a little more about her, and maybe then we'll get to see if it's something that is an absolute offensive piece of television.

Hiya, me again. I just thought I’d append a clip of the segment-in-question for you to judge for yourselves:

My transcript: (click the [+/-] to expand/collapse →)

[−]

RAINBOW DASH is hanging up a banner on town hall when she dodges a sudden lightning bolt.

RAINBOW DASH: Now, careful, Derpy!

DERPY is bouncing on a small cloud, sending lightning bolts out with each jump.

RD: You don’t wanna do any more damage than you’ve already done.

The Town Hall roof is destroyed and crumbling.

DERPY: [continues to bounce] I just don’t know what went wrong!

Derpy gets electrocuted and stays still for a moment, dazed.

RD: [sarcastically] Yeah. It’s a mystery.

Derpy flies backwards over Rainbow Dash as the latter finishes nailing up the banner.

DERPY: Nice work, Rainbow Dash!

Derpy bangs into a support beam, which breaks way and falls off the balcony. Rainbow Dash goes after it and tries to stop it, but it crashes through the floor below with her beneath it.

DERPY: [peering into the hole, shouting] You okay, Rainbow Dash? Anything I can do to help?

Rainbow Dash quickly zips out of the hole.

RD: NO! Nothing! In the name of Celestia, just sit there and do nothing.

Derpy sits down hard and the floor gives way; she falls in, pulling Rainbow Dash in with her.

DERPY: Oops! My bad.

[In short: Ponies are assembled to celebrate as Applejack prepares to leave for the year’s Equestria Rodeo Competition in Canterlot, the prize money of which is intended to pay for fixing Town Hall.

DERPY: [leaning over hole] Yeah, Applejack! Woo-hoo!

She falls over back into the hole with a crash. Rainbow Dash rolls her eyes.

Tags: Zon • My Little Pony • My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic • Derpy Hooves • ableism

That poor little bacterium had no chance against that leukocyte

2012-01-26T18:44:00.000-05:00

Run, little guy, run …! Oh, wait, that’s a bacterium. In that case, go, white blood cell! Crush! Destroy! KILL IT!

Damn, one wonders why microbes and such even bother with trying to make us sick with these globular monsters on the prowl.

(via @cwage)

Tags: white blood cells • leukocytes • neutrophils • Staphylococcus aureus

Fox’s Bolling attacks Obama for using Air Force One

2012-01-26T18:33:00.000-05:00

Today in Obama Derangement Syndrome, brought to you by Fox News’s Eric Bolling:

My transcript: (click the [+/-] to expand/collapse →)

[−]

GRETCHEN CARLSON: Let’s talk about the President, because after the State of the Union, he’s gone out now on a fundraising tour – the Swing State Tour, it’s being called: Arizona, Nevada, Iowa, Colorado, and Michigan. So, these states are picked on purpose.

[…]

ERIC BOLLING: Let me just do – Air Force One, guys: $181,757 per hour to operate. So I just did a little math, I followed the money a little bit, I did the flight times between the cities. You end up with, D.C. to Iowa, Iowa to Arizona, Vegas, etc., etc., back and forth: Eight hours and 48 minutes, and that comes to about $1.6 million, just to fly that airplane around the country. Forget, y’know, security and the other things that are associated with it. So it’s costing the taxpayers a lot for Mr. Obama to show up in these places.

You get that? President Obama should totally stop using the plane that was built to transport the President around. Or maybe he should just sit at the back of it. After all, Bolling & co. never had any problem with any other president using Air Force One.

And to cap it all, here’s his response to critics:

Libiots panties in a wad- I questioned Obama using AF-1. for five (swing) state tour. I did the math 8h 48m airtime @ $181,757/hr = $1.6m #Fail #hopeforchange

Well, as long as you continue to dazzle us with your rhetorical mastery, Bolling.

Tags: Eric Bolling • Barack Obama • Air Force One

Indiana Senate committee passes Creationist education bill

2012-01-26T14:47:00.000-05:00

Sen. Scott Schneider (R-IN)

Someone might want to point out to Creationist legislators in the Indiana Senate that they’ve just about to vote themselves into losing a major lawsuit:

An Indiana Senate committee on Wednesday endorsed teaching creationism in public schools, despite pleas from scientists and religious leaders to keep religion out of science classrooms.

Senate Bill 89 allows school corporations to authorize "the teaching of various theories concerning the origin of life" and specifically mentions "creation science" as one such theory.

State Sen. Scott Schneider, R-Indianapolis, who voted for the measure, said if there are many theories about life's origins, students should be taught all of them.

But John Staver, professor of chemistry and science education at Purdue University, said evolution is the only theory of life that relies on empirical evidence from scientific investigations.

"Creation science is not science," Staver said. "It is unquestionably a statement of a specific religion."

The Rev. Charles Allen, head of Grace Unlimited, an Indianapolis campus ministry, said students would be served better by teaching religion comparatively, rather than trying to "smuggle it in" to a science course.

The Republican-controlled Senate Education Committee nevertheless voted 8-2 to send the legislation to the full Senate.

What does it say about your capacity as a lawmaker, particularly one in a senate committee devoted to education policy, when both scientists and even ministers are telling you you’ve got your head up your posterior?

(via Blag Hag)

Tags: SB 89 • Scott Schneider • Charles Allen • Grace Unlimited • Indiana Senate Education Committee • Creationism

Pastor destroys children’s belief in Heaven through kittycide

2012-01-26T13:54:00.001-05:00

Moody the cat

Pastor Rick Bartlett of the Bastrop Christian Church in Texas is in a spot of trouble. It all started when he caught what he believed was one of those feral cats he’d been having problems with:

Rick Bartlett, pastor of the Bastrop Christian Church, is facing animal cruelty charges. Bastrop Police Chief Michael Black said Bartlett admitted that he caught the cat, named Moody, in a trap on Sunday, Jan. 15. Bartlett told them that he was having a problem with feral cats in his garden.

Moody ^[sic] also told police that he had the cat in a cage in the back of his pick-up truck for three days and forgot about him until Tuesday, Jan. 17., when Bartlett brought the cat to police. An animal control officer noticed a name tag including the phone number of Moody’s owners, Sarah and Eddy Bell, on the cat's collar.

Okay, so he was negligent, but he ended up doing the right thing and dropped kitty off with its owners, right? Happy ending?

Oh, wait:

The officer offered to take Moody back to his owners but police said Bartlett told them he’d take the cat back himself since they were his neighbors.

Later on the same day, a park visitor discovered Moody’s near lifeless body on the bank of the Colorado River, some 40-50 feet below a bridge.

[…]

Moody was Sarah and Eddy Bell's cat for 11 years. They are having a difficult time understanding what happened to the beloved member of their family. Trying to explain his death to their five-year old daughter has proved challenging.

“She also asked me where Moody is now and I said, 'Baby he's in Heaven,'" said Sarah. "She knows the man who did this is a pastor at the Bastrop Christian Church and she said, 'I don't believe in Heaven anymore, Moody's just dead.'”

Score another one for that superior, God-given Christian morality we’re always hearing about.

As a grim silver lining, though, we now have a sure-fire way to get young children to stop believing in religious fairy tales: Just show them what these so-called holy leaders are really capable of.

Edit (01/26/12 11:50 PM ET) – Thanks to Skwiver for pointing out something I’d missed. Fixed.

(via Pharyngula)

Tags: Rick Bartlett • Bastrop Christian Church • Moody • Sarah Bell • Eddy Bell • Heaven • pastors

Daily Blend: Wednesday, January 25, 2012

2012-01-25T22:20:00.000-05:00

Stephen Slevin

Extreme incompetence or plain cruelty? New Mexico man ^[pictured] awarded $22 million after spending two years in solitary confinement for DWI. The details only make it even worse.
(via @radleybalko)
Interesting 4^th and 5^th Amendment issues raised: Colorado judge rules that citizens may be ordered to decrypt their personal computers so that police may search them for incriminating files (even if they have no probable cause for believing such files actually exist).
Oops: English education secretary Michael Gove’s plan to send a personally inscribed Bible to every school in the country fails when told he’d have to pay for it himself.
(via @todayspolitics)
Failed presidential contender Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) wants a fourth chance to continue dragging down Minnesota’s IQ.
Well, how about that: An actual Republican nomination animated horse race.
(via The Agitator)
Would-be horrific video: Dog’s leash caught in elevator. (Don’t worry, happy ending.)
(via The Agitator)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Stephen Slevin • DWI • DUI • Don Ana Country Jail • solitary confinement • Robert Blackburn • PGP Desktop • laptops • Fourth Amendment • Fifth Amendment • self-incrimination • Ramona Fricosu • Michael Gove • Bible • England • Britain • schools • Michele Bachmann • Minnesota • Republicans • Republican Party • GOP • dogs • elevators

Godless babies in Minnesota!

2012-01-25T14:59:00.000-05:00

Minnesota Atheists has set up a round of billboards in Minneapolis that’s sure to get some discussion going (and not just over the collective heart attack from graphic designers everywhere):

Anyone else see this and think “Ed West bait”?

(via Pharyngula)

Tags: Minnesota Atheists • atheist ads • billboards • atheist billboards

Study: Abortion safer than childbirth

2012-01-24T19:19:00.000-05:00

Yet more research debunks yet another religious-Right canard, with an added twist that’s sure to get their conniptions going:

Getting a legal abortion is much safer than giving birth, suggests a new U.S. study published Monday.

Researchers found that women were about 14 times more likely to die during or after giving birth to a live baby than to die from complications of an abortion.

Experts say the findings, though not unexpected, contradict some state laws that suggest abortions are high-risk procedures.

The message is that getting an abortion and giving birth are both safe, said Dr. Anne Davis, who studies obstetrics and gynecology at the Columbia University Medical Center in New York, and wasn't involved in the new study.

"We wouldn't tell people, 'Don't have a baby because it's safer to have an abortion' -- that's ridiculous," she told Reuters Health. "We're trying to help women who are having all reproductive experiences know what to expect."

Why, it’s almost like these people are actually trying to help women. And here I thought they were just trying to get them to suck & dunk their unborn babies in life-threatening abortion mills. It’s almost like all those howling anti-choicers are just completely full of shit or something.

Who knew?

(via ThinkProgress)

Tags: Anne Davis • childbirth • Columbia University Medical Center • pro-choice

One in every 419 U.S. citizens is now a registered sex offender

2012-01-24T18:16:00.000-05:00

The rampant criminalization of anything deemed remotely “sexually inappropriate” is taking its grave toll:

Today, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) released the results of its latest survey regarding the number of registered sex offenders located in the U.S. The organization's most recent survey of states found there are 747,408 registered sex offenders in the country today, which represents an increase of 7,555 offenders from the previous survey in June 2011.

NCMEC conducted its first survey in 2006, which showed there were 606,816 registered sex offenders in the U.S. In just five years, an additional 140,592 convicted sex offenders have been added to sex offender registries across the country, an increase of 23.2%. The three states with the largest number of registered sex offenders are California (106,216), Texas (68,529) and Florida (57,896).

You know, I readily consider myself a general cynic when it comes to the human condition, but even I find it extremely difficult to believe that roughly every one-in-419 U.S. citizens is a potential rapist or child molester, and especially, that the American public has increased its sex crime rates by 20% in the last five years alone.

The obvious explanation, as has been made incontrovertibly clear in the last few years alone, is that virtually any behavior that can be considered “inappropriate” – from teens having sex to mere public urination or streaking, not to mention other equally harmless acts such as merely paying another consenting adult for sexual services – is now being labeled a criminal act and prosecuted accordingly.

Of course, none of this will ever change so long as those in charge refuse to get a clue:

"The courts have long held that the requirement that a convicted sex offender register with authorities is not punitive, it is regulatory," said Ernie Allen, president and CEO of NCMEC.

Being forced to register as a convicted sex offender isn’t a punishment, eh?

Edgar Coker Jr.

Tell that to Edgar Coker Jr., who was falsely accused of rape at 15 years old and is now unable to live without being constantly hounded by police because he’s still on the Virginia sex offender registry, despite having been proven innocent.

Tell that to Frank Rodriguez, a married father of four who can’t play with his kids or get any halfway-decent job because he once had fully consensual sex with his then-15-year-old future wife when he was 19.

Tell that to Robert Dipiazza, who loses job after job simply because he once had sex with his then-15-year-old girlfriend when he was 18.

Matthew Freeman

Tell that to Matthew Freeman, who can’t even play basketball in his own driveway because he once made love to his then-15-year-old girlfriend when he was 17.

Then, how about you tell that to the 15-year-old girl in Pennsylvania who was arrested and charged with child molestation and possession and distribution of child porn, thus securing her a spot on any local sex offender registry, simply because she chose to post various sexy pictures of herself on the Internet.

Also, tell that to all the New Orleans prostitutes and their clients who are labeled “sex offenders” because they engaged in oral or anal sex.

Dan Wheeler

Or better yet, tell that to Dan Wheeler, who cannot foster-parent nor get any number of jobs because he once had his identity stolen by a sex offender.

Afterwards, tell that to the registered sex offenders in Georgia who are forced to live in the woods like animals because ridiculously harsh state laws prevent them from living in actual society.

Similarly, tell that to sex offenders in Miami, Florida, whose living situation is so utterly abysmal that even foreign news channels are paying attention.

And finally, why don’t you tell that to the hundreds of children and teenagers who are turned into sex offenders under a broken system that treats anyone who plays “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours” as equal to child-molesting rapists.

And those are just some of the cases that I have personally blogged about on this site.

But please, Mr. Allen. Tell us all again how being forced to register as a sex offender doesn’t “punish” anyone.

As has been said before: The idea of sex offender registries as a means of keeping tabs on the genuinely dangerous elements of society is a good one. The problem is entirely in the implementation and execution. And as long as people who cause no actual harm to anyone are both forced into the system and subsequently prevented from clearing their names and rebuilding their lives, the system as it is is intolerably corrupt.

(via The Agitator)

Tags: National Center for Missing & Exploited Children • NCMEC • sex offender registries • Ernie Allen

Daily Blend: Monday, January 23, 2012

2012-01-23T20:14:00.000-05:00

[full size (200×237)]

Colorado Republicans push bills to allow guns in K-12 schools and eliminate state-level background checks.
Tennessee Tea Party “demands” that textbooks pretend the Founding Fathers were absolutely holy and pure and perfect.
(via Joe. My. God.)
Republican Party: ♪ We’re on the highway to hell ♫
(via The Agitator)
Not entirely accurate, but still a very interesting point: The Pirate Bay is the new Hollywood. ^[pictured]
I just can’t get enough of him: Vox Day now manages to turn a grievous case of anti-atheist discrimination in Indonesia into an attack on atheists.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: gun nuts • Republicans • Colorado • background checks • schools • Tea Party • Tea Partiers • Tennessee Tea Party • US Founding Fathers • Indians • Native-Americans • US history • Newt Gingrich • Republican Party • GOP • Barack Obama • Mitt Romney • The Pirate Bay • Hollywood • Stop Online Piracy Act • SOPA • Vox Day • atheists • Christianity • Indonesia • Alexander Aan

Breakthrough: Stem cells return vision to legally blind patients

2012-01-23T19:58:00.000-05:00

It’s no exaggeration to say that these sorts of medical breakthroughs are what so-called “pro-lifers” are fighting against in every practical sense:

Two women who had gone legally blind from untreatable eye diseases had dramatic improvements in their vision after injections of human embryonic stem cells, making it the first documented time these controversial cells have helped someone.

"I'm thrilled and so excited," said their ophthalmologist, Dr. Steven Schwartz, at UCLA's Jules Stein Eye Institute. "We're not saying we found a cure for blindness, but this is a big step forward for regenerative medicine."

Schwartz and his colleagues published their study in The Lancet. For each patient, stem cells derived from an embryo were injected into their retinal tissue. They had to take anti-rejection drugs for a short period so their eyes wouldn't reject the foreign tissue.

Before her stem cell surgery in July, Sue Freeman, 78, couldn't take a walk, go shopping or cook by herself because of macular degeneration, a disease that affects millions of Americans and for which there is no cure.

"I couldn't pour a glass of water without spilling it on the counter," she said.

Now, after surgery in one eye, she cooks, shops and walks on her own. "I can even read my own writing now," she added. "And I've noticed other things. My husband and I were walking around one of our rental properties and I noticed scuff marks on the wall. I told him we need to fix this, and he said, 'You're seeing things better, but that's making my honey-do list even longer.'"

Uh-oh. I sense a pro-life/disgruntled partner anti-science coalition in the works.

Tags: embryonic stem cells • stem cell research • blindness • Steven Schwartz • Sue Freeman • Jules Stein Eye Institute

U.S. soldiers: It gets better

2012-01-23T18:47:00.000-05:00

There’s something especially neat and invigorating about seeing out-and-proud U.S. soldiers spread the It Gets Better message from overseas:

It’s amazing how, only a few months ago, this same video would have resulted in their immediate discharge. Oh, how I love progress … especially when it comes bundled as both a message of hope and a middle finger in the snarly faces of social regressives.

(via Joe. My. God.)

Tags: OutServe BAF • It Gets Better Project • US soldiers • gay soldiers • US Military

Doggycide in Minneapolis, MN

2012-01-23T15:07:00.002-05:00

Includes blatantly flawed court ruling concerning illegal entry:

What happened: A policeman went into a plaintiff’s garage because plaintiff’s garage door was open and the policeman wanted to investigate. The plaintiff’s pit bull dog ran, or jogged (depending upon whom you believe), at the policeman, so the policeman shot the pet in the head and killed it.

Decision: No liability for the police because of qualified immunity. Decision seems to say that a police officer can shoot a dog even if the dog is on its own property.

Criticisms: [In short: 1) The court opinion doesn’t specify whether both the officer and the dog were inside the garage at the time of the shooting, which matters because 2) people (including police) are not allowed to trespass, and thus anything that happened afterwards should never have happened to begin with given the officer’s original transgression. Finally, 3) The officer did not have probable cause to enter an open garage even despite searching for suspects, thus he was not supposed to be there.] As it is, the opinion simply seems wrong for failing to consider the Constitutionality of the entry, and instead improperly focusing exclusively on what happened after the dog started his approach.

Doggycide Bingo Index

Confirmed hits:

Dead dog

Firearm as first reaction

No apology

Wrong address (no probable cause for entry)

No disciplinary action taken

No investigation

Owner/cops disagree on dog behavior

Illegal police entry

Total: 8/25
Somewhat routine. No bingo.

(via The Agitator)

Tags: Minneapolis, MN • illegal entry • Doggycide Bingo

SCOTUS: Police need warrant to secretly track suspects

2012-01-23T14:28:00.001-05:00

Got a warrant for that?

This is pretty big, albeit (should be) entirely unsurprising: The U.S. top court has ruled that cops actually need to obey the law, too:

The U.S. Supreme Court says police must get a search warrant before using GPS technology to track criminal suspects.

The court ruled in the case of Washington nightclub owner Antoine Jones. A federal appeals court in Washington overturned his drug conspiracy conviction because police did not have a warrant when they installed a satellite device known as a GPS on his vehicle and then tracked his movements for a month.

The only thing remarkable about this story is precisely why it’s garnering such attention: that it took this long for a court, much less the highest in the country, to declare that, no, it isn’t legal for law enforcement to spy on someone 24/7 without court approval. You’d think that no-one had ever heard of that “Fourth Amendment” thing or something. (Then again, some lower courts apparently haven’t, either.)

(via @BreakingNews)

Tags: US Supreme Court • SCOTUS • warrants • Antoine Jones

Those dang technological regressives

2012-01-23T14:12:00.000-05:00

We’ve just escaped the age of telephone receiver, and now, unseen forces of malice – and the Japanese – are working to drag us back there again:

Say no to archaic telephony gimmickry!

(via @radleybalko)

Tags: Moshi Moshi • telephones • cellphones • mobile phones

Quote of the Day: Another old New Atheist’s immortalized credo

2012-01-23T14:02:00.000-05:00

G.P. Spencer’s monument
[source]

Not much is known of George P. Spencer of Lyndon Center, Vermont, who died at the age of 83 in 1908. But this epitaph inscribed on the side of his granite monument speaks of quite a fine-minded fellow:

Beyond the universe there is nothing and within the universe the supernatural does not and cannot exist. Of all deceivers who have plagued mankind, none are so deeply ruinous to human happiness as those impostors who pretend to lead by a light above nature. Science has never killed or persecuted a single person for doubting or denying its teachings, and most of these teachings have been true; but religion has murdered millions for doubting or denying her dogmas, and most of these dogmas have been false.

Remind me again just what is “new” about these so-called New Atheists?

(Of course, standby for the usual swipes about how science did kill in those godless dictatorships, or how religion is supposedly not to blame for any of the killings done explicitly in its name. Or something.)

Added to the ever-growing list of Memorable Quotes.

(via @todayspolitics)

Tags: George Spencer • New Atheism • atheists

Illinois police now tracks everyone who buys cold medicine

2012-01-22T21:39:00.000-05:00

Side-effects may include drowsiness, dry mouth and heightened police interest

Falling sick just got that much more uncomfortable, at least for anyone who buys cough syrup or allergy pills in Illinois:

Buying a package of allergy medicine at the corner drugstore will put you in a state police database under a new Illinois law aimed at identifying people who make methamphetamine.

Gov. Pat Quinn signed the measure into law Friday, saying a pilot project in southern Illinois has helped police tracking sales of medicines that can be used to make meth has helped police crack down.

The goal is to watch for large purchases of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, which are found in some cold, allergy and sinus medicines such as Claritin-D and certain Sudafed products.

Stores already keep the products behind the counter to guard against theft and record who buys them. Now stores will transmit those records electronically to state police. The information sent to authorities will include the customer’s name and address.

The tracking program started as a pilot project in 2009 in several southern Illinois counties. Since then, police have found and seized 155 meth labs and made 231 arrests thanks to the pilot project, Quinn said.

Oh, well, that makes the eradication of people’s expectation of privacy and the relentless expansion of the police state feel like totally small beans by comparison, don’t it? As long as a bunch of ground-level druggies are shut down, to hell with those civil liberties and stuff.

I have to wonder, though, is whether products like Claritin-D, Advil and Sudafed should now start placing “Please note that buying this product places you under police surveillance” warning labels on their products.

(via @radleybalko)

Tags: Illinois • Pat Quinn • cold medicine • allergy medicine • meth • crystal meth • methamphetamine

Fail Quote: Radio bigot sez gays pedophilize casting industry

2012-01-22T13:56:00.000-05:00

John Kobylt

From professional radio asshole John Kobylt of California’s The John and Ken Show ^{[my emphasis]}:

Gay guys control the fashion industry and the casting industry and the whole Hollywood look. And gays like bodies that remind them of a 14 year old-boy. Guys like curves. Guys like curves. Absolutely, positively. It's biological, because a woman with curves looks like she can bear your children successfully and that's biologically what a man is looking for. So sexually a guy is much more turned on by a woman with curves than these 14 year old-boy stick figures. And that's how I know for sure, I don't need to do any research or any proof that it's gay guys who control the entire casting industry.

That last, emboldened bit just says it all. (Not that it wouldn’t have been blatantly obvious even if it hadn’t been mentioned, of course.)

Really, I only have two words for Kobylt: Bullshit and bears. (Okay, three more: Go fuck yourself.)

(via Joe. My. God.)

Tags: John Kobylt • The John and Ken Show • gays • casting industry • Hollywood

Santorum urgently wants your C.U.M. by Saturday

2012-01-22T13:37:00.000-05:00

You just can’t make this kind of complete lack of self-awareness up:

That’s the current banner for Rick Santorum’s fundraising site.

The mind boggles. And titillatingly titters.

(via Joe. My. God.)

Tags: Rick Santorum • Conservatives Unite Moneybomb

Daily Blend: Saturday, January 21, 2012

2012-01-21T21:07:00.000-05:00

Gov. Steve Beshear (D-KY)

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear ^[pictured] (D) releases yearly budget with huge cuts to K-12 education – and huge tax breaks for Ken Ham’s Creationist amusement park.
Sad: Bill Maher defends SOPA without having read it. “[J]ust because you’re sitting at your computer in your pajama bottoms doesn’t mean you’re not stealing.”
(via @radleybalko)
“Newt Gingrich is to polyamory as rape is to “making love”.”
(via Blag Hag)
Sad but true. Though, I wonder what possible legal basis they could conjure up for banning it.
Vox Day: British atheists should avoid conflict with intolerant Muslims by supporting Christian domination. Or something.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Kentucky • Steve Beshear • Ark Encounter • Ken Ham • education • Bill Maher • Stop Online Piracy Act • SOPA • filesharing • Newt Gingrich • polyamory • open marriages • adultery • Can I Park Here? • apps • parking • New York City • NYC • Michael Fasano • Muslims • Islam • atheists • Vox Day • Jesus and Mo • Atheist, Secularist and Humanist Society • University College London • Christianity