tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-42256741027137726442024-03-05T20:25:59.597-05:00Preliator pro CausaRandom news, views & quirkiness from a young liberal atheistJoé McKenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08037015111554209304noreply@blogger.comBlogger4188125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4225674102713772644.post-32932293808673021402013-05-15T17:17:00.001-04:002013-05-15T17:17:18.314-04:00Predictable poll: Nonreligious most likely to be pro-choice<p class="lead">Here’s <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/162548/americans-misjudge-abortion-views.aspx" title="Americans Misjudge U.S. Abortion Views [by Lydia Saad @ 05/15/13] | Gallup.Com">more</a> of that “being on the right side of history” thing to make you proud:</p>
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<a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/162548/americans-misjudge-abortion-views.aspx"><img title="Chart: “Americans' Own Views on Abortion -- by Major Subgroups” showing “No religion”, “Liberal” and “Democrat” groups with highest “Pro-choice” scores and “Catholic”, “Conservative” and “Republican” groups with highest “Pro-life” scores [May 2-7, 2013 by GALLUP]" alt="Chart: “Americans' Own Views on Abortion -- by Major Subgroups” showing “No religion”, “Liberal” and “Democrat” groups with highest “Pro-choice” scores and “Catholic”, “Conservative” and “Republican” groups with highest “Pro-life” scores [May 2-7, 2013 by GALLUP]" src="http://i.imgur.com/Y196tci.gif"/></a>
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<p>That’s good company at the top.</p>
<p>Interestingly, the rest of the poll focuses on the curious tendency of Americans to overestimate just how many of their fellow countryfolk are pro-choice, when the <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/162374/americans-abortion-views-steady-amid-gosnell-trial.aspx" title="Americans' Abortion Views Steady Amid Gosnell Trial [by Lydia Saad @ 05/10/13] | Gallup.Com">research shows</a> that the country is actually split pretty much evenly on the issue, with a slight majority favoring abortion rights with certain restrictions. (Better yet, the “legal under any circumstances” group is still more numerous – albeit barely – than the “unborn babies are sacred” camp.)</p>
<p>Why, it’s almost like removing objections rooted in religious dogma leaves people with few remaining reasons to argue against women’s right to bodily autonomy.</p>
<p class="smallText">(via <a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2013/05/15/gallup-poll-finds-nones-most-likely-to-be-pro-choice/"><em>Friendly Atheist</em></a>)</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin:15px 0 8px 0;border:1px solid #8594a6;font-size:80%;padding:5px;" align="center"><strong>NOTE:</strong> This RSS content provides only basic style and formatting. The appearance of the post above may differ significantly from the original as viewed with a regular Web browser.</div></div>Joé McKenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08037015111554209304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4225674102713772644.post-20932411695367832652013-05-14T19:29:00.000-04:002013-05-14T19:29:44.999-04:00This (non)religious Universe<p class="lead">How silly is it when theists (particularly Bible-thumpers) claim that the fledgling inhabitants of one single little blue marble floating around in the unimaginably massive void of existence is the center of the entire Universe? <a href="http://www.myconfinedspace.com/2013/05/11/the-religious-universe/" title="the religious universe [by tiki god @ 05/11/13] | My[confined]Space">This silly</a> (large image below the fold):</p>
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<a href="http://i.imgur.com/Y0hWWa6.jpg"><img title="“the religious universe” (Jesus presiding over the entire known Universe and proclaiming to the tiny people of Earth: “Don’t masturbate”)" alt="“the religious universe” (Jesus presiding over the entire known Universe and proclaiming to the tiny people of Earth: “Don’t masturbate”)" src="http://i.imgur.com/Y0hWWa6.jpg"/></a>
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<p>Humanity’s myopic egocentrism knows no bounds. (Then again, if religionists are to be believed, the same can be said for their cosmic creator’s preoccupation with <em>homo sapiens</em>’s sexual proclivities.)</p>
<p class="smallText">(via <a href="http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2013/05/14/perspective-2/"><em>Pharyngula</em></a>)</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin:15px 0 8px 0;border:1px solid #8594a6;font-size:80%;padding:5px;" align="center"><strong>NOTE:</strong> This RSS content provides only basic style and formatting. The appearance of the post above may differ significantly from the original as viewed with a regular Web browser.</div></div>Joé McKenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08037015111554209304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4225674102713772644.post-76592976201168360442013-05-13T20:36:00.000-04:002013-05-13T20:36:58.865-04:00Daily Blend: 05/13/13<table width="50" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="cornerImg">
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<a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/05/13/canada_and_science_nrc_will_now_only_do_science_that_promotes_economic_gain.html"><img title="Monetized “NRC-CNRC Canada” logo (modified by Phil Plait)" alt="Monetized “NRC-CNRC Canada” logo (modified by Phil Plait)" src="http://i.imgur.com/PtsOYUT.jpg"/></a>
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<li><p class="lead"><a name="1"></a>I’m usually proud of my country, but less so when my government <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/05/13/canada_and_science_nrc_will_now_only_do_science_that_promotes_economic_gain.html" title="Canada Sells Out Science [by Phil Plait @ 05/13/13 11:11 AM] | Bad Astronomy | Slate Magazine">decides to sell out science</a>. <sup>[pictured]</sup> (Doesn’t <em>all</em> research eventually lead to “social or economic gain”?)</p></li>
<li><p><a name="2"></a>So much for the idea that dropping from the blogosphere will remove Jen McCreight from the <a href="http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2013/05/12/justicarintegralmath-wretched-skeevy-piece-of-internet-offal/" title="Justicar/Integralmath: Wretched skeevy piece of internet offal [by PZ Myers @ 05/12/13 1:49 PM] | Pharyngula">focus of obsessed slimeballs</a>. How brazenly douchey does one have to be to lecture someone about safety whilst deliberately exposing their location?</p></li>
<li><p><a name="3"></a>It’s sad when a <a href="http://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2013/05/11/25-reasons-to-dislike-liberals-n1592873/page/full" title="http://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2013/05/11/25-reasons-to-dislike-liberals-n1592873/page/full [by John Hawkins @ 05/11/13] | Townhall">silly screed against “liberals”</a> is too inane to even be worth fisking for the lulz.<br/>
<span class="smallText">(via <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/right-wing-leftovers-51313"><em>Right Wing Watch</em></a>)</span></p></li>
<li><p><a name="4"></a>And finally, I am reaffirmed in my belief that <a href="http://www.cracked.com/article_20419_5-terrifying-things-nobody-tells-you-about-newborns.html" title="6 Terrifying Things Nobody Tells You About Newborns [by Tracy V & Rebecca Schaefer @ 05/13/13] | Cracked.com">babies are freaking weird</a>.</p></li>
<p>If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or <a href="http://preliatorcausa.blogspot.com/p/contact-me.html" title="Contact Me | Preliator pro Causa">send them in</a>.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin:15px 0 8px 0;border:1px solid #8594a6;font-size:80%;padding:5px;" align="center"><strong>NOTE:</strong> This RSS content provides only basic style and formatting. The appearance of the post above may differ significantly from the original as viewed with a regular Web browser.</div></div>Joé McKenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08037015111554209304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4225674102713772644.post-65540265691201891772013-05-13T17:41:00.000-04:002013-05-13T17:44:32.761-04:00Minnesota passes gay marriage!<table width="50" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="cornerImg">
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<p class="lead">How’s this for a glorious turnaround? The same state that only months ago was <a href="http://www.hastingsstargazette.com/event/article/id/28703/" title="Minnesota becomes first state to reject constitutional gay-marriage ban [by Don Davis @ 11/07/12 5:12 PM] | The Hastings Star-Gazette">deciding whether to impose a constitutional ban</a> atop its existing laws against same-sex marriage now <a href="http://www.startribune.com/politics/statelocal/207231321.html" title="In historic vote, Minnesota Senate approves same-sex marriage bill [by Rachel E. Stassen-Berger @ updated 05/13/13 12:14 PM] | Hot Dish Politics | StarTribune">has the bicameral vote</a> – and the governor’s promised signature – to grant marriage equality to LGBT folk:</p>
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<p>With deafening cheers and overwhelming emotion, the Minnesota Senate voted 37-30 to legalize same-sex marriage.</p>
<p>[…]</p>
<p>The measure next moves to Gov. Mark Dayton, who will welcome it with his signature in a celebratory ceremony at 5 p.m. Tuesday.</p>
<p>Once it is signed, Minnesota will become the twelfth state to legalize same sex-marriage.</p>
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<p>Yet one more state joins the right side of history. How long before the rest of the country – and someday, the civilized world at large – does the same?</p>
<p class="smallText">(via <a href="https://twitter.com/breakingpol/status/334056266617995264">@breakingpol</a>; RT: <a href="http://twitter.com/BreakingNews">@BreakingNews</a>)</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin:15px 0 8px 0;border:1px solid #8594a6;font-size:80%;padding:5px;" align="center"><strong>NOTE:</strong> This RSS content provides only basic style and formatting. The appearance of the post above may differ significantly from the original as viewed with a regular Web browser.</div></div>Joé McKenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08037015111554209304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4225674102713772644.post-77435915304589556662013-05-11T20:34:00.000-04:002013-05-11T20:37:50.338-04:00This Week in Creativitas: 05/11/13<table width="50" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="cornerImg">
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<p class="lead">Things are rolling in the revisions department! Here are links to updated songs over at my art blog, <a href="http://joemcken.blogspot.com/" title="Creativitas"><em>Creativitas</em></a>:</p>
<li><p><a name="1"></a>UPDATE: ‘<a href="http://joemcken.blogspot.com/2012/03/Dark-Horizons.html" title="Dark Horizons | Creativitas">Dark Horizons</a>’: Re-recorded and remixed with improved sounds, modified instrumentation, and various smaller tweaks.</p></li>
<li><p><a name="2"></a>UPDATE: ‘<a href="http://joemcken.blogspot.com/2013/04/Death-of-Innocence.html" title="Death of Innocence | Creativitas">Death of Innocence</a>’: Re-recorded and remixed with improved sounds (especially piano) and minor tweaks.</p></li>
<li><p><a name="3"></a>UPDATE: ‘<a href="http://joemcken.blogspot.com/2013/04/Dreams.html" title="Dreams | Creativitas">Dreams</a>’: Fixed a couple minor issues (equalized violin & flute volumes & fixed timpani).</p></li>
<li><p><a name="4"></a>UPDATE: ‘<a href="http://joemcken.blogspot.com/2011/01/Guitar-Rhapsody.html" title="Guitar Rhapsody | Creativitas">Guitar Rhapsody</a>’: Re-recorded and remixed with various minor edits.</p></li>
<p>Remember, folks: Feedback nourishes me. (Hence the name.)</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin:15px 0 8px 0;border:1px solid #8594a6;font-size:80%;padding:5px;" align="center"><strong>NOTE:</strong> This RSS content provides only basic style and formatting. The appearance of the post above may differ significantly from the original as viewed with a regular Web browser.</div></div>Joé McKenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08037015111554209304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4225674102713772644.post-86761486322273258762013-05-11T17:01:00.000-04:002013-05-11T17:01:40.518-04:00Atmospheric carbon dioxide reaches new record high<table width="50" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="cornerImg">
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<a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/05/11/atmospheric_carbon_dioxide_levels_at_all_time_high_for_past_several_million.html"><img width="136" title="Keeling Curve graph: “Carbon dioxide concentration at Mauna Loa Observatory” showing current peak of 400 ppm" alt="Keeling Curve graph: “Carbon dioxide concentration at Mauna Loa Observatory” showing current peak of 400 ppm" src="http://i.imgur.com/Jk6qeoB.jpg"/></a>
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<td class="imgFooter">The Keeling Curve graph<br/>
[<a href="http://keelingcurve.ucsd.edu/">source</a> | <a href="http://i.imgur.com/Jk6qeoB.jpg">full size (568×318)</a>]</td>
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<p class="lead">How’s this for a cheery, not-at-all-foreboding <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/05/11/atmospheric_carbon_dioxide_levels_at_all_time_high_for_past_several_million.html" title="400 [by Phil Plait @ 05/11/13 8:00 AM] | Bad Astronomy | Slate Magazine">milestone</a>?</p>
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<p>On May 9, 2013, atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide hit a new record high. <a href="http://researchmatters.noaa.gov/news/Pages/CarbonDioxideatMaunaLoareaches400ppm.aspx" title="Carbon Dioxide at NOAA’s Manna Loa Observatory reaches new milestone: Tops 400 ppm [@ 05/10/13] | Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration">Announced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration</a>, the levels of CO<sub>2</sub> in the air on that day* reached a daily average of 400 parts per million (ppm). <strong>This is the highest level of atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> in human history</strong>, and in fact the highest level for at least 800,000 years. It gets worse: the amount of CO<sub>2</sub> in the air likely hasn’t been this high since the Pliocene Epoch, <em>more than three million years ago</em>.</p>
<p>[…]</p>
<ul>
<li>CO2 levels are rising, and they’re rising far faster than any time in human history (and at least for the past 11,000 years).</li>
<li>CO2 is for real and for sure tied to rising heat content of the Earth. For quite some time that heat has been going into the air, and we’ve seen rising temperatures around the world. At the moment, a lot of that heat is going into warming the oceans, but climatologists expect to see air temperatures increasing rapidly again soon.</li>
<li>This has direct impacts, like increased temperatures in the air and water, melting ice, and more severe weather. It also has indirect impacts, like fluctuating weather patterns. This makes it difficult to tag any freak storm to climate change, but it does mean that over time, we’ll see more and more. Worse droughts and floods, more forest fires, increased ocean acidification, and more are all expected due to increased carbon dioxide in the air.</li>
<li>All this is happening on a timescale hugely accelerated over natural cycles. The Earth tends to changes over millions of years; we’re doing this to it in just a century. Without time to adapt, this will have a profound impact on life around the globe.</li>
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<p>B-b-but it’s <em>cold outside</em> where I live at the moment!</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin:15px 0 8px 0;border:1px solid #8594a6;font-size:80%;padding:5px;" align="center"><strong>NOTE:</strong> This RSS content provides only basic style and formatting. The appearance of the post above may differ significantly from the original as viewed with a regular Web browser.</div></div>Joé McKenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08037015111554209304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4225674102713772644.post-47121353247277661592013-05-10T23:01:00.000-04:002013-05-10T23:01:40.806-04:00Daily Blend: 05/10/13<table width="50" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="cornerImg">
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<a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-africa-catholic-abuse-20130505,0,6575458,full.story"><img title="Fr. Anthony Musaala" alt="Fr. Anthony Musaala" src="http://i.imgur.com/EWFBHyv.jpg"/></a>
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<li><p class="lead"><a name="1"></a>Obama administration <a href="http://freethoughtblogs.com/dispatches/2013/05/09/dea-ramping-up-marijuana-enforcement-again/" title="DEA Ramping Up Marijuana Enforcement. Again. [by Ed Brayton @ 05/09/13 12:59 PM] | Dispatches from the Culture Wars | Freethought Blogs">worsens their crackdown</a> on state-legal marijuana.</p></li>
<li><p><a name="2"></a>Ugandan priest <sup>[pictured]</sup>: “The Catholic Church is still covering up clerical child abuse.” Catholic Church: “You made us look bad! <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-africa-catholic-abuse-20130505,0,6575458,full.story" title="Uganda priest ostracized for publicizing sexual abuse [by 05/04/13 6:10 PM] | Los Angeles Times">You’re suspended</a>.”<br/>
<span class="smallText">(via <a href="http://freethoughtblogs.com/dispatches/2013/05/10/ugandan-priest-suspended-for-revealing-child-abuse/"><em>Freethought Blogs</em></a>)</span></p></li>
<li><p><a name="3"></a><a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2013/05/psychic_sylvia_browne_said_amanda_berry_was_dead_why_do_police_consult_psychics.html" title="Investigative Intuition [by Brian Palmer @ 05/09/13 12:54 PM] | Slate Magazine">Why do police consult “psychics”</a>? Because people are gullible and prefer false hope to realistic desperation.<br/>
<span class="smallText">(via <a href="https://twitter.com/radleybalko/status/332864702038294528">@radleybalko</a>)</span></p></li>
<li><p><a name="4"></a>And finally, PZ Myers <a href="http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2013/05/09/testable-claims-is-used-as-a-religious-exemption/" title="“Testable claims” is used as a “religious exemption” [by PZ Myers @ 05/09/13 8:12 AM] | Freethought Blogs">schools movement skeptics about science</a> and why their mindless dismissal of atheism as “unscientific” is decidedly <em>unskeptical</em>.</p></li>
<p>If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or <a href="http://preliatorcausa.blogspot.com/p/contact-me.html" title="Contact Me | Preliator pro Causa">send them in</a>.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin:15px 0 8px 0;border:1px solid #8594a6;font-size:80%;padding:5px;" align="center"><strong>NOTE:</strong> This RSS content provides only basic style and formatting. The appearance of the post above may differ significantly from the original as viewed with a regular Web browser.</div></div>Joé McKenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08037015111554209304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4225674102713772644.post-74626259889727029572013-05-10T17:54:00.000-04:002013-05-10T17:54:16.678-04:00Why are school coaches the highest-paid public employees?<p class="lead">Here’s a <a href="http://deadspin.com/infographic-is-your-states-highest-paid-employee-a-co-489635228" title="Infographic: Is Your State's Highest-Paid Employee A Coach? (Probably) [by Reuben Fischer-Baum @ 05/09/13 2:23 PM] | Deadspin">rather damning illustration</a> of one of the main problems with the US educational system:</p>
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<a href="http://deadspin.com/infographic-is-your-states-highest-paid-employee-a-co-489635228"><img width="560" title="Highest-paid public employees by US state (most states = “Football coaches”; some states = “Basketball coaches”; few states = “Not coaches”)" alt="Highest-paid public employees by US state (most states = “Football coaches”; some states = “Basketball coaches”; few states = “Not coaches”)" src="http://i.imgur.com/qZQzU18.png"/></a>
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<p>Maybe those Right-wing/Libertarian cranks whinging about overpaid teachers have a point after all. They just need to specify they’re talking about those who teach <em>sports</em>, that sacred cow that no official or administrator apparently has the fortitude to gut in order to preserve resources better spent on proper academic instruction.</p>
<p class="smallText">(via <a href="http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2013/05/10/what-is-your-states-highest-paid-public-employee/"><em>Pharyngula</em></a>)</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin:15px 0 8px 0;border:1px solid #8594a6;font-size:80%;padding:5px;" align="center"><strong>NOTE:</strong> This RSS content provides only basic style and formatting. The appearance of the post above may differ significantly from the original as viewed with a regular Web browser.</div></div>Joé McKenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08037015111554209304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4225674102713772644.post-59885308469876666782013-05-08T22:39:00.000-04:002013-05-08T22:39:02.835-04:00Daily Blend: 05/08/13<table width="50" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="cornerImg">
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<a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2013/05/06/in-2004-psychic-sylvia-browne-told-amanda-berrys-mom-her-daughter-was-dead/"><img title="Sylvia Browne" alt="Sylvia Browne" src="http://i.imgur.com/DDijDxo.jpg"/></a>
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<li><p class="lead"><a name="1"></a>In case you needed <a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2013/05/06/in-2004-psychic-sylvia-browne-told-amanda-berrys-mom-her-daughter-was-dead/" title="In 2004, Psychic Sylvia Browne Told Amanda Berry’s Mom Her Daughter Was Dead [by Hemant Mehta @ 05/06/13] | Friendly Atheist"><em>more</em> evidence</a> that “psychics” <sup>[pictured]</sup> are bullshit-peddling vultures.</p></li>
<li><p><a name="2"></a>Vox Day <a href="http://voxday.blogspot.ca/2013/05/halfway-to-reality.html" title="Halfway to reality [by Vox @ 05/07/13 1:08 PM] | Vox Popoli">says</a> the whole idea of “warrior women” is totes ridiculous ’cause what woman would stand a chance against a dude, anyway? (Pay absolutely no attention to all these <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woman_warrior#Historical_examples" title="Woman warrior [#Historical examples] | Wikipedia">real-life</a> <a href="http://www.spike.com/articles/e4ukwt/the-top-10-warrior-women" title="The Top 10 Warrior Women [by nathanbloch @ 12/07/09 10:00 AM] | SPIKE">warrior women</a> who <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_O%27Malley" title="Grace O'Malley | Wikipedia">became legends</a> for kicking [mostly dude] ass.)</p></li>
<li><p><a name="3"></a>Here’s a <a href="http://www.skepticalscience.com/oneliners.php" title="Skeptic Rebuttal One Liners | Skeptical Science">collection</a> of 154 common global warming denialist claims and their easy refutations.<br/>
<span class="smallText">(via <a href="http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2013/05/08/ooh-handy-shortcuts-against-climate-change-denialists/"><em>Pharyngula</em></a>)</span></p></li>
<li><p><a name="4"></a>Oh, noes! The awesome Eugenie Scott, scourge of Creationists everywhere as the head of the National Center for Science Education, <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/05/08/genie_scott_retiring_from_the_ncse.html" title="Genie Scott Retires [by Phil Plait @ 05/08/13 3:22 PM] | Bad Astronomy | Slate Magazine">retires</a>.</p></li>
<li><p><a name="5"></a>And finally, here’s a dog who <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TX_7HwVa-0A" title="Pitbull Really Wants That Branch [by forestwoll @ 05/05/13] | YouTube">tries so hard</a> to make that branch into his stick:<br/>
<span class="smallText">(via <a href="https://twitter.com/radleybalko/status/332149130359078912">@radleybalko</a>)</span></p></li>
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<p>If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or <a href="http://preliatorcausa.blogspot.com/p/contact-me.html" title="Contact Me | Preliator pro Causa">send them in</a>.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin:15px 0 8px 0;border:1px solid #8594a6;font-size:80%;padding:5px;" align="center"><strong>NOTE:</strong> This RSS content provides only basic style and formatting. The appearance of the post above may differ significantly from the original as viewed with a regular Web browser.</div></div>Joé McKenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08037015111554209304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4225674102713772644.post-50810521371894576182013-05-08T19:25:00.000-04:002013-05-08T19:25:04.598-04:00Current TV’s Fugelsang rips into Sanford and South Carolina<p class="lead">So, South Carolina voters <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/05/07/south-carolina-mark-sanford-busch.html" title="Former scandal-scarred governor Mark Sanford wins seat [by The Associated Press @ 05/07/13 10:49 PM ET] | CBC News">revealed</a> just where their “family values” lie yesterday when they took Mark Sanford, their disgraced adulterous former Governor, and made him their Congressional Representative instead. John Fugelsang of Current TV’s <em>Viewpoint</em> tears him and the state’s long, sad history of political duplicity to tiny pieces in this wonderful rant:</p>
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<p class="smallText">Transcript via <a href="http://current.com/shows/viewpoint/videos/john-fugelsang-on-mark-sanford-its-ok-to-be-a-bad-christian-as-long-as-youre-a-good-liar/" title="John Fugelsang on Mark Sanford: It’s OK to be a bad Christian, as long as you’re a good liar [@ 05/07/13] | Viewpoint | Current TV"><em>Current TV</em></a>:</p>
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<p>JOHN FUGELSANG: Here’s a message from the South Carolina Board of Tourism: From the foothills of the majestic Blue Ridge Mountains to the cobblestone streets of historic Charleston, the Palmetto State is waiting for you.</p>
<p>So maybe it’s time you explored South Carolina’s greatest tourism attraction: our bottomless supply of duplicitous, double-talking, political tea-bags.</p>
<p>From our beloved and racist senator Strom Thurmond, who fought for segregation while secretly fathering a child he had with the family’s black maid — I’m sure it was consensual — to our beloved homophobe and longtime bachelor Sen. Lindsey Graham. From politician Joe Wilson screaming “You lie!” at America’s first black president during a State of the Union address to Sen. Jim DeMint opposing the Matthew Shepard / James Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act before quitting his post to be a lobbyist to Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, comparing starving poor Americans to stray animals that breed too much.</p>
<p>In South Carolina, we’ve got a proud heritage of putting our faith in soulless fascists who feed us empty lines about the Bible, patriotism and fiscal responsibility, and that pride flies as high as the flag of the anti-American, enemy nation that rests majestically atop our state’s capitol.</p>
<p>And nowhere are our values more evident than in the political resurrection of former governor and newly elected congressman — and deeply repentant Christian — Mark Sanford, who South Carolina voters have returned to the House of Representatives, where he previously served three terms, in a special election tonight.</p>
<p>Now, lots of politicians commit adultery. But only one voted to impeach Bill Clinton while he was in Congress, then became governor and abandoned his post to visit his Argentine girlfriend using taxpayer funds to subsidize the trip while lying about his whereabouts to his staff, his wife and the entire state. Talk about a multitasker.</p>
<p>And after, he was charged with breaking 37 state ethics laws, was unanimously censured in lieu of being impeached, violated his court orders and child support agreement, publicly humiliated the mother of his children, and trespassed into her home to watch the Super Bowl.</p>
<p>Yes, this man brought sleaze to public life and remained faithful and true to it in the private sector too.</p>
<p>This same governor did all he could to keep federal stimulus funds from helping South Carolina’s unemployed folks and our crumbling public education system and then used taxpayer funds to pay for family vacations and book-signing travel. All this while we ranked No. 2 in unemployment and No. 11 in child homelessness.</p>
<p>But he did the right thing. He told us that Jesus forgave him and said mean things about Nancy Pelosi and Obamacare, proving that it’s OK to be a horrible Christian as long as you’re a good Christian.</p>
<p>So, come on down to South Carolina. And if you’re a lying, cheating, swindling, heartless, hypocrite, political empty suit who tells us what we want to hear, we just might elect you to office too.</p>
<p>And if you ever make a real mistake — like working with Democrats — well, we’ll give you a chance to mend your ways. Take Lindsey Graham, America’s sweetheart. Lindsey used to work with the Democrat Party on issues like immigration and climate change, so we censured him twice as public humiliation. And now he’s like an obedient, right-wing Tennessee Williams heroine who can’t stop screaming, “Benghazi!”</p>
<p>And while we may be ranked the fifth-worst state to make a living, ninth-lowest median household income, ninth-highest percentage of residents living below the poverty line, second-worst graduation rate, second-worst in women killed by men and worst in the so-called union at reprimanding bad doctors — we’ll never hold our Republicans responsible because they tell us who to blame and hate the same people we do.</p>
<p>Because from being the first state to quit America so we could keep slaves to cutting our state’s entire HIV/AIDS budget, we’ve got a breathtaking history of being manly men with a manly devotion to man’s inhumanity to man.</p>
<p>Our politicians believe Darwin was wrong, and we here in South Carolina are here to prove it.</p>
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<p>You know when people wryly lament how “these people vote”? This is what they’re talking about.</p>
<p class="smallText">(via <a href="http://politicalirony.com/2013/05/08/its-ok-to-be-a-bad-christian-as-long-as-youre-a-good-liar/"><em>Political Irony</em></a>)</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin:15px 0 8px 0;border:1px solid #8594a6;font-size:80%;padding:5px;" align="center"><strong>NOTE:</strong> This RSS content provides only basic style and formatting. The appearance of the post above may differ significantly from the original as viewed with a regular Web browser.</div></div>Joé McKenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08037015111554209304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4225674102713772644.post-70200246897875088182013-05-07T17:38:00.001-04:002013-05-07T17:38:32.856-04:00Delaware reaches same-sex marriage equality<p class="lead">Coming less than a week after the last US state <a href="http://preliatorcausa.blogspot.com/2013/05/02-Rode-Island-passes-same-sex-marriage-4171.html" title="Rhode Island passes same-sex marriage [by Joé McKen @ 05/02/13] | Preliator pro Causa">passed gay marriage</a>:</p>
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<a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/chrisgeidner/delaware-senate-passes-marriage-equality-bill-will-be-law"><img title="Headline: “Delaware Senate Passes Marriage Equality Bill, Will Be Law: The vote was 12-9. Gov. Jack Markell will sign the bill into law, making Delaware the 11th state, plus DC, to allow same-sex couples to marry. [@ 05/07/13 5:07 PM EDT]”" alt="Headline: “Delaware Senate Passes Marriage Equality Bill, Will Be Law: The vote was 12-9. Gov. Jack Markell will sign the bill into law, making Delaware the 11th state, plus DC, to allow same-sex couples to marry. [@ 05/07/13 5:07 PM EDT]”" src="http://i.imgur.com/688b5g6.png"/></a>
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<td class="imgFooter">(<a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/chrisgeidner/delaware-senate-passes-marriage-equality-bill-will-be-law"><em>BuzzFeed</em></a>)</td>
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<p>Zoom, zoom, zoom!</p>
<p class="smallText">(via <a href="https://twitter.com/BuzzFeedAndrew/status/331878363629236225">@BuzzFeedAndrew</a>)</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin:15px 0 8px 0;border:1px solid #8594a6;font-size:80%;padding:5px;" align="center"><strong>NOTE:</strong> This RSS content provides only basic style and formatting. The appearance of the post above may differ significantly from the original as viewed with a regular Web browser.</div></div>Joé McKenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08037015111554209304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4225674102713772644.post-60071750125040600092013-05-07T17:02:00.000-04:002013-05-07T17:02:14.982-04:00Catholic Church still covering up child abuse in New Jersey<table width="50" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="cornerImg">
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<td class="imgFooter">Abp. John Meyers</td>
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<img title="Rev. Michael Fugee (in court in 2007)" alt="Rev. Michael Fugee (in court in 2007)" src="http://i.imgur.com/kUCHNVO.jpg"/>
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<td class="imgFooter">Rev. Michael Fugee</td>
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<p class="lead">The popular excuse by defenders of the Catholic Church is that, <em>sure</em>, there might have been <em>some</em> priestly misconduct around minors, but that all happened <em>decades</em> ago and the Church hierarchy has been really super good about stopping it ever since. Except, of course, when it hasn’t.</p>
<p>Case in point: The Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey, which is still quietly <a href="http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/04/with_approval_of_archbishop_pr.html" title="Newark archbishop allows priest who admitted groping boy to continue working with children [by Mark Mueller @ 04/28/13 4:15 PM] | The Star-Ledger / NJ.com)">shuffling child-abusing priests around</a> without doing anything to punish them, much less turn them over to the proper authorities:</p>
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<p>Six years ago, to avoid retrial on charges that he groped a teenage boy, the Rev. Michael Fugee entered a rehabilitation program, underwent counseling for sex offenders and signed a binding agreement that would dictate the remainder of his life as a Roman Catholic priest.</p>
<p>Fugee would not work in any position involving children, the agreement with the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office states. He would have no affiliation with youth groups. He would not attend youth retreats. He would not hear the confessions of minors.</p>
<p>But Fugee has openly done all of those things for the past several years through an unofficial association with a Monmouth County church, St. Mary’s Parish in Colts Neck, The Star-Ledger found.</p>
<p>He has attended weekend youth retreats in Marlboro and on the shores of Lake Hopatcong in Mount Arlington, parishioners say. Fugee also has traveled with members of the St. Mary’s youth group on an annual pilgrimage to Canada. At all three locations, he has heard confessions from minors behind closed doors.</p>
<p>What’s more, he has done so with the approval of New Jersey’s highest-ranking Catholic official, Newark Archbishop John J. Myers.</p>
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<p>Tell me again, dear apologists, how “the Catholic Church <a href="http://www.catholicleague.org/assessing-the-dallas-reforms/" title="ASSESSING THE DALLAS REFORMS [by Bill @ 06/12/12] | Catholic League">has the best record</a> of any institution” in dealing with child abuse within its own ranks? Or does that just mean they’re the most experienced at keeping it out of sight while victims continue to suffer in their “care”?</p>
<p>In the end, the Church didn’t need to do anything, as the Internet promptly <a href="http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/05/newark_archbishop_monmouth_cou_1.html" title="Priest at center of Newark Archdiocese scandal quits ministry [by Mark Mueller @ 05/02/13 8:54 PM] | The Star-Ledger / NJ.com">did the job for them</a>:</p>
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<p>The Roman Catholic priest at the center of a public furor enveloping Newark Archbishop John J. Myers has resigned from ministry, a spokesman for the archdiocese said tonight.</p>
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<p>[…]</p>
<p>Fugee, 52, remains a priest but no longer has authority to say Mass, perform sacramental work or represent himself as an active priest, Goodness said. It was not immediately clear if Fugee or Myers would petition the Vatican to remove him from the priesthood altogether, a process known as laicization.</p>
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<p>One possible silver lining to the Church’s continuing shielding of child-diddling priests is that it certainly works wonders towards undermining their continued pretenses of possessing any kind of moral high ground. It’s just like with any other vast, crime-ridden institution: the impetus for righting their very many and blatant wrongs comes entirely from public pressure rather than any supposed sense of moral responsibility.</p>
<p class="smallText">(via <a href="http://freethoughtblogs.com/dispatches/2013/05/07/catholic-coverup-of-child-abuse-continues/"><em>Dispatches from the Culture Wars</em></a>)</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin:15px 0 8px 0;border:1px solid #8594a6;font-size:80%;padding:5px;" align="center"><strong>NOTE:</strong> This RSS content provides only basic style and formatting. The appearance of the post above may differ significantly from the original as viewed with a regular Web browser.</div></div>Joé McKenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08037015111554209304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4225674102713772644.post-4814075899605243852013-05-06T20:44:00.000-04:002013-05-06T20:44:13.862-04:00Daily Blend: 05/06/13<table width="50" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="cornerImg">
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<a href="http://thinkprogress.org/security/2013/05/06/1970361/air-force-officer-sexual-battery/"><img title="USAF Lt. Col. Jeff Krusinski" alt="USAF Lt. Col. Jeff Krusinski" src="http://i.imgur.com/8PAjC6i.jpg"/></a>
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<p class="lead">I’m too bored/lazy/busy reading/excited about <a href="https://twitter.com/joemcken/status/331150845620142081" title="Tweet: “Decided on the Samsung Galaxy Note II. Will obtain it in a couple days. #DisGunnaBeSweet” [by Joé McKen (@joemcken) @ 05/05/13 3:59 PM] | Twitter">tomorrow</a>/tired from “work” to blog much, so here’re some links.</p>
<li><p><a name="1"></a>US Air Force officer <sup>[pictured]</sup> in charge of responding to sexual assaults <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/security/2013/05/06/1970361/air-force-officer-sexual-battery/" title="Air Force Officer In Charge Of Sexual Assault Prevention Arrested For Sexual Assault [by Hayes Brown @ 05/06/13 4:05 PM] | ThinkProgress">arrested for drunken sexual assault</a>, underlines the US Military’s generally appalling handling of sex crimes.</p></li>
<li><p><a name="2"></a>“<a href="http://www.mediaite.com/tv/good-riddance-fox-cancels-long-running-drug-war-glorifying-abuse-excusing-reality-series-cops/" title="Good Riddance: Fox Cancels Long-Running, Drug War-Glorifying, Abuse-Excusing Reality Series COPS [by Andrew Kirell @ 05/06/13 6:16 PM] | Mediaite">Good Riddance: Fox Cancels Long-Running, Drug War-Glorifying, Abuse-Excusing Reality Series COPS</a>”<br/>
<span class="smallText">(via <a href="https://twitter.com/AndrewKirell/status/331533518331064321">@AndrewKirell</a>; RT: <a href="https://twitter.com/radleybalko">@radleybalko</a>)</span></p></li>
<li><p><a name="3"></a>Those who slime together, stay together: Anti-<em>Freethought Blogs</em>/Atheism Plus hater <a href="http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2013/05/a-new-way-to-stir-up-trouble/" title="A new way to stir up trouble [by Ophelia Benson @ 05/06/13 4:24 PM] | Butterflies and Wheels | Freethought Blogs">encourages</a> Westboro Baptist Church to picket upcoming Women in Secularism conference.<br/>
<span class="smallText">(via <a href="http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2013/05/06/bringing-trolling-to-new-depths/"><em>Pharyngula</em></a>)</span></p></li>
<li><p><a name="4"></a>And finally, how much do you know about <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/quiz/science-knowledge/" title="Science and Technology Knowledge Quiz | Pew Research Center">science</a> and <a href="http://features.pewforum.org/quiz/us-religious-knowledge/" title="U.S. Religious Knowledge Quiz | The Pew Forum">religion</a>? (I scored in the 15<sup>th</sup> and 13<sup>th</sup> percentiles, respectively. Which is probably more of an implicit condemnation of the US educational system than anything else.)<br/>
<span class="smallText">(via <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/05/02/science_and_religion_viral_pew_surveys_yield_surprising_results.html"><em>Bad Astronomy</em></a>)</span></p></li>
<p>If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or <a href="http://preliatorcausa.blogspot.com/p/contact-me.html" title="Contact Me | Preliator pro Causa">send them in</a>.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin:15px 0 8px 0;border:1px solid #8594a6;font-size:80%;padding:5px;" align="center"><strong>NOTE:</strong> This RSS content provides only basic style and formatting. The appearance of the post above may differ significantly from the original as viewed with a regular Web browser.</div></div>Joé McKenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08037015111554209304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4225674102713772644.post-8861718021720494812013-05-04T17:09:00.000-04:002013-05-04T17:09:35.562-04:00This Week in Creativitas: 05/04/13<table width="50" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="cornerImg">
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<p class="lead">Below are links to new, revised and updated works over at my art blog, <a href="http://joemcken.blogspot.com/" title="Creativitas"><em>Creativitas</em></a>.</p>
<li><p><a name="1"></a>SITE: I changed my file hosting service from FileDen <a href="http://joemcken.blogspot.com/2013/04/28-Changing-to-Google-Drive.html" title="Changing to Google Drive [@ 04/28/13 12:09 AM ET] | Creativitas">to Google Drive</a> … and then <a href="http://joemcken.blogspot.com/2013/04/28-Changing-away-from-Google-Drive.html" title="Changing away from Google Drive … [@ 04/28/13 6:59 PM ET] | Creativitas">to Dropbox</a>. Seems to work dandy for now.</p></li>
<li><p><a name="2"></a>UPDATED: ‘<a href="http://joemcken.blogspot.com/2012/01/Climax.html" title="Climax | Creativitas">Climax</a>’ – Re-recorded and remixed with improved instrument sounds (especially for brass), added tubular bells, and made various minor edits.</p></li>
<li><p><a name="3"></a>UPDATED: ‘<a href="http://joemcken.blogspot.com/2012/03/A-Morning-by-the-Sea.html" title="A Morning by the Sea | Creativitas">A Morning by the Sea</a>’ – Re-recorded and remixed (again) with improved panning.</p></li>
<p>Remember, folk: Feedback feeds me. (Hence the name.)</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin:15px 0 8px 0;border:1px solid #8594a6;font-size:80%;padding:5px;" align="center"><strong>NOTE:</strong> This RSS content provides only basic style and formatting. The appearance of the post above may differ significantly from the original as viewed with a regular Web browser.</div></div>Joé McKenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08037015111554209304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4225674102713772644.post-36508835292603093542013-05-04T16:56:00.002-04:002013-05-04T16:56:58.078-04:00Doggycide Roundup: 05/04/13<table width="50" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="cornerImg">
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<li><p class="lead"><a name="1"></a>Crystal Falls, CA (04/14/13): Highway Patrol officer approaches a home, then immediately <a href="http://www.uniondemocrat.com/News/Local-News/CHP-investigates-dog-shooting-incident" title="CHP investigates dog shooting incident [by Christina O’Haver @ 04/22/13 11:28 AM] | The Union Democrat">shoots & kills</a> Osa the rottweiler when she allegedly “lunge[s] at his legs”. Includes a blatant lie by a Highway Patrol spox about how a dog wouldn’t be incapacitated when Tased or pepper-sprayed.<br/>
<span class="smallText">(via <a href="https://www.facebook.com/DogsShotbyPolice/posts/559478974074471">Dogs Shot by Police | Facebook</a>)</span></p></li>
<li><p><a name="2"></a>Toledo, OH (04/22/13): Police <a href="http://www.toledoblade.com/Police-Fire/2013/04/24/Toledo-police-shoot-kill-dog-who-bit-4-North-Toledo-residents.html" title="Police shoot, kill dog who bit 4 North Toledo residents [by Tanya Irwin @ 04/24/13] | Toledo Blade">shoot & kill</a> a family bulldog after it escapes its chain and bites four assholes who were allegedly throwing bricks at him in his yard.<br/>
<span class="smallText">(via <a href="https://www.facebook.com/DogsShotbyPolice/posts/559481770740858">Dogs Shot by Police | Facebook</a>)</span></p></li>
<li><p><a name="3"></a>San Lorenzo, CA (04/27/13): Deputies searching for a suspect approach a home, then immediately <a href="http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/crime-law/deputies-shoot-kill-3-pit-bulls-pursuit-drug-deali/nXZm9/" title="Deputies shoot, kill 3 pit bulls in pursuit of drug dealing suspect [@ 04/27/13 7:01 PM] | KTVU.com">shoot three pitbulls</a> that allegedly “c[a]me at the[m]”, killing one immediately and one later; animal control finished off the third. Family says dogs had never attacked anyone before.<br/>
<span class="smallText">(via <a href="https://www.facebook.com/DogsShotbyPolice/posts/559977890691246">Dogs Shot by Police | Facebook</a>)</span></p></li>
<p align="center"><strong>Statistics:</strong><br/>
<u>Shootings:</u> 3 · <u>Victims:</u> 5 · <u>Deceased:</u> 5 · <u>Survivors:</u> 0 · <u>Power Breeds<a title="Click to show/hide note" onclick="if(document.getElementById('breedsNote') .style.display=='none') {document.getElementById('breedsNote') .style.display=''}else{document.getElementById('breedsNote') .style.display='none'}" style="cursor:pointer;" class="hiddenNoteClick">*</a><span id="breedsNote" class="hiddenNoteText" style="display:none;"> (dogs stereotypically maligned as “aggressive”: pitbulls, rottweilers, dobermans, etc.)</span>:</u> 5</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin:15px 0 8px 0;border:1px solid #8594a6;font-size:80%;padding:5px;" align="center"><strong>NOTE:</strong> This RSS content provides only basic style and formatting. The appearance of the post above may differ significantly from the original as viewed with a regular Web browser.</div></div>Joé McKenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08037015111554209304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4225674102713772644.post-85624349626525373402013-05-04T15:33:00.000-04:002013-05-04T15:37:36.024-04:00Study: Conservatives actively prefer wasteful tribalism<table width="50" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="cornerImg">
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<p class="lead">I neglected to blog about this when I first heard about it earlier this week, but an interesting and revealing (if not entirely surprising) <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2013/04/why-do-conservatives-waste-energy" title="Why Do Conservatives Like to Waste Energy? [by Tim McDonnell @ 04/29/13 12:34 PM PDT] | Blue Marble | Mother Jones">new study</a> seems to confirm that not only do more hardline conservatives care little about preserving the environment, they’ll actively go for the more wasteful and inefficient route in order to spite ’em some <em>tree-huggerin’ librulz</em>, even if it means paying more out of their own pocket for it:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/04/26/1218453110" title="Political ideology affects energy-efficiency attitudes and choices [by Dena M. Gromet, Howard Kunreuther & Richard P. Larrick @ 04/09/13] | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS)">study</a> out today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences examined attitudes about energy efficiency in liberals and conservatives, and found that promoting energy-efficient products and services on the basis of their environmental benefits actually turned conservatives off from picking them. The researchers first quizzed participants on how much they value various benefits of energy efficiency, including reducing carbon emissions, reducing foreign oil dependence, and reducing how much consumers pay for energy; cutting emissions appealed to conservatives the least.</p>
<p>The study then presented participants with a real-world choice: With a fixed amount of money in their wallet, respondents had to "buy" either an old-school light bulb or an efficient compact florescent bulb (CFL), the same kind Bachmann railed against. Both bulbs were labeled with basic hard data on their energy use, but without a translation of that into climate pros and cons. When the bulbs cost the same, and even when the CFL cost more, conservatives and liberals were equally likely to buy the efficient bulb. But slap a message on the CFL's packaging that says "Protect the Environment," and "we saw a significant drop-off in more politically moderates and conservatives choosing that option," said study author Dena Gromet, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business.</p>
<p>[…]</p>
<p>Gromet said she never expected the green message to motivate conservatives, but was surprised to find that it could in fact repel them from making a purchase even while they found other aspects, like saving cash on their power bills, attractive. The reason, she thinks, is that given the political polarization of the climate change debate, environmental activism is so frowned upon by those the right that they'll do anything to keep themselves distanced from it.</p>
<a name='more'></a>
<p>"When we're given an option where the choice is made to represent a value that we don't identify with or that our ideological group doesn't value," she said, "this can turn the purchase into something undesirable. By making [the environment] part of the choice, even though they might see the economic benefit, they no longer want to put their money toward that option."</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It may seem unreal to some that a group of people (however broadly defined) would deliberately impact their bottom line (not to mention the natural world) just to sneer at imaginary ideological opponents, but the far-Right’s contempt for energy efficiency is well documented and even <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=not-so-conservative-saving-energy" title="Not So Conservative When It Comes to Saving Energy [by Debra Kahn & Climatewire @ 05/11/10] | Scientific American">backed by research</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In a study published last month on the <a href="http://www.nber.org/" title="The National Bureau of Economic Research">National Bureau of Economic Research</a> website, Dora Costa and Matthew Kahn concluded that providing feedback on energy use can actually backfire with some conservatives.</p>
<p>Costa and Kahn merged utility data from 80,000 homes with corresponding voter registration and donation records. The economists found that a Democratic household with green bona fides -- paying for electricity from renewable sources, donating to environmental groups and living in a neighborhood of fellow liberals -- will reduce its consumption by 3 percent in response to feedback.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, a Republican household that doesn't adhere to environmental behaviors will actually increase its consumption by 1 percent. The households that received home energy reports reduced their consumption by about 2 percent overall, but the Republican subset of this group reduced their energy use by 0.4 percent.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And as Ed Brayton <a href="http://freethoughtblogs.com/dispatches/2013/05/04/some-conservatives-turned-off-by-helping-environment/" title="Some Conservatives Turned Off by Helping Environment [by Ed Brayton @ 05/04/13 10:38 AM] | Dispatches from the Culture Wars | Freethought Blogs">notes</a>, the environment is one area where conservatives, particularly the far-Right media, are anything but <em>conservative</em> in their thinking:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In 2011, the conservative blog Red State actually <a href="http://www.redstate.com/dannyhuddleston/2011/03/26/celebrate-earth-hour-by-turning-on-the-lights/" title="Celebrate Earth Hour by turning on the lights [by Danny Huddleston @ 03/26/11 12:27 PM] | RedState">urged people</a> to celebrate “earth hour,” when people all over the world were encouraged to turn their lights off, by turning more lights on. In 2009, Rush Limbaugh <a href="http://mediamatters.org/research/2011/04/22/right-wing-media-celebrate-earth-day-by-mocking/178962" title="Right-Wing Media Celebrate Earth Day By Mocking Conservation [by Fae Jencks @ 04/22/11 8:50 AM EDT] | Media Matters for America">said</a> he planned to make sure all his cars are driven more on Earth Day and that his plane takes a long trip for no reason too. And Glenn Beck said he wanted to hear from people who planned to cut down trees on Earth Day. The next year Beck announced that he would celebrate Earth Day by burning styrofoam in his back yard. The one thing conservatism clearly does not represent today is any desire to engage in conservation.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Ultimately, as Andrew Sullivan <a href="http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2013/05/01/rejecting-conservation/" title="The Climate Change Culture War [@ 05/01/13 2:37 PM] | The Dish">summarizes</a>, the sad but obvious reality is that the Right has become all about posturing and gimmickry over actual pragmatic policies, even <em>at their own expense</em> if it means spending more of their money for the fleeting chance of annoying some faceless liberal.</p>
<p>Isn’t it sad what mindless ideology and runaway spite can do to people?</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin:15px 0 8px 0;border:1px solid #8594a6;font-size:80%;padding:5px;" align="center"><strong>NOTE:</strong> This RSS content provides only basic style and formatting. The appearance of the post above may differ significantly from the original as viewed with a regular Web browser.</div></div>Joé McKenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08037015111554209304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4225674102713772644.post-12596708930355950762013-05-03T15:56:00.000-04:002013-05-03T15:56:17.504-04:00Easter Bunny: Origins<p class="lead">Researchers have finally identified the birthplace of the Easter Bunny:</p>
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<p>(What? A slow blogging day, you say? <em>How dare you.</em>)</p>
<p class="smallText">(via <a href="https://twitter.com/EmergencyPuppy/status/330380756671139840">@EmergencyPuppy</a>)</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin:15px 0 8px 0;border:1px solid #8594a6;font-size:80%;padding:5px;" align="center"><strong>NOTE:</strong> This RSS content provides only basic style and formatting. The appearance of the post above may differ significantly from the original as viewed with a regular Web browser.</div></div>Joé McKenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08037015111554209304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4225674102713772644.post-19271358832573687212013-05-02T17:56:00.000-04:002013-05-02T17:56:11.943-04:00Rhode Island passes same-sex marriage<table width="50" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="cornerImg">
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<p class="lead">And Li’l Rhody <a href="http://news.providencejournal.com/breaking-news/2013/05/rhode-island-house-passes-same-sex-marriage-bill-56-to-15.html" title="Rhode Island House passes same-sex marriage bills, 56 to 15 [by Randal Edgar @ 05/02/13 5:26 PM] | Breaking News | The Providence Journal">makes ten</a> (for now):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Capping a battle that began 16 years ago, the Rhode Island House of Representatives <a href="http://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/HVotes/votereport.asp?id=10153" title="[votes for 2013-H 5015 same-sex marriage bill] | State of Rhode Island General Assembly">voted 56 to 15 Thursday</a> to pass legislation to legalize same-sex marriage.</p>
<p>[…]</p>
<p>With the bills headed to the south steps of the State House for a public signing by Governor Chafee, Rhode Island joins its five New England neighbors in legalizing same-sex marriage and becomes the 10th state in the nation to do so.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>My upcoming weekend plans now include making a beat from all the exploding heads on the homophobic Right. How about you?</p>
<p class="smallText">(via <a href="https://twitter.com/breakingpol/status/330072514711670785">@breakingpol</a>; RT: <a href="http://twitter.com/BreakingNews">@BreakingNews</a>)</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin:15px 0 8px 0;border:1px solid #8594a6;font-size:80%;padding:5px;" align="center"><strong>NOTE:</strong> This RSS content provides only basic style and formatting. The appearance of the post above may differ significantly from the original as viewed with a regular Web browser.</div></div>Joé McKenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08037015111554209304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4225674102713772644.post-85533133272199479772013-05-01T21:09:00.001-04:002013-05-01T21:09:26.537-04:00Daily Blend: 05/01/13<table width="50" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="cornerImg">
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<a href="http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2013/04/florida_teen_girl_charged_with.php"><img title="Kiera Wilmot (16)" alt="Kiera Wilmot (16)" src="http://i.imgur.com/rKmec1p.jpg"/></a>
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<p class="lead">How the hell can it be this hot this early in the year? This can’t bode well.</p>
<li><p><a name="1"></a>Animal liberation activists in Milan, Italy, heroically <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/animal-rights-activists-wreak-havoc-in-milan-laboratory-1.12847" title="Animal-rights activists wreak havoc in Milan laboratory [by Alison Abbott @ 04/22/13] | Nature">sabotage</a> years’ worth of mental health research by releasing scared and helpless lab animals that cannot survive on their own.<br/>
<span class="smallText">(via <a href="http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2013/04/30/animal-rights-activists-are-the-danger-to-animals/"><em>Pharyngula</em></a>)</span></p></li>
<li><p><a name="2"></a>Who made the “bad choices” here: the model high-schooler <sup>[pictured]</sup> who created a tiny pop in a bottle by mixing chemicals in an experiment<a title="Click to show/hide note" onclick="if(document.getElementById('4170-1') .style.display=='none') {document.getElementById('4170-1') .style.display=''}else{document.getElementById('4170-1') .style.display='none'}" style="cursor:pointer;" class="hiddenNoteClick">*</a><span id="4170-1" class="hiddenNoteText" style="display:none;"> (To be fair, not generally a good [or safe] idea unless you know what you’re doing, which it didn’t sound like she did)</span>, or the dumbass school and police officials who got her <a href="http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2013/04/florida_teen_girl_charged_with.php" title="Florida Teen Girl Charged With Felony After Science Experiment Goes Bad [by Kyle Munzenrieder @ 04/26/13 11:59 AM] | Miami New Times">expelled, arrested</a> and are dragging her to court for “possession/discharge of a weapon”?<br/>
<span class="smallText">(via <a href="https://twitter.com/radleybalko/status/329442036493209600">@radleybalko</a>)</span></p></li>
<ul class="contd">
<li><p><a name="3"></a>Better yet: The school then <a href="http://reason.com/blog/2013/05/01/zero-tolerance-watch-teen-faces-felony-c" title="Zero Tolerance Watch: Teen Faces Felony Charges for Science Experiment [by Jesse Walker @ 05/01/13 9:45 AM] | Hit & Run | Reason.com">respond to criticism</a> by declaring that “there are consequences to actions”. Indeed, and those consequences are that students will refrain from ever exhibiting any curiosity or scientific interest at Florida’s Bartow High School in order to avoid violating their ridiculous zero-tolerance policy.<br/>
<span class="smallText">(via <a href="http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2013/05/01/when-science-is-criminalized-only-criminals-will-do-science/"><em>Pharyngula</em></a>)</span></p></li>
</ul>
<li><p><a name="4"></a>Wait, hydrogen peroxide <a href="http://www.cracked.com/article_20426_5-ridiculous-health-myths-you-probably-believe.html" title="5 Ridiculous Health Myths You Probably Believe [by Emmanuel Mueke @ 04/30/13] | Cracked.com">doesn’t work</a>? Dammit, <em>Cracked</em>, stop exploding my beliefs.</p></li>
<li><p><a name="5"></a>And finally, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/30/mythbusters-top-10-moments_n_3187209.html" title="'MythBusters' 10th Anniversary: The Hosts Remember The Show's 10 Most Memorable Moments [by Maggie Furlong @ 04/30/13 5:13 PM EDT] | TV | The Huffington Post">happy decaversary to MythBusting</a>! Even though I only started watching in 2005 (“<a href="http://mythbustersresults.com/episode42" title="Episode 42: Steel Toe-Cap Amputation, Bottle Rocket Blast-off | MythBusters Results">Steel Toe-Cap Amputation, Bottle Rocket Blast-Off</a>”)<br/>
<span class="smallText">(via <a href="https://twitter.com/MythBusters/status/329362555854266368">@MythBusters</a>; RT: <a href="https://twitter.com/JamieNoTweet">@JamieNoTweet</a>)</span></p></li><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin:15px 0 8px 0;border:1px solid #8594a6;font-size:80%;padding:5px;" align="center"><strong>NOTE:</strong> This RSS content provides only basic style and formatting. The appearance of the post above may differ significantly from the original as viewed with a regular Web browser.</div></div>Joé McKenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08037015111554209304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4225674102713772644.post-78324085670290510172013-05-01T20:21:00.000-04:002013-05-01T20:21:58.414-04:00Justice Dept. to appeal FDA order on morning-after pill<table width="50" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="cornerImg">
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<p class="lead">Less than a month after a federal judge tried to rectify the US government’s pointless mucking by <a href="http://preliatorcausa.blogspot.com/2013/04/05-Federal-judge-strikes-down-age-limits-for-morning-after-pill-4131.html" title="Federal judge strikes down age limits for morning-after pill [by Joé McKen @ 04/05/13 1:47 PM ET] | Preliator pro Causa">striking down age restrictions</a> on the morning-after pill, the meddlesome fools <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/02/health/us-will-appeal-order-on-morning-after-pill.html" title="U.S. Will Appeal Order on Morning-After Pill [by Pam Belluck @ 04/01/13] | The New York Times">are at it again</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Justice Department said on Wednesday that it would appeal a federal judge’s order to make the most common morning-after contraceptive available without a prescription for girls and women of all ages.</p>
<p>The announcement came a day after the Food and Drug Administration said that one well-known morning-after pill, Plan B One-Step, would be made available without a prescription for girls as young as 15 — instead of only to girls ages 17 and over, as has been the case.</p>
<p>The Justice Department’s action will not affect that F.D.A. decision. Rather, the department is seeking to overturn a much broader order by the judge that removed restrictions for all ages and for generic versions of the pill, not just Plan B One-Step.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is ridiculous. The FDA first advised that the pill should be made available for all ages in 2011 after declaring it safe and effective. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius apparently took exception this, as she then overruled the FDA because “the pill had not been studied for safety in girls as young as 11”. Not yet clear is why Sebelius apparently finds fault with the findings from the government branch strictly dedicated to studying and certifying the safety of ingestible substances, nor why a pill that has <a href="http://ec.princeton.edu/questions/ecsideeffects.html" title="Side effects of emergency contraceptives (the morning after pill) | Emergency Contraception | Princeton University">no serious or lasting side-effects</a> would somehow be perfectly safe for 15-year-olds but not 11-year-olds, nor why a drug that’s already been in use around the world for years with zero reported casualties of any kind suddenly requires further testing before we can finally be certain of its safety.</p>
<p>There’s a fine line between security-conscious pedantry and playing politics under the guise of medical rigor. Does anyone else detect a whiff of ideological resistance, here?</p>
<p class="smallText">(via <a href="https://twitter.com/BreakingNews/status/329738881673084928">@BreakingNews</a>)</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin:15px 0 8px 0;border:1px solid #8594a6;font-size:80%;padding:5px;" align="center"><strong>NOTE:</strong> This RSS content provides only basic style and formatting. The appearance of the post above may differ significantly from the original as viewed with a regular Web browser.</div></div>Joé McKenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08037015111554209304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4225674102713772644.post-91347633329048061872013-05-01T15:54:00.003-04:002013-05-01T15:54:58.279-04:00Same-sex marriage sweeps across three more Brazilian states<table width="50" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="cornerImg">
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<p class="lead">Though the Brazilian government already allows same-sex couples to marry through a two-step process that involves entering a “stable union” and then petitioning a judge, a rapidly growing number of states are <a href="http://www.freedomtomarry.org/blog/entry/marriage-moves-forward-in-brazil-two-additional-states-pass-the-freedom-to-"Marriage moves forward in Brazil: Two additional states pass the freedom to marry [by Adam Polaski @ 04/30/13 11:15 AM] | Freedom to Marry">doing away with the needless complication</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Yesterday, marriage continued moving forward in Brazil when the Corregedor Geral de Justiça in two additional states - <a href="http://cofemac.com.br/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9474&Itemid=9999" title="Justiça aprova casamento gay na Paraíba [by Fábio Barbosa @ 04/30/13 8:12 AM] | COFEMAC">Paraíba</a> and <a href="http://g1.globo.com/sc/santa-catarina/noticia/2013/04/cgj-autoriza-casamento-entre-pessoas-do-mesmo-sexo-em-sc.html" title="CGJ autoriza casamento entre pessoas do mesmo sexo em SC [@ 04/29/13 5:55 PM] | G1">Santa Catarina</a> (Articles in Portuguese) - authorized marriages between same-sex couples. Now, fourteen of the 27 jursidictions in Brazil (13 states and the Federal District) have approved the freedom to marry. Earlier this month, <a href="http://www.freedomtomarry.org/blog/entry/rio-de-janeiro-becomes-the-latest-state-in-brazil-to-pass-the-freedom-to-ma" title="Rio de Janeiro becomes the latest state in Brazil to pass the freedom to marry [by Adam Polaski @ 04/19/13 2:00 PM] | Freedom to Marry">Rio de Janeiro</a> and Rondônia saw similar developments.</p>
<p>[…]</p>
<p>In these states (and the federal district), couples can marry in Brazil without the two-step process: Alagoas (December 2011), Sergipe (July 2012), Espíritu Santo (August 2012), Bahía (November 2012), the Brazilian Federal District (December 2012), Piauí (December 2012), São Paulo (December 2012), Ceará (March 2013), Paraná (March 2013), Mato Grosso do Sul (April 2013), Rio de Janeiro (April 2013), Rondônia (April 2013), and now Paraíba and Santa Catarina (April 2013).</p>
<p>Now, nearly 60% of the population of Brazil live in states where same-sex couples can marry without the two-step process.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>An increasingly large part of the rest of the world is looking at you, “Land of the Free”.</p>
<p class="smallText">(via <a href="http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2013/05/brazil-adds-three-more-marriage-states.html"><em>Joe. My. God.</em></a>)</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin:15px 0 8px 0;border:1px solid #8594a6;font-size:80%;padding:5px;" align="center"><strong>NOTE:</strong> This RSS content provides only basic style and formatting. The appearance of the post above may differ significantly from the original as viewed with a regular Web browser.</div></div>Joé McKenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08037015111554209304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4225674102713772644.post-3790417053624385392013-04-30T16:54:00.001-04:002013-05-01T00:19:48.245-04:00Vox Day: Women should rely on daddy to choose their husbands<table width="50" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="cornerImg">
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<p class="lead">Our ol’ pal Theodore “Vox Day” Beale, who’s never encountered a form of misogyny he didn’t take to and spin as a means of preserving (his grotesque ideal of) society, <a href="http://voxday.blogspot.ca/2013/04/mailvox-that-which-cannot-survive-wont.html" title="Mailvox: that which cannot survive won't [by Vox @ 04/29/13 6:46 PM] | Vox Popoli">has a suggestion</a> for stripping women of their most basic autonomy:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Who Nose asks a pertinent question:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><em>"If you want to understand why women are not permitted serve in Church leadership, and why human societies do not survive more than a few generations of young women being permitted to choose their own spouses"</em></p>
<p>It begs the question: Who ought to choose their spouses?</p>
<p>The Church?<br/>
The Father?<br/>
The Mother?<br/>
The State?</p>
<p>The question is further begged: What kind of law would need to be passed to enforce the choosing of a spouse.</p>
<p>Finally, another question is begged: What would you do with the 99% of women who responded to the suggestion or the law with, "F*ck Off"?</p>
</blockquote>
<ol>
<li>The Father, with the advice of the Mother.</li>
<li>No law is necessary. Simply informing their daughter that a woman who is capable of choosing her own spouse is clearly also capable of paying for her own college education and supporting her own lifestyle decisions will suffice for most parents. If a woman is independent enough to insist on paying her own way in order to pursue a career, she's probably not wife-and-mother material anyhow and would likely end up a reproductive dead end regardless the options she is afforded. We can always hope that instead of children, such a woman will contribute some revolutionary Powerpoint slideshows to society, produce a cure for cancer, or introduce some truly ground-breaking HR policies that will change the world for the better.</li>
<li>I would simply wish them the best of fortune in their future endeavors. But the number won't be anywhere nearly that high because women are, first and foremost, the practical sex.</li>
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<a name='more'></a>
<p>Demographic patterns make it perfectly clear that societies where women are not only permitted, but encouraged, to make their own mating choices are not sustainable. I find it deeply ironic that so many people who claim to firmly believe in evolution by natural selection demonstrate that they do not understand the basic concept of fitness as soon as the issue of societal demographics is raised.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>First off, if you’re going to try and mock those who reject your hideous way of thinking, you probably shouldn’t do it by mentioning how they rightfully refuse to shoehorn a biological mechanism into a social science, and not only because they believe there are better ways to measure a society’s health and prosperity than merely by its birthrate.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I’d like to know what Vox thinks makes men so uniquely qualified for deciding women’s future, even including their relationships. If his usual puffy rhetoric about “the survival of society!” can be dismissed by noting how the majority of nations that allow women to make their own partnership choices (<em>ie.</em> <em>most of the world</em>) are <em>not</em> disappearing into the sea (or, if landlocked, being obliterated by volcanoes) as we speak – and, in most cases, are in fact flourishing both economically and demographically – then what’s his reasoning? Surely, a self-proclaimed “superintelligence” like Vox wouldn’t <em>dream</em> of making a proposal rooted solely in rank prejudice, right?</p>
<p>Still, though, it’s nice of him to allow the mother a vague, cursory place at her husband’s examination of the various pigs offered to him by suitors asking for his daughter’s hand in marriage (livestock-based bride pricing being standard in the bygone era of antiquated social mores that lives on in Vox’s mind).</p></li>
<li><p>Exactly how does a young adult’s right to choose who she pairs up with indicate her financial solvency? Or does Vox have that little issue with dropping any pretense at logic and reasoning (not that his grasp on them is notable to begin with) in favor of blatant emotional manipulation and economic coercion? Any parents who would opt to cut their offspring off outright in protest of them having the gall to choose who they wish to be romantically involved with aren’t people whose advice said offspring should heed in the first place.</p></li>
<li><p>Yes, women are so “practical” that they apparently need daddy’s say in who should be their life partner. And they’d apparently all be quite fine with this arrangement, at least in whichever alternate reality this would happen to be true.</p></li>
</ol>
<blockquote>
<p>One of two things will happen. The society will collapse or be overrun, or the government will pass laws to prevent the demographic collapse from taking place. There are no other alternatives; if Who Nose or anyone else should like to suggest one, I'm quite willing to add it to the list. It should be kept in mind that a government which has the power to conscript men to die for the security of the nation quite clearly has the power to force women to marry and bear children for the same purpose.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Because places like <a href="http://www.statisticbrain.com/arranged-marriage-statistics/" title="Arranged / Forced Marriage Statistics | Statistic Brain">India, South Asia, parts of Africa and the Middle East</a> are obviously role models whose cultures the rest of the world should seek to emulate. (Never mind all that perpetual warring, societal struggles and governmental tyranny stuff. “Demographic stability” before all!)</p>
<p>And then, he wrecks this same argument with the very next paragraph:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Many would-be critics here don't seem to understand the implications of my being a libertarian. I don't believe that laws are the answer to undesirable human behavior, not because they are wrong or evil, but because they are ineffective. Customs and traditions are much more powerful; laws only tend to function if they are reasonably in line with them. Laws don't shape society, they tend to follow it instead.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So, countries should pass laws to force women into loveless and unhappy marriages in the name of demographic stability, except they shouldn’t, because laws are useless and we should rely on tradition, instead, which totally works, except that cultures where arranged and forced marriages are an accepted norm are also seeing <a href="https://www.google.ca/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&ctype=l&met_y=sp_dyn_tfrt_in&hl=en&dl=en#!ctype=l&strail=false&bcs=d&nselm=h&met_y=sp_dyn_cbrt_in&scale_y=lin&ind_y=false&rdim=region&idim=region:SAS:MNA&idim=country:BGD:NER:KAZ:KGZ:IND&ifdim=region&hl=en_US&dl=en&ind=false" title="World Development Indicators [showing “Birth rate, crude (per 1,000 people)” for “Niger”, “Kyrgyz Republic”, “Middle East & North Africa”, “South Asia”, “Kazakhstan”, “India” & “Bangladesh”] | Google Public Data Explorer">lower birth rates</a>, so ….</p>
<p>At any rate, it’s amusing to see Vox try to uphold the mantle of libertarianism, an ideology that promotes personal freedom and liberty above all else, while simultaneously explaining how parents and society itself should prohibit women from exhibiting the slightest agency and instead push them into predetermined unions without a single care for their thoughts on the matter. Because women just don’t count, you see, even when acting in their stead to try and preserve a population that they inherently comprise an entire half of.</p>
<p>No, you probably shouldn’t try to understand that sort of reasoning, either.</p>
<p class="smallText"><strong>EDIT:</strong> 05/01/13 12:19 AM ET – Added “(<em>ie.</em> <em>most of the world</em>)”.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin:15px 0 8px 0;border:1px solid #8594a6;font-size:80%;padding:5px;" align="center"><strong>NOTE:</strong> This RSS content provides only basic style and formatting. The appearance of the post above may differ significantly from the original as viewed with a regular Web browser.</div></div>Joé McKenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08037015111554209304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4225674102713772644.post-88617867528795066802013-04-29T19:17:00.001-04:002013-04-29T19:17:55.033-04:00Daily Blend: 04/29/13<table width="50" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="cornerImg">
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<a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/04/29/dowsing_for_bombs_maker_of_useless_bomb_detectors_convicted_of_fraud.html"><img title="James McCormick" alt="James McCormick" src="http://i.imgur.com/hsn6AzU.jpg"/></a>
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<li><p class="lead"><a name="1"></a>Canada is apparently eager to show that it can pass <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2013/04/25/pol-eight-things-to-know-anti-terrorism-bill.html" title="8 things to know about the new anti-terrorism bill [by Leslie MacKinnon @ 04/25/13 2:18 PM ET] | CBC News">horrible and repressive laws</a> in the name of “national security”, too.<br/>
<span class="smallText">(via <a href="https://twitter.com/ioerror/status/327569965467181059">@ioerror</a>; RT: <a href="https://twitter.com/ggreenwald">@ggreenwald</a>)</span></p></li>
<li><p><a name="2"></a>A win for reality: James McCormick <sup>[pictured]</sup>, who made millions by selling completely useless “dowsing rod”-style bomb detectors, is finally <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/04/29/dowsing_for_bombs_maker_of_useless_bomb_detectors_convicted_of_fraud.html" title="Maker of Useless Dowsing Rod for Bombs Convicted for Fraud [by Phil Plait @ 04/29/13 11:47 AM] | Bad Astronomy | Slate Magazine">convicted of fraud</a> (<em>after</em> hundreds have already perished).</p></li>
<li><p><a name="3"></a>LGBT history milestone: NBA center Jason Collins becomes first active US big-league sports player to <a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/magazine/news/20130429/jason-collins-gay-nba-player/" title="Why NBA center Jason Collins is coming out now [by Jason Collins & Franz Lidz @ 04/29/13 11:01 AM] | Sports Illustrated (SI.com)">come out as gay</a>.</p></li>
<li><p><a name="4"></a>And finally, Glenn Beck tragically <a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2013/04/29/guess-who-won-the-charles-darwin-award-from-the-tribeca-film-festival/" title="Guess Who Won the ‘Charles Darwin’ Award from the Tribeca Film Festival? [by Hemant Mehta @ 04/29/13] | Friendly Atheist | Patheos">wins wrong kind of Darwin award</a>.</p></li>
<p>If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or <a href="http://preliatorcausa.blogspot.com/p/contact-me.html" title="Contact Me | Preliator pro Causa">send them in</a>.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin:15px 0 8px 0;border:1px solid #8594a6;font-size:80%;padding:5px;" align="center"><strong>NOTE:</strong> This RSS content provides only basic style and formatting. The appearance of the post above may differ significantly from the original as viewed with a regular Web browser.</div></div>Joé McKenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08037015111554209304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4225674102713772644.post-48663509085720393732013-04-27T16:28:00.000-04:002013-04-27T16:28:46.732-04:00Wales measles epidemic traced to antivaccination lunacy<table width="50" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="cornerImg">
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<p class="lead">It looks like the antivaccination movement has <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/04/27/measles_epidemic_outbreak_in_wales_tied_to_andrew_wakefield_s_discredited.html" title="Measles Epidemic in Wales Has Roots in Antivax Movement [by Phil Plait @ 04/27/13 8:00 AM] | Bad Astronomy | Slate Magazine">yet another cause to celebrate</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>More than 800 people have been diagnosed with measles in Swansea[, Wales] in this recent outbreak. People are lining up to get their vaccinations, and <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/apr/25/vaccination-campaign-mmr-measles" title="Vaccination campaign launches with hope of halting measles outbreak [by Sarah Boseley & James Meikle @ 04/25/13] | The Guardian">a campaign has been started to get more people vaccinated</a>, which is a good thing; I just hope it’s in time. But with so many people contracting the illness, <a href="http://www.itv.com/news/wales/update/2013-04-19/a-measles-epidemic-death-is-inevitable-says-doctor/" title="A measles epidemic death is 'inevitable' says doctor [@ updated 04/25/13] | ITV News">serious repercussions are almost inevitable</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.wales.nhs.uk/sites3/page.cfm?orgid=457&pid=54144" title="National immunisation uptake data | Health Protection Division | Public Health Wales">Wales has had low Measles/Mumps/Rubella (MMR) vaccination rates for some time</a> … since about 1998, in fact, when <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/04/14/vaccine_and_autism_uk_measles_outbreaks_and_andrew_wakefield.html" title="Andrew Wakefield Tries to Shift Blame for UK Measles Epidemic [by Phil Plait @ 04/14/13 8:00 AM] | Bad Astronomy | Slate Magazine">Andrew Wakefield published his bogus study in the <em>Lancet</em> falsely linking the MMR vaccine to autism</a>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Once again, he, Jenny McCarthy and the various Orwellianly-named vaccine “safety” groups out there must be <em>ever</em> so proud.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin:15px 0 8px 0;border:1px solid #8594a6;font-size:80%;padding:5px;" align="center"><strong>NOTE:</strong> This RSS content provides only basic style and formatting. The appearance of the post above may differ significantly from the original as viewed with a regular Web browser.</div></div>Joé McKenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08037015111554209304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4225674102713772644.post-28574802558313220702013-04-26T20:38:00.000-04:002013-04-27T00:49:06.248-04:00‘The Daily Show’ compares gun control in US and Australia<p class="lead">Nothing brings the US’s struggles with adopting even the most rudimentary gun safety measures into perspective better than taking a gander at other countries that have already enacted sensible gun control. Here’s a very revealing three-part series from <em>The Daily Show</em> where John Oliver heads goes Down Under for one heck of a study in contrasts, both societal and political:</p>
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<td class="imgFooter"><strong>Non-U.S. readers:</strong> <a href="http://preliatorcausa.blogspot.com/p/how-to-watch-comedy-central-videos-from.html" title="How to watch Comedy Central videos from outside the U.S. | Preliator pro Causa">Click here</a> to learn how to enable Comedy Central videos (Firefox only)</td>
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<p><em>VIDEO 1/3: “Gun Control Whoop-de-doo” [@ 04/18/13]</em></p>
<blockquote>
<p>JON STEWART: Welcome back! For more on the gun debate, we bring you the first part of a three-part series with John Oliver.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>JOHN OLIVER (V.O.): Yesterday, Americans watched in shock as even watered-down gun legislation died on the floor of the Senate. But that is exactly where it belongs, according to gun lobbyists like Philip Van Cleave of the Virginia Citizens Defense League.</p>
<p>PHILIP VAN CLEAVE: The Second Amendment is sacrosanct.</p>
<p>OLIVER: [<em>hands Van Cleave “2nd AMENDMENT” stop sign</em>] You hold up this sign whenever I make a suggestion that you think is infringing upon your Second Amendment rights, okay?</p>
<p>VAN CLEAVE: Okay.</p>
<p>OLIVER: Assault weapons ban?</p>
<p><em>Van Cleave raises the sign.</em></p>
<p>OLIVER: Boom, there it is. Increased background checks?</p>
<p><em>Van Cleave raises the sign.</em></p>
<p>OLIVER: Really?</p>
<p>VAN CLEAVE: Yeah.</p>
<p>OLIVER: Just for background checks?</p>
<p>VAN CLEAVE: We don’t do background checks for the First Amendment.</p>
<p>OLIVER: Okay, so let’s just try this one. Nice and easy. A mandatory one-hour waiting period if you buy a gun?</p>
<p><em>Van Cleave hesitates briefly, then raises the sign.</em></p>
<p>VAN CLEAVE: Why a mandatory –?</p>
<p>OLIVER: Are you [fucking] kidding me?</p>
<p>VAN CLEAVE: Unless I can see a reason, no. I can’t think of anything that I support. Because at the end of the day, none of it works.</p>
<p>OLIVER (V.O.): Exactly. Gun control does not work.</p>
<p>OLIVER: What if – hypothetically speaking – what if gun control <em>could</em> work? Which obviously it can’t, so we know that it won’t, so that’s not a problem. But what if it could, due to that time that it did?</p>
<p>VAN CLEAVE: Okay, when was that?</p>
<p>OLIVER: Australia.</p>
<p>OLIVER (V.O.): Yes, Australia. In 1996, a conservative prime minister, John Howard, instituted sweeping gun control laws following a mass shooting that shocked the nation. So, should we be learning from this effective example? Of course not.</p>
<p>VAN CLEAVE: I guess if we’re gonna go to Planet X and say it’s not the United States, it’s some other planet, different people, different everything – yeah – but in the real world, with human beings, it’s not gonna work. Gun control isn’t gonna work.</p>
<p>OLIVER (V.O.): Unfortunately, not only is Australia in the real world, even their animals can holster weapons. So, who was right about gun control? There was only one way to find out: confront the man responsible.</p>
<p>OLIVER: Mr. Prime Minister, let’s begin in the formal Australian way: G’day.</p>
<p>FMR. PRIME MINISTER JOHN HOWARD: How do you do?</p>
<p>OLIVER: Obviously, gun control doesn’t work, it can’t work, it will never work. So, how was your scheme a failure?</p>
<p>HOWARD: My scheme was not a failure. We had a massacre in a place called Port Arthur seventeen years ago, and there have been none since.</p>
<p>OLIVER (V.O.): <em>Zero</em> gun massacres? Hold on. Did gun control actually work?</p>
<p>VAN CLEAVE: It stopped one thing! That can also be a statistical anomaly.</p>
<p>OLIVER: Yeah. It was just their mass shootings that disappeared.</p>
<p>VAN CLEAVE: But there was so few of them! Whoop-de-doo!</p>
<p>OLIVER: [<em>incredulous</em>] “Whoop-de-doo”?</p>
<p>VAN CLEAVE: Yeah.</p>
<p>OLIVER: “Whoop-de-doo”?</p>
<p>VAN CLEAVE: Yes. Mass shootings are rare, anyhow.</p>
<p>OLIVER (V.O.): Exactly. They probably barely <em>had</em> a massacre before 1996!</p>
<p>HOWARD: There were about 13 in the previous 18 years.</p>
<p>OLIVER: [<em>to Van Cleave</em>] In the 18 years before Port Arthur, there were 13 mass shootings. Almost one a year.</p>
<p>VAN CLEAVE: I was unaware they had that many. “Mass” being, what, more than two people at a time?</p>
<p>OLIVER: More than four.</p>
<p>VAN CLEAVE: More than four. Okay.</p>
<p>OLIVER: “Whoop-de-doo”!</p>
<p>OLIVER (V.O.): But perhaps there were other, non-whoop-de-doo side-effects.</p>
<p>HOWARD: The homicide rate involving the use of guns have declined significantly by factors of up to 50 and 60%, and the incidence of [?youth?] suicides involving the use of guns declined dramatically.</p>
<p>OLIVER: Whoop-de-[fucking]-do.</p>
<p>OLIVER (V.O.): Help me out here, Philip.</p>
<p>OLIVER: Homicides with guns went down. Suicides with guns also went down. Zero mass shootings.</p>
<p>VAN CLEAVE: Australia still has murders, rapes and robberies last time I checked.</p>
<p>OLIVER: Unless you can get rid of 100% of crime, it’s not worth doing at all?</p>
<p>VAN CLEAVE: Well, put it this way. It’s illegal to have crack cocaine anywhere in the United States. You think that if someone really wants it, they can get their hands on crack cocaine in America?</p>
<p>OLIVER: So, unless we can completely get rid of drugs, there’s no point in having drug laws at all?</p>
<p>VAN CLEAVE: [<em>awkward pause; sighs</em>] Let me think about that for a minute. [<em>shorter pause</em>] Well, I guess – effectively, it doesn’t work!</p>
<p>OLIVER (V.O.): You can’t argue with Philip; even his logic is bullet-proof.</p>
<p>VAN CLEAVE: Well, lemme put it to you this way. There are more drownings in backyards where they have pools. They don’t have a pool, there are no drownings in backyards. So, the US has a very high number of guns. Therefore, there is<sup>[sic]</sup> going to be more chances for somebody to be killed with a gun.</p>
<p>OLIVER: Right.</p>
<p>VAN CLEAVE: Right.</p>
<p>OLIVER: Right. That’s <em>my</em> point.</p>
<p>OLIVER (V.O.): Philip might think that living in a society with dramatically reduced gun violence is a “whoop-de-doo”, and people in Australia couldn’t agree with him more.</p>
<p><em>MONTAGE: Several Australians repeat “whoop-de-doo!”; Oliver is hoisted up by pub clients and shouts “WHOOP-DE-[FUCKING]-DOO!”</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>STEWART: John Oliver. We’ll be right back.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr/>
<p><em>VIDEO 2/3: “Gun Control & Political Suicide” [@ 04/23/13]</em></p>
<blockquote>
<p>STEWART: Welcome back! Last week, we learned that while our United States Senate was unable to pass even the most basic gun control measures, Australia has had a successful gun control scheme for almost two decades. John Oliver visited our cousins from across a couple of ponds to find out more in part two of our three-part series.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>OLIVER (V.O.): In 1996, following a massacre, Australia’s conservative government enforced a national buyback of semiautomatic weapons while also heavily regulating the purchase and storage of other firearms. The result was dramatically reduced levels of gun violence. So, why can’t we do that here? To find out, I sat down with long-time aide to Harry Reid, Jim Manley.</p>
<p>JIM MANLEY: The NRA is still a very powerful force in this country. They have four million members who are very, very determined to get their way.</p>
<p>OLIVER: And how can a nation of 300 million compete with that?</p>
<p>MANLEY: It’s difficult to understand sometimes, isn’t it? But the fact of the matter is that you’ve got to think long and hard before you support gun control legislation because taking on the NRA can be political suicide.</p>
<p>OLIVER (V.O.): And the Democratic Party is working tirelessly to reduce the rate of political suicide among its members. Surely, Australian politicians weren’t stupid enough to end their political lives for gun control?</p>
<p>FMR. QUEENSLAND PREMIERE ROB BORBIDGE: I did.</p>
<p>OLIVER: What?</p>
<p>BORBIDGE: I did.</p>
<p>OLIVER: You did what?</p>
<p>BORBIDGE: I took the stand. I was prepared to face the political consequences, and we delivered gun control.</p>
<p>OLIVER (V.O.): Meet Rob Borbidge, former Premier of Queensland, Australia’s most conservative state. In 1996, he was instrumental in enacting gun control, knowing it would cost him his political career in the next election.</p>
<p>BORBIDGE: We paid a high political price, but we did the right thing.</p>
<p><em>Oliver looks shocked.</em></p>
<p>BORBIDGE: Look, there are Australians alive today because we took that action. I mean, how much is a life worth?</p>
<p>OLIVER (V.O.): But Jim Manley knows that a true public servant has more important concerns.</p>
<p>OLIVER: What makes a politician successful?</p>
<p>MANLEY: Getting reelected by his or her constituents.</p>
<p>OLIVER: [<em>stunned</em>] Right. Yeah. That’s how you judge success.</p>
<p>MANLEY: [<em>flustered</em>] Okay, that’s – well, getting legislation done.</p>
<p>OLIVER: – Is second.</p>
<p>MANLEY: Is second, yeah.</p>
<p>OLIVER: So that is second? Holy [shit], that <em>is</em> second?</p>
<p>MANLEY: Uh … If I could rewind this tape, I’d say that getting legislation done, and getting reelected by your constituents.</p>
<p>OLIVER: But seeing as we can’t rewind the tape, let’s just go with the answer you gave on instinct.</p>
<p>MANLEY: You don’t get you reelected, you’re just roadkill in the political process. You’re just another loser.</p>
<p>OLIVER (V.O.): Tragically, not everyone understands this.</p>
<p>OLIVER: [<em>to Borbidge</em>] What makes a politician successful? Go.</p>
<p>BORBIDGE: Making society a better place.</p>
<p>OLIVER: <em>No</em>, no, no, Rob. No. Look, we can, um – we can actually rewind the tape. We rolling? What makes a politician successful?</p>
<p>BORBIDGE: It’s your responsibility to govern in the best interest of the people that you serve.</p>
<p>OLIVER: Right – Rob – I mean, I’m going out on a limb, here, I’ve already told someone else that I can’t do this.</p>
<p>BORBIDGE: I hope you’ve got a lot of tape.</p>
<p>OLIVER (V.O.): True success is a lifelong politician like Harry Reid, whose watered-down gun legislation was carefully designed to protect those who needed it most.</p>
<p>MANLEY: He has a responsibility as a Democratic to protect the caucus.</p>
<p>OLIVER: Right, the <em>caucus</em> needs to be protected. The <em>caucus</em> does.</p>
<p>MANLEY: They need to be protected politically.</p>
<p>OLIVER: How many political careers have been tragically ended by gun control?</p>
<p>MANLEY: We’ve lost some good folks over the years because of their view.</p>
<p>OLIVER: Right, you have a perfectly healthy political career, and then – [<em>snaps fingers</em>] bang.</p>
<p>MANLEY: Just like that.</p>
<p>OLIVER (V.O.): Which means former Australian Prime Minister John Howard has blood on his hands.</p>
<p>OLIVER: [<em>to Howard</em>] Do you ever think about the innocent victims of your gun control?</p>
<p>HOWARD: There were no innocent victims of mine – there were no victims at all.</p>
<p><em>Oliver shows a photo of Rob Borbidge.</em></p>
<p>HOWARD: Yeah, that’s a photograph of Rob Borbidge. He was incredibly courageous, politically, in supporting our laws.</p>
<p>OLIVER: But politically, he’s dead. Bang. [<em>snaps fingers</em>] Just like that.</p>
<p>HOWARD: Well, he lost an election. We all do at some point.</p>
<p>OLIVER (V.O.): But Howard is not alone. His Deputy Prime Minister, Tim Fisher, also refuses to accept responsibility for these career massacres.</p>
<p>OLIVER: So, you don’t look at these faces – [<em>holds up photographs of four defeated politicians, including Borbidge</em>] – and feel guilt?</p>
<p>FMR. DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER TIM FISHER: Well, they’re alive.</p>
<p>OLIVER: They’re dead. They’re politically dead.</p>
<p>FISHER: I hope that those who totally veto any move to bring sensible semiautomatic and automatic weapons control to the suburbs of America are also politically dead, but physically alive.</p>
<p><em>Oliver builds a small public shrine with photos of several defeated politicians.</em></p>
<p>OLIVER (V.O.): Not if I could help it. Never again will a political career end in a senseless act of meaningful legislation.</p>
<p>MAN ON STREET: What is it commemorating?</p>
<p>OLIVER: It’s just, all of these – all of them are dead, politically.</p>
<p>MAN ON STREET: Okay.</p>
<p>OLIVER: Not physically. Physically, they’re probably safer than they’ve ever been before.</p>
<p>ELDERLY LADY: The world’s a very dicey thing.</p>
<p>OLIVER: I mean, again, just to reiterate: Physically, they’re absolutely fine.</p>
<p>OLIVER: [<em>to man on street</em>] Really makes you think.</p>
<p>MAN ON STREET: Sure does.</p>
<p>OLIVER (V.O.): Unfortunately, what spending time with several of Australian politicians made me think about was how horribly wrong we have it in America.</p>
<p>OLIVER: [<em>shaking hands with Borbidge</em>] Thanks for speaking with me, Rob.</p>
<p>BORBIDGE: Pleasure.</p>
<p>OLIVER: You are a great human being.</p>
<p>BORBIDGE: Thank you.</p>
<p>OLIVER: It’s just, by all American standards, you are a [shitty] politician, and the fact that that is true is why I am now – [<em>gets up in exasperation</em>] – going to walk into the [fucking] ocean.</p>
<p>OLIVER (V.O.): In America, we’re told gun control is not possible. But in Australia, they’ve shown it is, providing a fantastic lesson for America to ignore.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>STEWART: John Oliver. We’ll be right back.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr/>
<p><em>VIDEO 3/3: “Australia & Gun Control's Aftermath” [@ 04/25/13]</em></p>
<blockquote>
<p>STEWART: Welcome back! We continue tonight our series from Australia. John Oliver learned that following a mass shooting in Australia, the country introduced gun control and it worked. So, how can America take this valuable lesson and ignore it? John Oliver finds out in this, our final installment.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>OLIVER (V.O.): Previously, I went to Australia, where I learned that in 1996, their government enacted sweeping gun control laws. The result? Reduced gun violence and zero mass shootings. So, are there any lessons for America, here? Virginia gun advocate Philip Van Cleave has a clear answer.</p>
<p>VAN CLEAVE: We’re not Australia. It’s a very different culture. Different people, different everything.</p>
<p>OLIVER: Right, there’s no similarity with Australia. Australia is a former British colony with a wild frontier that was tamed by brave men who also wiped out almost an entire indigenous population, and we are … [<em>pauses</em>] … not similar to that … right?</p>
<p>VAN CLEAVE: Right.</p>
<p>OLIVER (V.O.): Right, because unlike Australia, we Americans know when the guns are taken away, tyranny inevitably follows.</p>
<p>VAN CLEAVE: The Founding Fathers knew that governments tend to grow beyond their means. In America, we’re stepping in the direction of a police state.</p>
<p>OLIVER: Is that really happening, Philip, or is that some kind of crazy paranoia?</p>
<p>VAN CLEAVE: We have police, they’re now wearing ninja suits, if you will, and you don’t even know they’re police, necessarily, the black masks on and everything.</p>
<p>OLIVER: So, it really isn’t crazy paranoia; you’re justifiably frightened about ninja police.</p>
<p>VAN CLEAVE: Ninja police, yes.</p>
<p>OLIVER: Yeah. Ninja police.</p>
<p>VAN CLEAVE: Yes.</p>
<p>OLIVER (V.O.): Sadly, without access to semiautomatic firearms, Australians wouldn’t know a thing about real freedom.</p>
<p>AUSTRALIAN WOMEN: Bloody [?], we’re free! We’re just sitting here doing whatever we want, everybody’s just hanging out and having a good time.</p>
<p>MAN IN WETSUIT: People don’t have the same concerns anymore about getting gunned down when they’re in a tourist resort.</p>
<p>OLIVER; Yeah, but was that worth it?</p>
<p>MAN IN WETSUIT: Yes!</p>
<p>OLIVER: [<em>to woman on beach</em>] Was it worth giving up your fundamental freedoms just to not get shot in a gun massacre?</p>
<p>WOMAN: [<em>amused</em>] What the [fuck] are you talking about?</p>
<p>OLIVER (V.O.): Australians must now live in this well-regulated nightmare because of ex-politicians like Rob Borbidge, who smugly thinks that his country has something to teach us.</p>
<p>BORBIDGE: I hope that they would have a look at what has happened here.</p>
<p>OLIVER: Why would people want to live like this?</p>
<p>BORBIDGE: Because they might want a safer society to live in.</p>
<p>OLIVER (V.O.): But it’s pointless for us to study the Australian experience, because their fear of gun control back then has no parallels with ours.</p>
<p>OLIVER: What kind of things were you hearing when you suggested gun control?</p>
<p>BORBIDGE: That government was becoming a dictatorship …</p>
<p>OLIVER: Right, that’s one.</p>
<p>BORBIDGE: We were told that people would not have the right to defend their property and their families.</p>
<p>OLIVER: Okay, that’s definitely two.</p>
<p>BORBIDGE: That democracy is at stake somehow if government decides there should be a background check.</p>
<p>OLIVER: Yeah, all right, that’s three.</p>
<p>BORBIDGE: That we’re about to be invaded by the Indonesians.</p>
<p>OLIVER: That’s completely different. No-one in America is afraid of Indonesians. Are they afraid of Mexicans and Muslims coming? Maybe.</p>
<p>OLIVER (V.O.): Sure, he <em>claims</em> Australians were angry, but where is the proof?</p>
<blockquote>
<p><em>MONTAGE: Anti-gun control protestors in 1996</em></p>
<p>WOMAN: People’s rights are being taken away from them.</p>
<p>SPEAKER: And I’m not gonna give up any guns if they gonna take off me. Are you gonna give yours up?</p>
<p><em>The crowd reacts: “No!”</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>OLIVER (V.O.): Okay, there it is. But how did those angry rural conservatives feel now?</p>
<p>MAN: My immediate reaction was an overreaction. But, as time went on, the regulations were quite manageable.</p>
<p>OLIVER: So – hold on. You didn’t want to give up your high-powered gun?</p>
<p>MAN: No. But … I felt as if I had a bit of a duty to the rest of our society.</p>
<p>OLIVER (V.O.): And if you think that sounds bat[shit] crazy, this effective gun control was enacted by conservative politicians against the will of their own base.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>HOWARD: [<em>addressing angry crowd, 1996</em>] There is no other way – there is no other way.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>OLIVER (V.O.): But our politicians are different. They know that …</p>
<blockquote>
<p>SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): Gun control doesn’t work.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>… or even if it does …</p>
<blockquote>
<p>SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D-NY): It takes a long time.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>… and to be fair, Jon Howard and his Deputy Prime Minister, Tim Fisher, have had since 1996 to enact their sweeping reforms.</p>
<p>FISHER: It took less than three-and-a-half months.</p>
<p>OLIVER: [<em>shocked</em>] What? <em>What?</em></p>
<p>FISHER: Port Arthur massacre was on the 28<sup>th</sup> of April 1996. In a 12-week period shortly following that, bulk of legislation was devised, drafted, debated and implemented.</p>
<p>OLIVER: [<em>breaking down</em>] But … but it doesn’t work.</p>
<p>FISHER: Zero massacres since 1996.</p>
<p>OLIVER: [<em>leaving</em>] You keep saying that, but gun control doesn’t work, so …</p>
<p>OLIVER (V.O.): My head was spinning. I had to clear it the traditional Aussie way.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>AUSTRALIAN COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCER: Beer!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>No, not that way. A walkabout.</p>
<p><em>MONTAGE: Oliver roams the Australian wilderness, jumping around and freaking out, while interview snippets are heard (“The Second Amendment is sacrosanct”, “zero massacres since 1996”, Charlton Heston’s “From my cold dead hands!”, etc.). Oliver sheds his clothes, the remaining ones turn shredded; he meets someone in a kangaroo costume; he treks the Outback like an Indigenous man, “training” to fight with a staff. He eventually wakes up on some train tracks.</em></p>
<p>OLIVER (V.O.): After three days in the bush with a guy in a kangaroo suit, it became clear what the real issue with gun control in America is.</p>
<p>OLIVER: [<em>to Van Cleave</em>] If guns aren’t the problem, Philip, what is the problem?</p>
<p>VAN CLEAVE: People.</p>
<p>OLIVER: People are the problem?</p>
<p>VAN CLEAVE: Yes.</p>
<p>OLIVER: Do you know what? After spending this amount of time with you, Philip, I’m starting to believe that that’s partially true.</p>
<p>VAN CLEAVE: Good.</p>
<p>OLIVER: Good?</p>
<p>VAN CLEAVE: I’m glad you understand that people are the problem.</p>
<p>OLIVER: That is becoming just painfully obvious.</p>
<p>OLIVER (V.O.): After investigating the issue on opposite sides of the Earth, I discovered that if Americans really do want gun control, there is actually one thing they can do to get it: move to Australia.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>STEWART: John Oliver! We’ll be right back.</p>
</blockquote>
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<p>It’s no wonder the rabid US gun lobby can’t seem to form any rational argument. There simply isn’t any evidence they can use in support of their inherently indefensible positions, contra the mountains of evidence against them.</p>
<p>There are a few little things that nagged me throughout the video, though. Oliver’s point about contrasting US and Australian histories isn’t really valid; we’re talking about the modern effects of modern policies on modern society, and regardless of shared similarities between the two nations’ histories, modern attitudes towards guns and related legislation truly don’t match up. Hence why the US’s rampant gun culture makes it all but impossible to institute the sort of gun control that Australia (among others) currently benefits from.</p>
<p>It was also disappointing to see Van Cleave’s point about police militarization swept aside and ridiculed, even given how very, <em>very</em> clumsily he made it. (“Ninja police”? Really?) No objective observer can look at the <a href="http://www.cato.org/publications/white-paper/overkill-rise-paramilitary-police-raids-america" title="Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America [by Radley Balko @ 07/17/06] | Cato Institute">increasing rates</a> of warrantless and no-knock <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/police-militarization/3" title="Tag search: “Police Militarization” [page 3] | The Huffington Post">paramilitary raids</a> (often for offenses as trivial pot possession) and the growing civil police use of military hardware and weaponry thanks to the Pentagon’s <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/program-1033-military-equipment-police-2011-12" title="The Pentagon Is Offering Free Military Hardware To Every Police Department In The US [by Robert Johnson @ 12/05/11 11:09 AM] | Business Insider">1033 program</a> (which was only recently <a href="http://rt.com/usa/pentagon-police-program-guns-420/" title="Pentagon stops giving out free guns to police [@ 06/08/12 7:52 PM] | USA | RT">curbed</a>, and only temporarily), not to mention the increasingly commonplace facts like unconstitutional wiretaps and other civil liberties violations, and <em>not</em> conclude that the United States has decidedly started down a dark path in recent decades. While it’s still premature to dub the country a “police state” by any metric, dismissing concerns about its growing civil use of paramilitary force is foolish bordering on dangerous.</p>
<p>Van Cleave also made a point about people being the problem, and while he was typically gormless about it, he was right to infer (as I presume he meant to) that guns are merely tools to be used by people who may or may not have illicit intentions for them. But this doesn’t change anything, and it only undercuts his own argument. Even while firearms aren’t inherently dangerous on their own, it still makes sense to pass regulations and reforms intended to keep them out of the hands of those who would use them for dangerous ends. Controlling which people can use which guns in which circumstances can only lead to fewer criminal acts with said guns down the line, all the while maintaining the general population’s Second Amendment right to self-defense.</p>
<p>Ultimately, there is no contradiction between reasonable gun control and the right to bear arms, no matter what the gun nuts love to holler. They are simply, plainly, factually and (increasingly so) <em>obviously</em> wrong. I believe it’s only a matter of time before the increasingly marginalized pro-gun lobby starts losing its sleeper hold on the US political debate and some slivers of sense are allowed to slip through.</p>
<p class="smallText"><strong>EDIT:</strong> 04/27/13 12:38 AM ET – Fixed some minor transcript errors.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div style="margin:15px 0 8px 0;border:1px solid #8594a6;font-size:80%;padding:5px;" align="center"><strong>NOTE:</strong> This RSS content provides only basic style and formatting. The appearance of the post above may differ significantly from the original as viewed with a regular Web browser.</div></div>Joé McKenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08037015111554209304noreply@blogger.com