Fuck you GOP. Just fuck you!

I present this without comment...  I don't think I can really say anything that hasn't already been said, but this just disgusts me beyond reason.  Motherfucking assholes need to get their asses beat all the way out of Washington...

Vet jobs bill fails in Senate; caught in Hill battle

Legislation to put veterans to work preserving and restoring national parks and other federal, state and local lands was defeated Wednesday afternoon when Senate Republicans successfully blocked the bill’s advance with a budgetary point of order. 

READ REST OF STORY HERE. 

GOP Oblivious to their Fucktardery

The idiots in the GOP are up to their fucktardery again... The worst part is that they can't even tell the irony of their position, even when directly confronted with the madness of their position. First I'll let the Daily Show present it to you (keep in mind, I am not a fan of Samantha Bee, but in this case, she does a great job).

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My apologies to folks outside the US that can't see this video.

I already wrote a way back about the idiotic idea of personhood... After all, gawd loves abortions (considering how often he causes them if you're of the mindset that imaginary things cause natural events).

I know that as long as the GOP maintains their anti-reality stance, theocratic bent, and plutocratic direction, they will never get my vote.  I have a daughter, and I prefer that when she grows up, she have control of her own reproductive rights instead of some rich, old white guy dictating how she can treat her body.  Also, their theocratic outlook is absolutely repugnant to me.  Between the First Amendment and Article VI of the Constitution, you'd think they get it, but apparently, they are as oblivious about the Constitution as they are about their statements in the video above (or the bible they cling to yet seem never to have read...).

And I also have to say that the GOP seems to have the entirely wrong idea about the Bill of Rights.  It's a bill of rights, not a bill of restrict rights.  I don't think they would like their legacy to be like the 18th Amendment. 

Politicians Have Forgotten Their Job!

The job of a politician (in general) should be:

"Represent their constituents within the confines of the Constitution."

You ask any politician what their job is, and they will insist that this is exactly what they are doing, but I contend that they are NOT.

First of all, they fail in representing their constituents.  If you observe their behaviour, you can tell that they are not representing their constituents.  They are only representing the people who actually voted for them.  In my opinion, they are being stupid in adhering to their rabid partisan ways.  Of course, the GOP has an over abundance of stupidity in their adherence to non-negotiable ideological positions.    If you actually try to represent the entire population as opposed to some loudmouthed redneck extremists, you may actually gather more votes as you run for re-election.  Of course, the politicians are too interested in pandering to the most extreme positions of their "base".  This hyper-partisan environment is doing nothing but freezing up anything from happening.  If you look at this particular congress, I bet you could easily imagine them passing a resolution opposing President Obama if he declared kittens as cute.

Secondly, and this is particularly against the GOP, they are absolutely not following the Constitution.  To most politicians, they think their job is to impose their views on the populous, without regard to the anti-establishment clause of the First Amendment.  They think that because they believe it, it's okay to impose their view, despite the freedom of religion for all citizens, even if it's not christianity.  The most important thing to remember is that freedom of religion, if it is going to apply to everyone, also requires freedom from religion. Why is that? You do not truly have the freedom to practice your religious beliefs if you are also required to adhere to any of the religious beliefs or rules of other religions.

As an obvious example, could we really say that Jews and Muslims would have freedom of religion if they were required to show same respect to images of Jesus that Christians have? Would Christians and Muslims really have freedom of their religion if they were required to wear yarmulkes? Would Christians and Jews have freedom of religion if they were required to adhere to Muslim dietary restrictions?

Simply pointing out that people have the freedom to pray however they wish is not enough. Forcing people to accept some particular idea or adhere to behavioral standards from someone else’s religion means that their religious freedom is being infringed upon.

Freedom from religion does not mean, as some mistakenly seem to claim, being free from seeing religion in society. No one has the right not to see churches, religious expression, and other examples of religious belief in our nation — and those who advocate freedom of religion do not claim otherwise.

What freedom from religion does mean, however, is the freedom from the rules and dogmas of other people’s religious beliefs so that we can be free to follow the demands of our own conscience, whether they take a religious form or not. Thus, we have both freedom of religion and freedom from religion because they are two sides of the same coin.

Interestingly, the misunderstandings here can be found in many other myths, misconceptions and misunderstandings as well. Many people don’t realize — or don’t care — that real religious liberty must exist for everyone, not just for themselves. It’s no coincidence that people who object to the principle of “freedom from religion” are adherents of religious groups whose doctrines or standards would be the ones enforced by the state.

Since they already voluntarily accept these doctrines or standards, they don’t expect to experience any conflicts with state enforcement or endorsement. What we have, then, is a failure of moral imagination: these people are unable to really imagine themselves in the shoes of religious minorities who don’t voluntarily accept these doctrines or standards and, hence, experience an infringement on their religious liberties through state enforcement or endorsement.

That, or they simply don’t care what religious minorities experience because they think they have the One True Religion. And maybe that's their point?

The GOP acting like fascists?

I spent 20 years of my life defending the Constitution, from all enemies, foreign and domestic.  One of the key things about our democracy is that it should apply to all citizens, even if you don't agree with them.  That's why I am totally disgusted by these voter ID laws.  They are willing to sacrifice the rights of hundreds of thousands (up to a million even) of the citizenry for basically a non-existent problem.

Someone may accuse me of hyperbole by accusing the GOP of being fascist, however if you look at the hallmarks of fascism throughout history, you gotta give the GOP credit.  Historically, fascist organizations are driven by a plutocratic or theocratic philosophy where they want to impose their views, values, and ideals on a population regardless of the wishes of the rest of the population.  Somehow the GOP has managed to be plutocratic AND theocratic!  Quite the accomplishment.

The main reason for my ire towards the GOP is that they are about restricting human rights in all fashions.  For a group that claims to be about less government, they sure seem intent on getting the government into your bedroom, women's uteri, and suppressing people's Constitutional right to participate in our democracy.

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If you have any influence with these fascists, and yes, their behaviour deserves that label, please do what you can to further influence them to move away  from this course of action.  In Ohio, I was actually surprised to see that public embarrassment actually had an effect.  In general, these people are so insane in their beliefs that nothing manages to break through.  Sort of like creationists...  Which is actually quite a correlation...

P.S. Just so you know, I don't consider any political party innocent of wrongdoings, my particular exception is with the suppression of the people key to the democratic process.  A Constitutionally guaranteed right, that is being taken away because of a non-existent problem.

Are you an atheist?

Apparently there is an "atheist census" out there.  I encourage other atheists out there to count their numbers if they are willing to put in their information.  Keep in mind that this site does track cookies, but if you have emails that are set up to handle spam (and who doesn't in this day and age), I think it's a worthwhile effort.

After all, atheists are become something of a movement that is to be contended with.  I think these two things go together in a way.  There are events that happen where it is quite clear that atheists are not marginalized, and should be counted.  Having a census of atheists with actual data should help.

Make yourself count.

Welcome to science. You're gonna like it here

Dr. Plait posted a link to Tree Lobster's the other day (an excellent web comic I suggest you read), and in that post he linked to a very old post of his that I found particularly inspiring.  I just want to repeat it here for folks to read.  (Keep in mind, it was written in 2005, so the number of extra solar planets have now increased by a factor of 10.)  Again, I can't help but wonder why people have to turn to totally made up things in order to try to find a sense of wonder in the universe, when the universe provides so much more than even our imaginations can  provide.  There is no danger in knowing more.  However, ignorance can be incredibly costly.  Why not revel in the fact that our own cleverness has actually gotten us this far, and that it should get us further, instead of being bound by bronze age myths and a rejection of the thing that got us so far.  That is:  Science!

By the way, this speech by Dr. Plait was delivered to a group of students that were participating in a science fair.  I can only hope that other science fair students get such an inspiring message instead of being told that the pursuit of knowledge is wrong in some way.

I know a place where the Sun never sets.
 
It’s a mountain, and it’s on the Moon. It sticks up so high that even as the Moon spins, it’s in perpetual daylight. Radiation from the Sun pours down on there day and night, 24 hours a day — well, the Moon’s day is actually about 4 weeks long, so the sunlight pours down there 708 hours a day.

I know a place where the Sun never shines. It’s at the bottom of the ocean. A crack in the crust there exudes nasty chemicals and heats the water to the boiling point. This would kill a human instantly, but there are creatures there, bacteria, that thrive. They eat the sulfur from the vent, and excrete sulfuric acid.

I know a place where the temperature is 15 million degrees, and the pressure would crush you to a microscopic dot. That place is the core of the Sun.

I know a place where the magnetic fields would rip you apart, atom by atom: the surface of a neutron star, a magnetar.

I know a place where life began billions of years ago. That place is here, the Earth.

I know these places because I’m a scientist.

Science is a way of finding things out. It’s a way of testing what’s real. It’s what Richard Feynman called "A way of not fooling ourselves."

No astrologer ever predicted the existence of Uranus, Neptune, or Pluto. No modern astrologer had a clue about Sedna, a ball of ice half the size of Pluto that orbits even farther out. No astrologer predicted the more than 150 planets now known to orbit other suns.

But scientists did.

No psychic, despite their claims, has ever helped the police solve a crime. But forensic scientists have, all the time.

It wasn’t someone who practices homeopathy who found a cure for smallpox, or polio. Scientists did, medical scientists.

No creationist ever cracked the genetic code. Chemists did. Molecular biologists did.

They used physics. They used math. They used chemistry, biology, astronomy, engineering.
They used science.

These are all the things you discovered doing your projects. All the things that brought you here today.

Computers? Cell phones? Rockets to Saturn, probes to the ocean floor, PSP, gamecubes, gameboys, X-boxes? All by scientists.

Those places I talked about before? You can get to know them too. You can experience the wonder of seeing them for the first time, the thrill of discovery, the incredible, visceral feeling of doing something no one has ever done before, seen things no one has seen before, know something no one else has ever known.

No crystal balls, no tarot cards, no horoscopes. Just you, your brain, and your ability to think.


Welcome to science. You’re gonna like it here.

Which Moon has the best chance for life?

I have a mancrush on Dr. Phil Plait.  That is a well known joke/fact.  He tackles a subject that my wife, daughter, and I were discussing just the other day (ain't coincidence fun?).  So I am just delighted to popularize this particular video of Bad Astronomy Q&A.
My money is more on Europa versus the other ones.  Enceladus in my opinion has a bit too unstable at the geyser sources.  As for Titan, the chemistry is a bit too unknown for the type of complexity and energy that would be conducive to life.  That said, I would like to see probes to all three (Europa, Titan, Enceladus in order of precedence).  Even if the chemistry of Titan doesn't support life, there is at least something to learn in that environment.

Breaking News of a Geeky Variety

Dr. Phil Plait, all around great astronomer and ginger man about town, just informed the world about a developing supernova in the galaxy M95.  I suggest you read his article, because he does such a great job explaining it.  I do want to put the video up here as well though, just to make your stop here a multimedia encounter.

Before the video though, I must make one comment...  Isn't it pathetically sad that he has to reassure us that there is no danger from an object that is 35 million light years away?  Seriously, reminds me of the time that astronomers announced a great void in space that was 6-10 BILLION light years away, and the Faux Noise reporter looked at the video monitor with a combines expression of concern and confusion, and asked the astronomer if we were in danger from it.  The fact that the scientist didn't laugh at the reporter for their sheer stupidity can only be attributed to their state of shock at the abject stupidity of said reporter.  It's the only explanation that makes sense!

Anyway, here's a video to accompany the announcement of this supernova!

Killer Argument for Evolution?

There is no such thing.

A subject as vast, complex, and diverse as biology will never have a single killer argument. To look for one would be a fool's errand, and to believe one would be the mark of a fool. A singular killer argument is the sign of a simple question. Something evolution most decidedly is not.

The fact that pretty much every discovery in Biology (especially genetics) has supported the argument for evolution should lend credence to the theory of evolution, and Darwin being right. There is no way a Victorian era gentleman would know about DNA to the level we do now, and yet he was so amazingly right about the things he wrote.  Yet, it takes an incredibly complex and in-depth understanding to really understand and see the significance.  Something that those who would deny evolution haven't the slightest clue on.

Anyway, just wanted to post this.  I also would like to bring your attention to Zack Kopplin and his efforts.  You all should support him.  And if you regret ably find yourself attempting to discuss evolution with a creationist, I suggest that you arm yourself with as much information as possible.  Facts, not Fantasy is one place you can go to start that process, but remember:

“Debating creationists on the topic of evolution is rather like trying to play chess with a pigeon; it knocks the pieces over, craps on the board, and flies back to its flock to claim victory.”
― Scott D. Weitzenhoffer

Book Review: 50 Popular Beliefs That People Think Are True

I always like to find good books on skepticism, not because I particularly enjoy reading them, but because they are needed.  Guy Harrison's 50 Popular Beliefs That People Think Are True is a needed book in this day and age.  I won't go into details on each chapter in the book, but I will warn you that if you have a cherished woo belief, this book should cure you.  And yes, I said cure, because many of the beliefs Guy debunks are a disease.

Now, for a book of this size, there are perhaps some legitimate criticisms that he doesn't go enough into depth on these subjects.  However, he offers you a "Go Deeper" section so that you can get that depth you may need.

Also, there is a very topical 2012 chapter.  With the incorrect meme about leap days, and the general batshit crazy nuttery that will come about as more idiots get freaked out the closer the non-event day happens, you may actually save someone heartache if you can direct them to this book, and that chapter.

Guy also does a good job of being much more kind (in the same way Carl Sagan was) as opposed to my rather brash, and in your face style.  I think his style is well suited to any audience, to include younger readers.

One thing that I was unaware of is that Guy has an impressive list of books out there.  You may want to pick up a few of them when you visit Amazon.  I find that when you get to the end of a book on the Kindle, it also directs you to many of these books.

Remember, it's not so much about destroying someone's cherished woo beliefs, but rather saving them the heartache and embarrassment of holding those beliefs when they cause that individual harm.