Thursday, April 28, 2011

John Rawls Quotes


Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought. A theory however elegant and economical must be rejected or revised if it is untrue; likewise laws and institutions no matter how efficient and well-arranged must be reformed or abolished if they are unjust. Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override. For this reason justice denies that the loss of freedom for some is made right by a greater good shared by others. It does not allow that the sacrifices imposed on a few are outweighed by the larger sum of advantages enjoyed by many.

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McRage


There's no room for violence under the Golden Arches

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God's message

How come the religious fundies aren't making the obvious connection:
the tornadoes in the South are His way of telling them to stop voting
Republician!

---Sent from Steve's iPad...

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Article: Amis on Hitchens: 'He's one of the most terrifying rhetoricians the world has seen'


Amis on Hitchens: 'He's one of the most terrifying rhetoricians the world has seen'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/apr/24/amis-hitchens-world

(Sent from Flipboard)

"A melancholy lesson of advancing years is the realisation that you can't make old friends."


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Monday, April 25, 2011

Article: Guantánamo Bay files: Torture gets results, US military insists | World news | The Guardian


Guantánamo Bay files: Torture gets results, US military insists | World news | The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/25/guantanamo-files-qahtani-salahi-torture

(Sent from Flipboard)

His interrogation plan was the first experiment at Guantánamo in adopting illegal Chinese methods previously used against US servicemen in the Korean war of the 1950s. The use of "enhanced techniques" was signed off by Donald Rumsfeld, despite protests from the army and FBI who said the methods were illegal.



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The New Commandments | Culture | Vanity Fair

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2010/04/hitchens-201004?currentPage=3

Do no swallow your moral code in tablet form.

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Saturday, April 23, 2011

Hitchens' address to American Atheists : Pharyngula


these forces among others which will speed the day when humanity emancipates itself from the mind-forged manacles of servility and superstitition. It is our innate solidarity, and not some despotism of the sky, which is the source of our morality and our sense of decency. 

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Thursday, April 21, 2011

Huffington Post: Noam Chomsky: Is The World Too Big To Fail?



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Huffington Post: Noam Chomsky: Is The World Too Big To Fail?



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Article: The Science of Why We Don't Believe Science


This tendency toward so-called "motivated reasoning" helps explain why we find groups so polarized over matters where the evidence is so unequivocal: climate change, vaccines, "death panels," the birthplace and religion of the president (PDF), and much else. It would seem that expecting people to be convinced by the facts flies in the face of, you know, the facts

(Sent from Flipboard)


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Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Ariz. Governor's Vetoes Of GOP Bills Lift Eyebrows : NPR


One example was her veto of a bill that would have allowed guns on college campuses.

Finally,Brewer's few brain cells begin to work together..

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Friday, April 15, 2011

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Article: Evolution cannot explain existence of creationists, concedes Dawkins

'It's a flaw in our argument, for sure,' said Dawkins today. 'By any reading of evolutionary theory, creationists ought to have died out ages ago. They serve no function in the planet's ecosystem, and no other species has survived so long while in such fundamental disagreement with observable reality. If I wasn't such an ardent believer in secular materialism, I'd wager this is really troubling Darwin in the afterlife.'

(Sent from Flipboard)


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Woman, know thy place - Paula Kirby - Washington Post 'On Faith' - RichardDawkins.net

http://richarddawkins.net/articles/615185-woman-know-thy-place


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Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Evangelical Liberty University received half a billion dollars in federal aid money - War Room - Salon.com

Evangelical Liberty University received half a billion dollars in federal aid money - War Room - Salon.com: "Liberty University, the evangelical private Christian school founded by dead apartheid-supporting bigot Jerry Falwell, received $445 million in federal financial aid last year. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, by the way, received $420 million from the federal government."

Kwame Anthony Appiah on Honour | FiveBooks | The Browser


The short answer is that the form of slavery that developed in the New World equated manual labour with dishonour and if you're developing a working-class consciousness of a positive kind, which was happening in England in the first half of the 19th century, you cannot accept a system that equates manual labour with dishonour. 
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Monday, April 11, 2011

ThinkProgress » REPORT: U.S. Military Spending Has Almost Doubled Since 2001

The U.S. spent an astounding $698 billion on the military last year, an 81% increase over the last decade.

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Sunday, April 10, 2011

Article: The Snark Handbook, Insult Edition

He was a great friend of mine. Well, as much as you could be a friend of his, unless you were a fourteen-year-old nymphet." ~ Capote on Faulkner

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Article: Badass Quote of the Day


Badass Quote of the Day
http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2011/04/badass_quote_of_the_day_104.php

Homo sexuality is found in over 450 species. Homophobia is found in only one. Which one seems unnatural now?

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Article: Stephen Baldwin vs Richard Dawkins : Dispatches from the Culture Wars


Stephen Baldwin vs Richard Dawkins : Dispatches from the Culture Wars
http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2011/04/stephen_baldwin_vs_richard_daw.php?utm_source=combinedfeed&utm_medium=rss
This is hardly a fair fight, since Dawkins is one of the world's more brilliant thinkers and Baldwin has the IQ of a mildly retarded turnip.
(Sent from Flipboard)


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Thursday, April 07, 2011

Badass Quote of the Day : Dispatches from the Culture Wars


I was happy to see that Newt Gingrich has staked out a position on the war, a position, or two, or maybe three. I don't know. I think he has more war positions than he's had wives.

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Wednesday, April 06, 2011

The Achilles Heel Of The Path To Prosperity | The New Republic


The response to Ryan's budget is really simple. He cuts Medicare and other vital programs in order to finance a huge tax cut for people who don't really need it. That's the point Republicans don't want to defend but should be forced to.
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A Medicare Plan That Exempts Too Many - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/06/business/06leonhardt.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss


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Bashing Microsoft 'like kicking a puppy,' says Linux Foundation chief


I think we just don't care that much [about Microsoft] anymore," Zemlin said. "They used to be our big rival, but now it's kind of like kicking a puppy."

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Intel Unveils Xeon E7 Chips for 'Mission Critical' Server Tasks - NYTimes.com


Generating buzz for a new microchip — one that is for servers, no less — is challenging. But Intel gave it a try with its latest line of microprocessors, the Xeon E7, unveiled on Tuesday, by renting a former bank and briefing reporters in the vault.

With this goofiness, Intel wanted to highlight the security and reliability of its new chips, which are intended for what it called "mission critical" operations like bank and stock transactions. So inside the bank, Intel posted Secret Service agent lookalikes who wore sunglasses and checked for identification. Reporters were invited to the basement for the sales pitch.

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Monday, April 04, 2011

Florida Quran burning: Hamid Karzai encourages a mob mentality in Afghanistan. - By Christopher Hitchens - Slate Magazine


How dispiriting to see, once again, the footage of theocratic rage in Kandahar and Mazar-i-Sharif. The same old dreary formula: self-righteous frenzy married to a neurotic need to take offense; the easy resort to indiscriminate violence and cruelty; the promulgation of makeshift fatwas by mullahs on the make; those writhing mustaches framing crude slogans of piety and hatred, and yelling for death as if on first-name terms with the Almighty. The spilling of blood and the spoliation of property—all for nothing, and ostensibly "provoked" by the corny, brainless antics of a devout American nonentity, notice of whose mere existence is beneath the dignity of any thinking person.

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Sunday, April 03, 2011

The American Civil War: Quotes - President Abraham Lincoln


I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."


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Saturday, April 02, 2011