Thursday, November 29, 2012

Skepticblog » Thoughts on Chris Stedman’s Faitheist

http://www.skepticblog.org/2012/11/27/thoughts-on-chris-stedmans-faitheist/#more-19877
I work to promote critical thinking, education, religious liberty,
compassion, and pluralism, and to fight tribalism, xenophobia, and
fanaticism. Many religious people are allies to me and other atheists
in these efforts—and a good number of them cite their religious
convictions as the motivating factor behind their work. I am far more
concerned about whether people are pluralistic in their worldview—if
they oppose totalitarianism and believe those of different religious
and nonreligious identities should be free to live as they choose and
cooperate around shared values—than I am about whether someone
believes in God or not

---SPSmith

Skepticblog » The Rocks don’t lie

http://www.skepticblog.org/2012/11/28/the-rocks-dont-lie/#more-19735


---SPSmith

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Porn stars and the naked truth - Science - News - The Independent

Porn stars and the naked truth - Science - News - The Independent:


USA TODAY: Column: Booker T. offers lessons for Washington

Check out this article that I saw in USA TODAY's iPad application.

Column: Booker T. offers lessons for Washington
http://usat.ly/Tk911C

To view the story, click the link or paste it into your browser.

To learn more about USA TODAY for iPad and download, visit:
http://usatoday.com/ipad/


---SPSmith

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Mitt's next career moves


3. Furniture magnate
Mitt Romney knows a great PR opportunity when he sees one – sometimes – so why not form a business partnership with Clint Eastwood to design and market a line of furniture aimed at the elderly and ironic hipsters. Motto: "Chairs you can talk to."
---SPSmith

Thanksgiving


Today I give thanks that I am not an imbecile like Pat Robertson and I would rather use science to predict the future rather than having and listening to the schizophrenia-driven voices in my head. 

---SPSmith

Robertson Admits he Blew Election Prediction he Received from God | Right Wing Watch

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/robertson-admits-blew-election-prediction


---SPSmith

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

John Schnatter: The Real Scoop on Papa John's and Obamacare

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-h-schnatter/papa-johns-obamacare_b_2166209.html?icid=hp_front_top_art


---SPSmith

Article: Every Sperm is Sacred

And once again, chimp and monkey sperm emerged as the clear winners, swimming with a force of about 50 piconewtons, compared to 5 piconewtons in human sperm, and 2 piconewtons in gorilla sperm. One might be tempted to feel bad for the gorillas, with their lazy, under-performing sperm, but  considering the implication — faster, stronger sperm evolve because a species is promiscuous.  The gorillas in the UCSD study can take comfort in the fact that their mates are far less likely to cheat.

---SPSmith

Why Marco Rubio Needs To Know That The Earth Is Billions Of Years Old - Forbes

http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2012/11/19/why-marco-rubio-needs-to-know-that-the-earth-is-billions-of-years-old/


---SPSmith

Florida Senator Marco Rubio: The age of the Earth is "a great mystery".

Actually, it's not a great mystery. It used to be ... a century ago. I am a scientist, and I can tell you that nowadays—thanks to science—we know the age to amazing accuracy. The age of the Earth is 4.54 billion years … plus or minus 50 million years. That's a number known to an accuracy of 99 percent, which is pretty dang good.


---SPSmith

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Transsiberian

There are some problems with your wife's story

---SPSmith

Article: If There Needs To Be An Investigation, It Should Be About Why The FBI Was Reading Certain Emails | Techdirt


If There Needs To Be An Investigation, It Should Be About Why The FBI Was Reading Certain Emails | Techdirt
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121114/02501621041/if-there-needs-to-be-investigation-it-should-be-about-why-fbi-was-reading-certain-emails.shtml#c45

We all know Obama ordered the FBI to get some dirt on Petreaus so his plan to have the Ambassador to Libya murdered wouldn't be revealed by Petreaus. The ambassador had the evidence that proved Obama was born in Kenya and was about to reveal it. So Obama had Mark Basseley Youssef create the anti-islam film knowing it would cause a protest, then sent his muslim friends attack the compound. The problem was that Petreaus found out. So he sent Patricia Broadwell back in time to have an affair with Petreaus, and then used Kelley to reveal the affair and Eric Cantor to notify the press. It's just that simple.


---SPSmith

Why Linus Torvalds would rather code than make money | News | TechRadar

http://www.techradar.com/us/news/software/why-linus-torvalds-would-rather-code-than-make-money-1112900


---SPSmith

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Penn Jillette’s secrets of “Celebrity Apprentice”: Donald Trump is a whackjob! - Salon.com


The death throes of religion give us jihads. The death throes of television give us reality shows.

---SPSmith

Hostess is bankrupt … again - Fortune Management


It's a miserable state of affairs, even as both sides as recently as mid-July professed optimism that a settlement might be near. But despite the mercy that bankruptcy law permits, perhaps the staggering Hostess zombie in the financial graveyard ought not to be fed anymore. While Hostess may yet come out of bankruptcy again -- and Twinkies surely will still be made by somebody regardless -- a different conclusion seems right: At long last, Hostess may have reached its ultimate expiration date.

---SPSmith

Article: Under pressure, even scientists say things exist for a purpose


Under pressure, even scientists say things exist for a purpose
http://epiphenom.fieldofscience.com/2012/11/under-pressure-even-scientists-say.html


Tena­cious Tele­o­log­i­cal Ten­den­cies

---SPSmith

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Transcript: Ron Paul’s farewell address to Congress | WashingtonExaminer.com

http://washingtonexaminer.com/transcript-ron-pauls-farewell-address-to-congress/article/2513544#.UKVJU3y9KK0


---SPSmith

Daily Kos: All Secessionists Can Self-Secede By Renouncing Their Citizenship


---SPSmith

Romney proves yet again he can't see the data over his ideologies

Romney still a clueless loser.  http://usat.ly/QIG5nN

No Mittens, it is your sad sense of upper class victimhood and its misplaced entitlement that is a "big issue for the whole country,"

Each American need to thank whatever imaginary god they believe in that we dodged having this verminous weasel, with his supercilious attitude, his antiquated view of social order, and his demonstrably ruinous fiscal policies, in the Presidency.

---SPSmith

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Article: Restaurant Review - Guy’s American Kitchen & Bar in Times Square - NYTimes.com


Restaurant Review - Guy's American Kitchen & Bar in Times Square - NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/14/dining/reviews/restaurant-review-guys-american-kitchen-bar-in-times-square.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all&

And when we hear the words Donkey Sauce, which part of the donkey are we supposed to think about?


---SPSmith

Skepticblog » Bride of Frankenstorm

http://www.skepticblog.org/2012/11/14/bride-of-frankenstorm/#more-19689

"Our analysis shows that it is no longer enough to say that global
warming will increase the likelihood of extreme weather and to repeat
the caveat that no individual weather event can be directly linked to
climate change. To the contrary, our analysis shows that, for the
extreme hot weather of the recent past, there is virtually no
explanation other than climate change… The odds that natural
variability created these extremes are minuscule, vanishingly small.
To count on those odds would be like quitting your job and playing the
lottery every morning to pay the bills."

---SPSmith

Sunday, November 11, 2012

CEO Pay and the 99%


---SPSmith

Veterans Day about Peace

Making Armistice Day a "national peace holiday" was a proposal which had the "enthusiastic approval" of all of the societies representing World War I veterans.20 In 1938, Armistice Day was already a state holiday in 44 states, and the other four stateshadmadeitaholidaybygubernatorialaction. Althoughitwasrecognizedthat Congress did not have the authority "to fix a national holiday within the different States,"21 enactment of this bill, it was felt, would bring Congress "into harmony with sentiment in the United States."22

By 1954, however, the United States had been involved in two other military engagements, World War II and the Korean conflict. Instead of creating additional federal holidays to commemorate the ending of these hostilities, Congress felt it would be better to commemorate the sacrifices of American veterans all on one day. On June 1, 1954, the name of Armistice Day was officially changed to Veterans Day.23 This legislation did not establish a new holiday. Rather, it broadened the "significance of an existing holiday in order that a grateful nation, on a day dedicated to the cause of world peace, may pay homage to all of its veterans."24 


---SPSmith

The Ones We Don’t Forget by George Wallace


this one would not paddle a boat
this one would not bait a hook
this one slept on the side of a mountain
this one swam in a minnesota lake
this one grew as tall as a cornfield
this one traveled to new orleans
this one had the arms of a blacksmith
this one's hair was thick as smoke

these trainloads of young men
these trainloads of young women
these trainloads of young women
these trainloads of young men
this one sat on a porch for hours
this one ate like an alligator
this one cried over algebra
this one laughed in pouring rain
i cannot spell this out more clearly
i cannot be more precise than this
this one died for no reason
this one died for a friend
this one died in an alleyway
this one's childhood had to end
these are the ones we don't forget
these are the ones we will remember
we sing their names like trumpets
we sing their names like saints or nails
we sing their names like fountains
we sing their names like graves
in new york and texas and california
in mississippi and oregon and ames and maine
the ocean will support them on its watery shoulders
the sky will carry them on its windy hips
like the first woman to cross the face of this earth
as they cross over the line of battle
from your war to our peace

http://poetry.about.com/library/weekly/blgwallace.htm

Back and Comrades by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson


They ask me where I've been,
And what I've done and seen.
But what can I reply
Who know it wasn't I,
But someone just like me,
Who went across the sea
And with my head and hands
Killed men in foreign lands...
Though I must bear the blame
Because he bore my name.

---SPSmith

What Romney Lost by Garry Wills | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books

http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/nov/09/what-romney-lost/
What public service do we expect from Mitt Romney? He will no doubt
return to augmenting his vast and hidden wealth, with no more pesky
questions about where around the world it is stashed, or what taxes
(if any) he paid, carefully sheltered from the rules his fellow
citizens follow

---SPSmith

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Good riddance to Mitt Romney | New York Daily News

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/the_rumble/2012/11/good-riddance-to-mitt-romney


---SPSmith

SS_love_dEq.pdf

http://ai.stanford.edu/~rajatr/articles/SS_love_dEq.pdf


---SPSmith

Article: The welcome come-uppance of Karl Rove



---SPSmith

Ted shits his pants again

Today's good news:  Ted Nugget will be dead or in jail in 155 days!

On April 14th 2012 the 3rd rate rocker said:  "If Barack Obama becomes the President in November again, I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year."

Perhaps you need some suggestions on how to off yourself Teddy??


---SPSmith

Dangerous Minds | Ted Nugent said he’d be dead or in jail if Obama won: So, what’s it gonna be?

As far as we've been able to tell, the rock neanderthal hasn't demonstrated the strength of his convictions yet. He's only mustered up the courage to tweet. He's got until April 16, 2013 (one year after he appeared at the NRA convention where the video was shot) to make good on his promise. I've got a special bottle of bourbon for the occasion.

---SPSmith

Friday, November 09, 2012

Henry Rollins: The American People Kicked Your Ass, Republicans - Los Angeles - Music - West Coast Sound

http://blogs.laweekly.com/westcoastsound/2012/11/henry_rollins_republicans_american_people_kicked_ass.php

Henry Rollins keeps it real

---SPSmith

Election 2012, and the Victory of Secular Values | Greta Christina's Blog


Atheists are not in opposition to American values. Atheists are on the cutting edge of them.


---SPSmith

Article: Jon Stewart Gleefully Rips Into Fox News Election Coverage: ‘Avalanche On Bullsh*t Mountain’ | Mediaite


Jon Stewart Gleefully Rips Into Fox News Election Coverage: 'Avalanche On Bullsh*t Mountain' | Mediaite
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/jon-stewart-gleefully-rips-into-fox-news-election-coverage-there-was-an-avalanche-on-bullsht-mountain/

Too funny and insightful to miss.

"Is this just math that you do as a Republican to make yourself feel better or is this real?"
-- Megyn Kelly to Karl Rove during Fox News coverage of the 2012 Presidential election


---SPSmith

Ok, it's still funny





---SPSmith

Presidents in movies: Which American president appears in the most films? (CHART)

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/11/08/presidents_in_movies_which_american_president_appears_in_the_most_films.html

It's now clear to me that we need a movie about Warren G. Harding!

---SPSmith

Vote was astronomical for Obama in some Philadelphia wards

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/nation_world/20121108_Vote_was_astronomical_for_Obama_in_some_Philadelphia_wards.html


---SPSmith

Thursday, November 08, 2012

Self interested voter

http://econfaculty.gmu.edu/bcaplan/e854/pc4.htm


---SPSmith

Romney's 47 Percent Gaffe Shows He Believes in the (Untrue) Self-Interested Voter Hypothesis - Hit & Run : Reason.com


Many people believe that voters' positions are determined by their objective self-interest.  I call this the SIVH - the Self-Interested Voter Hypothesis.  A massive body of evidence shows that the SIVH is just plain wrong.  Self-interest has no more than sporadic marginal effects on political views.

---SPSmith

Election Headlines You Forgot About - Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/election-headlines-you-forgot-about-2012-11

Winner or loser, it's fun to go down memory lane

---SPSmith

Entitlement, laziness, and internal attributions: What Romney and the rest of us think about government assistance. » The Berkeley Science Review

http://sciencereview.berkeley.edu/entitlement-laziness-and-internal-attributions-what-romney-and-the-rest-of-us-think-about-government-assistance/


---SPSmith

In January: Pat Robertson Said God Told Him Barack Obama Would Not be Reelected | FreakOutNation

http://freakoutnation.com/2012/11/08/in-january-pat-robertson-said-god-told-him-barack-obama-would-not-be-reelected/

More proof that there is no god...

---SPSmith

Climate change


"@davidfrum: Horrible possibility: if the geeks are right about Ohio, might they also be right about climate?"

---SPSmith

Ted Nugent Tweets Post-Election Anti-Obama Rampage - Hollywood Reporter

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/ted-nugent-tweets-post-election-387361

Your typical Romney supporter??

---SPSmith

Hawaii sends nation's first Asian American woman to Senate - San Jose Mercury News

"I bring quadruple diversity to the Senate," Hirono said at a rally earlier in the campaign. "I'm a woman. I'll be the first Asian woman ever to be elected to the U.S. Senate. I am an immigrant. I am a Buddhist. When I said this at one of my gatherings, they said, 'Yes, but are you gay?' and I said, 'Nobody's perfect.'"



---SPSmith

Adviser: Romney "shellshocked" by loss - CBS News

Adviser: Romney "shellshocked" by loss - CBS News:

Just another reason why Romney would have been a terrible president -- Shellshocked when his god lets him down...

Outside spenders' return on investment - Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group

http://reporting.sunlightfoundation.com/2012/return_on_investment/

For high ROI, "invest" in the Planned Parenthood PAC


---SPSmith

10 Questions To Distinguish Real From Fake Science - Forbes

http://www.forbes.com/sites/emilywillingham/2012/11/08/10-questions-to-distinguish-real-from-fake-science/


---SPSmith

Picket Fence Apocalypse - NYTimes.com

http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/07/picket-fence-apocalypse/?hp


---SPSmith

Post-Election Analysis: What Does It All Mean for Humanists?

http://www.americanhumanist.org/HNN/details/2012-11-post-election-analysis-what-does-it-all-mean-for-hum


---SPSmith

Wednesday, November 07, 2012

Post-Election Notes For the GOP (Not That They’ve Asked For Them) – Whatever

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/11/07/post-election-notes-for-the-gop-not-that-theyve-asked-for-them/


---SPSmith

Romney’s gone, but his best idea can still help with the fiscal cliff | FT Alphaville

http://ftalphaville.ft.com/2012/11/07/1251451/romneys-gone-but-his-best-idea-can-still-help-with-the-fiscal-cliff/?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=Paul+Krugman


---SPSmith

Fox News’ dark night of the soul - Salon.com


Obama won a big, bruising battle, and now has a brief and limited opportunity to assert leadership. But we just spent an entire year and $2 billion to end up with the same president, the same House and the same Senate. That sounds a lot like everybody losing, but at least Mitt Romney and those who financed him and pumped him full of hot air lost most of all.

---SPSmith

2012 Poll Accuracy: After Obama, Models And Survey Science Won The Day

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/07/2012-poll-accuracy-obama-models-survey_n_2087117.html


---SPSmith

Nate Silver-Led Statistics Men Crush Pundits in Election - Businessweek

Nate Silver-Led Statistics Men Crush Pundits in Election - Businessweek:

'via Blog this'

Article: Six most paranoid fears for Obama’s second term - Salon.com



---SPSmith

Article: Barack Obama victory tweet becomes most retweeted ever


Barack Obama victory tweet becomes most retweeted ever
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/07/how-barack-obama-celebrated-twitter

Sent via Flipboard




---SPSmith

Tuesday, November 06, 2012

Obama wins

Yeah Baby, now I "Believe in America". Thank you CA, OR and WA and especially my birthplace of Hamilton County Ohio!  Now lets move the Republicans out of the roadblock of the political process that they have been.

The loser: Mendacious Mitt the twit, the Mexican polygamist's grandson, the Klepto-class breed vulture capitalist, who took a founding role at Bain Capital from a mentor who guaranteed he would never fail financially or professionally, hiding behind his veil of opulence, shipping his money and our jobs overseas, the tax dodger refusing to pay his fair share of society's upkeep, the draft-avoiding war monger utilizing the dual refuges of mission work in Paris and business school at Harvard, the slimy politician with policy flip-flops on: gun control, abortion, climate change, taxes, gays, and RomneyCare.  The man whose serial lying shows the only principle he values is to put more political power into hands controlled by a superstitious cult religion so he and his magical underwear can fulfill its "white horse prophecy".

To Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny starver that voted for the policies that crashed the economy:  Sorry, your statement that Mendacious Mitt the Twit's experience as a leverage buyout vulture capitalist makes him suitable to handle the USA's economic  policies makes no sense.  Who is he going to sell off our assets to? Loser.

And Ryan couldn't even deliver Wisconsin.

Too bad I live in a State that follows the voting pattern of the racist sicko South.  


---SPSmith

Check out: 'The Man We Never Saw' on Slate

I thought you might find this Slate article interesting:

The Man We Never Saw
By William Saletan
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/frame_game/2012/11/romney_s_mormon_abortion_video_he_shows_his_real_self_only_when_no_one_is.html?wpisrc=sl_ipad


---SPSmith

Monday, November 05, 2012

Is Mormonism a cult? Who cares? It’s their weird and sinister beliefs we should be worried about. - Slate Magazine

The Mormons apparently believe that Jesus will return in Missouri rather than Armageddon: I wouldn't care to bet on the likelihood of either. In the meanwhile, though, we are fully entitled to ask Mitt Romney about the forces that influenced his political formation and—since he comes from a dynasty of his church, and spent much of his boyhood and manhood first as a missionary and then as a senior lay official—it is safe to assume that the influence is not small. Unless he is to succeed in his dreary plan to borrow from the playbook of his pain-in-the-ass predecessor Michael Dukakis, and make this an election about "competence not ideology," he should be asked to defend and explain himself, and his voluntary membership in one of the most egregious groups operating on American soil.

---SPSmith

Article: How to get rid of religion



---SPSmith