The Chronically Stupid Aways Find an Obtuse Angle

So much stupid, so little time to expose it all.

First there is the Daily Caller. The Daily Caller is a piece of stupid run by Tucker Carlson, from Fox Noise. The Daily Collection of Stupid leaves no stone unturned in its attempt to be irrelevant, stupidly funny, and masterful in its invention of new ways to be stupid every day.

You no doubt have always known that the Reactionary Right, of which the Daily Curd attempts to be the voice for, is a huge supporter of gay rights? You’re not aware of that? Well, slap yourself silly dumb person and listen up.

You see, it’s a crying shame, that compromise bill worked out by Senators Manchin and Toomey. Those darn Democrats, always seeking to betray and abuse their gay brothers and sisters.

The bill, Daily Crap points out, will discriminate against gay gun owners. See if you can figure out why?

Figured it out yet?

Well, you see, in states that don’t recognize gay marriage, said gay gun owner will be forced to submit his or her partner to a background check before selling them or giving them a gun for Christmas. That’s because the “family exception” to the proposed new law would not be recognized in non-same-sex marriage recognizing states.

Yes, indeed. I kid you not as they say.

I guess they forgot the provision about neighbor-to-neighbor transfers. I mean what can be more neighborly than actually living in the same house? Seems about as friendly as neighbors can get doncha think?

I gave you the link, lest you think I was pulling your leg, or attempting a frontal lobotomy with a rusty butter knife.

Next on our hit parade of stupid is the ever growing legend of another of those Texas wonders, Steve Stockman.

You remember Steve right? The Texan Representative who decided it was a great idea to invite Ted Nugent, aging rocker with like two old hits over 30 years old, who loves guns more than he loves his kids, and all around crazy conspiracy-laden anti-Obama screamer, to the State of the Union speech? THAT Steve Stockman?

Well this is his new way of attracting the marvelous people who contribute to his campaign to continue being a public nuisance.

This is his newly designed bumper sticker which you can attach to the bumper of your car, horse, or forehead, proclaiming you too are stupid as hell.

Is there anything left to say here? Stockman is offensive on just about all of Dante’s levels of hell.

But my favorite this week? Oh that was easy. You probably heard about the kerfuffle about Melissa Harris Perry’s promo for her show on MSNBC? Where she talks about the education of our children and suggests that children just don’t belong to their parents, but in fact belong to the entire community?

The Really Really Ridiculous Right started fainting and running for smelling salts on that one. One heard the immediate refrain, “COMMUNISM” expounded by the likes of Rush, the Drudge, Daily Caller, and Newsbusters.

Newsbusters said this: “. . .the notion of collective responsibility for children was a philosophy that undergirded the Cultural Revolution in Communist China under Chairman Mao. I bring that up because, as you may recall, another Harris-Perry “Lean Forward” spot contains a reference to a “great leap forward,” which calls to mind the disastrous agricultural reform plan which starved millions of Chinese to death in the 1950s.”

Sarah, “HEY, remember me?” Palin tweeted: Apparently MSNBC doesn’t think your children belong to you. Unflippingbelievable.

Rush ME MORE DRUGS Limbaugh said: So how does this manifest itself? So you need your yard mowed, what do you do?” he continued. “You go knock on the door down the street — your kid that you don’t own. I do today. For the next hour, your kid is going to mow my yard. And then after that, my trash needs taking out and after that I need somebody to go to the grocery store for me and my kid’s tied up, so I’m claiming your kid. How does this work?”

From the Lonely Conservative (who decries a new promo declaring that people have basic human rights to education, food, housing and so forth): Maybe in her next promo she can just come out and quote directly from the Communist Manifesto.

Okay folks, settle down. Let’s recall a few things. There is a rather famous saying, “it takes a village to raise a child.” That is in fact the title of one of Hillary Clinton’s books. Let’s not forget that we all pay property taxes wherever we live, and part of that money goes directly to support local school systems. Guess what? Those who are not parents pay them as well, on the theory that EVERYONE  has a stake in children being educated.

Has everyone on the Right forgotten the “good old days”? You remember when extended families lived together and everyone thought that all children were so much better off having more people busy raising them? Remember the Waltons? Remember when we were children and the teacher as “loco parentis” was considered “always right” if we were disciplined? Remember when any neighbor had a perfect right to correct your behavior if not physically, at least verbally?

Do we not all have a stake in the future of our next generation of teachers, lawyers, doctors, soldiers, and seamstresses? These are the folks who will govern the country when we are using our walkers in the hallways of senior facilities.

I mean how stupid can you be to see something sinister in what Ms Harris-Perry said? How much must you twist and distort it to make it look dangerous and “otherly”?

Do you not see that it is exactly this utterly over-the-top reaction to something so innocent and benign and TRUE, that makes even the fairly non-interested middle of America think the far Right has more than a few screws loose? The GOP and it’s cadre of stupid are swirling into the sinkhole of oblivion and pretty much nobody cares.

Next: RED Jello is a Commie plot with nanobots invading your body and indoctrination in each red sugary gelatin grain.

Related articles

• Rep. Steve Stockman, super genius (dailykos.com)
• MSNBC host thinks your kids are her kids & vice versa (theblaze.com)
• Because Melissa Harris-Perry is That Good, Limbaugh and Palin Are Attacking Her (thisblksistaspage.wordpress.com)
• Glenn Beck: Harris-Perry’s Public Education Promo Part of UN Conspiracy to Collectivize Children (crooksandliars.com)

 

What a Difference a Mind Makes

You know it’s really funny. Prepare you face for it. To laugh that is.

When I talk about faith or religion here, it brings out the new atheists and their smarmy yak-yak about believing in fairy tales. When I talk about faith or religion on my actual religion blog, Walking in the Shadows, I sometimes get folks who deign to explain to me that I’m not practicing the right kind of Christianity from their point of view.

Yesterday, I was asked, after making a number of statements regarding various fairly technical aspects of Christian theology (atonement theory, faith/works), the sort of things that some of us love to discuss, whether I was a “follower” of Jesus.

I guess it caught me oddly since I can’t imagine why anyone would spend all that much time on a subject of which they had no interest. But then I thought of a few rather well-known scholars who had started their studies in faith, and then lost it, and remained in the discipline. So I guess it wasn’t so odd.

Which brought me to the well-known principle that on just about every subject known to man and woman, people see things very differently. To this person’s mind at least, because I didn’t believe as she did, I must not be a follower of Jesus as she was. There was one way to follow Jesus, and I wasn’t doing it.

Similarly, whether it be economics or climate change, or any of a host of human and worldly problems, you discover that people have views that seem idiotic to you. Yet, when you talk to them, they have the same passion as you do. They are just as sure. Well, I guess that’s not totally true. I always figure that I’m never totally sure about much of anything. Doubt to me is part of the package. Those who are diametrically opposed to what I think, they seem to be very sure.

Therein lies the rub as Shakespeare was wont to say. The “follower of Jesus” if asked, would assure me that her belief is absolute, without question. That seems to me to be the total opposite of faith. For to me, faith is such in the face of doubt. It’s a choosing to believe even when there is no proof that you are right, just no proof that you are wrong.

It led me to conclude that that is probably true about most people who are given to being “absolutely sure”.  I’m also engaged with a very reactionary type who is “very sure” there is no such thing as global warming. Even though logically he can’t be, since he has no training in any science even remotely related to the subject. He is adamant that he is right, because the people he aligns himself with say what he wants to be true.

A scientist will tell you that you can’t be absolutely sure that the sun will rise tomorrow. Something catastrophic could always happen. Is it true that only the reactionary right are “sure” about things? I wonder.

I’m not completely sure where this comes from. One can refer to the fundamentalist mind. People think it refers to super conservative church people, but it actually is a mindset. It refers to a person who likes things in neat little boxes, all tidy and a whole world gets constructed of rights and wrongs. Once they have established this nice world, they can finally relax, they have all the answers. Nobody is allowed to jeopardize that with actual facts to the contrary. They must be defeated, and they are, by naming them as suspect. They are “purveyors of lies”, they are “Marxists” or “socialists” or “one-world government” nuts. They are hucksters conspiring  to obtain grants based on known falsehoods, for the “money”. (of course nobody explains how tens of thousands are all in on this conspiracy and waste their careers getting grants to do things they know already are false). Nobody explains the lack of logic of it all.

One can refer to self-interest, and that explains a lot too. When you poke at the angry all too sure person, they generally erupt in a retort of “we’re going to be taxed to death, and all for nothing!” That is the crux of the issue when you puncture the pus-filled wound they carry around with them. They hate taxes, hate everything they perceive is keeping them from retaining every dime they make.

That is why the GOP mantra is so attractive. They not only support the angry right and it’s desire to pay less taxes, they give them all the reasoning as to why they need not feel guilty about it either. If you show them statistics that prove that raising the minimum wages doesn’t result in an uptick in the unemployment numbers and that it results in raising up the wages of all workers, they retort with a firm “no it doesn’t, all it does it deny poor black kids a chance at a job, and perpetuate poverty, which is all Democrats want because then they have a ready-made electorate who want those handouts.”

It’s so nice when people tell you aren’t racist, or sexist, or homophobic, or wrong period. It’s nice to be told that you are right in denying full rights to gay couples because “God wants it that way.” Nice to deny SNAP to women and children because it just “encourages laziness and relying on the government”. It’s nice to  leave the planet in a mess to the next generation because a few opportunists are willing to assure you that it’s really okay and you shouldn’t be scammed by and forced to pay more taxes to encourage green technology.

So, add another point to how to determine when you are hearing the truth, or when you are hearing what somebody wants you to believe for their own purposes. Are they sure? If they are, and they don’t have the background to make that determination, look for something else at play, and tread carefully when you make your decision of what you believe.

Belief and surety are not the same.

The Future of Education: From Elitist to Essential

Beaumont Tower MSU

As most of you know, we are getting ready to move to Las Cruces, New Mexico. The pod was delivered yesterday so we are starting the final push to pack and make final arrangements. Blogging will become sporadic and then I’ll be on hiatus for as long as need be. Hotels with Internet access determine how often I can post of course.

Meanwhile, I and you are lucky to have a guest writer for today.

Her article is on education in the US and I hope you found it as enlightening as I did.

The photo is of a landmark at MSU in East Lansing, Michigan, which is my alma mater and my prerogative to include with the article as the chief of the chiefs here.

So without further ado, I give you Sofia Rasmussen and her article:

We’ve all heard it: “Why should I spend tens of thousands of dollars for a piece of paper?”

Far too many young people are convinced that the cost of higher education, both in terms of money and commitment, exceeds its value. For many, the desire to make money, no matter the wage, is more appealing an option after high school than enrolling in college. Many figure that they can do distance learning, maybe someday earning a top online PhD and earning all the prestige for less money. For families to whom university tuition is financially prohibitive, two-year community colleges offer lower expenditures at the cost of a stronger curriculum.

The decrease in university enrollment for high school graduates is somewhat analogous to the rise of college tuition over the past decade. That the annual increase in tuition has exceeded the rate of inflation in recent years is a legitimate concern for would-be undergrads. But the problem, which is partially addressed by funding for grants in President Obama’s budget, is merely the final straw for students and families already heeding negative portrayals of American universities and the educational loan system.

Right-wing factions that portray education as an elite rite of passage for the rich and powerful have waged war on higher education in the media with accusations of bad science, particularly in the realm of global warming, and a focus on potential corruption in education lending. For people who entertain such rhetoric, the crisis of American education is a battle of perception rather than facts.

Perhaps most importantly, students coming from families where college education is not honored simply don’t understand the positive outcome of committing to university. These issues must be the foundation of a discourse on education in America today—one that engages young people and their families.

The National Center for Education Statistics establishes significant gains in earnings for college graduates over high school grads. In 2009, those aged 25 to 35 with a four-year college degree earned an average of $40,100 per year. High school graduates in the same age range earned an average of just $25,000. The gap is exacerbated later in life, when those whose education is limited to a high school diploma are looked over for promotion opportunities in favor of candidates that hold degrees.

Wage versus salary isn’t the only argument for attaining a college education. High school graduates who fail to matriculate at a university have a much more difficult time finding any work at all. According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, 9.2% of high school grads with no college credits were unemployed in February of 2012. Comparatively, 4.3% of those holding bachelor’s degrees or higher were unemployed in the same month.

Aside from the measurable, practical benefits of a college education, studying at a university exposes young adults to experiences, people and concepts they might not otherwise encounter. This often results in an expanded worldview, a sense of personal fulfillment and even a happier marriage.

A 2011 study by the Pew Research Center confirms the widespread sentiment that American college education costs more than it’s worth, with 57% agreeing to that statement. According to 75%, tuition is too expensive for most Americans to afford. However, 86% of college graduates reported that higher education was a good investment for them, personally. That is definitely a statistic worth noting – those who have actually gone through the system see its value.

America’s fastest growing job markets—computer science, medicine, engineering, and biological science—demand higher education. At the present time, America’s best PhD candidates in these fields often come from other countries. For the benefit of America’s future, we need to stress the importance of education for our own. We need to make scientists, software developers and engineers the rock stars of the 21st century. To do that, the price of education must come down.

***

“Sofia Rasmussen is a freelance writer and aspiring graduate student looking to study education and communications. Feel free to drop her a line if you ever have a question about an article or think she said something silly.”

Go On, Read About it!

Or don’t. As it turns out you really can’t teach a love of reading. It seems something that you either do or don’t. And it has little to do with opportunity either. Over time, the number of “readers” hasn’t changed a great deal. And readers lament the same problem (so much to read, so little time) over the centuries. A great little read over at The Chronicle, called “We can’t teach students to love reading.” Go see where you fall.

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All roads seem to lead to the financial crisis these days. With Standard & Poors lowering the rating of the US, everybody is wondering what ensue.

Whatever you position (and plenty of folks don’t credit S&P with much savvy), their report was pretty clear in laying the blame. Although they spoke about the gridlock in Washington in general, their greatest finger-pointing went to the GOP’s delinquency-prone child–the TeaNutz®. While the National Journal report didn’t explicitly say Republicans, there was little doubt that they felt that the political brinksmanship of holding the country hostage and failure to consider revenue increases as “possible” were largely to blame. This link has a link to the full S&P report as well as some other good links.

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Meanwhile Michele (I make it up as I go along) Bachmann was at it again. She just days ago, was a no vote on the debt ceiling bill. She of course went much further, claiming that the threats of the credit agencies to downgrade the US’s  rating were nonsense and of no consequence. Now that that has happened, she spins on the proverbial GOP plug nickel and screams that Obama is responsible, and he must return to Washington “immediately” and address the American people with a plan to pay down our debt by “trillions”, and this too immediately. Oh if wishes could come true, Ms. Idiothead will be the candidate and as Governor Rendell suggested, the “no slaughter” rule would be invoked at the Obama-Bachmann debate ten minutes in.

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Speakin’ of the Palin replacement, there is a great article at the New Yorker Magazine written by Ryan Lizza called Leap of Faith. Lizza traveled with Bachmann for some time as she moved between Iowa and New Hampshire and has done a good job of peeling off the whitewash that masks a lot of uncomfortable truths. Bachmann’s background is just chock full of extremists whom she has embraced and taken as her personal gurus. Her dominionist beliefs cause her to take extremist views on subjects such as gay, abortion, and even slavery. She’s going to have a very difficult time distancing herself from all this now. And it’s full of more of her twisting and contorting facts and outright lying to present herself as something she very much is not. Do read it.

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Drew Weston has written an important opinion piece in the NYTimes. It blasts Obama pretty badly frankly. I tend to feel like a pinball when it comes to the President. I am constantly disappointed and hopeful, careening between those two points. He’s more conservative in reality that I want, and less a master of the message that I expected. Weston points out how he failed miserably in this debt ceiling crisis, and frankly, I can’t disagree. “What Happened to Obama?”

Weston calls it “ his deep-seated aversion to conflict and his profound failure to understand bully dynamics — in which conciliation is always the wrong course of action, because bullies perceive it as weakness and just punch harder the next time. . . .” It’s hard to not agree.

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Don’t forget your late night humor from Political Irony. Always a lovely way to relax and enjoy some political truths tongue-in-cheek. And if you humor runs religious, here’s a mighty cute little story that we found from our new friend, LOLgod.

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When will it get through the American psyche that the debt is only a symptom of the problem and not the problem itself as the ignorant TeaNutz® erroneously believe? Robert Reich once again tries in very plain English to straighten out the issues. Reich always is clear. We are heading toward another recession. Will we act in time? Bets are definitely divided.

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Oh and did ya hear this one? Mikey (I like money more than my country) Huckabee has called for the appointment of Donald Trump as a new Secretary of the Treasury. I guess this should come as no surprise. If you’ve seen Huck’s shameless lying and misleading innuendo commercial about “Obamacare” then you know this dude is simply another huckster ala Newt “how long will you support me” Gingrich. Just another grifter. Huck has pretty much given up any pretense of being a “Christian” leader. Any idea Mikey how many times the Trumpster has declared bankruptcy?  . . .I thought not.

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Herman Cain is getting more lessons on how to be a good house Negro. The teaNutz® have made it clear that Cain will be back to being “part of the problem” along with all other darker than lily-white citizens, if he keeps going around apologizing to Muslims for his racist remarks about them. After posting his apology on Facebook, he got some really unfriendly responses from his “peeps”: (H/T to The Grio for the link)

“it’s all or nothing with the muslim religion…no means no…please stand firm Mr Cain please or run on the democrat ticket”

“what in heaven’s name are you doing? Don’t you know you can’t trust ONE WORD that comes from their mouth? they’re lying to get on your good side, Mr. Cain! :/”

So, listen up Mr. Cain. Ain’t it nice being owned, Sir?

 

Related articles

• U.S. Downgrade Ripples (thedailybeast.com)

Oh, So What?

I could have passed the entire day without even knowing, but the MSM in its infinite infantile judgment, of course made sure I did.

It’s Friday the 13th. *yawn*

So, okay, I looked it up, frankly having no real idea what was behind it, other than it was a day of “spectacular” bad luck.

*yawn*

The explanation, which you are free to read here, was both stupid and boring.

I awoke with a mission. Which isn’t any big deal, it just means I had plans. So I scurried to get a load of wash in and running, and got to my routine stuff. Then I made spring rolls. The crab Rangoon turned out so great that I was emboldened to try my hand at the spring rolls. They are chillin’ in the freezer as we speak. We are having Chinese in a couple of weeks, and I’ll give you my opinion of how they turned out. And perhaps a recipe, but they are fairly standard–meaning you can put in about anything you wish. More on that later, as I said.

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There are times in this world when God blesses us with a perfect identifier.

Rep. Louis Gohmert, (R-TX), looks like an idiot. His name is idiotic. He is an idiot.  Thanks God, for the perfect storm.

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John Ensign (R-NV) couldn’t resign quick enough to avoid a public airing of the House Ethics investigation. And now we learn that his chief of staff has been granted immunity from prosecution.

Whatcha wanna bet that John will be wearing some striped clothing sometime soon?

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Rand Paul (R-KY) says that universal healthcare is akin to slavery. It forces him (the doctor) to be enslaved to caring for people even if he doesn’t want to. As was pointed out to the man of small brain, um…lawyers are provided free of charge to the indigent (and yes, the court can assign an attorney without their agreement to do a pro-bono case.

Did you know that Rand changed his name to Rand in honor of Ayn Rand? Ya know, the woman who had no use for the working class and poor because they are just parasites? Yeah, you go RAND. [h/t Under the Lobsterscope]

Actually Randy, slavery is not being able to live your life in a meaningful way because every damn dime you have must be devoted to paying bastards like you who want to charge whatever the richest can bear. Just sayin’.

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Did you hear about the mock horror expressed at Fox over the rapper Common? Turns out he had some lyrics that Foxy Duh “interpreted” as anti-cop and violent. Course most of that is sheer nonsense. What was best was Jon  Stewart’s smack down of Sean Hannity. Go to the Daily Show and look up the video from I think Wednesday.  Hannity had decried Common, and of course implied that his invite to the White House to read his poetry is really cuz the President and the First Ladies, are violent gangsters themselves. Which is what Hannity wants you to believe about all black folk.

Stewart showed with video that Hannity would defend the president against vicious attacks, should there be any. Turns out there was. Ted Nugent made some pretty nasty remarks of violence against the President and Hannity publicly said that Nugent was his friend and he would not condemn his violent remarks.

Yeah Sean, you pathetic excuse for a human being.

By the by, if you didn’t see Stewart’s rap smack down, you really should. He simply skewers Foxy. It’s classic.

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For those of you in need of a Sarah fix, I understand that there is a fun hash tag on Twitter called: #palinrapfacts. Have fun with that.

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One of the funniest little asides I read over at the Blaze the other day was this, and I do paraphrase:

“What’s all this crap about the beautification of Pope John Paul II I keep hearing about? Could somebody explain why he needs prettying up? “

Um that would be beatification dear, not beautification. And try a dictionary. I suspect you haven’t spent time with one of those in many a year.

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Ya gotta watch the slime balls at all times, cuz they will slip by when no one is looking. Maybe you heard that the Koch bro’s have endowed a couple of chairs at Florida State University. Yeah, well wealthy people do that all the time. Except this time there are strings, which amount to the Koch’s buying a way into teaching a type of economics that favors the rich and their way of doing business. Read it and weep, and send your kids elsewhere.

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Now get out there and make a day of it.

 

Related articles

• Jon Stewart’s Epic Takedown Of Fox News For Pushing Rapper Common’s W.H. ‘Controversy’ (mediaite.com)
• Rand Paul equates Universal Health Care with slavery… (underthelobsterscope.wordpress.com)
• The Daily Show On Common & The White House (dayandadream.com)
• CLASSIC Jon Stewart Rap Rips Fox News For The Common Controversy (businessinsider.com)

The Only Thing That Changes is the Window Dressing

The religious right-wing nuttery learned that if they put their agenda out front, it was soundly rejected. So they went stealth. They infiltrated got elected to public office in statewide and local jurisdictions, never letting out a peep of what their agenda was.

Once on school boards and in state legislatures, they began pushing their fundamentalist-based principles into our school curriculums and city ordinances.

Karl Rove (Turd Blossom) was pretty darn up front about his desire to turn America into one gigantic GOP juggernaut. That failed to.

It is now quite clear that the GOP, too, has played the magician. While keeping us distracted with the usual dog and pony show of Palin/Bachmann/Limbaugh/Beck/Hannity/Gingrich/DeMint/Huckabee/King circus act, why they went out and got themselves installed in state legislatures and governorships all around the land.

While bowing to the “teabagger” agenda of cutting all them “freeloader” programs such as Head Start and food stamps, and introducing all that right-wing “freedom” to worship and live as you wish as long as it’s “Christian” and between a man and a woman, the really ugly work is being done quietly but efficiently by true blue GOPers.

And what does that entail you ask? Nothing less than the utter reduction to slavery of the poor and working poor, the elimination of the middle class and their endless liberal leanings, and the support and coddling of the rich and wealthy.

In state after state, Repulsigans are systematically lowering taxes for the rich, cutting programs for the poor, and increasing taxes on the working and middle classes.

These immoral hard to call them humans, really believe the bastardization of Darwin’s survival of the fittest, as translated in the 19th century to mean, the worthy rise and become wealthy and powerful, and those doomed to be the rightful underclass, well, they are naturally where they are supposed to be. Married to an interpretation of the bible that then instructs the slave to be obedient, we have voila´, the natural order of things. Now that is some science and bible interpretation going hand in hand if you ever saw it!

Crooks and Liars, building upon Rachel Maddow’s show, which is embedded, shows how the GOP has lackeyed for the uber rich again, following their successes in the 2010 election. Armed with majorities and control in most legislatures, they are busy as bees. Featured are twelve states and the actions being taken to accomplish this fiendish agenda. If your state is listed, well you know what you need to do.

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Stoopid is as Stoopid does. That’s a saying I guess that makes some sense, but sounds more so than it actually is. And stoopid, as we’ve pointed out innumerable times, is what the American public is, by and large. Another of those polls, this time by Newsweek, proves again that the average American is amazing for its ability to walk and talk and maybe even chew gum, all the while knowing almost nothing about the world she or he lives in.

One of the things in this country that is apparently sacrosanct is the educational system. We have always, as far as I know, educated our kids based on localized school boards, supplemented marginally in many cases by a few scattered state laws. Shockingly, we learned that in some states, homeschooling is completely unregulated for instance, meaning a parent who has an IQ of dirt can “teach” their own child, and get them a bona fide “graduation” certificate.

Meanwhile, GOPers/religious fanatics around the country are forcing “balanced” teaching of creationism and intelligent design into science curriculums, revisionist history downplaying racism, American imperialism, and other “embarrassments”.

Is it time to have a serious discussion about how we teach our children? I certainly think so. I think we have to conclude that what may have once worked, no longer does. Our educational system is a failure today for most students, leaving them ill-equipped in the world they are entering, a world that requires some reasoned sophistication about the global issues that now intertwine with America. Our colleges and universities are having to spend nearly the first full year in some cases, just shoring up their freshman on the basics. My god, this was true when I went to college in the 70′s!

Weigh in and tell us what you think.

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What’s on the stove? Wanton pulled pork. What’z dat? Take your basic pork butt, slap some barbecue seasoning on it, lock it in a secure house, bake it at 325° until you can fork break it up into shreds. (3 hours or more) Leave it in its juices, add some of your favor-ITE barbecue sauce. Make a batch of coleslaw, a bit on the sweet side. Take some wonton wrappers, deep fry them, pressing with a spoon to make a depression, fry until crispy, drain…fill up with the pork and top with the coleslaw.. eat until you can’t walk.

Related Articles

• Republican Control Of State Legislatures Brings Record Number of Creationism Bills (outsidethebeltway.com)

What’s Up? 06/18/10

I awoke to day two of sunshine! Well, it was a shock of course, and I don’t want you to get too excited, for the forecast (I know, why bother?) is not good.

Decidedly not good. The heavens are scheduled to spew! later today, and perhaps dangerously so.

I’m trying to be stoic and not spew here.

So, hopefully there is a thing or two out there that we can find that will enlighten our souls and raise us all to a higher plane of contemplation. Yep.

Science takes a look at figuring out why we like what we like. It’s a long, but thoughtful review in part of Paul Bloom’s book, How Pleasure Works.

Emory University studies chimpanzees to help learn when and how humans developed the valued empathy behavior. These nearest cousins of ours regularly sympathize and comfort members who have been victimized by aggression from others.  

Ever since South Carolina was placed on the terminally stupid state list, well we expect about anything. Senator DeMint, (the one running against the fake Democrat Greene, who barely knows that he lives in South Carolina), is helping out pal Sharron Angle ( the uber nut case running as an uber teabagger in Utah against Harry Reid), by getting the uber crazy right wing American Vision (who wants Merika governed by the bible as they interpret it), to help raise funds for said Angle’s campaign. Crazy is as crazy does.

Everybody knows that education in this country is pure crap. D-Cap via BMT makes a good case that it went off the trolley with the Reagan administration (you know the ONLY freakin’ Rethug administration in modern history that they can cling to [and they do] as something to tout?). He makes a good argument. Read Bob Bennett is a jackass.

Idiocy rules in Rethunglian land as we know. Butthead Joe Barton, (R-TX) saw fit to apologize to BP for the terrible treatment they had received at the hands of the Obama administration. Guess Joe figures the oil won’t come to Texas and that his constituency are unlike the rest of the Gulf residents who patently dispise the company. Par for the course since so many Rethuglicans are back to drill baby drill rhetoric. No shame and no brains. I simply cannot wait to see what kinds of money Barton gets from oil interests. Oops, gee. what a surprise. Turns out Barton gets more money from the oil industry THAN ANY OTHER HOUSE MEMBER. Read it!

Andrew Sullivan wrote a good piece on Obama and what he has done. Blame the media for focusing usually on the wrong stuff, and the progressives wanting too much, and the right just crying non-stop, Sullivan argues that Obama has and is taking the right tone and tack. See what you think.

For the first time, a significant Jewish history site, centering on Eastern Europe,  has been created. It is supposed to be friendly to both the casual reader and the reseacher and student alike. Take a look.

A commentor left a lovely link to a great article on Chance, Choice and God. A thoughtful post.

For chuckles, read Liberals Hate Palin Because She’s  Beautiful. The writer seriously claims that this is behind the media’s and general populations dislike of  the Palinator (that woman is an idiot). It’s kinda sad to think that conservative thinking is so shallow, and if you don’t believe me, read to the end and see that the author just wants to paint as “ugly” all liberal women. Dude you are so superficial it’s pathetic.

Best not to miss D-Caps great parody of our Sarah (that woman is an idiot) gettin’ in touch with the Prez with advice on how to handle the oil spill. Pricelessly hilarious as always.

hope you find sumpin’ to read here! lol…