◇ ☼ ∻ Liberal Propaganda ∻ ☼ ◇

Freedoms are no Longer Free, AKA American Fiscal Theory

2011-12-15T02:36:00.008-05:00

You thought your 1st Amendment freedom was free? Think again.

Scott Walker, governer of Wisconsin, already enacted a policy that charges protesters money to protest.

American government: Ohohoho, yes! We spent all this money on the military and corporate handouts, and then we tried to cut money from social programs to fund this, but then we got all these annoying protestors, so now if we can just charge the protesters money we can kill two birds with one stone! *evil cackle*

Gosh. I don't even have to try to make fun of the government anymore. They've made a caricature of themselves before I even got there..

American Military Politics

2011-12-03T22:18:00.003-05:00

The US seems to be planning to deploy 20,000 troops for "defense" against protesters.

This group is supposed to "quell civil unrest."

American government: Hmmm, yes. We have too much civil unrest, because we are spending insane amounts of money on our military and corporate handouts, while the working class gets poorer every year and social programs keep getting cut. How should we solve this "civil unrest?" Oooooh, let's spend MORE money on the military so we can squash the protesters!

Great strategy..

Murder as Masculine

2011-12-01T04:19:00.008-05:00

This post makes the very interesting point that men are more likely to be murder victims than women, except when those victims are a family member like spouse, parent, or child. But sibling victims are more likely to be male. What does that say about gender and murder?

Men also are more than 3x more likely than women to commit eldercide, and more likely to be the murderer when the victim is any family member or significant other. What does that say?

Health Benefits of Protesting

2011-11-29T15:28:00.013-05:00

I haven't been writing much here lately, but I have been visiting and helping out with the Occupy movement in Pittsburgh, PA. It's come a LONG way since the first week when the NYC protesters were being ignored by mainstream media.

Last month, while I was working at Occupy Pittsburgh, a reporter asked me about my views on the protest as a health psychologist. "Do you think it's healthy for these people to be protesting, out here in the cold weather?" she asked. I was pretty amazed by this question, since I have never been consulted as a scientist at a political event before. Well, not since my work on climate change anyway; this was the first time I've been consulted as a psychologist.

So, do I think it's healthy for the occupiers to be protesting out in the cold? There's a lot of levels to this question, but I would answer yes on most counts:

1. Socially: Protesters are angry about our government, and the protests give them a public forum to express that discontent. It's very important to be able to express anger in a constructive fashion, otherwise it can raise blood pressure, contribute to negative emotions and cause chronic stress. So yes, it's much healthier emotionally for the protestors to do their thing. Just think, if you could make signs and march around with a group of people shouting about what most upsets you in life, wouldn't you feel better?

2. Biologically: Protestors "out there in the cold" usually take care to prepare for the weather. Medic tents at most Occupy sites distribute blankets and warm clothes as needed, and can protect against other health crises that come up. If you wear warm clothes and stay active, being in cold weather is actually good for you. It raises your energy levels and the fresh air is good for your mood as well. A researcher who used to work in my office at Pittsburgh (Jeanette Garcia), actually reported that fresh air gives people "increased mental clarity, helps strengthen the immune system and helps your body establish its circadian rhythm," along with increasing metabolism, and being good for your skin!

Back in October, I would have said protesting was healthy for the mind and body of the Occupiers. But now, given the police brutality doled out with pepper-spray, evictions and tear-gases, I would say the protesters are taking a health risk. Not all the Occupy sites have experienced such a violent response; but Oakland, Seattle and NYC have reported the worst, and it looks like the trend may continue to spread. So overall, peaceful protesting is a healthy way to express your opinion, until the police attack protestors.

7 Billion People Need Birth Control

2011-10-31T17:38:00.008-04:00

Maybe you've been hearing about the global population crisis? The UN has everyone in a panic because today we officially hit 7 million. Except, we didn't really. It's only an estimate and the US Census Bureau says we won't hit 7 billion till 2012 or later.

More importantly, the population growth is not coming from where you think:

The poorest, least developed nations are the ones pushing us towards 10 billion. Most of these countries are already overcrowded. So why do they keep having more children?

Lack of education, low expectation of survival, and no family planning are some of the main reasons. See, even the Christian Science Monitor, who you'd expect to be super pro-life, admits that;

"if all women had the capacity to decide for themselves when to become pregnant, average global childbearing would immediately fall below the “replacement fertility” value of slightly more than two children per woman. Population would then move onto a path leading to a peak followed by a gradual decline, possibly well before 2050."

My conclusion?

EAT THAT, ANTI-ABORTIONISTS. The next time someone says health insurance shouldn't cover birth control, tell them those pills are saving the world!

Sexism Makes me Facepalm.

2011-09-29T13:47:00.007-04:00

I saw local news today about a "Milk Truck" that is patrolling the streets of Pittsburgh, giving women a special place to breastfeed in public. This is an art piece meant to raise public awareness about the unfair fact that many women have to breastfeed in uncomfortable "hideaways" like dirty restroom stalls, or use freaky breast pumps at home and then carry stale bottled milk for their infants to drink outside the home. Why do women act this way? Look at the comments by some men on this article:

"The breast is definitely over-the-top."

"The breast on the top is unnecessary. The name & paint scheme are sufficient. Also, getting rid of the breast might remove some stigma that some mothers might have about be associated with the giant tit truck and thereby help increase their business."

Stigma of the tit? These guys seem to be missing the whole message of this art, while ironically proving it's point: Breasts are not just for sex, censoring the breast unilaterally encourages women to feel SHAME about this part of their body.

This is part of a larger feminist issue; when women take ownership of their bodies it can freak people out. Like the new trend of cougars, middle-aged women with high sex drives. Sexually empowered women threaten many men, like our friend HUFF POST SUPER USER, tbot48:

"Must be something in the water were I live... The majority of the women I know talk a good game but won't sit down and play and it doesn't matter how much lobster you feed them..."

or Mr Bobo: "I think I actually spotted one of these mythical creatures recently. She was riding a Unicorn."

So, just because these guys are not personally getting laid they doubt the existence of women with high sex drives? Do they think that just because women enjoy sex and want it often, they are going to be openly out on the streets, sleeping with anyone who buys them dinner (and nekkidly riding unicorns)?

PUH-LEEZE, guys. Don't forget that women have the power to be discriminatory in who they sleep with, even if they are having sex every week. Maybe you're just not charming or attractive enough to net one of these power-cougars. For naively assuming all women who enjoy sex are indiscriminate sluts, you win a GOLD STAR AWARD.

Silent Protest

2011-09-18T22:49:00.003-04:00

Have you heard of the 48+ hour occupation protest in New York City? Hundreds of hippies from all over the nation came to occupy Wall Street; to show their contempt for corporate irresponsibility.

But police stopped them and wouldn't let the protesters near Wall Street. They are now camping out in a privately-owned park, plotting their next move. It must be frustrating that although their protest plan, "Occupy Wall Street," was all over internet news, no public channels have mentioned the event on TV or radio. Even as they move into their second night of camping out in Manhattan, surrounded by police barricades...

See what one of the protesters had to say below:

He came all the way from Oakland, California. And the mainstream media can't even be bothered to report this. Bummer.

Texas Rewrites History: Part Two

2011-09-04T14:20:00.012-04:00

Texas, how could you? Two years ago we were concerned about the religiously-biased advisors who were planning to restructure the Texas Social Studies curriculum to "emphasize the roles of the Bible, the Christian faith and the civic virtue of religion in the study of American history."

Now not only has that passed, but a whole bunch of important facts have been written out of the Texas history books. Like what?

1. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams are no longer important founding fathers. The important ones are Christian thinkers like Benjamin Rush, John Hancock and John Jay. (To quote John Jay; "Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers. And it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest, of a Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.")

2. That labor movement in the 1900s that got us worker's rights and trade unions? Not important anymore. Instead students will learn how "the free enterprise system drives technological innovation ... such as cell phones, inexpensive personal computers and global positioning products."

3. Malcom X was not an important historical figure; he will no longer be in textbooks. But instead Texans will study moral thinker Jerry Falwell, who believes that "feminists and homosexuals were partially responsible for the 9/11 attacks."

So...how would you like to go to school in Texas?

Galactic Internet is Here!

2011-08-19T20:05:00.004-04:00

Finally, you will be able to Tweet or Facebook to someone in outer space. But they won't be real aliens, only rich snobs on Virgin Galactic's new space ship cruise.

SpaceShipTwo is a luxury tourist space flight, costing $200,000 a head. It doesn't go anywhere, only circles in deep space for "a few minutes" before returning to Earth. Some passengers may want to spend this time gazing intently at the wonders of outer space, making a $200,000 memory that will last forever. But I guess some other tourists just need to tweet live about how "shooting star meteorite so COOL OMG!"

Tanorexia and Tanning: It's Bad!

2011-08-12T14:05:00.006-04:00

Tanning releases opiods, the same addictive chemicals in morphine and heroin. Frequent tanners experience withdrawl when they don't get these opiods, just like drug users!
Most tanners report mood enhancement, relaxation and socialization while soaking up the sun. But tanorexics become very competitive about tanning, and may actually hate their skin and view it as untolerably pale, in the same way anorexics view themselves as hatefully fat even when they're starving. Tanorexics experience the most serious withdrawl symptoms, which include intense anxiety, nausea, and jitters. Since UV light from the sun and tanning beds creates a feeling of euphoria in the brain, it's also likely tanners feel depressed when they are removed from their lights for too long.

Since any tan at all is evidence of sun damage, and tanners continue to ignore medical risks, this has led many dermatologists to push that UV light tanning addiction be recognized as a substance abuse disorder. And just like any substance abuse order, we already have celebrity posterchildren. Wikipedia says "notable figures known to have suffered from tanorexia are Christine Swanson, Jordan Cohen, the British celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal and the cast of the MTV reality show Jersey Shore."

Class Warfare, Now With Sharks!

2011-08-11T12:57:00.011-04:00

Is it still Shark Week? Because I think I found a new way to celebrate AND solve the problem of America's rich; who are apparently "less empathetic, less altruistic, and generally more selfish" than everyone else.

Wouldn't this make a great reality TV show? We could call it "Sharks Vs Sharks."

Help Me Win Bill Maher

2011-08-07T15:18:00.010-04:00

See my "New Rule" for Bill Maher's TV Show:

Rule #88013: If Repubs can selfishly hold out for their values in Congress, then Dems will learn to do the same. Stop compromising or I swear to no-God, I will create the liberal version of the Tea Party. #newrule

Help me win and VOTE for this rule here.

It's a good rule, right? I mean, why should only Republicans get Representatives who fight for their values? Also, wouldn't a liberal Tea Party just be crazy awesome? Or awesomely crazy...

Economic Rumble USA

2011-08-06T14:59:00.008-04:00

Neutral economic facts in America are hard to come by these days. On one hand, you have our liberal commentators, who say 40 million Americans are living on food stamps (~12% of the population) , and that the middle class is disappearing. This side tends to blame the 400 billionaries who "own" Congress, and says things like, "if you don’t have a job, it is in part because Cheney cut taxes on the super-rich and made it impossible for the Federal government to ameliorate the economic straits of the middle class with various programs. This problem just got worse, with the budget deal this year." So, the rich are to blame for all our problems, and "we increasingly look like a Third World robber baron country with a few rich at the top and luckless peasants toiling below."

The other side says "the rich create jobs and that taxing them would hurt the economy." Some conservatives even go so far as to say that it's the unemployed's fault they have no jobs, because "GDP is now higher than it has been in the entirety of U.S. history," so the 10+% unemployed we have now must just have been working useless jobs before. "The fact that the United States has pre-crisis levels of output with fewer workers raises doubts as to whether those additional workers were producing very much in the first place." They recommend the jobless retrain or otherwise adapt to our new society, because the old jobs are not coming back.

How can these two sides coexist? They seem to be completely at odds and both vilifying the other side. If your job was outsourced or downsized, and then you were told it's your fault, how would you respond? Similarly, if you could make more money with less workers, why would you hire more people?

Yet even with all this animosity, Americans show no sign of protest or revolution. Alternet has some theories that we're just too fearful, over-medicated, financially stressed, brainwashed, distracted or plain dumb to organize a fight.

The new budget only increases these problems, by preserving all tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy while cutting from everywhere else. Education, Medicare, Social Security, even the military are all up on the chopping block. Exact cuts still remain to be determined.

Instead, if we just undid the Bush-era tax cuts, we wouldn't have to cut so much other stuff:

But, can we raise taxes without fueling the class wars? Raising taxes actually doesn't scare millionaires away, and it might make more sense to tax the rich than the poor. Not only are the rich, well, RICH; they are the only ones benefiting from the current economic climate. If we try to tax the middle class that is already suffering or cut more benefits from the poor, we might finally find their breaking point.

Texas: Now Unquestionably the Reddest State Ever

2011-08-04T01:51:00.007-04:00

When I wrote about Hell-On-Earth heatwave disasters last week, I thought I was being clever. Now there's an actual RIVER OF BLOOD in Texas, and I'm afraid that we'll see a plague of locusts next. Seriously, what the frick? I don't believe in the Bible but when The Weather Channel starts sounding like the the End of Days, you have to take note.

This Red River is not actual blood, but a bacterial sludge fed by dead fish and oil runoff pollution. Intense drought and heat lowered the San Angelo water so much that it became stagnant, unable to move. While the water evaporated, the pollution stayed behind, and the remaining muck was too toxic to support the fish. As they all died, their rotting corpses robbed the water of oxygen, which made it a perfect environment for the Rosy-faced Chromatiaceae bacteria.

So, although not actual blood, the San Angelo Reservoir is looking pretty scary. The worst part? These Red Rivers lead to a Red Lake, which actually provides DRINKING water for San Angelo and its surrounding communities in Tom Green County. I haven't heard of anyone turning on their tap and screaming bloody murder, so the drought must have kept this reservoir from reaching the pipelines. SO FAR. God only knows what will happen the next time a rainstorm hits Texas.

CAPTCHA Ads Create Zombies

2011-07-30T18:15:00.002-04:00

Solve Media has created an advertising method that makes life easier--ads that actually save time as you view them. Remember those annoying CAPTCHA checks on the internet? You click to submit something, and out of nowhere there's a fuzzy mess of alphabet soup saying you must copy ALL the letters EXACTLY, to prove that you're a human being? Well, you're not the only one who has trouble with those. Solve Media thinks that web users would rather copy a brand logo instead of garbled text--and so far 650,000 clicks a day are proving them right.

These captcha ads can be completed twice as fast as the traditional captcha, and they're a lot less stressful. With corporate CAPTCHA, the days of squinting and puzzling through Salvadore Dali scrabble-puke are over!

So now, unlimited posting is only a few slogans away. To prove you're a real human, you'll ironically have to act like a consumer zombie. Mindlessly quote the corporate motto in front of you, and you'll be able to pass safety checks online. As an added bonus, you'll remember the logos without even trying! By requiring you to read and repeat their message, the CAPTCHA slogans implant themselves in your memory 12 times deeper than a regular banner ad. With interactive learning technology this strong, we could be teaching people all kinds of useful facts.

Instead, our information overload may cause the first real consumer zombies; sleepwalkers who stumble out of bed murmuring "There's nothing like a Pepper...RRRGH," while they roam the dark night, searching for a can of soda.

America: Stubborn to a Fault?

2011-07-26T08:25:00.001-04:00

Why hasn't the Budget committee been able to save us from default yet? CNN reports that political polarization is handicapping the U.S. government. "People have to cooperate for the system to work," but there are too many special interest groups now, all competing with one another. The current rules "encourage small interest groups - including ideologically charged ones - to capture major political parties as well as Congress itself." Anyone who doesn't pander directly to their supporters risks losing funding and votes.

Look at Representative Darrell Issa, Republican of California, who "gave an interview to the Wall Street Journal in which he suggested that he might further the conservative agenda through an occasional compromise. That provoked a tirade from Rush Limbaugh, which then produced a torrent of angry e-mails and phone calls to Issa's office. Issa quickly and publicly apologized to Limbaugh and promised only opposition to Obama."

Well, Americans don't like compromise, is this really any surprise? We are some of the most stubborn and single-minded citizens in the world. Just look at the original colonists, who created a new country rather than compromise with their leaders. And today look at our high divorce rates; we don't seem to compromise well on a social level either.

Mother Nature Raises Hell this Summer

2011-07-24T21:33:00.016-04:00

The North-American heatwave has made many cities more hellish than usual. Whether it's Pennsylvania roadways turning into bubbling tar pits or ozone-smog choking people in DC, the last two weeks of summer have been a little challenging.

"In this heat, it's not just about discomfort," said Latoya White, a health worker in the capital. "For many people it's about survival." Indeed, besides heat stroke and dehydration, Harvard recently published research showing hot weather raises the danger of heart attack.

Air conditioning is one way to escape the heat. But what do you do when your AC fails? Many units in Oklahoma have stopped working because "the units aren't really built to handle this kind of heat for this prolonged period of time." I've seen units failing in New York for the same reason. My parent's compressor actually burst even though they only cool to a modest 78 degrees Fahrenheit.

Don't try to flee to Canada either, because their central countryside is being ravaged by hundreds of wildfires:

These fires are being caused by increasingly hot weather, drier conditions and DAILY LIGHTNING STRIKES. These fires are so bad, they're polluting the air across the Great Lakes in Minnesota.

As if that's not scary enough, this heatwave actually gets worse at night. "While the current heat wave has recorded 12 all-time daily highs so far this month, it also has registered 98 all-time overnight highs," said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA went on to report that "when temperatures overnight do not cool to levels that provide relief, it increases the stress on people without air conditioning, on livestock and on crops" and that this is "consistent with what we would expect in a greenhouse-warmed world."

Given all of the above, it's very hard to accept this weather as "normal climate progression." Instead, it really feels more like Hell-On-Earth.

SUPER CONGRESS

2011-07-24T18:44:00.009-04:00

It's becoming more nightmarish to follow the U.S. Budget Negotiations. The August 2nd "doomsday" deadline is rapidly approaching. (Doomsday is when the Treasury loses borrowing ability and we risk a budget default.) And since bratty Congress hasn't been able to agree enough to pass anything, the "debt ceiling negotiators" have a new solution:

MAKE A SUPER CONGRESS !
What's so great about Super Congress? Well, they will be able to pass laws super-fast without having to be too accountable to the public. "This 'Super Congress'...isn't mentioned anywhere in the Constitution, but would be granted extraordinary new powers." Any new laws they approve will be fast-tracked through both chambers of "Little Congress" (our current House + Senate), where regular "little" lawmakers could not amend their laws, only give each an up or down vote. And those "little" votes are less powerful than today's votes. The proposed Super Congress only ever needs 51% to pass any law, and they don't need presidential approval (i.e. vetos have no effect on them).

So, does this sound like a good idea to you? It's not like the the regular Congress we have now is particularly heroic. I mean, Republicans want to extend the debt ceiling just long enough to have it fail pre-election season, while Democrats want to extend it just a little bit longer, till post-election. That's why they can't agree to pass something before financial doomsday. So now we're being held hostage to create a Super Congress to save us from disaster?

It feels more like a Super-Villain Congress. And I'm not the first person to think lawmakers with unlimited power would be dangerous. You've heard the saying that "absolute power corrupts absolutely?" Well, this whole message board seems to agree that "any new branch of government, especially one with 'extraordinary new powers' scares the hell out me. No thanks!"

Cut Wealthcare

2011-07-10T17:40:00.004-04:00

As the US tries to balance their budget, we have some words of advice from crazy liberal Senator Bernie Sanders: "The Republicans are suggesting that we balance the budget on the backs of the sick, the children, the elderly, the poor, [this] is morally unacceptable, and economically a very bad policy. Especially at a time when the richest people are becoming richer."

He also states that social security is paid for by it's payroll tax, and does not actually contribute to the national deficit. Is this true? I don't know because I'm not a budget expert. But I DO know that most liberal Americans don't want social benefits cut, they want THESE things cut:

In the words of one Keith Olbermann fan, "CUT WEALTHCARE, NOT HEALTHCARE."

Wax your Child, Save for College!

2011-06-24T14:48:00.014-04:00

It must be confusing growing up in America these days. Sexting is illegal, yet waxing for preteen girls is now a trend. So children's bodies have to look sexy, but they are not allowed to share this sexiness with anyone else in any way.

Why should a tween girl worry about primping an area of her body no one is supposed to see? Well, one salon owner informs us that "Virgin hair can be waxed so successfully that growth can be permanently stopped in just 2 to 6 sessions. Save your child a lifetime of waxing... and put the money in the bank for her college education instead!"

Eliminating future work while saving money? What American could pass on a chance like this?! After all, college IS ridiculously expensive. And it's not like there could be any downside to the procedure...

Teaching young girls that pain equals beauty and social acceptance, that's a great lesson. You're never too young to learn how to change your body to please men! Some prudes disagree, of course, like children's advocate Dr. Levin, who believes, "Girls shouldn’t be taught so early to focus on how they look and that things like money, makeup and looking good buy happiness, instead of the skills that they possess....Should parents feed into that negativity or create an environment to help girls resist it?"

But if parents learned to teach their daughters that we can be worthy of love without cosmetic procedures, how would the beauticians feed their own children?

America is Pro-Life...and Pro-Unplanned Pregnancy?

2011-06-20T00:24:00.011-04:00

LifeNews has a wonderful way with statistics. They can take data that shows 76% of Americans support legal abortion, 50% of Americans favor the current legal status of abortion, and come back with a headline that says AMERICA IS PRO-LIFE.

How do they do this? Well, it's all based on a Gallup poll that can be viewed directly here. Originally Gallup asked people to support 1 of 3 categories; abortion legal in any circumstances, abortion legal in some, and abortion legal in none. When split this way, 27% favored legal in all, 49% favored legal in some, and 22% favored legal in none. So only 22% were for banning abortion.

Gallup then fixed the stats by splitting the middle category into those who wanted abortion legal in most circumstances, and those who wanted it to be legal in only a few. In this way they got 10% of voters wanting legal abortion "under most circumstances," and 39% wanting it to be legal in "only a few circumstances." So now they can say that 39% + 22% = 63% of Americans support no or severely limited abortion.

Does this mean America really is Pro-Life? Well, you can split the stats anyway you want. You can say that only 22% of Americans favor banning abortion completely. 50% of Americans DO want to allow abortion in "some circumstances." And this is what we already allow (our circumstance being abortions up until the third trimester.) So half the country wants NO change to our abortion policy.

Even when looking only at the extreme views, MORE (27%) Americans favor always allowing abortion rather than never allowing abortion (22%). So any way you cut it, most Americans don't favor a change to our abortion policy. But Gallup biased the results by splitting up the middle group. The lesson: If you split up the majority of a group, you can transform their consensus into a series of conflicting categories, hiding the true majority opinion.

So most Americans want to allow abortion under some circumstances. But most Americans also support severely limited abortion. Can all of this be true while America is still Pro-Life? Rest assured, it can all be true. It's just that we have to really think about what "Pro-Life" means.

Remember, we can hide the true majority opinion if we split up a group into conflicting categories. In America, we have "Pro-Choice" and "Pro-Life" categories. Both positive sounding terms. But they're not really that clear and distinct, because pro-choice people could also be pro-life in many circumstances. The difference is that pro-life on a political level means everyone has to be pro-life, all the time, or be criminally responsible and morally wrong. So really, we might rename the Pro-Life position "Pro-Forced Birth" or "Pro-Unplanned Pregnancy."

I wonder how THAT would bias the statistics? If Pro-Life means abortion is NEVER legal, under any circumstances, that would mean only 22% of America supports it (according to this poll). America is not THIS kind of pro-life. But if we allow pro-life to mean allowing abortion only under a few circumstances, without defining exactly WHAT those circumstances are, it's much easier to include the majority of Americans as pro-life.

So it seems no one really wants to have abortions, but most people feel it should be allowable in certain circumstances. There is our general consensus. Now if we could just leave the law to allow for that, American could move on from this whole issue.

Gay Stipend Part of Giant Gay Conspiracy in Massachusetts

2011-06-11T18:08:00.013-04:00

Cambridge, Massachusetts, has the rest of the state talking. "In a move that may be the first of its kind in the country, Cambridge will soon begin making payments to same-sex married public employees to defray the cost of what local officials have called a discriminatory federal tax." While certain companies (like Google) already pay their employees this sort of stipend, Cambridge is the first level of government to do so.

Why would Cambridge be the first place for this to happen? Previous mayor, E. Denise Simmons, pointed out that "Having marriage equality yet an unequal tax burden keeps [certain] married couples on the margins, and marginalization in a lot of ways is seen as a level of discrimination."

But why should the state or even a single city have to pay this difference? Current Cambridge Mayor, David Maher, explains that the "City of Cambridge once again stepped up as a leader in civil rights and took steps to mitigate this tax inequity...This action is the right and fair thing to do until the federal government addresses this issue." He also noted that he doesn't expect to see other cities follow suit soon, because it "requires the expenditure of funds."

So, why would the Mayors of Cambridge think this was worth spending funds on before anyone else? Could it be that, they support gay right because...both mayors mentioned in this article, are gay. Yes, it's true. E. Denise Simmons was the first openly lesbian African-American mayor in the United States. David Maher came out during his term last summer. Heck, even the Mayor before Simmons was gay; Kenneth Reeves was the first openly gay African-American mayor anywhere in the United States! (source)

So, you can see Massachusetts is only spending money on gay people because their government is gay. They don't care about the greater good of society at all, only helping gay people. Heck, probably everyone in the whole state is gay! That means all the other things in Massachusetts that we thought were great are probably just gay scams too. Like Harvard, that's totally gay. And having the lowest divorce rate in the nation? That's probably gay too.

P.S. I know some of you are looking at California and thinking, but isn't that a really gay state too? How come they don't have a low divorce rate? But remember, California is not nearly as gay as Massachusetts. California revoked gay marriage in 2008 (via Prop 8) because over 50% of that state did not support gay marriage. Meanwhile, Massachusetts' state motto is; "By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty." I mean, swords and liberty, what's more gay than that?

The Bees are Back!

2011-04-19T15:26:00.009-04:00

Remember last year, when we were worried about bees dying from cellphone radiation? Well, bee populations have continued dropping globally due to other dangers including pesticides...UNTIL NOW.

"Voice of the people" global champion Avaaz.org has collected 1,000,000+ signatures and has already got one government to read their petition on why bee-killing pesticides need to be banned. Right now, the French Agriculture Minister is looking at this petition and hopefully deciding to enact the ban requested, which might be a good idea since 200,000 of those activists who signed the petiton were French. After pushing the petition in France, Avaaz plans to take it to the European Union and then all around the globe!

Wow, can we remember the last time a petition actually changed anything? Way to go, Avaaz.

Honduras Saves Money by Cutting Education

2011-04-19T14:24:00.007-04:00

Honduras, in the grasp of a new military power since 2009, has followed through on it's promise to cut the country's education budget.

How did it do this? Well, first take $100,000,000 from the teachers' pension fund, then lower salaries for all your teachers. If the teachers complain or protest, take away their right to unionize and strike. See? It's easy.

Even when those pesky teachers keep protesting, you can just threaten to end the entire public school system and use charter schools instead.

After all, no good government wants free-thinking, successful teachers, do they? Honduras teachers are referred to as "the only working class that ever truly developed."

Where is the Money Going?
Well, since the education cuts, salaries for both the military and the police have increased. But, that's understandable after all the extra work the Police are having to do while fighting these protestors. The Honduran teachers will not give up, even when they are being teargassed, killed and beaten by the Police.

And IMF, the organization that gave the Honduras government $200 million in exchange for their promise to cut education, says this sequence of events is "broadly in line with expectations."

Democracy in Crisis

2011-03-11T16:07:00.008-05:00

Hearing about popular vote being overturned in Missouri yesterday is yet another blow that makes the average American voter feel powerless. This time, a 52% vote to PROTECT PUPPIES being raised for profit was shot down by state legislature. Apparently, even if people create a proposal, get it on the ballot and get a majority of voters to support their proposal, state lawmakers can vote to never let it see the light of day. This can happen even when 76% of voters support the proposal!

What are voters to do in this situation? Fox News asked us, why vote at all? Indeed, many Americans already agree with this way of thinking. Only about 50% of Americans vote in national elections, compared to 80% in other "democratic" countries. Researchers at University of Rochester tell us that more Americans talk about politics than people in comparable countries, but we don't vote because we don't trust the government. Our faith first dropped in 1974, when every democracy around the world trusted their leaders more than us, except for Italy. Since then, our faith in national government has only declined.

Why is this happening? Maybe because, "85% of Americans believe corporations have too much power in our government, and people have too little?" That's what Sandy Haski from theCorporation.com talks about in the video below. It shows an increasing corporate influence over American elections since the 1800s.

The only problem now is, how can we really pass laws to limit corporate power? If public proposals can be overturned by legislators, and all current legislators were elected by corporations, we seem to have a roadblock.

Don't Post that Video!

2011-03-09T11:59:00.005-05:00

Don't share a copyrighted video on your site, because now you can get arrested. Brian McCarthy is a 32-year-old Texan who ran channelsurfing.net until he was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement last week. Channelsurfing.net let users watch videos that were not supposed to be free, including sports and pay-per-view events. By embedding these videos on his site, Brian only linked to someone else's copy of the vid, he did not possess the file anywhere on his web space. He did allow users to watch pirated videos without leaving his website. Brian made $90,000+ a year from advertisers on his site.

By doing this, Brian managed to upset the UFC, WWE, NFL, NBA, and NHL who were supposed to be charging to broadcast these events. He now faces up to 5 years in prison.

Should Brian be going to jail? Copyright infringement is normally a civil offense, NOT criminal. But Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is claiming it's criminal this time because Brian profited off the distribution of illegal content. This is a stretch in the power of ICE, because no one has been arrested who didn't actually host pirated content before.

Now, what Brian did at channelsurfing.net is something like building a house with windows where you can look out and see something illegal. He then let people into this house for free and encouraged them to watch the illegal goings-on, while making a profit from advertisements in the house. He is only the secondary offender and has not created the illegal content himself. Really, Brian's crime is promoting free information while finding another way to make a profit. And now ICE says that is a criminal offense.

If Brian goes to jail, its likely more people will get arrested or fined for embedding copyrighted videos on their site. Techdirt.com writes, "it should worry almost anyone who has a website and has ever embedded videos. I have, for example, frequently embedded YouTube videos on this site -- and some of those videos might have been infringing. On top of that, I make some money from advertising on this site. Does that mean I now face criminal liability? I certainly hope not, but that seems to be the incredibly chilling message that ICE is sending. It immediately makes me question if I can ever embed another video without first getting explicit permission from the copyright holder."

While we all laugh at the fact that "ICE" is "chilling," let's think about this. The internet makes it very easy to share information. Do we want to change that by arresting people for sharing certain kinds of information? Internet censorship is already on the rise. Countries and schools can block any site deemed offensive or inappropriate. If we don't stop censorship at some point, how soon until we are all forced to "see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil?"

Men Experience Discrimination

2011-02-07T17:09:00.006-05:00

Men are now targets for profiling all around the globe, as the Wall Street Journal reported last month.

Men everywhere claim they are being treated as predators, pedophiles and rapists when they have done nothing wrong! Things such as changing a baby's diaper, stocking underwear in a store, and rescuing a child in danger have earned men beatings, dirty looks, and even legal attacks. When it is not legal for a day care center employee to change a baby's diaper, simply because the employee is a man, how is this helping anyone?

This is blatant discrimination and it's totally unfair. Treating all men like they are criminals, before they have done anything wrong? Why are we making innocent people suffer just because of their biology?

...Oops, wait a second! I forgot that this attitude is totally outdated in America, and NOT politically correct. My TV already told me that profiling is ok, and even recommended for public safety! We need to profile American males to protect ourselves from attacks just like we need to profile Middle Eastern Americans to protect ourselves from terrorism. Thereby if you protest the profiling of men in America, you are helping the terrorists!

Global Warming Can Now Be Blamed for Everything

2011-02-01T21:38:00.008-05:00

Tired of all the snow hitting your home this year? Well, at least you can blame it on global warming.

It's true: global warming not only means death by heat, but death by snow as well. Al Gore explained it all earlier today when he said,

"increased heavy snowfalls are completely consistent with what they [scientists] have been predicting as a consequence of man-made global warming...In fact, scientists have been warning for at least two decades that global warming could make snowstorms more severe.

Snow has two simple ingredients: cold and moisture. Warmer air collects moisture like a sponge until it hits a patch of cold air. When temperatures dip below freezing, a lot of moisture creates a lot of snow.”

Man, those crazy liberals and their global warming panic. First we have to worry about heatwaves, hurricanes and drought, and now we have to worry about snowstorms? How many problems could one bad thing possibly cause!? What's next, death by angry polar bears?

Pffft. Global warming is just a string of coincidences that have no greater meaning. The record-breaking snow totals across the US this winter are just a coincidence. People in Hartford, Connecticut, worrying about their roofs collapsing because the city got over FOUR TIMES the record amount of snow last month? Just a coincidence.

It also means nothing that this year had the hottest Arctic Currents in 2,000 years.

Bridalplasty Wins A Gold Star

2011-01-24T16:51:00.014-05:00

America, the land of opportunity, freedom and...free plastic surgery? Well, only if you defeat your rival brides-to-be on public TV! Keeping the same body you got engaged with is for losers! For teaching us this, the show Bridalplasty wins a Gold Star straight from my heart.

Bridalplasty also wins because it encourages women to run with syringes and uses the phrase "injectable party!" That sounds fun for all the wrong reasons.

Major Kudos to Modern Lady for effectively mocking this show. I can't give any better feedback than what she says here:

Cosmetic surgery compared to an angel's voice? Great, now I have to worry about this movie becoming a reality, too.

RIP Net Neutrality

2011-01-22T18:28:00.007-05:00

The tiered web access deal being plotted by Verizon and Google is bad news for all internet users.

Yes, of course it's bad news for the freedom loving hippies who will complain about the loss of net neutrality and the fact that their web content is now being censored.

But, did you know its also bad news for God-loving Americans? Three years ago, Associated Press showed that similar web filtering was used by Comcast to BLOCK ACCESS TO THE BIBLE online.

Well, I guess we can always look to the upcoming Free Internet to save us all. Oh wait, the FCC decided to block that too. Despite support from over 70,000 people and "300 local, state and federal officials from all 50 states," the FCC decided granting ad-supported free Wireless internet to the public was "not the best policy outcome." What could be a better policy outcome? Well, right now the FCC is planning to auction this extra bandwith (known as the AWS-3 bandwith to already existing service providers to "bring additional spectrum to market so the wireless ecosystem can continue to provide our consumers with the most innovative industry in the world."

Now I'm not really sure but I thought the words auction, market, consumer and industry were not supposed to be what motivates a federal agency. But maybe the concept of public good is something that will die out along with the uncensored internet.

Americans Low On Science, High on God

2011-01-07T17:39:00.007-05:00

Fox News Bill O'Reilly doesn't know where ocean tides come from. Last night, he stated that God must exist because, "Tide goes in, tide goes out. Never a miscommunication. You can't explain that!"

Stephen Colbert takes the time to mock and refute this in his video here:

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Stephen also takes the time to teach us where ocean tides actually DO come from (AKA the Moon's gravity). Which is good because, how many Americans actually know where tides DO come from? If Bill O Reily can claim that "YOU can't explain that" it means that he thinks most Americans really don't know anything about gravity or the moon AND that he can use that ignorance to his advantage. I learned all that moon/tide nonsense in 7th-grade science, so I'm kind of scared to think that this knowledge is utterly absent from a large percent of our country.

Well, I guess you really have two kinds of Americans here. Ones who know science, and ones who have blissful ignorance tied to faith in God. Certainly Bill O'Reily is leading Americans to become the later, but he isn't alone with states like Indiana and Texas changing their school policies to include more censorship, and more focus on the benefits of God.

But hey, isn't faith better than a little useless science trivia? I may know where the tides come from, but how has that really improved my life?

Problems with TSA Body Scanners

2010-12-14T01:48:00.012-05:00

Unless you like the idea of showing your junk to the US Government every time you fly, you're probably unhappy with the new "Naked Body Scanners" and "Enhanced" pat downs. Or maybe you have no idea what I'm talking about. Either way, you should read this:

1. The backscatter x-ray technology used by the US produces a detailed, graphic outline of your body parts. A less invasive option would have been the ProVision ATD radio scanners used in Amsterdamn, which do not produce images of passenger bodies, only items found on the body. Why don't we use these now? Well, TSA Administrator John Pistole's answer is that

"these “blob” machines, as opposed to the “naked” machines, are the “next generation” of screening technology. His concern, he said, is that “there are currently a high rate of false positives on that technology, so we’re working through that.”"

I would take a false positive over my naked body being printed in an image any day. But at least the images aren't being saved, right? Think again...

2. All US scanners machines have the capacity to save your body scans and some of them ALREADY HAVE. Last August, a Florida courthouse using the machines admitted to saving "tens of thousands of images recorded with a millimeter wave system." But don't worry, TSA spokeswoman Sari Koshetz assures us that "the agency's scanners are delivered to airports with the image recording functions turned off." And since turning that function on would be against the rules, its not like anyone would ever do that.

Well, at least all these scans are going to keep us safe, right? Sorry, wrong again..

3. The new body scanners let many dangerous objects through. Adam Savage of Mythbusters recently passed through with 2 12-inch STEEL RAZORBLADES in his jacket pocket. The scanners also miss any items below the skin or in body cavities, and cannot detect "plastics or ceramics used in bomb-making."

So, if body scanners can't protect us, what should we do? Should we submit everyone to an enhanced pat down and cavity search? That doesn't sound very fun or time-effective. Instead, FOX NEWS has an idea: profiling. "We have limited resources; why don't we use them on the 19-year-old Yemeni exchange student and not the 90-year-old grandmother or the nun who's been at the same convent for 50 years?" Hmmmm. This does seem like a time-saver, and you know who else uses this strategy? Israeli Airports.

Trees, Now With the Power of GMO!

2010-10-11T13:38:00.005-04:00

Are you a fan of trees? Then you'll love these new super-trees being developed at Berkeley and Oak Ridge National Laboratories.

Called the "organic enemy" of global warming, these new trees act like mini carbon vaults, sucking up huge amounts of carbon from the air and then sending it down to the soil, never to see the light of day again. So, if carbon is the criminal causing global warming, these super-trees are the global policemen who will catch and imprison that carbon, thereby allowing humans to frolic freely and burn as much fossil fuels as we want!

Meanwhile, the soil under these GMO trees will become filled with carbon, which will stay there "for centuries." A small amount of carbon is already naturally present in soil, and is good for plant growth. Could too much carbon in the soil become toxic? No one knows yet, but if that happens we can just invent a super Potato-Bug to eat up all the carbon in the soil!

Eating Meat Makes you Smarter (Kinda)

2010-08-12T14:14:00.007-04:00

The next time someone tells you you shouldn't eat meat, tell them you're just protecting your brain.

NPR writes that when ancient people began eating meat, the calorie rich food allowed their brains to grow bigger while letting their stomachs grow smaller. The need to develop tools to hunt and butcher meat also caused our brain to grow smarter.

Cooking our food saves the most time of all. Raw meat could take as much as 6 times longer to chew and digest. (Cooking vegetables also makes more calories available and digestion easier.) Our brain requires constant calories to run and it can only use food that has been completely digested into pure glucose. So, having a rich source of calories that can be digested quickly is beneficial to our brain.

This means that humans became the great thinkers they are today by cooking and eating MEAT. Which means, if we had never eaten other animals, we probably wouldn't have the time nor mental capacity to protest moral wrongs like...eating animals?

Hah, try hitting a vegetarian with that paradox.

Warning: Eating a moderate amount of meat keeps your brain functioning at top capacity. Eating huge amounts of meat will not actually make you smarter and only runs the risk of making you look like THIS GUY --->

Fox News, the Best Talk Radio Ever

2010-08-05T00:42:00.004-04:00

I was shocked to read today that FOX News has been awarded a front-row seat in the White House briefing room. Why is this so surprising?

It was only last year that this same administration tried to BAN Fox completely from doing interviews with White House staff. Back then, the administration said Fox was not real news and compared them to talk radio.

Now, the White House is rewarding Fox for its "length of service and commitment." Commitment to what? To being a really great talk radio program?

California: Killing the Environment to Save Jobs

2010-06-29T13:45:00.008-04:00

Californians, get ready to vote this November! Your ballots will now include the California Jobs Initiative. With unemployment rates at a frightening 12%, who wouldn't vote for such a heroically named law?

Now, while this law may not directly create any jobs, it does do the important duty of repealing global warming law AB32, which caused "higher utility rates and fuel prices," and paid subsidies to over 300 renewable energy companies. Lowering prices on fossil fuels and killing off that unproductive upstart industry of clean energy is clearly the best way to deal with an economic crisis. That must be why the guardians of public good, oil companies, covered 78% of the $3 million it took to get this law on the ballot.

Yes, the oil companies are going to protect YOU from that pesky environmental law that's making energy "so expensive." I mean, California oil companies can't help that oil comes with all these extra costs, like cleaning up the COSCO Busan spill in 2007 or the billion dollar BP mess of today. We just need to remove taxes on oil for a little while to let everyone get back on their feet! The California Jobs Initiative won't remove environmental standards forever, just until the state's unemployment rate drops below 5.5% for a full year. Sure that would require some of the lowest unemployment rates in California history, but with big oil protecting your jobs I'm sure we can all expect a new golden age to hit the state soon.

Mastectomy Fever Sweeps Iran

2010-06-24T01:13:00.008-04:00

Fashion update: Breasts are officially an undesirable feature in Iran!

The Vice Police ordered the chop-chop for these mannequins while cracking down on "Un-Islamic" practices in Tehran.

In America I get annoyed just looking at super curvy plastic buttocks in the store window. Obnoxious and over the top for sure, but at least it's a cheerful image. Meanwhile, these dolls are frowning and shutting their eyes, more dismal than a dead nun. You can practically hear the sighs of all those plastic ladies wishing they didn't have awkward inhuman stumps showing through the front of their thawb.

How can this possibly attract women to shop at the store? "Oh yes, see how modest these dolls look in our clothes. With a robe like this you would never attract the attention of a man! So even though the ideal of not having womanly assets may be a bit out of your reach, our clothing is the next best thing."

Yep, breasts are totally disgusting. I mean, people might look at you and be reminded that you are a WOMAN! So keep them out of sight until you need them for the only thing they're good for:

feeding newborns, of course!

Geoengineers, the All-Stars of Science

2010-06-13T23:35:00.009-04:00

Have you ever heard of geoengineering? It's a great new science that lets us FIX our climate! Brains from all around the world have been coming together this year to discuss ways we can lower the earth's temperature and keep global warming at bay.

Some of their lovely ideas include:

spraying sulfuric acid into the stratosphere (this creates aerosols which block solar radiation)
creating brighter clouds that produce more rain and block more sunlight
sucking CO2 from the air and storing it where it can never escape--cleverly named Carbon Capture!
shooting reflective disks into space.. at the exciting rate of 1,000,000 a MINUTE for 30 years!

Now, I know some people might worry that such hip and snazzy methods could be a little risky:

"But geoengineers, your sulfur particles that block the sun are the same ones that cause acid rain!"

Not to worry, concerned public: Sulfur aerosols that geoengineers create will be put above rain clouds, not into them! As Austrian physicist Jason Blackstock said, "by putting them higher, they stay up longer because they're above the clouds, which means they aren't raining out as acid rain all the time." And as long as you don't have acid rain ALL THE TIME, everything should be just fine.

Also, that guy who said what goes up must come down? He clearly wasn't at the conference.

Wildlife Holocaust

2010-06-05T14:18:00.010-04:00

Since the disastrous oil spill, BP has been working to keep journalists away from the Gulf Coast. Looking at these pictures, you don't have to wonder why:

These were taken along the Gulf Coast by AP photographer Charles Riede. I can't make any sort of joke about this, so I'll include the words of a commentator who said it best, Karen S :

With photos like this we get a glimpse of the amount of suffering, but what is taking place out of sight is truly a wildlife holocaust. We won’t know the scope of it for years. The Gulf will be a silent ocean for who knows how long, because it’s dying. If BP doesn’t stop the leak soon the health of the North Atlantic will also be at risk.

Unfortunately there are no plans to stop it soon. The leak is still going and BP has said the flow is too strong to plug it. Their new plan is to drill more wells to relieve the pressure and pull away the oil from the leak. These two "relief wells" are due to be completed in August.

So I guess we have two more months of oil-covered corpses coating the shores...how is this an acceptable plan?

Tweet Tweet! You're Busted

2010-06-03T04:17:00.008-04:00

Twitter now allows you to add a location to your tweets. The problem? It auto-tracks your location and inputs straight from your IP address.

So you don't actually have to type in anything, it just broadcasts your city wherever you go, until you turn it off. Sounds really easy-to-use...most likely too easy. Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should. Example 1: Last year's GPS fail, that guy who lost his job by forgetting his GPS was auto-broadcasting.

Example 2: People often tweet from their phones when they are out partying, goofing off and maybe even *gasp* intoxicated! Does this sound like a good time to be letting the world wide web know exactly where you are? Now even a vague message like "Lady Gaga is sooooo good!" can prove to your parents/friend/boyfriend that you weren't home studying, if the location shows you left town. Gosh forbid if they get a more exact tracker that gives your address, because then everyone will know exactly which gay* club you hang out at that plays Lady Gaga.

*I use this term in the most friendly way. Lady Gaga is both gay and quality, as many other things can be.

Beeware of Cellphones

2010-06-02T01:20:00.007-04:00

Researchers in India recently found that cellphones can be pretty bad for bees...

See, bees navigate like little compasses, using magnetite in their body to tell direction. Cellphone radiation ruins their compass! Beehives exposed to radiation lost all ability to produce honey, and hives ran out of food in three months.
i.e. Bees starving!

Queens also stopped laying eggs by 50%. So, less baby bees!

Gosh, this all sounds really tragic. But, is it enough to get people to stop using their cellphones...?

Maybe people need to know that bees are crucial to agriculture and food production. Or maybe, the bees just need a new spokesperson like the girl at right...

If girls in lingerie can't save the bees, who can?

Bailout Apocalypse

2010-02-22T01:51:00.012-05:00

Rolling Stone just published a frighteningly dramatic article that paints bailout-receivers as dirty con artists, and predicts that we're heading towards an even bigger economic crash. It actually uses the phrase "rape the taxpayer."

After seven pages, I hear a very believable story that we never should have bailed out corporate companies; they are spending all the bailouts on their own employees, have not changed the gambling behavior that caused their first crash and are setting themselves up to crash again, because now they know they can just get more money from the government once they crash. (I know that was a long sentence, so you might want to read it again.)

If you think this sounds like doom-and-gloom forecasting you are correct. Reading this article put me in a panic over how the "little man" can possibly stand up to the rich elite that is apparently going to keep taking our money, forever and ever! I thought Rolling Stone was about looking at Rock Stars and feeling cool...when did they switch to worrying about the fate of the free world?

Metro Madness

2010-02-18T12:44:00.015-05:00

The MTA has some 'splaining to do. I lost $4 in a machine the other day and since then I've seen nothing but bad policy on their end. Awful, pirate-worthy policy.

To start, I was refilling my card and the machine looked like everything worked fine, but when I went to use the card it said insufficient fare. Inconvenience #1. I went back to the machine to find a receipt had printed out saying, "Trans: Add Value FAILED / Failure Reason: Unable to return money." I brought this to the teller and they told me the only way to get a refund was to call the MTA.

I called the next morning and was greeted by a recording that stated, "If you are calling to check on a refund, please be aware that our refund processing is backlogged and all refunds will be delayed for an undetermined amount of time." Blatantly curious at this point, I waited 30 min to speak to a phone rep only to be told that the only way to get my $4 back was to mail in the receipt, and my metrocard! He almost hung up without giving me the address even though I had asked twice.

Tired of all this hassle, I decided to read about the EasyPayXpress Metrocard for future use. For this card, you pay $45 and it is automatically refilled before it runs out, so you can avoid the dastardly MTA machines! Sounds great, except the card automatically refills whenever it's balance drops to $20, and a metro ride is only $2 and change. So owning this card, you've basically donated $20 to the MTA that you will never be able to spend until you cancel the card.

If only the MTA didn't have a monopoly on subway service, maybe these subway-robbery methods wouldn't exist. But, I suppose the subway could always be worse..

Alli, Weight Loss via Suffering

2010-02-16T14:19:00.010-05:00

I normally hate watching TV and last night I was reminded why. The worst of consumer culture swarmed the airwaves around 12am in a cacophony of diet commercials. I was surprised to see one for the diet pill Alli because I heard it was removed from the market due to bad side affects, so I Googled it and the results were acutely disturbing:

Alli is still on the market but it causes you to loose weight in a punishing way; if you eat fatty foods your anal sphincter becomes useless. Yes, you will poo your pants and it will be greasy, noisy and possibly explosive. And even if you stick to a diet plan, there is a period of adjustment where you will experience "treatment effects" including

» Gas with an oily anal discharge
» Loose stools or diarrhea
» More-frequent bowel movements
» Hard-to-control bowel movements

I'm not exaggerating, this list is quoted directly from the Alli review at mayoclinic.com . The reason Alli produces such awful effects is that it works by preventing your body from absorbing part of the fat you consume, so that fat just zooms through your body as oily sludge instead. The less calories from fat you consume, the less painful your "treatment effects" will be.

And how much weight can you expect to lose while on Alli? It only works when combined with a restricted diet and exercise plan, and the website says it will not cause any weight loss on its own, merely increase the effectiveness of your diet plan by 50%. So if your own, non-diaper demanding diet plan would net you 10 pounds lost, Alli will make that 15.

How could this possibly be worth it?

Cell-ebrity Author makes $600k at 15 yrs

2010-02-10T03:40:00.008-05:00

And my teachers used to say, "Texting on your phone is a waste of time!"

Maybe they should have encouraged us to text more in class! Then I too, could have become famous, and published a SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLAR ($600,000) novel; like this Tokyo teenager so famous she is now known only as "Bunny." Being a one-named celebrity now puts her right up there with Madonna and ...Madonna?

1st Amendment Fails in Indiana

2009-11-14T15:51:00.011-05:00

After a notable history of book burning, Indiana is making waves with internet censorship. Last month the Indianapolis Public School System added two new categories to it's Inappropriate Content List; "Alternative Spirituality/Belief" and "Alternative Sexuality/Lifestyles." This means that school computers will now block all sites containing information on dangerous topics such as atheistic views, Witchcraft, voodoo rituals, "any other form of mysticism", LGBT information, fetishes and paranormal events.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is launching a campaign to protest this policy, claiming promotes it religion over nonreligion, which violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The FFRF Staff Attorney Rebecca Kratz also wrote that this policy discriminates against the 15% of the population that is nonreligious (the fastest growing segment of the American population), and limits student's capacity to expand their knowledge and acceptance of all individuals and beliefs."

Of course this policy limits student's capacity to expand their knowledge and acceptance, but only on INAPPROPRIATE topics; that's the whole idea...If atheists really are the fasting growing segment of our population, then what better way to reverse that trend than making sure children can only read about the mainstream religions?

Note: this post may be unavailable in the state of Indiana.

United Nations Saves Cellphones

2009-11-04T22:43:00.005-05:00

Did you know the U.N. had meetings about cellphones? I didn't. Last month in Geneva, Switzerland, the UN telecoms agency passed a law that will make all cellphone chargers universal by 2012.

This policy is international and aims to cut down on global waste (and production) of cell phone chargers. With every type of phone using the same charger, no one will need a new charger when they switch phones. You will also be able to use a friend's charger, or a charger at work if you don't have yours in a pinch!

the Future of Afghanistan under President Hamid Karzai

2009-11-02T14:59:00.011-05:00

You may have heard that Afghanistan canceled their upcoming election, granting the Presidency to the remaining candidate Hamid Karzai. Even without an election, the US has backed his new term.

Becoming President without an election seems bad enough, yes? BUT did you know the "new" President also supports stripping women of their human rights? Last August his office passed a law known as the "marital rape" law. It allows husbands to starve their wives if they refuse sex. It also requires a wife to get her husband's permission before taking any jobs and makes it impossible for a woman to have custody of her own children.

How did a law like this ever pass? Well, apparently the public did protest the original version heavily. That version removed a women's ability to consent to sex in marriage and simply stated that she MUST have sex with her husband every 4 days.

I guess the Afghan public now feels lucky the law was toned down. Just like they feel lucky that their President supports drug traffickers, standing armies of warlords, and bringing some of "the wonderful people in the Taliban" back into government.

H1N1 Vaccine May be the Greater Evil

2009-10-27T19:27:00.009-04:00

Swine Flu is still non-lethal; meaning treatable and "not life-threatening in most cases." It's important to remember this when we look at past outbreaks, like the one I mentioned where the vaccine was more lethal than the actual disease.

Oh wait, did I say past events? I meant past and present:

Meet Desiree Jennings, a former Washington Redskins cheerleader who can NO LONGER WALK after receiving this year's flu shot:

Yes, Desiree's reaction only applies to 1/1,000,000 people. But with over 300 million people in the US, it's likely she won't be the only one who was better off getting the Flu. I'm very sorry to everyone who has suffered from illness, but if you have a healthy immune system, please think twice before getting vaccinated.

the Real Census Comes in 2010

2009-10-27T03:08:00.011-04:00

Republicans: they care about their voters so much, they're willing to trick you to hear your opinion!

Yes, the image you see to your right is an actual (minus the red edits) mailing sent out by the Republican National Committee. Don't worry, they won't send you this "census" unless you are a registered and declared Republican voter...or a Democrat Party Chair in Virgina, whose wife recently found this in the mail and posted it online for all to see.

The Democrats are probably hoping that by spreading this around, they can make the RNC look bad. But, the same people who won't read the fine print on those "census" forms probably won't read this news article, either.

Maine: Put Your Money Where Your Marriage Is

2009-10-26T21:08:00.009-04:00

Maine is currently battling Prop 1, which would overturn their new law permitting gay marriage. Two groups are up against each other in this fight;
Protect Maine Equality (Vote No on 1)
and
Stand for Marriage Maine (Vote Yes on 1)

The anti-gay-marriage Stand for Marriage Maine is very behind on $ raised, with only $2.5 million for their opponent's $4 million. So it's understandable, that they would criticize their opponents, saying that the pro-gay-marriage group has unfairly raised more than half their funds from out-of-state contributions.

EXCEPT that if we look at Stand for Marriage's stats, they've actually raised 70% of their funds from out of state! This means while out-of-state, the pro-gay-marriage group has just slightly more support, in-state they have over THREE TIMES the financial support of their "Stand for Marriage" opponents. This study goes on to mention that the average contribution of Protect Maine Equality is only about $400, while Stand for Marriage Maine's average supporter gives almost $4,000.

So what we have here is; a small number of wealthy donors attempting to take away the right to marry from Maine citizens, and mostof these donors are from outside the state! Something seems inherently broken about this equation..

PA Saves Education, Creates Casinos

2009-10-19T23:57:00.007-04:00

Earlier this month, Pennsylvania almost closed its State libraries due to a broken state budget. The state had been running for months without a budget, and the legislators still couldn't agree on one that would balance for the next two years. There were too many expenses and not enough funding! No one wanted to accept cuts for schools or social services, but no one wanted to raise taxes either. :-/ Meanwhile, programs in PreK education, drug and alcohol counseling, domestic-violence shelters, and food pantries continued to suffer the immediate lack of funding-- laying off staff, reducing hours, cutting services, or simply closing altogether.

Luckily, Governor Ed Rendell had a great idea. Legalize gambling! If this bill goes through, it will create an extra $730 million in yearly funds, most of which will go to the state's universities.

Dark Side of the Tweet

2009-10-18T23:44:00.001-04:00

Remember when Twitter was used to aid the Green Revolution in Iran? Most people thought helping those protectors assemble was a good thing.

Well, that time is past. Welcome to the flipside.

Elliot Madison, a self-proclaimed Anarchist, was using Twitter to broadcast police locations during the recent G-20 Summit. And while investigating the government and sharing information about it would seem to be protected in America, Elliot and his accomplice have been charged with criminal use of communication facility.

Apparently, the growing utility of Twitter has pushed the First Amendment up against a wall. Who would have thought there are some things it's illegal to tweet about?

Obama's Nobel Intentions

2009-10-16T23:21:00.005-04:00

Nobel Peace judges surprised everyone when they awarded this year's prize to fledging President Barack Obama. The only two other US Presidents to receive the prize were Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt, and it took them more than one year of office to win the award.

The judges say their decision was unanimous, and that Obama clearly deserves the prize, as he has "contributed the most to peace in the world in the preceding year." They cited his accomplishments as closing down Guantanamo Bay, negotiating with Iran and North Korea, defending America at the G20 Summit, and dismantling nuclear arms in America and Russia.

Supposedly, other world leaders support Obama's award, and the critics mainly include the American media and rival politicians. This makes me wonder, who is running our media? If other countries are congratulating our President, why can't we do the same?

Maybe its more profitable to print critical news in place of celebratory news. Or maybe, America has a hard time congratulating their leader when so many of us are jobless, homeless and watching health care reform get further and further away. If our leader is so talented, maybe he should turn a little more of that talent towards domestic issues!

Swine Flu Kills [Sanity]

2009-10-03T20:38:00.012-04:00

With the approach of cold weather, more businesses are posting signs about personal hygiene in the face of Swine Flu. You may have become accustomed to seeing signs telling you how to wash your hands and the proper way to sneeze. But if you don't appreciate being treated like a five-year old, this post is for Y O U. The sign at right is a perfect example of the useless propaganda that's spreading (like a virus, haha!) as flu season approaches. Schoolchildren washing their hands every hour, facemasks in public, classes being canceled and offices closing down; you can now mock each and every one of these events with the proper information.

1. Hand washing does NOT stop spread of the swine flu. You are much more likely to get it from someone sneezing; the virus actually becomes inactive once it hits your skin! (source)

2. Swine Flu is NOT deadly, the regular flu is actually SIXTY TIMES more likely to kill you. Being afraid of Swine Flu today is like climbing into an active volcano and worrying you'll die from a lightning strike. (source)

3. You probably ALREADY breathed in Swine Flu, and didn't even know it. Swine Flu has been in the United States since last spring, and has managed to spread around to most states since then. You can track weekly reports of flu prevalence at the CDC Website here.

4. If you are still scared, there are now vaccines available for the Swine Flu. However, the vaccines may actually be MORE dangerous than Swine Flu itself. The US already had a Swine Flu Panic in 1976, and while an unfortunate single soldier died from that flu outbreak, many times more people died after receiving the vaccine and contracting Guillain-Barré syndrome. Guillain-Barré syndrome is a paralyzing neuromuscular disorder, a rare side-effect of modern influenza vaccines. It only affects 1/1,000,000 vaccine receivers, but compared to the single US casualty of the Swine Flu in 1976, the vaccine killed more people than the disease itself.

So, what can you do in the face of Swine Flu? I'd recommend something like the green bio-mask at right. Sure, it's ridiculous to think that putting plants on your face will protect you from getting the flu. But at least you'll get noticed, and it's no more ridiculous than any of the other public responses to Swine Flu.

Fernweher Oogles Germany

2009-09-29T02:20:00.022-04:00

Germany is going green in a big way. They've now created a lovely logo to promote meat and milk that are farmed without Genetic Engineering at any level. This means no genetic altering of the cattle OR their feed.

I remember in college at the US debating the safety of "Frankenfruit" just for people. But Germans are so concerned about genetic engineering that 78% of them saw a reason why a label even two levels up the food chain makes sense.

Germany is different in a lot of ways from the US. Here, a political scandal means some Senator's mistress has been discovered. But in Germany, Steini Girl is causing a political scandal simply by professing her love for the new chancellor candidate Frank-Walter Steinmeier in a viral video. It's similar to the Obama Girl videos that came out in the US last year before the presidential election. Except that in Germany, Steini girl is causing a lot of controversy with comments like, "Come under the blanket, my little toy boy." She also refers to Steini as, "the pimp," which is causing the office of Steinmeier to deny all connection and refuse to even comment on the vid.

Ridiculous? Maybe. But Steini Girl is not just some dancing bimbo, she's a 22-year old law student. Steini Girl is a political scandal that has actual political content, unlike the personal mishaps that typically fill up newspapers in the United States. Steinmeier runs on the Socialist Democrat platform, and critics claim that Steini Girl is sexist and could hurt her "pimp's" image.

Bacon Flavor: for Adults Only

2009-09-19T20:58:00.004-04:00

You might have heard how America has an obesity epidemic, and how restaurants adding bacon to everything is only one of the ways the problem is getting worse. Apparently even bacon-flavor is dangerous now, as schools ban junk food like bacon-flavored potato chips.

Tsk tsk, children. You can't eat bacon-flavored junk food instead of your healthy lunch! You'll have to wait until you're 21, and then you can indulge in hedonistic delicacies like this bacon-flavored Vodka.

Melodrama in USA Today

2009-09-13T18:51:00.009-04:00

This Huffington post complains about Alaskan Personnel officials acting badly at a recent ethics hearing. It blames Sarah Palin for leaving a permanent stain on the moral fiber of Alaskan politics; causing legislators to resort to melodrama like making personal attacks, threats, and vulgar language on the House floor.

Now, there's no way that the legislators' atrocious lack of manners is Sarah Palin's fault. She hasn't been seen in Alaska at all since she retired, and she's clearly spent her free time learning how to use Facebook and Twitter, where her post about death panels attracted more followers than any other politician besides Barack Obama.

No, melodramatic conduct is not limited to Alaska alone. Professionalism and manners seem to be unraveling all over American society. Just look at Serena Williams in her last match, where she used so much profanity against a judge that CBS had to bleep out her speech in their broadcast. Serena also apparently gestured with her racket and threatened the judge for causing her to lose a point.

What's next? It seems America is quickly becoming the land of the wild!

Death of the Anonymous

2009-09-02T16:41:00.005-04:00

Courts are deciding you don't have the right to remain anonymous online. In a recent New York case, one blogger was outed by Google after calling a model a "skank" and "ho." The blogger is now suing Google for $15 million.

Blogger...Google, yes that's right, it involved this website; blogger.com! And I thought Google was on the side of the free man. It's scary to think what Google could do with all it's stored information if they are on the side of the law.

Lutherans Allow Gay Pastors

2009-08-21T19:56:00.007-04:00

Today, I found that the Lutherans have formally allowed openly gay clergy. They suspect that it will "prompt individual congregations to split off from the denomination," but they don't seem to mind. I wouldn't mind either--if a congregation splits off now there's no questioning their prejudice.

For the few that break off anyway, I bet the rest of the Church will not be sad to see them go.

Conservative Advocate Supports Gay Marriage

2009-08-20T17:35:00.005-04:00

That's right, Theodore B. Olson, the man who secured Bush's first term by urging Florida to stop recounting their votes, is now fighting Proposition 8 and pushing the Supreme Court to legalize gay marriage nation-wide. He has no gay relatives, he claims but is pushing for marriage equality because it "could involve the rights and happiness and equal treatment of millions of people." Mr. Olson now has colleges who wan't speak to him about the issue, and he receives regular hate mail. Even his own mother is worried he will lose the support of conservative voters due to his work on gay marriage. However, Mr.Olson is not daunted. He argues that "You have to make peace with this because it is sure to happen, and you will see it in your lifetime."

Those aren't just words--Mr. Olson is a heavy-weight lawyer who has won 44 out of 55 Supreme Court battles, so we'd better keep tabs on this guy!

Is Marriage a Federal or State Issue?

2009-08-17T20:24:00.007-04:00

Recently, the Obama administration said that the Defense of Marriage Act (1996) is unfair. It's startling to look at just how this "conservative" law affects state rights over the definition of marriage.

Most people know that the DOMA limits the federal definition of marriage to "a legal union exclusively between one man and one woman." What this does is allow the government to deny any benefits of marriage to gay couples, even if they are married by their state. So even in states that decide to allow gay marriage, their gay couples cannot claim social security benefits of their spouse, file joint taxes, ect.

It seems a huge conflict that states can be allowed to selectively perform and recognize marriage (as if it were a state right) but then the federal government can turn a blind eye to some of those marriages created by the states. The DOMA effectively makes the federal government the final authority when it comes to marriage. You know something is wrong when a conservative law actually increases federal power.

It will be very interesting to see what Obama does next about DOMA. Although he has a lot of liberal supporters, Obama usually backs down on issues that would lose him a majority of popular support. Gay marriage and anything attached to it are one of the touchiest subjects in America. With Obama's approval ratings sinking towards 50%, what can he do here to maintain popular support? To remove all federal restrictions on marriage and allow each state full authority on the issue would be the truly conservative way of dealing with it.

Emo Music Tragedy

2009-08-09T01:06:00.006-04:00

This is why you shouldn't listen to emo music:

Comment on Burn This City Down Lyrics

Tears | Reviewer: Amber | 12/8/2007

I use to love this song. Now when I hear it, all it does is bring back painful memories of my dead boyfriend.... He jumped of a bridge cause we got in a fight.... I LOVE YOU DEVIN! I'M SO SORRY!

Maxine Waters & Other Crazy Socialists

2009-08-06T19:03:00.012-04:00

Watch this ridiculous 70-year old California Democrat stumble over the word "socialize" as she threatens an oil executive:

Maxine Waters is basically a liberal version of George W. Bush: cringe-worthy speaking skills and constantly pushing extreme goals that embarrass most of her party. Known as one of the "most liberal members" of Congress, the media loves to mock her every bit as much as they did Sarah Palin and our late President Bush.

Maybe Waters's claim to fame is just that she's a member of most traditionally disenfranchised groups in the US; black, female, and elderly. Maybe we shouldn't be surprised that her supporters have even more extreme views on big issues like healthcare;

"They [Blue Dog Democrats] should be more concerned about people who are dying than about their basic philosophy, which involves simply money. Which is more important, money or live human beings with flesh and blood running through their veins, who cannot get health care?"
---Hank Johnson (D-Ga.)

Wow, saving lives instead of saving money? That sounds more like bleeding-heart liberalism than scary socialism. But wait, could those two extremes actually be related?

Texas Rewrites History

2009-08-04T18:41:00.011-04:00

Would you like all the value of sending your kids to Sunday school, without having to pay any tuition? Then you may be interested in moving to Texas, the first state to consider making Christian values a priority in public schools.

The Texas Board of Education appointed six experts to review the state's social studies curriculum. My favorite is Reverend Peter Marshall, an evangelical minister who preaches that Watergate, the Vietnam War and Hurricane Katrina were God's judgments on the nation's sexual immorality. The other reviewers are not as exciting, only half of them identify as conservative. Their goals include a desire to "emphasize the roles of the Bible, the Christian faith and the civic virtue of religion in the study of American history." These 3 members say the new curriculum "should clearly present Christianity as an overall force for good -- and a key reason for American exceptionalism, the notion that the country stands above and apart."

Will these changes actually take place? Well, it's still early in the process. The above recommendations will go to Texas teachers who are meeting this summer to write new standards. They can accept, modify, or reject any suggestions from the expert panel. Whatever the teachers deem best will be sent to the Texas Board of Ed, the only group who can actually revise the standards. Bur for those of you unable to afford Catholic school, there's still hope. The 15-member Board of Ed is known as a conservative-dominated body.

Baby Chickens

2009-07-31T16:33:00.006-04:00

If current events are stressing you out, this magical video from Grillmaster33 will make you feel better. I know it worked for me, I've watched it twice this week:

Like Grillmaster33 says, I recommend this video to "anybody...no, everybody! Cause it was that amazing. Unless you're like, the proud parent of like, a human baby."

:)

Sued Over a Tweet

2009-07-29T14:46:00.003-04:00

Last month I wrote about someone who lost their job due to poor use of GPS. Now, a woman is being sued over her tweet, which criticized Horizon and the mold in her apartment. The offensive part of the tweet read as follows; "Who said sleeping in a moldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon really thinks it's ok."

This is the first lawsuit based solely on a tweet. A lot of people consider Twitter more of a public forum then a publishing method, and public chatter is usually not grounds for defamation lawsuits. But Twitter is still a developing service, and a lot of Tweeters are still not sure what it is. Because it's multifunctional, and so easy to use, it has continued to be loosely defined since it's creation. But in this age of lawsuits, Twitter may end up being defined by an outside source.

Japanese Career Opportunity

2009-07-28T15:05:00.003-04:00

The NYTimes just published an article on the glamorous life of hostesses in Japan. In this career, women can "earn money just by drinking with men" and make anywhere from $100,000 a year to $300,000. A hostess would work at a Gentleman's club, where her main responsibilities are pouring drinks, offering attentive conversation, looking elegant in an evening gown, and flirting in a nonsexual manner. Hostesses at each club are ranked according to popularity, and the top hostess at each location is awarded star status. But, it's not all glory. The main risk is "exhaustion from a life of partying."

So, on one hand we have an easy and fun way to strike it rich, open to any attractive young woman in Japan. On the other, we have a society where a woman's attention has now become a publicly accepted commodity.

Sarah Palin, Saving Alaska Money

2009-07-21T23:54:00.008-04:00

Sarah Palin has already stated that she would hate to watch "valuable state time and money, millions of your dollars, go down the drain." (Resignation Speech, 1:22) So it only makes sense that she chose to pay her legal fees with private support through the Alaska Fund Trust. Alaska is actually lucky that Palin established this trust as the state legal defense fund. With all the ethical complaints filed against her, it would cost Alaska a lot of money to pay Palin's legal fees on their own. The thrifty governor states that despite her best efforts, she still owes more than $500,000 from all those peksy ethical grievances. And now, the State Personnel Board wants to slap another ethics charge against the governor for trying to save the state money!

Gosh, Alaska sounds like a pretty mean state to work for. No wonder Sarah Palin decided to resign.

United States of China

2009-07-21T22:04:00.009-04:00

Apparently, it's not enough for China to own American companies like Hummer, or all the world's natural resources. Now China wants to own the American media too. Yes, China has begun buying and promoting English media to be published in our lovely USA.

Why would they do such a thing, you ask? Well, China already controls it's own media to the letter. And with all the US Treasury bonds they've been buying up, we might as well be called the United States of China. In our time of economic troubles, we are a great market for cheap Chinese products. So what if Chinese drywall releases sulfuric acid, or their toys are coated in lead paint? If these facts are hard to discover, all most Americans will see is a much lower price tag on Chinese goods.

Does this all seem a little farfetched? I too, had no idea China was investing in Western media, until I was reading the Onion today and noticed that every article had a decidedly foreign slant. Of course it's all a big joke to them, but when I start finding out about global events from a satirical paper, I have to wonder what the rest of the media is really focusing on.

German Internet Safe from Child Porn

2009-07-13T17:16:00.006-04:00

Germany has successfully censored its internet~! The German Bundestag law passed on July 10th, intended to block child pornography, but politicians are already considering expanding it to include hate sites and violent video games. Internet Service providers in the country are now preparing to "create filters based on a secret list that is provided by the German Federal Criminal Office."

When a German tries to access one of these blocked sites, they will instead see only a STOP sign on the screen.

Glückwünsche, Germany. You could have fought child porn at the source, but this law quickly and totally protects your entire public from seeing offensive content instead. After all, who cares if people are really making child porn, so long as you don't have to look at it? Furthermore, Germany has now joined the other fine countries who censor their internet; including China, Iran and North Korea.

Shrinking Sheep

2009-07-03T21:16:00.011-04:00

Climate change is now causing sheep to shrink, say scientists in Scotland. With shorter winters and more grass available in cold months, the winter isn't killing off small animals as fast as it used to.

The article doesn't say if shrinking sheep are a bad or good thing. But it does say it's possible that, "in 100 years, we will have chihuahuas herding pocket-sized sheep." And you know what that sounds like to me?

AWESOME.

Global Warming Flu

2009-06-30T02:12:00.007-04:00

Here's another reason to be afraid of global warming: ancient bacteria will be revived when ice caps melt... leading to a new disease?

It's true; according to scientists at Pennsylvania University, "ancient bacteria and viruses will come back to life as ice melts due to global warming." But don't worry, because "the process has been going on for billions of years and the bugs are unlikely to cause human disease."

...

Now I don't know about you, you can tell me not to worry about an ancient disease coming back to life, but that still doesn't sound like a good thing to me.

Frodo in Iran

2009-06-26T21:35:00.005-04:00

Iran is now showing it's people a Lord of the Rings Marathon to keep them inside, hopefully too distracted to protest in the street. Normally they only show one or two Hollywood movies a week, but the state television station has made an exception here to pacify the people. I always thought it was the American media that was champion at entertaining while manipulating, but now it seems we have some serious competition.

Still, you think Iran would have chosen a movie that doesn't revolve around a small paragon of good fighting against an evil empire?

Dangers of MMORPG

2009-06-25T02:51:00.003-04:00

Ever played an online game? Consider yourself lucky to have escaped with your life, and more importantly, your anal virginity. Watch this kid get so angry when his parents close down his World of Warcraft account that he tries to fuck himself with a remote control.

French Fashion vs. the Burka

2009-06-22T15:45:00.002-04:00

France is considering banning the Burka in public. French president Nicolas Sarkozy says, "[The burka] is not the idea that the French republic has of women's dignity... It will not be welcome on the territory of the French republic." It only makes sense that France, as a leader of global fashion, would be considering laws to make sure all its women dress in ways representative of the state ideals.

And so, while we're making law on how women should dress, I have a few other suggestions for France:

* ban Crocs
* ban Uggs
* ban socks with sandals
* ban panty lines
* ban orange fake tans
* ban muffin tops

Use GPS Wisely

2009-06-19T16:02:00.001-04:00

I always thought this XKCD comic about irresponsible use of GPS was hilarious. People going everywhere with their cellphones, unaware what the technology is really capable of:

But today I read about someone who lost their job due to GPS. Sure, they were also falsifying work hours, but they didn't realize that their government-given cellphone was keeping tabs on where they were while they said they were working. I wonder if this guy was at a sex shop, too?

An Office for Unborn Children

2009-06-18T17:30:00.004-04:00

Today, I am writing to thank Senators Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) for jumping to protect our children, even before they are born!! Together, they are working to pass policy that will guarantee healthcare to unborn children, and create an Office of Unborn Children’s Health, to stand up for the rights of unborn children everywhere. As Senator Hatch says, " America itself is built on the foundation of unalienable rights which we receive from God. Government exists to secure those rights." Yes, aren't we lucky in America, to have a government there to promote God's will!

You'd think that giving healthcare to the mother would be just as important, that we could have an Office of Mother's Health too, and someone to stand up for what the mothers need in all of this. But wait...who does God love more, adult women, or unborn babies? Why, there's nothing more pure and free of sin than an unborn baby, while the mothers are just women who got pregnant, and so...I guess we can see why this policy is a good idea.

Killer Insects

2009-06-18T02:25:00.000-04:00

Reading the news today, I hear that the Pentagon is creating cyborg insects to sniff out chemical weapons and WMDs. Insect populations are already fast-evolving, reproduce in incredible numbers and are very hard to exterminate. Seems like it's only a matter of time before this project dooms us all.