Fucking Morons
mikethemadbiologist | March 21, 2011Rightwing wackaloon and Minnesota Congresswoman and possible presidential candidate Michele Bachmann has been traveling hither and yon in New Hampshire, which, according to Bachmann, is where the 'shot heard round the world' was fired. For those who don't routinely wallow in the depths of the Republican id, one of Bachmann's signature issues is saving the incandescent light bulb. No, really, I'm not kidding:
She conjured a tea bag from a hidden compartment in her blazer and began waggling it at the crowd.
She waggled it while stumping for her Light Bulb Freedom of Choice Act, a bill she…
mikethemadbiologist | March 15, 2011I'm starting to think that Fox News' primary function isn't catapulting conservative propaganda, but Will Rogers-esque comedy:
One name seems out of place on the graphic [of Japan's nuclear power plants] -- that of "Shibuyaeggman."
It doesn't show up on the International Atomic Energy Agency's list of Japanese nuclear power stations, and this map of Japanese nuclear installations from the Department of Energy's International Nuclear Safety Center doesn't have any listing for "Shibuyaeggman," and doesn't show a nuclear power plant anywhere near the location on the Fox News map.
So what is "…
mikethemadbiologist | March 13, 2011Rightwing lunatic and Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who has been exploring a presidential campaign run, was giving a speech in New Hampshire, where she uttered the following (italics mine):
"What I love about New Hampshire and what we have in common is our extreme love for liberty," the potential GOP presidential candidate said. "You're the state where the shot was heard around the world in Lexington and Concord. And you put a marker in the ground and paid with the blood of your ancestors the very first price that had to be paid to make this the most magnificent nation that has…
mikethemadbiologist | March 8, 2011I like constancy. Knowing that, come spring, the forsythia will bloom is a good thing. But I don't like knowing that, when Newsweek columnist Robert Samuelson writes something about Social Security, it will be error-filled and disingenuous. Sadly, this too is a constant. A few years back, Samuelson inspired me to invent the Samuelson Unit, which, like the Friedman unit, is a period of time, X units in the future, at which point something will happen. Like Zeno's Paradox, we never seem to reach that point, which, even given the past couple of years, is still 27 years away*.
Well,…
mikethemadbiologist | February 2, 2011If you haven't heard about Sarah Palin's latest inanity (it's hard to keep current...), she offered an ungrateful nation this utterance:
But after this, for several minutes that we as a nation will never get back, you rambled about a bakery called the "Spudnut Shop," that doesn't want the government telling it how to operate, or something:
Well, the spudnut shop in Richland, Washington -- it's a bakery, it's a little coffee shop that's so successful, 60-some years, generation to generation, a family-owned business not looking for government to bail them out and to make their decisions for…
mikethemadbiologist | January 27, 2011It would be for the best.
First, some general thoughts. I had the distinct sense Obama was trying to run the clock out. He knew he had to say something, but has no room to maneuver. Thanks to his mediocre first two years and his enabling of conservative talking points (which one wonders if that's not strategic, but ideological), the Democrats lost control of the House and have been boxed into a corner rhetorically. Related to that, he set the stage over and over again to box Republicans in, but then he mostly chickened out and rarely offered concrete proposals that would put them in a…
mikethemadbiologist | January 15, 2011From the Great State of Arizona (not to pick on the sane people trapped there):
Then there was Sylvia Allen, a real estate broker from the town of Snowflake, who, in 2008, was appointed by the local Republican Party to finish the term of a respected conservative who had died in office. Allen, who retained her seat in an election that fall, has since gained minor notoriety after calling for more uranium mining, saying in a speech that "this earth has been here 6,000 years, long before anybody had environmental laws, and somehow it hasn't been done away with." She also has complained that trees…
mikethemadbiologist | January 6, 2011Having grown up (or at least physiologically developed) in Virginia, this story about the totally awesome and rigorous history textbooks used in what are the wealthier counties in the state is not at all surprising, though depressing (italics mine):
In the version of history being taught in some Virginia classrooms, New Orleans began the 1800s as a bustling U.S. harbor (instead of as a Spanish colonial one). The Confederacy included 12 states (instead of 11). And the United States entered World War I in 1916 (instead of in 1917)....
Historian Mary Miley Theobald, a former Virginia…
mikethemadbiologist | January 1, 2011The largest political battle, barring something really stupid coming along, in the next few months will be over the attempt to raise the federal debt limit. While it sounds boring, it's critical to every budget item, including science funding. Without increasing the federal debt limit, the U.S. would default on its debt (as well as be unable to pay for all of the allocated federal spending). Keep in mind this federal debt limit is absolutely artificial: since the U.S. has a sovereign and fiat currency, this is a self-imposed constraint. We could set the debt limit to any amount or even…
mikethemadbiologist | November 13, 2010Certain things make me bang my head against the wall. Politically, one of those things is the complete lack of real concern over the employment deficit by our political betters, especially by Democrats. Here's the latest installment of stupidity (italics mine):
To fight the worst recession since the Great Depression, Congress started giving the unemployed additional weeks of federally-funded unemployment benefits in July 2008 on top of the 26 weeks always provided by states. The benefits became more generous in 2009 to the point where in hardest-hit areas, the jobless are eligible for 73…
mikethemadbiologist | October 28, 2010Regarding their op-ed page, The New York Times seems eager to provide misinformation via Thomas Friedman columns. It's a fascinating business model. Besides, being lectured by Tom "Suck on This" Friedman completely blows up the irony meter. His latest inane--and factually incorrect--burbling:
Let's kowtow even more to public service unions so they'll make even more money than private sector workers, so they'll give even more money to Democrats who will give them even more generous pensions, so not only California and New York will go bankrupt but every other state too.
Then, of course,…
mikethemadbiologist | October 8, 2010Just how desperate to find a story--and a controversy--do you have to be to believe this is real:
Anchors at the Fox News national morning news show "Fox and Friends" reported Tuesday that the city of Los Angeles had ordered 10,000 jetpacks for its police and fire departments. The price tag: a whopping $100,000 per unit.
Yes, jet packs. Thousands of them. Maybe that should have set off warning bells. Well, actually it did, but this being Fox News, well... (italics mine):
For those doing the math at home, the cash-strapped city of Los Angeles, which is regularly sending its police…
mikethemadbiologist | October 8, 2010Maybe if the Obama administration and the Blue Dog (corporate) Democrats fought for an economic policy that made the middle-class' lives better, we wouldn't be faced with the looming political failure to deal with environmental problems. From Politico:
Most House Republicans envision killing Nancy Pelosi's special global warming committee if they claw their way back into the majority this November.
Wisconsin Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner wants to keep the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming alive so it can investigate climate science and police President Barack Obama's green…
mikethemadbiologist | October 5, 2010
Seriously. I do. Over at Gin and Tacos, Ed decries the deluge of stupidity in which we are awash:
The real issue, and I mean the real, honest-to-god Problem With The World Today, is that Americans as a nation are dumb. Really fucking dumb. The Pew [religious knowledge] survey, the Tea Party, or the afternoon baseball call-in show on WFAN underscore the point that Americans will fail a quiz about any topic you can throw at them. Americans will make crappy, emotional, illogical arguments about whatever subject holds their interest, from the Supreme Court to the World Cup. We have…
mikethemadbiologist | September 19, 2010Why, yes, I did. And Senator Evan "I'm dumber than a sack of hammers" Bayh illustrates exactly what I'm talking about:
Today, MSNBC's Chuck Todd asked Bayh about the poverty data, and whether there is a disconnect between the real economic pain that people are feeling and lawmakers squabbling over tax rates for the wealthy. Bayh agreed that there is a disconnect, but then concluded that the poverty increase means lawmakers should forget about "fairness and things like that" and cut taxes for the rich:
TODD: Yesterday, the Census came out and said one in seven Americans are living below the…
mikethemadbiologist | September 16, 2010One of the things never discussed by 'framers' is anger. Anger, especially righteous anger, is a powerful motivation, yet progressives and Democratic political operatives seem oblivious to his. Thankfully, we have Lance Mannion to set us straight (italics original; boldface mine):
The Democrats aren't going to lose Congress because the Right Wingers are going to come out to vote. They're going to lose because Democrats are going to stay home.
And this isn't going to happen because the President has been insufficiently attentive to the vanities of liberal bloggers who like to think of…
mikethemadbiologist | August 29, 2010By way of Howie Klein comes this explanation of what makes a successful politician--and what gets in the way:
It goes, "I am not part of the political establishment. I am not a career politician. Trust me, because I am a successful business owner and can run government better."
That's not much of a sales pitch. As much as they proclaim they do not want to be a career politician, that is exactly want they want to be. They are bold faced lairs. If you don't [to] want to be a career politician don't run for office. You are obviously lacking the convictions of your beliefs to fight for what you…
mikethemadbiologist | August 24, 2010Or bigotry. Because union carpenters are the new Muslim. Or something. Here's a refreshing exchange of free speech (italics mine):
...at an anti-Mosque demonstration down in Lower Manhattan, when a black man walking through the crowd was... mistaken for a Muslim by the crowd -- angrily.
The video, shot by amateur YouTube videographer "lefthandedart," opens with chants of "No Mosque Here!" as it traces a black man wearing a white cap walking through the crowd. It's not clear where he's coming from or why the videographer had decided to film him, but the man seems to be trailed by a…
mikethemadbiologist | August 18, 2010'Progressives' are getting all gooey over Obama's stern declaration that he will prevent Republicans from privatizing Social Security.
So why am I being so harsh towards Obama? Because this is a sucker play. Given Obama's track record on most issues so far, it's pretty obvious what will happen next:
1) Obama issues a stern declaration about 'protecting Social Security.' Of course, no one was seriously entertaining that idea on the legislative agenda. Until now. Up to this point, the debate (aka the 'Catfood Commission') has centered over future benefits (e.g., what is the age of…
mikethemadbiologist | August 10, 2010Apparently, the Obama Administration is very upset with the "professional left":
"I hear these people saying he's like George Bush. Those people ought to be drug tested," Gibbs said. "I mean, it's crazy."
Actually, when it comes to the expansion of presidential power, Obama has been worse than Bush. After all, never claimed he had the right to assassinate U.S. citizens at will. Seriously, between that and Obama's muddling on gay rights, Obama is to constitutional scholar as Newt Gingrich is to historian (Or intellectual. Or decent human being).
Moving on:
The press secretary dismissed…