Unsought Input

November 8th was a monumental event and big changes came to America especially for minority groups. One glaring exception was gay people who were shocked to see state amendments against gay marriage pass in three states most surprisingly liberal California.

California was shocking because recently the state supreme court okayed gay marriage but now that decision is in question. It wasn’t as if the pro-equality side didn’t have enough money to run a campaign. They raised almost twice as much as their opposition. Polling suggested that people were favoring the pro-equality side but when the time came to vote it was apparent that many people were not honest with how they really felt about the issue.

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Apparently John McCain has switched sides and now is against his supporters. Actually he makes a huge gaffe and the recovery he attempts afterwards is painful to watch. Listen to how silent the crowd goes after he says he agrees with Obama and his supporters. It is made all the more worse by how confident McCain looks before he screws up the line.

Here is the clip of Murtha that McCain was attempting to respond to.

Before we answer that question, take a look at the video below. This is Jon Stewart interviewing Chris Matthews about his new book, Life’s a Campaign: What Politics Has Taught Me About Friendship, Rivalry, Reputation, and Success:

This is very different from most interviews with authors touring news and talk shows in support of their new book. The most obvious difference is that Stewart has a strong opinion and actually takes Matthews to task for what in the book. Most interviews consist of fluffy questions like, “so what inspired you to write this book” followed by 60 seconds of uninterrupted marketing while the interviewer casts loving gazes the author’s way.The most shocking thing for me, though, is that Stewart has actually read Matthews’ book and come up with his own, very informed, opinion about it. It sounds disgusting, but I don’t think I’ve gotten this impressions from any “real news” shows in the past.Take a look at The Daily Show interview with Alan Greenspan:

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Senator Larry Craig from Idaho, who had plead guilty to disorderly conduct for coming on to a male police officer in an airport bathroom, says the whole thing is a huge misunderstanding.  In fact, he went on national TV to proclaim (again and again) “I am not gay!”

I don’t know if he’s gay, but the musical he’s been cast in is fabulous:

Did you know that all over the country, nay the world, people are being persecuted for their belief and intelligence? Did you know that a small, powerful elite controls everything that children are exposed to in school for their own devious, Darwinistic ends? Did you know that only a complete outsider, a rebel with nothing but guts and a heart of steel, can expose the truth?

You might not know these things because none of them are true. But the makers of the movie “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed” and star Ben Stein will try to shovel that particular pile of poop in theaters this February. Thanks to Pharyngula, an excellent blog by an actual scientist, for the tip.

From the movie’s home page:

Ben realizes that he has been “Expelled,” and that educators and scientists are being ridiculed, denied tenure and even fired – for the “crime” of merely believing that there might be evidence of “design” in nature, and that perhaps life is not just the result of accidental, random chance.

The movie Expelled, in a sense, is nothing new. It follows the established tactics of the creationist / intelligent design crowd, trying to fight the “materialistic” “darwinists” in the court of public opinion rather than in the labs or peer-reviewed journals. It’s yet another attack on science.

“And what’s so wrong with that,” you might ask, “this is a democracy after all.”

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Borders Stores in the UK are removing the Tintin Graphic Novel “Tintin in the Congo” after a customer complained the book was racist. The book does contain racist depictions of Africans as subhuman savages who come to worship Tintin and his dog Snowy as gods. The book as been widely referred to as racist and has not been available in an unedited version until 2005, which featured a disclaimer explaining about the colonial period in which it took place. The customer was not fully happy with Borders decision and wanted the book removed from the store like other racist material.

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Many years ago, I got a bachelor’s degree in journalism. After considering a few $20,000 per year job offers, I decided to work in web development instead. For a few years, I would read the paper or check out the news and wish I was writing instead of coding.

Not so much any more. I don’t think I could put up with the crap. Much like Mika Brzezinski from MSNBC, who just couldn’t stomach reporting about Paris Hilton any more:

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Lately people have been talking about Israel a lot what with the current war on terror and all, and not all of it has been positive. There are a lot of misconceptions about Israel and most people do not know its facts and history. In this article I hope to clear that up.

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As a lefty liberal, I like Michael Moore. As a journalist (I have more creds than just a blog, I swear), not so much. Lucky for me he’s making movies for the masses and not writing for The Washington Post. Otherwise, he’d have been shut down years ago. Instead, we can enjoy his films for what they are - films that while maybe not full of “truthiness” will make people talk and think.

As Moore state in the film, SiCKO is not actually about people who don’t have health care in America. It’s more about people who DO have health insurance and get screwed by it. People who pay the premiums and deductibles and still get denied care. In America, we like to get what we pay for, but when it comes to insurance it doesn’t seem to work that way.

He tells the stories of an older couple who have gone bankrupt paying for medical treatment for heart attacks and cancer, even though they have good jobs with good insurance. The middle-aged woman who’s brain tumor was considered not a medical emergency and died. The young woman who’s surgery was paid for by her insurance and then payment was revoked when it was revealed that she had not disclosed a previous yeast infection when applying for insurance.

Moore reports in the movie that he received over 2500 emails from people with stories about the horrors of health insurance - many of them from people who work in the insurance industry. The most stand-out story was that of Linda Peno, a former medical reviewer (the person in charge of deciding who gets what care) for the Humana HMO. Ms. Peno stated in a congressional review:

I wish to begin by making a public confession. In the spring of 1987, I caused the death of a man. Although this was known to many people, I have not been taken before any court of law or called to account for this in any professional or public forum. In fact, just the opposite occurred. I was rewarded for this. It brought me an improved reputation in my job and contributed to my advancement afterwards. Not only did I demonstrate that I could do what was asked, expected of me, I exemplified the good company employee. I saved a half a million dollars.

It may be no secret that insurance companies are for-profit businesses and saving money is their game. After all, we’re a capitalist society. But is this the right way to go? Moore points out our socialized fire and police protection. Our free schools. Free libraries. Why not free, government-controlled health care? (more…)

What do we have against the metric system? Can anyone tell me why the good old US of A hates the metric system so much that it stands practically against the world in it’s single minded “We’re Number One” mantra? We stand alone with Myanmar (Burma) and Liberia. This doesn’t bode well in the US’s current stance in about any world wide political situation. I mean, when an argument could be won by almost any country by saying something school-ground childish around the lines of “well, we use the metric system, what do you use?” I think it becomes time to reconsider your standing point on the issue.

Most people (except Americans, Liberians and Burmese) would agree that the metric system is much more useful and makes a lot more sense than a system that relies on body parts (length measurements such as feet and yards) and old fashioned carrying devices (peck, quart, pint). If you don’t believe me that we stand alone in this war against reason, here is a pretty picture in which the red countries are the countries who do not use the metric system. Bottom line is, the metric system makes more sense, period.

I’ll say it: Barack Obama is a liar.

Surprised? Secretly happy? Are you shocked, and demand to hear some evidence?

Well, Stephen Colbert has the evidence, and it turns out to be pretty flimsy:

Obama recalled reading an article when he was nine years old, and it turns out it wasn’t in Life magazine, as he thought, but in Esquire. But it doesn’t matter. As Al Gore found out in 2000 and John Kerry found out in 2004, complex positions on issues and factual reality is trumped by attack labeling. By “attack labels,” I mean those wonderful soundbites, usually just a few words and never more than a sentence, that are used to turn a politician into a caricature. It’s similar to the doublespeak that has given us wonderful phrases such as the “death tax” and “we cannot wait for the final proof — the smoking gun — that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.”

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The saga of the great Stripper debate continues. The bill is currently under review by the house due to several questions of constitutional legality and whether or not the language of the document actually makes sense or is just plain ridiculous. There is also question about the CCV and whether or not they told the truth about similar legislation in other states and legality of the bill. Recently on their site to bolster their failing support they published a poll that they had done saying how the majority of Ohioans support the bill. Of course if you look closer you will notice several fishy things about this poll, and realize that it is just another attempt by the CCV to propagate their own cause that the majority of the public does not support.

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