At least one of my votes still makes me happy

Obama has been a disappointment (but still better than the alternative!), but one candidate continues to make me happy: Al Franken. He recently tacked a praiseworthy amendment to a defense bill: there will be no defense contracts to companies that “restrict their employees from taking workplace sexual assault, battery and discrimination cases to court.” I’m rather appalled that such rules exist in some companies, and it’s about time that someone shut that kind of criminal behavior down.

The weird thing, though, is that 30 male Republicans lined up to oppose that bit of legislation. What’s the matter with those cretins? What possible reason would anyone have to defend the right of corporations to protect rapists?

Spotting the black hats among the climate change denialists

Jim Lippard has put up an excellent post identifying the major institutions behind climate change denial. They are almost uniformly conservative and populated with old and unqualified cranks, although Jim is too genteel to put it that way. It’s useful information if you need a scorecard to keep track of the players.

It’s also amusing. Lippard makes this passing mention of a certain notorious crank in a discussion of the denialists with the best academic credentials:

The top-cited scientist, Lubos Motl, has 150 citations for his fourth-most-cited paper, but he’s a theoretical physicist with no publications containing the word “climate.”

Lubos Motl replies!

Commie,

I urge you to instantly remove the libels and lies from this blog, otherwise I will start to work on the legal liquidation of the criminal that you are.

These things may be common among the green trash in which you seem to live but I won’t tolerate it against myself.

Wow. “Legal liquidation.” I’m impressed. Although…did anyone spot any lies or libels against Motl? Does he have 151 citations for that paper, or what?

If you hadn’t realized that Motl is a freakish little sociopath before, that comment may just persuade you.

Prayer works!

Tom Coburn, the odious Republican from Oklahoma, is one of the America-hating pseudopatriots opposing even the lame and neutered health care bill sludgily working its way through the senate, and he recently sent out a call to his teabaggin’* electorate and fellow travelers to pray that “somebody can’t make the vote”, so the Democrats wouldn’t be able to break any filibuster. They responded by prayin’ their little hearts out, and one group even proudly admitted to praying for the death of Democrats.

And it worked! No, nobody died, but someone didn’t make it to the vote.

One catch: the no-show was James Inhofe, the other Republican dimbulb from Oklahoma who opposes health care.

Keep praying! Maybe soon all of the Republicans will go away. Or even better, Holy Joe Lieberman will be ascended into heaven.

*I still snicker over the fact that they actually call themselves that.

Mormon prophecy

It’s a little known disturbing fact that the Mormons have a set of prophecies that foretell that the Mormons will take over the leadership of the US. A candidate for the governor of Idaho has brought this out into the open — he’s having meetings to talk about saving America by having the Mormon leadership intervene.

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I’ve had a few conversations with crazy Mormons who actually take this nonsense very, very seriously. They don’t seem to understand that having the country taken over by a freakish cult with dreams of theocracy would be a way to destroy the constitution.

Mexico City has legalized gay marriage

Wow, we’re surrounded now. When will the US follow suit and join Mexico City in the 21st century?

That article has other interesting information: Uruguay has legalized civil unions throughout the country, and several cities scattered throughout South America have done likewise. Good for Latin America, a region working on being more progressive than our little backwater.

Do not vote for Pawlenty in 2012

I live in Minnesota; Tim Pawlenty is our governor, and he’s got his bland and uninteresting gaze fastened on the White House. Don’t be fooled. He’s just another Republican hack who has been drifting ever right-ward towards increasing lunacy. He was interviewed in Newsweek, and this will give you an idea of what kind of waffly worthless panderer he is.

Well, you know I’m an evangelical Christian. I believe that God created everything and that he is who he says he was. The Bible says that he created man and woman; it doesn’t say that he created an amoeba and then they evolved into man and woman. But there are a lot of theologians who say that the ideas of evolution and creationism aren’t necessarily inconsistent; that he could have “created” human beings over time.

The Bible doesn’t mention Tim Pawlenty’s parents, Eugene and Ginny, anywhere, either, and neither does it mention Tim Pawlenty, so apparently the question of Pawlenty’s origins are still open. This all fits with my theory that he is merely a recent conglomeration of mindless amoeboid slime.

The privilege of authority

Peter Watts is a biologist and a science fiction author who combines the two beautifully — watch his fictional presentation on vampires to a pharmacology group to see what I mean. He’s also a Canadian who was driving from the US to his home in Toronto when he was assaulted by American border guards, apparently provoked by his temerity in asking why they were rummaging through his luggage. You can read Watts’ account of the episode, or the story on BoingBoing, and Making Light, but the bottom line is this: a writer was beaten, pepper-sprayed, arrested, and threatened with two years in jail for the crime of asking questions of police…of demanding accountability and an explanation from officials of the law. He was not interfering or hindering their work, but he was requesting what we ought to minimally expect from the police: a legal justification for their actions.

I know that some people are going to rush to defend the border guards, and Patrick Hayden has already addressed this: don’t bother. There is no defense of their actions. Watts is a big nerd, not a violent thug, and any provocation he might have offered would have been physically non-threatening, and the border guards should be constrained by the law and by an expectation of civility. They don’t have any such restraint. My general experience with US border guards is that they are privileged, sneering goons who feel entitled to treat citizens of both countries with contempt. When we cross the border, we should be expected to comply with the law…but we should not be required to cower and cringe, nor should we accept any demand of the guys with guns without question. The commenters at Watts’ blog who are insisting that it’s Watts’ fault because he was obviously insufficiently subservient have got it all wrong — they’ve already given up their freedom for fear.

I’m going to be giving a talk in Winnipeg in January, and the only thing I don’t look forward to is dealing with the paranoid jerks at the border again.

Rick Warren, finally

By now you’ve all heard about the heinous Ugandan bill that would lead to the imprisonment of homosexuals and the execution of any with AIDS, and you’ve probably also heard that it was promoted by American right-wingers. There’s a curious phenomenon going on right now: people are trying to stir up some principled opposition to the bill, and the religious right is dragging their heels. It’s strange because once they’ve been cornered, wrestled to the ground, and forced to face a camera, they all quickly repudiate the bill — unless you’re Fred Phelps, it’s pretty much impossible to support it, it is so barbaric — but you can also tell they aren’t happy about having to make a public denial. Weasely ol’ Rick Warren has finally spoken out against it, but as archy analyzes Warren’s statement, it’s not very impressive:

By my count, about twenty percent of his message is a direct condemnation or call to opposition to the bill. About thirty percent of the message is self-promotion or promotion of his groups. The other half of the message is his greeting to the pastors and a Christmas message. The latter part should have been sent as a separate message an waters down the most important part of his message, but that’s quibble on my part.

This stuff isn’t hard. When someone announces that they want a legalized hunting season on gay people, you reject it, plainly, clearly, and loudly. It’s revealing when it takes you this much time to decide it’s a bad idea.

Keep the godless out of office

Cecil Bothwell was elected to the city council of Asheville, NC. Cecil Bothwell is an atheist. Now some kooks want to deny Cecil Bothwell his seat on the council because the North Carolina constitution forbids atheists from taking public office.

Amazing. I know that several states have these laws on their books, but I thought they all avoided enforcing them, since they’re clearly unconstitutional. In this case, it’s one crazy right-winger, H.K. Edgerton, who wants to impose the law to selectively block someone he doesn’t seem to like. We know he’s crazy because he’s threatening the city and…well, see for yourself.

“If they go ahead, then the city of Asheville and the board of elections could be liable for a lawsuit,” said Edgerton, who is known for promoting “Southern heritage” by standing on streets decked out in a Confederate soldier’s uniform and holding a Confederate flag.

Oh. One of those guys.