Paul Ryan discovers Ayn Rand was an atheist .. Oh Noes!

Back in 2009, Paul Ryan, GOP reptilian baby eating loser who wants to end Medicare and send the surplus to his zillionaire cronies, loved himself some Ayn Rand. Saying “Ayn Rand, more than anybody else, did a fantastic job explaining the morality of capitalism, the morality of individualism, and that, to me, is what matters most.” You know already what happened, don’t ya? [Read more…]

2012 election bumper-sticker

It’s not easy for progressives to come up with a simplistic soundbyte bumper sticker. We tend to get too wonky, down in the weeds on details, plus these days we’re often hamstrung by accuracy — an obstacle the usual suspects routinely drive right around without a care in the world. But this isn’t bad!

Teacher fired by Catholic school for getting pregnant the ‘wrong way’

The Roman Catholic Church loves them some babies, babies from incest, babies from rape, babies from unmarried consenting adults, doesn’t matter. They’re all good. But their view on parents is whacked out. For example, when a teacher and her husband turned to in vitro fertilization, the church canned her despite exemplary performance. Not sure how this will play out legally, because it turns out churches get a special pass on discrimination unavailable to any other employer: [Read more…]

This is what scares the hell out of me about Romney et al

Most of the time I’m just playing partisan when criticizing politicians. But these guys worry me and it’s not just Romney per see, it’s the entire GOP-conservative corporate nexus on healthcare that scares the shit out of me. Some reported details, if you can call them that, on Romney’s answer to Romneycare have been leaking out and if they’re accurate they’re terrifying for me and millions of boomers in my age group: [Read more…]

Saturn’s F-ring and the making of UFO propaganda

A mosaic of Cassini images of Saturn and rings. The halo effect is due to the sun in eclipse behind the 6th planet. Click for more info on the rings. Image credit NASA/JPL

It’s not often we get a fortuitous example of how the UFO-conspiracy crowd manufactures their BS. … OK, maybe it happens all the time! But an absolutely must see time elapsed video put together by the Cassini-Equinox team provides just such an opportunity. Below is that same video together with some background, culminating in the UFO nonsense. [Read more…]

Shorter wingnuttia: What war on women? Now, about that WAR on women

I sometimes dream that we progressives will enjoy the same fruits our opponents feast so gleefully on. See, for them, consistency and principle is not an issue; you can both declare there is no such thing as a war on women, and bemoan the war on women, with little fear of “Republicans fractured and in disarray” headlines popping up all over.

[Read more…]