Texas Republican admitted goal is to outlaw birth control

Just in case there was any doubt, eliminating birth control and women’s health services has always been the goal of conservative fundamentalists. As Texas Republicans have fought to limit women’s access to abortion, they’ve offered staggering ignorance, in the form of state Sen. Bob Deuell’s contention that only “accurate intercourse” causes pregnancy and state Rep. Jodie Laubenberg’s belief that rape kits are “where a woman can get cleaned out.” This is happening in Texas and all over the nation, where ever conservatives have gained power. These clowns are pure, unashamed, evil dominionist creeps.

New consideration doubles the theoretical number of habitable worlds in Milky Way

A hypothetical water world with the red dwarf Gleise581 glowering on the horizon.

A hypothetical water world with the red dwarf Gleise 581 glowering on the horizon.

Look at a big spiral galaxy like the Milky Way and its blazing with the blue-white light of hot, young stars. But the vast majority of stars in our galaxy are the smaller, redder types. Of the estimated 400 billion suns in our galaxy, astronomers believe at least half of them are red dwarfs. One problem with red dwarfs is they tend to be active, they can flare and dim dramatically over short periods of time compared to our reliable, stable yellow sun. Because they are so much dimmer, planets in the Goldilocks zone where water might exist as a liquid on the surface would need to huddle much closer to the red stars. Not only would those planets would be pummeled by stellar outburst, they’d become tidally locked, always the same side facing the sun, similar to the way our moon always presents the same face to earth. All things being equal, a planet that takes a few weeks to rotate instead of a day would have a less powerful magnetic field to ward off the solar wind. Both Mars and Venus have mostly lost whatever primeval magnetic field they once had and that probably played a role in vaporizing whatever oceans they may have started out with.

But there’s a newer consideration, one which could help protect the planets of red dwarfs, now being modeled and tested. This increases the number of potentially habitable exo-planets to 60 billion! How? Think of a cold Venus: [Read more…]

New GOP strategy: Hillary Clinton is TOO old

Wile-E-Coyote

Imagine you are a national republican strategist. In the light of the 2012 ass whuppin, you have many challenges. Thanks to the jihad against women’s rights, chief among them is the female vote comprising more than half the electorate in many key states. It’s bleak there. You’re handily losing the majority of young and minority women, struggling for suburban and white-collar ladies, and you’re even bleeding voters from the usually more reliable mature women. You have to turn this around and quick.

Eureka! A brainstorm strikes faster than lightning: piss off as many of the undecided female voters of all ages as possible and really undermine your chances with retired men and women! [Read more…]

Atheist monument unveiled in Florida

athiests2n-2-web

Many years ago I delivered flowers for a local for a florist Austin who lived across the street from my family in Austin. One day the delivery was marked Madalyn Murray O’Hair: The flowers were blackish roses and there was a smarmy card attached which, as I recall, included the promise “We will pray for you.” I didn’t know who she was at the time. My born again sister/coworker eagerly gave me the pejorative version.

We haven’t come much further since then when it comes to public perception, which is why this site and you guys are so important. But maybe the tide is beginning to turn. The American Atheists have unveiled a monument to non belief which provides a counter point to those popular among Christians. [Read more…]