Pretty sure it’s not the heart!

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Sorry, I miscalculated, need a few more bucks. Paypal email is DarkSydOtheMoon-at-aol.com

Sorry for the constant blegging, today will be the last day and I’m grateful for any small dollar donation; I’m just so goddamn poor and I’m new at it. There’s always a bill around the corner or something else I forgot about, and I’m not used to running so close to the edge with no safety margin. There’s an entire political party hellbent on punishing people who are already struggling. I’m lucky to have a well read website to bitch about it and readers who care enough to help out. Most people in my situation don’t. So, some good news, because things could always be worse, eh? I’m pretty sure the pain mentioned a few days ago is not a cardiac issue. I’ll still follow up with the cardiologist, but the symptoms have improved with treatment for auto-immune inflammation — which btw can indeed contribute to all kinds of health problems including recovering from cardiovascular surgery. [Read more…]

A sad sign of the anti-science times

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Sorry, I miscalculated, need a few more bucks. Paypal email is DarkSydOtheMoon-at-aol.com

My parents were thoughtful. They dutifully stimulated my interest in reading and especially science and math, as a youngster. One of those gifts was a subscription to Popular Science magazine when I was barely ten-years-old. I can still smell the fresh glossy pages and feel the excitement of a future they implied; even the ads were fun for me to read. But at the same time I was learning about planets and atoms, down the hall from my bedroom an older sibling was being quietly indoctrinated by one of many seemingly innocent evangelical Christian outreach efforts aimed at young people, this one was called Young Life, but it was just one among many.

This latest announcement by Popular Science online is an indicator that science and reason still remain locked in an ancient battle with superstition and propaganda, and it’s by no means clear which will prevail: [Read more…]

Ted Cruz, conman, but on whose side?

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Paypal email is DarkSydOtheMoon-at-aol.com, thanks!

Last day for my fundraising, and I’ve reached my goal so no pressure, but speaking of fundraising … damn near everything Teaparty Republicans do these days is a scam. Not surprising, the whole movement is a scam, created to appear as a grassroots uprising demanding lower taxes and less regulation on conservative billionaires. So Ted Cruz’s fake filibuster scam, up to and including comparing healthcare to the Nazi Holocaust, is par for the course. It’s still just another scam, but one so clumsy and transparent that even fellow conservative grifters can hardly stand to watch: [Read more…]

Abs of steel, ribs of glass?

I was worried I might have another heart complication, and there’s still a possibility something is amiss there. I see the cardiologist again on Thursday for more tests. But, as it turns out, the symptoms may be due to over activity: I’ve now lost a full 50 pounds since last Dec, plus gained probably five or six pounds of good lean muscle in the bargain. That didn’t happen by accident; at age 51, post heart surgery and suffering from a disabling form of rheumatoid arthritis, it’s a thin line to walk between healthy exercise and repetitive injury. [Read more…]

Join the Cruz bashing

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My Paypal email is DarkSydOtheMoon-at-aol.com, thanks!

I’ll be out for most of the day for various errands and doc appointments, all of which I’m able to do thanks to several dozen of you who kicked in to help. I’m pretty much where I needed to get to, but a few more bucks would help more if anyone is so inclined.

Until I get done, bashing Ted Cruz has become a cottage industry this week and it sounds like he deserves it. So here’s some enjoyable links to join in the fun: Ted and me at TPM; The distinguished wacko bird from Texas at GQ; Some GOP Leaders Tee Up Cruz For Blame If There’s A Shutdown at VPR; and You cloture it, you buy it at the FW Business Press.

McConnell and Reid shiv Ted Cruz

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The more I see of Ted Cruz, the more I see a truly foul human being, the worst of the DC Teaparty posers, happy to wreck the nation for fun and personal profit. A man who pretends to be of the people and rags Obama as an elitist for attending Harvard, the same school Cruz attended, while rumors swirl from past classmates paint Cruz as an elitist snob who would not even associate with “non ivy league” college students.

But his McCarthy like approach to defunding Obamacare has been derailed in the Senate with the help of one Mitch McConnell, minority leader, who briefly emerged today like a frightened turtle to pull the levers on obscure Senate procedure: [Read more…]

This might not qualify as the end times

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My Paypal email is DarkSydOtheMoon-at-aol.com, thanks!

Alright guys and gals, I’m about 150 now about 100 about 65 about 45 bucks shy of where I have to be. Only 45 dollars! If you can pitch in a buck or two above, please, I’m practically begging.

Most people know Yellowstone is an old super volcano caldera and is likely to erupt again sometime in the next half million years. It could be any time actually and since we’ve never seen a full blown super volcano get cranking, we don’t know if they spend years or centuries getting revved up, or if they can just cut loose and blow.

As super volcanoes go, Yellowstone is a garden variety disaster in the turbulent natural history of Earth. As far as what a major eruption would do to a fragile, present day civilization, it would be the end of the United States as we know it and the onset of a global climate catastrophe of Biblical proportion. So I keep on top of it, but it looks like this latest round of earthquake clusters might not be the end of the world some alarmists and snake oil salesman are touting: [Read more…]

Pope sets out to make social conservative heads explode

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I don’t idolize money, I just don’t have enough to make through the next few weeks. Fortunately, a bunch of awesome readers have chipped in and I’m now only about 200 bucks away from enough to see me through. If you can join them with a small donation, thanks! Here in the US there is a thing called the prosperity Gospel, rife with scoundrels and conmen fleecing the devout. It’s all about how God-eh wants some to be rich, some to be middle-class, and many like me to be poor.

Pope Francis brought down the hammer on that shit this weekend, saying in part money sickens faith and is indeed a false idol: [Read more…]

The usual suspects want into your private parts and, now, under your hood

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Over halfway there guys, paypal email is DarkSydOtheMoon-at-aol.com, thanks!

I’m very grateful to those who have chipped in to help get me through the next few weeks. I’m well over halfway to where I need to be. Here’s an example of the kind of obstacles people like me have to deal with. These clowns want to deny benefits to hungry people who can’t find jobs, and deny benefits to people because they’re frugal and own a functional vehicle: [Read more…]

Sunday school for atheists: James 5

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Over halfway there guys, paypal email is DarkSydOtheMoon-at-aol.com, thanks!

The Epistle of James is an interesting read even though scholars cannot agree on when exactly it was written and there is some debate about who James was; some arguing he may have been Christ’s younger brother. But most agree it was written shortly after Christ’s crucifixion and eventually some parts were included in the New Testament, as the Bible was developed more toward its modern form throughout the third century.

The Book of James includes warnings about fanaticism, ceremony and formalism over good grassroots faith, the corruption of wealth and the oppression of labor. Here’s some context for the latter: [Read more…]