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Having Faith in Science
Author: BobR    Date: 2014-04-09 10:43:34

The last couple of weeks, I've written about Cosmos and the inevitable right-wing reactions to it. The certainty of evidence which is provided by science is certainly an affront to those who consider faith to be more noble and pure. Who are you going to trust? they ask - them our your own lying peer-reviewed, tested, and proven scientific evidence?

Even in this day and age, there are those who insist the universe is only a few thousand years old, and that the earth is flat (they are putting out their own "scientific" rebuttal to the notion of a non-geocentric universe), I'd like to just take a look at a few science-oriented stories that I think are thought-provoking.
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69 comments (Latest Comment: 04/09/2014 22:29:04 by Raine)

Ask a Vet
Author: TriSec    Date: 04/08/2014 10:17:01

Good Morning.

Today is our 4,566th day in Afghanistan.

We'll start this morning as we always do; with the latest casualty figures from our ongoing war, courtesy of Antiwar.com:

US Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 2,313
Other Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 1,113

We find this morning's Cost of War passing through:

$ 1, 524, 701, 650, 000 .00

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51 comments (Latest Comment: 04/08/2014 21:46:25 by Raine)

Good Monday Morning.
Author: Raine    Date: 04/07/2014 12:59:20

In my ongoing effort to rejuvenate myself, I will attempt to write a blog.

I spent a good portion of the weekend away from the internet. I started my garden. It was good to be in the dirt and feeling the warmth of the sun on my back.
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33 comments (Latest Comment: 04/08/2014 01:10:28 by TriSec)

Another Damn Blog
Author: velveeta jones    Date: 04/06/2014 15:13:26

Velveeta awoke this morning with several ideas for a spectacular blog entry and was having a difficult time culling them down.

There is the never-ending, yet tragic story of Flight 370 and never-ending, tragic story of CNN who won't stop covering the story. Sort of a tragedy within a tragedy, yes? Can you imagine what they would have done with the Lindbergh kidnapping.
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2 comments (Latest Comment: 04/06/2014 23:07:08 by Raine)

News below the surface
Author: Will in Chicago    Date: 2014-04-05 10:08:12

It seems that many news stories don't get released until Friday. As a former news reporter, I learned that sometimes government agencies and large corporations would wait till Friday to release unpleasant news. Or it takes a while for a news organization to firm up a story. So, here is a look at some news stories that did not get released until late in the week or that may have flown under the radar of many people. Much like an iceberg, the true core of many stories is below the surface.
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2 comments (Latest Comment: 04/06/2014 13:36:51 by velveeta jones)

Fluffy Friday
Author: wickedpam    Date: 04/04/2014 13:00:45

Its been a long, dark week in the news, scratch that March was all kinds of suck. SCOTUS sticking to their "money is speech" meme. Another shooting at Ft. Hood. Outbreaks of mumps and measles since people aren't vaccinating their kids like they used to. Snow, snow and more f-ing snow. And so much more.

By the end of the week, we are all tired and worn out. My intention is to keep Friday's light, fluffy and hopefully funny. While I'm by no mean as funny as the tongue in cheek, Blog Queen of Snark, Miss Vel, I will try my best.

So let the fluffiness begin!
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22 comments (Latest Comment: 04/05/2014 03:20:30 by TriSec)

United States, Inc.
Author: Raine    Date: 04/03/2014 13:06:33

I really don't know what more can be said about yesterday's terrible Supreme Court decision. 5 men decided to forever change the the way this country runs elections and have taken us backwards at least 40 years in this nation. From Justice Breyer's dissenting opinion:

Nearly 40 years ago in Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U. S. 1 (1976) (per curiam), this Court considered the constitu­tionality of laws that imposed limits upon the overall amount a single person can contribute to all federal candi­dates, political parties, and committees taken together. The Court held that those limits did not violate the Con­stitution. Id., at 38; accord, McConnell v. Federal Election Comm’n, 540 U. S. 93, 138, n. 40, 152–153, n. 48 (2003) (citing with approval Buckley’s aggregate limits holding).

The Buckley Court focused upon the same problem that concerns the Court today, and it wrote:
“The overall $25,000 ceiling does impose an ultimate restriction upon the number of candidates and com­mittees with which an individual may associate him­self by means of financial support. But this quite modest restraint upon protected political activity serves to prevent evasion of the $1,000 contribution limitation by a person who might otherwise contribute massive amounts of money to a particular candidate through the use of unearmarked contributions to po­litical committees likely to contribute to that candi­date, or huge contributions to the candidate’s political party. The limited, additional restriction on associa­tional freedom imposed by the overall ceiling is thus no more than a corollary of the basic individual con­tribution limitation that we have found to be constitu­tionally valid.” 424 U. S., at 38.

Today a majority of the Court overrules this holding. It is wrong to do so. Its conclusion rests upon its own, not a record-based, view of the facts. Its legal analysis is faulty: It misconstrues the nature of the competing constitutional interests at stake. It understates the importance of protecting the political integrity of our governmental institutions. It creates a loophole that will allow a single individual to contribute millions of dollars to a political party or to a candidate’s campaign. Taken together with Citizens United v. Federal Election Comm’n, 558 U. S. 310 (2010), today’s decision eviscerates our Nation’s campaign finance laws, leaving a remnant incapable of dealing with the grave problems of democratic legitimacy that those laws were intended to resolve.

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25 comments (Latest Comment: 04/03/2014 21:29:24 by Will in Chicago)

Quit Fucking Up My Planet
Author: BobR    Date: 2014-04-02 11:01:32

I am done. I am done with the assholes who are fucking up my planet. Yes, I said MY planet. It's my planet, it's your planet it's EVERYBODY's planet. We all live here; we all breathe the same air; we all drink the same water. I understand the concepts of "sharing" and "common good" are anathema to these right-wing douche-nozzles, but it's the reality of this existence. When they purposely pollute and prevent legislation to curtail polluters just to say "NYAH NYAH" to "tree-huggers", they are fucking up the planet for all of us.
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37 comments (Latest Comment: 04/02/2014 21:02:41 by Will in Chicago)

Ask a Vet
Author: TriSec    Date: 04/01/2014 10:15:45

Good Morning.

Today is our 4,559th day in Afghanistan.

We'll start this morning as we always do; with the latest casualty figures from our ongoing war, courtesy of Antiwar.com:

US Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 2,312
Other Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 1,113

We find this morning's cost of war passing through:

$ 1, 522, 930, 750, 000 .00

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33 comments (Latest Comment: 04/01/2014 20:34:49 by Mondobubba)

I need a reboot.
Author: Raine    Date: 03/31/2014 13:01:32

First and foremost, Happy Opening day to my fellow baseball lovers!
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62 comments (Latest Comment: 03/31/2014 22:47:08 by Raine)

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