January 29, 2014

Baby born on GA interstate makes news; baby born on sled in PA, not so much

Ok, maybe I'm a little oversensitive, having endured the "what's the matter with the stupid Southerners and snow" stuff all day. But apparently this stuff happens elsewhere. Even in Pennsylvania, where they have snow plows and know how to drive and are ever prepared and all that.

http://www.wfsb.com/story/24531353/baby-doesnt-wait-is-born-on-sled

January 29, 2014

Sean Hannity proposes 'adopt-a-woman birth control program'

This is great!

. . . a simpler term would be health insurance.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/01/29/1273357/-Sean-Hannity-proposes-adopt-a-woman-birth-control-program?

January 20, 2014

The Myth Of The Absent Black Father

I find this heartening news. The CDC has completed a study that blows up the stereotypes about black fatherhood. Black dads are more involved with their kids on a daily basis than dads from other racial groups.

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/01/16/3175831/myth-absent-black-father/

January 18, 2014

Nancy Grace: People on pot shoot each other, strangle each other, and kill whole families

On Tuesday, Nancy Grace claimed that people on marijuana shoot, stab and strangle each other, and that children shouldn’t bear witness to their parents drinking soda.

More nutty Nancy at link:

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/17/nancy-grace-people-on-pot-shoot-each-other-strangle-each-other-and-kill-whole-families/

January 12, 2014

Sanctity of Life

I know that the piñata I’m swinging at is full of angry bees, even on this forum, which has felt safe so far to me, and comfortable for expressing my thoughts. I may be risking that now, but I have to take my swing anyway. I never hear this and wonder if I’m all alone. ???????

See, I don’t believe in the “sanctity” of life. I am in awe of the evolutionary processes that have resulted in life on earth. I’m humbled before, as Dylan Thomas phrased it, “the force that that through the green fuse drives the flower.” But as a rationalist, nothing has been made “holy” to me as a result of religious superstition. Blastocyst, zygote, embryo, fetus. Normal stages of human development. There is nothing there to sanctify or to worship. Nothing there that is “sacred.”

I do subscribe to an ethical hierarchy. I give higher value in my system to higher evolutionary forms because it seems to me, rationally, that these are the ones with the most potential, not just for greater good, but also for greater suffering. And I don’t mean the simple suffering of neurological pain. I mean suffering in all the complex physical, psychological and sociological dimensions which human beings are capable of experiencing. The kind of complex, alas, intelligent, suffering that surfaces in dreams, and manifests in guilt, self-hatred and violence. The kind of suffering that no blastocyst, or zygote, or embryo or fetus can possibly experience.

I read where, in Texas, the family of a brain-dead, pregnant woman is suing the hospital that is keeping her alive against the family’s wishes. I remember the Terry Shiavo affair. I simply don’t understand. There are complex legal issues involved. But I still don’t, I can’t, understand. Why an individual human, a person, with an extended family, each of whom is capable of an infinite range of genuine suffering should be sacrificed to an iconic idea—the unborn “sacred” is simply beyond me. The “sanctity of life” seems a ridiculous notion and I reject it. Life itself—THE life, THESE lives, seem much more important.

January 8, 2014

New York Pastafarian Christopher Schaeffer Sworn Into Town Council Wearing Colander

Christopher Schaeffer, a Pastafarian minister, was sworn into the Pomfret, N.Y. Town Council last week wearing a colander, the Observer reported on Friday.

Schaeffer is a member of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, a group founded by an atheist in 2005 that has adopted the spaghetti strainer as its symbol.

"It's just a statement about religious freedom," Schaeffer told the Observer. "It's a religion without any dogma."

Bobby Henderson, founder of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, blogged about Schaeffer's swearing-in on Monday, saying Schaeffer "may be the first openly Pastafarian sworn into office."

"Some people will see it as obnoxious or a sign that he’s not taking the oath of office seriously," Henderson said of Schaeffer's decision to wear a colander. "But I am completely confident that Schaeffer will distinguish himself as a Council member of the highest caliber."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/06/pastafarian-christopher-schaeffer_n_4551662.html?ir=Politics

January 6, 2014

Rush Limbaugh slams polar vortex ‘hoax’

Here we go again:

Rush Limbaugh on Monday accused the media and liberals of creating the polar vortex to “lie” to the public about the “hoax” of climate change and global warming.

The conservative radio host told his listeners that “the left, the media, everybody” came up with “this phrase called the ‘polar vortex’” to connect the current cold weather conditions around the country to “the global warming agenda.”
“We are having a record-breaking cold snap in many parts of the country,” he said, according to a transcript. “And right on schedule the media have to come up with a way to make it sound like it’s completely unprecedented. Because they’ve got to find a way to attach this to the global warming agenda, and they have. It’s called the ‘polar vortex.’ The dreaded polar vortex.”

Limbaugh said liberals are “in the middle of a hoax, they’re perpetrating a hoax, but they’re relying on their total dominance of the media to lie to you each and every day about climate change and global warming.”

“So they created the polar vortex, and the polar vortex, something’s happened, and that cold air which normally stays is in the North Pole, something’s happening, something deeply mysterious and perhaps tragic is happening,” Limbaugh said.

The weather system “actually sounds like a crappy science fiction movie to me,” according to the radio host.


Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/01/rush-limbaugh-global-warming-polar-vortex-hoax-101792.html#ixzz2pfEIpCaY