Monday, February 29, 2016

Our Wacky World—2/29/2016

Yeah, Yeah, I'm way behind. Thanks to some major changes (mostly medication-related) the December 2015 OWW was never finished.  Some/A lot/Everything in this post is out of date and/or superseded by later events. Carly Fiorina has been out of the race for some time but she's still a priceless gift.
Curiously, reading over this again for the first time in what seemed like an eternity but was actually only two months, it's remarkable how fresh it still is. Shit never goes out of style....


☃ Merry Holidays 

Dispatches From The Culture Wars

Meadowlark Lemon dead at 83:

ESPN


Lemmy killed by death at 70:

Guardian


Glenn Frey died, too. "Dirty Laundry" was a good song. Oh wait, that was Don Henley.


Kent Hovind is the winner of the first MFAEECIA™ Award of 2016!
“I would write the [bible] in such a way that those who don’t want to believe in me anyway would think they found something. ‘Aha, here’s why I don’t believe.' I would put things in there that would appear without digging to be contradictions. I don’t think that’s deceptive, I think that’s wise for the Heavenly Father to weed out those who are really serious.”
Raw Story

A legend in his own mind. Of course god put those dinosaur bones there to fool... wait a minute, Hovind believes in dinosaurs. Oh well.


Speaking of contradictions in the bible, did you know that men and women have the same number of ribs after all?:
"The theory...suggests God made Eve from Adam’s baculum, or penis bone. Professor Zevit said this explains why man has no baculum, unlike most mammals, and why men don’t have an uneven number of ribs compared to women."
Singham's blog


Family Research Council President and chief assclown Tony Perkins is upset with our recent diplomatic successes with Iran, so much so that he is losing his memory:
“Long gone are the days of Ronald Reagan when we said, ‘We don’t negotiate with terrorists.’ Now we make all kinds of deals and it just appears that America comes out on the short end of the deal."
But in fact Reagan did make a hostage deal with Iran:
'...the Reagan administration “got zero net hostages released, and one dead hostage’s body dumped,” by Iranian-linked terrorist groups in Lebanon “in return for 2,512 TOW anti-tank missiles, 18 Hawk anti-aircraft missiles and more than 240 Hawk spare parts"'
I remember all that. Where was Tony at the time? Up Reagan's asshole? (Right Wing Watch)


I "know" you're there:
"Wathey takes the reader on a scientific journey to find the sources of religious feeling and the illusion of God’s presence. His book delves into the biological origins of this compelling feeling, attributing it to innate neural circuitry that evolved to promote the mother-child bond. Dr. Wathey, a veteran neuroscientist, argues that evolution has programmed the infant brain to expect the presence of a loving being who responds to the child’s needs."
Dispatches From The Culture Wars

"Q-tips are one of the most perplexing things for sale in America. Plenty of consumer products are widely used in ways other than their core function — books for leveling tables, newspapers for keeping fires aflame, seltzer for removing stains, coffee tables for resting legs — but these cotton swabs are distinct. Q-tips are one of the only, if not the only, major consumer products whose main purpose is precisely the one the manufacturer explicitly warns against."
Washington Post


The psychopathology of Carly Fiorina is becoming increasingly clear (read all of this; it’s short and grimly hilarious):
"Carly Fiorina is unique among all the candidates in the Republican presidential field for her visceral, aggressive hatred for anything resembling truth. Other candidates lie, of course, but they at least go to the trouble of dressing up their lies with weasel words and other forms of qualifying language that allow them to squirm their way out of fact checks. Fiorina doesn’t care about any of that. She makes firm, declarative statements that are unquestionably inaccurate, and when confronted with inarguable facts that prove her wrong, she insists against all evidence that she is correct and bristles at the very notion that anyone might challenger her. She does not care. She does not pretend to care. As far as Fiorina’s concerned, the fact that she said it is what makes it true."
What's the difference between Steve Jobs and Carly Fiorina? He turned Apple around, HP didn’t have a prayer. (Salon)

‘...a Trump supporter shouted, “Light that motherf[u]cker on fire!” a reporter from MSNBC said a large middle-aged man shouted, “Sieg heil!”— while one protester was hauled away.’
Raw Story


Ed Brayton goes to a Trump rally:
‘...they were playing Christmas carols. When “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” came on, that seemed entirely appropriate to me. I’m still not entirely clear whether “Oh Come Let Us Adore Him” was about Jesus or Trump.” The whole thing really does have the feel of those 1930s news reels from Germany.’
Dispatches From The Culture Wars

‘...a Trump supporter shouted, “Light that motherf[u]cker on fire!” a reporter from MSNBC said a large middle-aged man shouted, “Sieg heil!”— while one protester was hauled away.’
Raw Story


Meanwhile, in Sarah Palin's world (watch the sanity-challenging word salad video):

'...on The 700 Club host Wendy Griffith asked Sarah Palin the question we’ve all been begging her to answer: “What would you do to defeat ISIS?” 
“You have to quit being this namby-pamby, kind of milquetoast, ‘let’s discuss things with them, let’s reach out and try to understand them,’ no, they’re the enemy, they’re evil”
They're ain't human they ain't. (Right Wing Watch)



It’s official:
"Sony announced on Tuesday that after four decades, it will stop shipping Betamax(or Beta) and MicroMV video cassette tapes next March.”
Prices on eBay will now skyrocket. I’ve already made my lifetime purchase of Hi8 and miniDV cassettes. (Rocket News)

"Jane Mann, a retired science teacher, said she was concerned the [solar] panels would prevent plants in the area from photosynthesizing, stopping them from growing. Ms Mann said she had seen areas near solar panels where plants are brown and dead because they did not get enough sunlight. She also questioned the high number of cancer deaths in the area, saying no one could tell her solar panels didn't cause cancer.”
Independent

'However in August this year, a French court ruled that electromagnetic hypersensitivity to mobile and wifi waves is a "serious handicap", setting a legal precedent that lawyers say could lead to "thousands" of claims. Although France does not recognise EHS as a medical problem, a court in Toulouse decided that claimant Marine Richard should be awarded £500 a month in disability allowance as she displayed “irrefutable clinical signs” of suffering from a syndrome linked to electromagnetic waves.'
 I see “irrefutable" clinical signs of an anxiety disorder. This is soooo easy to disprove. (Telegraph)

'A gay-to-straight “conversion therapy” provider found by a New Jersey jury to have violated the state’s consumer fraud protections will permanently cease operations and dissolve its corporate entity as part of a settlement that precludes an appeal of a jury’s verdict in the landmark lawsuit.’
SPLC


Deepak Chopra revises his earlier work à la Hal Lindsey:
'In the bibliography of the earlier printings of the book, [Deepak] Chopra writes “I enthusiastically recommend the following eleven books, all of which entered into my own education on these fascinating subjects.” Two of those eleven books are by Maharishi [Mahesh Yogi]. In the bibliography of the 16th printing, he also recommends eleven books, but he lists only nine! You can guess which two are missing. Chopra must have been in such a hurry to erase all traces of Maharishi’s name that he forgot to count the number of the remaining books in his bibliography!
The Late Great Planet Earth and the publications of the Watchtower Society (Jehovah's Witnesses) have received similar treatment over the years, erasing the embarrassing bits. (Rescue Science)



Thanks to that recent false flag operation in France even Democrats in the US are suddenly afraid, very afraid of helpless women and children. There have been calls for interment of refugees in camps à la native-born Japanese-Americans in WWII (with not a spy or terrorist among them). Congressmen, Governors and Mayors across the nation are vowing to refuse refugees outright. This presents a legal problem because George W. Bush (remember him?) signed a bill limiting the power to accept or reject refugees to the President alone.

One person has replied succinctly:
"JESUS CHRIST THE SYRIAN REFUGEES AREN'T COMING TO WHATEVER GLORIFIED TRAILER PARK / FEMA CAMP / OPEN AIR METH LAB OR DYSTOPIAN INNER RING TRACT HOUSING AND STRIP MALL FART-FUCK OF A SUBURB YOU CALL HOME, THEY WOULD TAKE ONE LOOK AT YOUR SAD EXCUSE FOR A LIFE AND THINK "I'LL GO BACK AND TAKE MY CHANCES, DID YOU SEE THAT WOMAN WITH THE 'BAD BITCH' TATTOO HER TORSO LOOKED LIKE SOMEONE WAS BAKING BREAD IN A HALTER TOP." THE FACT THAT YOU GOT A SECOND HARDEES (NEXT TO THE PELLAGRA CLINIC) DOES NOT MAKE PIGSKNUCKLE COUNTY AN APPEALING TERRORIST TARGET, IF ISIS ATTACKS THEY WILL ATTACK A CITY BECAUSE CITIES HAVE LANDMARKS AND PEOPLE WHO WALK PLACES. WHY WOULD ANYONE EVEN BOTHER TRYING TO KILL YOU WHEN THEY COULD SIT BACK AND LET CONGESTIVE HEART FAILURE DO THE JOB, BE SURE TO BUY MORE GUNS THOUGH THEY'RE REALLY KEEPING YOUR VINYL SIDED RANCH HOUSE SAFE. YES THERE ARE PEOPLE OUT TO GET YOU BUT THEY'RE NOT CALLED "ISIS" THEY'RE CALLED THE COLLECTION AGENCY AND YOUR GUNS WILL ONLY IMPRESS THEM TO THE EXTENT THAT THEY WILL FETCH SOMETHING AT AUCTION WHEN YOUR PROPERTY IS SEIZED TO PAY THE MEDICAL BILLS FOR YOUR LAST SIX ANGIOPLASTIES BUT YOU REALLY SHOWED OBUMMER BY NOT SIGNING UP FOR INSURANCE YOU DANIEL FUCKIN' BOONE RUGGED INDIVIDUALIST YOU.”
Stop holding back. Tell us how you really feel. (FaceBook)


Meanwhile, somewhere over Syria:
“...astrophysicists Tom van Doorsslaere and Giovanni Lapenta of the Belgian KU Leuven used some simple Newtonian mechanics to show that both the Russian and Turkish accounts of what happened with the downed jet can’t be right. Using video of the incident and the maps provided by Turkish and Russian officials, they show...that what went down couldn’t possibly have happened as both parties present it.”
"both parties present it” should be “either party presented it." (Vice)

'"What I have said is that I would be in favor of monitoring a mosque or any church or any organization or any school or any press corps where there was a lot of radicalization and things that were anti-American," Carson told reporters during an appearance at a justice forum in South Carolina. He did not expound on just how an administration would determine what constitutes "radicalization" or "anti-American." 
'Carson added that funding for FBI surveillance activities should be increased. He said the agency currently can only afford to monitor "30 to 60 people," numbers he did not explain before aides steered him away from reporters.'
NOLA

Meanwhile:
"67 percent of Americans think [abortion] clinic attacks are domestic terrorism. More Democrats (77 percent) called the attacks domestic terrorism than either Republicans (54 percent) or independents (66 percent), but a majority of Republicans still said yes.”
Vox

"Furious with her daughter, Gibbons rushed to the school and forced her daughter to submit to an 11-panel drug test—which came back completely negative. Yet when she contacted the school to give them the test results and say the whole thing had been a misunderstanding,  Klein officials wouldn't budge, and wouldn't reverse the suspension. In fact, they said she must have been on acid—the only drug not covered in the test.”
Houston Press


"The newly released research, conducted by Christian research group LifeWay at the behest of pro-life group Care Net, paints a very different picture of those seeking abortions than you might imagine. The study interviewed 1,038 women who had received an abortion. Surprisingly, a full 70 percent of these women were Christian. 
"We can fully expect many right-wing individuals to claim that these women aren’t really Christian. That seems to be the go-to argument when Christians engage in behaviors contradictory to the image many would have us believe."
Reverb Press

"A founding pastor of a Singapore megachurch was sentenced Friday to eight years behind bars after he was found guilty of fraud and embezzling $35 million in donations to bankroll his wife's pop star career...”
Vice


So Hilary Rodham Clinton weathered an 11 hour grilling by the Benghazi witch hunt committee, making them look like fools in front of god and everyone. But that was all part of her insidious plan:
‘...the chairman of the committee...wanted to interview her in private...and she said, ‘No, I want to do this in public’”

'“Now to me, that was us stepping in a trap because we should have known that she was going to go on and just stall, debate, filibuster, on these answers to make it go as long as possible, so we would look cruel”'
No, you looked like the dickless old coots that you are. She came out smelling like a rose. Thanks for the publicity. (Buzzfeed)


⚛ Happy Next Year ⚛

Limited Edition CD—The Fourth Tower Of Inverness

ZBS is re-releasing a limited-edition CD of The Fourth Tower Of Inverness:
"We don’t know how long we’ll have it, so if you’d like a copy, for yourself, or for a gift, or to pass on to your great-grandchildren, now is the time to seize one! Or two. This historic recording, the very first Jack Flanders adventure, may never be re-released on CD. "
More info at the ZBS site.



I already have the first edition CD plus the cassette tapes.  I sure would like to have those 26 reels, though.