Our Wacky World—8/20/2014

Spam of the week: "Be a lethal weapon in the bedroom"

More fake bomb detectors, more convictions, more deaths. Long-suffering readers will recall this earlier post on the long-running topic.

Don't get me started on this clusterfuck

'...the fastest rebuttal I give when I run into one of these [chemtrails] nuts is: “Do you even understand the first thing about our atmosphere? Anything released at 30,000 feet will blow for miles away from where you see it, and has virtually no chance of settling straight down onto the people below, and be so diluted it would have no measurable amount of the chemical by the time it lands. That’s why crop-dusting planes must fly barely 30 feet off the ground"'

Skeptic Blog


There's a homeopathic cure for ebola!:

"During the Spanish influenza epidemic of 1918, eighty percent of the people treated with allopathic drugs died. Eighty percent of the people who took homeopathic remedies, mostly Crolatus horridus, survived. We are once again faced with a virus that is poised sweep our country."

Light Party

Your small town needs way more policing:

"The same insurance company canceled its coverage this year for Oakley, a village in Saginaw County, after the police chief there brought in 100 unpaid and uncertified auxiliary officers, some from as far away as metro Detroit, to patrol a town of 290."

Detroit Free Press


Also in Detroit, what happened when the bankrupt city switched to cheap batteries for their parking meters to save money? They lost millions:

"At 8 volts, they stop working. So while the savings with the less-expensive battery might sparkle on a spreadsheet, it’s less practical when repair crews have to actually go out and replace them …"

Detroit News

Gun rights for the blind—hell yeah:

"Do you think because they're blind that they're going to start shooting in every direction and kill everyone? Fact is that it's been proven that people that lack vision have an increased awareness of their hearing and spatial surroundings."

Crooks & Liars

"The Public Prosecutor's Office in the Brazilian state of São Paulo is investigating why women are being asked to either submit to gynecological tests or, in some cases, prove their virginity in order to apply for state jobs."

Huffington Post

Another school system decides to buy gadgetry so they can give up making decisions:

Beginning this school year, Dubuque, Iowa public school students in middle and high school are to be required to wear heart rate monitors to determine their activity levels in gym class. “It will be a large portion of their grade, because we want to grade them on what they’re actually doing in our class,” Hawkins said. “It really takes the opinion out of things. You know it’s not really ‘I think your kid is doing this and this in class.’”

Turley's Blog

OTOH, the gym teacher who hated me gave me a failing grade for not being able to do a cartwheel. I guess it was a bad judgement call.

Our Wacky World—7/30/2014

"George Harrison Memorial Tree killed...by beetles"

He's BACK:

"Although he's not a hired security officer, George Zimmerman has been 'patrolling' outside a Volusia County gun shop after it was recently robbed, according to the store owner."

Click Orlando


Even more reassuring:

"Open Carry Advocate Wants To Fight Police Brutality By Threatening Cops With Guns"

Crooks & Liars

Meanwhile, in Georgia, they now have open carry everywhere--what could possibly go wrong?:

"On the first day of the new Georgia Safe Carry Protection Act, a misunderstanding between two armed men in a convenience store Tuesday led to a drawn firearm and a man’s arrest."

They did make it to 3:00 PM. (Valdosta Daily Times)

Meanwhile, in Florida, they keep gun owners safe from nosey doctors:

"A responsible state would pass and enforce gun safety laws to keep firearms away from children. But Florida did the opposite: The state passed a law gagging doctors from asking patients about guns, effectively preventing doctors from sharing safety tips to keep those guns out of children’s hands."

Slate

"Millennials don't want to change things, apparently – they want everyone to get along. The report observes '[m]any specifically identified LGBTQ rights as their primary reason for being liberal'; and '[o]ften, they decided they were liberals because they really didn’t like conservatives.'"

Guardian

"The defense attorney says that Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Claiborne Richardson told her that her client must either plead guilty or police would obtain another search warrant “for pictures of his erect penis.” If that is the case, this is even more serious since it sounds like this abusive warrant was used to try to pressure a plea."

Turley's Blog

'"Yes, I was using drugs that night, but I was in complete control… I cut [my penis] off because that was the root of all my problems. My solution to the problem was the realization that sex is for mortals, and I am a god. ...Those kinds of activities got me into trouble, and I came here to be a god."'

CNN


First it was the pap smear. Then the mammogram. Now it's…

"Proponents of yearly pelvic exams may say that they compel women to seek counsel from their doctors and receive vital information about their own health. (They also, of course, bolster gynecologists' job security.) But it's becoming clear that this line of thinking is self-defeating: There’s no reason for women to report to their doctors every year if they can’t even trust what they’re being told."

Slate

It sounds as if women have to put up with a lot of shit; who would have thought?:

'A well-known male facilitator of equality in the workplace seminars always begins by asking his mix-gendered groups to please make a list of what they do in a typical day to stay safe and to write until the timer goes off. He reports that – always – the women immediately begin to scribble furiously, “park under a light,” “hold my keys in my hand so I can get into the car quickly,” and so on, and that they write right up until the timer goes off. The men, on the other hand, sit there looking bewildered.'

Scholars and Rogues

Oh no, it's the old "Hitler banned guns" canard:

"Does the fact that Nazis forced Jews into horrendous ghettos indict urban planning? Should we eliminate all police officers because the Nazis used police officers to oppress and kill the Jews? What about public works — Hitler loved public works projects? Of course not. These are merely implements that can be used for good or ill, much as gun advocates like to argue about guns themselves. If guns don’t kill people, then neither does gun control cause genocide..."

Salon

Along similar lines, a fake news article fools the TeaPees once again:

"ARE YOU F——-g KIDDING ME !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On the 4th !!!!! He’s going to a mosque of the religion that killed almost 3,000 Americans !!!!!!!! OMG, Beyond insane & cruel !!!"

Let's see, what religion was it that supported sending thousands of Americans to their deaths in Iraq?(FTB)


Faith Healing Chicanery 101 as told by an ex-evangelical fraud (excellent article):

"There were a number of methods used to fake a demonic possession of a house. The simplest trick was having a pocket full of pebbles and occasionally throwing one at a random object. There was little chance of getting caught because there were plenty of distractions taking place, especially since everyone was kept busy praying. After we were done exorcising a room, we devised a great excuse for one of us to hang back for a while so we could clean up the pebbles."

Skeptic

♅

Our Wacky World—6/29/2014

Savor these words: "Fox news cuts Michelle Bachman's mic" Well, he did apologize. But the angry backlash from viewers has already begun. Not to be outdone, Glenn Beck has another staged moment on the air—firing his gun in anger: I guess we're supposed to follow his example somehow.

Sən of York

Jimmy Savile also liked to play with... the dead:

'D'you know what they are? They are glass eyes from dead bodies in Leeds mortuary where I work and I love working there, and I wheel the dead bodies around at night and I love that.'

Guardian

"Ohio Group Toting AR-15s Through Neighborhood Indicted On Menancing Charges"

Apparently "open carry" doesn't mean "walking through town with an AR-15 whilst jestingly pointing out the niggers." (ABC)

WND founder Farah caught with gun in bag at Dulles IA:

"I had carefully folded my clothes before placing them in my bag. I had carefully separated the clean clothes from the dirty clothes. But what I found in my bag was that someone had pulled everything out and then stuffed it all back in with little regard for my future cleaning and laundering bills."

Because that's the first thing you think of when you leave a gun in your bag at the airport. (SPLC)

Oz, the great and terrible, had his ass grilled on Capitol Hill (includes snarky John Oliver video). Here's more:

'John Oliver argued this weekend that, at this point, a more appropriate title for Oz's show would be one that dropped his medical credentials: "Check this shit out with a guy named Mehmet."'

How can you keep an audience enthralled five days a week without an endless parade of bogus crap? (plus he has a magazine,  daily radio spots, etc.) Thanks a lot, Oprah. (Vox)

Tell us how you really feel

"In the South, where researchers sent 3,200 resumes, those with a religious mention got 29 percent fewer email responses and 33 percent fewer phone calls than otherwise identical resumes with no faith ties according to the study"

Did you catch that? If you put religion on your resume you have a significantly lower chance of getting an interview... in the the most "religious" part of the US. I cannot make this shit up. (Religion News)

"A man arrested for allegedly hitting another car and attempting to steal cash and donuts from a gas station reportedly claimed the only thing he was high on at the time was the Holy Spirit. ...the man now faces a litany of charges."

KOMO

'Representative Pettalia quipped “Don’t say we don’t understand women.” The three men smugly held up copies of fashion magazine [sic] in their attempts to appeal to female voters. One has to be pretty deeply immersed in misogynistic patterns of thought to think that the secret to securing more women voters is as simple a holding up a copy of Glamour magazine in front of camera.'

Political USA

Thinking outside the box:

"CIA hatched plan to make demon toy to counter Osama bin Laden’s influence" (includes photos)

Washington Post

'"It's unbelievable," Kelley said. "Unless you were here to see it or see the pictures I've got, you would not believe how huge this thing is." A 105 howitzer artillery shell, 14 and a half inches long and 3 and a half inches across, was lying on his bedroom floor.'

KOAM

Think of the children

The scourge of genital shrinkage—will no one stop this plague? (the article is from 1999—nothing has changed):

"Those affected often take extreme measures and place clamps or string onto the precious organ or have family members hold the penis in relays until an appropriate treatment is obtained, often from native healers"

Skeptic

Are you scrupulous? You may be OCD:

"Traig didn't have a complete Jewish education; she invented her own prayers to say three times a day, until a rabbi taught her the actual words. Rather than fearing sin, which has a distinct meaning in Christianity, Traig was worried she would be punished if she didn't practice her religion correctly. When the space shuttle Challenger exploded in 1986, killing the crew of seven, Traig felt partially responsible."

CNN

May god's love be with you