Our Wacky World—10/4/2015

From the great and... well, the terrible Rush Limbaugh:

“Don't know how long it's going to take, but this news that there is flowing water on Mars is somehow going to find its way into a technique to advance the leftist agenda.”

Politico

Why stop there?:

"‘Dems and Leftists’ Want to Genetically Modify Us to Combat Climate Change”

Mediaite


Yogi Berra, great philosopher, dead at 90. "It ain't over 'till it's over” is one worthy of Sun Tzu. Rene Déscartes? Also-ran.

"The man charged in a California kidnapping that police initially dismissed as a hoax told a television news reporter he had a psychotic break and a side effect from a vaccine was to blame in part for his behavior"

Doubtful News (original article unavailable)

An historic breakthrough:

"An English historian has come across the word ‘fuck’ in a court case dating to the year 1310, making it the earliest known reference to the swear word.”

Swear word? I thought it was an obscenity. (Medievalists)

'At a council meeting this month, Goodman explained how drooping denim is “disrespectful,” a bad example to children, and bars the wearer from gainful employment. He told his colleagues what he told a Daily Beast reporter: “I prayed about this. I know that God would not go around with pants down.”'

Liberaland


Carly Fiorina’s HP legacy is costing her contributions—from former employees:

“I don’t care if she’s a Democrat, Republican, or Independent. I would not support her for president,” Soderstrom said. “I would not give her two cents.”

Daily Beast

"The Australian government is fighting back against the unrelenting terrorist threat that threatens to consume every Western nation. It, too, has noticed that youngsters and their SnapChats are particularly prone to radicalization from outside forces. As Richard Chirgwin of the Register points out, it has chosen to address this threat to Australian society in the way only a government agency can: with a blend of the bizarre and the tone deaf.”

Techdirt

‘...public interest organizations raised alarm over his company buying a long-used medicine, Daraprim, in the treatment of AIDS and immediately raised the price of $13.50 a pill to $750 a pill. When a reporter asked him to explain the increase for a drug that has been on the market for 62 years, Shkreli called him a “moron” and refused to answer the question.’

Turley's Blog

Later:

"...hiking the price of a drug by 5,000 percent just because you can invites...government meddling, which is why the pharmaceutical industry isn't happy with Turing."

Chicago Tribune


How to torture your child:

'Although the patient was recovering, it appears that the team was at a loss until the child’s parents revealed a game-changing piece of information later in the admission. Six months before his pain and other worrisome symptoms began, they had sought treatment for his eczema from a “natural health practitioner.”'

Science-Based Medicine

"Donald Trump spoke at the Values Voters Summit on Friday...and told the crowd that if he’s elected president, people will damn well say Merry Christmas in department stores because, in the bizarro world he lives in, no one says that phrase anymore."

Dispatches From The Culture Wars

"If the goal of the pro-life movement actually were to end abortion, both tactics and results would be radically different. Imagine a fictional person whose chief life goal is to reduce abortion by, say, 90 percent over the next 20 years. It might come as a surprise to the audience of today’s antiabortion theater—but our protagonist’s goal is attainable. Armed with just the information and technologies available today, someone genuinely committed to reducing abortion by 90 percent in 20 years could map out a plan to get there—and even make people’s lives better in the process.”

But then that’s not what it’s about, is it? (Salon)


Let us once again visit one of my least favorite topics—the shit that will not die:

“The fact that this asshole has the audacity to offer expert testimony today is amazing. Ultimately, an eight-year-old kid was murdered, and I feel the medical professionals involved in that case are culpable and they’ve never been held accountable.”

“Americans prefer black-and-white problems with simple answers… Part of the appeal of Satanic ritual abuse was that when someone we knew molested a child after our protection efforts had failed, it was easier to escape guilt by blaming it on an evil Satanist...”

So did a dingo ate the baby? Don’t even bother to Google that. (Pacific Standard)


FINALLY:

"Today, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that copyright holders like Universal must consider fair use before trying to remove content from the Internet. It also rejected Universal’s claim that a victim of takedown abuse cannot vindicate her rights if she cannot show actual monetary loss.”

EFF

'States that defended same-sex marriage bans...are now being asked to pay the legal fees for those litigants under a 40-year-old federal law that says the court “in its discretion, may allow the prevailing party … a reasonable attorney’s fee as part of the costs.” Or as Michigan attorney Dana Nessel put it: “It’s the price governments pay for defending bigotry.”'

al Jazeera

Our Wacky World—8/31/2015

Oliver Sacks, M.D.  dead at 82:

'Dr. Sacks discomfited some readers, who maintained that he capitalized on his patients’ suffering to form handy parables. Tom Shakespeare, a British disability rights activist, called him “the man who mistook his patients for a literary career.”'

Yeah, right. They said the same sort of shit about Carl Sagan's celebrity. Just can’t please everybody. Titicut Follies, anyone?

Sacks filled a gap that no one else did. Having read most of his books I find the criticism misplaced except for the possibility of his having been fooled by some charlatans, specifically some patients considered “savants”.  (Washington Post)

Ten years after Hurricane Katrina the lies are still going strong:

"There was, of course, the purported chaos at the city’s two shelters of last resort: the Superdome and the Convention Center. The rape and murder of a 7-year-old girl at the convention center, dozens of killings at the Superdome, bodies piled up at both. 

"But by the end of September 2005, reporting by The Times-Picayune debunked many of these stories. In fact, officials only confirmed one killing at either site: Danny Brumfield, who was shot by police."

The Lens

Well fuck me

'One of the “rarest creatures in the world” has been spotted for only the third time ever off the coast of Papua New Guinea by a US biologist.’

We can photograph a rare animal in the wild but there’s not so much as a decent shot of Bigfoot, let alone any bones. What does this tell you? (Doubtful News)


The latest issue of Skeptical Inquirer has an apalling article by one of the “guerilla skeptics” saying that all the talk of a Wikipedia “conspiracy” is just a “myth.” Here’s an overview of what’s really happening there (among other things):

'...the only hard conclusion I can reach is rather simple: that Wikipedia as an active community is dying, and no one can stop it. Because it is based on lies. The content? Hell with that. It was just the "honeypot" to build the community.'

Wikipedia Sucks Badly


How to make creationism sound… better, through bad science:

'If I'm holding a rock in my hand and I educate you that it has always existed, since infinite time in the past, and it's going to be around for infinite time in the future, do I need to stoop and concoct some ridiculous fairytale as to "What created the rock ?” NO ! It has ALWAYS existed . . . Period ! When things don't have "beginnings" and "ends", there's no need to entertain juvenile thoughts of "Where did it all come from ?". 

[C- so far for the really bad grammar etc. I don't have time to insert "sic" everywhere.]

'IF . . . you understand this, please help us. We are in a new era of atheism and need to unite this world. We can't be presenting ourselves as buffoons to the religious world. We're asking you for a puny $ 10 to assist us in spreading this HISTORIC awakening. 3 months from now you certainly won't be hurting that you gave 10 dollars, so why hesitate ?’

Are you saying that this theoretical “rock” has existed forever? As in “before our solar system formed” and “before the super nova that created the transferric elements in our solar system?”

What happens when our sun becomes a red giant? (sorry, it has to run out of fusible material some time). Where will this planet be then? Forget the fucking rock…

The only thing remotely infinite here is the sheer vacuity of this pseudo-scientific ass-cheekery. When did YOU turn up, son?

Big Bang No No No

'Our “Conspira-Sea Cruise and Seminar-at-Sea” takes place right on our luxury cruise ship during our seven-day cruise, in conference rooms on the ship, and during our port calls in Mexico. During this incredible, mind-blowing, truth-telling, spiritually enriching event, we will do our best to uncover the truth about things conspiratorial, including: 

'GMOs, Monsanto, bee colony collapse, ecology, global warming, climate change, fracking, HIV, autism, big pharma, medical suppression, vaccinations, flouridation [sic], political corruption, government corruption, forbidden archeology, forbidden religion, Federal Reserve, truth about money, World Bank, IRS, strawman, property title, admiralty law, martial law, Bohemian Grove, Skull and Bones, JFK, cover-ups, September 11, Star Wars agenda, nuclear plants, chemtrails, HAARP, crop circles, IRS, MK-Ultra, Fukashima [sic], NASA, NSA, Bilderbergs, sustainability, military industrial complex, pentagon [sic], Waco, Malaysia 370, Pan Am 103, TWA 800, Gulf Oil Spill, Halliburton, Obama, Ruby Ridge, OK City, Vatican, New World Order, false flags, Montauk, privacy, surveillance, Area 51, Dulce, Project Rainbow, Nazi Bell, Vrill, U.S.S. Eldridge, Iron Mountain, psyops, population mangement [sic], subliminal ads, Nibiru / Planet X, Cointel Pro, technology suppression, entity possession, electoral fraud, identity chips, 2nd amendment, and so much more.’

Did they forget anything? (Science Based Medicine)

'“You know there isn’t a single hamburger to be found on Taco Bell’s menu,” Clem asked our interviewer rhetorically while adding, “there is nothing more American than a hamburger. So I have to ask, what is about America that Taco Bell hates?” Would it kill them to put a nice steak and potato meal on their menu? I mean, steak and potatoes is American as fuck. But no, it’s all taco this and burrito that. It’s offensive to me…'

Hoax site.

Some good ones on Turlely's blog this month...

"Teixeira has been a regular critic of the mayor and officials in the City of Inglewood and has posted excerpts from city council video recordings. In an outrageous act, the city responded to the criticism by accusing him of infringing copyright laws in posting public meetings.”

Jonathan Turley

"There is another gruesome case of practicing medicine without a license in Florida where Mark D. Schreiber, 60, is accused of mutilating a patient’s penis while attempting to remove an implant from it. It probably should have tipped off the victim that something was not quite right when he was sent to meet Dr. Mark at a warehouse to pay him $1,000 cash to remove the implant.”

Jonathan Turley

"Florida Mom Jailed After She Allegedly Abandoned Kids In Running Car To Drink And Had 4-Year-Old Son Use Breathalyzer To Start Car”

Jonathan Turley

'Deaths related to the main pollutant...total 1.6 million a year, or 17 percent of China’s mortality level... “When I was last in Beijing, pollution was at the hazardous level: Every hour of exposure reduced my life expectancy by 20 minutes… It’s as if every man, woman and child smoked 1.5 cigarettes each hour.”'

Washington Post

"‘Fake’ Doctor Prescribed Ventura County Cancer Patient Bag of Dirt, Charged Her $2,000”

KTLA

Here’s the good “doctor”’s web site.

"I got a phone call on the phone telling me to bring the delivery back, saying that I couldn't do the delivery," Bradley said... "I asked him why I couldn't do it and he said because you're black and they don't want you at the house… I thought that Lowe's would take up for me."

IB Times

"At least 3,500 Americans have been detained inside a Chicago police warehouse described by some of its arrestees as a secretive interrogation facility, newly uncovered records reveal. Of the thousands held in the facility known as Homan Square over a decade, 82% were black. Only three received documented visits from an attorney, according to a cache of documents obtained when the Guardian sued the police.”

Guardian

Our Wacky World—8/3/2015

We came in peace for all Whitemankind:

'While the parade of Confederate flags were passing through [the 77% black] town, video captured what appeared to be a bottle of water being thrown at Oliver's truck. "My initial reaction was, 'What the hell?'" Oliver recalled, adding that he could not understand why he had not been welcomed into the community.’

Crooks & Liars


Jesus is down with oral sex because god made men horny:

“...most doctors advice [sic] women not to have vaginal intercourse for 6 to 8 weeks after giving birth. If a man were to try and have vaginal sex with his wife during this period it would be highly painful for her and it might cause complications with her healing process. But that does not mean a woman cannot meet her husband’s sexual needs in other ways during this time. God has given her the ability to manually or orally satisfy her husband in order to meet his sexual needs...”

Very small penis and an apparently bottomless ass. He digs the hole deeper in the (mostly very negative) comments so you might want to appall yourself even more by reading them:

"Look up Stockholm Syndrome, Sarah, because what you and the writer of this blog are advocating fall under that disorder. If there is a war against Christianity, you people are on the forefront of the destroying army; this swill turns more people against Christ."

Gosh, what would Jesus say? "Bloody WANKERS" (Biblical Gender Roles)

Have to pay for all that neon

"Rene Quinton did experiments on abandoned dogs in 1897. In one experiment he completely removed a dog’s blood and replaced it with diluted seawater. The dog developed an infection and fever, but recovered and by the eighth day had become exaggeratedly exuberant and ran about wildly. Five years later the dog was still alive and well. 

"Based on this experiment, some people have suggested sea water could be used as a substitute for blood transfusions, which would be a great boon for Jehovah’s Witnesses if it worked.”

Science Based Medicine


Looks like the free ride is over in the UK. Cameron speaks:

“For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens: as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone. It’s often meant we have stood neutral between different values. And that’s helped foster a narrative of extremism and grievance.”

'It is hard to see how much unpopular speech would not pose a “risk of harassment, alarm, or distress.” I am not even sure what “creating a threat to the function of democracy” means. More importantly, speakers will not know what the government will view as violating such ill-defined terms.'

Jonathan Turley

"Ninety-five percent of women who have had abortions do not regret the decision to terminate their pregnancies… The conclusion comes after a three-year research period involving nearly 670 women of all social backgrounds"

Time

The great Kevin Trudeau payback is about to begin:

'The plan greenlighted by U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman calls for the Federal Trade Commission to send several rounds of checks to purchasers of the hit book The Weight Loss Cure 'They' Don’t Want You to Know About using an address list turned over after the government sued Trudeau for lying about the contents of the book in his infomercials.'

Doubtful News


What a fucking surprise:

"Arizona tested more than 87,000 welfare recipients in the three years after the program began. The total number of drug cheats caught was exactly one — a single positive result, which saved the state precisely $560. 

"The net savings reaped from withholding benefits for those who either tested positive or failed to complete a drug test was around $3,500, once the $500 cost of testing the 19 is factored in, according to one state agency report. The haul is especially unimpressive when you consider the $1.7 million in savings state officials promised when they unveiled the program.”

Be sure to read the rest of it—it just increases in stupidity. Of course, their big mistake was not being conservative enough. They’ll try harder next time. (Policy Mic)

"God bless Ms. Coulter and hopefully some churches can throw in a prayer or two that she never has to sniff a fart by some uncouth immigrants in a crowded New York subway car, and her soul be saved from perdition. Maybe, a hymn can be rendered immediately to have her finely toned legs walk only on the finest of Persian red carpets in rooms full of Italian chandeliers instead of what Dominique Lapierre endured in the Pilkhana slum in Calcutta, living amongst lepers, to write the City of Joy. May degenerate peasant cultures never intrude on her lifestyle as she eats some artisan bread made by ‘peasants’."

American Bazaar

Also:

"Can you please not criticize Ann Coulter by talking about her prominent Adam’s apple, or saying she looks like a man? It’s sexist, and it’s transphobic. It’s sexist because you’re criticizing a woman in the public sphere by insulting her appearance, when that shouldn’t be relevant. And it’s both sexist and transphobic to insult women by saying they look like men: it reinforces the rigid gender binary, and reinforces the gender policing of trans people. There are approximately 879,500,403 legitimately negative things you can say about Ann Coulter. There’s no need to resort to sexism and transphobia. Thanks."

Yeah. (Greta Christina)

An exciting new form of ancient Chinese reflexology!:

"Pimples between the brows indicate an overloaded liver. People with pimples between the brows experience chest tightness, heart irregularity. May also be caused by bangs/hair fringe, as filth and bacteria accumulation from dirty hair stains the skin.

"Pimples near the eyes and nose indicate poor liver function. You are probably very tired, sleep very little, and are under constant stress. Your diet lacks essential nutrients."

Bun Bun Makeup Tips

"At the Y-12 facility, in addition to the three fences the protestors had to cut through with wire-cutters, there were cameras and motion detectors. But we too easily forget that technology has to be maintained and watched to be effective. ...20 percent of the Y-12 cameras were not working on the night the activists broke in. Cameras and motion detectors that had been broken for months had gone unrepaired. A security guard was chatting rather than watching the feed from a camera that did work. And guards ignored the motion detectors, which were so often set off by local wildlife that they assumed all alarms were false positives.”

The Bulletin Of The Atomic Scientists

'A French court on Tuesday jailed a woman, known as "Madame Yoghurt" for three years for conning thousands into buying a kit to make "magic cheese" that they could sell back to French cosmetics companies for use in luxury beauty products.'

The Local

"Dr. Schwartz started working with sub-audible sounds that interact with the same frequencies of human, biological cells. Being able to reprogram our cellular biology has led to major advancements in some of today’s most challenging health conditions. As Dr. Schwartz’s own research progressed, he began exploring the healing effects of musical instruments and other audible frequencies on the human body. This profound work provided the foundation for Bioharmonic Technologies and served as the origin of the Tonal Alchemy Series. Bioharmonic Technologies is currently working on a wide variety of healing music projects. Each CD will provide the customer with a unique listening experience while creating a lasting, therapeutic effect on one’s physical, emotional, and spiritual body."

Bioharmonic Technolgies

"The Raelian Movement...made a formal request to the government of Portugal asking it to build an embassy for extraterrestrials in the country. This space would serve not only as a diplomatic mission but also for the landing of spacecrafts. In a total area of 4,000 square meters (approximately 43,056 square feet), there would still be an expansive lawn, swimming pool, meeting room and accommodation aimed to the rest of the intergalactic visitors."

Folha de S.Paulo