Good news indeed

Jared Laughner, Gabrielle Giffords Shooter (INFO): "A surgeon is 'very optimistic' about Rep. Giffords. He adds that she was shot in the head 'through and through.'

'We cannot tell what kind of recovery but I'm about as optimistic as it can get in this situation.'

He also says that there are 10 patients from the shooting, one has died, five are in critical condition. The dead patient was a child -- the only one that came to the hospital."

Second Amendment Solutions

Fuck You Sharon Angle

Legal highs: the dark side of medicinal chemistry : Nature News

Legal highs: the dark side of medicinal chemistry : Nature News: "I have never considered my research to be dangerous, and in fact hoped one day to develop medicines to help people. I have worked for nearly four decades synthesizing and studying drugs that might improve the human condition. One type is designed to alleviate the symptoms of Parkinson's disease, and it works superbly in monkey models of the disease. That same research seeks drugs to improve memory and cognition in patients who have schizophrenia, one of the most devastating human conditions. The other substances I work on are psychedelic agents such as LSD and mescaline. It's in that latter area of research that I have published papers about numerous molecules that probably have psychoactive properties in humans. It seems that many of these are now being manufactured and sold as 'legal highs'."

Congresswoman, 6 Others, Killed By Gunman : NPR

Congresswoman, 6 Others, Killed By Gunman : NPR:

"Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and six others died after a gunman opened fire at a public event on Saturday, the Pima County, Ariz., sheriff's office confirms.

The 40-year-old Democrat, who was re-elected to her third term in November, was hosting a 'Congress on Your Corner' event at a Safeway in northwest Tucson when a gunman ran up and started shooting, according to Peter Michaels, news director of Arizona Public Media."

The Tea Partiers better get their asses in gear disowning this kind of shit.

Sarah Palin On Gabrielle Giffords

This kind of rhetoric has consequences.
Fuck you Sarah Palin.

Rabbi Alan Lurie: The Allure of Narcissistic Spirituality

Rabbi Alan Lurie: The Allure of Narcissistic Spirituality: "Spiritual narcissism creates the pretense of holiness as an ego strategy to mask insecurity, receive approval, or avoid struggle and growth. 'I'm a spiritual person' it proclaims proudly. 'I travel to alternate realities, see auras, heal chakras, predict the future, talk to spirits, commune with angels, manipulate energies, meditate for three hours a day, harness the powers of the Universe to attract success. ... The truth is that I'm more evolved than you!' Deep spirituality makes us more sensitive to the feeling of others, encouraging an open stance of courage where we can drop our protective shields and accept the vulnerability to be seen as we are. Narcissistic sensitivity, however, is focused solely on the subtle nuances one's own internality, and resists looking at hard, uncomfortable truths that may upset the self image. One who is narcissistically sensitive is easily offended by the 'coarseness' of others, seeks to make his environment change to align with the contours of his needs, and gets angry or offended when this does not happen."

Representative Gabrielle Giffords shot

Please let this not be an assassination.

Next-generation Mercedes mbrace iPhone app hands-on

Next-generation Mercedes mbrace iPhone app hands-on (video) -- Engadget

: "But, the coolest part is a feature called Drive2Friend. Enter in your pal's mobile number and the app will fire off a text message to them with your name and a message indicating that you're trying to find them. If the friend agrees their location is sent back to the car and you get directions, like, right there, even if they're clubbin' it up. We're told it uses cellular triangulation and that only a TXT is delivered, so it'll work with nearly any phone that's come along since the dawn of text messaging."

Full disclosure, this is the company that pays me every two weeks.
I would think it was cool even if they didn't.

ZVTS: Don't Throw Me In The Mandate Briar Patch

Zandar Versus The Stupid: Don't Throw Me In The Mandate Briar Patch

Slate's Adam Chandler and Luke Norris argue that if the insurance mandate part of the HCRA is struck down as unconstitutional, it should be replaced by the public option.

This would be brilliant!

Video - Some Dancehall

Video - The Heavy - How you Like Me now

Has ASUS discovered the strategy to take down the iPad? | Tech Sanity Check | TechRepublic.com

Has ASUS discovered the strategy to take down the iPad? | Tech Sanity Check | TechRepublic.com: "ASUS clearly watches a lot of what Apple does — Apple’s name came up at least half a dozen times in its press conference — and has decided that the iPad is a serious threat to its laptop business, otherwise it would not have dedicated so much of its resources and marketing to its new tablets.

Here is a quick summary of the four ASUS tablets:"

10 Best Movies of 2010: The Social Network | Rolling Stone | Lists

10 Best Movies of 2010: The Social Network | Rolling Stone | Lists: "This is the movie that told us who we were this year, this decade: willing slaves to technology as a substitute for direct communication. Forget the letters of protest. You're probably text-messaging them on your BlackBerry. Or voicing them on iChat. Of course, the invention of Facebook by Mark Zuckerberg, played to potent perfection by Jesse Eisenberg, is just a part of the social-networking boom. What director David Fincher and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin are doing in this movie, which IMHO surpasses all other movies this year, is using Facebook to hold up a mirror to the way we live now. And doing it with wit, imagination, honesty and satire so cutting it can open wounds. Don't be afraid of friending The Social Network. It might just open your eyes beyond your computer screen."

differences between a genius and the rest of us - part 456

Richard Feynman and The Connection Machine - The Long Now: "To find out how well this would work in practice, Feynman had to write a computer program for QCD. Since the only computer language Richard was really familiar with was Basic, he made up a parallel version of Basic in which he wrote the program and then simulated it by hand to estimate how fast it would run on the Connection Machine."

Happy Birthday Elvis

10 Worst Movies of 2010: The Tourist | Rolling Stone | Lists

10 Worst Movies of 2010: The Tourist | Rolling Stone | Lists: "I laughed like hell when this lame-ass thriller got a Golden Globe nod as Best Movie (Comedy or Musical). All the laughs are unintentional. And Golden Dildo acting nominees Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie hit career lows, producing the chemistry of high-fashion zombies. The worst of the year, by a mile"

things that will never happen - part 423

Dylan Ratigan: Free Market Fraud: "So I have a challenge for those so-called free market Republicans who rode a wave of voter discontent into Washington. I challenge you to end massive corporate subsidies. To end tax loopholes. And to end rigged trade with China and release the true power of free markets."

video - Leon Walker - Annabella

All Muslims Support Terror - My Ass

ThinkProgress » Thousands Of Egyptian Muslims Show Up As ‘Human Shields’ To Defend Coptic Christians From Terrorism: "Yet by Coptic Christmas Eve, which took place Thursday night in Egypt, things had changed completely. As Egyptian Copts attended mass at churches across the country, “thousands” of Muslims, including “the two sons of President Hosni Mubarak,” joined them, acting as “human shields” to protect from terrorist attacks by extremists. The Muslims organized under the slogan “We either live together, or we die together,” inspired by Mohamed El-Sawy, an Egyptian artist:"

Matt Taibbi: The Crying Shame of John Boehner | Rolling Stone Politics

Matt Taibbi: The Crying Shame of John Boehner | Rolling Stone Politics

John Boehner is the ultimate Beltway hack, a man whose unmatched and self-serving skill at political survival has made him, after two decades in Washington, the hairy blue mold on the American congressional sandwich. The biographer who somewhere down the line tackles the question of Boehner's legacy will do well to simply throw out any references to party affiliation, because the thing that has made Boehner who he is — the thing that has finally lifted him to the apex of legislative power in America — has almost nothing to do with his being a Republican

The rest of this is terrific and you should really go read it.

Or Maybe People Just Like Jobs and Roads and Being Able to Take the Bus to Work

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Or Maybe People Just Like Jobs and Roads and Being Able to Take the Bus to Work: "And I reject the notion that the government building roads is “Big Government.” Do we really not even agree anymore that one of the unarguably legitimate roles of government is to build roads, bridges, etc? But then again, this is Jennifer Rubin, who thinks the only legitimate role of the US government is the defense of Israel."

Video - Fall Out Boy - Saturday

John Cauthorn Please STFU

Good Times in the Show Me State | Talking Points Memo: "Says Rep. John Cauthorn (R-Mexico): 'The average guy on the street hates Spanish, and it is everywhere. To the average guy, that is important. We are almost to the point of losing our identity as a nation.'"

XKCD - How to write good code

having spend the bigger part of my life in the pursuit of good code, I can attest that this is largely correct.

Ezra Klein - Omnibus post on the 'gimmicks' in the CBO's score of the health-care law

Ezra Klein - Omnibus post on the 'gimmicks' in the CBO's score of the health-care law: "Whenever the health-care law and its CBO score comes back into the news, I get deluged with requests to respond to various Republican critiques of the bill's score. Earlier today, for instance, John asked:

Can you please respond to John Boehner and Paul Ryan's assertions that CBO was given incorrect assumptions when scoring the health care bill. Specifically cited as phony scoring is:

1) $115 billion implementation costs left out
2) Double counting of social security payroll taxes
3) Class Act premiums
4) Medicare Cuts
5) Doc Fix

Sure."

Thoughts upon my Birthday

I turned 49 today and it occurs to me that i am a very fortunate man.

I have a wonderful daughter.
I have a great relationship with my ex-wife.
I have a job that I love and that holds great promise for the future
I have a woman in my life that i adore and that makes me smile at least once a day.

We should all be so fortunate.
Peace

Andrew Wakefield can feel free to die in a fire

The Autism/MMR Fraud | The Incidental Economist: "Today, just now, the BMJ released an article by Brian Deer that describes, in detail, how Wakefield’s entire paper wasn’t just junk science – it was a lie. He changed the records, he changed the stories, and he changed the numbers to create an association where none existed. Mr. Deer seems to have tracked down every single patient in the study and showed how none of their stories or information match up to the final paper. In an accompanying editorial in the BMJ, the editors say:"

Michael G. Messner - Olmsted's ideals could help solve our real estate mess

Michael G. Messner - Olmsted's ideals could help solve our real estate mess: "Beginning with Atlanta, Georgia Tech is researching what is needed to accomplish this in 12 major cities. The project is known as Red Fields to Green Fields. Under this plan, some of the abandoned or underutilized property would be acquired by a parks agency or by public-private partnerships, which would then begin demolition, park design and construction, putting people to work immediately. More jobs would come as the improved areas attracted development."

GOP bends its own new House rules - Jake Sherman - POLITICO.com

GOP bends its own new House rules - Jake Sherman - POLITICO.com: "After calling for bills to go through a regular committee process, the bill that would repeal the health care law will not go through a single committee. Despite promising a more open amendment process for bills, amendments for the health care repeal will be all but shut down. After calling for a strict committee attendance list to be posted online, Republicans backpedaled and ditched that from the rules. They promised constitutional citations for every bill but have yet to add that language to early bills."

Why Chick Tracts are evil

Impressive stupidity ... for the full effect go here

Video - bad religion - Epiphany

happy Birthday to me!

CPAC Conservatives Shun “Crazy Bigot” Gaffney | Religion Dispatches

CPAC Conservatives Shun “Crazy Bigot” Gaffney | Religion Dispatches: "Frank Gaffney, the Islamophobic activist bent on getting Congress to investigate 'creeping shari'ah,' talked to the conspiracy web site World Net Daily, claiming 'that CPAC has come under the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is working to bring America under Saudi-style Shariah law.' "

Video - Shakira - Loca

New folk Duo

Zandar Versus The Stupid: Zandar's Thought Of The Day: "I swear, Megan McArdle and Jennifer Rubin should start a folk duo and call it 'We Have No Idea What The Hell We're Talking About, But Let's Cut Taxes Anyway.'"

On Colorblindness and Civil rights

The Plum Line - Rubin still flat wrong about Black Panther nonsense: "As to whether or not there is 'colorblind' enforcement of civil rights laws, I find the use of the term in this context, by both liberals and conservatives, to be a symptom of America's near-pathological affinity for political correctness. The Civil Rights Division was created by President Dwight Eisenhower in order to ensure that the federal government could enforce the civil rights of black Americans in the South during Jim Crow. There's no question that civil rights laws cover Americans of all backgrounds -- and indeed, the voting section under Obama has intervened on behalf of white voters. But civil rights enforcement can't be anymore 'race-neutral' than our own society or history. Ensuring that people's rights are protected regardless of race can't actually be achieved through color-blindness."

Former Bush Advisor Greg Mankiw Wants Even More Wealth Inequality | Firedoglake

Former Bush Advisor Greg Mankiw Wants Even More Wealth Inequality | Firedoglake: "Remember: Mankiw is not some wingnut radio host in Tuscaloosa. He’s a Harvard professor and a former advisor to George W. Bush, and he’s looking at the deficit and massive wealth inequality and saying, “more please.” This is where the right is in 2011."