Sounds Yummy

THE STRANGEST SPICE | More Intelligent Life: "The best rub for grilled pork or chicken: Put into a dry frying pan: 2 tablespoons each of fennel seeds and black peppercorns; 3 tablespoons of Sichuan peppercorns; ½ a cinnamon stick; 4 star anise. If you’d like to add a few whole cloves or coriander seeds, feel free. Toast them for a few minutes, just until they smell warm and fragrant. Grind them to powder. I use a coffee grinder, but do be sure to clean it before your coffee the next morning. Combine them with ¼ cup each brown sugar and kosher salt. Use liberally; it will keep, sealed in a cupboard, for a few months. [Recipe adapted from Steven Raichlen.]"

On the relative danger of Islamic Extremists

How right-wing hysterics keep danger levels high for the nation's law-enforcement officers | Crooks and Liars: "Today’s terrorists do not share a particular ethnic, educational or socioeconomic background. Recently, when state law enforcement agencies were asked to identify terror groups in their states, Muslim extremist groups ranked 11th on a list of 18."

On Guinea Pigs for lunch

HOW TO EAT A GUINEA PIG | More Intelligent Life: "The body of the cuy was pierced at various points to let the fat run out. With much difficulty I split it open with the dull table knife. Inside there was a dark green stuffing, made mostly of parsley and flavored with various herbs. It was potent and aromatic, but as I dipped in a second time, I came up with a fork of noodle-like stuff; the animal’s intestines were mixed in with the green. So much for the stuffing. I took a deep breath for courage then cut and mostly combed at the meat with my fork. It was a labor- intensive dish. I found I had to separate the thin sheets of meat from the leather and subcutaneous fat. After giving Michelle and Nancy as much as they would accept--about two teaspoons each, I tried the meat. It was pungent, perhaps from the herb stuffing. There was a slipperiness to it. It was stringy and chewy and tasted like pork. And that was enough cuy for me."

Tea Party Neat Freaks

Late Night: At Least We’re Not the Ones Trashing, You Know, The Planet… | Firedoglake: "There’s a certain piquancy in that the news of the teabag swabbing-crew comes to us from Jim Hoft, who earlier this week was squealing amusingly about the “estimate” that it would cost (Dr. Evil, pinkie in mouth) SEVEN MILLION DOLLARS! to clean up after the protests, an “estimate” that turned out to be “hilarious bullshit.” As I’ve said before, though, this makes sense; anyone stupid enough to genuinely believe it would cost $7.5 million to tidy up after the protests is someone genuinely stupid to believe that public school teachers are the reason the economy sucks."

On sexual economics

The Market For Sex - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan: "Equating an intimate act to a business transaction is not only crass and reductive; it is also analytically misleading. The analogy to commerce implies an adversarial situation wherein the buyer always wants to pay the minimum and the seller wants to get the maximum. But men often find themselves bestowing attention, falling in love, and getting married after they have already been sleeping with the woman in question. Sexual economics has trouble accounting for that. Men willingly overspend, which describes approximately no one who buys a car. Similarly, the pay-for-play hypothesis fails to capture the fact that most women do not want to extract caring and love from a person disinclined to offer it, and they do not see sex as something they wish they could avoid until marriage."

Wireless Memory Cards?

How does the Eye-Fi card work? | Eye-Fi:

"It all started with a very simple idea: what if photos could just fly to where you want them to be? That’s how a memory card with antenna and magical superpowers was born."

Ok, I will admit that if this works it is kind of nifty

On rational markets

Boston Review — Jonathan Kirshner: Business As Usual:

"It is now clear that two foundations of anti-Keynesianism—rational expectations and the efficient-markets hypothesis, both of which are embraced by mainstream economics despite the absence of empirical support—are simply wrong. Market actors do not efficiently and hyper-rationally process all available information in the context of well-defined risks and with a shared knowledge of the correct underlying model. Instead, they have what could be called “realistic” expectations. They do the best they can to process information guided by the psychology and instincts that Keynes called “animal spirits,” making guesses about the sentiment of the crowd in an environment characterized by uncertainty. And asset prices are not always and everywhere “accurate.” Rather, as Johnson and Kwak explain, it turns out “prices could wander far away from fundamental values for indefinite periods of time.” Stiglitz and Roubini, too, are Keynesian in their thinking, and particularly worth tracking down is Posner’s clear-eyed and admirably open-minded essay “How I Became a Keynesian,” in which the dyed-in-the-wool conservative concludes that Keynes was “the best guide we have to the crisis.”"

Via Andrew Sullivan

Right To Work Laws Lower wages?

Balloon Juice » Another Con:

"Empirically, the argument that RTW laws will, in the long run, lead to higher wages is not accurate either. Since the Taft-Hartley Act was passed in 1947, and since 18 of the 22 RTW states had passed RTW laws by 1955, the long run should have already arrived. But the evidence indicates, as
noted above (Gould and Shierholz, 2011), that wages and benefits today are lower for union and non-union workers in RTW states than in non-RTW states. If the Chamber’s argument seems familiar, it is because it is the same “trickle-down” approach that has been used repeatedly in the past thirty years."

As I often say ... feature not bug

Health Insurance Exec Salaries

Daily Kos: No wonder health costs are so high: "But nowhere in the nation does it seem that Blue Cross is willing to moderate itself. WellPoint, which runs Blue Cross plans in 14 states, including California, raised compensation 51 percent in 2009 for CEO Angela Braly, to $13.1 million. Other top WellPoint executives received similar percentage hikes, taking home between $4.5 million and $7.2 million, according to the Los Angeles Times. Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey gave recently retired CEO William Marino a 59 percent pay boost in 2009, to $8.7 million, and its top 10 executives received an average 61 percent raise, totaling $24.3 million."

Video - Nature by Numbers

Booman on the oppression of whites in america

Booman Tribune ~ A Progressive Community: "I don't know. The fact that I have no feeling of racial solidarity with fellow whites probably means I haven't been dispossessed, do not suffer from systemic disadvantages, and don't have the slightest need for any organization to represent the interests of my race."

A Brief History Of Unions

Louis C.K. on being White

Balloon Juice Commenter of the day

Balloon Juice » Fiscal Conservatism At Work: "Ryan - March 5, 2011 | 11:38 am · Link

The Republicans conflate the inflicting of as much pain as possible with responsibility."

Impressive Cabinet Material

BBC NEWS | Europe | Diverging paths on gender equality: "The glamorous new Minister for Equal Opportunities, 32-year-old Mara Carfagna, is a former showgirl from one of Mr Berlusconi's television networks.
She also came sixth in the 1997 Miss Italy contest.
'You are simply gorgeous,' an admirer posted on the new minister's website on her first day in office.
An MP since 2006, she lists her main hobby as 'collecting pens' according to one of her profiles"

On the pernicious impact of DOMA

Bruce Severino: Marriage right differs from rite  - Op-Ed Commentaries - The Charleston Gazette - West Virginia News and Sports -: "The GAO reported that DOMA had effectively deprived same-sex unions of the protections and benefits of approximately 1,049 federal laws."

On Hair Length - An Argentinian Perspective

CABINET // Barbers and Barbarians:

"I answer with my work. I wake up early every morning. I go to work. This is my product, and I’ve come to work. … It’s not a military attitude, because it’s not that I like hair to be short. Not at all. But there are studies about this. They’ve done analyses of the players … the number of times they touch their hair when they have it long and when they have it short. I think it’s a discourtesy. Long hair is dangerous."

Full disclosure here ... I live with a lovely and talented woman from Argentina and she does not share this opinion

How to deal with BS

In Defense of Mockery : Pharyngula: "Mock. Point. Laugh. State facts. Satirize. Call a lie, a lie. Mock again. Laugh again. Point to facts again. Repeat. Repeat again. Repeat yet again, until everyone thinks twice before ever uttering anything so destructive, ignorant and idiotic in public."

Another Stupid Republican Governor

They have funny standards of feminine beauty in Maine : Pharyngula:

The Rethuglican governor of Maine, Paul LePage, has been dismissing the health risks from Bisphenol A, an additive to plastics which is known to be an estrogen mimic. His remarks take 'Not even wrong' to whole new levels of crazy:

The only thing that I've heard is if you take a plastic bottle and put it in the microwave and you heat it up, it gives off a chemical similar to estrogen. So the worst case is some women may have little beards.

On Naturopathy

Naturopathy versus science : Respectful Insolence: "Unfortunately, naturopathy is a hodge-podge of mostly unscientific treatment modalities based on vitalism and other prescientific notions of disease. As a result, typical naturopaths are more than happy in essence to 'pick one from column A and one from column B' when it comes to pseudoscience, mixing and matching treatments including traditional Chinese medicine, homeopathy, herbalism, Ayurvedic medicine, applied kinesiology, anthroposophical medicine, reflexology, craniosacral therapy, Bowen Technique, and pretty much any other form of unscientific or prescientific medicine that you can imagine. Despite their affinity for non-science-based medical systems, naturopaths crave the imprimatur of scien"

Look For The Union Label - On your Weekend

ThinkProgress » REPORT: Five Things Unions Have Done For All Americans: "Conservatives have sought to malign this movement by claiming that it is simply defending the parochial interests of labor unions, who they claim are imposing huge costs on taxpayers with little benefit. Yet the truth is that America’s public and private unions have been one of the major forces in building a robust and vibrant middle class and have fought over the past century to improve the lives of all Americans in a variety of ways. ThinkProgress has assembled just five of the many things that Americans can thank the nation’s unions for giving us all:"

Stupid Anti-Vaccination Post of the day

Vaccines interfere with your body’s ability to naturally kill viruses, bacteria, parasites and tumor cells | PRESS Core – Evidentiary News, World News, Special Reports, Technolgy, Health, Videos: "Vaccines destroys the body’s natural immunization response to attacks by viruses and micro organisms by interfering with the body’s production and release of interferons. Interferons are proteins made and released by lymphocytes in response to the presence of pathogens as viruses, bacteria, parasites or tumor cells. They allow communication between cells to trigger the protective defenses of the immune system that eradicate pathogens or tumors."

On Age Standards for Web Browsing

Apple: You Must Be 17+ To Use Opera - Slashdot: "'I'm very concerned,' Jan Standal, VP of Desktop Products for Opera Software, said in a statement. 'Seventeen is very young, and I am not sure if, at that age, people are ready to use such an application. It's very fast, you know, and it has a lot of features. I think the download requirement should be at least 18.'''"

Hillary Clinton on our broken media

WOMEN'S LENS - Un coup d'oeil féminin: Hillary Clinton Calls Al Jazeera 'Real News,' Criticizes U.S. Media (VIDEO):

"Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday that Al Jazeera is gaining more prominence in the U.S. because it offers 'real news' -- something she said American media were falling far short of doing."

Wow! Imagine if this worked

Your Friday Dose of Woo: The Emperor of the Woo-niverse : Respectful Insolence:

The Projector opens a doorway into the holographic structure of the universe.

This creates a merging scalar field that shifts the consciousness of the hydrogen atom within the cell, into an alternate space-time reality.The Projector cuts of the counterintention and transmutes negative energies.

It literally removes negative energies before they were created. This means once you get in tune with the Projector it will help you achieve any goal! It gets direct results. Plus it...

• Increases your aibility to express and feel consciousness
• De-spirals the DNA into the fourth dimension
• Makes the body become invisible to these rapidly deteriorating environmental conditions

Of course it is all incredible Bullshit.

Pinning My Irony Meter

Zandar Versus The Stupid: If You Can't Trust The State's Top Election Official To Vote Properly...: "The big political story here in the tri-state is the indictment of Indiana Secretary of State Charlie White on seven counts related to voter fraud. Yes, this means that the state's top election official has been busted for lying about his residency to cheat the voting system."

On CSS tools

10 useful free CSS Tools and Services: "CSS allows a website owner to build their HTML in a nice, logical order. Mostly when using tables to layout a website, the HTML that powers the website is not laid out in a proper order (also known as the ‘code flow’). Now here are some tools and web services I’ve use in a day to day basis to shorten and speed up the development time that might come handy for you. These tools aid you to write better and tested codes in less time. "

Best Reason Not To See Atlas Shrugged part I

10 questions with the producer of ‘Atlas Shrugged’ John Aglialoro « » Print The Daily Caller – Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment: "I’ve pondered that question a long time and I’ve been waiting for many, many years to go and visit her grave and say, ‘Well we did it.’ I never met her and I certainly would not have the answer. But I was very fortunate last week when I did see Barbara’s reaction because she knew [Rand] for so long and even at the end she knew her so well. And I said, ‘Barbara, what would Ayn have thought?’ And she hesitated for the first couple seconds or so and then she said, ‘I think she would’ve loved it.’ So I can’t give you that answer but Barbara can."

My New Favorite Couple

May their dream come true

A Magic Machine

Your Friday Dose of Woo on Saturday: Apparently the FDA doesn't get the "VIBE" : Respectful Insolence: "One way to efficiently and safely raise cell voltages is with a device called a VIBE machine. An earlier type was invented by Georges Lakhovsky in the early 1900's. Dr. Lakhovsky discovered that healthy cells acted like little batteries and discovered how to recharge them (raise their voltages). He found that transmitting energy in the range between 750,000 hertz and 3,000,000,000 hertz raised the cell's voltage. Dr. Lakhovsky had great results with all types of physical imbalances.
Not only was his unit able to return sick cells (and people) to health, but also those who used it regularly noticed that they rarely became sick. He proved the principle that life forms can absorb radio wave energy. The VIBE uses that principle to strengthen the healthy cells of the body, so that they can resist physical imbalances. Knowing the right frequencies and putting them out simultaneously does not necessarily destroy an infection, but we believe it charges the cell making it strong enough to resist the infection."

MIT's latest donor

Balloon Juice » The Cure for Hurt Feelings: "His gift here means that one of the biggest donors to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, home to some of the top climate scientists in the nation, is an owner of a company that Greenpeace called “a kingpin of climate change denial.”

Koch Industries — which owns oil refineries, pipelines and consumer brands like Dixie cups and Lycra — responded that “it is Greenpeace that is the denier here — denier of any rational and honest dialogue on the underlying scientific debate regarding climate change.”"

The Loonie Soars

Canadian Currency Climbs for Third Straight Week as World Oil Prices Rally - Bloomberg: "The loonie, as the Canadian currency is known for the image of the aquatic bird on the C$1 coin, appreciated 0.4 percent to 97.34 cents per U.S. dollar yesterday, from 97.74 on Feb. 25. It touched 96.84 cents on March 1, the strongest level since November 2007. One Canadian dollar purchases $1.0273."

Steve King is a fuckwit

Rep. Steve King: Cut DOJ Budget Over Obama's DOMA Decision - The Note: "ABC News’ Devin Dwyer reports: Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King says he wants to penalize the Obama administration for its decision to drop a legal defense of the Defense of Marriage Act with fresh budget cuts for the Department of Justice."

Bon The Geek wants Answers

Zandar Versus The Stupid: The Glass Ceiling Is Still Firmly In Place:

"It's still a good old boys club. And I'm sick of playing the game. When 75% is an improvement, we deserve answers."

Sadly, she will likely get none that are very satisfying.

The Central Problem with The Adjustment Bureau

'The Adjustment Bureau': 'Mad Men' Clothes Meet Retro Politics - Christopher Orr - Culture - The Atlantic: "But to describe The Adjustment Bureau as preposterous is akin to calling ice cold or George Clooney good-looking. Rather than leave its mysterious happenings mysterious, the film falls prey to the Curse of Exposition, carefully walking us through the rulebook of its invented universe. It's a tendency that is wearisome enough in a meticulously constructed fantasy such as Inception; in a haphazard romp such as this, the boardgame metaphysics simply rub our noses in the underlying silliness. The near-omnipotent (yet oddly ineffectual) adjustment agents, for instance, lose their powers near concentrations of water, rendering them considerably less reliable on a rainy day than the postman. They are also unable to pass through the interdimensional portals that transport them instantly across New York City unless they are wearing, yes, their hats."

And From the Bad Idea Files

Daily Kos: Britain sending advisers to anti-Gaddafi forces in Libya. Death toll rising in 'liberation war': "Britain is preparing to send advisers to help anti-Gaddafi forces in eastern Libya, it emerged as Nato commanders were instructed to draw up plans for a wide range of military options, including a no-fly zone."

All Charlie Sheen All The Time

SiriusXM to Launch Radio Station Devoted to Charlie Sheen Coverage - The Hollywood Reporter: "Sirius XM will on Saturday launch 'Tiger Blood Radio,' the company announced Friday.
The station will be totally devoted to 'breaking news, facts, fallout and career implications of the Charlie Sheen controversy,' according to the statement."

ED Kain On Firing Teachers

Firing Teachers with Due Process - E.D. Kain - American Times - Forbes: "But the answer to that problem is not making all teachers easier to fire. This would undermine teacher recruitment. If you take away pensions, job security, tenure, the ability to unionize, and basically all the other perks of teaching, what you’re left with is a very difficult job with no job security, mediocre benefits, and relatively low pay. This is not how you attract good people to a profession, or how you guarantee a good education experience for your children. Paying starting teachers more but making their long-term prospects in the career less certain is also wrong-headed. High turnover is not desirable for any business, teaching included."

Huckabee has always been an asshole

Daily Kos: Mike Huckabee tries to unscramble the egg, denies attacking Natalie Portman: "Huckabee built his brand on being an affable conservative, but in less than two weeks he's managed to expose himself as a dishonest and vicious asshole. And that's one egg he's not going to be able to unscramble."

Not astroturf exactly

Hmm. Prominent Conservative Radio Hosts Planted Scripted Actors Among Callers | Crooks and Liars: "“Premiere On Call is our new custom caller service,” read the service’s website, which disappeared as this story was being reported (for a cached version of the site click here). “We supply voice talent to take/make your on-air calls, improvise your scenes or deliver your scripts. Using our simple online booking tool, specify the kind of voice you need, and we’ll get your the right person fast. Unless you request it, you won’t hear that same voice again for at least two months, ensuring the authenticity of your programming for avid listeners.”"

President McCain on my teevee again

Sunday talk show tip sheet - Zack Hale - POLITICO.com: "On ABC’s “This Week,” Libya again takes center stage with Arizona Sen. John McCain, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee."

Boehner's Bullshit

Ezra Klein - Will John Boehner really protect Obama on entitlements?:

"The Hill reports that John Boehner has proposed a non-aggression pact with Barack Obama over entitlements: “Boehner has personally promised Obama that he will stand side by side with him to weather the strong political backlash expected from any proposal to cut entitlement costs.”"

Translation:

Really Barack, I promise I won't cum in your mouth.

If the President falls for this he is an idiot and doesn't deserve a second term

Hatemongers (video from previous note)

On Religious Tolerance - or lack thereof

Balloon Juice » Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. (by Emily L. Hauser): "On February 13, members of a faith-based charitable organization gathered in Yorba Linda, California to raise funds to support women’s shelters, help the homeless and combat hunger.
This same organization is active in interfaith outreach. One of its leaders offered the opening prayers at the recent inauguration of the governor of Illinois, and it will be holding its annual banquet in Chicago this weekend, the theme of which is “Fighting Fear, Teaching Tolerance.”

You can understand why, then, on February 13, a handful of elected officials — specifically: Yorba City councilwoman Deborah Pauly, US Congressman Ed Royce, and US Congressman Gary Miller — joined a group of a few hundred protesters (shouting such things as “Go back home!” and “USA!” and, for good measure: “Fuck you!”), in order to declare the faith-based philanthropic event “pure, unadulterated evil.”"

Digby on the teaparty

Hullabaloo: "It's not even a matter of not liking the constitutional principle of 'majority rule, but protect the minority' because they think it's undemocratic. When they are in the majority, they resent the protection of the minority, to be sure. But when they are in the minority they equally resent majority rule. The 'principle' is simply that they believe they are superior and more deserving and that people they don't like, whether they are in the majority or the minority, do not deserve to have any say in how the world is organized. They just do not believe their opposition is legitimate in any way. It's not really any more complicated than that."

Zandar on The horror of being a white male

Zandar Versus The Stupid: The Sight Of White Fright Night:

"Indeed, nearly half of whites (44%) view themselves as an oppressed people these days, the victims of discrimination and bigotry, including some 61% of Tea Party voters.

To which the rest of America is going 'Effing really?'"

Underwear as a weapon?

DOD Declares War on … Underwear | Emptywheel: "So this new enforced nudity policy purports that Manning’s underwear are a danger to him."

On the threat of Sharia Law

Booman Tribune ~ A Progressive Community: "Yet, the truth is that there is no more danger of Sharia Law being imposed on Americans than there is of Roman Catholic Canon Law or Jewish Law."

Michele Bachmann is bored

Daily Kos: Michele Bachmann, pro-choice . . . on lightbulbs: "Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann reintroduced legislation in the U.S House Tuesday to repeal the 2007 law mandating incandescent light bulbs be phased out in favor of compact fluorescent light bulbs by Jan. 1, 2012...."

Digby on Forced Sonograms

Hullabaloo:

"I'd say so. Shoving a probe into a woman's vagina for the sole purpose of making her change her mind doesn't sound like a 'medical procedure' to me. It sounds like a form of coercive torture. I guess we should be happy they haven't required them to be tasered while they're in there just to make the point. Of course, that might harm the fetus and fetuses are sacred until they're outside the female vessel. (Then it's no holds barred.)"

Politico dishonest graf of the day

John Boehner pushes enforcement of DOMA - Jake Sherman - POLITICO.com:

"Speaker John Boehner is bringing together House leaders on both sides of the aisle in an effort to force President Barack Obama to start enforcing the Defense of Marriage Act again."

Except the President has never stopped enforcing the law.

We need better journalism in this country.

Maybe a bit too soon for that Egypt Tour

Caravan-Serai Tours to Egypt and Tahrir Square: "Caravan-Serai Tours is offering a tour of Egypt at the end of March to visit the historic places of the Egyptian Youth Revolution, and will include meetings with our contacts in Cairo, sightseeing in and around Cairo and Alexandria, and a Nile Cruise. This tour will be a great opportunity to see the monuments and sites of Egypt without the throngs of people usually present. Also, hear first hand from people who were present during the many days of protests at Tahrir Square."

And Huckabee is supposed to be one of the SANE ones?

Huckabee Attacks Natalie Portman For Glamorizing "Out Of Wedlock Births" | Media Matters for America: "In a radio appearance on Monday, Mike Huckabee attacked actress Natalie Portman for having a child 'out of wedlock.' Huckabee said that it's 'troubling' to see people like 'Natalie Portman or some other Hollywood starlet who boasts of, 'Hey look, you know, we're having children, we're not married, but we're having these children, and they're doing just fine.'' Huckabee added that 'it's unfortunate that we glorify and glamorize the idea of out of children wedlock.' "

Anti-Muslim Protestor Throws Crosses At Feet Of Man Praying By White House

I am just speechless at this.

On the Persecution of Christians

How Long Before Christians Are Actively Persecuted in England? by Sean Gabb:

"We are moving towards a persecution of Christianity because Christians believe in a source of authority separate from and higher than the State. Until recently, it was the custom of absolute states to make an accommodation with whatever church was largest. In return for being established, the priests would then preach obedience as a religious duty. Modern absolute states, though, are secular. Such were the Jacobin and the Bolshevik tyrannies. Such is our own, as yet, mild tyranny. In all three cases, religion was or is a problem. Though a Catholic, Aquinas speaks for most Christians when he explains the limits of obedience:"

To which i simply say, bullshit.

Stupidest argument against evolution i have heard today

Evolution is the foundation of an immoral worldview (Talk.Origins) - CreationWiki, the encyclopedia of creation science: "What argument can you use against the guy who wants to steal your car? 'Don't do that, it's not in your genes'? 'This is counter-productive to the survival of our gene pool?'"

On Immoral Sex acts

Unnatural sexual acts as marital foreplay | improperium Christi: "All non-marital sexual acts are intrinsically evil and always gravely immoral. All non-unitive sexual acts are intrinsically evil and always gravely immoral. All non-procreative sexual acts are intrinsically evil and always gravely immoral."

On Banning Islam

Polygamy outlawed - so why not sharia? (OneNewsNow.com): "Consequently, the Jihad Watch leader says he does not know why it is not possible to say that a religion that espouses sharia law is also seditious and not acceptable in the United States."

Ben Smith Goes Birther?

In defense of 'post-Birtherism' - Ben Smith - POLITICO.com:

"That isn't to say the fringe of that argument isn't fringy or easily demolished. But the belief that Obama's personal history affects his foreign policy is hardly racism, 'stripped down to its core' or not."

No sane person would disagree with this. The point, however, is that it was a fictional version of the President's person history that is being used in the analysis. Ben fancies himself a journalist but his critical thinking skills are pretty muddled if you ask me.

Or maybe he is a Birther himself and is just coming out of the closet now.

TMZ Commenter of the night

State Senator's GF Arrested After "DWTS" Charity Event | TMZ.com: "Women shouldn't get to vote or be involved in public life. I read (the vast majority) of women's comments on this or other he said/she said incidents and the anger, hatred, undue certainty of opnion, etc.. is appalling. They don't 'doubt', they don't 'question', they absolutley 'know' the man is 100% guilty and is the anti-christ. That is why women don't belong in the public sphere. They are not capable of reason or fairness or objectivity, only misandry and a hive mentality.

Posted at 10:56 AM on Feb 27, 2011 by ActaNonVerba"

PlaceKitten for Jquery

It doesn't get any better than this if you want kitties.

geeky things

Mark Fickett | Art Stuff | Arduino LilyPad Cyclocomputer: "This is a bicycle computer, designed to count wheel revolutions using a cyclocomputer wheel sensor. It stores two trip meters and a speed histogram; the trip meters are reported in Morse code via a speaker, and the histogram can be saved to eeprom and later printed over the serial connection."

on reasonable conservatives

Balloon Juice » BECAUSE UNION BUSTING IS THE PLAN: "There are no reasonable conservatives- no one reasonable would continue to self-identify with this freak show."

Windy or not?

Walker's windy job give-away | Uppity Wisconsin: "Madison - Just days after appearing on TV and radio in Chicago to remind Illinois that Wisconsin is open for business, Governor Walker introduced a bill that would essentially ban wind development in Wisconsin. The move would leave Wisconsin dependent on other states, including Illinois, to meet our energy demand."

On No Fly Zones

How You Know Something is a Bad Idea? McCain and Lieberman in Tel Aviv Call for No-Fly Zone | Firedoglake: "Two prominent senators whose foreign policy views often reflect neo-conservative thinking, Republican John McCain and Independent Democrat Joseph Lieberman, called Friday in Tel Aviv for Washington to supply Libyan rebels with arms, among other steps, including establishing a no-fly zone over the country."

On Roger Ailes

Roger Ailes to be Indicted | The Big Picture:

"Here’s what I learned recently: Someone I spoke with claimed that Ailes was scheduled to speak at their event in March, but canceled. It appears that Roger’s people, ostensibly using a clause in his contract, said he “cannot appear for legal reasons.”

I asked “What, precisely, does that mean?”

The response: “Roger Ailes will be indicted — probably this week, maybe even Monday.”

You read it here first . . ."

How would Fox News cover this? Would it make Ailes out to be a political prisoner?

on immigration

Yglesias » Population Trends: "“We should let more people, especially people with skills, immigrate to America and work for a living” isn’t a very profound answer to the mysteries of economic growth, but it sure would do a lot of good."