On Frictionless Sharing

With ‘frictionless sharing,’ Facebook and news orgs push boundaries of online privacy | Poynter.: "One problem is that the “friction” — the act of choosing what to share, with whom, and how — is what makes sharing meaningful.

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The Problem With Conservative Humor

Is that it just isn't that funny.

via Thers

Joe Walsh (No Not The Musician) wants us all armed and dangerous

Joe Walsh: Concealed Handguns Keep Gov’t Off Our Back | Election 2012: "Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) told an audience in Illinois that he was ashamed of his state for not allowing concealed handguns, warning that they were the “last line of defense” if Americans need to revolt against their government.

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Bank Of America - Evil or Really Evil?

More bad news for bank customers: Debit card fees - Yahoo! Finance: "NEW YORK (AP) -- Bank of America will start charging debit-card users $5 a month to pay for purchases. The move comes as the cards increasingly replace cash and as banks look for ways to offset the loss of revenue from a new rule that will limit how much they can collect from merchants.

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On Sharia and The Bible

I find it interesting that the same folks that invoke Biblical teachings to deny the idea of  marriage for all adult humans irrespective of sexual orientation oftentimes are vehemently against observing Sharia.

I wonder why this is?

And Hilarity Ensued

The Meming of Life » An unreliable Witness Parenting Beyond Belief on secular parenting and other natural wonders: "But earlier this month, something quietly snapped as I listened to two Jehovah’s Witnesses at my door. Actually, I only listened to one — there’s always a Talker and what I guess you’d call…a witness. The Talker had started by reading me a weirdly mundane verse from Psalms, then asked for my reaction. What follows is as close to verbatim as I can recall.

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Sadly, This Is From The Onion

Historians Politely Remind Nation To Check What's Happened In Past Before Making Any Big Decisions | The Onion - America's Finest News Source: "According to the historians, by looking at things that have already happened, Americans can learn a lot about which actions made things better versus which actions made things worse, and can then plan their own actions accordingly.

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Stupid Ballot Measure Of The Day

Mississippi 'Personhood' Law Could Ban Abortions And Birth Control: "Mississippi voters will be allowed to decide on a ballot measure that defines "personhood" from the moment of fertilization, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled last week. The measure could potentially outlaw abortions, birth control, in vitro fertilization and stem cell research across the state.

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On Fragile Worldviews

Christian college kids' worldview endangered (OneNewsNow.com):

"According to the Discovery Institute's Dr. Stephen Meyer, when Christian students enter college, a majority of them are in danger of losing their faith, as their fragile worldview and Christian upbringing are seriously challenged."

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Maybe their worldview wouldn't be so fragile if it wasn't based on such transparent bullshit.

Just a thought.

More On The Decline of King Coal

No More Mister Nice Blog: "Now the final bust is upon Appalachia, and coal-pandering states like Kentucky are about to free-fall without either economic or energy alternatives as a cushion.
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On The Decline of Coal Production

Could Coal Decline in Appalachia? : Lawyers, Guns & Money: "In some ways, coal’s decline in Appalachia would be a true good. Mountaintop removal is a truly loathsome method that reshapes an entire ecosystem in order to keep our homes at 75 degrees in winter. But despite the decline in employment, coal directly employs around 20,000 miners today. That’s a lot of jobs in a long impoverished area. Taking those away without replacing them with something else would be a real punch in the gut to southern Appalachia. So, like so many things, it’s really complicated.

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Bev Perdue beats out Sarah Palin As dumbest Governor Ever

Zandar Versus The Stupid: Not Exactly A Laughing Matter: ""You have to have more ability from Congress, I think, to work together and to get over the partisan bickering and focus on fixing things. I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won't hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover. I really hope that someone can agree with me on that. The one good thing about Raleigh is that for so many years we worked across party lines. It's a little bit more contentious now but it's not impossible to try to do what's right in this state. You want people who don't worry about the next election."
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Is Sarah Palin The Dumbest Person In American Politics?

Palin Worries Presidency Might 'Shackle' Her | Video Cafe: ""I'm going to keep repeating, though, Greta, through my process of decision-making with my family and with my close friends as to whether I should throw my name in the hat for the GOP nomination or not for 2012 -- is a title worth it? Does a title shackle a person? Are they -- someone like me, who's a maverick -- you know, I do go rogue and I call it like I see it."

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Is Saudi Arabia Coming Into The 21st Century?

Saudi Prince Says Woman Won't Be Lashed for Driving - Global - The Atlantic Wire: "Saudi King Abdullah has revoked the 10 lashes sentenced to Shaima Ghassaniya for disobeying the country's ban on women at the wheel, reports the Agence France Press. The news was apparently broken on the Twitter account of Princess Amira Al Taweel, wife of billionaire Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, when she wrote, "Thank God, the lashing of Sheima is cancelled. Thanks to our beloved King. I'm sure all Saudi women will be so happy, I know I am." The Princess and her husband had vocally opposed the sentence. "This was a barbaric and inhuman decision to lash a Saudi lady for driving," "

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Michele Bachmann, Still Crazy

Bachmann Warns of Hezbollah 'Missile Sites' in Cuba | Video Cafe: ""Why would you normalize trade with a country that sponsors terror?" the candidate asked a crowd of supporters in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. "There is reports that have come out that Cuba has been working with another terrorist organization called Hezbollah. And Hezbollah is looking at wanting to be part of missile sites in Iran and, of course, when you are 90 miles offshore from Florida, you don't want to entertain the prospect of hosting bases or sites where Hezbollah could have training camps or perhaps have missile sites or weapons sites in Cuba. "

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Booman on #Occupywallstreet

Booman Tribune ~ A Progressive Community: "And that's the problem. People aren't doing anything worth commenting on. They don't deserve a response, let alone pepper spray. When they deserve the pepper spray, maybe I will give a shit.


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Melissa Harris-Perry on systemic racism

The Epistemology of Race Talk | The Nation: "I believe we must be careful and judicious in our conversations about racism. But I also believe that those who demand proof of interpersonal intention to create a racist outcome are missing the point about how racism works. Racism is not exclusively about hooded Klansmen; it is also about the structures of bias and culture of privilege that infect the left as well.

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Vital To The Defence Of Canada

Canada's submarines high and dry - Nova Scotia - CBC News: "The government bought the British submarines on the navy's recommendation. The navy is defending the billion dollar plus submarine program saying the boats are vital to the defence of Canada even though none at the moment are capable of firing torpedoes, submerging or even venturing out to sea.

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Dumbest Argument For Capital Punishment ever?

Justice, After Troy Davis - NYTimes.com: "Simply throwing up our hands and eliminating executions entirely, by contrast, could prove to be a form of moral evasion — a way to console ourselves with the knowledge that no innocents are ever executed, even as more pervasive abuses go unchecked. We should want a judicial system that we can trust with matters of life and death, and that can stand up to the kind of public scrutiny that Davis’s case received. And gradually reforming the death penalty — imposing it in fewer situations and with more safeguards, which other defendants could benefit from as well — might do more than outright abolition to address the larger problems with crime and punishment in America."

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The Bloomberg Third Way

Suburban Guerrilla » Blog Archive » Poor worried bankers: "MAYOR BLOOMBERG: Well, nobody has any confidence. If you’re a bank and you have money, would you make a loan when people are talking about putting you in jail for what happened in the mortgage crisis three, four years ago? You hunker down. If you’re a business, would you go take a loan and expand and hire more people when every day there’s talk about different regulation, different tax policy? Business has to know what it’s going to be in the future to plan because hiring people is a long-term commitment. If you’re an individual, would you go take that extra vacation, buy a new house and that sort of thing when you’re not sure whether Washington is going to do what’s right to keep job creation going in America? That’s the–in the end, it is confidence, confidence, confidence."

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Safe Sex and a little bonus

Endangered Species Condoms: "Through a network of volunteers, the Center for Biological Diversity is giving away 100,000 free Endangered Species Condoms in 2011 as part of our 7 Billion and Counting campaign.
The condoms are an engaging, lively way to get people talking about the unsustainable growth of the human population (it’s expected to hit 7 billion by the end of October 2011) and the effect it’s having on the extinction of species around the globe."

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On The HOME Act

Kerry, Nadler Propose Fair Housing Bill for LGBTs | News | The Advocate: "“It’s hard to believe that in 2011, any law-abiding, tax-paying American who can pay the rent can’t live somewhere just because of who they are,” Kerry said in a statement. “Housing discrimination against LGBT Americans is wrong, but today in most states there isn’t a thing you can do about it. This legislation would end discrimination that continues to hurt people.”
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Macing Protesters?

Even if this person was being obnoxious and calling names (as I have heard used as an explanation) police officers are trained to take it and behave professionally. I see no way this was professional behaviour

This Is Stupid When The White House Does It Too

White House Returns to Favorite Tactic: Hectoring the Base | Firedoglake: "President Barack Obama launched into a fiery speech Saturday night at the Congressional Black Caucus awards dinner, where he told black leaders to “stop complaining” and fight for jobs and opportunity. “Shake it off,” Obama said. “Stop grumbling. Stop crying. We are going to press on. We have work to do.”

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Watch Those Goalposts Move

Lindsey Graham Worries Cuts Will 'Destroy the Defense Department' | Video Cafe: ""I will introduce legislation, Chris, to protect the Defense Department from devastating cuts... I want an across-the-board cut as a trigger, the whole government being on the table with a five percent reduction for the whole government, and cut our pay by 10 percent rather than devastating the Defense Department. I hope the Super Committee works, but if it fails let's don't destroy the Defense Department."

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On Income Inequality

It's the Inequality, Stupid | Mother Jones:

"A huge share of the nation's economic growth over the past 30 years has gone to the top one-hundredth of one percent, who now make an average of $27 million per household. The average income for the bottom 90 percent of us? $31,244.

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Some very nice charts at the link. Go see.

How Can This Be Constitutional?

Alabama Convicts Get To Choose Between Jail Or To Church: "Residents convicted of misdemeanor offenses in Bay Minette, Alabama will now face an interesting choice: time in jail and a fine, or attending Sunday church service every week for one year.
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