Things That Piss Me Off - Aurora Edition

Folks that say that if they and their concealed carry permitted handgun had been there then all would have been well.

The guy was wearing fucking body armor. Even if he wasn't, one of the things that differentiates the bad guys from the good guys in a situation like this is that the bad guy is the one with the fucking gun.

The false bravado that is on display here really makes me sick.

TBogg on Not Releasing Box Office Numbers

We Bled Inside Each Others Wounds | TBogg: "I’m not a Hollywood basher, but for an industry that generates their greatest profits with slam bang exploding-robot body count shoot’em ups, I think denying Nikki Finke the weekend numbers for a day as a gesture of solidarity falls somewhere along the lines of dropping a penny in a beggars cup and then patting yourself on the back for being so magnanimous. "

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Sounds about right

Rick Warren On Aurora

When students are taught they are no different from animals, they act like it.
— Rick Warren (@RickWarren) July 20, 2012

Next time someone tells me that Rick Warren is a reasonable guy I have just two words for them. Fuck You.

Aurora Shooter's Kit

Would it have mattered one iota if every single person in that theater had a gun? I don't think so. This guy wanted to kill a lot of people and wanted to survive even if someone fired back. This is scary shit boys and girls. 

Picture via digby

PZ Myers on Aurora

I wish we didn’t have atheists saying this | Pharyngula: "Blame it on the real causes: a culture that glorifies violence, easy availability of deadly weapons, and mostly James Fucking Holmes. Anything else is a distraction from correcting the real causes."

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NAMI on Bill Bolling

NAMI | Virginia Lt. Governor's Statement: ""Lt. Governor Bill Bolling's statement to the Daily Press of Hampton Roads, Va., saying that Obama voters should 'check themselves into a mental hospital' is an insult to all Virginians and all Americans— including active duty military personnel, veterans and people who actually live with mental illness. "

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Alex Jones On Aurora

Yes, Alex Jones is batshit crazy

On Aurora

All I have is tears.

Horrible.

Why Romney's Taxes Matter

This really isn't that tricky.

It matters because he is rich AND is making an argument that it is important for rich people to continue getting preferential treatment for the form of income they primarily have.

It matters because most Americans do not (and cannot) do aggressive tax planning and they feel that those that do are in some way cheating even if everything is legal. Tax avoidance is a choice, not your civic duty. He has an IRA worth $100,000,000. Think about that for a minute...

It matters because there is a real chance that Romney could have paid less than 10% in taxes if he had halfway competent advice in 2009. If his tithing to his church was more than the tax he paid I think it shows us something about what he thinks is important.

It matters because he has been planning on running for president for over 10 years and he apparently didn't give a shit about any of this. Did he really think that nobody would ask the questions? His dad released many years of taxes and still Mitt thought it wouldn't be an issue. Really? Is Romney that tone deaf?

I could go on but I have to go earn a living.

5 Year Blogiversary

Who would have thought that I had so many opinions on so many things.

Yeah, OK. Anyone that ever met me for more than 10 minutes.

Anyway, Happy Blogiversary to me.

Random relationship thoughts

Been thinking a lot about what I want in a woman.

I hope that my regular readers, or new ones, will feel free to tell me when I am being unrealistic, or just an asshole, in this ongoing series.

The stuff that follows won't be in any particular order, maybe I will do that some time on the future.

My future partner must want to be a permanent part of my life. Call it marriage or civil union or living together or whatever you want.  I don't want to be someone's boyfriend. I don't want friends with benefits. I don't want to commute to see her on weekends. I want to be her spouse.

My future partner must make me feel sexy. Yeah that is a subjective thing but everyone knows what I mean. It doesn't mean that she is a smoking hot model. It just means that she knows how to make me feel like I am George Clooney or Brad Pitt when she wants to.

I want someone with a better credit rating(not hard) and at least within spitting distance of as much disposable income as I have. I am not rich but I am not poor either and I want to do the things as a couple that I like to do by myself without bankrupting us.

I want someone that has had all of the kids they want. They don't have to be all gone but I am not going to start a second family in my 50's.

I want someone that knows who they are. If you have some wild idea that "someday I want to chuck it all and do X" and you don't have a reasonable plan as to how to make that happen then it ain't gonna happen and I can't watch that happen to someone. Dreams are great and I will support you in making them come true but there has to be a way we can do it beyond wishing and hoping.

To be continued...

Stupid Comment Of The Day - Business Insider Edition

Mitt Romney's Bain Capital Media Blitz Counterattack To the Obama Campaign - Business Insider: "Without rich people you have nothing...the economy dies and you and your friends no longer have your welfare and food stamps to live on...and your union buddies no longer have their pension "

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What The Good Men Project Does right

Can Young Girls Really Seduce Older Men? by @hugoschwyzer — The Good Men Project: "There is no gray area here. Grown men who outsource their self-control to grown women underestimate their own capacity for reflection and restraint. Grown men who outsource that control to little girls—even little girls with women’s bodies—use the myth of male weakness to justify the unspeakable."

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Good Men Project Should Not Do Science

Table Top Particle Accelerator Threatens Universe Portably — The Good Men Project: "In “what do you mean you reversed the polarity on the neutron flow?” news, scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have created an atom smasher small enough to fit on an average kitchen dinette from Ikea. Wait, what?"

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The rest of the post is just as stupid.

Looks perfectly reasonable to me

Joe Paterno Got a Huge Payout During Sandusky Scandal - National - The Atlantic Wire: "Mr. Paterno was to be paid $3 million at the end of the 2011 season if he agreed it would be his last. Interest-free loans totaling $350,000 that the university had made to Mr. Paterno over the years would be forgiven as part of the retirement package. He would also have the use of the university’s private plane and a luxury box at Beaver Stadium for him and his family to use over the next 25 years. "

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PZ Meyers on the Singularity

And everyone gets a robot pony! | Pharyngula:

"I’m not anti-AI; I think we are going to make great advances in the future, and we’re going to learn all kinds of interesting things. But reverse-engineering something that is the product of almost 4 billion years of evolution, that has been tweaked and finessed in complex and incomprehensible ways, and that is dependent on activity at a sub-cellular level, by hacking it apart and taking pictures of it? Total bollocks. "
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I agree with this statement word for word

Um, errr, wtf? Treason edition

Iowa Republican joins alternative government | TPM2012: "In a letter released Friday, Randi Shannon informs supporters of her new position as “U.S. Senator in the Republic of the United States of America.” You see, according to Shannon, the U.S. government has been acting unlawfully as the “‘official government,’ which clearly it is not!” "

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