A Protest-ackular!

A four image photo-essay:

A skeptical look at insurance reform

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Add 'Tin-Foil Hat wearing' to the running list of Chest-thumping, Bed-wetting, Cynical, Rabble-rousing, and oh yeah, Accessories to murder

Digby from earlier this month:

In case you were wondering what Glenn Beck thinks about all this right wing violence (and who doesn't?) here it is:

The pot is boiling and this is a warning to all Americans of things to come.

It looks like this was the work of a lone gunman, nut-job, who once wrote an article titled "Hitler's Worst Mistake: He Didn't Gas the Jews." But you're going to see a lot of nut-jobs coming out of the woodwork.

Two very important things are happening here: First, the go-go-go mentality of our enemies. Our country is vulnerable; our enemies know it as much as we do and groups like Al Qaeda are even planning to work with white supremacists (which police say this guy might be), coming through our southern border.

I showed you this scary video last week.

By the way, that was one of not just some average radical teacher, but one of Usama bin Laden's close friends. Does that seem much more relevant in light of what's just happened? We're under attack, America, and we need to look out for enemies foreign and domestic.

Second, there's going to be a witch-hunt for two groups: the Jews and conservatives. Two years ago, I spoke with Benjamin Netanyahu and I told him to look out, because Israel is being set up. Iran's goal of nuclear weapons is putting Israel in the crosshairs.

Those who have read history know that when things go bad, the Jews become scapegoats; and it's happening again.

Meanwhile, there have been Department of Homeland Security reports about right-wing extremists. And left-wing bloggers and others have blamed conservative talk radio hosts like me for stirring the pot, even though we're just pointing out that it's boiling.

Common sense tells you this is not the work of conservatives, but rather the work of someone who is possibly racist or crazy, or most likely both. Common sense also tells you there are very hateful people on the left as well.

The world will use any excuse to come after unpopular groups. Whether you choose to ignore it or not, there's no longer a question of if the pot is boiling. We can all see the pot is boiling.

It doesn't have to make sense, folks. It just has to hit a certain emotional truth. And his audience's "truth" is that al Qaeda is in cahoots with lone nuts to kill Jews and blame it on conservatives --- and they are sneaking in from Mexico with "illegals" to do it. This makes perfect sense to them.

"TYING IT ALL TOGETHER", Today from Steve Benen of the Washington Monthly website:

We learned yesterday, by way of Rush Limbaugh, that Mark Sanford's sex scandal was President Obama's fault. If it weren't for the administration's economic policies, the argument goes, Sanford would have been more optimistic about the future, wouldn't have cheated on his wife, and wouldn't have secretly left the country to see his mistress.

Who can argue with air-tight logic like this?

Today, Limbaugh's right-wing colleague, Michael Savage, takes this one step further. Obama didn't just inspire Sanford to betray his family; the White House conspired to make this scandal happen in the first place.

"The fact is, Obama's team is taking out potential [2012] rivals, one after another," Savage argued. "Just last week, the media jumped on the story of Sen. John Ensign (R) of Nevada and his infidelity. He was considered to be a possible Republican presidential candidate in '12. Now Sanford, who had similar ambitions, caught in a similar situation.

"This is politics at its worst, brought to us by the worst administration, the meanest administration, the most closed administration, the most incompetent administration in American history."

Now, listening to the clip, it's a little unclear to me whether Savage thinks Obama made Sanford and Ensign have sex with these other women, or whether Obama was spying on Sanford and Ensign, learned of their adultery, and brought it to public attention.

Sure, either way, this is all painfully stupid, and not to be taken seriously. But even from the perspective of a twisted right-wing worldview, I'm curious about one thing: how does an incompetent administration pull off a feat like this? Wouldn't it take an enormous amount of competence to secretly hatch such an elaborate conspiracy?

10 characteristics of conspiracy theorists
A useful guide by Donna Ferentes

1. Arrogance. They are always fact-seekers, questioners, people who are trying
to discover the truth: sceptics are always "sheep", patsies for Messrs Bush and
Blair etc.

2. Relentlessness. They will always go on and on about a conspiracy no matter how little evidence they have to go on or how much of what they have is simply discredited. (Moreover, as per 1. above, even if you listen to them ninety-eight times, the ninety-ninth time, when you say "no thanks", you'll be called a "sheep" again.) Additionally, they have no capacity for precis whatsoever. They go on and on at enormous length.

3. Inability to answer questions. For people who loudly advertise their determination to the principle of questioning everything, they're pretty poor at answering direct questions from sceptics about the claims that they make.

4. Fondness for certain stock phrases. These include Cicero's "cui bono?" (of which it can be said that Cicero understood the importance of having evidence to back it up) and Conan Doyle's "once we have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however unlikely, must be the truth". What these phrases have in common is that they are attempts to absolve themselves from any responsibility to produce positive, hard evidence themselves: you simply "eliminate the impossible" (i.e. say the official account can't stand scrutiny) which means that the wild allegation of your choice, based on "cui bono?" (which is always the government) is therefore the truth.

5. Inability to employ or understand Occam's Razor. Aided by the principle in 4. above, conspiracy theorists never notice that the small inconsistencies in the accounts which they reject are dwarfed by the enormous, gaping holes in logic, likelihood and evidence in any alternative account.

6. Inability to tell good evidence from bad. Conspiracy theorists have no place for peer-review, for scientific knowledge, for the respectability of sources. The fact that a claim has been made by anybody, anywhere, is enough for them to reproduce it and demand that the questions it raises be answered, as if intellectual enquiry were a matter of responding to every rumour. While they do this, of course, they will claim to have "open minds" and abuse the sceptics for apparently lacking same.

7. Inability to withdraw. It's a rare day indeed when a conspiracy theorist admits that a claim they have made has turned out to be without foundation, whether it be the overall claim itself or any of the evidence produced to support it. Moreover they have a liking (see 3. above) for the technique of avoiding discussion of their claims by "swamping" - piling on a whole lot more material rather than respond to the objections sceptics make to the previous lot.

8. Leaping to conclusions. Conspiracy theorists are very keen indeed to declare the "official" account totally discredited without having remotely enough cause so to do. Of course this enables them to wheel on the Conan Doyle quote as in 4. above. Small inconsistencies in the account of an event, small unanswered questions, small problems in timing of differences in procedure from previous events of the same kind are all more than adequate to declare the "official" account clearly and definitively discredited. It goes without saying that it is not necessary to prove that these inconsistencies are either relevant, or that they even definitely exist.

9. Using previous conspiracies as evidence to support their claims. This argument invokes scandals like the Birmingham Six, the Bologna station bombings, the Zinoviev letter and so on in order to try and demonstrate that their conspiracy theory should be accorded some weight (because it's “happened before”.) They do not pause to reflect that the conspiracies they are touting are almost always far more unlikely and complicated than the real-life conspiracies with which they make comparison, or that the fact that something might potentially happen does not, in and of itself, make it anything other than extremely unlikely.

10.
It's always a conspiracy. And it is, isn't it? No sooner has the body been discovered, the bomb gone off, than the same people are producing the same old stuff, demanding that there are questions which need to be answered, at the same
unbearable length. Because the most important thing about these people is that they are people entirely lacking in discrimination. They cannot tell a good theory from a bad one, they cannot tell good evidence from bad evidence and they cannot tell a good source from a bad one. And for that reason, they always come up with the same answer when they ask the same question. A person who always says the same thing, and says it over and over again is, of course, commonly considered to be, if not a monomaniac, then at very least, a bore.

SMBC:



Even our Dread Pirate Roberts Hero, Westley spent a forgettable chunk of his weekends, after fending off R.O.U.S.'s, scrubbing the toilet with bleach at Buttercup's insistance; and not to belabor the point, but again, "A person who always says the same thing, and says it over and over again is, of course, commonly considered to be, if not a monomaniac, then at very least, a bore."

Skepticism: A 40-Minute Primer

Strident, Militant, and Extremist

The Poster-child for Militant Atheism:


And yet(NSFW):

Anomaly-sniping, Rationality-FAIL edition

Xenophobe Pammy Geller, yesterday:

This is very strange. Events surrounding the Air France plane that crashed and practically disintegrated raise more questions then they answer. An Air France pilot said it was 'highly likely' the jet was blown out of the sky by a bomb.

Now it has come to light that the domain name for flight 447 was registered in September 2007. Coincidence? Maybe. Iranian Kari Bian, who makes movies about Israelis and "Palestinians," registered the domain flight447.com.

That's peculiar.

No, that's really stupid.

It's just one of those inevitable coincidences produced by large groups of people having lots of experiences.

Pammy, today:

Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality.

And it only got worse. It was terrible. My heart is heavy for my country and the free world.

The media can spin their subjugation and adulation a million different ways, but America did not vote for a "Muslim presidency," which is what this is. Obama deceitfully hid his Muslim background and schooling and his agenda. Little did America know that Obama's objective would be a conversion of this nation to "the largest Muslim country in the world". From the moment he spoke as President, in the inaugural address, Islam was falsely given a preeminent place in the creation of America. In this speech, he quoted from the Koran three times. Why doesn't anybody comment on this? Why doesn't anyone ever comment on what he projected vs. what he is? Why won't all those talking heads state the obvious?

Obama's speech was a lesson in taqiya (lies to advance Islam). He called Islam a force of religious tolerance and racial equality ..... in the face of all the barbarism. He stated that “Muslims have enriched the U.S. and have won Nobel prizes.” They have, in fact, received less than a handful of the international Nobel prizes. It is an interesting point to make, considering the glaring omission of the Jews contribution to humanity.

On democracy, Obama said:

So let me be clear: no system of government can or should be imposed upon one nation by any other.

Really, that's news to Japan and Germany post WW2. And that's news to all of the previously Christian nations that were barbarically destroyed and taken over by Islam ..... and there are all those cute little Soviet Republics.

And then, this chestnut:

This last point is important because there are some who advocate for democracy only when they are out of power; once in power, they are ruthless in suppressing the rights of others.

It sounds autobiographical ................"

*****

Other reactions from the Pro-Israel crowd:


*****
How 'bout some mainstream Arab commentary (via Sullivan):

[Obama's] reference to the early roots of Islam in America is so disingenuous: he has one bland quote from John Adams and leave out various expressions of bigotry against Muslims by founding fathers. And he then condemns (unspecified) Western stereotypes of Muslims and then matches them with what he calls Muslim stereotypes of America as empire. But those two are not symmetrical: American stereotypes of Muslims are racist and essentialist, and the notion that the US is a war mongering Empire is shared by [non-Muslims] and Muslims alike...

Sigh.
Shorter Obama today in Cairo, addressing the Muslim world directly, but really the whole world:


Shorter Zionist Neo-cons: Awful, way to fuck over the Jews by fellating the Terrorists.

Shorter Muslim Commentariat: America is not an Empire? Put up or Shut Up, because we know Obama is a Puppet for Israeli concerns.

Shorter Christian Right: OMG, seriouly, you guys! Fukkin' told you! He's a sleeper Muslim!

You put the left-wing in, you put the left-wing out

And when liberals are full of it, they get mocked too.

Newsweek:

Oprah takes these things very seriously. They are, after all, the answers she hopes to find for herself. If Oprah has an exquisite ear for the cravings and anxieties of her audience, it is because she shares them. Her own lifelong quest for love, meaning and fulfillment plays out on her stage each day. In an age of information overload, she offers herself as a guide through the confusion.

This is where things get tricky. Because the truth is, some of what Oprah promotes isn't good, and a lot of the advice her guests dispense on the show is just bad. The Suzanne Somers episode wasn't an oddball occurrence. This kind of thing happens again and again on Oprah. Some of the many experts who cross her stage offer interesting and useful information (props to you, Dr. Oz). Others gush nonsense. Oprah, who holds up her guests as prophets, can't seem to tell the difference. She has the power to summon the most learned authorities on any subject; who would refuse her? Instead, all too often Oprah winds up putting herself and her trusting audience in the hands of celebrity authors and pop-science artists pitching wonder cures and miracle treatments that are questionable or flat-out wrong, and sometimes dangerous.

But back on the Oprah show, McCarthy's charges went virtually unchallenged. Oprah praised McCarthy's bravery and plugged her book, but did not invite a physician or scientist to explain to her audience the many studies that contradict the vaccines-autism link. Instead, Oprah read a brief statement from the Centers for Disease Control saying there was no science to prove a connection and that the government was continuing to study the problem. But McCarthy got the last word. "My science is named Evan, and he's at home. That's my science." Oprah might say that McCarthy was just sharing her first-person story and that Oprah wasn't endorsing her point of view. But by the end of the show, the take-away message for any mother with young kids was pretty clear: be afraid.

I CAN HAZ BEE-ESS?!
Hokey-Pokey.

Paranoia about "Big Pharma"? Here ya go.




That's what it's all about.

Wingnut Justice

The modern conservative endorses torture, even requires it as a linchpin component of a strong foreign policy.

The modern conservative decries the closing of Guantanamo Bay and the prosecution of its inhabitants by integrating them into the American Legal System is a parallel to appeasement, and weakening the security of our country.

The modern conservative wails at the thought of a Republican president being investigated for war crimes, or other violations of the law such as ordering the implementation of our intelligence gathering apparatus and infrastructure to expand blanket electronic surveillance to include all persons within the United States.

The modern conservative thinks habeus corpus isn't something that extends to human beings accused of terrorism.

If wingnuts think the law is something that doesn't apply to the way they have ran the country. If they think that all the legal mumbo-jumbo we are currently going through is just a bunch of liberal pussy hand-wringing by non-serious dirty hippies who underestimate what it really takes to defeat Jihadis (BALLS). Then why on Earth are they having a conniption over who is seated at the highest level of this country's Judicial branch?

SASQ:
Wingnut Justices

Bronze-Age Myths

Religion poisons everything, Ctd:

13-year old with Hodgkin's Lymphoma ordered by court to see oncologist abducted by fundie mom.
***
EDIT, correction: Bad headline writing Fundie mom abducted her son, not the oncologist.
***

SLEEPY EYE, MINN. -- The father of Daniel Hauser said today he believes his son and his wife have left the country, but won't say where he thinks they have gone to keep out of reach of authorities.
"I have an opinion where they are, but I can't say I know," said Anthony Hauser, adding that he has placed a call to a telephone where he believes he can reach them.
Hauser specifically said he does not believe Daniel and Colleen Hauser have fled to Canada rather than subject their 13-year-old son to the chemotherapy that doctors believe is his only hope to survive cancer.

Daniel btw, is a product of homeschooling and is so completely illiterate, he couldn't identify the word "THE".

In NY, the Catholic Archdiocese isn't spending a lot of money lobbying legislators on the fight against gay marriage because they're using their political capital tring to kill a bill extending the statute of limitations on prosecutions for sexual abuse. From the NYTimes:

In New York, the National Organization for Marriage, whose resources have been stretched thin from other campaigns in the Northeast, began making phone calls to recruit supporters only late last week.
The state’s Roman Catholic bishops have been somewhat distracted, too, having focused their lobbying energies this session on defeating a bill that would extend the statute of limitations for victims of sexual abuse to bring civil claims, and have appeared unprepared for the battle over marriage.

You stay classy, bishops.

UPDATE: PZ has it cold:

These are cases of religion gone pathological, of belief so absurd and so deep that it denies truth and has overt negative consequences. Moderate Christian believers will read about this and dismiss it as irrelevant to their faith; sure, they'd pray, but they'd also get their children in to legitimate doctors who would give them effective treatment.
I have to say something that is heartfelt, and is also meant to offend. I do not absolve you mealy-mouthed moderates, I do not regard your beliefs as harmless. If Colleen Hauser or Leilani Neumann were in your church, you'd tell them to get medical care, but you'd also validate their belief in prayers. You would provide the soothing background muzak that says prayer is good, prayer is virtuous, prayer will connect you to the great lord who can do anything, prayer will give you solace in your time of worry. You would not raise your voice to say that prayer is useless, prayer is self-defeating, that while prayer might make you feel better while your child is suffering, that is no virtue. You pray yourselves. You think it is a noble and generous act for your representatives to prowl the corridors of hospitals, preying on the desperation of the sick. You abase yourselves before false hopes, and sacrifice human dignity on an altar built from the bones of the dead. You would spread the poison, piously excusing yourselves because you only want to administer sub-lethal doses.
You are Abraham's enablers. I hope you all feel a small tremor of guilt when you sit your own children down at bedtime to beg a nonexistent being for aid, when you plant the seed of futile supplication and surrender to delusions in their trusting minds. Damn you all.

Also:

Having read the bible, it seems as if when Yahweh really wanted people to have their prayers noticed or answered, he'd require/request that the prayer be supplemented with Animal Sacrifice. Whenever I notice an overt act of prayer, at a family dinner for example, I can't help but think to myself "If they really wanted to make this stick, they'd bleed out a goat on the counter."

UPDATE II: Thousands Beaten, Raped in Irish Reform Schools

"A climate of fear, created by pervasive, excessive and arbitrary punishment, permeated most of the institutions and all those run for boys. Children lived with the daily terror of not knowing where the next beating was coming from," the final report of Ireland's Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse concluded.

More than 30,000 children deemed to be petty thieves, truants or from dysfunctional families _ a category that often included unmarried mothers _ were sent to Ireland's austere network of industrial schools, reformatories, orphanages and hostels from the 1930s until the last church-run facilities shut in the 1990s.

The report, unveiled by High Court Justice Sean Ryan, found that molestation and rape were "endemic" in boys' facilities, chiefly run by the Christian Brothers order, and supervisors pursued policies that increased the danger. Girls supervised by orders of nuns, chiefly the Sisters of Mercy, suffered much less sexual abuse but frequent assaults and humiliation designed to make them feel worthless.

"In some schools a high level of ritualized beating was routine. ... Girls were struck with implements designed to maximize pain and were struck on all parts of the body," the report said. "Personal and family denigration was widespread."

Irish-Catholic Guilt culture of "don't acknowledge anything, keep it in the family, sweep it under the rug."
To requote PZ, Damn you all.

Man vs. (Big Dog) Machine

Robotics is becoming more and more of a creepy field as researchers come closer and closer with each iteration to making more accurate analogs of human/animal behavior/movement. For example "Big Dog" via BostonDynamics,



However, I choose to remain unimpressed until such time that robots surpass our talent for parody:



That is all.

Best Music Video of the 21st century

Weezer - Pork And Beans
Uploaded by Weezer

Polls, Pundits, and Lack of Critical Reasoning

Bush's approval rating is in the toilet. Congress' is even LOWER. The current narrative and reflections of all the failed "democratic strategist" class of Pundits has been arguing the conventional wisdom that Congress is polling negatively because they've been contentious with President Bush.

Every single underlying assumption in this narrative is flat-out wrong.

-Despite 70% of Americans being against the war, and 91% of Iraqi's not having a problem with violence against US Forces, the first and most easily is that somehow in all of this, Bush may be right. That the American People are with him. And when Congress opposes someone who's right, they get bad numbers.

-the Dem Congress hasn't been contentious with Bush. sure they're all bluster and no sword. Bush has aids under Congressional subpoena No Call No Show, with absolutely NO consequence. Related to this, and more recently, 13 Congressmen were subpoenaed to be deposed by the lawyers of Rep. Duke Cunningham for his defense. Thus far none of the aforementioned Congressman have complied with the subpoena. There doesn't look to be any meaningful consequence for not complying with the law.

-Dems poll like shit because they haven't been contentious enough. The moment Dems realize that they are recognized as the best hope for change on Iraq and other anti-Democratic policies the Bush Administration espouse, and take action on them, they will see their approval rating launch into orbit. We are suffering from Bush fatigue. H.W. even says it. We are done with him, but we can't afford to do what he wants us to do, which sickeningly is war forever: