19 August 2012

Link round-up for 19 August 2012

Visualize pig Latin.

See the invisible stupid bank robber.

We all face a real Matrix choice (found via Atheist Pig).

What if there were history creationists?  Well, there's this.

Watch for a minute, spot the pattern.

Religion is the IE of world-views.

Sorry, but if this is what passes for "will rule" at movie theaters, I'm sticking to my DVD collection.  There have been some hits recently (interesting that Prometheus succeeded mainly overseas), but blogger BR was unimpressed with Resident Evil.  And this horror film looks too horrifying.

Just when religion seemed to be calming down.....

Ayn Rand didn't play by her own rules.

I hope at least the horse was sober.

These protest signs are on target.

The US now has fewer cars per capita than most developed countries -- another sign of our declining middle class.

Here's what church tax exemptions cost us.

In light of experience, which policy makes sense?

Another survey shows religion declining in the US -- and in Saudi Arabia?! (sent by Parsley's Pics).

There's a little-known Chappaquiddick-like scandal in Romney's past.

Religious "rights" for corporations are just the latest Trojan horse for attacks on personal freedom.

Beck-besotted goldtards need to read this.

The US economy is improving, slowly but surely.  Update:  As seen from overseas we look pretty good.

Even viewed just as a business, Bain was mediocre (found via Immoral Minority).

Lady Atheist has some science basics for those newly freed from religion.

The town of Tenaha TX has been a hotbed of police abuses.

Under the glare of publicity, Louisiana's Delhi charter school abandons forced pregnancy tests.

Ryan gave Romney only a meager polling bounce, and could lead to an Obama landslide.  He pulls Romney away from the center, as he's an extremist on women's issues and Medicare who offers many targets for attack and makes Republican campaign pros nervous.  Even Reagan's budget director calls his plan a fairy tale, and he's unlikely to appeal to the young.  Just don't talk back to him in his presence.  The inimitable Jim Wright looks at Romney and Ryan here.

This is what the Deepwater Horizon blow-up looked like.

Teabagger Congressman Todd Akin has his doubts about federal civil-rights laws.  Update:  He also thinks rape victims hardly ever get pregnant --at least not if it's "legitimate rape".

Sorry, but the Family Research Council is a hate group, and its denials epitomize hypocrisy.

Complementarianism is just a big word for the same old subjugation of women.

Cynicism is an excuse for inaction we can't afford.

ThinkProgress debunks Romney's whiteboard tripe, and Smartypants shows just how bad his distortions are. The Obama campaign weighs in.

Other Republican lies are piling up faster than anyone can address them, but here's the Navy SEAL e-mail on bin Laden (found via Progressive Eruptions), the Obama Medicare "cuts", and a new one (to me) about government ammunition purchases.

Hank Williams Jr is an idiot, apparently.

Recession has driven the US birth rate below that of some European countries.

Where money is concerned, we could learn from Canada.

Rosa Rubicondior explains why she's a feminist.

A town in Dorset has the worst place-name in Britain (found via Mendip).

Globally, business leaders favor Obama two-to-one.

I bet this wine tastes sour.

Greece experiences the fruits of austerity -- lawlessness, old people not safe in their homes, rising xenophobia.  In Spain, one mayor has resorted to a hunger strike.

Atheism is on the rise in the Persian Gulf area (found via Lady Atheist's link round-up).

1920 -- modernity begins.

This won't end well -- an 11-year-old in Pakistan is accused of blasphemy.

China's cities are hell-holes of pollution.

Depressed by Republican plans?  Here's a place where the sick and elderly are taken care of.

Yes, these two babies are cousins.  What would it be like if our nearer cousins still lived?

This gadget could be pretty useful, especially for absent-minded people.

Signs of the times -- the South is getting too hot for high-school football, and a nuclear reactor shuts down because the local river water is now too warm to cool it properly.

Fallout from the Fukushima disaster is causing mutations in butterflies.

Autistic people have helped make a better world for everyone.

Nanotechnology offers a boost for clot-busting drugs.

[Image at top from Cannonfire.]

4 Comments:

Anonymous Bacopa said...

Is that Romney car accident thing for real? I trust you, so I think you wouldn't have posted the link without checking it out. I've checked it out and it mostly seems legit. Why is this not an issue?

Perhaps because it lacks a sex angle. Ted Kennedy was driving a honey he hoped to do it with. Mittens was just driving a missionary. No sex, no story.

I don't Romney is a liar. He does not have enough "epistemic interior" to be a liar. I think some people run on a different kind of software. It's all about giving the answers that get grandma or daddy to give you the cookie. Their inner mental life is not sophisticated enough to lie as you and I do.

Wanna raise a kid who can really lie but who also almost always chooses to be authentic and honest? Ask open ended questions and really listen. And listen! Kids often need time to respond to open ended questions.

19 August, 2012 19:01  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

I've usually found Joseph Cannon reliable -- he put a lot of work into debunking the Obama fake-birth-certificate stories in 2008, for example, despite his own bitter hostility to Obama. Daily Kos also reported the car-crash story. Of course, until there's a thorough investigation, one can't be certain, but there's enough smoke here to call the fire department at least.

19 August, 2012 19:37  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

I don't Romney is a liar. He does not have enough "epistemic interior" to be a liar.

I have to disagree with you there. Romney's campaign has been distinguished by the frequency and casualness of his lies. Many observers have pointed this out.

19 August, 2012 19:39  
Anonymous Bacopa said...

I am sorry I was so unclear when I said I don't think don't think Romney is a liar. In order to lie you have to have a clear and well reasoned picture in your mind of how the world is for you. I call this picture the "epistemic interior". Lying is using language or non-verbal communication to attempt to get someone else to form propositional attitudes (usually beliefs) that do not correspond to your own epistemic interior.

I am saying that Romney is so deficient as a person that he cannot even lie. Most children start forming a robust picture of the world by age four and understand that their picture may have information that others don't. This is confirmed by the "false belief test" in psychology. Autistic children fail the false belief test because they cannot imagine other minds. Romney may be able to imagine other mids, but I don't think he has a clear enough picture of what's going on inside himself to be able to lie. He just says what gets him the cookie. There is no more to him than that.

20 August, 2012 18:55  

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