Friday, February 27, 2009

Animal Farm Friday: Dedication to the Fat Cats



Thursday, February 26, 2009

Nothing like a breath of fresh coal air!



Every penny of 2% Would be a great start

Some money-grubbing coward at the Wall Sleaze Journal - a staff writer or editor too gutless to take responsibility for this piece of garbage op-ed claims that Obama's plan to increase taxes on the top 2% in order to bring some fairness back to the tax system and put more money back into the Treasury won't work, even if we take every dime.

I say that it probably won't work either, only because nothing really will given the size of the problem, but taking every goddamn dime from the top 2% would certainly be a great start, if for nothing more than the entertainment value of watching the Masters of the Universe cannibalize themselves.

The anonymous writer claims that because taxing the top 2% won't be enough, Obama will have to start taxing the middle class too. This is a classic and thoroughly debunked BS defense that the rich like to throw out as chaff to deflect unwanted attention, and it won't work this time. What little credibilty the WSJ had over the past many years has completed evaporated in this current economic climate. They gotten it wrong on every note, every time, just as they are getting it wrong with this op-ed (with the one exception being this).

Taxing the top 2% will not be enough, that is true. But it would be a hell of a start.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Sauce Wednesday

The Catholics have their Ash Wednesday today, so in honor of Flying
Spaghetti Monster, I will enjoy spaghetti and meatballs that my lovely
wife is making for dinner. I hope she doesn't mind if I rub a little
sauce on my forehead.

Twitter explained

http://i39.tinypic.com/24w7ed0.jpg

Great moments in presidential speeches

Smudge



Excellent ad from the Reality Coalition.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Political Rogues


Political - Rogues
Originally uploaded by DiscoWeasel
Waaaaa-waaa-waa-waa-waaaa.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Raisin of Reason: The Great Buzzword

This post isn't against religion, so much as it's against junk science and pseudo-science, which I find a greater threat. Because when people believe and find so-called "scientific evidence" to support daffy and ridiculous claims, this undermines the credibility of the scientific method.

Take this witty post slamming the ridiculous idea of "The Great Filter" (Or, Why We've Never Discovered Signs of Alien Life) for example:

The very existence of life makes finding a four-leafed clover with winning lottery tickets for leaves look like a sure thing.  Add the staggering improbability of our evolution from single cells and you end up with odds so vast they've driven the invention of everything from the Drake equation to an invisible sky-beard who seems unnecessarily preoccupied with what we do one day out of every seven.  People who study this subject file all that under "Shit we already knew", and were too busy actually working on the science to come up with a garbage buzzword phrase that would look really awesome in bold type on the cover of a hardback book (available now for $29.99!)  Luckily Robin Hanson was ready to do that for them.

I love sarcastic scientists! (The whole post is a short entertaining read.)

WTF Obama?: Lost Emails

Time to start a new category of posts to keep track of all the back-pedaling and reversals from Obama's campaign promises, since there seems to be a new one each day.

The latest one flies smack in the face of his claims for more transparency.

The Obama administration, siding with former President George W. Bush,
is trying to kill a lawsuit that seeks to recover what could be
millions of missing White House e-mails in a stunning reversal of
Obama's rhetoric about Bush secrecy on the campaign trail.

I'll be going back to capture and post on the other flip-flops that I've been letting slide, because I think I see a pattern developing.

Benevolent tyrant, indeed.

WSJ finally gets one right: W worst ever at jobs


Bush On Jobs: The Worst Track Record On Record

President George W. Bush entered
office in 2001 just as a recession was starting, and is preparing to
leave in the middle of a long one. That’s almost 22 months of recession
during his 96 months in office.

His job-creation record won’t look much better. The Bush
administration created about three million jobs (net) over its eight
years, a fraction of the 23 million jobs created under President Bill Clinton’s administration and only slightly better than President George H.W. Bush did in his four years in office.