Vacation

Hey, I’m gonna be taking a little break from blogging. I’ll be back either next Friday or the following Monday. There will be a Sunday Reading post, but unless something huge comes up, that will be it.

The WorldNetDaily Gets Email

WND founder Joseph Farah.

There ought to be some kind of descriptive law describing the proportional lunacy of websites to its readership. If you read the comments section of your local straight-laced news organization, every once in a while some real crazy will stop by. As the news organizations or blogs or whatever else get more interesting, the commenters get exponentially crazier. And the truly demented are the commenters at really fringe sites. This is where the WorldNetDaily comes in.

Local Businessman Shocked to Learn Nazi-Themed Store Offends Some People For Some Reason

There’s a men’s clothing store in Ahmedabad, India called Hitler. The owner might be trolling or just might be incredibly stupid – as often is the case, it’s difficult to tell the difference – said his business partner’s grandfather’s nickname was Hitler, but that he didn’t know anything about the actual Hitler other than that he was a “strict man.”

Julia Burke Interview

Our contributor Julia Burke is something of an expert on wine, so I got hammered on Thunderbird and asked her a few questions about it. Enjoy!

Stupid Republicans To Give Us All Their Money

Right Wing Watch has just been cold chillin’ at the Tea Party Unity Rally with a video camera, turning it on at random times to catch the totally insane stuff whoever happens to be speaking at the time bleats out. And now they caught some good news from the short wave ham radio operator Neal Boortz (Handle: Bald Eagle).

Former GOP FL Gov Charlie Crist Endorses Obama – GOP Freaks Out at How Insignificant He Is

Charlie Crist: sold-out his native wingnuttia for a moderate (i.e. socialist)

This morning former Republican governor of Florida, Charlie Crist, endorsed the Obama campaign, explaining:

[A]n element of their party has pitched so far to the extreme right on issues important to women, immigrants, seniors and students that they’ve proven incapable of governing for the people. Look no further than the inclusion of the Akin amendment in the Republican Party platform, which bans abortion, even for rape victims.

This is the kind of sentiment that one can only wish more Republicans were expressing.  Yet, as you may notice, Crist referred to the GOP as “their party”.  Back in 2009, Crist decided not to run for re-election as Governor; instead, he initiated a run for a seat in the US Senate as a Republican.  However, after falling behind eventual winner and more conservative Marco Rubio, Crist ended his affiliation with the GOP to run as an independent.

Gilbert, AZ Will Have None Of Your Commie Fluoridation

In the movie Dr. Strangelove, a high-ranking US military officer turns out to be a paranoid Bircher-type who believes in lots of conspiracy theories involving the Russians. The one he talks about the most is how the Russians were somehow forcing Americans to fluoridate their water, which then weakens their “precious bodily fluids,” which in turn makes them more susceptible to invasion. Or something. He acts in accordance with his beliefs and starts a pre-emptive war, which sets off a chain of events that ultimately leads (spoiler alert!) to the end of the world.

Homeopathy Companies Pay Journalist to Smear Edzard Ernst

Anyone who’s spent a significant amount of time addressing the scientific problems that come up with alternative medicine will eventually be accused by some quack of being on the Big Pharma payroll. If the alties were right, pharmaceutical companies throw away millions of dollars on misinformation campaigns, focusing largely on Facebook, Twitter, and other internet forums. Advocates of science-based medicine get cut a check once a months for their services.

Ain’t No Party Like A Ron Paul Party ‘Cause A Ron Paul Party Has A Scientology Table

The Ron Paul people went and had their own counter-convention in Tampa this past weekend. Ron Paul didn’t show up. But the Church of Scientology did.

Sunday Reading

From r/pics.

• Neil Armstrong: 1930-2012, by Phil Plait (Bad Astronomy) – The definitive obit for the first person to step on another world.
• The Theological Roots of Aikin’s “Legitimate Rape” Comment, by Sarah Posner (Religion Dispatches) – And here I was thinking it was “The Secret.”
• In Defense of Science: An Interview with NCSE’s Eugenie Scott (KQED) – Eugenie Scott of the NCSE explains why conservative creationists and liberal anti-vaxers are two sides of the same coin.
• What Has Happened To Wikileaks? (Blog That Peter Wrote) – “[Wikileaks] has gone from “shining a light into the world of government secrecy” to what occurs as the mouthpiece of a cult to defend the person of its leader.”
• Romney’s First 100 Days, by David Leonhardt (NY Times) – Spooky predictions about what might get cut if Romney wins.

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