Why I’m Voting Third Party

I should probably preface this by pointing out that I live in a state where it’s practically impossible for a Democratic Party candidate for President to lose. The last time a Democrat lost New York was in 1984 (the actual year, not the dystopian Orwell novel) when Walter Mondale lost everything except Washington, DC and his home state of Minnesota to the B-movie actor Ronald Reagan.

So it’s entirely possible that I’m only taking this position because I don’t have to face some moral dilemma over what might happen if too many New Yorkers, including myself, voted for a third-party candidate instead of  Obama. I’d like to think that if I lived in Ohio or Florida or Virginia or some place like that I would be consistent in my principles. But I can’t really know that for sure unless I were actually in that position, and I’m just not that interested in testing that by moving out-of-state to find out.

Legitimate Rape = The Kind God Likes

Yesterday the Republican politician Richard Mourdock got real mad about them there uppity women wanting abortion rights and all. So he went on Facebook and wrote this:

Keep Brain Bleach Handy While Reading This

By now you’ve probably heard about the most important news story of our generation. The effects of it will echo throughout the world, impacting the daily lives of every single man, woman, and child on the planet for decades to come. I speak of course of the Hulk Hogan sex tape.

Bill Nye Says What We All Are Thinking

Bill Nye, who I admiringly refer to as Uncle Billy, pushed himself into the front lines in the war of Creationism vs. Science. In a video titled “Creationism Is Not Appropriate For Children”he rails against the notion that classrooms should teach Creationism alongside Evolution.

The EPA Will Turn Your Children Against You and Your Non-Lightswitch-Flipping Ways

I’d really like to be able to stop writing about crank websites like WorldNetDaily and Natural News, but they keep on being hilarious and so I can’t. For example, did you know that your kid might be a spy for the Russians Environmental Protection Agency? IT IS TRUE:

If your child suddenly starts marching around the house demanding that you turn off every light switch after leaving a room, or begins attaching hangers to door handles that grade your family’s energy use habits, he or she may have been recruited by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a spy in one of its so-called “energy patrols.”

Study Finds Doctors Distrust ‘Big Pharma’

One of the standard propaganda lines for the alternative medicine industry is that the typical physician is in the pocket of “big pharma.” Even if they’re not bought off with pens and pads of paper, then their good intentions can be subverted with biased studies that are funded by pharmaceutical companies. And since these doctors don’t take the possibly nefarious intentions of “big pharma” as seriously as the alties do, they end up as unwitting salespeople of unnecessary drugs, which serves to line the pockets of the CEOs of drug companies.

This sounds like a pretty testable hypothesis. Do physicians trust company-funded clinical trials too much? The New England Journal of Medicine decided to investigate. Here’s what they found (emphasis mine):

Why Don’t More Nobel Prize Winners Do This?

Half the fun of winning a Nobel Prize – at least one that hasn’t been made completely ridiculous – should be in how you can rub it in the noses of all of those who have wronged you in the past. And that’s what John Gurdon, who just won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, is doing to one of his schoolteachers. Good for him. Check out the excerpt from his 1949 report card after the jump:

Debate Reform: iPads [Updated]

Cross Posted at JesusLovesBags.com

[Update: Gawker has a story about debate conspiracy theories of covert communications, including one about Romney pulling out a cheat-sheet.  My only objection to this is that it should be specifically sanctioned and both candidates should be able to communicate with their staffs. Bring it out in the open and level the playing field.]

I didn’t watch the Presidential Debate Wednesday night, but from the accounts I’ve read, Romney lied his ass off, and Obama sat there and took it, failing to challenge or counter Romney’s claims.

We’ve kind of seen this disregard for facts in GOP VP candidate Paul Ryan’s convention speech.  It was so blatantly false that former Bush political strategist, Michael Dowd, was compelled to comment that “At some point, the truth should matter“.

Indeed it should.  And that is a bit of a problem with debates as they are currently conducted: you can lie your ass off making claims that are completely unsupported by facts.  And unless your opponent (if they are actually interested in the facts) happens to have sufficient facts memorized to counter your bullshit, they risk a) lying and, probably worse, b) get caught lying.

Which is a shame.  The debate is a rhetorical cage match.  Its not based on factually true substance, especially if one party is willing to ‘stretch’ the truth.

The Internet Loves Big Bird!

While most of Mitt Romney’s debate with President Obama was filled with lies and misdirection, there was one thing that old Mitty uttered that caused the Internet to go to fucking war.

Polical Spaghetti’s Pertinent Repost: Why Do Republicans Hate Sesame Street?

In 95, when they took over congress, the Republicans introduced a bill to drive a tank down Sesame Street and kill the fuck out of everyone from Big Bird to Elmo. Now, they are trying to do it again. So, why do Republicans hate Sesame Street so much?