31 March 2013

Link round-up for 31 March 2013

One of the best blogs out there, Republic of Gilead, has an intermittent problem which causes it to redirect to a junk page full of links (at the moment this seems to be happening with individual posts but not with the main page).  If anyone knows how to fix this kind of problem, help would doubtless be appreciated.

Can science bring back one more extinct species?  More on extinction here (found via Progressive Eruptions).

"All we’re asking for is basic unfairness."

Yes, this would be really ridiculous.

Ever wonder where Easter eggs come from (NSFW)?

There are actually people who think this is real (found via Green Eagle, who has yet another entertaining wingnut wrapup).

Here's the life of a man who hates government.

Let's apply the logic of austerity policies to the weather.

Cute baby animals are cute.

Right-wingers are weird.

Lake photos illustrate pareidolia.

This is a really impressive piece of furniture, from the 18th century.

Gin and Tacos crafts a perfect portrait of a certain type of bully.

Don't be fooled by recent claims -- the Shroud of Turin is a fraud.

Earlier Americans were more relaxed about homosexuality (link from Shaw Kenawe).

If you worry about your stuff getting lost in the mail, read this.

An Arizona gun store owner finds a customer he won't sell to (found via Brains and Eggs).

Paul Ryan won't save the Republicans.

Mall-Wart has an amazingly stupid new idea.

In the last 40 years, the average income of the richest 0.01% of Americans has increased by $18,362,740.  The average gain for the bottom 90%?  Read on.....

Those rich people aren't too generous either.

After 18 years of "abstinence-only" sex "education", Texas's teenage-pregnancy rate has exploded (found via Progressive Eruptions).

Our big problem isn't the national debt -- just the opposite.

Just as I thought -- NOMS's anti-gay-marriage march was a flop (but check this out).

In North Dakota, a 90-year-old experiment in socialism is a resounding success.

In 2014 there will be only two choices -- it's foolish to imagine otherwise.

In the Orwellian world of the Christian Right, resisting intolerance is a form of intolerance.

The non-religious part of the US population has risen to 20%, but we're still far behind some European countries.

If you're visiting Cornwall, don't stay with the Bulls.

Merkel and the EU have blood on their hands.

Feminism will turn everyone gay (found via Republic of Gilead).

Armenia has an unusual way of teaching children to think.

This is Lake Baikal in winter.

How could a country that led the world in wealth, culture, and technology for centuries fall so far behind?

7 Comments:

Blogger mendip said...

Wonderful links - thanks. Love the cabinet/desk one, and am fascinated by the North Dakota banking system - had no idea that such a remnant of the old Populist movement remained!

31 March, 2013 08:23  
Blogger Shaw Kenawe said...

Thanks for all the link mentions, Infidel753.

Now on to this hilarity by Eric the Red:

The Most Important Week in Human History
By: Erick Erickson


"There are many candidates for most important day and most important week in human history. This week we remember what is arguably the very top of the top of the list.

The events of this week, culminating on Easter Sunday, fundamentally transformed the world in ways no other event in human history has."

Truly jaw-droppingly awesome in its stupidity. He makes a ridiculous claim and backs it up with nothing more than a religiously biased opinion. I wonder if the billions of Chinese are aware of how Christianity has transformed their world, the Hindus in India? The Muslims? Only 1/6 of the world population is Christian.

"Men were filthy savages before Christ rose and much of the world remains that way with or without him."

(So what good is Christ if, as Erickson says, much of the world remains "filthy savages" even WITH him?)

Frankly, one of the failings of the post-Christian West is the rejection of the idea of original sin and being born sinners. When we remember that men are, at essence and without Christ filling their lives, filthy savages,

Yes, since the advent of Christianity and, with Christ "filling their lives," the world has experienced:

the Conquistadors who slaughtered and wiped out whole cultures in the New World in the name of Jesus;

the Inquisition, which allowed Christ filled priests, bishops and popes to torture and murder hundreds of "infidels;"

the Holocaust, which was the genocide of those "Christ-killers" the Jews--a belief that was embraced by all Christ-filled Christian Europe;

the very Christian embrace of enslaving and destroying millions of Africans' lives in the service of King Cotton;

and in the name of Gentle Jesus, demonizing, vilifying, and in many instances, murdering gay men and women for being who they are.

Yes. We see, CLEARLY, how Christianity has tamed the savagery in those who embrace and take Jesus into their lives.

31 March, 2013 13:41  
Blogger Tommykey said...

Thanks for the link Infidel. I thought a post like that would be right up your alley.

31 March, 2013 14:55  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

Mendip: Thanks. It's too bad the North Dakota bank isn't better known -- states are supposed to be "laboratories of democracy", and a success like that deserves to be emulated.

Shaw Kenawe: Erickson has been even more bizarre than usual in the run-up to Easter. RedState has post after post on the subject.

I noticed that "filthy savages" bit too. So Buddha, Cyrus the Great, Alexander, Themistocles, Herodotus, Archimedes, Eratosthenes, Hippocrates, etc., etc. were "filthy savages" while the illiterate lice-infested disease-ridden populations of medieval Europe, and the murderous fanatics you list, were not. It just goes to show that there's no reasoning with some of these people.

Tommykey: It's one of the fascinating questions of history. Jared Diamond has some interesting thoughts on the subject.

31 March, 2013 15:29  
Blogger Ranch Chimp said...

Thank You for the link read list Infidel

01 April, 2013 05:06  
Anonymous Blurber said...

On looking at the beautiful photo of Lake Baikal in winter, one would not suspect that this body of water, the most voluminous freshwater lake in the world, is a center for neutrino research. The Baikal Deep Underwater Neutrino Telescope is deployed there at a depth of 3600 feet.

01 April, 2013 13:34  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

Ranch Chimp: You're welcome.

Blurber: Interesting. A telescope is about the last thing I'd expect to find at the bottom of a lake, but given the special issues presented by neutrinos, it makes sense.

02 April, 2013 08:49  

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