15 February 2015

Link round-up for 15 February 2015

Looks like evolution wasn't much fun for dinosaurs.

How many of us are there?  Keep track here, with some interesting extra detail.

Neo-Nazis plan to build a white racist utopia.  In Namibia.  Yes, Namibia in Africa.  (If it ever gets beyond the drawing board, I expect it will work out about as well as this did.)

Pushy Christians get pwned by Satanists again in Florida (from Mendip).

Wow, Hell has a pretty eclectic population.

This is how a pilot sees the world.

No surprise people in 1962 freaked out over these goofy but bloodthirsty Martian-invasion trading cards (found via Mendip).

I knew these guys looked familiar.

Must-read:  The existence of religion and superstition is fully explainable by known evolutionary processes, and was probably inevitable.

Here's the case for decriminalizing prostitution in a nutshell (from Canada, but most of it also applies to the US).

The Bible could have been a lot cooler.

Bruce Gerencser looks at what's driving the Fifty Shades of Grey boycott (which appears to be flopping, unlike the movie).

Fundie rabble-rouser Franklin Graham condemns Obama's statement that Christianity has been used to justify war -- but he supported the Iraq invasion because he hoped it would be an opportunity to evangelize Iraqis.

An unspeakably hideous murder in Texas in 1916 exemplifies American terrorism.  More here.

This doofus is apparently a Republican legislator in good standing.  And I'm sure this guy is.  Oh, hell, they're all basically nuts.  Here's a choice collection of insanities.

Religions -- compare and learn.

A pastor with close ties to the RNC calls for an American theocracy (found via Republic of Gilead).

If you want to fight government waste, start with this.

Beware the scaremongers -- they could scare you to death (found via GoodShit).

Republicans fight to preserve anti-gay discrimination on state and federal levels.

Here are 23 ways feminism has made life better for men.

Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown, who will replace John Kitzhaber as Governor, looks to be a more reliable voice for the left than he was.  She will also be the first openly-bisexual Governor of a US state.

Sarah Moon recounts a visit to the Creation Museum (found via Republic of Gilead).  Oh, and this dingbat exists.  Republicans are actually getting worse (found via Progressive Eruptions).

Jeb Bush seems like a worthy successor to previous Bushes.

Guess which country.

The Wall Street Journal is already unimpressed with Republican dominance of Congress.

Trickle-down.....doesn't.

Should government pander to superstitious morons?

Abstinence-only "education" strikes again.

BuzzFeed traces the history of the internet's most-used anti-Semitic caricature (found via GoodShit).

Britain has the best place names (from NickM).

London Mayor Boris Johnson smacks down Jindal over the "no-go zone" nonsense.

Britain's Prime Minister hints at an early referendum on leaving the EU -- but judging by the comments, readers are unimpressed.

Radical-left anti-austerity parties are booming across southern Europe as Greek-style revolt spreads.

The Pope blathers incoherently about childless couples.

Those who exploit cheap labor should at least pay for the consequences.

A Saudi historian's efforts to justify the regime's ban on women drivers prove embarrassing.

I suspect these guys' problems with women go beyond "being found unattractive".

Ebola was quickly beaten here, but still rages on in west Africa.

Giant, intelligent African rats help clear minefields (found via TYWKIWDBI).

Seriously, this is a stupid idea (found via F3).  Why take the risk when being wrong could mean the end of the world?

Doctors should be doing more to promote this miracle cure.

Even stone-age people had their kinky side.

More research confirms surprising intelligence in crows (found via GoodShit).

Check out the latest robot from Boston Dynamics.

9 Comments:

Blogger Ahab said...

Between his comments about childless people and his statements at recent Catholic events, Pope Francis' mask is slipping. For all his good PR, he's still a retrograde Catholic elder living in the dark ages. I plan on blogging about Pope Francis' idiotic comments about childless couples soon.

The creators of "Mars Attacks" seem a little too anxious about the defilement of white women and the defeat of American military masculinity. Methinks the creators had some deep-seated issues!

The Kakuhido demonstration was tongue-in-cheek, right? Right?

The Book of Lola was epic! :)

15 February, 2015 09:32  
Blogger Shaw Kenawe said...

More good stuff and the most fun I've had all day.

15 February, 2015 14:51  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

Ahab: Let's hope we'll soon see other books from the Kinks Testament.

As best I could tell, Kakuhido is serious. In their defense, Valentine's day in Japan (and its Japanese companion holiday "White Day") is a much more high-pressure and stressful event than here.

"Mars Attacks" having come out in 1962, I suspect displaced Cold War paranoia. Take the Martians as stand-ins for the Russians and it all makes sense.

I'll be interested to see what you have to say about Francis.

Shaw: Glad to provide some diversion from all the snow!

15 February, 2015 18:13  
Blogger Pinku-Sensei said...

Thanks for linking to my evolution humor post. It's received 30 visits from your link alone, enough to push it over 100 page views and put it in third place among all the entries I've posted this month so far. I'll make a point of finding an entry of yours and either reblogging it or linking to it.

15 February, 2015 21:17  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

Pinku: Thanks! The pics were pretty funny, and your blog title immediately caught my attention since The Mote in God's Eye is a favorite of mine.

16 February, 2015 03:42  
Blogger Jono said...

Excellent articles, as usual. I have a lot of reading to do!

16 February, 2015 14:56  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

Jono: Just don't let it keep you from writing -- loved your latest post.

17 February, 2015 04:41  
Anonymous Zosimus the Heathen said...

The piece on the neo-Nazis looking to move to Namibia was interesting. Funnily enough, that country's had some previous experience with Nazis, as it was originally colonized by Germany, and many of its white inhabitants proved sympathetic to Hitler's cause during the years he was in power. Some of those Namibian supporters of National Socialism are apparently still alive, and referred to as "bush Nazis" by their compatriots.

Re neo-Nazis trying to create their own countries, I recall reading once that a number of these folk hatched some harebrained scheme to overthrow the government of Dominica during the 1980s, and turn that tiny Caribbean nation into a haven for mobsters. Not surprisingly, however, their attempted coup went nowhere. I also remember seeing a fictional example of this sort of thing in an Australian film called Holidays on the River Yarra. This movie revolved around a couple of aimless young no-hopers from Melbourne who got tangled up with right wing mercenaries who were planning to sail to some tiny African island and launch a coup there (and who were willing to take them along if they could each come up with a few hundred dollars to pay for their passage). It ended up being a really depressing movie - to come up with the money he needed, the main character (who was the more hopeless of the aforementioned two no-hopers) ended up stabbing the owner of a chicken shop to death during a bungled robbery, then had his mate pinch the money so he could blow it all on some girl he'd found "true love" with. He then went down to the dock where the mercenaries had their boat, only to see them all being arrested. The movie ended with a scene of him swimming out to sea, and you got the impression he wasn't going to try coming back to shore. As I said, pretty depressing stuff!

18 February, 2015 04:52  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

Zosimus: I'm surprised more movies haven't been made about such schemes. The theme just naturally allows for exotic locations, humor, and juicy evil villains. (Well, there was Iron Sky, about a secret Nazi mini-state on the Moon.)

It never seems to occur to these nitwits what happens after they stage their coup. The US wouldn't have left Dominica in the hands of such cranks, nor would Namibia have given up a chunk of its territory. I guess they never think that far ahead because deep down they know it's all talk and will never become reality.

18 February, 2015 16:37  

Post a Comment

<< Home