Borked Code

I just scanned over an interesting post regarding potential ways of handling the teabaggers…probably will never happen, but I refer to the portion in question – Amendment 14, section 3:

3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Now, allow me to point to something else:

Grover Norquist’s anti-tax Pledge.

The US Constitution grants the privilege of laying taxes at the feet of Congress, courtesy of Section 1 Article 8.  It does not encourage them, merely makes them the responsibility of Congress.  Taxation is recognized as a de facto necessity in the cause of doing business as the government of a nation.  It is Congress’ job to tax appropriately.

And yet, we have a great many members of Congress who declare that they will not perform this role.  They are rebelling against their duty as proscribed by the United States Constitution.  Great or small, it is rebellion just the same.

As such, signatories of this anti-tax Pledge, it seems to me, have set themselves into the role of “conscientious objectors” – refusing to perform their duty because it goes against their beliefs.  Which, admittedly, they are well within their rights to believe.

But if they want to serve us as members of Congress in spite of their objections, it seems to me that they shouldn’t be allowed on the floor until fully two-thirds of those remaining – i.e., those who haven’t been ejected for their treason – vote in favor of allowing them to re-enter.

Justin Raimondo has published a rather disturbing article regarding Brevik’s funding – as in, where did it come from?  His financial history is vague at best (which should not be the case), and his manifesto apparently links him to at least eight or nine other people scattered around the world.

Even more telling, Pamela Geller, the conservative hate-speech specialist here in the states, appears to have been near the top of Brevik’s list of most-admireds.  From the look of it, the admiration runs both ways – because she has posted on her own website a mail message from someone who claims to have been “Stocking up on weapons and ammunition” for some untold reason.  And what’s more, she shielded that person’s identity to protect that person from possible arrest.

In other words, she suspected the mail was from a terrorist, and she shielded that terrorist and possibly enabled that individual to commit mass murder.  If not now, then in the future.

This is serious shit, I’m afraid, and it comes to me as no surprise that a right-wing ideologue should be doing this.  At this stage of the game, I think it’s time we start arresting, trying, and executing the right-wing noise machine as terrorists.

And we begin with Pamela Geller.

Pun fully intended – SciAm has a neat essay on the uses of liquid nitrogen in cooking!  Chez magnifique!

It’s strange, to see an ancient enemy on the ropes, literally on the verge of defeat – you feel a rush of euphoria, the sense of victory is right there waiting for you to just reach out and take hold of it.

And at the same time you feel a certain pity, for the defeated.

Except for now.  Despite its beauty and unique nature, I see science step up to the plate and offer us a potential end to influenza – forever.  On the order of driving smallpox away into the dustbin of history, we now are looking at seeing the end of this virus’ threat to us occur in our lifetime.

That is awesome, fantastic, spectacular…

…unless, of course, its funding gets cut by a pack of dumbass teabaggers who don’t believe in evolution.

Before I get rolling, yes, I know, not all Christians are like him.  Far from it.

My point will be, however – that over the past three years (and actually more like thirty), acts of terrorism have been coming from right-wing extremists.  From bin Laden and the Taliban to Timothy McVeigh and his militia to the Minutemen to this fellow Brevik, these are right-wing crazies driven into a frenzy of violence (either through self-immersion in their ideology or indoctrination through religion).

What’s particularly embarrassing is that the FOX News crowd are falling over themselves to distance themselves from this Norwegian horror show…and trying to claim victimhood in the process.  Well no, sorry, that won’t fly.  Rather than make the point in my own harsh manner, I’ll let a more gentle – but equally pointed – argument be made:

And now, where do we get the link to Christianity for this fellow?  Again, I’ll let Mr. Stewart give you the answer to that one.

It’s worth noting that Japanese children who were in the vicinity of the Fukushima reactor meltdown are going to be tested for cancer for the rest of their lives.

Think about that.  The reactor was built and operated with fraudulent safety test results (decades worth).  It had fuel stores far greater than those of Chernobyl.  Many times greater.

So when someone tries to pitch nuclear as a totally safe option – it isn’t.  That’s not to say it’s something that automatically should be dismissed, it isn’t.  It’s a valid power source.  But if you get someone trying to paint it as all rosy and perfect, they’re full of shit.  Worse, they probably have a vested interest – either financial or ideological – in seeing it happen.

For now, my money’s on geothermal and solar.  Wind too.

Yeah.  Fuck cancer.

As a die-hard skeptic and a supporter of equal rights among all people – regardless of color, sex, nationality, or other factor, I find the overwhelming sexism among the skeptic community to be something of a crying shame.

Jennifer Ouellette has written up a fantastic article on the subject and presents a pretty insightful view on the matter.  It’s certainly worth a read, regardless of your sex/race/etc.  Check it out.  

…and Roger Ebert summed it up perfectly, and wrapped it all up with a nice bow on it.

…just so I could vote for Al Franken.  The following two videos are tremendous.  Few members of our elected officials actually give a shit about the average person, and he’s one of them.  Bernie Sanders is another.  The first of these is Franken taking apart a bigoted defender of DOMA, and the second is Franken making a pointed argument against the violation of privacy that transpires when certain location-based apps share their information too much. 

Oh, and in case you didn’t notice, Franken is a progressive.

Wiping the floor with a “witness” in favor of DOMA:

Discussing the iPhone: