Anna Kasparian, The Young Turks
sounds legitimate
Tina Fey
Romney spokeswoman accidentally extols the awesomeness of Massachusetts' health care law.
Politico:
A Mitt Romney spokesperson offered an unusual counterattack Tuesday to an ad in which a laid-off steelworker blames the presumptive GOP nominee for his family losing health care: If that family had lived in Massachusetts, it would have been covered by the former governor’s universal health care law.
Under “derp,” see this.
Romney’s real plans for American healthcare.
"What we can glean from this is an understanding of why we are on the road that we are on. Again, it’s based on what went into his thinking, being surrounded by radicals. You could hearken back to the days before the Civil War, when too many Americans believed that not all men were created equal. It was the Civil War that began the codification of the truth that here in America, yes, we are equal and we all have equal opportunities, not based on the color of our skin. You have equal opportunity to work hard and to succeed and to embrace the opportunities, the God-given opportunities, to develop resources and work extremely hard and, as I say, to succeed. Now, it has taken all these years for many Americans to understand that the gravity, that mistake that took place before the Civil War, and why the Civil War had to really start changing America. What Barack Obama seems to want to do is go back before those days when we were in different classes based on income, based on color of skin. Why are we allowing our country to move backwards instead of moving forward with the understanding that as our charters of liberty spell out for us, we are all created equally?"
SARAH PALIN, on Fox “News,” talking about something.
Game changer.
—-
Annnnnnd THIS exemplifies why I use the phrase “Sarah Palin stupid” to describe certain things.
(via wilwheaton)
New study tracks how conservatives have lost faith in science
The graph you’re looking at shows a striking trend. Over the past several decades, self-reported conservatives have lost faith and confidence in the scientific community, while moderates and liberals have remained relatively unchanged. This comes from a new study by Gordon Gauchet of UNC, drawing on 36 years of polling done involving tens of thousands of Americans in the General Social Survey.
Both frequent churchgoers and conservatives reported a more than 25% drop since 1974 when it came to faith in science (namely climate and evolution). It doesn’t paint the whole community that way, but the trend is clear. So what’s going on?
I’ve linked to Chris Money’s new book The Republican Brain before. I’ve now read it. As uncomfortable as it seems, a body of recent research says that there are not only differences in how conservative brains develop in the context of family and society (“nurture”), but likely also in how they are formed (“nature”). The differences seem amplified in conservatives as they become more educated. How can this be?
Chris Mooney’s blog and book detail these studies, as well as their shortcomings. He also details areas where liberals are guilty of similar bias in reasoning (like vaccines).
We are forced now to ask whether conservative brains and liberal brains, as they exist in society, are equally receptive to facts and equally receptive to changing their minds based upon them. It appears that might not be the case.
I encourage everyone to browse Chris’s blog and read his book. We won’t find solutions to our political divide in either the nature or nurture hypotheses, but rather somewhere in the middle. What’s clear is that facts are not holding equal weight in both brains.
(via Cosmic Log)
"If she can produce a case in one week starting today verified by three medical experts that she and i pick of a woman who became ‘retarded’ (her words) due to HPV vaccine i will donate that to a charity of her choice. She must donate 10k to a charity I pick if she fails to do so."
University of Pennsylvania bioethicist Art Caplan • E-mailing reporters with an offer of a challenge for Michele Bachmann, in response to her claims that the HPV vaccine can cause mental health issues. Here’s what we think is going to happen here — Bachmann is going to ignore Caplan because, if she doesn’t, she’s going to be proven wrong. That’s pretty much her only option for not looking stupid here. source (via • follow)
Don’t hold your breath, but you’re fighting the good science fight!
(via jtotheizzoe)
"The First Amendment was written neither to guarantee freedom of religion to Muslims or Buddhists or Hindus nor to prohibit their free exercise of religion. It wasn’t written about them one way or another. It was written for one specific purpose: to protect the free exercise of the Christian religion. We must be clear: the First Amendment does not prohibit the free exercise of alternative religions, but neither does it guarantee it. It simply does not address the issue at all."
American Family Association spokesman and demagogue royale Bryan Fischer, trying to see how many feet he can get into his mouth.
Our only question: If this is how he mangles the meaning of a single 45-word sentence, what’s that say about his interpretation of the Scriptures?
(h/t Joe.My.God.)
Fuck this guy. And his couch.
