RationalWiki:What is going on in the blogosphere?/December 2012

December 2012
Science deniers invent a debate by presenting a false equivalency between real science and denialism Exposing Pseudoastronomy goes through over 500 psychic predictions from 23 pros and dozens of laypeople for 2012. They didn't do so well. Update: Followup. Hear this, people. Obama might actually have some balls. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6vdLM5gMJN0#! Cosmos will be in good hands.] You know what actually...Thatcher, stay alive for as long as you can. 2012: the year when it became okay to blame victims of sexual assault Cracked: 4 Dangerously Influential Dimwits, featuring Sylvia Browne and Jenny McCarthy. This is too good to be stashed away into Monthly RW: Lee Berger, the discoverer of Australopithecus sediba, and Darren Curnoe, best known for co-finding the the Red Deer Cave people, say hi. E.J. Dionne: Republicans are rejecting their own ideals.

Edzard Ernst: How to become a charlatan. [http://www.yourjewishnews.com/Pages/24114.aspx Clearly, this wouldn't happen if there were more large breasts. The only thing that can stop a bad woman with large breasts is a good woman with large breasts.] From the desk of George Takei: This made me cry. "Of course we still think these theories are just nonsense." VIDEO: On Thursday, Fox and Friends had a professional Santa Claus talk about the War on Christmas. A website called "DoucheChillz" did a simple web search of the guy and found some (ahem) other videos of him that would've pissed off Gretchen Carlson -- if he was a librul, that is. (Doesn't Fox do ANY research before they put this shit on the air?) Fifty Shades of Takei. A well-known ultra-leftist endorses a gun control law. <vote poll=blog2758 closed="yes">Secret revealed! The Thomas Friedman Op/Ed Generator. <vote poll=blog2757 closed="yes">Nobody can have seen this coming. <vote poll=blog2756 closed="yes">"Same-sex marriage laws might force a resurrected Jesus to marry a man" according to a US Xtian radio host; reports "Pink News" (Earlier she said "gays aren’t ‘people’") Lovely woman! <vote poll=blog2755 closed="yes">So the Australian Vaccination Network site got hacked ... and has been serving up pharma spam. <vote poll=blog2754 closed="yes">William Lane Craig remains an unspeakably loathsome creature. <vote poll=blog2753 closed="yes">Blogger writes that colonics do no good. Colon cleaning company sues WordPress. <vote poll=blog2752 closed="yes">Morgan Freeman on a Snopes-debunked "don't point to gun control as the problem" screed allegedly in his name: You're all a bunch of idiots. <vote poll=blog2751 closed="yes">A Fox News columnist unsurprisingly suggests gun control isn't the issue in the mass killings the US regularly sees, and instead suggests the problem lies in the US mental health care system. But would the Right, if they're going to take this line, be prepared for the enormous increases in public health care spending that are implicit in his recommendations? <vote poll=blog2750 closed="yes">"I am Adam Lanza's mother, says a mother with a similar son. h/t to George Takei Update: And a different perspective. <vote poll=blog2749 closed="yes">Conservatives in Europe: Er... did you see that Romney guy over there? Tell us how to prevent that. Strategists: Well... <vote poll=blog2748 closed="yes">The trouble with skeptics telling jokes: Exposing PseudoAstronomy accidentally Poes some 2012 nutters. <vote poll=blog2747 closed="yes">A succinct summary of all the WND craziness we've come to know and love pity with a chuckle. Also features summaries of the nuttier titles in the WND bookstore, among them "TIME TRAVELERS OF THE BIBLE: HOW HEBREW PROPHETS SHATTERED THE BARRIERS OF TIME-SPACE." Yes, really. <vote poll=blog2746 closed="yes">Media Ethics 101. <vote poll=blog2745 closed="yes">Bacteria mutation + Pokemon = _

<vote poll=blog2743 closed="yes">The Rev. Sir Dr. Stephen T. Mos Def Colbert, D.F.A., Heavyweight Champion of the World** donates the last of his SuperPAC money, over 3/4 of a million, to awesome stuff. <vote poll=blog2742 closed="yes">Meryl Dorey has been ordered to stop her fucking lying bullshit. <vote poll=blog2741 closed="yes">George Takei pwns Scalia. <vote poll=blog2740 closed="yes">Well, the National Post just outdid themsleves: "As FDR showed the world in the ’30s, sometimes it takes a socialist to save capitalism from itself." <vote poll=blog2739 closed="yes">*Drumroll* PolitiFact's Lie of the Year 2012 is...Oh noes! <vote poll=blog2738 closed="yes">After Apple banned a drone strike tracking app earlier this year, the developer has decided to do it all on Twitter. <vote poll=blog2737 closed="yes">"After all, a fella needs some job security." <vote poll=blog2736 closed="yes">Climate denial debunked in one graph. <vote poll=blog2735 closed="yes">Stop eating! Foods cause cancer. <vote poll=blog2734 closed="yes">[http://www.cmaj.ca/content/184/18/2021.full.html?etoc Here, we discuss how the outcomes of clinical trials may be affected by the extinction of all mankind and recommend appropriate changes to their conduct. In addition, we use computer modelling to show the effect of the apocalypse on a sample clinical trial.] <vote poll=blog2733 closed="yes">Creationist quote-mines scientists. Scientists give creationist his Marshall McLuhan moment. <vote poll=blog2732 closed="yes">Run into a nutjob spouting off the lie that tax cuts for the 1% will promote job creation? Show them this Salon article about job-destroying wealthy CEOs who want the poor to suffer the debt reduced. <vote poll=blog2731 closed="yes">Climate scientists are getting blunt, asking "is the Earth fucked?" And they're getting increasingly aggressive in trying to prevent it from getting any worse. <vote poll=blog2730 closed="yes">Ah, so that's where Conservapedians made their exodus. <vote poll=blog2729 closed="yes">I present America's Worst State Legislatures. Leading the pack is, unsurprisingly, the lunatics in charge of Tennessee. <vote poll=blog2728 closed="yes">Time to link to The Onion again. <vote poll=blog2727 closed="yes">False "fair and balanced" reporting allows vaccine denialists to make it appear vaccines cause autism. Shitty science journalism at fault. <vote poll=blog2726 closed="yes">Remember when gay men threatened to marry your girlfriends? *Ahem*. Ladies... <vote poll=blog2725 closed="yes">Comedians weigh in on scientific inaccuracy in films. <vote poll=blog2723 closed="yes" closed="yes">Leveson Enquiry to the British media, RE: depiction and treatment of women: [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20554942 You're shit. Stop it.]