RationalWiki:What is going on in the clogosphere?/August 2011

August 2011
It's not sexual manipulation, it's "erotic capital!" David Mabus, deep cover liberal. Glibertarians gone wild: This Faux article attacking the National Weather Service is too dumb even for...Anthony Watts. ConCERN trolling: Good ol' Watts and the denialist-cum-wingnut echo chamber have latched onto the CLOUD experiment as the new final nail in the coffin of global warming. Republican politicians in Wisconsin vote in favor of anti-union bill; unions bar them from a Labor Day parade. But, no sweat, really; they would have backed out anyway, because the unions are ready to assassinate them. It's true; Brent Bozell said it! Natural News parrots another report from the Scientology front group CCHR. Is Orac right? Chris Hedges is a little upset: Totalitarian trolls have crawled out of the sewers to choreograph the activities of the U.S. government, media, etc., and force all left-wingers and other "moral voices" to retreat into monasteries. Furthermore, no one knows any of this except for the "scientific and technical elites," which would of course explain why a journalist with a M.Div. knows all about it. Have a right-wing brother-in-law who is yapping about "Obama's spending" and "Obama's deficits"? Send him these three charts, which clearly show that all the Bad Stuff happened under the watch of Dubya and a Democratic Congress.  Fundie thinks Atheists should be put on national registry. Perhaps we can wear little yellow nothings? The End Times: [http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/under-god/post/pat-robertson-dc-earthquake-means-were-closer-to-the-coming-of-the-lord/2011/08/25/gIQASklEeJ_blog.html Are we there yet, Pat?... How about now?... How about now?] The Women's Liberation Movement, having started out as the socialist ladies' auxiliary, "lost its vitality" when it apostatized from socialism, a downfall engineered by that sinister CIA operative, Gloria Steinem. Richard Dawkins: "Retarded" (at least according to Ann Coulter). Update: Sensuous Curmudgeon fisks. Update II: PZ Myers fisks as well. You heard it here first: Cancer is cured (again)! Learn about Disney's Creeping Cultural Hegemony! Read about how Mickey Mouse colonizes children's consciousness and falsifies it! See how Disney has lured and seduced the innocent into consumerism. And all for the low, low price of $25! [http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/275093/rick-perry-pushes-their-buttons-kevin-d-williamson# Who cares if candidates believe in your so-called "science"? It's not like they're trying to push creationism in schools or anything....] (via Jon Chait) Update: Williamson doubles down. (Note requisite Lindzen cite on climate.) Mike the Mad Biologist piles on. Chait makes another response. Check out the comments on this random article on the state of the Nordic welfare state. Sure to give you a laugh. <vote poll=clog989 closed="yes">Porn: It's what terrorists crave. <vote poll=clog988 closed="yes">Just in case you were wondering, Mike Adams reminds us that, yes, Alex Jones is batshit crazy.

Anything new in the deniosphere? Nope, they're still going on about Climategate. <vote poll=clog986 closed="yes">A match made in heaven: Natural News and Architects and Engineers for 9/11 "Truth" <vote poll=clog985 closed="yes">Bryan Fischer: The individual states have the authority to regulate religious expression. <vote poll=clog984 closed="yes">An egg is dropped; it breaks. The economy downturns; somebody trots out the old prophet for another day in the sun. <vote poll=clog983 closed="yes">THREE VIDEOS: Get 'em while they're young. Really, really, REALLY young. <vote poll=clog982 closed="yes">Heartland attempts to take on science and Science. <vote poll=clog981 closed="yes">Mark Steyn inflicts another book-length vision of the liberal-multicultural apocalypse on the public. <vote poll=clog980 closed="yes">Beware the evils of...UNICEF!

<vote poll=clog979 closed="yes">The mental retardation in this one is massive. Nyan Cat's reputation has been forever tarnished. <vote poll=clog978 closed="yes">In search of that elusive advertising dollar, WND seems happy to blame Obama for anything. Even the 2012 end of the world. <vote poll=clog977 closed="yes">"The real purpose of an economic system is to guarantee to every person in its circle the fundamentals of physical existence." Rather like how the real purpose of a human being is to glorify God in all he does. <vote poll=clog976 closed="yes">August 10: Gold bug Franklin Sanders, in a fit of irrational exuberance, crows: "Gold Price in a Parabolic Rise, and No Telling Where it will Stop." August 11: The price of gold really takes a beating.

<vote poll=clog975 closed="yes">Joseph Farah claims that he predicted that Ann Coulter would join the advisory board of GOProud. (Uh, could we have a link to that prediction, Joe?)  As for other right-wingers, they seem to be surprised that a nearly 50-year-old, homophobic, never-married, serial fiancée would suddenly align herself with a gay Republican group. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.) Also, GOProud's rival group, the Log Cabin Republicans, have denounced GOProud for appointing Coulter to their board. <vote poll=clog974 closed="yes">Asteroids were once a part of the Earth. Once upon a time, the earth was flooded by a huge geyser eruption that sent a lot of water and rock beyond the earth's gravitational pull; the water rained onto Mars and the rock became the asteroids. <vote poll=clog973 closed="yes">Some evangelical academics finally admit that genomic studies are sufficient to disprove the creationist take on the Adam and Eve story, are drummed out of their universities. All together now: Evilutionists are suppressing intelligent design! <vote poll=clog972 closed="yes">Irony meters around the world shatter as a CMI hack insists that people ought only to express opinions on subjects in which they are experts. <vote poll=clog971 closed="yes">Prof. R. Jensen (but not that one) thinks that "a politics without a theology is dangerous [and] a theology without a politics is irrelevant." <vote poll=clog970 closed="yes">Nick Griffin (via Twitter) on the London riots: It's all the blacks' fault.

<vote poll=clog969 closed="yes">Carbon dating only works if the Bible is rubbish. Heard of historical-critical hermeneutics, fellows? <vote poll=clog968 closed="yes">This just in from Conspiracy Theory Central: The CH-47 "Chinook" crash in Wardak Province, Afghanistan removes all evidence of Osama bin Laden's death. Dun-dun-dun! <vote poll=clog967 closed="yes">Conservatives still don't get it. <vote poll=clog966 closed="yes">Your A-Z of birther wingnuttery.

<vote poll=clog965 closed="yes">Thom Hartmann: It is an affront to the U.S.'s "constitutionally-limited democratic republic" to permit the courts to strike down unconstitutional laws. <vote poll=clog964 closed="yes">Chris Hedges: The gravest threat we face from terrorism comes from atheists like Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens. <vote poll=clog963 closed="yes">Peter King is "reactionary, rash, and wrong" to inquire into "the extent of jihadist radicalization." But when "right wing Christians" start "copying" such jihadists, it is, of course, perfectly all right to broadside the whole evangelical camp. <vote poll=clog962 closed="yes">After a boatload of exhaustive research, scholars have made an astounding discovery that would have passed for a conspiracy theory a few years ago (are you sitting down?): European empires used Christianity as an excuse for their colonial escapades! <vote poll=clog961 closed="yes">Chris Hedges: We have to arrest and try Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales, and most of the army brass, or pretty soon prison guards will be taking prisoners out of jail and making them ride on kiddie trains at the amusement park. <vote poll=clog960 closed="yes">Woe unto you, industrial capitalism, Moloch in whom I sit lonely! Woe unto you, psychotic beast, as you listen to your pathetic soulless pop music and turn the living to the dead and stone the prophets scoff at people who dare to question the ludicrous notion that gender actually exists! Every second we fail to abolish industrial capitalism and dissolve formative narratives is another second in toxic illusions! (Oh, and lest we forget a trivial detail, all this has caused a global warming problem.) <vote poll=clog959 closed="yes">The Rockwell-ians have gone deather. <vote poll=clog958 closed="yes">Step right up, step right up and spin the wheel of quack cancer cures! <vote poll=clog957 closed="yes">Destroying our rights starts with smoking bans. (Remember, kids, smoking is healthier than fascism.) <vote poll=clog956 closed="yes">You really can't make this shit up. (The latest featured "artwork" at rense.com courtesy David Dees.) <vote poll=clog955 closed="yes">What is the biggest threat to humanity? Nuclear warfare? Environmental degradation? An asteroid hitting the Earth? No, it's Frankenfoods! <vote poll=clog954 closed="yes">One of the Tea Party candidates running to unseat a Democrat in the Wisconsin recall elections has compared the public schools to Nazi indoctrination. No surprise there. It's also not a surprise that the previous link is to a Google cache, as she has deleted the message from her page. What may surprise you is that she is also a children's book author.