RationalWiki:What is going on in the blogosphere?/April 2014

April 2014
Republican denial, deep in denial! Anti-Vaccination 'logic' applied to children's car seats. Thatcher: Oh Ronald, you have been a great friend of mine. *turns around and gags* [http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/01/upshot/by-its-own-yardstick-the-fed-is-falling-short.html?rref=upshot&_r=1&smid=tw-upshotnyt Inflatiomageddon! Buy gold! The Austrian school was right!] 🇱🇮 "Mr. Moyer, I'm not particularly sure why you're asking for a psychological assessment." "I was forced to be a guest on Fox." Professional sport in the US is pretty racist. Where do new genes come from? Evolution in action. On believers' typical reactions to atheists' non-belief: "Believers are always telling atheists that we need religion for morality; that we have to believe because without religion, people would have no reason not to murder and steal and lie.  And yet, all too often, they ask us to lie." Why is public distrust in science so high at at time when science has done so much? [http://freethoughtblogs.com/dispatches/2014/04/27/hannity-takes-on-jon-stewart-oops/ Sean Hannity takes on Jon Stewart. Oops.] Cracked gives us a horrifying, eye-opening inside look at the Quiverfull movement, as written by a former member. Is Water Causing Autism? Anti-human Theology: Learning to Hate Yourself. 20 bizarre comments from the days of apartheid. Regarding the popularity and dangerous influence of celebrity "quack moms" like Jenny McCarthy and, now, Alicia Silverstone: "It’s the unfortunate confluence of two related 21st-century trends: our obsession with celebrity moms and our focus on 'natural' parenting." Women in cages! The ACLU reveals how much prisons love to lock women in solitary when they need psychiatric help or just want to report sexual abuse. Big Brother is watching you toke up. Sean Hannity's show "is like an IV drip for denial for the get off my lawn demographic." Update: The Ballad of Cliven Bundy. Why Keystone XL is nowhere near approval. So Cliven Bundy, that guy with the cows, has a question about "the Negro": "Are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy?" (Come on, Republicans, defend him!) More medical advice from celebrities. (A review of Alicia Silverstone's "The Kind Mama".) The GOP just lost the fake wrestling vote. The act of defiance that infuriated Kissin- a mass murderer. Oh come on, Cthulhu All-Spark is a GREAT name! You can call her "Sparky" for short! Or...or...Fhtagn, maybe. “Britain is not a “Christian country”“ Letter in DailyTelegraph from sundry "names".

God talks to the late Fred Phelps. A twelve year old girl explains things to Andy's mom. Subliminal messaging for gun nuts. Canuckistan's most disgraceful tumultuous political years in recent memory seem to be finally nearing its end. (And the good news? The damage is relatively repairable.) To tax cuts! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems. Dear parents: you are being lied to by the anti-vaccine movement. Those of us on the left who feel complacent enough to think that "The right will slowly disintegrate because of demographics" should probably read this. You may not feel so complacent afterwards. University professors: they do have guts. Making Wikipedia less of a sausage-fest So what does Al Franken do after getting his hands into SOPA/PIPA? Declaring war against 2014's Worst Company in America. "I recently found out that a small girl I drive home from school is not vaccinated ... due to the usual non-medical claptrap. So what do I do? a) Refuse to drive the child? b) Alert the school? Or c) smack some sense into the child’s mother?" The results of the r/mensrights survey. (Too good to be true sadly &mdash; the survey actually has 570 responses, the pie charts add 2500 empty lines from the spreadsheets. Still pretty much what you expected.) Update: Corrected charts. Say what we will about the Obama administration, but thinking outside the box doesn't seem to be a problem.  We might be perverts but at least we're not Catholic strength perverts.  Is the internet killing religion?  Editors resign from Frontiers over retracted paper that upset climate science deniers. Who knew that "the Google" would be the gaffe that best summarizes Dubya's life? A Christian author argues that Creationists are a cult. Romney 2016? The "Slavic George W. Bush." And the chickenhawks be squawking. "Good morning, students, today we will be talking about 20th and 21st century American political history. In the early 1900s, the name 'Warren Harding' was virtually synonymous with the word 'corruption.'  By the 1970s, he was overtaken by 'Richard Nixon.'  Well until the 2050s, it would be known as 'John Roberts.'" A Guide to Arguing With a Snopes-Denier. Libertarian Police Department. (Imagine the COPS episode.)