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

January 2014
The pollsters probably enjoyed this. We've seen the problems with the historian's fallacy, but the "product of its time" defence might be even worse. The real Republican "response" to the SOTU: What lines did they refuse to applaud for? It's really quite telling. Salon: In the wake of Obama's State of the Union speech, the GOP is melting down in real-time. Stuart Robbins on Alex Tsakiris, Rupert Sheldrake, Rome Viharo and Wikipedia. On the offhand chance you forgot radical feminist TERF Cathy Brennan was a truly shitty human being, she successfully used her followers to leave fake Yelp reviews of a trans woman's business, driving her into homelessness. The criminal culpability of Andrew Wakefield for harming children worldwide. Impurifying all of our precious bodily fluids for 50 years. "I'm a card-carrying member of the ACLU. Here's what happened when I watched 3 hours of Fox every day for a month." The expected response to tonight's SOTU: Ronald Reagan Ronald Reagan Ronald Reagan. Moonbeam in his office: "Yay!" Bill Maher takes on conservatives' false MACHEEZMO! A ten-year-old atheist successfully stands up for his right to not stand up while the Pledge of Allegiance is being recited. Surprise, surprise: The wealthy in America aren't paragons of virtue. Was Newton an astrologer? (Guess.) In a historically-unprecedented idea, "The enemy of my enemy might not be my friend." <vote poll=blog3440 closed="yes">Tired of being preached to by billboards? Introducing a billboard campaign that preaches back at the believers. <vote poll=blog3439 closed="yes">Leaving Islam was the hardest thing I've done. <vote poll=blog3438 closed="yes">Are you a misunderstood genius who's ready to overthrow the scientific orthodoxy? Sean Carroll's helpful Alternative-Science Respectability Checklist (from 2007, but still relevant) can help you SHOW THEM ALL without needing a death-ray, a killer robot, or even an army of radioactive gorillas! <vote poll=blog3437 closed="yes">The New Republic is getting very weird. <vote poll=blog3436 closed="yes">NFL player Richard Sherman makes a... memorable speech after a win. Calling bets on the first conservative talk radio comparison to You-Know-Who. <vote poll=blog3435 closed="yes">The biggest threat to traditional marriage is conservative Protestants. <vote poll=blog3434 closed="yes">Bad Astronomy blog: "Nov 2012 through Dec 2013, 2258 peer-reviewed climate articles by 9136 authors, 1 author rejected man-made global warming". Curse that Evil Liberal Science Conspiracy for supressing Science! <vote poll=blog3433 closed="yes">How to set yourself up to be caught publishing a pseudojournal for global warming denialists. "On the other hand the reputation of Copernicus Publishing just took a boot to the nads. I'm already hearing rumors of editors of/authors for other Copernicus journals launching complaints over this." <vote poll=blog3432 closed="yes">So, about Mein Kampf becoming a bestseller on Amazon... <vote poll=blog3431 closed="yes">From HuffPo: 11 things atheists couldn't -- and in many cases still can't -- do because they didn't believe in God. <vote poll=blog3430 closed="yes">The Onion: Obama Not Ruling Out Military Action in Congress. "Troubled region" indeed. <vote poll=blog3429 closed="yes">Seems that the NSA's "collect it all" approach is costing everyone it touches. <vote poll=blog3428 closed="yes">This is why we can't have nice things.

<vote poll=blog3426 closed="yes"> Parody site National Report posts an article about marijuana shops in Colorado accepting food stamps. A conservative webshite linked to the article on Twitter, which was read by Colorado state senator Vicki Marble (who you might remember from her racist fried chicken comments), who in turn writes legislation to prevent the imaginary problem. <vote poll=blog3425 closed="yes">How gay adoption caused the Catholic Church to lose their shit completely &mdash; and become utilitarians. <vote poll=blog3424 closed="yes">The first female presiding bishop of the ELCA cites St. Paul as a major inspiration and theological influence. Yes, that St. Paul. <vote poll=blog3423 closed="yes">John Green takes on the ghastliest of American personality cults. (Verdict? Even when trying to be kind, not pretty.) <vote poll=blog3422 closed="yes">The Republicans on handling their wingnuts: Forget about it, What could go wrong? Canadian conservatives on handling their wingnuts: Shut them up, now! <vote poll=blog3421 closed="yes">Meanwhile on the ISS: "What is that coming from Wisconsin?" <vote poll=blog3420 closed="yes">Guess which Muslim-majority country most often prefers the burka. (Hint: It's the location of massive amounts of that particular black sticky substance.) <vote poll=blog3419 closed="yes">Jon Stewart takes on Fox News's global warming deniers: "Your fucking opinion is not as valid as scientific fact." More Fox: Meet your friendly neighbourhood News Corp "liberal." <vote poll=blog3418 closed="yes">[http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/07/opinion/dont-create-a-new-al-qaeda.html? A reminder that all fundie groups aren't the same.] <vote poll=blog3417 closed="yes">American exceptionalism is screwing with us again. <vote poll=blog3416 closed="yes">The Bechdel test results for 2013 are in: Hollywood is better than you'd think!  Films that actually have women in them can make money. Who knew? Next challenge: try letting a woman direct one.