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

January 2012
 How we got Ayn Rand instead of FDR: How Tea Party 'Populism' Derailed a New New Deal How 'Europe' became a dirty word in the US election. Europe's response: "Wait, we're socialist?" and "Hmm...Republicans don't want to pay higher taxes to match government spending, how familiar." Stephen Colbert retakes his Super PAC power after Jon Stewart tells him to fuck off. Fox News is now the Republican establishment, and it may cost the party the 2012 Presidential election. The Transadvocate on the transgender bathroom issue: prohibiting trans women from using women's restrooms rests on the same logic as prohibiting black women from doing so, or even cis women themselves. "All the other kids with the pumped up kicks, you better run, better run, outrun my gun."

Increasing political polarization? Impending civil war? Think again. Dan Savage has been sufficiently annoyed. "To 'rick' is to remove something with your tongue ... which makes 'rick santorum' the most disgusting two-word sentence in the English language after 'vote Republican.'" New atheist billboard campaign unveiled! New word: Nagnostic You heard it here first: Vaccines are part of the transhumanist agenda to sap and impurify our precious bodily fluids. According to Google, geek girls are really men. The Unexpurgated Atheist FAQ. Complete in every detail. The Pythons are back?

"I'm sorry for how the Church treated you" Martin Robbins lays into the BBC over science. <vote poll=blog2045 closed="yes">Rick Santorum thinks rape is a gift from God... seriously?Seriously!? <vote poll=blog2044 closed="yes">New journal to be launched will combat publication bias by publishing negative results. <vote poll=blog2043 closed="yes">Note to self: Create Elizabeth Warren article. <vote poll=blog2042 closed="yes">The ultimate Star Wars nerdgasm. <vote poll=blog2041 closed="yes">[http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=360460963983363&set=a.223098324386295.105971.205344452828349&type=1&theater Go back. We fucked up everything.] <vote poll=blog2040 closed="yes">The great forgotten Republican. <vote poll=blog2039 closed="yes">Hacker cracks a senator's Twitter account, but still manages to trip over Skitt's Law. <vote poll=blog2038 closed="yes">Neuroanthropology takes out the trash on "sexy" evo psych "findings." <vote poll=blog2037 closed="yes">They call it a loophole in medical journals, we call it "narrative review." <vote poll=blog2036 closed="yes">10 great reasons to be against equality in marriage. <vote poll=blog2035 closed="yes">A plan to restore America to it's Christian RootsWarning, intensive levels of sarcasm detected. <vote poll=blog2034 closed="yes">Scumbag Gingrich. <vote poll=blog2033 closed="yes">So how is Kentucky funding the $43 million in tax cuts for the Ark Experience? By cutting $50 million from its education budget. <vote poll=blog2032 closed="yes">The value of Curiosity Driven Research <vote poll=blog2031 closed="yes">How the US' current "free market" health care is not any kind of freedom at all. <vote poll=blog2030 closed="yes">Too...many...awesome...Stephen Colbert videos...

<vote poll=blog2029 closed="yes">It's not a blatant violation of the separation of church and state. [http://freethoughtblogs.com/rodda/2012/01/17/liars-for-yahweh-how-the-tikun-olam-charter-school-got-a-600000-federal-grant/ It's called "school choice!" You know, for totally secular "charter schools."] <vote poll=blog2028 closed="yes">To anyone who is still completing their degrees. <vote poll=blog2027 closed="yes">Carl Zimmer about research on the evolution of multicellular life. <vote poll=blog2026 closed="yes">How the universe began. <vote poll=blog2025 closed="yes">How SOPA could negatively affect science. <vote poll=blog2024 closed="yes">The Red Flags Of Quackery, expanded edition, in handy comic form. <vote poll=blog2023 closed="yes">Bloomberg, don't start up a mini-Prohibition.

<vote poll=blog2022 closed="yes">What if Tim Tebow was...Muslim? Update: Jimmy Fallon re-imagines David Bowie. <vote poll=blog2021 closed="yes">Sweden innovating again. But the sheep? Seriously? Give us our goat. <vote poll=blog2020 closed="yes">"There are certainly people with whom dialogue is not possible, or desirable [... There are also people who merely disagree. We are losing the ability to tell which is which."] <vote poll=blog2019 closed="yes">True to form, Canada apologizes for failing to not elect Stephen Harper. <vote poll=blog2018 closed="yes">In the face of an undeniable, egregious violation of civil rights, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas finds a way to be a bullheaded asshole. <vote poll=blog2017 closed="yes">The History Channel in 18 seconds. <vote poll=blog2016 closed="yes">To those reading up on the Sara Ackerman story, it gets even funnier: she's defending Chris Brown and declaring war on Obama "minions." <vote poll=blog2015 closed="yes">Five founding fathers whose views on Christianity would make them unelectable today. <vote poll=blog2014 closed="yes">Know Your Meme confirms Jesusland. <vote poll=blog2013 closed="yes">[http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/cranks-and-physics/ Help, help! I'm being repressed by science!] <vote poll=blog2012 closed="yes">[http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-january-9-2012/indecision-2012---two-debates--one-gop "Huh, did I ever tell you about the time I bested Richard Branson at that zeppelin auction?" aka. How is Mitt Romney kicking all of your asses?] <vote poll=blog2011 closed="yes">A happy customer reviews Ray Comfort's wizard entertainment, Intelligent Design vs Evolution: The Board Game! <vote poll=blog2010 closed="yes">What if nobody told you that your daughter had been mistakenly deported? - "...it’s concerning to think of how many people this has happened to that have never been heard from." <vote poll=blog2009 closed="yes">The Onion: [http://www.theonion.com/articles/obama-openly-asks-nation-why-on-earth-he-would-wan,26933/ "I'm asking if anybody out there can come up with even one reason why I'd want to endure this unmitigated shit show for another minute, let alone through 2016. What's in it for me, exactly? Can anyone answer that? Anyone at all?" - Barack Obama] <vote poll=blog2008 closed="yes">Cracked: 6 Small Math Errors That Caused Huge Disasters. And nuclear makeup. <vote poll=blog2007 closed="yes">If you haven't heard this before, it's Saturn dropping the beat. <vote poll=blog2006 closed="yes">The Neuroskeptic debunks the recent news stories about increased costs of antidepressant drugs on UK taxpayers. <vote poll=blog2005 closed="yes">Traversing the tight line between the latest fertility technologies and eugenics. <vote poll=blog2004 closed="yes">An Optimistic History of the Next 40 Years (assuming we won't nuke ourselves first) It does get a little wacky by 2040 2020, though. <vote poll=blog2003 closed="yes">Another product of the recovered memory craze: The "epidemic" of multiple personality disorder. <vote poll=blog2002 closed="yes">A Redditor asks: what New Age garbage make you shudder with intolerance? 6786 comments in the first 12 hours. <vote poll=blog2001 closed="yes">The jokes write themselves. <vote poll=blog2000 closed="yes">The 9 Voters Who Lost Iowa For Santorum <vote poll=blog1999 closed="yes">The Iowa caucuses showed us both kind of Republican candidate: the elitist rich guy and the elitist rich guy who pretends to care about the working class. <vote poll=blog1998 closed="yes">[http://io9.com/5873410/breakthrough-cloaking-device-creates-a-hole-in-light-and-time A way to hide your doings from light and time! Now how to best improve it so the USA someone can weaponize it]. <vote poll=blog1997 closed="yes">Another way the War on (Some) Drugs fails: "Drug-sniffing" dogs fare no better than chance. <vote poll=blog1996 closed="yes">Naive determinism strikes again. <vote poll=blog1995 closed="yes">Introducing our new Paul the Octopus: Megyn Kelly  Shelly! <vote poll=blog1994 closed="yes">Like father like daughter: Elizabeth Santorum has gay friends too! <vote poll=blog1993 closed="yes">The 2012 US Government Terrorist Identification Chart. Stop the Terrorist Battlecruiser! <vote poll=blog1992 closed="yes">Pedobear appears at Penn State's last game of the year. <vote poll=blog1991 closed="yes">Crazy Finns. <vote poll=blog1990 closed="yes">Stephen Harper sets up Canada's version of MiniTru. <vote poll=blog1989 closed="yes">If you have a free hour, here's Charlie Brooker's 2011 Wipe. On the UK riots: "Over the following weeks the media went into a full blown hand-wringing exercise trying to work out why the giddy heck [it] had happened...assholes on horrible US shitcasts blamed immigrants." <vote poll=blog1988 closed="yes">Sally Jenkins asks why is it that Tim Tebow's beliefs are anybody's business? <vote poll=blog1987 closed="yes">Cracked ends the year with: The 9 Biggest Bastards of 2011.