RationalWiki:What is going on in the blogosphere?/September 2010

September 2010
"We defend it not because these ideas are particularly worthy of being protected, but because all ideas, even the most loathsome, are." Twitter Joke Trial: a layman journalist’s view. Paul Chambers was prosecuted for joking on Twitter that he planned to "blow an airport sky high" if they didn't deal with their snow problem. This blog post is about the appeal and a layman's view from the court room. Race and ethnicity in the United States, in black and white red and blue. "Junkets for Jesus": Regarding how the "Fellowship Foundation" -- aka, "The Family" -- sends bible-thumping members of Congress around the world to proselytize despotic rulers of mineral-rich third-world countries because the separation of church and state "doesn't extend overseas." Thrilling: all the crazy Christine you can barely handle on one page. BBC: The poor U.S. government was powerless to stop that awful blasphemy deep offensiveness in Florida, because Americans, in a gross violation of people's dignity, have >ugh!< free speech. We don't need no stinkin' opera; let's blow the money on mass delusions of grandeur for our kids instead of giving them inspiration. This is a news website article about a scientific paper. Just released: The 2009 list of books that were the "most challenged" in America. P.Z. Myers on the folly of modern people venerating ancient scriptures because of their perceived historical and societal importance. A remarkably accurate mapping of European stereotypes. The right-wing media kick up a fuss over porn in fertility clinics (because twenty quid a year on smut is so totally breaking the bank...). But wait! Evidence suggests that it actually helps stimulate sperm count, which is the entire point. The Huffington Post calls them "The Most Ridiculous Anti-Obama Bumper Stickers". It could also be called "A Typical Day at Conservapedia". A recent survey shows that most Americans (a) vastly underestimate wealth disparity in the US, and (b) would rather live in a country where the distribution of wealth resembles that of (gasp!) SWEDEN!!!!! "The History Of What Things Cost In America: 1776 to Today." Another piece opposing "Don't Ask Don't Tell". Standard piece except for the wonderful sentence, "Oh, no, once you have openly gay soldiers, next thing you know, the Republican party will be running witches for the Senate!" <vote poll=blog1128 closed="yes">Possibly the greatest quote mine ever; Obama stated that taxes will go up for everyone... or did he? <vote poll=blog1127 closed="yes">Skepticism *is* making a difference <vote poll=blog1126 closed="yes">Complaining to the Advertising Standards Authority about the British Homeopathic Association. UPDATE: A response has been received from Advertising Standards Authority. Seems they agree that the BHA leaflet "contains material that is likely to be problematic". <vote poll=blog1125 closed="yes">In 1998, Christine O'Donnell appeared on Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher. She claimed that she never lies because that's disrespectful to the person you're lying to. Then Eddie Izzard asked her a pointed follow-up question, and her response was...um...well...hmmm... <vote poll=blog1124 closed="yes">Sex and death lie at the poisoned heart of religion. <vote poll=blog1123 closed="yes">Seth Godin: This is broken <vote poll=blog1122 closed="yes">PalMD vs. PZ Myers. FIGHT! <vote poll=blog1121 closed="yes">Is it Censorship or "I've got your back"? Google Instant automatically blanks out many (but not all) searches for NSFW content; e.g., "Playboy", "penis" and "vagina". <vote poll=blog1120 closed="yes">They are apparently handing out master's degrees in communication very, uh, liberally these days, as evidenced in this video: [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/martin-olson/phil-davison-gop-speech_b_710642.html 'MY NAME IS PHIL DAVISON!!! AND I'M SEEKING OUR PARTY'S NOMINATION FOR THE POSITION OF STAR COUNTY TREASURER!!!'] And if he runs for president, we might get to witness spontaneous human combustion during one of his debates. <vote poll=blog1119 closed="yes">Quack Busting Resources. <vote poll=blog1118 closed="yes">Thanks to Dan Savage and da Google, Rick Santorum has a bit of an image problem. He'd like to run for president, but whenever someone Googles his name, two or the first three results are the Wikipedia page about the neologism "Santorum"; and a website dedicated to, um, further plumbing the depths of this new term. <vote poll=blog1117 closed="yes">Haley Barbour of Mississippi thinks that southern Republicans embraced integration. Eugene Robinson "Not a word of this is true." <vote poll=blog1116 closed="yes">David Korten: Why do economists not understand the difference between "phantom wealth" and "real wealth", thus allowing capitalist culture to glorify the Seven Deadly Sins? (Uh, that would be because they've heard it all before...) <vote poll=blog1115 closed="yes">Religious freedom is not tolerance. <vote poll=blog1114 closed="yes">American employers aren't meaner than their European counterparts; American employees lack backbone unions. <vote poll=blog1113 closed="yes">The Dick Wars continue with a. For fun, you can try to identify in which categories fall your fellow RationalWikians. <vote poll=blog1112 closed="yes">Got half an hour? A Treatise on Morality that's well-spoken. <vote poll=blog1111 closed="yes">Charlie Brooker on the fun of language and buzzwords.