I'm so glad the Daily Show had a look at this.

Satire is such a powerful tool.
Try it through the link.
The embed fucked up the whole blog.
Great stuff, nonetheless.

That's fucking annoying.

I'm nearly 41 and hated listening to this piece du crap.

Created by Train Horn

Well, that actually worked out a bit better than you'd have thought at first.

Looks like the potential of the Westboro yokel club coming over actually had a good effect on the local Fundagelical groups.
‘Erm … well, God DOES like fags … a bit … no, a lot , actually’

USING the same tone of revulsion it normally reserves for occasional reports of deadly exotic spiders emerging from store-bought hands of bananas, the media last week subjected those 11-toed freaks from the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, to levels of scrutiny they rarely get the UK.

All this attention put British evangelicals in a very uncomfortable place. They were forced to look into a mirror, and were horrified by what they saw.

But they'll get used to their reflection and be back to square one in no time.

And again…

Christopher Hitchens and Dinesh D'Souza at CU Boulder from Justin Leddick on Vimeo.

 

Yeah, I’m lazy today. I do have to say that I enjoy Hitchens for his ego and high handedness with a logical falacy spouting machine like D’souza.

Skip D’Souza’s parts and go Hitchens’ rebuttals. They’re more entertaining and you won’t get a headache.

You may feel your liver packing it in a bit on the contact high however.

Seth vs MacFarlane

It’s Monday morning, I have to take a driving test in a couple of days and I’m lazy.

Amusing Video for a Monday Morning

Important Things with Demetri MartinWed 10:30pm / 9:30c

Power - Creedocide

Joke of the Day
Stand-Up Comedy

Free Online Games
More Funny Videos

Man, you've got some real, burning hate there...

How motivated are you to fly to the UK and protest something? Anything?
Well, you're a load less motivated than the lovely charmers at Westboro Baptist Church.

‘God Hates England; Your Queen is a whore’, says deranged Christian group

THAT’S the message loopy members of the virulently anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church, in Topeka, Kansas, have posted on their website, ahead of their first protest in the UK on February 20.

The group plans to picket a sixth form college in Basingstoke during the staging of The Laramie Project, a play about an American youth murdered because of his sexuality.

The church from Topeka, Kansas is mainly composed of relatives of the founder, pastor Fred Phelps, who style themselves “the most hated family in America”. They are the “brains” behind the Godhatesfags website.

I will not be drinking that.

India to launch cow urine as soft drink - Times Online

The War on Photography continues

No bobby pictures please, we're British

Tourists in London may have to think twice before snapping holiday pictures of the iconic British bobby.

A new anti-terrorism law went into effect Monday that could effectively bar photographers from taking pictures of police or military personnel in Britain.

Outside of Scotland Yard, the headquarters of London's Metropolitan Police, some 200 photographers gathered Monday to protest the measures.

Oh, it just keep s getting better and better.

NSFW

Really.

the sopranos, uncensored. from victor solomon on Vimeo.
You were warned.

There will have to be some kind of pushback

With the continuing creep of the government into every aspect of daily life in the UK, the monitor and suspect culture is starting to have some critics who can do something about it, rather than critics who blog about it in one Firefox tab and surf porn in three others.
It starts at Boing Boing:
House of Lords damns British surveillance society - Boing Boing

And goes on thorough a lot of the Guardian, a newspaper that I'm getting more and more respect for.
House of Lords: rise of CCTV is threat to freedom | UK news | The Guardian

Henry Porter: Reaction to the House of Lords report on surveillance society | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

Henry Porter: The police are forcing pubs to install CCTV | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

Tension between right to privacy and authorities' desire for data | UK news | The Guardian

I mean, the pubs? I'm buying a V for Vendatta style Guy Fawkes mask and wearing that to the pub.

Good. Now can we get back to ending the fucking Polio?

Court Rules Autism Not Caused by Childhood Vaccines - washingtonpost.com

Thousands of parents who claimed that childhood vaccines had caused their children to develop autism are wrong and not entitled to federal compensation, a special court ruled today in three decisions with far-reaching implications for a bitterly fought medical controversy.

HT to Ben Goldacre

Happy Darwin Day

Really that's all I had to say.
Happy 200th, Charles.

[sobbing in the background]


Oh, all right. You too, Abe Lincoln.

Joke 'em if they can't take a fuck

It started with a note by The Rev, and then showed up at C&L.
I'm starting to be after thinking there's something there.

It's entirely possible that he's under qualified...

George Bush offered first post-presidential job | Crooks and Liars

Blah, Blah, Blah, The Fucking Polio, Blah, Blah

Yeah, we knew this.
MMR doctor Andrew Wakefield fixed data on autism - Times Online

And what does that print delivered crime against knowledge have to say? [Crickets]

Uhn-hunh.

Same polio reference

Just a couple of links about the Ben Goldacre/Jeni Barnett MMR fest.
Bad Science: Jeni Barnett MMR and vaccination slot on LBC radio, 2009 - Wikileaks

Jeni Barnett and LBC: dangers to public health

Jeni Barnett and the LBC Radio MMR Vaccine Segment: Updated with links of blog coverage « Holford Watch: Patrick Holford, nutritionism and bad science

SciencePunk : Jeni Barnett MMR show on LBC - full transcript

What, you liked the fucking polio? Part Umpteen

This week, the Bad Science Podcast had a 44 minute excerpt from a radio show featuring a host named Jeni Barnett. (transcripts) It was like a crash course in woo-wankery. I think I cried blood at one point when the woman who claimed to be a homoeopath called in to say that the proper thing to do around measles was bring the other children around to catch it -- because that was safer than vaccines!
I am suddenly capable of understanding the crank's need to type everything in block caps; I can barely resist the temptation to do it.
Ben Goldacre rightly said that the show peddled crap. I listened to it. Jebus, he was right. But somebody didn't like it much. So they're shutting down the talk. And a lot of people are stepping up and trying tom make sure that this doesn't go down the memory hole.
Thought you should know.
Oh, and measles is up, way, way up. Like, well past Rusty in the bag up. Well done.

No, but it's okay to say it on a bus.

'There definitely IS a God': Christians hit back at atheists with their own bus adverts | Mail Online

And the Athiest Bus Ads Get Scotched

Halifax, the city across the harbour from the city of my youth, has decided that 25% of Canadians can't actually have their voice on a bus because it's a bit controversial. Bollocks.
Halifax is keeping God off its buses

Too Good for Words

Tim Minchin is a name that came up recently when I was at the Skeptics in the Pub recently. I wasn't familiar with his work but fortunately several podcasts have featured him recently and I've become a bit of a fan.
So thanks, YouTube.

Storm by Tim Minchin

Apparently the recession has freed up some time for a few people...

Star Wars: Death Star Costs $15.6 Septillion, 1.4 Trillion Times the US Debt

If you had $15.6 septillion and 94 cents in your account, would you save the world from the economic crisis or build a Death Star, destroy the world, and move on to invade the galaxy?

What the hell do people REALLY believe? Part II

Sometimes, on the other hand, they're pretty clear about their beliefs.
Bay of Fundie» Blog Archive » Get Off of Our Country!

What the hell do people REALLY believe?

It's getting hard to tell.
Debunking Christianity: Atheists Will Be In Heaven!

Googlebombing

I guess this was a call to arms by Pharyngula, through the Uncredible Halq.
About the worrysome trend of saddlebacking.

More on the Liking the Fucking Polio

When I was working in Canada a couple of years ago, one of the women on the floor below me had that perfect anti-vax attitude to the annual flu shot campaign.
"Think about it. They're putting into you the same things that make you sick in the first place. The vaccine is more dangerous that the flu."
I just told her that I didn't have the time to get into that sort of thing. I always wondered about her kid's health.
Measles outbreaks: not just a British tragedy, but a European one as well - Counterknowledge.com

A study into outbreaks of measles over the past twelve months has shown the UK to have one of the highest infection rates in Europe, which will heavily hinder the World Health’s Organisation goal to eliminate it by 2010.
...snip...
Cases of measles caused by various irrational practices cast shame on all of Europe. Those who are least able to protect themselves are suffering, and a mockery is being made of medicine. Until these practices are publically highlighted, the WHO’s goal of measles elimination will never be realised. Let’s start repairing some of that damage right now.

The damage that is being done by these people is starting to bite everyone on the ass.

Such a Canadian Reaction

Registered with the do-not-call list? Expect more calls, says consumer watchdog

Canada's highly touted do-not-call list is having the opposite effect, leading to more telemarketer calls, says the Consumers' Association of Canada

It's amazing to me, yet not unexpected, that this would backfire.

Why do people give a shit about pot?

For the record, I don't smoke. Anything. And wouldn't if it were decriminalized. I'm a supporter of drug law reform because so far the laws are counter-productive and, worse yet, irrational.

So, two takes on the Michael Phelps non-troversy.
Dispatches from the Culture Wars: Think of the Children!

What Michael Phelps Should Have Said: Smoking pot shouldn't be a crime. Or the public's business. - Reason Magazine