Category: Anti-Science

Donald Trump Calls Out Pittsburgh, and Pittsburgh Responds

Donald Trump smug smile

Donald Trump mentioned Pittsburgh today, and that was a mistake.

The Bumbler In Chief called out Pittsburgh today when he announced that he would ditch the Paris Agreement.

The reaction from Pittsburgh has been a fast and furious rebut.

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Pittsburgh is hogging the national spotlight, and it’s being shone on the city courtesy of President Donald Trump, who in a climactic moment about the climate, made the alliterative assertment that, when it comes to which accords he’ll agree to, he “was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.”

Which was surprising to Pittsburghers, because It’s worth noting that in November’s presidential election, Allegheny County and Pittsburgh were won by Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

So far, reaction has been swift.

And then there were the tweets, these from Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto:

And the voices go on from there.


Ted Nugent Tells Native American Protesters To ‘Go Back Where They Came From’

Any conservatives following or supporting Ted Nugent must take pause.

Really.

From Newslo.com:

After a group of Native Americans protested outside a concert by Ted Nugent, the late-1970s rocker verbally lashed out, calling them “stinkyass unclean dipshIt protestors” and calling for Native Americans to be “rounded up and shipped back to wherever they came from!”

Really?

The article goes on to say that a reporter pointed out that Native Americans occupied North America “10,000 years before whites.”

Point that a bit higher: it’s actually 25,000-30,000 years, depending on scientific estimates.

Nugent’s response? “Nugent shoved an AK-47 in his face, saying, ‘Shut up, unclean vermin!'” according to the report.

Hey, GOP, he’s your guy. Not ours.


Watch: Stephen Colbert on the #Ebola Deathpocalypse

Stephen Colbert skewers those spreading fear about the non-issue Ebola virus.

Yup.

Watch the second part of the video for the science.


Obama In Stitches After Basketball Game (Video)

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

At last! A president who plays the game, walks the walk, and all that!

Hope you heal soon, Mr. President!

And kudos for the knocks!


NPR Fires Juan Williams After Comment About Muslims; Sarah Palin Tries to Capitalize

Sarah Palin, opportunist par excelence,has worked her way into a story that has nothing to do with her at all.

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

NPR has fired longtime news analyst Juan Williams, also a commentator on the Fox News Channel, after he told Bill O’Reilly that he gets nervous when he sees people in Muslim garb on an airplane. Sarah Palin has called for NPR to lose its federal funding over Williams’ firing.

In a statement late Wednesday, National Public Radio said it was terminating Williams’ contract as a senior news analyst over his comments on Fox’s "The O’Reilly Factor."

NPR executives had previously complained about his remarks on Fox and asked him to stop using the NPR name when he appeared on O’Reilly’s show.

The latest comments came Monday, when O’Reilly brought on guests to discuss his own appearance last week on ABC’s "The View," during which Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg walked off the set to protest his views on Muslims.

"Where am I going wrong here, Juan?" O’Reilly asked.

Williams, 56, responded that too much political correctness can get in the way of reality.

"I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country," Williams said. "But when I get on a plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous."

He went on to say that not everyone in a religious group — Christian or Muslim — should be lumped together with extremists.

In statement on her Facebook page, Sarah Palin called for NPR to lose its federal funding over the incident.

Sarah Palin, the Pol Who Quit, campaigns from Facebook.

God Bless America.


Mad Tea Party Kicks Out Mark Williams (Video and Commentary)

I was so disgusted by this I just wanted to stay away. Plus, I don’t trust early news reports that attempt to sensationalize stories. Then, I read more, and finally forced myself to read Mark Williams’ letter to Abraham Lincoln, where he reveals his incredible lack of depth on race in America. To say the least.

I didn’t want to give Williams at press. He sounded juvenile, and, to tell the truth, this is the first I’ve heard of him, although apparently he has been riding the Tea Party tidal wave for a while, even perceived by some as a leader in the movement.

But all waves, tidal or otherwise, come to an end. And, while many in the Tea Party may in fact laugh secretly at his callow contribution to the national dialogue on race, they must disown Williams as the new face of the G.O.P. slouches forward with ever-vanishing credibility.

So, for posterity, here is Mark Williams’ attempt to enter the national debate on race in America, a letter to Abraham Lincoln:

Dear Mr. Lincoln

We Coloreds have taken a vote and decided that we don’t cotton to that whole emancipation thing. Freedom means having to work for real, think for ourselves, and take consequences along with the rewards. That is just far too much to ask of us Colored People and we demand that it stop!

In fact we held a big meeting and took a vote in Kansas City this week. We voted to condemn a political revival of that old abolitionist spirit called the ‘tea party movement’.

The tea party position to “end the bailouts” for example is just silly. Bailouts are just big money welfare and isn’t that what we want all Coloreds to strive for? What kind of racist would want to end big money welfare? What they need to do is start handing the bail outs directly to us coloreds! Of course, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is the only responsible party that should be granted the right to disperse the funds.

And the ridiculous idea of “reduce[ing] the size and intrusiveness of government.” What kind of massa would ever not want to control my life? As Coloreds we must have somebody care for us otherwise we would be on our own, have to think for ourselves and make decisions!

The racist tea parties also demand that the government “stop the out of control spending.” Again, they directly target coloreds. That means we Coloreds would have to compete for jobs like everybody else and that is just not right.

Perhaps the most racist point of all in the tea parties is their demand that government “stop raising our taxes.” That is outrageous! How will we coloreds ever get a wide screen TV in every room if non-coloreds get to keep what they earn? Totally racist! The tea party expects coloreds to be productive members of society?

Mr. Lincoln, you were the greatest racist ever. We had a great gig. Three squares, room and board, all our decisions made by the massa in the house. Please repeal the 13th and 14th Amendments and let us get back to where we belong.

Sincerely

Precious Ben Jealous, Tom’s Nephew NAACP Head Colored Person

The Tea Party, the group that purports to finally represent all Americans, finally expelled Williams, if that means anything.

Nowhere to go but up for Williams now, if that’s possible.


University Panel Clears Climate Scientist of Altering Data

From the NY Times:

An American scientist accused of manipulating research findings on climate science was cleared of that charge by his university on Thursday, the latest in a string of reports to find little substance in the allegations known as Climategate.

An investigative panel at Pennsylvania State University, weighing the question of whether the scientist, Michael E. Mann, had “seriously deviated from accepted practices within the academic community for proposing, conducting or reporting research or other scholarly activities,” declared that he had not.

Dr. Mann said he was gratified by the findings, the second report from Penn State to clear him. An earlier report had exonerated him of related charges that he suppressed or falsified data, destroyed e-mail and misused confidential information.

The new report did criticize him on a minor point, saying that he had occasionally forwarded to colleagues copies of unpublished manuscripts without the explicit permission of their authors.

The allegations arose after private e-mail messages between Dr. Mann and other scientists were purloined from a computer at the University of East Anglia, in Britain, and posted on the Internet. In one, a British researcher called a data-adjustment procedure Dr. Mann used a “trick.”

The e-mail messages led climate-change skeptics to accuse mainstream researchers, including Dr. Mann, of deliberately manipulating the findings of climate science in order to strengthen their case that human activity is causing the earth to warm up.

There is no doubt in the scientific community that global warming is real, it is happening, human beings are the cause, and we must do everything now to cease destruction of the environment before we make the planet uninhabitable for human beings and so many other forms of life. And science does not happen via email. Scientific studies are published in journals which most lay people in society – non-scientists- can neither read or comprehend.

Try reading a technical article from Science Magazine.

My point is not to affirm how little most of us know about real science – although that is pitifully true. The point is, no science happened in these emails with respect to the climate or anything else. Studies are published for the scientific community then critiqued by members of the scientific community.

I’m not defending Dr. Mann. But the far right must stop throwing mud at the scientific community because attention to climate change will require a rethinking of our economy, and much of that new economy will not include fossil fuels.


The Many Faces of Rand Paul

Honestly, I can’t keep up with this guy.

He wants next-to-no government, but does not approve of same-sex marriage.

See if you can reconcile the following, from Kentucky.com:

Republican senatorial candidate Rand Paul told a group of Christian home schoolers in Kentucky on Friday that he favors a separation of church and state, saying allowing the government into religious institutions "scares" him.

Yet he does not approve of same-sex marriage. That means he does not approve of GOVERNMENT PERMITTING same-sex marriage. As a candidate for the United States Senate, that’s the only possible interpretation of that position.

The tea party favorite also voiced his opposition to government faith-based initiatives that have been used to funnel federal and state funds into religious organizations.

"The faith-based initiative was getting government involved in churches basically, and that scares me a little bit, because there are things that you can say in the church that we think are sinful, and that should be something we can say," the Bowling Green eye surgeon told about 300 people in the sanctuary of Valley View Church in suburban Louisville. "But the second this church starts taking government money, then they’re going to say you can’t say these things are sinful."

Paul, a Presbyterian layman, campaigned at a Christian Home Educators of Kentucky convention where he was peppered with questions about his religious beliefs, brushing aside one about the age of the earth that he later described as ridiculous.

"I’m not running for minister," Paul said later. "I’m more than willing to stand up and say I’m a Christian, but I don’t think I have to go into every detail of what my religious beliefs are. If I were going to be the minister of their church, they’d have a right to ask me that."

No, not running for minister, but apparently hung up on a few issues. He’s not running for minster, but

Andrew Willis of Elizabethtown, who teaches his four children at home, said he hoped Paul’s answer would jibe with his own belief that the earth is about 6,000 years old.

"I’m not at all surprised that he didn’t want to answer that question," Willis said shortly after posing it. "I know that is hugely controversial."

Yes, that’s because the earth is actually a little over 4.5 billion years old. No, that’s not a matter of opion, religious or otherwise. "That’s the way it is," as Walter Cronkite used to say.

But science apparently doesn’t win many votes in Kentucky.


Colorado Town of Black Hawk, Pop. 100, Bans Cyclists

From the world of, "You have got to be kidding!"

No, they’re not kidding. One hundred people in Black Hawk, Colorado, believe their village would be safer without bicicyles on the streets.

This one comes to us from across the pond:

A town in the US has banned cyclists on most of its streets, punishing anyone who gets caught with a $68 (£46) fine. Black Hawk in Colorado, which has a population of just above 100, is thought to be the first town in the US to make cycling illegal after a change in civic law.

The curious decree has been introduced for "health and safety" reasons, said administrators of the former goldmining town, which in the 1990s decided to develop gambling to prevent the place vanishing altogether.

Michael Copp, Black Hawk’s city manager, the equivalent of chief executive of a local council in the UK, admitted there had not been any accidents to prompt the ban, just concern over potential collisions between motor vehicles and bicycles on 19th-century streets that were designed for horses and carriages.

The town started enforcing the ban on 5 June, five months after it passed the law requiring cyclists to dismount and wheel their bikes through the town. So far eight tickets have been issued, said Copp.

Copp, who does not cycle himself, said the council passed the ordinance after the town experienced a surge in traffic – buses, delivery trucks, and motorists – following a law that increased the maximum betting limits from $5 to $100 once it chose gambling as its raison d’etre.

No accidents. And this gamble-happy hamlet apparently consulted no experts, no national studies. Just did away with two-wheelers.

Oy.


Savage: ‘Most’ Jewish people killed in the Holocaust ‘went like sheep’ to slaughter (Video)

Oy. Vey.