More interference with the markets…Why "well-regulated" is an oxymoron.

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

Those pesky scientists have come out with yet more alarmist rubbish about oversight and regulation and other such nonsense.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/us-nuclear-oversight-too-lax-science-group-212058088.html

Now, obviously these scientist chaps are lobbying for yet more industry oversight and government interference in an industry run by rich folk who because of their wealth and power, by definition, must be responsible. (We shall leave aside the necessary or contingent logic of capitalist ontology for another debate, unless anyone would care to dispute it here with facts.)

Also evidently, these scientist fellows are empire-building. Surely no industry needs oversight greater than that which ordinary high-school-educated folk can understand when discussing these issues over the breakfast table or in a bar after work: I mean to say, it stands to reason, doesn't it? It's not as if there has been a nuclear accident since the 70's, so obviously we are doing something right and the system works perfectly well, despite the fact that these scientists already have the NRC interfering with the normal operation of these power plants.

And just where do such scare-mongering tactics end? Isn't it about time that we revolted against these scientific overlords and their overweening hubris. Apart from choking the development of industry and putting a brake on economic progress, they are indoctrinating our children with a fear of unregulated American economic derring-do. Are they all communists and proponents of big government?

I say we should take these scientists out and horsewhip them for their unAmerican attitudes: for their own good, you understand.

I blame Obama.

You know it makes sense.

(This press release brought to you by Waylon Smithers for Charles Montgomery Burns.)

Ka-CHING!

[paft.livejournal.com]

The Daily Caller is, as far as I know, not a humor site along the lines of The Onion. According to Wikipedia – I looked to make absolutely sure – it’s an ostensibly neutral site with right wing leanings and contributors that include Arianna Huffington and Newt Gingrich. So the Brion McClanahan piece, “Damn, I Just Want some Jam” is apparently meant to be taken seriously. It's possible, as Media Matters has speculated, that the author is writing what he imagines to be satire, but if that’s the case, it’s someone who doesn’t have a clear idea of exactly what satire is.

It opens with a rather rambling reference to a rap song about an EBT card the author heard a few months ago, touches on the singer’s leather jacket, shifts to Jesse Jackson, President Obama and food stamps, then announces in the next paragraph, “These are fine examples of what many Americans witness on a regular basis.” We then read the following anecdote about an adventure he and his wife had in the checkout line at Walmart. Stop me if you’ve heard this one…

( Read more )

Under the sound of tamborim

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

Today Brazil is the largest Catholic country in the world. According to the 2010 census, nearly 3/4 out of the 190 million Brazilians still define themselves as Catholics. But beneath the Catholic facade a whole hidden reality of religious syncretism lurks, created under the influence of the Afro-Brazilian magical religions: umbanda, candomblé, macumba, etc. Officially, the followers of these cults are just a few hundred thousand, and that number tends to vary greatly from one census to another (with a tendency to decrease). But that's just the official part.

Meanwhile, millions of people gather every New Year on the beaches of Rio to worship the sea goddess Iemanjá. The real number of the followers of the magical religions could well be between 1/3 and 1/2 of the Brazilians, who simultaneously consider themselves Catholics by default. Moreover, a lot of Brazilians don't distinguish between the umbanda, macumba and candomblé doctrines, but they still regularly visit the relevant temples and practice the ceremonies, hoping to get a good advice from the Otherworld, to heal themselves from illnesses or to solve some of their problems. They don't seem to have any issue with participating in the Afro-Brazilian magical rituals, and they believe these are totally compatible with the Catholic doctrine. You'd wonder how is that even possible?

(First, for atmosphere, here's a song (method stolen from the honourable Htpcl)) :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYUMs68JvBE

( Where does this syncretism come from? )

Inflamatory post inflames.

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

So, I came upon this article.

Here is a newspaper article about it for those of you who don't want to bother reading a whole journal article. And by "those of you," I mean, "everyone."

I have a couple questions that will hopefully stir a little debate and flog a horse already deader than Eohippus.

1. I say, "Why not?" The conclusion seems to follow from the premise. If we are allowed to kill humans who are not people and if fetuses are not people, and if newborns are not distinguishable from fetuses in any meaningful way, then newborns aren't people, either. Therefore, we can kill them, following the rule that while killing people is wrong, killing some humans is A-OK. QED

2. It appears that the authors are quite sincere. Deathly serious, actually. Nevertheless, it seems to me, and some others, that this article works just as well, if not better, when considered as a Modest Proposal. Does satire have to be conscious? Or is unconscious satire just as good, if not better? Having read plenty of State of the Union speeches in my day, I think this point is hardly debatable.

In before, "death penalty hypocrisy," "killing Iraqi babies," and "if men gave birth, abortion would be a sacrament."