A Christmas Tree ornament that is a Snitch? A bird/pig pair from Angry Birds? Bacon? Why didn’t I think of this!!!
Then, there is this:
How much do you have to know about a religion (or religion in general) before you can reject it? This much.
Amazingly, Michele Bachmann lied. About lying! See: Bachmann Lies About PolitiFact Saying She Lies
First, there were big-giant planets discovered orbiting other stars. Then, more recently, a planet in the star’s Goldilocks Zone … where water would be at least sometimes liquid, were it present. But that was a big planet that may or may not have been truly “class M” in having a surface, atmosphere, etc.
Now, NASA reports planets the size of the earth beyond our solar system. Unfortuntely, they are not in the zone. But still, this is cool.
Because they are, after all, Americans.
This is old but someone just pointed me to it and I thought you would enjoy it.
Or hate it, or whatever:
Continue reading Michele Bachmann will be President of Gay Americans
I am amazed at the giddiness amongst Christian Fundamentalists that has fomented from the mere utterance of a holiday greeting by Richard Dawkins. The counter-insurgents in the War on Christmas … the Red White and Blue, squeaky-faced smirking shits that call themselves commentators or preachers are creaming in their jeans. But they are also stepping over the line, and I’m calling them on it.
Continue reading The Bible-Thumping Grinch who Pissed on Christmas
Or even not at home!
(I’m talking about the part with the dummy that is not a dummy.)
This is serious, I just got this email from somebody:
Continue reading “The Radical Homosexuals infiltrating the United States Congress have a plan”
And probably justifiably.
Jonathan Stein and Tim Dickinson make the point that some of us have been making since the World Trade Center fell: If we become a nation motivated mainly by fear, we will become a militaristic police state.
But the blame for Iraq does not end with Cheney, Bush, or Rumsfeld. Nor is it limited to the intelligence operatives who sat silent as the administration cherry-picked its case for war, or with those, like Colin Powell or Hans Blix, who, in the name of loyalty or statesmanship, did not give full throat to their misgivings. It is also shared by far too many in the Fourth Estate, most notably the New York Times’ Judith Miller. But let us not forget that it lies, inescapably, with we the American people, who, in our fear and rage over the catastrophic events of September 11, 2001, allowed ourselves to be suckered into the most audacious bait and switch of all time.
Welcome to the party.
Read the essay here: Lie by Lie: A Timeline of How We Got Into Iraq
I had earlier mentioned that Americans United sof Separation of Chruch and State had expressed concern over the singing of the song “Silent Night” in a school Christmas program; Well, the event carried out and the song was sung, and AU has no immediate plans.
Alex Luchenitser, associate legal director for Separation of Church and State, said Monday afternoon the group planned no action against the play, at least not this year.
“Nobody’s planning it at this time,” Luchenitser said. “We had a short time frame to address this, so we only had time to send a letter that we hoped would educate school officials about separation of church and state. We hope in the future they don’t do this again.”
Luchenitser said his group received a local complaint about the song. He said they have a policy against disclosing details about the complaint or revealing the identity of the complainant. Continue reading “Silent Night” Sung
According to The Skepchicks, as well as Facebook, Bon Jovi is not dead.
Apparently, Bon Jovi is either a rock musician or some sort of rock band. Hey, wait, wasn’t he the plumber in Ally McBeal?
I just saw something on TV about people running around with “Made in America” tee-shirts trying to talk everyone else into buying Christmas presents that were made in America, and naturally, my cynical self wondered which East or Southeast Asian Sweat Shops the tee-shirts were made in.
So I looked and it turns out that at least some of these shirts are actually made in America! 
So, it got me thinking, what other cool last second gifts are there that are Made in America that an American Citizen might want to buy for their Uncle they forgot to get a present for. And there are some:
One idea is Buck Knives. They’ve always been made in the Good Old USA, and they are a reliable and trustworthy brand …. oh, wait, no … it can’t be true. It turns out that Buck Knives are often made in China these days. Here’s what Chuck Buck of Buck Knives says:
Now that you are family, you might like to know a little more about our organization. The fantastic growth of Buck Knives was no accident. From the beginning, management determined to make God the Senior Partner. In a crisis, the problem was turned over to Him, and He hasn’t failed to help us with the answer. Each product must reflect the integrity of management, including our Senior Partner. If sometimes we fail on our end, because we are human, we find it imperative to do our utmost to make it right. Of course, to us, besides being Senior Partner, He is our Heavenly Father also; and it’s a great blessing to us to have this security in these troubled times. If any of you are troubled or perplexed and looking for answers, may we invite you to look to Him, for God loves you.
OK, forget Buck Knives.
How about toys by “Green Toys” such as this cool dump truck. 
How about this giant Stuffed Gorilla Ape Also Known as Giant Monkey
Then there’s the gift basket. The Made in America Artisan Gourmet Basket in Wood Crate
There. That should just about do it for my Holiday Shopping this year.
Wait, wait, Mad Scientists suggests Dremel Tools
As you know, I’ve shifted some of the topics I have discussed on this blog over to The X Blog. However, some topics can very reasonably go on both. One of these is how we communicate, and argue, and sometimes make progress in this crazy, zany place we call The Blogsophere. Also, as an Anthropologist, I see topics related to gender, sexism, feminism and related topics as fully at home here, as well as at The X Blog. So, I just completed a series of posts over there which I’m sure will be of interest to those of you who tend to hand out here and might not otherwise notice. I hope you visit them, read them, love them or hate them, send them to your family to enjoy for the holiday season, and hopefully scream at me about them in the comments. They are:
This started out as a big-huge blog post which I then decided to break down, and I decided that for a number of reasons. One is that some of the subtopics (i.e., the one on sex positiveness and calibration) may be more of a side issue. Another is that I didn’t want any one of the topics to get sidelined by shifting focus should there be extended discussion. Mainly, though, I wanted to have bite size pieces to avoid the tl;dr effect, and to later have more narrowly defined items to point or link to as appropriate.
Continuing from the previous conversation …
I’ve written about this before (Shut up about everything all the time unless what you have to say is HITLER!!!!) and it relates to the previously discussed topic, as Godwin-Scaping is a way to tell someone to stop talking. Richard Dawkins told Rebecca Watson that her comments were not about the repression of women by Islam, therefore she should shut up. Numerous Nuclear Power Apologists have told Ana Miller and me to Shut Up about Fukushima because more people die in automobile accidents world wide every day than were killed by radiation at that power plant. Recently, Rebecca Watson wrote about how being told to “not feed the trolls” might sound like friendly and helpful advice (and may even be meant that way sometimes) but it is actually just another way to tell people to shut up. Continue reading We’ve Talked About This Enough, We Can Shut Up Now (Or, Don’t Feed the Trolls)
Remember that! Why? This is why!
Brilliant. Now you have pictures and pithy sayings to remember all these important science facts.
It has come to my attention that there are people in the US who think Reindeer are fictional animals. That make sense because they are associated in may people’s minds [SPOILER ALERT] with a fictional character known as ….
Continue reading Reindeer, Bear, Cougar Close Encounters