Tue, Feb 2, 2010 at 7:43:41 pm
Tonight on the Chris Matthews show, in a discussion about the proposal to repeal the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, “senior fellow” Peter Sprigg of the far right religious group Family Research Council openly said he wants to see “gay behavior” outlawed. Wow. [Video] (Hat tip: Balloon Juice.)

Tue, Feb 2, 2010 at 1:09:27 pm
British medical journal The Lancet has officially retracted the study they published in 1998 that began the still-spreading anti-vaccination craziness. [Video] Britain’s General Medical Council has issued a ruling as well, calling the research done by Dr. Andrew Wakefield for his discredited study linking MMR vaccine to autism “callous, unethical, and dishonest.” ...

Mon, Feb 1, 2010 at 3:19:51 pm
Ten American Baptists are in jail in Haiti for attempting to smuggle 33 “orphans” out of the country — and many of the children aren’t even orphans at all: Road From Haiti Was Paved With Good Intentions, American Baptists Say. And one of the pastors involved has denounced “the accusations of ...

Sat, Jan 30, 2010 at 3:08:42 pm
An interesting piece by Charles Homans at Columbia Journalism Review, asking the question: “Why don’t TV weathermen believe in climate change?” Hot Air. The disagreement, then as now, also came down to the weathercasters themselves, and what they knew—or believed they knew. Meteorology has a deceptively close relationship with climatology: ...

Sat, Jan 30, 2010 at 11:31:41 am
Former TV weatherman Anthony Watts has been engaged in an ongoing attack on the reliability of the US network of surface weather stations, claiming that poor placement of the stations has resulted in data that’s biased toward the warm side. Watts set up the website SurfaceStations.org to coordinate photographic evidence ...

Thu, Jan 28, 2010 at 1:56:17 pm
Bad news for the first National Tea Party Convention: two of its biggest names are bailing out. In another sign that controversy is taking a toll on next week’s National Tea Party Convention in Nashville, Tenn., two of its top attractions — Reps. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Michele Bachmann (R-Mars) ...

Wed, Jan 27, 2010 at 2:38:41 pm
In many ways I have an enormous amount of respect for Dennis Prager; unlike some of his fellow talk radio hosts, he gets deep into the issues, and for the most part refrains from demagoguery. And he and I have many things in common, particularly an understanding of the danger ...

Wed, Jan 27, 2010 at 10:08:17 am
The Hatewatch blog has a report on this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), probably the most extreme right wing version of the event ever held, featuring creationists, Birthers, nativists, militias, Glenn Beck, the re-ascendant wackos of the John Birch Society — and many top Republican politicians: Conspiracy Central: Beck, ...

Mon, Jan 25, 2010 at 5:30:21 pm
Here’s another excellent track from the jazz-rock group Reign of Kindo, titled “October’s Storm.” [Video]

Sat, Jan 23, 2010 at 5:31:05 pm
A groovy little video filled with imaginative motion graphics by Japanese visual performance group Bonsajo. [Video]

Sat, Jan 23, 2010 at 2:04:26 pm
I have a few more points to make in response to Jonathan Dee’s article about me in the New York Times. (Then I’ll drop it, I promise.) First, one assertion Dee makes is actually checkable: L.G.F. still has more than 34,000 registered users, but the comment threads are dominated by the ...

Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 6:11:16 pm
A former Marine and current member of the Oathkeepers militia group, who was a featured speaker at the July 4th tea party in Oklahoma, has been arrested on suspicion of rape — and when his home was searched, police discovered a grenade launcher stolen from a California Army base: ...

Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 2:56:26 pm
Dale Robertson is in the Washington Times again, described as a “leading figure” in the tea party movement: ‘Tea party’ activists feel slighted by GOP. Leading figures in the burgeoning “tea party” movement complain they are being ignored by the Republican National Committee, despite having already shown their clout in ...

Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 8:01:48 am
If Sarah Palin is harboring ambitions to run for President, a new CBS News poll shows an obstacle in the way: Most Don’t Want Sarah Palin to Run for President. A new CBS News poll finds that a large majority of Americans say they do not want former Alaska Governor ...

Sun, Jan 17, 2010 at 11:31:28 am
Tim Blair is still outrageously outraged that Danny Glover said global warming caused the Haitian earthquake. (He didn’t.) Blair links to a Bill O’Reilly segment that blatantly misquotes what Glover did say: [Video] Here’s the misquote: There’s all this hell because of global warming, there’s all this hell because of climate change … ...

Thu, Jan 14, 2010 at 9:07:54 am
Former United Nations chief weapons inspector Scott Ritter was a fierce critic of President Clinton for not being tougher on Saddam Hussein and Iraq, but suddenly had a radical change of opinion about the dangers of Hussein immediately before the Iraq War. He became a very outspoken antiwar activist, turning ...

Wed, Jan 13, 2010 at 12:00:22 pm
Here’s Sarah Palin making her debut on Fox News, admitting that during the lead-up to her 2008 vice-presidential debate with Joe Biden she “questioned” whether Iraq might have been responsible for the 9/11 terror attacks. (This is the second half of her appearance on the O’Reilly show.) [Video] Interviewed by Fox ...

Sun, Jan 10, 2010 at 3:02:37 pm
A few days ago a writer for the Danish weekly Weekendavisen, Jesper Vind Jensen, emailed and asked for my opinion on a Danish critic of Islam named Lars Hedegaard who’s apparently now in the midst of a controversy, over statements he made calling for a sort of paramilitary strategy of ...

Sun, Jan 10, 2010 at 9:45:14 am
Prediction: following the publication of Game Change, Mark Halperin and John Heilemann aren’t going to be invited into many more political inner circles. In addition to the Harry Reid quote that led to an apology from Reid yesterday, Marc Ambinder excerpts some of the juiciest revelations: The authors write on page ...

Wed, Jan 6, 2010 at 8:52:28 am
Ryan Mauro claims that I called him a racist — I didn’t — and posts yet another one of those straw man attacks for which the right wing has become infamous: Darnit! Charles Johnson Catches Me Being a Racist! Whatever Shall I Do? Oddly, he includes no link to LGF in ...

Tue, Jan 5, 2010 at 5:58:30 pm
Bertha M. Lewis, CEO of the dreaded right wing boogeyman ACORN, is interviewed by Esquire’s John H. Richardson, and mentions Andrew Breitbart’s crazy accusation (that he finally retracted yesterday after leaving it hanging out there for 6 days): Acorn Group vs Fox News - Interview with Bertha Lewis of ACORN ...

Sun, Jan 3, 2010 at 7:39:57 pm
Finally! A group of right wingers is calling for a telephone campaign against Glenn Beck! I’ve been waiting for this to happen … Oh, wait. They’re angry at Beck for not pushing the birth certificate issue. I should have known. Never mind. (Hat tip: Mich-again.)

Sat, Jan 2, 2010 at 1:31:18 pm
As of January 1st, Ireland has enacted an atavistic law that makes “blasphemy” punishable by a fine of up to $35,000. It’s amazing that a civilized country in 2010 is deliberately putting in place laws from the Dark Ages. An Irish atheist group immediately challenged this stupid and dangerous legislation by ...

Fri, Jan 1, 2010 at 2:40:02 pm
Gateway Pundit (Jim Hoft) is giddy with praise for the “Bulgarian media,” because they picked up on his disgusting homophobic smears of Obama’s education minister Kevin Jennings: The State-Run Media Won’t Touch It… But Bulgarians Not Afraid to Report on Jennings Fistgate Scandal. Hoft thinks the American media are deliberately ignoring ...

Fri, Jan 1, 2010 at 10:23:58 am
Here we go again. Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government blog has a story on the release of another batch of White House visitor records, and they’ve found sinister evidence that Barack Obama is in cahoots with the dreaded demons of ACORN: White House Visitors Log: ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis In Obama Residence ...