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♻RetweetThe Human Family Tree
Science | Sun, Sep 5, 2010 at 3:13:08 pm PDT
National Geographic Channel has a fascinating and beautifully designed interactive site for their show: The Human Family Tree.
On a single day on a single street, with the DNA of just a couple of hundred random people, National Geographic Channel sets out to trace the ancestral footsteps of all humanity. Narrated by Kevin Bacon, The Human Family Tree travels to one of the most diverse corners of the world — Queens, N.Y. — to demonstrate how we all share common ancestors who embarked on very different journeys. Regardless of race, nationality or religion, all of us can trace our ancient origin back to the cradle of humanity, East Africa. What did our collective journey look like, and where did it take your specific ancestors? At what point in our past did we first cross paths with the supposed strangers living in our neighborhood? Now, in The Human Family Tree, the people of this quintessential American melting pot find out that their connections go much deeper than a common ZIP code.
♻RetweetNontroversy of the Weekend: A Quote on a Rug
Wingnuts | Sun, Sep 5, 2010 at 12:17:02 pm PDT
The right wing nontroversy of the Labor Day weekend springs from an article at the Washington Post about the new presidential rug for the Oval Office: Oval Office rug gets history wrong.
Writer Jamie Stiehm says these words on the rug are wrongly attributed to Martin Luther King Jr.:
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
Stiehm says the quote should instead be credited to abolitionist Unitarian minister Theodore Parker, who said in 1853:
“I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one… . But from what I see I am sure it bends toward justice.”
This has produced the usual round of grade school mockery from wingnut sites (a typical headline: “Smartest President in History Botches Oval Office Rug Quote!”).
Except that, as Dave Weigel points out, the words embroidered on the presidential rug were used, verbatim, by Martin Luther King Jr. on many occasions. Here’s one:
The lineage of these kinds of quotes is an interesting subject, but it’s clear that although Dr. King was inspired by Theodore Parker’s earlier words, he rephrased the thought in a more concise way and made it his own. It’s perfectly appropriate to attribute those exact words to King; he said them, Parker didn’t, and they became a powerful signature phrase for King. As Weigel notes:
Really? People, step away from the laptops and grill something.
Also see:
LGF Pages - Fact Check: Conservatives Outraged by Obama’s Rug
♻RetweetRage Candy for the Teabag Base
Wingnuts | Sun, Sep 5, 2010 at 10:46:05 am PDT
The Washington Times just keeps getting crazier and crazier: KUHNER: President’s socialist takeover must be stopped.
President Obama has engaged in numerous high crimes and misdemeanors. The Democratic majority in Congress is in peril as Americans reject his agenda. Yet more must be done: Mr. Obama should be impeached.
He is slowly - piece by painful piece - erecting a socialist dictatorship. We are not there - yet. But he is putting America on that dangerous path. He is undermining our constitutional system of checks and balances; subverting democratic procedures and the rule of law; presiding over a corrupt, gangster regime; and assaulting the very pillars of traditional capitalism. Like Venezuela’s leftist strongman, Hugo Chavez, Mr. Obama is bent on imposing a revolution from above - one that is polarizing America along racial, political and ideological lines. Mr. Obama is the most divisive president since Richard Nixon. His policies are Balkanizing the country. It’s time for him to go.
Of course, they’re competing in the current right wing marketplace, so it’s pretty much impossible for them to get too crazy. The teabagger base gobbles up this rage candy and goes looking for more.
♻RetweetAmazing Spider-Man #62, July 1968: The Name of the Dame is ... Medusa!
Arts | Sat, Sep 4, 2010 at 5:41:42 pm PDT
Here’s another amazingly well-preserved comic book from the Lizard Collection: Spider-Man #62, published in July 1968. Our copy is in near mint condition, with unfaded inks and white pages, and a beautiful cover by the great John Romita Sr.
(I guess Aunt May never told Spidey he shouldn’t get a redhead mad at him.)
Click to embiggen(Camera: Nikon D90 with 18-105mm Nikkor zoom lens and polarizing filter.)
♻RetweetPlanned Parenthood Clinic Firebombed in Madera, California
US News | Sat, Sep 4, 2010 at 12:02:29 pm PDT
In Madera, California, police and FBI are investigating a firebomb attack against a Planned Parenthood office that has been open for 20 years without incident: Molotov Cocktail thrown at Madera’s Planned Parenthood.
This attack comes one week after a brick was thrown through the window of a local mosque and anti-Muslim signs posted on its walls, by a group using the name “American Nationalist Brotherhood.” One of the signs: “No Temple for the god of terrorism at Ground Zero.”
FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — Madera’s Planned Parenthood clinic is closed Thursday after someone firebombed it with a Molotov cocktail. The FBI is investigating this case as it continues to search for clues in an attack on a mosque last week on the other side of town.
This Planned Parenthood clinic in Madera has been open for 20 years and officials here say they’ve never seen any kind of violent crime before. Madera Police are investigating the crime but they’re also getting help from the FBI who happen to be investigating another crime in Madera at the same time.
Burnt blinds on the grass and a boarded up window show the damage caused by a firebombing attack early Thursday morning.
“Upon arrival responding officers discovered that Planned Parenthood had been attacked by an unknown person with an incendiary device.” said Madera Police Chief Michael Kime.
Madera Police do not have anyone in custody but a spokesperson with Planned Parenthood says she has a good idea of who it might be. “I believe it’s extremists who are, want to make a statement.” said public affairs director Patsy Montgomery.
♻RetweetRepublicans Scared to Debate
Politics | Sat, Sep 4, 2010 at 10:20:56 am PDT
It’s the new GOP campaigning style: do everything possible to avoid being forced to defend your extreme positions. By dodging the media and opponents they can continue pandering to the far right base, while avoiding the risk of having those extreme positions become common knowledge. It’s an implicit admission that they aren’t going to win over any centrists or undecided voters; they’re not even trying. And that’s probably a smart move politically, because every time someone like Sharron Angle or Rand Paul lets their real views slip out, their poll numbers take a dive.
Now we can add Steve King to the list of Republican demagogues who are afraid to debate their opponents: King says Democratic opponent hasn’t ‘earned’ debate.
SIOUX CITY - Political theater intruded into Iowa 5th District Congressman Steve King’s town hall meeting Monday when Democratic Party opponent Matt Campbell showed up and challenged King to a debate.
Campbell, who said King has ignored repeated requests for a debate, walked in midway through the hourlong meeting and stood about 10 feet from King’s podium. King finished answering the prior question about conducting an audit of the Federal Reserve System, then addressed Campbell, without naming him at any point in the exchange.
“There aren’t going to be any ambushes or interruptions,” King said from the podium at Western Iowa Tech Community College before allowing Campbell to ask his question.
After Campbell pressed King to agree to a debate, the Republican from Kiron, Iowa, replied: “…My answer to that is that judging by the way you have conducted yourself you have not earned it.”
♻RetweetA Response to CeeLo Green from the Ladies
Music | Fri, Sep 3, 2010 at 7:04:29 pm PDT
Ceelo Green may have an under-the-radar hit song, but Whitney Avalon reminds us that there are two sides to every story.
(Hat tip: Dangerous Minds.)
♻RetweetTodd Palin Pals Around with White Supremacist Blogger
Politics | Fri, Sep 3, 2010 at 2:37:33 pm PDT
So who’s Todd Palin palling around with up there in Alaska these days?
Todd and Sarah won’t give interviews to the “lamestream” media, but they’ll make time to meet with white supremacist blogger Robert Stacy McCain: Hey, Who’s the Man? : The Other McCain.
Robert Stacy McCain was recently seen at LGF when he used the racial slur “beaners” to describe Mexicans, and is well known for numerous other overtly racist statements, such as:
“[T]he media now force interracial images into the public mind and a number of perfectly rational people react to these images with an altogether natural revulsion. The white person who does not mind transacting business with a black bank clerk may yet be averse to accepting the clerk as his sister-in-law, and THIS IS NOT RACISM, no matter what Madison Avenue, Hollywood and Washington tell us.”
McCain has also described Abraham Lincoln as a war criminal:
WANTED for WAR CRIMES: Abraham Lincoln
* Violation of the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
* Unconstitutional suppression of civil liberties in Ohio and other states
* Suspension of the writ of habeas corpus
* Disbanding the legislature of Maryland
* Aggression against the Southern Confederacy
… and defended the Confederate system of slavery as “cordial and affectionate.”
Even many slaveholders such as Thomas Jefferson recognized that by stigmatizing labor, slavery encouraged sloth in both master and slave. Though most 19th-century white Americans, North and South, subscribed to racial theories that consigned blacks to an inferior status as “hewers of wood and drawers of water,” it is incorrect to say that slavery was a system based upon racial hatred. Indeed, both white and black Southerners of the era have left us testimony to the cordial and affectionate relations which generally existed between the races in the Old South.
These quotes are from Robert Stacy McCain’s Usenet posts, as documented here: Meet Robert Stacy McCain, Neo-Confederate Wacko Extraordinaire.
There’s much more information on McCain, including his connections to white nationalist groups like American Renaissance and neo-Nazis like Bill White, in these posts:
Robert Stacy McCain’s Angry Departure From the Washington Times
The Other ‘Other McCain’
Robert Stacy McCain’s Latest Excuse
Now this sleazy racist has finally managed to ingratiate himself into the Palin family inner circle. Here he is posing on one of Todd Palin’s snowmobiles:
♻RetweetFox News: Mosque Investor Tied to Hamas (Not)
Wingnuts | Fri, Sep 3, 2010 at 1:41:09 pm PDT
Here we go again. The New York branch of Fox News shrieks: Mosque Investor Was Terror Contributor.
Except that, uh, he wasn’t.
An Egyptian who’s contributing some money to Park51 once donated money to the Holy Land Foundation — before 9/11, years before the charity was known to be connected to Hamas, because he thought he was donating money for an orphanage. Like thousands of other people did.
Out of this information, Fox gets the headline that he was a “terror contributor.” And of course, the usual idiot’s chorus of anti-Muslim bigot blogs is all over it.
Ugh. This has become a flat out witch hunt now. Everyone who donates money to the Park51 project is going to have their entire past dug up, distorted, and used against them.
UPDATE at 9/3/10 5:13:14 pm:
The Associated Press report on the latest nontroversy underscores the absurdity of trying to make this connection:
Many other donors to the foundation gave thinking their donations would fund humanitarian programs.
Other people and companies who donated money, equipment or services to the foundation the year Elzanaty gave included NBA star Hakeem Olajuwon, the Microsoft Corp., and a medical equipment company owned by General Electric, according to tax records.
When the foundation’s leaders were indicted, Attorney General John Ashcroft said, the case was not “a reflection on the well-meaning people who may have donated funds to the foundation.”
♻RetweetJan Brewer: Not That Strong a Debater
Politics | Fri, Sep 3, 2010 at 10:50:34 am PDT
Jan Brewer, Sharron Angle, Rand Paul, Sarah Palin — representatives of the new breed of Republicans who refuse to answer any questions about their views, refuse to engage in debate with their opponents (and are pathetically bad on the rare occasions when they do), completely avoid the media, and just keep repeating far right talking points like robotic parrots: Brewer: No more debates - period.
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer says she only debated her Democratic opponent Terry Goddard for the money, anyway. And she got paid, so what’s the point of any more discussion?
PHOENIX - Arizona voters won’t be seeing any more debates between the top gubernatorial contenders.
Incumbent Republican Jan Brewer said Thursday she has no intention of participating in any more events with Democrat Terry Goddard. She said the only reason she debated him on Wednesday is she had to to qualify for more than $1.7 million in public funds for her campaign.
“I certainly will take my message in a different venue out to the people of Arizona,” she said.
It’s becoming a real trend. Has right wing American politics reached such a fever pitch of insanity that this is now a winning strategy — to simply cut yourself off from all possible challenges to your views, and run away from reporters?
♻Retweet9/11 Families Ask Pamela Geller to Cancel Protest
US News | Fri, Sep 3, 2010 at 9:30:47 am PDT
A group of 9/11 family members has officially asked Pamela Geller not to stage her bigoted hate rally on September 11: 9/11 Families Ask Ground Zero Mosque Protesters to Stop Rallies on Anniversary.
LOWER MANHATTAN — The ninth anniversary of 9/11 is the wrong day to hold rallies about the planned mosque and community center near Ground Zero, say relatives of the New Yorkers who died in the World Trade Center.
The group Stop Islamization of America is planning a massive rally near Ground Zero for the afternoon of Sept. 11, and those who support the project plan to hold a counter-protest.
“On this one day, we’re hopeful there don’t have to be rallies and protests, that we leave that day to remembrance and service in memory of those who perished,” said Jay Winuk, whose brother, Glenn Winuk, 40, a volunteer firefighter, was killed in the attacks.
“Whether you’re pro or con on the mosque issue, that’s not what this is about,” said Winuk, who declined to give his position. “This isn’t an appropriate day to do a protest of this sort.”
Winuk and David Paine, co-founders of My Good Deed, an organization that promotes volunteerism on the anniversary of 9/11, sent a letter to both sides this week, asking them not to rally. The letter was signed by about a dozen family members, including representatives of the Tribute WTC Visitor Center and September 11 Families Association.
Geller, of course, is riding high on a huge charge of raging narcissism and ego gratification, and she tells the relatives of victims of the 9/11 attacks to buzz off.
Pamela Geller, executive director of Stop Islamization of America, said in a statement that her protest would go forward as planned.
“The rally is one of remembrance, dedicated to honoring the memory of those who were murdered, and making sure their memory is not desecrated by this mosque,” Geller said. “How does such a spectacle in any way dishonor the victims of the 9/11 attacks?”
Notice that the Geller-thing doesn’t even try to be diplomatic about it. These are the people she pretends to be speaking for, and she tells them to get lost.
UPDATE at 9/3/10 10:02:44 am:
Did I say she isn’t trying to be diplomatic? That’s not even the half of it.
At her website, Pamela Geller is not just telling the 9/11 family members to get lost — she’s attacking them viciously and smearing the spokesman for the group as a “vampire” and a “socilaist” [sic]: He’s Not Even A 911 family Member.
The vampires are out in full force. …
David Paine, a public relations man who is not a 911 family member masqueraded as a a speaker for “the families” deriding the rally, and equating our patriots tribute to the the anti-Semitic, Holocaust-survivor-assaulting Sharia-supporting pro-mosque rallyers, engaging in a breathtaking moral equivocation. We are not remotely on the same moral playing field with those Islamic supremacists. Wait, it gets better. Public relations man Paine then spent the better part of the interminably long segment selling his 911 “day of service” socilaist nonsense, a PR initiative of his (working in service of the Obama administration.) Paine has scribbled for the Puffington Ho ……………
♻RetweetOvernight Open Thread
Open | Thu, Sep 2, 2010 at 10:23:43 pm PDT
Evolution: don’t knock it if you haven’t tried it.
— Stinky Beaumont
♻RetweetBulbs of Doom
Images | Thu, Sep 2, 2010 at 6:48:26 pm PDT
Click to embiggen(Camera: iPhone 4.)
♻RetweetSarah Palin Word Salad Watch
Wingnuts | Thu, Sep 2, 2010 at 3:44:31 pm PDT
On Sean Hannity’s show yesterday, Sarah Palin uncorked a gloriously incoherent tirade against reporters who aren’t engorged and throbbing:
I hear there’s some pretty ugly stuff right now coming out and what we predict, we always see a pattern. We’ve got some victories under the belt. Things are, things are going well, and then, then there is that public slam of us. So, we always expect what’s coming. I don’t read some of it because I know that those that are impotent and limp and gutless, and then they go on, they’re anonymous, their sources that are anonymous, and impotent, limp and gutless reporters take anonymous sources and cite them as being factual references. You know, it just slays me because it’s so absolutely clear what the state of yellow journalism is today that they would take these anonymous sources as fact. So, when a story especially is filled with those and we know it’s bogus and we’re not going to read it.
♻RetweetADL Director Foxman: Anti-Mosque Rally on 9/11 is 'Un-American'
US News | Thu, Sep 2, 2010 at 2:59:09 pm PDT
Adam Serwer talked to Anti-Defamation League director Abe Foxman about the planned September 11 protest against the Park51 Islamic community center in lower Manhattan; we criticized Foxman for his earlier statements, but on the issue of Pamela Geller and her allies (such as Dutch demagogue Geert Wilders) he seems to have regained his balance: ADL’S Abe Foxman denounces anti-mosque rally as ‘un-American’.
On the rally:
I would agree with [Where to Turn], this is not a place for political demonstrations, for advocacy, especially on 9/11. This is a place for memory, for families to be together, to memorialize their loved ones, [to have] a moment of reflection and introspection. For people with political agendas to use the place and the moment for their own interests and their own platforms is desecrating the memory and very sad. Especially if some of the families of the victims are asking, their view should be taken seriously and respected.
Foxman had some harsh words regarding the presence of Wilders, as well as for conservative blogger Pamela Geller and her group Stop Islamization of America, which is organizing the protest:
[Wilders] is a bigot, he’s an anti-Muslim bigot, and one of the demonstrations being called for is being headed by someone who has an anti-Muslim agenda, often under the guise of fighting ‘radical Islam.’ The group vilifies Islamic faith and is engaged in [claiming] there’s a conspiracy to destroy American values, which is nonsense. The organizer in fact has stated that part of her agenda is to help garner support for Wilders, who is a bigot, who has a long record of anti-Muslim bigotry.
♻RetweetDon Ross and Jimmy Wahlsteen, 'It's Your Favourite'
Music | Thu, Sep 2, 2010 at 2:25:09 pm PDT
Music of the street: Don Ross and Jimmy Wahlsteen play “It’s Your Favourite” from Jimmy’s album 181st Songs. (iTunes Store.)
♻RetweetBibi and Abu Mazen Shake, Agree to Talk
Middle East | Thu, Sep 2, 2010 at 12:46:56 pm PDT
Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas met today at the State Department, shook hands, and managed to agree on something: to have some more talks.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will meet again on Sept. 14 and 15 in the Middle East, likely at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik, with an eye toward forging the outline of a pact. They will also meet roughly every two weeks after that.
UPDATE at 9/2/10 1:03:01 pm:
The White House has posted embeddable video of the press conference, with President Obama, President Mubarak of Egypt, King Abdullah of Jordan, Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel, and Palestinian Authority President Abbas.
♻RetweetTech Note: Twitter OAuth Test
LGF | Thu, Sep 2, 2010 at 11:59:22 am PDT
So, without telling anybody, Twitter suddenly changed their remote login system to use OAuth instead of Basic Authentication, and my code to do Twitter updates automatically when I post to LGF stopped working.
What? They did tell everyone, repeatedly, that they were going to change it? Oh. OK, my bad.
Anyway, the purpose of this post is to test my new OAuth-based Twitter code. It could also be looked at as an open thread, if this stuff is Greek to you.
If you should ever need to know how to access Twitter from a PHP script, here’s a blog article I found very helpful: Posting from an RSS feed to twitter using OAuth.
♻RetweetAnother Oil Platform Explodes in the Gulf
US News | Thu, Sep 2, 2010 at 10:37:31 am PDT
Another oil drilling platform has exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, but luckily no workers were killed. The latest reports say that officials don’t know whether oil is leaking from the well; but it was not producing oil and gas at the time of the explosion.
The good news: this platform is in relatively shallow water (340 feet), so if there is a leak it will be much easier to plug.
♻RetweetThe Jan Brewer Train Wreck
Politics | Thu, Sep 2, 2010 at 10:03:53 am PDT
An awesome train wreck of an opening statement from Jan Brewer, in Arizona’s gubernatorial debate. One of the most embarrassing political performances ever captured on video.
And then, after the debate, Brewer refused to answer questions about her claim that there were “beheadings” near the border — and ended up turning and running from the media.
♻RetweetNot a Dry Run
US News | Thu, Sep 2, 2010 at 9:21:20 am PDT
That suspected terrorist dry run on a United flight was a false alarm.
♻RetweetOvernight Open Thread
Open | Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 10:11:06 pm PDT
Once again the forces of virtue have triumphed over the forces of rottenness.
— Maxwell Smart
♻RetweetSigns Banned at Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer's Hate Rally
Wingnuts | Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 5:47:40 pm PDT
Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer are taking a page from the Glenn Beck playbook, and banning all signs at their upcoming shameless attempt to capitalize on America’s memories of 9/11 to demonize Muslims. Instead they’re getting even more shameless with a jingoistic command to bring American flags to a rally for a cause that couldn’t be more un-American: NO SIGNS AT THE 911 GROUND ZERO MEGA MOSQUE RALLY — FLAGS! - Atlas Shrugs.
Robert and I respectfully request that those of you who will be attending our protest against the Ground Zero mega mosque bring American flags, not signs. 9 x 12 sized flags. Nothing with big poles: the NYPD won’t allow big poles. Please get the word out now.
We will be confiscating signs. It is a solemn day. No signs. FLAGS. Tens of thousands of flags.
“Tens of thousands of FLAGS,” she wrote, rubbing her hooves in glee.
Here’s why Geller and Spencer are going to confiscate signs at their hate rally; because they know people like this will show up, as they did in November 2009 in Franklin County, Ohio. I hope they’re ready to confiscate t-shirts too.
Frank says: