a little bit of Uh Huh and a whole lot of Oh Yeah

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jcbarentine — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 12:25:23 -0600

"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our..."

jcbarentine — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 18:23:37 -0600

“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”

- John Adams, American diplomat & politician (1735-1826) in Argument in Defense of the Soldiers in the Boston Massacre Trials, December 1770.

The 2012 Republican National Convention summarized in one image

jcbarentine — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 22:43:04 -0600

"People don’t see any way out of what’s going on economically or politically — not..."

jcbarentine — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 06:45:43 -0600

“People don’t see any way out of what’s going on economically or politically — not just in Russia but all over the world. But artists have recognised there is a way out and it’s that we begin to realise the problem is spiritual, not economical or political. When we recognise that, we can begin to claw our way back to a world as it was intended by its creator to be. Caring and compassionate.”

- Irish singer Sinéad O’Connor on the jailing of members of the Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot [source]

"Paul Ryan’s love of Rage Against the Machine is amusing, because he is the embodiment of the machine..."

jcbarentine — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 12:46:54 -0600

“Paul Ryan’s love of Rage Against the Machine is amusing, because he is the embodiment of the machine that our music has been raging against for two decades.”

- Opens Tom Morello in a scathing Rolling Stone op-ed lashing the VP nominee (via tpmmedia)

Missing it already.

jcbarentine — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 11:40:17 -0600

Missing it already.

Meanwhile, back at Romney’s evil lair…

jcbarentine — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 06:50:00 -0600

Meanwhile, back at Romney’s evil lair…

Paul Ryan as VP Would Match Mitt Romney on Homophobia

jcbarentine — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 10:04:51 -0600

Paul Ryan as VP Would Match Mitt Romney on Homophobia:

Paul Ryan has voted to ban same-sex marriage and adoption by gay couples, and he voted against repealing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” ban on gays serving openly in the military.

(Photo credit: Getty Images)

Romney supports amending the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex marriage. And Ryan twice voted in support of the failed Federal Marriage Amendment in 2004 and 2006.

As a U.S. representative for Wisconsin’s first congressional district, Ryan was more recently faced with a ballot question in his home state on whether to ban marriage equality. He again lined up against marriage equality when asked about the iniative during a February appearance on Meet the Press.

In 2003, Ryan voted in favor of the Marriage Protection Act, which would have prevented federal courts from considering and possibly overturning the Defense of Marriage Act. Romney also backs DOMA.

Ryan voted in 1999 in favor of banning same-sex couples from adopting in the District of Columbia, over which Congress often exerts control.

Ryan also lined up with Romney on repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” when it came before Congress in 2011.

When the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act passed through the House in 2009, Ryan voted against it.

Ryan received a 0 percent rating on gay rights by Human Rights Campaign and 91 percent by the Christian Coalition of America (source)

"The cost of taking part in creating history is always staggeringly high for people. But that taking..."

jcbarentine — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 06:54:41 -0600

“The cost of taking part in creating history is always staggeringly high for people. But that taking part is the very spice of human life.”

- Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, a member of the Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot, whose trial on charges of hooliganism concluded in a Moscow courtroom this past week. The closing statement of Tolokonnikova and of her co-defendants is available here.

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jcbarentine — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 06:40:16 -0600

"One of the great frustrations faced by science writers is that, more often than not, we’re preaching..."

jcbarentine — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 06:40:37 -0600

“One of the great frustrations faced by science writers is that, more often than not, we’re preaching to the choir. People who really need to be exposed to critical scientific information regarding homosexuality are, frankly, either too unintelligent to understand the research or—more unforgivably—they’re perfectly smart enough, it’s just that they’re too incurious about the deep complexities of human psychology to bother to learn. Now, for many subject areas in science, such cognitive dullards and intellectual sloths are easy to ignore, even when they display remarkable naivete. To be unaware of the chemical composition of water, for instance, is certainly sad, but such ignorance is usually pretty harmless. But with a basic scientific understanding of sexual orientation, ignorance can be sinister. Knowledge may not trump hatred in all cases, but for most reasonable individuals, it tends to facilitate humanity.”

- Jesse Bering, “The Prideful, Arrogant President of Chick-fil-A” (Slate, 6 August 2012)

Let ‘em all speak! wisconsinforward: “Let the buyer...

jcbarentine — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 21:52:11 -0600

Let ‘em all speak!

wisconsinforward:

“Let the buyer beware because this is the bedlam that could, just five months from now, be ruling the republic.”

Brilliant.

It’s simple, really…

jcbarentine — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 10:05:39 -0600

It’s simple, really…

"It has been brought to my attention that the stick figure decals on the back windows of vehicles are..."

jcbarentine — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 13:44:00 -0600

“It has been brought to my attention that the stick figure decals on the back windows of vehicles are NOT pedestrian ‘kill’ scores, but, actually are meant to represent members of your family. I’ll be removing mine ASAP to avoid any further confusion.”

- Some random web post

violencegirl: We must speak for those whose voices have been...

jcbarentine — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 06:59:27 -0600

violencegirl:

We must speak for those whose voices have been silenced. #FREEPUSSYRIOT

"My dear son, I am appalled, even horrified, that you have adopted Classics as a major. As a matter..."

jcbarentine — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 11:25:52 -0600

“My dear son,
I am appalled, even horrified, that you have adopted Classics as a major. As a matter of fact, I almost puked on the way home today. I suppose that I am old-fashioned enough to believe that the purpose of an education is to enable one to develop a community of interest with his fellow men, to learn to know them, and to learn how to get along with them. In order to do this, of course, he must learn what motivates them, and how to impel them to be pleased with his objectives and desires.
I am a practical man, and for the life of me I cannot possibly understand why you should wish to speak Greek. With whom will you communicate in Greek? …
For the life of me I cannot understand why you should be vitally interested in informing yourself about the influences of the Classics on English literature. It is not necessary for you to know how to make a gun in order to know how to use it.”

-
In 1957, at 18 years of age, future billionaire and founder of CNN, Ted Turner, informed his father that he would be majoring in Classics after being inspired by a professor at Brown University. His father was furious to say the least, and responded to his son’s announcement with the following despairing letter — a letter which Ted later sent to the college paper in retaliation, who then reprinted it in full.

The rest of the letter is epic.

(via climateadaptation)

"Their only crime was being young, arrogant, and beautiful."

jcbarentine — Sat, 04 Aug 2012 06:51:43 -0600

“Their only crime was being young, arrogant, and beautiful.”

- Patti Smith on the members of the Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot, in Oslo, Norway, 1 August 2012. The band’s trial this week on charges of ‘hooliganism motivated by religious hatred’ has exposed some inconvenient truths about the Russian justice system.

coelasquid: When people say it’s a stupid, superficial thing to...

jcbarentine — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 10:46:47 -0600

coelasquid:

When people say it’s a stupid, superficial thing to avoid eating at Chik-Fil-A just because you disagree with the politics of the higher-ups, I assume those people don’t realize Chik-Fil-A profits are pumped into organizations that literally support legislation to execute gay people.

When people are actively spreading bigotry, it’s not superficial to take your business elsewhere.

Try Stargazing Tonight!

jcbarentine — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 06:35:02 -0600

Is it just me, or did the Chick-Fil-A “Appreciation...

jcbarentine — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 22:08:00 -0600

Is it just me, or did the Chick-Fil-A “Appreciation Day” demographic skew distinctly

white;
old;
overweight; and
right-wing?