Scalia: 'Racial Entitlement' in Voting Rights Act

Can't hardly wait for Antonin Scalia to retire or die, after the statement he made while in hearings on the Voting Rights Act the regulates to curb voter discrimination based on race/ethnic background. Scalia's comment describes the Voting Rights Act as:

“

Perpetuation of racial entitlement.

Perhaps we now know why conservatives have been saying there is no racism in America, They are trying to paint a picture to erode protections make racism legal. Then they well say racism is perfectly legal. Racism was wrong in 1965 and it is just as wrong today.



Protections for ethnic minorities still very import in the US today...

Pastor Terry Jones and Rush Limbaugh have nothing...

When it comes to failing the understand foreign theology for 20th Century history, Pastor Terry Jones and Rush Limbaugh are left completely inept compared the two individuals that you are about to meet.
First, we meet, Egyptian Cleric - Abu Islam as he explains how hee sees the origin of Christianity...

Next, a Lebanese Professor - Hassan Jouni, puts forward his take on the Holocaust...

It should not take a genius to figure out why Lebanon and Egypt have been seeing so much strife.  It seems incredible that an intelligent intellectually honest person could put forward such absurd ideas and expect to be taken seriously. But then again there is Ray Comfort's banana.

The observance of Heinlein's Razor would go a long way to smoothing things over.

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity - Heinlein's razor.

The heart of darkness in Klan Town

While conservatives have been heard saying "there is no racism in America", if they weren't being disenguous they weren't paying attention. Not only is racism present it profitable...



Disturbing as it is to see how these ammoral buffoons profit from the kind of race bating that started the Rwandan genocide in a modern nation, perhaps more disturbing is the inability stop them.


It gets worse we're not going to see the end of this for sometime as they indoctrinate a new generation of ethnocentric bigots.


Most Americans get it, they were the real heroes behind the arrest of George "fucking coons" Zimmerman.

GOP in 'open revolt' as 80 Republicans sign brief supporting gay marriage

One small step forward...

Martyrdom of culture in Kashmir & UN Call 2 end FGM

After on rocking concert a kashmiri girl band is forced to quit by hate messages and a fatwa, but it is only part of a larger problem.
UN has called to globally end FGM which is inflicted upon 3million women each year. While religion is often cited as the reason, neither the Bible nor the Quran demand FGM.

Another nonce bites the dust...

 

Cardinal Keith O'Brian, has quit as Archbishop of Edinburgh on the back of allegations of inappropriate touching by three other priests and another who had retired.

His resignation has been accepted by Pope Benedict.

Cardinal O'Brien recently created controversy by softpedalling criticism of Bishop Mahony of California for his predation of hundreds of victims.

Sadly O'Brien's resignation comes only weeks before his expected resignation so as the say it much sound a fury signifying nothing.

Source:
  BBC

The 7 Craziest Bills in the U.S.

Fox News: Al Jazeera is a Sleeper Cell Plot!

Bullshit and misdirection from Fox!

Fox seems far from patriotic, fair or balanced despite their tag line a rhetoric.

John Fugelsang calls out Cardinal Mahony for 'trivializing the anger' of...

The emporers navie wants the peasants to appologizes for stopping arrows with their asses. You know, the way you should apologize for repeated smashing your face into a thugs fists.

While there are  good people in the church who do good, the church establishment is poison to its core.
Religion like this is like diarrhoea, easily spread, totally foul, and diseased. The only good that comes of it is the empty pew syndrome that makes the Catholic church "the leading manufacture of atheists" because if there one thing worse than being surrounded by idiots, it's being surrounded by people pretending to be idiots.

Solid Energy anything but! Hoorah!

Coal exporter Solid Energy is on the verge of Financial collapse with NZ$389m in debt.
Sadly the government may yet consider a bailout.
Solid Energy been trying to get permits to mine lignite coal in Southland, the dirtiest type of coal and a contributor particulate atmospheric carbon, second only to CO₂ for radiative forcing. The US Coal industry is struggling too. US coal companies mining similar US coal reserves are forced to sell to Asia at prices as low US$1/tonne.
As Solid energy exports half of its production it is no wonder it too is tanking.
The woes of Big Coal are cause by the evaporating market as people and organizations compelled by the evidence for climate change reject dirty energy.
The demise of Solid Energy is hopefully the beginning of the end do what we can without regard for considerations whether we should.

So typical of such corporate failures the top officers are bailing out secured by millions in golden parachutes.

Last year Solid Energy paid $11m in executive bonuses after a failed experiment is bio-fuels.

Source
 3news.co.nz
 Stuff

How An Over-The-Top Joke Became A Republican Talking Point Against Chuck Hagel

Ever made a joke that went bad? I bet it never went this bad...

How An Over-The-Top Joke Became A Republican Talking Point Against Chuck Hagel: pA journalist with the New York Daily News has come forward as the unintentional source for a rumor that Secretary of Defense nominee Chuck Hagel was receiving funding from the non-existent “Friends of Hamas” group. Hagel has faced an uphill battle towards confirmation since his nomination in January, a battle aided by the unprecedented amount [...]/p

John Fugelsang: Executing mentally disabled people is 'on the level of k...

Georgia, Really? Are you really so retarded that you still think execution a good way to prove killing is wrong especially when those you execute, clinically, have little ability to understand the consequences of there actions?

Wall Street Setting Up Financial Armageddon

Remember that kid who said  thy wanted to have all the money in the  world? Some of those kids who said that were too stupid or greedy to understand that to achieve that end would impoverish the world, and now they control Wall Street. and they have a plan that will make the 2008 collapse look like a lolly-scramble....

If they bring the economy close to collapse again, the only way to save it, will be jail the banksters and bail out people.

The Tea Party -And Their Money- 10 Years Ago

The origins of the Tea Party go back to 2002 with Citizen for a Sound Economy substantially funded by Philip Morris and Koch Industries. Eventually CSE split to become citizens for prosperity and FreedomWorks.

But hey, there must some way to counter the demonstrable facts...

Naomi Klein; "The Canadian Government is Completely Freaked Out" By Anti...

The people are speaking and it is time to listen...

Signs of slow progress.
We have destroy our own civilizations before and we can do it again, the physics is not on our side we must move faster.

Papal Resignation: More than meets the eye

It appears manoeuvrings in Brussels for a European state threatened the sovereignty of the Vatican and the Pope's liberty and his resignation is an attempt to prevent seizure of documents pertaining to the handling of sex abuse cases and the Pope being taken into legal custody.
The Vatican has expressed concern for the Pontiff’s liberty out side of the Vatican's walls.
Both as Cardinal Ratzinger and Pope the pontiff has been privy to all the sexual abuse cases which makes responsible for the lack of action.
HBO is about to air Mia Maxima Culpa as documentary detailing his role in the Vatican's investigation and lack of action. The documentary focuses on cases involving deaf boys with limited ability to communicate with hearing parents who did not understand signing and the priest who was "punished" by being relocates to California and continued offending against even victims. Another case involved a leader of Legion Of Christ who offended against over 200 children whom Ratzinger fought to investigate and thoroughly failed to sanction.

Like the Wall Street investment banks, the Vatican is too big to jail, but for how long? This is anyone's guess.

Source:
  Reuters
 

Predatory Evangelicals in New Zealand

The CEF website

The Child Evengelism Fellowship, the bain of secular parents and public schools in the US has reached across the pacific to New Zealand. While the website appears innocuous the reality on the ground is often radically different, featuring division and intolerance on the play ground and disrespect for the views of the community.

The CEC website

They operate trainings in Levin so that Church Education Commission (CEC) members elected to school boards and invite people in to New Zealand public schools to proselytize a hellfire brand fundamentalist protestant Christianity to children. CEC members are encouraged to put themselves up for nomination to school boards.
It does not matter if you are a person of faith or not, this should alarm you, this group has a record of disregard for the wishes school communities and intolerance for diverse minorities and other religious and non-religious groups. and their clear intent is to capture the minds of your children and imprison them with though the outwardly the describe themselves thus on their website:

While parents may be able to opt their child out of these teachings, they divide the play ground and set children against each other and worst still children opted out may be set menial tasks while teaching takes place.
For those attending these lessons, no declaimer is given leaving the child with the impression the "preacher" is giving a school endorsed lesson.

This story comes from a mother in Christchurch:

Our children currently attend Harewood School in Christchurch, our oldest is in year 3. We were aware that the school had RI from the beginning and opted out. Though concerned that valuable curriculum time was being handed over for religious instruction we felt confident enough that opting out would not be problematic. However, since then there have been continual and increasing incidences of discrimination. In the early days there were times when our children were kept in the same classroom during RI, which we put a stop to. Then our son was put to washing dishes in the staffroom, which we also put a stop to. The last two years has seen more and more comments and bullying by other students for example asking my children why they don’t believe in god and saying that they will go to hell. There is teasing and ostracism which may seem mild to adults but is very hurtful and confusing for young children.
My husband and I have recently approached the school as we noticed behavioural changes and anxiety in our son. We had previously not wanted to make a fuss as we felt it would emphasise a difference between the children and make things worse. The school has responded reasonably and I must emphasise that my letter is not about condemning the schools conduct. My intention is to illustrate the impact of allowing religious groups access to our state schools and argue for legislation change that protects a religiously neutral school environment.

Other lessons teach that childrens' friends and family will be forever punished if they do not convert to the hell fire brand of Christianity that they promoted in the Good News Clubs.

US school district boards have tried and failed to prevent to Good News clubs from injected themselves into the school environment. The Good News clubs have the backing of the CEF a US$100m organization that offers free legal support to Good News clubs. Also a 2001 supreme court decision gave groups the free speech right to do this in US public schools, despite it being a violation of free exercise and separation clauses of the first amendment.
These Good News clubs insist on reaching children in schools even to the point of refusing free accommodation in a next door church.

One lesson uses the biblical genocide of the Amalakite as a lesson in obediance noting God killing Saul because did not complete the genocide. This lesson is aimed at five year olds in the US.

The Director for Policy and Strategy at the Richard Dawkins Foundation for reason and Science US will be visiting New Zealand to speak and offer advice to help combat this and other assaults on our proudly secular nation in April with his last engagement on the 12th in Wellington.

Sources:
  cef.org.nz
  reason.org.nz
See Also
  3news.co.nz
  stuff.co.nz

Elizabeth Warren Smacks Down Wall Street Bankers

When was the last time financial regulators to wall street to trial, not even they can remember!

Somehow taking a 20% cut, doesn't seem to be much of a deterrent. May I suggest a new rule that if wall street are found with their hand in the cookie jar, settlements should be no less than 105% of the profit of the crime. Thus  making crime unprofitable when caught. And how about regulating for more open access to records to wall street institutions considered too big to fail by legal and justice authorities.
Now, there have been threats to break up the too-big-to-fail (or should we say too-big-to-jail) institutions. Certainly this move make it easier to get justice for consumers of financial consumers ripped off by wall street and perhaps reduce the plutocracy in the political system.

At at a time when profit is privatized and risks  socialized, surely privatizing culpability and socializing the proceeds of crime makes sense to balance the injustice of plutocracy.

No need to panic

Bill Nye explains DA14 and Tunguska.

VIDEO: New "Kochtopus" Graphic Maps the Influence of Billionaire Koch Brothers on Climate Policy

The disturbing spread of oligarchic power in the US from two men who seek to control the US government against the will of the people.

Bill McKibben: Ahead of Keystone XL Rally, Fossil Fuel Divestment Expand...

It seems support for the fossil divestment movement is becoming a blow-the-doors-off success, with Vermont's Sterling college announcing it will be the third US college to divest from the over 200 carbon energy companies on 350.org's black list. The movement has grown to 236 campuses through out the US. Hopefully this movement and more to come will in time prevent climate change becoming a burn-the-house-down disaster.
The physics are worrying and the longer the delay the more impossible and desperate the situation becomes as Bill McKibben explained is his article in Rolling Stone - Global Warming's Terrifying New Math.
However 18 months ago the Keystone XL pipe was a foregone conclusion now it has been pushed back twice after the largest publlic protests in decades and over 1200 people getting arrested for offences related to civil-disobediance. So the effort seems to be having some stalling effect. But much more needs to be done.

The climate denialism machine needs to exposed and shut down or rendered as impotent as a witch doctor shaking his fists at a volcano. According to Greenpeace and the David and Charles Koch brothers of Koch Industries have spent over $67m funding groups denying climate change since 1997. and keep in mind they are not the only funders of denial. All up over $400m(through the Donors Trust) has spent not so much to disproving climate science but smearing the scientists. The Donors Trust is an attempt to create a facade of independence, so that with a wink and a nod organizations like  American for Prosperity or the Heartland Institute can say "We have no direct connection to Big Oil". If disproving science of climate change were possible the scientists would already have done it. And that is what the scientific process is about if have a hypothesis, you spend most of your effort trying to poke holes in it. If it still stands up, you could be onto a winner. A point which Cenk Uygur makes here...


The problem is for Koch et al is that leaving all the carbon in the ground seems like madness when it is worth approximately US$20 trillion. To anyone with a sense of self preservation or preservation for future generations or legacy realizes it is madness to pump more than $4 trillion of it into the air. Even if we only pump the $4trillion worth of carbon into the atmosphere our chances of being able to recover will have fallen to 80%.
We've already has over 336 consecutive months hotter that the 20th Century Average, the divergance of CO2 and temperature from Solar Irradiance, and the increasing more intense and frequent storms and other extreme weather trends.

What we are seeing in climate denial is the madness of Midas, the mythic character who's touch turned everything into gold including lunch and his wife leaving him hungry and lonely.

Ratzinger quits! Woot!

Pope Benedict has resigned citing his failing health  and medical advice to refrain from transatlantic travel.

I can't help wondering if while he packs, he will take with him the stink of bank irregularities and of his role in sequestering paedophiles from law enforcement agencies.

The decision comes just weeks after a US judge ordered the release of documents with names un-redacted concerning the handling of sexual abuse cases within the American Diocese.

Curiously, the medical advice specifically advises against transatlantic travel. Could this be because any greeting he might receive might include steel full-wristed cuff links or a pair of bracelets from the FBI?

The move seems suspicious in part because neither the Catholic laity nor the public at large have been spared the crass spectacle of papal gerontological decline in 600 years. So why should they start now?

Sadly within a couple of months a new drone with be selected to replace the defective unit.

Source BBC

Sudan moving away from mutilating women.

Every now and then you see a society taking a step forward, at this moment in Sudan, activists, politicans, and even some men criticising FGM as "an attack on the physical and spiritual health of our women."
FGM is in decline, and there is pressure within Sudan to ban the practise.
Certainly this is a development to be applauded.

Islam is crumbling

Heina, a former Muslim, describes her journey for Islam to Atheism and points to the growing trend of progressive though among those who practice Islam and offers advice to encourage freethought.
Heina Dadabhoy: Islam, atheism and society 1 of 3 (Eschaton 2012)

Ex-Fox host offers racist voter model

Dick Morris's novel take on this paints slave trade as voluntary immigration.
The phrase "big lie" was coined by a notable dictator to describe bullshit so extreme that people would say "You just can't make this shit up!" Apparently, Dick Morris can indeed make this shit up.

Fox News: Germany Sunnier than U.S. Fail

Why is the U.S. failing to capitalize on solar even though it has some of the sunniest realestate on the planet?

Carbon Energy corporations could not possibly have a vested interest in making solar fail, now could they? And media who sell advertising to fossil fuel companies could not possibly have a vested interest in keeping their pay masters happy by sewing seeds of distrust in a clearly effective technology, could they? But the primary media outlet of GOP - Gas Oil Pushers they fair and balanced right? And Big Oil could not possibly involve the finance sector in their effort to control the economiy, could they.

Regardless of the growing black out in US network news the reality of the situation is clear. First solar forcing is not driving the rise in temperature seen in the last 40 years since solar irradiance has been relatively static..  

Some offer utter nonsense that CO2  has no effect on global temperatures. With a little math (liberal carefully removed) we can see the nonsense in what they are saying...

  

Even the Institute of Creation Research with it hard earned reputation for its anti science agenda provides this damning graph showing the trend toward more frequent storms. The article also points to increased destructive of storms over the last 40 years pointing to a study that shows the intensity of storm has doubled. and concludes "There seems to be evidence that hurricanes are becoming more destructive, due to an increase in frequency, intensity, and duration."

We have all observed accelerating sea level rise. After years of inconsistent results, an 11.1mm rise +/- 3.8mm from melting in Greenland, Antarctica, and the Artic ice sheet.

If you can't see climate is happening you are were either you born yesterday or you are deliberately stupid. If can't see big money manipulating politics, public opinion and distorting science you are a credulous buffoon. If you can't this is a problem socially, economically or for national security then you are a Republican.

Five Stupid Things About the Anti-Vax Movement

Steve takes a look at kooks inviting terrible disease into children. I looked into the danish studies that found a negative correlation between ASD and vaccinations. The diseases themselves through highfever and other mechanisms do more damage in the population than the vaccinations. 
Also the is more mercury in fish than is any jab. You probably should lay of the fish anyway, mercury levels in 75% of fish species render them unfit for human consumption, especially tuna.

ALEC push Climate BS 3 States

Right wing think tank the American Legislative Exchange Counsel(ALEC) created a bill that is being pushed in 3 states. Damaged public understanding of climate science and perhaps science in more generally. The bill is designed to a religious position and a pro-business agenda. One one US Senator said last year that sea level rise is not some thing worth considering because his invisible friend promise, with a rainbow no less.

Anti voter fraud Republican get busted for voter fraud

A Voter ID law campaigner got herself busted for attempting to commit the very same kind of voter fraud she railed against.