Daily Kos: Cheers and Jeers: Wednesday

From the Late Night Snark list at Daily Kos

"We're now down to the final four. Not college basketball. The number of people who still think President Bush is doing a good job."
---Jay Leno

Good versus evil isn't a strategy - Albright

When I'm not going out on dates with Harry Reid, I'm usually out with former US Sec of State, Madeleine Korbel Albright - who tears the shit outta Bush in today's LA Times:

...
It is sometimes convenient, for purposes of rhetorical effect, for national leaders to talk of a globe neatly divided into good and bad. It is quite another, however, to base the policies of the world's most powerful nation upon that fiction.
...

Read it

Friday Chelicerate

LBM T. perijanensis 03, originally uploaded by epitope.

Click through to see a handful of other beautiful shots of this guy.

They Might Be Little Giants

Cutest EVER. If you know the TMBG song "Kiss Me, Son of God," here's a short cover for you.

Your Brain on Creationism

From the GreenvilleOnline.com opinion pages, March 22, 2006:

The theory of evolution does not and cannot explain so much about the universe that we know. For instance, when and how did water evolve? How does it happen that gravity can hold us to the Earth, and at the same time allow us to step up without any trouble? How did it happen that the Earth is spinning at the exact rate that keeps us from feeling that movement?

Fascinating.

I ripped this quote and the title of my post from reference to this on The Panda's Thumb. If you were to pick just one site to read about science and the protection of the brain development of American children, for Jesus Is Lord!'s sake, pick theirs and not mine.

Beauty

051030-016-Broken, originally uploaded by comatosed.

I think this guy was in my dream last night.

Tetrachromat Dreams

God, I'd love to be a tetrachromat....instead of an occasionial bichromat.

ovn-roasted alligatr

ovn-roasted alligatr, originally uploaded by Esthr.

(via Boing Boing)

Don't Start

If any other motherfucker even STARTS with the "pint-size apprentice" shit, I'll kill someone. That is UNacceptable copy, not matter what.

Right now it's only one...let's see how it spreads...

Psst...Hey, Joe...

Joe Morgan, tonight, calling the final game of the World Baseball Classic, between Cuba and Japan:

I think the one thing that fans should notice is the contrast in styles of these two ball clubs. I mean, the Cubans are real emotional, they play with a lot of fire, there's a lot going on. When you watch, you know, Japan play, they're calculating, they're more scientific, everything is calculated to make it work. And that's why you see so many players trying to bunt, you know, and taking pitches, and doing so many other little things. They do all the little things, it's kind of a science-like, to them. And, I think, the Cuban players show a little more fire, play with a little more emotion.

Hey, Joe...I generally like you. I like the sound of your voice. You seem to bring sunshine to the world around you.

But shut up for a sec, 'kay?

Mmm, can't do it. He continues later, referring in this moment to baseball players in Asia:

They developed their own style, because they were so far from us. If they were watching us on TV all the time, like the Dominicans, and the Venezualans, and all the Latin countries, then they would probably play similar, because we did invent the game, we made the game what it is today.

And now you see a lot of teams, playing baseball around the world, and a lot of them are doing it their own way. And a lot of it has to do with their physiques and so forth and so on. I think it's really because the Carribean is close, the Cubans are close, they've been able to, you know, kinda emulate the way the americans play.

..."their physiques" - like if you're too short, your culture gets good at violin and math?

..."the way the americans play" - you mean, like not getting to the semi-finals? Nope, they don't quite have that one down yet.

Lycosa godeffroyi with egg sac

Lycosa godeffroyi with egg sac, originally uploaded by lowerlighter.

Huzzah!

Cranbrook at Night

P3177396, originally uploaded by urban_tank.

I don't even consciously remember exactly where this is, but it's deeply embedded in my memory somewhere...

Beautiful architecture.

Let's Play A Game

I say:

President George W. Bush

You say....?

Straw and Bush

The AP posts a strong article against Bush's "Straw Man" approach towards speaking with the public.

Life In Tennessee

Coming through the windows! They're coming through the doors...

(AP) NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A federal appeals court today allowed Tennessee to offer anti-abortion license plates bearing the message "Choose Life."

Picture is an artist's rendering from Tennessee Right to Life, who called the ruling "a validation of our position all along." The judge of the federal appeals court had a different view:

"Although this exercise of government one-sidedness with respect to a very contentious political issue may be ill-advised, we are unable to conclude that the Tennessee statute contravenes the First Amendment," Judge John M. Rogers said in a 2-1 ruling.

Full AP story here.

John Dunleavy's An Asshole

Nauseating bigotry from John Dunleavy, head of the St. Patrick's Day Parade:

"If an Israeli group wants to march in New York, do you allow neo-Nazis into their parade? If African-Americans are marching in Harlem, do they have to let the Ku Klux Klan into their parade?' the parade's chairman, John Dunleavy, was quoted as saying in an interview with The Irish Times.
'People have rights,' Dunleavy added. 'If we let the [Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization] in, is it the Irish Prostitute Association next?'

When the Daily News caught up with Dunleavy at a dinner at The Waldorf-Astoria yesterday, he refused to discuss his remarks.

'I'm not talking to you. This is a private party,' he said. 'I'll have you removed.'"

NY1, at least, was covering this this morning. Hopefully this quote will get lots of attention, especially as:

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn - the first openly gay woman to lead the city legislature - blasted Dunleavy and reaffirmed her vow to skip the annual march up Fifth Ave.

Keep 'Em Separated

A quote to chisel in stone and hang over the door at our courts:

On Wednesday, March 1st, 2006, in Annapolis at a hearing on the proposed Constitutional Amendment to prohibit gay marriage, Jamie Raskin, professor of law at AU, was requested to testify.

At the end of his testimony, Republican Senator Nancy Jacobs said: "Mr. Raskin, my Bible says marriage is only between a man and a woman. What do you have to say about that?"

Raskin replied: "Senator, when you took your oath of office, you placed your hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution. You did not place your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible."

The room erupted into applause.

Good luck, Mr. Raskin!

(via Pharyngula)

Pierce From the Heart

The President's nephew shares his thoughts with a national audience.

Hook 'Em, Horns!

Wil Gets It

Wil just keeps showing us how to do it in his post "delivery for i.c. weiner":

I absolutely love that one particular kind of pepperoni pizza that you get at the mini golf course.

You know the one: it's cardboardy, the pepperonis are usually burnt a
little bit, and the cheese burns the everlovingfuck out of your mouth
when you bite into it, just before it slides off in one whole piece and
sticks to your chin or falls onto your Journey concert shirt.

If I could eat that pizza while I listened to Hall & Oates and
played Space Invaders, I could be in fourth grade for the rest of my
life.

wilwheaton.net was the first blog I ever followed. Ethan recommended it to me about 50 years ago, and it's still charming as ever.

The Compassion of a Bush

What do you do when everyone hates you? Get back to your roots.

Hug an autistic athletic star that has captured the nation's attention, and include some really fucked up face mask (see the second picture in the article).

"Mr. Bush said he learned about McElwain from seeing him on TV.

'I wept, just like a lot of other people did,' he said, as McElwain beamed beside him."

What It Means To Be Human

Touching, Bushie:

"Through the challenges, the President has kept his human touch. Touring New Orleans last week, he met a man who had survived for days on canned goods before being evacuated to Utah. 'Were you the only black man in Salt Lake City?' Bush asked."

(via Dependable Renegade)

Assassin Spiders

Assassin spiders catch and eat other spiders by stabbing them with long poisonous fangs. More at Science Now.

(via Bruce Sterling's Beyond the Beyond)

Crystal Clear

If you want to see a crystal clear example of how the White House attempts to distort the debate on any of its failings, look no further than White House spokesman Scotty McClellan's response to the censure that Feingold is bringing against Bushie.

The illegal wiretap issue is that Bush did not get court approval to do the wiretapping, not that the wiretaps should not be used at all.

Yet, Scotty's spins it thusly:

"I think it does raise the question, how do you fight and win the war on terrorism?" McClellan said. "And if Democrats want to argue that we shouldn't be listening to al Qaeda communications, it's their right and we welcome the debate. We are a nation at war."

Do NOT be tricked by this. It's a textbook example of their sidestepping approach ("Look at the Looters!").

(via Hoffmania)

Dear God

PICT1917, originally uploaded by Camphor.

This picture scares the SHIT out of me. Apparently the dude's a vacation in thailand.

Here's another:

Nightmares, for sure.

Classroom Hijinks

Bush equates the world's objections to his crimes to kids saying not nice things to each other in the classroom:

If you're afraid to make decisions and you only worried about, you know, whether or not people in the classroom are going to say nice things about you, you're not leading

Picture source from the playground in India during Bush's recent recess fight.

Chelicerate, Um, Fridays?

VZZvwgSlovenie2004_SchorpioenSchrnWijd, originally uploaded by Meister Bockert.

Even scorpions deserve good lighting.

Singlehandedly

(from CNN)

Yeah, I can see that - generally speaking.

Watch Me and Learn

Cory Doctorow summarizes the concept of "myware," software that you intentionally install and run in order to monitor your own actions, and "teach" a computer to "server" you better.

I love this idea: people are good at making decisions and computers are good at counting them (and computers are bad at making decisions and people are bad at counting them). My computer should note, count and process every decision I make -- it should notice that I never answer emials from certain people, it should notice that I never click through certain stories in my reader, that I load certain pages every day, that I often search my mailbox for certain kinds of messages and so on. That's stuff I'm totally unqualified to keep track of, and that computers are really good at

Do not fear!

(via Boing Boing, tho' he's writing about the CEO of last.FM)

Kiwi hirsuta

Behold the beautiful new crustacean, the "Kiwi hirsuta," recently discovered "in hydrothermal vents of the Pacific Antartic Ridge, south of Easter Island." More at Yahoo! News.

Update: Larger pic at BBC!

Breeding Program

Georgia State Senator Nancy Schaefer shows her compassion:

Commenting on illegal immigration, Schaefer said 50 million abortions have been performed in this country, causing a shortage of cheap American labor. "We could have used those people," she said.

(via the General)

And hey, a quick glance around th' place, and look at this goodie...Spoken in the State Senate Chamber:

I believe the element that called for the head of John the Baptist was the same element that crucified Jesus Christ.

It is also the same element that is taking the life of Terri Schiavo.

"Destined for Soup"

Scorpions, originally uploaded by Nicky in China.

I just can't get enough of scorpions as food...