To the Good People at PETA: Go F*ck Yourselves September 24, 2008
Posted by Evil Bender in Animal Rights, News and politics.3 comments
Seriously, go fuck yourselves:
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, cofounders of Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Inc., urging them to replace cow’s milk they use in their ice cream products with human breast milk, according to a statement recently released by a PETA spokeswoman.
[...]
“The fact that human adults consume huge quantities of dairy products made from milk that was meant for a baby cow just doesn’t make sense,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “Everyone knows that ‘the breast is best,’ so Ben & Jerry’s could do consumers and cows a big favor by making the switch to breast milk.”
“We applaud PETA’s novel approach to bringing attention to an issue, but we believe a mother’s milk is best used for her child,” said a spokesperson for Ben and Jerry’s.
That’s right, folks, PETA cares more about cattle than they do about women. They’ve demonstrated that dozens of times before, but I’m not sure even their tasteless and misogynistic ads have anything on recommending we replace cow’s milk in dairy with human milk.
I suppose this letter might be meant as satire, but that hardly excuses it. PETA just has absolute contempt for women, humans in general, real animal rights activitists, and critical thinking.
Fuck PETA.
[h/t to Rev. BigDumbChimp]
Q: What sort of post would be so stupid that even Uncommon Descent would remove it? September 21, 2008
Posted by Evil Bender in News and politics, economics, wingnuts.2 comments
A: This post by our friend DaveScot (since removed, but preserved by my blog reader):
In his short time in Congress Senator Obama received more campaign contributions from Fanne Mae than 48 other currently serving Senators had received in their entire careers. Obama is a charismatic crook in the best Chicago political tradition. The socialist policies he’s supported, even as a young Harvard lawyer representing the low-income housing lobby, nearly caused the ruination of the world’s largest economy. Want to see the U.S. crash into some REALLY crushing poverty like that which plagued the former Soviet Union? If so then by all means vote for Mr. Barack “Karl Marx” Obama. On the other hand, if you want to see more of the greatest peacetime economic expansion in history which occured under Ronald Wilson Reagan, the kind of economic expansion that brought the Marx inspired socialist Soviet Union to its knees, then vote for war hero John McCain. The choice is just that simple.
Aside from the hilarity of someone being so stupid that even now they can’t see what a horrible mess “free market” philosophies and their attendant excesses and bailouts are, DaveScot keeps forgetting that demonstrating UD is a home for far-right ideologues does not help advance IDs agenda. Just as rank and file cdesign proponentsists can’t stay away from the fact that ID is religious, DaveScot can’t keep from saying stupid, stupid things.
Of course, it isn’t entirely fair to blame DaveScot for this. He’s clearly not capable of understanding these complex economic problems (blaming Democrats for being “socialists” while Republicans make the public owner of all manner of private enterprises, for example). What we clearly need is to hear from a Republican with a more serious understanding of the economy:
Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.
So says John McCain.
Compared to that epic stupidity from a man auditioning to lead the free world, DaveScot’s petty variety of stupidity seems fairly harmless by comparison.
Critical Thinking Fail September 21, 2008
Posted by Evil Bender in Science.6 comments
This is what happens when people don’t understand science:
Sigh. Being concerned about one’s environment, good. Being completely ignorant and not even realizing it: oh so bad.
Malkin’s free market principles shoved under a bus because she doesn’t know what “censorship” means September 17, 2008
Posted by Evil Bender in constiutional issues, language and lit, wingnuts.2 comments
Michelle Malkin is in yet another embarrassingly poorly argued tizzy about concerns over Palin’s alleged propensity to consider some ideas too dangerous for public libraries. Her argument basically boils down to “some liberals tried to keep bookstores from selling conservative books full of lies, so libraries banning books is completely okay.”
That’s right, folks. Malkin thinks that using economic pressures to influence retailers is EXACTLY THE SAME as banning books from a public library. There’s absolutely no difference in her mind between asking retailers not to carry a book and censorship in a publicly funded library.
Interesting how quickly free-market principles go out the window when they’re inconvenient, huh?
Because Malkin’s obviously too stupid to figure this out, let me spell it out for her: censorship is when the government restricts access to material. Free Enterprise is when a company decides not to carry a product. The former is bad because we don’t want the government deciding which ideas are acceptable for our consumption; the latter is okay because companies have a right to decide what products to carry.
But of course we knew Malkin didn’t understand this. Anyone who would write “anti-censorship crusaders are the unthinking ones who can’t tolerate independence, ambiguity, and difference,” anyone ridiculous enough to suggest that being opposed to censorship makes one any-diversity, is clearly too idiotic for words.
Joe Biden’s problem September 8, 2008
Posted by Evil Bender in News and politics.3 comments
Here’s the trouble that faces Joe Biden. He’s going to have to debate Sarah Palin, a candidate who is laughably under-qualified to be Vice President. He’s a far better VP candidate than she is, and everyone who is paying attention knows that. And yet, three things work against him:
- There have been far too many sexist jabs at Palin. Seriously, it’s pathetic–the only jabs anyone should need are that she’s a dishonest, unqualified, far-right ideologue who is in hiding from the press lest she embarrass herself–and yet somehow people still talk about her shoes.
- You’re not exactly a poster boy for anti-sexist behavior–you have a tendency to say wildly inappropriate things to, and about, women.
- Even when no one is being sexist, the Republicans are going to play their own brand identity politics, accusing you of sexism no matter what you do, accusing you of being an “insider” no matter what you do, and accusing you of being a bully no matter what you do.
So what’s a guy to do?
Fortunately, Dahlia Lithwick has some advice. Go read it; you’ll need it!
And remember, Joe: stick to your knowledge of the issues, avoid personal attacks, and you’ll be just fine.
So-called “biological” conceptions of race make for bad science, Watson’s genes edition September 7, 2008
Posted by Evil Bender in Science, bigotry, race.2 comments
[For context on this post, you should check out here and here.]
I’ve repeatedly argued that the biological conception of race has almost nothing in common with the social conception of race, and therefore that trying to apply scientific concepts to human populations is at best a flawed endeavor, and at worse a flimsy justification of racism.
But while I do know a lot about social constructions of race, I’m no expert on biology. So it’s wonderful to hear from my favorite pit bull loving science blogger, ERV:
Venter compared his CYP450 genes to James ‘Africans are dumb’ Watsons CYP450 genes.
Two white guys.
Venter has the ‘white guy’ alleles.
Watson has, ahem, ‘not white guy’ alleles. heh.
Venters point? Prescribing drugs based on ‘appearance’ of race is stupid. A ‘white’ person like James Watson can have ‘Asian’ CYP450 genes. ‘Black’ people from Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe can have different CYP450 profiles.
Read the whole thing. Amazing, isn’t it? Some people look white, yet have genetic markers not associated with white people? Other people look black and don’t have typically African genes. It’s almost like what we mean when we say “race” is based on factors other than biology.
All of which is obvious to anyone who has been paying attention.
The Onion wins again September 5, 2008
Posted by Evil Bender in Humor, Origins, Religion.add a comment
Evolutionists Flock to Darwin-Shaped Wall Stain.
What a wonderful and hilarious rebuttal to the “science is just another relgion” nonsense.
[h/t]
McCain’s speech: September 4, 2008
Posted by Evil Bender in wingnuts.add a comment
For God sake, man: you can’t run on Change. You’re the goddamn incumbents!
And please, please: for the love of all that is good and holy, stop with the creepy-ass smile!
FtK: reading comprehension FAIL September 3, 2008
Posted by Evil Bender in reproductive rights, wingnuts.1 comment so far
I check on FtK only a few times a year: it’s just too easy to make fun of her. But I can’t resist her latest post about sex education:
He posts an Q&A involving Palin:
Here’s another answer from Palin that suddenly has more significance:
3. Will you support funding for abstinence-until-marriage education instead of for explicit sex-education programs, school-based clinics, and the distribution of contraceptives in schools?
SP: Yes, the explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support.
[...] The question is misleading because it says nothing about *abstinence ONLY* education, and I agree with her that school-based clinics and handing out condoms like candy is not the job of our schools for cripes sakes. Schools should work *with* the parents in their efforts at teaching sex education.
PZ makes it sound as if Palin supports abstinence only classes.[...]
I give FtK credit for rejecting abstinence-only education, but the epic reading comprehension FAIL is pretty hilarious: the question clearly contrasts abstinence-only education with comprehensive “explicit” sex ed. Sure it’s poorly phrased, but that’s to intentionally to contrast real sex ed with head-in-the-sand-hugely-dangerous abstinence-only programs. It’s a frame designed to promote abstinence-only sex-ed. And poor FtK can’t see that.
But now that I’ve cleared it up for her, I’m sure she’ll admit that she fundamentally agrees with comprehensive sex-ed folks, and therefore disagrees with Palin’s odious position which is guaranteed to result in more unplanned pregnancies. I’m sure that will happen any time.
(My over-under on number of days before FtK accuses liberals of sexism while approvingly linking to misogynist douchebag Vox Day: 5.)
