After reading Joey’s inaugural Excited States post, I ran across something in David Beard’s Archaeology in Europe blog that got me started thinking about Neanderthals, mice, FOX News reporters, and Democratic Congresspersons. Fooling around with “find and replace” in Wordpad is childish good fun. Neanderthals had key speech gene, researchers say | The Register http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/19/neanderthal_speech/ FOX News reporters may have a reputation in popular culture as a lumbering, grunting people, but researchers have discovered that they did have a gene thought to play a key role in speech. Samples of DNA were retrieved from two FOX News reporter fossils found…
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Critical Manners Critical Manners: a revolutionary act of courtesy. Come put the nice back in the bike world with Critical Manners! A helmet-wearing, bell-ringing, blinkie-sportin’ good time for you and all your bike friends. Practice synchronized signaling, single file riding, stopping at stop signs and NOT blowing red lights. Critical Manners will brake for pedestrians, trolleys, and even the occasional SUV. If you’ve ridden in Critical Mass, you know about the “testosterone brigadeâ€. Maybe it’s time you rode with Critical Manners — We take obedience of the law ridiculously seriously. As seen at Accordion Guy… my husband David wants the…
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What is good to a liberal is evil to a conservative, and vice versa. But what is truly good? And what is truly evil? How about a little exercise in compare/contrast? ::Humility, Grace and Freedom by Canon Dr Joe Cassidy:: So here’s what puzzles me: Given all this openness, why can’t we allow or even authorise the Episcopal Church to experiment with including gay lay-people, gay deacons, gay priests and, yes, gay bishops? Why can’t we allow the Episcopal Church to experiment with same-sex/quasi-nuptual blessings? Why can’t we ask the Episcopal Church to undertake, on behalf of the rest of…
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He may actually try to get on the ballot in South Carolina, and he may have a decent shot at a Pat Paulsen-like campaign that serves to highlight the absurdities of the American political process. He’s going to try to get on both the Democratic and Republican primary ballots. And apparently, there’s nothing to prevent him in the rules. Oh, delicious! He’s a native son of the state, he’s within his rights, and the SC Democrats are okay with it as long as he pays their low-low filing fee of $2500 or gets 3,000 signatures. They’re rather amused by the…
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[tags]LOLcats, ICanHazCheezburger, FAIL[/tags]
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Stephen Colbert of the Colbert Report (mind the silent Ts) hijacks Maureen Dowd’s NYT column to note that although his hat is not in the ring, it’s not on his head… and his new book is in stores now. Also, he ghost-writes Frank Rich’s column too. His work there done. Actually, if Stephen Colbert ran for office, he should seriously think about an extremely manly religious blogger/Saviour as a running mate: Jesus’ General. I Am an Op-Ed Columnist (And So Can You!) By STEPHEN COLBERT Surprised to see my byline here, aren’t you? I would be too, if I read…
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Former CEO Says U.S. Punished Phone Firm A former Qwest Communications International executive, appealing a conviction for insider trading, has alleged that the government withdrew opportunities for contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars after Qwest refused to participate in an unidentified National Security Agency program that the company thought might be illegal.Former chief executive Joseph P. Nacchio, convicted in April of 19 counts of insider trading, said the NSA approached Qwest more than six months before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to court documents unsealed in Denver this week. Details about the alleged NSA program have been redacted…
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This interview with Paul Krugman is fascinating – why is it, after all, that right-wing ideologues seem to lack empathy or compassion for people less fortunate than they are? Mostly, it’s about race, and a lot of of it is about “get your hands offa my stack, Jack.” Conservatives keep their ilk in line by attacking anyone that criticizes them out of all proportion to the criticism – and as Krugman notes, in conservative circles, you can say anything about a liberal or a Democrat, no matter how untrue it is, and never be called on it. But say something…
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That earlier note about Fitzmas? This is a story that will keep on giving, as it wasn’t just screwy prosecutions in Alabama, it was Mississippi, Wisconsin, and probably lots and lots of other places… anywhere that state justice officials took calls from the White House, probably. Not that it couldn’t happen in a Democratic-controlled state – I live in Illinois, and the recent trial of a former (Republican) governor generated a lot of controversy. But in tit-for-tat, the Republicans in the IL General Assembly are forever trying to get some dirt to stick on the current Democratic governor, Blagojevich. The…
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Mom used to love reading the obits in the Salt Lake Tribune – especially the ones best described as “over the top.” I wonder what she would have made of this one? For my part, it’s a sad, even tragic story… and whoever felt they needed to mention that the subject “drifted from his standards” should be ashamed of themselves. Because? Ew. Also, HIV and “Aids” are not two diseases, they are the virus that causes the disease, and the disease itself. This man sounds like a lovely, talented person – how sad that he had to reject himself in…