blogvader:

Right, because over-spending on ‘defense’ equals ‘security’. (If what our military is doing in the world can be called ‘defense’ that is.)

anticapitalist:

A hotter planet means disappearing glaciers and ice, especially in the Arctic.

Ice in the Arctic continues to thin and disappear, even faster than anticipated. Arctic sea ice extent during September 2011 (the month when ice is at a minimum) was nearly 35 percent below the 1979-2000 average — the second smallest September Arctic sea ice extent since precise records began in 1979, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. And it wasn’t just September: overall, 2011 Arctic ice extent (that bottom blue line) was far below the long-term average for every single month.

Climate Change: Still Real

brooklynmutt:

@BuzzFeedBen: Fantastic New Yorker cover, h/t @mikeallen

livealifethatscompletelyfree:

Gawker.com via Washington Post

The Washington Post is out with an excellent update on the history of the racist, homophobic, survivalist, nutcase newspapers that were published under his name in the 80s and 90s, which comes awfully close to confirming the most likely version of the story: He may not have written every word of them, but he sure signed off on them and wanted them written that way to pick up more subscribers and make more money.

The Post quotes Renae Hathaway, a Paul supporter and former secretary at Ron Paul & Associates, the company that published them, saying, “It was his newsletter, and it was under his name, so he always got to see the final product. . . . He would proof it.” Ouch.

And who could confirm that Paul was behind the editorial decision to make his newsletters so offensive? The head of the most prominent libertarian think tank in Washington D.C. should suffice:

Ed Crane, the longtime president of the libertarian Cato Institute, said he met Paul for lunch during this period, and the two men discussed direct-mail solicitations, which Paul was sending out to interest people in his newsletters. They agreed that “people who have extreme views” are more likely than others to respond.

Crane said Paul reported getting his best response when he used a mailing list from the now-defunct newspaper Spotlight, which was widely considered anti-Semitic and racist.

Let’s throw in one more anonymous source for kicks:

A person involved in Paul’s businesses, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid criticizing a former employer, said Paul and his associates decided in the late 1980s to try to increase sales by making the newsletters more provocative. They discussed adding controversial material, including racial statements, to help the business, the person said.

It’s a welcome reminder that the libertarian movement that’s now headquartered in lush glass, brick, and steel think tanks and research centers, populated by savvy young intellectuals, made its money in the early years by pandering to deep-pocketed extremist lunatics. This history doesn’t set it apart from that of many other proud American institutions, but after years of hearing petulant neener-neeners from all libertarians about how they’re the only group in American politics that lives and dies by profound moral principles and nothing else, let’s send a hearty neener-neener back their way.

But if you’re already dedicated to Ron Paul’s campaign, who cares? The goal here is to use the first viable libertarian candidacy in a major political party in some time to pick up enough delegates in nominating contests to matter, mathematically, and then leverage that into a major convention speech, insertion into the party platform, or role in playing kingmaker to the eventual nominee. The specific nominee’s editorial history from decades back — which wasn’t that different from the mainstream Republican party’s at the time — needn’t derail that. It’s just an icky compromise every supporter will have to make. (Neener neener.)

But he’s not racist right?

golden-notebook:

Dear Life & Style: 

Fuck you in every way possible. 

Shiloh can act however she wants. Short hair is cute on girls. And dinosaurs are awesome. 

I highly doubt Brad Pitt is wringing his hands over his daughter acting awesome. 

Wow that is some hardcore gender binary reinforcing. There are going to be a lot of pearls clutched at the supermarket checkout line.

“Dolls to dinosaurs!? HEAVENS!”

-Joe

creolesoul:

What Was Said Out of Earshot at the Airport (via standupandsayow: Welp. LOL)

(Source: boogiedownprod)

hamsterpantsworld:

This pretty much covers it.

And moonbases!

timekiller-s:

rubyvroom:

mohandasgandhi:

reuters:

A change in policy: Twitter announced Thursday that it would begin restricting Tweets in certain countries, marking a policy shift for the social media platform that helped propel the popular uprisings recently sweeping across the Middle East.

 

“Starting today, we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country while keeping it available in the rest of the world,” the Twitter blog said.

Read more: Twitter to restrict user content in some countries

Not cool.

very worrying.

Troubling in light of social media’s role in social/political uprisings in certain nations.

Hm, it doesn’t seem like too complicated of an infrastructure that an ambitious young person wouldn’t be able to make a functional censorship-free alternative.

-Joe

(Source: drunkonstevphen)

Y’know the ones that the president, pretty much every other politician, every military general, and every intelligence analyst was CERTAIN were there?
Yeahhh… Now tell me again about the imminent threat of a nuclear Iran.
-Joe

There’s no gentle way to put it: People who give in to racism and prejudice may simply be dumb, according to a new study that is bound to stir public controversy.

The research finds that children with low intelligence are more likely to hold prejudiced attitudes as adults. These findings point to a vicious cycle, according to lead researcher Gordon Hodson, a psychologist at Brock University in Ontario. Low-intelligence adults tend to gravitate toward socially conservative ideologies, the study found. Those ideologies, in turn, stress hierarchy and resistance to change, attitudes that can contribute to prejudice, Hodson wrote in an email to LiveScience.

“Prejudice is extremely complex and multifaceted, making it critical that any factors contributing to bias are uncovered and understood,” he said.

Here’s a link to the article on the Psychological Science article:

http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2012/01/04/0956797611421206.abstract

You do need to be a subscriber to read the full text though. Funny, and unsurprising stuff.

-Joe