In keeping with the depressing theme from the last post, I give you the following.

“Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.”
Robert Frost

Allow me to present to you, the argument for “world ends in fire”.  Enjoy the silence.

The news has been depressing the hell out of me lately.  I follow politics, probably more than I should, and the landscape is just bleak right now.  I’m going to lay out what’s been on my mind in the hope that it helps.

Basketball league for White Americans targets Augusta

A new professional basketball league boasting rosters made up exclusively of white Americans has its eyes set on Augusta, but the team isn’t receiving a warm welcome…
…”Only players that are natural born United States citizens with both parents of Caucasian race are eligible to play in the league,” the statement said.

This league is looking to get started in June of this year.  To their credit, the response from people in Augusta is less than enthusiastic.  Naturally, the organizers of this league insist that there’s nothing racist about what they’re trying to do (some of their best friends are black) and that they totally aren’t racists.

On the plus side, I think I’ve found the perfect sponsor for the league.

and a great theme song

Found the link on Think Progress, looks like it also showed up on Deadspin yesterday.

I feel like this workout tool is still missing something.  It needs some way of letting the woman know when the workout is complete.  Maybe some kind of discharge or perhaps a refreshing spray from one end would be appropriate.

Found this at Feministe

Lot’s of stuff happened.  Most of it you already heard or read about it so I won’t waste time writing about the obvious stuff.  Instead I’ll point out a couple of interesting tidbits that caught my eye.

I don’t think it’s actually possible to have a Saturn-like ring structure around the Earth but there’s no denying that the animation on this video is excellent.

Found this at the Bad Astronomy Blog.

So it turns out that full-time work, caring for three children, training for a marathon in February and the holiday season have combined to keep me away from writing.  On the plus side, I finally added an email subscription button on the bottom right so you can not receive emails of the posts I’m not writing.  In case you’re curious on my thoughts on the world, here goes. 

Some kind of health care reform needs to happen even if it’s not perfect.  If we expand coverage now, it will create momentum to further expand coverage in future.  People forget, but civil rights legislation happened in a similar fashion.  The trick will be to do this without turning it into a give away to the big healthcare and pharma companies.

The controversy over the hacked climate change emails is a bullshit controversy.  The denialists picked off thousands of private emails between scientists (illegally I might add, but no one seems to care about that) and have been cherry-picking the ones that look the worst when taken out of context.  There is no fraud, there is no cover up.  The reality is this, there is a lot of money being poured into the denialist camp by large corporations with a vested interest in derailing climate change driven regulation.  That is what is driving this discussion.

Tiger Woods is a loser who happens to be awesome at golf. 

Stone Arrogant Bastard Ale is awesome.

So is this fight scene.

The politicians in Uganda who are trying to make homosexuality punishable by death are subhuman pieces of excrement.  So is their buddy, Rick Warren, who has close ties to the Ugandan ministers promoting the bill and initially refused to condemn it until called on his bullshit by Rachel Maddow.  You want a purpose driven life Rick Warren?  How about you stop being a homophobic douchebag?  That sounds like a great purpose to me.  While you’re at it, how about you stop encouraging you followers to emulate the Hitler Youth?  You’re killing Godwin’s Law.

It’s unlikely I’ll post anything before Christmas so have a Happy Holiday and a Happy New Year.

from the always awesome xkcd.

Because it’s never too early to start indoctrinating your children, Katharine DeBrecht has been writing a series of “Help!  Mom!” books.  These books helpfully blame everything wrong in this country on Democrats, both the real and the imagined problems.  She incorporates most of the current Fox News/Right Wing Pundit talking points into a child friendly package.  Her latest offering “Help!  Mom!  The Radical are Ruining My Country!” gives us more of the same, along with the Republican’s solution to every economic problem:  more tax cuts and more deregulation.

Yes parents, you can start your child on his or her journey into the fact free universe where:  Wall Street was forced to float all those bad loans.  The $12 trillion dollar national debt magically appeared because Obama took office.  And every tax cut pays for itself. 

If cable media is the crack dealer selling adults their own prejudices and biases, then Katharine DeBrecht is the scumbag dealing in the school playground.

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.  This world in arms is not spending money alone.  It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.  This is not a way of life at all in any true sense.  Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron. 
Dwight D. Eisenhower, speech, American Society of Newspaper Editors, 16 April 1953

Something to keep in mind when contemplating the cost of healthcare and potential environmental legislation, the United States accounts for slightly less than half of all the defense spending worldwide.