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.

I considered writing a complete takedown of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight but upon further review, I’m going to hold my fire.  It’s no worse than most books marketed to the teen crowd and while I found the main characters highly unsympathetic, the book wasn’t written for married 34 year old males.  So I’m going to focus on the two aspects of Twilight that really piss me off. 

I love the music they used for this video

SC State Attorney caught with stripper

Another day, another scandle related to sex.  Roland Corning, age 66, was pulled over with the following items in his car:  an 18 year old stripper, sex toys and viagra.  As creepy as all that is (and holy shit is that not creepy) both Corning and his “friend” were released without charge. 

The comedy portion of this tradgedy is that Corning, when confronted by the officer, flashed a badge indicating that he worked for the state Attorney General’s office.  The officer then called his wife, who also happens to work at the Attorney General’s office, to confirm this.  She confirmed it and then informed her supervisors, who have terminated Corning’s employment.

That’s what Edward Kimmel displayed at the Washington Tea Party Rally last month.  I can only hope that I show this kind of fortitude when I’m older.

Found this as godhatesprotesters

Ever wonder why more people are working two jobs and yet more people are falling behind in our current economy?  It’s a topic I’ve written on before, although in much less depth than the video I’ve attached below.  Elizabeth Warren breaks down the changes in our spending and saving habits over the past thirty years and illustrates what’s changed.  The video is 60 minutes long and well worth your time.  It’s worth noting that this lecture took place on March 8th, 2007.

One of the interesting topics touched upon, yet not fully explored in this video, is the impact of the suburban lifestyle on our current economic situation.