More brain turds -- The (mostly) vaccinate your fucking children edition

Vaccinate your children. There is no fucking conspiracy, so save your tinfoil hats for something like UFOs: http://www.forbes.com/sites/dandiamond/2015/01/30/no-the-measles-vaccine-doesnt-cause-autism/

When Offit speaks, you listen: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/10/opinion/what-would-jesus-do-about-measles.html

When a seven year old speaks, you listen. And then vaccinate your fucking children: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/12/us-usa-measles-schools-idUSKBN0LF2JC20150212

This is truly shocking (cough, cough) because herbal supplements are really s a sham: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/03/sidebar-whats-in-those-supplements/?_r=0

Did frozen dinosaur farts end the last ice age? Nope. http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31424597

Mind grumblings

RIP SkyMall. May you find something expensive and useless in your next life: http://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2015/1/23/7877479/eulogy-for-skymall

Fuck yeah Sly! Makin' dreams come true Rocky style: https://www.yahoo.com/movies/s/tourists-knockout-photo-stallone-atop-rocky-steps-210623627.html

A new slogan for the CIA: Failure is an option (and will even get you a promotion). http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/unidentified-queen-torture

Yet another reason to not visit Mikey. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/01/18/disney-measles-spreads/21953767/

Random dying synapes

A diligent "Go fuck yourself" to the slick and slimy Roger Goodell: http://grantland.com/the-triangle/what-does-it-take-to-get-roger-goodell-fired-2/

Hahaha. And I didn't think the Post could get any worse. The slide towards irrelevancy just got faster. http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/jeff-bezos-replaces-katharine-weymouth

A short history of tear gas: http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/08/100-years-of-tear-gas/378632/?single_page=true

Flotsam and Jetsam

Just because you write history, does not make you an historian. Today's example is Jon Meacham. Even if you don't feel any embarrassment, please do us all a favor Mr. Meacham, and please crawl back to your Georgetown cocktail circuit without yelling at any of your interns. http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/doofuses-in-the-mist

Just when the thought of all the Subway I ate as a teenager wasn't disturbing enough. Now comes this gem: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/subway-takes-chemical-sandwich-bread-protest/story?id=22373414

Medicare pays for penis pumps? Why, yes, it actually overpays for them. http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ig-report-penis-pumps-ves

Wonderings

Cul-de-sacs are bad for you. Really. http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_eye/2013/12/10/why_cul_de_sacs_are_bad_for_your_health_happy_city_by_charles_montgomery.html

Is David Brooks still a smug, holier-than-thou asshole? Why, yes, yes he is. http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2014/01/03/talking-heads-for-prohibition/

Yo! History, bitch. http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/01/you-have-to-know-history-to-actually-teach-it/282957/

Old and trusty

Adios facebook? Probably. http://www.ibtimes.com/facebook-removes-search-privacy-it-time-delete-your-profile-1422948

Now I am afraid that a small, but significant chunk of the country is scared of modernity. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-04/why-republicans-shut-down-the-government.html

Yesterday was a crazy day on the Hill, but this was by far the most surreal thing to happen there: http://www.businessinsider.com/house-stenographer-removed-during-vote-2013-10

Fucking Georgia: http://www.volokh.com/2013/10/22/copious-amounts-constitutionally-protected-sodomy-occurring-great-state-already/

Round up with a healthy dollop of people scared by modernity

Maybe it's time to stop drinking all that bottled water, or at least limit yourself to a couple a week. http://www.naturalnews.com/042126_bottled_water_endocrine_disruptors_chemical_contamination.html

Food news! Barilla, wake up and smell modernity. http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/09/barilla-pasta-hates-gay-people.html

Dear Washington Post. Fire your entire Editorial Board, go bankrupt, or stop patting yourself on the back and pretending your tired, predictable, and shitty political reporting is helpful or meaningful. Thank you. http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/09/why-this-is-not-just-washington-breakdown-in-3-graphs-and-1-story/280099

Now I am afraid that a small, but significant chunk of the country is scared of modernity. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-04/why-republicans-shut-down-the-government.html

Old round up that I had to blow the dust off of

Saint Reagan, huh? Glad to know that the man, the myth, the legend didn't mind the use of sarin and mustard gas on innocents. http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/08/25/secret_cia_files_prove_america_helped_saddam_as_he_gassed_iran

The science of balls. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-24016988

Maybe it's time to stop drinking all that bottled water, or at least limit yourself to a couple a week. http://www.naturalnews.com/042126_bottled_water_endocrine_disruptors_chemical_contamination.html

Brain cramps

 This week in science news:

Men of Scandinavia, please mind your balls in the water. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/sweden/10234986/Swedish-men-told-to-beware-testicle-munching-fish.html

Behold! The newest classified mammal, the olinguito. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/For-the-First-Time-in-35-Years-A-New-Carnivorous-Mammal-Species-is-Discovered-in-the-Western-Hemisphere--219762981.html

Hey hipsters, hippies, and rich people, you are not smarter than 100+ years of accumulated public health knowledge. Now go vaccinate your fucking children. http://www.salon.com/2013/08/14/whats_with_rich_people_hating_vaccines/

...and I come back from a long vacation to this?

Fuck yeah! Modern day Pinkertons! Let's hire thugs again to do the dirty work of tbuisness and state governments. I feel we are going backwards again... http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2013/07/rent_an_army.php?ref=fpblg

Jenny McCarthy is a danger to public health and safety. Seriously. Please remind ABC of this. http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/07/09/jenny_mccarthy_antivax_advocate_considered_for_co_host_on_abc_s_the_view.html?wpisrc=obnetwork

And finally,
If this is what a Republican paradise looks like at a state level then I for damn sure will never move there. Can Republicans please fight their strange inner urges and govern responsibily rather than look like children set free in a candy factory with no adult supervision or self-restraint?
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/10/opinion/the-decline-of-north-carolina.html?src=me&ref=general

And just a friendly reminder to the rest of America: It's a fucking hoagie! http://i.imgur.com/4z7UsRr.png

Post time

Dr. Speaker Boehner, please learn some fucking history: http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/03/28/17505004-boehner-has-no-use-for-lincoln-in-context?lite

Super Metro map! http://i.imgur.com/EWEkt7o.jpg

I love laughing at Guy Fieri and his fucking donkey sauce: http://shine.yahoo.com/shine-food/guy-fieri-parody-menu-prompts-big-online-laughs--with-a-side-of-accusations-173542460.html

More ramblings of a crazed historian

History lesson! The topic today is soda and racism. Go:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/29/opinion/when-jim-crow-drank-coke.html?src=me&ref=general

(Sorry for the colorful language, but I needed to get out some frustration)
Why the fuck does MS need to make everything so fucking confusing? If you make it more confusing, you aren't "revolutionizing" anything.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/Press/2013/Jan13/01-29O365PR.aspx

Quentin Tarantino is still a douchey asshole, part (oh, I've lost count)
http://youtu.be/-jRiwQRVIlI

Is there something in the water in VA that is making republican politicians less interested in logical policies?
http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2013/01/09/bob_mcdonnell_s_horrible_plan_to_eliminate_the_gas_tax.html

The weeks that were

Slow with the updates as work as been ridiculously busy the past two months. Here is what I have bumped into recently that struck a chord for one reason or another.

51 states? Maybe, but the new one ain't DC. (More taxation without representation for me!) http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/puerto-rico-votes-to-become-state

The United States of Campaign Money. http://vimeo.com/52258074

End of week news

The round up.

How the newspapers constantly fuck up scientific breakthroughs: http://blogs.plos.org/thepanicvirus/2012/09/14/the-state-of-science-writing-circa-2012/

History can be funny: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/shouts/2012/09/a-conservative-history-of-the-united-states.html

Does BPA make you fat? Maybe. http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2012/09/is-the-can-worse-than-the-soda/

September 17 was Constitution Day, let's hope this wasn't Ben's syphilis talking: http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/142127

And finally, Mittens is so powerful that he was in two place at the same time on 9/11/01. Imagine that. http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/romneys-has-given-two-version-of-his-911-experie

End of weeks news

And today, once again I am reminded that bigotry and prejudice really knows no party.
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nfl--maryland-politician-out-of-line-for-attacking-brendon-ayanbadejo-s-support-of-gay-marriage.html

Beefspace! http://www.datapointed.net/2012/08/beefspace-maps-of-burger-territory/

David Simon's righteous indignation at Romney paying only 13% taxes and providing zero proof is worth a read: http://davidsimon.com/mitt-romney-paid-taxes-at-a-rate-of-at-least-13-percent-and-hes-proud-to-say-so/

More righteous indignation for your Friday. Tom Morello lights into Paul Ryan's love for RATM music, but not their lyrics. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/tom-morello-paul-ryan-is-the-embodiment-of-the-machine-our-music-rages-against-20120816#ixzz23o6DJswL

Another round up

David Simon's righteous indignation at Romney paying only 13% taxes and providing zero proof is worth a read: http://davidsimon.com/mitt-romney-paid-taxes-at-a-rate-of-at-least-13-percent-and-hes-proud-to-say-so/

Romney misinterpreted (or flat out lied) about _Guns, Germ, and Steel_. Color me shocked, and Jared Diamond pissed. http://mobile.nytimes.com/2012/08/02/opinion/mitt-romneys-search-for-simple-answers.xml

NBC is truly the worst major network in the US. They really keep setting the bar lower. http://deadspin.com/5930048/nbc-responds-we-removed-the-opening-ceremony-memorial-to-terrorism-victims-because-the-tribute-wasnt-about-america

And yes, I still think Megan McArdle is wrong about just about everything she writes.
More proof that if she writes something, the opposite is probably true. Because the opposite is supported by something called facts. http://chronicle.com/blognetwork/edgeofthewest/2012/06/29/megan-mcardle-calls-someone-an-economic-idiot/

North Carolina, as crasy as South Carolina?

It's beginning to look that way.

Amendment One was puely a homophobic rebel yell from the antebellum, ante-Civil Rights woebegone right. I dare those proponents of that amendment to actually look at the history of marriage and actually education themselves. This glorious idea of the nuclear family is a very modern invention. More traditional would be selling off of daughters, but history lessons are for the intellectual elite who use reason as opposed to trusting the history that one's gut knows, right?

Anyway, I didn't think they could top Amendment One, but I was sorely mistaken. Now the glorious NC Senate has blocked a plan to provide reparations (scary word in the South!) to women that the state forcibly sterilized under their draconian eugenics laws. (NC was not alone in enacting and using sterilization laws. In fact, CA's laws were partially used by Hitler.)

It's just fucking heartless and wrong what the NC Senate did. I don't care which party has control, though it doesn't take much thought with one's brain or gut to figure it out. Go read. http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/06/20/2150266/nc-senate-rejects-plan-to-compensate.html

It's getting shameful out there.

Still old news

An epic failure of the free market: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/26/opinion/blow-plantations-prisons-and-profits.html?src=recg

Yawning: Let's do this! http://youtu.be/jGIbUK4nw00

The Texas injustice system personified: http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/05/yes-america-we-have-executed-an-innocent-man/257106/?google_editors_picks=true

Old news

This is still bothering me for some reason. Maybe because I find the fawning over Brooks, so grotesque.

Many historians have looked at David Brooks' attempt at history and wonder what the fuck is he talking about. David, please just stick to your schtick or consult an historian. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/27/opinion/brooks-step-to-the-center.html?_r=1

In other news...

This history of GIFs: http://youtu.be/vuxKb5mxM8g

The color pink does not really exist! http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/03/07/does-the-color-pink-exist-scientists-arent-sure/

The weekly round up

Last week we found something liberals and conservatives can agree on: This is a horrendous design for a monument. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/02/21/redesign-the-ike-monument.html

On Monday, we found a frightening interactive map of student loan debt around the US. http://www.slate.com/articles/life/map_of_the_week/2012/02/student_loan_debt_an_interactive_map.html

On Wednesday, we had a service announcement: Please vaccinate your fucking children. http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2012/02/24/the_super_bowl_and_what_vaccinated_children_have_to_fear_from_anti_vaxxers.html

On Friday, we learned that a US District Judge should resign immediately.
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20120229/NEWS01/120229014/Chief-U-S-District-Judge-sends-racially-charged-email-about-president

And our lesson of the week:
David Brooks is so intellectually dishonest that he once again argues with himself. I am sure he would not want to offend the Georgetown cocktail party goers to point this out himself. I wonder if he has dreams about creating another stupid fucking sociological sounding term (Bo-bos!) about intellectually dishonest people who argue with themselves. A fascinating idea for his next ridiculous book! Retire and go away please. http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2012_02/possum_brooks035691.php