“Evolution Is A Thing” — A spoken-word poem by Rachel Maddow

Ohio really did go to the president last night.

And he really did win.
And he really was born in Hawaii.
And he really is -legitimately- President of the United States.
Again.

And the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not make-up a fake unemployment rate last month.
And the Congressional Research Service really can find no evidence
That cutting taxes on rich people grows the economy.

And the polls were not skewed to over-sample Democrats.
And Nate Silver was not making up fake projections about the election 
To make conservatives feel bad.
He was doing math.

And climate change is real.
And rape really does cause pregnancy sometimes.
And evolution is a thing.
And Benghazi was an attack on us.
It was not a scandal by us.

And no one is taking away anyone’s guns.
And taxes haven’t gone up.
And the deficit is dropping, actually.
And Saddam Hussein didn’t have weapons of mass destruction.

And the moon landing was real.
And FEMA isn’t building concentration camps.
And UN election observers aren’t taking over Texas.
And moderate reforms of the regulations on the insurance industry 
And the financial services industry 
Are not the same thing as communism.

Listen.

Source: MSNBC

This is a real thing that is real and not a joke.

This anti-Planned Parenthood group starts the video—which is actually titled “Hooking Kids On Sex pt 2” (seriously)—with the line, “When most people think of Planned Parenthood, they think of the babies it kills through abortion or the mountains of birth control it dispenses”, and somehow manages to only get worse from there.

I repeat: This is a real video that is real and is not a joke.

I just…I don’t even know anymore.

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Today’s reminder that Rick Santorum is a villainous liar or outrageously uninformed or both, via thedailywhat: Santorum Santorum Says of the Day: On today’s Face the Nation, host Bob Schieffer asked presidential candidate Rick Santorum to clarify his controversial statement from yesterday, that “free prenatal testing ends up in more abortions.” But rather than double back, Santorum instead chose to double down, saying that certain types of prenatal testing that are used to detect fetal abnormalities should not be offered for free as they “encourage abortions.” “We’re talking about specifically prenatal testing and specifically amniocentesis,” Santorum said, “which is a… procedure that creates a risk of miscarriage when you have it and is done for the purposes of identifying maladies of a child in the womb, which in many cases, in fact, most cases, physicians recommend, particularly if there’s a problem, recommend abortion.” A study conducted in 2006 by researchers at Mouth Sinai found that the risk of miscarriage from amniocentesis — a procedure necessary for the detection of chromosomal abnormalities (such as Down syndrome) and fetal infections — is 0.06%. In fact, there was no difference in “loss rate” between patients who had undergone amniocentesis, and those who had not Santorum, whose daughter was diagnosed with a genetic disorder called Edwards syndrome, took issue with President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, which guarantees free-of-charge access to prenatal testing. [cbsnews / politico / mediaite.]
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Today’s reminder that Rick Santorum is a villainous liar or outrageously uninformed or both, via thedailywhat:

Santorum Santorum Says of the Day: On today’s Face the Nation, host Bob Schieffer asked presidential candidate Rick Santorum to clarify his controversial statement from yesterday, that “free prenatal testing ends up in more abortions.”

But rather than double back, Santorum instead chose to double down, saying that certain types of prenatal testing that are used to detect fetal abnormalities should not be offered for free as they “encourage abortions.”

“We’re talking about specifically prenatal testing and specifically amniocentesis,” Santorum said, “which is a… procedure that creates a risk of miscarriage when you have it and is done for the purposes of identifying maladies of a child in the womb, which in many cases, in fact, most cases, physicians recommend, particularly if there’s a problem, recommend abortion.”

A study conducted in 2006 by researchers at Mouth Sinai found that the risk of miscarriage from amniocentesis — a procedure necessary for the detection of chromosomal abnormalities (such as Down syndrome) and fetal infections — is 0.06%. In fact, there was no difference in “loss rate” between patients who had undergone amniocentesis, and those who had not

Santorum, whose daughter was diagnosed with a genetic disorder called Edwards syndrome, took issue with President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, which guarantees free-of-charge access to prenatal testing.

[cbsnews / politico / mediaite.]

All Property, indeed, except the Savage’s temporary Cabin, his Bow, his Matchcoat, and other little Acquisitions, absolutely necessary for his Subsistence, seems to me to be the Creature of public Convention. Hence the Public has the Right of Regulating Descents, and all other Conveyances of Property, and even of limiting the Quantity and the Uses of it.

All the Property that is necessary to a Man, for the Conservation of the Individual and the Propagation of the Species, is his natural Right, which none can justly deprive him of: But all Property superfluous to such purposes is the Property of the Publick, who, by their Laws, have created it, and who may therefore by other Laws dispose of it, whenever the Welfare of the Publick shall demand such Disposition. He that does not like civil Society on these Terms, let him retire and live among Savages. He can have no right to the benefits of Society, who will not pay his Club towards the Support of it.

Ben Franklin, on reciprocal obligation and the inherently social aspects of personal wealth.

Talk about the Founding Fathers some more, you disingenuous scumbag motherfuckers.

Source: Los Angeles Times

Former Senator Rick Santorum—inventor of the frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the by-product of anal sex—tries to explain that he wasn’t saying “black people” when describing welfare leaches; he was just saying “blah people”.

So, besides being a bigoted, anti-free-speech, blame-the-sick, public-money-misappropriating, exemplar of corruption, Rick Santorum apparently thinks we’re all pretty fucking stupid.

Importantly: Please note that he never says “I’d never say that”, only “I didn’t say that” and “I don’t think I said that”.

So, you know, he can’t rule out that he was being overtly racist, but he doubts it.

« Mediaite

Source: mediaite.com

It’s been said many times. But it’s never enough: the conventions of journalistic ‘objectivity’, as currently defined, frequently make journalists violate their biggest duty, which is honesty with readers. The top headline running now on CNN reads: “They’re all talking, but no one is compromising, at least publicly. Democratic and GOP leaders appear unwilling to bend on proposals to raise the debt ceiling.”

By any reasonable measure, this is simply false, even painfully so.

Excellent editorial from Talking Points Memo’s Josh Marshall.

Telling two sides of an argument is not the same as staying objective, and it sure as hell isn’t the same as telling the truth. The bulk of our commercial media has long ceased serving as the Fourth Estate, opting instead to be the roving beer-and-hotdog vendors at the professional wrestling match of American political discourse.

Source: talkingpointsmemo.com

Bill O’Reilly is all hot and bothered because the “liberal media” keeps referring to Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik as a Christian extremist.

Papa Bear O’Reilly seems to think this is some kind of attempt to make everybody scared of Christians—certainly it can’t have anything to do with the fact that he calls himself a Christian and thinks of himself as a Knight Templar, trying to save Europe from atheist and Islamic influence. No no. Of course not.

Papa Bear’s initial point—that mass murder ignores the philosophies of peace and acceptance espouses by Jesus—is sort of fair (though not historically accurate), but isn’t that exactly the same as people (correctly) reminding the world that just because a few people who happen to be Muslim have twisted their faith to support murder doesn’t mean that Islam is an inherently dangerous faith?

Apparently not to Papa Bear, who…

You know what? Fuck it. I just can’t bring myself to do any deeper analysis of this, even if it’s facetious. Bill O’Reilly is a fucking bigot. That’s really all there is to it.

Spread the fucking word.

Forever and ever, amen.

Source: The Huffington Post