Read this article. Then tell me you’d be thrilled to have a job even if it meant working for the assholes at Watersaver Faucets. This is the email I sent them: I heard about your policy to allow employees to only urinate or defecate during “allotted break times” and at most twice a day without being penalized. I don’t see what the fuss is all about. If you can’t “hold it in” you shouldn’t be working.

I was listening to the American Freethought podcast and they mentioned the Comstock Act. I had read about those laws (enacted 141 years ago) in books about the history of secularism. The title of the act was “Suppression of Trade in, and Circulation of, Obscene Literature and Articles of Immoral Use”. In practical terms that meant contraceptive devices and information about contraception. In light of the Hobby Lobby ruling by the Supreme Court of the U.

You’ve got to watch this video: [https://www.youtube.com/embed/p1Zc7NnSVr8?feature=oembed] The term braggadocio was invented for people like Bradlee Dean. Among other accomplishments he boasts about being a “national columnist” for the WorldNetDaily* (or WhirledNutDaily as I like to call it) which he says is the “number one news source in the world”. Holy shit. Talk about delusional. Notice too that comments and likes/dislikes are disabled for the video. Which is pretty typical for xtian fundies who think that only they can tell other people they’re awful.

Yay for our police state! Where police get to lie (usually with impunity) to citizens while citizens can be criminally sanctioned for lying to police. Ed Brayton has the low down. The original story gives more details. Read The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness for more examples.

Minnesota Republicans are trying to out crazy Texas Republicans. Everyone knows Michelle Bachman. Now that she’s soon to be an ex-representative we have replacements lining up to take her place. Meet Minnesota Republican Bob Frey. A man who thinks humans have always lived with dinosaurs. He also thinks that sperm causes AIDS when deposited anally. [W]hen questioned about his position on social issues, [Minnesota House candidate Bob Frey (R)] added that it “does certainly need to be addressed for what it is.

I was reading “Letters to the Nation” last night and this quote by Molly Ivans succinctly captures the essence of too many Republican legislators. Such as Louie Gohmert:

If his IQ slips any lower, we’ll have to water him twice a day.

Although to be honest I think Louie has already reached that stage.

The Girl With the Faraway Eyes (thanks, Charlie Pierce) is once again warning us about the dangers our country faces from invasion. Besides the usual wingnut problem with grammar (“”My tears are crying…”) she seems to honestly believe that because a single immigrant sometime in the distant past committed a crime that all of the children trying to escape the horrors of their home countries should be presumed to be hardened criminals.

Take a look at who voted for and against “Not My Boss’ Business” Act. Notice anything interesting about the right-hand column? Notice the only Democrat in that list of names? That’s right. The spineless, simpering, back stabbing Harry Reid. The only Democrat to vote against the bill. Here is a prime example why I tell the DSCC to fuck off when they call or send me mail begging for money. Senator Reid is worse than useless.

There is a wonderful and sad story in pictures about the final day of a canine companions life. That prompted me to write about one of my extra special companions: Einstein the German Shepherd. Einstein was born sometime around 1997-07-01. I say “around” because I found him as a stray when he was approximately six months old. The pictures below are from when he was roughly five years old. In his senior years he loved to lay in the front yard or on the sidewalk in the evening and observe the neighborhood.

So I’ve already mentioned some of the blogs I read regularly. This is a list of the podcasts I listen to that I think deserve a wider audience. The ones I’ve tagged with a ★ I think are especially worthwhile; as in you should consider not just subscribing but also listening to old episodes.

News

• Global News – BBC
• The Good Fight, with Ben Wikler

Entertainment

• WNYC’s Radiolab
• Geologic Podcast

Science, Medicine, Politics

• ★ The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe
• ★ QuackCast
• Point of Inquiry

Humanism

• American Freethought Podcast
• Freethought Radio
• Rationally Speaking
• ★ Reasonable Doubts Podcast
• Skepticality The Official Podcast of Skeptic Magazine
• The Humanist Hour
• Atheists Talk Radio Show
• Dogma Debate with David Smalley