RelentlesslyOptimistic

It was, indeed, a miracle.

From Fengtastic!.

Debate issues instead of nonsense!

It is long past time to stop being respectful of extremist distortions about health care.

Barney Frank of Massachusetts answered a woman at a health care forum who compared "the effort to increase health care to the Nazi's" by asking her "on what planet do you spend most of your time?"

Via Mahablog

A sequel to Snakes On A Plane?

From Certified Bullshit Technician

"In America, Crazy Is a Preexisting Condition"

In an article in today's Washington Post, Rick Perlstein puts the craziness of the health care uproar in a historical perspective. When the Civil Rights Act was being debated in 1964, opponents claimed that it would enslave whites. A plan to increase mental health care during the Kennedy administration sparked claims that a new facility in Alaska was actually a concentration camp for dissidents. Perlstein notes that "Internment camps for conservatives" are "the latest theory of tea party favorite Michael Savage."

The problem, Perlstein notes, is not the existence of the loonier perspectives among the electorate, but the credence given to them by today's media.

"Back then, a more confident media unequivocally labeled the civic outrage represented by such discourse as "extremist" -- out of bounds."

Today we have Lou Dobbs and Fox News to stoke the crazy fires and promote extremism and violence.

"Conservatives have become adept at playing the media for suckers, getting inside the heads of editors and reporters, haunting them with the thought that maybe they are out-of-touch cosmopolitans and that their duty as tribunes of the people's voices means they should treat Obama's creation of "death panels" as just another justiciable political claim."

Perlstein closes by saying "Good thing our leaders weren't so cowardly in 1964, or we would never have passed a civil rights bill -- because of complaints over the provisions in it that would enslave whites."

Via Mahablog

Obviously this cloud is a male

From Certified Bullshit Technician

What's the opposite of a tin foil hat?

I wonder if he has a cat? From Sober In A Nightclub

Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki: July 1945 poll of Manhattan Project scientists on how the atomic bomb should be used.

Yesterday marked the anniversary of the 1945 dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima; Sunday marks the anniversary of dropping the second bomb on Nagasaki. Ptak Science Books has published a poll of 250 scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project in Chicago shortly before the first bomb was dropped. The simple poll asked one question with five options:

Which of the following five procedures comes closest to your choice as to the way in which any new weapons that may develop should be used in the Japanese war:

 

Number 1 was similar to what Truman did; number 2 was to demonstrate the bomb in Japan. I wonder why the present-day respondents were more willing to choose #1 than scientists back in the day?

The photo above is the "before" picture of the iconic dome that was one of the most prominent structures standing near ground zero, and is now the location of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial.  The picture is from Boston.com's "The Big Picture," which published an amazing photo series around the bombing on August 5th.

This changes everything: tactile hologram!

Too awesome for words:

"Researchers at the University of Tokyo have developed a holographic projector that displays three-dimensional virtual objects you can feel with your bare hands."

It uses a special projector, two Wii remotes and ultrasound to convey touch.

From Pink Tentacle

CNN takes money from insurance companies, not criticism of them.

First CNN wouldn't run an ad critical of their conspiracy-theory-promoter Lou Dobbs. Now CNN won't run an ad critical of the present health care system because it singles out as part of the problem Ed Hanway, the CEO of Cigna, who will soon give up his annual $12 million per year salary for a $73 million golden parachute.

CNN will, on the other hand, happily take (and send a press release about doing so) an undisclosed amount of sponsorship funding from Nigerian insurance company IEI for a 6-part TV show "dedicated to exploring global companies who are making a positive impact on the environment while trying to make a profit."

CNN: The most trusted name in sponsored news.

The (second) ad in question:

CNN channels Fox News!

Do you wonder if CNN hired Lou Dobbs because they wanted to be a part of the shrill, make-up-whatever-facts-are-convenient, news-ertainment that Fox News is known for?

CNN (the "no bias" network!) is refusing to run an ad by Media Matters criticizing Lou Dobbs' repeated "reporting" on the birther conspiracy theory, saying that "CNN retains the right to object to any ad...whose purpose is to attack CNN or our employees."

In other words, questioning a CNN star who repeatedly "reports" on a racially-charged conspiracy theory long known to be completely made up (by most of the world, anyway) is an attack on CNN. How would CNN react if they were questioned about a story that had some "real facts" behind it?

Drift woody

Is this flotsam or jetsam?

From via Sober in a Nightclub.