It's hard to decide what was the coolest thing I saw in Mexico.
And I would think it would be easy because we saw sea turtles.
Not in the water.
We got to watch them crawl up on to the beach, drag themselves across the sand, dig a burrow, bury themselves. lay their eggs then drag themselves back to the water again.
The whole process takes about 3 hours, which is admittedly, a bit over long. Sea turtles have very little sense of showmanship, but still. Pretty freakin' cool.
They don't come out until after dark and lights disturb them, so I don't have any decent photos to show you. Also, I'm not sure which of the 7 types of sea turtles they were, but they were about 3+ feet long and seemed to be mostly grey.
In the water, a sea turtle is a beautiful, graceful, elegant creature. On the land, not so much.
It's a little bit sad to watch them drag themselves clumsily along the sand, seemingly exhausting themselves with the effort. We tried to tell them "that's far enough, Mrs Turtle. The people are just going to dig them up and re-bury them somewhere safer anyway. Just go ahead and lay them right there." but you know how turtles are. They always have to do things their own way.
Anyway, under most circumstances, that would be an easy winner for the title "coolest thing I saw," but then we saw a guy doing this:
Well, we're heading off to Mexico for a week or so, hopefully Sean Hannity will let us back in without shooting us too much!
Yeah, of course Hannity's down there defendin' our border along with all the other squirrelly fruitcakes who decided that since it worked so well at Bundy Ranch, they might as well take their guns down to the Rio Grande to start enforcing their own laws.
But that's not the stupid person I'm talking about.
This is the stupid person I'm talking about:
Minnesota House candidate makes AIDS, 'Gay Agenda' campaign issues
I know, I know, there's sadly nothing surprising about a Republican candidate making the (scary music) "gay agenda!!!" a campaign issue. It's depressingly predictable. But this guy, oh this guy is special!
Businessman Bob Frey
But when questioned about his position on social issues, Frey added that
it “does certainly need to be addressed for what it is. It’s not about
the gay agenda but about the science and the financial impact of that
agenda. It’s more about sodomy than about pigeonholing a lifestyle.”
Did anyone understand any of that?
I heard sodomy! Then he lost me.
But anyway, that's not even the stupid part.
This is the stupid part:
Frey then explained his view: “When you have egg and sperm that meet in
conception, there’s an enzyme in the front that burns through the egg.
The enzyme burns through so the DNA can enter the egg. If the sperm is
deposited anally, it's the enzyme that causes the immune system to fail.
That’s why the term is AIDS – acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.”
Oh. My. GAWD!!!
First of all, is there such an enzyme? Well, I did a little research and it looks like there might be. Let's just say that I now know way more about sperm than I ever wanted to and I'm still not certain. Does that enzyme somehow cause AIDS?
How would that even work?
How would an enzyme that eats through a cell membrane cause immune system failure?
And if somehow, an enzyme eating through the cell membranes of the anal cavity caused immune system failure, it seems logical that it would do the same thing in the vagina.
Oh my God, I don't want to think about this anymore.
Anyway, the point is, it's 2014, not 1983. We know what causes AIDS. It's a virus. There's no black magic that causes sperms to turn lethal in the butt.
And in the 21st Century, we know that two dudes in San Francisco having buttsex doesn't cause AIDS, it cause God to send tornadoes to Kansas or hurricanes to Florida. Geez, read a science book, why dontcha?
Anyway, that's it for me for a little while. See you soon.
Texas’ Abbott: ‘Drive around’ to look for dangerous chemicals
—Updated
Um, why should we drive around looking for dangerous chemicals?
. . . because Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott (R), the frontrunner
in this year’s gubernatorial race, declared that state records on
dangerous chemical locations can be withheld from the public. The Texas Tribunereported yesterday on the state A.G.’s rationale.
Why would you not? Why would you not want people to know what chemicals are being stored where? Why would you withhold that information from the public?
Oh, right!
But anyway, that's not even the stupid part. Here's the stupid part:
Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott, under fire for
blocking public access to state records documenting the location of
dangerous chemicals, said Texans still have a right to find out where
the substances are stored.
As long as they know which companies to ask.
“You know where they are if you drive around,” Abbott told
reporters Tuesday. “You can ask every facility whether or not they have
chemicals or not. You can ask them if they do, and they can tell you,
‘Well we do have chemicals or we don’t have chemicals,’ and if they do,
they tell which ones they have.”
Seriously, you want people to drive around to various companies, walk up to the gate, ask for the manager and ask him to reveal trade secrets to you? Seriously?
You're not getting past this guy.
I mean, sure, technically they could tell you. But they fucking won't. These companies won't even tell Congress what kinds of chemicals they use. Under subpoena! They just say "trade secrets, bitches!" and walk away laughing. You think they're going to give that information to Joe Citizen? You're a fucking idiot if you think theere's any chance of that happening.
Stupid person # 2:
Republican state Sen. Brandon Smith of Kentucky has a new theory
on why climate change couldn’t possibly be slowly warming the earth’s
temperature, resulting in legions of effects to the environment and its
inhabitants.
Republican? Kentucky? Oh, you just know this is gonna be good!
“As you sit there in your chair with your data, we sit up here in ours with our data and our constituents and stuff behind us.
No. No, you don't get your own data. There is one set of data. And then there is a bunch of numbers made up by some shills on the Koch payroll. Also, might want to leave out the fact that in addition to phony data you also have "stuff" behind you.
But anyway, that's not even the stupid part.
This is the stupid part:
I don’t want to get into the debate about climate change, but I
will simply point out that I think in academia we all agree that the
temperature on Mars is exactly as it is here. Nobody will dispute that,”
said the senator in a video posted by the weekly publication. “Yet
there are no coal mines on Mars. There are no factories on Mars that I’m
aware of.”
The temperature on Mars. The same as the Earth? You're serious?
On average, the temperature on Mars is about minus 80 degrees F (minus
60 degrees C). In winter, near the poles temperatures can get down to
minus 195 degrees F (minus 125 degrees C). A summer day on Mars may get
up to 70 degrees F (20 degrees C) near the equator, but at night the
temperature can plummet to about minus 100 degrees F (minus 73 C). (http://www.space.com/16907-what-is-the-temperature-of-mars.html)
And you say that "academia" is in agreement with you? Academia?
Sure, nobody will dispute that. Nobody who has the vaguest realization that Mars is quite a b it further from the Sun and therefore can not help but be considerably colder than Earth will dispute that. Or, to put it more succinctly, no one who ever took 5th grade science class will dispute that, which kind of leaves out "academia."
Because, post-Hobby Lobby, it seems that anyone can claim some deeply-held religious belief and exempt themselves from the law.
Well, not anyone, Alito specifically said that the ruling wouldn't apply to Jehova's Witnesses and their anti-transfusion stance, but really, why not? If a mainstream Catholic or Protestant can get a religious exemption, wouldn't the equal protection clause require that Jehova's Witnesses or Christian Scientists, or Scientologists be allowed to deny their employees coverage for transfusions, or psychiatric care, or any medical care at all, as the case may be?
And religious-based colleges are already claiming that they should be exempt from anti-discrimination laws. (here)
So, what other laws are "religious" people going to exempt themselves from?
There are laws against beating children, right? What if some parents decide that their religion commands them to beat their kids? With a rod? The Bible says "spare the rod, spoil the child" or something like that, right? So what's to stop a parent from claiming that their religious beliefs exempt them from having to follow the law against child abuse?
What about those cases that come up now and again where some loonie parents let their kids die because their religion forbids them to use doctors or medicine? Couldn't they claim that their religious beliefs, stupid as they are, trump the laws of the land?
Or do religious exemptions only go to corporations?
I've heard of cutting off your nose to spite your face, but this is ridiculous.
Apparently, there is a thing now called "rolling coal" or "coal-rolling" or "being a huge festering pile of dicks."
Rolling Coal: Conservatives ‘screw’ Obama by modifying trucks to spew toxic black smoke
By David Edwards Monday, July 7, 2014 9:03 EDT
The way it works is this:
Let's say you were a rage-fueled, cro-magnon manchild with serious psychological problems based largely on small penis size. And let's say you're in your giant truck, just drivin' around over-compensating when you see some nerd driving a Prius or riding a bicycle.
Now, granted, this nerd isn't bothering you, he isn't causing you any harm. He isn't forcing you to drive a nerd-mobile or ride a nerdcycle, but still. . . you'd just really like to stick it to this nerd for being such a goddamm nerd all the time, caring about the environment and what-not. (Or maybe just trying to save a little money at the gas pump or get a little exercise, or whatever these nerds are into)
What can you do?
Well, now you can modify your truck so blow great billowing clouds of toxins into the air. The air that this guy has to breathe, ha ha! And. . . um. . . also. . . you. . . have. . . to . . . breathe. . . oh. But anyway, that'll sure show him!
I mean, it's one thing to cut iff your nose to spite your face, but these guys are cutting off their own noses and the other guys' noses and everyone else's noses to spite the President's face. That is a spectacular bit of assholery!
Conservatives who detest President Barack Obama and EPA clean air
regulations are modifying their vehicles to purposefully spew black
smoke into the atmosphere. So-called “coal rollers” install smoke stacks and special equipment
in their diesel trucks that makes the engine think that it needs more
fuel, resulting in plumes of black smoke. According to Slate’s Dave Weigel,
the phenomenon is not new, but it is becoming more popular among
conservatives who want to protest the president and his efforts to clean
up the environment.
Because, fuck yeah! Who the fuck wants breathable air?
Someone once joked that if President Obama came out in favor of oxygen, conservatives would all suffocate themselves. That joke wasn't all that far off, apparently.
“I run into a lot of people that really don’t like Obama at all,” a
smoke stack seller in Wisconsin told Weigel. “If he’s into the
environment, if he’s into this or that, we’re not. I hear a lot of
that.”
Hey, fellas. The President is also really really into eating food and reproducing!
“To get a single stack on my truck—that’s my way of giving them the
finger,” he added. “You want clean air and a tiny carbon footprint?
Well, screw you.”
And sure, that finger is also jammed into my own eye, but it's totally worth it to make a gesture that the dang president will never see or probably even hear about. Take that, O'Bummer!
In June, Vocativ reported
on the trend of “coal rollers” using their toxic exhaust as revenge
against “nature nuffies” who drive environmentally friendly cars, like
the Toyota Prius.
Why in the hell would you think you need to take "revenge" against someone who, um . . . drives a car? Pretty sure these people don't understand what the word "revenge" means. Or pretty much any other word.
“The feeling around here is that everyone who drives a small car is a
liberal,” a South Carolina truck owner named Ryan explained. “I rolled
coal on a Prius once just because they were tailing me.”
Oh, wait. That son of a bitch was driving behind you? Oh, well then he was obviously asking for it.
“It’s bad for the environment. That’s definitely true,” he admitted.
“And some of the kids that have diesel trucks can look like tools. And
you can cause a wreck, but everything else about it is pretty good.”
Sure, there's death and sickness and horrible suffering, but everything else about the plague is pretty good!
The Clean Air Task Force estimates
that pollutants from diesel vehicles “lead to 21,000 premature deaths
each year and create a cancer risk that is seven times greater than the
combined risk of all 181 other air toxics tracked by the EPA.
Ha! Take that, NoBama!
Maybe next time you'll think about that next time you try to "clean up" the "air!"
Oh, and apparently, these assholes are paying up to $5,000 to be able to make their "statement," and there's apparently no law against it, even though I once got a ticket for excessive exhaust because I was poor and drove a beat-up old car, but that was years ago, and it was in California, so maybe things are different out here in "Real America."
Is it wrong to wish emphysema on these fucktards? 'Cuz I kinda wish they would get emphysema.
Yeah, probably wrong.
