The Watering Hole, Tuesday February 10, 2015 – Environmental News and Food Politics

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“Scientists have discovered micro-organisms living beneath the ocean floor that appear to have not evolved for more than two billion years…”

This makes two species in the world that have never evolved. The other are Republicans.

Read on.

The rocks are not what they seem.

Open Thread

 

 

55 thoughts on “The Watering Hole, Tuesday February 10, 2015 – Environmental News and Food Politics”

  3. 43 weddings later, historic day of same-sex marriages ends in Huntsville

    They came in white dresses and white shirts, tuxedos and cowboy boots. They came with just each other, and they came with friends and family. And they kept coming. By the end of Monday, the first day it was legal in Alabama, 65 of these same-sex couples had come to buy marriage licenses at Madison County Probate Judge’s Office.

    Tomorrow will be another big day in the park, with better weather than today, and worse weather afterward.

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  4. Lame American media idiots – the stupidity simply helps Putin. Meanwhile Putin’s ‘diplomacy’ is firing rockets into the middle of what was considered a safe Ukranian city north of Donetsk. Russian MP notes that “arming the Ukrainians will widen the conflict” – with apparently no sense of irony whatsoever. And Obama and Merkel ….. just talk.

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  5. Crusade – Islam parallel ‘borderline treasonous’

    Dr. Alex McFarland, a Christian apologist and co-host of American Family Radio’s “Exploring the Word” program, says the president’s words are unthinkable and “borderline treasonous, really.”

    “To compare Christianity to the crimes of Islam is absolutely unacceptable,” Dr. McFarland asserts. “Islam in its sacred writings prescribes violence against non-believers; the Bible does not.

    Really? No violence in the bible? How big is the biggest Christer lie? That one must rank in the top to or three.

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      • IIRC, Obama didn’t even mention the word ‘bible’ in his ‘speech.’ He used the words Crusade and Inquisition, also slavery and Jim Crow in the context of Christianity’s historically nasty sins. And for that he’s ‘treasonous.’ Why?

        Those fundie fuckheads assume that this here’s a Cristian nation, and they have no idea how screwed up that thesis is. They apparently also assume that everyone who’s not a fundie Christer wingnut is automatically evil — they obviously have that one completely backwards.

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    • Truth = Treason?
      ” They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it – men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep, and donkeys.”
      Joshua 6:21
      There’s loads more killing in the Old Testament, most supposedly ordained by God.

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      • Well, the OT IS god’s word, right? Of course, the wingnut Christer said the bible doesn’t prescribe violence against non-believers. I guess that means that “men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep, and donkeys” are all designated believers. Right? Yeah, now I gits it.

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      • Not sure how they would respond, but my guess is they’ll try to say that was the Jewish God, not the Christian one. Of course it doesn’t make any sense because they’re supposedly the same God (and the same as the one who’s telling all those Muslims to blow up people.) Logic is against religious principles, which is why it should never be the basis of any country’s government.

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  6. Jordan Moves ‘Thousands’ of Troops to Iraq Border: Jordanian Sources

    Jordan has deployed “thousands” of troops at its border with Iraq as it ramps up a campaign against ISIS militants who set a pilot ablaze, two Jordanian government officials told NBC News on Tuesday.

    The troops were sent to prevent the infiltration of ISIS fighters into Jordan and as a show of force, according to the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.

    Jordan’s King Abdullah last week threatened to make ISIS pay for the death of Muath al-Kasasbeh’s after video of the military pilot’s murder emerged. He vowed to wage a “harsh” war against ISIS “because this terrorist organization is not only fighting us, but also fighting Islam and its pure values.”

    Abdullah also pledged to hit ISIS militants “hard in the very center of their strongholds.”

    I wonder how long before Jordan chases after ISIS and ends up in Iraqi territory, and how will the Iraq government respond? This situation is getting thick.

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    • In a ‘logical’ world, Jordan would indeed have a much larger dog in that hunt than the US should EVER have. In fact, were it not for a pair of POTUSes surnamed Bush, it’s unlikely that even Jordan would have much of an issue since there would be no ISIS, most likely no al Qaeda, and maybe Israel would be a lot less nutty Yahu.

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  7. If an organism is perfectly suited to its environment, has little or no predator problems, and has no trouble reproducing, there is no reason for it to evolve. Evolution doesn’t happen just cuz it got bored one day.

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  9. (I’d posted this late last night)

    Charles Manson, fiancee, ‘call off wedding’ after bizarre plot

    Manson’s engagement to a woman 53 years his junior was part of a wild scheme of hers to profit by putting his body on public display after his death, says the author of an upcoming book.

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  12. The odds of winning the $485M Powerball jackpot are the same at each drawing — about 1 in 176 million.

    You’re more likely to be killed by an asteroid in your lifetime. Below are odds of other things happening to you, to keep things in perspective:

    Any person’s lifetime odds of being killed by an asteroid impact: 1 in 700,000

    Odds of an American being killed in a terrorist attack (in about the last five years): 1 in 20 million

    Odds of dying in a shark attack: 1 in 3.1 million

    Odds of dating a supermodel: 1 in 880,000

    Chance of being struck by lightning: 1 in 12,000 — but some climate scientists predict that will narrow to 1 in 8,000 by 2100.

    Odds of dying from flesh-devouring bacteria: 1 in a million

    The odds of having an 11th toe: 1 in 500.

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    • And the Koch Bros are going to spend what, $40 million more than that simply to get idiot Republicans elected around the country in 2016?

      That’s a good example of a 180 degree contrast. Day vs. night.

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  18. BREAKING….

    Jon Stewart will leave “The Daily Show” later this year. Comedy Central says the show will go on.

    I think we may have found the new gig for Brian Williams.

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  19. Obama ‘More Dangerous’ Than Terrorists

    According to World Congress of Families spokesman Don Feder —

    At the Prayer Breakfast, after his faux Buddhist greeting to the Dali Lama, the alleged leader of the Free World pledged to “push back against those who would distort our religion for their nihilist ends.” Which religion?

    Lest you think the president was referring to the religion of peace (against whose adherents we occasionally undertake overseas contingency operations), Obama was quick to point out that around the world, every faith has, from time to time, been “hijacked” by violent extremists “for their own murderous ends.”

    Obama is so slavishly devoted to Dar-al-Islam, that many think he’s a Moslem himself. To the contrary, he is a devout leftist.

    Two strains converge to shape Obama’s attitude toward Islam. There’s nostalgia – for his Moslem boyhood in Indonesia (so innocent, so carefree, so harmonious) and his absentee dad – combined with the left’s worldview.

    I think what he’s saying is that if you’re a ‘leftist’ you’re prolly not a Christian?

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    • Well fuck him and his congress. I have a family and was not asked to select a representative to this alleged congress.

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  20. The juxtaposition between friends Stewart and Brian Williams gets a little stranger today:

    “We have decided today to suspend Brian Williams as Managing Editor and Anchor of NBC Nightly News for six months. The suspension will be without pay and is effective immediately,” NBC News president Deborah Turness said in a memo, adding that “this was a very hard decision. Certainly there will be those who disagree. But we believe this suspension is the appropriate and proportionate action.”

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/10/brian-williams-suspended-nbc_n_6657292.html

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