Just a few odds and ends to get your Monday started.
(R) Presidential hopeful Dr. Ben Carson has already proven that he “don’t know much about biology” when it comes to homosexuality, women’s reproductive and overall health, and where the fetal brain tissue came from on which he used to experiment. He’s also shown that he “don’t know much about” #BlackLivesMatter, or about prisons. Now Carson shows that he “don’t know much about history” when it comes to foreign policy, the Middle East, or the meaning of “anti-semitism.” In particular, he shows in an op-ed piece in The Jerusalem Post that he “don’t know much about” the Iran Nuclear Deal either.
A few items from Daily Kos: one oldie that makes a nice palate-cleanser; and a recent one that ends with an eloquent message [some of the comments afterwards are excellent as well.]
And for the funny, ICYMI (as I did), John Oliver and friends teach Sex Education.
This is our daily Open Thread–pick a topic, any topic.
TheZoo 
Medical doctors are not, as a rule, especially well educated people. Other than a great deal of (often very narrowly specialized) knowledge of physiology, we’re generally talking about people with just a high-school education. Surgeon, meanwhile, is among the professions most attractive to sociopaths.
And a personal screed: MD’s often like to describe themselves as scientists, but that is bullshit. MD’s are *technicians*:
1. A scientist is someone who engages in forms of inquiry that aim to discover new, fundamental facts.
2. An engineer is someone who engages in forms of inquiry that aim to discover new applications for previously discovered facts.
3. A technician is someone who engages in forms of inquiry that aim to maintain existing applications.
There are MD’s who are ALSO scientists (oncologists, who do scientific research on cancers, for example) and even MD’s who are engineers (MD’s who develop new medical and diagnostic tools.) But as a general rule, they are neither. /rant
And then there’s Ben Carson, a biblical med tech. Republican. Ain’t much in allathat.
John Stewart should have just handed The Daily Show over to John Oliver.
It would have been a seamless transition.
OTOH, John Oliver is probably getting paid at least as much to do one episode per week on HBO as he was paid to host The Daily Show four days a week during Jon’s absence.
Thanks for sending me down the rabbit hole.
In other words, Dr. Ben Carson is a perfect GOP candidate to represent the KnowNothing GOPers, the vast majority of whom are FauxNooze addicts.
What really puzzles me is this: What is the source, the mother lode, of STUPID? I note one common thread amongst the obviously afflicted: the opinion that the bible is something beyond what Emily Dickinson called “an antique volume written by faded men,” that it is literally somehow valid in today’s world. People who believe that nonsense also, afaik at least, watch Fox News and invariably vote in favor of hate, fear, money, and control (mostly Republican), the end point of which is STUPID. What am I missing? Anything, or is that a reasonable summary? Is it pretty much a closed loop, one that is not genetic, not inbred, but has been carefully taught?
Well, if you’re looking for a comprehensive answer, I’d point you toward Altemeyer’s The Authoritarians http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/
Thanks for the link. Based on a quick perusal I’d say Altemeyer’s summation is spot-on. I’d forgotten most of the details of the Tea Party’s rise, memory only went so far as to point mostly to Greed and Dumb as the Teabagger motivational undercurrent. Glad to see my memory ain’t dead yet. 😉
The book is something of a “classic” in the field, and Altemeyer footnotes his very substantial, peer-reviewed research to justify his claims. Plus, anyone who just posts this kind of work for free is kind of a Mensch.
Whoa! The answer to the age old question…
Who would Jesus shoot?!!
Wow. Just Wow.
h/t C&L
“Who would Jesus shoot?”
If he had a hair on his butt, my guess is that Phillip Guin would be first in line. LOTS of choices for number two and beyond. (If he nailed all the clown car passengers, I suspect even his dad would be OK with it).
Here’s a question for our community of constitutional scholars…
TrumpDuck is running on a platform of: putting “an end to birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants”
Would this, or would it not, require a Constitutional Amendment?
Yep, amendment required.
Q: Why didn’t the Abenaki (et al.) deport the pilgrims when they came here illegally?? Might have saved the world a lot of hassle.
What Frugal said.
Except that Clause V of that Amendment reads:
5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
So it sounds to me like the Congress can say, “Don’t interpret this literally. It only means citizenship is granted to the following groups of people…:
But as I’ve pointed out many times before (and been proven right), I’m not a lawyer.
Well, I don’t think Congress can change the meaning of the words, but they can choose to ignore how, or even if, it is enforced. There was a similar clause attached to the 15th, but it was only in the 1960’s and the VRA that that Amendment was genuinely brought into practice.
“enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article”
Sounds to me as though that phrase allows Congress to write laws which make the amendment work, but not to write laws that dismiss any of its premises, to make them not work or to ignore them. Nowhere is the “power to twist meanings” granted anywhere, far as I know.
Jesus may love you but the church loves your money more.
http://www.alan.com/2015/08/12/92-year-oid-georgia-woman-kicked-out-of-her-church-for-failure-to-tithe/#
Money is the root of all evil. The church is evil.
I’d love to see a reprise of the ass-kicking of money changers at that temple.
You listening, Jesus? C’mon, you’ll never get a chance at a better opportunity!
And bring your gun!
Cuban Trogon (Cuba’s national bird)
Sick Rantorum never lets up, even when when his chances of getting on the 2016 ballot are an order of magnitued less than my own.
‘Poisonous, Wretched, Cancerous’ Abortion Rights Creating Another Holocaust
There is no movement to demand or prescribe that others must have abortions, it’s a personal choice. Disagree OK, then don’t do it yourself.
Why can’t he get that? Why doesn’t he understand that ‘Religious Freedom’ does NOT allow the imposition of his or anyone else’s religious belief on the rest of society — never has, never will.
Umm, well, no. He doesn’t get that. In the slightest. He’s an (R).
Mike Huckabee Will Outlaw Abortion With Executive Fiat
When will it end? How can we get rid of — PERMANENTLY — this conservative Republican bullshit once and for all?
Not soon enough, frugal, not soon enough.
FTGS
Double damn:
Oil spill.
It’s not if but when?
No worries. Birds don’t count, nor does anything else. ALL THAT COUNTS IN THIS WORLD IS MONEY!!! AND SCREW THE “COSTS.”
(R) counter argument…Who needs a bird that needs glasses!?
The Guira Cuckoos
Republican birds? Far out! 🙂
Nice!
I just spent last night gluing and nailing together 100 frames.
I use foundationless and let the bees make their own comb.
For me it’s easier, the bees do their own thing and I steal some of their honey.
The commercials use foundation and medications on their bees which is unnatural for the bees.
I have been stung beyond count and I think I’m safe on not getting arthritis anytime soon.
The medical profession won’t recognize it but bee stings help reduce arthritic pain. There are lots of folks that will say so but there’s no money in it for the medical profession so they will not acknowledge it.
I almost completely eliminated refined sugar from my diet.
I was walking my dog this morning and walked past a huge bottle brush plant.
It was mobbed with bees.
I thought to myself, those are probably my girls.
The best honey I ever had was given to me by a customer who kept bees. He said the same thing about bee stings helping the arthritis in his knee.
Bob Woodward goes there.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/bob-woodward-clinton-emails-reminds-me-of-the-nixon-tapes/article/2570299
Shame on Bob.
Really? Nixon tapes….. fuck off Bob
Michigan Tea Party Republican who was going to smear self as gay to hide his affair invokes Bible on Facebook to defend himself. Commenters rain down holy hell on him.
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/08/facebook-trolls-rain-holy-hell-on-michigan-tea-partiers-1900-word-bible-thumping-excuse-for-affair/
1.900 words! Face up to your philandering ways and move on.
As for his family, hmm, who brought this all about? Immature idiot.
Ann Coulter, who says abortion is murder…
House, how was the first day back at work?
Like coming home. Well enough I’m having a Dirty Bastard to celebrate.
Since Ted Cruz renounced his Canadian citizenship last year, and since he may not technically be an American citizen, either, he’s screwed.
http://www.examiner.com/article/ted-cruz-must-show-naturalization-papers-to-keep-his-us-senate-seat
The Repubs never think anything all the way through. It comes around to bite them in the backside! Show your papers!
Ted’s mother is an American which would make him American (just like Obama).
Let’s see if DumpTruck was actually born – where’s his paperwork?!
The story seems to be that she renounced her American citizenship before Ted was born, making him the son of two Canadian citizens. He would, therefore, be ineligible to be POTUS, or even US Senator from Texas.
Oh, didn’t realize that.
Perhaps he can be escorted, er, dispatched, er..ummm deported to Panama.