... [Billy Graham's] lasting damage, I offer as an aside, was to persuade the young George W. Bush to abandon his wastrel ways, at which he excelled, and instead seek the path that has led him to where he is now, a calamity for the nation and the world. Graham's burden is heavy indeed. ...

Putting Them Out to Pastor, Richard Cohen, July 1, 2008

- A vaccine expert talks about his daughter's autism. An interesting sidenote in the article:

... Some 6,000 African American babies are born each year with congenital cytomegalovirus infection, a viral disease transmitted to babies in the womb that causes mental retardation and hearing loss. About 880,000 African American women each year come down with trichomoniasis, a parasitic infection. Another parasitic worm infection called toxocariasis causes asthmatic symptoms in about 2.8 million poor African American children. Hispanics are especially affected by Chagas disease, which causes severe heart disease, and cysticercosis, a parasitic worm infection that causes epilepsy. ...

- The climate deniers were almost right, because the scientific models were wrong ... they were way too optimistic.

- Kate and Pam got married four years and a day ago, and I'd suspect that the morons at Conservapedia aren't above claiming that it adversely affected their faculties. Without some sort of self-justifying dodge, it would likely otherwise be too embarrassing to have it publicly known that bacteria are smarter than you.

- Chinese Olympic sailing waterways taken over by blue-green algae.

- Top ten Black blogs for June, 2008.

- If you're reading this with an outdated web browser, you might be at greater risk of computer security breaches. Experts advise updating that software. (Yeah, I know, total pain the you-know-what.)

- Can we get a new Boston Tea Party around here? And a serving of whatever Denmark is having, those happy bastiches.

- Darcy Burner could use a little extra campaign love at the moment, due to her house having burned down. Criminy. You're on our minds, ma'am.

"Even before the arrival of white colonists, Africa already harbored not just blacks but (as we shall see) five of the world's six major divisions of humanity, and three of them are confined as natives to Africa. One-quarter of the world's languages are spoken only in Africa. No other continent approaches this human diversity." - Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies

- The opposition candidate has withdrawn, saying that it's for the protection of his supporters, but Zimbabwe's presidential runoff 'elections' will proceed against a background of overwhelming political violence.

- The real state of Iraq.

- In the news today, hymen replacement surgery is growing in popularity among Muslim women in Western countries who want to marry back into their culture; also at link, an Appropriations Cmte votes to continue wasting money on abstinence education, a pointer to a statement by Black men against the exploitation of Black women, and the news that sexual violence is now counted as a war crime by the UN.

- There really is water ice on Mars. Wicked.

- It's an oldie, but this story about the sworn virgins of northern Albania explores the only path to social independence for women in a gender repressive society.

- Immigration is the third commonest offense in federal jails, and illegal immigration is a crime so serious that even 13-year-olds and two-year-olds can be exempted.

- "If she's not crying ... I did not do my job"

- Farewell, Mr. Carlin

Now, you. What's on your minds?

Update [2008-6-23 16:5:53 by Natasha Chart]: Correction - US jails changed to federal jails.

CLIFF: I think it's beyond what you'd call dating.               
MIKEY: You going to get married?

CLIFF: (Shrugs) Maybe.               

MIKEY: You met her family? They gonna be cool about you being a white guy?

CLIFF: Priscilla says they think any woman over 30 who isn't married must be a lesbian. She figures they'll be so relieved I'm a man--               

MIKEY: Always heartwarming to see a prejudice defeated by a deeper prejudice.

- "Lone Star", 1996

- Climate change: The solution is simple.

- "... That's how right-wing crap works. It's not meant to advance or even partake of discourse; it's meant to end it. One can argue the worth of Hillary's policies or her voting record or her position on the war till the cows come home; but when she's reduced to being a bitch, that pretty much ends the discussion. ... And it's important to remember that the same holds true regarding right-wing attitudes about a black man like Obama winning the White House. ..." (via)

- "The Meeting"

- Nero fiddled while New Orleans drowned. And yeah, we knew that, but somehow it keeps being freshly awful.

- Holden obsesses with the Gaggle.

- Did you know that things are going to hell in Turkey? Well, if you did, you've been following the news better than I've been.

- McCain on FISA.

What's on your minds?

• Above, the campaign commercial that sexist Republican Dave Reichert (WA-08) ran against his challenger, Darcy Burner, in 2006. She's running again this year, and is an amazing candidate who's running a very competent, credible campaign in a district that's been sending Republicans to the House for a very long time, but voting Democratic in other federal elections.
  
• An Obama supporter takes a long, thoughtful look at the parallel between his experiences and those of Clinton supporters.
  
• Thoughts on McClellan's evolution of consciousness.
  
• GOP has potential break with gun owners.
  
• Nuclear power is just too expensive to be the answer to climate change concerns, especially compared to the costs of greater efficiency and the new generation of fossil alternatives. Full report.
  
• Fear on the campaign trail.
  
• Assertive women are unlikable, a reaction shared by both men and women. As the author says at the link, "... women are perhaps the only "low status" group whose members systematically and every bit as harshly show prejudice toward fellow members."
  
• The homosexual conspiracy strikes again.
  
• The efficiency of industrial animal production is an illusion.
  
• Yes, yes it is nice to have Fafblog back. How often can one really get a good run through of the all-important giant pill bug constituency?
  
• Movies to avoid watching before you die.

What's on your mind?

"We stand now where two roads diverge. But unlike the roads in Robert Frost's familiar poem, they are not equally fair. The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster. The other fork of the road--the one "less traveled by"--offers our last, our only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation of the earth." -- Rachel Carson

• 'Clean' coal actually dirty, expensive.
  
• Women are toys. Fertilized eggs are full people.
  
• WA State's GOP wants to repeal the 14th Amendment and their Republican incumbent in the state's 8th CD, Dave Reichert, has publicly joked about Hillary Clinton dying.
  
• She "would prefer to be killed", and she was.
  
• John McCain has called for divestment from Iran, but his McCain's advisors have made millions on business with Iran. Democracy Arsenal and Cliff Schecter have more.

What's on your mind?

It's the 5 year anniversary of Thomas Friedman giving the world his "Suck. On. This." rationale for the Iraq war. Charming.

• Treason and market failure exemplified.
  
• Lies about the expensive war in Afghanistan: it isn't cheap just because there weren't many good targets.
  
• Long-term bases in Iraq get a thumbs down from a prominent Shia cleric.
  
• Who thought it was a good idea for US troops to prosyletize for Christianity in Iraq?
  
• Fuel costs are going up, but consumption hasn't been going down as fast as it might.
  
• Complexity and inflation.
  
• Major caste protests in New Delhi.
  
• Marriage sanity in New York, sexist insanity on CNN.
  
• ExxonMobil still hates science, because we all know that the facts on global warming have a liberal bias. Or something.
  
• Texas' Supreme Court rules that it's not child abuse to raise children in an environment where the rape of teenage girls is routine. Oh wait, sorry, where the forcible marriage of teenage girls against their will to creepy old dudes with other wives is routine.
  
• You've got to be kidding me. (via)

The most alarming sign of the state of our society now is that our leaders have the courage to sacrifice the lives of young people in war but have not the courage to tell us that we must be less greedy and less wasteful.

- Wendell Berry, "Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community"

What else is on your minds?

This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time. - "Fight Club", by Chuck Palahniuk

• The emerging immigration police state and its role in ballooning the private, for-profit prison industry.
  
• Carbon nanotubes can cause asbestos-like lung injuries in mice.
  
• The New York Times is still lying about the 2000 recount.
  
• Are we coming to the end of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty?
  
• Clinton talks to the Argus Leader editorial board.
  
• For the sake of argument, hopefully productive, a Clinton supporter wants to hear the pro-Obama case. (Not, as indicated at the link, the anti-McCain case, the 'Clinton is evil' case, or the 'you'll be back, we just know it' case.)
  
• Are you in the database of 8 million 'unfriendly' Americans?
  
• There's no such thing as clean coal, which means that the carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology that Congress and the coal industry want to fund is nothing more and nothing less than a massive taxpayer-financed cash grab by an industry that should be shut down as soon as possible.
  
• They sent her Ringo Starr's clothes.
  
• The Boxer version of the Lieberman-Warner climate bill is also terrible. But Congress has this crazy idea that they need to pass something this year ... right before a likely Democratic wave election, on an issue that gives Republicans ready cover as 'moderates', because, well, frak if I can figure it out.

Now you. What's up?

- John McCain wants to keep veterans poor and uneducated for as long as possible.

- Some ideas for keeping a cool head in the climate change debate.

- Grown-up policy suggestions include acting from respect for people in countries we don't get along with all that well. Who knows, we might get along with them better someday; which might be boring, it's true, but who needs the extra tension?

- Food is power, indeed. A look at the gene modification industry and one man's quest to turn back the Green Revolution.

- John McCain as the underpants gnome.

- A weekly feminist reader.

- US money in Israeli elections.

- The FBI needs outside supervision.

- The 'Iranian' arms cache in Iraq is shrinking to nonexistence.

- It's okay to say that Jews "do not have living souls" and are not "spiritually alive" if you're a Republican, or a Republican-supporting pastor. Just, ewww.