Both Penn and Teller and Cracked.com have explained in detail how dumb recycling is.   We can't run out of room, percentage of landmass, it costs just as much money as producing things new, blah de blah treehuggers.  Those hippies sure are dumb, aren't they?  

Except they are… Read full post »

I've been observing the soi-disant "conservative movement" for some time now, and I think I should say something.

 Y'all do know the rest of us think you're crazy, right?

I should preface this by saying that I'm specifically not speaking of the self-identified Republicans or other conservatives… Read full post »

Earlier today, I was thinking about a conversation I had with a fellow academic type about how he could get a job in a linguistics department in Germany but didn't want to.  One of the things he mentioned was hostility towards Americans.   Now, there are some things people might legiti… Read full post »

...as a person who is above the law.

 Vice President Cheney admitted on national TV that he authorized the use of torture (screw those "harsh interrogation" euphemisms)  on prisoners.  The specific techniques in question are unequivocably torture, unequivocably violations of the Geneva… Read full post »

Interested?  

 I actually made this suggestion on Barack Obama's new http://change.gov/  website.   I love that site.   Seriously.   All the stuff under "agenda"....especially the "Civil Rights" and "Ethics" sections.    Equal pay, open government re… Read full post »

Newsweek published an article which includes further information about Sarah Palin's $150,000+ shopping spree.   It was described by a McCain aide as, and I quote, "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast."

I hope that story, with that exact phrase, gets rep… Read full post »

My family, the part from Europe, came to these shores very early.   Pretty much as soon as there was a boat to Virginia, they were on it.  I'm a descendent of two Revolutionary War captains (Capt. Thomas Amis and Capt. Thomas Austin) and also of one Thomas Pitman.   Pitman… Read full post »

Call it Unpopular Opinion #278.

 "Small government" has been the mantra that has put the last thirty years worth of Republicans in power, during which the government has not gotten notably smaller.  In fact, it keeps getting bigger and more incompetent and more expensive.    We ha… Read full post »

Apparently the sight of a preacher getting all worked up and shouting about how America has a history of racism and injustice is enough to freak some people right out.   People like Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity, who normally like to talk pretty tough, come over all vaporis… Read full post »

Seriously, I have been thinking about this.  McCain has been dropping everywhere in the polls, but especially in some Southern states which the Republicans no doubt previously thought were secure.   West Virginia is in doubt, and the gap in Georgia has been closing.

The reasons for that… Read full post »