old thepete.com blog
moral compass online since 1998
The state’s new law could send hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants to prison. An analysis of fund-raising documents, lobbying records and corporate reports shows that the private prison industry helped draft and pass the measure.
So, here’s a private corporation that is LITERALLY creating criminals.
HOW IS THIS LEGAL?
Corporations that do this are actually harming society.
Texan GOP Candidate: Violent Revolution Might Be Needed in US
In news from Texas, a Republican congressional candidate has told a local TV station that a violent revolution might be needed if Republicans do not win control of Congress in next month’s election. Stephen Broden, a Christian minister, made the remark in an interview with WFAA in Dallas.
Stephen Broden: “Our nation was founded on violence.”
Another gem from ChemicalFreeSkinny on Tumblr:
Eat much of that stuff and you are in for a sweet surprise. Like MERCURY…
Hit the link above for more…a LOT more on why HFCS is very bad for you—which is funny since it’s in so much! Just keep an eye on those ingredient labels. >_<
Now THAT was bullying!
Personally, I feel like none of those kids could have had it as bad as Turing did and even then, I wonder why he couldn’t just leave the UK and be gay and brilliant someplace else.
But this speaks to the ultimate stupidity of letting fear dictate your actions. If there had been a World War III, this man could have saved countless more lives. Hell, if he hadn’t killed himself in ‘54 he might have ushered in the modern age of computers decades earlier. Maybe he’d have invented the iPad.
Thanks to stupid, useless homophobia, we’ll never know.
But it’s not enough to just blame the homophobics out there.
It’s also our leaders that make no sense. How DADT or any kind of homophobia is tolerated in 21st Century America is testament to our shitty, shitty leaders who take a stand like they haven’t any legs.
Obama says bullying isn’t a right of passage—my ass it isn’t! Everyone gets bullied—but this is all beside the point. The real issue is irrational fear. Obama should speak out against irrational fear of ANYthing.
Gays, Muslims, terrorists—OH WAIT… some irrational fear Obama *wants* us to feel. :(
Barack Obama goes on the Daily Show and gets tumblr-blogged…
From bbook:
“When we promised during the campaign change you can believe in, it wasn’t change you can believe in in 18 months. It was change you can believe in but were going to have to work for it.” - President Obama told Jon Stewart before a wildly enthusiastic crowd of 550 at the Harman Center for the Arts in downtown Washington.
The 30-minute interview will air tonight on The Daily Show.
(via NYTimes)
Very fair point, President Obama. Also, sweet mug.
Meh, I disagree—if he had meant that, he should have said that. Preach it to us—make us understand what being grown-up is like, instead of pandering to our hopes and dreams like all politicians do. Besides, how much did you promise specifically that you would do but have yet to? There are still troops in Iraq, Gitmo is open, and I read someplace you think it’s OK to assassinate an American citizen just because you think he’s a terrorist? What’s up with that?
Keep doing crazy shit, Tea Partiers! The rest of America loves a good spectacle.
Tired of the naysayers? Check out NASA’s Climate Change Evidence page: http://climate.nasa.gov/evidence
Are you tired of hearing people spread doubt about climate change? Tired of scientific distrust and misinformation? If you defend science, and you want to send people to a one-stop shop for climate change evidence … check out NASA’s Climate Change Evidence page:
Automatic reblog.
Same.
Thanks to itsjustsummer for reblogging stfuteabaggers.
Of course, naysayers can also look at NYC weather—it can’t decide whether it’s late summer (today), autumn (yesterday) or winter (last week).
If nothing else, you must agree that there is more evidence for Climate Change/Global Warming, than God.
Yowza… apparently, losing windmill-making jobs to China is something West Virginia voters should be concerned about. O_O
From friendlyatheist:
“It’s all about the truth, people. And all the evidence is crystal clear right now: the earth is far older than 6,000 years. Evolution is a real, and it is a process built on raw chance driven by the brutal engines of selection, and there is no sign of a loving, personal god, but only billions of years of pitiless winnowing without any direction other than short-term survival and reproduction. It’s not pretty, it’s not consoling, it doesn’t sanctify virginity, or tell you that god really loves your foreskin, but it’s got one soaring virtue that trumps all the others: it’s true.”—
Confrontation all the way : Pharyngula
Brilliant. Read this, all of it, now.
(via bildungsroman)
YES! GO READ IT NOW! I COMMAND IT!
Dude, why are we still having this conversation? We’ve ALL been saying this shit for years! I’m sick of people telling me to go read stuff I already know. It’s just replacing one dogma with another. QUICK! GO READ THIS, IT SHALL REINFORCE EVERYTHING YOU BELIEVE!
Gee, thanks, but I’m already pretty firm in my point-of-view. I don’t need to read someone state the obvious.
And for God’s sake (!) stop using the word “selection” when referring to evolution. That suggests there’s a thought process behind things that happen. It’s not “the brutal engines of selection” it’s the brutal engines of FATE. There’s no being or even “unit” that “makes” a choice: “You get to live, YOU do not.”
It’s just random luck meeting random preparedness—fate.
It’s like when people call evolution a “process”. It isn’t. It may look like one because we line the evidence up in a nice easy-to-understand fashion. But the reality is that it’s not a process. It’s a mess of random events that cause things randomly. It’s not even “survival of the fittest,” it’s more “survival of the lucky.”
When we use words like “process” and “selection” we just give the believers room to wiggle and redefine what “truth” even means. That, in turn, allows them to keep preaching. And THAT, in turn, makes me want to walk away from the discussion, sit down and wait for the believers to die.
This is why I asked: why are we still having this discussion?
