Debunking the Solar Roadways Takedown

Note: Before you watch MY video, I highly recommend you watch SOLAR FREAKIN' ROADS!

And the two "debunking videos" I refer to are Thunderf00t's Solar Roadways, a VERY expensive joke? and EEVBlog's Solar Roadway's are Bullshit!

I highly recommend that you watch ALL three, actually, with an open mind.  The two "take-down" vid's are extremely well done - better than my own reply to them, I will freely and happily admit.  But they miss some pretty obvious things IMHO, and I'm just saying that as far away as SFR's are from being implementation ready, these guys are at least as far away from proving that the concept could never be feasible.

Republican Economic Polices Suck

By the way, I got something wrong... When I said "Michigan didn't have a hug bidget deficit last year, "that wasn't quite right. We actual had a rather large budget SURPLUS. So I ask again: WHY did this have to happen?!

And here is the KOS Article I mentioned: Minnesota Liberalism Trounces Wisconsin Conservatism
Well worth the read. Check it out. (Especially if you don't want to bother watching the video. LOL)

Ferguson Police Meme

A meme, by me, for the Ferguson Police Department and, sadly, many others.

THIS!

Maybe the Police should stop shooting all the black people?

Sources:

http://hiphopandpolitics.com/2012/04/06/29-black-people-have-been-killed-by-policesecurity-since-jan-2012-16-since-trayvon/

http://www.theroot.com/photos/2013/06/unarmed_black_men_shot_by_police_20_sad_stories.html

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/08/03/teen-totes-shotgun-through-town-still-shaken-by-mass-murder-because-2nd-amendment/

Also, Daily Kos has an excellent series of articles on Ferguson, and the absurd number of shootings of unarmed American Citizen (yes, Black ones) that have preceded. it.

Laura Ingrahm and LGBT "Child Abuse"

My take on Laura Ingrahm's recent statement that it's "child abuse" to give [transgendered] "children" "hormone therapy" and that parents "should let them go through puberty, for goodness sake."

I've also solicited some comments from others, who's opinions I both respect, and who are much closer to the issue at hand. I will add them as they come in, so this post will likely (I hope) be updated a few times in the near future.:


Rusty Shackelford (friend from MMFA):

"Besides the obvious (that she's in disagreement with the AMA, APA, HHS, and pretty much every major medical body and authority in the country), a valid point on this whole matter is the hypocrisy, as conservatives suddenly want government intervention into "parental rights" the moment the parents do something they don't like.  Parents hitting their kids is none of your business, but letting a boy wear a dress?  Call child services!"

Sterling Silver

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"It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you’re associating with black people. Do you have to?"

"You can sleep with [black people]. You can bring them in, you can do whatever you want.  The little I ask you is not to promote it on that ... and not to bring them to my games."

"I’m just saying, in your lousy fucking Instagrams, you don’t have to have yourself with, walking with black people." 

"Don't put [Magic Johnson] on an Instagram for the world to have to see so they have to call me.  And don't bring him to my games."

~soon to be former LA Clippers Owner, Donald Sterling

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BTW, just so there is no confusion, I did not feel it necessary in my video to specifically condemn Sterling's remarks. That was not actually relevant to my overall point, and at this point is hardly necessary as so many people far greater than myself have already come down on him, hard, and rightfully so.

Obviously the remarks are despicable.  That should go without saying.

I had a kind of different take on the whole thing though, that was at once both cynical and optimistic. And THAT'S what I wanted to talk about here.

A new direction for the blog, and "small government"

...And since my YouTube skills are obviously lacking, here are the two "blink and you'll miss them" graphs that I referred to (and briefly showed) in the video:

And here are the sources for this information (note that Kos in turn has linked to HIS sources!):

Epidemic of GOPer virus will kill thousands in red states
The real IRS scandal that's costing Uncle Sam trillions

This guy's work is AMAZING

Nothing political this time.

Just wanted to share the website of an artist who makes custom toys based on children's drawings. OMFG, so cute... absolutely amazing.

Kicks you in the feels...

In only have two words for everyone who doesn't support gay marriage...

1) Fuck
2) You

A Cracked article EVERYONE should read

Here's something EVERYONE should read.

And AFTER reading that, to anyone who wants to throw around the "Obama's a Nazi" (or BUSH, for that matter!) or "Eddie's a Communist" or whatever...

To anyone who wants to throw those terms around lightly, let me give you a hearty FUCK. YOU.

When we actually start exterminating people (*ahem* gays) or start siezing property whole cloth (as opposed to the Right's bed-wetting about a 1% tax increase on the top 1%'ers) then FINE, there are Nazi's and Communists amoung us.

But UNTIL then?

FUCK. YOU.

Government Welfare or Private Charity?

Conservatives HATE the very idea, the very notion of WELFARE.

Me? I hate, nay I DESPISE inefficiency and ineffective solutions.  And it is with that thought that I give you this:

And this though by the immortal Ricky Gervais:

Yeah... Now would anyone like to even ATTEMPT to tell me why we should prefer to do thing things the way we do?

When the best thing you can say about organized religion is that it is a highly inefficient way to deal with poverty? Yeah: I say it's high time we started taxing [the shit out of] it, just as we do with EVERY OTHER VICE.

Good day.

The kid who made this has a future in political cartooning...

Well done.

Another great article...

...from Cracked.

I found this particularly interesting having done the interview I did with Christine Smith.

One item in particular: The inclusion of Transgenderism in the DSM. While I still believe in the point of medical legitimacy, there were several aspects of that that I had never considered. And yeah... based on these, it probably needs to go.

That's right...

...just keep voting Republican, you brain-dead, inbred, red-necks!

They deserve every ounce of their self-inflicted pain.

But that's certainly no reason to infect them on the rest of the country!

Appalling

Great article:

Six ways America is like a 3rd world country.

Absolutely appalling.  But by all means, keep voting Republican. I'm sure they desire to do absolutely nothing is gong to fix everything.

Oh my god... So perfect...

This is so profound... Everything that is wrong with and everything that is right about the world in one, sublime 'strip:

Amen.

A great post...

I will give the following Cracked article the highest praise I possibly can, and say that,  "I'd wished I had written it!"

It's important. Read it. Digest it. Remember it. And live it!

This is important...

No one in America should work a forty hour week, for a company (such as McDonald's - the single largest employer of minimum wage workers) that makes over a Billions Dollars a year AFTER paying it's CEO nearly $14 Million Dollars, and not be able to afford to live.  And BTW...? McDonald's actually HELPS it's employees get public assistance! So... Here's a thought... If this company is so wildly successful that it can afford to TRIPLE it's CEO's salary from 2012 to 2013, despite a DROP in sales... Then why am I, the Taxpayer having to subsidize it's Labor costs? And I'm only using Mickey-D's as an example here, obviously the issue goes way beyond them, but...

1) If someone works 40+ Hours a week and still needs public assistance? The Minimum wage is too low. Period.

2) If the Company gets the taxpayer to subsidize their labor costs, and the STILL made less money? Then the CEO doesn't deserve to have his salary TRIPLED in one year. Period.

You want to know where the extra money will come from? Here's a thought: Lower your franchise fees, reduce the pay of ALL of the executives accordingly, and, if necessary, let the industry, as a whole, take a one-time hit and then start growing again, on a more sustainable path, without the taxpayer having to subsidize their labor costs. (And BTW? Raising the minimum wage will mean that McDonald's will sell more hamburgers, even at a slightly higher cost.) (DUH!)

The shareholder won't run. Not in the long-term.

And neither will the customers. If I have to pay 10 cents more for a Big Mac?  Well, that's WAY the fuck down there on the reasons I have not to eat a Big Mac!

And Conservatives? The next time I hear one of you cheap, greedy bastards say that you "honor hard work" or that you'll give an "honest day's pays for an honest day's work...?"

...I'm going to hit you in the head with a brick.

Cold outside...

Yeah... As goofy as it might seem to talk about Global Warming when it's 20 below? Saying. "So much for global warming" DOES still make you look like an idiot.

(Of course when it comes to "idiots," that old maxim, "it takes one to know one," is actually the opposite of the truth.) (Think about it... And then watch how the first person to argue that point will end up inadvertently proving it for me.)

Since I couldn't use a hyperlinked image, it's from  XKCD.

Cue the shivering climate change deniers in 3, 2, 1...