Category: Politics
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The Extraterrestrial Lobby
Stephen Bassett is very excited. Bassett is the United States’ only lobbyist dedicated to extraterrestrial issues, and his world has been rocked in the past couple of weeks. I hope that this is only just the beginning. This is the biggest news story in history. After presidential candidate Hillary Clinton discussed the possibility of human-alien…
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Hanoi’s New Arms?
Dan de Luce and Keith Johnson at Foreign Policy report that the U.S. ban on arms sales to Vietnam is likely no more. The White House appears poised to end a ban on arms sales to Vietnam in time for a landmark visit by President Barack Obama later this month, despite misgivings from some lawmakers and human…
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How to Waste $1.4 Billion
Scientific American highlights a new study on the effectiveness of a $1.4 billion U.S. program to promote abstinence until marriage in order to prevent the spread of HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa. The program has proved inadequate, to say the least: A rigorous comparison of national data from countries that received abstinence funding under the 2003 U.S. President’s…
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Breaking Down the Evangelical White Savior Complex
Oy vey. This article from The Washington Post — “My wife and I are white evangelicals. Here’s why we chose to give birth to black triplets” — has some problems, to say the least. A few examples: I grew up as a child of evangelical missionaries in Honduras, very aware of racial diversity because I was the blue-eyed,…
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Paul Ryan Face Plants
David Dayen has some harsh (and fair) criticism of Paul Ryan’s work as Speaker of the House so far: By the end, Boehner had come to hate the House Freedom Caucus, the far-right cabal that brought on his ouster through its relentless opposition to compromise. But Ryan merely fears the Freedom Caucusers, unwilling to cross…
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I, too, will continue my boycott of North Carolina.
Our governor (yes, the Minnesotans said a year residency was long enough to claim him as my own) recently announced a travel ban to North Carolina for state employees in light of the state’s anti-anti-discrimination bill. The bill overrides and forbids local anti-discrimination policies in the Tar Heel State. In a statement, Gov. Mark Dayton said:…
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The Magic of Macy’s: Border Patrol Not Included
There are now 14 candidates in the GOP primary field. We can assume that at least two more will join the clown car: John Kasich (Governor of Ohio) and Scott Walker (Governor of Wisconsin). That’s 16 candidates dedicated to proving to the Republican base that they are the craziest–and therefore the most relatable. That means we…
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Rick Perry Made a Creepy, Childish Video
Republican long-shot candidate Rick Perry released a video today, “Economic Freedom: An Animation.” Apparently the stick figures and PowerPoint transitions weren’t enough to indicate to the average Rick Perry supporter that the video is, in fact, an animation. The video opens: In the wake of the 2008 recession as millions of hard working Americans lost…
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Spite the Misogynists. Go see Mad Max: Fury Road.
I was about halfway through writing a post about this, but it appears Aja Romano at The Daily Dot and David Futrelle at We Hunted the Mammoth beat me to it. I’m not even mad. Go read Aja’s and David’s hilarious takedowns of the misogynistic reaction to “Mad Max: Fury Road.” Here are a couple highlights: As…
Timothy Pate 