A surprisingly good talk ...

... on the Mandelbrot set (the poster child of fractals), aimed at the interested layperson. A vague memory of high school math will easily suffice.

(alt. video link)

I say "surprisingly" because this is a talk given by an out loud and proud fundie. It's a pity that he's such a god-botherer, because in the parts where he's not proselytizing, it's as good as any that I've seen on this topic. I actually learned a few things myself.

So, recommendation: skip the first few moments, and then watch up till ~22:00.

I watched a little beyond the recommended end point. I had to laugh at how this guy believes in atoms and Kepler's laws for describing planetary motion, not to mention his innate faith in the output of his computer, but nonetheless insists that "the planets were created on day 4," and that all of the amazing math he had earlier been talking about was "waiting for us to discover it for 6000 years."

I gave up at ~41:00, when it seemed clear that the downward trend had become monotonic. The True Believer's arrogance of certainty always grates. And when he started sniping about the theory of evolution, I found it about as impressive as what you'd find from the supporters in the comments section under a Ray Comfort/Kirk Cameron banana video.

In conclusion: Yes, there are things that amaze and astound us, in and about the world and the universe in which we live. I completely agree that we do not know how to explain many of these things. However, that is no reason not to try. Just throwing up your hands and saying "god did it" is nothing more than an argument from incredulity. [1] It is no different from the claim that volcanoes erupt because we haven't thrown enough young women into them.

(x-posted on the FB)

---

[1] https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Argument_from_incredulity

Exactly right, @MadBastardsAll

Chris Thompson nails it:

The Cardinal Way isn’t playing the right way, it’s making a big fucking deal out of playing the right way ...

Way back, when I was a kid and dinosaurs roamed the Earth, I loved me some Bob Gibson and Lou Brock, to the point where my maternal grandfather banished me from the house during the 1967 World Series.

Not sure when it began, but I did at some point, some years later, start becoming sick of the sanctimony of the St. Louis Cardinals. Or, at least, clowns like Joe Buck (of Fox Sports, of course) intoning about them.

And then, one day, Tony LaRussa and Albert Pujols were prominently on display at a Glenn Beck rally. (This is back when that slob was big -- kind of the Donald Trump of his day.) I've never forgiven either for that, and will not, until they publicly apologize.

I do, however, love me some Yadier Molina. So, since they're apparently rebuilding ...

First step, IMNSHO? Make Dexter Fowler happy.

Yawn. And cackles.

So, one of the two least classiest people in the country is endorsing the other. #shockedshocked

I did enjoy this bit of damning with faint praise, though:

“Over the years Palin has actually cultivated a number of relationships in Iowa,” said Craig Robinson, the former political director of the Republican Party of Iowa and publisher of the website The Iowa Republican. “There are the Tea Party activists who still think she’s great and a breath of fresh air, but she also did a good job of courting Republican donors in the state,” he added.

"Has actually."

"Who still."

"But."

And when it comes to slimeweasels wielding shivs?

“Palin’s brand among evangelicals is as gold as the faucets in Trump Tower,” said Ralph Reed ...

Eh, who knows. Maybe that was meant as a sincere compliment.

To the extent that we can say "sincere" with a straight face when discussing this bunch, I mean.

So glad I'm not paying attention to politics anymore.

Why did I even click that link?

The problem for the G.O.P. is that it’s centered where national security and immigration intersect ...

Actually, Ross, the problem is that you still think the Republican Party is "centered." On anything.

[Added] Also, that picture makes me think of one thing: "preznit give me turkee."

Line of the Day: 2015-08-27

Altruism and compassion toward the feelings of others represent the best of human impulses. And it is good to continually challenge rigid categories and entrenched beliefs. But that comes at a sacrifice when the subjective is elevated over the assumption that lurking out there is some kind of real world.
    -- George Johnson

(h/t: @drninashapiro via @SamHarrisOrg's RT)

Phrase of the Day

From an older post, but so spot-on:

... Opus Dei strokebook First Things featuring the Douthats of Tomorrow.

Line of the Day: 2015-06-28

I wage civilization, motherfucker.
    -- Thers

You always knew the Republicans could be summed up in a cartoon, right?

An excerpt from Brian McFadden's latest.

Missed this last week, but ...

... wow, just when you thought Peak Wingnut was almost nearly maybe in sight (sorry, JC), it apparently became time to come out of the fort built from couch cushions to bellow about that noted liberal spearhead of political correctness run amok, the NFL brass.

And also, "... because corporate America is, itself, liberal ..."

Bless you and your cast-iron stomach once again, Roy Edroso.

On the upside, he's now got more time to go on the down-low

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

(h/t: KK, via email and the FB)

Line of the Day: 2014-07-08

Anyone got a Thomas Aquinas facepalm gif?
    -- Roy Edroso

Line of the Day: 2014-03-24

But he talks, a lot. It is a wind concerto played entirely on dog whistles ...
    -- Adam Weinstein, describing Michael Hill, in "Inside the
    American Id: Chilling With the South’s New Secessionists"

Line of the Day: 2014-03-11

Still, I guess this ["hunger=dignity speech"] is a further nail in the coffin of [Paul] Ryan’s reputation as Serious, Honest Conservative. But I am of course a shrill bad guy, because I was guilty of premature anti-Ryanism — you weren’t supposed to figure out that he was a con man until 2011 or 2012.
    -- Paul Krugman

(previously in shrill)

[Added] More debunking of Ryan's speech from Jon Stewart, et al.

Follow-up to earlier tweet

Shortly after posting this ...

Reminder: taxes pay for charter schools. But we get less oversight. Thus: a big win for Texas edumacation! http://t.co/br9oUZreSg #wingnuts

— bjkeefe (@bjkeefe) January 19, 2014

... I happened across Dok Zoom's latest "Sundays with the Christianists." In a change of pace, this week he has published some emails from readers who were "educated" with the sorts of textbooks he usually reviews in that space. Definitely worth a read, if only to lament how many children don't recover from the early brainwashing.

WTF, Michigan?

Thanks be to TBogg, who somehow finds the energy to keep up with the atrocities.

[Added] Also.

The mind reels. (But, really, how else to stay on track with Ms. Noonan?)

Not even a shorter. An actual quote:

Oh, Peggy’s reaching for her martini shaker again.

Maybe it grates on him [Vladimir Putin] that in his time some of the stupider Americans have crowed about American exceptionalism a bit too much ...

Unpossible!

__________

Bonus fun fact: Firefox's spell-checker simply does not recognize exceptionalism.

Communists.

Line of the Day: 2013-09-13

I realize my lack of ruthlessness goes to the heart of the liberal dilemma.
    -- Roy Edroso

Dilemmas are hard.

Eleven-dimensional chess now goes to twelve

Oh my word. You must put off for three minutes whatever it is you were going to do next and read Roy's UPDATE under his latest announcement post.

You will never truly understand wingnuts until you realize how deeply they believe in Obama's seekrit majicull powerz.

(You will actually never truly understand wingnuts. Unpossible.)

Good night, and good luck

-- or --

Why we so rarely blog about politics anymore, part [manyromannumerals]

Y'know, there's lying to pollsters because Activism. There's tribamalism, there's the decades-long crippling effect of the rightwing noise machine, there's the black-guy-in-the-White-House thing.

&c.

And then there's this set of responses to a survey question ("Who do you think was more responsible for the poor response to Hurricane Katrina: George W. Bush or Barack Obama?"), from within the past week (via):

Twenty-eight percent said they think former President George W. Bush, who was in office at the time, was more responsible for the poor federal response while 29 percent said Obama, who was still a freshman U.S. Senator when the storm battered the Gulf Coast in 2005, was more responsible.

Bonus! "Nearly half of Louisiana Republicans — 44 percent — said they aren't sure who to blame."

I'm walking on sunshine, oo, oo. And don't it feel good.

Yeah, sure. Like we don't already know the answer will be "Derp!!!1!"

(h/t (and pic source via): Rebecca Schoenkopf)