100 Days, Korea, Science, Delusions, God, Gays, Enemies

  • The 100 day mark was once the subject of angry Trump promises (Many, many, many, very, very boastful rants). The Big Empty develops a checklist of presidential triumphs.
     
  • Hope rings out that, with one deliberate economic and political betrayal after another, conservative working class voters will finally realize they have been duped. driftglass is having none of it.
     
  • Dr. Mark Bear at MadMikesAmerica rips Joe Scarborough, Morning Joe, who praises Fox and Trump for their impact on popular culture.
     
  • As China, then Russia, begin to get drawn into the Korean nuclear mess over missiles, Green Eagle reviews the domino history of 1914 that made a single murder into the Great World War. Of course, that was before we knew to number them.
     
  • Andy Borowitz reports on the surprise surrender of North Korea after Mike Pence ferociously squints toward Pyongyang.
     
  • This week, we find angry rejection of Trumpian ‘Alternative Facts’. The Seattle Pi points out the lessons of Earth Day and the March for Science is that science trumps lies, liars, and alternate … well … you know.
     
  • The March for Science was supposed to be non-partisan, above politics. PZ Myers, argues that the entire movement is political, that it very much is partisan, and that it ought to be.
     
  • Science, and most informed people, embrace the principle that a hypothesis that requires the fewest assumptions to explain known facts is usually closest to truth: Occam’s Razor. The Journal of Improbable Research finds a recent study that indicates most people prefer complex explanations for pretty much everything.
     
  • A prehistoric monument rises in Wiltshire, England, and ancient stone heads appear on a speck of land in the South Pacific. Last Of The Millenniums discovers the link between Stonehenge and Easter Island. Not exactly science, but our President might buy it.
     
  • A white woman in Washington state who identifies as black, explains that others should see her as transracial. A mother in Oregon shoots her children. A substantial minority of voters cast ballots for Donald Trump. nojo at Stinque provides insight into the power and danger of delusion.
     
  • In The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser, former pastor and current atheist Bruce, with a fascination that is both repelled and amused, watches vicious debate between two religious writers who do not like the idea of gay love. One has a harsh view of sodomites, the other regards his colleague’s views as limp-wristed, lacking sufficient angry fervor.
     
  • Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson argues that local efforts to meet EPA clean water regulations are not sustainable.
     
  • As libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara takes a look at animal rights arguments, his perspective is that of an Ayn Rand enthusiast. Since human rights ought to be confined to humans, he suggests a sort of circle of devolution: human rights to animal rights to plant rights to the end of human rights. It’s one of the better arguments for the binary view that seems to dominate most extremism: no middle ground. Any objection to pulling the wings off captured flies, any disapproval of setting fire to the occasional stray cat, equates to the demolition of human freedom.
     
  • At The Saturday Afternoon Post, Jack Jodell is inspired by Richard Nixon to develop an enemies list of conservative politicians. However, while Nixon wanted to destroy, Jack only wants to vote.