Silenced Majority Portal

Wingnut Representative Franks Says Blacks Were Better Off Under Slavery

Bitter Retiring Kentucky Wingnut Bunning Blocks Bill to Extend Unemployment & Says "Tough Shit"

(On TV, they say "tough blank.")  He was the lone standout in both parties and was pissed because he was missing a basketball game.  This guy is the real Scrooge.

 

South Dakota to Have Wacky Curriculum Linking Astrology & Climate Change

 South Dakota Passes Resolution Telling Schools to Teach 'Astrological' Theories of Global Warming : TreeHugger - CO2 is called the "gas of life" and climate change is taught as "theory" not fact.  

"the South Dakota House of Representatives passed a resolution to "urge" public schools to teach astrology. By a 36-30 vote, the legislators passed House Concurrent Resolution 1009, "Calling for balanced teaching of global warming in the public schools of South Dakota."

They further legislate that: "there are a variety of climatological, meteorogical, astrological, thermological, cosmological and ecological dynamics that can effect (sic) world weather phenomena.

I went to school in South Dakota - in 8th grade I took Space Science, and in 10th I took Advanced Biology, which is where I learned about Evolution!!  We had Sex Education at school AND at church!  How things have changed in four decades!  (I think it's called De-Evolution.)

Tsunami is Coming!

Energy map coming off Chile - entire Pacific Coast is under warning - sirens sounding across Hawaiian islands - it's a 400 mile long fault off Chile, normally 40 miles for quakes.  Hawaii is due for some big waves.  (1st graphic from NOAA, 2nd from der Spiegel, 3rd from a French geology book, 4th from US Geologic survey)  The Pacific Plate is huge!  The Chilean earthquake is 100x stronger than Haiti's, since it measured on a logarithmic scale.  1/4 of the globe is under tsunami warning.

Projected time of arrival for waves:

Les projections sur le trajet du tsunami - LeMonde.fr

from NOAA:

the Oregon-Washington border     1439 PST FEB 27 2239 UTC FEB 27
DART 46419          1440 PST FEB 27 2240 UTC FEB 27
Seaside, Oregon         1446 PST FEB 27 2246 UTC FEB 27
La Push, Washington        1456 PST FEB 27 2256 UTC FEB 27
Westport, Washington       1457 PST FEB 27 2257 UTC FEB 27
Point Grenville, Washington      1459 PST FEB 27 2259 UTC FEB 27
the Washington-British Columbia border   1501 PST FEB 27 2301 UTC FEB 27
Neah Bay, Washington       1507 PST FEB 27 2307 UTC FEB 27
Astoria, Oregon         1511 PST FEB 27 2311 UTC FEB 27
Tofino, British Columbia      1515 PST FEB 27 2315 UTC FEB 27
the north tip of Vancouver Island, British Columbia 1516 PST FEB 27 2316 UTC FEB 27
Port Angeles, Washington      1544 PST FEB 27 2344 UTC FEB 27
Langara Island, British Columbia 

 
 
 
 

Liberals & Atheists Smarter, Say Scientists, & Intelligent Women May Be Less Monogamous

 (who are probably liberals and atheists)

 Liberals and atheists smarter? Intelligent people have values novel in human evolutionary history, study finds

More intelligent people are more likely to exhibit social values and religious and political preferences that are novel to the human species in evolutionary history.  Specifically, liberalism and atheism, and for men (but not women), preference for sexual exclusivity correlate with higher intelligence.

Wow - let's pick that apart now!  It's a study published in Social Psychology Quarterly, March 2010.ears."  If you read the fine print (and there is lots), down at the bottom, it says that the more intelligent people also value family, marriage, children and friends.  They aren't freaks.  The scientists conclude that the novel ideas of the intelligent may be adaptive for survival.  Nonmonogamy isn't a novel idea for men, but for women - so that may explain the discrepant findings by gender on that issue.

French-style Student Riots at Berkeley Over Tuition Hikes

Obama Aides to Meet With Atheist Group

 Obama aides to meet with atheists on White House grounds | McClatchy

The White House has hung out with Christians, Muslims, Jews and Buddhists so now it's time to hear what nonbelievers have to say.  This is in the spirit of religious tolerance that this country was founded on.  (The President is a Christian.)  Secular humanists will be represented at a morning meeting at the Eisenhower Building.  They will discuss child medical neglect, military proselytizing and faith-based inititiatives.  The coalition meeting there has a board that includes Salman Rushdie and Christopher Hitchens.  It is a lobby group.  

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found in 2008 that 52% of Americans think that churches should stay out of politics.  In 1996, the figure was 54%.  75% of Americans attend religious services at least some time during a year.  Americans told Pew that the Republicans seemed friendlier toward religion but that Obama seemed more religion-friendly than most Democrats.  He did include "nonbelievers" in his inaugural address.  (I was standing right there.)

Obama Nails It On Health Care

Obama: "Would you be satisfied if every member of Congress just had catastrophic care - you think we'd be better health care purchasers?"

Barrasso: "I think actually we would ... We'd really focus on it. We'd have more, as you say, skin in the game. And especially if they had a savings account - a health savings account - they could put their money into that, and they'd be spending the money out of that."

Obama: "Would you feel the same way if you were making $40,000. Or if that was your income? Because that's the reality for a lot of folks."

 

Daily Kos: State of the Nation
 

McCain Features Opponent's "Birther" Stance in Campaign Ad

Joe Lieberman Celebrates Birthday on Twitter with Sinatra Theme