Even the Power of Jesus Won't Get You 10 Points With This Guy

I am not a fan of Tim Tebow. Not at all. For a variety of reasons. Chief among them is that he inspires an insane level of slavish devotion coverage from the media for reasons I cannot quite comprehend. It can't be because he is a good quarterback because, brother, he flat out sucks at slinging the ball.

Nevertheless, the Legend of the Mediocre Messiah persists. To the point that, even though Tebow hasn't played a competitive game in almost two years, people are still putting him on their fantasy football teams.

According to NFL on ESPN, Tim Tebow was owned by 1.3 percent of teams in ESPN’s fantasy leagues as of Tuesday, despite the fact he hasn’t played an NFL game since Dec. 30, 2012.

Surprisingly, he actually beat out an NFL Week 1 starter: Jaguars quarterback Chad Henne, who appears on just 0.8 percent of teams in ESPN leagues.

That. Is. Insane. Granted, Henne isn't a great QB either. But the guy is starting a game while Tebow is working for the SEC Network. You may as well put Steve Young or Y.A. Tittle on your squad while you're at it.

Seriously, people. Tebow sucks at QB. Just let it go.

Okay Climate Change Deniers, Here's Your Chance to Make $10,000

My suggestion, though, is that you don't spend it before you win it. Because the chance you actually win this $10,000 is very, very, very...hell, it's zero. The chance you win this money is zero.

Despite the scientific proof, the overwhelming scientific proof that human-instigated climate change is real, there are some ignorant people out there who refuse to believe it. Unfortunately, a good number of these ignorant fools are Republicans in the federal government.

Anyway, this refusal to acknowledge fact has some very real repercussions. Rising tides, drought, disrupted weather patterns...oh, and the end of our way of life as we know it today. That also happens down the road. But none of that matters to these brave deniers of truth. For reasons that usually go "Obama...UN...socialism...no freedom!!!"

Well, one scientist is now giving these fools the chance to profit.

Outraged by the unsavory tactics of climate change deniers, physicist Christopher Keating says he'll give $10,000 to anyone who can use the scientific method to prove that human-instigated climate change isn't real.

Keating has been involved in one way or another with climate change for the past three decades. He's been a professor of physics for over 20 years and has taught at the U.S. Naval Academy and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.

Keating taught at Annapolis and New London? Well, there goes the "He's a god-hating liberal" argument out the door. That's going to put these deniers in a tough spot before they even start.

Actually, there are two prizes. $10,000 to anyone who can "prove — via the scientific method — that anthropogenic climate change is not real". In other words, simply saying "It used to be cold a long time ago. Humans exhale CO2 - how can it be bad??" isn't going to cut it.

But if that is too heavy of a lift, Keating will give you a grand to "anyone who can provide any scientific evidence at all that it isn't real."

C'mon deniers!! You talk all the time about all this "evidence" that disproves man-made climate change. But it's ignored or suppressed or what have you. Now's your chance! Make a grand and show this remarkably-qualified scientist that he's wrong.

Something tells me that Dr. Keating's money is safe.

Oh, and on a completely unrelated topic, half of the US is in drought right now. Sure that has nothing to do with climate change.

This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things

Of course, you are almost asking for this to happen when some of your biggest donors are oil companies. But that doesn't change that this is complete and utter crap (Dallas Morning News via io9).

The Dallas Morning News has learned that the Perot Museum failed to display a panel that spelled out the link between burning fossil fuels, higher concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and a warming planet.

The 4-by-2.5-foot panel had been designed to hang in its earth sciences hall but was lost in the bustle leading up to the museum’s opening in December 2012, said Steve Hinkley, vice president of programs at the Perot Museum. He did not learn of the panel’s omission until a reporter began inquiring about it earlier this month.

......

The missing panel, titled “Changing Climate,” states that “Volcanic eruptions and burning fossil fuels increase the amount of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere. This warms the Earth and can cause sea levels to rise and climates to change.”

A caption below a photo of what looks like a smokestack added: “Humans have altered Earth’s climate by burning coal and other fossil fuels that release carbon dioxide,” according to an image of the panel provided by the Perot Museum and by the panel’s designer.

The article goes on to have Hinkley state the reason the panel is missing is that it was improperly designed for the space and they need to make a new one. Of course, this problem arose a year and a half ago and I am willing to wager it doesn't take that long to make a new panel.

No, the problem is much simpler. Big Oil/Gas/Whatever donates money to these museums and then makes sure that scientific facts that would hurt their bottom line simply disappear or get crowded out by a bunch of noise.

People Are Insane

So a few months back I mentioned there is a new drug making the rounds called Krokodil. It's a mixture of codeine and harmless things like gasoline or paint thinner. It has one major side effect: your skin falls off.

Of course it comes from Russia, where they'll apparently drink or inject anything for a momentary high. But to their credit, at least they didn't shoot the drug into their genitals. Because, y'know, your skin falls off

According to José Sotero Ruiz Hernández, an official with Mexico's National Institute of Migration, a 17-year-old girl in Puerto Vallarta presented lacerations to her genitals that she said were caused by her addiction to krokodil.

"The young woman who used this drug had an infection that had rotted her genitals. It wasn't sexually transmitted. She said she'd been using krokodil for the last two months," Hernandez said, according to a Huffington Post translation of Mexican newspaper El Periodico Correo.

It's not like it's hard to find out that this shit rots your skin. How far past the pale do you have to be to willing shoot a flesh-rotting cocktail of crap into your business?

Oh, here's why they do it:

It is significantly cheaper than heroin, and reportedly ten times as potent.

I guess in their minds, the "cheap high > rotting junk" equation makes sense.

"He-Man is More Powerful than Jesus"

Now, before you start trying to save my soul or argue that Skeletor is stronger than either of them, I am not the one that said this. This quote comes from a video made in the mid-80s by Phil Phillips and Gary Greenwald that attacked the demonic, anti-Christian gateway toys, movies and cartoons such as He-Man, Dungeons and Dragons and ... The Smurfs.

Okay, I'll give them the last one. Smurfs are weird.

Greenwald was the asshat who really ramped up the "Everything kids like are full of Satan" movement in the 1980s. And the video excerpted below was his masterpiece, his Pietà of insanity, simply called Deception of a Generation.

Game pieces possessed by demonic spirits. Voltron is sexually oriented. G.I. Joe is occult-oriented. You have to watch out for those sneaky Hindus. Obi Wan Kenobi practices something called "Obi Witchcraft" (God as my witness they actually say this). And of course, the creepy creepy Smurfs are dead, gay Satan creatures.

Some things from the 80s really, really sucked. Greenwald and the other Bible-thumpers were one of those things. And while it is fun (and proper) to laugh at this bullshit, it has serious consequences for the rest of us even today.

The people who said and thought things like "They think He-Man is more powerful than Jesus" are the same knuckleheads who say "The Affordable Care act is socialism" and "Obama is like Hitler!" today. It's the same reactionary mindset that sees enemies and conspiracies around every corner and in the heart of every person that is different from them.

It's a toxic mix of self-righteousness, fear and stupidity that never questions itself, never wonders if they have it right. They see something different...and it's bad. Or possessed by Satan. Or Stalin brought back to life.

Yeah, Greenwald is a doofus with a bad haircut. But he set the table for people like Glenn Beck and the Tea Party. And it's why we can't get anything done in this country today.

What's a Little Skin Loss Between Druggies?

This is some seriously fucked-up shit.

Krokodil, already a popular drug in Russia, has finally made its way to the United States. The Banner Poison Control Center in Arizona has reported two cases of the flesh-rotting drug’s use, believed to be the first in the US.

The drug is a mixture of codeine and hydrocarbons like gasoline, paint thinner, or oil that is injected directly into veins. It’s named krokodil because once injected, it rots your skin from the inside out, causing an alligator skin-like appearance.

First off, is anyone surprised this started in Russia? This is the same country that decided drinking anti-freeze made for a great apéritif. Thanks, guys. Thanks a whole lot.

Second of all...how completely fucked up do you have to be to look at this shit and decide "Yeah, my skin may fall off but at least I'll be high for a minute"? That's a level of addiction that makes regular addicts look at you like you're a fuck-up in life. Again, here are the ingredients:

Rather than shoot this shit into your veins, you could at least just huff the damn paint thinner, Yes, it's bad for you but at least you don't look like the Nazis at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark.