Thirty-five signs that show you’ve destroyed your heritage

Over at Buzzfeed, they worked up a mighty powerful post on “38 Signs you’re from North Carolina.”

It was described as “spot on” and “this is hilarious” by my North Carolina friends.

Well, Buzzfeed, you’re a failure. The ONLY thing you’ve succeeded in is getting attention and hits on your site. But your list sucks.

I opened the article, and read with great hope and tenacity. I figured I would love the way it made me relish in my North Carolina upbringing.

Upon reading, of the 38 signs I’m from North Carolina … I qualified for about 2 or 3 of them.

Insert tail between legs.

Number two is about Cheerwine. I loved Cheerwine growing up. Number two got me.

But I’ve never fought over the best barbecue. I’d argue for my Texas friend’s recipe for beef brisket over NC BBQ any day.

I left NC before Asheville became the beer brewing capital of the state. I didn’t really drink much when I lived there either.

I grew up in a Michiganer’s home, so while we had a firm religious hold, we didn’t say “Y’all.”

Number six is about sweet tea. And while I loved it growing up, that shit is bad for you. It eats your teeth, and makes you love guns and churches with huge stages, drum sets and awful music. Or something.

Number seven is about NASCAR, which is the dumbest, gasoline-wasting, brain-cell depleting “sport” ever. You know how kittens love to watch a toy go around and around in front of their face for long periods? That’s NASCAR. Only cats know when to say “Fuck off” before scratching your hand and taking a nap.

But number eight appeals to my long-guilty pleasure of loving Bojangles. It’s the best fried chicken biscuit … ever. No argument. Shut up.

They are so bad for you, but so good.

Mmmm.

Then there’s a series of things that don’t appeal to me. Collard greens, burgers all the way, the fight over first in flight. Who cares. I never got too upset about Florida license plates. I don’t have a basketball team I love over another. Carolina blue and Duke blue can screw themselves.

Pro sports were not a part of my upbrining.

But the one that hurts the most is the last on the list.

Number 38.

“And even when the state disappoints you, you still ardently defend it.” 

I’m guilty for dragging North Carolina under the bus. It’s responsible for the term “Yeshua Fog,” a place so densely disturbed by unfounded religious tenacity that its citizens often can’t see three feet in front of them.

But what do I know? I live in the Diversity Fog, blinded by all the different views from different ideas. A place that made me turn on my heritage and whine endlessly about it.

 

 

USA may be the greatest nation on the planet … but our currency design is a bit lackluster

When the one hundred dollar bill gets re-designed, maybe there should have been someone in the design field roped in as a consultant.

Just sayin’.

Via Kottke

 

My brother went to heaven and sent me back a picture

My brother is a gigantic music lover.

He’s a musician and he performs as much as he can. He’s nothing short of an audiophile, as well.

When we were growing up, his taste in music was so vast and somewhat esoteric. We lived in podunk North Carolina, but he somehow knew about bands that even Tina is surprised I know about.

I’m really not sure who influenced him, but he’s always been my influence for new, fresh and great music.

To give you some idea how nuts he is about great music and sound, he bought a lot of vinyl records over the course of a year or more. But he didn’t own a record player to play them.

He knew what he wanted, and bought records when he could afford them and then the “right” record player when the time came.

That, dear reader, is dedication.

Right now, my sister-in-law and he are in Los Angeles. He sent me the above panorama taken at Amoeba Records, which according to him is, “Biggest record shop I’ve ever seen…amazing.”

Click to enlarge!

 

Don’t believe everything you read: Danes are happier than you

Those atheistic, high-taxed, better income, more respectable Danes make your miserable life more miserable … Despite the difficulties associated with quantifying happiness, each year the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) unveils its report on life satisfaction in the developed world. Since it was founded in 1961, the OECD has strived to help governments design better policies for better lives for their citizens. Based on this experience, its 11 topics reflect what the OECD has identified as essential to well-being in terms of material living conditions (housing, income, jobs) and quality of life (community, education, environment, governance, health, life satisfaction, safety and work-life balance). Once again, the United States failed to make the top 10 list of happiest nations in the world, while all the Scandinavian nations did. They all have small stable populations. The US has the highest population growth rate of any industrialized nation. Sirens swim in Copenhagen’s harbor and canals Denmark tops the OECD ranking with the most satisfied citizens. If one only glances at the numbers, the reason is not obvious. Denmark ranks no higher than fourth in any of the categories that appear to correlate strongly with overall satisfaction. Yet, in addition to the OECD, organizations such as the World Map of Happiness and the World Database of Happiness have consistently put Denmark at the top of their list of the world’s happiest countries.   Read on   Via TYWKIWDBI

 

Bill Nye on the age of the earth, oppositional science ideas and how it affects our economy and international perception

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Bill Nye was on CNN recently discussing the age of the earth, and how science knows it’s 4.5 billion years old.

You can click the screen captured image above to watch the interview. I suggest it.

He’s not saying anything new to anyone who reads about this stuff, but the discussion about the Dover trial is a bit nuanced.

I found this video at Pharyngula, and PZ gave a great explanation about the importance of bringing up the smoke detector.

He writes:

Ionizing smoke detectors use a tiny amount of radiactive [sic] material to generate charged ions by their decay; these ions are released into the space in a capacitor, and their movement generates a constant trickle of current. If smoke particles enter the detector, they bind to the ions and block the current; that easily measured decline in current is what triggers the alarm in the detector.

This is a very simple system that depends entirely on our quantitative understanding of radioactivity. If radioactivity didn’t work like we thought it did, your smoke detector would not be very reliable, and for that matter, no one would have thought of using this function to work as a smoke detector.

Read more here.

Good bless you. And good also be with you.

This editorial called Good minus God by Louise M. Anthony is a good read. I’ll whet your whistle with her opening lines, and let you get on with the rest:

I was heartened to learn recently that atheists are no longer the most reviled group in the United States: according to the political scientists Robert Putnam and David Campbell, we’ve been overtaken by the Tea Party.  But even as I was high-fiving my fellow apostates (“We’re number two!  We’re number two!”), I was wondering anew: why do so many people dislike atheists?

Read on

 

Facepalm. Fake Obama holding a sign that reads, “Pray 4 Assassin.”

 

So this was on someone’s doorstep in Alabama.

Remember all those people who screamed for the assassination of George Bush?

You don’t? Me neither.

Weird.

At least they spelled Assassin right. And I know how much time it takes to write out “for”, so there’s a good use of the number 4.

Gosh, it’s a good thing prayers don’t work, but still.

I hope — really hope — that this is dealt with properly.

More here.

Via JMG

 

2003 Anil Dash sings the hits

This blog post by Anil Dash from back in January of 2003 on the influence and increase of progressivism is a good read. It’s called, “Changing the Channel.”

Here’s a snippet:

The future is what America’s about. This is not a country about Traditions. Slavery was a tradition. Servitude to patrilineal monarchs was a tradition. The closest thing America has to a tradition is the phrase, the philosophy, “Fuck You”. And who do we say it to? To our parents. To the cops. To our teachers. To all the voices of conservativism. And don’t misunderstand, conservativism isn’t just Rush Limbaugh or Bill O’Reilly, who want to make money pushing their agenda. It’s John Ashcroft and Jack Valenti, who truly want to take away your freedoms. Valenti’s a Democrat, by the way. Conservative evil pops up everywhere.

The only loss of freedom that conservative people complain about while looking backwards is that they pretend their speech is limited by “political correctness”. I’d say we’re all a lot freer if it’s considered rude or impolite to call a person by an ethnic slur, or to use a demeaning term to refer to a handicapped person. Those who feel restricted by societal demands to be considerate are poor arbiters of what exactly constitutes liberty.

Apropos: 

NPR had this report from GOP analyst Mark McKinnon that will be available tonight after 7 p.m. (Link) He said that if Jon Huntsman were their candidate, Republicans would have won the election. He said that the reason they lost is because the only increase in demographic group came in the old white dude category.

Women, latinos, takers and African Americans were all on the rise.

Also:

Barbara Bradley Hagerty did a report called, “For religious conservatives, election was “disaster“.

Part of the story is (emphasis mine):

“Billy Graham and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association bought full-page ads in newspapers; that made no difference,” [Albert Mohler president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary] says. “Ralph Reed spent tens of millions of dollars getting out the vote in battleground states; that didn’t make the difference. And you add all of that up, and it was not enough because of the changing demographics of our country.”

“The power of this group to shape elections,” says Greg Smith, a senior researcher at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, “is limited by its size.”

“They do turn out,” he says. “A quarter of the electorate described themselves as white evangelicals. It’s just that that’s not enough to overcome the strong Democratic support of other religious groups.”

Smith says Obama won 95 percent of black Protestants, three-quarters of Hispanic Catholics, 7 out of 10 Jewish voters and 70 percent of religiously unaffiliated voters, which is the fastest-growing segment of “religion.”

Woot! I am in the “fastest-growing segment of “religion.”

Anil Dash post Via Kottke

Bloomberg and now those morons at the Economist endorse Obama? What’s next, flying pigs?

Billionaire and Obama critic Mike Bloomberg endorsed Obama this week. Read it here.

I really liked Bloomberg’s phrasing. He writes:

I believe Mitt Romney is a good and decent man, and he would bring valuable business experience to the Oval Office. He understands that America was built on the promise of equal opportunity, not equal results. In the past he has also taken sensible positions on immigration, illegal guns, abortion rights and health care. But he has reversed course on all of them, and is even running against the health-care model he signed into law in Massachusetts.

And now the Economist is endorsing Obama. Read here.

Notice this first line I’m including in the quote below. It speaks volumes:

Both men have it in them to be their better selves; but the sad fact is that neither candidate has campaigned as if that is his plan.

As a result, this election offers American voters an unedifying choice. Many of The Economist’s readers, especially those who run businesses in America, may well conclude that nothing could be worse than another four years of Mr Obama. We beg to differ. For all his businesslike intentions, Mr Romney has an economic plan that works only if you don’t believe most of what he says. That is not a convincing pitch for a chief executive. And for all his shortcomings, Mr Obama has dragged America’s economy back from the brink of disaster, and has made a decent fist of foreign policy. So this newspaper would stick with the devil it knows, and re-elect him.

The second part of that quote also frames what I believe is the advice I’ve had the good fortune of receiving from the professionals we hire to handle our insurance and our finances.

Let me bring all this home for a second.

When Tina and I were doing fertility treatments, our insurance rates were astronomical. We had to pay for premium insurance a full 18 months before conception if we wanted to keep those rates.

This was from a couple who was already struggling financially, but wanted desperately to add our contribution to the gene pool.

Our attempts failed, and we’ve since dropped our maternity coverage.

Now with Obamacare, pregnancy is a “pre-existing condition”. I have a Facebook friend who lives in Michigan. She found out she was pregnant, but she wasn’t forced to go through the expensive process of waiting 18 months for maternity coverage.

After shopping around our insurance, the guy we trust the most gave us insider advice on why our rates have dropped, and how if Obamacare is repealed, expect them to go back up.

Maybe he’s already a democrat. But what benefits him if he tells us that he’s going to jack us around?

I’ve said it before, but we’ve had the privilege of hearing top-tier banking advice from those who counsel millionaires and billionaires for Chase bank. And they recommended Obama over Romney.

Our accountant has shown us on paper and in dollar bills how we are benefitting from things going on right now and improving under Obama. She’s not giving us a dire situation should things change. She’s just showing us.

This morning, I’ve seen how FOX and the Tribune have both interpreted the information about the Jobless rate at 7.9%.

I fully realize that where you get your “news” and advice is entirely subjective.

And I’m biased. I think we should have higher taxes to pay for things like my homeless neighbors’ toilet paper and maybe even contribute to their shitty addictions. I think we should have higher taxes to pay for those left without power and a roof over their heads after Sandy.

The government isn’t perfect, but they provide a national infrastructure that helps me make my business stronger.

I wish dearly that there wasn’t division in this country. I wish we could all agree on basic things, like people first. At places like Outward Bound, they teach in group dynamics you that you’re only as strong as your weakest member. Our weakest members of society need our help, help that churches aren’t able to provide.

I voted for Obama already, so I can’t change that.

And you’ve likely voted for whom you like.

We’ll see how the next four years go.

But I’ll remind you again, Romney’s five point plan needs another 8 to 10 years to work. I’m comfortable working on the timeline that Obama’s working on, which makes it better while he’s in office.

I don’t want to wait for Romney to get on his feet over the next year, and then start campaigning for re-election in three.

Obama ain’t re-upping. So we’re going to have a solid effort for four short years.

Obama Twenty Twelve.

Can we all bind together to elect Obama for a second term to see this come to fruition?

@JosephFarah #wnd

World Net Daily CEO and Editor Joseph Farah says that if Obama gets elected to a second term, he’s going Pol Pot on all journalists who oppose him.

No, not Farah, Obama.

Obama is going Pol Pot.

He’s going to go apeshit and declare a full-scale, Armageddon war on WND and FOX News.

You watch!

Don’t let that happen! Elect Romney, right?

That’s the message?

Rom-ney. Rom-ney. Rom-ney!

Noooooooo!

The message is to elect Obama, pop some corn and watch Obama gather the yahoos into a skating rink and hose them down with oppressive, professional ticklers.

In his own words, Farah writes (emphasis mine):

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: If Barack Obama is re-elected Nov. 6 for a second term, he will declare a full-scale war on his domestic opposition.

There may not be another free and fair election in America.

I would expect due process to go the way of the horse and buggy.

I think he will move to shut down and destroy all independent media.

In fact, I think his biggest critics will be rounded up in the name of national security.

I love crackpots. They’re funny.

I can’t wait for this full-scale war on Obama’s domestic oppression.

Remember how Chris Christie bitched and moaned about his political bashing at the RNC when Christie asked for help after Sandy?

YEAHHHHHHHHHHHH!

You don’t?

Yeah, me neither.

I’m still looking for fear mongering on the democrat side. Haven’t found it yet.

All except for the phone lady.

And that was a good thing.

I’m really pulling for Obama now.

We need to help Farah become right on at least one thing in his life. Wouldn’t that be grand?