Friday, March 28, 2014

This is what we get



This is a predictable result of the austerity framework that has dominated our politics since the 1980's.
Because we have such fear of taxation and government spending (except on war, of course) that we don't fund our institutions. The institutions have to seek funding from other sources. Those other sources tend so be wealthy megalomaniac nuts who, unsurprisingly, want something in return for their "investment."


Like, for instance, YOUR SOUL!!!!!




 So we get shit like this:

(Via Salon)

A major funder of “creation museums” has been selected — strange as it may seem — to be the commencement speaker at Montana’s leading institution of science, Montana Tech, the mining and engineering school in Butte that has produced some of the world’s top geologists.

The speaker is Greg Gianforte, a conservative billionaire whose philanthropic endeavors include funding museums whose purpose is to discredit Darwinism and persuade visitors that the Earth is 6,000 years old, that North America’s geology was carved by Noah’s flood, and that dinosaurs coexisted with early humans.

 
Now why would a science school invite an anti-science fanatic to give its commencement address?
 
Funny you should ask!
 
Odder still is the fact that Gianforte is no stranger to science at all. He is a computer scientist, who built a massively successful company. . . And he has donated money to Montana Tech for its computer science program
 
 
 
The objectors are not only upset about Gianforte, but also the inclusion of his wife, Susan, in the program.  She was invited to co-deliver the commencement speech with her husband.  Susan Gianforte is a vociferous opponent of laws designed to protect gay people from being targets of discrimination.  She believes businesses should have the legal right to refuse service to gay customers, and she has been leading the charge against an anti-discrimination ordinance that is now being debated by the city council of Bozeman, where the Gianfortes live.

 
So, pretty much exactly the type of couple that an institute of higher learning would want to associate itself with. But in these times we live in, everything's for sale.
 

Even Stupider People Saying Even Stupider Things


Stupid person # 1: Donald Trump







Oh, right. Because otherwise no terrorist would ever think of striking MANHATTAN!
Has the right-wing re-write of history been so thorough that not only does Dubya not bear any responsibility for his failures surrounding 9/11 but now 9/11 never even happened?

Y'know, I really really don't get Trump. This guy had all the money he could ever want, a string of airhead model-looking wives/girlfriends and completely undeserved fame and respect. He had somehow managed to sell this image of himself as a business genius, despite all the bankruptcies and as a self-made man despite having been born a millionaire. But at some point, he thought "no, I don't want to be remembered as a successful entrepreneur. I want my legacy to be that of a delusional, stupid bag of mis-directed hate and anger! I want to be remembered as the guy who hated the black president so much that I forever linked myself to Orly Taitz. When people think of the name "Donald Trump," I want them to think of the ridiculous gasbag who spouted every conceivable type of nonsense into any microphone I could find because I just couldn't bring myself to accept a black guy being president." Well, mission accomplished, Donnie, you pitiful buffoon.

Stupid person # 2: Bryan Fischer


Fischer said that there were other jobs in the church that only men could do, but the secretarial job "is going to be reserved for a woman because of the unique things that God has built into woman."


Well, sure, because how are you going to do all that filing and typing without a vagina? What're you gonna do, type with your dick?

OK, to be fair he never said it was because of vaginas. Could be the boobies that help you do secretary stuff.

Also, those "other jobs" that "only men could do?" I'm gonna guess that those are the "good jobs." The jobs that "pay well." 'Cause I know God doesn't want ladies doin' those!


Stupid person # 3: Donald Rumsfeld.

http://popwrapped.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Rumsfeld.jpg

Our relationship with Karzai and with Afghanistan was absolutely first rate in the Bush administration. It has gone down hill like a toboggan ever since the Obama administration came.


Wait, our relationship with that corrupt, ineffectual douchebag has gone down hill? Perish the thought!
“Nobody likes to hear a foreign leader side with Putin on the Crimea the way he has. But I really think it’s understandable, given the terrible, terrible diplomacy that the United States has conducted with Afghanistan over the last several years."


Yes, if only we had taken the "bomb the fuck out of and invade" approach to diplomacy. Or maybe the "arrest random people, take them to a foreign country and torture them for years without charges" technique.

Fuck you, you murderous war criminal.