It looks like the once hard-hitting “60 Minutes” news program has completely lost its way. I already posted about their fluff piece for Amazon (and I love Amazon!). Then they totally bungled a report on Benghazi. And now they do an even worse fluff piece on the NSA, even letting the NSA control what everyone says.
This is what propaganda looks like.
“Some are saying that while at Nelson Mandela’s memorial, President Obama flirted with the female prime minister of Denmark right in front of Michelle Obama. Man, if President Obama felt that the flight to South Africa was long, can you imagine the way home?” – Conan O’Brien
“Obama is facing a lot of criticism after he posed for a selfie in the middle of Mandela’s memorial service. You know it’s bad when even Biden is like, ‘Man, that was dumb’.” – Jimmy Fallon
“President Obama shook hands with Cuban dictator Raul Castro. Or as Fox News reported it, ‘Foreign communist shakes hands with the leader of Cuba’.” – Conan O’Brien
“The world said goodbye today to Nelson Mandela. And what a life he lived. He spent 27 years in prison and then ascended to become president of his country. He went from prison to politics. It was exactly the opposite of how we do it in this country.” – Jay Leno
“President Obama released a video this week to encourage kids to learn how to write computer code. Then he said, ‘Preferably, in the next two or three weeks. It would really help me out of a jam.'” – Jimmy Fallon
“A federal judge has ruled that President Obama’s Kenyan uncle may remain in the United States. The judge also ruled that President Obama’s Kenyan uncle is an amazing name for a band.” – Conan O’Brien
“Kanye West said he wants to be the ‘Obama of clothing’. To achieve his goal, he’s designing fashions that nobody wants and offering them on a website that doesn’t work.” – Jay Leno
“New documents leaked by Edward Snowden show that the NSA actually spied on people while they played the video game World of Warcraft. I don’t know. To me it sounds like some NSA agents had to think quick when they got caught playing World of Warcraft at work.” – Jimmy Fallon
“Pope Francis was named Time magazine’s person of the year, and today he performed his first miracle – he got people to buy Time magazine.” –Conan O’Brien
[excerpted from “The Everlasting GOP Stoppers” by Marc Belisle]
BREAKING: US Navy Strikes North Pole, Obama Declares ‘War on Christmas’, Claus’ Fate Unknown
In a tense press conference with the conservative media, President Obama announced late Tuesday that US Navy destroyers deployed in the Arctic Circle were firing Tomahawk cruise missiles in a campaign to free the elves and eliminate Santa Claus’s ability to threaten secular humanists. Obama added that US forces would “cripple Santa Claus’ ability to spread good tidings” through “targeted strikes.” When asked what, exactly, the Pentagon was targeting, Obama replied, “Well, you know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen.”
Pressed on whether the US would be targeting Santa Claus specifically, the President, standing in front of four ten-foot pine trees garlanded with tinsel and baubles, chose his words carefully. “Uh, look. My Administration is not in the business of regime change. But, know this. By the time we’re done, Santa Claus will be wishing us Happy Holidays. His reign of cheer is at an end.”
A Barbie doll then stood up, identified herself as a Fox News reporter and said, “President HUSSEIN Obama, Fox News has been predicting this war for years. We have a map on our site of all the attacks against Christmas within the United States, waged in this year alone [seriously – check the link]. The casualties in the War on Christmas are much higher than you are admitting. Aren’t you ashamed that you’re encouraging a dangerous fifth column seeking to destroy AmeriChristmas?”
The president dinged a bell, “One seems to hear, words of rightwing fear, from everywhere, filling the air.” He sighed, “We had to deny the military buildup against Christmas, because we needed to maintain the element of surprise. The time was ripe to strike, because Christmas has been threatening its weaker neighbors for years, and this year, it threatened to invade Thanksgiving.”
“Doesn’t Christmas have a right to take over Thanksgiving?” the Newsdoll asked. “To defend itself?”
“Christmas already controls the entire month of December. It already has commercialized everything in its reach. It’s extremely well-defended, and aggressively extending its dominion. Just ask anyone in your community who happens to be Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Wiccan, atheist, agnostic, spiritualist, or just not particularly devoutly Christian how dominant Christmas is.”
“I’ve never spoken to anyone like that,” the Newsdoll said proudly.
Bill O’Reilly and Sarah Palin stood up and started shouting over each other. Bill O’Reilly said that while he likes Macy’s because it’s commercial, it’s not Christmas-y enough.
Sarah Palin said, “I love the commercialization of Christmas because it spreads the Christmas cheers, the most jolly holiday obviously on our calendar. It’s wonderful!”
Palin then told everyone to buy her book about “protecting the heart of Christmas,” which one reviewer said “is so bad that it seems entirely possible that she actually wrote it herself.”
[go read the rest of the original article]
A hilarious factoid in The Economist from a poll of married couples, asking whether both spouses always voted the same way. 73% of the married men said yes. “The wives’ response? Just 49% said yes.”
Also interesting is that unmarried women, who accounted for nearly a quarter of all votes cast in the 2012 presidential election, voted decisively for Barack Obama. Why?
The key to the puzzle appears to involve attitudes to government safety nets, and a shared sense among unmarried women that they are trying to survive without any back-up in a harsh, increasingly insecure economy (unmarried women are disproportionately likely to work in jobs which do not offer health cover, for instance). Put another way, the conservative battle-cry of “Leave me the Hell alone” sounds different when you are literally on your own.
“This winter storm has left thousands without electricity. It’s as if President Obama had taken over the power companies.” – Jay Leno
“Last week a man was locked in an airplane for several hours after he fell asleep during a flight and nobody woke up him up when it landed. But other than that, Joe Biden had a great trip to Asia.” – Jimmy Fallon
“New Jersey legislators want to ban eating while driving. Good luck getting Governor Chris Christie to sign that one.” – Jay Leno
“The post office announced that since they have lost so much money they are going to be reviewing their business model. That could mean big changes. The last time the post office reviewed their business model they sold the ponies and bought trucks.” – Jay Leno
“North Korea has confirmed that Kim Jong Un has fired his uncle. Unemployment benefits in North Korea include two weeks’ severance and not being shot.” – Conan O’Brien [ironically, after Conan made this comment, the uncle was executed]
If you watched the videos in the previous post, you saw Megyn Kelly claiming that Santa is white. Well, here’s Kelly defending her remarks by (as usual) going on the attack. She claims that her comments were “tongue in cheek” and that the people who got upset about them have no sense of humor:
Since it is mostly comedians (like Jon Stewart) who are making fun of her, it seems obvious that it is Megyn Kelly who has no sense of humor. And despite her protests that Fox News is being unfairly targeted, I don’t feel sorry for her or her channel at all.
The Daily Show weighs in on the War on Christmas:
But it just keeps getting stranger. Fox News informs us that Santa Claus is white. That’s right, Fox News is actually arguing about the ethnicity of a mythical person. Oh, and Jesus was white too.
Remember, Fox News says that you can’t change facts to fit a political agenda.
Reporter, heal thyself.
Sometimes real life is stranger than fiction. The inspiration for this comic started with a small disagreement in a small town in Texas over what to call the holiday party at an elementary school. As in the comic, Fox News jumped on this and printed a story that may have a teeny tiny nugget of truth somewhere, but then adds so many falsehoods on top of that that the truth gets buried. Consider the headline of the story “School bans Christmas trees, the colors red & green”. Never mind that nobody banned Christmas trees, let alone the colors red or green. I mean, seriously? A school would ban colors? Is this some kind of joke?
The Fox News article doesn’t even make sense. It refers to a recently passed law in Texas, called “The Merry Christmas Bill”, but this new law says only that people are allowed to call the winter holidays anything they please, including Christmas. It specifically doesn’t require anyone to call the holiday Christmas or anything else, it is supposed to let schools know that they can call it anything they want.
So the school decided that they wanted to call the party their “Winter Party”. But Fox News claims that by not calling it their “Christmas Party” that the school is violating the law. They even quote the author of the bill, who claims that the school is “flaunting” the law. They don’t want freedom of religion, they want government imposed religion, which ironically is exactly what the Pilgrims and other early European settlers to America were escaping from.
The second part of the comic is based on something Sarah Palin posted to Facebook about this. I have been trying my best to completely ignore Palin, but her quote shows how the right-wing nuts push the idiotic “War on Christmas” meme in order to make money:
Is there any doubt it’s imperative to protect the heart of Christmas? Take a look at this article about an elementary school in Texas banning Christmas trees and the colors red and green from a “winter” party. Just like I write about it “Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas,” every day we see stories like this one, and we need to stiffen our spines, say “enough is enough,” and hold on to REAL hope, America! The real hope that IS the message of Christmas. We can remember and capture that spirit of true hope during this holiday season and commit to live it out every single day. I promise you, it works!
So, no matter what your religion or what holidays you celebrate, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
“Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is an entertaining fellow, the gift that keeps on giving. According to police reports, Ford once did heroin with gang members. In his defense, Ford said, ‘We had to, they were completely out of crack’.” – Conan O’Brien
“Toronto Mayor Rob Ford reiterated that he should be re-elected mayor of Toronto because he saves taxpayers money. I think he should be re-elected because he’s hilarious and because I don’t live in Toronto.” – Jimmy Kimmel
“The NSA collects almost 5 billion records a day that can pinpoint a cellphone anywhere in the world, track its movements, and map the personal relationships of the person using it. I’ll tell you what this means. You know the crazy people that wear the tinfoil hats because they think the government is tracking them? Turns out they were right.” – Jimmy Kimmel
“How is it possible that they can track every cellphone in the world but can’t build a healthcare website? Maybe they should put the NSA in charge of Obamacare.” – Jimmy Kimmel
“At a White House holiday party, the Obama’s dog, Sonny, reportedly knocked over a small child. So although President Obama’s approval rating is down to 40 percent, he’s now number one on YouTube.” – Conan O’Brien
“Earlier today, Vice President Joe Biden arrived in South Korea to talk to the people there. Yeah, first time ever people from South Korea have tried to sneak into North Korea.” – Conan O’Brien
Despite the fact that the vast majority of climate scientists agree that climate change is real and is caused by man-made emissions — and a strong majority of Americans agree — the GOP is still deep in denial. Why? Probably because their corporate benefactors tell them to be.
But ironically, it may not matter. Because while the cost of fossil fuels — the main cause of greenhouse gases that cause climate change — continues to go up, the cost of renewable energy is plummeting. For example, the cost of solar panels has dropped 99% since 1977, and has accelerated (over 60% of that drop has occurred in the last 3 years).
Even just considering the individual market, solar is a good investment. A homeowner purchasing a solar power system for their own home now sees a return on investment (savings in energy costs versus the total installation price of the system) in all but one state. In fact, in 86% of states, the ROI is better than you would get from a 5-year CD (Certificate of Deposit). In 67%, the ROI of solar is better than 30-year treasure bonds. And in 25% of states (today, and the number is growing), the ROI is better than the S&P 500 stock index. Here’s a link to a chart showing the ROI for each state.
That’s right, millions of people can make more money by installing solar than by investing in the stock market. In Hawaii, the average savings by installing solar is above $60,000. And in 3 out of the 4 most populated states, the average savings is above $30,000.
Not only that, but there are important added benefits. Installing solar means you are reducing pollution, including greenhouse gases (and thus climate change). It also helps our country become more energy independent, and so less reliant on oil coming from foreign countries (cough, Middle East). How much money and lives would we save by avoiding just one war for oil? Not only is solar energy local energy, it creates local jobs and so doubly helps our economy.
And if our government would stop subsidizing big oil the numbers would look even better for renewable energy.
All of this doesn’t take into account the fact that carbon pollution is the greatest unpriced externality in history. If fossil fuels had to pay for the damage they are doing to our economy, they would be even more expensive.
I say, let the free market work. Eliminate subsidies for oil and coal. Sure energy prices would rise, but then they would go back down as renewable energy (solar, wind, hydro, tidal, geothermal etc.) becomes more popular. We’d not only be doing the earth and ourselves a big favor, we’d be making money. Lots of it.
“Obamacare is still struggling to get off the ground. Experts now say the success or failure of Obamacare will depend on whether young people sign up. Which is why as of today it covers medical marijuana.” – Conan O’Brien
“Today gang members were caught on wiretaps saying they have photos of Mayor Rob Ford doing heroin, which is weird because I thought he had an exclusive deal with crack.” – Jimmy Kimmel
“There is information that Mayor Ford tried to buy the infamous video of him smoking crack. And the gang members wanted $500,000 and a car. Sounds like Ford would make a good game-show host.” – Jimmy Kimmel
“This is a crazy story. For two decades, the secret launch code for America’s nuclear missiles was 0000000000. Even more amazing, George W. Bush forgot it twice.” – Conan O’Brien
How can conservatives put up with their pundits, who are such self-righteous whiners?
Ironically, as Christians fight for the right to freely express their religion, they are opening up the door to free expression of other religions. After all, doesn’t the constitution guarantee the same rights to Muslims as it does for Christians?
Indeed, The Satanic Temple has requested that they be allowed to place a religious monument (which they promise will “be in good taste and consistent with community standards”) on the grounds of the Oklahoma statehouse, after the OK legislature OKed a Ten Commandments monument.
A spokesman for the Oklahoma Speaker of the House responded “Anything displayed at the Capitol should be a representation of the values of Oklahomans and this nation. The left-hand path philosophies of this organization do not align with the values of Oklahomans nor the ideals this country or its laws are founded upon.”
My question is, what does Oklahoma have against the left-handed?
“Today the White House confirmed that Obama will be signing up for Obamacare. Yeah, which is good because his current health plan doesn’t cover headaches and depression caused by Obamacare.” – Conan O’Brien
“President Obama spoke today in defense of the Affordable Care Act. He said it’s a disaster and he’s sorry he tried.” – Jimmy Kimmel
“Did you know the speeches he’s made about affordable health care is greater than the number of people who have signed up for it?” – Jimmy Kimmel
“The president said despite the initial problems, it’s working better now and going do continue to improve. A million people visited on Monday, mostly to see if they were covered from injuries suffered at Wal-Mart on Black Friday.” – Jimmy Kimmel
“Only about 50,000 people can use the site at a time. Why can only 50,000 people use a government website without crashing it, but 4 million people can watch a kitten try to get its head out of a bag, no problem?” – Jimmy Kimmel
“Some people got through the Obamacare process only to discover they had inadvertently joined the Navy. They ship out next week.” – Jimmy Kimmel
“A list of the most corrupt countries in the world was put together by a group called Transparency International. There’s no real surprises. For coming in at No. 1, Kim Jong Un will receive economic sanctions from the U.N. and dinner for two at a great restaurant.” – Craig Ferguson
“North Korea should make this their new tourist slogan: ‘North Korea: Come for the corruption. Stay because we won’t let you leave.'” – Craig Ferguson
“Pope Francis revealed that he used to work as a nightclub bouncer. In the same interview he announced that on Tuesday night ladies get into heaven for free.” – Conan O’Brien
According to a new report, America’s teenagers are 30th in the world in math. Luckily, America’s teenagers will never understand the report because they’re 85th in reading.” – Conan O’Brien
“Amazon is testing the delivery of packages by drone. So today U.S. Forces began bombarding Afghanistan with ‘The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants’.” – Conan O’Brien
Very interesting study done at Yale comes to some surprising conclusions about how our politics can override rational thinking.
The study did this by giving people a math problem to solve. The problem presented the results of a fictional medical trial for a new skin cream designed to treat rashes. Half the participants in the study were shown the following results:
| Rash got better | Rash got worse | |
| People who used the skin cream | 223 | 75 |
| People who did not use the skin cream | 107 | 21 |
On first glance it looks like more people who used the skin cream got better, but the real answer is based on whether your chance of getting better goes up if you use the skin cream. The correct solution is to compare those people who got better to those people who got worse.
People who used the skin cream had a 223:75 (less than 3 to 1) chance of getting better. But people who did not use the skin cream had a 107:21 (better than 5 to 1) chance of getting better. Put another way, 75% of the people who used the skin cream got better, but 84% (even more) of the people who did not use it got better. So the result is that you are more likely to get better if you do not use the skin cream. The confusion comes from the fact that more people (298) used the skin cream than did not (128), resulting in the misleading number that more people got better from the skin cream (if you ignore the number of people who got worse).
To remove any bias, they gave the other half of the participants the same problem with the results reversed, so the skin cream increased the chances of getting better.
This is actually a tricky problem to solve — 59% of the participants got the answer wrong.
They also grouped the participants in the study based on how numerate (“numerically literate” or “scientifically trained”) they are. Not surprisingly, numerate people did better on the problem.
Finally, they grouped the participants based on whether they are liberal democrats or conservative republicans. In this regard, there was no difference. Regardless of your politics, the more numerate you are the better you are at answering this question.
So far so good, but now we get to the interesting part of the study. They changed the problem, but only how they described it. Instead of a medical study, they presented it as the results of cities that had banned the concealed carrying of guns, and whether crime in these cities had gone up or down afterward.
Participants performed much differently on this version of the problem, even though all the numbers were the same. As in the previous version, they had two variants of the problem: one where the correct answer was that crime went down; and the other where crime went up.
Now here’s the ironic part. Here are two graphs plotting correct answers versus participant numeracy. The top one is for the skin cream / rash version, the bottom one is for the gun control / crime version:
Note how for the rash (top graph), the curves are pretty close, regardless of whether the participant is CR (conservative republican) or LD (liberal democrat), and also regardless of whether they solved the problem where the correct answer was that the cream decreased or increased the chances of the rash getting better.
But for crime (bottom graph) the participant’s answers strongly depended on their politics. Liberal democrats did best when the answer was that gun control made crime go down, while conservative republicans did best when the answer was that gun control made crime go up. So they did better if the answer agreed with their politics. But for people where the correct answer disagreed with their politics, the curves are mostly flat.
Ironically, the more numerate a participant is the more they are influenced by their politics. Numerate participants did 18% worse on the political problem. In fact the curves in the second graph are all over the place, sometimes even going down as numeracy goes up. It is difficult to guess what caused these crazy curves. If you are more scientifically literate, does it make you more sure of your answers, even when you are wrong? Are numerate people more likely to accept the incorrect answer on first glance, if it agrees with their politics? Or are they more willing to question an answer when it conflicts with their political beliefs?
At the very least it blows away the common idea that the smarter and more scientifically literate you are, the better you are at making correct decisions even when the right answer disagrees with your political beliefs. And this is true whether you are liberal or conservative.
This also helps explain why our country is so divided on the subject of climate change, regardless of the scientific research.
tl;dr — if this is too difficult to read and understand, here’s an infographic for you.
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