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Reactionary

I guess I should not have been surprised by this one, but the clarity of it is pretty breathtaking. A study just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences looked at attitudes about energy efficiency in liberals and conservatives.

First, they gave people a fixed amount of money and gave them a choice of buying an old-school (low efficiency) incandescent light bulb or a new (high efficiency) compact florescent light bulb (CFL). When the bulbs cost the same, and even when the CFL cost more than the incandescent, both conservatives and liberals were equally likely to buy the efficient bulb.

Now here’s the interesting part. When they took the same choice, but this time put a message on the CFL saying “Protect the Environment”, there was a significant drop-off in conservatives picking the CFL.

That’s right. The same choice, the same price, but labeling something as helping to protect the environment made conservatives (and even the more conservative moderates) less likely to buy it. So either conservatives love to destroy the environment, or (more likely) they are automatically against anything that liberals are for. You know, “them damn liberals are always trying to protect the environment, and I hate liberals”. Therefore, they will not buy the energy efficient bulb (even though it would save them money) because it might allow them to piss off some imaginary liberal!

Isn’t it ironic that once upon a time, the conservative movement stood for conserving things? Now I’m not sure if it stand for anything, but instead is just about being against things (in particular, anything that liberals like).

UPDATE: This definitely applies at the national political level. The Republican National Committee has released an ad attacking Obama for not passing gun control legislation. What is not mentioned in the ad is that it was the Republicans who filibustered it.

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Background Check Fail

Ruben Bolling
© Ruben Bolling

Good thing he wasn’t shopping for nukes!

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Late Night Political Humor

“The Bush Presidential Library is beautiful, and they have a huge section devoted to weapons of mass destruction, but nobody can find it.” – David Letterman

“It’s basically the Hard Rock Café of catastrophic policy decisions.” – Jon Stewart

“I guess that’s better than its original title, Disasterpiece Theater.” – Jon Stewart (on the “Decision Points Theater” exhibit at the Bush Presidential Library)

“All five living presidents were in Dallas today for the opening of the George W. Bush Presidential Library. President Obama said he was happy to support the opening of the library. He should be. After all, Bush got him elected twice. Blame Bush on that one, sir!” – Jay Leno

“New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was in Texas today for the dedication of George W. Bush’s presidential library. The library is already done, but they brought in Christie for a second ground breaking.” – Jimmy Fallon

“In President Bush’s high school yearbook, he was voted least likely to have a library named after him.” – Jay Leno

“There’s a new iPhone app that tells women where they can buy Michelle Obama’s clothes. Not only that — there’s another app that tells men where they can buy Hillary Clinton’s clothes.” – Jimmy Fallon

“The $100 bill is getting redesigned for the first time since 1996. It has new security features that will make it harder to counterfeit. And this is kind of amazing: Benjamin Franklin’s hair is real. You can comb it and everything.” – Jimmy Kimmel

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Obama at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner

Obama was pretty funny this year. Conan, um, not so much.

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Late Night Political Humor

“A new report found that the worst job in the U.S. is being a newspaper reporter. They say it’s better for writers to just focus on fiction and become a CNN reporter.” – Jimmy Fallon

“You know what the worst job in America is? It’s newspaper reporter. I guess the pollsters forgot to ask the guy who cleans the toilets at Dodger Stadium how things are going for him.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“It was dubbed the worst job because it’s high stress, low pay, and often requires working in dangerous conditions. This must have been a fun story for the newspaper reporters to report. ‘Hey guys, guess what? Our lives stink.'” – Jimmy Kimmel

“All five living presidents will gather for the opening of the George W. Bush Presidential Library. President Obama says he hopes he can pick up some ideas for when he builds his. It’s going to be called the ‘Blame George W. Bush Presidential Library’.” – Jay Leno

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Two Sides of the Mouth Award

[via Media Matters]

Two months ago, Fox News anchor Jon Scott did a negative story about Tesla, the electric car maker. He used Tesla as an example of bad government spending, saying “we are all sort of co-owners of Tesla — that company got hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars as part of the president’s, you know, green energy thing.”

On Friday, Scott did another negative story, but this time about Fisker, an electric car company that is beset by financial troubles, and suggested that Fisker is representative of the failed Department of Energy’s loan program. Then he added “Meantime, there’s another company, Tesla, smaller company, did not get a government loan as far as I’m aware … Tesla seems to be making a go of it so far.”

Luckily, his guest corrected him, pointing out that Tesla actually received the same federal financial assistance as Fiskar.

Tesla is now a success, and is enroute to paying back its DOE loan five years early after having its Model S named car of the year by both Motor Trend and Automobile magazines, and showing a profit in Q1 2013.

My question is, does Fox News really hate any effort to wean ourselves off of Middle East oil, or do they just hate anything that Obama does?

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Appropriate Monument

Nick Anderson
© Nick Anderson

If you like the fountain, just wait until you see the John Yoo reflection pool.

Jon Stewart is excited about the reemergence of George W. Bush in the news:

And since we’ve seen the landscaping, Jon Stewart and Al Madrigal give us an inside tour:

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New Photo Technology shows what you are thinking!

presidents

Was this done with the new militarized photoshop technology?

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Late Night Political Humor

“Down in Texas Thursday is the opening of the George Bush Presidential Library and Think Tank. I think he’s in the shallow end.” – Jay Leno

“According to new poll information, Americans now think very strongly positive about George W. Bush. By God, maybe there’s hope for me!” – David Letterman

“I mean, at the end of this man’s presidency, even as my fellow conservatives were abandoning Bush like rats on a sinking ship on a crash course with Cat Island, I remained faithful, and I’m sure he knows that from the warrantless wiretaps he authorized.” – Stephen Colbert

“Senator John McCain went on TV this week to call Kim Jong-Un a clown and a fool. As you know, according to John McCain, that would still make him eligible to be vice president.” – Jay Leno

“U.S. intelligence agencies have put together a psychological profile of Kim Jong Un. They say he’s a narcissist, and he is obsessed with Hollywood, obsessed with plastic surgery, and obsessed with the NBA. It’s a condition we know as ‘Kardashianism’.” – Jay Leno

“Computer hackers hacked into The Associated Press Twitter account and they faked reports about an attack on the White House. And I thought, ‘Wait a minute, the real news isn’t bad enough? Now we’re making up bad news?'” – David Letterman

“These brothers killed a young policeman, carjacked an SUV, ending with a high-speed chase and a firefight in which Tamerlan was mortally wounded, ending his life as all Islamic terrorists dream: at Beth Israel Hospital.” – Stephen Colbert (on the Boston Marathon bombers)

“Former Congressman Anthony Weiner is back on Twitter. It’s like giving Lindsay Lohan the keys to the mini bar.” – David Letterman

“Today France legalized same-sex marriage. The next step is legalizing same-sex mistresses.” – Craig Ferguson

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Save the Post Office!

Finally, someone in Congress, Peter DeFazio (D-OR), is doing something right to save the Post Office from its incipient and completely unnecessary bankruptcy. He has introduced legislation, but he will need our help to overcome the special interests who have largely succeeded in crippling the postal service. DeFazio has set up a petition on the White House website. Please sign.

The Postal Service does not take any taxpayer money, but it has been hamstrung by Congress. It is required to prefund its retiree health benefits 75 years into the future (funding the retirement of employees who haven’t even been born yet), which no other business is required to do. It is also banned from offering new products or services, so it cannot adapt with the times. Millions of rural Americans depend on the post office.

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Late Night Political Humor

“After a very difficult week, it’s good to know that bad guys don’t get away with it. We caught the Ricin guy. We caught the bombers. This is a powerful message from our government; we will not be intimidated by bombs, we will not be intimidated by poison. This is America. If you are a violent, paranoid lunatic, you must use a gun.” – Bill Maher

“These are two bombers – they are two brothers, ethnic Chechens, which is in southern Russia – who came to the U.S. from the country of Kyrgyzstan, which is in central Asia. And today George W. Bush vowed revenge and called for an immediate invasion of Puerto Rico.” – Bill Maher

“Between these two assholes and the douchebag who sent Ricin to President Obama, it makes me very nostalgic for the carefree days of last week when we were just being threatened by North Korea with nuclear annihilation.” – Bill Maher

“The guy who sent the Ricin to President Obama … believed he had uncovered a conspiracy to sell human body parts on the black market and the government was in on it. He’s been apprehended, he’s facing jail time, and he’s leading in the polls for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.” – Bill Maher

“Because of the filibuster, the gun bill failed 54 to 46. Failed. I tell you, if the American people ever learn math, they’re going to be pissed.” – Bill Maher

“90 percent of people support background checks, which means even people who can’t pass a background check support background checks.” – Bill Maher

“A lot of the senators are saying off the record that the reason they couldn’t vote for any sort of gun bill is that they couldn’t go back to their district in this year after we’ve dealt with gay marriage and immigration and gun regulations. This is too much for the peckerwoods to process in any one moment. You might as well say Obama is coming for your deep fryer.” – Bill Maher

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Jeb Bush in 2016?

“He’d be a marvelous candidate if he chooses to do so. He doesn’t need my counsel ’cause he knows what it is, which is ‘run’. … He’d be a great candidate and a great president.” – George W. Bush

“There are a lot of great families, and it’s not just four families or whatever. There are other people out there that are very qualified and we’ve had enough Bushes.” – Barbara Bush, his mom

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Dancing Around the Issues

Scott Stantis
© Scott Stantis

Sounds hokey to me!

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CNN Fail

Why is it that TV news has time and money for crap like this, but doesn’t have either for real investigative journalism?

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Late Night Political Irony

“Do you believe Dennis Rodman is still talking about Kim Jong Un? It’s not a good sign when the friend who’s trying to explain that you’re not crazy is Dennis Rodman. That’s not the guy I would send out for my sanity test.” – Conan O’Brien

“Dennis Rodman claims the FBI wants to hire him as an informant. That makes sense because the first thing you want to do is to tell everyone you’re an FBI informant.” – Conan O’Brien

“Today, North Koreans celebrated the 101st birthday of their country’s founder. He famously said, ‘Let’s have a crappy version of South Korea. We can do that.'” – Conan O’Brien

“It was revealed today that someone sent President Obama a suspicious letter containing the poison ricin. It’s a deadly poison made from beans. They said it’s the third worst substance you can send in the mail behind anthrax and packing peanuts.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Federal law enforcement agencies say they believe it’s from the same person who sent ricin to a Republican senator yesterday. At least he’s bipartisan.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“President Obama offered to wash senators’ cars if it would lead to an immigration bill. Senators then told Obama, ‘If you’re going to wash our cars, why do we need immigrants?” – Conan O’Brien

“Today is April 15. You have 20 minutes to get your taxes in. This is the most stressful day of the year for accountants, small business owners, and Wesley Snipes.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Why does the government charge us postage to send in our tax returns? We have to pay them to pay them. It’s like giving a slice back to the pizza delivery guy. How about you just deduct 75 cents from what I already paid?” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Happy birthday to Israel. The country of Israel turned 65. Now that it’s 65, Israel plans to retire and move to Florida.” – Conan O’Brien

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