(Source: thirdworldgirl-, via nedhepburn)
In which Representative Ed Markey (D-MA) is fucking awesome (via):
Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to a bill that overturns the scientific finding that pollution is harming our people and our planet.
However, I won’t physically rise, because I’m worried that Republicans will overturn the law of gravity, sending us floating about the room.
I won’t call for the sunlight of additional hearings, for fear that Republicans might excommunicate the finding that the Earth revolves around the sun.
Instead, I’ll embody Newton’s third law of motion and be an equal and opposing force against this attack on science and on laws that will reduce America’s importation of foreign oil.
This bill will live in the House while simultaneously being dead in the Senate. It will be a legislative Schrodinger’s cat killed by the quantum mechanics of the legislative process!
Arbitrary rejection of scientific fact will not cause us to rise from our seats today. But with this bill, pollution levels will rise. Oil imports will rise. Temperatures will rise.
And with that, I yield back the balance of my time. That is, unless a rejection of Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity is somewhere in the chair’s amendment pile.
BRAVO!!!!!!!! *clapping*
“The bill will be a legislative Schrodinger’s cat, killed by the quantum mechanics of the legislative process.”
That’s the kind of bad-ass speech I plan to give after I’m elected to Congress. Me and this guy are going to start the House Committee on Legitimizing Actual Science and Facts.
Things like this make me a little less cynical.
Gail Collins (via azspot)
Doctors asking if you own a gun: unconscionable, punishable by a major fine.
Doctors misinforming patients about the link between abortions and breast cancer: mandated by law.
Hundreds of protesters rallied at the Indiana statehouse on Tuesday in opposition to restrictive abortion measures that would, among other things, require doctors to tell pregnant women about a controversial theory that says having an abortion could lead to an increased risk of breast cancer.
House Bill 1210, introduced by Indiana state Rep. Eric Turner (R), would make abortions illegal after 20 weeks. The Senate has already passed a similar bill, but it is awaiting action in the House.
The bill would also require physicians to inform a pregnant woman seeking an abortion that the fetus could feel pain and require patients to view an ultrasound. A patient could get out of doing so only if she stated her refusal in writing.
[O]ne of the most controversial portions of the bill is the part that would require doctors to inform women about the risks of abortion, including “the possibility of increased risk of breast cancer following an induced abortion and the natural protective effect of a completed pregnancy in avoiding breast cancer.”
Indiana wouldn’t be the first state to promote this theory. According to the Guttmacher Institute, five states — Alaska, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Texas and West Virginia — currently include mentions of a link between abortion and breast cancer in written counseling materials.
Okay, planet. You win.
(via azspot)
Tsunami makes it to our back yard…San Francisco Bay, moving toward Emeryville on the Bay’s east side. The Bay Bridge and San Fran are visible in the background.
(via Berkeleyside.com)
Stay safe.
As somebody who lives by the water in the East Bay, I am breathing a sigh of relief. So glad this is all we got.
(via pantslessprogressive)
Donate to the American Red Cross earthquake relief fund for Japan
It will take you less than 10 seconds, unless you’re a lousy texter.
(via pantslessprogressive)
Next issue, we’ll have a whole package on the science of science denial, and why folks cling to untenable beliefs. Until then…sigh.
(Source: ilovecharts)
