Feeling: Proud

Heading to Kalamazoo for a wedding rehearsal this afternoon, and tomorrow, I officiate the wedding of two of my friends!

I added a page for Excitebike.

• I over-estimated the fractured Republican party. They were just barely able to pass a bill that would allow them vote on Trumpcare, but after that, they dropped the ball trying to repeal Obamacare, and now they've fallen back onto their "skinny" repeal which would only eliminate the parts of Obamacare they didn't like, but still failed! For the past seven years, Republicans did a show-vote to repeal Obamacare, but they knew they could never actually do it. Now, when they have full control of the government, they can't even get a simple majority vote! And even though people are fawning over McCain, the real heroes here are Murkowski and Collins.
• Trump's new communication director thinks he can get a journalist to reveal their sources by threatening to fire the entire White House staff (because firing disgruntled employees won't increase leaks!) and also by appealing to patriotic nature. Bitch, anyone who is a patriot wants the leaks to keep coming to prevent Trump from burning the country to the ground. Scaramucci's iron fist attitude has only caused several more leaks to occur including when he claimed that he had been cock-blocked by Reince Priebus, that Steven Bannon tries to suck his own cock, and that he wants to kill every leaker in the White House!
• Both the House and Senate voted (419 to 3 and 98 to 2, respectively) to not only increase sanctions against Russia, Iran, and North Korea, but also prevent anyone from re-opening them without Congressional approval. This is quite a blow to Trump who has been wanting to lift sanctions on Russia to prove his love for dictator Vladamir Putin. Even if Trump vetoes the bill, Congress can override his veto because of their majority vote, but it just another bit of evidence towards Trump's obsession with Russia. Russia responded by seizing two American properties in Russia and demanding that American embassies in Russia reduce the size of their staff!
• Draft-dodging Trump called for a ban on transgender people in the military, wrongly stating that their health care is preventing the US military from stopping terrorism, but US generals, you know, the ones he claimed to have talked to about the problem, don't know anything about the ban, and aren't going to take a Twitter post as law.
• Trump continues to throw Jeff Sessions under the bus for doing the right thing, and ruins the life of pretty much everyone he comes in contact with.
• Sam Brownback just finished bankrupting the State of Kansas by following the tax-cutting play book of Arthur Laffer. Even Republicans had to re-institute taxes to keep the state solvent. So, what possible political future can Brownback expect after ruining an entire state? Why, being appointed by Trump to the White House, of course! Brownback, an ultra-conservative Christian who wants to ban abortion, fire all LGBT workers, and force Creationism into public schools is now the head of International Religious Freedom at the State Department!
• Kelly Anne Conway explains that part of the reason the White House still hasn't been able to fill all their vacant positions is because of those pesky ethics rules which are scaring off their potential employees, which gives you an idea of what kind of people they are trying to hire.
• Trump claimed his rally in an auditorium that can only hold 6,000 people broke every attendance records ever.

Paul Joseph Watson, a racist at Infowars (I think that's redundant), got his knickers in a twist when he saw a BBC educational cartoon that suggested that Roman-occupied Britain was ethnically diverse. So, a historian went on a rant explaining to him that the vast majority of the Roman empire actually was very diverse and included Moors, North Africans, Middle Easterners, and more.

Interesting information about the Game Boy Advance.

The Boy Scouts of America finally apologized for Trump's political rant, but it's too little too late.

If atheists talked like Christians.

What would happen if you let an ex-Christian teach a Sunday School class?

The fascinating crystals known as perovskites.

They the 2% failure rate of condoms doesn't mean what you think it means.

Feeling: Annoyed

Our babies are both 7 inches long, both 5 ounces, and both female!

I added a page for the NES port of Gauntlet and reworked my page for Queen's Sheer Heart Attack album.

• Republicans voted in favor of a Trumpcare bill that they've never even seen, but now they voted not to repeal Obamacare, in large part because they keep ignoring Republican women and creating rules that hurt them. And how do Republican men respond to their female colleagues who feel disenfranchised? The same way they respond to all women, with threats of violence.
• For decades, the Boy Scouts have discriminated against everyone who isn't a religious straight male. So, I'm not too shocked when they invited Trump to lie about his presidency and tell dirty jokes to children.
• Newt Gingrich, another party-over-country Republican, has come to rescue his damsel Donald Trump with a slew of lies and misrepresentation.
• Trump's argument for why he's banning transgender people from the military is so the military won't be burdened with the cost of their gender reassignment therapy. The reality is, the military has an obscene amount of money, almost as much as every other country in the world combined. Also, there are very few transgender people in the military anyway (they only account for 0.14% of their medical budget), Trump spends almost as much as their entire yearly budget every time he goes to his resort to play golf. In fact, shockingly, each year the US military spends over ten times more than their former transgender soldiers as they do on $84,000,000 worth of Viagra. So, no, banning transgender soldiers was not done to save money, but it wasn't just done because Trump is a lying bigot either. It may have been done to force Democrats to make transgender issues part of their platform in an attempt to injure them because they believe even Democrat voters are still afraid of transgender people. To some extent, they're right, but considering Republicans still think they can win the fight against same-sex marriage, I'm not so sure they understand their opponents very well, especially when there are people like this.
• Trump claims the US has the highest taxes in the world. Trump is a liar.
• Trump doesn't understand the first amendment to the US Constitution.
• Though it's only a drop in the bucket, Twitter has started to lose users, many who explain the reason they left as Twitter's lack of desire to stop revenge porn and cyber-bullying (often from Trump).
• Trump appointed someone with strong ties to the drug industry to lead the FDA and put his son-in-law in charge of solving the opioid epidemic. Needless to say, neither of these moves have decreased the number of people getting addicted to pain pills, and have probably made it worse.
• Republicans elected a clown, and now they don't know what to do because the lown has taken over.

Since torture victims can't sue the US Government, they're instead trying to sue the company that was paid $81,000,000 of taxpayer's money to create and oversee the CIA's torture program. The company is defending themselves by saying they shouldn't be held accountable for making a torture program because they didn't force anyone to use their torture tactics, just like how the people who created the chemical weapons for the Nazis weren't guilty of killing the Jews. First of all, if you want to claim innocence, it's best not to compare yourself people who created poison gas for the Nazis. Second, the people who supplied the Nazis with poison were found guilty.

The three biggest claims of Dr. Oz, and why each one is a lie.

Malaysa is a mostly Islamic country where a politician can get away with saying that women who withhold sex from their husbands are causing extreme emotional abuse.

The shape of the universe and why it's no fun to be a male hyena.

Ken Ham finally lost his battle with the State of Kentucky, he tried all the underhanded tactics in the Christian play book, but eventually he agreed to give $0.50 of each ticket sale to his giant wooden box amusement park to the state to pay for police and fire protection.

Simone Giertz opens her packages after being gone for 2.5 months and electrocutes her face for fun and profit.

Another victory against using the state police department for religious indoctrination in Knoxville, Kentucky.

Feeling: Angry

Had a bit of a scare with the twins, but things are looking pretty good so far. Emily had another ultrasound and our fears have been assuaged. We're also waiting on the results of a blood test to confirm happy results.

I added a page for the Howl's Moving Castle movie.

• If even a bunch of racist rednecks like the KKK can organize, we knew Republicans would eventually stop tripping over themselves and pass something. Yesterday, the Senate voted on a new Trumpcare bill that nobody was even allowed to see, and enough Republicans voted in favor to get a tie vote, which allowed Mike Pence to cast the deciding vote in favor allowing Trumpcare to continue. Republicans Rand Paul and John McCain have said on numerous accounts that Trumpcare would hurt the country, but they still voted in favor of it, because they would rather hurt the country than go against their party. So, we're back on the path of killing millions of Americans by taking away their health insurance and making it impossible for them to ever get it back so we can give a tax break to the 1%. The only two Republicans who voted against Trumpcare were Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, and it's telling that they would be women, as Trumpcare, much like Trump himself, is particularly cruel to women.
• Bigotry is usually pretty easy to spot. It usually takes the form of, we don't want "you people" to be around us. Trump, a classic bigot, gives a great example by banning transgender people from serving in the US military.
• Trump's new communication director meets all the qualifications for the job. He's a rich white man who helped cause the 2008 depression, and is bad at communication.
• Donald Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort, the three members of Trump's team who worked with Russians in an attempt to smear Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, will be questioned by the Senate, but we shouldn't expect much since the Senate is majority Republican, and the questioning will occur behind closed doors.
• Trump accidentally confirmed the existence of a secret CIA operation on Twitter.
• Once again, Republicans demonstrate that they favor bigger and more bureaucratic government by creating new restrictions for women seeking abortions.
• While the Trump administration continues to pretend that climate change is a hoax created by the Chinese, the UK is planning to ban the sale of fossil fuel burning cars by 2040.

Officer Mohamed Noor shot Justine Ruszczyk to death after she slapped his police car. But the police report doesn't explain why Ruszczyk was shot to death, or even that she was shot to death. Instead, it reads that, "the female became deceased in the alley."

This summer, the US Supreme Court will hear two cases about gerrymandering.

Stefan Stewart was caught sexually assaulting his relative, a 4-year-old boy. He claimed that he was possessed by the devil, but didn't need prayer from the boy's mother because the devil had left him after she walked in on them.

Chris Bishop talks about the past, present, and future of artificial intelligence.

If your great-grandfather is a famous televangelist, you won't have to see the inside of a Oklahoma courtroom, even if you take part in a drive-by shooting, like Blake Kenneth Hagin.

Is America a Christian nation? Here are the arguments.

A detailed history of the civil war going on in Middle East.

Feeling: Frustrated

I added a page for The Goonies video game.

• After lying about it for almost a year, new information keeps surfacing about Don Jr. when thought he was meeting with people he thought were with the Russian government to change the outcome of the US election. In addition to a former spy, Don Jr. also invited into his office someone who has been accused of laundering $1,400,000,000.
• Parents eventually learn to tune out the tantrums of their children, and the American public appears to be doing the same with Donald Trump's tantrums. In some ways, this is terrible because it means Americans won't bat an eye the next time he tries to violate the US Constitution, but in other ways, it hurts him as well, like when he calls for the investigation of Hillary Clinton and nobody cares.
• Trump got up in front of 40,000 Boy Scouts at their Jamboree to complain about fake news and his failed health care bill, and patted himself on the back for how well he did in the election. He also talked about the importance of hard work and American values, even though he possesses neither.
• Trump has a cheerleader in Michelle Bachmann who claims that Trump has been working non-stop and definitely hasn't taken a whole bunch of time off to play golf, and he's definitely a great Christian who understands the god of the bible. Now, the "hard working" argument is easily shot down, but how do you deal with the "Trump is a good Christian" argument? I don't remember where I heard it, but someone presented a simple question that will kill the argument. If you have a decent understanding of the bible, simply ask, "what is it about Trump's behavior that reminds you of Jesus?" and point to a story of Jesus that proves them wrong.
• It wasn't being forced to lie for his boss on a daily basis that bothered him, but having to compete with another speaker that ultimately caused Sean Spicer to quit.
• Republicans are impotent when it comes to health care.

Earth worms are not native to upper North America, and they're changing the ecosystem in big ways.

The giant wooden crate that was built in Kentucky was sold to a church for $10, to avoid having to pay taxes, but after hearing that the state was going to eliminate their tourism-related tax rebate, they're selling it back, for another $10.

An interesting lecture about how movement is one of the primary things that drives of evolution.

Making a baryon with different types of quarks!

Kevin Koers is the Principal of Franklin Central High School in Indiana. He reprimanded a teacher for telling his students the truth, that the state is not allowed to force them to say the Pledge of Allegiance, and, I would add, since it is now a prayer, they shouldn't say it.

2017 has some interesting game innovation.

Piracy on the Amiga using X-Copy.

Feeling: Frustrated

I added a page for Kiki's Delivery Service.

• When Donald Trump failed to win the popular vote, but still won the presidency, he wanted to assure someone very important to him that he would do a good by them. That person is the certifiably insane Alex Jones. Jones, who believes every terrorist attack in recent years was a false flag operation created by the Democrats, lost custody of his children because he's crazy, and has a fear of gay frogs (seriously), is calling for a civil war against Democrats, and some of his listeners have taken up arms because of him.
• Trump put his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, in charge of a few minor things like reforming the American justice system, restructuring the entire US government, solving the problems with veteran's care, diplomatic relations with China and Mexico, eliminating the opioid addiction, and ending the thousands of years of conflict in the Middle East. However, before Jared Kushner can single-handedly tackle those basic issues, he has to convince the government that he wasn't involved with Trump, Jr. and Paul Manafort's Russian collusion. And since Jeff Sessions can't help him because he was forced to recuse himself, Trump now hates Jeff Sessions.
• Everything that comes out of Tucker Carlson's mouth over at Fox "News" sounds the exact same as what is said by white supremacists.
• Republicans are still trying to get Trumpcare passed, now, by holding sick Americans hostage. They're going to have a hard time, not just because they can't even get their own party on board, but because the bill violate the Senate budget rules, you will need a 60% majority vote.
• Trump has spent one quarter of his presidency at his own properties, mostly golfing and watching TV.
• Donald Trump is human garbage who just can't keep his mouth shut.
• Trump is a compulsive liar, but Mitch McConnoll is a strategic liar.
• A bit dated now, but here is a recap of Trump's first 100 days in office.
• Trump's plan to pardon himself and his family from any crimes they may commit (or may have already committed) might actually be legal according to the US Constitution, but it wouldn't be the wisest move.

Remember Kim Davis? The Christian woman who refused to follow her Kentucky law and issue same-sex marriage licenses because Jesus didn't want her to (but he's fine with her multiple marriages)? Well, now that the smoke has cleared, Kentucky tax payers are left with her lawsuit bill totaling $225,000.

Dan Dennett answers the question, is there any good reason to believe in a god?

It would be nice if more cities would force the Christian anti-abortion clinics where they lie to pregnant women to post a visible disclaimer that the place is not a health care facility.

Julia Galef explains the Repugnant Conclusion and the Sleeping Beauty Problem.

Feeling: Annoyed

I added a page for Sopwith.

• Trump has asked his legal team if it's possible for the President to pardon himself, his family, and his appointees of legal crimes.
• The Affordable Care Act could have been a lot better, but Republicans voted against all the bells and whistles, so now we're stuck with a crappy half-version. Of course, for the people who actually use it, even the ones who were vehemently against it, they can no longer picture life without it.
• Our tax dollars continued to be wasted and our private information continues to be leaked as Republicans search for non-existent voter fraud in order to satiate Trump's fractured ego.
• Trump, just like Nixon, doesn't want people around making official records of what he says while talking to foreign rulers, like Putin.
• Ordinarily, a new president has the majority of his important cabinet leaders already picked out and ready to be approved when they take office. This has not been the case for Trump. Trump is both woefully under-prepared and so buy golfing, he's made it over half a year into his presidency before finally getting around to appointing a new head of the US Department of Agriculture. Naturally, is someone is going to be in charge of the country's farming policy, you would expect them to be an agricultural scientist, but come on, this is Trump we're talking about, so we're getting a conspiracy theorist radio host: Sam Clovis.
• Things got a bit too spicy in the White House for Sean Spicer, so he resigned. Interestingly, it wasn't having to constantly lie for the president that made him quit, it was because they hired someone else to work with him who is just as evil and incompetent: Anthony Scaramucci.
• This Republican rant against transgender people includes babbling, stuttering, incorrect history, and a complete lack of audience.
• Trump demands unflinching loyalty, just like a Mafia don.
• Trump continues to collude with Russia, a country so paranoid, they're banning fidget spinners.

The parents who willingly gave their their two underage daughters to a man who claimed to be a god and had sex with them will thankfully be going to prison.

Kaydin Alabbas was abandoned at a national park by his family after telling them he didn't want to become a Mormon missionary. He had to stay the night with strangers and get picked up by his grandparents the next day who convinced him to give Mormonism another shot, and he did go on the mission trip after all (I wonder if disownment played a role in that?). Since the story had a happy ending (as far as the parents are concerned), they used his abandonment as a wonderful teaching lesson for other Mormons doubting their faith!

When one quack accuses another quack of stealing their bullshit, everyone wins!

Landing on Mars isn't not as easy as it sounds!

That's some salty water!

Even mythology disproves Noah's Ark.

Feeling: Frustrated

I added a page for Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins.

• For the past eight years, Republicans have been saying no to every idea in existence, refusing to even take a vote on them. Just look at how they reacted to Obama's Supreme Court picks. Well, eight years of saying no to everything must be a hard habit to break, because now that they run the entire US government, they're still saying no to everything, even Trumpcare! Trump is still trying to sell the repeal, in a largely incoherent, largely dishonest, talk. He even tried throwing dissenting Republicans under the bus, but they're not even remotely afraid of him and his record-breaking disapproval rating. It's hard to expect much more from someone who believes that health insurance costs $12 a year.
• Betsy DeVos is trying to eliminate public schools, but thankfully she's having a hard time even giving a speech without drawing a crowd of protesters.
• Trump might not be able to get anything done, but that doesn't mean the people he appointed aren't ruining the country. With the EPA now being run by climate change denier Scott Pruitt, the agency has been successfully hobbled. In fact, even talking about climate change is a good way to lose your job. But simply getting rid of scientists and halting their research won't fix our problems, like the massive damage we're causing to the largest ecosystem on earth.

The Giant Wooden Crate amusement park which was sold to a church for $10 to avoid paying taxes might be faced with an upcoming lawsuit.

Police officers have a habit of turning off their body cameras before committing crimes. Thankfully, when officer Richard Pinheiro planted drugs at the scene of a crime, he accidentally filmed himself.

When scam artists like those working for Gweneth Paltrow attack doctors.

For the record, trying to force people to be non-religious and love the government is just replacing one type of dogma with another.

According to Gallup, fewer American Protestant Christians adhere to a particular denomination than ever before. Down from 50% in 2000 to only 30% in 2016.

Kelvin Helmholtz instability is pretty amazing looking.

Alex Dainis talks about making animals depressed, and extracting your own DNA.

Feeling: Rebellious

I added a page for Uninvited.

• Donald Trump, Jr.'s lie keeps growing taller. It went from claiming he only met with a random Russian to talk about orphans to colluding with a roomful of Russians, one a former Russian spy, to bring down an American politician. Oh look, here's a fun song about it. Want to know what's really terrifying? Even after Trump Junior admitted to meeting with Russians, and even released his emails about the meeting, 45% of Trump voters still don't believe the meeting ever took place! In addition, when Trump voters what should happen to Donald Trump if he were found to be guilty of personally working with Russians to sway the American democratic process, a whopping 77% of Trump voters don't believe he should remain in office.
• And it doesn't help that the Trump himself held an undisclosed meeting with suspected murderer Vladamir Putin after the planned meeting that lasted four times longer than it was supposed to.
• Republicans couldn't even get Republicans to accept the Republican health care bill, and Trump's idea of just killing the current health care plan without a replacement is a terrible idea, but one that Mitch McConnell is keen to vote on!
• With Trump favoring companies over citizens, he's encouraging the FCC to eliminate Net Neutrality, and people want to know just how angry the public are about this, so they made a Freedom of Information Request to see they 40,000 complaints made to the FCC website. Naturally, the FCC has refused to serve the people.
• The Trumps don't even live in Trump Tower anymore, but the US military is still spending $130,000 a month to rent it out.
• Typical Republican, one rule for the ruled and another one for the ruler.

When the NRA issues a dangerous statement, LA natives respond perfectly.

Not only do phone and Internet companies have to surrender your private information to the FBI whenever they ask, but Federal courts have ruled that they aren't even allowed to tell you when the FBI demands it.

Mega Man probably wouldn't last very long if Dr. Wily had a competent assistant.

A personal journey of a mother who raised a highly autistic son.

Seth Andrews has a message for religious spouses that are married to an atheist.

Part of why religion is so effective is because it convinces you you're sick, and only it has the cure.

Simone Giertz doesn't speak Spanish all that well, but she does speak English, Swedish, and a bit of French and Chinese.

Feeling: Rebellious

• For the past seven years, Republicans have been obstructing every attempt to repair the USA's failing health care system. Now, finally, their loyal voters give them control of the entire government only to discover they never bothered to actually come up with their own plan. So, rather than work as a group to come up with a comprehensive replacement, a few high-ranking Republicans went into a closed room, refused to take questions or give input even to their own party, and created a last-minute hack that would be about 100 times worse than the current flawed system. As expected, nobody liked it. Now, they're giving up entirely on getting their garbage plan through. Trump's position on this whole mess is to simply repeal the Affordable Care Act entirely without any replacement, and just let over 25,000,000 people lose their health care.
• Fox "News" continues to downplay the Trump administration's Russian collusion.
• Journalists asked about the hypocrisy of Trump celebrating "Made In America Week," when most of his crappy products are made with foreign labor, and the White House decided to stop answering any of those types of question.
• Remember John Oliver's report on how police can legally steal money from civilians as long as they call it civil forfeiture? Well, Trump's racist Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, wants them to do it even more! He also loves to give closed-door lectures to bigots.
• Helping translators accurately translate Trump's incoherent racist babbling.
• Trump likes to claim that he's signed more legislation than any president in history. He hasn't.
• Effectiv immideatly, peeple wil hav 2 stort spelin' lyke Trump!
• A recap of last week.

Shooting a shotgun into a car full of teenagers is a crime, unless you're a cop, and you claim they were trying to run you over. But just hope nobody ever asks to look at the footage which shows that you were in no danger of being run over when you killed a teenager because then you might get indicted on murder charges.

The Ark Encounter was able to be built because it got a massive tax break from the State of Kentucky under the claim that it would be a theme park. Well, now that the state is asking for them to pay taxes typical to what is expected from a theme park, the owners are avoiding all taxes by selling the park to a church for $10. The local government is disappointed that they're going to lose all this tax revenue, but they probably should have thought of that before trusting a Christians like Ken Ham.

Sami Karra has been charged with murdering his 17-year-old daughter by repeatedly stabbing her in the neck because she was dating a Muslim.

The Boy Scouts of America now allows gay scouts and leaders, transgender scouts, and it's even thinking about letting girls join, but they'll be damned if they allow kids who don't believe in a god!

Windows 10 is trash, and it doesn't show any signs of getting better.

Armin Navabi talks about what it's like to leave Islam.

Feeling: Exhausted

I had a fantastic time at the CFI Secular Summer Retreat! It still amazes me that something as simple as having secular Humanist beliefs can bring a large group of people together to have a wonderful time with their families and friends.

I added a page for Left 4 Dead 2.

• Don Jr.'s lawyer tried to offer a valid reason for why it was okay for Jr. to meet with, what he believed to be, Russian agents, but the Secret Service called bullshit on the lie. The FOI request that Jeff Sessions refused to file on time has been entirely redacted except for the check box indicating that he had no contact with foreign governments in the past seven years, which we have since learned is a lie, because he met with Russians multiple times. And remember, the White House's collusion with Russia is such a big deal, not just because Russia is a hostile foreign power, but because it's pretty damn evil. When asked about the systematic torture of gay people in Russia's Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov ignored the question and claimed that they didn't have a single gay person living there, and, "Praise be to God. Take them far from us so we don't have them at home. To purify our blood, if there are any here, take them."
• The White House continues to lie about how bad Trumpcare will be, and one of the few Republicans who is expected to vote against the destructive bill just had his offices broken into!
• Just as predicted, Trump's massive spending and tax breaks are going to cause a huge government deficit. The current number is, by the next 2 years, the USA will have lost $248,000,000,000.
• Trump just can't help himself from making unwanted personal observations of women, even when they're the wife of a world leader.
• Trump takes another step toward allowing churches to become not being religious institutions and become political institutions.
• Trump unveils "Made In America Week," which is a bit odd considering that most products which bear his name are made in China.
• There are many reasons why States have been refusing to give the personal information of voters to the White House, but probably one of the best reasons is that the White House it entirely incompetent in handling sensitive data. They just released 112 pages of comments from private citizens about the request. One comment simply reads, "Do not release any of my voter data period!" and then the White House released not only that person's name and personal email address, but everyone else's as well!

Justine Damond called 911 due to a possible assault in an alley near her Minneapolis home. Police arrived and Damond went out to talk to them, and the police shot her to death. Although all Minneapolis cops wear mandatory body cameras, there is no video evidence of the killing. So, yet another unarmed person gunned down by police, but maybe something will come of this because Damond was white.

A passenger on an American Airlines flight started masturbating next to a sleeping woman, and even though another person complained about the masturbating man, the flight attendants never bothered to wake the woman and instead allowed the man to continue masturbating next to her. When she finally woke up and realized what was happening, American Airlines required her to continue to sit, trapped between the man who was masturbating next to her and the window.

Law enforcement are trying to make it illegal for companies to tell their customers when they're demanding private information about their customers!

Iranian women are badass. Not only are they driving cars (Allah forbid!), but they're doing so while not wearing a hijab!

Julia Galef explains how you too can have a basic understanding of quantum mechanics... just hang out with Sean Carroll.

The mathematical genius, Maryam Mirzakhani, the first woman to be awarded the Fields Medal, has sadly died at age 40 from breast cancer.

The headline read, "Local Pastor opens church inside Mumford High School," which sounds awfully shocking, and it's exactly what happened.

Anthony Erb likes to help the homeless, but that didn't stop someone from throwing a rock through his car window with the words, "GOD IS GOOD" written on it.

Feeling: Angry

I added a page for Sonic the Hedgehog.

• The White House is still doing damage control ever since Donald Trump, Jr. proved that they have been lying for the past 9 months, and now we've learned that Don Junior conveniently forgot to mention Rinat Akhmetshin, ex-Russian counter-intelligence, was also in the meeting! Fox "News" is trying their damnedest to blame everything on Obama and Clinton, seriously. Not that it's necessary, as John Oliver explains, truth doesn't matter to the Republican voter. Don Jr. will be questioned on Capitol Hill, but since Republicans are in charge of punishment, it's doubtful that his unethical behavior will be treated seriously.
• Trump's Muslim ban is now in effect, but some judges are at least working to make it less of a Constitutional violation. And, no doubt needing to be reminded that banning an all-girls robotics team was a PR nightmare, Trump finally allowed them entry into the country to compete. I'm hoping we finally get to the stage where people don't have to surrender their personal life as well, but I understand how that's asking too much.
• You know Trumpcare is bad because Congress refuses to use it.
• ISPs like Comcast, who expect to make billions gouging online companies for decent download speeds, have already spent $572,000,000 trying to buy the FCC's decision to eliminate Net Neutrality. And since the FCC is now led by a friend of Trump and Mitch McConnell, that might very well happen.
• Republicans want to take money away from poor women and children to fund Trump's useless border wall. In the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, they just want to murder everyone who is different.
• When Trump's family travels, they purposely stay in their own hotels so they can charge everything to the US tax payer.
• Remember the woman who was arrested because she let out a laugh of disbelief when racist Jeff Sessions claimed he treated all people equally? She is -finally- being cleared of charges.

Texas cut funding to Planned Parenthood, and, as expected, teen abortions began to rise. This is the same thing that has happened in th past; every time access to birth control is made more difficult to obtain and sexual education is eliminated, more teenagers get pregnant and seek abortions.

An interesting postmortem on Darkest Dungeon.

Baby formula isn't the poison ignorant naturopaths think it is.

Who knew it would be so difficult to define a kilogram?

Simon Giertz talks about the worst day of her life being on a Chinese sitcom, a slightly better time on a Spanish talk show, and and much better time on a Swedish science show.

Feeling: Annoyed

I added a page for God of Thunder.

• Trump is pretending the reason his son released incriminating evidence about his collusion with Russia is to be "transparent," but if Don Jr. is so interested in transparency, why did he wait close to a year to finally admit it? No, the real reason he released his emails about trying to meet with the Russian government to get dirt on Hillary Clinton is because he was told by journalist they were going to break his story wide open, and this was a last ditch effort to make his history of lies look good.
• Our racist Attorney General, Jeff Sessions is refusing to a fill a Freedom of Information Act request, despite a court order demanding he do so, because it would show the details of which Russians he met with, and later lied about meeting. You know you're living in 1984 when the head of the Justice Department is obstructing justice. There will most likely be another lawsuit against the Trump administration because of this.

Tatyana Hargrove was shocked when a Bakersfield, CA police officer drew his gun on her for no reason. She became belligerent from being treated like a sub-human, and the officer punched her in the face, wrestled her to the ground, and allowed his dog to bite her, before finally arresting her for aggravated assault on an officer. After the abuse, the police realized they had apprehended the wrong person. They confused a 115-pound 5'2" 19-year-old girl with braids, with a machete-wielding 180-pound 5'10" 30-year-old bald man with a beard. The Bakersfield police say it's a simple case of mistaken identity.

A wonderful lecture about the history of the Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Sonic wouldn't last so long if Dr. Robotnik had an assistant.

Why do people think they see ghosts?

Archeology also disproves the global flood myth.

Alex Dainis is awesome.

Feeling: Annoyed

I added a page for Below the Root.

• Donald Trump's eldest son admitted that he, Paul Manafort, and Jared Kushner all met with some Russians who claimed the Russian government could provide them with secret information to sabotage Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. This is precisely the type of Russian collusion that the Trump administration has been denying for nearly a year now. Faced with his lies, Trump is now trying to assure the American people that his son is not only innocent, but the victim of the vile scourge of America: transparent journalism. Despite Donald Trump, Jr. personally admitting that he and two other top Trump administration officials colluded with the Russians, many Republicans still think the story is made up by the media. Actually, if you watched this report on Fox "News," you would be left with the impression that the Trump's merely talked to a random Russian citizen, because Fox purposely left out the line about the information coming from the Russian government!
• Trump was widely ignored by world leaders at the G20 Summit, not just because he was so unprepared he didn't have a speech and couldn't even get a hotel room, but also because he's a colossal embarrassment of a human.
• Jesus' miracles don't go as far as they used to under Trumpcare.
• Seattle politicians unanimously agreed to institute an additional tax on the wealthy to try and shore up their huge tax losses. While it is most likely to be shot down by a higher court, it's nice to see some cities push back against Trump's incompetent destruction of American social programs.

Police Officer Shannon Kepler punished his teenage daughter by stranding her at a homeless shelter because she kept trying to have a boyfriend. At the shelter she met a new boyfriend, nineteen-year-old Jeremey Lake. While the two were distributing food and water for the homeless shelter, Officer Shannon Kepler showed up, saw that his white daughter had a black boyfriend, and shot Jeremey Lake to death. Lake's aunt said that the boy was extending his hand to greet Officer Kepler with a handshake, but Kepler claimed Lake was armed with a semi-automatic pistol and shot the boy in self defense. No gun was found on Lake's corpse or anywhere around the scene, and no witnesses saw one either. This all happened in 2014, but Officer Kepler is still a free man because his third hearing has resulted in a mistrial.

Christian youth pastor Samuel Patrick Dockary is facing charges of raping two girls, both under the age of 16. And speaking of Christians raping children, why does TLC keep making shows about them?

While the LeMay family was away camping, they had someone look after their two Staffordshire Terriers. The house-sitter accidentally tripped their home security alarm, but called the company and gave their correct information to cancel the alarm. The Minneapolis police showed up at the house anyway and one officer hopped the family's backyard fence where he encountered the two dogs and shot them both. The officer says he had to shoot the dogs because they were charging at him, but security footage released by the family shows that the officer lied. The dogs were wagging their tails and not even paying that much attention to the cop when he shot the first one in the head. Despite falsifying his police report, the officer will receive no punishment, but the police chief claims he will have better training in the future.

Good thing we didn't waste time trying to be part of the Paris Climate Agreement, because an iceberg the size of the entire state of Delaware just broke off of the Antarctic ice shelf.

Bowser wouldn't probably do better if he had an assistant.

If you're going to forge documents, make sure you use a font that existed at the time the document was supposed to have been created!

We could help struggling cities in the Mid West by moving some government headquarters into them.

Roy Zimmerman's new song, Summer of Loving.

Feeling: Annoyed

I added a page for Martian Dreams.

• For every major organization of government, Trump appointed someone who either hated the organization (like Scott Pruitt who kept suing the EPA and now runs it) or someone who knew absolutely nothing about it (like Rick Perry who probably still doesn't know what the Department of Energy does). And now that each organization is led by a either an adversary or an incompetent, that is, the person who can do the most damage, he's asking each leader to put together a plan to eliminate their own organization's authority.
• You know your country is on the fast track to the bottom when the party in charge thinks more highly of churches and banks than universities and journalism.
• Republicans also want to put the wealthiest corporations (like Comcast) in charge of the Internet so that they can blackmail the sites you love the most by slowing them down until they pay extra rates, which will be passed on to you.

A nice lecture by Lawrence Krauss followed up by a Q&A session with Matt Dillahunty.

An in-depth review of the Mega Man II soundtrack.

Street Epistemology and why bible class won't prepare you for basic questions about faith.

Did You Know Gaming, Castlevania and Metroid Lore.

An interesting workshop about the failures of game making.

Alex Dainis is awesome.

Feeling: Happy

After almost 30 years since I first played it, I finally beat Ultima: Exodus for the NES. I also finished reading The Way of the Heathen.

• It's a bit shocking just how brazenly the Trump and his cronies fawn over Russia, spending hours making nice with the country that sabotaged our democratic process, and is now even hacking into our nuclear energy networks. Trump even discussed how much he hates journalists with Vladimir Putin, a man linked to the murder of multiple reporters in his own country. Trump's White House is even threatening to block a CNN merger if they don't stop pointing out all his lies.
• Trump's son, Donald, Jr. hopped on a plane to Russia for a chance at getting his mitts on compromising information about Hillary Clinton, but it turned out he was duped. While the Trump's continue to waste tax dollars trying to find something to pin on Clinton, their own toadies continue to be the target of Federal investigation.
• Paul Ryan appears to becoming a Muslim. He's requiring all women who want to enter the House of Representative to be dressed according to his personal modestly rules.
• This reporter says it plain and simple, Donald Trump has neither the desire nor capacity to lead the world, and is the biggest threat to Western values.
• Trump isn't just the most protested man in the USA, he also appears to be the most protested man in the world! It might be because he's scientifically illiterate, or it might be because he let his daughter represent the USA at the G20 Summit.
• I'm not even shocked to hear that, shortly after a lunatic riddles Republicans with bullets at a baseball game, they want to make it even easier for people to get guns.

Cardinal George Pell, a major player in the Vatican, is finally returning to Australia to face multiple charges of sexually assaulting children.

God lost his UFC title.

Peter Boghossian digs his grave deeper suggesting that "nearly every male who's a 3rd wave intersectional feminist is physically feeble," (they're not), and then justifying his bigotry by claiming it's based on evolutionary theory (it's not).

God can turn a cracker into his own flesh before you eat it, but not if it's gluten free.

William Rian Adams, an Episcopal Priest, was out driving his tax-free Corvette when he got mad because he felt the driver behind him was tailing too closely. When the driver tried to pass the priest, Adams pulled out a Glock 22 and pointed it at the driver. Adams is now in custody with two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. When will this war on Christianity end?

The Angry Video Game Nerd plays Planet of the Apes.

Imam Mohammed Haji Sadiq was sentenced to 13 years in jail for sexually assaulting four little girls, all under the age of 12.

Creepy animal teeth.

Feeling: Happy

I played my first real-life Escape Room last night with some friends. It was a bit pricey, but a lot of fun. Even though it was the hardest room they run, and we were down two players, we almost beat it; if we had another 10 minutes we would have solved it. I was helpful in solving an interesting wheel-spoke puzzle and a devious coded-tantagram, but I unfortunately held up my team trying to solve a strange handcuff puzzle involving an encoded journal. I'm looking forward to trying a different one in the future.

I added a review of The Simpsons.

• Trump is universally hated world wide with some of the worst approval ratings in history, but there is one country who still likes him. Can you guess? It's the same country that helped him get elected! In fact, very soon Trump is going to have a meeting with his boss.
• Will you receive a tax break from Trumpcare? That depends. Are you extremely wealthy? No? Then you probably won't get a tax break. Thankfully, the Republican Party is so fractured with Tea Party lunatics, there is still hope that Trumpcare will fail.
• The whole point of having an ethics department in the White House is to challenge the President when they do something unethical. The office is entirely pointless if Trump gets to hand pick someone who won't challenge his unethical behavior. I guess, you can't expect much from someone who exempts his staff from ethics oversight.
• Mike Pence touches the NASA equipment labeled "DO NOT TOUCH," and the memes commence.
• Rick Perry doesn't understand one of the most basic aspects of economics.
• Neil Young has a new patriotic anthem.

Former Muslim Yasmine Mohammed has a talk about being the wife of a man involved with the 9/11 terrorist attack.

City officials in Pensacola, Florida have been wasting tax payer money trying to defend a Christian cross on public land. The mayor shot himself in the foot by saying he hoped that the cross could stay up so that religion would always have a place in the public square, and the judge sided with many preceding cases which have ruled that such monuments are a government endorsement of religion. But, since it's not their money on the line, the city has chosen to repeal their case, which will only result in an even bigger settlement for the Freedom From Religion Foundation when they lose.

The evolution of apple flies and various types of mutations.

More information about actinium.

Feeling: Happy

I added a review of Loom and a list of bands I've seen in concert, although I know I'm forgetting several.

• Trump is finally admitting what every government intelligence agency already knew before he was elected, that Russia hacked the USA. But he won't admit any of the important points, like Russian hackers are one of the main reasons he's president.
• Trumpcare will be used by everyone in America, including men and women, the LGBT, the young and old, rich and the poor, and every race, religion, and creed, but it was created in a closed room by 13 straight rich old white men.
• Trump is hurting America, not just in global competition where China is making deals with the European Union because everyone there hates Trump, but here in the US as well because, by pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement, state and city officials are now forced to continue making the nation greener while also fighting the federal government's incompetence.

• Coal has been dying since the 1920s, and solar keeps growing. America has backed the wrong horse.
• It shouldn't surprise anyone, but Trump has increased the White House women's pay gap by 300%.
• Thankfully, most of the states in the Union are refusing to hand over voter records to satisfy Trump's fractured ego.
• The director of the Office of Government Ethics has resigned out of disgust for Trump's disregard for ethical practices.

It's a shame they have to do this, but their populace is almost as stupid as Americans, so France is making mandatory 11 childhood vaccinations.

Trying to answer the top 100 most Googled questions.

Hobby Lobby, the holier-than-thou craft store who refuses to respect their female workers, has to pay a $3,000,000 fine after they were caught trying to smuggle ancient Iraqi artifacts through the Middle Eastern black market.

Answers In Genesis is chocked full of dishonest goons, and PZ Meyers doesn't suffer fools gladly.

Christians continue to mock the US Constitution by turning taxpayer-funded events into church services.

Why our brain often has a hard time distinguishing a hill from a valley.

Feeling: Happy

I've been married for three years today, and I have to admit, it's been pretty great!

I added a review of Lemmings.

• During the Obama Administration, it was discovered that the state courts in Memphis, Tennessee were stripping teenagers of their civil rights and racist workers were particularly hard on black teens. Just like in decades past, the Federal Government had to step in to make sure that the Southern courts would treat black people fairly. However, the new Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, is a fellow racist Southerner and he's itching to eliminate oversight, not just in Memphis, but in many other states as well.
• But if you think that's just Republicans trying to eliminat "big government" remember, when it comes to women's reproductive rights, they can't be involved enough.
• Has your local news channel become a Conservative shill because of the Sinclair Broadcast Group?
• Trump fans left a lot of insulting comments on NPR's Twitter feed on posts they felt were attacking Trump. What was the source of the posts? The Declaration of Independence.
• Trump is trying to eliminate aid for low-income families to heat their homes in the winter, and the Republicans in Congress are with him.

A very accurate historical documentary about Warren Harding.

Iraqi actor, Karar Noshi, was tortured to death by Muslims for being too attractive for a man.

Two more victories for atheists. A public bench which featured a quote that insulted all non-Christians was finally removed and a public school had to pay over $150,000 in fines because they took their students to a Christian Ministry building to be preached at. Also, Seth Andrews talks to attorney Monica Miller who led the case to take down a giant cross on public land and received the typical "Christian Love" you'd expect.

Alex Dainis is awesome.

Feeling: Happy

I added a review of River Raid.

• As you celebrate your freedom, please remember, your freedom of the press, of speech, and expression only exist because you continue to demand them and fight for them. As Donald Trump continues to try and take these freedoms away from you, stay angry, and continue to fight for what's right, or it will be taken away from you. Because, it's nice when Republicans say Trump is wrong, but when it comes time to vote, they still support all his insane anti-Constitutional legislation.
• Trump doesn't know anything about the Republican health care bill that he has both loved and hated at the same time, and his most recent rant calls for the removal of health insurance regardless of whether a replacement has been made, an act that would remove health insurance for 32,000,000 Americans.
• Island Beach State Park in New Jersey has been closed to the public due to the state's government shutdown, but that didn't stop Republican Chris Christie from enjoying the day at the beach with his family. When later asked if he had gotten some sun that day, Christie brazenly lied and said no. But when, aerial photos of him at the beach surfaced, his spokesman explained that the Governor didn't get any sun because he had been wearing a baseball cap.
• Strangely, Republican's don't care when the Federal Government targets Christians if they're not white.
• The White House no longer has a department of science. The last few members have left, and Trump is too incompetent to restaff it.
• We're spending a lot of money paying for Trump's all-white staff.
• If your inexperienced 18-year-old son draws a million dollar salary from your own Christian charity, you're probably Trump's lawyer. And, it's highly unlikely either will face any punishment, because it's perfectly legal for a Christian charity to take all the money donated to them and, instead of helping the needy, paying their own salaries.
• Ever since Trump became president, the country has a less-civil political tone. Big shock, right?
• The girl's robotics team from Afghanistan is being denied visas into America because of Trump's bigotry.

Kentucky is making the a Christian bible the official textbook of some of their classes, and Florida is making it easier for religious people to question whether scientific fact should be taught in public schools. If Trump keeps getting to appoint more judges to the US Supreme Court, this may become the law of the land.

Over half of Scots are not religious, and that number is on the rise!

Just a reminder, there are Muslims who still extol the virtues of cutting off the genitals of women.

You've probably heard Christians warning against Harry Potter because they're afraid of make-believe, but did you know that Harry Potter could also teach your children something terrible like respect for other human beings?!

Many of the same phony products sold by brainless Gwenneth Paltrow are sold by brainless -and- heartless Alex Jones. They're different as night and day, but their audiences do have one thing in common, the inability to know fact from fiction.

Alex Dainis is awesome.