I normally skip about half of Steve Benen’s articles at The Washington Monthly’s Political Animal blog; he’s a little too convinced of the rightness of his position for my taste, and suffers in comparison to Kevin Drum, who used to be the main blogger there. I still go there for Hilzoy, though, and once in a while Benen has an item I like. Like this one:  Deniers.

If the left and right disagreed on how best to address policy challenges, that would at least open the door to constructive dialog. But we’re still stuck in a political environment in which prominent conservative voices at high-profile conservative outlets a) don’t recognize the difference between climate and weather; b) find meaningless anecdotes compelling evidence of global trends; and c) are entirely comfortable delaying necessary solutions while an already-completed debate continues.

Via best of craigslist: Actor needed for emotional role – One day high pay:

Pay will be $500. The job will take roughly 2 hours at best.

This job is ideal for an actor looking to diversify their role base, or someone who genuinely likes to make children cry. Acting experience is a plus, but not necessary. Please inform me of any prior experience in this kind of situation.

Thanks to Hiro for the link.

What grrlscientist said (from …And Justice for All?):

This Supreme Court decision is ethically repugnant because it does nothing to protect the powerless, the poor and the disenfranchised in this country, which is what the Constitution was originally designed to do. This outrageous decision abandons innocent people who have been imprisoned for crimes they did not commit, and worse, it will cause the deaths of innocent people at the hands of the government — in the name of each and every one of us. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. should be ashamed and all of us should be outraged.

The list of reasons to despise George W. Bush is long. But the presence of Roberts and Alito on the Supreme Court, and decisions like this one, are a reminder that even though he’s gone, his toxic impact lives on.

From the Times:

Even Mr. Ahmadinejad, who has kept a defiant if low profile, made an unusual public concession. After insulting the huge crowds that poured into the street by dismissing them as “dust,” the president issued a statement on state television, according to The Associated Press:

“I only addressed those who made riot, set fires and attacked people. Every single Iranian is valuable. The government is at everyone’s service. We like everyone.”

I know it’s kind of sick, but I did laugh at this:

As usual with the Onion, it’s not just the idea. It’s how they follow through on it.

Sort of funny to me from a professional point of view.

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/06/17/ahmadinijad-sucks-at.html

Based on CNN and BBC coverage, this seems like… well some kind of highly significant event:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8103577.stm

I’m not sure if this is going to end up in another revolution, bloodshed as the Ayatollah cracks down or will just blow over. Looks like the Ayatollah is at least pretending to listen to the will of the people.

Hilzoy continues to be one of my favorite bloggers. When she opens her mouth (blogfiguratively speaking), I listen. As I did when she wrote Fighting words.

No one — not liberals, not conservatives — should forget that their opponents are human beings.

onan pointed out this site: asian poses. It was funny, and odd. But then the jason who is really jason pointed out this youtube video of Ken Tanaka explaining how to speak fluent Japanese without saying anything:

That made me want to know more about Ken Tanaka, so I ended up watching his first videoblog entry:

And I was thinking, wow. This guy’s pretty interesting. Is he real?

Um, well:

More discussion at The Japanicity of Ken Tanaka and the Social Media Community of Youtube.

Is the Cookie Monster. coooookie!!!
And reportedly Happy Meals also work wonders.

Torture is effective at just one thing: providing false confessions and false information. Hmmm, I am sure we have a simple English word for verifiably false information… tip of my tongue… it’s a little word… politicians do it often…

As an aside: why is the pic of Ron Jeremy associated with that link? In the print edition of TIME, we get an actual photo of Mr. Super Duper Bad Guy™ Abu (Bobby) Jandal. Just saying.

I just came across this and wanted to share it.

http://gizmodo.com/5273192/canon-employees-are-forbidden-to-sit-down-walk-at-normal-pace

This is why we have labor laws and why people think ‘Maybe we should get organized.’ I’m a Nikon man myself, I hope their employees are doing better.