Category: 11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts

  • California is the New Greece

    Schwarzenegger Warns Of “Terrible Cuts, Absolutely Terrible Cuts” Coming In California: As the state grapples with a horrible budget situation, Arnold Schwarzenegger is warning of pain ahead. Specifically, according to the SacBee, Schwarzenegger press secretary Aaron McLear said: “What you can expect generally is no taxes and terrible cuts, absolutely terrible cuts… We’re not going to get […]

  • Study: People Willing to Believe in ESP When Told Its Been Scientifically Disproven

    From Alternet: After viewing the video, participants completed a series of questions, including whether they believed in ESP and whether they thought the card-guesser they just saw was demonstrating that ability. “We found relatively strong evidence that individuals are more likely to accept paranormal claims as true when they believe such claims have popular support,” […]

  • Sarah Palin Calls Global Climate Change 'This Snake Oil Science Stuff'

    Stupidity continues: That’s essentially the message sent by former politician Sarah Palin during a recent speech to the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, where she disparaged the work of thousands of the world’s top minds to the delight of a large crowd that laughed, clapped and cheered her on the whole way. She was addressing the increasingly […]

  • Evolution, Big Bang Polls Omitted From National Science Foundation Report

    You can’t hide stupid: In an unusual last-minute edit that has drawn flak from the White House and science educators, a federal advisory committee omitted data on Americans knowledge of evolution and the big bang from a key report. The data shows that Americans are far less likely than the rest of the world to […]

  • Texas Board of Education Continues to Make Your Kids Stupider

    Keep in mind that Texas is one of the main guides for textbooks published across the entire nation: The standard was about the Enlightenment and political revolutions that led to modern liberal democracy. So they removed the Enlightenment references and Thomas Jefferson, who played a key role in the two most prominent revolutions in the […]

  • 75% of OK Students Can't Name the First President

    Only one in four Oklahoma public high school students can name the first President of the United States, according to a survey released today. The survey was commissioned by the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs in observance of Constitution Day on Thursday. via News9.com

  • Matt Taibbi on Peasant Mentality

    But actual rich people can’t ever be the target. It’s a classic peasant mentality: going into fits of groveling and bowing whenever the master’s carriage rides by, then fuming against the Turks in Crimea or the Jews in the Pale or whoever after spending fifteen hard hours in the fields. You know you’re a peasant […]

  • Press Accuracy Rating at 20-Year Low

    The public’s assessment of the accuracy of news stories is now at its lowest level in more than two decades of Pew Research surveys, and Americans’ views of media bias and independence now match previous lows. Just 29% of Americans say that news organizations generally get the facts straight, while 63% say that news stories […]

  • Darwin Film Finds Distribution Everywhere – Except the US

    Creation, starring Paul Bettany, details Darwin’s “struggle between faith and reason” as he wrote On The Origin of Species. It depicts him as a man who loses faith in God following the death of his beloved 10-year-old daughter, Annie. The film was chosen to open the Toronto Film Festival and has its British premiere on […]

  • Vitayums

    Of course Froot Loops are a smart choice. They’re made with froot. And froot is healthy stuff. Filled with vitayums. via Commenter on MetaFilter