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A good rule of thumb is that if politicians are talking about the price of gas, they’re talking nonsense. This week is no exception. Higher gas prices: The Republican plan to blame high gas prices on President Obama. – Slate Magazine

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After we sat down, we asked the waitress for a coffee. She thanked us for our order and immediately turned and walked out the front door. My friend explained that the owner of the bookstore/café couldn’t get a license to provide coffee. She had tried to just buy a coffee machine and give the coffee… Continue reading Untitled

ScienceNOW: Findings suggest that privilege promotes dishonesty

ScienceNOW: Findings suggest that privilege promotes dishonesty

To see whether dishonesty varies with social class, psychologist Paul Piff of the University of California, Berkeley, and colleagues devised a series of tests, working with groups of 100 to 200 Berkeley undergraduates or adults recruited online. Subjects completed a standard gauge of their social status, placing an X on one of 10 rungs of a ladder representing their income, education, and how much respect their jobs might command compared with other Americans. The team’s findings suggest that privilege promotes dishonesty. For example, upper-class subjects were more likely to cheat.

Freakanomics’ bagel story reports the same findings. There was more theft of bagels at the wealthier client sites and more theft on executive floors.

O’Reilly and Dobbs to Obama: Be More Socialist!

O’Reilly and Dobbs to Obama: Be More Socialist!

O’Reilly and Dobbs were saying that Obama should be taking more coercive action than he’s taking. Against whom? Oil companies. Both O’Reilly and Dobbs emphasized that U.S. oil companies don’t own the oil they think they own. Who owns it? We do, according to O’Reilly and Dobbs. And not we, as in you and me, but we, as in the U.S. government. Dobbs advocated “jaw-boning” oil companies into charging lower prices. He also advocated some kind of government slush trust fund that the oil companies would fund with a special tax. Both O’Reilly and Dobbs got upset about oil companies exporting gasoline. So, based on this and other O’Reilly/Dobbs pronouncements, exports of oil products are bad, exports of other products are good, and imports of almost everything are bad. They must have a very interesting economic model.

Henderson is being just a little unfair to O’Reilly. But other than that, this is just too good not to share.

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ageofreason: Why would you take a rest stop in hell?

Rick Santorum Rejects Catholic Church Teaching on Evolution

Rick Santorum Rejects Catholic Church Teaching on Evolution

I’m a little weary of Rick Santorum prancing around as the “Catholic candidate” when he stands in direct opposition to the Church on a whole host of issues, including torture, the death penalty, pre-emptive war, the welfare state and global warming – just to name a few.

In a nutshell, he only agrees with the church when it comes to gays being icky and women being unable to control their sexuality without the paternal influence of men.

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I’m putting the odds that Santorum will make a public comment about the immodesty of women’s clothing before the general election at 5/2.