The Catholic Church is a criminal enterprise

Taibbi unleashed. The Church is selling snake oil, knows it, and can’t change or they lose their authority and (no rapidily disintegrating) power over people. He suggests the Church be prosecuted under RICO and have their tax-exempt status yanked. Taxpayers, via tax-exemption, should not be forced to fund their continuing criminal enterprise of covering for [...]

Will O’ The Wisp

He’ll be here soon. You don’t really believe everything They tell us, do you?

Why our political system is dysfunctional

The two major parties spend inordinate amounts of time blaming each other. Which conveniently means they never have to do much because the Other Side is always mucking things up. Plus, such an approach lends itself well to constant fund-raising while demonizing the opposition.

Consider the following two cases;

Little Green Footballs

A lot of [...]

Lest you think deserts are lifeless

Hedgehog cactus in bloom.

More photos on my Tucson Flikcr set, including bobcats and Mexican wolf taken at the amazing Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. It’s world class. And maybe one of a kind too.

Does the US want to remain “The Saudi Arabia of Coal”?

The pro-nuclear power Atomic Insights Blog on why coal is dirty, pollutes massively, and is a poor energy source in the first place.

Coal is an inherently dirty fuel that is naturally contaminated with many dangerous and polluting chemicals. It has a relatively low energy density, even when compared to its fossil fuel competitors. [...]

Leaving Las Vegas. 40% of residents want to

The recession has cratered the economy in Las Vegas, their building boom is over, and many of those who moved there want to leave. It’s not just the economy. There are few amenities and little sense of community. But some can’t leave. A staggering 80% of mortgages in the Las Vegas Valley are underwater.

[...]

Health Care, hostility and the state of the fourth estate

Reps get spit on, windows broken, mysterious powder–and Palin blames the “lame-stream media”.

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) excoriated DNC Chair Tim Kaine and DCCC Chair Rep. Chris Van Hollen, for “dangerously fanning the flames” in using recent acts of violence and intimidation by anti-health-care reform opponents, “as a political weapon.”

Was there [...]

Global warming as peacemaker? Disputed island disappears under rising sea

Rising sea levels have submerged an island claimed by both India and Bangladesh. Global warming appears to have buried the dispute.

Crested sagauro cactus

It’s even rarer to have them crested inside rather than outside. Catalina State Park, Arizona. That’s me pointing at it.

Best Buy joins others opposing US Chamber of Commerce on climate change

Best Buys joins Nike, Apple, Johnson & Johnson and other major companies in opposing the anti-climate change agenda of the US Chamber of Commerce.

Like others have announced, it says that the US Chamber of Commerce does not represent its views or interests on this key legislation.

Even that conservative bastion of capitalism, The Economist, [...]