little bit more

mindbabies:

On the president’s efforts to boost college attendance, Santorum said, “I understand why Barack Obama wants to send every kid to college, because of their indoctrination mills, absolutely … The indoctrination that is going on at the university level is a harm to our country.”

He claimed that “62 percent of kids who go into college with a faith commitment leave without it,” but declined to cite a source for the figure. And he floated the idea of requiring that universities that receive public funds have “intellectual diversity” on campus.

GAAAASP!? No, NO! Not… intellectual diversity!

The (62%) number comes from a 2007 study published in the journal Social Forces looking at the relationship between education and religious faith.  But as it turns out, later in that same study, the authors came to the complete opposite conclusion: They found that 76 percent of kids who don’t go to college end up attending church less often, a higher percentage than those who do go to college. “Higher education,” as they put it, “is not the enemy of religiosity.”  via 

(Source: sarahlee310)

quickhits:

In 2008, Barack Obama was an elitist. This was the worst thing ever. He supposedly ate in fancy restaurants and ordered unearthly foreign delights like arugula. This meant he was out of touch with the average person, unlike his opponent John McCain who — as you might remember — couldn’t remember exactly how many houses he owned.

Human Events 2008: John McCain may be gaining what Obama is losing among women because of Obama’s “Arugula Gap.”

“Anybody gone into Whole Foods lately and see what they charge for arugula?” Obama asked an Iowa crowd in 2007. I had to Google “arugula” to discover it’s a leafy substitute for lettuce in trendy restaurant salads. Most people don’t shop at Whole Foods (which specializes in “organic” foods and other environmentally-fashionable products). And most women, I suspect, aren’t looking for a presidential candidate who reminds them more of their high school French teacher than of John F. Kennedy.

And that’s why we’re all talking about President McCain today, right? Of course, it turned out the quote was misrepresented, but conservative pundits are twelve year-old boys and “arugula” is a funny sounding word, so the meme would not be allowed to die. The right actually seemed to believe that accusing the president of knowing what an Italian salad green was would anger the populace and cost him the presidency. So they all ran with the “elitist” line — straight away from the White House. Given how the Republican Party and conservative pundits hate fancy-pants foods and elitist dining, you’d think they’d all be up in arms over this: Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), a leading advocate of shrinking entitlement spending and the architect of the plan to privatize Medicare, spent Wednesday evening sipping $350 wine with two like-minded conservative economists at the swanky Capitol Hill eatery Bistro Bis. It was the same night reports started trickling out about President Obama pressing Congressional leaders to consider changes to Social Security and Medicare in exchange for GOP support for targeted tax increases.

“Bistro Bis?” $350 bottles of Pinot Noir? If they drove there in a Prius, it’d be the exact rightwing caricature of the out-of-touch liberal elitist. This is what they’re supposed to hate — hell, this is what they spent months trying to convince you you were required to hate in order to be a “real” American — yet here’s a high-profile Republican hitting all the hot buttons. So, did the right wing go apecrap over Ryan’s obvious elitism? Of course not. They’re defending him against gotcha journalism. And why? Because everything’s OK when a Republican does it. As always is with GOP scandals — be they big or, as in this case, pretty much trivial — it’s not the act that’s the problem, it’s the hypocrisy. People who down $350 bottles of wine with — and not two economists, but a hedge fund manager and an economist — don’t get to call other people “elitists.” -Wisco

In the end, Ryan conceded that it’s “stupid” to pay that much for a bottle of wine and said he wouldn’t do so again. Also see Learning To Lie.

(Source: griperblade.blogspot.com)

urlesque:

chrismohney:

• Proof of vaccination for measles, mumps, whooping cough, any other whooping-related disease (whooping mumps, whooping gout, whooping chlamydia, etc)
• Heavy equipment operator permit sufficient to work an Ingersoll-Rand BL-580 compact backhoe in any state where such a permit is…

Vaccination records for “Bo”

Certified letter from local library stating any and all unreturned books

Note from Kindergarten Assistant Teacher proclaiming null evidence of late bed wetting

Elementary school attendance records and copies of any “gold stars” from his teachers