Yet tragically, he has never cried. . .

Remember Chuck Norris Facts TM.? Here one of them:

There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of creatures Chuck Norris has allowed to live.

And here's Mr. Norris' response:

It’s funny. It’s cute. But here’s what I really think about the theory of evolution: It’s not real. It is not the way we got here. In fact, the life you see on this planet is really just a list of creatures God has allowed to live. We are not creations of random chance. We are not accidents.

This was, I believe, part of Mr. Norris' very first column on the right-wing website WorldNutDaily (I've linked to an archive of his columns). I was reminded of this little episode of his by this video, which I found on Pharyngula:

Of course, after seeing this, I scoured YouTube to find more videos of He-Whose-Tears-Cure-Cancer making a right-wing ass of himself. Instead. . . I FOUND THIS!

In case you forget. . . It's Chuck. . . Norris!

Want more? Of coruse you do.

Women! Keep your virtue! Know your limits!

They're Courteous, Practical, and Well-Spoken. . .

And one of them just might be My Black Friend:

Can Your Blog Do This?

It's Deal or No Deal, ONLINE!

Deal or No Deal Game

My readership will go through the roof after this, I just know it! I mean, c'mon, it's Deal or No Deal without Howie Mandel! It's win-win!

Happy Birthday, Pi!

It's March 14. . . 3/14. . . get it?!?!

Well, many of the bloggers at ScienceBlogs do, and have been wishing all their readers a "Happy 'Pi Day'". Cause they're cool like that.

Now I'm Pissed

PZ Myers at Pharyngula has a truly sickening post regarding the slaughter of dolphins in Japan. He links to this video of an actual slaughter-- be warned, it is graphic.

This isn't the end of the ugliness, though. While many of Dr. Myers' readers commented to express their disgust toward this ritual, a disturbing proportion also felt the need to share their bigoted opinions on the Japanese. For instance, check out this charming and insightful comment from one by the name or "Ribozyme":

I feel terribly sick after watching the video. The Japanese are still savages (as the Chinese had a chance to experience in WWII). The worse thing is their hipocrisy, with all the hassle they make about pet animals, who they even treat as children. This is going to sound very politically incorrect, and maybe PZ is going to suppress my comment, but after watching the video I'm thinking that maybe 2 A-bombs weren't enough...

. . .

What I meant to say is that the Japanese didn't learn the lesson from WWII, they still feel superior to other races (just interact any time with Japanese tourists) not to speak of other self aware species, and feel like they can ignore civilized international regulations. What the USA did to Japan in WWII, Japan asked for it.

(Note: I combined segements from two comments made by Ribozyme)

Here's an insightful look a Japanese culture from one "TheBowerbird":

What's disturbing about Japanese culture as well is how being childish is celebrated. There's this strange videogame/anime centric thing going on among the youth that seems to make them isolated, withdrawn, (such as the young males who live in their parents home - never coming out of their bedrooms to go outside) and which turns them into these odd daydreamers. A society that supports dolphin and whale slaughter is repugnant. Of course all Japanese are not to blame, but I sure see a strong market for cetacean products there. I've also read several articles recently about rising nationalism and levels of racism amongst their populace. Some good leader needs to arise in their country to wake the people up to the world around them : (

This next one, from "Markus," may be intended as sarcasm, but I'm just not sure. . .

Those Japanese are sadistic, emotionless barbarians.

Can't they just raise and slaughter cattle (+- decently)?

One last comment from "Niobe," not as bad as the others, but still a bit of nationalist generalization:

The Japanese lack any sense of conservation as far as the ocean is concerned. Anyone who's ever seen the Japanese dive knows what I'm talking about.

To be fair to Pharyngula, a lot of commenters have written strong, legitimate criticisms of Japanese whaling policy. As well, quite a few readers -- as well as Dr. Myers himself -- have called this racist shit for what it is. Still, it's kind of disturbing that some of the readers of Pharyngula -- a scientific, liberal minded blog -- could harbour opinions on the Japanese that wouldn't seem out of place in a WWII propaganda film.

There's a part of me that wants to think that this kind of idiocy doesn't need a rebuttal, but to counter the idea that the Japanese are univerally barbaric, I'm putting up a link to an article from Greenpeace Japan. I've also copied a segment of the article I found particularly relevant:

Each year after the whales have been measured and weighed by the scientists they are cut up and boxed for market. FAJ (The Fisheries Agency of Japan) says that "according to Japanese cultural values . whales are viewed as a food source." However, an opinion poll commissioned in 2002 by the influential Japanese Asahi newspaper paints a different picture: only 4% of the population regularly eat whale meat; 9% rarely eat it; 53% haven't eaten it since childhood and 33% never eat it.

"In reality few Japanese people view whale meat as a vital food source and even fewer actually eat it. It is simply not true that whaling is important to the Japanese public and the whaling fleet should not leave for the Antarctic whale sanctuary," said Mizuki Takana of Greenpeace Japan.

If Mizuki Takana is correct, then the "barbaric" Japanese are, in fact, a small minority of whalers, consumers, and fisheries officials.

P.S. If anyone else comes across any Japanese groups acting against whaling, let me know in the comments. You know, 'cause that's the sort of thing you just chance upon while surfing the internets.

P.P.S. I hope this post doesn't seem too hypocritical after in light of this earlier post.

Shiny

Walt Disney Pictures presents: Shining!

Mirosluffy the Dictator Slayer

Why didn't Joss Whedon come up with this?

Serbian vampire hunters prevent Milosevic come-back

Serbian vampire hunters have acted to prevent the very remote possibility that former dictator Slobodan Milosevic might stage a come-back - by driving a three-foot stake through his heart.

According to Ananova, the politically-motivated Van Helsings, led by Miroslav Milosevic (no relation), gave themselves up to cops after attacking the deceased despot in his grave in the eastern town of Pozarevac. Milosevic popped his clogs back in 2006, while on trial in a UN war crimes tribunal for various unsavoury activities connected with the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia.

Miroslav Milosevic said "he and his fellow vampire hunters acted to stop the former dictator returning from the dead to haunt the country". His team explained that the wooden stake had been "driven into the ground and through the late president's heart".

Adieu, like the icy pillar. . .

James Joyce and Samuel Beckett at the Pitch 'n' Putt.

Ulysses was cool.

More Conservapedia

I was going to write a blog in defence of Miyuu Sawai, but I thought I'd save that for later (and get you wondering just who the hell Miyuu Sawai is) and instead continue, as promised, with my coverage of Conservapedia.

Since Miyuu Sawai is an actress (honest, she is!) and since conservatives just hate those "Celebrity Activists", those "Limosine Liberals", those "George Clooneys", I thought I'd look up entries on a few prominent A-list lefites:

George Clooney: Nothing
Susan Sarandon: Nichts
Tim Robbins: Nada
Barbara Streisand: Nope
Robert Altman: Empty
Jennifer Aniston: Vacant
Ed Asner: Blank
Alec Baldwin: Gone
Joy Behar: Nothing (but then, I've heard nothing of her either)
Harry Belafonte: The Invisible Man (oooooh! burn!)
Sandra Bernhardt: Nothing
Geroge Carlin, Cher, David Clennon, John Cusack, Ani DeFranco, Dixie Chicks, Jane Fonda. . . : And I finally got tired of looking.

The list of names above, apart from the first few that I drew from the top of my head, were taken from the website Celiberal, a right-wing website dedicated to

present[ing] all those Hollywood celebrity liberals (hence, celiberal) that have nothing better to do than complain about America, our President, and the brave men and women defending our way of life.

The names above are all certified Godless Hollywood commies, and yet Con'pedia has nothing on 'em.

I wonder what would happen if. . .

Arnold Schwartzenegger: Nothing. Dammit!

What kind of a conservative biased encyclopedia is this? Man, I'm almost desperate enough to try. . .

Miyuu Sawai: Nothing.

Crap. Well, Hollywood liberals were a dead end. But what about one of the philosophical fathers of Liberalism, John Locke:

Englishman John Locke (1632-1704) was the leading political philosopher during the Enlightenment, whose ideas helped the American colonists form a new government. Locke described society as a contract between individuals called the "social contract", and held that the formation of collectives by individuals was the only way to ensure economic prosperity (see his Second Treatise on Government). Locke’s view helped lay the foundation for the constitutional government that we use in the United States, though unfortunately the Founding Fathers do not appear to have read chapter IV of the Second Treatise. Locke had built on the prior work of Englishmen Francis Bacon and Thomas Hobbes.

Chapter IV, by the way, was about slavery, particularly about slavery being the bad.

Speaking of the bad, this blog entry has not been nearly as entertaining as I had hoped it would be. If you want to curse me for wasting your time, feel free. At least I'm updating my blog, Nay. Prick.

ASS!

How on earth could I have missed this?

Incidentally, the Penning Trap is a device that uses a constant electric field and a constant magnetic field to store a charged particle. It's inventor, Hans Georg Dehmelt, snagged the Nobel prize for it in 1989.

Oh, and by way Nay, posting videos on blogs is so easy even Max Weinberg could do it. Prick.