Take the Money, Donald Trump! Do It for the Children!

Apparently Donald Trump wants to help charities, but he won't donate the money without extorting President Obama to release documents that, let's face it, will not satisfy the birthers and their conspiracy theories.

Fortunately, Stephen Colbert has an offer of his own for Donald Trump :)

The Colbert Report
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And of course, once it's all over, those will be the smartest things ever to come out of Trump's mouth...

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Richard Dawkins - Sex, Death and the Meaning of Life (1)

Dostoevsky's dictum "without God, anything is permitted" is often used by religious believers to make the point that, quite aside from the issue of its truth, religion plays an important role, perhaps even a necessary one, in fomenting moral behavior and virtue. Without God, where would morality come from? If we were simply left to our own devices, what would be there to prevent absolute chaos, violence, crime and wanton lasciviousness?

Well, whatever you may think about the moral foundation of morality, as an empirical claim, it simply isn't true that without God or religion we would turn into savages. How do we know? For one, because non-human animals, presumably not being religious believers, do have all sorts of customs and rules by which they abide without having to descend into anarchy. And second, because when you look at the behavior or religious and non-religious people, you find that there is almost no difference there.

What religious people do have, though, is a lot of shame and guilt for things that should not be quite as big a deal as they think. So it seems as though religion is a self-perpetuating industry of devotion based on making its followers feel bad about themselves and then making them turn to religion for "salvation." Not much different from drug pushers, huh?

And it's getting to the point that religious people will go to all kinds of extremes to reconcile the inevitable cognitive dissonance they experience from the conjunction of their religious beliefs and their biological nature. Richard Dawkins explores these and other related issues

What exactly is the fascination with virgins? I never understood that one...

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Obama and Romney Laugh It Up

With the upcoming elections, things have been heated up for the past few months. And though not to the same level, both major contenders, as well as the PACS and Super PACS that support them, have resorted to some cheap shots, ad hominem attacks and tactics that are unbecoming of our best ideals of civility and leadership.

So I was really glad to see Obama and Romney take a break this past week to lighten things up and engage in some humor at their own expense and that of each other.

Here's Romney, who actually did a lot better than I would have expected:

And here's Obama, more experienced in this kind of thing, and therefore doing a better job:

That joke about having been rested for the second campaign from the nap he took during the first one was priceless :)

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Obama on Romnesia: Don't worry. Obamacare Covers Pre-Existing Conditions :)

Romnesia is a serious and highly contagious medical condition, usually related to Paulzheimers. As its name suggests, it's most obviously related to Mitt Romney's almost daily political flip-flopping depending on what particular constituency's votes he's trying to secure. If he's in Massachusetts, for instance, he will advocate for various liberal platforms and women's issues. When he's in the Bible Belt, he is all about religion and the need to go back to that time when people did whatever they thought their invisible friend up in the sky wanted them to (including, but not limited to, restricting the rights of women, minorities, immigrants, gays, etc.). When he's in a secret meeting with corporate moguls, he'll make fun of and dismiss 47% of the American public as moochers and irresponsible leeches, and when that tape becomes public, he's suddenly all about 100% of Americans. Poor guy...

This is a very serious affliction, but President Obama has some great news :)

That made my day...

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Adora Svitak - What Adults Can Learn from Kids

Have you ever wondered what could happen if you respected the intelligence and potential of your children, and read to them a little Aristotle, some history and science instead of just simple bedtime stories?

Well, wonder no more. Here's a great example of the positive influence of intellectual stimulating your children's brains.

Now, pick up that dusty philosophy book that's been sitting in your book shelf for years and put it to good use :)

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Jumping from Space

What did you do this weekend? Oh, no reason... It's just that while you were doing whatever you were doing, stuntman Felix Baumgartner ended up becoming the first human to break the sound barrier without actually being on any kind of supersonic aircraft... he just jumped to a free fall from something like 24 miles above the Earth!

Me? I was riding a segway :)

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Children's Television Chop Shop - This Week With George Snuffleupagus

Romney wants to fire Big Bird, and conservatives seem to agree that we spend way too much money on things like the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and NPR. And while reigning in excessive spending is generally a good idea, do programs that educate the public count as a waste of money? No, it's actually an investment; one that will pay off in great dividends!

So how about we cut other forms of outrageous spending? Like, I don't know, the stupid wars we're always waging all over the world? Or maybe the gigantic tax cuts given to the rich, and the enormous subsidies given to corporations? Oh, but conservatives wouldn't like that, so in order to distract the nation from the real forms of outrageous and frivolous spending that go to benefit Wall Street, they'll just exaggerate how much tax-payer money goes to Sesame Street...

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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But this is really hilarious part

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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How awesome was that? :)

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