Sweet vindication

I told you Neil deGrasse Tyson was a fraud…

Why Is Wikipedia Deleting All References To Neil Tyson’s Fabrication?

Religious fanatics have an odd habit of overreacting when people have the audacity to question their fanaticism. In Iraq, radical Islamic jihadists are systemically murdering and beheading Christians, Jews, and even Muslims who do not pledge fealty to ISIS’s religious tenets. Hundreds of years ago, church authorities and Aristotelian acolytes imprisoned Galileo for having the audacity to reject geocentrism in favor of heliocentrism. The bible recounts how Christians were persecuted and stoned, and Jesus himself was crucified for contradicting the religious dogma of the day.

You will bow to the religious zealots, or you will pay the price.

Which brings us to l’affaire de Tyson. Neil Tyson, a prominent popularizer of science (he even has his own television show) was recently found to have repeatedly fabricated multiple quotes over several years. The fabrications were not a one-off thing. They were deliberate and calculated, crafted with one goal in mind: to elevate Tyson, and by extension his audience, at the expense of know-nothing, knuckle-dragging nutjobs who hate science. Tyson targeted journalists, members of Congress, even former President George W. Bush. And what was their crime? They were guilty of rejecting science, according to Tyson.

There’s only one problem. None of the straw man quotes that Tyson uses to tear them down are real. The quote about the numerically illiterate newspaper headline? Fabricated. The quote about a member of Congress who said he had changed his views 360 degrees? It doesn’t exist. That time a U.S. president said “Our God is the God who named the stars” as a way of dividing Judeo-Christian beliefs from Islamic beliefs? It never happened.

Schadenfreude. You should try some.

A man who will lie about the little things has no trouble lying about the big.

Headlines that make me LOL

Cannabis

MARIJUANA INDUSTRY BATTLING STONER STEREOTYPES

DENVER (AP) — Tired of Cheech & Chong pot jokes and ominous anti-drug campaigns, the marijuana industry and activists are starting an ad blitz in Colorado aimed at promoting moderation and the safe consumption of pot.

To get their message across, they are skewering some of the old Drug War-era ads that focused on the fears of marijuana, including the famous “This is your brain on drugs” fried-egg ad from the 1980s.

They are planning posters, brochures, billboards and magazine ads to caution consumers to use the drug responsibly and warn tourists and first-timers about the potential to get sick from accidentally eating too much medical-grade pot.

Folks, in my day I pretty much smoked up Mexico and parts of Hawaii, so I do know of what I speak. And I was a Stoner. No ifs, ands, or buts. I smoked reefer; I was a Stoner. And damn proud of it.

And, ya know what? I listened to music, stoned. I drove my car, stoned. I went to concerts and ballgames, stoned. That was my intention. I smoked dope so I could do those things. I’m not sure I or my friends ever reached the Cheech & Chong stage but we came close, and face it, that was all exaggerated for effect anyway.

Call me a pollyanna, but Ima thinkin’ this whole “change the image of the stoner” thing is doomed from the start… by the way, have you seen that bag of Cheetos anywhere?

What were we talking about?