I’m sorry to subject you to this, but this was a stunning quote from someone whose only claim to fame is that he hosts a show on FOX News in the wee hours of the morning when about three people are watching. Why are only three people watching? Because the various retirees, the businessmen, the stock brokers are in their jammies tucked away and dreaming with sugar plumb fairies dancing and thinking about how they might screw the system the next morning.

If you didn’t know, “Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld” – the host is seen in this video – airs at 3 a.m. ET. 3-freaking-a.m. If you thought FOX News was purporting fringe right theories at noon weekdays, you should stay up late (or go to bed really early) and check out the good stuff!

Here is Gutfeld’s takeaway line:

I will actually buy pills to keep a leftist from reproducing.

Really? This is even more reprehensible because the context was on birth control. So he admits that he’s sleazier than the people he is criticizing. Well played … I guess.

Take a look:

                          

While states like North Carolina continue to futility live in the dark ages on equality issues like gay rights, Obama has become the first sitting president in history to voice his support for same-sex marriage. While the fringe right and radio hosts have continually blasted Obama over the last four years for being so progressive, yet he waited a rather long time to “come out” about his personal feelings on same-sex marriage. Of course, they’ll no doubt blast him more now.

In any case, it was a bold move with the election looming, and one that was, perhaps, catalyzed by the vice president’s recent show of strong support for equality. That said, I don’t know that I see any negatives for Obama as it relates to the presidential campaign. The gay community in this nation, who may have been hesitant prior to this admission for his persistent silence on the issue, will most likely back him now. For Obama’s base, many of whom already support same-sex marriage, his recent comments won’t make any difference and will probably only be a positive for them.

He may have lost a few moderates or undecided votes, but really, I think, or at least hope, that most people will vote this election on the economy, foreign policy and matters of more import. I seriously see very few voters’ decisions turning on this personal admission from the president.

But back to North Carolina. Six states and D.C. now allow same-sex marriage. Even if it takes another century, I think the other states will follow suit because history shows us that even the most backward areas of the nation, which is still the South, and to a lesser extent, the Southwest (not including California) have always, however, begrudgingly, caught up with the times. This can be seen most immediately in how the South has slowly crawled into the late 20th century (I hesitate to say 21st century) on matters of race. And I say that North Carolina’s recent vote was a futile attempt to oppose gay marriage because gay marriage will happen in the South eventually; it’s just a matter of how long it takes. Older generations and their like-minded progeny will die off, while younger generations will become more accustomed to the idea of gay rights and the necessity of treating every human being, in every case and on every issue, as equal.

The problem, of course, is blind stupidity. Opponents of gay rights apparently don’t see how their opposition is analogous to previous generations’ opposition to black civil rights or women’s rights. And the issue becomes more contemptible in the cases of people like Maggie Gallagher, herself a benefactor of generations of women struggling for equal rights, who adamantly opposes gay marriage as co-founder of the National Organization for Marriage. The stupidity continues: blacks are not equal to rights. Women are not equal to men. Gays are not equal to heterosexuals. In the end, all three dichotomies will fall.

News from The Associated Press.

                          

Romney’s basic plan for health care: give tax breaks to people so they can purchase their own individual plans and try to entice businesses away from offering coverage to their employees.

That’s a plan? First, most people, including myself, would not be able to afford health insurance without getting it through an employer. This is the only way we can actually afford it. That had better be one massive individual tax incentive because as Stephen Andrew points out, of the people who won’t be turned down for coverage because of some underlying medical condition, most of them cannot afford the going rate for insurance  in any case, especially given what they already have to pay in mortgages, car payments, eating expenses, utility bills, etc. And insurance for people with some kind of condition would be financially out of reach in this scenario. This prospect scares the shit out of Andrew, and I would have to concur.

In Andrew’s words:

This has been the goal for many corporate conservatives for a long time. Divorce healthcare from employers, throw you out there on your own, save money for the stockholders. Romney and others seem to think that can be done by offering a fat tax cut on your gads of disposable income, so that you can offset the cost of an individual policy.

What planet are these jokers living on? Putting aside the idea that a tax cut doesn’t do almost half the population a lick of good, there are no affordable health insurance policies for a fifty year-old guy like me available on the private market. None, nada, zilch. Check for yourself, go out and get a quote on an individual policy for a fifty year-old with minor preexisting conditions and an autoimmune disease with similar deducts, Rx, and copays. Go ahead, I’ll wait right here for you freedom loving libertarians to find and link a plan with a major or at least half-ass reputable company comparable to the employer based one I have now with CIGNA. …

The rest of you already know the math don’t you? Now try it for someone in their 40s who’s had breast cancer, or 58 years old with diabetes, or a young 22-year-old with a congenital heart defect. Those policies either do not exist or they are exorbitantly priced. Few people in the 99% will be to afford one, for themselves let alone their family, with or without a Tax Cut. If this is Romney’s plan, it is a fucking death sentence for millions of Americans, it will certainly cost is way more money at best, probably come with increased suffering and debt for individual and government eventually, and that all probably includes me.

Insurance, of course, isn’t the only concern: after one renders a hefty sum to Caesar for insurance, there is also potential medical bills, high drug costs and doctor visits, all of which are still egregiously high after insurance pays its share. The health care wormhole runs deep in this nation, I’m afraid, and it will only go deeper under GOP leadership.

This is what scares the hell out of me about Romney et al | The Zingularity.

                          

Here is a good Krugman piece about the real motives behind New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie axing the Hudson River Tunnel Project. All for political expediency, apparently.

It is also brings to light, yet again, the inconsistent Republican stance on the use of federal funds, that is, it’s almost always OK to pony up money and increase the deficit for military reasons or to go to war, but when it comes to services at home, like public transportation, no dice.

Kruman’s concluding paragraph hits the mark:

America used to be a country that thought big about the future. Major public projects, from the Erie Canal to the interstate highway system, used to be a well-understood component of our national greatness. Nowadays, however, the only big projects politicians are willing to undertake — with expense no object — seem to be wars. Funny how that works.

Cannibalize the Future – NYTimes.com.

                          

NFL.com writer Adam Rank makes the case that WWE’s John Cena and now-New York Jets backup quarterback Tim Tebow are one in the same. I can’t think of a way to prove him wrong.

By the way, I never thought I would have Cena and Tebow showing up on the same website, much less in the same post!

                          

A resignation letter from a Reginald Scott Braithwaite, the supposed “Director of Software Development,” has made the rounds all over the Internet this week, including Reddit and Facebook, and many other sites I’m sure. People have apparently been posting it to these sites thinking that it is a serious resignation letter addressing what the author deems as bad hiring practices, including digging into potential employees’ personal information on Facebook. But  it’s just satire.

Read here for more information.

Interestingly, the letter title now reads, “I hereby (fictionally) resign” to allay any confusion. Earlier today (April 3), the word “fictionally” was not there.

                          

A clever yet wholly fallacious bit of ignorant rubbish has been making the rounds in pro-life circles lately about the definition of “life,” and it goes like this:

If a single living cell was found on a distant planet, scientists would exclaim that we have found life elsewhere in the universe. So why is a single living cell found in the womb of a pregnant woman not considered life?

The answer is simple, and I’ve addressed this before. The two types of “life” here are not comparable in any way, and frankly, to attempt such rhetorical acrobatics is just silly.

The zygote, or the single cell that eventually develops into a human is not yet a human being. One step further into the developmental process, the zygote forms into a slightly more complex morula, which then develops into a clump of undifferentiated cells called a blastocyst.

The blastocyst does not contain any of the genetic information that later develops into a fetus; it is merely a group of about 70-100 undifferentiated cells, no more no less. So, not even the blastocyst, which obviously contains more cells than the zygote, can properly be called “human” because it contains none of the molecular information that later defines our physical and genetic makeup. The single-celled zygote, then, while it is “living” in the sense that all single-celled organisms are alive, is too premature to be called human in any sense whatsoever.

This is why argument against stem cell research are so contemptible that it does grave injustice to the millions of actual human beings living and suffering with diseases that could potentially be cured from research using blastocysts.

Here is a good explanation:

Yes, once upon a time we were blastocysts, too. Nothing more than a little clump of cells, each of them a snippet of DNA surrounded by cytoplasm. But that DNA was later transcribed into RNA, and that RNA was translated into proteins. And some of those proteins were transcription factors that told other cells in the blastocyst what to do, when to divide, where to migrate. Transcription factors regulated the expression of still other transcription factors. Genes were turned on and off with clockwork precision. Some genes were methylated, so they could never be turned on again.

In other words, the genome and the proteome of the blastocyst were changed as the embryo accumulated molecular information that the blastocyst did not have.

The embryo became a fetus, with complex orientations of tissues–loaded with spatial, genetic, biochemical and mechanical information that simply did not exist in the embryo.

The fetus became a child with a nervous system, and that nervous system sucked up information about the world, hard-wiring pathways for vision and movement, learning to make subtle distinctions between this and that, accumulating information that simply did not exist in the fetus.

In other words, the blastocyst launched a genetic program that both extracted and acquired information. It didn’t start out as a human being. It became a human being, with a personality, feelings, attitudes and memories, by accumulating information that was not there before.

Equating a blastocyst with a human being is like equating a brand new copy of an inexpensive spreadsheet program with the priceless databases that you’ll eventually build up with that program. It’s no less ridiculous than saying that a blueprint has the same value as a skyscraper–that it is the skycraper (sic).

So yes, scientists would exclaim that “life” has been found on another planet if they turned up a single-celled organism somewhere in the cosmos, but it can not be equated with human life because human life by definition begins at the point in which we receive the genetic and molecular information that makes us us.

                          

I realize this is a dramatic change in topic from what I usually post, but I thought since the WWE Wrestlemania XXVIII card this year was rather stacked with at least three potentially explosive matches, I would chime in.

And yes, I’m a college graduate, progressive, non-believer who happens to like wrestling. It happens. Without further adieu:

***

Kelly Kelly & Maria Menounos vs. Divas Champion Beth Phoenix & Eve

There was some kind of altercation on TV between Maria Menounos and Beth Phoenix on “Extra,” in which Beth claimed Maria Menounos didn’t respect the Divas champion. I wasn’t really paying attention. In any case, this is just a filler match to get some star power on the show and get the Divas on the card. One would have thought that since this is WWE’s grandest stage, that they would have booked a title match but not so. Just because the celeb is in Kelly’s corner, I’ll go with them.

Winner:  Kelly Kelly & Maria Menounos

***

Randy Orton vs. Kane

As Aaron Rift over at NoDQ.com has noted, the WWE just kind of threw this match together at the last minute, and the build up was less than stellar.

Last month, the WWE was giving Kane this big push as a possible contender against John Cena, but Cena pretty well destroyed Kane in an ambulance match, so that took the air out of any potential threat from Kane. Kane said that Cena would eventually “embrace the hate,” but Cena never did, and the storyline fizzled and went nowhere after Kane’s thrashing. Kind of a silly ordeal.

If the WWE wasn’t going to give Kane a win against John Cena, I don’t see any reason for Kane to defeat Randy Orton unless the WWE just wants to pull a swerve, which is possible, but I would bet against it.

Winner: Orton

***

Team Teddy vs. Team Johnny

This 12-man is for control of the general managership on both Smackdown and RAW. This match will be a zoo. Teddy Long’s team is the clear underdog, while Team Johnny’s team consists of four WWE or World champions. The late edition of Booker T to Team Teddy was a nice twist, but every time Booker has gotten into the ring as of late, it’s only ended with a pinfall and that signature confused look. I could smell a potential upset here too, for no other reason than to screw with fans who think Team Johnny is a shoe-in, but I don’t see it happening. That said, I hope that if Team Johnny wins, they continue to use Teddy in some capacity. He’s too entertaining to take off the air, and well, Johnny is the opposite of entertaining.

Winner: Team Johnny

***

Cody Rhodes vs. Big Show for the Intercontinental Championship

Not much to say here. WWE just wanted another big draw on the card, and that would be Big Show. These two were just kind of thrown together as well. The lead up to the match has been OK, and Cody’s presentation highlighting Big Show’s continual slip-ups at Wrestlemania were entertaining. Nonetheless, I don’t see what giving the Big Show the IC title would accomplish, since he’s already been a tag champ, world champ and WWE champ. I don’t believe he’s ever held the IC in the WWE, so that could just add to his accomplishments, I guess, but I’m not convinced that will happen.

Winner: Cody Rhodes

***

Daniel Bryan vs. Sheamus for the World Heavyweight Championship

Sheamus is a rising star in WWE to say the least, and he has had a huge year. That said, Bryan’s character in recent months has been a hoot to watch with the “Yes! Yes! World Heavyweight Champ!” over and over. Still, I think this weekend might be Sheamus’ big Wrestlemania moment.

Winner: Sheamus

***

CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho for the WWE Championship

My hope is that this match will be the show stopper. Punk and Jericho have the potential to have the greatest match since Punk and Cena in Chicago from this past summer. By the way, in my opinion, WWE hasn’t had a better match since then. I have a hunch that, after Punk’s fairly long reign as champ (by WWE standards) that Jericho may win the belt, leading to more future matches between Punk and Jericho.

Winner: Chris Jericho

 ***

Undertaker vs. Triple H Hell in a Cell w/ special referee Shawn Michaels

I would be very surprised if HHH won this one. Triple H has lost to Undertaker in two previous Wrestlemanias, but Undertaker is nearing the end of his career, and barring some huge swerve from Vince McMahon, I see Undertaker winning this one again. Granted, I would like to see Triple H win just because I’ve really grown bored of the whole Undertaker shtick, but I don’t see an end to the streak. This also may be one of the few times in the modern WWE era that we may see blood in a match.

 Winner: Undertaker

***

The Rock vs. John Cena

This, and the Triple H/Undertaker match, are damn near worth the price of the PPV itself. A year in the making, this match pits Rise Above Hate vs. Boots to Asses. You know, a couple years ago, I never really expected to see The Rock involved in the WWE to the capacity that he is right now. Sure, his primary focus is still on movies, etc., but he’s been on RAW for the past month building up to this match, and that has been unprecedented in about seven years. While I personally would like to see The Rock win (I have never cared much for Cena), my hunch is that Cena is going to win because if The Rock wins, it just makes Cena look like an afterthought or a blip in The Rock’s illustrious career. But if Cena wins, The Rock can always come back at some point and try to get his revenge.

Winner: John Cena

                          

Here is a good read from James McPherson on the Republican Party candidates’ many gaffes:

Think for a minute–as much as some people hated George W. Bush, can you imagine any of those folks openly and proudly insulting Laura Bush? In fact, to find such boorish behavior toward a First Lady you have to go all the way back to … Hillary Clinton. The worst example? Another Democratic First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson.

And when people are working as hard as the current crop of GOP candidates to look stupid, it’s difficult to conclude otherwise. Perhaps it’s simply a Wall Street plot to get Obama re-elected, despite all the reasons he shouldn’t be. See a couple of the more humorous recent examples–or at least they would be funny, if these weren’t people seeking to lead the free world–below.

When it comes to knowledge of world affairs, “no news is better than Fox News,” according to a study by researchers at Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Sadly, that’s old news. Even sadder, as columnist Kathleen Parker (once considered a conservative, though now even Ronald Reagan wouldn’t qualify) has pointed out, the relative ignorance common to heavy watchers of Fox News is driving today’s Republican Party. Or, as Paul Begala has termed it, “the Stupid Party.”

I hesitate to paint with a brush so broad, though I have previously noted some activities by conservatives that seemed at least unenlightened. But presumably these are some of the same folks who actually booed the First Lady over the weekend at a NASCAR race (an action that the voice of the GOP, Rush Limbaugh, actually defended).

Here is one video:

Embarrassing. And another embarrassment: