Linkee-poo wants it's two front teeth

A great parody of the inspirational personal story trope. "What this really shows is the value of a community."

Fred Clark explores on the contrariness of the canonical Santa Clause. Santa as Tom Bombadil. Okay, I'm going to have to rethink that whole thing.

Changing the patriarchal culture in India one brother and one class at a time. Strange how the argument of "walking a mile in their shoes" continues to win converts.

"A new study released by a research institute has concluded that the charter school movement is very good at one thing: making profits for a few people." That's unpossible! Why, it sounds almost like the charter schools movement is a scam to move public funds, your tax dollars, into the private accounts of a few people all while providing substandard educations to students. I mean, it's a conservative push so you'd think they'd have the business side locked down on this. And wasn't competition supposed to make education better? Was it all a pack of lies? (Grokked from Chip Dawes)

"He says the question now is mainly a political one about the church and its relationship to power — both the imperial power of the tsars and the power of the current Russian government." The Russian Orthodox Church is going to exhume Tsar Alexander III to grab some DNA. All this in an attempt to verify the remains of Tsar Nicolas II and his family, of which only the Church doubts earlier tests. But the Church, which canonized Nicolas and his family, wants absolute proof before venerating the remains of Crown Prince Alexei and Grand Duchess Maria as holy relics.

The residents of Woodland, NC, don't want no stinkin' solar farms in their neighborhood. Because, you know, all the youngins would leave, the solar farms would soak up all the sunlight and leave none for the rest of the plants to do photosynthesis, and the existing solar farms have dropped property values. Oh, there are no solar farms there, BTW, but that isn't the dumbest idea in that bunch. (Grokked from Dan)

The trucking business. Chronically short of drivers, but constantly churning through the people out there.

If x is not wrong, nothing is wrong. Fred Clark explores the history of moral scolding in the evangelical community, all in an attempt to expunge our nation's original sin (which evangelicals, as a group, embraced).

The all politicians lie, but some lie more than others chart from Politifact. Also note the caveats that Cory Doctorow brings up.

"Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said in an interview aired Sunday that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has killed 'hundreds of thousands of people with her stupidity.'" Wow, that's a lot of bodies to hide. The real problem, there are people who believe that. But then the Trumpster isn't in this to tell the truth, he's the "anti-establishment" candidate that's shaking things up.

"This may be the week when observers will finally see whether (Speaker) Ryan -- when pushed up against a real deadline -- can seamlessly do what Boehner always struggled with: secure the support or at the very least the respect of the House Freedom Caucus types who ultimately ended Boehner's speakership." So, how's that working out so far?

"The pro-Santorum Working Again PAC plans to air an ad throughout Iowa warning about an approaching third World War, Politico reported Monday." Fear fear, booga booga. Oh Ricky, don't lose that number.

"A teacher in a Gwinnett County, Georgia middle school asked a Muslim eighth-grader if she had a bomb in her backpack last week in front of her entire classroom." Gods I'm tired of this ignorant shit. I can't imagine what it's like for my friends who follow Islam.

Tweet of my heart: @robertjbennett there is the argument that money can't buy the White House, sure. but in statehouses and city councils, hell yeah, buy what you want man… so while we can laugh at the billionaires fruitlessly attempting to buy a president, let's not forget they're wildly successful elsewhere