Episode 173 – The One Where We Get A Lot More Than We Ordered…

In This Week’s Show, episode 173, Jenn and Aaron are away so the other boys will play!

Episode 173 – The One Where We Get A Lot More Than We Ordered…
Episode 173 – The One Where We Get A Lot More Than We Ordered…

In This Week’s Show, episode 173, Jenn and Aaron are away so the other boys will play!

Now, grab a beer and help us test the god hypothesis — because, while influenza hasn’t struck us all down yet… it has claimed Aaron!

Shea’s Life Lesson

This week I learned that the Easter Bunny is Jesus Christ’s Fursona…

Jim’s Good Gay News

This is my farewell episode because my resident visa application to Wakanda has been approved, so I’ll be moving away to a magical place where we treat everyone like they’re one tribe and there’s no need to investigate harassment or discrimination. Either that or I played hooky and got to watch Black Panther in 3D, and had a whole theater ENTIRELY to myself. I’m going to start taking time off work more often for Monday early matinees.

But before we get to all that, let’s have a beer!

This Week’s Beer

Hopfusion Ale Works – Hairpin

From: Elizabet

  • BA Link: http://bit.ly/2BX5XIS
  • BA Rating: 3.88/5
  • Style: Rye Beer
  • ABV: 6.38%
  • Jim: 1
  • Shea: 4
  • Steve: 5

This Week’s Show

Round Table Discussion

America’s favorite bigot, Billy Graham, is finally died on Feb. 21 at age 99. His asshole son, Franklin, continues to further tarnish the family name.

No voicemail, patrons, or iTunes review … don’t make us start a beg-a-thon!

We did hear from patron DodSno regarding Aaron’s second half. Apparently, while consistent indeed, he was constantly wrong. From Dod:

“poly-dye-methyl-sigh-locks-ane (ane as in a plane). Not sile-a-zine. My chemist hurts…”

Well, that’s embarrassing, but c’est la vie eh. Words are hard. But fear not, this officially marks the end of “learning to pronounce things from YouTube” and, going forward, Aaron will actually ask a scientist.

WyoAIDS plug – tickets are now on sale for people in the area.
(well, “now” as of air date anyway)

Headlines

HL1 – Best Headline this year…

http://bit.ly/2oBt2cx

Former Freemason, 51, found drunk and naked inside a huge pipe organ with a toy gun and remote-controlled police car says he got lost while trying to hand out cheeseburgers to the homeless

  • Glenn Langford was arrested on Wednesday after allegedly flooding the Brisbane Masonic Memorial Centre and setting off the fire alarms. He said his intentions were initially well-meaning and the night had got out of hand after downing a bottle of Johnny Walker whiskey.
  • The court was told he had been meaning to hand out cheeseburgers to the homeless. Food was left scattered on the floor of the grand hall of the heritage-listed temple in Brisbane’s CBD, which features one of the biggest organs in Queensland. It is feared the organ, installed in the 1930s, maybe too damaged to be repaired despite it being insured for $1 million.
  • Mr. Langford is charged with allegedly damaging a number of organ pipes and destroying part of a decorative wall. He was also discovered naked along with clothes, a remote-controlled police car, and a toy gun. The magistrate heard from Mr. Langford’s lawyer who explained he had last week lost his job and was getting over the breakdown of a 16-year relationship.
  • ‘Things just got a little loose, I was out of it,’ Mr. Langford said. He apologized to ‘all the righteous Freemasons everywhere’. ‘I did have a lot of cheeseburgers to give to the homeless. I’m going to see a shrink and don’t drink,’ he added.

HL2 – Flick Your Button For A Pizza – http://bit.ly/2F7C1IA

  • CamSoda, an adult entertainment platform, announced a new product this week that aims to satisfy you in a number of ways. The RubGrub is a 3D-printed button attachment made to fit on a Lovense Nora vibrator. And the idea is that when you’re done using the Nora, all you’ll have to do is tap the button and the RubGrub will order you a large pizza.
  • All you have to do is connect your RubGrub to your phone via Bluetooth and plug in your payment and delivery information. Domino’s is the only option as of now, but CamSoda says that it plans to add Mexican and Chinese food chain options in the future. You can snag the RubGrub alone for $20 or buy it with a Nora for $120.
  • While RubGrub was developed in collaboration with Lovense, Domino’s appears to have had nothing to do with it. The company told Fox News earlier this week, “This is news to us. We have not worked with this company, nor have we authorized them to use our name in conjunction with their ‘toy.'”

HL3 – Pampers Fatwa – http://bit.ly/2F73kTj

  • Muslim protests in India are calling for a boycott of Pampers products after claiming to have seen the word ‘Mohammed’ in the face of a cartoon cat which appears on its diapers.
  • The lines illustrating the whiskers, nose, mouth and left eye of the smiley feline have been suggested to resemble the Prophet’s name when written in Arabic or Urdu, although the company that makes the products vehemently denied the claims. However, the image on the hygiene product has been branded an ‘insult’ to Islam by critics, and protesters have staged ‘Pampers burnings’.
  • Video footage viewed more than 175,000 times online shows outraged parents making pyres out of Pampers Baby Dry Pants in the streets of India and torching whole packets in protest.
  • Activists from the Islamic group Darsgah Jihad-o-Shahadat yesterday lodged a formal complaint about the nappies at Dabeerpura Police Station in Hyderabad, reports the Deccan Chronicle.
  • In a letter to police, the group said Pampers had ‘hurt the feelings’ of the Muslim community and called for the products to be taken off the shelves immediately.

This Week’s Stories

Jim’s Story http://bit.ly/2F73l9P

  • “Ten of 13 judges of the New York City-based Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Monday that the Civil Rights Act protects gay and bisexual workers from sexual orientation discrimination.”
  • Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act
    • ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin
    • considered one of the crowning legislative achievements of the civil rights movement
    • Passed during the LBJ administration, so OF COURSE, Donald Trump’s Justice Department argued this law does not include protections for gay and bisexual people – because we’re stuck in a time loop until the Enterprise crew can fix the broken dilithium crystal and break the cycle
  • The case involved Donald Zarda, a skydiving instructor who sued his New York-based employer in 2010
    • he was fired after a customer complained he was gay
    • The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sided with Zarda.
  • The Justice Department took the opposite tack, arguing that Congress never intended to protect gays from workplace discrimination
    • “There is a common-sense difference between sex discrimination and sexual orientation discrimination,” a Justice Department attorney argued to the court in September.
  • Rare, especially since it means one department in the federal government was arguing against the position of another department.
    • Rare, but not surprising because the DOJ is currently led by despotic Keebler elf Jeff Sessions
    • Zarda later died in a BASE-jumping accident, meaning Sessions and the Cheeto in Chief have been out-maneuvered by a dead man
  • the Second Circuit ruled that sexual orientation discrimination is sex discrimination
    • Judge Robert Katzman wrote in the majority opinion: “A woman who is subject to an adverse employment action because she is attracted to women would have been treated differently if she had been a man who was attracted to women. We can, therefore, conclude that sexual orientation is a function of sex and, by extension, sexual orientation discrimination is a subset of sex discrimination.”
    • Other judges have ruled this way before
  • Even with the Second Circuit’s ruling, there is no final word on these protections.
    • Zarda’s former employer can appeal to the Supreme Court, which declined to hear a challenge to an 11th Circuit ruling that said protections against sex discrimination do not cover sexual orientation bias.
    • Split decisions in different circuits mean that sooner or later, SCOTUS will have to settle the matter head on
  • Masterpiece cake case (from Colorado, includes a former UW student as plaintiff)
    • “This case has never been about cakes. It’s about the rights of gay people to receive equal service in businesses and not be afraid of being turned away because of who they are. It’s about basic access to public life.”
    • After nearly 90 minutes of oral arguments in December 2017, the Supreme Court justices appeared to be equally divided along ideological lines about the case
    • A ruling is expected by June 2018
  • Newman v. Piggie Park Enterprises, Inc.
    • In 1964, two African-Americans were refused service at a Piggie Park drive-in in Columbia, S.C., because of their race
    • Piggie Park owner Maurice Bessinger justified the refusal to serve black customers based on his religious belief opposing “any integration of the races whatsoever.”
    • By the time the case made it to the Supreme Court in 1968, the issue was who would pay fees for lawyers representing the black South Carolinians who sued Bessinger’s restaurants. Because back then, they learned faster than the Trump administration
    • But in a footnote to its unsigned 8-0 opinion, the court called the religious freedom argument and Bessinger’s other defenses “patently frivolous.”
  • Department of Fair Employment and Housing v. Cathy’s Creations, Inc.
    • A California judge ruled in favor of a bakeshop owner earlier this month, allowing her to continue to refuse to create wedding cakes for same-sex couples because it violates her religious beliefs.
    • Kern County Superior Court Judge David Lampe said Cathy Miller, owner of Tastries Bakery in Bakersfield, Calif., was being asked to make a cake for an event and that the act of creating it was protected artistic expression.
      • The fact that she thinks she gets to “express” anything makes it obvious she’s not used to working with gay couples. Fuck your fondant, and here’s my mother’s buttercream recipe. Cake flavor, filling, and decorations will be as *I* describe. Bitch, who do you think taught Julia Roberts the difference between “blush” and “bashful?” If I’m not picking the look of my cake out of your book, I’m going to dictate every detail of your “artistry” so that it matches my flowers, decorations, and custom printed invitations. Artistry my ass! I decorate cakes too, but even this here drag queen doesn’t have enough ego to suggest I’m sending an artistic message when I’m doing it. You make it pretty, and look like what the person wants.
    • In August 2017, Miller told the couple she could not bake the cake as she is a Christian but offered to set up an appointment for them with one of her local competitors
    • The state requested a preliminary injunction to force Miller to design a wedding cake while awaiting the full trial, but Judge Please-Please-Overturn-Me denied it.
    • In his ruling, Lampe cautioned that the freedom of religion does not give businesses a right to refuse service to specific groups of people altogether, making note of the difference between creating a product for a specific event and selling a product

 

Patreon Story – available now at http://bit.ly/2wnvWlY

Ahhh outrage fuel: A Republican running for Congress in Arizona said teenage survivors of the Florida school massacre sound like Hitler. – http://bit.ly/2F6TocD

Richard Mack, a Republican candidate for Congress, says teenage survivors of the Stoneman Douglas High shooting sound like Hitler in their calls for gun control.

Mack is a former sheriff running in the Republican primary in Arizona’s 8th Congressional District. The seat was previously held by Rep. Trent Franks, who resigned after it was revealed he offered a staffer $5 million to carry his child.

Mack was asked about the grassroots movement started by students after the mass shooting. He was not receptive.

“The talk that I’ve heard so far coming from either some of the students or from politicians or from the media is that gun control would make us safer,” Mack said “If you compare that to some of the rhetoric from Hitler and Stalin and Lenin, you’ll see the exact same kind of language used — that gun control will make you safer.”

Mack went on to speak at length about how gun control has historically been “a very racist policy against blacks” in the United States. He said that the idea of “complete gun control” was employed by the 20th Century’s worst dictators, including Hitler, Lenin and Stalin. Most of all, though, he said he wanted to talk to the students about the Founding Fathers’ views on guns.

“The reason you’re calling me is because I believe that we should talk this out, and my views — not my views, but the Founding Fathers’ views — about the Second Amendment should be part of the discussion,” Mack said. […] But just to say or believe that more gun control would keep us safer, I think, is a very un-American statement. And it’s not true. And that’s all I keep hearing about this is that gun control is going to make us safer, and more background checks.”

Asked if he was describing the students advocating for stricter gun regulations as un-American, Mack pushed back.

“No, I’m talking about everybody who’s talked about it,” he said.

But doesn’t that include the students?

“Well, the talk — the talk that I’ve heard so far coming from either some of the students or from politicians or from the media is that gun control would make us safer,” he said. “And I already told you that if you compare that to some of the rhetoric from Hitler and Stalin and Lenin, you’ll see the exact same kind of language used. That gun control will make you safer.”

So that’s a comparison between the students’ rhetoric and Hitler’s rhetoric?

“No, that’s — I didn’t say anything about the students,” Mack said, “I said the students, and I said politicians, and I said media.”

He noted that he works as a teacher at the Heritage Academy charter school in Arizona, where he teaches three subjects: economics, constitutional government, and criminal justice. Heritage Academy was founded in 1995 by Earl Taylor, Jr., an acolyte of the late conspiracy theorist and fringe Mormon theologian W. Cleon Skousen. Mack has worked at Heritage Academy for almost three years and said his perspective as a teacher could help the Florida students.

“I love kids. I love teaching. And I hate violence and always have. And I’m looking for solutions just like they are,” Mack said.

He even hesitated when asked whether he wanted to be armed while teaching.

Mack also accused politicians and the media reporting on the attack of sounding like the man who engineered the Holocaust that exterminated 6 million innocent Jewish people.

At the top of his official website, Mack has a photo and endorsement from NRA board member Ted Nugent. There is also a video of Nugent with Mack, calling Mack a “constitutional warrior.”

Nugent recently promoted the unfounded conspiracy theory that the school shooting survivors are actors.

Mack has been a part of the conservative conspiracy circuit for several years. He heads the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, which inaccurately argues that sheriffs are the highest elected authorities in the country and can ignore any laws they consider unconstitutional, including gun laws.

Finally, when asked whether it was possible that he knows less about what it’s like to be on the other end of a shooting than the students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, Mack disagreed.

“Maybe I know more because I know how to avoid ‘em,” Mack said, adding: “I do know more, probably, than victims of it. Because I’ve handled lots of different victims of gun violence and of police brutality. So, because they were there that day doesn’t mean that they know more than a police officer of 20 years.”

And…. scene. What a douche.

Next Week’s Beer

Cornstalker Dark Wheat – Thunderhead Brewing Company

From: Brendon

  • BA Link: http://bit.ly/2ovyj5n
  • BA Rating: 3.64/5
  • Style: American Dark Wheat Ale
  • ABV: 5.4%

Faith In Humanity Restored

http://bit.ly/2FbFclR

More than 250 doctors and residents in Quebec have asked the provincial government to backtrack on plans to give them and other physicians substantial pay hikes, saying the money should instead be spent on the front lines of the health system.

In an open letter, they say the increases are particularly shocking given that other health-care workers such as nurses and orderlies face difficult working conditions.

Some nurses have taken to social media to vent their frustrations.

A Facebook post by a young nurse named Emilie Ricard was shared more than 56,000 times after the woman from the Eastern Townships posted a picture of herself in tears, giving a sarcastic thumbs-up after a night shift in which she said she had to care for more than 70 patients alone.

Isabelle Leblanc, president of the group behind the letter, said nurses, orderlies and other employees in the health-care system are working under awful conditions.

“Basically, the amount of money the health department has to run the system is finite,” she said in an interview Monday. “There’s only a specific amount of money and not more, and the more you give to the physicians, the less you give to workers or to improve access (to the system).”

Leblanc admitted it was unusual for doctors to say they don’t want more money.

“But I don’t think it’s that unusual for people to say ‘the workplace we work in needs more money, put it there and don’t put it in our pockets’,” she said. “We think it’s going to help patients a lot more if the money is injected in the system, and not into the pockets of the physicians.”

“We have to stop using the argument that doctors should be paid more because they work hard,” she said. “A lot of people work hard.”

Quebec Health Minister Gaetan Barrette says he’s ready to take some of the money out of the doctors’ hands.

“If they feel they are overpaid, they can leave the money on the table and I guarantee you I can make good use of it,” he told reporters.

Barrette also pointed out he’s already been working with Quebec nurses to deal with issues like overtime and nurse-to-patient ratios. He said it was agreed to revisit working conditions under a “historic” collective agreement that was reached two years ago.

Bonus Cat Video

Most Accurate Warp Jump in Star Trek (Star Trek Discovery) – YouTube

String Theory Explained – What is The True Nature of Reality? – YouTube

Ralph Breaks The Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2 Official Teaser Trailer – YouTube

Fahrenheit 451 (2018) Official Teaser ft. Michael B. Jordan & Michael Shannon | HBO – YouTube

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