Random Good/Weird Stuff From the Internet

• Have you been feeling it, too? The heat of recent media attention? The sour breath of bland, conservative evil on your nicely tattooed neck? Perhaps you've noticed. Sluts and sex, gays and deviants, perverts and hippies, yoga teachers and tattooed miscreants have been in the news a lot recently. More than usual, even. And that's saying something.  Mark Morford reports on the sad state of the"once noble" GOP.
• If you’re a liberal or a progressive these days, you could be forgiven for being baffled and frustrated by conservatives. Their views and actions seem completely alien to us—or worse. From cheering at executions, to wanting to “throw up” over church-state separation, to seeking to “drown” government “in the bathtub” (except when it is cracking down on porn, apparently) conservatives not only seem very different, but also very inconsistent. Here's a fascinating read concerning the differences between conservative and progressive morality. "How the Right-Wing Brain Works and What That Means for Progressives."
• Afghanistan.  Why on Earth are we still there?  Maureen Dowd asks that same question in this well written piece, "Heart of Darkness."
• Oh those pesky Catholics.  Shocking reports have surfaced that reveal at least ten teenage boys were castrated in the 1950s by the Dutch Roman Catholic Church as a "treatment" for homosexuality, the Telegraph reports.  Someone should ask Rick Santorum how much this report turns him on.
•  "There are laws against purveying hard-core pornography. And that—we have attorney generals in the country, at least under the Bush administration, who did prosecute that. And this administration isn't. And I simply said I would follow the law, which I know in the case of Barack Obama can be somewhat of a hefty challenge for him, but we're going to do it as president."  That's a quote from Rick Santorum.  I guess Rick thought he should one-up Newt Gingrich who promised that if elected he'd bring gasoline prices down to $2.00 a gallon.  So now Rick says he'll wipe out hard core pornography.  Someone should promise, that if elected, every boy and girl in America will receive a pony on their 13th birthday.