Weekend link dump for January 19

As The Slacktivist keeps saying, they are coming for your birth control. This is not about faith, it’s about politics.

Now that we have a little distance from the Hall of Fame vote, let’s talk about ways to improve the process. Bill James advocated for enlarging the electorate years ago in The Politics of Glory. That idea is needed now more than ever.

“A&E appears to have taken a large clan of affluent, college-educated, mildly conservative, country club Republicans, common across the nicer suburbs of the old south, and repackaged them as the Beverly Hillbillies.”

You do have to admit, it’s a lucrative business model for all involved.

Houston, you can get your nerd on later this month.

Obamacare has been good for Georgia, even as Georgia refuses to accept that it has been good for them.

The Sopranos debuted fifteen years ago. Yeah, we’re all old.

“Read that again: conservatives complain that we should have less welfare and more opportunity and civil society, only to turn around and also call those things ‘welfare’ too when the time comes.”

You really need to see these awesome photos from the set of Star Wars taken by Chewbacca actor Peter Mayhew.

“For younger workers we really are slouching toward gender equity—we’re just doing it more by men becoming worse off than by women becoming better off.”

Photos from the No Pants Subway Ride, in case you missed it again this year.

“For $5,000 to $10,000, high-end chefs will have a new toy and tool later this year—a 3D printer specializing in sugar.”

“If you’re interested in saving health care costs, the dumbest thing you can do is cut nutrition.”

A-Rod is suing everyone in sight. I don’t think this will end well for him.

You’ll shoot your Internet connection out.

“And that’s why the Duck Dynasty affair was a huge deal. It was a test for the Christian church. It was an incredibly easy test for the Christian church. And the white evangelical church in America failed that test. Completely, utterly failed. The overwhelming majority of white evangelicals did not respond as pastors and they did not respond as prophets. They responded as jerks.”

“But what was considered extreme and nutty then is standard operating procedure today.”

Maybe someone should tell those idiots on ESPN about the record-breaking heat in Australia. Just a thought.

“Skyrocketing numbers of beachcombers are pocketing seashells, and the environmental effects could range from increased erosion to fewer building materials for bird nests.”

“Check out this beautifully simple pie chart that illustrates just how rare climate denial in the scientific community is.”

“My theory: Mascots without pants aren’t inherently creepier than mascots with pants.”

The Downton Abbey effect on British inheritance laws.

“Good ideas fail because of right-wing paranoia that congressional Republicans take seriously, and bad ideas advance because of right-wing paranoia that congressional Republicans take seriously. We can no longer focus on what is true; we must also consider what far-right media perceives as possibly true.”

RIP, Russell Johnson, best known as The Professor on Gilligan’s Island.

And RIP, Dave Madden, best known as Reuben Kinkaid from The Partridge Family.

RIP, Hiroo Onoda, Japanese soldier who refused to surrender after World War Two ended and spent 29 years in the jungle in the Philippines. He finally agreed to surrender when his former commanding officer traveled to the Philippines and rescinded his original orders.

Analyzing the Pennsylvania anti-voter ID lawsuit ruling.

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