Ted Cruz and Mike Lee are the Small Minds of the Day

What can one say about two senators who happily pose next to the carcass of one of the world's most famous endangered animals?

Here's what Cruz had to say in a now-deleted tweet:

Senator Ted Cruz (R) @SenTedCruz

Did a little shopping for the office with @SenMikeLee in Houston today.

Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins reads his "fan" mail

A Muslim's Prayer

"Please, God, let our husbands, our brothers, our sons be temperate in their faith."

From the Algerian writer Boualem Sansal's novel, Harraga. (Naturally, it's banned in Algeria.) Also from the novel:

"I keep asking myself: Does Islam produce true believers, craven cowards, or terrorists? There is no easy answer, as all are talented actors."

Oof

The Economic Policy Institute (it's a nonprofit) has found that since 1979, "in almost every state, there's been more growth in income for the top one percent, than for the bottom 99 percent [of Americans]."

Koch Brothers will spend $889 million on 2016 elections; Marco Rubio says, "No problem."

Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio traveled to Iowa to suck up to the Koch brothers. Here’s one lovely part of their trip:

As the three senators addressed the audience of rich donors — effectively an audition for the 2016 primary — they dismissed a question about whether the wealthy had too much influence in politics. At times they seemed to be addressing an audience of two: the Kochs themselves, now among the country’s most influential conservative power brokers.

What Must Chinese Bigwigs Dine on Endangered Species?

Via.

The giant salamander is listed as a "critically endangered" species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Its population has declined dramatically in recent decades, largely due to human consumption.

So when over two-dozen Chinese officials got together in a Shenzhen restaurant last week, what did they eat? Giant salamander.

As for the journalists who spotted this outrage, they were kicked, slapped, robbed, choked, and beaten. So pretty much just another day in China.

Space Ghost explains FOX News

i believe every word that man just said because it's exactly what I wanted to hear

William Haefeli has a good point

Via.

For someone who believes in personal responsibility you spend a lot of time blaming government

Sarah Palin has your word salad of the day

Speaking in Iowa, Mrs. Palin said:

“Things must change for our government. Look at it. It isn’t too big to fail. It’s too big to succeed! It’s too big to succeed, so we can afford no retreads or nothing will change with the same people and same policies that got us into the status quo. Another Latin word, status quo, and it stands for, ‘Man, the middle-class everyday Americans are really gettin’ taken for a ride.’ That’s status quo, and GOP leaders, by the way, y’know the man can only ride ya when your back is bent. So strengthen it. Then the man can’t ride ya, America won’t be taken for a ride, because so much is at stake and we can’t afford politicians playing games like nothing more is at stake than, oh, maybe just the next standing of theirs in the next election.”

Um . . . okay!

The Dropkick Murphys have a message for Gov. Scott Walker

@ScottWalker @GovWalker please stop using our music in any way...we literally hate you !!! Love, Dropkick Murphys
— Dropkick Murphys (@DropkickMurphys) January 25, 2015

How John Boehner knows he's doing SOMETHING wrong

When you secretly invite a foreign leader to address Congress and even FOX News thinks it's a lousy idea, you done messed up!

So the first step in dealing with a moron is not to tell him he's a moron?

Stephan Lewandowsky is a psychologist at the University of Bristol and the author of The Debunking Handbook. Here’s how she suggests dealing with someone who doesn’t believe in climate change:

There’s a couple of things I can suggest. The first thing is to make people affirm their beliefs. Affirm that they’re not idiots, that they're not dumb, that they’re not crazy — that they don't feel attacked. And then try to present the information in a way that’s less conflicting with [their] worldview. 

One of the problems I've been working with is people's attitudes toward climate change. For a lot of people, the moment they hear the words "climate change," they just shut down. But there are ways that you can get around that. For example, it’s been shown that if you show the health consequences of climate change or if you can have market-based solutions to the problem, that does not challenge their worldview too much. 

If you tell people that there is an overwhelming scientific consensus that 97 out of 100 climate scientists agree on the basic notion of global warming, it seems that is a gateway belief that enables people to recognize the importance of the issue. 

More often than not, that is effective with people who are ideologically disposed to reject global warming as a fact. In general, people are very sensitive to what they perceive to be the majority opinion around them.

Read the full interview at Vox.

Chinese Ignoramuses Are the Small Minds of the Day

Scientists suspect that the last time our planet had a massive “die-off” was when the dinosaur era ended after an asteroid collision.

Today, a quarter of all mammals and 40 percent of all amphibians are considered endangered. Without question, humans are causing mass extinctions.

We’re the asteroid.

What's especially galling is how rhinos were poached at a record level in South Africa last year. Why? There's an Asian market (hello, Vietnam and China) because superstitious ignoramuses think rhino horns cure cancer and make the manroot hard.