Last Call For You Can't Handle The Truth

There are some really screwed-up, awful human being on this earth, but few are as perniciously evil as Sandy Hook Truthers, the assholes who somehow believe that the massacre in Newtown Connecticut 18 months ago never actually happened, and that everyone is somehow involved in a huge Obama conspiracy theory to use imaginary dead kids to justify taking people's guns.  And yes, these people are pretty much human pond scum.

A playground in Mystic, Connecticut, dedicated to a girl shot during the Newtown massacre, is allegedly being vandalized by "truthers" who claim the shooting never took place.

A vinyl sign weighing 50 pounds was stolen last Tuesday from the Grace McDonnell Playground.

The sign featured a peace symbol that was based on the 7-year-old girl's drawing. She is one of the 20 children shot by Adam Lanza at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut on Dec. 14, 2012.

Grace's mother, Lynn McDonnell, found out about the theft when a man claiming to have stolen the sign called her.

During a brief conversation, the sign-stealer allegedly told McDonnell that he took the sign because he believes the school shooting was a hoax, CBS2.com reports.

He also taunted her that her daughter never existed, a comment that suggested he thought McDonnell was part of the alleged conspiracy.

What an awesome thing to say to a grieving mother, right?  "I vandalized the playground named after your dead kid because the NRA hobgoblins living inside my head told me your kid never existed and that you're in on a plan to take my guns!"

There's 26 more playgrounds being built, by the non-profit group that made this possible, the Where Angels Play Foundation.  If you live in the area near any of these playgrounds, or want to help, drop by the website and click on the "Support Us" button.  They could use funds and volunteers.

The GOP Energy Drain

The big Senate energy bill is now dead, the hostage having been killed by Republicans who wanted to insert amendments that would have permanently crippled the EPA's regulatory power over clean air and water, ended green energy projects, stopped Department of Energy research, and a host of other GOP anti-environment and anti-science initiatives.

Oh yeah, and the bill would have been a victory for two red state Democrats up for re-election.  Can't have that.

Only three Republicans, including its chief GOP sponsor, Sen. Rob Portman (Ohio), voted to end debate and move to a final vote. Supporters needed 60 votes to overcome a filibuster from Republicans angered that Democrats wouldn't allow votes on their amendments.

Monday's 55-36 vote followed days of negotiations that failed to yield a deal on amendments.The stalemate denied an important victory to the bill’s other sponsor, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), who faces a general-election challenge from former Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.).

Democrats accused Republicans of sinking the bipartisan bill to prevent Shaheen from touting a win on the campaign trail. She worked with Portman for three and a half years on the bill.

The legislation would have strengthened energy efficiency requirements for new homes and commercial buildings and encouraged private sector companies to develop energy efficient technology.

The filibuster also thwarted Sen. Mary Landrieu (La.), another vulnerable incumbent who sought a vote on the pipeline. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) promised a vote on Keystone if Republicans let the Shaheen-Portman energy efficiency bill reach a final vote.

So no energy bill, no Keystone XL vote, no anything because the Republicans were never willing to negotiate, just make more and more demands.

Reid said the final straw came after he promised Republicans a vote on a stand-alone bill authorizing Keystone. They again upped their demand by insisting on several other energy-related amendments, he said.

“They have held this bill hostage, this energy efficiency bill, as demand after demand has been met but even now they are still seeking a ransom,” Reid said Monday before the vote.

Shocking, I know.  And so another bill dies thanks to Mitch the Turtle and the useless GOP sacks of crap who block everything, and then blame President Obama for nothing getting done. 

Meanwhile, In Antarctica, Sheet Just Got Real

Ice sheets, that is.  NASA's latest calculations are that we've gone past the point of no return on stopping polar ice cap collapse.

The collapse of large parts of the ice sheet in West Antarctica appears to have begun and is almost certainly unstoppable, with global warming accelerating the pace of the disintegration, two groups of scientists reported Monday.

The finding, which had been feared by some scientists for decades, means that a rise in global sea level of at least 10 feet may now be inevitable. The rise may continue to be relatively slow for at least the next century or so, the scientists said, but sometime after that it will probably speed up so sharply as to become a crisis.

“This is really happening,” said Thomas P. Wagner, who runs NASA’s programs on polar ice and helped oversee some of the research. “There’s nothing to stop it now. But you are still limited by the physics of how fast the ice can flow.”

No longer a question of "if" on catastrophic sea level rising, but of how quickly it happens.

Richard B. Alley, a climate scientist at Pennsylvania State University who was not involved in the new research but has studied the polar ice sheets for decades, said he found the new papers compelling. Though he has long feared the possibility of ice-sheet collapse, when he learned of the new findings, “it shook me a little bit,” Dr. Alley said.

He added that while a large rise of the sea may now be inevitable from West Antarctica, continued release of greenhouse gases will almost certainly make the situation worse. The heat-trapping gases could destabilize other parts of Antarctica as well as the Greenland ice sheet, causing enough sea-level rise that many of the world’s coastal cities would eventually have to be abandoned.

Insert your own beachfront property in Nevada joke here.   These predictions have been around since the late 70's, folks, effectively my entire lifetime.  We've done nothing.  Hell, half of us refuse to believe this is even happening, and that it's really a HUGE LIBERAL PLOT and stuff.

Make sure you tell your great-grandkids about New York City.

StupidiNews!

• Divers may have located the 500-year old wreck of Christopher Columbus's ship, the Santa Maria, off Haiti's northern coast.
• New research suggests that a number of different common chemicals found in products ranging from food packaging to suncreens may disrupt sperm navigation and function, causing fertility issues.
• Billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer, who is vowing to spend $100 million to attack anti-environment candidates, apparently has plenty of investment in Indonesian coal mines.
• Federal housing chief Mel Watt says it's time to reverse the effort to shrink mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and get them back in the game of providing affordable housing.
• Microsoft will no longer require a paid Xbox Live "gold" subscription to access Netflix, Hulu, and other streaming services on its gaming consoles.