“PRINCETON, NJ — Forty-six percent of Americans believe in the creationist view that God created humans in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years. The prevalence of this creationist view of the origin of humans is essentially unchanged from 30 years ago, when Gallup first asked the question. About a third of Americans believe that humans evolved, but with God’s guidance; 15% say humans evolved, but that God had no part in the process.” [Gallup]

Let the beatings continue until morale improves:

Greece is broke and close to being broken. It is a country where children are fainting in school because they are hungry, where 20,000 Athenians are scavenging through waste tips for food, and where the lifeblood of a modern economy – credit – is fast drying up.

It is a country where the fascists and the anarchists battle for control of the streets, where immigrants fear to go out at night and where a woman whispers “it’s like the Weimar republic” as a motorcycle cavalcade from the Golden Dawn party, devotees of Adolf Hitler, cruises past the parliament building. Graffiti says: “Foreigners get out of Greece. Greece is for the Greeks. I will vote for Golden Dawn to remove the filth from the country.”

The people Atrios refers to as our Galtian Overlords are truly horrible. This is what happens when people have no jobs and no money.

Troubled Greece: Fears of ‘First Domino’ to Fall as Austerity is Counted a Failure [HuffPo]

“Jay Townsend, a campaign spokesman for Republican Rep. Nan Hayworth (NY-19), weighed in on a local Facebook discussion with a violent comment about Democratic women in Congress, and his suggestion is now earning the congresswoman condemnation from one of her Democratic challengers…. ‘Let’s hurl some acid at those female democratic Senators who won’t abide the mandates they want to impose on the private sector.'” [TPM]

“John Edwards is off the legal hook: jurors found him not guilty Thursday on one of six charges of campaign finance fraud, and declared themselves hopelessly deadlocked on the rest. Judge Catherine Eagles had asked the jurors earlier in the day to keep trying for a verdict, but they returned within the hour to say it was impossible.” [NYDN]

“(NEWSER) – A West Virginia Pentecostal pastor who used poisonous snakes during religious services has died of a rattlesnake bite. Mack Wolford, who just turned 44, was killed by a snake he had owned for years, reports theWashington Post. He was bitten during an outdoor service at a state park he had hoped would be a ‘homecoming like the old days,’ filled with people speaking in tongues, handling snakes and having a ‘great time,’ he said on his Facebook page.”

Because spending money on endless wars and bailouts for criminals is preferable to taking care of people:

Third, the Great Society. Lyndon Johnson was right to use government to do more to protect Americans from the vicissitudes of capitalism. But he made a series of open-ended promises, especially on health care. He tried to bind voters to the Democratic Party with a web of middle-class subsidies.

In each case, a good impulse was taken to excess. A government that was energetic and limited was turned into one that is omnidirectional and fiscally unsustainable. A government that was trusted and oriented around long-term visions is now distrusted because it tries to pander to the voters’ every momentary desire. A government that devoted its resources toward future innovation and development now devotes its resources to health care for the middle-class elderly.

Take one flawed premise, add a dash of Burke or Hamilton, fold in a few false equivalencies, pretend that the Tea Party and other far right lunatics are a recent phenomenon, punch a hippie, bake at a nice Centrist 325 degrees and, presto, another shitty David Brooks column!

It is very important to remember that David Brooks supported the Iraq War and has been wrong about everything. He exists because people invested in the system need to have a “reasonable” go-to conservative to preserve the Great Lie of Centrism. Period.

Pareene takes him down, hard:

But our target here is Russert, and he is not personally responsible for NBC’s decision to bequeath him a broadcasting job. If we focus on the work and not the means by which Russert got the job, things don’t look much better. Initially, at least, the grown-ups on the air always seemed to be holding Russert’s hand as he tried to remember his lines, as if he were a child and not a fully grown college graduate and professional. It’s obvious that everyone who knew his father loves Luke. But everyone’s affection for the kid is not transmissible through a television set, alas, and Russert’s appearances seemed like some rich guy’s kid’s piano recital suddenly taking place in the middle of a professional orchestra’s concert.

I could stand Russert doing weather, or telling me how not to confuse Olivia Munn with Olivia Wilde, but politics? Nope.