Andrew Sullivan points out that the Tories, the British conservative party, would be considered a hotbed of radical socialism in American politics. They fully support their single-payer health care system, marriage equality for gays, public transit, and moving away from a carbon-based economy.

Meanwhile, American conservatives are currently obsessed with reviving Confederate pride, removing all references to that humanist pansy Thomas Jefferson from history textbooks, and repealing most or all of the Affordable Care Act.

The fundamental difference between these two movements is that the Tories are looking to the future through a moderately conservative lens; American conservatives are fixated on a sanitized past as viewed through a glass darkly. If the Tories do win next month’s election, perhaps their sane counterparts here in the States will be a little bolder in confronting the babbling fringe that is currently holding a gun to the head of the Republican Party.

I’m a sucker for violent footage of the natural world and this clip of a sea lion making a meal of a squirrelly octopus is pretty spectacular. The octopus makes a few valiant attempts to get away, but the sea lion will not be denied its seafood snack. The fact that the sea lion managed to so agilely pursue its prey with a camera strapped to its back is also worth noting.

Somewhere in western Minnesota, cephalopod lover PZ Myers sheds a single tear while watching this video.

It looks like the alien-invasion movie Independence Day is not going to get just one sequel, but two. I couldn’t get to a theater fast enough to see the original, but left feeling a little disappointed. The script was all kinds of silly and I had been hoping for something a little more grandiose. Something tells me the sequels will be even sillier, but I’m still enough of a geek tool that I’ll probably see both of them.

Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann, the twin muses of modern know-nothing conservatism, were in my neighborhood today to spread their peculiar gospel of white exurban rage (mixed in with a healthy dose of Christian exceptionalism). If these two become the right’s standard-bearers for the next few years, I’m completely fine with that. Thanks to her burgeoning media empire, Palin is making too much money to be tempted by another run for political office. And Bachmann’s antics have robbed her of the credibility she would need to rise above her current status as an eccentric backbencher. Of course, some disaster could strike the country, elevating Palin to the presidency and Bachmann her minister of propaganda, but it’s more likely that they will both be historical footnotes soon enough.

When people with disabilities–particularly cognitive disabilities–are ready to start thinking about finding a job, they are usually presented with a severely limited range of career choices. Many are sent to sheltered workshops where they perform repetitive tasks for subminimum wages or they are sent to various work sites as part of a crew of people with disabilities. Most of these jobs aren’t in office or professional settings, but MinnPost describes a new internship opportunity that places people with disabilities in the offices of state legislators. The interns (who have a range of physical and cognitive disabilities) perform tasks such as running errands, responding to e-mails, and organizing files. Even better, they get paid a wage that is more than pocket change. One of the senators who hosts an intern commented on how the program is changing how legislators and staff perceive people with disabilities:

They’re challenging our assumptions. We’re all finding that they can do more than we thought — much more.

Of course, not everyone can do this kind of work, but people with disabilities can and do thrive in any number of jobs that might seem beyond their capabilities at first blush. As the service and knowledge economies become more firmly entrenched, people with disabilities risk being even further marginalized if they aren’t given opportunities to learn the skills that might eventually help them land jobs in these sectors. Internships like this are excellent opportunities for people with disabilities to begin thinking about careers and to push themselves outside their comfort zones. And at a time when legislators are contemplating human services cuts, the presence of people with disabilities in and around their offices might cause them to more carefully consider the impacts of those cuts.
Thanks to Allie for the link