RationalWiki:What is going on in the world?/November 2009

November 2009
In a stunning display of obnoxiousness, A judge in Argentina prevents a gay couple from marrying just after same-sex marriage was legalized there. Time magazine quoting critics of the minaret ban in Switzerland: The People's Party did it to "push its populist, anti-immigrant agenda on the Swiss electorate." Uh, hint, fellows: Next time you trot out the "such-and-such legislative act has contradicted the democratic will" shtick, make sure you aren't commenting on a referendum. In 2006, George W. Bush was hot to sell P&O -- the company that runs 22 U.S. ports -- to Dubai World, the Dubai corporation that (if you can't guess by its name) wants to run the world. It was a deal so bad that the Republicans who then controlled Congress revolted against the plan. A good thing, considering the recent meltdown of the Dubai economy. Hot! Science! To celebrate its 350th bithday, the Royal Society is publishing its 60 most influential papers online. Visit them here. Remember Willie Horton? The convicted murderer that the state of Massachusetts released on a weekend furlough in 1986? The one who didn't return and raped a woman in Maryland and almost killed her fiance? The one that appeared in a pro-George H.W. Bush commercial during the 1988 U.S. Presidential Election? Remember him? (, in case you don't.) Turns out that Mike Huckabee -- remember him from the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election? -- has had his SECOND Willie Horton moment. While he was governor of Arkansas, Huckabee commuted the sentence of Maurice Clemmons, the man believed to have killed four police officers on Sunday in the state of Washington. Huckabee is deflecting blame to the justice systems in Arkansas and Washington. (A Washington judge granted Clemmons bail last week after he was arrested for child rape.) Freedom of architecture is euthanised in Switzerland Self appointed "bishop" Brian Tamaki of the Destiny Church, New Zealand, has 700 of his "sons" sign an oath requiring their absolute loyalty to him. In a related story; sales of Kool-aid reach record levels. Khmer Rouge death camp superintendent asks for forgiveness. Why? he was "just following orders" BBC: Council replaces real Christmas tree with a fake one for reasons of safety as cost effectiveness. Daily Mail: [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1231160/Health-safety-forces-council-swap-traditional-Christmas-tree-14-000-traffic-cone.html THEY'RE DESTROYING CHRISTMAS! IT'S POLITICAL CORRECTNESS AND HEALTH & SAFETY GONE MAD!] Irish Church might be in trouble. The ultimate paperweight - scientists trap a rainbow. Scientists try to decode turkey geneome (this research is being done at Virginia Tech so this could be the goal). Hot Science: Another step closer to spintronics (bonus reporting points for explaining what spin actually is, minus a couple of points for putting "quantum mechanical" in quote-marks). Historical revisionism, perhaps? There were no terrorist attacks under President Bush. The right wing militia movement -- They're baaaaaaaaack! This Thanksgiving, consider volunteering your time or donating money to help homeless shelters and food banks. There is a massive shortage of turkeys due to the recession. <vote poll=world1171 closed="yes">Global warming denialists hack a climate change research website and publish the unflattering results. Debate about "climategate" begins almost instantly. <vote poll=world1170 closed="yes">So much for the idea that civil partnerships are equivalent to marriage. <vote poll=world1169 closed="yes">A ten-point conservative "purity test" is created in order to measure the commitment of Republican candidates for government office. However, they take a quip from His Holiness Ronald Reagan in a literal fashion and tolerate a limited amount of dissent from the party line. <vote poll=world1168 closed="yes">Heatwave kills the world's oldest goat sheep. <vote poll=world1167 closed="yes">At an anti-immigration rally, one brave patriot demands the government get to the root of the matter, with a rousing chant of "Columbus Go Home! Protestors take an embarrassingly long time to realize they've been trolled. <vote poll=world1166 closed="yes">BOOM! The LHC smashes its first atoms. And not a Black Hole in sight. <vote poll=world1165 closed="yes">Christian Scientists want the health care bill to have a "spiritual health care" provision. <vote poll=world1164 closed="yes">Moonies are having a schism. <vote poll=world1163 closed="yes">Support for legalizing "it" grows. <vote poll=world1162 closed="yes">The "blame everything on computer games" saga continues: A human rights group play tests a few games and concludes that [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8373794.stm games that feature human rights abuses... well, they feature human rights abuses! And that's bad!] <vote poll=world1161 closed="yes">Now this sure beats matzo balls and challah. <vote poll=world1160 closed="yes">There are problems with IQ tests, such as that they don't label Dubya as dumb, so researchers in Toronto have come up with a new metric: the Rationality Quotient! <vote poll=world1159 closed="yes">Iran begins war games (and no they DIDN'T hack into NORAD). <vote poll=world1158 closed="yes">The New York Times: Right-wingers are wrongheadedly assigning ultimate blame to Islamists for the Fort Hood shooting. We, on the other hand, blame retaliating against an attack on the U.S. Right-Wing Foreign Policy. <vote poll=world1157 closed="yes">Apparently forgetting the meaning of the word gifted, New York parents are enrolling their four-year-old children in test prep to get them into gifted-and-talented kindergartens without paying. <vote poll=world1156 closed="yes">Sarah Palin: Illegal Jewish settlements should be allowed to continue. Maybe one day she'll be able to see them from her front door. <vote poll=world1155 closed="yes">Teabagger paranoia knows no bounds. ACORN - an organisation nobody had heard of 3 years ago - managed to steal 10 million votes. <vote poll=world1154 closed="yes">The Senate votes to bring the health care bill to the floor with a full Democratic majority. Let the conservative screech-fest commence! <vote poll=world1153 closed="yes">European commission forces UK to backtrack on laws that would allow churches to refuse to hire gay staff. <vote poll=world1152 closed="yes">Second time lucky for the LHC <vote poll=world1151 closed="yes">A 10-year-old boy refuses to heil the glorious Fuhrer pledge allegiance to the flag until there really is "justice for all" <vote poll=world1150 closed="yes">The cult of American anti-intellectualism continues with a rally led by the Führer Sarah Palin. <vote poll=world1149 closed="yes">Boy, 13, threatens to do a school shooting. Is it because of complex social issues, disenfranchisement with a system that has high expectations or the ease of him getting a gun? Nah, blame computer games, because everyone knows that World of Warcraft involves shooting innocent people with guns... <vote poll=world1148 closed="yes">The UN says that proper family planning (e.g. condom use) would help fight global warming. Prepare for an unholy alliance of global warming denialists and fundagelicals. <vote poll=world1147 closed="yes">Four years ago, Texas voters passed a 22 word constitutional amendment that was supposed to ban gay marriage. Now, a Houston lawyer says that the law is so poorly written that it bans all forms of marriage within the state. <vote poll=world1146 closed="yes">My newspaper isn't controlled by the church, I just require my senior editors to attend "creepy" mass marriage ceremonies. <vote poll=world1145 closed="yes">Argentine judge grants gay couple marriage license. The Argentina parliament is now [http://www.fsrn.org/audio/audio-tag-title-raw/5767 debating two measures that would allow gay marriage. (Audio clip)] Right wingers are now tripping over each other to be the first to make a "Don't Cry For Me, Argentina" joke. <vote poll=world1144 closed="yes">For more than a generation, American free marketeers have mass-produced low-quality food loaded with high-fructose corn syrup, fought to decimate public education, and promoted the philosophy that cheating is acceptable as long as you get rich. The result? Now that the military industrial complex needs new recruits, 75 percent of Americans aged 17 to 24 are too fat, too uneducated and/or too criminal for military service. <vote poll=world1143 closed="yes">The Church of Scientology in the spotlight in Australia. <vote poll=world1142 closed="yes">Don't worry ladies, most guys are happy to provide breast cancer screenings to women under 50 <vote poll=world1141 closed="yes">With no-one to look after her infant son, a soldier from Georgia refuses deployment. So of course she's facing charges for her lack of responsibility. <vote poll=world1140 closed="yes">Sarah Palin has decided that she will probably not run for President in 2012; the world breathes a sigh of relief. <vote poll=world1139 closed="yes">Our president shows respect and courtesy towards the Japanese emperor. Conservative response? "Fuck that!" <vote poll=world1138 closed="yes">Do you know what "strict liability" is? It means that Paul Clarke of Reigate will now be serving 5 years in jail for doing the right thing. <vote poll=world1137 closed="yes">Homeskoolerz dominate the National Bible Bee. <vote poll=world1136 closed="yes">Sarah Palin's book is riddled with factual errors and inconsistencies. In other news, the sky is blue and bears shit in the woods. <vote poll=world1135 closed="yes">75-year-old Arkansas Evangelist Tony Alamo gets 175 years in prison for using his status as a "prophet" to force young girls (some as young as 8) into having sex with him in return for "salvation". <vote poll=world1134 closed="yes">NASA says there's water on the moon. Just sayin'. No big deal. <vote poll=world1133 closed="yes">THATCHER IS DEAD! ...or not. <vote poll=world1132 closed="yes">Governor Carcieri of Rhode Island, a gay rights opponent, vetoes a bill that would allow homosexuals to make funeral arrangements for their deceased partners. <vote poll=world1131 closed="yes">Harun Yahya, Turkey's answer to Ray Comfort, has imported many of the nutjob tactics used by U.S. creationists. Now, Turkish science teachers are being forced to waste valuable classroom time dispelling the Muslim equivalent of Discovery Institute talking points. <vote poll=world1130 closed="yes">In Soviet Russia Catholic Brazil, wearing a short dress at a university leads to expulsion and calls for your arrest. The university has re-admitted her since then. <vote poll=world1129 closed="yes">Earth just gets more and more awesome. <vote poll=world1128 closed="yes">Linux comes of $\mathrm{^\underset{\bigwedge}{old}}$ age <vote poll=world1127 closed="yes">Another transitional fossil is found, this one linking the earliest dinosaurs with the large plant-eating sauropods. Of course that means there are now two gaps in the fossil record, totally disproving evolution. <vote poll=world1126 closed="yes">A Federal Judge in South Carolina says thanks but no thanks to an overtly Christian license plate design. Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, the strongest backer of the plate, channels his inner stupidity in response: "I don't expect anything different from a liberal judge who was appointed by Bill Clinton... (this) once again shows how liberal judges are not just interpreting the law but making legislation." <vote poll=world1125 closed="yes">Glenn Beck fails to grab glennbeckrapedandmurderedayounggirlin1990.com/, but the domain's owner gives it to him anyway. Note: The website is still up at www.gb1990.com <vote poll=world1124 closed="yes">Waiting to burn the trillionth tonne. (Check the comments for bonus what-the-fuckery) <vote poll=world1123 closed="yes">Moral panic alert: Pedophiles are implanting computer viruses that allow them to store their porn on other people's computers. <vote poll=world1122 closed="yes">A bipartisan (read 176 Republicans and 64 Democrats) House coalition damns the health care bill by banning abortion subsidies. <vote poll=world1121 closed="yes">He's achieving it, where so many failed - healthcare reform. <vote poll=world1120 closed="yes">Evolutionary origins of the uncanny valley <vote poll=world1119 closed="yes">Carrie Prejean sex tape forced ex-Miss California's lawsuit settlement: report The vocal proponent of Christian values sued after being stripped of her title, claiming religious discrimination. The darling of Fox News quickly dropped her suit when the respondent's counsel introduced an entertaining sex tape of Prejean. Will God personally tell her that she's forgiven, and that she can return to her crusade against homosexual marriage and other forms of immorality? The odds look good.

<vote poll=world1117 closed="yes">The sad truth about being an American novelist today. The media figure most eager to book novelists onto his show is Glenn Beck. <vote poll=world1116 closed="yes">From the "You Must Be Joking" department: A woman called the police early Saturday morning during an argument with her husband after he claimed that the woman's daughter performed oral sex on him, and the daughter was better at it. <vote poll=world1115 closed="yes">Italian court convicts 23 C.I.A. agents  Americans for their roles in the kidnapping of an Egyptian suspected of terrorism. <vote poll=world1114 closed="yes">It was bound to happen: fundamentalists protest a play featuring a transexual Jesus. <vote poll=world1113 closed="yes">Sellafield says no to a proposed visit by BNP leader Nick Griffin, because he's an obnoxious racist on security grounds. UPDATE: In response, the BNP threaten to cry and hold their breath legal action. <vote poll=world1112 closed="yes">The justice of the peace who refused to marry a mixed-race couple out of concerns for their potential children and not at all because he was a racist, has finally resigned. <vote poll=world1111 closed="yes">A marvelous thing, direct democracy: Gay marriage recriminalized in Maine. <vote poll=world1110 closed="yes">Boris Johnson, mild mannered fogey by day, crime fighter by night. <vote poll=world1109 closed="yes">Is autumn foliage an evolutionary trait? [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/02/AR2009110202430.html Red or magenta, probably yes. Yellow or orange, probably not.] <vote poll=world1108 closed="yes">Clinton vs. Dubya in a no holds barred, bare-knuckle cage fight live debate at Radio City, New York on Feb 25th. UPDATE: The debate is off because it was over-hyped by the promoter. <vote poll=world1107 closed="yes">The right to bear arms proves useless as armed militants are killed by bear. <vote poll=world1106 closed="yes">Take a beloved, delicious detested, nausea-inducing nationally iconic food product and add cream cheese WTF??????!!!!!! to it. Result? A national controversy. <vote poll=world1105 closed="yes">And I quote, "modern man is not the result of a natural process of evolution, but that evolution was artificially aided by reptilian extraterrestrials." <vote poll=world1104 closed="yes">Christianity is showing a new influence on Islam: Creationism spreads to the Muslim world. <vote poll=world1103 closed="yes">The Kraken Wakes (Ok, its not a Kraken but its still bloody huge) <vote poll=world1102 closed="yes">Good news - you have a super-duper high tech space telescope thingy. Bad news - the monopolistic telecoms company won't give you high speed internet, so you can't share your super-duper pictures with the rest of the world. <vote poll=world1101 closed="yes">Tell me again why our boys are fighting and dying in Afghanistan? Oh yes, for a politician's right to scream blue murder when he loses the election. <vote poll=world1100 closed="yes">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8334774.stm What you say scientist man? Alcohol more dangerous than cannabis, LSD and ecstasy??!] We certainly won't have any of that apolitical evidence based reasoning in our fine British government! <vote poll=world1099 closed="yes">Mickey D's has closed all (3) of its restaurants in Iceland. <vote poll=world1098 closed="yes">BOOM! - NASA's Swift telescope detects most distant gamma ray burst to date; 13.1 billion lightyears. <vote poll=world1097 closed="yes">Aussie ingenuity as a farmer uses his tractor's exhaust fumes to boost crop yields. <vote poll=world1096 closed="yes">Chris Christie, the Republican candidate for governor of New Jersey manages to piss off the Pythons. He used footage from their "It's the Mind (Deja Vu)" sketch in one of his TV adverts without asking permission. Michael Palin says he was surprised that a former U.S. Attorney would make such an obvious mistake. (Hint: Karl Rove recommended Christie for the job because he was one of Dubya's biggest campaign contributors.) <vote poll=world1095 closed="yes">More trouble for the GOP. After being forced out of the special election for New York's 23rd Congressional district, Dierdre Scozzafava endorses the Democratic Party Nominee instead of the Conservative Party nominee favored by Republicans, leading people to wonder if moderates are really accepted in the modern Republican Party