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

September 2009
 Making progress with an AIDS vaccine. It's not perfect but a step in the right direction Sarah Palin having trouble selling speeches because of perception as "a blithering idiot" First clown in space. Update on homeopath charged with manslaughter of 9-month-old daughter for failing to seek real medical treatment: 6 years for gross criminal negligence. Sports cheats - at last, someone's cracking down. We'll all be immortal in 20 years' time. NASA's IceSat has revealed that glaciers are thinning in Greenland and Antarctica, but don't forget it was a bit chilly in Illinois, so global warming is a fake. Spare the rod, spoil the smarten the child. And the researcher who says that "all parents want smart children" probably has little contact with YECs and fundies. Pre-Archaeopteryx dinosaur fossils found with feathers. Of course it's in China, so it's probably all commie propaganda. Saudi reform continues with a new university campus where the religious police won't be allowed to operate. Single father census worker found hanged with the word "fed" scrawled on his chest. Death glares at right-wing shitstirrers abound [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/8265321.stm HELP! I'm being oppressed!] - Surprise, surprise, it's the Christian Legal Centre again. Studies show that torture is likely to cause the victim to forget the information they are being asked, as well as create false memories Holy shit on a shingle! On November 19, Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron (with the help of dozens of mindless minions) plan to hand out 50,000 "special edition" copies of Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species on at least 50 college campuses in the US. This edition is "special" edumcational because it includes a 50-page introduction written by Comfort that links Darwin to sexism, racism and the origin of -- drumroll, please -- Hitler and the Nazis. (It's been reported that this "special" edition also includes several edits to Darwin's text.) Be sure to watch the rebuttal video Origin of Stupidity below Cameron's Origin into Schools video. Also see the new RationalWiki article about this. Jedi religion founder accuses Tesco of discrimination over rules on hoods News item: "75 Percent of Oklahoma High School Students Can't Name the First President of the U.S."  (Actually, it was 77 percent.)  Worse, 97 percent of the students surveyed failed a test that 92 percent of all prospective new U.S. citizens pass on their first try. P.S.: While news services reported that the survey was commissioned by the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, they don't mention that the OCPA was created by the Heritage Foundation. <vote poll=world985 closed="yes">Irving Kristol is dead. <vote poll=world973 closed="yes">In lieu of the second amendment, may we suggest an alternative means of self defense? <vote poll=world972 closed="yes">Congressman Kevin Brady (R-Texas), a supporter of 9-12 teabaggers (free market = freedom = good; big government = socialism = evil) writes an angry letter to Washington, DC, Metro chief (Metro = mass transit system = socialism = evil) because two elderly teabaggers were forced to take a taxi (taxi = free market = good). Maybe he should have voted to increase Metro funding last July. Brady = Texas Republican = Irony free zone between his ears. <vote poll=world971 closed="yes">Man who grew up under the tyranny of the Nazi and Soviet regimes tries to grab flyers from Lyndon LaRouche supporters. (LaRouche supporters believe that health care reform is a form of Naziism.) <vote poll=world970 closed="yes">Tiny T. rex fossil found. "Tiny" in this case means human sized. <vote poll=world969 closed="yes">A more accurate headline for this article would be "Teen Birth Rates Lowest in Least Religious States." <vote poll=world968 closed="yes">Not really news, but New Jersey is filled with the batshit insane. UPDATE:  Former fundy Frank Schaeffer tells Rachel Maddow that this poll illustrates how the GOP's fundy subculture is "a fifth column of insanity." <vote poll=world967 closed="yes">Yes, Jeremy Clarkson is a bit of a tit regarding climate change, but there's really no need for this. <vote poll=world966 closed="yes">Michael Moore speculates on why American newspapers are failing: They favor advertisers over readers. <vote poll=world965 closed="yes">Gender-segregated trains make a debut. Feminists applaud. <vote poll=world964 closed="yes">It's not a bug in the code, it's a bug in your moral code! <vote poll=world963 closed="yes">Humanity is evolving faster than ever. <vote poll=world962 closed="yes">Rep. Wilson gets his spanking by Congress. Deserved? Yes. Necessary? Eh... <vote poll=world961 closed="yes">"Nepal hit by severe goat shortage". <vote poll=world960 closed="yes">In recessionary times God knows where the money is. <vote poll=world959 closed="yes">Hell is actually being on the receiving end of one of NASA's new toys. <vote poll=world958 closed="yes">Turns out that Homeskooling and Religiosity is just as good at producing gun-toting, nihilistic, black-cloth-wearing mass murderers as the public school system. Who'd a thunk it? <vote poll=world957 closed="yes">The Battle of the Bigs is on! Big Labor is going to help Big Government fight Big Pharma. <vote poll=world956 closed="yes">Five (UK) laws you really ought to know <vote poll=world955 closed="yes">Representative calls Obama a liar. NYT's response is light on why representative is incorrect and heavy on how representative has deep-seated psychological issues concerning black fellow being president. <vote poll=world954 closed="yes">The Bible Belt today - another priest convicted of pedophilia convicted pedophile becomes priest. <vote poll=world953 closed="yes">Oh dear. Billboard Bible verses upset fundamentalist homophobes who allege quote mining. <vote poll=world952 closed="yes">While Expelled and The Voyage That Shook the World are fine, Creation is just too controversial for the United States of Jesusland. <vote poll=world951 closed="yes"> New Hampshire judge says homeskoled child has to go to a real school. <vote poll=world950 closed="yes">Teabaggers hold a rally today in D.C. On a personal note thanks for ruining my biking plans today fellas. <vote poll=world949 closed="yes">Man prays for rescue from trapped lift, goes to church to give thanks... and gets killed by falling altar. <vote poll=world948 closed="yes">We've had a lot of fun recently with libidinous "family value" Republicans getting caught with their pants down. But this one got his estranged daughter drunk and then raped "had nonconsensual sexual intercourse" with her. During the campaign! <vote poll=world947 closed="yes">British PM Brown apologizes for the British Government's hideous treatment of Alan Turing that led to his prosecution, loss of security privileges (effectively shutting him out of much of his gov't work), chemical castration, and eventual suicide. <vote poll=world946 closed="yes">More "evidence" of intelligent design shot down by science. <vote poll=world945 closed="yes">The people at the Center for New Words are not helping to defeat the stereotype of the feminist with no sense of humor: The Washington Post features a comedy sketch video lampooning the Gates/Obama/Crowley beer-fest by associating prominent public figures with obscure beers. The association of Sarah Palin with "Arctic Devil" gets the Post pilloried by the CNW for (hold your breath) misogyny, utter contempt for women, racial insensitivity, cultural poisoning, and lack of accountability, the latter for not firing everyone associated with the video. <vote poll=world944 closed="yes">Old Fashioned Conservative Republican Family Values bolsters the career of yet another Conservative Republican. <vote poll=world943 closed="yes">Garrison Keillor, instrumental in the campaign to keep New Yorkers as far away from Minnesota as possible, has been hospitalized after a stroke. <vote poll=world942 closed="yes">The President of the USA telling children to work hard is indoctrination. Baptizing children without their parents' knowledge or consent? That's great! <vote poll=world941 closed="yes">With regard to the ongoing Darwinist conspiracy to control public education, Smith-Cotton High School in Sedalia, Missouri withdraws some T-shirts with the word "evolution" on them after parents complained. A teacher at the school said, "I don’t think evolution should be associated with our school." <vote poll=world940 closed="yes">Tortoise vs. Hare? No, it's Pigeon vs. Internet! And the pigeon wins. <vote poll=world939 closed="yes">Pendleton Heights High School in Indiana is one of the schools that refuses to show President Obama's return to school speech on 8 September. The students have decided not to take this sitting down by sitting down. <vote poll=world938 closed="yes">A husband-and-wife team of journalists get full use of their employers' bully pulpit to make a case that something can be done about the atrocities facing women in the Third World. Feminists show their solidarity by crucifying the pair for failing to whine enough about "pay inequity" and failing to bash the Republicans. <vote poll=world937 closed="yes">Virus hoaxes can be more dangerous than the real thing - But you have to admit, this is a quite clever exploitation of computer-illiterate users. <vote poll=world936 closed="yes">Depression's evolutionary roots <vote poll=world935 closed="yes">Turns out biological organisms are not the only ones who can evolve. I, for one, welcome our robot overlords...

<vote poll=world933 closed="yes">Newsweek story about a University of Texas study on the racist attitudes of very young children. The key words here are Texas and racist. <vote poll=world932 closed="yes">Terry Wogan is leaving the breakfast show! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! <vote poll=world931 closed="yes">What if every illegal drug was legal? <vote poll=world930 closed="yes"> AIDS is a mass murderer. I wonder what CP will make of this?