RationalWiki:What is going on in the world?/October 2012

October 2012
Running out of adjectives to describe the GOP these days... Hey! Wanna go see the new Left Behind reboot next year? Would it influence your decision to know that it's being made by a secular Aussie production company which has replaced Kirk Cameron with Nicolas Cage? Yes, that Nicolas Cage! Obama and Romney demonstrate their jobs priorities: Obama's campaign baseball caps are made in America while Romney's are made in China. UPDATE: They now think the Romney Ryan hat is actually a knock off, so this could be inaccurate. Romney, you're doing a heck of a job! UPDATE: Michael 'Heckuva Job' Brown accused Obama of responding too quickly to Sandy. If you're a man and you want to breed, consider gettin' busy sooner rather than later. The Respect Party, apparently aiming to replace the moribund BNP as the biggest hive of crazy in British politics, has chosen a complete crank to contest the Manchester Central by-election. A survey asks random Americans what Obama's religion is. The results are somewhat surprising.

Most Americans willing to admit to a total stranger that they don't like Black people. Controversy over a proposed bust of Christopher Hitchens in London. Decisions, decisions. Feed 10 African children for a year or stump up £406 to watch the Rolling Stones?. The Saudi government bulldozes centuries of Islam's own history. But, hey, even Muslims like skyscrapers! Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute reveals that climate change may be affecting the evolution of certain tropical tree frogs. No shit! Faecal transplants used to combat C. difficile. James O'Keefe and company are at it again, committing election fraud to prove that election fraud is a problem: this time, a candidate's son goes down with the ship while O'Keefe takes footage from the life raft. God does not have a sense of humor: a research team demonstrates how the Rapa Nui (Easter Island) statues could have quite easily been put into place. America seems to have started dragging Canada down the intellectual drain. Witness the horror as Queens Jubilee medals, the same ones given to war heroes, are given to anti-choice activists as Conservative MP's compare them to the likes of MLK. Weep for the future... <vote poll=world5903 closed="yes">Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott wins Olympic Gold in Missing The Point: "If OSCE members want to learn more about our election processes so they can improve their own democratic systems, we welcome the opportunity to discuss the measures Texas has implemented to protect the integrity of elections" <vote poll=world5902 closed="yes">Pregnancy From Rape Is 'Something God Intended. Will the stupid never stop? <vote poll=world5901 closed="yes">Mozartina. <vote poll=world5900 closed="yes">Oh no! Our boy, Paul Ryan, was caught out in a fake photo-op at a soup kitchen?! How shall we react? By punishing the soup kitchen. <vote poll=world5899 closed="yes">Beluga Whale tells diver to "get out" of its tank...no, really... <vote poll=world5898 closed="yes">Supposedly "never seen before" hidden camera footage of insider Mormon ceremonies, including being admitted to the "Celestial Room'.  Your US Presidential candidate awaits you…. <vote poll=world5897 closed="yes">Can someone drag her down to Dumbfuckistan where she belongs? <vote poll=world5896 closed="yes">We currently cannot predict earthquakes, but when someone dies we need a scapegoat. <vote poll=world5895 closed="yes">Seralini's "GMO gives cancer to rats" study has attracted unprecedented condemnation in a joint statement of six French academies of science. In the comments, people smell a Monsanto conspiracy! <vote poll=world5894 closed="yes">Damnatione memoriam pro Lance Armstrong <vote poll=world5893 closed="yes">Here we go again... <vote poll=world5892 closed="yes">Divine judgement, delivered. <vote poll=world5891 closed="yes">The power of the (mis)-spoken word: In 2006, a Native American boy was being ravaged by flesh-eating bacteria. The boy was given a Life Flight helicopter ride to a major hospital where he was placed in a drug-induced coma and given several anti-bacterial treatments and the first of 29 reconstructive surgeries. The doctors were waiting for all their hard work to take effect when somebody at the hospital allegedly told the family that the only thing left for them to do was pray. So they did. Thanks to that, on October 21st the Catholic church -- looking to stem the tide of Native Americans returning to their old beliefs -- will canonize their first Native American saint. Of course, depending on which news source you consult, you might not know that he was ever in hospital, or that his "stunned" doctors had done all that hard work on him. <vote poll=world5890 closed="yes">This should be the #1 topic for the last debate: have Obama do the negotiating, or...Mr. London 2012 is going to suck, Cameron. <vote poll=world5889 closed="yes">September Morn, the first major truther movie since Loose Change, is in the works for 2013. <vote poll=world5888 closed="yes">The latest crusade of the Obama campaign: Romnesia awareness. <vote poll=world5887 closed="yes">Remember that attack on the American embassy in Libya? The CIA seems to have found the real culprit. <vote poll=world5886 closed="yes">Investors still jittery. Why shouldn't they be? We're only one shipment of cocaine away from the next crash. <vote poll=world5885 closed="yes">The GOP race to the bottom continues: Rep. Joe Walsh of Illinois declares that, thanks to "advances in science and technology", there's no need for abortion exceptions to save the life of the mother. <vote poll=world5884 closed="yes">BNP post Gay couple's address on Twitter. <vote poll=world5883 closed="yes">Nice try, motherfucker. <vote poll=world5882 closed="yes">If you came of age in the 70s or 80s, this may bring you down a bit. <vote poll=world5881 closed="yes">Does this count as irony? Evangelical author who "lived biblically" for a year -- including calling her husband "master" and camping out on the front lawn during her period -- has her book about the stunt rejected by one of the largest Christian bookstores in the US because she used the word "vagina" in it. <vote poll=world5880 closed="yes">Ireland sees a four-fold increase in the number of people who say they have no religion since 1991. <vote poll=world5879 closed="yes">Who are you, and what have you done to Ben Stein?! <vote poll=world5878 closed="yes">DOMA ruled unconstitutional again, this time in New York. <vote poll=world5877 closed="yes">Whoops! Looks like it was the Northern Ireland Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment who wanted the National Trust to push creationism "as a grant condition" for the Giant's Causeway exhibit. <vote poll=world5876 closed="yes">From NPR: It turns out Republicans hate The Black Guy more than they hate the The Mormon. <vote poll=world5875 closed="yes">In 1978, under pressure to stop looking like a bunch of racists, the president of the Mormon church had a divine revelation that black people were no longer cursed and could be admitted to the Mormon priesthood. Four weeks before the 2012 election, under pressure to shore up the evangelical base among Republican Party voters, Billy Graham met with Mitt Romney and seems to have had a similar revelation that Mormonism is not a cult after contending for all of his professional life that it is. (Still cults in Graham's world:  Unitarianism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Scientologists, "Spiritists" and the Unification Church.) <vote poll=world5874 closed="yes">A terrestrial-type exoplanet has been discovered orbiting around Alpha Centauri B (not Proxima Centauri, which is &alpha; Cen C), only 4 light years away from the Solar System.

<vote poll=world5872 closed="yes">Dinesh D'Souza, who speaks vocally against Obama, feminism, and same-sex marriage displays an interesting interpretation on the sanctity of marriage. UPDATE: D'Souza steps down from the presidency of The King's College. <vote poll=world5871 closed="yes">Remember the recent study about GM crops giving cancer to rats? Not only was it bogus - the authors also used tricks straight from the cranks' playbook to suppress criticism. <vote poll=world5870 closed="yes">So much for engaging with the peasants, Ryan. <vote poll=world5869 closed="yes">Sudden outbreak of common sense? <vote poll=world5868 closed="yes">Good Guy Anonymous. <vote poll=world5867 closed="yes">Give a big hand to Britain's latest anti-Islam outfit, the National Culturists! They're not racist, of course, they just happen to be very pally with racists. <vote poll=world5866 closed="yes">Rainbow design on milk carton? Gay propaganda, of course! <vote poll=world5865 closed="yes">Republicans throw Bush under a bus to compare his handling of Iraq to Obama's handling of Libya. <vote poll=world5864 closed="yes">Felix Baumgartner has just jumped from 128,000 ft. <vote poll=world5863 closed="yes">Evangelical Christian spends a year undercover as a gay man. (Note: As always, don't even look at the goddamn comments.) <vote poll=world5862 closed="yes">[http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/iraq-records-huge-rise-in-birth-defects-8210444.html International. Criminal. Court.] <vote poll=world5861 closed="yes">The Sun has no clue on how evolution works, but at least we have a pretty good idea of what its readers look like. <vote poll=world5860 closed="yes">"Egypt's liberals, Islamists clash, 110 reported injured" Cue wingnut cognitive dissonance. <vote poll=world5859 closed="yes">It doesn't matter who votes, it matters who counts the votes owns the companies that make the machines that count the votes <vote poll=world5858 closed="yes">Todd Akin again, this time on something else of which he's an expert: "There's no science behind evolution." <vote poll=world5857 closed="yes">The Romney campaign found scaremongering over Lyme disease. <vote poll=world5856 closed="yes">Another candidate for the craziest member of the GOP! Cliff Russell of Virginia offers some "words of wisdom": "I'll tell you what really need to do with these illegitimate families on welfare – give all the kids up for adoption and execute the parents." He says this while organizing support for Mitt Romney. <vote poll=world5855 closed="yes">Eleven former teammates of Lance Armstrong testified that he was part of a "sophisticated doping conspiracy." Update: "The evidence...confirms the disappointing truth about the deceptive activities of the USPS Team, a team that received tens of millions of American taxpayer dollars in funding." <vote poll=world5854 closed="yes">Another family values candidate in hot water: Tea Party-backed pro-life congressman Scott DesJarlais pressured his mistress to get an abortion. <vote poll=world5853 closed="yes">The Pakistani Taliban nearly kill a feminist activist <vote poll=world5852 closed="yes">Pew survey: The "Nones" are still on the rise in the US

<vote poll=world5850 closed="yes">Update to WIGO about Hubbard and Fuqua in Arkansas: GOP pulls funding for those candidates, along with Loy Mauch who previously called Abraham Lincoln a war criminal and asserted (correctly) that "Jesus Christ did condone slavery". <vote poll=world5849 closed="yes">Say what you will about Julia Gillard, but watch her give a public spanking to Tony Abbott. <vote poll=world5848 closed="yes">Introducing the two latest contestants in the GOP's balls-to-the-wall batshit crazy contest -- state representative Jon Hubbard and candidate Charlie Fuqua, both of Arkansas. Hubbard has trotted out the old white-hood canard that slavery was good for the slaves, while Fuqua advocates in his book God's Law that all Muslims should be expelled from the US. Not satisfied with a tie, Fuqua has now gone the extra distance by advocating the death penalty for rebellious children.  Take that, Todd Akin!! <vote poll=world5847 closed="yes">Cool cocktails are really not good for you. <vote poll=world5846 closed="yes">Einstein's real thoughts on God and the Bible, now available on eBay for $3m. <vote poll=world5845 closed="yes">Muslims get a Call of Duty map temporarily removed for featuring a quote from the Koran on a picture frame <vote poll=world5844 closed="yes">Explains some UFOs. Here's the archive record. Cue the UFO/Area 51 conspiracy theorists! <vote poll=world5843 closed="yes">The Dragon capsule is successfully launched and on its way to the International Space Station. SpaceX say that the "commercial era of space travel is about to begin". <vote poll=world5842 closed="yes">The shiny new UK Health Secretary doesn't just support homeopathy, he also wants to slash the legal abortion limit in half, too - a position described by the Guardian as "a draconian change to terminations, unlikely to become law; unsupported by all the health professional organisations, deeply unpopular with many women." <vote poll=world5841 closed="yes">Who says an arts degree doesn't lead to a real job? <vote poll=world5840 closed="yes">So it turns out that "Gangnam Style" actually has artistic and social substance.

<vote poll=world5838 closed="yes">Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) condemns evolution and the Big Bang as "lies straight from the pit of hell." Of course he's on the House science committee. <vote poll=world5837 closed="yes">Sorry Rushbo, meet the cold, hard punch of reality. <vote poll=world5836 closed="yes">US Unemployment rate down to 7.8%. UPDATE: GOP conspiracy nuts predictably, and entertainingly, cry fix. <vote poll=world5835 closed="yes">Oh, for fuck's sake... <vote poll=world5834 closed="yes">Turkey retaliates against Syria with military force. Who knows whether or not NATO will get involved. Cue the fun. <vote poll=world5833 closed="yes">Woo magazine What Doctors Don't Tell You are threatening Simon Singh with legal action. WDDTY is an organisation that laments the inconvenience of the Cancer Act. Skeptics around Britain put the popcorn on. <vote poll=world5832 closed="yes">Missouri is redefining the crazification factor. <vote poll=world5831 closed="yes">Jack Wu of the Westboro Baptist Church is after a place on the Kansas Board of Education, to stop the state “preparing its students to be liars, crooks, thieves, murderers, and perverts.” <vote poll=world5830 closed="yes">God missing from the campaign trail. An unintended consequence of evangelical voters, perhaps? Since neither candidate is a shrieking fundie, they don't want to bring up religion? <vote poll=world5829 closed="yes">IKEA's Saudi version of its website has identical pictures to editions for other countries - with one exception.