RationalWiki:What is going on in the world?/June 2013

June 2013
Last week: Knock-knock.This week: Who's there? use of social media. US policymakers baffled by support for extending the obesity epidemic. In the wake of the landmark SCOTUS decisions, a reminder that LGBT folks stillface significant hatred. Millions of Egyptians take to the streets against the Muslim Brotherhood, two years after the ousting of Hosni Mubarak. Update:Now considered "the biggest protest in Egypt's history." Another tick off the list of 'Reasons why the World Hates the United States.' Predictably, Prop 8 sore losers are sore losers. UPDATE: The Prop 8 supporters obviously didn't read the two key sentences in the decision, as written by Chief Justice Roberts -- "We have never before upheld the standing of a private party to defend the constitutionality of a state statute when state officials have chosen not to. We decline to do so for the first time here." So it shouldn't be a big surprise that they got a quick "nope" in reply. Freedom of religion just turned into a pissing contest Six planets found to be orbiting Gliese 667C, including three "super earths" that are within the habitable zone of the star. IRL Wallhack to you by MIT through WiFi Vision. First known mole in the WikiLeaks who leaks info to the FBI. Threesome in IVF may be available in a health care facility near you in the UK, soon. World record-breaking heat wave expected in the western US. The public healthcare budget in Edinburgh and the Lothians in Scotland just got better by a quarter of a million quid a year as NHS Lothian has its budget for homeopathy in favour of actual effective medical treatment. Last week, Mitch McConnell said that a proposed constitutional amendment overturning the Citizens United decision was "absurd." So, what will he say about another proposed amendmentthat would make DOMA a part of the U.S. Constitution?

Regarding the Texas state senator who filibustered the abortion bill: The GOP majority tried togerrymander her district out of existence in 2011, but she successfully sued to have her district restored under Section 5 of the Voters Rights Act, a section that SCOTUS just struck down. Correction: Although the above news story implies that SCOTUS struck down Section 5 of the VRA, [http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/25/us-usa-court-voting-idUSBRE95O0TU20130625 they actually struck down Section 4. However, because Section 4 provides many of the legal definitions of the VRA, Section 5 is now dormant. Section 5 can be reactivated if a new, constitutionally acceptable version of Section 4 is implemented.] However, withthe current Congress, that won't happen in the near future. Bitcoin: Not even useful for buying drugs with anymore. Pam Geller and the JihadWatch guy denied entry to the UK.EDL is not amused, bawww. DOMA officially struck down by SCOTUS, declared unconstitutional as a violation of the Fifth Amendment. The court case, U.S. v. Windsor, was over the estate tax, claiming discrimination against a lesbian widow on basis of sex. Meanwhile,teabaggers' heads explode. ADDITIONAL GAYNESS: No decision on Prop 8 ruling,lower court ruling upheld, same sex marriage legal inCalifornia. Heisenberg's uncertainty principle finally gets formal proof. Vladimir Putin spoils the latest round of Where In The World Is Edward Snowden.He's in the transit area of a Moscow airport, and Putin has vowed that Russia will not extradite him to the US. While everyone feigns shock in response to the US/Syrian rebels deal, this woman in the Parliament of Irelandnails it. In God's One True Land, heathen Senator Wendy Davis is attempting tofilibuster a stupidly extreme anti-abortion bill She needs to keep speaking until 12 tonight. Best of luck. Update:Unknown if it passed in time. UPDATE II: After hours-long FUBAR and multiple media organizations reporting the opposite,confirmation that Senate Bill 5 did not reach the midnight deadline. She did it! SCOTUS Clusterfuck 2013 (Part #2): 5-4 decision (conservative majority) invalidates a crucial portion of the Voting Rights Act, and permits (unless Congress intervenes) The South a carte blanche to gerrymander on race and pass voter ID laws.(More details) Update: [http://projects.nytimes.com/live-dashboard/2013-06-25-supreme-court#sha=57a3f773a Texas is already going ahead. Fucking cunts.] And there goes the IRS scandal. (Obligatory) They can talk, and now they can do mathematics. First up in SCOTUS Clusterfuck 2013: Affirmative Action case sent back to a lower court. (Also, Clarence Thomas continues to be an asshole -Here's why.) Silvio Berlusconi sentenced to 7 years for having sex with an underage prostitute. Nelson Mandela in critical condition. See what happens when you treat whistleblowers like shit? Tory rebels: "Damn, we didn't get a majority in the last election. I know, let's introducea raft of bills that show how right-wing we can be! That'll work!" If Obama does manage to redeem himself in the eyes of the left, this is how it's going to happen. Not content to see the Catholics have all the fun, a Sydneyrabbi in charge of a local yeshiva says the police shouldn't investigate an alleged paedophile who taught there because that would "open a can of worms." Besides, he claims that the boys (one of whom was 11 at the time) may have consented to having sex. If the Obamacare clusterfuck was enough for everyone last year, it's going to be even worse next week:The Supreme Court has to decide on DOMA, Prop 8, Affirmative Action and the Voting Rights Act. John Stossel pulls a stopped clock and shuts down an anti-video game commentator. Another triumph for Christian education. Buzz wants a colony on Mars. can excuse me for using the n-word because I lived in the Jim Crow era. Update: Food Network:No, actually, we really can't. Right on cue: Here come the racist white knights on Food Network's Facebook page. The government wants to spy on you precisely because you want your privacy. Act of god? Can't (s)he even look after her own stuff? (You'll need to xlate from French) Or trust Google. A global disgrace. Now that Exodus International has shut down and has offered a blanket apology to the LGBT community, will they offer individual apologies to their former clients/victims? They might start with the former client who was told by one of their acolytes that his epileptic son died because he (the father) is gay. Government-sanctioned massive surveillance programs spread to India. Republican "family values" Senate candidate arrested for child molestation. In a sudden outbreak of common sense, Exodus Internationalcloses up shop, apologizes to the LGBT community for being a bunch of sanctimonious, holier-than-thou assholes. A bad day at the Daily Fail as they have to pay out £125,000 to 'psychic' Sally Morgan over claims that she used an earpiece on stage. (Doubtless this will be seen as validation ofbullshit) The British Girl Scouts Guides' pledge: The queen stays while God and country get the heave-ho. Autism and vaccines? No. [http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2013/06/air-pollution-diesel-metals-autism Autism and diesel/metal particulate air pollution? Maybe.]

HPV infections have dropped dramatically in the US since the broad administration of the HPV vaccine, cutting infections by half in four years. Party of No is confused as to what to say. I thought you had effing retired from politics! The latest RINO, Lisa Murkowski. North Korea has blasted claims from defectors that supreme leader Kim Jong-un gave out copies of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf to officials on his birthday. North Korea denounced the defectors as "human scum" and threatened to kill them. Meet the new Republican superstar, Louisiana State Senator Elbert Guillory. Guillory just switched parties. Why? He thinks Democrats are the real racists and the Republicans are supportive of blacks in part because Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglas were Republicans over 100 years ago. Apparently someone's never heard of the Southern Strategy or the red states' new voter registration laws.... Google:  Fuck you, FISA gag order. Meet Rep. Michael Burgess, the congressman representing the area of Texas north of Fort Worth, and today's candidate for Republican Grand Wizard of What-the-Fuckery. During a committee meeting he made a statement on video that abortions shouldn't be limited to 20 weeks (as the current GOP bill proposes) but to 15 or 16 weeks because -- brace yourselves! -- little boy fetuses are shown on sonograms with their hands between their legs, pleasuring themselves. Here cometh the tax man for your Bitcoins and World of Warcraft treasures. The end of the very beginning of the Internet. Start chilling the champagne, but don't defrost the steaks yet. Scientists believethey have discovered how cancer spreads through the body, and it's expected that it should be relatively easy to halt.

Edward Snowden granted the Guardian a Q&A session. Snowden: "All I can say right now is the US Government is not going to be able to cover this up by jailing or murdering me. Truth is coming, and it cannot be stopped." RW does not offer investment advice, but perhaps you might wish to invest in popcorn futures. Why do people use Microsoft Windows again? A Houston area psychic has been ordered to pay $6.8 million for accusing a couple of having a mass grave filled with dismembered bodies in their backyard. (She called the police when she found out that two of her psychic friends were having similar visions.) People seeking U.S. citizenship must promise that they will take up arms to defend the country. Conscientious objectors may bypass this by submitting a letter from the elders of their church outlining the religious reasons for their pacifism. So if you're a 64-year-old atheist and pacifist who has spent the last three decades teaching illiterate Americans to read, screw you! Muslim cleric in Egypt sentenced for burning a Bible. In other news, the heads of Islamophobes everywhere have exploded Ghostbuster horrified by what he saw. In other news, Iran had an election, wherein the least conservative candidate won! And here is where it's got to, allegedly: "Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat, disclosed this week that during a secret briefing to members of Congress, he was told that the contents of a phone call could be accessed 'simply based on an analyst deciding that.'" Senators were invited to a classified briefing about the NSA's snooping.Most opted to go home for the weekend instead. This kind of thing is exactly how we got here in the first place, guys. We have flying bikes! Not WIGO-worthy: 15-year-old is bullied at a private Christian school in NY state, leaves from the harrassment. WIGO material: The bully was the principal and it was because the student was Canadian. Sorry sir, the Sale of Goods Act (1979) does not apply to prostitutes and even if it did then it does not warrant an emergency call. Oh, and by the way sir, you do realise that soliciting for sex is a crime? If the people behind this lawsuit get their way, soon we'll no longer have to pay royalities to perform "Happy Birthday to You". Stephen Harper faces trouble in his caucus...from Conservatives even further to the right. Occasionally, a multi-billion dollar industry like big pharma will try to do something so obviously morally indefensible that even the Roberts Court can find unanimity against them. I.e.,human genes cannot be patented. The Southern Baptists don't hate Gay scouts, they justdon't want them or the people that let them in to be scouts. A Christian university in Nebraska has expelled a student in her final semester for being alesbian. Okay, so she can just transfer to another college to complete her degree, right? Not so fast. Because she breached the university's morality clause, they are requiring her to repay $6300, because they revoked her scholarship. Here comes the casualties afterIreland capitulated a year ago. Perhaps now musicians will get paid for their efforts? 60,000 Japanese take to the streets to protest their government's plans to restart the nuclear reactors. RationalWiki predicts a backslide into the dark ages, dogs and cats living in harmony, babies aborting other babies, etc., because has stopped trying to limit access to morning-after contraceptives. Pro-life values? 13-year-old rape victim decides to keep the baby.Still gets slut-shamed by her redneck community.

"I never produced them for public distribution, I swear!" Russia is preparing to ban offending the religious and giving information about homosexuality to minors. Because this can only end well, right? Are you or a loved one on the Pill? Read this. So far this year, toddlers (with guns) killed more Americans than terrorists did. For 12 years they've advocated for mass state surveillance, denying Miranda rights, illegal detainee camps, jailing leakers, torture, racial profiling, and even hanging out with Neo-Nazis. But for this short period of time, they areMurica's Great Defenders of Liberty.™ 222,222,222.22. The NFL's Jesus is back (and patriotic). The author of The Exorcist wants to sue his alma mater (Georgetown University) because he says that their mother sucks cock in hell they aren't Catholic enough. Here's why double-checking math calculations is important. Due to one misplaced decimal point, a newSpanish submarine may sink because it's 70 tons too heavy. New study shows how comets impacting earth may have spurred the development of prebiotic molecules. Nick Griffin never misses an opportunity to show why he's a pus-filled bubo on the face of humanity. Spanish village solves unemployment problem with the C-word(no, not that one, this one.) If there ever was any doubt that gender equality can benefit men too, here is conclusive proof. Today's "toddlers getting ahold of guns" shooting tragedy is brought to you by Arizona, where afour-year-old accidentally shot his father to death while they visited a friend after the boy found an unsecured, loaded gun in the living room. Rape? You on a football team? One to two years. [http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/06/kyanonymous-fbi-steubenville-raid-anonymous Hacking? Part of Anonymous? Ten years if not more.] Obama: Hi Xi! Xi: Oh, hey...about that... Never mind being fired, it's possible someone's going to be killed over these leaks. The Guardian reportsUK intelligence services have been actively participating in the NSA's PRISM dragnet. 5 Dead in shooting spree at Santa Monica College.

A Reagan appointee to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals -- who was also one of the judges on Dubya's short list for the Supreme Court -- is facing a judicial-misconduct complaint over allegations that she made “astonishingly and flagrantly biased” statements against minority groups and people with mental disabilities. (One of several examples:  The death penalty provides a positive service for the condemned because they are more likely to make peace with God immediately before being executed.) After staunchly defending the sanctity of traditional family by banning gay everything, Putin is gettingdivorced. Now the Amish are being fracked too. In Texas, you can murder a hooker who takes your money but won't have sex with you,as long as you do it at night. Updateno, it wasn't like that at all first rule of Hunger Club is... Everyone, meet the world's oldest known tumor. And the hits keep on coming for the NSA: Meet PRISM. Update: And making anew toy to make that more efficient. Because the US government refuses to release them, a crowdfunded project isreleasing the court transcripts in Bradley Manning's trial, daily.

The US House of Representatives demands DHS explain itself. It only took Congress 11 years and 9 months to stop letting fear cloud its judgment. (A better explanation.) Another Tea Party darling to succumb to RINO-hood after declaring her agreement withObamacare on fiscally-responsible and moral grounds in 3...2...1... The Guardian reports that the NSA has been getting comprehensive call records of all Verizon customers' calls since April 25th, and they even published the secret court order, gag order included. (Anyone still indifferent about Bush v. Gore?) Update:The Senate's known this has been going on since 2007. Includes remark that no citizens have complained about this secret program. The intelligence communitylied to Congress about collecting domestic info, however. New Zealand city abandons fluoridation against wishes of a "binding referendum" and to the general dismay of the medical and dental establishment. Maybe this will kick-start a pro-teeth backlash against the nuts? Al Qusair falls to Assad. Apparently some blokes who like EDL also like FIRE! UKIP, have fun in 2015. Call the Whambulance! An anti-abortion activist gets upset when theTwitterverse hijacks "his" #ExposePP hashtag to deliver reasonable truths about Planned Parenthood, then claims it was successful anyway. In America they send you ricin. In France they send you... Why China needs unions.

How do you top having your children removed from your custody because you named them after (in)famous Nazis?You turn up at a custody hearing in a Nazi uniform of course! Megyn Kelly, to, essentially, RINO-hood. BNP and EDL versus anti-hate demonstrators and badgers:badgers win. TGIF just gets a whole new meaning. Someone was *ahem* improving relations at 10 Downing Street. America's firstpublic monument to atheism. Some LGBT rights advocates pull support for Democratic Party followinglack of democratic support for equality in immigration reform and federal employment.

got rid of how many demons, Father? Illinois' gay marriage bill dies on the table is held over until after the summer recess. Maybe the Sochi 2014 organizing committee should think about hiring Mitt Romney, after all he has experience with this kind of stuff and could use something to do with his free time. Massive "Occupy"-style protests have begun against the Turkish government. (It appears the has flirted too much with the fundies.)