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RationalWiki:What is going on in the world?/0005
6
New radiation-using lifeforms evolve at Chernobyl
1
Two men facing stiff prison sentences for aiding tax protesters in a stand off that threatened violence against US Marshalls should probably keep from ranting in court right? Nope a true crank never says die! and winds up with a 20 year federal prison sentence at the age of 22. UPDATE: The Judge says he was planning on giving less time but "this defendant displays an intent to continue his conduct and endanger the community."
11
Blocked websites at a US military base: RealClimate (a global warming site), Al Franken's senate race site, and AirAmerica. Still working: Rush Limbaugh's site, Drudge Report, WorldNetDaily.
1
KBR and the Bush administration support the troops so much that they ignore reports of them getting electrocuted in the shower.
0
Yeah, right John McCain... Obama's exactly like Paris Hilton and Britney Spears... right... UPDATE: Paris Hilton reacts by announcing her candidacy for President! "So thanks for the endorsement, white-haired dude!"
3
1
HR5843 would decriminalize personal amounts of marijuana.
0
From the end of the Civil War, it took the House of Representatives 143 years to apologize for slavery and the Jim Crow laws that came after the war. Let's hope they don't take so long to deal with global warming.
1
The New York Times calls for expanded investigations into UFOs as part of the war on terror?
2
A series of tubes... carrying oil... to pay off Senator Ted Stevens.
5
Autism. Is it a serious psychological disorder requiring lifelong care, or is it just being a putz? Talk show host Michael Savage "reiterat[es] his long-standing concerns on public health issues."
-1
McCain gets a spot on his face biopsied--not the sort of press voters want to see...
2
"Have I done something to offend?", cries Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr's campaign manager, in an e-mail to supporters begging for money. Will the right wing's Ralph Nader fail to make it out of the starting gate?
1
Is the media manufacturing a close US Presidential race for ratings?.
1
Baylor president John Lilley was fired after his decision to override departmental recommendations and deny tenure to a large number of faculty. Most of his decisions were later overturned. The dispute is tightly linked to Baylor's identity as a evangelical Christian college, Lilley was attempting to move away from the label and apparently the board of regents wants to move back. William Dembski was quick to gloat.
0
Ron Paul nutcases in Nevada held their own convention to elect delegates to the national convention. When Republican party officials refused to recognize the convention and instead plan to appoint John McCain delegates Paul supporters sued. On Friday, July 25th, the judge dismissed the suit saying it was an intra-party conflict. Paul backers promise to fight on.
3
The Barack Obama story, as told in Biblespeak, DOUBLEPLUS LULZY!
2
Failure to ratify a UN convention in 1982 leaves the US at a disadvantage over Arctic oil claims. The Bush administration is trying to catch up. Any chance they might also ratify the Mine Ban Treaty, Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, Convention on Discrimination against Women, Convention on the Rights of the Child, International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, Kyoto Protocol, Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention and Draft Proposal and re-sign the Statute of the International Criminal Court?
1
In many countries around the world, college students get free tuition. Some even get paid a salary while in school. In America, some college students must use food stamps and receive groceries from charity food banks to keep from starving. Is that the sign of a great nation?
0
The National Radio Hall of Fame opens up its induction processes to online polls and after much clicking fundamentalist James Dobson gets a winning ticket.[1] The fact that Art Bell will be joining him is only fitting. Too bad Ron Paul didn't have a radio show or he would have smoked them all!
4
The dangers of being "white"in Tanzania.
6
As if Expelled wasn't enough, Ben Stein compares the Great Hopemonger with a really bad guy, Shame on you Ben Stein.
0
The recent drop in oil prices per barrel, McCain says that it's due to Bush's stance on offshore drilling. It has nothing to do with the U.S. economy in full-blown recession, or possibly flirting with depression. Remember, it's all in our heads.
0
In a show of solidarity with their friendly rival, Vanity Fair lampoons The New Yorker's previous controversial cover. Let's see what the media has to say about this!
0
The perils of fad detox diets. (And the advantages of having a well-paid-up liability insurance policy?)
0
"Modern war crimes are increasingly being tried." Furthermore, "Heads of state are no longer immune. General amnesties are no longer accepted unquestioned." Hmmm.
0
Even in Hollywood, quality suffers as the rich get richer while the less powerful struggle to get along.
0
A Jewish scholar has found what he believes to be proof that God is a s/he. That takes a bit off the homophobic case...
0
The U.K.'s Channel 4 is reprimanded for a biased documentary about global warming in which contributors were misled. Now where have we heard that before?
0
Newsweek's cover story (28 July 2008 issue): An in-depth essay about an assertive gay teen who was murdered on 12 February 2008.
0
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Monday released a proposal that allows any federal grant recipient to obstruct a woman's access to contraception by redefining many methods of contraception as abortion.
-1
The media's coverage of Barack Obama is snarkier but more abundant than its coverage of John McCain. So, naturally, some people think this is unfair to McCain.
3
Expelled to be re-released... if "re-released" means shown to groups who prepay in advance.
0
Alleged Bush assassination plot foiled; Cheney upset at missing the presidency.
1
Al Gore takes on the energy crisis and issues a challenge. Will the candidates (and the American people) listen?
0
Fundies want John McCain to talk more about his faith because "it's what our nation was founded on."
0
Michael Savage once again raises the bar for intelligent discourse.
0
Reuters headline: "U.S. still flunks health care test, report finds. Americans more likely to die of treatable illnesses despite high spending." (That's because we're so free and self-sufficient.)
1
Is McCain funny? Who cares? We just want him to shut the fuck up.
2
English football (soccer) club Manchester City hope to produce some sparkling performances in the coming 2008-09 season.
-1
Thanks to free trade agreements, America has outsourced most of its manufacturing jobs to the Third World. Even journalists have been outsourced. Sociologists believe that we now have a "service economy" where we mostly sell imported crap to each other. Surely, if this is so, you'd think that at least menial customer service jobs would be safe.
0
At last, the lighter side of the 2008 US Presidential Election.
1
0
Possibly in an attempt to make up for the debacle over the previous FISA bill, Congress overrides Bush's veto on a recent Medicare bill.
1
If you are a third-world despot, you can make a six-digit
bribe"donation" to Dubya's presidential library. In exchange, you might get to meet The Prince of Darkness or Condi. In exchange, they'll tell people that you aren't so bad. (At least, not when compared to Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot. No fooling.) Meanwhile, the terrorist watch list has passed one million names. Guess they forgot to make theirbribes"donations."0
In addition to flip-flopper and Dubya clone, McCain can now add hypocrite to his list of titles as he, an adoptive father, opposes adoption rights for gays.
3
It's official! Science and math classes are harder than the arts and humanities.
2
How to improve attendance at church weekend youth conference: have a teen gun giveaway!
0
Guess what. Bush covered something up. Surprise.
0
George W. Bush: self-declared "world's biggest polluter". He just doesn't care what anyone thinks anymore, does he?
0
Frankincense and Mirth: Is that psychoactive smoke wafting through the pews?
0
You know the U.S. economy is crap when the value of an American life drops by $1 million. How this became actual news is quite frightening.
0
The new reason to call poison control: Too much caffeine from energy drinks.
0
Has Osama bin Laden's desire to send the U.S. into a permanent economic decline succeeded? (Thanks for nothing, George.)
-1
3
Point:
PZ Myers angers Catholic demagogue Bill Donohue when he threatens a cracker. Donohue sets his dogs on Myers who then threaten to kill him because he is mean to the nice and gentle Catholics.Counterpoint:
PZ Myers displays his complete ignorance of 100 years' worth of anthropology and sociology by claiming the Catholic Eucharist is "just a cracker". Meanwhile, a 19-year old college student understands what the PhD and his horde of commenters don't.1
CNN's election center poll (below the pictures of Obama and McCain) defies statistics as it "does not have a sampling error."
1
Wow, that evil disagreeable Senate certainly caved fast. Add one more thing to the list of rights and freedoms Americans used to enjoy.
1
In Wisconsin, an old, obscure law forbids eloping across state lines to avoid certain marriage prohibitions if the couple intends to return to live in Wisconsin. The law was originally meant to prohibit underage and mixed-race marriages. Guess who the law is being used against now.
1
NSW Government passes laws to prevent people from annoying World Youth Day participants, as a result it is now happening.
2
Research casts new light on the diverse nature of 1st century BC Jewish beliefs, sparks debate over origins of Christianity.
3
The Department of Homeland Security wants to replace airline boarding passes with hospital-like ID bracelets. These bracelets would be equipped a chip with all your personal information. Oh, and these bracelets will also be equipped with a built-in Taser!
1
Today's American conservativism didn't start with Barry Goldwater in 1964. It is the coalescence of several small, obscure, mostly white racist Protestant movements that date back at least to the 1920s.
2
Believer-turned-Atheist US Soldier claims US military "has become a Christian organization", and is suing for religious discrimination.
1
How many Viagras, Oxys and underaged third-world hookers can one man buy with $400 million over the next eight years? We're about to find out.
1
A thinly veiled, steamy sex novel about Dubya and Pickles!
1
From The Progressive magazine: Farmers worldwide are growing more food, yet hunger is on the rise because of "A Shortage of Democracy, Not Food."
1
Proving that American politics has lost all semblance of sanity, a new poll shows McCain leading Obama in the much coveted "pet owners demographic". The more significant thing is that the pundits at Yahoo actually went through the trouble to make a national poll of pet owners.
1
World leaders, notably British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, spark outrage by having 6-course lunch and 8-course dinner at the G8 summit, where the international food crisis tops the agenda.
1
Former "red state" Montana is now "blue" and it's even significant.
1
Christine Comer, former Texas education official fired for forwarding an apparently biased pro-evolution e-mail, is set to sue the Texas Education Association.
1
Consumption of gasoline will (likely) drop for the first time in 17 years and may result in a new paradigm in American fuel consumption.
1
Sydney's sex workers prepare for Pope's visit. OK, they're really preparing for the increase in tourists coming to see the Pope, but that's still a great headline.
1
A new law in Texas requires every computer repair technician to obtain a private investigator's license - or face a fine of up to $4,000, or even spend a year in jail.
1
1
Princess Wijdan Al Hashemi and Aliki Moschis-Gauguet create a traveling art exhibition to erase U.S. stereotypes of Muslim women. No doubt the FBI are now busily at work trying to get them into Gitmo.
1
A so-called Christian news website called OneNewsNow.com ("Your News Right Now") has a zero-tolerance policy towards the word "gay." OneNewsNow uses automated software that replaces the word "gay" with the word "homosexual" in every news story. So, when athlete Tyson Gay ran the 100-meter in 9.68 seconds. . . .
1
The U.S. finally decides that Nelson Mandela is not a terrorist. Perhaps in 40 years we'll be told one or two people at Camp X-Ray aren't terrorists either.
3
Expelled makes a whopping $24,374 in its opening weekend in Canada. Like, all of Canada.
1
Citizen informant program rolled out in Colorado.
1
Obama states that he will continue some of Bush's faith-based programs, no doubt causing many of his supporters to become a little worried.
1
A Federal Appeals Court has ruled that South Dakota's Controversial abortion law is perfectly legal, stating that Planned Parenthood could not prove that forcing doctors to tell women "that the abortion will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being." and informing them that they have a right to continue a pregnancy, that abortion may cause women psychological harm and possibly thoughts of suicide is untruthful, misleading or irrelevant to the woman's decision. Rounding out the stupidity, the court found that the information required to be given is biological in nature, and Planned Parenthood did not show the information is ideological.
1
Robert Mugabe is sworn in as president after winning a fraudulent and illegal election.
1
McCain, the man who has flip-flopped several times on a number of issues, says that Obama's word cannot be trusted. Whatever you say, Johnny-boy.
1
Not only does the Federal Government want to record our phone calls and electronic messaging, they want to know when someone is contemplating suicide. (Play the video on this website.) If a suicidal person calls the federal government's hotline, they'll send the cops. The feds offer no guarantee that the call will be kept confidential.
1
Louisiana passes an anti-evolution "academic freedom" bill, allowing their teachers the academic freedom to violate the Constitution. On the bright side, now the Flat Earth Society and the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster can finally get their time in the science classroom!
7
Have no fear, exorcism is still legal in Texas
1
Mere hours after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of guns, the NRA is suing to overturn other gun bans in San Fransisco and Chicago
1
Happy birthday, Nelson Mandela! Here's wishing him a happy 90th and hoping for many more years of good work from him.
1
Breaking: There could be no ice at the North Pole this summer, according to polar scientists!
1
I can haz weapon of handgun in DC? Individual freedom protected in the land of the trigger-happy....
1
Despite opposition from the entire world, Robert Mugabe plans to continue with an illegal political event. Sound familiar? UPDATE: Some people believe that Mugabe wants to die in office, and that he doesn't care who gets killed in the process. Let's just hope that doesn't end up sounding familiar.
1
NBC settles a lawsuit resulting from a suicide caused by "To Catch a Predator."
1
The US Supreme Court has ruled against execution for child rape. Here to prove that pandering is universal, both Obama and Mccain have gone on the record disagreeing.
1
Any corporation that would hire a psychic would have to be run by crackpots. So if you call yourself an "intuitionist," you can charge $10,000 per month per company, and the public and the shareholders will never know.
1
The U.S. Justice Department: Lefties need not apply.
1
What would be the best thing for John McCain's candidacy? Another terrorist attack! (Look at the end of paragraph 4.)
1
On the 24 June broadcast of Focus On The Family, Dr. James Dobson will accuse Barack Obama of distorting the Bible and of having a "fruitcake interpretation" of the Constitution.
1
The apocalypse is coming. God has been arrested.
1
Conservative journalist David Freddoso (he of Swift Boat Veterans for Hating on John Kerry) is at it again with his plans for an anti-Obama book.
1
Do not miss your opportunity to join the public flogging of creationist Ken Ham!
1
The Ohio teacher who got in trouble for not removing a Bible from his desk may have a harder time explaining this one away - the school board confirmed he was burning crosses into his students' arms.
1
Try your hand at Intelligent Design with the Spore Creature Creator.
1
Sodertalje, Sweden has taken in more Iraqi refugees than the United States and Canada combined. And the Swedes are pretty disgusted about the situation.
2
In March, an 11-year-old girl in Wisconsin was allowed to die of a treatable form of diabetes. A few days later, a 15-month-old baby girl in Oregon was also allowed to die from a treatable condition. Both states had newly enacted child-endangerment laws targeted at faith-healing parents. On 17 June, the 16-year-old cousin of the Oregon girl -- whose parents attend the same faith-healing church -- died of a treatable bladder infection. (Initial news reports stated that as many as 60 members from the church were in the house praying when the boy died.) Unfortunately, there may be no charges in this case. The boy was two years older than the age of consent to refuse medical treatment. Ironically, a few hours before his death, his little cousin's parents were indicted for the death of their child.
1
The Associated Press is on track to set standards as to what bloggers can and can't quote.
1
A leading candidate for McCain's VP position "supports creationism as part of ‘the very best science’."
1
When the conservative evangelical supporter and biographer of Bush and DeLay writes a pro-Obama book, you can just hear the winds of change blowing.
1
Historians see little chance for John McCain this November. But this is like those "economists," right, who declared his gas tax holiday and support of the Bush tax cuts ineffective, troublesome and blatant pandering? He doesn't listen to them either...
1
See? Religion and evolution aren't incompatible.
1
Prayer saves? Oh no it doesn't!
1
Obama speaks on giving the middle class tax cuts, among other horrible things. The humanity!
1
Is M. Night Shyamalan's new movie The Happening Hollywood's first blockbuster to promote Intelligent Design?
1
Not really in the spirit of the section, but "God makes you thick", say boffins.
1
Texas GOP delegates turn their attention to the world's real problems: Nude statues in the National Museum of Art.
1
Not content with censoring television and movies, Brent Bozell has now turned his sights on another horrible evil of the world: freak dancing
1
If you're going to use "scared straight" tactics on teenagers, don't do this!
1
Guantanamo detainees have rights?! Uncanny!
1
Both foresight on Obama's part and a kick in the nuts to the Right, as he gears up to fight smear campaigns.
1
Give a billion monkeys a billion typewriters to pound on and eventually they'll produce all the works of Shakespeare. Give a few wingnuts access to the internet and eventually they'll devise Carbon Belch Day.
1
Could this proof of the mythical Unicorn? Nope, sorry.. just a little random mutation