RationalWiki:What is going on in the world?/February 2011
February 2011[edit]
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22 |
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6 |
Buy a genetically modified seed from the Monsanto Company, get a perpetual covenant slapped on your farm. |
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10 |
Harry Reid, in an apparent attempt to distract the Nevada Legislature from a budget-crisis, comes out of left field and gets all morally outraged about Nevada's whorehouses. |
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-8 |
It would appear that a significant number of atheists share C.S. Lewis's sentiment and are very angry with God for not existing. |
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15 |
Anti-gay protester arrested for... ahem... pleasuring himself in public while watching children. |
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-17 |
Publicly funded legal aid defends those who may not deserve a defence. |
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8 |
Homeless? One Conservative council knows how to deal with that problem. |
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11 |
Healthy christian wholesome family values are alive and well in Sweden. |
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11 |
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4 |
A new Gallup poll finds that considerably more Americans self-identify as "conservative" than "liberal". |
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25 |
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10 |
How bad are America's trade policies with China? Tomorrow (Feb. 25), an Oregon paper mill that specializes in recycling paper will cease operation because Chinese paper mills outbid them for waste paper, ship the waste to China, recycle it into various products (including bags and placemats for McDonalds® "restaurants"), then ship the recycled products back to America and sell these products for less than American paper mills can. This is sadly ironic because it's likely that some of the mill's workers will end up selling Big Macs® and Happy Meals®. |
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13 |
"King of the Birthers" fires the first salvo in the battle as to who can look the more stupid come 2012. |
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9 |
Girls! Want to that ape that catwalk look? Better get a sex-change then. |
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10 |
Science is ... pretty. |
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19 |
Couldn't happen to a nicer guy: Indiana's Dep AG loses job, for advocating the use of live ammo on WI protesters. |
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15 |
David Barton: "Christians must take control of the culture and media so that "guys that have a secular viewpoint cannot survive," because Christians will "chop that kind of news off." |
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9 |
Shorter Rick Santorum: Bring back the Crusades! |
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8 |
It won't get far (damnit) but charging the Pope with Crimes Against Humanity seems like a good idea. |
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11 |
The Yes Men do it again. Thinking he's speaking to David Koch, Wisconsin Governor Walker says, "This is our moment, this is our time to change the course of history," in between accepting a trip "out to Cali and really [have] a good time." |
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15 |
An opinion poll in the US shows union-busting is opposed by 61% of the population and supported by 33%. Fox news takes these figures and reverses them - quite by accident, of course... |
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1 |
Breaking news: |
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16 |
Ha! Don't these leftist, liberal owls realise there's no such thing as global warming? |
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9 |
New study: Ecstacy doesn't wreck the mind. You still look silly though, gurning and asking for back-rubs. |
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1 |
"I was blind but now can see." A miracle without divine intervention. |
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8 |
Anonymous takes on Westboro Baptist "Church". UPDATE: The Threat is a Lie. It seems WBC faked the whole thing to get publicity. |
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16 |
People throughout the United States and the rest of the world, including China and Egypt, are sending pizza to the protesters in Wisconsin. |
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8 |
The BHA urge the British to just say no |
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8 |
Global Warming? Relax! It's good for you! |
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10 |
Sarah Palin's Presidential aspirations are now only discussed as a joke as one of her most trusted advisors spills the beans behind the scenes in a tell-all book. |
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13 |
The people of Libya, Yemen and Bahrain take their cue from Algeria and Egypt. Sadly, these countries' dictators decide to play hard ball. |
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9 |
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3 |
Remember the Republicans' recent attempts to redefine |
   | 22 | Speaker Boehner threatens a Newt Gingrich style budget temper tantrum |
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8 |
Barack Obama meeting with Steve Jobs, Eric Schmidt, and Mark Zuckerberg but what will they talk about? |
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26 |
Palin refudiates her own 2007 statement on being pro-breastfeeding after Michelle Obama comes out as pro-breastfeeding. |
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12 |
Forget "man bites dog." Try "angry homeowner forecloses on bank." |
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28 |
Missouri state Senator Jane Cunningham has introduced a bill to eliminate the prohibition of employing children under 14. She states this will cultivate a work ethic in young people, and says to responds to criticism saying that they still can't work in dangerous jobs, like coal mines, with animals, with blades or involving dangerous stunts. |
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17 |
Slow news day? Make some up! |
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21 |
GOP state representative Mike Beard thinks coal mining should resume in the Land of 10,000 Lakes because god will provide unlimited natural resources. Beard told MinnPost. "We are not going to run out of anything." Apparently he doesn't understand that just covering up the mine and praying doesn't make god zap new resources where the old ones were. |
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23 |
Inconsiderate jerk erects 24 foot tall, illuminated, cross on his front lawn and is told to take it down. It's an attack on Christianity! |
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23 |
Guy Who Made Up WMD Story For Iraq Invasion Admits He Made It Up. "Maybe I was right, maybe I was not right," said Curveball. "They gave me this chance. I had the chance to fabricate something to topple the regime." |
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16 |
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9 |
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15 |
Global warming got you down? No problem, just repeal greenhouse gases! |
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39 |
A Republican-backed legislation put forward in South Dakota shows just how far out of touch with reality pro-lifers are by attempting to legalize any member of a woman's immediate family justifiably murdering her abortion provider in "self defense of the fetus". |
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7 |
In the West, if you want to learn a language, there's an evening class for it. In India, there's a deity for it. |
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12 |
In the wake of the 2007 financial meltdown of the US, the very centre of the US capitalist machine falls to foreign ownership. |
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13 |
American Journalism is Awesome: The editor-in-chief of News Corp's new iPad news thing The Daily declares in memo to staff, "Egypt is over - time for us to get focused on covering America. We need to get out there and start finding more compelling stories from around the country...Find me something new, different, exclusive and awesome. Find me the oldest dog in America, or the richest man in South Dakota." |
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Who controls the English language -- corporations or the people? A chain of Iowa convenience stores is suing the Subway sandwich chain over the free and fair use of the word |
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4 |
After day one of the battle of man vs. machine, so far a draw. Update: Machine won. |
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Well, at least the Yanks aren't the only ones ignorant about science. 32% of Russians believe the sun revolves around the Earth. |
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13 |
A South African supporter of Robert Mugabe is indiscreet enough as to sing a song entitled "SHOOT THE BOER!" Boers get all offended and sue him. Now the band U2 have dipped a toe in the waters by waxing all gooey about childhoods spent singing IRA songs. UPDATE: Seems Bono didn't really say he thought shooting Boers was a good idea. |
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The likes of Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh have been repeating the "Obama is a Red" shtick one too many times, and are going the right way to crash and burn. |
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12 |
A new wrinkle in the prosecution of Catholic priest child sexual abuse scandals. The Philadelphia district attorney (a Catholic) is taking a new approach. He has charged Monsignor William Lynn -- who was assigned by the local cardinal to |
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8 |
More financial fraud being uncovered. NY Mets owners and JP Morgan bankers accused of being complicit in Madoff's Ponzi scheme. The SEC has also filed a new suit against Indy-Mac execs for cooking the books. |
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Just another Catholic child molestation case: this Rev. was appointed to an archdiocesan sexual abuse advisory board, perhaps because he was an authority on the subject? At the time officials at both his order and the archdiocese knew that he admitted his sex addiction caused him to molest little girls. |
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21 |
Now you see it...now you don't! Mitt Romney, creator of an Obama-style healthcare system in Massachusetts, deletes all mention of it from the paperback edition of his autobiography. |
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10 |
A humpback whale with scoliosis??? (A photo is available here.) |
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"We felt it was unfair for (people) who maintained healthy lifestyles to have to subsidize those who do not." Surprisingly, this is not a Tea Party man squawking about "ObamaCare," but the director of a hospital. |
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Two guys meet at "ex-gay therapy" group, fall in love, get married. |
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44 |
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3 |
Why do men lack emotional intelligence? It's the testosterone (partly). |
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12 |
Regarding a new book about sex and the Bible the author says: “I’m tired of watching those who are supposed to care about the Bible reduce its stories and teachings to slogans.” |
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5 |
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14 |
Man has heart attack, crashes car in hospital parking garage about 40 meters from emergency room entrance. Police officers emerging from the hospital respond to the situation. They notify the ER staff, only to be told to call an ambulance. |
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6 |
In the old days, to make free long distance calls, you used a Cap'n Crunch whistle; now there's an iPhone app for it. |
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17 |
At CPAC, Ron Paul supporters yell "War criminal!" at Dick Cheney. |
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20 |
Mississippi contemplates a 'Confederacy anniversary' license plate honoring the leader of the KKK. |
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7 |
Being hot does not exempt you from angering your country's tribal leaders. |
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17 |
The Crips, the Bloods, and the Compton Gentlemen's First XI. |
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10 |
Seven-year-old buys £69,999 Harrier jump-jet on eBay. Update : eBay withdraws item as it contravenes their "knives and weapons policy". |
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13 |
Oh dear, the Republicans can't organize a piss-up in a brewery either, as they lose yet another vote that should have been a cakewalk for them. |
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21 |
WikiLeaks publishes cables from U.S. embassy claiming that Saudi Arabia is overstating the amount of its oil reserves by about 40 percent (300 billion barrels). |
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22 |
I'm an upstanding member of a political party that's fully committed to family values. So... fancy an extra-marital affair? Update: He's resigning from Congress. |
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24 |
Gabrielle Giffords is talking. (She asked for toast with her breakfast.) |
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13 |
Hate your job? Hate not having a job? Try this for a living and feel thankful. |
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12 |
Prince Charles: climate skeptics "corrosive" |
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17 |
Dept. of Poetic Justice: Man dies after being stabbed at a cock-fight... by a cock. |
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29 |
Read it and weep. 72% of US Biology teachers fail to describe straightforwardly the evidence for evolution and explain the ways in which it is a unifying theme in all of biology. |
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13 |
Broken the 6th Commandment? There's an app for that! |
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4 |
An anti-vaccination fest is about to begin; swine flu vaccine causes narcolepsy. |
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0 |
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19 |
George W. Bush avoids potential arrest by skipping a talk he was to give in Switzerland. |
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10 |
Bad timing dept: On the day the English Defence League hold a march in Luton (with several euronazis in attendance), David Cameron declares multiculturalism to have failed. |
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19 |
Tea Partiers want a "Christian conservative" as speaker of the Texas House of Representatives; not the Jew who is there now. |
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17 |
Mark Kelly, Gabrielle Giffords' husband, will command the final Space Shuttle mission. |
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"The Conspiracy Channel": A Russian propaganda station is able to make the U.S. look bad just by reporting the news about, e.g., birthers and truthers. |
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British Advertising Standards Authority: A doctor of 'Essential Oils' or 'Natural Toiletries' is 'a Scientist'. What next? Psychics? |
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Immigration no, but something is allowed across the border: Texas scrounges power from Mexico. |
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Calling all trolls! Fox News issues a public cattle call for global warming denialists. More on this here and here. |
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A Bombay court has ruled that Astrology is a 'time tested science more than 4000 years old' |
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22 |
UK spent foreign aid money to bring Joe Ratzenberger for a visit. |
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Egyptian Christians are protecting Muslims while they're at prayer. |
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12 |
So, you thought Katrina was big? She's just a pussy compared to Yasi |
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10 |
Vodafone claims that the Egyptian government hijacked their network to send pro-Mubarak SMS messages. |
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11 |
After a UK pub landlady was convicted for not using Sky to show football matches European Union legal advice now says that this was wrong. |
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7 |
A collection of photographs from Cyclone Yasi which beat up the Far North Queensland (Australia) coast last night. A landfall of 200km north or south could have been a lot worse. |
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We may soon be spared those nude TSA scanner photos of Michele Bachmann. The TSA has just unveiled a new security scanner that indicates suspicious materials on a generic outline of the person being scanned. (Video included.) |
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WikiLeaks is nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize by Norwegian Politician Snorre Valen. |
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17 |
South Dakota law makers: We are going to require South Dakotans to buy guns to make a point about how unconstitutional is ObamaCare. Reality: It is Constitutional for a state to require everyone to buy guns; the question with ObamaCare is federal government powers (not state); and George Washington signed the 1792 Militia Act mandating citizens purchase weapons and ammunition. Update: SD law's proponent: "I was not aware of that...I'm not a history major, though" |
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29 |
Fox News ratings way down, Glenn Beck especially. |
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10 |
Text generators could make journalists redundant. Where've I heard that before? |
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22 |
Atheists raise over $3 million to help alleviate poverty. |
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16 |
Michele Bachmann is worried that if she goes through an airport full-body scanner, naked pictures of her will show up on the Internet. Bachmann thinks that this question is "on everybody's mind." |
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Google & Twitter set up a voice-to-tweet service for Egyptians. Suck on that, Mubarak. |
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Egyptian police forces loyal to Mubarak were some of the looters, in order to create the appearance that only Mubarak can guarantee stability. |
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George W. Bush's daughter, Barbara, backs same-sex marriage |