August 2010
92 posts
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Freedom of religion does not mean tolerance for... →
Our enemy is authentic Islam and our enemies are devout Muslims who actually believe in their holy scripture and are determined to follow the sacred teachings of their god.
This is a really great read.
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“Try never mentioning your spouse, your family, your home, your girlfriend or...”
– Andrew Sullivan, responding to Rich Lowry who said it’s no big deal to live hiding one’s sexual orientation. (via canisfamiliaris, blackenedbutterfly) (via cardicloser)
Parents, do you know what these texts mean? →
Do you know what this means: %*@:-( ?
Or this: ~~#ZZZZZZ ?
If the answers are no, you’re not a teenager who uses alcohol or drugs.
LOL @ CNN, AMIRITE?
Man Held in Anti-Muslim Stabbing of Cabby in New... →
Mr. Enright hailed a taxi near the intersection of 24th Street and Second Avenue on Tuesday evening. Mr. Enright asked the taxi driver, who was from Bangladesh, if he was Muslim, Mr. Zaleta said.
After the driver said he was, Mr. Enright responded with the Arabic greeting, “Asalam Alakum,” according to the criminal court complaint.
Then Mr. Enright said, “Consider this a checkpoint,” before...
City of Minneapolis Pays $165k Settlement To... →
Minneapolis’ city attorney’s office has agreed to pay a $165,000 settlement to seven people who dressed up as zombies to protest consumerism in 2006. Police had arrested the protesters for what they thought appeared to be a “weapon of mass destruction,” but hilariously was actually an iPod and some equipment to amplify this terrorist mp3 player. They were never charged and were later released...
Are mobile phones wiping out our bees? →
The alarm was first sounded last autumn, but has now hit half of all American states. The West Coast is thought to have lost 60 per cent of its commercial bee population, with 70 per cent missing on the East Coast.
CCD has since spread to Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. And last week John Chapple, one of London’s biggest bee-keepers, announced that 23 of his 40...
MoveOn.org says MSNBC won't run its Target ad →
MoveOn.org unveiled an ad earlier this week going after Target for helping to pay for TV ads backing political candidates. The liberal group said Thursday that MSNBC has rejected its ad because it’s a direct attack on an individual business, an apparent violation of NBC policy.
In Southern California, a Very Local Mosque... →
In Southern California, the question is whether the Islamic Center of Temecula Valley should be granted a permit to build a mosque on land it owns next to two established churches. The Islamic Center presently holds prayer services in a warehouse next to a pipeline company, down the street from a smog-test station and masonry supply yard. And during Friday prayers on July 30, around 25...
Swedish rape warrant for Wikileaks' Assange... →
Sweden has cancelled an arrest warrant for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange on accusations of rape and molestation.
The Swedish Prosecution Authority website said the chief prosecutor had come to the decision that Mr Assange was not suspected of rape but did not give any further explanation.
What Is It About 20-Somethings? →
But what would it look like to extend some of the special status of adolescents to young people in their 20s? Our uncertainty about this question is reflected in our scattershot approach to markers of adulthood. People can vote at 18, but in some states they don’t age out of foster care until 21. They can join the military at 18, but they can’t drink until 21. They can drive at 16, but they can’t...
WikiLeaks founder accused of rape, molestation in... →
The founder and editor of the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, is wanted in Sweden after accusations of rape and molestation, a spokeswoman for the Swedish prosecutor’s office told CNN Saturday.
Spokeswoman Karin Rosander said Assange was arrested in absentia Friday night, and faces charges in relation to two separate instances, but she didn’t have more detail...
Shrimp on Prozac are killing themselves →
Shrimp are a shy and retiring lot, living in shadows and dark crevices to hide from predators (and nurse their psychic scars?). But when they’re swimming in concentrations of Prozac (or, more specifically, the chemical fluoxetine) as those found in the water around some urban areas, they become five times as likely to swim toward light, making them easy prey.
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Poll: Only a third of Americans say Obama is... →
Nearly one in five Americans believe Obama is a Muslim, up from around one in 10 Americans who said he was Muslim last year, according to the survey, conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
I’m about to stop believing that any news I hear or read is actually real.
The president has given six speeches on faith issues, DuBois said, and has launched the first-ever White...
Sharron Angle Is a Founding Father, Because... →
Yes, this is exactly what Harry Reid’s distant ancestor (Harold Reed-Smythe, 11th Earl of Pokington) would have said about Thomas Jefferson and George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, with their ideas of replacing a monarchy with a republic and creating a country without a state church: that they were too conservative. Clearly their goal in breaking away from Britain was to keep the...
Alaska, Scornful of Washington, Happily Takes Its... →
Although its unemployment rate sits at just 7.9 percent, about two percentage points below the national rate, Alaska has received $3,145 per capita in federal stimulus dollars, the most in the nation, according to figures compiled by Pro Publica, an investigative Web site. Nevada, by contrast, has an unemployment rate north of 14 percent and has received $1,034 per capita in recovery aid....
Watch“Sheryl WuDunn’s book “Half the Sky” investigates the oppression of women globally.”
Sheryl WuDunn: Our century’s greatest injustice
“About one in 20 children experienced hearing loss in 1994, and that number...”
– Adolescent hearing loss on the rise in U.S.
It’s those damn itunes the kids keep uploading all the time from the yahoo, I think.
WatchThe Daily Show with Jon Stewart
News Corp. Donates $1 Million to G.O.P. Governors →
The News Corporation, controlled by Rupert Murdoch, contributed $1 million to the Republican Governors Association this summer, the Bloomberg news service reported this week.
The donation makes News Corporation the Republican group’s single “biggest corporate donor,” according to Bloomberg.
Large contributions to so-called 527 groups like the governors’ association by media companies are...
Ga. scientists: Gulf oil not gone, 80 pct remains →
Georgia scientists say their analysis shows that most of that BP oil the government said was gone from the Gulf of Mexico is still there.
The scientists say as much as 80 percent of the oil still lurks under the surface. The Georgia team said it is a misinterpretation of data to claim that oil that is dissolved is actually gone. The report from University of Georgia and other scientists...
A Children’s Treasury Of Hate Messages Inspired By... →
JUST CLICK THE LINK. It is all gold and I couldn’t pick just one thing to highlight.
Obama closes curtain on transparency →
President Obama has abolished the position in his White House dedicated to transparency and shunted those duties into the portfolio of a partisan ex-lobbyist who is openly antagonistic to the notion of disclosure by government and politicians.
The hope/change just keeps on coming!
Muslims oppose Israeli construction at Islamic... →
The controversy surrounding the project - new construction on an area overlapping the cemetery of Ma’man Allah (God’s Sanctuary) or Mamilla, as it is known in West Jerusalem - had simmered for years. That night, over 100 more graves in the ancient cemetery were demolished, further eroding what Palestinians see as a losing battle to preserve a sacred cultural landmark.
Mamilla,...
“What makes this particularly commendable is there is virtually no political gain...”
– Obama defends “Ground Zero mosque” - Glenn Greenwald
Our Daughter Isn't a Selfish Brat; Your Son Just... →
I’d like to start by saying that I don’t get into belligerent shouting matches at the playground very often. The Tot Lot, by its very nature, can be an extremely volatile place—a veritable powder keg of different and sometimes contradictory parenting styles—and this fact alone is usually enough to keep everyone, parents and tots alike, acting as courteous and deferential as ...
“Let me be clear: as a citizen, and as President, I believe that Muslims have the...”
– Obama Speaks Out On Mosque Controversy 