News Roundup

Move over, Muslims and gay marriage: paranoid fundamentalist Christians see a new threat to all that is sacred.

There are frivolous lawsuits, and then there are insane lawsuits.

You know the recession's been over for more than a year, right? Somebody forgot to tell Massachusetts homeowners. And the unemployed.

In other news, the new Tory Security Minister doesn't seem to be aware of what she can and can't take on a flight.

A Kentucky Tea Party group is taking on a dreaded enemy: drinking water that won't give you cancer.

Republican leaders: ending Don't Ask, Don't Tell would be a disaster for our men and women in uniform. Men and women in uniform: it wouldn't be a big deal.

It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god; it neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." --Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia.

The good people of Oklahoma, ever mindful of the looming threat presented by the muslims who make up less than 1 % of its population, voted to ban sharia law last week. Of course, given how abysmally ignorant Americans are about religion, I'm sure most Oklahomans don't know what shariah law is.

And they certainly don't know anything about the Constitution, which wouldn't allow sharia law to be the basis for a state's legal code (or judicial descisions) in the first place.

In the meantime, a federal judge has implemented a temporary restraining order on the ban, so all those Oklahoma judges who were itching to consult their Qu'rans can go to town.

The Week in Food

Recipes for a recession: think cabbage.

"It made me want to throw up:" the new bacon soda is getting mixed reviews.

At long last, we may have an answer to the question that mankind has been asking for millennia: what does the galaxy taste like?

Religious leaders say the family is the foundation of civilization. But archaeologists suggest beer provided a little help.

While the National Institute of Health tells us to lose weight, the U.S. Department of Agriculture tells restaurants to add more cheese.

The Pope Complains about Spain

Benedict XVI is deeply distressed at what he sees as the increasing secularisation of Spanish society.

Gee, if only Spain had some kind of organization that could make people toe the religious line.

You Can't Always Trust Google

I don't know how I missed this: two weeks ago Nicaragua invaded Costa Rica. It didn't get much news coverage up here, mainly because to the U.S. media other countries don't exist unless there's a heinous disaster or we're invading them.

And to be honest it wasn't much of an invasion: if you were picturing armed commandos storming Costa Rican strong points and Costa Rican soldiers valiantly defending la patria, you're in for a disappointment. Costa Rica has no fortified strong points to storm and they don't have any soldiers. Actually they haven't had an army since 1948.

Apparently Nicaraguan troops under the command of one Eden Pastora crossed into Costa Rican territory, dredged a river, ousted a family from their ranch, and established a camp of some sort. Pastora claims to have thought he was still in Nicaragua--in spite of the fact that his troops spent some time taking down Costa Rican flags down from buildings and replacing them with Nicaraguan flags.

His defense? He was using Google Maps, according to which he was still in Nicaragua.

I don't what's more ridiculous: the possibility that he thinks this is a plausible excuse, or the possibility that military commanders actually use Google maps.

Of course, on the scale of mistakes that a military can make, this is fairly trivial compared to some others.

(Hat tip to Searchengineland, where I first learned about this.)

The Day After

"Principally I hate and detest that animal called man, although I heartily love John, Peter, and Thomas and so forth."--Jonathan Swift, letter to Alexander Pope, September 29, 1725.

I've felt like the good Dean most of my life: principally I hate the American people, even though I love individual Americans. We're largely a nation of pig-headed morons who refuse to believe in evolution or global warming, despite there being as much evidence for both as there is for gravity. Many of us claim to be Christians, yet those same Americans are pathologically indifferent to the plight of the poor and adamantly opposed to social justice.

At the moment I particularly hate those Americans who voted Congressional Democrats out of office. These idiots told the press their biggest concern was the economy, and yet they vote into office the party that opposed the stimulus (and then asked for stimulus money) and extension of unemployment benefits.

They're worried about the economy and they vote into office a party that despises the unemployed.

They blamed the banks for the economy and they voted Republican.

The only thing consoles me is that this nationwide stupidity isn't unprecedented. As Juan Cole pointed out on his incomparable blog, in 1942 FDR had more or less ended the Depression, was well on his way to winning a world war, and the Democrats still got pummeled in the midterm elections.

And God, try reading about antebellum elections some time: 1828 was a class act, run on such "issues" as whether John Quincy Adams had pimped for the Czar of Russia.

Democracy. Sometimes it's enough to make me to think this country just needs a king again.

Says It All, Doesn't It?

From a recent episode of Studio 360 on Tea Party singer-songwriters. During the segment on Chris Cassone, Derek John began pressing Cassone for specifics when he talked about the changes in American society since Obama's election and America's "enemies within." Cassone's response:

"My mother was Irish. My father was Italian. I have an Irish attitude and an Italian temper. And for me to debate, it's not for me. I've seen myself, I get all flustered, I can't back and forth with somebody...that's why I'm singing. I feel safer in that realm than trying to debate...anybody."

Translation: "I have completely abdicated my responsibilities as a rational being. I refuse to control my emotions and I blame it all on genetics. And God forbid I should actually have to discuss anything with someone else because then I might have to think. The 2,400-year-old consensus that a citizen of a civilized society is someone who exercises self-control and reasonably discusses the issues of the day with his peers--I want no part of it. I'll just sing so I won't have to listen to anyone else."

The new face of American conservatism. Yahoos like this will determine the composition of the 112th Congress.