Dinesh D'Souza Throws Himself On The Mercy Of The Court

Dinesh D'Souza faces a couple of years in jail for his role in making sure his Senate candidate had plenty of money. But in the classic conservative "... Read more

The devil, you say? Satanists say they're peaceful sect

DETROIT — A new religious group aims to bring the devil to Detroit.

http://www.indystar.com/story/news/nation/2014/09/06/detroit-satanists-say-theyre-peaceful-sect/15219129/

 

‘Duck Dynasty’ star urges Christians to convert atheist friends with Nicolas Cage movie

“It’s a warning to those, if it happened today, would be left behind, and I believe people are going to make that life-changing decision to follow Christ on the way home from the theater on Oct. 3,” Robertson said. “Let’s all make sure we bring some friends and family to see this movie – people who need to see to believe.”

http://youtu.be/uibpQ-W8XQg

Study: One-Third of Americans Support Changing Pledge of Allegiance

“The current wording of the Pledge marginalizes atheists, agnostics, humanists and other nontheists because it presents them as less patriotic, simply because they do not believe in God,” said Roy Speckhardt, AHA executive director, in a press release.

http://www.newsmax.com/US/Pledge-of-Allegiance-American-Humanist-Association-Pledge-poll/2014/09/05/id/592822/

Dear Neil Cavuto, the United States is not a Judeo-Christian nation, and that’s OK

"...We invaded the Philippines causing tens of thousands to die and other horrible atrocities because President William McKinley received word from god that those people should be Christianized. Is that how we want our country to be? Do we want decisions based on logic and reason with a spirit of individual rights and liberties for all people, or do we want to be led by the voices in someone’s head telling them what they want to hear under the disguise of god? Do we want a president to lead with his brain or his knees?

The United States engaged in World War II because Franklin Delano Roosevelt didn’t “turn the other cheek.” We engaged in war because we didn’t “love our enemy.” We completely discarded the “thou shall not kill” commandment. It’s time for Christian nationalists to be honest. Our Constitution bears extremely little if any resemblance to the Bible. The Bible is not how we conduct policy. No matter how much we print god on our money, or force it in our Pledge, or find other ways to ram it down the throats of our kids, it’s not what this country was founded on. We can do so much better, and it’s time to do better...?

http://www.chicagonow.com/an-agnostic-in-wheaton/2014/09/dear-neil-cavuto-the-united-states-is-not-a-judeo-christian-nation-and-thats-ok/

Thomas L. Friedman: Why the U.S. can’t intervene to destroy ISIS — yet

"...U.S. President Barack Obama has been excoriated for declaring that “we don’t have a strategy yet” for effectively confronting the Islamic State in Iraq and Al-Sham, or ISIS. In criticizing Obama for taking too much time, Congressman Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told Fox News Sunday that, “this ‘don’t-do-stupid-stuff’ policy isn’t working.” That sounded odd to my ear — like we should just bomb somebody, even if it is stupid. If Obama did that, what would he be ignoring?..."

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2014/09/08/thomas-l-friedman-why-the-u-s-cant-intervene-to-destroy-isis-yet/

GOP's Obamacare Nightmare Is Coming True: It's Working

For Republicans, the Obamacare reckoning has arrived sooner than expected. ... Read more

Almost Every Slice of American Society Wants To Strengthen Social Security Except Washington Insiders

Most Americans want better benefits, and they agree on how to pay for them.

 ... Read more

7 Asinine Right-Wing Moments This Week: Celebrities Get As Vile As Politicians

Wingnuts run amok, with their nonsense and victim-blaming,

 ... Read more

Woman Faces Prison After Providing Her Daughter With Abortion-Inducing Pills

She told authorities she couldn't find any abortion clinics nearby.The post Woman Faces Prison After Providing Her Daughter ... Read more

Koch Brothers’ Top Political Strategist: The Minimum Wage Leads to Fascism!

In newly released audio, a top Koch adviser, Richard Fink, lets loose a greatest hits of libertarian crankery.
 ... Read more



http://youtu.be/tnHDliL9FcM

Just When You Thought The Crazy Had Hit The Top … Along Comes OH DEAR GOD NO

Since the Department of Defense is offering low cost military equipment – or even for free – Texas jumps to the front of the wave and militarizes publ... Read more

Cheap Drinking Water From The Sun, Aided By A Pop Of Pencil Shavings

"He and a team at MIT have developed a cheap material that desalinates water efficiently and fast using solar energy. And the secret to the new technology was sitting right on their desks: the graphite in pencils"
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Swedes now recycle 99% of their garbage.

"...At the core of Sweden’s program is its waste-management hierarchy designed to curb environmental harm: prevention (reduce), reuse, recycling, recycling alternatives (energy recovery via WTE plants), and lastly, disposal (landfill)..."

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Desert plant discovered to get up to 90% of fluids from crystallized water trapped in rocks

a completely novel water source for life with implications for its presence and survival in other critically dry and inhospitable environments
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Week In The News: ISIS, NATO And High-Profile Hacking (Tom Ashbrook, On Point)

“The gates of hell” make an appearance in the news this week, and Joe Biden put them there.   Furious over a second beheading and the violence of the Islamic State.  “Arc of crisis,” Britain’s David Cameron says, from ISIS and North Africa, to Russia and its move on Ukraine.  At NATO’s meeting in Wales, talk of rapid response and resolve.  We’ll see.  Joan Rivers has died.  Fast food workers make a big splash for more pay.  Political upheaval in Kansas.  Convictions in Virginia.  Celebrity nudes.  More Ebola.  This hour On Point:  Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines. / Tom Ashbrook

Interview:
https://onpoint.wbur.org/2014/09/05/nato-isis-europe-russia-congress

Friday News Roundup - Domestic (Diane Rehm Show)

The Justice Department opens an investigation into police practices in Ferguson, Missouri. House Republicans outline a legislative agenda for September. And former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell is found guilty of corruption. A panel of journalists joins guest host Tom Gjelten for analysis of the week's top national news stories.
 

Interview:

http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2014-09-05/friday-news-roundup-domestic

 

 

Friday News Roundup - International (Diane Rehm Show)

At a NATO summit in Wales, western leaders promise new sanctions against Russia if peace talks fail between Russia and Ukraine. As fighting continues in eastern Ukraine, NATO leaders establish a rapid-response military force. President Obama urges NATO to confront ISIS after a second American journalist is beheaded. U.S. military forces launch an operation in Somalia against the Al-Qaida militant Al-Shabaab network. And world health officials say U.N. budget cuts are hurting the response to the Ebola crisis. A panel of journalists joins guest host Tom Gjelten for analysis of the week's top international news stories.
 

Interview:

http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2014-09-05/friday-news-roundup-international

 

 

I Understand Why Westerners Are Joining Jihadi Movements Like ISIS. I Was Almost One of Them

Twenty years ago, I ditched my Catholic high school in upstate New York to study at a Saudi-funded madrassa in Pakistan.

 ... Read more

Elizabeth Warren Tells Bill Moyers Why She'll Never Be a DC Insider

Washington works for lobbyists and lawyers, it doesn’t work so well for American families, says Warren.
 ... Read more

Cheering for Insecure Students

Over the past five years, more than $200 million has gone toward launching the new Common Core standards, with the goal of closing achievement gaps in... Read more

Default Posner's decision is now here on Gay Marriage (7th Circuit)

United States Circuit Judge Richard Posner has released his opinion, on behalf of a unanimous three judge panel, striking down gay marriage bans in Indiana and Wisconsin. Read his actual words in the decision itself, linked below.

http://sblog.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/7th-CA-Ind.-and-Wis.-decision-9-4-14.pdf

A Louisiana Judge Takes Aim at Gay Marriage—and Justice Kennedy

On Wednesday, a federal judge in Louisiana ended same-sex marriage's federal- court win streak. District Judge Martin Feldman held that Louisiana need... Read more

Is There a Rational Case for Banning Gay Marriage?

In an exhilarating takedown of Indiana and Wisconsin's prohibitions, Judge Richard Posner rules there isn't. But will he persuade anyone? ... Read more

A Visit To The Reality Community: Americans Have Sex. Americans Use Birth Control. Let’s Move On.

No one in America is being forced to use birth control. Most people do it voluntarily and want access to it because it improves their quality of life.
... Read more

Fall From Grace: What The Religious Right Should Learn From The McDonnell Scandal

Travel back with me to 2009: Robert McDonnell was campaigning for Virginia governor, and TV preacher Pat Robertson was ecstatic.
... Read more

Freedomworks And The Creation Of A Texas Wingnut

Texas has a wingnut problem, and it is the inevitable result of the racist, religious right they have courted. When your party's platform is obsessed ... Read more

Ban Gloc, Vietnam [1900 X 1200]

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The Obamacare News That Republicans Don’t Want You To Hear About

Obamacare premiums are expected to fall in 2015, a new study finds. The post The Obamacare News That Republicans Don't ... Read more

New Report Details ‘Shocking’ Levels Of Global Violence Against Children

According to UNICEF, endemic levels of physical and emotional abuse are inflicted on children each day.The post New Report ... Read more

40 Million Tons Of Toxic Coal Waste Sit Next To Prison With ‘Alarming Rates Of Illness’

One prisoner developed welts on his left side and frequently felt dizzy, nauseous, and short of breath.The post 40 Million Tons ... Read more

Elizabeth Warren: The market is broken

Senator Elizabeth Warren says she picked up a lot of her feistiness from reading Nancy Drew novels as a kid. Today she believes the most important mystery to solve is how to get the American economy working for someone other than billionaires.
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Brokers Lure Soldiers and Fed retirees Out of Low-Fee Federal Retirement Plan - Bloomberg

John Turner suspected that brokers were encouraging federal workers to ditch their top-flight retirement plan. So he went under cover...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-12/brokers-lure-soldiers-out-of-low-fee-federal-retirement-plan.html

Getting in shape after 50: 3 exercises that reverse aging - TODAY.com

If you haven’t exercised in years, it’s time to get going! You lose balance, core strength and overall muscle strength every year if you don’t do something about it. 

http://www.today.com/health/senior-workout-anti-aging-exercises-1D80054350#senior-workout-anti-aging-exercises-1D80054350

'Non-Interventionist' Rand Paul Now Wants The U.S. To Destroy ISIS

Who didn't see this coming? If Sen. Rand Paul actually wants to make it through a 2016 presidential primary, (and that's a big "if" right now) we all ... Read more

'Libertarian' Maker-Hero Charles Koch Formed His Own Group To Protect Oil Industry's Government Handouts

We are oh, so shocked that Charles Koch is a money-grubbing taker, and not a hero of the libertarian revolution! Ha ha, just kidding! You always have ... Read more

Paleontologists just unveiled the dinosaur Dreadnoughtus...

...an 85-foot-long titan whose fossil is far and away the most massive ever discovered.
Read more

Thousands Converge On U.S. Capitol To Demand Mental Health Care Reform

Advocates from across the country hope to reinvigorate the movement for mental health care reform.The post Thousands Converge ... Read more

Congressman Introduces Bill To Authorize Military Force Virtually Everywhere

In taking on ISIS and every other terrorist group in existence, the bill would basically ensure that the "war on terror" never, ... Read more

America’s First Cellulosic Biofuel Plant To Use Corn Waste Is Open In Iowa

The $275 million Project LIBERTY plant is the second cellulosic plant to begin operation in the U.S., and the first to use corn ... Read more

How to coil coax, wire, rope, etc. to be free of kinks, twists and knots

http://youtu.be/x-sO62Gvqp4

As Brazil presidential candidate surges, focus turns to evangelicalism's clout (+video)

Within 24 hours of launching her presidential campaign, Marina Silva withdrew her support for bills recognizing gay marriage after public pressure from a leader of her evangelical Christian church.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2014/0904/As-Brazil-presidential-candidate-surges-focus-turns-to-evangelicalism-s-clout-video

Flickering not blazing

"...in certain paradoxical ways, Scotland's past religious fervour has helped to make it more secular in the 21st century..."

http://www.economist.com/blogs/erasmus/2014/09/scotland-secular

Group: Airman denied reenlistment for refusing to say 'so help me God'

“The government cannot compel a nonbeliever to take an oath that affirms the existence of a supreme being,” Miller said. “Numerous cases affirm that atheists have the right to omit theistic language from enlistment or reenlistment contracts.”

http://www.militarytimes.com/article/20140904/NEWS05/309040066

PDK/Gallup Poll Shows Continued Public Opposition to Vouchers

63 percent of Americans oppose private school vouchers.

What the Religious Right Doesn't Get About Religious Freedom | Commentary

"...See, the FRC and conservative evangelicals have it all wrong. They view religious freedom as the right of governments to impose religiously grounded (as long as it’s Christian-based) public policy on their populations..."

http://www.rollcall.com/news/what_the_religious_right_doesnt_get_about_religious_freedom_commentary-235920-1.html?pg=1&dczone=opinion

With US youth losing religion, evangelicals struggle to spread ‘good news’

More young Americans are turning away from organized faith as millennials question the mix with politics.

http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/ajam-presents-edgeofeighteen/articles/2014/9/4/religion-evangelicalsgoodnews.html

To Understand Religion, Think Football

Sacred beliefs likely arose out of prehistoric bonding and rituals.

http://nautil.us/issue/17/big-bangs/to-understand-religion-think-football

Victor Stenger, atheism’s ‘fifth horseman,’ dies at 79

"...The atheist community is mourning the death of Victor Stenger, a prominent physicist who championed rooting out religion from the public sphere and was best known for quipping: "Science flies you to the moon. Religion flies you into buildings."...

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/lifestyle/58369338-80/stenger-religion-science-atheism.html.csp

Doomsday for religious right: How anti-choice radicals finally lost respectability

A recent spate of court decisions will keep Rick Perry and his cronies from hiding behind talk of "women's safety" .

http://www.salon.com/2014/09/04/doomsday_for_religious_right_how_anti_choice_radicals_finally_lost_respectability/

Milky Way over The Palouse Falls, Washington. Photo by Michael Brandt. [2048x1378]

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TIL - Scientists have trained a Petri dish full of neurons from a rat brain to successfully fly a F22 flight simulator.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- A University of Florida scientist has grown a living "brain" that can fly a simulated plane, giving scientists a novel way to observe how brain cells function as a network.
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New York To West Virginia: Stop Trying To Kill EPA’s Carbon Rule

New York and 11 other states are asking to intervene in a lawsuit which says the EPA is not legally allowed to limit carbon ... Read more