Police seized more than $24 million in assets from Michiganders in 2013

...under asset forfeiture laws. In many cases the citizens were never charged with a crime but lost their property anyway.
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'Carrie' Coffee Shop Prank Is Brilliant Marketing (And One Of The Freakiest Things Ever) (VIDEO)

The patrons at Manhattan coffee shop 'Snice got more than they bargained for in the above video, which appears to show a woman with telekinetic abilities totally freaking the heck out and wreaking havoc in the shop.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/07/carrie-prank_n_4059363.html
http://youtu.be/VlOxlSOr3_M

One in three Germans say capitalism to blame for poverty, hunger.

The survey found that more than 60 percent of Germans believe there is no genuine democracy in their country because industry has too much political influence and that the voice of the voters plays only a subordinate role.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/24/us-germany-capitalism-idUSKBN0LS1AI20150224

Stewart Mocks Conservatives For Wanting 'Military Porn Talk' From Obama On ISIS

The Daily Show's Jon Stewart laid into those on the right like Donald Trump, who are constantly screaming for more tough talk, plans or no plans, on h...  Read more

"Bill O'Reilly's Most Bizarre Lie Yet Centers On JFK Assassination Figure"

Next, we'll discover footage unearthed where Bill O'Reilly claims he was present at Jesus' crucifixion. You wait for that, but in the meantime, this s...  Read more

Judge rules Warren must allow atheist’s ‘reason station’ at city hall (Michigan)

“This settlement serves as a reminder that government officials have no business deciding which religious messages can and cannot be allowed into our public spaces,” Dan Korobkin, deputy legal director of ACLU of Michigan, said in a prepared statement. “The First Amendment guarantees us all the right to speak freely about our beliefs -– or lack thereof. Mr. Marshall should be lauded for resisting the mayor’s attempt to silence him by favoring religious groups over non-religious groups.”
http://www.theoaklandpress.com/general-news/20150224/judge-rules-warren-must-allow-atheists-reason-station-at-city-hall

Indiana Senate approves controversial religious 'freedom' proposal

INDIANAPOLIS | The Republican-controlled Senate voted 40-10 on party lines Tuesday for legislation that supporters claim protects religious freedom in Indiana, while opponents argue it establishes a license to discriminate.
http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/senate-approves-controversial-religious-freedom-proposal/article_b5a41707-b7a5-5578-8bd6-0f90f87effa3.html

Phil Gramm's 'Freedom Option' Reveals The GOP's Real Agenda For Obamacare

With oral arguments in King v. Burwell just eight days away, Republicans are talking more and more about what they'll do if the Supreme Court sides wi...  Read more

Poll: 49% Of Republicans Don't Believe In Evolution

Forty-nine percent of Republicans don't believe in evolution, a new Public Policy Polling survey found Tuesday.   ... Read more

Jon Stewart Nails Giuliani For 'Love' Remarks: 'You Don't Own 9/11' (VIDEO)

Jon Stewart wasted little time on Monday before sinking his teeth into the slew of comments from former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) questioning P... Read more

The Daily Show
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O'Reilly Under Fire, Threatens New York Times Reporter

After a week of controversy over embellished or manufactured accounts of reporting from the "war zone" during the Falklands War of 1982, Fox News pers... Read more

Barbara Boxer Shreds Giuliani: Go Ask Bin Laden If Obama 'Loves America'

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) responded late Monday to former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's accusation that President Barack Obama doesn't "love Ame... Read more

Congress Braces For A Partial Government Shutdown Over Immigration

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers are anxiously bracing for a partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security at the end of the week, even as the Senate ... Read more

GOP Rep: Obama Is 'More Aggressive' Toward Christians Than Toward ISIL

Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) said during an appearance Monday on a conservative radio show that the Obama administration is "more aggressive" toward Christians... Read more

Poll: 57% Of GOPers Support Making Christianity The National Religion

A majority of Republicans nationally support establishing Christianity as the national religion, according to a new Public Policy Polling survey relea... Read more

Protecting LGBT People From Discrimination Is Now Illegal In Arkansas

Thanks to the silence of businesses, a new law prevent Arkansas municipalities from passing ordinances protecting LGBT people ... Read more

For Spilling Crude Oil Into A River, Company Will Pay $361,000

The derailment saw nearly 30,000 gallons of Bakken crude oil dumped in and around the James River. The post For Spilling Crude ... Read more

The Vatican Just Called For Reforming The Biggest Health Care Problem You’ve Never Heard Of

You know, Jesus was pretty big on that whole "healing poor people" thing.  ... Read more

Nevada Lawmaker Says Cancer Is A Fungus, Recommends Simply Washing It Out

Her claims have been debunked by the American Cancer Association and Cancer Research UK. The post Nevada Lawmaker Says Cancer ... Read more

GOP Attacked Democrats For Not Supporting Homeland Security. Now They’re Threatening To Shut It Down

But Republicans haven't always been so willing to withhold funding for a department tasked with keeping Americans safe. The ... Read more

Why Western Women Are Joining ISIS

"Women fight for personal as well as political power, often sacrificing one for the other. If the world ignores that fact, it ... Read more

Wisconsin Workers Say Scott Walker’s Right-To-Work Plan Won’t Divide And Conquer Them

"This is not just an attack on unions. It's an attack on all Wisconsin families. And we're not going to stand for it," said ... Read more

Doctor Who: Streaming now on Netflix

An updated incarnation of everybody's favorite time-traveling Doctor sets about fighting nefarious aliens and other foes in this epic sci fi series.
http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/70142441

House of bricks (House of Cards Parody: Sesame Street)

Some people say there's too much pork in this town. Frank Underwolf could not agree more. And that is why Mr. Underwolf is on a mission to huff and puff and blow down all the little pigs' houses. In this town, you have to know which way the wind is blowing, and unfortunately, for those little piggies, it's about to get very windy.
http://youtu.be/92NXMtVtv8o

Paul Krugman Destroys the Latest Lie About Why We Have Rampant Inequality

Supposedly "very serious people" keep diverting attention away from the real problem.
...  Read more

Armageddon for Climate Change Deniers

For decades, the fossil-fuel industry has been underwriting a huge, successful campaign to lie about climate change. Like the tobacco industry before ...  Read more

This Political Cartoon Shows How Hypocritical The GOP Is About Choosing Which Words To Use

A political cartoon can often make a point much more succinctly than an article. This one called for its own article. Read more

John Legend: more black men are in correctional control now than were enslaved in 1850

After receiving the Oscar for Best Song for "Glory" from Selma, John Legend gave an impassioned speech calling out the present-day state of affairs fo...  Read more

Judge OKs atheist's 'reason station' in city hall (Warren, Michigan)

"WARREN, Mich. — If a church can have a prayer station inside city hall, then an atheist can have a reason station there, too... "The reason station will be allowed to operate on terms not less favorable than the terms granted to the prayer station," wrote Hluchaniuk, who also ordered the city of Warren to pay the ACLU $100,000 for costs and attorney fees..."
http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/nation/2015/02/24/judge-allows-atheist-reason-station-city-hall/23924491/

GOP lawmaker flunks Anatomy 101

For his part, Barbieri told the Spokesman-Review late yesterday, “[Dr. Julie Madsen] made the point that you could swallow a camera and from thousands of miles away, you could detect the state of that colonoscopy…. My question was then, are you saying that you can swallow a camera and get the same results? Which is of course rhetorical. But she responded that of course you can’t swallow a pill and have it end up in your vagina. So my point was made.”
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/gop-lawmaker-flunks-anatomy-101

Survey finds serious flaws in diocesan financial management | National Catholic Reporter

The Catholic priesthood is aging at an alarming rate, and thousands of U.S. diocesan priests are expected to retire within the next few years. With most diocesan priest pension plans significantly underfunded, questions over where the money comes from to support them may point to a major crisis in the making.
http://ncronline.org/news/faith-parish/survey-finds-serious-flaws-diocesan-financial-management

Rachel Maddow edits Obama speech video to mock GOP

Between the two great minds of President Barack Obama and Rachel Maddow, the gop gets the beatdown and bitchslapping of a lifetime. The gop is no longer a political party, but rather a creepy, racist, sexist terrorist religious cult that far more closely resembles al Qaeda or the Taliban. We need to rid Our country of deranged far-right extremist Kooks like the gop.
http://youtu.be/3StArqj0rXw

MN Archdiocese bankruptcy will include search for assets

The bankruptcy of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis takes another step forward Tuesday afternoon with the first meeting of the creditors committee.
http://www.mprnews.org/story/2015/02/24/church-bankruptcy-assets

Why We Must Offend Religion More

"Our enduring deference to toxic ancient myths is what allows religion to survive."
...  Read more

After Obamacare: The next Democratic health agenda

The architects of the Affordable Care Act got millions of Americans to sign up for coverage. Now they're quietly crafting the next Democratic health-c...  Read more

Obama Derangement Syndrome

In 2003, the conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer diagnosed a new affliction in some of George W. Bush's fiercest critics. He described the cond...  Read more

ISIS is losing

If you want to understand what's happening in the Middle East today, you need to appreciate one fundamental fact: ISIS is losing its war for the Middl...  Read more

Scott Walker's victory over Wisconsin's public unions, in two charts

Did Scott Walker's 2011 labor law changes really hurt public sector unions in Wisconsin? According an excellent piece by the Washington Post's Robert ...  Read more

The more people say they know about the Common Core, the less they actually do

The Common Core standards have been around for more than five years. Students in dozens of states are taking new tests to see whether they're able to ...  Read more

Americans are having more trouble paying off their student debt than their houses

"...Student-loan delinquencies increased at the end of 2014: 11.3 percent were at least 90 days overdue in the last three months of 2014, up from 11.1 percent in the previous quarter..."Read more

Japan. Full stop.

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TIL that in the United States, more money is stolen by employers from employees

...each year than is stolen in robberies, burglaries, larcenies and auto thefts COMBINED. The most common victims of wage theft are low wage workers... Read more

Economy class in the 1960's

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Lake Baringo, Kenya [2048x1366] (OC)

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TIL The shoe company 'Atheist Shoes' conducted an experiment where they sent packages with 'Atheist' brand packing tape

...and neutral packing tape to the U.S. The 'Atheist' marked packages took an average of 3 days longer to ship and where 10 times more likely to disappear.
http://www.atheistberlin.com/study

"Deep injection of wastewater is the primary cause of the dramatic rise in detected earthquakes... in the central U.S. " - US Geological Survey

“It is important that all information of this sort be publicly accessible, because only in this way can it be used to provide the timely guidance needed to reduce the hazard and consequences of induced earthquakes,” said USGS hydrologist and co-author of the paper, Dr. Barbara Bekins.
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[Image] "...how ashamed I would be to let a day pass without making one more effort." - Isaac Asimov

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Mossad contradicted Netanyahu on Iran nuclear programme

Spy Cables reveal Mossad concluded that Iran was not producing nuclear weapons, after PM sounded alarm at UN in 2012.  Read more

Melissa Harris-Perry Slams Jeb Bush For Seeking Advice From Paul Wolfowitz

"MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry took former governor and GOP 2016 presidential candidate Jeb Bush to task for seeking advice from the former Deputy Secretary of Defense and reminded us of the fact that he was wrong about just about everything when he was working for Bush's brother." ...  Read more

Angry Students Announce 'Debt Strike' Against Corinthian Colleges

More people are waking up to the power of collective action, thank God. These schools are law-breaking and predatory, and I'm happy to see students fi...  Read more

Top GOP Senator Struggles To Explain His Changed View Of ACA Subsidies

"...Hatch devoted a significant portion of his speech Monday to countering the suggestions that he — like other top congressional Republicans and state officials — interpreted the law to provide subsidies to Americans regardless of where they lived..." Read more

New Defense Secretary Supports Transgender Military Service

A week on the job, Defense Secretary Ash Carter has already expressed support for transgender people serving openly in the ... Read more

Congressman: Measles Outbreak May Be Caused By 'Illegal Aliens' | ThinkProgress

Contrary to Brooks’ assertion that foreigners don’t get vaccinated as American children do, data from the World Health Organization shows that the following countries have higher vaccination rates for measles than the United States’ rate of 92 percent: Mexico (99 percent), Nicaragua (99 percent), Panama (98 percent), Belize (96 percent), Guatemala (93 percent), Honduras (93 percent), and El Salvador (93 percent). In fact, most countries in Central and South America have higher rates of measles vaccination than does the United States. In all, some 108 countries have higher measles vaccination rates than the United States.
http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2015/02/03/3618647/mo-brooks-measles-immigrants/

Prisoners’ Families In Oklahoma Are Losing Huge Amounts Of Money To Private Bankers

Private vendors make millions of dollars off of deposits for inmates... Read more