Our Wacky World—3/7/2014

"Newly Discovered Piece Of Cheese 
Is Older Than Jesus"

Check it out—I can put a huge headline up at the top just like CNN does now. (Popular Science)

So Putin the First wants to annex the Sudetenland. Yes, despite all the bitching about Godwin's "law" the analogy is very apt in this case. Needless to say, the Conservatives have a love/hate relationship with him:

Probably not

'The American right admires Putin. They want to gush over how manly and strong he is while simultaneously calling him a tyrant. That’s where all this “wrestles bears” bullshit comes from. Like Putin, the American right only has one definition of masculinity and that’s the tendency to be authoritarian and violent. If Putin were an American politician, he would be a wildly popular conservative. He hates all the right people, strikes the macho pose whenever possible, advocates for theocratic government and is a hyper-nationalist. He’d fit in perfectly.'

What's not to love? (Dispatches From The Culture Wars)


Ted Nugent is also a liar, among other things:

"I’ve been a cop in Lake County, Michigan, since 1982 thereabout. I conduct federal raids with the DEA and ATF and U.S. Marshals and the FBI and Texas Rangers and heroes of law enforcement."

None of which is true. (Dispatches From The Culture Wars)


This is rather long but fascinating—I can't decide which of a dozen paragraphs to quote so I'll use the own that takes a swipe at an evangelist:

'In 2009, she published The Narcissism Epidemic, a follow-up written with another of Baumeister’s former students, W. Keith Campbell. Twenge claimed that narcissism among Americans was rising at the same rate as obesity, and documented how the mantras of the self-esteem movement had begun infiltrating churches, with God himself being redrawn in our new self-obsessed image. Pastor Joel Osteen, for example, preaches in Lakewood, Houston, at the biggest church in America. “God didn’t create you to be average,” he tells his congregation. “You were made to excel.”'

Yeah, god wants everyone to be above average. Makes sense to exceptional Americans. But there's much more to the article... (Medium)

"NOTE: This is NOT a political issue, but A MATTER OF SELF-DEFENSE and a time that TRUE PATRIOTS MUST STAND !!! Most of us are not able to get close enough to Obama to capture and remove him, but some are. This REWARD is to encourage all who have the ability and opportunity to CAPTURE and permanently REMOVE Obama from the White House and Washington -- to do so."

In order to access the FaceBook page you have to have an account. I guess he doesn't realize how evil FB is. (Crooks & Liars)


Psychic fraudster finally sees the light—in a courtroom:

'Looking frail and downtrodden, Marks, 62, of Fort Lauderdale, sobbed as she apologized to her victims, her family and everyone she hurt, saying her former clients had been some of her best and closest friends. "At the time, I didn't realize what I was doing was wrong," she said, begging the judge for mercy. "Now, I realize that I caused a lot of hurt and disappointment.'

So she didn't realize until now that this was wrong:

"...Marks also exploited her grief after Deveraux's 8-year-old son, Sam, died in an ATV accident in October 2005. Marks tormented her with claims that the child was not in heaven and that Marks could transfer the child's soul or spirit into the body of another person, reuniting mother and son 'to keep him out of the flames...'"

Scum. (Sun-Sentinel)

Egyptian General performs familiar sounding miracle:

"'I defeated AIDS with the grace of my God at the rate of 100% . And I defeated hepatitis C,' said Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Abdel-Atti, head of the Cancer Treatment and Screening center."

"'I will take the AIDS from the patient and I will nourish the patient on the AIDS treatment. I will give it to him like a skewer of Kofta to nourish him,' Abdel-Atti said, referring to a dish made of ground meat. 'I will take it away from him as a disease and give it back to him in the form of a cure,' he said. 'This is the greatest form of scientific breakthrough.'"

CNN


Remember that expensive high school football stadium in Texas? "Which one?," you may ask. Well:

"A nearly $60-million, taxpayer-funded football stadium in Allen, Texas, north of Dallas, was closed indefinitely this week, 18 months after opening, because of 'extensive cracking' along the concrete concourse, district officials said."

LA Times