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24 Nov 2010 18:14

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Politics: Anti-abortion activist Randall Terry wants to scar your eyes in 2012

  • Great, just what we need. More of these ads. (just a link to another article, we swear!) To our friends outside of DC this election cycle, you may have something to not look forward to next cycle. Missy Smith, a protégé of noted anti-abortion activist Randall Terry, ran some incredibly disturbing ads of dead fetuses on television just before the election. And while they weren’t necessarily family viewing, they could run during family hours because Terry had read up on campaign advertising laws. While Smith only earned six percent of the vote in November, here adsy got lots of people talking – so many that Terry plans to take the campaign national in 2012, getting more candidates involved and running for president so he can air the ads during the Super Bowl. Great. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Nov 2010 17:21

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World: Wikileaks to reveal how corrupt the U.S. thinks world leaders are

  • leak Wikileaks revealed today that their next leak will be U.S. diplomatic cables on corruption of various foreign leaders. It could come as soon as this weekend.
  • details Among those fingered in the cables will be obvious ones – Afghanistan, Russia – but allies in Europe and East Asia could also be on the list. Have fun, Obama! source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Nov 2010 17:08

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Politics: Norm Coleman to Joe Miller: Pot calls kettle, says “don’t do this”

  • Without criticizing Joe Miller, I would offer him advice. I think it’s the same advice that Fred Thompson and others have offered recently. It should be time to move on.
  • Former Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman • Offering Joe Miller the kind of advice that Coleman himself probably needed in the wake of 2008’s Minnesota Senate campaign, which he lost to Al Franken after approximately six months of fighting tooth and nail. (Though, granted, Coleman’s tally was much tighter – literally hundreds of votes) The fact that Coleman is saying that Joe Miller should call it a day in his race against Lisa Murkowski offers a lot of heft which it otherwise wouldn’t have. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Nov 2010 16:48

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U.S.: Turkeys more worthy of Obama’s mercy than humans

  • four number of turkeys Obama has pardoned since becoming president
  • zero number of people the president has pardoned so far source
  • » A fairly recent phenomenon: Although the pardoning of turkeys seems like a longstanding presidential phenomenon, it’s not. The first pardoning took place in 1989 under George H.W. Bush’s watch. And the shipping of turkeys to the White House only started in the 1940s, on Harry Truman’s watch. We’re guessing Truman killed the turkey himself.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Nov 2010 14:28

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U.S.: College suspends Iraq vet for frank paper about killing urges

  • lesson An Iraq War vet in college writes an English paper, frankly saying that how war gave him an addiction to killing and violent urges. He had previously only written privately about the war.
  • grade The teacher, who encouraged him to write about the subject, gave him an A and told him that he should get it printed in the school paper. It was printed a couple of weeks ago.
  • reaction Weeks after the paper was written, at the urging of other veterans on campus concerned about what he wrote, he was kicked out of school until he got a psychological evaluation. source
  • » Two conflicting cultural problems: What’s going on here is a bit of culture conflict. First, Charles Whittington takes medication and has received counseling on his issues. While in the paper he said that killing “is something that I do not just want but something I really need so I can feel like myself,” it’s clear that he’s trying to make an effort to move on. Meanwhile, his school, the Community College of Baltimore County in Catonsville, Md., is trying to prevent another Virginia Tech-style shooting. We feel that Whittington’s frankness is a clear signifier that those days are behind him – or at least he’s willing to try. (Thanks to pitusimz for the suggestion)
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Nov 2010 13:49

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World: Normal day: Vladimir Putin, Leonardo DiCaprio talk about tigers

  • To the left: The Russian Prime Minister, a man for whom absurdism doesn’t exist. To the right: The dude from “Inception,” who the man on the left calls “a real man.” They’re talking about, of all things, saving wild tigers. The guy on the right donated $1 million of his own money to saving wild tigers. Meanwhile, unintentional comedy continues unabated. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Nov 2010 10:41

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U.S.: Thanksgiving’s cost rises, hitting the poor the worst

  • $43.47 the cost of making a Thanksgiving dinner for ten people
  • 1% the increase in cost from last year, around 4 cents per person
  • 15% the percentage of families that can’t afford sufficient food source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

24 Nov 2010 10:30

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Politics: Obama ensures us that he’s not thinking about Sarah Palin

  • I don’t think about Sarah Palin. … Obviously Sarah Palin has a strong base of support in the Republican Party and I respect those skills. But I spend most of my time right now on how I can be the best possible president.
  • President Barack Obama • Making sure to emphasize that he’s not in campaign mode for the next two years. It’s notable he mentions Sarah Palin, though, because that’s someone who probably will be. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Nov 2010 07:53

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U.S.: About time: Color-coded threat level system may disappear

  • Anyone else feel safer because of these colors? Didn’t think so. So the Obama administration, smarting from that whole TSA backlash thing, is actually talking about replacing this overly-basic scare system with something that actually tells people what’s going on. Great. About freaking time we got out of the color business. The only people this benefited were those working in print shops who got to charge more for the extra use of color. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Nov 2010 00:13

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U.S.: FCC chairman agrees with texters: “911 IS A JOKE LOL WTF”

  • The Virginia Tech campus shootings in 2007 are a tragic, real-life reminder of the technological limitations that 911 is now saddled with. Some students and witnesses tried to text 911 during that emergency and as we know, those messages never went through and were never received by local 911 dispatchers.
  • Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski • Evoking the 2007 Virginia Tech school shooting to explain why 911 needs a texting function. 911, a system around in its current form since 1968. And it’s one that hasn’t kept up with the fast pace of technology, either with mobile phones (which are now the primary source of 911 calls) or broadband technology: “Many 911 call centers don’t even have broadband, and some are in communities where broadband isn’t even available,” Genachowski said. “That is unacceptable.” All this stuff is on the list for things to improve thanks to the stimulus plan, by the way. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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