Oh Highpoint, you so crazy.

Only North Carolinians will understand.

That healing power of religion.

Baby 'starved to death' because he did not say Amen:

"For more than a week, Ria Ramkissoon watched passively as her one-year-old son wasted away, denied food and water because the older woman she lived with said it was God's will."

Surreal is a state of mind.

Guy catches tuberculosis, makes epic quarantine video.

This is awesome/funny/clever/WIN.

From the YouTube description -

"I was eventually let out of hospital on the 2nd Jan, but then brought back in on the 18th Jan and diagnosed with a more serious form of TB... As a result, I have been back in quarantine since the 18th Jan, and all up now I have spent 55 days on the inside of a single room in hospital... This is starting to take it's toll on my mental stability, and this song is about the impact (or lack thereof) it has had so far."

1970 DC Comics survey...

Kinda awesome.

Via Historical Document of the Day - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine:

Source: Detective Comics #403, September 1970."

It's all ridiculously insane. And inane.

Seriously? The Pentagon has nothing better to do?

Pentagon fesses up to 800 pages' worth of potentially illegal spying, including peace groups and Planned Parenthood - Boing Boing:

"The Electronic Frontier Foundation has forced the Pentagon to release over 800 pages of classified material documenting 'possibly illegal' spying during the Bush administration. The heavily redacted documents include details of a spying program against Planned Parenthood and white supremacist groups in the runup to the Atlanta Olympics, as well as spying on Alaskans for Peace and Justice, an anti-recruiting group, civilian cell phone conversations, and other breaches of spying laws."

Applicable to all Presidents re: Executive Privilege.

Pretty funny. *update* I think this is via http://thisishistorictimes.com/ - Credit where it's due, etc. Found it on a message board, meself.

Sometimes you can tell.

On rebuttal.

"...the faith card simply cannot be allowed in adult conversation."

Matt Thornton makes his bones as a martial arts coach, and he posts blog wise, infrequently, at best. Nevertheless they're always deeply interesting and philosophically dense. Lengthy, as well. Click over, full post, etc, etc...

Thornton's Guerilla_Blog - Carving Nature at the Joints:

"...many religious people will call full stop, and they will play the faith card. The faith card is simply this; it is a matter of faith. And on that note, all possibility of mature dialogue is ended. And that is the moment of admission by them, that there is no evidence for the particular proposition being espoused.

All of us within the world of the rational, reality-based community have a fundamental, and unmistakable responsibility when this happens. It is on us to explain to them, that the faith card simply cannot be allowed in adult conversation...

The moment we allow a belief without evidence, “faith”, to be entered into the public dialogue, is the moment we concede all the advances of the enlightenment, and negligently allow the forces of barbarism and superstition the fuel needed to drag us kicking and screaming back into the dark ages of ignorance, and human stupidity...

As we speak there are Christian pastors and missionaries in Africa that are actively preaching the ‘sin’ of condom use, in areas that are ravaged by AIDS. There are religious groups in various states that are preparing petitions to ban gay and lesbian Americans from being able to marry each other. There are suicide bombers strapping on explosive vests, in the belief that they will have an amazing sex life post death. And there are millions of women unable to go to school, and forced to wear bee-keeper suits, all because of faith based beliefs which hold no more basis in factual reality then does the idea that Earth rests on the back of a turtle. And because it is all being done in the name of some “faith”, we as rational human beings are supposed to render the topic off limits in terms of criticism, satire, and the reason based debate that we would apply to every other field of human knowledge?

When we really think about this we should all realize, that it is truly demented."

Cannot be trusted, the historical edition.

You know, I consider myself fairly well versed, history wise, but I had never heard this particular tale. Much more at the link. [Hat/tip Sandy.]

The little-told story of how the U.S. government poisoned alcohol during Prohibition. - By Deborah Blum - Slate Magazine:

"Frustrated that people continued to consume so much alcohol even after it was banned, federal officials had decided to try a different kind of enforcement. They ordered the poisoning of industrial alcohols manufactured in the United States, products regularly stolen by bootleggers and resold as drinkable spirits. The idea was to scare people into giving up illicit drinking. Instead, by the time Prohibition ended in 1933, the federal poisoning program, by some estimates, had killed at least 10,000 people.

Although mostly forgotten today, the "chemist's war of Prohibition" remains one of the strangest and most deadly decisions in American law-enforcement history."

Texts From Last Night roundup.

So wrong, so funny.

Texts From Last Night:

"(417):

Hookers taste better with whip cream
(816):

Maybe we ought to get some pennicillin too
(417):

Fair enough"

Texts From Last Night:

"(+81):

I love Japanese schoolgirls with short skirts riding bikes on windy days.
(+61):

You're never coming back, are you?"

Texts From Last Night:

"(705):

I love having hate sex."

FLAWLESS VICTORY.

Santa Rosa War Veteran Foils Robbery Attempt - cbs5.com:

"Donald Clouston, was walking with a grocery bag in each arm when the boy approached him with a large knife.

The boy said, 'Old man, give me your wallet or I'll cut you,' Bair said. The man told the boy he was a veteran who fought in two wars and had been threatened with knives and bayonets, Bair said.

Clouston then put his bags on the ground and told the boy that if he stepped closer he would be sorry. When the boy stepped closer, the man kicked him in the groin, knocking him to the sidewalk, Bair said. The Army paratrooper picked up his grocery bags and walked home, leaving the boy doubled over, Bair said.

The man reported the attempted robbery to police 45 minutes later."

[Country] Rock Baby is Awesome.

Chatroulette WIN.

Chatroulette explained here.

Watched - 2 weeks of TV...

NCIS Season 4, The Middle, SNL, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, The Millionaire Matchmaker, NCIS, Castle, Community, Modern Family, The Office, The Big Bang, Monk [series finale], Stossel, Archer, The Mentalist, Burn Notice, UFC 109, Smallville, Human Target, Men of a Certain Age, Batman The Brave and The Bold, Modern Family

Best of...

Friday Night Lights is just awesome. Best drama on TV.

30 Rock - "You are truly the Picasso of loneliness." - "I learned to talk to gorillas when I worked for GE Medical... 'We're - going - to - test - poisons - on - you.'" - "She was on Maxim's 'I'd Rape That 100.'"

Leverage - "My name is Nate Ford, and I am a thief." Truly outstanding season finale.

Janken WIN.

*Their* failed business model not *my* problem.

Arrrr.

Heh.

Thanksgiving drama on steroids: Adding a family business to the mix | Penelope Trunk's Brazen Careerist:

"...the job of families is to keep you in line with the rest of the family, in a predestined path that is good for the family. And your job is to create your own path."