World News Korner

This is an incredible story of the return of wolves to Yellowstone National Park, after being hunted to extinction in the area, and how their return dramatically changed the landscape.

Viewing this should be made mandatory for everybody who suggests that wolf populations be controlled by man or who feel that there is no harm in over hunting.

We have done so much damage in our clumsy attempts to manage predator populations in the past, and it is in the best interests of the planet, and all of its inhabitants, for us to do a much, much better job going forward.

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Courtesy TPM:

A Missouri lawmaker has proposed what ranks among the most anti-evolution legislation in recent years, which would require schools to notify parents if "the theory of evolution by natural selection" was being taught at their child's school and give them the opportunity to opt out of the class.

The bill had its first public hearing Thursday after being introduced in late January.

State Rep. Rick Brattin (R), who sponsored the bill, told a local TV station last week that teaching only evolution in school was "indoctrination."

"Our schools basically mandate that we teach one side," he told KCTV. "It is an indoctrination because it is not objective approach."

And as troubling as this is for Missouri schoolchildren, it is even more troubling that similar laws are being introduced all along the Bible Belt.

The bill is one of several anti-evolution proposals that have already appeared in statehouses across the country; the Daily Beast counted four states (Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Virginia) where legislation had been introduced. The proposals would allow for a range of approaches to evolution, from presenting a "debate" over evolution versus creationism to requiring that local school boards allow intelligent design to be included in biology courses.

However Missouri is still in the forefront of sabotaging their children's education.

But Brattin's bill appears to be the only one, and perhaps the first, that would mandate parental notification that their children were being taught evolution in school, the curriculum that most mainstream science teacher groups endorse.

“It’s an absolute infringement on people’s beliefs,” Brattin told the Kansas City Star of requiring schools to teach evolution. “What’s being taught is just as much faith and, you know, just as much pulled out of the air as, say, any religion."

As scientific investigation provides more and more answers about our origins, and the origins of out planet and universe, we are seeing what can only be defined as a panicked response to somehow preserve the teachings of religion by protecting children from the influence of critical thinking.

In year passed, as many of you here have pointed out, there was NOT this great movement to attack science and it was felt that religion and science could live together in harmony.

However today with the climate change debate, the rise in non-theism, and new discoveries being made, seemingly on a daily basis, that disprove much of what is written in the Bible, there has arisen an orchestrated attack on Evolution specifically, and science in general, that threatens to undermine the very future of our country.

You know what sometimes is not made clear in discussions about Evolution is that human being benefited greatly from its discovery in way that many simply do not understand.

It provided a framework and model that has been used in zoology, botany, biology, medicine, and many other scientific disciplines with great success.

Without Darwin that flu shot we all rush to get every year may not be nearly as effective, we may never have mapped the human genome (Which by the way shows evidence of the continued evolution of humans.), or today it is even giving us new insights into dealing with Alzheimer's.

It is NOT important that every public school pupil have a degree in Evolutionary Biology, but it IS important that they recognize its importance and do not disregard it out of hand simply because it does not comport with their religious beliefs, whatever form those might take.

It may be important to note that there are scientists working in the field of Evolution who come from a background in Hinduism, Buddhism, Catholism, Islamism, Protestantism, and virtually every other religious discipline.

But when they put on their lab coats, they are scientists. And scientists deal with facts.

And so should American school children.

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From the English translation of an interview that Zimmerman gave to Univision, and reported here courtesy of the Sun Sentinel:

In the interview, Zimmerman repeatedly declines to answer questions about the shooting, citing a still-pending federal civil-rights investigation.

However, he tells Calderón that his first reaction after firing the shot was concern that he had missed.

"I was afraid it had gone through his clothes and that it was going to go ... get lost, and, um, you know, go into a house and — because the young man was still talking to me, as I have said. So I thought that it hadn't … affected him, and I got worried, and I said, 'I hope that it hasn't — that the bullet hasn't hit a neighbor,'" Zimmerman says. "But I only knew that the attack stopped."

Zimmerman describes receiving death threats, which he attributes to the portrayal of the shooting in the media.

"You don't think it's because of the fact that you fired [a] gun?" Calderón asks.

"Correct. No, obviously not," replies Zimmerman, noting that other shootings get less media attention.

Later in the interview, Zimmerman tells Calderón that he was "100 percent" sure of his actions on the night of the shooting. Trayvon would have killed him if he hadn't opened fire, Zimmerman says.

"I know that for sure, yes," he tells Calderón.

So his first reaction was fear that he had not murdered the unarmed teenager, and now believes the anger toward him is due to biased media reporting? What a POS.

Zimmerman also discusses the recently cancelled pay-per-view fight:

The plans for a fight, he says, "transformed into something that is not right."

Yeah, I'm sure that in Zimmerman's opinion what's "not right" is that he was going to be facing a fully grown adult without benefit of a gun to protect him from the beating he would surely have received.

And how is Georgie Porgy doing these days?

Zimmerman goes on to say that he can't have a "normal life," wears a bulletproof vest when in public and doesn't have a permanent home. He says that his family helps him "a lot." "I'm totally homeless," Zimmerman says. Later, Calderón asks how he has changed since the shooting: "I suffer from PTSD," Zimmerman replies.

You know what? Good!

And maybe Zimmerman can serve as a cautionary tale for all of those 2nd Amendment assholes who think they can murder a theater goer for texting during the credits, or a teenager for playing loud music on their car stereos, that maybe they will get away with it, but that does not mean they will live without suffering the consequences of their behaviors.

This shit has to stop! We cannot turn into a nation that solves its problems by shooting first and asking questions later.

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Courtesy of CNN:

A Kentucky pastor who starred in a reality show about snake-handling in church has died -- of a snakebite. Jamie Coots died Saturday evening after refusing to be treated, Middleborough police said.

On "Snake Salvation," the ardent Pentecostal believer said that he believed that a passage in the Bible suggests poisonous snakebites will not harm believers as long as they are anointed by God. The practice is illegal in most states, but still goes on, primarily in the rural South.

Coots was a third-generation "serpent handler" and aspired to one day pass the practice and his church, Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name, on to his adult son, Little Cody.

It is rare that a belief system is so quickly and clearly demonstrated to be false. However in spite of that National Geographic believes it is in the best interests of the gullible public to pay homage to this superstitious moron:

National Geographic had no plans for a second season of Snake Salvation, says a network rep, but is now planning a special tribute episode “so people can understand Pastor Jamie and his method of worship and see that he died doing what he believed was his calling.” NatGeo also sent in the following statement on Coots’ passing:

National Geographic joins his family, friends and community in mourning the loss of Pastor Jamie Coots. In following Pastor Coots for our series Snake Salvation, we were constantly struck by his devout religious convictions despite the health and legal peril he often faced. Those risks were always worth it to him and his congregants as a means to demonstrate their unwavering faith. We were honored to be allowed such unique access to Pastor Jamie and his congregation during the course of our show, and give context to his method of worship. Our thoughts are with his family at this difficult time.

Yes let's celebrate the life of an individual whose belief system cost him his life, the life of several of his parishioners, and continues to put members of his family in danger on a daily basis.

This is dangerous religious zealotry and should NOT be celebrated but rather confronted in the hopes of ending it forever, or ignored in the hopes that it will spread no further.

National Geographic has every right to report on the primitive cultures around the world, and strange religious practices both here and in other locales, but it should not glamorize one so inherently dangerous by giving these people their own television show and demonstrating to others that the way to fame and fortune is to put yourself, and your family, in danger for the entertainment of the masses.

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Photo courtesy of Facebook

Before this Palin posted some behind the scenes pictures of Todd and his crew preparing for the race.

One even included Trig.

Of course right now you won't see any pictures of Bristol and Tripp, because you know hair school and fuck Levi.

I am told by those in the know that Sarah is once again doing the bare minimum, staying away from any nosy people, and only showing up to do the occasional photo op with Todd for advertising purposes and of course Facebook posts.

Even sent one to Bristol so that she could do her part to publicize her daddy's hobby. (You know the ones that does NOT involve turning out young woman.)

I saw a little of the coverage today and most of the attention seems to be focused on the newer, younger guys, and nobody seems to care much about a certain former champion and current purse carrier.

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What troubles me the most about this racist diatribe, is that the congregation is filled with people who, instead of being offended, welcome this kind of talk as evidenced by the speaker's swagger and confidence that his message is being well received.

Courtesy of Raw Story:

“Today we have so much fussing and stewing about this segregation of white and colored and everything. Why don’t they leave it alone? Let it be the way God made it.”

Reading from a prepared text, Brother Reagan warns his congregation that he is probably “going to make some people mad.”

“There is a move in the message, of blacks marrying whites, whites marrying blacks.” Reagan explains “And folks think that is alright, but you know, my God still has nationalities outside the city.’

To the “amens” of his congregation, Brother Reagan read, “Hybreeding, hybreeding, oh how terrible. They hybreed the people. You know it’s a big molding pot. I’ve got hundreds of precious colored friends that’s borned again Christians. But on this line of segregation, hybreeding the people. What, tell me what fine cultured, fine Christian colored woman would want her baby to be a mulatto by a white man? No sir, it’s not right.”

Reagan also told his congregation that “If God wanted a man brown, black, white, whatever color he wanted him, that God’s creation. That’s the way he wanted it.”

I actually watched this the other day and did not post it then because it pissed me off so much I was afraid I would pound my keyboard right through my desk.

However after waiting a day, I still find myself incredibly upset by this, and the fact that this piece of garbage attempts to excuse his racism by claiming that he is "not putting one race above the other" is insulting to my intelligence.

After all it is the desire to keep the white race pure that inspired the KKK and the neo-Nazi movement in this country.

They called it race mixing in those days.

Today we call it loving each other for what we have in common, while accepting that which, and this includes what's on the outside, seems to make us different.

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For this I spent nine years in prison?

Courtesy of NPR:

A quarter of Americans surveyed could not correctly answer that the Earth revolves around the sun and not the other way around, according to a report out Friday from the National Science Foundation.

The survey of 2,200 people in the United States was conducted by the NSF in 2012 and released on Friday at an annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Chicago.

To the question "Does the Earth go around the Sun, or does the Sun go around the Earth," 26 percent of those surveyed answered incorrectly.

In the same survey, just 39 percent answered correctly (true) that "The universe began with a huge explosion" and only 48 percent said "Human beings, as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals."

This, THIS, is what the conservatives have done to education in America.

These are not even hard questions.

Bill Nye is right, this country is going down the crapper, and the solution is more of this:





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Courtesy of USA Today:

A National Security Agency employee resigned from the agency after admitting to federal investigators that he gave former NSA analyst Edward Snowden a digital key that allowed him to gain access to classified materials, the NSA has told Congress. Snowden has previously said he did not steal any passwords.

The unnamed civilian employee who worked with Snowden resigned last month after the government revoked his security clearance, according to a letter that NSA legislative director Ethan L. Bauman sent this week to the House Judiciary Committee. A military employee and a private contractor also lost their access to NSA data as part of the continuing investigation by the FBI, Bauman said.

Bauman's memo, dated Feb. 10, provides some of the first details about what authorities said they have learned about how Snowden retrieved so many classified documents before passing them to news organizations. Top U.S. national security officials have acknowledged they do not know many files Snowden took before he fled the U.S.

Snowden has denied that he stole computer passwords or tricked some co-workers into giving him their passwords. The NSA letter suggested Snowden tricked at least one co-worker and copied the employee's password without his knowledge. The civilian NSA worker told FBI investigators last June that he allowed Snowden to use an encrypted digital key known as a Public Key Infrastructure certificate to gain access to classified information on NSANet, the agency's computer network. The system connects into many of the NSA's classified databanks. The memo said that previously Snowden had been denied access to the network.

After the co-worker entered his secure PKI password, Snowden "was able to capture the password, allowing him even greater access to classified information," Bauman told lawmakers. He said the civilian NSA employee was not aware that Snowden intended to reveal any classified information. It was not clear from the memo how much classified information Snowden had collected before using the co-worker's password.

Last month, Snowden participated in a public question-and-answer session on the "Free Snowden" website. "I never stole any passwords, nor did I trick an army of co-workers," he asserted.

I know that many Americans are split when it comes to Edward Snowden, but if he is willing to lie about this it kind of makes one wonder what else he is lying about.

Currently Snowden has received eight nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize.

However I would contend that, even though the information about NSA spying tactics was beneficial, there is still a lot we do not know about Snowden's activities at the NSA.

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