Optical illusion extravaganza!

Here's a great site for all of you who enjoy optical illusions. Lots and lots of links are provided. Yes, here is a place that can be enjoyed by Believers and Atheists alike. Gays and homophobes, set aside your differences and enjoy these impressive illusions! Republicans, Democrats and even Green…

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Canada votes to not revisit the issue of gay marriage

In a post entitiled "Canada Makes the Baby Jesus Cry," Ed Brayton had this to say about the Canadian Parliament's recent refusal to reconsider last year's approval of gay marriage throughout Canada:  Now, of course, Canada's entire culture will collapse, people will stop marrying one another and loving their kids,…

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Republican Senator from Oregon: Iraq War “May Be Criminal”

The following words were delivered last night by Sen. Gordon Smith (a Republican from Oregon), a 10-year veteran of the Senate: I, for one, am at the end of my rope when it comes to supporting a policy that has our soldiers patrolling the same streets in the same way,…

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Mary Cheney Pregnant

According to the AP Conservative leaders voiced dismay Wednesday at news that Mary Cheney, the lesbian daughter of Dick Cheney, is pregnant, while a gay-rights group said the vice president faces "a lifetime of sleepless nights" for serving in an administration that has opposed recognition of same-sex couples. How bad is…

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How to acquiesce in a national catastrophe: a case study featuring the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Take a look at the front page of today’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 

PD headline - smaller.JPG

You can see the photo of an Iraqi man grieving over the body of his three-year-old daughter outside of the Baghdad hospital.  According to the paper, “the girl was killed and three other family members injured when they were caught in crossfire as clashes erupted between gunmen and US forces.”

The lead story starts with this assertion:

The situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating.  The current approach is not working, and the ability of the United States to influence events is diminishing.

This story line and this photograph clearly impugn the integrity of the United States.  Publishing such information is unpatriotic.  Or, at least, those are the sorts of things we’ve been told, until recently. 

It was always OK to publish pictures of our proud soldiers and our high-tech missiles taking off, of course.   It was up to Al Jazeera and the Europeans to publish pictures of what happened when those missiles exploded on the ground, however.  And when those non-American media sources published those photos of Iraqi civilian carnage, it infuriated “America.”  It’s not that American soldiers weren’t also credible witnesses to the civilian killings on the ground.   The evidence was there to be published, if anyone cared to know. 

For most of the past 3 1/2 years, the Post-Dispatch (along with most mainstream newspapers across the United States) did not publish pictures like this, certainly not in prominent places.  It simply wasn’t deemed news …

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