Lord of the Universe

Mustang Mid-High School forgets students are people

2012-01-27T10:59:00.001-05:00

Another school reacts to students with an abuse of power...

A suburban Oklahoma City school district has suspended a ninth-grade student and is investigating whether a substitute teacher whose photograph was taken on a cell phone was asleep on the job.

Mustang school district officials say a Mustang Mid-High School student snapped a picture of what appears to be a man with his eyes closed behind a school desk last week.

A district spokeswoman told The Oklahoman a faculty member saw the photo on a social media website and reported it to the principal. It's not clear if the photo was taken during class time.

School officials say cell phones are allowed on school grounds, but can't be used during class. The names of the student and the substitute teacher under investigation weren't released.

Read more here.

More government moves to control the Internet, this time called ACTA

2012-01-27T10:12:00.002-05:00

Sopa and Pipa might be on hold for the time-being, but there is a greater threat looming. It's called the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) and it's an international agreement that aims to establish multinational standards on intellectual property rights enforcement.

Most recently, Acta made the headlines when online activists paralysed some of Poland's government sites to protest against Warsaw's plans to sign the international copyright treaty. They fear that it could lead to censorship on the web. Meanwhile Anonymous has announced over Twitter that it is planning a "huge operation soon" opposing Acta.

Wired.co.uk has created a handy guide to the agreement and how it might affect you. It's worth looking at the introductory video in this post to start with.

Read more here.

The Australian transport minister Anthony Albanese: Idiot of the Day

2012-01-27T10:08:00.001-05:00

'In Australia we have serious challenges to solve and we need serious people to solve them,' he said. 'Unfortunately, Tony Abbott is not the least bit interested in fixing anything. He's only interested in two things - making Australians afraid of it and telling them who's to blame for it.'

If you think that sounds a tad familiar, you'd be right.

In the 1995 movie The American President, President Andrew Shepherd, played by Michael Douglas, tore into his rival Bob Rumson.

Read more here.

Study indicates conservatives may be idiots

2012-01-27T09:52:00.001-05:00

No, really?

There's no gentle way to put it: People who give in to racism and prejudice may simply be dumb, according to a new study that is bound to stir public controversy.

The research finds that children with low intelligence are more likely to hold prejudiced attitudes as adults. These findings point to a vicious cycle, according to lead researcher Gordon Hodson, a psychologist at Brock University in Ontario. Low-intelligence adults tend to gravitate toward socially conservative ideologies, the study found. Those ideologies, in turn, stress hierarchy and resistance to change, attitudes that can contribute to prejudice, Hodson wrote in an email to LiveScience.

Read more here.

Twitter becomes a craven coward

2012-01-26T21:05:00.001-05:00

A new Twitter policy which goes into effect today allows the social network "to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country," so that Twitter can further expand globally and "enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression."

Fuck you Twitter

Read more here.

1122

2012-01-25T20:42:00.001-05:00

Flint expert 'reverse engineers' Neanderthal stone axes

2012-01-25T10:49:00.000-05:00

Researchers at the University of Kent have recreated the processes Neanderthals used to produce sharp flint axes, and found that our ancestors were skilled engineers.

A modern-day 'flintknapper' replicated the sharpening processes that Neanderthals used to create tools - a sort of modern 'reverse engineering' of ancient techniques in use by three kinds of early 'hominin' including Neanderthals as early as 300,000 years ago.

The researchers found that Neanderthals could shape 'elegant' stone tools - shaping them to be hard-wearing, easily sharpened and with a perfectly balanced centre of gravity.

The reproduction of how Neanderthals worked shows that it is unlikely that stone flakes used in the tools could have been shaped by accident - and that our ancestors intentionally 'engineered' stone cores to create tools fit for their jobs.

Read more here.

Reality vs. Oklahoma state Senator Ralph Shortey

2012-01-25T10:44:00.000-05:00

...Shortey’s bill, which we pray is the last remaining evidence of human civilization when aliens finally discover Earth:

No person or entity shall manufacture or knowingly sell food or any other product intended for human consumption which contains aborted human fetuses in the ingredients or which used aborted human fetuses in the research or development of any of the ingredients.

Read more here.

Rob Ford: Idiot of the Day

2012-01-25T10:21:00.001-05:00

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford compared his political opponents at city hall to despot Joseph Stalin on Tuesday, the same day that one of those councillors had praised the mayor for a new attitude.

Speaking on Toronto radio station AM 640, Ford was asked a question about Coun. Josh Matlow — a first-term politician usually described as centrist, who has said he will oppose the mayor's planned abolishment of the land transfer tax.

After calling Matlow a "left-wing NDPer," Ford compared him to left-leaning councillors Adam Vaughan, Gord Perks, Janet Davis and Paula Fletcher.

"These people are all two steps left of Joe Stalin," he said. "So I'm not discouraged by that and I don't expect it. They don't care about the taxpayers. But I know one person that does, and that's me."

Stalin? Really Robbie, Stalin?

Read more here.

Tea party group in Tennessee want their children to be as ignorant as they are

2012-01-24T08:49:00.002-05:00

Muddle a child's mind and you've got them for life.

A little more than a year after the conservative-led state board of education in Texas approved massive changes to its school textbooks to put slavery in a more positive light, a group of Tea Party activists in Tennessee has renewed its push to whitewash school textbooks. The group is seeking to remove references to slavery and mentions of the country's founders being slave owners.

Read more here.

US Supreme Court hands down yet another hideous decision

2012-01-23T18:43:00.001-05:00

Revolting

A state law mandating "humane treatment" of downed livestock headed for the slaughterhouse was unanimously overturned Monday by the Supreme Court.

At issue was whether federal regulations dealing with inspection of domesticated animals about to be killed, processed, and sold for human consumption preempted -- or nullified -- California Penal Code 599f.

Several justices had earlier noted the good intentions behind the state action, but all now agreed that it went too far into the traditional federal arena.

Read more here.

Harper and Co. continue to embarrass Canada on a global scale

2012-01-23T09:42:00.002-05:00

Canada is becoming a jingoistic petro-state.

OK, so our friendly northern neighbor isn’t exactly Saudi Arabia or Venezuela. But neither is it the verdant progressive utopia once viewed as a haven by American liberals fed up with George W. Bush. These days Canada has a Dubya of its own. And judging by a flurry of negative press from around the world—the latest: Archbishop Desmond Tutu and other African leaders are taking out newspaper ads accusing Canada of contributing to famine and drought on the continent—it seems anti-Canadianism could be the new anti-Americanism.

Well done Stephen, you must be so proud.

Read more here.

U.S. Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia: Idiot of the Day

2012-01-22T10:18:00.000-05:00

U.S. Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia has a simple solution for people who don't like all the political advertisements unleashed by the court's decision two years ago that ended limits on corporate contributions in political campaigns – change the channel or turn off the TV.

Scalia was asked about the decision during a presentation before the South Carolina Bar on Saturday, exactly two years after the court handed down the 5-4 decision in the case that led to the rise of Super PACs. They are outside groups affiliated with candidates that can take in unlimited contributions as long as they don't directly coordinate with the candidate.

"I don't care who is doing the speech – the more the merrier," Scalia said. "People are not stupid. If they don't like it, they'll shut it off."

Moron.

Read more here.

Police union attempt to get themselves off the hook for G20

2012-01-22T09:59:00.002-05:00

They'll do it too. No official will ever be held accountable for the fuck up that was the G20.

The head of the Toronto Police Association says he intends to challenge any attempt to lay disciplinary charges against five officers involved in the 2010 arrest of G20 protester Adam Nobody.

Best bullshit:

Mike McCormack said Friday that the investigation took too long.

"The association takes the position on a point of principle," he said. "These things should be concluded within a reasonable timeframe, like any other investigation."

Read more here.

FOX New's Dr. Keith Ablow: Idiot of the Day

2012-01-21T10:52:00.002-05:00

FOX News defends serial adulterer Newt Gingrich:

Newt Gingrich's three marriages mean he might make a strong president -- really

Best bullshit:

Two women—Mr. Gingrich’s first two wives—have sat down with him while he delivered to them incredibly painful truths: that he no longer loved them as he did before, that he had fallen in love with other women and that he needed to follow his heart, despite the great price he would pay financially and the risk he would be taking with his reputation.

Conclusion: I can only hope Mr. Gingrich will be as direct and unsparing with the Congress, the American people and our allies. If this nation must now move with conviction in the direction of its heart, Newt Gingrich is obviously no stranger to that journey.

Guess to FOX, being an adulterer is admirable. At least he's not a Mormon....

Read more here.

Latest in a long series of bids by the Entertainment Industry to control the Net delayed

2012-01-20T16:44:00.003-05:00

It's only a tiny victory, but it's good to see those motherfuckers denied what they wanted in the blinding hurry they wanted it.

The US Congress has halted debate on two contested anti-online piracy bills.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid delayed a vote on the Protect IP Act (Pipa) scheduled for Tuesday.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith then said his panel would not consider the Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) until a compromise was reached.

The decisions follow protests by online encyclopaedia Wikipedia, and thousands of other websites, which went "dark" in protest for 24 hours earlier this week.

"In light of recent events, I have decided to postpone Tuesday's vote on the PROTECT IP Act," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, said in a statement on Friday.

Read more here.

Anonymous responds to the closing of Megaupload

2012-01-20T08:17:00.000-05:00

SOPA/PIPA blackout helps eight US lawmakers see the light

2012-01-19T08:37:00.000-05:00

After a 24-hour blackout, Wikipedia has returned to full working order but declared: "We're not done yet."

The site had blocked its content for 24 hours in protest at proposed anti-piracy legislation in the US.

The encyclopaedia said the site had been viewed 162 million times, with eight million people following instructions to contact politicians.

The protest led to eight US lawmakers withdrawing their support for the proposed bills.

Two of the bill's co-sponsors, Marco Rubio from Florida and Roy Blunt from Missouri, are among those who have withdrawn their support after "legitimate concerns".

But backers of the legislation, led by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), described the action as an "irresponsible" publicity "stunt".

Read more here.

Twisted psychopaths use Islam as an excuse to spew hatred

2012-01-18T13:10:00.001-05:00

A father has told a court he was only doing his duty as a Muslim by handing out leaflets calling for gay people to be executed.

Kabir Ahmed, 28, said he handed a leaflet called Death Penalty? to a policeman and stuffed them through letterboxes across Derby because he was spreading the word of God as taught by Islam.

He said: 'My intention was to do my duty as a Muslim, to inform people of God’s word and to give the message on what God says about homosexuality.'

Read more here.

Idiot movie goers in Liverpool complain that The Artist is a silent movie

2012-01-18T12:50:00.002-05:00

The Artist has been praised for being a charming delight and condemned for being a charming trifle. But there’s one thing everyone can agree on: It’s a silent movie. Like, the kind without dialogue. Apparently, that information escaped a few moviegoers in Liverpool. As reported by The Telegraph, the Odeon Liverpool One theater received several complaints from people who saw the movie without realizing it would not have any diegetic sound.

Read more here.

Andrew Sullivan behaves like an asshole over SOPA

2012-01-18T11:03:00.001-05:00

Instead of protesting, he finds ways around the blackout.

Asshole.

Read more here.

The Day The LOLcats Died

2012-01-18T08:35:00.000-05:00

MPAA reacts like a spoiled child over SOPA/PIPA protest

2012-01-17T18:33:00.003-05:00

WAAAAAAAA, we might not get our way....

A so-called “blackout” is yet another gimmick, albeit a dangerous one, designed to punish elected and administration officials who are working diligently to protect American jobs from foreign criminals. It is our hope that the White House and the Congress will call on those who intend to stage this “blackout” to stop the hyperbole and PR stunts and engage in meaningful efforts to combat piracy.”

Best bullshit:

It is also an abuse of power given the freedoms these companies enjoy in the marketplace today.

They are clueless on the concept of irony.

Read more here.

Obama makes clueless choice on where to accept nomination

2012-01-17T13:00:00.000-05:00

President Barack Obama plans to accept the Democratic presidential nomination in the open air of Bank of America Stadium on the final day of his party's convention next summer in Charlotte, N.C.

Read more here.

National Post pushes appalling lie: "The most exciting city in Canada? Toronto, of course!"

2012-01-16T09:58:00.003-05:00

Two of Toronto's most, um, lovable traits: New York envy and self love, together in one article!

In an occasional series about what Toronto can learn from other cities, it’s suggested we take a page out of New York’s book and market this town as it’s meant to be sold.

To tourists and visitors, New York it ain't...

Read more here.

Pushy Christians: Missouri wants to introduce beads and rattles into the classroom

2012-01-14T18:16:00.001-05:00

Six Missouri republicans -- "the stupefy me six," let's call them -- are hard at work trying to make Missouri kids stupid. House Bill 1227, introduced in the Missouri House of Representatives on January 10, will, if enacted, require "the equal treatment of science instruction regarding evolution and intelligent design," according to the bill's language.

In other words, the bill will require the equal treatment of religious opinion and science, depriving Missouri kids of the knowledge they need to compete in the knowledge economy, and robbing them of a clear understanding of how to tell the difference between real knowledge and someone's truthy opinion.

Read more here.

Note to Mitt Romney: F*ck you

2012-01-13T11:16:00.000-05:00

According to Mitt Romney, the nation's growing focus on income inequality is all about envy.

"You know, I think it's about envy. I think it's about class warfare," the leading Republican presidential candidate said Wednesday on The Today Show.

When asked if there are any fair questions about wealth distribution, Romney replied, "It's fine to talk about those things in quiet rooms and discussions about tax policy and the like."

Romney has accused President Obama of promoting the "bitter politics of envy." The president is ramping up his talks about the nation's growing income divide and the shrinking of the middle class. He is focusing on the tax benefits afforded to millionaires and executives.

Read more here.

Commenter expat100 is one sick f*ck

2012-01-12T17:59:00.001-05:00

Some are so put out by graffiti, they have the balls to post this:

expat100
I recall some years ago in one US city, graffiti was a problem until a vigil-anti shot a couple of taggers - mid spray. Virtually all the graffitti/tagging stopped in the city and the shooter was never caught thou it was assumed it was an owner of a building who had been blighted.

Somewhat gruff, but - win win.

You sir, are a sick fuck

Read more here.

British Prime Minister David Cameron now thinks he's a Goddamn film producer

2012-01-12T13:41:00.000-05:00

It's hard to start without any other thought: that, once again, someone who doesn’t understand the film industry is meddling with it. In this case, though, it's not the kind of meddling that's easy to dismiss. It leads to the door of British Prime Minister David Cameron, and the government.

This has all come about as a result of comments from David Cameron on the state of the industry, and what needs to be done.

The British film industry just isn’t profitable enough for them, apparently, and so films must be more mainstream and more commercially viable. In fact, his exact words were that the industry should be “More dynamic and entrepreneurial” and “Rival the quality and impact of the best international productions”.

This means, it seems, that big production companies churning out identikit movies will receive money, while small, unproven companies and filmmakers will be left to rot. Thanks David Cameron, you’re really helping the industry grow. Already equipped with its own ironic fundablefilms hashtag on Twitter, many people are rightly outraged at this, and pouring scorn on the whole idea.

Cameron’s suggestion really is idiotic...

Read more here.

George Lucas accuses Hollywood of racism

2012-01-12T13:20:00.001-05:00

No really?

Director George Lucas says it took 20 years to get his latest film made, "because it's an all-black movie".

Speaking on The Daily Show, Lucas said he had to self-fund Red Tails, the true story of a group of African-American pilots who fought in World War II.

He claimed major film studios would not back the movie because "there's no major white roles in it at all".

"I showed it to all of them and they said, 'No. We don't know how to market a movie like this,'" he said.

"They don't believe there's any foreign market for it, and that's 60% of their profit," he added.

Read more here.

Harper and Co. finally let their homophobia come to full flower

2012-01-12T09:22:00.006-05:00

It's no secret Harper and Co. just *hated* having to legalize same sex marriage. Now they can get some revenge...

The government of Canada is reportedly arguing that thousands of same-sex couples who have travelled to this country to get married are not legally wed.

The Globe and Mail reported Thursday that the government is contending in a Toronto court case that non-Canadians gays and lesbians who have been married here since 2004 are only considered married under this country's laws if gay marriage is also recognized in their home country or state.

So if interracial marriage were illegal in their home country, they couldn't marry here? Or different religions?

The logic of this exposes our government's hatred, plain and simple.

Our conservative government is vile, vindictive and petty. And that's just their good qualities.

Read more here and here.

LA Cop Punches Defenseless Mentally Ill Homeless Woman in Face

2012-01-12T09:09:00.000-05:00

Jermaine Green recorded this cop punching a mentally ill homeless woman in the face on the bus in Hawaiian Gardens, CA (Los Angeles County.) When the police realized that they were being recorded they demanded that Jermaine Green give them his cell phone, or they would arrest him. He took the sim card out of the phone without them noticing, and put it in his mouth, and gave the sim card to his wife while kissing her, just before handing the phone to the police.

Homeland Security likes to watch

2012-01-12T08:44:00.002-05:00

The ~~Fatherland~~ Homeland Security folks are ever vigilant..

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's command center routinely monitors dozens of popular websites, including Facebook, Twitter, Hulu, WikiLeaks and news and gossip sites including the Huffington Post and Drudge Report, according to a government document.

A "privacy compliance review" issued by DHS last November says that since at least June 2010, its national operations center has been operating a "Social Networking/Media Capability" which involves regular monitoring of "publicly available online forums, blogs, public websites and message boards."

The purpose of the monitoring, says the government document, is to "collect information used in providing situational awareness and establishing a common operating picture."

Read more here.

See the Homeland Security document here.

Who is murdering Iranian scientists?

2012-01-11T10:44:00.000-05:00

What’s most remarkable here is to compare the boisterous, furious denunciations of the mere suggestion by a blogger on the Internet that Iranian scientists be killed, versus the relative silence in the face of its actually being done in real life, now that the corpses of murdered Iranian scientists are beginning to pile up. Does anyone doubt that some combination of the two nations completely obsessed with Iran’s nuclear program — Israel and the U.S. — are responsible? (U.S. officials deny involvement while pointing the finger at Israel, whose officials will not comment but “smile” when asked; the CIA has “targeted” Iran’s scientists in the past, several of whom have disappeared only to end up in U.S. custody, including one who “resurfaced in the United States after defecting to the CIA in return for a large sum of money”). At the very least, there has been no denunciation from any Obama officials of whoever it might be carrying out such acts.

Read more here.

Clueless Putin supporters

2012-01-10T13:59:00.000-05:00

The Russian blogger leading Russia's vote-rigging protests has accused supporters of Vladimir Putin of seeking to smear him with a fake photo.

Alexei Navalny proved that a picture in a newspaper distributed by Putin supporters was a forgery when he published the original on his blog.

The faked photo shows Mr Navalny alongside fugitive Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky, who lives in London.

Protesters fear the March presidential vote may be rigged to favour Mr Putin.

Read more here.

gc.ca does search for "joe oliver is an idiot" which lead them here

2012-01-10T11:29:00.002-05:00

Someone at gc.ca has done a Google search for "joe oliver is an idiot" which lead them here...

Enemies list anyone?

IP Address 132.156.116.# (Natural Resources Canada)

Hi!!!!

US corporate media ignoring Internet censorship bill SOPA...ya think?

2012-01-10T11:21:00.002-05:00

Conservative torture porn classic 24 coming to the big screen

2012-01-10T09:31:00.000-05:00

It’s been chatted about ever since the eighth and final season of the show came to an end a year or two back, but it looks like the film version of 24 is finally happening.

Kiefer Sutherland, Mr Jack Bauer himself, confirmed the news to TVLine, telling the site that the movie was set to start filming “at the end of April, beginning of May”. That firmly points towards a summer 2013 release, although that’s not been confirmed by anyone. That’s just us playing our highly reliable guessing games.

Read more here.

Former Pages bookstore now a f*cking condo sales centre

2012-01-10T09:09:00.001-05:00

Priorities people priorities! Tocondo doesn't care about reading, but does about shiny new pens for the sheep.

Two and a half years ago, after three decades at 256 Queen Street West, Pages Books & Magazines announced it would close its storefront because its rent was being pushed too high. Turns out the rent was pushed too high for anyone: the space was still vacant this summer, when the realtor told The Grid’s Jacob Rutka that ”Pages closed during the height of recession….Youth brands in the Queen West area have all suffered. Commercial prices on Queen between Spadina and University are just too expensive.” (Pages is still alive now, but the store’s moved “beyond bricks and mortar.”)

It’d take two whole years before something finally moved into Pages’ former home. That new tenant? A condo sales centre (or “presentation gallery”) for Picasso on Richmond—a 39-storey condo coming at 318 Richmond Street West.

Read more here.

Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver: Idiot of the Day

2012-01-10T08:51:00.002-05:00

Never stand between a conservative and his money. They get feisty.

Environmental and other "radical groups" are trying to block trade and undermine Canada's economy, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said Monday.

Oliver's comments come one day before federal regulatory hearings begin on whether to approve Enbridge's Northern Gateway pipeline, which would deliver crude from Alberta's oilsands to Kitimat, B.C., for shipment to Asia.

More than 4,300 people have signed up to address the proposed pipeline over the next 18 months.

"Unfortunately, there are environmental and other radical groups that would seek to block this opportunity to diversify our trade," Oliver said in an open letter.

Read more here.

'Entitlements Are Not Rights'

2012-01-09T08:14:00.001-05:00

US Republicans continues their merry way down the path to becoming even more cold hearted bastards

Amnesty International states the f*cking obvious

2012-01-09T08:11:00.000-05:00

Amnesty International warned of another year of protests and government repression in the Middle East if the region's rulers do not ensure democratic and human rights for their people.

In a report released Monday on the 2011 Arab uprisings, the London-based organization detailed the harsh measures governments across the region used to suppress protests calling for democratic reforms and greater freedoms. It also noted that activists across the region have refused to accept bogus promises and appear unlikely to give up their demands.

Read more here.

The moment Britain became an island

2012-01-09T07:51:00.001-05:00

Ancient Britain was a peninsula until a tsunami flooded its land-links to Europe some 8,000 years ago. Did that wave help shape the national character?

The coastline and landscape of what would become modern Britain began to emerge at the end of the last Ice Age around 10,000 years ago.

What had been a cold, dry tundra on the north-western edge of Europe grew warmer and wetter as the ice caps melted. The Irish Sea, North Sea and the Channel were all dry land, albeit land slowly being submerged as sea levels rose.

But it wasn't until 6,100BC that Britain broke free of mainland Europe for good, during the Mesolithic period - the Middle Stone Age.

Read more here.

Shit White Girls Say...to Black Girls

2012-01-06T08:33:00.000-05:00

Vinnie Jones' hard and fast Hands-only CP

2012-01-06T08:24:00.000-05:00

WTF Montreal

2012-01-05T14:07:00.001-05:00

A Montreal restaurant devolved into chaos early New Year’s Day after a fight between two patrons turned into an eatery-wide brawl, with evidence of the action now making the rounds on YouTube...

..The introduction to the video is titled “Chinese vs Blacks.” But police have no idea whether the fight sparked from a racial comment —in fact, they know little, if anything, about what spurred the brawl.

It's only over when the Fat Mayor sings

2012-01-04T12:14:00.001-05:00

To celebrate the 15th successful year of the Student Composer Collective, the Faculty of Music will present Rob Ford, the Opera...

...The opera [approximately an hour in length] is a surrealist fantasy based loosely upon the personality of Toronto’s current and much discussed Mayor.

Read more here.

The Toronto Star: Come for the advertising, stay for...um I can't think of a reason

2012-01-04T12:11:00.002-05:00

If you picked up a hard copy of the Toronto Star on December 10, you may have noticed the cover of the Entertainment section: a full-page ad for War Horse, a play presented by Mirvish Productions. On December 17, the ad appeared again in the same place, along with a Rogers ad covering the entire paper in hopes readers would use it to wrap holiday gifts. We got over the holidays, it seems, a taste of what advertising could make papers could look like in the near future. Some people have a big problem with that.

Read more here.

US Republicans have one less crazy person in the race

2012-01-04T11:34:00.000-05:00

Bubye

An adviser to Michele Bachmann says the Minnesota congresswoman is ending her bid to win the Republican presidential nomination after coming in last in the Iowa caucuses.

Bachmann finished sixth out of six candidates in the first of many contests to pick a Republican presidential candidate.

She canceled appearances planned for Wednesday in South Carolina and scheduled a news conference in Des Moines, Iowa, instead.

The adviser requested anonymity to speak before Bachmann makes the announcement late Wednesday morning.

Vote Rick Perry for an all white, Christian America..or else

2012-01-04T07:50:00.001-05:00

Comments *and* ratings disabled on Youtube. Well, at least he learned that lesson.

Dutch Boy Lead Paint

2012-01-03T10:11:00.001-05:00

More chocolate please!

Pushy Christians: Christians for a Moral America

2012-01-03T08:43:00.001-05:00

Pushy, and slightly dim witted...

Invading your local cinema next winter is a new work of evil The Hobbit. The Hobbit follows on from the Lord Of The Rings trilogy and seemingly has brought everyone back to "Middle Earth" from the dead. Peter Jackson has once again stepped up as Satan's Little Helper to direct the two-part film and is once again using witchcraft and wizardry to peddle the film, even though the books had strong Christian undertones (good vs evil; Christians vs Atheists) but Jackson being the self-proclaimed Atheist he is obviously doesn't want to present this movie in the way it was meant by Tolkien. Let's vote with our wallets and send a big message to Hollywood and Jackson; Christians will NOT tolerate this blatant Anti-Christian bigotry and Atheist propaganda. Our children's minds are filled with enough poison these days from the media without us as parents actively doing the same while filling liberal fat cats' coffers.

Read more here.

Lo Green: Idiot of the Day

2012-01-03T08:02:00.002-05:00

May the spirit of John Lennon rise up and smite you, you moron.

New Year’s Eve is usually truce time in the culture wars — a moment to reflect and hope and forget your troubles (and the world’s). Not so on Saturday night, when Cee Lo Green changed the lyrics to John Lennon’s “Imagine” while performing the song on live television in New York’s Time Square.

Instead of “Nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too,” Green sang, “Nothing to kill or die for, and all religion’s true.”

Read more here.

Night Gallery - The Earwig Episode

2012-01-02T20:32:00.002-05:00

Arizona Humane Society: Scumbags of the Day

2011-12-30T11:09:00.001-05:00

Animal lovers threatened to pull donations to an animal rescue group and the public flooded the agency with scathing comments and calls after a man's cat was euthanized when he couldn't afford its medical care, prompting the Arizona Humane Society to go into damage-control mode Wednesday.

The group has hired a publicist, removed dozens of comments on its Facebook page and directed a team of five volunteers to respond to the overwhelming calls and emails it has received since The Arizona Republic published a weekend story about Daniel Dockery and his 9-month-old cat, Scruffy.

Dockery, a 49-year-old recovering heroin addict, told the Phoenix newspaper that he took Scruffy to a Humane Society center on Dec. 8 because she had a cut from a barbed-wire fence, an injury that he described as non-life-threatening. The agency said it would cost $400 to treat Scruffy, money he didn't have.

The Humane Society cited policy when it declined to accept a credit card over the phone from Dockery's mother in Michigan or to wait for her to wire the money. The staff said if he signed papers surrendering the cat, Scruffy would be treated and put in foster care, he said.

Instead, Scruffy was euthanized several hours later.

Read more here.

Their Facebook page of PR Bullshit here.

Harper and Co. are afraid, very afraid

2011-12-30T06:37:00.001-05:00

Parliament Hill is stepping up security in 2012, with $9 million in security upgrades planned for its entrance gates.

The changes will include retractable bollards as well as vehicle barriers and security cameras at four existing vehicle entrances. Two other openings will be made smaller by restoring portions of the heritage wall, a spokesman for Public Works and Government Services Canada said in an email.

Currently, the RCMP rely on "a combination of concrete blocks, removable fences, chains and RCMP vehicles at the gates to Parliament Hill," Sebastien Bois said.

The government wants to install the barriers at all vehicle and pedestrian entry points to the Hill, according to a request for proposals posted online.

Read more here.

Rob Ford and Astral Media cover Toronto in more f*cking ads

2011-12-29T16:40:00.001-05:00

Toronto’s newest piece of street furniture was going to be the centrepiece of a state-of-the-art tourist information system and then it was redesigned. Now that it’s being placed on downtown sidewalks, public-space activists are making their opinion clear: They hate it.

Why? Because they say it looks like nothing more than a garish billboard.

The city calls them “information pillars,” but opponents say that name is disingenuous. “They’re 95-per-cent advertising and the information they offer is of negligible value,” said Tim Grant chair of the Harbord Village Residents’ Association. “It is clearly a billboard.”

Read more here.

Earworm - World Go Boom

2011-12-29T12:58:00.000-05:00

Cheetah dies aged 80

2011-12-28T06:49:00.000-05:00

The passing of Old Hollywood.

A chimpanzee who apparently starred in Tarzan films in the 1930s has died at the age of 80, according to the sanctuary where he lived.

The Suncoast Primate Sanctuary in Palm Harbor said he died on Saturday of kidney failure.

He had acted alongside Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O'Sullivan in Tarzan films from 1932-34, it claimed.

Read more here.

The Deaths of Basil Rathbone

2011-12-28T06:19:00.000-05:00

Sony is sued for being arrogent pricks

2011-12-26T10:31:00.001-05:00

Sony is being sued for changes to its terms and conditions designed to prevent users from suing it en masse.

The class action lawsuit, filed in California, claims the changes force users to give up their legal rights and are unfair.

Sony said that it was legally entitled to make such changes to its terms.

The legal case will be watched keenly by other firms, including Microsoft, which has also introduced so-called no-sue clauses in recent months.

A Sony spokesman told the BBC: "We chose to make the changes after the Supreme Court clarified the law."

Read more here.

Don Cherry's Piano Desk

2011-12-26T09:17:00.001-05:00

Hitler Reacts to SOPA

2011-12-24T10:54:00.000-05:00

CIA clear themselves of any hint of wrongdoing in their cosy relationship with the NYPD

2011-12-24T08:58:00.002-05:00

Well that was totally unbiased..

The Central Intelligence Agency announced Friday that an internal report found no issue or evidence of wrong-doing in the spy agency's partnership with the New York City Police Department.

"The CIA inspector general has completed a review of the CIA's relationship with the NYPD and has found no violation of law or executive order on the part of CIA," said agency spokesman Preston Golson. "The IG also found no evidence that any part of the agency's support to the NYPD constituted 'domestic spying.'"

Read more here.

Germans react to South Park, proving they really don't have a sense of humour

2011-12-23T19:35:00.001-05:00

It needs saying because the country is just about recovering from the broadcast of an episode of the American cartoon series South Park which makes fun of Germans for their alleged absence of any scintilla of a sense of humour.

The episode, Funnybot, features a pistol-toting Chancellor Angela Merkel.

She, plus the German president and men in Tyrolean hats, invade a school and hold the children hostage at gunpoint.

Their righteous anger is because Germans have been called an unfunny people.

To put matters right, they unveil a robot (very well engineered, of course) that tells jokes, some of which are good and some of which are not good.

A robot? Queue the Kraftwerk...

Read more here.

WoodyAllenJesus

2011-12-23T12:11:00.001-05:00

Pushy Atheists: Don't they know it's Christmas?

2011-12-23T08:41:00.002-05:00

We can't blame God for making these people idiots..

Every Christmas for the past 60 years, Nativity scenes have dominated two blocks of a park on bluffs overlooking the ocean in Santa Monica, California.

The 14 scenes depicting Jesus Christ's birth have long been a popular attraction among area residents and tourists to the southern California city.

This year, however, atheists have taken over most of the two-block stretch, nearly shutting out and angering a group of churches who contend the atheists have organized against the Christians and gamed a city lottery process allocating the holiday exhibit space.

In response, a leader of the atheist group says he's just looking for evenhanded treatment to present his beliefs in a public space -- and goes so far as to say that the city shouldn't even be allowing any religious or even atheist expression in the park.

Read more here.

Be a HERO and Help STOP SOPA Now!!

2011-12-22T19:20:00.000-05:00

US Republicans hate Obama so much they're willing to f*ck over the middle class

2011-12-21T12:40:00.003-05:00

Merry Christmas everybody.

Brian Cox - A Night with the Stars

2011-12-21T10:57:00.001-05:00

His ego may be galatic in scale, but in this science starved age, it's the best we got.

Fed Ex delivery guy: Idiot of the Day

2011-12-21T10:19:00.001-05:00

The Hobbit

2011-12-21T08:37:00.001-05:00

Jackie Magazine: Idiots of the Day

2011-12-20T20:37:00.000-05:00

Dutch fashion magazine Jackie is facing outcry after publishing an article in which it refers to pop star Rihanna as the ultimate "n****b****."

As posted on Parlourmagazine.com, the magazine's piece focuses on Rihanna's style, but uses the aforementioned language to describe the singer.

Best bullshit:

The responses poured in swiftly enough that according to Parlour magazine, the editor of Jackie, Eva Hoeke, issued a statement of apology on the publication's Facebook page, saying that "the author meant no harm" and that the headline using the words was meant to be "a joke."

Read more here.

Bloomberg wants us to feel sorry for the poor downtrodden millionaires and billionaires

2011-12-20T14:23:00.003-05:00

If successful businesspeople don’t go public to share their stories and talk about their troubles, “they deserve what they’re going to get,” said Marcus, 82, a founding member of Job Creators Alliance, a Dallas-based nonprofit that develops talking points and op-ed pieces aimed at “shaping the national agenda,” according to the group’s website. He said he isn’t worried that speaking out might make him a target of protesters.

“Who gives a crap about some imbecile?” Marcus said. “Are you kidding me?”

Read more here.

New findings about the Earth's core

2011-12-20T09:53:00.000-05:00

Under extreme pressures and temperatures, one of the main metals of the Earth's interior has exhibited a never-before-seen transition.

Iron oxide was subjected to conditions similar to those at the depth where the Earth's innermost two layers meet.

At 1,650C and 690,000 times sea-level pressure, the metal changed the degree to which it conducted electricity.

But, as the team outlined in Physical Review Letters, the metal's structure was surprisingly unchanged.

Read more here.

Tocondo condo investors flee as there are too many pens for the sheep

2011-12-20T09:42:00.002-05:00

Investors rushed to buy Toronto condos in the good times, now there is a worry that they will rush for the exits as the economy weakens and they realize that profits are hard to come by in an overbuilt market.

A record number of condos were built in the past year in the Greater Toronto Area, with some 43,000 units under construction. Anecdotal evidence suggests many of the units were sold to investors who plan to rent them out, but a flood of supply hitting the market at once could drive rents below what’s needed to generate a profit.

Read more here.

A Brief History of Santa

2011-12-20T09:37:00.001-05:00

High pitched voice theory Neanderthal

2011-12-19T21:15:00.001-05:00

North Koreans cry for the cameras

2011-12-19T11:31:00.001-05:00

Totally convincing outpouring of um, grief, over the death of Kim Jong-il.

Yup, I'm sold...

Rob Ford is delusional

2011-12-19T11:28:00.001-05:00

“We’ve had a fantastic year,” he told John Oakley of AM640 radio. “We have changed the culture down at City Hall. I’m convinced of that. It’s like turning around the Queen Mary, but we’re turning, slowly but surely.”

Facts? We don't need no stinking facts.

Read more here.

British Conservative MP Aidan Burley: Idiot of the Day

2011-12-18T14:13:00.002-05:00

A Conservative MP has been sacked as a parliamentary private secretary over "offensive and foolish" behaviour.

Cannock Chase MP Aidan Burley was pictured in the Mail on Sunday last week with a man dressed as a Nazi SS officer at a stag party in France.

Mr Burley said subsequently he "deeply regretted" what had happened.

Translation: I'm sorry Mein Führer, I got caught...

Read more here.

Gingrich continues plunge to the bottom of the barrel

2011-12-18T13:59:00.002-05:00

On Sunday, he followed that up by saying he would be willing to arrest a judge who he thought was out of line.

"If you had to," he said on CBS's "Face the Nation" when asked if he would send a Capitol Hill police officer to round up a judge, "or you would instruct the Justice Department to send the U.S. Marshal." His preference, he added, would be to impeach the judge in question.

Modern conservatives are more thuggish with every passing day.

Read more here.

Some at Rosemount High School in Minnesota are very f*cked up

2011-12-18T09:41:00.003-05:00

Whoever thought this was a good idea are very fucked up individuals...but the Rosemount Town Pages thinks it's AOK...

Rosemount High School principal John Wollersheim issued an apology this week to anyone who might have been offended by a joke played on some winter sports captains at an RHS pep fest last week. The move makes sense considering the reactions expressed in some places to video of the event. But we hardly think RHS has anything to apologize for.

If you haven’t yet seen the video several Irish captains were blindfolded at the traditional winter sports pep fest and told they were about to get a kiss from another student. What they got instead was a smooch from one of their parents.

Read more here.

Harper and Co. signal their plans to f*ck with health care..or as they put it "deeper spending cuts"

2011-12-18T08:42:00.002-05:00

Coming up with a billion for a military style occupation of Toronto was easy, but this makes their little heads hurt...

A day before federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is set to meet with his provincial and territorial counterparts in Victoria, Conservative cabinet minister Jason Kenney says while a new deal on health transfers has yet to be reached, the current level of funding is unsustainable and his party's election promise to fund health transfers to the provinces at six per cent does not extend beyond 2016.

In an interview with CBC Radio's The House, Kenney tells Evan Solomon, "We did commit in the platform, during the election, to six per cent growth for the balance of the Health Accord, plus two years."

With the current Health Accord set to expire in 2014, the federal government "will be having discussions with the provinces on where to go beyond that," said Kenney.

Read more here.

Black Hole Meltdown in the Galactic Center

2011-12-16T09:05:00.000-05:00

Farewell Christopher Hitchens

2011-12-16T08:27:00.004-05:00

The world just got a bit less interesting.

Arri Eisen, PhD. seems to be massively unqualified

2011-12-15T17:09:00.003-05:00

He wants religion taught in science classes. Silly man.

Let him babble in his own words:

Read more here.

Obama joins, or comes out as one of, the cowards

2011-12-15T10:33:00.004-05:00

With friends like this....

Barack Obama has abandoned a commitment to veto a new security law that allows the military to indefinitely detain without trial American terrorism suspects arrested on US soil who could then be shipped to Guantánamo Bay.

Human rights groups accused the president of deserting his principles and disregarding the long-established principle that the military is not used in domestic policing. The legislation has also been strongly criticised by libertarians on the right angered at the stripping of individual rights for the duration of "a war that appears to have no end".

The law, contained in the defence authorisation bill that funds the US military, effectively extends the battlefield in the "war on terror" to the US and applies the established principle that combatants in any war are subject to military detention.

Obama really has been a disappointment for anyone with any Hope left, no?

Read more here.

Galactic event that happened 27,000 years ago reported as happening now

2011-12-15T08:42:00.002-05:00

Researchers have spotted a giant gas cloud spiralling into the supermassive black hole at our galaxy's centre.

Though it is known that black holes draw in nearby material, it will be the first chance to see one consume such a cloud.

As it is torn apart, the turbulent area around the black hole will become unusually bright, giving astronomers a chance to learn more about it

So far so good, but...

They have plotted the cloud's squashed, oval-shaped path and estimate it has doubled its speed in the last seven years - to 2,350km per second.

It should spiral in to within about 40 billion kilometres of the black hole in the middle of 2013.

The real event is long since over.

Read more here.

The University of Vermont's Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity: Scumbags of the Day

2011-12-15T08:32:00.000-05:00

The University of Vermont's Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity is under investigation after a survey surfaced online asking fraternity brothers who they would rape.

Read more here.

Peter WTF is Ozone Kent: F*ck the environment, we'll save money!

2011-12-13T14:14:00.002-05:00

Classic Harperisms: Kick the Pinkos and evoke money:

He said meeting Canada's obligations under Kyoto would cost $13.6bn (10.3bn euros; £8.7bn): "That's $1,600 from every Canadian family - that's the Kyoto cost to Canadians, that was the legacy of an incompetent Liberal government."

Read more here.

Lowe's Home Improvement runs to Facebook to explain why they're totally spineless

2011-12-13T10:26:00.001-05:00

A decision by retail giant Lowe's Cos. to pull ads from a reality show about American Muslims after protests from an evangelical Christian group has sparked criticism and calls for a boycott against the chain of home-improvement stores.

Read more here.

Spineless Facebook posting here

Harper and Co. surprise no one by leaving Kyoto Protocol

2011-12-12T19:54:00.005-05:00

One wonders what took them so long.

Canada is formally withdrawing from the Kyoto accord, Environment Minister Peter Kent said Monday.

Best bullshit:

The decision to do so will save the government an estimated $14 billion in penalties, Kent said. The Conservative government says it has no choice given the economic situation.

Translation: we finally have a reason that will please our knuckle dragging supporters. Money.

Read more here.

Some scumbag has suspended nickfromfulham from Youtube

2011-12-12T14:58:00.003-05:00

Whoever you are, you have earned the hatred of the interwebs forever.

A completely asinine move by those involved, as it vastly increased fans of the shows he posted.

BBC, Youtube or whoever is behind this, you are idiots of the highest order who have generated nothing but ill will by this arrogant action.

For a party that lives in the past, Harper and Co. love to push things into the future

2011-12-11T11:45:00.001-05:00

Environment Minister Peter Kent said he is cautiously optimistic a new global climate agreement can be reached by 2015, following the conclusion of a UN summit in Durban, South Africa.

The 194-party conference agreed Sunday to start negotiations on a new accord that would put all participating countries under the same binding commitments to control greenhouse gases. It would take effect by 2020 at the latest.

Read more here.

Christie Blatchford outdoes herself in sheer thuggish awfulness

2011-12-11T08:54:00.001-05:00

Toronto, City of Sissies

It was in Toronto recently, while temporarily resuming my semi-charmed kind of life there and briefly ditching the other semi-charmed half in Kingston, that I realized how much in need the modern male of the species is of some toughening up.

The bull terrier and I were on a long forced march on the toney part of Yonge Street, in Rosedale.

There were a couple of boys, maybe 10 years old, maybe 12, walking ahead of me. Coming towards them was another small knot of boys about the same age.

The two groups met, and immediately began hugging each another, one at a time. The trustees and ding-dongs at the Toronto District School Board would have been ecstatic; I was mortified and appalled.

It only gets worse...

Read more here.

Stephen Fry CarPool

2011-12-10T15:34:00.000-05:00

In The Game trading card company: Idiots of the Day

2011-12-10T10:14:00.001-05:00

A Canadian sports card company is releasing a series of blood-spattered hockey cards celebrating the game's enforcers.

The cards, from In The Game trading cards, feature many of the NHL's best-known bruisers over the years, such as Marty McSorley, Dave Manson, Jimmy Mann, Tie Domi and Dave Schultz.

But there is also a card for Wade Belak, one of three former tough guys who died within four months of one another in 2011.

The deaths thrust the role of the enforcer into the spotlight because of the addictions and depression many apparently suffer and the theory that brain trauma from concussions is responsible.

Best bullshit:

Brian Price, owner of In The Game trading cards in Ontario, said he's trying to capture the history of hockey and feels the enforcer series "is bringing attention to the players who do the work in the trenches."

"I'm not glorifying violence. I'm paying tribute to the players," he added.

Read more here.

RIM execs 'chewed through restraints' on flight

2011-12-10T09:31:00.001-05:00

Mental midgets of the highest order.

The pair seemed heavily intoxicated from the start of the flight, according to one passenger. They drank, passed out, and woke up to continue consuming alcohol and yelling at one another.

Campbell was described as a "rowdy and abusive" passenger who at one point warned that he would "off people when they left the plane," according to the Crown prosecutor.

A flight attendant said that Campbell also lay belly-down in the aisle during the ordeal, and began kicking the floor.

One of the men "assaulted a flight attendant and threatened to punch another," the prosecution told the court.

Crew members eventually handcuffed the two unruly passengers with plastic restraints and then with tape. But they eventually "chewed their way through their restraints."

Read more here.

Universal Censors Megaupload Song

2011-12-10T09:10:00.001-05:00

Megaupload released a pop video featuring mainstream artists who endorse the cyberlocker service. News of the controversial Mega Song even trended on Twitter, but has now been removed from YouTube on copyright grounds by Universal Music. Kim Dotcom says that Megaupload owns everything in the video, and that the label has engaged in dirty tricks in an attempt to sabotage their successful viral campaign.

Read more here.