Clipmarks | enbar's Comments

Fred Phelps's organization (the "God Hates Fags" pastor) has decided God hates Jews, too

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 20:55:50 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: I find this choice of photo pretty curious. "Some Jews Will Repent" is a pretty tame slogan compared to the other ones quoted in the article, such as "Rabbis Rape Kids" and "God Hates Jews."

Clip Source: www.usatoday.com

Anti-gay church sets its sights on Jews

In Washington, Margie Phelps balanced several signs targeting Jews, Israel and the Obama administration. One read "Rabbis Rape Kids," another said "God Hates Jews." Margie Phelps' T-shirt read "Jews Killed Jesus." She argued with men and women passing by, warning them that God will soon send the Jews to hell.

"I don't care what you claim, chosen wise," she said. "Obedience is the standard."

Taking a break from yelling at passersby and singing homophobic lyrics to the tune of the Jewish celebratory song "Hava Nagila," Margie Phelps explained the change in tactic. "We've protested this nation's love of f**s for 20 years," she said. "And Jews have been carrying the water for the homosexual agenda."

Westboro members targeted several Jewish organizations last month on a statewide tour of New Jersey. Their visit to Washington included a protest in front of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Tags: christianity, disturbing, evangelicalism, extremism, judaism, news, pluralism, religion, rels327

Hanged Census Worker likely Insurance Fraud/Suicide

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:20:40 GMT

clipped by: billpar
clipper's remarks: There were no defensive wounds on Bill Sparkman's body, and while his hands were bound with duct tape, they still were somewhat mobile, suggesting he could have manipulated the rope, the officials said. He was found hanging from the tree yet was in contact with the ground.

Clip Source: www.google.com

WASHINGTON — Investigators trying to solve the mystery of a census taker found hanging from a tree with the word "fed" scrawled on his chest are examining whether he manipulated the scene in order to conceal a suicide and make a life insurance claim possible for his son, law enforcement officials told The Associated Press.

Two law enforcement officials, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case, said investigators were trying to determine whether Bill Sparkman committed suicide but altered the scene to make it look like a homicide, allowing his son to collect.

Life insurance policies typically do not cover suicides within a certain time period after the policy begins.

law enforcement officials

were looking closely at that possibility and increasingly doubted he was killed because of his government job, as was first feared.

Tags: news, politics

Kent Couch, the amazing balloon-and-lawn-chair pilot (July 2008)

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 22:51:01 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: I'm clipping this because until today I thought this was an urban legend. Apparently a guy pulled it off in 1982 too. Years on the Internet has made me doubt everything.

Clip Source: news.sky.com

US Man Flies By Party Balloons

An American has flown 235 miles on a garden chair using 150 helium-filled party balloons to lift him.

Kent Couch rose into the sky from his home in Oregon, clutching a mug of coffee,

He travelled around 20mph and nine hours later ended his journey in Idaho after shooting some of the balloons with a ball-bearing gun.

Mr Couch, who navigated with a GPS satellite-guided tracking device, said: "If I had the time and money and people, I'd do this every weekend."

"Things just look different from up there. You've moving so slowly. The best thing is the peace, the serenity.

"You can hear a dog bark at 15,000 feet.

Couch was inspired by a TV show about the 1982 garden chair flight over Los Angeles by truck driver Larry Walters, who gained folk hero fame but was fined £750 for violating air traffic rules.

Tags: aviation, cool, news, random_sh!t

Glenn Greenwald comments on Sue Myrick's calls for an investigation of CAIR

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 14:18:29 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: I don't know the full context of this, but it's something I'd like to learn more about.

Clip Source: www.salon.com

Glenn Greenwald

GOP House members call for investigation of Muslim political activity

A group of House Republicans is calling for an investigation into whether a leading American Muslim advocacy group tried to "spy" on congressional offices by placing interns on key security committees.

Rep. Sue Myrick, North Carolina Republican, cited an internal January 2007 memo in which the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) discussed placing Muslim interns on Capitol Hill to "focus on influencing congressmen responsible for policy that directly impacts the American Muslim community."

That's consistent with what virtually every political advocacy group in the nation does; it's normally called activism and democracy. But because, in this case, it's a group of Muslims who are doing this, these House Republicans are depicting it as some sort of nefarious espionage plot against the U.S. that demands a criminal investigation.

Tags: activism, conservatives, gwot, islam, pluralism, politics, possible_blog_post, religion

David Grann, "Trial by Fire: Did Texas Execute an Innocent Man?" (on Todd Willingham's execution, Feb. 2005), The New Yorker (Sept. 7, 2009)

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 13:55:06 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: A damning piece by The New Yorker on the story of Todd Willingham. Willingham was executed in 2005 for triple homicide after being convicted of killing his three children by setting their room on fire. Texas officials ignored reports by fire scientists, whose investigations showed that there had been no solid evidence that the fire was arson. The arson investigators who testified in Willingham's case relied on traditional methods whose scientific validity had long ago been disproven, and the parole board apparently did not even bother to read the exonerating information provided to them by Willingham's lawyer.

Clip Source: www.newyorker.com

Trial by Fire

Did Texas execute an innocent man?

by David Grann

In mid-August, the noted fire scientist Craig Beyler, who was hired by the commission, completed his investigation. In a scathing report, he concluded that investigators in the Willingham case had no scientific basis for claiming that the fire was arson, ignored evidence that contradicted their theory, had no comprehension of flashover and fire dynamics, relied on discredited folklore, and failed to eliminate potential accidental or alternative causes of the fire. He said that Vasquez’s approach seemed to deny “rational reasoning” and was more “characteristic of mystics or psychics.” What’s more, Beyler determined that the investigation violated, as he put it to me, “not only the standards of today but even of the time period.”

Texas could become the first state to acknowledge officially that, since the advent of the modern judicial system, it had carried out the “execution of a legally and factually innocent person.”

Tags: capital_punishment, crime, death_penalty, investigative_journalism, law

Right, so tell me again how the "free market" is the best way to manage health-care delivery

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 18:10:12 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: An editorial from 2007 shows how research into three promising anticancer drugs has been abandoned. The reason is that the compounds on which the drugs are based cannot be patented (melatonin, for example), which means that pharma companies are unlikely to turn a profit. Understandable, from the perspective of the pharma companies, but unconscionable, from the perspective of cancer patients.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com