Rep. Ed Markey to GOP: Do You Plan on Repealing the Law of Gravity, Too? (Video) Aaand for our dose of Friday afternoon snark, we turn to a source where we might least expect biting sarcasm: from a sitting US Congressman.
Yes, in response to the GOP's headlong legislative assault on science itself -- an effort to overturn a scientific finding they and their corporate backers find inconvenient -- the Massachusetts Representative lobbed a funny, eloquent retort their way.The humor, of course, is derived from the fact that a group of self-interested politicians are asserting that they know better than the exhaustive work of thousands of scientists, who have arrived at the near-universally agreed upon conclusion that manmade emissions are causing global temperatures to rise. Brad Johnson has the transcript: "Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to a bill that overturns the scientific finding that pollution is harming our people and our planet.
This bill will live in the House while simultaneously being dead in the Senate. And with that, I yield back the balance of my time. US high school student threatened with death for opposing school prayer « The Freethinker. NORTH LOUISIANA has been described as “the buckle on the Bible Belt” – and not without good reason, as high school student Damon Fowler at Bastrop High School has discovered to his cost.
Damon Fowler: demonised, ostracized and threatened with death On the eve of his graduation, the atheist student contacted the school superintendent to let him know that he opposed the inclusion of a prayer at the graduation ceremony. He pointed out that government-sponsored prayer in the public schools was unconstitutional and legally forbidden – and that he would be contacting the ACLU if it went ahead. The school agreed to substitute it with a moment of silent reflection, which was subsequently scuppered by a Christian student. Then Fowler’s name, and his role in this incident, was leaked. 1) Fowler has been hounded, pilloried, and ostracized by his community. 2) One of Fowler’s teachers has publicly demeaned him. 3) Fowler has been physically threatened. The article concluded: The Day US Customs Found A Bullet In My Pocket. On the flight from Delhi to Washington D.C., I spent a good two hours staring at the customs form that I was required to fill out.
I had completed every section of the form, except for one. I just wasn’t quite sure if mentioning Pakistan and Afghanistan in the box that asked me to list the countries I had visited was such a good idea. As I wrote down the other countries I’d been to on this trip – Australia, Singapore, Thailand and India – I seriously wondered if I could get away with not listing the other two. (Of course, I wasn’t about to risk it and so I wrote them all down in the end.) Several hours later, on the ground in Washington D.C., I approached the Immigration Counter and handed over my form. He then called the next person in line and I turned away, relieved beyond belief at how well that had gone. The following hour and a half of my life is a period of time that I will never forget and truthfully, never really want to endure ever again.
After the bullet, came the burqa. American point of view for Cousin Marriage. Watching Video: The Age of the Earth.