No-Name Who’s-His-Face, The Murderer

Last night some sort of psychopath murdered and wounded people in cold blood in a movie theater at the premiere of The Dark Knight Rises, by shooting them to death indiscriminately. The act was heinous and sickening and my heart goes out to all affected. I just saw someone on the news who had the bright [...]

Anderson Cooper on the Importance of Coming Out

Anderson Cooper came out today in a poignant piece on Andrew Sullivan’s blog: Recently, however, I’ve begun to consider whether the unintended outcomes of maintaining my privacy outweigh personal and professional principle. It’s become clear to me that by remaining silent on certain aspects of my personal life for so long, I have given some the [...]

Texas GOP Comes Out Against Critical Thinking and "Challenging Students' Fixed Beliefs"

Well this plank of the official platform of Texas’s GOP (via Talking Points Memo)  makes the faith-based religious community’s hostility towards reason and fear of unfettered critical thinking explicit:

Will There Be Marriage Equality In Maryland, Thanks To Obama?

Adam Serwer points to a potentially fantastic development: Polls taken since President Obama expressed support for same-sex marriage have shown an astonishing shift in black support on marriage equality. The shift in Maryland is so dramatic that the state may become the first state to actually uphold same-marriage rights in a referendum. Here’s the gist, from Public Policy [...]

The Pros and Cons of Hiring A Republican to Represent Secularists

The Secular Coalition for America was created to lobby lawmakers on behalf of all Americans who believe in secularism. This week they hired a longtime Republican operative, Edwina Rogers, to be their executive director. In this post, I am going to explore the pros and cons of hiring a Republican in general to run this [...]

Had Trayvon Martin Been White…

Mediaite says it all: The most glaring figure comes from a USA Today/Gallup poll in which people were asked “Would George Zimmerman have been arrested if the person he shot was white, or do you think (Trayvon) Martin’s race did not make a difference?” While 73% of black people said Zimmerman would have been arrested had his victim been [...]

Your Daily Dose of Rush Limbaugh Hypocrisy

The first of Rush Limbaugh’s advertisers to jump ship had been Sleep Train. They changed their mind and the oh-so contrite Limbaguh responded to their attempt by having his spokesman write them an e-mail: “Rush received your requests personally,” said his email, which was released to the media. “Unfortunately, your public comments were not well [...]

CNN's Credulous Reporting on Catholicism

I’m watching CNN right now and cannot believe how thoroughly this report dispenses with all standards of journalistic evidence and detachment in presenting dubious miracle claims as straight facts with reasonable, undisputed evidence behind them. The first part of the report, which I wish I could find but CNN hasn’t seemed to put anywhere online [...]

The Daily Show Weighs In On Limbaugh

And Colbert:

The Brothel Next Door

So, last night there were news trucks on my block as I arrived home. Turns out that a few doors down a woman was running a brothel. I had no idea.