Daily Blend: Saturday, July 24, 2010

North Korean anti-American propaganda poster “When provoking a war of aggression, we will hit back, beginning with the US!” [source: California Literary Review]

• Federal judge strikes down the Stolen Valor Act, which made it a criminal offense to lie about one’s military service. Claiming to be a war hero shouldn’t be a legal offense but an ethical one, and deserves shaming, not fines or jail.
  (via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

• Ed Brayton quotes at length from two rational conservatives, Daniel Larison and Conor Friedersdorf, who blow rhetorical flamethrowers over all the demagogic bigotry playing in favor of jihadists over the proposed and misleadingly labeled “Ground Zero Mosque”.

• “In a statement Friday, the Rome diocese denounced those priests who were leading a "double life," said they shouldn't have been ordained and promised that the church would rigorously pursue anyone who is behaving in a way that wasn't dignified for a priest.” They were talking, of course about gay priests. Because no other sweeping problem requires such a direct intervention, right?
  (via @todayspolitics)

• Excellent post up at Slate debunking Andrew Breitbart & co.’s latest defensive argument: that their point wasn’t to attack Shirley Sherrod, but to show how the NAACP itself was racist. With all sorts of false claims, of course, that are disproven simply by watching the full video in question.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• A study of an annoying gnat repeatedly attacking a toughened elephant’s ass. Seriously, they only just recently conducted their very first nuclear tests, and now they imagine they can threaten a country that can turn them into a molten crater a hundred times over with a flick of a switch?

• Although, North Korea’s anti-American propaganda posters certainly are telling.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• Top government official: “[… P]erhaps one day he will account for his role in the most disastrous decision of all: the illegal invasion of Iraq.” That, of course, is British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg speaking about then-Prime Minister Tony Blair. And the silence from American officials drags on.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• Mark Twain lashes out against YouTube and the BP Oil Spill whilst applauding healthcare reform in his soon-to-be-released autobiography. What a dosh-garn liberal.
  (via @ebertchicago)

As always, if you have any story suggestions, feel free to send them in.

Tags: Stolen Valor Act • war heroes • free speech • Daniel Larison • Conor Friedersdorf • conservatives • Ground Zero Mosque • Islamists • jihadists • Roman Catholic Church • gay priests • Andrew Breitbart • Shirley Sherrod • NAACP • racism • lies • Slate • North Korea • South Korea • USA • nuclear bombs • stupid • propaganda • anti-Americanism • Iraq War • Nick Clegg • Tony Blair • Mark Twain • Samuel Clemmons • YouTube • BP Oil Spill • healthcare reform • The Onion