Daily Blend: Thursday, August 26, 2010

President Barack Obama [source: The Independent]

Thank the Lawd for Internet connection downtimes.

• Special Advisory: For all you non-US residents who harbor the same venomous hatred for Comedy Central’s no-play-Daily-Show-or-Colbert-Report-videos-outside-of-US policy as I do, rejoice for a miracle has come!

• President Obama’s ^[pictured] track record shows how he went from being for same-sex marriage (circa 1996) to against it whilst remaining pro-civil unions, all for purely political reasons.

• Facebook blocks ads vouching for legalization of marijuana in California.
  (via The Agitator)

• Update: After initially announcing that they’d help “protect” the Dove World Outreach Center as they held their “International Burn a Quran Day” event, the Christian armed militia Right Wing Extreme has now withdrawn their support because “[they] don't want to be a part of inciting violence and racism anymore”.
  (via Right Wing Watch)

• Silly and disingenuous piece by Terence P. Jeffrey at CNSNews where he bizarrely claims that Obama’s repeated (and welcomed!) recognition of non-religious Americans somehow invites more Islamic anger amongst Muslims. Or something.
  (via Right Wing Watch)

• Today in sloppy journalism: Guardian article claims atheist or agnostic doctors are “more likely to hasten death” in their patients, especially those suffering from terminal conditions, based on one biased and unreliable study with self-selected subjects (and of which we’re given minimal information into its methodology). Also fails to put this end-of-life care into proper context; the reality is that godless doctors are more likely to advise terminal patients against prolonging lingering on in suffering, presumably seeing as they have no religious convictions against euthanasia or a horrible “life at all costs” mentality.
  (via @hemantmehta)

• … So naturally, our favorite atheist-basher Vox Day declares that the aforementioned article proves that “[a]theism does kill”. Does he even put any amount of thought into his anti-atheist smears? At all?

• Great opinion piece by Timothy Egan in the New York Times on how America is turning into a country of freakin’ idjits.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• Fox Nation claims that “schools are dropping the Holocaust from history lessons to avoid offending Muslim pupils” “whose beliefs include Holocaust denial”. Despite the fact that, as Snopes reports: A) This is based on an unverified and patently false chain email; B) The actual story was about one “secondary school in an unnamed northern city”; C) Every other school is still actively teaching about the Holocaust; D) This took place in Britain; E) Several years ago; and F) Holocaust denial is as hated amongst Muslims as it is anywhere else. As usual, nice fact-checking your attempts to rile up yet more anti-Islamic hatred, Fox.

• Pakistani Taliban threaten to attack relief workers trying to help flood victims. And you thought there was a limit to inhumanity. How silly.
  (via @BreakingNews)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Comedy Central • The Daily Show • The Colbert Report • Barack Obama • same-sex marriage • gay marriage • Facebook • marijuana • pot • Just Say Now • Dove World Outreach Center • Right Wing Extreme • International Burn a Quran Day • Christians • armed militias • Terence P. Jeffrey • atheists • Muslims • doctors • studies • right-to-die • euthanasia • Vox Day • anti-atheists • Timothy Egan • USA • America • idiots • stupid • Fox News • Fox Nation • Holocaust denialism • lies • Islamophobia • Pakistan • Taliban • extremists