Daily Blend: Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Kristin Davis [source: NY Daily News]

• FEATURED: NYC’s Landmarks Preservation Commission votes unanimously to deny “protected historic status” to the building situated at the site of the proposed “Ground Zero Mosque”, thus officially clearing the way for the Islamic cultural center to be built. Don’t you love it when bigots get crushed by the very people they rail against?

• New NOAA study assembled by by over 300 scientists from 160 research groups in 48 countries adds yet more irrefutable evidence confirming the Earth is warming up. Though, that might just be denialists fuming as their arguments burn up.
  (via Bad Astronomy)

• News: Two Brooklyn, NYC cops charged with falsely arresting man with trumped-up charges. PWNed: Man was undercover cop executing a sting operation and caught their misbehavior on video.
  (via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

• Pensacola, Florida cop Jerald Ard wildly chases after 17-year-old Victor Steen on his bike with his cruiser for no reason, Tases the teen at high speed, runs him over and kills him. Bad enough yet? Nope: Ard then caught by his cruiser’s dashcam apparently planting a gun on Steen’s body (still under his car). Blood boiling yet? The clincher: Judge ruled Ard innocent of any wrongdoing. Because, of course, planting evidence on an innocent teenager you’d run over because you Tased him at high speed when chasing him for having stolen something that he never actually stole is a victimless crime, is it?
  (via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

• Vox Day’s evidence that atheists are dumb, ignorant, irrational and can’t argument competently: various random comments left by random readers of random blogs. Sorry to those of you whose irony meters were non-returnable.

• American Family Association freaks out over Sears selling softcore posters, doubly pissed that the superstore would dare ignore their ravings. Be sure to send Sears a “complaint” letter letting them know how offended you are, too.
  (via Fark)

• When your insurgency terror attack is so pathetic that soldiers are left wondering if you were even serious, it may be time to give up. 8–10 Taliban for $70 of fence? I can live with that.
  (via Fark)

• Kristin Davis ^[pictured], who served time for running the escort service that provided former Gov. Eliot Spitzer call girls, is running in the NY gubernatorial race on a “pot and pussy platform” of legalizing marijuana, prostitution and gay marriage. VOTE MADAM GOVERNOR.
  (via Fark)

• How Lady Gaga went from decent-looking to whatever critter from Hell she’s trying to imitate nowadays. (In 3 years.)
  (via Fark)

• Spirit Airlines’ plan to simultaneously piss everyone off and further destroy our contact with other humans: CEO Ben Baldanza announces plans for a future fee just to talk to a human at the airport.
  (via Fark)

• Glenn Beck attacks Simon Greer of Jewish Funds for Justice by claiming that “put[ting] the common good first”, as Greer stated, “leads to death camps”. Then, one of two things happens: Greer states that he met with some Fox “News” execs who agreed that Beck “crossed the line” and that they’d “promised to speak with Beck about the matter”, and that he even received a handwritten letter from Beck himself. Problem is, a Fox official has now come up stating that no such meeting took place, that they never said that Beck “crossed the line”, and that they “absolutely stood behind Glenn Beck 1000%”. Not sure which is potentially worse: That Greer may have lied to try and defend Fox “News”’s (mis)management of their delusional clown, or that a Fox official boasts, with apparent pride, about their support behind their star lunatic’s claim that fighting for the common good leads to the Holocaust. (Because they’re interchangeable, aren’t they?)

• FBI: “You can’t use our seal in your article! Remove it or we’ll sue!” Wikipedia: “We know the law, so STFU.”
  (via @flipcritic)

• US senators draft a bill designed to shield journalists from being forced to reveal their sources – with WikiLeaks specifically excluded from any protection.
  (via @wikileaks)

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

Tags: New York City • Landmarks Preservation Commission • Ground Zero Mosque • bigotry • NOAA • Global Warming • cop • cops • police • false arrest • false arrests • Taser • Tasers • Victor Steen • Jerald Ard • planting evidence • Vox Day • atheist • atheists • American Family Association • prudes • fundies • censorship • softcore porn • erotica • pearl-clutchers • Sears • Taliban • insurgents • Kandahar • Kristin Davis • New York • escort service • escort services • prostitution • gay marriage • marijuana • Lady Gaga • Spirit Airlines • Ben Baldanza • Glenn Beck • Simon Greer • Holocaust • Fox News • FBI • Wikipedia • journalists • WikiLeaks • whistle-blowers