Daily Blend: Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Vandalized atheist billboard [source: Freedom From Religion Foundation]

I wonder how many other composers (budding or not) are frustrated by the fact that the entirety of their limitations are due to lack of decent software/hardware.

• Take Action: Canadian readers, please sign this petition to knock down Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s endeavor to install a Canadian version of Fox News!

• Hemant Mehta (Friendly Atheist) writes at the Washington Post about how President Obama’s religion simply shouldn’t matter; his actions should.

• I didn’t know anything about Google’s knol, apparently a wannabe competitor to Wikipedia. And upon reading PZ’s take on it, I don’t want to know any more, either.

• Metro-contextual science map from Crispian Jago showing the evolution (har, har) of various branches of science through the past five centuries. I’d post it but the blog would crash from science history coolness overload.
  (via Bad Astronomy)

• Salisbury, North Carolina cop pulls someone over. Numerous neighbors come out to observe, including one woman on her porch who is recording the scene with her cellphone camera. Cop orders her (and only her) to go back inside; she refuses. Naturally, he arrests her for “obstructing a police officer”; she’s later convicted by a judge. Because nothing is more oppressive to a cop and his/her duties than a tiny hand-held camera being pointed towards him/her from a nearby porch. Which civilians have the right to do.

• Battle of the courts: Does the police have the right to covertly track your car with a hidden GPS device without a warrant? (Correct answer: No.)

• Indianapolis, Indiana cop who crashed into three parked motorbikes and killed two people (seriously injuring a third) while driving drunk on duty faces reduced charges (including reckless homicide) thanks to being, well, a cop.

• Yet another atheist billboard vandalized. Sad quote: “The donor expressed shock and revulsion that a vandal or vandals would deface his message to “enjoy life now.”” I guess he hasn’t been following the long list of reports of desecrated secular billboards, then.

• Hemant Mehta explains, then asks, how the Internet helped the cause of humanism/skepticism/atheism. Well, for me, it’s the first and only place where I learned about godlessness in the first place and where I truly began to shape my ideas and beliefs into their modern (and still-evolving) forms.

• Focus on the Family is upset that pro-LGBT groups are promoting the blasphemous notion that discrimination against LGBT kids in school is wrong and needs to be stopped. Always good to see which side they’re on.
  (via The Agitator)

• Nerd jokes on Reddit. I really wish I could understand even a quarter of them all. But I don’t. ’Cuz I’m a sucky nerd. Boo.

• Mercy Flights, one of the United States’ oldest air ambulance services, forced to pay a $30,000 fine from the US Dept. of Transportation because it mistakenly referred to one of the choppers it uses as “our helicopter” when it technically belongs to another company. If there was ever a criminal waste of a court’s time …
  (via The Agitator)

• “A bigoted pastor who has assailed gays and Muslims is launching the "9-11 Christian Center at Ground Zero" a mere two blocks from the World Trade Center site this Sunday, but so far the project hasn't drawn a peep of protest from those who are outraged by the "ground zero mosque."” Why would they speak out against an ally?
  (via Right Wing Watch)

• Gov. Jan Brewer (R-Arizona), who loves to attack opponents of her state’s wrong-minded immigration law for not having read the whole bill, launches a ridiculous attack against a UN report she clearly did not read.

• Iran state media clarifies its position on French First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, saying that she’s a “prostitute” who also “deserves to die” (or defending a woman sentenced to be stoned to death on charges of adultery, remember). Damn, did she steal their goat or something?
  (via @todayspolitics)

• Letter to the editor at Recorderonline: Homosexuals are out to destroy the American family with communism, porn and sexual anarchy!
  (via @hemantmehta)

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

Tags: Canada • Fox News • petitions • Hemant Mehta • Barack Obama • religion • knol • PZ Myers • websites • Crispian Jago • scientists • police • cops • false arrest • false conviction • recording police • hidden surveillance • atheist ads • atheist billboards • vandalism • humanism • Focus on the Family • LGBT students • school • discrimination • Reddit • jokes • Mercy Flights • air ambulances • US Department of Transportation • pastors • Ground Zero Mosque • Jan Brewer • hypocrisy • Iran • Carla Bruni-Sarkozy • Letters to the editor • homosexuals • gays