Québec mayor channels French-Canada’s embarrassing tribalism

Mayor Jean Tremblay

I generally try to avoid talking about local politics because A) they’re usually a lethal bore, and B) I don’t pay enough attention to regional happenings to develop much of an opinion, anyway. But one thing about the cultural climate here that’s been driving me up the wall over the last few years is the steadily growing undercurrent of tribalistic thinking that reduces any discussion about immigration to a reactionary debate about “us (true citizens) vs. them (filthy minorities)”. There’s something peculiar about living in a universal-healthcare-receiving, gay-equality-espousing liberal quasi-utopia where people still complain about all those foreign savages taking our jobs and how they should just return to their hellholes and leave our precious traditions alone. It’s like Arizona, if the Republicans were Left-wingers.

As a perfect representation of this phenomenon, I’ll let Mayor Jean Tremblay from the local town of Saguenay illustrate just what I’m talking about. Here he is just this past August, reacting to Parti Québécois (a quasi-separatist Québec-first political party) then-candidate Djemila Benhabib’s proposal for a truly secular Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms that prohibits the display of religious symbols on government property (sound familiar, U.S.ians?):

“What shocks me, is to see us, the gentle French-Canadians, being told how to behave by someone from Algeria whose name we can’t even pronounce,” Tremblay said.

Told that Benhabib has been in Quebec 15 years, Tremblay laid out the perceived threat posed by “them.”

“They are quietly, and with nice language, eating away (at our traditions),” Tremblay said. “They quietly start by removing the prayer in city hall, then they’ll remove our religious objects, then they’ll take away the crosses in cities and after that they’ll go into the schools ...

“They’ll do away with our religion and culture everywhere, and you won’t notice.”

Not so much “latent” xenophobia as “blatant”. As in, “So blatant, you’d think it were a parody of discriminatory bigotry if it didn’t actually represent a virulent mentality espoused by a prominent faction of the population.”

But Tremblay wasn’t done making a ridiculous scene over an obvious non-issue. He’s now upset that the Québec Human Rights Tribunal ordered the Saguenay city council to stop wasting time with sectarian prayers before meetings and to take down a crucifix from the chamber wall, and is determined to keep shaking his little fists at those darned secularists for casting symbols of religious oppression out of the government:

Daily Blend: Thursday, August 30, 2012

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)

That’ll teach ’em illegals to have Spanish-like names!
(via @radleybalko)

Woman learns the hard truth about the U.S.’s broken sex offender system when a spiteful ex’s false accusations lands her husband in the registry, ruining his life.

You know your Republican candidate ^[pictured] is particularly full of shit when even a Fox News commentator describes his diatribe as “an apparent attempt to set the world record for the greatest number of blatant lies and misrepresentations slipped into a single political speech”.
(via Joe. My. God.)

Today’s reminder that bigoted Freudian slips happen to politicians of both parties.

Surveillance State joins Drug War to protect Orlando, FL’s streets from an evil pot smoker.
(via @radleybalko)

And finally, the only time I shall ever write about Jersey Shore on this blog is to inform y’all that it’s finally been axed.
(via Joe. My. God.)

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

Tags: Maricopa County, AZ • Briseria Torres • immigrants • undocumented immigrants • sex offender registry • Paul Ryan • Fox News • Republican National Committee • Sally Kohn • Republicans • Republican Party • Ben Akselrod • Democrats • Democratic Party • racism • racists • Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn • Orlando, FL • Joe Haywood • marijuana • cannabis • pot • IRIS • Innovative Response to Improve Safety • Jersey Shore • MTV

Daily Blend: Thursday, June 21, 2012

John Yoo

Any particular reason why memory upgrade implants aren’t a thing yet?

John “Bush torture memos” Yoo ^[pictured]: President Obama is abusing executive power and the Constitution by ordering a more humane immigration policy!

More cops get acquitted despite video proving they lied about wrongfully arresting an innocent man.
(via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

They aren’t terkin’ ur jerbs: Exhaustive study finds no evidence whatsoever that decades of immigration have harmed the U.S in any way.
(via The Agitator)

Nonreligion is on the rise (and Christianity is slowly but surely falling) in Australia.
(via Pharyngula)

The five stupidest excuses ever given in a political scandal (that don’t include Larry “wide stance” Craig). I fully agree with #1.

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

Tags: John Yoo • Barack Obama • Obama administration • George Bush • Bush administration • executive power • U.S. Constitution • Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department • Steven Sartori • immigrants • Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science • atheists • religious nones • non-theists • Australia • censuses • Cracked.com • Bob Allen • Eric Massa • J. Herbert Burke • Saera Khan • George Rekers

Fail Quote: Micheal Reagan compares Obama’s immigration reform to child molestation

Michael Reagan

Did you know that President Obama’s recent order to stop deporting young undocumented immigrants is just like raping kids? I sure didn’t. But conservative commentator Michael Reagan does:

Emperor Obama obviously could not care less about helping the Latino population. When Democrats had control of both houses of Congress he did absolutely nothing for them.

Now he's doing to Latinos what Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky allegedly did to the children of Pennsylvania -- using and abusing them. With his short-sighted politicking, Emperor Obama has hurt the Latino cause in the long run.

Perhaps he could explain to us exactly how putting an end to the policy of kicking out innocent teens and young adults who were brought to the U.S. by no choice of their own and who’ve called it their home since before they could form memories is so harmful that it’s akin to molesting them all.

Otherwise, stay classy, Mike. Stay classy.

Tags: Michael Reagan • Jerry Sandusky • Penn State University • Penn State sex abuse scandal • Barack Obama • Obama administration

Obama relaxes immigration policy; Rightist media loses it

In a surprising yet very much welcome move, the Obama administration announced earlier today that it is relaxing its unforgiving enforcement of immigration laws, bypassing a useless Congress to provide a path for hundreds of thousands of younger immigrants to seek employment and attain citizenship. It’s a fairly bold initiative that’s already leading to several promising results: Immigrants everywhere are breathing a sigh of relief, the Obama administration has one more checkpoint on its record of social progress, Republicans are already blowing their collective fuse over it, and best of all, it’s got Fox News all confused over whether it’s a boon for human rights or a concession to those dirty jerb-terkin’ illegals:

Fox isn’t the only conservative outlet to embarrass itself, either, as a Daily Caller reporter managed to make himself and his outfit look even worse by actually interrupting the President during his speech to ask a typically moronic question.

Score another couple of points on the prestigious track record of Right-wing journalism.

(via @mmfa)

Tags: Obama administration • Barack Obama • immigrants • illegal immigration • illegal immigrants • undocumented immigrants • Fox News • Fox Nation • Fox News Latino • Daily Caller • Neil Munro

More actual facts about (illegal) immigration

Douglas Massey

I don’t have any particular interest in immigration policy, but it’s always fun to see Right-wing culture warriors’ claims destroyed by actual facts regardless of the subject matter, such as when it comes to all the hysterics over the need to “secure the border!” to stem the flood of “illegals”. From a profile of Douglas Massey, founder and head of the Mexican Migration Project:

Hardly anyone is trying to sneak across the Mexican border these days, although you might not know that by watching the news, trolling the blogosphere, or following the political debates. For a certain brand of self-styled patriot, “Secure the border!” has become a rallying cry on the order of “Remember the Maine!” but border enforcement has reached record levels by any metric one wants to use. Twenty years ago, there was no fence along the Mexican border, but there are now more than 850 miles of fence (in several, unconnected sections) between Brownsville, Texas, and San Diego, Calif. The budget for border control — about $11.8 billion this year — is 13 times larger than it was in 1990, and last year the Immigration and Naturalization Service deported more than 400,000 people who had been living in the United States illegally, a record.

[…]

• We are not being flooded with illegal Mexican migrants. The total number of migrants from Mexico has varied very little since the 1950s. The massive influx many have written about never happened.
• Net illegal migration has stopped almost ­completely.
• Illegal migration has not stopped because of stricter border enforcement, which Massey characterizes as a waste of money at best and counterproductive at worst.
• There are indeed more undocumented Mexicans living in the United States than there were 20 years ago, but that is because fewer migrants are returning home — not because more are sneaking into the country.
• And the reason that fewer Mexican citizens are returning home is because we have stepped up border enforcement so dramatically.

Mull over that last point for a minute. If Congress had done nothing to secure the border over the last two decades — if it had just left the border alone — there might be as many as 2 million fewer Mexicans living in the United States today, Massey believes.

So the current hullabaloo over illegal immigration is less a rational response to an actual problem and more the result of constant fear-mongering from demagogues appealing to a tribalistic voter base that’s increasingly untethered to reality? Color me shocked.

(via The Agitator)

Tags: Douglas Massey • illegal immigration • Mexico • Mexican Migration Project • MMP

Daily Blend: Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX)

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) ^[pictured] thinks providing basic medical care to prevent detained immigrants from dying in their cells is like giving them a “holiday”.
(via @radleybalko)

Now taking bets on how much lower Newt Gingrich’s campaign can fall before even he recognizes it’s time to call it quits.

As much as the idea that a third of Americans being nonreligious may be appealing, I have to disagree with the premise that merely not going to church and not counting religion as an important part of their daily life is enough to make people “religious nones”. (Unless I’m missing something.)

NewsBusters’ Brent Bozell, last seen calling President Obama a “skinny ghetto crackhead”, turns his impotent bluster to the Reason Rally for being offensive.
(via Catholic League)

MythBusters by the numbers. Only 2.75% of total footage shot ever made it on the air. Also, needs more exploding vehicles.
(via @donttrythis)

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

Tags: Lamar Smith • Immigration and Customs Enforcement • ICE • Holiday on ICE • Newt Gingrich • Gallup • Gallup polls • religious nones • Americans • United States • USA • Brent Bozell • Reason Rally • atheists • MythBusters

Daily Blend: Thursday, December 08, 2011

U.S. Drug War

• Drug War ^[pictured] expanded: U.S. House votes to ban “synthetic drugs” and allow DEA to ban new substances before knowing their effects.
  (via @radleybalko)

• U.S. Gov’t: Documents released worldwide over the Web are still too secret to reveal.
  (via @ggreenwald)

• Sadly, too true: “Can't wait to see which GOP primary candidate will be first to condemn this, call for more rape of illegal immigrants.”

• Awesome: U.K. government launches first-ever transgender equality campaign.
  (via Joe. My. God.)

• Victory: Mississippi high school that prevented lesbian student from wearing tux for yearbook photo now abandons gender-specific attire.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• Every time you think Jim “Gateway Pundit” Hoft can’t possibly get any stupider …

• Woman allegedly hits teen with car, throws him Christian pamphlet, then drives away.
  (via @PersonalFailure)

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

Tags: US House of Representatives • synthetic drugs • bath salts • Charlie Dent • Drug Enforcement Administration • DEA • US State Department • Wikileaks • Cablegate • Bobby Scott • DHS • Homeland Security • Prison Rape Elimination Act • PREA • illegal immigrants • prison rape • immigrant detention centers • Britain • United Kingdom • transgenderism • transphobia • Ceara Sturgis • Wesson Attendance Center • heteronormativity • Jim Hoft • Gateway Pundit • Afton Bladet • Barack Obama • Sad Keanu • memes • Aida Hillen • hit and run

Daily Blend: Thursday, December 01, 2011

A.G. Eric Holder

• Florida education officials illegally force legal citizens to pay jacked-up out-of-state tuition fees if their parents are undocumented.
  (via @danrothschild)

• A.G. Eric Holder ^[pictured] urges Americans to rat out their copyright-violating neighbors to the feds.
  (via @radleybalko)

• Govs. Lincoln Chafee (I-R.I.) and Chris Gregoire (D-Washington) call for legalization of medicinal marijuana.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• In case you needed a reminder about what a despicable ghoul Newt Gingrich is.
  (via @radleybalko)

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

Tags: Florida • tuition • college • higher education • equal protection • Rick Scott • Eric Holder • Obama administration • copyright infringement • filesharing • illegal downloading • marijuana • medicinal marijuana • medical pot • Lincoln Chafee • Chris Gregoire • Newt Gingrich

Fox News’s new battle cry: “War on Halloween”!

I guess Fox News got tired of waiting for Christmas:

Media Matters explains that Fox is now waxing indignant over claims that numerous schools are forcing students to ignore Halloween outright in an overly politically correct attempt to appease those forever uppity (il)legal aliens who might be feeling left-out.

Naturally, it turns out this is only slightly divorced from reality, which is that some schools are telling kids not to wear costumes during class primarily for health and safety reasons, whilst fully encouraging them to do so after school hours. Yet another “War” that doesn’t even amount to a quibble.

(via @mmfa)

Tags: Fox News • Halloween • War on Halloween • Todd Starnes

Fail Quote: Vox Day plays false equivalency

Pictured: Indoctrination!

From Vox Day, sounding all ruffled that students in a Texas school Spanish class are actually learning Spanish stuff:

The Mexication of the American Southwest proceeds apace:

Students in a Texas public high school were made to stand up and recite the Mexican national anthem and Mexican pledge of allegiance as part of a Spanish class assignment, but the school district maintains there was nothing wrong with the lesson.

If you don't see any problem with this, imagine if the Texas students were forced to sing Deutschland Uber Alles and learn the Nazi salute as part of a German class assignment. Perhaps for an encore, they can learn the geography of Mexico and which cartels control which regions.

Right. Because learning about other countries’ anthems and mottos in a context-sensitive school classroom is exactly the same as submitting oneself to propaganda for a genocidal totalitarian regime.

I don’t know what he’s on, but it sounds like powerful stuff.

Tags: Vox Day • Theodore Beale • Achieve Early College High School • Mexico • Spanish

Daily Blend: Friday, October 14, 2011

Rep. Brad Drake (R-FL)

• Rep. Brad Drake (R-FL) ^[pictured] is “so tired of being humane” to inmates and wants to bring back electric chairs and firing squads (or else “just throw them off the Sunshine Skyway bridge and be done with it”). Oh, my.

• Doggycide in Arlington, TX: Cop shoots non-aggressive dog five times as owners and children watch.
  (via The Agitator)

• Today in anti-medicinal marijuana thuggery: Obama administration censors the press and Los Angeles officials force think tank to remove study debunking link between medical pot and crime.
  (via The Agitator)

• More Vox Day classiness. (Original article here.)

• Redux: I agree that familial courts (and courts in general) need a revamping, but blaming them for the actions of rampaging madmen is a tad idiotic, now.

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

Tags: Brad Drake • capital punishment • electric chair • firing squad • lethal injection • Arlington, TX • Buck Yandle • Bucky • Natalie Yandle • Obama administration • medicinal marijuana • medical marijuana • free press • First Amendment • Department of Justice • DoJ • RAND • Los Angeles, CA • Vox Day • Marisol García • Mexico • Praxedis G Guerrero • Scott Dekraai • Michelle Dekraai • child custody

New research punctures “anchor babies” myth

It’s another one of those perennial Republican attacks against illegal immigration (itself a thin cover for smearing immigrants in general): that foreigners – specifically from south of the border – are passing through in droves into the US, plopping out “anchor babies”, and then leaving, confident that their naturally-born-US-citizen kids will provide them easy access to the American Dream once they’re old enough some two decades later. After all, those illegals are so different from you and I that they don’t even care about their children any more than about their potential to grant them an open door to living the easy life at the expense of the American taxpayer. (Or something like that.)

Well, about that. It turns out that research into the matter – actual research, not whatever passes for investigation on Planet Wingnuttia – has revealed that the problem isn’t exactly as prominent as right-wing demagogues make it out to be. That is to say, it’s a complete fantasy:

A new analysis by the Arizona Republic suggests that the phenomenon of “birth tourism” — non U.S. citizens who come to the U.S. to give birth so that their children will be born Americans—may not be the widespread phenomenon that some U.S. politicians suggest.

Less than 2 percent of babies born last year in the border state of Arizona had non-resident mothers, the story said. Those numbers don’t distinguish between women who were living in other U.S. states and those who came from other countries.

The most recent national figures, which also include women studying at U.S. universities and international visitors, are even smaller, at about 0.2 percent, even though it notes that the figure has increased in recent years.

Wow. “[L]ess than 2 percent”! “0.2 percent”! Those numbers are obviously high enough to warrant all the demagogic fear-mongering over this urgent threat to the purity of US citizenship, right?

Actually, here’s what David Leopold, the former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, has to say about it [link added]:

“I might be impressed if hospitals all over the country were crowded with women coming in from all over the world to have babies here,” Leopold said. “I don’t see that. This is a myth. It’s another scare tactic to try to attack the 14th Amendment of the Constitution for no reason at all.”

That sound you just heard was Rep. Louie Gohmert’s (R-TX) head exploding.

(via @todayspolitics)

Tags: immigrants • illegal immigration • illegal immigrants • anchor babies • birth tourism • Republicans • Louie Gohmert • 14th Amendment • Arizona

Daily Blend: Monday, July 04, 2011

Chris Hansen

Happy Fancy Document Signing Commemoration Day, USians!

• Hemant Mehta nails it regarding the latest “sexism in the atheist movement!” kerfuffle.

• Also, PersonalFailure nails it regarding illegal immigration. I don’t give a shit, either, and those who do are usually misinformed or plain bigoted.

• New report: All research into abstinence-only sex education indicates it’s nothing but a detrimental failure.

• Interesting new documentary: Was Jesus a moral paragon, or a madman (or something worse)?

• Why don’t you have a seat over there, Mr. Hansen [pictured].^*
  (via The Agitator)

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

* In case anyone misses the point: I don’t care about Hansen having a mistress. I do care about his hypocrisy in acting as a supposed agent of righteousness and then engaging in decidedly unrighteous behavior, himself. At least, I care enough to point and snicker.

Tags: Hemant Mehta • Rebecca Watson • atheists • PersonalFailure • illegal immigrants • illegal immigration • sex ed • abstinence-only • American Foundation for AIDS Research • AMFAR • HIV • AIDS • Jesus Christ • Peter Breitbart • Christianity • Christians • Chris Hansen • Kristyn Caddell • To Catch a Predator • adultery

Daily Blend: Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Planned Parenthood logo

• Congratulations, Republicans: Tens of thousands of Indiana Medicaid patients bite the dust due to impending shutdown of Planned Parenthood [pictured] services.

• Measles rates soar due to lack of vaccinations.

• Georgia officials horrified to discover that enacting legislation forcing illegal immigrants out is indeed forcing illegal immigrants out, destroying their agricultural sector in the process.
  (via The Agitator)

• Nebraska prisons now at 141% capacity. Bah, they can hold up until 180%, right?
  (via The Agitator)

• Possible answer to why women live longer: Being male is bad for your health. (So to speak.)
  (via The Daily Grail)

• British soldier killed in Afghanistan, leaves friends over $160,000 for a wild vacation in Las Vegas in his memory.
  (via The Agitator)

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

Tags: Planned Parenthood • Medicaid • Indiana • GOP • Measles • children • Georgia • farming • illegal immigrants • Nebraska • Alan White • women • David Hart • Las Vegas

Daily Blend: Monday, June 20, 2011

Apple iCloud logo

Corporations are people. Psychopathic lying assholes with less human empathy than Jeffrey Dahmer and a bloodier legacy than al-Qaeda could ever dream of … but still, people.

• Radley Balko: Myths of the Criminal Justice System: Part 1/3. Features Double Jeopardy, conviction-less punishment and “ignorance” defense.

• Caveat emptor: Apple’s iCloud service [pictured] apparently doesn’t receive Fourth Amendment protections.
  (via @normative)

• Missing the critical difference between remarking that women who knowingly, deliberately and willingly dress sexily (as part of their job) do, in fact, look sexually appealing, and actual objectification. And griping over the presence of the teenaged daughter is little more than pearl-clutching.

• AlterNet article “5 Myths Atheists Believe about Religion” contains some notable truths, but also a gross mischaracterization of Greta Christina’s claim that “all religions are equally crazy”. (My comment, here.)
  (via @todayspolitics)

• Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) blames massive Arizona wildfires on illegal immigrants. Of course.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• BeautifulPeople.com suffers “ugly invasion” due to “Shrek virus”. No comment.

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

Tags: Radley Balko • iCloud • Fourth Amendment • Jennifer McCreight • Hooters Girls • Robert Sherman • sexual objectification • Greta Christina • Be Scofield • atheists • John McCain • illegal immigrants • Arizona • wildfires • BeautifulPeople.com • beauty • vanity • Shrek virus • dating websites

Fail Quote: Sen. Harris “very insulted” that Spanish-speaking man testifies in Spanish

From Texas Sen. Chris Harris (R) of the State Senate Committee on Transportation & Homeland Security, interrupting a Spanish-speaking man giving testimony through a translator against a proposed anti-immigration bill similar to Arizona’s notorious SB 1070:

My transcript:

[Antolin Aguirre, representative for the Austin Immigrants Rights Coalition and a naturalized US citizen since 2001, delivers his testimony in Spanish through a translator.]

SEN. HARRIS: Am I understanding correctly that he has been here since 1988?

TRANSLATOR: He came to this country in 1988, yes, sir.

SEN. HARRIS: Why aren’t you speaking in English, then?

AGUIRRE: Well, I speak English, but –

SEN. HARRIS: You’ve been here 23 years?

[mild confusion]

TRANSLATOR: [Aguirre explains in Spanish] Spanish is his first language, and since it’s his first time giving a testimony, he would rather do it in Spanish.

SEN. HARRIS: It’s insulting to us. [mild reaction] It’s very insulting. If he knows English, he needs to be speaking in English.

Daily Blend: Friday, June 10, 2011

Pictured: Not just for Arizona [source | full size (560×376)]

• Obama administration extends equal protections to same-sex couples under Medicaid.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• Alabama enacts immigration law that’s even more draconian than Arizona’s.

• Congress: Bloated Drug War spending is unjustifiable. Obama administration: Whatevs, lol.
  (via The Agitator)

• Cool spy tech of the week: $150 glasses with wireless HD video transmitter.

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

Tags: Obama administration • Medicaid • Alabama • immigration laws • War on Drugs • US Congress • Zion Eyez

Fail Quote: Rep. Fattman dismisses illegal rape victims

Rep. Ryan Fattman (R-MA)

From Massachusetts Rep. Ryan Fattman (R), arguing against Gov. Patrick’s decision not to join a federal program that would lead to any illegal immigrants caught by police for any offense being automatically deported:

Asked if he would be concerned that a woman without legal immigration status was raped and beaten as she walked down the street might be afraid to report the crime to police, Mr. Fattman said he was not worried about those implications.

“My thought is that if someone is here illegally, they should be afraid to come forward,” Mr. Fattman said. “If you do it the right way, you don’t have to be concerned about these things,” he said referring to obtaining legal immigration status.

The “right way”: Try to find your way through the United States’ ridiculously labyrinthine immigration system, and please, do try your very best not to get raped in the process, ’cause that’s just terribly inconvenient, you know.

(via Right Wing Watch)

Tags: Ryan Fattman • illegal immigrants

Daily Blend: Tuesday, May 10, 2011

MP David Bahati

• Having been previously derailed, Uganda’s “Kill the Gays” bill [sponsor pictured] now being fast-tracked into law.

• Proposed Alabama bill would does all but castrate suspected illegal immigrants.
  (via The Agitator)

• Asshole Texas high school teacher who mocked a Muslim girl after Osama bin Laden’s death has been canned.

• Shocker: New Breitbart “sting” anti-teachers video is as dishonestly edited as anything else he and his group of hacks releases.
  (via Right Wing Watch)

• Two excellent infographics explaining why US healthcare costs are so exorbitant. And it’s not because of any higher quality of care at all. Nor because of cigarettes, alcohol, old people or obesity.

• Andrew Breitbart’s latest argument against being sued by Shirley Sherrod: But she really is racist! (Hint: No, she isn’t.)

• Republicans use false claims to support their defunding of school-based child health centers.

• WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange awarded Sydney Peace Medal.
  (via @BreakingNews)

• As if we needed any reminding that Rush Limbaugh is a stupid sexist pig.

• Cattle mutilation? Ghosts? Sailing stones? 10 Famous Unsolved Mysteries Easily Explained by Science.

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

Supplemental tags: USA • Medical Billing & Coding • Racism • Republicans • WikiLeaks • Julian Assange • Sydney Peace Medal • Rush Limbaugh • Sexism • Stupid • Weird • Science • Cracked.com • Cool • Paranormal