I just *LOVE* zealots…

Minister ex-communicates members for not backing Bush

The minister of a Haywood County [North Carolina] Baptist church is telling members of his congregation that if they’re Democrats, they either need to find another place of worship or support President Bush.
Already, the Reverend Chan Chandler has ex-communicated nine members of East Waynesville Baptist Church. Another 40 members have left in protest.

During last Sunday’s sermon, he acknowledged that church members were upset because he named people, and he says he’ll do it again because he has to according to the word of God.

Chandler could not be reached for comment today, but says his actions weren’t politically motivated.

Via MyDD (selected quote theirs)

The fine line between genius and madness…

…and a counterpart to “John School”…?

The 25 students in jeans and T-shirts could have been in any career that requires hustle. The classes, covering topics such as effective marketing, stress reduction and legal issues, could have been part of any professional development seminar.

But this was “Whore College,” and any illusion it was just another corporate how-to for young go-getters abruptly ended at the

What was someone doing to those Penguins???

Chlamydia Outbreak Kills a Dozen Penguins

An outbreak of chlamydia at the San Francisco Zoo has left a dozen penguins dead, according to a spokesman.

The bacteria, which was most likely transmitted to the birds by an infected seagull, is spread through airborne saliva or other bodily fluids, said Bob Jenkins, the zoo’s director of animal care and conservation. A similar disease is sexually transmitted in humans.

“Infected seagull”… right. That’s the ticket.

Ozzy’s kid doing Thai Boxing

Ozzy, son get their muay Thai kicks in Pattaya

Superstars Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne – stars of the popular reality television series “The Osbournes”– watched from ringside yesterday as their only son fought in his first muay-Thai bout in Pattaya.

“Fighting Jack” Osbourne donned the muay-Thai mongkon (traditional headband) and boxing gloves to fight against veteran muay-Thai professional “The Man” at the Pattaya Stadium last night.

Norwegian Court Convicts First Woman for Rape

From Reuters/Yahoo News: Norwegian Court Convicts First Woman for Rape

OSLO (Reuters) – A Norwegian court has sentenced a woman to nine months in jail for raping a man, the first such conviction in the Scandinavian country that prides itself for its egalitarianism.

The 31-year-old man fell asleep on a sofa at a party in January last year and told the court in the western city of Bergen he woke to find the 23-year-old woman was having oral sex with him.

“I have a cunning plan!”

We’d All Be 3 Times As Rich, If Not For Republicans!

The average GDP growth over this time is 3.56% (I’m rounding off the actual numbers used). Under GOP presidents it was 1.83%, under Dem presidents it was 5.07%–that’s 178% higher.

…

This suggests a very simple Democratic Plan on how to save Social Security: Elect Democratic Presidents from now until the end of time. That will ensure high levels of GDP growth, which will mean plenty of money in the Social Security trust fund, and absolutely nothing to worry about.

More there, but that’s the gist of it.

A must for any time traveller

Joseph LeConte, 1823-1901: Instructions for the Manufacture of Saltpetre. (Columbia, S.C.: Charles P. Pelham, State Printer, 1862.)

At the UNC Chapel Hill online library. Very cool, and if you’ve ready much time travel fiction, you’ll know exactly why this is so handy if you ever get trapped in the pre-industrial past. I love the internet.

After a week at the new job…

…all is cool, though I’m trying to do more work and procrastinate less than I was doing at Panta. So far I’m succeeding, so no updates here in a while. I’m annoyingly behind on my political blogs, although my sense of things is that a lot of the big moves are in wait-and-see mode anyway.

No real clear thoughts on the new papal situation yet, although I guess since Ratzinger got chosen later in the week than my last post some comment is due. We’ll see if I come up with something intelligent to say about it. It’s more likely that I won’t; as a non-religious person it’s hard to see what all the fuss was about.

I actually SAW one for once…

…rather than just reading about it afterwards. I’m referring to a
fare pricing error, this time on USAir.

About $38-40 post tax for fares from pretty much anywhere into Lebanon, NH (and according to the news story, a few other cities… those I didn’t see.) LEB is the airport nearest Hanover, NH which is where my undergrad college was, and guys from my fraternity heard about the deal and distributed the news via our house mailing list. I saw it, nearly booked two tickets for 4th of July weekend, but Marie wanted to check her class schedule to make sure she could go, and wanted to go back to sleep first.

Ah well. Not like I need the USAir miles, but of course AA doesn’t fly to LEB, and being able to visit my family over the summer would have been fun.