Superstition belongs to the essence of mankind and takes refuge, when one thinks one has suppressed it completely, in the strangest nooks and crannies; once it is safely ensconced there, it suddenly reappears. – Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
This week saw a strong rebound from the Thanksgiving slump, and though we haven’t seen any worthwhile Christmas items yet there were an unusual number of astronomy-, death- and monster-related items. Radley Balko was top dog in links as usual (contributing everything down to the first video), but four others provided two each: Walter Olson (first video and the link below it), Mike Siegel (“Pat Robertson” and the link above it), Michael Whiteacre (“Kentucky” and “censored elbow”), and Brooke Magnanti (second video and the link above it). The others came from Aspasia (“demon sex”), Wikileaks (“Swedish attitude”), Franklin Harris (“cyber terror”), Jesse Walker (“sic transit”), and Jack Shafer (“snow in Hell”).
- “Never call the cops for any reason whatsoever”, dog edition.
- Another segment in the growing school-to-prison pipeline.
- Headline of the week, “not for the squeamish” edition.
- Chinese newspaper falls for Onion spoof.
Here’s a cute, funny PSA from the Melbourne Transit Authority.
- Egyptian court sentences various North Americans to death in absentia.
- Christian ex-stripper says homosexuality is caused by sex with demons.
- A Swedish writer on the attitude which enables neofeminist tyranny.
- How to convert a lovely beach town into a pile of shit.
- Could Pat Robertson be going sane?
- The “cyber terror” bogeyman.
- Sic transit gloria caelos.
- Kentucky criminalizes atheism.
- Facebook censors photo of nude female elbow.
- For their next trick, they’ll prove the existence of snow in Hell.
- Man steals school bus in order to get to Detroit to start a rap group.
- Why won’t Yoko Ono go away?
- “Brain and brain! What is brain?”
- This happened in Sweden. ‘Nuff said.
- Man builds ark in preparation for supposed Mayan doomsday.
- The exception that proves the rule; or, can we clone this dude?
- For those who claim socialized medicine doesn’t lead to prohibitionism.
- Cop forces crippled old woman off the road, destroying her truck, for the “crime” of exceeding speed limit by 2 miles per hour.
- Monster watch: Serbian village council issues warning that a legendary vampire is on the loose again, and North Korea announces proof of the existence of Asian unicorns (Qilin).