Scalia: Torture Not Unconstitutional

Okay, ladies and gentlemen, for your "what the fuck is he smoking" moment of the day, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia claims that torture is not forbidden by the "cruel and unusual punishments" clause of the Constitution because, get this, it is not punishment. It is apparently a legitimate military tactic.

Vitamins "seem to shorten lifespan."

Take that, Kurzweil! Some vitamins may actually interfere with the body's defense mechanisms by supplanting them.

Citizens of Lesbos sue gay rights groups to reclaim name "Lesbian."

Really, this is a case of too little, too late. (via Nick Gillespie at Hit and Run)

MADD vs GTA:IV

Don't play it! Bad guys drive drunk it in! (via my lovely wife Omaha)

White House loses all email

Yes, everyone else knows how to archive stuff (hey, my company sells a product that's perfect for high-volume, high-density archival material!), and yes, it's a law that the executive branch preserve all of its emails, yet somehow the White House failed to meet even the most basic archiving standards. Funny that.

High School Principal Outs Gay Couple

The principal at a public high school kept a list of all romantically involved couples at her high school because she "wanted to monitor them personally" for public displays of affection. She kept the list in full public view, took the extraordinary step of informing the parents of the boys' relationship, and later denied one of the boys a privileged field trip he had been granted on the grounds that he might do something "inappropriate" or "embarrassing." (via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you... The Machine!"

Nathaniel Abraham was a post-doc student who took a job at Wood's Hole is Massachusetts. He was required, by the terms of his contract, to recognize and use the concepts of biological evolution in evalutating evidence. Abraham is a creationist; he does not believe in evolution. He was fired. He complained. The state Commission Against Discrimination rejected his complaint and sided with Wood's Hole. He appealed. A court has now dismissed his complaint, but only on a technicality.

Expect to be hearing about another expulsion by "the academy" for the next ten years. Sigh.

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