The taboo photos finally revealed

The Pentagon has finally released more than 700 photographs of America's dead soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan after pressure of a yearlong Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. In most photographs the faces of the troops accompanying the fallen and carrying the flag-draped coffins are blacked out. As you may recall, a military contractor lost her job last April for photographing the coffins.

Why, you may ask, are these photos so taboo? The Pentagon says it is enforcing the 1991 policy meant to respect the privacy of the dead and their families. Give me a break! They were kept from the American public so that we remain comfortably numb and not to care too deeply about this war one way or the other. If we were constantly bombarded by the images of the flag draped coffins of more than 1,500 young men and women would we be so blasé about this admittedly unjustified and unnecessary war?

You can see some of the released photos here.

A recap of Bush's rare television address Thursday night

On overhauling Social Security:

By allowing payments to low-income workers to rise faster than those to wealthier ones, the overhaul can be made to work. That sounds great, but progressives aren’t buying it. The Bush administration has been discussing a proposal sometimes called "progressive price indexing,” which entails quite substantial benefit reductions not only for affluent families but for middle-class ones, too, says Robert Greenstein, director of the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank that tracks economic matters. Under it, the average worker would eventually see his or her payouts decline by 28 percent, the largest drop ever.

On younger workers:

The president tonight suggested that the promises being made to younger workers now are empty, and that the workers instead should be banking on “real assets, real money.” That means sending them out to invest in the stock market, taking their chances. But he said, almost flippantly, that people could put their money into government bonds if they wanted to.

On the rise in gas prices:

Bush hopes countries with excess capacity can increase production to take some of the heat out of the market, but there aren’t any countries with excess capacity, except for Russia. Bush spoke jocularly of Russian leader Putin, calling him “Vladimir.” (Imagine FDR calling Churchill “Winston” or Stalin “Joe.”) And he reported Secretary of State Condi Rice had had a good long talk with Putin about the meaning of democracy.

On his posse:

He again made a plug to John Bolton, his beleaguered nominee for ambassador to the United Nations. And he spoke on behalf of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s dreamy Star Wars scheme for protecting the U.S. and perhaps Japan, a system that so far hasn’t shown much sign of working.

Finally:
"I don't want to cut into some of these TV shows that are getting ready to air. For the sake of the economy." Read the whole thing here. [Transcribed in full, complete with fake Southern drawl and Bushisms!]

How safe you feeling since the war in Iraq?

I seem to always be the bearer of bad news, so here goes. It's been reported that world terrorist attacks more than tripled in 2004! The number of "significant" international terrorist attacks rose to about 650 last year from about 175 in 2003, according to congressional aides briefed on the numbers by State Department and intelligence officials on Monday.

In a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that his staff circulated to the media, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif said, "there appears to be a pattern in the administration's approach to terrorism data: Favorable facts are revealed while unfavorable facts are suppressed." Last year, the department reported a decline in significant incidents of terror in 2003 and then issued a corrected report showing an increase. The falloff had been used by senior Bush administration officials to bolster President Bush's claim of success in countering terrorism.

Thanks Dubya for keeping us safe! Now where'd I leave that darn duct tape...

What Did the Five Fingers Say to the Face?

What do you do when your culture has evolved beyond witty quips about flesh wounds? Naturally, pimp slapping people and recording it for posterity sounds like a brilliant way to amuse your chums. The latest fad in the UK is something called "Happy Slapping" in which roving bands of teens assault people and record it on their cameraphones and pass it around the internet. I'm gonna try and get this to catch on here in the US. Be back in a few minutes...

Granny Got a Gun

An 87 year old is being charged with unlawful possession of a handgun after trying to enter a courthouse with it in Newark, NJ. It sounds like it was an honest mistake that she accidentally had the gun on her as it was in its original packaging and she does have a permit for owning the gun but not for carrying it in public. As opposed to many gun owners, she seems to have a legitimate self defense need for the gun as her home has been broken into 3 times within the past year but might she be better off calling ADT instead? One of my grandmothers is around that age and while she's more capable than most, a handgun is probably not the best thing for her to keep around the house as she often mistakes me for a hoodlum.

Road Rage Leads to Fry Rage

I'm just guessing there but this guy did get all crazy in a Burger King drive thru cause they ran out of fries. "[Gregg] Luttman pleaded guilty to assault, resisting arrest, institutional vandalism and other charges stemming from the confrontation on New Year's Day." I can kinda relate though as I got similarly furious when the Chicken and Rice guys at the SW corner of 53rd and 6th Ave ran out of food one night.

Little Sameer, Make Sure to Take a Condom to Your Bath!

I hate linking to AP articles as this link will be sure to expire in a week or two but it's time for some less serious news. It seems condoms in India are less often used for safe sex than for some other ?more? practical uses. How one goes about making a sari with one is beyond my tailoring skills. Perhaps they knot a couple magnums together?

Still wondering about those WMDs?

On Tuesday Charles Duelfer, head of the Iraq Survey Group, announced that after more than 18 months, the WMD investigation and debriefing of the WMD-related detainees has been exhausted.

Just a reminder, lest we forget, eliminating Hussein's purported stockpile of WMD was the reason given by the Bush administration to justify its 2003 invasion of Iraq--not September 11th, not the Taliban, not Al Quaeda, not "freedom" or democracy.

If you are still keeping count, US casualties has now toped 1,500 and nearly 12,000 wounded. Iraqi civilian casualties may be as high as 100,000.

Only Conformity is Acceptable

Thanks go Gizmodo.com for this example of how our government is yet again overstepping its bounds:

At least four of the two dozen or so U.S. delegates selected for the [multi-national] meeting [on telecom standards], sources tell TIME [magazine], have been bumped by the White House because they supported John Kerry's 2004 campaign.

They've managed to blacklist those from an industry function for which politics should not be an issue. What the hell is going on?

Says Nokia vice president Bill Plummer: "We do not view sending experts to international meetings on telecom issues to be a partisan matter. We would welcome clarification from the White House."

Not For The People, Not By The People

So I guess I'm on an Op-Ed kick today but this one from the NY Times points out how much of a disconnect exists between the conservatives in power and the will of the people. Honestly, this write up by Paul Krugman is much better reading than our last post on the op-ed piece by Frank Rich. Most importantly, Krugman reiterates that "Mr. Bush and his party talk only to their base - corporate interests and the religious right - and are oblivious to everyone else's concerns." This is a simple fact that isn't apparent to everyone in this country.

SundaySundaySunday! Tune in to Bash Your Judge!

I'm not quite sure how it's come to this but the amount of propaganda created by those in power is getting a little out of control. They're continuing to take over the airwaves to spread their hypocritical agendas as pointed out in this Op-Ed piece in the NY Times.

Tonight [Sun, Apr 24th] is the much-awaited "Justice Sunday," the judge-bashing rally being disseminated nationwide by cable, satellite and Internet from a megachurch in Louisville.
...
The "Justice Sunday" mob is ... lying when it claims to despise activist judges as a matter of principle. Only weeks ago it was desperately seeking activist judges who might intervene in the Terri Schiavo case as boldly as Scalia & Co. had in Bush v. Gore. The real "Justice Sunday" agenda lies elsewhere. As Bill Maher summed it up for Jay Leno on the "Tonight" show last week: " 'Activist judges' is a code word for gay." The judges being verbally tarred and feathered are those who have decriminalized gay sex (in a Supreme Court decision written by Justice Kennedy) as they once did abortion and who countenance marriage rights for same-sex couples.

FBI Whistleblower Silenced by the Courts

The U.S. Court of Appeals has denied pleas to open former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds' First Amendment case to the public, a day after taking the extraordinary step of ordering a secret hearing. She has been attempting to expose the FBI's dangerous inadequacies in interviews, like the recently classified one she did with 60 Minutes.

Edmonds was hired after 9-11 to translate documents and wiretaps for the FBI in such languages as Farsi and Turkish. During her time at the bureau, she began to notice their illogical, haphazard, and often dangerous practiced, including hiring translators for one language, such as Farsi, to take statements from prisoners at Guantanamo that were actually Kurds speaking a Turkish dialect.

She stumbled across various mistranslations and interpreters who were not able to make accurate translations. Then she discovered someone was signing her initials to approve translations she never made. And she observed translations being doctored or blocked by the actions by one translator or another. She discovered one translator whose relative was working for an embassy which the FBI had under surveillance. When Edmonds protested to her supervisors, she has said, they ignored her or told her off, at one point calling her a whore. Eventually she was fired by a supervisor who told Edmonds he'd look forward to meeting her again--in jail.

"The federal government is routinely retaliating against government employees who uncover weaknesses in our ability to prevent terrorist attacks or protect public safety," said Ann Beeson, associate legal director of the ACLU. "From firing whistleblowers to using special privileges to cover up mistakes, the government is taking extreme steps to shield itself from political embarrassment while gambling with our safety."

Read the ACLU's official statement on this case here.

[4/29/05 Update]
More than 50 current and former federal employees—calling themselves the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition—stormed Capitol Hill yesterday to demand Congressional protection from retaliation by their dead beat bosses in the intelligence bureaucracy.

Our continuing coverage on the Super (evil) Store continues

First Wal-Mart decided to build a super-store north of Mexico City, just 1,500 meters from the palace of the ancient rulers of Teotihuacan, the largest and grandest American pre-Columbian city. Now they are building one on an ancient burial site at Oahu, Hawaii. Archaeologists hired by the company are being investigated by the state attorney general's office for alleged desecration of human skeletal remains found at a construction site Archaeology magazine reported in its May/June issue.

For those keeping track, our old stories are here, here, and here.

Sergio Valente, How You Like Me Now?

I'm all for jeans that frame my ass cheeks as the heavenly fruit that they are but I don't think I'd pay $600 for this service. (I've paid $600 for other services but that's a story for another day). Better yet, check out the hubris (or is it chutzpah?) of the woman quoted in this NY Times article on the advent of $600 jeans:

"It's just a pair of jeans, I realize that," said Ms. [Collette] Leonard, who works for a liquor distributor in Manhattan.
...
The trousers, by All Saints, had slim straight legs and a stylized leather cross appliquéd just below the hip. Tea-stained lace trim adorned the hems and pockets. Without question there are people who would consider the price, a hefty $375, a deterrent. Ms. Leonard is not one of them.

"I don't balk at $500 for a pair of shoes," explained Ms. Leonard, who was shopping last month at Atrium, a boutique on Lower Broadway that is to premium denim what Barney Greengrass is to lox. "Why should I balk at that price for jeans that are special."

Sure, maybe I'm just a little jealous of her financial capabilities but did she really have to sound like such an aristocratic snob? Pity those that pay $20 (or *gasp* less!) for their jeans. And to think some people still bring a packed lunch to work.

Schwarzenegger to foreigners, "Go Home!"

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore... except for Mexicans"

Without any hint of irony, Schwarzenegger said on Tuesday, "Close the borders in California and all across Mexico and in the United States because I think it is just unfair to have all those people coming across, have the borders open the way it is, and have this kind of lax situation." In February, Schwarzenegger endorsed congressional legislation authorizing the construction of a fence along California's border with Mexico.

Schwarzenegger has been repeatedly grilled on why he voted for a 1994 ballot measure to deny many basic services to illegal immigrants. Why such hate for your fellow immigrants Arnold?

DeLay to NRA: "Git Me Ma Musket!"

"When a man is in trouble or in a good fight, you want to have your friends around, preferably armed. So I feel really good," the Texas Republican said at the National Rifle Association's annual convention Saturday night in Houston. Yeehaw!

About 2,550 NRA members each paid $75 to hear DeLay's speech and dine on salad with goat cheese and sirloin steak with peppercorn cognac sauce. Ah yes of course. What else would one dine on while betuxed and clutching onto their semi-automatic weapon?

The Week in Updates

Here are some updates on stuff we've mentioned.

The Good:
Tom Delay half-heartedly apologized for harsh comments about the judiciary that he made after the Schiavo case didn't go his way. For him to have to come out and say something now is only a testament to how ridiculous his original comments were.
Our post Here :: Latest News Here

The FCC recommends better disclosure of propaganda to avoid it being mistaken for real news.
Our post Here :: Latest News Here

The Bad:
The House passes a permanent repeal of the Estate Tax. Please someone explain to me how Republican's are looking out for the the average American on this!!
Our post Here :: Latest News Here

Wal Mart closes their Quebec store rather than let a newly forming union have any leverage over them.
Our post Here :: Latest News Here

The Fugly:
Brazilian Catholics are trying desperately to win over the young, lower and middle classes. Not quite skater evangelicals but all of a sudden the youth of the world matter for a change. Ok, ok. This isn't really fugly. Just silly.
Our post Here :: Latest News Here

Bush, Cheney, & Rumsfeld are slimy, fo' real!

Two former Cornell University entomologists, who recently had the job of naming 65 newly discovered species of slime-mold beetles [named for the fungilike molds on which they feed] named three species after the American leaders, dubbing them:
Agathidium bushi Miller and Wheeler
Agathidium cheneyi Miller and Wheeler
Agathidium rumsfeldi Miller and Wheeler

Science nerds strike again!

Two Men Dining Alone Declared Gay

By the NY Times no less! Now how the hell am I going to go out in public with just another man friend ever again? Table for one please...

[Thanks to Biggie Q and ABS-One for the tip]

R.I.P. New York State Death Penalty

The death penalty is no more in New York! Although capital punishment was reinstated in 1995, the state had not carried out a single execution during that time.

New York has had a troubling history of executions, including having the distinction of being the first state to use the electric chair. It's also been reported that the state has executed more innocent people than any other in the country between 1905 and 1974 and that it has put more people to death--695 prisoners, second only to Texas. Over 600 of those executions took place by the use of the electric chair in New York's famous Sing Sing prison, the largest number of executions at any single US prison.

Instead of Contraceptives, Ask Your Doctor to write an Rx for Salvation

This is just unbelievable; I literally cursed out loud when I saw this article. "A growing number of pharmacists across America are refusing to dispense birth control and the morning-after pill, because it goes against their religious and moral convictions." What right do they have to decide who should get what? I... Am... Furious... Yellow.

[Thanks to ABS-One for the tip!!]

Cletus, Ma and Pa Gots Somethin to Tell You

This is so wrong it should be considered news of the weird but the EPA was seriously trying to get a study going on the effects of pesticides on infants and babies. The study was just cancelled after a couple Democratic Senators threatened to deny the permanent appointment of the acting EPA chief. The study "offered $970, a free camcorder, a bib and a T-shirt to parents whose infants or babies were exposed to pesticides if the parents completed the two-year study."

Although a spokesman for the EPA claims that there were other factors involved in the cancellation, it doesn't seem like they were just trying to do the right thing.

Rich Hood, a spokesman for the agency, acknowledged that Mr. Johnson had canceled the test because of the objections to his confirmation. "They are pretty juxtaposed in time, aren't they?" Mr. Hood said. "There is clearly a connection."

Bolton Confirmed as US Ambassador of Arrogance

Here's an unflattering summary from the Washington Post of why Michael "Don't Call me Wilford Brimley" Bolton is considered to be such an asshole. Some snippets:

Opponents argue that Bolton is in fact undermining the White House's foreign policy goals, and insist that his emphasis on unilateral action heightens conflicts without offering the means to solve them using American power alone.

"John Bolton fails to recognize the value of setting clear standards through international agreements and would rather be righteous and lose a battle than engage, compromise and contain a proliferation problem," said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association.
...
In spring 2002, while much of the Bush administration was focused on al Qaeda and Iraq, Bolton was drawing attention to Cuba. Using evidence described by three knowledgeable intelligence officials as ambiguous, Bolton planned to announce the existence of a secret bioweapons program in Cuba during a speech that May to the Heritage Foundation.

But he was blocked by Christian Westermann, the chief bioweapons analyst at the State Department, who refused to clear the speech unless the language more accurately reflected the intelligence assessments. Bolton summoned Westermann to his office and berated him, officials with knowledge of the encounter said, and then tried to have him fired.

As his confirmation hearings are proceeding this week, let's hope that they manage ignore his sexy charms to deny his appointment as Ambassador to the UN.

Delay Gets Sold Out by Fellow Republicans

You know you fucked up big time when the people you lead are calling you out as a shady character. There's so much news about Tom Delay's questionable ethics floating around we can't possibly link to it all but this story is satisfying cause it points out a couple Republicans who pimp slapped him but good.

Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, the No. 3 Republican in the Senate, said Sunday that DeLay needs to answer questions about his ethics.

"I think he has to come forward and lay out what he did and why he did it and let the people then judge for themselves," Santorum told ABC's "This Week."
...
[Rep. Christopher] Shays [R-Conn], a moderate who has battled the GOP leadership on a number of issues, said efforts by House Republicans to change ethics rules to protect DeLay only make the party look bad.

"My party is going to have to decide whether we are going to continue to make excuses for Tom to the detriment of Republicans seeking election," he said.

See, moderate Republicans can be cool. Some old posts of ours are here and here.

[update 4/15/05]
The plot thickens:

Ten former members of Congress, all Republicans, joined in a letter to the House leadership on Thursday to say they believed that revisions in House ethics rules this year were an "obvious action to protect Majority Leader Tom DeLay" from investigation. They said the changes needed to be reversed "to restore public confidence in the People's House."

Did You Say You're Hispanic? That Mortgage will Cost You More than Whitey

Sadly, no big surprise here but this data is only newly available. A higher percentage of Hispanics and African Americans ended up with higher cost mortgages than white folk. Interestingly, if you happen to be Asian, you actually got better (financial) street cred than white borrowers.

You're broke! (and here's some proof)

According to an article in the Los Angeles Times:

For the first time in 14 years, the American workforce has in effect gotten an across-the-board pay cut. The growth in wages in 2004 and the first two months of this year trailed inflation, compounding the squeeze from higher housing, energy and other costs...

Meanwhile, corporate profits hit record highs as companies got more productivity out of workers while keeping pay increases down...

Although the unemployment rate has dropped to a relatively low 5.2%, that figure doesn't count the hundreds of thousands of jobless people who've given up their searches and dropped out of the labor market at a greater rate than anytime since 1988. At the same time, the cost of health premiums has skyrocketed, eating into the pool of corporate cash set aside for raises. Although pay rose only about 2.4% last year, benefit costs jumped almost 7%...

Janemarie Mulvey, chief economist with the Employment Policy Foundation, a business-funded think tank in Washington said, "in the long run, we can't continue like this. If healthcare keeps crowding out wages forever,something's got to give."

[4/12/05 Update]
The New York Times chimes in. (YES! we beat them by one whole day!)

Attacking the First Amendment

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. [Amendment I, December 15, 1791]

Following the Terri Schiavo case, a group called the Judeo-Christian Council for Constitutional Restoration, are saying that judges are attacking religion in what they term "Confronting the Judicial War on Faith." House of Representatives Majority Leader Tom DeLay (read about his latest scandal here) said, "I believe the judicial branch of our government has overstepped its authority on countless occasions, overturning and, in some cases, ignoring the legitimate will of the people." Don Feder, a former columnist and media consultant, said judges were participating in a "well-orchestrated attack on our Judeo-Christian heritage." [Excuse me, our WHAT? Please refer to the first Amendment above.]

American University historian Allan Lichtman said there was nothing new about politicians attacking the judiciary but the attacks now were more intense than at any time since the desegregation era of the 1950s.

Support Free Expression on Cable Television and the Internet

From the American Civil Liberties Union:

Would "The Daily Show's" Jon Stewart be half as funny with his jokes screened by Congress? Can you imagine "South Park" without the cursing? Is "Sex and the City" sexy without any sex? Without the cursing, the sex or the violence, would "The Sopranos" be a mob hit?We may be about to find out.

Take action by contacting your Senators. Just click on this ACLU link, fill out your zip code, and the ACLU website will do the rest. It's very simple and it works! I've gotten responses back from both my Senators in the past.

Best Buy Calls Cops on Terrorist Wielding $2 Bills

A guy in Maryland was arrested for trying to use $2 bills at a Best Buy store cause kids these days don't seem to recall the validity of $2 bills as legal tender. That and a counterfeit checking marker supposedly smeared some of the ink on the legitimate bills. The poor guy was hauled away in cuffs and the Secret Service was called in to clear thing up. All because he was making his own little private protest for a little bit of satisfaction over Best Buy's poor customer service.

The dumbest part of this though is the justification of this fiasco provided by Baltimore County police spokesman Bill Toohey: "It's a sign that we're all a little nervous in the post-9/11 world." WTF does this have to do with that? People are just frickin' stupid sometimes.

Thanks to Gizmodo.com and the forums @ Anandtech.com for this post.

The Filthy Rich Getting Downright Dirty

The Walton Family of Wal Mart infamy is fighting to keep estate tax laws in their favor. The estate tax helps minimize the concentration of wealth by heavily taxing assets > $1.5M in value when passed on after the death of the owner. This article also has some scary numbers about how the rich just get richer. The Bush dividend tax cuts apparently will save the Walton family $51 million this year alone. On the flip side, you have reasonable rich people like Bill Gates' father and Warren Buffet who actually support the estate tax.

Led by Sam Walton's only daughter, Alice, the family spent $3.2 million on lobbying, conservative causes and candidates for last year's federal elections. That's more than double what it spent in the previous two elections combined, public documents show.
...
The Walton support for Bush and other fiscal conservatives assumed new urgency last month when Wal-Mart sweetened its dividend — boosting Walton dividend income above $1 billion a year. Bush's dividend tax cut, enacted two years ago and set to expire in 2009, will save the family as much as $51 million this year.

The growing Walton political prowess is a departure from patriarch "Mr. Sam," who disliked politics. Moreover, their largesse isn't limited to the national stage. In 2002-2004, the family gave $879,000 to state campaigns from California to Florida, says the Institute on Money in State Politics. The biggest gift, $250,000, went to the Republican Party of Florida, whose titular head is Bush's brother, Gov. Jeb Bush.

The Chilling Effects of Ideology in School

It's not enough that the Conservatives now control the Whitehouse, Senate, Congress, Fox News, and have co-opted Christianity in their own skewed image, now they wish to attack and control the holiest of institutions--Universities. Recent claims that liberal bias is keeping conservatives off college faculties is having a chilling effect on the way Universities may be taught in the future.

Consider the statements of Dennis Baxley, a Florida legislator who has sponsored a bill that - like similar bills introduced in almost a dozen states - would give students who think that their conservative views aren't respected the right to sue their professors. Mr. Baxley says that he is taking on "leftists" struggling against "mainstream society," professors who act as "dictators" and turn the classroom into a "totalitarian niche." His prime example of academic totalitarianism? When professors say that evolution is a fact... And it wouldn't just be a matter of demanding that historians play down the role of slavery in early America, or that economists give the macroeconomic theories of Friedrich Hayek as much respect as those of John Maynard Keynes. Soon, biology professors who don't give creationism equal time with evolution and geology professors who dismiss the view that the Earth is only 6,000 years old might face lawsuits.

PETA Buys Out Lobster from Evil PETA

Ok, not really "Evil PETA." Sorry this is old news but I just heard about this recently and there's a bit that's just too funny to pass up. People Eating Tasty Animals ("Evil PETA") tried to buy a 22 lb lobster off a fisherman who caught it off the coast of Massachusetts in order to ... well... eat it. The more well known PETA intervened and convinced the fisherman to give it over to a local aquarium rather than those evil gluttons. Didn't matter anyway as the obscenely huge sea roach died en route.

[Thanks to Biggie Q for the tip]

Patriots Try to Fix the Patriot Act

Portions of the Patriot Act are coming up for review and even Republicans are pushing to curb some of the most egregiously inappropriate powers granted to law enforcement. Of course, the unambiguously fascist Bush cronies Alberto Gonzales (Attorney General) and Robert Mueller (FBI Director) are pushing to keep it intact. More of ACLU writeups here:

• Patriot Act Hearing Highlights Flaws
• Patriot Act Abuses and Misuses Abound
• Take Action! Urge Congress to Fix the Patriot Act
  

Amnesty International: 4,000 people were executed worldwide in 2004

The number of death sentences imposed by governments reached its greatest height in 10 years. "In 2004, 97 per cent of all known executions took place in China, Iran, Vietnam and the U.S.A.," Amnesty said.

Only recently did the U.S. join the rest of the civilized world by stopping the execution of children and the mentally retarded.

"Homophobia claims dog Scientology" Wha??

The New York Daily news sure does have some cryptic headlines. Read on, it gets better:

John Travolta and Tom Cruise have forcefully denied allegations that they turned to Scientology to "cure" them of their supposedly gay urges. But critics continue to claim the religion is rife with homophobia. Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard wrote in his 1950 best seller, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, that gays ere "sexual perverts" and "very ill physically." ...Scientology spokeswoman, Gaetane Asselin, told the Daily News that "Mr. Hubbard abhorred discrimination in all its forms. In today's liberal society, the church encourages any relationship that is "ethical." Subjects such as homosexuality and same-sex marriages are not widely debated in Scientology." Maybe everyone knows not to bring it up.

Full article here. [I don't know why religion has become somewhat of a focus for our site, but I guess it could be that the world has gone bonkers and were just here to report on it.]