As we cross the threshold of 1500 U.S. deaths…

What’s "indecent" here?
Actual people being blown to bits every day, and an FCC which has allowed corporate consolidation to eviscerate the news itself
643   86.4%
A three-second glimpse of a human female nipple
83   11.2%
Actors pretending to be eviscerated while using naughty, naughty words
14   1.9%
Actors pretending to be eviscerated
4   0.5%

And in this supposedly developed country, scores of millions of people seem to think that self-flattering displays of religiosity will somehow help fix everything, that what we need isn’t more rational thought, but less.

That is so profoundly misguided words fail me.  Fortunately, someone more articulate has already spoken:

"History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes."

— Thomas Jefferson, 1813

New poll at left.

The Supreme Court just abolished the death penalty for juvenile offenders.

Oh, great.  Remember, an essential argument for the death penalty is its deterrent value. 

Which means, logically, that if death penalty advocates are right… our nation faces an impending siege of pubescent bloodlust.  I know the crew at Zooboomafoo look innocent enough.  But don’t be fooled.  21 Jump Street just became a freakin’ documentary, do you understand?  Toys ‘R’ Us is about to become the bad part of town, people.  And that battle between Lindsay Lohan and Hillary Duff?  It may very well spill over into the streets.

I don’t even want to think about attending that Wiggles concert next week.

Starting today, under no circumstances should you turn your back on a nine-year-old.  It could be the last thing you ever do.  And here we all thought Spongebob was our biggest concern.

Of course, it’s also possible that the pro-death penalty people might be wrong…

Looks like emails, phone calls, and media pressure may have finally convinced the Medicaid paper-pushers that pulling the plug on a helpless little girl isn’t actually a form of public service.  (Link via Atrios, with a thanks to several alert readers for the heads-up.)

This doesn’t exactly mean Lauren Rainey has it easy from here out; she has more health challenges to deal with than almost any random twenty people combined.  But at least it looks like her family won’t have to keep fighting insanely callous official policies, too.

There’s a new one of these almost every day… the latest clip comes courtesy an LAT story quoting a U.S. State Department official:

"… The U.S. believes that there is international consensus on that."

But Monday evening, only Egypt and Qatar supported the U.S. position.

What the writer clearly doesn’t realize is that Egypt and Qatar do represent the entire international community.

Everyone knows downtown Doha is where all the happening performance artists are.

The specific instance here is an UN conference on women’s equality, which the Chimperites are blowing up by demanding that the entire world suddenly agree to a declaration that no woman has a right to an abortion.  Anywhere on Earth, apparently.

Yes, that’s something we can reasonably expect six billion people to immediately agree on.

Which "normal" person in your life is most likely to turn out to be a psychotic serial killer? The clean-cut Attorney General who invents legal rationales for torture 739   84.7%   The sweet-faced Cub Scout who seems to go through a lot of pet frogs 68   7.8%   The charming pizza delivery kid with the soundproof van 35   4%   The well-groomed priest who brings wine into the confessional 31   3.6%

Today we learn that the FCC has decided that Saving Private Ryan is not, in fact, indecent.

Really?  I thought I remembered Tom Hanks and Matt Damon doing a DV scene with a hot German MILF.

No, wait.  I’m thinking of Alec Guiness and William Holden in Bridge On The River Kwai.