The Orca's Thumb

Ted Haggard has been involved in long term homosexual relationships, and has been abusing his power for sexual favors.
Here’s his latest excuse, and it’s actually a good one.
In an AP interview this month before an appearance in front of TV critics in California, Haggard described his sexuality as complex and something that can’t be put [...]

[Read more →]

The New Zealand department of conservation maintains a network of huts in the backcountry — these are little shelters with a radio for emergency calls and a mattress so hikers can wait out a spell of bad weather. It’s all very sensible.
Until the evangelicals discovered them. Now there’s a missionary campaign to put a bible [...]

[Read more →]

An anti-choice kook decided that an effective way to silence a family planning clinic was to smash the entrance to Planned Parenthood with his SUV.
Several employees were in the building at the time, said Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Kathi Di Nicola. She said the SUV hit the front door of the clinic two or three times, [...]

[Read more →]

Remember this case of an 11 year old girl in Wisconsin who died of treatable juvenile diabetes because her parents were faith-healing morons?
The parents are finally going to trial this spring, and it could be an interesting case. They are clearly and self-admittedly guilty of lethal negligence, but Wisconsin law actually has an exemption for [...]

[Read more →]

We’ve had politicians blocking access to Plan B contraception; laws that would allow doctors to deny care if it was against their religious beliefs; and pharmacists who refuse to fill birth control prescriptions.
Beyond simply passive denial of giving a patient what they need, though, we now have gone to the next step: wingnuts actively removing [...]

[Read more →]

Finally, a judge with a bit of common sense.
If a song has been downloaded from a torrent site 17,000 times, it doesn’t necessarily equal 17,000 lost sales, according to US District Judge James P. Jones. The judge recently ruled against using this kind of reasoning in determining restitution in a criminal copyright case, though it [...]

[Read more →]

Mississippi Rep. Gary Chism wants a disclaimer put in all evolution textbooks.
The State Board of Education shall require every textbook that includes the teaching of evolution in its contents to include the following language on the inside front cover of the textbook: “The word ‘theory’ has many meanings, including: systematically organized knowledge; abstract reasoning; a [...]

[Read more →]

Details of some high-level Catholic tribunal and how it handles the most grievous sins have been revealed.
Confessions of even the most heinous of crimes and sins — such as genocide or mass murder — are handled at the local level by priests and their bishops and are not heard by the tribunal.
Its work involves [...]

[Read more →]