Difference between revisions of "RationalWiki:What is going on in the world?"

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m (→‎April 2010: grandaddy-->grandmommy (if the male fossil was a juvenile, then...oh god I'm taking this far too seriously))
(→‎April 2010: - teh stoopid. it hertz!)
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===April 2010===
 
===April 2010===
 
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<vote poll=world1562>A new great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-ok, you get the point - grandmommy [http://www.africasia.com/services/news/newsitem.php?area=africa&item=100408160738.cwumnnlw.php found]</vote>
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<vote poll=world1562>A new great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-ok, you get the point - grandmommy [http://www.africasia.com/services/news/newsitem.php?area=africa&item=100408160738.cwumnnlw.php found]. Just like Darwinius, and we all remember how well that turned out, don't we?</vote>
 
<vote poll=world1561>So, you're the British army, and you're fighting in [[Afghanistan]]. What do you put in your English firing range for realistic target practice? A Taliban camp? A roadside bomb? How about [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/north_yorkshire/8608282.stm a mosque?]</vote>
 
<vote poll=world1561>So, you're the British army, and you're fighting in [[Afghanistan]]. What do you put in your English firing range for realistic target practice? A Taliban camp? A roadside bomb? How about [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/north_yorkshire/8608282.stm a mosque?]</vote>
 
<vote poll=world1560>[[Germany|The Germans]] are well-known as sticklers for precise measurements. Too bad they've been getting the length of their biggest river wrong. By 90 kilometres. [http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/rhine-shorter-originally-believed For the last 50 years.]</vote><vote poll=world1559>[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/07/AR2010040702599.html?hpid=artslot Krazy Kon '10]</vote>
 
<vote poll=world1560>[[Germany|The Germans]] are well-known as sticklers for precise measurements. Too bad they've been getting the length of their biggest river wrong. By 90 kilometres. [http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/rhine-shorter-originally-believed For the last 50 years.]</vote><vote poll=world1559>[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/07/AR2010040702599.html?hpid=artslot Krazy Kon '10]</vote>

Revision as of 17:49, 8 April 2010

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What is going on?

April 2010

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14A new great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-ok, you get the point - grandmommy found. Just like Darwinius, and we all remember how well that turned out, don't we?
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8So, you're the British army, and you're fighting in Afghanistan. What do you put in your English firing range for realistic target practice? A Taliban camp? A roadside bomb? How about a mosque?
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8The Germans are well-known as sticklers for precise measurements. Too bad they've been getting the length of their biggest river wrong. By 90 kilometres. For the last 50 years.
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8Krazy Kon '10
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6This is what happens when you put a Randroid in charge of the Fed
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4Hail Mary! gOD's mommy's coming back!
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9In the Civil War Virginians fought for the states' right to do what Governor McDonnell?
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12In the US, the future of net neutrality is now in doubt.
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12Thanks to a triple whammy of Soviet era irrigation projects, global warming and population growth, the world's fourth-largest lake is 90 percent dry.
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15The UK General Election has been announced for May 6th.
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41Developing story: Wikileaks has released a 2007 gunsight camera video showing two Reuters journalists being killed by a US Apache helicopter crew. Roughly a dozen died, most unidentified Iraqi citizens, including some who arrived in a van and attempted to help one of the journalists escape the scene. The only known survivors were two children, wounded when the helicopter destroyed the van during the rescue attempt. Currently reporting indicates that the exact details of the incident were covered up, even after Reuters submitted a FOIA request and received documentation about the incident. The video and Wikileak's account can be found at collateralmurder.com, and you are urged to follow the story in your favored media outlets.
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10Australian wazzocks at their best
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3Tests of the U.S earthquake bomb continue, this time triggering a 7.2 on the U.S - Mexico border.
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7After running into trouble with its Christmas bill board, St Matthews in the City church has another crack at it.
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17The Climategate report is in - and shows no fraud. The deniers' Dover moment?
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6Dying? That light at the end of the tunnel isn't Heaven, it's a chemical-neurological event.
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11The British National Party even hate each other.
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14 Seffrican racist leader and alleged human being Eugene Terre'Blanche beaten to death. But there's no link to the ANC's "Kill the Boer" song.
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5Guardians of the Free Republics (their site) send letters to 30 governors demanding they resign within 3 days.
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1Did Democratic Congressman Hank Johnson forgot to say "April Fools"? Did the term "tipping point" confuse him? Or he really is afraid that Guam might tip over?
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10Sorcery!
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11The Westboro Baptist Church decide to picket Jewish institutions and Bay Area High Schools. The result; Booya!
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10The former Parliament speaker, Lord Martin, defends current UK libel laws and is against the change brought about by the Simon Singh case. The same Lord Martin who used those laws and £21,568 of public money to defend against negative press back in 2007.
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7 Pirate skiff vs. Oliver Hazard Perry Class destroyer, who do you think won?
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19Simon Singh wins a landmark victory against the British Chiropractic Association and is allowed to use the defence of "fair comment" in his statements. The BCA maintain that "their reputation was damaged" in the incident, which is very true, just not in the way they think.
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3Tired of friends not having benefits? Get a sex robot for $7000!

March 2010

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4In a 44-page report, Greenpeace accuses Koch Industries of spending $25 million dollars to manipulate climate change data in their favor.
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6Liberal New Zealand edges closer to hell.
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9M.I.T finds evidence that your morality can be physically altered.
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14No champagne, but no black holes either, as the LHC begins to smash protons harder than anybody has before.
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3Bachelor #1, if I were a means of executing you which would you chose?
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10The Hutaree militia, whose website explicitly describes itself as Christian, was not a a True Scotsman Christian Militia
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6Nerd pareidolia? Cassini sees Pacman on The Death Star Mimas.
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10The Christian militia movement has reared its ugly head. Will the corporate media dare to call them terrorists? Don't hold your breath.
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7During his Palm Sunday homily, the pope said that he will not be intimidated by accusations that he covered up child sex abuse by many priests. Meanwhile, the archbishop of New York City goes a step farther, saying that "our earthly shepherd (is) now suffering from the same unjust accusation and shouts of the mob as Jesus did" just before He was crucified. Are these guys good at hyperbole or what?
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9Some members of the Tea-bagger movement sure do get around. Why, it's almost as if many of them are unemployed and living off of welfare.
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9How do you deal with the fact that one of your policemen has run over and killed a schoolgirl, while speeding? Nominating yourselves for (and winning) a public relations award for the way you handled the tragedy would not be most people's guess. See here for the CIPR nomination.
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21One of Bush's speechwriters said in an interview regarding Fox News that the GOP thought that Fox worked for them, but instead it turns out that the GOP actually works for Fox. But that's not why he "resigned" from the American Enterprise Institute. In fact, they "welcomed and celebrated" his comments. What's more, they were so orgasmic over his comments that "they offered him the chance to continue on at a salary of zero."
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11Opposition anger over Health Care Reform takes a violent turn.
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12Oh, those tabloids!
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8For years India and Bangladesh have disputed the ownership of New Moore Island. Global warming has settled the dispute.
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10Even zoo exhibits are Party of No political footballs nowadays, as climate change sceptics bash a polar bear exhibit in San Diego.
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7What lived 40,000 years ago, wasn't quite human, and wasn't quite Neandertal? No seriously, do you have an idea?
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5 Google is leaving China, which is how you'd read this headline in Beijing.
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-5Joe Biden drops the f-bomb live. Is this a big fucking deal? Probably not.
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13No more pathetic reflection on the condition of public debate in the US could be found than that a quarter of the membership of the opposition party, The Party of No, thinks Obama may be the Antichrist. That's maybe 14 million people[1] who believe the President to be Beelzebub.
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21Ann Coulter is offended that Canada would lump her as those who would spread hate speech. She would be justified if she didn't tell a Muslim student to take a camel.
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6Former Houston Rockets coach pitches miracle pain relief, just use the hologram stickers...
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12 To test psychological conditions for a mission to Mars, a crew of 5 volunteers have been locked in a box for 18 months. Do you think you could do it?
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15So how did the free market react to the government take over of 16% of the economy and the approach of socialism? By posting an 18 month high.
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18Using carefully chosen, bipartisan language, Phyllis Schlafly calls the Democrats the "Party of Death". Yes, that seems fair and balanced all right.
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40219-212
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11Gay? Fancy a break? Don't try Cookham, Berkshire
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10Tea party movement illustrates the saying, that people believe most fervently what they understand the least. In this case, taxes.
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6In China, one-party rule and censorship have led the language to develop a new tense formation - the passive subversive.
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12YouTube makes a startling accusation towards Viacom, one of it's main antagonists in the legal battles over copyright infringements: That Viacom itself "...hired no fewer than 18 different marketing agencies to upload its content to the site. It deliberately 'roughed up' the videos to make them look stolen or leaked."
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11Dutch soldiers failed to protect Sebrenica in 1995, why? According to a US General, it was because of the gays
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8Queen of the Birthers, Orly Taitz, is running for California Secretary of State.
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5The first ever 3D "Invisibility Cloak" has been created
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5Quantum Superposition recreated in visible objects for the very first time. The Quantum world is a very strange place indeed.
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4 Taking the "genetic lottery" to a whole new level.
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4French documentary recreates Milgram's obedience study in the format of Reality TV - And it betters Milgram's 68% figure, with 80% obeying.
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1New data from the Planck satellite - self-respecting physics junkies chuckle at the idea of Planck working at "very large scales"...
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7Is it a man? Is it a woman? No! It's a, er...
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5Singing songs, chanting and banging bongos are for hippies - real protesters use human blood.
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-3 Justice Thomas, wouldn't it be better to keep it private that your wife is into teabagging?
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6Headline of the week: Man assaulted female police officer with penis.
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6A woman discharged from the Air Force after snooping cops out her to the brass.
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4IRL trolling: fake news broadcast panics Georgia
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5Google now appears to be telling the Chinese government precisely where it can shove its Great Firewall. Update: Google shoves it for China
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3Ooh, that's a new one. Priest caught in bed with boys says he was only "tickling" them.
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5Ain't science great. Blind man learns to "see" with his tongue.
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4 Glenn Beck is polarizing, even at Fox News. Or maybe that's just what they want you to believe.
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4Rupert Murdoch Doesn't Get The Web. Really.
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-4The Frogs veer left and right, undercutting Sarkozy's support.
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4A smooth-talking shill who, as an aide to President Obama, spent more time waxing lyrical about the "Obama brand" than actually doing her job, is out on her ear.
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8Scientologists + Haiti = FAIL.
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3Careful when you open your legs heart to lots of strange men God, ladies; you might get syphilis along with the Greater Connectedness.
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6U.S court rules against vaccine-autism claims.
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5CIA Experimented with LSD on Unsuspecting French Villagers Hat tip
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10UK journalist has to quit his day job to battle libel threats from chiropractors, after calling some of their claims "bogus". Rationalists fought back, and the chiropractors are now being smacked too.
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0Tiger, I'm just not sure that Ari is the man to rebuild your image.
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0Happy 60th FBI's 10 Most Wanted List, unless you happen to be a mob king pin, a terrorist, child molester or serial killer.
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2Women who take the pill "live longer"
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69th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals: "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance is constitutional. Michael Newdow promises to appeal to the Supreme Court.
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9It has come out that Blackwater, under the alias Eric Cartman, nicked hundreds of guns from the U.S. army.
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1The Virginia Attorney General tried to stop college presidents and other officials implementing anti-discrimination policies[old news]. The Governor's overridden him[new news]. Strife!
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0Prohibits the use of salt by restaurants in the preparation of food by restaurants.
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10 North Mississippi school district cancels prom rather than let a lesbian couple attend. UPDATE: The ACLU gets involved while the school throws all the toys out of the buggy.
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2 According to Chief Justice Roberts its okay to criticize him, just don't do it to his face and on national TV.
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4"I ain't our fault, it's Satan!"
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0William Shatner decides to set up his own social networking site complete with a catchy name.
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5The LHC is up to half power, but will need a year off to get it up to full - putting off full power Higgs research for at least another two years. Nielsen and Ninomiya may just be onto something...
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32Congratulations on 100 National Museum of Natural History.
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43 years after being scrapped due to meddling by (surprise, surprise) US conservative groups, ICANN is set to reconsider the .xxx domain name.
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-1After weeks of running ads claiming that they were really, truly listening to their customers' concerns, Toyota reverts to its old claim: their runaway accelerator problem isn't electronic. It's faulty accelerator pedals and/or floor mats. A few hours later -- as if on cue -- a runaway Prius (which was recently turned away by the local dealership because that model wasn't part of the recall) required some "special assistance" to come to a stop.
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5Sean Penn: People who call Hugo Chavez a dictator should be thrown in irons. So much for Mr. Penn being appalled at the notion of civil liberties being deconstructed.
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2The Rome police were running a sting on a gay prostitution ring when they recorded solicitations involving an usher and a choir member from the Vatican.
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13Today in What-the-fuckery: Katrina victims seek to sue greenhouse gas emitters - like cows?
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1Across America college students peacefully rally to protest tuition hikes and service cuts. Except at the University of Maryland, which riots for a different reason.
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8I'm sure he was just doing "research"; California State Senator Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield) gets nabbed for DUI after driving away from a gay bar with a male "companion." People in the Sacramento gay community say "hooray, we've been trying to out him for years." UPDATE: good for him
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2Oh, boy... This should be good.
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-2In Karl Rove's new book he says that President Obama is "simply at odds with reality."
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13 YEC Texas School Board member, McLeroy loses reelection bid to moderate Republican (there is no real Democrat challenger).
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1 Seriously Congressman Broun?
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9 Female Indian peacekeepers make a difference with traumatized women in Liberia.
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4 Chilean earthquake may have shortened days on earth by 1.26 microseconds due to mass shifting. The Indonesian Tsumami quake appears to have made a 6 microsecond difference. Wonder how some YEC's would react to this, considering that they say God's 7 days were exactly 7 24 hour days.
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2 So just because a bunch of spies took out a Hamas leader Israelis can no longer pretend to be Europeans while visiting Dubai
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15One quarter of American parents -- 29% of mothers, 17% of fathers -- believe that immunizations cause autism.
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11Republicans are on pace to break the filibuster record in the 111th Congress.
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6Andy's going to have a field day with this. Yup!
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1Justice Scalia loves guns but hates substantive due process. What's an "originalist" supposed to do?