Mississippi School Wants to Ban Lesbian Student From Prom

by Andy on March 10, 2010

From The Progressive Puppy:

An 18-year-old lesbian high school student is challenging a Mississippi school district policy that says no same-sex date at the senior prom.  Constance McMillen has enlisted the help of the American Civil Liberties Union after the district refused to let McMillen and her girlfriend arrive as a couple at the April 2 prom.  District officials also denied McMillen’s request to wear a tuxedo.  At issue is a memo issued to the Itawamba County high school students that laid out the criteria for bringing a date to the prom, and one requirement was that the person must be of the opposite sex.

via Mississippi School Wants Lesbian Student Excluded From Prom.

{ 0 comments }

Jeffersonville 7th Grader Suspended for Saying No to Drugs

by Andy on March 10, 2010

Oh Jeffersonville, nobody does it like you:

The parents of a Kentuckiana seventh grade student say their young daughter was suspended from school for doing exactly what she’s been taught to do for years – to just say no to drugs. The girl did not bring the prescription drug to her Jeffersonville, IN school, nor did she take it, but she admits that she touched it and in Greater Clark County Schools that is drug possession.

Another Dumbass School Official Story

{ 0 comments }

Big Gay Roy Ashburn

March 9, 2010

I like the part where being gay is worse than drunk driving. From Metafilter:
It’s one thing to loathe yourself (and a sign of mental illness if it’s over something that isn’t shameful, like being gay–hell, that’s like hating yourself because you ended up “too short” or “too tall”). It’s another to loathe others like you despite [...]

Read the full article →

Hattie McDaniel’s Oscar Speech

March 8, 2010

Mo’nique referenced Hattie McDaniel in her Oscar speech. Hattie was the first black actor to win an Oscar, winning the award for best supporting actress in 1939 for Gone With The Wind. McDaniel has 2 stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for her work in film and one for her work in radio [...]

Read the full article →

Germans to Greeks: Wake Up Earlier

March 7, 2010

Ouch:
After [mentions] that Greece sell off islands, historic buildings and artworks before receiving aid, the German tabloid Bild has written an open letter to the Greek prime minister George Papandreou: ”
You’re in Germany. Here, people work until they are 67 and there is no 14th-month salary for civil servants. Here, nobody needs to pay a €1,000 [...]

Read the full article →

SWAT Team Kills Family Dog in Front of Seven-Year Old for an Ounce of Weed

March 7, 2010

Found on Reddit:
SWAT team busted into a house, shot two dogs — including a corgi, for crying out loud — in full view of a 7 year old child, and found…a little pot in the house
via Dispatches from the Culture Wars

Read the full article →

Real Life Barbie Moves On – to Her Daughter

March 6, 2010

Awful:
Sarah Burge has made a minor name for herself by turning herself, via plastic surgery, into the “Real Life Barbie.” Yet Burge has seemingly tired of “improving” her own image, and has now moved on to her 16-year-old daughter, Hannah.
via Just Because You Can Inject Your 16-Year-Old With Botox, It Doesn’t Mean You Should

Read the full article →

Obama to Block Vote on Turkey’s Armenian Genocide

March 5, 2010

20 countries and 42 U.S. states have adopted resolutions acknowledging the Armenian Genocide as a bona fide historical event. But:
The Obama administration has said it will seek to block a controversial bill describing as genocide the World War I killing of Armenians by Turks. A congressional panel on Thursday approved the resolution, paving the way for [...]

Read the full article →

London Olympics Will Amplify Police State

March 5, 2010

London shows us how it’s done:
Despite London’s legacy promises, some lawmakers fear a lack of stadium tenants after the Games will result in venues lying empty at a cost of 276 million pounds, and fears are mounting that regeneration will just result in gentrification, with affluent residents moving in and pushing locals out. Moves to safeguard [...]

Read the full article →

IMF Pushes for More Power, Global Currency

March 4, 2010

You don’t have to look for conspiracy theories – the real story is out in the open:
The International Monetary Fund wants more power to police the global financial system and a bigger role in emergency financing, managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said Friday. In a speech to the Bretton Woods Committee, a finance reform think tank in [...]

Read the full article →

Move to Where the Jobs Are? Most Can’t.

March 4, 2010

Morgan Stanley report:
America’s workers have always been footloose.  Even in the Great Depression, they looked for work wherever it was. Today, however, about one in four homeowners is trapped in their house because they owe more than the house is worth, so they can’t move to take another job — until they sell or walk [...]

Read the full article →

Vatican Hit by Gay Sex Scandal

March 4, 2010

Awful, infurating, hypocrital:
Angelo Balducci, a Gentleman of His Holiness, was caught by police on a wiretap allegedly negotiating with Thomas Chinedu Ehiem, a 29-year-old Vatican chorister, over the specific physical details of men he wanted brought to him. Transcripts in the possession of the Guardian suggest that numerous men may have been procured for Balducci, [...]

Read the full article →

The Sky’s No Limit

March 4, 2010

If you do client work, you’ll love this site with quotes from real crazy clients. Example:
The phrase ‘the sky’s the limit’. It sounds a little limiting. How about ‘the sky’s no limit?’.
via Clients From Hell

Read the full article →

Alert: Font Nerds, Design Nerds, Science Nerds, Retro Nerds, ALL NERDS

March 4, 2010

Popular Science magazine just put 137 YEARS of archives online. Searchable. With period ads, design, fonts, etc. There goes your week. Get going at the PopSci Archives

Read the full article →

To Avoid Funding Gay Marrieds, DC Archdiocese Denies Benefits to All Spouses

March 3, 2010

From Washington City Paper blogs:
Once gays and lesbians are allowed to marry, the Archdiocese—which employs plenty of locals through Catholic Charities—will be required to provide health benefits to same-sex spouses, an act which it says would fly in the face of the Catholic church’s teachings on homosexuality. The solution? No spousal benefits for anybody.
via The Sexist

Read the full article →

Babies in Bars

March 2, 2010

CNN:
Should parents be allowed to bring their babies and children to bars? It is a question in Brooklyn, New York, that’s fired up online arguments, prompted unofficial protests and made outsiders giggle. And while the issue may not be exclusive to that area, it’s the stuff disputes are made of in what Sasha’s dad, Matt [...]

Read the full article →

To Court Blacks, Foes of Abortion Call it ‘Womb Lynching’

March 2, 2010

Hitting the Tuskegee nerve:
For years the largely white staff of Georgia Right to Life, the state’s largest anti-abortion group, tried to tackle the disproportionately high number of black women who undergo abortions. But, staff members said, they found it difficult to make inroads with black audiences. … [They] hired a black woman, Catherine Davis, to be [...]

Read the full article →

Nagging Headache

March 2, 2010

Ron: I’ve had a nagging headache all day.
Andy: Maybe it is because of all your nagging.
(pause)
Ron: It just got worse.

Read the full article →

Chilean Quake Likely Shifted Axis, Shortened Day

March 1, 2010

Freakish a scientist from NASA says:
The length of the day should have gotten shorter by 1.26 microseconds (millionths of a second). The axis about which the Earth’s mass is balanced should have moved by 2.7 milliarcseconds (about 8 centimeters or 3 inches).
Weirder:
Santa Maria Island off the coast near Concepcion, Chile’s second-largest city, may have been [...]

Read the full article →

Why Even Have Health Insurers?

March 1, 2010

From the LA Times:
[I]nsurers can’t profitably manage through periods of high unemployment. They can’t price policies in a way that keeps healthy young people in the same pool as older people, producing a mockery of the very point of indemnity insurance. Despite a decade of unobstructed consolidation, which was sold to regulators as a way [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries