President George Bush has used the London July 7 bombings to justify his support for waterboarding, an interrogation technique that is widely regarded as torture. (Telegraph)Because abstinence works SO WELL, Bush wants to keep 1/3 of Aids prevention funding for abstinence-before-marriage programs. (AP)China is concerned by U.S. plans to shoot down an ailing spy satellite and is considering what "preventative measures" to take, the Foreign Ministry said on Sunday. (Reuters)Senator Barack Obama and his former Democratic presidential rival, John Edwards, held a private meeting today in North Carolina, aides confirmed. (Caucus)The top court in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has issued an unexpectedly early and decisive ruling upholding the Louisville-based denomination’s ban on ordaining non-celibate gays and lesbians. (Courier-Journal)This election is certainly important. But based on the historical record, it isn’t likely to result in a major swing in economic policy. Fundamentally, democracy is not a finely tuned mechanism that can be used to direct economic policy as a lever might lift a pulley. The connection between what voters want, or think they want, and what ultimately happens in the economy, is far less direct. (NY)Kosovo Declares Its Independence From Serbia. (NY)Pakistan's election. (WP)Keep the conspiracy alive! "A batch of old documents linked to the slaying of President John F. Kennedy has reportedly been unearthed, including a highly suspect transcript of a conversation between assassin Lee Harvey Oswald and Oswald's killer Jack Ruby, the Dallas Morning News said on Sunday." (Reuters)An unusual, well-preserved burial chamber that may contain the mummy of an ancient warrior has been discovered in a necropolis in Luxor. (NG)V-Frog, the world's first virtual-reality-based frog dissection software designed for biology education -- allowing not mere observation, but physically simulated dissection -- has been developed and is being marketed by Tactus Technologies. (ScienceDaily)"Dung is accurate for carbon dating," Mead explains. "It's a data set that typically disappears in the fossil record. All we typically get are bones, but with dung we get biochemistry. We can tell a lot about the climate by analyzing what plants the animal ate." (Science Daily)Black History Heritage Month at Smithsonian.comKim Jong-il had a birthday party on Saturday. (AFP)Homotesticles! Turning up the juice for Jesus Christ!Speaking of homos- John Barrowman was on Al Murray's Happy Hour and it was fucking hilarious. If only talk shows were this much fun in the States! If you are sweet and scream SQUEE in comments, I could perchance point to a link for a higher quality divx file of this segment. Wink.Part Two is here.
