SKIRMISHER

Trees don’t talk, but some people nevertheless give this advice on how to talk to a tree, to obtain nice things like wisdom and self-assurance and good vibes and shit, all wordlessly. Is this insane? At least one human doesn’t think so:
Call me a hippie, but in my world, it’s always tree-communing season–lush summer, earthy [...]

A FORMER Melbourne priest who sexually abused young boys over an 18-year period from 1958 refused to apologise for indecently assaulting an 11-year-old for fear of a compensation claim being made against the church, a court has heard.
Retired Catholic priest Desmond Laurence Gannon, 79, told police last year that he was giving the boy an [...]

After fighting for the removal of the book Baby Be-Bop from a West Bend, Wisc., library, the Christian Civil Liberties Union and three other plaintiffs have sued over the book, seeking “the right to publicly burn or destroy by another means” the book and asking for $120,000 in damages because they were exposed to it [...]

Pope Benedict XVI’s recently denied he ever was a member of the Hitler Youth. But in 1996, when he was still a cardinal, as Joseph Ratzinger, he said in a series of interviews for a book called Salt of the Earth that he had been drafted to the Hitler Youth. Not like this is a [...]

Illicit relationships, sexual harassment, bullying, sodomizing kids, you know, the usual, are detailed in a former nun’s autobiography, Amen – an autobiography of a nun.
“I did not want to make this book controversial. I want to express my feelings and to explain what happened to me … I want people to know how I have [...]

Reason? Fuck that. It’s too much work and it keeps getting in the way of fun feelings like revenge on our enemies (real or imagined) and hatred for anybody who’s different.
– Mick Arran, Salon, describing how Conservatives “think,” sort of.

Just some helpful piece of kidnapping-related information from your cheerful friends at the IRS.
Topic 357 – Tax Information for Parents of Kidnapped Children
You may claim a kidnapped child as your dependent if the following requirements are met:
1. The child must be presumed by law enforcement to have been kidnapped by someone who is not a [...]

Water cannons against water protesters, for subtle irony.
In a conversation with Turkey’s state media agency that was picked up by Reuters, the police explained that water cannons were the cheapest way of responding to the demands of protestors. Normally, we learn, they use 13-14 tons of water to disperse a crowd, at a price of [...]

Georg Steinhauser, a researcher at Vienna University of Technology has tackled a great mystery many of us encounter on a daily basis: navel lint. After three years of research and over 500 pieces of lint studied, Steinhauser believes that abdominal hair guides clothing fibers into the navel.
Glad to have that settled now, so we can [...]

See this really “obscene,” really nasty picture? It’s OMFG a fertilized human egg! And if the geniuses at the North Dakota House of Representatives have their way, looking or possessing this picture would be illegal:
The North Dakota House of Representatives passed a bill on Feb 19th 2009 which states that this picture is considered child [...]

I have recently moved to LA from providence RI, quite a lot to adjust to. For one thing they have a whole other level of Christian out here. I mean back home it’s just Catholics, who don’t want to convert you. In fact, they won’t let you join them. If we want more Catholics, we’ll [...]

This is what irony looks like if it has a face and fucks itself in its own ass.

Well, what do you know. Christian activist Stephen Green of Christian Voice has complained to the Advertising Standards Authority in the UK about that Atheist Bus Campaign, which was just the thing atheists and philosophers are waiting for so they can make insane laughter and question lots of other things, like religious ads.
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The Forer effect (also called personal validation fallacy or the Barnum Effect after P. T. Barnum’s observation that “we’ve got something for everyone”) is the observation that individuals will give high accuracy ratings to descriptions of their personality that supposedly are tailored specifically for them, but are in fact vague and general enough to apply [...]

The new Watercliffe Meadow school in the UK has banned the word “school” in its premises — because of the word’s “negative connotations.” Instead, it wants to be called “a place of learning”, aka “a place where bullshit is served daily, in teaspoons!”
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Nine Muslims were removed from a Florida-bound flight after passengers heard them talking about OMFG airplanes! Because, hey, that’s “highly suspicious” Muslim-y thing to talk about!
AirTran Airways is apologizing to nine Muslim passengers kicked off a New Year’s Day flight to Florida after other passengers reported hearing a suspicious remark about airplane security.
One of the [...]

Man who actually sits on a golden throne doesn’t like it at all when people are “selfish.” And are gay.