"Since California has decided to protect traditional marriage, I think it would be hypocritical of us not to sacrifice some of our own rights to protect traditional marriage even more," the 38-year-old married father of two said.

In the age of technology, when such activities as texting, instant messaging, Facebook and Twitter often take the place of personal interaction, some Philadelphians would be willing to take it a step further: No sex for a year, as long as they can keep a cell phone.
Philadelphians Choose Texts Over Sex - News- msnbc.com

Big brother may or may not be watching, but a new form of interactive entertainment will allow participants to leverage Britain’s 4.0 million plus closed circuit cameras in a bid to catch criminals and win money.
Internet “Game” to Use CCTV to Catch Criminals | GamePolitics

BTW The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith = Inquisition (no kidding it's still around)

The second probe is more ominous. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith — which enforces theological purity — is investigating the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, an umbrella group that represents about 90 percent of women's orders.
America's Nuns Suspicious Of Vatican Probes : NPR

It's scary how conservative the Catholic Church as become.  I think that this direction will only increase the likelihood the the church will die off sometime in the future.

This is so fucked up.

About a dozen people carrying guns, including one with an AR-15 assault rifle, milled among protesters outside an event where President Barack Obama was giving a speech Monday in Phoenix.

It's the latest incident of gun-rights advocates visibly displaying firearms near the president.

Phoenix police say the people with guns, including a man carrying the assault rifle, didn't need permits. No crimes were committed, and no one was arrested.

The man carrying the assault rifle declined to be identified, but told The Arizona Republic that he was carrying the weapon because he could, adding that he still has some freedoms.

Last week, during Obama's town hall meeting in Portsmouth, N.H., a man stood outside with a gun strapped to his leg.

Man Carrying Semi-Automatic Assault Rifle And Pistol Outside Obama Event (VIDEO)


When you consider this

Ted Rall for July 25, 2009 from www.gocomics.com

Gocomics.com: Comics, editorial cartoons, email comics, comic strips



In France, the Bosses Can Become Hostages - WSJ.com





Laid-off French workers threaten to blow up factory for redundancy pay - Telegraph

This movement — a loose alliance of therapists, scientists and others — holds that all people, “even” fat people, can eat whatever they want and, in the process, improve their physical and mental health and stabilize their weight. The aim is to behave as if you have reached your “goal weight” and to act on ambitions postponed while trying to become thin, everything from buying new clothes to changing careers. Regular exercise should be for fun, not for slimming.
Skin Deep - Skin Deep - Throwing out the Diet and Embracing the Fat - NYTimes.com

"B'EAU-PAL" WATER SCARES DOW EXECS INTO HIDING
Plans to contribute to climate action in lead-up to Copenhagen begin to take shape

London - A new, beautifully-designed line of bottled water - this time not from the melting Alps, nor from faraway, clean-water-deprived Fiji, but rather from the contaminated ground near the site of the 1984 Bhopal catastrophe - scared Dow Chemical's London management team into hiding today.
Dow runs scared from water | The Yes Men

It was an accident waiting to happen -- an open sewer and a 15-year-old girl who was texting while she walked.
Teen Girl Falls In Open Manhole While Texting - wcbstv.com

Listen to the women in the video:

"Jesus=MJ"

Family Sees Image Of Michael Jackson In Tree Stump - cbs13.com

In Europe, one vast colony of Argentine ants is thought to stretch for 6,000km (3,700 miles) along the Mediterranean coast, while another in the US, known as the 'Californian large', extends over 900km (560 miles) along the coast of California. A third huge colony exists on the west coast of Japan.
BBC - Earth News - Ant mega-colony takes over world

I ran across this in the library.

Michael Jackson is in heaven now with James Brown.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Ken Pagano, the pastor of the New Bethel Church here, is passionate about gun rights. He shoots regularly at the local firing range, and his sermon two weeks ago was on “God, Guns, Gospel and Geometry.” And on Saturday night, he is inviting his congregation of 150 and others to wear or carry their firearms into the sanctuary to “celebrate our rights as Americans!” as a promotional flier for the “open carry celebration” puts it.
Pastor Invites Flock to Bring Their Guns to Church - NYTimes.com

LONDON, England (CNN) -- How many people does it take to break the Internet? On June 25, we found out it's just one -- if that one is Michael Jackson.

The biggest showbiz story of the year saw the troubled star take a good slice of the Internet with him, as the ripples caused by the news of his death swept around the globe.

"Between approximately 2:40 p.m. PDT and 3:15 p.m. PDT today, some Google News users experienced difficulty accessing search results for queries related to Michael Jackson," a Google spokesman told CNET, which also reported that Google News users complained that the service was inaccessible for a time. At its peak, Google Trends rated the Jackson story as "volcanic."
Jackson dies, almost takes Internet with him - CNN.com