"A letter arrived from an antiabortion activist who befriended Scott Roeder, the man convicted of killing Dr. Tiller, after he went to prison. That letter, now in federal hands, warned Dr. Mila Means to check under her yellow Mini Cooper for explosives before turning the key." —Terrorism is why you still can't get an abortion in Wichita.
Now that you know Mardi Gras is today, it stands to reason that you receive your yearly warning to non-Christians: tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, so don't be alarmed when you see the mark of Jesus on people's foreheads. (I know! Every year, it catches me by surprise!) Anyway, be polite, don't laugh and point, just roll with it: the Christians are a totally fine people, who believe in supporting the poor and loving neighbors, just as long as you don't spook or provoke them… or try to control your own body. (Sorry! God bless!)
What are the Christians up to these days? Rapping! Or, well, "rapping." Still. But in a weird new TV-show-referencing way. This video comes courtesy of an honest-to-goodness Mom email forward: It's a middle-aged lady, Tamara Lowe, doing her trademark "rap," which is about cramming as many pop culture proper nouns into one singsongy poem as possible. (And God, and the Bible.)
Were you thinking about Haiti, while the east coast of the U.S. was under varying levels of attack from earthquakes and hurricanes? Well, 19 months after the quake, things are not great! For instance, there are nearly 600,000 people still leaving in tent camps, which are becoming permanent ways of living. “We have NGOs telling us, we are packing up and leaving at the end of this month,” said Emmanuelle Schneider, spokeswoman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, who blames a lack of funding for the departures. “Of the $300 million consolidated appeal the U.N. system is requesting to cover humanitarian needs, only 52 percent [...]
Anonymous students at Arkansas' Harding University have published this zine about being gay at the conservative Christian school. Their website has been blocked on campus. This is a fascinating development: in previous generations, gay students at such a school would simply have left, or, you know, killed themselves.
It's hard to know how worked up to get about the Hutaree, the Antichrist-obsessed militia group arrested by the FBI over the weekend for allegedly plotting to kill a police officer, blow up members of law enforcement at the resulting funeral, and thus set in motion the annihilation of the federal government. When the Tea Party kicks you out of its massive tent, and neighboring militias dismiss you as a cult, you might just be out there on the fringiest fringe in Fringeville.
This whole "my parents think the end of the world is nigh" piece (which is pretty amazing) is really borderline on whether you should call Child Protective Services, right? I mean, when a 14-year-old is saying “I don’t really have any motivation to try to figure out what I want to do anymore because my main support line, my parents, don’t care"? Off to a friendly foster home run by heathen gays with these children!
The story that best describes Haiti's last year is not from a slum, nor from a cholera clinic. It's not to be found in the rubble—but in a courtroom in Texas.
In November, 2010, Lewis Lucke, a former U.S. ambassador to Swaziland and former USAID official in Haiti, filed suit against Haiti Recovery Group Ltd. for some $500,000 in unpaid fees for the tens of millions of dollars in contracts Lucke secured for the group in the days after the earthquake. After leaving his USAID position, Lucke immediately signed a $30,000 a month "consulting" contract with the Haiti Recovery Group, a conglomerate formed by several American contractors with [...]
