The rioting by Penn State students on hearing the news that football coach Joe Paterno was summarily sacked (along with the university president) by the university’s Board of Trustees is inexcusable. According to news reports, graduate assistant Mike McCreary (sometimes spelled as McQueary) observed assistant coach Jerry Sandusky raping a 10-year old boy in the …

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As I feared, the authorities are starting to use force on the Occupy protestors, starting in Oakland. Charles Pierce says that the assault symbolizes the militarization of the police: Make no mistake about it: The actions of the police department in Oakland last night were a military assault on a legitimate political demonstration. That it …

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Clearly the panel on Bill Maher’s show think that Cain could give Sarah Palin a run for the title of the most ignorant and confused high-profile politician in recent times. One thing that panelist Joshua Green said shed a lot of light and that is that although Cain is described as the former CEO of …

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The always readable Steven Pinker has a new book out titled THE BETTER ANGELS OF OUR NATURE: Why Violence Has Declined arguing that there has been a steady drop in violence over time. The equally readable Peter Singer has a very positive review of the book, of which the following is an excerpt. Against the …

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It looks like the search for the elusive Higgs particle is getting close. The so-called Standard Model of particle led to the existence of the Higgs being proposed 1964 as an explanation of how elementary particles get their mass and it is the final particle of the model to be yet directly detected. If it …

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The Daily Show – Indecision 2012 – Elephant Stampede to the White House – The Media Turns to Paul RyanGet More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

I have speculated before that a lot of clergy may be closet atheists and that over time more and more will emerge. This article says that, “A study by the Free University of Amsterdam found that one-in-six clergy in the PKN and six other smaller denominations was either agnostic or atheist.” The pastor of a …

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Rachel Maddow has compiled the great thoughts of the religious people invited to Texas governor Rick Perry’s day of prayer on August 6 to which he has invited all his fellow state governors. (Via Pharyngula.) Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy There is an outfit called ‘The International House …

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The group Lulzsec briefly hacked into website of the Murdoch tabloid The Sun and published a spoof front page.