Oklahoma ten commandments monument gets reprieve

An Oklahoma county judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by the ACLU on behalf of a Baptist minister charging that the 6-foot tall granite Ten Commandments monument that was placed on grounds of the state capital violated the state’s constitution. The judge blocked the lawsuit from even going to trial. The ruling will be appealed to the state supreme court and there is another lawsuit pending in a federal court that is scheduled for trial on March 10, 2015.
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Gay friendly mosque opens in South Africa

Islam is one of those religions that is highly disapproving of homosexuality, forcing members of the LGBT community deep into the closet in order to avoid persecution or even death in some countries. So I was interested to read about the opening of a pro-gay mosque in Cape Town, South Africa that also treated men and women equally and where women will be allowed to lead prayers.
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Woman has plastic surgery to add a third breast?

There are some news items that I read and think, “This has to be a hoax”. To check, I look to see if the source is an established news outlet and that it is original reporting by their reporters and not something they have taken off some other source because these days there are many websites that pretend to be news sources but whose purpose seems to be to fool regular news operations by writing stories that on the surface look genuine.
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Cell phone addiction

It is a stereotype of the current college generation that they are addicted to their cell phones. A couple of professors at Baylor University decided to ask students enrolled in their class to fill out an online survey about the amount of their cell-phone use in 24 different categories to see the degree of cell phone addiction and any gender differences, where an addiction was defined as “the repeated use of a substance despite the negative consequences suffered by the addicted individual”.
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Zephyr Teachout

I did not follow the race for the New York Democratic primary because the odious current governor Andrew Cuomo seemed assured of an easy win. But although he did win as expected, his opponent with the unlikely name of Zephyr Teachout made a very good showing, getting 34% of the vote, despite the fact that she had very little money and Cuomo completely ignored her and refused to even debate her.
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Rejecting political pandering

It is very hard for local governments to resist religious pandering, especially when it is combined with patriotic pandering. All it takes is for one elected official to propose something like putting up the Ten Commandments or starting meetings with a prayer or the Pledge of Allegiance (with the words ‘under god’ added of course) and this puts other members in a bind. Even if they think the idea is stupid, offensive, or even unconstitutional, few want to speak out against it for fear of being labeled anti-religious or unpatriotic. This is why most such practices end up having to be litigated, wasting everyone’s time and money.
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Liars lying about their lying

The brazenness of some very senior Obama administration officials is astounding. First they lie, even while under oath. When confronted with the lies, they first try to avoid admitting it, then when the evidence is overwhelming, they admit it but plead that were taken out of context or ‘misspoke’, then when even that fails to hold up, they admit they lied and apologize.
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