davidvoegtle.net

I’ve never been one for conspiracy theories. The 9/11 Truth movement? Not credible. Alex Jones from InfoWars? I’m from Austin, TX, and he’s been our town idiot with a cheesy cable access show for as long as I can remember. Nevertheless, there’s something curious going on in California with regards [...]

Hipster: The Dead End of Western Civilization | Adbusters Culturejammer Headquarters: “An artificial appropriation of different styles from different eras, the hipster represents the end of Western civilization – a culture lost in the superficiality of its past and unable to create any new meaning. Not only is it unsustainable, it is suicidal. While previous [...]

Hotline On Call: AFL-CIO Drops New Mailers In OH, MI, PA, WI: One of the mailers aims directly to dispel myths and rumors about the IL senator. The other features worker testimonials on Obama’s record on jobs, health care reform and workers’ rights.
Union officials tell On Call that the mailers mark the launch of a [...]

Feminists cry foul over Fat Princess – Video Game Feature – Yahoo! Video Games: She’s Fat Princess, the star of Sony’s upcoming video game of the same name. Debuting at last week’s E3 expo, the colorful Fat Princess is a capture-the-flag game with a twist: you can thwart capture attempts by locking the once-thin princess [...]

Judge removed after racial comment: A South Carolina judge who admitted calling crack cocaine addiction “black man’s disease” has been banned from the bench, the state’s Supreme Court said in an order Monday.
(Via MSNBC.com: Crime & courts.)
Wow. Just wow.
It’s nice to see that the state supreme court stepped in and did the right thing, [...]

Study shows dementia patients recognize ‘elderspeak’: They may not be as sharp as they once were. Their memory may be failing. But people with Alzheimer’s can still sense when someone is talking down to them.
(Via McClatchy.)
When I was a teenager, I worked at a nursing home with an Alzheimer’s care wing. Quit a lot [...]

Americans United: Army Base Cannot Coerce Soldier Trainees To Attend Church Services, Says Americans United: “Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri offers ‘Free Day Away’ as one of only two opportunities for soldiers to leave the base during eight weeks of vigorous Army training. (The other day is the day before graduation, which can be spent [...]

McClatchy Washington Bureau | 07/24/2008 | Obama sparks debate: Would Europe elect a black leader?: “Obama’s current tour — he landed in Berlin Thursday and was travelling to Paris and London — has provoked an intense debate among members of Western Europe’s racial and ethnic minorities: What are the chances of a minority politician rising [...]

House votes to boost bridge spending – Capitol Hill- msnbc.com: “The House overwhelmingly passed legislation Thursday aimed at improving the safety of the nation’s bridges, nearly a year after the deadly collapse of an interstate highway bridge in Minneapolis.
The vote was 367-55.”
(Via artsgal @ Newsvine.)
Good news. It’s about time that America invests in its [...]

Why the press is ignoring the Edwards “love child” story. – By Jack Shafer – Slate Magazine: “But if Edwards had an affair and lied about it, shouldn’t he suffer scrutiny akin to that of Craig? At least three-dozen daily newspapers in the United States published the Craig news the day after the Roll Call [...]

Crossing the line on Steve Jobs’ health | One More Thing – CNET News.com: “One clear sign that this is an unseemly exercise: if those who keep pushing the issue feel they have to repeatedly apologize for seeming insensitive, they’re probably being insensitive. Yes, Jobs is the CEO of a $135 billion company that has [...]

Seeded at Newsvine:
I am stumped by how to excerpt the language on message boards and blogs.
Take a passage signed by zipthwung, an astute online commenter: “pornography if for the ruling classes and their violent vulgar all consuming appetites. Or their slaves.”

Seeded at Newsvine:
Obese women who carry most of their extra weight around the stomach are 70 percent more likely to develop pancreatic cancer, an international team of researchers reported.

Seeded at Newsvine:
Taunting and bullying often goes unnoticed by teachers, and administrators have few policies in place to handle it. Only 11 states have enacted laws to protect schoolchildren from being bullied specifically because of sexual orientation.

Seeded at Newsvine:
BOSTON — Massachusetts may have been the first state to legalize same-sex marriage for its residents, but when California last month invited out-of-state gay and lesbian couples to get married, the potential economic benefits did not go unnoticed here.

Seeded at Newsvine:
ROME (AP) – The Italian government was ordered to pay euro100,000 ($160,000) to a gay man who received a driver’s license for the disabled after he declared his sexual orientation on an official form, the man and a gay-rights group said Monday.

Seeded at Newsvine:
“I just think it’s bad form for the census to change a legal response to an incorrect response,” said Gary Gates of the Williams Institute, a think tank at the University of California-Los Angeles law school that studies gay-related public policy issues.

Seeded at Newsvine:
France’s highest court denied citizenship to Faiza Mabchour, a Moroccan woman, on the grounds that she practices a form of Islam called Salafism, which requires a rigorous interpretation of the Quran.

Seeded at Newsvine:
People of color appreciate Stuff White People Like because it makes visible the assumed invisibility of a certain type of white culture. In doing so, it opens the door to the admission that, yes, white culture is a distinct, often peculiar, and even varied phenomenon.

Seeded at Newsvine:
Their findings, said Standfort, appear to support theories that attitudes to homosexuals are more favourable in countries that prefer equality over inequality and where acting as an individual is preferred over acting in a group.

Seeded at Newsvine:
Congress should repeal the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law because the presence of gays in the military is unlikely to undermine the ability to fight and win, according to a new study released by a California-based research center.

Seeded at Newsvine:
European Union citizens would prefer to elect a gay leader than have one they consider too old, a study released in Brussels has revealed.

Seeded at Newsvine:
After the California Supreme Court ruled gay marriage legal, the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of California began encouraging all couples to marry outside the church.

Seeded at Newsvine:
The border fence project has faced embarrassments–illegal immigrants employed to build the wall, a “Virtual Fence” project that cannot distinguish humans and vehicles from livestock and bushes–but those setbacks pale in comparison to its fundamental flaws.

Seeded at Newsvine:
A GOLD Coast teenager who wore a T-shirt by English extreme metal band Cradle of Filth that reads ‘Jesus is a c**t’ has been charged with offensive behaviour.
Above the offensive slogan a nun is depicted masturbating.