Belarus Rip Off of Big Bang Theory - Теоретики

It's Eastern Block Rip Off Weekend! Enjoy детей!

Russian Remake of How I Met Your Mother

Got this in a Tweet from Neil Patrick Harris.  It's a Russian knock off of "How I Met Your Mother".

Enjoy!

Hate Pastor Terry Jones - Blood On His Hands!

The backwoods Reverend, Terry Jones who caused a firestorm with his planned "Burn a Koran" day finally followed through, and the result was bloodshed.  The offices of the UN in Afghanistan were attached by angry citizens, embittered by Terry Jones publicity stunt.  Now 11 staffers are dead and all because Jones refused to let his insipid publicity stunt go.

Jones held a "trial" of the Koran in his church and pronounced it guilty, then proceeded to burn the book.

OK, this sounds like a really bad joke, but it is not.  Jones is unrepentant and blames the rest of the world, meanwhile there are 11 people to ship home in coffins that need not have died.  Jones has little idea of the passions his act inflamed and his self-serving stunt is about as far from a Christian act as I can imagine.

UK Citizen Threatened With Execution in Saudi Arabia for Being Gay

The lesson he learned is, you don't mess with the culture in Saudi Arabia.  Perhaps he also could have learned not to work in a country where your very existence is a crime.  According to an article in The Sun:

A British man feared for his life after being arrested in Saudi Arabia on charges of homosexuality, it has emerged. The male nurse, Stephen Comiskey,  said he was savagely beaten and tormented with the threat of being decapitated.

He had moved to the socially-strict state in order to work for the King Fahad National Guard Hospital in Riyadh.

Illinois Sheriff Learns A Lesson?

When Schuyler County Sheriff Don Scheiferdecker posted a comment on a subordinates Facebook page he felt it was just a joke.  Perhaps he learned something from that "joke". 

The sheriff noted next to a picture of a young boy on a coworkers page, "Look, I found a fag...Yup and his mouth is open, his glasses are off, he's ready, little fag Jew boy."

The lesson I learned from this is that the sheriff feels it is just fine to make sexual orientation and religion an object of scorn and derision, "just in fun".   He has since apologized but that apology rings hollow and here's why.  The fact that he believed it was OK to call someone a "fag Jew boy" and more importantly someone who he really didn't know, since it was a picture of someone other than his subordinate, shows his contempt for whole classes of people.  Worse yet it shows that he believes society also has universal contemt for those classes and therefore would see the "joke".

It isn't funny, sheriff.  According to a story in AOL:

Scheiferdecker has been the sheriff of Schuyler County for over 30 years.
He told AOL News he was "extremely sorry" for the comment. "I have spent over 30 years of my life here giving public service, and I have never intentionally done anything to hurt anyone for any reason. ... All I can do is say I am sorry. ... I am extremely sorry [and] I beg people's forgiveness."

I suspect it will take a whole lot of begging, and more importantly some kind of reeducation, maybe even choosing a new career path.

Shocking! Mormons Use Electro-Shock to "Cure" Gays

They called it "electric aversion therapy" in 1976 at Utah's Brigham Young University. What it was was a kinky attempt at "curing" a condition that most psychologists consider normal.  Gay students at BYU signed up voluntarily for the therapy to change their sexual orientation by delivering an electric shock to their penis when they became aroused at visual images of men.

According to an ABC News report:

A mercury-filled tube was placed around the base of the penis and the students were shown alternating slides of men and women in various stages of undress.
When participants responded to images of men with an erection, the closed electric circuit was broken and they received three-second electrical shocks at 10-second intervals. Each session lasted an hour. Participants set their own pain levels.

One participant, playwright John Cameron explained experiencing the "therapy" in an interview.  He enrolled in the study and found himself delivering the highest levels of pain.

"I was always turning it up to get the most pain because I was desperate."

Homosexuals were seen as a "prurient, expendable population," according to Cameron. "To admit homosexuality in 1976 was the kiss of death. You could be targeted, lose your job, lose your income, lose everything."

 The entire article is here.

On a personal note, I think this kind of "therapy" is pure quackery.  Being into the kinky side of sex, I can tell you that just delivering a painful electric shock is not necessarily an aversion.  I have friends who regularly endure this kind of thing for fun, and that shows just how the brain often mixes the pain and pleasure responses.  Luckily this "therapy" has been discarded at BYU. 

Now I wonder if they have the equipment for sale?

It is a Haboob!

That's a sandstorm in Arabic, nothing dirty.  We get these in Texas from time to time, but thankfully none lately!

Found this at Towleroad.com.

Fox News Exec Admits Lying On-Air About Obama

Prior to the 2008 election Fox News was the source of a lot of silliness, but the most egregious lie being foisted upon viewers was that Barack Obama advocated socialism. This admission comes from Fox Washington managing editor Bill Sammon who admitted the lie in the following audio obtained by Media Matters.

Over and over again Fox News has been proven to be a propaganda factory not a new outlet, yet they continue to get the same access accredited press gets to officials and events.  That needs to end.  If they are going to be a PR firm for the GOP, then they need to be treated like one and have their press credentials lifted.

Newt Gingrich - Enemy of LGBT Rights

Funny how the fight for LGBT rights has become twisted by the right-wing into the fight for religious freedom.  Say what?  Yup on this interview Newt Gingrich, serial adulterer and possible GOP presidential candidate uses the twisted logic that not being able to discriminate against gays is limiting free speech?  Would anyone seriously make that argument against civil rights?  Of course not, it has no bearing.  you can speak about being a hateful bigot all you want, but when that speech becomes acts that deny LGBT people their rights, then it's no longer speech, it's discrimination.

Watch it and you will understand how dangerous this logic is.

Angry Birds - The Movie!

Towleroad found this and it's way too funny not to share.