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Review of Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
2008-01-19 08:20:00
There's a review of the Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained in the London Review of Books, here. The entries, according to the editors, represent the full range of positions "from the hostile sceptic to the credulous believer." There is at least one gratifying juxtaposition, notes reviewer Hilary Mantel: the entry for the recently canonized Padre Pio appears on the same page as "pious fraud." They have tried to operate without bias, avoid empty speculation and run to earth misconceptions, and they have cross-referenced liberally and cleverly. On the whole, a sobriety of tone prevails. Only a few entries feature sentences like: ‘The aliens returned, exchanging barking sounds with one another as they stripped him naked and sponged him down.’ Doesn't sound too bad, even if it isn't The Skeptic's Dictionary...

Two women stoned to death in human sacrifice
2008-01-19 07:47:00
In India, two housewives from Bangalore were stoned to death by a gang in a human sacrifice ritual, according to this: Dogged by family problems, Elizabeth and Aruna had approached a black magician Ravindra only to meet a gory end. In the guise of performing a pooja, the gang reportedly drove the women to the banks of Vaishno River near Markonahalli dam in Yediyur and Simsha near Kollegal. Police said Ravindra, the main accused and tantric, performed the pooja by keeping three huge stones. Once through with the rituals, he reportedly directed the women to place their head on one of the rocks, close their eyes and pray to God. Their heads were then allegedly smashed with another boulder, according to the police. The whole thing started with a guy named Subbu, who talked to an astrologer after he had heard the "sound of anklets" during the night. The astrologer informed him that this was because there was wealth hidden where he lived (in a room behind a theater). So Subbu (who appar...
More About: Women , Human , Death , Sacrifice , Stoned

Blasphemy in Afghanistan and Iraq
2008-01-19 07:26:00
Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh and Mariwan Halabjaee are, respectively, the journalist who has spent months in jail in Afghanistan on blasphemy charges because he had dared to distribute an article which said the Prophet Muhammad had ignored the rights of women, and an author from Iraq i Kurdistan (currently in exile in Norway) who has been sentenced in absentia to jail for "writing in a book that Muhammad had 19 wives, married a nine-year-old when he was 54, and took part in murder and rape." Halabjaee says there's also a fatwa calling for his death unless he "asks forgiveness." More on this from Diana West for The Washington Times here. Related posts • Reporter faces death penalty for "blasphemy"
More About: Blasphemy

The Natural Quackery Council
2008-01-07 17:37:00
A new Natural Healthcare Council has been established in Britain, in order to regulate practitioners of aromatherapy, homeopathy, and other "complementary" therapies. This is not a positive thing. Quackery is quackery and should be banned outright. If any "complementary" or "alternative" therapy or medicine has any real value (determined through scientific testing), it ceases to be alternative and becomes just medicine. So there is no alternative medicine, just real medicine or quackery. As one of the commenters to the story says, "So now professional con artists are going to be regulated. What next, the Union of Bank Robbers? The Snake Oil Association?" Couldn't have put it better myself...
More About: The Natural

More bombings in Baghdad, at least 17 killed
2008-01-07 17:32:00
Update on the Baghdad bombings: The death toll from the double bombing now stands at twelve, and three other bombs killed five more people. Related posts • Seven dead in double bomb attack
More About: Bombings , Killed

New course in exorcism at the Vatican's university
2008-01-07 17:29:00
More on Darth Ratzinger's new apprentices... Paolo Scarafoni, a priest at Regina Apostolorum, the Vatican's university, told Italian news agency ANSA the institution will offer a new course in exorcism to help ease the shortage of priests who are trained to administer the appropriate rites. "Priests are being bombarded with requests [for exorcisms]," he said. Scarafoni teaches priests how to recognise and expel Satan. He told the agency that Satanic cults were making inroads in Italian society. ... Regina Apostolorum provides 10-week courses for priests who want to learn how to conduct exorcisms. It includes sessions on rites, how to talk to the Devil, and how to recognise the tricks he uses. Students also attend psychology classes to help them distinguish between genuine cases of possession and mental illnesses such as schizophrenia. Special prayers are offered to help cure the afflicted. It's 2008, and the Dark Ages are still going strong... Source John Charlton, "Pope sanct...
More About: University , Exorcism , Univers

Honour killing in Dallas
2008-01-07 14:23:00
Andrew Walden (writing for the conservative FrontPage Magazine) has gathered together news reports about an honour killing in Dallas , Texas, where the teenage daughters of Egyptian-born cabdriver Yaser Abdel Said were found murdered a week ago in an abandoned cab outside a hotel. Related posts • 16-year-old girl victim of honour killing in Canada
More About: Killing , Honour Killing , Alla

All televangelists are bad
2008-01-07 14:12:00
Mark I. Pinsky tries to defend certain American televangelists over others, listing Rick Warren and Joel Osteen as two prominent examples of preachers who are not quite as evil and greedy as the rest. This, of course, is a vain effort. Warren, Osteen, and the few others of their ilk are just as big a bunch of assholes as Benny Hinn, Joyce Meyer, Creflo Dollar, etc., etc. - they just do their evil in more subtle ways. Related posts • God speaks to Bishop Eddie Long
More About: Televangelists

What the hell is "The Canadian"?
2008-01-07 14:00:00
Lately I have frequently stumbled across articles from a newspaper called The Canadian , which bills itself as "Canada's new socially progressive and cross-cultural national newspaper." As you can imagine from that horror of a description, the thing seems to be filled with nothing but the most awful garbage imaginable - including reams of hilarious ufology and conspiracy nut drivel that makes the similar fevered concoctions in India Daily and Ananova seem almost reasonable by comparison... Aren't there enough trashy publications in the world, already? Or is this the next Weekly World News...?
More About: Hell , Adia

The truth about little green men
2008-01-07 13:42:00
Jim White looks forward to finding out the truth, at last, about little green men, at least in Britain where the Ministry of Defence is about to release all the files from its D155 intelligence branch (the unit charged with investigating UFO sightings). And when absolutely nothing of interest will be found in those or any other files, I, for one, look forward to hearing the tortured theories of conspiracy nuts everywhere (they've already begun, of course), continuing blindly on with their stubborn, unshakable, mindless belief in the big "cover-up." Actually I don't look forward to that at all. It will all be so wearyingly, mind-numbingly familiar, inane, and stupid beyond words. Related posts • Jim Marrs promises breathtaking discoveries • Timothy Good's Need to Know
More About: Truth , Green , Ruth , The Truth

Seven dead in double bomb attack
2008-01-07 13:33:00
At least seven dead in the latest Baghdad bombings, including the head of a local U.S.-backed "awakening council" armed group: A double bombing killed at least seven people and wounded 25 Monday outside the Baghdad office of a government agency that cares for Sunni mosques and shrines, witnesses and a hospital official said. A police officer, however, put the death toll as high as 14. In the first attack, a suicide bomber detonated explosives at the entrance to the Sunni Endowment office in Baghdad's northern Azamiyah district, witnesses and an army official said. As people rushed away, a second explosion — believed to have been caused by a roadside bomb — occurred just yards away. The dead awakening council leader was named Riyadh al-Samarrai, and one witness said the suicide bomber walked up to al-Samarrai and embraced him before detonating his explosives. Source Hamid Ahmed, "2 bombings kill at least 7 in Baghdad," AP, January 7, 2008 Related posts • 26 dead in two suic...
More About: Double , Dead , Bomb , Attack , Atta

Man gets 5 years after falling from a magic plane
2008-01-06 15:32:00
In the magical and mystical land of Malawi, where a man named Chikumbutso Mponda was sentenced Thursday to five years imprisonment with hard labour after he "fell down from a magic plane" on his way home to his village... According to Mponela Police public relations officer Kondwani Kandiado, the court heard that on Christmas eve Mponda was traveling from Lilongwe to his home village in Ntchisi using a magic plane. Due to lack of money for transport, he boarded a minibus to Mponela where he arrived at night. Kandiado said since it was at night and fearing for their lives, the convict and a friend decided to use a magic plane for the remainder of the trip. “Unfortunately, Mponda fell from the magic plane after it flew over a house at Mponela Trading Centre, which was heavily protected magically,” said Kandiado. He further said the convict was stripped naked by the house’s owner who he could not identify and his belongings were also taken away, including his JC and MSCE certifi...
More About: Magic , Years , Plane

Opponent cast a spell on voters and buried live goats
2008-01-06 15:28:00
Here's a Kenya story from before all the rioting broke out: Former Likoni MP Mr Suleiman Shakombo disputed the election results in his constituency and claimed the outcome was influenced by witchcraft. The Heritage minister alleged that a candidate cast a spell on voters and buried live goats at every polling station in his strongholds. He said he would prove his allegations in court. Good luck. Source Phionah Mwadilo, "Minister blames loss on witchcraft," The East Africa Standard, January 31, 2007 Related posts • The unravelling of Kenya • Systematic gang rape in Kenya • 50 people killed in church • 150 dead in Kenyan riots • Wannabe politican hires witchdoctor for election magic • Election politics in Kenya
More About: Live , Cast , Voters , Goats , Oats

The unravelling of Kenya
2008-01-06 14:45:00
There are no signs of improvement in the situation in Kenya . First, here's rape victim Sylvia Mudegu, telling her story to The Sunday Times: “They raped even the old women,” she said. The screams went on and on. “One girl was 12, and at 12 you know how to scream loudest.” And here are scenes from Nairobi's hospitals: There was one teenage boy whose body was perfectly whole except for a calf severed to the bare bone. He had been brought from the slum in a wheelbarrow and his eyes were still wild with fear. Another had a wound in the back from a police bullet. The city morgue was heaped high with bodies. The rigged election and the riots that followed were a golden opportunity for certain kinds of people: The resurrection of two violent criminal gangs, the Mungiki and the Taliban, loyal to the Kikuyu and Luo respectively, added a gruesome dimension. The Taliban were blamed for horrendous killings in which Kikuyu were hacked to death with machetes in the slums of Nairobi...

Voodoo football
2008-01-06 09:30:00
Ivorian footballer Didier Zokora (now playing for Tottenham Hotspur) explains the role of voodoo in African football: 'Voodoo is very big, when you're young you learn voodoo, voodoo, voodoo. It's black magic - family and friends talk voodoo, voodoo, and it's something mystic. It's a lucky charm. You might take some soil and charm each player. You put it in a bag for every game. If you win, you think, OK, it's good.' So before a match between, say, Ivory Coast and Ghana, is black magic used? 'Yeah, of course.' How? 'We say, "OK, today, Essien will not play very well,"' he replies, eyes twinkling. Does he use it? 'I'm different. Every game I kiss my arm for my brother. Half the team is Muslim, the other Catholic, so we pray half and half. Because we have one god we pray together. Arouna Kone [the Sevilla striker] leads the Muslims and goalkeeper Jean-Jacques Tizie, the Catholics.' It's still voodoo... Source Jamie Jackson, "Spurs will miss their voodoo man," The Obse...
More About: Football

The black magic of Hugo Chavez
2008-01-06 09:22:00
Evil dictator Hugo Chavez is not only evil and insane, he also believes in mystical bullshit like faith healing and being possessed by "the spirit of Simon Bolivar." More about that here.
More About: Magic , Black , Hugo Chavez , Black magic

Magician with a message
2008-01-06 09:16:00
Chippada Parasuram in the Indian state of Orissa is a magician of the real kind: Most of his shows are organised by the district units of Red Cross Society in order to raise money for various causes. ... For him, magic is a strong medium to spread awareness on several issues which includes superstition and black magic. “Hapless villagers often turn to black magic to get cured of diseases or seek solution of problems. I demonstrate the same tricks to make them conscious and not believe in superstitions,” Parasuram further said. He added, “I do a lot of stage shows in schools to teach children that magic is nothing but science. I teach them tricks too.” More people like him are needed. Source "A magician with a mission," Express News Service, January 6, 2008
More About: Message , Magician , Mess

Man raids piggy bank belonging to 2-year-old girl
2008-01-06 08:59:00
Criminal mastermind of the year: A man has been charged with sneaking into a toddler's bedroom and stealing $20 from a piggy bank while the 2-year-old girl slept. Authorities say DNA evidence linked Ryan A. Mueller, 30, of Sheboygan Falls to the crime that occurred Aug. 10 in Wilson. He fled when the mother of the girl discovered him. Blood was found on a window blind where he had forced his way into the house. Source "Police: Man took $20 in kid's piggy bank," AP, January 4, 2008
More About: Girl , Piggy , Bank , Year , Piggy Bank

Afghan clerics demand prevention of missionaries
2008-01-06 08:32:00
As always, religion never fails to make a bad situation worse: Afghanistan's Islamic council has told President Hamid Karzai to stop foreign aid groups from converting locals to Christianity and also demanded the reintroduction of public executions. The council, an influential group but without binding authority, is made up of Islamic clergy and ulema (scholars) from various parts of Afghanistan and made the warning in a statement during a meeting with Karzai on Friday. ... "The council is concerned about the activities of some ... missionary and atheistic organs and considers such acts against Islamic sharia (law), the constitution, and political stability," said a copy of the statement obtained by Reuters. "If not prevented, God forbid, catastrophe will emerge, which will not only destabilize the country, but the region and the world." So, no missionaries and "atheistic organs." In other words, the only thing good enough for Muslim clerics would be aid organizations made up ent...
More About: Prevention , Missionaries , Demand , Missi

Al-Qaeda videos can now be downloaded on cell phones
2008-01-06 08:23:00
According to an al-Sahab announcement Friday on Islamic militant websites: In a written message introducing the new cell phone videos, al-Zawahri, al-Qaida's No. 2 figure, asked followers to spread the terror group's messages. "I asked God for the men of jihadi media to spread the message of Islam and monotheism to the world and spread real awareness to the people of the nations," al-Zawahri said. These people are fighting for a way of life that belongs to the Stone Age. But they never hesitate to use the latest technology, that they could never in a million years have developed on their own, to spread their filth. Source Paul Schemm, "Al-Qaida videos now on cell phones," AP, January 5, 2008
More About: Videos , Cell Phones , Phones , Cell , Al Qaeda

Tanzania to crack down on witchcraft crime
2008-01-05 19:03:00
About time, too. Here's Tanzania n president Jakaya Kikwete in his New Year address: "As much as many cases of rape are associated with moral decay, there is evidence that some traders nurse stupid beliefs that having sexual intercourse with infants can bring them fortune," he said late Monday. "There are also those who believe that possession of some organs of infants and albinos can turn them rich," he added, ordering the police to come down hard out on such practices. According to Kikwete, rape cases doubled to around 8,000 in 2007 from 3,946 nationwide the previous year, while the number of murders reported in the east African nation also rose from 2,309 to 3,144 over the same period. Tanzania's Albino society recently complained that albinos were being targeted by some witch-doctors, following a string of murders. In 2007, police reported several cases of people exhuming the freshly-buried bodies of infants to remove organs, in many cases the genitals, to make potions used in...
More About: Crime , Witchcraft , Crack , Witch

The plain lie about speaking in tongues
2008-01-05 18:53:00
Glossolalia, or "speaking in tongues," is nothing but meaningless babbling gibberish, uttered by hysterical people caught in a religious frenzy. There's nothing mystical about it, it's just dumb people acting like idiots in an unusually embarrassing way. So when the religious Trumpet publication promises the "plain truth about speaking in tongues," you can be sure that it's anything but. For the actual plain truth about this nonsense, go here instead.
More About: Plain , Speaking , Tongues

The Anomalies Network
2008-01-05 18:45:00
Ever heard of Olav Phillips? Me neither. But apparently he's the founder of the Anomalies Network , "the largest UFO and paranormal information source on the Internet." As if there weren't enough junk on the internet already... Here's the site, for anyone who might be interested.

Bali bomber bullshit bragging
2008-01-05 18:32:00
One of the troglodyte retards responsible for the Bali bombings is bragging about how much he looks forward to dying, again: ONE of the Bali bombers has written from his Indonesian jail that he feels so "beautiful" on the eve of his execution that "no words can describe how good the feeling is". ... Mukhlas, a father of six who is also known as Ali Gufron, titled his jail writings The Right And Good Dreams. "Please read my writing," he urged Muslims in the internet statement, which he called his "last will and testament". "I would not trade how I am feeling now with anything else in the world," he said. Mukhlas claimed that Amrozi and the third bomber, Imam Samudra, are also writing books in their cells in a high-security jail on Nusakambangan Island, off Central Java. I'm amazed that these creatures can actually write. A former Islamic preacher in his late 40s, Mukhlas has showed no remorse for helping to organise the 2002 bombings in Bali's Kuta tourist district, which killed...
More About: Bullshit , Bomber , Bragg

Jesse Ventura: Don't start the revolution without me
2008-01-05 11:38:00
Sadly, former pro wrestler and Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura is just as big a conspiracy nut as he is an obnoxious loudmouth. His upcoming book, Don't Start the Revolution Without Me!, contains the following gems of insight: He discusses at length the assassination of President Kennedy. He scorns the idea that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, and claims that during a trip to Dallas as governor a police officer warned him to avoid talking too much about "things that certain people don't want brought to light." Ventura also airs his suspicion that "somebody in the government" sent people to infiltrate a government course he taught at Harvard University in 2004, on a day he discussed Kennedy's assassination. He repeatedly shows a fascination with conspiracy theories and surveillance, recalling several encounters he had with CIA agents while governor and claiming that his wife found an electronic listening device at their private home during his term. ... A harsh critic of the U.S....
More About: The Revolution

Neuroimaging shows that ESP is not real
2008-01-05 09:18:00
As if scientific experiments were needed to show that ESP does not exist: Psychologists at Harvard University have developed a new method to study extrasensory perception that, they argue, can resolve the century-old debate over its existence. According to the authors, their study not only illustrates a new method for studying such phenomena, but also provides the strongest evidence yet obtained against the existence of extrasensory perception, or ESP. So to all you spoonbenders out there: tough luck. Source "Neuroimaging Fails To Demonstrate ESP Is Real ," ScienceDaily, January 4, 2008 Related posts • Review of the Gold Leaf Lady

Five myths about American voters
2008-01-05 09:10:00
Listed in The Washington Post here by Bryan Caplan, author of The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies. From this we can see that there's one often repeated fact about American voters that isn't a myth: that they're stupid. Related posts • 2008 U.S. presidential election all about God
More About: Myths , Voters

Child rape sharply increasing in northern Nigeria
2008-01-05 08:55:00
In the city of Kano in the notorious Kano State in north-western Nigeria , where sharia law was introduced in 2001. That's when it all really started going to hell for girls in the area: In one incident a 70-year-old man allegedly raped a three year old girl, Suleiman Abba, Kano's deputy police chief told IRIN on Thursday. "Child rape is becoming rampant in Kano and we are worried that if nothing is done to stop the problem it will go out of the hand." In the last six months, police in Kano, the commercial hub of northern Nigeria, recorded 54 cases of child rape and made 60 related arrests. "In some cases the victims are gang-raped," Abba said. ... The suspects are usually males between the ages of 45 and 70 while their victims are mostly girls of between three and 11 years. "We have cases of young men raping minors but the number pales by comparison to the rape cases involving older men," Abba, the deputy police chief, said. He added that the number of reported cases is only the ...
More About: Rape , Northern

Death toll now at 50
2007-12-21 12:14:00
In today's suicide bomb attack in Pakistan: Bloodied clothes, hats, shoes and pieces of flesh were strewn about the building. Witnesses said the dead included police officers guarding Sherpao, who was praying in the mosque's front row at the time of the attack but not injured. ... District mayor Farman Ali Khan said between 50 and 55 people were killed. Local police chief Feroz Shah said over 100 were wounded. ... The bomb contained 13-17 pounds of explosives and was filled with nails and ball bearings to maximize casualties, said the head of the bomb unit at the scene, who declined to give his name. The final death toll is still unknown. Source Riaz Khan, "Suicide attack kills 50 in Pakistan," AP, December 21, 2007 Related posts • At least 35 killed in suicide bomb attack in Pakistan
More About: Death , Toll

At least 35 killed in suicide bomb attack in Pakistan
2007-12-21 09:04:00
Former interior minister Aftab Khan Sherpao is a popular guy among Islamists. This is the second time he has been targeted in an attack like this: The blast went off as worshippers held prayers for the Eid al-Adha holy day at the mosque in Sherpao's residential compound in Sherpao, a village about 25 miles northeast of the city of Peshawar, a witness said. Provincial Health Minister Syed Kamal Shah said 35 people were killed and about three dozen were injured. Provincial police chief Sharif Virk said said one of Sherpao's sons was hurt. Kamal Shah, a top Interior Ministry official in Islamabad, said he was not sure who was behind the bombing, but believed it was related to the previous attack on Sherpao, which killed at least 28 people and slightly wounded the former minister. ... Virk said the bomber was praying in a row of worshippers when he detonated the explosive. It's almost enough to suspect that he was a religious man. Source Riaz Khan, "Suicide attack kills 35 in Paki...
More About: Pakistan , Bomb , Killed , Attack