The Pentagon announced that it will issue microwave pain guns to its forces in Iraq. [Daily Telegraph] The United States military was planning a large new offensive in Iraq to prepare for the scheduled January elections. The Transportation Security Administration announced that it plans to force airlines to provide personal information about passengers so that it can test a new system for identifying potential terrorists. Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens, was refused entry to the United States because his name appears on a list of terrorism suspects. More flaws were found in Diebold Election Systems’ electronic voting machines. [Wired News]
The Israeli government seized 80,000 cans of dog food that had been labeled as foie gras. [Haaretz]
The BBC canceled a satirical cartoon series called “Popetown,” which featured corrupt bishops and depicted the pope jumping around the Vatican on a pogo stick. [Guardian, Associated Press]
Jimmy Swaggart said that he would kill any gay man who “looks at me like that.” [The Advocate]
Wal-Mart agreed to stop selling The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, a nineteenth-century anti-Semitic forgery, on its website.
In Italy, an old woman was killed by a falling crucifix. The company that makes Hostess Twinkies and Wonder Bread went bankrupt. [Reuters] American researchers developed a device that uses spinach to generate electricity, and scientists [New Scientist] were hoping to use rat brainwaves to find people buried by earthquakes. [New Scientist] California banned necrophilia. [Scotsman]
twinkies and wonderbread are bankrupt? THAT’S AWESOME!!!!
a lot of these others have been on Fark in the last week… the Jimmy Swaggart one was like this: he said to a congregation that if a gay man looked at him “like that,” he would kill him and tell God he didn’t do it, or something like that. And the audience laughed and clapped. When questioned about it, he said it was a joke because of course God would know, because God knows everything. Y’see? And he also said he makes jokes like that about killing various people and lying to God ALL THE TIME and it was JUST A JOKE, FOR PETE’S SAKE!
Anybody up for a little fire-bombing? …see, it’s funny because I don’t actually know how to make a bomb!
The falling crucifix is my favorite, though.
Hostess Twinkies and Wonder Bread make up two thirds of my diet! (the other third being delicious smelts).
What will I eat now?? If ‘Tart and Tiny’s’ disappear I’ll have to go on a hunger strike!