Negligible Knowledge Base

Associated Press:
FRANKFORT, Kentucky - A group of atheists filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking to remove part of a state anti-terrorism law that requires Kentucky’s Office of Homeland Security to acknowledge it can’t keep the state safe without God’s help.
What the fuck? This is so patentently offensive as to be beyond imaginination. And, if you can’t [...]

The Obama transition team has presented a questionnaire to NASA officials asking, among other things, how much money could be saved by canceling the Ares 1 and scaling back the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle. These are two of the vehicles that are intended to replace the Space Shuttle.
Space.com’s Brian Berger:
While the questionnaire, a copy of [...]

Associated Press:
Cross burnings. Schoolchildren chanting “Assassinate Obama.” Black figures hung from nooses. Racial epithets scrawled on homes and cars.
Incidents around the country referring to President-elect Barack Obama are dampening the postelection glow of racial progress and harmony, highlighting the stubborn racism that remains in America.
From California to Maine, police have documented a range of alleged [...]

Here goes another wacky Catholic (sorry, “alter ego”):
COLUMBIA, S.C. — A South Carolina Roman Catholic priest has told his parishioners that they should refrain from receiving Holy Communion if they voted for Barack Obama because the Democratic president-elect supports abortion, and supporting him “constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil.”
The Rev. Jay Scott Newman said [...]

Associated Press:
“It’s well known that they share an important belief that Americans want and deserve a more effective and efficient government, and will discuss ways to work together to make that a reality,” Obama spokesman Stephanie Cutter said in announcing the meeting.
Awesome.

Turns out our President-elect is a Mac guy. That would help explain his ability to “think different”, no? He ‘”Barack’s” a Mac!
I just love this:
There has been some question as to whether Clinton or Bush used Macs. Clinton sent a grand total of 2 emails while in the White House - which was two [...]

For crying out loud! Jerusalem, of all places, appears to have just elected a secular mayor!
JERUSALEM - A secular businessman appeared to have won an election for mayor of Jerusalem Tuesday against a powerful ultra-Orthodox Jewish leader in a race that again exposed the deep divide between religious and secular Israelis.
You’d think that in America, [...]

Drudge Report headline: “Condoms Over Abstinence in Obama AIDS Policy…” I can’t imagine the Drudge Report or it’s usual readers view this as a positive development, but those of us committed to rationality certainly do.
The linked story resides at Bloomberg, Condoms Trump Abstinence in Obama Global AIDS Policy:
Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) — President-elect Barack Obama will reverse [...]

New York Times profile of Nate Silver, the man behind the wildly accurate FiveThirtyEight.com:
In March, he introduced FiveThirtyEight.com, and it quickly became a go-to site for readers whose interest in raw numbers had grown after the close (and miscalled) elections in 2000 and 2004. As his reputation grew online — there’s a Facebook group called [...]

Well, it seems that making reference to Nancy Reagan holding séances in the White House is insulting, apparently in light of the fact that all she did was consult an astrologer for insight as to which days were “good” or “neutral” or “bad”, and then use the astrologer’s “information” to not only influence, but change, President Reagan’s [...]