A rural Dane County town supervisor believes Bristol Palin should not be on "Dancing With The Stars."
He demanded his wife get his pistols to emphasize his point.
The result: A 15-hour standoff Monday and Tuesday involving hostage negotiators, a dog team and other law enforcement authorities on one side and the Town of Vermont man on the other.
The only casualty: The man's television.
Dane County prosecutors have charged Steven N. Cowan with second-degree reckless endangerment in the incident that made his wife worry that he would shoot her, according to a criminal complaint.
Cowan, 67, and his wife were in the living room Monday night, watching the dance competition program that has featured the daughter of former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin this season as one of the competitors.
As Bristol Palin danced on the screen, Cowan raged.
"The (expletive) politics," he yelled, according to the complaint. Cowan, a Town of Vermont supervisor, was upset that a political figure's daughter was on the show when he didn't consider her a good dancer, his wife told authorities.
Cowan went to his bedroom and came back about 20 minutes later, demanding that his wife find his pistols. Cowan's daughter had taken two handguns away for safety reasons, according to the complaint.
Cowan had tracked down a single-shot shotgun in the house, he "slapped" shells down onto a TV tray, loaded a round and took out the TV, the complaint says.
Cowan's face was bright red. He loaded the gun again. His wife put a blanket over her head, thinking that if her husband decided to shoot at her, she didn't want to see it.
Cowan then demanded his pistols. His wife grabbed her purse and left the house and went to the local police department and the standoff ensued.
Cowan's wife told authorities that he has been taking medication for bipolar disorder and that the family's finances have caused stress. He had been drinking at a bar before he came home, according to the complaint.
Larry Ziemer, a fellow town supervisor, said he has known Cowan for about 20 years.
"I have nothing but good things to say about Steve," Ziemer said. "It was totally out of character for this to occur. He just does an excellent job on the town board and in his private working life."
Ziemer said Cowan is a talented carpenter and is well-respected in the area. Ziemer said he had never heard Cowan speak ill of Sarah Palin or her family before.
"He and I agree pretty much on politics," Ziemer said. "We would probably lean both to the liberal side."
Monday? But it was on Tuesday that it was announced that Bristol Palin would be in the finals.
They kicked off Brandy. It was unbelievable. She had a 30/30 Argentine Tango. While Bristol's final 53/60 score, I thought, the judges were just being nice because it was the semi-finals.
If Alanis Morissette had done Miracles I would listen to that shit. I would listen to it ironically, but their assertion still stands: I would call it genius. What is questionable is why does their stupidity make the song less enjoyable?
It looks like glass is flying everywhere, and if it was on I'm sure there would be sparks as well, but this isn't the explosion action I was hoping for...
Catholic reformers and groups working to combat HIV have welcomed remarks by Pope Benedict that the use of condoms might not always be wrong.
The Pope said their use might be justified on a case by case basis to prevent the spread of HIV/Aids.
The remarks, due to be published in a book next week, mark a softening of his previously hard line against condoms in the battle against HIV, analysts say.
The Vatican has long opposed condoms as an artificial form of contraception.
This has drawn heavy criticism, particularly from Aids campaigners, who say condoms are one of the few methods proven to stop the spread of HIV.
'Significant shift'
Pope Benedict said during a visit to Cameroon last year that handing out condoms might actually make HIV infection worse, drawing criticism from several EU states.
In his latest comments, however, he said the use of condoms might be justified in exceptional circumstances.
He gave the example of male prostitutes where, he said, using condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS could be seen as an act of moral responsibility, even though condoms were "not really the way to deal with the evil of HIV infection".
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
If the Church has failed to get people to follow its moral values and practice abstinence, they should take the next best step and encourage condom use”
End Quote David Kamau KETAM
* Excerpt: The Pope on condoms
This marks a significant shift in his previously implacable opposition to the use of condoms, says the BBC's religious affairs correspondent, Robert Pigott.
UNAIDS, the United Nations programme on HIV/Aids, welcomed the comments as a "significant and positive step forward".
"This move recognises that responsible sexual behaviour and the use of condoms have important roles in HIV prevention," said UNAids Executive Director Michel Sidibe.
The Kenya Treatment Access Movement (KETAM), which works to combat the spread of HIV, welcomed what it said was the Pope's acceptance of reality that abstinence did not always work.
"It's accepting the reality on the ground," said David Kamau, head of the KETAM. "If the Church has failed to get people to follow its moral values and practice abstinence, they should take the next best step and encourage condom use."
The Catholic reform group We Are Church said the comments showed the Pope was able to learn from experience.
The British gay rights campaigner, Peter Tatchell, told the BBC the Pope's comments were significant but needed "clarification".
'Not a moral solution'
The new book - Light of the World: The Pope, the Church and the Signs of the Times - is based on a series of interview the Pope gave the German Catholic journalist, Peter Seewald, earlier this year.
When asked whether the Catholic Church was not opposed in principle to the use of condoms, the Pope replied: "She of course does not regard it as a real or moral solution, but, in this or that case, there can be nonetheless, in the intention of reducing the risk of infection, a first step in a movement toward a different way, a more human way, of living sexuality."
Pope Benedict said the "sheer fixation on the condom implies a banalisation of sexuality" where sexuality was no longer an expression of love, "but only a sort of drug that people administer to themselves".
Although Pope Benedict reiterated the Church's fundamental opposition to contraception, and repeated his view that condoms were not the answer to curbing HIV, he added that there was much in the area of sexual ethics that needed to be pondered and expressed in new ways.
Austen Ivereigh, coordinator of the Catholic Voices group, said that while this was the first time the Pope had voiced such an opinion on condoms, it was in line with what Catholic moral theologians have been saying for many years.
"The Church's teaching on contraception predates the discovery of Aids," Mr Ivereigh told the BBC news website.
"The prevalence of HIV raised the question of whether condoms could be used to prevent the transmission of the virus.
"If the intention is to prevent transmission of the virus, rather than prevent contraception, moral theologians would say that was of a different moral order."
But Clifford Longley, who writes for The Tablet, a British Catholic newspaper, said the development was far more significant than a nuanced change in attitude.
He said the "small concession... could easily become a collapse in the whole edifice of Catholic teaching on contraception".
"The implication seems to me to be much vaster than even the Pope anticipates," said Mr Longley.
The Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, published excerpts of the book in its Saturday edition.
Most people recognize The Onion as the Peabody Award-winning satire machine that it is. Some people, however, don’t. Which is why we get a story like this every few months. Of course, it’s sometimes easy to mistake an Onion article for the real thing since the writers make sure to skew as close to their targets as possible. It also doesn’t hurt when real news outlets reprint the satirists’ work and decide not to let their readers know it’s a joke, as Fox Nation did today.
Yes, the Fox Nation editors were apparently so enamored with an Onion piece from today entitled “Frustrated Obama Sends Nation Rambling 75,000-Word E-Mail” that they reposted the first two paragraphs in their culture section with nary a sign as to its fictional nature. The only clue that this wasn’t real (besides a quick peek at your inbox to confirm that Barack Obama hasn’t been emailing you) was a link at the bottom instructing readers to go to TheOnion.com for the real story. This tiny link was, unfortunately, not enough for the vast majority of FN readers. At least, that’s the way it seems from the comments section.
Here’s a sampling:
“If this story is correct, that he did send out this email, it is very concerning about his current state of mental health. I am surprised he would be allowed to send something like this out and if he is not functioning very well why there isn’t some attention being paid to his current state.”
“Hey, you fraud: Get out. Your presidency is an affront to the exceptionalism of America. Pathetic loser.”
In fact, at the time of this post’s writing, you have to scroll through 20 comments to find someone who realizes the story’s fake. Five comments below that there’s actually someone (sarcastically?) saying they emailed The Onion for confirmation on the story.
Whether Fox Nation reposted this story without a disclaimer accidentally, as a prank, or because of something more sinister, we’ll leave up to you decide. However, Fox Nation should be aware that, sad as it may be, not everyone is familiar with the brilliance that is The Onion. And for every one of my aunts who forwards me this article today, I’m going to be very, very angry at them.
Here’s a screenshot of the post before it’s (hopefully) taken down. Click through twice to get full size:
Sega, the once proud innovator of console design, is back in the gaming hardware business! Only not in the fashion you might think. The company has just rolled out a trial of its Toylets system, which embeds a pressure sensor into otherwise innocuous urinals and gives life to every bad piece of joystick-related innuendo you ever heard. Four games are available right now, to be enjoyed through a display mounted at eye level, including one where the intensity of your delivery helps blow a girl's skirt up and another that offers (asynchronous!) multiplayer competition. The latter game matches you against the previous dude to have used the porcelain repository, thereby finally providing Japanese men with a measurable way to settle pissing contests. It's official: we're moving to Japan.
Despite garnering far more support in an online poll than the thicket of other suggestions, Fort Wayne's new government center is unlikely to be named after the city's longest tenured mayor, the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette reports.
Deputy Mayor Beth Malloy said naming the building the "Harry Baals Government Center" was probably not going to happen because, "We're not going to make any decisions that look bad."
200 Network Rail staff are preparing to head from Reading to Coventry for a conference, but they won’t be getting there via the rail service that they oversee. No, they’ll be going there and back by coach – as the prospective rail fares for them all was deemed to be too expensive.
The BBC are reporting that taking the mob by road would work out as being £24,000 cheaper than going by train. The coach travel will set Network Rail back just £12 per head as opposed to the £135 that an open return train ticket would have cost.
A Network Rail spokesman got his sums right when he understatemented: “Whilst we have no role in setting train fares, we use rail for the overwhelming number of business journeys. Occasionally, if there is a cheaper alternative, we will use that.”
So it turns out train fares are expensive – we’re hoping that’s not the theme of the conference.
FORMER DAVENPORT, IA—Immediately following the performance of a same-sex marriage ceremony Sunday afternoon at Holy Christ Almighty Lutheran Church on Lincoln Avenue, the city of Davenport, IA and all 99,685 of its residents were reportedly smitten into oblivion by the merciless wrath of God and flung into the deepest bowels of eternal hell.
According to state authorities, the nightmarish incident occurred approximately five seconds after a local pastor pronounced homosexual men Brian Palmer, 39, and Greg DeHaan, 43, married in the eyes of God, at which point a tremor registering 8.5 on the Richter scale ripped the earth asunder and Davenport's inhabitants were swallowed by a widening chasm, where they found themselves eviscerated on the fiery spears of 10 million shrieking demons.
"They tried to warn us and we didn't listen—Lord, why did we not listen?" said Rev. Kenneth Hanson, the clergyman who performed the unholy marriage, moments before being dragged into a bottomless pit, flayed alive, and devoured by Satan, the Great Deceiver. "All I wanted to do was provide basic civil rights and legal recognition to Brian and Greg, two people who love each other and have been together for 15 years. But I was wrong. Oh, so wrong!"
"Children of God throughout the nation!" Hanson cried out as he plummeted into the infernal void. "Do not make the same mistake we here in Iowa have made! Save yourselves before it is too late!"
Witnesses reporting from the scene immediately preceding the destruction of Davenport recounted a number of horrific sights, including demonic wraiths clothed in smoke and ash flying through the city's streets; homosexuals and heterosexuals alike being torn limb from limb by goat-legged imps, the skeletons of live dogs leaping from the creatures' bodies to feast upon small children; and a great wall of fire that spread from the altar where the small, private wedding ceremony was conducted in west Davenport and consumed all.
In the wake of the disaster, many friends, relatives, and fellow Iowans said they blamed Brian and Greg most of all, for having given in to Satan's obvious machinations despite the numerous warnings presented to them.
"Why did Brian and Greg insist upon this public, legally binding avowal of their love?" sobbed a relative who now lives in Minnesota and wished to remain anonymous due to fear of reprisals by the Forces of Righteousness. "Why couldn't they have just kept living as second-class citizens, without the tax incentives and insurance flexibility offered to married couples?"
As friends and family of the longtime couple endured the agony of hot lances pierced through their eyes and a cloud of sulfurous gas enveloped the city, Iowans expressed great remorse for ignoring God's design and allowing the union of Brian and Greg to occur.
"We should have seen this coming when that Plague of Locusts appeared in central Scott County last month after they applied for the marriage license," said a terrified Marsha Ternus, former chief justice of the Iowa State Supreme Court, who was ousted last November for her support of an earlier ruling declaring the state's ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. "It was such a clear omen, yet we were too blind to see. We have brought the Vengeance of the Lord down upon the people of Davenport with our hubristic refusal to obey what is written in holy scripture. May God have mercy on our souls."
The event, which is being called a clear and irrefutable message from God as to his position on gay marriage, came as a shock to many around the nation who believed that allowing gays and lesbians to marry was the right thing to do and therefore could not invoke the displeasure of the Almighty Lord.
Meanwhile, as citizens prayed furiously for the Lord's forgiveness, officials said they were working around the clock to drain local rivers and lakes of the blood and entrails of sinners, and will soon plug up the gaping, smoldering hole where Davenport once stood and from whence the stench of roasting flesh and the cackle of Satan himself continues to emanate.
Following the immolation of Davenport, LGBT communities across the country immediately issued statements acknowledging their culpability for the catastrophe, admitting that homosexuality was a sinful lifestyle deserving of wrathful punishment. In surveys, 100 percent of homosexuals polled said that, given the clear evidence of God's Will shown by the tragic events, the best course of action would be to abandon the notion of gay rights altogether and beg the Lord's forgiveness.
"I thought antigay activism was cruel and bigoted before, but now I can see that, yes, my sexual orientation is truly an abomination in the Eyes of God," said lesbian activist and organizer Professor Julia Cafritz of Houston, responding to early reports of God's actions in the Midwest. "My very existence is an affront to all that is good and true in this country. I'm sorry, America. I'm so, so terribly sorry."
At press time, officials said the overall strength of the traditional American family had increased by 47 percent following the eternal damnation of Davenport, while pure, hardworking Christians everywhere would continue to be assured a place in heaven.
Best we pray for the eternal souls of everyone in the former Davenport, Iowa, except for Brian and Greg.
Bill Nye, the harmless children's edu-tainer known as "The Science Guy," managed to offend a select group of adults in Waco, Texas at a presentation, when he suggested that the moon does not emit light, but instead reflects the light of the sun.
As even most elementary-school graduates know, the moon reflects the light of the sun but produces no light of its own.
But don't tell that to the good people of Waco, who were "visibly angered by what some perceived as irreverence," according to the Waco Tribune.
Nye was in town to participate in McLennan Community College's Distinguished Lecture Series. He gave two lectures on such unfunny and adult topics as global warming, Mars exploration, and energy consumption.
But nothing got people as riled as when he brought up Genesis 1:16, which reads: "God made two great lights -- the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars."
The lesser light, he pointed out, is not a light at all, but only a reflector.
At this point, several people in the audience stormed out in fury. One woman yelled "We believe in God!" and left with three children, thus ensuring that people across America would read about the incident and conclude that Waco is as nutty as they'd always suspected.
This story originally appeared in the Waco Tribune, but the newspaper has mysteriously pulled its story from the online version, presumably to avoid further embarrassment.
I am myself a Christian, creationist (please, I don't want to debate you on this. I come here to relax), and from Waco, but things like this irritate me. Don't they know the moon can still be the "lesser light" even if it's merely a reflector.
Though, to be fair, he could be seeming to provoke them by bringing up the verse at all.
I don't remember all of this anti-science stuff being as big a deal growing up. The only person I had ever met who thought that dinosaur bones were planted by Satan to sway nonbelievers was my then-crazy stepdad.
Now I've been meeting young-earth creationists left and right who spout out these pseudo-factoids that "disprove evolution." It's one thing to have doubts about the origins of life, but to start with the whole "microevolution is true, but macro is false" stuff puts these people in a different category altogether.
And I always thought, and told a few people, that this seems like the same position our culture was in 400 years ago when that crazy Italian guy was ranting and raving about the earth not being the center of the universe. Science came up with an explanation that fit the world better and many religious individuals had to be dragged into the light of reality kicking and screaming. I have NEVER heard anyone seriously challenge heliocentricity (and I've never really gotten a response when I compare the two).
And... here we are. We're taking our first steps back into the dark ages. I'm very sad that there's a growing body of individuals who are dead-set on snuffing out genuine inquiry about the world.
Comments
Bristol Palin's dancing prompts man to shoot his TV
They kicked off Brandy. It was unbelievable. She had a 30/30 Argentine Tango. While Bristol's final 53/60 score, I thought, the judges were just being nice because it was the semi-finals.
It looks like glass is flying everywhere, and if it was on I'm sure there would be sparks as well, but this isn't the explosion action I was hoping for...
FoxNation.com Reposts Anti-Obama Article From The Onion, Doesn’t Mention It’s A Joke
Edit: did you guys hear that some grandmother is actually Banksy? man, this really is the best place to get news!
hey, them grannys are gettin crazy these days.
It's probably a joke, but I liked it
Town Of Davenport, Iowa Descends Into Hell Following Gay Marriage Ceremony
Best we pray for the eternal souls of everyone in the former Davenport, Iowa, except for Brian and Greg.
The story is irrelevant, however. The headline/picture combo from BBC News, however:
I leave the rest to your imagination.
*facepalm*
I am myself a Christian, creationist (please, I don't want to debate you on this. I come here to relax), and from Waco, but things like this irritate me. Don't they know the moon can still be the "lesser light" even if it's merely a reflector.
Though, to be fair, he could be seeming to provoke them by bringing up the verse at all.
I know this and you know this. But when people in groups I otherwise identify with do things this stupid...well it frustrates me.
I don't remember all of this anti-science stuff being as big a deal growing up. The only person I had ever met who thought that dinosaur bones were planted by Satan to sway nonbelievers was my then-crazy stepdad.
Now I've been meeting young-earth creationists left and right who spout out these pseudo-factoids that "disprove evolution." It's one thing to have doubts about the origins of life, but to start with the whole "microevolution is true, but macro is false" stuff puts these people in a different category altogether.
And I always thought, and told a few people, that this seems like the same position our culture was in 400 years ago when that crazy Italian guy was ranting and raving about the earth not being the center of the universe. Science came up with an explanation that fit the world better and many religious individuals had to be dragged into the light of reality kicking and screaming. I have NEVER heard anyone seriously challenge heliocentricity (and I've never really gotten a response when I compare the two).
And... here we are. We're taking our first steps back into the dark ages. I'm very sad that there's a growing body of individuals who are dead-set on snuffing out genuine inquiry about the world.