THE BROWN FRENCH BREAD THAT IS CIRCULATING AROUND US IS NOT SPECIFICALLY TOO GOOD, ETC

Yr covert food history headline of the day:

On August 16, 1951, the inhabitants were suddenly racked with frightful hallucinations of terrifying beasts and fire.

One man tried to drown himself, screaming that his belly was being eaten by snakes. An 11-year-old tried to strangle his grandmother. Another man shouted: "I am a plane", before jumping out of a second-floor window, breaking his legs. He then got up and carried on for 50 yards. Another saw his heart escaping through his feet and begged a doctor to put it back. Many were taken to the local asylum in strait jackets.

Time magazine wrote at the time: "Among the stricken, delirium rose: patients thrashed wildly on their beds, screaming that red flowers were blossoming from their bodies, that their heads had turned to molten lead."

Eventually, it was determined that the best-known local baker had unwittingly contaminated his flour with ergot, a hallucinogenic mould that infects rye grain. Another theory was the bread had been poisoned with organic mercury.

However, H P Albarelli Jr., an investigative journalist, claims the outbreak resulted from a covert experiment directed by the CIA and the US Army's top-secret Special Operations Division (SOD) at Fort Detrick, Maryland.

The scientists who produced both alternative explanations, he writes, worked for the Swiss-based Sandoz Pharmaceutical Company, which was then secretly supplying both the Army and CIA with LSD.

Well, why not?

Bad trip,

This is dF

WANTED: ARABIC SPEAKERS. MUSLIMS NEED NOT APPLY. AS USUAL.

ITEM: Saad Mohammad Ali – an Iraqi immigrant and a volunteer at charity group World Relief – is advised by his manager that he should apply for a paying job with them as an Arabic-speaking caseworker job, seeing as how he’s been working to help settle Iraqi refugees and speaks the language.

World Relief says no, because he's a Muslim and they only hire Christians.

That’s no surprise, of course. Lots of faith-based organizations in the US do this. What’s worth mentioning is that World Relief gets about 70% of its funding from the US govt, thanks to President Junior Bush’s executive order many moons ago – during his first week in office, in fact – as part of his “compassionate conservatism” agenda to ensure that religious groups can get federal grants. Because that’s what fiscal responsibility is all about.

[Not that all this is entirely Bush’s doing – President Obama has actively kept the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (OFBCI) running, despite saying during his campaign that he opposed the ability of faith-based groups to discriminate in their hiring practices. To be fair, he did rename it the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships (OFBNP). I’m just saying.]

So the question, as ever, is whether tax dollars should be used to encourage discrimination on religious grounds – which is a question worth asking, as we’ve covered the truism that many Christians have taken the Freedom of Religion clause of the First Amendment to mean they can discriminate against Muslims, gays and anyone else they’re afraid of as long as they do it for religious reasons.

The other question worth raising is whether a faith-based charity group is qualified to work with Muslim refugees when they’re willing to reject qualified people with invaluable language skills (a minimum requirement, I would think) on a technicality. (Unless he or she is willing to work for free. Then it’s perfectly okay.)

Then again, I guess if the Pentagon can do it, anyone can. So who am I to be critical?

Underqualified,

This is dF

BREAKING: SECOND-HAND HOMOSEXUAL ACTS WILL KILL YOU

ITEM [via ayoub ]: Gay marriage is more dangerous than smoking.

Source: the Iowa Family Policy Center.

“The Iowa Legislature outlawed smoking in an effort to improve health and reduce the medical costs that are often passed on to the state,” said Chuck Hurley, president of the group. “The secondhand impacts of certain homosexual acts are arguably more destructive, and potentially more costly to society than smoking.”

He continued: “Homosexual activity is certainly more dangerous for the individuals who engage in it than is smoking.”

Hurley pointed to a report this week by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control that showed gay men have higher rates of HIV and syphilis.

“Because of their (legislators) unwillingness to correct the error of last April’s Iowa Supreme Court opinion, the Iowa Legislature is responsible for sanctioning activities that will lead to dramatically higher rates of HIV and syphilis in Iowa,” Hurley said.

Of course, just why the ability of gays to marry would make any damn difference in the HIV rate (seeing as how the CDC’s numbers were achieved despite the fact that gay marriage is still illegal in 45 states), Hurley doesn’t say. But then it’s not like he put any actual thought into it apart from “Gay marriage is EVIIIIIIIIIIIIIILLLLL and I’ll say anything to stop it”, so that’s probably asking a lot.

FUN FACT: The same CDC study also says that “factors such as homophobia and stigma” play a role in preventing gay men from seeking prevention, testing, and treatment services.

Here’s what else the CDC has to say about smoking and HIV in the US:

Number of deaths annually from HIV and AIDS (2006): 12,113.
 

Deaths per 100,000 population: 4.0

Number of deaths annually from cigarette smoking and second-hand smoke (2004): 443,000.
 

Deaths per 100,000 population: 263.

So obviously the CDC is biased against Christians. Most of the time.

Numbers don’t lie, people do,

This is dF

PUTTING THE "FAST" IN "FAST FOOD", ETC

And now, Puppy Speed Noms. Because the Internet was invented specifically for this kind of thing.

"정시스터즈 워싱턴광장 1965" (Watch on YouTube)

Don’t wolf yr food,

This is dF