Politics

Here Are Some Fun Facts You Might Find on Ben Carson’s Wikipedia

After the internet had a chance to hear Ben Carson’s theory about the pyramids, #bencarsonwikipedia has popped up on Twitter. It’s a safe space where supporters are sharing facts that you might find on Wikipedia in some alternate universe where Carson gets elected. Here is a non-definitive sampling of the best.

New Ministries Suggest Canada’s Government is About to Get Serious About Science

Canada’s new Liberal government was sworn in yesterday, and if its first moves were of any indication, science—woefully neglected under the previous Conservative government—will become a serious priority. The new cabinet features not one but two science ministers, and a renamed environment office with the words “climate change” right in the title. For nearly a…

WSJ: Iran Hacked the Obama Administration After Arresting American Citizen

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard soldiers arrested dual Iranian-US citizen Siamak Namazi in Tehran last month, confiscating his computer. Shortly thereafter, the Revolutionary Guard began a spree of cyberattacks on US targets. Targets from the attacks include academics, journalists, and Obama Administration members from the State Department Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs and the Office of Iranian…

WHEN WILL LIBERALS GET A CLUE?

LIBERALS, AM I RIGHT? IF IT’S NOT MAKING UP CLIMATE CHANGE, IT’S TRYING TO TAKE OUR GUNS. WHY DO THEY HATE AMERICA? JUST YESTERDAY, SOME LIBERAL GIRLY MAN NAMED WES SILER (WHAT KIND OF NAME IS THAT, ANWAYS? I BET HE’S MEXICAN) TRIED TO TELL TED CRUZ (PRAIS JESUS) HE WAS HOLDING HIS SHOTGUN WRONG.…

San Francisco Has Voted Against Limits on Airbnb Rentals

San Francisco’s attempt to more tightly control services like Airbnb has been voted down in a city-wide ballot. The proposed initiative, Proposition F, was ambitious. It aimed to limit the total amount of time a propriety could be rented out for to just 75 days per year, as well as imposing severe fines for those…

Hey Ted Cruz, You’re Holding Your Gun Backwards

Staunch gun rights advocate Ted Cruz is here seen holding a shotgun while being interviewed by CNN. Can you see what he’s doing wrong? That’s right, he’s violating the first two rules of gun safety. Update: This says it all really. When you learn to shoot, apply for a hunting or carry license and any…

About That KKK Dox

“Operation KKK” seeks to expose high-ranking members of the white supremacist group. Asit did last year, Anonymous is leading a campaign to release the personal information of alleged Klan members, assuming its favorite stance—righteous sower of chaos. Hold the pitchforks: There’s good reason to doubt what these hackers are publishing. So far, hackers have published…

Not Even Hillary Clinton’s Secret Email Address Can Escape LinkedIn

LinkedIn’s email spam is notoriously impossible to escape: even if you’re a US Secretary of State using a secret email server, LinkedIn will hunt you down and endorse you to death. A new wave of Clinton’s emailshas just been released. Among the usual correspondence about matters of national and political importance, we have a befuddled…

Hillary Clinton’s Email About Emoji Is the Best Hillary Clinton Email

The State Departmentjust released over 7,000 of Hillary Clinton’s emails. In one exchange with her senior advisor Phillipe Reines, the presidential hopeful has a very important question: “on this new berry can I get smiley faces?” Reines gave a thorough explanation. It’s unclear if his suggesting ugly old emoticons quenched Hillary’s thirst for emoji fun.…

State Department Decides Not to Classify ‘Cyber Products’ as ‘Munitions’

This week, the U.S. Department of State’s Defense Trade Advisory Group (DTAG) met to decide whether to classify “cyber products” as munitions, placing them in the same export control regime as hand grenades and fighter planes. Thankfully, common sense won out and the DTAG recommended that “cyber products” not be added to the control list.…

Why Scrapping the One-Child Policy Will Do Little to Change China’s Population

China is scrapping its one-child policy and officially allowing all couples to have two children. While some may think this heralds an overnight switch, the reality is that it is far less dramatic. This is, in fact, merely the latest in an array of piecemeal national and local reforms implemented since 1984. In fact the…

Ben Carson’s Long History With a Fart Pill Sales Scheme 

Ben Carson denied ties to dietary supplement company Mannatech at last night’s GOP debate. “Total propaganda,” the candidate said. Carson’s denial is easily refuted. He has promoted the company in infomercials and at live events since 2004, and admitted that it helped fund his endowed chair at Johns Hopkins. So why the denial? Mannatech was…

Europe’s Parliament Just Voted to Grant Asylum to Edward Snowden

Well this is something. After years of pressure from activists, the European Parliament just passed a resolution urging its member states to offer protection to Edward Snowden. That would mean dropping all charges against the whistleblower and shielding him from extradition to the United States. For Snowden, who’s been holed up in Russia for as…

China Is Ending Its One-Child Policy

China is to scrap its one-child policy, first implemented in 1979, according to reports from the state-run new agency Xinhua. The news emerges at the end of a four-day meeting of China’s ruling Communist Party. All Chinese couples will now be abbe to have two children, not just one, according to the news agency. The…

Carly Fiorina Blames Office Politics for Getting Canned from HP

In tonight’s GOP presidential debate, Carly Fiorina was asked about her disastrous tenure as HP’s CEO. Her response: She was fired due to office politics, not because she was bad at her job. Fiorina pointed out that Tom Perkins, the man who voted to fire her, had changed his tune and publicly stated that her…

These Senators Voted “Yes” on CISA, But There’s Still Time to Change Their Minds 

Your Senator probably just did something dumb. Yes, I realize I have to be more specific than that: The Senate passed the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) yesterday with a 74-21 vote. As a cybersecurity bill, CISA is a joke: It doesn’t address the security problems that create the conditions for hacks. What it will…

What Is CISA?  

The Senate just passed a cybersecurity bill that won’t do shit to prevent hacks. What it will do is help the government spy on its citizens. The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) passed Senate today with a vote of 74-21. All five amendments proposed to water down the bill’s broad language and spying permissions failed,…

The Deadly Legacy of HIV Truthers

AIDS was a terrifying mystery, and then we solved it. When researchers identified the human immunodeficiency virus as the reason why young, previously healthy people were developing rare cancers and wasting away, it was a triumph of medical science. But even as the medical community reached a consensus that HIV caused AIDS, a counter-movement was…

State laws in the US can set rules for a sex education classroom, but the actual quality of the instruction depends on what happens at the local level. Aaron Yarmuth’s article in Louisville’s LeoWeekly looks at one way a comprehensive sex ed class can thread that needle. Check it out! Contact the author at [email protected].

Jeb Bush Offers His Supergirl Review: “She Looked Pretty Hot”

Jeb Bush, a human being and not an alien convulsing inside a skin sack, had a little bit of trouble dealing with a softball question about what his favorite Marvel superhero is. Yeah. Look back up at that headline, mouth “Marvel?” to yourself and keep reading. Jeb (or Jeb! as his friends call him) was…